Deck 12: Life at Home

Question 1

Why do many contemporary sociologists speak not of the family but rather of families?

A) They mean both the extended family and the nuclear family.
B) They want to emphasize that families are the same across societies.
C) They are concerned about rising divorce rates.
D) They want to talk about communities made up of many individual families.
E) Family situations in contemporary society are so varied that there is no single model.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

How would a sociologist define "family"?

A) two or more individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption who share a household
B) an interdependent social group bound by legal, biological, or emotional ties
C) both the nuclear family and the extended family, to the extent that family members share emotional and material responsibilities
D) a group of related people who share a household
E) almost any social group so long as they share responsibilities for raising children

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Why do the authors of your textbook reject definitions of family that depend on particular types of people (like parents) and specific types of ties (like marriage)?

A) They believe that the nuclear family remains the most important prototype for a family.
B) They want the definition to be broad enough to encompass a variety of living arrangements.
C) They believe that, in the future, more and more families will consist of two sets of parents with children.
D) They want to emphasize that family relations are always power relations.
E) They argue that it is important to limit the definition of families so that families can be discussed with clarity.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What do sociologists call the tendency to marry someone from a different background?

A) exogamy
B) endogamy
C) homogamy
D) out-group orientation
E) romantic diversification

Question 5

Which of the following seems to make people more likely to define a group as a family?

A) the size of the group in question
B) the presence of children
C) the ages of group members
D) the socioeconomic class of the people involved
E) the sort of jobs that group members have

Question 6

How did the Industrial Revolution change the common meaning of family?

A) It stopped mattering whether children were present.
B) Family no longer exclusively referred to people who shared a household.
C) The number of people who were thought of as belonging to a single family tended to shrink.
D) It shifted the meaning from nuclear family to extended family.
E) It shifted the meaning from extended family to nuclear family.

Question 7

What do sociologists call the tendency to marry someone of a similar background?

A) heterogamy
B) in-group orientation
C) romance medians
D) endogamy
E) exogamy

Question 8

When was the last miscegenation law struck down in the United States?

A) 1999
B) 1866
C) 1910
D) 1795
E) 1967

Question 9

Which of the following would NOT be a family as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau?

A) a married couple who adopts children from different cultures around the world
B) a single mother living with children from two different fathers, neither of whom lives with her
C) an elderly married couple whose children have long since left the nest
D) three siblings who share an apartment while they attend different schools
E) three unrelated elderly women who buy a house together and depend on one another for material and emotional support

Question 10

Who is more likely to define unrelated roommates as a family?

A) women
B) men
C) young children
D) senior citizens
E) racial and ethnic minorities

Question 11

Today when we think of our families, who are we LEAST likely to think about?

A) our uncle
B) our mother
C) our father
D) our brother
E) our sister

Question 12

Given the history of the family, what sort of changes do you think would be most likely to make the extended family more relevant again?

A) changes in America's travel and transportation services
B) changes in the economy that make people less likely to move away from their hometowns to get a job
C) changes in divorce laws that make it harder for couples to separate
D) changes in American culture that lead us to spend less time at bars
E) changes in religion that cause adults to reevaluate how they relate to their parents

Question 13

How does the U.S. Census Bureau define "family"?

A) people who are emotionally and/or materially interdependent
B) people who share a household
C) parents living with minor children
D) two or more individuals related by blood, marriage, or adoption who share a household
E) a social group bound to one another through legal, biological, or emotional ties

Question 14

In the United States today, very few people marry outside of their own socioeconomic class, suggesting that there is a high degree of:

A) endogamy.
B) exogamy.
C) polyandry.
D) miscegenation.
E) polygamy.

Question 15

If a music critic used the term "miscegenation" metaphorically, what would she call "musical miscegenation"?

A) the way white country music and black blues music came together to make rock and roll
B) the way pop stars become disconnected from their roots
C) the way the press treats pop superstars and the effect this has on contemporary music
D) the role the piano has played in twentieth-century jazz
E) the interaction between blues fans and blues musicians

Question 16

Until recently, South Korea had laws in place banning marriage between people who belonged to the same clan. This means that they practiced:

A) polyandry.
B) exogamy.
C) endogamy.
D) plural families.
E) extended family marriage systems.

Question 17

A heterosexual couple living in the same household and raising children is defined as:

A) a nontraditional family.
B) endogamy.
C) a nuclear family.
D) an extended family.
E) a broken family.

Question 18

Which of the following would NOT be a family as sociologists define the term?

