Deck 24: A: Social Change

Question 1

Max Weber worried that modern societies were prone to a condition he called "anomie."

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Emile Durkheim understood modernization in terms of changes in societal solidarity.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Modernization typically reduces the range of personal choice about how to live.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Sociologist Peter Berger suggests that the rising popularity of wearing wristwatches is a good indicator that a traditional society is beginning to modernize.

Question 5

In global perspective,we see that some societies change but others do not.

Question 6

Modernity is the product of social changes brought on by the Industrial Revolution.

Question 7

Emile Durkheim's concept of mechanical solidarity parallels Tönnies's concept of Gesellschaft.

Question 8

Ferdinand Tönnies described Gesellschaft as based on the power of the community over the individual.

Question 9

Social change is usually controversial.

Question 10

Max Weber declared modern societies to be "disenchanted."

Question 11

According to Emile Durkheim,modern societies are held together by difference,a process he called "organic solidarity."

Question 12

Durkheim considered a rising suicide rate a good indicator that mechanical solidarity was getting stronger.

Question 13

Modernization typically decreases social diversity.

Question 14

Saying that people are "essentially united in spite of all separating factors" is a good way to describe what Tönnies called Gemeinschaft.

Question 15

Modernization touched off the development of sociology.

Question 16

While Max Weber linked modern alienation to inequality,Karl Marx linked modern alienation to expanding bureaucracy.

Question 17

Modernization means that fewer people live in small,traditional communities.

Question 18

William Ogburn's theory of cultural lag states that non-material culture usually changes faster than material culture.

Question 19

Social change results from invention,discovery,and cultural diffusion.

Question 20

Karl Marx claimed that conflict between classes had the effect of preventing social change.

Question 21

The class-society theory of modernity is derived largely from the social-conflict approach of Karl Marx.

Question 22

A criticism of mass-society theory is that it pays too much attention to social inequality.

Question 23

Karl Marx considered the defining trait of modern society to be capitalism.

Question 24

Difficulty forming a personal identity is a problem of modernity highlighted by mass-society theory.

Question 25

Today's other-directed people have little interest in fashions and fads.

Question 26

Karl Marx was a major architect of mass-society theory.

Question 27

The class-society theory states that modernization has greatly reduced social inequality.

Question 28

David Riesman's other-directed people are characterized by superficiality,weak beliefs,and an openness to change.

Question 29

According to mass-society theory,the mass media transform people in countless local communities forming a national culture.

Question 30

Modern people,claims mass-society theory,tend to develop tradition-directed personalities and hold to conventional ways of life.

Question 31

The story of the Kaiapo in Brazil shows that modernization makes people better appreciate their traditions.

Question 32

Class-society describes the personal experience of modernity as powerlessness.

Question 33

Mass-society theory argues that the scale of social life is increasing leaving people feeling lost in a world of vast and impersonal bureaucracies.

Question 34

"Postmodernity" refers to societies transformed by the Industrial Revolution.

Question 35

The theory of postmodernity claims that,in important respects,modernity has failed to live up to its promise.