Deck 6: Groups and Organizations

Question 1

What term do sociologists use to refer to a number of people who may never have met one another but are all the same age (e.g. ,22 years old)?

A)a social group
B)a category
C)an aggregate
D)a secondary group

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is a collection of people gathered in a city park on a Sunday afternoon in July?

A)an informal organization
B)an aggregate
C)a category
D)a secondary group

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Laurie struggles to fit in with the popular girls at her school.What kind of group is Laurie in?

A)an ingroup
B)an outgroup
C)a secondary group
D)a reference group

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What term best describes the Canadian federal government?

A)a primary group
B)an outgroup
C)a formal organization
D)a reference group

Question 5

What is a collection of two or more people who interact frequently with one another,share a sense of belonging,and have a feeling of interdependence?

A)a social group
B)an aggregate
C)a category
D)a secondary group

Question 6

What name do sociologists give to webs of social relationships that link one person with other people and through them with more people those people know?

A)secondary groups
B)reference groups
C)networks
D)small worlds

Question 7

Suppose a person does not belong and perhaps even feels a sense of competitiveness or hostility toward others.What kind of group is this person likely a part of?

A)an ingroup
B)an outgroup
C)a secondary group
D)a reference group

Question 8

Who coined the terms ingroup and outgroup to describe people's feelings toward members of their own and other groups?

A)Emile Durkheim
B)Max Weber
C)William Graham Sumner
D)Charles H.Cooley

Question 9

You are asked by your professor in sociology to write a short paragraph about the relationship between primary and secondary groups.Which of the following statements is most likely to appear in your short essay?

A)Formal organizations are secondary groups and have no primary groups within them.
B)All secondary groups are approximately the same size.
C)There are no significant others in primary groups,but secondary groups have significant others.
D)A secondary group may eventually form a primary group.

Question 10

Kurt feels a part of his high school football team and has a reputation as a star quarterback.What kind of group is the football team for Kurt?

A)an ingroup
B)an outgroup
C)a secondary group
D)a reference group

Question 11

According to sociologists,what is a social group?

A)any collection of people
B)a collection of people gathered in the same place at the same time
C)a collection of people who share a common feature
D)a collection of two or more people who interact frequently with one another,share a sense of belonging,and have a feeling of interdependence

Question 12

Annie and her older brother Jack form primary relationships.According to Cooley,what role do they occupy for each other within this primary group?

A)personal others
B)significant others
C)siblings
D)fictive kin

Question 13

What is a reference group?

A)a group or individual that someone pays for advice or counselling on important matters
B)a group to which a person belongs and with which the person feels a sense of identity
C)a group that strongly influences a person's behaviour and social attitudes,regardless of whether that individual is an actual member
D)a group that consists of two or more people who interact frequently and share a common identity

Question 14

What kind of group are patrons in a restaurant and passengers on a train examples of?

A)an aggregate
B)a category
C)an informal organization
D)a primary group

Question 15

What term did sociologist Charles H.Cooley use to describe a small,less specialized group in which members engage in face-to-face,emotion-based interactions over an extended period of time?

A)a secondary group
B)a significant others
C)a secondary group
D)a primary group

Question 16

The "jocks" and the members of the chess club at a local high school seldom speak to one another.Which of the following terms best reflects this situation?

A)"I" and "me"
B)"us" and "them"
C)"you" and "them"
D)primary groups and secondary groups

Question 17

Which term applies to people who are the same age,race,and gender,and who share the same educational level?

A)a social group
B)an aggregate
C)a formal organization
D)a category

Question 18

What kind of group is a larger,more specialized grouping in which the members engage in more impersonal,goal-oriented relationships for a limited period of time?

A)a secondary group
B)a primary group
C)a kinship group
D)a social group

Question 19

Which statement best describes Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815?

A)It was an example of how organizational structures must adapt to new conditions.
B)Napoleon was a skilled sociologist of organization structures
C)It was an example of how warfare requires unique sociological insights in order to be successful.
D)It was an example of how sociology is of little value in the context of military and warfare.

Question 20

What is a potential consequence of Phyllis belonging to a monthly book club,the parent-teacher association at her son's school,and the bridge club at her work?

A)She will keep all the group attachments she makes over her life.
B)She may receive conflicting messages about how she should view herself.
C)She will accept the values of only one group.
D)She may refuse to acknowledge reference groups as a source of anticipatory socialization.

