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CHSE Odisha Elective Sociology study materials
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CHSE Odisha Elective Sociology practice questions

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Question 1Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

In the CHSE Odisha sociology syllabus, which definition of sociology is most commonly cited as the 'formal' or 'pure' definition because it restricts the discipline to the study of social relationships?

  1. Durkheim's view of sociology as the study of social facts
  2. Spencer's view of sociology as the study of social evolution
  3. Comte's view of sociology as the queen of the sciences
  4. Simmel's view of sociology as the study of the forms of social relationships Correct answer.

Explanation

Georg Simmel distinguished the forms of social relationships from their content, giving sociology a precise and limited subject matter. This formal definition is contrasted with Comte's broad and ambitious conception of sociology as the highest science. Durkheim's social facts and Spencer's evolutionism are substantive approaches rather than formal ones.

Question 2Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

A student argues that sociology is the 'youngest of the social sciences' yet has very old roots. Which statement best explains this apparent contradiction?

  1. Sociology is older than history because Greek historians wrote about society
  2. Sociology is young because it has no theories of its own and borrows from philosophy
  3. Sociology was named and institutionalised only in the nineteenth century, although reflections on society appear in ancient philosophy Correct answer.
  4. Sociology is old because its subject matter, society, existed before human beings could think

Explanation

The discipline acquired its name from Comte in the 1830s and gained university chairs and journals later, so it is academically young. Nevertheless, systematic thinking about society, law and custom is found in classical and early Indian texts. This combination of recent institutional birth with ancient intellectual ancestry explains the paradox.

Question 3Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which pair of historical developments is most often credited with creating the conditions for sociology's emergence in nineteenth-century Europe?

  1. The Crusades and the growth of feudalism
  2. The Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution Correct answer.
  3. The discovery of agriculture and the rise of cities
  4. The Renaissance and the invention of printing

Explanation

Industrialisation uprooted communities and produced urban poverty, while the French Revolution undermined inherited authority and raised questions of order and legitimacy. These upheavals made systematic study of society urgent. Earlier or later developments shaped society but are not the standard explanation for sociology's birth.

Question 4Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which statement best captures the scope of sociology as taught at the higher secondary level?

  1. It studies only the psychological traits of individual personalities
  2. It studies only the political institutions of the modern state
  3. It studies social institutions, groups, social change and social problems in a generalising way Correct answer.
  4. It studies only the biological evolution of the human species

Explanation

Sociology's scope is wide, covering family, religion, education, caste, class, deviance and change, and it aims at general statements about social life. It is not confined to one institution or to individual psychology. This breadth is why it overlaps with other social sciences while retaining its own focus.

Question 5Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

In the debate over the scope of sociology, what does the 'specialistic' or formal school argue?

  1. Sociology should absorb all other social sciences into a single imperial discipline
  2. Sociology should study only the economic base of society
  3. Sociology should abandon theory and collect only statistical data
  4. Sociology should confine itself to the forms of social relationships, leaving content to other disciplines Correct answer.

Explanation

The specialistic school, associated with Simmel and later writers such as von Wiese, holds that sociology has a distinct and limited object: the forms or patterns of social relations. This avoids duplication with economics, politics and psychology. The opposing synthetic school, associated with Hobhouse and Ginsberg, favours a broad, integrating sociology.

Question 6Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Why is the study of sociology considered significant for a student preparing for public administration or social work in Odisha?

  1. It supplies an understanding of communities, institutions and social problems that informs policy and field practice Correct answer.
  2. It teaches only statistical techniques for data analysis
  3. It guarantees higher marks in every other subject of the curriculum
  4. It replaces the need for legal training in administrative work

Explanation

Sociological knowledge helps practitioners understand caste, tribe, family, migration and poverty in their social context, which improves planning and implementation. It complements, rather than replaces, legal, economic or statistical training. This practical relevance is a central argument for sociology's significance.

Question 7Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which statement correctly distinguishes sociology from common sense?

  1. Sociology relies on intuition while common sense relies on surveys
  2. Sociology rejects everyday knowledge entirely and begins from nothing
  3. Sociological claims are tested against systematic evidence and open to refutation, whereas common sense is often unexamined and contradictory Correct answer.
  4. Common sense is always accurate because it is based on long experience

Explanation

Sociology subjects its propositions to empirical testing and theoretical scrutiny, so its findings can be revised when evidence contradicts them. Common sense draws on personal experience and often contains inconsistent beliefs held together without examination. Good sociology may begin with everyday questions but does not stop there.

