Deck 5: Stratification in the United States and Global Inequality

Question 1

Which of the following would be an example of ascribed status? A high school student is given a college scholarship

A) based on his outstanding football skills.
B) because he is a Native American.
C) because of the amount of time that he has performed community service work.
D) all of these

Answer 1

because he is a Native American.

Question 2

Which of the following is an example of achieved status?

A) A Native American athlete spends months preparing for a big track meet, which she wins.
B) A young lawyer loses his first three cases and comes to work late and unprepared regularly; the law irm fires him.
C) A female umpire earns a spot in the major leagues during spring training, but after several serious judgment mistakes she is demoted to the minor leagues.
D) All of these

Answer 2

All of these

Question 3

The most extreme form of legalized social inequality is

A) slavery.
B) a class system.
C) a caste system.
D) feudalism.

Answer 3

slavery.

Question 4

Which term is used to refer to hereditary systems of rank, usually religiously dictated, which are relatively fixed and immobile?

A) tenure
B) slavery
C) castes
D) feudalism

Question 5

Peasants required to work land they leased from nobles in exchange for protection defines which type of stratification system?

A) class system
B) socialist system
C) estate system
D) caste system

Question 6

Which type of stratification theoretically allows for the greatest amount of movement from one stratum or level of society to another?

A) slavery
B) class system
C) estate system
D) caste system

Question 7

An individual is born into great wealth, but she is lazy, unmotivated, carelessly loses her fortune and dies in poverty. This scenario is most typical of a(an)

A) caste system.
B) estate system.
C) slavery system.
D) class system.

Question 8

Sociologist Daniel Rossides

A) noted that poverty was functional for many wealthy members of society.
B) created a five-class typology of the U.S. class system.
C) used Marxist theory to analyze gender discrimination in the U.S.
D) coined the term underclass.

Question 9

John works as a clerk in the accounting department of a large law firm. In sociologist Daniel Rossides's model of the class system in the U.S., John would be considered a member of the

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

Question 10

Which one of the five social classes outlined by Daniel Rossides is noticeably declining in size?

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

Question 11

In Karl Marx's view, members of each class share their own

A) dominant ideology.
B) distinctive culture.
C) prestige rankings.
D) all of these

Question 12

A factory worker organizes a protest against unsafe working conditions after realizing that the owners care more about profits than about the health and safety of the workers. In Karl Marx's terms, the factory worker can be said to have

A) class consciousness.
B) true consciousness.
C) caste consciousness.
D) proletariat consciousness.

Question 13

David, who works as an editorial assistant at a large publishing company, believes that editorial assistants deserve relatively low pay because the company must turn a profit. In Karl Marx's terms, David can be said to have

A) unconsciousness.
B) false consciousness.
C) caste consciousness.
D) bourgeoisie consciousness.

Question 14

On a cold night a group of homeless people build a fire and gather around it. They talk about their past lives and how they cope with their current conditions. According to Max Weber, this group constitutes a

A) status group.
B) power group.
C) class.
D) all of these

Question 15

The owner of a major league baseball team can fire employees for not winning a pennant, have the city build him/her a new ballpark, and refuse to permit companies that compete with his/her own team to air advertisements during the team's televised games. This owner would most likely be considered to have

A) power.
B) class.
C) esteem.
D) status.

Question 16

Which sociologist maintained that a person's position in a stratification system reflects some combination of their class, status, and power?

A) Max Weber
B) Ralf Dahrendorf
C) Gerhard Lenski, Jr.
D) Karl Marx

Question 17

Which term did Thorstein Veblen use to describe the behavior of persons at the top of the social hierarchy when converting wealth?

A) consumption flow
B) inconspicuous ridicule
C) conspicuous leisure
D) consumptive frivolity

Question 18

Which sociological perspective would be most likely to argue that most talented people would not go to school for many years to become physicians if they earn equal money and respect working as street cleaners?

A) functionalist perspective
B) conflict perspective
C) interactionist perspective
D) feminist perspective

Question 19

Which sociologist(s) argue(s) that stratification is universal and that social inequality is necessary so that people will be motivated to fill functionally important positions?

A) Ralf Dahrendorf
B) Karl Marx
C) Pitirim Sorokin and William Ryan
D) Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore

Question 20

Sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf suggests that among the most powerful groups in society are

A) managers of industry.
B) heads of the government bureaucracy.
C) legislators.
D) all of these

Question 21

Which sociologist has merged Marx's emphasis on class conflict with Weber's recognition that power is an important element of stratification?

A) William Julius Wilson
B) Ralf Dahrendorf
C) Gerhard Lenski, Jr.
D) Kingsley Davis

Question 22

Which critic of the functionalist analysis of stratification notes that while a system of rewards for filling highly expert professions demanding long years of education and skill may once have served the overall purposes of society, this situation no longer exists?

