Social Stratification Study Guide Questions
Course Introduction
Social Stratification examines the hierarchical arrangement of individuals and groups within societies, focusing on how inequalities in wealth, power, status, and prestige are systematically structured and maintained. The course explores key sociological theories and concepts related to class, race, gender, and other forms of social differentiation. Students analyze the historical and contemporary factors contributing to stratification, its consequences for individuals and communities, and the mechanisms that perpetuate or challenge these social divisions. Comparative perspectives highlight variations in stratification systems across cultures and the impact of globalization on patterns of inequality.
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Sociology Your Compass for a New World 3rd Edition by Robert J. Brym
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Chapter 1: A Sociological Compass
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Q1) What are values?
Answer: Values are ideas about what is right and wrong.
Q2) While in school William learned how to read.This is an example of an intended function also known as a ____.
A)dysfunction
B)manifest function
C)latent function
D)functional function
E)universal function
Answer: B
Q3) Which scholar is often called the first woman sociologist?
A)Marianne Weber
B)Harriet Martineau
C)Mary Wollstonecraft
D)Auguste Comte
E)Mary Mills
Answer: B
Q4) Define social structures.
Answer: Social structures are stable patterns of social relations.
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Chapter 2: How Sociologists Do Research
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Q1) Define validity.
Answer: Validity is the degree to which a measure actually measures what it is intended to measure.
Q2) Some people believe that it is not important if the United States Bureau of the Census is off by a slight margin.The principal argument used to dismiss calls for different counts is based on ____ of changing how the census is conducted.
A)the cost
B)the difficulty
C)the statistics
D)the organization
E)none of these choices
Answer: A
Q3) What is the single biggest problem for sociological research?
Answer: The biggest problem is the fact that experience filters perceptions of reality.
Q4) Most participant-observation studies begin as exploratory research.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Culture
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Q1) Countercultures rarely pose a serious threat to ____.
A)social stratification
B)social morality
C)social structure
D)social beliefs
E)social evolution
Answer: C
Q2) People actively produce and interpret culture.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The tendency in postmodern society to define ourselves in terms of the goods and services we purchase is known as:
A)rationalization
B)subculture
C)consumerism
D)culture
E)purchased identity
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Socialization
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Q1) The text notes that,in Freud's view,the development of one's personality is achieved:
A)through a short process of resocialization
B)through a playful and peaceful process of socialization
C)through a difficult and stressful process of socialization
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q2) When a person enters the full-time paid labor force,secondary socialization enters a new phase that may be more or less stressful,and is called:
A)dissonance
B)labor management
C)professional socialization
D)preprofessional identity
E)resocialization
Q3) The Thomas theorem states: "Situations we define as real are rarely real in their consequences."
A)True
B)False
Q4) Who are significant others?
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Chapter 5: Social Interaction
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Q1) Jokes function to:
A)invert or pervert reality
B)let us see beyond the taken-for -granted world
C)enable us to see the structure of society that lies just beneath our laughter
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q2) Discuss the limitations of rational choice theory,according to Brym and Lie.
Q3) When people come into contact with one another,they usually try to get information that will help them understand both the situation and the people that they have to interact with.They do this by paying attention to:
A)social organization
B)personal zones
C)the time of day when the interaction takes place
D)status cues
E)symbolic interactions
Q4) According to Charles Derber,the typical conversation in the United States is a competition for affection.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Social Collectivities: Groups to Societies
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Q1) Societies in which people live by searching for wild plants and hunting wild animals are called:
A)hunting and gathering societies
B)nomadic societies
C)foraging societies
D)precursory societies
E)pre-agrarian societies
Q2) Societies that use machines and fuel to greatly increase the supply of food and finished goods are called:
A)aquarian societies
B)revolutionary societies
C)agricultural societies
D)modern societies
E)industrial societies
Q3) Social groups are people who share similar status but do not identify with one another.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain laissez-faire leadership.
Q5) What is a reference group?
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Chapter 7: Deviance and Crime
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Q1) Rape is prosecuted more often today than in the past because women's position in the following areas has changed:
A)the economy
B)the family
C)government
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q2) Labeling theory holds that deviance results:
A)when one's deviant associations are more numerous and influential than one's non-deviant associations
B)not just from the actions of the deviant but also from the responses of others
C)when social control is weak
D)when strain occurs
E)all of these choices
Q3) Authorities and the wider public report all criminal acts and ignore no significant criminal activity.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are social deviations?
Q5) How does conflict theory consider deviance and crime?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Stratification: United States and Global Perspectives
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Q1) For Wright,"organizational assets" refer to:
A)decision-making authority
B)the financial resources of an organization
C)the political influence of a property owner
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q2) The domestication of animals is a characteristic of which form of agriculture?
