Deck 3: Society and Culture

Question 1

Shared ideas about what is socially desirable, good or bad, beautiful or ugly are called ________.

A) values
B) beliefs
C) truths
D) mores

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Tastes and creations supported and used by the upper classes to distinguish themselves from those beneath them in the social hierarchy are called ________.

A) popular culture
B) high culture
C) real culture
D) ideal culture

Answer 2

B

Question 3

How will the media respond to the growing numbers of people age 64 and older worldwide in the next 25 years?

A) It is expected to have little effect on the media because the media are profit-driven and not socially conscious.
B) The media will probably become more arrogant and critical of older people because of the strain they will place on society.
C) The media will take a wait-and-see attitude to evaluate what is in their best interest.
D) The media will shift their cultural approach to the middle-aged and older consumer.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

In an elaborate ceremony held at the White House, Captain Bill Bender has just received the Medal of Honor from the president for bravery above and beyond the call of duty. Such a situation is an example of ________.

A) the execution of a norm
B) a formal sanction
C) folkway culture
D) ideal culture

Question 5

A complex system of symbols with conventional meanings that people use for communication is called ________.

A) material culture
B) language
C) belief
D) real culture

Question 6

Approximately how long ago did the first great technological revolution that turned hunting and gathering societies into farming societies occur?

A) one million years ago
B) 500,000 years ago
C) 100,000 years ago
D) 10,000 years ago

Question 7

Inconsistencies in a cultural system, especially in the relationship between technology and nonmaterial culture, are called ________.

A) the Thomas theorem
B) cultural hegemony
C) cultural lag
D) the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Question 8

What was the classic work published by Charles Darwin in 1859 that brought about a revolution in scientific thinking about all living things?

A) Principles of Sociology
B) On the Origin of Species
C) War and Peace
D) Man, Moment, Machine

Question 9

The sociologist who listed a number of values that he believed were widely shared in the United States, including individualism and freedom, equality, achievement, and others, was ________.

A) Robin Williams
B) Kai Erikson
C) Clayton Moore
D) Talcott Parsons

Question 10

What is the central institution that has the greatest effect on all other institutions in the technological, fast-paced modern society?

A) the family
B) religion
C) the media
D) the economy

Question 11

Which of the following societies is characterized by global information and the service economy?

A) industrial society
B) biotechnical society
C) postindustrial society
D) military society

Question 12

In what type of society would an explorer find people using hand tools to grow domesticated crops?

A) hunting-gathering society
B) horticultural society
C) pastoral society
D) agrarian society

Question 13

What is the term sociologists use to describe cultural trends associated with prosperous high-tech societies that have a high degree of security, such as the quality of life and greater openness to change and diversity?

A) positivism
B) postmodern values
C) egalitarianism
D) the new world order

Question 14

Functionalism helps sociologists understand how cultural practices that may seem unusual actually fit together, such as the understanding of why bovine veneration is important to the Hindu society. What is this concept called?

A) dramaturgical analysis
B) ethnomethodology
C) cultural integration
D) the socio-ecological approach

Question 15

Taboos, mores, laws, and folkways are collectively classified as ________.

A) values
B) norms
C) beliefs
D) truths

Question 16

Eating human flesh and sibling sex both qualify as ________ because they are behaviors that members of a group consider as being repugnant and unthinkable.

A) taboos
B) folkways
C) idiosyncrasies
D) sanctions

Question 17

Catherine is taking a Latin culture cluster course in Peru as a part of an international studies program. Although the practices of the Peruvian natives with whom she is living are very strange to her, she is doing her best to understand the Peruvian culture and has not passed judgment on it. This perspective, which asks that we evaluate other cultures according to their standards and not our own, is called ________.

A) ethnocentrism
B) the relativist fallacy
C) cultural relativism
D) ideal culture

Question 18

Traditionally, what term describes people who live in a specific geographic territory, interact with one another, and share many elements of a common culture?

A) territory
B) aggregate
C) regime
D) society

Question 19

A(n) is a society that depends on crops raised with plows, draft animals, and intensive agricultural methods.

A) pastoral society
B) agrarian society
C) postindustrial society
D) horticultural society

Question 20

According to sociologists, what determines human behavior?

