Foundations of Sociology and Major Thinkers MCQs 2026

Middle-range theory is especially associated with

1. A Robert K. Merton ✓
2. B Herbert Spencer ✓
3. C Karl Marx ✓
4. D Auguste Comte ✓

Comte law of three stages ends with the

1. A Theological stage ✓
2. B Feudal stage ✓
3. C Military stage ✓
4. D Positive stage ✓

Social action is the basic unit of analysis for

1. A Talcott Parsons only ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C Herbert Spencer ✓
4. D Robert Park ✓

Conflict theory gives special importance to

1. A Perfect consensus ✓
2. B Biological heredity ✓
3. C Power and inequality ✓
4. D Weather cycles ✓

A primary group is marked by

1. A Official contracts only ✓
2. B Intimate face-to-face relations ✓
3. C Anonymous membership ✓
4. D Temporary crowd behavior ✓

A secondary group is usually characterized by

1. A Formal and impersonal relations ✓
2. B Kinship by blood only ✓
3. C No organized purpose ✓
4. D Infant socialization ✓

A reference group is one that people use mainly for

1. A Food production ✓
2. B Climate control ✓
3. C Genetic selection ✓
4. D Comparison and self-evaluation ✓

The terms in-group and out-group were popularized by

1. A Robert Merton ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C William Graham Sumner ✓
4. D Talcott Parsons ✓

In sociology, status means

1. A A written law ✓
2. B A social position ✓
3. C A ritual object ✓
4. D A private emotion ✓

A role is best described as

1. A Expected behavior linked to a status ✓
2. B A biological organ ✓
3. C A census table ✓
4. D An income tax rate ✓

An achieved status is one that is

1. A Inherited automatically ✓
2. B Biologically fixed only ✓
3. C Assigned before birth ✓
4. D Earned or chosen through effort ✓

The looking-glass self is a concept given by

1. A Charles Horton Cooley ✓
2. B Karl Marx ✓
3. C Max Weber ✓
4. D Herbert Spencer ✓

The base and superstructure model belongs to the theory of

1. A Emile Durkheim ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C Karl Marx ✓
4. D Talcott Parsons ✓

The dramaturgical approach to social interaction is linked with

1. A Talcott Parsons ✓
2. B Robert Merton ✓
3. C Erving Goffman ✓
4. D Auguste Comte ✓

The concepts Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft were introduced by

1. A Emile Durkheim ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C Karl Marx ✓
4. D Ferdinand Tonnies ✓

Mechanical and organic solidarity are concepts developed by

1. A Emile Durkheim ✓
2. B Herbert Spencer ✓
3. C George Mead ✓
4. D Ibn Khaldun ✓

Rationalization is a central theme in the sociology of

1. A Karl Marx ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C Auguste Comte ✓
4. D Charles Cooley ✓

Positivism in sociology emphasizes

1. A Empirical observation and scientific method ✓
2. B Mystical revelation only ✓
3. C Personal opinion as proof ✓
4. D Poetic imagination ✓

