Exam Prep What Is Sociology? Chapter.1 - Complete Test Bank | Living Sociologically 1e Jacobs by Ronald N. Jacobs. DOCX document preview.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 1
1) Sociological knowledge of the world is different from the knowledge we gain through everyday observation because
Page reference: p. 10 “What is Sociology?”
a. we use social scientific methods to make sociological observations
b. sociological knowledge can always be measured quantitatively
c. we revise our knowledge gained from everyday observation when we encounter new facts, but we don’t revise sociological knowledge
d. everyday observation is methodical, whereas sociological observation is haphazard
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 2
2) “Society” includes any relationships between human beings in which there is
Page reference: p. 5 “What is Sociology?”
a. socially meaningful interaction
b. physical contact
c. a shared language
d. shared values
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 3
3) French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) argued that sociology should focus on the discovery of
Page reference: p. 5 “What is Sociology?”
a. social facts
b. social actions
c. social relationships
d. social problems
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 4
4) German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) argued that sociology should focus on understanding
Page reference: p. 5 “What is Sociology?”
a. social facts
b. social actions
c. social relationships
d. social problems
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 5
5) American sociologist Albion Small (1854–1926) argued that sociology could help us understand
Page reference: p. 5 “What is Sociology?”
a. social problems
b. social facts
c. social relationships
d. solutions to personal problems
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 6
6) Sociologist C. Wright Mills argued that sociology could help us live better lives by
Page reference: p. 5 “What is Sociology?”
a. showing us that living in peace with others is impossible
b. showing us that individuals can do anything they put effort into, despite social forces
c. showing us that individuals are helpless in the face of social forces
d. showing us how our individual problems are connected to larger social issues
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 6
7) Sociologists are interested in social facts, social actions, and social relationships because they believe that
Page reference: p. 6 “What is Sociology?”
a. individual actions are shaped by larger social phenomena
b. external forces alone, not how people respond to them, shape human lives
c. individual actions, not larger social forces, determine human outcomes
d. our individual experiences are so unique that it is almost impossible to find patterns in them
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 8
8) When sociologists say that sociology is based on systematic research, they mean
Page reference: p. 6 “What is Sociology?”
a. they base their conclusions on inferences and hypothetical situations
b. they study individuals, not groups
c. they seek to find fact-based explanations of the social world as it really exists
d. they all use the same research method to make observations
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 9
9) Sociologists can say that they hope to empower people to make positive change in the world because they believe that sociology
Page reference: p. 6 “What is Sociology?”
a. can convince individuals to change and, if enough individuals change, society will change
b. undermines freedom by teaching people that they are influenced by social forces
c. gives people a false but motivating sense of their own individual power in the face of overwhelming social forces
d. helps people understand the world, including social facts, actions, and relationships, more deeply and thus identify problems and solutions to them more clearly
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 10
10) The moral perspective on sociology is distinguished by other approaches in its belief that sociology should
Page reference: p. 6 “What is Sociology?”
a. be morally neutral
b. adopt the moral framework of the majority of the people in a society
c. be a force for good
d. give more weight to the morality of those with less power in a society
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 11
11) When sociologists argue that sociology can make the world a better place, they mean all of the following EXCEPT
Page reference: p. 6 “What is Sociology?”
a. increasing empathy and understanding
b. increasing equality
c. challenging structures of domination
d. promoting socialism as a system of government
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 12
12) When sociologist C. Wright Mills said that the sociological imagination “enables us to grasp history and biography and the relation between the two in society,” he meant that sociology
Page reference: p. 6 “What is Sociology?”
a. is a subfield of history
b. requires us to imagine things that may not have happened
c. is the study of how individuals contribute to history
Correct/
d. is the effort to understand our individual stories within a larger historical frame
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 13
13) William Julius Wilson’s 1987 book The Truly Disadvantaged examined how
Page reference: p. 7 “What is Sociology?”
a. welfare policies affected poverty among people of color
b. cuts to welfare benefits harmed poor single mothers
c. conservative politicians promised tax cuts in exchange for cuts to welfare benefits that helped poor people
d. structural changes in gender, class, and race relationships contributed to poverty among African Americans living in inner cities
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 14
14) During what time period did sociology develop as an academic discipline?
