Deck 10: Social Stratification

Question 1

If you lived in a society with a traditional caste system, you would expect your marriage to be:

A) polygamous.
B) exogamous.
C) based on romantic love.
D) endogamous.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

If you were born into a traditional caste system, you would expect that, based on birth, you would be:

A) raised to do a certain type of job.
B) required to marry someone of your own social category.
C) encouraged to socialize with other people within your own category.
D) All of the above are correct.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

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 during his life.
C) have the same social standing as his parents.
D) choose his life's work for himself after finishing college.

Question 8

The historical replacement of caste systems with class systems:

A) brings an end to most social inequality.
B) replaces one kind of inequality with another.
C) means that individuals experience less social mobility.
D) means that categories of people become more clearly unequal.

Question 9

In English history, the aristocracy included:

A) the hereditary nobility.
B) the highest church officials.
C) the royal family.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 10

Comparing societies in history and around the world, we see that social stratification may involve differences in:

A) what is unequal.
B) how unequal people are.
C) why people are unequal.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 11

Using the sociological perspective, we see that social stratification:

A) gives some people more privileges and opportunities than others.
B) places everyone at birth 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 12

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 13

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 14

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 the above are correct.

Question 15

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

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

Question 16

Read the four statements below. Which one of these statements about stratification is NOT True?

A) Social stratification is a trait of society.
B) Social stratification is universal and also variable.
C) A family's social standing typically changes a great deal from generation to generation.
D) Social stratification is a matter of inequality and also beliefs about why people should be unequal.

Question 17

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 18

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 first white president.

Question 19

The point of the chapter-opening story of 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 matters and can sometimes be a matter of life and death.
D) social stratification often has little to do with everyday life.

Question 20

The chapter's "Seeing Sociology in the News" box explains:

A) Yemen's lowest caste has no hope of social mobility.
B) in Yemen, everyone gets and equal chance in life.
C) in Yemen, people's personal intelligence determines their live chances.
D) traditional religious affiliations decide whether someone from Yemen will succeed.

Question 21

In Japan, as in other societies with a long history of caste, today people may not always discuss _____ openly, but is never far from the surface when people size up one another socially.

A) family background
B) personal talent
C) educational degree
D) physical size

Question 22

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

A) ideology that justifies social inequality.
B) people who pay little attention to social inequality.
C) less social inequality.
D) more social inequality.

Question 23

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 24

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

A) 50 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 5 percent
D) half of one percent

Question 25

Half of all the people in Great Britain today consider themselves to be in the:

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

Question 26

Who coined the concept "survival of the fittest"?

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

Question 27

At the lowest level of social stratification in ancient Japan were the:

A) shogun.
B) burakumin or "outcasts."
C) samurai or "warriors."
D) Shudra.

Question 28

The common ideology of a class system states that success and wealth typically result from:

A) sheer luck.
B) family background.
C) flaws in society.
D) personal talent and effort.

Question 29

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

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

Question 30

For more than 1,500 years, Japanese society operated with a:

A) class system.
B) meritocracy.
C) caste system.
D) large middle class.

Question 31

According to the Davis-Moore thesis:

A) equality is functional for 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 32

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 33

In 1917, the Russian Revolution transformed placed productive property under the control of _____.

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

Question 34

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 so that class differences are carried from one generation to the next.
C) class differences are the same throughout history.
D) society could never abolish class inequality.

Question 35

Which of the following statements accurately describes 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) China has the same social stratification that is found in Japan.

Question 36

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 37

One good indication that caste still operates in Great Britain is the importance people attach to:

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

Question 38

According to Davis and Moore, a system of unequal rewards increases productivity by:

A) encouraging people to want an important job.
B) motivating people to work longer, harder, or better.
C) encouraging people to gain the schooling and skills needed to perform more important jobs.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 39

Which of the following concepts refers to the historical practice in England of passing on property to only the first-born male descendant?

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

Question 40

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 41

Olga works as a district sales manager for a small corporation. Which of the following categories correctly describes her work?

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

Question 42

Based on what you have read, as the United States develops a postindustrial economy, economic inequality has been:

A) likely to disappear.
B) decreasing.
C) holding at about the same level.
D) increasing.

Question 43

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) All of the above are correct.

Question 44

To impress her friends, Laura wears an expensive dress to a party. A sociologist might say she is engaging in:

A) structural social mobility.
B) relative deprivation.
C) reference group behavior.
D) conspicuous consumption.

