Sociologyy Final Exam cont. – Flashcards

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Collective Action
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A collaborative effort that takes place in groups and diverges from the social norms of the situation
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Convergence Theory
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Collective action happens when people with similar ideas and tendencies gather in the same place
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Contagion Theory
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Collective action arises because of people's tendency to conform to the behavior of others
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Emergent Norm Theory
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Emphasizes the influences of leaders in promoting particular norms a group follows
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Identity and Individuality
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Our uniqueness is determined by group affiliations
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Premodernity
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•Low degree of literacy, low division of labor, underdeveloped technology •Concentric circles of affiliation
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Modernity
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•Rationality, bureaucratization, objectivity •Overlapping group affiliations
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Postmodernity
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•Questioning notions of progress and history, replacing narrative with pastiche (mash-ups) •Multiple and/or conflicting identities, disjointed affiliations
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norms
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are values that tell people how to act
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cultural norm
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s one that may be particular to a certain part of society or culture
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What is an example of a cultural norm that affects how people choose a romantic or life partner?
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In the United States, first cousins may not marry.
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Functionalism
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the theory that various social institutions and processes in society exist to serve some important (or necessary) function to keep society running
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Talcott Parsons's claim
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that the traditional family was necessary to modern industrial society because it fulfilled society's need for productive workers (fathers) and child rearers (women) is an example of a functionalist approach to sociology
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The nuclear family
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consists of a father & mother & their biological children
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The divorce rate in U.S
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has been rising steadily since the 19th century
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What are characteristics of the preindustrial family?
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Families produced the food, clothing, and other goods they needed to survive.
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What factor contributed to the development of the ideal of the traditional family in post-World War II America?
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government housing subsidies
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gender roles
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are sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one's status as a male or female
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The Tobachnik family has one son and two daughters. The children are assigned chores around the house. The son mows the lawn and takes out the garbage. The daughters do laundry, help with house cleaning, and clean up after meals. This distribution of the chores is an example of what?
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how gender roles are learned at home
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In relation to working parents, the second shift can best be defined as
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the varied domestic tasks that women generally take care of for their families in addition to whatever paid work they do outside the home
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As women have joined the work force in greater and greater numbers and their earning power has increased, how has the sharing of domestic responsibilities between men and women changed?
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Women still take on a greater share of domestic tasks than their male partners.
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What is an example of a common imbalance studies have revealed about how domestic chores are shared between men and women?
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Marta does most of the grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry; James mows the lawn, makes his famous chili on special occasions, and cleans out the garage twice a year.
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How did social scientists in the 1960s view the strong role held by women in many African American families?
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As a negative characteristic that served to emasculate black men and ultimately increase social problems in African American communities
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In 2003, which minority group passed African Americans as the largest minority group in the United States?
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Latino
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a cycle of dependency
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according to welfare critics, it sets in with many welfare recipients, and they become so used to receiving government aid that they lose interest in looking for work and trying to get off welfare rolls
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How does the welfare system trap women who want to move off welfare rolls?
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Most women face lower earnings and fewer benefits when they move from welfare to work.
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blended family
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contains parents and children from two previously intact and unrelated families
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Josephine's parents divorced when she was five years old. By the time she was eight, both her parents had remarried and she had two step-siblings on her father's side and a half-brother on her mother's side. Josephine's two new families are examples of what type of family?
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a blended family
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What is the general consensus among sociologists about the effects of divorce in children?
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There is no consensus amongst sociologists; study findings vary widely.
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A civil union
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a legally recognized union that offers similar state-provided legal rights and benefits provided by marriage
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Andrew Cherlin's interview on the culture of marriage explains the difficulties for certain couples to stay together, particularly if they are faced with economic problems. If both spouses work, what additional responsibilities might women face that put a strain on marriage?
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the second shift
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What are the two primary functions of schools?
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to educate students and socialize them
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Which of the following is an example of what sociologist Phillip Jackson called the "hidden curriculum" in schools?
