Intro to Sociology Chapter 8 Review Quiz

What percentage of Americans live in extreme poverty, meaning at near-starvation levels?

6 percent

What is the most significant difference between the working class and the lower class?

While working-class families often struggle to get by, they tend to have significantly more job and neighborhood stability than those in the lower class.

What is one of the strongest predictors of income and wealth in later life?

Education

According to your text, the wealthiest 0.1 percent of the U.S. population holds the same amount of wealth as the bottom __________ percent?

90

__________ have the highest percentage of median income, while __________ have the lowest percentage.

Asians; blacks

The theory offered by Simon Kuznets regarding the relationship between inequality and economic development is challenged by which of the following facts?

Between 1990 and 2004, CEO pay increased by 300 percent, while production worker pay increased by only 4.5 percent.

Rosie, a woman from a working-class family who works as an administrative assistant, won a huge lottery jackpot. She decided to apply for membership at an exclusive country club but felt unwelcome after ordering the "wrong" wine at a prospective member dinner and receiving stares from members when she smoked a cigarette outside. What does Rosie's experience demonstrate about class?

Class is not only determined and expressed economically but also through lifestyle choices and personal tastes.

Match each term to the example that best fits.

During the post-World War II economic boom in the United States, the quality of life and financial resources of the average American rose considerably. - structural mobility After being laid off from her well-paying job in 2009, Anita was unable to find another job like it, and eventually had to sell her house and move into a small apartment. - intragenerational mobility After failing to show up on time for a month straight, Joseph, the boss's nephew, was fired and replaced by Rodney, who had worked his way up from an entry-level position in the company. - exchange mobility Rosario's working-class parents saved money for years to send her to college, where she developed an interest in law; in the private firm she works for now, she earns more than both her parents combined. - intergenerational mobility

The main argument of Thomas Piketty's book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, that increasing wealth inequality is an inevitable feature of most capitalist economic systems, is most similar to the ideas of which theorist?

Karl Marx

Which of the following explanations does your text give to explain, in part, why blacks and Hispanics were particularly hard hit by the recession of 2008?

Lenders of subprime loans tend to focus on minority communities that were often passed over by prime lenders.

What is one implication of Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital?

Social mobility is less about how hard you work and more about the kinds of tools you work with.

Match each theorist(s) to the statement that best fits their views on social stratification.

Social stratification is ultimately good for society, because it allows some of the most important and skillful jobs to be filled by those with the most talent. - Davis and Moore Workers have different levels of power, depending on the amount of skill and expertise they have and the degree to which they control their own, or others' labor power. - Erik Olin Wright Under capitalism, social stratification results in such deep levels of misery for those on the bottom that revolution is inevitable. - Karl Marx It is not only how much money people make, but the amount of prestige accorded to their work in society that helps shape stratification. - Max Weber

According to Karl Marx's theory, what do members of the proletariat have in common?

They sell their labor to the bourgeoisie.

According to Thomas Piketty's theory, why does capitalism tend to produce concentrations of wealth and increasing inequality?

Unless an economy is growing rapidly, increases in wealth will exceed economic growth.

An accountant has access to all of her client's financial data. What does she measure to determine her client's wealth?

all assets minus debts

What trend led sociologists to begin studying the "feminization of poverty"?

an increase in the proportion of the poor who are female

Ownership of wealth, occupation, income, and education are the four main bases of which kind of stratification system?

class

According to the logic of Davis and Moore's functionalist theory of stratification, which of the following occupations must be functionally most important to society?

corporate lawyer

_____________ negatively impacts women's class position far more than it impacts men's class position.

divorce

Which is the best piece of advice, grounded in sociology, for a college student seeking a strong economic future?

focus on educational attainment

According to the text, __________ and __________ are categories that contribute to social stratification.

gender; racial identity

Which of the following is an important condition that facilitated the accumulation of unprecedented wealth in the twenty-first century?

globalization

Match each occupation to the social class that most likely corresponds to people in that occupation.

lower-middle class - firefighter lower class - migrant farm worker upper-middle class - engineer working class - mechanic

__________ is directly challenged by the idea that structural forces shape the way resources are distributed.

the "culture of poverty" thesis

A sociologist measures relative poverty in the United States. This means that "poor" is defined in relation to which reference point?

the living standards of the majority population