Deck 14: The Sociology of the Body: Health, illness, and Sexuality

Question 1

Joe lives in a neighborhood where the grocery stores there rarely sell fresh or low-cost produce.Neighborhoods like Joe's are known as

A) impoverished.
B) nutritionally challenged.
C) nutritionally isolated.
D) food deserts.

Answer 1

food deserts.

Question 2

In which country does universal health coverage not exist?

A) The United States
B) Canada
C) Japan
D) Taiwan

Answer 2

The United States

Question 3

Li is focusing her research on the way individuals define health rather than focusing on a standardized medical measurement of health.Which sociological perspective is Li using?

A) the functionalist perspective
B) the conflict perspective
C) complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
D) the symbolic interactionist perspective

Answer 3

the symbolic interactionist perspective

Question 4

Kelly is an African American girl who suffers from obesity.She lives in a poor inner-city neighborhood characterized as a food desert.Which of the following factors is most likely to be a component causing her condition?

A) failure to take a daily vitamin
B) a dislike of healthy foods
C) a lack of healthy food choices at school and home
D) living in an impoverished society where food is scarce

Question 5

According to functionalist theory,identify which of the following is a normative social expectation of the sick role.

A) If you get sick,you should change your lifestyle to avoid getting sick in the future.
B) If you are sick,you should still go to work.
C) Sick people are not held responsible for being sick.
D) If you feel ill,the choice about whether or not to see a doctor is entirely your own.

Question 6

What best characterizes when all foods are available all the time?

A) We have much less control over our own bodies than before.
B) We can no longer decide what to eat because there are too many choices.
C) This situation causes anxieties as well as positive possibilities.
D) This situation causes new anxieties and problems that far outweigh any advantage.

Question 7

Which health issues are associated with anorexia?

A) high white blood cell counts and enlargement of the heart
B) an increase in overall fitness and anemia
C) high white blood cell counts and anemia
D) a smaller heart muscle and a weakened immune system

Question 8

Most public health experts believe that obesity is a problem caused by

A) obese individuals having more children than nonobese individuals.
B) the obesogenic environment.
C) the increase of eating disorders among small children.
D) genetic problems leading to a person's inability to lose weight.

Question 9

Dr.Irving (discussed in the textbook)and other African American women face multiple stressors throughout their lives that wear down their bodies and health,rendering them vulnerable to chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure.The epidemiologist Arline Geronimus calls this process

A) weathering.
B) illness work.
C) stigma.
D) heteronormativity.

Question 10

What suggests that eating disorders and obesity reflect social factors more than biological factors?

A) Max Weber clearly showed that their origins lie in the cult of beauty present in the Roman republic.
B) If physical or biological factors were responsible,physicians would have found a cure for such important health issues.
C) Only women suffer from these conditions.
D) They are very recent health problems.

Question 11

Which of the following is a contributing factor to the increasing consumption of fast food?

A) high traffic levels in inner-city neighborhoods
B) decreased availability of in-school lunch programs
C) increased crime rates in cities
D) working parents

Question 12

The communities that are most likely to be food deserts are

A) mostly rural areas.
B) both rural areas and poor urban neighborhoods.
C) mostly suburban areas.
D) mostly inner-city neighborhoods and suburban areas.

Question 13

For which group are eating disorders MOST likely the lowest?

A) Fijian women before American television shows started to air there
B) young,primarily affluent women of Hong Kong
C) women in urban areas of Pakistan
D) women of color in the United States

Question 14

What has been happening to the life expectancy of working-class whites throughout the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?

A) Their life expectancy is increasing.
B) Their life expectancy is decreasing.
C) Their life expectancy has remained the same.
D) Their life expectancy has followed the trend of the American population in general.

Question 15

How much more likely are Black mothers to die than their white counterparts?

A) just as likely
B) twice as likely
C) three to four times as likely
D) much more likely than expectant and new mothers in Mexico and Uzbekistan

Question 16

According to Talcott Parsons,what is an expectation associated with the sick role?

A) A sick person should not be personally blamed for being ill.
B) A sick person should be isolated from society.
C) A sick person should always tend to his or her work responsibilities while sick.
D) A sick person should avoid modern medicine.

Question 17

Pat suffers from anorexia nervosa.Which of the following statements is true?

A) Pat is more likely to be a man than a woman.
B) Pat is most likely to be between that ages of twelve and twenty-six.
C) Pat cannot also suffer from bulimia because bulimia involves bingeing and purging.
D) Pat suffers from the psychological disorder that has the lowest mortality rate.

