Week 8 · Study guide

Midterm Study Guide · Weeks 1–7 (Objectives 1–5)

Introduction to Sociology · SOC 1 Fall 2026 · Prof. Adeyemi Fictional sample

Course: Introduction to Sociology (SOC 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Adeyemi
This is a student-facing review page. Read it, work the fresh practice, and follow the dated plan. Then run the paired Exam-Prep Tutorial and take the Practice Exam for active recall. (This guide points to those two — it does not repeat them.)

Integrity note for students. Every practice item on this page is a fresh variant — a new scenario and wording — with a vetted answer. None of these are the live midterm questions. Working them builds the skill the midterm tests, the honest way. The midterm itself is closed-book; AI is not permitted on it — the prep tools (this guide, the tutorial, the practice exam) are for getting ready.

What the midterm covers (read this first)


Exam	Midterm — cumulative, Weeks 1–7, Objectives 1–5
Format	20 items, 100 points. Concept- and scenario-based: most items hand you a short situation and ask you to name the concept, pick the right lens, classify the term, or judge a claim — sociology has no arithmetic (its quantitative work is reading data as interpretation). Expect a mix of multiple-choice, two matching items, a couple of "select all that apply," and true/false.
Coverage (where the points are)	Obj 1 = 4 items (the imagination & three perspectives) · Obj 2 = 3 items (research methods & reading social data) · Obj 3 = 4 items (culture & socialization) · Obj 4 = 5 items (interaction, groups & organizations; deviance) · Obj 5 = 4 items (stratification & class). Objective 4 is the biggest slice — study structure & deviance hardest.
Weight	The midterm is 20% of your course grade.
When it opens / where	Opens in the Week 8 module (the review-and-exam week). The exam window and the room/timing are posted with the exam itself in Canvas; this guide and the exam-prep tutorial post before it so you can prepare. There is no weekly quiz, assignment, or Workshop in Week 8 — the midterm replaces them (Discussion 8, the midterm debrief, still runs).
Rules	Closed-book; no AI. Bring your understanding. The AI Exam-Prep Tutorial is for prep, not the exam. Build the one-page concept sheet this guide helps you make (key terms, the misconception-cures, the founder/theorist list, the "classify it" frameworks).

How to use this guide. Each objective below has the same four parts: (A) the key ideas in plain language, (B) the definitions / terms / theorists, (C) the predictable mistakes and their cures, and (D) where to review in the module. After all five objectives come fresh worked examples + self-check questions (with answers), a dated study plan, and how it's graded + test strategy.

Objective 1 — The Sociological Imagination & the Three Perspectives (Week 1) · 4 items

(A) Key ideas, plain language

Sociology is the systematic study of society, social behavior, and social structure — it zooms out to groups, institutions, and patterns, where psychology zooms in to the individual. What makes it a science is its reliance on evidence, not "common sense" (which is full of contradictory sayings). Its core skill, named by C. Wright Mills, is the sociological imagination: connecting personal troubles (private, individual) to public issues (shared, structural). And it carries three lenses for any phenomenon — function, conflict, interaction — which are complementary, not rivals.

(B) Definitions, terms, theorists

Sociology = the systematic study of society, social behavior, and social structure (the recurring, patterned arrangements — family, economy, class — that exist before you arrive and channel your choices).
Sociological imagination (Mills, 1959) = the capacity to connect personal troubles ↔ public issues. One person unemployed = trouble; a 10% unemployment rate = issue. It is a skill, not one of the three theories.
The three perspectives: structural-functionalism (macro — society as interconnected parts each serving a function; ask what holds society together?) · conflict theory (macro — society as competition over scarce resources; ask who benefits, who loses, where's the power?; roots in Marx) · symbolic interactionism (micro — society built from everyday interaction and meaning; Mead, Cooley, Blumer, Goffman).
The founders (named factually): Durkheim (architect of functionalism; social facts; Suicide, 1897) · Marx (conflict; class conflict, alienation) · Weber (rationalization; verstehen — interpretive understanding) · Du Bois (the color line, double consciousness; The Philadelphia Negro, 1899). (Comte coined the word "sociology.")
Macro vs. micro = big-structure view vs. face-to-face view.

(C) Predictable mistakes → cures

❌ "The three perspectives are rivals — one is right." → ✅ They're levels of analysis; ask what each reveals. Function (glue) · Conflict (power) · Interaction (meaning).
❌ Calls the sociological imagination one of the perspectives. → ✅ It's a skill (troubles ↔ issues), distinct from the three theories.
❌ Credits conflict theory to Durkheim. → ✅ Conflict = Marx; functionalism/social facts = Durkheim.
❌ Confuses sociology and psychology. → ✅ Sociology = the group/structure level; psychology = the individual level.

