NWACC Sociology Test 1 - Real World

Which of the following groups is MOST likely to be classified as a counterculture? 1. a militia group living in Montana 2. NYC taxi drivers 3. students who belong to a Middle Eastern Studies Club 4. members of the NAACP

1. a militia group living in Montana

In the United States, imprisonment as a method of punishment was rare until the ________ century.

19th

Which of the following is a latent function of the U.S. educational system? 1. teaching reading and writing 2. keeping children out of trouble while parents are at work 3. preparing a modern workforce to use technology 4. teaching new immigrants about American values and history

2. keeping children out of trouble while parents are at work

Robert Merton's structural strain theory sees deviance as the result of a person's position in a social structure. What do you think Jack Katz, author of Seductions of Crime, would say about structural strain theory?

A focus on social position fails to consider the emotional appeal that a deviant act has for an individual

Given Jack Katz's theory of crime, what do you think would be the best subtitle for his book The Seductions of Crime?

Attractions of "Doing" Deviance

How is a counterculture different from a subculture?

Both are distinct from mainstream culture, but a counterculture actively opposes important aspects of the mainstream

Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice after lying to the FBI during an investigation of her sale of a stock that dramatically fell in value immediately after she sold it. Her conviction was unusual, as this sort of white collar crime is much more likely to be dealt with in civil, rather than criminal, court. How does the tendency to deal with white collar criminals in civil court bias our understanding of the demographics of crime?

It leads us to overestimate the relationship between poverty and crime

Which international business chain is referenced by George Ritzer's theory of spreading bureaucratic rationalization and increased efficiency?

McDonald's

Why is it increasingly difficult to use sociological models that assume interaction involves copresence?

New technology makes it much more common to interact with someone without being physically in the same place

________ provide most of our emotional support.

Primary groups

What did David Rosenhan describe in "On Being Sane in Insane Places"?

Researchers posing as "pseudo-patients" in a mental hospital but otherwise acting normally were treated as mentally ill by the hospital staff

________ are the webs of direct and indirect ties that connect individuals to others who may influence them.

Social networks

Jewish Americans, African Americans, and Hispanic Americans were not permitted to purchase houses in the suburb of Lakewood, California when it was first built in 1950. However, the developers reversed this policy within a few years and started selling homes to families regardless of religious faith or ethnicity. What does this tell us about stigma?

Stigmatized identities change over time

What must ethnographers using participant observation always be aware of reflexivity?

The presence of ethnographers may alter the behavior of the people they are observing

Why might Karl Marx and Émile Durkheim be placed far apart on sociology's family tree?

The theoretical approaches they founded are very different

The increased use of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media by terrorist organizations in other countries to recruit new members is an example of cultural diffusion for which reason?

Twitter and Facebook were originally products of the Western world that have been adapted by people in other countries

American criminologist Richard Quinney theorized that capitalism—and the exploitation and oppression of the working class—make deviant and even criminal behavior nearly inescapable for workers. The ruling class can make laws that target the poor. When the poor act out against repression, they become targets for law enforcement, while the rich and powerful remain free to do what they like. Quinney's theory falls under which sociological perspective?

conflict theory

Which theoretical perspective would suggest that group memberships are used to separate and differentially treat individuals on the basis of their categorization?

conflict theory

A behavior, trait, or belief is considered deviant if it

departs from a norm and results in a negative reaction

One morning, James must decide between being on time for work and helping his child with a homework assignment. What is James experiencing?

role conflict

Identify the means of enforcing norms that includes positive and negative versions.

sanctions

Norms are enforced in everyday settings by

sanctions

Brooke is a PhD candidate in the field of nanophysics. She is aware that only 4 percent of physics professionals are women. Brooke has heard peers and even instructors say that this is because women struggle to comprehend complex mathematics. When Brooke scores below her male counterparts on an exam, she may be experiencing

stereotype threat

According to Sigmund Freud, the ________ is the part of the mind that is responsible for representing culture within us and serving as the moral component of our personality in the psychoanalytic theory.

superego

What is one of the principal reasons people turn to deviant behavior in the United States, according to the structural strain theory of deviance as articulated by Robert Merton?

