Basic Concepts and Institutions MCQ Quiz in मल्याळम - Objective Question with Answer for Basic Concepts and Institutions - സൗജന്യ PDF ഡൗൺലോഡ് ചെയ്യുക

Agency is the ability of individuals to make choices and act independently.

Key PointsAgency: 

• Agency is the ability of individuals to make choices and act independently.
• It is the capacity to make decisions and take actions that are not fully determined by external forces, such as social structures or cultural norms.
• Agency is a complex and contested concept.
• Bourdieu's concept of agency is situated between the extremes.
• According to Bourdieu, individuals have a degree of agency within the limits of their habitus and field.
• They can make choices and act independently, but their choices and actions are shaped by their social context.
• Bourdieu's concept of agency is a valuable tool for understanding how individuals navigate the social world.

Additional Information

• Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) was a French sociologist who is best known for his work on social class, education, and culture.
• Bourdieu developed a number of important concepts, including habitus, field, and capital.
• Habitus is a system of dispositions that guide an individual's thoughts, feelings, and actions.
• Habitus is shaped by an individual's social class, education, and other life experiences.
• It provides individuals with a set of taken-for-granted assumptions about the world and their place in it.
• Field is the social space in which individuals and groups compete for resources and power.
• Fields can be economic, political, cultural, or social.
• Individuals and groups occupy different positions within fields.
• Their ability to compete for resources and power is shaped by their habitus and their position in the field.
• Capital is anything that can be used to gain an advantage in a field.
• There are four main types of capital: economic capital, cultural capital, social capital, and symbolic capital.
  • Economic capital is based on an individual's financial resources.
  • Cultural capital is based on an individual's education, knowledge, and skills.
  • Social capital is based on an individual's social connections and relationships.
  • Symbolic capital is based on an individual's social status and prestige.

Unibonded groups are characterized by a single dominant type of relationship, while multi-bonded groups have multiple types of relationships.

Important Points

• Pitirim Sorokin, a prominent sociologist, proposed a classification of social differentiation into unibonded and multibonded groups.
• Sorokin's classification of social differentiation into unibonded and multibonded groups highlights the diversity and complexity of social structures and relationships within societies. 
• Unibonded groups:
  • Characterized by a single dominant type of relationship or bond among members.
  • Members primarily interact and identify based on a shared characteristic, interest, or affiliation.
  • Relatively homogeneous in composition and purpose, with a clear and cohesive social structure.
  • Examples include religious congregations, sports teams, or academic clubs.
• Multi-bonded groups:
• Consist of individuals connected through multiple types of relationships or bonds.
• Members may interact based on various shared characteristics, affiliations, or roles.
• More heterogeneous in composition, encompassing diverse interests, backgrounds, and social roles.
• Examples include families, workplaces, or communities where individuals maintain multiple social roles and relationships.

Additional Information

• Social differentiation refers to the process through which individuals or groups within a society become distinct from one another based on various characteristics, roles, statuses, or attributes. 
• This differentiation can occur along multiple dimensions, including but not limited to:
• Economic Differentiation,Educational Differentiation, Occupational Differentiation, Cultural Differentiation, Political Differentiation, Gender Differentiation, Ethnic and Racial Differentiation.
• Social differentiation is a fundamental aspect of social structure and organization, shaping individuals' identities, interactions, and opportunities within society.
• It reflects the diverse and dynamic nature of human societies and contributes to the complexity of social life.
• Understanding social differentiation is essential for analyzing patterns of inequality, social stratification, and social change in diverse cultural, historical, and institutional contexts.

"Just as modernization dissolved the structure of feudal society, modernization today is dissolving industrial society and another modernity is coming into being" is a statement by Ulrich Beck.

Key Points

• Ulrich Beck
  • ​focused on questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and uncertainty in the modern age, and he coined the terms "risk society" and "second modernity" or "reflexive modernization". 
  • Risk society was coined by Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens during the 1980s.
  • Globalization creates risks that concern people from all different classes; for example, radioactivity, pollution, and even unemployment. 
  • He points out that risks are also socially constructed and some risks are perceived as more dangerous because they are discussed in mass media more frequently, such as terrorism.

