Social Problems Exam Review
Course Introduction
This course offers an in-depth examination of major social problems facing contemporary society, including issues such as poverty, inequality, crime, substance abuse, racial and gender discrimination, and environmental challenges. Through sociological theories and research, students will explore the roots and impacts of these problems, analyze the role of institutions and policy responses, and consider potential solutions. The course encourages critical thinking and informed debate while fostering an understanding of how social problems affect individuals and communities on local, national, and global scales.
Recommended Textbook
Essentials of Sociology 4th Edition by Anthony Giddens
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16 Chapters
1239 Verified Questions
1239 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Sociology: Theory and Method
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9105
Sample Questions
Q1) Allen participated in religious rituals with members of the Mormon Church for two years.He kept field notes of his experiences,identified major themes within the notes,wrote a paper about his process and results,and submitted the paper to a major research journal.What part of the research process is he in?
A)defining the research problem
B)reviewing the evidence
C)working out a design
D)interpreting the results
E)reporting the findings
Answer: E
Q2) Latisha believes that sociologists need to look at not only how our institutions were intended to work,but also the unintentional effects of those institutions.According to the book,this is a major part of which theoretical perspective?
A)functionalism
B)Marxism and class conflict
C)symbolic interactionism
D)feminist theory
E)postmodernism
Answer: A
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3
Chapter 2: Culture and Society
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are subcultures,and why are they important for sociological studies?
Answer: Students might mention that smaller societies tend to be culturally uniform while larger societies,particularly industrial societies,are composites of many different cultures.Subcultures,then,are those composites that are different than what a given society's mainstream culture is.Sociologists believe that subcultures are important for study because they are a constituent part of our larger societies.Further,studies of subcultures can show us where social antagonisms might arise (the book mentions,for example,colonization,immigration,etc.).Similarly,studies of subcultures allow us to investigate processes such as assimilation or resistance strategies that some subcultures might deploy.
Q2) According to the text,two cultural universals particularly stand out in human societies.They are __________ and __________ .
A)ways of expressing meaning; material goods
B)material goods; money
C)market relations; ways of expressing meaning
D)market relations; money
E)ways of expressing meaning; capital accumulation
Answer: A
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Socialization, the Life Course, and Aging
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82 Verified Questions
82 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In second grade,Jeanne was earning A's on her math tests,which included multiplication and division.According to Jean Piaget,what stage of child development is Jeanne in?
A)the preoperational stage
B)the concrete operational stage
C)the formal operational stage
D)the generalized other stage
E)the logical stage
Answer: B
Q2) According to Jean Piaget,when one is not able to comprehend other people's perspectives and believes that only his or her own outlook is accurate,this behavior can be labeled as:
A)concrete operational
B)egocentric
C)formal operational
D)selfish
E)symbolic relativist
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Social Interaction and Everyday Life in the Age
of the Internet
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74 Verified Questions
74 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to sociologists,in what ways do individuals communicate their emotions to each other? Explain how technology altered some of the ways in which individuals communicate their emotions?
Q2) People engage in __________ to reconcile their role in one part of life with their role in another part of their social world.
A)gender segregation
B)audience segregation
C)social management
D)deception
E)role swapping
Q3) Encounters are face-to-face interactions with one or more other people.In modern societies,most of the encounters we have are with:
A)our best friends
B)people we do not like
C)coworkers
D)our family members
E)strangers
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Groups, Networks, and Organizations
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Max Weber concluded that the closer bureaucracies were to the ideal type,the more __________ they would become.
A)ineffective in achieving their objectives
B)effective in achieving their objectives
C)loose and informal
D)like a feudal estate
E)like a democracy
Q2) According to human resources management theory,which of the following is central to a company's competitiveness?
A)employee dedication to the company and its product
B)a company mascot
C)employee autonomy from the company
D)telecommuting
E)bottom-up decision making
Q3) In general,nonwhites tend to have ________ ties within networks than whites.
A)weaker
B)more familial
C)more consistent
D)more social
E)stronger
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Chapter 6: Conformity, Deviance, and Crime
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What did the Heaven's Gate cult and the computer hacker community have in common?
