Sociology Unit 2

In which of the following ways does the relationship building skill help you in the workplace?

By helping you work more efficiently in a multicultural environment.

Informal Norms

Casual behaviors that are generally and widely conformed to, but without being explicitly instructed.

Holly is in the eighth grade and is a huge fan of the TV show Lightning Bug. Which scenario best exemplifies that the TV show's cast is a reference group for Holly?

Holly dresses, speaks, and acts like the cast of the show.

Role Performance

How a person expresses their role.

Looking-Glass Self

How a person's sense of self grows out of their interactions with others.

Impression Management

How we present ourselves to others in order to influence how we are perceived.

Expressive Functions

Interactions and behaviors between members within the primary group, which serve emotional needs.

Instrumental Function

Interactions within a group that is goal- or task-oriented.

Which of the following best describes specialization as one of Weber's characteristics of bureaucracy?

It facilitates efficiency by dividing work into specific, skill-based tasks.

In which of the following ways does the self and social awareness skill help you in the workplace?

It helps you better understand yourself and other people in the workplace.

How does being aware of your culture help in the workplace?

It helps you develop better relationships with co-workers.

Which statement best describes impersonality as one of Weber's characteristics of bureaucracy?

It promotes equal treatment of all employees within the organization.

Jamal is the star of his high school's soccer team. He and his soccer team are known to stick together on and off the field. In the context of group dynamics, which of the following best explains this scenario?

Jamal and his friends consider themselves to be part of an in-group. An in-group is a group that individuals feel like they belong to and which they believe to be an integral part of who they are.

Many of John's relatives are finance professionals. He himself is a successful stock broker. According to the nurture theory, which of the following is the most likely reason for John's choice of career?

John's family environment. Some sociologists assert that who we are is a result of nurture—the relationships and environments that surround us. Nurture is the idea of society's cultural standards of parental care. According to the nurture theory, John's family environment is the most likely reason for his choice of career.

Formal Organizations

Large social groups intentionally organized to achieve specific goals (i.e. government agencies, the United States Post Office, corporations, and higher education).

Culture

Learned sets of behaviors and ideas that are acquired by members of society.

Aggregate

A crowd of people who just happen to exist in the same place at the same time but who share no meaningful interaction or sense of identity, such as people in line at the grocery.

Values

A culture's standard for discerning what is good and just in society. Values are deeply embedded and critical for transmitting and teaching a culture's beliefs.

Which of the following statements highlights the difference between a formal norm and an informal norm?

A formal norm is a written and established rule, but an informal norm is the casual behavior that people widely conform to.

Peer Group

A group of people who are similar in age and social status and who share interests.

Society

A group of people who live in a delineated space such as a nation and share common symbols, language, and culture.

Triad

A group of three individuals, such as three siblings or roommates. Relative to a dyad, the intensity is lower and the stability is higher.

Dyad

A group of two individuals, such as a couple or a pair of best friends. The intensity is high but the stability is low.

Out-group

A group someone does not belong to, where they define themselves in opposition to the members of that group.

In-group

A group that an individual feels she belongs to, and which she believes to be an integral part of who she is.

Reference Group

A group that people compare themselves to, providing a standard of measurement.

Secondary Group

A larger and more impersonal social group that joins together for a specific purpose or goal.

Which of the following gestures is interpreted differently in different cultures?

A person pointing at another person using their index finger. As we interact with cultures other than our own, we become more aware of the differences and commonalities between others' symbolic and material worlds and our own. Pointing toward another person using your index finger is most likely to be interpreted differently in different cultures.

Which of the following statements correctly distinguishes a primary group from a secondary group?

A primary group is a closely knit group of people; a secondary group is more impersonal.

Breaching Experiment

A research method developed by Harold Garfinkel, in which the researcher behaves in a socially unexpected way in order to test the sociological concepts of norms and conformity.

Primary Group

A smaller social group whose members share intimate, lasting personal connections.

Achieved Status

A social position that a person achieves voluntarily by virtue of their work, talent, or effort.

Ascribed Status

A social position that a person occupies involuntarily by virtue of their birth or life circumstances.

Which of the following situations best exemplifies role exit?

A student graduates high school and gets a full-time job. Role exit is a transition where a person disengages from old roles in order to start something new. A student who graduates high school and gets a full-time job has exited the role of a student.

Language

A symbolic system through which people communicate and through which culture is transmitted.

Meritocracy

A system where opportunity and advancement are based on proven and documented skills, rather than on nepotism or random chance.

Role Exit

A transition where a person disengages from old roles in order to start something new.

Organic Solidarity

According to Durkheim, a social order based around an acceptance of economic and social differences.

Mechanical Solidarity

According to Durkheim, a type of social order maintained by the collective consciousness of a culture.

In which of the following scenarios does the person display culture shock?

