BSocSc Bachelor of Social Science Bachelor of Social Science Sociology 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Social closure, a term associated with Max Weber and Frank Parkin, refers to:
- The end of social mobility in a class system
- Strategies used by groups to monopolize resources by restricting outsider access (Correct answer)
- The closing of social institutions to public scrutiny
- The convergence of social classes in post-industrial societies
Correct answer: Strategies used by groups to monopolize resources by restricting outsider access
Social closure describes processes by which groups create and maintain boundaries to exclude outsiders and gain monopolistic control over resources.
Question 2: Intersectionality, a framework developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, argues that:
- Race, class, and gender operate as entirely separate systems of inequality
- Multiple social identities overlap to create compounding forms of privilege or oppression (Correct answer)
- Gender is the primary axis of social inequality
- Class position fully determines one's experience of discrimination
Correct answer: Multiple social identities overlap to create compounding forms of privilege or oppression
Intersectionality holds that social categories like race, gender, and class are interlocking systems that together shape individuals' social experiences.
Question 3: Which sociological perspective views society as a system of interrelated parts that work together to maintain stability and equilibrium?
- Conflict theory
- Structural functionalism (Correct answer)
- Symbolic interactionism
- Poststructuralism
Correct answer: Structural functionalism
Structural functionalism, associated with Talcott Parsons and Robert Merton, views social institutions as fulfilling necessary functions that maintain social order.
Question 4: The 'Thomas theorem' states that:
- Social inequality is determined by economic base
- Social facts exist independently of individual consciousness
- If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences (Correct answer)
- Deviance is a function of social labeling
Correct answer: If people define situations as real, they are real in their consequences
W.I. Thomas and Dorothy Thomas argued that perceptions of reality, even if inaccurate, produce real social effects through the behavior they generate.
Question 5: In Merton's strain theory, 'ritualism' as a mode of adaptation refers to:
- Rejecting both cultural goals and institutional means
- Accepting goals but rejecting legitimate means to achieve them
- Abandoning goals but rigidly adhering to institutional means (Correct answer)
- Creating entirely new goals and new means
Correct answer: Abandoning goals but rigidly adhering to institutional means
Merton's ritualist has given up on achieving culturally approved success goals but continues to follow the rules and procedures as a way of life.
Question 6: Which concept describes the tendency for individuals to conform to what they believe is the most widely held opinion, even when it is not?
- Groupthink
- False consciousness
- Spiral of silence (Correct answer)
- Cognitive dissonance
Correct answer: Spiral of silence
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's spiral of silence theory posits that people suppress opinions they think are minority views to avoid social isolation.
Question 7: The concept of 'social capital' as developed by Pierre Bourdieu refers to:
- Financial investments in social welfare programs
- The economic value generated by labor unions
- Networks of social relationships and membership in groups that confer benefits (Correct answer)
- Government spending on social infrastructure
Correct answer: Networks of social relationships and membership in groups that confer benefits
Bourdieu defined social capital as the actual and potential resources linked to possession of a durable network of institutionalized relationships.
BSocSc Bachelor of Social Science Bachelor of Social Science Sociology 3
Social closure, a term associated with Max Weber and Frank Parkin, refers to: