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Jay Coakley, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology

Jay Coakley
University of Colorado
at Colorado Springs
1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Colorado Springs, CO 80918
TEST INFORMATION

Soc 330, Test II, Spring 2001

Review & Study Guide

Questions will be asked on the following topics (about 65 multiple-choice questions in all)

1.    What types of violence are widely accepted by athletes in contact sports? And why are they accepted?
2.       How is deviant over conformity related to violence in sports?
3.       How are masculinity and commercialization related to violence in sports?
4.       What does Nancy Theberge's research tell us about how women athletes deal with brutal body contact?
5.       Why are rates of violence higher in men's sports than in women's sports?
6.       How are gender and race connected with violence in sports/
7.       Does the violence learned and used in sports carry over to nonsport settings?
8.       What factors are related to male violence against women?
9.       Under what conditions might sport participation inspire the control of aggression? 
10.    How have rates of athlete and spectator violence varied through History?
11.    What factors are related to spectator violence and what strategies might be used to effectively control it?
12.  What factors have encouraged increased participation of girls and women in sports?
13.    What factors may impede future growth in sport participation by girls and women?
14.    Are participation opportunities for girls and women the same as they are for boys and men? What are the differences?
15.    What are the major findings of the 23-year research project done by Acosta and Carpenter?
16.    What are the gender equity strategies recommended by Donna Lopiano?
17.    What is needed for full gender equity to be achieved?
18.    How does sport participation empower women? How is that empowerment expressed?
19.    What are the characteristics of the two-category gender classification system and dominant gender logic in terms of their implications for men and women athletes?
20.    What impact do women cheerleaders and women bodybuilders have on gender ideology?
21.    What are the differences between structural and ideological changes in sports when it comes to gender?
22.  What are the foundations and characteristics of the major racial classification systems used in the US today?
23.    What are the characteristics of the "race logic" used in the US through much of the 20th century?
24.    What problems are involved in the "Search for Jumping Genes in Black Bodies" and in other forms of "race difference" research?
25.    How does race logic influence choices made by people when it comes to sport participation?
26.    Why did Charlene Teeters object to the use of Native American images and customs in sports?
27.    Under what conditions might the use of Native American images in sports be appropriate?
28.    What have certain sports been desegregated so completely?
29.    What are the most difficult race-related and intergroup challenges that remain in sports today?
30.  How is social stratification and social class related to sport participation and spectatorship?
31.    How do money and economic power influence the meaning and organization of sports?
32.    What is the dominant "class logic" highlighted in dominant sports today?
33.    Why would people with power and resources want to sponsor sports?
34.    Who receives the most benefit when public money is used to fund pro sport stadiums?
35.    What are the arguments for and against using public money to fund pro sports facilities?
36.    How do athletes from different social class backgrounds define the meaning of sports in their lives?
37.    What did Wacquant discover about boxing in the lives of minority men from low income neighborhoods?
38.    What problems are associated with corporate sponsorship of varsity sports?
39.    Which coaches are most likely to be highly or poorly paid in college sport programs?
40.    What challenges do women face when they work in major sport programs and organizations?
41.    How is sport participation related to social mobility among African Americans in the US?
42.    Are athletic scholarships a major source of upward social mobility in the US?
43.  In what kinds of societies are commercial sports likely to prosper? Why?
44.    Why has football become "America's game"?
45.    Why have sports become increasingly global and why have corporations sponsored global sports?
46.    How and why are sports used to establish "ideological outposts" in people's minds?
47.    How do sports change as they become commercialized?
48.    Is owning a professional sports team a good investment? When is it and when isn't it?
49.    How are professional sports subsidized by public money in the US?
50.    What are the pros and cons of corporate sponsorship for amateur sports?
51.    How is the legal status of athletes related to salaries?

Soc 330, Test I, Spring 2001
Review & Study Guide

 Questions will be asked on the following topics (about 65 multiple-choice questions in all)

1.       Two questions from film, Sex and Sports
2.       How do sociologists conceptualize & study sports? How is this different from a psychological approach?
3.       What is cultural ideology and how is it related to sports? What is gender logic, race, logic, etc.?
4.       How is the body social? 
5.       What is institutionalization, and how is related to the study of sports as social phenomena?
6.       What is sport, and what problems are associated with using a fixed definition of sport when doing research?
7.       What does it mean to say that sports are contested activities? What exactly is contested?
8.       Why do sociologists use so many different theoretical perspectives to study sports in society?
9.       What are the social actions and policy recommendations associated with each of the 6 theoretical perspectives summarized in the text?
10.    What does it mean to say that sports are "gendered activities"?
11.    What theoretical perspective would you use if you wanted to study sports from the perspectives of athletes, or if you wanted to make changes in sports, or if you wanted to study sports in connection with globalization? 
12.    Why are more people around the globe playing similar games/sports?
13.    In what ways have sports through history been connected with culture and society, and power and resources?
14.    How are modern, high profile, competitive sports different from sports in previous times?
15.    How has gender been related to sports and sport participation in the historical times and places summarized in the text?
16.    What does the section on Native American sports tell us about recorded history?
17.    Differences between internalization and interactionist models of socialization
18.    Main findings from interactionist research on becoming and staying involved in sports
19.    Findings in burnout study, and other findings re: the process of ending or changing sport participation
20.    When is sport participation most likely to have a positive impact on overall social development?
21.    Differences between power and performance versus pleasure and participation sports.
22.    Main findings from the studies by Theberge, Adler and Adler, Woog, and Wacquant.
23.    How are Gramsci's ideas used to understand issues related to socialization and sports?
24.    What happened to the media images of Michael Jordan and why did it happen?
25.    What trends account for the high participation rates in organized youth sports?
26.    What happens to poor families when parents are expected to control their children 24 hours a day? 
27.    Themes in the film, Playing to Extremes (2 questions)
28.    Differences between organized and informal games
29.    Why do 10 year olds play "beehive soccer"?
30.    What changes are recommended for youth sports?
31.    Problems faced when studying deviance in sports
32.    Characteristics of deviance in sports
33.    What is the sport ethic and how is it related to deviance among athletes?
34.    Why do athletes often overconform to the norms of the sport ethic, and what are the possible consequences of this overconformity for the athletes, for their relationships with each other and with "non-athletes"? 
35.    What is hubris, and how does it operate among some athletes?
36.    Why is it difficult to control deviant overconformity in sports?
37.    Are athletes more deviant on the field today than athletes in the past?
38.    Are the felony rates among athletes out of control?
39.    When might sport participation discourage deviant behavior?
40.    Why might athletes use performance enhancing substances, and what might be done to effectively control the abuse of these substances?