Week 7 Quiz

In an illustrative society, a child's family line decides the work the child may do and whom the child may marry, and no achievement can change that standing. Which system of stratification is this?

Select one.

• A class system, because the family line decides the child's work and marriage
• A caste system, because birth fixes standing and effort cannot change it
• An open system, because every family line has a recognized place of its own
• A meritocracy, because each family line keeps the rank its members earned

An illustrative household lists four money items. Which of them count toward the household's wealth, everything it owns minus everything it owes, measured at one point in time? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• The value of a paid-off car the household owns
• A monthly paycheck from a full-time job
• The balance in a savings account today
• Tips earned over the past year at a restaurant

Census Bureau income figures are reported as median household income rather than mean household income. Why?

Select one.

• The median adds every household's income and divides by the number of households
• The median is the same figure as the mean for any large set of incomes
• The median is the middle household, and a few very high incomes pull the mean up
• The median counts only households whose incomes fall below the poverty line

The Census Bureau reported a median household income of 83,730 dollars for 2024 and a 2023 estimate of 82,690 dollars restated in 2024 dollars, and it reported the two as not statistically different. Which reading is correct?

Select one.

• There was no measurable change in the median between the two years
• The median rose by 1,040 dollars, so most households became better off
• The median rose by 1,040 dollars, so household wealth rose by that much
• Every household's income rose by about 1,040 dollars over the year

In 2024 the official poverty rate was 10.6% and the Supplemental Poverty Measure was 12.9%. How should the gap between the two figures be stated?

Select one.

• The Supplemental Poverty Measure is 2.3 percent higher than the official rate
• The gap is 21.7 percentage points between the two poverty measures
• The gap shows that poverty rose 2.3 points from the year before
• The Supplemental Poverty Measure is 2.3 percentage points higher

An illustrative city agency offers unpaid summer internships that often lead to paid jobs. A symbolic interactionist would focus on which question, at which level of analysis?

Select one.

• How the internship keeps the agency supplied with trained staff, at the macro level
• What the line "summer intern" signals to a hiring manager, at the micro level
• Which families can afford an unpaid summer, at the macro level
• How many internships the agency offers each year, at the macro level

A beloved local radio host earns a modest salary but is greeted warmly everywhere in the city. On which of Weber's three dimensions does the host rank highest?

Select one.

• Class, because the host holds a steady economic position
• Party, because the host is known across the whole city
• Status, because the host holds social honor or prestige
• Bourgeoisie, because the host owns the radio broadcast

When a region's paper mills close and a regional hospital expands, hundreds of workers move from mill jobs into health-care jobs at once. Which kind of mobility is this?

Select one.

• Intergenerational mobility, because the workers' jobs differ from their parents'
• Intragenerational mobility, because each worker changed jobs one at a time
• A sign of meritocracy, because the workers who moved earned their new jobs
• Structural mobility, because a change in the economy moved many people at once

Which account argues that functional importance is hard to measure and that stratification blocks talent and passes advantage down the generations?

Select one.

• Tumin's critique
• The Davis–Moore thesis
• Marx's account of the bourgeoisie
• Weber's account of life chances

In the same illustrative agency, only students whose families can cover a summer without pay take the unpaid internships that lead to paid jobs. Which perspective reads the arrangement this way, and at which level?

Select one.

• Structural functionalism, at the macro level, because the agency gets trained staff
• Symbolic interactionism, at the micro level, because a résumé line signals ambition
• Conflict theory, at the macro level, because it passes advantage down the generations
• Structural functionalism, at the micro level, because each student chooses freely