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SOCIOLOGY TESTS 7 and 8 CHS 13 14 15 16

SOCIOLOGY TESTS 7 and 8 CHS 13 14 15 16
SOCIOLOGY TESTS 7 and 8 CHS 13 14 15 16

Last updated 05 June 2026

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Sociology Quiz: Family, Religion, Education, Health, Work & Politics

50 multiple choice questions covering key sociological theories and institutions.

Question 1

In the United States, interracial marriage is:

  • a. declining for all social groups.

  • b. illegal.

  • c. common among the lower classes only.

  • d. increasing and reached 12 percent of new marriages in 2013. ✓

Question 2

According to Durkheim, _____ are vehicles for the creation, expression, and reinforcement of social cohesion.

  • a. totems, like communion wafers or Torah scrolls,

  • b. mantras that are repeated to focus conscious awareness

  • c. rituals, like making a pilgrimage to Mecca, celebrating a bat or bar mitzvah, or being baptized, ✓

  • d. clerics, like rabbis, imams, and priests,

Question 3

According to conflict theory, the family:

  • a. emerges as people interact to meet basic needs and develop meaningful relationships.

  • b. is a gendered institution that reflects the gender hierarchies in society.

  • c. is an institution that reinforces and supports power relations in society. ✓

  • d. meets the needs of society to socialize children and reproduce new members.

Question 4

According to functionalists, families serve all of the following basic social needs to ensure a consensus of values in society except:

  • a. providing physical care for members.

  • b. providing education to members. ✓

  • c. regulating sexual activities.

  • d. socializing the young.

Question 5

According to your text, Christianity is:

  • a. patriarchal and monotheistic. ✓

  • b. matriarchal and polytheistic.

  • c. polytheistic and patriarchal.

  • d. matriarchal and monotheistic.

Question 6

Although a large number of U.S. children living with one parent do so because of _____, the largest number live with one parent _____.

  • a. divorce; who has never been married ✓

  • b. divorce; because their other parent has died

  • c. incarceration; because their parents are divorced

  • d. the fact that their parents have never been married; whose partner is incarcerated

Question 7

An individual's ability to influence decision making within a marriage is established largely through:

  • a. the length of the marriage.

  • b. social class.

  • c. the amount of money one earns. ✓

  • d. religion.

Question 8

As a consequence of women's greater labor force participation:

  • a. families are experiencing a significant increase in the pace of life. ✓

  • b. families are finding they do not need men's income, and they have more flexibility.

  • c. families have become increasingly affluent.

  • d. families have more leisure time than ever before.

Question 9

Ava Timon is a working mother with three minor children living at home. Her husband's mother, a widow with significant health problems, also lives in the home. Ava often feels as though there is too much to do and not enough time to do it. Ava is most accurately described as experiencing:

  • a. a commuter marriage.

  • b. an existential crisis.

  • c. social speedup. ✓

  • d. social ennui.

Question 10

Because of the rise in divorce and remarriage in the United States, stepfamilies have become fairly common. Despite how common stepfamilies have become:

  • a. the percent of stepmothers remains low.

  • b. there is still little institutional support for stepfamilies. ✓

  • c. the number of children in stepfamilies is declining.

  • d. the legal status of the nonresidential parent is not well understood.

Question 11

Church membership and attendance in the United States:

  • a. is higher for women than for men and higher for older people than younger people. ✓

  • b. is higher for men than for women and higher for older people than younger people.

  • c. is higher for younger people than for older people and higher for women than for men.

  • d. is fairly uniformly spread throughout the population.

Question 12

Conflict theorists see families as:

  • a. teaching people the norms and values of society.

  • b. where people learn social identities through their interactions with others.

  • c. inculcating values consistent with the needs of dominant institutions. ✓

  • d. primary agents of gender socialization.

Question 13

During periods of rapid social change, families experience social disorganization, which creates social problems that lead, in turn, to increased instability in society. This is part of the _____ view of families.

  • a. conflict theory

  • b. symbolic interactionist

  • c. exchange theory

  • d. functionalist ✓

Question 14

Durkheim's emphasis on rituals and shared meanings fits with which type of sociological theory?

  • a. Functionalism and symbolic interactionism ✓

  • b. Symbolic interactionism and conflict theory

  • c. Exchange theory and functionalism

  • d. Conflict theory and functionalism

Question 15

Elder care in the modern family is best characterized by:

  • a. a standard cultural approach.

  • b. respect and compassion for both elders and their caregivers.

