Deck 4: Society, Culture, and Cultural Change

Question 1

Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee suggested a theory that civilizations pass through:

A) upward spirals of prosperity indefinitely.
B) silver, bronze, and iron ages.
C) changes that reflect inevitable progress.
D) cycles of growth, climax, and decline.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

What is the advantage of monoculturalism in a society?

A) It incorporates diversity.
B) It lets subgroups revere their own history.
C) Shared culture tends to hold society together.
D) All the above.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Geography and climate are:

A) unrelated to the natural environment.
B) always stabilizing factors in social changes.
C) never important when people migrate.
D) important factors to consider in social change.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Evolution and revolution are two ways in which basic social institutions:

A) change.
B) reach perfection.
C) remain the same.
D) resist change.

Question 5

Today, the rate of technological change is increasing:

A) and so is the interaction among cultures.
B) but cultural interaction is decreasing.
C) but close contacts with distant lands is ending.
D) and cultural differences are greater.

Question 6

Multiculturalism emphasizes:

A) Eurocentric bias.
B) differences among subcultures.
C) blending of various cultures.
D) shared aspects among subcultures.

Question 7

Ethnocentrism is:

A) the tendency to judge other cultures by a person's own culture.
B) universally avoided.
C) forbidden everywhere.
D) always beneficial to all humans.

Question 8

What is the meaning of cultural relativism? How is cultural relativism related to ethnocentrism? Which view do social scientists tend to take?

Question 9

The cultural change that made it possible to record human knowledge was the invention of:

A) the wheel.
B) the arch.
C) writing.
D) stone tools.

Question 10

A _____ is a privilege or advantage that an individual enjoys because of the status quo, which is the existing state of affairs.

A) habit
B) perk
C) hidden benefit
D) vested interest

Question 11

Benjamin Lee Whorf argued that each particular language embodies and propagates:

A) a uniform system of meanings identical for all languages.
B) a system of communication lacking bias.
C) cultural artifacts.
D) a world view.

Question 12

Which social institution played a significant role in instigating social change during the civil rights movement?

A) The public school system.
B) The economy.
C) The medical community.
D) The church.

Question 13

How do social scientists define social problems? What are the reasons why some problems are called social problems? State two examples of major social problems.

Question 14

Social changes may also be brought about by group action in a society, which is also called:

A) random action.
B) Small-scale revisions.
C) gradualism.
D) collective action.

Question 15

The degree to which a culture is internally consistent and homogeneous is called:

A) cultural integration.
B) cultural alteration.
C) cultural development crisis.
D) cultural transition.

Question 16

An organized system of ideas for remodeling society is called:

A) an inventory.
B) material invention.
C) an ideology.
D) socialization scale.

Question 17

What factors contribute to the stability of culture? How do these factors help to give continuity to ways of living?

Question 18

Ways of behaving that have been learned so well that they can be carried on without conscious attention are called:

A) traits.
B) innovations.
C) habits.
D) discoveries.

Question 19

Explain the doctrine of inevitable progress and the theory of social change. How do these two ideas differ?

Question 20

What is cultural lag theory? What are the limitations of cultural lag theory? How is cultural lag related to social problems?

Question 21

Social institutions provide a society order and coordination and provide for social change.

Question 22

The spread of cultural traits from one group to another is called:

A) cultural integration.
B) cultural subdivision.
C) cultural diffusion.
D) cultural fixation.

Question 23

Multiculturalism allows subgroups to revere their own history and view that history as a strong building block of the larger culture.

Question 24

A group of people does not necessarily constitute a society.

Question 25

Language is not important in the development and transmission of culture.

Question 26

Different cultures change or evolve:

A) in the same way everywhere.
B) according to a universally similar pattern.
C) along quite different paths.
D) the same number of times every decade.

Question 27

The doctrine that all cultures are for the most part equally valid is called:

A) cultural diffusion.
B) cultural relativism.
C) centralization.
D) democratization.

Question 28

All people in a culture are alike in their personalities.

Question 29

Conventions are:

A) everyday customs or usual ways of behaving.
B) complex group behaviors that do not change.
C) never followed by individuals.
D) legal norms enforced by courts.

Question 30

Socialization is the process that shapes the personality of individuals so they can become members of society.

Question 31

The causes of most social problems are:

A) simple
B) complex
C) nonexistent
D) obvious

Question 32

Laws are different from mores in that to be a law, a principle or regulation has had to be accepted by more people.

Question 33

Conventions:

A) are exact, codified, and enforced.
B) are interesting and quaint.
C) exist only in primitive societies.
D) are the usual ways of behavior in a group.

Question 34

The slowness in the rate of change in one part of culture in relation to another is called:

A) cultural invention.
B) material progress.
C) cultural transformation.
D) cultural lag.

Question 35

Social institutions are usually organized around some central interest or need.

Question 36

Respect for different ways of living is the essence of:

A) forced conformity.
B) chauvinism.
C) ethnocentrism.
D) cultural relativism.

Question 37

Culture is the way of life that the people of a society follow.

Question 38

Understanding other cultures requires an effort to look at them from the viewpoint of:

A) all people according to one value system.
B) the dominant world culture.
C) people brought up in those cultures.
D) the oldest existing culture.

Question 39

Mores are regulations established in a community by some authority and enforced by judicial decision.

Question 40

The United States does not have one single culture.

Question 41

The cycle theory of social change is based on the idea that history repeats itself.

Question 42

It is possible to understand the nature of human beings independently of their social environment.

Question 43

Contemporary American culture is:

A) mostly dominated by urban black culture.
B) a traditional white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant culture.
C) a blending of overlapping cultures representing a wide variety of people.
D) there is no American culture.

Question 44

Cultural alternatives define the degree to which a culture is internally consistent and homogeneous.

Question 45

Concepts such as "liberty, equality, and fraternity" of the French Revolution changed basic social values.

Question 46

An ideology is an organized system of ideas, values, and emotions.

Question 47

Social values are the motivating power that makes institutions function effectively.

Question 48

Christian churches in America have traditionally been and continue to be active in social change movements in the United States.

Question 49

Cultural relativism asserts that all cultures are for the most part equally valid.

Question 50

The culture of a society is permanent and able to fit all new situations without evolving.

Question 51

Social values are absolute rather than relative.

Question 52

Changes in the material aspects of culture always precede changes in the nonmaterial aspects.

Question 53

William Ogburn described cultural lag as a pattern of stability and cultural cohesion.

Question 54

Diffusion of cultural traits is a one-way process.

Question 55

Technological changes now constitute only a minor part of social life.