Human Behavior in Social Context Pre-Test
Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the complex interplay between individual behavior and the broader social environment. Students examine theories and research on how culture, social structures, groups, and institutions shape attitudes, behavior, and identities. Key topics include socialization, conformity, social influence, group dynamics, prejudice, and interpersonal relationships. Through case studies and real-world examples, the course highlights how social contexts such as family, peers, work, and media impact decision-making, motivation, and personal development. The goal is to equip students with a deeper understanding of how social forces influence behavior and practical insights for navigating social interactions in everyday life.
Recommended Textbook Essentials of Sociology 4th Edition by Anthony Giddens
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1239 Verified Questions
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Chapter 1: Sociology: Theory and Method
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Sample Questions
Q1) Harpreet wants to research differences in attitudes toward globalization between people from the United States and people from Colombia.She is creating a survey instrument to give to people from both regions.What part of the research process is she in?
A)defining the research problem
B)reviewing the evidence
C)working out a design
D)interpreting the results
E)reporting the findings
Answer: C
Q2) The study of everyday behavior in situations of face-to-face interaction is usually called:
A)institutional ethnography
B)microsociology
C)historical/comparative sociology
D)macrosociology
E)Marxist method
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: Culture and Society
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Q1) Why might sociologists criticize the idea that the world is contemporarily made up of many different,isolated cultures?
A)The idea assumes that we can provide a reasonably coherent definition of "culture."
B)Sociologists might note the rise of the Internet and globalization as features of different cultures being connected.
C)Sociologists would likely criticize the idea because of its underlying multiculturalism.
D)The idea suggests that human communities actually have different cultures, when we have empirically shown that culture is the same everywhere.
E)Sociologists would suggest that first we need to look at universal conceptions of gender since culture is an effect of gender.
Answer: B
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4
Chapter 3: Socialization, the Life Course, and Aging
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sociologists argue that social and geographic mobility has affected our self-identities in which way?
A)Our self-identities are less stable.
B)Our self-identities are more rigid and unchanging.
C)We have a difficult time forming self-identities.
D)Our social identities are overwhelming our self-identities.
E)We have multiple self-identities.
Answer: A
Q2) According to George Herbert Mead,children develop a sense of self by:
A)going through distinct stages of sensorimotor development
B)going to school and learning to read
C)going to church and gaining a soul
D)imitating other people
E)ignoring their parents
Answer: D
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5
Chapter 4: Social Interaction and Everyday Life in the Age
of the Internet
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ethnomethodology is the study of:
A)how people sustain meaningful interactions with each other
B)how people learn language
C)the methods sociologists use
D)extraordinary social events that occur over space and time
E)different culture
Q2) An example of audience segregation is:
A)being openly gay at home but being "straight" at work for fear of discrimination
B)inviting both spouses' families over for a holiday even though they are uncomfortable around each other
C)keeping two of your friends who do not like each other apart at a party
D)making sure that your white and black friends never meet each other
E)taking a friend to a concert to introduce her to music she has never heard before
Q3) What is impression management? Give an example of how a college student engages in impression management when interacting with professors.
Q4) Using the concept of regionalization,explain how time and space shaped your social activities and interactions in the last 24 hours.
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Chapter 5: Groups, Networks, and Organizations
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Q1) According to George Ritzer,what is the McDonaldization of society? Explain the four guiding principles of McDonaldization,using the example of one of the following: your college or university,the healthcare system,or the movie industry.
Q2) In the absence of the physical and social cues involved in traditional face-to-face interactions,the Internet fosters the creation of relationships that:
A)are often misleading and lead to hurt feelings
B)are built on common interests rather than social characteristics such as race and gender
C)are lasting and enduring
D)are based on being members of the same social category
E)all of the above
Q3) Which of the following is a social group?
A)a brother and sister
B)everyone in your sociology class who has blond hair
C)people waiting at Terminal C for Flight 181
D)passengers on a cruise ship
E)Apple stockholders
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Chapter 6: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime
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Q1) Which of the following is NOT an example of corporate crime?
