Deck 5: Social Interaction in Everyday Life

Question 1

Conservatives and liberals, men and women, and representatives from a diverse group of voters are all working hard to have Jonathan Pryce elected President of the United States in 2012. This pattern of social interaction, in which individuals, groups, and societies work together to achieve a shared goal, is called ________.

A) exchange
B) competition
C) cooperation
D) collusion

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What do sociologists call groups, such as family, education, religion, government, and the economy, that address fundamental social needs?

A) total institutions
B) agents of socialization
C) bureaucracies
D) social institutions

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Age, gender, race, ethnicity, and family background each comprise a socially defined position in the social structure called ________.

A) achieved status
B) role set
C) role strain
D) ascribed status

Answer 3

D

Question 4

According to functionalists, what is the basic necessity required for society to exist, which is defined as the patterned and recurrent relationships among group members?

A) social integration
B) structure
C) stratification
D) social solidarity

Question 5

Police officers are expected to be fair, courteous, knowledgeable of the law, and efficient. This set of expectations, rights, and duties attached to the status of police officers is called ________.

A) role
B) their profile
C) a stereotype
D) a network

Question 6

Why did Philip Zimbardo discontinue his classic experiment that involved students' playing the roles of prisoners and guards?

A) Students could not visualize themselves as "guards" or do the work expected of them.
B) The behavior of the "guards" became brutal and the "inmates" lost their self esteem.
C) The concept of the project was a major ethics violation.
D) The project was too conservative for the liberal political views of the campus where it took place.

Question 7

Jim and Mark have been neighbors for several years. When Jim asks Mark to help him with a household project, Mark always makes the time to lend a hand. He knows Jim will do the same for him when he has a similar chore. This basic form of social interaction, which is based on norms of reciprocity, is called ________.

A) exchange
B) profiteering
C) competition
D) impressionism

Question 8

Socially defined positions in the social structure that are relationships to others, such as father, son, professor, and student are called ________.

A) roles
B) statuses
C) classes
D) stereotypes

Question 9

Barbara feels uneasy when her professor walks within 18 inches of her desk while he lectures and was offended when her roommate's boyfriend gave her a big hug when she first met him. What explanation would Edward Hall offer for Barbara's negative reaction to both her professor and her roommate's boyfriend's behavior?

A) She feels both men are sexually harassing her.
B) Her professor and roommate's boyfriend have violated her personal space.
C) The professor is abusing his authority, and the boyfriend is taking advantage of her relationship with her roommate.
D) Neither the professor nor the roommate's boyfriend understands social boundaries.

Question 10

We often greet people with the comment "How 'ya doin'?" or "What's up?" The fact is we really don't care how they are doing or what is "up" in their lives. These are simply greetings equivalent to saying "Hi!" and do not require a response. What term did Harold Garfinkel use to describe these "taken-for-granted" aspects of social interaction?

A) definition of the situation
B) ethnomethodology
C) dramaturgical analysis
D) impression management

Question 11

Police officers are often guilty of overidentifying their occupation with the other statuses and roles that they must occupy and perform, such as father, husband, and neighbor. This over-emphasis on a role that becomes central to a person's identity so that the person literally becomes that role is called ________.

A) role merger
B) role strain
C) role embracement
D) role distance

Question 12

What sociological approach is most aligned with the use of social networks to perpetuate the domination of clubs and associations by members of certain racial, ethnic, or social classes?

A) the structuralist perspective
B) the functionalist perspective
C) the symbolic interactionist perspective
D) the conflict perspective

Question 13

Becky believes she will fail the sociology course because she scored only a 59 on her first exam. Therefore, she withdrew from the class. The fact is that a score of 59 was in the upper third of all scores and equivalent to a "B" grade. Becky defined her situation as failing the course. But the fact is she withdrew. Such a scenario that occurs when people define situations as real and they become real in their consequences is a concept William I. Thomas proposed, which is called ________.

A) the definition of the situation
B) dramaturgical analysis
C) ethnomethodology
D) impression management

Question 14

Bethany has worked diligently to become the new personnel manager at Acme University. She also holds the titles of wife, mother, and choir director at her church. Such titles and positions are called ________.

A) ascribed statuses
B) social roles
C) achieved statuses
D) social class

Question 15

What was Robert Nisbet referring to when he spoke of the "molecular cement" that binds people, groups, and societies together?