Alia, who moved from a conservative country to the United States, was very unsettled by how free her American roommates were with their parents.

Which of the following refers to Anita's ascribed status as opposed to her achieved status?

Anita was considered affluent because she was born into a rich family.

Group

Any collection of at least two people who interact with some frequency and who share a sense that their identity is somehow aligned with the group.

Status

Any social position that a person occupies.

Which of the following is true of beliefs?

Beliefs are the tenets or convictions that people hold to be true.

Which of the following statements is true of the difference between culture and society?

Culture refers to the values of people, whereas society refers to a group of people following the same rules. Culture encompasses the beliefs, practices, and artifacts of a group, while society represents the social structures and organization of the people who share those beliefs and practices.

Which of the following refers to Derek's achieved status as opposed to his ascribed status?

Derek recently became the senior partner at a law firm.

Collective Conscience

Durkheim's term for the communal beliefs, morals, and attitudes of society.

Which of the following exemplifies socialization by a social agent?

Ella's grandmother teaches her how to eat using a fork and knife. Families and peer groups are social agents of socialization that teach a child what he or she needs to know about life. They show the child how to use objects and tools such as clothes, toilets, utensils, and books. Among the given examples, Ella is being socialized by her grandmother, a social agent, to use utensils while eating.

Emily was born into a wealthy family who could afford to send her to an Ivy League college, immediately after which she went to law school. In the context of status and roles, which of the following inferences is most likely to be accurate?

Emily's ascribed status has strongly influenced her achieved status.

Formal Norms

Established, written rules.

Ethnocentrism

Evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to one's own cultural norms. It involves a belief or attitude that one's own culture is better than all others, and should therefore serve as the standard frame of reference.

Symbols

Forms of visual communication including gestures, signs, objects, signals, and words, which help people understand that world.

What was the main difference between Karl Marx's and Emile Durkheim's views of religion?

Marx believed that religion facilitates inequality and injustice; Durkheim saw religion as a source of social stability. Karl Marx believed religion reflects the social stratification of society and that it maintains inequality and perpetuates an unjust status quo. For Durkheim, religion was a cohesive force that helped bind the members of society together.

Which statement would be most true of a company that divided labor across different skill sets and in which people did not need to switch between tasks?

The company has a specialized workforce.

Cultural Imperialism

The deliberate imposition of one's own cultural values on another culture.

According to Goffman, how does impression management influence your presentation of self?

You present yourself based on how you want others to perceive you.

Most young children learn to imitate the behavior of their parents from a very young age. In the context of group dynamics, which option best explains this statement?

Young children consider their parents to be their reference group.

Weber's Six Characteristics of Bureaucracy

Max Weber argued that the bureaucratic organizational form is characterized by six features: 1) Specialization and Division of Labor 2) Hierarchical Authority Structures 3) Rules and Regulations 4) Technical Competence Guidelines 5) Impersonality and Personal Indifference 6) A Standard of Formal, Written Communications

Which of the following statements effectively describes the difference between mores and folkways?

Mores highlight the difference between right and wrong, whereas folkways highlight the difference between polite and rude behavior.

Mores

Norms that embody the moral views and principles of a group.

Prescriptive Norms

Norms that tell people what they should do.

Proscriptive Norms

Norms that tell people what they should not do.

Folkways

Norms without any moral underpinnings.

What is one of the main ideas of Emile Durkheim's trajectory of societies?

Organic solidarity is the final development stage for any society. According to Durkheim, once a society achieves organic solidarity, it has finished its development.

Cultural Universals

Patterns or traits that are globally common to all societies.

Which of the following is an example of xenocentrism?

People from heterosexual traditional families who believe that Western culture is far superior and more liberating. Xenocentrism is the belief that another culture is superior to one's own. An example of xenocentrism is the belief that people from traditional families have of Western culture being more superior and liberating than their own.

Category

People who share similar characteristics but are not tied to one another in any way, such as members of the same generation, or people of the same gender.

Which of the following statements accurately describes the functional theory of religion?

Religion often provides emotional sustenance. Functionalism seeks to find the parts of society that support and work well in the greater society. Religion serves several functions, like providing answers to spiritual mysteries, offering emotional comfort, and creating a place for social interaction and social control.

In which of the following scenarios does the individual display ethnocentric bias?

Shalini believes that the culture of her region is superior to the cultures that are far from the sea. Ethnocentrism refers to evaluating and judging another culture based on how it compares to one's own cultural norms. It involves a belief or attitude that one's own culture is better than all others and should therefore serve as the standard frame of reference. Shalini displays ethnocentric bias as she believes that her culture and beliefs are superior to that of others.

Role Strain

Stress and tension resulting from the role of a single status like a job status.

Beliefs

Tenets or convictions that people hold to be true.

Which of the following did Emile Durkheim consider the source of religion in society?

