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 4 (Society)

 Define society.  Explain how Lenski uses technological development as a criterion for classifying societies at different levels of evolutionary development and identify five types of societies according to their technology.  Summarize how technology shapes societies at different stages of sociological evolution.  Explain the central role of social conflict in Marx’s theory.  Outline Karl Marx’s model of society.  Explain Marx’s analysis of conflict throughout history.  Cite Marx’s ways in which capitalism alienates workers.  Explain Weber’s notion of ideal types.  Examine how Weber used the concept of the rationalization of society as a means of understanding and interpreting historical change.  Identify seven characteristics of a rational social organization.  Define Durkheim’s concepts of structure by function and personality.  Explain Durkheim’s idea of how an expansion in a society’s division of labor promotes a shift from mechanical to organic solidarity

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.  Describe the two-stage process of re–socialization that occurs in total institutions.

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.

Chapter 14 (Race and Ethnicity)

 Define race, ethnicity, and minority.  Define the concepts of prejudice and discrimination and discuss how they are related to each other.  Explain how stereotypes contribute to prejudiced thinking.  Outline four theories of prejudice.  Identify and describe four patterns of minority-majority interaction.  Summarize the social histories of the major U.S. minority groups.  Present arguments for and against affirmative action.