Sociology MCQs from the Past CSS Papers

Following are the most repeated MCQs in Sociology Paper collected from the CSS past papers. Candidates must prepare these for CSS, PMS, and UPSC Sociology MCQs Papers.

Sociology MCQs From CSS Past Papers

A double-barreled question is an informal fallacy. It is committed when someone asks a question that touches upon more than one issue, yet allows only for one answer.
Herbert Spencer is famous for his doctrine of social Darwinism, which asserted that the principles of evolution, including natural selection, apply to human societies, social classes, and individuals as well as to biological species developing over geologic time.
Auguste Comte coined ‘Sociology’.
Qualitative data is collected in the form of observations.
Reliability & validity can be assessed through experiments.
Patrimony: Property inherited from one’s father or male ancestor.
Sororate: Marriage of female with the widower of deceased sister.
Talcott parsons was an American sociologist.
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of learning.
Containment theory is a form of control theory proposed by Walter Reckless in the 1940s–1960s. The theory contends that a series of external social factors and internal qualities effectively insulate certain individuals from criminal involvement even when ecological variables induce others to engage in crime.
Convergence theory presumes that as nations move from the early stages of industrialization toward becoming fully industrialized, they begin to resemble other industrialized societies in terms of societal norms and technology; thus leading to a unified global culture.
Cultural reproduction, a concept first developed by French sociologist and cultural theorist Pierre Bourdieu, is the process by which aspects of culture are passed on from person to person or from society to society.
Affective Individualism is the formation of marriage through personal selection based on romantic and sexual attraction instead of custom or economic and political reasons.
Ageism, also spelled agism, is stereotyping and/or discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age.
Autarky is an economic system of self-sufficiency and limited trade.
Autarchy means autocracy.
A birth cohort is defined as a group of people born during a particular period or year.
Cash Nexus is the relationship constituted by monetary transactions.
Status Frustration theory by Albert Cohen: The idea of status frustration is to describe how working-class men feel frustrated by an inability to achieve the same status as members of the middle or upper class. Basically, delinquency is a kind of reaction to feeling out of place in society.
Scientific management is a term that means a systematic method of investigation used in research. Its originator was Frederick W. Taylor.
Auguste Comte is the founder of Altruism & Positivism.
The Principles of Biology by Herbert Spencer(1864) introduced the expression ‘survival of the fittest’.
The broken windows theory (proposed by James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982) states that visible signs of crime, anti-social behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes.
Emile Durkheim can be considered a pure sociologist.
Polyandry is a form of marriage in which many men are the husbands of one woman.
Endogamy is the custom of marrying only within the limits of a local community, clan, or tribe.
Exogamy is the custom of marrying outside a community, clan, or tribe.
Push factors in migration may include conflict, drought, famine, extreme religious activity, low economic activity, lack of job opportunities, etc.
Pull factors “pull” people to a new home and include things like better opportunities.
Consanguineous: Relating to or denoting people descended from the same ancestor
A consanguine family is created by blood ties instead of marital ties and the spouses share a common ancestor. A joint family is when one or more nuclear families combine to share resources, such as two siblings who move their families into the same household.
A conjugal family is a nuclear family that may consist of a married couple and their children.
Dialectical materialism is a philosophical approach to reality derived from the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A simple definition of Marx’s concept of dialectical materialism is a view of history as determined by the struggle between economic forces.
Erving Goffman uses the term “spoiled identity” to refer to an identity that causes a person to experience stigma.
Sign Vehicle (Goff man): a particular event (such as a sound or gesture) or object (such as a written character or word) that acts as a sign.
Aristotle the legendary Greek philosopher said, “Man is by nature a social animal”.
Levirate marriage is a type of marriage in which the brother of a deceased man is obliged to marry his brother’s widow.
Religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. (Emily Durkheim)
MacIver & Page said that ‘where there is life, there is society’.
Gerontology is the study of the physical aspects of aging, as well as the mental, social and societal implications of aging.
Gerontocracy is a state, society, or group governed by old people.
A social condition in which values are conflicting, weak, or absent is Anomie.
The Likert Scale is a unidimensional scale that researchers use to collect respondents’ attitudes and opinions.
A family consisting of step-relations is called Extended Family.
The social structure of a society is the network of compliance with norms.
Demography is the statistical study of human populations.
Abstract sentiments are closer to the center of self than moral rules.
The country with a better record for gathering population statistics is the USA.
The exception to the typical application of endogamy is kinship.
“Social facts have their independent existence and must be studied likewise.” (Emile Durkheim)
“Those who can compete have no right for higher learning and must be refused accordingly.” (Spencer)
Contingency questions are questions that are only to be answered by some subgroup(s) of respondents.
Cultural diffusion is a social process through which elements of culture spread from one society or social group to another, which means it is, in essence, a process of social change.
Hawthorne Effect is the tendency, particularly in social experiments, for people to modify their behavior because they know they are being studied, and so to distort the research findings.
Herbert Spencer has given the “Deterministic or Single Factor Theory” about social change in society.
“Social Selection is a process of creating conditions for survival.” (Herbert Spencer)
Stratified random sampling is a method of sampling that involves the division of a population into smaller sub-groups known as strata.
Evolvere (Italian) origin of the term “Social Evolution”.
Das Kapital, book by Karl Marx.
Max Weber is famous for his thesis that the “Protestant ethic” (the supposedly Protestant values of hard work, thrift, efficiency, and orderliness) contributed to the economic success of Protestant groups in the early stages of European capitalism.
In the division of labor in Society (1893), Emile Durkheim identified two types of solidarity.
Family is a basic institution for the socialization of children.
In 2019, the infant mortality rate in Pakistan was at about 55.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.
According to a report submitted by the Ministry of Planning and Development in the National Assembly of Pakistan, about 24.3% of Pakistani lived below the poverty line which translates into 55 million people.
Talcott Parsons viewed society as a system. He argued that any social system has four basic functional prerequisites: adaptation, goal attainment, integration, and pattern maintenance.
Herbert Spencer classified social organization into two types; “militant society” and “industrial society”.
Affinal kin, or affines, are relatives by marriage or your in-laws.
Cultural Complex is a distinctive pattern of activities, beliefs, rites, and traditions associated with one central feature of life in a particular culture.
Ethnography is the scientific description of people and cultures with their customs, habits, and mutual differences.
Penology is the study of the punishment of crime and of prison management.
White Collar: The American Middle Classes, Book by Wright Mills
Hypergamy: Marrying a person of a superior or upper social status.
Totem: An object, animal, or plant, held in special regard by an individual or social group.
Fatalism: the belief that all events are predetermined and therefore inevitable.
Universalism is the belief that all humankind will eventually be saved. | Loyalty to and concern for others without regard to national or other allegiances.
Etiology of Deviance means the study of causes of violation of official norms.