Deck 20: Social Change, Collective Behavior, and the Future

Question 1

When the Ku Klux Klan staged a march in Whoville on the Fourth of July, they were met by members of the Black Panthers. After a few taunts and racial slurs, both sides engaged in a bloody melee that left several people hospitalized and the town in chaos. This event, now known as the Whoville Race Riot, was a form of collective behavior explained by which theory?

A) convergence theory
B) emergent norm theory
C) group polarization theory
D) value-added theory

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the basic model that influenced the development of cyclical approaches to understanding social change?

A) the repetitive cycles of nature
B) the belief in the Alpha and the Omega as a part of early religious practice
C) ancient folklore from Greece and Rome
D) the theory of Karl Marx regarding thesis, antithesis, and synthesis

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What term do sociologists use to describe gradual, large-scale changes that are imperceptible to people as they go about their daily lives?

A) macro-change
B) ethnomethodology
C) phenomenology
D) dramaturgy

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What theory acknowledges that societies differ according to their level of complexity and that over time there is greater social differentiation among social institutions?

A) emergent norm theories
B) neoevolutionary theories
C) radical conflict theories
D) convergence theories

Question 5

What is the common name of the legislation that was passed after the 9/11 attack on America and renewed in 2006 that expanded the government's authority to "spy" on private citizens?

A) the USA PATRIOT Act
B) the Communications Enforcement Act
C) the National Surveillance Act
D) the Bush Act

Question 6

What are widespread anxiety and frantic reactions by large numbers of people to some perceived threat, such as UFOs landing or Satanists taking over the world?

A) urban legend
B) mass hysteria
C) Stockholm syndrome
D) Klinefelter syndrome

Question 7

In a social movement, what is the term to describe the sharing of resources with other organizations with similar beliefs and goals?

A) incipiency
B) bloc mobilization
C) institutionalization
D) mobilization

Question 8

What is the theory of social change developed by Theodore Caplow that has had a revival among New Age groups and is based on the premise that "everything that goes around comes around"?

A) emergent norm theory
B) contagion theory
C) convergence theory
D) contemporary cyclical theory

Question 9

When the War of the Worlds was broadcast by Orson Welles, people all over America became paralyzed with fear and looked to the skies for landing UFOs. What is the best term that describes their flight based on a hysterical belief such as this?

A) riot
B) mob action
C) hypnotic suggestion
D) panic

Question 10

What is the source of social change that includes cataclysmic events such as floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes?

A) technological change
B) population explosion
C) physical environment
D) discovery

Question 11

Cathy heard that a popular fried chicken chain was actually using its secret recipe to bread and cook rats rather than chicken parts. The stock of the chicken joint plummeted. What term is used to describe such a complex but popular tale that has an implicit warning (don't eat the chicken!)?

A) tainted fashion
B) capitalism sabotage
C) urban legend
D) imperialistic rumor

Question 12

What is a process through which societies become more internally differentiated and complex as they move from simple to complex social institutions?

A) compartmentalization
B) geopolitical change
C) modernization
D) positivism

Question 13

What is an organized, goal-directed effort by a large number of people to promote or resist change outside of established institutions?

A) cultural innovation
B) social movement
C) reformulation
D) compartmentalization

Question 14

What is the popular theory of social change that suggests all forms of life, including societies, progress from the simple to the complex form?

A) emergent norm theory
B) convergence theory
C) cyclical evolution
D) unilineal evolution

Question 15

The changes in American society were rapid and dramatic in the 1950s. Who was the sociologist who called this period "an earthquake of change" ?

A) Arthur Shostak
B) G. William Domhoff
C) Thomas Hickey
D) C. Wright Mills

Question 16

What is the difference between a mob and a riot?

A) Nothing, they are virtually identical.
B) Everything, they share nothing in common except being types of crowds.
C) A riot is more widespread, sustained, and involves more people than a mob.
D) A mob is always nonviolent and benevolent in nature, and a riot is always hostile and destructive.

Question 17

A social movement with which set of factors has the greatest chance of being successful?

