Sociology/Anthropology150
Study Guide #3-Final Exam
Section #’s 1, 2, 3 and 4: The Meaning of Difference
Note: The Final exam is cumulative. It will consist of 25 multiple choice and
true/false questions, each worth 1 point, and 5 short answer questions, each
worth 5 points.
Questions may be derived from all sections that we have covered. Here is a guide to help you
focus your studying and review of the material. Some terms and questions have been removed
from previous study guides to narrow the focus of the test slightly.
Section#1-Constructing Categories of Difference
-What is Sociology?
-What is the sociological imagination? Who coined this phrase?
-What is the free-will doctrine?
-What is culture?
-What is a social institution?
-What is meritocracy?
-What is the difference between macro and micro sociology?
-What is a theory?
-What is a person’s master status?
-What are the essentialist and constructionist perspectives and how do they view the social world
differently?
-What is intersectionality?
-How do the terms “aggregating” and “disaggregating” relate to racial and ethnic groups?
-What is panethnicity?
-What is heteronormativity?
-What is the difference between an ethnic group and a racial group?
-What does it mean that race is socially constructed?
-What is “racial formation”?
-What is ethnocentrism?
-What is Eugenics?
-What is miscegenation? Anti miscegenation laws?
-What does the term “mulatto” mean?
-What is assimilation?
-What is “passing”?
-What is the “one drop rule”?
-What is an “essential identity”? Who does this term relate to sexual orientation?
-What is “contempt for the poor” and how does the American Dream create contempt for the poor?
-What is the difference between sex and gender?
-What is a sanction? How are individuals who associate with the “other” often sanctioned?
-What is stigma?
-What is paternalism and how does it relate to disability?
Section#2-Experiencing Difference
-What is privilege?
-Why is privilege often invisible?
-Who is Peggy McIntosh? What did she observe about privilege?
-What role do the media play in perpetuating stereotypes about who is criminal?
-What is racial profiling?
-What is entitlement?
-What does it mean to occupy an “unmarked” status?
-What is privilege?
-What is stigma?
-What does it mean to be discredited?
-Who are the discreditable?
-What is passing?
-What is inadvertent passing?
-What is the “double consciousness” and what famous scholar coined this phrase?
-What is chain migration?
-What is code switching?
-What is the difference between first and second generation immigrants?
-What are achieved and ascribed identities?
-Acculturation?
-Xenophobia?
-Perpetual Foreigner Syndrome?
-Eurocentrism? What is a Eurocentric bias?
-Intergroup hostility?
-How is social class correlated with parenting style and techniques? (reading #30)
-What is environmental racism/environmental injustice?
-What is a food desert?
-What is a legacy admission to college?
-What is the “looking glass self”?
Section#3 –The Meaning of Difference
-What is an ideology?
-What is hegemonic ideology?
-What is natural law language?
-What is a stereotype?
-What is a social institution?
-What is the “birdcage” metaphor?
-What is the false consciousness?
-What is the model minority stereotype and what are the potential positive and negative effects?
-What is color blind racism/aversive racism?
-What is prejudice?
-What is discrimination? Individual discrimination vs. Institutional discrimination?
-What is social Darwinism?
-How do deficiency and structural theories explain the existence of poverty?
-What are the theories of prejudice discussed in lecture?
-What did the 1896 Supreme Court case, Plessy Vs. Ferguson, establish?
-What was a restrictive covenant? What is redlining? What is racial steering?
-What was the role of the federal government in institutionalizing discrimination in housing?
-In what ways does modern housing discrimination exist?
-What is intergenerational wealth transmission?
-How is housing the “centerpiece of opportunity”?
Section#4 –Bridging Differences
-What is an ideology?
What is the “Janus faced nature of society”?
-What is Gandhi’s paradox?
-What is the difference between personal and civic responsibility?
-What does it mean that sociology is subversive?
-What is the difference between agency and structure?
Possible Short Answer Questions-5 will be chosen for the final exam
Possible Short Answer Questions from Section #1
What is the difference between race and ethnicity? Is race a biological or social construction?
Explain this construction and provide at least one example to illustrate how race is constructed?
What is the difference between sex and gender? Is gender a biological or social construction?
Please explain this construction and provide at least one example.
What is the sociological imagination? Using the sociological imagination, how might we attempt
to understand and explain why someone is homeless or poor?
Possible Short Answer Questions from Section #2
What is the difference between an individual who occupies a discredited status and an individual
who occupies a discreditable status? Give an example of a person who is discredited. Describe at
least two problems this individual might encounter.
Please explain Charles Horton Cooley’s concept of the “Looking Glass S elf”. How is this
related to W.E.B Du Bois’ concept of the “Double Consciousness”? Give an example of a
situation in which an individual may experience the “Double Consciousness”
Possible Short Answer Questions from Section #3 and #4
What is the Janus-Faced nature of society? How does the concept relate to agency and structure?
What do you think is the best way for individuals to empower themselves to create change?
Summarize and explain the four main suggestions/lessons for challenging social constructions of
difference discussed by Rosenblum and Travis in section 4 of the textbook.
What is an ideology? What is natural law language? Provide an example to show how natural
law language conveys ideology.
What is a stereotype? What is the model minority stereotype? Explain at least two of the primary
problems with the model minority stereotype described by Frank Wu.
What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination? Please define and provide an
example for the two main types of discrimination?