Socialogy Test 1 Chapter 1, 2, 3
About this set
Created by:
shohreh_shokouhfar on September 9, 2012
Subjects:
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.
Order by
206 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
| Karl Marx was influenced by the philosopher Georg Hegel but argued that, in some fundamental ways, Hegel's theories were mistaken about how the world worked. Marx said that he needed to "stand Hegel on his head" because Marx believed that "it is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness." For many who came afterward, Marx's argument represented a: |  paradigm shift |
| Imagine that you're trying to rewrite a survey. You find a multiple-choice question that asks "What is your favorite recreational activity?" and gives three response options: watching television, shopping, or sports. You add a fourth response option, "other," and invite respondents to write an activity of their choice. What kind of question have you just made? | open-ended |
| What does it mean if ethnographers are overt about their roles? | They openly admit that they are doing sociological research. |
| What are the goals of ethnography? | to describe activities sociologists observe and to understand what those activities mean to the people involved |
| Ethnographers using participant observation must always be aware of reflexivity, which occurs because: | the presence of ethnographers may alter the behavior of the people they are observing |
| Sociologists who administer interviews can only gather data from a limited number of people because: | interviews are too time consuming |
| Researchers should try to avoid double-barreled questions, or questions that: | ask about multiple issues |
| In her ethnography, Wheeling & Dealing, Patricia Adler investigates the social and professional worlds of midlevel cocaine and marijuana smugglers. Her research started serendipitously when she discovered that her next-door neighbor and friend was a drug smuggler; this was a huge advantage for her because it meant that she already had ____________ with one of her informants. | rapport |
| Researchers are often worried that interviewees have not been completely honest or forthcoming, especially when asked about sensitive subjects. How did Arlie Hochschild attempt to deal with this problem? | She observed some respondents as they went about their daily routines to see if their actions matched their answers. |
| A sociologist uses a survey to study the attitudes of adults in the United States concerning premarital sex among teenagers. In this study, the target population consists of ____________, and the group who is asked the survey questions is called the ____________. | all adults in the United States; sample |
| What can an institutional review board do if it has reservations about the safety or ethics of a research project? | It may stop the project from going forward, at least until changes have been made. |
| A study showed a fairly high correlation between not smoking and having a high college grade point average. Although some people used this study as evidence that smoking is bad, if you accept that smoking doesn't cause someone to lose brain cells or study less, you would probably conclude that the study: | employed a spurious correlation |
| Which of the following is NOT an advantage of using interviews as a research method? | They allow researchers to analyze data statistically and draw correlations. |
| If a researcher uses a social networking site like Facebook to obtain data, they are: | using existing sources |
| The sociologist Mitch Duneier wrote his ethnography, Sidewalk, about street vendors in New York City's Greenwich Village. While writing the book, Duneier was particularly concerned that the people he was studying would alter their behavior when he was present, especially since his background was very different from theirs. What do sociologists call this problem? | reflexivity |
| Which of the following is a disadvantage of using ethnography as a method of social research? | It is very difficult for another researcher to repeat or replicate any particular ethnography. |
| Which of the following research techniques focuses on gaining an insider's perspective of the everyday lives of subjects under investigation, often dispelling stereotypes about the group being investigated? | participant observation |
| The Yale sociologist Kai Erikson wrote a book called Wayward Puritans, in which he drew on court records from colonial Massachusetts to understand deviance in the past. He learned that the rate of out-of-wedlock births was much higher than it is now and that the amount of alcohol consumed per capita was higher as well. What research methodology was Erikson using? | comparative-historical |
| When high schools want to ask students about sensitive subjects like drug use or sexual health, they often use surveys, rather than a more direct form of communication like interviews. Why? | Surveys allow students to answer the questions in private and assure the confidentiality of their responses. |
| When the federal government researches the risks of driving while talking on a cell phone, its main goal is to convince people to stop talking on the phone when they're behind the wheel. As such, the government wants to express its results in terms that are simple and easily communicated. Given this, what sort of research should it do? | quantitative research |
| Which of the following statements best describes the approach taken by macrosociologists? | Macrosociology directly examines large-scale social structures in order to see how they affect individual lives. |
