Contemporary Social Issues
Final Exam
Course Introduction
Contemporary Social Issues examines current challenges and debates affecting societies around the world, exploring topics such as inequality, globalization, environmental concerns, gender dynamics, migration, and digital culture. Through an interdisciplinary lens, the course encourages students to analyze the root causes, impacts, and possible solutions to these issues, fostering critical thinking and global awareness. Students engage with scholarly literature, case studies, and media resources to understand diverse perspectives and develop informed opinions on pressing social problems.
Recommended Textbook
Sociology Your Compass for a New World 4th Canadian Edition by Robert Brym
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
22 Chapters
2922 Verified Questions
2922 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/989
Page 2
Chapter 1: A Sociological Compass
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
140 Verified Questions
140 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19455
Sample Questions
Q1) Which revolution put forth the idea that conclusions should be evidence based and not based on speculation?
A) Industrial Revolution
B) Scientific Revolution
C) Sociological Revolution
D) Democratic Revolution
Answer: B
Q2) Which theorist is responsible for calling the scientific study of society "sociology"?
A) C. Wright Mills
B) Karl Marx
C) Auguste Comte
D) Herbert Spencer
Answer: C
Q3) Why do most people overlook social forces as causes of suicide?
A) because there are no social reasons for carrying out such an individual act
B) because people who commit suicide are generally depressed or angry
C) because suicide is rare
D) because it is generally carried out by individuals in private settings
Answer: D
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 3
Chapter 2: How Sociologists Do Research
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
168 Verified Questions
168 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19456
Sample Questions
Q1) According to the textbook,which of the following best describes "ideas"?
A) truth
B) fantasy
C) validity
D) reliability
Answer: B
Q2) A community holds a parade every year after which area farmers proceed to plant their crops.While the parade does not influence the harvest in any demonstrable way,the community still believes that a good parade increases the crop yield.What does this example illustrate?
A) sociological thinking
B) scientific thinking
C) formal thinking
D) traditional thinking
Answer: D
Q3) Survey research tends to be reliable but not valid.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 4
Chapter 3: Culture
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
134 Verified Questions
134 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19457
Sample Questions
Q1) Consider religious rituals that are conducted in public,which involve elaborate body decoration,carefully orchestrated chants,and precise movements.What are these rituals examples of?
A) globalization
B) postmodernism
C) rites of passage
D) multiculturalism
Answer: C
Q2) When Travis holds up two fingers in the "peace sign," what is he using?
A) an archetype
B) a symbol
C) a norm
D) methods
Answer: B
Q3) Culture both liberates and constrains people.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) What is culture?
Answer: Responses will vary.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 5
Chapter 4: Socialization
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
137 Verified Questions
137 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19458
Sample Questions
Q1) According to George Herbert Mead,how do children first learn to use language and other symbols?
A) They develop the ability to repress the trauma associated with birth.
B) They imitate important people in their lives.
C) They pretend to be other people.
D) They learn the important symbols in their environment.
Q2) What basic idea states that our feelings about who we are depend largely on how we see ourselves judged by others?
A) the superego
B) the generalized other
C) the significant other
D) the looking-glass self
Q3) In which of the following areas do peer groups often have greater influence than parents over children?
A) religious identity
B) personal appearance
C) class identity
D) educational achievement
Q4) What is the Thomas theorem and how does it work?
Q5) What is a gender role?
6
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 5: Social Interaction
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
126 Verified Questions
126 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19459
Sample Questions
Q1) Which theory suggests that people attempt to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs?
A) rational choice
B) symbolic interactionism
C) dramaturgy
D) emotion management
Q2) Dramaturgy suggests that people act in particular ways in public that are different from how they act in private.What is the reason for these differences in behaviour?
A) in order to practice impression management
B) in order to con people into believing they are something they are not
C) in order to make people more comfortable around them
D) in order to acquire more benefits at less of a cost
Q3) According to the textbook,what are cooperative social interactions based on?
A) discord
B) trust
C) animosity
D) affection
Q4) Explain what status cues are and how they work.
Q5) Discuss how "feeling rules" have changed across the course of history.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: Networks, groups, bureaucracies and Societies
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
149 Verified Questions
149 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19460
Sample Questions
Q1) At the large organization where Josh works,the client base has changed dramatically because more immigrants have moved into the area over the years and their needs differ from the Canadian-born people who used to access services there.What criticism against bureaucracies is relevant in this case?
