Reading 1 to 5
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________
1. C. Wright Mills' article encourages a type of societal analysis that involves the ability to
A. make connections between life on a personal level and the historical period in which those lives are
lived.
B. carefully examine interpersonal relationships.
C. solve problems by focusing on an individual's skills and opportunities.
D. combine psychological analysis with sociological analysis.
2. Consider this problem: A small town has an unusually high number of women bearing children with
birth defects. If the town doctor possesses what C. Wright Mills calls a "sociological imagination" she
would
Arealize, after questioning her patients on their lives and reading up on the history of the area, that many
. women were exposed to nuclear testing performed near the town when they were young.
B. form a study on the relationship between poor nutrition and birth defects.
C. assume the high incidence of birth defects to be a coincidence.
D organize a group of sociologists to perform a number of studies in conjunction with a hospital, in order
. to account for both social and medical effects.
3. Fred is concerned he hasn't enough money to pay for the school books he needs. C. Wright Mills would
call this
A. a private trouble.
B. a societal problem.
C. a public issue.
D. a lack of economic resources.
4. What does C. Wright Mills recommend we can do with our personal problems?
A. Look beyond them to their possible links to social structure in order to find an explanation.
B. Carefully examine ourselves to find the root of the trouble within.
C. Go to a self-help group to discuss with others with similar problems.
D. Look at the links between what is bothering us psychologically and physically.
5. If C. Wright Mills was examining the issue of teen gangs in U.S. inner cities, which of the following
questions would he include in his study?
A. What is the structure of the gangs themselves?
B. What different types of teens join gangs?
C. What is the history of teen gangs in the United States?
D. all of the above
6. A TROUBLE is a large disturbance affecting many people simultaneously.
True False
7. An ISSUE arises when a value held by the general public is threatened.
True False
8. According to C. Wright Mills, a finished social study is one that involves the intersection of biography
and history of the society in question.
True False
,9. How would someone with a sociological imagination analyze war? List four questions he or she would
ask.
10. C. Wright Mills poses three sets of questions that he says are the kinds of questions the best social
analysts have asked. "Using Mills" concept of the sociological imagination, apply these three questions
listed below to a current social problem. How could you study each of these aspects? Why are these three
factors important to understand in sociological research?
11. C. Wright Mills' article encourages a type of societal analysis that involves the ability to
A. make connections between life on a personal level and the historical period in which those lives are
lived.
B. carefully examine interpersonal relationships.
C. solve problems by focusing on an individual's skills and opportunities.
D. combine psychological analysis with sociological analysis.
12. Consider this problem: A small town has an unusually high number of women bearing children with
birth defects. If the town doctor possesses what C. Wright Mills calls a "sociological imagination" she
would
Arealize, after questioning her patients on their lives and reading up on the history of the area, that many
. women were exposed to nuclear testing performed near the town when they were young.
B. form a study on the relationship between poor nutrition and birth defects.
C. assume the high incidence of birth defects to be a coincidence.
D organize a group of sociologists to perform a number of studies in conjunction with a hospital, in order
. to account for both social and medical effects.
13. Fred is concerned he hasn't enough money to pay for the school books he needs. C. Wright Mills would
call this
A. a private trouble.
B. a societal problem.
C. a public issue.
D. a lack of economic resources.
14. What does C. Wright Mills recommend we can do with our personal problems?
A. Look beyond them to their possible links to social structure in order to find an explanation.
B. Carefully examine ourselves to find the root of the trouble within.
C. Go to a self-help group to discuss with others with similar problems.
D. Look at the links between what is bothering us psychologically and physically.
15. If C. Wright Mills was examining the issue of teen gangs in U.S. inner cities, which of the following
questions would he include in his study?
A. What is the structure of the gangs themselves?
B. What different types of teens join gangs?
C. What is the history of teen gangs in the United States?
D. all of the above
,16. A TROUBLE is a large disturbance affecting many people simultaneously.
True False
17. An ISSUE arises when a value held by the general public is threatened.
True False
18. According to C. Wright Mills, a finished social study is one that involves the intersection of biography
and history of the society in question.
True False
19. How would someone with a sociological imagination analyze war? List four questions he or she would
ask.
20. C. Wright Mills poses three sets of questions that he says are the kinds of questions the best social
analysts have asked. "Using Mills" concept of the sociological imagination, apply these three questions
listed below to a current social problem. How could you study each of these aspects? Why are these three
factors important to understand in sociological research?
21. What kind of research into the Bergenfield suicides might Donna Gaines have done that would have been
contrary to what C. Wright Mills discussed in the sociological imagination?
A. Research the very specific details of the lives and deaths of the four teens involved.
B.Research the historical and social context of teen suicides in suburbia to see how it related to the details
of the teens' personal lives.
