Contemporary Social Issues
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Course Introduction
This course offers a comprehensive examination of major social issues affecting modern societies, both locally and globally. Through a multidisciplinary lens, students analyze topics such as inequality, poverty, discrimination, environmental challenges, health disparities, and the impact of technology on social life. By exploring the underlying causes, societal impacts, and potential solutions to these pressing concerns, students develop critical thinking skills and a deeper understanding of the complexity of contemporary social challenges. The course encourages active engagement and informed debate, preparing students to participate thoughtfully in civic and professional life.
Recommended Textbook
Introduction to Social Problems 10th Edition by
Thomas J. Sullivan
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15 Chapters
600 Verified Questions
600 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Approaches to the Study of Social Problems
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40 Verified Questions
40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A group is said to be a vested interest group if it ________.
A)encourages social reforms that would change its current position
B)advocates policies that are supported by a majority of people
C)benefits from existing policies,practices,and social arrangements
D)succeeds in achieving its goals and policy changes
Answer: C
Q2) What is the advantage of the sociological perspective?
A)It helps to understand the changes in various cultures due to diversification.
B)It frees people from blind submission to social forces that they do not understand.
C)It helps to understand the changes that led to the formation of interest groups.
D)It makes people aware of the fallacies in social research studies.
Answer: B
Q3) What are symbols,and how do people attach meaning to symbols?
Answer: A symbol is something that stands for,represents,or takes the place of something else.Anything-any object,event,or word-can serve as a symbol.The meaning attached to a symbol is derived from social consensus;people simply agree that a particular object will represent something.
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Concentration of Power: Economic and Political Institutions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is true of a socialist economy?
A)Goods and services are provided if people can afford to purchase them.
B)The primary motivation for economic activity is to achieve profits.
C)Decisions on what to produce and how to distribute products are made only by private owners.
D)The primary motivation for economic activity is to achieve collective goals.
Answer: D
Q2) What role do core nations play in the emergence of political and economic elites in the peripheral nations?
Answer: Through political,economic,and sometimes military intervention,the core nations encourage the emergence of political and economic elites in the peripheral nations that will support and assist in economic expansion of the core.This elite in the peripheral nations benefits from the world system and supports policies that will maintain its role in the world capitalist system.
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4
Chapter 3: Family-Related Problems
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do employers benefit by sponsoring child-care programs for their employees?
Answer: Research has shown that the problems employees face in arranging care for their children tend to result in absenteeism,tardiness,low morale,and productivity problems.By sponsoring child-care programs,employers can avoid all these problems.Also,recruiting new employees is easier when an employer can offer child-care services to prospective employees,especially in heavily female segments of the labor market such as nursing.
Q2) According to conflict theorists,how does inheritance contribute to perpetuation of social and economic inequality?
Answer: Inheritance makes it possible for a family to accumulate and perpetuate its wealth over generations.Anyone who can inherit wealth-of whatever amount-clearly has an advantage over those who come from modest or poor backgrounds.Thus,the family in such societies becomes a vehicle for perpetuating patterns of dominance and subordination.
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Chapter 4: Health and Illness
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Sample Questions
Q1) The initial reactions of people in political and economic power to the spread and control of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)implied that ________
A)societal reaction to all diseases results from a complex intertwining of biology with political,social,and cultural considerations
B)people respond to all diseases with the same sense of urgency and importance irrespective of its nature and reasons for origin
C)the powerful elites in a society can influence people's attitude to certain diseases only to a small extent
D)the stigma and socio-cultural opinions attached to a disease become obsolete when people realize that the suffering those affected is enormous
Q2) What are some of the negative effects of industrialization on human health?
Q3) The medical model views mental illness as ________.
A)a result of a person's efforts to conform to societal expectations of mentally-ill people
B)a problem associated with being alive
C)a problem having the same basic nature as physical illness
D)an incurable illness that can have severe consequences
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Chapter 5: Education, Science, and Technology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain briefly the concept of appropriate technology.
Q2) Which of the following is true of large-scale technology?
A)It is often the discovery ground for developing new alternative technologies.
B)It is appropriate to what people can comprehend and relate to.
C)It is less injurious and causes minimal damage to people.
D)It does not alienate people and returns the control of technology to the hands of individuals.
Q3) How did the United States narrow the cultural lag between technology and social policy?
A)by ensuring that education is made available for all classes of society
B)by encouraging competition for societal resources among various groups
C)by establishing workers' compensation and employer liability
D)by establishing strict dress codes with punishments for violation
Q4) What is gene splicing? What are its uses?
