Sociology 101
Introduction to Sociology
Fall 2003
Dr Scott SchafferMidterm Examination Prep Sheet
Rules of the Game: The midterm will take place on Fri Oct 10/2003 from 1pm to 150pm. Some additional time may be allotted for you to complete the exam, but do not count on it. As per the course syllabus, no makeup exams will be given; if you will be unable to attend the midterm exam, you must let me know no later than W Oct 8/2003 at 4pm. In extreme cases necessitating your absence, an alternate assignment may be given at my discretion.
For this exam, you will need the following items; no other materials or resources will be permitted:
- At least three blue examination booklets;
- Two blue or black pens – no exam written in pencil will be graded, and you will receive a zero (0);
- One (1) 8 1/2in by 11in sheet of notes – you may write whatever you like on this sheet, as small as you like, and you may utilize both sides for notes.
At the end of the exam, you will submit the blue books, the exam sheet, and your sheet of notes. No credit will be given for anything not written in the blue books, but at least I’ll be able to see where you were heading in the event you run out of time.
On the notes for the exam: As mentioned above, you may write whatever you like on the sheet of notes, going so far as to write the entire set of essays below in 2pt font and using a magnifying glass during the exam. The one thing that you must have on the notes is page citations for the material you use to support your responses to the questions below. Any exam that does not include adequate page citations for evidence that is utilized in the essays will automatically lose one full letter grade from each of the essays in which this problem appears.
Details: The midterm exam will be composed of two parts. The first part will ask you to identify five sociological concepts discussed this semester, and will constitute 40% of your exam grade. For this section, your responses should be short statements defining the term, identifying the author who developed or discussed the concept, and discussing its importance for sociological study.
The second part will ask you to respond to two essay questions; each essay will be 30% of your exam grade. Each essay will ask you to develop an argument-based response to a question dealing with a particular sociological issue or set of sociological theories. Your essay should be oriented to developing a clear, direct, and well-developed response to the question.
You should count on spending approximately 15 minutes responding to the concept identification questions (about 3 minutes each), and 15-20 minutes on each of the two essays. I will announce the time remaining when there are 30, 15, and 5 minutes left in the exam.
At the end of the exam, be sure to submit your blue books, the exam sheet, and your notes to me.
Good luck, and happy preparing…
Section I – Concept Identification Questions
Directions: Below you will find twenty (20) of the concepts we have discussed so far this semester. Ten (10) of them will appear on the midterm exam; of those, you will select five (5) for your response. In responding to them, be sure to do the following:
- Correctly identify the author who most prominently discusses the concept;
- Define the concept in your own terms, and discuss the importance of that concept for that author’s argument;
- Identify any related concepts, as well as how you see them as being related.
1. Sociological imagination
2. Globalization
3. Sociological theory
4. Research process
5. Assimilation
6. First/Second/Third Worlds
7. Colonialism
8. Agencies of socialization
9. Theories of gender socialization
10. Social identity
11. Ascribed vs. achieved statuses
12. “Face work”
13. Groupthink
14. Culture of poverty
15. Contradictory class locations
16. Dependent development theory
17. Civil inattention
18. Foucault’s theory of surveillance
19. Social groups
20. Structured inequalitiesSection II – Essay Questions
Below you will find five essay questions. Three of these will appear on the midterm exam; of those, you will select two (2) for your response. You’ll note that each question asks you to talk about multiple articles; please be sure to discuss all elements in the topic before answering the question.
Please make sure that your essays contain a thesis statement within them. Be sure to utilize at least the number of sources mentioned in italics after the question. See the guidelines on paper evaluation in the course syllabus and the “How to Write a Schaffer Paper” handout (online) for more information on how these will be evaluated.
1. In what ways do two of the sociological processes discussed by Giddens parallel what happened in Desai’s book? (Giddens, Desai)
2. In what ways do two of the articles collected in the Massey book parallel what happened in Desai’s book? (the Massey reader, Desai)
3. Why do you think that there are differences between the theoretical approaches that three sociological theories (discussed by Ritzer) use to examine how capitalism works? (Ritzer, the theory essays in the Massey reader)
4. What kinds of reasons are there for the continued existence of stratification systems in the US and in the global society? (Giddens, the Massey reader)
5. In what ways do you see yourself as participating in three sociological processes we’ve discussed so far in the course? (Giddens, the Massey reader)