Chapter 4: Social Stratification and Social Class

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Karl Marx argued that workers should control the means of production in ______.

a. capitalism

b. communism

c. socialism

d. feudalism

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. According to Marx, which of these systems is the ultimate evolution of economics?

a. Socialism

b. Capitalism

c. Feudalism

d. Communism

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. The name that Marx gave to capitalists who own the means of production was ______.

a. bourgeoisie

b. proletariat

c. usurpers

d. exploiters

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. According to Marx, those who only own their own labor are the ______.

a. slaves

b. proletariat

c. exploited

d. bourgeoisie

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Marx asserted that society’s main problem is that the bourgeoisie and proletariat are engaged in ______.

a. cooperation

b. vigilante justice

c. class struggle

d. open warfare

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. The way a society chooses to make things is known as ______.

a. mode of production

b. political system

c. ideology

d. internal revenue

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. According to Marx, any property that can be used to make things or generate wealth is a(n) ______.

a. investment

b. mode of production

c. means of production

d. institution

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Marx described two main groups of people, defined by their relationship to the means of production, and classified them as ______.

a. castes

b. classes

c. cliques

d. cronies

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Easy

9. In what way are members of the bourgeoisie dependent on the proletariat?

a. The proletariat owns the land on which to build factories.

b. The bourgeoisie must sell their mental or physical labor to survive.

c. They must work together to maintain their domination of the poor.

d. Members of the proletariat form the labor force for factories.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Which of the following means of production is crucial to most others?

a. Land

b. Vehicles

c. Factories

d. Machines

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Why did Marx feel the relationship between the classes is coercive?

a. The bourgeoisie will always be exploited by the proletariat.

b. The proletariat seeks to keep wages low and profits high.

c. Workers are perpetually beholden to capitalists for wages.

d. The classes have not cooperated since Roman times.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Hard

12. The amount of money a capitalist brings home after paying for labor and other costs is called ______.

a. overhead

b. surplus value

c. sunk costs

d. depreciation

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Which of these is an attempt to minimize costs and maximize profits?

a. Offering a generous pension to retain workers in the long term

b. Paying workers enough to purchase the products they make

c. Keeping wages and benefits low, and work hours long

d. Granting workers extended paid time off from work

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Karl Marx’s ideas are most similar to which sociological perspective?

a. Structural functionalism

b. Symbolic interactionism

c. Dramaturgical

d. Conflict theory

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Hard

15. What did Marx say the bourgeoisie have done to previously well-respected professions?

a. They reduced them to lowly wage-earners.

b. They granted the special status above laborers.

c. They conferred with them on best practices.

d. They bribed them to call workplaces safe and clean.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. According to Marx, what corrosive effect does capitalism have on the proletariat?

a. Cheaper production makes more products accessible to more people.

b. The personal joy of work is sapped and replaced only by money.

c. Proletarians eventually become bourgeoisie and oppress their brothers.

d. Automation will eventually make all workers obsolete.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. How did Marx predict the bourgeoisie would cause its own demise?

a. Eventually, all humans would become bourgeoisie, as robots take over labor tasks.

b. The proletariat will switch places and oppress the bourgeoisie as revenge.

c. The abuses of the bourgeoisie will eventually unite the proletariat against them.

d. A few of the bourgeoisie would seek to profit from funding the demise of the rest.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Which common capitalist ideology asserts that poor people are poor because they have NOT worked hard enough to change their situation?

a. Individualism

b. Development

c. Progress

d. Meritocracy

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Ideology of Capitalism

Difficulty Level: Medium

19. According to Marx, one of the factors preventing the proletariat from uniting is the belief in ideas that support the status quo, or a ______.

a. spurious belief

b. flawed notion

c. distracting ideology

d. false consciousness

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Ideology of Capitalism

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. How does the state support the unequal distribution of wealth and power inherent to capitalism?

a. Influencing the media and school curriculum to assert the status quo.

b. Critically examining and comparing competing systems, such as socialism.

c. Imprisoning anyone who suggests capitalism is not the best and only way.

d. Giving communists and socialists equal standing with candidates who support the status quo.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The State and the Class System

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. One of the criticisms of Marx’s theory is that he ______.

a. ignored the superrich 1% on the top of wealth chart

b. oversimplified the number of social classes to just two

c. dismissed examples of members of classes cooperating

d. deemphasized the possibility of mixed economic systems

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Are There Just Two Social Classes?

