Practice Milestone

Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

Taking this practice test is a stress-free way to find out if you are ready for the Milestone 1 assessment. You
can print it out and test yourself to discover your strengths and weaknesses. The answer key is at the end of
this Practice Milestone.

1.
Your company is not handing out bonuses to anyone this year. You are extremely disappointed because you
were counting on your bonus to plan a trip abroad.

Which reaction demonstrates that you are using your sociological imagination?

a.) You examine your work over the past year and see if there is anything you could have done
differently.

b.)
You look at the bigger picture and examine how your company is affected by the current economic
climate.

c.)
You start looking for a new job because you believe that your company is the only one holding back
annual bonuses.

d.) You resign because you believe that your company does not value your
contribution.

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

2.
Which of the following best summarizes the symbolic interaction approach to social thinking?

a.) Society functions only when different large social structures start functioning
together.

b.) Society results from the relationships between different people playing different
roles.

c.) Society evolves when groups with different interests are in conflict with one
another.

d.) Society grows when a group of people start following the same sociological
paradigm.

3.
Which of the following refers to the consequences of a social process that disrupts the working of a society?

a.) Social facts

b.) Social institutions

c.) Dysfunctions

d.) Manifest functions

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

4.
Which of the following contradicts the assumptions of conflict theory?

a.) Many social structures have gradually progressed over time rather than changing
abruptly.

b.) Society is a competition among different classes for limited

resources.

c.) In addition to economic inequalities, inequalities of political power and social structure cause
conflict.

d.)
Large social institutions like the government, education, and religion help maintain unequal social
structures.

5.
Which of the following research methods would a symbolic interactionist most likely use?

a.) Social experiment that involves a control

group

b.) Secondary research on published

sources

c.) Extended participant

observation

d.) Quantitative data collection

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

6.
Henri is studying sociology and has to write a paper on the structure of employment in a particular society
using any of the main sociological perspectives. He elects to use conflict theory.

Which of the following elements is Henri likely to miss when he uses conflict theory?

a.) The factors that lead to social

stability

b.) The factors that cause social

change

c.) The effects of class on society

d.) The effects of unequal power on

society

7.
In sociology, which of the following characteristics is essential for a group of people to be considered a
"society"?

a.) A shared religion and value

system

b.) Shared relationships through blood or

marriage

c.) A common educational

background

d.) A common culture and geographic location

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

8.
A group of sociologists is studying the prevalence of anxiety among teenagers in a school.

Which of the following methods is a quantitative research method?

a.) Measuring the heart rates and blood pressures of students at different times throughout the
day

b.) Observing students as they go about their daily activities in

school

c.) Conducting detailed interviews with students to understand which events make them more
anxious

d.)
Having students fill out a questionnaire to describe the incidents that caused them anxiety in the past
week

9.
Which of the following is the correct sequence of steps that a researcher would adopt while using the
scientific method?

a.) Hypothesize, identify a problem, gather raw data, and interpret your
findings.

b.) Hypothesize, review others' work, identify a problem, and interpret

data.

c.) Identify a problem, hypothesize, design a research plan, and pose new
questions.

d.) Identify a problem, design a research plan, hypothesize, and report your
findings.

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

10.
Which of the following is a desired characteristic of a good research topic?

a.) The topic should be narrow and cover only a small group of people across all
time.

b.) The topic should be narrow enough to study within a location and time
frame.

c.) The topic should be broad enough to cover all people within a
category.

d.) The topic should be as broad as possible and cover multiple

categories.

11.
Which of the following statements is true of a literature review?

a.) It is used by researchers to identify gaps in existing research that can be

filled.

b.)
It decreases the time required for research as most of the data can be duplicated from existing
sources.

c.) It refers to the short summary of the research at the end of the article.

d.) It is the first step that researchers perform when using the scientific
method.

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12.
Which of the following occurs in snowball sampling?

a.) The researcher asks acquaintances to be the initial

subjects.

b.) The researcher picks respondents at random from government or census

data.

c.) The researcher avoids interacting with respondents to avoid creating

bias.

d.) The researcher picks a sample that represents the entire

population.

13.
Which of the following statements best describes the reason why surveys are the most widely used
research method?

a.) The data can be easily tabulated and

organized.

b.) The data collected do not have to be

recorded.

c.) They accurately estimate public opinion using a small

sample.

d.) They do not require direct contact with the test

subjects.

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

14.
Which of the following should a sociologist use to test cause and effect relationships?

a.) Secondary data analysis

b.) Ethnography

c.) Experiments

d.) Participant observation

15.
Which of the following statements best summarizes the Hawthorne effect?

a.) Conducting a research study can modify researchers' values and

beliefs.

b.) Participation in a research study can modify participants' values and

beliefs.

c.) Researchers' personal values usually shape their interpretation of study

data.

d.) People change their behavior when they know they are being
observed.

