Deck 1: Seeing and Acting Through the Lens of Sociology

Question 1

According to sociologists,why do some individuals seem to have more resources and face fewer challenges when considering postsecondary education?

A) Some individuals are unable to capitalize on the resources they have at hand.
B) Some individuals make poor choices and have no self-control in their youth.
C) Some individuals experience several coinciding larger social factors that may limit their choices.
D) Some individuals don't have the inner resources to overcome life's challenges.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

In Canada,which term best describes the act of protecting children from physical danger?

A) normative
B) norm-centered
C) proscribed by law
D) a matter of individual discretion

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What does the phrase "seeing the strange in the familiar" imply?

A) recognizing that our behaviour may look peculiar to people from other societies
B) recognizing that society shapes many of the choices we think of as purely personal
C) recognizing that our behaviour would look peculiar to people from different historical periods
D) recognizing that all of us have secrets which we are unlikely to share

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which statement best describes the relationship between micro and macro?

A) Macro questions are the appropriate subject matter of sociology while micro questions are not.
B) Micro questions tend to be more important than macro questions.
C) Micro questions often require macro answers.
D) Individual experiences which occur at the micro level are intricately connected to broader social forces at the macro level.

Question 5

Which of the following best describes the term "life chances"?

A) the probability of surviving a natural disaster
B) the opportunities in life resulting from patterns of stratification and inequality
C) the ways in which what one achieves in life is a product of personal will and ambition
D) the idea that luck has important sociological dimensions

Question 6

Charles is supposed to drive his friends to school for an important examination.However,no matter how much he tries,Charles cannot start his car.In anger he tells his friends that his car is doing this on purpose.What quality is Charles attributing to his car?

A) directionality
B) agency
C) micro tendencies
D) non-operationality

Question 7

Which term refers to behaviours,appearances,and thoughts that are readily accepted by a society?

A) popular
B) normative
C) acceptable
D) proper

Question 8

According to the textbook authors,what is the essence of the sociological perspective?

A) the use of statistics to chart social change
B) the promotion of the functional
C) the desire to promote change at the micro level
D) the use of the sociological imagination

Question 9

Once Ruth got married,she quit her job,had two children,and stayed at home to raise them.Although Ruth had wanted to be a doctor,raising her children was what her family and friends expected her to do.What kind of influence on her actions was Ruth's decision to follow "the expected path"?

A) micro-level
B) macro-level
C) global
D) normative

Question 10

In Canada,how is the decision to attend university perceived?

A) It is not considered normative.
B) It is no longer affected by life chances.
C) It is,in one sense,an indirect product of the decisions made by so many married mothers to enter the work force in the 1960s and 1970s.
D) It is rarely based on financial considerations.

Question 11

Which term best describes the ability of a person to grasp the connection between society and self?

A) sociological imagination
B) social evolution
C) sociological revelation
D) structural integration

Question 12

How might a sociologist best understand a situation in which someone adopts a fashion trend that is being widely shared by others in society?

A) an example of faddish fashion
B) the familiar in the strange
C) the strange in the familiar
D) decorative diffusion

Question 13

In Canada today,how is post-secondary education most commonly viewed?

A) normative
B) renormative
C) dysfunctional
D) functionally required

Question 14

Which term best describes the relationship between the macro and micro level?

A) unidirectional
B) bidirectional
C) multidirectional
D) nondirectional

Question 15

According to Max Weber,the ways in which our opportunities in life are affected by factors such as race,ethnicity,and gender is summarized by which of the following?

A) stratified outcomes
B) life chances
C) proletarian deprivation
D) lifestyle competition

Question 16

Which term refers to the level of broad social forces?

A) micro level
B) macro level
C) sociological level
D) public level

Question 17

When we see the strange in the familiar,what are we assuming?

A) We assume that social life is best explained by factors we don't quite understand.
B) We assume that behaviour is best explained by personal choice.
C) We assume that personal decisions are shaped by society and not just individual choice.
D) We assume that even those closest to us have elements of their lives they wish to conceal.

Question 18

Factors such as social stratification,inequality,race,ethnicity,and gender affect opportunities available to a person.What label did Max Weber give to these factors?

A) life chances
B) life opportunities
C) individual opportunities
D) individual chances

Question 19

What does it mean when sociologists refer to agency?

A) the ability to make choices
B) the ability to connect to a broad web of social services
C) the ability to influence others
D) the ability to interact effectively with a bureaucracy such as the university

Question 20

Jim wanted to be a nurse because he had seen how his mother helped people through their illnesses.However,the dominant social norm of "female nurse;male doctor" was still strong in his community.What kind of influence was the basis of Jim's decision to enter nursing school?