Page reference: p. 7-8 “What is Sociology?”
a. Late 18th century
b. Early 19th century
c. Late 19th century
d. Middle 20th century
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 15
15) As a social science, sociology argues that humans make better choices when they accurately understand the facts of social life, and yet
Page reference: p. 8 “What is Sociology?”
a. gathering accurate information is difficult
b. most people do not want to learn accurate information
c. accuracy is a matter of opinion
d. methods for gathering accurate information are intuitive, not something that can be taught
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 16
16) Dr. Kendig and Dr. Kulkarni are both surveying teens about their use of tobacco. Dr. Kendig includes questions about vaping, cigarette smoking, and chewing tobacco in her survey. Dr. Kulkarni only asks about cigarette smoking. Dr. Kendig’s research findings show a higher rate of tobacco use among teens compared to Dr. Kulkarni’s research. The differences in their findings illustrates the point that
Page reference: p. 8 “What is Sociology?”
a. how you define a problem determines what facts you collect as you study it
b. research findings are inherently subjective
c. the personal interests of researchers have undue influence over their results
d. data are unstable and cannot be measured accurately
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 17
17) Why do sociologists value thoughtful research methods so much?
Page reference: p. 9 “What is Sociology?”
a. New ways of measuring well-understood data confirms previous research.
b. Unless research methods are innovative, they may not be appreciated by other sociologists.
c. Methods that are imprecise are less likely to produce accurate data.
d. Sociologists compete with each other to develop ever more precise methods.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 18
18) Sociological knowledge is different from everyday knowledge in that
Page reference: p. 4-5 “What is Sociology?”
a. sociology does not ignore information that challenges our assumptions
b. in everyday observations, people tend to seek information that challenges their assumptions
c. sociology confirms our biases
d. everyday knowledge is collected systematically
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 19
19) Sociology is different from other social sciences in that it
Page reference: p. 9 “What is Sociology?"
a. produces only quantitative information—that is, things that are expressed in numbers
b. examines the relationships between different social institutions
c. focuses very narrowly on a limited set of topics
d. seeks narrow explanations of social phenomena that can’t be applied to other situations
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 20
20) Why do sociologists collect data about historical trends?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. To explore how famous people in history responded to the social crises of their time
b. To understand how structural patterns change over time
c. To explain how social issues change from society to society
d. To demonstrate that the study of history remains important
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 21
21) Why can’t sociologists rely on their personal observations when drawing conclusions about society?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. Personal observations cannot produce the quantitative data that sociology demands.
b. Research indicates that sociologists are more biased than other people.
c. Personal observations are not systematic.
d. Sociologists are less likely than others to recognize their prejudices.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 22
22) Level of analysis refers to
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. the time frame of the trends that sociologists study
b. the size and scale of the objects that sociologists study
c. the depth of description that sociologists use to detail the objects they study
d. the willingness of sociologists to admit their own biases
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 23
23) What level of analysis studies large-scale structural patterns and historical trends?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociology
b. Microsociology
c. Intermediate analysis
d. Macrosociology
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 24
24) What level of analysis studies individual and small group interactions?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociology
b. Microsociology
c. Intermediate analysis
d. Macrosociology
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 25
25) What level of analysis examines specific institutions?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociology
b. Microsociology
c. Intermediate analysis
d. Macrosociology
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 26
26) A sociologist is interested in studying how fathers support breastfeeding mothers. She invites heterosexual couples with a nursing baby into her office to observe their interactions. What level of analysis is she conducting?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociological
b. Microsociological
c. Intermediate sociological
d. Macrosociological
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 27
27) As “the Greatest Generation”—those who witnessed World War II—passes away, the U.S. is seeing a massive transfer of wealth as their children and grandchildren inherit their money and property. Dr. Alvarez wants to study the impact of these inheritances on the larger U.S. economy. What level of analysis is she conducting?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociological
b. Microsociological
c. Intermediate sociological
d. Macrosociological
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 28
28) Dr. Kelvin is interested in how families negotiate the process of settling a will for a deceased member. He recruits 10 families, which each agree to let him observe their process of reading the will of a recently deceased loved one and interviewing them about their response to it. What level of analysis is he conducting?
Page reference: p. “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociological
b. Microsociological
c. Intermediate sociological
d. Macrosociological
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 29
29) A megachurch is located in a suburban neighborhood. Because roughly 7,000 people attend services each week, traffic in the neighborhood is a nuisance to those living there. The church is seeking city permission to expand its parking lot and city financial investment to increase the number of lanes on the road leading to the church—decisions that members of the local neighborhood association fear will lead to even more traffic. The city has hired a sociologist to study the situation and offer a recommendation. What level of analysis is the sociologist conducting?
