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 62 of 63

  • A. charismatic
  • B. legal-rational
  • C. state
  • D. traditional

Explanation: Legal-rational authority is obeyed because commands fall within formally defined offices, rules and procedures.

Correct answer: legal-rational
  • A. Force is very efficient but also very costly
  • B. Honor is denied to those who rule by force alone
  • C. The elite's ideals are fulfilled but tainted by use of force
  • D. Force is the most effective means for political rule

Explanation: Rule based only on force lacks legitimacy and therefore cannot secure willing, stable obedience; those exercising it are denied the honour…

Correct answer: Honor is denied to those who rule by force alone
  • A. characteristic
  • B. charismatic
  • C. legal-rational
  • D. traditional

Explanation: Weber called authority based on the sanctity of long-established customs traditional authority.

Correct answer: traditional
  • A. instrumental conflict theorists
  • B. reactionary conflict theorists
  • C. structural conflict theorists
  • D. dysfunctional conflict theorists

Explanation: Structural conflict theorists argue that broader contradictions within capitalism, including class conflict, economic crises and…

Correct answer: structural conflict theorists
  • A. charismatic authority
  • B. traditional authority
  • C. authority
  • D. force

Explanation: Force is power backed by the threat or use of punishment, while authority is power regarded as legitimate.

Correct answer: force
  • A. the concentric zone theory
  • B. the multiple -nuclei theory
  • C. new urban sociology
  • D. zone sector theory

Explanation: World-systems analysis examines how global capitalism shapes cities and links them through unequal economic relationships, a concern…

Correct answer: new urban sociology
  • A. Ernest Burgess
  • B. Homer Hoyt
  • C. Ferdinand Tonnies
  • D. C.D Harris and Edward L. UlmanTry Prep Courses

Explanation: C. D. Harris and Edward L. Ullman proposed the multiple-nuclei theory, which argues that cities develop around several specialized centres…

Correct answer: C.D Harris and Edward L. UlmanTry Prep Courses
  • A. the interactionist perspective
  • B. the conflict perspective
  • C. the relativist perspective
  • D. the functionalist perspective

Explanation: Functionalism views society and its environment in terms of interdependent parts that tend toward order and equilibrium.

Correct answer: the functionalist perspective
  • A. environmental protection and economic growth are incompatible aims
  • B. environmental protection cannot be achieved without high tech solutions
  • C. an ecological form of economic growth is possible
  • D. consumer demand and market mechanisms can bring about ecologically benign outcomes

Explanation: Ecological modernization argues that environmental protection and economic growth can be reconciled through technology, innovation…

Correct answer: environmental protection and economic growth are incompatible aims
  • A. high rewards and incentives ensure that the most skilled individuals will take the most important social positions
  • B. inequality is inevitable, and we are born into poverty or wealth
  • C. there are no social functions of inequality, so it should be eradicated
  • D. the idea of a meritocracy is a dangerous ideology

Explanation: Functionalists such as Davis and Moore argue that unequal rewards motivate talented people to train for and occupy functionally important…

Correct answer: high rewards and incentives ensure that the most skilled individuals will take the most important social positions
  • A. Interactionist believe that groups will experience conflict only if they are of two distinct ethnic groups
  • B. Interactionists downplay the role of communication in ethnicity
  • C. Interactionists believe the world we experience is socially constructed
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Interactionists focus on meanings created through everyday interaction, so they argue that the social world we experience is socially…

Correct answer: Interactionists believe the world we experience is socially constructed
  • A. have found that American race and ethnic relations have little connection to global issues
  • B. contend that racism serves the economic interests of the capitalist class
  • C. argue that prejudice discrimination and racism operate outside of social structures
  • D. conclude that racist notions serve the economic interests of people of color world-wide

Explanation: Marxist-oriented theorists connect racism with class structure and argue that it can serve the economic interests of the capitalist ruling…

Correct answer: contend that racism serves the economic interests of the capitalist class
  • A. effervescent ceremonies that create a feeling o belonging
  • B. images of gods or totems that are widely recognized
  • C. shared ideas and moral values often symbolized by an object or figurehead
  • D. ideological tools used to obscure class divisions

Explanation: For Durkheim, collective representations are shared beliefs, ideas and moral understandings through which a group expresses its collective…

Correct answer: shared ideas and moral values often symbolized by an object or figurehead
  • A. Giles Kepel
  • B. Amartya Sen
  • C. Samuel Huntington
  • D. Michel Maffesoli

Explanation: Samuel Huntington developed the clash-of-civilizations thesis, arguing that major future conflicts could arise between culturally distinct…

Correct answer: Samuel Huntington
  • A. Christianity,s influence in the West
  • B. the influence of the world religions on social development
  • C. how salvation beliefs have shaped the modern world economy
  • D. the impact of capitalism on the world religionsHire Grant Writers

Explanation: The Protestant Ethic was part of Weber’s wider comparative study of how the world religions influenced social development and economic…

Correct answer: the influence of the world religions on social development
  • A. Max Weber
  • B. Emile Durkheim
  • C. Vilfredo Pareto
  • D. Karl Marx

Explanation: Feuerbach’s idea that humans project their own qualities onto gods strongly influenced Marx’s critique of religion as alienation.

Correct answer: Karl Marx
  • A. traditional authority
  • B. rational argument
  • C. personal qualities
  • D. collective wealth

Explanation: Weber's charismatic authority rests on followers' belief in a leader's exceptional personal qualities, such as courage, vision or…

Correct answer: personal qualities
  • A. social inequality
  • B. social change
  • C. social solidarity
  • D. social conflict

Explanation: Weber examined religion as a force that can produce social change, especially through the Protestant ethic's connection with the rise of…

Correct answer: social change
  • A. alienation
  • B. anomie
  • C. authority
  • D. animism

Explanation: Marx treated religion as an expression of alienation because it projects human powers and hopes onto a supernatural being, making people…

Correct answer: alienation
  • A. collective consciousness
  • B. collective interaction
  • C. collective effervescence
  • D. class consciousness

Explanation: Durkheim called the intense emotional energy generated by collective worship collective effervescence.

Correct answer: collective effervescence