Question 8Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

The term 'sociological imagination', widely used to explain the discipline's value, refers to which capacity?

  1. Memorising the names of classical theorists
  2. Connecting personal troubles with larger public issues and historical structures Correct answer.
  3. Predicting individual behaviour from personality tests
  4. Imagining an ideal society free of all conflict

Explanation

The phrase, associated with C. Wright Mills, describes the ability to see the link between biography and history, so that private troubles such as unemployment are understood as public issues. It is a way of thinking rather than a blueprint for an ideal society. It also goes beyond mere recall of names.

Question 9Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Sociology is often described as a 'science'. Which feature is most essential to support that description?

  1. The exclusion of interpretation from all analysis
  2. The use of laboratory equipment in all research
  3. The ability to predict every human action with certainty
  4. The use of systematic methods and logically connected, testable propositions Correct answer.

Explanation

What makes a discipline scientific is its systematic method and the logical, evidence-based character of its propositions, not the presence of laboratories. Sociology uses observation, comparison, surveys and statistics alongside interpretive methods. Certainty about every action is impossible in any human science.

Question 10Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which argument is most often used to claim that sociology cannot be a pure natural science?

  1. Human beings interpret their own actions and can change their behaviour in response to being studied Correct answer.
  2. Social life never shows any regularities that could be observed
  3. Sociologists are unable to count or measure anything
  4. Social institutions are too small to be studied

Explanation

The double hermeneutic and reflexivity of human subjects mean that sociological findings can feed back into the behaviour studied, unlike atoms or planets. This makes prediction harder and interpretation indispensable. It does not follow, however, that no regularities exist or that measurement is impossible.

Question 11Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

How does sociology differ from psychology in its primary unit of analysis?

  1. Sociology rejects the study of individuals altogether
  2. Sociology studies only the body while psychology studies only society
  3. Sociology typically begins from groups and social structures, while psychology typically begins from individual mental processes Correct answer.
  4. Psychology studies groups while sociology studies only instincts

Explanation

The conventional contrast is that psychology focuses on individual behaviour, perception, learning and personality, whereas sociology examines groups, institutions and social structures. The boundary is not absolute, since social psychology draws on both. Each discipline nevertheless has a characteristic starting point.

Question 12Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

A researcher studies how the structure of a state's constitution shapes the distribution of power among social groups. Which relationship between sociology and political science does this illustrate?

  1. Constitutional law is identical to sociological theory
  2. Sociology has no concern with power or authority
  3. Political science is merely a branch of sociology
  4. Political sociology treats political institutions as embedded in wider social structures Correct answer.

Explanation

Political sociology examines how social cleavages, classes and groups influence political institutions and how those institutions in turn shape society. It shares subject matter with political science while keeping a sociological focus on social structure. Neither discipline is simply a branch of the other.

Question 13Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

What is the central difference between economics and sociology in the study of work and production?

  1. Sociology ignores economic activity completely
  2. Economics is qualitative while sociology is purely quantitative
  3. Economics focuses on the allocation of scarce resources, while sociology focuses on the social relations and meanings surrounding work Correct answer.
  4. Economics studies only rural life, while sociology studies only urban life

Explanation

Economics analyses production, distribution and consumption of scarce goods, often through models of choice. The sociology of work examines occupational groups, class relations, factory organisation and the meanings workers attach to labour. The two perspectives complement each other without being identical.

Question 14Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Why do sociology and history often work closely together?

  1. Because history has no methods of its own
  2. Sociology studies social processes over time while history reconstructs past events, so each supplies material and questions to the other Correct answer.
  3. Because both disciplines reject the use of documents
  4. Because sociology is only the study of the past

Explanation

Historical sociology uses past records to explain the development of institutions such as caste, family or capitalism, while historians draw on sociological concepts to interpret evidence. The relationship is one of mutual borrowing. Neither discipline is reducible to the other.

Question 15Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which statement best describes the relationship between sociology and social anthropology?

