1. In order for something to be considered deviant
a. it must be against the law.
b. everyone in society must regard it as deviant.
c. it must violate socially created rules and norms.
d. it must have negative consequences.
2. The sociological definition of social deviance
a. stresses social context, not individual behavior.
b. focuses on individual nonconformity.
c. recognizes deviance as being the same for all groups and settings.
d. argues that definitions of deviance remain the same over time.
3. From a sociological perspective
a. a specific behavior is either always deviant or never deviant.
b. a behavior may be judged as deviant in one situation but not in another.
c. all members of a society must agree on which acts are deviant and which are not.
d. deviant behaviors never affect large groups of people.
4. Sociologists would consider crime to be a form of _____ deviance.
a. informal
b. formal
c. situational
d. inherent
5. If a culture considered tattoos a form of deviance, it would categorize it as a type of _____ deviance.
a. formal
b. situational
c. anomic
d. informal
6. Which of the following is an example of informal deviance in US culture?
a. Breaking speeding laws
b. Underage drinking
c. Body piercing
d. Bigamy
7. When a student violates customary norms, he or she is engaging in _____ deviance.
a. informal
b. formal
c. impersonal
d. personal
8. Which of the following statements about deviance is false?
a. Even the most aberrant or odd behavior may be understood if we understand the situation in which it
occurs.
b. Most deviant actions are deviant regardless of the circumstances.
c. Definitions of what is considered deviant behavior may change over time.
d. Some actions are only considered deviant when certain people commit them.
9. A soldier who kills in battle is not considered deviant, but a murderer is. This illustrates the point that
a. killing is not morally deviant.
b. whether or not behavior is considered deviant depends on the context.
c. soldiers are not judged as harshly as others in the general population when it comes to how they behave.
d. military law supersedes civil law.
10. Acquaintancerape(alsocalled“daterape”),forexample,wasnotconsideredsocialdevianceuntil.
a. the Stone Age.
b. the Middle ages.
c. fairly recently.
d. the Industrial Revolution.
11. According to Durkheim, deviance is functional because it
a. threatens the social order.
b. helps members of a society know what is considered normal behavior.
c. points out the flaws in how a society is organized.
d. creates employment for a large number of people.
12. From a functionalist perspective, when punishment of deviant behavior is public it serves to
a. reaffirm the collective beliefs and values of the society.
b. protect the prosecutors from appearing unethical.
c. reinforce the idea that crime brings one publicity.
d. encourage future deviant behavior.
13. According to Durkheim, why do societies actually need deviance?
a. In order to recognize normal behavior
b. To make most people feel morally superior
c. To support the existence of a prison system of employment
d. In order to shake up society so it can be reorganized in a better fashion
14. In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, many Americans publicly
demonstrated their patriotism. This is an illustration of Durkheim’s belief that
a. people only mobilize when they feel threatened.
b. the definition of deviance is relative to the situation.
c. deviance produces social solidarity.
d. deviant labels only apply to the powerless.
15. According to the text, the example of attitudes toward smoking in the U.S. demonstrates the notion that
a. perceptions of deviance are influenced by social change.
b. smoking should not have been considered acceptable.
c. laws are needed in order to best define deviant behavior.
d. evidence of risk is enough to change behavior.
16. From a sociological standpoint, the situation of the rugby team stranded for months in the Andes demonstrates
that eating human flesh
a. is immoral and irrational.
b. stems from a psychologically disordered behavior.
c. may be a rational response to a difficult situation.
d. is normal.
17. The sociological studies of gangs in the U.S. has found that
a. gang behavior is always extremely deviant.
b. joining a gang may be an adaptation to conditions of poverty, racism, and sexism.
c. girls who are given too much freedom to make choices about their lives are more likely to commit acts of
deviance, including joining gangs.
d. family dynamics are unrelated to the decision to join a gang.
18. Which of the following questions would a sociologist not be likely to ask about deviance?
a. Why are some behaviors defined as deviant while others are not?
b. Why is deviance more common in some social groups than others?
c. Why do some personality types act more deviant than other personality types?
d. How does the criminal justice system reflect social inequality?
19. How do sociologists define deviance?
a. As any behavior that is extreme and unsettling
b. As behavior that violates expected social norms
c. As behavior that matches social values
d. They look at what the media focuses on
20. Psychological explanations of deviance emphasize _____ as the underlying cause of deviant behavior, unlike
sociological explanations.
a. individual factors
b. the context within which the deviance occurred
c. the effects of labeling
d. patterns of inequality in society
21. Which of the following questions about deviance is more psychological than sociological?
a. How is deviance related to patterns of social inequality?
b. Was a particular type of behavior always considered deviant?
c. Does pressure from one’s peer group encourage deviance?
d. What is it about a person that causes deviance?
