Exam two

Question 1

US diversity

Answer 1

One of the most fascinating and enriching aspects of life in the United States is the great physical and cultural diversity of the peoples who have settled here.

Question 2

Divisiveness and conflict in U.S.

Answer 2

At the same time, however, it has been a major source of divisiveness and conflict for U.S. society

Question 3

Minority Group

Answer 3

A minority group is a group whose members share distinct physical or cultural characteristics; are denied access to power and resources available to other groups; and are accorded fewer rights, privileges, and opportunities.

Question 4

Race

Answer 4

A race is a group of people who are believed to be a biological group sharing genetically transmitted traits that are defined as important.

Question 5

Racism

Answer 5

Racism is the view that certain racial or ethnic groups are biologically inferior and that practices involving their domination and exploitation are therefore justified.

Question 6

Prejudice

Answer 6

A prejudice is an irrational attitude toward certain people based solely on their membership in a particular group.

Question 7

Discrimination

Answer 7

Discrimination, on the other hand, refers to behavior, particularly unequal treatment of people because they are members of a particular group.

Question 8

Ethnocentrism

Answer 8

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to view one’s own group or culture as an in-group that follows the best and the only proper way to live.

Question 9

Stereotyping

Answer 9

Stereotyping – rigid and oversimplified images in which each element or person in a category is assumed to possess all the characteristics with that category.

Question 10

American Indian Population Decline

Answer 10

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there were probably between one million and ten million American Indians living in North America. By the late 1800s, there were only about 250,000.

Question 11

Poverty in the U.S.

Answer 11

We are the wealthiest nation in the world. Amidst this wealth, however, one in eight people lives below the officially defined poverty level.

Question 12

Absolute Deprivation

Answer 12

First, Absolute Deprivation: a fixed economic level below which people are considered poor, and this level does not necessarily change as society as a whole becomes more or less affluent.

Question 13

Relative Deprivation

Answer 13

Second, Relative Deprivation; people are poor relative to some standard, and that standard is partially shaped by the lifestyles of other citizens.

Question 14

Cultural Definition of Porverty

Answer 14

Third, the cultural definition of poverty views poverty not only in terms of how many resources people have, but also in terms of why, they have failed to achieve a higher economic level.

Question 15

Basis of U.S. poverty level

Answer 15

The official poverty level in the United States then, is based on the absolute definition of poverty.

Question 16

Children living in poverty

Answer 16

Thirty-four percent of the poor are children under the age of eighteen, and more than half of these children live in single-parent families.

Question 17

Social policies to combat poverty

Answer 17

Some social policies aimed at reducing poverty focus on preparing the poor to compete effectively in the job market.

Question 18

Health-care policy for many decades

Answer 18

Health-care policy for many decades, summarizes the problems as colossal costs, inefficiency, waste, and abuse.

Question 19

Social factors in health-care

Answer 19

Social factors, for example, influence what diseases people contract, who receives health care, and who benefits from the type of health-care organization that is dominant in society.

Question 20

Acute diseases

Answer 20

Most diseases can be classified as acute diseases or as chronic ones. Acute diseases are those with fairly quick, and sometimes dramatic and incapacitating, onset and from which a person either dies or recovers.

Question 21

Chronic diseases

Answer 21

Chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, progress over a long period of time and often exist long before they are detected.

Question 22

Male vs. Female death rate

Answer 22

Males have higher death rates than females at every age, including deaths of fetuses.

Question 23

Rate of people seeking psychological help

Answer 23

In the past forty years, the number of people seeking help for psychological distress, either mild or severe, has increased more than four times.

Question 24

Hospital costs and profits

Answer 24

To keep costs down, and profits up, hospitals are merging, cutting back on services for patients, and placing heavy workloads on nurses.

Question 25

Self-care

Answer 25

Illich(1976) and Califano(1994) argue, people should rely more on self-care and lifestyle change as a way to improve health.

Question 26

Corporate takeover of hospitals

Answer 26

The corporate takeover of hospitals began with the emergence of Medicare and Medicaid, which meant that there were huge profits to be made treating the recipients of these programs.