The distinction between manifest and latent functions was developed by

1. A Auguste Comte ✓
2. B Karl Marx ✓
3. C Max Weber ✓
4. D Robert K. Merton ✓

Manifest functions of a social institution are its

1. A Hidden consequences ✓
2. B Accidental outcomes ✓
3. C Intended and recognized effects ✓
4. D Biological causes ✓

Anomie refers to a condition of

1. A Strong kinship ✓
2. B Normlessness ✓
3. C High literacy ✓
4. D Political election ✓

Who coined the term sociology

1. A Auguste Comte ✓
2. B Herbert Spencer ✓
3. C Max Weber ✓
4. D Karl Marx ✓

Sociology is best defined as the systematic study of

1. A Individual anatomy ✓
2. B Chemical reactions ✓
3. C Human society and social relations ✓
4. D Earth materials ✓

The concept of sociological imagination is associated with

1. A Robert K. Merton ✓
2. B C. Wright Mills ✓
3. C Talcott Parsons ✓
4. D George Herbert Mead ✓

Which sociologist argued that social facts should be treated as things

1. A Emile Durkheim ✓
2. B Max Weber ✓
3. C Karl Marx ✓
4. D Herbert Blumer ✓

The idea of Verstehen in sociology is most closely linked with

1. A Auguste Comte ✓
2. B Emile Durkheim ✓
3. C Herbert Spencer ✓
4. D Max Weber ✓

Historical materialism is primarily associated with

1. A Max Weber ✓
2. B Karl Marx ✓
3. C Talcott Parsons ✓
4. D Vilfredo Pareto ✓

Auguste Comte is often called the father of sociology because he

1. A Founded psychoanalysis ✓
2. B Created economics ✓
3. C Named and systematized sociology ✓
4. D Invented anthropology ✓

Ibn Khaldun used the concept of asabiyyah to refer mainly to

1. A Group solidarity ✓
2. B Urban pollution ✓
3. C Religious ritual ✓
4. D Economic inflation ✓

The view of society as an organism is especially associated with

1. A Karl Marx ✓
2. B George Simmel ✓
3. C Emile Durkheim ✓
4. D Herbert Spencer ✓

Durkheim explained suicide mainly through variations in social integration and

1. A Economic capital ✓
2. B Social regulation ✓
3. C Genetic traits ✓
4. D Climate change ✓

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was written by

1. A Max Weber ✓
2. B Karl Marx ✓
3. C Auguste Comte ✓
4. D Emile Durkheim ✓

The conflict perspective in sociology has its strongest classical roots in the work of

1. A Herbert Spencer ✓
2. B Talcott Parsons ✓
3. C Karl Marx ✓
4. D Robert Park ✓

Functionalism views society mainly as

1. A A set of random individuals ✓
2. B A permanent class war only ✓
3. C A collection of instincts ✓
4. D Interrelated parts maintaining order ✓

Symbolic interactionism mainly focuses on

1. A Global trade balances ✓
2. B Meanings in face-to-face interaction ✓
3. C Geological evolution ✓
4. D Population chemistry ✓

An ascribed status is usually

1. A Bought in a market ✓
2. B Assigned by birth or society ✓
3. C Chosen after training ✓
4. D Won in competition ✓

Norms are best understood as

1. A Physical tools ✓
2. B Weather patterns ✓
3. C Rules and expectations of behavior ✓
4. D Genetic traits ✓

Values in sociology refer to

1. A Shared beliefs about what is desirable ✓
2. B Only market prices ✓
3. C Written court orders ✓
4. D Random habits ✓

Sanctions are used in society to

1. A Measure rainfall ✓
2. B Reward or punish behavior ✓
3. C Create chromosomes ✓
4. D Predict earthquakes ✓

Social control refers to processes that

1. A Increase rainfall ✓
2. B Remove all groups ✓
3. C Stop social learning ✓
4. D Promote conformity to norms ✓

Social stratification means the

1. A Rotation of seasons ✓
2. B Growth of cities only ✓
3. C Hierarchical ranking of people or groups ✓
4. D Study of fossils ✓

Social mobility refers to

1. A Movement within a stratification system ✓
2. B Migration of birds ✓
3. C Rotation of crops ✓
4. D Weather forecasting ✓

