SOCY1000 Sociology: Global Perspective. Professor Backman.
Midterm.
As usual, the first three questions are the same. Be sure to answer all three.
1. According to the Thomas theorem,
a. if someone does you a favor,
you owe a favor in return
b. society is characterized
by a constant battle between groups of people, each of which is trying to
obtain the best possible results for itself
c. people decide what to do
next on the basis of what they think is going on now
d. people decide what to do
next on the basis of what is going on now
e. people use norms to help
them decide what to do next
2. According to the Thomas theorem,
a. if someone does you a
favor, you owe a favor in return
b. society is characterized
by a constant battle between groups of people, each of which is trying to
obtain the best possible results for itself
c. people decide what to do
next on the basis of what they think is going on now
d. people decide what to do
next on the basis of what is going on now
e. people use norms to help
them decide what to do next
3. According to the Thomas theorem,
a. if someone does you a
favor, you owe a favor in return
b. society is characterized
by a constant battle between groups of people, each of which is trying to
obtain the best possible results for itself
c. people decide what to do
next on the basis of what they think is going on now
d. people decide what to do
next on the basis of what is going on now
e. people use norms to help
them decide what to do next
4. According to Backman (your 'umble
professor), which of the following is the best definition of the
sociological term "norm"?
a. what most people do
b. widely shared feeling or
belief about what is important to a society's identity or well-being
c. an expectation shared by
members of a group which specifies behavior considered appropriate in a given
situation
d. a rule about what you
should do that applies no matter what the situation
e. taking something that is
hostile or neutral to you and making it more favorable to you, usually by using
it in some way
5. T F Sociology
is the study of human social behavior.
6. T F Sociologists tend to agree that an actor can be anything he or she wants provided the actor works hard.
7. T F It
is possible for social integration to increase at the same time that social
differentiation increases.
8. T F There is often conflict between ideal culture and real culture. This conflict can lead to social change.
9. T F Anomie exists when there are no clear standards to guide behavior in a given area of social life.
10. T F In
general, to survive, societies must have some method(s) for dealing with
accidents or other things that could throw the society's various systems off.
11. T F One sign of a society that is likely to be successful is that it has little or no redundancy in the performance of societally important tasks.
12. T F In
the terminology of role theory, "role" refers to the position someone
holds in society, and "status" refers to how good that role is
considered to be within the society.
13. T F Adequate
role performance often requires teamwork.
14. T F People whose personal values are consistent with the cultural values tend to have more difficulties in deciding what to do than people whose personal values differ from the cultural values.
15. T F In
most elections in the
16. T F That Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan grew up fairly poor in small town America, did not see active battlefield service, and were not at any point mostly businessmen illustrates C. Wright Mills's points about the power elite.
17. T F Your sense of who you are is largely a creation of the people around you.
18. T F One way people increase the predictability of their world is by being predictable themselves.
19. T F Milgram's experiments (the ones involving a “teacher” giving shocks to a “learner”) illustrated that ordinary people will often conform to orders given by someone in a position of power or authority, even if those orders have horrible consequences.
20. T F How to handle uncertainty is a major concern of organizations.
21. T F Men are more likely than women to commit crimes.
22. T F Manufacturing cars is a manifest function of the American automobile industry.
23. T F According
to Lazarsfeld (and other sociologists), common sense
is an inadequate guide to truth.
24. T F The power of explanations based on recruitment is based on the fact that people bring with them skills, attitudes, and connections when they join a group.
25. T F A person's personal network includes both the person's friends and acquaintances and their friends and acquaintances.
26. T F The
chief reason people have married throughout history is for love.
27. T F Rising divorce
rates indicate that people are increasingly dissatisfied with the whole idea of
marriage.
28. T F A continuing relationship with both parents following divorce helps children cope better with the separation.
29. T F Most Americans
marry at least once in their lives.
30. T F African
American families, especially those that are poor, tend to rely more on
extended families than do white families.
31. T F Piaget’s concept of egocentrism refers to the tendency of the child to interpret the world exclusively in terms of his own position, particularly in the preoperational stage.
