Deck 3: Social Structure, Interaction & Deviance

Question 1

The distinction between primary groups and secondary groups is not always clear, as some groups may have some characteristics of each type.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

We change reference groups as we take on different statuses during our lives.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The economy is an example of a social institution.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A negative consequence of the written rules and regulations of a bureaucracy is that they contribute to feelings of alienation.

Question 5

Which of the following is an ascribed status?

A) a quadriplegic
B) a major league baseball player
C) a university student
D) a corporation president

Question 6

What is a social network?

A) The way in which a society is organized into predictable relationships.
B) A social structure that derives its existence from the social interactions through which people define and redefine its character.
C) A series of social relationships that link a person directly to others and therefore indirectly to still more people.
D) An attempt to reach agreement with others concerning some objective.

Question 7

Second Life, a virtual world that included about 15 million players as of September 2008, is an example of what?

A) a primary group
B) a social institution
C) a social network
D) a coalition

Question 8

What is a master status?

A) A social position attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts.
B) A term used by sociologists to refer to any of the full range of socially defined positions within a large group or society.
C) A series of social relationships linking a person directly to others and therefore indirectly to still more people.
D) A status that dominates others and thereby determines a person's general position within society.

Question 9

Diego, a married bus driver who is an avid amateur photographer, falls off the edge of an embankment while photographing migrating waterfowl. He sustains serious head injuries, and is in hospital for two weeks. Which of the following is an ascribed status attached to Diego?

A) married man
B) amateur photographer
C) hospital patient
D) bus driver

Question 10

Andina lives in a large village where most people grow corn. In the spring, teams of oxen pull plows to till the fields and in the fall, the corn is dried, and then ground into flour at a mill where donkeys turn the grindstone. According to Gerhard Lenski, Andina's society is which of the following?

A) agrarian
B) horticultural
C) characterized by organic solidarity
D) a Gesellschaft

Question 11

What is the term for a temporary or permanent alliance toward a common goal?

A) coalition
B) in-group
C) negotiation
D) self-help group

Question 12

What is the term for the principle of bureaucracy that establishes that work should be carried out "without hatred or passion"?

A) hierarchy of authority
B) written rules and regulations
C) division of labour
D) impersonality

Question 13

The "iron law of oligarchy" is a principle of organizational life stating what?

A) organizations are established on the basis of common interests.
B) bureaucracies imprison human initiative and creativity in an iron cage of rules and directives.
C) each individual in a hierarchy tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.
D) even democratic organizations will become bureaucracies ruled by a few individuals.

Question 14

A bureaucracy, according to Max Weber, is oriented towards which of the following?

A) security
B) efficiency
C) profitability
D) fulfillment

Question 15

Which of the following is a statement of the Peter principle?

A) all line workers get burned in the end.
B) all bureaucracies are notoriously inefficient.
C) every employee within a hierarchy tends to rise to his or her own level of incompetence.
D) if something can go wrong, it will.

Question 16

Imagining the effects of a virtual networking site where participants can create an avatar that is an online representation of a character different from their actual identity, a symbolic interactionist would argue that which of the following will occur?

A) men would likely use virtual networking more than women because it has a higher pay off due to men's traditional presence in the public sphere
B) virtual worlds must operate based on the same five major tasks of any society in order to ensure a social order
C) examining everyday interactions within the context of both online and offline communities can help us to further understand why humans think and act the way they do
D) the use of virtual networking helps to maintain the privileges of the most powerful as they are the ones that can afford the technology, thus contributing to the powerlessness of those who do not have access

Question 17

What shift in society caused a huge migration from rural to urban areas in Western Europe during the nineteenth century?

A) from industrial to post-industrial
B) from post-industrial to postmodern
C) from horticultural to agrarian
D) from agrarian to industrial

Question 18

Jamal is a top student. He is very competitive about his grades. Every term, when the Dean's List (students with an A average) is posted, Jamal is one of the first to check it. Why is this?

A) The other people on the list constitute his reference group.
B) The other people on the list share his ascribed status.
C) He is building a coalition with the other people on the list.
D) The other people on the list constitute his primary group.