The collective mindset of society.

Harry was raised by strict, religious parents who were intolerant of misbehavior and curiosity of any sort. When Harry went to boarding school, he learned that discipline could be a good thing and that following rules was necessary and did not have to be unpleasant. He also learned that authority figures could be loving and supportive. Which statement best characterizes the socialization that Harry underwent?

The effects of Harry's social agents of socialization were neutralized by institutional socialization. Socialization occurs through either social agents or institutional agents. Families and peer groups are social agents of socialization, whereas formal institutions—like schools, workplaces, and the government—that teach people how to behave in and navigate these systems are institutional agents of socialization. In the given scenario, the negative effects of the social agents of socialization were neutralized by institutional socialization.

Conformity

The extent to which an individual complies with group norms or expectations.

Role Conflict

The feeling of conflict and stress when faced with juggling multiple roles from multiple statuses.

Culture Shock

The feeling of disorientation and frustration which results from being confronted with all of the differences of a new culture.

Status Set

The group of statuses that an individual occupies at any one time.

Nonmaterial Culture

The ideas, attitudes, and beliefs of a society.

Hidden Curriculum

The informal learning that happens in a school environment.

Socialization

The lifelong process of learning one's culture and internalizing the norms and behaviors considered appropriate for adults in society.

Which of the following is an example of a primary group?

The members of a nuclear family. The primary group is usually fairly small and is made up of individuals who generally engage face to face in long-term, emotionally significant ways. A nuclear family is an example of a primary group.

Master Status

The most important status for shaping a person's identity and position in the social world.

Which of the following compose material culture?

The objects created for use by humans. The objects or belongings of a group of people are considered material artifacts that compose the culture of a society.

Xenocentrism

The opposite of ethnocentrism; the belief that another culture is superior to one's own.

Material Culture

The physical items created and used by a society.

Cultural Relativism

The practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one's own culture.

Ideal Culture

The standards society would like to embrace and live up to, as defined by commonly shared values.

Which of the following statements highlights how culture is related to society?

The traditions followed by people belonging to a society determine the culture of the society.

Which of the following items would be considered part of the culture of your society?

The values that the people of your society hold in common.

Real Culture

The way society actually is, based on what occurs and exists.

Group Dynamics

The ways in which a group operates.

Simone and Fereshteh are siblings born 5 years apart. Because of unfortunate circumstances, the brothers were separated at a young age and were raised in different households. However, both the brothers display exceptional musical ability, similar to their grandfather. According to the nature theory, what has most likely led to their similar musical ability?

Their shared genetics. Some experts argue that who we are is based entirely on genetics or our biological makeup. According to this belief, our temperaments, interests, and talents are set before birth. Simone and Fereshteh's similar musical ability is most likely caused by their shared genetics.

In the trajectory of societies, what was a defining feature of hunter-gatherer societies?

They depended entirely on their environment. Hunter-gatherers relied on their surroundings for survival—they hunted wild animals and foraged for uncultivated plants for food. When resources became scarce, the group moved to a new area to find sustenance, meaning they were nomadic.

Which of the following was a characteristic of preindustrial societies?

They depended mostly on resources available locally.

Which of the following is true of values?

They help people determine whether things are good or bad, desirable or undesirable.

Which of the following is true of symbols in a culture?

They provide clues to understanding experiences by conveying recognizable meanings.

Trevor was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (a progressive nervous system disorder) when he was in his 40s. Which statement highlights the fact that this disease was an effect of nature?

Trevor's parents were diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in their 60s. Nature refers to your biology, whereas nurture is the relationships and environments that surround us as we grow. For Trevor's disease to be an effect of nature, it would have to be genetic, which means someone in his family would have had it.

Which of the following exemplifies socialization by an institutional agent?

Tyrone's faith prevents him from missing church on Sundays as he believes it keeps him focused and disciplined. Socialization occurs through either social agents or institutional agents. Formal institutions such as schools, workplaces, religious institutions, and the government are examples of institutional agents that teach people how to behave in and navigate these systems. Among the given examples, Tyrone's socialization is through a religious agent; therefore, it is an example of institutional socialization.

Which of the following is true of values?

Values vary across time and between groups.

Norms

Visible and invisible rules of conduct that define how to behave in accordance with what a society has defined as good, right, and important.

Anomie

When a society no longer has the support of a firm collective consciousness, and wherein established norms are weakened.

Which of the following best defines role conflict?

When you are faced with the contradictory demands of different roles.

Which of the following are members of secondary groups most likely to do?

Work together for a short time to achieve a specific goal. A secondary group is a larger and more impersonal social group that joins together for a specific purpose or goal. A secondary group does not share a close bond, meets less often, and is of a more formal nature.

Which of the following is an example of a prescriptive norm?

Write thank you cards after receiving a gift.