  • c. a range of approaches depending on family characteristics. ✓

  • d. a dependency on governmental support.

Question 16

Elements of the everyday world that are not considered sacred are called _____ (part of the everyday world and specifically not religious).

  • a. sanctified

  • b. sacred

  • c. profane ✓

  • d. revered

Question 17

Emile Durkheim argued that religion is:

  • a. a distinct threat to social cohesion.

  • b. a tool for class oppression.

  • c. functional for society because it reaffirms social bonds. ✓

  • d. in direct opposition to the other institutions that exist in society.

Question 18

From a _____ perspective, many types of social behavior may be based on the meanings that religion holds for people.

  • a. feminist

  • b. conflict

  • c. symbolic interaction ✓

  • d. functionalist

Question 19

From a(n) _____ perspective, married couples create an identity for themselves that merges society's definition of who they are with their own definition.

  • a. symbolic interactionist ✓

  • b. functionalism

  • c. exchange theory

  • d. conflict theory

Question 20

According to functionalist theory, schools provide _____ along with learning skills.

  • a. stratification

  • b. equality

  • c. social control ✓

  • d. labeling

Question 21

According to functionalists, education accomplishes all of the following except:

  • a. social control.

  • b. occupational training.

  • c. socialization.

  • d. teacher expectancy ✓

Question 22

According to the _____ perspective, excessive bureaucratization of the health care system and privatization has led to excessive cost.

  • a. feminist

  • b. conflict ✓

  • c. symbolic interactionist

  • d. functionalist

Question 23

According to the _____ perspective, persistent problems within the health care system contribute to disharmony in society, creating a destabilizing effect.

  • a. symbolic interactionist

  • b. feminist

  • c. functionalist ✓

  • d. conflict

Question 24

According to the _____ perspective, structural inequalities, such as unequal access associated with race or social class, are a major source of problems within the health care system.

  • a. symbolic interactionist

  • b. functionalist

  • c. interpretivist

  • d. conflict ✓

Question 25

According to the text, the United States currently spends about _____ of its gross domestic product on health care.

  • a. 24 percent

  • b. 18 percent ✓

  • c. 10 percent

  • d. 5 percent

Question 26

According to the text, which of the following can actually have more power to determine patient care than an individual physician?

  • a. Hospital conglomerates

  • b. Insurance companies

  • c. All of these may have more power. ✓

  • d. Pharmaceutical companies

Question 27

According to the text, which of these groups is least likely to utilize health services?

  • a. Hispanics ✓

  • b. Native Americans

  • c. Whites

  • d. African Americans

Question 28

As originally passed, the Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2010 did all of the following except:

  • a. expand the availability of health insurance.

  • b. require that preventive care be covered without deductibles or co-pays.

  • c. prohibit insurers from rejecting customers based on preexisting conditions.

  • d. provide free health coverage for all children under the age of eighteen. ✓

Question 29

Critics of tracking argue that:

  • a. the students in the lower tracks learn less because they are taught less. ✓

  • b. students in the higher tracks do not learn as much as others.

  • c. the tracks are not properly divided; there should be different categories used.

  • d. the lower-track students get most of the teacher's attention.

Question 30

Fred is renowned in his family for always playing the sick role. When at family gatherings, he insists on special food because his stomach is so sensitive. He manipulates family members into helping him by claiming he is just too sick and weak to do things for himself. This use of the sick role is most consistent with which theoretical perspective?

  • a. Functionalism

  • b. Conflict theory

  • c. Social exchange theory ✓

  • d. Symbolic interaction theory

Question 31

From the _____ perspective, the inequality inherent in our society is responsible for the unequal access to medical care.

  • a. conflict ✓

  • b. feminist

  • c. functionalist

  • d. symbolic interactionist

Question 32

High school completion rates are not the same for all racial–ethnic groups. In fact, as of 2016:

  • a. Blacks have lower completion rates than Whites and Hispanics.

  • b. Hispanics have completion rates that are equal to those of Whites.

  • c. Hispanics have lower completion rates than Whites and Blacks. ✓

  • d. Blacks have completion rates that are equal to those of Whites.

Question 33

How is access to health care in the United States distributed throughout the population?

  • a. Native American reservations have better access to health care than most other areas of the country.

  • b. Health care is one thing that members of minority groups and Whites have fairly equal access to.

  • c. Health care is more available in urban and suburban areas than in rural areas. ✓

  • d. Women are seen as needing more help and receive far more attention than men.

