SOC 101 QUIZZES

_______ refers to choices individuals make by their own will.

Agency

"You are living a life and creating a biography within the context of a particular time and place - a history - that you did not create or ask for." This statement follows the ______ and refers to ______.

Sociological Imagination / The accident of birth

_______ analyzes the relationship between individuals and the social world.

Sociology

The social world influences our actions and life choices. This statement describes:

The fundamental thinking behind sociology.

Doing sociology requires you to question your taken-for-granted reality.

True

If millions of people in the U.S. do not have a job, we should be looking at public issues.

True

Sociology, the systematic study of society, is a science.

True

The sociological perspective views the individual and society as mutually affecting each other. They are intertwined.

True

Making use of the sociological perspective encourages us to:

challenge our commonly held beliefs and taken-for-granted reality.

Mills points out that "inside a marriage, a man and a woman may experience personal troubles," but when the divorce rate escalates, "this is an indication of a structural issue having to do with the institutions of marriage and the family and other institutions that bear upon them." Imagine, for example, the current state of the economy has required most families to have two-wage earners. Stay-at-home moms or dads have no choice but to head out into the workforce. This in turn puts a strain on a big chunk of marriages which leads to higher divorce rates. Here, we are looking at ______ rather than ______

public issues / private troubles

If taken seriously, sociology can:

(1) Push you to question the things you take for granted, (2) Possibly make you feel uncomfortable, and (3) Help you distinguish between choices you thought you had and those you truly have

When using your sociological imagination, it is important that you consider your:

(1) historical context, (2) geographical location, and (3) group membership.

When considering social research and objectivity, sociologists cannot precisely predict a person's behavior because:

(1) humans may respond to the presence of an observer in unexpected ways, (2) human behavior is highly complex and has many causes, and (3) social patterns that are found in one place and time may not be found in others.

Sociologists seek to discover _______ about social phenomena and/or particular categories of people.

General patterns

One of the authors of your text refers to ________ when explaining that she wasn't taught to think about her life or the lives of others in the context of "groupness." Although this is a common way of looking at life here in the U.S., it does NOT help when using the sociological imagination.

Individualism

Ashanti has developed an eating disorder. Some people may fault her for her private trouble. Those using their sociological imagination, though, might conclude that there's a bigger issue at hand. For example, the media have served as agents of socialization helping to shape beauty norms for women. The message is clear, thin is in! In this case, the media fall under what sociologists call:

Social Structure

Education, marriage, work, religion, family, social norms, cultural values...sociologically speaking, these serve to illustrate:

Social Structure

"How are you today?" "I'm fine, thanks." This social exchange illustrates:

Social norms

_____ are invisible rules that guide our behavior and our lives.

Social norms

Sociologist, Lillian Rubin, conducted a classic study on women's hopes for marriage. Her results suggested that women from higher classes had different expectations than those from a lower class position. When using the sociological perspective to analyze her findings, you're likely to conclude that:

Society shapes the lives of people from different categories in different ways.

Let's say Sanders loves to surround himself with fancy stuff. Because of this, he's accrued a large amount of debt. It may be that Sanders is an irresponsible guy who doesn't manage his money well. It may also be that like many others of his generation, he believes the more stuff you have, the more successful you appear to be. By examining the values generally held by people in Sander's age group, we're using the:

Sociological Imagination

The _______ offers you a lens to understand the ways in which you, as an individual, are shaped by the norms, structures and institutions of your society. Using it helps us to recognize what Peter Berger calls the "strange in the familiar."

Sociological perspective

The correct answer to #14 suggests that some of our most personal choices are also shaped by social structure. The authors of your text cite the ____________ when noting tension between what we can individually control and the social constraints/opportunities that are beyond our control:

The Structure-Agency Debate

Individualism suggests that the individual and society are separate entities. For example, every individual is responsible for their own successes and failures.

True

Using your sociological imagination will help you better understand why personal crises are often rooted in social circumstances.

True