Chapter 1
The Sociological Imagination
Multiple Scenario Total
True or False Choice Multiple Short Answer Essay Questions
Remember 16 39 0 0 0 55
Understand 9 21 0 6 0 36
Apply 0 2 5 2 4 13
Analyze 0 2 2 5 3 12
Evaluate 0 1 3 2 3 9
Total 25 65 10 15 10 125
True or False
1. Contemporary Internet trends, such as Facebook and online multiplayer gaming
communities, are not able to be studied by sociologists.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 4; chapter opener)
2. A society is a large group of people who live in the same area and participate in a
common culture.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 4; chapter opener)
3. The sociological imagination is the capacity to think systematically about how the many
things that we experience as personal problems are really social issues that are widely
shared by others born in a similar time and social location as us.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 6; big question 1)
4. Discrimination has been almost entirely eliminated in American society.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 7; big question 1)
,5. Only specially trained individuals can utilize a sociological imagination.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 7; big question 1)
6. People watching is a common way to engage our sociological imaginations.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 8; big question 1)
7. Sociologists often ask questions that many college administrators, government officials,
and other similar authority figures find disquieting.
(REMEMBER; answer true; page 8; big question 1)
8. Social theories are typically poorly established and are not taken seriously by
professional sociologists.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 8; big question 1)
9. Sociology is quite limited in the types of topics that sociologists can study.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 11; big question 1)
10. Some sociologists have extended the discipline so far as to study nonhuman subjects.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: true; page 12; big question 1)
11. The context in which an individual grows up has a dramatic impact on that person's life
opportunities.
(REMEMBER; answer true; page 13, big question 2)
12. Recent sociologically research has discovered a link between neighborhood violence and
children's school performance.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 13; big question 2)
,13. Key social identities, such as race and gender, are inflexible and do not change.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 15; big question 2)
14. Social structures are always present and never disappear, even briefly.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 16; big question 2)
15. People who avoid formal social institutions, such as criminals, are able to completely
avoid conforming to roles and norms.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 16; big question 2)
16. Sociology has taken a long time to develop as a discipline and continues to develop in
modern times.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: true; page 17; big question 3)
17. Early in the twentieth century, influential economists held chairs in sociology
departments.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 17; big question 3)
18. Sociology owes much of its philosophical basis to thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and
Karl Marx.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 17; big question 3)
19. The industrial boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had little to do
with the development of sociology.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 18; big question 3)
, 20. The agricultural economies of earlier centuries were very similar to cities that developed
in the United States and in Europe from the middle of the nineteenth century onward.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 19; big question 3)
21. Sociological concepts and theories cover a wider range of topics than other disciplines.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 19; big question 3)
22. Sociologists' explanations of how the external world shapes behaviors and social
outcomes are narrower than those of other disciplines.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 19; big question 3)
23. The borders between what is and what is not appropriate for sociologists to study are
very well defined.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 19; big question 3)
24. When sociologists and economists study the same subject, they almost always come to
the same or similar conclusions.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 21; big question 3)
25. Interdisciplinary research is next to impossible for sociologists to conduct.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 21; big question 3)
Multiple Choice
1. People in our society tend to think of themselves in terms of their individuality, but we
are also all products of our __________, such as the time and place we live and the
family we were born into.
The Sociological Imagination
Multiple Scenario Total
True or False Choice Multiple Short Answer Essay Questions
Remember 16 39 0 0 0 55
Understand 9 21 0 6 0 36
Apply 0 2 5 2 4 13
Analyze 0 2 2 5 3 12
Evaluate 0 1 3 2 3 9
Total 25 65 10 15 10 125
True or False
1. Contemporary Internet trends, such as Facebook and online multiplayer gaming
communities, are not able to be studied by sociologists.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 4; chapter opener)
2. A society is a large group of people who live in the same area and participate in a
common culture.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 4; chapter opener)
3. The sociological imagination is the capacity to think systematically about how the many
things that we experience as personal problems are really social issues that are widely
shared by others born in a similar time and social location as us.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 6; big question 1)
4. Discrimination has been almost entirely eliminated in American society.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 7; big question 1)
,5. Only specially trained individuals can utilize a sociological imagination.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 7; big question 1)
6. People watching is a common way to engage our sociological imaginations.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 8; big question 1)
7. Sociologists often ask questions that many college administrators, government officials,
and other similar authority figures find disquieting.
(REMEMBER; answer true; page 8; big question 1)
8. Social theories are typically poorly established and are not taken seriously by
professional sociologists.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 8; big question 1)
9. Sociology is quite limited in the types of topics that sociologists can study.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 11; big question 1)
10. Some sociologists have extended the discipline so far as to study nonhuman subjects.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: true; page 12; big question 1)
11. The context in which an individual grows up has a dramatic impact on that person's life
opportunities.
(REMEMBER; answer true; page 13, big question 2)
12. Recent sociologically research has discovered a link between neighborhood violence and
children's school performance.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 13; big question 2)
,13. Key social identities, such as race and gender, are inflexible and do not change.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 15; big question 2)
14. Social structures are always present and never disappear, even briefly.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 16; big question 2)
15. People who avoid formal social institutions, such as criminals, are able to completely
avoid conforming to roles and norms.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 16; big question 2)
16. Sociology has taken a long time to develop as a discipline and continues to develop in
modern times.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: true; page 17; big question 3)
17. Early in the twentieth century, influential economists held chairs in sociology
departments.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 17; big question 3)
18. Sociology owes much of its philosophical basis to thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and
Karl Marx.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 17; big question 3)
19. The industrial boom of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had little to do
with the development of sociology.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 18; big question 3)
, 20. The agricultural economies of earlier centuries were very similar to cities that developed
in the United States and in Europe from the middle of the nineteenth century onward.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 19; big question 3)
21. Sociological concepts and theories cover a wider range of topics than other disciplines.
(REMEMBER; answer: true; page 19; big question 3)
22. Sociologists' explanations of how the external world shapes behaviors and social
outcomes are narrower than those of other disciplines.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 19; big question 3)
23. The borders between what is and what is not appropriate for sociologists to study are
very well defined.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 19; big question 3)
24. When sociologists and economists study the same subject, they almost always come to
the same or similar conclusions.
(UNDERSTAND; answer: false; page 21; big question 3)
25. Interdisciplinary research is next to impossible for sociologists to conduct.
(REMEMBER; answer: false; page 21; big question 3)
Multiple Choice
1. People in our society tend to think of themselves in terms of their individuality, but we
are also all products of our __________, such as the time and place we live and the
family we were born into.
