Culture, Socialization and Social Institutions MCQs 2026

A subculture is a cultural pattern

1. A Found outside all societies ✓
2. B Without any norms ✓
3. C Within a larger culture ✓
4. D Limited to biology ✓

Primary socialization takes place mainly during

1. A Late retirement ✓
2. B Middle adulthood ✓
3. C Childhood ✓
4. D Old age ✓

Norms are

1. A Rules that guide behavior ✓
2. B Only economic prices ✓
3. C Genetic codes ✓
4. D Natural disasters ✓

Mores are norms that have

1. A No social importance ✓
2. B Strong moral significance ✓
3. C Only technical meaning ✓
4. D No sanctions ✓

Folkways are best described as

1. A Formal statutes ✓
2. B Sacred doctrines only ✓
3. C Criminal codes ✓
4. D Customary everyday norms ✓

A taboo is a

1. A Strongly prohibited act ✓
2. B Minor habit ✓
3. C Neutral preference ✓
4. D Temporary fashion ✓

Values are

1. A Court forms only ✓
2. B Random gestures ✓
3. C Ideas about what is good or desirable ✓
4. D Weather reports ✓

Beliefs in culture are

1. A Market contracts ✓
2. B Ideas accepted as true ✓
3. C Only police rules ✓
4. D Physical tools ✓

Sanctions may be classified as

1. A Urban and rural only ✓
2. B Ancient and modern only ✓
3. C Public and private roads ✓
4. D Positive or negative, formal or informal ✓

The concept of cultural lag was given by

1. A Karl Marx ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C William F. Ogburn ✓
4. D Ibn Khaldun ✓

Ethnocentrism usually promotes

1. A In-group bias ✓
2. B Perfect neutrality ✓
3. C Cultural equality in all cases ✓
4. D No group identity ✓

Xenocentrism means preference for

1. A Ancient tools only ✓
2. B Foreign culture over local culture ✓
3. C No cultural contact ✓
4. D Only rural customs ✓

The family is especially important because it performs

1. A Weather forecasting ✓
2. B Reproduction and primary socialization ✓
3. C Only road construction ✓
4. D Currency printing ✓

A social institution is a

1. A Temporary mood ✓
2. B Private memory only ✓
3. C Stable pattern meeting social needs ✓
4. D Random crowd ✓

Multiculturalism emphasizes

1. A One official job only ✓
2. B No social groups ✓
3. C Isolation from culture ✓
4. D Recognition of cultural diversity ✓

Kinship organizes social relationships based on

1. A Only market exchange ✓
2. B Blood, marriage or adoption ✓
3. C Weather and climate ✓
4. D Only political votes ✓

Endogamy means marriage

1. A Outside one group ✓
2. B Without social approval ✓
3. C Only by civil law ✓
4. D Within one group ✓

Acculturation refers to cultural change caused by

1. A Contact between cultures ✓
2. B Soil erosion ✓
3. C Genetic mutation only ✓
4. D Solar movement ✓

Marriage is sociologically understood as a

1. A Weather event ✓
2. B Private thought only ✓
3. C Socially recognized union ✓
4. D Type of bureaucracy ✓

Assimilation is the process in which a minority group

1. A Rejects all interaction ✓
2. B Adopts dominant cultural patterns ✓
3. C Creates only material tools ✓
4. D Becomes a biological species ✓

An extended family includes

1. A Only one person ✓
2. B Class fellows only ✓
3. C Office colleagues only ✓
4. D Relatives beyond parents and children ✓

A nuclear family normally consists of

1. A Parents and their children ✓
2. B All clan members ✓
3. C Only unmarried cousins ✓
4. D A political party ✓

A counterculture is different from a subculture because it

1. A Has no members ✓
2. B Exists only in villages ✓
3. C Rejects all language ✓
4. D Opposes dominant values ✓

Authority is different from power because authority is

1. A Always violent ✓
2. B Never organized ✓
3. C Power accepted as legitimate ✓
4. D Only economic exchange ✓

Material culture consists mainly of

1. A Ideas and values ✓
2. B Physical objects made or used by people ✓
3. C Moral beliefs only ✓
4. D Political authority ✓

Non-material culture includes

1. A Roads and bridges ✓
2. B Farm machinery ✓
3. C Printed currency only ✓
4. D Values, norms and beliefs ✓

Socialization is the process by which individuals learn

1. A Culture, norms and social roles ✓
2. B Only biological reflexes ✓
3. C Mineral composition ✓
4. D Weather patterns ✓

