Answer the questions:

What argument received most emphasis in the work of the American sociologist Ogburn and what idea is he responsible for?

What did he think of change in material culture?

Why do inventions in airplanes building appear rapidly and predictably?

Are there any generally accepted standards in the area of nonmaterial culture?

How do styles of painting develop?

What is lacking in many areas of nonmaterial culture?

What do some sociologists, including Ogburn, think about material culture change?

What has transformed life in the twentieth century? How has it effected economic systems, family life, education and religion?

What made Ogburn formulate the concept of “culture lag”?

What do material inventions bring, according to Ogburn?

What did invention of the automobile bring? How has it effected a family system? Why did it facilitate crime?

How is the period of culture lag defined?

Explain why the concept of culture lag is associated with what we call social problems.

Do all sociologists accept the premises upon which the concept of culture lag is based? What assumption do they question?

What do they think about the origin of material inventions? What realm do they see knowledge and science in?

How do they see the relationship between material and nonmaterial culture?

What is another point of dispute on?

In which culture do some sociologists find abundant evidence of resistance to change?

In what areas does nonmaterial culture change exceedingly rapidly? Give an example.

What appears at least to be an oversimplification?

While there is no way to compare directly the rate of change in such areas of nonmaterial culture with that in various areas of material culture, the allegedly more rapid material culture change appears at least to be an oversimplification.

It was Ogburn, also, who was chiefly responsible for the idea that the rate of invention within a society is a function of the size of the existing culture base. He saw the rate of material invention as increasing with the passage of time.

Even today, we may have a family system that is better adapted to a farm economy than to an urban industrial one, and nuclear weapons exist in a diplomatic atmosphere attuned to the requirements of the nineteenth century.

The balance is upset by the appearance of new material objects. The resulting imbalance is defined as a social problem until once again nonmaterial culture changes in adjustment to the new technology.

Not all sociologists accept the premises upon which the concept of culture lag is based, or believe it to be a very useful idea.

Change in material culture is believed to have a marked directional or progressive character.

Whether one prefers a Washol, a Picasso, or a Gainsborough, for example, is a matter of taste, and styles of painting fluctuate unevenly.