| What distinguishes Kiva, the microlending organization founded by Matthew and Jessica Flannery, from the many other institutions and charities designed to allow Americans to help people in the developing world? | Kiva is a person-to-person microlending website, allowing donors to select a particular project to invest in and to follow its progress online. |
| Karl Marx said that "Men make their own history" but only "under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past." How is this similar to the definition of sociology given by Howard Becker? | Both emphasize that neither society nor the individual exists in isolation, but that each is dependent on the other. |
| Christine Williams looked at patterns of occupational sex segregation, examining the ways that large-scale social structures created the constraints within which individuals lived their lives. Based on this information, her work would be characterized as what kind of sociology? | macrosociology |
| The divorce rate has steadily increased over time, and now more than a quarter of all marriages end within the first four years. What sort of factors would C. Wright Mills suggest investigating to explain this increase? | structural issues |
| In recent years there have been many websites, and several books, devoted to e-mail etiquette. Older style manuals, written before e-mail, tend to discourage the overuse of exclamation marks. New guides, written with e-mail in mind, encourage their use. Why might a sociologist be interested in studying this? | Changes in etiquette can be linked to larger changes in society. |
| Macrosociology and microsociology seem to make very different assumptions about how society works. How does sociology, as a discipline, deal with these two very different perspectives? | Most sociologists think of these two perspectives as being on a continuum with each other, adopting whatever perspective seems most useful for a particular problem. |
| Most of the time people use psychological rather than sociological arguments to explain why the world is the way it is and why things happen to us. Why? | We have insufficiently developed our sociological imagination. |
| In Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, Pierre Bourdieu explored the ways in which individual tastes or aesthetic preferences are determined by class status. Given this fact alone, in which step of the macro-micro continuum (figure 1.3) would you put Bourdieu? | social institutions |
| If a sociologist wanted to study the social meaning of pizza, he would be hampered by a lifetime of preconceptions and assumptions about pizza. It would be hard for him to think about it objectively because it is so familiar. Which concept describes a process that might help? | culture shock |
| Which of the following is a weakness of the sociological approach to everyday life? | It labors to grasp things that everyday actors understand implicitly. |
| Figure 1.1 shows the close relationship between sociology and the other social sciences. Given how much overlap there is, why does sociology still exist as a discipline? | Despite significant overlap, there is still a good deal of unique territory that only sociologists study. |
| For many years, poor people, especially in the developing world, had a very hard time getting credit. Large-scale social structures and economic institutions were unwilling or unable to loan money on a small scale, which greatly impoverished the lives of those without access to credit. Kiva was founded to help solve this problem, by connecting individuals who wanted to loan small amounts of money to those who needed to borrow small amounts. What basic sociological principle can be deduced from the founding of Kiva? | While social structures influence individual lives, there are many ways in which our individual actions can change the world. |
| In Sidewalk, the sociologist Mitch Duneier spent a great deal of time interviewing and hanging out with street vendors in New York City. He was especially interested in how power associated with race and class was produced and reproduced in this setting. What sort of sociology was Duneier doing? | microsociology |
| According to queer theorists, how should we think about sexual identity? | Sexual identity is fluid and can change over an individual's lifetime. |
| Functionalist theory is very concerned with the ways that structures contribute to the stability of society. What is a structure? | a social institution that is stable over time and helps meet the needs of society |
| What did W. E. B. Du Bois have in common with Harriet Martineau? | Both were intrigued by America's democratic promise, but disappointed in its hypocritical injustices. |
| Emile Durkheim suggested that, in traditional societies, people were bound together through mechanical solidarity. What was the basis of these sorts of bonds? | shared traditions and similar experiences |
| How does Karl Marx differentiate between members of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie? | Members of the bourgeoisie own the means of production, while the proletariat possess only their own labor. |
| Which of the following is a major critique of conflict theory? | In focusing on conflict and change, it sometimes ignores the stable and enduring parts of society. |
| If you meet a sociologist whose work requires that she use a tape recorder to painstakingly transcribe all of her data, what is her theoretical perspective? | conversation analysis |
| Which of the following theories views society as a whole unit, made up of interrelated parts that work together? | structural functionalism |
| When revisionist historians argue that Abraham Lincoln was a closeted homosexual who managed to avoid homosexual activity by channeling all his sexual energy into political work, which Freudian concept is being used? | sublimation |
