Sociology Test #1

Which of the following groups is a subculture?

A street gang

Jane Addams was an early advocate of applied sociology. This means that she did not just do research, but that she also:

tried to address social problems through hands-on activity in the communities she researched.

According to C. Wright Mills, what one quality of mind do all great sociologists possess?

Attention to detail

What did W.E.B. DuBois have in common with Harriet Martineau?

Both were intrigued by America's democratic promise but disappointed in its hypocritical injustices.

Max Weber believed that modern industrialized societies were characterized by which of the following institutions?

Bureaucracies

What economic system emerged during the Industrial Revolution?

Capitalism

When the dominant culture, without the use of force, persuades the rest of society that its beliefs and values are the only or best values, it has achieved:

Hegemony

Who coined the phrase "the survival of the fittest"?

Herbert Spencer

What is the sociological imagination?

The ability to understand the connections between biography and history, or the interplay of the self and the world

Why do ethnocentric people tend to view other cultures as abnormal?

They use their own culture as a standard of judgment.

What was probably Harriet Martineau's most important contribution to the development of sociology as a discipline?

Her translation of the work of Auguste Comte into English

Emile Durkheim suggested that in traditional societies, people were bound together through mechanical solidarity. What was the basis of these sorts of bounds?

Shared traditions and similar experiences

In the United States today, the richest 1 percent of Americans have 40 percent of the country's wealth. Karl Marx would call this:

Social inequality

In the Movie Mean Girls, students identify each other using categories like "jock," "cheerleader," "skater," and "nerd." These classifications of different groups represent what aspect of culture?

Subculture

A cultural group that exists harmoniously within a larger, dominant culture is called a:

Subdominant culture

Which of the following groups is most likely to be classified as a counterculture?

Survivalists living in Montana

Max Weber believed that as the Industrial Revolution progressed, society became increasingly rationalized. How did he define rationalization?

The application of economic logic to all aspects of social life

Many American colleges and universities require students to take classes on non-Western cultures. Why do these requirements exist?

To demonstrate that the schools value multiculturalism and to reduce ethnocentrism.

Max Weber helped lay the groundwork for sociologists who would develop symbolic interactionism as a theory, because he believed that a social scientist should approach the study of human action:

with verstehen (understanding), which emphasizes the need for empathy with individuals' experiences.

Sociologists use which of the following terms to describe a group whose values and norms oppose the dominant culture?

Counterculture

During the American occupation of Japan after World War II, the Japanese observed soldiers playing baseball and later adopted it as one of their favorite pastimes. This is an example of:

Cultural diffusion

Why did C. Wright Mills think that it is important for everyone, even people who will never take a sociology class, to develop a sociological imagination?

Many people remain unaware of the intricate connections between the patterns of their own lives and the larger course of history

As a way of facilitating social change, tweets and hashtags are a new social phenomenon in which in which people are able to use social media in an effort to:

organize and protest political policies

The article "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" is useful to sociologists because:

it challenges people's inability to observe their own cultures.

Harriet Martineau supported many ideas that were radical for her time, including:

labor unions and the abolition of slavery

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that:

language can structure our perception of reality.

Countercultural groups such as the hippies of the 1960s:

rejected the norms of the dominant culture

Structural functionalist theory is very concerned with the ways in which structures contribute to the stability of society. What is a structure?

A social institution that is stable over time and helps meet the needs of society

In Emile Durkheim's study Suicide, he reported that suicide rates went up when the economy slumped but they also increased when the economy boomed. Which of Durkheim's concepts explains why both positive and negative economic conditions could increase suicide rates?

Anomie

How is a subculture different from a counterculture?

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

What do sociologists call it when cultures that were once distinct become increasingly similar?

Cultural leveling

When Patti Sue took a world tour, she had lunch at McDonald's in Tokyo, ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hong Kong, purchased clothes at Macy's in London, and was entertained at a Disney show featuring Mickey Mouse and Pluto in Paris. This homogenization of cultures around the world is called:

Cultural leveling

What is the definition of "culture"?

Culture is the entire way of life of a group of people, and it acts as a lens through which we view the world.

Conflict within mainstream society about which values and norms should be upheld is called:

Culture wars

The tendency to use your own group's way of doing things as the yardstick for judging others is called:

Ethnocentrism

What do sociologists call the noms and values that people actually follow, as opposed to the norms and values that people believe should be followed?

Ideal culture

Which of the following is an example of a taboo in American society?

Incest

According to Emile Durkheim, industrialized societies function via an organic solidarity. What is the basis for organic solidarity?

Interdependence and individual rights

The slogan "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" is an example of:

Moral holiday

Durkheim theorized that the rapidly changing conditions of modern life lead to anomie. What is anomie?

Normlessness, or a loss of connections to the social world