Free MCAT-style practice, 8C
MCAT Status, Roles, Groups and Bureaucracy Practice Questions
Ten free MCAT-style practice questions on master status, role strain and conflict, primary groups, weak ties, Weber's bureaucracy, oligarchy and Goffman's dramaturgy, with full explanations.
Quick concept primer
A status is a position in society, and a role is the set of expectations attached to it. Ascribed statuses are assigned without effort (age, birth order), achieved statuses are earned (physician, parolee), and a master status dominates how others see a person and can be either kind. Role strain is tension within one role; role conflict is tension between two or more roles. Primary groups (Cooley) are small, intimate and lasting, while secondary groups are larger, impersonal and goal-oriented. Network research shows that weak ties (Granovetter) often carry new information, such as job leads.
Weber described the ideal-type bureaucracy: division of labor, hierarchy, written rules, impersonality, hiring by merit and records. Michels argued that even democratic organizations drift toward rule by a few (the iron law of oligarchy), and Merton described bureaucratic ritualism, in which following rules replaces the goals they serve. Etzioni classed organizations as normative, coercive or utilitarian. Goffman's dramaturgy treats social life as performance, with a front stage before an audience and a back stage where people relax.
Traps: one role pulling in two directions is strain, not conflict. The number of possible pairs in a group is n(n minus 1) divided by 2, which grows much faster than group size.
10 practice questions
Question 1
A man is a pediatrician, a father of three and a marathon runner, and he uses a wheelchair after a spinal cord injury. In interviews he reports that new acquaintances respond mainly to his wheelchair and ask little about his work or family. Which concept best describes his experience?
- Role strain
- Role exit
- Achieved status
- Master status
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Master status
A master status is a status that dominates others' perceptions and overshadows the rest of a person's status set; here disability eclipses his occupation and parenthood. Role strain concerns competing demands within one role, role exit is the process of leaving a role, and achieved status refers to earned positions such as his medical career.
Question 2
A first-year resident reports that she feels torn between the expectation to spend unhurried time with every patient and the expectation to see a large number of patients each shift. Which concept best fits?
- Role conflict
- Role strain
- Status inconsistency
- Role exit
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Role strain
Both expectations come from one role, physician, so this is role strain. Role conflict would involve two different roles, such as resident and parent, making incompatible demands. Status inconsistency describes ranking high on one dimension and low on another, and role exit is leaving a role.
Question 3
Each of the following is generally considered an ascribed status EXCEPT:
- being someone's younger sibling.
- being 70 years old.
- being a licensed nurse.
- being born into a royal family.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. being a licensed nurse.
A nursing license is earned through training and examination, so it is an achieved status. Birth order, age and family of birth are assigned without effort or choice, which makes them ascribed. Note that an ascribed status can still become a master status if it dominates how others see a person.
Question 4
A research team grows from 4 members to 7 members. If every pair of members can form one relationship, how many possible pairwise relationships does the team gain?
- 3
- 9
- 15
- 21
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. 15
Possible pairs equal n(n minus 1) divided by 2. Four members have 4 times 3 divided by 2, or 6 pairs; seven members have 7 times 6 divided by 2, or 21 pairs. The team gains 21 minus 6, or 15 relationships. 21 is the new total, not the gain, and 3 is only the change in headcount.
Question 5
A sociologist studying a family-owned restaurant notes that two cooks were hired as strangers and at first interacted only to get orders out. Over five years they began confiding in each other, spending holidays together and helping each other through illnesses. How is this change best described?
- A primary group relationship turning into a secondary group relationship
- A secondary group relationship developing into a primary group relationship
- The formation of a reference group
- The formation of an out-group
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. A secondary group relationship developing into a primary group relationship
The cooks began with an impersonal, task-centered tie typical of secondary groups and developed an intimate, lasting, emotionally valued bond typical of primary groups in Cooley's sense. The direction is secondary to primary, not the reverse. A reference group is a standard people use to judge themselves, and an out-group is a group one does not identify with.
Question 6
A patient advocacy group is founded with rotating volunteer leadership and decisions made by all members. Fifteen years later, a small paid staff controls the budget, sets the agenda and has held the same positions for a decade. Which concept best describes this change?
- Iron law of oligarchy
- McDonaldization
- Groupthink
- Role exit
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Iron law of oligarchy
Michels argued that as organizations grow, they need specialists and leaders, and power concentrates in a small group that tends to entrench itself, even when the organization began as democratic. McDonaldization concerns efficiency, calculability, predictability and control, groupthink concerns flawed group decisions, and role exit is leaving a role.
Question 7
A records clerk refuses to process an urgent transfer of a patient's chart because the request was signed in blue ink instead of the black ink required by policy, even though the request is otherwise complete. Which concept does this best illustrate?
- Iron law of oligarchy
- Dramaturgy
- Role conflict
- Bureaucratic ritualism
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Bureaucratic ritualism
Bureaucratic ritualism, described by Merton, occurs when rule-following becomes an end in itself and displaces the goal the rule was meant to serve, here timely patient care. Oligarchy concerns concentrated leadership, dramaturgy concerns self-presentation, and role conflict involves competing demands from two roles.
Question 8
An ethnographer notes that a hospital physician speaks calmly and confidently in patient rooms but openly vents frustration and jokes about the schedule in the staff lounge. In Goffman's framework, these two settings are best described as:
- primary group and secondary group.
- front stage and back stage.
- achieved status and ascribed status.
- looking-glass self and generalized other.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. front stage and back stage.
Goffman's dramaturgical approach describes a front stage, where people perform for an audience and manage impressions, and a back stage, where they relax and drop the performance. The patient room is the front stage and the lounge is the back stage. The other pairs describe groups, statuses or Cooley's and Mead's ideas about the self.
Question 9
A survey asked 100 people who had recently started a job how they first heard about the opening.
| Source of the job lead | Number |
|---|---|
| Close friends and family | 28 |
| Acquaintances | 56 |
| Formal postings | 16 |
Which interpretation is best supported?
- Weak ties supplied 56 percent of leads, consistent with Granovetter's strength of weak ties.
- Strong ties supplied most leads, contradicting Granovetter.
- Formal postings supplied most leads, so networks matter little.
- Weak ties supplied 56 percent of leads, which contradicts Granovetter's argument.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Weak ties supplied 56 percent of leads, consistent with Granovetter's strength of weak ties.
Acquaintances are weak ties, and 56 of 100 is 56 percent, more than close ties (28 percent) and postings (16 percent) combined (44 percent). Granovetter argued that weak ties bridge to networks we do not already share and therefore carry new information such as job leads, so the data fit his argument rather than contradict it.
Question 10
A woman joins an environmental volunteer organization because she shares its goals, and she receives no pay. In Etzioni's classification, this is which type of organization?
- Normative
- Coercive
- Utilitarian
- Ascribed
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Normative
Etzioni classified formal organizations by why people join. Normative (voluntary) organizations attract members through shared values or goals, coercive organizations hold people involuntarily (such as prisons), and utilitarian organizations offer material rewards (such as paid jobs). Ascribed is a type of status, not an organization.