A)large scale agriculture
B)pastoralism
C)horticulture
D)slash and burn agriculture
E)raiding
Q3) If you compare people with the same level of education and similar family backgrounds,women and minority groups tend to attain the same status as white men do.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Social stratification pervades all aspects of social life.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How is the poverty threshold determined? How is it used? Page 10
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Chapter 9: Globalization, Inequality, and Development
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Q1) How old is globalization?
A)around 30 years old
B)about 200 years old
C)approximately 500 years old
D)generally agreed at 3000 years old
E)There is no one correct answer to that question.
Q2) The ____ capitalist countries are rich countries,such as the United States,Japan and Germany that are the major sources of capital and technology in the world.
A)global
B)peripheral
C)semiperipheral
D)core
E)neoliberal
Q3) Transnational corporations - also called multinational or international corporations - are the most important agents of globalization in the world today.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain how international debt fosters anti-globalization sentiment.
Q5) What is a global commodity chain?
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Chapter 10: Race and Ethnicity
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Q1) What is a scapegoat?
Q2) How do ethnic groups differ from one another?
Q3) The sociologist(s)associated with the ecological theory of race and ethnic relations is (are):
A)Robert Park
B)Robert Blauner
C)William Julius Wilson
D)Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton
E)Herbert Gans
Q4) ____ involves people in one country gaining virtually complete control over other people in the same country and seeking to destroy their culture.
A)resistance to domination
B)internal colonialism
C)colonialism
D)expulsion
E)symbolic ethnicity
Q5) Are racial and ethnic groups blending over time in the United States? If not,why not? If so,what accounts for this process?
Q6) What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
Page 13
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Chapter 11: Sexuality and Gender
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Q1) Why do men commit more frequent (and more harmful)acts of aggression against women then women commit against men?
A)because men are more physically powerful than women
B)because women are more physically powerful than men
C)because norms justify male domination
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q2) Preschool boys who are presented with a simple toy choice between playing with a tool set and a dish set:
A)always choose the tool set
B)choose the tool set more often than the dish set
C)are about as likely to choose one as the other
D)never choose the dish set
E)none of these choices
Q3) If gender reassignment occurs before the age of ____ it is usually successful.
A)6 months
B)1 year
C)2 years
D)18 months
E)none of these choices
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Chapter 12: Sociology of the Body: Disability, Aging, and Death
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Q1) People considered deficient in physical or mental capacity are called:
A)impaired
B)disabled
C)rehabilitated
D)aged
E)none of these choices
Q2) The number of men compared to the number of women in the population is known as the:
A)age ratio
B)sex ratio
C)gender ratio
D)gender rate
E)female-to-male ratio
Q3) ____ refers to social inequality between age cohorts.
A)age bias
B)age roles
C)generation
D)age stratification
E)life expectancy
Q4) Explain rehabilitation.
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Chapter 13: Work and the Economy
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Q1) Instead of focusing on how power,norms,and values shape markets,neoclassical economists argue that:
A)free markets cannot operate without government regulation
B)free markets maximize economic growth
C)a minimum wage is important to stabilize any economy
D)high profits and high wages can occur together
E)high profits and high wages never occur together
Q2) Define capitalism.
Q3) How are American workers different from workers in most other highly industrialized countries?
A)Americans work more hours per week on average
B)a smaller percentage of American workers are unionized
C)in the United States there is no centralized,nationwide bargaining between unions and businesses
D)in the United States there are fewer paid vacation days per year
E)all of these choices
Q4) What is the difference between the sociological and neoclassical schools of economics on how markets operate?
Q5) Define the economy.
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Chapter 14: Politics
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Q1) Which is a social precondition for liberal democracy to be actualized in a country?
A)The enjoyment of considerable economic growth.
B)Favorable external political and military connections.
C)Support from the world centers of democracy.
D)Decrease in economic inequality and the spread of literacy.
E)All of the above.
Q2) Which political organization competes for control of the government in regular elections and puts forward policy alternatives?
A)political parties
B)lobbies
C)political revolution
D)mass media
E)public opinion
Q3) Compare and contrast the pluralist,elitist,power resource,and state-centered theories of power and political activity on the question of who is powerful in American society and why.Is the answer to this question different outside of the United States? Why or why not?
Q4) Define terrorism.
Q5) What are lobbies?
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Chapter 15: Families
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Q1) A gender division of labor does not exist among foragers.Men and women hunt together.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In the traditional nuclear family:
A)the wife works outside of the home
B)the husband stays home to care for the children
C)stepchildren are major partners in the family structure
D)the parents are not involved in the community
E)none of these choices
Q3) If a mother,father,children,and grandparents all live in the same household we would characterize them as a(n):
A)postmodern family
B)nuclear family
C)traditional nuclear family
D)extended family
E)global nuclear family
Q4) Construct your own question drawing on relevant course materials for your answer.Points will be awarded for both the question and the answer.
