Sociology Exam #1 Test Review
Although Karl Marx died long before anyone had used the word "postmodern," many postmodern theorists still draw on elements of his work to inform their own theories. Given what you know about postmodernism, which of the following quotes from Marx's writings reveals his "postmodern side"?
"constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones... All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned"
Which of the following is a characteristic of a bureaucracy?
-a division of labor -formal organization -written rules -ALL OF THE ABOVE
How does an individual come to possess an achieved status?
-an achieved status is earned -an achieved status is imposed upon an individual
In what situation are you likely to see impression management?
-at a job interview -the first time meeting your bf parents -at the gym -ALL OF THESE
Which of the following is an example of a sanction
-child being put into time-out -smile -speeding ticket -ALL OF THESE
Which of the following statements about culture is true?
-culture is the entire way of life of a group of people -culture includes both symbolic and material elements -culture acts as a lens through which one views the world and is passed on from one generation to the next -ALL OF THESE
Which of the following parts of parts of research project is always free of bias?
-identifying the project selecting the sample -wording the questions -analyzing the data -NONE OF THE ABOVE
Which of the following is true about the sociological imagination?
-it follows an individual to see how his or her life is related to the bigger social context -it allows an individual to understand how his or her experiences are shaped by historical context -it allows an individual to understand how his or her beliefs are shaped by his or her culture
Which of the following statements about norms are false?
-norms are similar in every culture -norms are always written down in official laws
If you wanted to understand the lives of college students, which would be the best approach?
-quantitative study to gather information about their ages and number of years in school -qualitative approach to gain information about how well they like being a student -quantitative study to see how many people graduate as opposed to how many people drop out -ALL OF THE ABOVE , AS THEY ALL PROVIDE DIFFERENT INSIGHTS INTO THE LIVES OF COLLEGE STUDENTS
Society is?
A group of people who share their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish them from other groups
How is a role different from a status?
A role involves behaviors
Which of the following people sounds like they're experiencing anomie?
A teenager in a gothic phase is dressed all in black, reads poems about death and suicide, and feels as though no one really cares about him
Which of the following is NOT an advantage of survey research?
Because survey research often allows for anonymity, respondents are more honest and often produce more valid data
Which sociologist was responsible for coining the term "the looking-glass self"?
Charles Cooley
Which method most closely resembles the scientific method as it is depicted here?
Experimental research
T or F You are about to do a series of interviews about drug abuse and academic performance. In order to make people feel more comfortable, you tell them that these interviews are about student satisfaction with the university and have them sign a form showing that they've willingly agreed to participate. You have the informed consent of your research subjects
False
Which of the following people's teachings would be most associated with Symbolic Interactionism?
George Herbert Mead
The idea that societies can evolve, and that "survival of the fittest" might apply to societies too was first discussed by?
Herbert Spencer
The Thomas Theorem States?
If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences
What is the danger of too much group cohesion?
It can lead to groupthink, in which dissenting opinions are strongly discouraged.
Which of the following is true about ethnography?
One critique of ethnographies is that they may lack representativeness.
Sociology is a social science. What is another example of a social science?
Political science, because it is concerned with politics and government, and how they affect people and society
In an experiment, you're likely to have 2 groups-- an experimental group and a control group. How are the 2 groups different?
The experimental group receives some treatment and the control group receives no treatment, so the researcher can see the effect of the treatment
When conducting experiments, how is the experimental group different from the control group?
The experimental group receives the independent variable, and the control group does not.
If a piece of sociological research is representative, it means that?
The smaller group of people studies can tell us something about a larger group
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
Emile Durkheim's pioneering work, suicide, used data gleaned from government records to help look for correlations between demographic variables and suicide. This made his work compatible with Auguste Comte's ideas about how society should be studied.
