1. Choose the correct statement about the text

1.Which of the following statements best summarizes the opening paragraph:

1. One’s personality is more important that one’s looks.

2. Physical attractiveness counts more than person’s heart and mind.

3. Looks can influence person’s character.

4. Media influences our judgment of people by their looks.

1. The abbreviation BIG in paragraph 2 suggests that

   1. the understanding of beauty changes over time.

   2. people believe that physically more attractive people are generally better than the less attractive ones.

   3. Standards of attractiveness are due to television and advertisements.

   4. The more attractive a person is the worse his/her behavior may be.

3. The most important finding about BIG is:

   1. It is a stereotype, hence it’s inaccurate.

   2. It holds some truth in it.

   3. It loses its importance once we get to know the person.

   4. Although it is inaccurate, it persists because of mass media.

4. Paragraph 4 suggests that to overcome BIG stereotype

   1. media should create a positive image of the physically imperfect.

   2. we needn’t associate good traits with beauty.

   3. we must socialize more.

   4. we must know symbolic interaction theory

2. Discuss the following questions:

1. Could you give examples of how television influences creating BIG stereotype?

2. Do you know any cases when physical attractiveness gave people advantages in their social life or career?

3. Do you think that two equally qualified people, one who is attractive and the other who is not, who apply for the same job, will be on an equal playing field for hiring?

4. Women and racial minorities are starting to be portrayed more positively in television and movies. Do the media have any responsibility in altering how they portray people based on degree of attractiveness?

5. How can mass media change BIG stereotype?

UNIT 4

Lead-in:

1. Do you like spy stories? Can you remember any you have read or watched on TV recently?

2. What are spies’ methods of getting information?

3. Can you remember any stories when a secret agent penetrated into enemy’s environment?

4. Do you think if there is something in common between the methods

used by sociologists and those used by secret agents?

Text 1 Skim and scan

1. What are the typical roles of a researcher doing participant observation?

2. What is similar and what is different between these roles?

Participant Observation

1. The best way to gain an insider’s view is to actually become an insider through participant observation. Using participant observation the researcher witnesses, experiences, and engages firsthand in the activities of the group being studied. This requires that the researcher take on some accepted status or position within the group. In his study of the Church of Satan, for example, Randall Alfred (1976) told members of the church that he was a recent convert to Satanism. His accepted status as a new member opened up the group for study in a way that would otherwise have been impossible.

Complete Participant

2. There are two typical roles for participant observers in field research. One is the role of complete participant. A complete participant becomes a member of the group being studied, interacting with subjects as naturally as possible, but does not inform the other group members of the research being done. Judith Rollins (1985) chose to become a complete participant in order to investigate relationship between domestic workers and their employers. She obtained a job as a domestic worker for ten different families, knowing that her study would be severely compromised if her employers found out about her research. Even if she assured them of confidentiality, they probably would never have hired her. But Rollins was uncomfortable with the ethics of this kind of research. She asked herself whether the research gain was worth the deception. Ultimately she concluded that it was. Despite the fact that domestic work is one of the commonest occupations for low-income women world-wide, sociologists know very little about it. Rollins believed that her insights, however limited, would help others understand the lives of these women and would perhaps benefit the women in some way.