Culture is generally defined as a

1. A Biological reflex ✓
2. B Learned and shared way of life ✓
3. C Chemical compound ✓
4. D Private dream ✓

Ethnocentrism means judging another culture by

1. A Its own historical context ✓
2. B Universal physics ✓
3. C Random sampling ✓
4. D Standards of one own culture ✓

Cultural relativism means understanding a culture according to

1. A Only foreign standards ✓
2. B Market value ✓
3. C Genetic rank ✓
4. D Its own context and meanings ✓

The description of sociology as the science of social facts is linked with

1. A Karl Marx ✓
2. B Auguste Comte ✓
3. C Emile Durkheim ✓
4. D George Mead ✓

Class struggle is a central idea in the theory of

1. A Max Weber ✓
2. B Karl Marx ✓
3. C Auguste Comte ✓
4. D Talcott Parsons ✓

An ideal type in Weberian sociology is a

1. A Moral command ✓
2. B Statistical average ✓
3. C Biological species ✓
4. D Analytical model for comparison ✓

The phrase survival of the fittest was coined by

1. A Herbert Spencer ✓
2. B Karl Marx ✓
3. C Emile Durkheim ✓
4. D Max Weber ✓

Quantitative sociological research mainly uses

1. A Personal diaries only ✓
2. B Sacred rituals ✓
3. C Numerical data and statistics ✓
4. D Mythic stories ✓

Positivism, as advocated by Comte, stresses

1. A pure intuition without data ✓
2. B systematic observation and scientific method in social study ✓
3. C rejection of all measurement ✓
4. D exclusive reliance on theology ✓

Auguste Comte's Law of Three Stages progresses from

1. A positive to theological to metaphysical ✓
2. B theological to metaphysical to positive/scientific ✓
3. C metaphysical to positive to theological only ✓
4. D theological to positive without metaphysical ✓

Comte described sociology as

1. A the queen of the sciences unifying all knowledge ✓
2. B a branch of psychology only ✓
3. C identical to anthropology always ✓
4. D a purely literary discipline ✓

Emile Durkheim defined social facts as

1. A purely subjective feelings only ✓
2. B biological instincts alone ✓
3. C random individual preferences ✓
4. D ways of acting, thinking and feeling external to and constraining the individual ✓

Durkheim's concept of mechanical solidarity is found in societies with

1. A high specialization and interdependence ✓
2. B urban industrial complexity only ✓
3. C strong collective conscience and minimal division of labor ✓
4. D absence of any shared norms ✓

Organic solidarity, according to Durkheim, arises from

1. A interdependence created by the advanced division of labor ✓
2. B total homogeneity of beliefs ✓
3. C isolation of individuals from groups ✓
4. D rejection of all specialization ✓

In Durkheim's study of suicide, anomie refers to

1. A strict religious conformity only ✓
2. B normlessness or breakdown of moral regulation during rapid social change ✓
3. C genetic predisposition alone ✓
4. D legal punishment by the state ✓

Durkheim classified egoistic suicide as linked to

1. A weak integration of the individual into social groups ✓
2. B excessive group pressure alone ✓
3. C sudden economic prosperity only ✓
4. D military discipline always ✓

Durkheim's "Elementary Forms of Religious Life" analyzes

1. A Protestant capitalism in Europe only ✓
2. B Marxist class struggle directly ✓
3. C Weberian bureaucracy ✓
4. D totemism among Australian aborigines to explain religion's social origins ✓

Max Weber's Verstehen means

1. A statistical correlation without meaning ✓
2. B biological reductionism only ✓
3. C interpretive understanding of subjective meanings behind social action ✓
4. D pure value judgment without analysis ✓

Weber developed ideal types as

1. A perfect empirical descriptions of every case ✓
2. B analytical constructs highlighting essential features of social phenomena ✓
3. C moral prescriptions for policy only ✓
4. D random stereotypes without purpose ✓

Weber's three types of legitimate authority are

1. A economic, political and religious only ✓
2. B mechanical, organic and anomic ✓
3. C traditional, charismatic and legal-rational ✓
4. D primary, secondary and tertiary groups ✓

Weber's model of bureaucracy emphasizes

1. A patrimonial favoritism and kin ties ✓
2. B absence of any formal records ✓
3. C unlimited personal discretion always ✓
4. D hierarchy, written rules, impersonality and specialized competence ✓

In "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," Weber argued that

1. A Calvinist ascetic values helped foster modern rational capitalism ✓
2. B Catholic ritual alone created industrialism ✓
3. C Marxist class struggle was irrelevant ✓
4. D Spencerian evolution replaced all religion ✓

