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Assam ASSEB Higher Secondary Sociology study materials
Assam ASSEB Higher Secondary Sociology study resources

Assam ASSEB Higher Secondary Sociology practice questions

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Question 1Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

In sociology, which term refers to the largest and most inclusive form of social grouping whose members are linked by shared institutions, territory and identity?

  1. Society Correct answer.
  2. Community
  3. Association
  4. Institution

Explanation

A society is the most inclusive and self-sufficient form of social grouping, held together by shared institutions, territory and collective identity. Community and association are narrower groupings nested within it, while an institution is an organised pattern of norms rather than a total grouping.

Question 2Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which feature most clearly distinguishes a community from an association?

  1. Members pursue a single explicitly stated objective
  2. Members share a sense of belonging rooted in common living rather than deliberate recruitment Correct answer.
  3. Members must pay a subscription to remain part of the group
  4. Members are always formally registered with the state

Explanation

Community rests on shared territory, sentiment and everyday interdependence, so membership is largely given rather than chosen. An association is deliberately created for a stated purpose with formal, optional membership, which is why recruitment and explicit aims belong to association, not community.

Question 3Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A village in Assam where people share land, festivals and everyday reciprocity is best described sociologically as which of the following?

  1. A secondary group
  2. An association
  3. A community Correct answer.
  4. A formal organisation

Explanation

Shared locality, collective ritual and reciprocal everyday relations are the classic marks of a community based on common living and sentiment. Associations, secondary groups and formal organisations depend instead on explicit goals, formal rules and impersonal contact.

Question 4Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following is the best sociological example of an institution?

  1. A crowd at a bus stop
  2. A queue at a ticket counter
  3. The family Correct answer.
  4. A group of tourists

Explanation

An institution is a stable, recognised pattern of norms and roles governing a basic social need, and the family is the standard example. Crowds, tourist groups and queues are temporary aggregations without enduring normative structure.

Question 5Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which statement best captures the sociological meaning of a social institution?

  1. A temporary gathering of people in one place
  2. A voluntary club with a written constitution
  3. A building constructed for public administrative work
  4. A stable cluster of norms and roles organised around a basic social need Correct answer.

Explanation

Institutions are normative structures, not physical structures: they are enduring patterns of roles and expectations meeting needs such as reproduction, socialisation or order. Buildings, voluntary clubs and crowds are concrete entities, whereas an institution is an abstract organised pattern.

Question 6Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which characteristic is defining of a social group rather than a mere aggregate?

  1. Members share an identical income level
  2. Members interact and recognise one another as belonging together Correct answer.
  3. Members are counted together by a census category
  4. Members happen to be present in the same place

Explanation

A social group requires interaction, mutual awareness and a sense of belonging among members. Co-presence, identical income or statistical classification alone produce aggregates or categories, not groups.

Question 7Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Passengers who happen to be waiting on the same platform and never speak to one another are, sociologically, best described as which of the following?

  1. A community
  2. An institution
  3. A primary group
  4. An aggregate Correct answer.

Explanation

People sharing a location without interaction or mutual awareness form an aggregate. Primary groups, communities and institutions all require sustained relations or normative structure that mere co-presence does not supply.

Question 8Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which pair of concepts did Charles Horton Cooley use to distinguish intimate face-to-face groups from larger impersonal ones?

  1. Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
  2. In-group and out-group
  3. Primary and secondary groups Correct answer.
  4. Status and role

Explanation

Cooley introduced the distinction between primary groups, marked by intimate face-to-face relations, and secondary groups, which are larger and more impersonal. In-group/out-group and Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft are different distinctions, and status and role belong to a separate conceptual pair.

Question 9Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A student belongs to a family, a football team and a college class. Which concept best describes the football team as a group the student does not choose but joins through selection?

  1. A secondary group Correct answer.
  2. A social category
  3. A primary group
  4. An aggregate

Explanation

A football team is goal-oriented with formal roles and limited personal intimacy, which makes it a secondary group. Primary groups involve deep personal ties, while aggregates and categories lack organised interaction altogether.

