SOCIOLOGY 302
CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Test #1 (Spring, 2005)
Name:_______________________________ SSN:____________________________________
You have 70 minutes to complete this test. Each of the objective questions has one best response. If you are not sure of the correct answer for a multiple choice question, eliminate the responses you know to be incorrect and choose among the remaining alternatives. This test also contains True/False questions. Fill in the “A” bubble for a “True” and the “B” bubble for “False.” You will not be penalized for guessing. Be sure to record your answers carefully on the NCS ANSWER SHEET. When you are done, pledge your work-- "On my honor, I have neither given nor received aid on this test." Turn in this test with your answer sheet
Chapter 1:
(Introduction)
1. Which of the following is considered
an alternative to the Power Elite Thesis?
a. the conflict thesis c. the interactionist thesis
b. the sociological imagination d. the pluralistic thesis
2. According to the text, over time,
the public view of social problems __________.
a. stays surprisingly the same
b. changes
c. fluctuates wildly
d. bounces from one major concern to
another
3. According to the text, __________ is the process of trying to convince the public (and important public officials) that a particular issue or situation should be defined as a social problem.
a. claims making b. social constructionism c. symbolic interactionism d. social conflict
4. Sociologist, C. Wright Mills is noted for addressing the relationship between private troubles and public issues in his book ____________.
a. The Military Industrial Complex c. The Power Elite
b. The Sociological Imagination d. Cracking Jokes
5. According to the text, the __________ stage of a social movement occurs when people define a situation as a problem and form an organization that addresses the problem.
a. coalescence b. formalization c. decline d. emergence
6. Sociologists believe that social problems are caused less by personal failings than by __________.
a. deviance of the powerful c. incompetence of political leaders
b. operation of society, itself d. bad people in society
7. The __________ approach explores how people socially construct reality.
a. functionalist b. conflict theory c. symbolic interactionist d. social disorganization
8. T/F One of the four conditions necessary for an objective reality to be considered a social problem is that people must feel that the condition is capable of being solved through collective action.
9. T/F According to the text, by focusing on the individual as the source of problems, conservatives tend to support the status quo.
10. T/F Philip Zimbardo
and colleagues used surveys when investigating the question of why
Chapter 2:
(Poverty and Wealth)
11. According to lecture, and the text what percentage of this nation’s wealth is owned by the poorest 20 percent of the population?.
a. None, because they are in debt. c. Almost ten percent if you count their real estate holdings.
b. Just under five percent. d. A little over 15 percent.
12. According to the text and lecture, the richest 20 percent of U.S. Families owned approximately __________ percent of all the income in this country.
a. 26 b. 48 c. 67 d. 84
13. According
to the text and lecture, how many people are “officially” poor in the
a. 15 million b. 25 million c. 35 million d. 45 million
14. According
to the text, today in the
a. children b. young adults aged 18 to 25 c. middle-aged veterans d. the elderly
15. According to the text and lecture, in 1945, sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore maintained that inequality is useful for the operation of society. The Davis-Moore Hypothesis is an example of which of the following theoretical perspectives?
a. functionalism b. conflict theory c. interactionism d. social pathology
16. According to the text’s discussion of political alienation, which of the following is true about the election of 2000?
a. A large majority of families making $75,000 annually plus a large majority of poor adults voted.
b. A majority of families making $75,000 annually did not vote, while a majority of poor adults did vote.
c. A large majority of families making $75,000 annually voted, while a majority of poor adults did not vote.
d. A majority of families making $75,000 and a majority of poor adults did not vote in the election
17. According
to the text, a conservative view does not ignore poverty, but it
does point out that almost all the poverty in the
a. absolute b. abrupt c. inevitable d. relative
18. T/F According
to the text, Karl Marx argued that in a capitalist society, poverty is
normal.
19. T/F According
to the text, in recent decades, income inequality in the
20
T/F According to the text, Presidents Roosevelt and Johnson did
more than any other
Chapter 3: (Racial
and Ethnic Inequality)
21. According to the text after the attack on
a. deported
non-citizens of Japanese ancestry living within the continental
b. forcibly
relocated people of Japanese ancestry to special detention camps in remote
areas of the
c. established a special army regiment
for Japanese-Americans who wanted to fight against
d. moved all Japanese Americans living
in
22. According
to lecture,
a. 1600s b. 1700s c. 1800s d. 1900s
23. According to lecture, when did interracial marriage first became legal in
a. 1896 b. 1954 c. 1967 d. 1976
24. Which of the following U.S. Minorities has the highest rate of poverty?
a. Asian-Americans b. Hispanic-Americans c. African Americans d. Native Americans
25. According to lecture, Hitler’s
definition of Jews as a separate race, and his consideration of Japanese as
“Honorary Aryans” is
an example of a __________ definition of race.
a. biological b. administrative c. political d. physical
26. According to lecture, which of the following equations represents PLURALISM?
a. A+B+C=A c. A+B+C=D
b. A+B+C=A+B+C d. X=(-B±Ö(B2-4(AC))/2A
27. The text
points out that minority populations are rising in the
a. 2040 b. 2060 c. 2080 d. 2100
28. T/F According
to your professor, the
29. T/F According
to the text and lecture, the
percentage of African Americans in the
30 T/F For a social group to be considered a minority in sociological terms, it must have fewer people than the dominant group.
