Sample Exam
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following is the BEST example of the separation of conception from execution inherent in the nature of human labor?
(1) your parents provide tuition money, and you spend it
(2) advertisers show you a product on TV, and you buy it in the stores
(3) craftsmen make candles, soap, and harnesses at Colonial Williamsburg (or Old Salem), and you watch them do it
(4) your professor assigns a reading, and you do it in the library
(5) your roommate designs a loft, and
you put it together
2. Melvin Kohn's research results showed that middle class parents, when disciplining their children, were most concerned about:
(1) their child's relations with other family members
(2) their child's scholastic record
(3) their child's college chances
(4) their child's intentions & motivation
(5) their child's conformity to authority
3. A new ideology concerning work developed under monopoly capitalism. This ideology, focusing on persuasion and cooperation, was called:
(1) the Protestant work ethic
(2) survival of the fittest
(3) the human relations approach
(4) post-industrial society
(5) mercantilism
SHORT ANSWER ESSAY
4.. Using BLS definitions, what is the
difference between an unemployed worker and a discouraged worker,
and what consequences does this difference have for statistics
on unemployment?
Possible answer:
An unemployed worker is someone
who does not meet the criteria for `employed person' but is actively
searching for work. He/she is still considered to be in the labor
force. A discouraged worker is someone who is not actively
searching for work -- he or she has given up -- because he/she
believes that there is no job available for him/her. Thirty days
after workers give up looking for work, they are considered to
be not in the labor force. Including "unemployed
workers" rather than also "discouraged workers"
makes the official unemployment rate much lower than it
would otherwise be.
5. Define an occupation and an industry,
and indicate what the difference is between them.
Possible answer:
An industry is the set of
businesses that produce a particular product or service, e.g.
the automobile or restaurant industries. An occupation indicates
the type of work a worker does, e.g. cashier or assembly line
worker. It makes up a cluster of job-related activities. Employees
work in industries to produce goods and services, performing economic
roles which make up their occupations. Some occupations are found
in every industry, e.g. manager, whereas others are concentrated
within a small number of industries, e.g. nurse.
ESSAY
6. Why is there a relationship between
parents' social class position and how they disciplines their
children?
Answer: Try this out yourself, from the Kohn reading.