Sociology Chapter 4

Which type of status is assigned to a person at birth regardless of his or her wishes or abilities?

ascribed

The concept of ______ is at the center of functional analysis.

equilibrium

The major arenas of social life where durable routines and patterns of behavior take place are called

social institutions

Sociologist ______ argued that a form of rational action he calls McDonaldization is increasingly organizing our everyday lives.

George Ritzer

Which of the following are ways in which the migration of jobs overseas as part of globalization has affected the structure of work for U.S. employees?

It has devastated entire communities. It has meant the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs. It has ended a period of stable, long-term employment for many Americans in the post-World War II period.

Which of the following are considered to be the economics functions of work?

Jobs provide people with money to pay their bills. The labor force produces valuable goods and services for the society as a whole.

In terms of sociology, what is a role?

The sets of expected behaviors associated with particular statuses

Which of the following are true of social structures?

They are invisible They can be applied at the micro, mesh, and macro levels

True or false: Adopting a new role can be stressful at first.

True

Which of the following statements are true of mobile phone use today?

We have become more accessible to our bosses and coworkers. Mobile phones have severed the connection between person and place.

Which of the following are considered to be the social functions of work?

Work teaches people self-discipline. jobs provide daily routines that lend stability and predictability to life.

Social structure is

created by humans

Rtizer suggests that the extreme rational action he calls McDonaldization may be

dehumanizing. inefficient.

What are two methods that sociologists use to examine micro-level interactions?

ethnomethodology conversation analysis

An approach that examines the methods people use to make sense of their daily activities and emphasizes the ways in which we collectively create social structure in our everyday activities is called

ethnomethodology.

According to Georg Simmel, what is it that creates society?

face-to-face, micro-level interactions

Today's workers are likely to have ______ options than their counterparts did only a decade earlier.

fewer

The ______ perspective views society as a set of interdependent institutions that each serve a specific purpose in order to maintain social order.

functionalist

Whatever potential a new technology has, ______ are the keys to understanding its social significance.

human action and how people use it

To which of the following types of social interactions did sociologists Steven Clayman and John Heritage apply conversation analysis in a 2002 study?

news interviews

The rules and routines, both formal and informal, which shape daily activity within organization is called ______ structure.

organizational

Sociologist Claude Fischer found all of the following to be true about the structure of friendship in the 21st century EXCEPT that

people socialize less often than they did in the 1970s.

The type of action motivated by calculations of efficiency is ______ action.

rational

Functionalists argue that the social structures that fulfill specific functions in society

remain in balance with others

When we attend a college course and expect that the professor will teach us the material outlined in the syllabus, we are holding the professor to a(n)

role

According to the functionalist perspective, the family, government, economy, and education are all examples of

social institutions

Which of the following are examples of conventions?

standing in line at a store dressing appropriately for a job interview

For sociologists, "President of the United States," "mother," and "wife" are all examples of ______ positions.

status

In sociology, the position in a social system that can be occupied by an individual is called

status

Which of the following characterize what a growing number of employees in the United States believe about the workplace?

that employment is often fleeting and temporary that they must look out for themselves that flexibility and change are inevitable

What is the impact of human action on social structures?

Human action can reproduce or alter existing structures

Which of the following statements about the relationship between different social institutions within society are true?

Social institutions within society are connected. Changes in one social institution will affect other social institutions within society

Disasters and accidents that take place within complex and hierarchical organizations can commonly be attributed to which of the following?

a bureaucracy that hinders the flow of information poor communication patterns within the organization

The rise in numbers of adults living alone has triggered fears that Americans are becoming more socially isolated. Sociologists argue that this rise actually reflects

a change in the structure of social connections

The shift of manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries is part of what some analysts call the "______ of America."

deindustrialization

The dimension of McDonaldization where people seek the best possible method for completing a task is called

efficiency

Talcott Parsons was particularly interested in questions of social ______, the process by which values and social structures bind people together within a society.

integration

Which of the following would be examples of formal rules in an organizational structure?

job descriptions codes of conduct

Sociologist Diane Vaughn found NASA to be an organization that

made it difficult to contradict ones superiors in public provided few opportunities for mangers to voice concerns was not conducive to addressing hunches or corners not supported by evidence

