Chapter 1: Sociology and the Study of Social Problems

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. What is the term for the ability to link our own lives and experiences with our social world?

a. sociology

b. sociological imagination

c. globalization

d. socialism

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Which of these is the least likely to form the basis of people’s understanding of social problems according to your text?

a. life experiences

b. scientific research

c. good guesses

d. opinions

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. What might a sociologist say about widespread unemployment?

a. It is a personal trouble.

b. It is a public issue.

c. It is not a social problem.

d. It is not a concern of sociology.

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Which of these regions has the highest number of individuals living with AIDS?

a. Eastern and Southern Africa

b. Latin America

c. Western and Central Europe

d. North America

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. The number of Americans being diagnose annually with HIV/AIDS has ______ since the early 1980s when it emerged in the United States.

a. tripled

b. doubled

c. stayed the same

d. declined significantly

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. The cost of college tuition is ______.

a. rising at a slower rate than family income or student financial aid

b. rising at about the same rate as family income or student financial aid

c. rising at a faster rate than family income or student financial aid

d. not being tracked

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Using Our Sociological Imagination

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Damien and his friends are at a barbecue discussing the changes in AIDS over the past few decades. Damien asserts that HIV/AIDS is no longer a significant global health concern because his neighbor is HIV positive and is thriving. Damien's statement is most likely based on which of these?

a. objective reality

b. subjective reality

c. social constructionism

d. sociological imagination

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. What is the term for the belief that problems only become real because they were perceived and defined that way?

a. social constructionism

b. social problem

c. objective reality

d. definitional theory

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. As defined by the author, a social problem is a social condition or pattern of behavior that has ______ consequences for ______.

a. positive; non-conforming members of society

b. negative; our social world

c. positive; external self

d. negative; individuals, our social world, or the physical world

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. According to Spector and Kituse’s stage model of social problems, the transformation of AIDS from a private trouble to a public issue is an example of which stage of social problem emergence?

a. stage one

b. stage two

c. stage three

d. stage four

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The History of Social Problems

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. According to your text, social problems can be identified as happening in ______ stage(s)?

a. one

b. two

c. three

d. four

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The History of Social Problems

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Which stage 2 action could Ronald Reagan have taken to inhibit the spread of AIDS in the mid-1980s?

a. He could have reduced funding for drug treatment programs.

b. He could have resisted labelling AIDS the “gay plague.”

c. He could have publicly legitimized the disease when it was first identified.

d. He could have allowed children with AIDS to attend public schools by supporting the Ryan White CARE Act.

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Hard

13. Who developed the concept of the “Social Construction of Reality”?

a. Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim

b. Jane Addams and C. Wright Mills

c. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman

d. Max Weber and Robert Merton

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. A set of assumptions and propositions used for explanation, prediction, and understanding is defined as which of these?

a. a theory

b. a hypothesis

c. a macro-level analysis

d. a micro-level analysis

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Social structures can have positive or negative consequences. What is the name for the negative consequences, according to functionalist Robert Merton?

a. malfunctions

b. negative functions

c. conflict

d. dysfunctions

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. C. Wright Mills defined the ______ as a small group of political, business, and military elite who exclusively control our society.

a. power elite

b. bourgeoisie

c. proletariat

d. prestige elite

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Which type of theory focuses on the individual level of analysis of society?

a. macro theory

b. micro theory

c. meso theory

d. anomic theory

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Which type of theory focuses on the societal level of analysis of society?

a. macro theory

b. micro theory

c. meso theory

d. anomic theory

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. A functionalist examines the ______ of society.

a. institutions

b. symbols

c. inequalities

d. human agency

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. The feminist perspective is to ______ as the interactionist perspective is to ______.

a. dysfunction; anomie

b. patriarchy; symbols

c. macro; class consciousness

d. human agency; Proletariat

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Hard

21. Which theorist is associated with the Interactionist Perspective?

a. Karl Marx

b. Emile Durkheim

c. C. Wright Mills

d. George Herbert Mead

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. With which of these statements about social problems would Symbolic Interactionists agree?

a. Behaviors leading to social problems are biological.

b. All social problems result from inequality in the social structure.

c. All social problems have functions and dysfunctions for society.

d. Objective social problems do not exist; they become real only if they are defined and labeled.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Hard

23. Feminist theorists would be most likely to explore which of these?

a. the proletariat

b. anomie

c. class consciousness

d. patriarchy

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Feminist Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. What active role of individuals do Interactionists—more than any other perspective—stress as a factor in creating their social environment?

a. human agency

b. human energy

c. socialization

d. social construction

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Which of these theories takes a micro perspective?

a. functionalist theory

b. conflict theory

c. feminist theory

d. symbolic interactionist theory

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. Jean Schroedel and Daniel Jordan examined the allocation of federal funds to four distinct HIV/AIDS groups between 1982 and 1992. The group that received the least funding were labeled as which of these?

a. contenders

b. dependents

c. deviants

d. deservings

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. Which of the following is NOT an example of Karl Marx’s concept of alienation?

a. James becomes alienated from his work as a Master Carpenter.

b. James becomes alienated from his own family.

c. James becomes alienated from the product of his work.

d. James becomes alienated from his coworkers.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Conflict Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Which theorist proposed that the function of society is to control individual actions?

a. Karl Marx

b. Emile Durkheim

c. C. Wright Mills

d. George Herbert Mead

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. How does the self emerge from interaction?

