Social Change and Social Control MCQs 2026

Collective behaviour is usually less structured than a social movement because it is often

1. A Fully bureaucratic ✓
2. B Permanent and formal ✓
3. C Spontaneous and weakly organized ✓
4. D A written law only ✓

Public opinion functions as social control when it

1. A Approves or condemns behaviour informally ✓
2. B Repeals all customs ✓
3. C Ends every sanction ✓
4. D Works only through genetics ✓

Social planning is mainly concerned with

1. A Uncontrolled accident ✓
2. B Deliberate direction of social development ✓
3. C Purely private leisure ✓
4. D Biological reproduction only ✓

Durkheim argued that deviance can be functional because it may

1. A Destroy all norms permanently ✓
2. B Clarify norms and promote change ✓
3. C End social solidarity in every case ✓
4. D Prevent legal reform always ✓

Coercive social control primarily uses

1. A Persuasion without pressure ✓
2. B Friendly advice only ✓
3. C Voluntary imitation ✓
4. D Force or threat of punishment ✓

An informal negative sanction is best shown by

1. A A salary bonus ✓
2. B A medal of honour ✓
3. C Ridicule for violating a custom ✓
4. D A formal court sentence ✓

Cultural lag occurs when

1. A Tradition changes faster than technology in every case ✓
2. B No culture changes at all ✓
3. C Non-material culture adjusts more slowly than material culture ✓
4. D All institutions change at exactly the same speed ✓

Secularization means a decline in the social influence of

1. A Religious institutions and beliefs ✓
2. B Scientific instruments only ✓
3. C Urban markets only ✓
4. D Political parties only ✓

Material culture changes most directly when society adopts new

1. A Values only ✓
2. B Myths only ✓
3. C Kinship terms only ✓
4. D Tools and physical objects ✓

A negative sanction is intended to

1. A Discourage rule-breaking behaviour ✓
2. B Reward conformity with prizes ✓
3. C Create new technology ✓
4. D Increase birth rate ✓

A positive sanction is best represented by

1. A A fine for speeding ✓
2. B Imprisonment ✓
3. C Public praise for honesty ✓
4. D Social boycott ✓

Education contributes to social control mainly by

1. A Ending all cultural transmission ✓
2. B Socializing students into shared norms ✓
3. C Removing every rule ✓
4. D Stopping role learning ✓

Conflict theory emphasizes social change produced by

1. A Power struggles and inequality ✓
2. B Perfect consensus only ✓
3. C Biological instincts alone ✓
4. D Natural seasons only ✓

Which institution is a common agent of deliberate social change

1. A Rock erosion ✓
2. B Genetic drift ✓
3. C Ocean tides ✓
4. D Education system ✓

Relative deprivation in social movement theory means

1. A Absolute absence of food only ✓
2. B Legal ownership of property ✓
3. C Feeling disadvantaged compared with others ✓
4. D Complete equality of opportunity ✓

Social disorganization refers to

1. A Perfect institutional harmony ✓
2. B Breakdown or weakening of social controls ✓
3. C A rise in rainfall ✓
4. D Complete genetic uniformity ✓

Functionalist theory tends to view social change as

1. A Adjustment that restores system balance ✓
2. B Only class warfare ✓
3. C A purely individual choice ✓
4. D A random biological accident ✓

Cyclical theories of social change usually stress

1. A Linear progress forever ✓
2. B No historical repetition ✓
3. C Rise, decline and recurrence ✓
4. D Only biological inheritance ✓

Evolutionary theories of social change generally emphasize

1. A Sudden random disorder only ✓
2. B No sequence in history ✓
3. C Permanent stagnation ✓
4. D Gradual development through stages ✓

Rational-legal authority is central to modern bureaucracy in the work of

1. A Ibn Khaldun ✓
2. B Herbert Spencer ✓
3. C Talcott Parsons ✓
4. D Max Weber ✓

Demographic change becomes sociologically important because it changes

1. A Only rainfall patterns ✓
2. B Size, composition and distribution of population ✓
3. C Atomic structure ✓
4. D The orbit of planets ✓

Planned social change is best described as change brought about by

1. A Random accidents only ✓
2. B Deliberate policy or organized effort ✓
3. C Weather cycles ✓
4. D Genetic mutation alone ✓

A social movement is a

1. A Short private habit ✓
2. B Biological instinct ✓
3. C Organized collective effort for change ✓
4. D Purely accidental crowd ✓

A reform movement usually seeks to

1. A Change parts of a system without replacing it ✓
2. B Destroy all social institutions ✓
3. C Stop every legal process ✓
4. D Return society to prehistory ✓