Question 34

If a teacher believes that Latinos are particularly skilled at math, then interactions that the teacher has with Latino students may subtly convey to them that they are more capable, and the teacher may unconsciously devote extra effort to ensuring their success. This phenomenon is called:

  • a. tracking.

  • b. a latent function.

  • c. sorting.

  • d. the expectancy effect. ✓

Question 35

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education that:

  • a. separate but equal was unconstitutional. ✓

  • b. racial segregation was legal, but segregation by social class was illegal.

  • c. segregation within schools was legal.

  • d. resegregation was constitutional.

Question 36

In the United States, one's SAT score may be used as a "proxy" measure of one's social class. What does this mean?

  • a. The SAT score is a more realistic measure of social class than income or education.

  • b. SAT scores are related more to race than to income.

  • c. SAT scores are the best predictors of how well a student will do in his or her career.

  • d. Family income is strongly correlated with scores on the SAT exam. ✓

Question 37

A comparison of 2016 unemployment rates among various groups indicates that:

  • a. for any racial–ethnic group, unemployment among women exceeds unemployment among men.

  • b. Asian Americans have higher rates of unemployment than Whites.

  • c. unemployment among African Americans is greater than that among Hispanics. ✓

  • d. Whites remain the hardest hit by the 2008 recession.

Question 38

According to _____, society "sorts" people into occupations, with the more qualified people having the more prestigious occupations.

  • a. feminists

  • b. symbolic interactionists

  • c. functionalists ✓

  • d. conflict theorists

Question 39

According to autonomous state theory, the state is:

  • a. an elaborate system of power elites.

  • b. a dominant group.

  • c. a military-style apparatus.

  • d. an administrative organization. ✓

Question 40

According to research done for the Pentagon, in 2012, _____ of women in the military had experienced sexual harassment, including sexual coercion.

  • a. one-fifth

  • b. one-quarter

  • c. one-half

  • d. one-third ✓

Question 41

According to sociologists, the state has a central role in:

  • a. determining cultural values.

  • b. determining the outcome of elections.

  • c. organizing communities.

  • d. determining the rights and privileges of various groups. ✓

Question 42

According to the _____ model of state power, the state develops its own needs and interests that are separate from those of its constituents.

  • a. pluralist

  • b. autonomous state ✓

  • c. power elite

  • d. populist

Question 43

According to the text, why are women and racial–ethnic minority group members underrepresented in national government?

  • a. There is no evidence that voters would vote for a woman or member of a minority group since those groups are known to be less skilled.

  • b. The day-to-day roles fulfilled by women and members of minority groups preclude their participation in government.

  • c. They are disadvantaged by the power of incumbents who are generally White men. ✓

  • d. There is a lack of interest among women and members of racial–ethnic minority groups in running for national offices.

Question 44

According to your text, the current U.S. government is an example of:

  • a. a populist mechanism since "little people" are allowed to vote.

  • b. the power elite since it is controlled exclusively by the wealthy.

  • c. the pluralist model since it balances so many competing interests so effectively.

  • d. an autonomous state because of the huge government apparatus now in place in the United States. ✓

Question 45

Applying the _____ model of state power, it could be argued that the dominant values of the state are based on hierarchical relationships, aggression, and force.

  • a. feminist theory ✓

  • b. autonomous state

  • c. power elite

  • d. pluralist

Question 46

As of 2016, _____ of American public say they would vote for a woman for president.

  • a. the overwhelming majority ✓

  • b. about a quarter

  • c. about half

  • d. less than 10 percent

Question 47

At the end of the war in 1945, the majority of workers (51 percent) in the United States were employed in manufacturing-based jobs. As of 2018, manufacturing accounts for only about _____ percent of the total labor force.

  • a. 10 ✓

  • b. 30

  • c. 20

  • d. 40

Question 48

Cashiers have come to rely on electronic cash registers to tell them how much change to return to a customer. Sociologists refer to this as:

  • a. the service economy.

  • b. deindustrialization.

  • c. deskilling. ✓

  • d. routinization.

Question 49

Critics of guest worker programs argue that:

  • a. they depend on economic restructuring.

  • b. they encourage illegal immigration.

  • c. they limit immigration.

  • d. they threaten jobs for U.S. workers. ✓

Question 50

A college class is studying the impact of bottled water on the environment. Which of the following is true about plastic water bottles?

  • a. Most are directly reused in industry.

  • b. Most are not recycled and are an environmental problem. ✓

  • c. Most are not recycled but do not pose a threat to the environment.

  • d. Most are recycled.

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