Test Bank for Sociology 19th Edition by Macionis
ISBN: 9780135425107
Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective
In this revision of the test bank, I have updated all of the questions to reflect changes in Sociology, Nineteenth Edition The questions are tagged to indicate one of four levels of learning that move from lower-level to higher-level cognitive reasoning. The four levels:
Recollection: a question involving recall of key terms or factual material
Understanding: a question testing comprehension of more complex ideas
Application: a question applying sociological knowledge to some new situation
Analysis: a question requiring identifying elements of an argument and their interrelationship
The 195 questions in this chapter’s test bank are divided into four types. True/False questions are the least demanding. As the table below shows, two-thirds of these are “Recollection” questions, and all of them fall within the lowest three levels of cognitive reasoning (“Recollection,” “Understanding,” and “Application”). Multiple-choice questions span a broader range of skills (most are “Recollection” questions and the remainder are divided among the three higher levels) Short-answer questions are spread across the highest three levels of reasoning. Finally, essay questions are the most demanding because they require analysis and other higher levels of cognitive reasoning
Types of Questions
Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective
TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS
1. Most people in the United States marry partners whose racial and ethnic identity differs from their own.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
2. According to sociologists, human behavior mostly reflects our personal “free will.”
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
3. Sociology is defined as the systematic study of human society.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
4. Sociologists focus only on unusual or unexpected patterns of behavior.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
5. Using the sociological perspective, we would look at society based on the assumption that people’s lives are mostly a result of what they, as individuals, decide to do.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
6. On average, college students in the United States come from families with above-average incomes.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
7. Emile Durkheim provided evidence that categories of people with weaker social ties have lower suicide rates than people with stronger social ties.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
8. In the United States, Black people have a higher suicide rate than White people.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
9. In the United States, men have a higher suicide rate than women.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
10. In the United States, White people have a lower suicide rate than Hispanic people
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
11. People with lower social standing are usually more likely to see the world from a sociological perspective than people who are well off.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
12. U.S. sociologist C. Wright Mills argued that times of social crisis encourage widespread sociological thinking.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
13. U.S. sociologist C. Wright Mills claimed that sociology encourages people to take personal responsibility for solving their own problems.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
14. A global perspective has little in common with a sociological perspective.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
15. Societies around the world are now more interconnected than ever before.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
16. Studying other societies is a good way to increase awareness of not only others’ social patterns but our own way of life.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
17. Barbara Ehrenreich, who spent many months working at low-wage jobs, concluded that most people in such jobs to be able to move ahead to better-paying work.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
18. Sociological research may be interesting, but it is of little use in shaping public policy, including legislation.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
19. The sociological perspective helps us to assess the truth of the “common sense” beliefs most people tend to take for granted.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
20. Learning to see and think sociologically is useful because almost all jobs require understanding how various categories of people differ in their beliefs and patterns of behavior.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
21. Sociology is useful training for any job that involves working with people.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
22. Sociology developed along with the feudal system in European societies roughly one thousand years ago.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
23. The discipline of sociology first took root in France, Germany, and England.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
24. Among all academic disciplines that are taught at colleges and universities today, sociology is one of the youngest.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
25. The term sociology was coined by Emile Durkheim in 1898.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
26. Ancient philosophers, including Plato, were primarily interested in imagining the “ideal” society rather than studying society as it really is.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
27. Across the history of human societies, the last of Auguste Comte’s three stages is the metaphysical stage, in which people seek to know the world in terms of a divine plan.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
28. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that society reflected the basic goodness of human nature.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
29. Auguste Comte approached society as a positivist because he believed that there were laws of society in the same way that the laws of physics guide the operation of the natural world.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
30. Sociologists gather facts in order to confirm, reject, or modify the theories they develop.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
31. The chapter explains that, in general, areas of the country with high population density have high rates of suicide.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
32. The structural-functional, social-conflict, and symbolic-interaction approaches are three basic theoretical approaches in sociology.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
33. According to Robert K. Merton, all social patterns exist because they are good and have the same beneficial effect on all members of a society.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
34. Rarely are members of a society aware of all the functions of any social structure.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
