Sociology Test 1 Review

Learning more sociology helps us to:

-assess the truth of "common sense" -assess the opportunities and constraints in our lives -be more active participants in society

Most of today's sociologists agree with Auguste Comte that science is a crucial part of sociology, but most also recognize that:

-human beings are partly creative and spontaneous. -human behavior is often more complex than natural phenomena. -no rigid "laws of society" hold everywhere and at all times.

Examples of people applying their knowledge of sociology at work include people in:

-law enforcement understanding which categories of people are at high risk of becoming victims of crime. -medicine understanding patterns of health in a community. -people in business who deal with different categories of people.

The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was:

Emile Durkheim

Which theoretical approach would highlight the fact that, on average, African American families have less income than white families

a. The race-conflict approach

Science can be defined as:

a. a logical system that bases knowledge on direct, systematic observation.

Which of the following is the best example of a latent function of going to college?

b. Keeping young people out of the labor force, which may not have jobs for them

Encouraging people to compete and strive for success are two of the ____ of sports.

b. Latent functions

The recongnized and intended consequences of a social pattern are referred to as:

b. Manifest functions

The basic idea of the symbolic-interaction approach is that society is:

b. The product of people interacting in everyday situations.

Lois Benjamin's research on the life experiences of high-achiever African Americans suggests that:

b. racism remains a burden even among privileged African Americans.

Which of the following founding sociologists urged sociologists to understand a social setting from the point of view of the people in it?

d. Max Weber

Karl Marx, speaking for the social-conflict approach, argued that the point of studying society was

d. To bring about needed change

If 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

Following the thinking of C. Wright Mills, we would have expected the sociological imagination to be more widespread:

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.

The nations of Europe, Israel, Japan, and Australia fall into which of the following categories of countries?

high-income nations

Sociology provides an advantage to students preparing for later careers by preparing them for work:

in all of the above careers and many others, including business, education, law enforcement, and social work.

Thomas Hobbe's idea that society reflects a selfish human nature illustrates the thinking common at which of Comte's stages of societal development?

metaphysical stage

Almost all of Latin America and Asia falls within which of the following categories?

middle-income nations

Which of the following categories contains countries in which average income is typical for the world as a whole and in which people are as likely to live in rural area as in an urban area?

middle-income nations

The theoretical approach in sociology that assumes society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability is the:

structural-functional approach

Which theoretical approach was used by early sociologists Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim?

the structural-functional approach

The major goal of sociology's pioneers, including Comte and Durkheim, was:

to discover how society actually operates.

Which of the following is a reason that it is important to understand the world beyond our own borders?

-Nations the world over are increasingly interconnected. -Many problems that we face in the United States are far more serious elsewhere. -Studying other societies is a good way to learn more about ourselves.

Thee campus roommates are talking about why they are in college. A sociological view of going to college highlights the effect of:

-age, because college students tend to be young. -class, because college students tend to come from families with above-average incomes. -our place in history, because a century ago going to college was not an option for most people.

Who was the U.S. sociologist who distinguished between the manifest functions and the latent functions of social pattern

A. Robert K. Merton

The term "sociology" was coined in 1838 by:

Auguste Comte

Identify the three sociologists who played a part in the development of sociology's structural-functional approach

B. August Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim

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)?

C. W.E.B. Du Bois

Herbert Spencer described human society as having much in common with:

D. The human body

In which of the countries noted below did sociology as a formal discipline appear first?

France

Read the following statements. Only one of them is TRUE. Which one is it?

Gaining a global understanding is important to college students because eight of ten new U.S. jobs involve international trade.

The text presents a portrait of "global village." Which of the following statements about this village is true?

Half the people are Africans.

Which pioneering sociologist founded Chicago's Hull House to assist immigrants and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?

Jane Addams

____ is a way of understanding the world based on science.

Positivism

What might a sociologist say about people's selection of marriage partners?

Typically, a person marries someone of similar social position.

Using the structural-functional approach, which of the following questions might you ask about marriage?

What are the consequences of marriage for the operation of society?

Which woman helped launch the discipline of sociology by studying the evils of slavery and also by translating the writings of August Comte?

a. Harriet Martineau

Which of the following is an accurate criticism of the structural-functional approach?

a. It ignores inequality that can generate tension and conflict

Which of the following early sociologists had an important influence on the development of the social-conflict approach?

a. Karl Marx

unrecongized and unintended consequences of a social pattern are referred to as:

a. Latent functions

Which of the following statements reflects a social-exchange analysis?

a. People typically seek mates who offer as much as they do.

Which of the following is a manifest function of sports?

a. Providing recreation and physical conditioning

The main characteristic of the_____ approach is its view of society as orderly and stable

a. Structural-functional

The____ approaches are macro-level, describing societies in broad terms.

a. Structural-functional and social-conflict.

Racial discrimination in professional sports is evident today in:

a. the positions typically played by white and black players.

Which of the following statements is based on a symbolic-interaction analysis of sports?

a. winning at sports means different things to different people.

