Category 1
As defined by C. Wright Mills, ____ “enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society.”
a. formal sociology
b.macrosociology
c.microsociology
d. sociological imagination
Ans: d. sociological imagination
C. Wright Mills once wrote, “The sociological imagination enables us to grasp ____ and the relations between the two within society. That is its task and its promise.”
a. macrosociology and microsociology
b. nature and nurture
c.history and biography
d. economics and anthropology
Ans: c.history and biography
A ____ is a complex, large-scale system of interrelated roles that, when accepted by a group of people, regulate social behavior and social expectations.
a. social construction
b. social identity
c. social institution
d. theory
Ans: c. social institution
Which discipline focuses its analyses on face-to-face encounters and interactions?
a. cultural sociology
b. macrosociology
c. microsociology
d. social ecology
Ans: c. microsociology
Sociology is the study of ____.
a. how urges, drives, and the mind account for human behavior.
b. causal mechanisms within the biological nature of individuals.
c. humans as rational utility maximizers.
d. group-level dynamics and social structures.
Ans: d. group-level dynamics and social structures
Which discipline focuses its analyses on larger social dynamics at the societal and structural levels?
a. macrosociology
b. microsociology
c. social ecology
d. symbolic interactionism
Ans: a. macrosociology
____ sociology tests hypotheses about the causes of riots. ____ sociology seeks to understand the social experience of riots and how people make sense of them.
a. Classical; Contemporary
b. Positivist; Interpretive
c. Qualitative; Quantitative
d.Theoretical; Empirical
Ans: b. Positivist; Interpretive
As the textbook author notes, one of the most age-segregated social institution in our society is a _____.
a. four-year college.
b. hospital.
c. prison.
d. retirement home.
Ans: a. four-year college.
In How to Observe Morals and Manners, Harriet Martineau critiqued the institution of marriage. She argued that this institution was ____.
a. based on an assumption that women are inferior.
b. based on an assumption that men are inferior.
c. perpetuating social class stratification.
d. reinforcing heterosexuality.
ans: a. based on an assumption that women are inferior.
Sociologists in the Chicago School suggested that human behaviors and personalities are shaped by social and physical environments. This concept is known as _____.
a. formal sociology.
b.social ecology
c.interpretive sociology.
d. quantitative sociology.
Ans:b. social ecology
A goal in sociology is to question things that are taken for granted in order to better understand the social world. Another way of saying this is to _____.
a.place our own values above data we collect.
b.see culture as a more powerful force than armies or industry.
c.think of individuals as members of an organized group.
d.think of the world in such a way as to make the familiar seem strange.
Ans: d.think of the world in such a way as to make the familiar seem strange.
Positivism, or “social physics,” is best defined as the _____.
a. study of human behavior as governed by natural instincts.
b. study of the symbolic interactions between social institutions and the individuals within them.
c. approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific method and studying objectively observable behavior.
d.relationship between scientific and religious social institutions in both premodern and modern societies
Ans: c. approach to sociology that emphasizes the scientific method and studying objectively observable behavior.
____is defined as the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general.
a. Midrange Theory
b. Conflict Theory
c. Post-modernism
d. Functionalism
e. Symbolic Interactionism
Ans: B. Conflict Theory
_____is defined as a micro-level theory in which shared meanings, orientations, assumptions form the basic motivations behind people’s actions.
a. Midrange Theory
b. Conflict Theory
c. Post-modernism
d. Functionalism
e. Symbolic Interactionism
Ans: E. Symbolic Interactionism
___ is defined as the theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running.
a. Midrange Theory
b. Conflict Theory
c. Post-modernism
d. Functionalism
e. Symbolic Interactionism
Ans: d. Functionalism
According to social theorist Randall Collins, getting a “piece of paper” is more important to many than having the knowledge to do a job. The term ____ refers to this potentially excessive priority placed on formal education.
a. credentialism
b. microsociology
c. normlessness
d.xenophobia
ans: a. credentialism
Anita is writing her senior thesis about how children learn and adopt their gender identities and how these processes reproduce power differences between men (boys) and women (girls). Which theoretical perspective is Anita most likely to use in her thesis?
a. symbolic interactionism
b. feminist
c. postmodernism
d. functionalism
ans: b. feminist
____ is a type of scholarship in which researchers attempt to capture the lived experiences of the people they are studying rather than treating them as objects that are meant to be analyzed.
a. positivism.
b. conflict theory.
c. interpretive sociology.
d. symbolic interactionism.
Ans: c. interpretive sociology.
What is social construction?
a. an area of study that focuses on the meanings people attach to smaller, in-person interactions
b. a theory that attempts to explain some patterns of behavior that are neither all-encompassing of a wider group nor specific to individuals
c. an entity that exists because people behave as though it exists, and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions follow widely agreed-upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with that entity
d. a theory that social processes exist to serve some important function that keeps society organized
Ans: c. an entity that exists because people behave as though it exists, and whose existence is perpetuated as people and social institutions follow widely agreed-upon formal rules or informal norms of behavior associated with that entity
Double consciousness describes how African Americans constantly maintain two separate behavioral scripts. One represents the behavior of any American moving through the world; the other accounts for ____.
a. the notion that they need to work hard and act as model American citizens.
b. the opinions of their partners and friends to maintain a proper perspective on life.
c. the external opinions of a racially prejudiced onlooker
d. regionally specific social cues that alert them to what behavior is socially expected.
Ans: c. the external opinions of a racially prejudiced onlooker
Karl Marx argued that social institutions in a society were the result of the economic makeup of that society. Max Weber argued that _____.
a. there are no social institutions in a society.
b. ideas influence society, not just economics.
c. Marx was correct except for his ideas about religion.
d. the epistemological stage of that society influenced the social institutions.
Ans: b. ideas influence society, not just economics.
Karl Marx’s theory of historical materialism puts forth the argument that social change occurs as a result of
______.
a. consensus among social members.
b. developing and spreading new ideas.
c. conflicts between classes.
d.shifts in the balance of power between men and women
ans: c. conflicts between classes.
Postmodern sociologists argue that all so-called objective phenomena are open to debate because all meaning is subjective. Thus, to postmodernists, all “facts” are really ____.
a. lies.
b. myths.
c. propaganda
d.social constructions.
Ans: d.social constructions.
Zeke argues that the immense difference in pay between different types of occupations is due to some groups in society exploiting and dominating others. Kris disagrees with Zeke. Kris thinks the most important occupations offer higher pay to attract the best workers—this ensures that society runs smoothly. Kris’s argument focuses on ____.
a. the inherent labor market conflict about which Marx wrote.
b. the functional role of social and economic inequality.
c. the construction of meaning through social interactions.
d. Weber’s concept of the Protestant ethic.
Ans: b. the functional role of social and economic inequality.
What is anomie as defined by Émile Durkheim?
a. behavioral scripts, which minorities use to navigate through the social world
b. a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer expect life to be predictable
c. a system of stratification based on social prestige
d.modes of behavior and understanding that are not universal or natural
Ans: b. a sense of aimlessness or despair that arises when we can no longer expect life to be predictable