35. Delaying the entry of young people into the labor market is one latent function of higher education.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
36. We would correctly describe tens of thousands of deaths in traffic accidents each year as a manifest function of our society’s reliance on personal automobiles
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
37. To say that a social pattern is “dysfunctional” simply means that it has more than one function for the operation of society.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
38. The goal of the structural-functional approach is not just to understand how society operates, but to reduce social inequality.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
39. In the United States, secondary schools provide students with an education that reflects, in part, the social standing of their families.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
40. Both feminism and the gender-conflict approach highlight ways in which women and men are socially unequal.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
41. W. E. B. Du Bois translated the writings of Auguste Comte from French into English.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
42. Harriet Martineau, who wrote about the evils of slavery and worked to improve the lives of factory workers, is widely regarded as the first woman sociologist.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
43. W. E. B. Du Bois, the first Black person to earn a doctorate from Harvard University, sought not only to understand problems faced by Black communities in the United States but to encourage change that would solve them.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
44. Like the gender-conflict approach, the race-conflict approach has a focus on social inequality.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
45. W. E. B. Du Bois wrote a classic study of the Black community in the city of Philadelphia.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
46. W. E. B. Du Bois tried to discourage sociologists from studying controversial topics such as racial inequality.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
47. Both Karl Marx and W. E. B. Du Bois carried out their research guided by the structuralfunctional approach.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
48. Among the various theoretical paradigms in sociology, the symbolic-interaction approach is a micro-level orientation.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
49. The focus of the symbolic-interaction approach is how society is divided by class, race, and gender.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
50. Social-exchange analysis is one micro-level approach to understanding social interaction.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
51. Sociological research shows that all categories of people in the United States have had the same opportunities to participate in sports.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
52. People included in racial and ethnic minority categories of the U.S. population represent a far larger share of team players than CEOs/presidents.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
53. The meaning people find in competitive sports would be one focus of a symbolic-interaction approach.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
54. A symbolic-interaction analysis focuses on broad patterns of social inequality involving all of society’s major institutions.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
55. Structural-functional theory tends to be politically conservative, just as social-conflict theory tends to be politically progressive.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
56. Historically, the discipline of sociology developed largely as an effort to address social problems.
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
57. On balance, the discipline of sociology directs attention more to choices made by individuals (politically speaking, a conservative perspective) and less to the structures of society (politically speaking, a progressive perspective).
Answer: True
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
58. Sociological generalizations are the same as simple stereotypes.
Answer: False
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
59. What does the sociological perspective reveal 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.
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
60. The statement that the social world guides our actions and life choices just as the seasons influence activities and choice of clothing is best described as which of the following?
a. The basis of what philosophy calls “free will”
b. The essential wisdom of the discipline of sociology
c. Evidence that people everywhere have “common sense”
d. Evidence that people from countries all around the world make mostly the same choices about how to live
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
61. Which of the following disciplines defines itself as “the systematic study of human society”?
a. Sociology
b. Psychology
c. Economics
d. History
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
62. 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
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
63. By stating that the sociological perspective shows us “the strange in the familiar,” the chapter 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
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
64. Three campus roommates are talking about why they have come to 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 these are all ways in which society guides college attendance
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
65. The chapter’s sociological analysis of childbearing around the world suggests that the number of children born to a woman reflects ________.
a. only her personal preference for family size
b. how many children she can afford
c. whether she lives in a low-income or a high-income society
d. simply the desires of her husband
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
66. 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 levels of social integration
d. higher self-esteem
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
67. The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was ________.
a. Robert K. Merton
b. Auguste Comte
c. Emile Durkheim
d. Karl Marx
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
68. In the United States today, the suicide rate is highest for which of the following categories of people?
a. White men
b. Black men
c. White women
d. Black women
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
69. 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
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
70. Sociologists use the term “social marginality” to refer to ________.
a. people who have little understanding of sociology
b. people who have unusual social skills
c. people who are defined by others as “outsiders”
d. people who are especially sensitive about their family background
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
71. Because social marginality encourages sociological thinking, we might expect people in which category listed below to make the most use of the sociological perspective?
