A researcher starts from a general theory, derives a specific hypothesis from it, and then gathers data to test the hypothesis. Which kind of reasoning is this?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), D. Theory construction. Saylor Academy open textbook Principles of Sociological Inquiry, "Inductive or Deductive? Two Different Approaches".
A university exists to teach. Without anyone intending it, it also becomes a place where students meet future spouses. In Merton's terms, what is the second outcome?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), A. Classical and contemporary; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Wikipedia, "Manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions".
A worker blames only herself for losing her job in a year when a tenth of the workforce is laid off. Which idea of C. Wright Mills asks her to see the public issue behind the personal trouble?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), A. Classical and contemporary; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Understanding Society".
Show all 50 questions (47 more)
General theory, continued
Durkheim held that societies with a complex division of labor cohere because people depend on one another's specialized work. What did he call this bond?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), A. Classical and contemporary. Wikipedia, "Mechanical and organic solidarity".
For Marx and Engels, what divides a capitalist society into its two main classes?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), A. Classical and contemporary. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology".
Weber wanted sociologists to grasp the meaning that people attach to their own actions. What is this interpretive understanding called?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), B. History of social thought. Wikipedia, "Verstehen".
Which claim is central to feminist standpoint theory?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), A. Classical and contemporary (including feminist perspectives); XII. Gender (~11%), A. Feminist sociological theory. Wikipedia, "Standpoint theory".
Which line correctly pairs a theoretical perspective with its level of analysis and main concern?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: I. General Theory (~15%), C. Comparison of theories. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology".
Methodology and statistics 8
A bathroom scale shows the same weight every time, but it is always five pounds too heavy. As a measure, what is it?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), C. Measurement; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Wikipedia, "Reliability (statistics)".
A study tests whether years of schooling affect income. What is years of schooling in this study?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), B. Research design. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Stages in the Sociological Research Process".
A survey finds that 60% of 400 women and 40% of 600 men favor a policy. What share of all 1,000 respondents favors it?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), E. Data analysis; XI. Critical Thinking, G. Read and interpret tables of data. Wikipedia, "Weighted arithmetic mean".
A survey item offers the answers "strongly agree", "agree", "disagree" and "strongly disagree". What level of measurement is this?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), C. Measurement. Wikipedia, "Level of measurement".
Five households report incomes of $20,000, $25,000, $30,000, $40,000 and $185,000. Which statement is true?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), D. Statistics with application to sociology; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Wikipedia, "Median".
In a town survey, people who own more books also earn more. Once the researcher compares people with the same level of education, the link disappears. What was the original relationship?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), E. Data analysis; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Stages in the Sociological Research Process".
Which design gives the strongest grounds for saying that one variable causes another?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), B. Research design. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Research Design in Sociology".
Why does a study of prisoners raise a special problem of informed consent?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: II. Methodology and Statistics (~15%), B. Research design (including ethics in research). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Ethical Issues in Sociological Research".
Criminology and deviance 5
A teen caught shoplifting once is treated as a thief by teachers and neighbors, loses his friends, and goes on to steal often. Which theory best explains the later thefts?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: III. Criminology and Deviance (~11%), C. Deviance and social control; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Deviance".
Hirschi's social control theory asks why most young people do not offend. What is its answer?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: III. Criminology and Deviance (~11%), B. Juvenile delinquency. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Deviance".
In Merton's anomie theory, a person who accepts the goal of economic success but turns to theft to reach it shows which adaptation?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: III. Criminology and Deviance (~11%), E. Theories of crime, deviance and justice. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Deviance".
Which theory holds that people learn how to commit crime, and how to justify it, from close friends and family?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: III. Criminology and Deviance (~11%), E. Theories of crime, deviance and justice. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Deviance".
Why do household victimization surveys count far more crime than police records do?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: III. Criminology and Deviance (~11%), A. Criminology/Criminal justice. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Crime and Criminals".
Demography and urban sociology 3
A city of 200,000 people records 3,000 live births in a year. What is its crude birth rate?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IV. Demography and Urban Sociology (~5%), C. Basic demographic methods. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Population".
In demographic transition theory, why does a population grow fastest in the second stage?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IV. Demography and Urban Sociology (~5%), D. Demographic theory. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Population Growth and Decline".