A)Both are religious groups.
B)Both groups believed that the end of the world is near.
C)Both groups struggled financially.
D)Both groups restricted their membership to men.
E)Both groups are considered deviant subcultures.
Q2) Which of the following statements concerning youth and crime is NOT true?
A)As young people gradually transition into adulthood, they acquire social attachments and commitments that make "conventional" behavior rewarding.
B)Most youthful deviants go on to become career criminals.
C)Trends in drug use have shifted away from hard drugs such as heroin and toward combinations of substances such as amphetamines, prescription drugs like OxyContin, alcohol, and the drug ecstasy.
D)Taking illegal drugs is often defined in racial, class, and cultural terms.
E)When crack cocaine appeared in the 1980s, it was quickly defined by the media as the drug of choice for black, inner-city kids who listened to hip-hop.
Q3) Discuss the ways in which deviance is functional.Give examples.
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8
Chapter 7: Stratification, Class, and Inequality
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93 Verified Questions
93 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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?
Q2) 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
Q3) Those who believe that poverty results from structural factors beyond the control of individuals would see which of the following as a source of poverty?
A)unequal distribution of educational resources
B)lack of universal healthcare
C)growing income inequality
D)all of the above
E)none of the above.
Q4) According to the textbook,what three main characteristics do social systems of stratification share? Provide an example of each.
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9
Chapter 8: Global Inequality
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9112
Sample Questions
Q1) The global standard of living has done what during the last thirty years,according to the text?
A)rapidly increased
B)slowly increased
C)rapidly decreased
D)slowly decreased
E)remained stagnant
Q2) Hektor is looking at how air conditioners are manufactured.He notes that parts of them are produced in China,Argentina,and Uruguay,and their assembly takes place at different points throughout the world.Hektor is studying:
A)McDonaldization
B)national franchising
C)branding
D)global commodity chains
E)national production incentives
Q3) How does world-systems theory explain global inequality?
Q4) Famine and hunger are caused by both natural and social forces.What are some of the social forces that cause hunger,malnutrition,and starvation?
Q5) How do dependency theorists explain global inequality?
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Chapter 9: Gender Inequality
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Comparable worth policies are relatively rare for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
A)It is easy to assess the worth of jobs.
B)Comparable worth is inflationary.
C)Comparable worth will cause wage losses and unemployment.
D)Feminists argue that comparable worth reinforces gender stereotyping.
E)Comparable worth faces obstacles in the courts.
Q2) 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
Q3) Six of the ten richest self-made women in the world are:
A)American
B)Chinese
C)German
D)Indian
E)Russian
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Ethnicity and Race
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9114
Sample Questions
Q1) What did the 1964 Civil Rights Act do?
A)banned discrimination in public facilities, education, employment, and any agency receiving government funds
B)outlawed discriminatory voting practices
C)outlawed discrimination in the rental or purchase of homes
D)banned all race-based legal restrictions on marriage
E)created a fully racially just society
Q2) What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination? Is discrimination always preceded by prejudice?
Q3) Who argued that race has declined in its significance for blacks,especially with respect to economic disadvantages for the poorest segment of the community?
A)Lawrence Bobo
B)Joe Feagin
C)William Julius Wilson
D)Elijah Anderson
E)Robert Blauner
Q4) What is a minority group? Why might this term cause confusion? Give two possible sources of confusion.
Q5) What is institutional racism? Give examples.
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Chapter 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9115
Sample Questions
Q1) The term for a group in which the individuals are related to one another by blood ties,marriage,or adoption and form an economic unit and in which the adult members are responsible for the upbringing of children is:
A)family
B)household
C)kinship network
D)village
E)community
Q2) A 1988 study by Richard Gelles and Murray Straus found that __________ of married persons reported at least one incidence of spousal violence in the prior year.
A)5 percent
B)16 percent
C)30 percent
D)46 percent
E)61 percent
Q3) Discuss the differences in family patterns between white and black families.Discuss the research of Carol Stack in your answer.
Q4) According to Andrew Cherlin,what are the effects of divorce on children?
