SOCY 101 final

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Population

An entire group of individual persons, objects, or items from which samples may be drawn.

Case Study

An intensive investigation of one particular unit of analysis in order to describe it or uncover it mechanisms.

Survey

An ordered series of questions intended to elicit information from respondents.

Reflexivity

Analyzing and critically considered our own role in, and effect on, our research.

Why are Asian Americans sometimes labeled a "model minority"?

Compared to other minorities, most Asian Americans have achieved educational and financial success in the United States.

Native Americans have been the target of racial and ethnic abuses since Europeans arrived. In Indian Bureau boarding schools and schools provided on reservations, English was mandatory and children were severely punished if they spoke or wrote their native language, resulting in the gradual erosion of culture. This policy was an attempt at

forced assimilation

The brief review of Peggy McIntosh's essay on white privilege lists just a few of the 50 privileges that McIntosh identified in her original work, which included not being asked to represent your entire race and being able to match bandage colors to your skin tone. Which of the following could also be considered white privilege?

being able to choose any seat you wish on public transportation

Sociology is distinct from other academic disciplines in its attempt to

detect patterns in how different societies respond to similar phenomena.

Using the sociological imagination helps sociologists

develop the ability to see the connections between our own personal experience and the larger forces of history.

Adekunle enters a clothing store and a security guard immediately notices him and follows his actions on a security monitor. Adekunle is aware of the security guard's actions and adjusts his own behavior to avoid a potential confrontation. This is an example of which sociological concept?

double consciousness

How does sociology differ from other disciplines? assumes underlying rationality of human behavior

economics

You're traveling with a group in a foreign country. After a homestay with a local family, a member of your group remarks that the meal he had last night was horrifying: roasted dog! "No one eats dog!" he exclaims. "It's barbaric!" This person is speaking from a perspective of

ethnocentrism.

Between 1924 and 1979, the state of Virginia performed sterilizations on individuals deemed "unfit." This included people with epilepsy, which today is recognized and treated as a medical condition. These cases represent a manifestation of

eugenics

material culture:

everything that is part of our constructed, physical environment, including technology

Which of the following is an example of an application of midrange theory?

exploring the role of churches in rural areas

Examining the interactions between people with a focus on how the people talk, dress, and use body language is an example of which theory?

functionalism

norms:

how values tell us to behave

Another early sociological writer, Harriet Martineau, wrote a book in 1838 that examined the institution of marriage and the assumptions about women's inferiority. In this respect, Martineau adopted what kind of theoretical position in her writing?

feminist

Allison is concerned with the messages that her little sister receives from her elementary school teacher about suitable careers. For example, class lessons portray nurses and secretaries as female but doctors and engineers as male. Allison's concerns reflect her own outlook as a

feminist.

ethnocentrism

the belief that one's own culture or group is superior to others, and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of one's own

How does sociology differ from other disciplines? Focus on the individual

psychology

Which of the following scenarios involves the use of peer pressure?

A college sophomore is afraid to report a sexual assault because she believes her sorority sisters will ostracize her

What is a moderating variable?

A factor that affects the relationship between the independent and dependent variables FEEDBACK: Moderating variables affect the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

Ideology can be best described as ________

A SYSTEM OF CONCEPTS AND BELIEFS

Which of the following is an example of a panel survey?

A survey of 1,000 high school seniors who are then contacted every 2 years for a 10-year period to participate in a follow-up survey. FEEDBACK: A panel survey is a survey that tracks the same respondents, households, or other social units over time. It is also known as a longitudinal study.

Amber is conducting research on the negative portrayal of Latinos in the media. She searches through newspapers to document instances of discriminatory language toward Latinos. What type of research is Amber conducting?

Content analysis FEEDBACK: Content analysis examines the content rather than the structure of communication.

While today the phrase "mass media" might bring to mind a cable TV network or a print publication with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, the earliest mass media were

Books FEEDBACK: Media has a long history, from oral traditions (the town crier), to the Internet. The first form of mass media was the printed book, which was made possible by invention of the result of the printing press.

In the United States, media ownership is ________.

CENTRALIZED IN THE HANDS OF A FEW BIG PARENT COMPANIES

When children who speak languages other than English at home attend public schools in the United States, they not only are expected to learn and use academic English, they also are exposed to and expected to act in accordance with rules such as waiting in line to go through the lunch line and sitting in the cafeteria to eat lunch. When these children go home, they speak with their family in their shared language and follow different practices regarding shared meals. Moving between these different settings, these children grow adept at

Code switching Feedback: People who move fluidly from one cultural setting to another learn to code switch by swapping out one set of meanings, values, or languages on the fly. Code switching between home and school or home and work is a common practice for people of color and immigrants.

What three factors are needed to establish causation?

Correlation, time order, and ruling out alternative explanations FEEDBACK: Causality is the notion that a change in one factor results in the change of another factor. To establish causality, three factors are needed: correlation, time order, and ruling out alternative explanations.

Which of the following is an example of a negative relationship between an independent and a dependent variable?

Employees with more responsibility are less likely to miss work. FEEDBACK: A negative relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable means that as one variable increases, the other decreases.

The changing attitudes toward marijuana can be difficult to fit into our understanding of crime. At the federal level, the drug is classified as a controlled substance and possession and distribution may carry severe penalties. In most states, possession is a criminal offense with penalties including jail. In a few states, possession is treated as a misdemeanor and in a handful of states, beginning with Colorado and Washington, recreational marijuana possession is now legal. What does this suggest about the difficulties of measuring changes in crime rates over time?

Definitions of crimes change over time FEEDBACK: Since definitions of deviance and crime are always changing, it is difficult to compare the crime rate over time.

Which of the following descriptions capture a feature of feminist approaches to social research?

Engaging in research that may bring about policy changes to help improve women's lives. FEEDBACK: Sandra Harding proposes three ways to conduct feminist research. First, treat women's experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources. Second, engage in social science that may bring about policy changes to help improve women's lives. Third, take the role of the researcher into account. Overall, there is no single feminist research method.

In an effort to understand how group dynamics change under duress, a research team gathers 100 people at a remote mountain location, bringing them all in by helicopter. Using carefully designed interviews, the researchers begin the lengthy process of interviewing the participants. After the second day, however, there are a dozen participants who express unhappiness and want to leave. The research team reminds them that they signed an agreement agreeing to be interviewed knowing what it entailed, that leaving is not practical and that they need to continue with the process. The research team is failing to fulfill what cardinal rule of research?

Ensuring voluntary participation FEEDBACK: Voluntary participation is the right of a research subject to decide whether to participate in a study. Participants in a research study must be allowed to stop participating at any point during the study.

