Deck 2: Culture and Social Structure

Question 1

When people create meaning and significance in life through the use of language or symbols, they are creating __________.

A) nonmaterial culture
B) material culture
C) acculturation
D) nonverbal communication

Answer 1

nonmaterial culture

Question 2

__________ is a basic U.S. value.

A) Freedom
B) Interdependence
C) Community
D) Superstition

Answer 2

Freedom

Question 3

Shared cultural __________ encourage solidarity by embodying society's fundamental expectations.

A) materials
B) beliefs
C) norms
D) laws

Answer 3

norms

Question 4

In 2012, how many athletic director positions did white males hold at Football Bowl Subdivision schools?

A) 2
B) 32
C) 62
D) 92

Question 5

What did the first "Droodle" in your text represent?

A) A snake
B) A bear climbing a tree
C) An eagle
D) A tribe

Question 6

The Thomas Theorem states that __________.

A) people have to be taught to hate and fear
B) if people define a situation as real, it becomes real in its consequences
C) the world of reality is taken for granted
D) each generation passes its cultural values on to the next generation

Question 7

Culture is __________.

A) shared
B) universal
C) made up from scratch for each generation
D) a relatively unimportant part sociological study

Question 8

What feature of language may connote both intended and unintended prejudicial meanings?

A) Social structure
B) Culture
C) Linguistic relativity
D) Beliefs

Question 9

__________ is an example of material culture.

A) Money
B) The exchange of ideas
C) Religion
D) Acculturation

Question 10

A fork is an example of __________.

A) nonmaterial culture
B) material culture
C) acculturation
D) nonverbal communication

Question 11

Students who sit quietly in class and take careful notes are fulfilling societal expectations of behavior, which are called __________.

A) mores.
B) values
C) norms
D) material culture

Question 12

The basic U.S. value of __________ is at odds with the value of "individualism."

A) efficiency
B) progress
C) science
D) external conformity

Question 13

__________ is a paralinguistic signal.

A) Whistling at someone of the opposite sex
B) Shrugging your shoulders
C) Flipping your middle finger
D) Rolling your eyes

Question 14

Jeremy knows very little about his family's heritage, and as a fourth generation Irish-American, most people simply assume he is a white American. It is safe to say that Jeremy's family has been __________.

A) acculturated
B) naturalized
C) culturally transmitted
D) culturally diffused

Question 15

Oscar is an interactionist. He believes that social interaction among people of different cultures may be difficult because __________.

A) the two parties do not share the same definitions of symbols
B) people have a natural reluctance to relate to strangers
C) strangers are intimidated by the natives of the host country
D) one group tries to dominate the other

Question 16

Dominique whistled at her brother to get his attention. Dominique is using __________.

A) paralinguistic signals
B) language
C) vocal communication
D) nonverbal notation

Question 17

Settling in an area already containing family, friends, or compatriots is known as __________.

A) chain migration
B) joined resettlement
C) parallel social institutions
D) recycling

Question 18

The fact that cultures owe a substantial debt to other cultures because of the spread of ideas, inventions, and practices is called __________.

A) cultural transmission
B) convergence
C) cross-cultural impregnation
D) cultural diffusion

Question 19

What do sociologists call a minority group's establishment of its own clubs, organizations, stores, churches, newspapers, and schools?

A) Duplication
B) Parallel social institutions
C) Redundant social patterns
D) Subcultural networking

Question 20

In convergent subcultures we tend to see __________.

A) continued residential clustering
B) everyday ethnicity in language, dress, and cultural behavior
C) a gradual assimilation process
D) high rates of interpersonal conflict

Question 21

When Juan arrived in Milan he was surprised to find that people drank wine during working lunches. This is an example of __________.

A) cultural transmission
B) culture irrelevance
C) culture diffusion
D) culture shock

Question 22

__________ would likely lead to culture shock.

A) Finding that everyone around dresses like you
B) Behaving according to societal norms
C) Not understanding the slang used by people around you
D) Encountering a group that expresses different opinions than you

Question 23

Which group illustrates a persistent subculture?

A) Amish
B) Irish
C) Germans
D) Italians

Question 24

Relationships between majority and minority groups are influenced by differences in culture, as well as __________.

