Deck 5: Separate and Together: Life in Groups

Question 1

People who associate with each other on a regular basis for no other reason than to spend time together are usually members of a:

A) a primary group
B) a secondary group
C) a reference group
D) a social network

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Some students at a college form an intramural softball team.They play other teams from their school and from the area every Sunday in a conveniently located park.If a sociologist wanted to determine whether the team was a primary group or a secondary group,what might she consider?

A) The age of the players
B) The innate skill of the players
C) The shared hobbies of the players
D) The importance of winning to the players

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Which of the following would be considered a group in the sociological sense?

A) A collection of sightseers at a tourist attraction
B) A high school chess club
C) A crowd gathered at a crime scene
D) A line at the grocery store

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The sociologist Joseph Conti studied the World Trade Organization as a social network.According to Conti,how is power measured within this type of social network?

A) The most powerful members are those who most often win their disputes with other members.
B) The most powerful members are those who have the most connections to other members.
C) The most powerful members are those who are involved in the fewest disputes with other members.
D) The most powerful members are those who can most often change the minds of other members.

Question 5

How do sociologists distinguish a group from a crowd?

A) A group doesn't necessarily share any common attribute.
B) A crowd doesn't necessarily feel a shared identity.
C) A group doesn't have ongoing social relations.
D) Members of a crowd don't interact with one another.

Question 6

What do sociologists call the webs of direct and indirect ties that connect individuals to others who may influence them?

A) Social networks
B) Reference groups
C) Inner circles
D) In-groups

Question 7

One of the baristas at José's local coffee shop always greets him by name and usually notices his mood.Once when he was upset about something at school,he confided in her.She now asks how school is going and seems to care about his answer.How would we characterize her relationship with José?

A) She is a "consequential stranger" and bridges the gap between his primary and secondary groups.
B) She is a member of his primary group.
C) She fits neatly into the model of a secondary group.
D) She is a member of the bourgeoisie.

Question 8

Which of the following statements about secondary groups is true?

A) They involve intimate, face-to-face interaction.
B) They tend to be based on specific roles or activities.
C) They are usually small and long-lasting.
D) Their values become fused into a person's identity.

Question 9

John gets a job with a large firm that audits small businesses.While working there,he becomes friends with Dave,who invites him to attend a weekly poker game.The game soon becomes a meaningful part of John's social life.Some weeks the game is the only thing he has to look forward to.This is an example of:

A) the absolute distinction between primary groups and secondary groups.
B) the way secondary groups produce nearly anonymous relationships.
C) the way primary groups can lead to membership in secondary groups.
D) the way secondary group ties can lead to the close personal ties of primary groups.

Question 10

All left-handed people in the United States would be classified as a(n):

A) category
B) crowd
C) aggregate
D) group

Question 11

In "The Strength of Weak Ties," what are the implications of Mark Granovetter's findings?

A) A person with high SES is likely to have direct ties to people with low SES.
B) We rely on weak ties for much of our social networks.
C) Weak ties almost always are long-lasting and durable.
D) People tend to form homogeneous social networks.

Question 12

Members of which of the following think of themselves as belonging together while also interacting with each other?

A) An aggregate
B) A group
C) A category
D) A queue

Question 13

If a person belongs to a group in which the members are mostly anonymous to one another,that group is almost certainly a:

A) secondary group
B) primary group
C) professional group
D) social network

Question 14

Which of the following is a characteristic of a primary group?

A) They are larger and more anonymous than secondary groups.
B) They are often formal or impersonal.
C) They tend to be based on specific roles or activities.
D) They depend on emotional intimacy for their existence.

Question 15

What type of group provides most of our emotional satisfaction?

A) Secondary groups
B) Reference groups
C) Out-groups
D) Primary groups

Question 16

Many sociologists have worried that the modern economy demands both geographic and occupational mobility,which in turn means that industrial and bureaucratic organizations have become the norm.What sort of groups might become less common if people have to move many times in their lives for work?

A) Crowds
B) Secondary groups
C) Categories
D) Primary groups

Question 17

Which of the following is an aggregate?

A) An extended family with members living in three different states
B) The audience at a Broadway show
C) A Little League baseball team
D) A bird-watching club

Question 18

Sociologists would not consider fans of the rock musician Bruce Springsteen to be a group.Why not?

A) They won't form any lasting relationships with one another.
B) They share no meaningful features.
C) They don't find themselves in the same physical location.
D) They don't interact in any meaningful way.

Question 19

Which type of group is characterized by long-term,intimate,face-to-face relationships?

