The correct answer is option 1.

Key Points

• Social theory refers to the use of abstract and often complex theoretical frameworks to describe, explain, and analyze the social world.
• It also makes predictions about future actions, activities or situations.
• In general, the appeal of social theory derives from the fact that it takes the focus away from the individual (which is how most humans look at the world) and focuses it on society itself and the social forces that affect our lives. This sociological insight (often termed the "sociological imagination") looks beyond the assumption that social structures and patterns are purely random, and attempts to provide greater understanding and meaning to human existence. On the whole, Social theory tells us how to visualise the social universe.
• To succeed in this endeavour, social theorists, from time to time, incorporate methodologies and insights from a variety of disciplines.
• The social theory most commonly encompasses the range of explanatory concepts, analytical tools, and heuristic devices on which sociologists and social scientists draw in their efforts to interpret statistical or qualitative data about particular empirical social phenomena. 
• Social theory can also be thought of as incorporating normative concerns bearing on debates about desirable ends or values of social life—about how social life ideally “ought to be”—in ways that overlap closely with concerns in the fields of moral, political, and legal philosophy. 

The correct answer is Option 3.

Key Points

• Mores are higher order social norms linked to the core values of a group. They are considered vital for the group and are expressed as ‘must’ or ‘must not’ behaviour.
  • They are more strictly enforced as compared to folk ways. Violations of these are not taken lightly.
  • Mores are more strict than folkways, as they determine what is considered moral and ethical behavior; they structure the difference between right and wrong. People feel strongly about mores, and violating them typically results in disapproval or ostracizing.
  • As such, mores exact a greater coercive force in shaping our values, beliefs, behavior, and interactions than do folkways. Religious doctrines are an example of mores that govern social behavior.
  • For example, many religions have prohibitions on cohabitation with a romantic partner before marriage. If a young adult from a strict religious family moves in with her boyfriend then her family, friends, and congregation are likely to view her behavior as immoral. They might punish her behavior by scolding her, threatening judgment in the afterlife, or shunning her from their homes. These actions are meant to indicate that her behavior is immoral and unacceptable, and are designed to make her change her behavior to align with the violated more. The belief that forms of discrimination and oppression, like racism and sexism, are unethical is another example of an important more in many societies.

Additional Information

• Folkways refers to traditional customary ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. Most people conform to folk ways out of habit. They are the lesser order of norms, as they are not as strictly enforced as mores or laws.
  • A common example of a folkway is the practice, in many societies, of waiting in line. This practice brings order to the process of buying things or receiving services, allowing us to more easily perform the tasks of our daily lives.
• A custom is defined as a cultural idea that describes a regular, patterned behavior that is considered characteristic of life in a social system. Shaking hands, bowing, and kissing—all customs—are methods of greeting people. 
  • Customs foster social harmony and unity within a group.
• An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially as held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones."
  • Formerly applied primarily to economic, political, or religious theories and policies, in a tradition going back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, more recent use treats the term as mainly condemnatory

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• Ascribed status is a term used in sociology that refers to the social status of a person that is assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily later in life. The status is a position that is neither earned by the person nor chosen for them.
• The ascribed status is assigned based on social and cultural expectations, norms, and standards. These positions are occupied regardless of efforts or desire. These rigid social designators remain fixed throughout an individual's life and are inseparable from the positive or negative stereotypes that are linked with one's ascribed statuses.
• The practice of assigning such statuses to individuals exists cross-culturally within all societies and is based on gender, race, family origins, and ethnic backgrounds.
• Ascribed status is typically based on sex, age, race, family relationships, or birth, while achieved status may be based on education, occupation, marital status, accomplishments, or other factors. Hence, Option 1 is the correct answer.
• For example, a person born into a wealthy family has a high ascribed status based solely on the social networks and economic advantages that one gains from being born into a family with more resources than others.
• In contrast, an achieved status is a social position a person takes on voluntarily that reflects both personal ability and merit.
  • Individuals have control over their achieved statuses insofar as there are no restrictions associated with their ascribed statuses that could potentially hinder their social growth.

The correct answer is Option 3.

Key Points

• Social interaction is an event that occurs between two or more individuals. They each use culturally approved methods to communicate certain things or perform appropriate actions. Information is exchanged as a result of social interaction. Social interactions occur every day, and they can even occur without us knowing, such as when we or others use nonverbal communication to express ourselves to others. 
• There are several main elements of social interaction, including:
  • Information
  • Multiple parties involved
  • Goals to be achieved or tasks to be completed.
• The purpose of social interaction is to enable multiple individuals to express themselves and complete certain tasks. Social interactions are central to communication between members of the same community.
• Social interactions have an important function in society:
  • They allow members of a community to socialize and encourage a sense of community.
  • They provide a way for the spread and strengthening of social and cultural mores and norms. Through social interactions, individuals reaffirm their commitment to community values.

The correct answer is Option 2.

Key Points

• Middle class refers to a socio-economic strata that falls in between the working class and the upper class.
  • Those in the middle class have enough disposable income to afford minor luxuries like vacations or restaurants, but also rely on borrowing for big-ticket items like homes and cars.
• The word "middle" may be misleading in that it suggests that those in the middle class have earnings within the middle of the population's income distribution, which may not be the case.
• Middle class families tend to own their own home (although with a mortgage), own a car (although with a loan or lease), send their kids to college (although with student loans or scholarships), are saving for retirement, and have enough disposable savings to afford certain luxuries like dining out and vacations.
• The chief defining characteristic of membership in the middle-class is control of significant human capital while still being under the dominion of the elite upper class, who control much of the financial and legal capital in the world and are generally intelligent.

