SOCIOLOGICAL COMPASS 1101:TEST BANK QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Chapter 1
True / False
1. Émile Durkheim‘s analysis of suicide demonstrates how the process of taking one‘s life
through violent means is an isolated and individualistic act.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
2. The hometown football team has a tight-knit group of players who care about each other on
and off the field. A sociologist would conclude that the team has a high degree of social
solidarity.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
3. The stable patterns of social relations in our lives, such as the organization of work and family
composition, are called global structures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
4. Aaron and Roberta dated for several years and fell in love. Their social interaction is an
example of microstructures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
5. International organizations, as well as patterns of worldwide travel and communication,
comprise the widest-reaching level of social structure, referred to as macrostructures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
6. The ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures (for example,
personal problems and public issues related to unemployment) is known as the sociological
imagination.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
7. The sociological imagination enables us to understand that individuals are masters of their
own destinies.
a. True
, b. False
ANSWER: False
8. According to Spencer, individual struggle for survival caused societies to progress from
―barbaric‖ to ―civilized.‖
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
9. Sociological theories are elaborate, detailed descriptions of what happens in a society.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
10. The concept of class conflict is more important in Marx‘s than in Weber‘s theory.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
11. According to Gramsci, cultural hegemony benefits all members of society.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
12. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber demonstrated that religious
ideas could support the development of capitalism.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
13. The study of the subjective meanings that people attach to their actions and social life is part
of the functionalist theory.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
14. The idea that patterns of gender inequality can and should be changed for the benefit of all
members of society is one of the main features of feminist theory.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
15. Beginning in the 1960s, decisions about fashion trends became less democratic.
a. True
, b. False
ANSWER: False
16. According to functionalists, fashion performs a useful social function of making class
differences obvious.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
17. The Postindustrial Revolution is the shift from white-collar office work to blue-collar factory
work.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
18. According to the textbook, one of the main impacts of postindustrialism on social
relationships has been to free people from traditional constraints.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
Multiple Choice
19. What kind of conflict emerges from the stories of conquest that the author was exposed to in
school and stories of the Gluskap that he also heard during childhood?
a. That progress is often costly to relationships between humans and between humans
and the environment.
b. That progress is exciting and harmony between humans is less important than
harmony between humans and the environment.
c. That harmony between humans is important and conquest is unimportant.
d. That benefits of conquest justify all damage it does to harmony between humans.
ANSWER: a
20. According to the textbook, why is mapping the social world an important activity?
a. because it allows us to find our geographical place in the new world
b. because it allows us to understand ourselves within a larger social context
c. because it allows us to forge relationships between ourselves and other people
d. because it allows us to understand how people navigated in past explorations of the
world
ANSWER: b
21. According to the textbook, what is the main rationale for the existence of sociology?
a. to understand the past
, b. to make the past come alive
c. to create the best possible future
d. to understand the relationship between humans and nature
ANSWER: c
22. Why did Durkheim‘s contemporaries overlook social forces as possible causes of suicide?
a. because suicide was rare
b. because instances of suicide were concealed and their numbers were unknown
c. because there can be no social reasons for carrying out such an individual act
d. because suicide was considered an individual act of desperation, often resulting from a
psychological disorder
ANSWER: d
23. What did Durkheim‘s nineteenth-century study of suicide in France demonstrate?
a. that suicide was mainly carried out by desperate people
b. that suicide was influenced mainly by people‘s level of psychological distress
c. that suicide was related to an individual‘s level of integration into society
d. that suicide was caused by a high level of confusion among people who belonged to
several social networks at once
ANSWER: c
24. According to Durkheim, which type of suicide is most likely to occur in a society having
vague norms or few shared norms?
a. altruistic suicide
b. anomic suicide
c. egoistic suicide
d. nomadic suicide
ANSWER: b
25. Which of the following findings is common to suicide rates in Canada today and those found
by Durkheim a century ago?
a. Men are much more likely to commit suicide than women.
b. Women are much more likely to commit suicide than men.
c. Suicide among youth is so rare as to be almost non-existent.
d. Suicide among people aged 85 and over is so rare as to be almost non-existent.