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Ernie owns his sandwich shop and works alongside his employees on a daily basis; he is part of which social class?

a. Bourgeoisie

b. Lumpenproletariat

c. Petit bourgeoisie

d. Proletariat

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Are There Just Two Social Classes?

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Joe has posttraumatic stress disorder from his time in the military. He is unable to hold a job and stands near a busy intersection hoping for help, making him a ______, according to Marx.

a. Proletarian

b. Lumpenproletarian

c. Petit bourgeoisie

d. Bourgeoisie

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Are There Just Two Social Classes?

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. What did Marx think was required for the proletariat to band together in unions and fight for socialism?

a. A leader with broad powers

b. Hatred for the bourgeoisie

c. Awareness of abuses

d. Class consciousness

Learning Objective: 4.3: Analyze the importance of class consciousness and its role in class struggles.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Class Consciousness

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Union membership has been declining in developed countries recently, as shown by which measurement?

a. Trade union density

b. Average wage increase

c. Distribution of wealth

d. Number of strikes

Learning Objective: 4.3: Analyze the importance of class consciousness and its role in class struggles.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Class Consciousness

Difficulty Level: Easy

26. Which of these is an example of overt resistance by workers against owners?

a. Working slowly

b. Taking office supplies

c. Forming a union

d. Spreading rumors

Learning Objective: 4.3: Analyze the importance of class consciousness and its role in class struggles.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Class Consciousness

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. Covert action in a class struggle between workers and owners can take many forms, such as ______.

a. leading a strike

b. wasting time at work

c. complaining to human resources

d. publicly posting on social media

Learning Objective: 4.3: Analyze the importance of class consciousness and its role in class struggles.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Class Consciousness

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Who is considered by many to be the greatest German sociologist?

a. Karl Marx

b. C. Wright Mills

c. Talcott Parsons

d. Max Weber

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

29. According to Weber, what kind of power is conferred by income or wealth?

a. Economic

b. Political

c. Social

d. Virtual

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

30. Weber asserted that social power is gained from which pair of factors?

a. Party and loyalty

b. Honor and prestige

c. Income and wealth

d. Esteem and sacrifice

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

31. Marx’s petit bourgeoisie class is equivalent to Weber’s ______.

a. large capitalist

b. specialist

c. small capitalist

d. working class

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. People with marketable skills, such as teachers, would belong to which of Weber’s economic classes?

a. Working class

b. Small capitalist

c. Large capitalist

d. Specialist

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

33. Sonya is a prosperous contractor, but society stereotypes her profession as suspect and possibly shady. What does Weber say about such situations?

a. She has a lower social status, but a higher social class.

b. Sonya has to work hard to dispel stereotypes.

c. Contractors sometimes skirt the law to earn money.

d. Her job has a high status, but is considered lower class.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. What is one main difference between social class and social status, according to Weber?

a. People can be in many different social classes, but only one status.

b. It is possible to be in more than one status, but only one class.

c. A person of high social class will always have a high status, too.

d. The only way to earn high status is to start in a low social class.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Hard

35. A group seeking to influence social action and policy is known as a ______.

a. status group

b. social class

c. party

d. organization

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

36. Why was Julie Bettis so concerned with her choice of clothing during her research?

a. She tried not to alienate any cliques in the school population she studied.

b. Bettis wanted to make sure the students saw her as an authority figure.

c. In an attempt to blend in, she pretended to be an exchange student.

d. She wore and gave away high fashion items in order to earn trust and friendship.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Methods in Depth: Women Without Class by Julie Bettis

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. What challenge did Bettis face in her research regarding culture?

a. She found it hard to understand Mexican-American culture.

b. As a white woman, she was not easily accepted by Mexican-American girls.

