Foundations of Social Science
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
Foundations of Social Science introduces students to the core concepts, theories, and methodologies that underpin the social sciences, including sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, and psychology. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the course explores how individuals and groups interact within societies, the development of social institutions, the role of culture and power dynamics, and how social scientists gather and interpret data to understand human behavior. Emphasis is placed on developing critical thinking skills and a foundational understanding of the ways in which social science contributes to addressing complex societal issues.
Recommended Textbook Essentials of Sociology 6th Edition by Richard P. Appelbaum
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16 Chapters
1118 Verified Questions
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Sociology: Theory and Method
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Sample Questions
Q1) Pierre prefers to think of institutions and human activities by analyzing the relationship of each individual part as it relates to the whole. His way of thinking most closely resembles which theoretical perspective?
A) functionalism
B) Marxism and class conflict
C) symbolic interactionism
D) feminist theory
Answer: A
Q2) What are two advantages and two disadvantages of ethnographic fieldwork?
Answer: Generally, the strength of ethnographic fieldwork is that it produces rich data about complex social processes. The researcher experiences these social processes with his or her body, which means that broader social processes at work that would otherwise be left uncovered can be identified. However, ethnography is limited in that it can be used only to study small groups (i.e., a given researcher could not do participant observation with an entire nation). Similarly, ethnographic fieldwork is not generalizable to larger populations.
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Chapter 2: Culture and Society
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Sample Questions
Q1) Scholars have argued that immigrant groups like the Irish and Italians were initially considered a race apart from native-born Anglo-Saxon white Americans. However, over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Irish and Italian immigrants managed to become part of dominant white culture. This historical context reveals how different cultures are absorbed into a single mainstream culture, a process also known as:
A) multiculturalism.
B) ethnocentrism.
C) apoliticism.
D) assimilation.
Answer: D
Q2) Many languages may have an equivalent to the color yellow, but an object that may be classified as yellow in one language may not be described so in another. This is an example of:
A) the linguistic relativity hypothesis.
B) the material representation of culture.
C) structural determination.
D) resource mobilization.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Socialization, the Life Course, and Aging
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to George Herbert Mead, children develop as social beings by imitating those around them. Which example would he most likely use to elaborate this point?
A) Fatima, learning at school
B) Connie, playing piano
C) Marcus, reading a book
D) Jamel, playing with friends
Answer: D
Q2) Marika often likes to pretend that the household broom is a pony named Lucy. Piaget would argue that Marika is participating in which stage of cognitive development?
A) egocentric stage
B) preoperational stage
C) sensorimotor stage
D) concrete operational stage
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Social Interaction and Everyday Life in the Age
of the Internet
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Sample Questions
Q1) Wearing a new dress on a first date is an example of:
A) gender nonspecific norms.
B) social position.
C) impression management.
D) social exclusion.
Q2) Jane sent her boss an e-mail suggesting that they have a performance review to see whether Jane was ready for a raise. Her boss replied in an e-mail that Jane was out of line and that she would give her a performance review at the same time as other employees. Face-to-face communication may have helped Jane avoid upsetting her boss by:
A) allowing her to pressure her boss by looking her straight in the eye.
B) allowing her to respond to her boss's anger in real time.
C) allowing Jane to claim gender discrimination without putting it in writing.
D) allowing her to evaluate her boss's body language before suggesting she was ready for a raise.
Q3) According to Charles Darwin, basic human emotional expressions:
A) are exactly the same as the basic emotional expressions of other primates.
B) are the same in all human beings.
C) vary widely, depending on the culture one is in.
D) are learned and vary among cultures.
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Chapter 5: Groups, Networks, and Organizations
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Sample Questions
Q1) A large grouping of people that engages in concerted collective actions to achieve specific objectives is called:
A) an oligarchy.
B) an organization.
C) a primary group.
D) a peer group.
Q2) One advantage that modern large organizations have over traditional formal bureaucracies is that:
A) their incorporation of information technology allows them to hire more workers.
B) due to increasing use of technology, modern organizations are more hierarchical.
C) increased technology allows workers in modern organizations to work fewer hours.
