Deck 1: Social Class in America

Question 1

The concept ______ refers to the ways people can move within the class system.

A) social movement
B) social mobility
C) social stratification
D) social chances

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The concept ______ is used to refer to social ranking based on wealth, occupation, or prestige.

A) social class
B) social group
C) social stratification
D) social chances

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which social theorist argued that there were two social classes in society characterized by their relationship to the means of production?

A) Lee Rainwater
B) Karl Marx
C) Max Weber
D) Lloyd Warner

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The social class that must sell their labor for a wage in order to survive is referred to as the ______.

A) capitalist class
B) bourgeoisie
C) middle class
D) proletariat

Question 5

The social class that owns the means of production is referred to as the ______.

A) proletariat
B) working class
C) middle class
D) bourgeoisie

Question 6

The mode of production characterized by the dominance of the owners of industry over the mass of industrial workers is called ______

A) feudalism
B) capitalism
C) communism
D) socialism

Question 7

______ is the technologically advanced, classless society of the future, in which all productive property would be held in common.

A) Socialism
B) Capitalism
C) Feudalism
D) Communism

Question 8

What is the concept Marx used to describe the pervasive ideas that uphold the status quo and sustain the ruling class?

A) means of production
B) class consciousness
C) ideology
D) persuasion

Question 9

It was in the work ______ that Marx most completely explained his beliefs on class including the idea that "[t]he history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

A) The Power Elite
B) American Elites
C) The Affluent Society
D) Communist Manifesto

Question 10

Marx believed that a new social class had been created by the capitalist mode of production. Which of the following is that class?

A) the working poor
B) the urban working class
C) the agrarian elite
D) the agrarian working class

Question 11

Which of the following is not one of the preconditions for the development of a class consciousness?

A) the identification of a leader
B) the deprived living conditions of members of the working class
C) the geographic concentration of large masses of industrial workers
D) the simplification of the class structure that occurs during capitalism

Question 12

Which social theorist distinguished between class and status?

A) Max Weber
B) Emile Durkheim
C) Karl Marx
D) Dennis Gilbert

Question 13

The fundamental aspects of an individual's future possibilities that are shaped by class membership are called ______.

A) life options
B) life goals
C) life chances
D) life changes

Question 14

According to Weber, it is a(n) ______ that shares the same economically shaped life chances.

A) ideology
B) social class
C) lifestyle
D) status

Question 15

According to Weber, ______ is ranking by social prestige.

A) ideology
B) social class
C) lifestyle
D) status

Question 16

According to Weber, status groups share a(n) ______.

A) ideology
B) social class
C) lifestyle
D) status

Question 17

Which of the following is one of the three broad issues in the study of social class based on Marx's and Weber's work suggested in the textbook?

A) occupational basis
B) economic basis
C) ideological basis
D) religious basis

Question 18

Your textbook defines ______ as "groups of families or households, more or less equal in rank and differentiated from other families above or below them with regard to characteristics such as occupation, income, wealth, and prestige."

A) life chances
B) the political elite
C) class consciousness
D) social classes

Question 19

In the Gilbert-Kahl model of the class structure, the group located directly beneath the capitalist class is the ______.

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

Question 20

According to the Gilbert-Kahl model of the class structure, what class derives its income largely from return on assets?

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

Question 21

The Gilbert-Kahl model of the class structure is built around ______.

A) amount of income
B) amount of wealth
C) source of wealth
D) source of income

Question 22

In the Gilbert-Kahl model of class structure, which of the social classes is most likely to be university educated?

A) working poor
B) working class
C) middle class
D) upper-middle class

Question 23

When did class inequalities rise steeply in the latter half of the 20th century?

A) late 1990s
B) early 1980s
C) mid-1970s
D) 1950s and 1960s

Question 24

The years between 1946 and approximately 1973 are referred to in the text as the ______.

A) Age of Growing Inequality
B) Age of Decreasing Inequality
C) Age of Shared Prosperity
D) Age of Increasing Inequality

Question 25

There is a positive relationship between social class and life chances.

Question 26

According to Marx, in modern capitalist societies, social classes tend toward internal homogeneity.

Question 27

Marx regarded production as the center of social life.

Question 28

Marx regarded the means of production as the main determinant of a society's superstructure of social and political institutions and ideas.

Question 29

Marx named the social class that owned the means of production the bourgeoisie.

Question 30

Marx used the term ideology, to describe the pervasive ideas that uphold the status quo and sustain the ruling class.

Question 31

Weber knew the work of Marx but reached different conclusions.

Question 32

Weber believed that modern societies were characterized by two distinct social classes.

Question 33

Weber argued that status differences generally supported the development of class consciousness and class struggle.

Question 34

A status order tends to restrict the freedom of the market, not only by its monopolization of certain types of consumption goods but also by its monopolization of the opportunities to earn money.

Question 35

Communism is characterized by the dominance of the owners of industry over the mass of industrial workers.

Question 36

There is no single correct model of the American class structure.

Question 37

Class inequalities in the United States increased during the 1950s and 1960s.

Question 38

According to your textbook, it is now analytically more appropriate to emphasize the division between the capitalist and upper-middle classes and the classes below them.

Question 39

Heterosexual, married couple families are increasingly dependent on the incomes of husbands.

Question 40

The Gilbert-Kahl model stratifies the population into six classes and one subclass.

Question 41

The years since 1975 are referred to as the Age of Growing Inequality.

Question 42

Social revolutions have typically occurred in peasant societies during the early stages of industrialization under foreign influence rather than in the advanced industrial countries where Marx anticipated them.

Question 43

According to Weber, there are three social classes in society: an upper class, a middle class, and a lower class.

Question 44

According to the Gilbert-Kahl model, the two largest classes are the middle class and the working class.

Question 45

Explain the differences between Marx and Weber in terms of how they define the nature of social class.

Question 46

According to Marx, how does class consciousness develop?

Question 47

According to Marx, how do privileged minorities maintain their positions and contain the potential resistance of exploited majorities?

Question 48

Describe the nature of the relationship between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

Question 49

In the Gilbert-Kahl model of class structure, how do the sources of income differ depending on where one is situated in the social class hierarchy?