Study Guide Final Exam Sociology 3701

I. Multiple choice: experiment, laboratory experiment, field experiment, random assignment, treatment and control groups, experimental control, cognitive dissonance theory, confirmation bias, interrogations: Reid Technique, Kassin and Fong experiment, initiation effect, pyramid of choice, social implosion, Stark/Loflund conversion model, stigma, discredited vs discreditable, normals and stigmatized, allies, "the wise," moral career, naive realism, identity norms,normal and mixed situations, abominations of the body, normal deviance, moral career, double consciousness, tact, social movements and social realities, Snow and Anderson: salvaging the self, gay and lesbian liberation movement, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, postmodernism, deconstructionism, mindful (re)construction of reality, ossification, authenticity, cultural scripts, revolution of rising expectations, double consciousness, "passing" vs. "coming out,"
Videos: "Anybody's Son Will Do ,""The Fog of War," "Mask," "The Power of 504," "After Stonewall"

II. Essay questions. As usual, the key to a good essay will be your ability to support your arguments with course materials.
1. One of the officers in "Anybody's Son Will Do," suggests that basic training provides recruits with the means for "building a marine." Discuss the changes that recruits experience, using both cognitive dissonance theory and symbolic interactionism.

2. One of the most important social psychological aspects of stigma is the effect it has one someone's self and identity. What are some of the strategies individuals with stigmas use to resist or minimize such effects, and what might be the advantages of a social movement strategy.

3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of experiment as a means of developing theories in social psychology? Give examples relating to the development of cognitive dissonance theory.

4. In "Wrestling the Angel of Contradiction," O'Brien shows the special challenges that gay and lesbian Christians face in meeting the identity norms of both groups (Christians, as well as the gay and lesbian subculture). Draw both on her article and the video, "After Stonewall," to clarify some of the choices and challenges that gays and lesbians in the United States face in terms of the social construction of identity.

5. Social movements focus on changing the world (the reconstruction of social reality) but in the process they may have just as much impact in terms of changing the people making the movement (the reconstruction of self); draw on course materials to illustrate this point.

6. Cognitive dissonance theory suggests how difficult it is to acknowledge errors we have made and also some of the ways in which violence spirals into more violence. Apply both of those dynamics to the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. How does Robert McNamara at age 85 manage to avoid that self-justifying dynamic (or does he?) .

7. Goffman suggests that the main responsibility for managing "mixed situations" usually lies wit the person who has a stigma, rather than with the "normals." At the same time, he also points to the help that may be provided by "allies." Illustrate those dynamics drawing on the video, "Mask."

8. Using cognitive dissonance theory, show what is likely to happen when we we have treated someone badly, whether on the playground, in the criminal justice system, or in the relations of nations. Also consider how we can reduce negative effects of cognitive dissonance.