Midterm Exam

A  Conspicuous consumption

B  Credit card consumerism

C  Designer consumerism

D  Popular consumerism

A  ideology

B  meritocracy

C  hegemony

D  false consciousness 

E  stratification cognition

A  Some people simply have a predisposition to making poor choices regarding finances. 

B  Contrary to assumptions about the culture of poverty, members of the lower class often save and take actions that might lead them to improve their situations. 

C  The poor often move into the middle class. 

D  The values and norms of many Americans in all class groups include attitudes of resignation and fatalism. 

E  It tends to blame the victims of poverty for their own misfortunes, while ignoring structural causes of inequality. 

A  27 percent 

B  1 percent 

C  3 percent 

D  40 percent 

E  15 percent 

A  cultural capital

B  social structure 

C  false consciousness 

D  ideology

E  class consciousness 

A  education 

B  class consciousness 

C  cultural capital

D  social welfare  

E  ideology

A  caste 

B  the invisibility of poverty 

C  social reproduction 

D  slavery 

E  ideology

A  Weber did not believe that owning the means of production mattered in any way

B  Weber believed that wealth, power, and prestige could all affect a person’s social class. 

C  Weber did not have a theory of social class. 

D  Weber believed that wealth was the only factor that mattered, regardless of how that wealth was acquired. 

E  Weber believed that class status was inherited and was an extension of the old feudal system. 

A  99 percent 

B  10 percent 

C  53 percent 

D  47 percent 

E  90 percent 

A  deviance that actively harms someone physically 

B  instances where a rule violation is, or seems to be, an admirable act that should be supported 

C  the form of acts that come with secondary deviance 

D  deviance that is active and is openly embraced 

E  deviance that relates to a criminal record 

A  structural strain theory 

B  differential association theory 

C  deviance avowal 

D  labeling theory

E  structural functionalism 

A  The goal of success is shared by a majority of people, but not everyone has equal means for achieving that goal. 

B  There are a lot of people with inborn antisocial tendencies. 

C  Deviant behavior has become so widespread that many people think of it as normal. 

D  Deviant behavior is glamorized in the media and therefore becomes increasingly attractive to young people. 

E  American society is very lax in enforcing laws. 

A  pragmatic analytical 

B  structural functionalist 

C  symbolic interactionist 

D  retreatist 

E  conflict theory

A  It helps to clarify moral boundaries, reinforcing the idea that marital infidelity is wrong. 

B  It helps to deter politicians from cheating in the future. 

C  Being forced out of office prevents him from ever cheating again. 

D  The anger and public outcry helps to rehabilitate the offender so he won’t give in to the temptation to cheat in the future. 

E  It helps to protect the family of the politician, who need scrutiny and media coverage in order to move on.

A  cause harm or injury to someone

B  violate a law

C  depart from a norm and generate a negative reaction.

D  inspire feelings of revulsion or disgust.

E  be a deeply held belief

A  traditional leaders

B  expressive leaders

C  democratic leaders

D  instrumental leaders

E  charismatic leaders

A  It leads to endless rounds of discussion that tend to preclude any real action.

B  It makes it much harder for the group to achieve goals.

C  It can lead to groupthink, in which dissenting opinions are strongly discouraged.

D  It reduces the degree to which members are attracted to the group.

E  It makes group members more susceptible to anomie, normlessness.

A  anomie, or normlessness.

B  unemployment.

C  the rise of hate groups.

D  increasing reliance on technology.

E  a need for new types of etiquette.

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  when a role comes with contradictory expectations that lead to conflict within an individual

B  when an individual possesses a role that requires him to constantly challenge others, resulting in a great deal of conflict

C  when one individual has multiple roles that are in conflict

D  when an individual possesses a role she finds objectionable

E  when an individual possesses a role that generates a great deal of controversy and conflict within her social circle

A  FALSE

B  TRUE

A  vandalism, truancy, and other forms of deviance

B  punctuality, neatness, and discipline

C  civics and the principles of American government

D  math, reading, and science

E  literature

A  peer socialization

B  impression management

C  cooling the mark out

D  the existential dilemma

E  resocialization

A  Football is one of the few games that allows individual agency.

B  In both football and society, there are winners and losers.

C  Both football and society involve hierarchy and rules that help the elite maintain their status.

D  In both football and society, individuals have to take into account the roles and points of view of everyone else. 

E  Both football and society use hegemonic power to maintain order.

A  We imagine others’ evaluations of us.

B  We develop a self-concept based on what we think others think of us.

C  We imagine how we appear to those around us.

D  We determine whether or not our parents’ evaluations of us are similar to our grandparents’.

E  We modify our own behavior based on what we believe others think of us.