In the concentric zone model that Burgess drew of Chicago, what lies at the center of the city?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IV. Demography and Urban Sociology (~5%), E. Urban, rural, community. Wikipedia, "Concentric zone model".
Organizations 3
People join a volunteer fire company without pay because they believe in its work. In Etzioni's typology, which kind of organization is it?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: V. Organizations (~5%), D. Voluntary organizations. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Formal Organizations".
What does Michels's "iron law of oligarchy" predict about large organizations, democratic ones included?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: V. Organizations (~5%), A. Organizational forms and change. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Formal Organizations".
Which set of traits did Weber use to define a bureaucracy?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: V. Organizations (~5%), C. Organization theory. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Formal Organizations".
Race, ethnicity, gender 5
A lender's rule names no race, yet in practice it turns down loans in mostly minority neighborhoods far more often. What do sociologists call this?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VI. Race, Ethnicity, Gender (~11%), A. Prejudice and discrimination; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Discrimination".
A study finds that Black women meet barriers at work that neither Black men nor white women meet. Which concept, named by Kimberlé Crenshaw, describes this overlap?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VI. Race, Ethnicity, Gender (~11%), A. Prejudice and discrimination (including multigroup comparisons); XII. Gender. Wikipedia, "Intersectionality".
An employer holds no hostile beliefs about any group, yet turns away minority applicants for fear that customers would object. Where does the employer fall in Merton's typology?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VI. Race, Ethnicity, Gender (~11%), A. Prejudice and discrimination; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Discrimination".
What do sociologists mean when they call race a social construction?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VI. Race, Ethnicity, Gender (~11%), B. Racial and ethnic stratification in the United States. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "The Meaning of Race and Ethnicity".
Which Supreme Court ruling of 1954 held that racially segregated public schools are unconstitutional?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VI. Race, Ethnicity, Gender (~11%), C. Historical and comparative trends in intergroup relations (including legislative and judicial responses). Wikipedia, "Brown v. Board of Education".
Social change 4
A new technology spreads within a few years, while the laws and customs that govern its use take decades to adjust. What did Ogburn call this gap?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VII. Social Change (~8%), E. Technology and innovation; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Wikipedia, "Cultural lag".
A region loses its steel mills and car plants over twenty years while jobs in shops, hospitals and offices grow. What is this change called?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VII. Social Change (~8%), B. Comparative economic and social development (including industrialization and deindustrialization). Wikipedia, "Deindustrialization".
How does dependency theory explain the poverty of low-income nations?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VII. Social Change (~8%), B. Comparative economic and social development; XIII. Global. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Global Stratification".
Which theory explains the rise of a social movement mainly by its leaders' success in gathering time, money and energy, and treats the movement as a rational response to grievances?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VII. Social Change (~8%), D. Social movements and collective behavior. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Social Movements".
Social institutions 5
C. Wright Mills argued that a small "power elite" makes the major decisions in the United States. From which three sectors did he say it comes?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VIII. Social Institutions (~11%), B. Political systems and governments. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Theories of Power and Society".
Children pick up respect for authority and patriotic values from their schoolbooks and classroom routines, though no lesson plan lists them. What do conflict theorists call this teaching?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VIII. Social Institutions (~11%), C. Education. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Sociological Perspectives on Education".
For Durkheim, what sets religion apart from the rest of social life?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VIII. Social Institutions (~11%), E. Religion. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Religion as a Social Institution".
In a society where people are expected to marry someone of their own religion and social class, which marriage pattern is being practiced?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VIII. Social Institutions (~11%), A. Family. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "The Family in Cross-Cultural and Historical Perspectives".
In Parsons's account of the sick role, what does society expect of a sick person in return for being excused from normal duties?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: VIII. Social Institutions (~11%), D. Medicine and science. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Understanding Health, Medicine, and Society".
Social psychology 4
A child comes to think of herself as clever because she senses that her parents and teachers see her that way. Whose concept describes this?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IX. Social Psychology (~8%), B. Socialization and learning. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Socialization".
A waiter is formal and polite in the dining room, then jokes about the customers in the kitchen. In Goffman's dramaturgical terms, what is the kitchen?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IX. Social Psychology (~8%), C. Social interaction; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Social Interaction in Everyday Life".
In Asch's experiments, subjects judged the length of lines after hearing the rest of a group give a plainly wrong answer. What did the experiments show?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IX. Social Psychology (~8%), D. Small groups. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Group Dynamics and Behavior".
