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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Schelling describe a decision such as choosing a seat in a theater?
(a) As a decision that can be predicted by mathematical laws of possibility.
(b) As something common and seemingly thoughtless that is nonetheless informed by subliminal motives.
(c) As a special case that cannot be analyzed using any particular interpretive framework.
(d) As a commonplace act that manifests the unconscious childhood sexual trauma of the individual.

2. What does Schelling say is important in economics?
(a) Generalizations.
(b) Natural laws.
(c) Randomness.
(d) Individual behavior.

3. What does Schelling say about human desire?
(a) It is torn between irreconcilable desires for different states.
(b) It is torn within itself and it is split from its own language.
(c) It changes from childhood to teen years to adulthood.
(d) It seeks mathematically-predictable levels of stability.

4. How does Schelling describe discrimination?
(a) As the opposite of the free market.
(b) As a court of opinion and rumor.
(c) As an absolute preference.
(d) As a two-fold distinction.

5. How does Schelling describe the system of skiers going up a lift and coming down the trails?
(a) As a static system.
(b) As an open system.
(c) As a transformative system.
(d) As a closed system.

6. What additional reason does Schelling give for the desire to sit in the back of a theater?
(a) People want to be far from the stage.
(b) People want to feel safe in the dark.
(c) People want to watch people arrive.
(d) People want to be prepared to flee.

7. What does Schelling say a proposition has to have in order to be true?
(a) It has to be mathematically grounded.
(b) It has to be able to be translated into an equation.
(c) It has to be fair and balanced.
(d) It has to be inclusive and correct.

8. What does Schelling say discrimination is?
(a) Refusal to consider reason in a decision.
(b) Conscious awareness of a choice.
(c) Willingness to be biased.
(d) Preference for one race over another.

9. What does Schelling say distinguishes the sociologist from other scientists?
(a) He uses non-mathematical data.
(b) He publishes in different journals.
(c) He studies himself as well as his subject.
(d) He is involved in the life he is studying.

10. What does Schelling say the farmer needs to know?
(a) How much it will cost the driver to take his milk to market.
(b) How much milk his cows are giving.
(c) Who will buy his milk.
(d) Who will take his milk to market.

11. What does Schelling say social scientists hope to describe by characterizing a system?
(a) Heuristics with which to judge behavior in nature.
(b) A mathematical model that accounts for all microbehavior within the phenomenon.
(c) Information about the difficulties of modeling social behavior.
(d) An explanation for other phenomena that fit the same pattern.

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

13. What does Schelling say is the goal of his model for describing segregation?
(a) An end to the tensions between ethnic groups.
(b) A preservation of tensions between ethnic groups.
(c) An acceptable equilibrium between racial groups.
(d) An equitable division of resources between racial groups.

14. Under what condition, does Schelling say, would a black person feel more comfortable reading ads in a church bulletin?
(a) If the ads were placed by people of the same denomination.
(b) If the ads were placed by black people.
(c) If the ads specified that race was not an issue.
(d) If the ads asked reasonable prices for goods being sold.

15. What does Schelling say individual behaviors have in economic analysis?
(a) Mathematical equality.
(b) Randomness.
(c) Statistical insignificance.
(d) Statistical predictability.

Short Answer Questions

1. What tool does Schelling say social scientists use to describe behaviors such as human principles and household activities?

2. What does Schelling use his lecture to an audience of 800 people to illustrate?

3. What does Schelling say the "tipping" critical-mass model first described?

4. What example does Schelling use to show discrimination in an atypical light?

5. What does Schelling say most people will say about their driving?

(see the answer keys)

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