Social Stratification and Mobility MCQs 2026

Social stratification refers to

1. A A temporary crowd formation ✓
2. B A process of socialization ✓
3. C Hierarchical ranking of groups in society ✓
4. D A method of data collection ✓

An ascribed status is a status that is

1. A Assigned at birth or involuntarily ✓
2. B Earned through education ✓
3. C Chosen after employment ✓
4. D Based only on income ✓

An achieved status is one that is mainly

1. A Inherited from parents ✓
2. B Acquired through effort or performance ✓
3. C Fixed by birth forever ✓
4. D Given by caste alone ✓

A caste system is most strongly marked by

1. A Free occupational choice ✓
2. B High social mobility ✓
3. C Temporary political roles ✓
4. D Hereditary rank and endogamy ✓

A class system differs from a caste system because it is generally

1. A More open to social mobility ✓
2. B Based only on ritual purity ✓
3. C Completely closed by birth ✓
4. D Unrelated to economic position ✓

According to Karl Marx, social classes are primarily based on

1. A Age categories ✓
2. B Religious rituals ✓
3. C Relation to the means of production ✓
4. D Language differences ✓

Max Weber analyzed stratification through class, status and

1. A Kinship ✓
2. B Party ✓
3. C Religion only ✓
4. D Climate ✓

In Weberian sociology, a status group is mainly based on

1. A Factory ownership only ✓
2. B Biological age ✓
3. C Random sampling ✓
4. D Social honour and prestige ✓

In Weberian analysis, party refers mainly to

1. A Family descent ✓
2. B Organized power in social action ✓
3. C Religious ceremony ✓
4. D Birth order ✓

In Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie are those who

1. A Own the means of production ✓
2. B Sell labour for wages only ✓
3. C Have no property at all ✓
4. D Reject all industry ✓

In Marxist theory, the proletariat mainly refers to people who

1. A Own factories ✓
2. B Control the state directly ✓
3. C Live without work ✓
4. D Sell their labour power for wages ✓

The Davis-Moore thesis argues that stratification

1. A Is always caused by colonialism ✓
2. B Has no social function ✓
3. C Helps fill important positions in society ✓
4. D Ends all competition ✓

Melvin Tumin criticized the Davis-Moore thesis mainly for ignoring

1. A Barriers that prevent talent from developing ✓
2. B The existence of occupations ✓
3. C The need for social roles ✓
4. D The fact of population growth ✓

Social mobility means

1. A Movement of goods in markets ✓
2. B Movement of persons or groups between strata ✓
3. C Migration across borders only ✓
4. D A form of crowd behaviour ✓

Vertical mobility involves

1. A Changing residence only ✓
2. B Moving within the same rank ✓
3. C Movement up or down the hierarchy ✓
4. D Learning a new language ✓

Horizontal mobility is best shown by

1. A A worker becoming company owner ✓
2. B A rich family losing all property ✓
3. C A peasant entering nobility ✓
4. D A teacher moving to a similar school post ✓

Intergenerational mobility compares social position between

1. A Parents and children ✓
2. B Two offices in one firm ✓
3. C Neighbours of the same age ✓
4. D Members of one classroom ✓

Intragenerational mobility refers to mobility

1. A Between ethnic groups only ✓
2. B Across three generations ✓
3. C Within a person's own lifetime ✓
4. D Only through marriage ✓

Upward mobility occurs when a person

1. A Moves to a similar job ✓
2. B Moves to a higher social position ✓
3. C Leaves school early ✓
4. D Loses occupational status ✓

Downward mobility means movement to

1. A A lower social position ✓
2. B A similar rank ✓
3. C A different city only ✓
4. D A new friendship group ✓

Structural mobility is caused mainly by

1. A Personal hobbies ✓
2. B Birth order ✓
3. C Interview schedules ✓
4. D Changes in the economy or occupational structure ✓

Circulation mobility refers to

1. A Biological circulation ✓
2. B People exchanging positions within a stable structure ✓
3. C Only rural migration ✓
4. D A caste ritual ✓

