Deck 4: Social Structure

Question 1

Social structures are composed of

A) statuses and roles.
B) conflict and strain.
C) functions and dysfunctions.
D) societies and cultures.
E) populations and aggregates.

Answer 1

statuses and roles.

Question 2

The rights and obligations that are attached to each position in a social structure are called

A) values.
B) statuses.
C) roles.
D) strains.
E) none of these

Answer 2

roles.

Question 3

One's position in a particular social group or structure is called a

A) status.
B) role.
C) social place.
D) function.
E) part.

Answer 3

status.

Question 4

Generally speaking, the rights attached to a particular status in a group must correspond to the____________ of another position.

A) roles
B) obligations
C) statuses
D) functions
E) values

Question 5

Some social positions are assigned rather than being earned or selected by the individual. Sociologists call these ___________ statuses.

A) attributed
B) ascribed
C) referred
D) imputed
E) none of these

Question 6

Some social positions are earned or selected by the people who occupy them. These are called__________ statuses.

A) honored
B) consummated
C) accomplished
D) achieved
E) effected

Question 7

The position of college professor is a(n)

A) achieved status.
B) conflated status.
C) ascribed status
D) conflictual status.
E) none of these

Question 8

A social status that is earned by the individual is called a(n) ______________ status.

A) honored
B) ascribed
C) earned
D) customary
E) none of these

Question 9

Wanda Jo, a police officer on duty, responds to a burglary call in her own neighborhood. She discovers her son hiding in the basement of a neighbor's house, clutching the neighbor's video camera. As a sociologist, you know Officer Jo is likely to experience

A) parental angst.
B) role stress.
C) role conflict.
D) status conflict.
E) goal displacement.

Question 10

Billy Meyers quits his job and applies to medical school. He isn't admitted because at 45 years of age, he's "too old" (according to the admissions committee). He is being rejected on the basis of

A) his lack of stable job history.
B) being a late bloomer.
C) his ascribed status.
D) race discrimination.
E) none of these

Question 11

Mary O'Brien is a sociologist, a wife, a mother, president of the local PTA, and a democrat. These are all examples of ____________ statuses.

A) conflated
B) stressful
C) achieved
D) inconsistent
E) tricky

Question 12

College professors are expected to deliver inspiring lectures, grade exams and papers fairly and attentively, do research and publish, advise students, and attend faculty meetings. These behaviors make up the professors'

A) goals.
B) status.
C) role.
D) social rituals.
E) social obligations.

Question 13

The concept "master status" refers to

A) the most important position or status in a particular group.
B) the status that a particular individual chooses to emphasize about him or herself.
C) the status that others consider most important about an individual.
D) the individual who dominates a relationship.
E) none of these

Question 14

Like most people, Robert Jones-who lives in the United States-occupies many statuses. He is a husband, a father, a Catholic, a member of the Lions Club, and an attorney. His master status is probably

A) Lion's Club member.
B) husband.
C) father.
D) attorney.
E) any of these, depending on other factors

Question 15

The police officer's badge, the attorney's brief case, the physician's medical bag, and the fire fighter's hat, are all examples of

A) fashion accessories.
B) occupational signs.
C) status symbols.
D) role minutia.
E) status accessories.

Question 16

According to sociologists, ________________ occurs when what the individual needs to do to perform one role clashes with what he or she needs to do to perform another role.

A) role clash
B) role conflict
C) role strain
D) role disjunction
E) role deviance

Question 17

As a student athlete, Mary is expected to practice several hours a day, attend class, study, perform well on exams and papers, and be a model citizen. It is likely that she will experience

A) role strain.
B) role disjunction.
C) role stress.
D) role conflict.
E) disruption of her master status.

Question 18

Doogie Howser graduated from high school at age 11; from college at age 15 and from medical school at age 17. Now, at 18, he's about to begin practicing medicine at Hometown Hospital. Which tricky situation is Dr. Doogie likely to encounter?

A) medical malpractice
B) status strain
C) role strain
D) status inconsistency
E) status conflict

Question 19

John Smith is a school teacher and a father. The school authorities say that his son, little Billy Smith, cannot be a student in his father's class. They fear

A) role conflict.
B) role strain.
C) status inconsistency.
D) status competition.
E) role negation.

Question 20

Betty Jones is the principal of Hometown High School. She marries John Smith (who teaches geometry at Hometown High). Because of her relationship with Smith, Betty should watch out for

A) status conflict.
B) role conflict.
C) status strain.
D) boredom.
E) life conflict.

Question 21

Which of the following situations is most likely to be a result of status inconsistency?

A) a female judge being asked to double her work schedule
B) a female physician being mistaken for a nurse
C) a male janitor being asked to clean up a mess in the lunchroom
D) the oldest son being asked to mow the lawn
E) all of these

Question 22

Which of the following situations is most likely to be a result of status inconsistency?

A) a female physician being mistaken for a nurse
B) a male nurse being mistaken for a physician
C) a forty-year-old college student being mistaken for a professor
D) a 22-year-old PhD being mistaken for a student
E) all of these

Question 23

According to the sociologist's point of view, a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time, are a social

A) group.
B) aggregate.
C) institution.
D) conglomerate.
E) category.

Question 24

Which of the following collections of people is not likely to be a social aggregate?