Question 10Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which statement correctly distinguishes status from role?

  1. Status is a position in the social structure; role is the behaviour expected of that position Correct answer.
  2. Status is behaviour performed in public; role is the position occupied in private
  3. Status is always achieved; role is always ascribed
  4. Status applies only to groups; role applies only to individuals

Explanation

Status denotes a social position, while role denotes the expectations and conduct attached to that position. Roles can be ascribed as well as achieved, and both concepts apply to individuals within groups, so the other statements misstate the distinction.

Question 11Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A woman is simultaneously a mother, a teacher and a member of a cooperative. The sociological term for the combination of positions she occupies is which of the following?

  1. Status set Correct answer.
  2. Master status
  3. Role conflict
  4. Role set

Explanation

The full collection of positions an individual occupies is called a status set. A role set refers to the various role partners attached to a single status, role conflict refers to incompatible demands, and master status is the position that overrides others.

Question 12Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which situation is the clearest example of role conflict?

  1. A nurse must stay at the hospital during an emergency while her child is alone at home Correct answer.
  2. A worker is promoted to a higher post
  3. A student learns the rules of a new classroom
  4. A man is expected to greet his elders respectfully

Explanation

Role conflict arises when the demands of two different statuses, such as worker and parent, cannot both be met at once. Learning rules, following a single role's expectations, or changing position involves socialisation, conformity or mobility rather than conflict between roles.

Question 13Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following is an ascribed status?

  1. Being elected as a member of a committee
  2. Winning a sports medal
  3. Being born into a particular caste Correct answer.
  4. Becoming a doctor

Explanation

Ascribed statuses are assigned at birth or by circumstances beyond individual control, such as caste, sex or kinship. Becoming a doctor, being elected or winning a medal are achieved through effort or choice.

Question 14Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which element of culture is best illustrated by the belief that touching a person's head is disrespectful?

  1. A norm Correct answer.
  2. A sanction
  3. A cultural trait of technology
  4. A material artefact

Explanation

A norm is a shared expectation about appropriate behaviour, and the belief about touching heads prescribes conduct. Material artefacts are physical objects, technology refers to tools and techniques, and sanctions are reactions to conformity or deviance rather than the rule itself.

Question 15Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following best describes a mores (pronounced moh-rayz) as a type of norm?

  1. Laws enacted by a legislature and enforced by the state
  2. Physical objects used in ritual
  3. Casual conventions such as which fork to use at dinner
  4. Strongly held norms whose violation provokes moral condemnation Correct answer.

Explanation

Mores are norms regarded as essential to group welfare, so breaches attract moral outrage rather than mild disapproval. Folkways are the lighter conventions, laws are formally codified and state-enforced, and physical objects are material culture.

Question 16Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A group's shared beliefs about what is desirable and worth pursuing are called which of the following?

  1. Values Correct answer.
  2. Folkways
  3. Artefacts
  4. Sanctions

Explanation

Values are the shared standards of what is good, desirable or important, and they guide norms and conduct. Folkways are behavioural conventions, sanctions are reactions to behaviour, and artefacts are physical objects.

Question 17Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which statement best explains the relationship between culture and socialisation?

  1. Socialisation replaces culture with individual instinct
  2. Culture is created only by institutions, and socialisation is irrelevant to it
  3. Socialisation transmits culture to new members and thereby reproduces it Correct answer.
  4. Culture is inherited genetically and socialisation has no part in it

Explanation

Socialisation is the process through which individuals learn and internalise the culture of their society, so it both transmits and reproduces that culture across generations. Culture is learned rather than genetically inherited, and it is not produced by institutions independently of social interaction.

Question 18Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following is an example of material culture?

  1. A wedding ritual
  2. A traditional handloom used for weaving Correct answer.
  3. A folk proverb
  4. A rule of hospitality

Explanation

Material culture consists of physical objects and technologies that people create and use, such as a handloom. Rituals, proverbs and rules of hospitality are non-material culture because they are ideas and practices rather than physical things.

Question 19Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Culture lag, as used by sociologists such as William Ogburn, refers to which of the following?