An open stratification system is one in which

1. A Rank is fixed only by birth ✓
2. B Mobility is impossible ✓
3. C Movement between strata is relatively possible ✓
4. D Marriage rules decide every job ✓

A closed stratification system is one that

1. A Has no ranking at all ✓
2. B Rewards only merit ✓
3. C Encourages occupational choice ✓
4. D Severely restricts social mobility ✓

Social inequality means unequal distribution of

1. A Valued resources and opportunities ✓
2. B Only weather conditions ✓
3. C Random questionnaire items ✓
4. D Biological instincts ✓

The term life chances is strongly associated with

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

Prestige in stratification refers to

1. A Amount of rainfall ✓
2. B Only physical strength ✓
3. C Social respect and honour ✓
4. D A sampling method ✓

Power is commonly defined in sociology as the ability to

1. A Carry out one's will despite resistance ✓
2. B Avoid all conflict ✓
3. C Measure income only ✓
4. D Reject social action ✓

Classical elite theory is especially associated with

1. A G. H. Mead and Cooley ✓
2. B Durkheim and Parsons ✓
3. C Malthus and Ricardo ✓
4. D Vilfredo Pareto and Gaetano Mosca ✓

The concept of the power elite is most closely linked with

1. A Robert Merton ✓
2. B C. Wright Mills ✓
3. C Emile Durkheim ✓
4. D Bronislaw Malinowski ✓

Absolute poverty refers to

1. A Lack of political party membership ✓
2. B Being less rich than neighbours ✓
3. C Inability to meet basic survival needs ✓
4. D A temporary change of job ✓

Relative poverty is measured by comparing people with

1. A Ancient empires only ✓
2. B Biological standards ✓
3. C Laboratory results ✓
4. D The normal living standard of their society ✓

The feminization of poverty means that

1. A Women form a disproportionate share of the poor ✓
2. B Only men experience unemployment ✓
3. C Poverty has no gender pattern ✓
4. D All women belong to one class ✓

The glass ceiling refers to

1. A A formal caste council ✓
2. B Invisible barriers to higher advancement ✓
3. C A type of rural housing ✓
4. D A method of observation ✓

Social closure means

1. A Opening all occupations equally ✓
2. B Ending every group boundary ✓
3. C Measuring only income ✓
4. D Restricting access to opportunities and rewards ✓

Status inconsistency occurs when a person

1. A Has no social position ✓
2. B Belongs to one family only ✓
3. C Ranks high on one dimension and low on another ✓
4. D Refuses all mobility ✓

Meritocracy is a system in which rewards are ideally based on

1. A Birth alone ✓
2. B Ability and achievement ✓
3. C Caste purity ✓
4. D Kinship seniority ✓

Equality of opportunity means that people should have

1. A Fair chances to compete for positions ✓
2. B Identical incomes in every job ✓
3. C No education system ✓
4. D Only inherited occupations ✓

An estate system is historically associated with

1. A Purely open competition ✓
2. B Modern online work only ✓
3. C Legally defined feudal ranks ✓
4. D Absence of land rights ✓

Slavery as a stratification system is based on

1. A Free labour contracts ✓
2. B Open class competition ✓
3. C Purely voluntary service ✓
4. D Ownership of persons as property ✓

Apartheid in South Africa was a system of

1. A Institutionalized racial segregation ✓
2. B Pure merit-based selection ✓
3. C Complete classlessness ✓
4. D Voluntary migration ✓

Exogamy means marriage

1. A Only within caste ✓
2. B Only within class ✓
3. C Outside one's group ✓
4. D Without family approval ✓

Social mobility is commonly measured through changes in

1. A Weather and climate ✓
2. B Favourite foods ✓
3. C Blood groups ✓
4. D Occupation, education or income ✓

Cumulative advantage means that

1. A Advantages disappear immediately ✓
2. B Early advantages tend to build over time ✓
3. C Only poor groups gain power ✓
4. D Every society is classless ✓

Credentialism refers to reliance on

1. A Kinship rituals ✓
2. B Physical strength alone ✓
3. C Village residence ✓
4. D Formal qualifications for allocating positions ✓

