SOC204 University of Oregon Study of Demography Sociology Exam Questions This is asked to pick Four !!!! question from the 10 questions. Only need to answe

SOC204 University of Oregon Study of Demography Sociology Exam Questions This is asked to pick Four !!!! question from the 10 questions. Only need to answer 4 questions.

Each question write about 350 words.

The detailed writing instruction is post in the attached file, please check. No outside resources needed, only the attached file readings.

Writing instruction is in file, title : 021 Test One

Instructions:

Please pick four of the following questions and answer them fully.Each question is worth equal credit.Each answer should be around 350 words. Make sure that you answer all parts of each question fully. We won’t specifically penalize you for fewer or more words, but if you are writing a lot less you are probably not giving us enough of an answer for a good grade. We expect that the test will take less than two hours if you are well-prepared.

The questions are taken directly from things that we have covered in class. Between your lecture and section notes, the readings we have done, and the slides posted on Canvas you should have plenty of material to answer these questions.You do not need to cite any of the course material (like your textbook or the lecture or a source linked to on one of the slides).We don’t expect you to use outside sources, but if you do for any reason, please make sure to cite it (give enough information for us to know where it came from – we do not require any specific citation system for this test). In general, using your notes and other course materials to answer these questions is going to be a better strategy that will result in a better grade than relying on internet searches for any concepts or ideas.The test is closely aligned with what we have been teaching, meaning that your notes and knowledge will be better guides to answering these questions than more generic accounts in other sources.

You are welcome to consult with anyone you like about the test, including classmates.Everyone must write their own unique answers to the test questions, however, and copying someone else’s answers is cheating.Letting someone else copy your answers is too.

Please be sure to put your name on the test and your GE’s name.You may answer the questions right in this document, but you don’t need to print or upload this instruction page.

You must submit one electronic copy via Canvas and one hard copy in class.Both copies are due by the beginning of class on Monday.There is a 2% penalty per day that the exam is late.

Answers will be graded with a 0,✓-,✓, or✓+, worth 0, 1, 2, or 3 points respectively.We will use the following table to convert these checks to a letter grade:

11-12

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

A

A-

B+

B

B-

C+

C

C-

D+

D

D-

F

An answer that receives a check will competently answer the question by drawing on concepts and arguments included in the lectures, discussions, and readings from the class and using examples when called for that are well explained and clearly and explicitly connected to the concepts, arguments, and issues that you are writing about.A check plus answer will meet the check standard but exceed it by effectively expressing a strong understanding of the full range of concepts, ideas, and issues that a question raises in connection to what we have covered in the course.A check minus answer will have some of the features of a check answer but will in other parts be confusing, make significant mistakes, or fail to fully answer all parts of the question.In general they do a less effective job in communicating your answer.A 0 answer will not effectively answer the question nor will it communicate an understanding of the underlying concepts and ideas.

In general we expect you to be able to figure out what the questions are asking.This is part of what you are being tested on.If you cannot figure it out, you may want to pick a different question that makes more sense to you.In general we won’t be able to help clarify the questions.If you do have questions, please email Professor Norton (mnorton@uoregon.edu) not your GTF ­– GTFs will not be answering test-related questions during the test.

Good Luck!

Name:

Section Leader’s Name:

Please pick four questions to answer (~350 words for each answer).