A)A pesticide company dumps pollutants into the local river.
B)A food manufacturer puts false nutrition information on its product labels.
C)An automobile company manufactures and knowingly sells an SUV that rolls over easily.
D)Corporate executives lie about their company's profits.
E)An organized crime group engages in sex trafficking.
Q2) Violent crime is more common:
A)in suburbs than in cities or small towns
B)in small towns than in cities or suburbs
C)today than in the early 1990s
D)in the United States than in Switzerland
E)in countries where handguns and other firearms are banned
Q3) In Robert Merton's typology,the majority of people in society are:
A)conformists
B)innovators
C)ritualists
D)retreatists
E)rebels
Q4) Discuss the ways in which deviance is functional.Give examples.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) In addition to Social Security,__________ has/have helped to lift many of the elderly out of poverty.
A)food banks
B)Meals on Wheels
C)unemployment
D)Medicare
E)none of the above
Q2) According to the textbook,what three main characteristics do social systems of stratification share? Provide an example of each.
Q3) Although sociologists agree that there are no clear divisions between classes in the United States,they generally identify __________ classes.
A)six
B)four
C)two
D)five
E)three
Q4) What are the differences in average income and wealth between whites,African Americans,and Latinos? What are the sociological explanations for why these gaps exist?
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Chapter 8: Global Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) Selma studies countries where fertility rates are much higher than the rest of the world.She is likely studying __________ countries.
A)high-income
B)highly homogenous
C)middle-income
D)complete hunter-gatherer
E)low-income
Q2) Chantelle notes that the HIV/AIDS epidemic contributes to food shortages in some countries.Why might this be the case?
A)HIV-infected food passes on the virus.
B)Money that could be spent on food is spent on medications.
C)The virus kills many working-age adults who might otherwise contribute to food production.
D)The epidemic pushes scientists out of those countries into nations where they can conduct food research without worrying about it.
E)The epidemic has sparked a general strike throughout many of these nations, which has contributed to a lack of harvesting.
Q3) What are some ways we might address exploitative child labor practices?
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Chapter 9: Gender Inequality
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Q1) Which perspective focuses on the interaction of race,class,and gender in the disadvantages faced by women?
A)liberal feminism
B)radical feminism
C)black feminism
D)Parsonian functionalism
E)Marxism
Q2) Norah Vincent's 2006 book Self-Made Man: One Woman's Year Disguised as a Man illustrates how:
A)gender is pervasive in structuring social life
B)biological differences make it difficult for a woman to pretend to be a man
C)gender is irrelevant in most everyday encounters
D)hormones can deepen a woman's voice
E)voice training cannot help a woman sound like a man
Q3) How do gender,marital status,and parental status interact in time spent doing housework?
Q4) Why are women so often the targets of sexual violence?
Q5) Using the !Kung of the Kalahari Desert,the bacha posh in Afghanistan,and the nádleehí in Navajo culture as support,discuss how gender can be seen as a social construction.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination? Is discrimination always preceded by prejudice?
Q2) In 1954,in __________ the U.S.Supreme Court unanimously decided that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
A)Dred Scott v.Sandford
B)The State of Tennessee v.John Thomas Scopes
C)Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
D)Roe v.Wade
E)Regents of the University of California v.Bakke
Q3) In 2007,whites on average could expect to live __________ years longer than African Americans.
A)2.1
B)5.3
C)15.4
D)25.6
E)40.2
Q4) What is institutional racism? Give examples.
Q5) Cuban Americans are relatively more successful than Mexican Americans.How can this difference be explained?
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Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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Q1) A family in which at least one partner has children from a previous marriage is known as a(n):
A)nuclear family
B)extended family
C)postmodern family
D)single-parent family
E)stepfamily
Q2) Arlie Hochschild found that __________ is/are creating pressure on American workers to work longer hours than they used to.
A)the mass media
B)the education system
C)the booming economy
D)unions
E)globalization
Q3) Describe the trend toward later marriages.What factors account for the trend toward later marriages in the United States in recent decades?