A) the economic health of a community
B) patterns of social interaction
C) racial and ethnic similarities
D) the sense of community shared by members of society

Question 16

Many people wear their "Sunday's finest" to church, respond politely when someone in authority asks a question, and make sure they are on time for work every day. These influences of dress and behavior serve as examples of ________.

A) social interaction
B) status inconsistency
C) role merger
D) stereotyping

Question 17

How would a conflict theorist view the purpose of roles, statuses, and institutions that provide structure to society and, by doing so, makes the concept of society possible?

A) They are basic to the proper functioning of society and provide justice for all.
B) They act as incentives for the poor to advance and improve their status.
C) They provide a means by which individuals can judge their relative success in life.
D) They are designed to maintain the status quo by defining and maintaining class structure.

Question 18

A belief that all football players are intellectually dull and that all African Americans are superior athletes are examples of static and oversimplified ideas about a group or a social category called ________.

A) master status
B) social manifestations
C) status sets
D) stereotypes

Question 19

It is customary for executioners to wear hoods. By doing so, the individual assigned this status can remain detached from his or her role to avoid the negative aspects associated with it. This is called ________.

A) role distance
B) role merger
C) status inconsistency
D) status continuity

Question 20

Jacob is a 56-year-old married philosophy professor dating one of his 18-year-old students. Such an arrangement, which is frowned upon by other members of society, is called ________.

A) role merger
B) status continuity
C) status inconsistency
D) role embracement

Question 21

Requiring students to be in class on time, providing them a syllabus of the course expectations, and explaining the system on which their final grade will be calculated are parts of the patterned expectations that guide social interaction called ________.

A) social stratification
B) social profiling
C) social stereotypes
D) social structure

Question 22

For most Americans the distance from their body outward to approximately 18 inches is called ________.

A) personal distance
B) social distance
C) intimate distance
D) group distance

Question 23

Dr. Smith missed breakfast this morning as well as lunch. During his afternoon class his stomach began growling so loudly that it could be heard throughout the classroom. Even so, none of the students reacted in a negative manner and simply ignored the temporary disruption. In dramaturgy, to overlook such an incident requires what Goffman would call ________.

A) politeness
B) teamwork
C) remission
D) gratuity

Question 24

Officer Joe Friday responded to a burglar alarm at the Acme Jewelry Store late one night to discover his next door neighbor and best friend filling a bag with diamond rings and other loot. Officer Friday faced a dilemma because he knew he couldn't fulfill his duties as a police officer without violating the friendship he held with his neighbor. Such a scenario is an example of ________.

A) role inconsistency
B) role merger
C) role conflict
D) role embracement

Question 25

Which statement BEST addresses zones of comfort from a global perspective?

A) Americans have the narrowest distance requirements to determine their zones of comfort.
B) The same zones of comfort are universal and applicable worldwide.
C) Although zones of comfort vary from culture to culture, they differ little within the same culture regardless of age, sex, or race.
D) Zones of comfort vary greatly from one culture to another as well as within cultures.

Question 26

When people or groups are compelled to interact with one another, often by the threat of force, it is a pattern of social interaction called compulsion.

Question 27

A master status may have positive or negative consequences.

Question 28

Status is an individualized possession, unrelated to the status of others.

Question 29

A form of social interaction that uses the analogy of the theater is called ________.

A) ethnomethodology
B) phenomenology
C) anticipatory socialization
D) dramaturgy

Question 30

The personal space and comfort zone that is most preferred by the Secret Service and bodyguards to protect their clients is ________.

A) political distance
B) social distance
C) communal distance
D) public distance

Question 31

Role performance varies widely from one person to another but remains consistent for individuals occupying multiple statuses.

Question 32

A pattern of social interaction where individuals and groups strive to achieve a desired goal according to some set of rules but the goal is in limited supply and cannot be attained by all is ________.

A) exchange
B) competition
C) coercion
D) compulsion

Question 33

Role strain is a contradictory expectation attached to a single role, whereas role conflict is contradictory expectations occurring when one in obligated to fulfill more than one role.

Question 34

What are three patterns of social interaction that conflict theorists would focus upon the most?

A) exchange, cooperation, competition
B) competition, conflict, coercion
C) cooperation, competition, coercion
D) exchange, conflict, coercion

Question 35

Dr. Morrison is a very popular professor. Although students have observed him at campus functions with his wife and children and have also observed him cheering on the university football team on Saturday afternoons, his students never think of Dr. Morrison as being a father, husband, or football fan. For the students, Dr. Morrison is a professor above all else. How would sociologists explain this narrow interpretation of Dr. Morrison?

