Sociology 103 Tutorial #2
M A R C H 1 2 TH/1 4 TH , 2 0 1 3
TA contact info
My email – joshcurtis.utoronto@gmail.com
Office – Sociology building 725 Spadina (Room 333)
Office hours – Monday 9-10:45
Web site - http://joshcurtispolisoc.com/
Plan
1) Explain test structure
2) Discuss three chapters:
-open with a general discussion questions
-give a sample multiple choice questions
-we’ll discuss the main themes of each chapter (in
groups, then together).
Test #2
Starting Points
Chapter 11 (Families and Socialization)
Chapter 12 (Schools)
Chapter 13 (Religion)
Chapter 14 (Media)
Readings in Sociology
Section 3 (ch 10-13)
Section 5 (ch 18-21)
Section 6 (ch 22-25)
Section 16 (ch 64-67)
All multiple choice.
In exam center during class time (next week?)
Exam Breakdown
20 Reading Sociology (16 chapters, 2 multiple
questions per chapter in few cases)
20 questions from Lectures (4 lectures)
60 Starting Points (4 chapters)
Total 100.
How to tackle RinS
Understand the overall goals, purpose, and findings in the
article. What problem is the author trying to solve and
what does she/he show?
Answer the following questions:
1) What is the purpose of the article (i.e., academically,
why did the author write this paper – is it tied into a
debate?). (Puzzle/contribution).
2) Identify the main argument of the chapter (thesis).
3) Identify and define all key terms and key figures. How
do they relate to the main arguments in the text?
Where do questions come from?
Typically:
1) Related to the purpose/debate of the article (1st para)
2) The main finding/ findings of the paper (introduced,
then repeated at the end)
3) The implication this finding has for society more
generally. (last para).
Think about this as an inverted triangle.
Use these three criteria to see through the ‘fluff’ in the
article – most of what you’re reading is not important, pre
se…..
Chapters
Readings in Sociology:
Chapter 11 – The Ecology of College Drinking
Chapter 12: Duality and Diversity
Chapter 20: Love and Arranged Marriage
Chapter 11
College drinking.
Page 54.
Discussion
Critique of the article:
All behaviours need to be thought of relative to others, otherwise they are
not truly meaningful. I.e., need a comparison group.
1) Do you think drinking in more widespread among university students compared to
same aged people in the work force?
2) Do you think campus culture encourages heavy drinking?
2) Do you think UofT is different in terms of promoting a drinking culture compared to
a more autonomous university (more secluded from the broader city)? Why or why
not?
3) How do you explain the ‘anomaly’ that education leads to better health, yet school
‘encourage’ drinking culture, and other ‘risky’ health behaviours?
Chapter 11
The Purpose or ‘Puzzle’:
“It is now recognized that higher education institutions
contribute to youth health capital. Yet, the nature of
the specific pathways through which higher
education institutions shape student culture is
debated”.
The puzzle:
On the one hand, education leads to GOOD health
decisions later in life. Yet, educational institutions
shape drinking culture in a BAD way.
Arguments
 From Durkheim: “human activity defines and is defined
by the social environment”
Lifestyles are not random behaviours reflecting
deliberative individual choices.
Student’s perceptions of drinking were informed by the
norm in their campus environment. Social norm
theory
Focus on two areas: (1) the integration of plural intuitional
pathways under a unified scheme; (2)the specification of
their analytical levels.
“Alcohol consumption is meaningfully constructed by
students as a functional, integrative, and inherent
social practice of post-secondary life”
Critique of the article:
All behaviours need to be thought of relative to others,
otherwise they are not truly meaningful. I.e., need a
comparison group.
Chapter 12
 “Duality and Diversity”
Page 61
Discussion Question
1) What do you think about the ‘problem’ of immigrant
integration in Canada? Do you feel that immigrants are
actually disadvantaged in terms of income, or
employment, relative to others?
Why?