D) modern organizations today are more flexible and decentralized.
Q3) Please answer the following questions in three to five sentences. According to Irving Janis, what is groupthink? Why can groupthink lead to bad decisions by otherwise smart and strong-willed individuals?
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Chapter 6: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) When laws allowing capital punishment are compared internationally, we can see that:
A) the United States is one of the few Western countries that still legally permits this practice.
B) the majority of Western countries permit capital punishment.
C) neither the United States nor most other Western countries legally permit this practice.
D) most Western countries except the United States legally permit this practice.
Q2) A food manufacturer puts false nutrition information on its product labels. This is an example of:
A) organized crime.
B) white-collar crime.
C) corporate crime.
D) networked crime.
Q3) In Robert Merton's typology, drug dealers would be considered:
A) conformists.
B) innovators.
C) ritualists.
D) retreatists.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Dr. Ramirez is a sociology professor, and while he makes much less money than doctors and lawyers, he is viewed as having relatively high prestige because of:
A) his professional clothing.
B) his work hours.
C) his education.
D) his publications.
Q2) The money a person gets from a wage, salary, or investments is ________; the assets an individual owns are ________.
A) wealth; property
B) income; wealth
C) wealth; income
D) income; inherited
Q3) The super-rich in the United States were able to accumulate vast amounts of wealth partly because globalization enabled them to:
A) use low-wage labor in other countries.
B) sell products to consumers in the United States.
C) make investments locally.
D) produce their products in one place.
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9
Chapter 8: Global Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the textbook, countries that make up the former Soviet Union are considered:
A) high income.
B) middle income.
C) low income.
D) Asian.
Q2) According to the textbook, how has the HIV/AIDS epidemic contributed to food shortages in some countries?
A) HIV-infected food passes on the virus.
B) Money that could be spent on food is spent on medications.
C) The virus kills many working-age adults who might otherwise contribute to food production.
D) The epidemic pushes scientists out of those countries into nations where they can conduct food research without worrying about it.
Q3) What is the role of technology in deepening existing global inequalities? Please explain in three to five sentences.
Q4) In two to three sentences, describe how state-centered theories explain global inequality?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Gender Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do gender, marital status, and parental status interact in time spent doing housework? Answer in two to five sentences.
Q2) Labor advocates have noted that the workers who died in the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh were primarily women. Which sociological lens might be useful for understanding this tragedy?
A) liberal feminism
B) radical feminism
C) Marxism
D) transnational feminism
Q3) Which of the following is an example of "doing gender"?
A) going through puberty
B) choosing to wear a dress
C) getting a spray tan
D) taking medication for a headache
Q4) Theorists who believe in the social construction of gender:
A) argue that only gender is socially constructed; sex is clearly biological.
B) argue that both gender and sex are socially constructed.
C) argue that neither gender nor sex is socially constructed.
D) accept that there are some gender differences that are biological.
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Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a short paragraph, explain the persistence of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States. Choose two of the following three perspectives in your response: 1) Robert Blauner; 2) William Julius Wilson; and 3) Douglas Massey and Nancy A. Denton. Which one do you think best explains the persistence of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States? Explain.
Q2) Driven by a series of potato famines, 1.5 million people migrated to the United States from ________ in the nineteenth century and settled mostly in ________ areas. A) Germany; rural B) Germany; urban
C) Ireland; rural
D) Ireland; urban
Q3) People who, because of their distinct physical or cultural characteristics, find themselves in situations of inequality within a society are known as: A) an ethnic group. B) a racial group.
C) a minority group. D) scapegoats.
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12
Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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Sample Questions
Q1) Members of the Native American Standing Rock Sioux tribe share history and bonds based on a common lineage of blood relatives. This form of relationship is also known as:
A) cohabitation.
B) a household.
C) kinship.
D) a village.
Q2) Which of the following is a change related to the creation of a worldwide movement toward the predominance of the nuclear family and the breakdown of extended-family systems and other types of kinship groups?
A) the spread of the idea of romantic love
B) the power and influence of the antiabortion movement
C) large-scale migration from urban to rural areas
D) the resurgence of fundamentalist religious groups
Q3) Which of the following statements concerning single-parent households is true?
