Soc 100 Final – Purdue Questions and Answers Rated A+

Soc 100 Final – Purdue Questions and Answers Rated A+ What is family? What social and economic factors that led to the current "nuclear family" structure? Family is a socially recognized group (usually joined by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption) that forms on emotional connection and serves as an economic unit of society. A nuclear family is considered married parents with children as the nucleus or core of the group. How do families contribute to social (race/ethnicity and gender) and economic forms of inequality? - Pass on economic capital - Patriarchy (marriage has treated women as sexual/economic property) -pass on social and cultural capital (Educational opportunities, networks, and contacts- and socialization and interests) -Family is often used to justify defending structural inequalities How does class shape perceptions of marriage and definitions of adulthood (poor)? Social class heavily influences partners expectations of marriage and children. The working class defined a good husband as someone who was faithful, employed, and didn't drink too much. What is the median age at first marriage? How has this changed over time? For men its 28 and women is 26. More people prefer to wait for marriage then what it used to be. Why are men and women increasingly waiting to get married? What effect does cohabitation have on marital success? Many men and women are waiting longer to get married due to increased cohabitation, women's economic independence, and the idea of marriage losing importance. Cohabitation has little evident effect on marriage success. How has the divorce rate changed since 1990? Where does this stand in a global context? The divorce rate was 3.2 divorces per 1000 people. The divorced rate has increased and now the US has the highest divorce rate in the world. Why has the number of divorces gone up in the US? because there are no fault divorces, they are more socially acceptable, rising individualism, marriage for love/happiness and stress. The current divorce rate is around what rate? What age group is most likely to get divorced? Current divorce rate is about 50%. The age group most likely to get divorced is about 30 years old. The Brown article discuss cohabitation. What is the relationship between cohabitation and marriage, and what effect does cohabiting have on families well-being? Cohabitation is like a trail run for marriage and a chance to reach financial stability. Attitudes about cohabitating have become a lot more accepting. What does Lareau mean by "concerted cultivation" and "accomplishment of natural growth"? Concerted cultivation is an act of the middle class parents putting their children in different activities and situations because they believe they transmit important life skills to children. This approach results in a frenetic pace for parents, creates a cult of individualism within the family, and emphasizes children's performance. how has family structure changed over the past 50 years? What major factors influenced the change? Micro-level family processes are responsive to broader society needs. An example could be how industrialization led to "father as provider/mother as caretaker" family structures. Marriage is primarily for love and affection is a recent development. How are dating/marriage shaped and influenced by proximity and social groups? Do we have an equal chance to date/marry anyone? The standards of different social classes and levels of education can affect who a person decides to date/marry. Who are we more likely to message and respond to in online dating? what does that say about our dating choices? A person of equal or higher social class, education, etc. 14. What proportion of US society has a high school degree or higher? How has this changed over time? About 92%. The importance of formal education has grown. 15. What is tracking? Why do teachers/institutions do it? Who does it affect (both beneficially and negatively), and how? Be able to discuss tracking in schools (how groups are determined, who is affected, how it reproduces inequality, and how it connects with other drivers of stratification). Tracking is the dividing of students into groups that receive different instruction on the basis of assumed similarities in ability or attainment. This is easier for teachers to teach a group of students with similar abilities, "best fit" increases classroom effectiveness. It tends to benefit "gifted groups" by giving them more attention and better instruction. Deprives some students of better quality courses, teachers, etc. Groups determined by reading/math levels. Low-income students generally in lowest groups. Inequality because labels students as "able" or otherwise, sets expectations at an early age, movement between tracks is usually downward, and factors unconnected to ability can influence track assignment. 16. How has the value of a high school degree changed since the 1980s? What do the economic prospects look like for someone with only a high school degree? The median high school earnings since the 1980s has been flat. High school and less than high school degree holders are hurt most by economic downturns. Those with only a high school degree tend to have a lower median income, higher unemployment, greater proportion in poverty, and the jobs are less stable and rewarding. 17. Be able to discuss the human capital and credentialism explanations for earning a college degree, and distinguish between them. Human capital mode says that college teaches the skills and provides the knowledge for meaningful employment. Credentialism says specific skills/info are less relevant than the actual diploma. 