Deck 16: Social Change: Looking Toward Tomorrow

Question 1

You are walking across campus and see a large group of students gathered outside the student union listening to someone talk. You stop and try to listen, but you can't get close enough. You ask another member of the crowd what's happening, and you are told that someone was proselytizing and that some students gathered to listen while others argued. What does this tell you about crowds?

A) A crowd doesn't have to share a geographic location.
B) In any crowd, people have many different motivations.
C) Crowds are illogical.
D) When people join a crowd, they lose their individuality and become part of something like a collective mind.
E) Crowds tend to form for mostly benevolent purposes.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In trying to understand the evacuation of the World Trade Center when it was first bombed in 1993, B. E. Aguirre, Dennis Wenger, and Gabriela Vigo argue that the more "the search for meaning in the milling process focuses upon defining the situation as serious, the quicker should be the mobilization of people and the initiation of collective behavior." What type of theory are they using to make this prediction?

A) technological determinism
B) emergent norm theory
C) contagion theory
D) cultural diffusion
E) historical materialism

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What is the relationship between deliberate social action and consequences?

A) Deliberate social actions are those that cause intended consequences.
B) Deliberate social action causes no unintended consequences.
C) Deliberate social action can have intended and unintended consequences.
D) Deliberate social action rarely leads to social change due to the complexity of social life.
E) Deliberate social action takes decades to result in intended social change.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What do large numbers of people form when they come together?

A) a social movement
B) a collective behavior group
C) a riot
D) a fad
E) a crowd

Question 5

Which of the following statements about social change is true:

A) It occurs exclusively during unmistakable periods in history.
B) It happens quickly.
C) It occurs rarely.
D) It is always happening.
E) It is always memorable.

Question 6

In recent years, salsa has overtaken ketchup as America's most popular condiment. This is an example of:

A) resource mobilization.
B) social change.
C) cultural leveling.
D) the political power of Hispanics.
E) collective behavior.

Question 7

The majority of households in the United States now have personal computers. This trend has been encouraged by the federal government for many reasons, including increased productivity, better education, and a better-informed public. At the same time, there has been an increase in acute injuries related to computers or computer tools. This is an example of:

A) the way individuals can change the world.
B) a fad, or a temporary trend.
C) the unintended consequences of social change.
D) the rapid pace of change.
E) the role private industry plays in social change.

Question 8

The transformation of culture over time is called:

A) social revolution.
B) cultural evolution.
C) social iteration.
D) social change.
E) cultural translation.

Question 9

Today, it is not uncommon for parents to call their children because they need help performing a simple task on a computer, like ripping a CD and using an e-mail program to mail a song to someone. Typically, parents teach children, not the other way around. What creates situations in which parents have to turn to their children for help?

A) war
B) emergent norms
C) social dilemmas
D) resource mobilization
E) social change

Question 10

When a recruiter for a social movement organization assumes everyone has the same reason for joining, he fails to understand that:

A) social movements must emerge naturally and cannot be organized by people.
B) individuals often have different understandings of themselves and their own participation in collectives.
C) people do not need a reason to join a social movement. They will join if they feel like it.
D) people cannot be convinced to support a cause that they did not support in the first place.
E) people are always motivated by moral arguments when they join social movements.

Question 11

When a large number of people either collectively or individually engage in similar behaviors, sociologists call it:

A) collective behavior.
B) riots.
C) mass behavior.
D) contagion.
E) a social movement.

Question 12

Periods in which social change happens so rapidly that whole societies are dramatically redefined are called:

A) riots.
B) contagion theory eras.
C) mass behavioral evolutions.
D) social revolutions.
E) the tragedy of the commons.

Question 13

What was one of the earliest theories of collective behavior?

A) contagion theory
B) emergent norms theory
C) resource mobilization theory
D) collective action theory
E) technological determinism

Question 14

The relatively short-lived enthusiasm for leg warmers during the 1980s was an example of a:

A) social dilemma.
B) riot.
C) fad.
D) virtual community.
E) public goods dilemma.