A) micro-level
B) macro-level
C) global
D) normative

Question 21

Which of the following helps us to understand that things are not always what they seem to be?

A) the sociological you
B) the sociological problematic
C) the sociological paradox
D) the sociological imagination

Question 22

Which term refers to a set of propositions intended to explain a fact or a phenomenon?

A) a theory
B) a norm
C) a fact
D) a paradigm

Question 23

In Canadian society,divorce rates are relatively high.According to structural functionalists,which term best describes the family structure when problems result in divorce?

A) split
B) bidivisional
C) dysfunctional
D) latent

Question 24

In a large metropolitan centre,authorities suspected that break-and-enter and other theft crimes were increasing due to massive layoffs during a global recession and the subsequent loss of income.By systematically studying the income levels of populations within the metropolitan area,the most vulnerable areas were identified and strategies for addressing the immediate needs of the people in those areas were initiated.Which sociological approach is useful for this type of objective study of this nature?

A) critical
B) positivist
C) negativist
D) reductionist

Question 25

Which of the following takes a positivist approach?

A) conflict theory
B) symbolic interactionism
C) postmodernism
D) functionalism

Question 26

Rachel is a tenured faculty member of the economics department at the local university,Anita is an associate professor in sociology,and Harley is tenured in the department of family medicine.As a research group,they have been awarded funds from a major national funding agency to study the accumulated long-term sociocultural and sociomedical effects of low income on the health of immigrant groups in a midsized city in Western Canada.What is this is an example of?

A) postdisciplinarity
B) aggregated disciplinarity
C) omni disciplinarity
D) interdisciplinarity

Question 27

Jocelyn has been turned down for five jobs in the last two months.She believes the interviewers do not consider her because of the colour of her skin.What theoretical approach would be most effective when analyzing her experiences?

A) interpretive
B) critical
C) positive
D) negative

Question 28

Which statement best describes a positivist approach?

A) It stems from the humanities.
B) It focuses on subjective explanations.
C) It looks at the relationships between variables.
D) It assume that people generally have favourable views of their society.

Question 29

Why would social services workers benefit from a degree in sociology?

A) They need to understand how to work with criminals.
B) A university education is necessary for the position.
C) They develop social service programs.
D) They deal with both personal and social problems.

Question 30

João grew up in the countryside,but moved to the city to find work when he turned 18.He felt very lost because he was unsure of social norms that were followed in his new urban surroundings.According to Durkheim,what consequence might follow from this experience?

A) manifest
B) neo-urban
C) dysfunctional
D) anomie

Question 31

According to the text,what do we call collectively shared criteria by which we determine whether something is right or wrong?

A) sociology
B) values
C) theory
D) functionalism

Question 32

Who is noted as the first academic to recognize the significance of combining empirical research and theory as a productive method of studying the social world?

A) Auguste Comte
B) Karl Marx
C) Max Weber
D) Emile Durkheim

Question 33

Who is acknowledged as doing work that examined how power affected the society of the time?

A) Mahatma Gandhi
B) Ibn Khaldun
C) Aristotle
D) Confucius

Question 34

According to the text,which theory emphasizes explanation and prediction,assuming that there are objective "laws" that govern the way society works?

A) interpretivist theorizing
B) critical theorizing
C) positivist theorizing
D) feminist theorizing

Question 35

Who was Auguste Comte?

A) He introduced the concept of the "life chance."
B) He introduced the concept of the "sociological imagination."
C) He argued that sociology needs to be more interdisciplinary.
D) He gave sociology its name.

Question 36

Which statement best describes interdisciplinarity?

A) It involves scholars working on parallel projects in order to show that the same phenomena can be understood many different ways.
B) It has encouraged the formation of new disciplines like globalization or gender studies.
C) It rarely involves sociological analysis.
D) It focuses on one gender at a time.

Question 37

Even before the discipline had a name,what were the early sociologists trying to understand?

A) research methods
B) changes in society
C) early theory
D) social myth

Question 38

How can contemporary social science research be best described?

A) interdisciplinary and postmodern
B) postdisciplinary and multifunctional
C) multidisciplinarity and nonempirical
D) postdisciplinary and interdisciplinary

Question 39

Sociological research has provided society with an overview of the Canadian legal and corrections systems.This data would not have been available for analysis and application to society without the use of which of the following to gather reliable knowledge?

