Free MCAT-style practice, 9A
MCAT Culture and Institutions Practice Questions
Nine free MCAT-style practice questions on culture, cultural lag, countercultures, the sick role, medicalization, education, family, religion and government, with full explanations.
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Quick concept primer
Culture has two layers. Material culture is the physical objects a group makes and uses, such as tools, buildings and devices. Symbolic (nonmaterial) culture is the shared values, norms, beliefs, language and meanings attached to those objects. Culture spreads between groups by diffusion, passes to new generations by transmission, and when material change outruns the norms and rules that govern it, the gap is called cultural lag. A subculture keeps distinctive practices while accepting the main values of the wider society; a counterculture openly rejects them.
Social institutions are lasting patterns that meet basic needs: family, education, religion, government and economy, and medicine. Schools teach a hidden curriculum of punctuality and obedience alongside academic subjects. Weber described traditional, charismatic and rational-legal authority. Parsons's sick role gives the ill two rights (exemption from normal duties and freedom from blame) and two obligations (trying to get well and seeking competent help). Medicalization turns ordinary conditions into medical problems. The 9A pack adds flashcards and more practice on institutions, culture and sociological theory: see the 9A pack, or try the free sampler first.
Traps: a counterculture opposes core values, a subculture only differs from them. Cultural lag concerns norms trailing technology, not people moving between cultures. Seeking help is an obligation of the sick role, not a right.
9 practice questions
Question 1
Within two years, most clinics in a rural county start offering video visits with physicians. For the following decade, however, the state's licensing and insurance rules still assume that every visit happens in person, so many clinics cannot be paid for the video visits they provide. This gap is best described as:
- cultural diffusion.
- cultural lag.
- culture shock.
- cultural relativism.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. cultural lag.
Cultural lag is the delay between a change in material culture, here video visit technology, and the adjustment of the nonmaterial culture, here the rules and norms that govern it. Diffusion is the spread of culture between groups, culture shock is disorientation in an unfamiliar culture, and relativism is judging a culture by its own standards.
Question 2
Each of the following is an element of symbolic (nonmaterial) culture EXCEPT:
- a norm that guests remove their shoes before entering a home.
- the belief that a ring worn on a certain finger signals marriage.
- a language's set of words for different kinds of cousins.
- a smartphone that a family uses to send messages.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. a smartphone that a family uses to send messages.
A smartphone is a physical object, so it belongs to material culture. Norms about shoes, beliefs about what a ring means and the vocabulary of a language are shared ideas and meanings, which are all parts of symbolic or nonmaterial culture rather than physical artifacts.
Question 3
A rural community refuses to use money, rejects private ownership of land, educates its children outside the state school system and describes its rules as a deliberate challenge to the values of the surrounding society. This community is best described as a:
- subculture.
- reference group.
- counterculture.
- case of ethnocentrism.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. counterculture.
A counterculture actively opposes and rejects central norms and values of the dominant culture, as this community does with money, property and schooling. A subculture differs in some practices while accepting mainstream values, a reference group is a standard people compare themselves to, and ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by one's own.
Question 4
In Parsons's model of the sick role, which of the following is an obligation of the sick person rather than a right?
- Seeking technically competent help and cooperating with treatment
- Being exempted from usual work and school duties
- Not being held responsible for having become ill
- Receiving care regardless of ability to pay
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Seeking technically competent help and cooperating with treatment
Parsons listed two obligations, wanting to get well and seeking technically competent help while cooperating with it. Exemption from normal duties and freedom from blame are the two rights the role grants. Guaranteed care regardless of cost is a policy question that is not one of the four elements of the sick role.
Question 5
Over several decades, intense shyness in some countries comes to be widely described as a clinical disorder, with diagnostic criteria, specialist referrals and prescription drug treatment. This trend is an example of:
- demedicalization.
- secularization.
- medicalization.
- cultural diffusion.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. medicalization.
Medicalization is the process by which a condition or behavior once seen as an ordinary part of life becomes defined and treated as a medical problem. Demedicalization is the reverse, secularization is the declining social influence of religion, and diffusion is the spread of cultural traits between groups.
Question 6
A survey of adults in one fictional region produced these results:
| Survey year | Attend religious services weekly (%) | Report no religious affiliation (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 38 | 8 |
| 2005 | 31 | 14 |
| 2020 | 24 | 23 |
Which statement is best supported by the data?
- Weekly attendance in 2020 was about 37 percent lower than its 1990 level, a pattern consistent with secularization.
- Weekly attendance in 2020 was 14 percent lower than its 1990 level.
- The share reporting no affiliation rose by 15 percent from 1990 to 2020.
- The data show that rising education levels caused the decline in attendance.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Weekly attendance in 2020 was about 37 percent lower than its 1990 level, a pattern consistent with secularization.
Attendance fell from 38 to 24, a drop of 14 percentage points, and 14 divided by 38 is about 37 percent of the 1990 level. Choice B confuses points with percent, the unaffiliated share rose 15 points, which is about 188 percent, and the table contains no data on education or causation.
Question 7
A fictional town recorded the share of its households of each type:
| Household type | 1980 (%) | 2020 (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Married couple with children | 40 | 22 |
| Married couple without children | 30 | 29 |
| Single parent with children | 9 | 13 |
| One person living alone | 21 | 36 |
Which household type showed the largest increase in share, measured in percentage points?
- Married couple with children
- Married couple without children
- Single parent with children
- One person living alone
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. One person living alone
One-person households rose from 21 to 36 percent, a gain of 15 points, while single-parent households rose only 4 points. Married couples with children fell 18 points and couples without children fell 1 point, so neither of those two types increased at all.
Question 8
In an elementary school, children learn to line up when a bell rings, wait to be called on and accept the teacher's decisions without argument, even though no written lesson plan lists any of these as goals. Sociologists call this:
- the teacher expectancy effect.
- the hidden curriculum.
- credentialism.
- educational segregation.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. the hidden curriculum.
The hidden curriculum is the set of unwritten norms, such as punctuality, obedience and waiting one's turn, that schools teach alongside formal subjects. Teacher expectancy describes how teachers' beliefs shape student performance, credentialism is rising demand for degrees, and segregation is separation of students by group.
Question 9
Residents of a city follow the decisions of its council because council members were elected under a written charter and hold offices with defined powers that stay the same no matter who fills them. Weber would call this:
- charismatic authority.
- traditional authority.
- rational-legal authority.
- coercive power.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. rational-legal authority.
Rational-legal authority rests on written rules and on offices whose powers do not depend on the person holding them, as in this elected council. Charismatic authority rests on a leader's exceptional personal qualities, traditional authority on long-standing custom, and coercion on force rather than accepted legitimacy.
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