CLEP Introductory Sociology Quick Review

Economic institutions organize how a society produces, distributes, and consumes goods and services, shaping the division of labor and class structure.

Capitalism (private ownership, market allocation) vs. socialism (collective/state ownership, planned allocation); most modern economies are mixed. Durkheim's division of labor: mechanical solidarity (bonds from similarity, typical of small traditional societies) vs. organic solidarity (bonds from interdependent specialization, typical of complex industrial societies). Globalization increases economic interdependence across societies.

Mechanical solidarity (based on shared beliefs and similarity) vs. organic solidarity (based on interdependence created by specialization) --- students often reverse which one describes ``traditional'' society.

The exam may describe a small, homogeneous society with strong shared norms and ask which solidarity type this is --- the answer is mechanical, not organic, even though ``organic'' sounds more natural or traditional.

Division of labor $arrow$ mechanical (alike) vs. organic (interdependent) solidarity.

Education serves both manifest (stated) and latent (unintended) functions, and it can either reproduce or reduce social inequality.

Manifest functions: transmitting knowledge/skills, socialization, cultural transmission. Latent functions: childcare, matchmaking, networking, ``credentialing.'' Hidden curriculum = implicit values/norms taught alongside academics (obedience, punctuality). Tracking/ability grouping can reproduce class inequality via unequal access to cultural capital.

Manifest functions (intended, officially recognized) vs. latent functions (unintended, often unrecognized side effects) of the same institution.

A question describing schools ``keeping teens off the job market'' is testing a latent function, not a manifest one --- students often pick ``manifest'' because it sounds official.

Manifest = intended goal; Latent = unintended side effect.

The family is the primary agent of socialization, and it takes varied structural forms across societies and historical periods.

Nuclear family (parents + children) vs. extended family (includes other relatives). Functionalist view of family: reproduction, socialization, economic cooperation, emotional support. Monogamy vs. polygamy (polygyny/polyandry). Family of orientation (the family you are born/raised in) vs. family of procreation (the family you form by partnering/having children).

Family of orientation (born into) vs. family of procreation (created through marriage/parenting) --- these terms are frequently reversed on the exam.

Questions may frame cohabitation or single-parent households as family ``breakdown''; sociologically these are simply alternative family structures/patterns of change, not automatically dysfunction.

Orientation = born into; Procreation = create yourself.

Health and illness are socially defined and organized, not purely biological facts.

Talcott Parsons' ``sick role'': exempts the ill person from normal duties but obligates them to seek treatment and want to recover. Medicalization = defining previously non-medical conditions as medical problems. Social epidemiology links health outcomes to class, race, and gender (health disparities).

The sick role (a conditional, temporary status with rights and obligations) vs. the stigma of chronic illness --- the sick role assumes recovery is expected, which does not fit chronic or terminal conditions.

The exam may suggest the sick role grants permanent exemption from responsibility --- the real requirement is that the person actively seek competent help and want to recover; the exemption is conditional and temporary.

Sick role $arrow$ excused from duties $+$ must seek help and want to recover.

Political institutions organize legitimate power (authority) in society; Weber identified three ideal-typical sources of legitimate authority.

Weber's three types of authority: traditional (legitimacy from custom, e.g., monarchy), charismatic (legitimacy from a leader's extraordinary personal qualities), rational-legal (legitimacy from established laws/rules, e.g., bureaucratic office). Pluralist theory (power dispersed among competing interest groups) vs. elite theory (power concentrated in a small ruling elite).

Authority (power regarded as legitimate) vs. coercion/raw power (power exercised without legitimacy, e.g., force).

A leader whose authority rests on personal charm and vision (not law or custom) illustrates charismatic authority --- students sometimes confuse this with traditional authority simply because the leader is popular or long-serving.

Traditional = custom; Charismatic = personal magnetism; Rational-legal = rules/law.

Durkheim and Weber offered classic, contrasting sociological analyses of religion's role in society.

Durkheim: religion divides the world into the sacred (set apart, revered) and the profane (ordinary), and creates social solidarity through shared ritual. Weber: the Protestant Ethic (especially Calvinism) fostered attitudes --- frugality, hard work, delayed gratification --- that helped give rise to modern capitalism. Secularization = declining influence of religion in public life; civil religion = quasi-religious devotion to a nation's political ideals.

