sociology mid term

The term Homo sapiens, the name of our species, comes from Latin meaning

"Intelligent person"

Because there is more social isolation in rural areas of the United States than in urban areas, we would expect suicide rates to be ________

. higher in rural areas.

C. Wright Mills claimed that the "sociological imagination" transformed ________

. personal problems into public issues.

Experts have documented almost _______ languages around the world.

7,000

Which of the following statements best illustrates the career advantage a person gains by studying sociology?

A police officer understands which categories of people who are at high risk of becoming victims of crime.

The fact that text messaging is based on a new set of symbols shows us that

All of these responses are correct

Sociologists define a symbol as

Anything that carries meaning to people who share a culture

The term "sociology" was coined in 1838 by ________

Auguste Comte

What is the term for the ways of thinking, ways of acting, and material objects that together form a people's way of life?

Culture

The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was ________

Emile Durkheim

The United States is multicultural because

In this country we find many different languages and way of life

Ethnocentrism refers to

Judging another culture using the standards of your own culture

_______ had an important influence on the development of the social-conflict approach.

Karl Marx

The chapter's opening story of the diversity initiative at Charles Schwab & Co. shows us that

Learning more about cultural diversity can help a company boost sales

Cars, computers, and iPhones are all examples of which of the following?

Material culture

_______, one of the founding sociologists, urged sociologists to understand a social setting from the point of view of the people in it.

Max Weber

Cultural transmission refers to the process of

Passing cultural patterns from one generation to another

Which of the following statements MOST closely conveys the point of the Sapir-Whorf thesis?

People see the world through the cultural lens of their language

Among all forms of life, humans stand out as the only species that

Relies on culture to ensure survival

The region of the United States where the largest percentage of people speak a language other than English at home is the

Southwest

This language, which is the native tongue or official language in several world regions, has become the preferred second

Spanish

. Herbert Spencer described human society as a complex system having much in common with ________

The Human body

A manifest function of sports is ________

The intended consequences of a social pattern

The ancient Romans saw the stars as being gods. Auguste Comte would classify Roman society as being in which of the following stages of history?

Theological stage

Standards by which people who share culture define what is desirable, good, and beautiful are called

Values

A simplified description unfairly applied to every person in the same category is called ________

a stereotype

Unlike simple stereotypes, sociological generalizations ________

are based on all available facts.

Making use of the sociological perspective encourages ________

challenging many commonly-held beliefs

Following the thinking of C. Wright Mills, we would expect the sociological imagination to be more widespread in a population ________

during times of social crisis.

Sarah is spending a summer living in another country where people have a way of life that differs from her own. A sociologist might expect that this experience would lead her to ________

end up with a greater understanding of both a new way of life and her own way of life.

To evaluate a theory using evidence, sociologists ________

gather data of facts

Sociology differs from the older discipline of philosophy by focusing on ________

how society actually operates

Sociologists cannot identify "laws of society" that allow us to precisely predict the behavior of an individual because ________

human behavior may be patterned, but it is also spontaneous.

An accurate criticism of the structural-functional approach is that it ________

ignores inequality that can generate tension and conflict.

Understanding the differences between countries encourages

increasing our understanding of both of our own lives and the lives of others.

Cultural change is set in motion in three general ways. What are they?

invention, discovery, and diffusion

Building social relationships and creating tens of thousands of jobs are two of the _________ of sports.

latent functions

Using the symbolic-interaction approach, sports becomes ________

less a system than an ongoing process of interaction.

Robert Merton explained that what is functional for people in one category of a society's population ________

may not be functional for people in another category.

Social problems in the United States, such as poverty and gender inequality, are ________

more serious in poorer countries

The United States is the most _______ of all countries.

multicultural

In deciding what kinds of questions to ask in their research, sociologists are guided by ________

one or more theoretical approaches.

A social-exchange analysis states that ________

people typically seek mates who offer as much as they do.

The term "cultural lag" refers to the fact that

refers to the fact that some cultural elements change more quickly than others

By stating that the sociological perspective shows us "the strange in the familiar," the text argues that sociologists ________

reject the familiar idea that people simply decide how to act in favor of the initially strange idea that society shapes our lives.

Learning more sociology can help you ________

see how individuals guide their own lives through "free will"

The "framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change" is the ________

social conflict approach

Social structures sometimes have negative consequences for the operation of society as a whole. Which of the following concepts refers to these negative consequences?

social dysfunctions

Which concept is used to describe relatively stable patterns of social behavior?

social structure

Which discipline defines itself as "the systematic study of human society"?

sociology

The theoretical approach in sociology that assumes society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability is the ________

structural-functional approach.

Among the historical changes that stimulated the development of sociology as a discipline was ________

the rise of the industrial economy and growth of cities.

A statement that explains how and why specific facts are related is called a(n) ________

theory

The major goal of sociology's pioneers, including Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim, was ________

to discover how society actually operates.