a. Wealthy and powerful people
b. People within a racial minority category
c. Politicians
d. People in the middle class
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
72. Following the thinking of C. Wright Mills, we would expect the sociological imagination to be more widespread ________
a. during times of peace and prosperity
b. among very rich people
c. among very religious people
d. during times of social crisis
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
73. C. Wright Mills claimed that the “sociological imagination” transformed ________.
a. common sense into laws of society
b. activists for change into supporters of the status quo
c. personal problems into public issues
d. scientific research into common sense
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
74. 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
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
75. 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
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
76. 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
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
77. Almost all of Latin American nations (excluding Mexico) and almost all of Asian nations fall into the category of .
a. low-income nations
b. middle-income nations
c. high-income nations
d. socially marginalized nations
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
78. Understanding how social patterns differ from one country to another increases .
a. distrust among people living in various nations
b. the rate of global social change
c. our understanding of both ways of life in other nations and our own way of life
d. conflict among global nations
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
79. The steady flow of people and products into the United States each year supports the conclusion that
a. the world’s nations are increasingly interconnected
b. other nations have little effects on life in high-income countries such as the United States
c. people around the world share little in terms of their ways of life
d. sociologists have little reason to pay attention to nations other than the United States
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
80. 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 some element of international trade
c. unimportant because there is no longer very much poverty in the world
d. important because people the world over have ways of life that are very much the same
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
81. Social problems that exist in the United States, such as poverty and gender inequality, are ________.
a. less serious in lower-income countries
b. more serious in lower-income countries
c. equally serious in lower-income countries
d. unheard of in lower-income countries
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
82. 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
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
83. Making use of the sociological perspective encourages ________.
a. challenging many commonly held beliefs
b. acceptance of all commonly held wisdom
c. the belief that society is mysterious
d. people to be happy with their lives as they are
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
84. In recent years, sociological research has helped policy makers to ________.
a. plan establishing communities on other planets
b. reduce the extent of political polarization in the Unted States
c. better understand the role of race in interactions between police and the public
d. boost the earnings of major corporations in the United States
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
85. Learning more sociology can help you ________.
a. understand that people have little control over their lives
b. assess the opportunities and constraints in your life
c. understand that people should accept their lives just as they are
d. see how individuals guide their own lives through “free will”
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
86. In the feature 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 barely made enough money to pay for her basic needs
c. found most of her coworkers to be dull and lazy
d. was eventually convinced that personal ability is everything
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
87. 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 are at high risk of becoming victims of crime.
d. A financial services worker devises a new type of hedge fund.
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for developing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
88. 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
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
89. Examples of people applying their knowledge of sociology at work include people in medicine ________.
a. declining to offer treatment to certain categories of people
b. understanding patterns of health in a community
c. working as clinical sociologists
d. understanding that factors like race, class, and gender have no effect on well-being
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
90. Among the historical changes that stimulated the development of sociology as a discipline was ________.
a. the founding of the Roman Catholic church
b. the rise of the industrial economy and growth of cities
c. the power of tradition
d. a belief that our futures are defined by “fate”
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
91. We would expect that the sociological perspective to be most likely to develop in a society that was ________.
a. very traditional
b. experiencing many social changes
c. very low income
d. small and socially isolated
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
92. Sociology first appeared as a formal discipline in ________.
a. the United States
b. Japan
c. France
d. China
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
93. The term “sociology” was coined in 1838 by ________.
a. Karl Marx
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Adam Smith
d. Auguste Comte
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
94. Sociology differs from the older discipline of philosophy by focusing on ________.
a. what the ideal society should be
b. human nature
c. the place of divine forces in shaping human events
d. how society actually operates
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
95. The major goal of sociology’s pioneers, including Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim, was ________.
