Introduction to Sociology

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Berger and Luckmann, religion helps to build, maintain and legitimate universes of meaning. Berger and Luckmann argue that religion is probably the most effective mechanism for the legitimation of universes of meaning. Religion is produced by members of society subjectively interpreting and giving meaning to the world around them.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Anthropologists like Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) described culture as a system of shared symbols and/or meanings: “an historically transmitted pattern of meaning is embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life” (Geerts, 1973:89).

Yanıt Açıklaması: Anomie: The anomie that Durkheim has described refers to a state of normlessness and irregularity that arises in periods of social changes and irregularities, in the event that the social order deteriorates or fails to operate. In this case, people become more aggressive and depressed, resulting in an increase in violence, crime and suicide rates. -Anomie is related to a social situation, not to a personal state of mind. It is caused by the tension between individual interests and collective cultural conscious.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Max Weber made an historical analysis of religion as a factor that changes societies. Although he studied the religions around the world in detail for many years, Weber became famous for his explanation of the emergence of Capitalism in the West through asceticism principle of the Protestant ethic. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is A. The information related to the other sociologists in the options is as follows: Marx’s social conflict approach that considers religion as opium and consolation or, on rare occasions, a sort of protest. However, one should see that Marx’s analysis emphasizes that religion is principally used as a tool by powerful social classes in order to hide inequalities in labor class of the society. Durkheim’s functionalist approach considers religion as the fundamental part of a society and focuses solely on solidarity and integrating functions of religion. Among the leading theorists of the Phenomenological Approach, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann argue that religion helps people construct a universe of meaning in order to understand and interpret the world, and justify the authenticity and reality of those frames of meaning. They suggest that life would become meaningless and social stability would be disrupted without such universe of meaning.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Values, norms, religious and moral rules, manners and customs are learned by new generations in the course of education and socialization. On the other hand, law means that the rules guiding social life are expressed in a written form and systematized so as to cover the sanctions to be imposed by the state. The correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: William J. Goode also argues that industrialization process is one of the reasons for the breakdown of the extended family. Goode explains this process as follows (Haralambos and Holborn, 1995:337): Industrial society has a high rate of geographicalmobility and this mobility decreased the frequency and intimacy of contact among the members of the kinship network. Social mobility is also high in industrialsocieties and this weakened the ties among the members of the kinship network. When members of a working class family become upwardly mobile, they may tend to change their lifestyles according to their new social class, leading a disconnection from the larger kin network. When many of the functions of the family,such as education, production and protection were taken over by outside institutions like schools, factories or business organizations, the dependency of individuals on their family and kin has reduced. In industrial society, achieved status is moreimportant than ascribed status. This reduces the offerings of the kinship network to its members. The family in industrial societies cannot provide or guarantee jobs, education or training to its members. This reduction in dependency also weakens the ties among the members of the families. Goode argues that if individuals feel that they have more to gain than lose by maintaining the extended kinship ties, these ties are retained.

Yanıt Açıklaması: There are some important differences between physical and social sciences: (1) Physical scientists may conduct experiments in order to test and prove hypotheses. In social sciences, the study subjects are human beings and they have the right not to join the test. In addition, creating an environment of a laboratory may hinder people from behaving naturally, thus may be an obstacle to reaching the actual facts. For this reason, social scientists prefer to investigate people in their natural environments rather than in a laboratory environment. (2) In physical sciences, providing that all conditions of the circumstance will be the same, experiments enable scientists to make explicit predictions. However, it is impossible to make predictions with this much certainty in social sciences. The interaction of individuals, groups and society are complex and people may change their minds with their own will, for this reason making estimations in social sciences is not this easy. People may react and behave differently in the same circumstances, they may interpret the same fact differently, or may change their minds. Consequently, the regularities or laws in the social world cannot be put forward with the same certainty degree as in physical sciences. (3) In physical sciences, scientists cannot influence the reaction of their subjects. However, social scientists are members of the society they investigate, they may influence the people they investigate and may be influenced by them. Thus, it is harder to be objective in social sciences than it is in physical sciences. In addition to this, unlike social sciences, physical scientists do not have to persuade the study subjects to cooperate in research. In social sciences, the subjects have free will, the scientists have to persuade the people they investigate to cooperate. People may prefer not to cooperate in research, refuse to answer the questions, or they may give incorrect or deficit information, or may lie intentionally. This kind of behavior would make a sociological research impossible, difficult or unreliable. (4) In physical sciences scientists may investigate facts singly and examine the causality relationship between them. On the contrary, because the structure of the society is complex and there are many factors influencing the causality relations, social scientists have to take the social world as a whole. (5) Measurement is much easier in physical sciences. The subjects of physical sciences are often in measurable conditions, they may be expressed by measures such as weight, length, density or volume. Because there are not standard measures for measuring behaviors, perceptions or attitudes of people, it is harder to make measurements in social sciences. The correct answer is Choice E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Physical abuse refers to on purpose use of physical force, which may result in pain, discomfort, injury, disability or death.

