SOC 200 Exam #2

Which of the following is NOT one of the basic principles of social stratification?

Low-level groups often have basic access to rewards and privileges of higher-level groups

After the Civil War, most southern states passed laws that barred African Americans and whites from sharing most kinds of public facilities. This is an example of:

Segregation

Which theory of power argues that a variety of organizations and institutions have roughly equal access to the power of structure?

pluralism

There is little or no chance of social mobility.

social class

What is the shift from people making their own fun to people purchasing it as goods and services called?

the commodification of recreational activities

According to one study, in Pennsylvania, black defendants on trial for murder were 40 percent more likely to receive the death penalty than whites convicted of similar crimes. This indicates that:

the criminal justice system has a racial bias.

Oscar Lewis was the first to suggest that, because they are excluded from mainstream social life, the poor develop a way of life with fundamentally different values and goals, which makes it much less likely that they will ever join the middle class. This way of life is usually called:

the culture of poverty.

Until the 1990's, South Korea had laws in place banning marriage between people who belonged to the same clan. This means that they practiced:

exogamy

Men and women have always performed different tasks to help the family function, and these roles have always been considered unequal.

false

Polyandry, a kind of polygamy where a woman has multiple husbands, has never been documented.

false

Under certain conditions, the Federal Communications Commission allows a single company to own every media outlet in a single market.

false

High-profile individuals who interpret political information and influence the voting habits of the public are called:

opinion leaders

Many argue that third places in society can contribute to the strengthening of public spirit in a civil society.

true

Many forms of leisure and recreation have shifted from spontaneous or informal activities to formal and organized ones.

true

Marriage between people of different racial backgrounds was illegal in the United States for most of the country's history.

true

Most people who divorce remarry.

true

Propinquity refers to when people tend to choose mates who live in close geographic proximity.

true

When sociologists reject the hypodermic needle model, they tend to stop asking ____________ and start asking ______________.

what media does to people; what people do with media

When students are tested and the test results are used to place them in a certain category of classes (remedial, advanced, college prep, etc.), this process is called:

tracking

What do schools, churches, and governments all have in common?

They are all social institutions.

What do sociologists call the lessons that students learn indirectly but which they are not officially or formally tested on?

the hidden curriculum

An activity that can be one person's job can be another person's recreation.

true

According to Karl Marx, what social relations matter most in a capitalist system?

economic relations

What are memes an example of?

textual poaching

In the past, how was custody of minor children usually handled in divorce cases?

Mothers received custody in a disproportionate number of cases.

What sort of social mobility is possible in a caste system?

There is little or no chance of social mobility.

How has the principle of the free press as a voice of the people been watered down since the founders guaranteed it in the Constitution?

through conglomeration and media concentration

Working-class people tend to do different things with their leisure time than wealthy elites do.

true

Who is more likely to return home after a full day of paid labor and then have to put in a "second shift" at home taking care of domestic work?

women

Your hike might be part of the commercialization of leisure if:

you buy a $500 backpack with a solar panel to allow you to recharge your electronics

A person's blood type is closely correlated with his or her race.

False

A person who is not prejudiced may still participate in discrimination.

True

What is it called when a minority group is absorbed into the dominant group?

Assimilation

Which of the following is an example of a prejudice?

Believing that asians are better at math

Since 1917, all Puerto Ricans (Puerto Rico is considered a territory of the U.S.) have been considered U.S. citizens, however they do not have any representative in Congress and they cannot vote in presidential elections. Due to this they would be referred to as:

Disenfranchised

Most poor people in the United States are unemployed.

False

Racial passing is a relatively recent phenomenon and has only happened for the past twenty years.

False

The words "race" and "ethnicity" are used interchangeably because they mean essentially the same thing.

False

There have been many societies throughout history that have not had any social stratification.

False

During the period of 1915 to 1923, the then Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) engaged in a large-scale deportation, execution, and placement into concentration camps of ethnic Armenians, at the end of which it is estimated that more than a million Armenians had been killed. These actions reflect the concept known as:

Genocide

How does the academic achievement of homeschooled students compare to that of public school students?

