1,800+ MCAT terms, defined.

An out-group is a social group a person does not belong to or identify with, in contrast to their in-group. People tend to favor the in-group and judge the out-group more negatively, and often see out-group members as more alike than in-...

Agents of socialization are the groups and institutions that teach people the norms, values, and roles of their society. The main ones are family, peers, school, mass media, and religion. The MCAT often asks you to match a scenario to th...

In labeling theory, secondary deviance is continued rule-breaking after a person is labeled deviant and adopts that label as part of their identity. Primary deviance is the initial act. The testable point: in this account, society's reac...

Agents of socialization are the groups and institutions through which people learn the norms, values, language, and roles of their society. The main ones are family, peers, school, mass media, and religion; family is usually the primary...

Collective behaviour is relatively spontaneous, unstructured action by a large group, such as a crowd, panic, riot, or fad, not guided by established institutional norms. The MCAT tests three explanations: contagion, convergence, and eme...

The dependency ratio compares people usually presumed too young or too old to work (under 15 and 65 and over) with working-age people (about 15–64). It is based on age alone, and a high value can come from many children or many older adu...

Gender as a social construct means the roles, behaviors, and meanings a society attaches to being male, female, or another gender are created and taught by that society, not set by biology alone. Sex is biological; gender norms vary acro...

A dyad is a social group of exactly two people, the smallest possible group (a point from Georg Simmel). Dyads tend to be intense and intimate but fragile, because the group ends if either member leaves. Contrast this with a triad, which...

An achieved status is a social position a person earns or acquires through effort, choice, or merit, such as physician, spouse, or college graduate. It contrasts with ascribed status, which is assigned at birth or involuntarily. The key...

Ascribed status is a social position a person is given by birth or by others, not one chosen or earned. Examples are sex, race, age and family of origin. The testable contrast is with achieved status, which comes from effort or choice, s...

Past-in-present discrimination is indirect institutional discrimination in which a current rule, neutral in intent, carries forward the effects of earlier discrimination. Testable point: unequal outcomes can persist without present preju...

Emotional support is a type of social support in which others give empathy, comfort, love, trust, and caring, so a person feels valued and understood. The testable point is telling it apart from esteem, informational, and tangible (instr...

An informal sanction is an unofficial reward or punishment (praise, a stare, ridicule, gossip, shunning) that peers, family or community give in response to following or breaking a norm. The testable point is that it is not codified or a...

Manifest functions are the intended, openly recognized consequences of a social institution or practice, a concept from functionalism tied to Robert Merton. They contrast with latent functions, which are unintended and unrecognized. To c...

Goal displacement is when an organization, often a bureaucracy, treats its rules and procedures as ends in themselves, so its original purpose is neglected. The testable point: rigid rule-following, or the organization's own survival, ta...

Informal norms are unwritten, shared expectations for behavior, learned through socialization and usually enforced by peers through stares, gossip, or exclusion. The key contrast is with formal norms, which are written down and enforced...

Prevalence is the proportion of a population that has a condition at a given time or over a period, counting both new and existing cases. The key test point is that it differs from incidence, which counts only new cases, so recovery or d...

Activity theory is a sociological theory of aging holding that older adults who stay active and keep their social roles, or replace lost ones, tend to have greater life satisfaction. It is the usual contrast to disengagement theory, whic...