Sociology Basics
What is sociology?
What is the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society?
The three major theories in sociology.
What are Conflict, Symbolic Interactionism, Functionalism?
Race is ____, while ethnicity is ____.
What are physical and cultural?
Explain social mobility.
What is the movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within or between social strata in a society?
Explain culture.
What is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next?
What is content analysis?
What is a research method for studying documents and communication artifacts, which might be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video?
Give an example of a social script taught to us in film.
Answers vary. Ex. Learning how to behave at a high school party from watching Clueless or Mean Girls.
What's an example of structural racism?
What is race inequality in schools, justice system, economy, healthcare, housing, politics, and/or media?
Name one movie wear the female character "marries up".
What is Maid in Manhattan, Pretty Woman, Cinderella?
Define a social norm? Find one example in a film.
What are societal expectations? Examples vary.
Give three examples of social location.
What are race, gender, nationality, disability/ability, sexual orientation, age, religion, immigrant status, social class, etc.?
Describe a film from a Functionalist perspective.
Answers vary. Ex. In the Truman Show, everyone had a role to play that maintained Truman's and Seahaven's social stability.
Explain Blackface and why it's offensive.
What is a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person. Offensive because it dehumanizes and humiliates black people.
What is individualism?
What is a social theory favoring freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control?
Explain socialization? What is an example in film?
What is the process of learning to behave in a way that is acceptable to society? Answers vary.
What is the Sociological Imagination?
What is the ability to understand how personal experiences are shaped by historically-conditioned social forces?
Describe the Looking Glass Self?
What is individuals develop their concept of self by observing how they are perceived by others?
Name three common stereotypes related to people of color in film.
What are "mammy", Latin Lover, gangster, hypersexualized Black or Latina, nerd, warrior, sassy sidekick, angry black woman, "Magical negro", submissive (Asian women), warriors (native American), or wise spiritual person (Native American), bad drivers (Asians), nerds (Asians), Kung fu fighter (Asians), terrorists, barbaric (Arabs)?
Name one "Rags to Riches" story in Hollywood.
What are The Great Gatsby, Slumdog Millionaire, Scarface, Pursuit of Happyness, Cinderella, the Social Network, etc.?
Define "agent of socialization" and explain how media is a socializing force.
What are the people and institutions that are responsible for teaching culture. Through media, people learn about objects of material culture (like new technology and transportation options), as well as nonmaterial culture—what is true (beliefs), what is important (values), and what is expected (norms). People also learn social scripts and expectations related to gender, class, stereotypes, etc.
Use film to give an example of a trouble and its corresponding issue.
Answers vary but an example would be Will Smith's character in Pursuit of Happyness is broke (trouble), rates of poverty in America (issue).
Use Conflict and Symbolic Interactionism Theory to analyse Crash.
What is Conflict - power struggles due to inequality (Ludacris's character robbing the rich), (Police officer abusing his power when searching the African American woman) (The reasons for higher incarceration of black people)
Symbolic Interactionism - the symbolic meaning people attach to different racial groups, traits or skin color. E.g. Sandra Bullock wants to change the locks in her house because she symbolized the Latino locksmith as dangerous (tattoos, skin color)?
Explain Hollywood Whitewashing. Name one example.
What is a casting practice in the film industry of the United States in which white actors are cast in historically non-white character roles or in roles which are scripted for non-white characters. Examples: Emma Stone in Aloha, Natalie Wood in Westside Story, Tom Cruise in the Last Samurai, Jake Gyllenhaal in Prince of Persia, Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's?
In Disney movies, working class characters are seen as ____.
What is happy and unconcerned with money?
What are 3 of the 4 elements of culture?
What are norms, values, beliefs, and language?