All Free Sociology MCQs with Answers

• A. classes
• B. ethnic groups
• C. nations
• D. religions

Explanation: Marx viewed class conflict, especially between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, as the central force driving historical social change. Ethnic, national and religious conflicts are not the foundation of his primary model.

• A. refers to new forms of social disintegration
• B. is the adjustment gap between material and nonmaterial culture?
• C. occurs when the dominant group forces change upon the subordinate group which lags behind
• D. is society's way of avoiding the social problems that ensue from social change

Explanation: Cultural lag is the gap created when material culture changes faster than nonmaterial culture, such as laws, values and norms. It is associated with William F. Ogburn's explanation of adjustment problems during social change.

• A. Lenski argues that evolution depends largely on changes in a society's level of technology and made of economic production
• B. Social Darwinists like Spencer see evolution as inevitably leading to the downfall of society
• C. Contemporary approaches take a unilinear view of evolution and assume all change equals progress
• D. Parsons suggested that societies tend become simpler over time

Explanation: Gerhard Lenski linked evolutionary change mainly to technological development and the resulting changes in economic production. The other statements reverse or oversimplify evolutionary perspectives: Spencer saw evolution as progress, while contemporary theories reject a single inevitable path.

• A. cultural lag
• B. diffusion
• C. social change
• D. modernization

Explanation: Social change means fundamental, lasting alterations in cultural patterns, social structures and behaviour over time. Cultural lag is only the adjustment gap that may result from such change.

• A. Change
• B. no change
• C. neutrality
• D. None of these

Explanation: Deviance can challenge accepted norms and expose weaknesses in existing institutions, making the deviant an agent of social change. It is not necessarily associated with neutrality or no change.

• A. Function
• B. Constant
• C. Change
• D. None of these

Explanation: Functionalists generally view change as a constant feature of society, although they emphasize gradual adjustment that helps restore social equilibrium. Therefore, it is not treated as abnormal by definition.

• A. progress
• B. it's won destruction
• C. next stage
• D. both b and c

Explanation: In Marx's dialectical view, each historical stage contains contradictions that produce its own destruction and prepare the next stage. Both statements in options b and c are therefore correct.

• A. Four stages of social change
• B. Two stages
• C. Three stages
• D. None of these

Explanation: Comte's law of three stages describes theological, metaphysical, and positive stages in the development of human thought. The question asks for these three stages, not four or two.

• A. Individual changes
• B. Social Change
• C. Cultural Change
• D. None of these

Explanation: Social change includes changes in social relationships, patterns of interaction, and institutions across time. Individual change concerns a person's attributes, while cultural change focuses more narrowly on beliefs, values, and symbols.

• A. necessary and functional
• B. slow and adaptive
• C. responsive but counterproductive
• D. humanistic and rational
• E. abnormal and troublesome

Explanation: Functionalists usually explain development and modernization as gradual, adaptive processes through which institutions adjust to new conditions and maintain integration. They are therefore described as slow and adaptive rather than abnormal or inherently counterproductive.