SOCIOLOGY 101 UPDATED EVALUATION TEST QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS MARKED A+
✔✔Reification - ✔✔The failure to the social world as humanly made. The tendency to
see the humanly made world as having a will and force of its own, apart from human
beings.
Ex: the economy is crumbling, etc.
✔✔Hypothesis - ✔✔A testable statement of a relationship between two or more
observable variables.
✔✔Theory - ✔✔An explanation for why people think and act the way they do.
✔✔Quantitative Data - ✔✔Measures relationships between variables. It is collected
from large populations and is typically expressed as numbers.
✔✔Qualitative Data - ✔✔Captures people's lived experiences as told by participants.
Observations of people in their "natural" settings. Typically expressed as words.
✔✔Implicit Lessons - ✔✔Lessons that are learned in non-obvious ways. They are
implied but not plainly expressed.
Ex: "I learned it by watching you."
✔✔Role - ✔✔The sum of total expectations about the behavior of people who occupy a
particular status.
✔✔Master Status - ✔✔The status that others deem most telling about an individual;
acts as a filter through which the individual's actions are judged.
✔✔The Thomas Theorem - ✔✔That which what we treat as real is real in its
consequences. If we believe something is real, we will act toward it as if it is real. It will
seem real or become real.
✔✔Perspective - Taking - ✔✔The ability to see a situation or set of circumstances from
the perspective of others.
✔✔Ethnocentrism - ✔✔The process of judging other people and their customs and
norms as inferior to one's own people, customs, and norms.
✔✔Independent Variable - ✔✔A variable that causes a change in another variable.
✔✔Dependent Variable - ✔✔A variable that is influenced by another variable.
, ✔✔Social Behavior - ✔✔Behavior directed towards society, or taking place between
members of the same species.
✔✔The Generalized Other - ✔✔An individual's internalized impression of societal norms
and expectations. When humans take multiple perspectives of others at the same time.
✔✔Socialization - ✔✔The process by which we learn how to think, act, and feel as we
navigate the social world.
✔✔Ascribed Status - ✔✔A status that one is assigned with at birth or assumed
involuntarily later in life (neither earned nor chosen).
✔✔Achieved Status - ✔✔A status earned by the individual through his or her own
efforts.
✔✔Cultural Relativism - ✔✔The belief that other people and their ways of doing things
can be understood only in terms of the cultural context of those people.
✔✔Gender Socialization - ✔✔Through this, we learn what is considered gender-
appropriate behavior. This teaches us to internalize these ideas, and fulfill social and
cultural expectations of gender specific behavior.
✔✔Operational Definition - ✔✔Defining a variable in such a way that it can be observed
and measured; often accomplished by listing the variable's attributes.
✔✔Empirical Questions - ✔✔Answerable with observations by measuring, counting, or
looking to see what happens.
✔✔Social Status - ✔✔One's position of location in a group or social structure.
✔✔Subculture - ✔✔A group of people whose shared specialized values, norms, beliefs,
or use of material culture sets them apart from other people in society.
✔✔Counterculture - ✔✔A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with
the dominant social norm.
✔✔Sanctions - ✔✔Visible responses to behavior; may be positive or negative, formal or
informal.
✔✔Concepts - ✔✔A label that is applied to things with similar characteristics or
attributes.
✔✔Material Culture - ✔✔We create and give meaning to objects, which become
meaningful through interaction and social agreement.
AND ANSWERS MARKED A+
✔✔Reification - ✔✔The failure to the social world as humanly made. The tendency to
see the humanly made world as having a will and force of its own, apart from human
beings.
Ex: the economy is crumbling, etc.
✔✔Hypothesis - ✔✔A testable statement of a relationship between two or more
observable variables.
✔✔Theory - ✔✔An explanation for why people think and act the way they do.
✔✔Quantitative Data - ✔✔Measures relationships between variables. It is collected
from large populations and is typically expressed as numbers.
✔✔Qualitative Data - ✔✔Captures people's lived experiences as told by participants.
Observations of people in their "natural" settings. Typically expressed as words.
✔✔Implicit Lessons - ✔✔Lessons that are learned in non-obvious ways. They are
implied but not plainly expressed.
Ex: "I learned it by watching you."
✔✔Role - ✔✔The sum of total expectations about the behavior of people who occupy a
particular status.
✔✔Master Status - ✔✔The status that others deem most telling about an individual;
acts as a filter through which the individual's actions are judged.
✔✔The Thomas Theorem - ✔✔That which what we treat as real is real in its
consequences. If we believe something is real, we will act toward it as if it is real. It will
seem real or become real.
✔✔Perspective - Taking - ✔✔The ability to see a situation or set of circumstances from
the perspective of others.
✔✔Ethnocentrism - ✔✔The process of judging other people and their customs and
norms as inferior to one's own people, customs, and norms.
✔✔Independent Variable - ✔✔A variable that causes a change in another variable.
✔✔Dependent Variable - ✔✔A variable that is influenced by another variable.
, ✔✔Social Behavior - ✔✔Behavior directed towards society, or taking place between
members of the same species.
✔✔The Generalized Other - ✔✔An individual's internalized impression of societal norms
and expectations. When humans take multiple perspectives of others at the same time.
✔✔Socialization - ✔✔The process by which we learn how to think, act, and feel as we
navigate the social world.
✔✔Ascribed Status - ✔✔A status that one is assigned with at birth or assumed
involuntarily later in life (neither earned nor chosen).
✔✔Achieved Status - ✔✔A status earned by the individual through his or her own
efforts.
✔✔Cultural Relativism - ✔✔The belief that other people and their ways of doing things
can be understood only in terms of the cultural context of those people.
✔✔Gender Socialization - ✔✔Through this, we learn what is considered gender-
appropriate behavior. This teaches us to internalize these ideas, and fulfill social and
cultural expectations of gender specific behavior.
✔✔Operational Definition - ✔✔Defining a variable in such a way that it can be observed
and measured; often accomplished by listing the variable's attributes.
✔✔Empirical Questions - ✔✔Answerable with observations by measuring, counting, or
looking to see what happens.
✔✔Social Status - ✔✔One's position of location in a group or social structure.
✔✔Subculture - ✔✔A group of people whose shared specialized values, norms, beliefs,
or use of material culture sets them apart from other people in society.
✔✔Counterculture - ✔✔A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with
the dominant social norm.
✔✔Sanctions - ✔✔Visible responses to behavior; may be positive or negative, formal or
informal.
✔✔Concepts - ✔✔A label that is applied to things with similar characteristics or
attributes.
✔✔Material Culture - ✔✔We create and give meaning to objects, which become
meaningful through interaction and social agreement.
