the study of human behavior in society D.. the unit of analysis for psychology is the individual and groups while for sociologists it is society the whole configuration of group life C..
Trang 1CHAPTER 1 DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE Multiple Choice Questions
What Is Sociology?
1 Sociologists define the discipline of sociology as:
A the study of human development
B the methods of gathering data–sociology uses empirical observations while the others do
not
C the study of human behavior in society
D the study of personality types
2 Social commentary is distinct from sociology because:
A it describes behavior in society
B it focuses on topics such as race relations, gender, etc
C it is based on someone’s opinion, rather than research
D it appears on television, whereas serious scholars never do
3 The benefits of studying sociology for students include:
A increased awareness of society and its components
B encourages active and informed citizens
C aids in interpretation of daily life
D all of the above
4 A comparison of sociology and psychology reveals that:
A. psychologists are interested in individuals—sociologists are not
B. the unit of analysis for psychology is the individual and groups while for sociologists it is
society (the whole configuration of group life)
C. from the sociological point of view, psychological explanations are not only incomplete
—they are flat out wrong
D. there are no major differences between the two disciplines
Trang 25 Anthropology differs from sociology to the extent that:
A. sociology focuses on culture—anthropology does not
B. anthropologists tend to study cultures other than their own
C. sociologists study faraway and remote cultures more than anthropologists do
D. anthropologists use participant observation as a data gathering device while sociologists
do not
6 Sociologists refer to an established, organized system of social behavior with a
7 The field which draws from the social sciences to serve people in need, and generally addresses
the needs of individuals is known as:
The Sociological Imagination
8 Which sociologist is associated with the concept, “the sociological imagination?”
A C Wright Mills
9 A fundamental concept for organizing the sociological imagination is the distinction that Mills
made between:
A mechanical and organic solidarity
B “troubles” and “issues”
C the gemeinschaft and the gesellschaft
D social status and social dynamics
Trang 310 The organized pattern of social relationships and social institutions which together constitute
society is referred to as:
A social interaction
B social structure
C social institution
D social change
11 According to Mills, the specific task of sociology is to:
A. make people aware of the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie
B. identify the inevitable worker alienation associated with bureaucracy
C. enable people to comprehend the whole of human societyits personal and public
dimensions; historical and contemporary, and its influence on the lives of human beings
D. make people aware of the value of using “verstehen” to understand social behavior from
the point of view of those who engaged in it
12 The empirical approach to knowledge requires that conclusions be based on:
A. careful and systematic observations
B previous assumptions
D personal experiences
13 Peter Berger called the process whereby sociologists question actions and ideas that are usually
taken for granted:
C “objectification”
14 Examining the commonly held assumption that education helps people learn and get ahead is an
Trang 415 Seeing past the cultural beliefs established in any society requires stepping back, detaching
oneself from unquestioned engagement in everyday life, and establishing:
A. critical distance
B social distance
C cultural distance
D marginal distance
16 Which of the following is true about marginality?
A. To be effective as a sociologist one needs to be a marginal person
B. Marginality has often provided the critical distance necessary to inspire a thriving
sociological imagination
C. Marginality is often the obstacle to developing critical distance
D. Simmel’s work suggests that marginality blurs one’s objectivity in assessing a social
situation
17 Georg Simmel is a sociologist concerned with studying:
A the role of insiders in society
B the role of strangers in social groups
C the role of the sociological imagination
D the role of social commentary on society
The Significance of Diversity
18 Factors which influence the regional distribution of racial-ethnic groups in the United States
include:
A history of slavery
B urban migration
C forced relocation
D all of the above
19 According to the maps on diversity in your textbook, African Americans have a substantial
presence in which region of the United States?
Trang 520 According to the maps on diversity in your textbook, the Hispanic population has a substantial
presence in which region of the United States?
A South-eastern
C North-eastern
21 According to the maps on diversity in your textbook, the White population has a substantial
presence in which region of the United States?