| According to Karl Marx, how could a belief in heaven as a reward for earthly suffering serve the interests of the ruling class? | by keeping the lower class from demanding better treatment in this life |
| Unlike earlier religious traditions, which attempted to determine the ultimate cause or source of reality, Auguste Comte developed positivism in order to: | identify laws that describe the behavior of a particular reality |
| The United States is still sexist in many ways, making men and women hesitant to engage in activities commonly associated with the "wrong" gender. According to Nancy Chodorow, what will have to happen to reduce the constraints of traditional sex roles? | Fathers will have to be as involved as mothers in all aspects of parenting. |
| What was Marx criticizing when he said that religion is "the opiate of the masses"? | the use of religion by the ruling class |
| Stricter control of the border between the United States and Mexico was implemented to curb illegal immigration, but it also made illegal immigrants more likely to stay in the United States for longer periods of time, as frequent border crossings became both dangerous and costly. The increase in the number of illegal immigrants who stayed permanently or semipermanently is: | a latent function of increased security |
| The Egg McMuffin is a vastly more efficient version of eggs benedict. Egg McMuffins are cheaper, are ready almost instantly at drive-through windows, and can be eaten with one hand while driving. Egg McMuffins, however, do not improve the taste or the experience of eggs benedict. Max Weber might have described the Egg McMuffin as the ____________ of breakfast. | rationalization |
| How did Sigmund Freud explain people's discontent? | People are not allowed to satisfy their deepest desires and are forced to trade them for a safer, if more constructive, existence. |
| Pragmatism, associated with William James, evaluated the truth of an idea by: | considering its truthfulness in everyday life |
| When Max Weber declared that most often "men's commercial and social interests do determine their opinions and attitudes," what element of conformity was he indicating that he agreed with? | a materialist view of society |
| Classical sociological theory, although it was often interested in issues of class and religion, had very little to say about race. This might lead some to see sociology as: | eurocentric |
| Although functionalism is less popular today, what accounts for the strong appeal that it had for early sociologists? | Functionalism helps to bring order to a rapidly changing and messy social world. |
| Although it is more often associated with sociology, what historical change did Sigmund Freud believe had a significant effect on individuals? | the Industrial Revolution |
| Who coined the phrase "the survival of the fittest"? | Herbert Spencer |
| Max Weber believed that, as the Industrial Revolution progressed, society became increasingly rationalized. How did he define rationalization? | the application of economic logic to all aspects of social life |
| Which if the following is a latent function of the educational system in the United States? | keeping children out of trouble while parents are at work |
| The term used to describe sociological research intended to solve social problems like that done by Jane Addams, is: | applied sociology |
| In his Theses On Feuerbach, Marx argued that "the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it." What is defined by this quote? | praxis |
| Which theoretical perspective shows how large-scale social structures are produced by individuals at the micro level? | symbolic interactionism |
| Which of the following is an advantage of replicability in experiments? | Experiments can be performed again and again over time in order to measure change. |
| Ethnographers sometimes write down key words or quotations while they're interacting with people. Given that they will write much more detailed fieldnotes later, what is the advantage of these brief, sketchy notes? | They are an aid to memory when writing more detailed fieldnotes. |
| If a sociologist watches a lot of television and counts the number of times women play roles with lower status than men, what research method is he using? | content analysis |
| Any time a social researcher is going to use sampling, they must first identify their target population, which is: | the larger group of people that they wish to generalize about |
| You're conducting research on violence in the media. If you're trying to decide whether "violence" includes words as well as actions, in what part of the research process are you engaged? | defining the variables |
| When Elton Mayo did his now-classic experiment on worker productivity, he found that he could increase productivity by changing variables in a work environment, but also that changing variables back increased productivity. What did he conclude was the true cause of the increase in productivity? | the effect of being studied |
| According to researchers who study online social networks, how are online networks different from social networks established through traditional, real-life, face-to-face contact? | Online networks aren't different. |
| One study found a strong correlation between parental bonding and adolescent drug use. Children with stronger bonds to their parents were far less likely to try drugs or alcohol. However when the researchers examined their data more closely, they discovered that parental bonding was really a predictor for teen religiosity, and that high levels of religiosity prevent drug use. This means that religiosity was: | the intervening variable |
