CHAPTER 12: Education and Religion
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. For most people in premodern times, learning took place in:
a. school
b. the family
c. public
d. playgrounds
Answer: B
2. Modern education on a large scale emerged in the ________ century.
a. seventeenth
b. eighteenth
c. nineteenth
d. twentieth
Answer: C
3. As industrialization progressed and cities expanded, the education system:
a. deteriorated
b. remained mired in ancient ideas and beliefs
c. was expanded and developed to meet the increasingly technical and innovative needs of
society as well as individual needs for occupational skills
d. taught girls how to cook and clean, whereas boys learned how to operate machines
Answer: C
4. On what issue do educators and employers disagree?
a. the qualifications necessary for high school teachers
b. the importance of students graduating from high school
c. the significance of a liberal education versus a practical one
d. the virtues of capitalism
Answer: C
5. The education system that we experience in the United States developed largely because
of:
a. new farming technologies and an interest in breeding new kinds of crops
b. the large number of women graduating from college and wanting to enter teaching
c. the problems associated with the outsourcing of jobs
d. the needs of employers for workers with specific skills
Answer: D
6. Why did formal systems of education develop in modern societies?
a. Mass education promoted individualism, helping citizens from different regions and
backgrounds to focus on themselves and their personal goals.
b. Schools promoted the development of personality traits, like self-discipline and obedience,
that employers needed in their employees.
c. Schools were a safe place for parents to send their children while they worked.
d. Schools helped to promote egalitarianism and to eliminate social stratification.
Answer: B
7. A major legacy of colonialism in the Third World is the high level of:
a. literacy
b. illiteracy
c. primary education
d. income
Answer: B
8. Which country has the largest number of foreign students attending its colleges and
universities?
a. the United States
b. the United Kingdom
c. China
d. Germany
Answer: A
9. Supporters of international education suggest that more should be done to encourage
foreign students to come to the United States because:
a. they often develop a sympathetic attitude toward the United States and carry that attitude
into their leadership in their homelands
b. most have their tuition waived, so they do not take financial aid and scholarships away
from American students
c. their countries will become military allies for the United States during wartime
d. Americans will be given travel discounts when they visit their countries
Answer: A
10. Which is NOT a benefit of the exchange of international students?
a. It plays a vital role in globalization.
b. Cross-national understandings are enhanced.
c. Xenophobic and isolationist attitudes are reduced.
d. Families are encouraged to take more vacations abroad.
Answer: D
11. Why is the internationalization of education considered problematic by some?
a. Foreign students are more intelligent and make American students look incompetent.
b. Some foreign students receive financial aid and scholarships, taking money that might
otherwise go to Americans.
c. Foreign students are likely to remain in the United States after college, leading to
immigration issues.
d. American students are likely to attend schools in foreign countries and to not return to the
United States after college.
Answer: B
12. Jonathan Kozol’s study of American schools found:
a. high levels of segregation within schools and great inequalities between them
b. that because of government funding, schools around the country spend the same amount
per pupil
c. that tracking is a successful practice
d. that schools have no long-term impact on a person’s success
Answer: A
13. James Coleman’s extensive study of American schools in the 1960s found that:
a. a large majority of students attended segregated schools
b. most schools that were predominantly African American had the worst facilities and large
classes
c. students from deprived backgrounds who were friends with students from more favorable
backgrounds performed poorly in school
d. students’ academic achievement was linked to the material resources made available in
schools
Answer: A
14. ________ is the practice of dividing students into groups that receive different instruction
on the basis of assumed similarities in their ability or attainment.
a. Tracking
b. Dividing
c. Assimilating
d. Credentialism
Answer: A
15. In 1990, Jeannie Oakes found that students placed in the “low-achieving” group—mostly
African American, Latino, and poor students—received a ________ education as a result.
a. somewhat better
b. more equal
c. poorer
d. much better
Answer: C
16. Which group benefits from the tracking of students according to abilities?
a. low-achieving students because they can receive more individualized attention
b. high-achieving students because teachers do not have to spend time working with slow
learners
c. all students benefit from tracking because it allows teachers to help each group according
to their abilities
d. average students benefit because in mixed classes they are usually ignored as teachers
concentrate on slow learners and high achievers
Answer: B
17. A sociological analysis of education would NOT include:
a. school as a socializing agent
b. the relationship between education and social inequality
c. the social functions that schools provide
d. math and science as more important content areas than English and history
Answer: D
18. To the extent that schools help perpetuate social and economic inequalities across
generations, they are part of the process of:
a. social reproduction
b. social transformation
c. social revolution
d. social evolution
Answer: A
19. The teaching of values, attitudes, and habits in schools that have nothing to do with the
formal content of the lessons is called:
a. the tracking system
b. the hidden curriculum
c. credentialism
d. the formal curriculum
Answer: B
20. In what way is the cycle of social reproduction NOT created within the school?
a. Blue-collar children are often uncomfortable within the middle-class school environment,
so they rebel and are thereby limited to blue-collar jobs when they leave school.
b. Middle-class children are more accepting of the rules in school and are thereby more apt to
succeed.
c. Working-class children increasingly see the school as not operating in their best interests;
therefore, they are anxious to get to work and to earn money rather than continuing with
schooling.
d. Working-class children view schooling and education as the best means by which to
acquire credentials and a professional job, thereby leading to a higher class status.
