Sociology Midterm
Sociology first appeared as a formal discipline in ________
France
Thomas Hobbes's idea that society reflects a selfish human nature illustrates the thinking common at which of Comte's historical stages?
Metaphysical stage
Which of the following examples illustrates a micro-level focus?
Two people on an airplane getting to know one another
What might a sociologist say about people's selection of marriage partners?
Typically, a person marries someone of similar social position.
Which early U.S. sociologist studied the African American community and served as a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)?
W. E. B. Du Bois
Which early sociologist received the first doctorate ever awarded by Harvard University to a person of color?
W. E. B. Du Bois
The early U.S. sociologist who described the difference between folkways and mores was ________
William Graham Sumner.
The chapter opening story of the diversity initiative at Charles Schwab & Co. shows us that ________
learning more about cultural diversity can help a company boost sales.
Using the symbolic-interaction approach, sports becomes ________
less a system than an ongoing process of interaction.
In the period of life called "middle adulthood," people typically experience _______
life circumstances becoming more or less set.
According to Emile Durkheim, categories of people with a higher suicide rate typically have ________
lower levels of social integration.
Robert Merton explained that what is functional for people in one category of a society's population ______
may not be functional for people in another category.
Robert Merton explained that what is functional for people in one category of a society's population ________
may not be functional for people in another category.
Countries in which average people's income is typical for the world as a whole and in which people are as likely to live in a rural area as in an urban area are categorized as ________
middle-income nations
Culture acts as a constraint, limiting human freedom because ________
much culture is habit, which members of a society repeat again and again.
The United States is the most _______ of all countries.
multicultural
Critics of Erikson's theory of personality development point out that _______
not everyone confronts the stages in the exact order given by Erikson.
Most of today's sociologists agree with Auguste Comte's claim that ________
science has an important place in sociology.
If you were to put together the lesson learned from the cases of Anna, Isabelle, and Genie, you would correctly conclude that _______
social experience plays a crucial part in forming human personality.
The "framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change" is the ________
social-conflict approach.
The term Homo sapiens, the name of our species, comes from Latin meaning ________
"intelligent person."
According to scientists, Homo sapiens first appeared on Earth about how long ago?
250,000 years
More than ______ people have immigrated to the U.S. between the years 1820 and 2014.
82 million
What type of society engages in large-scale farming based on the use of plows drawn by animals or more powerful energy sources?
Agrarian
Which theory, developed by the psychologist John B. Watson, claims that human behavior is not instinctive but learned within a social environment?
Behaviorism
What is the term sociologists give to a category of people with a common characteristic, usually their age?
Cohort
If social marginality encourages sociological thinking, we would expect people in which category listed below to make the most use of the sociological perspective?
Disabled persons or people who are a racial minority
Cultural change is set in motion in three general ways. What are they?
Invention, discovery, and diffusion
_______ had an important influence on the development of the social-conflict approach.
Karl Marx
What effect did industrialization have on life expectancy in the United States and Western Europe?
Life expectancy went up.
Which concept is used to describe relatively stable patterns of social behavior?
Social structure
_____ is a way of understanding the world based on science.
Positivism
Who was the U.S. sociologist who distinguished between the manifest functions and the latent functions of social patterns?
Robert K. Merton
According to Auguste Comte, the type of thinking favored by people such as Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, becomes common in a society at which stage of societal development?
Scientific stage
What concept refers to the lifelong social experience by which human beings develop their potential and learn culture?
Socialization
The region of the United States where the largest percentage of people speak a language other than English at home is the ________
Southwest
Which theoretical approach claims that it is not so much what people do that matters as much as what meaning they attach to their behavior?
Symbolic-interaction approach
What does the idea that the social world guides our actions and life choices just as the seasons influence activities and choice of clothing describe?
The essential wisdom of the discipline of sociology
Which theoretical approach is linked to the philosophical doctrine of materialism?
The social-conflict approach
Which theoretical approach gives an evolutionary explanation of why the sexual "double standard" is found around the world?
The sociobiology approach
The ancient Romans saw the stars as being gods. Auguste Comte would classify Roman society as being in which of the following stages of history?
Theological stage
Based on what you have read in this chapter, how would sociologists explain the fact that many young people in the United States experience adolescence as a time of confusion?
There are cultural inconsistencies in the definition of this stage of life as partly childlike and partly adultlike
Telling jokes is an example of ________
a cultural universal.
A simplified description unfairly applied to every person in the same category is called ________
a stereotype
Three campus roommates are talking about why they are in college. A sociological view of going to college highlights the effect of ________
age, class, and our place in history, because of these are all ways in which society guides college attendance.
According to Auguste Comte, people living in Europe during the Middle Ages thought of society as ________
an expression of God's will.
