Chapter 1 (The Sociological Perspective)

·  define sociology and examine the components of the sociological perspective.

·  explain the importance of a global perspective for sociology.

·  examine how social marginality and social crisis encourage people to use the sociological perspective.

·  identify and describe four benefits of using the sociological perspective.

·  identify and discuss three social changes especially important to the development of sociology.

·  identify and describe the three-stage historical development of sociology as a science.

·  discuss the importance of theory in sociology.

·  summarize the main assumptions of the three major theoretical paradigms in sociology.

Chapter 2 (Sociological Investigation)

·  Discuss the advantages of the scientific approach to knowing and examine how scientific evidence challenges our common sense.

·  Name the two requirements of Sociological Investigation.

·  Define concepts, variables, and measurement.

·  Distinguish between the concepts of reliability and validity.

·  Distinguish between independent and dependent variables.

·  Understand the distinction between a cause-and-effect relationship and a correlational relationship.

·  Examine the ideal of objectivity in sociological research and discuss ways that researchers can be as objective as possible.

·  Identify limitations of scientific sociology.

·  Summarize the three methodical approaches in sociology: scientific, interpretive, and critical.

·  Identify five ways in which gender-based issues may distort sociological research.

·  List ethical guidelines to follow in sociological research.

·  Summarize the four major methods by which sociologists conduct research and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each method.

·  Understand the basic logic of experimental research.

·  Outline 10 steps in the process of carrying out sociological investigation.

Chapter 3 (Culture)

·  Provide the sociological definitions of culture, nonmaterial and material culture, and culture shock.

·  Explain how culture replaces instinct in human beings.

·  Identify the major components of all cultures.

·  Understand the role of language in the transmission of culture.

·  Understand the implications of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis regarding cross-cultural communication.

·  List Robin Williams’s ten central American values.

·  Distinguish between mores and folkways.

·  Distinguish between real and ideal culture.

·  Discuss the role of material culture and technology in our society.

·  Distinguish between high culture and popular culture.

·  Examine the diversity of subcultures and countercultures found in complex modern societies.

·  Summarize the contemporary debate over multiculturalism.

·  Discuss the concepts of cultural integration and cultural lag.

·  Identify and discuss three causes of cultural change.

·  Compare and contrast ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

·  Discuss three factors influencing the emergence of a global culture and three limitations to the global culture thesis.

·  Summarize the three theoretical analyses of culture: structural-functional, social-conflict, and sociobiological.

·  Identify how culture both constrains and enhances human freedom.

Chapter 5 (Socialization)

·  Define socialization.

·  Examine nature versus nurture debate and state how most contemporary sociologists would resolve it.

·  Summarize research findings on the effects of extreme social isolation on children.

·  Outline Freud’s model of personality development.

·  Identify and describe Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development.

·  Identify and describe Kohlberg’s three stages of childhood moral development.

·  Examine moral development as researched by Gilligan.

·  Define Mead’s theory of the social self and outline the development of the self.

·  Identify and describe Erikson’s eight stages of development.

·  Examine the role of the family, the school, peer groups, and the mass media in the socialization process.

·  Discuss how socialization varies at different stages along the life course.

Chapter 8 (Deviance)

·  Define deviance.

·  Evaluate the general biological and psychological explanations of deviance and criminality.

·  Identify three social foundations of deviance.

·  List the functions of deviance identified by Emile Durkheim.

·  Explain Merton’s strain theory of deviance and identify and describe four types of deviant responses.

·  Characterize deviant subcultures.

·  Outline the major dimensions of labeling theory, including the concepts of primary and secondary deviance, stigma, degradation ceremonies, and retrospective and progressive labeling.

·  Evaluate the consequences of the medicalization of deviance.

·  Summarize Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory.

·  Describe Hirschi’s four types of social control.

·  Examine the social-conflict interpretation of deviance and criminality.

·  Define white-collar crime, corporate crime, and organized crime.

·  Discuss how gender is linked to deviance.

·  Discuss how racial and ethnic hostility motivates hate crimes.

·  Identify and define three major types of crime.

·  Discuss limitations of official crime statistics.

·  Provide a profile of the "street" criminal.

·  Discuss reasons why the U.S. crime rate is unusually high in comparison with that of other postindustrial societies.

·  Identify and discuss the major components of the U.S. criminal justice system.

·  Name four justifications that have been advanced for punishment and how adequately each is being carried out by the contemporary U.S. criminal justice system.