sociology; quizzes

Each society has a type of social stratification. How does the United States ideologically justify its type of stratification system?

A person is in complete control over the class he or she is in. Hard work (or lack of it) determines class.

Based on recent research, which of the following statements is true with regard to preferential admissions to colleges and universities?

Admissions preference for athletes has risen steadily, surpassing that of minority students.

Which of the following represents an ascribed status?

American of Japanese descent

Which of the following is an example of secularization?

Crosses are used for decoration and worn as fashion accessories.

Which of the following is an argument that would be made by a conflict theorist?

During elementary school, children are socialized by learning skills that will help them become adults who will be obedient workers.

The Matthew effect is essentially like:

Getting promoted because of who you are, not on the basis of merit.

Jackson is using newspaper articles dating from the early 1950s to study unofficial attitudes toward working women post-World War II. Jackson is using what research method?

Historical Methods

"Social physics" or "positivism" is best defined as the:

Idea that we can scientifically and logically study social institutions and the individuals within them

Which categories do sociologists use to distinguish between majority groups (greater power) and minority groups (lesser power)?

In-groups and Out-groups.

A process by which organizations face the same conditions, and ultimately tend to end up like each other, is known as:

Isomorphism

How has the history of feudalism actually reduced the level of inequality in many modern European nations?

It created a tradition of state paternalism, which set the stage for the modern welfare state.

In much of the Western world, choice of a marriage partner is influenced by age, education, class, race, and religion. Which of the following explains this tendency?

Marrying someone who diverges a great deal from our age, race, social class, and religion is often met with overt or subtle disapproval from others

You conduct a study of romantic love among college students. You ask one student to participate, and she says she is annoyed and offended that you asked her. You have caused her harm, but does this level of harm constitute an ethics violation?

No, because this harm is not greater than that which people encounter in everyday life.

With regard to biological or genetic differences between people, sociologists have found that:

Stigmatized minorities in all countries have lower IQ scores, lower educational attainment, and lower occupational status, indicating that social processes of stratification and stigmatization affect the life chances of these groups.

According to Karl Marx, one of the ways a factory owner (the owner of the means of production) would control his or her workers (the propertyless) would be through religion. This was done by:

Teaching the workers that they would reap their reward in the afterlife

Which of the following best describes the difference between the I and the me in George Herbert Mead's theory?

The "I" is selfish and impulsive; the "me" is how we believe others see u

Which of the following is true regarding the Amish community's beliefs and practices?

The Amish are more likely to start successful businesses than the general public.

What appears to be the main reason for the success of Amish businesses when compared to other U.S. businesses?

The Amish live by prioritizing the community and its social capital rather than rugged individualism.

Which of the following is a criticism of resource mobilization theory?

The theory implies that social movements require the participation of powerful or elite members of society in order to be successful.

Thomas transfers to a new school when his family moves to a new district, and he is placed in a classroom with students who have slightly higher average math grades than he does. Based on the research, what is the most likely outcome? Thomas will:

Thomas will succeed and make academic gains when he is in the classes with other high achievers.

Which of the following is an argument in support of tracking in schools?

Tracking benefits children with less-advantaged backgrounds, but only if their parents can advocate on their behalf to get them into college-preparatory tracks.

The flagship university in your state recently completed a new state-of-the-art student center, complete with bowling alleys, fast-food outlets, group study space, and the latest green technology. Shortly after it was finished, almost every other university in your state began clamoring for a new student center, too. How would the theory of institutional isomorphism explain this?

Universities operate in the same environment and therefore end up looking alike.

It is argued in your text that gender structures social relationships by giving men the advantage in society. As a result, which of the following is LEAST likely to happen?

When men enter female-dominated occupations, they often become victims of sexual harassment.

Along with most ancient Greek philosophers, Ptolemy believed that the earth was at the center of the universe. Against this ancient and long-lasting tradition, Copernicus asserted the notion that the sun was at the center of the solar system. Thomas Kuhn would call this an example of:

a paradigm shift, as it challenged the existing paradigm of the day.

Karl Marx described workers as:

alienated from the process of production.

An example of a(n) ________ social movement might be a group of individuals trying to stop unwed mothers from having abortions.

alternative

The most limited social movement, focusing on a narrow group of people, would be a(n):

alternative social movement, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

Which of the following statements is true concerning the domestic world of Ozzie and Harriet portrayed in the 1950s television program? The program was a good portrayal of:

an idealized version of American family life in the 1950s.

For the Sambia, taking in semen of older men by performing fellatio is the only way to:

become real men.

If a sociologist is trying to determine why poverty rates are higher in the inner city, he or she might look at the lack of jobs in the area. If a psychologist is looking at the same thing, he or she may look more at levels of depression in the residents of an inner city. This difference is often called:

boundary work

Professor Stephen Duncombe argues that the Occupy Wall Street movement was a ________ and thus not a lasting ________.

burst; success

Contagion effects often work through the influence of a leader with a lot of:

charisma

Which theorist argued that other people provide us with a social mirror and that our interpretations of this mirror affect how we see ourselves?

charles horton cooley

During the mid-twentieth century in the United States, many blacks moved north to escape Jim Crow laws in the rural South. This resulted in:

competition for housing and employment in the North, resulting in violent clashes between whites and blacks.

