The term that describes the distance between older and younger generation:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Generation Gap
Note 1: The given answer is as per the official NTA Answer Key. However, Option (2) can also be considered correct, as explained below.
Option (1) Generation structure — Incorrect. This phrase would describe how the generations are arranged in a family or society, not the distance between them.
Option (2) Inter generation Gap — Can also be considered correct. A gap between generations is just what ‘generation gap’ means; the option only adds ‘inter’ (between) to the same term.
Option (3) Generation Gap — Correct as per NTA. The ‘generation gap’ is the friction between older and younger generations. C. Wright Mills’s idea helps here: a young person’s quarrel with the elders at home looks like a ‘personal trouble’, but the generation gap is a social issue, common to many societies and many periods.
Option (4) Generation Similarity — Incorrect. Similarity between generations is the opposite of a distance between them.
Note 2: The line that gives the ‘generation gap’ or friction between older and younger generations as an example of a social issue, in the chapter ‘Introducing Indian Society’, was there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023. This line has been deleted from the NCERT book (2025-26), though the chapter is still there with C. Wright Mills’s ‘personal troubles’ and ‘social issues’.
NCERT (2025-26): “…But sociology can do more than simply help to locate you or others in this simple sense of describing the places of different social groups. As C.Wright Mills, a well-known American sociologist has written, sociology can help you to map the links and connections between ‘personal troubles’ and ‘social issues’. By personal troubles Mills means the kinds of individual worries, problems or concerns that everyone has. So, for example, you may be unhappy about the way elders in your family treat you or how your brothers, sisters or friends treat you. You may be worried about your future and what sort of job you might get. Other aspects of your individual identity may be sources of pride, tension, confidence or embarrassment in different ways. But all of these are about one person and derive meaning from this personalised perspective. A social issue, on the other hand, is about large groups and not about the individuals who make them up.…” NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “…A social issue, on the other hand, is about large groups and not about the individuals who make them up. Thus, the ‘generation gap’ or friction between older and younger generations is a social phenomenon, common to many societies and many time periods. Unemployment or the effects of a changing occupational structure is also a societal issue, that concerns millions of different kinds of people.…” |