Deck 20: David a Snow and Leon Anderson, Salvaging the Self

Question 1

Snow and Anderson's study of homeless street people for "Salvaging the Self" was done by

A) assigning their graduate students to do ethnographic fieldwork as part of their sociological training.
B) spending time with homeless street people over a two-year period.
C) conducting a survey of people who work with the homeless, including those who live on the street.
D) reading all of the literature available on homelessness and synthesizing what they read.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following did Snow and Anderson NOT discover when interviewing the homeless in their study?

A) The homeless provide various kinds of "accounts" to explain their difficult circumstances.
B) Though often visible to others, the homeless tend to be segregated from interacting with the "domiciled."
C) The homeless recognize they are stigmatized (objects of negative attention) by many of the "domiciled."
D) The homeless are unemployed and so have no source of earned income.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The homeless fantasize and tell obviously untrue stories in order to

A) obtain handouts and social services for which they are not eligible.
B) put forward a sense of self that is less demeaning or lacking in meaning than would otherwise be the case.
C) impress those helping them by trying to show that the help is not going to undeserving people.
D) work out their "personal demons" and express anxieties, in much the same way that we all dream and occasionally have nightmares.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Most of what Snow and Anderson discuss in "Salvaging the Self" involves

A) how homelessness is addressed in cities that have been successful in addressing their problems.
B) the structural reasons for homelessness in the United States and why homelessness is increasing.
C) the strategies-verbal and behavioral-that homeless people use to obtain and maintain some positive sense of dignity or meaning in their lives.
D) two experiments-the Utah model and the San Antonio model-for helping the homeless resume normal (domesticated) lives that are free of drugs, alcohol, and mental illness.

Question 5

The homeless street people that Snow and Anderson write about are

A) ashamed and regretful of their lives, and wish they had done things differently.
B) unaware of how they look to others and what others think about them.
C) resourceful and able to live far better than most people think when they see them on the street.
D) aware that they are objects of curiosity who occupy the lowest rung in society's status system.

Question 6

Regarding alcoholism and mental illness, Snow and Anderson conclude that many of the homeless

A) become more serious alcoholics and more severely mentally ill because they have been living on the street.
B) are probably without a place to live because they are alcoholics, mentally ill, or both.
C) are more seriously mentally ill than they would otherwise be if they didn't consume so much alcohol.
D) are neither mentally ill nor alcoholics but appear to be due to the way they dress and talk.

Question 7

When they use the phrase "attention deprivation," Snow and Anderson mean that

A) as with attention deficit only more extreme, the homeless cannot focus or concentrate on anything for more than a moment.
B) not enough is being done to address problems of homelessness.
C) a homeless person is rarely acknowledged by the "domiciled" and seldom interacts with them.
D) most homeless people suffered traumatic childhoods where they were severely neglected, if not abused, by their parents.