A) Human behaviors are genetically determined.
B) Human behaviors are the result of instinct that is passed from one generation to the next.
C) Human behaviors are learned and culturally patterned within groups.
D) Human behaviors are naturally acquired based on environmental demands and natural selection.

Question 21

The cornerstone of the new postindustrial society is ________.

A) science
B) cultural tradition
C) faith
D) experience

Question 22

What is the theory used by Robert Park to explain why second-generation immigrants fail to successfully identify with either their native culture or the culture of the new nation which they are trying to assimilate?

A) the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
B) theory of diminishing returns
C) the Klinefelter syndrome
D) the theory of marginality

Question 23

Based on a Roper Poll taken in the year 2000, the top ranked value in the world was ________.

A) honesty
B) health and fitness
C) protecting the family
D) freedom

Question 24

Jill lives in an exclusive neighborhood. She attends a private university, has a personal tutor, and enjoys the life of the rich and famous. As a part of her sociology course, Jill and some of her friends decided to visit an inner city ghetto. The sight of the conditions in the inner city, the suffering of the people, and the other aspects of the area they visited left Jill with a feeling of confusion and disorientation. In view of this, which statement best describes the effect that visiting the ghetto has had on Jill?

A) Jill has experienced ethnocentrism.
B) Jill is engaged in cultural relativism.
C) Jill has entered the arena of relativist fallacies.
D) Jill is suffering from culture shock.

Question 25

What is sociocultural evolution?

A) A process where races become more integrated moving from racial differences to being a "tea-colored people."
B) A social movement towards a simpler, less competitive form of life.
C) The transformation of society from organic to mechanical solidarity.
D) A process in which societies grow more complex in terms of technology, social structure, and cultural knowledge over time.

Question 26

Most behaviors are genetically determined, which helps explain the similarities in customs shared by members of the same ethnic and racial groups.

Question 27

The holocaust by Nazi Germany, genocide in Rwanda and Serbia, and the sacrificing of virgins as a part of religious ceremony are all examples of cultural practices not worthy of respect. Defending these policies are examples of ________.

A) culture shock
B) cultural relativism
C) sociocultural evolution
D) the relativist fallacy

Question 28

In what type society did cities and empires first appear along with a complex division of labor?

A) horticultural society
B) agrarian society
C) industrial society
D) postindustrial society

Question 29

The type of society dominant 5,000 to 10,000 years ago that utilized sickle-and-hoe technology and established semi-permanent villages was the horticultural society.

Question 30

The domination of cultural industries by elite groups is called ________.

A) the sociocultural evolution
B) cultural hegemony
C) ideal culture
D) high culture

Question 31

What is the approach that examines the relationship between a culture and its total environment called?

A) cultural hegemony
B) cultural ecological
C) the Chicago School
D) the Iowa School

Question 32

What is Eurocentrism?

A) The belief that European cultures have contributed the most to human knowledge and are superior to all others.
B) The belief that the history of man originated in Europe and spread to the rest of the world through ecological diffusion.
C) The belief that the world is flat and that the earth is the center of the universe.
D) The belief that all societies evolve the same way, moving from the simplest to most complex form.

Question 33

People who live in a specific geographic territory, interact with one another, and share many elements of a common culture are called a social institution.

Question 34

Plows and draft animals are to the agrarian society as ________ are to the industrial society.

A) machines and advanced technology
B) information and knowledge
C) hand tools and domesticated crops
D) windmills and domesticated animals

Question 35

Johnny is from a Midwestern town where the people pride themselves for being blue collar workers, loyal supporters of the Republican Party, strong patriots, and God-fearing Christians. Johnny feels that anyone who does not share these qualities does not qualify as being a "real" American. In view of this, which statement best describes Johnny's behavior?

A) Johnny is suffering from the relativist fallacy.
B) Johnny is practicing cultural relativism.
C) Johnny is in culture shock.
D) Johnny is engaged in ethnocentrism.

Question 36

The belief that language of each culture influences how people view the world and leads people to think in particular ways is called the ________.

A) Pythagorean theorem
B) Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
C) Thomas theorem
D) Taft-Hartley hypothesis

Question 37

Pockets of foreign born immigrants who dominate certain sections of a city such as Chinatown, Little Italy, and Polish Hill where the people enjoy a lifestyle distinctively different from that of the mainstream culture qualify sociologically as examples of ________.