The Sociological Conversations interview with Victor Rios highlights the differential treatment that racial and ethnic minorities, particularly those in the inner cities, receive from a young age. In his youth, Rios often encountered police intrusion upon his daily life, including at school. What sociological idea epitomizes Rios's experience?

Foucault's panopticon FEEDBACK: The panopticon is a circular building in which the guard can observe prisoners without them knowing if they are being watched. To Foucault, the idea of the panopticon is a metaphor for the general functioning of disciplinary techniques in society, such as constant surveillance. Note that this surveillance does not necessarily involve police; report cards, parent-teacher conferences, and other methods of surveillance at school are each "all-seeing" in this understanding of the term.

________ can be defined as a process in which groups that are dominant in a culture, by virtue of their power and leadership in society, have their interests better represented by social institutions in that culture. This secures the voluntary "consent" of the masses as they adopt those interests too.

HEGEMONY

How was racism expressed in Ancient Greece?

How was racism expressed in Ancient Greece?

A hairstyle that becomes popular because a lot of people liked how it looks on a celebrity is an example of _______, while a workplace regulation about hairstyles needing to meet standards for food service safety is an example of _______.

INFORMAL CULTURE; FORMAL CULTURE

Socialization is the process by which people ________

INTERNALIZED BELIEFS, VALUES, AND BEHAVIORS OF A GIVEN CULTURE AND LEARN TO FUNCTION AS A MEMBER OF THAT SOCIETY

A researcher observes that most teens entering a café choose to sit near other occupied tables, whereas most retirees choose a table that is farther away from other customers. The researcher then theorizes that youth like to feel that they are part of a larger group of people, whereas the elderly are more comfortable being alone. This is an example of which kind of research approach?

Inductive reasoning FEEDBACK: An inductive approach starts with empirical observations and then moves toward formulation of a theory.

In an interview with the Dalton Conley, Mitchell Duneier describes his desire to conduct research that adheres to the ethical guidelines of social research. If Duneier had interviewed street vendors by secretly recording their interactions, what ethical guideline would he have violated?

Informed Consent FEEDBACK: Informed consent is the right of a research subject to know they are participating in a study and what the study will consist of.

You are interested in investigating how honest Facebook users can be on the site. You have added several family members as your Facebook friends. You plan to interview them as part of your investigation. How does this approach create a problem for you as a researcher?

It will result in a challenge for reflexivity because of the ways your prior relationships will influence your family members' responses in the interviews. FEEDBACK: Reflexivity allows researchers to analyze and critically consider their role in, and their effect on, their own research. It means being aware of the effects that researchers have on the processes and relationships they are studying, and disclosing this. Since you're studying your own family, there are lots of ways that their response would be suspect.

Sociologically speaking, values are best described as ________

MORAL BELIEFS

In the effort to stop the spread of HIV, organizations and countries have invested in research to understand how the virus spreads within a population. Often, this research investigates transmission through "having sex." Here, one of the challenges is to precisely define what "having sex means," so that researchers can identify the pertinent variables. This challenge of specifying a key idea is crucial to any good sociological study and is called

Operationalization FEEDBACK: What a particular term means is critical to the success and usefulness of a study. Operationalization is the process of clearly defining a term so as to assign a precise method for measuring the defined term.

Which of the following data collection methods was primarily used by Mary Patillo to study the influx of black professionals into a Chicago neighborhood where many lower-class blacks already lived?

Participant observation FEEDBACK: Mary Patillo employed participant observation, moving into the neighborhood herself, attending community events, talking with neighbors, and writing down field notes. She found that middle-class blacks could provide some social resources to their neighbors, but that there were cross-class conflicts, too.

Suppose you're at a party at a friend's apartment. One of the guests strikes up a conversation with you about voter apathy and claims he has a pretty good idea as to why it is so high, calling it a "well-educated hypothesis." You point (much to his annoyance) out that his idea is really nothing more than a guess. In order to accurately call his idea a hypothesis, he would need to do what?

Propose a relationship between two variables FEEDBACK: Hypotheses propose relationships between two variables. They usually include the direction of the relationship; in other words, they usually include whether the variables move in the same direction (positive) or in opposite directions (negative).

The idea that culture and media are just a projection of the social structures and relationships that happen to exist most commonly around us is the basis of ________.

REFLECTION THEORY

As a budding sociologist, you decide to study American politics by attending presidential caucuses. You identify as a liberal independent, but you are interested in the process from different perspectives. Your first stop is at a caucus for Republican candidates. Everyone in the audience is passionate about their beliefs, and you find yourself swept up in the process, reacting against ideas that you see as extreme. In developing the paper discussing your study results, what is one of the challenges you in particular must overcome to produce an unbiased study?

Remembering that everyone, including you, is inculcated into systems of beliefs that influence thinking and perceptions. FEEDBACK: All of us have an ideology, a set of internal beliefs and ideas that are instilled in us as we grow. This inherently imparts in us a sense of ethnocentrism. As a sociologist, it is important to be aware of this, disclose it, and avoid tainting the results we share in the community of professionals.

How do street crime and white-collar crime compare in terms of cost to society and prevalence?

Street crime is the most prevalent type of crime, while white-collar crime has greater financial impact. FEEDBACK: The FBI's prosecution of white-collar criminals resulted in billions of dollars in restitution (repayment) and hundreds of millions in fines in 2011 but no individuals did time (Stewart, 2015). Moreover, those totals reflect only successful prosecutions. In contrast, the FBI has estimated that in 2013 the total loss from robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft combined was (only) $16.6 billion (FBI, 2014a, 2014b).

Which of the following does NOT fit a definition of the term culture?

THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IS NOT CULTURE

What is cultural relativism?

THE PROCESS OF RECOGNIZING DIFFERENCES ACROSS CULTURES WITHOUT JUDGING THOSE DIFFERENCES AS MORE POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE THAN EACH OTHER

Kalani has busy summers planned for her daughters. They take music lessons, play on soccer and basketball teams, and attend summer school classes. This summer schedule is an example of

concerted cultivation

Nonmaterial culture includes

VALUES, BELIEFS, BEHAVIORS, SOCIAL NORMS

Which one of the following is an example of using cultural relativism to think about cultural differences?

You see a news story about a country where people often eat spicy seafood dishes in the morning, and you reason that their long coastline and hot climate provide easy access to both seafood and hot peppers. FEEDBACK: Cultural relativism is taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value. It often involves realizing that the way you do things is not necessarily the only way or the right way.