Q4) According to Andrew Cherlin,what are the effects of divorce on children?
Q5) Describe Talcott Parsons's view of the family.What are some criticisms of his approach?
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Chapter 12: Education and Religion
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Q1) Fran thinks that religion provides justifications for people who occupy positions of wealth and power in our society.Her view most closely resembles that of:
A)Émile Durkheim
B)Samuel Conklin
C)Karl Marx
D)Max Weber
E)Elizabeth Smith
Q2) The term school has its origins in a Greek word meaning:
A)"leisure" or "recreation"
B)"mastery"
C)"craftmanship and hard work"
D)"accounting"
E)"public service"
Q3) Why is education considered a social institution?
Q4) Compulsory schooling was established in Europe and the United States:
A)in the sixteenth century
B)in the seventeenth century
C)in the eighteenth century
D)in the nineteenth century
E)in the twentieth century
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Politics and Economic Life
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Q1) Which of the following reasons is given in the text to help explain the quick spread of democracy around the world in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries?
A)Democracy tends to be associated with competitive capitalism in the economic system, and capitalism has shown itself to be superior to communism as a wealth-generating system.
B)The economic situation of emerging third-world countries changed rapidly due to the expansion of transnational corporations that offered a democratic example for the peoples of those states to follow.
C)The rising number of American students who studied abroad carried ideas of American democracy to the rest of the world.
D)The increasing prevalence of natural disasters around the globe allowed the Western democracies to demonstrate the benefits of their systems through humanitarian missions in the third world.
E)Democracy was the only political system that actively sought to expand beyond the borders of the states in which it was practiced.
Q2) According to the text,what are three types of rights associated with the growth of citizenship?
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Sociology of the Body: Health, Illness, and Sexuality
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the text,why are some men less likely to seek annual checkups?
A)because they are socialized to believe that men should be "traditionally masculine," strong, and self-sufficient
B)because as a result of their work, men generally have more responsibilities than women and thus have less time for regular medical checkups
C)because men are more likely to feel physically threatened by healthcare personnel than women
D)because men become ill less often and therefore believe that they do not need checkups as often as women
E)because more men than women have health insurance and although restorative care is more expensive than preventative care, they are not economically burdened by putting off health issues
Q2) How do functionalist theorists and symbolic interactionists differ in their perspectives on health and illness?
Q3) Describe changes in sexual practices over the past two centuries.
Q4) What are the some of the important contributions of Alfred Kinsey's research on sexuality?
Q5) Provide at least two explanations for the gender gap in health.
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Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
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Sample Questions
Q1) Thomas Malthus was one of the original writers to show concern for population growth.Demographers,economists,politicians,sociologists,and others have continued to debate his ideas for more than two hundred years,but many do not share his concern for the natural limits to population growth.Which of the following challenged Malthus's predictions?
A)increases in food production due to new technologies such as machinery and genetics
B)decreases in the rate of population growth in developed countries
C)worries about population decline in countries such as the United States
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Q2) From 1999 to 2000,16.1 percent of Americans moved,and more than half moved to places within the same county.According to your textbook,why do people go to the trouble of moving,when they basically remain in the same place?
A)They are in search of better career opportunities.
B)They are looking for more diverse communities.
C)Their jobs require them to move.
D)They want to be closer to their parents or children.
E)They want to improve their housing.
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Chapter 16: Globalization in a Changing World
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jared Diamond's explanation of the collapse of Rwandan society is criticized for placing too much emphasis on:
A)ethnic tensions
B)cultural and political explanations at the expense of environmental factors
C)environmental factors at the expense of the political and cultural factors
D)the government
E)none of the above
Q2) Capitalism stimulates social change in an unprecedented way because it:
A)involves the constant expansion of production
B)involves the ever-increasing accumulation of wealth
C)promotes constant revision of the technology of production, which increasingly draws science into the process
D)all of the above
E)none of the above
Q3) Explain how information technology and the flow of information play a role in propelling the process of globalization.
Q4) Compare and contrast the three perspectives in the globalization debate.Which position do you find most compelling? Why?
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