apter 1: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory: The Early Years
Multiple Choice
1. Who wrote, “We are headed to an increasingly centralized world with less individual freedom?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Karl Marx
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: A
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Who wrote, “We are evolving in the direction of a world dominated by science?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Auguste Comte
c. Karl Marx
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: B
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. Who wrote, “Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the workers by the capitalists?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Karl Marx
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: C
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. Who wrote, “The modern world offers less moral cohesion than did earlier societies?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Karl Marx
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: D
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
5. Who wrote, “The modern world is an iron cage of rational systems from which there is no escape?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Emile Durkheim
c. Karl Marx
d. Max Weber
Ans: D
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. Who wrote, “The city spawns a particular type of person?”
a. George Simmel
b. Emile Durkhiem
c. Karl Marx
d. Max Weber
Ans: A
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. Who wrote, “Gender inequality explains most of individual experience, the ills in society, and history?”
a. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
b. Emile Durkheim
c. W. E. B. DuBois
d. Alexis de Tocqueville
Ans: A
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
8. Who wrote, “A ‘veil’ rather than a wall separates African Americans and Whites?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. George Simmel
c. George Herbert Mead
d. W. E. B. DuBois
Ans: D
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
9. Who wrote, “People engage in conspicuous consumption?”
a. Thorstein Veblen
b. Karl Marx
c. Joseph Schumpeter
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: A
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
10. Who wrote, “Capitalism is virtually synonymous with ‘creative destruction’?”
a. Thorstein Veblen
b. Karl Marx
c. Joseph Schumpeter
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: C
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
11. Who wrote, “Knowledge is shaped by the social world?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Karl Mannheim
d. George Hebert Mead
Ans: C
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
12. Who wrote, “People’s minds and their conceptions of themselves are shaped by their social experiences?”
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Herbert Spencer
c. Karl Mannheim
d. George Hebert Mead
Ans: D
Answer Location: A Historical Sketch of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. Which of the following makes a sociological theory a classic? Select all, but only those that apply.
a. Great scope
b. Ambition
c. Important during their own time
d. Continued relevance today
Ans: A, B, C, D
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Medium
14. According to George Ritzer, which of the following makes a sociological theory a classic? Select all, but only those that apply.
a. Wide range of application
b. Deal with central social issues
c. Stand the test of time
d. Interrelated propositions that systematize knowledge
Ans: A, B, C
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Medium
15. When did sociologists (as opposed to social thinkers) first appear?
a. Ancient Greeks and Romans
b. Middle-Ages
c. Renaissance (1400s)
d. Mid-1800s
Ans: D
Answer Location: Social Forces in the Development of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. What was the most immediate social force in the rise of sociology during the late 1800s?
a. Political revolution
b. The industrial revolution
c. The rise of capitalism
d. Colonialism
Ans: A
Answer Location: Political Revolution
Difficulty Level: Medium
17. Which social force refers to the incorporation of production technology into market driving economies?
a. Political revolution
b. The rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution
c. The rise of socialism
d. Colonialism
Ans: B
Answer Location: The Rise of Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution
Difficulty Level: Easy
18. Which social force refers to the spread of western political, social, cultural, and economic domination across the globe?
a. Political revolution
b. The rise of capitalism and the industrial revolution
c. The rise of socialism
d. Colonialism
Ans: D
Answer Location: Colonialism
Difficulty Level: Easy
19. Which social force refers to a questioning of patriarchy that grew out of mobilizations against slavery and the political oppression of the middle class?
a. Political revolution
b. Urbanization
c. Religion
d. Feminism
Ans: D
Answer Location: Feminism
Difficulty Level: Easy
20. Which social force refers to mass migration of people away from agricultural areas and toward industrial cities?
a. Political revolution
b. Urbanization
c. Colonialization
d. The rise of capitalism
Ans: B
Answer Location: Urbanization
Difficulty Level: Easy
21. Which was an intellectual current of The Enlightenment? Select all, but only those that apply.
a. Philosophy
b. Sociology
c. Science
d. Religion
Ans: A, C
Answer Location: The Enlightenment
Difficulty Level: Medium
22. Which French sociologist’s emphasis on freedom combined with his critiques of equality and centralization led him to be extremely critical of both democracy and socialism?
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Claude Henri Saint-Simon
c. Auguste Comte
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: A
Answer Location: The Development of French Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
23. Which French sociologist saw the need for socialist reforms of capitalism, but was concerned the working class would be empowered?
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Claude Henri Saint-Simon
c. Auguste Comte
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: B
Answer Location: The Development of French Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
24. Which French sociologist directed his positivist critique toward the French Revolution and its aftermath?
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Claude Henri Saint-Simon
c. Auguste Comte
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: C
Answer Location: The Development of French Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
25. Which French sociologist outlined how sociology should be a study of morality and social facts?
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Claude Henri Saint-Simon
c. Auguste Comte
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: D
Answer Location: The Development of French Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
26. Which early French sociologist had the most influence on contemporary sociology?
a. Alexis de Tocqueville
b. Claude Henri Saint-Simon
c. Auguste Comte
d. Emile Durkheim
Ans: D
Answer Location: The Development of French Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
27. Which German philosopher developed dialectics and idealism to examine the dynamic aspects of society?
a. G. W. F. Hegel
b. Ludwig Feuerbach
c. Karl Marx
d. Max Weber
Ans: A
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
28. Which German thinker developed a materialist philosophy he then applied toward understanding consciousness and religion?