A) personal orientation, multiple issues, major reform
B) large support system, multiple issues, democratic framework
C) bureaucratically organized, single issue, minor reform
D) personal orientation, single issue, democratic framework

Question 18

What are the three "mentalities" or world views that Pitirim Sorokin argued that all societies pass through as a part of cyclical theory?

A) thesis, antithesis, synthesis
B) physical, metaphysical, theological
C) ideational, sensate, idealistic
D) symbolic, concrete, abstract

Question 19

What was the theory of collective behavior developed by Neil Smelser that required an understanding of group dynamics and an examination of the larger social context, including structural conduciveness and social control factors?

A) emergent norm theory
B) value-added theory
C) group conflict theory
D) contagion theory

Question 20

What are the two major kinds of social movement organizations based on their membership structure?

A) volunteer and professional
B) utilitarian and coercive
C) rural and urban
D) civil and private

Question 21

Even though it may be below zero, there are fans in Lambeau Field in Green Bay wearing nothing but Speedo swim trunks with their bodies painted green and yellow to cheer on the Packers. Every touchdown results in hugs among the frozen fans. Such a crowd falls into which category?

A) mental crowd
B) expressive crowd
C) acting crowd
D) conventional crowd

Question 22

The most important sources of social change are war, physical environment, technology, population, cultural innovation, and social conflict.

Question 23

Which theory is based on the premise that societies have their own inherent life span in which they are born, mature, and die?

A) contemporary evolutionary theory
B) classical cyclical theory
C) value-added theory
D) emergent norm theory

Question 24

Relatively spontaneous and noninstitutionalized responses by large numbers of people to uncertain and problematic situations are referred to as collective behavior.

Question 25

A social movement that seeks to create the perfect society, often by establishing a community isolated from the rest of the world, falls into which category of social movements?

A) countermovement
B) reform movement
C) utopian movement
D) resistance movement

Question 26

For a social movement to begin, there must be a process in which values, beliefs, and goals of potential recruits are made congruent and complementary to a movement's value orientation and put in the service of the movement. This is called ________.

A) frame alignment
B) resource mobilization
C) institutionalization
D) bureaucratization

Question 27

What category best describes the social movements of Phyllis Schlafly's antifeminist group Eagle Forum and the National Rifle Association?

A) reform movement
B) revolutionary movement
C) civil movement
D) resistance movement

Question 28

What are the three stages societies pass through based on a unilinear theory proposed by Auguste Comte?

A) savagery, barbarism, positivistic
B) thesis, antithesis, synthesis
C) theological, metaphysical, positivistic stages
D) abstract, concrete, holistic

Question 29

Americans have become fond of Chinese food and the Japanese have made baseball a national pastime. What is another name for this cultural borrowing between distinctly different social groups?

A) diffusion
B) compartmentalization
C) synthesis
D) discovery

Question 30

What is the term that describes anonymously produced fliers that are posted on bulletin boards, handed out in neighborhoods, faxed, or e-mailed that warn about some terrible community threat?

A) xeroxlore
B) folkgrams
C) rumor mills
D) fad machines

Question 31

Which theory suggests that mobs are comprised not of ordinary citizens but of a segment of the population that already shares certain attitudes and interests that predispose them to converge and act in a violent and destructive manner?

A) emergent norm theory
B) cyclical theory
C) value-added theory
D) convergence theory

Question 32

What is the term that describes relatively spontaneous and noninstitutionalized responses by a large number of people to uncertain and problematic situations?

A) reformulation
B) cultural diffusion
C) social innovation
D) collective behavior

Question 33

What is the rarest and most dramatic form of crowd behavior?

A) mass suicide by a cult group or other collective
B) riots after a city's team wins a world championship
C) fistfights between opposing fans at European soccer games
D) baseball teams emptying their respective benches after the batter charges the pitcher

Question 34

What are the two major characteristics in classifying various forms of collective behavior?

A) the social class of the participants; the weather or climate
B) the season in which the behavior occurs; the education level of the participants
C) the dominant emotion expressed; the type of collectivity involved
D) the social class of the participants; the day of the week the event occurs

Question 35

Which theory of collective behavior suggests that when people have anonymity they can act irresponsibly through the power of suggestion?

