Think about Mills’s concept of the sociological imagination and its ambition to draw together what Mills called private troubles and public issues. Think of a private trouble that sociologists might classify as also being a public issue. Share your example with your classmates.

What is critical thinking? What does it mean to be a critical thinker in our approach to understanding society and social issues or problems?

In the chapter, we asked why there were so few “founding mothers” in sociology. What factors explain the dearth of women’s voices? What about the lack of minority voices? What effects do you think these factors may have had on the development of the discipline?

What is theory? What is its function in the discipline of sociology?

Recall the three key theoretical paradigms discussed in this chapter—structural functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism. Discuss the ways these diverse “glasses” analyze deviance, its labeling, and its punishment in society. Try applying a similar analysis to another social phenomenon, such as class inequality or traditional gender roles.

Think about a topic of contemporary relevance in which you may be interested (for example, poverty, juvenile delinquency, teen births, or racial neighborhood segregation). Using what you learned in this chapter, create a simple research question about the topic. Match your research question to an appropriate research method. Share your ideas with classmates.

What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative research? Give an example of each from the chapter. In what kinds of cases might one choose one or the other research method in order to effectively address an issue of interest?

Sociologists often use interviews and surveys as methods for collecting data. What are potential problems with these methods of which researchers need to be aware? What steps can researchers take to ensure that the data they are collecting are of good quality?

Imagine that your school has recently documented a dramatic rise in plagiarism reported by teachers. Your sociology class has been invited to study this issue. Consider what you learned in this chapter about survey research and design a project to assess the problem.

In this chapter, you learned about the issue of ethics in research and read about the Zimbardo prison experiment. How should knowledge collected under unethical conditions (whether it is sociological, medical, psychological, or other scientific knowledge) be treated? Should it be used just like data collected under ethically rigorous conditions?

This chapter discusses tensions between ideal and real culture in attitudes and practices linked to conventional attractiveness and honesty. Can you think of other cases where ideal and real cultures appear to collide?

The chapter suggests that mass media may play a paradoxical role in society, offering both the information needed to bring about an informed citizenry and disseminating mass entertainment that distracts and disengages individuals  from debates of importance. Which of these functions do you think is more powerful?

What is cultural capital? What, according to Bourdieu, is its significance in society? How is it accrued and how is it linked to the reproduction of social class?

The chapter presents an argument on the relationships among culture, mass media, and sexual violence with a discussion of the concept of a rape culture. Describe the argument. Do you agree or disagree with the argument? Explain your position

Sociologist George Ritzer sees within globalization two processes—“glocalization” and “grobalization.” What is the difference between the two? Which is, in your opinion, the more powerful process, and why do you believe this? Support your point with evidence.

What are agents of socialization? What agents of socialization do sociologists identify as particularly important?  Which of these would you say have the most profound effects on the construction of our social selves? Make a case to support your choices.

The United States is a country where sports are an important part of many people’s lives—many Americans enjoy playing sports, while others follow their favorite sports teams closely in the media. How are sports an agent of socialization? What roles, norms, or values are conveyed through this agent of socialization?

What role does the way people react to you play in the development of your personality and your self-image? How can the reactions of others influence whether or not you develop skills as an athlete or a student or a musician, for example?

Recall Goffman’s ideas about social interaction and the presentation of self. How have social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram affected the presentation of self? Have there been changes to what Goffman saw as our front and back stages?

What are the characteristics of total institutions such as prisons and mental institutions? How does socialization in a total institution differ from “ordinary” socialization?

This chapter began with a look at the Penn State child sex abuse scandal through the conceptual lens of groupthink. an you think of a time when a group to which you belonged was making a decision you thought was wrong—ethically,  legally, or otherwise—but you went along anyway? How do your experiences confirm or refute Janis’s characterization of groupthink and its effects?

List the primary and secondary groups of which you are a member, then make another list of the primary and secondary groups to which you belonged 5 years ago. Which groups in these two periods were most important for shaping (a) your view of yourself, (b) your political beliefs, (c) your goals in life, and (d) your friendships?

Think of a time when you chose to “go along to get along” with a group decision even when you were inclined to think or behave differently. Think of a time when you opted to dissent, choosing a path different from that pursued by your group or organization. How would you account for the different decisions? How might sociologists explain them?

What did Stanley Milgram seek to test in his human experiments at Yale University? What did he find? Do you think that a similar study today would find the same results? Why or why not?

Max Weber suggested that bureaucracy, while intended to maximize efficiency in tasks and organizations, could also be highly irrational. He coined the term the iron cage to talk about the web of rules and regulations he feared would ensnare modern societies and individuals. On one hand, societies create organizations that impose rules and regulations to maintain social order and foster the smooth working of institutions such as the state and the economy. On the other hand, members of society may often feel trapped and dehumanized by these organizations. Explain this paradox using an example of your own encounters with the “iron cage” of bureaucracy.

