Question

1. Rodney Stark describes sociology as a “young” and “difficult” science. By this he means that:

	sociologists prefer to study young people, but gaining access to them as research subjects raises difficult ethical issues
	only relatively recently have people had the data necessary to test social theories scientifically, and the subjects of sociology (i.e., people) are self-aware
	sociologists prefer to study young people, but young people today are difficult to reach because many do not have land-line telephones
	only relatively recently have people wondered about the nature of society, and the mathematics involved in doing so are far more difficult than those involved in studying physics

2. Which of the following is the best example of a sociological question that one might ask about the suicide of a white male college student?

	what is it about being white, male, and a college student that raised his risk of suicide?
	what event pushed him over the edge, caused him to become unhinged?
	what is it that caused him to become so depressed?
	what sort of mental illness was he facing?

3. Human beings subsisted entirely by hunting and gathering until about _______ years ago.

	500,000
	100,000
	10,000
	250

4. According to the "Coolhunters," why might what "cool" people think is cool be more important than what most people think is cool?

	cool people spend more on clothes than most people
	what cool people think is cool might be what all people think is cool in the future
	cool people are more likely to be swayed by advertising than most people
	cool people follow the trends manufactured by the fashion industry

5. For sociologists interested in understanding the microsociology of social change, the most interesting aspect of the Kevin Bacon game (i.e., “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”) is that it demonstrates:

	how prominent actors have much larger social networks than average people
	how large the world is; and thus how difficult it is for information to diffuse across an entire society on the basis of social networks
	how prominent actors form exclusive social networks that are cut off from those of less prominent actors
	how small the world is; and thus how readily information could diffuse across an entire society on the basis of social networks

Answer 1

1. The correct answer is Option 4. According to Rodney Stark, only relatively recently have people wondered about the nature of society, and the mathematics involved in doing so are far more difficult than those involved in studying physics.

2. The correct answer is Option 1. The question would be what is it about being white, male, and a college student that raised his risk of suicide?

3. The correct answer is Option 3. About 10,000 years years ago human beings lived in hunter-gatherer society.

4. The correct answer is Option 2. According to Coolhunters, what cool people think is cool might be what all people think is cool in the future.

Please post the other questions separately as we are supposed to answer just one question or four sub parts of a question.