All Free Sociology MCQs with Answers

• A. religion is a form of culture
• B. religion involves belief in God
• C. religion provides a sense of purpose
• D. religion involves beliefs and ritual practices

Explanation: God-belief is not essential in Durkheim's definition because religion centres on the distinction between the sacred and the profane…

• A. functionalism
• B. symbolic interactionism
• C. psychoanalysis
• D. cognitive theory

Explanation: Mead explained the self through interaction, language and role-taking, which are central ideas of symbolic interactionism.

• A. the group of structural theories of society that he was reacting against
• B. the overall impression of ourselves that we try to give off to others
• C. a significant figure in early childhood who teaches us the general values of society
• D. an image of how people in the wider society might perceive our behaviorTry Prep Courses

Explanation: Mead’s generalized other is the internalised viewpoint of the wider community, allowing people to judge how their behaviour is socially…

• A. reverse socialization
• B. face-work
• C. studied nonobservance
• D. anticipatory socialization

Explanation: The student gives excuses to protect a favourable social image after performing poorly, which is face-work in Goffman’s dramaturgical…

• A. nonverbal communication constitutes the majority of a message in communication
• B. verbal communication is more important than touch and touch is more important than artifacts in communicating a message
• C. definitions of the situation differ, and common understanding is impossible
• D. if situations are defined as real they are real in their consequences

Explanation: The Thomas theorem states that when people define situations as real, those situations become real in their consequences.

• A. Jean Piaget
• B. Edward O.Wilson
• C. Erving Goffman
• D. Harry Harlow

Explanation: Edward O. Wilson, a Harvard zoologist, brought sociobiology into major debate by explaining social behaviour partly through evolutionary…

• A. impression management
• B. the Thomas theorem
• C. the looking -glass self
• D. the dramaturgical approachAccess Government Careers

Explanation: The dramaturgical approach, associated especially with Erving Goffman, treats social interaction as a performance involving roles…

• A. salons
• B. newspapers
• C. universities
• D. television

Explanation: Habermas’s account traces the early public sphere to salons, where private individuals gathered to discuss public issues and debate…

• A. bureaucracy
• B. networks
• C. hierarchy
• D. conglomerates

Explanation: Castells describes the network as the characteristic organizational form of the information age, linking people and institutions through…

• A. functionalist perspective
• B. conflict perspective
• C. interactionist perspective
• D. labeling theory

Explanation: The conflict perspective examines how economic power and ownership restrict genuine competition, even in an economy described as free…

• A. Karl Marx
• B. Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim
• C. Karl Marx and Max Weber
• D. All three of them

Explanation: Marx, Durkheim and Weber all examined labor, production, class or the economy, although Marx made economic conflict the central basis of…

• A. anomie
• B. pauperization
• C. de-skilling
• D. alienation

Explanation: Marx used alienation to describe workers’ loss of control over their work, its products and their own productive activity under…

• A. Joan of Arc
• B. Malcolm X
• C. Adolf Hitler
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Charismatic authority rests on a leader’s perceived extraordinary personal qualities rather than on law or tradition.

• A. Emile Durkheim
• B. Adam Smith
• C. Friedrich Engels
• D. the Marx Brothers

Explanation: Marx developed socialist theory in close collaboration with Friedrich Engels, who co-authored major works and helped formulate Marxist…

• A. a clear-cut hierarchy of authority
• B. co-ownership among all workers of the material resource with which they operate
• C. fixed salaries associated with each role
• D. written rules governing conduct

Explanation: Weber's ideal bureaucracy separates officials from ownership of the organisation's material resources.

• A. regimes that use repression against their population
• B. the exclusion of women from the highest levels of politics
• C. the tendency for power inevitably to flow towards top
• D. the legal system of the former communist countries

Explanation: Michels's iron law of oligarchy states that even democratic organisations tend to develop concentrated leadership and control.

• A. bureaucratic organization could become prohibitively expensive to run
• B. social organization could become too efficient
• C. democracy could become a sham if bureaucrats held real power
• D. bureaucratic officials may be able to abuse their power

Explanation: Weber feared that bureaucratic expertise could place real decision-making power in officials, making democratic control largely…

• A. traditional authority
• B. charismatic authority
• C. rational domination
• D. Patrimonialism

Explanation: Charismatic authority rests on followers’ belief in a leader’s exceptional personal qualities or appeal.