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. “Public issue” sociological
b. Microsociological
c. Intermediate sociological
d. Macrosociological
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 30
30) Sociologists argue that the divorce rate is a “public issue” because
Page reference: p. 10 “Levels of Analysis”
a. it is shaped by factors beyond individual partners’ choices, such as the state of the economy
b. divorce is inherently bad for people and thus creates human suffering
c. public policy should make it harder to get a divorce
d. divorcing couples rarely consider the impact of their divorce on the public sphere
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 31
31) When sociologists argue that people seek a “shared definition of the situation,” they mean
Page reference: p. 11 “Levels of Analysis”
a. much of our attention and energy in social situation is spent figuring out the rules, how to follow them, and how to bend them to our advantage
b. because the rules in most social situations are unclear, people must work together to explicitly define them
c. we fight about what is “common courtesy,” which takes our attention away from more important social problems
d. the rules in any given social situation are determined by those people with the least amount of social power
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 32
32) Mauricio is an automobile mechanic. Next week, he is meeting in person a woman he has been flirting with online. Because he does not want her to focus on his job as a mechanic, he is careful this week to wear gloves while at work, to prevent oil from staining his hands. Mauricio is engaging in what behavior?
Page reference: p. 11 “Levels of Analysis”
a. Impression management
b. Level of analysis
c. Deceit
d. Confirmation bias
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 33
33) J.K. Rowling, when submitting her first drafts of the Harry Potter books to publishers, chose to disguise her gender by using initials rather than her first name—Joanne—because she was concerned that publishers might reject a story about a boy wizard if they knew it was written by a woman. Rowling’s fears illustrate what sociological principle?
Page reference: p. 11 “Levels of Analysis”
a. Everyday social interactions can recreate patterns of inequality.
b. People are aware of their confirmation biases.
c. People can overcome prejudice if they try.
d. The negative impact of implicit biases—prejudices we have without recognizing them—is overstated.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 34
34) Which of the following is a tenet of macrosociological approaches to understanding the opportunities and challenges people face?
Page reference: p. 12 “Levels of Analysis”
a. The opportunities and challenges we face in life are provided to us based on our own abilities.
b. The opportunities and challenges we face in life are entirely out of our control.
c. The opportunities and challenges we are given in life are shaped by our society.
d. The opportunities and challenges we are given in life are fully of our own making.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 35
35) Which of the following is NOT a topic on which macrosociologists would focus their work?
Page reference: p. 12 “Levels of Analysis”
a. How economic factors such as international trade increase or decrease the chance of two nations in conflict moving to war
b. How warfare affects the mental health of individual soldiers
c. The environmental impact of bombing on the agricultural output of a nation
d. How journalistic coverage of a war shapes how members of Congress allocate funds for warfare
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 36
36) Which of the following statements are true about the relationship between micro- and macrosociological approaches?
Page reference: p. 12 “Levels of Analysis”
a. They are interchangeable.
b. One yields quantitative data (data in numbers) and the other yields qualitative data (data in words).
c. They complement each other.
d. They conflict with each other.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 37
37) Institutions help stabilize a society because they
Page reference: p. 13 “Levels of Analysis”
a. are unquestioned and uncontested by members of a society
b. do not vary from society to society
c. are unchanging over time
d. provide rules for behavior and define relationships
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 38
38) Sociologically, the word institutions has two definitions. Among the following, which is one of them?
Page reference: p. 13 “Levels of Analysis”
a. The gestures and symbols that people exchange in building positive relationships with each other
b. The rules about how individuals should be punished for behavior that violates society’s rules
c. A society’s values about what is good and should be reproduced
d. Specific organizations with a domain that uphold the rules of how a society works
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 39
39) Which of the following is an example of an institution?
Page reference: p. 13 “Levels of Analysis”
a. The family
b. Support for animal rights
c. Sadness
d. The high school drop-out rate
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 40
40) Which of the following is an example of how an institution serves as a gatekeeper?
Page reference: p. 13 “Levels of Analysis”
a. A new state law demands that all public high school students must complete an internship in a local business in order to graduate.
b. The pair of shoes that you would like to buy is too expensive for your budget, so you choose a cheaper pair.
c. You embezzle money from your company and are sentenced to jail for your crime.
d. You have engaged in a street fight that has left you bleeding from a cut in your face. You call an Uber to take you home from the fight, but he driver refuses to let you into his car because he does not want you to bleed onto the seats.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 41
41) Because institutional gatekeepers tend to reward privilege
Page reference: p. 13 “Levels of Analysis”
a. inequality decreases
b. people come to appreciate the privileges they have
c. those who already have privileges tend to accrue more
d. those who are disadvantaged have a fair opportunity to get ahead
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 42
42) The feeling of belonging and connection we feel with others who we think of as “like us” is called
Page reference: p. 15 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. Power
b. Privilege
c. Structure
d. Solidarity
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 43
43) Nationalism is a form of solidarity that can be dangerous because it
Page reference: p. 15 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. helps people bond around national symbols, such as the national flag
b. gives people a sense of pride about their nation’s history
c. leads to an increase in taxes
d. defines immigrants within the nation as threatening to the nation and thus encourages other people to treat them violently
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 44
44) In what way can solidarity act as a force for social good?