A revolutionary movement differs from a reform movement because it seeks

1. A A minor administrative adjustment ✓
2. B Fundamental transformation of the order ✓
3. C Only ceremonial change ✓
4. D No change in institutions ✓

Modernization generally refers to a movement from traditional patterns toward

1. A Complete isolation ✓
2. B Clan rule only ✓
3. C Abolition of technology ✓
4. D Industrial, urban and rational organization ✓

Globalization affects social change by increasing

1. A Worldwide interdependence and exchange ✓
2. B Total cultural isolation ✓
3. C Only village endogamy ✓
4. D Absence of communication ✓

The main purpose of social control is to

1. A Eliminate all diversity ✓
2. B Prevent every innovation ✓
3. C Maintain conformity to norms ✓
4. D Increase biological heredity ✓

Folkways are best understood as

1. A Formal written laws ✓
2. B Everyday customary ways of acting ✓
3. C Sacred legal commands ✓
4. D Scientific formulas ✓

Mores differ from folkways because mores are

1. A Always written by courts ✓
2. B Only about clothing fashion ✓
3. C Free of moral judgment ✓
4. D Morally significant norms ✓

Laws are formal norms because they are

1. A Codified and enforced by authority ✓
2. B Always unwritten ✓
3. C Only family customs ✓
4. D Private habits of individuals ✓

Internalization of norms means that people

1. A Ignore society completely ✓
2. B Obey only under police force ✓
3. C Accept norms as part of themselves ✓
4. D Reject all values equally ✓

External social control relies mainly on

1. A Inherited reflexes ✓
2. B Rewards, punishments and pressure ✓
3. C Private dreams ✓
4. D Climate alone ✓

Deviance in sociology means behaviour that

1. A Violates accepted social norms ✓
2. B Always improves health ✓
3. C Occurs only in cities ✓
4. D Has no social meaning ✓

Labelling theory explains deviance mainly as a result of

1. A Weather patterns ✓
2. B Blood group ✓
3. C Population density alone ✓
4. D Social reaction and labels ✓

Merton strain theory links deviance to a gap between

1. A Kinship and religion ✓
2. B Weather and harvests ✓
3. C Cultural goals and legitimate means ✓
4. D Age and gender only ✓

Resistance to social change commonly arises from

1. A Absence of any interests ✓
2. B Vested interests and attachment to tradition ✓
3. C Perfect agreement among groups ✓
4. D Instant acceptance of innovation ✓

Social change in sociology refers primarily to

1. A Change in an individual mood ✓
2. B Transformation in social structure or culture ✓
3. C Seasonal change in weather ✓
4. D Biological growth of a person ✓

The concept of cultural lag is most closely associated with

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

Formal social control is best illustrated by

1. A Police enforcing a written law ✓
2. B Friends teasing a latecomer ✓
3. C Family praise for politeness ✓
4. D Gossip in a neighbourhood ✓

Informal social control usually operates through

1. A Constitutional courts ✓
2. B Penal codes ✓
3. C Custom, ridicule and approval ✓
4. D Tax regulations ✓

In sociology, sanctions are

1. A Only severe punishments ✓
2. B Rewards or penalties for behaviour ✓
3. C Religious rituals only ✓
4. D Economic policies only ✓

Durkheim used the term anomie to describe

1. A A state of normlessness ✓
2. B A stable kinship system ✓
3. C A form of bureaucracy ✓
4. D A religious ceremony ✓

Marxist theory explains major social change mainly through

1. A Population ageing ✓
2. B Imitation of elites ✓
3. C Religious revival alone ✓
4. D Class conflict over production ✓

Technological change often affects society first by altering

1. A Tools, production and communication ✓
2. B Blood relations biologically ✓
3. C The laws of gravity ✓
4. D Human chromosomes ✓

Weber linked modern social change especially with the growth of

1. A Magical thinking ✓
2. B Tribal isolation ✓
3. C Rationalization ✓
4. D Pastoral nomadism ✓

Diffusion as a source of social change means

1. A Spread of cultural traits between groups ✓
2. B Breakdown of the nervous system ✓
3. C Increase in birth rate ✓
4. D Legal punishment for deviance ✓

An invention becomes a source of social change when it

1. A Remains unknown to society ✓
2. B Only repeats old customs ✓
3. C Blocks all interaction ✓
4. D Creates or combines useful new elements ✓

Parsons viewed social control as maintaining

1. A permanent revolution only ✓
2. B zero norms in society ✓
3. C pure anarchy ✓
4. D social equilibrium through shared values and institutional roles ✓

