Deck 1: Introducing Sociology

Question 1

According to the textbook, what social function does fashion perform?

A) It allows people with less education to find gainful employment.
B) It allows people of different rank to distinguish themselves from one another.
C) It provides unskilled people with jobs.
D) It provides immigrants with a legal way to earn a living.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Émile Durkheim examined the association between rates of suicide and rates of psychological disorder for different groups. What did Durkheim conclude?

A) The rates were not associated, so psychological disorders do not influence suicide.
B) The rates were associated, so psychological disorders influence suicide.
C) The rates were associated with race and ethnic origin.
D) The rates were not associated for women but were associated for men.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What did Durkheim's nineteenth-century study of suicide in France demonstrate?

A) that suicide was carried out mainly by "desperate" people
B) that suicide was influenced mainly by people's level of psychological distress
C) that suicide was related to an individual's level of integration into society
D) that suicide was caused by a high level of confusion when people belonged to several social networks at once

Answer 3

C

Question 4

According to the functionalist view of sociology, why do fashion trends come and go?

A) because they enable social inequality to persist
B) because they reflect trends in popular culture
C) because people often like the clothes their parents liked
D) because fashions allow people to express themselves

Question 5

According to the theorist C. Wright Mills, which of the following disciplines allows students to understand the interplay of biography and history?

A) psychology
B) geography
C) political science
D) sociology

Question 6

The sociological study of suicide reveals that suicidal behaviour is complex. Which of the following statements best summarizes this complexity?

A) Behaviour often thought to be motivated exclusively by an individual's state of mind is actually influenced by social forces.
B) Suicide cannot be predicted.
C) What appears to be the influence of social forces is actually the influence of individual understandings and biographical circumstances.
D) Only the mentally ill commit suicide.

Question 7

In Canada today, church attendance is down and unemployment rates are up. Considering Durkheim's theory of the relationship between suicide and social solidarity, which of the following statements best predicts Canadian suicide rates under the current conditions?

A) Social solidarity will not be affected, so the suicide rate will be low.
B) Suicide and social solidarity are not correlated.
C) Social solidarity is weak, so the suicide rate will be high.
D) Social solidarity is strong, so the suicide rate will be low.

Question 8

What did Émile Durkheim's study of suicide demonstrate?

A) Suicide rates are strongly influenced by psychological disorders.
B) Suicide rates are strongly influenced by social forces.
C) Suicide rates decrease with advancing age.
D) Suicide rates are tied to patterns of imitation.

Question 9

What was revealed by Durkheim's sociological study of suicide?

A) that only the mentally unstable commit suicide
B) that what may be the influence of social behaviour is actually the influence of individual understandings and biography
C) that what is thought to be individual behaviour is actually influenced by social forces
D) that suicide cannot be predicted

Question 10

Generally speaking, the more a group's members share beliefs and values, and the more they interact with one another, the more social cohesion the group has. What did Émile Durkheim call this property of groups?

A) social solidarity
B) group cohesion
C) social organization
D) social structure

Question 11

What term is used by sociologists for stable patterns of social relations?

A) social structure
B) social solidarity
C) social organization
D) group cohesion

Question 12

Which of the following examinations undertaken by Durkheim led to the conclusion that behaviours that we believe to be purely individual are in fact influenced by social forces?

A) the study of suicide
B) the analysis of modern social organizations
C) the assessment of sociopathic behaviour
D) the study of the political climate that generates revolutions

Question 13

Robert has just been laid off after 30 years working for the auto industry, and he understands that his layoff was due to the company moving its manufacturing plant to Cambodia. What has Robert used to understand his situation fully?

A) sociological imagination
B) social forces
C) social structural analysis
D) structural transformation theory

Question 14

What relationship does the sociological imagination allow people to understand?

A) the relationship between social structures and private troubles
B) the relationship between self-development and society
C) the relationship between politics and religion
D) the relationship between drive and instinct

Question 15

Why do most people overlook social forces as causes of suicide?

A) because there are no social reasons for carrying out such an individual act
B) because people who commit suicide are generally depressed or angry
C) because suicide is rare
D) because it is generally carried out by individuals in private settings

Question 16

Which sociological theory holds that fashion helps to maintain a precarious social equilibrium that could be disrupted by the underlying tensions between consumers and big players in fashion-related industries.

A) functionalism
B) conflict theory
C) symbolic interactionism
D) feminism

Question 17

Allyson is trying to make her heart-broken friend Linda feel better about Linda's impending divorce by explaining that many people get divorced because women have more economic options and higher education today than in the past. What is Allyson using?

