Sociological Perspectives Exam Preparation
Guide
Sociological Perspectives explores the foundational theories, concepts, and approaches used to analyze human society and social behavior. Students will examine the ways in which social structures, institutions, and relationships shape individuals' experiences and the broader patterns of social life. Through the study of classic and contemporary perspectives including functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and feminist theory this course provides tools for critically evaluating issues such as inequality, culture, identity, and social change. Emphasis is placed on understanding how sociological thinking applies to current events and everyday life.
Recommended Textbook
Sociology in Our Times The Essentials 8th Edition by Diana Kendall
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16 Chapters
2386 Verified Questions
2386 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Sociological Perspective and Research
Process
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146 Verified Questions
146 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) When students go away to college they often make lifelong friends and may even find their spouse. According to Robert Merton, this is a _____ function of education.
A)manifest
B)latent
C)dysfunction
D)prerequisite
Answer: A
Q2) __________ refers to the process of collecting data while being part of the activities of the group that the researcher is studying.
A)The experiment
B)Survey research
C)Participant observation
D)Secondary analysis
Answer: C
Q3) One of the great myths about suicide is that people who commit suicide will talk about doing so.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Culture
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Q1) __________ culture consists of classical music, opera, ballet, live theater, and other activities usually patronized by elite audiences, composed primarily of members of the upper-middle and upper classes, who have the time, money, and knowledge assumed to be necessary for its appreciation.
A)Ideal
B)Real
C)High
D)Popular
Answer: C
Q2) A(n) __________ is anything that meaningfully represents something else. Culture could not exist without them because there would be no shared meanings among people.
A)indicator
B)symbol
C)device
D)character Answer: B
Q3) Discuss why culture is so significant to our personal identities. Answer: Not Answer
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Socialization
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Q1) Distinguish between sociological and sociobiological perspectives on the development of human behavior.
Answer: Every human being is a product of biology (nature), society, and personal experiences (nurture)\-that is, of heredity (nature) and/or environment (nurture). Sociologists focus on how humans design their own culture and transmit it from generation to generation through socialization (nurture). By contrast, sociobiologists assert that (nature), in the form of our genetic makeup, is a major factor in shaping human behavior. Most sociologists disagree with the notion that biological (nature) principles can be used to explain all human behavior. However, some aspects of our physical makeup-such as eye color, hair color, height, and weight-are largely determined by our heredity (nature).
Q2) According to psychologist Jean Piaget, toward the end of the second year of life, children begin to use words as mental symbols and to form mental images. He referred to this as the __________ stage.
A)concrete operational
B)preoperational
C)sensorimotor
D)formal operational
Answer: B
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Social Structure and Interaction in Everyday Life
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Q1) Sociologist Emile Durkheim stated that as societies industrialized and developed more specialized economic activities, social solidarity came to be rooted in the members' shared dependence on one another.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Although all jobs place some burden on our feelings, emotional labor occurs only in jobs that require personal contact with the public or the production of a state of mind (such as hope, desire, or fear) in others.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A football coach who always plays the "tough guy" role in the presence of the players on his team feels comfortable showing emotional frailties when he is at home. This illustrates what sociologist Erving Goffman called __________ behavior.
A)back stage
B)interior stage
C)front stage
D)exterior stage
Q4) Discuss the various aspects of roles as a component of social structure.
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6
Chapter 5: Groups and Organizations
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Q1) Summarize sociologist Amitai Etzioni's theory on the types of formal organizations.
Q2) __________ is the process of maintaining or changing behavior to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or other group.
A)Conformity
B)Anticipatory socialization
C)Enforcement
D)Total expectation
Q3) Political parties, ecological activist groups, religious organizations, parent-teacher associations, and college sororities and fraternities are examples of __________ organizations.
A)normative
B)utilitarian
C)coercive
D)totalitarian
Q4) Conflict theorists focus on how the size of the group influences the kind of interaction that takes place among members.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Deviance and Crime
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Q1) A public execution illustrates which function of deviance?
