Exam 2: Examining the Social World: How Do We Know What We Know

According to rational choice theory, people stay in relationships because ______.

A good theory allows social scientists to make ______ about the social world.

A latent function of war is ______.

Empirical knowledge is founded on information gained from intuition.

Which of the following sociologists focused much of his writings on the nature of bureaucracies?

One critique of rational choice theory is that it ______.

Harriet Martineau argued that societies should be judged by how well they treat the most oppressed members of society. Which of the following sociologists shared her concern for advancing a more just society, asserting that the ultimate goal of sociological work should be social improvement?

______ was the first person on record to suggest a systematic approach to explain the social world.

Max Weber argued that in order to understand people's behavior, you have to see the world as they do.

According to Merton, latent functions are the planned outcomes of social organizations and institutions.

Which statement accurately describes an underlying assumption of symbolic interaction theory?

Émile Durkheim's believed that individuals conform to the rules of society because of a collective conscience.

Imagine you work as a public sociologist. Explain what your job responsibilities are both inside academia (i.e. a professor) and outside academia (i.e. working in an organization).

An educated guess or prediction about the research being conducted is referred to as a ______.

______ theory states that humans are fundamentally concerned with self-interests, making rational decisions based on weighing costs and rewards of the projected outcome of an action.

Prior to the 19th century, approaches to understanding society ______.

Though structural-functional theory and conflict theory take very different approaches, they are both critiqued for ______.

One critique of symbolic interaction theory is that it ______.

The Industrial Revolution led, in part, to the rise of sociology because ______.

Explain the statement, "Every research study should be replicable." Provide an example of what a researcher would do to replicate a study.