Question 19

In Weber's proposed view of the ideal bureaucracy he argued that in order to be successful an organization must continually promote its talented employees. However, there is a fine line where if crossed, the Peter Principle may occur. Which of the following characteristics discusses this bureaucratic notion?

A) Division of labour
B) Employment based on technical qualifications
C) Written rules and regulations
D) Hierarchy of authority

Question 20

By whom were the concepts Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft introduced to sociology?

A) Ferdinand Tönnies
B) Max Weber
C) Émile Durkheim
D) Hannah Arendt

Question 21

Dominant groups do NOT generally have the ability to do which of the following?

A) Mold the "definition of the situation".
B) Define a society's values.
C) Define social reality.
D) Arrange all social interactions to benefit themselves exclusively.

Question 22

Which of the following was a finding in the study by Bearman et al. on adolescent sexual networks?

A) Most teenagers have sexually transmitted diseases.
B) Teenagers start to develop social networks only when they become sexually active.
C) Most sexually active adolescents do not have a single, stable partner.
D) Young people today are more sexually conservative than their counterparts were in the 1980s.

Question 23

Viewed from the Thomas theorem, the recent change in views of homosexuality affected by the annual Gay Pride Parade in Toronto, Ontario can best be explained through which of the following statements?

A) Members of subordinate groups who challenge traditional social views can raise consciousness, resulting in a new perception and experience of reality.
B) Occupying a predictable position in society shapes how humans think and act, and the resources they have access to.
C) How humans interact with one another is shaped by their own position relative to the position of others.
D) "Human beings interpret or define each other's actions instead of merely reacting to each other's actions".

Question 24

Which of the following social positions is an ascribed status?

A) one that is earned.
B) one that is reached as a result of negotiation.
C) one assigned to a person by society without regard for the person's unique talents or abilities.
D) one attained by a person largely through his or her own efforts.

Question 25

Bureaucratization increases ____________ and decreases ____________.

A) efficiency; profitability
B) worker satisfaction; efficiency
C) efficiency; worker satisfaction
D) profitability; rationality

Question 26

A woman in her mid-30s has enrolled in a local community college to earn a degree in horticulture. The night before her first major course examination, she is asked by her boss to work several additional hours because they have just received a major order that needs to be processed immediately. What is this student experiencing?

A) role conflict
B) status incompatibility
C) role exit
D) role reversal

Question 27

Which of the following is an example of social interaction?

A) Felipe watches television and does needlepoint.
B) Sally and Veronica, a lesbian couple, argue about a new piece of gay rights legislation.
C) Mary wallpapers her bedroom walls.
D) Enrico surfs the internet, looking for shoes.

Question 28

What did Helen Rose Fuchs Ebaugh examine through her interviews with divorced men and women, former nuns and retirees, among others?

A) sociocultural evolution
B) role exit
C) role conflict
D) social networking

Question 29

Every society needs to produce and distribute goods and services so that people's needs are fulfilled. What is the social institution that performs this function?

A) manufacturing
B) the economy
C) the family
D) government

Question 30

Jimmy has finally got up the nerve to ask Miranda out on a date. Spotting her across the cafeteria, he makes eye contact and starts to move toward her. She turns her back on him. Jimmy, perceiving this as a rejection, loses his nerve and doesn't approach her, when in fact, Miranda had just heard her name called by someone else. Of what is Jimmy's reaction an example?

A) The meanings we attach to the behaviour of others shape our response to them.
B) Non-verbal signals are less relevant to social interaction than verbal signals are.
C) The meanings others attach to our behaviour shape our behaviour towards them.
D) Human beings merely react to one another's actions.

Question 31

Which of the following is most likely to be a primary group?

A) Your introductory sociology class.
B) The members of a neighbourhood softball team.
C) The Council of Canadians.
D) All of the players in the National Hockey League.

Question 32

What is society?

A) The totality of learned, socially transmitted behaviour.
B) The geopolitical entity within which a culture resides.
C) The structure of relationships within which culture is created and shared through regularized patterns of social interaction.
D) The norms, values, and beliefs of a large group of people.

Question 33

Which of the following may be considered a positive consequence of the bureaucratization of a college or university for the students?