Question 15

Until it was canceled due to safety concerns in 2009, thousands of UCLA students used to gather several times a year for an "undie run" as a way of relieving stress during finals. What is this an example of?

A) emergent norms
B) a public goods dilemma
C) the tragedy of the commons
D) collective behavior
E) contagion theory

Question 16

"An agglomeration of men presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one and the same direction, and their conscious personality vanishes. A collective mind is formed, doubtless transitory, but presenting very clearly defined characteristics. The gathering has thus become what, in the absence of a better expression, I will call an organized crowd. . . . It forms a single being . . ." Which theory describes this quote?

A) public goods dilemma
B) tragedy of the commons
C) mass society theory
D) contagion theory
E) emergent norm theory

Question 17

What theory of collective behavior would suggest that when crowds come together a "mob mentality" takes over and rational thought disappears?

A) regressive action
B) relative deprivation theory
C) contagion theory
D) emergent norm theory
E) resource mobilization theory

Question 18

In Lincoln, Nebraska, in the summer of 2009, two groups held rallies about health care, one supporting and one opposing legislation proposed to overhaul America's health-care system. At one point, the two groups went beyond holding signs and shouting slogans, and tempers flared. Objects were thrown, shoving matches broke out, and the police had to step in to break up the:

A) social movement.
B) riot.
C) rally.
D) march.
E) peaceful assembly.

Question 19

Around twelve thousand years ago, in what we now call the Middle East, people began to domesticate grain, a process that slowly spread around the world over the next six to seven thousand years. In 1984, 8 percent of U.S. households had a computer; by 2008, that number was estimated to be above 70 percent. How do these two things relate to social change?

A) Neither is an example of social change.
B) The change in computer ownership isn't social change, as the text defines it, because it's not consequential enough.
C) Both are examples of social change, occurring at different rates.
D) The change in agriculture was a social change, but not the change in computer ownership.
E) The change in computer ownership was a social change, but not the change in agriculture.

Question 20

In 2007 Jason Fox and the Hood Presidents, a hip-hop group, uploaded a video of their song "Aunt Jackie" to YouTube, and almost instantly people started imitating the dance moves seen in the video. What is this an example of?

A) a public goods dilemma
B) mass behavior
C) a crowd
D) contagion theory
E) an emergent norm

Question 21

Sometimes the motivations for large protests organized by college activists are criticized. Protests in Washington, D.C., are seen as "spring break" for activists, who take part more for the pleasure of belonging to something than for anything else. What theory would support this critique?

A) public goods theory
B) postmodernism
C) the global village theory
D) mass society theory
E) resource mobilization theory

Question 22

Many people think that nuclear proliferation can be best understood as a tragedy of the commons. If someone sees nuclear proliferation this way, which of the following might she propose as a solution?

A) a global grassroots movement demanding that governments destroy nuclear warheads
B) a better missile defense system that could make nuclear missiles obsolete
C) a series of technical innovations that could make nuclear inspections more effective by making illegal reactors easier to detect
D) better bomb shelters and new medical techniques to treat radiation poisoning
E) intensive research into electromagnetic technology that could defeat nuclear weapons even after they are launched

Question 23

According to a study published in Conservation Letters, a research team led by the biologist Brian MacKenzie ran computer models of the population dynamics of the bluefin tuna that suggest that, even if fishing were banned immediately, the population of bluefin in the Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans will most likely collapse. This is a serious issue for sushi lovers everywhere, and some sociologists call it:

A) technological diffusion.
B) ecoterrorism.
C) a tragedy of the commons.
D) a public goods dilemma.
E) a fad.

Question 24

According to the text, when someone listens to public radio but never contributes during pledge drives, that person would be considered by sociologists:

A) a backslider.
B) a parasite.
C) a social tragedy.
D) a community malcontent.
E) a free rider.