Sociologist Eric Klinenberg differentiates between "singles," who may live with roommates or family members, and ______, who live alone, but may still have robust social connections.

singletons

Which of the following are examples of structures that have been dysfunctional in American society?

slavery racial discrimination

According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, teens most commonly "spend time" with their friends via

text messaging

Organizational structure directly shapes which of the following?

the decision-making process within an organization the flow of information within an organization communication patterns within an organization

Weber would consider a family custom that has been passed on for generations an example of ______ action.

traditional

True or false: The recent #MeToo movement has shined a light on how rigid workplace gender structure is dysfunctional.

true

True or false: The structure of news interviews constrains the behavior of both the interviewer and the interviewee.

true

Max Weber was particularly interested in

understanding what motivates our actions

Ethnomethodologists believe that social structure exists because

we are constantly creating it as we construct and reconstruct social order in our daily routines.

A practice or technique that is widely used in a particular social setting is called

a convention

The most significant change that globalization has had for the United States is

a decline of manufacturing jobs in the US

A status that individuals attain through their own efforts is a(n) ______ status.

achieved

Which of the following are types of statuses?

achieved ascribed

Which of the following is true according to sociologists who use conversation analysis to study social interactions?

all talk is organized and ordered

Feminist theorists have pointed out that rigid gender roles constrain the behavior of

both women and men

A manager who focuses on product size and follows the belief that "more is better" is concerned with which dimension of McDonaldization?

calculability

What is the relationship between action and structure?

human action has a strong impact on social structures

In manufacturing plants in the 1950s and 1960s, there was an unwritten understanding that

if you did your job well, you would likely be employed for life

If a sociologist were to look at the structure of an organization, such as a

meso

Ethnomethodology and conversational analysis are used to examine ______ social interactions.

micro-level

Although they knew about the technical problems that caused the shuttle accidents, NASA engineers proceeded with the fatal launches of the shuttles Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. Sociologist Diane Vaughn discovered that this was due to communication blocks and limitations by studying NASA's

organizational structure

A company that strives to provide the same products and services at all its locations is focused on which dimension of McDonaldization?

predictability

Imagine you have spent many hours discussing LGBTQ issues with your aunt, who once supported the idea that conversion therapy was an effective "treatment" for LGBTQ youth. Through conversation and sharing stories about friends who suffered from such treatments, you help her realize that these practices are harmful. In the next election, she votes against a candidate because he advocates the use of conversion therapy. Your face-to-face interactions with your aunt, and her subsequent change of heart and behavior, serve as an example of how micro-level interactions can

shape society

Schools, religious institutions, organized religions, and the government are all examples of

social institutions

Which of the following were typical responses by U.S. workers to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the wake of globalization at the beginning of the twenty-first century?

fighting plant closings and layoffs seeking opportunities by moving to new areas returning to school to learn new skills

In the place of manufacturing jobs, which of the following occupations became prominent in the post-World War II period?

food and beverage servers retail sales information and records clerks

Talcott Parsons was widely criticized for his view that the traditional separation of gender roles in the family was ______ for society.

functional

Which of the following are effects that cell phones have had on human action?

Cell phones make us more accessible to one another. Cell phones have helped blur the distinction between work time and time off.

Which sociologist used breaching experiments to study micro-level social structures?

Harold Garfinkel

The German sociologist who defined sociology as the science concerned with understanding social action was

Max Weber

George Ritzer refers to the process by which the standardized, efficient structure of fast-food restaurants has come to dominate more sectors of U.S. and global society as

McDonaldization

A controlled social situation in which individuals intentionally break social rules is called

a breaching experiment

How do roles shape your life?

Roles clarity what is expected of you in different contexts

______ was a leading American sociologist who pioneered the functionalist perspective in the mid-twentieth century.

Talcott Parsons

A sociologist who analyzes the patterns in face-to-face conversations that produce the smooth, back-and-forth turn-taking of such exchanges is using ______ analysis.

conversation

Which of the following is an unintended consequence of McDonaldization?

we do an increasing amount of unpaid labor for ourselves