ANSWER: a
26. According to the textbook, why are suicide rates among the Innu of Labrador among the
highest in the world?
a. because the Innu are a nomadic people who rely upon hunting and trapping
b. because government assistance in the forms of welfare and education was cut back
Chapter 1
True / False
1. Émile Durkheim‘s analysis of suicide demonstrates how the process of taking one‘s life
through violent means is an isolated and individualistic act.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
2. The hometown football team has a tight-knit group of players who care about each other on
and off the field. A sociologist would conclude that the team has a high degree of social
solidarity.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
3. The stable patterns of social relations in our lives, such as the organization of work and family
composition, are called global structures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
4. Aaron and Roberta dated for several years and fell in love. Their social interaction is an
example of microstructures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
5. International organizations, as well as patterns of worldwide travel and communication,
comprise the widest-reaching level of social structure, referred to as macrostructures.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
6. The ability to see the connection between personal troubles and social structures (for example,
personal problems and public issues related to unemployment) is known as the sociological
imagination.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
7. The sociological imagination enables us to understand that individuals are masters of their
own destinies.
a. True
, b. False
ANSWER: False
8. According to Spencer, individual struggle for survival caused societies to progress from
―barbaric‖ to ―civilized.‖
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
9. Sociological theories are elaborate, detailed descriptions of what happens in a society.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
10. The concept of class conflict is more important in Marx‘s than in Weber‘s theory.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
11. According to Gramsci, cultural hegemony benefits all members of society.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
12. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber demonstrated that religious
ideas could support the development of capitalism.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
13. The study of the subjective meanings that people attach to their actions and social life is part
of the functionalist theory.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
14. The idea that patterns of gender inequality can and should be changed for the benefit of all
members of society is one of the main features of feminist theory.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
15. Beginning in the 1960s, decisions about fashion trends became less democratic.
a. True
, b. False
ANSWER: False
16. According to functionalists, fashion performs a useful social function of making class
differences obvious.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
17. The Postindustrial Revolution is the shift from white-collar office work to blue-collar factory
work.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
18. According to the textbook, one of the main impacts of postindustrialism on social
relationships has been to free people from traditional constraints.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
Multiple Choice
19. What kind of conflict emerges from the stories of conquest that the author was exposed to in
school and stories of the Gluskap that he also heard during childhood?
a. That progress is often costly to relationships between humans and between humans
and the environment.
b. That progress is exciting and harmony between humans is less important than
harmony between humans and the environment.
c. That harmony between humans is important and conquest is unimportant.
d. That benefits of conquest justify all damage it does to harmony between humans.
ANSWER: a
20. According to the textbook, why is mapping the social world an important activity?
a. because it allows us to find our geographical place in the new world
b. because it allows us to understand ourselves within a larger social context
c. because it allows us to forge relationships between ourselves and other people
d. because it allows us to understand how people navigated in past explorations of the
world
ANSWER: b
21. According to the textbook, what is the main rationale for the existence of sociology?
a. to understand the past
, b. to make the past come alive
c. to create the best possible future
d. to understand the relationship between humans and nature
ANSWER: c
22. Why did Durkheim‘s contemporaries overlook social forces as possible causes of suicide?
a. because suicide was rare
b. because instances of suicide were concealed and their numbers were unknown
c. because there can be no social reasons for carrying out such an individual act
d. because suicide was considered an individual act of desperation, often resulting from a
psychological disorder
ANSWER: d
23. What did Durkheim‘s nineteenth-century study of suicide in France demonstrate?
a. that suicide was mainly carried out by desperate people
b. that suicide was influenced mainly by people‘s level of psychological distress
c. that suicide was related to an individual‘s level of integration into society
d. that suicide was caused by a high level of confusion among people who belonged to
several social networks at once
ANSWER: c
24. According to Durkheim, which type of suicide is most likely to occur in a society having
vague norms or few shared norms?
a. altruistic suicide
b. anomic suicide
c. egoistic suicide
d. nomadic suicide
ANSWER: b
25. Which of the following findings is common to suicide rates in Canada today and those found
by Durkheim a century ago?
a. Men are much more likely to commit suicide than women.
b. Women are much more likely to commit suicide than men.
c. Suicide among youth is so rare as to be almost non-existent.
d. Suicide among people aged 85 and over is so rare as to be almost non-existent.
ANSWER: a
26. According to the textbook, why are suicide rates among the Innu of Labrador among the
highest in the world?
a. because the Innu are a nomadic people who rely upon hunting and trapping
b. because government assistance in the forms of welfare and education was cut back