The goal of success is shared by a majority of people, but not everyone has equal means for achieving that goal

Erving Goffman theorized social life as a kind of con game in which we work to control the impressions others have of us. What did Goffman call this process?

impression management

What term describes a policy of honoring diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds?

multiculturalism

The term "master status" is defined as

status that generally overrides all other statuses a person possesses

Symbolic interactionism was established by

the Chicago School of sociology

Expressions given off

are typically nonverbal, but they are observable in various ways

You want to conduct some sociological research on whether people on social networking sites are less likely to meet in person as a result of their online community participation. What is the next step in the scientific method?

conduct a literature review

Monetary fines, harsh words, and shaking one's fist are examples of

negative sanctions

What sort of group dynamic may have led officials at NASA to ignore warnings and launch the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after takeoff?

groupthink

Most large retailers such as Target, H&M, and Old Navy carry similar clothing styles, and thus there is not extreme variation in what most Americans wear. Which sociological concept best explains this phenomenon?

hegemony

There are usually serious consequences when a politician is caught cheating on his spouse. In some cases, the politician is forced to resign from office when his constituents express their unhappiness with such behavior. According to Emile Durkheim, what function does this reaction serve?

It helps to clarify moral boundaries and reinforce the idea that marital infidelity is wrong

Is the microsociological or macrosociological perspective more useful in analyzing social phenomena?

Both are useful in different ways because they each provide different types of information about the same object of study

Robert Merton suggested that some white Americans who praise Abraham Lincoln for being frugal and thrifty might describe an Asian American with the same qualities as being stingy and penny-pinching. What explains this double standard?

For these white Americans, Lincoln was a member of their racial in-group, whereas an Asian American would be a member of an out-group

In what way is a game of football like society, according to George Herbert Mead?

Individuals have to take into account the roles and points of view of others in both football and society

In her research for The Second Shift, Arlie Hochschild interviewed married couples to find out how they dealt with changing family roles as more women entered the workforce. What advantages came from her decision to use interviews as a research method?

It allowed her to gather direct quotations and construct an intimate portrait of married couples

Why is the article "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" useful to sociologists?

It challenges people's inability to observe their own cultures

The Asch experiment yielded different results when other researchers tried to replicate it decades later, but a recent replication of Milgram's experiment had virtually the same results. What important implications does Milgram's research have for contemporary society?

It demonstrates that the power of conformity can still lead to real-life instances of obedience

Members of a fraternity believe that they help create social cohesion by bringing together students with shared values. What perspectives best describes their views?

Structural functionalism

What did Harvard Medical School researchers conclude about the effects of the media on young people in Fiji, who until the 1990s, lacked widespread access to television?

Television affected young women's body image

What is the primary reason to include a control group in an experiment?

The control group allows you to make comparisons to the experimental group

The sociologist Jospeh Conti studied the World Trade Organization as a social network. According to Conti, how is power measured within this type of social network?

The most powerful members have the most connections to other members

Sociologists studying deviance often focus on the most obvious and extreme forms of deviant behavior. What are the consequences of this approach?

The values and norms of the powerful are left unexamined, while the deviance of the poor is scrutinized

Why are adults unable to be completely socialized?

There will always be new situations and roles to learn

Why might expressions given off seem like more trustworthy guides than expressions given when we try to understand how other people define a situation?

We tend to believe that it is harder to manipulate expressions given off

Which factor makes sociologists question the relationship between youth and crime?

Young people may commit crimes that are more visible and, therefore, are arrested more often

Social media has the potential to increase the number of perspectives we are exposed to and socialized us in ways we never conceived before. Someone who has been influenced and "pieced together" through whatever sources available is an example of which sociological concept?

saturated self

David Rosenhan argues that misdiagnosis is particularly a problem for psychologists, as a diagnosis of a mental illness is as influential on the patient as it is on their relatives and friends. It should not surprise anyone that the diagnosis acts as a(n)

self-fulfilling prophecy

In 2007, the richest 1% of the American population owned 35% of the country's wealth, and the bottom 80% owned 14%. Karl Marx would call this

social inequality

What do sociologists call it when members of groups are influenced by other members?

social influence

Ethnocentric people tend to view other cultures as abnormal because

they use their own culture as a standard of judgement

A goal of socialization is

to teach norms, values, and beliefs

Young army recruits arriving at boot camp are about to enter a(n)

total institution

According to George Herbert Mead, the dual nature of the self refers to the idea that

we experience the self as both subject and object

In terms of job leads, men's social networks are different from those of women because

women are less likely to hear about quality job openings if their social networks are composed of more women than men

