question

_____ is the process by which people act toward or respond to other people, and also is the foundation for all relationships and groups in society.

answer

Social interaction

question

____ is the complex framework of societal institutions (such as the economy, politics, and religion) and the social practices (such as rules and social roles) that make up a society and that organize and establish limits on people's behavior.

answer

Social structure

question

Social structure is essential for the survival of society and for the well-being of individuals because it provides a social web of familial support and social relationships that connects each of us to the larger society. Which of the following groups has lost this vital link?

answer

Homeless

question

At the __________, the social structure of a society has several essential elements: social institutions, groups, statuses, roles, and norms.

answer

macrolevel

question

_____ theorists emphasize that social structure is essential because it creates order and predictability in a society. Social structure is also important for our human development.

answer

Functional

question

Social structure provides us with the ability to develop a self-concept as we learn attitudes, values, and behaviors of the people around us. When these attitudes and values are part of a predictable structure, it is easier to develop that self-concept. Which of the following theoretical perspectives is exemplified by this?

answer

Functionalist

question

_____ theorists maintain that in capitalistic societies, where a few people control the labor of many, the social structure reflects a system of relationships of domination among categories of people (for example, owner-worker and employer-employee).

answer

Conflict

question

In a capitalistic society, social structure helps create a system of domination and subordination that affects certain categories of people, including owners and workers, landlords and tenants, and rich celebrities and poor "nobodies." This view would be representative of which perspective?

answer

Conflict

question

Sociologist Robert Park coined the term __________ to refer to persons (such as immigrants) who simultaneously share the life and traditions of two distinct groups. It is the state of being part insider and part outsider in the social structure.

answer

social marginality

question

A(n) _____ is any physical or social attribute or sign that so devalues a person's social identity that it disqualifies that person from full social acceptance.

answer

stigma

question

A convicted criminal, wearing a prison uniform, is an example of a person who has been _____; the uniform says that the person has done something wrong and should not be allowed unsupervised outside the prison walls.

answer

stigmatized

question

A _____ is a socially defined position in a group or society characterized by certain expectations, rights, and duties; it exists independently of the specific people occupying it.

answer

status

question

A(n) _____ is comprised of all the social positions that a person occupies at a given time.

answer

status set

question

Joe is a student, a father, a son, a husband, a Baptist, and a Scout leader. All of these socially defined positions constitute his:

answer

status set

question

A(n) _____ status is a social position conferred at birth or received involuntarily later in life, based on attributes over which the individual has little or no control, such as race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

answer

ascribed

question

Anna is a female born to Mexican American parents; she was assigned these positions at birth. She is an adult and, if she lives long enough, will someday become an "older adult," which is a(n) _____ status received involuntarily later in life.

answer

ascribed

question

A(n) __________ status is a social position a person assumes voluntarily as a result of personal choice, merit, or direct effort.

answer

achieved

question

_____ statuses (such as occupation, education, and income) are thought to be gained as a result of personal ability or successful competition. Most occupational positions in modern societies are this type of statuses.

answer

Achieved

question

A(n) _____ status is the most important status a person occupies; it dominates all of the individual's other statuses and is the overriding ingredient in determining a person's general social position.

answer

master

question

For men, _____ has usually been the most important master status.

answer

occupation

question

When people are proud of a particular social status that they occupy, they often choose to use visible means to let others know about their position. _____ are material signs that inform others of a person's social position.

answer

Status symbols

question

Wearing a wedding ring, owning a Rolls-Royce, or a homeless person carrying a bulging shopping bag are all examples of:

answer

status symbols

question

For homeless women and men, ___________ are not status symbols as much as they are a link with the past, a hope for the future, and a potential source of immediate cash.

answer

possessions

question

__________ is a set of behavioral expectations associated with a given status. For example, a carpenter (employee) hired to remodel a kitchen is not expected to sit down uninvited and join the family (employer) for dinner.

answer

role

question

____ is a group's or society's definition of the way a specific role ought to be played

answer

Role expectation

question

According to the text's discussion of roles, _____.