A) sociological mapping
B) sociological imagination
C) structural investigation
D) global structural analysis

Question 18

How does the sociological study of suicide add to our understanding of behaviour?

A) The sociological approach explains individual behaviour.
B) The sociological approach emphasizes the influence of social forces.
C) The sociological approach explains imitation.
D) The sociological approach explains how drug abuse leads to suicide.

Question 19

Which of the following disciplines is characterized as the systematic study of human behaviour in social context?

A) sociology
B) psychology
C) geography
D) political science

Question 20

Married adults are half as likely as unmarried adults to commit suicide because marriage creates social ties and social commitments to others. What are these ties and commitments called?

A) social structure
B) socialization
C) social organization
D) social solidarity

Question 21

The world has become more interconnected, and this high level of connectivity and communication is reflected in social organization. What term do sociologists use for these kinds of organizations?

A) global structures
B) macrostructures
C) universal structures
D) infrastructures

Question 22

The sociological imagination originated before C. Wright Mills even coined the term. Which of the following influenced the development of the sociological imagination?

A) social solidarity, social interaction, and society
B) the Scientific Revolution, the Democratic Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution
C) micro-social contexts, macro-social contexts, and global social contexts
D) microstructures, macrostructures, and global structures

Question 23

According to sociologists today, Émile Durkheim's theory of suicide is an example of what type of theoretical perspective?

A) symbolic interactionism
B) conflict theory
C) functionalism
D) fatalism

Question 24

An employment advisor tells you to ask remote acquaintances as well as close friends for job leads and contacts. Consulting both groups lets you cast a wider net. What kind of pattern of social relations is this advice exemplifying?

A) macrostructure
B) infrastructure
C) global structure
D) microstructure

Question 25

What is the definition of patriarchy?

A) Patriarchy is the system that maintains heterosexism in society.
B) Patriarchy is the system that maintains male privilege in society.
C) Patriarchy is the system that maintains social stratification in society.
D) Patriarchy is the system that maintains white privilege in society.

Question 26

What do sociologists learn by examining historical social transformations such as the Industrial Revolution?

A) how to analyze and overcome social problems
B) how to use historical information
C) how to study industry
D) how to invest in strategic economic ventures

Question 27

Which of the following events supported the development of sociology as a science?

A) the rise of the British Empire from the seventeenth century onward
B) the democratic revolutions of 1750 onward
C) the Scientific Revolution, which began in Europe in the sixteenth century
D) the growth of the middle class in the early 1800s

Question 28

Consider the international organizations that shape social and individual life. What kind of structures are they?

A) infrastructures
B) superstructures
C) global structures
D) macrostructures

Question 29

What is the theory that emphasizes the importance of purposeful, shared values in shaping human behaviour?

A) conflict theory
B) dramaturgical sociology
C) functionalism
D) symbolic interactionism

Question 30

What does C. Wright Mills (1956) call the quality of mind that allows people to see the interplay between personal troubles and social structure?

A) social solidarity
B) the principle of association
C) the sociological imagination
D) dialectical socialism

Question 31

What kind of social structures does the social class system in Canada exemplify?

A) microstructure
B) mesostructure
C) macrostructure
D) global structure

Question 32

What do sociologists call patterns of social relations outside a person's immediate social experience?

A) mesostructures
B) infrastructures
C) power structures
D) macrostructures

Question 33

The Industrial Revolution impressed social thinkers with a host of problems demanding resolution. How did they respond?

A) with encouragement for a proletariat uprising
B) with the concept of the sociological imagination
C) with the concept of democratic governing
D) with observations and definitions of social structures

Question 34

What is the term used by sociologists for the ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures?

A) globalization
B) subjective insight
C) social solidarity
D) sociological imagination

Question 35

Which of the following movements embodied the idea of understanding society on the basis of evidence rather than speculation?

A) the Scientific Revolution
B) the Demographic Revolution
C) the Democratic Revolution
D) the Industrial Revolution

Question 36

What sociological theory stresses the stability of social relations and social organization?

A) conflict theory
B) functionalism
C) symbolic interactionism
D) feminism

Question 37

According to functionalist theories, what do social structures contribute to when they fit together?

A) the sociological imagination
B) social stability
C) societal change
D) social ideals

Question 38

What do sociologists call the patterns of intimate social relations formed during face-to-face interactions?

A) microstructures
B) social structures
C) macrostructures
D) global structures

Question 39

Jessica is trying to decide which postsecondary institution she is most suited to to attend next fall. Which of the following is best for her to activate in order to get advice that is likely to be useful and specific to her situation?

