Soc 001 Final
Which of the following statements would most likely have come from a city dweller who moved to a rural area as part of the "rural rebound"?
"I just wanted to live somewhere I could see the stars, and I never liked paying 5 dollars for a cup of coffee anyway."
In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau defined the poverty threshold for a family of four at:
$21,954
The Environmental Protection Agency claims that the United States has one of the safest supplies of drinking water in the world, but:
10 percent of U.S. water systems don't meet EPA standards.
A research team is curious about the relationship between diet and exercise habits and academic performance among American college students. In order to get their data the researchers randomly select 17 colleges by pulling names out of a hat and travel to campuses, where they stand in prominent public places and ask for volunteers until they have 10 people from each campus willing to be interviewed. What is the researchers' target population?
American college students
You observe children on a school playground and find some girls playing sports with boys, but almost no boys playing jump rope with girls. Why?
Children are mocked for crossing gender lines, and boys are mocked more than girls.
Which of the following describes how deviance can be explained from the functionalist perspective?
Deviance clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms
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.
Why don't members of the lower class exercise more often?
Exercise is a luxury accessible only to those who don't have to struggle with day-to-day existence.
According to labeling theory, deviance is defined as an act or attribute that is inherently wrong, bad, or abnormal.
False
According to sociologists, most normal people have never engaged in any acts of deviance.
False
African Americans have traditionally been well represented in the environmental movement.
False
As society changes and different groups gain access to power, the definitions of crime and deviance will remain the same.
False
Conflict about the values and norms of a society always comes from the margins of society.
False
Ethnographic research projects can be designed so that there is a minimum of outside interference.
False
Everything about bureaucracies is bad because they constitute an iron cage of rules and regulations.
False
Fads often result in lasting social change
False
If two people worked together to make the test that you are now taking, it would have been produced twice as fast than if it were written by one person.
False
In a random sample, everyone who happens to be available when a researcher is seeking participants could be included in a study.
False
The order in which a questionnaire asks about different issues cannot affect the way people respond.
False
Unlike George Herbert Mead, Charles Cooley did not believe that the self was created largely through social interaction.
False
What environmental activist is credited with organizing the first Earth Day?
Gaylord Nelson
Why are female runaways more likely to be reported as missing by their parents?
Girls are seen as weak and needing protection.
According to John Robbins's Diet for a New America, why are hunger and malnutrition still large social problems?
Hunger is a social disease caused by an inefficient food production system.
Cornel West argues that the work of Antonio Gramsci is significant because Gramsci was the first European Marxist to seriously consider the "cultural life-worlds of the oppressed" in ways that treated culture as a serious, independent force in people's lives. How is Gramsci's work similar to that of Tomas Almaguer or Howard Winant and Michael Omi?
It doesn't assume that the economy determines every aspect of a society and its culture.
You notice that every time your textbook mentions a man and a woman, it always mentions the man first. In other words, it would say, "Bob and Susan went to the store . . ." instead of, "Susan and Bob went to the store . . ." even though the second formulation would work just as well. Why would this matter?
It reinforces gender stereotypes and prioritizes masculinity.
Older women who seek out sexual relationships with younger men are sometimes called "cougars," but we don't even have a word for men who seek out sexual relationships with younger women. You might joke that we call them "men." What does this say about gender and language?
It reinforces the idea that women are not supposed to seek out relationships with younger men.
Although the steam engine is best known as the primary technology of the Industrial Revolution, a steam engine was invented by Hero of Alexandria, a Greek in ancient Rome. However, the engine was only used to open a temple door and not for industrial applications. What does this suggest about technological determinism?
It shows that there are some circumstances where technological determinism does not apply.
Hero of Alexander, a mathematician who lived in Rome, invented a steam engine in the first century CE. What does this say about William Ogburn's theory of technological determinism?
It suggests that technological determinism can't always explain social change.
Early sociologists rarely embraced the ideas of Karl Marx. Who was the key exception to this trend?
Max Weber
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.
