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📝 Past Paper 2025
Source: FPSC BS-17 Competitive Examination-2025, 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 | Learning/adopting a culture's values, norms, behaviors | Socialization | Culture |
| 2 | Norm type with moral significance, often codified in law | Mores | Culture |
| 3 | Introduced "cultural lag" | William F. Ogburn | Culture |
| 4 | Why modern capitalism arose per Weber | Ascetic Protestantism | Theorist — Max Weber |
| 5 | "Base and Superstructure" key idea in | Marxism | Theorist — Karl Marx |
| 6 | Durkheim's concept for unclear/breakdown of norms | Anomie | Society |
| 7 | Spencer's Social Darwinism based on | Survival of the fittest | Theorist — Herbert Spencer |
| 8 | Merton's concept | Manifest and latent functions | Additional Theorists — Merton |
| 9 | Bourdieu's "habitus" | Dispositions shaped by social structures | Additional Theorists — Bourdieu |
| 10 | Introduced "Power Elite" | C. Wright Mills | Additional Theorists — Mills |
| 11 | Durkheim's suicide type from excessive regulation | Fatalistic | Theorist — Emile Durkheim |
| 12 | "Hegemonic masculinity" developed to | Study power relations among different masculinities | Social Problems — Women's Issues in Pakistan (gender-theory context) |
| 13 | NOT one of Parsons's pattern variables | Rationalism vs. Emotionalism | Theorist — Talcott Parsons |
| 14 | Foucault's "biopower" | Control of populations through discipline and surveillance | Additional Theorists — Foucault |
| 15 | Wallerstein's World-Systems Theory divides the world into | Core, semi-periphery, and periphery | Additional Theorists — Wallerstein |
| 16 | Frankfurt School's "culture industry" critiques | Commodification of culture under capitalism | Additional Theorists — Frankfurt School |
| 17 | "Middle-range theories" | Robert K. Merton | Additional Theorists — Merton |
| 18 | "Double hermeneutics" | Anthony Giddens | Additional Theorists — Giddens |
| 19 | Postmodernism in sociology primarily critiques | Traditional grand narratives and universal truths | Additional Theorists — Postmodernism |
| 20 | Althusser's "ideological state apparatuses" include | Religion, education, and media | Additional Theorists — Althusser |
Part-II question map
| Q | Topic | Notes page |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Social control: significant steps and functional agencies in post-industrial societies | Social Control (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 3 | Social vs. cultural change; impediments/resistance to change in Pakistan | Social & Cultural Change and Social Policy (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 4 | Migration as a social phenomenon; push-pull factors; brain drain's impact on Pakistan's economy | Social Problems — Rural-Urban Migration (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 5 | Structure and functions of the Pakistani family; its future | Social Institutions → Family (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 6 | Urbanization in Pakistan and its two most significant problems | Community (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 7 | Talcott Parsons's model of functional requirements of a social system (AGIL); fit today | Theorist — Talcott Parsons (model 20-mark answer included) |
| 8 | (i) Qualitative research in sociology; (ii) Deviance and white-collar crime in Pakistan | Methods of Sociological Research (qualitative section) · Social Problems — Deviance & Street Crime (white-collar crime section) |