A) A primary group
B) An in-group
C) A reference group
D) A secondary group

Question 20

The sociologist Duncan Watts examined the way people may change their minds about whom to vote for based on the opinions of friends and acquaintances.What concept was Watts studying?

A) Social networks
B) Bureaucracy
C) Charismatic authority
D) Rationalization

Question 21

Robert Putnam's research can be exemplified by his description of a decline in bowling leagues.Which of the following might serve as evidence that Putnam's concerns about anomie are overblown?

A) The increasing number of hours people spend engaged with electronic media.
B) The decline of movie theaters and the subsequent rise of services like Netflix.
C) The sharp spike in the suicide rate in Eastern Europe over the past two decades.
D) The growth of online support groups to help people who have rare diseases share information and emotional support.

Question 22

How have social networking websites affected social groups?

A) They diminish the importance of primary groups but not secondary groups.
B) They make primary groups expand to include many more members than before.
C) They minimize the importance of secondary groups, especially those that are associated with shared interests or education.
D) They help people make the most of both their primary and secondary groups.

Question 23

Why would sociologists who study social networks and employment pay attention to the frequency with which a person has been in contact with each member of his social network?

A) To measure the homogeneity of the network
B) To determine if groupthink is an issue in a particular social network
C) To see if a particular tie is strong or weak
D) To see just how extensive the network is

Question 24

According to Robert Putnam,what does the decline in bowling leagues indicate?

A) Increasing anomie and a decline in collective bonds
B) A shift from secondary groups to primary groups
C) The increasing irrelevance of reference groups
D) A decline in physical exercise and an increase in inactive lifestyles as a result of electronic media

Question 25

When people attend high school class reunions,they often compare their own personal and professional successes and failures with those of their former classmates.This means that classmates are a(n):

A) reference group.
B) secondary group.
C) professional group.
D) identity group.

Question 26

In terms of job leads and social networks,how are men's networks different from women's?

A) Women are more likely to tell other women in their network about job opportunities.
B) If a woman's network has more women than men in it, she is less likely to hear about job openings.
C) If a man's network has more women than men in it, he is less likely to hear about job openings.
D) If a woman's network has more men than women in it, she is less likely to hear about job openings.

Question 27

How have social networking websites affected people's relationships with one another?

A) They have diminished the importance of our primary groups.
B) They have increased our loneliness and detachment from each other.
C) We now value technologies more than relationships.
D) They have made us no more or less detached from one another than we were before social media existed.

Question 28

If group members share information and advice,provide support to one another,and have common interests but never meet in person,what kind of group are they a part of?

A) A reference group
B) A social network
C) A secondary group
D) A virtual community

Question 29

What do sociologists call patterns of interaction between groups and individuals?

A) Rationalization
B) Group dynamics
C) In-group solidarity
D) Anomie

Question 30

Members of a table tennis club in upstate New York seem to have come together as much for connections with others as for the love of the game.This club can be viewed as a counterpoint to the message of Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone because it is an example of:

A) the way we continue to be socialized by the media in adulthood.
B) a type of civic engagement that brings people together.
C) the strength of weak ties.
D) the importance of primary groups in our social lives.

Question 31

The definition of what constitutes a group is being transformed as a result of new technology and the Digital Revolution.Which of the following is evidence of this?

A) Websites
B) Chat rooms
C) Self-help groups
D) Civic groups

Question 32

Groups that we use as standards to evaluate ourselves-either positively,in terms of the qualities we aspire to achieve,or negatively,in terms of the qualities we wish to avoid-are called:

A) reference groups.
B) out-groups.
C) in-groups.
D) networks.

Question 33

Social networks can influence people through contagion.What does that mean?

A) When connection leads to disease or infection, sociologists call it contagion.
B) The influence of various social networks is contagious. Networks tend to mimic each other over the long run.
C) This borrows from a biological model: if people are weak, they are likely to "catch" the influence of their social network.
D) When people are connected to a social network, what happens in that network is more likely to affect them.

Question 34

In a Peruvian campaign to improve public health in rural areas,one key challenge was to convince isolated villagers to boil their drinking water in order to kill parasites.In a pilot study,this effort largely failed.Government caseworkers lectured the villagers about germ theory,but villagers associated hot foods with illness and didn't like the taste of boiled water.The only families who adopted the practice were not well integrated into the village and had few connections to their neighbors.What does this example demonstrate?