In March 2008, The Advocate published an article by Thomas Beatie, describing his decision to become pregnant. Beatie had undergone sex reassignment surgery, but had not had his ovaries or uterus removed, so he was still able to get pregnant when his wife Nancy proved unable to bear children. Despite this fact, he wrote, "To Nancy, I am her husband carrying our child. . . . I will be my daughter's father, and Nancy will be her mother." What does this tell you about gender?
Primary sex characteristics do not define gender for many in the transgender community.
Which of the following is true regarding prison as a mechanism for punishing crime?
Prison was rarely used before the nineteenth century.
The Brazilian census has traditionally only had four racial categories: preto, branco, amarelo, and pardo. However, in everyday life, Brazilians have many other racial categories, including moreno, mulato, neguinho, and pretinho. Most of these terms don't have an equivalent in the United States. What does this tell you?
Race is a social construct.
What is the most likely source of the following quote: American medical training is attached at the end of a very long and expensive education that keeps the supply of physicians low and their incomes and social backgrounds very high. This formal education appears to have little real practical relevance; most actual training is done on the job in the most informal circumstances, through the few years of internship and residency.
Randall Collins, The Credential Society
What is wrong with treating Oprah Winfrey as the ultimate symbol of the American Dream?
She represents the exception rather than the rule.
Anthropologists often develop culture shock when visiting a new culture that is very different from what they are used to. They temporarily find themselves unable to understand their surroundings, and everything seems strange. Sociologists attempt to create this same feeling, but with one key difference. What is it?
Sociologists try to create this effect without necessarily moving to a new place or geographic location.
When high schools want to ask students about sensitive subjects like drug use or sexual health, they often use surveys, rather than a more direct form of communication like interviews. Why?
Surveys allow students to answer the questions in private and assure the confidentiality of their responses.
Which of the following statements would be most convincing to a sociologist if you were trying to explain the shift from A- and B-mode responses on the Twenty Statements Test to C-mode responses?
The accelerated pace of social change makes it increasingly difficult to think about the self in terms of group membership.
Positions of power and authority, like "chairman" and "policeman," often emphasize the male gender in their names. Why does this matter?
The names imply that one gender is more suited for a particular job than the other.
Karl Marx believed that the economy was closely related to other social processes, including politics, values, beliefs, and norms. As a result, what did he also believe?
The ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class.
A graduate student in a sociology department is taking a course on the sociology of the economy. In this class, she learns that, even though she always thought of her family as middle class, her parents' income compared to that of the rest of the country actually qualifies them as upper class. What just happened?
The student moved from being an everyday actor to being a social analyst.
In 1994 mass killings occurred in Rwanda, as members of the Hutu majority killed more than a million members of the Tutsi minority, many of them murdered with machetes. Although many Hutus later claimed that they were just trying to defend themselves, which of the following indicates that it was really a genocide?
There was a discussion at the highest levels of government about the need to kill as many people as possible.
The Shriners are a fraternity based on the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief, and truth. They have roughly 375,000 members and 191 temples in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Shriners support Shriners Hospitals for Children, a system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing specialty pediatric care. Why are the Shriners not a social movement?
They do not seek to fundamentally alter the status quo
Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons why it is particularly problematic that the United States deports gang members who immigrated here as children?
They have many valuable skills that are lost to the U.S. economy when they are deported.
Despite demographic shifts, how can you tell that whites are still the dominant group in California?
They remain dominant in terms of power, resources, and representation in social institutions.
All over the world, Christian missionaries proselytize under difficult and often dangerous conditions. Why are they willing to put their own safety at risk?
They've made a radical commitment to social change.
Why does actual group productivity never equal potential productivity?
Time is lost to coordinating and organizing group members.
Belonging to a particular social class has a profound effect on almost every aspect of a person's life.
True
Pierre Bourdieu would argue that a child whose parent is a doctor is far more likely to become a doctor himself because of parental expectations.
True
Popular urban legends sometimes circulate for years.
True
Sociological theories of gender stratification must look beyond biological sex differences.
True
Sociologists claim that culture is the lens through which we perceive and evaluate what is going on around us.