C. Wright Mills had a negative view of the elite-mass dichotomy. His view fits with the ________ paradigm.

conflict

Amira is an obstetrician who regularly tests for developmental abnormalities in fetuses in her Chicago practice and believes it promotes better outcomes for mothers and infants. She is planning a year of professional service in India and is concerned that in that social context, closely examining a fetus while a woman is pregnant may:

contribute to families choosing to abort female fetuses.

Michael is in a sociology class and the teacher poses a debate: Did Ramses II die of tuberculosis? The class studies the phenomenon of "science wars," and in this war, Michael is on the team that will defend Bruno Latour's view. Michael argues that Ramses II:

could not have died of tuberculosis because the disease had not been discovered at the time of death.

You are dependent on your professor for your grade. Your professor, in turn, is dependent on you for his or her job. Hegel would call this a(n):

dialectic relationship

Thomas Kuhn referred to normal science as science conducted within an existing paradigm. Which of the following is an example of normal science?

discovering an effective treatment for AIDS, using the biomedical view of disease

If stepsiblings Rebecca and Suzanne are asked to share bedrooms or other possessions and Rebecca views such sharing as an intrusion, she may have difficulty overcoming the tendency to play the role of ________ between her parent and the new stepparent.

divide et impera

Seng is a single mother struggling to raise her family with a low income. In 2006, the Pension Protection Act was passed. This act will not help Seng, because, like 68% of working age Americans, she:

doesn't have an employer-sponsored pension or retirement plan.

A group of protestors blocking the entrance to the campus administration building refuse to leave. When the police begin spraying them with tear gas, Antonio Gramsci would say that the police are practicing:

domination

Hegel felt that the relationship between slave and master was dialectic. This meant that:

each is dependent on the other

The examination of human behavior within a rational actor model is the focus of which of the following "cousins" of sociology?

economics

Comte de Buffon's classification schemes assumed that anyone who differed from the following group was abnormal.

european

Because sociologists study people, they tend to study data out in the field using real-world settings. Natural scientists more often:

extract data from the natural world and bring it into the laboratory for study.

Nancy is a white woman who believes all races are equal, and she is committed to civic groups that promote diversity. She is walking down the street and passes a white man. She acknowledges him with a nod. She sees a black man coming down the street, and she crosses to the other side of the street to avoid passing by him because his blackness makes her feel unsafe. Robert Merton would describe Nancy as a(n):

fair-weather liberal

The ________ theory of the family, developed by Talcott Parsons, argues that nuclear families are necessary for child rearing and fulfilling society's need for productive workers.

functionalist

A drug dealer stops selling drugs after learning on the street that another dealer was caught and punished. This is an example of which of the following?

general deterrence

The extent to which a researcher can claim that his or her findings are applicable to a larger population than was studied is known as:

generalizability.

In general, a major goal of Clinton's 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was to:

get people back into the labor market as soon as possible.

What is the key that government could use to get low-income earners to commit to saving?

get them to commit to saving future earnings

Contrary to popular belief:

girls and boys score about the same in national math tests.

Sociology is the study of:

group-level dynamics and social structures.

In 1961, Stanley Milgram devised an experiment to measure:

how far ordinary people would go in obeying an authority figure.

What did the former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan say was one of the most important factors in defeating infectious diseases?

increase access to clean water

Though she graduated from high school, Jenny does not possess the skills necessary to balance her checkbook or make change for a customer without the aid of a cash register. Jenny is:

inmurate

The boards of insurance companies frequently have board members who also served on the boards of drug and medical device companies. This is referred to as:

interlocking directorates

Which of the following is the study of social meanings, emphasizing subjectivity in understanding human behavior?

interpretive sociology

James is a black man, and Mike is his white friend. James and Mike are having a disagreement about what needs to happen in order for race relations to improve in America. According to Gunnar Myrdal's theory in An American Dilemma, James probably emphasizes ________, and Mike probably emphasizes ________.

jobs; friendship

Which of the following is a negative social function of religion? Religion can:

justify unequal and unfair differences between groups in society.

According to research in Dalton Conley's The Pecking Order (2004 ), how does the average income of daughters raised by stay-at-home mothers compare to that of daughters of working moms? The daughters of stay-at-home mothers are:

less likely to earn as much as their brothers.

