Deck 3: Culture

Question 1

What are cultural universals? Examine and evaluate the connections between the existence (or otherwise) of cultural universals and the deeper nature versus nurture debate.

Answer 1

No Answer

Question 2

What is the most common stance among researchers on the "nature vs. nurture" debate?

A) They view the debate as inadequate.
B) They view nature as the dominant factor in shaping outcomes.
C) They view nature and nurture as equally determinative.
D) They view nurture as the dominant factor in shaping outcomes.

Answer 2

They view the debate as inadequate.

Question 3

Which of the following constitutes culture shock?

A) the absence of knowledge about other cultures
B) the feeling of disorientation that is experienced when people encounter cultural practices different from their own
C) a set of beliefs and practices that helps to maintain powerful social, economic, and political interests
D) the act of viewing people's behavior from the perspective of one's own culture

Answer 3

the feeling of disorientation that is experienced when people encounter cultural practices different from their own

Question 4

In which country did ethnocentric value judgments hamper U.S. efforts to build a democracy?

A) All of the answer choices are correct.
B) Iraq
C) Japan
D) Germany

Question 5

Mores are

A) norms that are deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society.
B) casual guidelines, the violation of which raises comparatively little concern.
C) uniformly accepted and implemented across cultures.
D) all formally recorded and enforced by the state.

Question 6

What is one of the contributions the feminist perspective has made to the study of language?

A) It suggests that gender-related language reflects traditional acceptance of men and women in certain occupations.
B) It suggests that men and women attach vastly different meaning to basic words and thus speak different languages.
C) It denies the validity of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in today's global culture where words are often shared across languages.
D) It suggests that language is inherently gender-neutral and that all gender-biased words are relatively recent inventions.

Question 7

What is cultural lag?

A) viewing people's behavior only from the perspective of one's own culture
B) the relationship between material and nonmaterial culture and how a change in one results in change in the other
C) an adjustment period when nonmaterial culture struggles to adapt to new material conditions
D) the length of time it takes for cognitive culture to spread from one society to the next

Question 8

Which of the following is True about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

A) It argues that language is biologically determined.
B) It argues that the primary role of language is to describe material reality.
C) It argues that thought precedes language.
D) It argues that the language we use shapes our perception of reality.

Question 9

Which of the following is the BEST example of a counterculture within the United States?

A) hippies
B) manga fans
C) African Americans
D) teenagers

Question 10

How might a functionalist perspective on culture differ from a conflict view of culture? How might each perceive the formation of subcultures differently?

Question 11

Which of the following is a component of cognitive culture?

A) language
B) electricity
C) religious objects
D) All of the answer choices are correct.

Question 12

Which of the following is an example of material culture?

A) a slice of pizza
B) a religious belief
C) a forest
D) a wedding ceremony

Question 13

John decides to spend two weeks traveling in Japan. While he is there, he notices that, unlike Americans, the Japanese cover their mouths when laughing. He is observing

A) a folkway.
B) a formal norm.
C) a more.
D) a value.

Question 14

The use of terms like brain bucket, ink slinger, and yard shark by bikers is an example of

A) ethnocentrism.
B) a taboo.
C) argot.
D) linguistics.

Question 15

George Murdock found that there are 70 categories of True cultural universals.

Question 16

Which of the following would be of particular interest to a sociobiologist?

A) the explanation of how our thoughts and actions are linked to our genes
B) how social interactions and cultural norms help shape human behavior
C) how different natural environments shape human behavior
D) the social origins of human culture

Question 17

The use of argot helps clarify the boundary between "insider" members of a subculture and other "outsider" members of society.

Question 18

Which of the following is True about the pace at which nonmaterial culture changes?

A) It is more resistant to change than material culture.
B) It changes at the same pace as material culture.
C) It remains the same once it has been created.
D) It is less resistant to change than material culture.

Question 19

Cultural preferences vary across societies. Which of the following is an example of a cultural preference?

A) marriage ceremonies
B) methods of education
C) All of the answer choices are correct.
D) religious doctrines

Question 20

A dominant ideology

A) enables those in power to shape beliefs about reality.
B) is the set of agreed-upon values held by most members of a society.
C) is how a society modifies the natural environment to suit its purposes.
D) enables marginalized groups to influence their societies.

