Deck 2: American Sociology: Theories and Contexts

Question 1

What does it mean to say that all people are sociologists?

A) We use ideas about our social world to navigate our way through life.
B) High school students who study sociology are more likely to say they enjoy making observations about human behaviors.
C) More jobs than ever require employees to understand how people relate to each other.
D) We can rely on common sense to help us understand the world accurately.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

What is the difference between common sense and sociology?

A) Sociologists use specific theories and methods to ask critical questions about social life.
B) Common sense is reliably accurate.
C) Common sense is based on precise measurement.
D) Sociological conclusions are based on haphazard observations.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which U.S. government agency collects data on employment?

A) Department of Labor
B) Department of Education
C) Department of the Interior
D) The Federal Reserve

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following examples illustrates that individuals' lives are not entirely shaped by social structures?

A) The children of movie stars often go on to become movie stars.
B) Oprah Winfrey was born into poverty but rose to become one of the wealthiest people in America.
C) President Franklin D. Roosevelt was related to 11 other presidents.
D) In the U.S., upward economic mobility-the ability to enter a social class that is higher than the one you were born into-is relatively weak.

Question 5

A question that investigates why a social phenomenon happened as it did and not otherwise is called a

A) measurable question
B) researchable question
C) critical question
D) reflexive question

Question 6

Central to the sociological imagination is the recognition that

A) people become less biased the older they get
B) all people share common insights simply by the fact of being human
C) the more similar two people are, the less likely they will be to see the world similarly
D) where you stand in the social world shapes what you perceive

Question 7

Every person's perceptions are limited because

A) every person occupies a specific social position that makes it more likely that they will see some things and ignore others
B) no two people are alike in ways that are meaningful
C) it is impossible to recognize our prejudices
D) people are embarrassed to admit when they don't know something

Question 8

Reflexivity is the

A) willingness to confess publicly to your own biases
B) ability to see from the perspective of someone you disagree with
C) ability to see yourself from outside of your own perspective in order to understand yourself as part of a wider social scene
D) ability to hold two contradictory opinions in your mind at the same time

Question 9

In contrast to the past, today sociology seeks to develop theories that

A) will explain all historical events through a single lens
B) are equally applicable to people in all societies
C) push toward a global unification of culture
D) focus on specific situations in a given place and at a given time

Question 10

Why did French sociologist Auguste Comte argue that sociology was the most important of the sciences?

A) Basic sociological principles are relatively easy to learn, which makes the discipline easy to spread.
B) Sociology helps people in both their personal and public lives.
C) Social phenomena are the most complex phenomena, and thus sociology must integrate the most complex information.
D) Sociology has the most profitable applications to the industrial world.

Question 11

The social sciences are those disciplines that

A) ignore stringent methods in favor of relying on common sense
B) gather knowledge through experiments on humans
C) deal with human experiences
D) use systematic scientific and cultural methods to study the social world, as distinct from the natural and physical world

Question 12

According to French sociologist Émile Durkheim, sociology is different from other fields of study because

A) it argues that people are unable to influence their social worlds
B) sociologists rely on intuition to make conclusions
C) it is limited to applications in the present and future, and cannot help us understand the past
D) it relies on social facts, which are external to people, unlike biological or psychological ones

Question 13

Social facts

A) disguise patterns in human behavior
B) reflect individual choices and behaviors
C) hide differences among people
D) reveal the collective nature of social life

Question 14

During the late 18th century and through the 19th century, as sociology developed as a discipline, Western societies were experiencing

A) stability
B) continuity
C) major social change
D) equality

Question 15

Which of the following was a social change produced by the Industrial Revolution?

A) Urbanization
B) Decentralization
C) Diminishing bureaucracies
D) Reduced gender inequality

Question 16

Which of the following is not one of the three main theories of classical sociology?

A) Reflexivity
B) Consensus
C) Conflict
D) Symbolic interaction

Question 17

How did the Industrial Revolution contribute to globalization?