True
T or F Conflict theory uses a dynamic model of historical change that presents change as constant, ongoing, and inevitable
True
How do sociologists distinguish a group from a crowd?
a crowd doesn't necessarily feel a shared identity
A subculture is?
a group within society that is differentiated by its distinctive values, norms, and lifestyle
Although many people feel that expectations for personal space (usually about 18 inches for Americans) are innate, members of many cultures are used to noticeably less personal space than we are\, which helps to demonstrate that our expectations for personal space are?
a part of our culture and as such are learned, rather than innate
A simple random sample is defined as
a sample in which every member of the population has a chance of being included
What is a pilot study
a smaller study used to investigate the feasibility of a larger one
Functionalist theory is very concerned with the ways that structures contribute to the stability of society. What is a structure?
a social institution that is stable over time and helps meet the needs of society
Which of the following is a way to suspend one's own ethnocentrism, at least temporarily?
adopting cultural relativism
Churches often teach their members rules, often codifying these rules into formal commandments to be followed. In that they are at all successful, churches would be called?
agents of socialization
A collection of people who do not have lasting social relations, but who share a physical location is called an?
aggregate
a sociologist uses a survey to study the attitudes of adults in the US concerning premarital sex among teenagers. In this study, the target population consists of ? and the group who is asked the survey questions is called the ?
all adults in the US; sample
What does it mean for a sociologist to control for a variable?
all factors except for the independent variable are taken into account
If you find a sociologist who studies simple greetings in hallways, the way that people pls tic tac toe or some other element of everyday interaction, what sort of sociologist have you found?
an ethnomethodologist
Appearance, manner, style of dress, race, gender, and age are all elements of?
an individual's personal front
What is Durkheim's term for a state of normlessness?
anomie
Emile Durkheim worried that, in an increasingly fragmented modern world, individuals would feel less and less connected to groups, which would lead to?
anomie, or normlessness
According to sociologists, what are signs?
anything designed to meaningfully represent something else
Seeing some event without any preconceptions in order to view things in a new way is using?
beginner's mind
If a researcher allows his own values and opinions to affect his analysis, he is guilty of?
bias
How is a subculture different from a counterculture?
both are distinct from mainstream culture, but a counterculture actively opposes important aspects of the mainstream
How are qualitative and quantitative research methods similar?
both are tools to help researchers understand aspects of the social world
What institutions does Max Weber believe characterize modern industrialized societies?
bureaucracies
What economic system emerged during the Industrial Revolution?
capitalism
All left-handed people in the United States would be classified as a(n)?
category
Which of the following is a paradigm interested in the power imbalances within a society?
conflict theory
Durkheim suggested that mechanical solidarity ?
created the social bonds that held agrarian societies together
The spread of Mcdonald's restaurants throughout Asia is an example of?
cultural diffusion
A student who tries to objectively analyze the food that the people of a different culture eat is using:
cultural relativism
The ability to understand another culture in terms of its own norms and values, without reference to any other cultural standards is called?
cultural relativism
If you've ever gone to a new place, and suddenly felt disoriented because the environment was so strange to you, you may have experienced?
culture shock
Activists sometimes advocate living "off the grid," which, in its simplest form, means living without buying electricity and water from utility companies. However they also admit that living off the grid is harder and harder, as there simply isn't enough affordable land in places where it would be feasible to do so, which means that most of America has to?
deal with bureaucracies
You're conducting research on violence in the media. If you're trying to decide whether "violence" includes words as well as actions, in what part of the research process are you engaged?
defining the variables
A famous monologue from Shakespeare's As You Like It begins: All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts Which theory of social life could be seen as taking its inspiration from these lines?
dramaturgy
What sort of status would a physical disability be?
embodied status
Let's say you go on a study abroad program with classmates this summer. When you get off the plane in a different country, some of your friends start making fun of the locals because the way they dress is "ridiculous." What behavior are they exhibiting?
ethnocentrism
What is the tendency to use your own group's way of doing things as the yardstick for judging others called?
ethnocentrism
T or F If you pick your method carefully, you will not have to sacrifice any type of information or advantage. true or false?