a. to serve the powerful
b. to help build an “ideal society”
c. to discover how society actually operates
d. to prevent disruptive social change
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
96. Auguste Comte described the earliest human societies as being at which stage of historical development?
a. Theological stage
b. Metaphysical stage
c. Scientific stage
d. Postscientific stage
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
97. According to Auguste Comte, people living in Europe during the Middle Ages thought of society as ________.
a. a system operating according to its own laws
b. chaotic and having little order or form
c. an expression of God’s will
d. a system of behavior according to natural laws
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
98. The ancient Romans saw the stars as being gods. Auguste Comte would classify ancient Roman society as being in which of the following stages of history?
a. Scientific stage
b. Metaphysical stage
c. Theological stage
d. Postscientific stage
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
99. According to Auguste Comte, the development of sociology took place as society entered which stage of development?
a. Theological stage
b. Metaphysical stage
c. Scientific stage
d. Postscientific stage
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
100. Thomas Hobbes’s idea that society reflects a selfish human nature illustrates the thinking common at which of Auguste Comte’s historical stages?
a. Theological stage
b. Metaphysical stage
c. Scientific stage
d. Postscientific stage
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
101. According to Auguste Comte, the type of thinking favored by people such as Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, becomes common in a society at which stage of societal development?
a. Theological stage
b. Metaphysical stage
c. Scientific stage
d. Postscientific stage
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
102. _ is a way of understanding the world based on science.
a. Tradition
b. Positivism
c. Metaphysics
d. Free will Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
103. When did sociology become established as an academic discipline in the United States?
a. During the Middle Ages
b. About 1800
c. About 1900
d. About 2000
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
104. Most of today’s sociologists agree with Auguste Comte’s claim that ________.
a. no society has reached the scientific stage of history
b. human behavior is not patterned and orderly
c. sociology should be based on religion
d. science is an important foundation of sociology
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
105. Sociologists cannot identify “laws of society” that allow us to precisely predict the behavior of an individual because ________.
a. human behavior may display patterns, but it is also spontaneous
b. sociology is still very young
c. no sociologist ever tried to discover such laws
d. no sociologist would wish to predict human behavior
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
106. A statement that explains how and why specific facts are related is called a(n) ________.
a. approach
b. precept
c. concept
d. theory
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
107. To evaluate a theory using evidence, sociologists ________.
a. gather data or facts
b. accept the conventional wisdom of their society
c. are guided by their personal feelings about the issue
d. look to the past for guidance
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
108. If we state that children raised in single-parent families are at higher risk of becoming single parents themselves, we have constructed a of family life.
a. paradigm
b. precept
c. concept
d. theory
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
109. In deciding what kinds of questions to ask in their research, sociologists drawn on their professional training and are guided by ________.
a. one or more theoretical approaches
b. their own common sense
c. our society's traditional wisdom
d. sheer chance
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
110. Looking at the United States, high suicide rates are typical of areas in which people
a. live densely packed in cities
b. live spread apart in rural areas
c. have higher incomes
d. live in a warmer climate
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
111. The early sociologists Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim used the ________.
a. the structural-functional approach
b. the social-conflict approach
c. the symbolic-interaction approach
d. theological approach
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
112. The theoretical approach in sociology that views society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability is the ________.
