UGC NET Sociology Basic Concepts and Institutions Syllabus

Basic Concepts and Institutions syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Basic Concepts and Institutions in UGC NET Sociology, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Sociological Concepts

   10 topics

   • Social Structure
   • Culture
   • Network
   • Status and Role
   • Identity
   • Community
   • Diaspora
   • Values, Norms and Rules
   • Personhood, Habitus and Agency
   • Bureaucracy, Power and Authority
2. 2

   Social Institutions

   6 topics

   • Marriage, Family and Kinship
   • Economy
   • Polity
   • Religion
   • Education
   • Law and Customs
3. 3

   Social Stratification

   4 topics

   • Social Difference, Hierarchy, Inequality and Marginalization
   • Caste and Class
   • Gender, Sexuality and Disability
   • Race, Tribe and Ethnicity
4. 4

   Social Change and Processes

   4 topics

   • Evolution and Diffusion
   • Modernization and Development
   • Social Transformations and Globalization
   • Social Mobility

Basic Concepts and Institutions flashcards for UGC NET Sociology

25 of 52 cards from the Basic Concepts and Institutions deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is 'social structure' in sociology?

   The patterned, enduring arrangement of relationships, institutions, statuses and roles that organizes social life and shapes behaviour. Radcliffe-Brown saw it as the network of actual social relations; Levi-Strauss treated it as underlying models, not observable relations.

2. How did Talcott Parsons and the structural-functionalists define social structure?

   As a system of interrelated institutions and roles whose patterned arrangement meets society's functional prerequisites (adaptation, goal attainment, integration, latency - the AGIL scheme).

3. Define 'culture' in the classic anthropological sense (E.B. Tylor, 1871).

   Tylor: 'That complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.'

4. Distinguish material culture from non-material culture, and define 'cultural lag'.

   Material culture = physical objects/technology; non-material culture = ideas, values, norms, beliefs. Cultural lag (William Ogburn) is the delay between change in material culture and the adjustment of non-material culture.

5. Differentiate ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, and xenocentrism.

   Ethnocentrism = judging other cultures by one's own standards; cultural relativism = understanding a culture on its own terms; xenocentrism = preferring foreign cultures/products over one's own.

6. In sociology, what is a 'social network' and what is Granovetter's 'strength of weak ties'?

   A social network is a set of actors (nodes) linked by relationships (ties). Granovetter argued weak ties bridge distant groups and are more useful for new information (e.g., finding jobs) than strong ties.

7. Define 'status' and distinguish ascribed from achieved status.

   Status is a social position a person occupies. Ascribed status is assigned at birth/involuntarily (caste, sex, race); achieved status is earned through effort (occupation, education). Ralph Linton drew this distinction.

8. What is a 'role' and what are role conflict, role strain, and role set?

   A role is the expected behaviour attached to a status. Role conflict = incompatible demands from two different statuses; role strain = competing demands within one status; role set (Merton) = the array of roles attached to a single status.

9. What is 'master status'?

   A status that dominates all others a person holds and shapes how others perceive and treat them (e.g., race, gender, or a criminal label). Term associated with Everett Hughes.

10. How do sociologists conceptualize 'identity', and what is Erikson's contribution?

    Identity is the sense of self formed through social interaction and group membership. Erik Erikson coined 'identity crisis' and theorized identity formation as a key psychosocial task of adolescence.

11. Distinguish 'personal identity' from 'social/collective identity'.

    Personal identity = attributes that make an individual unique; social/collective identity = identification with groups and categories (nation, religion, caste, gender). Tajfel's Social Identity Theory links group membership to self-concept.

12. What is Ferdinand Tonnies' distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft?

    Gemeinschaft (community) = relationships based on kinship, tradition and personal bonds; Gesellschaft (society/association) = impersonal, contractual, self-interested ties typical of modern urban life.

13. How does Benedict Anderson define the nation as an 'imagined community'?

    A nation is imagined because members never know most fellow members yet conceive a deep horizontal comradeship; it is limited (has boundaries) and sovereign. From 'Imagined Communities' (1983).

14. Define 'diaspora' and name its classic features.

    Diaspora is the dispersal of a population from an original homeland, retaining collective memory of and orientation toward the homeland, a sense of group identity, and often a myth of return (e.g., Jewish, Indian, African diasporas).

15. Distinguish 'values', 'norms', and 'rules' in sociology.

    Values are abstract, shared standards of what is desirable/good; norms are specific rules of expected behaviour derived from values; rules are explicit, often formal prescriptions enforced by sanctions.

16. Differentiate folkways, mores, and laws (William Graham Sumner).

    Folkways = everyday customs/etiquette with weak sanctions; mores = morally significant norms with strong sanctions; laws = formally codified norms enforced by the state. Taboos are the strongest negative mores.

17. What is 'personhood' in social anthropology, contrasting Western and non-Western conceptions?

    Personhood is the culturally defined criteria for being a full social person. The Western model is the bounded, autonomous individual; Melanesian models (Marilyn Strathern) describe the 'dividual' - a person constituted by relationships.

18. Define Pierre Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus'.

    Habitus is a system of durable, transposable dispositions - internalized schemes of perception, thought and action acquired through socialization - that generate practices and reflect one's position in social structure.

19. What is 'agency' and how does the structure-agency debate frame it?

    Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and make free choices. The debate concerns how far action is determined by structures versus individual will. Giddens' structuration theory treats them as mutually constituting (duality of structure).

20. Summarize Max Weber's ideal-type model of bureaucracy.

    Hierarchy of offices, fixed written rules and records, division of labour/specialization, impersonality, appointment and promotion by merit/qualifications, and a salaried career. It exemplifies legal-rational authority and formal rationality.

21. State Weber's three types of legitimate authority.

    (1) Traditional - legitimacy from custom/inherited status; (2) Charismatic - based on exceptional personal qualities of a leader; (3) Legal-rational - based on legally enacted rules and offices.

22. How do Weber and Marx differ on 'power' and stratification?

    Weber: power is the probability of imposing one's will despite resistance, with class, status and party dimensions. Marx: power is rooted in ownership of the means of production - the economic base determines class domination.

23. What is Steven Lukes' three-dimensional ('three faces') view of power?

    (1) Decision-making power (who prevails in open conflict); (2) agenda-setting/non-decision-making power (keeping issues off the agenda); (3) ideological power (shaping people's very preferences and perceptions of interest).

24. Distinguish nuclear, joint/extended, and consanguineal vs conjugal families.

    Nuclear = parents and children; joint/extended = multiple generations or married siblings together; consanguineal family is built on blood ties, conjugal family on the marital bond.

25. Define endogamy, exogamy, hypergamy and hypogamy.

    Endogamy = marriage within one's group; exogamy = marriage outside one's group (e.g., gotra/village exogamy); hypergamy (anuloma) = woman marrying into a higher status; hypogamy (pratiloma) = woman marrying into a lower status.

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