Homeschooled students perform significantly better, on average, than public school students.

How has technology enabled the shift from spontaneous to organized recreation?

It has made it easier to organize people

What feature of the nuclear family, as opposed to the extended family, makes it uniquely qualified to serve the needs of an industrial economy?

It makes geographic mobility much easier

The terms "recreation" and "leisure" are both defined by their difference from:

Paid work

In the novel The Human Stain by Philip Roth, a professor at a college in the Northeast is forced into early retirement after he is accused of racism. The charge turns out to be ironic when the reader learns that the professor has a secret: he was born to African American parents and has been covering up his heritage and living as a white man his whole adult life. What is this an example of?

Passing

The forced march of 17,000 Cherokee Native Americans in the mid-1800's was known as the Trail of Tears. What would sociologists also refer to it as?

Population Transfer

How are the changes in technology changing the nature of recreation?

Recreation is moving inside the home and away from public spaces.

Which theoretical perspective would take the view that racial groups provide important places for social solidarity to grow among group members, even though such in-group orientations may sometimes create intergroup conflict?

Structural-Functionalism

This type of government includes such governments as the Soviet Union, North Korea, and the fictional state of Oceania from George Orwell's novel 1984. Choose the best answer.

Totalitarian

A person can work full-time at a minimum-wage job and still be considered poor or beneath the poverty line.

True

Based on research, the political candidate who spends the most money in an election almost always wins the election.

True

Educational systems can help to replicate systems of inequality.

True

In the past several decades, America has seen a widening of the gap between the income levels of the upper class and those of the middle and lower classes.I

True

Many social scientists view voter ID laws as ways of suppressing the vote of certain targeted groups (low-income and minorities).

True

Not all citizens are equally represented by a democratic government.

True

The Great Depression of the 1930s, in which hundreds of thousands of Americans fell into lower social classes almost overnight, is an example of structural mobility.

True

The media play a key role in the political process.

True

The process of cultural assimilation is sometimes involuntary.

True

The Brady Bunch was an American sitcom that originally aired in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and was about a large family, produced when Mike Brady, an architect with three boys, married Carol Martin, who had three girls. In both cases, the children were from previous marriages. This makes the Brady family an example of

a blended family.

A society where social mobility is highly restricted by formal or informal rules, like those of a slave system, is called:

a closed system

An individual is most likely to be murdered by:

a family member

How does the U.S. Census define "family"?

a group of two or more people related by birth, marriage, or adoption and living together

How do sociologists define a minority group?

a group whose members suffer from unequal treatment and a lack of access to power, and resources due to their group membership

In the United States, the federal poverty line is calculated using food costs, based on the cheapest possible diet that can still provide basic nutrition. What sort of measure of poverty is this?

a measure of absolute deprivation

A heterosexual couple living in the same household and raising children is defined as:

a nuclear family.

In 2006 Nintendo released the Wii, a video game system. The system was widely noted for attracting demographic groups, including senior citizens, not often associated with video games. In fact, there were even reports of senior citizens forming leagues to play "Wii-bowling" and other sports-related games. If true, these leagues would represent:

a return of public life

Ethnicity is

a social construct based on things such as culture, nationality, ancestry, and language

Every year Project Censored posts a list of the twenty-five most censored news stories. These stories are "censored" not in the sense that the media are legally prohibited from covering them, but rather in the sense that most major media outlets have systematically ignored them and, in the process, determined what the public will think about. What theory explains this?

agenda-setting theory

What sort of laws prohibited the mixing of racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, or sexual contact?

anti-miscegenation laws

In June 2018 American Airlines agreed to pay $45 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of colluding with other major airlines to limit capacity and keep airfares high. While the companies involved reject accusations of collusion with each other, this case would still likely be considered an example of what kind of lawsuit?

