Chapter 2: A Social Scientific Perspective on Religion

1. Which of the following is NOT a focus of sociologists investigating religion?

a. The organizational patterns of religious groups and institutions.

b. The social behavior of individuals within a religious group.

c. Clarification of the moral responsibility of religious persons.

d. Conflicts between religious groups.

e. The conflict between beliefs and institutional norms—such that they influence behavior in contradictory ways.

2. The sociological approach to beliefs stresses the question of

a. how beliefs influence behavior.

b. whether the beliefs are logically consistent and present a coherent theological perspective.

c. whether the beliefs are eternally true or are false and idolatrous.

d. whether the beliefs lead to valid ethical conclusions and moral decisions.

e. all of the above.

3. The sociological perspective is characterized by two fundamental principles:

a. opposition to empiricism and objectivity.

b. reliance on empirical data and firm commitment to a particular ideological perspective in interpreting all data.

c. commitment to an ideology and a firm belief in individualism.

d. rejection of any religious beliefs for one's self and opposition to empiricism.

e. efforts to be objective and reliance on empirical data.

4. Objectivity in sociology means

a. the sociologist must give up any private commitment as a citizen.

b. the sociologist must try to guard against bias and must try to understand other religious groups on their own terms.

c. the sociologist must reject any religious belief or commitment to any religious group.

d. the sociologist must avoid all error and present only the whole truth.

e. all of the above.

5. Which of the following social roles would cause a researcher to be biased in his or her observations?

a. The role of being a white, middle class, American male studying the role of women in Christianity

b. An atheist researcher studying the effects of Christianity on American society

c. An active church member studying symbols of the Christian church.

d. A female researcher studying male Muslims.

e. Any social role can create bias on the part of the researcher; it is the responsibility of all researchers to remain as unbiased as possible when conducting research.

6. How would a sociologist of religion use historical data in sociological research?

a. She would use it to create detailed descriptions of religions in specific historical contexts.

b. She would use it to find patterns between social events and religious circumstances or perspectives.

c. He would use it to prove that a religion was true by showing how long it had lasted.

d. Sociologists could use historical data for any of the above purposes.

7. Understanding the subjective religious meanings of individuals can be best accomplished through which of the following research strategy?

a. Historical

b. Survey

c. Content Analysis

d. Experiment

e. Participant Observation

8. A major concern regarding experimental research in the field of sociology of religion, and the reason why so little experimental research has been conducted in this field is:

a. Religious groups have been very closed systems and have not let researchers do experiments on them.

b. The ethical issues involved with experimenting in this area are enormous.

c. Experimental research in the area of religion is so expensive to conduct that few researchers have the funds to conduct their experiments.

d. Researchers have had little success finding subjects to allow them to experiment with their religion.

e. All of the above.

9. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of participant observation that was mentioned in the text?

a. It allows for observation of symbolic interactions between members of which the actors may be only partially aware.

b. Researchers are better able to find discrepancies between what the people say and what they do.

c. Researchers are able to conduct studies of nonconformist groups that are very private and that maintain a front with the public.

d. Participant observation allows the researcher to go under cover and secretly observe and obtain information for their research.

e. All of the above.

10. Participant observation has been used widely in research on a range of religious groups, but it suffers from the following limitation(s):

a. it is an extremely quick and easy way to gather information.

b. observations may be biased by the observer's opinions and beliefs.

c. it provides quantitative data that can be readily entered into the computer for analysis.

d. all of the above.

11. A major concern or possible limitation of survey research is that

a. the stated intentions or verbal responses of respondents often do not match with their actual behavior.

b. it does not provide quantitative data for analysis.

c. it is only applicable to the study of historical cases and does not lend itself to analysis of contemporary society.

d. the study cannot be replicated by another sociologist.

e. all of the above are problems with survey research.

12. A major advantage of survey research is that it

a. is far better at specifying causal sequence than historical or participant observation methods.

b. allows more insight into the emotional context of the social setting—more feel for the subjective elements that are present.

c. allows no possibility of bias in interpretation of data; the data are always very "hard."

d. involves no interpretation; the data always speak for themselves.

e. is most effective at establishing, with certainty, a correlation between two or more variables.

