question

Sociologists define a symbol as ________

answer

anything that carries meaning to people who share a culture.

question

The concept of "gerontocracy" refers to a society in which ________

answer

the oldest people have the most wealth, power, and prestige.

question

The pioneering sociologist who studied patterns of suicide in Europe was ________

answer

Emile Durkheim.

question

A statement that explains how and why specific facts are related is called a(n) ________

answer

theory

question

Subculture refers to ________

answer

cultural patterns that set off a part of a society's population.

question

Based on the text's survey of the life course, you might conclude that _______

answer

while we link life-course stages to biology, they are largely a social construction.

question

A distinctive contribution of schooling to the process of socialization is _______

answer

exposing the child to an impersonal, bureaucratic setting.

question

A secondary group is a social group that _________

answer

is impersonal and engages in some specific activity.

question

C. Wright Mills claimed that the "sociological imagination" transformed ________

answer

personal problems into public issues.

question

In 2012, about what percentage of U.S. adults claimed homosexuality is "always wrong" or "almost always wrong"?

answer

About 46%

question

Which early sociologist received the first doctorate ever awarded by Harvard University to a person of color?

answer

W. E. B. Du Bois

question

What is the concept that refers to the conflict among roles corresponding to two or more statuses?

answer

Role conflict

question

Which of the following concepts refers to genitals that distinguish females and males?

answer

Primary sex characteristics

question

Sarah is spending a summer living in another country where people have a way of life that differs from her own. A sociologist might expect that this experience would lead her to ________

answer

end up with a greater understanding of both a new way of life and her own way of life.

question

The Thomas theorem states that ________

answer

situations defined as real are real in their consequences.

question

What does the concept "presentation of self" mean?

answer

Efforts to create impressions in the minds of others

question

Which type of formal organization do people join in order to obtain money and other material benefits?

answer

Utilitarian organization

question

Which type of leaders downplay their own power, letting group members function more or less on their own?

answer

Laissez-faire leaders

question

The concept "bureaucracy" refers to ________

answer

an organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently.

question

What do sociologists call two or more people who identify and interact with one another?

answer

A social group

question

The Sapir-Whorf thesis states that ________

answer

people see the world through the cultural lens of their language.

question

Who helped launch the discipline of sociology by studying the evils of slavery and also by translating the writings of Auguste Comte?

answer

Harriet Martineau

question

The concept "cultural lag" refers to the fact that ________

answer

some cultural elements change more quickly than others.

question

Based on what you know about the history of human sexuality, once a society gains birth-control technology ________

answer

social norms regarding sexuality become more permissive.

question

Robert Michels referred to the rule of the many by the few as ________

answer

an oligarchy.

question

The term "sociology" was coined in 1838 by ________

answer

Auguste Comte.

question

According to national survey data, about what percentage of adults in the United States state that a woman should be able to obtain an abortion for any reason?

answer

42%

question

You are part of a task force with a group leader who has a distant relationship with the group members and who is concerned with getting the job done. Which type of leader does your task force have?

answer

An instrumental leader

question

A setting where a staff tries to radically change someone's personality through carefully controlling the environment is called a(n) _______

answer

total institution

question

Which of the following concepts defines a social position that a person holds?

answer

Status

question

Akbar is an honors student. In sociological terms, being an honors student is an example of ________

answer

Achieved status

question

When Cooley used the concept of the "looking-glass self," he claimed that _______

answer

people see themselves as they think others see them.

question

Cultural transmission refers to the process of ________

answer

passing cultural patterns from one generation to another

question

Stanley Milgram's research, in which subjects used a "shock generator," showed ________

answer

people are surprisingly likely to follow the orders of not only real authority figures but also groups of ordinary individuals.

question

Unrecognized and unintended consequences of a social pattern are called ________

answer

Latent functions

question

If you were to study the changing meaning of virginity over the last century in our society, you would discover that the norm stating that people remain virgins until marriage ________

answer

has become stronger with regard to women.

question

Evidence of the process called the "McDonaldization" of society includes ________

answer

bank tellers being replaced with automatic teller machines (ATMs).

question

When people model themselves after the members of peer groups they would like to join, they are engaging in a process that sociologists call _______

answer

anticipatory socialization.

question

Making use of the sociological perspective encourages ________

answer

challenging many commonly-held beliefs.

question

Because there is more social isolation in rural areas of the United States than in urban areas, we would expect suicide rates to be ________

answer

higher in rural areas.

