Sociology Practice Exam One

True or False: A reliable measure is accurate (valid)

False

True or False: Correlation implies causation

False

True or False: Gender and race are common achieved statuses

False

True or False: Marxist theory is a subset of Conflict theory

True

True or False: Achieved status are conditioned by ascribed status

True

True or False: Experiments are the best research technique for testing causal relations

True

Consequences that are recognized and intended by people are called: a. Manifest functions b. Latent functions c. Ethnofunctions d. Dysfunctions

a. Manifest functions

A social conflict analysis of religion would emphasize: a. Religion as a means to maintain and reinforce inequality among class, gender, racial, and other social groups b. The role differential that faith in God plays in the success of religious organizations c. The connection between religion and social solidarity d. The role of professional preachers as religious revivalists

a. Religion as a means to maintain and reinforce inequality among class, gender, racial, and other social groups

Emile Durkheim showed that suicide rates are due to: a. Social forces b. Feeble mindedness c. Individual's weaknesses d. All of the above

a. Social forces

Which of the following is CORRECT about how people construct reality according to the symbolic interaction theory? a. What we "see" depends on the assumptions we make about the world.* b. Social background has little to do with how we construct reality. c. Reality construction provides the same results for all people in the same society. d. Culture has little to do with how we construct our sense of reality.

a. What we "see" depends on the assumptions we make about the world.*

Which type of variable is a factor held constant to test the relative impact (spuriousness) of the independent variable(s)? a. a control variable b. an independent variable c. a dependent variable d. a hypothetical variable

a. a control variable

Sociology is a. the process of using common sense to study the world around us. b. the scientific study of social behavior and human groups. c. concerned with what one individual does or does not do. d. very narrow in scope.

b. the scientific study of social behavior and human groups.

Who has had an important influence on the development of the symbolic interaction paradigm? a. Max Weber and Karl Marx b. G. H. Mead and Max Weber c. Goffman and Spencer d. Max Weber and Emile Durkheim

b. G. H. Mead and Max Weber

Which of the following statements is CORRECT, regarding objectivity/subjectivity? a. Objectivity is not necessary in all research b. Some subjectivity is good, since creative thinking is also vital to sociological investigation, yet value neutrality is a must c. Objectivity is not often difficult to attain, because sociologists isolate themselves in the ivory tower of academia d. Since we have entered the computer age, social scientists are now able to account for the complex range of human motivations.

b. Some subjectivity is good, since creative thinking is also vital to sociological investigation, yet value neutrality is a must

Max Weber taught his students that they should employ ________ in their intellectual work. a. anomie b. Verstehen c. the sociological imagination d. microsociology

b. Verstehen

Choose the CORRECT statement: a. The values we hold are oftentimes contradictory b. The gap between ideal and real culture reflects the disjunction between norms and behavior c. All of the above d. The status of Americans are always consistent

c. All of the above

Which of the following concepts is central to Marxian theory? a. Technology b. Human ideas c. Class struggle d. Social solidarity

c. Class struggle

Kelly studies the theatrical aspects of dating behavior, including props, scripts, performances, and staging. She is employing the __________ perspective a. Rational choice b. Exchange theory c. Dramaturgical d. Feminist

c. Dramaturgical

The following approaches are variations of the symbolic interaction perspective: a. Social conflict and structural functional b. Exchange theory and structural functional c. Dramaturgy, exchange and ethnomethodology d. Social organization and technological development

c. Dramaturgy, exchange and ethnomethodology

A person who criticizes an Amish farmer (who tills his field with horses) as uneducated and backwards exhibits: a. Absolutism b. Cultural relativism c. Ethnocentrism d. Cultural Shock

c. Ethnocentrism

Which sociological paradigm obscures the effects that the larger social structure exerts upon its parts? a. Structural functional b. Social Conflict c. Symbolic interaction d. a & b

c. Symbolic interaction

According to August Comte, the primary questions for sociology are: a. How is society formed and how is society destroyed? b. Distinguish between social order and social change c. What makes society change and what keeps it together? d. Which elements contribute to order and which ones do not?

c. What makes society change and what keeps it together?

Émile Durkheim's statistical analysis of suicide was an example of what kind of research technique? a. ethnography b. observation research c. secondary analysis d. experimental research

c. secondary analysis

Conflict and Marxist theory: a. Assume the structure of society having unequal parts b. Differ in terms of which resources are more important for social inequality than others c. Agree on the ubiquity of change in society d. All of the above

d. All of the above

Ethnocentrism: a. Leads to group integration b. Fosters ideologies of group superiority c. Is countered by cultural relativism d. All of the above

d. All of the above

The theoretical paradigms in sociology that assume society as a complex system whose parts exert benefits and/or constraints on each other and on the societal whole are the: a. Structural-functional paradigm b. Social-conflict paradigm c. Marxist theory d. All of the above

d. All of the above

Which sociologist introduced the concept of the sociological imagination? a. Richard Schaefer b. Auguste Comte c. Harriet Martineau d. C. Wright MIlls

d. C. Wright MIlls

A study, generally in the form of an interview or questionnaire, is known as________. a. an observation b. an ethnography c. an experiment d. a survey

d. a survey

What is the term for the quality of measuring precisely what one intends to measure? a. reliability b. objective measurement c. consensus of measurement d. validity

d. validity

If x --> y, it follows that: a. x is the dependent variable of y b. x variation is caused by changes in y c. x occurs after y d. y is the dependent variable of x

d. y is the dependent variable of x