Free Social Institutions MCQs with Answers

141 Social Institutions MCQs from Sociology, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

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141 questions · page 4 of 8

  • A. Love and trust
  • B. All of the above
  • C. Absolute fulfilment
  • D. Intimacy

Explanation: The family is often described as a private refuge that provides love, trust, intimacy, and emotional fulfilment.

Correct answer: All of the above
  • A. Childer
  • B. Society
  • C. Biological and social evolution of society
  • D. None of theseFamily

Explanation: The family’s primary reproductive role is broader than simply producing children: it reproduces the population and socialises new members…

Correct answer: Biological and social evolution of society
  • A. family structures
  • B. families of orientation
  • C. Brady Bunch families
  • D. bi-lateral families
  • E. reconstituted families

Explanation: A reconstituted family forms when partners bring children from previous relationships into a new household, commonly called a blended…

Correct answer: reconstituted families
  • A. homogamy
  • B. selective perception
  • C. heterogeneity
  • D. self-selection
  • E. homogeneity

Explanation: Homogamy means choosing a spouse with characteristics similar to one's own, such as social class, religion, education or ethnicity.

Correct answer: homogamy
  • A. bilateral
  • B. extended
  • C. polyandry
  • D. nuclear
  • E. distant

Explanation: An extended family includes relatives beyond parents and children, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Correct answer: extended
  • A. functionalist perspective
  • B. conflict perspective
  • C. interactionist perspective
  • D. labeling theory

Explanation: Functionalists view adoption as serving useful social functions, including providing children with stable families and helping meet family…

Correct answer: functionalist perspective
  • A. Talcott Parsons
  • B. Friedrich Engels
  • C. Margaret Mead
  • D. George Murdock

Explanation: Engels linked the monogamous family to private property, inheritance and the unequal transfer of wealth and power across generations.

Correct answer: Friedrich Engels
  • A. exchange
  • B. matching hypothesis
  • C. complementary needs
  • D. mutual co-dependence

Explanation: The complementary-needs theory of relationships proposes that opposite or complementary personality traits can satisfy each other and…

Correct answer: complementary needs
  • A. bilineal
  • B. neolocal
  • C. patrilineal
  • D. matrilineal

Explanation: Matrilineal descent traces ancestry and inheritance through the mother’s side of the family.

Correct answer: matrilineal
  • A. University of Cambridge
  • B. The Open University
  • C. London Metropolitan University
  • D. University of Manchester

Explanation: The Open University has traditionally been the UK’s largest university by student enrolment, mainly because it provides distance-learning…

Correct answer: The Open University
  • A. Christianity
  • B. Islam
  • C. Hinduism
  • D. Judaism

Explanation: Hinduism is generally classified as polytheistic because it recognises and worships multiple deities, although Hindu beliefs also include…

Correct answer: Hinduism
  • A. world-accommodating
  • B. world-rejecting
  • C. world-enhancing
  • D. world-affirming

Explanation: New Age movements are usually classified as world-affirming because they seek spiritual fulfilment, healing or personal transformation…

Correct answer: world-affirming
  • A. Buddhism
  • B. Confucianism
  • C. Taoism
  • D. Hinduism

Explanation: In this classification, Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are treated as ethical religions centred on moral conduct and disciplined…

Correct answer: Hinduism
  • A. confluent love
  • B. liquid desire
  • C. social reflexivity
  • D. plastic sexuality

Explanation: Giddens discusses confluent love, social reflexivity and plastic sexuality in post-traditional intimacy.

Correct answer: liquid desire
  • A. 22.6
  • B. 23.1
  • C. 25.52
  • D. 28.4

Explanation: The recorded average age at first marriage for women in England and Wales in 1971 was 22.6 years.

Correct answer: 22.6
  • A. flexible monogamy
  • B. reflexive monogamy
  • C. liquid monogamy
  • D. serial monogamy

Explanation: Serial monogamy means having one spouse or partner at a time but entering a succession of long-term relationships after separation or…

Correct answer: serial monogamy
  • A. had begun to emerge through the separation of work and home life
  • B. had begun to disappear as extended networks of kin became more important
  • C. a did not exist in any form
  • D. was simply another institution of patriarchal control?

Explanation: Stone's historical research challenged the claim that the nuclear family was created only by industrialisation, suggesting that it had…

Correct answer: had begun to emerge through the separation of work and home life
  • A. British-born second-generation immigrants from the Asian subcontinent
  • B. White Americans who wanted to convert to Islam
  • C. African-Americans who felt excluded from the ethnic melting pot in the USA
  • D. African-Caribbean's who lived in the inner cities and had a distinctive youth culture

Explanation: The Nation of Islam appealed particularly to African-Americans who experienced exclusion and racial subordination within the dominant…

Correct answer: African-Americans who felt excluded from the ethnic melting pot in the USA
  • A. ethnic minorities practised religion to achieve social acceptance in the culture
  • B. mainstream faiths were becoming increasingly identified with national identity
  • C. the moral teachings of the main religions were becoming relatively similar
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Herberg's account of America's Protestant, Catholic and Jewish 'triple melting pot' linked religious affiliation with national…

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. force influence and authority
  • B. force influence and democracy
  • C. force influence and charisma
  • D. influence charisma and bureaucracy

Explanation: Force compels obedience, influence shapes decisions without direct coercion, and authority is power viewed as legitimate.

Correct answer: force influence and authority