Deck 3: Culture

Question 1

The elements of culture can be divided into two categories:

A) symbolic and written.
B) material and nonmaterial.
C) structured and unstructured.
D) ethnocentric and relative.
E) artifacts and material culture.

Answer 1

material and nonmaterial.

Question 2

If there were no culture the most serious consequence would be that

A) there would be many fewer institutions of higher learning.
B) people would tend to have a much more limited vocabulary.
C) there would be plenty of material artifacts, but few ideas about how to use them.
D) human beings would have trouble surviving at all.
E) we would lack most modern amenities (theater, books, videos, etc.).

Answer 2

human beings would have trouble surviving at all.

Question 3

According to Kluckhohn and Kroeber, culture includes

A) artifacts.
B) patterned ways of doing things.
C) values.
D) beliefs.
E) all of these

Answer 3

all of these

Question 4

Which statement is false?

A) A society could not exist without culture.
B) Folkways and mores are types of norms.
C) All norms have sanctions.
D) All norms are explicit.
E) Culture includes patterned ways of doing things.

Question 5

Which of the following statements about culture is false?

A) It is ubiquitous.
B) It is acquired mostly by well-educated people.
C) It has a great influence over people's lives.
D) It has material and nonmaterial (symbolic) elements.
E) It includes patterns of behavior.

Question 6

An object that is used to represent something else is

A) a sign.
B) a symbol.
C) an artifact.
D) an index.
E) an approximation.

Question 7

Why are symbols such powerful elements of culture?

A) because of the associated sanctions
B) because they represent "inconvenient facts"
C) because people react to them as if they are real
D) because they can be purchased only a great price
E) all of these

Question 8

We expect but do not necessarily require that people follow

A) laws.
B) regulations.
C) mores.
D) folkways.
E) taboos.

Question 9

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Mores are the "gentle" norms.
B) Informal sanctions are necessarily less harsh than formal sanctions.
C) Folkways and mores are types of norms.
D) Actions that are taboo in one society will be taboo in all societies.
E) all of these

Question 10

Domestic violence, drunk driving, and sexual assault, at least in American society, are violations of

A) folkways.
B) mores.
C) cultural mandates.
D) taboos.
E) rules.

Question 11

In US society, the rule against children having sex with their parents is a

A) folkway.
B) custom.
C) taboo.
D) civil law.
E) cultural prohibition.

Question 12

At a formal dinner party, Richard slurped his soup rather too loudly. This action would be described most accurately by a sociologist as a breach of

A) manners.
B) etiquette.
C) mores.
D) taboos.
E) folkways.

Question 13

Consider the following statements, then indicate which "summary" (given below) is accurate.
• Norms are shared guidelines or rules for behavior.
• Folkways are "gentle"
Norms.
• Some form of sanction is attached to every norm.
• People who violate norms are subject to negative sanctions. Summaries

A) Each statement is true.
B) Some statements are .
C) Each statement is false.

Question 14

All norms are attached to certain rewards and punishments. Sociologists call these

A) sanctions.
B) outcomes.
C) folkways and mores.
D) penalties.
E) social consequences.

Question 15

As a local farmer, you are fully aware of the fact that nothing other than white wheat has been grown in your area for hundreds of years. However, you decide to break with tradition and plant beans. At the next annual meeting of the Farmer's Grange association, you are awarded a giant stuffed green bean and everyone laughs at you. This is an example of what a sociologist would call

A) a moral sanction.
B) a positive formal sanction.
C) a negative informal sanction.
D) a positive negative sanction.
E) human-bean humor.

Question 16

Yesterday, you received a letter from Phi Beta Kappa, a national academic honor society. Because you have maintained a 3.95 grade point average, they have invited you to become a member. Should you accept their invitation, you will receive a lapel pin and a certificate of membership (and the opportunity to learn the secret handshake). This is an example of

A) an informal sanction.
B) a negative sanction.
C) a negative formal sanction.
D) a positive formal sanction.
E) a positive informal sanction.

Question 17

Sociologists refer to socially shared ideas about what is good and just as

A) values.
B) norms.
C) beliefs.
D) social facts.
E) social images.

Question 18

The difference between cultural beliefs and cultural values is that

A) beliefs are specific ideas about what is real, and values are ideas about what we ought to do.
B) values are abstract, beliefs are concrete.
C) values are less important than beliefs.
D) beliefs are less important than values.
E) beliefs and values are synonymous terms, used interchangeably by sociologists.

Question 19

The practice of borrowing specific elements from one culture to another is called cultural

A) integration.
B) adaptation.
C) diffusion.
D) imitation.
E) relativism.

Question 20

Lisa McIntyre does woodworking in her spare time. She recently discovered that saws manufactured in Japan leave fewer splinters in delicate wood working (because they cut on the pull rather than on the push). So, she purchased some saws made in Japan. This is an example of

A) cultural leveling.
B) borrowing from a subculture.
C) cultural diffusion.
D) cross cultural exchange.
E) cultural treason.

Question 21

In San Francisco, an identifiable Chinese American community exists. Sociologists would call this community a

A) subgroup.
B) subculture.
C) counter culture.
D) ecological group.
E) racial culture.