Yanıt Açıklaması: "Habitus" is produced by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), one of the most important theoreticians of the 20th century. The correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Modern Culture According to Crook et al., there are three main characteristics of modern culture: differentiation, rationalization and commodification. Differentiation: Differentiation involves the separating out of different parts of society. Economic, political, social and cultural spheres become increasingly distinct from one another... Culture was therefore separated or differentiated from other aspects of life. It was produced by specialists, trained in particular institutions, and it was consumed in specific places... Rationalization: According to Crook et al., rationalization also shaped modern culture, but not as completely as differentiation...Technology was used to make it possible to recreate or copy culture... Radios and record players allowed broadcasts and copies of original music to be consumed widely... Nevertheless, in modernity the rationalization of culture can only proceed so far, since the individual creativity of the great artist is still valued. Commodification: The commodification of culture involves turning cultural products into commodities that can be readily bought and sold...

Yanıt Açıklaması: White-collar crimes: These crimes are committed by individuals belonging to wealthy segments of society, such as tax evasion, illegal sales, securities and real estate frauds and embezzlement. Measuring the distribution of white-collar crimes is more difficult than other crimes because most of these types of crimes are not included in official statistics. These crimes are actually more harmful than other crimes and are more prevalent in industrial societies.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Ascribed Status expresses a social position of a person gained without personal effort, achieved by birth, and generally does not change.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The primary socialization of children: The primary socialization is the socialization of the child in the early years of childhood and it occurs mostly in the family. The secondary socialization is the socialization that occurs in the later years and the family is less involved in this process. In the secondary socialization, while the family loses some of its influence, other important agents like the school or same age groups gain more significance. The primary socialization of children is the early childhood years that almost completely takes place in the family.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Auguste Comte suggests that, as a result of modernization, human society was going beyond the “theological stage” of social evolution and a new age was rising in which the science of sociology would replace religion as the basis for moral judgments. As understood from the information given, the correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The concept of anomie, which refers to normlessness and irregularity, was firstly used by the Durkheim, a French sociologist, in his work “Suicide.” Durkheim defined anomie as a state of irregularity that prevents the individuals, who become incapable of knowing which norms to determine as criteria when they need to act, from integrating with society. Anomie refers to a state of normlessness and irregularity that arises in periods of social changes and irregularities, in the event that the social order deteriorates or fails to operate. In this case, people become more aggressive and depressed, resulting in an increase in violence, crime and suicide rates.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In aesthetic definitions of culture, culture can be used as a name for the best, the most beautiful, or the most magnificent products of a society or civilization. Classical music, art, and literature can be articulated as examples of this group. And this kind of definition is considered as the narrow one. The correct option is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: When we talk about norms, we in fact point out quite a number of different perspectives that steers human action. In this regard, it can be pretty difficult to classify social norms under certain categories. However, we can still point out that social norms could be basically classified into five groups; religious rules, moral rules, manners and customs, fashion rules and legal rules. The correct answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: These are the rapid changes that occurred in recent years in Turkey both socially and economically. It has been found out in studies that the families get further fragmented and the individuals from these fragmented families get involved in higher number of crimes. The rate of increase in urban areas is higher than that of rural areas. This is caused by the problems encountered by individuals who try to integrate with a new social environment through urbanization and internal migration. The general view, suggesting that the crime rates have increased in recent years in Turkey, has received considerable support from the public. According to the literature today, crime is related to factors such as education, social groups, social stratification, family relationships, socio- economic status, income, environment, personality traits and mental health, not only to social factors. And punishment of crimes is insufficient. The correct answer is Choice A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), one of the founders of the functional approach, addressed some basic questions about how culture came into being in his work, Primitive Classification (1903).

Yanıt Açıklaması: Values: In the process of achieving a certain degree of social life; the values serve an important function in terms of determining which attitudes and behaviors are right or wrong, fair or unfair. It is possible to define social values as basic abstract principles or generalized moral beliefs that guide our attitudes and behaviors. Everything in the life of a society is perceived according to values. Values are the principles such as freedom and equality that define the ideal principles of what is desired and right in a society or group.