Sociology Exam 2

Mike, in the story on page six of the text book, initially faulted himself for his layoff . He stopped blaming himself only when he realized that:

A) he was not alone as he began to see a pattern in which all his tech support colleagues were also laid off B) tech support jobs were victims of massive outsourcing to cheaper places like India. C) These were societal forces over which he had no control D) All of the above

Being an honors student is a good example of which of the following?

Achieved status

The Thomas theorem states that situations defined as real are real in their consequences. This means that:

Any belief, rational or irrational, has consequences for behavior

James has romantic feelings towards Jane. Janet also has romantic feelings towards Jane. Jane, however, feels nothing towards either one of them. Jane's sexual orientation can be described as:

Asexuality.

Read the following statements. Which of the statements is NOT consistent with the social-conflict approach?

Because people construct social reality differently, one group's views of sexuality may well differ from another's.

Which statement best states the role of biology in causing people to commit crimes?

Biological factors may have a real but small effect in causing criminal behavior.

Monica, a new student in a high school, becomes friends with a group of teenagers who use marijuana. Monica had never used marijuana, but soon begins to, like her new friends. This is an example of:

Both differential association and conformity

The emergency room clerk who keeps a bleeding patient waiting while filling out extensive paperwork is a classic example of:

Bureaucratic ritualism.

Sam felt disgust when, visiting another country over spring break, he saw children working long hours hawking goods. His experiences can be called:

Culture shock.

The significance of Alfred Kinsey's research on sexuality in the United States was:

Defining sexuality as a proper focus of scientific study. B) Showing that people were less conventional than was widely assumed. C) Fostering a new openness towards sexuality. D) All of the above.

Levi's jeans are much very popular in Russia. This is an example of cultural ________

Diffusion

A person who criticizes the Amish farmer as foolish or backward for tilling his fields using horses and a plow instead of a tractor is exhibiting:

Ethnocentrism.

Which of these statements linking nature and nurture does sociology hold to be correct?

For human beings, it is our nature to nurture.

A college student is caught cheating on an examination and is brought before a disciplinary committee, which expels the student. The committee's action is an example of:

Formal social control

Deviance defines the limits of proper behavior." This statement represents the view of which sociological perspective?

Functionalist perspective

Which of the following concepts refers to a view that labels anyone who is not heterosexual as "queer"?

Heterosexism

Which of these sexual orientation is a cultural universal?

Heterosexuality

Sarah's boyfriend show up very late for dinner. Upset, Sarah tells him to sleep on the couch. This type of social control is known as:

Informal social control

Which of the following statements correctly states the distinctive focus of the symbolic-interaction approach regarding sexuality?

It explains that societies construct patterns of sexuality and highlights the variety of practices and beliefs involving sexuality found around the world.

Adrian is a leader who tends to downplay her position and power, allowing the group to function more or less on its own. Which type of leader is she?

Laissez-faire leaders

Our schools today serve as a "market for lovers." Robert K. Merton's term for this unintended consequence is:

Latent functions

Robert Merton's argument for functional alternatives reflects his belief that what is functional for one category of a society's population:

May disadvantage another category.

An unemployed young man wants a stereo, but has no money or the means of earning the money to buy the stereo, so he steals one from a store. This incident illustrates which theory of deviance?

Merton's strain theory.

Wrong-doing such as an adult forcing a child to engage in sexual activity is an example of violating our culture's:

Mores

The value of psychological theories of deviance is limited because:

Most people who commit crimes have normal personalities.

Christians believe the concept of the Holy Trinity. This would be an example of:

Non-material culture

A researcher who uses data gathered from males to draw conclusions about all of humanity is guilty of:

Overgeneralization.

When a researcher joins a cult group to study it, he is using this research method:

Participant observation

Auguste Comte applied the methods of science in studying and understanding society. He called this way of understanding the world based on science, _____________

Positivism

In his strain theory, Robert Merton would use which of the following concepts to describe people, including alcoholics and drug addicts, who "drop out."