Behind the numbers, the study of demography involves matters of power, desire, life, and death.Referring to the lectures on demography please identify and explain two specific examples that demonstrate the connection between demographic factors and these other aspects of social life.
Mills writes, “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.”What does he mean by this?Why does he think this is true? Please use the example of maternal mortality (including racial disparities in maternal mortality) to explain your answer.
Describe the most significant ethical questions raised by germline genetic engineering and CRISPR/CAS9 technologies from a sociological perspective. What are some of the strongest arguments for and against it? Why do we need to consider the social consequences of what is effectively a genetic technology?
Please use as much detail as you can from the Schulz article on the Cascadia subduction zone, the Buffalo Creek flood, and/or the case of Hurricane Floyd’s impacts in North Carolina (so you can focus on one of these, a couple, or all of them, however you can give the best answer) to explain why we should think about “natural disasters” as intersections between natural and human social systems.
How can a view of opioid addiction that focuses exclusively on individuals lead us to different ideas about resolving the opioid addiction and overdose crisis than a view that puts addiction into its social context? Why? What is one specific way that you could use the social context of opioid addiction to advocate for a policy that would be missed if you focus exclusively on individual morality and responsibility?
What does Erikson mean when he argues that people who experienced the Buffalo Creek Flood also suffered “collective trauma”?Identify a quote from Erikson’s book on the flood (excerpts are available on Canvas) that demonstrates the difference between collective and individual trauma (there are lots of quotes that would work for this purpose in the book).Please explain the quote and the difference between individual and collective trauma.What do you think the idea of collective trauma tells us about how we should think about disasters?
Use concepts from the demography lecture to provide as detailed an explanation as you can in ~350 words for the chart of human population growth posted as a separate Canvas file titled “human population chart.” (You should focus on explaining the chart from -8000 through the present, not the “future scenarios” it projects.)
How does an effort to understand maternal mortality statistics in the U.S. benefit from a sociological perspective?Please answer in as much detail as you can – a good answer won’t be a short answer.
Please give a detailed explanation (including examples) of the idea that the characteristics of a group can influence group performance and individual experiences of being a part of the group in a way that goes beyond the individual characteristics of group members.As part of your answer provide at least three specific features of groups that help to understand the power of group-level characteristics.
Please read the following short articles about the rise of “Tommy John” surgery, especially among young baseball players.Then use the approach we adopted in class to thinking about disasters, maternal mortality, and opioids to explain the sociological dimensions linking bio-mechanical causes to the specific effects described in the articles.

