What does the idea that the social world guides our actions and life choices just as the seasons influence activities and choice of clothing describe?
the essential wisdom of the discipline of sociology
The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was
Emile Durkhiem
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 to act in favor of the initially strange idea that society shapes our lives.
In the United States today, the suicide rate is highest for which of the following?
white males
If social marginality encourages sociological thinking, we would expect people in which category listed below to make the most use of the sociological perspective?
disabled persons or people who are a racial minority
W.E.B. Du Bois claimed that _____ was the major problem facing the United States during the twentieth century.
race
Peter Berger describes using the sociological perspective as seeing the ______ in the _______.
general; particular
W.E.B. Du Bois described African Americans as having a "double consciousness" because
they are American citizens who have a second identity based on skin color
Which of the following examples illustrates a micro-level focus?
two people on an airplane getting to know one another
Which theoretical approach claims that it is not so much what people do that matters as much as what meaning they attach to their behavior?
symbolic-interaction approach
____ _______, one of the founding sociologists, urged sociologists to understand a social setting from the point of view of the people in it.
Max Weber
A social-exchange analysis states that
people typically seek mates who offer as much as they do.
A criticism of the symbolic-interaction approach is that it
ignores the influence of factors such as culture, class, gender, and race
The symbolic-interaction approach focuses on how
people experience society
Racial discrimination in professional sports is evident today in
the positions typically played by white and black players
Using the symbolic-interaction approach, sports becomes
less a system than an ongoing process.
Unlike simple stereotypes, sociological generalizations
are based on all available facts
Lois Benjamin's research on the life experiences of high-achieving African Americans suggests that
racism remains a burden even among privileged African Americans
Sociologists use the term "empirical evidence" to refer to
information we can verify with our senses.
The sociological perspective reveals that
much of what passes for "common sense" in the United States turns out to be at least partly wrong.
Imagine that you were going to measure the age of a number of respondents taking part in a survey. As you record the data, you are using the concept "age" as
a variable
If you were trying to measure the "social class" of various people, you would have to keep in mind that
it is necessary to specify exactly what you are measuring
Examine the following series of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10. What is the median value?
3
With regard to the process of measurement
for measurement to be valid, it must be reliable.
A theory states that increasing a person's formal higher education results in increased earnings over the individual's lifetime. In this theory, "higher education" is the
independent variable
It is difficult to establish all the cause-and-effect relationships in a social situation because
most patterns of behavior are caused by many factors.
Scientific methodology is most closely linked to
structural-functional theory
Qualitative research has special appeal to investigators who favor
the symbolic-interaction approach
An emerging value in our society is
Work is important, but I want more time for leisure and personal growth.
Wrong-doing, such as an adult forcing a child to engage in sexual activity, is an example of violating cultural
mores.
An act of kindness, such as opening the door for an elderly man, illustrates conforming to
folkways.
The fact that some married men and married women are sexually unfaithful to their spouses is an example of _____ culture, while the fact that most adults say they support the idea of sexual fidelity is an example of _____ culture.
real; ideal
A good example of cultural lag is
gaining the ability to modify genetic patterns in humans before understanding the possible social consequences of doing so.
A person who criticizes the Amish farmer as being "backward" for tilling his fields with horses and a plow instead of using a tractor is displaying
ethnocentrism
According to Lenski's approach, change in society would be brought about by
the telephone
In hunting and gathering societies the
population is small and nomadic
Assume you are studying a society that has just invented cities, has increasing specialization, and has just started using money to buy and sell goods and services. It is likely that the society is at which stage of sociocultural evolution?
agrarian
The mass media, in films from Frankenstein (1931) to the recent television series Fringe, remind us that
advanced technology can not only serve us, but it can also harm us
Karl Marx used a philosophical approach called _____, while Max Weber followed an approach called _____.
materialism; idealism
Comparing and contrasting the ideas of Karl Marx and Max Weber, which of the following statements is TRUE?
Both Marx and Weber thought modern society was alienating, although for different reasons
After the 2001 terrorist attacks, _____ _______would likely wonder how these attacks united people across the United States
Emile Durkheim
When considering computer technology and the Information Revolution, ______ _______ would likely wonder if computer technology unites or isolates individuals.
Emile Durkheim
Of the following sociologists, which one might you most expect to be having a conversation about the question of what holds society together?
Emile Durkheim
Of the following sociologists, which one was most interested in how society is divided?
Karl Marx
If you were to hear a sociologist speaking of class conflict as the "engine of change," which of the following people would it most likely be?
Karl Marx
Applying Freud's thinking to a sociological analysis of personality development, you would conclude that
humans have basic, self-centered drives that must be controlled by learning the ways of society.
In Mead's model, which sequence correctly orders stages of the developing self?
imitation, play, game, generalized other
Thinking about how patterns of child-rearing vary by class, lower-class parents generally stress _____, while well-to-do parents typically stress _____.
obedience; creativity
On the basis of Melvin Kohn's study of what parents expect of their children, high-income parents are likely to be most concerned when their child
needs to be told what he should draw during free art time.
Based on the text's survey of the life course, you might conclude that
while life-course stages are linked to biology, they are largely a social construction
In a total institution, staff members
closely supervise all the daily life of inmates.
closely supervise all the daily life of inmates.
society shapes how we think, feel, and act.