Question 18

Why have some sociologists criticized Talcott Parsons's notion of the sick role?

A) Sociologists have done away with the theoretical use of the term role in analysis.
B) The sick role can only be applied to the American context.
C) Functionalist approaches are no longer studied in sociology.
D) The sick role fails to explain illnesses that do not necessarily lead to a suspension of normal activity.

Question 19

We have so much more control over our bodies compared to earlier times.This is because

A) unlike in the past,we are now socialized to seek out natural remedies.
B) what used to be "natural" has become social.
C) unlike in the past,both nature and the environment now shape our socialization processes.
D) unlike in the past,social attitudes about health are now shaped by biological factors.

Question 20

Rafael is a sociologist who thinks that illness can disrupt the normal flow of society.What school of sociology does he probably belong to?

A) symbolic interactionist
B) structuralist
C) functionalist
D) postmodernist

Question 21

The process in which the problems of social life become defined and treated like medical conditions is called

A) medicalization.
B) illness work.
C) socialization of nature.
D) professionalization of medicine.

Question 22

Which of the following people would most likely practice alternative medicine?

A) an oncologist
B) a chiropractor
C) a pediatrician
D) a cardiologist

Question 23

Rosie was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome.She manages to keep up with her housework by dividing it into small tasks,resting between tasks.What type of work,as defined by Corbin and Strauss,is Rosie incorporating?

A) illness work
B) coping work
C) everyday work
D) adapting work

Question 24

Vanessa recently lost her father and also had a tough time finding work in the months prior to her father's death.She has been feeling very sad and is having a hard time accepting invitations or enjoying social activities.Her general practitioner referred her to a psychiatrist who suggested that Vanessa begin taking antidepressants.According to the textbook,Vanessa's situation is an example of

A) the socialization of nature.
B) medicalization.
C) stigma.
D) illness work.

Question 25

Which of Corbin and Strauss's types of work involves the process of incorporating an illness into one's life,making sense of it,and developing ways of explaining it to others?

A) illness work
B) biographical work
C) everyday work
D) adapting work

Question 26

Talia often consults health-related web pages for advice about diet,disease prevention,and treatment.What trend are her activities an example of?

A) a trend characterized by doctors who,lacking quality health-care training,must rely on the Internet for practical knowledge
B) a trend characterized by young,uninsured individuals who must utilize the Internet in place of going to see physicians due to their economic circumstances
C) a trend that sees individuals increasingly becoming health consumers and adopting an active stance toward their own health and well-being
D) the Internet health-care shopper trend

Question 27

Yu spends most of his time in the countryside picking herbs to use in his place of work.He dries the herbs and makes teas for his customers who are cancer patients wanting to combat the side effects of the chemotherapy treatments they are receiving from their doctors.What term do sociologists use to describe what Yu offers?

A) alternative medicine
B) faith healing
C) complementary medicine
D) natural medicine

Question 28

Sonia learned many techniques from a healer in her home country of Peru.After moving to the United States,Sonia decides to offer herbal remedies to people who distrust doctors and refuse Western medicine.What term do sociologists use to describe what Sonia offers?

A) alternative medicine
B) faith healing
C) complementary medicine
D) herbal remedy cures

Question 29

Paul has an enlarged prostate and is thus forced to go to the bathroom frequently.He is embarrassed by his condition and avoids telling others about his illness.When he goes out with his friends to dine and is asked why he leaves the table so often,he tells others that he is calling home to check on the children.What type of work,as defined by Corbin and Strauss,is Paul incorporating?

A) illness work
B) coping work
C) everyday work
D) biographical work

Question 30

A reversal in life expectancy has become a reality in recent years for

A) women with less education.
B) men with more education.
C) men and women with more education.
D) women with more education.

Question 31

Angelique suffers from chronic neck pain.At times the pain is so debilitating that she takes strong painkillers just to be able to get out of bed in the morning.What type of work,as defined by Corbin and Strauss,is Angelique incorporating?

A) illness work
B) coping work
C) everyday work
D) adapting work

Question 32

Novak is a researcher who addresses questions about the personal experience of illness: How does illness shape individuals' daily lives? How does a chronic illness affect an individual's self-identity? What school of sociology mentioned in the textbook does he probably belong to?

A) symbolic interactionist
B) structuralist
C) functionalist
D) postmodernist

Question 33

The twentieth century witnessed which of the following trends in industrialized societies?

A) a significant increase in life expectancy
B) a rise in infant mortality rates
C) a decrease in standards of health and well-being
D) the virtual elimination of health inequalities

Question 34

Which of the following questions would a symbolic interactionist most likely ask?