c. Many Mexican-Americans are suspicious of outsiders in their midst.

d. She had to be careful not to reduce her subjects to their ethnicity.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Methods in Depth: Women Without Class by Julie Bettis

Difficulty Level: Easy

38. A major pitfall to avoid when studying groups very unlike ourselves is ______.

a. the tendency to use stereotypes to understand their experiences

b. overcoming the guilt of your group exploiting the group being studied

c. appropriating the idioms, dress, and other ways of life of the group being studied

d. the desire to leave our own culture and join the one being studied

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Methods in Depth: Women Without Class by Julie Bettis

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. Brett wants to study the academic habits of fraternity members. He happens to also belong to a fraternity, so he should be especially careful to avoid ______.

a. examining too small of a population for validity

b. using stereotypes to explain the behavior of his subjects

c. assuming that he understands how they think without critical examination

d. judging members of rival fraternities more harshly

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Methods in Depth: Women Without Class by Julie Bettis

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Sociologists use a composite of income, prestige, and education level to compare people, typically categorizing them as high, low, and middle. This factor is called ______.

a. social class

b. social status

c. Weber’s three classes

d. socio-economic status (SES)

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Easy

41. What counterintuitive result came from the Stanford/Pew study of total family earnings compared with parent’s income?

a. Men tend to make more than women because they are paid more.

b. Women tend to make a higher family income because they are more likely to get married.

c. Men and women tend to earn about the same amount of income over their lifetime.

d. Women who marry other women tend to earn more than if they married men.

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Easy

42. Which measure of total assets is very concentrated in the United States due to passing it from generation to generation?

a. Socio-economic status

b. Income

c. Wealth

d. Social status

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Medium

43. Horatio was able to work his way from rags to riches, and is an example of ______.

a. wealth inequality

b. social mobility

c. income inequality

d. stratification

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Medium

44. Don was born to a wealthy family, so his status is not based on anything he earned, but on an ______ stratification system.

a. Achievement-based

b. Intragenerational

c. Intergenerational

d. Ascription-based

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Medium

45. Frederick Douglass was born in slavery, but escaped and became an author and motivational speaker. His life is an example of which kind of social mobility?

a. Intragenerational

b. Intergenerational

c. Ascription-based

d. Ethnicity-based

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Medium

46. The relationship between the income levels of parents and their children can be stated using which measurement?

a. Intragenerational social mobility

b. Achievement-based stratification

c. Intergenerational income elasticity

d. Ascription-based stratification

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Easy

47. Why is it often difficult to understand how other people experience inequality?

a. Perception is so subjective that someone else’s life is hard to relate to our own.

b. We spend most of our lives near people who are like us.

c. Most people exaggerate the level of their suffering.

d. Many people take it for granted that others have similar experiences.

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Medium

48. Many people are born into a situation where resources are unavailable, a condition called ______.

a. petit bourgeoisie

b. socialism

c. poverty

d. capitalism

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

49. Glen lives in the smallest house in his neighborhood, dwarfed by those nearby. Glen is in the state of ______.

a. absolute poverty

b. relative poverty

c. lumpenproletariat

d. low status

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Medium

50. Many people live in squalid conditions hazardous to the health of their families. In other words, they live in ______.

a. relative poverty

b. precarious status

c. absolute poverty

d. cultural shortage

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

51. In the United States, a person or family crosses the poverty threshold if they spend more than ______ of their inflation-adjusted income on basic food supplies.

a. half

b. an eighth

c. a third

d. a tenth

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Medium

52. Marcella works at a minimum wage job, and lives with her two children in a small apartment. Marcella's family can best be described as ______.

a. below the poverty threshold

b. petite bourgeoisie

c. among the lowest caste

d. lumpenproletariat

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Medium

53. People are more likely to live in poverty today if they come from which demographic group?

a. Older men

b. Single women

c. Middle-aged couples

d. Teenagers

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Medium

54. Established in 1935, which social program has dramatically reduced the number of senior citizens living below the poverty threshold?