A) Anti-immigrant policies sought to protect jobs for native-born white Americans, so immigrants resorted to entering the US without documentation.
B) Regulations around air and water pollution united nations that were concerned about climate change.
C) Immigrants moved to lands where industrialization provided job opportunities even for people with few skills.
D) A demand among American consumers for exotic foods such as bananas and sugar created a new market for South American nations.

Question 18

Globalization is

A) the growing social, economic, cultural, and political interdependence of the world's people
B) a social and political movement to remove international borders
C) a social movement to provide care for people who have been displaced by international wars
D) the effort to reduce friction between nations by creating political systems that are alike

Question 19

Urbanization is

A) cultural artifacts associated with cities, such as subways and large public libraries
B) the social processes associated with demographic shifts from rural to urban areas
C) the underrepresentation of city-dwellers in the U.S. electoral college
D) the stereotyping of cities as dangerous

Question 20

A nation-state is defined as

A) a country that once existed but no longer does
B) a group of people who share a geographic territory, system of government, and sense of social cohesion
C) a colony of an established nation that is in the process of achieving independence
D) a political state in transition from one kind of government to another

Question 21

What innovation in the 18th and 19th centuries made it easier for authorities to govern over larger territories?

A) Vaccinations, which saved the lives of everyday people
B) Steel, which allowed for the building of skyscrapers
C) Refrigeration, which allowed for easier preservation of food
D) Transportation technologies, such as the steam train

Question 22

How did the belief in European superiority contribute to colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries?

A) Many Europeans believed that better medical care could save lives in so-called "undeveloped" nations.
B) Many Europeans came to believe that people of other cultures were unfit to govern themselves.
C) Many Europeans welcomed immigrants of different races and ethnicities to Europe in order to strengthen the European labor pool.
D) Many Europeans were eager to live in foreign lands in order to learn from the native people there.

Question 23

The sociological canon is

A) a collection of writing that was once important but that few sociologists read any more
B) the entire body of sociological scholarship ever written
C) the over-valued contributions of powerful but ultimately mediocre thinkers from the 19th century
D) the ideas that have become seen as "required reading" to have a firm understanding of the foundations of sociology

Question 24

Who are the two authors of The Communist Manifesto?

A) Marx and Hegel
B) Marx and Engels
C) DuBois and Marx
D) Gilman Perkins and Marx

Question 25

Karl Marx was trained as a

A) sociologist
B) political scientist
C) philosopher
D) historian

Question 26

According to Marx, society is shaped primarily by the history of

A) racial conflict.
B) economic conflict
C) conflict over gender
D) religious conflict.

Question 27

False consciousness is

A) unwarranted confidence in your own abilities
B) ignorance of your own biases
C) a refusal to recognize the contributions of others to your thinking
D) belief in the validity of the forces that oppress you

Question 28

According to Marx, capital is owned by

A) the many
B) the few
C) the powerless
D) those who are most deserving

Question 29

Capitalism is

A) an economic system in which the goods of society are distributed based on need
B) an economic system that seeks to maximize the well-being for the greatest number of people
C) an economic system in which the goods of society are distributed based on merit
D) an economic system based on the private ownership of the things necessary for human life to survive

Question 30

Alienation is

A) a lack of meaningful connection to other people or to work
B) discomfort that a person feels when transitioning from rural to urban life
C) prejudice that arises when people are forced, through globalization, into relationships with people who are unfamiliar to them
D) depression about the environmental impacts of industrialization

Question 31

Marx believed that a worker-led overthrow of capitalism was

A) inevitable
B) unlikely
C) naive
D) unnecessary

Question 32

The practice of public sociology is built upon

A) a commitment to using sociological ideas in wider public conversations and struggles for social justice
B) transparency in how research funds are spent
C) the crowdsourcing of data collection
D) the public funding of research

Question 33

Which American sociologist co-founded the NAACP?

A) W. E. B. DuBois
B) C. Wright Mills
C) Booker T. Washington
D) Pierre Bourdieu

Question 34

American sociologist C. Wright Mills was especially critical of the

A) U.S. legal system
B) U.S. economy
C) U.S. military
D) U.S. educational system

Question 35

Max Weber differed from Karl Marx in his belief about the relationship between sociology and politics, arguing that

A) social sciences should inform politics
B) social sciences should be separated from politics
C) social sciences are vulnerable to being exploited by politics
D) all social sciences are inherently political

Question 36

What is the thesis of Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism?