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• Survey research is the most common example of a ‘macro’ method to gather data. A survey is probably the best-known sociological method, one that is now so much a part of modern public life that it has become commonplace.
• A survey is an attempt to provide an overview. It is a comprehensive or wide-ranging perspective on some subject based on information obtained from a carefully chosen representative set of people. Such people are usually referred to as ‘respondents’ — they respond to questions asked of them by the researchers.
• Survey research is usually done by large teams consisting of those who plan and design the study (the researchers) and their associates and assistants (the latter are called ‘investigators’ or ‘research assistants’).
• The survey questions may be asked and answered in various forms.
  • Often, they are asked orally during personal visits by the investigator, and sometimes through telephone conversations.
  • Responses may also be sought in writing, to ‘questionnaires’ brought by investigators or sent through the post.
  • Finally, with the increasing presence of computers and telecommunication technology, these days it is also possible for surveys to be conducted electronically. In this format, the respondent receives and responds to questions by email, the Internet, or similar electronic medium. Another way is to go to an internet website through link details and fill the format digitally available.
• The survey’s main advantage as a social scientific method is that it allows us to generalise results for a large population while actually studying only a small portion of this population.
  • Thus a survey makes it possible to study large populations with a manageable investment of time, effort and money. That is why it is such a popular method in the social sciences and other fields.
  • The sample survey is able to provide a generalisable result despite being selective by taking advantage of the discoveries of a branch of statistics called sampling theory. The key element enabling this ‘shortcut’ is the representativeness of the sample.

The correct answer is Option 4.

Key Points

• Sociologists define social change as changes in human interactions and relationships that transform cultural and social institutions- social relationships. These changes occur over time and often have profound and long-term consequences for society.
  • These changes occur over time and often have profound and long-term consequences for society.
  • Well-known examples of such change have resulted from social movements in civil rights, women's rights, and LBGTQ rights, to name just a few. Relationships have changed, institutions have changed, and cultural norms have changed as a result of these social change movements. 
• Social relationships refer to the connections that exist between people who have recurring interactions that are perceived by the participants to have personal meaning.
  • Social relations are derived from human behavioural ecology, and, as an aggregate, form a coherent social structure whose constituent parts are best understood relative to each other and to the ecosystem as a whole.
  • Fundamental inquiries into the nature of social relations feature in the work of sociologists such as Max Weber in his theory of social action. Social relationships are composed of both positive (affiliative) and negative (agonistic) interactions, representing opposing effects.
  • Categorizing social interactions enables observational and other social research, such as Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft (lit. 'community and society'), collective consciousness, etc.

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• A social institution is a group or organization that has specific roles, norms, and expectations, which functions to meet to social needs of society and lack any physical structure. The family, government, religion, education, and media are all examples of social institutions.
• Social institutions are interdependent and continually interact and influence one another in everyday society. For example, some religious institutions believe they should have control over governmental and educational institutions.
• Social institutions can have both manifest and latent functions. Manifest functions are those that are explicitly stated, while latent functions are not.
• Each social institution plays a vital role in the functioning of society and the lives of the people that inhabit them.
• Social institutions have a number of key characteristics:
  • They are enduring and stable.
  • They serve a purpose, ideally providing better chances for human survival and flourishing.
  • They have roles that need to be filled.
  • Governing the behavior and expectations of sets of individuals within a given community.
  • The rules that govern them are usually ingrained in the basic cultural values of a society, as each institution consists of a complex cluster of social norms.
• They serve general functions, including:
  • Allocating resources
  • Creating meaning
  • Maintaining order
  • Growing society and its influence

The correct answer is Option 1.

Key Points

• Frédéric Le Play (1806–1882), is a French sociologist, best remembered for his development of a method of research and data presentation known as the monographic method and for his classification of families into patriarchal, stem, and unstable types.
  • In the patriarchal family the father characteristically keeps near him all his married sons and exercises supreme authority over them and their children. 
  • Le Play’s unstable family resembles what is today called the isolated nuclear family. It is un-stable because it has little resiliency in the face of economic hardship. 
  • The stem family is a type of patriarchal family in which only one of the heirs is retained in the family homestead; the others receive some form of dowry that enables them to establish themselves elsewhere.
• As a sociologist, Le Play opposed the then-fashionable notion of society’s continuous evolutionary progress. He viewed the family as the chief agent of social stability and moral authority in the face of industrialization and its accompanying social conflicts, and he propounded a theory of cyclic changes in society that were related to rises or declines in family morale. He postulated the formula 'Place, Work and People' for the study of family. 
• In the course of gathering data for his theories, Le Play developed what is now known as the case-study method, in which a field-worker lives with a family for a period of time, gathering data on the family members’ attitudes and interactions and on their income, expenditures, and physical possessions.
• The development of statistical sampling, fundamental to social survey methodology, was influenced by Le Play’s method of collating data that he obtained through field research.

The correct answer is England.

Key Points

• Herbert Spencer, (born April 27, 1820, Derby, Derbyshire, England—died December 8, 1903, Brighton, Sussex), English sociologist and philosopher, an early advocate of the theory of evolution, who achieved an influential synthesis of knowledge, advocating the preeminence of the individual over society and of science over religion.
• His magnum opus, The Synthetic Philosophy (1896), was a comprehensive work containing volumes on the principles of biology, psychology, morality, and sociology.
• He is best remembered for his doctrine of social Darwinism, according to which the principles of evolution, including natural selection, apply to human societies, social classes, and individuals as well as to biological species developing over geologic time.