A) a married couple who maintain separate apartments on different sides of Central Park in New York City
B) two men who enter a business partnership in which one runs a retail outlet while the other produces products to sell in it
C) a couple who remarries and shares a household with children from their previous marriages
D) an unmarried couple who never have children and live in separate residences
E) a lesbian couple who have a child using a sperm donor

Question 19

According to one analysis of white supremacist chat rooms on the Internet, what did the research subjects (those engaging in online chats) find most threatening?

A) interracial marriage
B) residential desegregation
C) competition for jobs from racial and ethnic minorities
D) gang violence
E) African American and Hispanic politicians

Question 20

What sort of laws prohibited the mixing of racial groups through marriage, cohabitation, or sexual contact?

A) reconstruction laws
B) racial purity laws
C) the Napoleonic code
D) miscegenation laws
E) Jim Crow laws

Question 21

In what way is the family responsible for the reproduction of society?

A) It produces and socializes children.
B) It is the fundamental planning mechanism for society.
C) It is the most important unit of consumption.
D) It is the basic unit of the household, the smallest building block of a society.
E) It relies on the nuclear model.

Question 22

JDate is a website that helps Jewish men and women, especially those who aren't practicing Jews or who live in areas where there aren't many other Jews, form romantic relationships. What do Jewish people who use this website care about?

A) religious purity
B) homogamy
C) propinquity
D) polyandry
E) symbolic families

Question 23

What would a symbolic interactionist studying the family be most interested in?

A) the inequalities associated with men's negligible role in raising and caring for infants
B) the diminished role the family plays in teaching children important skills
C) the way gift giving within an extended family makes some bonds more important than others
D) the different meanings of family from colonial times down to the present day
E) the way increasing divorce rates are making it harder for families to function and to socialize children

Question 24

What theoretical perspective is most likely to lead you to determine the member of the nuclear family who spends the most time doing housework?

A) symbolic interactionism
B) queer theory
C) ethnomethodology
D) conflict theory
E) structural functionalism

Question 25

Reading children bedtime stories is an important task in many families. What part of reading the bedtime story is an instrumental task?

A) making bedtime fun and keeping everyone happy
B) staying entertained as a parent by reading the children books you like
C) getting children into pajamas, tucked into bed, and then to sleep
D) teaching children to love reading and language
E) sharing a moment with a child and developing shared interests

Question 26

The increasing number of Americans who move out of state to attend college will decrease the importance of ____________, assuming that students start new romantic relationships in school.

A) homogamy
B) miscegenation
C) monogamy
D) exogamy
E) propinquity

Question 27

Who is more likely to return home after a full day of paid labor and then have to put in a "second shift" at home taking care of domestic work?

A) women
B) men
C) young people
D) members of the upper-middle class
E) older people

Question 28

According to the text, what are the major factors involved in forming relationships and selecting mates?

A) personal chemistry
B) the unique individual characteristics of the individuals involved
C) the tendency to choose mates who are similar in class, race, ethnicity, and age
D) the desire to find a mate who is exotic and comes from a radically different background
E) the tendency to look for a mate far from home

Question 29

What feature of the nuclear family, as opposed to the extended family, makes it uniquely qualified to serve the needs of an industrial economy?

A) It has more emotional resources to draw on in times of trouble.
B) It has more obligations to a greater number of people, meaning that more support is available.
C) It makes geographic mobility much easier.
D) It is capable of retaining more knowledge about child rearing and household labor.
E) It functions better as a unit of economic production.

Question 30

Family friends who are referred to as "Aunt" or "Uncle" are examples of:

A) the Full House effect.
B) homogamy.
C) fictive kin.
D) extended families.
E) polygyny.

Question 31

How could new technologies like the Internet decrease the importance of propinquity in mate selection, while preserving or even increasing the importance of homogamy?

A) by bringing people together from all over the world based on very similar interests or backgrounds
B) by forcing people to look for a mate closer to home
C) by making it obvious to most people that their best chance for marital satisfaction may be with a type of person they've never met before
D) by expanding the dating pool through Internet dating sites and providing exposure to a much wider variety of people
E) by allowing social networking sites to connect individuals to more and more residents of their hometowns

Question 32

In Japan, some are worried about the effect that the rise in one-child families is having on the foundation of Japanese society. What sort of theoretical perspective on the family is this concern based on?

A) structural functionalist
B) conflict
C) symbolic interactionist
D) life course theory
E) historical materialist

Question 33

Tasks designed to achieve a tangible goal like washing the dishes or taking out the trash are called:

A) instrumental tasks.
B) expressive tasks.
C) male tasks.
D) female tasks.
E) the second shift.