22. The recommended solution for alcoholism usually includes some type of treatment and possibly hospitalization. In
contrast, the use of crack cocaine is legally punished. The difference may be explained by the fact that alcoholism
has been ______ and crack cocaine use has not.
a. medicalized
b. accepted as non-deviant
c. contextualized
d. normalized
23. Explanations that focus solely on the physical or genetic roots of deviant behavior are collectively referred to as
_____ by sociologists.
a. the medicalization of deviance
b. the social disorganization theory
c. the social construction of deviance
d. the social conflict theory
24. Which of the following is an example of the medicalization of deviance?
a. Gang violence
b. Body piercing
c. Alcoholism
d. Gender inequality
25. Smoking as deviant emerged due to what societal change?
a. Increase in crime
b. Social movements
c. Development of Labeling theory
d. Fashion
26. The primary sociological criticism of the medicalization of deviance is that it
a. makes deviance too expensive to cure.
b. makes it too easy for people to behave in deviant ways.
c. ignores the impact of the social structure in the creation of deviant behavior.
d. assumes there exists a trained medical profession.
27. Which of these statements about deviant behavior would be considered true from a sociological perspective?
a. Some people are born rebels and deviants.
b. Deviance may be an adaptation to the social structures in which people live.
c. In most cases, there is a medical approach to solve problems of deviance.
d. Evolutionarily, humans are predestined to push the limits.
28. Functionalist theories of deviance
a. fear that deviance creates the breakdown of society.
b. view deviance as necessary in order to clarify what the norms of society are.
c. believe that punishment of deviance is dysfunctional because it prevents the deviance that is necessary for
society.
d. assume that norms are largely meaningless.
29. Durkheim’s research on _____ formed the foundation for the functionalist perspective of deviance.
a. suicide
b. homosexuality
c. altruism
d. labels
30. A policy maker wants to address drug abuse with therapy. Which of the following is he or she advocating?
a. Mass incarceration
b. Medicalization of deviance
c. That deviance is functional for society
d. The idea that street criminals are an exploited class
31. Durkheim believed that the causes of suicide were
a. best explained by the problems a person was facing.
b. found in the social environment.
c. the result of genetics.
d. the direct result of emotional stress.
32. According to Durkheim, which of these factors was responsible for causing suicides?
a. A person losing his or her job
b. The degree to which people felt integrated into the structure of society
c. Psychological stress created from depression
d. Marital status
33. Anomie, as defined by Durkheim, is frequently referred to as a state of
a. extreme depression.
b. excessive social integration.
c. total detachment from society and societal forces.
d. relative normlessness caused by the breakdown of social influences.
34. _____ occurs when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel lost or alone.
a. Anomic suicide
b. Altruistic suicide
c. Egoistic suicide
d. Situational suicide
35. Durkheim referred to suicide associated with excessive regulation of individuals by social forces as _____.
a. anomic suicide
b. altruistic suicide
c. egoistic suicide
d. situational suicide
36. According to sociologists, the actions of the hijackers involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are an
example of _____.
a. anomic suicide
b. altruistic suicide
c. egoistic suicide
d. situational suicide
37. Which of the following is an example of egotistic suicide?
a. Suicide among the wealthy
b. Suicide bombers
c. Elder suicide
d. Suicide for religious reasons
38. How do sociologists explain the fact that women have lower rates of suicide than men?
a. Women are more fearful in general.
b. Women are very hesitant to do harm, even to themselves.
c. Women are more embedded in relations of care and responsibility.
d. Women have less access to the means for committing suicide.
39. Durkheim used the term _____ to refer to the condition existing when social regulation in a society breaks down.
a. dysfunction
b. culture conflict
c. anomie
d. egoism
40. When teens perceive themselves as having a deviant identity, they are considering which sociological perspective?
a. Conflict
b. Symbolic interactionist
c. Functionalist
d. Rational choice
41. The shooting of students and faculty at Virginia Tech University in the spring of 2007 fits the pattern of Durkheim’s
_____ .
a. anomic suicide
b. altruistic suicide
c. egoistic suicide
d. fatalistic suicide
42. Merton’s structural strain theory traces the origins of deviance to
a. anomie in an individual.
b. emotional stress caused by job loss, divorce, and the like.
c. the tension between desired cultural goals and the means of achieving them.
d. the lack of any commitment to cultural goals.
