Sociology 352
Winter 2014
Professor Aimée Dechter
Name:
TA:
Section:
Exam Version:
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Final Exam Practice Questions
These are Practice Multiple Choice Questions. There will be about 50-60 multiple-choice
questions on the actual exam. Many of the practice questions, or questions very similar to them,
will appear on the exam.
These are the instructions you will receive on the exam:
On the top of this exam, write your 1) name, 2) your TA’s name and 3) your section. When you have
completed the exam, turn in the scantron AND this exam. You will not get credit for this exam
unless you turn in both forms.
On the Scantron form, write your 1) name. Fill in the circles for your 2) name, 3) student ID number,
4) section letters and 5) test version.
Sections
Ayşe BB 12:30 Brad BC 11:30
BD 11:30
BE 10:30
It is VERY important to completely erase incorrect answers and any stray marks. The scanner is very
sensitive.
Make sure there is a circle filled in for all questions. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers,
so guess if you are not certain of the answer. This exam is worth 25 percent of your final grade.
Good Luck!
You may begin.
1. Professor Julie Brines’ research finds that husbands do less housework when their wife outearns them than when their wife earns less than they do. The “Symbolic Interaction”
interpretation of this is ________________
a. high earning women are more likely to be over achievers, and work harder at
everything.
b. a husband earning less than his wife has little time for housework because he is looking
for a new job and working long hours to increase his earnings.
c. a husband earning less than his wife violates gender norms and compensates by
producing gender distinctions in other aspects of his life.
d. a husband may resent a wife who earns more than he does and will refuse to do
housework to punish her.
2. Those who view marriage as a socially constructed institution organized to maintain male
dominance most likely subscribe to the principles of
a. feminist theory.
b. household economics theory.
c. social interaction theory
d. exchange theory.
3. If both the husband and wife share an egalitarian ideology, who would do the laundry?
a. Husband
b. Wife
c. They would share the task of doing laundry
d. The spouse who has higher earnings
4. In The Second Shift, Arlie Hochschild described strategies that some of the women she observed
used to maintain peace and inner happiness when their gender ideology conflicted with their
situation at work or home. The Holt’s “Joey Problem” reflects which strategy?
a. Economies of gratitude
b. Family myth
c. Outsourcing
d. All of the above
5. In the Second Shift, Nancy and Evan Holt's division of household labor by the "upstairs" and
"downstairs" illustrates that _______________
a. couples develop strategies to reduce the cognitive dissonance that arises when one or
both of them holds an ideology that does not match the reality in their life.
b. men participate equally in housework when their wife allows them autonomy.
c. men lose nothing by not sharing the second shift
d. all of the above
6. According to President Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope, he and Michelle Obama reduced
their conflict over the second shift by the following gender strategy: ________
a. Maintaining an egalitarian division of labor throughout their marriage.
b. Creating the family myth that she was not as competent at work as he was
c. Agreeing he would spend no more time on childcare than other Senators
d. "Outsourcing" household labor and childcare to a family member or employee.
7. Why does Hochschild refer to the current work/family situation as a ‘Stalled Revolution’?
a. Men's roles have not changed as dramatically as women’s have.
b. Wives are no longer at home caring for children and the home fulltime, but the
workplace has not accommodated their employees’ greater family responsibilities
c. Dramatic changes in the gender balance of labor inside the home have not accompanied
the dramatic changes in the gender balance of the labor force outside the home
d. all of the above
8. ______ refers to the phenomenon in which stressful events in one part of a person’s daily life
influence other parts of her or his life.
a. Cognitive dissonance
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b. Role overload
c. Spillover
d. Leisure gap
9. According to Collins and Mayer’s study of poor women in Wisconsin, which of the following
statements is true?
a. People who work fulltime do not fall below the poverty threshold
b. Chronic childcare difficulties are barriers to full employment
c. Marriage would bring the vast majority of women on welfare out of poverty
d. The annual poverty threshold is updated every year from ongoing expenditure surveys
10. This labor market characteristic is a primary cause of poverty among the nation’s working poor:
a. Low wages
b. Voluntary underemployment
c. Voluntary unemployment
d. Divorce
11. If Welfare’s Healthy Marriage Initiative policies succeed in increasing the rate at which single
mothers marry, why might this NOT benefit their children?
a. Studies find that experiences of multiple family transitions can be harmful to children
b. Studies find that children do no better in stepparent households than single parent
households
c. Divorce rates are higher for populations under economic duress
d. All of the above
12. Which of the following impedes the effectiveness of Welfare’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative”?
a. The shortage of “marriageable” men for poor women to marry
b. Unemployment and insufficient financial resources that increase the risk of divorce
c. Many of the single mothers on welfare have no potential spouse with whom to practice
the relationship skills and exercises in the Initiative’s program
d. All of the above
13. An important “opportunity cost” of Welfare’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” is
a. The funding of other government programs
b. The fee for attending couple counseling
c. The cost of a wedding
d. All of the above
14. If Welfare’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” policies succeed in increasing the rate at which single
mothers marry, why might this NOT benefit their children?
a. Their potential husbands may not be the fathers of their children
b. Multiple family transitions can be harmful to children
c. Divorce rates are higher for populations under economic duress
d. Al of the above
15. Women from low income neighborhoods have children at younger ages than other women
______________:
a. so they have an excuse to drop out of school
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b. to increase the chances that a man will marry them
c. because their opportunity cost of childbearing is lower
d. because they plan to have many children
16. According to Furstenberg, teenage childbearing was thought to be at epidemic levels in the mid
1960s because _____________
a. The number of teenagers was much greater
b. The number of teenagers with two children increased
c. Teenage fertility rates doubled
d. Teenage marriage rates increased
17. One reason single parents are more likely to have a poorer standard of living than two parent
families is the loss of “economies of scale”. Economies of scale means in this case that
_________.
a. parents and children can live more cheaply when together than when living apart.
b. married parents are more likely to live in metropolitan areas with stronger economies
c. the spouse is a buffer against unemployment or disability.
d. people with higher economic status are more likely to marry.
18. When estimating the effect of single parenthood on child outcomes, which of the following
factors are confounding variables that may be responsible for some of the correlation between
single parenthood and poorer child outcomes?
a. The parent’s economic well-being before the birth
b. The parent’s education before the birth
c. High male unemployment
d. All of the above
19. Have you checked that you have completely erased incorrect answers and any stray marks?
a. Yes
b. No
20. Have you confirmed that you have clearly and completely bubbled in your name, section letters,
exam version, and student ID number on your scantron?
a. Yes
b. No
21. Have you confirmed that you wrote your name, TA and section number on this exam form?
a. Yes
b. No
22. Have you confirmed that all questions have a circle filled in?
a. Yes
b. No
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