answer

role performance does not always match role expectation

question

According to the text, role _____ occurs when the expectations associated with a role are unclear. For example, it is not always clear when the provider-dependent aspect of the parent-child relationship ends.

answer

ambiguity

question

Role _____ occurs when incompatible role demands are placed on a person by two or more statuses held at the same time.

answer

conflict

question

When _____ occurs, we may feel pulled in different directions. We may prioritize our roles and first complete the one we consider to be most important, or we may compartmentalize our lives and separate our roles from one another.

answer

role conflict

question

__________ occurs when incompatible demands are built into a single status that a person occupies.

answer

Role strain

question

A physician who wants to provide his or her patients with the best possible health care but is required by insurance companies or governmental regulations to keep costs down will experience:

answer

role strain.

question

Role _____ occurs when people consciously foster the impression of a lack of commitment or attachment to a particular role and merely go through the motions of role performance.

answer

distancing

question

While Eric is working in the fast-food restaurant, he does not want people to think of him as a "loser in a dead-end job." He wants them to view him as a college student who is working there just to "pick up a few bucks" until he graduates. When customers from the college come in, Eric talks to them about college-related topics rather than fast food. In this scenario, Eric is engaging in:

answer

role distancing.

question

_____ occurs when people disengage from social roles that have been central to their self-identity.

answer

Role exit

question

Sociologist Helen Ebaugh studied the process of role exit by interviewing ex-convicts, ex-nuns, retirees, divorced men and women, and others who had exited voluntarily from significant social roles. Ebaugh concluded that role exit occurs in four stages. _____ is the second stage.

answer

A search for alternatives

question

According to sociologist Helen Ebaugh, in the _____ stage of role exit, people realize that they must take some final action (such as quitting their job or getting a divorce).

answer

turning point

question

A(n) _____ group consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity and a feeling of interdependence.

answer

social

question

A(n) _____ group is a small, less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face, emotion- based interactions over an extended period of time.

answer

primary

question

Family, close friends, and school- or work-related peer groups would all be examples of:

answer

primary groups.

question

A(n) _____ group is a larger, more specialized group in which members engage in more- impersonal, goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time.

answer

secondary

question

Examples of _____ groups would include schools, churches, and corporations.

answer

secondary

question

_____, or cohesion, refers to a group's ability to maintain itself in the face of obstacles. It exists when social bonds, attractions, or other forces hold members of a group in interaction over a period of time.

answer

Social solidarity

question

A local school is destroyed by a tornado and community residents come together to build a makeshift school. This example illustrates the concept of:

answer

social solidarity

question

A _____ is a series of social relationships that links an individual to others.

answer

social network

question

A _____ organization is a highly structured group formed for the purpose of completing certain tasks or achieving specific goals.

answer

formal

question

The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty is an example of a(n):

answer

formal organization

question

A __________ is a set of organized beliefs and rules that establishes how a society will attempt to meet its basic social needs.

answer

social institution

question

Family, religion, education, the economy, the government (politics), mass media, sports, science and medicine, and the military are all examples of:

answer

social institutions.

question

_____ theorists emphasize that social institutions exist because they perform five essential tasks: replacing members; teaching new members; producing, distributing, and consuming goods and services; preserving order; and providing and maintaining a sense of purpose.

answer

Functional

question

The _____ theorists do not believe that social institutions work for the common good of everyone.

answer

conflict

question

The methods and tools that are available for acquiring the basic needs of daily life are referred to as:

answer

subsistence technology.

question

Social scientists have identified five types of societies based on various levels of _____ technology: hunting and gathering, horticultural and pastoral, agrarian, industrial, and postindustrial societies.

answer

subsistence

question

The technology in _____ societies is limited to tools and weapons that are used for basic subsistence, including spears, bows and arrows, nets, traps for hunting, and digging sticks for plant collecting. All tools and weapons are made of natural materials such as stone, bone, and wood.

answer

hunting and gathering

question

In __________ societies, the basic social unit is the kinship group or family. People do not have private households or residences. Instead, they live in small groups of about twenty-five to forty people.

