SOCY 1000 Exam 4 Questions and All
Correct Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
social stratification - Answer the social ranking of individuals and groups into higher and
lower positions within a social structure according to cultural, political, or economic criteria. ex:
feudal castes, Caste System in India
class system - Answer an economically based system of stratification characterized by
relative categorization and somewhat loose social mobility. america's social structure
problem with the class system - Answer the conventional model is vague and ambiguous; we
don't know where one class begins and another ends
conventional model of the class system - Answer upper class
upper & lower middle class
working class
lower class
absolute measure of poverty - Answer divides the poor from the nonpoor by using some
fixed standard, usually the lack of money to purchase a minimum amount of food, shelter, and
clothing
calculation of the poverty line - Answer 3x the cost of the crisis food basket; this is a political
opinion
income - Answer money received by a person for work in the form of a salary or hourly
wages, from transfers, from interest accrued from savings, or from dividends paid on stocks
wealth - Answer items having economic values such as cars, works of art, collectibles, homes
and other real estate, in addition to stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other forms of financial
ownership. assets minus debts
how is the distribution of income and wealth calculated? - Answer income is lined up from
highest to lowest, divided into fifths, and how much money is flowing into each quintile is found
, reference group - Answer groups from which the individuals within them receive their values
and the norms which they follow; individuals develop expectations about what they can attain
by observing reference groups
relative deprivation - Answer the perception that one is worse off relative to those with
whom one compares oneself
functional importance - Answer some jobs meet more of society's needs, therefore they
tend to pay more
scarcity of personnel - Answer talented people able to fulfill functionally important jobs are
rare
true - Answer T/F: social stratification is a system of motivation
how is social stratification a system of motivation? - Answer money and other rewards are
attached to the most functionally important jobs to motivate scarce talent to do these jobs.
scarce talent makes up the upper class.
the culture of poverty - Answer the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor
make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely
responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by
passing these characteristics to their children
do the poor participate in civic organizations? - Answer no; "they have a critical attitude
towards some of the basic institutions of the dominant classes...and cynicism which extends
even to the church"
is the family unit organized in the culture of poverty? - Answer no; "...we find poor housing
conditions, crowding, gregariousness, but above all a minimum of organization beyond the level
of the nuclear and extended family"
what are the family units like in the culture of poverty? - Answer "the major traits...are the
absence of childhood as a specially prolonged and protected stage in the life cycle, early
inititation to sex, free unions or consensual marriages, a relatively high incidence of the
abandonment of wives and children"
Correct Answers 2025-2026 Updated.
social stratification - Answer the social ranking of individuals and groups into higher and
lower positions within a social structure according to cultural, political, or economic criteria. ex:
feudal castes, Caste System in India
class system - Answer an economically based system of stratification characterized by
relative categorization and somewhat loose social mobility. america's social structure
problem with the class system - Answer the conventional model is vague and ambiguous; we
don't know where one class begins and another ends
conventional model of the class system - Answer upper class
upper & lower middle class
working class
lower class
absolute measure of poverty - Answer divides the poor from the nonpoor by using some
fixed standard, usually the lack of money to purchase a minimum amount of food, shelter, and
clothing
calculation of the poverty line - Answer 3x the cost of the crisis food basket; this is a political
opinion
income - Answer money received by a person for work in the form of a salary or hourly
wages, from transfers, from interest accrued from savings, or from dividends paid on stocks
wealth - Answer items having economic values such as cars, works of art, collectibles, homes
and other real estate, in addition to stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other forms of financial
ownership. assets minus debts
how is the distribution of income and wealth calculated? - Answer income is lined up from
highest to lowest, divided into fifths, and how much money is flowing into each quintile is found
, reference group - Answer groups from which the individuals within them receive their values
and the norms which they follow; individuals develop expectations about what they can attain
by observing reference groups
relative deprivation - Answer the perception that one is worse off relative to those with
whom one compares oneself
functional importance - Answer some jobs meet more of society's needs, therefore they
tend to pay more
scarcity of personnel - Answer talented people able to fulfill functionally important jobs are
rare
true - Answer T/F: social stratification is a system of motivation
how is social stratification a system of motivation? - Answer money and other rewards are
attached to the most functionally important jobs to motivate scarce talent to do these jobs.
scarce talent makes up the upper class.
the culture of poverty - Answer the assumption that the values and behaviors of the poor
make them fundamentally different from other people, that these factors are largely
responsible for their poverty, and that parents perpetuate poverty across generations by
passing these characteristics to their children
do the poor participate in civic organizations? - Answer no; "they have a critical attitude
towards some of the basic institutions of the dominant classes...and cynicism which extends
even to the church"
is the family unit organized in the culture of poverty? - Answer no; "...we find poor housing
conditions, crowding, gregariousness, but above all a minimum of organization beyond the level
of the nuclear and extended family"
what are the family units like in the culture of poverty? - Answer "the major traits...are the
absence of childhood as a specially prolonged and protected stage in the life cycle, early
inititation to sex, free unions or consensual marriages, a relatively high incidence of the
abandonment of wives and children"
