Sociology is the study of modern society, or the way people act in groups. For the MAT (Miller Analogies Test), you’ll need to become familiar with a bunch of sociology terms you may not know, along with a few important figures from the field.
Sociology terms that appear on the MAT test
Brush up on your knowledge of sociology by studying these terms and their definitions.
Action theory: Talcott Parsons’s belief that social science must consider people’s motives when studying their actions
Adoption: Legal process in which the parenting rights and responsibilities are transferred from one person to another
Affirmative action: Policies that benefit minorities or special interest groups in business or education
Antipositivism: The belief that social sciences are not subject to the same methods of understanding as the natural sciences
Antisemitism: Discrimination against Jews
Assimilation: Process by which minorities and immigrants become part of the dominant culture
Black Power: Slogan for ideologies promoting the collective interests of blacks
Cohabitation: An unmarried male and female living together
Cultural relativism: The belief of Franz Boas that civilization is relative, not absolute, and that there is not a relationship between culture and race
Demography: The study of living populations
Diffusion: The process of how innovations spread within an organization or social group
Endogamy: Practice of marrying only a person of a certain group or class
Functionalism: View that society’s parts work together to create stability
Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft: Translated as “ community and society” are two normal types of human association according to Ferdinand Tönnies
Gentrification: High-income people acquiring property in low-income areas, as a result of which property values increase and lower-income residents are displaced
Hidden curriculum: Lessons learned in the classroom that were not intentionally taught
Institutional racism: System of inequality based on race
Labeling theory: Tendency of majorities to label minorities with a word or phrase
Macrostructure: Large-scale organization of society
Norm: Guideline that determines behavior of society
Overchoice (AKA choice overload): The problem of consumers having too many choices, this can lead to a consumer making a poor choice or no choice at all
Ponerology: Study of social injustice
Positivism: The belief that in the social and natural sciences the only valid truth is scientific truth
Role homogeneity: Multiple community roles performed by one individual
Scapegoat: A person or group that is singled out to receive unwarranted blame
Social capital: The collective benefits resulting from social cooperation between people or groups
Social stigma: Disapproval of someone who differs from social norms
Tertius gaudens: One person gaining from a disagreement between two others
Underclass: The lowest position in a social hierarchy
Vertical mobility: A person’s movement up or down the social-status ladder
Xenocentrism: Preference for products and ideas from another culture, this is the opposite of ethnocentrism
Xenophobia: A fear of people or things from a different culture
Important figures in the field of sociology
The following lists important people in the field of sociology that you should familiarize yourself with before taking the MAT.
Barzun, Jacques: American historian who studied culture
Coleman, James: American sociologist who defined social capital
Comte, Auguste: A founder of sociology and positivism
DuBois, W. E. B.: American sociologist who cofounded the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Durkheim, Émile: French father of sociology
Parsons, Talcott: American sociologist who developed action theory
Simmel, Georg: German sociologist and founder of antipositivism
Spencer, Herbert: English sociologist and biologist who coined the term “survival of the fittest” and applied it to humans in a sociology context
Tönnies, Ferdinand: German sociologist who defined Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft
Veblen, Thorstein: American sociologist who wrote The Theory of the Leisure Class — asserts that the division of labor from the feudal system continued into the modern era
Weber, Max: German sociologist who promoted antipositivism