Question 21

In practice, globalization has led to which of the following phenomena?

A) the cultural domination of developing nations by developed nations
B) All of the answer choices are correct.
C) native cultures being threatened by Western popular culture
D) people in developing nations often discarding their traditional values

Question 22

A member of a new fundamentalist church believes that she has found the one True way to achieve salvation, and that members of other religions are pagans who will go directly to hell when they die. This is an example of

A) culturally relativism.
B) culture lag.
C) ethnocentrism.
D) culture shock.

Question 23

Which of the following is a method through which culture is diffused?

A) the Internet
B) All of the answer choices are correct.
C) military conquest
D) tourism

Question 24

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis implies that language precedes thought. What does it mean to say that language precedes thought? What are the implications of this claim for the analysis of culture?

Question 25

Which of the following is an example of a practice that appears to violate the norms of society in general, but actually represents adherence to the norms of a particular group?

A) use of shady accounting techniques in business
B) Neither answer is correct.
C) Both answers are correct.
D) teenage alcohol consumption

Question 26

Which of the following is an example of ethnocentrism?

A) people from the United States being surprised by the social welfare programs in Europe
B) people from India being repelled by the common American practice of living in the same household with dogs and cats
C) people from South America being unfamiliar with traditional Japanese tea customs
D) people from many African cultures being surprised at the racial antagonisms in the United States

Question 27

Which of the following BEST defines a society?

A) the totality of learned, socially transmitted behavior
B) a group of people who share an ethnic background
C) the shared norms, values, and beliefs of a large group of people
D) the structure of relationships within which culture is created and shared

Question 28

The words blacklist and white lie are examples of

A) language that can promote racial stereotypes.
B) the nonverbal components of communication.
C) language that is universally, rather than culturally, determined.
D) descriptive proper nouns.

Question 29

The main difference between discovery and invention is that only invention involves the creation of something that did NOT previously exist.

Question 30

Common practices and beliefs shared by all societies are called

A) cultural diffusers.
B) cultural integrators.
C) cultural relatives.
D) cultural universals.

Question 31

Cultural lag occurs because people in most societies are

A) more likely to modify cultural universals than create new customs and practices.
B) more likely to change their nonmaterial culture than their material culture.
C) less likely to change their material culture than their cognitive culture.
D) more likely to change their material culture than their nonmaterial culture.

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of nonverbal communication?

A) a frown
B) All of the answer choices are correct.
C) a hug
D) a high five

Question 33

Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann coined what phrase in 1966 to describe the ongoing interdependent relationship within which individuals create society through our actions while simultaneously becoming products of the society we construct?

A) world construction
B) the social construction of reality
C) cognitive culture
D) sociobiology

Question 34

Which of the following is True about cognitive culture?

A) Both answers are true.
B) Neither answer is true.
C) It consists of our mental and symbolic representations of reality.
D) It modifies the natural environment to meet particular wants and needs.

Question 35

Which of the following is an example of a norm that is often ignored because of weak enforcement?

A) teenage alcohol consumption
B) Neither answer is correct.
C) Both answers are correct.
D) use of shady accounting techniques in business

Question 36

Informal norms are

A) also known as mores and are essential for a society's wellbeing.
B) generally understood but not precisely recorded.
C) written down as part of government charters.
D) enforced by the state with punishments for violators.

Question 37

The diffusion of cultures across national borders can have positive and negative effects. The negative effects are most likely to be experienced by developing rather than developed countries.

Question 38

Formal norms enforced by the state are

A) values.
B) laws.
C) mores.
D) folkways.

Question 39

Wearing formal clothes in an informal setting would be an example of violating a formal norm.

Question 40

Which of the following is True about folkways?

A) They are norms that govern everyday behavior.
B) They are generally viewed as more important than mores.
C) They are generally rigidly applied.
D) Their violation creates significant social concerns.

Question 41

Terrorist groups in Northern Ireland are an example of

A) a counterculture.
B) a subculture.
C) neither a subculture nor a counterculture.
D) both a subculture and a counterculture.

Question 42

Humans have more control over their own destinies if they are the product of nature rather than nurture.

Question 43

The Esperanto language was created

A) to transcend national and ethnic differences.
B) for use in a film.
C) to provide a more rational and coherent type of language.
D) by hobbyists who enjoy the challenge of creating new languages.