A) Why do some humans become ill whereas others do not?
B) How do people put themselves at risk of contracting illness?
C) How does illness become lucrative business for pharmaceutical companies?
D) What does the way we define illness tell us about healthy practices?

Question 35

Identify one of the major reasons why more educated people tend to be healthier and live longer than those who are less educated.

A) reduced stress
B) better eating habits
C) reduced family size
D) stronger sense of purpose

Question 36

Why might differences in occupational status lead to inequalities in health and illness even when medical care is evenly distributed?

A) Hospitals are located closer to professionals and white-collar workers.
B) Manual laborers often come from immigrant backgrounds and bring many health problems with them from their places of origin.
C) Government health programs offer a wider variety of solutions to people from professional backgrounds.
D) Those who work in offices or in domestic settings have less risk of injury or exposure to hazardous materials than some manual workers.

Question 37

The leading causes of death today are heart disease and cancer,two diseases that are associated with unhealthy behaviors such as smoking,a high-fat diet,and a sedentary lifestyle.This evidence most clearly contradicts which perspective?

A) Corbin and Strauss's illness work
B) Erving Goffman's stigma
C) Talcott Parsons's sick role
D) complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)

Question 38

Most sociologists accept that most of what we currently recognize as medicine is a consequence of developments in Western society over the past three centuries.Sociologists would include which of the following items among these developments?

A) a trend toward seeing the origins and treatments of disease as physical and explicable in scientific terms
B) the rejection of the hospital as the setting within which to treat serious illnesses
C) the rapid increase in malpractice suits that question the expertise of the medical profession
D) the inclusion of self-taught healers

Question 39

Michelle is obese.As something that is devalued and labeled by society as undesirable,what term would sociologists apply to her obesity?

A) a disadvantage
B) a stigma
C) a dogma
D) a sick role

Question 40

What term refers to the set of principles-underpinning Western medical systems and practices-that defines diseases objectively,in accordance with the presence of recognized symptoms,and holds that the healthy body can be restored through scientifically based medical treatment?

A) the Western health-care model
B) the scientific method of health
C) the biomedical model of health
D) the scientific health-care method

Question 41

What is one of the main reasons why African Americans suffer a significantly higher rate of HIV/AIDS infections than all other groups in the United States?

A) Blacks are far less likely to have access to available antiretroviral treatments.
B) African Americans are originally from Africa,which has higher rates of HIV/AIDS.
C) Blacks are unable to tolerate the needed medicines.
D) Blacks are more likely to engage in same-sex behavior.

Question 42

Most people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)

A) live outside of Africa.
B) are heterosexual.
C) are intravenous drug users.
D) are hemophiliacs.

Question 43

Black and Hispanic populations have higher rates of mortality,unemployment,and levels of poverty.Even so,Hispanics have better than expected health,and blacks have lower than expected rates of depression.Identify one of the psychosocial factors behind these paradoxes.

A) overall lower levels of stress
B) better health screening for immigrants
C) better social cohesion
D) improved housing and subsidies for housing

Question 44

Akiki is a sixteen-year-old orphan girl from Uganda.What can be inferred from the textbook about her situation?

A) She was probably orphaned because her parents died of AIDS.
B) She will likely be placed into a state institution for orphaned children.
C) Her parents were probably killed by government troops.
D) Her parents were likely murdered by members of a gang.

Question 45

One of the major barriers to the treatment of the HIV and AIDS epidemic worldwide is

A) the increasing number of intravenous drug users.
B) the increasing percentage of homosexuals who practice unsafe sex.
C) the increasing percentage of heterosexuals who practice unsafe sex.
D) discrimination against people living with these infections.

Question 46

Tiffany is sexually attracted to both sexes.According to the textbook,because Tiffany is attracted to both sexes,she is considered

A) bisexual.
B) transgender.
C) cisgender.
D) queer.

Question 47

The direction of one's sexual or romantic attraction is referred to as

A) sexual orientation.
B) sexual preference.
C) sexual identity.
D) sexual status.

Question 48

According to the textbook,which of the following terms is incorrectly used,is misleading,and should be avoided?

A) sexual desire
B) sexual orientation
C) sexual preference
D) sexual partner

Question 49

Which of the following statements accurately characterizes the health of Black Americans?

A) By 2016,a greater percentage of white men smoked than Black men.
B) In 2016,the percentage of Black adults between the ages of twenty and seventy-four who suffered from hypertension was the same as in the early 1970s.
C) Patterns of physician visitation,hospitalization,and preventive medicine for Blacks have improved.
D) Black women are now more likely than white women to receive mammograms.

