Exam 2 Practice Questions
Denise is a single mother of three who works a full-time job cleaning an office building. She makes $9 per hour and has to piece together child care for two of her children who are not yet in school, often paying neighbors in cash to watch her children. Despite her full-time employment, her family is struggling to survive. What sociological concept does Denise's situation exemplify?
feminization of poverty
In 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau identified the poverty threshold for a family of four as
$25,570
Approximately how many Americans receive cash assistance from the US government through TANF (welfare)?
1 million
Approximately what percent of American workers are members of a labor union?
10%
Over the last fifty years, the US poverty rate has largely remained in what range?
10-15% of the population
Which decade in US history saw the peak in US union membership?
1950's
In which decade did the Information Revolution begin?
1970s
Which statement best describes trends in American religiosity?
Americans rates of religious beliefs have declined slower than rates of religious participation.
Which of the following is an example of how the hidden curriculum can reinforce inequality?
Curriculum may recognize and celebrate diversity, but most professors and administrators are white and heterosexual.
How does US levels of religiosity compare to countries of similar economic development?
The US is an outlier with high levels of religiosity.
What is a reason that experts cite as to why higher education and college degrees are sound investments?
The earnings gap between those with and without college degrees continues to widen.
Which of the following is true concerning race and ethnicity?
The meanings attached to race and ethnicity are created, maintained, and modified over time through social processes.
A structural functionalist watching American Factory might argue that:
Unions might be beneficial for workers by providing an organized outlet for the workers' frustrations.
Intrinsic religiosity can be defined as
a person's inner religious life.
Race is defined by sociologists
as a social category based on real or perceived biological differences.
Gender role socialization begins
before birth
The 2000 census was the first time that Americans were allowed to ________ when identifying their race.
check more than one box
Consider the major theoretical perspectives explored throughout the text. Which type of theorist might explore the idea that occupations traditionally held by men earn more money than those held by women, with the result being that men tend to be more financially successful and powerful?
conflict theorist
Consider the different theoretical perspectives explored throughout the text. Which theoretical perspective might be used to explore the social patterns perpetuating overrepresentation of African American and Hispanic males in prisons?
conflict theory
In the 1960s, many sociologists noticed that economic obstacles alone were insufficient in explaining disparities in the educational attainment of children from different social classes. Which concept was introduced to explain these disparities?
cultural capital
Herman associates Native Americans with violence and laziness but is completely unaware of these negative stereotypes that he holds in his mind. This is an example of which of the following concepts?
implicit bias
As shown in the film Coded Bias, existing biases embedded in computer algorithms that reproduce existing inequalities is best thought of as an example of:
institutionalized racism
When is the gender pay gap between college-educated men and women most narrow?
just after workers graduate from college
Jeffery McCune conducted an ethnographic study of gay black men in a Chicago nightclub. He details a space in which their same-sex desires could be comfortably expressed and interactional work to present a conventionally masculine, heterosexual identity was no longer required. What sociological concept is demonstrated by the efforts to maintain a heterosexual persona?
passing
According to Karl Marx, surplus value comes from
paying workers less than the value of what they create.
Harold is a Korean-American man who married a white woman from California named Lana. Their son, Jagger, has three children with his wife, Brooklynn, who is also white. This story of Harold's family is an example of _____.
racial assimilation
What sort of measure of poverty are we using when we compare the salaries of the lowest-paid members of a corporation with the salary of the CEO?
relative deprivation
A young person from Southern California has four German grandparents. She lived in Los Angeles all her life before accepting a job in Milwaukee. She has never really thought about her German heritage. In Milwaukee, she discovers many other people with similar ancestries and begins using her ethnicity as a way to develop social and professional relationships. Of what is this an example?
situational ethnicity
A woman feels that she always needs to act cheerful and look her best when her husband gets home from work because he has a stressful job and he needs her help to unwind. We would say this woman is
taking on the expressive role.
Karl Marx believed that workers in a capitalist economy experience alienation because
they are paid for their labor but do not own the things they produce.
What kind of sociologist believes that racial and ethnic identities bind people together and help society run much more efficiently?
a symbolic interactionist
What do all religions have in common?
a system of beliefs and rituals that establish a relationship between the sacred and the profane
What has an office worker engaged in, although it may not seem like much, when they bring in a plant to brighten up their cubicle?
an act of individual resistance
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
What kind of resistance strategy is a union?
collective
Strikes are different from acts of resistance like daydreaming on the job because they are
collective.