false
T or F No harm can come to subjects as a result of completing a questionnaire
false
T or F Postmodern social theorists attempt to construct "grand narratives," overarching theories that give a sense of order and coherence to the world.
false
T or F Secondary groups cannot be geographically dispersed?
false
T or F cultural relativism and ethnocentrism are extremely similar concepts?
false
If you are a researcher conducting research as a participant-observer, you're likely keep track of your data in?
fieldnotes
A person wearing sandals while dressed in a suit is likely violating a?
folkway
norms that are not strictly enforced, such as etiquette in the cafeteria and the dress code for class, are referred to as?
folkways
According to the scientific method, what are the steps in research, and in what order should they be completed
form a hypothesis, define variables, predict outcomes, collect data, analyze data
According to the scientific method, what are the steps in research, and in what order should they be completed?
form a hypothesis, define variables, predict outcomes, collect data, analyze data
The Asch experiment, which found that most people gave incorrect answers to factual questions when a group of people endorsed those answers beforehand, illustrates the concept of?
group conformity
The Solomon Asch experiment, in which a group of subjects were asked to compare the lengths of lines, demonstrated that?
groups have great power to induce conformity
The tendency to enforce a high degree of conformity among members that creates a demand for unanimous agreement is called
groupthink
if you conducted a study called, "students' grades affect their happiness," which of the following would be the dependent variable?
happiness
According to Max Weber, a bureaucracy?
has a clear hierarchy.
According to chapter 1, what was probably Harriet Martineau's most important contribution to the development of sociology as a discipline?
her translation of the work of Auguste Comte into English
The following statement -- "students' grades affect their happiness" -- would be an example of a?
hypothesis
Erving Goffman theorized social life as a kind of con game, in which each individual works to control the impressions that others have of her. What did Goffman call this process?
impression management
When you see a doctor, he or she often wears a white coat. The way the doctor dresses is his attempt at?
impression management
Which of the following is not true about group dynamics?
in a group of 4, there are 4 different relationships
A group that one identifies with and feels loyalty toward is called an?
in-group
Which of the following is clearly an example of a taboo in American society?
incest
According to Emile Durkheim, industrialized societies display organic solidarity. what is the basis for organic solidarity?
interdependence and individual rights
The article "body ritual among the narcirema" is useful to sociologists because?
it challenges people's inability to observe their own cultures
Which of the following is true about a sample?
it is always smaller than the group that it is used to generalize about
survey research tends to produce quantitative data. One key advantage of this kind of data is that?
it is easy to transmit to the public
Why is the use of existing data, especially in comparative and historical research, especially helpful to students?
it requires fewer resources than collecting original data
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (also called the principle of linguistic relativity) suggests that?
language can structure our perception of reality
A close-ended question is one that?
limits the possible responses
After researchers conduct a series of interviews, they usually transcribe the responses. The transcription process is fairly time consuming, but it is valuable in part because it allows researchers to?
look for patterns in their data
? is the level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to understand how they affect the larger patterns and institutions of society
macrosociology
Teaching students to solve math problems would be an example of ? function of education
manifest
cultural groups have physical objects that are collectively known as that group's?
material culture
How does Karl Marx differentiate between members of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie?
members of the bourgeoisie own the means of production, while the proletariat possesses only their own labor
A researcher studying the interaction between a cashier and a customer at a grocery store would likely be doing what?
microsociology
In America, a married man who has several mistresses' is violating a ? but if he is married to more than one woman, he is violating a ?
more; law
Macrosociology and microsociology seem to make very different assumptions about how society works. How does sociology, as a discipline, deal with these two very different perspectives?
most sociologists of these two perspectives as being on a continuum with each other, adopting whatever perspective seems most useful for a particular problem
A perspective that values diverse racial, ethnic, national, and linguistic backgrounds encourages the retention of cultural differences within society is called?
multiculturalism
Durkheim theorized that the rapidly changing conditions of modern life lead to anomie. What is anomie?
normlessness, or a loss of social connections
According to researchers who study online social networks, how are online networks different from social networks established through traditional , real-life, face-to-face contact?