A)Deviance clarifies rules.
B)Deviance unites a group.
C)Deviance promotes social change.
D)Deviance prevents social chaos.
Q2) __________ crimes include robbery, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In most of these crimes, the primary motive is to obtain money or some other desired valuable.
A)Public order
B)Organized
C)Violent
D)Property
Q3) Sociologist Walter Reckless stated that society produces pushes and pulls that move people toward criminal behavior; however, many people do not resort to deviance because of inner containments-such as supportive family and friends, reasonable social expectations, and supervision by others.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Outline the principle elements of sociologist Robert Merton's strain theory.
Q5) Explain the nature of deviance and describe its most common forms.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Class and Stratification in the United States
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Q1) __________ theorists view education as the "elevator" to social mobility. Improvements in the educational achievement levels (measured in number of years of schooling completed) of the poor, people of color, and white women have been cited as evidence that students' abilities are now more important than their class, race, or gender.
A)Postmodern
B)Conflict
C)Functionalist
D)Symbolic interactionist
Q2) Educationally, no matter which racial group, those with _______ have the highest rates living in poverty.
A)no high school diploma
B)4 years of high school
C)some college
D)a college degree
Q3) According to sociologist Karl Marx, class position and the extent of our income and wealth are determined by our work situation, or our relationship to the means of production.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Global Stratification
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Sample Questions
Q1) As a result of the 1992 U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, terms such as underdevelopment have largely been dropped in favor of measurements such as sustainable development, and economies are now classified by their __________.
A)material well-being
B)levels of economic development
C)levels of income
D)standard of living
Q2) About ______ of the world's population lives in the sixty-four low-income economies, where most people engage in agricultural pursuits, reside in nonurban areas, and are impoverished.
A)25 percent
B)33 percent
C)50 percent
D)75 percent
Q3) Summarize Walt Rostow's perspective on global inequality.
Q4) Discuss personal perspective on global poverty and human development issues.
Q5) Discuss the issue of migration of people from one poor country to another. Do their efforts make a difference in their economic status? Will this kind of migration continue in the future?
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Chapter 9: Race and Ethnicity
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Q1) __________ is a process by which members of subordinate racial and ethnic groups become absorbed into the dominant culture.
A)Participation
B)Pluralism
C)Assimilation
D)Colonialism
Q2) From a sociological perspective, __________ is a negative attitude based on faulty generalizations about members of specific racial, ethnic, or other groups.
A)prejudice
B)discrimination
C)stereotyping
D)profiling
Q3) A(n) __________ is a person or group that is incapable of offering resistance to the hostility or aggression of others.
A)frustrated nonaggressor
B)scapegoat
C)racist
D)authoritarian personality
Q4) Discrimination - sociologist Robert Merton's theory
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Chapter 10: Sex, Gender, and Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) In most hunting and gathering societies, which of the following statements is not true?
A)A relatively equitable relationship exists because neither sex has the ability to provide all of the food necessary for survival.
B)Women are full economic partners with men.
C)Relationships between women and men tend to be cooperative and relatively egalitarian.
D)Women do not contribute to food production in these societies.
Q2) The U.S. Census Bureau points out that in 2006, __________ percent of all secretaries in the United States were women, and __________ percent of all engineers in the United States were men.
A)80; 72
B)87; 80
C)92; 88
D)97; 95
Q3) Explain your personal perspective on being male or female.
Q4) Distinguish between individual and institutional discrimination. Discuss the Morgan Stanley case. Which of the two (i.e., individual or institutional) does this case apply? Why?