18. What are the three things a credential—like a college degree—does? - Verification: verifies that you have the basic necessities to make it through college - Gatekeeping: helps occupations remain prestigious and increases societal worth and pay; reinforces class structure by trying class position to educational attainment. - Screening Device: degrees confer a claim of competence and status; degree status is relative 19. How are age, underemployment, & unemployment connected to credentialism? People with degrees take jobs previously held by high school graduates, causing those with only a high school degree to become unemployed. Younger people are getting the better jobs because more people are pursuing a higher education. 21. Roughly how much cumulative debt do students hold? What makes student debt different from other forms of debt (i.e. credit card debt or mortgage debt)? The cumulative debt for students is nearly one trillion dollars. Unlike other loans, student loans are non-dischargeable through bankruptcy. You must file separate documents demonstrating undue hardship, which is incredibly difficult to approve. 22. Higher education is one of the gateways to greater economic prosperity for people in society, but it comes with a number of risks. Be prepared to identify and discuss some of the risks that come along with the decision to go to college. Poor job prospects, college is more necessary, college is expensive, risks of debt and a tenuous job market 23. Drawing on the Yee article, what are college students increasingly focusing on, and how is that influencing experiences in the classroom? Many focus on passing their courses with minimal effort because they believe college is just a prerequisite for a secure lifestyle. This results in classrooms becoming frustrating places. 24. Drawing on the Downey and Gibbs article, what explains disparities between high and low performing schools? Can we just address this with better/more funding? Schools with more money per student had better conditions and more higher achieving students. 20. How has the cost of college changed over time? Are the costs of college comparable across public and for-profit institutions? The cost of college has increased over time. For-profit schools appear to cost less than public schools but 25. What are for-profit colleges, and what drives their demand? For-profit colleges operate as a business and "sell" education and often have shareholders. They enroll many students and soak up a large portion of money from the government for student aid. 26. What are the stages of the epidemiological transition, what drove mobility from one stage to another, and how did it influence what we die from? Stage 1: age of pestilence and famine (poor nutrition and sanitation), Stage 2: age of receding pandemics (improvements in public health, mortality shifts from infectious disease to chronic), Stage 3: age of degenerative and human-made diseases (mortality due to degenerative diseases) 27. What are the two "ages" that may come after the age of degenerative diseases? What factors have driven their development, and what diseases are associated with mortality? Age of delayed degenerative diseases: death delayed until late in life, new diseases Age of obesity and inactivity: increasing rate of obesity may slow, or reverse, improvements with life expectancy, recent increase in acute infectious diseases 28. What is the risk factor approach to understanding health outcomes? How does it "come up short" in explaining health disparities? Risk factor approach- social conditions are related to health because they influence relevant risk factors; focus on specific risks to understand the relationship with social conditions. Socioeconomic status shapes the capacity to respond and identifying risks can increase disparities. 29. What is the fundamental cause explanation for health disparities? Be sure to be able to explain what role proximate risk factors play in this theory. Two categories of social causes of disease: fundamental causes- underlying social conditions; proximate risk factors- health related behaviors. Fundamental cause theory claims that new mechanisms arise because persons of higher socioeconomic status can use a wider range of resources to avoid disease and death. 30. What are flexible resources, and how do they help us understand health inequalities? Resources distributed more equally, resources are irrelevant, resources are less consequential 31. Where is poor health concentrated in the United States? Why are diseases like HIV concentrated there? Poor health tends to concentrate in the southern states. Diseases concentrated there because of high concentrations of poverty and poor, higher proportion without health insurance, cultural factors, and lower adoption of HIV prevention. 32. What are deaths by despair, and where (i.e. which demographic group) have they risen the most? What are the explanations for their rise? Deaths by despair are deaths from suicide, drugs, alcohol. Has increased in U.S, mostly in northeast and Midwest. Breakdown in economic, family, and community ties, weak social safety net, crushed aspirations, opioid prescriptions for pain. 33. Where is the opioid crisis concentrated (where has it grown the most)? How does that compare to other patterns in health inequalities? Midwest, regional variations are unlikely to be attributed to differences in health status. 34. Piontak and Schulman focus on food insecurity in rural America. What are the core factors that shape the lack of access? How does this influence health and well-being disparities? The number of large supermarkets decreasing. 