D all of the above
22 The variety of group experiences that result from the social structure of society is referred to by
sociologists as:
A social change
C formation of group identity
D formation of individual identity
23 Which of the following is an important dimension of diversity in the United States?
D all of the above
24 A variety of factors differentiate the experience of diverse groups in the United States, including:
A nationality
B region of residence
D all of the above
Trang 6The Development of Sociology
25 Sociology first emerged as a discipline during the 18th and 19th centuries in:
A the United States
B western Europe
D. There is no one geographic area or region in particular associated with the emergence of
sociology as a discipline
26 The Enlightenment had an enormous influence on the development of modern sociology because
of:
A the spread of socialism
B. the influence of religion as a system of authority and law
C. its faith in the ability of human reason to solve society’s problems
D all of the above
27 The system of thought that emerged during the Enlightenment which argued that accurate
observation and description is considered the highest form of knowledge is:
28 A product of the Enlightenment that had a significant influence on the development of modern
sociology was/were:
A. a faith in the ability of human reason to solve society’s problems
D all of the above
29 The philosophy that human reason can successfully direct social change for the betterment of
Trang 730 The classic sociologist who coined the term sociology and first elaborated the positivist basis of
31 Which of the following statements is true about Auguste Comte?
A. He was greatly influenced by Emile Durkheim
B. He was the husband of Harriet Martineau and, like his wife, supported feminist ideology
C. He believed that scientific knowledge developed in stages, with sociology being the most
highly evolved
D. Much of his work is the result of his friendship and collaboration with Karl Marx
32 Alexis de Tocqueville referred to the ability of the majority to impose its will on everyone else in
a democracy as:
A the “tyranny of the masses”
B “unenlightened despotism”
C “manifest destiny”
D the “tyranny of the majority”
33 Alexis de Tocqueville and Harriet Martineau were alike in that both were:
A abolitionists who feared that slavery would tear a society apart
B. feminists who were concerned about the subordination of women
C. fascinated by the newly emerging culture in America
D symbolic interactionists
34 Harriet Martineau’s important book, Society in America, was overlooked for many years,
probably because she was:
C. an unknown as a writer prior to publishing this work
D. not well-educated by the standards of the time
35 Harriet Martineau’s book, How to Observe Manners and Morals, is a classic work on:
A. sociological research methods with a particular emphasis on participant observation
B. field studies of folkways and mores
C. the forces that hold society together and make it stable
D. positivism as a tool for sociological analysis
Trang 8ANS: A PG: 14 TYP: KNOWLEDGE
36 According to Emile Durkheim:
A. deviance has no place in a “healthy” society
B. society is a subject to be studied separate from the sum of the individuals who comprise it
(i.e., society sui generis)
C. the best theoretical approach to the study of society is social conflict theory
D. economic forces direct human behavior
37 Durkheim’s work is the basis for:
A functionalism
B social conflict theory
C symbolic interaction
D feminist theory
38 Durkheim argued that “social facts” are best understood from the
39 According to the text, Durkheim’s major contribution was the discovery of:
A. the effects of capitalism on society
B. the social basis of human behavior
C. the relationship that exists between society’s major social institutions
D. the effect of verstehen on our conception of reality
40 Durkheim conceptualized social facts as:
A. drives and motivations that exist within individuals
B. social patterns that are external to individuals
C the embodiment of sui generis
D. the direct outgrowth of our biological drives
41 Marx’s work was devoted to explaining:
A. the social basis of human behavior
B. the social laws that governed human behavior
C how capitalism shaped society
Trang 9D. the effect of the interplay between economic, political, and cultural institutions