a. structural-functional approach
b. social-conflict approach
c. symbolic-interaction approach
d. tradition-based approach
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
113. Which of the following concepts is used to describe relatively stable patterns of social behavior?
a. Social structure
b. Manifest functions
c. Social functions
d. Social dysfunctions
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
114. The structural-functional approach is concerned with ________.
a. the meaning people attach to their behavior
b. patterns of social inequality
c. the consequences of social patterns for the operation of society
d. ways in which each person differs from all others
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
115. Identify the three sociologists who played a part in the development of sociology’s structural-functional approach.
a. Auguste Comte, Karl Marx, W. E. B. Du Bois
b. Auguste Comte, Herbert Spencer, Emile Durkheim
c. Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, Auguste Comte
d. Harriet Martineau, Robert K. Merton, W. E. B. Du Bois
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
116. Herbert Spencer described human society as a complex system having much in common with ________.
a. animal societies
b. planets and stars
c. the human brain
d. the human body
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
117. Who was the U.S. sociologist who explained that social patterns have both manifest functions and latent functions?
a. Robert K. Merton
b. William Graham Sumner
c. Talcott Parsons
d. C. Wright Mills
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
118. The recognized and intended consequences of a social pattern are referred to as ________.
a. latent functions
b. manifest functions
c. eufunctions
d. dysfunctions
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
119. Unrecognized and unintended consequences of a social pattern are called ________.
a. latent functions
b. manifest functions
c. operational functions
d. dysfunctions
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
120. An example of a latent function of college is ________.
a. providing skills needed for later jobs
b. keeping young people out of the labor force, which may not have jobs for them
c. gaining the knowledge required to be an active and thoughtful citizen
d. giving young people experience living on their own
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
121. Social structures sometimes have negative consequences for the operation of society as a whole. Which of the following concepts refers to these negative consequences?
a. Social structure
b. Manifest functions
c. Social functions
d. Social dysfunctions
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
122. Robert K. Merton explained that what is functional for one category of people ________.
a. is always functional for everyone
b. may not be functional for people in another category
c. is unlikely to change over time
d. can never be functional in the future
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
123. Understanding marriage using the structural-functional approach might prompt you to consider ________.
a. what people think marriage means
b. how marriage benefits women and men unequally
c. the consequences of marriage for the operation of society
d. how can we help people find more pleasure in their marriages
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
124. The main characteristic of the approach is its view of society as being orderly and stable.
a. structural-functional
b. social-conflict
c. social-interaction
d. tradition-based
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
125. A fair criticism of the structural-functional approach is that it ________.
a. ignores inequality that can generate tension and conflict
b. focuses too much on social dysfunction
c. focuses too much on power divisions in society
d. is a politically liberal view of society
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
126. A limitation of the structural-functional approach is that it ________.
a. is not concerned with the consequences of patterns of social behavior
b. is not focused on macro-level social structures
c. does not use the sociological perspective
d. focuses on stability at the expense of conflict
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
127. The “framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change” is the ________.
a. structural-functional approach.
b. social-conflict approach
c. symbolic-interaction approach
d. tradition-based approach
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
128. The social-conflict approach draws attention to ________.
a. how elements contribute to the overall operation of society
b. how people construct meaning in their interaction
c. patterns of social inequality
d. the stable aspects of society
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
129. Looking at the operation of U.S. schools guided by the social-conflict approach might lead a sociologist to conclude that ________.
a. the function of schools is to teach needed skills
b. the meaning of schooling varies from child to child
c. schools have been a major path to social advancement
d. our society provides some students with far better schooling than others
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
130. Using the social-conflict approach, a sociologist might highlight ________.
a. income differences among young people in high school.
b. the functions of sports for society as a whole
c. meanings people associate with various family members
d. the functions of a social institution such as the family
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
131. Karl Marx, guided by the social-conflict approach, argued that the point of studying society was ________.
a. to understand how society really operates
b. to compare U.S. society to others
c. to foster support for a nation’s government
d. to bring about greater social equality
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
132. _______ had an important influence on the development of the social-conflict approach.
a. Karl Marx
b. Talcott Parsons
c. Emile Durkheim
d. Herbert Spencer
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
133. The social-conflict approach sometimes receives criticism for ________.
a. focusing on values that everyone shares
b. being openly political
c. promoting the status quo
d. ignoring factors like class
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
134. A sociologist using the gender-conflict approach might be expected to state that ________.
a. men and women share in the joys of family life
b. in many ways, men are in positions of power over women
c. gender functions in an important way to keep society operating
d. men and women enjoy equal rights and privileges in our society
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
135. Who helped launch the discipline of sociology by studying the evils of slavery and also by translating the writings of Auguste Comte?