In the early days of the new monetary system, stockholders were more willing to invest in corporations because of ________, which limits their financial responsibility to whatever they invested in the company.

limited liability

In a foraging society, most people are very similar in their knowledge, skill, and everyday practices such as gathering and hunting. Émile Durkheim would say that the type of solidarity in a foraging society is:

mechanical

Which of the following focuses its analyses on face-to-face encounters and interactions?

microsociology

Jenny lives in a society in which there is a strong norm against mixing business with pleasure. Work and leisure activities are physically separate, occurring at different times, on different days, at different places, and often with different people. Jenny lives in a ________ society.

modern capitalist

During Darwin's time, some people believed there were several different species of humans. Darwin rejected this view, siding with the ________ who said humans are one species.

monogenists

Which of the following is a paradox about religion? Religions that are:

more demanding of their followers grow faster than less strict religions, but as a religion grows larger, it tends to become less strict.

During the Cold War, the United States tended to use hard power with regard to international relations. Joseph Nye, former assistant secretary of defense, concludes that use of hard power in international politics today is:

no longer needed, especially because countries are economically dependent on each other.

Which of Émile Durkheim's types of social solidarity characterizes modern life?

organic

A local organization values democracy and diversity and therefore solicits input on every decision it makes and uses recruiting strategies that are likely to attract a wide variety of applicants. These beliefs and behaviors are part of the:

organizational culture.

In the grocery store one day, you spy a mother and her two unruly children. She consistently threatens that she is going to spank them when she gets them home. They ignore her threats. Finally, she swats one of them on the butt, making the other child laugh, suggesting that she has lost control of the situation. This could be seen as:

paradox of authority.

According to the normative view of science, what should scientists leave at the laboratory door?

personal values

Maria and Steve are on summer vacation in Greece. They want to go into an old church to view the artwork inside, but before they are allowed to enter the church, a volunteer church worker asks them both to cover their bare legs and arms and provides them with coverings. This example illustrates how:

places considered sacred are often protected and set apart from what is considered profane.

Some critics claim that the Carlyle Group uses insider political knowledge, or ________, to dominate heavily regulated markets.

political arbitrage

Economists generally see humans as ________, but sociologists tend to include ________.

rational actors; irrational motivations

Marina is a ten-year-old girl who idolizes singers like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift. She compares herself to them and imitates them while singing in front of her bedroom mirror. These singers are known as Marina's:

reference group.

An example of a(n) ________ social movement occurred during the civil rights movement, when African Americans boycotted buses.

reformative

A potential shortcoming of survey research is that surveys:

rely on people's honesty and willingness to cooperate.

According to Erving Goffman, the main goal of impression management is to:

save face

The trend in industrial nations toward a separation between church and state, a belief in rationality and science, and the movement away from religiosity and spiritual belief is known as:

secularism

The difference between evangelical Protestants and fundamentalist Christians is that fundamentalists:

separate themselves from the world; evangelicals try to win converts by engaging with the world.

According to Hobbes, to achieve peace and avoid death, humans enter into a ________ and submit to an overarching sovereign authority charged with ensuring peace for everyone.

social contract

Social institutions often appear monolithic and unchanging. The sociological perspective sees that:

social institutions are socially constructed and changeable.

Sociologically speaking, the BRCA1 gene mutation is a good example of how:

social practices can change the effect of genes

Which of the following is an argument against the sorting function served by schools? The sorting function results in students being:

sorted in ways that reproduce existing social inequalities.

Which of the following is a type of social stratification?

status hierarchy system

Reformative social movements:

target almost everyone in a society

If Peter Berger read this data about belief in God by country, he would conclude that:

the Philippines has the strongest sacred canopy.

Some gays and lesbians may be in favor of finding a so-called gay gene, because many in the gay community believe that:

the controversy will move from a moral choice to a biological characteristic, so discrimination may decrease.

In Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner found that a political candidate can't win an election unless:

the electorate likes him or her.

Stanley Lieberson's research on first names in the United States focused on which phenomenon?

the increase of unique names among blacks starting during the 1960s.

Pierre, Micaela, and Jon are friends, but Pierre and Micaela are much closer to each other than either of them is to Jon. Why do they stay friends with Jon at all? The concept of triadic closure suggests that:

the weaker ties to Jon are reinforced by the stronger ties between Pierre and Micaela.

Theism is the ________; examples of it include ________.

the worship of a god or gods; Hinduism and Islam

Legal-rational authority allows a governor to make laws, but not a police officer. What is the difference between the governor and the police officer?

their roles

In the 1980s, journalist Ken Auletta coined the term "underclass." He said that the underclass was different from the "rest of us" in that they:

they tended to be more dangerous to the rest of us

A system of payment whereby workers are paid a set amount of money not tied to the quality of the raw materials, accidents, or other exigencies in the production process refers to:

wage labor.

An interlocking directorate is:

when members of corporate boards sit on the board of directors for multiple companies.

Euripedes is a fictional student of Aristotle. Following his teacher's line of thought, Euripedes proudly declares his commitment to civic association, that the true test of a person's worth is in what the individual does, not in personal characteristics. Euripedes fails to examine the fact that the principle of civic association excludes:

women

A group of children are playing a game called "telephone," in which one child whispers a message to another, who then passes it along, until the last child announces the message to the whole group. Usually, by the end, someone has misheard the message and changed it. Does the children's game of telephone count as media?

yes, because the game relays information.