question

A social-exchange analysis states that _______

answer

people typically seek mates who offer as much as they do.

question

The concept of "homophobia" refers to ________

answer

fear of close personal interaction with people thought to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

question

The recognized and intended consequences of a social pattern are referred to as ________

answer

manifest functions.

question

One norm found everywhere is the incest taboo, which refers to norms forbidding ________

answer

sexual relations or marriage between certain relatives.

question

The theoretical approach in sociology that assumes society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability is the ________

answer

structural-functional approach.

question

Sarah feels little or no sexual attraction to people of either sex. Her sexual orientation is called ________

answer

asexuality.

question

About ______ of men and _____ of women in the United States claim to have a homosexual identity.

answer

1.8 and 1.2%

question

Our basic drives or needs as humans are reflected in Freud's concept of the _______

answer

id

question

According to the Laumann study of sexual patterns among U.S. adults, ________

answer

there are striking differences in sexual experience within the U.S. population.

question

According to Mead, children learn to take the role of the other as they model themselves on important people in their lives, such as parents. Mead referred to these people as _______

answer

Significant others

question

Shawna is an excellent artist, but as a mother, she feels that she cannot work and devote enough time to her family. She is experiencing ________

answer

Role Conflict

question

The development of breasts in females and deeper voices in males are examples of ________

answer

Secondary sex characteristics

question

The basic idea of the symbolic-interaction approach is that society is ________

answer

the product of people interacting in countless everyday situations.

question

_________refers to group leadership that emphasizes collective well-being.

answer

Expressive leadership

question

By "taking the role of the other," Mead had in mind _______

answer

imagining a situation from another person's point of view.

question

_______, one of the founding sociologists, urged sociologists to understand a social setting from the point of view of the people in it.

answer

Max Weber

question

If you often have the feeling of being "trapped in the wrong body," you might be ________

answer

a transsexual

question

Sociologists use which concept to refer to behavior that people expect from someone who holds a particular status?

answer

Role

question

If you were to put together the lesson learned from the cases of Anna, Isabelle, and Genie, you would correctly conclude that _______

answer

social experience plays a crucial part in forming human personality.

question

A temporary, loosely formed collection of people who may or may not interact is a _________

answer

Crowd

question

Looking at childhood in global perspective, we find that _______

answer

rich societies extend childhood much longer than do poor societies.

question

The social standing of women and men in hunting and gathering societies is ________

answer

fairly equal, with men and women each making a vital contribution to survival.

question

A widespread-but false-idea about rape is that ________

answer

women who are raped must have encouraged their attackers.

question

One characteristic of secondary groups is _________

answer

weak emotional ties between members.

question

What is the term sociologists give to a category of people with a common characteristic, usually their age?

answer

Cohort

question

The emergency room clerk who keeps a bleeding patient waiting while filling out lots of paperwork is a classic example of bureaucratic ________

answer

Ritualism

question

A prisoner would consider a maximum-security prison ________

answer

a coercive organization.

question

Which discipline defines itself as "the systematic study of human society"?

answer

Sociology

question

Charles Cooley referred to a small social group whose members share personal and enduring relationships as _________

answer

a primary group

question

Social structures sometimes have negative consequences for the operation of society as a whole. Which of the following concepts refers to these negative consequences?

answer

Social dysfunctions

question

The tendency of bureaucratic organizations to perpetuate themselves in order to keep going is called bureaucratic ________

answer

Inertia

question

Looking at humor from a structural-functional viewpoint, jokes ________

answer

are often used to relieve tension-"lightening" a situation.

question

Which of the following concepts refers to the biological distinction between males and females?

answer

Sex

question

Julie is a police officer who finds that wherever she goes in her small town, people seem to think of her as a "cop." Julie is experiencing the effects of ________

answer

Master status

question

Which of the following concepts refers to a person's romantic and emotional attraction to another person?

answer

Sexual orientation

question

Based on the Harlows' research with rhesus monkeys and the case of Anna, the isolated child, one might reasonably conclude that _______

answer

long-term social isolation leads to permanent developmental damage in both monkeys and humans.

question

The study of social interaction in terms of theatrical performance is referred to as ________

answer

dramaturgical analysis.

question

Which concept refers to a status that has special importance for social identity, often shaping a person's entire life?

answer

Master status

question

Which phrase was used by Erving Goffman to refer to being embarrassed in a social situation?

answer

"Losing face"

question

Elements of social control in everyday life include shame, guilt, and _______

answer

Sanctions

question

Cultural universals are elements of culture that ________

answer

Are part of every known culture

question

What concept refers to a social position that is received at birth or involuntarily assumed later in life?