Durkheim's functionalist claim (religion promotes social cohesion via the sacred/profane distinction) vs. Weber's historical/causal claim (religious values shaped the rise of capitalism) --- two different theorists, two different arguments.

``Sacred and profane'' points to Durkheim; ``Protestant work ethic and capitalism'' points to Weber --- watch for exam items that swap the theorist's name.

Durkheim $arrow$ sacred/profane, cohesion; Weber $arrow$ Protestant ethic $arrow$ capitalism.

Sociologists study ``community'' both as a physical place and as a network of social ties/shared identity that may or may not depend on physical proximity.

Community may be defined geographically (neighborhood, town) or relationally (a community of interest/identity, e.g., an online community). Sense of community involves belonging, mutual influence, and shared emotional connection.

Community (a broad network that can include weak ties) vs. primary group (an intimate, face-to-face group like family or close friends) --- a community is not the same as a primary group, though it can contain them.

Describing an online support group as a ``community'' tests whether students recognize that community no longer requires physical proximity in modern sociological usage.

Community = place OR shared identity/ties, not just geography.

Demography is the statistical study of population size, composition, and change, driven by birth, death, and migration rates.

Key measures: crude birth rate, crude death rate, total fertility rate (TFR), rate of natural increase. Malthusian theory: population grows geometrically while food supply grows arithmetically, predicting scarcity. Demographic transition theory: societies move from high birth/high death $arrow$ high birth/low death $arrow$ low birth/low death as they industrialize. Population pyramids visualize age/sex structure.

Crude birth/death rate (per 1,000 population, not age-adjusted) vs. total fertility rate (average number of children a woman would have in her lifetime) --- these measure different things.

A population with declining birth AND death rates is often mistakenly placed in ``stage 1'' (high birth/high death) instead of a later transition stage.

Demographic transition: high-high $arrow$ high-low $arrow$ low-low.

Human ecology studies the relationship between populations and their physical/social environments, including how urban space is organized.

The concentric zone model (Burgess) describes cities growing outward in rings from a central business district. Environmental sociology examines how social structures shape environmental degradation and how environmental change affects society; environmental justice = disproportionate environmental harm borne by disadvantaged groups.

Human ecology (spatial/environmental organization of populations) vs. demography (numeric study of population size and composition) --- related subfields with distinct focuses.

``Concentric zones'' tests the Burgess model specifically --- don't confuse it with the sector model or multiple-nuclei model, which the exam may list as distractors.

Human ecology $arrow$ population $+$ environment/space (e.g., concentric zones).

T\"onnies contrasted two ideal types of social bonds that map onto the shift from rural to urban, traditional to modern life.

Gemeinschaft (``community'') = tight-knit, personal, traditional ties typical of rural life. Gesellschaft (``society'') = impersonal, contractual, self-interested ties typical of urban/industrial life. Louis Wirth's ``urbanism as a way of life'' links city size, density, and heterogeneity to impersonality and weaker social ties.

Gemeinschaft (intimate, rural-style bonds) vs. Gesellschaft (impersonal, urban-style bonds) --- the spellings and meanings are easily reversed.

An urban neighborhood with strong, personal ties is not automatically Gesellschaft simply because it is urban --- the terms describe relationship type, not just location.

Gemeinschaft = community/intimate; Gesellschaft = society/impersonal.

Culture is the shared beliefs, values, norms, symbols, and practices that a group uses to interpret and navigate the world.

Norms: folkways (casual norms), mores (norms with moral weight), laws (formally codified norms). Values = shared ideas about what is desirable. Material culture (objects) vs. nonmaterial culture (ideas, beliefs, language). Subculture (shares mainstream culture but has distinct traits) vs. counterculture (actively opposes mainstream norms). Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism.

Ethnocentrism (judging other cultures by one's own culture's standards) vs. cultural relativism (understanding a practice within its own cultural context, without imposing outside judgment).

Someone calling a foreign custom ``backward'' by their own cultural standard illustrates ethnocentrism --- students sometimes mislabel this cultural relativism because a comparison is being made.

Ethnocentrism = my culture is the yardstick; Cultural relativism = judge within its own context.

Socialization is the lifelong process by which individuals learn and internalize the norms, values, and roles of their society.

