Contemporary Social Issues
Exam Materials
Course Introduction
This course explores the major social issues facing societies today, examining topics such as inequality, race and ethnicity, gender, poverty, environment, globalization, and the impact of technology on social life. Through a combination of theoretical frameworks and current case studies, students will analyze the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to these pressing problems. The course encourages critical thinking and active engagement with diverse perspectives, enabling students to better understand the complex dynamics shaping contemporary societies.
Recommended Textbook
New Society 8th Edition by Robert J. Brym
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Chapter 1: Introducing Sociology
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Q1) Which statement best summarizes the contribution of ancient and medieval civilizations to today's social ideas?
A) They came together to decide the best way to organize society.
B) They independently developed the same sociological theories.
C) They determined that there was value in empirical social research.
D) They outlined the ideal/utopian society.
Answer: D
Q2) According to Durkheim,psychological disorder is the major cause of suicide.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) According to the text,which term refers to patterns of social relations that lie outside and above your circle of acquaintances?
A) building structures
B) global structures
C) infrastructures
D) macrostructures
Answer: D
Q4) What is the Postindustrial Revolution?
Answer: The technology-driven shift from manufacturing to service industries
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Research Methods
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Q1) What is the most important difference between social science and natural science?
A) Social science tends to use controlled experiments and natural science does not.
B) Social science studies meaningful action and natural science does not.
C) Social science is subjective and natural science is objective.
D) Social science uses soft data and natural science uses hard data.
Answer: B
Q2) What is often the basis of criticism aimed at social research that uses official statistics as its main source of data?
A) data collection
B) ethical integrity
C) its reliability
D) its validity
Answer: D
Q3) The method of participant observation typically employs random samples of individuals or groups.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Culture
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Q1) Andrea just bought the iPhone 4 last year,but since then all of her friends have upgraded to the new iPhone 5.Even though she really cannot afford the iPhone 5,she decides to buy it with her credit card anyway.What aspect of society is captured by Andrea's decision?
A) rationalism
B) fashion
C) consumerism
D) peer pressure
Answer: C
Q2) What term refers to using the most efficient means of achieving a given end despite any negative consequences of such means?
A) routinization
B) production
C) ritualization
D) rationalization
Answer: D
Q3) How do superstitions and religion differ from one another?
Answer: Superstitions are unique to the individuals who create them,while religion is widely shared and passed from one generation to the next.
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Socialization
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Q1) Explain the difference between G.H.Mead's concepts the "I" and the "me."
Q2) Joanne went to the mall on her lunch hour and on an impulse decided to buy herself a gold necklace.After work,she went back and returned the necklace because it was very expensive and she really didn't need it.What part of her self made the decision to buy the jewellery in the first place?
A) I
B) me
C) ego
D) alter ego
Q3) According to studies of adopted Romanian orphans who had been initially neglected,what developmental shortcomings did the orphans experience?
A) below average weight and height
B) emotional and intellectual deficits
C) inadequate aggression
D) weak hand-to-mouth coordination
Q4) The text mentions several forms of socialization.Describe and explain two of them.
Q5) Describe and explain the three-stage ceremony that is typically followed in initiation rites.
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Chapter 5: Gender and Sexualities
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Q1) Your sex is dependent on what genitalia and hormones you are born with.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Lisa Diamond's book Sexual Fluidity explores how people can shift their attraction from one sex to another and back again.This could explain why some people marry a member of the opposite sex,but later become attracted to their same sex and divorce.What sociological phenomenon is reflected in this idea of fluidity?
A) compulsory sexuality
B) sexuality
C) sexual pluralism
D) gender pluralism
Q3) There is a one-to-one relationship between sex and gender.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is queer theory and how does this perspective help us to understand our current social reality?
Q5) Describe and explain the two types of workplace sexual harassment mentioned in the text.Who is most at risk of being sexually harassed?
Q6) Explain the difference between one's sex and one's gender.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Communication and Mass Media
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Q1) Jeremy is an ardent proponent of reception analysis.In a class discussion on the effects of media,which of the following will he argue?
