Introduction to Sociology

Yanıt Açıklaması: Pastoral societies are the societies in which the gain of livelihood is based on domesticated livestock such as cattle or sheep.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Sociologist C. Wright Mills used the concept of sociological imagination to define the awareness of the relationship between personal, private experience and the wider society. Sociological imagination means to comprehend the history, the biography, and their relationship in the society. Mills argues that people have to understand wider patterns in order to understand the problems related to their works, families or neighbors. The correct answer is Choice C.

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 (1863-1931) is considered to be the founder of this approach.

Yanıt Açıklaması: A

Yanıt Açıklaması: For symbolic interactionism, meanings are not inherent in objects. The meanings / symbols that represent things emerge during the interactions in daily life among the members of a society. Meanings are not fixed and constant since they emerge during interaction process and they steadily change throughout social negotiation and interpretation processes. In this process, social order or social world is reconstructed every day. According to symbolic interactionists, social order develops as the outcome of interaction process. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: B

Yanıt Açıklaması: Pastoral societies are the societies in which the gain of livelihood is based on domesticated livestock such as cattle or sheep. These societies generally live in areas which are not suitable for agriculture. These societies consist of a larger population than hunting and gathering societies. Their population varies from a few hundred people to many thousand people. There is also more social inequality in this type of societies. Members of pastoral societies are engaged in trade and this causes a division between the rich and the poor. In these societies, there are non-economic social inequalities, too; for example, the chiefs, warlords, and leaders have extensive personal power. This type of society has emerged in 12,000 BC and today many pastoral societies exist, particularly in Africa, Middle East and Central Asia.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Comte, human thought and societies evolve through three basic stages: a) Theological stage: In this stage, the human mind tries to explain everything through supernatural forces. b) Metaphysical stage: In this stage, the human mind tries to explain all social and physical phenomena and events through abstract forces. c) Positive stage: In this stage, the human mind finally tries to explain all phenomena and events scientifically (based on universal laws). According to Comte, in this stage, the human mind rejects supernatural and abstract forces due to positive sciences and tries to reveal existing relationships among observable phenomena and systematize these relationships within universal laws. The correct answer is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Sociology took place in the 19th century.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Social institution refers to arrangements involving large numbers of people whose behaviors are guided by norms and roles. A social institution is a socially organized social behavior pattern that reflects the established appearance of the society, which are continuously repeated, maintained and approved by the social norms.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Weber, factors that determine people’s positions of classes are people’s knowledge, skills and qualifications in the production process. Three overlapping elements of the stratification system in the modern society are class, status, and party. Therefore, the correct option is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Socialism emerged after rapid impoverishment of a vast majority of people due to industrialization in the 19th century.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Comte rejects radical social changes like the French Revolution.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Neoliberalism is an ideology that prioritizes market over anything.

Yanıt Açıklaması: It is emphasized that the most significant contribution of Saint-Simon to the development of sociology is the term industrial society, which successfully influenced both the radicals like Marx and conservative theoreticians like Comte at same time by reflecting both socialist and conservative point of views.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The areas that sociologists investigate are parts of our everyday lives. Sociologists talk about families, groups, politics, economy, factories, religion, authority, etc.

Yanıt Açıklaması: In Karl Marx’s analysis of society, economic relations and production is enormously important and occupy a central place. The emphasis Marx places on economic factors in social transformation can be clearly seen in his distinction between base and superstructure in social analysis. In this distinction, the base consists of economic structure (means of production and relations of production) and superstructure consists of law, politics, religion, family and ideologies. According to Marx, there is an interaction-based relationship between economic base and superstructure. However, economic base has a determinant effect on superstructure. The dominant class owning the means of production also controls certain elements of the superstructure such as politics, ideology and religion.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Political power legitimizes and attains power through the people’s sovereignty by the principle of laicism, not from traditional authorities taking their power from sacred books. Therefore, the correct answer is A.

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”. Therefore, the correct option is A.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Durkheim, society is similar to a biological organism consisting of components having different functions to form a unity. At this point, he believes that society has an independent reality in a way that cannot be reduced to the individuals that form it.