Q5) What is technology? What are the two types of technologies?
Q6) Why have some schools in the United States discarded the concept of formalized ability grouping?
Q7) What is the viewpoint of conflict theorists about the race for higher educational credentials?
Q8) What is biotechnology? What is its basic principle?
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Chapter 6: Poverty
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ is a situation in which everyone or nearly everyone who wants to work can find a job.
A)Full employment
B)Strategic employment
C)Relative deprivation
D)Social mobility
Q2) Describe the reasons for high poverty among children in the United States.
Q3) Give a possible devastating consequence of temporary unemployment.
Q4) Describe Herbert J.Gans's suggestions on how poverty can be functional.
Q5) Martha,a single parent,finds it difficult to pay for her three children's school tuition with the salary she gets from waitressing.Based on this information,Martha would be considered poor under the ________ definition of poverty.
A)relative
B)absolute
C)cultural
D)comparative
Q6) Why is income from earned work essential for many poor families to support themselves?
Q7) Describe the use of the absolute definition of poverty.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Race and Ethnic Relations
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was the rationale behind affirmative action,and how did it impact schools and employers?
Q2) In the context of the discrimination against African Americans in schools,what was the Supreme Court's ruling in the Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka,Kansas decision?
A)It ruled that separate but equal doctrine was unconstitutional.
B)It ruled that split labor markets were illegal,and people involved in this type of trade would be punished.
C)It ruled that minority groups should assimilate into the mainstream.
D)It ruled that all forms of institutionalized discrimination should be nullified.
Q3) According to functionalists,ethnocentrism is functional because it ________.
A)teaches various groups to live in harmony with each other
B)produces loyalty,cohesiveness,and strong group ties
C)supports and helps to establish pluralism
D)helps to reduce intolerance toward other communities
Q4) Based on its 2003 ruling on the constitutionality of affirmative action,why did the Supreme Court disapprove of strict racial quotas in educational institutions and jobs?
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Gender,Sexual Orientation, and Social Inequality
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is sex considered a master status?
Q2) What is the biological perspective about the role of sex in determining one's position in society?
A)Innate biological differences between men and women shape the contributions they make to society.
B)Women and men have equal abilities to carry out aggressive jobs aided by the hormone testosterone.
C)Men are more biologically inclined toward being social and emotionally stable than women.
D)Women's innate biological role in the family is to submit graciously to their husbands' leadership.
Q3) Learned behavior involving how people are expected to act as males and females in society is known as ________.
A)gender
B)sex
C)biological determinism
D)sexism
Q4) Discuss the basic idea of comparable worth and the controversies associated with it.
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Chapter 9: Age and Social Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) In industrial societies,retirement serves as a way of ________.
A)increasing the number of goods and services that are produced
B)reducing the number of workers who are competing for a limited number of jobs
C)reminding people that it is ideal for them to leave the work force while they are healthy
D)recognizing the capabilities of older people
Q2) A ________ is a succession of statuses and roles that people in a particular society experience in a fairly predictable pattern as they grow older.
A)life course
B)lifeline
C)lifestyle
D)life span
Q3) What measures did the U.S.government take to alleviate the problem of some elderly having little or no income from personal retirement pensions?
Q4) Why is training more extensive in industrial societies?
Q5) How do children suffer because of divorce?
Q6) Explain Neugarten's views on social policy and the ways in which his views could translate into social policy.
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Chapter 10: Crime and Delinquency
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is true of innovation as a mode of adaptation to anomie?
A)It refers to periodic and highly publicized drives against certain crimes.
B)It is likely to occur when people feel that legitimate routes to success are closed.
C)It is the mechanism whereby some groups exercise control over the activities of other groups.
D)It is likely to result in people valuing criminality more highly than conventional behavior.
Q2) Marian believes that race is a causal variable in criminal behavior.Which of the following facts contradicts Marian's belief?
A)African Americans are more likely to be involved with hidden crimes.
B)African Americans are lower in socioeconomic standing.
C)Black-white differences in criminal behavior merely reflect criminal justice system biases.
D)Whites are watched more closely than African Americans by law enforcement agencies.
Q3) Define anomie.How does the anomie theory approach crime and delinquency?
Q4) Who are likely to be victims of crime?
Q5) What measures are needed to fight globalized crime and cybercrime?
