Critics of Durkheim have argued that _______________________.
a. his work is of little sociological value or importance
b. he focused too heavily on social inequality and social change
c. his emphasis on structure overlooks the meanings that social phenomena hold for people
d. he was not systematic, and therefore not scientific in his approach to the study of society
Question 2The basis for Durkheim's theory of society is the principle that _____________.
a. people are the products of their social environments
b. the evolution of society is based on the concept of survival of the fittest
c. society consists of the dual processes of social statics and social dynamics
d. conflict between different economic classes is necessary to produce social change
Question 3Durkheim used the term __________ for the condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and a sense of purpose in society.
a. social disorganization
b. social dysfunctionalism
c. cultural breakdown
d. anomie
Question 4Durkheim believed that the limits of social behavior __________.
a. are socially based, not biologically based
b. depend primarily on physical characteristics
c. are best understood as individual dysfunction
d. result mainly from cultural conflict
Question 5French sociologist Emile Durkheim coined the term __________ to refer to the patterns of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual but that exert social control over every person in society.
a. social statics
b. social facts
c. sociological imagination
d. sociological generalizations
Question 6A major criticism of Spencer's theory of social Darwinism is that ______________ .
a. other biological organizations exercise more control over their environments than do humans
b. it may be used to justify racial/ethnic, gender, and class inequalities in society
c. it explains society in an era that is less tumultuous than that of the Industrial Revolution
d. he plagiarized the work of Charles Darwin
Question 7Which of these early scientific thinkers first used the phrase survival of the fittest to explain his theory of society?
a. Karl Marx
b. Emile Durkheim
c. Auguste Comte
d. Herbert Spencer
Quick Reply