13. A research method that provides quantitative analysis of existing material and that is especially useful in comparison of historical attitudes and beliefs to contemporary ones is

a. sample surveys.

b. participant observation.

c. experimentation.

d. content analysis.

e. none of the above.

14. When a researcher uses an interview schedule with a series of prompts to get more information, but does not specify a set of pre-established answers from which the respondent must choose, the approach is called

a. forced-choice schedule.

b. semi-structured.

c. closed-ended survey.

d. content analysis.

e. quasi-experiment.

15. The strongest statement of causality that one can make is to be able to say that certain variables are

a. contributing factors

b. necessary factors.

c. sufficient factors.

d. necessary and sufficient factors.

e. highly correlated.

16. Suppose a sociologist were to assert that when the following variables are present, religious bigotry always results: conflict of economic interests between groups, clear symbols which distinguish members of the two groups, and high level of religious ethnocentrism. This assertion means that these variables are

a. contributing factors.

b. necessary.

c. sufficient.

d. necessary and sufficient.

e. not correlated.

17. A common statement of causality made by sociologists—one which asserts a causal relationship but suggests that certain variables are among many causative factors—is to say that the variables are

a. contributing factors

b. necessary factors.

c. sufficient factors.

d. necessary and sufficient factors.

e. highly correlated.

18. A sociologist concludes from her research on church commitment that nonparticipation in church committees or study groups and lack of friendship networks in the church are important contributing factors in the decision to drop formal membership in the congregation. By this, the sociologist means that

a. church members will discontinue membership unless these conditions are present.

b. these conditions are sufficient by themselves to force a person to drop out of a church.

c. these conditions incline one to be dissatisfied with the church and to be more likely to leave, but they are not the only conditions which cause people to leave a church.

d. if these conditions are present, the persons experiencing them will always drop out of church.

e. all of the above.

19. Sociologists talk about having proven their hypothesis when

a. they find a variable to be sufficient.

b. they find several variables to be necessary and sufficient.

c. they have triangulated data using at least three different types of research methods.

d. the research has been replicated (repeated using the same methodology) at least twice with the same results.

e. None of the above. Sociologists tend to avoid the word "proven."

20. Nancy Ammerman found in her participant observation research that she developed rapport with respondents and new doors opened for her when she

a. established her authority as a scientific researcher.

b. fulfilled a familiar female status by becoming pregnant.

c. was able to prove that she was the wife of a minister.

d. finally received her doctorate.

e. preached her first sermon at the church.

21. Triangulation refers to:

a. Use of several methods to be sure data all point toward the same conclusions.

b. Use of three theories to analyze the data from a study.

c. Using a research technique, such as interviewing, to reach several different conclusions about a study, which will later be further analyzed.

d. A diagram displaying data results from a survey.

22. The description of sociology as a “probability science” reflects the fact that:

a. Sociologists are always able to predict probable human behavior.

b. Social research has the ultimate aim of discovering “probable and sufficient” factors.

c. Human interaction develops according to mathematical rules of probable behavior.

d. Sociological research usually points to various contributing factors rather than firm conclusions about necessary or sufficient causes.

e. The results of sociological experimentations are measured against the laws of probability.

23. Which of the following cultural “texts” would be appropriate objects for content analysis by a sociologist of religion?

a. Sermons

b. The World Wide Web

c. Cartoons

d. All of the above

e. None of the above

24. Consider the following two statements in relation to the course material: (A) Values can influence the topics sociologists choose to study and the questions they ask; and (B) Values should influence data collection, analysis, and conclusions that are drawn by sociologists. Which of the following is correct:

a . Only A is an accurate statement

b. Only B is an accurate statement

c. Both A and B are accurate statements

d. Neither A nor B are accurate statements

25. _____ means that the sociologist tries to prevent personal beliefs, values, or other biases from affecting the study, and _____ emphasizes the need to make claims about the social world based on systematically gathered data.

a. Scientism; methodology

b. Archemedism; empiricism

c. Objectivity; empiricism

d. Empiricism; objectivity