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

Answer Key
Question Answer

Concept: The Sociological Imagination

Rationale:
If you use your sociological imagination, you would connect your personal problems
with broader social trends. In this situation, you would look at how your company is
affected by the current economic climate and understand that it is withholding bonuses
1 b
because there is a recession and companies are not doing well financially. Examining
your work over the past year and assuming that your company does not value your
contribution would mean you are not connecting your personal situation with the
broader social environment. If you believe that yours is the only company holding back
annual bonuses, you would not look at the broader social environment.

Concept: What is Theory?

Rationale:
2 b
According to the symbolic interaction approach, society is the result of all of our
interactions combined. Society is constructed as a result of a series of interactions.

Concept: Structural Functionalism

Rationale:
Robert Merton pointed out that social processes often have many functions. Manifest
3 c functions are the consequences of a social process that are sought or anticipated,
while latent functions are the unsought consequences of a social process. Latent
functions can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Social processes that have undesirable
consequences for the operation of society are called dysfunctions.

Concept: Conflict Theory

Rationale:
4 a Conflict theory has been criticized because it tends to focus on conflict to the exclusion
of recognizing stability. Many social structures are extremely stable or have gradually
progressed over time rather than changing abruptly, as conflict theory would suggest.

Concept: Symbolic Interactionism

Rationale:
Symbolic interactionism is a micro-level theory that focuses on meanings attached to
human interaction, both verbal and nonverbal, and to symbols. Studies that use the
symbolic interactionist perspective are more likely to use qualitative research methods,
5 c
such as in-depth interviews or participant observation, because they seek to
understand the symbolic worlds in which research subjects live. Social experiments,
collection and analysis of demographic data, and construction of models to predict
behavior are not research methods that are likely to be used by a symbolic
interactionist.

Concept: Comparing the Paradigms

Rationale:
Conflict theory focuses on the way inequalities contribute to social differences and

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 Embracing Diversity and Collaboration — Practice Milestone 1

6 a perpetuate differences in power. It examines how conflicts arise from competition for
scarce resources. Conflict theory can also explain the effect class has on people's
behaviors and lives. The element Henri is likely to miss is that it fails to adequately
explain social stability. It also sometimes focuses on class to the exclusion of other axes
of conflict.

Concept: What Sociology Studies

Rationale:
7 d
In sociology, a society is a group of people who live in a defined geographic area, who
interact with one another, and who share a common culture.

Concept: Introduction to Sociological Research

Rationale:
Quantitative research includes research methods that focus on gathering data from
8 a experiments or studies. Measuring physiological changes like heart rate and blood
pressure is a quantitative method. Qualitative research focuses on gathering
information in a narrative format instead of designing a study, such as through
participant observation or surveys.

Concept: The Scientific Method

Rationale:
The scientific method is a multistep procedure that involves systematically formulating
questions, gathering data, and questioning hypotheses. There are eight steps in the
9 c
scientific method. The sequence of steps is as follows: defining a problem, reviewing
the work others conducted about the problem, hypothesizing, designing a research
plan, collecting raw data, interpreting the collected data, and finally posing new
questions or proposing new directions for future research.

Concept: Asking Questions

Rationale:
10 b The first step of the scientific method is to ask a question, describe a problem, and
identify the specific area of interest. The topic should be narrow enough to study within
a geography and time frame.

Concept: Researching Existing Sources

Rationale:
A literature review is a survey of any existing similar or related studies on a topic of
11 a study. By reviewing the existing research, people will be able to familiarize themselves
with the existing data available and find new ideas that might not have occurred to
them before. Researchers may identify gaps in existing scholarly papers that their work
can help fill, or they may read an interesting theory that could be applied to their work.

Concept: Formulating a Hypothesis

Rationale:
12 a In snowball sampling, the researchers find the initial respondents or subjects through
acquaintances who are already in their network. They then use those acquaintances to
find their acquaintances and so on, and the process snowballs.

Concept: Collecting Data: Quantitative Approaches

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Rationale:
Surveys are the most widely used scientific research method in sociology because the
data can be easily organized and tabulated. As the data collected are in the numerical
13 a form, a survey is a quantitative research method. Survey research is a research method
in which subjects respond to the researchers’ questions directly, either in an interview
or on a questionnaire, and it requires direct contact with the test subjects. Surveys
target specific populations or groups of people and do not accurately estimate the
public opinion of the entire population.

Concept: Collecting Data: Qualitative Approaches

Rationale:
14 c
An experiment involves the deliberate manipulation of social customs and mores. It is
used to test cause and effect relationships.

Concept: Ethics in Sociology

Rationale:
15 d
The Hawthorne effect is an unavoidable phenomenon in research where people
change their behavior because they know they are being watched as part of a study.

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