Student Resources

Learning Objectives

Chapter 1

After reading Chapter 1, you should:

1. appreciate how profoundly globalization affects the contemporary human condition.
2. be familiar with the major categories of globalization.
3. understand how globalization can be both a blessing and a curse.
4. understand the conflicting trends of Jihad versus McWorld.
5. be familiar with the key global issues discussed in this chapter.
6. be familiar with the content and methods of good global citizenship, and the role model set by Canada.

Chapter 2

After reading Chapter 2, you should:

1. understand the historical, philosophical, and methodological foundations of the social sciences.
2. understand the relationship between the three great bodies of knowledge: the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences.
3. be familiar with the intellectual history of the social sciences and related research methods.
4. understand the philosophical debate involving social scientism and social humanism.
5. be familiar with your textbook author's "synthesis" of social scientism and social humanism (the "roomy" social sciences).

Chapter 3

After reading Chapter 3, you should

1. be able to use geography's spatial facts, concepts, and theories to explain the behavior of states and the confluence of ecological issues that are global in scope.
2. be familiar with the history of the human mismanagement of the earth.
3. be able to identify geography's origins.
4. understand how to comprehend world affairs through geography.
5. be familiar with the misuse of geographic theories.
6. understand the relationship between geography and globalization's web.

Chapter 4

After reading Chapter 4, you should:

1. understand how ecological issues like environment, population, food, and energy reflect the globalization process.
2. be familiar with the core elements of the globalist outlook.
3. be able to distinguish between ecological optimists and ecological pessimists
4. be familiar with the major ecological challenges facing our planet.
5. understand the dynamics of population, food, and energy.

Chapter 5

After reading Chapter 5, you should:

1. be able to identify theoretical and practical solutions to the vexing array of ecological global problems.
2. be able to identify the various institutions discussed in this chapter that are designed to facilitate global dialogue.
3. understand the guiding policy principles identified in this chapter: deep ecology, minimalism, sustainable agriculture, creative science, grass-roots initiatives, female empowerment, environmentally intelligent architecture, think globally but act locally, multilateralism, democracy and devolution, green consumerism, green justice, environmental accounting, aggressive regulation, ecological policy dialogue, and a green plan.
4. be familiar with the country of Brazil as a laboratory for sustainable development.
5. understand global criticism of Brazilian policy.
6. be familiar with the Earth Summit and the policy dilemmas confronting Brazilian government.

Chapter 6

After reading Chapter 6, you should:

1. be able to conceptualize the main patterns of social identity competing for the hearts and minds of humanity.
2. be able to identify and be familiar with the eight conceptions of social identity: national identity, regional identity, racial identity, ethnic identity, economic super-regions, and North (MDCs) versus South (LDCs), religious mega-cultures, and one global community.
3. understand the significance of territoriality as a challenge to the vision of shared identity.

Chapter 7

After reading Chapter 7, you should:

1. understand the major theories of human motivation and personality and their application to social discourse.
2. be familiar with psychology's history and understand how the discipline adds unique elements to the social sciences.
3. be acquainted with the text's discussion of psychology "on the world stage."
4. be familiar with the cross-cultural perspective.

Chapter 8

After reading Chapter 8, you should:

1. understand the ethical and humanitarian influences on human behavior.
2. be familiar with the interface of ethics and the social sciences.
3. understand the relationship between religion, ethics, and world affairs.
4. be familiar with the major human rights issues discussed in the text.

Chapter 9

After reading Chapter 9, you should:

1. be able to comprehend anthropology’s holistic and comparative contributions to the study of human behavior as resulting from both biological and cultural factors.
2. be familiar with the various sub-fields of the discipline of anthropology.
3. understand evolutionary theory.
4. be familiar with the laws of heredity.
5. understand the stages of evolution.
6. be familiar with the contemporary issues in anthropology, as discussed in the text.

Chapter 10

After reading Chapter 10, you should:

1. understand how society and culture represent the structure and content of human social activity.
2. understand the sociological perspective.
3. be familiar with the elements of culture.
4. understand the process of socialization.
5. be familiar with the elements of social structure.
6. be familiar with the pivotal social institutions discussed in the text (marriage and the family, religion, education, the economy, and government).
7. understand the sociological implications of social inequality.

Chapter 11

After reading Chapter 11, you should:

1. appreciate the resiliency and flexibility of culture by comparing selected micro- and mega-level cultures.
2. be familiar with Asian collectivist cultures (Japan, China).
3. be familiar with semi-collectivist cultures (Russia, Brazil).
4. be familiar with hunter-gatherer micro-cultures (the Arara tribe of Brazil, the Baka tribe of the Ituri River Forest.
5. understand Islam as a mega-culture.
6. be familiar with L. Robert Kohls adaptation of the Kluckhohn Model, with an emphasis on the five central questions that aim at the essence of any culture’s value system
7. understand the distinction between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.

Chapter 12

After reading Chapter 12, you should:

1. understand and appreciate political science’s vision of what really matters (power) and how it relates to politics and government in various contexts.
2. be familiar with the variety of political ideology.
3. be able to classify governments using the techniques outlined in the text.
4. understand comparative politics and government.

Chapter 13

After reading Chapter 13, you should:

1. be familiar with the evolution of the state system, its devastating legacy of war, and recent challengers to the state for human loyalties
2. be able to distinguish between the broad theories of realism and idealism
3. be familiar with what the text calls the "nuclear dilemma"
4. be able to evaluate what the text labels the "democratic peace"

Chapter 14

After reading Chapter 14, you should:

1. be able to analyze the means of subsistence devised by societies to produce, distribute, and consume goods and services.
2. be familiar with the basic concepts of economics.
3. be able to trace the evolution of Western economies.
4. understand the relationship between America and the global market.
5. be familiar with the U.S. economic climate and related institutions.

Chapter 15

After reading Chapter 15, you should:

1. understand the changing nature of the international economic system and the major theories concerning its behavior.
2. be able to trace the evolution of the international economy.
3. be familiar with the theory of international trade and finance.
4. be acquainted with non-state threats to U.S. economic status.
5. understand the polarization of north and south.
6. be familiar with the different economic development strategies for impoverished countries.