Agents of socialization: family, school, peers, media, religion, workplace. Cooley's ``looking-glass self'': self-concept develops from how we imagine others perceive and judge us. Mead's stages: imitation stage, play stage (role-taking one role at a time), game stage (taking the role of the ``generalized other,'' understanding multiple roles/rules at once). Mead's ``I'' (spontaneous, subjective self) vs. ``me'' (socialized, self-aware self).

Cooley's looking-glass self (self-image based on perceived judgments of others) vs. Mead's generalized other (internalized attitudes of society as a whole, achieved in the game stage) --- both concern the social self but describe different mechanisms.

A child learning a team sport and grasping multiple teammates' roles simultaneously illustrates Mead's ``game stage,'' not the ``play stage,'' which involves only one role at a time.

Cooley $arrow$ looking-glass self; Mead $arrow$ I/me, play stage $arrow$ game stage $arrow$ generalized other.

Everyday interaction is structured by statuses and roles, and Goffman argued people actively manage impressions the way actors perform on a stage.

Status: ascribed (given at birth, not chosen, e.g., race) vs. achieved (earned through effort/choice, e.g., occupation). Master status = the status that dominates others and shapes identity. Role = expected behavior for a status. Role conflict (tension between two different roles) vs. role strain (tension within one role). Goffman's dramaturgy: front stage (public performance) vs. back stage (private, unguarded behavior); impression management.

Role conflict (tension BETWEEN two different roles, e.g., parent vs. employee) vs. role strain (tension WITHIN a single role, e.g., a manager who must both discipline and support the same employee).

A single role with internally conflicting demands is role strain, not role conflict --- the exam often uses ``role conflict'' as a tempting but wrong distractor.

Role conflict = between roles; Role strain = within one role.

Groups vary in intimacy and purpose, and large-scale organizations are typically structured as rational bureaucracies.

Primary group (small, intimate, long-term, e.g., family) vs. secondary group (large, impersonal, goal-oriented, e.g., coworkers). In-group vs. out-group; reference group (standard used for self-evaluation). Weber's ideal-type bureaucracy: hierarchy, division of labor, written rules, impersonality, technical qualification. Michels' ``iron law of oligarchy'': large organizations tend toward rule by a small elite, even democratic ones.

Primary group (defined by emotional closeness/multiple purposes) vs. secondary group (defined by a specific, often instrumental purpose) --- size alone does not decide this; the nature of the tie does.

A small work team is not automatically a ``primary group'' just because it's small --- if the tie is impersonal/task-focused, it remains a secondary group.

Primary = intimate/whole person; Secondary = impersonal/specific purpose.

Deviance is behavior that violates social norms, and sociologists explain it through social structure, learning, and societal reaction --- not just individual pathology.

Durkheim: some deviance is functional (clarifies norms, promotes change); anomie = normlessness from weakened norms. Merton's strain theory: deviance results from a gap between culturally approved goals and legitimate means (adaptations: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion). Sutherland's differential association: deviance is learned through interaction with others who favor lawbreaking. Labeling theory (Becker): deviance is created by social reaction/labeling; primary deviance (initial act) vs. secondary deviance (deviance after being labeled). Hirschi's social bond theory: conformity results from attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.

Merton's ``innovation'' (accepting cultural goals like wealth but using illegitimate means, e.g., theft) vs. ``ritualism'' (abandoning the goals but rigidly following the legitimate means anyway) --- frequently swapped on the exam.

Someone becoming ``more deviant'' after being caught and stigmatized illustrates secondary deviance --- students sometimes mislabel the ORIGINAL act as secondary deviance instead of primary.

Merton: innovation = goals yes/means no; ritualism = goals no/means yes. Labeling: primary act $arrow$ label $arrow$ secondary deviance.

Collective behavior (crowds, fads, panics) and organized social movements are related but distinct forms of group action outside routine institutions.

Types of crowds: casual, conventional, expressive, acting. Relative deprivation theory: movements arise from a perceived gap between what people have and what they feel entitled to. Resource mobilization theory: movement success depends on organization, money, leadership, and resources, not just grievances. Types of social movements: reform, revolutionary, religious/redemptive, alternative. Stages: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, decline.

Relative deprivation (deprivation felt relative to others' status or one's own expectations) vs. absolute deprivation (lacking basic survival needs) --- movements are often better explained by relative, not absolute, deprivation.

A well-off group that still feels ``deprived'' relative to a wealthier reference group illustrates relative deprivation, not resource mobilization (which explains HOW, not WHY, mobilization succeeds).

