Anthony Giddens • Sociology 6th edition

Student Resources

Chapter 1 - What is Sociology?

1. Which of these statements best represents C. Wright-Mills’s idea of ‘the sociological imagination’?
   a) understanding the differences between the classical theorists
   b) bringing together private troubles and public issues
   c) seeing the social world as one made up of ‘social facts’
   d) avoiding explanations based on individual psychology
2. What did Auguste Comte mean by positivism in sociology?
   a) sociological research must contribute to a government’s social policy
   b) sociology should be optimistic about human achievements
   c) sociology should make use of statistical evidence
   d) sociology should adopt the same methods as the natural sciences
3. According to Durkheim, the division of labour in industrial societies brings about:
   a) organic solidarity
   b) a loss of social solidarity
   c) mechanical solidarity
   d) communal solidarity
4. A rising suicide rate associated with normlessness and a lack of social regulation can be described as:
   a) egoistic suicide
   b) altruistic suicide
   c) fatalistic suicide
   d) anomic suicide
5. Which of the following is not part of Karl Marx’s theory of capitalism?
   a) capitalist production exploits the working class
   b) class conflict is inevitable in capitalist societies
   c) industrial workers are the revolutionary class
   d) class struggle only occurs under capitalism
6. Max Weber’s work made use of ideal types. What are they?
   a) the most commonly found type of social organization
   b) conceptual or analytical models of social phenomena
   c) philosophical models of an ideal human society
   d) models of society based on up to date statistical evidence
7. What does the functionalist perspective see as crucial for the maintenance of social order?
   a) strong class-based identities
   b) multiculturalism
   c) moral consensus
   d) a strong state
8. Which of the following influenced the theoretical approach known as symbolic interactionism?
   a) Georg Hegel
   b) George Herbert Mead
   c) Talcott Parsons
   d) Ralf Dahrendorf
9. The theory of relative deprivation is an example of what?
   a) macro sociological theory
   b) feminist sociological theory
   c) micro sociological theory
   d) middle-range sociological theory
10. Sociology has been said to be the product of:
    a) the French and Industrial Revolutions
    b) the Chinese and Agricultural Revolutions
    c) the Russian and Scientific Revolutions
    d) the American and Democratic Revolutions
11. Theoretical approaches can only be said to be 'valid' if:
    a) the theorist has researched the literature thoroughly
    b) they have been tested out by means of factual research
    c) they are written in such a way as to be impossible to disprove
    d) they are shared by a large enough number of theorists
12. According to Durkheim, 'social facts' are:
    a) ways of behaving that are external to individuals
    b) only things that have been shown to be true
    c) social insights into collective behaviour
    d) information captured by official statistics
13. The feeling of aimlessness or despair often associated with unsettling conditions is:
    a) alienation
    b) amorality
    c) anomie
    d) ascription
14. Which one of the following is NOT associated with the materialist conception of history?
    a) the 'mode of production'
    b) the 'motor of history'
    c) the 'history of class struggle'
    d) the 'spirit of capitalism'
15. Which of the following is NOT associated with functionalism?
    a) Talcott Parsons
    b) Ralf Dahrendorf
    c) Emile Durkheim
    d) Robert Merton
16. Arlie Hochschild’s The Managed Heart is an influential application of:
    a) emotional labour
    b) symbolic interactionism
    c) social action
    d) symbiosis
17. It is useful to have a diversity of theories in sociology because:
    a) human behaviour is so complicated that no single theory would be adequate
    b) sociologists can choose the theory that best fits the data they have collected
    c) it removes the need to assess a theory according to the empirical evidence
    d) innumerable theories have been developed in the many fields of sociology
18. The distribution of power in society is a concern for:
    a) microsociology
    b) interactionism
    c) macrosociology
    d) ethnomethodology
19. Merton’s term for the hidden or forgotten reason for a particular behaviour was:
    a) middle-range function
    b) consumption function
    c) latent function
    d) structural function

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