In Mead's account, what do older children take on when they play organized games that younger children at play do not?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: IX. Social Psychology (~8%), B. Socialization and learning. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Socialization".
Social stratification 5
A carpenter's daughter becomes a surgeon. Which kind of social mobility is this?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: X. Social Stratification (~11%), D. Social mobility. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Social Class in the United States".
A country's Gini coefficient for income rises from 0.30 to 0.45. What does the change show?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: X. Social Stratification (~11%), B. Social inequality; XIII. Global, A. International comparisons; XI. Critical Thinking (~25%). Wikipedia, "Gini coefficient".
How does the Davis-Moore thesis explain social stratification?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: X. Social Stratification (~11%), C. Theories and models. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Explaining Stratification".
Marx tied stratification to economic class. Which two further dimensions did Weber add?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: X. Social Stratification (~11%), A. Class, status and power. Wikipedia, "Three-component theory of stratification".
Women in a firm win promotion to middle management as readily as men, but almost none reach the top posts. What is this invisible barrier called?ETS, Major Field Test in Sociology test description: X. Social Stratification (~11%), E. Work and labor force participation; XII. Gender, C. Macrosociological issues. Saylor Academy open textbook Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, "Gender Inequality".
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the test description ETS publishes for the Major Field Test in Sociology (https://www.ets.org/content/dam/ets-org/pdfs/mft/sociology-test-description.pdf, read 2026-10-12): General Theory about 15%, Methodology and Statistics about 15%, Criminology and Deviance about 11%, Demography and Urban Sociology about 5%, Organizations about 5%, Race, Ethnicity, Gender about 11%, Social Change about 8%, Social Institutions about 11%, Social Psychology about 8%, Social Stratification about 11%, with Critical Thinking (about 25%), Gender (about 11%) and Global (about 9%) questions integrated into the whole test. The bank holds 8, 8, 5, 3, 3, 5, 4, 5, 4 and 5 questions; 12 of them also count as critical thinking, 3 as gender and 2 as global. Each fact was read on 2026-10-12 in the public page named under its question: Saylor Academy's open textbooks Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World and Principles of Sociological Inquiry, and Wikipedia. Answers that are arithmetic were worked out a second time. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
Practice for the Major Field Test in Sociology with 50 questions of our own, in the ten content areas ETS tests, general theory to social stratification. Unofficial: this page is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by ETS.
Read the full guide
Ten weighted areas
ETS's test description, read October 12, 2026, weights general theory and methodology and statistics at about 15% each; criminology and deviance, race, ethnicity and gender, social institutions and social stratification at 11%; social change and social psychology at 8%; demography and urban sociology and organizations at 5%. Ours follow: 8, 8, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 3 and 3.
Three threads
ETS also counts critical thinking (25%), gender (11%) and global questions (9%) wherever they fall. Here 12 count as critical thinking, 3 as gender and 2 as global.
A quarter-length run
The sociology test asks 140 multiple-choice questions in two hours. The timed exam here keeps that pace: 35 questions in 30 minutes.
General theory and methods together make up ETS's Core Sociology subscore, about 42 of the 140 questions. Start there.
No calculator is needed on the real test, ETS says. Do the birth rate, the mean and the median here by hand.
Questions and answers
What is on the Major Field Test in Sociology?
140 multiple-choice questions, some in sets based on diagrams, graphs and statistical data. They cover theory, methods and statistics, deviance, demography and urban life, organizations, race, ethnicity and gender, social change, institutions, social psychology and stratification.
Is there a sociology Major Field Test study guide?
ETS posts a test description and sample questions for sociology at ets.org/mft, both free. For reading, each explanation here names a section of a free sociology textbook or an encyclopedia article on the concept.
How is the Major Field Test in Sociology scored?
Every student receives a total score and two subscores, Core Sociology and Critical Thinking. Seven content areas, gender and global questions are reported as assessment indicators for the department's group, when five or more students test. ETS's description sets no pass mark.
How long is the sociology Major Field Test?
It is built to last two hours. A department chooses the date and place, may split the sitting into two sessions, and must have a proctor give the test.
Are these real Major Field Test questions?
No. All 50 were written for this page from the topic list in ETS's test description, and each names the public source of its fact. None is taken or reworded from the real test or from ETS's sample questions.