A) Christians are more likely to be skeptical of the benefits of capitalism than are non-Christians.
B) Protestants are slower to adopt capitalism than Catholics.
C) When behaviors that support capitalism are viewed as morally and religiously good, they are more likely to take hold in communities that support those religious and moral views.
D) People with strong religious ties are less likely to embrace capitalism than are people with weaker ties to their religion.

Question 37

According to Max Weber, all modern institutions are organized

A) mechanically
B) organically
C) reflexively
D) bureaucratically

Question 38

If you feel little passion for or connection to your work, you may be experiencing

A) reflexivity
B) rationality
C) solidarity
D) disenchantment

Question 39

Rationalization is a feature of modern life in which social relationships become more

A) standardized
B) strained
C) respected
D) volatile

Question 40

Disenchantment is a condition of rationalized bureaucratic society characterized by the

A) the decline of belief as a motivation for social action
B) social divisions based on differences in religious identity
C) depression due to the inevitability of climate change
D) failure to act due to pessimism about the honesty of political leaders

Question 41

According to Durkheim, in a complex world, people experience solidarity based on

A) common life experiences
B) shared beliefs
C) interdependency
D) similarities in the limitations of their geographic worlds

Question 42

For Durkheim, what advantage does organic solidarity have over mechanical solidarity?

A) It is easier to achieve.
B) It produces stronger connections between people.
C) It excludes people who might threaten the values of the community.
D) It can produce solidarity even with people whose experiences we do not share.

Question 43

What is one way, according to Durkheim, that societies can foster solidarity?

A) Encouraging people to speak a diversity of languages
B) Delivering social punishments for people with beliefs that differ from the mainstream
C) Enacting strict citizenship laws that exclude people who may be different
D) Promoting national symbols shared by many people

Question 44

Collective representations are

A) stereotypes we hold of people who are outside of our own social groups
B) media representatives that are inaccurate and create damaging expectations of what people should look and behave like
C) propaganda created by political leaders to create an image of a nation that is more noble than it is
D) images we have of our own social groups

Question 45

Anomie is the condition of feeling

A) growing self-awareness as a result of seeing your own position from outside of your perspective
B) isolation in the absence of rich social connections
C) embarrassment as you become aware of your own biases
D) disconnected from the emerging future as technology changes faster than you can keep up with it

Question 46

'Asabiyyah is an Arabic word describing

A) the social cohesion arising from group life
B) the conflict between those who have and do not have power in a society
C) unjust treatment of people in a society based on some characteristic they cannot control
D) economic inequality

Question 47

Which of the following women is considered to be a founder of sociology?

A) Charlotte Gilman Perkins
B) Jane Addams
C) Mirra Komarovsky
D) Harriet Martineau

Question 48

What is one argument in defense of continuing to teach the theories of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim?

A) They provide a common foundation for students of sociology.
B) They presented arguments that are virtually unassailable even by generations of sociologists who followed them.
C) They presented arguments that gave considerable attention to race and gender.
D) Their unifying theories of social life proved true.

Question 49

Why were so many early American sociologists interested in immigration?

A) They feared immigrants and saw immigration as a problem to solve.
B) They had little experience with immigration or immigrants, and were curious about them.
C) They desired to increase immigration to the U.S. and hoped to collection social scientific data in support of pro-immigration policies.
D) The U.S. was experiencing a very high rate of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s, which was creating many kinds of social changes.

Question 50

Charles Horton Cooley's idea of the "looking glass self" says that

A) society serves as a mirror that we use to develop our own self-concept as we see ourselves as others see us
B) individuals serve as a canvas on which society paints a unique picture
C) we do not see the differences between ourselves and those close to us until society tells us that we are different from them
D) despite growing up in different societies, all people develop similar self-images

Question 51

According to sociologist George Herbert Mead, to be a social being means to

A) place yourself in the position of another person and then, from their perspective, look back at yourself
B) compete with others for resources such as money and power
C) fight against the narratives that other people try to impose on you
D) become aware of how society creates biases that we will unthinkingly accept if we don't mindfully reject them

Question 52

What is the central question of the consensus theory?

