Society and Culture Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
This course explores the complex relationship between society and culture, examining how cultural beliefs, practices, and values shape social structures and individual behaviors. Students will analyze the ways in which identity, socialization, norms, and institutions influence human interactions within diverse cultural contexts. Through the study of theoretical perspectives and real-world examples, the course fosters an understanding of how cultural change and continuity impact broader societal issues such as class, gender, ethnicity, and globalization.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Sociology 4th Edition by Anthony Giddens
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16 Chapters
1239 Verified Questions
1239 Flashcards
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2
Chapter 1: Sociology: Theory and Method
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are the strengths and limitations of surveys as a research method?
Answer: The strength of surveys is that they allow researchers to collect information on large numbers of respondents.Because the data collected can (generally)be quantified,it also allows for precise measures and comparisons between groups/people.Surveys,however,are limited in that data collected may often be superficial-particularly with a bad research design.Standardized survey responses might gloss over important differences that intensive,qualitative interviews might uncover.Finally,surveys also contain the danger of people claiming beliefs and attitudes that they do not actually hold.
Q2) Max Weber's theoretical contributions might be criticized for:
A)focusing narrowly on the individual
B)not taking into account the role of bureaucracy in modern societies
C)ignoring large social institutions
D)ignoring collective and democratic forms of organization that are common in modern societies
E)focusing too much on the experiences of women
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: Culture and Society
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Sample Questions
Q1) Frank notices that at some point in relatively recent times,humans in some places began using machines powered by non-human means such as steam and coal.Frank is noting what process?
A)stone-cutting
B)communization
C)industrialization
D)state formation
E)political process
Answer: C
Q2) Sociologists often refer to less developed societies,in which industrial production is either virtually nonexistent or only developed to a limited degree,as:
A)the developing world
B)core nations
C)McDonaldized societies
D)nontraditionalist societies
E)trade bureaucracies
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Socialization, the Life Course, and Aging
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82 Verified Questions
82 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What percent of the elderly in the United States are foreign born?
A)12 percent
B)50 percent
C)20 percent
D)5 percent
E)45 percent
Answer: A
Q2) The process of self-consciousness,in which we create and re-create who we are is known as:
A)social identity
B)self-identity
C)the "I"
D)the "me"
E)socialization
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Social Interaction and Everyday Life in the Age
of the Internet
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Sample Questions
Q1) Encounters always need __________,which indicate(s)that civil inattention is being discarded and focused interaction will begin.
A)impression management
B)discussion
C)openings
D)flirtations
E)response cries
Q2) Which of the following would NOT be classified as civil inattention?
A)riding the bus to class and reading a book
B)waiting in line at the ATM and talking on the phone
C)selecting a seat in a large lecture hall where you do not know your fellow students
D)working on a group project but contributing very little and letting others do the work
E)walking across campus listening to your iPod
Q3) What is civil inattention? Using the example of a crowded public bus,explain how individuals on the bus might engage in civil inattention.
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6
Chapter 5: Groups, Networks, and Organizations
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best characterizes the place of women in bureaucratic organizations such as corporations?
A)Women are encouraged to climb the corporate ladder.
B)Due to strict rules and regulations, women and men are in equal positions.
C)Women are seen as playing supporting roles and perfoming routine tasks.
D)Women are in key decision-making roles.
E)Women are excluded.
Q2) John Meyer and Brian Rowan found that the formal procedures in a bureaucracy are often:
A)myths that people profess to follow but that have little basis in reality
B)outdated and need revision
C)identical to the practices adopted by members of the organization
D)understood to be the "right" way to do things
E)ignored by most members of the organization
Q3) Which of the following is true regarding large groups?
A)Relationships in the group are more intense.
B)They tend to be informal.
C)They are unstable.
D)They tend to be more exclusive.
E)They tend to be inclusive.
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Chapter 6: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements related to the biological view of deviance is true?
A)Some of the first attempts to explain crime emphasized biological factors.