Question 44

Which of the following would be an example of an invention?

A) coal
B) genes
C) chlorophyll
D) superconductors

Question 45

Language can be described as being "socially constructed" because it has no inherent meaning other than that assigned to it by humans.

Question 46

One important implication of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is that our understanding of reality is strictly determined by nature.

Question 47

A dominant ideology is a

A) subculture that rejects societal norms and values and purposefully seeks an alternative lifestyle.
B) specialized language used by members of a group or subculture.
C) set of behaviors that ignore traditional values in favor of innovative norms that promote progress within a society.
D) set of cultural beliefs and practices that legitimate existing powerful social, economic, and political interests.

Question 48

Sociologist William Ogburn differentiated between material and nonmaterial culture. Explain Ogburn's distinction. What does this distinction contribute to our broader understanding of the concept of culture?

Question 49

Which of the following is True about the list of U.S. basic values offered by sociologist Robin Williams?

A) Everyone living in the United States agrees with the values on the list
B) It includes the values of freedom, equality, morality, democracy, and conformity
C) The list serves as a starting point in defining America's national character
D) The values included in the list apply uniformly to all countries and cultures

Question 50

A sociologist from the United States receives a grant to study racial and religious prejudice among the peoples of Southeast Asia. The sociologist makes a serious and unbiased effort to evaluate the norms, values, and customs of these groups in light of the distinctive cultures of which they are a part. This is an example of

A) cultural neutrality.
B) ethnocentrism.
C) cultural relativism.
D) cultural deconstruction.

Question 51

Innovation interests sociologists because it

A) always changes the structures of authority within a society.
B) rarely spreads change across national boundaries.
C) always creates a sudden, blanket change in society.
D) often has continuing effects beyond the initial change.

Question 52

Which of the following is NOT a culturally learned behavior?

A) folkways
B) laws
C) mores
D) instincts

Question 53

Which of the following would be an example of discovery?

A) the building of the transcontinental railroad
B) the founding of Catholicism
C) the writing of the Declaration of Independence
D) the identification of bacteria

Question 54

The totality of our shared language, knowledge, material objects, and behavior is known as

A) socialization.
B) social structure.
C) society.
D) culture.

Question 55

A man from a very conservative culture travels to a country where the culture is more liberal. As he walks down the sidewalk, he is startled to see women wearing pants and even shorts instead of the long skirts and dresses worn by women in his culture. He is experiencing

A) cultural relativism.
B) culture shock.
C) cultural universals.
D) cultural integration.

Question 56

One of the reasons why we need culture is that it helps us to make sense of, and relate to, the physical world around us.

Question 57

Which of the following is True about norms?

A) They are classified as formal or informal.
B) All of the answer choices are correct.
C) They must be widely shared and understood.
D) They are established standards of behavior maintained by a society.

Question 58

Students who return home after studying abroad often experience a kind of reverse culture shock, which reflects

A) how we tend to view other cultures as offensive.
B) the general uniformity of culture.
C) the static nature of our relationship to cultures.
D) how much we take culture for granted.

Question 59

Which of the following examples illustrates the rapid globalization of culture?

A) Starbucks stores in China
B) Coca-Cola factories in the U.S.
C) the discovery of DNA
D) war in Afghanistan

Question 60

In general, sociobiologists emphasize how social behavior can influence our biological evolution as a species.

Question 61

Culture helps us to

A) experience the external world in a physical way.
B) interpret information received by our senses.
C) perceive nature directly.
D) bypass the process of interpretation.

Question 62

Which of the following is True about language?

A) All of the answer choices are correct.
B) It expresses the inherent meanings in sounds.
C) It is a fairly static form of expression.
D) It includes speech, writing, and nonverbal gestures.

Question 63

Define the term culture and explain how and why members of society seek to preserve it. What is the relationship between culture and society? To what extent is one the product of the other?

Question 64

In his research, George Murdock determined that

A) all cultures are fundamentally the same when it comes to their beliefs and practices.
B) though cultures appear to outwardly share many common denominators, the only true cultural universal is trade.
C) although all cultures share common denominators, how cultures address these practices and beliefs varies greatly.
D) there are fewer than 20 categories of practices and beliefs that can be considered cultural universals.