a. We act based on our past experiences and based on what we have come to accept as definitions of each role.

b. It is our given nature and we are born with a natural instinct to interact.

c. The self never emerges.

d. It is believed everyone is born a delinquent.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. Which statement best defines secondary data analysis?

a. data collected based on responses to a series of questions

b. research that involves working with data that the researcher did not originally design or collect

c. research that focuses on one historical period or traces a sequence of events over a number of years

d. data collected in the field by an interviewer

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. Carla is conducting a study examining the effect of income on available housing. “Available housing” is the ______.

a. null hypothesis

b. dependent variable

c. research question

d. independent variable

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. John is a student of sociology. He decides to dress as if he is a homeless person and goes to the local downtown library to “hang out” with the homeless to gather data for a research project. John is using which of these research methods to collect his data?

a. comparative research

b. secondary data analysis

c. qualitative methods

d. quantitative methods

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. Which research method is designed to capture social life as participants experience it?

a. qualitative

b. quantitative

c. survey

d. historical and comparative

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. Quantitative research methods focus on ______.

a. statistical data

b. independent variables

c. dependent variables

d. social life as people experience it

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. Which research method traces a sequence of events over time?

a. qualitative

b. quantitative

c. survey

d. historical and comparative

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Easy

36. Which research method is designed to find patterns in a series of responses to questions?

a. qualitative

b. quantitative

c. survey

d. historical and comparative

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Easy

37. Which of these is an example of applied research?

a. a study of divorce rates

b. a study of predictors of diabetes

c. a study of which programs best address opioid addiction

d. a study of hook up culture at colleges

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

38. Which of these is not a “social action”?

a. innovation

b. analysis

c. social policy

d. advocacy

Learning Objective: 1-5: Identify the role of social policy, advocacy, and innovation in addressing social problems.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Making Sociological Connections

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. Charles Lemert argues that sociology is a thing to be ______.

a. studied

b. lived

c. discussed

d. rejected

Learning Objective: 1-5: Identify the role of social policy, advocacy, and innovation in addressing social problems.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Making Sociological Connections

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Your text connects which of these main topics?

a. personal troubles and social issues

b. social problems and politics

c. social problems and mental health

d. personal troubles and mental health

Learning Objective: 1-5: Identify the role of social policy, advocacy, and innovation in addressing social problems.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Making Sociological Connections

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. The sociological imagination gives us the ability to link our personal lives and experiences with our social world.

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Using Our Sociological imagination

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Nearly one half of all college-qualified, low- and moderate-income high school graduates are unable to afford college

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Using Our Sociological imagination

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. In the first stage of the identification of a social problem, activists, advocates, and victims of the problem feel distrust towards formal organizations.

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. In order for a social condition to be considered a social problem, it must be personally experienced by every individual in a particular society.

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. The defining of HIV/AIDS as a sexual epidemic rather than a public health threat occurred during the Stage 2 legitimization process.

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Hard

6. A theory is a set of assumptions and propositions used for explanation, prediction, and understanding.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. Melissa, a sociologist conducting research on drug use, recently interviewed three drug-addicted individuals living in downtown Trenton, New Jersey. She plans on writing her findings on the drug use based on these three interviews. Melissa is approaching her research from a macro perspective.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Conflict theorists argue that most social problems can be traced to the family.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Hard

9. Anomie can be explained by periods of rapid social change, such as political upheaval.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Functionalism uses a macro perspective to examine society.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. From a conflict perspective, most social problems do not arise from competing interest groups; they, rather, emerge out of family.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

12. For feminists, the patriarchal society where men dominate women and justify their domination within powerful groups is the basis of social problems.

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Secondary data analysis usually involves the analysis of originally collected data.

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Applied research differs from basic research in that it examines causes without intent to use the data somewhere specific whereas applied research has a specific intent to apply findings for policy implementation.

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Mickey Chopra, UNICEF’s chief of health, reports that as countries such as the United States have turned their attention and funding to the AIDS epidemic worldwide, deaths due to preventable diseases have increased.

Learning Objective: 1-5: Identify the role of social policy, advocacy, and innovation in addressing social problems.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Making Sociological Connections

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Social action to address social problems is only effective in the form of laws.

Learning Objective: 1-5: Identify the role of social policy, advocacy, and innovation in addressing social problems.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Making Sociological Connections

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Discuss the rising costs of education and the increasing issues surrounding it by using sociological tools and concepts. Who is paying for the changes in school financing? Is it just the student? What is the overall cost to our culture? What do you see as possible solutions to the education-funding crisis?

Learning Objective: 1-1: Define the sociological imagination.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Application

Answer Location: Introduction

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Explain the four-stage process identified by Spector and Kituse in the identification of a social problem. Provide your own example of a social problem that has followed this four-step process.

Learning Objective: 1-2: Identify the characteristics of a social problem.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Application

Answer Location: What is a Social Problem?

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. How does the idea of human agency explain HIV/AID epidemic in the United States? How does the active role of an individual define their action? What other deciding factors should be considered?

Learning Objective: 1-3: Compare the four sociological perspectives.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Understanding the Sociological Perspective

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Discuss the different research methods: survey research, qualitative methods, historical and comparative methods and last secondary data analysis. How are these methods distinctive from each other?

Learning Objective: 1-4: Explain how sociology is a science.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Science of Sociology

Difficulty Level: Medium