Relative deprivation = gap vs. others' status; Resource mobilization = organization $+$ resources $arrow$ success.

Societies change through technology, ideas, conflict, and diffusion, but material and nonmaterial culture often change at different speeds.

Ogburn's ``cultural lag'': nonmaterial culture (norms, values, laws) typically adapts more slowly than material culture (technology). Diffusion = spread of cultural traits between societies. Evolutionary theory of change (predictable stages of progress) vs. conflict theory of change (driven by struggle between groups). Modernization theory: traditional societies develop by adopting Western economic/political institutions.

Cultural lag (nonmaterial culture trailing behind material/technological change) vs. diffusion (the spread of a cultural trait or technology between societies) --- lag is about speed of adaptation, diffusion is about spread across groups.

Laws struggling to keep up with new technology (e.g., privacy law and new apps) illustrates cultural lag --- students sometimes mislabel this ``diffusion'' because technology is involved.

Cultural lag = norms/laws trail behind technology.

Marx and Weber offered the two foundational, competing models of social class.

Marx: class is determined by one's relationship to the means of production --- bourgeoisie (owners of capital) vs. proletariat (workers who sell labor); class conflict drives historical change; alienation = worker's estrangement from the product, process, others, and self under capitalism. Weber: stratification is multidimensional --- class (economic position/life chances), status (social prestige), and party (political power) can vary independently.

Marx's single-factor (economic/ownership) model of class vs. Weber's three-dimensional model (class + status + party) --- a person with high prestige but modest income (e.g., a professor) shows status and class diverging, which Marx's model does not address.

The exam may ask for ``the two social classes'' per Marx --- correct answer is bourgeoisie and proletariat; do not confuse with Weber's later, three-dimensional model.

Marx = class from ownership (2 classes); Weber = class $+$ status $+$ party (3 dimensions).

Social mobility describes movement within or between social strata, and its type/cause reveals how open a society is.

Vertical mobility (movement up or down in status) vs. horizontal mobility (movement between positions of similar rank). Intergenerational mobility (status change across generations, child vs. parent) vs. intragenerational mobility (status change within one person's lifetime). Structural mobility (caused by economy-wide change, e.g., a recession or tech boom) vs. individual mobility (caused by personal effort/luck).

Intergenerational mobility (compares parent to child) vs. intragenerational mobility (compares a person's status to their OWN earlier status) --- both involve time, but the unit of comparison differs.

Someone rising from entry-level worker to CEO over their own career illustrates intragenerational mobility --- students may mistakenly pick intergenerational just because it involves upward movement over time.

Intergenerational = parent vs. child; Intragenerational = you vs. earlier you.

Sociologists debate whether power is broadly distributed among competing groups or concentrated in the hands of a small elite.

Pluralist theory: power is dispersed among many competing interest groups, and policy emerges from negotiation. Elite theory (C. Wright Mills' ``power elite''): a small, interlocking elite --- top military, corporate, and political leaders --- holds disproportionate power. Marx's conflict perspective: inequality stems from ownership of the means of production and serves ruling-class interests.

Pluralist theory (power dispersed among competing groups) vs. elite theory (power concentrated in a unified, interconnected elite) --- opposing answers to ``who really has power.''

Overlapping leadership across corporate boards, the military, and government (Mills' classic argument) illustrates elite theory --- do not confuse it with pluralism, which assumes competing, not interlocking, groups.

Pluralist = power spread across groups; Elite (Mills) = power elite concentrated at top.

Race and ethnicity are socially constructed categories, and majority-minority group relations follow recognizable patterns.

Race = socially defined based on perceived physical traits (a social, not strictly biological, construct). Ethnicity = shared cultural heritage, language, or nationality. Prejudice (an attitude) vs. discrimination (an action) can exist independently. Du Bois' ``double consciousness'': the sense of viewing oneself through the eyes of a prejudiced society while holding one's own identity. Institutional/systemic racism = discrimination embedded in laws/organizational practices. Models of minority-majority relations: assimilation, pluralism, segregation, genocide.

Prejudice (a biased attitude/belief, held internally) vs. discrimination (unequal treatment/action based on group membership) --- one can occur without the other.

A hiring formula that unintentionally disadvantages a group, with no individual bias intended, illustrates institutional discrimination, not simple individual prejudice.

Prejudice = attitude (in the head); Discrimination = action (in behavior).