  1. Anthropology studies only modern industrial cities while sociology studies only tribes
  2. They are identical in every respect and have no separate history
  3. Sociology rejects fieldwork while anthropology rejects theory
  4. They share subject matter and methods, and the older contrast between 'primitive' and 'modern' societies has largely dissolved Correct answer.

Explanation

Sociology and social anthropology both study social organisation, kinship, religion and culture, and both use observation and comparison. Historically anthropology focused on small-scale non-industrial societies, but that division has eroded. The disciplines now overlap substantially while retaining different traditions.

Question 16Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

What is meant by the statement that sociology has a 'problematic' or 'debated' relationship with the idea of value freedom?

  1. Sociologists must abandon evidence in favour of personal opinion
  2. Sociologists must always advocate a political programme in their research
  3. Sociologists must strive for objectivity in research while acknowledging that values shape the choice of problems and interpretation Correct answer.
  4. Sociologists must never study moral questions

Explanation

Value freedom, emphasised by Weber, requires researchers to separate their political commitments from the analysis of evidence and to be transparent about value relevance in choosing topics. Complete detachment is difficult because values influence what is studied and how findings are received. The ideal is disciplined objectivity, not advocacy or indifference to morality.

Question 17Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which of the following best illustrates the use of a sociological perspective to understand a local social problem?

  1. Explaining dropout by measuring only the child's height and weight
  2. Explaining school dropout in a district by relating it to family poverty, caste discrimination and school infrastructure Correct answer.
  3. Explaining dropout by blaming a single teacher without examining the school system
  4. Explaining dropout by saying the child simply lacked willpower

Explanation

A sociological explanation links individual outcomes to social structures such as poverty, discrimination and institutional resources. It looks beyond personal traits to patterned social conditions. Blaming willpower or a single individual ignores the structural dimension.

Question 18Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

According to the synthetic school of thought on the scope of sociology, why should sociology be broad?

  1. Because sociology lacks a subject matter of its own and must borrow one
  2. Because social phenomena are interconnected, so sociology must integrate insights from economics, politics and other social sciences Correct answer.
  3. Because narrow specialisation always produces better research
  4. Because the natural sciences have already solved social problems

Explanation

The synthetic school, associated with writers such as Hobhouse and Ginsberg, argues that social life is a seamless web and cannot be divided into watertight compartments. Sociology therefore serves as an integrating discipline without denying the value of specialised social sciences. Its breadth reflects the interconnection of social phenomena.

Question 19Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Which contribution to the development of sociology is correctly attributed to Auguste Comte?

  1. He coined the term 'sociology' and proposed a hierarchy of sciences with sociology at the apex Correct answer.
  2. He wrote the first comprehensive study of suicide rates
  3. He developed the theory of the division of labour in society
  4. He founded the first sociology department at the University of Chicago

Explanation

Comte introduced the term sociology in the 1830s and placed it at the top of a hierarchy of sciences, reflecting his view of its complexity and generality. The Chicago department, the division of labour theory and the study of suicide are associated with other figures. Comte's contribution was primarily programmatic.

Question 20Introduction to Sociology: nature, scope and significance; relationship with other social sciences

Sociology is sometimes criticised for being 'common sense dressed in jargon'. Which response best defends the discipline against this charge?

  1. Sociology tests its claims with evidence and theory, producing findings that often contradict taken-for-granted assumptions Correct answer.
  2. Sociology deliberately avoids evidence so that it can remain close to everyday beliefs
  3. Sociology simply repeats what everyone already knows in more difficult words
  4. Sociology has no theories, so the criticism cannot be answered

Explanation

The defence rests on the discipline's systematic methods and its record of challenging assumptions, as when suicide or poverty is shown to have social patterns. Theory gives concepts precision that everyday language lacks. The charge of jargon must be answered by clarity, not by rejecting evidence or theory.

Question 21Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

In sociology, which term refers to a group of people who share a common territory and whose members interact and identify with one another for the purpose of living together?

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

Explanation

A society is a relatively self-sufficient and enduring web of social relationships among people who share a territory and a culture. It is broader than any single organised body and is defined by interaction and shared identity, not merely by co-presence.

Question 22Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A neighbourhood, a village and a tribal hamlet are all best described as examples of which sociological concept?

