WGU INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY C273
FINAL PAPER 2026 COMPLETE QUESTIONS
CORRECT ANSWERS RECENTLY TESTED
⩥ role conflict. Answer: conflicts that someone feels between roles
because the expectations are at odds with one another
⩥ role strain. Answer: conflicts that someone feels within a role
⩥ sign-vehicle. Answer: the term used by Goffman to refer to how
people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate
information about the self
⩥ teamwork. Answer: the collaboration of two or more people to
manage impressions jointly
⩥ face-saving behavior Answer: techniques used to salvage a
performance (interaction) that is going sour
⩥ ethnomethodology Answer: the study of how people use background
assumptions to make sense out of life
,⩥ background assumption Answer: a deeply embedded, common
understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act
⩥ Thomas theorem Answer: William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas' classic
formulation of the definition of the situation: "If people define situations
as real, they are real in their consequences"
⩥ social construction of reality Answer: the use of background
assumptions and life experiences to define what is real
⩥ Distinguish between macrosociology and microsociology. Answer:
Sociologists use macrosociological and microsociological levels of
analysis. In macrosociology, the focus is placed on large-scale features
of social life, while in microsociology, the focus is on social interaction.
Functionalists and conflict theorists tend to use a macrosociological
approach, while symbolic interactionists are likely to use a
microsociological approach.
⩥ Explain the significance of social structure and its components:
culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions;
compare the functionalist and conflict perspectives on social structure;
and explain what holds society together. Answer: The term social
structure refers to the social envelope that surrounds us and establishes
limits on our behavior. Social structure consists of culture, social class,
social statuses, roles, groups, and social institutions. Our location in the
social structure underlies our perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
Culture lays the broadest framework, while social class divides people
,according to income, education, and occupational prestige. Each of us
receives ascribed statuses at birth; later we add achieved statuses. Our
statuses guide our roles, put boundaries around our behavior, and give us
orientations to life. These are further influenced by the groups to which
we belong, and our experiences with social institutions. These
components of society work together to help maintain social order.
Social institutions are the standard ways that a society develops to meet
its basic needs. As summarized in Figure 4.2 (page 105), industrial and
postindustrial societies have ten social institutions—the family, religion,
education, economy, medicine, politics, law, science, the military, and
the mass media. From the functionalist perspective, social institutions
meet universal group needs, or functional requisites. Conflict theorists
stress how the elites of society use social institutions to maintain their
privileged positions.
According to Emile Durkheim, in agricultural societies, people are
united by mechanical solidarity (having similar views and feelings).
With industrialization comes organic solidarity (people depend on one
another to do their more specialized jobs). Ferdinand Tönnies pointed
out that the informal means of control in Gemeinschaft (small, intimate)
societies are replaced by formal mechanisms in Gesellschaft (larger,
more impersonal) societies.
⩥ Discuss what symbolic interactionists study and explain dramaturgy,
ethnomethodology, and the social construction of reality. Answer: In
contrast to functionalists and conflict theorists, who as macrosociologists
focus on the "big picture," symbolic inter-actionists tend to be
microsociologists and focus on face-to-face social interaction. Symbolic
interactionists analyze how people define their worlds, and how their
definitions, in turn, influence their behavior.
, Stereotypes are assumptions of what people are like. When we first meet
people, we classify them according to our perceptions of their visible
characteristics. Our ideas about these characteristics guide our reactions
to them. Our behavior, in turn, can influence them to behave in ways that
reinforce our stereotypes.
In examining how people use physical space, symbolic interactionists
stress that we have a "personal bubble" that we carefully protect. People
from different cultures use "personal bubbles" of varying sizes, so the
answer to the question is no. Americans typically use four different
"distance zones": intimate, personal, social, and public.
Body language is using our bodies to give messages. We do this through
facial expressions, posture, smiling, and eye contact. Interpreting body
language is becoming a tool in business and in the fight against
terrorism.
Erving Goffman developed dramaturgy (or dramaturgical analysis), in
which everyday life is analyzed in terms of the stage. At the core of this
analysis is impression management, our attempts to control the
impressions we make on others. For this, we use the sign-vehicles of
setting, appearance, and manner. Our role performances on the front
stages of life often call for teamwork and face-saving behavior. They
sometimes are hampered by role conflict or role strain.
