Deck 10: Social Class in the United States

Question 1

Since 1970, the richest 20 percent of U.S. families has grown richer, and the poorest 20 percent of U.S. families has grown poorer.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Status inconsistent women are twice as likely to have heart attacks as status consistent women, while inconsistent men do not have more heart attacks.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Because members of the capitalist class have the greatest opportunities for travel and to meet people from various walks of life, their children have a wide field of "eligibles" from which to choose a husband or wife.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Based on the model of Gilbert and Kahl, the upper middle class is the class most shaped by education.

Question 5

There is a direct relationship between the amount of education an occupation requires and the prestige it holds in society.

Question 6

Of the six social classes in America, the lower middle class has the highest percentage of members.

Question 7

Lower class parents encourage their children to be creative as they grow up, while middle class parents focus on having their children defer to authority.

Question 8

Because of contradicting class locations, Erik Wright modified Marx's simpler two-class model.

Question 9

Individuals with status inconsistency tend to be more politically radical and vote left of center.

Question 10

One of the main driving factors in immigration is The American Dream that children can pass their parent on the social class ladder.

Question 11

Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and others who have made fortunes in business, the stock market, entertainment, and sports in the 20th century are classified as being "blue bloods."

Question 12

Because of the objectivity and accuracy of the poverty line concept, most sociologists agree that the concept of poverty is accurately portrayed in America.

Question 13

Defining social class in America is an objective science because there are clear-cut, agreed-upon definitions of each class.

Question 14

People in the capitalist class are more likely to experience mental health problems because of the excessive stress associated with managing high-powered jobs.

Question 15

In exchange mobility, about the same number of people move up and down the social class ladder which results in the overall social class system showing little change.

Question 16

Few of the U.S. presidents have come from a class of Americans who qualify as being members of the power elite.

Question 17

Conflict theorists would consider voting as being more of a ritualistic process than a demonstration of people exercising power in a democracy.

Question 18

Status inconsistency is common for winners of multimillion-dollar lotteries, especially when the status of their new wealth exceeds the status of their education and occupation.

Question 19

Wealth and income are interchangeable terms, each meaning the same in reference to social class.

Question 20

Most of the poor live in urban areas of the cities.

Question 21

The belief by many Americans that they actually contribute to major governmental decisions through the power of their vote is referred to by Hellinger and Judd as ________.

A) false consciousness
B) the power of persuasion
C) constitutional mandate
D) the democratic facade

Question 22

What is the background profile of most United States presidents?

A) upper-class white men from traditional working families
B) millionaire white men from families with old money
C) individuals from a diverse pool of Americans who love their country
D) politicians from new money families with upper-class backgrounds

Question 23

Janelle is a professor in the Department of Business at a state university. She is a full professor in her department and earns $135,000 a year. According to Lenski's status inconsistency hypothesis, what is Janelle's most likely political philosophy?

A) conservative
B) liberal
C) very radical
D) inconsistent

Question 24

The occupation with the highest prestige in the United States is a ________.

A) college professor
B) physician
C) lawyer
D) professional athlete

Question 25

Based on the average of 60 nations, what three occupations enjoy the highest prestige ratings?

A) college professor, physician, lawyer
B) airline pilot, architect, clergy
C) college professor, high school teacher, lawyer
D) college president, Supreme Court judge, astronaut

Question 26

When individuals experience status inconsistency, what is their likely choice of behavior?

A) They will claim the higher status.
B) They will claim the lower status.
C) They will ignore both statuses.
D) They will pick the status that best fits the situation.

Question 27

Erik Wright revised Marx's concept of social classes by regarding some people as simultaneously occupying more than one class. He termed their positions in the class structure ________.

A) status inconsistency
B) contradictory class locations
C) class inconsistency
D) class ambiguity

Question 28

Who was the sociologist who expanded upon the concept of the power elite to note that no major decision of the United States government was made without its approval?

A) William Domhoff
B) Michael Burawoy
C) Lewis Coser Jr.
D) Robert Merton

Question 29

Which sociologist coined the term "the power elite"?

A) C. Wright Mills
B) Emile Durkheim
C) Talcott Parsons
D) Herbert Spencer

Question 30

Which statement regarding the nation's income is most accurate?

A) Income earnings are just about evenly divided among all Americans.
B) The top two-thirds of Americans earn about two-thirds of the income.
C) The top 20 percent of Americans earn nearly half the income.
D) The bottom 20 percent of Americans earn about 15 percent of the income.

Question 31

What is the typical annual family income in the United States?

A) $35,000
B) $39,000
C) $48,000
D) $60,000

Question 32

Which of the following statements is most accurate with respect to determining social prestige in modern society?