A) Audiences selectively interpret what they want to hear.
B) Content analysis is the best way to identify the themes covered by the media.
C) Audiences passively absorb whatever messages they are given.
D) Social interaction reinforces the ideas and images that audiences select.
Q2) According to the text,what percent of Internet searches are attributed to Google?
A) less than 30
B) approximately 45
C) between 60 and 70
D) more than 80
Q3) What do we call information that is transmitted from a single source to a large impersonal audience?
A) disconnected media
B) new media
C) traditional media
D) remote media
Q4) List three benefits of social media and discuss.
Q5) What is a prosumer? Discuss,making connections to your personal experiences.
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Chapter 7: Social Stratification
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Q1) Frank Parkin's concept of exclusion refers to the organized efforts of the privileged and more powerful groups to maintain their advantaged position.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How does the text describe relative poverty?
A) Having less income causes lifestyle restrictions compared to others.
B) The poverty of an individual extends to and affects a whole family.
C) It is a form of poverty where neither food nor shelter is adequate.
D) An individual is so poor that she or he has barely enough to stay alive.
Q3) A young woman works as a security guard for several years to pay her way through university.Then she starts a new career as a software analyst.Which of the following has she experienced?
A) postmodernity
B) intragenerational mobility
C) intergenerational mobility
D) structural mobility
Q4) Critically discuss the following statement: "Social inequality in Canada is not a serious problem and,consequently,the government should not try to do anything about it."
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Chapter 8: Gender Inequality
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Q1) When watching Jeopardy,the answer was "the ability to impose one's will on others despite resistance." Josh excitedly asserted to his sister - "I know the question!" Which of the following would Josh offer?
A) What is discrimination?
B) What is influence?
C) What is power?
D) What is potentiality?
Q2) Which province introduced five weeks of leave that was specifically only for fathers after the birth of a child?
A) British Columbia
B) Manitoba
C) Quebec
D) Nova Scotia
Q3) Which term describes the concentration of women in the lower paying echelons of any organization?
A) corporate policies
B) horizontal segregation
C) vertical segregation
D) the gender paradox
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Chapter 9: Race and Ethnic Relations
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Q1) Statistical evidence shows that Aboriginal peoples are the most socially and economically disadvantaged groups in Canada.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A little boy uses a racist term when describing a neighbour,and rather than telling him how inappropriate that label is,his parents laugh.From this experience,the boy learns that his parents think he is funny when he uses racist language and he repeats the practice.What explanation would be used to explain this construction of racism?
A) primordialism
B) social psychology
C) power-conflict theory
D) socialization theory
Q3) Describe and explain the difference between civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism.
Q4) What are the specific subjective approaches to ethnicity based upon?
A) labels and definitions applied by out-groups
B) a sense of belonging,or a shared "we feeling"
C) biology,national origin,religion,and ancestry
D) linguistics,language,and language boundaries
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Chapter 10: Development and Underdevelopment
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Q1) W.W.Rostow is credited with the formulation of the modernization theory of development.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Estate agriculture greatly facilitated the development of Third World economies.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Western European economies and the United States were inevitably going to be dominant-the slave trade had only minimal impact on their economies.
A)True
B)False
Q4) When did inequality between the rich and the poor decrease as a result of Keynesian policies?
A) 1920s-1930s
B) 1930s-1960s
C) 1970s-1980s
D) 1990s-2000s
Q5) What is popular resistance? Will it succeed?
Q6) Outline the basic tenets of a neoliberal approach to development.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Families
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Q1) When watching television,Elaine saw a commercial that talked about "the gathering storm" of same-sex marriage and all the evil outcomes.When telling her friend Anne about it,Anne said "And I can guess who sponsored it." Which of the following would Anne correctly assert?
A) Secular Unity Party
B) Protestant Union
C) Homophobic Alliance
D) Christian Evangelical Right
Q2) Select two theoretical perspectives and compare and contrast their views of the family.