Additional Information

• Zygmunt Bauman
  • ​wrote on issues modernity, holocaust, liquid modernity, globalisation, morality and post-modern consumerism.
  • His major works include Liquid Modernity, Liquid Love, Liquid Life, Liquid Times: Living in the age of uncertainty, Wasted Lives and Modernity and The Holocaust.
• Anthony Giddens
  • ​theory of structuration (gives primacy neither to structure nor individual) and late-modernity.
  • He says that we are living in 'late- modernity'. This kind of modernity has four fundamental institutions- Capitalism, Industrialism, Surveillance and Military power.
  • 'Modernity is a juggernaut' and 'Self is a reflexive project'.
  • His major works include The class structure in advanced societies, The Constitution of society, The Consequences of Modernity, Transformation of intimacy, Beyond Left and Right, and Third Way.
• Jean Baudrillard
  • ​Best known for analysis of media, Technological communication and contemporary culture.
  • His conceptual framework include hyperreality, simulation and simulacrum.
  • Most well known works are Seduction, The Gulf War did not take place, Simulacra and Simulation, The Mirror Production, The System of Objects and The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures.
  • often seen as part of post-structuralists. However he criticises both post-structuralism and post-modernism.

Key Points

•  Claude Levi Strauss is father of structural anthropology.
  • His brand of structuralism came from Linguistics Scholar Ferdinand de Saussure.
  • Structuralism focuses not on the diversity in empirical reality as the truth. Rather what lies underneath this diversity is a structure.
  • These structures are not to be found on the outside but on the inside of human mind (structures of mind). These structures will be same as there is no difference between primitive mind and modern mind.
  • He takes the example of Language. Language has already fixed alphabets and rules on how to use them to make words and sentences.
  • First thing is that we know the reality of world through language. we start assigning names and sounds to diversity that we see. 
  • Below that diversity lies a common structure.
  • For example: Principle of Binary Opposition can be seen in analogy of Sun-Moon, Male-Female, Day-Night, Right-Wrong etc.
  • He criticised modern civiisation in his book Tristes Tropiques. His draws conclusion about negative image of modern civilisation because of rapid and unprecedented destruction caused on native American Indians as the 'modern' civilsation advances. 
  • His important works are Myth and Meaning, The Savage Mind, The Elementary structures of Kinship (gave Alliance theory- Incest Taboo), From Honey to Ashes etc.

Additional Information

• Robert K. Merton is well known for devising middle-range theories.
  • Because of his 'modified functionalism' also called 'neo-functionalist'.
  • Considered to be functionlists as his work he simply improves upon the functionalist perspective that already existed.
  • He gave three postulates in his functionalism analysis- postulate of functional unity, postulate of functional indispensibility and postulate of universal functionalism.
  • In Merton's strain theory, he explains his idea of deviance as non-conformity to the social norms. He explained anomie as a situation where there is mismatch between culturally defined goals and structurally available means.
  • Deviance could be positive and negative.
  • When faced with anomic situation, there are possibility of five responses- Conformist, Innovator, Ritualist, Retreatist and Rebellion.
  • His conceptual framework includes Latent-Manifest functions, Dysfunction, Conformity and Deviance and Reference groups (Membership and Non-membership Groups), Anticipatory Socialisation, Self-fulfilling prophecy.
  • Important works include Social theory and Social Structure, The Sociology of Science, The focussed Interview, On the Shoulders of Giant, The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity and On Social Structure and Science.
• Talcott Parsons belonged to structuralist-functionalism school. 
  • He is known for giving grand theories that are dealing with macro-perspective.
  • He gave concept of value consensus to explain the social order and integration.
  • His conceptual framework includes social action (based on motivational and Value orientation), Social System, AGIL framework (Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration and Latency/Pattern Maintenance), Cybernetic Hierarchy of Control, Pattern variables, isolated and nuclear family, instrumental and expressive roles and sick role.
  • To accomodate social change in his theory he came up with concept of moving equillibrium.
  • His important works are The Structure of Social Action (1937), The Social System and Towards a General Theory of Action and Social Structure and Personality.
• A. Radcliffe Brown is known for introducing structure-functionalism in anthropology.
  • Highly inspired by work of Durkheim.
  • Contemporary of Malinwoski.
  • He wanted to establish social anthropology as natural generalising science of society.
  • First one to give a clear-cut definition of Social Structure.
  • Drew distinction between Individual (Biological) and Person (Social).
  • His conceptual framework include Diachronic-Synchronic, Dynamic unity, Social Structure, Joking-Avoidance, critique of Alliance theory.
  • Fieldwork in Australia and Andaman Islanders.
  • Important works are Structure and Function in Primitive Society, On th concept of Function in Social Science, Natural Science of Society, The social organization of Australian tribes, African systems of Kinship and Marriage.