A) That the need for more virtual communities is declining
B) That social ties don't just connect us to others but also influence our behavior
C) That modernization attempts largely fail without modern technology
D) The McDonaldization of society

Question 35

Robert Merton pointed out that we remember Abraham Lincoln,one of America's great heroes,as being frugal,thrifty,and sparing,yet some people might describe these same traits differently when a member of some other racial or ethnic group possesses them.for example,Merton suggested that some white Americans who would describe Lincoln this way might describe an Asian American who has these same qualities as being stingy,miserly,and penny pinching.What explains this double standard?

A) Because of historical change, standards of behavior that were considered appropriate in Lincoln's time are now looked down upon.
B) Lincoln was miserly, but he is remembered differently because American textbooks are not permitted to say negative things about presidents.
C) Lincoln was a truly remarkable individual who acted in these ways for selfless reasons, something everyday people can't hope to do.
D) for these white Americans, Lincoln was a member of their racial in-group, whereas an Asian American would be a member of the out-group.

Question 36

Émile Durkheim worried that in an increasingly fragmented modern world,individuals would feel less and less connected to groups,which would lead to:

A) the rise of hate groups.
B) a need for new types of etiquette.
C) anomie, or normlessness.
D) unemployment.

Question 37

Mark Granovetter has argued that the people you know best are likely to possess only information you already have.This is why he believed that when it comes to finding employment,it is advantageous to have:

A) a commitment to hard work and a determination to succeed.
B) casual acquaintances who are connected to different social networks.
C) a prestigious education in order to gain access to lucrative occupations.
D) a high degree of cultural and social capital.

Question 38

Simon Langlois studied government employment in Quebec.He found that even though the government had made efforts to formalize recruitment,more than 40 percent of the people he surveyed found their jobs through personal contacts.In the majority of those cases,the personal contacts were fairly casual acquaintances,not close friends.What principle is demonstrated here?

A) The strength of weak ties
B) The power of strong triads
C) The role of group cohesion
D) The power of groupthink

Question 39

Although individuals always feel loyalty toward their in-group,under what circumstances would this loyalty be particularly strong?

A) When the in-group is particularly large
B) When the individual has belonged to the in-group for a short time
C) When the out-group is from another city than the in-group
D) When the differences between the in-group and the out-group are sharply defined

Question 40

All over Los Angeles,you can see cars sporting a bumper sticker that says,"My favorite teams are UCLA and whoever's playing USC." What is this an example of?

A) Group dynamics
B) Hostility toward an out-group
C) Bureaucratic rationalization
D) The use of a reference group

Question 41

When group members withhold their reservations and criticisms for the sake of consensus,they are engaging in:

A) group solidarity
B) laissez-faire decision making
C) groupthink
D) expressive leadership

Question 42

What is the danger of too much group cohesion?

A) It leads to endless rounds of discussion that tend to preclude any real action.
B) It makes group members more susceptible to anomie, or normlessness.
C) It reduces the degree to which members are attracted to the group.
D) It can lead to groupthink, in which dissenting opinions are strongly discouraged.

Question 43

The Twenty Statements Test asks respondents to make twenty true statements about themselves that begin with the phrase "I am." Why is this test discussed in a chapter about social groups?

A) It was developed to measure the extent to which individuals follow the norms of their primary groups.
B) It helps sociologists understand the extent to which group norms constrain individuals.
C) It helps to map social networks by establishing what social ties exist between people.
D) It was developed to measure the extent to which we base our identity on membership in groups.

Question 44

Which of the following is best suited to preventing groupthink?

A) A leader who encourages and rewards the presentation of alternative opinions
B) A strict meritocracy in which only the best and brightest are hired
C) Strict control over the flow of information into and out of an organization
D) A strong leader who controls every aspect of the decision-making process

Question 45

What is the strongest type of conformity that can occur as a result of social influence or peer pressure?

A) Abnegation
B) Identification
C) Internalization
D) Compliance

Question 46

What sort of group dynamic may have led officials at NASA to ignore warnings and launch the space shuttle Challenger,which exploded shortly after takeoff?

A) Groupthink
B) Peer pressure
C) Social influence
D) Group cohesion

Question 47

The Solomon Asch experiment,in which groups of participants were asked to compare the lengths of lines,demonstrated that:

A) an authoritarian leader can strongly influence group members.
B) groups have great power to induce conformity.
C) the larger the group is, the less each member has a sense of individual responsibility.
D) peer pressure emerges when a group's task is relatively difficult or demanding.

Question 48

Sociologists are interested in how social groups have changed over time.Of particular note is the degree to which individuals base their identities on group membership.How has this changed in recent American history?

