MCAT PSYCH/SOCIOLOGY EXAM 2025/2026 QUESTIONS
WITH SOLUTION GRADED A+
✔✔Religion as a social institution - ✔✔Acts as an organized structure of behaviors and
social interactions that addresses the spiritual needs of society. From a functionalist
standpoint, can create social cohesion/dissent, social change/control, and provide
believers with meaning and purpose.
✔✔Religion - ✔✔A system of beliefs that affects how people make sense of their
experiences and provides a framework for questions about life, death, and the purpose
of existence
✔✔Family as a social institution - ✔✔Creates a social group in which to procreate, rear
children, pass on cultural knowledge, and cooperate to better meet life's challenge
✔✔The nuclear family - ✔✔The concept of family in which one man and one woman live
together with their children; most common concept of family in the US. Consists of
DIRECT blood relations.
✔✔Polygamy - ✔✔An individual married to more than one individual
✔✔Polyandry - ✔✔More than one man married to one woman
✔✔Health/medicine as a social institution - ✔✔Fulfills the need for healthcare in an
organized manner, with beliefs about diseases and approaches to healing varying
between societies and cultures
✔✔Demographics - ✔✔Statistics used to examine the nature of a specific population by
quantifying subsets of that population. They are a statistical snapshot in time, and do
not capture the ever-changing nature of society.
✔✔Quantified demographic parameters include: - ✔✔Age, gender, nationality, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, SES, immigration status, education level
✔✔Demographic transition - ✔✔A demographic change that takes place over time
✔✔Fertility - ✔✔The production of offspring within a population
✔✔Cohort study - ✔✔Following a subset of a population over a lifetime
✔✔Period study - ✔✔Examining the number of offspring produced during a specific time
period
✔✔Mortality - ✔✔The death rate within a population.
,✔✔Migration - ✔✔The relocation of people from one place to another; influences
population size
✔✔Immigration - ✔✔The influx of new people to a specific area; increases population
size
✔✔Emigration - ✔✔The outflow of people to other areas; reduces population size
✔✔Social movement - ✔✔Group of people who share an ideology and work together
toward a specific set of goals
✔✔Urbanization - ✔✔Increase in the proportion of people living in specified urban
areas, due to industrialization
✔✔Globalization - ✔✔Increasing amount of interaction and integration on the
international scale through exchange of products, services, ideas and information
✔✔Social inequality - ✔✔The unequal distribution of opportunities or treatment of
individuals within a society based on various demographic categories
✔✔Spatial inequality - ✔✔Unequal access to resources and variable quantity of life
within a population or geographical distribution. Can be affected by income,
unemployment, and unequal access to resources. Influences health by affecting access
to healthcare
✔✔Environmental justice - ✔✔The equal treatment of all people regardless of race,
gender, or other social grouping with regard to prevention and relief from environmental
and health hazards
✔✔Residential segregation - ✔✔Instance of social inequality on the local scale, where
demographic groups are separated into different locations with unequal access to
resources
✔✔Food deserts - ✔✔Areas where it is difficult to find affordable, healthy food options.
More common in highly populated low-income urban neighborhoods where there are
fewer grocery stores/transportation options to seek out other food choices. Contribute to
obesity in these areas bc people resort to buying cheap, highly caloric foods
✔✔Social class - ✔✔System of stratification that groups members of society according
to similarities in social standing. Multifaceted, and tied to status within a community and
power
✔✔Power - ✔✔Influence over a community
,✔✔People in higher social class tend to have more: - ✔✔Power, Privilege, and Prestige
✔✔Socioeconomic status (SES) - ✔✔Defines the economic and social position of a
person in terms of income, wealth, education, and occupation
✔✔Income vs wealth - ✔✔Income is assets EARNED while wealth is assets already
OWNED.
✔✔Prestige - ✔✔the relative value assigned to something within a particular society
✔✔White-collar work - ✔✔Jobs that are professional, administrative, or managerial in
nature; defines the middle class
✔✔Blue-collar work - ✔✔Occupations that require skilled or unskilled manual labor
✔✔Caste system - ✔✔Hierarchy of society is strictly defined, position is inherited, and
movement or marriage between castes is prohibited
✔✔Upward mobility - ✔✔The movement of an individual up the class hierarchy.
Achieved through education, marriage, career, or financial success
✔✔Downward mobility - ✔✔The movement of an individual down the class hierarchy.
