Deck 4: Statuses and Identities

Question 1

When studying gender as a context, _______ theorists would be interested in how gender expectations shape both behavior and definition of that behavior.

A) positivist
B) subjectivist
C) blended
D) answers b and c are correct

Answer 1

C

Question 2

According to Gathings and Parrotta, patterns in discretion result from (primarily male) judges' and prosecutors' notions that women, even the "bad" ones, should be coddled and protected describes which of the following explanations for gender differences in criminal sentencing?

A) familial paternalism
B) the chivalry hypothesis
C) focal concerns
D) patriarchal comforting

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In the courtroom, according to Gathings and Parrotta, women are more likely than men to be described as _______ compared to men.

A) providers
B) workers
C) dependent
D) independent

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to Whitehead and Kurtz, feminine "power" has primarily been constructed through the acquisition of _______ , and the female body is rendered a social text that is to be viewed, judged, and evaluated by men.

A) aesthetic beauty
B) a husband
C) children or family
D) all of the above are correct

Question 5

According to Whitehead and Kurtz, _______ is less about weight and more about achieving power through conformity to a feminine ideal propagated by the media.

A) obesity
B) self-image
C) a woman's ego
D) fat phobia

Question 6

According to Whitehead and Kurtz, which of the following "feminine dreams" are impossible until a woman achieves the right weight?

A) having sex
B) getting married
C) having babies
D) all of the above are correct

Question 7

_______ is a set of cultural ideas about how males are expected to act, think, and feel.

A) Machismo
B) Macho
C) Heterosexual masculinity
D) Patriarchal psychology

Question 8

According to Kimmel and Mahler, _______ is the single greatest risk factor in school violence.

A) guns
B) drugs
C) testosterone
D) masculinity

Question 9

According to Kimmel and Mahler, the young white boys who commit school shootings did so because of which of the following reasons?

A) They felt they had no other friends to validate their fragile and threatened identities.
B) They felt that school authorities and parents would be unresponsive to their plight.
C) They had no access to other methods of self-affirmation.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 10

According to Blazak, hate groups espouse _______ that malign entire groups of people based on race and ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and the like.

A) beliefs
B) religion
C) ideologies
D) both answers a and c are correct

Question 11

According to Blazak, Nazi skinhead groups look for specific kinds of youth, kids who are, in Durkheim's terms _______ , that is, feeling adrift, alone, angry or frustrated.

A) anomic
B) a social fact
C) psychotic
D) sociopaths

Question 12

According to Blazak, racist skinheads emerged as a reactionary element of _______ , but only in the mid-1980s were they recruited by established racist groups.

A) new racist groups
B) the punk rock scene
C) the hard rock scene
D) Southern redneck pride

Question 13

According to Perry, just as the initial establishment of reservations for Native Americans was facilitated through state and popular violence, so too does current segregation of Native Americans rely on racialized violence to keep reservation Indians _______ .

A) pacified
B) in their place
C) under control
D) from killing whites

Question 14

_______ involve(s) acts of violence and intimidation, usually directed toward already stigmatized and marginalized groups.

A) Racism
B) Fascism
C) Violent crimes
D) Hate crimes

Question 15

According to Perry, Native Americans today no longer face collective violence but rather _______ by citizens and police.

A) kindness
B) hatred
C) individual violence
D) covert violence

Question 16

Early and Akers explore the _______ , that is, the notion that there is something about black religion, black culture, the black community or black family that protects or insulates African Americans from the factors that would otherwise generate high suicide rates.

A) buffer hypothesis
B) Africana hypothesis
C) reverse racism hypothesis
D) answers a and c are correct

Question 17

According to Early and Akers, the black _______ serves unifying and leadership functions for African Americans by providing sociocultural integration and resiliency under stressful situations.

A) community
B) church
C) family
D) man

Question 18

According to Early and Akers, African Americans consider suicide to be a _______ .

