Intro To Sociology - Midterm

Why does the family have such a powerful impact as an agent of socialization?

Family begins the socialization process before there are any other competing influences

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

Subculture

________ is an example of something that would be part of an individual's or society's symbolic culture

belonging to a political party

On any given day, you probably depend on many strangers to provide electricity, water, natural gas, weather forecasts, and other services. According to Émile Durkheim, this interdependence gives rise to

organic solidarity

Although many people believe that expectations for personal space are inborn, members of many cultures are accustomed to noticeably 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

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

Cultural Diffusion

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

Postmodernism

________ research would involve observing a group in order to determine its norms, values, rules, and meanings.

Qualitative

Which of the following is a disadvantage of using existing sources of data for research?

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

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 the sociological imagination?

The ability to understand the interplay between the self and larger social forces

The definition of "culture"

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

What is it called when someone has the ability to understand another culture in terms of that culture's own norms and values without reference to any other culture's standards?

cultural relativism

The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the United States of America is the best place to raise a female child. Her assertion is an example of

ethnocentrism (bias to one's own culture)

Microsociology is an approach that

examines interactions between individuals and how those interactions reflect larger societal patterns.

Macrosociology is an approach that

examines large-scale social structures to see how they affect individual lives.

Sociologist Harry Gracey observed that kindergartners are not just being taught about counting numbers and learning the alphabet. They are also being taught "skills" such as following rules, remaining in their seats, and other things that will be necessary for the work world. What are these "skills" called?

the hidden curriculum

If a researcher has obtained informed consent from all of their participants, it means that

the participants understand the nature of the research and are participating freely

Reactivity is

the tendency of research participants to change their behavior in response to being studied

Ethnographers are overt about their roles if

they openly admit that they are doing sociological research

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

to demonstrate the value of multiculturalism and to reduce ethnocentrism

A goal of socialization is

to teach norms, values, and beliefs

The primary goal of comparative and historical research methods is to

understand relationships between parts of society in various regions and time periods

An example of something that would be part of the material culture of an individual or society would be

weapons of war

Which of the following is an example of a total institution?

A prison

What is postmodernism?

As a philosophy, postmodernism rejects concepts of rationality, objectivity, and universal truth. Instead, it emphasizes the diversity of human experience and multiplicity of perspectives. It's hectic

Research has been conducted regarding why teens engage in smoking and other deviant behaviors. The most important factor in statistically predicting whether or not a teen will engage in a particular deviant behavior is the presence or absence of peers who are also involved in that behavior. This is probably because the other teens are acting

As agents of socialization

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

Beginner's Mind

The values, norms, and practices of the most powerful group within a society are called

Dominant culture

The analysis of documents such as medical records, photographs, diaries, letters, newspapers, and song lyrics uses which of the following types of data?

Existing Sources

The research method MOST closely related to the scientific method is

Experimental Research

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

In their ethnography Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood before Marriage,Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas studied the realities of single motherhood for poor, urban women. They immersed themselves in the community before beginning their research. Edin moved her family to the city, and both ethnographers volunteered in community programs. Immersing themselves in the community is an example of

Gaining Access

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

Impression Management

Why can sociologists who conduct interviews only gather data from a limited number of people?

Interviews are very time-consuming

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

It challenges people's inability to observe their own cultures

What is a disadvantage of using ethnography/participant observation as a method of social research?

It is difficult for another researcher to repeat or replicate any particular study

Many Marxist sociologists assume that large-scale economic structures are the most important factors in shaping people's lives. This assumption is an example of

Macrosociology

What did Max Weber mean when he said that modern people are trapped in an "iron cage"?

Most aspects of life are increasingly controlled by rigid rules and rationalization.

What do the several cases of children who grew up in extreme social isolation, such as the case of Genie in 1970, suggest?

Most of our mental capacities, and perhaps even the ability to think, are learned through social interaction

What is the relationship between the self and society according to symbolic interactionism?

The self is shaped by society, but society is also shaped by the self

What is an advantage of using surveys as a research method?

They reveal attitudes and beliefs inaccessible by any other means

Which theorist argued that if people define a situation as real, it is real in its consequences?

W. I. Thomas

How is culture transmitted and internalized?

We learn values and beliefs slowly and incrementally

A paradigm is

a set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way of understanding social reality

Which of the following is an example of a culture war?

anti-abortion advocates demonstrating in front of a family planning clinic

organic solidarity

based upon the dependence individuals have on each other in more advanced societies

Countercultural groups such as the hippies of the 1960s

challenged the norms of the dominant culture

What have scholars called Erving Goffman's ideas, given that impression management relies so much on strategies of performance?

dramaturgy

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

how we develop a self-concept based on our perceptions of others' judgments of us

Oftentimes, a larger number of people claim that they voted in their recent local elections than 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

Sociology can be defined as the systematic and scientific study of human society and social behavior from ________ to ________

large-scale institutions; individual interactions

Socialization is the

lifelong process by which people learn the norms, values, and beliefs of their culture

Researcher Pam Fishman studied the conversations of heterosexual couples to determine how power is created and maintained through everyday, face-to-face interactions. How would you describe her approach? (Micro/Macro)

microsociological

According to George Herbert Mead, what are children learning when they begin to take the perspective of a generalized other in their games?

the attitudes and expectations of society as a whole