B)Cesare Lombroso's claims have been supported by a large body of subsequent research.
C)Nearly all studies claiming a relationship between body type and delinquency have used samples that are representative of the general population.
D)A correlation between body type and delinquency shows that one's body type "causes" criminal behavior.
E)Fragile-looking skinny children almost never engage in delinquent behavior.
Q2) The National Crime Victimization Survey has found that crime rates are:
A)functional, serving many positive functions
B)social constructions
C)actually higher than those reported by official agencies
D)actually lower than those reported by official agencies
E)about the same as those reported by official agencies, confirming the accuracy of those reports
Q3) Discuss the ways in which deviance is functional.Give examples.
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Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does the government determine the poverty line?
A)It multiplies the cost of an adequate, nutritious diet by three.
B)It multiplies the cost of an average household's rent by three.
C)It calculates the average cost of living in each of four regions of the United States and divides that number by the average cost of rent in those places.
D)Since the cost of living varies across the country, it calculates the cost of living in each region and determines a poverty line for each U.S.region.
E)It is based on how much a person would make per year if the person made the federal minimum wage.
Q2) When sociologists examine how far an individual moves up or down the socioeconomic scale in his or her lifetime,they are studying:
A)optimal mobility
B)intergenerational mobility
C)life change
D)intragenerational mobility
E)pangenerational mobility
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Chapter 8: Global Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Alyssa is a fierce advocate for indigenous rights and ways of life.Why might she be critical of the modernization theory of development?
A)Modernization theory typically suggests that traditional societies must abandon their traditional ways and embrace modern economic institutions.
B)Modernization theory suggests that the state should run the economy, which leaves no place for indigenous involvement.
C)Modernization theory treats indigenous people like noble savages who have all of the correct answers to life's problems.
D)Modernization theory focuses too much on the role of women in economic development, and indigenous communities already have prescribed roles for women.
E)Modernization theory suggests that supply and demand should be strictly regulated by a central planning administration.
Q2) Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the four competing sociological theories that explain global inequality.
Q3) What is the role of technology in deepening existing global inequalities?
Q4) How do dependency theorists explain global inequality?
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Chapter 9: Gender Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements is true concerning the role of biology in explaining the behavior patterns of men and women?
A)Biological factors wholly determine behavior patterns in men and women.
B)There is abundant evidence that supports the biological origins of behavior patterns in men and women.
C)The biological evidence shows that social context has little to do with shaping the behavior patterns of men and women.
D)The biological evidence shows that social interaction has little to do with shaping the behavior patterns of men and women.
E)Nearly a century of research fails to identify the physiological and biological origins of the behavior patterns of men and women.
Q2) In Navajo culture,the nádleehí,male-bodied people with feminine natures:
A)are considered especially honorable
B)are devalued
C)cross-dress because they consider cross-dressing erotic
D)do not actually exist; it is simply a myth
E)were banned from Navajo society
Q3) Why are women so often the targets of sexual violence?
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Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
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Sample Questions
Q1) When comparing the difference in infant mortality rates between the wealthiest white Americans and the poorest African Americans,the infant mortality rates for blacks in the bottom 20 percent of income compared to whites in the top 20 percent was __________ higher.
A)25 percent
B)50 percent
C)2 times
D)5 times
E)there is no difference in infant mortality rate by race or income level
Q2) Characterize the racial and ethnic inequality that exists in the United States today.Which of the following dimensions of inequality do you think is most significant: education,income,health,or political power? Explain why you think so.
Q3) Members of which Latino immigrant group are more likely to be educated and come from white-collar and professional backgrounds?
A)Mexican
B)Puerto Rican
C)Cuban
D)Haitian
E)Brazilian
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which perspective is most likely to agree with the statement "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
E)symbolic interactionism
Q2) It was common in Ladakhi society for brothers to share one wife.This type of marriage is an example of:
A)monogamy
B)polygyny
C)polyandry
D)patrilocality
E)promiscuity
Q3) Sociologists have identified seven important changes that characterize global family change over the past half-century.What are they?