Measuring crime, including property crimes and violent crimes, can be challenging. Often, a single source is not enough to provide a comprehensive picture. What kinds of factors could affect the accuracy of statistics on the incidence of crime? How can a researcher overcome such problems to gain an accurate picture?

Labeling theories in the area of criminology suggest that labeling particular groups as deviant can set in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, people may become that which is expected of them—including becoming deviant or even criminally deviant. Can you think of other social settings where labeling theory might be applied?

Think about some theoretical explanations for why people commit crime—differential association, social control, labeling, and so on. You might conclude that they all make sense on an intuitive level. Yet there is contradictory evidence for each of these theories; that is, some data support each theory, and some data contradict it. What is the difference between seeing intuitive sense in a theory and testing it empirically?

Why, according to the chapter, has the rate of imprisonment risen in the United States since the 1980s? Why are a disproportionate number of prison inmates people of color?

 Why, according to sociologists, are the “crimes of the powerful” (politicians, businesspeople, and other elites) less likely to be severely punished than those of the poor, even when those crimes have mortal consequences?

What is the difference between wealth and income? Why is it sociologically important to make a distinction between the two? Which is greater in the United States today, the income gap or the wealth gap?

What are the key dimensions and trends related to income inequality in the United States today? What about wealth inequality? How would you expect these trends to evolve or change in the coming decade? Explain your reasoning.

 Herbert Gans talks about the “uses of poverty” for the non-poor. Recall some of his points presented in the chapter and then add some of your own. Would you agree with the argument Gans makes about the existence and persistence of poverty? Why or why not?

How is the poverty rate determined in the United States? What is the origin of this formula, and what are its strengths and weaknesses?

What is the difference between individual or household poverty and neighborhood poverty? Why is the distinction important? How does being poor in a poor neighborhood amplify the effects of economic disadvantage?

What is global inequality and what are key ways in which it is manifested? Aside from the aspects of inequality discussed in the chapter, what other aspects might sociologists want to look at?

Why do many of the world’s poorest countries also have the highest fertility rates? What sociological factors can be used to explain the correlation?

Can the mass adoption of modern technologies like mobile phones have an impact on poverty in developing countries? What does the chapter suggest? What other effects can you envision?

How do modernization theory, dependency theory, and world systems theory explain the existence and persistence of inequality between countries and regions? What are the strengths of these perspectives as analytical tools? What are their weaknesses?

What is meant by the term global elite? Who are the members of the global elite, and how do they differ from the upper class elites described in an earlier chapter?

If genetic differences between people who have different physical characteristics (like skin color) are minor, why do we as a society continue to use race as a socially significant category?

As noted in the chapter, racial residential segregation remains a key problem in the United States. What sociological factors explain its persistence in an era when housing discrimination is illegal?

What links have researchers identified between race and health outcomes in the United States? What sociological factors explain relatively poorer health among minorities than among Whites? How might public policy be used to address this problem?

Do you think immigration will continue to grow in coming decades in the United States? What kinds of factors might influence immigration trends?

What factors make communities vulnerable to genocide? How should other countries respond when genocide seems imminent or is already under way?

How does one “become” a man or a woman? Explain how the individual is socialized into a gender at the following life stages: early childhood, preteen years, adolescence, young adulthood, parenthood. Now consider the other gender. How is this socialization different?

Data show that more women than men enroll in and complete college. What are the key reasons for this? Be sure to distinguish between the issues of enrollment and completion and to consider how gender may (or may not) play a role.

Throughout the chapter, we learned about gender inequalities in institutions including the family, education, and the workplace. Think about another institution, such as religion, politics, or criminal justice. What kinds of research questions could we create to study gender inequality there?

There have been several waves of feminism, and women have gained a spectrum of legal rights and new opportunities. Is feminism as an ideology still needed in our society? Explain your answer.

Why is maternal mortality much higher in some developing countries than in more economically advanced countries? How might countries with high rates of maternal mortality address this problem effectively? How can the international community contribute to reducing the incidence of maternal mortality?

Why do people get married? Why do people not marry? Think about individual and sociological reasons. Link your answers to the discussion of marriage trends and the experience of marriage discussed in this chapter.

Recent data show some changes in the child-care practices of U.S. families. What do trends show? How do sociological factors help to explain the changes?

How does the case of deaf families with hearing children show the opportunities and challenges of family life characterized by different cultures? Can this case be compared to immigrant families with children? What similarities and differences can you identify?

Lareau’s research suggests that middle- and working class families have different child-rearing styles. How does she describe these styles? Why might the differences be sociologically significant?

Who is the “global woman”? What are the costs and benefits to women and families of a global labor market for care work?

