Deck 8: Social Stratification

Question 1

Karl Marx claimed that social stratification in high-income nations, such as the Great Britain and the United States, reflects a capitalist economy.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Max Weber said social stratification involved three distinct dimensions: economic class, social prestige, and political power.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Weber described stratification as a complex socioeconomic status ranking.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The former Soviet Union was a classless society without social stratification.

Question 5

In the United States, social inequality is determined only by people's talents and abilities.

Question 6

The Davis-Moore thesis states that social stratification has consequences that are beneficial to society.

Question 7

Davis and Moore base their claim that stratification is not inevitable on the fact that it does not exist in every society.

Question 8

China stands out as a country without any social classes.

Question 9

Social stratification is found in most-but not all-societies.

Question 10

Caste systems are typical of high-income societies.

Question 11

Ideology refers to ideas that support social stratification.

Question 12

Great Britain has eliminated all aspects of its historic aristocracy.

Question 13

Structural social mobility refers to an individual's upward or downward social movement due to personal effort or, in some cases, good or bad luck.

Question 14

The concept of social mobility refers to changes in people's positions in the social hierarchy.

Question 15

Individuals in class systems typically exhibit more status inconsistency than people in caste systems.

Question 16

Caste systems encourage the commitment to long-term labor required by agriculture.

Question 17

The socialist revolution Karl Marx predicted took place in most industrial-capitalist societies about a century ago.

Question 18

Social stratification is a matter of not only inequality, but also beliefs about fairness.

Question 19

Class systems assign social position based on both birth and individual achievement.

Question 20

The more a society is a meritocracy, the greater the society's level of social mobility.

Question 21

Jobs typically performed by women carry more prestige than those typically performed by men.

Question 22

As surprising as it may seem, in the United States, poor people typically have better health than rich people.

Question 23

Since 1980 in the United States, the most dramatic gains in income have been made by the richest people.

Question 24

The Kuznets curve shows that industrial societies have the greatest social stratification.

Question 25

In general, white-collar occupations have more prestige than blue-collar occupations.

Question 26

Social stratification shapes our patterns of interaction by encouraging people to socialize with others of similar social position.

Question 27

The wealth of rich people is not only greater, but more of it is in the form of investments that typically increase in value and generate income.

Question 28

The globalization of the economy has increased the earnings of highly educated people who specialize in law, finance, marketing, and computer technology.

Question 29

The working class is sometimes called the "lower-middle class."

Question 30

U.S.society does not have social stratification.

Question 31

In the United States in 2011, more than 46 million people were officially counted among the poor.

Question 32

People who marry and stay married accumulate only half as much wealth as people who remain single.

Question 33

In the United States, wealth is distributed more equally than income.

Question 34

In the wake of the recession that began in 2007, the majority of U.S.adults say that their belief that their family can achieve the American dream has declined.

Question 35

About 20 percent of U.S.families have negative wealth, which means that they are actually in debt.

Question 36

A majority of children born in all wealth quintiles in the United States remain in the same quintile as adults.

Question 37

Conspicuous consumption refers to the fact that rich people and poor people generally shop for different products, such as food and clothing.

Question 38

The richest 20 percent of U.S.families earn 48 percent of all income, while the bottom 20 percent earn only about 4 percent.

Question 39

Intergenerational mobility refers to changes in social position within an individual's lifetime.

Question 40

In 2011, median family income in the United States was $60,974.

Question 41

Societal factors that contribute to homelessness include low wages and a lack of low-income housing.

Question 42

In all societies, kinship plays a part in social stratification because

A) children determine their own social position based on their personal talents and efforts.
B) parents pass their social position on to their children.
C) children usually end up with a social position higher than that of their parents.
D) all children begin life with about the same social standing.

Question 43

The point of the story about passenger deaths that accompanied the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic is that

A) advanced technology cannot prevent tragedy.
B) all people have the same right to life.
C) social stratification is important and can sometimes be a matter of life and death.
D) social stratification often has little to do with everyday life.

Question 44

Using the sociological perspective, we see that social stratification

A) gives some people more privileges and opportunities than others.
B) places everyone on a level playing field .
C) ensures that hard work will lead people to become wealthy.
D) means that what people get out of life is pretty much what they put into it.

Question 45

In general, societies that have caste systems have economies that are

A) based on hunting and gathering.
B) industrial.
C) agrarian.
D) postindustrial.

Question 46

Why do societies with class systems keep some elements of caste (such as the inheritance of wealth) rather than becoming complete meritocracies?

A) because too many people would be poor if society were based only on merit
B) because some caste elements increase productivity
C) because a pure meritocracy would eliminate families and other social loyalties that tie a society together
D) because some caste elements increase social mobility

Question 47

The age category of the U.S.population most likely to be poor is children and young adults under age twenty-four.

Question 48

In recent decades, William Julius Wilson claims, many central cities no longer have enough jobs to support the families who live there.

Question 49

What concept describes a person who moves from one occupation to another that provides about the same level of rewards?

A) upward social mobility
B) downward social mobility
C) horizontal social mobility
D) This is not social mobility at all.

Question 50

The ending of apartheid in South Africa has led to

A) that society becoming a meritocracy.
B) little improvement for millions of poor, black people.
C) complete social mixing by people of all races.
D) the election of the first white president.