online networks aren't different
Which of the following is not true about conformity?
only weak-minded individuals are susceptible to pressures to conform
A social research methods class wants to study smoking. First the professor asks how many people in the class are smokers. 2 people say yes. Then she asks how many people have smoked a cigarette in the last week, and 10 people say yes. From this the class decides that, for the purposes of its survey, a smoker will be anyone who has had a cigarette in the last week and currently owns a pack of cigarettes. This is an?
operational definition
In 1978 Jim Jones, the leader of the people's Temple, led more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide by drinking poisoned Kool-Aid. In the run up to this event, Jones had strictly enforced discipline, mocking and ridiculing anyone who expressed doubts, at times even having doubters sedated. This extreme effort to enforce conformity is an example of?
peer pressure
A child comes home from school and tells her mom and dad that she learned a new word from her best friends. Which is the agent of socialization in this scenario
peers
Which of the following is the best example of an aggregate?
people who go to the mall
Which school of social theory argues that everything is relative, fragmented, temporary, contingent, and ephemeral?
postmodernism
Karl Marx referred to the workers as the ? and the owners as the ?
proletariat; bourgeoise
Which of the following statements about quantitative and qualitative research is correct?
qualitative research works with non-numerical data and often tries to understand how people make sense of their social world, whereas quantitative research translated the social world into numbers and often tries to find cause-and effect relationships
The specific approval rating of the U.S. president would be an example of?
quantitative data
when writing a survey, researchers most avoid negative questions, which are defined as?
questions that ask a respondent about what they don't think, rather than what they do think
Which of the following is true concerning ideal culture and real culture?
real culture and ideal culture do clash with each other at times
countercultural groups like the hippies of the 1960s?
rejected the norms of the dominant culture
Emile Durkheim argued that even an action as seemingly individual as suicide has important social components. what social factors did he examine?
religious affiliation and marital status
Which of the following statements is true concerning the use of existing sources as a research method?
researchers can use the same data source to replicate projects that have been conducted before
A stay-at-home mom going back to school to learn how to be a lawyer would be an example of?
resocialization
A man has an important business meeting at 2 pm, but his daughter has a piano recital at the same time. He will experience?
role conflict
When a parent has to decide between being on time for work or helping his child with a homework assignment, he is experiencing?
role conflict
Researchers are often worried that interviewees have not been completely honest or forthcoming, especially when asked about sensitive subjects. How did Arlie Hochschild attempt to deal with this problem?
she observed some respondents as they went about their daily routines to see if if their actions matched their answers
If you are trying to get your friends to conform to your values and norms, and increase social cohesion amongst your group members, the formal and informal mechanisms you might use would be called?
social control
You and your family, friends, peers, colleagues, teachers, and coworkers constitute a?
social network
When a child learns and internalizes values, beliefs, and norms of a social group, what is this process called?
socialization
which of the following is true about the process of socialization?
socialization teaches individuals what they need to become functioning members of society
According to C. Wright Mills, what one quality of mind do all great sociologists possess?
sociological imagination
How is the study of culture different for sociologists than for anthropologists?
sociologists usually study a culture they belong to
How is sociology different from other social sciences?
sociology is the study of human society and social behavior
Which of the following is an example of resocialization
someone recuperating from a serious accident that leaves her in a wheelchair
A position in a social hierarchy that carries a particular set of expectations is called a?
status
Which of the following theories views society as a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together?
structural functionalism
A cultural group that exists harmoniously within a larger, dominant culture is called a?
subculture
Which of the following is true about survey research?
survey research is one of the best methods for gathering a vast amount of original data on a large population
Which of the following theories focuses on how our behaviors are dependent upon the ways we interpret, make sense of, and define ourselves, others, and social situations?
symbolic interactionism
Which of the following lists norms in order from the most severely enforced to the least
taboos, mores, folkways
In their study of teenage mothers, Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas found that?
teenage mothers frequently viewed children as a source of stability in their lives
Marijuana laws over the course of U.S. history illustrate?
