Social Problems
Final Exam
Course Introduction
This course offers an in-depth exploration of major social problems affecting contemporary society, including issues such as poverty, inequality, crime, racism, substance abuse, and environmental challenges. Through theoretical frameworks and empirical studies, students analyze the root causes, social impacts, and possible solutions to these problems. The course encourages critical thinking about the interconnectedness of social institutions and the role of individuals and communities in addressing and resolving societal issues.
Recommended Textbook Essentials of Sociology 6th Edition by Richard
P. Appelbaum
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16 Chapters
1118 Verified Questions
1118 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Sociology: Theory and Method
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78 Verified Questions
78 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Paco has begun using symbolic interaction as a theoretical perspective to think about the role of food in religious ceremonies. What is one possible critique of this approach?
A) One cannot use symbols to study religious phenomena.
B) Individual behaviors do not matter in religious ceremonies.
C) Paco runs the risk of missing larger social context by focusing on symbolic communication.
D) Religion involves inner meaning rather than communication between different sets of people.
Answer: C
Q2) Kevon believes that society should be looked at like a body, with constituent parts necessary to the functioning of the whole. His ideas probably most closely mirror those of which theorist?
A) Karl Marx
B) Émile Durkheim
C) Harriet Martineau
D) Max Weber
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Culture and Society
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70 Verified Questions
70 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Johann is from the United Kingdom. He sees that women in Afghanistan are often expected to wear head scarves, but women in the United Kingdom are not. He concludes, then, that women in Afghanistan would be freer if their culture were more like that of the United Kingdom. How might sociologists likely critique Johann's position?
A) Johann has not yet made an argument for how the United Kingdom might free the women of Afghanistan.
B) Johann first needs to look at class relations in the two countries, because gender expression is mainly determined by class.
C) Johann cannot make meaningful cross-cultural comparisons without at least four more sample countries.
D) Johann would be better served as a social scientist if he avoided those kinds of value judgments.
Answer: D
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4
Chapter 3: Socialization, the Life Course, and Aging
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What would sociologists conclude is one difficulty that arises when applying Jean Piaget's approach to the study of child development to all children across all societies and cultures?
A) In American culture, the family is far more important than any other agent of socialization.
B) Schooling is far more important than the family in the concrete operational stage.
C) Piaget underestimated the role of the ego in children.
D) The stages of cognitive development may not always follow a smooth and progressive path.
Answer: D
Q2) Elder abuse is present when an elderly person experiences which of the following?
A) a nutritious diet
B) poverty
C) difficulty accessing health care
D) neglect and abandonment
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Social Interaction and Everyday Life in the Age
of the Internet
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68 Verified Questions
68 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social positions can be both general and specific. Which of the following is an example of a general social position in American society?
A) politician
B) doctor
C) gender
D) basketball player
Q2) In the book Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community (1990), Elijah Anderson noted that studying everyday life sheds light on how social order is created by the building blocks of:
A) macro-level institutions.
B) prejudice and racism.
C) impression management.
D) micro-level interactions.
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) Triads are generally more stable than dyads because:
A) three is always better than two.
B) the third person relieves some of the pressures on the other two.
C) the third person makes the relationship more intense.
D) the third person can get jealous.
Q2) Which of the following is a social aggregate?
A) your family
B) middle-class Asian American women
C) people waiting at Terminal C for Flight 205
D) Facebook friends
Q3) According to Georg Simmel, an important aspect of groups is:
A) as group size decreases, their intensity and exclusivity decrease.
B) as group size increases, their stability and intensity increase.
C) as group size increases, their intensity decreases, but their stability and exclusivity increase.
D) group size has little impact on stability over time; what matters is the common goal of the group.
Q4) In a couple of sentences, explain how social networks facilitate the reproduction of existing inequalities for women, lower socioeconomic classes, and minorities. Give an example.
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Chapter 6: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following countries has the highest incarceration rate?
A) China
B) Japan
C) France
D) United States
Q2) In two to three sentences, apply control theory to explain why people in their late teens are more likely to commit crime than older people.