a. Harriet Martineau
b. Jane Addams
c. Elizabeth Cady Stanton
d. Dorothea Dix
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
136. Which pioneering sociologist founded Chicago’s Hull House to assist immigrants and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?
a. Jane Addams
b. Harriet Martineau
c. W. E. B. Du Bois
d. Herbert Spencer
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
137. Which early sociologist received the first doctorate ever awarded by Harvard University to a person of color?
a. Jane Addams
b. Harriet Martineau
c. W. E. B. Du Bois
d. Herbert Spencer
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
138. Which early U.S. sociologist studied the Black community and served as a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)?
a. Jane Addams
b. Harriet Martineau
c. W. E. B. Du Bois
d. Herbert Spencer
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
139. Which of the following theoretical approaches would you expect to highlight the fact that, on average, Black families have less income than White families?
a. The race-conflict approach
b. The gender-conflict approach
c. The structural-functional approach
d. The symbolic-interaction approach
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
140. W. E. B. Du Bois claimed that ____ _ was the major problem facing the United States during the twentieth century.
a. class
b. race
c. gender
d. ethnicity
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
141. W. E. B. Du Bois described Black Americans as having a “double consciousness” because ________.
a. most Black Americans felt that, compared to White people, they had to be twice as careful in how they acted
b. there is a double disadvantage for those who are both low income and Black
c. Black people have to work twice as hard as White people to get the same reward
d. Black Americans are not “just Americans”; they are American citizens who have a second identity based on skin color
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
142. The approaches are macro-level, describing societies in broad, structural terms.
a. structural-functional and social-conflict
b. structural-functional and symbolic-interaction
c. social-conflict and symbolic-interaction
d. gender-conflict and symbolic-interaction
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
143. Which of the following examples illustrates a micro-level focus?
a. The operation of the U.S. economy
b. Patterns of global terrorism
c. Two people on an airplane getting to know one another in conversation
d. Class inequality in the armed forces
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
144. The basic idea of the symbolic-interaction approach is that society is ________.
a. an arena of conflict between categories of people
b. the product of people interacting in countless everyday situations
c. a system that operates to benefit people
d. a system that generates social inequality
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
145. Which theoretical approach claims that it is not so much what people do that matters as much as what meaning they attach to their behavior?
a. Structural-functional approach
b. Social-conflict approach
c. Symbolic-interaction approach
d. Social-exchange approach
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
146. ___, one of the founding sociologists, urged sociologists to understand a social setting from the point of view of the people in it.
a. Karl Marx
b. Emile Durkheim
c. Auguste Comte
d. Max Weber
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
147. Looking at romantic relationships, a social-exchange analysis would point out that ________.
a. people typically seek mates who offer as much as they do
b. class differences are reflected in favored sports
c. people build reality as they introduce themselves
d. people who do more important work usually earn more pay
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
148. A common criticism of the symbolic-interaction approach is that it ________.
a. calls attention to major social institutions
b. says little about the influence of structural factors such as culture, class, gender, and race
