WGU C273 Sociology OA Full Course
Comprehensive Resource To Help You Ace 2026-2027
Includes Frequently Tested Questions With ELABORATED
100% Correct COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Guaranteed Pass First Attempt!!
Current Update!!
1. Explain what culture is, how culture provides orientations to life, and what
practicing cultural relativism means. - ANSWER All human groups
possess culture—language, beliefs, values, norms, and material objects that
they pass from one generation to the next. Material culture consists of
objects such as art, buildings, clothing, weapons, and tools. Nonmaterial (or
symbolic) culture is a group's ways of thinking and its patterns of behavior.
Ideal culture is a group's ideal values, norms, and goals. Real culture is
people's actual behavior, which often falls short of their cultural ideals.
People are ethnocentric; that is, they use their own culture as a yardstick
for judging the ways of others. In contrast, those who embrace cultural
relativism try to understand other cultures on those cultures' own terms
2. Cultural lag - ANSWER Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging
behind technological innovations
3. Cultural diffusion - ANSWER the spread of cultural traits from one group
to another; includes both material and nonmaterial cultural traits
,4. Cultural leveling - ANSWER the process by which cultures become
similar to one another; refers especially to the process by which Western
culture is being exported and diffused into other nations
5. Know the components of symbolic culture: gestures, language, values,
norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos; also explain the Sapir-
Whorf hypothesis. - ANSWER The central component of nonmaterial
culture is symbols, anything to which people attach meaning and that they
use to communicate with others. Universally, the symbols of nonmaterial
culture are gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and
mores. Language allows human experience to be goal-directed,
cooperative, and cumulative. It also lets humans move beyond the present
and share a past, a future, and other common perspectives. According to
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language even shapes our thoughts and
perceptions. All groups have values, standards by which they define what is
desirable or undesirable, and norms, rules or expectations about behavior.
Groups use positive sanctions to show approval of those who follow their
norms and negative sanctions to show disapproval of those who violate
them. Norms that are not strictly enforced are called folkways, while mores
are norms to which groups demand conformity because they reflect core
values.
6. Distinguish between subcultures and countercultures - ANSWER A
subculture is a group whose values and related behaviors distinguish its
members from the general culture. A counterculture holds some values that
stand in opposition to those of the dominant culture.
7. Discuss the major U.S. values and explain value clusters, value
contradictions, value clashes, how values are lenses of perception, and ideal
versus real culture - ANSWER Although the United States is a pluralistic
, society, made up of many groups, each with its own set of values, certain
values dominate. These are called its core values. Core values do not
change without opposition. Some values cluster together to form a larger
whole called value clusters. Value contradictions (such as equality versus
sexism and racism) indicate areas of tension, which are likely points of social
change. Leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, youthfulness, and concern
for the environment form an emerging value cluster.
8. Take a position on the issue of the existence of cultural universals and
contrast sociobiology with sociology. - ANSWER Cultural universal refers
to a value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in all cultures. Although
all human groups have customs concerning cooking, childbirth, funerals,
and so on, because these customs differ from one culture to another, there
are no cultural universals
9. Explain how technology changes culture and what cultural lag and cultural
leveling are. - ANSWER William Ogburn coined the term cultural lag to
describe how a group's nonmaterial culture lags behind its changing
technology. With today's technological advances in trade, travel, and
communications, cultural diffusion is occurring rapidly. This leads to cultural
leveling, groups becoming similar as they adopt items from other cultures.
Much of the richness of the world's diverse cultures is being lost in the
process.
10.Social environment - ANSWER the entire human environment, including
interaction with others
, 11.Socialization - ANSWER the process by which people learn the
characteristics of their group—the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values,
norms, and actions thought appropriate for them
12.Self - ANSWER the unique human capacity of being able to see
ourselves "from the outside"; the views we internalize of how others see us
13.Looking-glass self - ANSWER a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to
refer to the process by which our self develops through internalizing others'
reactions to us
14.Taking the role of the other - ANSWER putting yourself in someone
else's shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks, so you
anticipate how that person will act
15.Significant other - ANSWER an individual who significantly influences
someone else
16.Generalized other - ANSWER the norms, values, attitudes, and
expectations of people "in general"; the child's ability to take the role of the
generalized other is a significant step in the development of a self
17.Id - ANSWER Freud's term for our inborn basic drives
18.Ego - ANSWER Freud's term for a balancing force between the id and
the demands of society
Comprehensive Resource To Help You Ace 2026-2027
Includes Frequently Tested Questions With ELABORATED
100% Correct COMPLETE SOLUTIONS
Guaranteed Pass First Attempt!!
