Critical Thinking Homework Questions

1. What are the benefits of studying sociology? That is, in what ways does understanding the social world make us better people? Better citizens? Better prepared for our careers?
2. Which of the social sciences (for example, psychology, political science, economics, anthropology, gender studies) strikes you as closest to sociology? Which is most distinct? Why?
3. Sociologists and political scientists both study political behavior. Sociologists and economists both study economic behavior. Is this simply duplication of effort, or do sociologists, with their characteristic perspectives, have the ability to develop insights that might not occur to their colleagues in other departments?
4. Sociologists have in the past several decades developed and refined a specialization called applied sociology. Like applied psychology, it focuses on coping with problems rather than studying what causes those problems. In what ways can sociology contribute to the more effective resolution of social problems at the individual, group, and community levels? Should we promote development of this subdiscipline or would it be better left to the social workers?
5. What is a global perspective? How does it compare to the sociological perspective? How are societies all over the world increasingly connected and what are the consequences of these links?
6. After reviewing your text’s discussion of the social factors that influence a student’s decision regarding which college to attend, identify some of the social factors which might help explain why you selected your major or intended career.
7.  Describe the experience of being a new member of a group or some setting. (For example, the first few days after you arrived on campus.) Explain how your marginality made it easier for you to observe something about that group of the setting that was not evident to those who had been in it longer.
8. List the various benefits of learning to use the sociological perspective for your own life.
9. What sociological insights about the U.S. educational system can you gain from applying sociology’s theoretical approaches? Consider structural-functional theory, symbolic-interaction theory, social-conflict theory, feminist theory, and race-conflict theory.
10. How have sociologists helped shape public policy and law?