Sociology Flashcards

Question

Studies concerning human instincts suggest that (A) many aspects of culture are transmitted genetically in the form of instincts. (B) human beings do not inherit complex patterns of social behavior and, therefore, have no true instincts. (C) among people of primitive societies, instincts can be observed. (D) humans are instinctively aggressive. (E) sexual behavior is the only genetically transmitted instinct.

Answer 1

(B) The variation in behavior cross-culturally suggests that culture and patterns of behavior are not instinctual, or transmitted genetically.

Answer 2

(A) The dependent variable is the one we are trying to explain. In this question, we are trying to explain the level of prejudice; therefore, it is the dependent variable.

Answer 3

(D) Verstehen was the term Weber used to describe his method for analyzing a particular social phenomenon.

Answer 4

(E) The symbolic interaction perspective looks to individual interaction and interpretation to explain social behavior. In the example, individual lawyers for the prosecution and defense interpret each others actions and reactions.

Answer 5

(D) _ Institutional discrimination occurs when inequalities are built into institutions and disproportionately disadvantages an entire category of people based on nothing more than their group membership. Institutional discrimination is unintended and carried out by institutions, not individuals.

Answer 6

(C) The majority of welfare dollars go to children, who are the biggest group falling below the poverty line.

Answer 7

(C) Interviews with both blacks and whites suggest that blacks, more than whites, desire integrated neighborhoods. Blacks prefer to live in neighborhoods that are racially mixed, although most express a fear of being the first black family in a white neighborhood.

Answer 8

(C) Strain theory asserts that people commit crimes when their means for achievement are obstructed. According to this theory, all of us desire the “American Dream” but only some of us are put in positions to achieve that dream. The consequence is that those people blocked from achievement find illegitimate means to succeed. This theory, therefore, is best at explaining crime among the less advantaged. Committing robbery, according to this theory, suggests that a disadvantaged individual is stealing because he may acquire goods and possessions that we all desire.

Answer 9

(C) Studies suggest that police take race and class cues into ac- count in the arrest process.

Answer 10

(D) A role is a behavior expected of a certain status. The expected behaviors of a professor are to meet with her students and prepare lectures.

Answer 11

(E) The generalized other is Mead’s term for the cultural norms and values we use as references when evaluating ourselves. That the children are able to internalize these norms and values suggests they are capable of understanding another’s position.

Answer 12

(E) Social research is more difficult to perform than other forms of research for a variety of reasons. Firstly, objectivity is impossible because social researchers are studying the same species as themselves. Secondly, humans, as opposed to other animals, are self-aware and are capable of manipulating their behavior under study conditions. For example, an individual may give a researcher the answer she thinks is desired. Finally, operations performed on animals or molecules cannot be performed on humans for ethical reasons.

Answer 13

(B) A systematic sample is when the researcher selects every element for the sample.

Answer 14

(D) That education level has no bearing on whether or not someone uses condoms suggests that no relationship exists between these two variables.

Answer 15

(B) Race is not a biological fact, but a social construction. The sociologist’s interest in race, then, is how meaning and value are attached to differences, both real and perceived, between groups.

Answer 16

(D) Cultural assimilation refers to how well a group has adopted the norms, values, customs, and language of the dominant group. Because the “Zorn” have completely done so, their cultural assimilation has been high. Secondary assimilation refers to how well integrated the group is on a macro institutional level; that is, how equal they are in terms of money and political representation. The “Zorn” have some political representation, but because inequality still exists, they are only moderately assimilated. Primary structural assimilation refers to integration on a micro in- stitutional level such as the family. In this example, neighborhoods are not well integrated and inter-marriage is remarkably low, so primary structural assimilation is low.

Answer 17

(E) Women earn less than men for a variety of reasons. Firstly, bosses continue to see women as less capable than male workers and promote them less frequently. Secondly, jobs are titled differently depending on who fills it. The Equal Pay Act states that men and women filling the same position must be paid the same. Employers are getting around this by hiring a male as an “administrative assistant” and a woman as a “secretary.” They are entitled to pay the “administrative assistant” more than the “secretary,” in spite of the fact their job roles and tasks are the same. Finally, women are paid less because they often have less labor market experience. In the process of child-bearing and rearing, many women do not have continuous labor market experience, which enables employers to pay them less. Only answer (E) includes all of these reasons.