A) sin against God
B) easy way out
C) a "white" thing
D) sign of demonic possession

Question 19

According to Hollingshead and Redlich, mental illness in the New Haven community they studied was not distributed randomly in the population but the types of psychiatric disorders, and the ways patients were treated, were strongly associated with _______ .

A) race
B) sexual orientation
C) gender
D) social class

Question 20

According to Hollingshead and Redlich, there are clear connections between particular types of and the emergence of particular kinds of psychiatric disorders.

A) genetics
B) biology
C) social environments
D) ecological environments

Question 21

Hollingshead and Redlich are most concerned with the interrelations between _______ structures and the development of mental illness.

A) cognitive
B) physiological
C) class
D) both a and b are correct

Question 22

George Doe was a straight-A student, star athlete, and prom king in high school. In American culture, he is most likely categorized in the _______ category of Heckert and Heckert's typology.

A) negative deviance
B) rate-busting
C) deviance admiration
D) positive deviance

Question 23

Billy Doe was a sexually active teenage boy with opposite sex partners. So much so that he earned the reputation of being a "man whore." By other teenage boys in American culture, he is most likely categorized in the _______ category of Heckert and Heckert's typology.

A) negative deviance
B) rate-busting
C) deviance admiration
D) positive deviance

Question 24

Randall Doe was arrested for stealing a car. In American culture, he is most likely categorized in the _______ category of Heckert and Heckert's typology.

A) negative deviance
B) rate-busting
C) deviance admiration
D) positive deviance

Question 25

Tillman is interested in how the _______ is able to manipulate various rules and regulations that make white-collar crime possible.

A) U.S. Congress
B) U.S. President
C) economic elite
D) political elite

Question 26

According to the criminogenic _______ perspective, white-collar crime is seen as an outgrowth of the structure and organization of industries rather than the result of individual characteristics of those involved; white-collar crime is thus ultimately a systemic problem.

A) institutional framework
B) market
C) structure
D) culture

Question 27

According to the criminogenic _______ perspective, the regulatory and legal environments surrounding the economy was conducive to systemic forms of fraud and is designed to define white-collar crime as noncriminal.

A) institutional framework
B) market
C) structure
D) culture

Question 28

A culture which defines heterosexuality as the norm and as the preferred sexual orientation is _______.

A) normal
B) heteronormative
C) heterophobic
D) homosexual

Question 29

According to Conrad and Angell, deviance has been defined in various ways throughout the history of Western culture. Which of the following is not one of them?

A) Deviance as a sin.
B) Deviance as a crime.
C) Deviance as an illness.
D) All of the above have been deviant definitions.

Question 30

As a result of the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1960s, homosexuality was _______ and no longer considered a medical pathology.

A) liberated
B) decriminalized
C) delegitimized
D) demedicalized

Question 31

According to Loseke and Cavendish, within a world organized around _______ , Catholics can be condemned because of their sexual orientation and practices.

A) religion
B) sin
C) heterosexuality
D) homophobia

Question 32

According to Loseke and Cavendish, as constructed, God cares for outcasts and victims such as sexual minorities, and the _______ is special in the eyes of God.

A) individual soul
B) Catholic homosexual
C) Catholic tradition
D) dignified self

Question 33

According to Weinberg, Williams, and Pryor, bisexuals experience four changes across the life course. Which of the following is NOT one of those changes?

A) sexual involvement
B) sexual discretion
C) community ties
D) psychological disorders

Question 34

The research conducted by Weinberg, Williams, and Pryor counters the notion that bisexuals are just _______ .

A) seeking attention
B) sexually promiscuous
C) in transition to another sexual preference
D) none of the above are correct

Question 35

Over time, bisexual individuals are _______ toward their self-identity as a bisexual person.

A) less certain and more negative
B) more certain and negative
C) more certain and positive
D) less certain but positive

Question 36

How can the idea of contingent and intrinsic self-definitions be applied to other statuses besides gender?

Question 37

How does power play a role in the ways status and identity are constructed? Please use at least two examples and then compare and contrast the different ways power intersects in these cases.

