Sociology Test #1 Review

You want to conduct some sociological research on whether people on social networking sites are less likely to meet in person as a result of their online community participation. What is the next step in the scientific method?

Conduct a literature review.

In the article "Jihad vs. McWorld," Benjamin R. Barber points out that "in November of 1991 Switzerland's once insular culture boasted best-seller lists featuring Terminator 2 as the #1 movie, Scarlett as the #1 book, and Prince's Diamonds and Pearls as the #1 record album." Many people worry that the prominence of American culture goes beyond the media and represents the wholesale imposition of American values on other cultures, a process called:

Cultural Imperialism

Today it is possible to travel all over the world, especially if you visit major metropolitan areas, without ever having to eat anything but McDonald's food. This is an example of:

Cultural Leveling

The French social theorist Jean-François Lyotard described contemporary culture in this way: "One listens to reggae, watches a Western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, and wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and 'retro' clothes in Hong Kong." He was writing about postmodernism, but what concept can help explain this mishmash of activities?

Cultural leveling

What are the goals of ethnography?

Describe the activities researchers observe and understand the meaning of those activities to participants.

The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the United States of America is the best place to raise a female child. Her assertion is an example of:

Ethnocentrism

Which method of social research might involve shifting between participating in a social situation and being an observer?

Ethnography.

Which methodology most closely resembles the scientific method?

Experiments

Which of the following is the most serious critique of structural functionalism?

It focuses on stability, thereby ignoring inequalities of social class, race, and gender.

It's all too common to see someone driving a car on a busy freeway while cursing and gesturing at another motorist whose poor driving has offended him. Cursing and gesturing are an individual's attempt at:

Negative Sanction

Which of the following is an advantage of using interviews as a research method?

Nonverbal and verbal cue (able to to detect body language) Able to detect sarcasm Able to detect a lie Keep on focus Able to avoid distractions Note- These are ALL ADVANTAGES

Which of the following groups is a subculture?

Online Gamers

What school of social theory believes that society is a stable system of structures, each of which contributes to the equilibrium of the whole?

Structural functionalism.

According to symbolic interactionism, what is the relationship between the self and society?

Symbolic interactionists take a micro view of society, examining the beliefs and assumptions people bring to their everyday interactions in order to find the causes or explanations for deviance.

In many Middle Eastern countries, showing someone the bottom of your foot or shoe is considered very rude, so American military personnel stationed in the Middle East are instructed to keep their feet inside helicopters when flying low. Why is this instruction needed?

The US military is firmly committed to an ethnocentric point of view

If you possess a sociological imagination and someone asks you to study unemployment rates in a city of fifty million people were fifteen million are unemployed, where should you start?

The economic and political structures of the society.

When Elton Mayo did his now-classic experiment on worker productivity, he found that he could increase productivity by changing variables in a work environment, but also that changing back variables increased productivity. What did he conclude was the true cause of the increase in productivity?

The effect of being studied

When it comes to understanding everyday life, one of the weaknesses of being an everyday actor is that you:

The every day actor makes assumptions and glosses over many things that the social analyst strives to understand systematically.

Which of the following is an example of a culture war?

A conflict between groups with different ideals, beliefs, and philosophies.

Sociology can be defined as the systematic and scientific study of human society and social behavior. Given this definition, which of the following levels of social structure best describes what sociologists might examine?

Almost any level- from interactions between two people to large-scale institutions.

In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Émile Durkheim argued that religion was a powerful source of social solidarity. Why?

Because it reinforces collective bonds and shared moral values

Which of the following is an example of something that would be part of a person's symbolic culture?

Belonging to a political party

Many American colleges and universities require students to take classes on non-Western cultures. Why do these requirements exist?

Colleges tend to value multiculturalism

Coca-Cola was first marketed in the 1860s as a patent medicine, designed to offer the energy boost of cocaine without the vices of alcohol. The new beverage was invigorating and popular. Today, however, cocaine is not just banned but widely demonized. This is an example of:

Formerly mainstream practices becoming deviant

The art historian and social critic John Berger has argued that the suit is the first "uniform of the powerful" designed for stationary life. However, many people in Western countries wear suits to appear professional or formal. This is why the suit is a classic example of:

Hegemony or leveling

Regardless of their various approaches to social phenomena, what are all sociologists trying to do?