Q3) Forms of activity that have some of the characteristics of orthodox businesses but are illegal are called:
A) white-collar crime.
B) corporate crime.
C) index crime.
D) organized crime.
Q4) A way of punishing criminal and deviant behavior based on rituals of public disapproval rather than incarceration is called:
A) deviance control.
B) differential control.
C) target hardening.
D) Shaming.
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Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality
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66 Verified Questions
66 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Today, the gap between rich and poor in the United States is the largest it has been since:
A) 1929, after the stock market crash.
B) 1970, when the United States started to outsource jobs.
C) 1947, when the United States started to measure the gap.
D) None of the above; the gap has been getting smaller.
Q2) Karl Marx called those who own the means of production ________ and those who make their living by selling their own labor power for a wage ________.
A) capitalists; the working class
B) producers; consumers
C) merchants; consumers
D) the working class; capitalists
Q3) According to the textbook, what three main characteristics do social systems of stratification share? Provide an example of each.
Q4) In systems of stratification, people are typically ranked by:
A) personality.
B) social categories.
C) intelligence.
D) social capital.
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Chapter 8: Global Inequality
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68 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The textbook notes a recent health crisis that emerged in West Africa. The disease spread quickly because it was new to the region and because there were few health care facilities, poor-quality roads, and insufficient transportation in rural areas. This epidemic was called:
A) the New Malaria Epidemic.
B) the West Nile Virus Epidemic.
C) the Ebola Epidemic.
D) the Whooping Cough Epidemic.
Q2) Sonyuchka studies countries that are located primarily in east and southeast Asia, the oil-rich countries of the Middle East and north Africa, the Americas (Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and other countries in the Caribbean and South America), and the once-communist republics that formerly made up the Soviet Union and its eastern European allies. She is likely studying ________ countries.
A) high-income
B) middle-income
C) low-income
D) Asian
Q3) In two to three sentences, describe how market-oriented theories explain global inequality.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Gender Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) In two to four sentences, explain what criticisms black feminists make about the feminist movement.
Q2) In a short paragraph, discuss the influence of nature and nurture in the formation of gender identity. How do arguments that biology primarily influences gender differ from sociological views of gender socialization?
Q3) Karen made an unwanted sexual advance on her date Sarah, persisting even though it was clear that Sarah was resistant. How would sociologists characterize this interaction?
A) matriarchy
B) gender typing
C) sexual harassment
D) gender profiling
Q4) Why did Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz carry her mattress around with her across campus?
A) She was calling attention to the crisis of rape on campus.
B) Her mattress revealed the unsanitary living conditions of female students.
C) She was demonstrating the power of white privilege.
D) Her strength showed the potential of female bodybuilding.
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Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
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64 Verified Questions
64 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In examining recent trends in global migration, Stephen Castles and Mark Miller (1993) have identified four tendencies that they claim characterize migration patterns today and that are expected to persist in the coming years. In a couple of sentences, please identify and describe each of these.
Q2) Most immigrants admitted to the United States since 1965 have been from:
A) northwestern Europe.
B) southern and eastern Europe.
C) Africa.
D) Latin America or Asia.
Q3) Members of which Latino immigrant group are more likely to be educated and come from white-collar and professional backgrounds?
A) Mexicans
B) Puerto Ricans
C) Cubans
D) Haitians
Q4) In a couple of sentences, explain the main difference between prejudice and discrimination. Does prejudice always precede discrimination?
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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66 Verified Questions
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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 theoretical perspective is most likely to agree with the following statement: "Contemporary couples are seeking to be more symmetrical, but in reality men do not perform their share of the housework."
A) functionalism
B) postmodernism
C) feminism
D) Marxism
Q3) Does cohabitation lead to divorce? Please explain your answer in two to four sentences, using research from the textbook.
Q4) Describe Talcott Parsons's view of the family in one to three sentences. What are two criticisms of his approach?
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Chapter 12: Education and Religion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why did Max Weber believe Christianity contained possibilities for social change that Eastern religions did not?
