CHAPTER 11: Families and Intimate Relationships
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. What is the term for a group of people directly linked by kin connections, the adult
members of which assume responsibility for caring for children?
a. kinship
b. family
c. marriage
d. community
Answer: B
2. Connections between individuals, established either through marriage or through the lines
of descent that connect blood relatives, are known as:
a. kinship
b. family
c. marriage
d. community
Answer: A
3. A socially acknowledged and approved sexual union between two adult individuals is
called:
a. kinship
b. family
c. marriage
d. community
Answer: C
4. Two adults living together in a household with their own or adopted children would be
a(n):
a. nuclear family
b. extended family
c. atomic family
d. distended family
Answer: A
5. A(n) ________ is one in which close relatives other than just a married couple and their
children live in the same household or in a close and continuous relationship with one
another.
a. nuclear family
b. extended family
c. atomic family
d. distended family
Answer: B
6. A family of orientation is:
a. one formed by two married adults and their children by previous marriages
b. a family a person wishes to belong to
c. the family into which a person is born
d. the family that one enters as an adult and within which a new generation of children is
raised
Answer: C
7. A family of procreation is:
a. one formed by two married adults and their children by previous marriages
b. a family a person wishes to belong to
c. the family into which a person is born
d. the family that one enters as an adult and within which a new generation of children is
raised
Answer: D
8. A married couple living in or very near the home of the bride’s parents is in a situation
called:
a. matrilocal
b. patrilocal
c. neolocal
d. polygamy
Answer: A
9. If a married couple lives near or with the parents of the groom, the pattern is called:
a. matrilocal
b. patrilocal
c. neolocal
d. polygamy
Answer: B
10. If it is illegal for a man or a woman to be married to more than one individual at a time, a
system of ________ exists.
a. monogamy
b. polygamy
c. polygyny
d. polyandry
Answer: A
11. A marriage system that allows a husband or wife to have more than one spouse is called
a. monogamy
b. polygamy
c. polygyny
d. polyandry
Answer: B
12. If a man is allowed to have more than one wife, the marriage system is called:
a. monogamy
b. polygamy
c. polygyny
d. polyandry
Answer: C
13. ________ exists when a woman may be married to more than one man at a time.
a. Monogamy
b. Polygamy
c. Polygyny
d. Polyandry
Answer: D
14. Some would argue that the key to a good marriage is a successful transferring from your
family of ________ to your family of ________.
a. parents; spouses
b. patriarchy; matriarchy
c. function; consumption
d. orientation; procreation
Answer: D
15. According to your textbook authors, which of the following does NOT describe the
American family?
a. a couple whose marriage was arranged by their parents for religious purposes
b. Native American foster parents, their biological children and foster children
c. a single father and his three sons
d. Naihua and José Rivera and their two adopted daughters
Answer: A
16. Which analyst sees the family as meeting the social needs for primary socialization and
personality stabilization?
a. Talcott Parsons
b. Betty Friedan
c. Ann Oakley
d. Ulrich Beck
Answer: A
17. According to functionalists, the husband in the “conventional family” is the breadwinner
and plays the ________ role; the wife cares for the home and children and plays the
________ role.
a. major; minor
b. supporting; leading
c. mechanical; organic
d. instrumental; affective
Answer: D
18. Which of the following issues is NOT embedded within a feminist analysis of the family?
a. the way in which housework is allocated between men and women living in the same
household
b. the significance of the greater physical power of men and how domestic violence emanates
from issues of inequality and power
c. the time demands imposed by the emotional labor that is expected from women
d. the increase in the number of husbands who stay at home to care for children while their
wives pursue careers
Answer: D
19. In her book, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan refers to “the problem with no
name.” To what “problem” was she referring?
a. the boredom of housewives
b. domestic violence
c. unemployment among minority groups
d. the wage gap between male executives and female secretaries
Answer: A
20. Which perspective has been most concerned with the domestic division of labor, unequal
power relationships and caring activities in the family?
a. functionalism
b. Marxism
c. feminism
d. instrumentalism
Answer: C
21. Which of the following scenarios best captures the meaning of the phrase “second shift”?
a. A female social worker returns home from work to drive her children to soccer practice,
prepares dinner, and completes a load of laundry.
b. A male truck driver works through the night to ensure that his truck arrives at the proper
location at the designated time.
c. A woman works two jobs to support her children, unemployed husband, and aging parents.
d. A divorced man works two jobs to pay for child support, alimony, and nursing home fees
for his parents.