Which of the following is an example of recognizing the "generalized other"

a child is taught to hold the door for her parents or siblings when they are carrying something into the house. While at the mall, she holds the door for a stranger leaving the mall who is carrying several bags

Which of the following is an example of a total institution?

a convent

One of the classes you are enrolled in fills up every semester it is offered, and students rave about it. There's something about it beyond the topic and the instructor, which makes you curious. You have an idea about why this is so, so you decide to test your theory by jotting down a hypothesis, asking other students a few questions, and then seeing if the results fit your theory. You are employing what kind of research in your sociological search for answers?

a deductive approach FEEDBACK: A deductive approach starts with a theory, followed by formation of a hypothesis, making of empirical observations, and then analysis of the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory. Conversely, an inductive approach starts with empirical observations and then moves toward formulation of a theory.

Think about your own experience of going to school. More than simply "what you learned in school today," much of our lives in the United States are shaped by that entire experience: what we choose to wear, with whom we make friends, whom we avoid, and how we respond to authority figures, whether teachers or preachers or police. Overall, our experience of school is

a major part of socialization. FEEDBACK: Socialization is the way in which we all internalize our society's values, beliefs, and norms and in the process, become members of that society.

Symbolic interactionism

a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, and assumptions form the basic motivations behind people's actions. (page 138)

Status

a recognizable social position that an individual occupies. (page 132)

What is the collective conscience?

a set of norms by which members of society abide FEEDBACK: The collective conscience, or common faith, is a set of norms by which members of society abide. Durkheim posited that individuals offend the collective conscience when they commit acts of deviance.

Achieved status

a status into which one enters; voluntary status. (page 133)

Ascribed status

a status into which one is born; involuntary status. (page 133)

Status set

all the statuses one holds simultaneously. (page 133)

Resocialization would be most likely to occur in which of the following situations

an American woman who takes a full-time job in Saudi Arabia after graduating from college ends up marrying a local man

In India, there is an elaborate system of social classification called the caste system. This has existed for thousands of years, and still dictates, to a great extent, the social and economic status of an individual. A person's caste is an example of

an ascribed status

Total institution

an institution in which one is totally immersed and that controls all the basics of day-to-day life; no barriers exist between the usual spheres of daily life, and all activity occurs in the same place and under the same single authority. (page 131)

Generalized other

an internalized sense of the total expectations of others in a variety of settings—regardless of whether we've encountered those people or places before. (page 123

Building on Émile Durkheim's classic theory of suicide, sociologist Matt Wray describes a contemporary "American Suicide Belt." Wray finds elevated suicide rates in the American West, particularly among white men isolated from social contact by unemployment or being unmarried. What type of suicide are residents of this area prone to, according to Durkheim's typology?

anomic FEEDBACK: According to Durkheim, social integration (how well you are integrated into your social group) and social regulation (the number of rules guiding your daily life) influence suicide rates. These influence the occurrence of four ideal types of suicide, including egoistic suicide, altruistic suicide, anomic suicide, and fatalistic suicide. Anomic suicides occur in the context of too few rules guiding daily life, what Wray finds are the conditions for residents of the American Suicide Belt.

In his interview with Dalton Conley, Victor Rios shares his own experience as a gang member in Oakland, California. His description of watching his best friend die in his arms, how police randomly upended his own and his friends' daily lives, and the sense of despair, chaos, and disconnection from society that resulted are a powerful reflection on what Durkheim called

anomie FEEDBACK: Anomie arises when we can no longer expect life to be predictable due to too little social regulation. This is linked to the concept of anomic suicide, which is suicide that occurs because of insufficient regulation. Rather than succumb to anomie, Victor Rios found the support needed to survive and succeed.

Suppose you are on an overseas trip with friends and prefer homestays to hotel rooms. At one homestay, the hosts invite you to dinner, serving up a meal of couscous, steamed vegetables, and roast dog. You are uncomfortable with the inclusion of dog meat on the menu, in large part because you grew up with a dog as a beloved pet. You recognize that these disparate understandings of dog as meat versus dog as pet are a case of differences in

assigned meanings

Suppose you are part of a research team stationed in Uganda to do sociological surveys. You are there with your same-sex spouse of eight years. In Uganda, homosexuality was criminalized in 2009 and is currently punishable by life imprisonment. Attitudes in the country are not favorable toward homosexuality, but you have not experienced difficulties in daily life. As you begin the write-up of your research, you are especially aware of the scholarly need to

avoid letting your own beliefs about same-sex relationships enter your writing. FEEDBACK: When we examine the practices of others cultures or when we are immersed in a culture other than our own with the goal of conducting valuable research, overcoming our own ethnocentrism can pose real challenges.

The case of a young girl named Genie is the most carefully documented and well-studied instance of what happens to a child who does not experience adequate contact with other people during infancy and childhood. Genie was locked in a room alone for nearly 13 years and never developed language skills the way most children do. Obviously, this is a story in part of severe parental neglect, but it also provides insight into whether abilities like language are innate. Fundamentally, this case about a feral child is about whether

biology or socialization shapes human behavior

This chapter concludes with a look at the criminal justice system of the United States, noting that incarceration rates have risen significantly. A close look at current prison populations in America shows that the largest percentage of prison inmates are

black FEEDBACK: Black Americans represent the largest percentage of the prison population, comprising about 16.6 percent of the prison population in 2002. Hispanic men comprised about 7.7 percent, followed by white men, at about 2.6 percent. A similar pattern holds among women.

There was an empty lot in a middle-class neighborhood, maintained by a nearby resident. That man moved away, and within a few weeks several bags of garbage and some old furniture were sitting in the lot. Then an old car was parked in the lot and teenagers started to gather there to drink beer and hang out. Within a few months, there was a mugging by the lot and the police made a handful of arrests for drug dealing there. This series of events is an illustration of __________ theory.

broken windows FEEDBACK: The broken windows theory of deviance explains how social context and social cues impact the way individuals act. A setting of decay and disorder (cued by broken windows, graffiti, or other signals) may influence deviant acts.

Both quantitative and qualitative methods (the way sociologists can gather data about a social issue or problem) are approaches that ideally attempt to establish a __________ between social elements.

causal relationship FEEDBACK: Whether one uses a quantitate approach collects data that is in (or can be set up in) numeric form, or a qualitative approach and collects data that can be used to decipher meanings, the goal is to establish causal relationships in order to lend certainty to the result of the investigation.

Definitions of deviant behavior tend to

change over time and vary from one context to another. FEEDBACK: Deviance is the transgression of socially established norms. These socially established norms and rules change over time and vary by context. Deviance is collectively defined and is subject to a wide range of punishments.