A) Weber thought that the Eastern religions were too focused on sin and salvation instead of experiencing the divine.
B) Weber thought that Christianity represented the top of the religious evolutionary chain and beat other religions because of its usefulness to human progress.
C) Weber believed that the religions of the East cultivated an attitude of passivity or acceptance within the believer, whereas Christianity demanded a constant struggle against sin and so could stimulate revolt against the existing order.
D) Weber thought that Christianity, with its focus on inner development, love, and acceptance of everyone, was suited for multicultural development.
Q2) ________ is one of the oldest human institutions.
A) School
B) The nation-state
C) Large-scale private property
D) Religion
Q3) What is religious nationalism? Please explain your answer in a short paragraph.
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Chapter 13: Politics and Economic Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) Frederick works in a university, studying the extent to which individuals depend on others to produce most of the goods they need to sustain their lives. He is struck by the fact that many people could not survive in the modern world because they simply do not have the knowledge to carry out certain basic tasks, such as growing food. The process that Frederick studies is known to sociologists as:
A) class conflict.
B) scarcity society.
C) economic interdependence.
D) informal economy.
Q2) Why did state and local workers-ranging from firefighters to teachers-protest in Wisconsin and several other states?
A) They were upset that the government was going to make unions illegal.
B) They feared that the state would force them to join expensive, ineffective unions.
C) They were upset that their jobs were being outsourced to other countries.
D) They feared the loss of their pensions, a reduction in their health benefits, and a loss of their right to collective bargaining.
Q3) What are the main features of capitalism? Answer in two to four sentences.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Sociology of the Body: Health, Illness, and Sexuality
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73 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Priyanka is a sociologist who thinks that society usually operates in a smooth and consensual manner. What school of sociology mentioned in the textbook does she probably belong to?
A) symbolic interactionist
B) structuralist
C) functionalist
D) postmodernist
Q2) Paul has an enlarged prostate and is thus forced to go to the bathroom frequently. He is embarrassed by his condition and avoids telling others about his illness. When he goes out with his friends to dine and is asked why he leaves the table so often, he tells others that he is calling home to check on the children. What type of work, as defined by Corbin and Strauss, is Paul incorporating?
A) illness work
B) coping work
C) everyday work
D) biographical work
Q3) In three to five sentences, compare complementary and alternative medicine.
Q4) In a short paragraph, describe changes in sexual practices over the past two centuries.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is gentrification considered an urban problem? In three to five sentences, explain what happens to residents of a neighborhood when it goes through the process of gentrification.
Q2) Several distinct central cities and counties, including Los Angeles, Orange County, Riverside, and San Bernardino, merge together to form the Greater Los Angeles Area, which is an unbroken urban environment known as:
A) a megalopolis.
B) a metropolis.
C) a conurbation.
D) urbanization.
Q3) In a short paragraph, use China as an example to explain some of the issues that countries face today regarding population growth, economic growth, and environmental issues. How are these issues intertwined?
Q4) Demographic transition and Malthusianism are two theories of population change. In a short paragraph, describe which you think best explains the issues of population growth today and why.
Q5) In a short paragraph, explain why developing countries are experiencing urbanization at such a rapid pace.
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Chapter 16: Globalization in a Changing World
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81 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a postindustrial society, professionals such as lawyers, engineers, and computer programmers will become the leading groups in society because, according to Daniel Bell, they possess and disseminate what?
A) post-secondary degrees
B) a global value system
C) postindustrial identities
D) codified knowledge
Q2) Which of the following is the best example of a transnational corporation?
A) a software company in Silicon Valley that employs about two hundred people from around the United States, using telecommuting technology
B) College Cleaners, a janitorial service that cleans university buildings
C) Gooden, Brogan, Cangas, and Romero, a law firm with two thousand employees in three countries
D) a clothing company in India that exports much of its product internationally
Q3) Compare and contrast the three schools of thought in the globalization debate. Which position do you find most compelling? Why?
Q4) Explain how information technology and the flow of information play a role in propelling the process of globalization.
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