Question 45

Looking around the world today, income inequality is greatest in which of the following regions?

A) North America
B) Latin America
C) Europe
D) China

Question 46

Read the four statements below. Which is NOT a reason given in the text that a socialist revolution never took place in capitalist societies as Marx predicted?

A) Stock places ownership of companies in the hands of tens of millions of people.
B) Living standards for the majority have gone up.
C) Wealth is no longer concentrated in the hands of a few.
D) The law affords workers far more legal protections.

Question 47

Work involving mostly mental activity is called:

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

Question 48

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 49

Read the four statements below. Only one of them is False. Which is it?

A) Living standards in the United States have risen since Marx's lifetime.
B) More workers have unions to represent them than in Marx's lifetime.
C) There are now laws about workplace safety and minimum wages that did not exist in Marx's lifetime.
D) Today, ordinary working people no longer experience the effects of the social inequality that Marx described.

Question 50

The "bell curve" thesis states that, in recent decades, U.S. society:

A) has dramatically reduced poverty.
B) has put less and less importance on education as a path to success.
C) is becoming more of a meritocracy.
D) has become a less-stratified, "middle-class" society.

Question 51

While the Davis and Moore thesis suggests "to each according to the importance of one's work," Karl Marx supported the idea:

A) "to each the same, from each the same."
B) "to each according to the degree of schooling."
C) "from each according to ability, to each according to needs."
D) "to each equally from each according to personal choice."

Question 52

Marx thought of inequality in terms of two main classes by contrast, Weber envisioned inequality in terms of:

A) a socioeconomic status hierarchy.
B) three main classes.
C) everyone gradually sinking into poverty.
D) society as one large middle class.

Question 53

Max Weber claimed that social position was based on a person's:

A) economic class.
B) degree of social status or prestige.
C) amount of power.
D) All of the above are correct.

Question 54

The idea that social inequality is harmful and divides society is associated with the:

A) structural-functional approach.
B) social-conflict approach.
C) symbolic-interaction approach.
D) social-exchange approach.

Question 55

A common micro-level pattern involving social interaction is that:

A) social stratification is not usually evident in everyday life.
B) most people live and work in socially diverse settings in terms of social stratification.
C) people tend to socialize with others of about the same social position.
D) social position has little to do with the friends people have.

Question 56

According to Simon Kuznets, in which type of society is the extent social stratification greatest?

A) hunting and gathering
B) horticultural/pastoral
C) agrarian
D) industrial

Question 57

Max Weber claimed that agrarian societies give special importance to which dimension of social inequality?

A) economic class
B) social prestige or honor
C) power
D) control of information

Question 58

Which of the following types of societies comes closest to being egalitarian?

A) hunting and gathering
B) horticultural/pastoral
C) industrial
D) postindustrial

Question 59

Marx claimed social stratification would end with the creation of a socialist economy. What was Weber's view?

A) Weber thought socialism would reduce economic differences but also create a political elite, increasing differences in power.
B) Weber thought capitalism could not be changed.
C) Weber thought socialism would create a new high-prestige nobility.
D) Weber agreed with Marx.

Question 60

The idea that social inequality benefits society is associated with the:

A) structural-functional approach.
B) social-conflict approach.
C) symbolic-interaction approach.
D) social-exchange approach.

Question 61

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

Question 62

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

Question 63

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

Question 64

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

Question 65

If you agreed that the "bell curve" thesis is correct, which of the following would you point to as the key to high social standings today?

A) family background
B) intelligence
C) control of information
D) gender

Question 66

People living in societies with class systems, compared with those living in societies with caste systems, tend to think of others not as individuals but in terms of social categories.

Question 67

Compared with people in United States, people in Great Britain are more likely to experience social mobility.

Question 68

In the United States, social inequality is a matter of only people's talents and abilities.

Question 69

Caste systems are typical of high-income societies.

Question 70

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

Question 71

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

Question 72

Great Britain has eliminated ass aspects of its historic aristocracy.

Question 73

Caste systems encourage romantic love and personal choice as the basis of marriage.

Question 74

Compared to the U.S. society, Japanese society exhibits more caste elements.

Question 75

For most people in the United States, social standing remains much the same over a lifetime.

Question 76

China stands out as a country without any social classes.

Question 77

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

Question 78

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

Question 79

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

Question 80

In class systems, social categories are more clearly and rigidly defined than they are in caste systems.