| In 2005 a commercial research firm carried out a study of hand washing in public restrooms. The researchers observed 6,336 individuals wash their hands, or not, in the public restrooms of major attractions in Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco. Ninety percent of the women observed washed their hands, compared with only 75 percent of the men. Interestingly enough, when asked via a telephone survey 97 percent of women and 96 percent of men claimed they always washed their hands after using a public restroom. What disadvantage of survey research does this illustrate? | Not all respondents provide honest self-reports, so survey research has comparatively less validity. |
| A simple random sample is defined as: | a sample in which every member of the population has a chance of being included |
| Which research method most closely resembles the scientific method? | experimental research |
| A recent sociological experiment sought to determine the exact role that social support plays in the health of expectant mothers. To conduct the experiment, the researchers asked midwives to flip a coin each time they received a new client, and if it came up heads to try as hard as possible to put the client in contact with others who could provide social support. If the coin came up tails, the midwives would not discourage the woman from receiving social support, but would not facilitate it. What is the dependent variable in this experiment? | health |
| What do you call broad theoretical models of the social or natural world? | paradigms |
| If you observe a group in order to determine its norms, values, rules, and meanings, then what kind of research are you doing? | qualitative research |
| In recent years, sociologists who study deviance have learned that they can measure the quantities of narcotics consumed by a community by testing its sewage before treatment. What part of the research process would the sociologists be carrying out when they visit the sewage treatment plant? | collecting data |
| When survey researchers write closed-ended questions, they often use Likert scales to construct the possible answers. How do Likert scales allow respondents to answer? | They allow respondents to answer along a continuum, from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." |
| When do sociologists most often use statistical tools to analyze their data? | when they use experiments and surveys |
| Why are respondents often more comfortable addressing sensitive subjects on surveys than in other research contexts? | They can answer in private. |
| If you were to conduct a research project investigating the relationship between the brands and shapes of gummy candy available in American convenience stores, what methodology would you use? | content analysis |
| Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, a French lawyer, gourmet, and food writer, famously said, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." This is literally true of course; the human body is built out of the raw materials we take in from food. But Savarin was making a much more sociological point as well, arguing that, although our food preferences seem idiosyncratic and personal, all food has a socially constructed meaning that is not personal. Which basic principle helps explain why Savarin says that we are what we eat? | the sociological imagination, which says that even the most personal of things need to be understood in a larger social context |
| One of the key challenges sociologists face is studying something they are intimately familiar with. Like fish in water, sociologists often find it hard to see what is right in front of their faces. To overcome this, you might try: | doing nothing |
| How are new forms of technology blurring the lines between mass media and personal communication? | Many new forms of media are interactive, like the Internet. |
| How is the Grameen Bank, founded by Muhammad Yunus in 1983, different from traditional banks? | It's designed specifically to lend money to the poor. |
| Bernard McGrane suggests we should practice using a beginner's mind, the opposite of an expert's mind. Usually it's good to be an expert. Why should we try to think like beginners instead? | An expert's mind is so full of facts and assumptions that it has difficulty learning anything new. |
| In order to find links between the macro and the micro levels of analysis, a sociologist is most in need of: | a sociological imagination |
| Why can doing sociology be described as a radical undertaking? | Sociology requires people to suspend their preconceptions, assumptions, and beliefs about the world. |
| According to Peter Berger, in Invitation to Sociology, what sort of people should NOT study sociology? | people who dislike shocking discoveries |
| Sociologists who do qualitative work are different from quantitative sociologists because: | rather than reducing the details of the cases they study to numbers, they preserve and interpret details to determine their meaning |
| Sociology can be defined as the systematic and scientific study of human society and social behavior. Given this definition, what level of social structure might sociologists examine? | almost any level—from interactions between two people to large-scale institutions |
| What is the particular advantage of a quantitative approach? | It reduces large amounts of information into numbers that are much more easily communicated to others. |
