SOC-S100 Final Exam Prep
Human beings subsisted entirely by hunting and gathering until about _______ years ago.
10,000
As measured by the dissimilarity index, approximately how many African Americans would have had to change jobs to integrate the U.S. labor force the occupational level in 2003 (i.e., produce a distribution of blacks and whites across all jobs that equals their distribution in the labor force?
33%
Which best characterizes the "social evolution theory of stratification" presented in Stark?
As society grows more complex, a division of labor inevitably emerges and stratification, in turn, emerges from the division of labor.
Two presidential candidates, A and B, are in a tight race. The most recent poll, with a margin of error of +/- 3%, has support for A at 51% and B at 49%. What is the best interpretation of this poll?
The race is too close to call, either could win based on this poll
When Alderson, Junisbai, and Heacock examine how people consume culture (e.g., whether they go to the opera, visit museums, go to pop concerts, go to the movies, etc.), which of the following groups do they observe?
a group that consumes everything, both "high" culture and popular culture
The root cause of underdevelopment in the dependency perspective is "economic dependency." This occurs when
a society falls under the domination of another society's economic system
Which of the following is not among the consequences of the Industrial Revolution for the economy of industrial societies?
a trend toward decentralization, away from monopoly and oligopoly
In the reading, Marmot compares the life expectancy and average income of men in Costa Rica to that of Black men in the United States. This suggests to him that
absolute deprivation alone cannot explain health disparities
Which of the following is characteristic of "paternalistic" systems of race relations?
an elaborate etiquette regulates the interaction of members of dominant and subordinate groups
Which of the following statements regarding the movement of women into the U.S. labor force in the last half century is false?
approximately one man has left the labor force for every women who has entered the labor force
Why might "weak ties" be stronger than "strong ties?"
because people usually have more "weak ties" than "strong ties"
Based on Bryson's findings and what you have learned about social stratification, how might boundary work affect inequality?
boundary work reproduces inequality, because "gatekeepers" tend to exclude those whose tastes or dispositions differ from their own
Which of the following is false regarding the experience of boys and girls in 8th grade?
boys get more Ds and Fs than girls, but boys also get more As and Bs
In studying how people get jobs, Grannovetteer found that most people report that they found out about their job
from people they know
Diprete and Buchman argue that women have overtaken men in educational attainment because
girls do better than boys at completing a set of earlier transitions that precede college completion
Modernization theory has been criticized on the grounds that it
has generated policy prescriptions that, while quite popular, have not worked all that well in practice
For sociologists interested in understanding the microsociology of social change, the most interesting aspect of the Kevin Bacon game (i.e., "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon") is that it demonstrates
how small the world is; and thus how readily information could diffuse across an entire society on the basis of social networks
What sociologists call the "rule of hypo-descent" is the rule that
individuals with any visible ancestry among the racially subordinate group are regarded as members of the subordinate group
We say that stratification exists when
inequality has become organized or institutionalized, there exists a system of rules that explains how and why rewards are distributed as they are, different rewards are attached to different positions
According to Bryson, what is "boundary work" and who does it?
it is the establishment of boundaries against those we dislike; we all do it
In the mini lecture, we discussed the change in living standards that followed the emergence of capitalism. Comparing the last 100 years of U.S. economic history to any other 100 year period before the emergence of capitalism, we can say that
it would be difficult to find any 100 year period before the emergence of capitalism in which living standards rose faster than they have in the U.S. in the last 100 years
Which of the following best characterizes the findings of the Rogge experiment?
leaders become leaders because of the position they occupy in social structure
By the end of the season, players on a new soccer team have developed friendships with one another. However, they did not develop friendships of the same sort with their coaches. The former is an example of the law of ____, while the latter is an example of the law of _____.
liking; inequality
Warren and Twine argue that, historically, "non-whites" in the U.S. became "white" by distancing themselves from "blacks." In practice, this meant
marrying members of their own group or marrying whites
For Americans in general, the most liked genres of music are ____ and the most disliked genres are ____.