Question 21

What term did Simmel use to refer to a group that may form an alliance,such as the castaways in the popular reality series Survivor?

A)a trio
B)a coalition
C)a dyad
D)a reference group

Question 22

What is social science analysis on networks also referred to as?

A)network analysis
B)small world research
C)group association studies
D)networks research

Question 23

Who suggested that small groups have distinctive interaction patterns that do not exist in larger groups?

A)Emile Durkheim
B)Max Weber
C)Herbert Spencer
D)Georg Simmel

Question 24

If Alex is friends with Ben,and Ben is dating Carrie,what kind of network may be formed?

A)a friendship between Alex and Ben
B)a friendship between Alex and Carrie
C)a friendship between Alex,Ben,and Carrie
D)no networks beyond the existing relationships

Question 25

In Asch's conformity experiments,what happened as more people were added to the incorrect majority?

A)The subject's tendency to conform by giving wrong answers stayed the same.
B)The subjects' tendency to conform by giving wrong answers decreased.
C)The subjects' tendency to conform by giving wrong answers decreased,up to a point.
D)The subjects' tendency to conform by giving wrong answers increased indefinitely.

Question 26

What is a collectivity in which all members can be acquainted with one another and interact simultaneously?

A)a reference group
B)a secondary group
C)a small group
D)a large group

Question 27

What process involves maintaining or changing behaviour to comply with the norms established by a society,subculture,or other group?

A)leadership
B)conformity
C)compliance
D)obedience

Question 28

Which term did Simmel use to refer to a group such as a couple with a newborn child?

A)an extended family
B)a productive dyad
C)a triad
D)a trio

Question 29

Who conducted a series of experiments to examine people's obedience to an authority?

A)Solomon Asch
B)Stanley Milgram
C)Irving Janis
D)John Pryor

Question 30

How many contacts on average did it take for the letters to reach the intended recipient in Milgram's study?

A)2
B)3
C)5
D)8

Question 31

Jordan and Steve have been dating for three years.How would Simmel describe them?

A)a triad
B)a dynamic duo
C)a dyad
D)a secondary group

Question 32

What is the main ethical concern of Stanley Milgram's research on obedience?

A)undue harm to participants
B)breach of confidentiality
C)deception
D)lack of informed consent

Question 33

What was the main independent variable in Asch's conformity experiments?

A)line length
B)tendency to conform
C)type of response given by group members
D)level of shock administered to the learner

Question 34

According to several research studies,what may lead group members to say they see something that is contradictory to what they are actually seeing or to do something they would otherwise be unwilling to do?

A)leadership
B)conformity
C)compliance
D)goal displacement

Question 35

What might a postmodern analysis of fast-food restaurants lead you as a researcher to conclude?

A)Along with fragmentation comes much more emotive responses from employees and customers.
B)Deeper social relationships are possible today.
C)An increased intensity of causal relationships accompanies groups and organizations.
D)Fragmented and superficial interactions with scripted conversations are common.

Question 36

What were participants led to believe in Asch's conformity experiments?

A)The other group members all selected an incorrect line length during one of the trials.
B)They were administering potentially harmful electric shocks to another participant in a learner condition.
C)They would be training undergraduate women to use a computer.
D)They were joining a normative organization in order to pursue some common interest.

Question 37

How many social interactions are possible in a group of six?

A)6
B)10
C)15
D)21

Question 38

You have decided to repeat Solomon Asch's research on conformity.What conclusion will you reach if your research reaches similar findings to his?

A)Our willingness to follow explicit orders may be more common than many people would like to believe.
B)People will bow to social pressure in small-group settings.
C)Men were much more likely to conform to pressures than women.
D)Groups wield very little power over members with respect to compliance.

Question 39

Who demonstrated the power that groups have to produce conformity among members?

A)Stanley Milgram
B)Georg Simmel
C)Korte and Milgram
D)Solomon Asch

Question 40

When a group has four group members,how many social interactions are possible?

A)2
B)4
C)6
D)12

Question 41

In Stanley Milgram's experiment,what role did the real participants end up in?

A)teacher
B)learner
C)victim
D)experimenter

Question 42

The organization of university faculty into assistant professor,associate professor,and full professor is an example of what?

A)informal structure in groups and organizations
B)the existence of a hierarchy of authority in groups and organizations
C)rewarding team performances in groups and organizations
D)rationality in groups and organizations

Question 43

What process involving traditional methods of social organization is characterized by informality and spontaneity,which are gradually replaced by efficiently administered formal rules and procedures?