c. paints a very positive picture of society
d. says little about how individuals actually experience society
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
149. A limitation of the symbolic-interaction approach is that it ________.
a. is not concerned with the meaning people attach to behavior
b. is focused only on macro-level social structures
c. does not use the sociological perspective
d. does not focus on the widespread influence of culture
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
150. The symbolic-interaction approach focuses on how ________.
a. society held together
b. society is divided
c. individuals actually experience social situations
d. some people protect their privileges
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
151. A manifest function of sports is ________.
a. providing a source of recreation and physical conditioning
b. fostering social relationships
c. generating jobs
d. teaching a society’s way of life
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
152. Building social relationships and creating tens of thousands of jobs are two of the _________ of sports.
a. manifest functions
b. latent functions
c. dysfunctions
d. nonfunctions
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understanding
153. A social-conflict approach to sports would be an analysis of ________.
a. the way in which sports help encourage competition
b. the importance of physical ability in success
c. how sports reflect social inequality
d. the different meanings people attach to games
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
154. Racial discrimination in professional baseball is evident today in ________.
a. the fact that just 2.5 percent of team owners are in a racial or ethnic minority category of the population
b. the exclusion of Black and Latino players from professional baseball
c. the fact that a majority of players are Black or Latino
d. the fact that today’s players earn far less than players earned fifty years ago
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
155. A symbolic-interaction analysis of sports would conclude that ________.
a. winning at sports means different things to different people
b. some categories of people benefit more than others from sports
c. sports help develop important cultural values
d. most team presidents and CEOs are White men
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
156. Using the symbolic-interaction approach, sports becomes ________.
a. a structure that contributes to the functioning of society
b. a matter of social inequality
c. less a system than an ongoing process of interaction that creates meaning
d. just a game without any meaning
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
157. The insight that engaging in sports helps to encourage competition and the pursuit of individual success, both of which are central to our society’s way of life, reflects which theoretical approach?
a. The race-conflict approach
b. The structural-functional approach
c. The symbolic-interaction approach
d. The gender-conflict approach
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
158. A major benefit of learning and applying the language of politics is ________.
a. understanding that sociological analysis has no political consequences
b. gaining the ability to make sociological generalizations
c. becoming a more engaged citizen
d. remaining free of any bias
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
159. Which theoretical approach focuses on society as it exists and, therefore, tends to be politically conservative?
a. The structural-functional approach
b. The gender-conflict approach
c. The race-conflict approach
d. The symbolic-interaction approach
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
160. Which theoretical approach is a micro-level approach that is generally viewed as more personal and less political?
a. The structural-functional approach
b. The gender-conflict approach
c. The race-conflict approach
d. The symbolic-interaction approach
Answer: d
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
161. Which theoretical approach tends to be critical of social inequality and, therefore, is politically progressive?
a. The structural-functional approach
b. The social-conflict approach
c. Any micro-level analysis
d. The symbolic-interaction approach
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Recollection
162. Sociology developed largely as an effort to address social problems, and the sociological perspective directs our attention not to individual choices as much as to structures of society. Therefore, the chapter concludes, seeing the world sociologically tends to encourage people to be ________.
a. likely to engage in stereotyping
b. conservative
c. nonpolitical
d. progressive
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Application
163. A simplified description unfairly applied to every person in the same category is called ________.
a. a sociological insight
b. a sociological generalization
c. a stereotype
d. an act of discrimination
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Recollection
164. Unlike simple stereotypes, sociological generalizations ________.
a. apply to all individuals in some category
b. are based on all available facts
c. are motivated by bias
d. ignore facts
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
165. In several sentences, explain the essential wisdom of sociology.
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
166. What did Peter Berger mean when he said the sociological perspective is “seeing the general in the particular”?
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
167. In the individualistic culture of North America, why can the sociological perspective be described as “seeing the strange in the familiar”?
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
168. Explain why the power of society is evident in the decision to bear a child or even in the very personal decision to die by suicide.
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
169. What did C. Wright Mills mean by “the sociological imagination”? How does this point of view reveal a limitation of what members of our society call “common sense”? How does it change the way we see personal problems?
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
170. Why is a global approach a logical extension of the sociological perspective?
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
171. Explain some of the personal benefits of learning to use the sociological perspective, including career advantages.
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
172. Name the three social changes in European history that were especially important to the development of sociology. Why did change spark the development of sociology?
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
173. What can you say sociologically about when and where the discipline of sociology developed?
Learning Objective: LO 1.4: Link the origins of sociology to historical social changes.