Sociologists distinguish biological sex from socially constructed gender; gender roles are learned through socialization, not biologically fixed.

Sex = biological classification (chromosomes, anatomy). Gender = culturally constructed roles, behaviors, and expectations associated with masculinity/femininity. Gender roles are learned via agents of socialization. Patriarchy = a social system in which men hold disproportionate power. Feminist theory analyzes gender inequality as systemic, examining the wage gap, glass ceiling, and division of domestic labor.

Sex (biological category) vs. gender (socially constructed role/identity) --- the exam tests this distinction directly and often.

Cross-cultural variation in which tasks count as ``masculine'' vs. ``feminine'' work shows that GENDER is culturally variable while SEX is biologically consistent --- a common trap answers ``sex'' for a culturally variable trait.

Sex = biology; Gender = culture/socialization.

Age is a basis for social stratification, and sociologists have proposed competing theories of how individuals and society adapt to aging.

Ageism = prejudice/discrimination based on age. Disengagement theory: successful aging involves the elderly and society mutually withdrawing from each other. Activity theory: successful aging involves staying socially active and engaged, contradicting disengagement theory. The ``graying'' of society refers to a growing elderly population share due to rising life expectancy and lower birth rates.

Disengagement theory (mutual withdrawal of elderly and society is normal) vs. activity theory (continued engagement leads to better aging outcomes) --- directly opposing theories of the same subject.

An elderly person who stays highly active in clubs and social roles illustrates activity theory --- the exam may mislabel this as support for disengagement theory, the opposite conclusion.

Disengagement = withdraw; Activity = stay engaged.

Work is stratified by prestige, autonomy, and specialized knowledge, and ``professionalization'' of an occupation raises its status.

A profession is characterized by specialized/abstract knowledge, licensing/credentialing, a code of ethics, and autonomy over one's own work. Occupational prestige rankings tend to correlate with education and income. Durkheim linked increasing occupational specialization (division of labor) to organic solidarity in modern societies.

Profession (high autonomy, specialized training, self-regulating, e.g., physician, lawyer) vs. a generic occupation/job (less autonomy, more external supervision) --- not every paid job is a ``profession'' in the sociological sense.

A highly paid but externally supervised occupation (e.g., a salesperson) does not automatically count as a ``profession'' --- the key criteria are autonomy, credentialing, and specialized knowledge, not pay.

Profession = credential $+$ autonomy $+$ code of ethics, not just income.

Sociology emerged in 19th-century Europe as thinkers sought to apply scientific methods to understand the upheavals of industrialization.

Auguste Comte coined the term ``sociology,'' proposed positivism (studying society scientifically), and the ``law of three stages'' of human thought (theological, metaphysical, positive/scientific). Herbert Spencer applied evolutionary (``social Darwinist'') ideas to society. Harriet Martineau translated Comte's work and is considered a founding female sociologist/methodologist. W.E.B. Du Bois pioneered empirical studies of race in America (e.g., The Philadelphia Negro) and developed the concept of double consciousness.

Comte's positivism (society can be studied scientifically/objectively) vs. Spencer's social Darwinism (society evolves via competitive ``survival of the fittest'') --- both 19th-century founders, but different central ideas.

Crediting someone with coining the term ``sociology'' and advocating positivism points to Comte, not Durkheim or Weber, who built on his foundation later.

Comte = ``father of sociology,'' positivism, law of three stages.

C. Wright Mills argued that the sociological imagination is the ability to connect personal experiences (``personal troubles'') to larger social forces (``public issues'').

Personal trouble = a private problem experienced by an individual (e.g., one person losing a job). Public issue = a problem rooted in social structure affecting many people (e.g., mass unemployment from economic restructuring). The sociological imagination requires seeing how biography intersects with history and social structure.

Personal trouble (individual-level, seemingly private cause) vs. public issue (structural, shared cause affecting a whole category of people) --- the same behavior can be framed either way depending on scale and cause.

Widespread job loss from a recession, framed as one person's ``failure to find work,'' tests whether students recognize this as a public issue rather than merely a personal trouble.

One person out of work = personal trouble; millions out of work = public issue.

Functionalism views society as an interconnected system of parts that work together to maintain stability and social order.

