Deck 1: The Sociological Perspective

Question 1

The sociological perspective reveals the truth of the "common sense" beliefs we tend to take for granted.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Sociologists focus only on unusual patterns of behavior.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Using the sociological perspective, we would conclude that people's lives are mostly a result of what they decide to do.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Understanding how society operates benefits only the most privileged people.

Question 5

Sociological research may be interesting, but it is of little use in shaping public policy, including legislation.

Question 6

People with lower social standing are usually more likely to see the world from a sociological perspective than people who are well off.

Question 7

College students in the U.S.tend to come from families with above-average incomes.

Question 8

Sociology is defined as the systematic study of human society.

Question 9

Durkheim documented that categories of people with weaker social ties have lower suicide rates.

Question 10

In the United States, men have a higher suicide rate than women.

Question 11

C.Wright Mills claimed that, most of the time, people must learn to take responsibility for their own problems.

Question 12

Studying other societies is a good way to learn about our own way of life.

Question 13

Based on the work of Barbara Ehrenreich, who tried to live by working at low-wage jobs, we should expect most people in such jobs to be able to move ahead to better paying work.

Question 14

Revolutionary changes in European societies sparked the development of sociology.

Question 15

In the United States, African Americans have a higher suicide rate than whites.

Question 16

Societies around the world are more interconnected than ever before.

Question 17

Sociology is useful training for any job that involves working with people.

Question 18

A global perspective has little in common with a sociological perspective.

Question 19

According to sociologists, human behavior reflects our personal "free will."

Question 20

U.S.sociologist C.Wright Mills argued that times of social crisis foster widespread sociological thinking.

Question 21

To say that a social pattern is "dysfunctional" means that it has more than one function for the operation of society.

Question 22

According to Robert K.Merton, social patterns are always good and have the same effect on all members of a society.

Question 23

Sociologists test their theories by gathering facts in order to confirm, reject, or modify them.

Question 24

Both feminism and the gender-conflict approach highlight ways in which women are unequal to men.

Question 25

In the United States, secondary schools place students in college preparatory tracks that partially reflect the social background of their families.

Question 26

Rarely are people aware of all the functions of any social structure.

Question 27

W.E.B.Du Bois translated the writings of Auguste Comte from French into English.

Question 28

Keeping young people out of the labor market is one latent function of higher education.

Question 29

Auguste Comte was a positivist who believed that there were laws of society in the same way that there are laws of physics that describe the operation of the natural world.

Question 30

As a discipline, sociology first took root in France, Germany, and England.

Question 31

The goal of the structural-functional approach is not simply to understand how society operates, but to reduce social inequality.

Question 32

Among all academic disciplines, sociology is one of the youngest.

Question 33

Both Karl Marx and W.E.B.Du Bois carried out their work following the structural-functional approach.

Question 34

The manifest functions of our society's reliance on personal automobiles include tens of thousands of deaths each year in traffic accidents.

Question 35

The structural-functional, social-conflict, and symbolic-interaction approaches are three basic theoretical approaches in sociology.

Question 36

W.E.B.Du Bois wrote a classic study of the African American community in Philadelphia.

Question 37

Ancient philosophers, including Plato, were primarily interested in imagining the "ideal" society rather than studying society as it really is.

Question 38

The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that society reflected the basic goodness of human nature.

Question 39

The last of Comte's three stages is the metaphysical stage, in which people know the world in terms of God's will.

Question 40

The term "sociology" was coined by Emile Durkheim in 1898.

Question 41

Both Jane Addams and Harriet Martineau are remembered today because they were married to important sociologists.

Question 42

"Stacking" in sports is the pattern by which people of one racial category disproportionately play in favored positions.

Question 43

By stating that the sociological perspective shows us "the strange in the familiar," the text argues that sociologists

A)focus on the bizarre elements of society.
B)reject the familiar idea that people simply decide how to act in favor of the initially strange idea that society shapes our lives.
C)believe that people often behave in strange ways.
D)believe that even people who are most familiar to us have some very strange habits.

Question 44

A symbolic-interaction analysis focuses on how social interaction in any everyday life setting involves social inequality.

Question 45

According to Emile Durkheim, people with a higher suicide rate typically have

A)more clinical depression.
B)less money, power, and other resources.
C)lower social integration.
D)greater self-esteem.

Question 46

Sociological research shows that all categories of people have had the same opportunities to participate in sports.

Question 47

Peter Berger describes using the sociological perspective as seeing the ______ in the _______.

A)good; worst tragedies
B)new; old
C)specific; general
D)general; particular

Question 48

The focus of the symbolic-interaction approach is how society is divided by class, race, and gender.

Question 49

What does the idea that the social world guides our actions and life choices just as the seasons influence activities and choice of clothing describe?

A)the basis of what philosophy calls "free will"
B)the essential wisdom of the discipline of sociology
C)the fact that people everywhere have "common sense"
D)the fact that people from countries all around the world make mostly identical choices about how to live

Question 50

Three campus roommates are talking about why they are in college.A sociological view of going to college highlights the effect of

A)only age, because college students tend to be young.
B)only class, because college students tend to come from families with above-average incomes.
C)only our place in history, because a century ago going to college was not an option for most people.
D)age, class, and our place in history, because of these are all ways in which society guides college attendance.

Question 51

The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was

A)Robert K.Merton.
B)Auguste Comte.
C)Emile Durkheim.
D)Karl Marx.

Question 52

Like the gender-conflict approach, the race-conflict approach is concerned with social inequality.

Question 53

Sociological generalizations are the same as simple stereotypes.

