6. According to Durkheim, the set of shared values and beliefs held by everyone in a society are called what?

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1 SOC 100 Introduction to Sociology Test 1, MWF, Spring 2016 Name: Part I: The following are 13 matching problems. There is a definition or description to the left and a series of terms to the right. Match the correct term to its definition or description by writing the letter of the term in the blank to the left of the number of the definition or description. Note that a term can be used only once, and that you will not need to use all the terms. (You will have 14 terms left over.) Each question is worth 2 points. 1. The unintended positive consequences of a social structure or institution are called what? A. Paradigm B. Empiricism 2. The idea that inequality and oppression are a result of the confluence of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation, rather than the aggregation of their separate effects is known as what? 3. According to the Labor Theory of Value, the difference between the amount of value that workers create and the amount workers are paid by the capitalists, which is kept by the capitalists as profit is called what? 4. A sense of normlessness and of being disconnected from the social group that is the result of living in a society with a weak collective conscience is called what? 5. Which philosophical perspective assesses the reality of a theory or belief based on the successful practical application of the ideas contained within the theory or belief system? 6. According to Durkheim, the set of shared values and beliefs held by everyone in a society are called what? 7. What concept refers to the idea that the working class recognizes their position in the economic order and as a result understands their economic selfinterests and attempts to work collectively to achieve those shared interests? 8. When considering data collection methods, which kind of validity concerns the degree to which the events observed during the research reflect the concepts which were intended to be observed? 9. A general model of the way the world works that is widely accepted by the practitioners in a discipline or field of study is called a what? 10. The relatively small group of individuals who occupy bureaucratic positions at the top of the military, the government, and corporations, who form a status group, and whose decisions impact everyone in a society are called what? 11. When discussing causality, the requirement that the independent variable must occur before the dependent variable is known as what? 12. A role which has been internalized to the point that it has become an integral part of an individual s self-conception is referred to as what? 13. According to Weber, people s economic position in the social order which is based on their power in exchange relations or their differences in market situation is called what? C. Pragmatism D. Class E. Status F. Party G. Bureaucracy H. False Consciousness I. Class Consciousness J. Double Consciousness K. Collective Conscience L. Surplus Value M. Alienation N. Anomie O. Precipitating Event P. Manifest Function Q. Latent Function R. The Power Elite S. Intersectionality T. Social Cues U. Role V. Identity W. Utility Function X. Satisfice Y. Internal Validity Z. External Validity AA. Time-Order

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3 Part II: The following are 25 multiple choice problems. Choose the best answer for each question by filling in completely the bubble corresponding to the letter of your answer choice next to the number of the question on your bubble sheet. Each question is worth 2 points. 1) A sociologist is interested in studying the interactions which occur between managers and the employees they are in charge of. He wants to study these interactions because he believes the authority structures present in such situations are created and reinforced through repeated interactions and the continual interactional processes of the managers requiring or demanding deference and the employees giving the managers deference. So, from this sociologist s perspective social structures like authority and status are generated and reinforced within interaction. Which side of the argument in sociology does this sociologist support? A) The Micro Level Argument B) The Macro Level Argument C) The Agency Argument D) The Structure Argument 2) A sociologist is interested in sex segregated occupations (occupations which are heavily occupied by a single sex like nursing or construction) because she believes gender is a social system which limits the occupational choices individuals feel are actually open to them as some jobs have become defined as male jobs and others have been defined as female jobs. For this sociologist, gender is a social structure which limits and enables the choices individuals are likely to make in regards to which occupation to pursue. Which side of the argument in sociology does this sociologist support? A) The Micro Level Argument B) The Macro Level Argument C) The Agency Argument D) The Structure Argument 3) A sociologist believes in the scientific enterprise but thinks any one researcher no matter how well trained can never fully understand the multiple perspectives of the actors involved in an event because the researcher cannot completely step outside of their own cultural understandings to fully take the perspective of the other. However, the sociologist also believes that as multiple researchers from a variety of social and cultural backgrounds come to the same conclusion about the event, we can have increasing confidence in the findings. Which side of the argument in sociology does this sociologist support? A) The Realist/Positivist Argument B) The Constructionist Argument C) The Strong Post-Modernist Argument

4 4) A sociologist is interested in discovering exactly how all the possible causal factors come together within the cases themselves. Therefore, he believes it is necessary to have rich, detailed understandings of each case being studied and believes that looking across cases for broad generalizable findings at best provides a shallow understanding of the processes involved and may actually hinder understanding by discovering associations or patterns that do not have any real impact within the cases themselves. Which side of the argument in sociology does this sociologist support? A) The Qualitative Argument B) The Quantitative Argument C) The Mixed Methods Argument 5) A sociologist believes the role of professional sociologists is to help create an informed public, and in order to do so, he writes a blog about sociology and produces podcasts focused on sociological understandings of current events. Also, he occasionally talks with newspaper journalists about issues and topics related to sociological findings and about some of the social trends sociologists study. Which side of the argument in sociology does this sociologist support? A) The Public Sociology Argument B) The Basic Research Argument 6) For Marx, the implements, resources, tools, and technologies people use to produce goods and services are represented by which concept? A) The Mode of Production B) The Means of Production C) The Relations to the Means of Production D) The Relations of production 7) The profit capitalists keep which was actually created by the workers is where comes from, according to Marx. A) Exploitation B) Alienation C) Anomie D) Social Order

