4.2.5.4 Social groups and religious and spiritual movements Quiz: AQA Sociology, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. Which social group in Britain is typically found to report higher levels of religious participation than men in surveys and attendance data?

   • Men aged between 18 and 25, who are consistently the most frequent attenders at every type of religious service
   • Men in professional occupations, who report higher religious participation than any other group in the population
   • Women
   • People with no educational qualifications, who are the only group that consistently attends religious services

2. Which concept, associated with Max Weber, explains why less privileged groups may be drawn to religious movements that promise compensation in an afterlife or a future reward?

   • Protestant ethic, which explains how disciplined work and saving were encouraged by Calvinist beliefs in predestination
   • Charisma, which explains how a leader's personal qualities can attract followers to a new religious movement
   • Theodicy of disprivilege
   • Theodicy of privilege, which explains why privileged groups see their wealth as a sign of divine favour and moral worth

3. Which religion is the largest among British residents of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage?

   • Sikhism, which is the largest religion among British residents of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage in most cities
   • Islam
   • Hinduism, which is the largest religion among British residents of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage in most regions
   • Christianity, which is the largest religion among British residents of Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage in every age group

4. Why might religion be important for ethnic identity among some minority groups, according to sociologists?

   • Religious institutions can provide a sense of belonging, cultural continuity and a base for community organisation in a host society
   • Religion is always imposed on minority groups by the majority, so minority communities never choose their own faiths
   • Religion is valued only for its economic benefits, so it has no relation to culture, belonging or community life
   • Religion has no link to ethnic identity, because ethnicity is determined only by where a person is born and their skin colour

5. Which social group is most likely to report that they are 'spiritual but not religious'?

   • People who attend a church every week, who are the most likely group to say they are not religious at all
   • Younger adults and those with higher levels of education in many surveys
   • People in rural villages with no internet access, who are the most likely to describe themselves in these terms
   • Adults aged over 85, who are the most likely group to describe themselves in these terms in national surveys

6. What is meant by the 'individualisation' of religion, as it relates to social groups and spiritual movements?

   • A shift toward collective obedience to a single religious leader, who decides the beliefs of all members in every area
   • A shift toward mass conversion of entire communities, so that religious identity becomes fixed by family membership
   • A shift toward state control of religious practice, which means that all believers must register their faith with a government office
   • A shift toward personal choice, self-directed belief and private spiritual practice, rather than adherence to a fixed institution

7. Which factor is associated with the growth of religious movements among some ethnic minority groups in the UK?

   • Religious movements that require all members to live in the same city, which restricts their numbers in any one area
   • Religious communities that provide social support, language, and networks that help members adjust to life in a new country
   • Religious movements that charge all members a fixed annual fee, which makes membership unaffordable for most minority groups
   • Religious movements that are banned by the government for their minority members, which forces members to join new groups

8. Which pattern is commonly reported for Black Pentecostal and charismatic churches in the UK?

   • They have attracted mainly members who are over 80 years of age, who form the core of their congregations across the UK
   • They have attracted mainly members of white upper-class families, who see them as an alternative to the national church
   • They have attracted many members of Black Caribbean and African heritage and provided a focus for community life
   • They have attracted mainly members who are employed in government posts, which provides funding for their activities

9. Which concept describes the way that religious identity can become a basis for political mobilisation among social groups?

   • Religious identity politics, in which religious groups mobilise around shared interests and demands
   • Secularisation, which describes the decline of religious influence on public life and the growth of rational institutions
   • Disenchantment, which describes the removal of magic and mystery from the world as rationalisation spreads
   • Anomie, which describes the breakdown of social norms that leaves individuals without clear guidance about behaviour

10. Which social group is most likely to attend religious services less often than others in Britain, according to general survey patterns?

    • Young adults in their twenties
    • Pensioners living in urban areas, who form the most regular attending group in the national church membership
    • Older women over the age of 75, who attend services more frequently than every other age and gender group
    • Parents of school-age children in rural areas, who attend services more frequently than any other group in the country

11. Why might class position be linked to the type of religious organisation people join, according to some sociologists?