The primary agent of socialization in early childhood is usually the

1. A State bureaucracy ✓
2. B Mass media ✓
3. C Family ✓
4. D Trade union ✓

Peer groups become especially important during

1. A Infancy only ✓
2. B Adolescence ✓
3. C Old age only ✓
4. D Prenatal life ✓

Anticipatory socialization means learning

1. A A future role before entering it ✓
2. B Only childhood habits ✓
3. C Past rituals of ancestors ✓
4. D No social rules ✓

Resocialization refers to

1. A Repeating census work ✓
2. B Rejecting all learning ✓
3. C Measuring income groups ✓
4. D Learning new norms after old roles change ✓

Religion as an institution mainly provides

1. A Sacred beliefs, rituals and moral meanings ✓
2. B Only farm tools ✓
3. C A postal service ✓
4. D Road traffic rules only ✓

Secularization refers to the

1. A Growth of kinship ties ✓
2. B Creation of clans ✓
3. C Decline of religious influence in public life ✓
4. D Increase in rainfall ✓

Education as a social institution primarily transmits

1. A Mineral deposits ✓
2. B Weather cycles ✓
3. C Blood groups ✓
4. D Knowledge, skills and values ✓

The hidden curriculum refers to

1. A Unwritten norms learned at school ✓
2. B Only printed textbooks ✓
3. C Official exam dates ✓
4. D Laboratory chemicals ✓

The economy is the institution concerned with

1. A Kinship names only ✓
2. B Production, distribution and consumption ✓
3. C Sacred rituals only ✓
4. D Childhood play ✓

The political institution is mainly concerned with

1. A Family cooking ✓
2. B Artistic taste only ✓
3. C Power, authority and governance ✓
4. D Private dreams ✓

Weber described bureaucracy as organization based on

1. A Hierarchy, rules and specialization ✓
2. B Kinship only ✓
3. C No records ✓
4. D Personal favoritism only ✓

Legitimacy in political sociology means

1. A Physical strength only ✓
2. B Economic profit ✓
3. C Absence of institutions ✓
4. D Accepted right to rule ✓

Power is best defined as the ability to

1. A Ignore all others ✓
2. B Influence or control behavior ✓
3. C Create seasons ✓
4. D End all conflict ✓

Patriarchy refers to a social system in which

1. A Men hold dominant authority ✓
2. B Children govern elders ✓
3. C No gender roles exist ✓
4. D Markets disappear ✓

Social institutions contribute to social control by

1. A Removing all norms ✓
2. B Ending socialization ✓
3. C Replacing culture with biology ✓
4. D Regulating expected behavior ✓

Formal social control is exercised through

1. A Casual gossip only ✓
2. B Laws, courts and official rules ✓
3. C Private feelings only ✓
4. D Unwritten jokes ✓

Informal social control commonly includes

1. A Only prison sentences ✓
2. B Constitutional courts ✓
3. C Praise, ridicule and gossip ✓
4. D Military law only ✓

Role conflict occurs when a person faces

1. A Incompatible demands from different roles ✓
2. B No social position ✓
3. C Only biological change ✓
4. D A single clear duty ✓

Role strain means difficulty caused by

1. A No assigned status ✓
2. B Competing demands within one role ✓
3. C Only intergroup war ✓
4. D Seasonal migration ✓

A status set is the collection of

1. A Only legal cases ✓
2. B Only income sources ✓
3. C Only school grades ✓
4. D All statuses held by a person ✓

Social mobility may be classified as

1. A Vertical or horizontal ✓
2. B Hot or cold ✓
3. C Sacred or profane only ✓
4. D Legal or illegal only ✓

Cultural transmission means passing culture

1. A Only through courts ✓
2. B Only by inheritance of blood ✓
3. C From one generation to the next ✓
4. D Only through climate ✓

Institutionalization is the process by which behavior becomes

1. A Purely biological ✓
2. B Established and norm-governed ✓
3. C Completely random ✓
4. D Invisible to society ✓

Material culture consists of

1. A shared beliefs and language only ✓
2. B physical objects humans create and use ✓
3. C norms without any artifacts ✓
4. D values that cannot be observed ✓

A cultural trait is

1. A the entire way of life of a society only ✓
2. B a biological instinct without learning ✓
3. C a single element of culture such as a custom or tool type ✓
4. D a government constitution exclusively ✓

Folkways are norms that

1. A are codified as serious crimes always ✓
2. B carry informal sanctions and govern routine etiquette ✓
3. C have the strongest legal penalties ✓
4. D are identical to mores in all societies ✓

