Introduction to Sociology
Soc 100
Test over Chapters four and five
Answer all five questions as completely
as possible. Yes, you may use your text,
the internet, and any notes you may have taken from the video lectures. Each question’s answer is worth 20 points
each. It is due 5:00 Friday October 14,
2011.
Erving
Goffman introduced the idea that in everyday life we perform our assigned
roles, and maintained that our social life was like a drama enacted on a stage.
Discuss his approach to the study of everyday life. Include in your discussion his ideas of front
and back stage, as well as impression management. Describe a major characteristic of your front
stage and a major characteristic of your back state. What is your favorite way of impression
management?
Answer: Erving Goffman introduced the
term dramaturgy into sociology to show how life is like a play. Goffman said
that when we are born we are put on stage and though out our life we act. We
have ideas on how we want others to think of us and we act on those ideas. This
is what he called impression management.
Every day we are playing our roles and he divided them into two parts,
front stage and back stage. Front stage is where we deliver our lines (a major
characteristic of front stage) and when we are in front of people. If I were
giving a speech to a class, that is considered front stage. Back stage is where
we can relax (a characteristic of back stage) as if no one is watching. When we
are alone and in our rooms is backstage.
One of my favorite ways of impression management is while working I
dress in a company shirt and nice pants. No tennis shoes or blue jeans are
allowed. My clients must see me as a professional. I also use a more
professional language when around clients and I don’t use slang terms.
Define
role strain and role conflict. Give an example of role strain that you might
experience as a college student and an example of role conflict that you have
experienced.
Answer: We have many roles. We may be a son, daughter, father, mother,
student, business owner, employee, or club member and so on. Sometimes two of
our roles may have a conflict. I’m leaving for a retreat this weekend with my
girlfriend, but at the same time I have this test due on Friday. There’s a role
conflict between my role as a student and my role as a boyfriend. This will
require some management on my part. I’ll need to make sure I have time to
prepare to leave and also make sure my test paper is done and uploaded. A role
strain is a conflict within a role, not between two roles. An example is with
my role as a technician. When I visit
offices to fix problems with their equipment I want to be helpful and explain
what went wrong or what they did wrong, but at the same time I don’t want them
to feel bad. An example of a role strain as a college student may be that in a
classroom I might know the answer to a question, but be hesitant to raise my
hand in fear of making my fellow students look bad.
Apply
functional analysis to "Mass Media in Social Life, You Can't be Thin
Enough: Body Images and the Mass Media." How is the extreme emphasis on
attaining a nearly impossible standard of body shape both functional and
dysfunctional?
Answer: The functionalist approach to
analyzing this article is seen within the article. Functional analysis will
consider the large scale features of social life (macrosociology), such as
social class. Thinness is associated with “good-looking”, and according to the
research thin people make more money which raises their social class. Also,
thin women are more likely to marry wealthier men. The extreme emphasis on body
shape can be functional because it serves to motivate people to eat better, be
healthier and to exercise. While at the same time it can be dysfunctional
because not everyone has the access to good diet and gyms. These people are
left out and looked upon differently through no fault of their own.
Compare
and contrast the traditional society with the nontraditional society in
reference to production, relationships, and evaluations of each system.
Answer: Production in traditional
societies is less because there is less need for it. Importance is placed on
personal relationships and not on material things. In contrast, a nontraditional society people will
consume more and the production is higher.
Nontraditional societies place more importance on self-interest and
material things and people’s lives don’t center on family and friends as in a
traditional society. A traditional society
is a close knit community; more importance is focused on family, lifelong
friendships and long term relationships. There’s less need for long term
relationships in a nontraditional society because things move faster and
there’s less time to develop those close personal ties. In a nontraditional
society much of our time is spent with strangers and short-time acquaintances. Both
types of societies have advantages and disadvantages. An advantage in a
traditional society is that everyone knows what they are expected to do and
does it. One disadvantage though is that a traditional society is slow to
change when new technologies are introduced. An example is the farming
equipment of the Amish. A nontraditional society accepts change faster and
invents new technologies allowing diversity among people, but at the same time
it creates new problems associated with progress. An example is
industrialization and the pollution it causes.
How
do bureaucracies perpetuate themselves through goal displacement? Provide an example of a bureaucracy that used goal displacement and
how they did it.
I think he was dead in the 1930’s as he was shot and
killed in 1919.
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