Answer 18

(A) An informal sanction is direct social pressure from those around us to conform. By scorning him, Tom’s classmates are putting social pressure on him to come to class on time.

Answer 19

(B) Studies interviewing rapists suggest that the motive for rape is not the desire for sex, as one might think, but rather power and domination. Rapists are looking not for sex, but for control, which is evidenced by the fact that most are married or have sexual partners. The crimes of embezzlement, car theft, and jaywalking show motives other than power, such as financial reward and material gain.

Answer 20

(B) Mechanical solidarity is Durkheim’s term for social bonds that are based on shared moral sentiments. Usually these types of bonds were found among people living in pre-industrial societies.

Answer 21

(C) The population of the study is the people who are the focus of the research; the group to whom you are trying to generalize. In this case, the researcher is trying to find out something about all college students.

Answer 22

(E) Two opposing views have dominated discussion concerning the inverse relationship between level of education and prejudice. It has long been noted that as the level of education increases, the level of prejudice decreases. One view suggests that as the level of education increases, individuals become more critical thinkers and no longer accept things at face value. The result is that they are less likely to endorse stereotypes because they become more tolerant. Another view, however, suggests that educated people are no less prejudiced, but are only more careful about revealing it.

Answer 23

(C) Rigid endogamy refers to marriage within one’s only group. A caste system is a system of stratification where groups are strictly ranked on the basis of ethnic group. Marriage across these groups is unlawful and uncommon.

Answer 24

(E) Opponents to affirmative action argue that enhancing one group’s Opportunities is equivalent to reverse discrimination. Another point they argue is that such programs only help those minorities in a position to take advantage. Many jobs are available only to skilled workers and college graduates. The majority of minorities are not skilled or college educated; therefore, such programs do not help them. They are in greater need of programs that help them become skilled and educated so that they can eventually take advantage of opportunities available to them. Finally, opponents contend that minorities only suffer from such programs because they become labeled as an individual who got a job only as a hand-out. The result is that whites will feel as though their jobs are being unfairly taken by an unqualified minority, creating greater prejudice. Only choice (E) includes all three statements.

Answer 25

(C) A subculture is a culture within a culture. This Irish-American community possesses its own unique culture while still operating within the larger American society.

Answer 26

(A) The defining characteristic of closed systems is rigid boundaries between classes. (B) is irrelevant because how closed or open a system is has nothing to do with immigration but with movement up and down in the stratification hierarchy.

Answer 27

(E) Ascribed statuses are those statuses which are involuntary and in no way relate to individual merit. Sex, race, and age are all involuntary, or unchosen, statuses.

Answer 28

(B) The earliest arguments for why. some ethnic groups seemed to be in better economic positions than others was rooted in Darwinism and the concept of “survival of the fittest.” This perspective suggests that those possessing better genes would be more likely to survive and thrive, while those possessing flawed genes would suffer from poverty and misery. Other generations, those with flawed genes would die out. (A) is incorrect, as Darwinism did not include any ideas about how race and skin color would lead to extinction.

Answer 29

(B) Karl Marx referred to the owners of the means of production as the bourgeoisie.

Answer 30

(D) American Indians have the highest unemployment rate in the United States. On some reservations the rate soars to about 90 percent.

Answer 31

(B) Through the process of industrialization, the extended family declined as families needed to be more geographically mobile. The nuclear family was therefore deprived of support from the extended kin.

Answer 32

(B) Studies show that teacher perceptions greatly influence student performance. Students tend to perform to the level of expectations a teacher sets for them, whether high or low. A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when students internalize their teacher’s image of them, and in turn, conform to that image. Carol Gilligan’s work using the concept of the looking glass has illustrated this process occurring in the classroom. The teacher is a mirror, or looking glass, reflecting an image of ourselves. Our self-image, then, is based on how others, including teachers, respond to us.