A) structural conditions
B) acculturation
C) cultural ethnocentrism
D) religious beliefs

Question 25

Which of the following is a social or economic condition that would likely foster conflict between minority groups?

A) Stagnant economy
B) Ample resources
C) Agrarian based economy
D) Expanding economy

Question 26

Technological improvements in communication and transportation __________.

A) have no real impact upon dominant-minority relations
B) may actually delay assimilation
C) accelerate the assimilation process because they make for a smaller world
D) are important only because they encourage more people from distant places to migrate to the United States

Question 27

Researchers note that whites tend to categorize __________.

A) lower-class blacks by race
B) lower-class blacks by class
C) middle-class blacks by race
D) upper-class blacks by class

Question 28

What is a core cause of the "tangle of pathology" in black communities?

A) Juvenile delinquency
B) Adult crime
C) Welfare dependency
D) Family deterioration

Question 29

The culture of poverty refers to __________.

A) poor peoples' contributions to U.S. culture in folk music, literary subjects, and folklore
B) cultural traits of the poor transmitted from one generation to the next, creating a perpetual underclass
C) the cultural tastes of the poor
D) blacks only; other minority groups do not fit this framework

Question 30

Moynihan believed that the explanation for high unemployment, welfare dependency and other social problems was __________.

A) poor social class skills
B) pluralism
C) family deterioration
D) culture shock

Question 31

The reputational method involves __________.

A) asking people how they thought others compared to them
B) asking people for references
C) beliefs about how your coworkers feel about you
D) asking someone to tell you how they feel about you

Question 32

Warner's Yankee City study found an important link between social class status and __________.

A) length of residence in the United States
B) religious belief
C) political participation
D) gender

Question 33

Milton Gordon's ethclass groupings represent __________.

A) the eventual decline of ethnicity as a significant factor
B) the supremacy of ethnicity over social class because of ethnic reawakening
C) the subsocieties resulting from the intersection of ethnicity and social class
D) an abstract concept, not one of primary relationships

Question 34

__________ is one of the four social categories proposed by Milton Gordon that play a part in forming ethclasses.

A) Technological advances
B) Race
C) Social class
D) Religion

Question 35

Edward Banfield described the lower classes as attaching high value to __________.

A) being present-oriented
B) sacrifice
C) community service
D) self-improvement

Question 36

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 __________.

A) implied that structural problems prevented many from working
B) placed a five year limit on government assistance
C) acknowledged that most living in poverty also have jobs
D) required welfare recipients to work after two years of assistance

Question 37

Miranda is Catholic and her family has lived in the same working class neighborhood in Boston for four generations. Miranda could be considered to be part of a(n) __________.

A) race
B) ethclass
C) dominant class
D) persecuted minority group

Question 38

Barry believes that most poor people are caught in a cycle where they end up developing bad habits and belief systems which keep them in poverty. He is a supporter of Moynihan's interpretation of the __________ theory.

A) ethclass
B) pluralist
C) culture of poverty
D) language hypothesis

Question 39

Cultural differentiation refers to __________.

A) the differences that are present between two cultures
B) the likelihood of similarity between two groups
C) pluralism
D) assimilation

Question 40

The contact hypothesis strongly emphasizes __________ as a path toward reducing prejudice.

A) having outgroup friends
B) economic equality
C) equitable social roles
D) political representation

Question 41

Cynthia began working in the copy room of a large corporation but is now the manager of an entire corporate division. This is an example of __________.

A) occupational mobility
B) luck
C) right place phenomenon
D) career achieved status

Question 42

Jeremy, an African American, is trying to put his sociological knowledge to practice in order to reduce prejudice. As someone who sees a lot of value in the interactionist perspective, he wants to employ the __________ and make friends with people who are not black.

A) contact hypothesis
B) Dillingham hypothesis
C) feminist perspective
D) outgroup theory

Question 43

Michael sees a strong correlation between a group's economic position and the intensity of negative interactions with the dominant society. Michael's views are in line with __________ theory.

A) functionalist
B) conflict
C) interactionist
D) feminist

Question 44

According to theorist William J. Wilson, in which power relationship does the dominant group exercise almost complete control over the subordinate group?

A) industrialization
B) capitalism
C) communism
D) paternalism

Question 45

Cultural crashes in China illustrate which sociological mode?