Question 50

Clellan Ford and Frank Beach,using anthropological evidence from more than two hundred societies,found that

A) although only slight variations existed among societies regarding natural sexual behavior,norms of sexual attractiveness varied greatly.
B) only slight variations existed among societies regarding natural sexual behavior,but norms of sexual attractiveness were largely universal.
C) striking variations existed among societies in what was regarded as natural sexual behavior,but norms of sexual attractiveness were largely universal.
D) striking variations existed among societies in what were regarded as natural sexual behavior and norms of sexual attractiveness.

Question 51

Sigmund Freud argued that

A) humans are born without concrete sexual tastes and society teaches them what to like through the socialization process.
B) human sexuality is usually determined at birth,although the socialization process does have a limited role in influencing people by adulthood.
C) female and male sexual tastes are similar at birth but increasingly vary as adulthood approaches,largely due to hormonal differences between males and females.
D) human sexual tastes vary widely at birth,and although they are curbed by society through socialization,they still remain significantly diverse through adulthood.

Question 52

According to the textbook,why are some men less likely to seek annual checkups?

A) They are socialized to believe that men should be strong and self-sufficient.
B) Because of their work,men generally have more responsibilities than women and thus have less time for regular medical checkups.
C) Men are more likely to feel physically threatened by health-care personnel than women.
D) Men become ill less often and therefore believe that they do not need checkups as often as women.

Question 53

According to the textbook,why did diseases such as smallpox and measles produce epidemics that ravaged or completely wiped out native populations in the Americas after contact with Europeans in the late fifteenth century?

A) Europeans refused to share their medicines with the native peoples.
B) The native peoples lacked resistance to these diseases.
C) Europeans forced the native peoples to relocate to massive urban centers,where the bacteria easily spread.
D) Europeans forced the native peoples to abandon their traditional medicines,which had kept the diseases largely at bay before contact.

Question 54

How do some sociologists explain the fact that although Hispanics in the United States have fewer socioeconomic resources than whites,studies have shown that their health-and especially the health of their infants-is just as good as,if not better than,that of whites?

A) Hispanics have more genetic resistance to many diseases than whites.
B) Whites are more socially cohesive than Hispanics.
C) Studies of the health of Hispanics in the United States focus on those who successfully migrated and who may be in better health than those who did not migrate.
D) For cultural reasons,Hispanics are more devoted to healthy activities,such as playing sports,than whites.

Question 55

The most important example of a disease that has almost disappeared from the world in the past half century or so is

A) malaria.
B) measles.
C) influenza.
D) smallpox.

Question 56

Western attitudes toward sexual behavior

A) were molded primarily by Christianity for nearly two thousand years,and the dominant view was that all sexual behavior was suspect.
B) have rarely included the idea that sexual fulfillment can and should be sought through marriage.
C) have remained surprisingly constant throughout the past two or three centuries.
D) have reflected similar assumptions about the sexual activities of men and women.

Question 57

Why did the nutritional quality of native diets become substantially depressed in many parts of Africa?

A) Changes introduced by European intruders caused the spread of the tsetse fly,which damaged native crops.
B) The natives of the region practiced a scorched earth policy of defense against European intruders in which they burned their own fields.
C) European farmers resented the cheap imports that flowed into the continent after colonization,and colonial administrators were pressured to destroy millions of acres of crops owned by natives.
D) Cash-crop production supplanted the production of native foods.

Question 58

April is a woman,and Jack is a man.Which of the following statements is true?

A) April is more likely to live longer than Jack is.
B) Jack is more likely to suffer from acute conditions than April is.
C) Jack is more likely to suffer from nonfatal chronic conditions than April is.
D) Jack is more likely to spend any given day sick in bed than April is.

Question 59

What term reflects one's gender identity?

A) transgender
B) queer
C) gay
D) bisexual

Question 60

Jules challenges the gender binary of male-female,moving fluidly between the categories of male and female.According to the textbook,Jules is

A) noncisgender.
B) cisgender.
C) transgender.
D) bisexual.

Question 61

Juliana is an American sociologist whose research focuses on why some people are homosexual and others are not.According to the textbook,why do investigators like Juliana devote such considerable time to research focused on this question?

A) Heterosexuality is considered the norm for most people in U.S.culture.
B) Increasing numbers of people are becoming homosexual.
C) It has only recently been learned that people are born homosexual.
D) Various religious organizations funded such research to try to counter trends that they viewed as wrong.

Question 62

What is the biomedical model of health? Please explain your answer in three to five sentences.