A) Dr. Morrison is a victim of role strain.
B) For Dr. Morrison, professor is his master status.
C) Dr. Morrison exhibits status inconsistency when appearing on campus as a husband, father, or football fan.
D) Dr. Morrison is guilty of role embracement.

Question 36

All the positions in life a person occupies at any given time, such as professor, husband, father, club member, friend, son, and uncle, are referred to as status set.

Question 37

What sociological approach to social life suggests that all of social life, including social institutions, is in a constant state of flux because people are constantly defining and redefining relationships?

A) the structuralist approach
B) the functionalist approach
C) the conflict approach
D) the symbolic interactionist approach

Question 38

What sociological perspective compares society to a colony of ants or swarm of bees that emphasizes society must have structure and that social institutions are basic to society's proper operation?

A) the neo-conflict perspective
B) the symbolic interactionist approach
C) the structural functionalist approach
D) the conflict perspective

Question 39

Who was the anthropologist who addressed the zones of comfort Americans prefer during the course of social interaction?

A) Kai Erikson
B) Daniel Levinson
C) Edward Hall
D) Richard Wright

Question 40

Which sociological approach contends there is greater flexibility in roles and relationships and greater possibility for change?

A) symbolic interactionist approach
B) the conflict perspective
C) the structural functionalist approach
D) the neo-conflict perspective

Question 41

When a person occupies two or more statuses that appear to be contradictory to each other, it is called ________.

Question 42

The "definition of the situation" is an objective way to analyze and assess social interaction.

Question 43

The idea that when people define situations as real they become real in their consequences is a concept William I. Thomas proposed that is also called ________.

Question 44

The five patterns of social interaction are neither mutually exclusive nor distinctive.

Question 45

Regardless of where one lives-in the city or rural areas-social networks are equally important to the individual.

Question 46

Contradictory expectations and demands attached to a single role, such as a student's wish to do well in a course and impress the professor but not alienate himself from his peers as being a "nerd," is role strain.

Question 47

Static and oversimplified ideas about a group or social category are called ________.

Question 48

Of the three major sociological perspectives, symbolic interactionism is the most flexible and prone to change.

Question 49

Body movements, gestures, and facial expressions that we use to communicate with others are called ________.

Question 50

Comfort zones are cultural universals with shared meaning worldwide.

Question 51

When people play a role but remain detached from it to avoid any negative aspects of the role, it is called ________.

Question 52

Conflict as a form of social interaction has a positive side, for it enhances social solidarity and can serve as a vehicle for social change.

Question 53

Groups characterized by close solidarity usually remain conflict free.

Question 54

We dress a specific way for a special event, modify our behavior when in the presence of significant others, and respond politely when someone in authority asks a question. These influences on our behavior serve as examples of ________.

Question 55

Social networks do not have clear boundaries and their members may or may not interact on a regular basis.

Question 56

A common link between conflict theorists and structural functionalists is that both groups agree on the importance and purpose of social institutions.

Question 57

The Zimbardo experiment was a classic example of how people can successfully learn roles and also maintain the various statuses they occupy separate from one another.

Question 58

When one's personal space is violated, defensive strategies are employed to create a barrier between oneself and the offending party.

Question 59

The term Harold Garfinkel used to describe a way of analyzing the "taken-for-granted" aspects that give meaning to social interaction is ________.

Question 60

Asking questions of close friends as we pass by them, which requires only a recognition of having been heard and not really an answer, such as "What's up?", is an example of what Harold Garfinkel would term "impression management."

Question 61

Discuss the four different zones of comfort Edward Hall discovered, providing a description of each.

Question 62

What is dramaturgy? Do you feel dramaturgy accurately describes social interaction? Why or why not?

Question 63

Compare and contrast status and role, noting the significance of each in social interaction.

Question 64

The most basic form of social interaction that is guided by a "profit motive" is called ________.

Question 65

Identify and describe the five fundamental patterns of social interaction.

Question 66

The classic experiment in role playing that involved students assuming the roles of prisoners and guards that resulted in premature termination because of the frightening behavior of the students was conducted by ________ at ________ University.

Question 67

Contradictory expectations and demands attached to a single role are called ________.

Question 68

Discuss how structural functionalists and conflict theorists agree and disagree on their view of social structure and its importance to society.