Question 34

Before World War II, the United States had no interstate highway system, and traveling to different parts of the country was difficult. This means that ____________ must have been even more important in determining mate selection.

A) exogamy
B) economic considerations
C) expressive tasks
D) schools
E) propinquity

Question 35

According to the symbolic interactionists Jay Gubrium and Jim Holstein, what form does the family take in contemporary society?

A) The family doesn't exist, only families.
B) The family is the unit that raises children.
C) The family is based on legal and economic structures.
D) The family is a vehicle for oppression.
E) The family is the institution for the socialization of children.

Question 36

JDate, a dating website for Jewish people, is sometimes used by non-Jews who are very interested in dating Jews. These non-Jews will tend to decrease:

A) monogamy.
B) family unity.
C) divorce.
D) homogamy.
E) polyandry.

Question 37

According to conflict theory, how does the nuclear family facilitate exploitation?

A) by employing members of other social groups to do its dirty work
B) through the use of nannies and domestic workers
C) by making geographic mobility possible
D) through a sexual division of labor within the home
E) by exploiting the working class, whose products it consumes

Question 38

Propinquity refers to:

A) a fixed set of beliefs.
B) the tendency to seek people with similar backgrounds.
C) the desire for the exotic and the foreign.
D) the appeal of the family.
E) geographic proximity.

Question 39

When an individual describes someone who is related to him biologically as "not really kin," what is he saying?

A) The relative has not exercised her rights or fulfilled her obligations as a family member.
B) The relative is part of the extended, rather than the nuclear, family.
C) The relative doesn't belong to the relevant voluntary associations.
D) The relative has died.
E) The relative is adopted.

Question 40

What kind of task is calling a family member to wish him a happy birthday?

A) a family task
B) an expressive task
C) an operative task
D) an instrumental task
E) a maternal task

Question 41

Although there are strategies available to help ease the burden of the second shift, they are mainly available to:

A) people with extended families.
B) the working class.
C) young people.
D) newlyweds.
E) wealthier families.

Question 42

Today, many college graduates find themselves unable to afford the costs of living on their own and, at least temporarily, live with their parents again. What good news about families can we take from this trend?

A) It allows parents to have more of a say in their children's romantic lives.
B) It places new burdens on women, who take on more responsibilities when they live with their parents.
C) That so many children are willing to live with their parents again suggests that they have closer relationships with parents than previous generations did.
D) College students today are taking less time to finish college and moving past the "student" phase of their lives more quickly than in the past.
E) By living with their parents, these college graduates save money and demonstrate fiscal responsibility in ways that the past generation didn't.

Question 43

An individual is most likely to be murdered by:

A) a family member.
B) a law enforcement officer.
C) a stranger.
D) a drug dealer or a drug user.
E) someone seeking to rob him.

Question 44

Arlie Hochschild's study of two-income families found that women were much more likely than men to do the majority of the unpaid labor inside the home even after a full day's work outside the home. What term is used by sociologists to describe this extra labor?

A) women's work
B) the female burden
C) the double standard
D) the second shift
E) instrumental tasks

Question 45

What term applies to a child who leaves home at eighteen but later returns for at least a short period of time?

A) emotionally stunted
B) boomerang kid
C) adult minor
D) sandwich kid
E) rereturn child

Question 46

As an agent of socialization, who does the family influence?

A) only children
B) everyone
C) women
D) the elderly
E) uncles

Question 47

Despite the fact that they've received very little attention, to whom has Hochschild's concept of the "supermom" always been applicable?

A) upper-class mothers
B) blue collar men
C) middle-class parents
D) working-class mothers
E) the homeless

Question 48

What historical change led to a devaluation of women's work in the home?

A) World War I
B) the Industrial Revolution
C) the birth of the Internet
D) the Great Depression
E) the civil rights movement

Question 49

Some women accept the burdens of the "second shift" in order to avoid conflict with their husbands or children. How does this affect them?

A) It increases their confidence and self-esteem.
B) It increases their efficiency.
C) It makes them more understanding of others, especially at work.
D) It makes them unhappy and emotionally numb.
E) It improves their self-reported level of marital satisfaction.

Question 50

Which of the following is a strategy that women have used to balance the demands of work and home?