Answer: D
21. According to Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, the hierarchical authority relations of
schools parallel those of the:
a. family
b. prison
c. workplace
d. democratic system
Answer: C
22. Which of the following is part of the hidden curriculum in schools?
a. business courses that are not publicized with students
b. another phrase for the foreign language curriculum
c. teaching students to respect authority
d. the fact that students may have to go to summer school in order to graduate because of
classroom shortages
Answer: C
23. James Coleman’s research on segregated schools resulted in the policy of ________,
which provoked a lot of opposition, some of it violent.
a. hidden curriculum
b. credentialism
c. tracking
d. busing
Answer: D
24. What is an unintended consequence of school busing?
a. Tracking in schools became more problematic as school diversity increased.
b. Literacy rates increased in urban areas as poor students worked to keep up with wealthier
ones.
c. Racial divisions in the United States were erased, particularly in center-city urban
communities.
d. White families fled out of the city and into suburban areas, leaving the center cities to
decay.
Answer: D
25. Proponents of school privatization are critical of public education because they believe
that:
a. it is wasteful and bureaucratic
b. not enough resources are devoted to administration
c. good teachers are too easily fired by jealous administrators
d. curricula are too easily modified and frequently changed
Answer: A
26. Critics of school privatization would most likely argue that:
a. for-profit companies try to encourage students to pursue business administration studies in
college
b. for-profit companies introduce technology such as computers to teach children to play
video games rather than to acquire skills
c. for-profit companies are less interested in education reform than in making money for
investors
d. better teachers are not attracted to the profession when for-profit companies oversee school
administration because they expect to earn lower salaries
Answer: C
27. A cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provides a sense of ultimate
meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all-encompassing, and
supernatural would be termed ________ by sociologists.
a. sociology
b. religion
c. theism
d. philosophy
Answer: B
28. The sociological definition of religion includes elements of:
a. the workplace
b. the educational system
c. a sense of the purpose and meaning of life
d. capitalism
Answer: C
29. Belief in one or more supernatural deities is called:
a. religion
b. theism
c. animism
d. Buddhism
Answer: B
30. Which of the following questions about religion is sociological?
a. Is it true or false?
b. What are its principal beliefs and values?
c. Is it good or bad?
d. Should I believe in it?
Answer: B
31. Since religions are a major source of norms and values, sociologists understand them to
be:
a. among the least important institutions in society
b. a significant source of social solidarity
c. perpetuators of immoral conduct
d. practiced in ways that are universal worldwide
Answer: B
32. Sociologists explain the appeal of religion in terms of:
a. the supernatural intervention of spirits or gods
b. the psychological experience of the person who is attracted to it
c. problems of the social order that threaten a person’s sense of well-being
d. which beliefs are true and good
Answer: C
33. Who called religion the “opium of the people”?
a. Émile Durkheim
b. Karl Marx
c. Max Weber
d. Ludwig Feuerbach
Answer: B
34. Religion is a form of ________, according to Karl Marx, diverting attention from
inequalities and injustice and encouraging acceptance of oppression.
a. alienation
b. magic
c. enlightenment
d. salvation
Answer: A
35. Religion, according to Émile Durkheim, is based on a distinction between the ________
and the ________.
a. people; natural world
b. society; natural world
c. good; bad
d. sacred; profane
Answer: D
36. In Émile Durkheim’s terms, objects that are venerated and treated as separate from the
routine, everyday aspects of day-to-day existence are:
a. sacred
b. profane
c. shamans
d. magic
Answer: A
37. Émile Durkheim’s theory of religion, which connected it with the overall nature of the
institutions of a society, is an example of the ________ tradition.
a. monotheistic
b. polytheistic
c. Marxist
d. functionalist
Answer: D
38. According to Émile Durkheim, what is the social function of religion?
a. It provides justification for those who are in power.
b. It aids in cohering or providing solidarity by ensuring that people meet regularly to affirm
common beliefs and values.
c. It contributes to the process of social transformation.
d. It ensures social stratification in both the immediate and the long-term.
Answer: B
39. Which of the following sociological theorists embarked on a massive study of religions
worldwide?
a. Karl Marx
b. Émile Durkheim
c. Max Weber
d. Jonathan Kozol
Answer: C
40. Who among the following saw religion as a potential source of social transformation?
a. Émile Durkheim
b. Karl Marx
c. Max Weber
d. Vladimir Lenin
Answer: C
41. Max Weber saw ________ as the source of the capitalistic outlook found in the modern
West.
a. the profit motive
b. money
c. Protestantism
d. Catholicism
Answer: C
42. Who among the following theorists was most interested in the world’s religions?
a. Émile Durkheim
b. Karl Marx
c. Auguste Comte
d. Max Weber
Answer: D
43. Who among the following would most likely assert that capitalism and industrialization
expanded faster in those countries where Protestantism, rather than Catholicism, dominated
the country?
