SOSYOLOJİYE GİRİŞ - Deneme Sınavı - 7

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), one of the earliest functional theorists, noted the ability of religion to bring about group unity and cohesion. According to Durkheim, all societies have a continuing need to reaffirm and uphold their basic sentiments and values. This is accomplished when people come together and communally proclaim their acceptance of the dominant belief system. In this way, people are bound to one another, and as a result, the stability of the society is strengthened. Durkheim believes that religion strengthens the unity of society and promotes solidarity. The correct answer is B.

According to Emile Durkheim, religion begins with the division of the world into two kinds of phenomena: the profane and the sacred. The profane is concerned with the ordinary aspects of everyday life; it has nothing to do with religious beliefs. The sacred refers to all objects and aspects of life set apart from the ordinary, regarded as holy and related to the supernatural. The sacred forms the foundation of every religion. Durkheim’s perspective on the sacred and the profane remains the dominant paradigm of sociological inquiry. The correct answer is E.

Karl Marx (1818–1883) studied the social impact of religion. He believed religion reflects the social stratification of society and maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo. For him, religion is a popular reaction to oppression. He famously argued that religion “is the opium of people”. Marx considered religion inseparable from the economy and the worker. Religion could not be understood apart from the capitalist society that maintained inequality. The correct answer is B.

Calvinism fostered the Protestant ethic of hard work and asceticism. Calvinism is rooted in the concept of predestination, which means that before people are born, some of them are selected for heaven and others for hell. Protestantism was an important influence on the development of capitalism. Capitalism blossomed with the advent of calvinism. The correct answer is C.

When comparing Weber and Durkheim, one might start simply by noting that whereas Durkheim was interested in the generic notion of religion, Weber was concerned with the historical and comparative importance of religions. Durkheim famously observed it to consist of a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. Weber, by contrast, declared that defining religion is not possible at the start of a presentation such as this. Definition can be attempted, if at all, only at the conclusion of the study. While Weber examined the consequences of the ‘economic ethics’ of the world religions, Durkheim examined the ‘elementary forms’ of religious classification. The correct answer is C.

The phenomenological approach is particularly associated with the work of Peter Berger andThomas Luckmann. Berger and Luckmann have put forward a phenomenological view of religion: Religion is produced by members of society subjectively interpreting and giving meaning to the world around them. Religion helps to build, maintain and legitimate universes of meaning. For Luckmann, it is not religious practices that have primary sociological significance but rather “symbolic universes”. The correct answer is D.

Stark and Bainbridge wrote two books to elaborate their position regarding rational choice theory in the sociology of religion. They see religion as meeting universal human needs rather than those which stem from class inequality and exploitation. Furthermore, they reject the view, shared by classic sociologists of religion that the development of industrial capitalist societies would undermine religion. Directly influenced by Homans’ exchange theory, Stark and Bainbridge construct a deductive theory of religion. Stark and Bainbridge argue that religion is essentially an attempt to gratify desires. The correct answer is C.

The debate over secularization process is one of the most complex and difficult issues in sociology of religion since there is little consensus on how to measure it. The history of classical secularization theory can be traced back to the early nineteenth century and sociological writings of August Comte. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, secularization became one of the master motifs of the social sciences. It is widely believed that industrialization and the growth of scientific knowledge would lead to diminish the role of religion in society. The correct answer is A.

When dealing with religion, sociologists mainly try to understand how religions shape society and conversely, how the historical and contemporary social conditions shape religions. Thus, according to sociological approach, religion should primarily be taken a social rather than theological or psychological phenomenon. The correct answer is A.

Since religions vary widely in substantive teachings and practices, most sociological definitions attempt to identify religion in terms of functions rather than substance. Thus, sociology focuses on the social consequences and correlates of religion but no sociological explanations suggest the truth or falsity of any religious belief. The correct answer is C.