Question 38

Select one status or identity, and identify some aspect you could conduct research about. Then construct a research question from a positivist and constructionist/subjectivist perspective. How would a blended approach differ from each? What components of each could truly be blended?

Question 39

Describe how various strain theories can be applied to both hate group recruitment and homophobic violence. How does the intersection of race, gender, and socioeconomic status increase the complexity of becoming a Nazi skinhead or a white male school shooter at the individual level? What about at the meso and macro levels?

Question 40

How does our heteronormative culture influence sexual orientation identities in the same and different ways than gender identities?

Question 41

Explain your position on the notion of "chivalry" (and that chivalry is dead), and then state your position on the chivalry hypothesis as it relates to criminal sentencing. Do you think it is fair (and/or ironic) that men and women might receive differential treatment (in this case, women receiving leniency) through the very vestiges of sexism and patriarchy that may have created the context of their oppression?

Question 42

Consider the contemporary aesthetics of female bodies as depicted by media of various sorts (e.g., magazines) in American society. Define aesthetics as you understand it, and then think of how important this concept (and reality) is in the social-psychological realities of women and young girls as a means of patriarchal social control. Who constructs these aesthetics? Is it men or women? More importantly, are there contextual and structural factors that influence the powerful men and women who shape these aesthetics?

Question 43

Explain the differences and similarities between Nazi skinhead hate crimes and the segregating impact of hate crimes against Native Americans. What theory do you think best explains hate crimes? Does that theory contextualize the racial hierarchy appropriately? Why are race and power central (or not) to understanding these two phenomenon?

Question 44

Do you believe Early and Akers could have used an alternative theoretical framework to explain why African Americans are less likely than whites to commit suicide? In particular, do the "bonds" to church, family, and other institutions they describe exhibit signs of a social-psychological theory?

Question 45

If we conceive of psychiatric disorders as socially constructed labels imposed on individuals exhibiting certain behavioral attributes defined as symptoms, how does this influence the findings of Hollingshead and Redlich? On the other hand, if these disorders are intrinsically real, what does this say about groups who align along certain social positions? Critically explain the difference by taking one side or the other; is there room for a blended approach here?

Question 46

Heckert and Heckert make the case for "positive" (not positivist) deviance-deviant behavior that is labeled so because it denotes overconformity to positively evaluated norms in society (e.g., overachieving in one's academic endeavors). Name at least one form of positive deviance. Now explain, in commonsense terms, why that behavior is seen as deviant. Then explain how and why this differs from "rate-busting" deviance.

Question 47

Tillman describes the evolution of white-collar and corporate crime in the era of global capitalism. Rooted in the political economic structure, criminogenic institutional frameworks have emerged alongside an era where corporations have a great deal of influence on the political process. If corporations influence (or make) the rules and regulations they must adhere to, and the frameworks we can identify are criminogenic, then how would you define the current model of corporate capitalism using sociological theories of deviance? (In commonsense terms.)

Question 48

Explain the correlation between conceiving of homosexuality as a sin, crime, or illness. Think of other so-called deviant behaviors. Do all deviant behaviors go through a similar process, if not in the same order, at least experiencing the label and consequences of each categorical distinction and the reactivity it brings from society? What is at least one common thread between defining something as a sin, crime, or illness?

Question 49

Discuss the tragic irony between the sexual marginalization of nonheterosexual persons within the Catholic Church given the scandals surrounding the relatively minor consequences for priests who have abused children. There is no link between sexual predilection and pedophilia-this is not the intended discussion. What is important is how the same belief and organizational structure can condemn with dignity stripping those who deviate from heteronormative paths but at the same time "forgive," if not shield from prosecution, those who participate in a much higher consensus deviant behavior. What theory of deviance best describes this contradiction? Is a blended theory necessary?

Question 50

Why do you believe bisexual individuals are rejected by both heterosexuals and homosexuals? Does this surprise you?