(D) Review in the module

Week 1 → Lecture Outline (the definition, troubles vs. issues, the three perspectives, the founders), Slides (Deck 1), Readings, and Lecture Tutorial 1.

Objective 2 — Research Methods & Reading Social Data (Week 2) · 3 items

(A) Key ideas, plain language

To move past opinion, sociologists design studies — and the design decides what you may conclude. Only an experiment (with control + random assignment) can support a cause-and-effect claim; surveys, field research, and existing-data analysis reveal patterns and meaning but can't, alone, prove cause. You also have to read social data honestly: what it measures, over what population, what it shows and doesn't, and — the load-bearing rule — correlation ≠ causation.

(B) Definitions, terms, procedures

The methods: survey (standardized questions to a sample) · experiment (manipulate a variable under control, often with random assignment → the design that can establish cause) · field research / ethnography (participant observation; meaning from the inside) · secondary / existing-data analysis (records gathered by others — e.g., Durkheim's suicide statistics).
Operational definition = turning an abstract concept into a concrete, measurable indicator.
Reliability vs. validity: reliable = consistent/repeatable; valid = actually measures what it claims. A scale always 5 lbs high is reliable but not valid.
Population vs. sample; sampling: a random (probability) sample lets you generalize within a margin of error. Representativeness beats size — a huge self-selected poll is still biased (sampling bias).
Correlation ≠ causation. Two blockers: a third (confounding) variable that drives both (a spurious correlation), and the direction of the arrow. To claim cause, you need an experiment.
Research ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, and review by an IRB (Institutional Review Board).

(C) Predictable mistakes → cures

❌ "Strong correlation, so X causes Y." → ✅ Ask was anything randomly assigned? If not, it's a link — hunt the third variable.
❌ "A bigger sample is always better." → ✅ Representativeness > size; a biased big sample still misleads.
❌ Confuses reliability and validity. → ✅ Reliable = consistent; valid = on-target.
❌ A self-selected poll generalizes. → ✅ It doesn't — only a random/representative sample does.

(D) Review in the module

Week 2 → Lecture Outline (the methods, operationalization, reliability/validity, sampling, correlation vs. causation, ethics), Slides (Deck 2), Readings, and Lecture Tutorial 2. (Every weekly Workshop also drills the read-the-data move.)

Objective 3 — Culture & Socialization (Weeks 3–4) · 4 items

(A) Key ideas, plain language

Culture is everything a society makes and shares — its material objects and its nonmaterial values, norms, and language. Socialization is the lifelong process of learning that culture and developing a self — and it happens through interaction (nature and nurture, not either/or). Two thinkers anchor the self: Cooley (we see ourselves through others' imagined eyes) and Mead (the self develops by role-taking).

(B) Definitions, terms, theorists

Material vs. nonmaterial culture: physical objects (tools, buildings, phones) vs. intangibles (values, beliefs, norms, language).
Values vs. norms: values are abstract standards of what's desirable ("hard work is good"); norms are concrete rules for behavior. Norms come in folkways (etiquette; mild reaction), mores (strong moral weight; serious condemnation), and taboos (the strongest). Sanctions reward or punish.
Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism: judging another culture by your own standards vs. understanding it on its own terms. (Culture shock = disorientation; cultural lag = nonmaterial culture trailing material change, Ogburn.)
Subculture vs. counterculture: keeps its own style but accepts core values vs. actively rejects/opposes them.
Socialization & the self: Cooley's looking-glass self = a self-image built from how we imagine others see and judge us. Mead's stages of the self by role-taking: imitation → play → game, ending in the generalized other (society's broad internalized expectations); Mead also distinguished the spontaneous "I" and the socialized "me." Goffman's total institutions (prisons, boot camps) resocialize a person. Agents of socialization: family, school, peers, media, religion, workplace.

(C) Predictable mistakes → cures

❌ Confuses folkways and mores. → ✅ Mores carry moral weight (theft); folkways are etiquette (pajamas to an interview).
❌ Confuses norms and values. → ✅ Values = abstract standards; norms = concrete rules.
❌ Confuses ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. → ✅ Ethnocentrism judges by your own culture; relativism understands on its own terms.
❌ Swaps Cooley's looking-glass self and Mead's generalized other. → ✅ Cooley = imagined judgment of me; Mead = society's broad expectations (after imitation→play→game).