While you're riding a crowded city bus, a woman sits on the seat next to you. Rather than strike up a conversation, she briefly rifles through her purse, then put in earbud, turns on some music, and stares past you out the bus winter. The woman is exercising what is called

civil inattention

Which of the following is the best example of a quantitative research method?

conducting a survey of how often people read FEEDBACK: Quantitative methods seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in, or can be converted to, numeric form. A survey of how often people read could be easily quantified, though it is possible that data obtained from other methods, such as content analysis, could also be quantified.

In the United States, media ownership is

consolidated in the hands of a few big companies. FEEDBACK: In the United States, only six major companies own more than 90 percent of the media.

In the "Sociological Conversations" video, Allison Pugh discusses how parents in very different socioeconomic strata decide on whether to purchase the current popular toy for their children. She introduces us to the ideas of symbolic indulgence and deprivation. Families choosing which toys to purchase for children are participating in

consumer culture. FEEDBACK: According to Pugh, low-income families practiced what she called "symbolic indulgence." High-income families practiced what she termed "symbolic deprivation." These choices were all part of a larger process that allowed families to feel as if they were participating in the broader consumer culture of the United States.

The U.S. surgeon general published a report in 1964 that clearly outlined the health dangers of smoking. In 1994, the government began what would become a decades-long effort to prosecute the tobacco companies for fraud: criminal misrepresentation of the health issues and deliberate intent to deceive and cover up evidence about tobacco's effects. Despite the government's efforts, however, the tobacco industry continues to market tobacco products. In 2014, the industry finally agreed to publicly state that their advertising campaigns had lied about the harms of smoking. Taken together, the tobacco industry's actions can be understood as a protracted case of __________ crime.

corporate FEEDBACK: Corporate crime, unlike other forms of criminal activity, is not inherently violent and is not always property based. Often, the victims of corporate crime may not even see themselves as victims.

You've noticed that when you sleep less, your grades suffer. At the same time, you realize that lower grades could also lead to a lack of sleep: that worrying about a possible dip in your grade point average could keep you up at night. What kind of relationship between the two variables, lack of sleep and lower grades, are you noticing here?

correlation FEEDBACK: A correlation is a relationship between two variables. Here, we notice a relationship between sleep and grades. To establish a causal relationship, though, we need more than a simple correlation.

Robert Cornelius took a self-portrait on a daguerreotype in 1839, which is believed to be the first American portrait, but it wasn't until the 2000s that "selfie" became a word: It was the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year in 2013. The gap between the first instance of self-portraiture by camera and the proliferation of the term "selfie" more than a century later is an (extreme) example of

cultural lag Feedback: When it takes time for culture to catch up with technological innovations, there is a cultural lag. In this case, it is the gradual emergence of language to describe practices enabled by technological innovations, with the term "selfies" arising to describe self-portraits made simple through the widespread use of camera phones with front-facing cameras

Every year, as many as 20,000 devotees of Harley Davidson motorcycles convene in Sturgis, South Dakota. Their numbers frequently overwhelm nearby towns and cities, including the Mt. Rushmore National Monument. For some tourists visiting the monument at that time, the cultural collision with tattooed and long-haired bikers might be jarring. For the tourist who thinks like a sociologist, such an encounter is an opportunity to observe a different group of people by applying

cultural relativism. FEEDBACK: Cultural relativism means taking into account the differences across cultures without assigning a value. In this scenario, it means recognizing differences across cultures without judging those differences as positive or negative.

Your friend Jerome tells you that he believes culture is an innate biological aspect of human societies. Having already taken an introductory sociology class, you disagree, arguing that modes of behavior and understanding are not universal or natural. You give the example of the disagreement between indigenous Americans and colonial Europeans about whether land was something that could be owned. You are trying to illustrate the idea of

cultural scripts. FEEDBACK: Cultural scripts are modes of behavior or understanding that are not universal or natural. Our cultural scripts shape our notions about many things, like gender.

To combat rising crime rates, a state introduces tough new sentencing laws. The hopes of politicians and law enforcement officials for a subsequent decrease in crime are based on

deterrence theory FEEDBACK: The deterrence theory of criminal justice arises from the view that crime results from a rational calculation of its costs and benefits. In this view, tougher sentencing laws might increase the cost of committing a crime.

North Korea has been ruled for more than 50 years by a single powerful family, with the citizenry, as best as can be determined, is highly regimented in daily life, without access to outside information, and suffering frequent famine. Sociologically speaking, the leadership of North Korea is

dominating FEEDBACK: Antonio Gramsci, an Italian political theorist and activist, developed the concepts of domination and hegemony. Domination entails the use of force, while hegemony entails winning the voluntary consent of the masses.

A friend of yours has invited you to a big social event. Knowing you might meet people who could offer you a job after graduation, you polish your shoes, buy a new outfit, and practice introducing yourself and explaining the insights you've gained during college, all in the hopes of making a strong professional impression. In sociological terms, you're preparing to present yourself as a young professional, in accordance with

dramaturgical theory

Differential opportunity theory links what two things in analyzing deviance?

economic opportunities and crime rates FEEDBACK: Differential opportunity theory states that in addition to the legitimate economic structure, an illegitimate opportunity structure also exists that is unequally distributed across social classes. Thus, crime should rise or fall according to the relative returns on opportunities in legitimate and illegitimate economies.

The process of choosing a urinal in a men's restroom may seem simple, but there is an underlying, implicit protocol that has actually been studied. In what has been termed "piss stance," one researcher found that the unspoken rule was to always ensure a "buffer zone" of at least one "open" urinal between yourself and another person. Being an intrepid sociologist, you have decided to see what happens when this protocol is ignored. In doing so, you are practicing Correct!

ethnomethodology

In her interview with Dalton Conley, C. J. Pascoe talks about the ways in which boys in high school police the boundaries of masculinity, specifically by using the term "fag." What is at stake is not sexual orientation, but gender norms regarding what is perceived as "masculine." In 2010, Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old high school student, hung himself after repeatedly being called a "fag" by his peers for "looking different." Lucas's peers were enforcing norms based on

gender-role socialization

Facebook surpassed 1 billion monthly active users in 2012, and that number has continued to climb. Facebook wasn't the first social media site, of course; it had to compete with earlier sites such as Friendster and MySpace. Today, though, Facebook is many people's default way of staying in touch with family, friends, and colleagues through messages, posts, likes, and event invitations. Widespread reliance on the site is a good example of

hegemony FEEDBACK: Hegemony is a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary agreement of the masses. In other words, it involves getting people to go along with the status quo because it seems natural or seems like the best way to do things.

Hypothesis: Children in families that eat dinner together at least four times per week experience fewer behavioral problems in school. In this hypothesis, what is the dependent variable?

how often children misbehave in school FEEDBACK: A dependent variable is the outcome that a researcher is trying to explain.

