9.8: Section Quiz

9.1 What Is Social Stratification?

1.

What factor makes caste systems closed?

1. They are run by secretive governments.
2. People cannot change their social standing.
3. Most have been outlawed.
4. They exist only in rural areas.

2.

Which of these systems allows for the most social mobility?

1. Caste
2. Monarchy
3. Meritocracy
4. Class

3.

Which person best illustrates opportunities for upward social mobility in the United States?

1. First-shift factory worker
2. First-generation college student
3. Firstborn son who inherits the family business
4. First-time interviewee who is hired for a job

4.

Which statement illustrates low status consistency?

1. A suburban family lives in a modest ranch home and enjoys a nice vacation each summer.
2. A single mother receives food stamps and struggles to find adequate employment.
3. A college dropout launches an online company that earns millions in its first year.
4. A celebrity actor owns homes in three countries.

5.

Based on meritocracy, a physician’s assistant would:

1. receive the same pay as all the other physician’s assistants
2. be considered a member of the upper class
3. most likely marry a professional at the same level
4. earn a pay raise for doing excellent work

9.2 Social Stratification and Mobility in the United States

6.

In the United States, most people define themselves as:

1. middle class
2. upper class
3. lower class
4. no specific class

7.

The behaviors, customs, and norms associated with a class are known as:

1. class traits
2. power
3. prestige
4. underclass

8.

Which of the following scenarios is an example of intragenerational mobility?

1. A janitor belongs to the same social class as his grandmother did.
2. An executive belongs to a different class than her parents.
3. An editor shares the same social class as his cousin.
4. A lawyer belongs to a different class than her sister.

9.

Occupational prestige means that jobs are:

1. all equal in status
2. not equally valued
3. assigned to a person for life
4. not part of a person’s self-identity

9.3 Global Stratification and Inequality

10.

How do traditional models of global stratification breakdown different categories of countries?

1. They analyze the degree of industrialization.
2. They evaluate cultural norms and social goals.
3. They measure social mobility between classes.
4. They use measures to assess the economic power each nation.

11.

Which event created a significant divide between Western Europe/America and the rest of the world?

1. The Industrial Revolution
2. The American Revolution
3. The Reformation
4. World War I

12.

The GNI PPP figure represents:

1. a country’s total accumulated wealth
2. annual government spending
3. the average annual income of a country’s citizens
4. a country’s debt

9.4 Theoretical Perspectives on Social Stratification

13.

The basic premise of the Davis-Moore thesis is that the unequal distribution of rewards in social stratification:

1. is an outdated mode of societal organization
2. is an artificial reflection of society
3. serves a purpose in society
4. cannot be justified

14.

Unlike Davis and Moore, Melvin Tumin believed that, because of social stratification, some qualified people were _______ higher-level job positions.

1. denied the opportunity to obtain
2. encouraged to train for
3. often fired from
4. forced into

15.

Which statement represents stratification from the perspective of symbolic interactionism?

1. Men often earn more than women, even working the same job.
2. After work, Pat, a janitor, feels more comfortable eating in a truck stop than a French restaurant.
3. Doctors earn more money because their job is more highly valued.
4. Teachers continue to struggle to keep benefits such as health insurance.

16.

When Karl Marx said workers experience alienation, he meant that workers:

1. must labor alone, without companionship
2. do not feel connected to their work or to one another
3. move from one geographical location to another
4. have to put forth self-effort to get ahead

17.

Conflict theorists view capitalists as those who:

1. are ambitious
2. fund social services
3. spend money wisely
4. get rich while workers stay poor