Ethnic stratification occurs when hierarchy is organized around

1. A Ethnic or racial group membership ✓
2. B Only taste in music ✓
3. C Random numbers ✓
4. D Laboratory performance ✓

Gender stratification means unequal ranking based on

1. A Only age categories ✓
2. B Village size ✓
3. C Gender and sex-related roles ✓
4. D Interview length ✓

The phrase social ladder is commonly used to describe

1. A A hierarchy of higher and lower positions ✓
2. B Only biological evolution ✓
3. C A survey scale for attitudes ✓
4. D A religious ritual ✓

Occupational prestige refers to

1. A Number of workers only ✓
2. B Social evaluation of an occupation ✓
3. C Length of daily commute ✓
4. D Type of questionnaire used ✓

Cultural capital (Bourdieu) includes

1. A knowledge, tastes and credentials conferring social advantage ✓
2. B only cash savings in banks ✓
3. C factory machinery owned by firms ✓
4. D legal statutes printed by government ✓

Social reproduction (Bourdieu) explains how

1. A each generation starts with identical opportunities always ✓
2. B mobility eliminates all inequality permanently ✓
3. C education never reflects class interests ✓
4. D advantaged families pass privileges to children through habitus and schooling ✓

The poverty line is used to identify

1. A households lacking income for basic needs ✓
2. B the wealthiest one percent only ✓
3. C all middle-class professionals always ✓
4. D persons with advanced university degrees ✓

Relative poverty compares individuals to

1. A fixed global calorie counts only without context ✓
2. B prehistoric subsistence exclusively ✓
3. C living standards prevailing in their own society ✓
4. D income of the richest person on earth alone ✓

Absolute poverty means inability to meet

1. A slightly less luxury than billionaires ✓
2. B minimum subsistence needs for survival ✓
3. C fewer cars than neighbors in wealthy suburbs ✓
4. D lower prestige occupation only without hardship ✓

A ruling class or elite controls

1. A no resources and no influence ever ✓
2. B only ceremonial titles without power ✓
3. C equal shares of wealth with all citizens always ✓
4. D disproportionate political and economic power in society ✓

Middle class occupations often include

1. A landless manual laborers only in all societies ✓
2. B professionals, managers and skilled white-collar workers ✓
3. C hereditary priests in a caste system exclusively ✓
4. D unpaid domestic work without market wage always ✓

Social exclusion refers to

1. A marginalization from full participation in economic, social and political life ✓
2. B complete integration of all groups always ✓
3. C only temporary fashion trends among youth ✓
4. D mandatory membership in all clubs by law ✓

Working class typically sells

1. A capital and owns large corporations always ✓
2. B only sacred religious offices by birth ✓
3. C manual or routine labor for wages ✓
4. D stocks without working for income ever ✓

Underclass refers to

1. A persistently poor groups marginalized from mainstream economic life ✓
2. B the top income earners in society ✓
3. C university professors with tenure always ✓
4. D mobile elites rotating globally each year ✓

Glass ceiling describes

1. A transparent promotion based solely on merit always ✓
2. B physical architecture of office buildings only ✓
3. C legal quotas guaranteeing instant equality everywhere ✓
4. D invisible barriers blocking women and minorities from top positions ✓

Gender stratification means

1. A identical treatment of all genders in every society always ✓
2. B only biological differences without social pattern ✓
3. C unequal access to resources and power based on gender ✓
4. D absence of any gender roles historically ✓

Patriarchy is a system in which

1. A women control all state institutions always ✓
2. B men hold primary authority in political, economic and familial spheres ✓
3. C gender equality is fully achieved everywhere ✓
4. D family decisions are made only by children ✓

Estate systems in feudal Europe divided society into

1. A nobility, clergy and commoners with legal privileges ✓
2. B open class based on stock market income only ✓
3. C caste determined solely by ritual pollution rules in India exclusively as global model ✓
4. D perfectly equal citizenship without rank ✓