Climate change has evoked a politically polarized debate in the United States. For many, the cause and effect relationship between human activity and climate change seems obvious based on the science available. For others, such a claim seems ludicrous. While it may seem that climate change is a matter of science, underlying the disagreement are attachments to opposing

ideologies. FEEDBACK: An ideology is a system of concepts and relationships involving an understanding of cause and effect. It is a form of nonmaterial culture.

If you were to tell someone that you were conducting breaching experiments, you would be telling them that you were intentionally

ignoring social norms to see what happens

According to George Herbert Mead's stages of development, children first start to learn to recognize an "other" through

imitation

Which of the following is an example of a given off gesture?

inadvertently glancing at the clock during a boring lecture

Suppose you are a participant in an online forum where people review online games, and one participant recently posted an angry rant in all caps, which elicited a harsh rebuke from several other users. Such a reprimand is a kind of

informal social sanction FEEDBACK: Informal social sanctions are the "unwritten rules" of social life. They are a mechanism of social control. Users policing their peers in an online gaming forum is an example of an informal social sanction; if the group had specific guidelines about proper posting etiquette enforced by moderators, then the angry poster could face formal social sanctions, such as deletion of the offending post or even the loss of all posting privileges.

Under Adolf Hitler, the Nazis developed a carefully planned network of concentration camps. These were designed to hold all those deemed "undesirable" by the Nazi leadership. An individual consigned to a camp was forced to work, wore a specific uniform, had a limited ration of food, and faced a near certain death. This tragic episode in human history is an extreme example of

life in a total institution FEEDBACK: Total institutions, which break down barriers separating spheres of life, strip people of their identity and self-control. Under the Nazis, most of those confined to and executed in concentration camps had committed no crime, nor did they pose a threat to society.

You have decided to conduct an interview-based study on your campus that examines sexual assault with the hope of offering recommendations to the administration for policy changes. You have selected as your sample the members of all the campus fraternities, as this is a subpopulation of the entire campus and seems to often be at the center of the cases. While this is an interesting approach, your results will likely be

limited in generalizability because of your sampling decision. FEEDBACK: Choosing a sample is probably the most important steps in a research project. Selecting the wrong sample, or one that is too limited or too specialized, makes it unlikely that the data and results can be generalized.

Ethnomethodology

literally "the methods of the people"; this approach to studying human interaction focuses on the ways in which we make sense of our world, convey this understanding to others, and produce a shared social order. (page 143)

In his experiment, Duncan Watts created a website where respondents could rate songs. His sample size was 14,341 respondents. If Watts selected a new sample of 14,341 different respondents and their average ratings of each song were significantly different than the first sample, what problem would Watts's research suffer from?

low reliability FEEDBACK: Reliability refers to how likely you are to obtain the same result using the same measure if you conduct the study again.

Master status

one status within a set that stands out or overrides all others. (page 133)

I

one's sense of agency, action, or power. (page 121)

Certain ideals about women's appearance are highly valued in the United States, such as thinness, muscular definition, and blemish-free skin. Reflection theory suggests that this obsession in our culture with the "perfect female body" emerges from our social structures and shapes the kinds of relationships we seek and value: we want to be around people who meet this standard of perfection. That is, the culture of women's bodies is a result of our own proclivities, and not a result of how women are depicted in the media. The primary difficulty with this idea is that it

presumes culture is a one-way process. FEEDBACK; Reflection theory is the idea that culture is the projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere. The main limitation of this theory is that its unidirectional nature suggests that culture has no impact on society.

Devah Pager's research on employment prospects for individuals with a prior criminal record exemplifies the serious consequences for certain stigmas. If an individual with a criminal record cannot easily find a job and decides to return to committing crimes to support his or her family, what sociological idea is this an example of?

recidivism FEEDBACK: Recidivism occurs when an individual who has been involved with the criminal justice system reverts back to criminal behavior.

The idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships is fundamental to which of the following theories?

reflection theory

Some businesses in the United States, especially food-service establishments, will post signs that read, "No shirt, no shoes, no service." These signs

reinforce a cultural norm. FEEDBACK: Norms are the way in which values tell us to behave.

A thermometer that consistently gives readings that are five degrees cooler than the actual temperature is

reliable but not valid. FEEDBACK: Reliability is consistency in measurement. A thermometer can be reliable but not valid. In other words, it can provide consistent temperatures, though they may be consistently incorrect.

In Discipline and Punish, the French theorist Michel Foucault examines how the modern penal system

represents a transformation in social control. FEEDBACK: Michel Foucault argued that penal system was indicative of social control outside of the system as well. Today, the prison system is much more private than punishment of the past, and it targets what Foucault calls "the soul" of the prisoner.

HIV/AIDS has devastated many different populations. Efforts to reduce the spread of the disease have often focused on sexual behavior. Many studies in Africa have presumed that awareness of high HIV rates would lead to a change in sexual behavior: the higher the prevalence of HIV, the fewer risky sexual behaviors would be observed (dependent variable). Following widespread educational efforts (independent variable), the actual change in HIV rate showed little to no change. This failure to affect the HIV rate was due to

reverse causality FEEDBACK: Reverse causality is a common problem: initially we think A causes B, but in fact, we discover that B causes A. The dependent variable in this example was a very prevalent assumption, which in fact borne out as true in the United States: that an awareness of the prevalence of HIV would result in lower prevalence. The opposite result has led researchers to reexamine underlying ethnocentric assumptions and design new, culturally appropriate reduction efforts for different parts of the world.

Since the 1970s, both violent and overall crime rates have gone down, while at the same time, incarceration rates in the United States have

risen dramatically FEEDBACK: Today there are higher rates of incarceration than ever before in American history. Crime rates often fluctuate according to how we define deviance.

As a mother, Linda sometimes feels torn. Most of the time she focuses on being loving and supportive, but sometimes she needs to be firm to discipline her children. These opposing expectations are an example of

role strain

The decision to marry is a major life step. Contemporary Americans do so with certain cultural expectations: that our partner will love and care for us, will share the duties of managing a household (nowadays, fairly equally and regardless of gender), and will support us in our lives when problems arise at work or with other family members. These expectations of a spouse are an example of

roles

A classmate has been talking for weeks about trying out for the school dance team. The day after the tryouts, you ask her how it went, and she answers that she couldn't go because she was sick. (In reality, however, she did try out but wasn't selected.) The way your classmate reported the situation to you is an example of what?

saving face

Suppose a teenage girl caught smoking marijuana in her car in the high school parking lot is suspended. As a result, she gains a reputation around school as a "druggie." After that, she begins using cocaine and eventually tries heroin. The girl's actions following the initial suspension are an example of

secondary deviance FEEDBACK: Secondary deviance refers to deviant acts that occur after primary deviance and as a result of being labeled deviant.

