Exam 2: Examining the Social World: How Do We Know

Meso-level analysis focuses on institutions, large organizations, and ethnic communities.

Imagine you want to study the U.S. military from a functionalist, symbolic interactionist, and conflict perspective. What research questions will you ask about the military from each perspective, and why is that perspective appropriate for the question posed?

The structural-functional perspective states:

Alexa and Eduardo want to do a sociological study of working mothers in Brazil. Alexa wants to begin with some general theories about working moms in Brazil and then make hypotheses based on those theories. Eduardo prefers to collect data first by interviewing a representative sample of working Brazilian mothers and then formulate a theory to explain their findings. In this example, Alexa prefers to use _________, while Eduardo would rather use __________.