A  interaction between commodities and social institutions.

B  lifelong process by which people learn the norms, values, and beliefs of their culture.

C  fact that human nature is essentially self-centered and must be unlearned.

D  process by which individuals come to know one another

E  interaction between different societies’ cultures.

A  mixed culture

B  subordinate culture

C  counterculture

D  subculture

E  dominant culture

A  cultural spin-off.

B  subculture.

C  social group.

D  counterculture.

E  subdominant culture.

A  culture wars

B  folkways

C  signs

D  sanctions 

E  multiculturalism

A  taboos

B  folkways

C  laws

D  mores

E  all of the above

A  They understand other values and beliefs within the proper cultural context.

B  They use their own culture as a standard of judgment.

C  They are practicing cultural relativism.

D  Other cultures are extremely different from theirs.

E  They are part of a counterculture.

A  Culture encompasses every aspect of social life.

B  Culture includes customs and rituals, as well as tools and artifacts.

C  Culture includes the habits and lifestyle choices of a group of people.

D  Culture shapes and defines who we are.

E  all of the above

A  interview transcripts

B  existing sources

C  statistical analysis

D  experimental data

E  ethnographic fieldnotes

A  when they use experimental methods

B  when they use historical research

C  when they use surveys

D  when they use interviews and participant observation

E  when they use ethnographic methods

A  They allow respondents to answer along a continuum, from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.”

B  They allow respondents to answer with their own opinions.

C  They allow respondents to opt out of a question if they don’t have an answer.

D  They encourage respondents to include detailed responses.

E  They allow respondents to answer in simple dichotomies, like true/false or yes/no.

A  they all belong to the target population identified by the researcher.

B  they all understand the nature of the study and what will be asked of them.

C  they have all read the prior literature on the subject area.

D  they have all agreed to participate in the study for monetary compensation.

E  their confidentiality has been guaranteed.

A  Ethnography allows the researcher to gather abundant data on a small population.

B  Ethnography is a quick and easy form of social science research.

C  Ethnography requires the researcher to spend little time gaining familiarity with the research subjects.

D  Ethnography allows the researcher to hold on to rigid stereotypes about others.

E  Ethnography requires no training since it’s something we all do as human beings.   

A  example of reactivity.

B  research proposal.

C  ethical issue.

D  paradigm shift.

E  hypothesis.

A  form a hypothesis, review the literature, define variables, predict outcomes, collect data, analyze data, disseminate findings

B  form a hypothesis, analyze data, make predictions, review the literature

C  analyze data, review the literature, collect data, form a hypothesis

D  collect data, analyze data, form a hypothesis, predict outcomes, define variables

E  form a hypothesis, predict outcomes, define variables, collect data, analyze data

A  structural functionalism

B  conflict theory

C  symbolic interactionism

D  postmodernism

E  psychoanalysis

A  a latent function of increased security.

B  a serious source of anomie.

C  a source of mechanical solidarity.

D  a cause for repression and sublimation.

E  a manifest function of the border patrol.

A  conflict theory

B  postmodernism

C  psychoanalysis

D  symbolic interactionism

E  structural functionalism

A  The conditions of modern life create a psychic prison that leaves most people discontent with civilization.

B  Most aspects of life are increasingly controlled through rigid rules and rationalization.

C  Increasingly, modern society has more laws and uses them to incarcerate more people in prison.

D  Increasingly, we live and work in smaller and smaller physical locations, as if crammed in a cage.

E  More and more people live under totalitarian dictators and so lose basic rights and freedoms.

A  when a vanguard party leads a violent revolution

B  through the further development of false consciousness

C  when the lower classes come to recognize how society works and challenge those in power

D  through a religious awakening

E  when industrial production is perfected, so that most of the workers are unemployed

A  a kind of social solidarity based on interdependence

B  a failure of the oppressed to recognize the source of their oppression

C  the transfer of destructive urges to socially useful activities

D  normlessness, or a loss of social connections

E  anger and disillusionment with progress

A  Macrosociological—it explains how large-scale social institutions influence individuals.

B  Microsociological—it explains how individuals shape and create large-scale social institutions.

C  Macrosociological—it helps to understand how face-to-face interactions shape society.

D  Both are useful in different ways, because they each provide different types of information about the same object of study.

A  the sociological imagination

B  culture shock

C  quantitative methods

D  Macrosociology

E  Globalization

A  We should teach people how to take better advantage of their opportunities.

B  We should consider the work ethic of the average citizen.

C  We should consider the economic and political structures of the society.

D  We should worry about the intelligence level of the workers who have lost their jobs.

E  We should ask those who are unemployed how much they want to work.