  1. Secondary group
  2. Formal organisation
  3. Community Correct answer.
  4. Statistical category

Explanation

A community is a group of people living in a defined area and bound together by common ties of belonging, mutual concern and shared daily life. Village and neighbourhood are the textbook illustrations of territorial community.

Question 23Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which characteristic most clearly distinguishes an association from a community?

  1. An association occupies a definite territory
  2. An association involves face-to-face contact
  3. An association involves feelings of belonging
  4. An association is formed deliberately to pursue a specific interest Correct answer.

Explanation

An association is created consciously by people who come together for a defined purpose such as a trade union, club or cooperative. A community grows out of shared residence and belonging rather than deliberate purpose.

Question 24Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Marriage, the family and education are treated by sociologists as institutions because each

  1. is created by a single individual
  2. exists only in industrial societies
  3. is a building where people work
  4. is a stable set of norms and procedures fulfilling a basic social need Correct answer.

Explanation

An institution is a relatively stable cluster of norms, roles and procedures that regulates the satisfaction of a fundamental social need. It is a pattern of behaviour, not a physical structure, and such patterns are found in all types of societies.

Question 25Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which of the following is a primary group in Cooley's sense?

  1. A class of sixty students attending a lecture
  2. A national trade union
  3. A crowd watching a street performance
  4. A close family circle sharing daily life Correct answer.

Explanation

Primary groups are small, intimate and face-to-face, and they shape the self through close personal ties, as in family, play group and neighbourhood. Cooley called them primary because they are the nursery of human nature.

Question 26Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A voluntary body of professionals registered under a statute, with written rules, offices and formal membership, is best classified as

  1. a mob
  2. a secondary group Correct answer.
  3. a quasi-group
  4. a primary group

Explanation

Secondary groups are large, impersonal and goal-oriented, with formal rules and limited personal involvement. A registered professional body fits this pattern exactly, unlike intimate primary groups.

Question 27Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which statement best captures the sociological meaning of culture?

  1. Culture refers only to the fine arts and classical music
  2. Culture is the total way of life of a society, including beliefs, values, norms and material objects Correct answer.
  3. Culture is the biological inheritance of a people
  4. Culture is identical with the natural environment

Explanation

Sociologists use culture to mean the whole learned and shared way of life of a people, both non-material elements such as values and norms and material elements such as tools and buildings. It is transmitted socially rather than biologically.

Question 28Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A society's shared ideas about what is good, desirable and worth striving for are called

  1. folkways
  2. norms
  3. values Correct answer.
  4. sanctions

Explanation

Values are the general standards of desirability that guide conduct and give direction to norms. Norms are the specific rules derived from values, while sanctions are the rewards and punishments that enforce them.

Question 29Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A student is expected to be attentive in class, a son is expected to obey his parents, and a citizen is expected to pay taxes. These expectations together illustrate that status and role are

  1. two sides of the same social position, status being the position and role its dynamic aspect Correct answer.
  2. purely personal choices
  3. unrelated to each other
  4. the same as personality traits

Explanation

Status is a position in the social structure, while role is the sum of expectations attached to that position. Linton described them as two sides of the same coin, since a position cannot be understood apart from what its occupant is expected to do.

Question 30Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A woman who is simultaneously a mother, a teacher and a secretary of a cooperative is experiencing

  1. status inconsistency of a purely biological kind
  2. role conflict
  3. role exit
  4. status set Correct answer.

Explanation

The full collection of positions a person occupies at a given time is called a status set. Multiple positions as such are normal; only incompatible demands between them produce role conflict.

Question 31Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A person who is expected to behave with dignity and impartiality because of occupying a judicial post is holding what kind of status?

  1. Ascribed status Correct answer.
  2. Master status
  3. An achieved status that is also a master status
  4. Achieved status

Explanation

Ascribed status is one assigned at birth or on the basis of attributes over which the individual has little control, while achieved status is earned through effort. A judicial post is normally gained through effort and selection, so it is an achieved status.

Question 32Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which statement correctly describes the process of socialisation?

  1. It is limited to the first few years of childhood
  2. It is the lifelong process through which individuals learn the culture of their society and acquire a self Correct answer.
  3. It is the same as instinctive behaviour
  4. It happens only through formal schooling

Explanation

Socialisation is the lifelong process of learning norms, values and skills and of developing a social self through interaction. It begins in infancy but continues through adulthood as people enter new roles and situations.