A characteristic of primary groups is that they

involve a strong sense of belonging

Although she made contributions to sociology, Jane Addams is perhaps best remembered for her embrace of praxis, which means that she

acted on her intellectual convictions in practical ways

What practice did Bernard McGrane suggests that individuals adopt to better understand the world around them?

beginner's mind

A researcher spends years conducting fieldwork with an indigenous tribe in Papua New Guinea and has a difficult time reacclimating to Western society when he returns to it. He uses the experience of returning home to view his own society from an outsider's perspective and learn something new about it. Which sociological concept best exemplifies the experience of this researcher?

culture shock

What has most of the sociological literature on deviance traditionally focused on?

crime

One of the functions of symbolic culture is that

it enables people to communicate

A sociologist preforms an experiment designed to investigate the effect of marriage counseling on divorce. They divide research participants into two similar groups of troubled couples, provides only one group with counseling, and observes whether or not, over time, the to groups eventually divorce at different rates. What is the independent variable in this experiment?

marriage counseling

Examples of ________ are designer labels on purses and logos on shirts

material culture

Metaphorically, what part of sociology is most like a zoom lens on a camera?

microsociology

Role conflict occurs when an individual has

multiple roles that are in conflict with each other

What is a sociologist's theoretical perspective if they argue that we have seen the "dissolution of master narratives or metanarratives"?

postmodernism

A person arrived at a company party dressed in a bunny costume only to discover that the party was not a costume party and he had been tricked by a co-worker. Everyone from then on saw him as crazy and eccentric and eventually he came to think of himself in this way too. The initial mistake at the party is an example of

primary deviance

In her ethnography Wheeling and Dealing, Patricia Adler investigates the social and professional worlds of mid-level cocaine and marijuana smugglers. Her research started unexpectedly when she discovered that her next-door neighbor and friend was a drug smuggler. This was a huge advantage for her because it meant that she already had ___________ with one of her informants.

rapport

In his research, ethnographer Richard Mitchell kept his identity a secret while studying militant survivalist groups. Sometimes he even presented himself as a believer in the survivalists' paranoid, racist ideologies, in order to establish

rapport

The Egg McMuffin is a vastly more efficient version of eggs Benedict. Egg McMuffins are cheaper, ready almost instantly at drive-through windows, and can be eaten with one hand while driving. However, they do not improve on the taste or experience eating eggs Benedict. Max Weber might have described the Egg McMuffin as the __________ of breakfast.

rationalization

A research study examined how teachers at community colleges handled retirement. The study found that the unique culture of such institutions had a significant effect on how retirees coped with their new situation. Which of the following could be the title of a paper written about this study? 1. "The Role Exit Process of Community College Faculty: A Study of Faculty Retirement" 2. "Role Strain and Teacher-Student Conflict: A Study of Faculty Anger Management" 3. "Role-Conflict in Community College Faculty: A Study of Faculty-Administration Arbitration" 4. "The Dramaturgical Structure of Community College Teaching: Life after Retirement"

1. "The Role Exit Process of Community College Faculty: A Study of Faculty Retirement"

Which of the following is a disadvantage of using existing sources of data for research? 1. Researchers often seek answers to questions the data does not directly address 2. Researchers have to spend a great deal of time and money to get the data 3. Researchers do not have access to existing sources 4. Existing sources are irrelevant to the contemporary world because they are from a different time and place

1. Researchers often seek answers to questions the data does not directly address

Which of the following is an advantage of using ethnography to study social life? 1. Ethnography is a quick and easy form of social science research 2. Ethnography requires the researcher to spend little time gaining familiarity with research participants 3. Ethnography allows the researcher to gather abundant data on a small population 4. Ethnography requires no training since it is something we all do as human beings

3. Ethnography allows the researcher to gather abundant data on a small population

Which of the following statements about bureaucracies is true? 1. They are organized in a way that breaks down hierarchies of management so that all members feel a sense of equality with one another. 2. Their rules are written carefully so as to never impede the purpose of the organization. 3. People who work in bureaucracies may feel alienation as a result of being treated in terms of roles, rules, and functions rather than as individuals. 4. Unlike Weber's prediction, few organizations today are structured as bureaucracies.

