Eitzen, In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, 14th Edition, Test Bank
Chapter Thirteen: Families
Multiple Choice Questions
TB_Q13.1.1
Many people think of families in the past as better adjusted, more stable, and happier than today. Researchers
have found that
a. there was never a golden age of the family.
b. the true golden age of the family predates anyone alive today.
c. this was true for the 1950s but not for the 1850s.
d. families are happier and more stable now that at any time in the past.
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.2
According to historian Stephanie Coontz in her book, Marriage: A History, the change from _____ to _____ is
what made marriages today more fragile than those of the past.
a. women working only in the home; women working primarily outside the home
b. marriage as an economic and political insitution; a voluntary love relationship
c. men’s self-image as breadwinner; men’s self-image as “player”
d. polygamy; monogamy
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.3
The idea that social problems are caused by the breakdown of families is flawed because it treats
a. society and families as though they are interrelated.
b. society as overly fragile and subject to damage.
c. families as the building blocks of society rather than as a product of social conditions.
d. families as breaking down when they are stronger than ever.
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.4
Chapter Thirteen: Families
Part of the idea that families once were more stable than today is based on the concept of three generations living
under one roof or in close proximity. Research shows that the three-generational family
a. is still common.
b. was the norm until the advent of the Social Security system.
c. was not actually common.
d. is actually deeply destabilizing to families.
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.1.5
According to the myth of separate worlds, the family is
a. the place where “when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
b. the public face of private tragedy.
c. an economic engine.
d. a “haven in a heartless world.”
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.6
Which myth about family life glorifies family life in a way that masks its dark side?
a. The myth of separate worlds
b. The myth of the monolithic family form
c. The myth of a unified family experience.
d. The myth of a stable and harmonious family of the past
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level:
Skill Level:
TB_Q13.1.7
Which term refers to an individual or family moving down in social class due to economic changes?
a. Social descent
b. Downward mobility
c. Descending the social ladder
d. Course correction
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.1.8
Which myth about families is represented by a White, middle-class, heterosexual, father-as-breadwinner, mother-as-
homemaker, and children-at-home living in a one-family house?
a. The myth of separate worlds
b. The myth of the monolithic family form
c. The myth of a unified family experience.
d. The myth of a stable and harmonious family of the past
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.9
What percentage of U.S. households today matches the ideal of a married couple with children in which only the
husband has a job?
a. 75%
b. 63%
c. 53%
d. 22%
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.1.10
In which decades, coinciding with rising divorce rates, did family forms start to become more diverse on television?
a. 1950s and 1960s
b. 1960s and 1970s
c. 1970s and 1980s
d. 1980s and 1990s
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.1.11
Chapter Thirteen: Families
The myth of the unified family experience is that we assume
a. all family members experience family life in the same way.
b. all families share similar experiences.
c. the experience of each family member is unique.
d. every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level:
Skill Level:
TB_Q13.1.12
Which myth of family life ignores the fact that males and females perceive the same events in their lives very
differently?
a. The myth of family decline as the cause of social problems
b. The myth of a unified family experience
c. The myth of the monolithic family form
d. The myth of separate worlds
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.13
_____ experience their childhoods differently, because there are different expectations, different rules, and
different punishments.
a. Blacks and Whites
b. The rich and the poor
c. Girls and boys
d. Children from one-parent vs. two-parent households
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.14
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Which myth of family life blames divorced and unwed mothers for damaging children, destroying families, and
tearing apart the fabric of society?
a. The myth of family decline as the cause of social problems They increase the
b. The myth of a unified family experience They increase the
number of jobs.
c. The myth of the monolithic family form They diminish t
intensely as sma
d. The myth of family decline as the cause of social problems All of the above
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.15
The myth of family decline as the cause of social problems promotes which of these ideas?
a. Fatherless families or women working outside the home are the reasons for poverty, violence, and crime.
b. The family is a gendered institution.
c. Reality television has ushered in a new depiction of family life.
d. Social inequalities prevent many people from experiencing the good things in life.
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.1.16
Which term is considered code for reinstating the traditional concept of the nuclear family as a way of
protecting the social order?
a. Order perspective
b. Family values
c. Conflict perspective
d. Premodern family
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q13.1.17
Chapter Thirteen: Families
Which sociological perspective sees different family arrangements emerging out of different social and
economic contexts?
a. Traditional model
b. Family values model
c. Conflict model
d. Order model
Learning Objective: LO 13.1: Compare the mythical American family to the reality of family life in the United States.
Topic/Concept: The Mythical Family in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.2.18
Prior to _____, there was very little separation between work and family.
a. the Feminist movement of the 1970s
b. the American Revolution
c. agrarianism
d. industrialization
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.2.19
Up until World War II, industry operated with the assumption that men worked outside the home and women
did unpaid work within the home. Therefore, men were paid a _____, an income intended to support a family.
a. family wage
b. fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work
c. working man’s wage
d. breadwinner’s wage
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.2.20
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
In 1950, _____ of U.S. families fit the model of a male breadwinner, a female full-time homemaker, and their
dependent children.
a. 22%
b. 60%
c. 75%
d. 83%
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.2.21
John was raised in a home that was the epitome of the 1950s model of an intact nuclear household composed of a
male breadwinner, his full-time homemaker wife, and their dependent children. He was surprised to learn that his
wife did not want to continue this model of the _____, but preferred to have her own job.
a. downwardly mobile family
b. preindustrial family
c. modern family
d. postmodern family
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q13.2.22
Which type of family did sociologist Judith Stacey find was much less likely to follow the modern family format?
a. Upper-class families
b. Middle-class families
c. Working-class families
d. Low-income families
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.2.23
Chapter Thirteen: Families
According to sociologist Judith Stacey, women of immigrant and racial minority families who relied on the support
of relatives and the community in order to provide for their families by working outside the home were pioneers of
new family forms Stacey calls
a. postmodern families.
b. nonfamily households.
c. modern families.
d. spillover families.
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
TB_Q13.2.24
According to the chapter, a family’s location in the _____ is the single most important determinant of family
life.
a. modern vs. postmodern dichotomy
b. class system
c. East Coast of the United States
d. industrialized northeastern United States
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
TB_Q13.2.25
Tough economic conditions have caused couples to
a. marry and have children earlier.
b. marry earlier but delay having children.
c. delay marriage and/or children.
d. delay marriage but have children immediately afterward.
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.2.26
In Conflict and Order, 14th edition
Although families throughout society are changing as a result of macroeconomic forces, the changes are most
profound among
a. upper–class families, who are making more money than ever. Women and minor
b. middle-class families, who find it hard to afford college for their children. The Equal Empl
c. working-class families, who are being fired or laid off in disproportionate numbers. Charges of disc
opportunities for
d. low-income families, although they are accustomed to hard times. The segmented l
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Analyze It
TB_Q13.2.27
What is defined as one or more persons living in a residence, whether related or not?
a. Family home
b. Extended family
c. Family
d. Household
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.2.28
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a(n) _____ consists of two or more persons related by birth, marriage, or
adoption who reside together.
a. family
b. household
c. nonfamily household
d. extended family
Learning Objective: LO 13.2: Explain how family forms are affected by societal economic transformations.
Topic/Concept: U.S. Families in Historical Perspective
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
TB_Q13.2.29