2) Can it be beneficial to maintain distinct cultural
identities and still become economically and socially
integrated (or successful)?
3) Do immigrants in Canada actually ‘have it worse’??
MC question
_______ is a common theme in the
autobiographies of children of immigrants.
a.
A changing family unit
b.
Preference for the host society
c.
Resenting one’s parents
d.
Little desire to participate in the ethnic
community
e.
Rejection of the host community
Chapter 20 (pg 104)
The Purpose or ‘Puzzle’:
This paper is about arranged marriages in India, and how changing
cultural trends have shaped this process in Indian society.
“The research discussed here asks what is happening to the arranged
marriage tradition in the current environment of rapid economic
change”
So, how has arranged marriage evolved as Indian societies
have become increasingly globalized, and modernized?
More broadly: “Addresses a gap… “Our sociological reflection on
family and kinship… is missing a qualitative dimension of love, sex,
marriage, and family life…. The emotional tenor of family relations”
Chapter 12: Duality and Diversity
Purpose or Puzzle:
“This paper is an examination of the two worlds thesis
in light of autobiographies written by children of
immigrants in twentieth-century North America”
Wants to investigate how immigrant children perceive
their own identities in light of holding different
identities. “live in many worlds”
Generations
Studies of immigrants often explore ‘generational’
effects.
Native born (family from Canada, child born in
Canada)
First generation (living in Canada, but born
elsewhere)
Second generation (parents were immigrants, child
born in Canada).
Why does this matter?
The argument is that depending on your generational
status, you will fare better/worse in terms of
integration into society (workforce, socially, etc).
Do you ‘feel’ Canadian?
Duality
1) Children of immigrants ‘live’ in many worlds. The
two worlds thesis depicts an existence shaped
uncertainty and ambivalence.
2) The realization of ‘dreams and desires’ for a
different kind of life is equally as important as the
‘problem’ of integration into society.
Two worlds thesis
 “Immigrants will bring with them “the principles of
the governments they leave… these principles with
be transmitted to their parents.
Chapter 20
Arranged Marriage.
Page 104
Discussion question
1) What are your thoughts on arranged marriages? Are we being
ethnocentric by favouring north American practices?
North American divorce rates are abut 40 percent, if not
higher. Why are we not critiquing North American
marriage practices?
Do statistical failures not indicate poor practice?
2)Has it become too culturally normative in North America to get
divorced?
3) Have men or women benefited MORE from increasingly liberal
divorce standards?
Facts about divorce
 The riskiest year is the fourth year of marriage.
 first year of marriage, there are less than one divorce for





every 1,000 marriages.
After one year of marriage, there are 5.1 divorces for
every 1,000 marriages in Canada.
After two years of marriage, there are 17 divorces for
every 1,000 marriages in Canada.
After three years, there are 23.6 divorces for every 1,000
Canadian marriages.
After four years, there are 25.5 divorces for every 1,000
Canadian marriages.
After that, the chances of divorce decline slowly for each
subsequent year of marriage.
Divorce in Canada
Income
Remarriage
Which hypothesis predicts the collapse of the arranged
marriage system in India?
a.
Westernization theory
b.
Individualization thesis
c.
Neo-traditionalism
d.
Post-traditionalism
e.
Modernization theory
 Modernization Theory
is a theory used to explain the process of
modernization within societies. The theory looks at
the internal factors of a country while assuming that,
with assistance, "traditional" countries can be
brought to development in the same manner more
developed countries have.
It is about rising national affluence and how this
shapes how people think.
Argument or Findings:
“The results showed that arranged marriages, as they
exist in today’s India, are a product of ongoing
evolution. It is still occasionally expected that
marriages will be arranged, but the process has
changed considerably over the past generation”
(104).
Parents create a list… interview process… children can
veto.
Critique?
Sociology research is a scientific enterprise. Think
about how the author conducted the analysis.
Problems?
A goal or research should be to generalize.
(p.105)