Deck 1: The Sociological Perspective

Question 1

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

Answer 1

False

Question 2

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

Answer 2

False

Question 3

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

Answer 3

False

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

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

In the United States,white people have a lower suicide rate than Hispanics.

Question 8

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

Question 9

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

Question 10

Sociology is defined as the systematic study of human society.

Question 11

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

Question 12

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

Question 13

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

Question 14

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

Question 15

Most people in the United States marry partners who differ from themselves in terms of race and ethnicity.

Question 16

Societies around the world are more interconnected than ever before.

Question 17

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

Question 18

Sociologists focus only on unusual patterns of behavior.

Question 19

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

Question 20

The sociological perspective highlights how society benefits only the most privileged people.

Question 21

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

Question 22

Revolutionary changes in European societies sparked the development of sociology.

Question 23

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

Question 24

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 25

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

Question 26

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

Question 27

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

Question 28

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

Question 29

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

Question 30

ThChapter explains that,in general,areas of the country with high population density have high rates of suicide.

Question 31

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

Question 32

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

Question 33

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

Question 34

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

Question 35

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

Question 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

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

Question 39

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

Question 40

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

Question 41

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

Question 42

Harriet Martineau,who wrote about the evils of slavery and the need to improve the lives of factory workers,is regarded as the first woman sociologist.

Question 43

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

Question 44

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

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

Question 47

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

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

Question 48

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

Question 49

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 50

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

Question 51

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

Question 52

Sociological generalizations are the same as simple stereotypes.

Question 53

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

Question 54

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois encouraged sociologists to avoid studying controversial topics such as racial inequality.

Question 55

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

Question 56

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

Question 57

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 is 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 58

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

Question 59

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 60

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 61

According to Emile Durkheim,categories of 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 62

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 63

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 64

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)socially marginalized nations

Question 65

Countries in which average people's 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 are categorized as

A)low-income nations.
B)middle-income nations.
C)high-income nations.
D)socially marginalized nations.

Question 66

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.

Question 67

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 68

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 69

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 70

The nations of Western Europe,Israel,Japan,and Australia fall into which category of countries?

A)low-income nations
B)middle-income nations
C)high-income nations
D)socially marginalized nations

Question 71

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 72

Understanding the differences between countries encourages

A)global poverty.
B)gender inequality.
C)understanding of both of our own lives and the lives of others.
D)global wealth.

Question 73

If social 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 74

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 75

ThChapter '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 76

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 77

Gaining a global understanding is

A)unimportant because the United States is so rich and there is little reason for us to learn about other nations.
B)important for college students because most new U.S.jobs involve international trade.
C)unimportant since there is no longer very much poverty in the world.
D)important although people the world over have ways of life that are mostly the same.

Question 78

Almost all of Latin America and Asia falls the category of

A)low-income nations.
B)middle-income nations.
C)high-income nations.
D)socially marginalized nations.

Question 79

Social problems in the United States,such as poverty and gender inequality,are

A)less serious in poorer countries.
B)more serious in poorer countries.
C)equally serious in poorer countries.
D)unheard of in poorer countries.

Question 80

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.