A) empirical methods
B) theoretical conceptualization
C) research funding
D) experimental methodologies

Question 40

The difference between disciplines such as sociology and anthropology is less apparent in the 21st century.According to the text,what is this phenomenon called?

A) dual disciplinarity
B) interdisciplinarity
C) multidisciplinarity
D) postdisciplinarity

Question 41

During an economic depression,large numbers of people may feel a collective sense of normlessness and uncertainty about what the rules are under which social condition.Who would best describe this type of situation?

A) Marx
B) Durkhein
C) Mills
D) Comte

Question 42

Which type of society would conflict theorists find most reflective of their arguments?

A) a society which is constantly at war with its neighbours
B) a society in which there is no real violence but in which levels of media violence are very high
C) a society in which a small group of powerful people is at the top of the social hierarchy and a large group of powerless people is on the bottom.
D) a society in which a proletarian class exploits the bourgeoisie class

Question 43

Critical theory focuses on what factor influencing social processes?

A) negativity
B) problems
C) self-interpretation
D) power

Question 44

According to the text,what type of theorizing explores the role that power plays in social processes,and emphasizes the importance of knowledge being tied to emancipation?

A) interpretivist theorizing
B) critical theorizing
C) positivist theorizing
D) feminist theorizing

Question 45

When the members of society share a view that something is right or wrong,what do we say they are expressing?

A) their values
B) their norms
C) a generalized otherness
D) an emancipatory laxity

Question 46

There is a small group of people in town who seem to have all the money and make all the rules.The rules they make (especially around employment)are intended to ensure they continue to have all the money.Which theoretical perspective would be most effective to analyze the activities in this town?

A) structural functionalism
B) feminist theory
C) conflict theory
D) anomie

Question 47

During an economic depression,large numbers of people may feel a collective sense of normlessness and uncertainty about what the rules are under these new social conditions.What is this situation an example of?

A) normative deficiency
B) anomie
C) dysfunction
D) inadequate normalization

Question 48

In Marxist conflict theory,who are the owners of the means of production?

A) the bourgeoisie
B) the proletariat
C) the leaders
D) everyone

Question 49

According to the text,which sociological framework views society as comprising individuals who are engaged in various forms of communication,which come to mean particular things based on common shared understandings that develop between specific people?

A) conflict framework
B) interactionist framework
C) feminist framework
D) postmodern framework

Question 50

Who is credited with founding the conflict perspective?

A) Émile Durkheim
B) Karl Marx
C) Max Weber
D) George Herbert Mead

Question 51

What is the sociological label we give to people when we care about what those people think of us?

A) the generalized other
B) the significant other
C) the general public
D) the significant public

Question 52

Historically,the people who decided that women should not get an education were probably men.Which theory would be most likely to study this statement?

A) normative
B) historical
C) critical
D) interpretive

Question 53

After working at a minimum wage job for three years,Catherine has decided to apply to the local college to receive training to be a medical laboratory technician.She checked various job websites across the country and discovered that there was a significant shortage of lab techs and that she would have no trouble finding work.According to structural functionalists,what kind of functionality does Catherine's choice exhibit?

A) latent
B) manifest
C) purposeful
D) socialized

Question 54

Which of the following is Émile Durkheim most closely associated?

A) life chances
B) anomie
C) class conflict
D) the generalized other

Question 55

George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer are credited with pioneering work for which sociological perspective?

A) critical
B) feminist
C) functionalist
D) interactionist

Question 56

According to the text,which sociological framework views society as comprising a small group of powerful people at the top of society,and a large group of powerless people at the bottom?

A) conflict framework
B) interactionist framework
C) feminist framework
D) postmodern framework

Question 57

Which term would most sociologists use to describe the tendency for people in society to become increasingly isolated from each other?

A) functional
B) a product of mores
C) dysfunctional
D) a micro level life chance

Question 58

Which theoretical framework is tightly linked with practice?

A) structural functionalist theory
B) symbolic interactionist theory
C) Durkheim's theory
D) conflict theory

Question 59

Batool did not want to wear a sari to the mall because she was afraid of what shoppers at the mall would say about her.How would George Herbert Mead describe the shoppers Batool was concerned about?

A) significant others
B) generalized others
C) significant shoppers
D) generalized shoppers

Question 60

Suicide rates in some Indigenous communities are among the highest in Canada.While suicide is often characterized as an individual's response to pain,emotional,psychological,and/or other mental health concerns,what term might Durkheim use to describe what appears to be a specific issue within an entire community of people?

