Sociology Week 8 Comprehension Assessment

Violation of laws enacted by society is also known as a) secondary deviance. b) unofficial deviance. c) informal deviance. d) crime.

crime.

What distinguishes a friendship group from a formal organization? a) Friends typically don't have formal rules and governing structures. b) Friends include strong ties, not weak ties. c) Friends don't tend to engage in collective activities. d) Even if one person leaves the group, they will still go on.

Friends typically don't have formal rules and governing structures.

Why is the official formula for calculating the poverty line outdated? a) The minimum wage has increased. b) Housing now makes up a larger proportion of household budgets than in the past. c) The poor have many unrecorded sources of income. d) The dollar amount has not been increased in a decade.

Housing now makes up a larger proportion of household budgets than in the past.

A criminal released from prison struggles to remain law-abiding, but feels oddly disoriented and at loose ends in his new free life. Soon he is caught stealing cars and is sent back to prison. Although several things could be said about this chain of events, which explanation would be grounded in Durkheim's theory of the roots of deviance? a) The transition from the highly structured prison environment to a comparatively free and unstructured life caused the man to suffer from anomie. b) Spending time around other criminals in prison had socialized this man to be a criminal. c) The man needed more or stronger incentives to get a job and to build relationships with other people. d) The ex-convict hadn't been given the right kind of training, such as job training and anger-management counseling.

The transition from the highly structured prison environment to a comparatively free and unstructured life caused the man to suffer from anomie.

Why is it so difficult to track the crime rate over time? a) Sociologists and criminologists do not use similar methodologies. b) Most crimes are unreported offenses. c) We lack good data on criminal activity prior to 1990. d) The way particular crimes are defined changes over time.

The way particular crimes are defined changes over time.

What did Edward Banfield assert in 1970 was the fundamental problem with the lower class, trapped in poverty? a) Their thinking and behavior were not future-oriented. b) They were unable to do things like travel to and from job interviews. c) Their thinking and behavior were self-centered. d) They suffered from some degree of mental illness.

Their thinking and behavior were not future-oriented.

Your textbook notes a new form of policy experiment that would provide everyone with a guaranteed income called a) The Sovereign Wealth Fund. b) Universal Basic Income. c) Moving to Opportunity. d) The War on Poverty.

Universal Basic Income.

Some policy experts believe that welfare creates more problems than it solves because it discourages people from finding work. This is also known as a) a perverse incentive. b) a social disease. c) the cycle of poverty. d) an intended consequence.

a perverse incentive.

Which term describes the measurement of poverty where a household's income falls below the necessary level to purchase food to physically sustain its members? a) poverty threshold b) relative poverty c) official poverty rate d) absolute poverty Question 18

absolute poverty

Identify the example of social capital. a) A wealthy Tampa sports fan watches every game in his private box. b) An artist who vacations in a Colorado town has a few very close friends among the locals. c) An academic expert of social interactions has written a new book concerning his research on body language. d) A college graduate knows a lot about interesting places to see in Los Angeles.

b) An artist who vacations in a Colorado town has a few very close friends among the locals.

Weak ties are a valuable aspect of a social network because a) we do not have to invest as much energy in maintaining them. b) they are more likely to introduce us to new information and ideas. c) it is easier to sever them if a friendship doesn't blossom smoothly. d) it is easier to exert power over those to whom we have such ties.

b) they are more likely to introduce us to new information and ideas.

While a social network is ________, a social tie ________. a) the way in which two people form bonds; is the connections between people b) how people stay in touch with each other; explains how people maintain their relationship c) the connections between people; explains how two people know each other d) how two people know each other; is how two people maintain their relationship

c) the connections between people; explains how two people know each other

Under what system is your societal position related to your position in the economic market? a) class b) estate c) hierarchy d) caste

class

A politician who argues that poverty causes people to reject the practices of "mainstream" society is making a ________ argument. a) life chances b) Marxist c) culture of poverty d) functionalist

culture of poverty

According to Georg Simmel, which of the following groups is the most fragile? a) secondary group b) dyad c) triad d) primary group

dyad

Melissa goes out on a date with Amy. From a sociological perspective, two persons on a date have formed a a) dyad. b) party. c) triad. d) micro social network.

dyad

A stratification system with a governing elite—that is, the few leaders who broadly hold the power in a society—is called a(n) ________ system. a) caste b) status hierarchy c) class d) elite-mass dichotomy

elite-mass dichotomy

A capitalist society with a continuing history of inequality in wealth, income, and power can still have a) equality of outcome. b) equality of condition. c) equality of opportunity. d) equality of estate.

equality of opportunity.

In general, a major goal of Clinton's 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was to a) get people back into the labor market as soon as possible. b) shift the responsibilities of running welfare programs away from individual states. c) expand employment opportunities in government and civil service. d) increase government assistance for those in poverty.

get people back into the labor market as soon as possible.

Identify which of the following is a factor necessary for rapidly lowering birthrates in a developing nation, according to Jeffrey Sachs. a) elimination of the patriarchal elements in a culture b) improved methods of agriculture c) separate schooling for boys and girls d) girls' education

girls' education

Trade of goods and services across national boundaries, as well as the mobility of businesses and labor through immigration, is called a) international business. b) global stratification. c) globalization. d) equality of condition.

globalization.

The effect of globalization has been to bifurcate labor into a) technical and support. b) upper class and middle class. c) high skilled and low skilled. d) middle class and working class.

high skilled and low skilled.

