Free Sociological Theory MCQs with Answers

• A. two stages
• B. four stages
• C. three stages
• D. None of these

Explanation: Comte’s law of three stages describes intellectual development from the theological stage, through the metaphysical stage, to the positive…

• A. Neighbor
• B. Friend
• C. Associate
• D. None of theseTry Science Kits

Explanation: The Latin word socius means an associate, companion, or social partner, while the Greek logos means study or knowledge.

• A. Social work
• B. None of these
• C. Society
• D. Sociology

Explanation: Sociology explains social events by placing them within their wider social, cultural, and historical environment rather than treating them…

• A. Human political life
• B. Human social life
• C. Human economic life
• D. None of theseTake Sociology Courses

Explanation: Sociology focuses on human social life, including interaction, groups, institutions, relationships, and patterns of social organisation.

• A. sociologists like to put a value on different theories
• B. Knowledge refers to people and their values
• C. theorists interpret the world in terms of their own values
• D. attempts to provide knowledge about the world are always valuable

Explanation: Weber meant that researchers select and interpret aspects of reality through their own cultural and intellectual values, even though they…

• A. Society
• B. None of these
• C. Anthropology
• D. Sociology

Explanation: Sociology is the systematic or scientific study of human social life, social relationships and institutions.

• A. a form of world government with global citizenship
• B. rule by the worlds educated elites
• C. democratic government at the level of the city
• D. democratic government that is representative of a multicultural societyTake Sociology Courses

Explanation: Cosmopolitan democracy extends democratic participation beyond the nation-state and envisages global citizenship and institutions of world…

• A. the absolutist mechanism
• B. the decivilizing process
• C. the monopoly mechanism
• D. the courtizaion process

Explanation: Norbert Elias used the idea of the monopoly mechanism to describe competition among social units that gradually concentrated power and…

• A. globalization
• B. work
• C. economics
• D. culture

Explanation: Frankfurt School theorists retained Marx’s concern with capitalism but argued that he underemphasized culture, ideology and mass media in…

• A. false consciousness
• B. class consciousness
• C. socialist consciousness
• D. surplus value

Explanation: Marx argued that capitalist ideology produces false consciousness, causing workers to misunderstand their exploitation and accept the…

• A. William F. Oghurn
• B. Talcott Parsons
• C. Auguste Comte
• D. Thorstein Veblen

Explanation: Thorstein Veblen used the idea of vested interests to describe groups that protect established economic advantages and resist changes…

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

Explanation: The functionalist perspective emphasizes social stability, equilibrium, and the contribution of institutions to maintaining order, so it…

• A. unilinear theory
• B. cyclical theory
• C. multilinear theory
• D. conflict theory

Explanation: Comte and Durkheim presented social development as a progression through successive stages, which is characteristic of unilinear…

• A. misleading
• B. neutral
• C. illusory
• D. distorting

Explanation: In the critical conception, ideology is treated as misleading, illusory, and distorting because it can conceal unequal power relations.

• A. bureaucracy
• B. hierarchy
• C. networks
• D. conglomerates

Explanation: Manuel Castells argues that networks are the defining organisational structure of the information age, linking people, institutions, and…

• A. normal accidents
• B. the Peter principle
• C. the school principal
• D. the Per row principle

Explanation: Charles Perrow called failures that are unavoidable in tightly coupled and complex technological systems “normal accidents.” The Peter…

• A. Talcott Parsons
• B. Karl Marx
• C. Emile Durkheim
• D. each of the above

Explanation: Karl Marx viewed conflict between social classes as a normal force that drives historical and social change.

• A. differentiation
• B. value generalization
• C. inclusion
• D. adaptive upgrading

Explanation: Value generalization occurs when specific values are broadened into more universal principles; preventive medicine extends the value of…

• A. charisma
• B. magnetism
• C. equilibrium
• D. status quo

Explanation: Parsons used equilibrium to describe the tendency of a social system to maintain stability and restore balance when disturbed.

• A. it doesn't pay attention to male victims
• B. it lacks objectivity
• C. it is too extreme
• D. it is not testable
• E. it is not really a theory

Explanation: Feminist theory is often criticized for possible bias because it focuses primarily on gender inequality and women's experiences, raising…