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Education and Religion
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9116
Sample Questions
Q1) "Between school effects" refers to:
A)the kinds of activities that kids engage in during summer breaks
B)the effects of nighttime activities on learning
C)a comparison of wealthy and poor children and their educational opportunities
D)that crucial summer between high school and college
E)a comparison of how schools differ from one another
Q2) According to the text,why was education so rapidly expanded with the development of capitalism in the opinion of Marxist sociologists?
A)because working people fought for universal education in order to improve their condition
B)because employers needed certain personality characteristics in their workers-self-discipline, dependability, punctuality, obedience, and the like-and these are all taught in schools
C)because the state came to compete with the Church as the agent of education
D)because capitalism's expansion required state-aided work projects and the building of schools provided employment
E)because Enlightenment values demanded an equal access to a good and stable education
Q3) Briefly explain Karl Marx,Émile Durkheim,and Max Weber's theories of religion.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Politics and Economic Life
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to the theory of alienation,how does the division of labor alienate human beings from their work?
A)by forcing many immigrant workers to become illegal aliens in other countries and to work without the basic protections offered to documented workers
B)by dividing workers into separate industries and thus disallowing them from uniting in common causes
C)by separating workers on the basis of racial, economic, and social differences into ghettos far from their places of work
D)by giving workers little control over their jobs and no influence over how or to whom their products are sold
E)by forcing workers to divide their labor between several jobs instead of allowing them to work at one job
Q2) Premodern,as opposed to modern,systems of production were based above all on:
A)agriculture
B)heavy industry
C)technology
D)communication
E)globalization
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Chapter 14: The Sociology of the Body: Health, Illness, and Sexuality
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75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9118
Sample Questions
Q1) According to the text,what is regarded as the first shot fired in the battle for gay rights in the United States?
A)the Stonewall Inn nightclub raid
B)California Proposition 8
C)Lawrence v.Texas
D)the Texas sniper shootings
E)the Family Research Council shooting
Q2) April is a woman,and Jack is a man.Which of the following statements is true?
A)Jack is more likely to live fewer years than April does.
B)Jack is more likely to suffer from acute conditions than April is.
C)Jack is more likely to suffer from nonfatal chronic conditions than April is.
D)Jack is more likely to spend any given day sick in bed than April is.
E)Jack is more likely to report his health as fair or poor than April is.
Q3) How do functionalist theorists and symbolic interactionists differ in their perspectives on health and illness?
Q4) What is sexual orientation?
Q5) Provide at least two explanations for the gender gap in health.
Page 16
Q6) Describe changes in sexual practices over the past two centuries.
Q7) What is the biomedical model of health?
Q8) How do social class and race affect health?
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Page 17
Chapter 15: Urbanization, Population, and the Environment
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87 Verified Questions
87 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9119
Sample Questions
Q1) The number of babies per thousand of population who die in any year before reaching one year of age is called the:
A)infant mortality rate
B)fertility-death ratio
C)fecundity
D)crude death rate
E)death-birth ratio
Q2) Urban ecology emphasizes the __________ of city areas,whereby the specialized groups on which people depend are located in the city centers.
A)segregation
B)independence
C)interdependence
D)division
E)none of the above
Q3) According to one popular Web site,Global Footprint,seven planets would be required if all people on earth were to somehow achieve the standard of living of the average American.Given we only have one planet,what do you think will be required to make the transition from current processes of environmental degradation to sustainable development?
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Page 18
Chapter 16: Globalization in a Changing World
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78 Verified Questions
78 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/9120
Sample Questions
Q1) Participation in new social movements is seen as __________ whereby participants make a statement about who they are.
A)"social obligation"
B)"moral expression"
C)"personal expression"
D)"expressive logic"
E)"civic engagement"
Q2) What role has the modern state played in the process of globalization?
A)encouraging protests
B)speeding up patterns of change in the modern world
C)being less involved in social life and the economy
D)limiting the movement of people through immigration policy
E)none of the above; the modern state has not played a major role
Q3) Which of the following is a component of collective action,according to Charles Tilly?
A)organization
B)mobilization
C)common interests
D)opportunity
E)all of the above
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Page 19