Slavery as a stratification system treats persons as

1. A free wage laborers with contracts always ✓
2. B citizens with equal voting rights ✓
3. C religious leaders with high honor only ✓
4. D property without full legal personhood ✓

Colonialism contributed to stratification by

1. A extracting resources and imposing racial and economic hierarchies ✓
2. B equalizing global wealth without exploitation ✓
3. C eliminating ethnic identity worldwide instantly ✓
4. D granting identical life chances to all colonies always ✓

In Pakistan, feudal landownership historically influenced

1. A urban industrial unions exclusively without agriculture ✓
2. B complete equal distribution of farmland to all families always ✓
3. C rural power relations and limited peasant mobility ✓
4. D absence of any class differences in villages ✓

Social mobility in industrial societies tends to be

1. A zero for all persons in every country ✓
2. B greater than in rigid caste societies though still constrained ✓
3. C unlimited for everyone without barriers always ✓
4. D higher in caste than in class systems always ✓

Davis and Moore functionalist thesis argues stratification

1. A only produces conflict without any social function ✓
2. B eliminates all incentives for work entirely ✓
3. C abolishes prestige differences completely ✓
4. D sorts talented individuals into important roles and motivates performance ✓

Conflict theorists criticize functionalist stratification theory for

1. A overemphasizing class struggle excessively in all texts ✓
2. B ignoring how elites use power to maintain privilege ✓
3. C denying any role of institutions whatsoever always ✓
4. D supporting only caste systems globally ✓

Prestige occupational rankings in Pakistan often elevate

1. A only manual scavenging without exception always ✓
2. B unpaid household labor as highest honor universally ✓
3. C professions such as physicians, engineers and senior civil servants ✓
4. D random occupations without social evaluation ✓

Income inequality is often measured by the

1. A Gini coefficient ranging from 0 (equality) toward 1 (inequality) ✓
2. B literacy rate of primary schools only ✓
3. C number of languages spoken nationally ✓
4. D total population count without distribution ✓

Interlocking directorates illustrate how

1. A workers control all multinational firms always ✓
2. B mobility is impossible among executives ✓
3. C small farmers dominate global finance exclusively ✓
4. D corporate elites connect through shared board memberships ✓

Status inconsistency occurs when

1. A all dimensions align perfectly always ✓
2. B mobility is illegal in open societies ✓
3. C a person's rankings on class, status or power diverge ✓
4. D only caste systems show any variation ✓

Tokenism involves

1. A full democratic representation of all groups always ✓
2. B abolishing all diversity policies everywhere ✓
3. C guaranteed proportional wealth for every ethnicity ✓
4. D symbolic inclusion of minorities without real power sharing ✓

Power elite (Mills) refers to

1. A all citizens sharing equal decision power always ✓
2. B interconnected leaders dominating corporate, state and military institutions ✓
3. C only local village headmen without national reach ✓
4. D students in universities exclusively ✓

Caste-like endogamy pressures in South Asia can

1. A guarantee complete open mobility always ✓
2. B eliminate all family influence on marriage ✓
3. C limit marriage across group boundaries and reinforce stratification ✓
4. D exist only in Western Europe historically ✓

Upward intergenerational mobility in CSS exams context often links to

1. A education, civil service entry and professional credentials ✓
2. B hereditary caste assignment only ✓
3. C random lottery without study or merit ✓
4. D ban on rural residents from urban jobs always ✓

Feminization of poverty suggests

1. A men are always poorer in every country without exception ✓
2. B women disproportionately experience poverty worldwide ✓
3. C gender has no effect on economic vulnerability ✓
4. D poverty affects only elderly men globally ✓

An open class system allows

1. A some mobility through achievement and economic change ✓
2. B zero movement between strata ever ✓
3. C marriage rules fixed at birth always ✓
4. D occupations inherited legally without exception ✓

Vertical mobility means movement

1. A between jobs at the same prestige level only ✓
2. B within one's household chores exclusively ✓
3. C up or down the socioeconomic hierarchy ✓
4. D between neighborhoods without status change ✓