Question 25

Litter may not be the most pressing problem facing our society, but many people still wish that our streets and parks had less trash strewn about. However, it is difficult to convince people to clean these public areas, a problem that sociologists would call:

A) a public goods dilemma.
B) the tragedy of the commons.
C) resource mobilization theory.
D) community policing.
E) an emergent social movement.

Question 26

In 1968 Garrett Hardin described the tragedy of the commons. The classic example of the commons is a pasture where any community member can graze his livestock. What would be the modern equivalent of the commons?

A) mass public entertainment, such as the circus and rock concerts
B) natural resources, like water, air, forests, and plants
C) the Internet
D) jobs
E) shopping malls and retailers

Question 27

According to Garrett Hardin, how can social dilemmas be solved?

A) with the proper application of science and technology
B) with new research in resource management
C) with specific technical solutions implemented by the government
D) by increasing the resources available for exploitation
E) by changing the behaviors of the people involved

Question 28

What do sociologists call behaviors that are rational for any given individual but that lead to disaster for an entire group?

A) cultural leveling
B) postmodern dilemmas
C) regressive social action
D) social dilemmas
E) fads

Question 29

People who take advantage of a public good without contributing to it are called:

A) social dilemmas.
B) members of a virtual community.
C) free riders.
D) interest groups.
E) social parasites.

Question 30

When individual fishing boats harvest more fish each year in order to maximize profits while, as a result, threatening the fish population with extinction, it is called:

A) a public goods dilemma.
B) the tragedy of the commons.
C) relative deprivation.
D) sustainable consumption.
E) competition.

Question 31

A public goods dilemma occurs when:

A) individual actions that may be rational by themselves lead to a collective disaster.
B) individuals must give something to a collective resource without necessarily taking anything in return.
C) an individual tries to cheat the system by getting more than her fair share of the commons.
D) individuals encourage others to participate in a social movement.
E) individuals do not contribute to a public good but benefit from the efforts of others who do.

Question 32

Why would a political campaign NOT qualify as a social movement?

A) It isn't organized enough.
B) Its participants do not want to change their society.
C) It has no central leadership.
D) It does not have an ideological commitment to promoting social change.
E) It is not protesting anything.

Question 33

The Shriners are a fraternity based on the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief, and truth. They have roughly 375,000 members and 191 temples in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The Shriners support Shriners Hospitals for Children, a system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing specialty pediatric care. Why are the Shriners not a social movement?

A) It's very hard to imagine membership in the Shriners transforming anyone's life.
B) They aren't dedicated enough to their work.
C) They do not seek to alter the status quo.
D) They aren't organized enough.
E) They don't have an ideological commitment.

Question 34

An office has a "coffee fund," an old coffee can where people can toss change anytime they pour a cup of coffee. The fund can be used to buy new coffee for the office when the supply runs out. However, one individual always takes coffee and never puts any money in the fund, making him a:

A) dilemma.
B) resource mobilizer.
C) free rider.
D) prisoner.
E) contrarian.

Question 35

Although it might cause a great deal of harm in the long run, individual companies have an economic interest in fossil fuels. What is it called when the pursuit of individual gain leads to loss for a larger group?

A) social change
B) a tragedy of the commons
C) a fad or fashion
D) a public goods dilemma
E) alter-globalization

Question 36

How does a fad differ from fashion?

A) Fads can mark you as belonging to a certain social group, while fashion is widespread in society.
B) Fashion changes, while fads are stable if only among a small group of people.
C) Fads become very popular for short periods of time, while fashions are widespread styles of behavior that may last for longer periods of time.
D) Fads and fashions are the same thing.
E) Fads do not catch on with the general public, while fashions do.

Question 37

If you believe that poor people join groups dedicated to keeping toxic waste dumps out of low-income communities because they want to enjoy the same standard of living and quality of life as the rest of society, then you believe in:

A) structural functionalism.
B) globalization.
C) relative deprivation theory.
D) mass society theory.
E) resource mobilization theory.