| There are online groups organized around activities like making wine or beer at home, but there are also cyber communities organized around beverages that really don't take much work to make, like Kool-Aid. Why is this sociologically interesting? | It shows how communities can form through technology without being geographically connected. |
| The social sciences are all those disciplines that study: | the human, or social, world |
| Most people are interested in the lives of others, but usually we express this only through daytime talk shows and tabloid media. Although this sort of interest is completely understandable, sociologists would say that it is sensationalistic and very selective. How does a sociological perspective help to solve this problem? | It allows us to see connections between individual experience and larger social patterns. |
| Sociology can be approached from either a microsociological or a macrosociological perspective. Which is more useful? | Both are useful in different ways, because they each provide different types of information about the same object of study. |
| Metaphorically, what part of sociology would a zoom lens on a camera be most like? | microsociology |
| In order to verify what the everyday actor might just accept or assume to be true, the social analyst must take which perspective? | the stranger |
| Most sociologists specialize in one particular method of study. The first distinction is usually made between qualitative and quantitative methodologies. What do quantitative sociologists do differently from qualitative sociologists? | Quantitative sociologists translate their data into numbers so that it can be analyzed mathematically or statistically. |
| Although everyday cultural practices, such as greeting a friend, giving flowers, or using the thumbs-up sign, seem like natural ways of acting, an awareness of how they vary across cultures demonstrates a healthy sociological imagination because: | it reminds us that everyday interactions are connected to larger social structures |
| Some sociologists include lengthy direct quotes from their research subjects. They often do this in order to better present the complex detail and nuance of the social worlds they have studied. If you know that a research project uses such quotes, what sort of research can you be sure is being done? | qualitative |
| The microlending organization Kiva, a striking success since it was founded in 2005, has helped to create large-scale social change. What feature of contemporary society has helped make Kiva's unique approach possible and encouraged its success? | the internet, which has allowed Kiva to organize its microlending like a social networking website or a cyber community |
| The Swiss sociologist Norbert Elias studied everyday life from a historical perspective, noting how etiquette and manners had changed over time. Why do sociologists care about something as minor as table manners in the distant past? | By linking changes in everyday life with changes in larger social structures, we can understand better how our own lives are influenced by larger social processes. |
| It is expected that you will forget many or even most of the facts that you learn in an introductory sociology class. What is the most important element of the course to not forget? | a new way of looking at and thinking about the social world |
| Charles Horton Cooley famously said "each to each a looking-glass reflects the other that doth pass." What about this quote exemplifies symbolic interactionist theory? | It focuses on individual, face-to-face interaction. |
| If the only thing that you remember about Max Weber is that he described modern people as being trapped in an "iron cage," which of the following quotes from the social theorist Marshall Berman would you think describes his work? | "Modern man as a subject—capable of response, judgement, and action in and on the world—has disappeared." |
| Although she made contributions to sociology, Jane Addams is perhaps best remembered for her embrace of praxis, meaning that she: | acted on her intellectual convictions in practical ways |
| Durkheim theorized that the rapidly changing conditions of modern life lead to anomie. What is anomie? | normlessness, or a loss of social connections |
| According to Karl Marx, what is the most important factor in a person's social life? | relationship to the means of production |
| Soon after college, Michael Jordan was made enormously wealthy by Nike and the Chicago Bulls. He has since purchased his own NBA team. Michael Jordan controls what Karl Marx called: | the means of production |
| Which of the following has NOT been offered as a critique of symbolic interactionism? | It has trouble understanding the meaning that individuals give to their actions. |
| In Emile Durkheim's work Suicide, he reported that suicide rates went up when the economy slumped, but also spiked when the economy boomed. Which of Durkheim's concepts from Chapter 2 explain why both positive and negative economic conditions could increase suicide rates? | anomie |
| One of Karl Marx's most important achievements was developing a theory of praxis. What does this mean that he thought intellectuals should do? | not just theorize about the world, but change it |
| According to Emile Durkheim, industrialized societies display organic solidarity. What is the basis for organic solidarity? | interdependence and individual rights |
| Which school of social theory argues that everything is relative, fragmented, temporary, contingent, and ephemeral? | postmodernism |
| If someone has no way to make money but to sell their own labor, then they must be a member of what social group? | the proletariat |
| Harriet Martineau supported many ideas that were radical for her time, including: | labor unions and the abolition of slavery |
| Every four years, when it's time to elect a new president, we pay much attention to surveys, though we usually call them "polls." Even though there are more than 300 million people in the United States, most political pollsters ask about 1,000 people who they plan to vote for and use that information to predict how the election will turn out. Who is the sample for a presidential poll? | the 1,000 people who are asked who they will vote for |
| Arlie Hochschild was concerned that her sample of interviewees was too small to guarantee representativeness. How did Hochschild attempt to overcome this problem? | by comparing demographic information about her interviewees with information about her target population |
| What is the scientific method? | the standard procedure for acquiring and verifying empirical knowledge |
| Which of the following is NOT an advantage of using ethnography to study social life? | Ethnography allows the researcher to gather data on large populations. |
| What kind of question usually produces a wide variety of responses by allowing respondents to answer in whatever way seems appropriate to them? | an open-ended question |
| If the federal government conducts research on the value of checking batteries in home smoke detectors, what method will produce data that is most easy to transmit to many people? | quantitative |
| When conducting experiments, how is the experimental group different from the control group? | The experimental group receives the independent variable, and the control group does not. |
| In 1936 The Literary Digest conducted a survey to predict the winner of the presidential election. It sent ten million surveys to a variety of households identified through phone books, automobile registries, and magazine subscriptions. Two million people returned the surveys and showed a very strong preference for Alf Landon over Franklin Roosevelt. What was the response rate? | 20 percent |
| If a piece of sociological research is representative, it means that: | the smaller group of people studied can tell us something about a larger group |
| Survey research tends to produce quantitative data. One key advantage of this kind of data is that: | it is easy to transmit to the public |
| When writing a survey, researchers must avoid negative questions, which are defined as: | questions that ask a respondent about what they don't think, rather than what they do think |
| Why is the use of existing data, especially in comparative and historical research, especially helpful to students? | It requires fewer resources than collecting original data. |
| If a researcher allows his own values and opinions to affect his analysis, he is guilty of: | bias |
| A graduate student is almost done with his dissertation when he is informed that twenty years ago someone did a very similar project and already demonstrated what he had hoped to be the first to discover. What basic step of the scientific method could have saved him from this problem? | reviewing the literature |
| If you think of the producers of a reality television show as sociologists, how would you describe their research methods? | qualitative |
| Many Marxist sociologists assume that large-scale economic structures are the most important factors in people's lives. Given this, what sort of sociology would these sociologists tend to prefer? | macrosociology |
| You are looking over the courses being offered at your school and you see a class called "The Sociology of Media and Popular Culture." You don't think you need this course because you listen to lots of music, watch a wide variety of television, and often go to the movies. A sociologist would tell you that: | you only have reciped knowledge |
| Which of the following is a reason that studies of American cities may serve as a model for the study of almost every conceivable realm of social life? | In even the smallest towns, diverse cultural influences are coming together. |
| Galileo was responsible for one of the most extreme paradigm shifts in history, when his empirical observations of the sky led him to conclude that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than vice versa. Galileo did not simply use a new technology, the telescope, to see new things; he saw them differently than anyone else. Which concept describes this process of "seeing differently"? | beginner's mind |
| Why would culture shock be a useful state of mind for a sociologist? | It makes us realize we lack an understanding of our surroundings, so we are able to truly perceive what is right in front of us. |
| Pam Fishman studied conversations between heterosexual couples to determine how power is created and maintained through face-to-face interactions on an everyday basis. Given this information, how would you describe her approach? | microsociological |
| In the past, it was assumed that people could share a sense of togetherness only when they shared a common geography. Why do we have to reconsider this assumption today? | New media and computer networks can let us stay in constant and instantaneous contact with people regardless of their physical location. |
| Why are there disagreements within sociology about how to define the discipline? | Sociology encompasses a wide range of potential subject matters. |
| Some Marxists believe that conflict between medieval burghers and small merchants on the one hand, and the nobility on the other led to the creation of modern capitalism, which was distinct from either of the opposing forces. What would Marx call this model of historical change? | the dialectical model |
| What economic system emerged during the Industrial Revolution? | capitalism |
| Which two primary forces, according to Sigmund Freud, are essential to all human nature? | Eros and Thanatos |
| On any given day, within ten minutes of waking up, you probably depend on more than 100 strangers to provide electricity, water, natural gas, weather fore-casts, and more. This interdependence gives rise to: | organic solidarity |
| According to Chapter 2, what was probably Harriet Martineau's most important contribution to the development of sociology as a discipline? | her translation of the work of Auguste Comte into English |
| In 2008 Polish film maker Andrzej Wadja released his film Katyn, about the massacre of 20,000 Polish officers by the Soviet Union during World War II. When asked why he had made this movie, Wadja said he wanted to make a film for "those moviegoers for whom it matters that we are a society and not just an accidental crowd." Wadja believed that it was still possible for people to be bound together on the basis of shared traditions and experiences. In his statement, Wadja was expressing a hope that Poland could still be united by: | mechanical solidarity |
| What is the link between feminist theory and conflict theory? | Both seek not only to understand inequality, but also to remedy it |
| In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Emile Durkheim argues that, in the past, religion was a powerful source of social solidarity. Why? | Religion reinforced collective bonds and cultivated shared moral values. |
| Which of the following is NOT an early theory of the cause of mental illness? | problems of brain chemistry |
| Max Weber helped lay the groundwork for sociologists who would develop symbolic interactionism as a theory because he believed that a social scientist should approach the study of human action: | with verstehen (understanding), which emphasizes the need for empathy with actors' experiences |
| After researchers conduct a series of interviews, they usually transcribe the responses. The transcription process is fairly time consuming, but it is valuable in part because it allows researchers to: | look for patterns in their data |
| A research team is curious about the relationship between diet and exercise habits and academic performance among American college students. In order to get their data the researchers randomly select 17 colleges by pulling names out of a hat and travel to campuses, where they stand in prominent public places and ask for volunteers until they have 10 people from each campus willing to be interviewed. What is the researchers' target population? | American college students |
| A sociologist wants a major national organization to fund her study of medical marijuana clubs in San Francisco, but is turned down because the grant-makers don't see how her study would represent knowledge about anything more than the clubs that would be studied. What is the organization concerned about? | representativeness |
| Which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of using interviews to conduct social research? | Interviewees are allowed to speak in their own words. |
| A recent sociological experiment sought to determine the exact role that social support plays in the health of expectant mothers. To conduct the experiment, the researchers asked midwives to flip a coin each time they received a new client, and if it came up heads to try as hard as possible to put the client in contact with others who could provide social support. If the coin came up tails, the midwives would not discourage the woman from receiving social support, but would not facilitate it. Who is the control group in this experiment? | expectant mothers whose coin comes up tails |
| A social research methods class wants to study smoking. First the professor asks how many people in the class are smokers. Two people say yes. Then she asks how many people have smoked a cigarette in the last week, and ten people say yes. From this the class decides that, for the purposes of its survey, a smoker will be anyone who has had a cigarette in the last week and currently owns a pack of cigarettes. This is a(n): | operational definition |
| What is reactivity? | the tendency of research subjects to change their behavior in response to being studied |
| A group of people who share their lives in aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish them from other groups is a: | society |
| Sociology is defined as: | The study of human society and social behavior. |
| Which of the following is true about sociology? | Sociologists look at how society affects individuals, as well as how individuals influence society. |
| Which of the following is true according to Howard Becker's definition of sociology? | Our sense of self derives in part from our membership in society. |
| Which of the following is an example of a social science? | political science |
| Which of the following is true concerning the relationship between sociology and other social sciences? | Sociology and geography focus on the relationship of people to places, though geography is more concerned with the places themselves. |
| __________ is the level of analysis that studies face-to-face and small-group interactions in order to understand how those interactions affect the larger patterns and institutions of society. | microsociology |
| __________ is the level of analysis that studies large-scale social structures in order to determine how they affect the lives of groups and individuals. | Macrosociology |
| According to the research of Christine Williams, men in female-dominated positions tend to experience the __________ effect. | glass escalator |
| According to the research of Christine Williams, women in male-dominated positions tend to experience the __________ effect. | glass ceiling |
| The glass ceiling effect refers to the: | limits on the advancement of women in the workplace. |
| The glass escalator effect refers to the: | rapid rate of upward mobility for men in female-dominated workplaces. |
| Which of the following is true concerning microsociology and macrosociology? | The macro perspective assumes that society's larger structures shape individuals' interactions. |
| Qualitative research is: | research that works with nonnumerical data and often tries to understand how people make sense of their social world. |
| Quantitative research is: | research that translates the social world into numbers and often tries to find cause and effect relationships. |
| Participant observation is an example of: | qualitative research. |
| The U.S. Census would be considered an example of: | quantitative research. |
| A quality of the mind that allows us to understand the relationship between our particular situation in life and what is happening at a societal level is called: | sociological imagination. |
| Which of the following researchers is using a sociological imagination? | the researcher trying to understand why different religious groups have differing rates of suicide |
| A sense of disorientation that occurs when you enter a radically new social or cultural environment is called: | culture shock. |
| Approaching the world without any preconceptions in order to see things in a new way is called: | beginner's mind. |
| What factor primarily differentiates the everyday actor from the social analyst? | The social analyst would investigate everyday assumptions to gain a more complete understanding of them. |
| Why did Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont travel to the United States in 1831? | They wanted to learn about democracy in the United States so that French citizens could learn from America's strengths and weaknesses.. |
| Marshall McLuhan coined the term "global village" to describe how: | radio and television were creating new kinds of social bonds, bringing people together as if they all belonged to the same small tribe. |
| According to the textbook, the central feature of postmodern society may be | mass media and popular culture. |
| An abstract proposition that both explains the social world and makes predictions about future events is a: | Theory |
| Why do social theories change? | Because society changes over time. |
| Who first attempted to apply the scientific method to the study of society? | Auguste Comte |
| Who first applied a theory of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to societies? | Herbert Spencer |
| Which of the following is true about the work of Emile Durkheim? | Durkheim suggested that organic solidarity created the social bonds that held agrarian societies together. |
| According to Durkheim, people in a modern car factory, where each worker is responsible for building a different part of the car, would experience: | organic solidarity |
| According to Karl Marx, _______ is the source of all social change. | conflict |
| Anything that can be used to create more wealth, such as money and property, is referred to as: | The means of production |
| Karl Marx referred to the owners as the _______ and the workers as the _______. | bourgeoisie; proletariat |
| According to the text, Max Weber's most overriding concern was with the process of: | rationalization |
| Which of the following is true about the work of Sigmund Freud? | One of his greatest contributions to understanding human behavior was connecting the unconscious mind (psychology) to social behaviors. |
| Which of the following is a paradigm that begins with the assumption that society is a unified whole that functions because of the contributions of its separate structures? | Structural Functionalism |
| Which of the following is one of the types of functions that social structures might fulfill according to Talcott Parsons? | social activism |
| Keeping children busy for 8 hours a day and out of trouble would be an example of a __________ function of education. | Latent |
| Teaching students to read and write would be an example of a __________ function of education. | manifest |
| Which of the following is a paradigm that emphasizes a materialist view of society, a critical view of the status quo, and a dynamic model of historical change? | Conflict Theory |
| According to Marx, the recognition of social inequality on the part of the oppressed that would lead to revolutionary action is called: | Class consciousness |
| W. E. B. Du Bois and Jane Addams were pioneers of ________ sociology, which connected research to social activism and public policy. | applied |
| Which of the following is a paradigm that sees meaning as central to society and assumes that meanings are not inherent but are created? | Symbolic Interactionism |
| Much of Symbolic Interactionism is derived from the teachings of: | George Herbert Mead |
| A symbolic interactionist analysis of education might focus on: | The meanings that a teacher attaches to the various behaviors of students |
| The theoretical offshoot of Symbolic Interactionism that uses the metaphor of the theater to understand how individuals present themselves to others is called: | Dramaturgy |
| Which of the following is true about the origins of feminism? | Feminism began as a movement dedicated to securing the same rights for both women and men. |
| What theory proposes that categories of sexual identity are social constructs and that no sexual category is fundamentally either deviant or normal? | Queer Theory |
| According to Postmodern Theory, society is: | Diverse, pluralistic, and constantly in flux |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.