Introduction to Sociology

Yanıt Açıklaması: As a necessity of contemporary democratic culture, politics becomes an actively participated action within nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) pressure groups. Thus, in today’s world, politics is a kind of practice that cannot be indifferent to political oevelopments. While one can participate in an environmentalist NGO to take action in an ecological movement, an other can be part of a womens organization to defend women’s rights, or one can struggle for animal welfare in different kinds of organizations and in all cases people actively begin to be part of “politics”. In this regard, the field of politics is not a social action limited to politicians’ practices, it should be considered as social categories in a broader sense social fractions struggle for their democratic rights. The correct answer is D.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Authority based on the belief in l ong-running traditions is traditional authority . In other words, traditional authority is the power legitimized through respect for long-established cultural patterns. There should be a belief in the ‘rightness’ of established customs and traditions, and ‘traditional status’ of the traditional authority is inherited. As an example of this type authority is, “hereditary family rule of nobles in medieval Europe”. The correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Liberalism, conservatism, socialism, fascism, neoliberalism and social democracy are the types of ideology. On the other hand, postmodernism is not among the types of ideology.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Unlike traditional Marxists who emphasize economic structure, neo Marxist theories emphasize cultural and ideological superstructures of societies. Therefore, the correct option is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The answer is E. Economic theory is based on the understanding of wage level, production level, supply and demand relations being calculable and rational. A bribe is unforeseen and incalculable, along with not following the rational approach to economic theory.

Yanıt Açıklaması: “Surplus value” refers to the difference between the value produced by workers and the payment they are given. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Durkheim claims that there are four kinds of suicide. These are egoistic, altruistic, anomic and fatalistic suicide. While the egoistic and the altruistic suicides are influenced by social integration levels, the anomic and the fatalistic suicides are influenced by moral regulation levels of the society.  Very high levels of moral regulation are related to fatalistic suicide. The opposite of anomic suicide, fatalistic suicide occurs when people are excessively regulated and disciplined. For example, people in prisons may prefer to die rather than continue to live under oppressive conditions. Therefore, the correct option is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Social class inequalities depend on economic reasons like job, poverty, prosperity and income. Social classes are not clearly and obviously distinct from each other. Distinctions between classes are uncertain and vague. Social classes are not supported by legal inequalities. Everybody has equal rights before the law. Religious and legal restrictions or limitations are not imposed for marriages between people from different social classes. Modern societies are open systems. There are no religious or legal restrictions for individuals or groups that may affect moving from a class to another. The correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The sciences, in the most general sense, are divided into two; the mathematic sciences and positive sciences. Mathematical sciences are divided into mathematic and logic. Positive sciences are divided into physical sciences and social sciences. Mathematic is an observable and objective science, because the starting point of mathematical concepts is observation, and the entities they symbolize are objective realities, even though they are abstract. The other branch of mathematic sciences is logic. Logic is a science that shows the conditions of validity and correctness of deductions, and like mathematics, logic is also tautological. Mathematics provides precision and logic provides consistency to our knowledge. Thus, mathematical sciences are tools that other sciences use for quantification, knowledge derivation and deducting. Positive sciences are innovative sciences, they have observable, empirical study subjects and make deductions on these subjects. Positive sciences split up to physical sciences and social sciences. Physical sciences are the sciences which study animated and unanimated substances and material facts. Some of the physical sciences are astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and zoology. Social sciences are the sciences which study social world and the relations among people. Sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics and political science are some of the social sciences. The correct answer is Choice C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Anomie refers to normlessness or ambiguity with regards to basic values of society. Thus the correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Spencer, social transformation in Darwin’s terms operates on the hypothesis that the strong ones survive and weak ones die, that is the natural selection law. 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. The correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Postmodernism has received serious criticism that it is a meta-narrative as well as the meta-narratives it criticizes, and that it is a pessimistic approach that ultimately leads to nihilism. At this point, Giddens (2009) argues that postmodernism has recently lost its importance, especially in the face of globalization theories, and that globalization theories are more explanatory in understanding the direction of social change in today’s 21st century societies. The correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Durkheim, in his seminal study entitled “Suicide” (1897) shows that suicide rates are higher in men than women, higher for singles than people in a relationship and higher among Protestants than Catholics. He also found that suicide rates are higher in times of peace than times of war; and higher in times of economic crisis than times of economic welfare.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Marshall neo-liberalism refers to “a loosely knit body of ideas which became very in uential during the 1980s and which were premised upon a (slight) rethinking and a (substantial) reassertion of classical liberalism”.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In functionalist approach, society is evaluated in terms of basic needs. The state has emerged as a necessity within the society. These needs are: 1. Maintaining order: State’s most important function in a given society is maintaining order. The state holds the legitimate power in order to maintain and keep the social and political order when needed. 2. Relations with other states/governments: In a more globalized world, interrelations of the states are crucial. Economic relations require political relations. Thus, economic agreements, military agreements, diplomatic affairs and even due to compelling reasons, war might be a result for relations with other states/government. 3. Directing the system: Society is a complex social, economic and political system. Thus, the state is responsible for governing this complex system. One of the function of the state is to resolve possible problems that occur in this complex system (Bozkurt, 2006: 219).

Yanıt Açıklaması: Comte summarizes his ideas about this point of view in his well-known evolution theory known as “law of the three stages”, which he developed under the influence of the studies by Saint-Simon. Thus Auguste Comte is the founder of the theory.  The correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Comte used the term “sociology” for the first time and established a tradition known as positivist sociology. Thus, he is agreed to be the founder of sociology by some researchers in the field. The correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The construction of relationships is a social matter involved with society and types of societies, which is not entirely related with common sense. The final differentiation between common sense and sociology relates to dogmas.