Due to unemployment, underemployment, reduced household income, lack of
education, or health issues
✔✔Intragenerational mobility - ✔✔Movement of a young person from a lower social
class to a higher social class through merit (achieving the "American dream")
✔✔Intergenerational mobility - ✔✔Movement through the class system between
generations (old generation is poor/rich, sets up environment for new generation to
become rich/poor)
✔✔Meritocracy - ✔✔Society in which advancement is based solely on the abilities and
achievements of the individual
✔✔Cultural capital - ✔✔The set of non-monetary social factors that contribute to social
mobility. Examples include dress, accent, vernacular, manners, education, cultural
knowledge, intellectual pursits
✔✔Social capital - ✔✔An individual's social networks and connects that may confer
economic or personal benefits
, ✔✔Social reproduction - ✔✔Transmission of social inequality from one generation to
the next
✔✔Poverty - ✔✔an insufficiency of material goods, monetary wealth, and access to
resources
✔✔Isolation - ✔✔Also known as social exclusion. Describes how impoverished people
are often excluded from opportunities available to others.
✔✔Absolute poverty - ✔✔Lack of essential resources (food, shelter, clothing, hygiene).
More extreme form of poverty
✔✔Relative poverty - ✔✔Social inequality in which people are relatively poor compared
to other members of society in which they live
✔✔Health disparity - ✔✔Aka health inequity. Differences in health and healthcare that
occur between groups of people
✔✔Sociology - ✔✔The study of how individuals interact with, shape, and are
subsequently shaped by the society in which they live. Attempts to understand the
behavior of GROUPS.
✔✔Emile Durkheim - ✔✔-Father of sociology, pioneer of modern social research and
established the field as separate and distinct from psychology and politics
-Major proponent of functionalism
-Argued that modern society was more complex than primitive societies because they
were all similar, shared a common language. Even when people were dissimilar, they
relied on each other to make society function.
✔✔Dynamic equilibrium - ✔✔Aspect of functionalism. Complex societies contain many
different but interdependent parts working together to maintain stability. Unhealthy cites
are unable to maintain this.
✔✔Social facts - ✔✔The elements that serve some function in society, such as the
laws, morals, values, religions, customs, rituals, and rules that make up a society.
✔✔Manifest functions - ✔✔Intended and obvious consequences of a social structure
✔✔Latent functions - ✔✔Unintended or less recognizable consequence of a social
structure. Can be considered beneficial, neutral, or harmful
✔✔Social dysfunction - ✔✔Social process that has undesirable consequences,
reducing the stability of society
WITH SOLUTION GRADED A+
✔✔Religion as a social institution - ✔✔Acts as an organized structure of behaviors and
social interactions that addresses the spiritual needs of society. From a functionalist
standpoint, can create social cohesion/dissent, social change/control, and provide
believers with meaning and purpose.
✔✔Religion - ✔✔A system of beliefs that affects how people make sense of their
experiences and provides a framework for questions about life, death, and the purpose
of existence
✔✔Family as a social institution - ✔✔Creates a social group in which to procreate, rear
children, pass on cultural knowledge, and cooperate to better meet life's challenge
✔✔The nuclear family - ✔✔The concept of family in which one man and one woman live
together with their children; most common concept of family in the US. Consists of
DIRECT blood relations.
✔✔Polygamy - ✔✔An individual married to more than one individual
✔✔Polyandry - ✔✔More than one man married to one woman
✔✔Health/medicine as a social institution - ✔✔Fulfills the need for healthcare in an
organized manner, with beliefs about diseases and approaches to healing varying
between societies and cultures
✔✔Demographics - ✔✔Statistics used to examine the nature of a specific population by
quantifying subsets of that population. They are a statistical snapshot in time, and do
not capture the ever-changing nature of society.
✔✔Quantified demographic parameters include: - ✔✔Age, gender, nationality, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, SES, immigration status, education level
✔✔Demographic transition - ✔✔A demographic change that takes place over time
✔✔Fertility - ✔✔The production of offspring within a population
✔✔Cohort study - ✔✔Following a subset of a population over a lifetime
✔✔Period study - ✔✔Examining the number of offspring produced during a specific time
period
✔✔Mortality - ✔✔The death rate within a population.