Durkheim: society is held together by a ``collective conscience''; social facts are external, coercive forces studied objectively; his Suicide study linked suicide rates to social integration/regulation, identifying egoistic, altruistic, anomic, and fatalistic suicide. Talcott Parsons built structural functionalism as a grand theory (AGIL: adaptation, goal attainment, integration, latency). Robert Merton distinguished manifest and latent functions and identified dysfunctions (negative consequences of a social structure).

Egoistic suicide (too little social integration/isolation) vs. anomic suicide (too little social regulation, e.g., after sudden social disruption) --- both involve weak bonds but relate to different mechanisms.

A wave of suicides following a sudden economic crash (norms breaking down) is anomic suicide, not egoistic, even though isolation may also be present --- anomic ties specifically to disrupted regulation.

Durkheim's suicide types: egoistic (isolation), altruistic (over-integration), anomic (normlessness), fatalistic (over-regulation).

Conflict theory views society as composed of groups competing for scarce resources and power, with inequality as a central, persistent feature.

Marx: history is driven by class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat; the economic base (means/relations of production) shapes the ideological superstructure (culture, law, politics, religion); false consciousness = the working class failing to recognize its own exploited class interests. Ralf Dahrendorf extended conflict theory to authority relations in any institution. Feminist theory and critical race theory extend conflict analysis to gender and racial inequality.

Conflict theory (inequality/competition over resources is central) vs. structural functionalism (order and cooperation are central; inequality can even be ``functional'') --- the two classic, frequently paired, opposing macro-paradigms.

Given the same fact (e.g., tracking students by ability), functionalists frame it as efficient sorting, while conflict theorists frame it as reproducing class inequality --- match the paradigm named in the question stem, not your own intuition.

Conflict = competition/inequality over resources; Functionalism = stability/order via interdependent parts.

Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level perspective holding that people act toward things based on meanings created and modified through social interaction.

George Herbert Mead is the intellectual founder (his student Herbert Blumer coined the actual term). The self develops through interaction and role-taking (the ``I'' and ``me,'' play stage $arrow$ game stage). The Thomas theorem (W.I. and Dorothy Thomas): ``If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.'' Goffman's dramaturgical analysis (front stage/back stage, impression management) extends symbolic interactionism.

Symbolic interactionism (micro-level, meaning-making in everyday interaction) vs. structural functionalism/conflict theory (macro-level, large-scale social structures) --- a ``micro vs. macro'' question is testing this distinction.

The TERM ``symbolic interactionism'' is often wrongly attributed to Mead --- Mead built the underlying ideas, but Herbert Blumer coined the term. Also, a self-fulfilling prophecy from a false belief tests the Thomas theorem specifically.

Symbolic interactionism = micro, meaning-making; Thomas theorem: perceived as real $arrow$ real consequences.

Sociologists use a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, each with strengths and weaknesses, and must distinguish correlation from causation.

Survey (large samples, self-report bias); experiment (manipulates an independent variable, tests causation, uses control/experimental groups); participant observation/ethnography (researcher immerses in a group, rich qualitative detail, risk of the Hawthorne effect); content analysis (systematic study of texts/media); secondary/existing-data analysis (uses data already collected, e.g., census data). Reliability (consistency of a measure) vs. validity (whether a measure actually measures what it claims to).

Correlation (two variables change together) vs. causation (one variable actually produces change in the other) --- correlation alone never proves causation.

Two variables that rise and fall together tempt students to infer causation --- the correct, cautious conclusion is that an association exists, not that causation is proven; watch for spurious relationships caused by a third variable.

Correlation $≠$ causation; reliability = consistency, validity = accuracy of measurement.

100 questions, 90 minutes, 5 domains, ACE-recommended score = 50.

When two terms sound alike, ask: which side of the pair does the scenario actually describe?

Match the keyword in the question to the theorist who owns it --- most CLEP items hinge on exactly one name.

These works are the ``primary sources'' behind the theory questions --- know which theorist/idea goes with each title.

Level $arrow$ paradigm $arrow$ precise term $arrow$ check for the reversed distractor.

100 questions / 90 minutes / all multiple choice --- no essay, so speed and precise terminology both matter.

Emergence $arrow$ coalescence $arrow$ bureaucratization $arrow$ decline (success, failure, co-optation, repression, or mainstreaming).

Cause $arrow$ experiment; breadth $arrow$ survey; depth $arrow$ observation; texts $arrow$ content analysis; existing records $arrow$ secondary data.