Current Update!!
1. Explain what culture is, how culture provides orientations to life, and what
practicing cultural relativism means. - ANSWER All human groups
possess culture—language, beliefs, values, norms, and material objects that
they pass from one generation to the next. Material culture consists of
objects such as art, buildings, clothing, weapons, and tools. Nonmaterial (or
symbolic) culture is a group's ways of thinking and its patterns of behavior.
Ideal culture is a group's ideal values, norms, and goals. Real culture is
people's actual behavior, which often falls short of their cultural ideals.
People are ethnocentric; that is, they use their own culture as a yardstick
for judging the ways of others. In contrast, those who embrace cultural
relativism try to understand other cultures on those cultures' own terms
2. Cultural lag - ANSWER Ogburn's term for human behavior lagging
behind technological innovations
3. Cultural diffusion - ANSWER the spread of cultural traits from one group
to another; includes both material and nonmaterial cultural traits
,4. Cultural leveling - ANSWER the process by which cultures become
similar to one another; refers especially to the process by which Western
culture is being exported and diffused into other nations
5. Know the components of symbolic culture: gestures, language, values,
norms, sanctions, folkways, mores, and taboos; also explain the Sapir-
Whorf hypothesis. - ANSWER The central component of nonmaterial
culture is symbols, anything to which people attach meaning and that they
use to communicate with others. Universally, the symbols of nonmaterial
culture are gestures, language, values, norms, sanctions, folkways, and
mores. Language allows human experience to be goal-directed,
cooperative, and cumulative. It also lets humans move beyond the present
and share a past, a future, and other common perspectives. According to
the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, language even shapes our thoughts and
perceptions. All groups have values, standards by which they define what is
desirable or undesirable, and norms, rules or expectations about behavior.
Groups use positive sanctions to show approval of those who follow their
norms and negative sanctions to show disapproval of those who violate
them. Norms that are not strictly enforced are called folkways, while mores
are norms to which groups demand conformity because they reflect core
values.
6. Distinguish between subcultures and countercultures - ANSWER A
subculture is a group whose values and related behaviors distinguish its
members from the general culture. A counterculture holds some values that
stand in opposition to those of the dominant culture.
7. Discuss the major U.S. values and explain value clusters, value
contradictions, value clashes, how values are lenses of perception, and ideal
versus real culture - ANSWER Although the United States is a pluralistic
, society, made up of many groups, each with its own set of values, certain
values dominate. These are called its core values. Core values do not
change without opposition. Some values cluster together to form a larger
whole called value clusters. Value contradictions (such as equality versus
sexism and racism) indicate areas of tension, which are likely points of social
change. Leisure, self-fulfillment, physical fitness, youthfulness, and concern
for the environment form an emerging value cluster.
8. Take a position on the issue of the existence of cultural universals and
contrast sociobiology with sociology. - ANSWER Cultural universal refers
to a value, norm, or other cultural trait that is found in all cultures. Although
all human groups have customs concerning cooking, childbirth, funerals,
and so on, because these customs differ from one culture to another, there
are no cultural universals
9. Explain how technology changes culture and what cultural lag and cultural
leveling are. - ANSWER William Ogburn coined the term cultural lag to
describe how a group's nonmaterial culture lags behind its changing
technology. With today's technological advances in trade, travel, and
communications, cultural diffusion is occurring rapidly. This leads to cultural
leveling, groups becoming similar as they adopt items from other cultures.
Much of the richness of the world's diverse cultures is being lost in the
process.
10.Social environment - ANSWER the entire human environment, including
interaction with others
, 11.Socialization - ANSWER the process by which people learn the
characteristics of their group—the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values,
norms, and actions thought appropriate for them
12.Self - ANSWER the unique human capacity of being able to see
ourselves "from the outside"; the views we internalize of how others see us
13.Looking-glass self - ANSWER a term coined by Charles Horton Cooley to
refer to the process by which our self develops through internalizing others'
reactions to us
14.Taking the role of the other - ANSWER putting yourself in someone
else's shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks, so you
anticipate how that person will act
15.Significant other - ANSWER an individual who significantly influences
someone else
16.Generalized other - ANSWER the norms, values, attitudes, and
expectations of people "in general"; the child's ability to take the role of the
generalized other is a significant step in the development of a self
17.Id - ANSWER Freud's term for our inborn basic drives
18.Ego - ANSWER Freud's term for a balancing force between the id and
the demands of society