42 The theorist who devoted his work to explaining how capitalism shaped society was:
43 Which of the following is true of Karl Marx?
A. Marx focused more on individuals than social structure in his analysis of society
B. Marx believed that all institutions are shaped by economic forces
C. A limitation of Marx’s work was his failure to recognize the effects of class on social
behavior
D. Marx’s evolutionary concept of societal development and change is almost identical to
that of Durkheim
44 While Marx saw economics as the basic organizing element of society, Weber theorized that the
basic dimension(s) of society was/were:
A political
D all of the above
45 While Weber’s approach to the analysis of society was more multidimensional, he was greatly
influenced by the work of:
A Ferdinand Tönnies
46 Weber theorized that:
A. a value-free society could not exist since values would always influence what sociologists
considered worthy of study
B. society’s economic, political, and cultural institutions exist independent of one another
with no interplay between them
C. that verstehen is of little value as a tool of analysis because of its subjective nature
D. faculty had a moral and ethical responsibility to use their positions to promote their
political opinions
Trang 1147 Weber’s major contribution(s) to sociology was/were:
A the discovery of the social basis of human behavior
B the definition of social action as “a behavior to which people give meaning”
C his discovery of the effects of capitalism on society
D All of the above are contributions of Max Weber to the discipline of sociology
48 Max Weber was particularly interested in the:
A. rise of bureaucracy in the modern world
B nature of power and authority
C. foundation of the work ethic in capitalist society
D all of the above
49 The belief in practicality that influenced sociologists in the United States to value social planning
is philosophically referred to as:
C interventionism
50 Early sociologists in both Europe and the United States were alike in:
A. their emphasis in the theoretical rather than practical focus
B. their shared acceptance of the organic metaphor
C. their concern about the need to expose the causes of existing social problems
D all of the above
51 The perspective of society as constantly evolving, like an organism, is called:
B Social Darwinism
C the organic metaphor
D holistic theory
52 According to Social Darwinists:
A. the “survival of the fittest” is the driving force of social evolution
B. significant emphasis needed to be placed on social reform
C. the evolution of society created a major threat to the stability of society as a system
D. “social engineering” was necessary for society to meet the needs of its members
Trang 1253 The 19th century British sociologist who conceived of society as an organism that evolved from
simple to complex in a process of adoption to the environment was:
C Herbert Spencer
D Neville Chamberlain
54 British Sociologist Herbert Spencer conceived of society as:
A an organism that evolved from simple to complex in a process of adaptation to the
environment
B the product of natural laws and processes in society, to be discovered and used for the
general good
C an entity larger than the sum of its parts
D a system of relationships among different classes that places the highest value on the
profit of the capitalist
55 American Sociologist William Graham Sumner believed that:
A. a “hands-on-approach” regarding the social system, arguing that occasional tampering
with the social system was a necessity
B. the rich and powerful got that way by exploiting others in society
C. “survival of the fittest” justified the inequalities in society
D. sociology had the ability as a discipline to address society’s problems
56 The use of sociological research and theory in solving real human problems is called:
A. interventionist sociology
B. applied sociology
C. remedial sociology
D. reformist sociology
57 Lester Frank Ward was an early American sociologist who believed that human intervention in
the natural evolution of society would advance the interests of society He called this:
Trang 1358 Social telesis—the idea that human intervention in the natural evolution of society would advance
the interests of society is a concept that is associated with the work of:
C Lester Frank Ward
59 Charles Horton Cooley theorized that individual identity developed through:
A. three distinctive stages: the imitative, the play, and the game stage
B. categories of experience that overlap, but end before age twelve
C. eight distinct stages that carry over a lifetime
D. people’s understanding of how they are perceived by others
60 “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” is a dictum generally
associated with “Chicago School” sociologist:
C Charles Cooley
61 Which of the following women did not contribute to the development of the “Chicago School” of
sociology?
D Patricia Madoo Lengermann
62 One of the most renowned sociologists of her day who was a leader in the settlement house
movement and won a Nobel Peace Prize (in 1931) was:
Trang 1463 Prominent Black scholar W E B Du Bois is noted for his:
A. belief that sociology was, and needs to continue to be, value-free
B. opposition to the emphasis sociology placed on the importance of a scientific approach to
sociological questions
C. focus on the problems created by the racial divisiveness in American society
D all of the above
64 The first African American sociologist to become president of what is now the American
Sociological Association (ASA) was:
A. W E B Dubois
C E Franklin Frazier
D William Julius Wilson
Theoretical Frameworks in Sociology
65 Theoretical frameworks that strive to understand society as a whole are categorized as:
B microsociology
C theories of the middle range
D universalistic sociology
66 Theoretical frameworks that center on face-to-face social interaction are categorized as:
B microsociology
C theories of the middle range
D. universalistic sociology
67 Functionalism has its origins in the work of: