Part I: Essay Questions
1. Discuss the relationship between classical and contemporary sociological/social theories.
2. Explain how Robert K. Merton reconstructed structural functionalism.
3. Outline the fundamental features of Middle Range Theories.
4. Discuss the cause of deviance and its multiple forms.
5. Explain Merton’s typology of the patterns of prejudice and discrimination.
6. Outline the fundamentals themes in Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory.
7. What are total institutions and in what sense do they differ from civil society?
8. How does exchange theory differ from symbolic interactionism?
Part II: Concepts
Robert K. Merton
Structural Functionalism; Parsons and Merton; Functional Analysis; Grand Theory; Protestant Pietism; Middle Range Theories; Dysfunction; Manifest and Latent Functions; Functional Alternatives; Anomie and Deviance; Conformity; Innovation; Ritualism; Retreatism; Rebellion; Self-fulfilling Prophesy; Scientific and Democratic Ethos; The Mathew Effect; Status Sets and Role Sets; Opportunity Structures; Anticipatory Socialization; Reference Groups
Erving Goffman
Goffman and Symbolic Interactionism; Definition of the situation; Goffman; Durkheim, Radcliff-Brown and W. Lloyd Warner; Dramaturgy; Presentation of the Self (Book); Demeanor; Deference; Gender Advertisement; Impression Management; Front and Back Stages; Team; Two-selves Thesis (performer and character); Total Institutions; Analytical Ethnography; Civil Death; Situational Withdrawal; Intransigent Line; Colonization; Conversion
Peter Berger, & Luckman
Lifeworld; Bracketting; Intersubjectivity; Stocks of Knowledge; Recipes and Typifications; Habituation; Institutionalization; Externalization, Objectification; Reification; Internalization; Primary Socialization; Secondary Socialization; Cost; Elementary Social Behavior; Distributive Justice; Power; Imbalanced Exchange; Extrinsic Rewards, Intrinsic Rewards