Pick any three questions to answer out of the following: Feel   Free to pick an additional question for extra credit.   Your answers for each of the questions should be at least (1.5) page—double spaced—and typed.   These are thinking questions. 

  Use all of the resources you can find on the internet, books, magazines, social science databases etc. Examples being: JWU Library databases, Sociology Text, and search Google for relevant websites etc. so as to find cutting edge information to help you answer questions.

1.     Pick a revolution that seems to be going on somewhere in the world, and analyze it through   the three lenses of Functionalism, Conflict Theory and Symbolic Interaction.  Examples of events would be the following: The American Revolution, Hong Kong demonstrations for democracy, Market Basket Workers on strike, Ferguson– MI demonstrations, Racism, The Occupy Movement,   Syria, Russia & the Ukraine; ISIS, Black Lives Matter , Earth Day & Ecology, Organic Foods Movement etc. United States 2016 Presidential Election, CyberRevoutions—WikiLeaks  & Anonymous etc.—Pick a Revolutionary Movement of your choice.  What social, cultural, economic, political and technical forces helped to create this revolution? 

2.     Some writers and social scientists have defined several contemporary generations in the following categories: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y, and Generation Z.  Describe each of these generations relative to; age, values, size, beliefs, economic impacts and aspirations of each group.  Based on these definitions, which category do you fit in?  Does the description of the general group fit you?  And how are you different from the general description of your generation?   How do you feel that you differ from your parents generation relative to: marriage, family, work, home ownership, student debt; etc?

3.     How is deviancy defined?  Give examples of Positive and Negative types of deviance?

If the World could clone genetic deviations out of its gene pool through gene therapy or human cloning– at a genetic level –what good and bad sociological implications can you imagine?

4.     Pick one of the following cultish groups and describe the history, and in general, why many members were attracted to the group, and the positive, and or negative societal impacts.  What was the process that the “cult” used  for the re-socialization of members so as to adopt new values and lifestyles?        a.) Charles Manson—“The Family” .    b.)   The Unification Church—Sun Myung Moon.    c.)  Heavens Gate—Marshall Applewhite d.) Jim Jones—The Peoples Temple. Or more traditional groups such as: the Masons, the Skull & Bones Secret Society at Yale University, the Illuminati, etc.   If you can think of a group you would like to explore not listed above, feel free to research your choice.

5.     Select a major sociological theorist and describe the impact they had in the theoretical and applied Sociology.  Ideally you should pick your own, but possible suggestions would be: Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Jane Addams, and George Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead,   Harriet Martineau, W.E.B. Du Bois, C. Wright Mills, Erving Goffman, etc.

6.     What is the impact of technology on cultures around the world?  Choose three major technical breakthroughs throughout the world that have had a dramatic global impact.  Describe the changes in the culture or cultures—analyze the pros and cons of the technology.

7.     Define socialization.  Research and describe three cases as to what happens to humans if deprived of “normal” socialization.  What role does socialization play relative to language acquisition?  What happened to Harry Harlow’s Rhesus monkeys deprived of normal socialization?

8.     Describe the synoptic implications of cloning, cells, animals, and people.  How might it change the culture and the definition of what it means to be human?

9.       Develop your own sociology question / and answer.