Introduction to Social Problems
Test Preparation
Course Introduction
Introduction to Social Problems examines the nature, causes, and consequences of key issues affecting societies both locally and globally, such as poverty, inequality, crime, health disparities, and environmental concerns. The course explores how social problems are defined and addressed, the roles of institutions and policies in shaping outcomes, and the impact of cultural, economic, and political factors. Through critical analysis, students will develop an understanding of the sociological perspectives on social problems and engage with current debates, solutions, and strategies for social change.
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) According to the interactionist perspective,a central part of social interaction is
A)the frequency of interactions between people
B)people's interpretations or definitions of others' behavior
C)people's willingness to conform to societal norms
D)the context of a discussion
Answer: B
Q2) A majority of the people in the state of Trecova value hard work and industriousness.They regard welfare schemes with disdain and oppose their existence.However,these schemes are welcomed by the poor and disadvantaged people who are not capable of doing much labor.This difference in interest creates a clash between the two groups and becomes a social problem.This social problem has developed because of ________.
A)deviation from norms
B)misuse of power
C)influential interest groups
D)differences between subcultures
Answer: D
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3
Chapter 2: Concentration of Power: Economic and Political Institutions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the country of Zuri,all industries and institutions of economic production are privately owned.With free competition among producers and consumers,profit-making is the main target.Which of the following types of economies is prevalent in Zuri?
A)command economy
B)mixed economy
C)socialist economy
D)capitalist economy
Answer: D
Q2) The country of Ohana is a highly developed and technologically advanced country.Corporations in this country constantly search for other less-developed countries that can provide cheaper labor and can serve as sources of raw materials.Ohana is a ________.
A)peripheral nation
B)third-world country
C)semi-peripheral nation
D)core nation
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Family-Related Problems
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Nuclear families serve the interests of capitalist economic institutions because they
A)maximize the number of consumption-oriented units in society
B)stress the importance of family values over that of individual values
C)are often male dominated
D)emphasize common ownership of material goods
Answer: A
Q2) According to the interactionist perspective,the form of family that is right for a society depends on ________.
A)the society's population
B)social definition
C)the type of governance
D)religious beliefs
Answer: B
Q3) The refined divorce rate can be used to ________.
A)find the most common reason for divorce
B)compare the stability of marriages from one year to the next
C)determine the minimum number of years a couple would stay together
D)find the number of divorce cases filed every year
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Health and Illness
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a limitation of the medical model on mental illness?
A)It does not consider the possibility that mental disorders can result from biochemical imbalances or genetic traits.
B)It can lead to a disregard for the many factors in the social environment that contribute to mental problems themselves.
C)It considers the basic nature of mental disorders to be different from that of physical disorders.
D)It disregards the possibility of external factors or internal dysfunction causing mental illness and makes individuals more accountable for their choices.
Q2) The corporate takeover of hospitals in the United States began with the ________.
A)shift toward community treatment for the mentally ill
B)introduction of third-party medicine
C)privatization of health-care institutions
D)emergence of Medicare and Medicaid
Q3) What are the problems resulting from the formation of a medical-industrial complex?
Q4) What are some of the negative effects of industrialization on human health?
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Chapter 5: Education, Science, and Technology
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ refers to the use of machines,such as computers,to control other machines,to make decisions,and to monitor the production process.
A)Gentrification
B)Cybernation
C)Modernization
D)Alienation
Q2) Which of the following is true of genetic engineering?
A)Unlike many other forms of environmental pollution,biological pollutants produced from genetic engineering do not reproduce themselves.
B)It manipulates the genes of organisms to alter their characteristics in ways that would have occurred naturally at a later stage.
C)It opens the door for eliminating characteristics deemed socially undesirable by those in positions of power.
D)Unlike many other forms of environmental pollution,biological pollutants produced from genetic engineering are much easier to remove from the ecosystem.
Q3) What is biotechnology? What is its basic principle?
Q4) Explain briefly the concept of appropriate technology.
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7
Chapter 6: Poverty
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is true of the absolute definition of poverty?
A)It is based on how much it costs to buy a nutritionally adequate diet.