Answer 33

(C) In the last three decades, our economy has moved from producing goods to producing services. The service sector of the economy is the fastest-growing sector. As an employee of the twenty-first century, John will have the best luck finding a job in the growing service sector.

Answer 34

(C) Karl Marx contended religion was the “opiate of the masses,” as it allowed them to escape, if only temporarily, the miserable conditions they lived in. For the masses, the present was a hopeless, futile state of living. Through religion, they could focus on the after-life and the good things to come.

Answer 35

(D) Following WWII, movement to the suburbs became popular. This movement was made possible by improvements in transportation. Not only did public transportation become more widespread, but automobiles became affordable to the middle and working classes.

Answer 36

(D) Over-urbanization is when the population grows too quickly for the infrastructure to handle. Housing and jobs become difficult to find and the city is unable to absorb the new population.

Answer 37

(B) Information on illegal aliens is very difficult to obtain since keeping anonymous is so important for remaining in the country. Since information on the elderly, prisoners, and students are all included in the census, all other answer choices are incorrect.

Answer 38

(E) Normative theory of prejudice states that individuals become prejudiced when such attitudes are so ingrained in their society’s norms and values that they get passed on from generation to generation without question.

Answer 39

(B) Those groups who would maintain the sociological content of the American population were favored. Simply put, those who could easily 122 Detailed Explanations of Answers cane ics ieee ae ra st unrur nr at nsePeRpSty Ser assimilate were given preference to those who physically and culturally were different from the majority.

Answer 40

(A) Horizontal mobility is the movement of an individual horizontally. Since Sue is moving from one elite professorial position to another, She is neither moving up nor down.

Answer 41

(C) Regardless of the fact that we are a secular society, religion is in no way losing its role in society. Ninety-four percent of Americans report believing in God, and religion remains a central institution in virtually every culture on earth.

Answer 42

(B) Tracking is the assignment of students to different types of educational programs. Larry is being placed in a high math “track” and is exposed to a different type of education program than those individuals placed into the medium or low math “track.”

Answer 43

(D) Multinational corporations establish subsidiaries in other countries primarily to access a cheap labor supply and decrease their taxes. By moving to developing countries, companies can find a pliant labor supply who will work at a fraction of the cost of American workers.

Answer 44

(D) Civil religion is a quasi-religious loyalty binding individuals in a secular state. The citizen’s loyalties are to the state, rather than to a specific religion.

Answer 45

(A) Although the first suburbanites were predominately white and wealthy, in the last four decades moving to the suburbs has come within the reach of middle- and working-class people. Bob is probably poor since he has been unable to move to the suburbs.

Answer 46

(C) Gentrification is when a rundown section of a city has been repaired and revitalized and has become attractive to a middle-class popu- lation.

Answer 47

(C) An ideology of racism, which states that some races are innately superior to others, has been used to justify stratification systems based on race. If people of a certain race are unequal, it is because they are innately inferior.

Answer 48

(D) The “culture of poverty” concept seeks to explain poverty as stemming not from structural forces, but cultural forces.

Answer 49

(D) Individuals who have a high level of autonomy in their jobs report high satisfaction levels. They feel as if they have a choice in the decisions they make, and that their bosses trust them.

Answer 50

(A) Social class is the biggest predictor of voting behavior, with the higher classes more likely to vote than the lower classes. Age is another strong correlate to voting behavior, with elderly people more likely to vote than the young. In example (A) the individual is both young and of a lower social class, making her less likely to vote than the individuals in the remaining examples.

Answer 51

(E) Fertility, mortality, and migration all affect a society’s popula- tion. Fertility is the incidence of childbearing in a society’s population. Mortality is the incidence of death in a society’s population. Migration is the movement of people into and out of a specified territory. Only these three factors affect the net increase/decrease of a population.

Answer 52

(E) None of the statements are correct. An age-sex population pyramid is a graphic representation of the age and sex of the population. Rather than having a pictorial representation that is heavy at the top and bottom, in the United States, the middle of the age-sex pyramid is thickest (ages 20-39). The Mexican representation is very heavy at the bottom (0- 19) and gets increasingly thinner as age increases. Across all age groups in all societies, women outlive men.