a. Karl Marx
b. Émile Durkheim
c. Max Weber
d. Siddartha Gautama
Answer: C
44. Émile Durkheim failed to anticipate the role of religion in:
a. promoting social cohesion
b. enhancing social solidarity
c. division, conflict, and change in society
d. its most elementary forms, such as totemism
Answer: C
45. A limitation on the applicability of the classic theories of religion proposed by Karl Marx,
Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber is their:
a. bases in societies in which a single religion prevailed
b. bases in outdated religions
c. focus on only theistic religions
d. refusal to consider how closely religion can be linked with society
Answer: A
46. A rise in worldly thinking coupled with a decline in the influence of religion is called:
a. globalization
b. religious pluralism
c. New Age religion
d. secularization
Answer: D
47. ________ is the process by which people in society become more concerned with worldly
than spiritual matters and religious organizations lose their influence over social life.
a. Charisma
b. Millenarianism
c. Secularization
d. Profanity
Answer: C
48. According to the religious economy approach:
a. there is only so much religion to go around, so it should be spent wisely
b. religions can be understood as organizations in competition with one another for followers
c. the economy has replaced religion as the major source of values and norms in modern
societies
d. economic activities are increasingly guided by religious values
Answer: B
49. Which approach in the sociology of religion would describe religious groups as using
marketing techniques to package an appealing product to attract buyers in a competitive
market?
a. Marxism
b. Weberians
c. functionalism
d. religious economy
Answer: D
50. According to research by Wade Clark Roof (1993), what proportion of American baby
boomers is actually engaged in searching for a new religion?
a. 10 percent
b. 33 percent
c. 66 percent
d. 80 percent
Answer: B
51. In the classification of religious organizations based on early theories of Max Weber,
Ernst Troeltsch, and Richard Niebuhr, ________ were considered to be most established and
conventional, whereas ________ were placed at the opposite end of the continuum.
a. sects; churches
b. churches; sects
c. churches; cults
d. cults; churches
Answer: C
52. Since the terms “sect” and “cult” have negative connotations today, sociologists now
prefer to call such groups:
a. churches
b. denominations
c. new social movements
d. new religious movements
Answer: D
53. A religious organization that forms by breaking away from an established church and
relies on people joining rather than being born into the group, and that generally rejects or
tries to change the surrounding society, is termed a
a. religious movement
b. denomination
c. church
d. sect
Answer: D
54. ________ that survive over time become institutionalized as ________.
a. Churches; sects
b. Sects; denominations
c. Denominations; cults
d. Denominations; churches
Answer: B
55. ________ are a form of religious revival, whereas ________ are a form of religious
innovation.
a. Churches; sects
b. Sects; denominations
c. Denominations; cults
d. Sects; cults
Answer: D
56. What is the connection between religion and violence?
a. Western religions such as Christianity and Judaism do not engage in violent activity; they
focus only on compassion and understanding.
b. Violence is endemic to most religions and this violence is couched in terms of the forces of
good against the forces of evil.
c. Islam is the only religion that mandates a direct link between religious fervor and violence.
d. Violence in the form of military conquests is always directed at religious conflicts.
Answer: B
57. Which of the following best describes liberation theology?
a. churches that honor military veterans for their service on behalf of the United States
b. Oktoberfest and its combination of frivolity and religiosity
c. the religious overtones in a locker room prior to an important game
d. religious involvement in improving the economic and political lives of people
Answer: D
58. Which of the following best describes the present trend in the United States of religious
affiliation?
a. Jewish affiliation has increased because of religious conversions.
b. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of Catholics attending religious services.
c. More men and women are joining evangelical churches.
d. There has been a consistent eroding of public displays of religion since the election of
George W. Bush.
Answer: C
59. Which of the following groups has seen a big decrease in attendance at religious services
since the 1960s, largely because of the stance of the organization on birth control?
a. Catholics
b. Protestants
c. Judaism
d. the new cults
Answer: A
60. Which of the following religious denominations has the highest percentage of college
graduates in the United States?
a. Catholicism
b. Judaism
c. Hinduism
d. Islam
Answer: B
61. Who among the following is most likely to vote for a Democrat in a presidential election?
a. a young Protestant man
b. an elderly fundamentalist woman
c. a middle-age Jewish woman
d. an evangelical Christian
Answer: C
TRUE/FALSE
1. Capitalists fought the development of mass public education, fearing that workers who
could read would not work.
Answer: False
2. One of the goals of providing universal access to education is to help reduce inequalities in
wealth and power.
Answer: True
3. Jonathan Kozol’s best-selling book, Savage Inequalities, exposes the effects of the barbaric
behavior of today’s students.
Answer: False
4. Sociological research has found that in all instances tracking is entirely negative in its
effects.
Answer: False
5. Belief in God is the central element of religion, according to the sociological definition.
Answer: False
6. The most loosely knit and transient of religious organizations are churches.
Answer: False
7. Religious nationalism is pluralistic in calling for all religions to embrace the cause of the
nation.
Answer: False
Test Bank for Essentials of Sociology
Anthony Giddens, Mitchell Duneier, Richard P Appelbaum, Deborah Carr
9780393932379, 9780393674088, 9780393937459, 9780393918830
