Free Social Change and Development MCQs with Answers

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

Explanation: Comte's law of three stages describes theological, metaphysical, and positive stages in the development of human thought.

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

Explanation: Social change includes changes in social relationships, patterns of interaction, and institutions across time.

• 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…

• A. success
• B. anomie
• C. repression
• D. relative depression
• E. solidarity

Explanation: Capitalism in some developing countries operates through authoritarian control, limiting opposition and labour rights, so repression is…

• A. State capitalism
• B. Democracy
• C. A welfare states
• D. Neo-democracy
• E. A liberation government

Explanation: State capitalism uses government ownership, direction or public funds to drive economic development while retaining capitalist production.

• A. hysteria
• B. modernity
• C. countenance
• D. a cultural hangover
• E. anomie

Explanation: Modernity involves openness to new experiences, weakening of traditional authority and acceptance of social change.

• A. Reactionary
• B. Redundant
• C. Revolutionary
• D. Radical
• E. Reformist

Explanation: Revolutionary movements seek fundamental transformation of the existing social or political order and are therefore often hostile to the…

• A. Contagion
• B. Emergence
• C. Convergence
• D. Structural
• E. Reformist

Explanation: Convergence theory holds that collective behaviour attracts people who already share relevant interests, grievances or motivations.

• A. involve the gradual evolution of existing state and class structures into new social arrangements
• B. are most likely to occur when political
• C. often begin with intellectuals withdrawing their support of the existing regime
• D. appear to follow no "natural history"

Explanation: Social revolutions commonly begin when intellectuals and other influential groups withdraw their legitimacy from the existing regime…

• A. social movements appear only in times of controlled slow social change
• B. social movements occur inside the institutional framework of everyday life
• C. people do not readily undertake joint activityJoin Social Campaigns
• D. people intervene in the process of social change

Explanation: The defining feature of a social movement is organised collective effort to influence the direction of social change.

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

Explanation: In Smelser's value-added model, structural conduciveness comes first because the social setting must permit collective action.

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

Explanation: Crowd behaviour is commonly associated with deindividualization, suggestibility, and a sense of invulnerability.

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

Explanation: Literacy, education, and communication expose people to new values and political ideas, supporting movement towards liberal democratic…

• A. a centralized accumulation of power in the hands of those who have access to computers
• B. a plateauing of the amount of automation the workplace
• C. a restriction in the amount of information available to the general public
• 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…

• A. focus on analyzing a single society at a time
• B. try to predict the course of a civilization or society
• 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…

• 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.

• A. Diffusion
• B. Planning
• 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…

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

Explanation: Dispersion means that one invention produces several effects across society.

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

Explanation: Social change is nearly always costly because new arrangements disrupt established habits, institutions and interests, producing…

• 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…