Question 38

A company that dumps toxic waste in a river to keep costs down will likely never get caught by environmental regulators. According to Garrett Harden, we can best understand the costs of this action in terms of:

A) a public goods dilemma.
B) a relative deprivation.
C) by thinking of it as an unintended consequence.
D) a social dilemma.
E) a tragedy of the commons.

Question 39

When African Americans joined a protest movement because it was harder for them to vote than it was for white Americans, they were acting out of:

A) contentedness.
B) relative mobility.
C) relative deprivation.
D) deprived rationality.
E) resource mobilization.

Question 40

What do the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, Nazism, birth control, and Protestantism all have in common?

A) They all began in the twentieth century.
B) They all are the products of social movements.
C) They all have had a negative effect on society.
D) They all are the products of a single charismatic leader.
E) They all involve social stratification.

Question 41

Which of the following people would be most likely to join a social movement?

A) a young woman who attends college and is involved in campus government and volunteers for local and state political campaigns
B) a disaffected loner taking lots of math classes but without a real social life or a good outlet for making friends or forming romantic relationships
C) an average student who spends a lot of time smoking marijuana and switches majors several times
D) a young man from the lower class who gets a job in a campus cafeteria and notices how well off the students he serves are
E) a single mother who works nights as a stocker at a grocery store and has relatives both in the Deep South and on the West Coast

Question 42

To what extent do the poorest members of American society participate in social movements?

A) more than any other class
B) in about equal numbers as other class groups
C) more than members of the upper class, but less than members of the middle class
D) less than any other class
E) They participate only when the social movement in question directly affects their lives.

Question 43

When did African Americans gain the legal right to exercise their right to vote?

A) with the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act
B) shortly after the Civil War
C) with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919
D) with the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870
E) during the Great Depression

Question 44

MoveOn.org was one of the first groups to successfully organize a large number of people around issues like partisan bickering and the power of corporate lobbies in Washington, in large part because it used innovative technology to locate, recruit, and organize supporters. This is exactly what ____________ theory would predict.

A) mass society
B) relative deprivation
C) emergent social movement
D) resource mobilization
E) regressive

Question 45

For many years there were efforts to organize teaching assistants on college campuses and form a union. Often these efforts failed because of practical reasons: there were never enough volunteers, leaders were always graduating and leaving, and there was never any money for supplies. What theory would be interested in these reasons?

A) resource mobilization theory
B) relative deprivation theory
C) mass society theory
D) technological diffusion theory
E) global network theory

Question 46

A group established to influence government policy is called a(n):

A) political campaign.
B) legal social movement.
C) interest group.
D) social movement.
E) mass action group.

Question 47

When activists begin to amass the things they need to sustain their movement-including volunteers, money, and office space-they are engaging in:

A) resource mobilization.
B) bureaucratization.
C) individual behavior.
D) coalescence.
E) reactionary movements.

Question 48

According to Armand Mauss, what happens in the "incipient" stage of a social movement?

A) The social movement begins to fade away.
B) The movement is absorbed by the very bureaucracies and institutions that it initially challenged.
C) The public just begins to take notice of an issue and define it as a problem.
D) Members of the social movement begin to organize and select leaders.
E) The social movement actively struggles with more powerful institutions within society.

Question 49

Sociologists who focus on how practical constraints and opportunities can help or hinder a social movement are using:

A) relative deprivation theory.
B) resource mobilization theory.
C) technological determinism.
D) activist politics.
E) reactionary theory.

Question 50

A social movement's long-term development often looks a lot like:

A) revolution.
B) failure.
C) social transformation.
D) reform.
E) a throwback to an earlier time.

Question 51

Why is the "decline" phase of social movements interesting?

A) After a movement declines, it always perishes.
B) After a movement declines, it is possible that the movement changes and continues.
C) Social movements never decline.
D) The coalescence phase comes right afterward.
E) Social movements always decline very quickly after they begin.

Question 52

The "bureaucratization" stage of a social movement:

A) always happens at the beginning.
B) has not yet happened for the gay rights movement.
C) in the U.S. labor movement happened when the AFL and the CIO merged.
D) happened for the environmental rights movement with the release of the film An Inconvenient Truth.
E) happened during the gay rights movement with the Stonewall riot.

