Students and instructors may be frustrated with students' lack of understanding of sociological concepts. We suggest that the difficulty of teaching and learning sociology is that sociological concepts and relationships require the use of abstract reasoning patterns. Many students are unaccustomed to using these abstract reasoning patterns. We use the Piagetian cognitive development theoretical rationale to discuss abstract thinking, offer a suggestion for measuring students level of abstract reasoning, and provide an instructional strategy to teach abstract concepts in sociology. (Author)