Sociology 101 - Introduction to Sociology » Spring 2021 » Quiz 1 Chapters 1 and 2

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Question #1
You have just begun studying unemployment rates in a city with fifty million people, of which fifteen million are unemployed. If you are using your sociological imagination, what is your first consideration?
A.   the intelligence level of the workers who have lost their jobs
B.   the economic and political structures of the society
C.   how much the people who are unemployed want to work
D.   the work ethic of the average citizen
Question #2
A pilot study is
A.   a study that concerns itself with media use and popular culture.
B.   a study that definitively answers a question that has confused sociologists.
C.   a smaller study used to investigate the feasibility of a larger one.
D.   a study designed to improve the target population of a larger study.
Question #3
Researcher Pam Fishman studied the conversations of heterosexual couples to determine how power is created and maintained through everyday, face-to-face interactions. How would you describe her approach?
A.   macrosociological
B.   comparative
C.   microsociological
D.   historical
Question #4
Metaphorically, what part of sociology is most like a zoom lens on a camera?
A.   microsociology
B.   qualitative research
C.   macrosociology
D.   quantitative research
Question #5
Why is it beneficial for sociologists to experience culture shock?
A.   It makes us unable to function even in simple, everyday ways.
B.   It shows us that people in foreign cultures have a way of life that seems strange to us.
C.   It requires us to travel, which helps us grow as human beings.
D.   It makes us realize we lack an understanding of our surroundings so we can perceive what is right in front of us.
Question #6
Karl Marx believed the lower classes, in order to end their oppression, needed to develop
A.   a critical theory of gender.
B.   false consciousness.
C.   class consciousness.
D.   a stronger sense of verstehen.
Question #7
A graduate student is almost done with his dissertation when he is informed that twenty years ago someone did a similar project and already demonstrated what he had hoped to be the first to discover. What basic step of the scientific method should have saved him from this problem?
A.   developing an operational definition
B.   selecting a research method
C.   analyzing data
D.   reviewing the literature
Question #8
What are researchers doing when they use a social networking site like Facebook to obtain data?
A.   being ethically questionable
B.   using interview data
C.   using existing sources
D.   doing qualitative research
Question #9
According to C. Wright Mills, what is one quality of mind that all great sociologists possess?
A.   sociological imagination
B.   attention to detail
C.   open-mindedness
D.   praxis
Question #10
A researcher studying sororities pretends to be a college student and attempts to join a sorority. The researcher is operating with a high level of
A.   deception.
B.   objectivity.
C.   reactivity.
D.   bias.
Question #11
A paradigm is
A.   the application of the theory of evolution and the notion of “survival of the fittest” to the study of society.
B.   a set of assumptions, theories, and perspectives that makes up a way of understanding social reality.
C.   the theory that sense perceptions are the only valid source of knowledge.
D.   an abstract proposition that explains the social world and makes predictions about the future.
Question #12
The scientific method involves
A.   research that translates the social world into numbers.
B.   the appearance of causation.
C.   the use of statistics to analyze numerical data.
D.   the procedure for acquiring and collecting scientific data.
Question #13
What does it mean for a sociologist to control for a variable?
A.   Change over time is measured by a dependent variable.
B.   Research participants are divided into two groups.
C.   One group is allowed to understand the nature of the experiment, while the other group is kept in the dark.
D.   All factors except the independent variable are taken into account.
Question #14
A sociologist wants to examine how black men have been portrayed in television shows in the past year. Which type of study is most appropriate to examine this research topic and compare the portrayal of black men across different television shows?
A.   content analysis
B.   experiment
C.   comparative historical
D.   focus group
Question #15
What is a simple random sample?
A.   a sample that weights one variable more than another
B.   a sample that takes into account other demographic variables
C.   a sample with only one variable
D.   a sample that provides the same chance of being included to every member of the population
Question #16
Critical race theory is associated with which of the major theoretical perspectives or schools of thought in sociology?
A.   symbolic interactionism
B.   structural functionalism
C.   functional theory
D.   conflict theory
Question #17
Symbolic interactionism argues that people act toward things on the basis of their meaning. According to this perspective, how does meaning arise?
A.   Meaning is learned through the study of science and nature.
B.   Meaning is inherent in objects and actions.
C.   Meaning is learned through the study of philosophy and history.
D.   Meaning is negotiated through interaction with others.
Question #18
A study found a strong correlation between parental bonding and adolescent drug use. Children with stronger bonds to their parents were far less likely to try drugs or alcohol. After examining their data more closely, the researchers discovered that parental bonding was really a predictor for teen religiosity. Consequently, high levels of religiosity, rather than parental bonding, actually prevent drug use. This means that religiosity was a(n)
A.   paradigm shift.
B.   spurious variable.
C.   issue of reflexivity.
D.   intervening variable.
Question #19
Max Weber believed that modern industrialized societies were characterized by which of the following institutions?
A.   prisons
B.   churches
C.   bureaucracies
D.   central governments
Question #20
A social research methods class wants to study smoking. First, the professor asks how many people in the class are smokers. Two people indicate that they are. She then asks how many people have smoked a cigarette in the past week and ten people indicate that they have. The class decides, for the purposes of the survey, that a smoker will be defined as anyone who has smoked a cigarette in the past week and currently owns a pack of cigarettes. This is a(n)
A.   operational definition.
B.   ethical challenge.
C.   hypothesis.
D.   spurious correlation.
Question #21
Which of the following theories focuses on how our behaviors are dependent on the ways we interpret, make sense of, and define ourselves, others, and social situations?
A.   conflict theory
B.   symbolic interactionism
C.   structural functionalism
D.   pragmatism
Question #22
Which social theory focuses on micro-level interactions?
A.   pragmatism
B.   symbolic interactionism
C.   conflict theory
D.   structural functionalism
Question #23
The analysis of documents such as medical records, photographs, diaries, letters, newspapers, and song lyrics uses which of the following types of data?
A.   experimental data
B.   interview transcripts
C.   existing sources
D.   ethnographic field notes
Question #24
What is a closed-ended question?
A.   one that limits the possible responses
B.   one that can only be answered orally
C.   one that allows for a wide variety of responses
D.   one that encourages respondents to answer creatively
Question #25
A sociologist uses a survey to study the attitudes of adults in the United States concerning premarital sex among teenagers. In this study, the target population consists of all ________, and the group that is asked the survey questions is called the ________.
A.   teenagers in the United States who have engaged in premarital sex; experimental group
B.   adults in the United States who have teenage children; units of analysis
C.   adults in the United States; sample
D.   teenagers in the United States; reference group

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