A) Social prestige is based primarily on the wealth one accumulates.
B) One's occupational title is the greatest influence in determining social prestige.
C) Together wealth and power are the determining factors of social prestige.
D) Family lineage is the primary determinant of social prestige.

Question 33

As a full professor of sociology, Jackie ranks high in prestige, but relatively low in income. What can one expect of her political views?

A) She will be ultra conservative.
B) She will probably become a socialist worker.
C) She will be more politically radical.
D) She will be apathetic towards politics.

Question 34

What are the three variables Max Weber identified as defining social class?

A) ethnicity, race, sex
B) wealth, power, prestige
C) sex, power, education
D) occupation, neighborhood, wealth

Question 35

Based on the Marxist orientation of conflict sociologists, how many distinct social classes exist?

A) none, as society is classless
B) two
C) four
D) six

Question 36

Phil, a janitor for an expensive apartment-house complex in Chicago, is a union janitor who makes quite a bit more money than many of the tenants in the building he maintains. Lenski would note that Phil's high income but low occupational prestige demonstrates a condition of ________.

A) status insecurity
B) status contradiction
C) status inconsistency
D) status incompatibility

Question 37

What is the average per capita annual income in the United States, which includes all Americans, and even children?

A) $18,000
B) $27,500
C) $42,000
D) $50,500

Question 38

What does status inconsistency refer to in relation to social stratification?

A) Individuals exhibit insecurity and inferiority when they are ranked low in prestige.
B) Individuals fail to recognize the contradictions of class inequality and democratic values.
C) Individuals are ranked high on one dimension of social class and low on other dimensions.
D) Ranking in power, wealth, and prestige must be consistent for an individual to avoid negative consequences.

Question 39

When used by sociologists, the term "wealth" refers to ________.

A) the property that a person owns
B) the income made from a person's occupation
C) the property owned and the income acquired minus debts made by the person
D) the income after state and federal taxes have been withheld

Question 40

What is Durkheim's term for a condition in which people become detached from the norms that guide their behavior?

A) compurgation
B) primogeniture
C) negative affective state
D) anomie

Question 41

Ruth owns the Head 2 Toe Boutique where she employs 15 workers. According to Erik Wright's model of social class, Ruth would be classified as a(n) ________.

A) petty bourgeoisie
B) capitalist
C) manager
D) entrepreneur

Question 42

The trend in the United States in which most poor families are headed by women is called ________.

A) the male supremacy
B) the economic genderization
C) the feminization of poverty
D) the culture of poverty

Question 43

Which of the following family names is a member of the "nouveau riche"?

A) the DuPont family, who arrived in America in the 18th century
B) the Rockefeller family, who became the oil barons of the 19th century
C) the Gates family, who founded Microsoft
D) the Carnegie family, who built America's steel empire

Question 44

What did Higginbotham and Weber discover about women from working-class backgrounds who now occupied professional, managerial, and administrative positions in Memphis?

A) They were encouraged by their parents to get an education.
B) They were in the top five percent of their graduating class.
C) They were the eldest child in the family.
D) They married into social classes higher than their own.

Question 45

What is the strongest variable in developing correlations to which social groups are in poverty?

A) geographic location
B) race/ethnicity
C) sex
D) education

Question 46

Numerically, what is the race of the majority of the poor in the United States?

A) white
B) African American
C) Latino
D) Native American

Question 47

What did the research by Kohn suggest as being the primary influence upon parents that emphasized how they reared their children?

A) the net worth of the family
B) the race or ethnicity of the family
C) the location in which the family lived
D) the parents' occupations

Question 48

What is the relationship between one's social class and one's chances of being a victim of crime?

A) positive
B) direct
C) inverse
D) null

Question 49

To determine the poverty line, the U.S. government calculates a low-cost food budget for a family of a specific size, then subjects that number to which modification?

A) It divides the food budget by five.
B) It multiples the food budget by five.
C) It divides the food budget by three.
D) It multiplies the food budget by three.

Question 50

If 100 working-class people move upward on the class ladder and, at the same time, 100 middle-class people move downward, sociologists would consider this an example of ________ mobility.

A) structural
B) intergenerational
C) upward
D) exchange

Question 51

Which of the following individuals would have the narrowest field of "eligible" marriage partners based on background expectations?

A) Ruth, a member of the working poor living in Harlem
B) Herbert, a blue-collar machinist living in the city
C) Noelle, the daughter of two high school teachers living in suburbia
D) Christian, the son of a CEO of a major corporation

Question 52

Ken belongs to a church in which the worship services are highly expressive with spontaneous "Amens" and "Praise Jesus" outbursts accompanied by loud, inspirational organ music. Ken is most likely a member of the ________ class.

A) capitalist
B) upper-middle
C) middle
D) lower

Question 53

Politically, the class of people who are more likely to feel that the government should intervene in the economy to make citizens financially secure are the ________.

A) working class
B) working poor
C) lower-middle class
D) underclass

Question 54

What are the four variables Gilbert and Kahl used to develop a six-class model to reflect the class structure of the United States and other capitalist countries?

A) family heritage, occupation, wealth, sex
B) race, ethnicity, occupation, sex
C) geographic residence, occupation, wealth, race
D) education, power, property, prestige

Question 55

What political party are members of the upper class more likely to belong?

A) Republican
B) Democrat
C) Green
D) Libertarian

Question 56

The class recognized by Kahl and Gilbert as being the upper middle-class in America comprises approximately ________ percent of the U.S. population.

A) 8
B) 15
C) 25
D) 33

Question 57

What region of the United States has the highest clustering of people in poverty?

A) the North
B) the South
C) the Midwest
D) the West

Question 58

What group of Americans does the author characterize as being the "fallout" of the postindustrial economy?

A) the nouveau riche
B) the homeless
C) the new millionaires
D) the rising middle class

Question 59

Changes in society that cause large numbers of people to move up or down the class ladder, which causes one class to increase while others decrease, is called ________ mobility.

A) exchange
B) automatic
C) structural
D) intragenerational

Question 60

What is the upward or downward movement in social class by family members from one generation to the next?

A) intergenerational mobility
B) intragenerational mobility
C) structural mobility
D) exchange mobility

Question 61

What are the social classes proposed by Joseph Kahl and Dennis Gilbert in their six-class model that revised Weber's original model?

Question 62

What is the democratic facade?

Question 63

The median annual compensation package for CEOs is $10,100,000. What does this mean in relation to all CEO compensation packages?

Question 64

What is the formula to determine one's wealth?

Question 65

Which general explanation of poverty focuses on the discrimination and changes in the job market?

A) social structure explanations
B) social interaction explanations
C) political systems explanations
D) social process explanations

Question 66

What are the three components Weber identified as being the key elements of determining one's social class?

Question 67

By definition and example, who are the nouveau riche?

Question 68

What were the four social classes identified by Erik Wright?

Question 69

In Marx's model of social class, what were the major classes?

Question 70

Jeanann and her two children recently went on welfare. Research indicates that it is likely that Jeanann and her children will be in poverty ________.

A) for at least five or six years
B) until both children are 18 years of age
C) for a year or less
D) between eight and ten years

Question 71

What is the relationship between social class and the likelihood of embracing deferred gratification?

A) There is no consistent relationship between social class and deferred gratification.
B) The lower one's social class, the more likely they will embrace deferred gratification.
C) The working class and working poor are the most likely to embrace deferred gratification.
D) The higher one's social class, the more likely they will embrace deferred gratification.

Question 72

There were much-publicized myths of the late 1800s that centered around the rags-to-riches exploits of fictional boy heroes. These myths were perpetuated by their author, ________.

A) Horatio Alger
B) Mark Twain
C) Samuel Clemens
D) George Orwell

Question 73

Why does sudden wealth, such as that experienced by winning a multimillion-dollar lottery jackpot, create anomie?

Question 74

Name at least three of the top five occupations in the United States based on occupational prestige.

Question 75

What is the relationship between births to single women and their level of education?

A) the greater the level of education, the more births to single women
B) the lower the level of education, the fewer births to single women
C) the greater the level of education, the fewer births to single women
D) there is no relationship between the level of education and births to single women

Question 76

________ are the most likely segment of the population in the United States to experience poverty today.

A) Children
B) The elderly
C) Middle-aged adults
D) Young, single males

Question 77

Jacob is single, 40 years old and living in government-subsidized housing. He does not want to pursue regular employment because he feels there are other members of society who need the work more than he does. Jacob's situation is an example of which of the following explanations of why people are poor?

A) the altruistic provision
B) the characteristics of individuals
C) the structure of society
D) a shortage of high paying jobs

Question 78

What are the four features that jobs with a high prestige all share?

Question 79

John worked at a steel mill for 25 years. A recessionary economy and competition with foreign steelmakers forced the closing of the mill. At the age of 45, John is unable to find work in his town, lives in poverty, and must go on welfare. What is the most likely cause of John's poverty?

A) It is due to his unwillingness to work.
B) He is not intelligent enough to get a better job.
C) Changes in the social structure are the most likely cause.
D) Changes in John's value system are the most likely cause.

Question 80

Why do members of the capitalist class have a narrower field of "eligibles" as marriage partners than any other social class?