CONCEPTS OF MID-TERM
Description
Please write a 3-5-page essay covering the concepts of the midterm. Use at least half of the concepts
asked in the midterm to complete this assignment and supplicate your essay with additional concepts
discussed in class when relevant. Choose at least three of the articles below to complete this
assignment. You may also use other relevant articles as long as you cite them to strengthen your essay.
1. http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/205547517/where-in-the-world-are-thereno-
mcdonald-s
2. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/11/opinion/sunday/when-leaning-in-doesnt-payoff.
html?_r=0
3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/love-inc/2011…
4. http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/artificial-intelligence/study-shows-that-humansattribute-
morals-and-emotions-to-robots
5. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adult…
6. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/living-alone-means-beingsocial.
html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
7. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/11/business/energy-…
8. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/the-pros-…
9. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/the-…
10. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/us/middle-class-areas-shrink-as-income-gap-growsreport-
finds.html
Midterm questions and concepts are as follows:
SOC 131 Midterm
Please read and answer the following questions using short answers. Each question is worth 4 points.
1. What is “the scientific study of human activity in society or more specifically the study of the
social forces that influence or pressure people to behave, respond, or think in certain ways”?
Sociology
2. What is “the ever-increasing flow of goods, services, money, people, technology, information,
and other cultural items across national borders”? globalization
3. What is “the process by which a locality embraces, adapts to, or resists a product, an idea, a way
of behaving that has come to them in the cross-national flow”? It is also when something unique
to locality is launched on a path toward globalization. glocalization
4. What is known as “a quality of mind that allows people to see how remote and impersonal
social forces shape their life story or biography”? sociological imagination
5. What is known as “personal needs, problems, or difficulties brought on by individual
shortcomings related to motivation, attitude, ability, character, or judgment”? troubles
6. What is “a matter that can be explained only by factors outside an individual’s control and
immediate environment”? issues
7. Sociology emerged as a reaction to what? Industrial revolution
This is an ongoing and still evolving social force that transformed and is still transforming
society, human behavior, and interaction in incalculable ways.
8. Who are the founding fathers of sociology? Give at least two names. Marx, Weber, Comte,
Dubois,
9. What theory defines society as a system of interrelated, interdependent parts? Each part is
interdependent and functions to maintain a larger system. Functionalism
10. What are intended or anticipated effects that a part has on the existing social order? Manifest
functions
11. What are unintended or unanticipated effects that a part has on the existing order? Latent
functions
12. What is the theory that asks the question who benefits from a particular social arrangement,
and at whose expense? Conflict theory
13. This theory focuses on social interaction and related concepts of self-awareness/reflexive
thinking, symbols, and negotiated order. Symbolic interactionism
14. What method do sociologists adhere to? Scientific method
15. Why do researchers gather data? To test their hypothesis
16. What is a group to which a person belongs to, identifies, admires, and/or feels loyalty? In-group
17. What is the process by which people develop a sense of self and learn the ways of the society in
which they live? socialization
18. What are agents of socialization? Name at least two. Significant others, primary groups, ingroups
and out-groups, and institutions
19. What are everyday encounters in which people communicate, interpret, and respond to each
other’s words and actions? Social interaction
20. What are social statuses that are the result of chance in that people exert no effort to obtain
them? A person’s birth order, race, biological sex, and age are examples. Ascribed status
21. What are social statuses acquired through some combination of personal choice, effort, and
ability. A person’s marital status, occupation, and educational attainment are examples.
Achieved status
22. What is the model in which social interaction can be viewed as if it were a theater, people as if
they were actors, and roles as if they were performances before an audience? Dramaturgical
model
23. What is an organizational structure put in place to achieve some valued goal by using the most
efficient means to coordinate human activity? Bureaucracy
24. What is the process in which thought and action rooted in custom, emotion, or respect for
mysterious forces is replaced by instrumental-rational thought and action? Rationalization
25. What is “the process by which the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate
more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (Ritzer 1993. p. 1)?
McDonaldization of society
