Test Questions - Six Levels Of Learning

Test questions may be designed to evaluate your ability to think at any of six different levels of abstraction. To help you decide how to study - since each level of abstraction will require use of a different learning strategy - this handout provides examples of questions typical of each of these six levels. Compare your test questions (from old exams or midterms for your course) with the examples on this handout and decide which level of learning would be most appropriate to incorporate in your studying activities.

To begin with, this handout provides a list of Sociology terms upon which the sample questions, which follow, are based.

Patterns of family organization: vocabulary list

Kin - people who are related by common ancestry or origins; most often blood relations.

Family - a group of kin who live together and function as an ongoing co-operative unit for economic and other purposes.

Consanguine Family - biological relatives.

Conjugal Family - a group of relatives by marriage.

Patrilocal Family - a society where sons are expected to bring their brides to their parents' house and daughters are expected to go to their husband's household.

Matrilocal Family - a society where daughters are expected to remain in their parents' household and the sons move in with their wives.

Neolocal Family - a society where newly married couples set up separate residences independent of either spouses' parents.

Patrilineal - a pattern of descent where the children belong to the kin group of their father. Often found in patrilocal societies.

Matrilineal - a pattern of descent where the children belong to the kin group of their mother. Often found in matrilocal societies.

Bilateral - a pattern of descent where the children are equally related to both their mother's and father's families. Often found in neolocal societies.

Patriarchal Family - a form of family organization in which the father is dominant.

Matriarchal Family - a form of family organization in which the mother is dominant.

Egalitarian Family - a form of family organization in which the father and mother share authority.

Extended Family - a family unit that consists of a nuclear family plus one or more relatives living together.

Nuclear Family - a unit of family organization consisting of a couple and their children living together.

Patterns of family organization: six types of test questions

Part A: Recognition Questions

1. A society where daughters are expected to remain in their parents' household and the sons move in with their wives is called:
   a. a matrilocal society
   b. a neolocal society
   c. a matriarchal society
   d. a bilateral society
2. A group of relatives by marriage constitute
   a. a conjugal family
   b. an extended family
   c. a nuclear family
   d. none of the above
3. People who are related by blood are kin. (True or False?)

Part B: Recall Questions

1. Describe the major differences among patrilineal, matrilineal, and bilateral societies.
2. Define:
   a. extended family
   b. nuclear family

Part C: Application Question

1. Sammy's parents had a party for him on his fifth birthday. They invited both sets of grandparents, and Sammy's father's brother and his children. This is called a gathering of:
   a. a consanguine family
   b. a conjugal family
   c. an egalitarian family
   d. a patriarchal family

Part D: Analysis Questions

1. Discuss the patrilocal society in terms of lineage and dominance of the sexes.
2. Discuss the term conjugal families, by making reference to the different types of societies to which they could belong.
3. Kin can be best analyzed by examining
   a. the society to which they belong
   b. their pattern of descent
   c. their form of family organization
   d. the type of family unit to which they belong

Part E: Synthesis Questions

1. Explain why it is likely that a matriarchal family system would be found in a matrilocal or matrilineal society.
2. Which one of these combinations of society descriptions is unlikely to exist within one society:
   a. neolocal, egalitarian, nuclear
   b. patrilocal, patrilineal, patrilocal
   c. bilateral, egalitarian, nuclear
   d. extended family, conjugal family, kin

Part F: Evaluation Question

1. Describe the economic consequence of a neolocal society.