35. Drawing on Sapolsky, what is it about poverty that makes health inequalities worse? Is it just about having enough money (why or why not)? Unable to afford the best healthcare. 36. What are the three branches of the United States government, and what responsibilities do they have? Judicial- court systems that interpret laws Executive- enforce laws Legislative- creates laws 37. Be able to discuss democratic elitism, pluralism, and the power elite, and recognize the differences between them. Democratic elitism- direct democracy is impossible in large societies Pluralism- direct influence on politics is limited; democratic political process is the balancing of competing interests and interest groups Power elite- small networks of individuals with concentrated power; informally and formally make key domestic and foreign policy decisions 38. What was the average voter turnout over the past twenty years? 60% 39. What groups are most likely and least likely to be registered to vote? How does this influence the policies and interests of the representatives who go to Washington? Most likely to vote: whites, more educated, older people. Youth significantly less likely to vote. 40. What forms of political participation are youth less likely to participate in? What forms are they more likely to participate in? Less likely to participate in voting, party membership, and civic organization membership. More likely to participate in activism and participatory politics. 41. What is the deficit model? What does it presume about youth political engagement? Deficit model is the sense that youth have to "be taught" about politics before they can participate. Participation bind (too young: no socialization, old enough: doesn't care), participation ambivalence, lack of organizational outreach 42. What is threshold model of collective behavior? Be able recognize examples of this phenomenon. Different people need different levels of safety, benefits, assurances, etc. to change behavior. 43. What are social movements? What are the three factors that shape their likelihood of finding success? Social movements- collective attempts to further a common interest/goal through action outside of established institutions. Supportive organizations with resources, political opportunities for success, effective framing, collective identity. 44. Who participates in social movements, and what are the major factors that influence joining a movement? Young, middle class, unmarried, childless. Campus activism and online activism. 45. What are the benefits of online activism? Low threshold, point of access for non-participants, spreads awareness, no effect on donations/support, can be an effective tactical tool. 46. According to the Meyer article How Social Movements Matter, when do protest movements emerge and grow? What are the ways that movements influence policy? When people think it might help them achieve their goals that they might not accomplish otherwise. Organizers successfully mobilize movements when they convince people that the issue at hand is urgent, that positive outcomes are possible and that their efforts could make a difference. Threats help organizers mobilize people. Influence policy by bringing attention to their issues. By bringing scrutiny to a contested policy, activists can promote alternative thinking. 47. According to Wong, why is it that universities are such frequent targets for protest? Why is it that students may gravitate toward protest rather than traditional politics? Very far from isolated. Students like to send a message. 48. Across all of the respondents in the This American Life episode "The Sun Will Come Up" what was the most consistent reaction? 49. What proportion of the population of the United States lives in urban areas? How has this changed since 1910? What proportion of the global population lives in cities? 80.7%. Has grown a lot. 50. What does it mean to say that cities are ecological entities? Cities are natural, responsive, social organisms. They grow in response to advantageous features of the environment. 51. Be able to identify the different ecological explanations for how cities develop (concentric zones, sectors, and multiple nuclei), and how they are different. Concentric zones- envision a process of competition, invasion, and succession; city expands outward from its center; don't form complete circle Sectors- city center as a hub with sectors expanding outward, each sector characterized by different economic activities Multiple nuclei- cities have several centers; each nucleus contains a specialized activity (food, sports, etc.) 52. What are the factors that drive the declining population of rural America? Which groups are most likely to leave, and what effect does this have on rural communities? There is access to more resources, jobs, and opportunities in cities. 53. How are proximity and anonymity related to living in cities? What effect do they have on how people in cities interact? Proximity- large numbers of people live in close proximity without knowing others personally Anonymity- weak bonds between people 54. How does city life (or urbanism) promote diverse subcultures? Be able to recognize examples. Access to distinct subgroups, opportunities to collaborate, exposure to diversity 55. What is Jane Jacob's explanation for why cities are habitable and enjoyable despite being surrounded by strangers? Cities are full of strangers, habitable cities have diverse uses (bring people into street), when people are out they have "respectable eyes and ears" (the watch of others safeguards the streets), bystander effect 56. According to the Radiolab podcast, what role does population size play for how cities operate?