Free Sociological Theory MCQs with Answers

• A. interviews
• B. experiments
• C. observation
• D. quantitative measurement
• E. surveys

Explanation: Symbolic interactionists study meanings formed through everyday interaction, so direct observation is especially useful for seeing how…

• A. minority rights
• B. women
• C. latent functions
• D. consensus
• E. the rights of workers

Explanation: Conflict theory emphasizes inequality, power and competition between groups, so critics argue that it underestimates consensus…

• A. Symbolic Interaction ism
• B. Feminism
• C. Conflict
• D. Staples
• E. Structural Functionalism

Explanation: Structural functionalism views society as a system whose institutions perform connected functions, much like interdependent parts of a…

• A. there are no absolutes concerning social life
• B. all though would eventually lead to justifying human action
• C. humans would eventually seek out the most efficient means to accomplish a particular task
• D. sociologists should be primarily concerned with solving problems
• E. early philosophers were too concerned with creating a utopian society

Explanation: For Weber, rationalization is the growing replacement of tradition and emotion by calculation, rules and efficiency.

• A. Comte
• B. Rousseau
• C. Mead
• D. Durkheim
• E. Locke

Explanation: Émile Durkheim developed the concept of anomie to describe a condition in which social norms weaken or fail to regulate behaviour, often…

• A. the United States
• B. Canada
• C. Australia
• D. Europe

Explanation: Sociology emerged as a distinct discipline in nineteenth-century Europe, especially in response to the Industrial Revolution, urbanization…

• A. Mills
• B. Blumer
• C. Lemert
• D. Berger
• E. Durkheim

Explanation: C. Wright Mills introduced the term sociological imagination in 1959 to describe linking personal experiences with wider social forces and…

• A. taking a stand on the issues neglected by feminism
• B. the recognition of difference and diversity in women's lives
• C. studying society from the perspective of women
• D. a tendency to ignore the gendered nature of knowledge

Explanation: Feminist standpoint theory examines knowledge and society from the perspectives of women, especially groups whose experiences have been…

• A. theory must be augmented by straightforward plausible methods
• B. we can find true objective knowledge of the world through our senses
• C. the best social theory was developed in Prague
• D. Knowledge is produced in everyday practical situations

Explanation: Pragmatism treats knowledge as something tested and produced through practical activity in everyday situations, rather than as a purely…

• A. affectual
• B. affective
• C. effective
• D. infected

Explanation: Weber’s fourth type is affectual action, which is guided by emotions or feelings.

• A. the way scientists construct knowledge in a social context
• B. ways of acting thinking and feeling that are collective and social in origin
• C. data collected about social phenomena that are proven to be correct
• D. ideas and theories that have no basis in the external physical world

Explanation: For Durkheim, social facts are socially produced ways of acting, thinking and feeling that exist beyond any one individual and exert…

• A. a theory that emphasizes the positive aspects of society
• B. an unscientific set of laws about social progress
• C. a theory that posits difficult s and sets out to answer them
• D. the precise scientific study of observable phenomena

Explanation: Comte’s positivism applies scientific methods to the systematic study of observable social phenomena.

• A. the sociological imagination has always encouraged and enabled the voices of people across the world to be heard in sociological theorizing
• B. the sociological gaze is Eurocentric failing to incorporate the experience of formerly colonized societies
• C. sociology has described Western societies as developed or modem in opposition to the notion of non-Western societies as pre-modern traditional inferiors
• D. standard accounts of the origins of sociology focus on the industrial and French revolutions giving no weight to the significance of colonialism in shaping modern societies

Explanation: Postcolonial critiques commonly challenge sociology for its Eurocentric origins, its neglect of colonialism and its division of societies…

• A. all of the these
• B. discipline
• C. discourse
• D. sexuality

Explanation: Foucault analysed sexuality, disciplinary power and discourse as ways knowledge and power shape people and institutions.

• A. only women can write from a feminist perspective
• B. they emphasize the centrality of gender in social analysis
• C. other theoretical perspectives have not researched women
• D. men and women view the and world in different ways

Explanation: Feminist sociology is distinguished by placing gender and gendered power relations at the centre of social analysis.

• A. ethnomethodology
• B. symbolic interactionism
• C. phenomenology
• D. feminism

Explanation: Ethnomethodology, phenomenology and symbolic interactionism focus on meaning-making and interaction in everyday life.

• A. the problem of social orderHire Grant Writers
• B. the problem of economic restructuring
• C. the problem of social welfare
• D. the problem of class conflict

Explanation: Parsons’ structural functionalism asks how societies maintain stability and coordination despite the differing activities of their…

• A. feudalism
• B. liberalism
• C. capitalism
• D. communism

Explanation: Feudalism, capitalism and communism describe systems for organising production and ownership of resources.

• A. George Herbert Mead
• B. Erving Goffman
• C. Antonio Gramsci
• D. Howard Becker

Explanation: Mead, Goffman and Becker are commonly associated with interactionist sociology, especially the study of meaning, identity and labelling in…

• A. Macro-level analysis
• B. micro-level analysis
• C. resurgent fundamentalism
• D. the interactionist approach to religionAccess Government Careers

Explanation: Weber connects Protestant religious values with the development of modern capitalism, treating religion and the economy as large-scale…