Sociology Study Guide

Chapter 1

1. What is sociology concerned with?

   • Understanding how the social world affects the self, our thoughts, and our interactions.

   Chapter 4

2. The existence of ____ is dependent on people's ability to create and understand symbols.

   • Culture

3. Views people share about what is true or what really exists are called ___.

   • Beliefs

4. What are values?

   • Ideas shared by members of a society about what is important and worthwhile.

5. What are social norms?

   • Rules of conduct or social expectations.

   Chapter 5

6. What is a socially defined position of an individual in society?

   • Status

7. Under the difference between achieved and ascribed statuses and be able to identify examples.

   • An achieved status is chosen or earned while an ascribed status is given at birth without willingness on your part.

8. What is a set of behaviors associated with a status?

   • A role

9. How is bureaucracy best described?

   • A division of labor with a hierarchy of authority and impersonality.

   Chapter 6

10. _____ is the process of learning culture, language, walking, and talking, among other behaviors.

    • Socialization

11. When a soccer player is a member of the team, how are other members of the team seen?

    • Generalized others

12. What is traditionally considered to be the primary agent of socialization in the United States?

    • Family

    Chapter 7

13. Know the components of the American Criminal Justice System.

    • Police, Court, and Corrections

14. What is deviance?

    • Behavior that violates social norms.

15. When we say that deviance varies by time, what do we mean?

    • Behaviors seen as deviant in one location, society, or culture may be considered nondeviant in others.

    Chapter 8

16. What do income, education, and occupation measure?

    • A person's socioeconomic status

17. What is inequality?

    • Unequal distribution of resources.

18. Why can't poverty be solved by finding jobs for the adult poor population?

    • Many do work, but the pay is below the poverty level, hence the term working poor.

    Chapter 9

19. What are stereotypes?

    • Widely held beliefs about the character and behavior of members of a group.

20. How is prejudice defined?

    • A negative attitude about another group

21. ___ is an action intended to exclude another group.

    • Discrimination

22. What does assimilation cause individuals to do?

    • Give up their cultural traditions.

23. Cultural pluralism is also known as _____.

    • Multiculturalism

    Chapter 10

24. How can the difference between gender and sex be explained?

    • Gender pertains to the cultural concepts of masculinity and femininity, and sex pertains to biological characteristics of males and females.

25. What are gender roles?

    • The cultural concepts of masculinity and femininity that society creates around gender.

26. An increase in the proportion of women below the poverty line, particularly female heads of household, is called the ____.

    • Feminization of poverty

    Chapter 12

27. When grandparents, parents, children, and grandchildren all live under a single roof, this is ____ family.

    • An extended

28. While U.S. law requires ____, while ____ can be found around the world.

    • Monogamy, Polygamy

29. In which groups does divorce occur frequently?

    • Among people who married in their teens.

30. In dual-career families, who is usually responsible for household chores?

    • The wife

31. Who largely runs American schools?

    • Local school boards

32. Why do schools in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods have less funding?

    • Local school funding comes primarily from state and property taxes.

33. Why is there concern about the performance of American public schools?

    • American students do worse than students in other countries in math and science.

    Chapter 17

34. In the past, the major killing diseases were ____; now, however, they are primarily _____.

    • Infectious; Degenerative

35. What is true about diseases during the 20th century?

    • Rates of death from heart disease and cancer have increased.

36. In the past, alcoholism was seen as an illness that could be cured by willpower. How is it seen today?

    • As a physical disease that can be treated.

37. What is the medical model?

    • A model that suggests sickness is an individual problem requiring individual treatment.

    Chapter 18

38. What is the most dramatic form of acting crowds?

    • Mobs and riots

39. What is the term used to describe a superficial or trivial behavior that is very popular for a short time?

    • Fad

40. What term is used to describe a collective, noninstitutionalized effort to bring about social change and establish a new order of social thought and action?

    • A social movement