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Chapter 11: Alcohol and Other Drugs
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Sample Questions
Q1) Differentiate between cross-dependence and cross-tolerance.
Q2) How did drug entrepreneurs overcome the limited use of cocaine?
Q3) Which of the following is a fact about drug abuse in the United States?
A)Heavy use of heroin clouds judgment and reduces inhibitions,and this is the prime reason heroin addicts commit crimes.
B)The drug abuse problem in the United States today is of epidemic proportions,with more people using and abusing drugs than ever.
C)Heroin addicts are as likely to be high on alcohol as heroin when they commit crimes.
D)The most serious drug problem that the United States faces is the flow of heroin,cocaine,and marijuana.
Q4) ________ occurs because of the diminished response of the nervous system to a drug and the requirement of higher doses of the drug to achieve the desired effect.
A)Dependence
B)Tolerance
C)Abstinence
D)Admittance
Q5) What consequences did the Eighteenth Amendment pose when it took effect in 1920?
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Chapter 12: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Trade
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is true of the members of the peer-delinquent subculture?
A)They consider prostitution a way of making money.
B)They engage in prostitution for sexual gratification.
C)They do not engage in criminal activities.
D)They consider themselves to be homosexuals or bisexuals.
Q2) Male prostitutes of the peer-delinquent subculture differ from those of the gay subculture in that the peer-delinquent prostitutes ________.
A)consider themselves to be homosexuals or bisexuals
B)engage in prostitution for sexual gratification
C)do not engage in criminal activities
D)engage in prostitution only for making money
Q3) A ________acts as supervisor of a number of prostitutes and negotiates with clients who enter a brothel.
A)pimp
B)madam
C)bar hustler
D)streetwalker
Q4) What is cam modeling? How does it work?
Q5) Explain the typical behavior of crack-addicted women in crack houses.
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Chapter 13: Population Growth and Urbanization
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Sample Questions
Q1) A similarity between the preindustrial stage and the postindustrial stage of demographic transition is that ________.
A)the availability of better and more food helped people resist infectious diseases and reduced infant mortality
B)people were encouraged to have large families so the birthrate stayed high
C)the improvement in lifestyle resulted in falling death rates
D)it resulted in a roughly stable population that grew slowly
Q2) Dnipro is a well-developed nation.The country has transformed itself into a major industrial powerhouse in the last three decades.However,the increasing affluence along with improvements in lifestyle has contributed to a low death rate.Similarly,rapid urbanization and inflation have led couples to desire small families,which has affected the country's birth rate.This has resulted in a relatively stable population with little growth.Hence,Dnipro is in the ________ stage of demographic transition.
A)industrial
B)postindustrial
C)preindustrial
D)transitional
Q3) Why did mass suburbanization occur in the United States?
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Chapter 14: Environmental Problems
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to biologists Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich,the social conditions governing the impact that human beings have on their environment are population,technology,and ________.
A)affluence
B)appetence
C)effluence
D)cadence
Q2) The Montreal Protocol of 1987 was an agreement to limit ________.
A)the usage of fossil fuels as energy sources
B)the usage of radioactive materials
C)the use of ozone-depleting chemicals
D)the emission of sulfur dioxide
Q3) What are some of the consequences of global warming?
Q4) Many scientists believe that the disposal of radioactive wastes is a major problem.Which of the following is a reason that the disposal of radioactive wastes could be a major problem?
A)Radioactive wastes are resistant to the process of eutrophication.
B)Radioactive wastes cannot be contained under any condition.
C)Radioactive wastes cannot be converted into a solid state.
D)Radioactive wastes remain active for a very long period of time.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Violence, War, and Terrorism
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Sample Questions
Q1) How can the proliferation of nuclear weapons be reduced?
Q2) Why is it difficult to set up an effective world government?
A)Human societies are not capable of handling increasingly complex political structures.
B)Most nations are focused only on attaining their long-term goals.
C)All nations must accept and adhere to a body of international law.
D)The increasing complexity and interdependence of the modern world prevent the need for a supranational organization.
Q3) A preemptive war is one that ________.
A)involves an organized action by some group to rebel against the existing government and to replace it with new political forms and leadership
B)involves norms and values that condone and legitimize the use of violence in resolving conflicts
C)is fought against a nation not about to attack but believed to be a possible threat in the future
D)is fought against a nation that is believed about to attack but has not yet done so
Q4) How can efforts at world government be made effective?
Q5) What are the structural preconditions for violence? When do they exist?
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