The functionalist perspective examines religion in terms of society’s needs. From this perspective, society requires a certain degree of social solidarity, value concensus, and harmony and integration between its parts. According to Durkheim, all societies have a continuing need to reaffirm and uphold their basic sentiments and values. Not only does religion in itself bring about social cohesion, but often, the hostility and prejudice directed at its members by outsiders also helps strengthen bonds between those members. Yet it is Freud who asserted that religion develops from the need to ward off the horrors of nature; particularly the cruelty of death and also to compensate for the deprivations which culture imposes on the individual. The correct answer is B.

Unlike functionalist theory, conflict theory sees order and harmony as superficial entities. It claims that underneath a surface of apparent harmony, there is a form of balance of power or oppression. religion, because of the fear people feel for the god they themselves have created, serves to alienate people from the real world. Marx saw religion as the tool that the upper classes used to maintain control of society and to dominate the lower classes. The other options belong to Functionalist point of view. The correct answer is E.

The image or picture of the world held by members of Weber’s social action theory is most famous for arguing that Protestantism produced modern capitalism; later in his comparative studies he attempted to demonstrate that each of the great world religions laid down the tracks along which Europe, the Islamic world, India, and China moved in their distinctive directions. The correct answer is C.

Weber’s writings on religion differ from those of Durkheim in that they concentrate on the connection between religion and social change, something to which Durkheim gave little attention. While Durkheim was interested in the generic notion of religion (specifically the classification of the sacred and profane), Weber was concerned with the historical and comparative importance of religions. Durkheim’s functionalist analysis contends that religion represents the collective life of a society. Moreover, Durkheim’s most famous argument is that god represents society. For Durkheim, looking beyond behavioural norms, religion confers legitimacy on the political system. On the other hand, Weber showed that Protestant values directly influenced the rise of capitalism and helped create the modern world order. The correct answer is D.

The phenomenological approach is particularly associated with the work of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. For Luckmann, it is not religious practices that have primary sociological significance but rather “symbolic universes” that are objectified meaning-systems that relate the experiences of everyday life to a transcendent layer of reality. Other systems of meaning do not point beyond the world of everyday life; in other words, they do not contain a transcendent reference. The correct answer is D.

American Sociologists Rodney Stark and Willams S. Bainbridge’s explanation on religion consists of a number of insights into religious organizations, institutions and religious change (Rational Choice Theory). Unlike Durkheim, Stark and Bainbridge see religion as meeting the needs of individuals rather than those of society as a whole. Unlike Marx, they see religion as meeting universal human needs rather than those which stem from class inequality and exploitation. Furthermore, they reject the view, shared by classic sociologists of religion that the development of industrial capitalist societies would undermine religion. Directly influenced by Homans’ exchange theory, Stark and Bainbridge construct a deductive theory of religion. It can be said that the approach developed by Stark and Bainbridge used the exchange theory to explain religious behaviour of individuals as based on the principle that all human interactions can be treated as a form of exchange. They rely on the basic principle of exchange theory that humans seek what they perceive to be rewards and try to avoid what they perceive to be costs. The correct answer is E.

It is widely believed that industrialization and the growth of scientific knowledge would lead to diminish the role of religion in society. From the perspective of classical secularization theory, the decline in orthodox Christian beliefs and practices in most parts of the West is interpreted as a part of a more general decline in the power of religious institutions and ideas. This is explained with reference to various social processes (e.g., differentiation, rationalization, industrialization, and urbanization) which are loosely connected to “modernization.” The correct answer is B.

In a globalizing world, which demands rational reasons, fundamentalism insists on faith-based answers and references to ritual truth. As the forces of modernization progressively undermine traditional elements of the social world (such as nuclear family and the domination of women by men), fundamentalism has arisen in defense of traditional beliefs. The correct answer is A.

In the process of achieving a certain degree of social life; the values serve an important function in terms of determining which attitudes and behaviors are right or wrong, fair or unfair. It is possible to define social values as basic abstract principles or generalized moral beliefs that guide our attitudes and behaviors.

Official Norms: These are the official and written rules such as laws, regulations, statutes, circulars and board decisions. The punishments and rewards regarding these norms are predetermined.

Unofficial Norms: These are non-written norms, and punishments and rewards are not explicitly stated for such norms. The individuals might face sanctions such as condemnation, mocking, exclusion and insults.