SOCIOLOGY Exam 1

Time to study this bitch

Sociological imagination

The ability to see the impact of social forces on our individual lives

Sociology

Science of human society

Human society

People doing things together

Science is a method of learning about a subject. Claims about the subject are based on ___ and can be ____.

Evidence; tested

Who coined the term “sociology” (1798-1857)

Aguste Comte

What were early sociologists interested in?

Capitalism, urbanization, industrialization, democracy

People are both a ___ and a ____ of society

Cause; Consequence

According to C. Wright Mills’ The Sociological Imagination, societal change shapes people’s lives. What are some examples from the text of events that created major sociological changes?

Counterculture movement, cold war, historical change after WW2

C. Wright Mills claimed that people often have trouble connecting their lives to ____ and patterns.

Societal changes

C. Wright Mills claimed that people need a way of ____ that will help them ___ and ___information to get true reasonable conclusions of what is going on in the world and what is happening within themselves.

thinking; understand; use

What are the benefits of having a sociological imagination?

1) Connection between one’s biography to history

2) We get to know what kinds of “human nature” are produced in one society-varies across culture and time

3) We get to know the distinction and connection between personal troubles and public issues

4) In general, it allows us to tell more complicated stories about ourselves and others

Sociological Imagination helps us to put our biography into ___

Context

Understanding and knowing that you should not take things for granted is using your ____ _____

Sociological imagination

An example from class: A student writes about how they have worked hard and sacrificed a lot to get their degree from ISU. However, he writes how slaves made sacrifices for the land of ISU. He writes about all the people in history who have contributed everything for the foundation of ISU that has led up to him being able to study and receive a degree. This is demonstrating his what?

Sociological Imagination

Name some of the context provided in lecture to what 21st Century America is like when forming your sociological imagination

1) Individualism and individual rights

2) superpower status since WW2

-economy and military

-international alliances post WW2

3) Internet and social media for social life

4) Effects of covid=learning loss, mental health, political polarization, distrust of experts

5) Decline in religious beliefs and practice

6) Emerging adulthood is labeled for late teens to mid to later 20’s

7) McDonaldization= principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world

What are the four levels of social context for our personal lives?

Macro, Meso, Micro, Personal

Societies and stratification systems. Individual and institutional action as source of widespread meanings.

Macro-level of social context

Institutions and organizations. Individuals draw upon institutional organization meanings as they negotiate these structures.

Meso-level of social context

Face-to-face interaction. Individuals’ behavior is guided by interpreting each other’s actions and engaging in impression management.

Micro-level of social context

Individual behavior, intra-personal processes. Individuals give meaning to their selves, situations, and actions through internal conversation such as reflecting and planning.

Personal level of social context

Shows how your personal life is shaped by influences ranging from your own traits to the broader culture you live in.

Levels of social context for our personal lives

Going through a biological life cycle also means they go through a series of socially constructed life stages or ____ _____ which vary culturally and historically

Life courses

A series of socially constructed life stages that give meaning to different parts of the biological life cycle.

Life course

What are the 4 social institutions that shape meaning of life course stages?

Family, economic, military, and religion

Traditional societies had ___ simpler life courses and ___ transition from child to adult

simpler; shorter

“Toddler” and a “tween” are examples of what?

How contemporary U.S marketers promote new life stages to sell products

What are the five qualities of emerging adulthood?

Instability, identity exploration, in-between feelings, self-focused, possibilities

What are the factors that contributes to the idea of emerging adulthood?

1) Growth of higher education

2) Delay in age of marriage

3) Economic changes undermining possibility of stable, lifelong careers

4) Increase of family resources extended to young adult children

5) Birth control

What are some of the dark sides of emerging adulthood?

1) Sexual liberation results in regret, STD’s, date rape, abortions, breakups, etc

2) Feeling lost in transition

3) Unable to engage in moral reasoning

4) Captive to consumerism

5) Intoxicated

The theme of the course is:

1) People are both cause and consequence of society

2) Sociologists are experts at predicting human behavior False

3) Human behavior is a profound mystery

4) Social issues affect personal troubles

 5) Use sociology to entertain your friends and confound your enemies

1) People are both cause and consequence of society

The assigned reading by C. Wright Mills focused on what sociological concept?