Social change refers to

1. A significant alteration in social structure, behaviour or cultural patterns over time ✓
2. B only individual mood swings ✓
3. C only weather variation ✓
4. D only biological aging of one person ✓

Evolutionary theories of social change emphasize

1. A sudden violent overthrow only ✓
2. B unchanging static societies ✓
3. C random chaos without pattern ✓
4. D gradual, cumulative development from simple to complex forms ✓

Diffusion as a mechanism of social change means

1. A internal class struggle only ✓
2. B biological mutation in humans ✓
3. C complete isolation of cultures ✓
4. D spread of cultural traits from one society or group to another ✓

Social revolution involves

1. A minor fashion shifts only ✓
2. B slow demographic drift only ✓
3. C rapid, fundamental transformation of political and social institutions ✓
4. D unchanged power structures ✓

Ogburn distinguished between

1. A only kinship and marriage ✓
2. B material culture and non-material culture in the pace of change ✓
3. C only urban and rural ✓
4. D only formal and informal law ✓

Social control is defined as

1. A only self-help psychology ✓
2. B only economic profit maximization ✓
3. C only artistic expression ✓
4. D mechanisms by which society regulates individual and group behaviour ✓

Informal social control operates through

1. A everyday social interaction such as praise, ridicule and ostracism ✓
2. B written statutes only ✓
3. C court sentences only ✓
4. D constitutional amendments only ✓

Law as an instrument of social control

1. A defines prohibited conduct and prescribes state-backed sanctions ✓
2. B exists only in pre-industrial tribes ✓
3. C never changes over time ✓
4. D applies only to corporations ✓

Sanctions in sociology are

1. A only monetary wages ✓
2. B only biological reflexes ✓
3. C only weather events ✓
4. D rewards or punishments applied to encourage conformity or deter deviance ✓

Positive sanctions include

1. A praise, awards and promotion for conforming behaviour ✓
2. B imprisonment and fines ✓
3. C social ostracism only ✓
4. D exile without recognition ✓

Negative sanctions include

1. A medals and certificates ✓
2. B public honour only ✓
3. C fines, imprisonment and social stigma for rule-breaking ✓
4. D salary bonuses only ✓

Internalization of norms means

1. A rejecting all social rules always ✓
2. B individuals accept society's rules as their own guiding principles ✓
3. C obeying only when police are present ✓
4. D ignoring cultural values ✓

Socialization is a primary means of

1. A informal social control through learning norms and values ✓
2. B avoiding all group life ✓
3. C abolishing families ✓
4. D eliminating education ✓

Durkheim argued that law reflects

1. A only individual genius ✓
2. B only random chance ✓
3. C the type of solidarity binding a society ✓
4. D only biological instinct ✓

Mechanical solidarity is characterized by

1. A complex division of labour only ✓
2. B similar beliefs and strong collective conscience in homogeneous societies ✓
3. C weak shared morality ✓
4. D high individualism in urban life ✓

Organic solidarity arises from

1. A total cultural uniformity ✓
2. B interdependence produced by the division of labour ✓
3. C isolation of each household ✓
4. D absence of specialization ✓

Conflict theory views social control as

1. A neutral and equally beneficial to all ✓
2. B unrelated to inequality ✓
3. C a tool dominant groups use to maintain power and privilege ✓
4. D always informal only ✓

Ideological social control works by

1. A shaping beliefs so people accept existing arrangements as natural ✓
2. B using only physical force ✓
3. C banning all education ✓
4. D ignoring culture entirely ✓

Social change through invention means

1. A copying foreign traits only ✓
2. B creating new ideas, tools or practices within a society ✓
3. C population decline only ✓
4. D unchanging tradition ✓

Acculturation refers to

1. A complete isolation of tribes ✓
2. B zero influence between groups ✓
3. C only genetic change ✓
4. D cultural change resulting from sustained contact between societies ✓

Modernization theory links social change to

1. A return to feudal agriculture only ✓
2. B rejection of all technology ✓
3. C industrialization, urbanization and spread of rational-bureaucratic institutions ✓
4. D permanent tribal isolation ✓

Dependency theory criticizes modernization by arguing

1. A all nations develop identically ✓
2. B global inequality structures limit autonomous development in periphery nations ✓
3. C colonialism left no legacy ✓
4. D trade always benefits the poor equally ✓

World-systems analysis emphasizes

1. A economic and political domination of core countries over periphery ✓
2. B isolated village studies only ✓
3. C purely psychological change ✓
4. D unchanging world borders ✓

Social movements are agents of

1. A collective efforts to promote or resist social change ✓
2. B only individual biography ✓
3. C only biological evolution ✓
4. D only random accidents ✓

