Introduction to Sociology

Yanıt Açıklaması: 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. The answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Marx, like Durkheim, does not have a concrete interest in, and comprehensive theory of cultural phenomenon. However, in Marx’s writings there are ideas that could form a model for the creation of culture as ideology. As a materialistic theorist, Marx has argued that financial situation and economic activities shape human consciousness. Marx noted that not only religious ideas, but also all cultural ideas are a reflection of the material production system and thus serve the interests of the dominant class.

Yanıt Açıklaması: … Organized crime: Examples of organized crime include such activities as smuggling, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution, large-scale theft and racketeering. Violence or threat of violence could be resorted to in order to carry out these activities. Although organized crime has been developed traditionally in a different way in terms of culture, it has become an over-national quality in the course of time and scope.

Yanıt Açıklaması: It is very difficult to define deviance, because deviance is a complex concept. Deviance in the daily language means departing from a recognized path and refers to actions that do not fit the expectations and norms of a particular social group. In general terms, deviance could be defined as the visible violation of cultural norms . Since the norms direct almost all human activities, the limits of the concept of deviance are as broad as possible. For this reason, deviance encompasses the violation of group norms that are not legally expressed or are not mentioned in the law. Deviance could be rewarded, punished or accepted without penalty or reward. In general terms, deviance can be defined as the visible violation of cultural norms.

Yanıt Açıklaması: One of the prominent French Sociologists, Emile Durkheim defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. According to Emile Durkheim, religion begins with the division of the world into two kinds of phenomena: the profane and the sacred. The profane is concerned with the ordinary aspects of everyday life; it has nothing to do with religious beliefs. The sacred refers to all objects and aspects of life set apart from the ordinary, regarded as holy and related to the supernatural. The sacred forms the foundation of every religion. Religion is primarily a collective activity based on a classification of things into the sacred (set apart and forbidden) and profane (part of the everyday world). Thus, it can be said that Durkehim approached to the issue of religion in terms of its function in the society.

Yanıt Açıklaması: The interactive approach differs from other approaches in two ways; it considers deviance from a different theoretical perspective and examines the different dimensions of deviance that is ignored by other approaches. It focuses on the interaction between deviance and those who define the related phenomenon as deviance. The interactionists deny the idea of types of behaviors that inherently consists of “deviant” characteristic. They seek answers to the question of how the behaviors are initially described as deviance and why certain groups are labeled as deviant, while the other groups are not labeled.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Ethnocentrism has a close relationship with heterophobia (fear/hatred of difference), xenophobia (fear/hatred of foreigners), islamophobia (fear/dislike of Islam), homophobia (hatred of homosexual people), chauvinism and more importantly racism. Therefore, the interpretation of other cultures as “bizarre”, then “abnormal,” sometimes “deviant” and occasionally a “threat” could easily lead to hatred and hostility towards the people of those cultures. Ethnorelativism , on the other hand, is diagonally opposite of ethnocentrism.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Postmodernization In modern societies, culture is differentiated from other areas of social life and high culture is differentiated from popular culture. However, postmodernization reverses these trends. According to Crook et al., an intensification of some of the processes at work in modernity leads to postmodernization. Differentiation, rationalization and commodification are superseded by hyperdifferentiation, hypercommodification and hyper-rationalization...This leads to a new type of culture: Crook et al. call this new culture postculture. Hypercommodification: Hypercommodification involves all areas of social life becoming commodified... Consumption increasingly takes place within the home, and members of the same family become inclined to consume different things... Instead of a uniform family culture, each family member chooses their own lifestyle. Hyper-rationalization: Hyper-rationalization involves the use of rationalized technology to spread cultural consumption more widely and to privatize it. Technology such as the satellite TV allows greater individuals choice about what do watch... Again, this allows individuals to choose their own lifestyle... Media images come to dominate society. Media copies and reproductions begin to replace the authentic, real thing they present. Eventually, images and signs lose their connections with reality and become what Baudrillard calls simulacra. Hyperdifferentiation: Crook et al., argue: ‘In postmodernization a thousand flowers bloom.’ A fantastic variety of cultural forms develop with no particular type being dominant... The increased fragmentation of culture -hyperdifferentation- leads ultimately to dedifferentiation, in which distinction between different types of culture break down. In particular, the distinction between high culture and popular culture is undermined in postmodernizing societies.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Marx suggests that religion often has ideological implications, serving to justify the interests of ruling classes at the expense of others. The correct answer is D.

Yanıt Açıklaması: “Culture is a system of meanings and significance created historically, or, in other words, culture is a system of beliefs and customs that a group of people use in order to understand, organize, and structure their individual and collective lives. It is a way of understanding and organizing human life.” (Parekh, 2002: 184) Culture gives consistency to our lives, provides us with the resources we need to make sense of the world, and cultural values and ideals guide us in life by inspiring us. In addition, culture’s “arts, rituals in daily life, songs, stories and literature give us joy, add color and beauty to our lives, and its moral and spiritual wisdom help us deal with the inevitable tragedies of life by relaxing us.” The correct answer is D.