A) countercultures
B) centrist communities
C) pluralist communities
D) subcultures

Question 38

Nonmaterial culture refers to the mental blueprints that serve as guidelines for group behavior that includes language, beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes.

Question 39

When and where can the first clear evidence of culture be traced?

A) The Amazon River Basin more than three million years ago.
B) The Middle East nearly ten million years ago.
C) The plains of Africa about two million years ago.
D) The mountain passes of Manchuria more than five million years ago.

Question 40

Everything from a pencil to the space shuttle and the technology to use them refers to material culture.

Question 41

Within a medium-sized city, virtually hundreds, even thousands, of subcultures may exist.

Question 42

The interactionist approach emphasizes that people everywhere live in "symbolic worlds" that are created and reproduced by diverse social groups.

Question 43

Although the spoken language differs significantly among cultures, body language is a cultural universal with the same gestures having similar meanings worldwide.

Question 44

All cultures are, in part, practical responses to environmental conditions.

Question 45

The first clear evidence of culture can be traced to villages that existed in the Middle East about ten million years ago.

Question 46

The inability of indigenous tribes of the rain forest to keep pace with modern Western societies is called cultural lag.

Question 47

What people should do according to group norms and values is referred to as ideal culture, while what people actually do in everyday social interaction is referred to as real culture.

Question 48

Some scholars contend that instead of creating a global village, the new technomedia promote a polarization of society into the haves and have-nots and an increase in individualism.

Question 49

It is expected that cultural values and methods will stabilize worldwide in the 21st century, establishing a uniform "global culture" that will appeal to everyone and convey the same meanings.

Question 50

As societies become more complex, they also become more uniform in their belief systems that enables a more consistent understanding of the nature of reality.

Question 51

Animals use signs, biological forms of communication, almost exclusively to express fear, hostility, and other emotional states.

Question 52

A male student walking into class without a shirt on is violating variations of norms called a ________; in the same class, a female student who walks into the class topless is violating a ________.

Question 53

The learned set of beliefs, values, norms, and material goods shared by group members is called ________.

Question 54

Cultural hegemony refers to the domination of cultural industries, such as religion, education, and the family, by elite groups.

Question 55

Groups that reject the conventional wisdom and standards of behavior of the majority and provide alternatives to the mainstream culture are referred to as ________.

Question 56

Beliefs, values, and norms are virtually linked together with what people interpret as being reality.

Question 57

In postmodern culture there has been a shift from expressive individualism to rugged individualism as evidenced by the attention Americans pay to eating healthy, body-building, and being involved in the great outdoors.

Question 58

Norms that tell us what we should not do, such as cheating on exams, are called prescriptive norms.

Question 59

Eating caviar, drinking champagne, and flying first class are examples of ________ culture, while tastes and creations designed for leisure and mass consumption are referred to as ________ culture.

Question 60

The social scientist most credited with developing the theory of evolution was ________.

Question 61

Groups that share many elements of the mainstream culture but maintain their own distinctive customs, values, norms, and lifestyles are called ________.

Question 62

Identify the six types of societies that have developed since the beginning of mankind and the characteristics of each.

Question 63

What are the major U.S. core values as identified by sociologist Robin Williams? Are they truly "core" values shared by all Americans?

Question 64

Informal rules and regulations that guide people's everyday behavior are called ________.

Question 65

Define ethnocentrism and cultural relativism, explaining their similarities and differences.

Question 66

A perspective which asks that we evaluate other cultures according to their standards and not our own is called ________.

Question 67

Compare and contrast the two popular but opposing views that explain the origin of culture.

Question 68

Define subculture, counterculture, and multiculturalism. How are they similar and different?

Question 69

The tendency to evaluate the customs of other groups according to one's own cultural standards is called ________.

Question 70

Professor Zarkov has been a member of the faculty for over fifteen years, yet he still doesn't fully trust the computer. For every rough draft he produces, every quiz, exam, or memo he makes a hard copy that he methodically files away in his every increasing number of file cabinets. Professor Zarkov is suffering what William Ogburn would refer to as ________.