1) The Social Construction of Reality

2) The Sociological Imagination

3) Social Control

4) Socialization

5) The Power Elite

2) The Sociological Imagination

In the reading, Mills discusses the distinction between “personal trouble” and “public issues” by referring to which example(s)?

1) Unemployment

2) War

3) Marriage

4) The metropolis (city)

5) All of the above

5) All of the above

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett proposed the development of a new period of life for young people in the United States and other industrialized societies, which he calls:

1) Extended adolescence

2) Young adulthood

3) Emerging adulthood

4) Generation Z

5) Exploration stage

3) Emerging adulthood

Jeffrey Jensen Arnett proposed that this new period has five main features. Which of the following is NOT one of these features?

1) Identity explorations

2) Instability

3) Feeling in-between

4) Possibilities

5) All of the above are features of this new period

5) All of the above are features of this new period

Rationality, or to be rational is a community ____

standard

Rationality isn’t ____

Constant

T or F: Different communities have different standards of rationality

True

T or F: A rational behavior or statement is one that doesn’t make sense in a community

False- it is a behavior or statement that DOES make sense in a community

Max Weber was interested in the modern world versus the premodern world. He thought that the most important development was a change in what?

A change in rationality and the growing importance of formal rationality.

Commitment to a binding conviction. This is dominant in tradition, religion, and ritual.

Value Rationality

Involves cost-benefit analysis. Instrumentality, calculability, quick to change for $, value efficiency.

Formal rationality

Max Weber thought that the bureaucracy was the model of ____

Rationalization.

Hierarchical organization governed by formal rules and regulations and having clearly specified work tasks.

Bureaucracy

What are the five elements of bureaucracy?

1) Impersonality

2) Written rules and documents

3) Separation of person and position

4) Specialization

5) Hierarchy of offices

Descision-making criteria that ignore personal characteristics not related to organizational goals (like ISU: doesn’t matter age, race, sex, etc)

Impersonality

Procedural rules, contracts, position descriptions, written evaluations, and job files.

Written rules and documents

Resources of each position are to be used ONLY for official purposes only. Furthermore, positions require full capacity of office holder.

Separation of person and position.

Organizational positions are assigned based on special skills and training

Specialization

Ranking positions so that the lower positions report to the higher ones.

Hierarchy of offices

Positives of Bereaucracy

Greater efficiency and fairness

Negatives of Bureaucracy

limit individuality and personal autonomy

Weber said the effects of formal rationality was like an ___ ___.

Iron Cage

Which of the following is the best definition of McDonaldization?

1) Organizations are increasingly affected by globalization

2) Organizations are becoming less bureaucratic

3) People value efficiency and affordability over quality

4) The principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate other institutions

5) Ronald McDonald’s appetite for power is insatiable

4) The principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate other institutions.

Which of the following is NOT one of George Ritzer’s dimensions of McDonaldization?

1) Efficiency

2) Calculability

3) Affordability

4) Predictability

5) Control through nonhuman technology

3) Affordability

Which dimension of McDonaldization can be summarized as an emphasis on the quantitative aspects of products sold and services offered?

1) Efficiency

2) Calculability

3) Affordability

4) Predictability

5) Control through nonhuman technology

2) Calculability

T or F: The author of the assigned reading agrees with Benjamin Whorf’s theory that the language we speak restricts what we are able to think.

False

The main argument about language in the required reading is:

1) Our language can constrain our ability to reason

2) Our language may require us to think about some things

3) Speakers of all languages think in fundamentally the same way

4) Languages with more words produce speakers with greater creativity

5) Languages with more sounds produce more mellifluous speakers

2) Our language may require us to think about some things

According to the article, the Guugu Yimithirr language is notable for:

1) Using geographic, not egocentric, directions

2) Using egocentric, not geographic, directions

3) Not have any spatial directions

4) Having only three colors

5) Using clicks and whistles as phonemes

1) Using geographic, not egocentric, directions

The chapter argues that which of the following is a social construction?

