Free Sociological Theory MCQs with Answers

• A. ways of acting thinking and feeling that are collective and social in origin
• B. the way scientists construct knowledge in a social context
• 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 social influence. The other options confuse social facts with research data, scientific knowledge or unsupported ideas.

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

Explanation: Comte’s positivism applies scientific methods to the systematic study of observable social phenomena. It does not mean merely focusing on society’s favourable features.

• A. 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
• 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. the sociological imagination has always encouraged and enabled the voices of people across the world to be heard in sociological theorizing

Explanation: Postcolonial critiques commonly challenge sociology for its Eurocentric origins, its neglect of colonialism and its division of societies into modern and inferior traditional categories. The claim that sociology has always amplified voices worldwide is not a postcolonial charge against it.

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

Explanation: Foucault analysed sexuality, disciplinary power and discourse as ways knowledge and power shape people and institutions. Therefore, all three concepts are associated with his work.

• A. only women can write from a feminist perspective
• B. other theoretical perspectives have not researched women
• C. they emphasize the centrality of gender in social analysis
• 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. It does not require that only women conduct feminist research or imply that other perspectives have ignored women completely.

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

Explanation: Ethnomethodology, phenomenology and symbolic interactionism focus on meaning-making and interaction in everyday life. Feminism is a separate broad theoretical perspective, although feminist interactionist research can exist.

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

Explanation: Parsons’ structural functionalism asks how societies maintain stability and coordination despite the differing activities of their institutions, making social order its central problem. Class conflict is more directly associated with Marxist theory.

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

Explanation: Feudalism, capitalism and communism describe systems for organising production and ownership of resources. Liberalism is primarily a political and economic ideology, not a mode of production.

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

Explanation: Mead, Goffman and Becker are commonly associated with interactionist sociology, especially the study of meaning, identity and labelling in everyday life. Gramsci was a Marxist theorist concerned with class power and cultural hegemony.

• 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 social institutions. That broad institutional focus makes it a macro-level analysis, not a study of face-to-face interaction.