mid term Sociology
Doctors and parents are quick to seek a surgical "fix" for babies who are born intersex because
an ambiguously sexed person seems threatening and disturbing in Western society.
Appearance, manner, style of dress, race, gender, and age are all elements of
an individual's personal front.
Almost any ________ can have a stigmatizing effect, including a physical disability, an addiction, or a mental illness.
departure from the norm
Members of the lower class exercise less often because
exercise is a luxury often accessible only to those who do not have to struggle with day-to-day existence.
It is counterintuitive to tell your opponents that you have a good hand when you play high-stakes poker. However, particularly good poker players say they can read other players' "tells." These are subtle and unintentional facial expressions, mannerisms, and body language that reveal what players are thinking. What would Erving Goffman call tells?
expressions given off
Robert Merton's typology of deviance outlines the strain that people experience as they attempt to access cultural goals through legitimate, institutionalized means. In which of the following categories would gangsters and con artists be found?
innovation
Which term describes a policy of honoring diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds?
multiculturalism
The textbook's examples of "third genders" like "two-spirit" people and hijras demonstrate that
sex and gender in some non-Western cultures defy the binary classification of male and female.
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
Which of the following sources of socialization forms the foundation for all other socializing agents?
the family
Which of the following demonstrates Karl Marx's conviction that social inequality would continue to grow?
"The modern laborer . . . instead of rising with the process of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth."
Which of the following is an example of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
An indigenous people have no equivalent words for planet, Earth, or world. They do not view a macro picture of multiple planets.
is an example of something that would be part of an individual's or society's symbolic culture.
Belonging to a political party
are the types of jobs usually available to members of the lower-middle class.
Blue collar or manual labor jobs
Recent research by marine biologists suggests that bottlenose dolphins have names for themselves. Scientists played sounds they had identified as the names of particular dolphins by putting them through a synthesizer so that they did not sound like the voices of particular dolphins. The researchers found that dolphins would respond to the names of other dolphins to which they were related or with which they were associated, but they ignored the names of strangers. This discovery suggests a much greater degree of self-awareness in aquatic mammals than was previously suspected. What does this research suggest about dolphins if it is accurate?
Dolphins have a sense of self similar to that of humans.
Which of the following is a characteristic of otaku culture?
Otaku culture is an example of the East influencing the West.
What did Harvard Medical School researchers conclude about the effects of the media on young people in Fiji who, until the 1990s, lacked widespread access to television?
Television affected young women's body image.
Symbolic interactionists stress the way we make "snap judgments" about other people's class statuses. We often pay close attention to what cues we display because we are aware that other people are judging us. Given this, why did Paul Fussell decide to measure class status with a "living room scale" rather than assessing some other part of the house?
The living room is where we receive guests.
Jill is visiting her boyfriend's family in China. She points at him with her index finger during a conversation, which his family doesn't seem to like. Her boyfriend later explains that she should point with an open hand instead of using a finger. Why is this instruction needed?
The meaning of gestures is not universal.
The sociologist Joseph Conti studied the World Trade Organization as a social network. According to Conti, how is power measured within this type of social network?
The most powerful members have the most connections to other members.
The Amish have neither the resources nor the desire to use prison as a sanction against members of their community who violate the rules. What sanction do they use instead?
Theyuse meidung, or shunning, which is a process whereby community members will not associate with a rule breaker for a set period of time.
Which of the following is a step in Charles Cooley's model of the looking-glass self?
We interpret others' reactions to us.
Individuals who are NOT socialized
are unable to fully develop without contact with others.
Babies become aware of their own gender
at age two.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Alfred Kinsey surveyed Americans to find out about their sexual behavior. His findings were important because they
challenged the view that Americans were either exclusively heterosexual or homosexual.
In The Mismeasure of Women, social psychologist Carol Tavris argues that there is nothing "universal and nonvarying . . . in the natures of men and women." If you agree with her, you would have to reject the concept of
essentialism.
Regarding stigma, symbolic interactionists are interested in
how people manage their stigmatized identities on an everyday basis.
According to Sigmund Freud, the mind's ________ is composed of biological drives and is the source of psychic energy.
id
In 1993, six African American Secret Service agents filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against Denny's for refusal of service. They argued that the restaurant took much longer to serve them than other customers. Thousands of other African Americans came forward with similar allegations after the complaint was filed. What are these allegations evidence of?
institutional discrimination
The implications of Mark Granovetter's findings in "The Strength of Weak Ties" were that
people tend to form homogeneous social networks.