A) hiring other women to do domestic work
B) increasing their expectations for cleanliness and order
C) refusing help from friends and family members
D) doing more of certain chores
E) demanding the abolition of housework

Question 51

Although all young people face similar financial pressures while in their twenties, considerably more men move back in with their parents than women. Why?

A) Men care more about saving money than women do.
B) Men like being part of a household where they can share chores and participate in domestic duties.
C) Women lose more independence when they move back home than men do.
D) Men have stronger relationships with their parents than women do.
E) Women are more likely than men to have serious emotional conflicts with their mothers.

Question 52

The radio played a news story about the murder of a 25-year-old woman, married, with one child. Who would you guess is the most likely culprit given what you've learned in Chapter 12?

A) a serial killer
B) her husband or boyfriend
C) a gang member being "initiated" into a street gang
D) a burglar who she surprised in the act
E) someone who was trying to carjack her

Question 53

How does the birth of children change the gendered division of labor within the household?

A) It gets fathers more involved.
B) It brings the extended family into the household more.
C) It makes the gendered division of labor more traditional.
D) It makes the gendered division of labor more traditional in families that were always somewhat traditional, but it has no effect on those who had a more progressive division of labor.
E) It has no influence on the gendered division of labor.

Question 54

How do male and female life expectancies compare in the Unites States today?

A) Men live considerably longer than women.
B) Men live about one year longer than women.
C) Women live an average of almost six years longer than men.
D) Men live an average of almost six years longer than women.
E) Women live an average of almost twenty years longer than men.

Question 55

Which of the following things is a child likely to convince a parent to do?

A) switch to a different political party
B) start reading more literature
C) change her mind about important social issues
D) join a gym
E) learn about new cultures

Question 56

Which of the following was true of parenting in the nineteenth century and earlier?

A) Fathers were far more likely to have the final say in decisions about their children.
B) Mothers often valued other mothers' opinions about child rearing over the opinions of their own children's fathers.
C) The extended family was less important in terms of instrumental support.
D) Members of the community had far less influence than they do today.
E) The nuclear family was very protective of children and almost never allowed outsiders any say in child-rearing practices.

Question 57

What happens to marital satisfaction when children are born?

A) It goes up.
B) It goes down.
C) It goes up for the first child, but down for every child after that.
D) It goes up for newlyweds, but down for older married couples.
E) It depends on socioeconomic status.

Question 58

What does Arlie Hochschild call mothers who accept the dual workloads of paid labor at work and unpaid labor at home without any help?

A) instrumental leaders
B) supermoms
C) dual mothers
D) postmodern parents
E) revolutionary moms

Question 59

Which of the following strategies does Arlie Hochschild claim some women use to help balance working a paid job and being responsible for the home?

A) no longer caring that there are dirty clothes all over the floor
B) divorcing husbands who refuse to help
C) forcing their children to take over the majority of the housework
D) teaching men to have higher standards for cleanliness
E) throwing away clothing when they find it on the floor, to teach their husbands a lesson

Question 60

What is it called when individuals must care for both their own children and their elderly parents?

A) the sandwich generation effect
B) the double bind
C) dual caregiving
D) extended family care
E) dual workloads

Question 61

What is one common reason why victims of domestic abuse stay in abusive relationships?

A) They are waiting for someone to save them.
B) They don't feel responsible for their own abuse.
C) They don't have the resources to get away.
D) The abusive partner treats them well all the time.
E) They are masochistic.

Question 62

How has the percentage of marriages that end in divorce changed since 1950?

A) It has doubled.
B) It has declined slightly.
C) It has increased slightly.
D) It has increased more than 500 percent.
E) It has remained about the same.

Question 63

Which of the following is NOT part of the cycle of domestic violence as it typically plays out?

A) The abusive partner seeks help or goes to counseling.
B) The abusive partner is charming and attentive and the relationship seems healthy.
C) Both partners sense that something is going to happen no matter how hard the victim tries to avoid it.
D) Battering and violence, even if only for a few seconds.
E) Loving contrition and amends, when the abusive partner asks for forgiveness.

Question 64

Why are remarriage rates lower today than they were in the 1960s?

A) Divorced people tend to have a series of short relationships instead of getting remarried.
B) There has been an increase in cohabitation among unmarried couples.
C) Divorce rates have dropped slightly.
D) People tend to divorce at later ages, so they are less likely to remarry.
E) Marriage licenses are more difficult to obtain today.

Question 65

Which of the following statements is least likely to come from a perpetrator of domestic violence?

A) "I wouldn't do it if he didn't provoke me."
B) "She deserved it."
C) "I really want to change."
D) "I just lose control."
E) "I have anger management problems."