B)It identifies the poor as those who are permanently and unwillingly poor.
C)It avoids the rigidities of strict economic definitions.
D)It reflects the belief of many that the government should ensure an equitable distribution of resources.
Q2) Susan believes that janitors should receive lesser pay than doctors because janitors perform tasks that are less useful.Susan has a________ perspective on poverty.
A)functionalist
B)fundamentalist
C)conflict
D)behavioral
Q3) Describe the reasons for high poverty among children in the United States.
Q4) Which of the following is a true statement about Job Corps?
A)It focuses on single or unmarried mothers from poor neighborhoods.
B)It provides jobs to old homeless men and women.
C)It focuses on high school dropouts from poor neighborhoods.
D)It provides retired veterans with on-the-job training.
Q5) How can the relative nature of poverty be taken into account?
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Chapter 7: Race and Ethnic Relations
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ refers to the inequitable treatment of a group resulting from practices or policies that are incorporated into social,political,or economic organizations and that operate independently from the prejudices of individuals.
A)Ethnocentrism
B)Pluralism
C)Internal colonialism
D)Institutionalized discrimination
Q2) Which of the following events marked a major positive shift in the attitude of Americans toward Chinese immigrants?
A)the beginning of the civil rights movement
B)the increase in competition in the split labor market
C)the increase in the number of Chinese immigrants
D)the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan
Q3) Why do most sociologists believe that social factors play a more important role in the perpetuation of prejudice and discrimination than psychological sources?
Q4) Why is there a controversy over the use of the term race as a biological concept to identify a population that differs from others in terms of certain key genetic,hereditary traits?
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Chapter 8: Gender,Sexual Orientation, and Social Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Paula,the managing director of a business firm,believes that men should not be hired for job positions such as nurse or secretary as it is considered a social oddity.She feels that men are not suited for such positions because they are unemotional and dominant.Such a stereotypical thought about men is known as ________.
A)anti-masculinism
B)androcentrisim
C)masculine mystique
D)androgyny
Q2) Mrs.Barbara has retired from her job.She noticed that the female workers received a smaller monthly income compared to her male colleagues with the same accumulated retirement assets.The rationale behind such retirement plans is that ________.
A)women live longer,on an average,than men and overall still receive the same total assets
B)women fall sick less often and therefore receive a lower monthly income
C)men are superior to women and therefore receive a higher monthly income
D)men make better use of their money and thus receive a higher monthly income
Q3) Why is sex considered a master status?
Q4) What are the reasons for the emergence of gay communities?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Age and Social Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following situations shows a crime that is least likely to be reported?
A)Karen,a 16-year-old,is sexually assaulted by her uncle.
B)Lori,an 18-year-old,is sexually assaulted by a complete stranger.
C)Michelle,a 22-year-old,is sexually assaulted by a co-worker.
D)Audrey,a 20-year-old,is sexually assaulted by a professor in her college.
Q2) Which of the following is true of industrial societies?
A)People are heavily dependent on their parents to making a living.
B)Entry-level positions in the economy can be gained with minimal parental support.
C)Kinship ties are a source of power and prestige for the elderly.
D)People enter the workforce at a very early age.
Q3) ________ were much more important in preindustrial societies than they are at present.
A)Technological advances
B)Business relationships
C)Kinship ties
D)Lucrative jobs
Q4) Why is training more extensive in industrial societies?
Q5) What are the reasons for the economic exploitation of children?
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Chapter 10: Crime and Delinquency
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Sample Questions
Q1) Anya supports the privatization of prisons,whereas Marcus does not.Marcus's argument rests heavily on ________.
A)the fear of the development of a prison-industrial complex
B)how private industry is free from political interference
C)cost effectiveness
D)the high recidivism rate associated with public prisons
Q2) Effective rehabilitation programs focus on ________.
A)undermining the personal responsibility of offenders
B)providing structured activities that do not reinforce criminal responses
C)increasing the length of prison sentences
D)imposing military discipline into people's lives
Q3) ________ is the single social factor that is most predictive of patterns of criminal behavior.
A)Age
B)Socioeconomic status
C)Gender
D)Race
Q4) What are the possible explanations for the higher involvement in crime by teens and young adults?