Question 63

In a short paragraph,discuss obesity as both a private trouble and a public issue,making sure to briefly distinguish between private trouble and public issue.What are at least two strategies identified in the textbook as possible approaches to treating obesity as a public issue? Illustrate how these are good examples of treating obesity as a public health issue.

Question 64

Why are infectious diseases more common in developing nations than in the United States today? Please explain your answer in a short paragraph.

Question 65

Alfred Kinsey's research,which began in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s,was surprising because it revealed

A) the extent to which assumptions about the sexual activities of men and women had come to resemble each other.
B) a tremendous discrepancy between prevailing public expectations of sexual behavior and actual sexual conduct.
C) the homogeneity of sexual experience in the United States.
D) a strong correlation between income and sexual attitudes.

Question 66

Which of the following explains the shift in society's views toward sex in the nineteenth century (e.g. ,the idea that masturbation could lead to blindness or that oral sex could cause cancer)?

A) Permissive attitudes about sexuality were replaced with more traditional attitudes.
B) Religious presumptions about sexuality were partly replaced by medical ones.
C) Men and women's differing attitudes toward sexual activities formed a double standard.
D) These and other sexual practices were accepted for men but not for women.

Question 67

How do functionalist theorists and symbolic interactionists differ in their perspectives on health and illness? Please explain your answer in a short paragraph.

Question 68

According to the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,homosexuality

A) was never considered a disorder.
B) was considered a disorder until 1920.
C) was considered a disorder until 1950.
D) was considered a disorder until 1980.

Question 69

According to the textbook,Paula England's study of the sexual behavior of college students revealed that

A) hookups are relatively rare for most college students,and only a minority of students participate in hookup culture.
B) hookups are relatively rare for most college students,although the majority of seniors have experienced at least one hook up.
C) hookups are even more frequent and common than media images suggest.
D) of college students who had hooked up,the majority reported at least ten partners.

Question 70

In three to five sentences,compare complementary and alternative medicine.

Question 71

What is the term that sociologists use to refer to an aversion to or hatred of homosexuals?

A) hate crime
B) homosexual aversion
C) sexual orientation discrimination
D) homophobia

Question 72

How do Edward Laumann's 1994 findings about sexual activity differ from those of Alfred Kinsey's research in the 1950s?

A) Americans have on average 10 sexual partners during their lifetime.
B) There were few changes in sexual behavior.
C) Americans have become more sexually conservative in some ways but more promiscuous in others.
D) There was a significant decline in premarital sexual activity.

Question 73

Max's sexual orientation is homosexual.Most sociologists would claim that

A) if Max has an identical twin,it is overwhelmingly probable that the twin is also homosexual.
B) Max's sexual orientation is the result of both biological and social influences.
C) Max's sexual orientation is a result of biological influences.
D) Max's sexual orientation is a result of social influences.

Question 74

In a short paragraph,provide at least two explanations for the gender gap in health.

Question 75

Vanessa recently told her family and friends that she is homosexual.Now she no longer hides the fact that her best friend,Margaret,is also her partner.According to the textbook,which of the following is the result of people like Vanessa coming out?

A) New York City,San Francisco,London,and other large metropolitan areas worldwide have large gay and lesbian communities.
B) Society embraces openly homosexual individuals such as Vanessa,and homosexuals no longer face any backlash for coming out.
C) The government keeps a registry of all the individuals who come out,which now includes Vanessa.
D) Coming out has resulted in increased rejection of the homosexual lifestyle because homophobes who were willing to ignore the presence of homosexuals when they were hidden are no longer willing to do so.

Question 76

How do social class and race affect health? Please explain your answer in a short paragraph.

Question 77

According to the textbook,traditional attitudes toward sex currently exist alongside much more permissive attitudes,which developed widely and became openly public

A) in the eighteenth century.
B) in the nineteenth century.
C) in the early twentieth century.
D) in the 1960s.

Question 78

What are some social consequences of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)epidemic in developing nations? Please explain your answer in a short paragraph.

Question 79

According to the textbook,U.S.attitudes toward sexual behavior have followed which of the following patterns over time?

A) increased acceptance of premarital sex but continued low acceptance of extramarital sex
B) increased acceptance of premarital sex and extramarital sex
C) decreased acceptance of premarital and extramarital sex
D) increased acceptance of premarital sex,followed by a decrease,with acceptance of extramarital sex remaining high

Question 80

According to the textbook,what is generally regarded as the beginning of the battle for gay rights in the United States?

A) the Stonewall Inn nightclub raid
B) California Proposition 8
C) Lawrence v.Texas
D) the Texas sniper shootings