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learning not to talk when the teacher or a classmate is talking
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In deciding on course offerings and curricula, do schools take into account the fact that students have different interests, talents, and skills?
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Yes, most schools offer more than one program of study and elective courses so students can tailor their education to their needs to some degree.
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What have studies shown about academic performance in public versus private schools?
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Private school students outperform their public school peers, even among students with similar backgrounds.
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Leticia, a high school student who has been in remedial math classes for years, changes schools and is placed in a regular math class. She is sure she will fail and tries to switch classes, but the remedial class is full. Her new math teacher encourages Leticia and offers extra help, but also insists that she must study more than other students and do extra homework. Halfway through the semester, Leticia is surprised to find that she is handling the class and making a B minus. This scenario is an example of _____.
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the Pygmalion effect
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Best practices
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can be defined as teaching methods whose effectiveness is supported by extensive research
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peer-to-peer dynamics
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shows that peer effects matter and that the effect also works both ways
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Studies show that when low-achieving students are placed in a class with mostly high-achieving students, their academic performance tends to improve. This is an example of the importance of _____.
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peer-to-peer dynamics
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the question of why there has been a significant increase in the number of high school and college graduates in the United States over the past century might point to the simple rules of supply and demand—a need for a more educated workforce encouraged more people to stay in school longer
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a functionalist response
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According to conflict theorists, what explains the increase in educational levels in the United States?
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Competition for jobs—as more and more people meet minimum educational requirements for jobs, people seek to differentiate themselves by obtaining yet another degree or studying at a more prestigious institution.
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Affirmative action
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a set of policies that grant preferential treatment to a number of particular subgroups within the population
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Affirmative action has been found to affect the makeup of the student body primarily at what type of U.S. colleges and universities?
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elite institutions
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Socioeconomic status is a combined measure of an individual's or family's economic and social position relative to others, based on any combination of which of the following groups of elements?
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parents' level of education, parents' jobs, and family income and wealth
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A parent's decision to become actively involved in the Parent Teacher Association at his or her child's school may be related to that parent's level of _____.
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cultural capital
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The achievement gap between black and white students decreases significantly when students from similar socioeconomic background are compared. What does this tell us about the connection between race, class, and educational outcomes?
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Class is a greater predictor of educational outcomes than race.
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Which of the following statements about changes in the boy-girl achievement gap during the past 30 years is true?
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Girls have caught up with boys in most measures of educational achievement.
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resource dilution model
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a hypothesis stating that parental resources are finite, so the more children in a family, the fewer resources available to each child
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Research shows that the closer in age siblings are, the more they compete for family resources,
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which negatively impacts their educational outcomes because they don't get enough attention and support from their parents
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In his interview, Stephen Morgan explains that non-Catholic students often do better than Catholic students in a Catholic school. If students were placed in a classroom and told prior to a test that students with a strong Catholic background were more likely to perform well on this test, what sociological phenomena would this be an example of?
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stereotype threat
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What trend has been noted in the workforce since 2002 with regard to income level and hours worked?
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High-income individuals are working more hours than low-income individuals.
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Despite working more hours and being more productive than ever, American employees still express a lot of concern about
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job security
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Feudalism
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an economic system characterized by lords who owned the land; vassals who managed the land and offered military protection; and serfs who worked the land
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Which of the following factors played a role in the development of capitalism?
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new farming technologies
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Limited liability
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a form of ownership that creates a division between the individual shareholder or executive and the business entity
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The idea that competition, not conflict, helps maintain social cohesion was put forward by
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Adam Smith
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You are a freelance graphic designer and about six months ago you set up a PayPal account so that clients can pay you online instead of mailing you checks, thus cutting down on paperwork and speeding up the whole payment process. One of your major clients has not expressed any interest in using PayPal and it continues to take up to two months for them to pay you. The next time this client offers you a project, you decide to turn it down because you think you're better off working with clients who will pay more quickly. In Adam Smith's terms, your decision is based on finding an unacceptable level of _____ in the proposed exchange.