32. T F Virtually all Americans (over 90 percent) can read and write at at least a fourth grade level.
33. T F According to the textbook, the weight of evidence suggests that social and cultural influences are stronger than biological influences in determining IQ.
34. T F “Tracking” students in schools perpetuates social inequalities because it reduces the performance of average or below students, who most often come from lower-income families.
35. "How is society possible?" is a paraphrase of
a. the
existentialist
dilemma
d. the Plumbers law
b. the
anomie
principle
e. rational-legalism
c. the
Hobbesian problem of order
36. The sociological perspective that sees the most basic element
in social life as the attempt of the individual human actor to make sense of a
situation and give it meaning is
a. the conflict
perspective
d. the Platonic perspective
b. the consensus
perspective e.
the Aristotelian perspective
c. symbolic interactionism
37. The fundamental questions constantly facing every individual
are
a. What is sociology? and
Who cares?
b. Who am I? and What's going on here?
c. What's going on here?
and What do I do next?
d. What's going on here?
and Why is it going on?
e. What's going on here?
and Who cares?
38. A sociological version of the second law of thermodynamics (“the second
law of social thermodynamics”) would be
a. patterns of behavior
persist to the extent they benefit the powerful in society
b. patterns of behavior persist
to the extent they benefit the society
c. if someone does you a
favor, you owe them a favor in return
d. it takes work to maintain
social structures
e. you can't worry about
training people until you have recruited them
39. According to Adam Smith’s laissez
faire ideas, I would not enter into a
voluntary exchange with you if I felt that
a. you would not benefit also
from the exchange
b. I would not benefit from the exchange
c. you thought you would
benefit more from the exchange than I
d. I would benefit more than you
e. later we might be inclined
to make a similar exchange
40. The term "ethnocentrism" means
a. based on actual
observation of the world
b. the belief that the best
way to judge cultures is to compare them to your culture and that the more a
culture differs from yours, the more inferior that culture is
c. the belief that there is
no one best culture and that cultures must be evaluated by what they do for the
individuals within them
d. the simultaneous presence
of opposites
e. a relationship in which
communication is deep and extensive, individuals relate to one another as full
persons, and feelings are more important than getting things done
41. Primary groups are especially important for their contributions to our
a. expressive
gratifications d.
human capital
b. instrumental
gratifications
e. prescriptive relations
c. social status
42. The right of every individual to enjoy a minimum standard of economic
welfare and security is called
a. civil
rights d. right
rights
b. left
rights e. social
rights
c. political rights
43. A rise in worldly thinking happening at the same time as a decline in
the influence of religion is called
a.
globalization d.
theism
b. religious
pluralism e.
secularization
c. new age religion
44. A religious organization which forms by breaking away from an
established church, which relies on people joining rather than being born into
the group, and which generally either rejects or tries to change the
surrounding society would be termed a
a. religious
movement d.
sect
b.
denomination e.
cult
c. church
45. In terms of religious participation in the
a. have higher rates than
the rest of the country
b. have lower rates than the
rest of the country
c. have higher rates than the
West coast, but about the same rates as the rest of the country
d. have higher rates than the
Northeast, but about the same rates as the rest of the country
e. have about the same rates
as the rest of the country
46. The largest religion in the world, with 2.6 billion
followers, is
a. Buddhism d.
Islam
b. Christianity
e. Judaism
c. Hinduism
47. The largest religious denomination in the
a. Baptist d.
Lutheran
b. Catholic
e. Methodist
c. Jewish
48. Which of the following is not part of Weber's ideal type bureaucracy?
a. A fixed division of labor
b. A hierarchy of authority
c. Written records
d. Officials are hired on the basis of their social networks
e. Separation between the officials' private lives and the organization and its
property
49. Patterns of relations within a large organization that are not those required
by the organization’s written rules are called
a. the formal
structure d.
the survival instinct
b. the illegitimate
structure e.
uncertainty
c. the informal structure
50. The social knowledge, connections, and other social resources that
enable people to accomplish their goals and extend their influence constitute
a. sociability d.