Culture shock is experienced when

1. A always remaining in one's birthplace ✓
2. B entering an unfamiliar culture and struggling with new norms ✓
3. C mastering every foreign language instantly ✓
4. D rejecting all cultural learning permanently ✓

Subculture refers to

1. A the entire society without variation ✓
2. B only prehistoric societies ✓
3. C a group within a larger culture with distinctive norms and values ✓
4. D a culture completely isolated from all contact ✓

Counterculture actively

1. A mirrors mainstream norms exactly ✓
2. B exists only in biology textbooks ✓
3. C never influences social change ✓
4. D rejects or opposes dominant cultural values ✓

Language is central to culture because it

1. A exists only as private thought without communication ✓
2. B enables shared meaning, transmission of knowledge and social cohesion ✓
3. C prevents all social interaction ✓
4. D is unrelated to identity formation ✓

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests language

1. A influences or shapes perception and thought ✓
2. B has zero effect on cognition ✓
3. C determines biology exclusively ✓
4. D prevents all cultural variation ✓

Symbols in culture are

1. A only gold coins used as money ✓
2. B objects with fixed universal meaning everywhere ✓
3. C anything carrying meaning recognized by members of a society ✓
4. D purely biological signals without learning ✓

Rites of passage mark

1. A permanent exclusion from society always ✓
2. B transitions from one social status to another ✓
3. C only economic transactions in markets ✓
4. D random events without cultural script ✓

The looking-glass self (Cooley) means self-concept arises from

1. A genetic code without social interaction ✓
2. B economic income alone ✓
3. C complete isolation from all groups ✓
4. D imagining how others perceive and judge us ✓

Mead's generalized other refers to

1. A internalized attitudes of the wider community guiding behavior ✓
2. B one specific parent only ✓
3. C a biological instinct without society ✓
4. D a legal statute unread by citizens ✓

Significant others in Mead's theory are

1. A the entire world population at once ✓
2. B only government officials ✓
3. C specific individuals who shape a child's early self ✓
4. D random strangers without influence ✓

Role strain refers to

1. A conflict between two different statuses only ✓
2. B complete absence of any expectations ✓
3. C roles without any attached status ✓
4. D tension among expectations within a single role ✓

The functionalist view of the family emphasizes

1. A only conflict and oppression without benefits ✓
2. B its contributions to social stability and reproduction of society ✓
3. C instant elimination of all gender roles ✓
4. D replacement of education by markets alone ✓

A conflict perspective on education stresses

1. A perfect meritocracy without bias always ✓
2. B schools having no link to power structures ✓
3. C schools reproducing class inequality and dominant ideology ✓
4. D education eliminating all stratification instantly ✓

Manifest function of religion includes

1. A only latent disruption of social order ✓
2. B concealing inequality without any integrative role ✓
3. C eliminating all rituals from society ✓
4. D providing meaning, community and moral guidance ✓

Latent function of education may include

1. A only transmitting printed textbook facts ✓
2. B matchmaking and peer-network formation beyond formal learning ✓
3. C eliminating all peer contact ✓
4. D abolishing credentialism entirely ✓

In Pakistan, madrassas function as institutions that

1. A provide religious education and socialization for many students ✓
2. B exclusively teach advanced physics laboratories ✓
3. C replace all family socialization at birth only ✓
4. D operate without transmitting any values ✓

Cultural diffusion is the spread of

1. A genetic mutation within one family only ✓
2. B complete isolation without contact ✓
3. C cultural traits from one society or group to another ✓
4. D laws banning all foreign influence always ✓

Acculturation occurs when

1. A cultures remain totally unchanged despite contact ✓
2. B a group adopts elements of another culture through sustained contact ✓
3. C biological evolution replaces learning ✓
4. D all contact destroys both cultures instantly ✓

Assimilation means

1. A permanent separation without any shared norms ✓
2. B rejecting all cultural learning always ✓
3. C multiculturalism with zero integration ✓
4. D a minority group fully merging into the dominant culture ✓

Multiculturalism policies aim to

1. A recognize and support cultural diversity within one political society ✓
2. B eliminate all minority languages instantly ✓
3. C force complete assimilation always ✓
4. D ban public expression of difference ✓

Mores are norms regarded as

1. A essential to core values with strong moral significance ✓
2. B trivial table manners only ✓
3. C optional fashion choices ✓
4. D purely individual preferences ✓

Ethnocentrism means

1. A objective cross-cultural comparison without bias ✓
2. B judging other cultures by the standards of one's own culture ✓
3. C complete rejection of all cultural learning ✓
4. D studying cultures only through participant observation ✓

