Deck 1: Sociological Perspective on Social Problems

Question 1

A social problem exists when most people in a society __________.

A)learn about the problem from the mass media
B)agree that something should be done to remedy a condition
C)realize that a problem is now directly affecting their neighborhood and family
D)have become victimized by criminals or other deviants
E)become politically active and vote on the basis of a single issue: that particular social problem

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Your text illustrates the three basic perspectives on social problems by showing how they explain the problem of __________.

A)unemployment
B)mental illness
C)criminal deviance
D)suicide
E)poverty

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Social disorganization can be manifested in three major ways,which are__________.
A)pathology,health,and atrophy

A)positive,negative,and neutral conditions
B)normlessness,culture conflict,and breakdown
C)rootlessness,anomalies,coping,and disorder
D)hyper-order,disorder,and order

Answer 3

B

Question 4

According to the functionalist perspective,the Ten Commandments,the Golden Rule,the Bill of Rights,and the teachings of all the world's religions are examples of sets of rules that __________.

A)accept that deviance is natural
B)recognize that societies are fundamentally corrupt
C)specify how people should behave in different social roles
D)specify conduct for dysfunctional individuals within a society
E)disrupt a society's order

Question 5

What is wrong with an explanation that blames a personal characteristic (such as laziness)for a problem (such as poverty)experienced by an individual?

A)Personal characteristics are private and should not be exposed.
B)Explanations should never assess blame.
C)Personal characteristics never cause such problems.
D)Such explanations tell us what to do to solve the problem,and solutions should be a separate matter.
E)Such explanations do not tell us why the same pattern is repeated for entire groups of people.

Question 6

Your text illustrates the definition of a social problem with two examples: opium use in China and women's lack of the right to vote in the United States until 1920.These examples demonstrate that __________.

A)an existing social condition becomes a social problem when it is redefined as a problem that must be solved
B)minorities,such as drug users and women,often cause social problems
C)drug use and lacking the right to vote are social problems,no matter where they occur
D)social problems occur everywhere
E)communists can solve social problems

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT a sociological question?

A)Why are increasing numbers of women becoming single mothers?
B)What mental and moral characteristics caused a particular woman to become poor?
C)Why is it that women who are born into poor and minority families are more likely to become single mothers?
D)Does homelessness make it more difficult for women and children to take productive roles in society?
E)Why are an increasing number of single mothers becoming homeless?

Question 8

As a sociological concept,the term institution refers to__________.

A)a place in which criminals are confined
B)some social unit that is old,respected,and revered
C)a place where the mentally ill are treated
D)a group or organization that has become deeply embedded in social life
E)a social structure devoted to meeting the basic needs of people in a society

Question 9

In the functionalist approach,the term social __________ is most closely related to social problems.

A)stability
B)order
C)function
D)disequilibrium
E)requirement

Question 10

Sociologists use the term __________ to refer to the positions one holds in groups or organizations.

A)statuses
B)occupations
C)norms
D)roles
E)institutions

Question 11

Which classic figure from early sociology does your text use to exemplify the functionalist perspective on social problems?

A)Herbert Spencer
B)Karl Marx
C)Max Weber
D)Emile Durkheim
E)William I.Thomas

Question 12

The idea that a society should intervene to remedy conditions affecting its citizens was a new development in the __________.

A)period of social unrest of the 1960s
B)period of urban-industrialization of the nineteenth century
C)wartime years of the early 1940s
D)economic depression years of the 1930s
E)"enlightenment" of the late eighteenth century

Question 13

__________ not only guaranteed the rights of individual citizens,but also established the legal basis for remedying conditions that are harmful to society's members.

A)Our economic affluence
B)The United States Constitution
C)The platforms of the two major political parties
D)Prevailing public sentiment
E)The philosophy of a free-enterprise society

Question 14

According to the functionalist perspective,the well-functioning group__________.

A)agrees on how roles are to be performed
B)derives rules on how people are to behave
C)acts in ways that reflect basic values
D)All of the above are correct.
E)None of the above is correct.

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a good sociological question?

A)The question asks why a condition exists.
B)The question asks about the social rather than the individual aspects of a problem.
C)The question asks how a condition is distributed in a society.
D)The question asks what action is necessary to eliminate a condition that is unrelated to policy questions.
E)The question asks whether a condition affects some people more than others.

Question 16

According to the __________ perspective,societies fear most the crimes that threaten their members' most cherished values,and individuals who dare to challenge those values will receive the most severe punishments.

A)functionalist
B)conflict
C)interactionist
D)developmental
E)social pathology

Question 17

Sociologists use the term __________ to refer to behaviors expected of performance in a position that one holds in a group or organization.

A)activities
B)roles
C)statuses
D)demands
E)requirements

Question 18

How do functionalists answer the question of why particular crimes are committed and punished in some societies,but not in others?

A)Each society has its own unique definition of what is criminal,and punishes accordingly.
B)Individuals whose crimes challenge or threaten society's most cherished values will be punished more severely.
C)Each society will punish the members of minority groups more severely than the members of dominant groups.
D)Since there is an element of chance in being caught,different crimes will be severely punished in different societies.
E)Since governments differ,the crimes that are punished will differ as well.

Question 19

In the late 1800s and early 1900s,functionalist theories regarded criminal deviance as a form of social__________.

A)pathology
B)dissensus
C)conflict
D)instability
E)consensus

Question 20

According to the functionalist perspective on social problems,the main reason for the existence of social problems is that__________.

A)societies are fundamentally corrupt
B)people are human and fallible
C)organizations become too rigid and inflexible over time
D)deviance is a natural outcome of increasingly complex social conditions
E)societies sometimes fail to adapt successfully to change and new conditions

Question 21

Which classic figure from early sociology made major contributions to the conflict perspective on social problems?

A)Herbert Spencer
B)Karl Marx
C)Max Weber
D)Emile Durkheim
E)William I.Thomas

Question 22

__________ theory stresses that a social process separates deviant and nondeviant persons not by what they do,but by how society reacts to what they do.
A)Labeling

A)Social disorganization
B)Value-conflict
C)Social pathology
D)Value-reaction

Question 23

A more modern version of the functionalist perspective attempts to show how people reorganize their lives to cope with new conditions,resulting in new kinds of organizations and/or whole new institutions.Research focusing on these attempts is known as the _________ approach.

A)institutional or institution-building
B)social pathology
C)value conflict
D)disequilibrium
E)social-disorganization

Question 24

The Marxian conflict view of deviance emphasizes__________.

A)the underlying value consensus of a society and why rules are broken
B)the characteristics of people who commit crimes
C)the career patterns adopted by criminals
D)differences in the power of different groups or classes in society
E)questions about the morality of deviant groups

Question 25

Which classic figure from early sociology made a major contribution to the interactionist perspective on social problems in the early twentieth century?

A)Karl Marx
B)William I.Thomas
C)Emile Durkheim
D)Herbert Spencer
E)Edward Ross

Question 26

Drug addicts may possess illegal drugs - an act that is criminal.To maintain their "habit," addicts may commit crimes in order to maintain their supply of drugs.This type of crime is categorized as __________ deviance.

A)unnecessary
B)criminalized
C)stress-related
D)habitual
E)secondary

Question 27

According to the __________ perspective on social problems,an individual's or group's definition of the situation is central to understanding the actions of that individual or group.

A)functionalist
B)conflict
C)interactionist
D)normative
E)social agreement

Question 28

Sociologists distinguish between the nature of media coverage of a social problem and the way that problem is perceived by the public and political leaders.They have also devoted considerable study to the question of how social problems develop from underlying conditions into publicly defined problems that engender social policies and sustained social movements.This subject is often referred to as the "__________" of social problems.

A)raison d'être
B)natural history
C)prime predictor
D)essence
E)prime mover

Question 29

In a recent national survey of Americans' attitudes on controversial issues,researchers found that on none of the issues presented did more than __________ percent of the respondents line up on either the conservative or liberal side of the question.

A)16
B)26
C)36
D)46
E)56

Question 30

According to labeling theory,a major solution to deviance is __________.

A)spending much more money on the criminal justice system so that more people can be labeled
B)changing the definition of what is deviant,such as decriminalizing certain offenses
C)major reform programs that radically restructure the norms and values underlying societal consensus
D)All of the above are solutions.
E)None of the above is a solution.

Question 31

According to value-conflict theory,a common approach to solving social problems involves __________.

A)strengthening the police so that they may detect more crime and punish wrongdoers
B)finding ways to facilitate negotiation and compromise between and among groups
C)altering the ways that prisons rehabilitate prisoners
D)finding ways to radically restructure social institutions
E)altering the basic values of society

Question 32

The institutional or institution-building approach,which shows how people reorganize their lives to cope with new conditions,is a modern version of the __________ approach to social problems.
A)functionalist

A)social disorganization
B)conflict
C)interactionist
D)social pathology

Question 33

Which of the following is NOT one of the major stages that most social problems seem to go through,as identified by Spector and Kitsuse?

A)legal invasion
B)problem definition
C)legitimacy
D)re-emergence of demands
E)rejection and institution building

Question 34

"Social problems occur when groups with different values meet and compete." This statement describes __________ theory.

A)value-conflict
B)social disorganization
C)social pathology
D)labeling
E)differential resources

Question 35

In their work,scholars who adopt a Marxian conflict perspective on deviance usually emphasize how ___________.

A)existing institutions can be improved through minor reforms
B)rehabilitation programs can change people by shifting the blame for problems in social populations
C)police forces can be made more effective
D)inequalities of wealth and power seem to account for the distribution of social problems in populations
E)society can organize forces to prevent social reform or revolutionary movements

Question 36

The __________ perspective on social problems is based on the belief that social problems arise out of major contradictions,leading to contention between those who have access to the "good life," and those who do not.

A)functionalist
B)conflict
C)interactionist
D)social disorganization
E)social pathology

Question 37

Which two sociologists made major contributions to the interactionist perspective on social problems by drawing attention to the importance of what sociologists call peer groups?

A)William I.Thomas and Florian Znaniecki
B)Edward Ross and Franklin Giddings
C)Charles H.Cooley and George H.Mead
D)Frances F.Piven and Richard Cloward
E)Talcott Parsons and Barrington Moore

Question 38

According to labeling theory,the act of labeling a person or group deviant may cause society to suffer in which of the following ways?
A)The labeling causes those who are labeled to become an important,powerful,
Political force.

A)Deviance is eliminated from society.
B)Labeling causes those who are labeled to avoid deviance,thereby deterring them.
C)The labeled may accept the definition of themselves as deviant and increase their deviance as a result.
D)The labeling has no effect because of the pro-criminal self-concepts of those labeled.

Question 39

The debate over legalization versus criminalization of abortion reflects disagreements that can be explained by __________ theory.

A)labeling
B)social pathology
C)value conflict
D)social disorganization
E)differential resources

Question 40

According to Karl Marx,the conflict in capitalist societies takes place between__________.
A)owners of enterprises and their managers

A)those who own the means of production and those who sell their labor for wages
B)corporations and labor unions
C)those in the middle-class and those who control the economy
D)governments and those who control businesses

Question 41

Today,social experiments on human subjects must guarantee the rights of __________.
A)life,liberty,and the pursuit of happiness

A)personal property and social survival
B)autonomy,integrity,and heterogeneity
C)privacy,confidentiality,and informed consent
D)personality,self-determination,and nondeception

Question 42

In the study of social problems,__________ is/are the most likely technique to raise major questions about the ethical limits of social research.

A)demographic study
B)social experiments
C)library research
D)field observation studies
E)survey research

Question 43

Policy debates that are ________ frequently pit conservatives against liberals or socialists.
A)public

A)technical
B)ideological
C)structural
D)personal

Question 44

In a social experiment,one group is exposed to "treatment." This is called the __________ group.
A)experienced

A)treated
B)control
C)experimental
D)controlled

Question 45

Social policy decisions that created governmentally funded benefits such as Social Security and unemployment insurance create what Americans have come to view as "__________" of citizenship.

A)entitlements
B)benefits
C)grants
D)income
E)assistances

Question 46

The "Wildcat Experiment," involving supported work for jail inmates,and Philip Zimbardo's simulated prison study,exemplifies __________.

A)survey research
B)demographic experiments
C)interview studies
D)field studies
E)social experiments

Question 47

In his investigation,"Becoming a Marijuana User," Howard Becker employed __________ as a research method.
A)participant observation field research

A)social practice experimental research
B)participant survey research
C)demographic study
D)library research

Question 48

Data on unemployment,crime,public opinion,etc.,are often generated from interviews of a sample of the population.As a research method,__________ is/are best suited to gain this information.
A)social experiments

A)survey research
B)individual case study
C)field observation
D)demographic study

Question 49

As a type of social policy,__________ is/are usually advocated today by those who are "conservative" on the political spectrum.

A)expanded public assistance programs
B)increased governmental regulation,intervention,and involvement
C)reduced regulation so that private free-market forces will solve problems
D)social programs like in the 1960s
E)a reduced role for private charities in solving problems

Question 50

The text points out that in the second half of the twentieth century,there has been a __________ revolution.
A)proletarian

A)psychological
B)corporate
C)lay-person's
D)communications

Question 51

Social __________ are formal procedures designed to remedy social problems.

A)solutions
B)structures
C)changes
D)stratifications
E)policies

Question 52

In a social experiment,one group is "left alone," that is,not exposed to "treatment." This is called the __________ group.