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inefficiency
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Salary
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a system of payment whereby workers are compensated for the sum total of their services, not any specific task or hours worked
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According to Georg Simmel's view of monetary payment systems, which of the following people is in the best position?
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an analyst for a federal government agency
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alienation
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a condition in which people are dominated by forces of their own creation that then confront them as alien powers
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According to Karl Marx, workers in a capitalist economy are alienated from the product(s) they produce because _____.
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specialization has them focusing on one small step in a complex production process
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Socialism
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an economic system in which most or all of a population's needs are provided through nonmarket methods of distribution
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Max Weber
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believed that ideas are as strong a force as technological advances in terms of bringing about social change.
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family wage
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a wage paid to male workers sufficient to support a dependent wife and children
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How did the Ford Motor Company's introduction of the family wage help construct the idea of the traditional family?
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It encouraged men to marry and have children as the wage was not available to single men or married men without children.
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How can it be argued that wage inequality is related to marriage?
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Because women have historically earned less than men, they often see marriage as the best way to guarantee future financial security.
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Americans work _____ hours as/than citizens of other industrialized nations, but have _____ vacation benefits.
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more; worse
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Positive changes for women that can be linked to their increased participation in the work force include
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better self-esteem and increased economic power
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service sector
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economic activity that involves providing an intangible service
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What is an example of a service sector job?
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cleaning someone's home
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One of the trends in the current era of globalization
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is the establishment of trade agreements that are mulitlateral
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Political arbitrage
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the use of insider political knowledge to earn profits
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According to Milton Friedman, what is a corporation's sole social responsibility?
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to increase its profits through legal means
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unionization rates in the United States
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have declined over the past 30 years, recent studies show that more workers are interested in being part of a collective bargaining agreement.
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Studies show that the primary concern U.S. workers have about unionizing
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is job loss or a tense work environment because of employers' negative attitude toward unions
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Champagne-glass distribution
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refers to the fact that a small percentage of the world's population possesses a very large percent of the world's income
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What is a theistic religion?
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Christianity
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Compared to people in other industrialized countries,
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Americans are more likely to have religious beliefs and more likely to be affiliated with a religious institution.
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conflict theory
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the idea that conflict between competing interests is the basic, animating force of social change and society in general
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The argument that religion is used to perpetuate inequalities has its roots in which theoretical approach to studying religion?
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conflict theory
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Max Weber argued
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that the development of capitalism was closely intertwined with beliefs and values of Protestant Church.
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The idea that religion sustains social unity by strengthening the collective conscience is an example of a/an _____ analysis of religion.
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functionalist
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Social desirability bias
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the influence individuals feel to adjust their expressed attitudes to match those of the general public
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Social desirability bias can affect responses in a study when the questions ____.
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have moral undertones
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Attendance at religious services
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has declined in the United States since the 1960s, and the number of people who say they have religious beliefs or a strong sense of spirituality has held steady or risen.
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Reflexive spirituality
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an approach to faith and religion that encourages people to look to religion for meaning and wisdom rather than for absolute truths
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Microsociology
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seeks to understand logical interactional contexts
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Examining the meaning and uses of religion in people's everyday lives is part of a _____ approach to the subject.
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microsociological
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Why have social movements, such as the temperance movement of the nineteenth century and the civil rights movement of the twentieth century, been closely linked with religious institutions?
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Religious institutions have provided an important infrastructure to help social movements pursue their causes.
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Studies show that people with more education
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have less attachment to traditional religious beliefs and higher levels of participation in religious organizations
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Which of the following religious groups can be said to be characterized by strong associational involvement and strong communal ties?
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Hasidic Jews
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What is a positive aspect of the proliferation of choice in America's pluralistic religious landscape?
