Week 3 Quiz

A store requires workers to wear a uniform shirt on shift. One sociologist asks what the shirt means to a worker and a customer in a face-to-face moment. Which perspective, at which level of analysis, is she using?

Select one.

• Structural functionalism, at the macro level
• Conflict theory, at the macro level
• Symbolic interactionism, at the micro level
• Cultural relativism, at the micro level

Which question about a store's uniform-shirt rule is the one conflict theory would ask?

Select one.

• Who writes the rule, and whose styles does it treat as the default?
• What job does the rule do in keeping the whole store running smoothly?
• What does the shirt mean to a customer looking for help?
• Is the rule a folkway or a mos, judged by its moral weight?

A family moves across the country for a new job. They leave their neighbors behind but keep their birthday customs, their words for things, and their sense of what is rude. Which sentence uses the course's terms correctly?

Select one.

• They left their culture behind and carried their society with them.
• Their culture and their society are the same thing, so both moved with them.
• They carried their society with them, because customs are what a society is.
• They left one society behind and carried their culture with them.

On a recreational soccer team, which of these is part of the team's nonmaterial culture?

Select one.

• The team jerseys that every player wears to each game
• The habit of shaking hands with the other team after a match
• The cooler of orange slices
• The players' cleats

In the illustrative six-norm sort, wearing the store's uniform shirt on shift is written into a workplace rule, and breaking it brings a written warning from the manager. How does the sort classify the norm and its sanction?

Select one.

• A mos, with a negative, formal sanction
• A folkway, with a negative, formal sanction
• A folkway, with a negative, informal sanction
• A taboo, with a negative, formal sanction

Which of these statements is a belief rather than a value?

Select one.

• Honesty matters more than anything.
• Family loyalty comes first.
• Anyone who works hard enough can get ahead.
• Every person deserves respect, whatever job they hold.

True or false: the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is a proven law showing that the language a person speaks decides what that person is able to think.

True or false.

• True
• False

Pew Research Center's Mobile Fact Sheet reports that 35% of U.S. adults owned a smartphone in 2011 and 91% in 2025. Which reading of this figure fits the idea of cultural lag correctly?

Select one.

• Ownership rose 56 percent, which shows that phone etiquette rules rose 56 percent too.
• Ownership rose 56 percentage points, which proves that the norms about phones are lagging.
• Ownership rose 160 percentage points, a change in nonmaterial culture.
• Ownership rose 56 percentage points, a material change; the figure says nothing about the norms for using phones.

Two roommates compare family dinner hours. One says, "Eating that late is weird." Which response shows cultural relativism?

Select one.

• Asking how each household's day is arranged and what dinner means there before judging
• Agreeing that the earlier dinner hour is the normal one
• Deciding that any dinner hour is acceptable, so no question about either one can ever be asked
• Concluding that the late-dinner family is breaking a mos

Which of these illustrative groups are subcultures rather than countercultures? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• An esports team with its own slang and late practices whose members still go to class and hold jobs
• An off-grid community that refuses to use money and rejects private property
• A hospital night-shift crew with its own jokes and break rituals
• A fan community that dresses as favorite characters at conventions and returns to work and school afterward
• A commune whose members refuse wage work and reject the dominant culture's rules about ownership