C Talk to and hang out with teens to discover what their lives were like and how that related to the social
. restrictions they were experiencing.
D. Do a literature review on teens, suicide, and youth culture in the United States.
22. What did Donna Gaines discover about teen suicide in Bergenfield?
A. Bergenfield adults labeled kids as burnouts, causing them to commit suicide.
B. The teens were not accepted by their friends, so they felt left out and killed themselves.
CA combination of factors—including personal lives, economic situations, lack of legitimate hang-
. out space, drugs, alienation from school and parents, parental high expectations, and quick negative
judgments—created a situation in which teens wanted out and suicide was the only answer.
DThe teenagers who killed themselves had low self-esteem and little confidence in themselves. They
. were in so much trouble in Bergenfield that they felt their only way out was to commit suicide together
because all they had was each other.
23. Fatalistic suicide can be defined as someone killing oneself because
A. one feels disengaged from society.
B. one has discovered he has a fatal disease.
C. one feels oppressively regulated by society.
D. one has had a horrible life.
, 24. Donna Gaines found the teens in her study to be
A. fatalistic.
B. anomic.
C. somewhere on a continuum between fatalistic and anomic.
D. suicidal.
25. Donna Gaines believes that in another time period the four teens in the Bergenfield suicide pact
A. would not have committed suicide.
B. would have used other methods to kill themselves.
C. would have found other ways to rebel.
D. both a and c
26. C. Wright Mills would call the U.S. teen suicide epidemic that developed in the 1980s a TROUBLE.
True False
27. Donna Gaines limited her study to the personal lives of Bergenfield teens and the history of
Bergenfield.
True False
28. Donna Gaines identified a spiritual element to the expectations parents had for their kids in her study.
True False
29. List four of the questions Donna Gaines asked in her study that C. Wright Mills would include in his list
of questions that the best sociological studies ask.
30. When people ask her, what does Donna Gaines say about why the Bergenfield teens committed suicide?
Summarize Gaines' answer in 25 words or less.
31. What kind of research into the Bergenfield suicides might Donna Gaines have done that would have been
contrary to what C. Wright Mills discussed in the sociological imagination?
A. Research the very specific details of the lives and deaths of the four teens involved.
B.Research the historical and social context of teen suicides in suburbia to see how it related to the details
of the teens' personal lives.
C Talk to and hang out with teens to discover what their lives were like and how that related to the social
. restrictions they were experiencing.
D. Do a literature review on teens, suicide, and youth culture in the United States.
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________
1. C. Wright Mills' article encourages a type of societal analysis that involves the ability to
A. make connections between life on a personal level and the historical period in which those lives are
lived.
B. carefully examine interpersonal relationships.
C. solve problems by focusing on an individual's skills and opportunities.
D. combine psychological analysis with sociological analysis.
2. Consider this problem: A small town has an unusually high number of women bearing children with
birth defects. If the town doctor possesses what C. Wright Mills calls a "sociological imagination" she
would
Arealize, after questioning her patients on their lives and reading up on the history of the area, that many
. women were exposed to nuclear testing performed near the town when they were young.
B. form a study on the relationship between poor nutrition and birth defects.
C. assume the high incidence of birth defects to be a coincidence.
D organize a group of sociologists to perform a number of studies in conjunction with a hospital, in order
. to account for both social and medical effects.
3. Fred is concerned he hasn't enough money to pay for the school books he needs. C. Wright Mills would
call this
A. a private trouble.
B. a societal problem.
C. a public issue.
D. a lack of economic resources.
4. What does C. Wright Mills recommend we can do with our personal problems?
A. Look beyond them to their possible links to social structure in order to find an explanation.
B. Carefully examine ourselves to find the root of the trouble within.
C. Go to a self-help group to discuss with others with similar problems.
D. Look at the links between what is bothering us psychologically and physically.
5. If C. Wright Mills was examining the issue of teen gangs in U.S. inner cities, which of the following
questions would he include in his study?
A. What is the structure of the gangs themselves?
B. What different types of teens join gangs?
C. What is the history of teen gangs in the United States?
D. all of the above
6. A TROUBLE is a large disturbance affecting many people simultaneously.
True False
7. An ISSUE arises when a value held by the general public is threatened.
True False
8. According to C. Wright Mills, a finished social study is one that involves the intersection of biography
and history of the society in question.
True False
,9. How would someone with a sociological imagination analyze war? List four questions he or she would
ask.
10. C. Wright Mills poses three sets of questions that he says are the kinds of questions the best social
analysts have asked. "Using Mills" concept of the sociological imagination, apply these three questions
listed below to a current social problem. How could you study each of these aspects? Why are these three
factors important to understand in sociological research?
11. C. Wright Mills' article encourages a type of societal analysis that involves the ability to
A. make connections between life on a personal level and the historical period in which those lives are
lived.