a. Welfare

b. Medicare

c. Social Security

d. The GI bill

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

55. Factors such as low education levels, low income, housing insecurity, and few social connections can make it difficult to break ______.

a. the cycle of poverty

b. out of the middle class and into the upper class

c. into the lumpenproletariat

d. intergenerational income elasticity

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

56. John does not always have clean clothes or supplies for school, and relies on the school lunch program for his main meal of the day. John is most likely living in ______.

a. the lower middle class

b. poverty

c. the middle class

d. the Great Depression

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Medium

57. Why do many impoverished people resort to living in motels or even cars?

a. It is cheaper to pay daily at a motel than monthly for an apartment or house.

b. They often cannot afford the security deposit and up-front rent payments.

c. Living in a car makes it easier to move and be on time for work.

d. Motels are often closer to the workplace, so the commute is shorter.

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Medium

58. Studies have shown that socio-economic factors account for approximately ______ of the difference in life expectancy.

a. 10%

b. 34%

c. 60%

d. 80%

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

59. The University of Washington produced a large study that indicated poverty results in a life span shorter by as many as ______ years.

a. 5

b. 12

c. 15

d. 20

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

60. How could transportation and housing problems lead to poor nutrition?

a. The only grocery stores near lower income housing often have poor quality food.

b. Most supermarkets are located in impoverished urban areas.

c. If housing costs take too large a portion of income, a car becomes unaffordable.

d. Most motels only offer continental breakfast options, rather than hot food.

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. Socialism is an economic system, NOT a political system.

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Karl Marx wanted to replace capitalism with socialism.

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Communism and socialism are the same thing.

Learning Objective: 4.1: Describe the main components of Karl Marx’s view of social inequality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Karl Marx: The Basics

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. Factory owners sometimes skimp on safety and cleanliness in order to maximize surplus value.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Class Struggles

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Sets of conscious and unconscious beliefs called ideologies guide our actions.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Ideology of Capitalism

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. Adherents to positive thinking ideology, as shown by the book The Secret, ignore systemic barriers to success, such as racism and poverty.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Ideology of Capitalism

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Karl Marx claimed that capitalists use the state to maintain their advantages over poor people.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The State and the Class System

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. Max Weber described less complex social classes than those described by Karl Marx.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Weber’s second major basis of power is status.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. In Weber's view, it is NOT possible for a person to have both high status and be a member of a lower economic class.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. According to Weber, a neighborhood watch group is considered a party.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. There is very high social mobility in the United States.

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Easy

13. Intergenerational social mobility is three times more likely in Denmark than in the United States.

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Easy

14. About 30 percent of the global population lives in absolute poverty.

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

15. It is very difficult to break the cycle of poverty.

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. Explain the concept of meritocracy. In what ways does it increase social support of the bourgeoisie? Be sure to discuss the concepts of false consciousness and ideology in your answer.

Learning Objective: 4.2: Explain the relationship between the different classes within capitalism.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: The Ideology of Capitalism

Difficulty Level: Hard

2. Compare the purpose of unions according to Marx with how unions are used in the United States. Why are they different? Why is union membership declining? Describe at least two potential consequences of reduced union membership rates.

Learning Objective: 4.3: Analyze the importance of class consciousness and its role in class struggles.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Class Consciousness

Difficulty Level: Hard

3. Compare and contrast the theories of Marx and Weber in regard to social class.

Learning Objective: 4.4: Explain and differentiate between Marx’s and Weber’s understandings of social class.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Max Weber and the Multiple Bases of Power

Difficulty Level: Hard

4. How and why are income and wealth inequality maintained in the United States? Be sure to distinguish between these concepts and describe how the state could be used to support them.

Learning Objective: 4.5: Analyze income and wealth inequality in the United States and assess the level of social mobility over time.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Income and Wealth Inequality in the United States

Difficulty Level: Hard

5. Describe how families can get trapped in the cycle of poverty. Evaluate at least three factors, and suggest ways to help break the cycle. Use details and examples to support your answer.

Learning Objective: 4.6: Understand how we measure poverty and the ways in which poverty becomes a cycle.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Poverty

Difficulty Level: Hard