True
Survey data is often less valid than that produced by other methods because respondents are not always honest when answering questionnaires.
True
The fact that there were different racial categories in the past than there are today demonstrates the social construction of race.
True
The hijras of India are recognized by their society as a third gender, neither male nor female but something else entirely.
True
The term "total institution" refers to organizations that strip members of their previous identities in order to resocialize them.
True
There is a political action committee organized to represent the interests of extraterrestrials.
True
There is greater genetic diversity within racial populations than between them.
True
When people move from one place, job, or life situation to another, they often have to undergo resocialization.
True
Why are 527 committees much more important to political campaigns now than they were in the past?
Unlike candidates or political parties, there are no limits on how much money an individual can give to them.
Most of the time people use psychological rather than sociological arguments to explain why the world is the way it is and why things happen to us. Why?
We have insufficiently developed our sociological imagination.
How is Max Weber's idea of social class different from Karl Marx's?
Weber believed that wealth, power, and prestige could all affect a person's social class.
Imagine that a powerful and influential person decided to heavily tattoo her own face with symbols and images that told parts of her life story. Would she be treated as a deviant?
Yes, it would be in the United States, although there are other cultures that would consider it normal or desirable.
According to Herbert Gans, if you move to New York City because you love theater, you are:
a cosmopolite.
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 norm is so deeply ingrained that the very thought of breaking it brings feelings of disgust or horror?
a taboo
Secondary groups are characterized by which of the following?
all of the above
What do sociologists call it when an African American individual is told he is not really "black enough"?
an identity challenge
When environmental sociologists study the problems of waste and consumption, how are they understanding the environment?
as a social problem
In Great Britain in the eighteenth century, a series of Enclosure Acts were established, which broke up small farms, forced many small farmers to move to large cities in search of wage labor, and increased agricultural profits for landowners. What large-scale social system was this a part of?
capitalism
What sorts of places are associated with an increase in social atomization?
cities
Figure 7.2 Rate that High School Students Go on to Earn Advanced Degrees SOURCE: Mortenson 2007 Pierre Bourdieu would explain the data presented in Figure 7.2 using the concept of:
cultural capital
Today many young people face an unprecedented problem: what to do when their parents try to friend them on Facebook, MySpace, or another social networking site. Technology has given us unprecedented ways to document our lives online, but one is not quite sure how to share this documentation with older generations. What is this problem called?
cultural lag
The famous feminist and social theorist Judith Butler has criticized westerners who want to "free" Muslim women from wearing a veil or burqa. Butler believes that liberation from the veil is not the liberation that many Americans might assume it is. Butler's critique exemplifies what term or concept?
cultural relativism
If a sociologist wanted to study the social meaning of pizza, he would be hampered by a lifetime of preconceptions and assumptions about pizza. It would be hard for him to think about it objectively because it is so familiar. Which concept describes a process that might help?
culture shock
What is the justification for harsh sentencing guidelines, like California's "three strikes" law?
deterrence of future crime
What is it called when a government bars an individual, either temporarily or permanently, from voting?
disenfranchisement
"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. This may be a:
dysfunction of religion, because it promotes sexism.
Karl Marx spent much of his life attempting to describe and understand how capitalism worked. In one particularly vivid passage, he described the turbulence that he saw as inherent in capitalism in this way: "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind." What sort of relationships did he think that his readers had with other people?
economic relationships
What is the central means by which modern society transmits knowledge, values, and expectations to its members?
education
Factories that produce noxious levels of pollution and toxic waste dumps are often located near areas where minorities and the poor reside. Which of the following terms could be used to describe this situation?
environmental injustice
What sort of leadership style is typically expected of women in contemporary society?
expressive leadership
The relatively short-lived enthusiasm for leg warmers during the 1980s was an example of a:
fad
Susie isn't old enough to go to school yet, but she loves to play house. She has a toy stove and pretends to be a mother. Sometimes, when that gets boring, she goes outside, takes a garden hose, and pretends to be a firefighter. George Herbert Mead would say that she is:
in the play stage.
