Study Guide Exam 1
Individual and Society
Dr. Elizabeth Olson
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6
A NTHROPOLOGY
Be familiar with the basic principles of general anthropology: What do all subdisciplines have in common?
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What is the difference between society and culture ?
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What do anthropologists mean when they say anthropology is a holistic science?
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What are some examples of biological and cultural adaptations in humans?
Be familiar with the four enduring themes in general anthropology (from your chapter)
Be familiar with the four major subdisciplines of anthropology
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Cultural anthropology o What is the main focus of study? o What are some methods used by cultural anthropologists?
 Ethnography
 Ethnology
 Participant observation
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Archaeological anthropology o What is the main focus of study? o What are some methods used by archaeologists? o What are artifacts?
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Biological anthropology o What is the main focus of study? o Be familiar with forensic anthropology, sociobiology o What is osteology?
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Linguistic anthropology o What is the main focus of study?
What are some examples of anthropology in the ‘real world’?
S OCIOLOGY
Be familiar with the basic principles and focus of study of sociology. What is the sociological perspective ? How is it helpful for people to develop a sociological perspective?
How did sociology grow as a discipline?
Be familiar with the major founders of sociology:
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Comte: Know what positivism is
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Spencer: What was his contribution?
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Marx: What is the central force in social change? What are the bourgeoisie? The proletariat?
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Durkheim: What was his contribution?
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The social reformers: Jane Addams and W. E. B. Du Bois
The major theoretical perspectives in sociology:
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Symbolic Interactionism o What is a symbol? How does society work, according to this theory?
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Functional Analysis o How does society work, according to this theory?
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Conflict Theory o How does society work, according to this theory?
What is the difference between the macro level of analysis and the micro level of analysis?

P SYCHOLOGY
Be sure you understand the definition of general psychology: T HE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BEHAVIOR AND MENTAL
PROCESSES IN CONTEXTS .
Modern psychology is very diverse. Be familiar with the major systems of research:
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Psychoanalytic Perspective o What is the emphasis? o What are some basics of Freudian personality theory? What was Freud’s effect on psychology?
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Behavioral Perspective o What is the emphasis? o Know the basics of classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
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Neurobiological Perspective o What is the emphasis?
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Humanistic Perspective o What is the emphasis? o The hierarchy of needs
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Cognitive Perspective o What is the emphasis? o How has the human-computer metaphor of mind helped psychologists study the mind? How are people and computers similar? How are they different?
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Sociocultural Perspective o What is the emphasis? o Social psychology: What is the fundamental attribution error? o Cross-cultural psychology: Why compare psychological findings across different cultures? o What is the fundamental attribution error?
W OMEN
’
S S TUDIES
What is the disciplinary focus of women’s studies?
How does social structure shape individual lives? How is women’s studies important to understanding this?
What is feminism?
How do race, class, and gender interact to form a matrix of domination ? (in your chapter)
R
ESEARCH
M
ETHODS
You will find this information in each of the discipline chapters, but most is in the psychology chapter (3) and the sociology chapter (5)
Be familiar with the steps of the scientific method, the best way yet discovered for finding truth!
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What are the two things a theory needs to do?
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What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
Be familiar with the various types of research and research methods…
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Basic, applied, program evaluation
Nonexperimental methods: What are advantages and disadvantages ? o Archival research o Naturalistic observation o Survey o Case study o Correlational research
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What is a correlation? What does it mean to have a positive correlation? A negative correlation?
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How are correlations dangerous to policymakers? How SHOULD we interpret correlations?

 What do correlations allow us to do? What can’t we do with a correlation?
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Experimental research o What is the big advantage of an experiment? o What is an independent variable? A dependent variable?
H EURISTICS AND B IASES
We don’t always make the most reasoned, best judgments. What do we do instead?
What are heuristics? Why do we use them?
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The availability heuristic
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The representativeness heuristic
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The fundamental attribution error
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The above-average effect
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The belief perseverance effect
This information is found in Chapter 4!