Spencer generally supported

1. A centralized socialist planning ✓
2. B laissez-faire individualism and minimal state intervention ✓
3. C complete abolition of private property ✓
4. D Durkheimian state moral education only ✓

Parsons' structural functionalism views society as

1. A permanent conflict without integration ✓
2. B pure randomness without pattern ✓
3. C a system of interrelated parts working toward equilibrium ✓
4. D only economic production without culture ✓

Merton's concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy explains how

1. A truth always prevents social change ✓
2. B labels never affect behavior ✓
3. C only economic forces matter ✓
4. D false definitions of situations can produce real consequences ✓

Comte placed sociology after which sciences in his hierarchy

1. A mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology ✓
2. B only theology and metaphysics ✓
3. C literature and art exclusively ✓
4. D military science alone ✓

Durkheim argued crime is

1. A always pathological and useless ✓
2. B normal and functional in defining moral boundaries ✓
3. C absent in healthy societies ✓
4. D purely individual without social meaning ✓

Weber's rationalization thesis describes modern society as increasingly dominated by

1. A pure tradition without change ✓
2. B charismatic chaos permanently ✓
3. C feudal patrimonialism exclusively ✓
4. D calculable rules, efficiency and disenchantment of magical worldviews ✓

Marx's concept of commodity fetishism refers to

1. A religious worship of commodities only ✓
2. B consumer preference surveys ✓
3. C social relations between people appearing as relations between things ✓
4. D Weberian status groups exclusively ✓

Spencer coined or popularized the phrase

1. A survival of the fittest in evolutionary social thought ✓
2. B iron cage of bureaucracy ✓
3. C collective effervescence ✓
4. D Protestant ethic ✓

Parsons analyzed the sick role as involving

1. A permanent disability benefits without norms ✓
2. B exemption from normal duties and obligation to seek recovery ✓
3. C punishment for illness as deviance only ✓
4. D no social expectations on patients ✓

Merton's role set refers to

1. A the multiple roles attached to a single status ✓
2. B one role per person only ✓
3. C roles without any status ✓
4. D statuses without social expectations ✓

Comte divided sociology into

1. A micro sociology and macro economics only ✓
2. B quantitative and qualitative methods exclusively ✓
3. C urban and rural studies alone ✓
4. D social statics and social dynamics ✓

Durkheim's sacred versus profane distinction is central to his theory of

1. A bureaucratic authority only ✓
2. B market exchange exclusively ✓
3. C religion as a fundamental social institution ✓
4. D biological reproduction alone ✓

Weber's patrimonial authority is based on

1. A impersonal legal codes exclusively ✓
2. B traditional domination through personal loyalty to a ruler ✓
3. C charismatic revelation always ✓
4. D electoral democracy only ✓

Marx predicted that capitalism would generate

1. A permanent full employment without conflict ✓
2. B the end of all technology ✓
3. C increasing concentration of capital and periodic crises ✓
4. D instant global equality ✓

The Chicago School is distinct from Comte, Durkheim, Weber and Marx as it emphasized

1. A only theological stages of Comte ✓
2. B Durkheim's totemic religion alone ✓
3. C Spencer's universal evolution without research ✓
4. D empirical urban ethnography and ecological models in early American sociology ✓

Comparing Durkheim and Weber, a key difference is that Durkheim stressed

1. A social facts and collective constraints more than interpretive meaning ✓
2. B Verstehen and ideal types primarily ✓
3. C charismatic authority exclusively ✓
4. D historical materialism throughout ✓

Weber's concept of the "iron cage" refers to

1. A romantic escape from all rules ✓
2. B individuals trapped in rationalized bureaucratic and economic systems ✓
3. C pure traditional authority always ✓
4. D pre-industrial communal bliss ✓

Karl Marx's historical materialism holds that

1. A ideas alone determine history without economic base ✓
2. B biology is the sole driver of change ✓
3. C random events explain all social evolution ✓
4. D material conditions and modes of production fundamentally shape society ✓