In Savage Inequalities, Jonathon Kozol contends that because schools are funded via property taxes, children in low-income areas are trapped in poor schools and thus get an inferior education. Ultimately, this continually perpetuates inequality. From which sociological perspective did Jonathon Kozol explore the educational system?
conflict
Which of the following sociological perspectives is concerned with the ways the educational practice known as "tracking" leads to inequality and different outcomes for different categories of students?
conflict
Logan just learned how to read and his favorite books are about princesses and unicorns. His dad refuses to check these kinds of books out from the library for him, saying "Those are books for girls, not boys." In sociological terms, this is an example of __________
gender role socialization
Sociologists have noted that the informal teaching practices and power relationships by which schools operate produce a disconnect between democratic values and what actually goes on in schools. To what concept are such arguments referring?
the hidden curriculum
The MOST DRAMATIC change that has occurred in the realm of work since the Information Revolution has been __________.
the increase of information work and the decrease of manual labor work
In April 2015, Olympic gold medalist and former "World's Greatest Athlete" Caitlyn Jenner announced that "for all intents and purposes, I am a woman." Jenner discussed transitioning with Diane Sawyer in a special two-hour edition of the ABC News show 20/20. In the interview, Jenner stated, "As of now, I have all the male parts, but I still identify as female." What does this tell you about gender identity?
For many people, primary sex characteristics do not define gender.
Which of the following is an example of gender role socialization in schools?
Girls tend to earn higher grades than boys in elementary school, but their achievements are often discounted.
Homer Simpson, a character on the TV show The Simpsons, has a wife who stays home to take care of the children while he works, but he is often responsible for disciplining the children when they are particularly bad. What do you know about Homer even if this is all that you know about the show?
Homer has taken the instrumental role.
Religion fulfills what role in society from a structural functionalist perspective?
It provides its supporters with a set of values, norms, and rules by which to live.
How has the Kinsey Scale of Sexuality helped us to better understand sexual orientation?
It supports the idea that human sexuality exists as a highly diverse continuum over the lifetime of any individual.
What is the principal sociological critique of the culture of poverty?
It tends to blame the victims of poverty for their own misfortunes while ignoring the structural causes of inequality.
Lara works as a massage therapist. Why would Lara be considered one type of service worker?
Lara provides direct service to clients.
What did Barbara Ehrenreich find in her research (described in her book Nickel and Dimed) on minimum-wage service jobs?
Low wages, lack of benefits, and grueling hours often make it difficult for these workers to pay even basic bills.
Sociologists have criticized scientists searching for a "gay gene" for their narrow understanding of sexual orientation. Scientists' approach does not take into account the way biology and the social environment interact to produce sexual behaviors. Which of the following theorists makes this point?
Social historian Jeffrey Weeks, who points out that even though homosexual acts have been documented throughout history, homosexual identity as we know it today didn't exist before the twentieth century
Which of the following statements best describes the current rate of labor strikes in the US?
Strike rates are higher recently than a decade ago but still much lower than their peak.
How are the terms "gender" and "sex" different?
The term "sex" refers to the biological differences between males and females, whereas the term "gender" refers to the socially constructed behavior of men and women.
In 2005, teaching assistants at the University of Oregon went on strike. Which aspect of their job made it easier for them to strike than most American workers?
Their jobs cannot be moved overseas.
How does social class relate to race, ethnicity, gender, and age in the United States today?
These multiple dimensions of status and inequality intersect to shape who we are and how we live.
The rate of poverty among African Americans is roughly how many times higher than that of white Americans?
2 times, or double
What percent of the US population age 25 and older had a college degree in 2019?
36%
Approximately how many Americans currently are experiencing poverty?
38 million
Approximately how many Americans receive SNAP (food stamps) benefits?
40 million
What does a sociological perspective tell us about education in the United States?
Educational success often has as much to do with social stratification as it does with individual ability.
A conflict theorist would likely find support for their perspective in American Factory when:
Factory bosses hired permanent replacement workers for striking workers.
