Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC)

Preliminary Examination Syllabus - Sociology

Unit I : Basic Concepts :

Society, community, association, institution, Culture—culture change, diffusion, Cultural—

tag, Cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, acculturation.

Social Groups—primary, secondary and reference groups.

Social structure, social system, social action.

Status and role, role conflict, role set.

Norms and values—conformity and deviance, Law and customs.

Socio-cultural processes :

socialisation, assimilation, integration, cooperation, competition, conflict, accommodation,

social distance, relative deprivation.

Unit II : Marriage, Family and Kinship :

Marriage : types and forms, marriage as contract, and as a sacrament.

Family : types, functions and changes.

Kinship : terms and usages, rules of residence, descent, inheritance.

Unit III : Social Stratification :

Forms and functions; Caste and Class. Jajmani system, purity and pollution, dominant caste,

sanskritisation.

Unit IV : Types of Society :

Tribal, agrarian, industrial and post-industrial.

Unit V : Economy and Society :

Man, nature and social production, economic systems of simple and complex societies, noneconomic determinants of economic behaviour, market (free) economy and controlled (planned) economy.

Unit VI : Industrial and Urban Society :

Rural—Urban Continuum, urban growth and urbanisation—town, city and metropolis; basic features of industrial society; impact of automation of society; industrialisation and environment.

Unit VII : Social Demography :

Population size, growth, composition and distribution in India; components of population growth—births, deaths and migration; causes and consequences of population growth; population and social development; population policy.

Unit VIII : Political Processes :

Power, authority and legitimacy; political socialisation; political modernisation, pressure groups; caste and politics.

Unit IX : Weaker Sections and Minorities :

Social justice—equal opportunity and special opportunity; protective discrimination; constitutional safeguards.

Unit X : Social Change :

Theories of change; factors of change; science, technology and change. Social movements—

Peasant Movement, Women’s Movement, Backward Caste Movement, Dalit Movement.

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Courtesy : ppsc.gov.in