A) bureaucratic ritualism
B) bureaucratic inertia
C) oligarchy
D) dehumanization
Q2) During World War II,why were many ordinary people able to murder millions of Jewish,Roma,and other people?
A) They believed that Jews and others were a threat to the existence of the German people.
B) Social norms required a population that would question authority.
C) They wanted to quell rebellion from Jewish and Roma leaders.
D) Bureaucracy is highly inefficient and most people had no idea of the large scale of the killings.
Q3) Using an example,explain what a reference group is.
Q4) Explain what a primary group is.
Q5) Why are crimes committed by corporations rarely reported or convicted?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 8
Chapter 7: Deviance and Crime
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
131 Verified Questions
131 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19461
Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss how the high incarceration rate of Aboriginals raises important society-wide issues.
Q2) Which of the following age groups is most prone to committing crimes?
A) 12- to 17-year-olds
B) 15- to 24-year-olds
C) 25- to 34-year-olds
D) 45- to 60-year-olds
Q3) The gender gap in arrests is not closing.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Are "consensus crimes" such as homicide defined identically in all societies at all times? Why or why not? Defend your position through the use of examples.
Q5) Which of the following is the most frequently applied punishment in Canada today?
A) imprisonment
B) community service
C) fines
D) probation
Q6) Explain what a moral panic is and illustrate it using a recent example.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 9
Chapter 8: Social Stratification
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
128 Verified Questions
128 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19462
Sample Questions
Q1) One of the myths of poverty is that people are poor because they do not want to work.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Why do writers and filmmakers often use "shipwrecks" to talk about society?
A) because during a shipwreck, typical inequalities between people are stripped away B) because shipwrecks provide an interesting story that most people relate to C) because a shipwreck allows people to analyze the relationships between passengers D) because shipwrecks provide a romantic backdrop for love stories
Q3) Rajesh has been able to find a job at a local convenience store; however,they want her to work all night shifts and she is unable to find anyone to care for her toddler overnight.Which of the following myths about people who are poor does this scenario contradict?
A) Most poor people are trapped in a cycle of poverty.
B) Most poor people are lazy.
C) Most poor people are immigrants.
D) Most poor people are welfare cheats and frauds.
Q4) Compare and contrast intragenerational and intergenerational mobility.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 10
Chapter 9: Globalization, inequality, and Development
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
137 Verified Questions
137 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19463
Sample Questions
Q1) Katherine is opposed to foreign investment and free trade in poor countries.She believes that it does nothing to help them and instead creates even higher levels of poverty and suffering.What theory is her analysis consistent with?
A) modernization theory
B) world systems theory
C) dependency theory
D) new international division of labour theory
Q2) How has neoliberalism hindered economic growth in poor societies? Are there any circumstances in which neoliberalism may promote economic growth?
Q3) With the development of transnational bodies and treaties,the autonomy of national governments has increased.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Roland Robinson argues that globalization is as old as civilization itself and is the cause of modernization rather than the other way round.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe the main tenets of modernization theory.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 11
Chapter 10: Race and Ethnicity
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
128 Verified Questions
128 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19464
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is factual regarding brain size and race?
A) The racial background of people can be determined by skull size.
B) The racial background of people can be determined by skull shape.
C) The sex of a person people can often be determined by skull size.
D) The sex of a person people can often be determined by skull shape.
Q2) According to the textbook,why should political initiatives such as employment equity or training courses for professional skills upgrading for foreign trained immigrants be put in place?
A) to increase the verticality of Canada's ethnic mosaic
B) to decrease the verticality of Canada's ethnic mosaic
C) to increase the cyclicality of Canada's ethnic mosaic
D) to decrease the cyclicality of Canada's ethnic mosaic
Q3) What prompted Italian Canadians to see themselves as a distinctive group in Canada in 1900?
A) being defined that way by government officials and other Canadian residents.
B) the new unification of Italy.
C) the benefits that were available at the time only to immigrants from Italy and Greece.
D) being threatened with deportation if they refused to identify with a nation instead of a region.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 12
Chapter 11: Sexualities and Gender Stratification
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
144 Verified Questions
144 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19465
Sample Questions
Q1) Before what age is a gender reassignment more likely to be successful?
A) 6 months
B) 12 months
C) 18 months
D) 24 months
Q2) Shulamith vehemently believes that women's inequality stems from the actions of men,through violence and control over politics and the economy.She believes that the only way that women can get out from under patriarchy is to stop reproducing or having relationships with men,as even the best intentioned men reproduce the harmful dynamics of patriarchy.Which theory is Shulamith's position consistent with?