Reformist social change seeks

1. A immediate destruction of all order ✓
2. B return to pre-human society ✓
3. C gradual modification of existing institutions ✓
4. D abolition of all norms ✓

Revolutionary social change aims at

1. A minor administrative tweaks only ✓
2. B preserving every old institution ✓
3. C replacing existing political or economic structures fundamentally ✓
4. D cosmetic dress changes only ✓

Demographic transition theory relates social change to

1. A unchanging fertility forever ✓
2. B shifts from high birth/death rates to low birth/death rates ✓
3. C only fashion cycles ✓
4. D only language change ✓

Technological determinism holds that

1. A ideas never matter ✓
2. B technology is the primary driver of social change ✓
3. C culture is frozen ✓
4. D politics alone shapes all life ✓

Social change in Pakistan after partition illustrates

1. A mass migration, state-building and transformation of political institutions ✓
2. B unchanged colonial administration forever ✓
3. C zero refugee movement ✓
4. D isolation from South Asia ✓

Colonialism as a force of social change introduced

1. A new legal systems, education and economic structures in colonized societies ✓
2. B zero contact with colonizers ✓
3. C unchanged pre-colonial life everywhere ✓
4. D only internal inventions ✓

Globalization accelerates social change through

1. A complete closure of borders ✓
2. B end of all cultural exchange ✓
3. C transnational flows of capital, media, ideas and migration ✓
4. D only local barter trade ✓

Social control in small-scale societies relies heavily on

1. A vast bureaucratic police only ✓
2. B anonymous urban courts only ✓
3. C international tribunals only ✓
4. D kinship, ritual and informal sanctions ✓

Foucault analysed social control through

1. A surveillance, discipline and normalization in institutions ✓
2. B only written constitutions ✓
3. C only market prices ✓
4. D only kinship diagrams ✓

Panopticism as a concept describes

1. A internalized surveillance where people regulate themselves because they may be watched ✓
2. B open anarchy without observation ✓
3. C law disappearing entirely ✓
4. D no role of power ✓

Civil law systems emphasize

1. A only tribal custom unwritten ✓
2. B codified statutes and judicial interpretation of written codes ✓
3. C only religious fatwa alone ✓
4. D only military decree without codes ✓

Common law systems develop largely through

1. A only one written code never amended ✓
2. B only village gossip ✓
3. C judicial precedents and case law ✓
4. D only executive orders without courts ✓

Deviance and social control are linked because

1. A deviance is unrelated to norms ✓
2. B all behaviour is identical ✓
3. C societies define boundaries of acceptable behaviour and enforce them ✓
4. D sanctions never exist ✓

Social change can produce anomie when

1. A norms strengthen instantly ✓
2. B rapid change weakens normative regulation ✓
3. C culture never shifts ✓
4. D rules multiply clarity ✓

Collective behaviour during rapid change may include

1. A only isolated meditation ✓
2. B fads, riots and mass movements ✓
3. C only fixed ritual without variation ✓
4. D only permanent stability ✓

Social planning attempts to

1. A prevent any change whatsoever ✓
2. B ignore all social problems ✓
3. C guide social change through deliberate policy and programs ✓
4. D abolish government ✓

Resistance to social change may stem from

1. A universal enthusiasm for all change ✓
2. B absence of any tradition ✓
3. C complete lack of inequality ✓
4. D cultural conservatism, vested interests and fear of loss ✓

Social control agents include

1. A only individual neurons ✓
2. B only weather systems ✓
3. C only geological forces ✓
4. D police, courts, schools, families and religious institutions ✓

Restitutive law aims primarily to

1. A restore normal relations and compensate harm rather than punish passion ✓
2. B inflict vengeance only ✓
3. C destroy organic solidarity ✓
4. D abolish all contracts ✓

Repressive law is typical of societies with

1. A high division of labour only ✓
2. B weak shared morality ✓
3. C pure individualism ✓
4. D strong collective conscience and mechanical solidarity ✓

Social change research uses

1. A only laboratory rats ✓
2. B only astrology ✓
3. C historical comparison, surveys and ethnography across time ✓
4. D only single snapshots ignoring time ✓

A sanction must be socially defined to function as

1. A a random natural event ✓
2. B a private dream only ✓
3. C a biological reflex unrelated to norms ✓
4. D a response that communicates approval or disapproval of behaviour ✓

Social change in urban Pakistan includes

1. A frozen tribal patterns everywhere ✓
2. B zero literacy change ✓
3. C no influence of technology ✓
4. D migration, media expansion and shifting family and gender roles ✓