Judge Aaron Persky was asked by prosecutors to sentence a man found guilty of rape to six years in prison. Instead, Judge Persky handed down a sentence of six months in county jail. Many felt that, by handing down a light sentence for a serious crime, Aaron Persky was normalizing
rape culture
An example of discrimination is
refusing to sell someone a house because of their race.
Which part of the mind of feral children would Sigmund Freud expect to be MOST fully developed?
the id
W. I. Thomas famously argued that "if men define situations as real,
they are real in their consequences."
The current demographics of California challenge the way the term "minority" has been used in the past because
whites are now less than half of the population of California.
Aggressive men are often described as "go-getters" in the workplace, but aggressive women are often described as "bitches." This is an example of
a microaggression.
Barack Obama became the first black president in 2009. Some people feel that this election demonstrates that racism is a thing of the past. This way of thinking is typical of
color-blind racism.
Robert Putnam's research can be exemplified by his description of a decline in bowling leagues. Which of the following might serve as evidence that Putnam's concerns about anomie are overblown?
the growth of online support groups to help people with rare diseases share information and find emotional support
A person's self-conception of being male or female based on their association with masculine or feminine gender roles can be defined as
gender identity
A person's self-conception of being male or female based on their association with masculine or feminine gender roles can be defined as
gender identity.
Textbooks often still contain sexist language and gender stereotypes. In the social structure of the school itself, women tend to be concentrated at the lower levels, as teachers and aides, while men tend to occupy upper-management and administrative positions. Which concept do these patterns MOST reinforce?
gender role socialization
A three-year-old boy scrapes his knee while playing in his backyard and immediately begins to cry. In response, his father walks over to him and says, "Don't be a sissy; boys don't cry." This is an example of
gender role socialization.
Members of a/an ________ interact with one another and think of themselves as belonging together.
group
What do sociologists call patterns of interaction between groups and individuals?
group dynamics
The Solomon Asch experiment, in which groups of participants were asked to compare the lengths of lines, demonstrated that
groups have great power to induce conformity.
What are group members engaging in when they withhold their reservations and criticisms for the sake of consensus?
groupthink
In the United States, imprisonment as a method of punishment was rare until the ________ century.
nineteenth
A sociologist observes that kindergartners are not just being taught about arts and crafts. They are also being taught how to be students, including skills such as following rules, remaining in their seats, and other things that will be necessary for the rest of their education. What are these skills called?
the hidden curriculum
The indie rock band the Halo Benders once sang the following: Part environment And part heredity What we're born with And what's been fed to me What issue is being referenced in this song?
the nature vs. nurture debate
Sociologists are interested in how social groups have changed over time. Of particular note is the degree to which individuals base their identities on group membership. How has this changed in recent American history?
Americans are less likely to identify themselves as group members today than in the past.
is the sociological term for signs people make with their bodies.
Gestures
Why was having a hand cut off a typical punishment for a pickpocket in colonial America?
It was considered symbolically appropriate to punish the part of the body most directly connected with the crime.
What explanation does functionalism have for prejudice and discrimination today?
Prejudice and discrimination help to increase group cohesion.
Sociologists have criticized scientists searching for a "gay gene" for their narrow understanding of sexual orientation. Scientists' approach does not take into account the way biology and the social environment interact to produce sexual behaviors. Which of the following theorists makes this point?
Social historian Jeffrey Weeks, who points out that even though homosexual acts have been documented throughout history, homosexual identity as we know it today didn't exist before the twentieth century
Who studied the Hopi of the southwestern United States and concluded that language not only allows us to express our thoughts, but also shapes the way we think?
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf
What is the relationship between race and class, according to sociologists such as Michael Omi and Howard Winant?
Race is not a side effect of class; rather, it permeates every aspect of daily life.
What did David Rosenhan describe in "On Being Sane in Insane Places"?
Researchers posing as "pseudo-patients" in a mental hospital but otherwise acting normally were treated as mentally ill by the hospital staff.
In 2009, South African track star Caster Semenya broke the world record in the 800-meter race. Subsequently, she was asked to prove to the world that she was a woman. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) subjected her to a complex series of tests that included physical and medical examinations. The controversy over Semenya's gender raises which of the following issues?
The IAAF's response assumes an essentialist idea of gender.
Texas has never had a Hispanic governor, and the percentage of Hispanic Americans in Texas state government is low. However, many Hispanic Americans live in Texas. In 2012, they made up nearly 40% of the state's population. Would a sociologist in Texas call Hispanic Americans a minority group?
