Delta State University
SOC 101: Principles of Sociology
Fall Semester 2005

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(1) What is meant by the term race (or racial group)?  What is meant by the term ethnicity (or ethnic group)? 

(2) Distinguish a minority group, a majority group and a dominant group.  What characteristics define a minority group?

(3) What is the difference between prejudice, racism and discrimination?  What role does ethnocentrism play in prejudice?  What other factors lead to prejudice?  To discrimination?

(4) What is meant by institutional discrimination?  How is institutional discrimination different from other forms of discrimination?  Provide an example that illustrates institutional discrimination.

(5) Describe the characteristics of each of the following patterns of intergroup relations:  genocide, amalgamation, assimilation, segregation, and pluralism (or multiculturalism).  Which of these approaches have been tried in the United States?  What were the results?

(6) Describe cultural and structural characteristics of each of the following groups:  White Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Jewish Americans.  How much diversity exists within each group?

(7) How has immigration to the United States changed over the years?  What have been some of the effects of changes in immigration policy?  Of changes in the sources of immigration to the U.S.?

(8) Use the concepts of recognition, time and space to describe the experiences of black students on white college campuses.  How do conflicting perceptions of recognition, time and space perpetuate racial discrimination on college campuses?  In other social settings?