A)rationality
B)organizational reform
C)top-down
D)bottom-up

Question 44

Why have critics raised caution about the significance of Stanley Milgram's findings?

A)ethics
B)artificiality
C)reliability
D)lack of control group

Question 45

Approaching the study of organizations using the ideas of Weber,what were bureaucracies intended to do for organizations?

A)establish more red tape and less irrationality
B)provide a loophole for "buck-passing"
C)make organizations more productive and efficient
D)reduce rules and paperwork

Question 46

The experimenter in Stanley Milgram's experiment indicated that the teacher should give increasingly painful shocks.What percentage of the teachers administered shocks all the way to the maximum of 450 volts?

A)between 10 and 20 percent
B)between 21 and 40 percent
C)between 41 and 60 percent
D)over 60 percent

Question 47

According to the text,what type of group dynamic was the tragic 1986 launch of the space shuttle Challenger an example of?

A)the iron law of oligarchy
B)authoritarian leadership
C)groupthink
D)instrumental leadership

Question 48

In a meeting at John's workplace,the entire management team agrees it would be best to sell the company,even though John and several other managers believe this is the wrong decision.What process does this exemplify?

A)group conformity
B)groupthink
C)group decision making
D)group compliance

Question 49

Why does groupthink occur?

A)Group members want to avoid conformity at all costs.
B)Group members carefully examine all available options,and then vote on the best solution.
C)Group members constantly undermine the group's consensus.
D)Group members usually want to be "team players."

Question 50

Why would it be so difficult to replicate the research by Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram today?

A)People today are much less likely to conform to an authority.
B)It would be unlikely that such research would obtain ethical approval.
C)These studies work only in the United States,not in Canada.
D)Men are less likely to conform than women.

Question 51

According to Weber's ideal characteristics of bureaucracies,on what basis should hiring be done?

A)ascribed status only
B)specific qualifications
C)subjective factors only
D)random selection,in order to ensure fairness

Question 52

What process gradually replaced methods of social organization characterized by informality and spontaneity with efficiently administered rules and procedures?

A)formal organizational restructuring
B)traditional authority
C)rationality
D)bureaucracy

Question 53

Who was the sociologist who set forth the formal characteristics of bureaucratic organizations?

A)Irving Janis
B)Solomon Asch
C)Karl Marx
D)Max Weber

Question 54

For what have experiments by Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram been most criticized?

A)violating principles of research ethics
B)not demonstrating the effects that they were supposed to
C)using too wide a range of subjects,so that the findings could mean any of a number of things
D)generating results that could not be duplicated by anyone else

Question 55

What did Weber assert could establish authority within an organization and offer clear-cut standards for determining satisfactory performance?

A)qualification-based forms of employment
B)rules and regulations
C)strict management structures
D)probationary periods

Question 56

As a sociologist,suppose you have been asked why bureaucracies exist.How would you respond?

A)Traditional authority was rejected and rational-legal authority became accepted.
B)Weber's influential work provided a justification for them.
C)Factories were unsuccessful and became viewed as a poor model for other organizations
D)Ford rejected Swift's organization model.

Question 57

If we accept Stanley Milgram's research findings,then what would we conclude about obedience to authority?

A)It is actually quite rare.
B)It takes place only in the presence of charismatic leadership.
C)It may be more common than most people would like to believe.
D)It occurs only with a laissez-faire leader.

Question 58

What is the organizational model found in the Roman Catholic Church?

A)human relations
B)bureaucratic
C)democratic
D)bottom-down

Question 59

What kind of division of labour does a bureaucracy have?

A)flexible
B)non-existent
C)specialized
D)vertical authority structure

Question 60

Using Weberian analysis,why was a bureaucracy the most efficient means of attaining organizational goals?

A)It contributed to coordination and control.
B)It was irrational.
C)It was fast paced and reduced the need for micromanagement.
D)It reduced control.

Question 61

Several employees at a local printing company routinely take two-hour lunch breaks rather than the 50 minutes stated in their contract.This is an example of what characteristic of bureaucracy?

A)rules and regulations
B)work culture
C)informal structure
D)casual nature

Question 62

The code of conduct (or student responsibilities)in your institution's calendar is an example of what characteristic of bureaucracy?

