Pick any combination
Exam 1: Pick any combination of the following topics – provided the sum-total of possible points does not exceed 300. Label each of your responses using the number of the topic it addresses (you do not need to include the actual topic). Combine your responses in one document, save it as a .docx, or .doc or .rtf or .pdf file (the filename MUST include your full name, student I.D.#, the semester, class number, course number, and ‘Exam 1’), e-mail it (as an attachment) to stavros.karageorgis@csun.edu AND **submit it through the Turnitin link on the Canvas site for the course**. Tailor the length of your responses to a. the point-value of the topic and b. the level of detail required by the topic; the resulting combined document may not exceed 10 double-spaced pages, using at least an 11 pt ‘regular’ font.
List and briefly discuss a. the basic characteristics and b. main elements of scientific theories, based on the Instructor’s Introduction and one of, or both, K.D. Allan (Chapter 1, Imagining Society) and Appelrouth & Edles (STCoE, Ch. 1), (50 points)
Briefly compare and contrast the ‘scientific’ and ‘interpretist’ perspectives on the nature of society (social ‘ontology’) and how it (society or social phenomena) can be studied and theorized, based on the Instructor’s Introduction and K.D. Allan (Chapter 1, Imagining Society). (50 points)
Briefly compare and contrast the ‘critical’ and ‘descriptive’ (or detached and non-evaluative) perspectives on social/sociological theory, based on the Instructor’s Introduction and K.D. Allan (Chapter 1, Imagining Society) (50 points)
List, define, and briefly discuss the five role-adaptations to the U.S.’s cultural and social structures according to R.K. Merton. (50 points)
Define and briefly discuss the concepts of “status”, “role”, “role-set” and “status-set”, according to R.K. Merton (50 points)
Present a summary of Malinowski’s contributions/legacy to modern sociological functionalism, according to Turner and Maryanski (50 points)
List and briefly discuss a. “the [two] basic and irreducible functions of the family” and b. “the conditions under which effective [primary] socialization can take place”, according to T. Parsons (75 points)
List, define and briefly discuss the pattern-variables, according to T. Parsons (and collaborators). (75 points)
List and briefly discuss a. the sources of structural change in social systems, b. what the structure of social systems consists in, and c. what structural change in and of social systems entails, according to T. Parsons (75 points)
Summarize and briefly critically evaluate R.K. Merton’s critique of abstract, analytical grand-theorizing (producing all-inclusive conceptual schemes) and his argument in support of concentrating on “developing theories of the middle range” as the appropriate theory-building strategy for Sociology. (75 points)
List and briefly discuss why, and mechanisms whereby, deviant individual role-adaptations to the U.S.’s cultural and social structure are generated according to R.K. Merton. (This is about RKM’s ‘anomie and strain’ theory of deviance, not the adaptations as such) (75 points)
List, define, and briefly discuss the four types of independently variable “components” (or “categories”) in terms of which T. Parsons claims the structure of social systems may be analyzed. (75 points)
List, define, and briefly discuss “the [four] essential functional imperatives of any system of action, and hence of any social system”, according to T. Parsons. (75 points)
Present T. Parsons’ argument in support of conceptualizing and analyzing social systems as cybernetic systems of control over personality systems (and through them of actual human behavior). (75 points)
List, define, and briefly discuss the social mechanisms, the presence and operation of which may reduce conflict and incompatibility in the role-expectations faced by incumbents of a particular social status or position, according to R.K. Merton. (75 points)
Present, discuss and critically evaluate the “analytical frame or map” Appelrouth and Edles put forth and used to “explore, compare and contrast the work of each [contemporary social/sociological] theorist” (STCoE: 13 and ff). (Instructor’s Introduction, items 17-31 may be useful) (100 points)
Identify and discuss (manifest and latent) functions (i.e. objective consequences contributing to the adjustment and adaptation) and dysfunctions (i.e. objective consequences undermining the adjustment and adaptation) FOR bureaucratically structured public and private organizations and their staff OF the patterns of negative attitudes towards (and actual behavioral reactions to) bureaucratically structured public and private organizations and their staff. (100 points)
Critically evaluate whether (if at all) and how identifying the latent (as defined by R.K. Merton) functions of a cultural item, institution or social practice (“a standardized practice or belief”) for specified systems (personality or social) aids a sociologist in causally explaining the genesis and/or persistence of that cultural item, institution or social practice. (100 points)
Use Parsons’ pattern-variable conceptual scheme (STCoE: 44 – 50) [you may ignore the self – collectivity pair] to describe and compare/contrast the “role-expectations” in the role-set (as defined by R.K. Merton) of the incumbents of the status/position of “college student” and “high-school student” (Consider at least TWO role-relationships in which incumbents of each status/position MUST enter; e.g. student-instructor/teacher and student-student). (100 points)
Summarize and briefly critically evaluate R.K. Merton’s middle-range theory of the “role-set”. (150 points)
Use T. Parsons’ analytical framework for describing and analyzing the “American Family” to compare and contrast today’s “effective kinship unit” (its role structure, relationship to broader kinship structures, other institutions and institutional spheres, cultural patterns, etc.) to the “effective kinship unit” T. Parsons described and analyzed in the 1940s and 1950s. What are the contributions of contemporary families to meeting the functional requirements of today’s adults and minor children, and of non-family institutions in which today’s adults and minor children participate (at their current or later stage of their life-cycle)? If those functional requirements are no longer primarily or exclusively met by, and in, families, how are they met and to what extent are they met? (150 points)
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