  1. The refusal of a society to adopt any new technology
  2. The tendency of norms to be codified into law
  3. The loss of a group's language over several generations
  4. The slower adaptation of non-material culture to rapid changes in material culture Correct answer.

Explanation

Culture lag describes the gap that arises when material culture, such as technology, changes faster than non-material culture, such as norms and values. It is not a total rejection of technology, language loss, or the codification of norms into law.

Question 20Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following best defines socialisation?

  1. The lifelong process by which individuals learn the norms, values and roles of their society Correct answer.
  2. The movement of people from one social class to another
  3. The formal schooling a child receives in a classroom
  4. The biological maturation of a child's nervous system

Explanation

Socialisation is a lifelong process through which people acquire the culture, norms and roles needed to participate in society. Biological maturation is physiological, schooling is only one agency of socialisation, and class mobility is a separate process of stratification.

Question 21Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A child learns language, basic hygiene and emotional attachment within the family before entering school. This early learning is best described as which of the following?

  1. Secondary socialisation
  2. Resocialisation
  3. Anticipatory socialisation
  4. Primary socialisation Correct answer.

Explanation

Primary socialisation occurs in early childhood within intimate settings such as the family, where basic language and emotional capacities are formed. Secondary socialisation happens later in formal settings, anticipatory socialisation involves preparing for a future role, and resocialisation involves learning new norms that replace earlier ones.

Question 22Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which concept describes a person learning the norms of a group they hope to join in the future?

  1. Primary socialisation
  2. Culture lag
  3. Anticipatory socialisation Correct answer.
  4. Role conflict

Explanation

Anticipatory socialisation is the process of adopting the values and behaviour of a group one aspires to join. Primary socialisation concerns early childhood, role conflict concerns clashing expectations, and culture lag concerns uneven rates of cultural change.

Question 23Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which theorist is most closely associated with the idea that the self develops through social interaction, using the concepts of the 'I' and the 'me'?

  1. Karl Marx
  2. Max Weber
  3. George Herbert Mead Correct answer.
  4. Émile Durkheim

Explanation

Mead developed a theory of the self in which the 'I' is the spontaneous, creative aspect and the 'me' is the internalised social expectations. Durkheim, Marx and Weber made foundational contributions to other areas of sociology but not to this specific theory of the self.

Question 24Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following best illustrates the 'looking-glass self' as described by Charles Horton Cooley?

  1. A tourist adopts local customs temporarily during a holiday
  2. A worker obeys a rule because it carries a legal penalty
  3. A child copies a parent's manner of speaking without thinking about it
  4. A student works harder because she believes her teachers see her as a capable learner Correct answer.

Explanation

The looking-glass self holds that people develop their self-image by imagining how others perceive them and reacting to that imagined judgement. Imitation, legal obedience and temporary adoption of customs involve other processes and do not centre on imagined appraisal by others.

Question 25Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which of the following statements about the relationship between individual and society in sociological terms is the most defensible?

  1. Society shapes individuals through socialisation, while individuals also reshape society through action Correct answer.
  2. Society exists only in the minds of individuals and has no observable effects
  3. Individuals are entirely independent of society and its norms
  4. Society completely determines every individual action, leaving no scope for agency

Explanation

Sociology treats the individual and society as mutually constitutive: socialisation shapes persons, and persons in turn reproduce and change social structures. The other options overstate either determinism, individualism or pure subjectivism, all of which ignore empirical social influence.

Question 26Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

In sociology, which statement best distinguishes a community from an association?

  1. A community is temporary and voluntary, while an association is permanent and based on kinship.
  2. A community is based on shared territory and diffuse personal relationships, while an association is deliberately formed to pursue a specific interest. Correct answer.
  3. A community is always larger in population than an association and therefore has more formal rules.
  4. A community exists only in rural areas, while an association exists only in urban industrial settings.

Explanation

Sociologists treat community as a relatively permanent, territorially rooted grouping whose members share a whole way of life and many diffuse relationships. An association, by contrast, is consciously created to achieve a limited, specified purpose, such as a trade union or a club. The decisive difference lies in breadth of purpose and the degree of deliberate organisation.