Gender roles

sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as male or female. (page 133

A television ad campaign for a new toy starts playing nationwide in late October. Within weeks, big box retailers are selling out of the toy as parents prepare for the holidays. This response is an example of a

short-term, intended media effect FEEDBACK: Media effects can be placed into four categories depending on their duration (short term or long term) and intention (intended or unintended). A consumer purchasing a heavily advertised toy can be defined as a short-term, intended media effect.

When fears of contagious diseases such as avian flu and ebola arise, public health officials encourage people to replace greetings involving close contact (handshakes, hugs) with an elbow bump. This change in greetings represents a shift in

social norms. FEEDBACK: Norms are the guideposts we use to act on cultural beliefs. Our shared values arising from membership in a society or culture instill beliefs, and these in turn guide our behavior as social norms.

At a friend's housewarming, you meet a young engaged couple from India. They tell you that their relationship was arranged when they both very young (she was 12, he was 14). They seem happy with this arrangement, but you're taken aback. The couple's comfort with the arrangement, as well as your initial discomfort, are examples of

socialization

Other

someone or something outside of oneself. (page 122)

Which of the following is an example of nonmaterial culture?

spirituality FEEDBACK: Aspects of nonmaterial culture are values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States undertook the internment of all people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States. The government stated that this action was to protect national security. Many of those sent to these internment camps were U.S. citizens, with parents or grandparents born in Japan. This action relied on the use of

stereotypes. FEEDBACK: The media can create and reinforce stereotypes, which often distract people's attention from more complex, underlying issues that are difficult to explain in a single article. In this case, Japanese internment was based on stereotyping not just by media but also by the federal government. In 1988, the U.S. government formally apologized for the internment and compensated those who were incarcerated.

In her interview with Dalton Conley, Devah Pager discusses her fieldwork in Milwaukee and New York, in which she sent out job applicants, both black and white, with half of them pretending to have prison records. Pager found that having a criminal record negatively affected an applicant's ability to be offered a job. In addition, she found that black applicants were far less likely to be called back for an interview than white applicants. This racial disparity in hiring indicates unconscious stereotypes in the minds of the hirers, in addition to the challenge of a criminal record's

stigma FEEDBACK: Having a record of being convicted of a crime, especially a felony, serves to stigmatize a person. This can result in discrimination against people with a record, whether in hiring, housing, or college admissions.

Devah Pager's research on how criminal records affect hiring illustrates the consequences of

stigma. FEEDBACK: A stigma is a negative social label that changes behavior toward a person as well as that person's own social identity. In Pager's experiment, the stigma of having a criminal record (as well as race) influenced the decisions of potential employers.

The chapter includes a hypothetical example of a very poor, frugal man who wins the lottery, leaving him with a deep feeling of anomie. His formerly successful pattern for living on a strict budget is no longer necessary, and he lacks a behavioral template by which to live. According to Merton, this is an example of

strain theory FEEDBACK: Merton's strain theory posits that we learn what society considers appropriate goals and appropriate means for achieving them by giving us certain behavioral templates. Strain arises when the means fail to match the ends. For the lottery winner, he no longer needs to scrimp, so the purpose of his daily routines has been suddenly eliminated.

Skateboarding is a popular youth pastime. Within the activity, there are distinct variations on how it's done, and the skating lexicon can vary by place. In addition, skateboarders have distinctive gear, like skate shoes designed to provide grip and durability. All this sets skaters apart as a kind of

subculture. FEEDBACK: A subculture is a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society.

Which of the following is an example of informal deviance?

telling the hostess of a dinner party the main dish was oversalted FEEDBACK: Minor transgressions that do not violate laws enacted by society are acts of informal deviance.

For a research project in an introductory sociology course, a student decides to compare how magazines created for women cover health and beauty topics versus career and professional topics in. This student is conducting

textual analysis FEEDBACK: Textual analysis is the analysis of the content of media in its various forms.

In her interview with Dalton Conley, Annette Lareau discusses the work found in her book, Unequal Childhoods, and gives numerous examples of the ways in which different parenting strategies play out in the home, and the results of those different strategies. Socioeconomic class differences (middle-class, working-class, and poor) figure prominently into the results, and she notes that the success of the child often hinges upon the knowledge and acceptance that what matters is

that children enter institutions, and institutions have rules

One of the consequences of mass incarceration in the United States has been

the disenfranchisement of millions of former felons FEEDBACK: Disenfranchisement, or disallowing felons the right to vote, is a serious consequence of mass incarceration. Sociologists Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen estimate that granting former felons the right to vote would have significantly altered the course of several elections.

Role

the duties and behaviors expected of someone who holds a particular status. (page 132)

Face

the esteem in which an individual is held by others. (page 141)

Which of the following is an example of soft power?

the expansion of American corporations into new global markets FEEDBACK: Soft power is the cultural and diplomatic dominance that persuades, rather than forces, others to do one's bidding.

Role strain

the incompatibility among roles corresponding to a single status. (page 132)

Self

the individual identity of a person as perceived by that same person. (page 121)

Socialization

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society. (page 118)

Resocialization

the process by which one's sense of social values, beliefs, and norms are reengineered, often deliberately, through an intense social process that may take place in a total institution. (page 131)

Me

the self as perceived as an object by the "I"; the self as one imagines others perceive one. (page 121)

Role conflict

the tension caused by competing demands between two or more roles pertaining to different statuses. (page 133)

Dramaturgical theory

the view (advanced by Erving Goffman) of social life as essentially a theatrical performance, in which we are all actors on metaphorical stages, with roles, scripts, costumes, and sets. (page 139)

A group of people is waiting to be helped at a customer service desk in a store. A woman in the waiting area suddenly clears her throat and spits on the floor. Everyone else in the room is taken aback and gives her horrified looks. How can this reaction be explained in sociological terms?

the woman who spit on the floor is not confirming to social norms that are shared by the other people in the room

Comparative research usually involves studying which of the following?

two or more units of analysis that have a number of things in common but differ on a dimension (or dimensions) of interest FEEDBACK: Comparative research is a methodology by which a research compares two or more entities (often countries or cultures) with the intent of learning more about factors that differ between them.

Sociologist Allison Pugh researched consumer culture and socioeconomic class differences through parental purchases for children. In their relationship with their children, low-income parents tended to strive for symbolic indulgence, while high-income parents tended toward symbolic deprivation. Both of these approaches are an attempt to ensure that kids "fit in" at school, indicating that parents of all classes shy away from difference. These actions reflect

values FEEDBACK: Values are our moral beliefs. They are shaped, in part, by culture.