A) Gerhard Lenski, Jr.
B) Ralf Dahrendorf
C) D. Stanley Eitzen
D) David Featherman

Question 23

An objective method of measuring social class in the U.S. may be based upon evaluation of

A) the value of a family's home.
B) the number of years spent working in the same occupation.
C) the annual income and education of family members.
D) all of these

Question 24

The federal tax policies of the last four decades, especially in the 1980s, has favored

A) poorer people.
B) lower class income earners.
C) middle class income earners.
D) affluent people.

Question 25

The wealth of the top _____ percent in the United States exceeds the collective wealth of the bottom___ percent.

A) 10, 90
B) 1, 90
C) 5, 20
D) 5, 95

Question 26

Which sociologist suggests that it is functional for society to have poor people to do society's dirty work at low wages, to provide middle-class jobs for people who serve the poor, and to serve as a measuring rod of status for those with higher positions?

A) Herbert Gans
B) É mile Durkheim
C) Peter Blau
D) Daniel Rossides

Question 27

A woman works as a college professor teaching applied sociology for 25 years and decides to retire and work full-time as a marriage and family therapist. This is an illustration of which type of social mobility?

A) intergenerational mobility
B) intragenerational mobility
C) horizontal mobility
D) vertical mobility

Question 28

Which of the following is an example of vertical mobility?

A) A person loses his or her job as a corporate vice president because of downsizing and remains unemployed for 14 months.
B) An African president is overthrown in a bloodless coup and flees to a neighboring country where he works as a farmer.
C) A National Football League star suffers a career-ending injury and gets a job as an auto mechanic.
D) All of these

Question 29

Which of the following is not true regarding the feminization of poverty?

A) The proportion of impoverished women in the United States has increased since World War II.
B) Women "in transition" comprise about half of all women living in poverty.
C) The rise in poverty associated with women is not a problem in the United States.
D) A major factor contributing to women's poverty is an increase in single women as heads of households.

Question 30

Which of the following statements is not correct?

A) Women's employment opportunities are more limited than employment opportunities for men.
B) When compared with men, women are more likely to withdraw from the labor force if their skills Exceed the job offered them.
C) Self-employment and entrepreneurship is easier for women to attain than men.
D) Women experience lower rates of upward mobility compared to men.

Question 31

According to the world systems analysis, a "core" nation is a nation that

A) is socially, economically, and politically dominant over all other nations on the periphery (e.g., the U.S. and Germany).
B) has a marginal economic status (e.g., Israel and South Korea).
C) is a poor, developing nation exploited by more powerful nations and corporations (e.g., Honduras and Ethiopia).
D) none of these

Question 32

According to the world systems analysis, a "periphery" nation is a nation that

A) along with its multinational corporations dominates all other nations socially, economically, and politically (e.g., the U.S. and Germany).
B) has a marginal economic status (e.g., Israel and South Korea).
C) is a poor, developing nation exploited by more powerful nations and corporations (e.g., Honduras and Ethiopia).
D) none of these

Question 33

Which of the following statements about multinational corporations is true?

A) The 10 largest multinational corporations all have their headquarters in the United States.
B) The value of sales of the largest multinational corporations exceeds the total value of goods and . services of many peripheral nations.
C) They are all state-owned (i.e., public as opposed to private) businesses.
D) All of these

Question 34

Which sociologist(s) note(s) that modern societies tend to be urban, literate, industrial, and have sophisticated transportation and media systems, and that families in such societies are organized within the nuclear family unit rather than the extended family model?

A) Wendell Bell
B) Immanuel Wallerstein
C) Karl Marx
D) all of these

Question 35

Beginning in 2011, the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) will replace the poverty line in determining a household's eligibility for governmental benefits.

Question 36

The digital divide refers to a new aspect of social inequality, referring to differential access to internet and technological resources.

Question 37

Wealth in the United States is more evenly distributed than income.

Question 38

The division between core and periphery nations has changed significantly over the last 100 years, according to a study by the International Monetary Fund.

Question 39

Modernization suggests positive change, yet change usually occurs slowly and often benefits only the wealthiest segments of a population.

Question 40

Describe the differences between ascribed status and achieved status. Give examples to support your answer.

Question 41

Discuss Karl Marx's view on class differentiation. Define the terms bourgeoisie and proletariat. Describe what Marx termed as a "false consciousness" and give an example to support your answer.

Question 42

Compare and contrast the functionalist and conflict views of social stratification. Give examples to each view to support your answer.

Question 43

Describe the various issues surrounding the definition of poverty. Define the difference between absolute and relative poverty.

Question 44

Discuss Immanuel Wallerstein's world system analysis. Define dependency theory as it relates to Wallerstein's views. Give examples to support your answer.