What are some of the key reasons students drop out of college? How can identifying the sociological roots of the problem help us to develop effective policies to address it?

What do contemporary data show us about the relationship between family income and academic achievement, as measured by variables like educational attainment or SAT scores? How do sociologists explain the relationship? What are strengths and weaknesses of their arguments?

What is the current state of racial segregation in U.S. public schools? How has it changed since the civil rights era of the 1960s? What sociological factors help explain high levels of racial segregation in schools?

What historical factors help explain the organization of the modern school day in the United States? Should the school day be reorganized to meet new societal needs? What might a new school day look like?

What is the role of internships in higher education today? Who benefits from the growth in students’ participation in internships? How can internships be structured to maximize student knowledge and employability?

How do classical sociologists theorize the role of religion in society? Compare and contrast the views of Durkheim and Marx.

If religion serves as a source of stability, as functionalists claim, does that mean that a nation of atheists would be less stable than a nation of religious believers? Make a sociological case to support your position.

Consider the issues related to women and religion raised in this chapter. Where societal norms are increasingly progressive but dominant religious doctrines are traditional, which one might be reasonably expected to change? Explain your reasoning.

What are the key characteristics of the current generational shift in religious affiliation in the United States? How might sociologists explain this shift? Do you believe it will continue? Explain your reasoning.

Describe the role of religion in U.S. politics today. Has the role of religion in politics changed in recent years or decades? Considering trends in religious affiliation, might we expect it to change in the near future?

In this chapter, you learned about theories of state power. Would you say that U.S. governance today is characterized more by pluralism or by the concentration of power in the hands of an elite? Cite evidence supporting your belief.

What is authoritarianism? What potential roles do modern technology and social media play in either supporting or challenging authoritarian governments around the world?

The chapter raised the issue of low voting rates for young people. Recall the reasons given in the chapter and then think about whether you can add others. Do most of the young people you know participate in elections? What kinds of factors might explain their participation or nonparticipation?

What are the manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions of war? Review the points made in the chapter. Can you add some of your own?

What is terrorism? How should this term be defined and by whom? Should domestic incidents of mass violence be labeled terrorism, or should the term be reserved for international incidents?

How is unemployment in the United States measured? What aspects of this phenomenon does the unemployment rate measure and what aspects does it fail to capture?

How have U.S. manufacturing jobs changed since the 1970s? What were key characteristics of those jobs in the middle of the 20th century and what are key characteristics today? How is the change socially significant?

What are the main differences between the formal economy and the informal economy? What are the similarities? What sociological factors explain the existence of the informal economy in the United States?

What are the main characteristics of a socialist economic system? Where have such systems been found in recent history? What are their strengths and weaknesses?

What sociological factors explain the dramatic rise of consumer debt in the United States over the past three to four decades? Why should this be of concern to society and to policy makers?

What is the sick role as defined by sociologist Erving Goffman? What are our expectations of the ill in contemporary U.S. society? Do the responsibilities of the sick role vary by community or culture?

The chapter discussed the argument that some addictions are “medicalized” while others are “criminalized.” What is the difference? How might we explain why different addictions are labeled and approached in varying ways?

African Americans and Latinos in the United States experience worse health and higher mortality rates than their White and Asian American counterparts. What sociological factors help to explain this health gap?

The chapter looked at cigarettes and smoking through a sociological lens. Recall how we applied the functionalist and conflict perspectives to this topic, and try applying those perspectives to junk food, such as soda, candy, and fast food.

How is HIV/AIDS a sociological issue as well as a medical one? What are key sociological roots of the spread of this disease in communities and countries?

What key factors have contributed to the decline of population growth in many modern countries? What are the benefits and consequences of fertility declines?

Do populations stop growing when fertility declines to replacement rate fertility (a total fertility rate of 2.1)? Explain your answer.

As you saw in the chapter, urbanization continues to increase across the globe. What draws populations to cities? What sociological factors point to this trend continuing?

What is the global consumer class? What are the global costs and benefits to the expansion of this group

Are economic growth and environmental protection irreconcilable values? Consider that you have read both in earlier chapters about economic growth and employment and in this chapter about environmental challenges such as climate change, and respond thoughtfully to the question.

Consider what you have learned about social movements and social change in this chapter. How is the global expansion of social media likely to change how people pursue social change? How has it done so already?

Under what kinds of societal conditions do movements for social change seem to emerge? Describe a societal context that has brought about or could bring about the development of such a movement.

How do fads differ from fashions? Offer some examples of each, and consider whether and how setting phenomena in these different categories can shed light on their roots and functions.

What are the different types of social movements identified by sociologists? What characteristics are used to differentiate these types?

Design a social movement. What problem or issue would you want to address? How would you overcome the problems of social movements that were identified in this chapter?