Yanıt Açıklaması: There are some main differences between nuclear and extended families: Nuclear families are small and geographicallyisolated. Extended families are more crowded, include many members of the kin group and have geographic proximity. For nuclear families, marital bonds aremore important than blood ties, thus they are named “conjugal families”. On the other side, blood ties are more important than marital bonds for the extended families, thus they are called “consanguine families”. Nuclear families are temporary units because they decompose with the death of the parents or the marriage of children, but extended families live much longer. Because of their shorter life, it is hard for nuclear families to transmit a family culture to the children. This process is easier in extended families. In nuclear families, there is minimalcontact with the kin group. However, kin group contact on a daily basis in extended families. Therefore, extended families can provide more support and assistance to its members, and can more easily overcome crisis arising from deaths or divorces. Nuclear families are economically self-sufficient while economic dependence is high in extended families. Because nuclear families are small sized,members can increase their personal development and freedom much more when compared to extended families. Since nuclear families are autonomous, individualization is easier in these families. On the other side, there is intergenerational authority in extended families which may limit personal development and freedom. The members of the nuclear family have toget emotional support and protection from people outside the kin group. In respect of the extended family, the kin network within the family provides a source of emotional support and protection.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Sociologists define religion as a cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provide a sense of ultimate meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all encompassing the supernatural. The correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: According to Durkheim, all societies have a continuing need to reaffirm and uphold their basic sentiments and values. This is accomplished when people come together and communally proclaim their acceptance of the dominant belief system. In this way, people are bound to one another, and as a result, the stability of the society is strengthened. Not only does religion in itself bring about social cohesion, but often, the hostility and prejudice directed at its members by outsiders also helps strengthen bonds between those members. Durkheim believes that religion strengthens the unity of society and promotes solidarity.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Value can be defined as the thoughts or principles that are thought to be true and necessary by the majority of its members in order to sustain the existence of a society or a social group. The correct answer is C.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Emile Durkheim believed that social life was impossible without the shared values and moral beliefs that form the collective conscience. In their absence, there would be no social order, social control, social solidarity or cooperation. In short, there would be no society. Religion reinforces the collective conscience. According to Durkheim, religious ritual is an important part of this social cement. Religion, through its rituals, fulfills a number of social functions such as binding people together physically, promoting social cohesion, reaffirming the group’s beliefs and values. Those functions help maintain norms, mores, and prohibitions. Durkheim is generally considered the first sociologist who analyzed religion in terms of its societal impact. Above all, he believed religion is about community: It binds people together (social cohesion), promotes behavior consistency (social control) and offers strength during life’s transitions and tragedies (meaning and purpose). As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is C. The arguments in the options I, II and III were developed by Durkheim in order to emhasize the functions of religion. The arguments in the options IV and V are the arguments of conflict theory on religion developed by Marx. Marx saw religious belief as an illusion attempting to justify existing arrangements in society and encouraging people to accept them. He saw religion doing this in two ways. First, religion justifies existing inequalities in income and power in society by explaining the position on the rich and poor as “the will of God”. For example, the Hindu religion provides a religious justification for the inequalities of the Indian caste system, and the Bible is riddled with quotations such as ‘it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven’. Poverty and resignation to it therefore become, in themselves, virtues. As a result, the poor are more likely to accept their position in society. Second, Marx believed religion provided comfort for the poor, and drew their attention away from their present misery and the inequalities and injustices of this world with promises of a future, golden life after death.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Divorce incidence is increasing.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), one of the earliest functional theorists, noted the ability of religion to bring about group unity and cohesion. According to Durkheim, all societies have a continuing need to reaffirm and uphold their basic sentiments and values. This is accomplished when people come together and communally proclaim their acceptance of the dominant belief system. In this way, people are bound to one another, and as a result, the stability of the society is strengthened. Durkheim believes that religion strengthens the unity of society and promotes solidarity . The correct answer is B.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Sociologists define religion as a cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provide a sense of ultimate meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all encompassing the supernatural. These are three key elements in this definition: Religion is a form of culture which consists of the shared beliefs, values, norms, and material conditions that create a common identity among a group of people. Religion has all these characteristics. Religion involves beliefs that take the form of ritualized practices-special activities in which believers take part and that identify them as members of the religious community. Religion provides a feeling that life is ultimately meaningful. It does so by explaining coherently and compellingly what transcends or overshadows everyday life in ways that other aspects of culture (such as an educational system or a belief in democracy.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Accepting the existence of other cultures and the diversity of cultures, unfortunately, does not always lead to respect for other cultures. This danger emerges when people value their culture so much and start to see it as “the best, the most beautiful.” Judging (which is generally disdaining) other cultures by looking from the value system of one’s own culture, and by taking his/her cultural values as a foreground is called ethnocentrism. The correct answer is E.

Yanıt Açıklaması: Nuclear families are temporary units because they decompose with the death of the parents or the marriage of children, but extended families live much longer.