Free Social Change and Development MCQs with Answers

• A. growth of a generalized belief
• B. precipitating factors
• C. structural conduciveness
• D. structural strain

Explanation: In Smelser's value-added model, structural conduciveness comes first because the social setting must permit collective action. Structural strain, a generalized belief, and precipitating factors follow in the later stages.

• A. deindividualization
• B. invulnerability
• C. suggestibility
• D. transformation

Explanation: Crowd behaviour is commonly associated with deindividualization, suggestibility, and a sense of invulnerability. Transformation is not one of the standard characteristics listed in this model.

• A. literacy education and communication
• B. a centrally dominated social order
• C. extreme social inequalities
• D. homogenous social groups and organizations

Explanation: Literacy, education, and communication expose people to new values and political ideas, supporting movement towards liberal democratic forms. Centralised control and extreme inequality generally restrict this direction of change.

• A. a restriction in the amount of information available to the general public
• B. a plateauing of the amount of automation the workplace
• C. a centralized accumulation of power in the hands of those who have access to computers
• D. an increased involvement in society by people with disabilities

Explanation: The computer revolution can concentrate economic and political power among people and institutions with access to advanced information technology, creating a digital divide. Increased access may help people with disabilities, but it is not the broad structural effect identified here.

• A. try to predict the course of a civilization or society
• B. focus on analyzing a single society at a time
• C. believe that cultures pass through stages of growth quite different from the ones individuals pass through
• D. postulate that each culture possesses a life span of approximately 200 years

Explanation: Cyclical theorists examine the recurring rise, development, decline, and possible replacement of civilisations or societies, so they attempt to trace and predict a civilisation's course. They do not generally assign every culture one fixed lifespan such as 200 years.

• A. clashes over resources and values
• B. diffusion
• C. the mass media
• D. innovationPeople & Society

Explanation: The computer and internet are innovations, meaning newly developed technologies or practices that alter social life. Diffusion refers instead to the spread of an existing innovation from one society or group to another.

• A. Planning
• B. Diffusion
• C. Social struggle
• D. None of these

Explanation: Diffusion spreads cultural traits, ideas and practices from one group or society to another, making it a major source of cultural change in modern interconnected societies. Planning may direct change, but diffusion commonly produces it as an unintended by-product.

• A. Automobile
• B. Radio
• C. both a and b
• D. None of these

Explanation: Dispersion means that one invention produces several effects across society. The automobile affects transport, roads, industry and settlement patterns, while radio affects communication, entertainment, politics and advertising, so both examples fit.

• A. Priceless
• B. Costly
• C. Ineffective
• D. None of these

Explanation: Social change is nearly always costly because new arrangements disrupt established habits, institutions and interests, producing adjustment expenses and resistance. Its benefits may appear later, but the transition usually imposes costs on some groups.

• A. material invention
• B. Social Invention
• C. both of these
• D. None of these

Explanation: A democratic government is an organised social arrangement or institution rather than a physical object, so it is classified as a social invention. Material inventions include tools, machines and other tangible products.