Sociology Chapter 1

Which of the following statements is an accurate criticism of the structural-functional approach?

It ignores inequality that can generate tension and conflict.

Which early sociologist claimed that his goal was not to simply understand society but to change it?

Karl Marx

Which theoretical approach highlights the fact that it is not so much what people do that matters as much as the meaning they attach to their behavior?

symbolic-interaction approach

Which of the following people had an important influence on the development of the social-conflict approach?

Karl Marx

The term "sociology" was coined in 1838 by

Auguste Comte

Three roommates are in their dorm room sharing a late-night discussion about why they are in college. Which of the following statements about attending college best represents using the sociological perspective?

Both age and class have a lot to do with which people are enrolled in college.

Which of the following statements correctly describes sociology's value to future careers?

It favors quantitative data.

Which founding sociologist emphasized the importance of understanding a social setting from the point of view of the people in it?

Max Weber

Who was the U.S. sociologist who expanded the understanding of social functions by discussing the differences between the manifest functions and the latent functions of social patterns?

Robert K. Merton

Which early U.S. sociologist earned the first doctorate ever awarded by Harvard University to a person of color?

W. E. B. Du Bois

Which term refers to "a mental construct that represents some part of the world"?

a concept

Which of the following concepts refers to an exaggerated description that somebody applies to every person in a category of the population?

a stereotype

Which of the following is the best example of a latent function of going to college?

keeping young people out of the job force, which may not have jobs for them

Unrecognized and unintended consequences of the social structure are called

latent functions.

According to Comte, societies in which stage of development begin to see society as a natural—rather than a supernatural—phenomenon?

metaphysical stage

If marginality encourages sociological thinking, we would expect people in which category listed below to make the most use of the sociological perspective?

people of color

Social structures sometimes have negative consequences for the operation of society. What concept refers to these negative consequences?

social dysfunctions

Looking at the operation of U.S. schools, the social-conflict approach might lead a sociologist to conclude that

society provides much better schooling to some categories of students than to others.

Which theoretical approach is closest to that taken by early sociologists Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim?

structural-functional approach

The method of sociological research best suited to identifying cause-and-effect relationships is

the experiment

What research method was used in Phillip Zimbardo's study the "Stanford County Prison"?

the experiment

Which of the following can correctly be called the "framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change"?

the social-conflict approach

If we state that children raised in single-parent families are at high risk of being single parents themselves, we have constructed a __________ of family life.

theory

In the United States today, the suicide rate is highest for which of the following categories of people?

white males