Deck 2: Structuralism and Beyond

Question 1

For the earliest sociologists, including Comte and Durkheim, the goal of sociology was to:

A) Give a voice to marginalized groups
B) Discover the cultural variability in the structures that guided society
C) Discover the universal laws that governed social functioning
D) Uncover the linguistic structures that tied people together people in a society

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following is a question NOT asked by the early structuralists?

A) Why do particular societies exist?
B) How do individuals from different social backgrounds construct meaning for themselves and their lives?
C) What components comprise a society?
D) Why do societies change or not change?

Answer 2

B

Question 3

From which discipline did early structuralists borrow language and concepts?

A) Biology
B) Philosophy
C) Economics
D) Linguistics

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Who was a chief architect of early functionalist theory?

A) Herbert Spencer
B) Michel Foucault
C) Max Weber
D) William James

Question 5

The substratum that appears to underlie all social life is known as

A) A social network
B) Deep structure
C) Social relationships
D) None of the above

Question 6

Although he made important contributions to the development of sociological theory, Malinowski could best be categorized as a

A) Philosopher
B) Historian
C) Economist
D) Anthropologist

Question 7

The Kula Ring ritual of the Trobriand Islanders of New Guinea involved

A) Courtship and mating
B) Childhood gender socialization
C) Trading and exchange
D) The selection of new leadership

Question 8

Talcott Parsons AGIL system was concerned with:

A) The functional imperatives the kept a social system alive and well
B) The factors that contribute to social disintegration
C) The processes though which individuals adapt to local environments
D) Physical agility

Question 9

Talcott Parsons trained under:

A) Auguste Comte
B) Emile Durkheim
C) Vilfredo Pareto
D) Bronisław Malinowski

Question 10

Although similar in many ways, a key difference between Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann was:

A) Parsons did not think consensus among members of society was crucial to social functioning, while Lehmann did
B) Luhmann did not think consensus among members of society was crucial to social functioning, while Parsons did
C) Parsons did not draw on biological models of society, while Lehmann did
D) Luhmann did not draw on biological models of society, while Parsons did.

Question 11

Luhmann placed a great deal of emphasis on _______ in modern society due to its increasing complexity

A) Trust
B) Money
C) Laws
D) Incarceration

Question 12

A major movement in social theory in the beginning of twentieth century involved

A) A new focus on class relations under capitalism
B) A focus on language as having potential to give meaning to the world in very particular ways
C) Defragmentation of knowledge and truth
D) None of the above

Question 13

Much of the linguistic turn was inspired by:

A) Emile Durkheim
B) August Comte
C) Stewart Hall
D) Ludwig Wittgenstein

Question 14

Wittgenstein's theory rested on which crucial insight?

A) Social structures and their functions were inherently related
B) Thought and language were separate, autonomous systems
C) All thought had to emerge from language, and language set the boundaries of one's world
D) The desires embedded in the unconscious drove much of human behavior

Question 15

According to Louis Althusser, structure was

A) Overemphasized on the social sciences
B) The primary determinant of all social activity
C) Less important than the unconscious in determining social behavior
D) Driven by economic incentives

Question 16

According to Althusser, ideology is

A) Codes or frameworks used to understand society
B) An ideal vision of what society should be
C) Used as a tool to control the masses
D) Less important than pragmatism

Question 17

A key assertion of exchange theory is that

A) People are irrational, and easily manipulated
B) People want to maximize their rewards and minimize their hurt
C) Exchange rituals differ across cultural contexts
D) None of the above

Question 18

One critique of network analysis is that it

A) Is too heavy on methodologies and lacks theoretical depth
B) Is too heavy on theory, and lacks methodological depth
C) Ignores social structure
D) Hasn't contributed to structural analysis

Question 19

A key distinction in narrative theory is

A) What is narrated and who is narrating it
B) Who is narrating and where it is being narrated
C) What is narrated and how it is narrated
D) Who is the reader

Question 20

A key contention of Anthony Giddens's theory of structuration is that

A) Structure is more important than agency
B) Agency is more important than structure
C) Both structure and agency are important in explaining social processes
D) Agency and structure are dead ends. Theory should focus instead on identity

Question 21

One of the key foci of structural functionalism, especially that of Comte and Durkheim, was the relationship between structure and function of those units thought to constitute society.

Question 22

Structuralists often viewed the individual actor as little more than a passive reflection of social processes.

Question 23

Rational choice theory is often referred to as exchange theory.

Question 24

What does AGIL stand for?

Question 25

What are the key components of network analysis?

Question 26

What assumptions about human nature does rational choice theory make?

Question 27

Describe and explain three ways in which the linguistic turn changed structuralism.

Question 28

In what ways have critics claimed that structuralism failed? Do you agree?

Question 29

What role does language play in maintaining social structure? Choose two theorists who included language in their theories, and describe how they viewed it.