Sociology Test 1. Sociological imagination. Wright Mills. Act of kindness. Peter Berger

TEST 1
1. Emile Durkheim saw society as a system “beyond us” with the power to guide our lives. Therefore, he described elements of society, including cultural norms, values, and beliefs as:

a. false consciousness.
b. ideal types.
c. social facts.
d. forms of rationality.

2. Wright Mills claimed that the “sociological imagination” transformed:

a. scientific research into common sense.
b. personal problems into public issues.
c. people into supporters of the status quo.
d. common sense into laws of society.

3. Sociologists use the term “social marginality” to refer to:

a. people who have little understanding of sociology
b. people who are especially sensitive about their family background.
c. being defined by others as an “outsider. ”
d. having special social skills.

4. A symbolic-interaction analysis focuses not on how individuals perceive a social setting but how what happens in that setting involves social inequality.

a. True
b. False

5. With regard to the process of measurement, which of the following statements is true?

a. Consistency does not guarantee validity.
b. For measurement to be reliable, it must be valid.
c. For measurement to be valid, it must be reliable.
d.All measurement is both reliable and valid.

6. Because there is more social isolation in rural areas of Canada than in urban areas, we would expect suicide rates to be:

a. high in both urban and rural areas.
b. higher in rural areas.
c. higher in urban areas.
d. low in both urban and rural areas.

7. What is the term for the beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that together make up a people’s way of life?

a. society
b. culture
c. social structure
d. social system

8. Which of the following concepts was used by Durkheim to name a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals?

a. division of labor
b. anomie
c. false consciousness
d. alienation

9. Formal organizations are:

a. small groups with elected leaders.
b. large secondary groups with goal orientation.
c. only agencies that are part of the government.
d. networks that have many members.

10. Subculture refers to:

a. people who embrace the high culture.
b. cultural patterns that set apart some segment of a society’s population.
c. people who embrace popular culture.
d. a part of the population lacking culture.

11. Ethnocentrism refers to:

a. people taking pride in their ethnicity.
b. judging another culture using the standards of your own culture.
c. claiming that another culture is better than your own.
d. understanding another culture using its own standards and values.

12. Cars, computers, and iPhones are all examples of which of the following?

a. norms.
b. high culture.
c. material culture.
d. nonmaterial culture.

13 _____ is a way of understanding the world based on science.

a. Free will
b. Theology
c. Positivism
d. Metaphysics

14. The ideal of objectivity means that a researcher:

a. must carry out research that will encourage desirable social change.
b. must try to adopt a stance of personal neutrality toward the outcome of the research.
c. must study issues that have no value to society as a whole.
d. must not care personally about the topic being studied.

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

a. a belief that our futures are defined by “fate”
b. the founding of the Roman Catholic Church
c. the power of tradition
d. the rise of industrial factories and cities

16. Which of the following is a way in which people can mislead others with statistics?

a. People select the data they present.
b. People interpret the data to lead their readers to the desired conclusion.
c. People use graphs to “spin” the truth.
d. All of the above are correct.

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

a. patterns of social inequality
b. the consequences of social patterns for the operation of society
c. the meaning people attach to their behavior
d. All of the above are correct.

18. Sociologists use the term “empirical evidence” to refer to:

a. information we can verify with our senses.
b. information that most people agree is true.
c. information that squares with common sense.
d. information that is based on a society’s traditions.

19. According to Peter Blau, which of the following plays a part in group dynamics?

a. class
b. race
c. gender
d. all of the above

20. The social-conflict approach draws attention to:

a. patterns of social inequality.
b. how elements contribute to the overall operation of society
c. how people construct meaning in their interaction.
d. the stable aspects of society.

21. Cultural transmission refers to the process of:

a. assing cultural patterns from one generation to another.
b. cultural patterns moving from one society to another.
c. using writing to enshrine cultural patterns.
d. using oral tradition.

22. An act of kindness, such as opening the door for an elderly man, illustrates conforming to:

a. proscriptive norms.
b. taboos.
c. mores.
d. folkways.

23. Sociologists define a symbol as:

a. any gesture that conveys insult to others.
b. any material cultural trait.
c. social patterns that cause culture shock.
d. anything that carries meaning to people who share a culture.

24. By stating that the sociological perspective shows us “the strange in the familiar,” the text argues that sociologists

a. believe that people often behave in strange ways.
b. reject the familiar idea that people simply decide how to act in favor of the initially strange idea that society shapes our lives
c. focus on the bizarre elements of society.
d. believe that even people who are most familiar to us have some very strange habits.

25. ______________ refers to organized interaction of people within a nation, state, or other boundary who share a culture.

a. popular culture
b. real culture
c. society
d. social structure

26. 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?

a. symbolic-interaction approach
b. structural-functional approach
c. social-exchange approach
d. social-conflict approach

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

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

28. The spread of cultural traits from one society to another is called:

a. popular culture.
b. diffusion.
c. immigration.
d. cultural transmission.

29. Which discipline defines itself as “the systematic study of human society”?

a. history
b. economics
c. psychology
d. sociology

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

a. Talbott Parsons, Karl Marx, W. E. B. Du Bois
b. Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim
c. Robert Merton, Karl Marx, Auguste Comte
d. Harriet Martineau, Robert Merton, W. E. B.

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

a. Emile Durkheim
b. Karl Marx
c. Max Weber
d. Auguste Comte

32. The social-exchange analysis is one micro-level approach to understanding social interaction.

a. True
b. False

33. Peter Berger described using the sociological perspective as seeing the ______ in the _______.

a. specific; general
b. good; worst tragedies
c. new; old
d. general; particular

34. Sociologists test their theories by gathering facts in order to confirm, reject, or modify them.

a. False
b. True

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

a. Auguste Comte.
b. Robert K. Merton
c. Emile Durkheim.
d. Karl Marx

36. A statement of how and why specific facts are related is called a:

a. theory.
b. concept.
c. precept.
d. approach.

37. If marginality encourages sociological thinking, we would expect people in which category listed below to make the most use of the sociological perspective?

a. disabled persons or people who are a racial minority
b. politicians
c. the middle-class
d. the wealthy

38. The social-conflict approach argued that the point of studying society was:

a. o bring about needed change.
b. to foster support for a nation’s government.
c. to understand how society really operates.
d. to compare U. S. society to others.

39. The sociologist who called on his colleagues to be value-free was:

a. Karl Marx.
b. Herbert Spencer.
c. Emile Durkheim.
d. Max Weber.

40. __________ are rules about everyday, casual living; __________ are rules with great moral significance.

a. Prescriptive norms; proscriptive norms
b. Folkways; mores
c. Mores; folkways
d. Proscriptive norms; prescriptive norms