When the official poverty line was first set, food made up the largest percentage of household budgets. Today, what makes up the largest percentage? a) transportation b) heating homes c) health care d) housing

housing

When a study group grows from a triad to a group of four, the complexity of studying the ties in this group Incorrect Response a) decreases because the relationships in larger groups tend to be less intimate. b) decreases because the power dynamics are more intricate in triads compared to larger groups. c) does not change significantly because the purpose of the group has not changed. d) increases because the number of possible relationships in that group doubles.

increases because the number of possible relationships in that group doubles.

Social deviance is a breach of ________; crime is a breach of ________. a) norms; law b) private norms; public norms c) society; persons d) propriety; decency

norms; law

The game of Monopoly exemplifies equality of a) opportunity. b) condition. c) business. d) personhood.

opportunity.

Any social network that is defined by a common purpose and that has a boundary between its members and the rest of the social world is known within sociology as a(n) a) organization. b) large group. c) narrative. d) political party.

organization.

Identify which of the following is a variable in a parent population that best predicts children's educational outcomes. a) parents' social capital b) parents' level of education c) parents' occupation d) parents' income

parents' level of education

According to the research on status attainment, the best predictors of a person's educational and other socioeconomic outcomes are a) parents' net worth and the individual's own IQ. b) parents' net worth and parents' education. c) parents' income and parents' net worth. d) parents' education and parents' income. Question 10

parents' net worth and parents' education.

Jennifer goes out at night with a spray can and writes on a stop sign. She successfully vandalizes for the first time. Labeling theorists would call this ________ deviance. a) stigmatized b) primary c) secondary d) innovation

primary

Karl Marx and Jean-Jacques Rousseau tended to agree on at least one thing. They both saw the primary source of social ills in society as a) the caste system. b) religion. c) the estate tax. d) private property.

private property.

What group sells its labor to the bourgeoisie to receive wages? a) working class b) bourgeoisie c) proletariat d) elites

proletariat

When a prison offers educational opportunities, mental health treatment, and job training programs to inmates, which response to deviance is it engaging in? a) recidivist b) restitutive c) rehabilitative d) repressive

rehabilitative

After a student drops out of high school, he becomes labeled a "drop-out," and his subsequent actions and choices are explained in terms of this label. Those subsequent actions are called a) primary deviance. b) unintended consequences. c) anomie. d) secondary deviance.

secondary deviance.

An example of horizontal social mobility is a(n) a) office manager who moves into a similar position in a much larger firm, where he or she earns greater status and income. b) family that migrates from low-income housing to an upper-middle-class gated community. c) secretary changing firms but retaining his or her occupational status. d) barista's promotion to store manager.

secretary changing firms but retaining his or her occupational status.

When people in a society form social bonds and relate to each other on a daily basis, the society is said to exhibit a) social cohesion. b) anomie. c) conformity. d) conflict.

social cohesion.

Different political groups may emphasize the importance of equality, yet may strongly disagree with each other or may not have a cooperative set of interactions with each other. One key reason for this might be that a) some political groups believe in equality more strongly than others. b) some political groups use different definitions of equality than others. c) some political groups care about equality, but not as much as group stability. d) some political groups are more likely to say what voters want to hear.

some political groups use different definitions of equality than others.

What method is usually used to measure poverty? a) statistical measures of income b) maternal and infant health outcomes c) interviewing and observation d) self-reporting

statistical measures of income

Consider a country that has laws and customs against discrimination regarding school admissions, employment, and pay. This society is also organized such that its members fall into a hierarchy of political power, wealth, education, occupational status, and income. This country is understood to have a) stratification. b) exchange mobility. c) social mobility. d) equality of condition.

stratification.

When groups are arranged hierarchically with different levels of power, social prestige, status, or economic resources, this is called a) globalization. b) equality of opportunity. c) exchange mobility. d) stratification.

stratification.

When sociologists study how race and ethnicity affect income, they are studying a) the estate system. b) stratification. c) exchange mobility. d) wealth and assets.

stratification.

Illegal drug dealing is an example of which of the following types of crime, as defined by sociologists? a) corporate b) street crime c) white-collar crime d) misdemeanor

street crime

As your textbook notes, the paradox of stratification is that inequality is the result of a) mutual dependency. b) meritocracy. c) contradictory class locations. d) surplus.

surplus.

People who are born into poverty and ultimately raise their own children in poverty learn how to live in poverty. They learn the norms and values associated with that particular way of life. Oscar Lewis called this a) the culture of poverty. b) the informal social safety net. c) absolute poverty. d) the War on Poverty.

the culture of poverty.

The most important difference between primary and secondary groups has to do with a) size because size influences the flow of power through the group. b) the degree of intimacy or instrumentality that people experience in these groups. c) whether the people in the group trust each other. d) the level of competition for scarce resources within the group.

the degree of intimacy or instrumentality that people experience in these groups.

Mollie Orshansky used the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recommendations for the minimum amount of healthy food, estimated the cost for a variety of family types, and multiplied this figure by a factor of three. This became the measure of a) absolute poverty. b) relative poverty. c) the poverty threshold. d) the official poverty line.

the official poverty line.

Sociologist Georg Simmel (1950) argues that "size matters" in a group primarily because the number of people in a group determines a) what people think about others. b) whether or not the group can tell a narrative about itself. c) the structure social relations will take. d) whether or not the group can become a social network.

the structure social relations will take.

The rise or fall of an individual (or group) from one social stratum to another is called ________ social mobility. a) structural b) conditioned c) vertical d) horizontal

vertical