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Exam 7: Social Class: the Structure of Inequality

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Question 31

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The wealth gap involves the unequal distribution of prestige or social honor that some individuals receive for being members of particular groups.

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Question 32

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Which of the following is a form of stratification in which all positions are awarded on the basis of accomplishment and skill?

A) democracy
B) meritocracy
C) oligarchy
D) technocracy

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Question 33

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Oscar Lewis was the first to suggest that the poor develop a way of life with fundamentally different values and goals because they are excluded from mainstream social life. Consequently, they are much less likely to join the middle class. This way of life is usually called

The practice of refusing mortgages for the purchase of houses in poor and minority neighborhoods is called

Homogamy is the practice of choosing a romantic partner based on similarities in background and group membership. Why do so many people choose life partners with racial, religious, and class backgrounds similar to their own?

What sort of social mobility often results from losing a job?

What defines so-called official poverty in the United States based on household income?

The feudal system, which is a closed social hierarchy, was dissolving and making way for a more open system when Karl Marx wrote about inequality. Why was Marx so worried about the new capitalist system that was emerging?

Explain two ways in which belonging to a particular social class has a profound effect on almost every aspect of a person's life.

What is it an example of when the children of working-class parents manage to attend college and get a job in a professional field?

In the United States, hard work and dedication lift the majority of people out of poverty.

Manohla Dargis called the movie The Pursuit of Happyness "the same old bootstraps story, an American Dream artfully told, skillfully sold. How you respond to this man's moving story may depend on whether you find Mr. Smith's and his son's performances so overwhelmingly winning that you buy the idea that poverty is a function of bad luck and bad choices, and success the result of heroic toil and dreams." What idea is being expressed here?

In Japan, men rank higher than women in the social hierarchy. However, Yoshiko Shinohara is one of Japan's 50 richest people and has appeared on Forbes's Asia 50 Power Businesswoman list. Explain how both of these statements are true, utilizing the principles of stratification.

A social scientist argues that inner-city families cannot escape a cycle of poverty because they see the lack of opportunities around them, decide that the world of the middle class is permanently closed to them, and do not try to maintain steady employment or send their children to college. What concept does this example highlight?

According to Pierre Bourdieu, ________ is the tendency of social class to be passed down from one generation to the next and consequently remain relatively stable over time.

The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 ended the concept of entitlements by requiring recipients of welfare to find work within two years of receiving assistance. How has this changed the lives of the poor?

What term describes the division of society into groups arranged in a social hierarchy?

What general predictions can sociologists make about a person's life prospects if all that is known is the person's social class?

The sociologist Susan Mayer studied poverty and welfare. She concluded that character traits in parents such as "diligence, honesty, good health, and reliability" led to increased achievement in children. Which theory do her conclusions support?

Karl Marx spent much of his life attempting to understand and describe how capitalism works. In one particularly vivid passage, he described the turbulence he saw as inherent in capitalism: "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind." What sort of relationships did he think his readers had with other people?