Question 27Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A hospital has a written rule that nurses must record a patient's temperature every four hours. Sociologically, this organised cluster of norms centred on meeting a basic human need is best called which of the following?

  1. A primary group
  2. An institution Correct answer.
  3. A cultural trait
  4. A social aggregate

Explanation

An institution is an established, organised system of norms and procedures built around a basic social need such as health care, education or the family. The hospital's temperature rule is one element of the wider institution of medicine, which persists beyond any single nurse or patient. Institutions are recognised by their durability and their shared normative patterns rather than by the individuals who occupy them.

Question 28Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A young man who has just joined a factory is learning the informal practices of his workmates, such as how long a tea break is really acceptable. Which concept best describes this process?

  1. Ascribed status
  2. Secondary socialisation Correct answer.
  3. Primary socialisation
  4. Ethnocentrism

Explanation

Secondary socialisation is the learning of norms and roles that occurs later in life, outside the intimate family setting, as the person enters work, school or wider society. Absorbing a workplace's informal rules of conduct fits this concept precisely because the family is not the agency involved. Primary socialisation, by contrast, happens in early childhood within close emotional relationships.

Question 29Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

Which statement correctly expresses the relationship between culture and society?

  1. Society refers to the network of relationships among people, while culture refers to the shared ways of thinking, feeling and behaving that those people hold. Correct answer.
  2. Society and culture are identical terms, since a society is simply the total culture of a population.
  3. Society is the material equipment of a people, while culture is only their biological inheritance.
  4. Culture refers to the people who inhabit a territory, while society refers to their beliefs and values.

Explanation

Sociologists separate the two concepts analytically: society is the organised web of social relationships and groups, whereas culture is the shared system of knowledge, beliefs, values, norms and material objects. The two are interdependent, since no society exists without culture and no culture exists apart from people, but they are not the same thing. Keeping the distinction clear allows analysis of how a society's structure and its culture shape each other.

Question 30Sociology and Society: Introduction to Sociology, Basic Concepts (society, community, association, institution, social group, status and role, culture, socialisation)

A student from a village joins a city college and finds that behaviour considered respectful at home, such as avoiding eye contact with elders, is read by classmates as rudeness. Which sociological interpretation best explains this situation?

  1. The same behaviour carries different meanings in different social settings, showing that norms are socially constructed rather than natural. Correct answer.
  2. The episode shows that status and role are always identical in small communities.
  3. The student lacks any culture and must acquire one for the first time in the city.
  4. The classmates are simply better socialised than the student, who has been improperly raised.

Explanation

Norms are socially constructed: what counts as respectful or rude is defined by a group's shared understandings, so identical conduct can be interpreted differently across settings. The student is not cultureless but is moving between two normative systems, a situation sociologists describe as a clash between the expectations of different groups. This illustrates the relative rather than absolute character of cultural standards.

Question 31Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

In the sociological study of the family, which term refers to a married couple and their dependent children living together as a unit?

  1. Clan
  2. Joint family
  3. Nuclear family Correct answer.
  4. Extended family

Explanation

The nuclear family consists of a married couple and their unmarried dependent children, forming a single residential unit. It is distinguished from wider kin groupings by its limited membership and separate household.

Question 32Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

A society in which a newly married couple sets up a separate household away from both sets of parents is practising which rule of residence?

  1. Matrilocal residence
  2. Patrilocal residence
  3. Neolocal residence Correct answer.
  4. Avunculocal residence

Explanation

Neolocal residence means the couple establishes a new, independent household rather than joining the husband's or wife's family. It is common in industrial urban societies where occupation rather than inheritance determines where people live.

Question 33Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which of the following is the best sociological definition of marriage?