Retreatist

Many surgeons choose not to operate on their own children because the personal involvement of being a parent could affect the professional objectivity needed by a physician. This example involves which of the following?

Role conflict.

A plant supervisor wishes to be a good friend and a confidant to the workers, but must remain distant to assess the workers' performance. Which of the following is involved?

Role strain

Which of the following is evidence of the "McDonaldization of society"?

Rreplacing bank tellers with automatic teller machines (ATMs) B) Shopping in carefully designed, climate-controlled malls C) The spread of world-wide chain stores and restaurants D) All of the above.

Which one of the following is an example of deviance? A student:

Sits in a front row, in a center seat in your sociology class and picks his or her nose throughout the class period B) Walks into your sociology class naked because it is hot outside C) Cheats on his or her first sociology examination D) All of the above.

Flirting is one good example of an everyday experience involving:

Social construction of reality

Historically, once a society develops effective birth-control technology:

Social norms regarding sexuality become more permissive.

Looking at the operation of U.S. schools, the social-conflict approach might lead a sociologist to conclude that:

Society provides much better schooling to some categories of students than to others.

The concept "cultural lag" refers to the fact that:

Some cultural elements change more quickly than others.

Which theoretical approach highlights the fact that it is not so much what people do that matters as much as the meaning they attach to their behavior?

Symbolic-interaction approach

Our decision to marry a particular person usually reflects the fact that

That the social world guides human behavior.

Which of the following best describes the focus of structural-functionalism?

The consequences of social patterns for the operation of society

Which of the following statements comes closest to correctly linking sociology's methodological orientations and its theoretical approaches?

The critical orientation corresponds to the social-conflict approach.

Which of these would Gerhard Lenski especially highlight as bringing about change in society?

The discovery of new sources of energy

The sociological research method best suited to identifying cause-and-effect relationships is:

The experiment.

Sociologists point out several important functions of the incest taboo. Which of the following statements is NOT one of them?

The incest taboo limits a family's contact with the larger society.

The more global our view of sexuality:

The more variety we see in the meanings people attach to sexuality.

When friends began to criticize Juan as a "boozer," pushing him out of their social circle, he began to drink even more and became bitter. Juan then joins a new group of friends, who all drink too much. According to Edwin Lemert, this situation illustrates:

The onset of secondary deviance.

The basic idea of the symbolic-interaction approach is that society is:

The reality people construct as they interact with one another.

There is now greater acceptance of premarital sex and an increasing tolerance for for various sexual orientations. This is evidence that:

The sexual revolution is ongoing.

Striking changes took place in Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that were especially important in the development of sociology. Which is NOT one of these?

The spread of the Roman Catholic church

Which of the following theoretical approaches paints societies in broad strokes at a macro-level?

The structural-functional and social-conflict approaches

Which theoretical approach rests on the idea that society needs to regulate human sexuality?

The structural-functional approach

Two variables are said to display correlation if:

They vary together.

The sexual revolution had greater significance for women because:

They were historically subjected to greater sexual regulation.

While Structural Functionalism seeks to understand how society operates, for Karl Marx, the point of studying society was:

To change it by reducing inequality.

In terms of his sexuality, Mark has always felt that he is "trapped in the wrong body." This feeling suggests that Mark is in which of the following categories of people?

Transsexual people

Dramaturgical analysis treats a status as a part in a play, and a role serves as a script.

True

Groupthink is a form of social conformity among people in groups.

True

Historical research is very possible using existing data and documents, also referred to as secondary analysis.

True

In the United States, the sociological perspective can be described as "seeing the strange in the familiar," given the individualistic culture of Americans.

True

Modern people, according to David Riesman, tend to develop other-directed personalities, characterized by superficiality, weak beliefs, and change.

True

People usually do not recognize all of the functions of any particular social structure.

True

Research shows that class position affects not just how much money parents have to spend on their children but also what parents expect of them.

True

Robert Merton's would describe the behavior of a low-paid, yet rigidly conforming bank teller as deviant ritualism.

True

The popular TV show "American Idol" most vividly reflects the American value of success or achievemen

True

The social-conflict and feminist approaches highlight the ways sexual attitudes and practices benefit some people and disadvantage others.