A) Most single-parent households are male headed.
B) For most single mothers, being a single mother was their first choice.
C) There is a high correlation between births outside marriage and indicators of poverty.
D) African American families have a low proportion of single-parent households.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Education and Religion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why are some sociologists critical of the religious economy approach to looking at religious involvement?
A) Sociologists think that economics is not a useful field to draw from.
B) The approach assumes that people are largely forced into their religious beliefs and does not account for human choice and diversity.
C) It overestimates the extent to which people rationally choose among different religions, as if they were shopping for a new car or a pair of shoes.
D) Most sociologists think that economists should focus on hard economic data instead of human social behaviors.
Q2) Cantong notes in his research that religion often serves as a progressive force for social change. His views most closely resemble those of:
A) Émile Durkheim.
B) Wade Clark Roof.
C) Karl Marx.
D) Max Weber.
Q3) What is religious nationalism? Please explain your answer in a short paragraph.
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14
Chapter 13: Politics and Economic Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) Molly is a Keynesian economist, which means that she subscribes to the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. She recently began working as an economic advisor to the president. Just when she started her new job, the country spiraled into economic recession. What would Molly probably recommend the president do to fight the recession?
A) cut subsidies to agricultural businesses to encourage cheap imports
B) invest in public infrastructure to create jobs
C) slash welfare programs for the poor
D) reduce government unemployment benefits
Q2) As a member of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Mercedes would be most likely to try to lobby for which of the following issues?
A) increasing the military budget
B) a constitutional amendment eliminating subsidized housing
C) vouchers for parents who want to send their children to private religious schools
D) equality in the workplace
Q3) What are the main features of capitalism? Answer in two to four sentences.
Q4) In a short paragraph, explain why unions in the United States have suffered from a decline in membership since the 1980s.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Sociology of the Body: Health, Illness, and Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the term that sociologists use to refer to an aversion to or hatred of homosexuals?
A) hate crime
B) homosexual aversion
C) sexual orientation discrimination
D) homophobia
Q2) Max's sexual orientation is homosexual. Most sociologists would claim that:
A) if Max has an identical twin, it is overwhelmingly probable that the twin is also homosexual.
B) Max's sexual orientation is the result of both biological and social influences.
C) Max's sexual orientation is a result of biological influences.
D) Max's sexual orientation is a result of social influences.
Q3) Which of the following people would most likely practice alternative medicine?
A) an oncologist
B) a chiropractor
C) a pediatrician
D) a cardiologist
Q4) In a short paragraph, provide at least two explanations for the gender gap in health.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) Outline Saskia Sassen's concept of the global city. Which of the four key traits of these urban centers seems most significant to understanding urban life, and why?
Q2) The Chicago School focused on cities as ________; however, most contemporary theory and research in urban sociology focus on cities as ________.
A) natural formations; created environments
B) places of conflict; places of cooperation
C) social constructions; created environments
D) dangerous; safe
Q3) Urban ecology emphasizes the ________ of city areas, whereby the specialized groups on which people depend are located in the city centers.
A) segregation
B) independence
C) interdependence
D) division
Q4) Why is rural America on the decline? In a short paragraph, explain at least one problem facing rural America today.
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Chapter 16: Globalization in a Changing World
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the textbook, in terms of people's working lives, globalization makes it more likely that an individual will experience:
A) a labor market that values skills in manual labor.
B) a career in the manufacturing industry.
C) working for one company over the course of his or her life.
D) a self-made career path, with several employment changes over his or her lifetime.
Q2) Consider Smelser's Structural Strain framework for understanding the origins of collective action. Describe and contrast structural strain and generalized beliefs and ideologies, explaining how each factor might contribute to the likelihood of collective action.
Q3) In the past, humans experienced famine and floods, or ________; today, because of globalization, humans now face ________ created by the effects of our own knowledge and technology on the natural world.
A) external risk; manufactured risk
B) manufactured risk; external risk
C) natural risk; manufactured risk
D) hyper-risk; manufactured risk
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