Q3) In 1925,what percentage of marriages ended in marital dissolution?
A) less than 1 percent
B) approximately 5 percent
C) roughly 7 percent
D) more than 7 percent but less than 10 percent
Q4) According to Engels,what two factors were the foundations of the nuclear family?
A) male strength and female weakness
B) male control of property and female fidelity
C) biology of reproduction and maternal instincts
D) biological determinism and family values
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Chapter 12: Work and Occupations
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Q1) Hiring people with disabilities is usually very costly to employers.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Michelle works in the education system.Unfortunately,full-time work in her field has disappeared with the onset of the latest recession,so she works from contract to contract.Why would employers in her profession prefer to offer contracts each year rather than full-time work?
A) That's the way things are done in the new economy.
B) They can pay contract employees less than full-time employees
C) More people apply because of the flexibility that contracts offer.
D) Contracts make flexible benefit packages possible.
Q3) Discuss the pros and cons of McDonaldization.
Q4) An assembly-line factory worker finds no sense of fulfilment in the repetitive nature of his job,and feels powerless because he has no say in how his duties are assigned.What term best describes his condition?
A) acculturation
B) alienation
C) exploitation
D) segmentation
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Chapter 13: Education
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Q1) In her class presentation on "Education and the World of Work," what would Jaime argue if she had adopted a credentialist perspective of schooling?
A) The acquisition of a job depends just as much on who you know as on what you know.
B) School curricula develop according to the needs of the workplace and the economy.
C) Skills learned during schooling develop into credentials that directly relate to job skills.
D) Learning in school has little to do with job realities;having the diploma is what counts.
Q2) There is no evidence that private schools offer higher quality schooling than regular public schools do.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Females in Canada drop out of high school in greater numbers,graduate less often,and fail to enter universities more often in comparison with their male counterparts.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Religion
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Q1) The Unitarian Church started out as a faith based on Christian theology;over time a group was formed called Universalist Unitarians,whose faith community grew to include more members with pagan beliefs than with Christian beliefs.What term best identifies the distinction between the original group and the second group?
A) church-protest typology
B) church-sect typology
C) original-reformist typology
D) pure-heretical typology
Q2) "If I was to personally define religion,I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstances" (Theodore Dreiser,1941).Which theoretical perspective does this quote remind you of? Explain and discuss.
Q3) How would Émile Durkheim describe the way the faithful experience religion and the supernatural?
A) a real experience of social origin and socially created gods
B) an experience constructed out of mythology
C) something made up of an assemblage of historical facts
D) a self-delusional experience created out of people's beliefs
Q4) How does "deprivation" account for religiosity?
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Chapter 15: Deviance and Crime
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Q1) Which situation would be classified specifically as a "moral panic"?
A) when reactions to deviance outweigh the harm done
B) when parents find out their teenagers are having sex
C) when reactions to morally charged behaviour occur in public places
D) when the church gets involved in a public issue
Q2) Which approach is the importance of attachment central to?
A) labelling theory
B) opportunity theory
C) strain theory
D) control theory
Q3) According to John Hagan,which criteria is the basis of the "conflict crime" category?
A) moral crimes
B) definitional crimes
C) serious crimes
D) intentional crimes
Q4) If crime rates are actually decreasing,why is the public fear of crime on the increase? How do sociologists account for the crime decrease during the 1990s?
Q5) List the basic principles of routine activities theory.
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Chapter 16: Population and Urbanization
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Q1) What term Robert E.Park and his colleagues used to describe crime,juvenile delinquency,family breakdown,and mental illness occurring in the urban setting?
A) social pathologies
B) urban consequences
C) city disease
D) capitalist malaise
Q2) How might urbanization fuel large-scale violence in developing countries?
Q3) What can be said about the fortress city phenomenon?
A) It involves the isolating of the disadvantaged,the homeless,and the poor.
B) It involves large numbers of families moving to the suburbs.
C) It is about the preservation of historical military sites within cities.
D) It is a mentality particular to rural communities.
