Week 8 · Module overview

Week 8 — Midterm Review & Exam

Introduction to Sociology Free sample edition

Why this matters

A nursing student hearing someone in their care blame themselves for a lost job and a business major reading a rising poverty rate both face this week's question: one person, or the whole society?

In plain language

This week you look back at the first seven weeks and see how they fit together. Each topic so far turns on one key distinction, such as a private trouble versus a public issue, or income versus wealth. You also learn one new habit, the level-of-analysis habit (three questions you ask of any pattern and any explanation of it). It asks whether a pattern belongs to a whole society or one face-to-face moment, whether an explanation points at choices or at how society is arranged, and whether a group figure is pinned on one person. That habit carries you into the second half of the course, where the topics turn to inequality and institutions.

Already covered: the imagination, methods, culture, the self, groups, deviance, and class (Weeks 1 to 7).
This week: one distinction per week, the level-of-analysis habit, and the midterm.
How they connect: the habit grows from Week 1's macro and micro levels.
Where we're going next: Week 9, Global Inequality, carries the habit worldwide.

Focus

What one distinction does each topic ask for, and is a figure about one person or a whole society?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

[ ] name and apply the key distinction from each of Weeks 1 to 7
[ ] sort an explanation as individual or structural
[ ] spot the ecological fallacy in a claim about one person

To-do

Plan your week

Read Chapter 8 (about 35 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
Do the practice set (about 20 minutes) and the discussion (about 45 minutes).
Use the study guide and practice exam, then take the midterm.

This week's checkpoint: run the three habit questions on one course figure.

You've got this

You have done this work already. Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com