A) scientific management approach
B) human relations approach
C) the Peter Principle
D) McDonaldization

Question 34

Heather is popular at her new high school. She hangs around with the other popular girls. She no longer hangs out with Molly, her best friend from elementary school. Molly is in the computer club and the chess club, and can't afford the latest styles. In relation to Heather's friends, what is Molly part of?

A) the in-group
B) the primary group
C) the out-group
D) the secondary group

Question 35

What is bureaucratization?

A) Organized patterns of beliefs and behaviour centered on basic social needs.
B) An element or process of society that may disrupt a social system or lead to a decrease in stability.
C) The process through which an organization identifies an entirely new objective because its traditional goals have been either realized or denied.
D) The process by which a group, organization, or social movement increasingly relies on technical-rational decision-making in their pursuit of efficiency.

Question 36

To what does the term "McDonaldization" refer?

A) The process by which the principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control come to dominate organizations and decision making
B) The process through which family farming is stifled in favour of industrial agribusiness
C) The process through which small organizations are absorbed by larger ones
D) The process through which workers become alienated from, and dissatisfied with, the work they are doing

Question 37

In comparison to previous generations, which of the following is NOT true of members of Millennial?

A) They are more confident and self-expressive.
B) They are more ethnically and racially tolerant.
C) They are more likely to struggle with creating a social networking profile.
D) They are more politically and socially progressive on issues such as immigration and homosexuality.

Question 38

A pro-life group condemns the act of abortion yet takes the action of murdering a physician who performs legal abortions. This example of a double standard can be explained sociologically using which of the following concepts?

A) a social network that links individuals directly to others and through them indirectly to even more people
B) they operate as a primary group based on face-to-face association and cooperation
C) a coalition representing a permanent alliance that is geared towards a common goal
D) the conversion of in-group virtues to out-group vices

Question 39

Sociologists who focus more on power, the consequences of difference, and resource distribution suggest that social institutions do which of the following?

A) Train personnel equitably.
B) Maintain the privileges of the powerful individuals and groups within a society.
C) Preserve order and equality.
D) Provide and maintain a sense of basic fairness.

Question 40

A primary group is a small group that is described by which of the following?

A) used as a standard for evaluating oneself and one's behaviour.
B) characterized by intimate, face-to-face association and cooperation.
C) characterized by impersonality and face-to-face associations.
D) characterized by impersonality, with little intimacy or mutual understanding.

Question 41

Guiliana, a second generation Italian-Canadian, is a respected contemporary composer. She is also visually impaired, having lost her sight due to scarlet fever as a child. Which of the following is an achieved status attached to Guiliana?

A) second generation Italian-Canadian
B) visually impaired
C) respected contemporary composer
D) female

Question 42

Define the differences between ascribed and achieved statuses, and give
examples to support your answer.

Question 43

Define the concepts of in-groups, out-groups, and reference groups, and describe the role of each type of group. Give examples to illustrate your answer.

Question 44

Describe sociologist Gerhard Lenski's view of technology and society and explain how his view differs from that of Émile Durkheim's mechanical and organic solidarity and Ferdinand Tönnies's Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft.

Question 45

Describe the various components of a bureaucracy as suggested by Max Weber. How did Weber perceive the efficiency of bureaucracies?

Question 46

Describe a postmodern society. Is Canada a postmodern society? If so, is it
postmodern for everyone? If not, what characteristics does it lack?

Question 47

Edwin Sutherland coined the term stigma to describe the labels society uses to devalue members of certain social groups.

Question 48

Aboriginal Canadians are incarcerated a nine times the rate of non-Aboriginal Canadians.

Question 49

Read carefully through the statement below, and decide which of the following options is correct. An important aspect of labelling theory is the recognition that some individuals or groups have the power to define labels and apply them to others. This view ties into the functionalist perspective's emphasis on the social significance of power.

A) "labelling theory" should be replaced with "anomie theory"
B) "some" should be replaced with "all"
C) "functionalist" should be replaced with "conflict"
D) "social significance of power should be replaced with "social significance of deviance"

Question 50

A man with a wife and two children loses $50,000 in an unlicensed gambling den. What type of crime has he committed?

A) a white-collar crime
B) a victimless crime
C) spousal abuse
D) a property crime

Question 51

Being arrested for murder would be an example of which of the following?