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Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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Q1) Some never-married people remain single by choice. Reasons include opportunities for a career, the availability of sexual partners without marriage, the belief that the single lifestyle is full of excitement, and the desire for self-sufficiency and freedom to change and experiment.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Foster care refers to institutional settings or residences where adults other than a child's own parents or biological relatives serve as caregivers. About 60 percent of children in foster care are children of color, with about 42 percent of them being African American.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Females in India who choose to become a surrogate typically do so because it provides both independence and family income.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss postmodernist perspectives on families.
Q5) Summarize symbolic interactionist perspectives on families.
Q6) Analyze the family from a functionalist perspective.
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Chapter 12: Education and Religion
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Q1) Home schooling in the U.S. has increased primarily because of A)religious reasons.
B)secular reasons.
C)gender or racial bias.
D)Both a and b are correct .
Q2) From kindergarten through college, schools teach students the student role and specific academic subjects. This illustrates the manifest function of education referred to as __________.
A)socialization
B)transmission of culture
C)social placement
D)change and innovation
Q3) Discuss the relationship between religion and questions about the meaning of life.
Q4) In preindustrial societies, religion often takes the form of animism which is the belief that supernatural forces affect people's lives either positively or negatively.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss the issue of bullying.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Politics and the Economy in Global Perspective
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Q1) Define capitalism and describe the four distinct features of "ideal" capitalism, and explain why pure capitalism does not exist.
Q2) Contemporary world economic systems-socialism
Q3) According to sociologist Max Weber, __________ authority is power legitimized by law or written rules and regulations.
A)charismatic
B)traditional
C)coercive
D)rational-legal
Q4) In the United States, people have a voice in the government through __________, whereby citizens elect representatives to serve as bridges between themselves and the government.
A)direct participatory democracy
B)representative democracy
C)symbolic democracy
D)independent involvement democracy
Q5) State the major elements of the functionalist perspective: the pluralist model of power and political systems.
Q6) Politics, Power, and Authority
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Chapter 14: Health, Health Care, and Disability
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Q1) __________ is the study of the causes and distribution of health, disease, and impairment throughout a population.
A)Sociology of medicine
B)Social epidemiology
C)Social health
D)Social medicine
Q2) Discuss the framing of drug ads.
Q3) The __________ theory emphasizes the political, economic, and social forces that affect health and the health care delivery system.
A)functionalist
B)conflict
C)symbolic interactionist
D)postmodernist
Q4) The medical-industrial complex encompasses local physicians and hospitals as well as global health-related industries such as insurance companies and pharmaceutical and medical supply companies.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Summarize health in the United States.
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Chapter 15: Population and Urbanization
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Q1) Preindustrial cities were limited in size by a number of factors. Which of the following factors was not identified as limiting the size of preindustrial cities?
A)crowded housing conditions and a lack of adequate sewage facilities
B)food supplies were limited
C)migration to the cities was difficult
D)lack of a sense of community
Q2) According to some contemporary economists using a Marxist perspective, the greatest crisis today facing low-income nations is __________.
A)natural disaster
B)war
C)food shortage
D)capital shortage
Q3) __________ is the study of the relationship between people and their physical environment.
A)Demography
B)Urban sociology
C)Human ecology
D)Physical sociology
Q4) Describe the study of demography and define the basic demographic concepts.
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Chapter 16: Collective Behavior, Social Movements, and Social Change
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Q1) Summarize the key elements of these four explanations of collective behavior: contagion theory, social unrest and circular reaction, convergence theory, and emergent norm theory.
Q2) Explain the new social movement theory.
Q3) Describe the conditions for collective behavior.
Q4) Love Canal residents were engaging in __________ behavior when they called attention to their problems with the chemical dump site by staging a protest in which they "burned in effigy" the governor and the health commissioner to emphasize their displeasure with the lack of response from these public officials.
A)aggregate
B)mob
C)riot
D)nuclear
Q5) Which statement concerning social movements is false?
A)Most rely on volunteers.
B)They give people who otherwise would not have the resources to enter politics a chance to do so.
C)They made democracy more available to excluded groups.
D)They can be easily categorized by their ideology.
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