Page reference: p. 15 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. By promoting competition among members of the same group
b. By promoting competition among people of different groups
c. By promoting cooperation among people of different groups
d. By promoting cooperation among people of the same group
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 45
45) In what way can solidarity damage social relationships?
Page reference: p. 15 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. By fostering conflict with those who are within your group
b. By fostering conflict with those who are outside your group
c. By fostering cooperation with those within your group
d. By opening the definition of who is within your group to too many people
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 46
46) Which of the following is an example of solidarity?
Page reference: p. 15 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. When members of an anti-gay church show up at a local high school football game to protest the inclusion of a gay athlete on the team, every student in the school showed up to counter-protest, arguing that an attack on one of them was an attack on all of them.
b. When telecommunication workers went on strike, many of the employees in the office refused to participate in the picket and went to work rather than joining in the strike.
c. After her elderly father passed away, Cynthia received a card from the funeral home expressing their sympathy for her loss.
d. After Jack was confronted by his co-workers about his drinking while on the job, he insisted that such behavior was “no big deal” because “lots of people in other cultures drink while at work.”
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 47
47) Power usually operates
Page reference: p. 15-16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. via violence
b. via threats of violence
c. via physical force
d. without bodily coercion or the threat of it
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 48
48) Annette is not interested in politics, but her husband Greg is. She has very limited exposure to media about politics, arguing that it is the job of the husband to make decisions about how the wife should vote. She votes for the candidates whom Greg tells her to vote for. Greg is exercising power over his wife in which way?
Page reference: p. 16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. A cultural tradition about gender
b. A cultural tradition about the importance of voting
c. A cultural tradition about media
d. A cultural tradition about emotional abuse
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 49
49) Social relationships in which one person or group is able to influence others, either directly or indirectly, is characterized by
Page reference: p. 16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. solidarity
b. privilege
c. structure
d. power
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 50
50) Which of the following statements about the relationship between power and resistance is true?
Page reference: p. 16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. People often resist feeling and being powerless.
b. History shows that nonviolent resistance to violent power is futile.
c. People with power are always more popular than people resisting it.
d. The exercise of power rarely produces resistance.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 51
51) If you oppose the exercise of others’ power over you, you are engaging in
Page reference: p. 16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. resistance
b. solidarity
c. privilege
d. contingency
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 52
52) The uneven distribution of social resources is termed
Page reference: p. 16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. structure
b. confirmation bias
c. inequality
d. privilege
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 53
53) Inequality has existed in all societies, though
Page reference: p. 16 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. societies may differ in who is treated unequally.
b. some societies have achieved equality
c. all societies take similar measures to undo it
d. the same strategies for addressing it work even in very different societies
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 54
54) When advantages in life flow to people at the top of a social hierarchy, they are experiencing
Page reference: p. 17 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. conflict
b. solidarity
c. privilege
d. contingency
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 55
55) How do people with privilege often protect their belief that they earned their good fortune in life?
Page reference: p. 17 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. Refusal to watch televised news or read a newspaper
b. Social integration, which allows them to meet people who are disadvantaged and pass negative judgments on their situation
c. Social isolation, which prevents them from seeing people without such advantages
d. Disengagement from politics due to cynicism
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 56
56) Which of the following is evidence that social life on our planet is increasingly interconnected?
Page reference: p. 17 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. The birth rate for Muslims in the U.S. is higher than the birth rate for people of most other religions.
b. Prejudice against immigrants in the U.S. has increased since 2016.
c. Most Americans believe it is important to stand for the national anthem while attending sporting events where it is played.
d. For most Americans, most of the consumer goods in their household are made abroad.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 57
57) The interconnection of social life on the planet is termed
Page reference: p. 17 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. globalization
b. localization
c. parochialism
d. cosmopolitanism
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 58
58) The seen and unseen regular, organized patterns of social life are termed
Page reference: p. 18 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. social structure
b. inequality
c. contingency
d. sociological imagination
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 59
59) Openness in social life produced by human choices and actions is termed
Page reference: p. 18 “Thinking Relationally: The Paired Concepts”
a. contingency
b. solidarity
c. power
d. privilege
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 1 Question 60
60) Your city government is currently hiring people to work on each of the four projects below. If they can hire only one sociologist, which job should they hire the sociologist to do?
Page reference: p. 19 “Why Sociology?”
a. Counting how many migratory birds fly through the city during a period of time in order to understand how a new high-rise building might impact their migration patterns
b. Taking a census of how many youth are loitering in the public parks each day in order to assess if there is a need for a youth drop-in center
c. Measuring what percent of the content of the city’s garbage is recyclable in order to recommend a new system of sorting recyclables from trash
d. Measuring how much litter is left in the city’s central park each day in order to determine the correct number of trash cans that should be placed in the park
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Complete Test Bank | Living Sociologically 1e Jacobs
By Ronald N. Jacobs