Edwin lemert described primary deviance as

Unit 3 Examination

127

GED 216 Sociology

Multiple Choice Questions (Enter your answers on the enclosed answer sheet)

Edwin Lemert described “primary deviance” as 1.

the most serious episodes of deviance.a. actions that parents define as deviant.b. a passing episode of deviance that has little effect on the person’s self-concept.c. the experience of deviance early in life. d.

His friends begin to criticize Marco as a “juice-head,” pushing him out of their social circle. 2. Marco begins to drink even more, becomes bitter, and joins a new group of friends who also are heavy drinkers. According to Lemert, Marco’s situation illustrates

the onset of primary deviance. a. the onset of secondary deviance.b. the formation of a deviant subculture.c. the onset of retreatism. d.

What concept did Erving Goffman use to refer to a powerful and negative label that greatly 3. changes a person’s self-concept and social identity?

a deviant rituala. a degradation ceremonyb. a secondary identityc. stigma d.

The concept “retrospective labeling” refers to the process of 4.

interpreting someone’s past consistent with present deviance.a. defining someone as deviant for things done long before.b. criminal adults encouraging their children to become deviant.c. predicting someone’s future based on past deviant acts. d.

Thomas Szasz made the controversial assertion that 5.

deviance is only what people label as deviant.a. most people in the United States will become insane for some period during their lives.b. mental illness is a myth so that “insanity” is only “differences” that bother other people.c. our society does not do nearly enough to treat the mentally ill. d.

Unit 3 Examination

128

GED 216 Sociology

An example of the “medicalization of deviance” is 6.

theft being redefined as a “compulsive stealing.”a. drinking too much being redefined as a personal failing.b. promiscuity being redefined as a moral failing.c. when people steal drugs to self-medicate. d.

Whether people respond to deviance as a moral issue or a medical matter affects 7.

whether a person is labeled retrospectively or projectively.a. whether the person is subject to punishment or treatment.b. whether the person’s deviance is labeled as primary or secondary.c. whether or not the person gets the appropriate care. d.

Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory links deviance to 8.

how labeling someone as deviant can increase the deviant behavior.a. the amount of contact a person has with others who encourage or discourage conventional b. behavior. how well a person can contain deviant impulses.c. how others respond to the race, ethnicity, gender, and class of the individual. d.

Travis Hirschi’s control theory suggests that the category of people most likely to engage in 9. deviance is

students enrolled in college.a. teenagers on sports teams with after-school jobs.b. youngsters who “hang out” waiting for something to happen.c. young people with respect for their parents. d.

According to the social-conflict approach, what a society labels as deviant is based primarily on 10.

how often the act occurs.a. the moral foundation of the culture.b. how harmful the act is to the public as a whole.c. differences in power between various categories of people. d.

Alexander Liazos speaks for the social-conflict approach when he states that 11.

powerless people are at the highest risk of being defined as deviant.a. deviance has both functions and dysfunctions.b. deviance exists only in the eye of the beholder.c. society should ignore victimless crime.d.

Unit 3 Examination

129

GED 216 Sociology

Using a Marxist approach, Steven Spitzer claims that prime targets for deviant labeling include 12.

people who try to take the property of others.a. people who work hard but are poor.b. perpetrators of white-collar crime.c. people who have social power. d.

Crime committed by persons of high social position during the cours