answer

Ascribed status

question

Which type of leader encourages everyone in a group to have a say in what happens?

answer

Democratic leader

question

The major goal of sociology's pioneers, including Auguste Comte and Emile Durkheim, was ________

answer

to discover how society actually operates.

question

Nonverbal communication refers to ________

answer

body movements, gestures, and facial expressions.

question

The importance of Alfred Kinsey's research on sexuality in the United States was ________

answer

making sexuality a focus of scientific study.

question

For Jean Piaget, at which stage of development do individuals first use language and other cultural symbols?

answer

Preoperational stage

question

Which concept refers to a social position that is assumed voluntarily and that reflects a significant measure of personal ability and effort?

answer

Achieved status

question

Garfinkel's research, an approach called ethnomethodology, involves ________

answer

studying the way people make sense of their everyday surroundings.

question

Social problems in the United States, such as poverty and gender inequality, are ________

answer

more serious in poorer countries.

question

Cultural change is set in motion in three general ways. What are they?

answer

invention, discovery, and diffusion

question

What is the term for the beliefs, values, behavior, and material objects that together make up the way of life for a group of people?

answer

Culture

question

Comparative research indicates that ________

answer

although sex has a biological foundation, sexual practices vary from place to place as an element of the culture.

question

The process by which people act and react in relation to others is called ________

answer

Social interaction

question

_______ had an important influence on the development of the social-conflict approach.

answer

Karl Marx

question

One of the traits linked to the process of McDonaldization is ________

answer

Efficiency

question

Sexual attraction to people of both sexes is called ________

answer

Bisexuality

question

Survey research on attitudes towards premarital sex tells us that ________

answer

the public is more accepting of premarital sex than it was a generation ago.

question

Counterculture refers to ________

answer

cultural patterns that oppose those that are widely held.

question

What effect did industrialization have on life expectancy in the United States and Western Europe?

answer

Life expectancy went up.

question

Jean Piaget's focus was on _______

answer

cognition, or how people think and understand.

question

Which of the following is every society's most important primary group?

answer

The family

question

The category of teenagers with the highest probability of pregnancy is ________

answer

teenage women with low incomes and weak families.

question

Which sociological concept refers to a number of weak social ties among people who have little common identity and little interaction?

answer

Network

question

Standards by which people who share culture define what is desirable, good, and beautiful are called ________

answer

Values

question

The majority of evidence indicates that sexual orientation is rooted in ________

answer

human biology, although social experience plays some role.

question

An inmate who loses the capacity for independent living is described as _______

answer

institutionalized.

question

In terms of dramaturgical analysis, another term for helping a person to "save face," or avoid embarrassment, is ________

answer

Tact

question

__________ are rules about everyday, casual living; __________ are rules with great moral significance.

answer

Folkways; mores

question

Max Weber argued that formal organizations were efficient, but he cautioned that they can have harmful effects on people. As he saw it, what is the danger?

answer

Organizations create alienation.

question

A simplified description unfairly applied to every person in the same category is called ________

answer

A stereotype

question

Family is important to the socialization process because _______

answer

families pass along social identity to children in terms of class, ethnicity, and religion.

question

Which theoretical approach states that the stability of U.S. society rests on core values shared by most people?

answer

The structural-functional approach

question

Which concept refers to humans who have some combination of female and male sexual characteristics?

answer

Intersexual

question

According to the findings of Solomon Asch, ________

answer

many people are willing to compromise their own judgment to avoid being seen as different by others.

question

Other than English, which is the most widely-spoken language in the United States?

answer

Spanish

question

The careful observer can notice clues indicating that someone is telling a lie. People give off these clues because ________

answer

nonverbal communication is hard for most people to control.

question

Ethnocentrism refers to ________

answer

judging another culture using the standards of your own culture.

question

Imagine you are watching several dozen passengers sitting in an airport gate area waiting to board a plane. These people are an example of a _________

answer

Crowd

question

The practice of understanding another culture on its own terms and using its own standards is called ________

answer

Cultural relativism

question

The sexual counterrevolution had begun in the United States by ________

answer

1980

question

Among the historical changes that stimulated the development of sociology as a discipline was ________

answer

the rise of the industrial economy and growth of cities.

question

Multiculturalism is defined as ________

answer

a perspective recognizing the cultural diversity of the United States and promoting equality of all cultural traditions.

