50 important facts on Sociology (Questions and Answers)

1. According to whom the ‘self develops in a social context and is nurtured by primary groups?

(a) Charles H. Cooley

(b) Ruth Benedict

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(d) Freud

2. Who viewed corporate group in relation to authority and termed it as Verband?

(a) Hobsbawm

(b) Sir Henry Maine

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(d) None

3. Who introduced the term cross cousin?

(a) Morgan

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(b) Tylor

(d) Levi Strauss

4. Society has been defined as a “web of social relationships” by

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(a) Talcott Parsons

(b) Emile Durkheim

(d) R.K. Merton

ADVERTISEMENTS:

5. Durkheim classified society into

(a) Mechanical and organic

(b) Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(d) Open and closed

6. Match the following

Thinkers

(A)Robert Redfield

(B) Malinowski

(D)E.B. Tylor

View on culture

(i) A complex whole

(ii) A response to human needs

(iii) A body of shared understandings

(iv) A set of rules

(a) (A)-iii, , (B)-i, (C)-iv, (D)-ii

(b) (A)- , (B)-ii, (C)-i, (D)-iv

7. There has recently been a revival of interest in the evolution of culture and mainly there are two branches-ecological and technological. Can you identify its two respective proponents?

(a) Kroeber and Ogburn

(b) Ogburn and Wallace

(d) Kroeber and Steward

8. Who are the major proponents of role of language in culture?

(a) Edward Sapir & Benjamin Lee Whorf

(b) R. Benedict & B. Malinowski

(d) None

9. Custom is the established modes of thought and action. Who referred to it as the ‘imponderabilia of actual life’?

(a) M. Fortes

(b) A.L. Kroeber

(d) B. Malinowski

10. ‘Custom is the lens without which one cannot see at all’. With which name this famous quote is associated?

(a) M. Mead

(b) Malinowski

(d) Sumner

11. ______ considered social anthropology as similar to comparative sociology.

(a) Malinowski

(b) Weber

(d) Tylor

12. Who is regarded as the father of sociology?

(a) Marx

(b) Montesquieu

(d) Parsons

13. Who said ________ the purpose of sociology was “to discover the nature, the natural causes and the natural laws of society”?

(a) Emile Durkheim

(b) Max Weber

(d) Karl Marx

14. The most crucial feature of a scientific data is its

(a) Verifiability

(b) Applicability

(d) Validity

15. “Society is a web of social relationship”. With whose name would you identify this celebrated dictum?

(a) Karl Marx

(b) Emile Durkheim

(d) Maclver

16. The most fundamental unit of human society is

(a) Religion

(b) Economy

(d) Individual

17. Who introduced a classification of groups into the little community and the great community?

(a) Maclver

(b) Cooley

(d) Redfield

18. Empirical knowledge essentially involves

(a) Collection of information

(b) Practice

(d) Speculation

19. The basic characteristic of social living is

(a) Cooperation

(b) Competition

(d) Consensus

20. ‘Culture is manmade part of the environment.’ Who said this?

(a) Kroeber

(b) Tylor

(d) None

21. A collectivity of people of a distinct nature in terms of race, descent and culture is referred to as

(a) Race

(b) Ethnicity

(d) Commune

22. ‘Primordial collectivities’ is another name given to

(a) Cultural units

(b) Ethnic groups

(d) Tribal groups

23. A Hindu ethic consisting of the principles of samsara (belief in the transmigration of souls) and karma (doctrine of compensation) was first mentioned by

(a) Karl Marx

(b) Max Weber

(d) Hutton

24. In sociology, who for the first time emphasised social action as the basis for theory?

(a) Talcott Parsons

(b) R.K. Merton

(d) None

25. “The state or process of adjustment to a conflict situation in which overt expressions of hostility are avoided and certain compensatory advantages, economic, social or psychological, are gained by both sides, while leaving the source of conflict unresolved and allowing the structural inequalities giving rise to minority subordination to persist.” This is the definition of

(a) Accommodation

(b) Assimilation

(d) Both a & c

26. What do you call a research, which is concerned with practice, such as social change, therapy to individuals or a small social group, and improving the efficiency of an organisation?

(a) Social research

(b) Orientation research

(d) Action research

27. Who first introduced the concept of alienation into sociological theory?

(a) Hegel

(b) Marx

(d) Seeman

28. Following Marx, there was a spurt in research on the concept of alienation. From where did Marx borrow this concept?

(a) Hegel

(b) Seeman

(d) None of these

29. After Marx, the concept of alienation began more and more to be regarded as a socio- psychological condition of the individual. Who in this context isolated the concept of alienation into powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, isolation and self-estrangement?

(a) Eric Fromm

(b) R. Blauner

(d) R.K. Merton

30. According to whom, the decline of semi- autonomous groups within a society, such as voluntary associations, local communities and neighborhoods gives rise to feelings of alienation and making such people more available for the appeals of extremist groups ?