Cultural relativism advocates

1. A ranking all cultures by Western standards ✓
2. B denying the existence of cultural variation ✓
3. C outlawing all cultural comparison ✓
4. D understanding beliefs and practices within their own cultural context ✓

Primary socialization occurs

1. A early in life within the family, teaching basic norms and language ✓
2. B only during university education ✓
3. C exclusively at the workplace in adulthood ✓
4. D after retirement from labor ✓

Secondary socialization refers to

1. A only infant reflex conditioning ✓
2. B genetic inheritance of culture ✓
3. C learning appropriate behavior for specific roles later in life ✓
4. D the first hours after birth exclusively ✓

The family as a social institution primarily functions to

1. A socialize children, regulate reproduction and provide emotional support ✓
2. B produce manufactured goods for export only ✓
3. C enforce international treaties alone ✓
4. D replace all religious organizations entirely ✓

The nuclear family typically consists of

1. A all members of an extended clan always ✓
2. B only unrelated roommates in a dormitory ✓
3. C government officials in a ministry ✓
4. D parents and their dependent children living together ✓

Extended family systems are especially common in

1. A industrial societies with no kin ties ✓
2. B many South Asian and traditional societies including rural Pakistan ✓
3. C states without any marriage rules ✓
4. D communities banning all intergenerational contact ✓

Education as a social institution serves to

1. A eliminate all social inequality instantly ✓
2. B replace family socialization completely in infancy ✓
3. C transmit knowledge, skills and cultural values while certifying achievement ✓
4. D avoid teaching any civic norms ✓

Hidden curriculum in schools refers to

1. A only the official syllabus printed in textbooks ✓
2. B scientific laboratory equipment exclusively ✓
3. C sports uniforms without social meaning ✓
4. D informal lessons about authority, punctuality and competition ✓

Religion as a social institution provides

1. A only economic production without meaning ✓
2. B shared beliefs, rituals and moral codes binding communities ✓
3. C purely secular political manifestos ✓
4. D exclusively scientific laboratory methods ✓

Secularization refers to the process by which

1. A religious influence declines in public life and institutions ✓
2. B all societies become uniformly more religious ✓
3. C science disappears from education ✓
4. D churches gain total state control always ✓

Agents of socialization include

1. A only genetic inheritance without learning ✓
2. B volcanoes and climate exclusively ✓
3. C family, peers, schools, media and religious organizations ✓
4. D international trade tariffs alone ✓

Peer groups are especially influential during

1. A infancy before language acquisition only ✓
2. B adolescence when identity and independence develop ✓
3. C retirement with no social contact ✓
4. D childhood with zero outside contact always ✓

Mass media as an agent of socialization can

1. A socialize only pre-literate infants ✓
2. B operate without transmitting any values ✓
3. C eliminate all local cultures instantly always ✓
4. D spread global culture and shape attitudes on politics and gender ✓

Resocialization involves

1. A discarding former norms and learning new ones in a total institution ✓
2. B reinforcing childhood habits without change ✓
3. C genetic reprogramming of instincts ✓
4. D learning only one skill at work ✓

A total institution, in Goffman's sense, is

1. A any small family household only ✓
2. B a casual weekend sports club ✓
3. C a setting where all aspects of life are regulated under one authority ✓
4. D a single classroom hour without rules ✓

Gender socialization refers to

1. A learning culturally expected behaviors associated with masculinity and femininity ✓
2. B biological sex determination in the womb only ✓
3. C random behavior without cultural pattern ✓
4. D legal contracts between corporations ✓

Anticipatory socialization means

1. A rejecting all future roles entirely ✓
2. B socialization limited to early infancy ✓
3. C learning only past historical roles ✓
4. D practicing roles one expects to occupy in the future ✓

An ascribed status is

1. A earned through individual achievement only ✓
2. B chosen freely without social assignment ✓
3. C assigned at birth or involuntarily, such as sex or ethnicity ✓
4. D unrelated to social expectations ✓

An achieved status is

1. A gained through effort or choice, such as occupation or education level ✓
2. B fixed at birth without possibility of change ✓
3. C biologically inherited without learning ✓
4. D always identical to ascribed status ✓

Degradation ceremony (Garfinkel) is used to

1. A celebrate promotion without audience ✓
2. B teach infant language acquisition only ✓
3. C conduct anonymous statistical surveys ✓
4. D strip an individual of former identity and status publicly ✓

Cultural lag (Ogburn) describes

1. A non-material culture always changing first ✓
2. B material culture changing faster than non-material culture adjusts ✓
3. C both changing at identical speed always ✓
4. D culture remaining static forever ✓