A) convergence theory
B) emergent norm theory
C) contagion theory
D) social cyclical theory

Question 36

People who are not in the same locality, yet through a common source of information or communication media, can indirectly influence one another are referred to as a grassroots movement.

Question 37

Who developed contagion theory?

A) Philippe Pinel
B) Gustav LeBon
C) Michel Foucault
D) Benjamin Rush

Question 38

The French sociologist who argued that social solidarity and feelings of conscience controlled the evolution of society from a simple, traditional society (mechanical) to a complex, impersonal society (organic) was Talcott Parsons.

Question 39

The classification of collective behavior is based on the dominant emotion expressed and the type of collectivity involved.

Question 40

Who was the leader of the countermovement that resisted technological change by mailing bombs to scientists and judges and became dubbed "the Unabomber?"

A) Theodore Kaczynski
B) Jack Kevorkian
C) Michael Ender
D) Ralph Kramden

Question 41

Rumors are most prevalent during periods of economic and political stability when people generally think alike and have little to fear from their own government or opposition forces.

Question 42

It is more likely that a voluntary social movement organization will have fewer active members than a professional social movement organization.

Question 43

For most of human history, the cyclical approach to understanding social change dominated people's thinking.

Question 44

Streaking, ferret pets, and transcendental meditation are examples of fashions.

Question 45

The anticult movement is a religious movement aimed at containing the spread of New Age and other novel approaches to religion.

Question 46

The most complicated form of collective behavior that involves an understanding of crowd dynamics and an examination of the larger social context in which collective behavior occurs is emergent norm theory.

Question 47

The vision for the future most prevalent among popular movies is a struggle between good and evil,with good winning.

Question 48

A large number of people widely dispersed is classified as a[n] ________.

Question 49

Typically, countermovements have as their goal the elimination of old institutions and their replacement with new ones.

Question 50

Organized, goal-directed efforts by large numbers of people to promote or resist change outside established institutions are referred to as a social movement.

Question 51

The riots in Los Angeles associated with the Rodney King incident were an example of convergence theory.

Question 52

A process through which patterns of social behavior, social relationships, social institutions, and systems of stratification are altered over time is called ________.

Question 53

The type of collective behavior that occurs when people gather to view a fender bender of an accident and then disperse is classified as a[n] ________ crowd.

Question 54

The rate of social change experienced by societies is relatively consistent from one society to another.

Question 55

According to Marxist revolutionary change, the rising discontent and severe economic crisis of the workers would eventually result in workers everywhere recognizing their common enemy and overthrowing capitalism.

Question 56

Millions of people worldwide watching the Super Bowl are an example of a mass.

Question 57

The "grand theory of social change" that most sociologists subscribe to is the classical evolutionary model.

Question 58

The German philosopher and social thinker who maintained that modernization led to a progressive loss of community as society passed from a Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft model was ________.

Question 59

Short-term, frivolous, and unconventional collective behaviors that usually provide pleasure and involve only a small segment of the population are called ________.

Question 60

Although well-organized and enduring, social movements have most often been novel approaches that have given moral support to noninstitutionalized efforts but other than this they have had little impact as a major agent of social change.

Question 61

A large number of people who interact briefly and superficially in the absence of clearly defined norms, such as shoppers in a supermarket, is called a[n] ________.

Question 62

Small, rapid changes produced by the countless decisions people make as they interact with others in the course of their daily lives are called ________.

Question 63

The most common and socially acceptable social movement based on ideal type is a[n] ________ movement.

Question 64

The three stages that Auguste Comte theorized all societies passed through as they evolved from the simple to a complex form were ________, ________, and ________.

Question 65

List and define the four types of social movements and give an example of each.

Question 66

Identify and discuss the five most important sources of social change, giving an example of each.

Question 67

Summarize the factors related to the success of social movements.

Question 68

The form of social change known as cultural innovation includes the three components of ________, ________, and ________.

Question 69

Compare and contrast the characteristics of the traditional society with the characteristics of mass societies.

Question 70

List and discuss the four theories that address the cause of collective behavior.