optional · CSS study notes
📝 Past Paper 2024
Source: FPSC BS-17 Competitive Examination-2024, Sociology paper (Part-I: 20 MCQs/20 marks; Part-II: 80 marks, pick 4 of 7).
Part-I MCQ answer key with reasoning
| # | Question topic | Correct answer | Notes page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Critique of ethnocentrism | Cultural Relativism | Culture |
| 2 | Maintaining/celebrating cultural differences within society | Multiculturalism | Culture |
| 3 | Material culture changing faster than non-material culture | Cultural Lag | Culture |
| 4 | Weber's term for Protestantism-capitalism link | Rationalization (per this paper's key; note the Protestant Ethic thesis itself is usually described via "ascetic Protestantism" — cross-check both terms) | Theorist — Max Weber |
| 5 | Family's key function highlighted | Cultural Preservation (per this paper's key) | Social Institutions → Family |
| 6 | Deviance from weakened social bonds | Control Theory | Social Problems — Deviance & Street Crime |
| 7 | Anomie as disjunction between goals and legitimate means | Robert K. Merton | Additional Theorists — Merton |
| 8 | Traditional rural Pakistani socio-economic structure | Feudal System | Social Interaction |
| 9 | Coercive control/intimidation pattern in domestic violence | Emotional Violence (per this paper's key) | Social Problems — Women's Issues in Pakistan |
| 10 | Forced labour to repay a debt | Bonded Labor | Social Problems — Child Abuse & Child Labour · Social Interaction (feudalism) |
| 11 | Constructing meaning through symbols and interaction | Social Constructionism | Theorist — G.H. Mead |
| 12 | Postmodern challenge to fixed truths, reality as constructed | Postmodernism | Additional Theorists — Postmodernism |
| 13 | Power struggles, institutions as tools of the powerful | Critical Theory (per this paper's key) | Additional Theorists — Frankfurt School |
| 14 | Ibn Khaldun's cyclical rise-and-fall pattern | Muqaddimah (per this paper's key; note the underlying concept itself is "Ilm al-Umran") | Theorist — Ibn-e-Khaldun |
| 15 | Spencer's mechanism for societal progress | Social Evolution | Theorist — Herbert Spencer |
| 16 | In-depth immersive qualitative research approach | Ethnography | Methods of Sociological Research |
| 17 | Right to be informed before participating in research | Informed Consent | Methods of Sociological Research |
| 18 | Repeated observation of same individuals/groups over time | Longitudinal Design | Methods of Sociological Research |
| 19 | Knowledge derived from sensory/empirical evidence | Positivism | Methods of Sociological Research |
| 20 | Dividing population into subgroups, randomly sampling proportionally | Stratified Random Sampling | Methods of Sociological Research |
⚠️ A few of this paper's keys (Q4, Q5, Q9, Q13, Q14) use non-standard phrasing versus the mainstream sociological terms noted above — cross-check against the official released answer key before treating them as definitive; the notes pages present the standard/mainstream sociological terminology.
Part-II question map
| Q | Topic | Notes page |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Culture and socialization: mechanisms of internalization, with examples | Culture (socialization types & agents sections) |
| 3 | "Individuals are limbs of the society, cells of the body" — organismic theory | Society (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 4 | Functionalist interdependence of institutions maintaining social equilibrium, with Pakistan examples | Social Institutions · Theorist — Talcott Parsons (AGIL) |
| 5 | Social control mechanisms, order, and consequences of labeling | Social Control (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 6 | Verstehen in the interpretive approach; how it shaped Weber | Theorist — Max Weber (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 7 | Key components of quantitative research design | Methods of Sociological Research |
| 8 | (i) Survey research; (ii) Postmodern society | Methods of Sociological Research (survey adv/lim) · Society (postmodern society) · Additional Theorists (postmodernism) |