Exam prep · Free college course

Introduction to Sociology: 1,254 Free Flashcards

A complete introductory sociology course, built from the 21 chapters of OpenStax Introduction to Sociology 3e plus standard introductory terminology. It opens with the sociological imagination, the founders (Comte, Marx, Durkheim, Weber) and the three big perspectives: structural functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interactionism. Then it covers research methods, culture, society and social interaction, socialization, groups and organizations, and deviance, crime and social control. The middle of the course is inequality: media and technology, stratification in the United States, global inequality, race and ethnicity, and gender, sex and sexuality. The last units cover aging, marriage and family, religion, education, government, work and the economy, health and medicine, population and the environment, and social movements and social change. Each chapter starts with a short notes card and then mixes recall, multiple choice, cloze, true or false, and a few sequence and explain cards. Theories are attributed to the theorists who hold them, and US statistics are dated or kept to stable concepts. The cards are text only, with no diagrams.

1,254cards
21units
79chapters
22sources cited

What's inside

Unit 1 An Introduction to Sociology

4 chapters · 61 cards

Unit 2 Sociological Research

4 chapters · 78 cards

Unit 3 Culture

4 chapters · 74 cards

Unit 4 Society and Social Interaction

3 chapters · 57 cards

Unit 5 Socialization

4 chapters · 59 cards

Unit 6 Groups and Organizations

3 chapters · 56 cards

Unit 7 Deviance, Crime and Social Control

5 chapters · 86 cards

Unit 8 Media and Technology

4 chapters · 44 cards

Unit 9 Social Stratification in the US

4 chapters · 76 cards

Unit 10 Global Inequality

3 chapters · 59 cards

Unit 11 Race and Ethnicity

6 chapters · 77 cards

Unit 12 Gender, Sex and Sexuality

4 chapters · 75 cards

Unit 13 Aging and the Elderly

4 chapters · 44 cards

Unit 14 Marriage and Family

3 chapters · 53 cards

Unit 15 Religion

3 chapters · 42 cards

Unit 16 Education

3 chapters · 56 cards

Unit 17 Government and Politics

4 chapters · 39 cards

Unit 18 Work and the Economy

3 chapters · 41 cards

Unit 19 Health and Medicine

5 chapters · 59 cards

Unit 20 Population, Urbanization and the Environment

3 chapters · 59 cards

Unit 21 Social Movements and Social Change

3 chapters · 59 cards

Try a few real cards

Copied straight from the course. In the app, each wrong option also gets its own explanation.

Card 1A three-year-old talks into a toy phone, pretending to be their mother. Which stage in Mead's theory is this?

  1. Preparatory stage
  2. Play stage
  3. Game stage
  4. Preconventional stage
Show answer

Play stage. In the play stage a child takes the role of one significant other at a time, such as a parent.

Card 2In Merton's strain theory, what determines whether people conform or turn to deviance?

  1. How strongly they feel bonded to family and community
  2. Whether others have labeled them as deviant
  3. Whether they can reach accepted goals legitimately
  4. How many of their close friends break the law
Show answer

Whether they can reach accepted goals legitimately. Strain arises when a culture sets goals such as financial success but blocks legitimate access to the means.

Card 3A student attends college to earn a degree but ends up meeting a future spouse. Meeting the spouse is an example of a:

  1. Manifest function
  2. Latent function
  3. Dysfunction
  4. Dynamic equilibrium
Show answer

Latent function. Latent functions are unsought consequences and can be helpful, neutral or harmful.

Questions

Is the Introduction to Sociology course really free?

Yes. Create a free Encodr account and all 21 units and 1,254 cards are yours to study, with spaced repetition scheduling your reviews.

Which textbook is it based on?

OpenStax Introduction to Sociology 3e (all 21 chapters, CC BY-NC-SA) plus standard introductory terminology. The cards are rewritten, not copied.

What does the course cover?

Sociological theory and research, culture, socialization, groups, deviance and crime, media, stratification, global inequality, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, aging, family, religion, education, government, work, health, population and the environment, and social change.

How does it treat statistics that change?

Cards use stable concepts or give the year of the figure, so a poverty or wage-gap number does not quietly go out of date. Where the textbook is dated, the card follows current evidence.

Does it include images or diagrams?

No. Cards are text only, so charts, maps and population pyramids are described in words.

Keep going in the social sciences