Theorists:  Edmund Husserl, Harold Garfinkel, Peter Berger, George Herbert Mead, Herbert Blumer, Arlie Hochschild, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Jane Addams, Erving Goffman, Carol Gilligan, Harriet Martineau, Marianne Weber. Barbara Risman, Alfred Schutz, Peter Berger, Peter Blau, George Homans, Immanuel Wallerstein, Dorothy Smith.
 

Concepts:  feminine approach, feminist approach, rational choice, critical theory, exchange theory, game theory, elementary social behavior, social exchange, social capital, liberal feminism, Marxist feminism, psycholanalytic feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, sociobiology, aging, reproduction, feminism, consumerism, moral judgement, dramaturgy, stigma, symbolic interaction, definition of the situation, looking glass self, self-interaction, generalized other, gesture, front and back stage, impression management, participant observation, "naturalistic" study, breaking experiment, indexical expressions, reality construction, reification, standpoint theory, alienation.

Essay Questions:

Compare and contrast the basic ideas of symbolic interaction theory with ethnomethodology and phenomenology. Provide examples.

 What are the three main premises of symbolic interaction and the four central conceptions?  How do they direct research?  What is meant by "naturalistic" study?  Give an example of a topic and how it would be researched.

Define the concept of alienation and discuss the differences in the way Durkheim/Marx define and uses the concept and the way in Peter Berger does. Provide examples.

What does Peter Berger mean when he says "Man is a social product."? Provide examples.

What is the political and social context in which critical theory developed and what impact has critical theory had on studying human behavior? Provide examples

What are the basic premises of game theory and how does it explain human behavior?  Provide examples.

Select one of the following phenomenon and explain how socio-biology, feminist theory (you pick which type) and ethnomethodology would explain it:  differential earnings of men and women, position of minorities in the labor market, popularity of contact sports, choice of only white male Christian candidates for US presidency, availability of medical services, or domestic violence.

How does Carol Gilligan’s theory of the moral development of women compare with that of Piaget and Kohlberg?

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