,✔✔Migration - ✔✔The relocation of people from one place to another; influences
population size
✔✔Immigration - ✔✔The influx of new people to a specific area; increases population
size
✔✔Emigration - ✔✔The outflow of people to other areas; reduces population size
✔✔Social movement - ✔✔Group of people who share an ideology and work together
toward a specific set of goals
✔✔Urbanization - ✔✔Increase in the proportion of people living in specified urban
areas, due to industrialization
✔✔Globalization - ✔✔Increasing amount of interaction and integration on the
international scale through exchange of products, services, ideas and information
✔✔Social inequality - ✔✔The unequal distribution of opportunities or treatment of
individuals within a society based on various demographic categories
✔✔Spatial inequality - ✔✔Unequal access to resources and variable quantity of life
within a population or geographical distribution. Can be affected by income,
unemployment, and unequal access to resources. Influences health by affecting access
to healthcare
✔✔Environmental justice - ✔✔The equal treatment of all people regardless of race,
gender, or other social grouping with regard to prevention and relief from environmental
and health hazards
✔✔Residential segregation - ✔✔Instance of social inequality on the local scale, where
demographic groups are separated into different locations with unequal access to
resources
✔✔Food deserts - ✔✔Areas where it is difficult to find affordable, healthy food options.
More common in highly populated low-income urban neighborhoods where there are
fewer grocery stores/transportation options to seek out other food choices. Contribute to
obesity in these areas bc people resort to buying cheap, highly caloric foods
✔✔Social class - ✔✔System of stratification that groups members of society according
to similarities in social standing. Multifaceted, and tied to status within a community and
power
✔✔Power - ✔✔Influence over a community
,✔✔People in higher social class tend to have more: - ✔✔Power, Privilege, and Prestige
✔✔Socioeconomic status (SES) - ✔✔Defines the economic and social position of a
person in terms of income, wealth, education, and occupation
✔✔Income vs wealth - ✔✔Income is assets EARNED while wealth is assets already
OWNED.
✔✔Prestige - ✔✔the relative value assigned to something within a particular society
✔✔White-collar work - ✔✔Jobs that are professional, administrative, or managerial in
nature; defines the middle class
✔✔Blue-collar work - ✔✔Occupations that require skilled or unskilled manual labor
✔✔Caste system - ✔✔Hierarchy of society is strictly defined, position is inherited, and
movement or marriage between castes is prohibited
✔✔Upward mobility - ✔✔The movement of an individual up the class hierarchy.
Achieved through education, marriage, career, or financial success
✔✔Downward mobility - ✔✔The movement of an individual down the class hierarchy.
Due to unemployment, underemployment, reduced household income, lack of
education, or health issues
✔✔Intragenerational mobility - ✔✔Movement of a young person from a lower social
class to a higher social class through merit (achieving the "American dream")
✔✔Intergenerational mobility - ✔✔Movement through the class system between
generations (old generation is poor/rich, sets up environment for new generation to
become rich/poor)
✔✔Meritocracy - ✔✔Society in which advancement is based solely on the abilities and
achievements of the individual
✔✔Cultural capital - ✔✔The set of non-monetary social factors that contribute to social
mobility. Examples include dress, accent, vernacular, manners, education, cultural
knowledge, intellectual pursits
✔✔Social capital - ✔✔An individual's social networks and connects that may confer
economic or personal benefits
, ✔✔Social reproduction - ✔✔Transmission of social inequality from one generation to
the next
✔✔Poverty - ✔✔an insufficiency of material goods, monetary wealth, and access to
resources
✔✔Isolation - ✔✔Also known as social exclusion. Describes how impoverished people
are often excluded from opportunities available to others.
✔✔Absolute poverty - ✔✔Lack of essential resources (food, shelter, clothing, hygiene).
More extreme form of poverty
✔✔Relative poverty - ✔✔Social inequality in which people are relatively poor compared
to other members of society in which they live
✔✔Health disparity - ✔✔Aka health inequity. Differences in health and healthcare that
occur between groups of people
✔✔Sociology - ✔✔The study of how individuals interact with, shape, and are
subsequently shaped by the society in which they live. Attempts to understand the
behavior of GROUPS.
✔✔Emile Durkheim - ✔✔-Father of sociology, pioneer of modern social research and
established the field as separate and distinct from psychology and politics
-Major proponent of functionalism
-Argued that modern society was more complex than primitive societies because they
were all similar, shared a common language. Even when people were dissimilar, they
relied on each other to make society function.
✔✔Dynamic equilibrium - ✔✔Aspect of functionalism. Complex societies contain many
different but interdependent parts working together to maintain stability. Unhealthy cites
are unable to maintain this.
✔✔Social facts - ✔✔The elements that serve some function in society, such as the
laws, morals, values, religions, customs, rituals, and rules that make up a society.
✔✔Manifest functions - ✔✔Intended and obvious consequences of a social structure
✔✔Latent functions - ✔✔Unintended or less recognizable consequence of a social
structure. Can be considered beneficial, neutral, or harmful
✔✔Social dysfunction - ✔✔Social process that has undesirable consequences,
reducing the stability of society
