Q.1 Who is considered the founder of ethnomethodology?
Émile Durkheim
Harold Garfinkel
Max Weber
Talcott Parsons
Explanation - Harold Garfinkel developed ethnomethodology in the 1960s to study the everyday methods people use to make sense of social life.
Correct answer is: Harold Garfinkel
Q.2 Ethnomethodology primarily focuses on:
Statistical patterns in society
Everyday social interactions
Historical events
Economic systems
Explanation - Ethnomethodology examines how people produce and maintain a shared social order through routine interactions.
Correct answer is: Everyday social interactions
Q.3 What research method is commonly associated with ethnomethodology?
Survey analysis
Ethnography
Conversation analysis
Experimental design
Explanation - Ethnomethodologists often use conversation analysis to study the structures and rules of everyday talk.
Correct answer is: Conversation analysis
Q.4 Ethnomethodology was developed as a critique of which sociological approach?
Functionalism
Marxism
Symbolic Interactionism
Postmodernism
Explanation - Garfinkel challenged functionalism’s abstract concepts and emphasized the practical methods people use in everyday life.
Correct answer is: Functionalism
Q.5 Which term best describes the 'methods' studied in ethnomethodology?
Formal rules
Cultural norms
Practical reasoning
Legal codes
Explanation - Ethnomethodology investigates the unspoken, practical reasoning people use to understand and produce social order.
Correct answer is: Practical reasoning
Q.6 What is a key concept in ethnomethodology that refers to breaking social norms to reveal underlying rules?
Deviance
Breaching experiments
Role conflict
Anomie
Explanation - Garfinkel used breaching experiments to intentionally disrupt social norms and observe how people restore order.
Correct answer is: Breaching experiments
Q.7 Ethnomethodology primarily examines social life at which level?
Macro
Meso
Micro
Global
Explanation - It focuses on small-scale, everyday interactions rather than large societal structures.
Correct answer is: Micro
Q.8 Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of ethnomethodology?
Focus on everyday practices
Interest in social norms
Reliance on statistical surveys
Use of breaching experiments
Explanation - Ethnomethodology emphasizes qualitative methods rather than quantitative survey research.
Correct answer is: Reliance on statistical surveys
Q.9 In ethnomethodology, 'accounts' refer to:
Official government reports
Explanations people give for their actions
Historical records
Legal documents
Explanation - Accounts are the ways people describe and justify their social actions to make them understandable to others.
Correct answer is: Explanations people give for their actions
Q.10 Which approach is closely aligned with ethnomethodology?
Structural functionalism
Symbolic interactionism
Conflict theory
Critical theory
Explanation - Both focus on social interaction and meaning-making at the micro level, though ethnomethodology is more methodological.
Correct answer is: Symbolic interactionism
Q.11 What does ethnomethodology consider 'social order' to be?
Externally imposed by institutions
A product of everyday practices
Defined by laws
Fixed and unchangeable
Explanation - Social order emerges through the practical actions and interpretations of individuals in daily life.
Correct answer is: A product of everyday practices
Q.12 Ethnomethodologists believe that social reality is:
Objective and measurable
Constructed and maintained through interaction
Irrelevant to sociology
Defined by economic structures
Explanation - Social reality is seen as continuously produced through human practices, not as a fixed entity.
Correct answer is: Constructed and maintained through interaction
Q.13 Garfinkel’s work was inspired by which sociologist’s studies on social facts?
Max Weber
Émile Durkheim
Herbert Spencer
Georg Simmel
Explanation - Garfinkel built upon Durkheim's idea of social facts but shifted the focus to practical methods individuals use to make sense of them.
Correct answer is: Émile Durkheim
Q.14 The term 'indexicality' in ethnomethodology refers to:
Social hierarchies
Context-dependent meaning
Legal indexing
Statistical correlation
Explanation - Indexicality means that the meaning of an utterance or action depends on its specific social context.
Correct answer is: Context-dependent meaning
Q.15 Which method would an ethnomethodologist most likely use to study a classroom?
Questionnaire survey
Participant observation
Statistical analysis
Content analysis
Explanation - Direct observation of interactions helps understand how participants construct social order in real-time.
Correct answer is: Participant observation
Q.16 According to ethnomethodology, rules of social interaction are:
Explicitly written
Learned and applied unconsciously
Irrelevant
Determined by government
Explanation - Most social rules are tacit and followed without explicit awareness, becoming visible through breaching experiments.
Correct answer is: Learned and applied unconsciously
Q.17 Which of the following is a criticism of ethnomethodology?
Too focused on macro structures
Neglects everyday interaction
Overly descriptive and non-theoretical
Relies on quantitative data
Explanation - Critics argue ethnomethodology describes social practices well but often lacks broad theoretical frameworks.
Correct answer is: Overly descriptive and non-theoretical
Q.18 Ethnomethodology emerged in which decade?
1920s
1940s
1960s
1980s
Explanation - Harold Garfinkel formally introduced ethnomethodology in the 1960s.
Correct answer is: 1960s
Q.19 In breaching experiments, participants typically:
Follow social rules strictly
Violate social norms to observe reactions
Collect survey data
Analyze statistical trends
Explanation - The goal is to reveal the often invisible methods people use to maintain social order.
Correct answer is: Violate social norms to observe reactions
Q.20 Ethnomethodology is most concerned with:
Societal institutions
Individual subjective experiences
Quantitative metrics
Government policies
Explanation - It examines how individuals understand and produce social order through their everyday activities.
Correct answer is: Individual subjective experiences
Q.21 Which of the following best illustrates an ethnomethodological study?
Analyzing voting patterns
Observing how people queue at a supermarket
Studying GDP growth
Examining legal statutes
Explanation - This study focuses on everyday practices and the methods people use to coordinate actions.
Correct answer is: Observing how people queue at a supermarket
Q.22 Ethnomethodology challenges the idea that social norms are:
Learned
Explicitly codified
Practiced daily
Subject to interpretation
Explanation - It emphasizes that social norms are mostly implicit and maintained through practice rather than formal rules.
Correct answer is: Explicitly codified
Q.23 Which phrase captures the essence of ethnomethodology?
Society shapes individuals
Individuals produce society
Social classes determine behavior
Institutions control norms
Explanation - Ethnomethodology views society as continuously created by individuals through everyday practices.
Correct answer is: Individuals produce society
Q.24 Ethnomethodologists are interested in the 'seen but unnoticed' aspects of social life. What does this mean?
Obvious laws and rules
Subtle, taken-for-granted social practices
Economic policies
Historical events
Explanation - They study the unnoticed, routine behaviors that make social life intelligible.
Correct answer is: Subtle, taken-for-granted social practices
Q.25 Which of the following is a goal of ethnomethodology?
Predicting social behavior statistically
Revealing the methods people use to create social order
Evaluating economic inequality
Designing social policies
Explanation - The central aim is to uncover how social order is practically produced in everyday interactions.
Correct answer is: Revealing the methods people use to create social order