Question 51

Social stratification

A) is a reflection of individual differences.
B) looks the same in every society.
C) typically changes a great deal from generation to generation.
D) is a matter of inequality and beliefs about why people should be unequal.

Question 52

In most poor families in the United States, no family member has a full-time job.

Question 53

Two-thirds of all poor people in the United States are African Americans.

Question 54

Ravi was born into a caste system in a small village in Sri Lanka.He can expect to

A) earn his social position through his own efforts.
B) change his social position many times throughout his life.
C) have the same social standing as his parents.
D) choose his life's work for himself after finishing college.

Question 55

Recent welfare reform has greatly reduced the poverty rate in the United States.

Question 56

The degree of status consistency is

A) greater in caste than class systems.
B) the same in all types of social stratification.
C) greater in class than caste systems.
D) greater the more productive a society is.

Question 57

The concept "meritocracy" refers to social stratification

A) with no social mobility.
B) in which people "know their place."
C) based entirely on personal merit.
D) as found in the United States.

Question 58

A caste system is defined as

A) social stratification based on ascription, or birth.
B) social stratification based on personal achievement.
C) a meritocracy.
D) any social system in which categories of people are unequal.

Question 59

Social stratification is a concept that refers to

A) specialization in productive work.
B) ranking categories of people in a hierarchy.
C) the idea that some people are more talented than others.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 60

A category of people defined as "untouchable" because they perform work that is viewed as "unclean" has been part of social stratification in

A) India.
B) Canada.
C) Sweden.
D) the former Soviet Union.

Question 61

Compared to other high-income nations, the United States has

A) the same level of economic inequality.
B) almost no economic inequality.
C) a classless society.
D) more economic inequality.

Question 62

Work involving mostly mental activity is called

A) blue-collar work.
B) white-collar work.
C) pink-collar work.
D) agrarian work.

Question 63

According to the Davis-Moore thesis

A) complete equality is functional for every society.
B) the more inequality a society has, the more productive it is.
C) more important jobs must provide enough rewards to attract the talent necessary to perform them.
D) meritocracy is less productive than a caste system.

Question 64

Who coined the concept "survival of the fittest"?

A) Charles Darwin
B) Karl Marx
C) Herbert Spencer
D) Max Weber

Question 65

England's aristocracy contained about what share of the entire country's population?

A) about one-tenth of 1 percent
B) 5 percent
C) 25 percent
D) 50 percent

Question 66

The historical practice in England of passing on property to only the first-born male descendant is called

A) the law of the estates.
B) the law of meritocracy.
C) the law of status consistency.
D) the law of primogeniture.

Question 67

Half of all the people in the United Kingdom today consider themselves to be in the

A) upper class.
B) middle class.
C) working class.
D) lower class.

Question 68

At the top of the system of inequality in the former Soviet Union were the

A) industrial capitalists.
B) intelligentsia, or educated professionals.
C) apparatchiks, or high government officials.
D) hereditary nobility.

Question 69

In Karl Marx's analysis, another name for the capitalist class is the

A) nobility.
B) aristocracy.
C) proletariat.
D) bourgeoisie.

Question 70

In 1917, the Russian Revolution transformed the feudal aristocracy and placed productive property under the control of

A) the capitalists.
B) a meritocracy.
C) the nobility.
D) the state.

Question 71

If you have a job that involves manual labor, you are doing

A) blue-collar work.
B) white-collar work.
C) service work.
D) farming.

Question 72

Ideology, or beliefs that support social stratification, is found in

A) caste systems.
B) class systems.
C) both class and caste systems.
D) only U.S. society.

Question 73

A college professor with advanced degrees, moderate salary, and little power to shape national events can be described as having

A) high status consistency.
B) horizontal social mobility.
C) downward social mobility.
D) low status consistency.

Question 74

The concept of structural social mobility refers to

A) cultural beliefs that justify social stratification.
B) change in social position due to people's own efforts.
C) change in the social position of many people due to changes in society itself.
D) change in a family's social position from one generation to the next.

Question 75

When Marx argued that capitalism "reproduces the class structure," he meant that

A) it is really ordinary people who create social inequality.
B) society operates and carries class differences from one generation to the next.
C) class differences are the same throughout human history.
D) society could never abolish class inequality.

Question 76

Davis and Moore point out that an egalitarian society

A) could never exist.
B) could exist, but only if people are willing to allow anyone to perform any job.
C) would be more productive than a stratified society.
D) has existed in many societies at various times in history.

Question 77

In the People's Republic of China

A) a new set of social classes is gradually emerging.
B) there is no longer any social inequality.
C) social standing reflects only a person's position in the Communist Party.
D) social stratification is identical to Japan's.

Question 78

One good indication that caste still operates in the United Kingdom is the importance people attach to

A) graduating from college.
B) social mobility.
C) money.
D) accent in speech.

Question 79

Olga works as a district sales manager for a small corporation.This category of work can be described as

A) blue-collar.
B) white-collar.
C) capitalist.
D) agrarian .

Question 80

According to Karl Marx, social stratification in a capitalist society always involves

A) class conflict.
B) negotiation and compromise leading to stability.
C) the abolition of work itself.
D) a working class revolution.