A) people at a regular Wednesday night meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous
B) people at a rodeo
C) people at local tavern
D) people who attend monster truck races
E) people at a baseball game on opening day

Question 25

A defining characteristic of a secondary group is that

A) it is created for a specific purpose.
B) it has relatively fluid boundaries.
C) it has formal social control mechanisms.
D) it demands only a limited segment of members' lives.
E) all of these

Question 26

Which is NOT a characteristic of secondary groups?

A) They tend to be relatively formal.
B) They can be very large.
C) They are extremely greedy and want to absorb the entire individual.
D) They are relatively open and tend to be easy to exit and enter.
E) all of these

Question 27

Which of the following is a characteristic of primary groups?

A) They tend to be very competitive.
B) They help socialize individuals.
C) They are characterized by face to face interaction.
D) They are frequently thought of as ends in and of themselves (not means to ends).
E) all of these

Question 28

Groups that are relatively impersonal and task-oriented tend to be

A) primary groups.
B) secondary groups.
C) tertiary groups.
D) social aggregates.
E) augmented groups.

Question 29

The students and faculty at a large Midwestern university would best be described as

A) a primary group.
B) a social conglomeration.
C) a social category.
D) a secondary group.
E) a tertiary group.

Question 30

Which of the following is LEAST likely to be a primary group?

A) clients of Safe Harbor Bank
B) three brothers from the same family
C) boyfriend and girlfriend
D) members of the local fraternity
E) members of the neighborhood gang

Question 31

The Knights of The Clouds is a group that was purposely created and officially organized to achieve some specific goals. Sociologists would call this group a

A) formal organization.
B) social aggregation.
C) official primary group.
D) structured society.
E) formal institution.

Question 32

Which of the following would you be most surprised to find in a true bureaucracy?

A) hiring based on nepotism
B) records kept in files
C) an official rule book
D) a specific division of labor
E) positions or statuses arranged in a hierarchy

Question 33

When Max Weber wrote about the ideal type bureaucracy, he was writing about

A) the best kind of bureaucracy.
B) the most frequent type of bureaucracy found.
C) a pure form of bureaucracy (one that might never be found in reality).
D) the best kind AND most frequent type of bureaucracy.
E) none of these

Question 34

Robert Merton would suggest that teachers and students who emphasize grades over learning are demonstrating

A) realism.
B) subcultural substitution.
C) goal displacement.
D) role conflict.
E) bureaucratism.

Question 35

Hospital administrators who care more about earning a profit than caring for the sick are demonstrating

A) realism.
B) subcultural substitution.
C) goal displacement.
D) role conflict.
E) bureaucratism.

Question 36

Chief plumber is an achieved occupational status.

Question 37

Husband and wife are statuses that are ascribed to people who marry.

Question 38

Only relatively wealthy people tend to own status symbols.

Question 39

Sociologists describe status as the sum total of expectations about the behavior attached to a position in a group or social structure.

Question 40

If each one of your professors were to act as if his or hers is the only class you are taking, this would likely result in role strain for you.

Question 41

The problem of status inconsistency generally arises when people achieve statuses that do not seem to fit with what other people expect of individuals with their ascribed statuses.

Question 42

For the most part, the nature of role expectations depends upon the personality of the individual of the person who occupies the status.

Question 43

For most humans, secondary groups are the most important sites of socialization.

Question 44

As a general rule, the more diverse a population is, the larger the sample must be in order to be representative.

Question 45

One important characteristic of bureaucracies is that written records are used as organizational memory.

Question 46

It's fair to say that in the ideal-typical bureaucracy, a basic rule of survival is that "who you know is more important than what you know."

Question 47

List at least five of the statuses that you occupy. Indicate whether each status is achieved or ascribed. Explain how you distinguish between ascribed and achieved statuses.

Question 48

List some of the possible status symbols of the following: President of the United States; college student; wild-west cowboy.

Question 49

Describe the elements of your role as a college student.

Question 50

Describe the differences between social groups and social aggregations. Use examples to illustrate your answer.

Question 51

Of all of your statuses, which is your master status? Why? (In your explanation make it clear that you have a good grasp of what the concept "master status"means.)

Question 52

George H. Cooley asserted that primary groups are quite competitive. Select a primary group to which you belong and describe the elements of competition that exist there.

Question 53

You are an adamant supporter of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. This amendment says that Americans have a right to bear arms. You have a life-time membership in the National Rifle Society (NRS) and you speak at pro-gun rallies frequently. However, last week, your two year old daughter found your handgun under your bed and accidentally shot herself in the head. She is in a coma and is not expected to live. Discuss the demands of your two roles that would likely be in conflict.

Question 54

Pick XXX pairs of words from the following list. Define the terms in each pair. Provide an example with each definition. (In your answer, make sure to indicate which terms you are defining!)
Definitions

Question 55

Below are some incorrect statements. Drawing upon what you have learned in class and in the readings, refute XX of these statements. (Caution: do not just explain that the statement is false. In order to receive points for your answer, you must explain how or why the statement is false). Feel free to use examples to help demonstrate your understanding.
a. According to Charles Cooley, the most important thing about primary groups is that they are loving and harmonious.
b. The term master status refers to the social status that the individual chooses to emphasize about him or herself in public.
c. Sociologists use the term "group"
to refer to any collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time.
d. Primary groups tend to have Gesellschaft-type relationships because people in them view each other as means-to-(ulterior) ends.
e. When Weber described the "ideal typical"
bureaucracy, his focus was on discovering the best kind of bureaucracy.