A) Americans today are more likely to base their self-concept on group membership.
B) The degree to which Americans base their identities on group membership has changed very little in the past few decades.
C) Americans today are more likely to base their identity on secondary groups.
D) Americans are less likely to identify themselves as group members today than in the past.

Question 49

What was the Asch experiment measuring?

A) The power of peer pressure
B) The extent of social networks
C) The value of teamwork compared with individual effort
D) The type of organization that can best achieve social goals

Question 50

Which of the following is a factor that can lead to increased group cohesion?

A) Shared values
B) Unique traits
C) Apathy toward the group as a whole
D) Differing goals

Question 51

People today are more likely to identify themselves through personal characteristics than through group membership or affiliation.Why is this cause for concern to some sociologists?

A) People who identify themselves through personal characteristics are less likely to try to achieve their goals and advance themselves.
B) People who identify themselves through personal characteristics are more likely to blindly follow orders and bow to peer pressure.
C) People who identify themselves through personal characteristics are more likely to have large social networks and maintain connections to their communities.
D) People who identify themselves through personal characteristics might care less about the common good.

Question 52

A twenty-eight-year-old woman is on the verge of a big promotion at work.Because she didn't finish college until she was twenty-five,she wonders about getting her career moving,especially because the entry-level job she currently has is not impressive.She decides to attend her ten-year high school reunion only if she is promoted.If her old high school classmates can have this much influence on her decision to attend the reunion,what do sociologists say they represent?

A) A group that has successfully responded to bureaucratic constraints
B) A reference group
C) A primary group
D) A particularly cohesive group

Question 53

What do sociologists call a group that provides standards by which an individual can judge his own accomplishments?

A) A secondary group
B) A social network
C) A reference group
D) A primary group

Question 54

The textbook cites the example of a DUI offender who attends AA meetings in accordance with a court order but is doing so to avoid a jail sentence or hefty fine,not because he believes it truly matters.What do sociologists call this kind of conformity?

A) Identification
B) Internalization
C) Proscription
D) Compliance

Question 55

Penn State leaders quashed child sexual abuse rumors,dissent,and complaints about assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in order to uphold the reputation of the university's award-winning football program.This action to preserve public image over protecting the safety of young children was a result of:

A) a primary group
B) anomie, or normlessness
C) groupthink
D) a reference group

Question 56

The sense of solidarity,or team spirit,that an individual feels toward her group is called:

A) expressive leadership.
B) group cohesion.
C) Anomie.
D) instrumental leadership.

Question 57

When individuals are members of groups,they are influenced by other members.What do sociologists call this?

A) Internalization
B) Commodification
C) Peer pressure
D) Rationalization

Question 58

Which of the following statements would be most convincing to a sociologist if you were trying to explain the shift from A-mode and B-mode responses to C-mode responses on the Twenty Statements Test?

A) Americans have become more and more generous over the years, and their answers reflect a desire to give something back.
B) People care less about what researchers think about them, so they are more likely to answer honestly, admitting that they've always been selfish.
C) The accelerated pace of social change makes it increasingly difficult to think about the self in terms of group membership.
D) There has been a fundamental shift in individual values and psychology that has led to a long-term change in American social structure.

Question 59

What percentage of the subjects in the Asch experiment were "independents" who refused to give the wrong answer?

A) 1 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 95 percent

Question 60

If a sociologist measured group cohesion within a neighborhood and found a high level of group cohesion,which response would you LEAST expect to find on the survey?

A) "Overall, I find this neighborhood very attractive."
B) "If my neighbors were planning something, I would think of it as something 'we' were doing rather than something 'they' were doing."
C) "I feel a sense of loyalty to my neighbors."
D) "I feel comfortable in all sorts of neighborhoods."

Question 61

Which of the following phenomena is a reason why group efficiency declines as groups increase in size?

A) Social loafing
B) Rationalization
C) Socialization
D) Identification

Question 62

When a large group is asked to complete a task,individual members often neglect their responsibilities,because it is impossible for any one person to receive credit or blame.This phenomenon is called:

A) regression toward the mean.
B) groupthink.
C) group polarization.
D) social loafing.

Question 63

Which of the following authority figures still derives legitimacy from traditional sources?

A) Your landlord
B) Your parents
C) The mayor
D) A traffic cop

Question 64

When someone joins the Green Party and then starts recycling old plastic bags because she believes it can help save the environment,this is an example of what type of conformity?