Chapter 4: (Gender
Inequality)
31. __________ refers to the meaning that society attaches to being male or female.
a. Sex b. Gender c. Sexual Identity d. Sexual Orientation
32. According to the text, __________ percent of all college students are women today.
a. 46 b. 56 c. 66 d. 76
33. According to the article “The Rifle and The Veil,” discussed in class, the Taliban repressed women in Afghan society because __________.
a. the men were religious fanatics who were “listening to the voice of God”
b. women were given more freedoms by Russian occupiers and the men resented it
c. women expected to be dominated by men due to cultural values
d. the Taliban felt that they had to control women in order to control Afghan society
34. According to the text, the statement,
“Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, that I was not born a
woman is drawn from __________.
a. the Koran c. a daily prayer among Orthodox Jewish men
b. the Bible d. the teachings of Buddha
35. According to lecture, families maintained by women represent 18 percent of all American families, and they represent __________ of all the households below the poverty level.
a. 20 b. 30 c. 40 d. 50
36. The text observes that very few women have risen to the highest leadership positions in their organizations. This is an illustration of what sociologists refer to as the __________.
a. pink-collar ghetto b. glass ceiling c. velvet hammer d. gender trap
37. According to Talcott Parsons, femininity involves what type of orientation?
a. expressive b. aggressive c. task d. instrumental
38. T/F According to the text, liberal feminism argues that patriarchy is built into the concept of gender itself. Therefore, nothing short of erasing gender will bring about equality.
39. T/F Today
in the
40. T/F According to the text, housework is sometimes called a women’s second shift.
Chapter 5:
(Aging and Inequality)
41. Regarding social security, in 1945 there were approximately 35 workers for every one social security recipient. In the year 2000 there were _____ workers for every person drawing social security.
a. 3 b. 6 c. 9 d. 12
42. According to the text, people who are eighty-five years of age and older are referred to as the __________.
a. younger-old b. old-old c. older old d. oldest old
43. Ending the treatment of a terminally ill person by turning off respirators or other life-support machines illustrates which type of euthanasia?
a. active b. passive c. positive d. negative
44. According to the text, in 1950 the median age for retirement was sixty-eight. In 2001, the number had _____.
a. fallen to fifty-nine c. increased to seventy-one
b. fallen to sixty-two d. increased to seventy-five
45. According to the text, the __________ offers homelike care that provides physical and emotional comfort to dying people and their families. .
a. nursing home b. step-down care unit c. hospice d. total life care center
46. __________ theory involves the idea that modern societies operate more smoothly by removing people from positions of responsibility as they enter old age.
a. Geriatric b. Disengagement c. Activity d. Balance
47. According to lecture, the “life span” of a human being under ideal conditions is approximately _____ years.
a. 120 b. 130 c 140 d. 150
48. T/F In class it was pointed out that about 28 percent of all Medicare costs were incurred by patients in their last year of life.
49. T/F It is estimated that one million elderly (three percent of the elderly population) suffer abuse each year
50. T/F Overall,
poverty rates among the elderly in the
Chapter 6: (Crime and Criminal Justice)
51. Embezzlement
is an example of __________ crime.
a. corporate b. white collar c. violent d. organized
52. What is the difference between “deviance” and “crime”?
a. There is no difference. Both terms refer to the same thing.
b. Deviance is violation of norms. Crime is violation of one certain kind of norm.
c. Deviance is not considered serious. Crime is always considered serious.
d. Deviance serves no function in society. Crime serves many functions.
53. The text described William Sheldon’s theory of crime involving ecto-; meso-; and endomorphs. What kind of theory of crime is this?
a. biological b. psychological c. sociological d. pathological
54. Sociologist, Robert Merton suggests that crime is an innovation through which illegal routes will be substituted when the legal means of success are blocked. The text uses this as an example of the __________ perspective on crime.
a. functionalist b. conflict c. interactionist d. exchange
55. According
to lecture, research
on crime in the
a. ten b. twenty c. thirty d. forty
56. According to the text, __________ is moral vengeance by which society inflicts suffering on an offender comparable to that caused by the offense.
a. punishment b. justice c. correction d. retribution
57. During Prohibition, when the government outlawed the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages, the “Mafia” or “La Cosa Nostra” gained both wealth and power by making and distributing liquor to an eager public. Theses activities reflect which category of crime?
a. corporate b. white collar c. organized d. violent
58. T/F According to the text, in 75 percent of
all robberies in the
59. T/F Of all serious offenses reported in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, approximately 33 percent are crimes against persons.
60. T/F According to the text burglary is the most common of all serious crimes.
Chapter
7: (Violence)
61. According to the text, __________violence is carried out by government representatives under the law.
a. bureaucratic b. institutional c. societal d. collective
62. According to the text, which of the following is the most violent high-income country on earth?
a.
63. According to the text, in 1997 the American Medical Association declared that the mass media is a(n) __________.
a. type of narcotic. c. health hazard
b. dangerous “fantasy creation agent” d. agent of socialization
64. The unlawful, unintentional killing of one person by another is called __________.
a. murder b. aggravated assault c. termination d manslaughter
65. The
killing of thirteen people at
a. serial b. mass c. multiple d. aggregate
66. According to the text, around _____ percent of people in prison for violent offenses report having been under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both when they committed their crimes.
a. 40 b. 50 c. 60 d. 70
67. Primary and secondary deviance are associated with which of the following perspectives?
a. functionalism b. conflict theory c. symbolic interactionism d. social disorganization
68. T/F According to the text, most serial killers are about the same age as those who commit single murders.
69. T/F For sociologists, violence is more normal than abnormal
70. T/F Burglary is classified as a violent crime.
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