study material for test 1

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 is going on now d. people decide what to do next on the basis of what they think 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 is going on now d. people decide what to do next on the basis of what they think 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 is going on now d. people decide what to do next on the basis of what they think is going on now e. people use norms to help them decide what to do next 4. T F Sociology is the scientific study of human social behavior. 5. T F In order to increase social integration, it is necessary to reduce social differentiation 6. T F The more intense the group solidarity is, the more intense will be the demand for conformity. 7. T F Men tend to interrupt women more in conversation than women interrupt men. 8. T F Sociologists use the term "gender" to refer to biological differences between men and women and "sex" to refer to the social meanings and expectations associated with those biological differences. 9. T F Language greatly expands the range of things we can learn through vicarious learning. 10. T F According to Lazarsfeld (and other sociologists), common sense is an inadequate guide to truth. 11. T F The General Social Survey shows that African Americans are more likely than whites to agree with the idea that people have a right to end their lives if they want to. 13. T F Most voters in the United States base their opinions about political matters on their ideology. 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. 16. T F People tend to have more weak ties than strong ties. 17. T F Cultural values tend to be very specific in nature, while norms tend to be very general. 18. T F According to the syllabus, you can get extra credit in Prof. Backman?s SOCY1000 class by writing a short paper. 19. 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 Who cares? d. What's going on here? and Why is it going on? e. What's going on here? and What do I do next? 20. An expectation shared by members of a group that specifies behavior considered appropriate in a given situation is a. a cultural value d. a norm b. a personal value e. empirical research c. integration by sentiment 21. Japanese Americans in California today are quite successful. Consider two theories for their success. Theory A says that the Japanese in the US started out mostly as farmers but were largely forced out of that occupation when their farms were taken away from them during World War II. This forced them into other occupations, which turned out to their advantage because today most occupations pay better than farming. Theory B says that the Japanese in America strongly emphasized education for their children and it was their better educations that led to their success today. QUESTION: Which theory is a cultural theory? a. Theory A b. Theory B 22. The sociological perspective that sees the most basic element in social life as the attempt of individuals and groups to maximize their own interests is a. the conflict perspective d. the Platonic perspective b. the consensus perspective e. the Aristotelian perspective c. symbolic interactionism 23. Cultural values a. are often logically inconsistent with each other b. must be consistent with each other c. almost never change d. are almost always imposed by the government on the people e. have little to do with behavior 24. Verstehen is a. our understanding of how the typical person sees the world b. the ability to see ourselves as other people see us c. to understand a situation from the point of view of the actor d. two or more people whose communication is deep and extensive, who interact with each other as whole persons, and whose relationship revolves around personal satisfactions e. negative or hostile attitudes toward a group 26. Which of the following would not be correct as part of an answer to the question, "Compare ethnocentrism and cultural relativism." a. Ethnocentrism is the belief that your culture's ways of doing things are the best possible and that the appropriate way to evaluate other cultures is to compare them to your culture, considering other cultures relatively good or bad by the extent to which they are like or unlike your culture b. Cultural relativism is the belief that cultures should not be compared with each other and that cultural features should be evaluated on the basis of how they contribute to the success of the society c. Cultural relativism is a limited understanding of how the world does or could operate due to the actor's limited experiences in the world d. Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism are alike because they both are approaches to the evaluation of cultures and cultural features e. Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism differ because cultural relativism rejects comparisons with other cultures, while ethnocentrism is all about comparisons and even offers one standard for comparison, the evaluator?s own culture 27. In his classic sociological study on suicide, Durkheim observed that high suicide rates were associated with a. agricultural employment d. mental illness b. rural rather than urban environments e. low crime rates c. weak social networks 28. One of Weber?s examples of how emotion-based human behavior cannot be completely eliminated was a. the increasing rationalization of social life in the last 1500 years in Europe b. ongoing battles between what the body wants and what the mind knows is appropriate behavior c. people increasingly resisting being led around by their minds and instead looking within themselves to see what they really want d. charismatic leadership e. rational-legal