  1. A socially approved union between two or more persons establishing rights and obligations between them and their children Correct answer.
  2. A private arrangement between two individuals based on romantic love
  3. A religious ceremony that legitimises sexual relations
  4. A legal contract concerned mainly with the transfer of property

Explanation

Sociology defines marriage as a socially recognised and approved union that creates rights and duties between spouses and regulates the status of offspring. The emphasis falls on social approval and institutional obligations rather than on ceremony, property or sentiment alone.

Question 34Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

The rule that a person must marry outside a specified group, such as their own clan or village, is known as:

  1. Levirate
  2. Endogamy
  3. Exogamy Correct answer.
  4. Polygyny

Explanation

Exogamy requires marriage outside a defined social group, such as the clan, lineage or village, and is widespread as a way of building alliances between groups. It is the opposite of endogamy, which requires marriage within a group.

Question 35Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which term describes the form of marriage in which one woman is married to two or more men simultaneously?

  1. Polyandry Correct answer.
  2. Polygyny
  3. Monogamy
  4. Group marriage

Explanation

Polyandry is the marriage of one woman to several men at the same time, often associated with fraternal polyandry in which brothers share a wife. It is rarer than polygyny and typically linked to scarcity of land or resources.

Question 36Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

In the sociology of religion, which term refers to the everyday, ordinary realm of profane activity as distinguished from the sacred?

  1. Ritual
  2. Profane Correct answer.
  3. Sacred
  4. Totem

Explanation

Durkheim distinguished the sacred, which is set apart and treated with reverence, from the profane, which is the ordinary realm of everyday life. Religion, for him, is organised around this fundamental division of the world into two classes of things.

Question 37Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which of the following is a manifest function of education according to Merton's distinction between manifest and latent functions?

  1. Providing a marriage market for young people
  2. Keeping young people out of the labour market
  3. Forming friendship networks among students
  4. Transmitting knowledge and skills through formal instruction Correct answer.

Explanation

Manifest functions are the intended and recognised purposes of an institution; for education this includes the deliberate transmission of knowledge, skills and values through instruction. Latent functions are unintended or less acknowledged consequences.

Question 38Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

A kinship tie established through marriage rather than through blood descent is called:

  1. Affinal kinship Correct answer.
  2. Consanguineal kinship
  3. Lineal kinship
  4. Fictive kinship

Explanation

Affinal kinship arises from marriage, linking spouses and their respective relatives, whereas consanguineal kinship rests on blood or descent. The distinction is basic to analysing how kin groups are formed and maintained.

Question 39Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which of the following best illustrates the sociological concept of the family as a universal social institution?

  1. Every society practises monogamy as its only legal form of marriage
  2. Every society requires a religious ceremony to validate a marriage
  3. Every society traces descent through the father's line
  4. Every known society has some recognised arrangement for regulating mating, reproduction and the care of children Correct answer.

Explanation

Sociologists treat the family as universal in the minimal sense that all societies regulate reproduction and the rearing of children through some recognised kinship arrangement. The specific forms vary widely, so universality of function does not imply uniformity of structure.

Question 40Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

In a matrilineal society, a man's most important inherited obligations and property rights typically pass to:

  1. His own sons
  2. His sister's sons Correct answer.
  3. His wife's brothers
  4. His father's brothers

Explanation

Under matrilineal descent, a person belongs to the mother's lineage, so a man's heirs and successors are usually his sister's children rather than his own sons. His own children belong to their mother's lineage, which alters the inheritance pattern.

Question 41Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

The custom by which a widow is expected to marry her deceased husband's younger brother is known as:

  1. Sororate
  2. Bride service
  3. Levirate Correct answer.
  4. Dowry

Explanation

The levirate obliges or permits a widow to marry a brother of her dead husband, thereby maintaining the alliance between the two kin groups and securing her position. Its counterpart, the sororate, concerns a widower marrying his wife's sister.

Question 42Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

According to Durkheim's analysis in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, the true object of worship in totemic religion is:

  1. A supreme creator deity
  2. The natural species represented by the totem
  3. The individual's own conscience
  4. The clan or society itself Correct answer.

Explanation

Durkheim argued that the sacred power attributed to the totem is in reality the collective force of the clan, so society worships itself through its symbols. Religion thus functions to express and reinforce social solidarity.