A) liberal feminism
B) radical feminism
C) Marxist feminism
D) postmodernist feminism
Q3) High-quality,government-subsidized,affordable child care is widely available in Canada today.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss the influence of mass media on gender and gender identity.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 13
Chapter 12: Sociology Of The Body: Disabilities, aging and Death
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
125 Verified Questions
125 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19466
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following people would be considered disabled today?
A) Damien, who is left handed
B) Jason, who has one leg slightly shorter than another
C) Dorothy, who is blind
D) Hasita, who has birthmark covering half of her face
Q2) North American-born children of immigrants are usually shorter than their parents who were born abroad.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Hazel knows that all of the women born in the same year as her can expect to live to be about 80 years old.What does Hazel have knowledge of?
A) life expectancy
B) death expectancy
C) the life course
D) the death course
Q4) What is a rite of passage? Provide examples.
Q5) Define what life expectancy is.
Q6) What is ableism?
Q7) Define the types of euthanasia.
14
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 13: Work and The Economy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
146 Verified Questions
146 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19467
Sample Questions
Q1) Which sector of the economy is manufacturing part of?
A) the social reproduction sector
B) the primary sector
C) the secondary sector
D) the tertiary sector
Q2) Karl Marx was convinced that a classless society would develop out of capitalism.What was the term he used to refer to this classless society?
A) laissez-faire capitalism
B) socialism
C) communism
D) corporate capitalism
Q3) What is the difference between the sociological and neoclassical schools of economics in terms of how markets operate?
Q4) What happened to the rate of part-time workers in Canada between 1976 and 2000?
A) It decreased by one-third.
B) It decreased by one-half.
C) It more than doubled.
D) It more than tripled.
Q5) Explain what work is sociologically.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 15
Chapter 14: Politics
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
137 Verified Questions
137 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19468
Sample Questions
Q1) What is the underlying message of the textbook's piece on the film Gangs of New York (2002)?
A) All of today's powerful nation-states had politically unstable beginnings.
B) All nation-states were forged in violence and greed.
C) All powerful nations come from humble immigrant beginnings.
D) Immigrant rivalries changed the course of America's power today.
Q2) Explain what factors determine a nation's risk of war.
Q3) Which of the following is a major dynamic in contemporary Canadian politics?
A) ethnicity
B) gender
C) region
D) class
Q4) According to the textbook,which of the following factors appear to prevent war on a nation's own soil?
A) economic development and democratic government
B) socialist government and economic growth
C) economic stability and communist government
D) authoritarian government and economic stability
Q5) What is "the state" and how much influence does it have over the lives of Canadians?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 16
Chapter 15: Families
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
134 Verified Questions
134 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19469
Sample Questions
Q1) Marta has recently immigrated to Canada along with her parents and her young son.They share a house and she and her father work as janitors,while her mother takes care of Marta's son.What type of family do these people exemplify?
A) a nuclear family
B) a traditional nuclear family
C) an extended family
D) a polygamous family
Q2) Which of the following married couples experiences the least marital satisfaction?
A) Bob and Josie, married with no children
B) Robina and Raj, married with preschool children
C) Michelle and Jake, married with primary-school-age children
D) Leo and Danielle, married with adolescent children
Q3) When we observe foraging societies,we can observe a great deal of gender inequality,as George Murdock contends.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain the functionalist perspective toward the family.
Q5) Discuss how family violence is a gendered issue.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 17
Chapter 16: Religion
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
119 Verified Questions
119 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19470
Sample Questions
Q1) What do we call the liberal twentieth-century movement that promotes equality between genders and is known for social activism?
A) integrationism
B) reconstructionism
C) deconstructionism
D) reformation
Q2) The Sons of Freedom Doukhobors live in the small community of Krestova,British Columbia,apart from the larger and more established Community Doukhobors in the interior of the province.What type of religious group are the Sons of Freedom Doukhobors?
A) a cult
B) a denomination
C) a sect
D) a church
Q3) Which of the following is more characteristic of a sect than a church?
A) Members are generally from all classes.
B) Worship is formal, removed from direct experience, and orderly.
C) Salvation is granted by God and administered by the organization.
D) Leaders and members tend to be intolerant of other religions.
Q4) Describe the characteristics of sects.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 18
Chapter 17: Education
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
126 Verified Questions
126 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19471
Sample Questions
Q1) Freja is often in the school principal's office for dressing and acting inappropriately,missing school,and being rude to her teachers.What has she failed to embrace?