oldies and country; heavy metal and rap
In describing "the democratic trend" in industrial societies, Nolan and Lenski note that only 10% of the adult population in the U.S. voted in the 1824 presidential election. This was because
only 10% of the adult population had the right to vote
Rodney Stark describes sociology as a "young" and "difficult" science. By this he means that
only relatively recently have people had the data necessary to test social theories scientifically, and the subjects of sociology (i.e., people) are self-aware
In general, modernization theory suggests that the best way to spur development in the underdeveloped economies is for such societies to
open themselves to the developed countries (e.g., attract greater foreign investment, aid, and exchange)
In studying the diffusion of a new hybrid seed corn in Greene, Co., IA in the 1930s, Ryan and Gross found that
other than the "innovators," farmers overwhelmingly based their decision to use the new seed on the example and opinion of those most closely tied to them
According to Warren and Twine, which groups did the dominant racial/ethnic group consider to be "white" in the U.S. in the first half of the 19th Century?
people of English ancestry
Data on marriage indicate that half of all marriages end in divorce. This is an example of a ____ fact.
proportional
You are an animal rights activist and you wish to build a movement against the plan to kill the deer in Bloomington's Griffy Lake Nature Preserve. Based on what you know about the "strength of weak ties," you should
recruit people who don't go to protests, shop at the Bloomingfoods, or belong to animal rights groups
Examining the trend in gender segregation in undergraduate major, England notes that
segregation is lower today than it was in the early 1970s, most of the desegregation we observe is attributable to women entering formerly "male" majors (rather than to men entering formerly "female" majors)
Compared to the developed societies, the underdeveloped societies have
significantly more social and economic inequality
Dependency theorists often argue that it is necessary to think in terms of "the development of underdevelopment." This means that
the "development" of some societies was made possible by the "underdevelopment" of others
According to Rodney Stark, how does the rational choice proposition (RCP) address the problem of altruism?
the RCP suggests that altruistic behavior is rational
According to Beller and Hout, how does the U.S. compare to other rich societies (e.g., German, UK, Sweden) in terms of occupational mobility?
the U.S. is about average (i.e., more mobile than some, less mobile than others)
Which of the following is true regarding the welfare state in the U.S.?
the U.S. spends less on welfare state programs and extends fewer "citizenship rights" (i.e., welfare rights) than most other rich, industrial societies
According to Myles and Quadagno, "power resource theories" explain variation in welfare states across the industrial world in terms of
the ability of average people to influence government , especially through unions and political parties
Political systems and market systems are both ways of "getting things done." How are they different?
the actions of decision makers are guided by different logics (command vs. inducement)
In the Whitehall Study, which group of British civil servants were least likely to suffer a fatal heart attack?
the administrators at the top of the civil service hierarchy
According to the power resources theory, which of the following facts about U.S. might help explain its level of welfare expenditure?
the fact that just over 1 in 10 U.S. workers is a member of a union, the fact that just over 3 in 10 eligible U.S. voters actually voted in last fall's election, the fact that the U.S. electoral system is a plurality or "winner take all" system
We talked in the mini lecture about how Americans evaluate librarians and truck drivers in terms of their social standing. In light of Weber's definition of "status groups" and our discussion of the fundamentals of social status, which of the following is probably least important for how Americans think about this?
the fact that librarians and truck drivers make about the same income
According to Diprete and Buchman, what would happen to the female advantage in education if all U.S. schools were like the best U.S. schools?
the gap in educational attainment between boys and girls would be smaller
A researcher wants to study the effect of gender on educational attainment. In such a study, gender would be
the independent variable
Everyone tells Lisa that she is really funny, so she begins to think of herself as a really funny person. This illustrates the concept of:
the looking glass self
In the societies which have experienced it, the Industrial Revolution has sparked a fundamental shift in the distribution of the labor force across sectors of the economy. This shift is one in which:
the percentage of the labor force in the primary sector (i.e., agriculture) has declined continuously
A survey is circulating among your friends on Facebook. 50,000 people have responded to it so far. Your sociology professor tells you that such polls do not accurately reflect the views of the American population. This is because:
the respondents are self-selected
According to Bryson, which of the following best describes the musical tastes of highly educated, upper middle class Americans?
