Soc 421  Study Guide Midterm

Theorists: August Comte,  Emile Durkheim, Talcott Parsons, Robert Merton, Jeffrey Alexander, Neil Smelzer, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Thorsten Veblen, Georg Simmel, Georg Hegel, Robert Park, C. Wright Mills, Lewis Coser, Ralf Dahrendorf, George Homans, Peter Blau, Karen Cook, Edward Wilson, Herbert Spencer, Gerhard Lenski.

Concepts: shared values, social statics, social dynamics, integration, divisions of labor, anomie, social evolution, social facts, institution, operationalization of concepts, system, theory of social action, socialization, patterned variables, AGIL, social equilibrium, middle range theories, empirical research, bureaucracy, ritualism, manifest and latent functions, ambivalence, alienation, dialectical change, material factors, class, ideal types, power, legitimacy, iron law of oligarchy, labor theory of value, relations of production, class struggle, class conflict, class consciousness, dual consciousness, false consciousness, norms, social stratification, evolution, genetic inheritance, selfish genes, kin selection, altruism, reproductive strategies, sociological imagination.

Essay Questions:

 Select one of the following phenomenon and explain how the functionalist and conflict perspective would explain it: low minority enrollment in the university, women in low paying service employment, the composition of the US army, the growth of fundamentalist religious influence in American politics, opposition to abortion or the high salaries of sports stars.

Define the concept of anomie and discuss the differences in the way Durkheim defines and uses the concept and the way in which Robert Merton does.

What is the labor theory of value?  What is Hegel’s dialectic theory of change?  How are these theories and a sense of the evolutionary nature of human society incorporated into Karl Marx’s analysis of society and change?

<>How does Max Weber’s conceptualization of "class, status and party" differ from Karl Marx’s conceptualization of society based on property classes?  What are the major implications for the development of objective social science?

How do conflict theorists definitions of power differ from functionalists?  Provide examples (Parsons and Dahrendorf).

Compare functionalist and conflict theorists explanation for social stratification.  Provide examples.

What is meant by the assertion than conflict is essential to and functional for a society?  Give examples of how conflict can benefit a society.

Discuss the controversy over the role of biology in human behavior.  What is the selfish gene?  What role does evolution play in human behavior and social institutions such as the family? Provide examples.

What are the contributions of W.E.B. DuBois to sociology?  How does his work compare with that of other functionalists?  Give examples.

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