Which concept is involved when a surgeon chooses not to operate on her own son because the personal involvement of motherhood could impair her professional objectivity as a physician?
role conflict
Which concept is involved when a plant supervisor wants to be a good friend and confidant to the workers, but must remain distant in order to rate the workers' performances?
role strain
An example of a secondary group is
a Microsoft Corporation awards banquet
During "groupthink
group members seek consensus, discouraging people from speaking freely and end up making a decision based on limited information.
A prisoner would consider a maximum-security prison
normative organization.
Evidence of the process called the "McDonaldization" of society includes
bank tellers being replaced with automatic teller machines (ATMs).
The incest taboo
limits sexual competition within families
Sarah feels little or no sexual attraction to people of either sex. Her sexual orientation is called
asexuality
Based on what you know about the history of human sexuality, once a society gains birth-control technology
social norms regarding sexuality become more permissive.
Assume that you are investigating the consequences of the incest taboo for kinship organization in a number of societies. You are using
the structural-functional approach
If you were teaching a class about the symbolic-interaction approach to sexuality, you likely focus on
how individuals in various settings engage in different sexual behavior and attach different meanings to sexual activity.
The social-conflict approach emphasizes that
U.S. culture often depicts sexuality in terms of sport and violence, such as when we speak of men "scoring" with women, and men "hitting on" women.
Based on your reading, it would be correct to say that biological approaches offer
a very limited understanding of crime
The correct view of the role of biology in causing people to commit crimes is that
biological factors may have a real but small effect in causing some people to commit crimes.
One of the social foundations of deviance is that
deviance exists only in relation to cultural norms
Assume you were listening to a lecture on Durkheim's approach to deviance. The focus of the lecture might be that
deviance is a normal element of social organization
According to Durkheim, functions of deviance include
the idea that responding to deviance promotes social unity.
According to Robert Merton's strain theory, the term ________would correctly describe a gangster like Al Capone, who made a lot of money breaking the law.
innovator
Both Albert Cohen and Walter Miller argue that deviance is most likely to arise among
low-income youths
His friends begin to criticize Marco as a "juice-head," pushing him out of their social circle. Marco begins to drink even more, becomes bitter, and joins a new group of friends who also are heavy drinkers. According to Lemert, Marco's situation illustrates
the onset of secondary deviance.
An example of the "medicalization of deviance" is
theft being redefined as a "compulsive stealing.
Whether people respond to deviance as a moral issue or a medical matter affects
whether the person is subject to punishment or treatment.
In terms of racial categories, most of the people in the United States arrested for FBI Index crimes are
white
A judge sentences a young man who has committed several crimes to counseling and places him in a supportive foster home. These efforts to prevent further wrongdoing are called
rehabilitation.
Ravi was born into a caste system in a small village in Sri Lanka. He can expect to
have the same social standing as his parents.
If you lived in a society with a traditional caste system, you would expect your marriage to be
endogamous.
A category of people defined as "untouchable" because they perform work that is viewed as "unclean" has been part of social stratification in
india
When Marx argued that capitalism "reproduces the class structure," he meant that
society operates and carries class differences from one generation to the next
If you have a job that involves manual labor, you are doing
blue-collar work
Olga works as a district sales manager for a small corporation. This category of work can be described as
white collar
Marx claimed social stratification would end with the creation of a socialist economy. What was Weber's view?
Weber thought socialism would reduce economic differences but also create a political elite, increasing differences in power.
The historical trend that states that advances in technology first increase but then flatten social inequality is
the bell curve
About what share of U. S. adults over the age of twenty-five are college graduates
30 percent
Which of the following types of societies has no categories of people who are better off than others?
hunting and gathering societies
Based on what you have read, as the United States develops a postindustrial economy, economic inequality is
increasing
If you were looking for data supporting the claim that U.S. society is very stratified, you would make the strongest case by pointing to which of the following factors?
wealth
Based on what you know about occupational prestige, you would assume that
occupational rankings are similar in all high-income nations
Being in the upper-upper class is usually the result of _____; being in the lower-upper class is more a matter of _____.
birth; achievement
A good example of a person in her society's upper-upper class is
Elizabeth II, the queen of England.
The highest concentration of high-income people is found
near large metropolitan areas, especially on the East and West Coasts.
If you believe that people living in central cities are likely to be poor because there are few jobs available in these areas, you are in agreement with
William Julius Wilson.
Japan, Canada, and the nations of Western Europe are all classified as
high-income countries
If you wanted to visit the world's low-income nations, where would you travel?
Africa and Asia
If you were to apply modernization theory to the problem of global poverty, you might point that low-income nations
have cultural resistance to innovation
Modernization theory claims that
the main causes of poverty involve culture and technology
If you were applying modernization theory to the problem of global poverty, you might expect rich nations to aid the economic development of poor nations by
increasing industrial production.
Wallerstein pointed to several factors that cause dependency among low-income nations. Which of the following is a factor that Wallerstein did NOT claim to be a cause of dependency?
lack of integration into the world economy
With regard to the role of rich nations, dependency theory
claims rich nations are to blame for global poverty