Deck 10: Social Class

Question 1

Max Weber used the term ______ to describe how our likelihood of success is shaped by our access to valued material, social, and cultural resources.

A) social class
B) status
C) life chances
D) prestige

Answer 1

life chances

Question 2

The difference in meaning between the terms "relative poverty" and "absolute poverty" makes it possible for an individual to be classified both as rich and deprived at the same time.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The term stratification refers to social inequalities that are sufficiently durable to be considered part of the structure of the society itself.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A person's likelihood of being poor varies based on his or her

A) willingness to work.
B) cultural capital.
C) relative poverty.
D) social status.

Question 5

In the United States, life chances are shaped primarily by

A) social resources.
B) material resources.
C) cultural resources.
D) material, social, and cultural resources.

Question 6

In an aristocracy, membership in the ranks of the privileged elite is

A) accomplished by joining the ruling political party.
B) limited to men only.
C) achieved through hard work.
D) inherited.

Question 7

Which of the following statements about slavery is True?

A) Slavery has almost always been linked to race.
B) Slavery continues today despite being banned in the United States in 1865.
C) Slavery in the United States was considered an achieved status.
D) Slavery was considered a permanent status in ancient Greece.

Question 8

In Karl Marx's view, an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect their objective position is known as a

A) bourgeoisie consciousness.
B) false consciousness.
C) class consciousness.
D) caste consciousness.

Question 9

In the United States it is common for people to

A) emphasize how factors beyond their control, such as race and gender, impacted their chances of success.
B) credit their success to a combination of their own efforts and the help they received from others.
C) emphasize the assistance they received from others when examining the causes of their success.
D) credit their success to their own hard work and downplay the help they received from others.

Question 10

Gustavo wants to figure out his wealth. He has $2,000 in a checking account, $500 in savings, $15,000 in stocks, and an $8,000 student loan he needs to repay. Gustavo's wealth is

A) -$4,000.
B) $9,500.
C) $9,000.
D) $17,500.

Question 11

Which of the following describe Karl Marx's concept of class consciousness?

A) It is a subjective awareness held by members of a class regarding the need for collective political action to bring about social change.
B) All of the answer choices are correct.
C) It is an attitude held by members of a class that does not accurately reflect the objective position of the class within society.
D) It is the reputation that a particular individual has within a class and that person's awareness of how others relate socially to that reputation.

Question 12

Which component of Weber's stratification system is exemplified by the Civil Rights movement in the United States?

A) All of the answer choices are correct.
B) party
C) class
D) status

Question 13

One way to define the American Dream is as _____ mobility.

A) vertically downward intergenerational
B) vertically upward intragenerational
C) horizontal intergenerational
D) horizontal intragenerational

Question 14

A man who loses his job as a top stockbroker and takes part-time accounting work has experienced _____ mobility.

A) horizontal
B) intragenerational
C) institutional
D) intergenerational

Question 15

The likelihood of ending up in the same economic position as your parents has ______ since about 1980.

A) depended upon your economic class
B) been rising
C) stayed about the same
D) been falling

Question 16

Which of the following contribute to a growing class divide in the United States?

A) increased levels of neighborhood segregation
B) All of the answer choices are correct.
C) social network segregation
D) educational segregation

Question 17

Describe the four major systems of stratification. How important is ascribed status relative to achieved status in each of these systems?

Question 18

Explain the difference between Karl Marx's concepts of class consciousness and False consciousness. What role does each play, according to Marx, in either promoting or retarding economic change?

Question 19

Max Weber defined ______ as the capacity to organize to accomplish some particular goal.

A) party
B) status
C) control
D) class

Question 20

Which term refers to the idea that the position you are born into is the position within which you will remain throughout life?

A) ascribed social position
B) horizontal mobility
C) position stratification
D) the Thomas Theorem

Question 21

Sociologist Jessi Streib found that children had adopted the cultural conventions of their families' social class positions by the age of

A) six.
B) four.
C) nine.
D) twelve.

Question 22

Which of the following is a reason why people in the United States struggle to respond when asked to identify their social class?

A) They refuse to base their answers on family income.
B) They enjoy classifying themselves as rich or poor.
C) They are eager to categorize themselves in relationship to others.
D) They share the belief that social classes do not exist in the United States.

Question 23

How would each of the three sociological perspectives differ in their views of the concept of social mobility? What, in your view, are the major barriers to social mobility, and how can these best be overcome?

Question 24

Thanks to better access to education, in recent decades the children of low-income families have been closing the achievement gap with their higher-income peers.

Question 25

The more emphasis a society places on people's achievements, the more likely it is to have an open stratification system.

Question 26

In Karl Marx's view, social relations during any period of history depend on who controls the

A) political system.
B) media.
C) means of production.
D) religious institutions.

Question 27

In the caste system of India, the category of people considered to be lowly and unclean is known as the

A) underclass.
B) Brahmin.
C) unworthy.
D) Dalit.

Question 28

______ people in the United States believe that you can get ahead if you are willing to work hard, because they feel that the United States is a(n) ______.

A) Most; aristocracy
B) Most; meritocracy
C) Few; aristocracy
D) Few; meritocracy

Question 29

Which of the following is True concerning industrialized countries' commitment to social service programs?

A) Most industrialized nations devote a smaller percentage of their expenditures to social service programs than the United States does.
B) The United States pays a lower percentage of health care expenditures than all other industrialized nations.
C) Most industrialized nations devote higher proportions of their expenditures to social service programs than the United States does.
D) Cuba, the United Kingdom, and Canada all pay out lower percentages of their nations' respective health care expenditures than the United States does.

Question 30

Which of the following is an example of vertical mobility?

A) A person starts as a cashier in a grocery store and eventually gets promoted to a position in the chain's corporate headquarters.
B) A National Football League star suffers a career-ending injury and gets a job as an auto mechanic.
C) All of the answer choices are correct.
D) A small country's president is overthrown in a bloodless coup and flees to a neighboring country where he works as a farmer.

Question 31

Compare and contrast Marx's analysis with that of Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Which, in your view, provides the more complete and convincing perspective on stratification?

Question 32

A meritocracy is

A) an open system in which your position is earned.
B) an open system in which your position is inherited.
C) a closed system in which your position is earned.
D) a closed system in which your position is inherited.

Question 33

A bus driver who becomes a hotel clerk, moving from one social position to another of approximately the same social rank, is an example of

A) horizontal mobility.
B) vertical mobility.
C) ascribed status.
D) structural mobility.

Question 34

As the practice of slavery in ancient Greece illustrates, slavery need not be an inevitably ascribed status.

Question 35

A woman who was born and raised in a poor family does well in school and gets a well-paid job as a computer engineer right after college. This is an example of _____ mobility.

A) horizontal
B) institutional
C) intergenerational
D) intragenerational

Question 36

In the United States, research has shown that intergenerational social mobility is

A) all but impossible to achieve.
B) possible and often involves major changes in status.
C) possible but usually involves only modest changes in status.
D) possible but not for those who start in the lowest strata of society.

Question 37

Bourdieu believed that, because some culture is more highly valued than other culture, cultural capital is

A) valuable only to the elite.
B) a form of power.
C) limited in availability.
D) ultimately worthless.

Question 38

The issue of social class in the United States is tied to which of the following factors?

A) social resources
B) cultural resources
C) material resources
D) All of the answer choices are correct.

Question 39

Which of the following is the BEST example of absolute poverty?

A) A college student eats a lot of ramen in order to be able to afford textbooks.
B) A homeless man begs in the streets for money and food.
C) A single parent relies on government assistance to feed her children.
D) A dual-career couple struggles to pay their monthly bills.

Question 40

Pierre Bourdieu's concept of "cultural capital" is intended to illustrate the important role played by culture in bridging class and status divisions.

Question 41

Prestige refers to the

A) people who have similar levels of wealth and income.
B) reputation that a particular individual has within an occupation.
C) respect and admiration that a particular status holds in a society.
D) ability to exercise one's will over others.

Question 42

One commonly used measure of ______ is the federal government's poverty line.

A) regional poverty
B) national poverty
C) absolute poverty
D) relative poverty

Question 43

Which of the following is an example of how cultural resources can limit social mobility?

A) The Hobart family has operated a construction business for generations and mocks office workers as weak.
B) The Danvers family lives in a rural farming community and they do not know anyone who could help them find work in the city.
C) All of the answer choices are correct.
D) The Lee family cannot afford to send its children to college.

Question 44

In general, the boundaries that separate different groups in a class system are less clearly defined than the boundaries in either slavery or caste systems.

Question 45

Which of the following is a True statement about U.S. income inequality?

A) Income inequality surveys only take U.S. men's income into account.
B) Income inequality has increased steadily in the United States since 1970.
C) Income inequality has decreased steadily in the United States since 1980.
D) People in the United States are more aware of inequality than those in other countries.

Question 46

Wealth in the United States

A) refers to money received over a period of time.
B) is even more unevenly distributed than income.
C) refers to liquid assets like cash and stocks.
D) is primarily in the hands of the fourth quintile.

Question 47

The caste system of India is organized around professions, such as farmer and merchant. If individuals change their profession, they also change the caste to which they belong.

Question 48

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 established

A) a lifetime limit of ten years for workfare payments to eligible families.
B) a lifetime limit of ten years for welfare payments to eligible families.
C) a lifetime limit of five years for workfare payments to eligible families.
D) a lifetime limit of five years for welfare payments to eligible families.

Question 49

In the United States, women do not receive the same opportunities for advancement as men in part as a result of

A) meritocracy.
B) personal responsibility.
C) occupational segregation.
D) relative poverty.

Question 50

While income in the United States continues to be unevenly distributed, the degree of income inequality has declined significantly since 1970.

Question 51

Marx believed that capitalism benefits society by

A) increasing wages for workers.
B) encouraging cooperation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
C) encouraging technological innovations that reduce scarcity.
D) increasing profits for capitalists.

Question 52

Define the term "stratification." How are the concepts of social inequality and stratification related?

Question 53

Our tastes, knowledge, attitudes, language, and ways of thinking that we exchange in interaction with others is known as

A) cultural capital.
B) cultural integration.
C) cultural relativity.
D) cultural transmission.

Question 54

The principle of meritocracy has been a key value in U.S. society for centuries.

Question 55

For Max Weber, the term "class" is primarily a factor of one's economic situation, whereas the term "status" refers to a person's social standing.

Question 56

Caste membership is a(n) _____ status.

A) ascribed
B) horizontal
C) achieved
D) vertical

Question 57

In national surveys of occupational prestige rankings in the United States, ______ receive the highest score and ______ receive the lowest score.

A) physicians; telemarketers
B) librarians; janitors
C) sociologists; street-corner drug dealers
D) dentists; waiters and waitresses

Question 58

Which of the following terms is used to refer to a system of stratification where the boundaries between strata are clear, relations between levels are regulated, and social status is ascribed?

A) caste
B) slavery
C) class
D) tenure