A) a self-fulfilling prophecy
B) the hidden curriculum
C) student class consciousness
D) a meritocracy
Q2) Kennedy does very well in school,rarely missing any days or being late,and she often helps out other adolescents in her classes as a peer tutor.What is it likely she has accepted?
A) cultural capital
B) the hidden curriculum
C) class consciousness
D) a self-fulfilling prophecy
Q3) Which of the following nations had the highest rate of university graduation in 2008?
A) Canada
B) Ireland
C) Norway
D) Australia
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 19
Chapter 18: The Mass Media
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
116 Verified Questions
116 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19472
Sample Questions
Q1) What is at stake when there is numerical underrepresentation and a biased portrayal of minority groups in the mass media?
Q2) Which of the following groups is the most likely to watch a television program,talk on the phone,eat,read a magazine,and play with a pet simultaneously?
A) preschool children
B) youth
C) middle-aged people
D) seniors
Q3) When the first smart phone was released,Tiffany was ten years old.Approximately what age is she today?
A) 10-19
B) 20-29
C) 30-39
D) 40-49
Q4) Compare and contrast functionalist and conflict theories on media effects.
Q5) How do mass media influence the way audiences think about the world?
Q6) Outline interpretive approaches to mass media.
Q7) Do you think the United States is culturally imperialistic? Why or why not?
Q8) Compare and contrast mass media and face-to-face interaction.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 20
Chapter 19: Health and Medicine
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
126 Verified Questions
126 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19473
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a cause of gender inequality in health and health care?
A) More health care dollars go to researching men and men's diseases.
B) Women are more often used to test experimental drugs and treatments.
C) Women outlive men and experience fewer acute illnesses.
D) Women outlive men and experience fewer chronic illnesses.
Q2) Miriam is happy to report at a conference that in her country only one child per 1000 dies before reaching one year of age.Which of the following nations does she live in?
A) India
B) Japan
C) Canada
D) the United States
Q3) According to the textbook,which of the following is the most common mental illness affecting Canadians today?
A) bipolar disorder
B) schizophrenia
C) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
D) depression
Q4) How does "race" and ethnicity affect health and health care in Canada?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 21
Chapter 20: Population and Urbanization
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
130 Verified Questions
130 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19474
Sample Questions
Q1) What city has been recently identified by the United Nations as the most multicultural city in the world?
A) New York
B) Toronto
C) Los Angeles
D) Seoul
Q2) Christopher,a gay man living in a small town,gets his social needs met mainly through Internet chat rooms with other gay men and lesbians in big cities.Which of the following does his experience reflect a critique of?
A) urban competition and differentiation
B) Gans's characterization of rural villagers
C) urban ecological succession
D) Wirth's characterization of the urban way of life
Q3) According to the textbook,at approximately what point did the world population begin to "explode"?
A) 12 000 years ago
B) 2000 years ago
C) 250 years ago
D) 50 years ago
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 22
Chapter 21: Collective Behaviour and Social Movements
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
119 Verified Questions
119 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19475
Sample Questions
Q1) What leads the authors of the textbook to conclude that social movements are long-term attempts to correct perceived injustices that require a sound social-organizational basis?
Q2) In the United States in the 1960s,certain political forces created a climate that discouraged union growth.What resulted from that situation?
A) Unemployment rose sharply.
B) Union concentration decreased.
C) Welfare benefits decreased.
D) Strike activity rose sharply.
Q3) Which of the following concepts does the study of riots and other non-routine social behaviour illustrate?
A) economic sociology
B) political institutionalization
C) collective action
D) demography
Q4) Compare and contrast the four stages in the growth of citizenship rights.
Q5) Why do people sometimes feel it is necessary to create a social movement?
Q6) Discuss Greenpeace as an example of the potential of new social movements to become global.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 23
Chapter 22: Technology and The Global Environment
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
122 Verified Questions
122 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19476
Sample Questions
Q1) What is the main underlying point made by the documentary film Food Inc.(2008)?
A) Food production has changed in North America.
B) Food production has increased in ways that will mainly benefit people in non-industrialized countries.
C) Food production has increased in ways that will mainly benefit people in industrialized countries.
D) Food production should be examined using the sociological imagination.
Q2) What is the social distribution of risk?
Q3) The advantaged in a society often consciously put the disadvantaged in harm's way to avoid risk themselves.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Scientists have been experimenting with uniting the genes of different animals together to create whole new animals.What do we call the potential threat posed by such scientific inquiry?
A) environmental peril
B) technological imperative
C) genetic pollution
D) catastrophic DNA
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 24