EXAM PAPER 2026 QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS GRADED A+
◍ What is modernity?.
Answer: A historical period marked by industrialization, urbanization,
capitalism, bureaucratization, and rapid social change
◍ Why is modernity a central sociological problem?.
Answer: It transformed traditional social structures, relationships, and
sources of meaning
◍ What holds society together according to conflict theory?.
Answer: conflict
◍ Who are the three classical theorists of modernity?.
Answer: Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Émile Durkheim
◍ The functional imperative (AGIL) in structural-functionalist theory were
identified by whom?.
Answer: Talcott Parsons
◍ How did Marx view modern society?.
Answer: As shaped by capitalism and class conflict between bourgeoisie and
proletariat
◍ How did Weber view modern society?.
Answer: As increasingly rationalized and bureaucratic ("iron cage" of
rationality)
◍ How did Durkheim view modern society?.
Answer: As moving from mechanical solidarity (traditional) to organic
solidarity (interdependence)
,◍ What was feudal society?.
Answer: A pre-modern social system based on land ownership, hierarchy,
and personal obligations
◍ What was "the manor" in feudal society?.
Answer: The economic and social unit centered around a lord's estate
◍ Who wrote Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (1887)?.
Answer: Ferdinand Tönnies
◍ What is Gemeinschaft?.
Answer: Society; impersonal, contractual, and self-interested relationships
(typical of modern societies)
◍ According to functionalism, institutions and patterns of action develop and
change because society has what?.
Answer: Needs
◍ The belief that a sexual division of labor between a husband and wife is
necessary for society represents what kind of view of the modern family?.
Answer: funtionalists
◍ What nineteenth century social philosophy draws an analogy between
society and a biological body?.
Answer: organicism
◍ What provides a set of assumptions about what one should expect to see
when studying society?.
Answer: sociological paradigm
◍ The major parts of society from the viewpoint of the functionalist paradigm
are what?.
Answer: Functional Imperatives
◍ What is Gesellschaft?.
Answer: Society characterized by impersonal, contractual, and
self-interested relationships
, ◍ How does Tönnies describe relationships in Gesellschaft?.
Answer: Individuals are isolated, relationships are contractual, and
exchanges are based on equivalence
◍ How does Tönnies describe individuals in Gesellschaft?.
Answer: Isolated, self-interested, and engaged in relationships based on
exchange
◍ What replaces tradition in Gesellschaft?.
Answer: The contract
◍ What is a key feature of modern social change?.
Answer: The shift from personal obligation and tradition to rational
calculation and exchange
◍ Why is modernity considered a sociological problem?.
Answer: It disrupts traditional social bonds and creates new forms of
inequality, organization, and identity
◍ What is the functional imperative that all of the parts of society must be
coordinated?.
Answer: Integration
◍ Functionalism is based on what nineteenth century social philosophy?.
Answer: organicism
◍ What was the manor in feudal society?.
Answer: The central economic and social unit controlled by a lord
◍ Who developed historical materialism?.
Answer: Karl Marx
◍ What is one of the major parts of society in the conflict theory model?.
Answer: Needs, Classes, Interest groups
◍ The economy meets society's needs in what functional imperative..
Answer: Goal Attainment
◍ What does functionalism assume holds society together?.