A) Who has power in a society and how did they get it?
B) How do our everyday interactions create our social world?
C) What factors contribute to stable social systems?
D) Who can exert agency to change their lives?

Question 53

Which of the following is not a criticism of consensus theory?

A) It helps explain continuity.
B) It does not explain social change.
C) It ignores human suffering.
D) It downplays the presence of conflict in society.

Question 54

Conflict theory focuses on

A) continuity and social stability
B) interpersonal relationships
C) power and resource inequality
D) voluntary associations

Question 55

Conflict theorists argue that

A) people enjoy conflict
B) people are inclined to share resources in order to bolster the chances of human survival
C) social structures and social systems emerge out of conflicts between different groups
D) rewards in society are distributed based on merit, so that those who are more deserving have more

Question 56

Symbolic interactionism focuses on

A) economic forces in history
B) power differentials among different people groups
C) how people work together to reach common goals
D) individuals and small groups and their interactions

Question 57

Symbolic interactionism argues that

A) people develop a social self through interactions with others
B) since all humans are biologically similar, society's role in the development of a self is relatively limited
C) people who are more extroverted develop stronger senses of self than those who are introverted
D) people must be explicitly taught how to behave in a society, because learning the "rules" of a society is difficult for most people

Question 58

What metaphor did sociologist Erving Goffman use to explain social life?

A) People are actors on a stage.
B) People are acrobats in a circus.
C) People are waiters in a restaurant.
D) People are athletes on a field.

Question 59

As sociology as a discipline developed in the second half of the 20th century

A) it developed a bigger range of theories that focused on specific problems in specific times and places
B) it no longer focused on theory, and instead shifted attention to methods of social scientific research
C) it rejected calls for interdisciplinary work
D) it renewed its commitment to theories that sought a unified explanation for human behavior

Question 60

When Karl Marx said that "all that is sold melts into air," he meant

A) material things do not matter; what is of value are the immaterial things in life
B) change is an ever-present feature of societies
C) the future is unpredictable
D) technology changes faster than everyday people can master it

Question 61

"Theories of the middle range" describe theories that

A) seek a unified theory of human behavior
B) focus on particular institutions and practices rather than an overarching theory of society
C) incorporate insights from many disciplines
D) deliberately include contributions by people historically overlooked in sociological history

Question 62

Feminism is

A) a belief in the superiority of women over men
B) a social movement seeking the recognition of equal rights regardless of gender
C) a celebration of feminine subcultures
D) a political movement focusing on the right to an abortion

Question 63

Intersectionality is a perspective that argues that

A) people seek ways to stabilize their identities, even when changing their identities might be healthier for them
B) everyone has multiple, intersecting identities that shift and change according to the situation they are in
C) people inherit their identities from their parents and cannot change them
D) some parts of our identities are rooted in biology and others in social relationships

Question 64

Post-colonial theory helps scholars understand

A) why some indigenous groups successfully resisted colonization and some were less successful
B) how Western societies justified conquest
C) what Western societies can learn from non-Western ones
D) how to work across international borders to address climate change

Question 65

Queer theory delivers a powerful challenge to the idea that

A) sexual practices are central to the human experience
B) sexuality and gender are stable identities
C) societies are stronger when their members are very similar
D) society shapes our expectations about sexuality

Question 66

Which statement captures the point of the Thomas Theorem?

A) People are unpredictable.
B) How people interpret a situation determines how they respond to it.
C) Those who have power try to preserve it; those who lack it seek it.
D) People attract to their lives what they focus their attention on.

Question 67

Social stratification is

A) economic inequality that is a result of differences in merit or ability
B) structured patterns of inequality between different groups of people
C) conflict between people of equal means, each fighting to have more than the other
D) violence rooted in differences in morality