(D) Review in the module

Week 3 → Lecture Outline (material/nonmaterial, values/norms, ethnocentrism/relativism, subculture/counterculture), Slides (Deck 3), Lecture Tutorial 3. Week 4 → Lecture Outline (socialization, Cooley, Mead's stages & generalized other, total institutions), Slides (Deck 4), Lecture Tutorial 4.

Objective 4 — Interaction, Groups, Organizations & Deviance (Weeks 5–6) · 5 items — STUDY HARDEST

(A) Key ideas, plain language

This is the structure people move through every day — the statuses they hold, the roles those statuses carry, the groups they belong to, and the organizations that run modern life — plus how societies define and respond to deviance. It's the biggest slice of the exam (5 items), and deviance is sociology's signature three-perspective topic.

(B) Definitions, terms, theorists

Interaction, groups & organizations (Week 5):
- Status = a social position: ascribed (given, not earned — born into it) vs. achieved (earned); a master status overrides the others.
- Role = the behavior expected of a status. Role conflict = tension between two roles; role strain = tension within one role. Role exit = leaving a role.
- The social construction of reality (Berger & Luckmann) and the Thomas theorem ("if people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences").
- Goffman's dramaturgy = social life as performance: front stage (the polished public self) vs. back stage (where we drop it) — impression management.
- Groups: primary (close, emotional, face-to-face — family) vs. secondary (large, impersonal, goal-oriented); in-group/out-group; reference groups.
- Weber's bureaucracy (ideal type): hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, technical competence, division of labor. Ritzer's McDonaldization: efficiency, calculability, predictability, control.

Deviance & social control (Week 6):
- Deviance is relative (varies by time, place, culture) and deviance ≠ crime (not all norm-breaking is illegal).
- Functionalist (Durkheim): a limited amount of deviance is normal and functional — it reaffirms norms and can spur change. Merton's strain theory: deviance from a gap between cultural goals and legitimate means (conformity / innovation / ritualism / retreatism / rebellion).
- Conflict: the powerful define what counts as deviant.
- Interactionist: labeling theory (Becker) — deviance is in society's response; a label can push primary → secondary deviance. Differential association (Sutherland) — deviance is learned from others.
- Reading crime data: UCR (FBI; crimes reported to police) vs. NCVS (BJS; a victimization survey) — the two can diverge because much crime goes unreported.

(C) Predictable mistakes → cures

❌ Confuses ascribed and achieved status. → ✅ Ascribed = given at birth; achieved = earned.
❌ Confuses role conflict and role strain. → ✅ Conflict = between two roles; strain = within one role.
❌ Confuses primary and secondary groups. → ✅ Primary = close/personal; secondary = large/impersonal/goal-oriented.
❌ "All deviance is crime." → ✅ Deviance is broader — only some of it is illegal.
❌ Swaps labeling and differential association. → ✅ Labeling = the response/label; differential association = learned from others.
❌ "A rise in reported crime always means more crime." → ✅ Reported counts depend on reporting (UCR vs. NCVS) — a reporting artifact, not necessarily more crime.

(D) Review in the module

Week 5 → Lecture Outline (status & role, the Thomas theorem, dramaturgy, groups, bureaucracy & McDonaldization), Slides (Deck 5), Lecture Tutorial 5. Week 6 → Lecture Outline (deviance is relative, Durkheim/Merton, conflict, labeling/differential association, reading crime data), Slides (Deck 6), Lecture Tutorial 6.

Objective 5 — Social Stratification & Class (Week 7) · 4 items

(A) Key ideas, plain language

Stratification is a society's system of ranking categories of people into a hierarchy with unequal resources — a feature of society, not just individual luck. The crucial move is telling income (a flow) from wealth (a stock), and weighing the two big theories — Davis-Moore (functionalist) vs. the conflict view — without simply decreeing which is right.

(B) Definitions, terms, theorists

Stratification systems: caste (closed — rank ascribed at birth, fixed) vs. class (open — based on economic position, in principle changeable). (Also slavery, estate.)
Income vs. wealth (the crucial distinction): income = a flow (money received over a period — wages); wealth = a stock (assets minus debts — what you own minus what you owe). Wealth is far more unequally distributed.
Class models: Marx — two classes by relation to the means of production (owners vs. workers). Weber — multidimensional: class (economic), status (prestige), party (power); shapes life chances.
Theories of stratification: Davis-Moore thesis (functionalist — unequal rewards motivate talented people to fill important, hard-to-fill positions) vs. the conflict view (stratification = exploitation and the reproduction of advantage).
Meritocracy = the idea that rewards track effort/talent. Sociologists treat it as a contested idea — possibly real in part, but also a legitimating ideology that can make inequality feel deserved. Weigh it against the mobility data (intergenerational / intragenerational / structural).
Poverty: absolute vs. relative; the poverty line.