that norms change over time and across contexts, and that changes in such norms are not always predictable
It might be hard for you to picture an animal called a "gato" if you don't speak spanish. The idea that language structures our thoughts and influences our way of looking at the world is called?
the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
What is the sociological imagination?
the ability to understand the connections between biography and history, or the interplay of the self and the world the sociological approach that assumes that individual decisions and interactions create larger social institutions
Which of the following would be considered a counterculture?
the black panthers
The nature vs nurture debate helps us to understand?
the complex interaction between hereditary traits and social learning
Unlike a folkway, a more is closely related to?
the core values of a group
According to the text, which of the following statements is true concerning the nature vs nurture debate?
the debate refers to the ongoing discussion of the respective roles of genetics and socialization in determining individual behaviors and traits
Which of the following is not a status?
the expectation that a professor will hold office hours
A functionalist analysis of education might focus on?
the functions that education provides for society
In many Middle Easters countries, showing someone the bottom of your foot or shoes is considered to be very rude, so American military personnel stationed in the Middle East had to be instructed to keep their feet inside helicopters when flying low. Why was this instruction needed?
the meaning of gestures is not universal
Factories, land, machines, or anything else that can be used to create more wealth, is called?
the means of production
What happens to a group when the number of people in the group increases?
the number of possible relationships increases
Unlike either traditional authority or legal-rational authority, charismatic authority is rooted in?
the personal qualities of the leader
Why would mentioning a sensitive issue, such as divorce or infidelity, in a survey question influence how respondents answer later questions?
the respondents may think about the sensitive issue when answering later questions
What is the main difference between the sociological imagination and the sociological perspective?
the sociological imagination is the ability to see the connection between the self and society. The sociological perspective includes that idea, as well as others, like beginner's mind and culture shock
what is the scientific method or approach?
the standard procedure for acquiring and verifying empirical knowledge
In an academic honors society, everyone would probably agree that getting "straight A's" in school is a worthwhile cause. Why?
these are values of the group
How have social networking websites affected social groups?
they help people make the most of both their primary and secondary groups
Why do ethnocentric people tend to view other cultures as abnormal?
they use their own culture as a standard of judgement
What is the goal of ethnographic research?
to describe the activities researchers observe, and to understand the meaning of those activities to participants
According to Max Weber's typology of power, what type of authority is wielded by a King?
traditional authority
In the nature vs nurture debate, both side are right?
true
T or F A triad is slightly more stable than a dyad?
true
T or F According to Emile Durkheim, all of the social groups to which an individual is connected impose norms, which place limits on her actions?
true
T or F As long as correct sampling techniques are used, researchers can make generalizations about a large population from a much smaller sample.
true
T or F Humans are essentially social beings.
true
T or F Some "facts" that sociologists once believed to be unambiguously true are now treated as opinions, biases, or speculation
true
T or F Survey data is often less valid than that produced by other methods because respondents are not always honest when answering questionnaires.
true
T or F Thomas Kuhn, a philosopher of science, argues that truth is relative, in that it is dependent on the paradigm through which one understands the world
true
T or F some "facts" that sociologists once believed to be unambiguously true are now treated as opinions, biases, or speculation
true
Which of the following steps might help a researcher to avoid problems associated with reactivity?
using secrecy or deception
You're doing a research project on the effects of contemporary media. If your hypothesis is that "watching violence on television causes an increase in violent behavior," then what are your variables?
violence on television and violent behavior
Which of the following is a component of Cooley's looking-glass self?
we experience some kind of feeling about ourselves based on our perception of other people's judgements
Which of the following is not true of technological change?
when sociologists discuss technology and technological change, they are referring to electronic technology alone, and not to other tools to reshape our material and cultural environments
Which of the following is least likely to be considered a subculture in the US?
white males
If you get a ticket for speeding, you get in trouble because?
you broke a law
Which of the following would be most likely to be considered an example of a primary group member?
your best friend in high school