Question 33Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

The stage in which a child begins to take the role of particular others, such as playing at being a mother or a policeman, belongs to which phase in Mead's account of the development of the self?

  1. The looking-glass stage
  2. The play stage Correct answer.
  3. The game stage
  4. The sensorimotor stage

Explanation

In Mead's play stage the child practises taking the role of specific others one at a time, as in playing mother or teacher. Only in the game stage does the child grasp the organised expectations of the whole group.

Question 34Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Cooley's concept of the looking-glass self suggests that the self develops mainly through

  1. formal instruction in schools
  2. genetic inheritance
  3. maturation of the nervous system alone
  4. our imagination of how others see and judge us Correct answer.

Explanation

Cooley argued that we come to see ourselves as we imagine others perceive us, then react to that imagined judgement. The self is thus a social mirroring product rather than a purely biological growth.

Question 35Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which pair correctly matches an agency of socialisation with its typical early function?

  1. Mass media and the teaching of motor skills in infancy
  2. School and the formation of the newborn's first attachments
  3. Peer group and the legal enforcement of norms
  4. Family and the primary transmission of language and basic trust Correct answer.

Explanation

The family is the first and most intimate agency, transmitting language, basic values and emotional security in early childhood. Other agencies enter later and serve more specialised functions.

Question 36Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A child born into a family of potters gradually learns the craft, the associated rituals and the community's expectations. This illustrates

  1. anticipatory socialisation
  2. primary socialisation Correct answer.
  3. desocialisation
  4. re-socialisation

Explanation

Primary socialisation is the early, intimate learning that occurs within the family and immediate community and forms the basic personality. Learning the family craft along with its rituals belongs to this early phase.

Question 37Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

The process by which a new recruit in a training academy gives up earlier habits and adopts the routines and outlook of the institution is best termed

  1. re-socialisation Correct answer.
  2. natural maturation
  3. anticipatory socialisation
  4. primary socialisation

Explanation

Re-socialisation is the learning of new norms and roles that replaces or sharply modifies earlier socialisation, often in a total institution. The academy setting, with its discarding of old habits, is a standard example.

Question 38Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Culture is described as 'learned' rather than 'inherited' because

  1. it is the same in every society
  2. it is fixed at birth
  3. it is transmitted through the genes from parents to children
  4. it is acquired through interaction, imitation and instruction within a society Correct answer.

Explanation

The learned character of culture means that it is passed on socially through language, teaching and imitation rather than biologically. This is why children raised in different societies acquire different cultures.

Question 39Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A society forbids the eating of beef and attaches strong moral disapproval to those who violate the rule. In sociological terms this rule is best described as

  1. a folkway with no moral weight
  2. a norm backed by strong sanctions Correct answer.
  3. a value with no behavioural content
  4. a material element of culture

Explanation

A norm is a shared rule of behaviour, and it is enforced through sanctions that range from mild disapproval to severe punishment. The strong moral disapproval attached to the rule shows it is a norm with serious sanctions.

Question 40Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which of the following best illustrates the difference between a social group and an aggregate?

  1. Both a team and a lift full of people have organised membership
  2. An aggregate has written rules while a group does not
  3. A cricket team has shared goals and interaction, while passengers in a lift merely occupy the same space Correct answer.
  4. A social group is always larger than an aggregate

Explanation

A social group involves interaction, shared expectations and a sense of membership, whereas an aggregate is a set of people who share a location without interaction. Size is not the criterion; the presence of social relationships is.

Question 41Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

The term 'institution' in sociology refers primarily to

  1. a charitable trust registered by law
  2. an individual holding an office
  3. a building used for public purposes
  4. established patterns of norms and roles organised around basic social needs Correct answer.

Explanation

Sociologists treat institutions as organised and enduring ways of meeting needs such as reproduction, socialisation and social control. The legal or architectural senses of the word are narrower and not the sociological meaning.

Question 42Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A person occupies a status that is widely ranked low in the occupational hierarchy but is simultaneously a respected elder in the community. This mismatch of rank across different hierarchies is called

  1. status anxiety
  2. role set
  3. role distance
  4. status inconsistency Correct answer.

