Sociology questions

Answer each of the 4 questions below; they are each worth 4 points. These questions ask you to apply your sociological imagination and knowledge to social issues and data presented in linked articles below. You will need to read the linked article in order to accurately answer the question. 

Each question requires a one page long response (250 words double-spaced) that is organized into 2 substantial paragraphs. 5-7 sentences per paragraph is a good rule of thumb. This means your finished exam should be roughly 4 double-spaced pages long, or roughly 1000 words.

That said, be sure to put everything in your own words. Do not quote and do not plagiarize from any sources. As always, submissions that contain plagiarism will receive 0 points.

Questions 1 and 2 are about this article (Links to an external site.) by Professor Jennifer Lee.

1) Why isn’t high educational attainment for Asian-Americans simply a question of culture, according to Lee? Explain how her analysis of hyper-selectivity dispels the model minority myth by presenting a social constructionist view of race and racial inequality.

2) Based on your understanding of sociological research methodology, reconstruct two sociological research questions that seem to have guided Professor Lee’s research based on the data and argument she presents. First, explain what constitutes a sociological research question. Then formulate two questions that you think she has sought to answer through her empirical research. Identify the independent and dependent variables in each question, a possible hypothesis the question was testing, and the likely research method used to analyze the relationship between these variables.

For questions 3 and 4, draw on the data and analysis presented in this July 3rd article (Links to an external site.) by New York Times writers Larry Buchanan, Quoctrung Bui, and Jugal Patel (if you cannot open the link because of the NYT paywall, I have saved the article as a Word document under Files in Canvas): 

3) Explain two reasons why Black Lives Matter has likely become the largest social movement in US history. Use and explain two key sociological concepts from the OpenStax textbook Chapter 21 on social movements in your response, and at least two key data points presented in the article as evidence to support your analysis.

4) Using your sociological imagination, discuss two structural reasons that might help explain why public opinion has shifted in favor of Black Lives Matter. By structural, I mean how  changes to groups and institutions in the US have in turn produced this cultural change (remember, opinion is rooted in beliefs, which are an element of culture). Focus one paragraph on a key group change, and focus the other paragraph on a key institutional change. You may want to look back at Discussion Board 2 and its chart from Pew Research that we analyzed during Week 2 in thinking through your response.

first article：https://items.ssrc.org/from-our-programs/it-takes-more-than-grit-reframing-asian-american-academic-achievement/

second article：https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/03/us/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html?searchResultPosition=1