Q4) Describe the trend toward later marriages.What factors account for the trend toward later marriages in the United States in recent decades?
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Chapter 12: Education and Religion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why did Émile Durkheim believe that religion was useful for human societies?
A)Durkheim felt that religions allowed our desires to be expressed in totems and repressed our baser instincts.
B)Durkheim believed that religion, as mythology, provided a social place for science.
C)Durkheim held that religion ties communities together through a common belief in Divine judgment.
D)Durkheim argued that religion has the function of cohering a society by ensuring that people meet regularly to affirm common beliefs and values.
E)Religion, according to Durkheim, allows the strong to assert ideological power over the weak, which leads to societal advancement and evolution.
Q2) Compulsory schooling was established in Europe and the United States:
A)in the sixteenth century
B)in the seventeenth century
C)in the eighteenth century
D)in the nineteenth century
E)in the twentieth century
Q3) How is religion connected to both violence and social change?
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Politics and Economic Life
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is it important for sociologists to study economic institutions?
Q2) Joseph Schumpeter argued that:
A)democracy ensured that the will of the people trumped that of politicians
B)democracy is more important as a method of generating effective and responsible government than as a means of providing significant power for the majority
C)only through the separation of government into three branches-the legislative, the judicial, and the executive-can people be protected from tyrannical dictators
D)democracy was impossible to achieve until technological achievements rendered it possible
E)Weber's ideas were mired in the past and needed to be completely rejected
Q3) What are the three main characteristics of the modern nation-state?
Q4) What term is used to describe the undisputed political rule of a state over a given territorial area?
A)nation-state
B)nationalism
C)sovereignty
D)territorialism
E)political right
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Sociology of the Body: Health, Illness, and Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Brian quit high school before graduating and never returned to school.Joe has a university degree.Which of the following statements is true?
A)Each man is equally likely to know his own blood pressure.
B)Each man is equally likely to smoke.
C)Each man is equally likely to engage in aerobic exercise.
D)Each man is equally likely to be overweight.
E)Each man is equally likely to suffer from a genetic disease.
Q2) What is sexual orientation?
Q3) The most important example of a disease that has almost disappeared from the world in the last half century or so is:
A)malaria
B)measles
C)influenza
D)smallpox
E)scarlet fever
Q4) Compare complementary and alternative medicine.
Q5) Describe the mainstream gay and lesbian rights movement of today.
Q6) How do social class and race affect health?
Q7) Provide at least two explanations for the gender gap in health.
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Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) From 1999 to 2000,16.1 percent of Americans moved,and more than half moved to places within the same county.According to your textbook,why do people go to the trouble of moving,when they basically remain in the same place?
A)They are in search of better career opportunities.
B)They are looking for more diverse communities.
C)Their jobs require them to move.
D)They want to be closer to their parents or children.
E)They want to improve their housing.
Q2) Thomas Malthus was one of the original writers to show concern for population growth.Demographers,economists,politicians,sociologists,and others have continued to debate his ideas for more than two hundred years,but many do not share his concern for the natural limits to population growth.Which of the following challenged Malthus's predictions?
A)increases in food production due to new technologies such as machinery and genetics
B)decreases in the rate of population growth in developed countries
C)worries about population decline in countries such as the United States
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Globalization in a Changing World
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Sample Questions
Q1) The increased risk of skin cancer is a manufactured risk that is likely related to:
A)people not wearing enough sunscreen
B)mad cow disease
C)the depletion of the ozone layer
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Q2) Globalization affects which part of our daily lives?
A)our work patterns
B)our sense of individualism
C)popular culture
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Q3) Compare and contrast the three perspectives in the globalization debate.Which position do you find most compelling? Why?
Q4) What role do social movements play in social change? Using the Arab Spring as an example,explain how globalization has affected social movements.
Q5) Explain how information technology and the flow of information play a role in propelling the process of globalization.
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