Q5) What are the effects of the introduction of three-strike policies?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Alcohol and Other Drugs
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are drug maintenance programs?
Q2) Which of the following types of drugs produces major alterations in the mood,emotions,perceptions,or brain functioning of the person who takes them?
A)lipophilic drugs
B)antipyretic drugs
C)psychoactive drugs
D)antihistamine drugs
Q3) What is the use of psychedelic drugs?
A)They turn the thoughts of users inward.
B)They are used as sedatives or painkillers.
C)They are mainly used as analgesics and painkillers.
D)They depress the Central Nervous System (CNS).
Q4) ________ ,the most common substitute for drugs,is a synthetic opiate that is prescribed for addicts who enroll in government-sponsored treatment programs.
A)Morphine acetate
B)Methadone
C)Thebaine
D)Oripavine
Q5) Differentiate between cross-dependence and cross-tolerance.
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Chapter 12: Prostitution, Pornography, and the Sex Trade
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a drawback of legalizing prostitution?
A)It would increase the usage of psychoactive drugs.
B)It cannot prevent prostitution from being controlled by organized criminal gangs and increase assault on customers.
C)It would increase the risk of spreading the AIDS virus.
D)It does not stop the health and crime problems associated with prostitution but simply pushes it into the illegal trade.
Q2) Compare the functionalist and the conflict perspectives on prostitution,pornography,and sexual deviance.
Q3) According to the ________ model proposed by Helen Reynolds,prostitution should be permitted in particular areas of a community.Prostitution may be legal or illegal in these areas,but the police would arrest prostitutes operating outside these neighborhoods.
A)laissez-faire
B)regulation
C)zoning
D)control
Q4) What is Internet prostitution? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Q5) Explain how different cultures around the world view sexual behavior.
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Chapter 13: Population Growth and Urbanization
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the ________ perspective,population becomes a social problem when those who control the economic system take steps to limit artificially the resources available in order to benefit a particular group of people.
A)behaviorist
B)interactionist
C)conflict
D)functionalist
Q2) After marriage,Joe and Monica decide to shift to Milano,a peaceful,multicultural residential area located on the outskirts of the city of Robinville.Milano is an example of a
A)settlement
B)ghetto
C)suburb
D)village
Q3) What is demographic transition? What are its four stages?
Q4) Why did mass suburbanization occur in the United States?
Q5) Why did the United States implement the laissez-faire approach to solve urban problems?
Q6) How can crowding impact human beings?
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Environmental Problems
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Sample Questions
Q1) Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane contribute to the greenhouse effect by
A)preventing the escape of solar infrared radiation
B)preventing sunlight from reaching the earth's surface
C)reducing the temperature of the earth's atmosphere
D)reducing oxygen levels in water bodies
Q2) Crenla Inc. ,a petroleum company,has exceeded its carbon emission limit.Crenla now has to purchase credits from Zanbril Inc. ,a low-polluting drug company,to pay for exceeding its emission limit.In the given scenario,Crenla Inc.is engaged in ________.
A)carbon ranching
B)carbon offset
C)carbon sequestration
D)carbon trading
Q3) Carbon ranching allows industries or individuals that spew carbon into the atmosphere to make up for it by ________.
A)artificially pumping oxygen into the air
B)paying a country with forests to preserve those forests
C)manufacturing and recycling beverage bottles at a lower cost
D)reducing nitrogen emission
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Violence, War, and Terrorism
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40 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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.
Q2) What are the structural preconditions for violence? When do they exist?
Q3) In the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in the 1970s,the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to ________.
A)place limits on their defensive weapons systems
B)ban intermediate-range nuclear weapons
C)limit the export of weapons systems to other countries
D)destroy all nuclear stockpiles predating the 1970s
Q4) How can the proliferation of nuclear weapons be reduced?
Q5) What are the motives behind terrorism?
Q6) What happens when structured preconditions cause people to be frustrated?
Q7) How can efforts at world government be made effective?
Q8) What is the effect of war on a nation's economy?
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Q9) What are the three ways in which television encourages people toward violence?