Sociology 101 Jeopardy

Theorists, culture, stratification, and institutions on a free Sociology 101 review board. Project it for class and let everyone buzz in by phone.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

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Founding Theorists

$200
This German thinker argued that history is driven by conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Who is Karl Marx?
$400
This French thinker coined the word sociology and hoped to build a science of society.
Who is Auguste Comte?
$600
This German sociologist wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Who is Max Weber?
$800
The first Black American to earn a Harvard doctorate, this scholar wrote The Souls of Black Folk.
Who is W. E. B. Du Bois?
$1,000
This British writer translated Comte into English and is often called the first woman sociologist.
Who is Harriet Martineau?

Theoretical Perspectives

$200
This perspective sees society as a system of interrelated parts that work together to promote stability.
What is structural functionalism?
$400
This perspective focuses on inequality and the struggle between groups over scarce resources.
What is conflict theory?
$600
Linked to George Herbert Mead, this perspective studies how people create meaning through everyday interaction.
What is symbolic interactionism?
$800
Robert Merton contrasted intended, recognized consequences with these unintended, unrecognized ones.
What are latent functions?
$1,000
This approach of Erving Goffman analyzes social life as a performance staged for an audience.
What is dramaturgy?

Research Methods

$200
This testable statement predicts a relationship between two or more variables.
What is a hypothesis?
$400
In an experiment, this is the variable the researcher changes to see its effect on another.
What is the independent variable?
$600
This relationship, in which two variables change together, does not by itself prove causation.
What is correlation?
$800
Researchers who join and take part in the daily life of the group they are studying use this method.
What is participant observation?
$1,000
Weber used this German term for understanding social action from the point of view of the people involved.
What is Verstehen?

Culture and Socialization

$200
Judging another culture by the standards of one's own is called this.
What is ethnocentrism?
$400
Informal, everyday norms, such as saying thank you, are called these.
What are folkways?
$600
This sociologist coined the term looking-glass self for how we see ourselves through others' eyes.
Who is Charles Horton Cooley?
$800
Learning the norms and values of a group one hopes to join in the future is called this.
What is anticipatory socialization?
$1,000
Prisons, military boot camps and psychiatric hospitals are examples of these settings that resocialize their residents.
What are total institutions?

Stratification and Inequality

$200
This is the movement of individuals or groups between positions in a system of social classes.
What is social mobility?
$400
In this closed system of stratification, status is fixed at birth, with little chance to move.
What is a caste system?
$600
Weber's three dimensions of stratification were class, status and this.
What is power?
$800
A social position assigned at birth, such as race or sex, rather than earned, is this type of status.
What is ascribed status?
$1,000
Poverty measured against the typical living standards of a society, rather than basic survival, is this.
What is relative poverty?

Social Institutions

$200
This institution is the primary agent of socialization in early childhood.
What is the family?
$400
Weber described this form of organization, with a hierarchy, written rules and specialized roles.
What is bureaucracy?
$600
The declining influence of religion in public and social life is called this.
What is secularization?
$800
Robert Michels argued that large organizations inevitably end up ruled by a small elite, a tendency he called this.
What is the iron law of oligarchy?
$1,000
George Ritzer coined this term for fast-food principles of efficiency and predictability spreading through society.
What is McDonaldization?

Final Jeopardy — Classic Studies

This French sociologist's 1897 study of suicide argued that even a seemingly personal act could be explained by social forces such as integration and regulation.

Who is Emile Durkheim?

How to run this board

The board covers the core of an intro sociology course: founding theorists such as Durkheim, Weber, Marx, and Du Bois, the major theoretical perspectives, research methods, culture and socialization, stratification and inequality, and social institutions.

Theorists get confused with each other, so when a team names one, ask them to add the perspective that theorist is associated with. It builds the map students need for short-answer questions.

In a large lecture, run it with rows or sections as teams and one phone per group. Save Final Jeopardy for the end of the session so the wagers carry some stakes.

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