Day 154 MCAT Practice Question

Social reproduction refers to the theory that someone’s position

in society–their membership in a particular social class–is primarily determined

even before one is born. According to this theory, one’s social class is especially

dependent on the social class of one’s parents, and this is the case because it is

difficult to ascend or descend the social ladder given the lack of intergenerational

mobility (movement between classes from generation to the next). Social

reproduction says that, despite one’s best efforts to change social class, one is

more likely to remain in the class of their parents than to ascend or descend the

social ladder. The reasons for this are still up for debate, but many believe that the

values, traits, habits, and characteristics of one’s parents–and of the social class

one is born into–are more strongly inherited than in one’s personal control. For this

reason, Answer A is the correct answer.