A) an informal sanction
B) a norm
C) a formal sanction
D) a value

Question 52

Which theory of deviance suggests that members of a society may conform or deviate
from the culturally prescribed goals and the means of attaining those goals?

A) differential association
B) control theory
C) anomie theory
D) labelling theory

Question 53

When individuals experience a loss of direction in a society, the society's social control becomes ineffective, often leading to increases in crime and deviance. This statement is supported by which of the following?

A) social disorganization theory and the concept of anomie
B) the concept of differential justice and labelling theory
C) anomie theory of deviance
D) societal-reaction approach

Question 54

Which of the following is unlikely to be stigmatizing?

A) A stay in a mental hospital.
B) A conviction for possession of child pornography.
C) Getting a B in sociology.
D) Being homeless.

Question 55

Which theoretical perspective would argue that those with less power and influence, such as Aboriginal Canadians, are more likely to find themselves incarcerated than members of the dominant group?

A) conflict theory perspective
B) anomie theory perspective
C) functionalist perspective
D) symbolic interactionist perspective

Question 56

Crime is a violation of which of the following?

A) law for which formal penalties are applied by some governmental authority
B) folkways
C) criminal law that goes unnoticed by authorities
D) societal standards and is punished with informal sanctions

Question 57

On a typical day, which country imprisons 751 of every 100,000 adults?

A) Mexico
B) United States
C) Russia
D) Cuba

Question 58

When Reena returns to school after summer break, she notices that all of her friends have begun to wear makeup, so she asks her mother if she can wear makeup too. What kind of behaviour is Reena displaying?

A) obedience
B) deviance
C) sanctioning
D) conformity

Question 59

Which of the following is NOT a social control measure instituted after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States?

A) Stricter identification requirements for Canadians wishing to enter the United States.
B) Encouragement by governments and police agencies to report the potentially suspicious activities of others.
C) Mandatory fingerprinting of newborns in Canada.
D) Having to take your shoes off to pass through airport security.

Question 60

The participants who acted as "teachers" in Milgram's classic social control experiment obeying the experimenter's orders to shock the "learner" were described by Milgram as acting obediently, because they were accustomed to submitting to impersonal authority figures in the social world. Which sociological perspective explains the organization of North American society in this way?

A) feminists
B) conflict theorists
C) functionalists
D) symbolic interactionists

Question 61

Binge drinking on college campuses both shows conformity to the peer culture as well as representing ________ the standards of conduct expected of those in an academic context.

A) adherence to
B) formal social control of
C) deviance from
D) informal social control of

Question 62

According to Edwin Sutherland, people will act in a deviant manner under which of the following conditions?

A) If they learn deviant behaviour, motives, techniques and rationales from important people around them.
B) If they are chronically deprived of the basic necessities of life.
C) If their society is in transition or flux, and there is no clear social consensus on norms and values.
D) If others come to view them as deviant.

Question 63

According to a study by Stanley Milgram, individuals will do which of the following?

A) Obey the commands of people viewed as legitimate authority figures, even if the behaviour may harm another individual.
B) Not conform to the attitudes and behaviour of their peers if racism is expected.
C) Conform to the attitudes and behaviours of their peers even if such attitudes and behaviours are racist.
D) In most instances, disobey the commands of people viewed as legitimate authority figures if the behaviour may harm another individual.

Question 64

According to Émile Durkheim, to what are our understandings of crime and deviance linked?

A) social prosperity
B) incarceration rates
C) social solidarity
D) social roles

Question 65

Which of the following is true of deviance?

A) It is always anomic.
B) It violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.
C) It always violates the laws of a society.
D) It is always illegal.

Question 66

Which of the following statements about crime statistics is NOT true?

A) The self-reporting rate of violent victimization among the gay and lesbian population is more than twice the rate for heterosexuals.
B) Many women do not report rape or spousal abuse for fear of being blamed for the crime.
C) Aboriginal Canadians are less likely to report being a victim of a violent crime than non-Aboriginal Canadians.
D) Members of racial and ethnic minority groups often distrust law enforcement agencies and refrain from contacting the police when they are victimized.