Illuminate the connection between the individual and society.

Which of the following is an example of a taboo in American society?

Incest- Unwritten rules

Sociologists who conduct interviews can only gather data from a limited number of people because:

Interviews are too time consuming

Why would culture shock be a useful state of mind for a sociologist?

It makes us realize we lack an understanding of our surroundings, so we are able to truly perceive what is right in front of us.

Many everyday cultural practices—such as greeting a friend, giving someone flowers, or using the thumbs-up sign—seem like natural ways of acting. Why does having an awareness of how these practices vary across cultures demonstrate a healthy sociological imagination?

It reminds us that everyday interactions are connected to larger social structures.

Which of the following is a DISADVANTAGE of using ethnography as a method of social research?

Lack of replicability Degree of representativeness (may not accurately portray the whole group) Biased research process

Many Marxist sociologists assume that large-scale economic structures are the most important factors in people's lives. This assumption is an example of:

Macroanalysis

Which of the following statements best describes the approach taken by Macrosociologists?

Macrosociology directly examines large-scale social structures in order to see how they affect individual lives.

In the United States of America, a married man who has several mistresses is violating a ________, but if he is married to more than one woman at the same time, he is violating a ________.

More, Law

Which of the following research techniques focuses on gaining an insider's perspective of the everyday lives of subjects under investigation, often dispelling stereotypes about the group being investigated?

Participant observation.

What did Max Weber mean when he said that modern people are trapped in an "iron cage"?

People are trapped by their industrious way of life of bureaucratic rules.

When an employee is promoted instead of more deserving co-workers because he has a special relationship with his boss, this is an example of:

Real Culture

A paradigm shift is a major break in the assumptions that are used to understand the world. For social scientists, what causes a paradigm shift?

Scientific revolution*

A famous social scientist tells you that the most important task in her research was to move from "total bewilderment" to "finding her feet" with the people she was studying. What can you say about this researcher?

She's a qualitative researcher.

Ethnographers using participant observation must always be aware of reflexivity, which occurs because:

The presence of ethnographers may alter the behavior of the people they are observing.

Sometimes survey researchers reject randomness and instead use weighting techniques to construct a sample. How is a weighted sample different from a random one?

The weighted sample more closely resembles the larger population

According to Robert Merton, which of these statements about manifest functions is true?

They are the recognized and intended consequences of any social pattern.

If a researcher has obtained informed consent from all his participants, it means that:

They have all explicitly agreed to participate in the research They all understand the nature of the study and what will be asked of them

What does it mean if ethnographers are overt about their roles?

They openly admit that they are doing sociological research.

When researchers use a social networking site like Facebook to obtain data, they are:

Using existing sources

Although many people believe that expectations for personal space (usually about eighteen inches for Americans) are innate, members of many cultures are accustomed to noticeably less personal space than we are. This helps demonstrate that people's expectations for personal space are:

Very difficult to measure accurately

Which of the following is an advantage of using ethnography to study social life?

Way of studying groups that are overlooked by other methods Challenge our taken-for-granted notions about groups we thought we knew Reshape stereotypes we hold about others and on which social policy is based Much pioneering methodological innovation comes from ethnography lately

According to Karl Marx, how is class consciousness, or revolutionary consciousness, developed?

When people realized the system was rigged. As a result, people sabotaged factories.

In 2005 the Northwestern University women's lacrosse team won an NCAA championship and was invited to the White House to receive congratulations from the president. Controversy erupted after their visit, when the official photograph revealed that several team members were wearing flip-flops. Despite the outcry, the athletes took the criticism in stride, talking about it on The Today Show and auctioning the offending footwear for charity. Given the reaction and the team's response, what kind of norm did the athletes break by wearing flip-flops to the White House?

folkway

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, some people placed signs with crudely painted skeletons holding cell phones near roadways, usually facing freeway ramps. These signs indicated disapproval of using cell phones while driving, a practice some states have now made illegal. As a result of these laws:

talking on a cell phone when driving is taboo.