Q4) What three important elements characterized preindustrial cities,and why are they significant?
Q5) The Bank Act of 1871 was one of the major reasons for the concentration of the Canadian population into a few urban centres such as Toronto and Montreal.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Sociology and the Environment
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Q1) Disadvantaged people are the primary victims of pollution.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following would you find involved in the operations of the Global Climate Coalition?
A) politicians and government employees
B) the new middle-class environmentalists
C) Shell Oil,General Motors,and Ford
D) naturalists,geologists,and biologists
Q3) What term is used to describe when a company is presenting an environmentally responsible public image that is unfounded or intentionally misleading?
A) corporate whitewashing
B) environmental framing
C) corporate greenwashing
D) eco-stewardship labelling
Q4) In what ways can citizens,businesses,and government interact,so we can all contribute to protecting the environment?
Q5) Define sustainable development and explain its significance.
Q6) Over the last few decades,organic food has become more popular.Why?
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Health and Aging
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Q1) Discuss how gender plays a role in aging and health.
Q2) Picture and describe two older people you know (or have imagined);one who is very healthy and active and one who is in poor health and quite frail.Can you explain why they are so different? Discuss their life circumstances,individual choices,or random events that have helped to positively (negatively)influence their health today,making connections to information gathered from this chapter on health and aging.
Q3) As discussed in the textbook,what are some of the complex variables associated with an individual's health and wellness?
A) mentality,era,and country of origin
B) inherent physical attributes and genetics
C) social class,gender,and ethnicity
D) attitude,outlook,and expectations
Q4) Which of the following is NOT part of the Canada Health Act?
A) portability
B) privately financed
C) accessibility
D) universality
Q5) Discuss the assertion that "old age has been 'medicalized'."
Q6) What is the difference between privatization and profitization?
Page 20
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Chapter 19: Politics and Social Movements
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Q1) Do you believe that Canada will be a more democratic society 25 years from now? Discuss your position,incorporating concepts and theories addressed in this chapter.
Q2) What was the Occupy Wall Street movement,and what did it achieve?
Q3) In Canada,approximately what percentage of nonagricultural workers is unionized?
A) 20
B) 30
C) 40
D) 50
Q4) Which group benefits when the working class is more powerful?
A) visible minorities
B) men
C) women
D) Aboriginal people
Q5) Which conclusion was drawn by Clement and Olsen,students of John Porter,who were continuing his work?
A) They concluded that Canada is moving toward social egalitarianism.
B) They concluded that Canada is a pluralist society.
C) They concluded that the interests of large corporations dominate politics.
D) They concluded that there are conflicts among Canada's elites.
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Chapter 20: Globalization
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Q1) What has been a consequence of globalization in Mexico?
A) stagnating wages
B) trade wars
C) increased wages
D) slowing illegal immigration
Q2) When she does her weekly grocery shopping,Jolene chooses her food on the basis of food miles.Which aspect of food production is Jolene most likely to be concerned about?
A) animal welfare
B) cost-benefit ratio
C) genetic engineering
D) environmental impact
Q3) The International Monetary Fund lends money to countries in need on condition that the borrower follows a mandatory package of reforms that allow for the intensification of free markets.What are these arrangements known as?
A) structural adjustment programmes
B) Global Agreement on Loans and Trade
C) bad debt schemes
D) re-organization plans
Q4) What is the basis of neoliberal economic policies?
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Chapter 21: Networks, Groups, and Bureaucracies
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Q1) Which of the following was NOT addressed in Weber's definition of bureaucracy?
A) impersonal rules
B) extensive paperwork
C) hierarchy of officials
D) salaries
Q2) Members of the running group the Bangkok Runners all think of themselves as runners,whatever their competitive ability.What are these runners,as a class of people?
A) primary group
B) running group
C) social category
D) network
Q3) What does the text call a group composed of people whom an individual uses in order to evaluate his or her situation or conduct?
A) primary group
B) work group
C) formal organization
D) reference group
Q4) According to Ferdinand Tönnies,what is the difference between a community and a society?
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