1) Intelligence

2) Time

3) Color

4) Family

5) All of the above

5) All of the above

The reading describes two competing perspectives on the nature of reality? These perspectives are called what?

1) Materialist and idealist

2) Essentialist and constructionist

3) Platonist and Aristotelianist

4) Naturalist and rationalist

5) Functionalist and interactionist

2) Essentialist and constructionist

The reading suggests that their are two types of categories, which are:

1) Cultural and natural

2) Individual and collective

3) Cultural and institutional

4) Gradients and bounded categories

5) Type A and Type B

4) Gradients and bounded categories

The reading discusses how people construct new realities from old realities because institutionalized constructions reproduce the same patterns over time. This is called which of the following?

 1) Power

2) Path dependency

3) Mystification of domination

4) Bounded categories

5) Reification

2) Path dependency

The author uses which term to describe the process by which things become real?

1) Reification

2) Categorization

3) Naming

4) Thingification

5) Realization

1) Reification

According to William Roy’s Time chapter, clocklike regulation of life began in:

1) Cathedrals

2) Monestaries

3) Medieval Cities

4) Prisons

5) Megalith structures

2) Monestaries

According to William Roy’s Time chapter, this unit of time was a “huge breakthrough” because it was “entirely arbitrary” and had “no basis in nature”:

1) Hour

2) Day

3) Week

4) Month

5) Year

3) Week

According to William Roy’s Time chapter, early Christians sought to distinguish themselves from Jews by changing the weekly holy day. This illustrates the strategy known as:

1) Time zones

2) Quasi-weeks

3) Calendrical contrast

4) Temporal boundaries

5) Sabbatarianism

3) Calendrical contrast

According to the Thomas Theorem (discussed in class and the assigned reading), if people define situations as real: 

1) They are usually not mistaken

2) It doesn't matter

3) They are real in their consequences

4) They're only fooling themselves

5) Reality no longer has any meaning

3) They are real in their consequences

The opening example of a self-fulfilling prophecy in the assigned reading is:

1) The inevitability of war

2) A bank run

3) A anxious student sabotaging their test performance

4) Academic tracking

5) A horse that could do math

2) A bank run

The author of the article analyzes “closure” as a:

1) Biological process

2) Psychological process

3) Natural emotional state

4) Socially constructed narrative

5) Life course stage

4) Socially constructed narrative

According to the article, the concept of closure has been used to sell which of the following?

1) Funeral services

2) Psychic readings

3) Private investigations

4) Divorce party supplies

5) All of the above

5) All of the above

Which of the following is NOT one of the arguments made in the article on “closure”?

1) Closure is used to sell many types of products

2) Closure has been used as an argument in the legal system

3) Closure distorts our understanding of grief

4) The promise of closure may lead to disappointment

5) Following the right steps in grieving should lead to closure

5) Following the right steps in grieving should lead to closure

In the assigned reading from James Loewen’s Lies Across America, which Iowa State monument is discussed?

1) Jack Trice Stadium

2) The Four Seasons Fountain

3) Morrill Hall

4) Catt Hall

5) Gold Star Hall

4) Catt Hall

In Lies Across America, James Loewen claims that Kiswahili speakers in Africa distinguish between two types of dead ancestors: sasha and zamani. An ancestor transitions from sasha to zamani when:

1) Their funeral rites are over

2) A year passes since their death

3) A monument is built for them

4) Their children die

5) The last person to know them dies

5) The last person to know them dies

In Lies Across America, James Loewen claims that historic sites always tell the tale of two eras. These two eras are:

1) The past and the present

2) The past and the future

3) The era when the monument was started and the era when it was finished

4) The era of the person or event being remembered and the era when the monument was constructed

 5) The era before the monument was constructed and the era after it was constructed

4) The era of the person or event being remembered and the era when the monument was constructed.