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People feel more connected and committed to their religion if they have chosen it after careful exploration of different options.
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Besides having a large size, what are characteristics of a megachurch?
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conservative Protestant, located in the Sun Belt, flexible and creative
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sectarian group
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typically an offshoot of a mainstream church, founded by people who stress rewards in the afterlife over worldly pleasures, and that doesn't fit well with the surrounding social environment
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cult
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a religious movement that makes a new claim about the supernatural
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sect-church cycle
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helps to explain the existence of so many types of Christian churches in the United States
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One theory about the growth of conservative churches is that
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their stricter expectations of members make those members value them more and commit more time and energy to them
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sacred canopy
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the term used to describe the entire set of religious norms, symbols, and beliefs that express the most important thing in life—namely, the feeling that life is worth living, reality is meaningful and ordered, and not the random chaos of the stars
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In her interview, Jen'nan Read explains that some Muslims in America have chosen to continue religious traditions as a form of individual identity. Traditions such as the hijab worn by Muslim women make up part of what overarching religious theme?
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the sacred canopy
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Paradigm
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can be defined as the theoretical framework that orders the way a scientist, or any type of researcher, approaches his or her work
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According to Thomas Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when
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enough anomalies accrue to challenge the existing paradigm, showing that it is incomplete or inadequate
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What is an example of how social factors can influence scientific research?
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A wealthy alumnus of a large research university dies of complications from diabetes; in his will, he leaves millions of dollars to the university on the condition that the money be used only for diabetes research.
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Boundary work
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refers to research conducted on the border between legitimate and nonlegitimate science either within a specific scientific discipline or between disciplines
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What is one of the primary claims made by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar in their book Laboratory Life?
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They claim that scientific facts don't just reveal themselves through experiments and research but rather are constructed through a process that is heavily influenced by social factors.
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Matthew effect
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refers to certain scientific results get more notice and have more influence based on the existing prestige of the researchers involved
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What is paradoxical about the growing threat of global warming?
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The effects of global warming have the potential to alter human societies drastically; at the same time, the primary cause of global warming is human activity.
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What is true about organic foods?
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They do not contain genetically modified ingredients.
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How can organic farming be said to create stratification among farmers?
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Because consumers are very concerned with "buying local," organic farms that are close to larger urban centers have an advantage over organic farms that are not near any major metropolitan areas.
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What are the benefits of genetically modified crops?
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They may have better resistance to insects, diseases, and other predators, which means a greater quantity of a crop should survive the growing season and make it to the market.
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What is a major concern of critics of genetically modified crops?
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Critics argue that changing the genetic structure of one organism can have negative effects on the whole ecosystem of which it is a part.
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According to Ulrich Beck, a risk society is a society that is _____.
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concerned with mitigating risks, particularly manufactured risks that are unequally distributed by socioeconomic status and other dimensions of power
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external risks
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derive from nature and have been a part of human history before the first machine was ever invented.
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What is an example of an external risk?
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a parasite that attacks wheat crops
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In The Next Catastrophe, Charles Perrow argues that _____.
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while disasters are inevitable, their negative impact can be reduced by dispersing their risks
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green revolution
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•refers to efforts begun in the mid-twentieth century to introduce high-yield crop varietals and the development of better irrigation systems, fertilizers, and pesticides •has been credited with helping food production keep pace with population growth in developing countries
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What is a social issue that has been raised related to the knowledge we now possess from conducting the Human Genome Project?
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Such knowledge could increase stratification as people could be categorized as more or less useful or desirable according to what their genetic code says or predicts about them.
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Reproductive cloning
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involves making a genetic copy of an existing person or organism
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digital divide
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refers to unequal access to and knowledge of information technology based on socioeconomic status
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What is one argument for how the growth of the digital economy is a path toward reducing global inequality?
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The digital economy levels the playing field between poor and rich countries because it doesn't have as many barriers to participation (such as physical distance for example).
