CLEP Introductory Sociology Exam Questions with Correct Answers

CLEP Introductory Sociology Exam Questions with Correct Answers achieved status - Answer -A status that individuals secure on the basis of choice and competition. altruistic suicide - Answer -type of suicide that occurs where ties to the group or community are considered more important than individual identity affiliation motivated - Answer -when one's actions are geared to helping them join or connect with a particular social status agricultural societies - Answer -Societies that cultivate large amounts of crops with the plow and other relatively advanced tools and equipment. egoistic suicide - Answer -suicide that results from social isolation and individualism fatalistic suicide - Answer -suicide that occurs as a result of "too much" social regulation anomic suicide - Answer -Suicide that occurs as a result of "too little" social regulation anomie - Answer -A social condition in which people find it difficult to guide their behavior by norms they experience as weak, unclear, or conflicting. ascribed status - Answer -social position a person receives at birth or involuntarily later in life status - Answer -a social position that a person holds status set - Answer -all the statuses a person holds at a given time. Sociology - Answer -study of the evolution, development, and functioning of human society social change - Answer -the transformation of culture and social institutions over time social control - Answer -a group's formal and informal means of enforcing its norms social hierarchy - Answer -The division of society by rank or class social mobility - Answer -a change in position within the social hierarchy social movement - Answer -a widely shared demand for change in some aspect of the social or political order social stratification - Answer -a system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy Socialization - Answer -the process by which people, especially children, learn socially desirable behavior by means of verbal messages; the systematic use of rewards and punishments, and other teaching methods socialization agents - Answer -The people, institutions, and organizations that exist to help ensure that socialization occurs. Society - Answer -an extended social group having a distinctive cultural and economic organization egoism - Answer -Self-ism or "I"ism views self as reality and all other individuals as essentially unreal. authoritarianism - Answer -A political system in which the government tolerates little or no opposition to its rules but permits nongovernmental centers of influence and allows debate on issues of public policy. Barter system - Answer -a system of exchange in which goods or services are traded directly for other goods or services without the use of money. birth rate - Answer -the ratio of live births in an area to the population of that area Bourgeoisie - Answer -Those individuals who control the means of production. Upper class Bureaucracy - Answer -A social structure made up of a hierarchy of statuses and roles that is prescribed by explicit rules and procedures and based on a division of function and authority. caste system - Answer -a social structure in which classes are determined by heredity charismatic authority - Answer -Power that is legitimated by the extraordinary superhuman or supernatural attributes people attribute to a leader. Church - Answer -A religious organization that considers itself uniquely legitimate and enjoys a positive relationship with the dominant society.