social capital
b. investments
e. weak ties
c. functional prerequisites
51. The function of culture for the individual that most directly
helps the society to get individuals to do what is good for the society is
a. to answer fundamental
questions such as, What is the origin of the earth?
b. to increase predictability
c. to specify means for
dealing with biological drives
d. to provide individuals
with motivations that define desirable conduct and outcomes
e. none of the above help
society get individuals to do things that help society
52. According to the functionalist postulate,
a. humans do not have
instincts and therefore must be taught how to function in the culture in which
they find themselves
b. the female ancestors of
sociologists who believe in symbolic interactionism
tend to wear boots designed for warfare
c. a pattern of behavior will
continue to be a part of a society to the extent that it benefits the society
d. a pattern of behavior will
continue to be a part of the society to the extent that it benefits the
powerful people in the society
e. a pattern of behavior will
continue to be a part of the society to the extent that it continues to
accomplish what the people who first invented the pattern intended it to
accomplish
53. An experienced orchestral musician tells the newly hired
trombone player, "In this orchestra we tune up our instruments BEFORE we
go out onto the stage and sit quietly until the maestro comes onto the stage.
And we all stand the moment the maestro appears. So it amounts to this: no
tuning up while on the stage, and stand up when the maestro comes
onstage." This illustrates which of the following?
a. Prejudice
d. Ascribed status
b. Cultural
pluralism e.
Norms
c. Values
54. Becoming an adult is an example of
a. short-term status
passage
d. stripping the self
b. long-term status
passage e.
none of the above
c. disagreement between role
partners
55. Which of the following is the best example of using the
concept of recruitment to explain the behavior of a group or of the members of
a group?
a. The reason for the success of the Auburn football
program under Coach Tuberville is that every player
is taught exactly what he is supposed to do (expectations are very clear), and players
are consistently rewarded or punished on the basis of the extent to which they
meet their expectations.
b. It's easy to explain why
Coach Tuberville's teams are so successful; anyone
could win with the talented players he gets to come to
c. The reason that Microsoft
has such a homogeneous corporate culture is that individuals who don't fit in
very well eventually leave the company, taking their disruptive influences with
them.
d. The reason that
e. Successful military
training depends on knocking everyone down to the same low level, then building
pride in the person's new identity as a soldier.
56. Socialization is
a. face to face interaction
with others involving conversation, especially conversation with an expressive
content
b. the process of members
leaving a group
c. the process of teaching
and learning the rules and ways of a group
d. the process of finding new
members for a group
e. the gratification we feel
in the course of conversation
57. Norms that have become part of an individual's own beliefs
about how he or she should behave are said to have been
a. hyper-enforced d.
sanctified
b. hypo-enforced e.
congealed
c. internalized
58. To the extent that schools help perpetuate
social and economic inequalities across generations, they are part of the
process of
a. social
reproduction d. all of the above
b. social
transformation e. none of the above
c. social revolution
59. Schools
a. have been directly
involved in the socialization of the majority of people in
b. in the
c. still do not exist in many
parts of the less developed world
d. have been directly
involved for at least a few years in the socialization of the majority of
people now alive in the world
e. have been considered one
of the most important responsibilities of the government since the earliest
days of European settlement in
60. Which of the following would probably be part of the hidden
curriculum of kindergarten?
a. Learning shapes (rectangle,
square, etc.)
b. Learning to say “please”
and “thank you”
c. Learning that participation in
ritual is more important than understanding the ritual
d. All of the above are part of the hidden
curriculum
e. None of the above are part
of the hidden curriculum
61. Which is NOT one of the important changes the text says is taking place
around the world in family patterns?
a. clans and other kin groups are declining in importance
b. increasing free choice of a spouse
c. women's rights in choosing a spouse and in family decision-making are
more widely recognized
d. children are having fewer rights
e. all of the above are among the
changes occurring in family patterns around the world
62. In the
a. matrilocal d.