(C) Predictable mistakes → cures

❌ Treats income and wealth as the same. → ✅ Income = a flow (earned); wealth = a stock (owned minus owed).
❌ Confuses caste and class. → ✅ Caste = closed/ascribed; class = open/economic.
❌ Confuses absolute and relative poverty. → ✅ Absolute = a fixed minimum; relative = relative to the society's standard.
❌ Treats meritocracy as simply true (or simply false). → ✅ It's contested — present Davis-Moore and conflict, and weigh the mobility data.

(D) Review in the module

Week 7 → Lecture Outline (stratification, caste vs. class, income vs. wealth, Marx & Weber, Davis-Moore vs. conflict, meritocracy as ideology), Slides (Deck 7), Lecture Tutorial 7.

Representative practice (all fresh — vetted answers)

None of these are live midterm items. New scenarios, new wording. Each answer is vetted; the one-line why names the idea it tests. Cover the answers, work each one, then check.

Objective 1 practice

Worked example 1 — troubles vs. issues + the right lens.
A city's homelessness has climbed sharply after rents doubled and several shelters closed.
- (a) Is this best read as a personal trouble or a public issue? (b) A sociologist who asks "who profits from high rents, and who loses?" is using which perspective?
Answer. (a) A public issue — a society-wide pattern with structural causes (rents, housing policy), not millions of separate personal failings. (b) Conflict theory (who benefits / where's the power). Why: rates and structures = issues; "who benefits" = conflict.

Worked example 2 — founders + the imagination as a skill.
A classmate says, "Durkheim is the father of conflict theory, and the sociological imagination is one of the perspectives."
- (a) Fix both errors. (b) What did Durkheim actually contribute?
Answer. (a) Marx is the wellspring of conflict theory; the sociological imagination is a skill (Mills), not a perspective. (b) Durkheim = functionalism and social facts (Suicide, 1897). Why: keep the founders and the skill-vs-theory line straight.

Self-check (Obj 1).
1. True/false: sociology and psychology work at the same level of analysis. → False — sociology = group/structure; psychology = the individual.
2. Which perspective is micro? → Symbolic interactionism.
3. Who coined the word "sociology"? → Auguste Comte.
4. Du Bois is known for which two concepts? → The color line and double consciousness.

Objective 2 practice

Worked example 1 — method + what you can conclude.
A researcher wants to know whether a mentoring program causes better attendance. She compares students who chose to join with those who didn't, and the joiners attend more.
- (a) What kind of study is this, and can she claim cause? (b) What design would let her?
Answer. (a) It's correlational/observational (no random assignment) — a link, not cause; motivated students may self-select into mentoring. (b) An experiment that randomly assigns students to mentoring or not. Why: only random assignment licenses a causal claim.

Worked example 2 — reading a statistic honestly.
A report says a country's median household income rose one year.
- (a) Does a median tell you the average of the richest households? (b) Does a one-year rise prove every household gained, or that one policy caused it?
Answer. (a) No — a median is the middle value (half above, half below), not the top. (b) No on both — it's a single summary figure; it doesn't show the spread, who gained, or the cause. Why: read what a figure shows and what it doesn't.

Self-check (Obj 2).
1. A scale always 4 oz heavy is — → Reliable but not valid.
2. Which generalizes to a population: a random sample or a self-selected one? → A random (probability) sample.
3. A study using existing government records is which method? → Secondary / existing-data analysis.
4. Two trends rise together; before claiming cause, hunt the — → Third (confounding) variable.

Objective 3 practice

Worked example 1 — culture terms.
At a stadium: the printed tickets and jerseys; the unwritten rule to stand for the anthem; the belief that the home team deserves loyalty; quietly cutting in the concession line drawing only annoyed looks.
- (a) Which are material vs. nonmaterial? (b) Is the line-cutting a folkway or a more?
Answer. (a) Material: tickets, jerseys. Nonmaterial: the standing norm, the loyalty value. (b) A folkway — mild annoyance, no moral outrage. Why: objects vs. intangibles; folkways = low moral weight.