https://www.si.com/edge/2015/07/30/examining-tommy…

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/tommy-john-epide…

(I have put .pdf copies of these articles on our canvas page if that is more convenient for you to access) Sociology 204
Test One: Units One and Two
Instructions:
Please pick four of the following questions and answer them fully. Each question is worth equal credit. Each
answer should be around 350 words. Make sure that you answer all parts of each question fully. We won’t
specifically penalize you for fewer or more words, but if you are writing a lot less you are probably not giving us
enough of an answer for a good grade. We expect that the test will take less than two hours if you are wellprepared.
The questions are taken directly from things that we have covered in class. Between your lecture and section
notes, the readings we have done, and the slides posted on Canvas you should have plenty of material to answer
these questions. You do not need to cite any of the course material (like your textbook or the lecture or a
source linked to on one of the slides). We don’t expect you to use outside sources, but if you do for any reason,
please make sure to cite it (give enough information for us to know where it came from – we do not require any
specific citation system for this test). In general, using your notes and other course materials to answer these
questions is going to be a better strategy that will result in a better grade than relying on internet searches for
any concepts or ideas. The test is closely aligned with what we have been teaching, meaning that your notes
and knowledge will be better guides to answering these questions than more generic accounts in other sources.
You are welcome to consult with anyone you like about the test, including classmates. Everyone must write
their own unique answers to the test questions, however, and copying someone else’s answers is cheating.
Letting someone else copy your answers is too.
Please be sure to put your name on the test and your GE’s name. You may answer the questions right in this
document, but you don’t need to print or upload this instruction page.
You must submit one electronic copy via Canvas and one hard copy in class. Both copies are due by the
beginning of class on Monday. There is a 2% penalty per day that the exam is late.
Answers will be graded with a 0,✓-,✓, or✓+, worth 0, 1, 2, or 3 points respectively. We will use the following
table to convert these checks to a letter grade:
11-12
A
10
A-
9
B+
8
B
7
B-
6
C+
5
C
4
C-
3
D+
2
D
1
D-
0
F
An answer that receives a check will competently answer the question by drawing on concepts and arguments
included in the lectures, discussions, and readings from the class and using examples when called for that are
well explained and clearly and explicitly connected to the concepts, arguments, and issues that you are writing
about. A check plus answer will meet the check standard but exceed it by effectively expressing a strong
understanding of the full range of concepts, ideas, and issues that a question raises in connection to what we
have covered in the course. A check minus answer will have some of the features of a check answer but will in
other parts be confusing, make significant mistakes, or fail to fully answer all parts of the question. In general
they do a less effective job in communicating your answer. A 0 answer will not effectively answer the question
nor will it communicate an understanding of the underlying concepts and ideas.
In general we expect you to be able to figure out what the questions are asking. This is part of what you are
being tested on. If you cannot figure it out, you may want to pick a different question that makes more sense to
you. In general we won’t be able to help clarify the questions. If you do have questions, please email Professor
Norton (mnorton@uoregon.edu) not your GTF – GTFs will not be answering test-related questions during the
test.
Good Luck!
Name:
Section Leader’s Name:
Please pick four questions to answer (~350 words for each answer).
1. Behind the numbers, the study of demography involves matters of power, desire, life, and death. Referring
to the lectures on demography please identify and explain two specific examples that demonstrate the
connection between demographic factors and these other aspects of social life.
2. Mills writes, “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without
understanding both.” What does he mean by this? Why does he think this is true? Please use the example
of maternal mortality (including racial disparities in maternal mortality) to explain your answer.
3. Describe the most significant ethical questions raised by germline genetic engineering and CRISPR/CAS9
technologies from a sociological perspective. What are some of the strongest arguments for and against it?
Why do we need to consider the social consequences of what is effectively a genetic technology?
4. Please use as much detail as you can from the Schulz article on the Cascadia subduction zone, the Buffalo
Creek flood, and/or the case of Hurricane Floyd’s impacts in North Carolina (so you can focus on one of
these, a couple, or all of them, however you can give the best answer) to explain why we should think about
“natural disasters” as intersections between natural and human social systems.
5. How can a view of opioid addiction that focuses exclusively on individuals lead us to different ideas about
resolving the opioid addiction and overdose crisis than a view that puts addiction into its social context?
Why? What is one specific way that you could use the social context of opioid addiction to advocate for a
policy that would be missed if you focus exclusively on individual morality and responsibility?
6.
What does Erikson mean when he argues that people who experienced the Buffalo Creek Flood also
suffered “collective trauma”? Identify a quote from Erikson’s book on the flood (excerpts are available on
Canvas) that demonstrates the difference between collective and individual trauma (there are lots of quotes
that would work for this purpose in the book). Please explain the quote and the difference between
individual and collective trauma. What do you think the idea of collective trauma tells us about how we
should think about disasters?
7. Use concepts from the demography lecture to provide as detailed an explanation as you can in ~350 words
for the chart of human population growth posted as a separate Canvas file titled “human population chart.”
(You should focus on explaining the chart from -8000 through the present, not the “future scenarios” it
projects.)
8. How does an effort to understand maternal mortality statistics in the U.S. benefit from a sociological
perspective? Please answer in as much detail as you can – a good answer won’t be a short answer.
9. Please give a detailed explanation (including examples) of the idea that the characteristics of a group can
influence group performance and individual experiences of being a part of the group in a way that goes
beyond the individual characteristics of group members. As part of your answer provide at least three
specific features of groups that help to understand the power of group-level characteristics.
10. Please read the following short articles about the rise of “Tommy John” surgery, especially among young
baseball players. Then use the approach we adopted in class to thinking about disasters, maternal mortality,
and opioids to explain the sociological dimensions linking bio-mechanical causes to the specific effects
described in the articles.
https://www.si.com/edge/2015/07/30/examining-tommy-john-surgery-youth-baseball-mlb