Explanation

Status inconsistency occurs when a person's ranks on different hierarchies do not line up, producing conflicting expectations and sometimes social strain. It differs from role conflict, which concerns incompatible demands of roles.

Question 43Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

Which statement about community sentiment is most accurate?

  1. It refers to the physical boundaries of a settlement
  2. It refers only to economic dependence within a village
  3. It refers to the emotional attachment and sense of belonging members feel towards their community Correct answer.
  4. It refers to the legal recognition of a locality

Explanation

Community sentiment is the we-feeling, attachment and identification that members develop towards their community and one another. It is a subjective bond, not a legal or physical feature of the locality.

Question 44Basic Concepts: society, community, association, institution, social group, culture, status and role, socialisation

A boy from a working-class family adopts the vocabulary, manners and career expectations of the professional class he hopes to join. This pattern is an example of

  1. primary socialisation
  2. desocialisation
  3. anticipatory socialisation Correct answer.
  4. re-socialisation

Explanation

Anticipatory socialisation is the adoption of the values and behaviour of a group one aspires to join but does not yet belong to. It prepares the person for a future status and eases later entry.

Question 45Social Institutions: family, marriage, kinship, religion, education, economy and polity

In the sociology of kinship, which term refers to a rule that permits a person to marry only someone from outside their own defined social group?

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

Explanation

Exogamy is the rule requiring marriage outside a specified group such as a clan, lineage or village, and it is often explained as a way of building alliances between groups. Endogamy is its opposite, prescribing marriage within a group. Polygyny and levirate describe forms of marriage rather than the boundary rule itself.

Question 46Social Institutions: family, marriage, kinship, religion, education, economy and polity

A household in which a married couple lives with the husband's parents and his unmarried siblings under one roof is best described as which type of family?

  1. Neolocal family
  2. Matrifocal family
  3. Patrilocal extended family Correct answer.
  4. Nuclear family

Explanation

An extended family contains two or more related conjugal units, and patrilocal residence means the couple settles with or near the husband's kin. The description therefore fits a patrilocal extended family. A nuclear family would contain only the couple and their children, and neolocal residence means a new separate household.

Question 47Social Institutions: family, marriage, kinship, religion, education, economy and polity

Which of the following is the clearest sociological example of a primary group in the context of family and kinship?

  1. A national political party
  2. A trade union branch
  3. A census enumeration block
  4. A small intimate household of parents and children Correct answer.

Explanation

Primary groups are small, face-to-face and emotionally close, and the intimate household is the classic example in family sociology. Trade unions, political parties and census blocks are large, impersonal and formally organised, which makes them secondary groups or administrative categories.

Question 48Social Institutions: family, marriage, kinship, religion, education, economy and polity

In the sociology of religion, what does the term 'animism' denote?

  1. The bureaucratic organisation of a church
  2. The belief that natural objects and phenomena are inhabited by spirits Correct answer.
  3. The worship of a single supreme deity
  4. The rejection of all supernatural beliefs

Explanation

Animism, classically associated with early evolutionary anthropology, is the belief that spirits or souls inhabit people, animals, plants and natural objects. Monotheism is the worship of one supreme deity, and bureaucracy refers to organisational structure rather than belief content.

Question 49Social Institutions: family, marriage, kinship, religion, education, economy and polity

Which concept refers to the process by which schools transmit the dominant culture's norms, values and language to the younger generation?

  1. Credentialism
  2. Social mobility
  3. Hidden curriculum
  4. Cultural transmission Correct answer.

Explanation

Cultural transmission is the sociological term for passing on a society's norms, values, knowledge and language through institutions such as the family and the school. The hidden curriculum refers to the informal lessons of schooling, while credentialism concerns reliance on qualifications.

Question 50Social Institutions: family, marriage, kinship, religion, education, economy and polity

Which term describes a kinship system in which descent is traced through the mother's line?

  1. Matrilineal descent Correct answer.
  2. Bilateral descent
  3. Patrilineal descent
  4. Cognatic descent

Explanation

Matrilineal descent traces membership of the lineage through the mother's line, so a child belongs to the mother's group. Patrilineal descent traces through the father, and bilateral or cognatic systems reckon descent through both parents.