Concept Application (also in study guide)

Consider the concepts listed below. Match one or more of the concepts with each scenario. Explain your choices.

a. Anomic

b. Double consciousness

c. Troubles/Issues

d. Social fact

e. Currents of opinion

Scenario 1- "A 4-year-old Texas boy is being taught in isolation from the rest of his classmates-and faces an even harsher punishment-for not cutting his hair to conform to the school district's grooming code. Taylor Pugh now works one-on-one with a teacher's aide during the school day at his pre-kindergarten; the suburban Dallas district says next week he'll be working alone at a desk in a school office. School rules say hair can't extend below the earlobes and must be kept out of boys' eyes; the district offered to lift the isolation that Taylor's faced since November if he keeps it in tight braids. The family's tried that in the past, his father contends, and it caused Taylor's scalp to break and bleed. In any case, Delton Pugh, who's looking for a lawyer, tells the Morning News, "there is no reason he should have to cut his hair." (McCahill 2010)

Scenario 2- "Celebrities aren't the only ones giving their babies unusual names. Compared with decades ago, parents are choosing less common names for kids, which could suggest an emphasis on uniqueness and individualism, according to new research. Essentially, today's kids (and later adults) will stand out from classmates. For instance, in the 1950s, the average first-grade class of 30 children would have had at least one boy named James (top name in 1950), while in 2013, six classes will be necessary to find only one Jacob, even though that was the most common boys' name in 2007. The researchers suspect the uptick of unusual baby names could be a sign of a change in culture from one that applauded fitting in to today's emphasis on being unique and standing out." (Bryner 2010)

Scenario 3- "Excerpts from a suicide letter suggest that Kevin Morrissey, a 51-year-old Berkeley man, killed his family in a murder-suicide this week because he was at a "financial breaking point" as the family skin-care business failed and because he found other work opportunities "unattractive" (Rayburn and Hill 2007).

Scenario 4- "Black Soldiers in Jim Crow Texas introduces readers to African American soldiers who were assigned to one of four black regiments (9th and 10th Cavalries and 24th and 25th Infantries). Not only did these men bear arms and fight gallantly in the Spanish-American War, but at times, they used their military weapons in struggles for racial equality in the United States as well. More than three decades after the Emancipation Proclamation, black soldiers grew intolerant of ‘racial slurs, refusal of service at some businesses, and harassment.' Texas's ‘lower-status Hispanics, the bulk of the population...shared southern white prejudice against blacks. The war with Spain in 1898,' Christian asserts, ‘acted as a catalyst that converted impatience into retaliation. The United States bestowed six Medals of Honor and twenty-six Certificates of Merit on their members, and all four regiments inspired laudatory press coverage.' Yet these men faced the indignities of racism when serving at military installations in the United States" (Moore 1996:478).

Scenario 5- On the progressive care unit where she works, nurses regularly have five or more patients. Over the years, hospital procedures with which nurses assist have become more complicated, and patients are sicker. Brandon said there are not always enough nurses to go around. "You get your running shoes on, take off, and go," Brandon said. "The current nursing shortage is just beginning in Wyoming," said Julie Cann-Taylor, registered nurse and director of critical care at the hospital. "There had been a nursing vacancy rate of 3 to 4 percent at the hospital for years, but it jumped to 7 percent last fall," she said. Matt Kaiser, director of human resources at the hospital, said there are about 40 registered nurse positions available, creating a vacancy rate of about 11 percent (Rupp 2007).

Short Essay Questions-

1. Why focus on mobile phones in a chapter introducing sociology as a discipline?

2. What is sociology? What do sociologists study?

3. What is the sociological imagination?

4. Durkheim maintains that the sociologist's task is to study social facts. What are social facts? When do people experience the power of social facts?

5. What are currents of opinion? What does studying rates of behavior reveal?

6. In the classic book Invitation to Sociology, Peter L. Berger presents sociology as a form of consciousness. Explain.

7. In studying patterns of courtship and marriage, what would sociologists emphasize?

8. Peter Berger maintains that a "debunking motif" defines the sociological consciousness. Explain.

9. Distinguish between troubles and issues. Give an example of how a personal problem is connected to some larger social force.

10. What major historical event shaped the discipline of sociology? Why?

11. How did the Industrial Revolution affect the nature of work and social

12. Who was Auguste Comte? What is he known for?

13. Explain the law of three stages.

14. If Comte were alive today what features of the mobile phone would he emphasize?

15. For which writing is Marx most famous? What were the key points of that writing?

16. Who are the bourgeoisie and the proletariat? How are they connected to the means of production?

17. How does the capitalist system promote change?

18. If Marx were alive today, how would he write about mobile phones?

19. What is solidarity?

20. How did Durkheim define suicide?

21. Distinguish between egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic suicide.

22. If Durkheim were alive today, how would he write about mobile phones?

23. What is social action? What are the four types? Give an example of each.

24. If Weber were alive today, how would he write about mobile phones?

25. Explain the phrase "strange meaning of being black." What life experience may have influenced DuBois' preoccupation with this phrase?

26. According to DuBois, how did the color line come into being?

27. If DuBois were alive today, how would he write about mobile phones?

28. What is double consciousness?

29. Who is Jane Addams? What contributions did she make to sociology?

30. If Addams were alive today, how would she write about mobile phones?

31. What are the four positions on globalization?

32. Describe three assumptions that underlie the global perspective.

33. Imagine that you majored in sociology. How would you explain the usefulness of the sociological perspective? What skills would you bring to the workplace?

Comprehensive Essay Questions-

1. Think about a problem or challenge you are facing or have faced or one that someone close to you is facing or has faced. Describe that problem or challenge: (1) as if it were an issue and (2) as if it were a trouble.

2. Durkheim defines social facts as ideas, feelings, and ways of behaving that possess the remarkable property of existing outside the consciousness of the individual. Explain. Give two examples of social facts.

3. Why is the Industrial Revolution considered pivotal to the development of sociology as a discipline?