leadership 29. The explanation for the origins of the state in the text argues that a. people agree to have a state whose rules everyone agrees to follow out of fear that otherwise their neighbors will kill or otherwise harm them b. a state is necessary to ensure that collective goods will not be overused c. societies with states tend to be more effective militarily than others, so societies that did not have a state haven't survived because societies with states have used their militaries to take over the state-less societies d. most societies have states because they borrowed the idea from neighboring societies e. states are necessary to ensure that the society has certain things it needs that can only be provided through cooperative action. A state is necessary to force at least some people to overcome their natural interest in being free riders 30. Which of the following is NOT one of the principles of recruitment to social movements? a. it is difficult to recruit someone strongly tied to a network opposed to the movement?s ideology, but recruitment does not depend on people having prior attitudes favorable to the ideology b. recruitment is primarily a person-to-person phenomenon c. opportunities for the growth of a movement are highest when the movement can establish ties to cosmopolitan networks having many nonredundant ties d. social movements tend to originate within dense local networks e. people with advantages are reluctant to give up those advantages 31. According to the open-mindedness principle of recruitment to religion, which of the following pairs of countries would probably be the most receptive to new religious movements (according to the data in the Nations of the World data set)? a. Ireland and Nigeria d. Turkey and Germany b. the US and Mexico e. China and Russia c. India and South Korea 32. According to the ideas in the text and your analysis of the 50 States data, in which state would you expect the highest percentage of people to be members of cosmopolitan networks? a. Alabama d. Massachusetts b. Georgia e. New York c. Illinois 33. What state had the lowest voter turnout in 1996? a. Alabama d. New York b. Maryland e. Virginia c. Nevada 34. The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which a. one or more members of a collective are getting benefits from a collective good but are not making any contributions b. a group allows great differences between the richest and poorest members of the group c. people with greatest need for the benefits of a collective good are given greatest access to the good d. those people who contribute the most to a collective good are given greatest access to the good e. a collective good is being overused 35. According to Homans's Law of Liking, a. emotional attachments among members of a group will be weaker among members of different ranks than among those of similar rank b. the more the members of a group like one another, the more likely they are to agree with each other c. the more intense the group solidarity, the more intense the demand for conformity d. participation in activities together causes people to like one another e. the opportunities for the growth of a social movement are maximized when the movement can establish ties to cosmopolitan networks having many non-redundant ties 36. The state's power is best constrained when power is dispersed among many groups. This is known as a. the power elite d. a stateless society b. pluralism e. the Leviathan c. the philosopher-king 37. Mary Brown, who came from a poor family with uneducated parents, has worked hard to reach the top in her law firm. A sociologist would view her current position as a full partner in that firm as a. an ascribed status d. a. and c. b. an achieved status e. b. and c. c. evidence of upward mobility 38. Time order, correlation and spuriousness are the three a. principles of rational choice b. criteria of causation c. laws of conformity d. principles of exchange e. criteria of proof in scientific research 39. Which of the following best captures the relationship between independent variables and dependent variables? a. Independent variables only affect other independent variables, and dependent variables only affect dependent variables b. Independent variables produce effects on dependent variables c. Dependent variables produce effects on independent variables d. Independent variables are based on primary sources, and dependent variables are based on secondary sources e. the correlation between independent variables and dependent variables is zero 40. A(n) ______ consists of a set of cases (or units) randomly selected from the entire set of cases or units to be described. a. census d. ethnography b. enumeration e. sample c. data file 41. Lofland and Stark wanted to learn more about why people join new religious movements. They accomplished this by directly observing and taking part in a new religious movement's activities. Lofland and Stark were conducting: a. an experiment d. field research b. a test of significance e. secondary data analysis c. randomization 42. According to the syllabus, quizzes a. each count a maximum of 10 points toward the final grade b. will all be combined to create the equivalent of one exam c. will be combined to create the equivalent of one exam except that one quiz will be dropped d. are used for grading purposes only for students whose course averages end in .5 e. are used for grading purposes only for students who would fail otherwise 43. Which of the following is NOT one of the topics the syllabus says we will cover this semester? a. culture d. the distribution of things good and bad b. social systems e. we will cover all of the above c. socialization