answer

hunting and gathering

question

_____ societies are relatively egalitarian. Since it is impossible to accumulate a surplus of food, there are few resources upon which individuals or groups can build a power base.

answer

Hunting and gathering

question

The shaman, or religious leader, was common in which of the following types of societies?

answer

Hunting and gathering

question

Division of labor increases in _____ societies. As the food supply grows, not everyone needs to be engaged in food production. Some people can pursue activities such as weaving cloth or carpets, crafting jewelry, or creating the tools needed for building the society's structure.

answer

horticultural and pastoral

question

_____ societies use the technology of large-scale farming, including animal-drawn or energy-powered plows and equipment, to produce their food supply.

answer

Agrarian

question

In _____ societies, social inequality is the highest of all preindustrial societies in terms of both class and gender. The two major classes are the landlords and the peasants. The landlords own the fields and the harvests produced by the peasants.

answer

agrarian

question

_____ societies are based on technology that mechanizes production. New technologies, such as the invention of the steam engine and fuel-powered machinery, stimulated many changes.

answer

Industrial

question

Social institutions are transformed in __________ societies. The family diminishes in significance as the economy, education, and political institutions grow in size and complexity.

answer

Industrial

question

After the advent of _____ societies, the division of labor between men and women in the middle and upper classes became more distinct: Men were responsible for being "breadwinners;" women were seen as "homemakers."

answer

industrial

question

_____ societies are characterized by an information explosion and an economy in which large numbers of people either provide or apply information, or are employed in service jobs.

answer

Postindustrial

question

In __________ societies, there is a corresponding rise of a consumer society and the emergence of a global village in which people around the world communicate with one another by electronic technologies, such as television, telephone, fax, e-mail, and the Internet.

answer

postindustrial

question

Knowledge is viewed as the basic source of innovation and policy formulation in _____ societies. As a result, formal education and other sources of information become crucial to the success of individuals and organizations.

answer

postindustrial

question

Sociologist _____ asserted that preindustrial societies are held together by strong traditions and by the members' shared moral beliefs and values. As societies industrialized and developed more-specialized economic activities, social solidarity came to be rooted in the members' shared dependence on one another.

answer

Emile Durkheim

question

From sociologist Emile Durkheim's perspective, _____ refers to the social cohesion in preindustrial societies, in which there is minimal division of labor and people feel united by shared values and common social bonds.

answer

mechanical solidarity

question

According to Durkheim, social interaction in preindustrial societies is characterized by face-to- face, intimate, and primary group relationships. This type of interaction is referred to as:

answer

mechanical solidarity.

question

From sociologist Emile Durkheim's perspective, __________ refers to the social cohesion found in industrial societies, in which people perform very specialized tasks and feel united by their mutual dependence.

answer

organic solidarity

question

According to Durkheim, social interaction in industrial societies is less personal, more status oriented, and more focused on specific goals and objectives. This type of interaction is referred to as:

answer

organic solidarity.

question

Which of the following sociologists used the terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft to characterize the degree of social solidarity and social control found in societies?

answer

Ferdinand Tönnies

question

The Gemeinschaft refers to a:

answer

traditional society in which social relationships are based on personal bonds of friendship and kinship and on intergenerational stability.

question

In _____, people have a commitment to the entire group and feel a sense of togetherness. They tend to focus more on needs and interests of the group rather than their own self-interest.

answer

the Gemeinschaft

question

The Gesellschaft refers to a:

answer

arge, urban society in which social bonds are based on impersonal and specialized relationships, with little long-term commitment to the group or consensus on values.

question

Based on sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies' perspective, most people in _____ societies are "strangers" who perceive that they have very little in common with most people. Consequently, self-interest dominates, and little consensus exists regarding values.

answer

Gesellschaft

question

Sociologist Erving Goffman's term, _____, refers to the ways in which an individual shows awareness that another is present without making this person the object of particular attention.

answer

civil inattention

question

The fact that people engage in civil inattention demonstrates that interaction does have a pattern, or __________, which regulates the form and processes (but not the content) of social interaction.