Answer 53

(D) Demographers use the term fecundity to explain a woman’s potential number of children. The average childbearing years are between the ages of 15-44. The number of children a woman can have during these years is referred to as fecundity.

Answer 54

(A) Attempts to count the homeless have been unsuccessful because a number of homeless individuals have escaped detection, which has resulted in a drastic underestimation of who really is homeless.

Answer 55

(C) Feminism does not hold that women are innately superior to men. That is a sexist notion, not a feminist one.

Answer 56

(B) Vertical mobility refers to movement within the social system where the individual can move up or down. Mark is moving from an office manager down to a position of a secretary.

Answer 57

(D) Sociologists who study religion are interested in religion as a social institution. Sociologists look at characteristics of certain religions as well as characteristics of the individuals making up these institutions.

Answer 58

(D) Twenty-five percent of white single mothers fall below the poverty line, and 50+ percent of Latino and African-American single mothers fall below the poverty line. Molly, as a single parent with two children, has a fairly good chance of being poor, or near poverty.

Answer 59

(B) Black male youth have among the highest unemployment rates in the United States, double that of their white male counterparts.

Answer 60

(B) A large share of the people eligible to vote in the United States do not. This pattern of voter apathy has been increasing over the last century to the point that the United States has nearly the lowest rate of voting in the democratic world. Fewer than 60 percent of eligible voters turned out for the 1992 election.

Answer 61

(B) Due to improvements in nutrition and health care across the globe, the death rate has declined in all countries. This has been responsible for a boom in the population because people are no longer dying at such young ages.

Answer 62

(A) Pull factors refer to the reasons one migrates to a particular area. Leon is moving to Colorado because he has a good job and there are more potential dating partners.

Answer 63

(C) Originally, those who moved to the suburbs were well-to-do and mostly white. Following World War II, when the economy boomed and automobiles became within reach of average Americans, suburban areas boomed. Today, suburbanites are as diverse as urbanites.

Answer 64

(D) A decline in public aid, inexpensive housing, and in the need for unskilled labor have all contributed to the increased homeless rate. The economy has moved from producing goods to producing services which has had the negative impact of a declining need for unskilled workers. This, coupled with cutbacks in aid and inexpensive housing during the Reagan administration, have led to an increase in homelessness.

Answer 65

(B) The increase in single-parent families is the result of more women having children out-of-wedlock. This trend is apparent across all social classes and groups of women.

Answer 66

(D) Studies show that most people marry within their social class background and educational background, and even more marry within their race. Class, education, and race appear to be more important than similar personality characteristics when looking at potential marriage partners, as few people marry someone with a similar personality configuration.

Answer 67

(D) The sacred, referring to that which is defined as inspiring a sense of awe, reverence, and even fear, according to Durkheim, symbolically represents society. The sacred, or “forbidden,” is set apart from the profane, or “mundane.”

Answer 68

(D) Push factors of migration refer to the reasons an individual leaves a certain area. The cold weather, losing a job, and experiencing religious persecution are all reasons an individual would want to leave an area. Pull factors refer to the reasons an individual is pulled to a certain location; why they desire to live in a particular place.

Answer 69

(B) Originally, people who moved to the suburbs were wealthy and largely white. This was because transportation was poor and only those with financial resources could afford the expense of trains and auto- mobiles. As public transportation improved, more classes and races of people had access to the suburbs.

Answer 70

(D) Since the 1950s, urban decentralization has been taking place where families are relocating in the suburbs. But this has not always been without problems. Suburbs, too, have become very populated and experienced decay. This has resulted in a more recent move to rural areas.

Answer 71

(D) Pluralism is when an ethnic minority group attempts to maintain their own distinctive culture, even though they live in a larger society that is sometimes at odds with their beliefs, norms, and values.

Answer 72

(B) The extended family is a family unit that includes not only parents and their children, but other kin as well. This family form declined during industrialization because a small family was more functional ina changing economy. As the agricultural sector declined and manufacturing increased, families were forced to move where work was available. This often meant moving to smaller residences in cities.