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Chapter 16: Religion
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Q1) Brym and Lie regard Confucianism as:
A)one of the major world religions.
B)a formal institutionalized religion.
C)as a worldview or a philosophy of life.
D)All of the above.
E)None of the above.
Q2) Frequent church attendance is more common among ____ than ____.
A)African Americans; whites.
B)whites; African Americans.
C)whites; racial minorities.
D)All of the above.
E)None of the above.
Q3) According to the psychologist William James,religion originates in people's need:
A)to keep busy
B)to be charitable
C)to find meaning and purpose in the face of inevitable death
D)to explain human behavior
E)to be intensely sociable
Q4) What is a church?
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Chapter 17: Education
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Q1) According to the textbook,which of the following will NOT result in substantial improvement of the American school system?
A)full desegregation
B)universal bussing
C)giving parents the right to choose which schools their children will attend
D)pouring much more money into the high school system
E)all of these choices.
Q2) According to sociologist Randall Collins,it takes more and more certificates and diplomas to qualify for a given job.He calls this:
A)educational achievement
B)mass schooling
C)educational attainment
D)professionalization
E)credential inflation
Q3) In the 1950s and 1960s,schools in the U.S.A.were homogeneous in resources and educational outcomes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe the mentoring movement.
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Chapter 18: The Mass Media
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Questions
Q1) As societies develop they become larger and more complex.The number of institutions and roles proliferate.Due to the sheer scale of the society,face-to-face interaction becomes less viable as a means of communication.This leads to:
A)the creation of new life forms
B)the disorganization of society
C)increased competition for scarce social resources
D)the need for new means of coordinating the operation of society
E)increased competition for scarce cultural resources
Q2) The blending of the World Wide Web,television,telephone,and other communications media into new,hybrid media forms is called:
A)media diffusion
B)media imperialism
C)media convergence
D)media conglomeration
E)media wars
Q3) People are passive consumers of media.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the feminist approach to mass media?
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Chapter 19: Health and Medicine
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Sample Questions
Q1) A Chinese farmer first brought the SARS virus to Hong Kong.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to Table 19.1,which of the following was the leading cause of death in 2001?
A)homicide
B)heart disease
C)accidents
D)AIDS
E)kidney disease
Q3) The poor African country of Sierra Leone suffered the world's lowest life expectancy at:
A)21 years
B)35 years
C)51 years
D)61 years
E)71 years
Q4) Discuss gender inequalities in the U.S.health care system.
Q5) Give several reasons for gender inequalities in health in the United States.
Q6) What accounts for unevenly distributed health risks in the human population?
Page 22
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Chapter 20: Population and Urbanization
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Q1) Which stage of demographic transition theory involved a high crude death rate and a high crude birth rate?
A)preindustrial stage
B)early industrial stage
C)mature industrial stage
D)postindustrial stage
E)All of the above.
Q2) The main purpose of demography is to:
A)figure out why the size,geographical distribution,and social composition of human populations change over time.
B)figure out the social and geographical patterns of social inequality.
C)figure out root social and economic causes of urban crime.
D)All of the above.
E)None of the above.
Q3) Karl Marx was one of Malthus's strongest supporters.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain why Kerala has such a low total fertility rate.What do we learn from this example that can be applied elsewhere?
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Chapter 21: Collective Action and Social Movements
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Q1) The right to a certain level of economic security and full participation in the social life in a modern welfare state is called:
A)civil citizenship
B)political citizenship
C)social citizenship
D)new social movements
E)universal citizenship
Q2) Social movements emerge from collective action only when the discontented succeed in establishing:
A)stable membership
B)a "reserve army" of labor
C)an organizational base
D)charismatic leadership and a "reserve army" of labor
E)stable membership and an organizational base
Q3) Universal citizenship refers to one who sees himself or herself as a citizen of the world as opposed to a citizen of a particular country.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Using breakdown theory,explain how a riot or a lynching might occur.
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Chapter 22: Technology and the Global Environment
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Q1) According to Brym and Lie,during "the era of naïve optimism" people regarded scientists:
A)as having ulterior motives for their work
B)as being under the control of big corporations and big government
C)as a sort of priesthood whose objectivity allowed them to stand outside the everyday world and perform near-magical acts
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q2) Mass-producing cars,sending a man to the moon,and other technology feats in the 1900s required:
A)enormous capital investment
B)detailed attention to the way work is organized
C)many technical experts
D)all of these choices
E)none of these choices
Q3) Technological determinism is the view that:
A)people determine the shape and direction of technological change
B)technology determines the shape and direction of history
C)technology and people make history
D)neither technology nor people make history
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