answer

interaction order

question

Our perceptions about the meaning of a situation vary widely based on the statuses we occupy and our unique personal experiences. In her study of women's reactions to street encounters, sociologist Carol Brooks Gardner determined that women:

answer

try to avoid comments and propositions that are sexual in nature.

question

The process by which our perception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that we give to an experience is referred to as the:

answer

social construction of reality.

question

Our perceptions and behavior are influenced by how we initially define situations. In other words, we act on reality as we see it. Sociologists describe this process as the:

answer

definition of the situation.

question

A(n) __________ is a false belief or prediction that produces behavior that makes the originally false belief come true.

answer

self-fulfilling prophecy

question

Bob lives in a low-income neighborhood and believes he has no chance of ever getting out, so Bob does not try. This is an example of the:

answer

self-fulfilling prophecy.

question

__________ is the study of the commonsense knowledge that people use to understand the situations in which they find themselves

answer

Ethnomethodology

question

Sociologist __________ initiated the ethnomethodology approach because he was critical of mainstream sociology for not recognizing the ongoing ways in which people create reality and produce their own world.

answer

Harold Garfinkel

question

According to _____, interaction is based on the assumptions of shared expectancies. For example, when you are talking with someone, you will probably have certain expectations about taking turns speaking and listening.

answer

ethnomethodologists

question

In a series of __________, sociologist Harold Garfinkel assigned different activities to his students to see how breaking the unspoken rules of behavior created confusion.

answer

breaching experiments

question

Based on sociologist Erving Goffman's perspectives, _____ is the study of social interaction that compares everyday life to a theatrical presentation.

answer

dramaturgical analysis

question

_____, or presentation of self, refers to people's efforts to present themselves to others in ways that are most favorable to their own interests or image.

answer

Impression management

question

According to sociologist Erving Goffman, ___________ refers to the strategies we use to rescue our performance when we experience a potential or actual embarrassing situation.

answer

face-saving behavior

question

Sociologist Erving Goffman noted that people consciously participate in _____, a face-saving technique in which one role player ignores the flaws in another's performance to avoid embarrassment for everyone involved.

answer

studied nonobservance

question

According to the dramaturgical approach proposed by Goffman, _____ stage refers to the area where a player performs a specific role before an audience.

answer

front

question

A college professor projects a professional image in dress, speech, and mannerisms while actively teaching a classroom full of students. This illustrates what sociologist Erving Goffman called _____ stage behavior.

answer

front

question

According to the dramaturgical approach proposed by Goffman, _____ stage refers to the area where a player is not required to perform a specific role because it is out of view of a given audience.

answer

back

question

A college professor engages in preparatory work in her office alone. This illustrates what sociologist Erving Goffman called _____ stage behavior.

answer

back

question

Sociologist Arlie Hochschild suggests that we acquire a set of _____ that shapes the appropriate emotions for a given role or specific situation, including how, where, when, and with whom an emotion should be expressed.

answer

feeling rules

question

According to sociologist Arlie Hochschild, feeling rules apply to our occupational roles. Although all jobs place some burden on our feelings, _____ occurs only in jobs that require personal contact with the public or production of a state of mind (such as hope, desire, or fear) in others.

answer

emotional labor

question

The transfer of information between persons without the use of speech is referred to as _____.

answer

nonverbal communication

question

According to sociologist Erving Goffman, _____ is the symbolic means by which subordinates give a required permissive response to those in power; it confirms the existence of inequality and reaffirms each person's relationship to the other.

answer

deference

question

In a participant observation study of household workers and their employers, sociologist Judith Rollins found that household workers were expected to show _____ by averting their eyes when they talked to their employers and by standing less erect and walking tentatively.

answer

deference

question

Anthropologist Edward Hall asserted that _____ space is the immediate area surrounding a person that the person claims as private.

answer

personal

Sociology Chapter 5 Test Answers – Flashcards

Unlock all answers in this set

Haven't found what you were looking for?

Search for samples, answers to your questions and flashcards