Worked example 2 — Cooley vs. Mead.
A kid who used to just mimic a parent can now run a pretend "school," playing teacher, student, and principal at once and following the whole game's rules.
- (a) Which Mead stage is this? (b) If instead the child felt proud because she imagined her teacher admired her, which concept is that?
Answer. (a) The game stage (coordinating many roles → the generalized other). (b) Cooley's looking-glass self (self-feeling from imagined judgment). Why: Mead = role-taking stages; Cooley = imagined judgment.

Self-check (Obj 3).
1. The English language is material or nonmaterial culture? → Nonmaterial.
2. Judging another culture's food as "weird and wrong" by your own standard is — → Ethnocentrism.
3. A group that rejects and opposes mainstream values is a — → Counterculture.
4. Mead's stage order is — → Imitation → play → game.

Objective 4 practice — big section; work all of these

Worked example 1 — status & role.
A new head nurse is expected to be a warm mentor to her team yet also enforce strict rules on the same people; separately, she struggles to balance the nurse role with being a parent at home.
- (a) The within-the-nurse-role tension is what? (b) The nurse-vs-parent tension is what?
Answer. (a) Role strain (within one role). (b) Role conflict (between two roles). Why: within = strain; between = conflict.

Worked example 2 — organizations.
A coffee chain scripts every greeting, times every drink, tracks per-store sales targets, and monitors staff by camera.
- (a) Which Ritzer concept, and its four elements? (b) Name two features that would make it a Weberian bureaucracy.
Answer. (a) McDonaldization — efficiency, calculability, predictability, control. (b) Any two of: hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, technical competence, division of labor. Why: Ritzer's 4 + Weber's ideal type.

Worked example 3 — deviance, three lenses.
A town debates why graffiti is up.
- (a) A functionalist (Durkheim) might say deviance can be... ? (b) A conflict theorist asks... ? (c) A labeling theorist (Becker) focuses on... ?
Answer. (a) Normal and even functional — it can clarify norms and spur change. (b) Who has the power to define graffiti as deviant, and whose interests that serves. (c) The label applied and how it can deepen deviance (primary → secondary). Why: the signature three-perspective contrast.

Worked example 4 — reading crime data.
A city's reported assaults rose the same year it added a tip line urging people to report.
- (a) Can you conclude crime rose? (b) Which two measures help, and how do they differ?
Answer. (a) Not from this alone — the rise may be a reporting artifact. (b) UCR counts crimes reported to police; the NCVS asks people directly whether they were victimized — so the two can diverge. Why: reported ≠ actual; correlation ≠ causation.

Self-check (Obj 4).
1. "Convicted felon" overriding all of a person's other statuses is a — → Master status.
2. Front-stage vs. back-stage behavior is whose idea? → Goffman (dramaturgy).
3. Deviance that is learned from close associates is — → Differential association (Sutherland).
4. Is wearing pajamas to a formal dinner deviant, criminal, both, or neither? → Deviant but not criminal (deviance ≠ crime).

Objective 5 practice — work all of these

Worked example 1 — income vs. wealth.
Two coworkers earn the same $60,000. One owns a paid-off condo and $120,000 in investments; the other rents and owes $40,000.
- (a) Are they equal in income? (b) In wealth? (c) Which concept is a flow and which a stock?
Answer. (a) Yes — equal income. (b) No — very different wealth. (c) Income = flow; wealth = stock (assets minus debts). Why: the crucial distinction.

Worked example 2 — the central theory debate.
- (a) A sociologist says high pay for surgeons motivates talented people into a hard, vital job. (b) Another says the wealthy rig the rules to keep their advantage. Name each view.
Answer. (a) The Davis-Moore thesis (functionalist). (b) The conflict view. Why: the central stratification contrast.

Worked example 3 — meritocracy.
A pundit says "anyone who works hard makes it." A sociologist replies that this belief can make inequality feel deserved.
- (a) What is the sociologist treating meritocracy as? (b) How should you weigh the claim?
Answer. (a) A legitimating ideology. (b) Present both the Davis-Moore and conflict arguments and weigh the documented mobility data — don't simply decree it true or false. Why: evenhanded, evidence-grounded.

Self-check (Obj 5).
1. A closed system where rank is fixed at birth is — → Caste.
2. A revered but cash-poor elder is high in which Weber dimension? → Status (prestige).
3. The value of what you own minus what you owe is — → Wealth.
4. A median household income figure measures income or wealth? → Income (a flow), not wealth.

Study plan — a dated countdown (sized to 2 sessions/week)

Built for the Week 8 midterm. Adjust the exact dates to your section's posted exam day; the rhythm is what matters. Do a little across several days rather than one long cram (spacing beats massing).