a. G. W. F. Hegel
b. Ludwig Feuerbach
c. Karl Marx
d. Max Weber
Ans: B
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
29. Which German thinker thought almost every social problem had its roots in capitalism?
a. G. W. F. Hegel
b. Ludwig Feuerbach
c. Karl Marx
d. Max Weber
Ans: C
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
30. Which German thinker emphasized rationality in his social theory that he famously applied to religion, economics, and bureaucracy?
a. G. W. F. Hegel
b. Ludwig Feuerbach
c. Karl Marx
d. Max Weber
Ans: D
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Medium
31. Which of the following intellectual currents was embraced by early British sociologists? Select all, but only those that apply.
a. Ameliorism
b. Political economy
c. Socialism
d. Social Evolution
Ans: A, B, D
Answer Location: Political Economy, Ameliorism, and Social Evolution
Difficulty Level: Medium
32. What intellectual current of early British sociology focused on reforming individuals rather than society?
a. Ameliorism
b. Political economy
c. Socialism
d. Social evolution
Ans: A
Answer Location: Political Economy, Ameliorism, and Social Evolution
Difficulty Level: Medium
33. Which intellectual current of early British sociology focused on how capitalist markets largely control behavior and societal organization more generally?
a. Ameliorism
b. Political economy
c. Socialism
d. Social evolution
Ans: B
Answer Location: Political Economy, Ameliorism, and Social Evolution
Difficulty Level: Medium
34. What intellectual current of early British sociology focused on how social structures emerge and operate?
a. Ameliorism
b. Political economy
c. Socialism
d. Social evolution
Ans: D
Answer Location: Political Economy, Ameliorism, and Social Evolution
Difficulty Level: Medium
35. Who was the Hegelian-Marxist who is now considered the father of “Western Marxism?”
a. Friedrich Engels
b. Karl Kautsky
c. Georg Lukács
d. Martin Jay
Ans: C
Answer Location: Turn-of-the-Century Developments in European Marxism
Difficulty Level: Medium
36. According to Tiryakian, what makes a sociological work a classic? Select all, but only those that apply.
a. It is considered a “must read” for new sociologists.
b. It demonstrates the imaginative power of sociology.
c. It is useful to contemporary theorists and researchers.
d. It is considered a “must reread” by older sociologists.
Ans: A, B, C, D
Answer Location: The Contemporary Relevance of Classical Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Medium
True/False
1. Auguste Comte and Hebert Spencer are the most widely read and therefore influential classic sociological theorists.
Ans: T
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Most classic sociologists rejected religion, instead relied on the scientific rationalism offered by more secular styles of thinking.
Ans: F
Answer Location: Religion
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. There was a debate among early sociologists about how much social science should mirror the natural sciences.
Ans: T
Answer Location: The Growth of Science
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. The majority of early sociologists favored socialism over capitalism.
Ans: F
Answer Location: The Rise of Socialism
Difficulty Level: Easy
5. Most enlightenment thinkers embraced traditional authorities.
Ans: F
Answer Location: The Enlightenment
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. French Catholic counter revolutionary philosophy challenged The Enlightenment by arguing tradition, imagination, emotionalism, and religion are useful and even needed for social life.
Ans: T
Answer Location: The Conservative Reaction to the Enlightenment
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. Claude Henri Saint-Simon wanted to undo The Enlightenment and return society to The Middle-Ages.
Ans: F
Answer Location: Claude Henri Saint-Simon (1760–1825)
Difficulty Level: Easy
8. Primarily because of Karl Max’s controversial yet influential work, early sociology was much more fragmented in Germany than it was in France.
Ans: T
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
9. The German philosophers Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche were more influential to sociology than Karl Marx and Max Weber.
Ans: F
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
10. Like most German sociologists, George Simmel worked predominately at the macro-level.
Ans: F
Answer Location: The Development of German Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
11. Vilfredo Pareto characterized society as being comprised of interdependent parts where a change in one part results in a change in another part so that equilibrium is maintained.
Ans: T
Answer Location: The Key Figure in Early Italian Sociology
Difficulty Level: Easy
Essay
1. Which social factor was the most important in the rise of sociology and why?
Ans:
- Explain whether political revolutions, the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism, colonialism, socialism, feminism, urbanization, religion or science were of great influence in the rise of sociology.
- Explain why political revolutions, the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism, colonialism, socialism, feminism, urbanization, religion and/or were of secondary influence in the rise of sociology.
Answer Location: Intellectual Forces and the Rise of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
2. Explain how counter-enlightenment thought in addition to Enlightenment philosophy and science was also important to the development of sociology.
Ans:
- Sociology embraced the rational empiricism espoused as part of The Enlightenment.
- Sociology did not embrace the emphasis on the individual that was central to The Enlightenment.
Answer Location: Intellectual Forces and the Rise of Sociological Theory
Difficulty Level: Difficult
3. Explain how the unique social contexts in France, Germany, and Britain led to the development of unique sociological thought.
Ans:
- The sociology in France was primarily a reaction to The French Revolution and The Enlightenment.
- The sociology in Germany was first a reaction to Hegel, and then a reaction to Karl Marx.
- In not experiencing much of the upheaval that plagued continental Europe, British sociology generally applauded industrial capitalism while looking to reform individuals, not society.
Answer Location: The Development of French Sociology, The Development of German Sociology, and The Origins of British Sociology