Question 43Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

A family in which authority over decisions and the control of resources rest primarily with the eldest male member is best described as:

  1. Matriarchal
  2. Matrifocal
  3. Patriarchal Correct answer.
  4. Egalitarian

Explanation

Patriarchal families vest authority in the senior male, who typically controls property and major decisions. The concept describes a structure of power within the family, not merely residence or descent.

Question 44Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which of the following best describes the sociological distinction between a caste and a class as forms of social stratification?

  1. Caste is achieved while class is ascribed
  2. Caste is based on income while class is based on ritual purity
  3. Caste is found only in urban areas while class is found only in rural areas
  4. Caste membership is ascribed by birth and ritually ranked, while class position is relatively open and based largely on economic achievement Correct answer.

Explanation

Caste is a closed, hereditary system of ranked groups with strong ritual restrictions on interaction and marriage, whereas class is comparatively open and linked to economic position and mobility. The key contrast is between ascription and achievement, and between closure and mobility.

Question 45Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

In the context of the Indian economy, the term 'informal sector' refers to:

  1. Government-owned public sector undertakings
  2. Enterprises registered under company law
  3. Export-oriented industries only
  4. Unorganised economic activity not covered by formal registration, regulation and social security Correct answer.

Explanation

The informal or unorganised sector covers economic activities that fall outside formal registration, labour regulation and social protection, such as many small traders, home-based workers and casual labourers. Sociologists study it because it shapes employment security and inequality.

Question 46Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which concept refers to the process by which religious institutions lose their authority over other spheres of social life such as education, law and politics?

  1. Secularisation Correct answer.
  2. Acculturation
  3. Sacralisation
  4. Revitalisation

Explanation

Secularisation denotes the declining social significance of religion, including the separation of religious authority from education, law, politics and the economy. It concerns the differentiation of institutional spheres rather than the disappearance of personal belief.

Question 47Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

A government introduces a policy reserving seats in local councils for women. From a sociological standpoint, this most directly affects which aspect of the polity?

  1. The transmission of occupational skills
  2. The distribution of political power and representation Correct answer.
  3. The rules of exogamous marriage
  4. The organisation of religious ritual

Explanation

Reserved seats alter who has access to decision-making positions, which is a question of political power and representation. The polity as an institution is concerned with the authoritative allocation of power and the recruitment of decision-makers.

Question 48Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which of the following is the clearest example of a latent function of religion?

  1. Providing a prescribed code of moral conduct for believers
  2. Fostering group solidarity and a shared sense of identity among worshippers Correct answer.
  3. Conducting rites of passage at birth, marriage and death
  4. Offering an explanation of the origin of the universe

Explanation

Strengthening group solidarity is a consequence of shared worship that is often not the stated purpose of religious practice, making it a latent function. Manifest functions are the recognised and intended purposes such as moral teaching and ritual performance.

Question 49Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

The practice of dowry differs from bride price (bride wealth) in that dowry involves:

  1. A gift exchanged only between the couple themselves
  2. Goods or property transferred from the bride's family to the groom or the couple Correct answer.
  3. Payment or goods transferred from the groom's family to the bride's family
  4. Labour provided by the groom to the bride's family

Explanation

Dowry is a transfer from the bride's side to the groom or the new couple, whereas bride price flows in the opposite direction from the groom's family to the bride's family. The direction of transfer is the key analytical distinction.

Question 50Social Institutions: Family, Marriage, Kinship, Religion, Education, Economy and Polity

Which of the following best captures the functionalist view of the family in industrial societies?

  1. The family performs essential functions such as the socialisation of children and the stabilisation of adult personalities Correct answer.
  2. The family is a site of unequal domestic labour that reproduces gender inequality
  3. The family is an ideological construct with no independent social effects
  4. The family is primarily a mechanism for transmitting private property across generations

Explanation

Functionalist accounts, notably those of Murdock and Parsons, stress that the family socialises children and provides emotional support that stabilises adult personalities. Other perspectives emphasise conflict, inequality or property transmission instead.