Sanskritization is a concept where MN Srinivas has explained caste mobility as a process of Social and Cultural change. Important Points 

• M.N. Srinivas explained the concept of Sanskritization in his book “Religion and society among the coorgs of South India” to describe the cultural mobility in the traditional caste structure of Indian society. 
• In his study of the coorgs of Mysore, he came to know that the lower castes were trying to raise their status in their caste hierarchy by adopting some cultural ideals of the Brahmins.

Additional Information

• Modernization is a process of social change that is based on scientific approach and logic.
• Secularization is the transformation of people or a society from identification with traditional , formal, belief systems or religious values and institutions toward unacknowledged belief systems or seemingly non-religious values and secular based belief systems.
• Westernization is the adoption of the practices and culture of western Europe by societies and countries in other parts of the world, whether through compulsion or influence.

The correct answer is - B. Mallinowski

Key Points

• B. Mallinowski
  • B. Mallinowski, known for his work in anthropology, is not directly associated with the development of acculturation theories.
  • While Mallinowski contributed significantly to cultural anthropology, his focus was more on functionalism and participant observation.
  • Acculturation theories primarily involve the contributions of other anthropologists and sociologists.

Additional Information

• Acculturation
  • Acculturation refers to the process of cultural change and psychological change that results following meeting between cultures.
  • It involves the adaptation of cultural traits or social patterns of another group.
  • Acculturation is a key concept in anthropology and sociology, often studied to understand the impact of cultural exchange and integration.
• Notable Contributors
  • R. Linton - An anthropologist known for his work on culture, including acculturation.
  • R. Redfield - Contributed to the study of acculturation, focusing on cultural and social change.
  • M. J. Herskovits - His research included the study of African cultures and the process of acculturation.

The correct answer is - 3

Key Points

• According to Sutherland
  • Edwin H. Sutherland, a prominent sociologist, is known for his work on the theory of differential association.
  • He identified the elements of crime in social views.
  • According to his theory, there are 3 primary elements.
• The 3 Elements
  • Association with others who commit crimes.
  • Learning the techniques of committing crimes.
  • Learning the motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes necessary to commit crimes.

Additional Information

• Differential Association Theory
  • This theory proposes that criminal behavior is learned through interactions with others.
  • The learning process involves techniques of committing crimes as well as the specific direction of motives and drives.
  • It emphasizes the role of social relationships in the development of criminal behavior.
• Influence of Social Environment
  • The theory suggests that the social environment plays a crucial role in shaping an individual's behavior.
  • Individuals are more likely to commit crimes if they are frequently exposed to criminal behavior and values.
• Criticisms of the Theory
  • Some critics argue that the theory does not account for individual differences in the propensity to commit crimes.
  • Others suggest that it overlooks the role of biological and psychological factors in criminal behavior.

The correct answer is - Verstehen is simply the use of 'intuition' and sympathetic participation by the researcher.

