Introduction to Sociology

Yanıt Açıklaması: The first difference is related to the responsible speech. The second difference is related to the size of the field from which the material is drawn. The third difference is related to how we understand events. The last difference is related to dogmas.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Symbolic interactionism is a sociological approach closely related to social psychology in American sociology. According to symbolic interactionism, society is the product of individuals’ symbolic interactions in social life. Despite the considerable contributions of C. H. Cooley and W. I. Thomas to the development of symbolic interactionism, George Herbert Mead is considered to be the founder of this approach.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Laicism, although in its widest definition, is the separation of religious and state affairs; it comprises more than this conventional definition of the term. Laicism involves freedom of thought and faith. However, in a given society, even though freedom of thought and faith is ensured, laicism may not exist. In this sense, “a laic social order is a social order that every person from diverse religions and beliefs, on equal conditions, observing the same regulations, not distinguishing any religious privileges and supremacy”. Laicism became a necessity to provide and preserve social peace. Thus social peace is a situation which would be ensured with the help of laicism yet it is not an obligatory attribute or a direct consequence of laicism. The correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Comte used the term “sociology” for the first time and established a tradition known as positivist sociology.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In the functionalist approach, society is evaluated in terms of basic needs. State has emerged as a necessity within the society. Thus the correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Power is a social relation. As Veysel Bozkurt defines, power is a social relation where a person (or a group) controls others behaviours. However, in most of the definitions of power, there is an assumption of mutual relationship. This might be often a unilateral relationship; sometimes a certain person or group may assert an unlimited power or have control mechanisms over others. In this regard, power is not a concept that is merely limited to political domain.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Inspired by Comte’s works and having an important role in early phases of British sociology, Spencer adapted the “natural selection” principle, which means the survival of the fittest, into social evolution and rejected any type of state interventions and social reforms that are supportive of disadvantaged individuals in social life.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In the caste system, distinctions and inequalities are created by some characteristics like religion, lineage, ethnic connection, or race, which an individual gets by birth and believed not to change. Career cannot be listed among them, therefore, the correct choice is career.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to time and place free definition of a person, which takes insufficient account of history and society, a human being is in pursuit of his/her profit, and acts rationally to reach his/her aims in any condition, any place, and social/cultural environment.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Comte believes that gradual intellectual development of human mind plays a great role on social order and progress, so moral consensus, which is essential for social order, can be achieved through positivism, which he tried to establish as a religion for humanity. Comte became the most important pioneer of positivist sociology. The correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Structural approach explains poverty within the frame of society’s economic-political structure. According to this approach, among the factors that affect poverty are: lack of economical growth, conflict on income distribution, features of labour markets, informal employment, low wages, insufficient employment opportunities, unorganized labour, unemployment, economic crises, shrinkage of public expenditures, short-course shocks, population pressure, migration, features of settlements, family structure, education, race, ethnic origin, and discriminations based on gender.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Weber sees society as a formation consisting of social actions, and defined the study topic of sociology as "social action".

Yanıt Açıklaması: Max Weber distinguishes between three types of authority: Traditional authority, charismatic authority, and rational-legal authority.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Sociology analyzes the past and present human relations and the forms and structures occurred that are created by these human relations. For example, institutions like family, economy, government, and education are the subjects of sociology. The correct option is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The life chance expresses that individuals and families having a good and a qualified house, living a healthy life, having the possibilities like jobs security, avoiding unwelcome risks like disease and unemployment to survive in any society. The correct option is D.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Members of the group do share a sense of unity and bond of solidarity. Therefore, the correct choice is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Social stratification means people’s difference and hierarchical positioning based on some inequalities like income, prosperity, power, prestige, status, age, gender, race, ethnicity etc.

Yanıt Açıklaması: A

Yanıt Açıklaması: Mercantilists predicate the prosperity of a nation on mines, and deposits of silver and gold that the country has instead of the power of production. Therefore, the correct option is D.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In representative democracy there are political systems where “decisions affecting a community are taken, not by its members as a whole, but by people they have elected for this purpose”. Installing democracy could be possible by assuring individual rights and freedoms, right of organization, right to vote and stand for election with constitutional state and law. In representative democracy “citizens elect representatives to serve as bridges between themselves and the government and elected representatives are supposed to convey the concerns and interests of those they represent, and the government is expected to be responsive to the wishes of the people”. For Giddens, liberal democracies are defined as “countries in which voters can choose between two or more parties and in which the mass of the adult population has the right to vote”. Elections, existence of free public opinion, check and balance of legislative, executive judicial bodies separately should be present principally in representative democracies. Another point about democracy is that the majority of today might be the minority tomorrow. Democracy is not the interest of majority in the understanding of representation, it is rather a regime that ensures minority rights and representation. Therefore, the correct option is B.