All Free Sociology MCQs with Answers

Every Sociology question in the bank, across all chapters, each with the correct answer and a written explanation. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

1,258 questions · page 30 of 63

  • A. bilineal
  • B. neolocal
  • C. patrilineal
  • D. matrilineal

Explanation: Matrilineal descent traces ancestry and inheritance through the mother’s side of the family.

Correct answer: matrilineal
  • A. University of Cambridge
  • B. The Open University
  • C. London Metropolitan University
  • D. University of Manchester

Explanation: The Open University has traditionally been the UK’s largest university by student enrolment, mainly because it provides distance-learning…

Correct answer: The Open University
  • A. Christianity
  • B. Islam
  • C. Hinduism
  • D. Judaism

Explanation: Hinduism is generally classified as polytheistic because it recognises and worships multiple deities, although Hindu beliefs also include…

Correct answer: Hinduism
  • A. world-accommodating
  • B. world-rejecting
  • C. world-enhancing
  • D. world-affirming

Explanation: New Age movements are usually classified as world-affirming because they seek spiritual fulfilment, healing or personal transformation…

Correct answer: world-affirming
  • A. Buddhism
  • B. Confucianism
  • C. Taoism
  • D. Hinduism

Explanation: In this classification, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are treated as ethical religions centred on moral conduct and disciplined…

Correct answer: Hinduism
  • A. confluent love
  • B. liquid desire
  • C. social reflexivity
  • D. plastic sexuality

Explanation: Giddens discusses confluent love, social reflexivity and plastic sexuality in post-traditional intimacy.

Correct answer: liquid desire
  • A. 22.6
  • B. 23.1
  • C. 25.52
  • D. 28.4

Explanation: The recorded average age at first marriage for women in England and Wales in 1971 was 22.6 years.

Correct answer: 22.6
  • A. flexible monogamy
  • B. reflexive monogamy
  • C. liquid monogamy
  • D. serial monogamy

Explanation: Serial monogamy means having one spouse or partner at a time but entering a succession of long-term relationships after separation or…

Correct answer: serial monogamy
  • A. had begun to emerge through the separation of work and home life
  • B. had begun to disappear as extended networks of kin became more important
  • C. a did not exist in any form
  • D. was simply another institution of patriarchal control?

Explanation: Stone's historical research challenged the claim that the nuclear family was created only by industrialisation, suggesting that it had…

Correct answer: had begun to emerge through the separation of work and home life
  • A. British-born second-generation immigrants from the Asian subcontinent
  • B. White Americans who wanted to convert to Islam
  • C. African-Americans who felt excluded from the ethnic melting pot in the USA
  • D. African-Caribbean's who lived in the inner cities and had a distinctive youth culture

Explanation: The Nation of Islam appealed particularly to African-Americans who experienced exclusion and racial subordination within the dominant…

Correct answer: African-Americans who felt excluded from the ethnic melting pot in the USA
  • A. ethnic minorities practised religion to achieve social acceptance in the culture
  • B. mainstream faiths were becoming increasingly identified with national identity
  • C. the moral teachings of the main religions were becoming relatively similar
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Herberg's account of America's Protestant, Catholic and Jewish 'triple melting pot' linked religious affiliation with national…

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. force influence and authority
  • B. force influence and democracy
  • C. force influence and charisma
  • D. influence charisma and bureaucracy

Explanation: Force compels obedience, influence shapes decisions without direct coercion, and authority is power viewed as legitimate.

Correct answer: force influence and authority
  • A. bestowing status
  • B. transmitting knowledge
  • C. promoting social and political change
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: The most basic manifest function of education is the deliberate transmission of knowledge and skills to the next generation.

Correct answer: transmitting knowledge
  • A. two-thirds of divorced men
  • B. three-fourths of divorced women
  • C. 80 percent of divorced women
  • D. two-thirds of divorced women

Explanation: Marriage and divorce research in the United States has commonly reported that about two-thirds of divorced women eventually remarry…

Correct answer: two-thirds of divorced women
  • A. function as "specialists in recreational care-giving"
  • B. carry on a "ritualistic"(primarily symbolic) relationship with their grandchildren
  • C. never see their grandchildren
  • D. be actively involved in everyday routine care of their grandchildren and exercise substantial authority over them

Explanation: Cherlin and Furstenberg described the common grandparent role as a specialist in recreational caregiving, offering enjoyment and support…

Correct answer: function as "specialists in recreational care-giving"
  • A. increase in the number of men with a college education
  • B. shift in the economy of the United States from manufacturing to service industries
  • C. increasing birth-rate
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: The shift from manufacturing to service-sector employment increased the demand for paid workers and encouraged both spouses to participate…

Correct answer: shift in the economy of the United States from manufacturing to service industries
  • A. Neighborhood
  • B. Class
  • C. Family
  • D. None of these

Explanation: A family is formed through relationships of consanguinity, affinity, and often shared residence.

Correct answer: Family
  • A. Market economies rely on privately held property whereas command economies rely on publicly-held property
  • B. Market economies rely on cooperation whereas command economies rely on conflict
  • C. Market economies rely on free markets whereas command economies rely on consumer sovereignty
  • D. Market and command economies do not differ substantially, but their political institutions doEconomics

Explanation: Market economies are primarily organised around private ownership and voluntary exchange, whereas command economies place major productive…

Correct answer: Market economies rely on privately held property whereas command economies rely on publicly-held property
  • A. are organizations designed to gain control of the government but not necessarily by putting their own people in office
  • B. must appeal to a broad base of the electorate in order to win
  • C. tend to be pulled to the "right"
  • D. tend to be barriers between citizens and the government

Explanation: Political parties must attract support beyond a narrow interest group, so they appeal to a broad electorate to win elections.

Correct answer: must appeal to a broad base of the electorate in order to win
  • A. is the authoritative formulation of policies that are binding and pervasive throughout the society?
  • B. is a state in which the government is concerned with satisfying the needs of the total person?
  • C. is a state in which the government seeks to control all subordinate governmental units all institutions and even personal associations and individual families
  • D. can incorporate only in a socialist society

Explanation: Totalitarianism seeks comprehensive control over government, institutions, associations, families and even private life.

Correct answer: is a state in which the government seeks to control all subordinate governmental units all institutions and even personal associations and individual families