SOCIOLOGY 101 STRAIGHTERLINE FINAL 2026
FINAL PAPER COMPLETE REVISION QUESTIONS
WITH FULL SOLUTIONS
◉ Social Institution. Answer: a complex group of interdependent
positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce
themselves over time; also defined in a narrow sense as any
institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the
groups or people within it
◉ Functionalism. Answer: the theory that various social institutions
and processes in society exist to serve some important (or
necessary) function to keep society running
◉ Conflict Theory. Answer: the idea that conflict between competing
interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in
general
◉ Symbolic interactionism. Answer: a micro-level theory in which
shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic
motivations behind people's actions
◉ Social construction. Answer: an entity that exists because people
behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people
,and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed-
upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with
that entity
◉ Reseach methods. Answer: approaches that social scientists use
for investigation the answers to questions
◉ Quantitative methods. Answer: methods that seek to obtain
information about the social worlds that is already in or can be
converted to numeric form
◉ Qualitative methods. Answer: methods that attempt to collect
information about the social world that cannot be readily concerted
to numeric form
◉ Deductive approach. Answer: a research approach that starts with
a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and
then analyzes he date to confirm, reject, or modify the original
theory
◉ Inductive approach. Answer: a research approach that starts with
empirical observations and then works to form a theory
◉ Dependent variable. Answer: the outcome that the researcher is
trying to explain
,◉ Independent variable. Answer: a measured factor that the
researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable
◉ Hypothesis. Answer: a proposed relationship between two
variables
◉ Validity. Answer: the extent to which an instrument measures
what it is intended to measure
◉ Reliability. Answer: likelihood of obtaining consistent results
using the same measure
◉ Population. Answer: an entire group of individual persons,
objects, or items from which samples may be drawn
◉ Sample. Answer: the subset of the population from which you are
actually collecting data
◉ Case study. Answer: an intensive investigation of one particular
unit of analysis in order to describe it or uncover its mechanisms
, ◉ Participant observation. Answer: a qualitative research method
that seeks to uncover the meanings by observing social actions in
practice
◉ Survey. Answer: an ordered series of questions intended to elicit
information from respondents
◉ Historical methods. Answer: research that collects data from
written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television
programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date to a prior
time period under study
◉ Comparative research. Answer: a methodology by which two or
more entities (such as countries), which are similar in many
dimensions but differ on one in question, are compared to learn
about the dimension that differs between them
◉ Experimental methods. Answer: methods that seek to alter the
social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of
individuals and then track what results that change yields; often
involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such
an intervention
◉ Ethnocentrism. Answer: the belief that one's own culture or group
is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures
from the perspective of one's own
FINAL PAPER COMPLETE REVISION QUESTIONS
WITH FULL SOLUTIONS
◉ Social Institution. Answer: a complex group of interdependent
positions that, together, perform a social role and reproduce
themselves over time; also defined in a narrow sense as any
institution in a society that works to shape the behavior of the
groups or people within it
◉ Functionalism. Answer: the theory that various social institutions
and processes in society exist to serve some important (or
necessary) function to keep society running
◉ Conflict Theory. Answer: the idea that conflict between competing
interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in
general
◉ Symbolic interactionism. Answer: a micro-level theory in which
shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic
motivations behind people's actions
◉ Social construction. Answer: an entity that exists because people
behave as if it exists and whose existence is perpetuated as people
,and social institutions act in accordance with the widely agreed-
upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with
that entity
◉ Reseach methods. Answer: approaches that social scientists use
for investigation the answers to questions
◉ Quantitative methods. Answer: methods that seek to obtain
information about the social worlds that is already in or can be
converted to numeric form
◉ Qualitative methods. Answer: methods that attempt to collect
information about the social world that cannot be readily concerted
to numeric form
◉ Deductive approach. Answer: a research approach that starts with
a theory, forms a hypothesis, makes empirical observations, and
then analyzes he date to confirm, reject, or modify the original
theory
◉ Inductive approach. Answer: a research approach that starts with
empirical observations and then works to form a theory
◉ Dependent variable. Answer: the outcome that the researcher is
trying to explain
,◉ Independent variable. Answer: a measured factor that the
researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable
◉ Hypothesis. Answer: a proposed relationship between two
variables
◉ Validity. Answer: the extent to which an instrument measures
what it is intended to measure
◉ Reliability. Answer: likelihood of obtaining consistent results
using the same measure
◉ Population. Answer: an entire group of individual persons,
objects, or items from which samples may be drawn
◉ Sample. Answer: the subset of the population from which you are
actually collecting data
◉ Case study. Answer: an intensive investigation of one particular
unit of analysis in order to describe it or uncover its mechanisms
, ◉ Participant observation. Answer: a qualitative research method
that seeks to uncover the meanings by observing social actions in
practice
◉ Survey. Answer: an ordered series of questions intended to elicit
information from respondents
◉ Historical methods. Answer: research that collects data from
written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television
programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date to a prior
time period under study
◉ Comparative research. Answer: a methodology by which two or
more entities (such as countries), which are similar in many
dimensions but differ on one in question, are compared to learn
about the dimension that differs between them
◉ Experimental methods. Answer: methods that seek to alter the
social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of
individuals and then track what results that change yields; often
involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such
an intervention
◉ Ethnocentrism. Answer: the belief that one's own culture or group
is superior to others and the tendency to view all other cultures
from the perspective of one's own