Question 53

On average, participants in social movements:

A) are more marginal and more isolated than nonparticipants.
B) are more socially engaged than nonparticipants.
C) are just like nonparticipants.
D) are less oriented toward conventional politics.
E) are more alienated from society than nonparticipants.

Question 54

Why don't the poor participate in social movements more often?

A) The consequences of participation may be too high.
B) They may not have adequate resources.
C) They may not have enough time to do so.
D) They may have to work multiple jobs, leaving little energy left for activism.
E) all of the above

Question 55

According to Armand Mauss, what happens in the second stage of a social movement's development?

A) The public takes notice of the situation and defines it as a problem.
B) The social movement becomes incorporated into institutions.
C) The social movement turns into a bureaucracy.
D) The social movement declines and disappears from view.
E) Like-minded individuals begin to organize.

Question 56

According to relative deprivation theory, why do people join social movements?

A) They are filling a psychological need to belong to something.
B) Social movements are a necessary part of a system of social stratification.
C) Joining a social movement is a rational response to inequality or oppression.
D) They are ordered to do so by the government.
E) Social movements are good places to meet people and network.

Question 57

A major achievement of social movements geared toward increasing employment equality for minorities and women has been the widespread adoption of equal employment officers in many large organizations. When they got to this stage, the social movements could be said to have:

A) succeeded.
B) failed.
C) coalesced.
D) bureaucratized.
E) transformed.

Question 58

People who believe that the government is not doing enough about climate change have gotten fed up and are starting to organize, which means they are starting to:

A) achieve their goals.
B) become part of the mainstream.
C) take notice of a situation but refuse to define it as a problem.
D) coalesce.
E) bureaucratize.

Question 59

In the 1990s, many isolated individuals began to see the growth of federal prison populations as a problem. Later they would form groups to protest the policies that imprisoned so many, but first they were part of:

A) a fad or fashion.
B) cultural lag.
C) the incipient stage of a social movement.
D) the bureaucratized stage of a social movement.
E) a collective action.

Question 60

Which historical event convinced American scholars that not all social movements can be explained in terms of the psychological needs of their members?

A) the civil rights movement
B) Protestantism
C) McCarthyism
D) the rise of Nazi Germany
E) the Civil War

Question 61

The process by which social structures and institutions become global rather than national is called:

A) Marxism.
B) globalization.
C) homogenization.
D) cultural diffusion.
E) postmodernism.

Question 62

The spread of material and nonmaterial culture to new cultural groups, even when there is no migration of people, is called:

A) cultural diffusion.
B) cultural leveling.
C) cultural lag.
D) culture shock.
E) postmodernism.

Question 63

"Buy Nothing Day" might best be described as a:

A) regressive social movement.
B) progressive social movement.
C) conservative social movement.
D) radical social movement.
E) incipient social movement.

Question 64

All over the world, Christian missionaries proselytize under difficult and often dangerous conditions. Why are they willing to put their own safety at risk?

A) for fear of religious condemnation
B) to help improve world health
C) They've made a radical commitment to social change.
D) for the money
E) They were ordered to do so by their religious superiors.

Question 65

The Promise Keepers are a Christian men's organization that seeks to train men to be better fathers and husbands, while working to preserve what they call "traditional" family values in which the man is the head of the household and makes decisions for his wife and family. In this way, the Promise Keepers are:

A) legitimate.
B) secular.
C) regressive.
D) bureaucratic.
E) coalescing.

Question 66

The protests in Seattle during the World Trade Organization meetings were directed against:

A) police brutality.
B) election fraud.
C) the war in Iraq.
D) globalization.
E) mass marketing.

Question 67

Although the protests themselves have dissipated, some participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement feel they were successful because:

A) they changed the tax rate for the top income earners in the United States.
B) the movement had no explicit policy goal to achieve, but it influenced the public discussion of inequality.
C) their actions led to a decline in income inequality in the United States.
D) they were able to send representatives to Congress.
E) the movement became bureaucratized.