question

Which concept is involved when a surgeon chooses not to operate on her own son because the personal involvement of motherhood could impair her professional objectivity as a physician?

answer

Role conflict

question

Mead used the concept "generalized other" to refer to _______

answer

widespread cultural norms and values people take as their own.

question

A social group with only two members is called a ________

answer

dyad

question

Wrong-doing, such as an adult forcing a child to engage in sexual activity, is an example of violating cultural ________

answer

mores

question

In the nature versus nurture debate, sociologists claim that _______

answer

nurture is far more important than nature.

question

Which concept is used to describe relatively stable patterns of social behavior?

answer

Social structure

question

Which concept is used to designate the process by which people creatively shape reality as they interact?

answer

Social construction of reality

question

What concept refers to the lifelong social experience by which human beings develop their potential and learn culture?

answer

Socialization

question

Cultural integration refers to the fact that ________

answer

change in one cultural pattern is usually linked to changes in others.

question

What is Robert Merton's term for a preoccupation with rules and regulations to the point of keeping an organization from accomplishing its goals?

answer

Bureaucratic ritualism

question

The distinction between high culture and popular culture is based mostly on ________

answer

the social standing of the people who display the cultural pattern.

question

George Herbert Mead considered the self to be _______

answer

the part of an individual's personality that is composed of self-awareness and self-image.

question

The idea of "getting" a joke, according to the text, depends on ________

answer

understanding the two realities involved and appreciating their difference.

question

Sexual attraction to someone of the same sex is called ________

answer

Homosexuality

question

What concept refers to a person's fairly consistent pattern of acting, thinking, and feeling?

answer

Personality

question

The "framework for building theory that sees society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and change" is the ________

answer

social-conflict approach.

question

The spread of cultural traits from one society to another is called ________

answer

Diffusion

question

The first type of society to generate a material surplus was ________

answer

horticultural and pastoral.

question

In the United States, people stand farther away from one another when they are talking than two people would in a Middle Eastern nation. This pattern reveals differences in meaning attached to ________

answer

Personal space

question

_____ is a way of understanding the world based on science.

answer

Positivism

question

Explain how a family's social class position shapes the process of socialization.

answer

A family's social class position can have many effects on the process of socialization in terms of education, jobs, and living styles. Many people in lower classes may live in homes that are less luxurious and may force them to live in certain areas while those in higher classes, have more options in choosing where to live. This can also relate to the education that some of these children will receive. Considering the area, there may only be one school to choose from rather than those who have more money, can choose to send their children to an all girl school, a private school, or any other school of their choice. The education these children will receive will also play a major role in their future careers. Those in the lower social classes may not be able to attend college therefore making their career options limited while those who are able to get a degree have more opportunity.

question

Do conflict theorists agree with the notion that social institutions work for the common good of everyone in society? Why or why not?

answer

Conflict theorists agree with functionalists that social institutions were developed originally to meet basic survival needs however they do not view social institutions as working harmoniously together for the common good. In the conflict theorists' view, social institutions are the way that the wealthy and powerful reserve the social order so that they can maintain their positions and privileges.

question

What effect does social isolation have on young rhesus monkeys? What bearing does that have on our knowledge about isolated children?

answer

After six months of isolations, the monkeys were passive, anxious, and fearful. The infant monkeys isolated with a "mother" made out of mesh wire covered in fur showed less developmental damage than those without it. The monkeys that were isolated for 3 months were able to recover, but after 6 months there was irreversible emotional and behavioral damage. Because monkeys are very similar to humans, this shows how important it is for adults to cradle infants affectionately.

question

Why is cultural relativism important to sociological imagination?

answer

Cultural relativism is the practice of judging a culture by its own standards. Sociological imagination is the ability to look at things with a new perspective which is extremely important to be able to understand those in other cultures who may have unfamiliar values and practices.

question

What are the most important lessons that can be learned from the research of Asch and Milgram? Why do you think these studies are still being taught at colleges today?

answer

I think the most important thing that can be taken from these studies is the realization of groupthink, the tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issue. The studies showed that even individuals who may think differently will conform to a certain idea if the majority have a certain answer. I think these studies are still being taught in colleges today to promote individuality and stimulate thinking.

question

What is the difference between common sense and the scientific information found in sociology? Why is scientific information more reliable?

answer

Common sense is a generally more commonly held belief rather than a systematic analysis of fact. Common sense is related to people's immediate and often limited experiences which may lead to a distorted view of reality. Sociological views are based on rigorous research and can provide evidence therefore making it reliable.

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