Nonmaterial culture includes

values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms. FEEDBACK: Nonmaterial culture includes values, beliefs, behaviors, and social norms. By contrast, material culture includes everything that is part of our constructed, physical environment.

You would like to understand why some high school students in a private religious school are prone to being cyberbullied. After thoroughly operationalizing the terms, developing well-honed variables, and identifying a sample, you must apply to an institutional review board in order to conduct the research. One of the main concerns is that

you are dealing with a protected population group. FEEDBACK: Protected populations are segments of the population that a researcher may need special approval to study, often because they are particularly vulnerable. This includes children and also incarcerated populations, people with disabilities, and others.

Auguste Comete

Science is used to predict human behavior.

Reverse Causality

A situation in which the researcher believes that A results in a change in B, but B, in fact is causing A.

Participant Observation

A qualitative research method that seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions by observing their behavior in practice.

Deductive Reasoning

A research approach that starts with a theory, forms a hypothesis makes empirical observations, and then analyzes the data to confirm, reject, or modify the original theory.

Inductive Reasoning

A research approach that starts with empirical observations and then works to form a theory.

Content Analysis

A systematic analysis of the content rather than the structure of a communication, such as a written work, speech, or film.

Feminist Methodology

A set of systems or methods that treat women's experiences as legitimate empirical and theoretical resources, that promote social science for women (think public sociology, but for a specific half of the public), and that take into account the researcher as much as the overt subject matter.

Independent Variable

A measured factor that the researcher believes has a causal impact on the dependent variable.

Comparative Research

A methodology by which two or more entities(such as countries), which are similar in many dimensions but differ on one in question, are compared to learn about the dimension that differs between them.

Hypothesis

A proposed relationship between two variables. Example: Hypothesis: The lower of the educational level of the parents, the greater the chance that their children will be poor as adults. Alternate Hypothesis: There is a positive relationship between parental education and children's likelihood of living in poverty as adults.

Research Methods

Approaches that social scientists use for investigating the answers to questions.

Karl Marx

Class conflict drives social change.

The Research Cycle

Figure 2.1

The Charge of Spuriousness

Figure 2.2 Why is the correlation between nutrition and height spurious?

Which of the following American sociologists applied Émile Durkheim's theory of anomie to explain African American crime rates?

W. E. B. DuBois

Historical Methods

Research that collects data from written reports, newspaper articles, journals, transcripts, television programs, diaries, artwork, and other artifacts that date back to the period under study.

Reliability

The likelihood of obtaining consistent results using the same measure.

In an attempt to better understand the experience in college - that of the students as well as the teachers - you ask a professor for the chance to lead the class without her being in the room. Your professor grants your request. "Thinking sociologically," this follows the methodology proposed and developed by which of the following early sociologists?

Max Weber

Qualitative Methods

Methods that attempt to collect information about the social world that cannot be readily converted to numeric form.

Experimental Methods

Methods that seek to alter the social landscape in a very specific way for a given sample of individuals and then track what results that change yields; often involve comparisons to a control group that did not experience such an intervention.

Quantitative Methods

Methods that seek to obtain information about the social world that is already in or can be converted to numeric form.

According to Durkheim, why is a society predominantly bound by mechanical solidarity more likely to apply punitive justice rather than rehabilitative justice to a person who violates a law or social norm?

People in such a society are bound by sameness, and any violation of social norms must be punished severely to reinforce the boundaries of acceptable behavior. FEEDBACK: Punitive justice defines and reinforces the boundaries of acceptable behavior; the group punishes the criminal in an act of collective vengeance.

In the United States, the one-drop rule broadly separated people into "black" and "white." Under apartheid in South Africa, on the other hand, there were four racial categories; and in Brazil there are up to a dozen racial categories, depending on whom you ask. What general insight can we draw from these differences in racial categories?

Racial categories are social constructs, not biological absolutes that transcend time and place

Causality

The notion that a change in one factor results in a corresponding change in another.

Correlation or Association

Simultaneous variation in two variables.

Max Weber

Sociologists must understand the meaning people attach to their actions.

Dependent Variable

The outcome that the researcher is trying to explain.

Emile Durkheim

The division of labor has social and moral consequences.

Validity

The extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure.

Generalizability

The extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied.

Operationalization

The process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study.

W. E. B. DuBois

The sense of self and identity are influenced by historical and social circumstances.

Sample

The subset of the population from which you are actually collecting data.

While racial justice advocates might seem to be cheered by the use of DNA databases in identifying perpetrators of crimes, what potential grounds for injustice do these databases create?

They are more likely to include black individuals, making their relatives easier to identify in run-ins with police than uncatalogued whites.

Georg Simmel

This thinker developed formal definitions for small and large groups.

Harriet Martineau

This thinker translated the work of others and wrote the first book on sociological method.

The chapter notes that Duke University has changed its name twice and yet remains the same institution, and that the tobacco company Philip Morris changed its name to Altria in order to remake itself into a different institution. These two examples explore the idea of social identity as

a collection of individual stories told between individuals.

hegemony

a condition by which a dominant group uses its power to elicit the voluntary "consent" of the masses opposite of domination because domination uses force

culture:

a set of beliefs traditions and practices; the sum of the social categories and concepts we embrace in addition to beliefs, behaviors (except instinctual ones), and practice; everything but the natural environment around us

ideology

a system of concepts and relationships, an understanding of cause and effect

In her interview with Dalton Conley Julia Adams talks about the differences between sociology and history. As a self-identified historical comparative sociologist, Adams makes the point that sociologists are less concerned with uniqueness than they are with commonalities. Consider Henry the VIII of England during the mid-1500s. Henry's succession of marriages - six wives in all - is often seen as a unique case. Six wives is a lot, and by many European standards, it is a unique case. A sociologist, however, might well look at it by considering the ways in which Henry's marriages

affected religious life in England then and now.

textual analysis

analysis of the content of media in its various forms

media

any formats, platforms, or vehicles that carry, present, or communicate information

A Muslim classmate from your introductory sociology course helps organize a march protesting discrimination against Muslim Americans on campus. Hundreds of students from area colleges participate. What type of action is this?

collective resistance

Robert Park's model of how immigrants adapted to a new setting was called straight-line assimilation. Milton Gordon refined this theory and suggested that an immigrant population can pass through seven stages of assimilation. Harold Isaacs then observed that, despite what seemed to be full assimilation, ethnic identity persisted. His findings led Clifford Geertz to conclude that because it was not biological, ethnicity must be the result of

culture

One of the difficult problems faced by many colleges and universities is the increase in binge drinking on campus. Pretend you are part of a group seeking to develop approaches to understanding and reducing this problem. Putting on your sociology hat, you suggest to the group that it would useful to understand the meaning placed on the binge-drinking parties, and thereby develop solutions based on an understanding of the experience itself. Your approach uses the methodology embodied in

interpretive sociology.

