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 feel unable to resist it. It therefore compares crowd participation to a kind of mental illness or loss of rational control.

• 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 reinforce the same emotional response. Structural strain and emergent norms belong to other explanations of collective behavior.

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

Explanation: The value-added model identifies several successive determinants of collective behavior, and each one narrows rather than expands the range of possible outcomes. Because none of the first three statements is accurate, the answer is none of the above.

• 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. This differs from Spengler's civilization life cycle and Toynbee's challenge-and-response theory.

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

Explanation: Lenski’s sociocultural evolution theory treats technology as the key force shaping production, inequality, institutions, and the organisation of society. Agriculture is important in some stages, but technology is the broader determining factor.

• 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 performance is generally seen as useful or desirable. Conflict theory instead highlights domination and inequality, while interactionism focuses on everyday meanings.

• A. Philip Zimbardo
• B. Herbert Blumer
• C. William I. Thomas
• 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 personality. This idea is a foundation of the interactionist tradition.

• 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 interactional order maintained by a more powerful person. Impression management is the attempt to control how others perceive oneself.

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

Explanation: A front region is a setting where people perform expected public roles and manage their impressions, such as a clothing-store payment counter. Kitchens, dressing rooms and toilets are usually back regions where performers can relax their public presentation.

• 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 social performances. Therefore, the claim that biological sex underpins gendered identity does not fit her theory.