SOCL 2001 LATEST 2026 EXAM QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Wealth - ✔✔All assets, including cash, savings, stocks, bonds, property, etc.
✔✔Reasons for Increasing Income Inequality in the US - ✔✔-Globalization and
economic restructuring
-Loss of ground among the less educated
-Move toward more regressive tax policies
-Changes in pay structures
✔✔Occupational Prestige - ✔✔Respect and admiration that a job holds in society.
High Prestige: Physician, lawyer, dentist, clergy
Low Prestige: Garbage man, waiter/waitress, janitor
✔✔Functionalist Perspective - ✔✔System of differential rewards and punishments
necessary for the efficient operation of society. Motivates people to fill positions that
society needs filled
✔✔Conflict Perspective - ✔✔Competitions between groups over scarce resources
results is an inherent social dynamic. Key question in understanding society is who has
wealth and power and who does not
✔✔Karl Marx - ✔✔Class differentiation the crucial determinant of social inequality.
Class struggle the result of the conflict between owners (capitalists) and workers (the
proletariat)
✔✔Max Weber - ✔✔Stratification not just about social class. Three distinct components
of stratification: Class, Status, Party/power
✔✔Class - ✔✔Economic standing - although it is one of the most frequently used
concepts in sociology, there is no clear agreement about how the term should be
defined. Most sociologists use the term to refer to socioeconomic variations among
groups of individuals that create variations in their material prosperity and power
✔✔Status - ✔✔Social honor, prestige that a particular group is accorded by other
members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life - patterns of
behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or
negative
✔✔Party/Power - ✔✔Ability to exercise one's will over others
✔✔Life Chances - ✔✔Opportunities to obtain material goods, positive living conditions,
and favorable life experiences. Occupying a higher positions in society improves your
life chances- Allows greater access to social rewards
, ✔✔Social Mobility - ✔✔Movement within a system of stratification.
Open Systems of Stratification and Closed Systems of Stratification
✔✔Open System of Stratification - ✔✔Positions mainly influenced by achieved statuses.
Encourages competition among members of society.
✔✔Closed Systems of Stratification - ✔✔Present little or no possibility of social mobility.
Positions mainly influenced by ascribed statuses.
✔✔Absolute Poverty - ✔✔Standard by which a minimum level of subsistence is
established
✔✔Relative Poverty - ✔✔Standard by which people are defined as poor in comparison
to others
✔✔Metric of Deprivation - ✔✔Income, Wealth, Material hardship, Social exclusion
✔✔Income - ✔✔Value of money
✔✔Wealth - ✔✔Value of assets
✔✔Material hardship - ✔✔Housing, bills, food, security and hunger
✔✔Social Exclusion - ✔✔Degree to which excluded from mainstream institutions
✔✔Poverty - ✔✔Official US poverty measure is absolute, income-based, and defined at
the family-level.
Poverty thresholds vary depending on: Size of Family & Number of children
✔✔Work and Poverty - ✔✔Work attachment greatly reduced odds of being poor. Most
poor adults do work.
✔✔Race and Poverty - ✔✔Poverty has disproportionate impact on racial/ethnic
minorities.
✔✔Welfare and Poverty - ✔✔Most poor people do not receive cash welfare. Wage and
salary income constitutes the majority of income among the poor.
Most "welfare" now geared toward "work supports"
✔✔Geography and Poverty - ✔✔High concentrated poverty in many of our inner-cities.
Most of the poor live outside the inner city. Poverty rates are consistently higher in rural
areas.
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔Wealth - ✔✔All assets, including cash, savings, stocks, bonds, property, etc.
✔✔Reasons for Increasing Income Inequality in the US - ✔✔-Globalization and
economic restructuring
-Loss of ground among the less educated
-Move toward more regressive tax policies
-Changes in pay structures
✔✔Occupational Prestige - ✔✔Respect and admiration that a job holds in society.
High Prestige: Physician, lawyer, dentist, clergy
Low Prestige: Garbage man, waiter/waitress, janitor
✔✔Functionalist Perspective - ✔✔System of differential rewards and punishments
necessary for the efficient operation of society. Motivates people to fill positions that
society needs filled
✔✔Conflict Perspective - ✔✔Competitions between groups over scarce resources
results is an inherent social dynamic. Key question in understanding society is who has
wealth and power and who does not
✔✔Karl Marx - ✔✔Class differentiation the crucial determinant of social inequality.
Class struggle the result of the conflict between owners (capitalists) and workers (the
proletariat)
✔✔Max Weber - ✔✔Stratification not just about social class. Three distinct components
of stratification: Class, Status, Party/power
✔✔Class - ✔✔Economic standing - although it is one of the most frequently used
concepts in sociology, there is no clear agreement about how the term should be
defined. Most sociologists use the term to refer to socioeconomic variations among
groups of individuals that create variations in their material prosperity and power
✔✔Status - ✔✔Social honor, prestige that a particular group is accorded by other
members of a society. Status groups normally display distinct styles of life - patterns of
behavior that the members of a group follow. Status privilege may be positive or
negative
✔✔Party/Power - ✔✔Ability to exercise one's will over others
✔✔Life Chances - ✔✔Opportunities to obtain material goods, positive living conditions,
and favorable life experiences. Occupying a higher positions in society improves your
life chances- Allows greater access to social rewards
, ✔✔Social Mobility - ✔✔Movement within a system of stratification.
Open Systems of Stratification and Closed Systems of Stratification
✔✔Open System of Stratification - ✔✔Positions mainly influenced by achieved statuses.
Encourages competition among members of society.
✔✔Closed Systems of Stratification - ✔✔Present little or no possibility of social mobility.
Positions mainly influenced by ascribed statuses.
✔✔Absolute Poverty - ✔✔Standard by which a minimum level of subsistence is
established
✔✔Relative Poverty - ✔✔Standard by which people are defined as poor in comparison
to others
✔✔Metric of Deprivation - ✔✔Income, Wealth, Material hardship, Social exclusion
✔✔Income - ✔✔Value of money
✔✔Wealth - ✔✔Value of assets
✔✔Material hardship - ✔✔Housing, bills, food, security and hunger
✔✔Social Exclusion - ✔✔Degree to which excluded from mainstream institutions
✔✔Poverty - ✔✔Official US poverty measure is absolute, income-based, and defined at
the family-level.
Poverty thresholds vary depending on: Size of Family & Number of children
✔✔Work and Poverty - ✔✔Work attachment greatly reduced odds of being poor. Most
poor adults do work.
✔✔Race and Poverty - ✔✔Poverty has disproportionate impact on racial/ethnic
minorities.
✔✔Welfare and Poverty - ✔✔Most poor people do not receive cash welfare. Wage and
salary income constitutes the majority of income among the poor.
Most "welfare" now geared toward "work supports"
✔✔Geography and Poverty - ✔✔High concentrated poverty in many of our inner-cities.
Most of the poor live outside the inner city. Poverty rates are consistently higher in rural
areas.
