Sociological Analysis Exam: Week 9 Trinity Term (June 2021)
Part A Questions:
1) Can rational action theory explain persistent educational inequalities?
2) Explicate the logic of signalling theory. To what extent can signalling explain violent behaviours?
3) Do people choose who or what to vote for based on ‘pure self-interest’?
4) In what ways can social networks facilitate, and limit, status attainment?
5) What are the mechanisms by which neighbourhoods shape the lives of individuals?
6) How do protest movements happen?
7) “In 1972… over 40 percent of U.S. adults supported a law outlawing interracial marriage.
Three decades later, this opinion had become so uncommon that the question was removed from the U.S. General Social Survey.” (Kiley and Vaisey, 2020). How does this kind of cultural change happen?
Part B Questions:
8) Describe how micro-level mechanisms can explain macro-level phenomena. Draw on examples from at least two topics from the course to answer the question.
9) Why is it important to consider mechanisms in sociological explanation? Define mechanisms, and draw on examples from at least two topics from the course to answer the question.
10) “Sociological rational choice is an inherently multilevel enterprise. It seeks to account for social outcomes on the basis of both social context and individual action.” (Hechter and Kawazawa, 1997). In what ways do sociological rational choice theories account for social context?
11) “What follows from the individualistic paradigm is … that norms and their embodiment in cultural traditions or social institutions cannot serve as a satisfactory (bottom line’ in sociological explanations” (Goldthorpe, 2016). Explain what Goldthorpe means by “bottom line” explanations, and give your view on whether he is right.
12) To what extent do individual actions depend on the actions of others? Draw on examples from at least two topics from the course to answer the question.
List of papers cited in the questions
Kiley, K., & Vaisey, S. (2020). Measuring stability and change in personal culture using panel data. American Sociological Review, 85(3), 477-506.
Hechter, M., & Kanazawa, S. (1997). Sociological rational choice theory. Annual review of sociology, 23(1), 191-214.
Goldthorpe, J. H. (2016) Sociology as a Population Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.