Horizontal mobility refers to

1. A from poverty to elite wealth always ✓
2. B movement between positions at roughly the same social level ✓
3. C from child to adult status only ✓
4. D from caste to caste in a rigid system ✓

Intergenerational mobility compares

1. A one person's jobs within a single year only ✓
2. B mobility between countries without hierarchy ✓
3. C changes in fashion without economic effect ✓
4. D social position of children relative to their parents ✓

Intragenerational mobility tracks

1. A only parents and grandparents historically ✓
2. B an individual's rank change over their own lifetime ✓
3. C mobility of corporations without people ✓
4. D genetic changes across generations ✓

Structural mobility occurs when

1. A one individual works harder alone without social change ✓
2. B a person changes hobbies but not occupation ✓
3. C broad economic or demographic shifts move many people up or down ✓
4. D mobility impossible in all industrial societies ✓

Exchange mobility means

1. A some rise while others fall, leaving overall inequality unchanged ✓
2. B everyone moves upward simultaneously ✓
3. C society has no stratification afterward ✓
4. D only intergenerational data are invalid ✓

Socioeconomic status (SES) typically combines

1. A only height and weight measurements ✓
2. B language spoken at birth exclusively ✓
3. C random lottery numbers each year ✓
4. D income, education and occupational prestige ✓

Life chances refer to

1. A private thoughts without material consequences ✓
2. B only religious beliefs without resources ✓
3. C opportunities to fulfill needs and achieve well-being ✓
4. D genetic traits unrelated to social position ✓

Meritocracy ideology claims

1. A status is always ascribed at birth only ✓
2. B rewards follow individual talent and effort fairly ✓
3. C mobility never occurs in modern societies ✓
4. D power is unrelated to education always ✓

Sustainable reduction of stratification typically requires

1. A policy on education, taxation, labor rights and anti-discrimination enforcement ✓
2. B ignoring institutional power completely always ✓
3. C relying on folklore without structural reform ✓
4. D banning all social research on inequality ✓

Ascribed stratification differs from achieved stratification because ascribed rank is

1. A always earned through competitive exams only ✓
2. B changed daily by fashion choices alone ✓
3. C assigned by birth or fixed characteristics rather than individual accomplishment ✓
4. D unrelated to family or ethnicity ever ✓

Relative deprivation theory explains unrest when

1. A absolute poverty is absent always and expectations irrelevant ✓
2. B people feel disadvantaged compared to reference groups ✓
3. C everyone is satisfied regardless of comparison ✓
4. D mobility has no psychological dimension ever ✓

Proletarianization means

1. A all workers become capitalists always ✓
2. B feudal lords gain more land without labor ✓
3. C mobility ends in post-industrial society completely ✓
4. D middle strata lose autonomy and resemble wage workers ✓

Max Weber argued stratification involves

1. A only caste without class or power ✓
2. B income alone with no honor or politics ✓
3. C biological race as the sole dimension always ✓
4. D class, status and party as distinct but related dimensions ✓

Karl Marx viewed class struggle as driven by

1. A conflict between owners of capital and wage laborers ✓
2. B harmony among all occupational groups always ✓
3. C religious rituals exclusively ✓
4. D status honor without economic relations ✓

Power in stratification means

1. A polite manners in folkways only ✓
2. B the ability to impose one's will despite resistance ✓
3. C shared language without influence ✓
4. D random luck without social organization ✓

Caste systems are characterized by

1. A complete open mobility based on merit always ✓
2. B class based solely on current income alone ✓
3. C temporary roles chosen each year freely ✓
4. D ascribed, rigid and hereditary rank with restricted marriage ✓

Social class primarily concerns

1. A economic position based on wealth, income and occupation ✓
2. B sacred versus profane categories only ✓
3. C age grading in schools exclusively ✓
4. D linguistic accent without material resources ✓

Status refers to

1. A only ownership of factories without reputation ✓
2. B legal citizenship documents exclusively ✓
3. C social honor, prestige and esteem attached to a position ✓
4. D geographic latitude of residence alone ✓