they dislike far fewer musical genres than people from lower classes
According to Bryson, what characteristic is shared by those people who listen to the genres of music that are least tolerated by the "tolerant" people in her study?
they have below average levels of education
For Wallerstein, the capitalist "core" consists of
those nations that have the highest levels of technological development and concentrate on the production of the most "advanced" economic goods
The modernization theory of underdevelopment argues that
underdevelopment is the result of a society's internal deficiencies
From the data on the mobility of American men in 1962 and 1973, we can conclude that
upward mobility was more common than downward mobility in the 20th Century
According to the "Coolhunters," why might what "cool" people think is cool be more important than what most people think is cool?
what cool people think is cool might be what all people think is cool in the future
Which of the following is the best example of a sociological question that one might ask about the suicide of a white male college student?
what is it about being white, male, and a college student that raised his risk of suicide?
When would we say that the relationship between two variables, X and Y, is spurious?
when the correlation between X and Y is caused by a third variable
In light of what we know about how people assess their relative standing, in which of the following situations are you most likely to feel deprived?
when you make $50,000 per year, but most of the people you know make $200,000 a year
Gender inequality has been a pervasive feature of most societies throughout history. Our quick look in class at the gender composition of key economic and political positions in the U.S., in Indiana, and in Bloomington reveals that
while lower than in the past, gender inequality remains a pervasive feature of American society
Which of the following is true regarding women's mobility?
working women are more mobile than working men
Analysis of romantic relationships in U.S. high schools reveals the "no 4-cycle" rule. This is the rule that
you don't get involved with the ex of your ex's current boyfriend/girlfriend
Where structural mobility involves _____, exchange mobility involves _____.
change in the size of the strata; the exchange of members between strata
In "paternalistic" systems of race relations, the dominant racial group typically perceives the subordinate racial group as
childish, lazy, inferior
Thinking of the problem in their experiment as one of efficiently routing information, Bavelas and Leavitt thought that the group arranged in the ____ would finish first. Instead, the group arranged in the ____ actually finished first.
circle; star
Gender attitudes have changed dramatically in the last half century. As we saw in the mini lecture, most of this "liberalization" of attitudes over time is attributable to
cohort replacement; that is, to each generation being more liberal in their attitudes on gender than the generation before
In the Whitehall Study, Marmot found that differences by civil service rank in the risk of a fatal heart attack
could be only partially explained by conventional risk factors
According to Wallerstein, in the 16th and 17th centuries, the capitalist "core" consisted of _______, while the capitalist "periphery" was composed of ______.
England, France, and Holland; Eastern Europe and Spanish America
The first phase of the Industrial Revolution took place in _______ and began around _______.
England; 1750
Which of the following best characterizes the omnivore-univore argument about the cultural consumption of high status people?
High status people differ from others in the intensity of their cultural consumption and in the breadth of its range, consuming more "high culture", but also more "middle" and "low" culture."
England characterizes the contemporary gender revolution as "uneven and stalled." According to England, what explains this?
It is attributable to the fact that the behavior of women has changed a lot more than the behavior of men
In light of the difference between countries in welfare state expenditures and in how far they extend "citizenship rights," if you have to be poor (and plan to remain poor), it would probably be best do so in which of the following countries?
Sweden
According to Granovetter, who is most likely to pass along useful information about a good job?
someone you talk with only occasionally
When Charles Lindbloom calls the market a "prison," he is referring to the markets ability to
stifle policy initiatives which would infringe on the traditional freedoms of business
It is often said that "there is no accounting for taste." Sociologists argue that we can in fact account for taste. This is reflected in Bryson's and Alderson, Junisbai, and Heacock's findings that
tastes and cultural consumption vary systematically with factors like education and social status
According to Marmot, what type of stress leads to increased risk of a fatal heart attack?
that associated with the feeling that you have little control over your life