Friday, February 4, 2011

Mid term questions



Mmmm.  Doughnuts.




Complete and turn in your exam BEFORE noon on Monday. 


You are free to use your notes and discuss questions with your classmates.  However, you must write your own answers.  srsly!

Type your answers on Google Docs or Microsoft word before you submit them. 

Once they are all written, then open the quiz and copy and paste them into the following Google Form. SUBMIT ONLY ONCE. 

The ideal answers are logically complete but short and succinct.  Make sure you use your own examples (not the ones from lecture).



Click the link at the bottom of this post when you are ready to upload your answers. 


1.    Symbolic interactionism compared to exchange theory,  10 points
What are the roles of the self and the mind in Symbolic Interaction theory?   Explain how this approach is different from exchange theory.
2.   Creation of norms, 10 points
How are norms created?  Explain how externalities and sanctions give rise to norms.
3.   Beer pong, 10 points
Pretend that you are talking with some friends at a party.  You point out that they might catch a cold or worse from playing beer pong.   Use your understanding social networks, concurrency and social science research to explain the potential role of beer pong in the spread of communicable diseases.  
4.   Surveys,  10 points
How did Moot's success at becoming the most influential person of the year illustrate problems in many online surveys?  How do stratified random samples overcome these problems?
moot example:
5.   Social production:   25 points.   This question has three parts
a.Explain what Shirky means by “social production” and use some of Ostrom’s arguments to explain when/where people will help and share for free.  [see page 112 in Shirky]
b.Explain Chris Anderson’s argument about how and why internet video “changes the game” for the evolution of culture.
c.Use new and interesting examples to shed new light on how these two arguments help us understand the world.
6.    Conflict, Political Power and Social protest.  25 points.   This question has three parts
Consider the recent and current events in Egypt.  
Refer to this resource and others to gain greater insight into the situation.  Many of the concepts we discussed in class apply to different aspects of the protest situation in Egypt and more broadly to Northern Africa and the Middle East.
a.  Use conflict theory to identify groups, their interests, their resources, and to explain some of their actions.
b.  Use ideas from the sections on political sociology to help us understand the situation.  This can include any of the concepts from weeks 4 and 5.
c.  Use the concepts of culture, social structure, and stratification to help us understand why people are protesting now in places like Egypt.

Link to the form for entering your answers.

6 comments:

  1. I find it hilarious that Google ran a sting operation against Bing.

    http://mashable.com/2011/02/04/amit-singhal-interview-google/

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  2. Yeas-- I saw that- very funny. I guess at a pragmatic level, simply copying google results is a quick and dirty way for bing to catch up in search quality while trying to find some other edge where they can get a comparative advantage.

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  3. Another interesting video out of Egypt, a presumed to be 5 year old boy leads Pro Democracy Protesters in Alexandria.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Iu_GdocueI

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  4. can someone explain what externalities are?

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  5. Externalities are costs or benefits experienced by other people-- often times when we talk about norms we say that people who break the norm (i.e. they mow their lawn early in the morning) create negative externalities, or specifically they wake their neighbors.

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  6. Since google obtain everything now!!!!
    Why they dont make something like facebook.
    Googlebook? or gogbook no thats lame
    I would say googleface XD thats fantastic!!!

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