ISS Exam 2

Question 1

Conflict Theory on Classes

Answer 1

We have created the system that causes inequality
Inequality is not inevitable

Question 2

Functionalist Theory on Classes

Answer 2

Inequality is inevitable

Question 3

Symbolic Interactionist Theory on Classes

Answer 3

The ways that we experience and make meaning out of things
How we interact with the social world around us
How we make sense of inequality

Question 4

The Power Elite

Answer 4

A group of people who, because of their positions, live outside the ordinary environment that most people live in
Usually individuals who hold positions of power
A subset of the upper class who have both power and wealth

Question 5

Philanthropy (role in wealthy families)

Answer 5

Obligations to family traditions, efforts to reify a family’s social position, self-interest, etc.

Question 6

Affluenza

Answer 6

Ones inability to understand the consequences of their actions based on their social class/status and economic privilege

Question 7

Business Cycles

Answer 7

Fluctuations in economic activity over long periods of time  expansions and downturns loop
Contribute to changes in levels of inequality over time

Question 8

Unions

Answer 8

Unions help to provide workers with a sense of fairness/equality in the workplace
Established certain worker’s rights  pay gap, race/ethnicity/gender equality
Collective bargaining  allowed workers to “bargain” with management in order to gain rights

Question 9

Erik Olin Wright –> Middle Class being exploited/exploiters

Answer 9

Middle class may be exploited through property ownership but may be the exploiters through their control over organizational assets and owners of monopolized skills

Question 10

Role of Children in Families

Answer 10

Children helped with work
No child labor laws allowed for child labor to take place
Larger families were normal as children could help get work done faster

Question 11

Cult of Domesticity

Answer 11

Middle class was adopted through the cult of domesticity
Created the ideology of the role of women in society –> home was the “proper environment”

Question 12

Absolute Poverty

Answer 12

The inability to sustain oneself

Question 13

Relative Poverty

Answer 13

Compares people based on the distribution of resources
Poor = those who fall below the average income threshold
Poverty is different from place to place

Question 14

Official Poverty

Answer 14

Poverty computed by the USCB
A measure of relative poverty

Question 15

Subjective Measures

Answer 15

An individual’s perception of their financial and material position within society

Question 16

Hardship Indicators

Answer 16

Life circumstances and experiences
Financial perceptions to consideration of human wellbeing

Question 17

Social Exclusion

Answer 17

Social-structural determinants of poverty
Enacts social change

Question 18

Culture of poverty

Answer 18

Poverty is experienced across generations wherein families create a subculture that does not embrace middle class values
People are causing their own poverty

Question 19

Cycle of Poverty

Answer 19

Takes into account other factors that cause poverty
Education, job availability, cost of living, etc.

Question 20

Types of Welfare Programs

Answer 20

New Deal
War on Poverty
Aid to Families with Dependent Children

Question 21

The Working Poor

Answer 21

Have gainful employment, but their wages are so low that they are ranked in the bottom of the income/wealth distribution

Question 22

Spatial Mismatch Theory

Answer 22

Poverty is distributed unevenly across regions
Official poverty rates are outdated and only tell part of the story

Question 23

Intergenerational Mobility

Answer 23

The movement/mobility between generations
Things that change/stay the same between generations

Question 24

Open Stratification

Answer 24

facilitates and encourages social mobility
 people move up/down based on their effort and accomplishments

Question 25

Closed Stratification

Answer 25

mobility is rare and formal laws/social norms aim to prevent it

Question 26

Class Stratification

Answer 26

People are not formally prevented from moving up/down, but they are not guaranteed to retain their position

Question 27

Estate Stratification

Answer 27

A small, upper nobility class controls the majority of resources and the peasants depend on the upper class for survival

Question 28

Caste Stratification

Answer 28

Social position is fixed strictly by hereditary social group  one inherits their position and remains there for life

Question 29

Slavery Stratification

Answer 29

The most extreme from of closed stratification where slaves are captured, and sold as property in order to do forced labor

Question 30

Status Attainment Theory

Answer 30

The process by which individuals attain positions in the system of social stratification in a society

Question 31

Bernstein’s Codes

Answer 31

Elaborative and Restrictive

Question 32

Family Impact on Education

Answer 32

An individual’s family is their primary source/institution for socialization
“Family Culture” can positively or negatively impact children