Sociologists define a symbol as ________
anything that carries meaning to people who share a culture.
Cultural universals are elements of culture that ________
are part of every known culture.
Learning more sociology can help you ________
assess the opportunities and constraints in our lives.
The social-conflict approach sometimes receives criticism for ________
being openly political.
Goffman's idea of the resocialization process includes _______
breaking down an old identity, then building up a new identity.
Making use of the sociological perspective encourages ________
challenging many commonly-held beliefs.
Cultural integration refers to the fact that ________
change in one cultural pattern is usually linked to changes in others.
Key values of U.S. culture ________
change quickly, even from year to year.
In a total institution, staff members _______
closely supervise all the daily life of inmates.
A majority of people over the age of sixty-five in the United States ________
consider their health "good" or "excellent."
Counterculture refers to ________
cultural patterns that oppose those that are widely held.
Subculture refers to ________
cultural patterns that set off a part of a society's population.
The practice of understanding another culture on its own terms and using its own standards is called ________
cultural relativism.
The concept of _____ refers to a shared way of life, and the term ____ refers to a political entity.
culture; nation
The spread of cultural traits from one society to another is called ________
diffusion.
Following the thinking of C. Wright Mills, we would expect the sociological imagination to be more widespread in a population ________
during times of social crisis.
Sarah is spending a summer living in another country where people have a way of life that differs from her own. A sociologist might expect that this experience would lead her to ________
end up with a greater understanding of both a new way of life and her own way of life.
We would expect the sociological perspective to be most likely to develop in a place that was _______
experiencing many social changes
An act of kindness, such as opening the door for an elderly man, illustrates conforming to ________
folkways
To evaluate a theory using evidence, sociologists ________
gather facts or data
A feminist theoretical analysis of language in the U.S. suggests that cultural patterns support ________
gender inequality.
Carol Gilligan extended Kohlberg's research, showing that _______
girls and boys typically assess situations as right and wrong using different standards.
The flow of _______ from country to country adds to the creation of a global culture.
goods
In terms of social inequality, agrarian societies generally ________
have much more inequality than less productive societal types.
The nations of Western Europe, Israel, Japan, and Australia fall into which category of countries?
high-income nations
Mead would agree that _______
if you won $100 million in a lottery, your "self" might change.
An accurate criticism of the structural-functional approach is that it ________
ignores inequality that can generate tension and conflict.
By "taking the role of the other," Mead had in mind _______
imagining a situation from another person's point of view.
Gaining a global understanding is ________
important for college students because most new U.S. jobs involve international trade.
A sociologist using the gender-conflict approach might state that ________
in many ways, men are in positions of power over women.
Sociology provides an advantage to students preparing for later careers by preparing them for work _______
in teaching, criminal justice, business, and many other careers.
The United States is multicultural because ________
in this country we find many different languages and ways of life.
Understanding the differences between countries encourages ________
increasing our understanding of both of our own lives and the lives of others.
An inmate who loses the capacity for independent living is described as _______
institutionalized.
In her research, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross found that death ________
is an orderly transition involving specific stages.
In deciding what kinds of questions to ask in their research, sociologists are guided by ________
one or more theoretical approaches.
Looking at the operation of U.S. schools guided by the social-conflict approach might lead a sociologist to conclude that ________
our society provides some students with far better schooling than others.
The Sapir-Whorf thesis states that ________
people see the world through the cultural lens of their language.
A social-exchange analysis states that ________
people typically seek mates who offer as much as they do.
According to Erving Goffman, the goal of a total institution is to _______
radically alter a person's personality or behavior.
The main characteristic of the _____ approach is its view of society as being orderly and stable.
structural-functional
The _____ approaches are macro-level, describing societies in broad, structural terms.
structural-functional and social-conflict
Sociologist Lenore Weitzman carried out research showing that women who divorce ________
suffer a significant loss of income.
Understanding marriage using the structural-functional approach might prompt you to consider _______
the consequences of marriage for the operation of society.
A constant danger to people living in hunting and gathering societies is ________
the forces of nature, including storms and droughts.
Agrarian technology developed based on the use of ________
the plow, animal power, and the development of metals.
Racial discrimination in professional sports is evident today in ________
the positions typically played by white and black players.
A Marxist analysis of U.S. culture suggests that our competitive and individualistic values reflect ________
this nation's capitalist economy.
Karl Marx, speaking for the social-conflict approach, argued that the point of studying society was
to bring about greater social equality.
Examples of people applying their knowledge of sociology at work include people in medicine ______
understanding patterns of health in a community.
Examples of people applying their knowledge of sociology at work include people in medicine ________
understanding patterns of health in a community.
Standards by which people who share culture define what is desirable, good, and beautiful are called ________
values
