Deck 7: Contemporary Social Thory

Question 1

Traditional social theory has been described as:

A) The study of societies prior to the 1900s
B) The attempt to describe, analyze, interpret, explain and access social reality systematically
C) The transition from traditional to modern societies
D) The attempt to understand how different groups interpret social reality

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Empirical research explores:

A) Real world social phenomena
B) Ideas generated through theorizing
C) Research generated in laboratory conditions
D) Research that is nationally representative

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Theorists concerned with the historical constitution of social reality argue that:

A) The past has no impact on the present
B) Social reality repeats itself throughout history
C) We can predict the future by looking at the past
D) It is necessary to explore the past to gain an understanding of the present

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Pessimistic social theorists argue that:

A) Power inequalities are inevitable
B) It is possible to eliminate inequalities
C) Inequalities are natural
D) Inequalities are positive

Question 5

Which approach tends to be associated with methodological individualism?

A) Marxist
B) Weberian
C) Durkheimian
D) None of the above

Question 6

Contemporary social theory generally refers to social theories developed from:

A) The early nineteenth century
B) The late nineteenth century
C) The early twentieth century
D) The mid-twentieth century

Question 7

The Weberian paradigm of understanding argues that social theory should be understood by exploring:

A) Social structures
B) The differences between societies
C) Collective actions
D) How individuals interpret their reality

Question 8

Ethno-conscious social theory argues that:

A) Claims to knowledge are culturally situated
B) Claims to knowledge are universal
C) Scientific research is free from researcher bias
D) Researchers should abandon classical social theory

Question 9

Interdisciplinary research:

A) Combines knowledge from different academic areas
B) Combines knowledge from multiple researchers within the same field
C) Is only undertaken within sociology
D) Describes all research undertaken from the twentieth century

Question 10

The pleas for public sociology

A) Encourages sociologists to engage with non-academic audiences
B) Encourages sociologists to use the public within their research
C) Encourages the public to undertake research
D) Encourages the public to learn social theory