CSP Social Inequality & Diversity 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which concept describes the way multiple social identities such as race, gender, and class overlap to create compounded disadvantage?
- Social stratification
- Intersectionality (Correct answer)
- Cultural capital
- Status inconsistency
Correct answer: Intersectionality
Intersectionality, coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes how overlapping identities create unique, compounded experiences of discrimination.
Question 2: The 'glass ceiling' metaphor in workplace sociology refers to:
- Transparent office architecture that improves productivity
- Invisible barriers preventing women and minorities from reaching top positions (Correct answer)
- Legal limits on executive compensation
- A quota system for gender-diverse hiring
Correct answer: Invisible barriers preventing women and minorities from reaching top positions
The glass ceiling describes informal, invisible structural barriers that block advancement for women and minorities despite apparent equal opportunity.
Question 3: Structural functionalism explains social inequality primarily as:
- A result of capitalist exploitation of the working class
- A necessary mechanism that motivates individuals to fill important social roles (Correct answer)
- An outcome of deliberate discrimination by dominant groups
- A product of historical colonialism and resource extraction
Correct answer: A necessary mechanism that motivates individuals to fill important social roles
Davis and Moore's functionalist theory argues stratification motivates talented individuals to fill functionally important positions through differential rewards.
Question 4: A sociologist studying 'redlining' would be examining:
- The use of red ink in financial contracts
- Discriminatory denial of services to residents of racially defined neighborhoods (Correct answer)
- Political gerrymandering along racial lines
- Anti-immigration border enforcement policies
Correct answer: Discriminatory denial of services to residents of racially defined neighborhoods
Redlining refers to the discriminatory practice of denying mortgages, insurance, or services to neighborhoods based on racial composition.
Question 5: Which term describes the process by which newly arrived immigrants gradually adopt the culture of the host society?
- Pluralism
- Segregation
- Acculturation (Correct answer)
- Ethnocentrism
Correct answer: Acculturation
Acculturation refers to the cultural change that occurs when individuals from one culture adopt elements of another through sustained contact.
Question 6: Pierre Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus' most directly refers to:
- The physical environment where social classes live
- Internalized dispositions and schemes of perception shaped by one's social position (Correct answer)
- Formal educational credentials held by individuals
- Economic assets accumulated across generations
Correct answer: Internalized dispositions and schemes of perception shaped by one's social position
Habitus is Bourdieu's term for the durable, transposable dispositions that individuals acquire through their social experiences and class position.
Question 7: The 'feminization of poverty' refers to the trend that:
- Women are more likely than men to experience poverty (Correct answer)
- Poverty disproportionately affects children raised by single mothers
- Developing nations experience more poverty than developed ones
- Poverty rates rise during economic recessions affecting female-dominated industries
Correct answer: Women are more likely than men to experience poverty
The feminization of poverty describes how women, especially single mothers, are disproportionately represented among those living in poverty.
CSP Social Inequality & Diversity 2
Which concept describes the way multiple social identities such as race, gender, and class overlap to create compounded disadvantage?