Answer: A
22. Which of the following characteristics could NOT be found within the traditional
American family from colonial times to the 1950s?
a. mild discipline of children
b. a sexual double standard for men and women
c. widespread dissatisfaction among women
d. short-lived marriages due to high death rates
Answer: A
23. According to sociologists and historians, families of the past:
a. experienced many of the same problems as today
b. rarely experienced divorce, desertion, or child abuse
c. held to very rigid sexual norms, with strict prohibitions
d. included only women who were happy with their domestic roles
Answer: A
24. Arlie Hochschild found that ________ is creating pressure on American workers to work
longer hours than they did previously.
a. ambition
b. the mass media
c. the education system
d. globalization
Answer: D
25. Which of the following characterizes the American workweek in this time of rapid
technological innovation?
a. Thanks, in large part, to new technologies, the American workweek is much shorter than it
was 50 years ago.
b. With more women in the workforce, it is easier for men to take longer vacations away from
the office.
c. Americans are spending more time at work and less time on vacation.
d. While Americans are decreasing the number of hours spent at work, many Europeans are
increasing the time they spend working.
Answer: C
26. Why are family systems in the Third World changing?
a. the spread of Western culture, especially the ideal of romantic love
b. the development of central governments that actively try to maintain traditional customs
and standards
c. massive migration from urban to rural areas
d. increased employment opportunities within the local community
Answer: A
27. Which of the following is an aspect of change affecting family systems worldwide?
a. Clans and other kinship groups are declining in influence.
b. There is less sexual freedom than there was previously.
c. Children have fewer rights than they had previously.
d. Individuals are expected to enter into arranged marriages.
Answer: A
28. What accounts for the trend toward later marriages in recent decades?
a. longer engagements before marriage
b. declining participation of women in the labor force
c. a decrease in the numbers of “marriageable men” because of economic deterioration
d. declining enrollment of women in college
Answer: C
29. Which of the following best characterizes the family in the U.S. today?
a. Regardless of publicity, the dominant family structure in the United States has remained
constant during the previous 50 years.
b. Most families today are female-headed, single-parent households.
c. Nearly one-third of U.S. families are same-sex couples who have either an adopted or
biological child.
d. The largest group of American families is those in which both the husband and wife are
working.
Answer: D
30. What percentage of American children live in a household in which the husband works
for pay and the wife stays at home, taking care of children and household?
a. 25 percent
b. 50 percent
c. 70 percent
d. 90 percent
Answer: A
31. When couples live together without being married they are engaging in:
a. engagement
b. cohabitation
c. an illegal act
d. domesticity
Answer: B
32. Which group has a strong commitment to family interdependence and higher median
incomes than non-Latino whites?
a. Mexican Americans
b. Puerto Ricans
c. Cuban Americans
d. Asian Americans
Answer: D
33. Which group has the highest rate of intermarriage with other racial-ethnic groups?
a. Native Americans
b. Puerto Ricans
c. Cuban Americans
d. Asian Americans
Answer: A
34. Which Latino group has more wealth in family business ownership, lower levels of
fertility, and low levels of nonmarital fertility compared with other Latinos?
a. Mexican Americans
b. Puerto Ricans
c. Cuban Americans
d. Salvadoreños
Answer: C
35. Which of the following is more likely to exhibit characteristics of extended kinship?
a. African American families
b. colonial-period white families
c. Mexican American families
d. white families in the 1990s
Answer: A
36. What advantages do female-headed African American families have over female-headed
white families?
a. African American women are more likely to receive Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families.
b. The high unemployment rate among African American families has made them stronger.
c. Female-headed African American families have more extended kinship relationships.
d. White women are more likely to kidnap and physically abuse their children.