True

The stigma of deviance may encourage an individual to engage in further deviance.

True

Travis Hirschi's "control theory" would lead us to expect that people who commit crimes have little concern about the consequences of their behavior.

True

Which of the following illustrates a micro-level focus?

Two airplane passengers getting to know one another

Which of the following might be part of the classroom performance of a professor?

Use of props, such as books and notes B) Use of a stage, including lectern or desk C) Manner, such as trying to appear in charge of the situation D) All of the above are correct.

The tragic case of Anna, the isolated girl studied by Kingsley Davis, shows that:

Without social experience, a child is incapable of developing a self or personality.

Travis Hirschi's control theory suggests which of the following categories of people would be most likely to engage in deviance?

Youngsters who "hang out" waiting for something to happen

You design a survey to understand how happy people living in Kingwood are. You sent the survey to a small number of people randomly chosen to represent the entire population of Kingwood. The people receiving the survey would constitute ___________________

a sample

Max Weber argued that formal organizations, while efficient, have the ability to

alienate people within them.

Comparative research indicates that:

although sex has a biological foundation, it is an element of culture that varies from place to place.

Jake is a member of the Bulldogs soccer team. His team's main rival is the Tigers and members of his team put down the Tigers all the time. To Jake, the Tigers represent:

an out-group

According to Durkheim, who of the following would be most likely to take his or her own life?

an unmarried wealthy man

As an example of a type of influence and learning called _________, adolescents may copy the styles and slang of a group they want to join.

anticipatory socialization

A study of the life-course stages leads one to conclude that these stages:

are linked to biology, but they are mostly defined by society.

In developing his personality theory, Jean Piaget's focus was on:

cognition, or how people think and understand.

In Freud's model of personality, this element of the personality represents a person's efforts to balance innate pleasure-seeking drives and the demands of society:

ego

The social-conflict approach is sometimes criticized for:

having an agenda or being clearly activist or political

C. Wright Mills pointed out that sociological awareness tends to be more widespread:

in times of social crisis

You are a very loyal member of the "Super Stars Club," a social group that you like and respect dearly. Which of these concepts accurately describes the kind of social group that this represents for you?

in-group

In Barbara Ehrenreich's study of low-wage work, she concluded that:

many low-wage workers feel unworthy, even to the point of not trying.

The ideal of objectivity means that a researcher:

must strive to be personally neutral about the outcome of the research.

When Charles Horton Cooley used the term "looking-glass self," he was referring to the fact that:

people see themselves as they think others see them.

Using a Marxist approach, Steven Spitzer claims that a capitalist society is likely to label which of the following categories of people as deviant?

people who are not very productive economically

Comte emphasized a new way of understanding the world based on science. He called this approach _________________.

positivism

Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat illustrates the ______ level of Kohlberg's theory of moral development.

post-conventional

Alexander Liazos speaks for the social-conflict approach when he states that:

powerless people are at the highest risk of being defined as deviant.

To Weber, the rise of bureaucratic organizations is an expression of

rationality.

In his strain theory, Robert Merton uses which of the following concepts to describe the behavior of a radical who rejects cultural goals and means in favor of some alternative system?

rebellion

This concept refers to efforts to radically change someone's personality through careful control of the environment:

resocialization

George Herbert Mead placed the origin of the self in:

social experience.

Over time, patterns of social behavior become relatively stable. When this happens, they are referred to as ____________________

social structures

Walter Reckless and Simon Dinitz claimed that "good boys" have the ability to control deviant impulses because they have:

strong superegos

A symbolic interactionist analysis of sports might emphasize:

the different meaning people attach to games.

Feminism, which fights to narrow inequality between women and men, can best be classified under which of these theoretical perspectives?

the social-conflict approach

Which of the following illustrates the "medicalization of deviance"?

theft being redefined as a "compulsive disorder" B) drinking too much being redefined as "alcoholism" C) promiscuity being redefined as a "sexual addiction" D) All of the above are correct.