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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What else does Schelling say social scientists consider in behavior modeling?
(a) Collective results.
(b) Ethnic conflicts.
(c) Religious history.
(d) Philosophical preferences.

2. What is the first thing Schelling says a social behavior model can be?
(a) A form of accounting.
(b) A hypothetical explanation of individual's motives.
(c) A precise statement of a set of relationships.
(d) A flow chart.

3. What does Schelling say is an atomic pile is an example of?
(a) A lemon model.
(b) A half-life model.
(c) A paradoxical process.
(d) A critical-mass model.

4. What does Schelling say provides clear evidence of black versus white areas in American cities?
(a) Maps.
(b) Demography.
(c) First-hand observation.
(d) History books.

5. What does Schelling say about Christmas cards?
(a) They make a map of social relations.
(b) Sometimes they are sent out of guilt.
(c) They do not follow any laws of distribution.
(d) There is generally a balance between how many each person receives.

6. What does Schelling say race discrimination can lead to?
(a) Violence.
(b) Economic discrimination.
(c) Harmful segregation.
(d) Race hatred.

7. What does Schelling say is the key to predicting whether there will be a critical mass?
(a) Knowing why people delay their decisions.
(b) Articulating the fears that surround the decision in the collective unconscious.
(c) Modeling the undesirability of the decision being weighed.
(d) Defining the number that will constitute the critical mass.

8. How does Schelling say the Russian's space program affected America's space program?
(a) The Americans were determined not to be outdone from the beginning.
(b) There was a short lag before America's investment caught up with and surpassed the Russians'.
(c) The Americans answered the Russians feat for feat.
(d) The Russians were determined to win superiority, but victory cost more than they could afford.

9. What does Schelling say about a bike owner buying a bike for $90 and selling it for $150?
(a) He says that the exchange replaces a real bicycle with abstract money.
(b) He says that the exchange is consistent with laws of capitalism.
(c) He says that the owner gains a profit of $60.
(d) He says that the owner still has to pay overhead, so the exchange is equal.

10. How does Schelling characterize the individual's relationship with the society?
(a) He tends to specialize, and not to see the influences that drive him.
(b) He strives for a full understanding of every part.
(c) He does not need to know how it works, he only has to perform his part.
(d) He tends to organize with others in his similar situation.

11. What does Schelling say about economic systems that allow unequal distribution of wealth?
(a) That they are pernicious.
(b) That they are admirable.
(c) That they compel amazement, but not admiration.
(d) That, based on human nature, they are inevitable.

12. What does the critical mass provide for the individual?
(a) Confidence that he is right.
(b) Deniability.
(c) Safety in numbers.
(d) A plausible excuse.

13. What term does Garrett Hardin use to describe people who infringe on others by following their own desires intently?
(a) Critical mass.
(b) Self-fulfilling prophecy.
(c) Lemons.
(d) Commons.

14. What does Schelling say a doctor administering measles vaccines found, that illustrates the human behavior Schelling is describing?
(a) Arranging to have children vaccinated meant negotiating with the oldest people in the villages.
(b) Once they saw that the vaccine worked, mothers couldn't get enough of it for their children.
(c) When measles began to disappear, mothers would stop having their babies vaccinated, and the disease would come back.
(d) Nothing could convince a certain percentage of the population to get vaccinated.

15. What part of a heating system does Schelling use as a metaphor for human behavior?
(a) A heating fan.
(b) A pipe.
(c) A thermostat.
(d) A boiler.

Short Answer Questions

1. To what does Schelling compare a sociologist?

2. What does Schelling ultimately say about a decision such as where to sit in a theater?

3. How does Schelling describe the system of skiers going up a lift and coming down the trails?

4. Why might segregation result without discrimination?

5. What does Schelling say is essential to economic analysis?

(see the answer keys)

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