Yes, because they are denied access to power and resources.
Imagine that a powerful and influential person living in San Francisco decides to tattoo most of her face with symbols. Would she be seen as deviant?
Yes, but only because she lives in the United States where face tattoos are not the norm.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, some people placed signs with crudely painted skeletons holding cell phones near roadways, usually facing freeway ramps. These signs indicated disapproval of using cell phones while driving, which is a practice some states have now made illegal. As a result of this social movement,
an informal norm has become a law.
Samantha believes that corporations are not punished enough for polluting the planet, manufacturing unsafe products, and manipulating prices while, at the same time, homeless people are punished too much for crimes such as stealing food. She believes we should all have access to basic needs like food regardless of wealth. Samantha has taken a ________ perspective to explain the way deviance is viewed in society.
conflict theory
Which theory suggests that crimes committed by the upper classes are typically treated more leniently than crimes committed by the lower classes because laws represent the interests of those in power?
conflict theory
An individual might be trying to gain ________ if they take adult education classes, attend lectures and concerts, or travel to Europe.
cultural capital
What is the belief that the lived experiences of women and men differ as a result of biological differences?
essentialism
Sociologists call the awareness of our own and others' class statuses
everyday class consciousness.
The point in children's school careers by which gender norms become firmly established is
fifth grade.
Alice came to the realization that she is attracted to other girls her age. Now that she's started her sophomore year in high school, she wants to ask out girls without being afraid of the consequences. She tests her friends' acceptance of these feelings first by mentioning a hypothetical friend at another high school who just came out as a lesbian. Alice's friends say they overwhelmingly believe that homosexuality is wrong and that anyone who is not heterosexual is a deviant. What concept do the opinions of Alice's friends exemplify?
heteronormativity
Sigmund Freud's most significant contribution to the understanding of the self is
his theory of the unconscious mind.
What is the tendency to choose romantic partners based on similarities in background and group membership?
homogamy
Erving Goffman theorized social life as a kind of con game in which we work to control the impressions others have of us. What did Goffman call this process?
impression management
Patriarchy can be defined as a society
in which men dominate women.
A man tries to find unconventional and even illegal ways of making money. Into what category does this fit, according to Robert Merton's typology?
innovation
A deviant label transitions from primary to secondary deviance when the deviant label is
internalized
According to labeling theory, none of the pseudo-patients in David Rosenhan's "On Being Sane in Insane Places" were discovered because
it is difficult for anyone to see past the label once a person has been labeled "mentally ill."
It is often said that you can always tell a millionaire by her shoes. She may dress like a slob in every other respect, but someone from the upper class is bound to have expensive, custom-made footwear. Whether this is true or not, it helps demonstrate the way we
make split-second judgments about who people are and what social statuses they occupy based on their appearances.
are informal rules and guidelines for behavior that are considered acceptable within a group.
mores
The belief that all Irish are drunks is an example of
prejudice.
What are some examples of things students learn from a school's hidden curriculum?
punctuality, neatness, and discipline
A researcher examines the effects of learning communities on a college campus. In these communities, students live in a small dorm hall together, have one faculty advisor, attend a first-year seminar together, and participate in social activities together. After completing her study, the researcher finds that compared to students living in regular dorms or off-campus, students in these communities are less likely to engage in either academic cheating or underage drinking and have fewer disciplinary actions on their records. Which sociological perspective best explains this finding?
social control theory
Maxine comes from a working-class background. Her father worked in construction his whole life and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who dropped out of high school but later got her GED. Maxine becomes interested in computer programming at a young age and spends many hours in the school library teaching herself. Maxine attends the state university on a scholarship. While there, she develops a valuable algorithm for identifying neurological diseases that makes her a multi-millionaire. She drops out of college to continue her work. Which term related to social class best describes this scenario?
status inconsistency
What is Mother Teresa an example of, given that she was a person with tremendous power and prestige yet she was very poor?
status inconsistency
A cultural group that exists harmoniously within a larger, dominant culture is called a
subculture
Which of the following is a subculture?
terrorist
In the movie Mean Girls, students identify each other using categories like "jocks," "cheerleaders," "skaters," and "nerds." These classifications of different groups represent what aspect of culture?
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Unlike folkways, mores are closely related to
the core values of a group.
Which part of the mind would Freud have described as being like a type of conscience that punishes misbehavior with feelings of guilt?
the superego
From an interactionist perspective, the MOST important way that schools socialize children into their gender identities is
through interactions between teachers and students.