    • Class shapes access to resources, networks and cultural expectations, which can influence the religious groups people find attractive
    • Class is decided by religious membership alone, so a person's religion always fixes their position on the social scale
    • Class determines religious belief completely, so people in each class always belong to exactly one religious group for life
    • Class has no relation to religious organisation, because people choose religious groups entirely at random from the local list

12. Which conclusion best follows from data showing that women are more likely than men to be involved in religious activity?

    • Gender may shape religious participation through caring roles, socialisation and different access to religious leadership
    • Women are naturally more religious than men, which shows that gender is a fixed biological cause of religious belief
    • Gender has no relationship to religious participation, so the difference must be caused by random survey error
    • Men are naturally more spiritual than women, which shows that religious practice is a male activity by biological nature

13. Which factor is most likely to explain the decline of religious participation among some younger generations?

    • Stronger legal requirements that compel all young people to join religious organisations as members of a national church
    • Growing numbers of religious leaders who have stopped preaching in every area of the country at the same time
    • Greater public funding for religious organisations, which has made them less attractive to young people in every city
    • Changes in family life, education and lifestyle that reduce the place of religious institutions in everyday routines

14. Which survey measure captures how important religion is to a person's daily life, separately from their membership or attendance?

    • Self-rated religiosity, such as how important the person says religion is to them
    • The amount of money the respondent donated to charity during the previous calendar year, in pounds
    • The number of years the respondent has lived at their current address, as recorded in the census
    • The number of religious buildings within a mile of the respondent's home, as recorded by the local council

15. Evaluate the claim that social group membership fully determines a person's religious beliefs.

    • The claim is fully proven, because every member of a social group holds exactly the same religious beliefs at all times
    • The claim overlooks individual choice, life course changes and diversity within groups, so group membership is only one factor
    • The claim is confirmed by the fact that religious belief is always inherited from parents without any change in later life
    • The claim is irrelevant, because religious beliefs are never influenced by any social group membership or social position at any point

16. Which conclusion best follows from the view that religious and spiritual movements are shaped by social groups?

    • Religious movements are independent of social structure, so the groups that join them can be explained by personal character alone
    • Religious movements are identical across all groups, so there is no need to study how social position affects them
    • Patterns of religious belief and participation can be explained partly by the social position, identity and experience of different groups
    • Religious movements are shaped only by government policy, so the social groups within them have no independent influence

17. Why might minority ethnic groups in Britain form their own religious congregations?

    • To maintain language, customs and community support, and to provide worship that reflects their own heritage
    • To avoid paying taxes on their property, which is a legal privilege granted only to minority religious congregations in Britain
    • To earn high incomes from donations, because minority congregations receive larger state grants than other religious groups
    • To escape all contact with the wider society, because minority members are forbidden by law from attending mainstream churches

18. Which pattern describes people who identify with a faith for cultural reasons but attend services only at key life events?

    • Complete religious disengagement, in which people have no contact with any tradition, not even through family celebrations
    • Monastic withdrawal, in which people join a religious order and take vows that require silence and separation from the world
    • Cultural religious identity, in which belonging is maintained through family traditions and occasional attendance
    • Strict religious practice, in which people attend services every week but report no religious identity when asked in a survey

19. Which factor is most associated with higher participation in religious organisations among older adults?

    • Stronger social networks and a sense of community, which religious groups often provide to their members
    • Higher incomes, which allow older people to pay the membership fees that religious groups charge all of their members
    • Better health, which allows older people to travel further to religious services in larger cities on a weekly basis
    • Lower levels of social contact, which leads older people to seek religious organisations as a substitute for lost friendships

20. Which life change is most often linked to a change in religious affiliation during adult life?

    • Reaching retirement age, which requires pensioners by law to adopt the religion of their local council each year
    • Receiving a large inheritance, which removes the need for any belief system and so encourages a move away from faith
    • Major life transitions such as marriage, migration or a personal crisis, which can prompt a search for new meaning
    • Having children at school, which requires parents to change religion to qualify for places at state-funded schools

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