A) Social networks
B) Internalization
C) Compliance
D) Social atomism

Question 65

Unlike Asch's experiment,which yielded different results when other researchers tried to replicate it decades later,a recent replication of Milgram's experiment had virtually the same results.What important implications does Milgram's research have for contemporary society?

A) It demonstrates how the power of conformity can still lead to real-life crimes of obedience, like Abu Ghraib and the telephone hoax at fast-food restaurants.
B) It demonstrates how people can avoid social influence that would lead to criminal actions.
C) It challenges the notion that authoritative figures have any real power over personal decisions.
D) It demonstrates that people who cave to social pressure have major character flaws, which helps employers avoid poor employees.

Question 66

Graduate students almost never attend graduate school at the institution where they were undergraduates,which means that a new graduate student is almost always living in a new and unfamiliar town.Therefore,it's logical that many new grad students form social bonds among themselves and share activities,such as gathering after class for beer and pizza.If a new grad student doesn't like beer or pizza but accompanies the group anyway because he wants to make friends,this is an example of:

A) internalization
B) compliance
C) shared values
D) identification

Question 67

Have you ever grumbled because your instructor assigned group work? One of the biggest problems associated with group assignments is that one person often ends up doing most of the work while others take it easy.This is called:

A) Anomie
B) Social identity
C) Social loafing
D) Compliance

Question 68

Which of the following strategies could be used as a way to minimize social loafing?

A) Ensuring that no one in the group has a particularly interesting or rewarding job
B) Ensuring that all group members are well educated and have the proper training
C) finding ways to recognize individual effort
D) Adding more members to the group

Question 69

Imagine that one of your professors has a large collection of countercultural T-shirts,including one that reads,"I scream,you scream,we all scream for heroin." The professor makes sure to never wear this shirt to class,though,because she wants to keep her job and avoid being yelled at by her department chairperson.What is this kind of conformity called?

A) Identification
B) Compliance
C) Internalization
D) Groupthink

Question 70

Which of the following is a quality of charismatic leaders?

A) They inherit their position of power.
B) Their personal qualities don't really matter.
C) They can't be replaced by legal proceedings.
D) They possess strength of conviction.

Question 71

Unlike either traditional authority or legal-rational authority,charismatic authority is rooted in:

A) the efficiency and rationality of a particular way of doing things.
B) an economic system that focuses on rules and regulations.
C) the personal qualities of the leader.
D) birthright.

Question 72

Why does actual group productivity never equal potential productivity?

A) The tasks that groups usually work on are not very interesting, which decreases motivation.
B) Time is lost to coordinating and organizing group members.
C) Group members never identify with the group thoroughly enough to give it their full attention.
D) There is no way to recognize group members for their efforts.

Question 73

Leaders whose personal style makes them more task oriented or goal oriented and less concerned with people's feelings are called:

A) expressive leaders
B) charismatic leaders
C) traditional leaders
D) instrumental leaders

Question 74

What kind of power is exhibited by a police officer who pulls over a suspect after a high-speed pursuit?

A) Coercive power
B) Influential power
C) Traditional power
D) Charismatic power

Question 75

Which of the following strategies might help solve,or at least alleviate,the problem of social loafing?

A) Assigning more group members to a project
B) Giving names to teams and T-shirts to their members
C) Randomly assigning members to teams
D) Making sure dissent is never welcome or tolerated

Question 76

What kind of leadership style is typically expected of women in contemporary society?

A) Expressive leadership
B) Rational leadership
C) family leadership
D) Proscriptive leadership

Question 77

According to Max Weber's typology of power,what type of authority is wielded by a king?

A) Legal-rational authority
B) Influential power
C) Traditional authority
D) Charismatic authority

Question 78

What does social identity theory suggest about teamwork?

A) Teamwork and efficiency are at their best when tasks are repetitive and boring.
B) Teamwork is most efficient when there is little or no recognition of individual effort.
C) The most efficient teams are made up of members who have a strong shared social identity.
D) The most efficient teams are made up of primary group members.

Question 79

What kind of power is a football coach wielding when he threatens to kick a player off the team unless the player works harder?

A) Influential power
B) Coercive power
C) Bureaucratic power
D) Charismatic authority

Question 80

In 1978 Jim Jones,the leader of the People's Temple cult,forced more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide at gunpoint by drinking poisoned flavor Aid.In the run-up to this event,Jones had strictly enforced discipline,mocking and ridiculing anyone who expressed doubts,at times even having doubters sedated.This extreme effort to enforce conformity is an example of:

A) the expressive self.
B) bureaucracy.
C) peer pressure.
D) an out-group.