sociologyfinalstudyguide - A. Definitional Questions You...


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A. Definitional Questions – You will write up to a page for each A1. What are the most important differences between race and ethnicity? How do these identities sometimes overlap? Ethnicity is a group with a common belief that builds a foundation of community such as kinship patterns, geography, religion, history, language. Race is constructed as biological. Ethnicity is centered on heritage and race is centered on biology. Both construct classifications that are institutionalized and are real socially and culturally. A2. Discuss the distinction between ethnicity and nation. How are they related in the American case? Nationalism, patriotism. Nation is centered on autonomy (self governing of people) and ethnicity is centered on heritage. A3. What are the three ways that “normality” is defined? Normality has three difference definitions: statistical, normative, evolutionary. Statistical focuses on the group trait rather than the individual trait. The Normative focuses on the conformity to an ideal or standard. This definition might be normal in one context but abnormal in another. The evolutionary normal is defined by natural selection. Reader: 157-161 A4. How does the culture of poverty thesis seek to explain poverty? The culture of poverty is a social theory that explains poverty based on the concept that the poor has a unique value system where the poor remain in poverty because of their adaptations to the burdens of poverty. The poor has adopted the behavior and attitude of strong feelings of helplessness, dependency, and of not belonging. The poor has develop a culture so that they cannot escape the underclass. A5. What does DuBois refer to when he speaks of the “twoness” of the “ souls of black folk”? In what distinctive way does this idea relate to Mead’s concept of the social self? DuBoi refers to the twoness that African Americans feel two souls- an American and a Negro, “two warring ideals in a dark body.” DuBois understands that being African American, they are the ones being oppressed
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and they know that the whites are the oppressor. Related to the Mead concept because it looks inward and outward and the perception of oneself and oneself to others. A6. Explain the Thomas Theorem and its consequences for sociological. Explanation. W. I. Thomas stated that “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” Essentially, the interpretation of a situation causes an action. Actions are affected by the perceptions of the situation. Any definition of a situation will influence the present. Believing in something to be true shapes reality, even if the belief in question is false. For example, the great stock exchange, people thought the market was going to crash, and it did crash. A7. Explain the concept of the
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sociologyfinalstudyguide - A. Definitional Questions You...


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