Free Sociological Theory MCQs with Answers

• A. scientists are guided in their work by social values and interests, so they define and measure phenomena that will support their theories
• B. people negotiate shared definitions of their situation and live according to these often forgetting that these social worlds are not fixed and external
• C. sociologists decide what constitutes social reality and measure only that
• D. terms like reality have no deeper meaning beyond the level of discourse

Explanation: Berger and Luckmann argued that people create and maintain social reality through shared meanings and repeated interaction, then come to…

• A. both a and b
• B. scientific management approach
• C. human relations approach
• D. classical theory

Explanation: Unionisation challenged the view of workers as mere instruments of production and encouraged revisions to both classical organisation…

• A. Interdependence
• B. All of these
• C. Occupational Friendships
• D. Specialization

Explanation: Durkheim linked the division of labour with greater specialisation and organic solidarity, in which people become interdependent through…

• A. Individualism
• B. Social alienation
• C. Social solidarity
• D. None of these

Explanation: Durkheim treated social solidarity as the force integrating individuals into society: mechanical solidarity rests on similarity, while…

• A. Democracy
• B. None of these
• C. Dictatorship
• D. Communism

Explanation: Marx connected alienation to private ownership of the means of production and exploitation of wage labour.

• A. the capitalist
• B. the working class
• C. equally distributed
• D. to none of these

Explanation: Marx argued that workers produce the value appropriated by capitalists as profit, creating exploitation and alienation.

• A. the capitalist
• B. the working class
• C. the middle man
• D. None of these

Explanation: In Marxist sociology, the bourgeoisie are the capitalist class who own the means of production.

• A. both of these
• B. Self-denial
• C. None of these
• D. Self-actualization

Explanation: For Marx, species-being refers to humans’ distinctive capacity for conscious, creative and self-directed activity, which is closest here…

• A. Max Weber
• B. Emile Durkhiem
• C. August Comte
• D. Karl Marx

Explanation: Max Weber used the image of the iron cage to describe how rational rules and bureaucracy can trap individuals in impersonal systems of…

• A. Weber
• B. Marx
• C. Parsons
• D. Lincoln

Explanation: Marx treated capitalist stratification mainly as a conflict between the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the proletariat…

• A. the best possible outcome available
• B. a perspective emphasizing the primacy of ideas
• C. a model based on certain features of a phenomenon
• D. the social agenda of political idealists

Explanation: Weber’s ideal type is an analytical model that selects and emphasises certain features of a social phenomenon to aid comparison.

• A. the tendency for the working class not to realize their own interests
• B. a mode of payment given for outstanding topiary
• C. a form of dual consciousness based on ideology and everyday experiences
• D. a dominant ideology that legitimates economic political

Explanation: Hegemony is domination maintained partly through ideas and cultural beliefs that make an existing economic and political order appear…

• A. Harriet Martineau
• B. Max Weber
• C. Auguste Comte
• D. Emile Durkheim

Explanation: Harriet Martineau examined social status alongside gender, race and other inequalities in Society in America.

• A. Max Weber
• B. Emile Durkheim
• C. Karl Marx
• D. Erving Goffman

Explanation: Conflict theory begins chiefly with Karl Marx’s analysis of class conflict, exploitation and unequal control of economic resources.

• A. bourgeois consciousness
• B. false consciousness
• C. caste consciousness
• D. class consciousness

Explanation: Class consciousness means that workers recognise their shared exploitation and collective interests, enabling them to organise against…

• A. Karl Marx
• B. Erik Olin-Wright
• C. John Goldthorpe
• D. Max Weber

Explanation: Karl Marx defined class through people's relationship to the means of production: owners form the bourgeoisie, while those selling their…

• A. emotional labor
• B. symbolic interactionism
• C. social action
• D. symbiosis

Explanation: The Managed Heart applies symbolic interactionist ideas to how people manage feelings and present emotions during social encounters…

• A. Talcott Parsons
• B. Robert Merton
• C. Emile Durkheim
• D. Ralf Dahrendorf

Explanation: Parsons, Durkheim and Merton are major functionalist thinkers. Ralf Dahrendorf is associated with conflict theory, which stresses power…

• A. Functional theory
• B. Cyclical theory
• C. Conflict theory
• D. interactionist theory
• E. Evolutionary theory

Explanation: Standard classifications of social-change theories include evolutionary, cyclical, functionalist, and conflict approaches.

• A. clear
• B. explicit
• C. encouraged
• D. repeated
• E. vague

Explanation: Emergent norm theory applies to situations in which established expectations are unclear or vague, allowing participants to develop new…