A) conflict
B) functionalism
C) interactionism
D) internal-colonialism

Question 46

Joe's family has had uneven experiences in their new country with some people having tremendous success while others who immigrated are stuck in ethnic enclaves and have enjoyed very little prosperity, lending support for __________ theory.

A) power-differential
B) internal-colonialism
C) paternalism
D) immigrant assimilation

Question 47

__________ represents a minority-against-minority clash over limited resources.

A) The 1992 Los Angeles riots
B) Violence between blacks and Australians in Miami in 1988
C) The 19th-Century race-baiting riots on the West Coast
D) Black-White violence in urban neighborhoods

Question 48

As the text suggests, white values and behavior patterns might be unrealized by group members because __________.

A) group members celebrate pluralism
B) group members want to express their emotions
C) whites don't exhibit any consistent patterns
D) the values and behaviors are taken for granted

Question 49

What, according to Hitchcock, is a common value in white culture?

A) Avoiding "stepping on people's toes"
B) Trying to "making a scene"
C) Spontaneity
D) Uncoordinated daily activities

Question 50

According to the text, recognizing a "white culture" would likely __________.

A) prevent dominant group perceptions of racism
B) promote suspicion regarding alternative cultural experiences
C) promote the idea of a single "American" culture
D) relegate whites to the bottom of the racial hierarchy

Question 51

Material culture consists, in part, of the meaning and significance attached to material objects.

Question 52

Most minority groups eventually adapt their distinctive cultural traits to those of the host society.

Question 53

Paralinguistic signals include sounds but not words.

Question 54

The significance attached to iPods is an element of nonmaterial culture.

Question 55

Linguistic relativity of language means that every race has its own language.

Question 56

Ralph Linton calculated that any given culture contains about 90 percent borrowed elements.

Question 57

Convergent subcultures come together to create a brand new culture.

Question 58

According to the concept of "persistent subcultures," all ethnic groups avoid any assimilation with the dominant culture.

Question 59

An ascribed status is one that someone has given to us as a gift.

Question 60

Attitudes about a group may result from people's value judgments about social class.

Question 61

Based on Figure 2.1, each individual observes the world through __________, which are evaluated in terms of __________.

Question 62

Through _________, each generation transmits its culture to the next generation.

Question 63

Bill has always been told that Mexican are lazy. The consequences of defining this group of people this way is that he treats them as though they are incapable of working hard. This is an example of the __________ at work.

Question 64

__________ social institutions, such as newspapers, churches, and schools, often promote cohesiveness within minority subcultures.

Question 65

An Irish immigrant who feels stress in both American and Irish cultures as her subculture converges with the dominant culture in America, might experience the problem of __________.

Question 66

In W. Lloyd Warner's study of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a significant relationship existed between an ethnic group's __________ and their social class.

Question 67

According to Daniel P. Moynihan, young men who grow up in broken families and never acquire a stable relationship to __________ will be more likely to resort to crime and other forms of deviance.

Question 68

The greater and more visible the __________, the greater the likelihood that conflict will occur.

Question 69

In __________ theory, which group becomes dominant and which becomes subordinate governs relationships between the groups.

Question 70

Some social scientists argue that the black experience does not equal with that of __________.

Question 71

Explain the differences between cultural diffusion and cultural transmission. Use specific examples in your response.

Question 72

As the text suggests, accessibility to homelands through technology might make immigrants less interested in assimilation. Why? Use examples in your answer.

Question 73

Explain the concept of the culture of poverty and discuss how it has been used and misused.

Question 74

Explain W. Lloyd Warner's reputational method and illustrate with examples. Why is this method important for social scientists?

Question 75

Explain how, according to Thomas Sowell, the compatibility of a group's cultural characteristics with the dominant culture determines the group's level of economic success.

Question 76

Explain the difference between material and nonmaterial culture. Which should change faster? Use specific examples in your answer.

Question 77

Explain how knowledge of language and cultural symbols shape our perception of reality. How does this apply to racial and ethnic dynamics?

Question 78

Explain the interrelationships between ethnicity and social class.

Question 79

Compare and contrast Stephen Steinberg and Thomas Sowell's views of a minority group's economic success using examples. Which one do you find more useful? Why?

Question 80

Discuss the concept of "white culture." Do you think there is such a thing? What are the effects of having a "white culture?"