A) microstructures
B) macrostructures
C) global structures
D) patriarchal structures

Question 40

Alex and George were discussing different theoretical perspectives in their intro to sociology class. Alex felt that most people need rules to follow or chaos was sure to follow. George felt that, as far as he could tell, the rules that have been imposed on people, at least so far in history, have always been in favour of the elites, and that given half a chance, he trusted people to be able to figure things out even better if they were allowed to organize themselves. Given their views, which of the following is the most likely scenario?

A) Both follow symbolic interactionism.
B) George follows conflict theory and Alex is a functionalist.
C) Both are functionalists.
D) Alex follows conflict theory and George is a functionalist.

Question 41

Looking at the ways that the breadwinner-homemaker family popular in the 1950s helped society run smoothly is characteristic of which of the following theories?

A) feminism
B) conflict theory
C) functionalism
D) symbolic interactionism

Question 42

Although Max Weber was strongly influenced by Marx, he was critical of Marx's conclusions. What was one of Weber's criticisms of Marx?

A) that class conflict is not the only driving force of history
B) that manufacturing economies become more personal and flexible over time
C) that a workers' revolution would weaken bureaucracies
D) that the working classes are more revolutionary than Marx predicted

Question 43

According to Marx, what did capitalist owners create when they concentrated workers in large factories to increase profits?

A) a worker's paradise
B) status groups
C) a dictatorship of the proletariat
D) class conflict

Question 44

Sami is taking his first sociology class and to his considerable surprise he is finding it very interesting. He is especially interested in conflict theory, and would like to learn about specifically Canadian perspectives on sociological issues. Which of the following books mentioned in the textbook should he read?

A) The Rules of Sociological Method
B) Canadian Society and the Sociological Imagination
C) The Vertical Mosaic
D) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life

Question 45

Which of the following theoretical perspectives argues that social discord is the inevitable consequence of privilege and inequality?

A) feminism
B) functionalism
C) symbolic interactionism
D) conflict theory

Question 46

What theoretical tradition focuses on how the major patterns of inequality in society produce social stability in some circumstances and social change in others?

A) feminism
B) functionalism
C) symbolic interactionism
D) conflict theory

Question 47

Which theoretical tradition stresses that eliminating privilege will increase the sum total of human welfare?

A) social inequality theory
B) functionalist theory
C) conflict theory
D) socialization theory

Question 48

According to Marx, what encourages the creation and proliferation of trade unions and labour parties?

A) the growth of social status
B) the growth of class society
C) the growth of class consciousness
D) the growth of relative deprivation

Question 49

According to the textbook, many contemporary leading sociologists attended graduate school in the 1960s and 1970s. Considering this fact, which theoretical perspective are they most likely to subscribe to?

A) functionalism
B) conflict theory
C) symbolic interactionism
D) social Darwinism

Question 50

What sociologist wrote The Vertical Mosaic, which influenced an entire generation of Canadian sociologists?

A) Max Weber
B) John Porter
C) George Herbert Mead
D) Harriet Martineau

Question 51

Which theorist argued that the growth of the service sector stabilized society because service workers enjoy higher status and income than manual workers?

A) Max Weber
B) Talcott Parsons
C) Karl Marx
D) Émile Durkheim

Question 52

Which of the following theories leads to the view that lessening privilege will lower the level of disharmony and lead to improved human welfare?

A) functionalism
B) feminism
C) symbolic interactionism
D) conflict theory

Question 53

Which of the following theoretical perspectives is characterized by the view that people attach subjective meanings to their actions?

A) conflict theory
B) feminism
C) symbolic interactionism
D) functionalism

Question 54

Michelle believes that prostitution is beneficial for the whole of society because people are provided with outlets for sexual gratification that they might not have otherwise. Which of the following theories is her idea most closely aligned with?

A) symbolic interactionism
B) functionalism
C) conflict theory
D) feminism

Question 55

Which of the following theorists argued that economic inequality between the working class and the privileged class is the dominant force in society?

A) Karl Marx
B) Talcott Parsons
C) Max Weber
D) Robert Merton

Question 56

What was the main point of Max Weber's study of Protestantism and the development of capitalism?

A) that religion slows the development of capitalism
B) that capitalism developed where the Protestant ethic took hold
C) that the primary consequence of the Protestant work ethic was the enrichment of Protestants
D) that religious ideas do not influence the development of capitalism

Question 57

The fact that workers today are able to access employment insurance benefits as well as enjoy higher wages and less oppressive working conditions than workers in earlier centuries leads to which of the following?

A) a critique of the inevitability of a worker revolution
B) a critique of the inevitability of a capitalist society
C) a critique of communism
D) a critique of capitalism

Question 58

Which of the following theorists was the originator of conflict theory?

