Sample Exam Questions
These are reproductions of questions asked on past examinations:
- One of the central terms of our discussion of language and its influence
has been "motive." Discuss the concept of motive as we have talked
about it. What is a motive? Why is it central to the perspective of language
we have discussed? How does the concept differ from your previous understanding
of the term? How does the term comment on the epistemological, the sociological,
and the behavioral dimensions of language?
- Several of your books (particularly Gusfield, but the others as well)
and at least one lecture talked about the sense in which "problems"
which our society addresses are shaped in language. The sense of "problem"
frames some "reality" in terms which guide our response to it.
This is the sense of problems as social rituals. Discuss the role which
communication plays in addressing problems socially.
- When you were a child you were told lots of fairy tales (for example,
Sleeping Beauty), parables (for example, the father's concern for the prodigal
son), proverbs (for example, a stitch in time saves nine), and stories
(for example, A Man Without a Country). Select a fairy tale, a parable,
a proverb, or a story which has been particularly critical in your life.
Discuss the communication taking place as this item becomes central to
your life. Discuss its motivational quality, where you acquired it, how
it has shaped your life at key point(s), and the force of continuity in
your behavior. Your answer will be evaluated on the degree to which your
discussion shows an understanding of the process of communication of this
course.
- Explain the relationship between motivation and action in the framework
we have been studying it this semester. You may find questions useful such
as: How does our concept of motive explain human action? Does this change
the character of action? of motive? What does this perspective allows us
to explain about action that we might not be able to explain otherwise?
Your answer will be graded on the fullness of understanding of the concept
of motive and importance of the concept in explaining human social action
(and not simply on your answering of the stimulus questions listed here).
- Mayor Marion Barry of Washington was sentenced to six months in jail
after his conviction for a drug offense. Analyze the social significance
of the sentence from the perspective of our course. I am, of course, not
primarily interested in your personal opinion about whether the sentence
is, or is not, a good idea (although you might find that positions for,
or against, the sentence are one way to answer the question). I am interested
in your analysis of the symbolic importance of this sentence on social
action. What is the symbolic place of prison sentences? How does this place
relate to this case specifically? Your answer will be evaluated on your
demonstrated ability to discuss the social implications of the sentence
in the perspective of the course.
- Attached is an excerpt from an essay which appeared in the Washington
Post (29 October 1990, p. C3). The essay discusses an alternative to
our current criminal justice system. Compare the symbolic process in which
our current criminal justice system socializes our experience of crime
with the symbolic process implied in this alternative. What does your analysis
imply about the workings and wisdom of such an alternative? Your answer
will be evaluated on your ability to employ the perspective of the course
to illuminate the issue.
- We discussed three functions performed with a motive: to describe,
to evaluate, and to coordinate response. Explain how a motive performs
each of these functions. Explain how these three functions are united in
the performance of a motive. Illustrate your answer with an example.
- Bronislaw Malinowski said: That humans eat every day is not very interesting;
that some eat with their fingers and others with knives and forks, now
that's interesting. We have taken Malinowski's idea and said that we seek
to explain "the variety of human behavior." What does this mean?
Explain what language has to do with the variety of human behavior. What
is it about our method that permits us to understand that variety?
- Select a group with which you associate. Tell me a bit about the group.
Then describe the ways in which communication shapes the group. What rituals,
stories, and/or repetitive day-to-day communication patterns are important
to the group? What work do those rituals, stories, and communication patterns
do for the group? How do they hold the group together? How do they coordinate
the actions of the group? Your answer will be evaluated on how fully you
can deploy the material from the class to discuss your group.
- The attached flyer was posted on bulletin boards around campus. The
incident addressed in this flyer followed Bill White's posting a notice
on a child welfare usernet sight on the internet informing the readers
that a high school student was being abused by her parents. Included in
the notice was the phone number of the parents with a suggestion that the
readers phone the parents with demands that they stop their behavior. Phone
calls began pouring in to the parents who deny that they abuse their daughter,
and the Post published their story wondering how much right someone
has to publish such accusations on the internet. Using the perspective
of the course, discuss the various definitions of situation, the various
perspectives on the events, framed in this flyer. What are the different
motives invoked by the disputants? What ideographs are invoked? How do
those different motives enact the environment differently?
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