3. People who work in bureaucracies may feel alienation as a result of being treated in terms of roles, rules, and functions rather than as individuals.

Which of the following is true regarding prison as a mechanism for punishing crime? 1. Throughout history, most societies have used prison to punish the most serious crimes. 2. Historically, only humane and ethical societies have used prison as a form of punishment. 3. Prison was rarely used before the nineteenth century. 4. Prison is commonly used as a punishment because it is extremely cost-effective.

3. Prison was rarely used before the nineteenth century.

Which of the following is an example of bureaucratic organization at colleges and universities? 1. deans teaching sociology courses 2. professors choosing which text to use in class 3. students being issued ID numbers 4. soccer coaches being hired because of interest rather than skill

3. students being issued ID numbers

Which of the following sequences lists norms in the correct order, from the most strictly enforced to the least? 1. mores, taboos, folkways 2. folkways, taboos, mores 3. taboos, mores, folkways 4. folkways, mores, taboos

3. taboos, mores, folkways

Which response would you LEAST expect to find on the survey if a sociologist measured group cohesion within a neighborhood and found a high level of group cohesion? 1."Overall, I find this neighborhood very attractive." 2. "If my neighbors were planning something, I would think of it as something 'we' were doing rather than something 'they' were doing." 3. "I feel a sense of loyalty to my neighbors." 4. "I feel comfortable in all sorts of neighborhoods."

4. "I feel comfortable in all sorts of neighborhoods."

Identify what is not an example of postmodernism in popular culture. 1. The Grey Album by DJ Danger Mouse, which uses tracks from the Beatles' The White Album and Jay-Z's The Block Album 2. hip-hop 3. copies of famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas 4. Liberty University, the college associated with fundamentalist Christianity

4. Liberty University, the college associated with fundamentalist Christianity

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist organization in the 1960s that protested the Vietnam War, racial injustice, and economic exploitation. The organization largely favored direct action and protest, most of which opposed traditional organizing and politics. What could you say that members of SDS were part of based on this information?

a counterculture

If a bride is upset on her wedding day because her family members don't seem excited enough for her, what might sociologists argue family members are violating?

a feeling rule

Which of the following authority figures still derives legitimacy from traditional sources?

a parent

Although many people believe that expectations for personal space are inborn, members of many cultures are accustomed to noticeable less personal space than those of others. This helps demonstrate that people's expectations for personal space are

a part of our culture and, as such, are learned rather than inborn

What are people a part of if they associate with each other on a regular basis because they enjoy spending time together?

a primary group

Group cohesion is likely to be highest among which group?

a secret society at an Ivy League university

How should all left-handed people in the United States be classified?

as a category

How do sociologists observe society?

by studying the various parts of a society and the ways they interact and influence each other

What kind of power is exhibited by a police officer who pulls over a suspect after a high-speed pursuit?

coercive

In recent years, sociologists who study deviance have learned that they can measure the quantities of narcotics consumed by a community by testing its sewage before treatment. What part of the research process would the sociologists be carrying out when they visit the sewage treatment plan to test its sewage?

collecting data

A man arrested for driving under the influence must attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in accordance with a court order. He attends the meetings so as to avoid a jail sentence and a hefty fine, but not because he wants to. What do sociologists call this kind of conformity?

compliance

Stealing avocados or almost any other agricultural product is a felony in California if the product is worth more than $100. A ________ would say that such laws target homeless people who have little power in society and are simply trying to eat.

conflict theorist

A student at a university explains that he doesn't want to join a fraternity because he believes they create negative in-group and out-group dynamics. What perspective best describes his views?

conflict theory

Samantha believes that corporations are not punished enough for polluting the planet, manufacturing unsafe products, and manipulating prices while, at the same time, homeless people are punished too much for crimes such as stealing food. She believes we should all have access to basic needs like food regardless of wealth. Samantha has taken a ________ perspective to explain the way deviance is viewed in society.

conflict theory

A sociologist wants to examine how black men have been portrayed in television shows in the past year. Which type of study is most appropriate to examine this research topic and compare the portrayal of black men across different television shows?

content analysis

If changing one variable seems to lead to a change in another variable, this shows ________ but does not necessarily prove ________.

correlation; causation

What do we call norm violations that are codified into law?