43. When the goals of an individual are accepted and the means of attaining the goals are made available to him or her
via the social structure, Merton termed this as _____.
a. innovation
b. conformity
c. ritualism
d. retreatism
44. Sociologists theorize that rampage shootings are best understood as _____.
a. caused by socialization
b. caused by psychological predispositions
c. the combinations of personality and social structural variables
d. reactions to gun control
45. According to Merton, members of the _____ are most likely to experience the structural strain that produces
deviance.
a. super rich
b. working-class
c. middle-income
d. upper-income
46. The Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis are both examples of which type of cultural-structural strain?
a. Retreatism
b. Ritualism
c. Innovation
d. Rebellion
47. Social control theory suggests that deviance occurs when
a. a person is labeled as deviant.
b. a person’s attachment to social bonds is weakened.
c. a person does not have access to legitimate means of reaching his or her goals.
d. social regulations in a society break down.
48. According to the social control theory, what is the primary reason that people internalize social norms?
a. They fear punishment.
b. They care what others think of them.
c. They hope for economic gain.
d. They think they will find spiritual peace.
49. Social control theory is based on the assumptions that
a. there is a common value system and most people feel some impulse toward deviance.
b. those with the most power in society define what is considered deviant or not.
c. deviance is a result of labeling.
d. deviants agree with the goals of society, but are blocked from achieving them through legitimate means.
50. According to social control theory, deviant behavior occurs
a. when the means for achieving culturally approved goals is blocked.
b. when people have given up and no longer accept the goals considered desirable by society.
c. when attachment to social bonds breaks down.
d. as a result of emotional stress.
51. Which of these statements about the functionalist theories of deviance is false?
a. It focuses on the social structure, not individual action
b. It argues that some things that are seen as dysfunctional are actually functional for society
c. It explains how social norms first become established in society
d. It sees deviance as having a stabilizing influence on society
52. A criticism of the functional perspective of deviance is that it
a. places too much emphasis on the individual.
b. does not explain why some people are able to impose their ideas or judgments on others.
c. overemphasizes injustice and inequality in society.
d. fails to see the good that deviance accomplishes.
53. Conflict and functionalist theories of deviance share
a. an emphasis on individual motivation.
b. a focus on how a shared definition of a situation affects deviance.
c. an emphasis on the social structure in creating deviance.
d. a common understanding of the role of crime and the legal system in defining deviance.
54. From the conflict perspective of deviance, all of the following are true, except,
a. deviance results from inequality in society.
b. powerless groups may be labeled deviant for small infractions.
c. deviance reaffirms social solidarity.
d. racial minorities are punished more frequently than others.
55. A significant difference between the functionalist and conflict theories of deviance is that
a. the functionalist theory assumes the system works for the good of the whole, and the conflict theory does
not.
b. the functionalist theory focuses more on the social structure than the conflict theory.
c. the functionalist theory pays more attention to the individual than the conflict theory does.
d. the functionalist theory ignores the role of deviance in society, while this is a focus for the conflict theory.
56. When a wealthy and powerful executive engages in deviance representing hi s or her organization it is referred to as
_____.
a. corporate deviance
b. white-collar deviance
c. elite deviance
d. class deviance
57. According to the conflict perspective of deviance, when the elite in society violate norms or laws they avoid
punishment because
a. their deviant behavior is not as damaging to society as that of the lower classes.
b. they do not violate norms that affect other people.
c. they have the resources to hide or mask their behavior.
d. they are punished for slight infractions.
58. The historic persecution of witches is presented in the text as an example of
a. a system that works for the good of the whole society.
b. how dominant groups can exert control over other groups by marking some populations as deviant.
c. how deviance may be functional for society.
d. the importance of shared values and beliefs within a society.
59. Conflict theorists argue that
a. the power to define deviance is an important form of social control.
b. how much power a group possesses has no effect on whether its members will be labeled deviant.
c. all groups in a society are equally subject to social control.
d. labels of deviance have nothing to do with social control.
60. When the labeling theory and the conflict theory of deviance are linked, they could explain
a. why youth cultures create their own types of styles, such as tattoos and piercings.
b. how deviance actually contributes to stability within society.
c. why members of oppressed groups are more likely to be incarcerated or institutionalized.
d. how deviance is defined.