Marx distinguished the bourgeoisie as

1. A landless peasants in feudalism only ✓
2. B the industrial proletariat always ✓
3. C the capitalist class owning means of production ✓
4. D religious clergy exclusively ✓

Marx's theory of alienation describes workers as estranged from

1. A product, process, fellow workers and human potential ✓
2. B only their wages temporarily ✓
3. C government taxes exclusively ✓
4. D religious rituals alone ✓

Marx's base and superstructure model treats law, religion and ideology as

1. A completely independent of production ✓
2. B largely shaped by the economic base though with reciprocal influence ✓
3. C identical to the mode of production ✓
4. D always determining the economic base alone ✓

Herbert Spencer applied to society the idea of

1. A social evolution through survival of the fittest ✓
2. B pure Marxist revolution only ✓
3. C Durkheimian collective effervescence ✓
4. D Weberian charisma exclusively ✓

Spencer's organic analogy compares society to

1. A a single undifferentiated cell only ✓
2. B a random collection without structure ✓
3. C a purely psychological mind alone ✓
4. D a biological organism with interdependent specialized parts ✓

Talcott Parsons' AGIL scheme refers to

1. A anomie, guilt, isolation and loss ✓
2. B authority, government, industry and law only ✓
3. C adaptation, goal attainment, integration and latency functions ✓
4. D alienation, gender, ideology and labor ✓

Parsons' pattern variables contrast, for example

1. A mechanical versus organic suicide only ✓
2. B universalism versus particularism in social relations ✓
3. C sacred versus profane without context ✓
4. D bourgeoisie versus proletariat exclusively ✓

Robert K. Merton's manifest functions are

1. A hidden outcomes unknown to participants ✓
2. B always dysfunctions harming society ✓
3. C intended and recognized consequences of social patterns ✓
4. D purely biological effects only ✓

Merton's latent functions are

1. A deliberately planned policy goals ✓
2. B always harmful dysfunctions only ✓
3. C effects visible to all actors always ✓
4. D unintended and often unrecognized consequences of social patterns ✓

Merton's strain theory identifies five modes of adaptation including

1. A conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion ✓
2. B only conformity and rebellion ✓
3. C egoism, altruism, anomie, fatalism, ritualism ✓
4. D traditional, charismatic, legal, patrimonial, feudal ✓

Merton advocated

1. A only grand universal laws without data ✓
2. B middle-range theories linking empirical research to broader frameworks ✓
3. C rejection of all empirical testing ✓
4. D exclusive use of historical narrative ✓

Comte's positivist religion, the Religion of Humanity, sought to

1. A abolish all moral codes entirely ✓
2. B restore medieval Catholic authority ✓
3. C merge sociology with military rule only ✓
4. D replace traditional theology with devotion to human progress and order ✓

Durkheim's collective conscience refers to

1. A individual private conscience only ✓
2. B legal codes without moral content ✓
3. C shared beliefs and moral attitudes binding members of a society ✓
4. D economic self-interest alone ✓

Weber's three-component stratification model includes

1. A class, status and party (power) ✓
2. B caste, varna and jati only ✓
3. C income, wealth and consumption exclusively ✓
4. D age, gender and ethnicity without class ✓

Marx argued that ideology often produces

1. A perfect transparent knowledge always ✓
2. B false consciousness masking exploitation and class relations ✓
3. C purely random individual beliefs ✓
4. D biological instincts without social content ✓

Marx and Engels authored

1. A The Communist Manifesto (1848) ✓
2. B Suicide (1897) ✓
3. C The Protestant Ethic (1905) ✓
4. D The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) ✓

Weber distinguished value relevance from value neutrality by arguing researchers should

1. A inject personal politics into all conclusions ✓
2. B avoid any topic with social importance ✓
3. C reject empirical methods entirely ✓
4. D choose topics by values but analyze findings objectively ✓

Durkheim's rule of sociological method insists researchers must treat social facts as

1. A purely imaginary constructs only ✓
2. B individual psychology without society ✓
3. C things—observable and subject to systematic study ✓
4. D theological revelations exclusively ✓