Answer: C
37. The ________ in the United States rose rapidly from the 1960s to the late 1970s, peaking
in 1980.
a. marriage rate
b. divorce rate
c. number of extended families
d. number of interracial marriages
Answer: B
38. A 1996 study found that divorce had a negative unintended consequence for ________,
decreasing their living standards by 27 percent in the first year following divorce, while
________ saw their average standard of living increase by 10 percent.
a. men and their children; women
b. women and their children; men
c. men and women; children
d. children; men and women
Answer: B
39. What is the relationship between income and postdivorce situations?
a. Both men’s and women’s incomes increase.
b. Both men’s and women’s incomes decrease.
c. Men’s incomes increase and women’s incomes decrease.
d. Men’s incomes decrease and women’s incomes increase.
Answer: C
40. Which of the following is NOT a reason that divorce rates have risen over the last few
decades?
a. Changes in the law have made getting a divorce easier.
b. Marriage today has less to do with handing down property and status from generation to
generation, except for the wealthy.
c. Women are more economically independent now, and marriage is less of an economic
necessity for them.
d. Individuals are more likely to sign prenuptial agreements than they were previously,
making division of assets after divorce much easier.
Answer: D
41. Although their studies may not be representative of the population as a whole, Judith
Wallerstein and her colleagues found that most children of divorced parents:
a. coped surprisingly well emotionally at the time of the divorce
b. were emotionally unable to cope well even after 5 years
c. felt affected by their parents’ divorce even 15 years later
d. were high-achievers who were confident about their own romantic relationships
Answer: C
42. Which of the following did Andrew Cherlin find to be an effect of divorce on children?
a. the majority experience serious mental health problems
b. most resume normal development after the divorce without complication about six years
after the divorce
c. most experience long-term problems that persist into adulthood
d. a majority experience a period of emotional upset immediately after their parents’ divorce
Answer: D
43. For people in the same age group, who is more likely to get married?
a. people who have never been married
b. people who have been married and divorced
c. poor people
d. divorced women
Answer: B
44. A family in which at least one of the adults is a stepparent is a(n):
a. nuclear family
b. extended family
c. postmodern family
d. stepfamily
Answer: D
45. Nearly one in three families with dependent children are:
a. single-parent households
b. living in poverty
c. extended families
d. matrilocal families
Answer: A
46. Children most likely to be victims of child abuse are in the age group of:
a. zero to three years
b. four to seven years
c. eight to ten years
d. eleven to fifteen years
Answer: A
47. The rate of cohabitation has ________ since 1970.
a. fallen slightly
b. fallen steeply
c. risen slightly
d. risen steeply
Answer: D
48. Which of the following cohabiting unions is most likely to marry?
a. an African American couple in which the man completed high school but the woman
dropped out of school in the ninth grade
b. a childless couple who are both physicians
c. a low-income couple who have two children
d. a white man and woman who both dropped out of high school
Answer: B
49. Who is more likely to get a divorce at some point?
a. people whose parents never divorced
b. people who cohabit before marriage
c. people who marry at an older age
d. people in interracial marriages
Answer: B
50. In which of the following states can gay couples marry?
a. Florida
b. New Hampshire
c. Texas
d. Iowa
Answer: D
51. While it is most common for young people to leave home to begin an independent life,
young people in previous generations left home:
a. to avoid domestic violence
b. because their parents evicted them
c. to get married
d. following their parents’ divorce
Answer: C
TRUE/FALSE
1. Monogamy is the most common form of marriage in the world as a whole.
Answer: False
2. Polyandry, a kind of polygamy where a woman has multiple husbands, has never been
documented.
Answer: False
3. The predominant form of the family in premodern western Europe was the extended
family.
Answer: False
4. The American family of the colonial period was the model of stability, with most marriages
lasting at least 25 years.
Answer: False
5. The most dramatic increase in labor force participation among women after World War II
occurred among married women with young children.
Answer: True
6. The average age of first marriage has risen over the past 20 years.
Answer: True
7. Rising divorce rates indicate that people are increasingly unwillingly to remain in an
unfulfilling relationship.
Answer: True
8. A continuing relationship with both parents following divorce helps children cope better
with the separation.
Answer: False
9. The trend of increasing rates of cohabitation started among lower-educated groups in the
1950s.
Answer: True
Test Bank for Essentials of Sociology
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P Appelbaum, Deborah Carr
9780393932379, 9780393674088, 9780393937459, 9780393918830