Which of the following would sociologists consider the best definition of deviance?
violations of social norms
A key challenge for one nation's campaign to improve public health in rural areas was to convince isolated villagers to boil their drinking water in order to kill parasites. The only families who adopted the practice were not well integrated into the village and had few connections to their neighbors. What does this example demonstrate?
Social ties don't just connect us to others but also influence our behavior.
Which of the following is accurate about the process of socialization?
Society shapes the individual, and the individual shapes society.
What is the difference in how sociologists and anthropologists study culture?
Sociologists usually study a society to which they belong.
the systematic or scientific study of human society and social behavior, from large-scale institutions and mass culture to small groups and individual interactions
Sociology
What did Sigmund Freud suggest in his book The Interpretation of Dreams?
The conscious level of awareness is the tip of the iceberg, and just below the surface are the subconscious and the unconscious.
In 2005, the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team won an NCAA championship and was invited to the White House to receive congratulations from the president. Controversy erupted after the team's visit when the official photograph revealed that several team members were wearing flip-flops. Despite the outcry, the athletes took the criticism in stride by talking about it on TheToday Show and auctioning the offending footwear for charity. What kind of norm did the athletes break by wearing flip-flops to the White House, given the reaction and the team's response?
a folkway
Some newspapers, magazines, and other media tend to use gender-inappropriate names or pronouns as well as other language that trans people find insensitive or offensive when describing transgender people. This is an example of
a microaggression.
Members of a table tennis club in upstate New York seem to have come together as much for connections with others as for the love of the game. This club can be viewed as a counterpoint to the message of Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone because it is an example of
a type of civic engagement that brings people together.
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.
The controversy surrounding North Carolina's 2016 HB2 law is an example of which of the following concepts?
culture wars
Imprisonment was a rare type of punishment before the nineteenth century because earlier societies
did not have sufficient resources to operate prisons.
University leaders ignore rumors and complaints about the football coach sexually abusing students in order to uphold the reputation of the university's award-winning football program. This action to preserve public image over protecting the safety of students is a result of
groupthink.
Curators at museums have recently experienced problems with the preservation of plastic objects, almost all of which disintegrate over time. The Smithsonian collection contains the first-ever plastic toothbrush, which soon will be nothing more than a pile of plastic particles. This problem is leading many historians to worry that we will lose the history of our
material culture
Curators at museums have recently experienced problems with the preservation of plastic objects, almost all of which disintegrate over time. The Smithsonian collection contains the first-ever plastic toothbrush, which soon will be nothing more than a pile of plastic particles. This problem is leading many historians to worry that we will lose the history of our
material culture.
The sociologist Duncan Watts examined the way people may change their minds about whom to vote for based on the opinions of friends and acquaintances. What concept was Watts studying?
social networks
are the webs of direct and indirect ties that connect individuals to others who may influence them.
social networks
Maria is the school chess champion and is invited to compete at a regional tournament. An opponent tells Maria that men are naturally better at chess than women. Upon hearing this, Maria becomes upset and worried about her performance and subsequently loses her first match. What has Maria just experienced?
stereotype threat
Marco is a fourth-generation Mexican American. Both his grandparents and parents were born in the United States. Neither he nor his parents have learned Spanish and he does not often think of his heritage. Most of his friends do not think of him as Hispanic or Latino. However, on Cinco de Mayo, Marco likes to go out and celebrate by eating Mexican food and wearing a sombrero. Marco's relationship with his ethnicity can be described as
symbolic
What are displays of ethnic identity that only occur on special occasions?
symbolic ethnicity
Read the quote from Freud below, which describes a part of the mind as he theorized it. "It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learnt from our study of the dream-work and of the construction of neurotic symptoms. . . . We all approach [it] with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations." Which part of the mind was he talking about?
the id
Some students at a college form an intramural softball team. They play other teams from their school and from the area every Sunday in a conveniently located park. What might a sociologist consider if they wanted to determine whether the team was a primary group or a secondary group?
the interactions of team members off the field
Many American colleges and universities require students to take classes on non-Western cultures. Why do these requirements exist?
to demonstrate the value of multiculturalism and to reduce ethnocentrism
John gets a job with a large firm that audits small businesses. While working at the firm, he becomes friends with Dave, who invites him to attend a weekly poker game. The game soon becomes a meaningful part of John's social life. This is an example of the
way secondary group ties can lead to membership in primary groups.