Question 68

The English Premier League broadcasts its games to hundreds of millions of households in more than two hundred countries and is reportedly watched by more than a billion people each week. This is what Marshall McLuhan would call:

A) a social movement.
B) a global village.
C) television.
D) faith in technology.
E) a social dilemma.

Question 69

The World Church of the Creator, founded by Matt Hale, wants to stop both religious and racial integration of America. This makes his movement a(n):

A) emergent norm.
B) tragedy of the commons.
C) postmodern movement.
D) voluntary simplicity movement.
E) regressive social movement.

Question 70

In what sense is it now possible for a country to be "occupied" by an invisible invader that arrives through airwaves and wireless networks?

A) Spy satellites and other communications technology are increasingly advanced.
B) The U.S. government can eavesdrop on almost any form of modern communication.
C) Global positioning systems have allowed detailed mapping of previously inaccessible places.
D) It's almost impossible to block foreign countries' satellite broadcasts and Internet transmissions.
E) Many nations now use their militaries to transmit information.

Question 71

According to the Zen sociologist Barney McGrane, what effect does television have on individuals?

A) It overstimulates.
B) It makes them angry and stirs up strong feelings.
C) It shortens their attention spans.
D) It makes them more socially active and aware of current events.
E) It makes life seem dull and isolates people.

Question 72

If a social movement works to resist some kind of social change, or even to roll back elements of a change, it is said to be:

A) progressive.
B) cosmopolitan.
C) resistant.
D) regressive.
E) contrary.

Question 73

Hero of Alexander, a mathematician who lived in Rome, invented a steam engine in the first century CE. What does this say about William Ogburn's theory of technological determinism?

A) It strongly supports the theory.
B) It suggests that ancient Rome was less advanced than was previously suspected.
C) It demonstrates the ways in which technology always changes society.
D) It suggests that technological determinism can't always explain social change.
E) It proves that technology is the engine of history.

Question 74

What features of modern life do social movements like Critical Mass protest?

A) the crippling debt load carried by African nations
B) the way automobiles make other forms of transportation less feasible
C) the unethical and inhumane treatment of animals
D) violations of voting rights in poor and minority communities
E) the proliferation of nuclear weapons

Question 75

How did Marshall McLuhan believe that the world would turn into a "global village"?

A) Television and other media technology would link people all over the world.
B) Cultural imperialism would lead to greater homogenization.
C) Improvements in transportation technology would make tourism cheaper.
D) Mass production would ensure that people all over the world were using the same products.
E) Environmental problems would bring people together around common goals.

Question 76

What is the process called by which societies lose their uniqueness and begin to resemble one another?

A) cultural lag
B) research mobilization
C) cultural leveling
D) cultural imperialism
E) cultural modernity

Question 77

Today, many young people face an unprecedented problem: what to do when their parents try to friend them on Facebook, MySpace, or another social networking site. Technology has given us unprecedented ways to document our lives online, but some are not quite sure how to share this documentation with older generations. What is this problem called?

A) technological determinism
B) cultural imperialism
C) regressive social change
D) mass behavior
E) cultural lag

Question 78

Regressive or reactionary social movements are always:

A) the most common type of social movement.
B) motivated by prejudice or hate.
C) working to make sure things stay the same, or even to turn them back to an earlier point in history.
D) motivated by a desire to protect the environment.
E) successful only when they use violence.

Question 79

What theoretical perspective argues that technology plays a defining role in shaping society?

A) technological determinism
B) symbolic interactionism
C) structural functionalism
D) idealism
E) mass society theory

Question 80

The use of in vitro fertilization solved a specific problem, but it seems to have created a wide range of ethical dilemmas and problems that were not anticipated when it was first invented. This is an instance of:

A) technological determinism.
B) cultural leveling.
C) cultural imperialism.
D) dystopia.
E) cultural lag.