Sociology is about a third of the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section, and it rewards recognizing named theories and terms and applying them to a scenario. This overview organizes the sociology you need — the theoretical perspectives, social structure, inequality, and demographic change — so the vocabulary sticks.
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check_circleSociology is roughly 30 percent of the Psych/Soc section; questions test whether you can apply a named concept to a described situation.
check_circleThe four theoretical perspectives — functionalism, conflict theory, symbolic interactionism, and social constructionism — frame most of the material.
check_circleSocial structure covers institutions, status and roles, networks, and organizations such as bureaucracies.
check_circleSocial inequality — class, race, and gender stratification and social mobility — is a heavily tested cluster with strong ties to health disparities.
check_circleDemography and social change connect population trends to the forces that reshape societies.
Theoretical Perspectives
Four perspectives recur throughout MCAT sociology. Functionalism (Durkheim) views society as interdependent parts that maintain stability; conflict theory (Marx) sees competition over scarce resources and power; symbolic interactionism (Mead) focuses on the meanings people create through everyday interaction; and social constructionism holds that much of reality is built and maintained socially. Being able to match a scenario to the perspective that explains it is a common question type.
Social Structure and Institutions
Social structure is the patterned organization of society. Key concepts include statuses (ascribed vs achieved) and the roles attached to them, social networks, groups, and formal organizations — especially bureaucracies and the idea of rationalization. The major institutions — family, education, religion, government, the economy, and medicine — socialize members and distribute resources, and the medicalization of social problems is a frequently tested idea.
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Watch the belief–attitude–action chain: a stereotype is a belief, prejudice is an attitude, and discrimination is the action — questions often hinge on that distinction.
Social Inequality
Stratification is how societies rank groups and distribute resources unequally. Understand social class, caste, and meritocracy, and the difference between absolute and relative poverty. Inequality by race, ethnicity, and gender, along with intragenerational and intergenerational social mobility, produces measurable disparities — including the socioeconomic gradient in health, where lower status predicts worse outcomes. Concepts such as social capital, cultural capital, and the sick role recur here.
Demographics and Social Change
Demography studies population structure and change through fertility, mortality, and migration, often visualized with population pyramids and the demographic transition model. Social change is driven by social movements, globalization, and urbanization, and theories such as Malthusian population dynamics appear in passages. Culture — material and symbolic — and the norms (folkways, mores, and taboos), values, and processes of socialization that transmit it round out the section.
Straight from the Progress Note question bank, each with a cited explanation. No account needed.
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A factory worker's child earns a graduate degree and becomes a corporate executive, moving to a much higher social class than their parents held. In sociology, this upward change in social position is an example of...
Answer: D. Vertical social mobility is movement up or down the social hierarchy to a different class position; the child rising from a working-class background to an executive role illustrates upward vertical mobility. Horizontal mobility (A) is moving to a different occupation at the SAME social level, a caste system (B) and a closed stratification system (E) actually prevent such movement between classes, and status inconsistency (C) is occupying positions ranked differently on different dimensions of status. Moving to a higher social class than one's parents is upward vertical mobility.
A loosely organized but sustained collective effort by many people to promote or resist social change — such as a civil-rights or environmental movement — is best described in sociology as a...
Answer: E. A social movement is a sustained, organized collective effort by a large number of people to bring about or resist social change, as seen in civil-rights, labor, or environmental movements. A fad (A) is a short-lived enthusiasm, a bureaucracy (B) is a formal hierarchical organization, a moral panic (C) is a wave of public concern over a perceived threat, and a primary group (D) is a small, intimate social group — none of which captures an organized, change-oriented collective effort. That is a social movement.
In sociology, the family, education, religion, and government are all examples of...
Answer: D. Social institutions are the established, organized systems of beliefs, norms, and practices that a society develops to meet its basic needs — such as the family, education, religion, the economy, and government. A social movement (A) is organized collective action for social change, a reference group (B) is one people compare themselves to, a subculture (C) is a group with distinct values within a larger culture, and an aggregate (E) is simply people who happen to be in the same place at the same time. Family, education, religion, and government are social institutions.
Source: Turner, J. H. (2010). Theoretical principles of sociology, Volume 1: Macrodynamics. Springer.
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Sociology is roughly 30 percent of the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section, with psychology making up about 65 percent and a small amount of biology of behavior. Sociology questions typically ask you to apply a named concept to a described scenario.
What are the main sociological theories on the MCAT?expand_more
Four perspectives dominate: functionalism (society as interdependent parts), conflict theory (competition over resources and power), symbolic interactionism (meaning built through interaction), and social constructionism (reality as socially built). Recognizing which one explains a scenario is a common question.
Why does sociology emphasize health disparities?expand_more
Because the MCAT is a medical-school exam, it stresses how social factors shape health. The socioeconomic gradient in health, access to care, medicalization, and the sick role connect sociological concepts directly to patient outcomes, making them high-yield.
How do I remember sociology terms for the MCAT?expand_more
Learn the distinctions between look-alike terms rather than definitions in isolation — for example stereotype (belief) versus prejudice (attitude) versus discrimination (action) — and practice applying each term to a scenario. Consolidate with the Psych/Soc rapid-review sheet.
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