Pablo lives in the United States, where most people assume that he is Arab until they learn his name and hear his accent. They are surprised when Pablo tells them that he is from Spain and identifies as white, not Latino. Some people even tell Pablo that he isn't really white. What does this suggest about race?
Race is socially defined, and the criteria used to determine a person's race varies.
Which kind of thinkers would say that being feminine may mean different things at various places and points in history?
constructionists
French sociologist and postmodernist Pierre Bourdieu suggested that social reproduction, or the tendency of social classes remaining relatively stable as class status is passed down from one generation to the next, occurs in part through the acquisition of
cultural capital
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church." Many people still look to passages from the Christian Bible, like this one, to justify gender roles. Conflict theorists might argue that this is a ________ of religion because it ________.
dysfunction; promotes sexism
Which group had the highest rate of poverty in the 1950s?
elderly
Adding the "Q" to the acronym LGBT is intended to __________.
encompass a wider range of gender and sexual diversity
In The Mismeasure of Women, social psychologist Carol Tavris argues that there is nothing "universal and nonvarying . . . in the natures of men and women." If you agree with her, you would have to reject the concept of
essentialism.
Attending religious services would be an example of
extrinsic religiosity
Bonnie does freelance work from home. What is most likely the best benefit she derives from this arrangement?
flexibility
Alice came to the realization that she is attracted to other girls her age. Now that she's started her sophomore year in high school, she wants to ask out girls without being afraid of the consequences. She tests her friends' acceptance of these feelings first by mentioning a hypothetical friend at another high school who just came out as a lesbian. Alice's friends say they overwhelmingly believe that homosexuality is wrong and that anyone who is not heterosexual is a deviant. What concept do the opinions of Alice's friends exemplify?
heteronormativity
An elementary school student notices that exhibiting good behavior and following the instructions of the teacher can go a long way to earning him decent grades in school. This example highlights what sociological term about the education system?
hidden curriculum
Lilyanna recently took over as CEO of a large cosmetics company. She thinks it's important to engage in corporate social responsibility, so she __________.
implements a plan to reduce the firm's environmental impact and ceases testing products on animals
What is it an example of when office workers hang pictures in their cubicles or waste time daydreaming while on the clock?
individual resistance
Juan is a manager at a local clothing store. Juan is very task-oriented and always wants to make sure the job is done correctly. Juan is fulfilling which role?
instrumental role
What is it an example of when the children of working-class parents manage to attend college and get a job in a professional field?
intergenerational mobility
In Coded Bias, Joy Buolamwini's research on the limits of facial recognition algorithms is most consistent with which of the following sociological concepts?
intersectionality
Advertising, engineering, marketing, product design, and web design are all examples of ________ work.
knowledge
Michelle was born and raised in the United States, but her grandparents are from Korea. Her white classmate was also born and raised in the United States, but his grandparents are from Poland. He tells Michelle that she speaks English very well because he assumes, based on her race, that she is an immigrant. This is an example of
microaggression
The number of times a person attends worship services yearly is considered a measure of individual __________.
religiosity
A conflict theorists might argue that the true function of schools is that they
reproduce the class structure, making sure that most people grow up to have a socioeconomic status similar to that of their parents.
Sebastian is a Latino man from Puerto Rico who now lives in Kansas City. In his everyday life in the city, he downplays his ethnicity, which isn't physically obvious, but when he goes on trips back home he proudly displays his Puerto Rican heritage. What term best describes this scenario?
situational ethnicity
What are systems and structures within society that shape the activities of groups and individuals called?
social institutions
Publicly owned and operated schools, federally mandated health care coverage, and tax incentives for business are all examples of what?
socialist elements in the U.S. economy
What is Mother Teresa an example of, given that she was a person with tremendous power and prestige yet she was very poor?
status inconsistency
Manny believes that religion gives meaning to his life. He believes that religion helps him understand the most fundamental questions about life and existence. Manny understands religion through which sociological lens?
structural functionalism
People are optimistic that the jobs lost in the U.S. recession of the late 2000s will be replaced with others. However, even if the optimists are right, the shift in the economy may permanently alter the social class status of many people. This is due to the jobs lost being largely in manufacturing and new jobs being mostly in information technology. This suggests that the newly unemployed will have trouble competing for newly created jobs. If this is the case, what is it called?