(I have put .pdf copies of these articles on our canvas page if that is more convenient for you to access)
C. Wright Mills, “The Promise [of Sociology]”
Excerpt from The Sociological Imagination (originally published in 1959)
This classic statement of the basic ingredients of the “sociological imagination” retains its vitality and
relevance today and remains one of the most influential statements of what sociology is all about. In reading,
focus on Mills’ distinction between history and biography and between individual troubles and public issues.
Nowadays men often feel that their private lives are a series of traps. They sense that within their everyday
worlds, they cannot overcome their troubles, and in this feeling, they are often quite correct: What ordinary
men are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their
visions and their powers are limited to the close-up scenes of job, family, neighborhood; in other milieux, they
move vicariously and remain spectators. And the more aware they become, however vaguely, of ambitions and
of threats which transcend their immediate locales, the more trapped they seem to feel.
Underlying this sense of being trapped are seemingly impersonal changes in the very structure of continentwide societies. The facts of contemporary history are also facts about the success and the failure of individual
men and women. When a society is industrialized, a peasant becomes a worker; a feudal lord is liquidated or
becomes a businessman. When classes rise or fall, a man is employed or unemployed; when the rate of
investment goes up or down, a man takes new heart or goes broke. When wars happen, an insurance salesman
becomes a rocket launcher; a store clerk, a radar man; a wife lives alone; a child grows up without a father.
Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.
Yet men do not usually define the troubles they endure in terms of historical change and institutional
contradiction. The well-being they enjoy, they do not usually impute to the big ups and downs of the societies
in which they live. Seldom aware of the intricate connection between the patterns of their own lives and the
course of world history, ordinary men do not usually know what this connection means for the kinds of men
they are becoming and for the kinds of history-making in which they might take part. They do not possess the
quality of mind essential to grasp the interplay of man and society, of biography and history, of self and world.
They cannot cope with their personal troubles in such ways as to control the structural transformations that
usually lie behind them.
Surely it is no wonder. In what period have so many men been so totally exposed at so fast a pace to such
earthquakes of change? That Americans have not known such catastrophic changes as have the men and
women of other societies is due to historical facts that are now quickly becoming “merely history.” The history
that now affects every man is world history…..
The very shaping of history now outpaces the ability of men to orient themselves in accordance with cherished
values….Is it any wonder that ordinary men feel they cannot cope with the larger worlds with which they are so
suddenly confronted? That they cannot understand the meaning of their epoch for their own lives?…Is it any
wonder that they come to be possessed by a sense of the trap?
It is not only information they need–in this Age of Fact, information often dominates their attention and
overwhelms their capacities to assimilate it….What they need, and what they feel they need, is a quality of
mind that will help them to use information and to develop reason in order to achieve lucid summations of
what is going on in the world and of what may be happening within themselves. It is this quality, I am going to
contend, that journalists and scholars, artists and publics, scientists and editors are coming to expect of what
may be called the sociological imagination.
The sociological imagination enables its possessor to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its
meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals. It enables him to take into account
how individuals, in the welter of their daily experience, often become falsely conscious of their social
positions. Within that welter, the framework of modern society is sought, and within that framework the
psychologies of a variety of men and women are formulated. By such means the personal uneasiness of
individuals is focused upon explicit troubles and the indifference of publics is transformed into involvement
with public issues.
C. Wright Mills, “The Promise [of Sociology]”
Excerpt from The Sociological Imagination (originally published in 1959)
The first fruit of this imagination–and the first lesson of the social science that embodies it–is the idea that the
individual can understand his own experience and gauge his own fate only by locating himself within his
period, that he can know his own chances in life only by becoming aware of those of all individuals in his
circumstances. In many ways it is a terrible lesson; in many ways a magnificent one. We do not know the
limits of man’s capacities for supreme effort or willing degradation, for agony or glee, for pleasurable brutality
or the sweetness of reason. But in our time we have come to know that the limits of ‘human nature’ are
frighteningly broad. We have come to know that every individual lives, from one generation to the next, in
some society; that he lives out a biography, and that he lives it out within some historical sequence. By the fact
of his living he contributes, however minutely, to the shaping of this society and to the course of its history,
even as he is made by society and by its historical push and shove.
The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two
within society. That is its task and its promise. To recognize this task and this promise is the mark of the
classic social analyst. It is characteristic of Herbert Spencer-turgid, polysyllabic, comprehensive; of E. A.
