Soc-101 chapter 3 Quiz

Ideology can be best described as ________

A SYSTEM OF CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS

While today the phrase "mass media" might bring to mind a cable TV network or a print publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, the earliest mass media were

Books FEEDBACK: Media has a long history, from oral traditions (the town crier), to the Internet. The first form of mass media was the printed book, which was made possible by invention of the result of the printing press.

In the United States, media ownership is ________.

CENTRALIZED IN THE HANDS OF A FEW BIG PARENT COMPANIES

When children who speak languages other than English at home attend public schools in the United States, they not only are expected to learn and use academic English, they also are exposed to and expected to act in accordance with rules such as waiting in line to go through the lunch line and sitting in the cafeteria to eat lunch. When these children go home, they speak with their family in their shared language and follow different practices regarding shared meals. Moving between these different settings, these children grow adept at

Code switching Feedback: People who move fluidly from one cultural setting to another learn to code switch by swapping out one set of meanings, values, or languages on the fly. Code switching between home and school or home and work is a common practice for people of color and immigrants.

________ can be defined as a process in which groups that are dominant in a culture, by virtue of their power and leadership in society, have their interests better represented by social institutions in that culture. This secures the voluntary "consent" of the masses as they adopt those interests too.

HEGEMONY

A hairstyle that becomes popular because a lot of people liked how it looks on a celebrity is an example of _______, while a workplace regulation about hairstyles needing to meet standards for food service safety is an example of _______.

INFORMAL CULTURE; FORMAL CULTURE

Socialization is the process by which people ________

INTERNALIZED BELIEFS, VALUES, AND BEHAVIORS OF A GIVEN CULTURE AND LEARN TO FUNCTION AS A MEMBER OF THAT SOCIETY

Sociologically speaking, values are best described as ________

MORAL BELIEFS

The idea that culture and media are just a projection of the social structures and relationships that happen to exist most commonly around us is the basis of ________.

REFLECTION THEORY

As a budding sociologist, you decide to study American politics by attending presidential caucuses. You identify as a liberal independent, but you are interested in the process from different perspectives. Your first stop is at a caucus for Republican candidates. Everyone in the audience is passionate about their beliefs, and you find yourself swept up in the process, reacting against ideas that you see as extreme. In developing the paper discussing your study results, what is one of the challenges you in particular must overcome to produce an unbiased study?

Remembering that everyone, including you, is inculcated into systems of beliefs that influence thinking and perceptions. FEEDBACK: All of us have an ideology, a set of internal beliefs and ideas that are instilled in us as we grow. This inherently imparts in us a sense of ethnocentrism. As a sociologist, it is important to be aware of this, disclose it, and avoid tainting the results we share in the community of professionals.

Which of the following does NOT fit a definition of the term culture?

THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IS NOT CULTURE

What is cultural relativism?

THE PROCESS OF RECOGNIZING DIFFERENCES ACROSS CULTURES WITHOUT JUDGING THOSE DIFFERENCES AS MORE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE THAN EACH OTHER

Nonmaterial culture includes

VALUES, BELIEFS, BEHAVIORS, SOCIAL NORMS

Which one of the following is an example of using cultural relativism to think about cultural differences?

You see a news story about a country where people often eat spicy seafood dishes in the morning, and you reason that their long coastline and hot climate provide easy access to both seafood and hot peppers. FEEDBACK: Cultural relativism is taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value. It often involves realizing that the way you do things is not necessarily the only way or the right way.

Think about your own experience of going to school. More than simply "what you learned in school today," much of our lives in the United States are shaped by that entire experience: what we choose to wear, with whom we make friends, whom we avoid, and how we respond to authority figures, whether teachers or preachers or police. Overall, our experience of school is

a major part of socialization. FEEDBACK: Socialization is the way in which we all internalize our society's values, beliefs, and norms and in the process, become members of that society.

Suppose you are part of a research team stationed in Uganda to do sociological surveys. You are there with your same-sex spouse of eight years. In Uganda, homosexuality was criminalized in 2009 and is currently punishable by life imprisonment. Attitudes in the country are not favorable toward homosexuality, but you have not experienced difficulties in daily life. As you begin the write-up of your research, you are especially aware of the scholarly need to

avoid letting your own beliefs about same-sex relationships enter your writing. FEEDBACK: When we examine the practices of others cultures or when we are immersed in a culture other than our own with the goal of conducting valuable research, overcoming our own ethnocentrism can pose real challenges.

In the United States, media ownership is

consolidated in the hands of a few big companies. FEEDBACK: In the United States, only six major companies own more than 90 percent of the media.

In the "Sociological Conversations" video, Allison Pugh discusses how parents in very different socioeconomic strata decide on whether to purchase the current popular toy for their children. She introduces us to the ideas of symbolic indulgence and deprivation. Families choosing which toys to purchase for children are participating in

consumer culture. FEEDBACK: According to Pugh, low-income families practiced what she called "symbolic indulgence." High-income families practiced what she termed "symbolic deprivation." These choices were all part of a larger process that allowed families to feel as if they were participating in the broader consumer culture of the United States.

Robert Cornelius took a self-portrait on a daguerreotype in 1839, which is believed to be the first American portrait, but it wasn't until the 2000s that "selfie" became a word: It was the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year in 2013. The gap between the first instance of self-portraiture by camera and the proliferation of the term "selfie" more than a century later is an (extreme) example of

cultural lag Feedback: When it takes time for culture to catch up with technological innovations, there is a cultural lag. In this case, it is the gradual emergence of language to describe practices enabled by technological innovations, with the term "selfies" arising to describe self-portraits made simple through the widespread use of camera phones with front-facing cameras

Every year, as many as 20,000 devotees of Harley Davidson motorcycles convene in Sturgis, South Dakota. Their numbers frequently overwhelm nearby towns and cities, including the Mt. Rushmore National Monument. For some tourists visiting the monument at that time, the cultural collision with tattooed and long-haired bikers might be jarring. For the tourist who thinks like a sociologist, such an encounter is an opportunity to observe a different group of people by applying

cultural relativism. FEEDBACK: Cultural relativism means taking into account the differences across cultures without assigning a value. In this scenario, it means recognizing differences across cultures without judging those differences as positive or negative.

