Soc 101 Test #3 Flashcards
What are the 4 different types of social institutions that we looked at in class?
Education, Family, Religion, and Political
What are social institutions?
social organizations that help a society meet certain needs (ex. educational institution meets the need of learning)
What are the three functions of education?
equalizer of opportunity, social placement and sorting and as a socializing agent.
Of the three functions of education which of the two functions have tension between each other?
Equalizing opportunity and placement/sorting. (how equal is the placement of people in the education system? does it reproduce existing inequalities? )
In the 19th century mass public education emerged with what major change in production?
Industrialization!
Education helps prepare people to be productive members of society and helps promote an national culture. What is the type of theoretical perspective that is being demonstrated here?
functionalist.
Education systems reproduce inequalities by setting credentials to “weed” people out of higher paying jobs. What is the type of theoretical perspective that is being demonstrated here?
conflict theory
What is a religious plural society?
A society in which more than one dominant religion (currently in the United States there are a whole bunch of churches)
Which classic theorists thought that secularism would lead to the end of religion? (Marx, Weber or Durkheim?)
All of them!
there is some evidence showing that a greater amount of secularism has caused a decline in __________________ (hint: not just one word)
the influence of religious authority and influence of religious organizations
What is religious economy?
A theoretical framework within the sociology of religion, which argues that religions can be fruitfully understood as organizations in competition with one another for followers.
What is a criticism of the religious-economy approach?
It overestimates the extent to which people rationally* pick their religion. (*Rationally here can be thought of like Rational Choice Theory in which people weigh the costs and benefits of choosing a religion like they would when buying a car.)
What are the four types of religious organizations?
Churches, sects, denominations, and cults. (can you name one of each and know the difference between them?)
What is the difference between a religiously dominant society and a religiously plural society?
religiously dominant society= one religion is dominant and is contrasted with society as a whole (the world of Marx, Durkheim and Weber)
What (from a sociological perspective) can explain the persistence of religion even with an increase in secularization?
Religious organizations have become more adaptive. Since more religions are tolerated there are also more options for people to chose which religion is for them.
Which theorists thought religion was a stabilizing force?
Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim
Each individual vote is important in deciding which party gets elected to the office and thus what kind of policy is enacted. Which of the theories of democracy does this sound like?
Pluralist theory
There ain’t a dimes worth of difference between em (referencing the political parties). What kind of theory of democracy does this sound like?
Power Elite theory.
What are examples of intermediary organizations in democracies?
political parties, social movements and news media.
What is the general trend of the crime rate in the United States according to your text book?
Peaked in the 1990’s and has been going down since.
True or false- Low income people commit more crimes than higher income people.
False.
How are laws related to social norms?
Laws can be thought of as social norms that have been codified by the government (they have been made official)
What is deviance?
non-conformity to a given set of norms that are accepted by a significant number of people in a community or society.
What are the two causal factors or theories that we talked about in relation to social movements and terrorism?
Deprivation theories and Resource mobilization theories (know what these are and how they differ from each other)
In 2011 what was the world population? United States? Milwaukee?
World=7 billion people
What is demography?
The study of size and changes in population
If in the United States there is one birth every 8 seconds and one death every 11 seconds and 1 net international migrant gained every 45 seconds then what is happening to the population of the United States? (hint you don’t need to do any math to figure this out)
The population is going up. With these questions just know the general trends.
The rate of population growth is arithmetical T/F
False. The rate of population growth is exponential. (it multiplies instead of adds)
According to demographic transition theory what is the main reason for the rise in population in nations going through the Urbanizing/Industrializing stage?
The death rate sharply declines while the birthrate stays the same. (stage two)
According to Malthusianism when will people choose to have less children? (thus causing the rate of population growth to decline)
Never. According to this theory the only way in which the population would decrease is lack of food, disease and war.
The main reason for the population explosion in third world nations is:
a rapid drop in the death rate. (this is the one many people got wrong in class)
What is the difference between infant mortality rate and the crude birth rate?
The Infant Mortality Rate (IMF) describes the number of deaths that occur within the first year of life per 1000 births (so if 1000 children are born to a given population in a given year but 5 do not survive the first year then the IMR=5/1000)