crimes

The Japanese observed soldiers playing baseball during the American occupation of Japan after WW2 and later adopted it as one of their pastimes. This is an example of

cultural diffusion

What is the justification for harsh sentencing guidelines like California's controversial "three-strikes" law?

deterrence of future crimes

A woman attributes her teenage son's deviant behavior to him "falling in with a bad crowd." Which symbolic interactionist theory of deviance does this explanation MOST closely resemble?

differential association

An employee who has a special relationship with his boss is promoted instead of a more deserving co-worker. This is an example of the

distinction between ideal culture and real culture

A man is listening to loud music and singing along in public. The people around him glare and frown at him in hopes that he will stop. The man ignores them, which indicates that he

doesn't seem to care about negative sanctions

One of the most striking contrasts in restaurants is between the demeanor of cooks and that of servers. Servers are paid to be nice, pleasant, and courteous. On the other hand, cooks are usually not required to act this way. The part of a server's job that does not apply to a cook is called

emotion work

What is it called when an individual uses their group's way of doing things as the standard for judging others?

ethnocentrism

Children raised with minimal or no human interaction are referred to as

feral children

Julie Bettie's ethnography Women without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity examined the role of race and class in the lives of girls in California's Central Valley. She did most of her work at a high school, hanging out with students and writing down her observations. What do ethnographers call her written observations?

field notes

University leaders ignore rumors and complaints about the football coach sexually abusing students in order to uphold the reputation of the university's award-winning football program. This action to preserve public image over protecting the safety of students is a result of

groupthink

What does the concept of the looking-glass self help explain?

how we develop a self-concept based on out perceptions of others' judgements of us

Oftentimes, a larger number of people claim that they voted in their recent local elections then the number that actually did vote. This is perhaps because more people believed that they should have voted. This belief is an example of

ideal culture

Patrick isn't old enough to go to school yet, but he loves to play house. He has a toy stove and pretends to be a stay-at-home father. Playing house sometimes gets boring, so he goes outside, takes a garden hose, and pretends to be a firefighter. George Herbert Mead would say that Patrick is

in the play stage

Robert Merton's typology of deviance outlines the strain that people experience as they attempt to access cultural goals through legitimate, institutionalized means. In which of the following categories would gangsters and con artists be found?

innovation

The sociologist Duncan Watts examined the way people may change their minds about whom to vote for based on the opinions of friends and acquaintances. What concept was Watts studying?

social networks

In all probability, the sociology professor who is giving this test would be totally unable to grade a test given in the chemistry department. What aspect of bureaucracy does this illustrate?

specialization

Maria is the school chess champion and is invited to compete at a regional tournament. An opponent tells Maria that men are naturally better at chess than women. Upon hearing this, Maria becomes upset and worried about her performance and subsequently loses her first match. What has Maria just experienced?

stereotype threat

What part of the mind would Freud have described as being like a type of conscience that punished misbehavior with feelings of guilt?

superego

A _________ is a kind of norm so deeply ingrained in that the very thought of violating it evokes feelings of disgust or horror

taboo

Many people in the United States express disgust at the idea of people snacking on grasshoppers and crickets despite the fact that people do so in places such as Thailand. This suggests that, in the United States, eating insects is a

taboo

A space shuttle, graffiti, a new coding language, and a new instrument are all examples of

technology

In the movie Mean Girls, students identify each other using categories like "jocks," "cheerleaders," "skaters," and "nerds." These classifications of different groups represent what aspect of culture?

the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

What does the sociologist Jack Katz think sociologists should study when trying to understand deviance instead of solely examining background factors?

the deviant's own experience of committing a deviant act

Sociologists define the self as

the experience of an individual's personal identity that is distinct from other people

A sociologist observes that kindergartners are not just being taught about arts and crafts. They are also being taught how to be students, including skills such as following rules, remaining in their seats, and other skills that will be necessary for the rest of their education. What are these skills called?

the hidden curriculum

Read the quote from Freud below, which describes a part of the mind as he theorized it. "It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learnt from our study of the dream=work and of the construction of neurotic symptoms... We all approach [it] with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations." Which part of the mind was he talking about?

the id

Some students at a college form an intramural softball team. They play other teams from their school and from the area every Sunday in a conveniently located park. What might a sociologist consider if they wanted to determine whether the team was a primary group or a secondary group?

the interactions of team members off the field