Your friend Jerome tells you that he believes culture is an innate biological aspect of human societies. Having already taken an introductory sociology class, you disagree, arguing that modes of behavior and understanding are not universal or natural. You give the example of the disagreement between indigenous Americans and colonial Europeans about whether land was something that could be owned. You are trying to illustrate the idea of

cultural scripts. FEEDBACK: Cultural scripts are modes of behavior or understanding that are not universal or natural. Our cultural scripts shape our notions about many things, like gender.

North Korea has been ruled for more than 50 years by a single powerful family, with the citizenry, as best as can be determined, is highly regimented in daily life, without access to outside information, and suffering frequent famine. Sociologically speaking, the leadership of North Korea is

dominating FEEDBACK: Antonio Gramsci, an Italian political theorist and activist, developed the concepts of domination and hegemony. Domination entails the use of force, while hegemony entails winning the voluntary consent of the masses.

Facebook surpassed 1 billion monthly active users in 2012, and that number has continued to climb. Facebook wasn't the first social media site, of course; it had to compete with earlier sites such as Friendster and MySpace. Today, though, Facebook is many people's default way of staying in touch with family, friends, and colleagues through messages, posts, likes, and event invitations. Widespread reliance on the site is a good example of

hegemony FEEDBACK: Hegemony is a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary agreement of the masses. In other words, it involves getting people to go along with the status quo because it seems natural or seems like the best way to do things.

Climate change has evoked a politically polarized debate in the United States. For many, the cause and effect relationship between human activity and climate change seems obvious based on the science available. For others, such a claim seems ludicrous. While it may seem that climate change is a matter of science, underlying the disagreement are attachments to opposing

ideologies. FEEDBACK: An ideology is a system of concepts and relationships involving an understanding of cause and effect. It is a form of nonmaterial culture.

The idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships is fundamental to which of the following theories?

reflection theory

Certain ideals about women's appearance are highly valued in the United States, such as thinness, muscular definition, and blemish-free skin. Reflection theory suggests that this obsession in our culture with the "perfect female body" emerges from our social structures and shapes the kinds of relationships we seek and value: we want to be around people who meet this standard of perfection. That is, the culture of women's bodies is a result of our own proclivities, and not a result of how women are depicted in the media. The primary difficulty with this idea is that it

presumes culture is a one-way process. FEEDBACK; Reflection theory is the idea that culture is the projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere. The main limitation of this theory is that its unidirectional nature suggests that culture has no impact on society.

Some businesses in the United States, especially food-service establishments, will post signs that read, "No shirt, no shoes, no service." These signs

reinforce a cultural norm. FEEDBACK: Norms are the way in which values tell us to behave.

A television ad campaign for a new toy starts playing nationwide in late October. Within weeks, big box retailers are selling out of the toy as parents prepare for the holidays. This response is an example of a

short-term, intended media effect FEEDBACK: Media effects can be placed into four categories depending on their duration (short term or long term) and intention (intended or unintended). A consumer purchasing a heavily advertised toy can be defined as a short-term, intended media effect.

When fears of contagious diseases such as avian flu and ebola arise, public health officials encourage people to replace greetings involving close contact (handshakes, hugs) with an elbow bump. This change in greetings represents a shift in

social norms. FEEDBACK: Norms are the guideposts we use to act on cultural beliefs. Our shared values arising from membership in a society or culture instill beliefs, and these in turn guide our behavior as social norms.

Which of the following is an example of nonmaterial culture?

spirituality FEEDBACK: Aspects of nonmaterial culture are values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States undertook the internment of all people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States. The government stated that this action was to protect national security. Many of those sent to these internment camps were U.S. citizens, with parents or grandparents born in Japan. This action relied on the use of

stereotypes. FEEDBACK: The media can create and reinforce stereotypes, which often distract people's attention from more complex, underlying issues that are difficult to explain in a single article. In this case, Japanese internment was based on stereotyping not just by media but also by the federal government. In 1988, the U.S. government formally apologized for the internment and compensated those who were incarcerated.

Skateboarding is a popular youth pastime. Within the activity, there are distinct variations on how it's done, and the skating lexicon can vary by place. In addition, skateboarders have distinctive gear, like skate shoes designed to provide grip and durability. All this sets skaters apart as a kind of

subculture. FEEDBACK: A subculture is a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.

For a research project in an introductory sociology course, a student decides to compare how magazines created for women cover health and beauty topics versus career and professional topics in. This student is conducting

textual analysis FEEDBACK: Textual analysis is the analysis of the content of media in its various forms.

Which of the following is an example of soft power?

the expansion of American corporations into new global markets FEEDBACK: Soft power is the cultural and diplomatic dominance that persuades, rather than forces, others to do one's bidding.

Sociologist Allison Pugh researched consumer culture and socioeconomic class differences through parental purchases for children. In their relationship with their children, low-income parents tended to strive for symbolic indulgence, while high-income parents tended toward symbolic deprivation. Both of these approaches are an attempt to ensure that kids "fit in" at school, indicating that parents of all classes shy away from difference. These actions reflect

values FEEDBACK: Values are our moral beliefs. They are shaped, in part, by culture.

Nonmaterial culture includes

values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms. FEEDBACK: Nonmaterial culture includes values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms. By contrast, material culture includes everything that is part of our constructed, physical environment.