Ross-graceful, muckraking, upright; of Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim; of the intricate and subtle Karl
Mannheim. It is the quality of all that is intellectually excellent in Karl Marx; it is the clue to Thorstein
Veblen’s brilliant and ironic insight, to Joseph Schumpeter’s many-sided constructions of reality; it is the basis
of the psychological sweep of W.E.H. Lecky no less than of the profundity and clarity of Max Weber. And it is
the signal of what is best in contemporary studies of man and society.
No social study that does not come back to the problems of biography, of history and of their intersections
within a society has completed its intellectual journey. Whatever the specific problems of the classic social
analysts, however limited or however broad the features of social reality they have examined, those who have
been imaginatively aware of the promise of their work have consistently asked three sorts of questions:
(1) What is the structure of this particular society as a whole? What are its essential components, and how are
they related to one another? How does it differ from other varieties of social order? Within it, what is the
meaning of any particular feature for its continuance and for its change?
(2) Where does this society stand in human history? What are the mechanics by which it is changing? What is
its place within and its meaning for the development of humanity as a whole? How does any particular feature
we are examining affect, and how is it affected by, the historical period in which it moves? And this periodwhat are its essential features? How does it differ from other periods? What are its characteristic ways of
history-making?
(3) What varieties of men and women now prevail in this society and in this period? And what varieties are
coming to prevail? In what ways are they selected and formed, liberated and repressed, made sensitive and
blunted? What kinds of ‘human nature’ are revealed in the conduct and character we observe in this society in
this period? And what is the meaning for ‘human nature’ of each and every feature of the society we are
examining?
Whether the point of interest is a great power state or a minor literary mood, a family, a prison, a creed-these
are the kinds of questions the best social analysts have asked. They are the intellectual pivots of classic studies
of man in society-and they are the questions inevitably raised by any mind possessing the sociological,
imagination. For that imagination is the capacity to shift from one perspective to another-from the political to
the psychological; from examination of a single family to comparative assessment of the national budgets of
the world; from the theological school to the military establishment; from considerations of an oil industry to
studies of contemporary poetry. It is the capacity to range from the most impersonal and remote
transformations to the most intimate features of the human self and to see the relations between the two. Back
of its use there is always the urge to know the social and historical meaning of the individual in the society and
in the period in which he has his quality and his being.
That, in brief, is why it is by means of the sociological imagination that men now hope to grasp what is going
on in the world, and to understand what is happening in themselves as minute points of the intersections of
C. Wright Mills, “The Promise [of Sociology]”
Excerpt from The Sociological Imagination (originally published in 1959)
biography and history within society….. They acquire a new way of thinking, they experience a transvaluation
of values: in a word, by their reflection and by their sensibility, they realize the cultural meaning of the social
sciences.
Perhaps the most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between ‘the personal
troubles of milieu’ and ‘the public issues of social structure.’ This distinction is an essential tool of the
sociological imagination and a feature of all classic work in social science.
Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with
others; they have to do with his self and with those limited areas of social life of which he is directly and
personally aware. Accordingly, the statement and the resolution of troubles properly lie within the individual
as a biographical entity and within the scope of his immediate milieu-the social setting that is directly open to
his personal experience and to some extent his willful activity. A trouble is a private matter: values cherished
by an individual are felt by him to be threatened.
Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his
inner life. They have to do with the organization of many such milieux into the institutions of an historical
society as a whole, with the ways in which various milieux overlap and interpenetrate to form the larger
structure of social and historical life. An issue is a public matter: some value cherished by publics is felt to be
threatened. Often there is a debate about what that value really is and about what it is that really threatens it.
This debate is often without focus if only because it is the very nature of an issue, unlike even widespread
trouble, that it cannot very well be defined in terms of the immediate and everyday environments of ordinary
men. An issue, in fact, often involves a crisis in institutional arrangements, and often too it involves what
Marxists call ‘contradictions’ or ‘antagonisms.’
In these terms, consider unemployment. When, in a city of 100,000, only one man is unemployed, that is his
personal trouble, and for its relief we properly look to the character of the man, his skills, and his immediate
opportunities. But when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million men are unemployed, that is an issue,
and we may not hope to find its solution within the range of opportunities open to any one individual. The very
structure of opportunities has coll…
Purchase answer to see full
attachment