A)rules and regulations
B)informal structure
C)hierarchy of authority
D)division of labour

Question 63

Who examined what he called the McDonaldization of society?

A)George Ritzer
B)Robert Michels
C)Max Weber
D)Robert Merton

Question 64

What theory assumes that people are basically lazy and motivated by greed and that informal networks should be controlled?

A)postmodern theories
B)functionalism
C)traditional management theory
D)cooperation-based theories

Question 65

What does it mean to say that a bureaucracy is "impersonal"?

A)It means that bureaucracies ignore the concerns of their customers.
B)It means that personal feelings do not interfere with organizational decisions.
C)It means that hiring is done strictly on the basis of ascribed statuses.
D)It means that all rules and regulations are written down,no matter how trivial.

Question 66

Kanter found that bureaucratic workers faced difficulties when they failed to fit what?

A)good worker ideology
B)the white male stereotype
C)the black female stereotype
D)the myth of the bureaucratic ideal

Question 67

Suppose a discussion takes place in your sociology class about the relationship between change and bureaucracy.Which of the following is most likely to be noted about this relationship?

A)Most bureaucracies are resistant to change but must adapt to it in order to survive.
B)Organizations that resist change opting to continue "what works," will flourish.
C)New organizational models will not compete well with traditional,well-established practices.
D)Organizations that resist change will definitely not survive.

Question 68

What term did George Ritzer coin to describe the process by which the principles of fast-food restaurants are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society?

A)McDonaldization
B)speed and efficiency
C)calculability
D)fast-food era

Question 69

What happens when the rules become an end in themselves rather than a means to an end,and organizational survival becomes more important than achievement of goals?

A)inefficiency
B)organization syndrome
C)goal displacement
D)organizational rigidity

Question 70

What happens when administrators overconform to the rules because their expertise is knowledge of the regulations,and they are paid to enforce them?

A)bureaucratic personalities develop
B)goal displacement occurs
C)organization syndrome occurs
D)organizational rigidity occurs

Question 71

What characteristic of bureaucracy is demonstrated in the standardized test scores for admission to graduate and professional schools across North America?

A)qualification-based employment
B)bureaucratic rules and regulations
C)hierarchy of authority
D)impersonality

Question 72

In the Hawthorne studies,what effect did pressures that workers received from other members have?

A)Workers' productivity decreased.
B)Workers' productivity increased.
C)Workers' productivity stayed the same.
D)The formal structure of the bureaucracy changed.

Question 73

At the Hawthorne plant,what did the practice of "binging" mean?

A)letting the air out of the tires on a worker's car to show disapproval of that person's actions
B)a positive sanction encouraging employees to work harder
C)workers slapping each other on the back for a job well done
D)a negative sanction,which involved striking a person on the shoulder

Question 74

What shortcoming of bureaucracy is information blockage an example of?

A)gender,race,and class inequalities
B)resistance to change
C)inefficiency and rigidity
D)goal displacement

Question 75

When you approach the drive-through window,scan the standard menu,and hear a voice through the speaker say,"Welcome to [name of restaurant].How can I help you today?" which element of McDonaldization is at work?

A)efficiency
B)calculability
C)predictability
D)control

Question 76

An employee at a burger joint decides to put five pickles and two cheese slices on each burger.What basic element of McDonaldization is being violated?

A)control
B)calculability
C)efficiency
D)predictability

Question 77

When does the Hawthorne effect occur?

A)when researchers anticipate their findings
B)when eager research assistants fudge the data
C)when research subjects refuse to provide accurate responses
D)when research subjects modify their behaviour because they are aware that they are being observed

Question 78

According to Pryor and McKinney's research,what happened when the trainers were led to believe that sexual harassment was condoned?

A)Ninety percent took full advantage of the situation when left alone with the woman.
B)Fifty percent took full advantage of the situation when left alone with the woman.
C)Twenty-five percent took full advantage of the situation when left alone with the woman.
D)Fewer than 10 percent took full advantage of the situation when left alone with the woman.

Question 79

Policies that ensure supportive environments for members of disadvantaged groups are one strategy to deal with what problem of bureaucracies?

A)resistance to change
B)inefficiency and rigidity
C)oligarchy
D)exclusion from social networks

Question 80

What shortcoming of bureaucracy is illustrated in the text by the example of Mr.Payne being disqualified from teaching?

A)gender inequality
B)class inequality
C)inefficiency and rigidity
D)goal displacement