(a) R. Blauner (in Alienation and Freedom)

(b) E. Fromm (in the Sane Society)

(d) None of these

31. Anascopic is an adjective used to identify the kind of social theory which starts from the individual and looks upward to construct a conception of society. Whose theory do you think falls in such category?

(a) Durkheim’s

(b) Marx’s

(d) None of these

32. A learned predisposition evidenced by the behaviour of an individual or group of individuals to evaluate an object or class of objects in a consistent or characteristic way, is referred to as

(a) Attitude

(b) Behaviour

(d) Judgement

33. Which is the correct group associated with attitude research?

(a) Turnstone, Likert, Guttmann

(b) Veblemn, Turnstone, Likert

(d) Festinger, Likert, Marshall

34. Which is the binding thread between power and authority?

(a) Legitimacy

(b) Bureaucracy

(d) None

35. Max Weber divided the modes of the legitimation of authority into traditional, rational legal and charismatic. The authority of Nelson Mandela, in the present context, represents which among these?

(a) Only traditional

(b) Only rational legal

(d) Both traditional and charismatic

36. ‘Avunculate’ denotes

(a) An anthropological1 terminology

(b) A term denoting the special relationship that persists in some societies between a man and his mother’s brother

(d) None of these

37. He introduced the distinction between the law of public delicts and the law of private delict which allowed for a sociological discussion of the different types of sanctions aroused by offences of each type, even when the actual offence may in one society be socially regarded as of a different category from that in another. Murder for instance is a public delict in modern western societies but among some people it is private delict. Who was the person, who deliberated upon the above views?

(a) R. Brown

(b) B. Malinowski

(d) Anthony Giddens

38. The scientific study of human populations, primarily with respect to their size, their structure and their development’ is

(a) Sociography

(b) Demography

(d) None

39. Who for the first time used the concept of social structure in sociology?

(a) Marx

(b) Weber

(d) Durkheim

40. Nadel’s definition of social structure makes use of

(a) Social role

(b) Social organisation

(d) Social relationships

41. Who regards social structure as the complex of the principal groups and institutions which constitute societies?

(a) Spencer

(b) Nadel

(d) Ginsberg

42. Mark the correct statement.

(a) Role is the unit of an institution

(b) Institution is the unit of social structure

(d) Neither a nor b is true

43.. The sum total of the social relationships

Of all individuals at a given moment in time this definition of ‘social structure’ is widely acknowledged and accepted in sociology and social anthropology. It was given by

(a) B. Malinowski

(b) A.R. Radcliffe-Brown

(d) M. Ginsberg

44. The theory of leisure class was given by

(a) Ivan lllich

(b) Parsons

(d)Veblen

45. ‘Social fact’ is a methodological tool adopted by

(a) Weber

(b) Becker

(d) Merton

46. Concept of white collar crime was given by

(a) Toynbee

(b) Becker

(d) Merton

47. Match the following.

(i) V.Pareto (A) government non- governing elites

(ii) G.Mosca (B) oligarchy

(iii) R. Michels (c) power elite

(iv) C.Wright (d) ruling and ruled classes

a) i-C, ii-D, iii-A, iv-B

b) i-B, ii-C, iii-D, iv-A

c) i-A, ii-D, iii-B, iv-C

d) i-D, ii-C, iii-B, iv-A

48. Ethnocentrism is a technical term for the ‘view of things in which one’s own group is the centre of everything, and all others are scaled and rated with reference to it.’ Who coined this term?

(a) Sumner (b) Tonnies

49. Ethnography refers to the descriptive account of the way of life of a particular society. What is ethnology?

(a) Study of a culture

(b) A detailed account of specific cultural elements in a society

(d) None of these

50. Ethnomethodology is ‘the study of methods employed by the members of society’, the methods being those used to organise and make mutual sense of activities. Who devised this particular approach in sociology?

(a) J.S. Mill

(b) Schutz

(d) Maclver

Answers

1.(a) 2. (c) 3. (b) 4. (c) 5. (a)

6. (c) 7. (c) 8. (a) 9. (d) 10. (c)

11.(c) 12. (c) 13. (c) 14. (c) 15. (b)

16. (d) 17. (d) 18. (c) 19. (d) 20. (a)

21.(b) 22. (b) 23. (b) 24. (c) 25. (a)

26. (d) 27. (b) 28. (a) 29. (c) 30. (c)

31.(c) 32. (a) 33. (a) 34. (a) 35. (b)

36. (c) 37. (a) 38. (b) 39. (c) 40. (a)

41.(d) 42. (c) 43. (b) 44. (d) 45. (b)

46. (c) 47. (c) 48. (a) 49. (c) 50. (c)