Deck 1: Sociological Stories and Key Concepts

Question 1

Sociology is:

A) The only way of understanding the society we are familiar with.
B) The study of how individual stories and relationships relate to larger, collective stories of social groups.
C) An academic discipline in which research methods are limited to mathematical modeling and experiments.
D) Limited to academic and professional research
E) All of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following is a sociological explanation for the Columbine High School massacre discussed at the beginning of the chapter?

A) The two students responsible for the killing were depressed and chemically unbalanced.
B) The two students sought to deviate from the norm; they were attracted to a particular subculture, and their violent behavior was another manifestation of the deviance.
C) The two students were influenced by external social pressures, such as violent entertainment and overly easy access to guns, which facilitated the Columbine massacre.
D) Answers "b" and "c", but not "a"
E) All of the above

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Before and after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, which factor(s) became apparent in the patterns of whether or not individuals were evacuated to safety?

A) Income level
B) Educational Attainment
C) Residential Segregation
D) a and c only.
E) All of the above

Answer 3

E

Question 4

According to Chapter 1, sociology is like:

A) Snorkeling
B) Knitting a sweater
C) Cooking dinner
D) Storytelling
E) None of the above

Question 5

Individual actions and behaviors are constrained by:

A) Norms
B) Values
C) Institutions
D) Roles
E) All of the above

Question 6

Which of the following statements is an example of a norm?

A) Women should not work outside of the home.
B) When "The Star Spangled Banner" is played, one is to stand.
C) Violent television programming is bad for young children.
D) Alcohol impairs one's ability to think and react clearly.
E) All of the above

Question 7

Which of the following statements is an example of a value?

A) Men advance more quickly in the corporate world than women.
B) Every United States citizen has a right to vote in state and federal elections.
C) All citizens should be equal before the law.
D) People who smoke cigarettes are 10 times more likely to get lung cancer.
E) All of the above

Question 8

In his book The Sociological Imagination, C. Wright Mills observes:

A) People often feel that they are trapped by their private lives and cannot overcome their problems.
B) There is a difference, and a relationship, between personal troubles and public issues.
C) The "sociological imagination" refers to the ability of people to understand not only what is happening in their own experience, but also how their experience fits into the larger world experience.
D) In a sense, the lack of a sociological imagination perpetuates the problem of feeling trapped by one's own experience.
E) All of the above

Question 9

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Troubles are personal problems; issues extend beyond the individual, and are institutional in nature.
B) Issues are personal, private problems; troubles extend beyond the individual, and are institutional in nature.
C) The increasing divorce rate in the United States is an example of a trouble.
D) A woman being diagnosed with breast cancer is an example of an issue.
E) None of the above.

Question 10

Which of the following are the four dimensions of sociological consciousness introduced by Peter Berger?

A) Proof, questions, experiments, and argument
B) Postmodernity, globalization, cosmopolitanism, and primordialism
C) Debunking, unrespectability, relativizing, and cosmopolitanism
D) None of the above
E) All of the above

Question 11

The debunking motif, one of four dimensions of the sociological consciousness introduced by Peter Berger, focuses on:

A) Finding the truth in individual stories
B) Uncovering certain social phenomena as biologically natural.
C) Seeing through social structures and official interpretations
D) Both a and c, but not b
E) None of the above

Question 12

The unrespectability motif:

A) Focuses on the so-called unrespectable views of society
B) Is exemplified by the Chicago School's studies of the urban ghetto in the 1920s and 1930s.
C) Is not limited to studies of minorities or marginal groups; middle class "nice people" might also drop in to unrespectable cultures in certain situations.
D) Might be used to explain the Columbine massacre, where student killers were described as being sons of respectable middle-class families at home, and members of the Trenchcoat Mafia at school.
E) All of the above

Question 13

The relativizing motif:

A) Is inspired by Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity
B) Refers to the capacity to understand natural phenomenon.
C) Is most often compared to traditional societies, which assigned definite and permanent identities to their members.
D) Is particularly limited by modern society, where identity is more fluid and fragmented, uncertain, and in flux.
E) None of the above

Question 14

The cosmopolitan motif:

A) Was described in Georg Simmel's classic essay The Metropolis and Mental Life.
B) Refers to the sociologist's ability to be savvy and suave while conducting their research.
C) Is often linked to modern times, characterized by turbulent urban centers and knowledge of a variety of lifestyles and perspectives, as well as a sense of detachment from them.
D) Both a and c, but not b
E) All of the above

Question 15

As used in sociology, modernity refers to:

A) A particular style or fashion prevalent in arts, architecture, and popular culture
B) A historical period during which a set of historical processes-social, economic, political, and cultural, that transformed the social order.
C) Being current, up-to-date, or contemporary
D) A time period characterized by the cultural turn, derationalization, and globalization.
E) All of the above

Question 16

Which of the following are examples of early sociologists of modernity?

A) Marx, Weber, Durkheim
B) Freud, Foucault
C) Adorno, Wittgenstein, Lukacs
D) DuBois, Smith, Pateman
E) None of the above

Question 17

Post industrial Economy, decentralized organization, new social movements and multiculturalism are characteristics of:

A) Premodernity
B) Modernity
C) Postmodernity
D) Globalization
E) None of the above

Question 18

Feudalism, arbitrary, personal forms of authority, and a shared moral universe are characteristics of:

A) premodernity
B) modernity
C) postmodernity
D) globalization
E) None of the above

Question 19

Globalization refers to:

A) The increasing interconnections across the world, that in turn, re-focus sociological attention to multi-national and global problems.
B) The advancement of modern technology in such a way that it is possible to study more than Earth-bound societies.
C) The subject of a debate concerning whether we are in a new period of "modern progress" or simply seeing a new form of American imperialism.
D) Both a and c, but not b
E) None of the above

Question 20

What is the difference between a structural and a cultural approach in sociology?

A) A structural approach focuses on institutions, whereas a cultural approach focuses
On popular culture and mass media.
B) A cultural approach is necessarily determinist, whereas a structural approach can be, but is not necessarily determinist.
C) A structural approach focuses on institutions, groups, and processes, whereas a cultural approach focuses on meanings and values.
D) A structural approach tends to be subjective, whereas a cultural approach tends to be objective.
E) None of the above

Question 21

Which of the following is an example of a determinist argument?

A) Women may choose to stay at home with children because men make more money in the labor market, and therefore cannot take time off from work without jeopardizing the family's economic stability.
B) Women are individuals with free will and equal opportunities. Deciding to stay home with children or work is a free choice.
C) A woman's role varies depending on the social situation she is engaged in.
D) A woman is more likely to stay home with children because women are by nature more nurturing and supportive of children.
E) None of the above

Question 22

Race was not a factor in determining who was most vulnerable in Hurricane Katrina.

Question 23

According to sociology, we are best thought of as unique individuals with special qualities, responsible for our own actions.

Question 24

Culture is not biological; it is symbolic and learned via social interaction.

Question 25

Norms are natural rules that are made official by formal institutions, such as the law.

Question 26

Social structures are institutions and networks that facilitate, but do not limit, human behavior and interaction.

Question 27

Societies are always defined by geographic, natural, or regional boundaries.

Question 28

If an individual African American man earns less money than an equally qualified white man it may be experienced as an example of a personal trouble.

Question 29

The Civil Rights movement in the United States transformed unequal opportunities for African Americans from a personal trouble into a public issue.

Question 30

The problems of interest to early sociologists, such as the politics of the nation state, class inequalities and conflicts, and the search for new moral consensus are no longer of interest or relevant to contemporary sociologists.

Question 31

Theories give us the tools to interpret facts.

Question 32

As a discipline, sociology challenges ready-made answers and solutions.