Question 67

A student was asked the following question: "Briefly list and explain the basic forms of adaptation in Merton's anomie theory of deviance". As an answer, the student wrote the following: Merton argued that conformity to social norms involves acceptance of both the overall societal goal and the approved means to acquire the goal; the innovator accepts the goals of society but pursues them with means that are regarded as improper; the ritualist has abandoned the goal of material success and become compulsively committed to the institutional means; and finally the retreatist who feels alienated from the dominant means and goals and may seek a very different social order. How would you judge this student's answer?

A) Excellent (all stages are correct in the right order with clear and correct explanations)
B) Mediocre (one or two stages are missing, or the stages are in the wrong order, or the explanations are not clear, or the explanations are irrelevant)
C) Unacceptable (more than two stages are missing and the order is incorrect and the explanations are not clear and/or they are irrelevant)
D) Good (all stages are correct in the right order, but the explanations are not as clear as they should be)

Question 68

Feminist theorists of crime and deviance have noted which of the following?

A) A woman's sexual history is more relevant to prosecutions of sexual abuse and assault than a man's is.
B) As women make gains in the workplace and achieve higher positions, they are also becoming better positioned to engage in white-collar crime.
C) Most women report domestic violence.
D) Rape is a crime that cannot be perpetrated by a woman on a man.

Question 69

Entrenched interests seek to maintain the status quo and use their power over which of the following to do so?

A) culture
B) values
C) sanctions
D) norms

Question 70

To what does obedience refer?

A) Using initiative in order to achieve an organization's goals.
B) Going along with one's peers, who have no special right to direct that person's behaviour.
C) Compliance with higher authorities in a hierarchical structure.
D) Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm.

Question 71

In Émile Durkheim's view, which of the following is true?

A) People become deviant by associating with those of like persuasion.
B) People accept or reject the goals of a society and/or the socially approved means to fulfill their aspirations.
C) There is nothing inherently deviant or criminal in any act; the key is how society responds to the act.
D) Labelling an individual is the most crucial stage in that person becoming a deviant.

Question 72

Which of the following was illustrated by William Chambliss' study of the Saints and the Roughnecks?

A) perceptions of the actor influence responses to the act.
B) the activity, and not the actor, is what provokes a sanctioning response.
C) athletic high school-aged males tend to be troublemakers.
D) neither the act nor the actor are as significant to the outcome as the rule structure governing sanctions.

Question 73

Which of the following is NOT an activity likely to be engaged in by organized crime?

A) Creation of computer viruses that allow third parties to send spam to your contacts list.
B) Producing, importing and distributing illegal drugs.
C) Bringing young women into the country on false pretences and forcing them into prostitution.
D) Running unlicensed gambling locations.

Question 74

More than 50 women, mostly poor, Aboriginal, and substance-addicted, disappeared from Vancouver's downtown east side over a little more than a decade. For a long time, police investigations of these disappearances were cursory. Critics charge that this would not have been the case if these women were white, university-educated and middle-class. Of what could this be considered an example?

A) police brutality
B) racial profiling
C) differential association
D) differential justice

Question 75

An alcoholic who has lost his job and left his family to live on the street is considered to be practicing which of the following forms of adaptation as described by sociologist Robert Merton?

A) retreatist
B) rebel
C) acceptance
D) ritualist

Question 76

Which of the following examined obedience by conducting an experiment that required subjects to administer "painful" shocks to subjects in an analysis of "learning"?

A) Max Weber
B) Robert Merton
C) Stanley Milgram
D) Erving Goffman

Question 77

How are sanctions defined?

A) Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm.
B) A loss of direction when the social control of individual behaviour has become ineffective.
C) Justifications for deviant behaviour.
D) Rules made by a government.

Question 78

Since the overthrow of Communist Party rule in Russia, what has crime done?

A) slightly increased
B) skyrocketed
C) precipitously declined
D) slightly declined

Question 79

What term do sociologists use to describe the labels society uses to devalue members of certain groups?

A) stigmata
B) crime
C) deviance
D) stigma

Question 80

To what does the term social control refer?

A) Techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behaviour in any society.
B) Justifications for deviant behaviour.
C) Behaviour that violates the norms of a group.
D) Penalties and rewards for conduct concerning a social norm.