Chapter 8

Approximately what percentage of the United States population falls below the federal poverty line?

15 percent

Recent research by the Pew Research Center on attitudes about the government's responsibility to help those in poverty revealed:

Americans are largely divided on this issue, with those favoring government aid for those in poverty decreasing.

There have been many societies throughout history with no social stratification.

False

Which of the following population groups are associated with higher rates of poverty in the United States?

Hispanics

What do sociologists call it when an individual changes his or her career but remains within the same social class?

horizontal social mobility

Social mobility that occurs over the course of an individual's lifetime is called ________ mobility.

intragenerational

Mother Teresa was a person with tremendous power and prestige, yet she was very poor. Mother Teresa is an example of which of the following?

status inconsistency

What criteria does a social class system use to stratify its members?

wealth, property, power, and prestige

One cost-of-living indicator available on the Internet shows that a salary of $40,000 in Santa Barbara, California, is equivalent to $14,000 in Wichita, Kansas. This is primarily because of housing, which is much less expensive in Wichita. What does this difference say about how the federal government calculates poverty?

It points to a flaw in the way the government calculates the poverty line, as the standard is uniformly applied without regard to regional differences.

What makes the just-world hypothesis psychologically appealing to the average person?

Most people have a strong need to believe that the world is orderly, predictable, and fair.

A society where social mobility is highly restricted by formal or informal rules, like those of a caste system, is called:

a closed system.

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

Poverty can be defined in either relative or absolute terms. How does relative deprivation measure poverty?

by comparing the poor to more affluent members of society

What do sociologists call awareness of our own and others' class statuses?

class consciousness

According to social psychologists, when people encounter a situation that seems to be unfair and they cannot or will not act to make things right, what do they tend to do?

convince themselves nothing bad has happened

What are the tastes, habits, and expectations called that children "inherit" (or learn) from their parents and that help to achieve material success in life?

cultural capital

What is the maximum length of time a family can collect welfare based on the welfare reforms provided in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act?

five years

The tendency to choose romantic partners based on similarities in background and group membership is called:

homogamy

Which of the following is a form of stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of merit?

meritocracy

Ascribed status is usually involuntary and often assigned at birth. Achieved status is voluntary and often based on merit, ability, or achievement. What sort of status would you expect to find in a closed system?

mostly ascribed status

What do sociologists call it when large numbers of people move up or down the social class ladder as a result of changes to society as a whole?

structural mobility