When	Do this (≈45–75 min)
~7 days out (Week 7, after class)	Read this guide's Objectives 1–2 sections. Work the Obj 1 & 2 practice. Build your one-page concept sheet (the three perspectives + level; the founders; the methods; reliability vs. validity; correlation ≠ causation).
~5 days out	Read Objectives 3 and 4 carefully (9 of 20 items). Work the Obj 3 & 4 worked examples and self-checks (culture terms, Cooley vs. Mead, status & role, the three deviance lenses, reading crime data). Re-derive any you missed.
~3 days out	Read Objective 5 and work its practice (income vs. wealth, Davis-Moore vs. conflict, meritocracy). Then run the paired Exam-Prep Tutorial (`N-exam-prep-tutorial-week-08`) in an approved chatbot (Gemini / Claude / ChatGPT) — it diagnoses your weak spots across the whole midterm and drills them with fresh items.
~2 days out	Take the Practice Exam (the paired `O-practice-exam-week-08`) under timed, closed-note conditions. Score it; list every concept you missed.
~1 day out	Re-teach only the topics you missed on the practice exam (use this guide's mistake-cures and the relevant Lecture Tutorial). Re-do those specific self-checks.
Exam day	Skim your one-page concept sheet. Read each item twice and answer the question actually asked. Closed-book, no AI.

Two paired tools — use both (don't skip):
- Exam-Prep Tutorial (N-exam-prep-tutorial-week-08) — a copy/paste chatbot tutor that diagnoses, re-teaches, and drills you across all of Objectives 1–5, ending with a readiness summary. Best for active recall and shoring up weak spots.
- Practice Exam (O-practice-exam-week-08) — a full, fresh, mirror-format run. Best for pacing and a final readiness check.

(This guide points to both on purpose — it doesn't duplicate them.)

How the midterm is graded + test-taking strategy

How it's graded.
- 100 points across 20 items, 5 points each, weighted toward application (read a scenario, name the concept or the lens) rather than bare recitation. The matching and "select all that apply" items are scored per correct pairing/selection.
- The midterm is 20% of your course grade. It replaces Week 8's quiz, assignment, and Workshop (the midterm-debrief Discussion 8 still runs).
- Coverage matches this guide: Obj 1 = 4 · Obj 2 = 3 · Obj 3 = 4 · Obj 4 = 5 · Obj 5 = 4. Time is heaviest on Objective 4 (structure & deviance), so practice those until the vocabulary is automatic.

Honest test-taking strategies for this material.
1. Translate each scenario into its concept first. Underline the cue words — rate vs. one person, between vs. within, given vs. earned, flow vs. stock — then match the term.
2. For perspective items, name the question each lens asks: function (what holds it together?), conflict (who benefits?), interaction (what does it mean?). And remember the imagination is a skill, not a lens.
3. For status/role items, ask between or within: between two roles = conflict; within one role = strain. Ascribed = given; achieved = earned.
4. For culture items, sort moral weight: folkway (etiquette) vs. more (moral). Object = material; idea/value/norm/language = nonmaterial.
5. For deviance items, place the lens: functional (Durkheim), strain (Merton), label (Becker), learned (Sutherland). And deviance ≠ crime.
6. For stratification, separate income from wealth: flow vs. stock. Caste = closed; class = open. Treat meritocracy as contested.
7. Don't over-claim causation. If a study only measured (no random assignment), the answer is "association / third variable," not "X causes Y." And don't over-read a single statistic.
8. Do the easy items first, flag the hard ones, and budget time — 20 items in the period means a few minutes each.
9. On "select all that apply," judge each option independently — some distractors (a self-selected poll "generalizes"; bureaucracy runs on "family ties") are designed to look plausible but are wrong.

Canvas placement block

canvas_object   = Page
title           = "Midterm Study Guide — Weeks 1–7 (Objectives 1–5)"
module          = "Week 8 — Midterm Review & Exam"
grading_type    = not_graded
available_from  = 2026-10-17      # posts before the Week 8 exam window opens
published       = true
provenance      = "~ Prof. Adeyemi's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"

Term-update note: each term's $39 update regenerates fresh practice variants from this same scope — the live midterm is never reproduced here.

The per-term $39 update (fresh assessment variants, re-paced to your next calendar) referenced above is on the roadmap — coming soon. Today's download is yours to keep, but it doesn't refresh itself.

~ Prof. Adeyemi's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com