When did sociology become established as an academic discipline in the United States?

about 1900

According to Comte, people living in Europe during the Middle Ages thought of society as:

an expression of God's will.

The social-conflict approach sometimes receives criticism for:

b. Being openly political

A critiscism of the symbolic-interaction approach is that it:

b. Ignores how structural factors such as class affect people's experiences.

Robert Merton explained that what is functional for one category of a society's population:

b. May not be functional for another category

Which of the following statements might be made by a sociologist using the gender-conflict approach

b. Men earn more than women in the workplace

W.E.B. Du Bois claimed that _____ was the major problem facing the United States during the twentieth century.

b. Race

The "framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change" is the:

b. Social-conflict approach

Sociologists cannot identify "laws of society" that allow us to predict individual human behavior:

because human behavior is patterned but also spontaneous.

Sociologist use the term "social marginality" to refer to:

being defined by others as an "outsider."

Which of the following questions is the focus of the symbolic-interaction approach?

c. How do people experience society?

Which of the following would be the focus of a social-conflict analysis of sports?

c. How sports reflect social inequality

The social-conflict approach draws attention to:

c. Patterns of social inequality

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?

c. Symbolic-interaction approach

Which of the following examples illustrates a micro-level focus?

c. Two people on an airplane getting to know one another.

Which early sociologist received the first doctorate ever awarded by Harvard University to a person of color?

c. W.E.B. Du Bois

A simplified description unfairly applied to evert person in some category is referred to as:

c. a stereotype

Using the symbolic-interaction approach, sports becomes:

c. less a system than an ongoing process.

Making use of the sociological perspective encourages:

challenging commonly held beliefs.

Unlike simple stereotypes, sociological generalizations:

d. All of the above are correct. -do not apply to all individuals in some category. -are based on all available facts. -are offered fair-mindedly with an interest in the truth.

Using the social-conflict approach, a sociologist might highlight which of the following?

d. All of the above are correct. -income differences among young people in high school. -gender inequality in college sports. -racial inequality in a company's hiring and promotion practices.

W.E.B. Du Bois described African Americans as having a "double consciousness" because:

d. Black people are citizens who have a second identity based on skin color.

Looking at the operation of U.S. schools, the social-conflict approach might lead a sociologist to conclude that:

d. tracking provides some students with far better schooling than others

To evaluate a theory, sociologists:

gather data or facts.

Peter Berger described using the sociological perspective as seeing the ____ in the ____.

general; particular

The United States falls within which category of the world's nations?

high-income nations

Because there is more social isolation in rural areas of the United States than in urban areas, we would expect suicide rates to be:

higher in rural areas.

Sociology differs from the older discipline of philosophy by focusing on:

how society actually operates.

Looking at the United States, high suicide rates are typical of areas in which people:

live spread apart in rural areas.

According to Emile Durkheim, a category of people with a higher suicide rate typically has:

lower social integration.

According to Comte, people begin to see society as a natural rather than a supernatural phenomenon as their society enters which stages of development?

metaphysical stage

In deciding what kinds of questions to ask in their research, sociologists are guided by:

one or more theoretical approaches.

C. Wright Mills claimed that the "sociological imagination" transformed:

personal problems into public issues.

By stating that the sociological perspective shows us "the strange in the familiar," the text argues that sociologists:

reject the familiar idea that people simply decide how tp act in favor of the initially strange idea that society shapes our lives.

According to Comte's approach, the kind 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

Social structures sometimes have negative consequences for the operation of society as a whole. What is the term for these negative consequences?

social dysfunctions

Which term is used to describe relatively stable patterns of social behavior?

social structure

Which discipline itself as "the systematic study of human society"?

sociology

Sociologist Lenore Weitzman carried out research showing that women who divorce:

suffer a significant loss on income.

Which of the following best describes the focus of the structural-functional approach?

the consequences of social patterns for the operation of society.

The idea that the social world guides our actions and life choices just as the seasons influence activities and choice of clothing describes:

the essential wisdom of the discipline of sociology.

Which of the following historical changes is among the factors that stimulated the development of sociology as a discipline?

the rise of industrial factories and cities

More than 1 million immigrants enter the United States each year and many (including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gloria Estefan) have become well known. These facts support the conclusion that:

the world's nations are increasingly interconnected.

Comte described the earliest human societies as being at which stage of historical development?

theological stage

The ancient Romans saw the stars as gods. Comte would classify Roman society as which of the following types?

theological stage

As statement of how and why specific facts are related is called a:

theory.

If we stay that children raised in single-parent families are at high risk of being single parents themselves, we have constructed a ____ of family life.

theory.

The "Seeing Sociology in the News" article explains that having a college degree today is:

very important if you are to have financial security and be in the middle-class.

A sociological analysis of childbearing around the world suggests that the number of children born to woman reflects:

whether she herself was born into a poor or rich society.

in the United States today, the suicide rate is highest for which category of people listed below?

white males

In the box about Barbra Ehrenreich working at low wage jobs, we learned that she:

worked very hard but never made enough money to pay for her basic needs.