patrilocal
b. nuptolocal e. polylocal
c. neolocal
63. Who is more likely to get a divorce at some point in their life course?
a. people whose parents never divorced
b. people who cohabit before marriage
c. people who marry at an older age
d. people with high incomes
e. people with children
64. The more homogamous a marriage,
a. the more likely it is to
end in divorce
b. the less likely it is to
end in divorce
c. the more likely it is to
involve great age differences between bride and groom
d. the more likely it is to
involve a rich bride and a poor groom
e. the more likely it is to
involve a rich groom and a poor wife
65. Insofar as there are negative effects from divorce, ______ seem to
suffer more negative effects from stepfamily life, while _____ suffer more
negative effects from single-parent family life.
a. boys;
girls
d. girls; girls also
b. girls;
boys e. none of the above
c. boys; boys also
66. Mead calls learning what it is like to be metaphorically in
the shoes of another person
a. maturation
d. concrete operationality
b. sympatico e.
symbolic interaction
c. taking the role of the
other
67. Mead calls the general values and rules of a culture
a. idiosyncrasy credit
d. idealism
b. metathought e.
the significant other
c. the generalized other
68. A telephone conversation between you and a friend would be an
example of
a. face-to-face interaction
d. hyperreality
b. mediated interaction e.
face work
c. mediated quasi-interaction
69. When I lived in
a. gender
d. rock and roll
b. sex e.
all of the above
c. drugs
70. The concept that individuals become delinquent through hanging out with
people who are carriers of criminal norms is called
a. control
theory d.
anomie
b. differential
association
e. the strength of weak ties
c. the rational choice
proposition
71. Which of the following would be an example of an ascribed
status?
a. King of
b. President of the
c. professor of
sociology
72. Fred's society is under attack. To prevent the society from being taken
over by a nasty dictator, an army must be raised. Fred deliberately injures
himself to avoid military service -- not because he doesn't want to see the
enemy defeated, but because he does not wish to risk death himself. Fred is
a. a free rider
d. over socialized
b. a sociopath
e. a mind guard
c. irrational
73. "Mind guards"
a. make the problems of group think worse
by intimidating, sanctioning, or otherwise shutting off people who would offer
ideas contrary to the group consensus
b. help reduce potential group think by introducing ideas
contrary to the group consensus, but in a way that separates the speaker from
the idea so that the speaker need worry about being personally blamed or
punished for the unpopular idea
c. help reduce potential group think
by constantly reminding people of the need to keep open minds
d. are outsiders brought in to bring
new perspectives to a decision making group
e. are caffeine pills used by
bureaucrats to keep themselves awake during long dull meetings
74. To say that something is an "empirical question"
means that the answer
a. can be found by asking
around for the answer
b. can be found by looking it
up in the Bible
c. can be found by looking it
up in the encyclopedia
d. can be found by making
some observations
e. cannot be found because
the question has no answer
75. ______ means "other things being equal."
a. ex post
facto d. quad
erat demonstradum
b. cui
bono e.
tai guile
c. ceteris paribus
76. You have completed a proper survey in
a. 400
b. 784 (that is, 1.96 times 400)
c. 1130 (that is, 400 times the square root of 8)
d. 3200 (that is, 400 times 8)
e. 10,000 (that is, the square of 1 over .01)
BE SURE TO CONTINUE ON TO THE LAST PAGE!
For the remaining questions, you are to choose the thematic duality most
relevant to the assertion given in the question. Choose from the dualities
listed below. You can use any duality more than once. Be sure to put your
answer on the computer answer sheet.
a.
individual vs.
collective
d. statics vs. dynamics
b. integration vs.
differentiation
e. mind vs. body
c. free will vs. determinism
77. Weber's deep knowledge about the structure of the society of
his day and about the structure of society under the
78. Wars can be great unifiers. A country's conflicts between rich and poor or between city dwellers and folks in the countryside may disappear as all groups work together as a nation to take on the opposing country.
79. Charismatic leadership can be found even in societies dominated by
rational-legal leadership.
80. Elected officials often have to deal with situations in which their
personal judgment about what is the best course of action is in conflict with
what their constituents feel is best.
81. Human behavior is constrained in important ways by human
biology.
82. Great statues generate a sense of movement as well as of
shape.