structural mobility
According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, an employer that violates more than one federal or state labor law concerning wages, overtime, child labor, safety and health, or industrial regulation is classified as a(n)
sweatshop
Marco is a fourth-generation Mexican American. Both his grandparents and parents were born in the United States. Neither he nor his parents have learned Spanish and he does not often think of his heritage. Most of his friends do not think of him as Hispanic or Latino. However, on Cinco de Mayo, Marco likes to go out and celebrate by eating Mexican food and wearing a sombrero. Marco's relationship with his ethnicity can be described as
symbolic
The sociologist Susan Mayer studied poverty and welfare. She concluded that character traits in parents such as "diligence, honesty, good health, and reliability" led to increased achievement in children. Which theory do her conclusions support?
the culture of poverty
Samira does not have a computer in her house, so she uses computers in the library to complete school assignments. However, she often has less time than her peers to do research and type her assignments because the computers are sometimes occupied and the library closes early. What term describes Samira's situation?
the digital divide
What is religiosity?
the extent of a person's consistent and regular practice of their religious beliefs
Which of the following groups in the United States has the shortest life expectancy?
African American men
Authors often use words or phrases such as "mankind" to refer to large groups that include both male and female members. Sociologists and feminists argue that this is an example of the use of sexist language. What does this tell us about the relationship between language and culture?
Language shapes culture, so using gender-neutral language facilitates social change.
The fact that immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America tended to be shorter than native-born Americans was taken as evidence that there were inherent racial differences between these populations. However, the immigrants had children who grew up to be as tall as anyone else. Geneticists now understand that, although there can be considerable variation in height within a group due to genetics, height differences between groups are largely caused by diet. What does this demonstrate?
Racial differences are socially constructed and not genetic.
Neo recently started kindergarten, and one day he tells his dad that he got a gold star for being the best at following instructions. His dad gives him a high five, but inside he feels somewhat concerned that his son is learning to blindly obey authority figures. Neo's dad is uneasy about the effect on his son of the school's __________.
hidden curriculum
In which states does the combination of TANF (welfare) and SNAP (food stamps) provide enough assistance to lift a family out of poverty?
none
Jared runs a company in Oakland, California, that produces mobile games for Android and Apple phones. He has found that he can increase company profits by contracting freelance coders and developers in India rather than in the United States to do most of the work. This is an example of __________.
outsourcing
Some municipalities in the Los Angeles area have zoning rules that prohibit multifamily dwellings and require that all homes be built on lots of a certain size. What is the effect of these policies?
residential segregation
What are the tactics used by workers to reclaim control of the conditions of their labor called?
resistance strategies
In the United States, school and bank calendars are planned around Christian holidays and our presidents place their hands on a Bible when they are sworn into office. These all run contrary to the commonly held idea that the United States is what kind of society?
secular
Veronique, a teenager living in the early 1960s in Greensboro, North Carolina, was standing outside a building and noticed one entry door marked "Whites only," while another sign saying "Blacks" was posted on a different door. She was told that this rule was enforced by a law. This is called _____.
segregation
Maxine comes from a working-class background. Her father worked in construction his whole life and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who dropped out of high school but later got her GED. Maxine becomes interested in computer programming at a young age and spends many hours in the school library teaching herself. Maxine attends the state university on a scholarship. While there, she develops a valuable algorithm for identifying neurological diseases that makes her a multi-millionaire. She drops out of college to continue her work. Which term related to social class best describes this scenario?
status inconsistency
Matthew is an American whose great-grandfather immigrated to the United States from Mexico. While he doesn't really express his Mexican heritage in his daily life, every year he celebrates the Mexican holiday of Cinco De Mayo by dressing in traditional Mexican attire, participating in a parade, and cooking a feast of Mexican food for his friends. Matthew is displaying _____.
symbolic ethnicity
Which type of theorist is most likely to explore the ways in which registered nurses display their gender roles on the job?
symbolic interactionist
When he worked in the office alongside his co-workers and supervisor, Nikola just had to show up for eight hours and everyone thought he was productive. However, now that he works remotely, he feels he has to prove he's been working by getting projects done and sending them to his boss, and he has actually become more productive as a result. Nikola's experience is an example of one of the benefits of __________.
telecommuting