Ethnomethodology is the study of how people make sense of everyday
life. Ethnomethodologists try to uncover background assumptions, the
basic ideas about the way lif
⩥ Explain why we need both macrosociology and microsociology to
understand social life. Answer: Because macrosociology and
FINAL PAPER 2026 COMPLETE QUESTIONS
CORRECT ANSWERS RECENTLY TESTED
⩥ role conflict. Answer: conflicts that someone feels between roles
because the expectations are at odds with one another
⩥ role strain. Answer: conflicts that someone feels within a role
⩥ sign-vehicle. Answer: the term used by Goffman to refer to how
people use social setting, appearance, and manner to communicate
information about the self
⩥ teamwork. Answer: the collaboration of two or more people to
manage impressions jointly
⩥ face-saving behavior Answer: techniques used to salvage a
performance (interaction) that is going sour
⩥ ethnomethodology Answer: the study of how people use background
assumptions to make sense out of life
,⩥ background assumption Answer: a deeply embedded, common
understanding of how the world operates and of how people ought to act
⩥ Thomas theorem Answer: William I. and Dorothy S. Thomas' classic
formulation of the definition of the situation: "If people define situations
as real, they are real in their consequences"
⩥ social construction of reality Answer: the use of background
assumptions and life experiences to define what is real
⩥ Distinguish between macrosociology and microsociology. Answer:
Sociologists use macrosociological and microsociological levels of
analysis. In macrosociology, the focus is placed on large-scale features
of social life, while in microsociology, the focus is on social interaction.
Functionalists and conflict theorists tend to use a macrosociological
approach, while symbolic interactionists are likely to use a
microsociological approach.
⩥ Explain the significance of social structure and its components:
culture, social class, social status, roles, groups, and social institutions;
compare the functionalist and conflict perspectives on social structure;
and explain what holds society together. Answer: The term social
structure refers to the social envelope that surrounds us and establishes
limits on our behavior. Social structure consists of culture, social class,
social statuses, roles, groups, and social institutions. Our location in the
social structure underlies our perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
Culture lays the broadest framework, while social class divides people
,according to income, education, and occupational prestige. Each of us
receives ascribed statuses at birth; later we add achieved statuses. Our
statuses guide our roles, put boundaries around our behavior, and give us
orientations to life. These are further influenced by the groups to which
we belong, and our experiences with social institutions. These
components of society work together to help maintain social order.
Social institutions are the standard ways that a society develops to meet
its basic needs. As summarized in Figure 4.2 (page 105), industrial and
postindustrial societies have ten social institutions—the family, religion,
education, economy, medicine, politics, law, science, the military, and
the mass media. From the functionalist perspective, social institutions
meet universal group needs, or functional requisites. Conflict theorists
stress how the elites of society use social institutions to maintain their
privileged positions.
According to Emile Durkheim, in agricultural societies, people are
united by mechanical solidarity (having similar views and feelings).
With industrialization comes organic solidarity (people depend on one
another to do their more specialized jobs). Ferdinand Tönnies pointed
out that the informal means of control in Gemeinschaft (small, intimate)
societies are replaced by formal mechanisms in Gesellschaft (larger,
more impersonal) societies.
⩥ Discuss what symbolic interactionists study and explain dramaturgy,
ethnomethodology, and the social construction of reality. Answer: In
contrast to functionalists and conflict theorists, who as macrosociologists
focus on the "big picture," symbolic inter-actionists tend to be
microsociologists and focus on face-to-face social interaction. Symbolic
interactionists analyze how people define their worlds, and how their
definitions, in turn, influence their behavior.
, Stereotypes are assumptions of what people are like. When we first meet
people, we classify them according to our perceptions of their visible
characteristics. Our ideas about these characteristics guide our reactions
to them. Our behavior, in turn, can influence them to behave in ways that
reinforce our stereotypes.
In examining how people use physical space, symbolic interactionists
stress that we have a "personal bubble" that we carefully protect. People
from different cultures use "personal bubbles" of varying sizes, so the
answer to the question is no. Americans typically use four different
"distance zones": intimate, personal, social, and public.
Body language is using our bodies to give messages. We do this through
facial expressions, posture, smiling, and eye contact. Interpreting body
language is becoming a tool in business and in the fight against
terrorism.
Erving Goffman developed dramaturgy (or dramaturgical analysis), in
which everyday life is analyzed in terms of the stage. At the core of this
analysis is impression management, our attempts to control the
impressions we make on others. For this, we use the sign-vehicles of
setting, appearance, and manner. Our role performances on the front
stages of life often call for teamwork and face-saving behavior. They
sometimes are hampered by role conflict or role strain.
Ethnomethodology is the study of how people make sense of everyday
life. Ethnomethodologists try to uncover background assumptions, the
basic ideas about the way lif
⩥ Explain why we need both macrosociology and microsociology to
understand social life. Answer: Because macrosociology and