A)control
B)natural
C)isolated
D)experimental
E)neutral

Question 53

In his classic study of marijuana use,"Becoming a Marijuana User," Howard Becker demonstrated that __________.

A)marijuana is a substance that "hooks" users physiologically when they try it
B)most drug use initially occurs when an isolated individual tries the substance while alone
C)social interaction must occur for the new user to define and then to experience the appropriate feelings
D)unlike public perceptions of jazz musicians,marijuana use was not discovered in this group
E)marijuana use inevitably leads to heroin use despite the environments in which use occurs

Question 54

The __________ perspective on social problems is MOST commonly applied in field research.

A)functionalist
B)conflict
C)interactionist
D)social pathology
E)value-conflict

Question 55

Matched samples,interviewed over time about behavior or opinion,yield what is known as __________ survey data.
A)cross-cultural

A)horizontal
B)longitudinal
C)historical
D)transverse

Question 56

As a type of social policy,__________ is/are usually advocated today by those who are "liberal" on the political spectrum.

A)reduced governmental regulation
B)public subsidies for large corporations
C)releasing free-market forces
D)enhancing opportunities for private profit
E)programs that involve public or governmental actions

Question 57

Social policy discussions that argue over how adequate proposed answers are in achieving agreed-upon ends can be called __________ debates.

A)technical
B)policy
C)public
D)private
E)ideological

Question 58

__________ is the subfield of sociology that studies how social conditions are distributed in human populations and how these populations are changing.

A)Criminology
B)Gerontology
C)Ecology
D)Demography
E)Demonology

Question 59

The sociological student of social problems often wants information about the incidence of a phenomenon in the total population,expressed numerically in rates.As a research method,__________ is best suited to gain this information.

A)field observation
B)survey research
C)demographic study
D)social experiments
E)interview case study

Question 60

A sociologist interacts actively with a group being studied.This research method is referred to as __________.
A)group dynamics

A)social experimentation
B)survey research
C)participant observation
D)demographic study

Question 61

You are interested in how stable social arrangements become disorganized and how this affects the amount of rule violation.Which basic approach to social problems would you use? Why?

Question 62

Examine a social problem like crime or deviance using the conflict perspective.

Question 63

How has the communications revolution during the latter half of the twentieth century affected people's perceptions of social problems? Give a few examples.

Question 64

Examine a social problem like crime or deviance using the functionalist perspective.

Question 65

List and define the three basic sociological perspectives on social problems.How do they differ in approaching social problems?

Question 66

Select a social problem,such as crime or deviance,and compare and contrast how each of the basic sociological perspectives approach the problem.

Question 67

Discuss the natural history of social problems.Be sure to mention the major stages that most social problems seem to go through,as identified by Spector and Kitsuse.

Question 68

Describe the social problems that have arisen as a result of the globalization of the world economy.Do you think that the U.S.is capable of solving its own social problems,along with those of the rest of the world?

Question 69

Examine a social problem like crime or deviance using the interactionist perspective.

Question 70

Voices on the conservative side of the ideological spectrum of American politics tend to take a moral stance on many social problems and often insist on ________ for solving them.

A)philosophical debates
B)intellectual probings
C)individual responsibility
D)public or government intervention
E)private or market solutions

Question 71

You are interested in how social movements are organized to bring about change that enlarges the opportunities available to the poor.Which basic approach to social problems would you use? Why?

Question 72

The economic recession of 2008 has led to a variety of social problems.Describe at least two such problems.Be sure to use at least one perspective (functionalist,interactionist,or conflict)to examine these problems.

Question 73

Which of the following statements about the globalization of the economy is FALSE?

A)Globalization of economic activities provides lower-cost goods for consumers in advanced industrial nations.
B)Culture wars have arisen as a result of the social problems caused by globalization,and have made it difficult to arrive at ways to solve social problems.
C)Economic globalization takes jobs away from workers in the world's wealthier nations.
D)Globalization of economic activities provides higher-cost goods for consumers in advanced nations because of increased production and transportation costs.
E)Technology-dependent globalization has facilitated new forms of crime (such as identity theft)and social problems,such as the spread of new diseases.

Question 74

Much debate over social policy involves what the role of government should be.What has been the role of government in social policy over the past 100 years in the United States? What consequences have resulted from the role that government has played thus far?

Question 75

You are interested in understanding the processes through which persons become confirmed in a deviant identity.Which basic approach to social problems would you use? Why?

Question 76

Define a "social problem." What must happen for a social problem to develop in a society?