A) dysfunctional
B) cultural fatigue
C) anomie
D) shared post-traumatic stress

Question 61

Large-scale social movements are often informed by a conflict theory framework.What is the term coined by Karl Marx that describes the connection between scholarship and action by some groups aimed to end their subordination?

A) reactiveness
B) praxis
C) academic intervention
D) autonomy

Question 62

Which term refers to the group of people who are most important to us and who have a significant major influence in our socialization?

A) significant others
B) specialized others
C) significant individuals
D) socialized others

Question 63

Which theoretical framework has a branch of thought that proposes men and women are inherently similar and that the differences are sociologically constructed?

A) critical
B) feminist
C) functional
D) interactionist

Question 64

Which of the following is associated with the concept of praxis?

A) positivism
B) functionalism
C) symbolic interactionism
D) conflict theory

Question 65

According to the text,various sociological approaches are linked to specific theoretical sociological perspectives.Some of these theoretical perspectives are focused on the individual as the main element of society.Which level of society is featured in this perspective?

A) interpretivist
B) positivist
C) macro level
D) micro level

Question 66

According to the text,which theory focuses on the ways that people come to understand themselves,others,and the world around them?

A) interpretivist theorizing
B) critical theorizing
C) positivist theorizing
D) feminist theorizing

Question 67

Who became one of the first noteworthy feminist sociologists?

A) Beatrice Potter Webb
B) Jane Addams
C) Harriet Martineau
D) Marianne Weber

Question 68

Dorothy Smith,a Canadian sociologist,contends that women's positions have been overlooked or ridiculed.She suggests that feminist theory and practice must assume the importance of listening to women as they describe their life experiences.What is the name of her feminist theory?

A) stand-alone theory
B) standpoint theory
C) relational feminist theory
D) feminist socialist theory

Question 69

Which term refers to a way of understanding a particular subject or social phenomenon?

A) social statement
B) postmodern topic
C) discourse
D) Interaction

Question 70

Which term best describes a society when legal and/or social power is vested in men?

A) patriarchal
B) patrilocal
C) gender focused
D) gender antiquated

Question 71

"You need a university education to succeed in today's world." This statement is part of an agreement about the importance of education,constructed by people with an education.As more and more people agree with this statement,it becomes widely accepted as true.According to Michel Foucault,this acceptance means that the statement has become part of what social phenomenon?

A) an elite interaction
B) an elite discourse
C) a popular discourse
D) a popular interaction

Question 72

Postmodern sociology emerged after which significant historical event?

A) after World War I
B) after World War II
C) after the collapse of the Soviet Union
D) after 9/11

Question 73

The feminist perspective argues that past academic research has inadequately studied women's experiences as different from men's experiences.Which characteristic of the research is responsible for this inadequacy?

A) The research has been androcentric.
B) The research has been focused on functionality.
C) The research has been conflict driven.
D) The research has been antifeminist.

Question 74

According to the text,which sociological framework argues that social change has created inescapable chaos and meaninglessness?

A) conflict framework
B) interactionist framework
C) skeptical postmodern framework
D) affirmative postmodern framework

Question 75

Which type of theorist would argue that it is important to understand social worlds the way the people who live in those social worlds understand them?

A) functionalist
B) conflict
C) positivist
D) interpretive

Question 76

Which statement best describes of the work of sociologist Dorothy Smith?

A) It is widely recognized for her androcentric approaches to sociology.
B) It argued that the only way to change social structures is to focus on those structures directly.
C) It argued that the only way to understand the micro level is to understand the lived experience at that level.
D) It is one of the few contributions associated with 19th century feminist sociology.

Question 77

Who is credited with the conceptualization of standpoint theory?

A) Harriet Blondeau
B) Margaret Neuman
C) Dorothy Smith
D) Beatrice Williams

Question 78

According to George Herbert Mead,what do we develop as we pass through all of the main stages of socialization?

A) social awareness
B) social savvy
C) a significant other
D) a generalized other

Question 79

Which theoretical framework deconstructs what is perceived as "knowledge" and asks questions of that knowledge?

A) functional postmodernism
B) critical postmodernism
C) skeptical postmodernism
D) affirmative postmodernism

Question 80

Jane and Josh both went to get their haircut and they both got brush cuts.Mutual friends had a much stronger,negative reaction to Jane's haircut,telling her she looked awful and should grow her hair back.Josh was told he looked good.Using a feminist sociological framework,which statement best explains this difference in reactions?

A) Gendered interpretation is necessary because society is gendered.
B) Expectations regarding behaviour are gendered because society is gendered.
C) Conflict will confirm that society is gendered.
D) Style is gendered regardless of other gender changes in society.