Sociology Test 1

________ suggests that individuals learn to be deviant by interacting with others who are already deviant.

Differential association theory

You are tasked with conducting a research project that investigates the relationship between smoking and gender in blockbuster films. What methodology should you use to conduct your research?

content analysis

One morning, James must decide between being on time for work and helping his child with a homework assignment. What is James experiencing?

role conflict

A goal of socialization is

to teach norms, values, and beliefs.

Robert Merton suggested that some white Americans who praise Abraham Lincoln for being frugal and thrifty might describe an Asian American with the same qualities as being stingy and penny-pinching. What explains this double standard?

For these white Americans, Lincoln was a member of their racial in-group, whereas an Asian American would be a member of an out-group.

There is a social tie between my best friend's uncle and me even though I've never met him.

true

What are researchers doing when they use a social networking site like Facebook to obtain data?

using existing sources

Which of the following statements about crime and gender have been supported by data from the last decade?

As women gain power in the labor market through education and income, crime rates among women rise to match those among men more closely.

What term did sociologist George Ritzer use to describe the spread of rationalization and bureaucratic ways of operating into everyday life?

McDonaldization

________ provide most of our emotional support.

Primary groups

Which of the following is a quality of charismatic leaders?

They possess extraordinary personal qualities.

Imagine that a powerful and influential person living in San Francisco decides to tattoo most of her face with symbols. Would she be seen as deviant?

Yes, but only because she lives in the United States where face tattoos are not the norm.

Arlie Hochschild was concerned that her sample of interviewees was too small to guarantee representativeness. How did Hochschild attempt to overcome this problem?

by comparing information about her interviewees with a national survey

The French social theorist Jean-François Lyotard described contemporary culture in this way: "One listens to reggae, watches a Western, eats McDonald's food for lunch and local cuisine for dinner, wears Paris perfume in Tokyo and 'retro' clothes in Hong Kong." He was writing about postmodernism, but what concept is best applied to help explain this mixture of activities?

cultural diffusion

It is now possible to travel all over the world, especially if you visit major metropolitan areas, without ever having to eat anything but McDonald's food. This is an example of

cultural leveling.

A reality television show called Wife Swap exchanged the mothers from two very different families and filmed the result as the participants were exposed to radically different ways of life. Although the television network was simply trying to be entertaining, the show also demonstrates the sociological principle of:

culture shock

President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law in 2010. Fox News and CNN presented vastly different viewpoints of the ACA, appealing to either conservative or liberal viewers, respectively. The media's handling of this law is an example of

culture wars.

Postmodernists are interested in ________, or taking apart and examining stories and theories.

deconstruction

What is it called when an individual uses their group's way of doing things as the standard for judging others?

ethnocentrism

Which of the following describes an interaction that occurs in copresence?

having coffee with your mother

According to C. Wright Mills, what is one quality of mind that all great sociologists possess?

sociological imagination

A ________ is a kind of norm so deeply ingrained in that the very thought of violating it evokes feelings of disgust or horror.

taboo

What does the nature vs. nurture debate help us understand?

the complex interaction between hereditary traits and social learning

Prison has been the most common means of punishment for criminals and deviants throughout history.

False

Many Marxist sociologists assume that large-scale economic structures are the most important factors in shaping people's lives. This assumption is an example of:

macrosociology

In using the scientific method for sociological research, what step should be taken after formulating a general research question?

review the literature relevant to the topic

Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice after lying to the FBI during an investigation of her sale of a stock that dramatically fell in value immediately after she sold it. Her conviction was unusual, as this sort of white collar crime is much more likely to be dealt with in civil, rather than criminal, court. How does the tendency to deal with white collar criminals in civil court bias our understanding of the demographics of crime?

It leads us to overestimate the relationship between poverty and crime.

What is an advantage of using interviews as a research method?

They reveal attitudes and beliefs inaccessible by any other means.

Which of the following agents of socialization has the most enduring, lifelong impact on the individual?

the family

Which social theorist sought to bring the scientific method to the discipline of sociology?

Auguste Comte