5 8) Imagine a society based on private property ownership and industrial production, where ones class position is largely determined by whether or not they own the means of production. Which sociological concept is this describing? A) Capitalism B) The Social Order C) Social Order D) Social Closure 9) Imagine a society with strict laws restricting interaction between people of different races. Blacks and Whites must use different entrances to and sit in different sections of public establishments like restaurants, movie theaters, and courthouses. Anti-miscegenation laws forbid people from different racial backgrounds from marrying, and sexual intercourse between people from different racial groups is strongly discouraged, while still being technically legal. Children are forced to go to racially segregated schools, although that is rarely an issue since most of the population lives in racially segregated neighborhoods. This system is often justified as a way of keeping the races pure and reducing the chances of contamination between the races. In reality, it is a system that protects the economic and social interests of Whites at the expense of Blacks. Which sociological concept is evident in this society? A) Alienation B) Social Order C) Anomie D) Social Closure 10) Imagine a society where the individuals have highly specialized occupations and therefore have very different life experiences and worldviews, and yet they still experience a sense of unity because everyone is dependent in some way on everyone else. Which kind of unity are the individuals in this society experiencing? A) Mechanical Solidarity B) Organic Solidarity C) Sociation

6 11) A sociologist interested in social hierarchy is constructing a survey. On it he includes the following questions: On a scale from 1 to 10 (where 1 is not at all specialized and 10 is very highly specialized), how specialized is the work that you do to make a living? Consider your friends and close relatives, is the work they do... [] exactly the same as the work you do [] very similar to but not exactly the same as the work you do [] somewhat similar to the work you do but different in major ways [] somewhat different from the work you do but similar in some ways [] very different from the work you do Does the occupation you work in have a professional association? (yes/no) If you answered yes to the previous question, do you belong to that professional organization? (yes/no) Which sociological concept is this sociologist trying to measure with this set of questions? A) A Marxist Version of Class B) A Weberian Version of Class C) A Weberian Version of Status D) A Durkheimian Version of the Division of Labor 12) Imagine an individual who works for a living and does not own any productive assets. In other words this person must sell their labor power to a capitalist in exchange for wages in order to survive. However, this person believes that capitalism has greatly benefited him and that the capitalist is looking out for the worker s best interest. In fact, the worker believes that other workers who want higher wages and better benefits and who want the government to increase taxes on very high incomes so that better schools and infrastructure that would benefit everyone can be funded are greedy and jealous and are punishing capitalists for their success. Which sociological concept is evident in this person s experience? A) False Consciousness B) Class Consciousness C) Double Consciousness D) Collective Conscience 13) Imagine a group of people with a similar set of skills and talents who all earn similar incomes and own similar kinds of non-productive (non-income generating) property. Which sociological concept best describes this group? A) A Class B) A Status Group C) A Party

7 14) Which sociological concept represents the idea that the upper class demonstrates their wealth and thus their value by publically displaying their ability to waste money through consumption? A) Globalization B) Surplus Value C) Conspicuous Consumption D) Intersectionality 15) A modern sociologist wants to understand organizational decision making. In order to do so, he first focuses on the fixed jurisdictions within the organization. Then he charts how the official duties and the authority to carry out those duties are distributed throughout the organization. Finally, he attempts to identify the jurisdictions in the organization which lack the authority to actually carry out their official duties and the jurisdictions with contradictory duties and authority putting the jurisdictions at odds with each other. Which classical theoretical perspective does this modern sociologist s work most closely resemble? A) Marxism B) Weberian Theory C) Durkheimian Theory D) Simmelian Theory 16) A sociologist is interested in the continued existence of a difference in the pay rate of men and women. In order to study this, he conducts a field experiment where he sends nearly identical résumés with one important difference to corporations searching for job applicants. The first name of the applicant on the one résumé is Steven, while the first name of the applicant on the other résumé is Stephanie. When the candidates are both contacted by the same company for an interview the researcher sends an inquiry from both Steven and Stephanie about the job s pay scale. The sociologist finds out that when companies respond to Steven s inquiry the returned pay range is 10 to 15 percent higher than when they respond to Stephanie s inquiry. He concludes that a system of gendered inequality and gendered injustice in which men are favored over women continues to exist despite the decline in overt sexism. Which contemporary theoretical perspective does this sociologist s work most closely resemble? A) Structural-Functionalism B) Conflict or Critical Theory C) Symbolic Interactionism