B. carefully examine interpersonal relationships.
C. solve problems by focusing on an individual's skills and opportunities.
D. combine psychological analysis with sociological analysis.
12. Consider this problem: A small town has an unusually high number of women bearing children with
birth defects. If the town doctor possesses what C. Wright Mills calls a "sociological imagination" she
would
Arealize, after questioning her patients on their lives and reading up on the history of the area, that many
. women were exposed to nuclear testing performed near the town when they were young.
B. form a study on the relationship between poor nutrition and birth defects.
C. assume the high incidence of birth defects to be a coincidence.
D organize a group of sociologists to perform a number of studies in conjunction with a hospital, in order
. to account for both social and medical effects.
13. Fred is concerned he hasn't enough money to pay for the school books he needs. C. Wright Mills would
call this
A. a private trouble.
B. a societal problem.
C. a public issue.
D. a lack of economic resources.
14. What does C. Wright Mills recommend we can do with our personal problems?
A. Look beyond them to their possible links to social structure in order to find an explanation.
B. Carefully examine ourselves to find the root of the trouble within.
C. Go to a self-help group to discuss with others with similar problems.
D. Look at the links between what is bothering us psychologically and physically.
15. If C. Wright Mills was examining the issue of teen gangs in U.S. inner cities, which of the following
questions would he include in his study?
A. What is the structure of the gangs themselves?
B. What different types of teens join gangs?
C. What is the history of teen gangs in the United States?
D. all of the above
,16. A TROUBLE is a large disturbance affecting many people simultaneously.
True False
17. An ISSUE arises when a value held by the general public is threatened.
True False
18. According to C. Wright Mills, a finished social study is one that involves the intersection of biography
and history of the society in question.
True False
19. How would someone with a sociological imagination analyze war? List four questions he or she would
ask.
20. C. Wright Mills poses three sets of questions that he says are the kinds of questions the best social
analysts have asked. "Using Mills" concept of the sociological imagination, apply these three questions
listed below to a current social problem. How could you study each of these aspects? Why are these three
factors important to understand in sociological research?
21. What kind of research into the Bergenfield suicides might Donna Gaines have done that would have been
contrary to what C. Wright Mills discussed in the sociological imagination?
A. Research the very specific details of the lives and deaths of the four teens involved.
B.Research the historical and social context of teen suicides in suburbia to see how it related to the details
of the teens' personal lives.
C Talk to and hang out with teens to discover what their lives were like and how that related to the social
. restrictions they were experiencing.
D. Do a literature review on teens, suicide, and youth culture in the United States.
22. What did Donna Gaines discover about teen suicide in Bergenfield?
A. Bergenfield adults labeled kids as burnouts, causing them to commit suicide.
B. The teens were not accepted by their friends, so they felt left out and killed themselves.
CA combination of factors—including personal lives, economic situations, lack of legitimate hang-
. out space, drugs, alienation from school and parents, parental high expectations, and quick negative
judgments—created a situation in which teens wanted out and suicide was the only answer.
DThe teenagers who killed themselves had low self-esteem and little confidence in themselves. They
. were in so much trouble in Bergenfield that they felt their only way out was to commit suicide together
because all they had was each other.
23. Fatalistic suicide can be defined as someone killing oneself because
A. one feels disengaged from society.
B. one has discovered he has a fatal disease.
C. one feels oppressively regulated by society.
D. one has had a horrible life.
, 24. Donna Gaines found the teens in her study to be
A. fatalistic.
B. anomic.
C. somewhere on a continuum between fatalistic and anomic.
D. suicidal.
25. Donna Gaines believes that in another time period the four teens in the Bergenfield suicide pact
A. would not have committed suicide.
B. would have used other methods to kill themselves.
C. would have found other ways to rebel.
D. both a and c
26. C. Wright Mills would call the U.S. teen suicide epidemic that developed in the 1980s a TROUBLE.
True False
27. Donna Gaines limited her study to the personal lives of Bergenfield teens and the history of
Bergenfield.
True False
28. Donna Gaines identified a spiritual element to the expectations parents had for their kids in her study.
True False
29. List four of the questions Donna Gaines asked in her study that C. Wright Mills would include in his list
of questions that the best sociological studies ask.
30. When people ask her, what does Donna Gaines say about why the Bergenfield teens committed suicide?
Summarize Gaines' answer in 25 words or less.
31. What kind of research into the Bergenfield suicides might Donna Gaines have done that would have been
contrary to what C. Wright Mills discussed in the sociological imagination?
A. Research the very specific details of the lives and deaths of the four teens involved.
B.Research the historical and social context of teen suicides in suburbia to see how it related to the details
of the teens' personal lives.
C Talk to and hang out with teens to discover what their lives were like and how that related to the social
. restrictions they were experiencing.
D. Do a literature review on teens, suicide, and youth culture in the United States.