Question 54

Which discipline defines itself as "the systematic study of human society"?

A)sociology
B)psychology
C)economics
D)history

Question 55

In the United States today, the suicide rate is highest for which of the following?

A)white males
B)African American males
C)white females
D)African American females

Question 56

The meaning people find in competitive sports would be one focus of a symbolic-interaction approach.

Question 57

Social-exchange analysis is one micro-level approach to understanding social interaction.

Question 58

What might a sociologist say about people's selection of marriage partners?

A)People marry because they fall in love.
B)When it comes to romance, it's all a matter of personal taste.
C)Typically, a person marries someone of similar social position.
D)When it comes to love, opposites attract.

Question 59

The symbolic-interaction approach is a micro-level orientation.

Question 60

The chapter's sociological analysis of childbearing around the world suggests that the number of children born to a woman reflects

A)only her preference for family size.
B)how many children she can afford.
C)whether she lives in a poor or a rich society.
D)simply the desires of her husband.

Question 61

Sociologist Lenore Weitzman carried out research showing that women who divorce

A)typically remarry within one year.
B)claim they are happier than before.
C)suffer a significant loss of income.
D)have a happier sex life.

Question 62

If marginality encourages sociological thinking, we would expect people in which category listed below to make the most use of the sociological perspective?

A)the wealthy
B)disabled persons or people who are a racial minority
C)politicians
D)the middle class

Question 63

About 1.4 million immigrants enter the United States each year and many

A)the world's nations are increasingly interconnected.
B)other nations have little effects on life in rich countries such as the United States.
C)people around the world share little in terms of their ways of life.
D)sociology does not have to pay attention to nations other than the United States.

Question 64

The nations of Western Europe, Israel, Japan, and Australia fall into which of the following categories of countries?

A)low-income nations
B)middle-income nations
C)high-income nations
D)None of the above is correct.

Question 65

Following the thinking of C.Wright Mills, we would expect the sociological imagination to be more widespread in a population

A)during times of peace and prosperity.
B)among the very rich.
C)among very religious people.
D)during times of social crisis.

Question 66

The United States falls within which category of the world's nations?

A)low-income nations
B)middle-income nations
C)high-income nations
D)None of the above is correct.

Question 67

Read the following statements.Which one is TRUE?

A)Because the United States is so rich, there is little reason for us to learn about other nations.
B)Gaining a global understanding is important for college students because most new U.S.jobs involve international trade.
C)There is no longer very much poverty in the world.
D)People the world over have ways of life that are mostly the same.

Question 68

C.Wright Mills claimed that the "sociological imagination" transformed

A)common sense into laws of society.
B)people into supporters of the status quo.
C)personal problems into public issues.
D)scientific research into common sense.

Question 69

In the box about Barbara Ehrenreich working at low-wage jobs, we learned that she

A)was able to make a good living right from the start.
B)worked very hard, but never made enough money to pay for her basic needs.
C)found most of her coworkers to be dull and lazy.
D)ended up convinced that personal ability is everything.

Question 70

Sociologists use the term "social marginality" to refer to

A)people who have little understanding of sociology.
B)people who have special social skills.
C)people who are defined by others as an "outsider."
D)people who are especially sensitive about their family background.

Question 71

Sociology provides an advantage to students preparing for later careers by preparing them for work

A)only as teachers of sociology.
B)only in criminal justice or social work.
C)only as clinical sociologists.
D)in teaching, criminal justice, business, and many other careers.

Question 72

Which of the following categories contains countries in which average income is typical for the world as a whole and in which people are as likely to live in a rural area as in an urban area?

A)low-income nations
B)middle-income nations
C)high-income nations
D)None of the above is correct.

Question 73

Learning more sociology can help you to do all but which one of the following?

A)assess the truth of "common sense"
B)assess the opportunities and constraints in our lives
C)be more active participants in society
D)see how individuals guide their own lives through "free will"

Question 74

Read the following four statements about social patterns we find in the world as a whole. Which statement is FALSE?

A)The world is now home to 7 billion people.
B)A majority of the world's people live in Asia.
C)People in the United States make up one-third of the global population.
D)Less than 10 percent of the world's people have completed a college degree.

Question 75

Which of the following statements best illustrates the career advantage a person gains by studying sociology?

A)A researcher discovers a new and effective vaccine.
B)A person in retail sales knows how to exceed the monthly sales target.
C)A police officer understands which categories of people who are at high risk of becoming victims of crime.
D)A financial services worker devises a new type of hedge fund.

Question 76

Sarah is spending a summer living in another country where people have a way of life that differs from her own.A sociologist might expect that this experience would lead her to

A)end up with a greater understanding of both a new way of life and her own way of life.
B)accept what people in the United States call "common sense."
C)assume that people's lives simply reflect the choices they make.
D)gradually understand less and less about her own way of life.

Question 77

Almost all of Latin America and Asia falls within which of the following categories?

A)low-income nations
B)middle-income nations
C)high-income nations
D)very rich nations

Question 78

The text presents a portrait of a "global village." Which of the following statements about this village is true?

A)More than half the people are North Americans.
B)More than half the people are rich.
C)More than half the people are Asians.
D)More than half the people do not get enough to eat.

Question 79

Because there is more social isolation in rural areas of the United States than in urban areas, we would expect suicide rates to be

A)higher in urban areas.
B)higher in rural areas.
C)high in both urban and rural areas.
D)low in both urban and rural areas.

Question 80

Making use of the sociological perspective encourages

A)challenging commonly held beliefs.
B)accepting commonly-held wisdom.
C)the belief that society is mysterious.
D)people to be happy with their lives as they are.