antitrust

A police officer stops you for driving 73 mph in a 65 mph zone and gives you a ticket that costs $150. If you go home and mail a check, you are acknowledging that the police officer has:

authority

How could new technologies like the Internet decrease the importance of propinquity in mate selection while preserving or even increasing the importance of homogamy?

by bringing people together from all over the world based on very similar interests or backgrounds

According to Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, how do schools reinforce inequality?

by using local property taxes to fund public schools, trapping poor children in poor schools

The group that attempts to rebuild group values and a sense of collective responsibility is called:

communitarianism

Sandra goes to an exclusive gala hoping to network with those in the world of art. She has her friend James accompany her. While at the gala dinner Sandra has no idea which of the many utensils to use and she is unfortunately seated next to a major player in the art world. James, on the other hand, was raised in a household that taught him all the uses of silverware and is able to charm the art dealer. To Bourdieau this illustrates differences in James and Sandra's:

cultural capital

In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act in order to promote competition among businesses in media. The Act removed many barriers that prevented a single company from owning large numbers of stations. This law is an example of:

deregulation

What is the term for the range of behaviors that abusers use to gain and maintain control over their victims?

domestic abuse

Jimmy has a best friend named Moe, they hang out all the time and are inseperable. Moe is even referred to by Jimmy as his brother and Jimmy's parent's call Moe their "second son". Moe would be referred to as:

fictive kin

What do sociologists call it when an individual changes their career but remains within the same social class?

horizontal social mobility

What led to the increase in leisure time in the twentieth century?

increases in industrial productivity and time-saving technologies

The "Jim Crow" laws in the American South, which mandated separate facilities for whites and blacks, were an example of:

institutional discrimination

When the children of working-class parents manage to attend college and get a job in a professional field, it is an example of:

intergenerational mobility

Social mobility that occurs over an individual's lifetime is called:

intragenerational mobility

The Great Recession of 2008 saw many people losing their homes and their jobs, forcing them to take jobs that paid much less. This is an example of:

life-cycle mobility

Which of the following is NOT considered to be protected speech?

material considered to be obscene

Which of the following is a form of stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit?

meritocracy

Abdullah II of Jordan succeeded his father, Hussein bin Talal, as ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 1999. This makes his government a:

monarchy

The Nyinba people of Tibet have a social system where a woman will marry a man and his brothers in order to keep the little farmable land from being continually split among more and more married people. This would be referred to as:

polyandry

According to C. Wright Mills, who rules America?

power elite

When we compare the salaries of the worst-paid members of a corporation with the salary of the CEO, what sort of measure of poverty are we using?

relative deprivation

According to Randall Collins, our educational system is much like a "tribal initiation rite," a "secret society," or a "closed occupational caste," not a rational system that produces more efficient production but a mechanism for:

reproducing the existing class structure.

Some Arab Americans purposely chose to forgo their traditional styles of dress soon after the events of September 11th. While at home they would wear traditional clothing but when going out into public they chose to change their clothes to appear more "American". What is this an example of?

situational ethnicity

How do sociologists define race?

social category based on real or perceived biological differences

What are organizations that are formed for the sole purpose of spending money to influence elected officials called?

special interest groups.

What variable would account for the dramatic jump in test scores evidenced by the students in Rosenthal and Jacobson's Pygmalion in the Classroom?

teacher attitudes

What is it called when individuals must care for both their own children and their elderly parents?

the sandwich generation effect

In Brazil, Brazilians identify themselves racially by terms such as moreno (other type of brown), moreno claro (light brown), negro (another type of black), and claro (light). In China, prior to the Communist Revolution, race was based on (in order of importance): blood purity, hair, odor, brain mass, and lastly, skin color. In Japan, a group referred to as Burakamin are thought to be "unclean" and are thought to be a separate race. What do these examples all illustrate?

the social construction of race

According to conflict theory, what is the real source of racism?

the struggle for power and control

According to the text, which of the following has the effect of making poverty socially "invisible"?

the use of law enforcement to move the homeless away from visible locations

What would a symbolic interactionist studying the family be most interested in?

the way gift giving within an extended family makes some bonds more important than others