8 17) As part of a study on criminal behavior, a sociologist examines the role that the breakdown of the nuclear family had on other social institutions and the resulting dislocations or disruptions to social cohesion as an explanation for rising crime rates in the 1970s and 1980s. Which contemporary theoretical perspective does this sociologist s work most closely resemble? A) Structural-Functionalism B) Conflict or Critical Theory C) Symbolic Interactionism 18) A sociologist is interested in the effect divorce has on the educational attainment of children. She notices that until the 1980s when the divorce rate reached its highest point, the children from divorced families performed poorly in school, leading many of them to drop out of high school and to fail to finish college. However, as divorce became less stigmatized through the 1990s, the children from divorced families performance in school improved as did their high school and college graduation rates. She concludes that prior to the 1980s the stigma of divorce impacted the behavioral expectations teachers had for these children, which changed the role the teachers perceived these children were playing. In essence, the children from divorced families were not just students but were students from divorced families. Through the 1990s as the stigma of divorce faded, divorce affected the role of student less and therefore the teachers treated children from divorced families like all students, bringing the student role for children from divorced families back into line with the typical student role. In both time periods, the children from divorced families were simply fulfilling the behavioral expectations associated with their role, and thus performed either poorly or well in school accordingly. Which contemporary theoretical perspective does this sociologist s work most closely resemble? A) Structural-Functionalism B) Conflict or Critical Theory C) Symbolic Interactionism 19) Imagine an individual shopping for a new car. He has already done a good bit of work figuring out which car brand and model he likes the best and which one seems to be most reasonable in terms of costs. After looking on-line for the typical cost of the car he wants to buy, he goes to a local dealer who offers to sell him the car at $500 less than he was expecting to pay. While there is another local dealer with the same makes and models, the individual buys the car from the first dealer without ever visiting the second one to see if that dealer would offer the car at an even lower price. Which sociological concept is evident in this individual s decision to buy the car and not even visit the second dealer? A) Precipitating Event B) Definition of the Situation C) Self-Conception D) Satisfice

9 20) Imagine a local mine disaster in which a dozen mine workers are hurt and two are killed. It turns out that the mine owner knowingly cut corners on safety and put the workers lives at risk. Rather than arrest the mine owner for reckless endangerment or negligent homicide, the local government gives the mine owner very low interest loans in order to reopen the mine. This outrages the local working class population, which begins protesting to close the mine and to prosecute the mine owner. Which sociological concept is evident in the mine disaster event? A) Precipitating Event B) Definition of the Situation C) Self-Conception D) Satisfice 21) A sociologist is concerned about one of the questions on his survey. While respondents who were asked to retake the survey to search for methodological problems tend to answer the question the same each time they take the survey, different sets of respondents seem to be interpreting the question in very different ways. Respondents under 30 report having between 8 and 10 best friends while those 30 and over report having just 1 or 2 best friends. After talking to the respondents the sociologist is convinced that people under 30 define best friend differently than those over 30. What is the most likely methodological problem with this question? A) It is not a valid measure. B) It is not an accurate measure. C) It is not a reliable measure. 22) A sociologist is primarily interested in understanding the broad pattern of relationships between many independent variables and a dependent variable across an entire population. Which kind of validity is the sociologist most likely interested in achieving? A) High Internal Validity B) High External Validity 23) Given the concerns of the researcher in question number 22, which data collection technique would you suggest the researcher use? A) An Experiment B) A Survey C) A Form of Field Research

10 24) Given the concerns of the researcher in question number 22, which type of sampling technique would you suggest the researcher use? A) A non-probability sampling technique such as convenience sampling B) A probability sampling technique such as random sampling or random assignment 25) A sociologist is interested in the relationship between gender and job evaluations. In order to study the relationship between these two variables, he sets up an experiment where men who hold supervisory and managerial jobs in real life are asked to judge the competency of a worker based on their résumé and an example of the worker s work. Half of the men receive a stack of 25 résumés of which only five are actually part of the experiment. The first names on these five résumés are: John, Josh, Nick, Mike, and Steve. The second half of the men receive the same stack of 25 résumés except the five résumés in the experiment now have the first names Emily, Sarah, Jessica, Nichole, and Samantha. The researcher finds that the men in the first group gave the five résumés with male first names significantly higher evaluation scores than the men in the second group gave the five résumés with female first names. Therefore, the researcher concludes that the gender of the person being evaluated does affect their job evaluation. In this study, gender is which variable? A) The Independent Variable B) The Dependent Variable

11 Part III: The following are 6 short answer questions. You only need to answer 4 of them. This also means you must not answer 2 of them. If you answer more than 4 of them, I ll only grade the first 4. Answer the questions you know the best. Answer as fully but concisely as possible. Please answer in complete sentences, unless otherwise instructed in the question. Each question is worth 6 points. 1) Lay out the primary disagreements between the agency and structural sociologists. 2) Class is a key concept both in Marxism and in Weberian Theory. Identify the primary similarities in how theorists working in these two perspectives define the term.

12 3) Durkheim s concept anomie and Marx s concept alienation can seem very similar. Explain how they are different 4) What 6 characteristics make an organization a bureaucracy? (It is OK to simply list the characteristics.)

13 5) Discuss the major problems in Structural-Functionalist Theories that made them largely fall out of favor by the 1980s. 6) Briefly explain how field research can have both high external validity for the cases studied and low external validity for other similar cases.