Question 66

How do most abusive relationships look at the beginning?

A) The signs of violence are there from the start.
B) Violence usually begins as soon as the relationship starts, if not before.
C) There is tension and a "walking on eggshells" feeling from day one.
D) There is usually a mixture of abuse and contrition, sometimes in the same day.
E) The abusive partner is charming, attentive, and thoughtful.

Question 67

What is the term for the range of behaviors that abusers use to gain and maintain control over their victims?

A) manipulation
B) passive aggression
C) domestic violence
D) blackmail
E) symbolic violence

Question 68

Under what circumstances is a father more likely than a mother to be awarded custody of his minor children following a divorce?

A) when he lives in a rural area
B) when he lives in a politically conservative area
C) when the children are younger than twelve
D) when the oldest child is female
E) when he makes substantially more money than his ex-wife

Question 69

What is the main reason abusive partners resort to domestic abuse?

A) They have anger management problems.
B) They have problems outside the relationship that drive them over the edge.
C) They are generally violent in all aspects of their lives.
D) They desire power over their victim.
E) They feel powerless and use violence only as a last resort.

Question 70

Which of the following is NOT a form of domestic abuse?

A) physical abuse
B) taking complete control of the household's finances
C) rape
D) using lawyers to get custody of children
E) mind games, threats, or intimidation

Question 71

Under what circumstances are parents more likely to have joint custody of their children after a divorce?

A) when they live in a rural area
B) when they are of relatively low socioeconomic status
C) when they are nonwhite
D) when at least one parent has not completed college
E) when they are homosexual

Question 72

Two people get divorced, and they end up in family court. The mother is an accountant who makes about twice the father's income. They both have bachelor's degrees from a state school, but he spends time volunteering at a local homeless shelter. What makes it more likely that the mother will get sole custody?

A) the father's contact with the homeless
B) the mother's education
C) the father's occupation
D) the mother's family background
E) the mother's income

Question 73

How do rates of domestic abuse differ across racial groups?

A) They are higher among African Americans and Hispanics than in other racial groups.
B) They are about equal across racial groups.
C) They are lower among Asian Americans than in other racial groups.
D) They are lower among immigrants from Southeast Asia than in other groups.
E) They are higher among non-English-speaking individuals than among English speakers.

Question 74

How is custody of minor children usually handled in divorce cases?

A) Fathers are now slightly more likely than mothers to receive custody.
B) Mothers always receive custody.
C) Mothers receive custody in a disproportionate number of cases.
D) Joint custody is awarded in the majority of cases.
E) Mothers and fathers are about equally likely to receive custody.

Question 75

Approximately what percentage of women in the United States will suffer physical violence at the hands of a romantic partner at some point in their adult lives?

A) 5 percent
B) 33 percent
C) 90 percent
D) 99 percent
E) 82 percent

Question 76

Who are more likely to be negatively affected by their parents' divorce?

A) girls
B) boys
C) older children
D) only children
E) eldest children

Question 77

Sometimes child welfare agencies are called to investigate a child who never seems to have clean clothing and is very skinny. The suspicion would be that the child is a victim of:

A) neglect.
B) incest.
C) violence.
D) eldest child syndrome.
E) the second shift.

Question 78

What sort of actions do abusive partners take to keep their partner in the relationship?

A) keep up a constant stream of threats
B) maintain a constant stream of abuse, never giving the abused partner a chance to stop and consider her situation
C) stop the cycle of abuse and truly reform
D) periodically enter a cycle of loving contrition
E) seek psychological help

Question 79

Why are child and elder abuse likely to go unreported?

A) Few authority figures care enough to investigate abuse.
B) Neither kind of abuse is perceived as a serious problem in America today.
C) The abuse is impossible to detect.
D) Most child and elder abuse is done very carefully, so as to make it hard to prove in court.
E) The victims are relatively powerless.

Question 80

How are children of divorced parents today different from children of divorced parents in the 1970s?

A) Children of divorced parents today are more likely to get divorced themselves than were children whose parents divorced in the 1970s.
B) Children of divorced parents today are more likely to be divorced multiple times than were children whose parents divorced in the 1970s.
C) Children of divorced parents today are more likely to get married than were children whose parents divorced in the 1970s.
D) Children of divorced parents today are less likely to be married in their teens than were children whose parents divorced in the 1970s.
E) Children of divorced parents today are considerably less likely to divorce than were children whose parents divorced in the 1970s.