Internet Exercises

Exercise 1

Collins and Makowsky observe: “[Thomas] formulated a key element of the symbolic interactionist approach in the statement that has since become known as the ‘Thomas Theorem’: ‘If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences’” (p. 167).

Go to http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/general/010/withomasdefsit.html. This link provides an excerpt from Thomas’s book The Unadjusted Girl (1923). After you have read the excerpt, answer the following questions:

1. For Thomas, what is the definition of the situation?



2. Explain the rivalry between the spontaneous definitions of the situation made by the members of an organized society and the definitions that their society has provided for them.



3. According to Thomas, how do the family and the community serve as defining agencies for the individual?



4. Thomas observed that the traditional community is “vanishing.” Why was this significant for Thomas?

Exercise 2

In Chapter 10, Collins and Makowsky discuss the discovery of social class and the importance of this concept to the discipline of sociology.

You may or may not be familiar with the PBS program People Like Us, which deals with various issues surrounding social class in American society. Go to http://www.pbs.org/peoplelikeus/games/index.html.

Upon accessing this link, you will find a “game” involving social class. [You may be asked to download the Macromedia Shockwave Player.] Click on the links shown for “So What Class Are You?” and then respond to the following questions:

1. What did you learn about yourself after taking the “decorating quiz” (“Chintz or Shag?”)?



2. After playing the game “So What Class Are You?” what did you discover about your social class background?



3. What is your “class attitude”?



4. Before you performed this exercise, had you given much thought to your socioeconomic background? How has this activity affected your thinking in this regard?