Key Points

• Verstehen is simply the use of 'intuition' and sympathetic participation by the researcher.
  • This statement is not true about Weber's notion of 'Verstehen'.
  • Weber's concept of Verstehen emphasizes understanding social action through systematic and rigorous analysis rather than relying solely on intuition or sympathy.
  • While empathy may play a role, it is not the primary method for achieving Verstehen in Weber's framework.

Additional Information

• Verstehen is a rational procedure of study.
  • This is true as Weber's Verstehen involves a rational and systematic approach to understanding social phenomena.
  • It requires the researcher to interpret the meanings and intentions behind human actions.
• Verstehen involved doing systematic and rigorous research.
  • This is correct because Weber emphasized the need for methodical and detailed research in the process of Verstehen.
  • He believed that understanding social actions required a disciplined and scientific approach.
• Weber's thoughts on 'Verstehen' were derived from a field known as hermeneutics.
  • This is accurate as Weber's concept of Verstehen was influenced by hermeneutics, the study of interpretation, especially of texts.
  • Hermeneutics provided the theoretical foundation for Weber's approach to understanding social action.

The correct answer is - Conkhin

Key Points

• Conkhin
  • Conkhin's study highlighted the impact of urbanization and education on conjugal role patterns.
  • The research indicated a significant shift towards more egalitarian roles within joint households due to these factors.
  • This study is crucial in understanding how social and economic changes influence family dynamics in urban settings.

Additional Information

• Raj Gandhi
  • Notable for his contributions in politics and social reforms in India.
  • However, there is no specific study attributed to him regarding urbanization and conjugal roles.
• M. S. Gore
  • Renowned Indian sociologist who has worked extensively on social change and modernization.
  • His research often focused on urbanization and its effects, but not specifically on conjugal roles in joint households.
• A. M. Shah
  • Known for his work on the Indian family and kinship structure.
  • His studies have significant insights into family systems, yet no specific study on urbanization's impact on conjugal roles.

The correct answer is- ​Technological Determinism.

Key Points

• Technology as the Driver: Technological determinism argues that technological innovation and development are the primary causes of societal change and development.
• Impact Across Society: The theory suggests that new technologies transform economies, cultures, and social structures, influencing how people live, work, and interact.
• Inevitability of Change: According to this perspective, advancements in technology lead to inevitable changes in society, often at a pace that societal norms and policies struggle to keep up with.

Important PointsSocial change:

• Social change refers to significant alterations over time in the patterns of behavior, cultural values and norms, social structures, and institutions within a society.
• These changes can occur on various scales, from small modifications in individual communities to global shifts that impact societies worldwide.
• Social change is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon influenced by several factors, including economic development, technological advancements, political movements, cultural shifts, and environmental changes.
• Understanding social change is crucial for sociologists and social scientists as it helps explain how societies evolve, adapt, and sometimes enter periods of conflict or crisis.

Additional InformationConflict Theory:

• Originated by Karl Marx: Conflict theory is rooted in the work of Karl Marx and later expanded by other theorists. It emphasizes the role of power and inequality in driving social change.
• Focus on Class Struggles: This theory highlights how conflicts between different social classes, particularly between the bourgeoisie (capitalists) and the proletariat (workers), drive societal transformations.
• Change through Conflict: According to conflict theory, social change occurs when the imbalance of power becomes unsustainable, leading to social upheaval and eventually, a new social order.

• Society as a System: Functionalist theory views society as a complex system composed of interrelated parts working together to maintain stability and social order.
• Equilibrium and Social Order: It posits that social changes are efforts to adapt to external pressures and restore equilibrium, aiming for a balance in the social structure.
• Gradual Change: Change, according to functionalists, is a slow and incremental process that happens as society adjusts and responds to new needs and demands to ensure its survival and efficiency.

• Societal Evolution: Evolutionary theory in sociology draws parallels between biological evolution and social development. It suggests that societies evolve from simple to complex structures in stages.
• Progressive Development: This theory views social change as a directional, gradual process of societal advancement and improvement over time.
• Survival and Adaptation: Like biological species, societies that are better adapted to their environments are more likely to survive and progress, while less adapted societies face decline or extinction.