A child struggles to learn how to read and is frequently teased about it by his siblings and referred to as "slow" by his parents and teachers. He underperforms in school and never thinks about going to college. Ultimately, he drops out before graduating from high school, telling the school counselor that he's just not "book smart." This is an example of which theory of deviance?

labeling theory FEEDBACK: According to labeling theory, individuals unconsciously notice how others see or label them. Their reactions to those labels over time form the basis of their self-identity.

Justin decides to conduct research for a class project by recording and assessing how public transit companies can persuade people to take a public bus to and from work. Which type of sociology is this?

macrosociology

"Thinking like a sociologist" means that you

making the familiar strange, reconsidering your own assumptions about society, apply analytical tools to things you've always done without a lot of conscious thought.

Which of the following is an example of a social institution?

marriage, government, education system

An interesting innovation created quite a stir in 2003. The Schipol airport in Amsterdam fitted the men's restrooms with urinals that had a detailed picture of a fly on the inner wall. The idea was to reduce the mess - and it worked. In order to understand how this could work, the company that made the urinals would have had to do some careful research - focus groups, interviews, and the like - and apply the methods of what kind of sociology?

microsociology

cultural scripts

modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural

values

moral beliefs

In her interview with Dalton Conley, Jen'nan Read discusses the meaning of the terms "Arab" and "Muslim." Prior to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Arab Americans were mostly unnoticed in the United States. Since then, however, Arab Americans have been the targets of racism and discrimination, and they have now been effectively racialized because

of the tendency to conflate the terms "Arab" and "Muslim."

Tyrone is frustrated by having submitted dozens of resumes to tech companies around the Pacific Northwest, resulting in zero job interviews. He decides to try submitting three resumes as "Tyler," and receives two calls from prospective employers. What is this an example of?

passing

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the U.S. government decreed that all people of Japanese descent living in the United States, whether or not they were citizens, were subject to internment in concentration camps. At the time, enclaves of Japanese Americans thrived in several American cities. The fear and rejection of anyone with Japanese ancestry following the attacks reflected a decline in

pluralism

How does sociology differ from other disciplines? focused on power and power relations

political science

Gender, a topic that will be covered in greater detail in the chapters ahead, frequently poses a challenge to many, even leading to violent reactions. Seeing someone dressed as a male who also has obvious, visible secondary sex characteristics such as breasts and yet insists on using the personal pronoun he is a good example of how meaning is subjective. This is an example of

postmodernism.

Avi is disappointed that his daughter is marrying a Latino immigrant because he thinks Latinos oppose women having successful careers. This is an example of

prejudice

The text discusses the plight of the Irish immigrants in the United States in the late 1800s, when vicious, racially motivated attacks were directed toward them. In 2014, there was a series of angry demonstrations in Waterford, a town in Ireland, directed against the Roma (formerly referred to as gypsies). The irony of the attacks on the Roma in Waterford is that, like the anti-Irish attacks in the United States, they are an example of

racism.

In some urban neighborhoods, buying food staples requires a lengthy journey to another (more white) part of the city. "Food deserts" are a significant problem for people whose resources are limited. Based on the text, a food desert is a possible marker of

segregation

A woman whose maternal grandparents came to the United States from Norway participates in a Norwegian folk dance group and bakes Norwegian pastries for special occasions. This is an example of

symbolic ethnicity

Every four years, the United States elects a new president. The entire process of swearing in and recognition of the new office holder is an elaborate ceremony, with a great deal of symbol and pomp. Despite the enormous expenditure of time and resources, we continue to hold this ceremony, suggesting it has a crucial purpose in our society. A sociological examination of this particular American rite might well apply ideas from what branch of sociological theory?

symbolic interactionism

A sociologist studying the meaning of bicycle theft finds that the young men in her neighborhood who steal bicycles do so as a way or proving that they are more clever than the owners of expensive bicycles, since they can get away with rifling through unlocked or poorly secured garages, porches, and basements unnoticed. In a way, stealing these pieces of sports equipment is a sport in itself for the thieves. This researcher's focus on how those who steal bicycles think of their actions is an example of

symbolic interactionism. FEEDBACK: In contrast to functionalist theories, micro-theories such as symbolic interactionism tend to focus on the individual and the meaning they impart to actions rather than focusing on generalizable trends or broad social structures.

cultural relativism:

taking into account the differences across cultures without passing judgment or assigning value

culture jamming

the act of turning media against themselves

subculture:

the distinct cultural values and behavioral patterns of a particular group in society; a group united by sets of concepts, values, symbols, and shared meaning specific to the members of that group distinctive enough to distinguish it from others within the same culture or society

reflection theory

the idea that culture is a projection of social structures and relationships into the public sphere, a screen onto which the film of the underlying reality or social structures of a society is projected

The Nazi regime's belief that it had to protect a superior race from contamination by inferior races stemmed in part from

the notion of social Darwinism.

Numerous methods have been devised to ensure that people's racial categorization was clear. The "one-drop" rule was a particular U.S. method, which arose from miscegenation laws forbidding interracial marriage. The fundamental flaw with the "one-drop" rule is that

the one-drop rule depended on a nonexistent ability or test to detect, biologically, the presence of African heritage.

Auguste Comte developed very early ideas about sociology at a time when concern for proper behavior was a dominant part of life. A major part of his approach revolved around the idea of a secular morality. What aspect of life at that time would likely have made acceptance of Comte's ideas difficult?

the predominance of religion in daily life

socialization

the process by which individuals internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society

The Chicago School of American Sociology emphasized the importance of

the social environment in shaping people's behavior and personality.

consumerism

the steady acquisition of material possessions often with the belief that happiness and fulfillment can thus be achieved

Which of the following is an example of using one's sociological imagination?

thinking about why people in a particular country greet each other in a certain way

nonmaterial culture

values beliefs, behaviors, and social norms

In her interview with Dalton Conley, Jennifer Lee observes that the black-white divide is now the black-nonblack divide. Her argument is based on the experiences of first- and second-generation Asians and Latinos, a group in which each successive generation's outcomes improve. Among black Americans this is not the case, however. Disparities are apparent between blacks and all other groups in

wealth and educational attainment

Your friend Narayan is visiting from India. You both have just finished checking out at a department store. As you walk to the exit, the burly white security guard stops Narayan and insists that he open his parcel for inspection. However, you, a white person, are allowed to continue. Why might this be? Following 9/11, people from South Asia

who are white are usually ignored in situations like this.


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