According to Robert Putnam, what does the decline in bowling leagues indicate?
increasing anomie and a decline in collective bonds
"Each to each a looking glass / Reflects the other that doth pass." This phrase, associated with Charles Cooley, indicates that our sense of self originates in:
interactions with other people
The article "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema" is useful to sociologists because:
it challenges people's inability to observe their own cultures.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (also called the principle of linguistic relativity) suggests that:
language can structure our perception of reality.
Fashion is a type of:
mass behavior
Which of the following parts of a research project is always free of bias?
none of the above
One of Karl Marx's most important achievements was developing a theory of praxis. What does this mean that he thought intellectuals should do?
not just theorize about the world, but change it
What does Howard Becker call individuals who specifically choose to embrace a deviant identity?
outsiders
The National Center for Men argues that it is fighting for "fairness and equal rights." The center feels that divorce laws in particular put men at a disadvantage, forcing them to pay more than their fair share and denying them access to their children. What kind of a group is the National Center for Men?
part of the men's rights movement
As children get older, which agent of socialization tends to replace parents as their most intense and immediate influence?
peers
If the federal government conducts research on the value of checking batteries in home smoke detectors, what method will produce data that is most easy to transmit to many people?
quantitative
What is it called when someone lives as if they were a member of a different racial category than the one they were born into?
racial passing
A high school decides that its band needs to wear uniforms. In order to be more efficient, the school only buys uniforms in three sizes and forces students to pick the size that comes closest to fitting. What process described in Chapter 5 is this an example of?
rationalization
The World Church of the Creator, founded by Matt Hale, wants to stop both religious and racial integration of America, making it a(n):
regressive social movement.
Which of the following is NOT one of the four predominant agents of socialization in contemporary society?
religion
Sociologists who focus on how practical constraints and opportunities can help or hinder a social movement are using:
resource mobilization theory.
Before beginning a research project, what will a good researcher always do?
review the literature in order to become familiar with earlier research that relates to his topic
How are informal norms enforced in everyday settings?
sanctions
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's never really thought about her German heritage, but in Milwaukee she discovers many other people with similar ancestries and starts using her ethnicity as a way to develop social and professional relationships. What is this an example of?
situational ethnicity
Sociologists refer to the webs of direct and indirect ties connecting individuals to others who influence them as:
social networks
When Congress recessed in August of 2009, it was hotly debating a bill to overhaul America's health care system. The House Republican leader John Boehner sent rank-and-file Republicans a memo asking them to use "new media" like Twitter to get their message out. Given that a Twitter post can only be 140 characters long, what feature of modern politics closely resembles Twitter posts?
sound bytes
Organizations formed expressly to raise and spend money in order to influence elected officials are called:
special interest groups.
The attempt to reconcile global economic development with protections for the environment is called:
sustainable development.
Which social theory focuses on micro-level interactions?
symbolic interactionism
Which of the following lists norms in order from the most severely enforced to the least?
taboos, mores, folkways
Instead of solely examining background factors, what does the sociologist Jack Katz think that sociologists should study when trying to understand deviance?
the deviant's own experience of committing a deviant act
Which of the following types of social theory did NOT develop from symbolic interactionism?
the dialectical model
Which of the following is NOT a status?
the expectation that a professor will hold office hours
How does Chapter 4 define the self?
the experience of a real identity, distinct from other people
Sociologists like R. S. Erickson have noted that "the informal and decidedly antidemocratic set of teaching practices and power relationships by which the school operates" produces a "disjuncture between the democratic creed and what actually goes on in school" so students often learn that it's important to take orders and to not make waves. What concept is Erickson talking about?
the hidden curriculum
What was the Asch experiment measuring?
the power of the group
The dual nature of the self, according to George Herbert Mead, refers to the idea that:
the self is experienced as both subject and object.
What is reactivity?
the tendency of research subjects to change their behavior in response to being studied
Whenever a math teacher writes story problems, any character with an occupation listed is male, like Bob the janitor or James the lawyer, but when women are used, they have no occupation. What is this an example of?
the way that schools socialize children into gender roles