Topic: The Origins of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
174. In several sentences, explain the focus of the structural-functional approach.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
175. Distinguish between the manifest and latent functions of schooling, sports, the COVID-19 pandemic, iPhones, or another social pattern of your choosing.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
176. What is social structure? How do the structural-functional and social-conflict approaches understand social structure differently?
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
177. In several sentences, explain the focus of the social-conflict approach.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
178. Explain the focus of the gender-conflict or feminist approach. Guided by this approach, provide several sentences that offer a critical analysis of our society.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
179. Briefly describe the contributions of W. E. B. Du Bois to sociology.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
180. Briefly explain the difference between a macro-level and a micro-level theoretical orientation.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
181. In several sentences, explain the focus of the symbolic-interaction approach.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understanding
182. In several sentences, point to benefits derived from incorporating political analysis as well as analysis using sociological theory.
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
183. Describe the political character of each of sociology’s major theoretical approaches: the structural-functional approach, the social-conflict approach, and the symbolic-interaction approach.
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
ESSAY QUESTIONS/TOPICS FOR SHORT PAPERS
184. The sociological perspective helps us recognize that the lives of individuals are shaped by the forces of society. Explain, in a short essay, how the sociological perspective reveals “the general in the particular.” To illustrate, explain how society plays a part in your own decision to attend college.
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
185. Since beginning this course in sociology, how has your view of the world changed? Provide one specific example of something in your life that you see differently now compared to before you started this course. Is this change a good thing? Explain.
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
186. Provide three examples of how using the sociological perspective highlights general patterns in the particular choices made by individuals.
Learning Objective: LO 1.1: Apply the sociological perspective to show how society shapes our individual lives.
Topic: The Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
187. Sociologists increasingly focus on not just U.S. society, but the world as a whole. Provide several reasons for this global focus. How is an awareness of global patterns, such as immigration or social inequality, very much a part of the sociological perspective?
Learning Objective: LO 1.2: State several reasons that having a global perspective is important in today’s world.
Topic: The Importance of a Global Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
188. Do you see any dangers in adopting the sociological perspective too intensely? For example, by saying that society is at work in all of our choices about how to live, do we lose any sense of personal responsibility for our actions?
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
189. Imagine that you were asked by another student, “What would be the benefits of taking a course in sociology?” Explain how and why sociology can transform the way someone sees the world.
Learning Objective: LO 1.3: Identify the advantages of sociological thinking for assessing public policy, for encouraging personal growth, and for advancing in a career.
Topic: Applying the Sociological Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
190. Explain how the structural-functional approach is more focused on understanding society as it is and how the social-conflict approach (consider the gender-conflict or race-conflict approaches) is more focused on social change. Do you prefer one approach to the other? Explain.
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
191. Point out what the viewpoint of a sociologist who is influenced by the structural-functional approach (say, Emile Durkheim) has in common with that of a sociologist influenced by the social-conflict approach (say, Karl Marx). That is, how are they both sociological? At the same time, how does each represent a different assumption about the nature of society? How is the purpose of sociological study different?
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
192. Develop the differences among the three theoretical approaches by applying each to the family. In each case, how do we understand a family and its operation?
Learning Objective: LO 1.5: Summarize sociology’s major theoretical approaches.
Topic: Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Application
193. Can you identify some social pattern that people in our society tend to see as an expression of personal ability or personal choice? Describe the pattern and then explain how society is also at work in the pattern you have identified.
Learning Objective: LO 1.6: Apply sociology’s major theoretical approaches to the topic of sports.
Topic: Applying the Approaches: The Sociology of Sports
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analysis
194. The types of questions we ask about society affect the answers we receive; similarly, the theoretical approach we employ shapes the consequences of our research for society going forward. Explain the links between theoretical analysis and political analysis.
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis
195. Explain the difference between sociological generalizations about categories of people and the simple stereotypes we hear in everyday life.
Learning Objective: LO 1.7: Understand the links between the sociological perspective, sociological theory, and political analysis.
Topic: The Politics of Sociology
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Analysis