Free Sociological Theory MCQs with Answers

• A. contagion
• B. convention
• C. group thinks
• D. expressiveness
• E. reformation

Explanation: Contagion theory treats crowd behavior as psychologically infectious, spreading through imitation and suggestibility until individuals…

• A. imitation suggestibility and circular reaction
• B. precipitating factors structural strain and structural conduciveness
• C. norms of the status quo emergent norms and new norms
• D. fashions fads and crazes

Explanation: Contagion theory explains the mob mind through imitation, suggestibility, and circular reaction, in which people copy one another and…

• A. presents three preconditions for collective behavior
• B. none of the above
• C. is of little use in understanding the complexity of collective behavior.
• D. states that each determinant expands the range of potential final outcomes

Explanation: The value-added model identifies several successive determinants of collective behavior, and each one narrows rather than expands the…

• A. Oswald Spengler
• B. Arnold Toynbee
• C. Pitirim Sorokin
• D. None of these

Explanation: Pitirim Sorokin proposed cyclical movement among the sensate, ideational and idealistic cultural systems.

• A. agriculture
• B. health care
• C. all of the above
• D. technology

Explanation: Lenski’s sociocultural evolution theory treats technology as the key force shaping production, inequality, institutions, and the…

• A. functionalist perspective
• B. conflict perspective
• C. interactionist perspective
• D. each of the above

Explanation: Functionalism views major institutions as interdependent parts that perform functions contributing to social order and stability, so their…

• A. Philip Zimbardo
• B. William I. Thomas
• C. Herbert Blumer
• D. Erving Goggman

Explanation: William I. Thomas argued that people act according to their definition of a situation, and those interpretations can shape conduct and…

• A. a response cries
• B. unfocused interaction
• C. interactional vandalism
• D. impression management

Explanation: Interactional vandalism occurs when a subordinate person disrupts the tacit rules governing everyday interaction, often challenging the…

• A. a restaurant kitchen
• B. a nightclub toilet
• C. a football ground dressing room
• D. a clothing store payment counter

Explanation: A front region is a setting where people perform expected public roles and manage their impressions, such as a clothing-store payment…

• A. gender is performative
• B. people, s biological sex underpins their gendered identity
• C. gender is about what we do not who we are
• D. there is no essential or biological basis to gender

Explanation: Butler rejects the idea that biological sex naturally determines gender identity; she argues that gender is produced through repeated…

• A. social structures
• B. social space
• C. social reality
• D. social inequality

Explanation: Social constructionism examines how interaction, language and institutions produce and maintain what people accept as social reality.

• A. social regions
• B. back regions
• C. public regions
• D. front regions

Explanation: Formal role performance takes place in a front region, where individuals follow the expected script of a social occasion and present…

• A. Harold Garfinkel
• B. Max Weber
• C. Erving Goffman
• D. Anthony Giddens

Explanation: Harold Garfinkel coined ethnomethodology to describe the study of the everyday methods people use to produce and understand social order.

• A. the study of sociological research methods
• B. the study of language in everyday conversations
• C. the study of the methods people uses to make sense of the world
• D. the use of experiments in sociological research

Explanation: Ethnomethodology examines the informal, practical methods people use to interpret situations and maintain a sense of social reality in…

• A. both partners can benefit if each play competitively
• B. neither you nor your partner can win
• C. you are more likely to employ a cooperative strategy if your partner exhibits cooperation early and consistently
• D. both partners can benefit if each plays cooperative

Explanation: The Prisoner’s Dilemma illustrates how mutual cooperation can benefit both players, even though each has an incentive to defect…

• A. Contract
• B. Impersonal relations
• C. Modern ideas
• D. None of these

Explanation: In Tönnies’s Gesellschaft, traditional community ties are replaced by impersonal, contractual relations characteristic of modern society.

• A. Conflict theorists
• B. Functionalist approach
• C. Interactionism
• D. None of these

Explanation: The functionalist approach highlights shared values, cooperation and common interests that help maintain social integration.

• A. clear-cut division of labor
• B. pyramidal hierarchy of authority
• C. written record of decisions rules procedures and activities
• D. qualifications based on "whom you know"

Explanation: Weber's bureaucracy is based on merit and technical qualifications, not personal connections or “whom you know.” Division of labour…

• A. Conflict
• B. Competition
• C. Coercion
• D. Co-operation

Explanation: Simmel argued that conflict can maintain or increase group integration by uniting members against a common opponent and clarifying group…

• A. functionalists
• B. conflict theorists
• C. interactionists
• D. classical theorists

Explanation: Conflict theorists focus on how competition and hostility between in-groups and out-groups can produce domination, exclusion and violence.