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Which of the following people is most likely to be at the top of the social divide in the United States?
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a 27-year-old woman with a college degree who lives in an urban area
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In his interview, John Evans explains how, in a way, regulatory agencies were charged with the task of handling questions of ethics in scientific research. Assuming these agencies have an impact on which scientists are able to publish first. Those scientists in turn garner prestige from those early publications and turn that prestige into further publications and prestige. What sociological phenomenon describes the way these scientists continue gaining prestige?
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the Matthew effect
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Alondra Nelson's interview on genetic testing and race explains the difficulties individuals encounter when trying to navigate the costs and benefits of finding out who they are and where they are from. In what way do African Americans particularly have trouble?
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records of slaves' origins aren't complete or even maintained in many cases
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mass collective action
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collective action in which close physical proximity is not necessary
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What is an example of mass collective action?
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a boycott of a clothing manufacturer that has factories overseas where child labor is used
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Which of the following is a criticism of contagion theory?
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It downplays individual agency.
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What is ironic about how we define ourselves as individuals?
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We generally define individuality in terms of our association with various groups.
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static identity
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one that is unchangeable, such as an individual's ethnic origin
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What is an example of a static identity?
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being of Italian descent
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dynamic identity
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an aspect of your identity that is fluid and is determined by a group to which you belong
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social movement
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collective behavior that is purposeful, organized, and institutionalized
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What are the two factors that are used to distinguish between different types of social movements? the type of collective action that is used; the institutional organization of the movement.
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the size of the group whose behavior is being targeted; whether the change sought is limited or radical
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reformative social movement
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one that advocates for limited social change across an entire society
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What is an example of a reformative social movement?
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a movement that promotes a switch from standard incandescent light bulbs to energy-saving compact fluorescent bulbs in all American households
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alternative social movement
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one that seeks the most limited societal change and often targets a narrow group of people.
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After several years of rising crime and hooliganism among teenagers in a particular city, citizens of the city band together to create more opportunities for recreational activities, jobs, and leadership training for young people. This is an example of what type of social movement?
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alternative social movement
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classical model of social movements
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proposes that social movements emerge as a collective response to structural weaknesses in society that have a psychological effect on individuals
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What is a criticism of resource-mobilization theory?
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The theory implies that social movements require the participation of powerful or elite members of society in order to be successful because such people control more resources.
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What are the three stages of social movements?
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emergence, coalescence, and routinization
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social movement organization
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a group that develops to implement the goals of a particular social movement through activities such as member recruitment, fund raising, and strategy and policy development
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What is the primary difference between a participatory movement organization and a professional movement organization?
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the level of involvement of rank-and-file members
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grassroots organization
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a type of social movement organization that relies on high levels of membership participation to promote social change. It lacks a hierarchical structure and works through existing political structures to promote social change
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Residents of a small city learn that a big-box retailer is considering opening a new store near their community. Some people are in favor of the development because they think it will bring more jobs and lower prices; others are against it because they think it will hurt local businesses and create traffic headaches. Advocates on each side of the issue organize to promote their point of view—they hang banners and signs around town, they write letters to local officials and the local newspaper, they make presentations at community meetings, and they conduct research about how such stores have impacted similar communities. All of this is an example of which type of social movement organization?
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a grassroots organization
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How might the rise of online associations be affecting the tradition of volunteerism in the United States?
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People may actually be joining more organizations, but their participation may be more passive, involving less hands-on work and face-to-face interactions.
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Modern social organization
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began to replace premodern social relations with the rise of scientific knowledge and the concept of rationality
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In his interview, Doug McAdam explains how the Internet age may have changed the potential reach of social movements, but face-to-face interaction still provides the power behind social movements. You decide to start an organization to combat the treatment of workers at your university. Your organization relies on the participation of a large number of students. In particular, the students operate by collecting signatures of community members, contacting the press, and researching wage inequality. What type of organization have you created?
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grassroots organization
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