According to the assigned reading, the movement to name Iowa State’s stadium after Jack Trice was started by: 

1) Jack Trice’s teammates

2) 1920s Iowa State students

3) 1970s Iowa State students

4) 1980s sports journalists

5) 1990s Iowa State administrators

3) 1970s Iowa State students

According to the assigned reading, opponents of naming Catt Hall after women's suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt objected to which of the following?

1) Her communist sympathies

2) Her love affair with Harry Houdini

3) Her racist statements

4) Her outrageous hats

5) Women's suffrage

3) Her racist statements

According to the assigned reading, when did the ISU administration decide to name the stadium after Jack Trice?

1) In the aftermath of his death

2) During the scandal over the name of Catt Hall

3) During the centennial of his birth

4) During the centennial of his death

5) During the scandal over the ISU president crashing the university airplane

2) During the scandal over the name of Catt Hall

A sociology 134 student sometimes feels like cheering and giving high-fives during class but tries to stifle this emotional response because it doesn’t conform to classroom feeling rules. This student is engaging in which of the following?

1) Emotion evocation

2) Emotion suppression

3) Emotion resistance

4) Emotion conflict

5) Emotion confusion

2) Emotion suppression

According to the instructor, we are able to live and work with other people by:

1) Developing social control

2) Developing stratification

3) Developing social arrangements

4) Not sweating the small stuff

5) Always showing up on time

3) Developing social arrangements

Although a “positive attitude” philosophy is a popular type of self-fulfilling prophecy, the instructor pointed out its limitations. These included: 

1) Adopting a positive attitude can’t change the way other people behave

2) Adopting a positive attitude can’t change social arrangements

3) Adopting a positive attitude can’t change your access to resources

4) Adopting a positive attitude can’t change your environment

5) All of the above are limitations of adopting a positive attitude

5) All the above are limitations of adopting a positive attitude

Weber argued that ___ were becoming the organizational model of the 19th and 20th centuries while Ritzer argues that ____ is becoming the organizational model.

bureaucracy; Mcdonaldization

Part of Mcdonaldization: The search for the optimum means to a given end

Efficiency

Part of Mcdonaldization: Emphasis on things that can be calculated, counted, and quantified. “What’s measured is treasured.”

Calculability

Part of Mcdonaldization: Emphasis on sameness from one time or place to another.

Predictability

Part of Mcdonaldization: Machines, architecture and interior design, limited options.

Control of people through replacement of human technology

Inefficiency and higher costs such as extra fees, illusion of fun (usually mediocre lol), false friendliness, environmental hazards, homogenization, and dehumanization are all results of _______

Mcdonaldization

T or F: According to our instructor, people are easy to get along with

False! People are difficult to get along with…that’s why we develop social arrangements!

T or F: Because people control themselves and are potentially creative, they can be unpredictable and untrusthworthy.

True

How have we been able to live and work together as humans. What allows us to fit our actions together and make us more predictable and trustworthy?

Social arrangements

Standard packages of meaning that allow reoccurring joint action. Examples include walking on the sidewalk, stopping at intersections, or bigger things like modern nation-states, large bureaucracies, etc.

Social arrangements

T or F: To understand why people do what they do, you need to understand the social arrangements they are a part of.

True!

Meanings are constructed by ____

People

T or F: Human beings act toward things on the basis of the meanings that the things have for them

True

A sociologist who studies how meanings are created, how meanings become institutionalized in social arrangements, how meanings become internalized, and how meanings shape life have a _____ perspective.

Constructionist

When discussing social constructions, there are two worlds…what are they?

The physical world and the world of meaning

Language and color are the examples of ____ ____ that we covered in class.

Social arrangements

Race is a ___ ____. It is real because it has been institutionalized.

Social arrangement

What are the three steps in constucting meaning?

1) categorizing

2) Naming

3) Typifying

Step in meaning making: Placing parts of the world into groups

Categorizing

Step in meaning making: attaching symbols to categories

Naming