Question 22

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

A) The fact that different families have different holiday traditions reflects differences in their idiocultures.
B) All countercultures are subcultures but not all subcultures are countercultures.
C) Negative informal sanctions are necessarily less harsh than negative formal sanctions.
D) Folkways are the most gentle of norms.
E) Some sanctions are positive.

Question 23

According to most sociologists, people's shared ideas about what is real are called cultural

A) values.
B) norms.
C) beliefs.
D) customs.
E) codes.

Question 24

According to most sociologists, people's ideas about what is just and correct are cultural

A) values.
B) norms.
C) beliefs.
D) customs.
E) codes.

Question 25

A cultural value

A) is fluid, easily changed.
B) is a narrow idea about something.
C) is defined by symbols.
D) may be the basis of different norms.
E) all of these

Question 26

Each of the following statements about subcultures is true, except:

A) their members have beliefs, values, or use material culture in ways that set them apart from the larger (parent) culture.
B) their members have completely divorced themselves from the larger (parent) culture.
C) their members may dress alike and even have their own argot.
D) they may be based upon race, ethnicity, occupations or even hobbies.
E) they may be long-lasting, or short-lived.

Question 27

In the United States, a gang whose members drive big motorcycles they call pigs, wear leather clothes, never bathe and thrive on selling drugs, robbing banks and murder-for-hire, would be called a

A) subculture.
B) ghetto culture.
C) materialistic culture.
D) violent culture.
E) counter culture.

Question 28

Unlike most subcultures, counter cultures

A) have members who use specialized language.
B) are perceived as somehow threatening to the larger culture.
C) are not based on religious values.
D) have totally escaped the influence of the societies from which they emerged.
E) all of these

Question 29

The fact that one can visit McDonald's, Burger King, and Hard Rock Cafe, all over the world is an example of cultural

A) leveling.
B) exchange.
C) relativism.
D) synthesis.
E) imitation.

Question 30

According to Margaret Visser ("Much Depends On Dinner"), nonmaterial culture (e.g., forks, chairs, hallways)

A) is similar from society to society.
B) has little or no impact on people's behavior.
C) governs our lives to the extent we take it for granted.
D) is rarely borrowed from between people of different cultures.
E) includes traditions such as Thanksgiving.

Question 31

According to Karl Marx, ideology

A) is the ideas of the ruling class that are imposed on rest of the people.
B) serves the interests of the ruling class.
C) involves distortions of reality.
D) all of these
E) none of these

Question 32

According to Karl Marx

A) each person develops his or her own personal ideology as he or she matures.
B) people who control the means of material production also control the means of ideological production.
C) ideological beliefs vary from person to person-depending on the needs of the moment.
D) ideology is truth.
E) all of these

Question 33

Consider the following statements, then indicate which "summary" (given below) is accurate.
• Norms reflect a society's values.
• Institutions are part of a society's nonmaterial culture.
• Both material and nonmaterial elements of culture may diffuse
• Our cultural beliefs indicate what we accept as factual. Summaries

A) Each statement is true.
B) Some statements are .
C) Each statement is false.

Question 34

Culture is frequently divided into two categories: Normative culture and symbolic culture.

Question 35

For a thing to be an artifact, it must be old and valuable.

Question 36

Symbols are social constructions.

Question 37

One way to discover what norms exist to what behaviors receive sanctions.

Question 38

A grade of "A"on a sociology exam is a formal sanction.

Question 39

The term ideology is simply a fancy word for belief.

Question 40

This college/university is a good example of what sociologists mean by the term institution.

Question 41

By definition, idiocultures are larger than subcultures.

Question 42

McIntyre asserts that symbols are powerful. Explain what a symbol is, and why it is powerful. In your answer, provide at least three examples of symbols-including one symbol that you can justify as being particularly powerful.

Question 43

Discuss the essential differences between formal and informal sanctions.

Question 44

The feminist movement is an element of culture that has sometimes been defined as a subculture and sometimes as a counter culture. What's your position on this? (Explain your answer thoroughly-and keep in mind that your goal is to demonstrate that you know the difference between a subculture and a counter culture.)

Question 45

List two behaviors that violate folkways, two behaviors that violate mores, and two behaviors that violate taboos in your culture. Explain how you know that each behavior is a violation of a norm in the first place, and how you determined that it violates the particular sort of norm that you specified. For example, for the two behaviors that violate folkways, how do you know these are violations of a norm in the first place? Then, how you know they violate folkways and not, for example, mores?

Question 46

List five major social institutions. For two of the five, describe the major societal needs to which they respond.

Question 47

Was there one question that you were just sure would be asked on this exam but wasn't? There must have been one thing that you studied and then didn't find on the exam. In any case, take advantage of this opportunity to write your own question; create at least five answer categories, and indicate the correct answer.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
a. ____________
b. ____________
c. ____________
d. ____________
e. ____________

Question 48

Pick XXX pairs of words from the following list. Define the terms in each pair. Provide an example with each definition. (In your answer, make sure to indicate which terms you are defining!)