A) Kingsley Davis
B) Talcott Parsons
C) Robert Merton
D) Karl Marx

Question 59

Phoenix believes that class conflict is not the only force that drives social change, believing that religion and politics also create change. Whose theoretical works is Phoenix most closely aligned with?

A) Karl Marx
B) Talcott Parsons
C) Max Weber
D) Émile Durkheim

Question 60

According to Karl Marx, which of the following is the most important social structure in any society?

A) gender relations
B) class relations
C) moral order
D) social institutions

Question 61

Feminist thinking had little impact on sociology until the mid-1960s. What happened in the 1960s to change this state of affairs?

A) the development of scientific research models
B) the sudden growth of popular culture
C) the decline of functionalism
D) the rise of the modern women's movement

Question 62

For sociologists, what is usually the first step in the research cycle?

A) collecting data
B) formulating a research question
C) reviewing the literature
D) selecting a research method

Question 63

Which of the following best illustrates the way the film Avatar can help in understanding the symbolic interactionist perspective?

A) the earth corporation's plan to extract unobtanium at the expense of the interests of the inhabitants of Pandora
B) Jake's developing ability to see the world of Pandora from the point of view of others
C) Jake's integration into Na'vi society by falling in love with Neytiri
D) the important role that a female character, Neytiri, plays in resisting the exploitation of the earth corporation

Question 64

In a sociologist's research cycle, what step follows a review of existing literature?

A) selecting a research method
B) reporting results
C) collecting data
D) analyzing data

Question 65

Which of the following is a variable?

A) university student
B) Catholic
C) male
D) blood type

Question 66

According to your textbook, which of the following was a reason that so few women figured prominently in the early history of sociology?

A) the availability of other career options
B) functional necessity
C) income equality
D) family responsibilities

Question 67

Which sociologist first investigated previously overlooked issues such as factory reform and gender issues?

A) Mary Wollstonecraft
B) Auguste Comte
C) C. W. Mills
D) Harriet Martineau

Question 68

According to feminist theory, which of the following factors contributes to women's subordination to men in contemporary society?

A) biological necessity
B) the need for stability in modern society
C) historical precedent
D) structures of power and social convention

Question 69

Jane is interested in studying domestic violence and believes that, in order to fully understand this phenomenon, she needs to look at the interactions between individual members of heterosexual couples and at the overarching gender ideology of her society. Which theoretical framework are her beliefs most consistent with?

A) symbolic interactionism
B) feminist theory
C) queer theory
D) social constructionism

Question 70

Which of the following theoretical perspectives emphasizes that social life is possible only because people attach meanings to things?

A) symbolic interactionism
B) dramaturgical analysis
C) conflict theory
D) functionalism

Question 71

When a sociological researcher interviews workers about their opinions of their health insurance, what stage of research is the researcher engaging in?

A) reviewing the literature
B) selecting a research method
C) formulating a research question
D) collecting the data

Question 72

How would social-science researchers most likely control bias and personal influence when performing an analysis of society?

A) by conducting preliminary reviews of other studies before beginning their own
B) by using scientific research methods
C) by analyzing data with a computer
D) by submitting their work to peer review

Question 73

Which of the following sociologists was one of the first scholars to conduct sociological research investigating slavery, factory laws, and gender inequality?

A) Robert Merton
B) Max Weber
C) Émile Durkheim
D) Harriet Martineau

Question 74

Sociological research attempts to overcome non-scientific thinking by following a rigorous six-step model. What is usually the first step in this process?

A) collecting the data
B) reviewing the literature
C) selecting a research method
D) formulating a research question

Question 75

Which of the following theoretical perspectives focuses on various aspects of male domination in society?

A) symbolic interactionism
B) conflict theory
C) dramaturgical sociology
D) feminism

Question 76

When conducting research with human beings, what must sociologists be mindful of?

A) respecting the reputation of their university
B) respecting the need for public information
C) respecting the advantages of technology
D) respecting the research subject's rights

Question 77

Which of the following is one of the reasons that sociologists conduct research?

A) because other forms of research are more biased
B) to test questions of faith
C) to see how well theories fit the real world
D) so they can apply theories to control the biases in research

Question 78

What is usually the final step in a sociologist's research cycle?

A) operationalizing variables
B) reporting results
C) selecting appropriate statistical techniques
D) formulating a theory

Question 79

What is the most important ethical consideration for sociologists conducting research on human subjects?

A) respecting concrete data
B) respecting a subjects' rights
C) respecting the reputation of their university
D) respecting the public's need for information

Question 80

According to your textbook, which of the following scholars is often called the first woman sociologist?

A) Harriet Martineau
B) Mary Mills
C) Mary Wollstonecraft
D) Marianne Weber