MCAT Psychology & Sociology (2023)

Papillae

taste buds

Kinesthetic sense

sense of the location of body parts in relation to the ground and each other and is sensed joint receptors

retinal height

Monocular depth cue.

Objects that are higher up in the visual field are perceived as being farther away than the objects that are lower in the visual field.

linear perspective

monocular depth cue

the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.

relative size

monocular depth cue

when two objects are presumed to be the same, the one producing the smaller retinal image is judged to be more distant

interposition

monocular depth cue

if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer to us.

light and shadow

monocular depth cue

creates the illusion of a 3D object

texture gradients

monocular depth cue

closer objects have coarser texture and more detail than distant objects

Retinal disparity

binocular depth cue

uses the difference in the images projected on the right and left retinas to inform the brain about the distance of a stimulus, also known as stereopsis

Convergence

A binocular depth cue

The extent to which the eyes turn inward (converge) to focus on an object

speech shadowing

an experimental technique in which subjects repeat speech immediately after hearing it (usually through earphones) while tuning out competing info

Availability bias

People base their decisions on the most salient information (whatever comes to mind first when thinking about a topic)

Hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Causation bias

tendency to infer a causal relationship among events that are merely correlated

Fixedness

Tendency to view an object as having no purpose other than the one for which it was originally designed

logical-mathematical, linguistic, visual-spatial, musical, kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, intrapersonal

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences measures:

linguistic and logical-mathematical

Gardner argues that western culture values these types of intelligences over others and are the only two tested on IQ tests.

Galton

Intelligence has a biological basis that could be studied by measuring reaction times to certain cognitive tasks

Binet

Measured intelligence based on age group

Spearman

Proposed a form of intelligence called "g" that influences our ability to learn and reason about any topic

Thurstone

Proposed 7 fundamental abilities that contribute to our ability to learn and reason about specific topics

A person could appear smarter with respect to some topics than others

Sternberg

Proposed three types of intelligences (analytical, creative, and practical)

interpersonal attraction

familiarity, physical attractiveness, and similarity in activities can all contribute to one's attraction to another

Brain waves

Dyssomnia

a sleep disorder in which one has difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or avoiding sleep

Parasomnia

abnormal behaviors during sleep including somnambulism and night terrors; usually occur during stage 3 or slow wave sleep

Language acquisition device

The innate capacity that would drive language acquisition with minimal environmental input

interactionist perspective

Explores the interplay between genetic and environmental influences and how they shape emerging skills

James-Lange Theory

Cannon-Bard Theory

Schachter-Singer Theory

Primary appraisal

Process of evaluating a situation to determine whether a threat is present

Secondary appraisal

If primary appraisal reveals a threat, this appraisal is directed at how the organism will respond to the threat / cope with the stress

maladaptive coping

Unsuccessful attempts to decrease the anxiety without even attempting to solve the problem

maladaptiveness

behavior interferes with the person's life

fMRI

a form of magnetic resonance imaging of the brain that registers blood flow to functioning areas of the brain

helpful for monitoring neural activity and deep brain structures

Id

Unconscious source of biological urges

Freud

Ego

Mediates between instinctual demands of id and moral constraints of superego

Freud

Superego

Self-critical, morality drive component of personality

Freud

pleasure principal

in psychodynamic theory, the id's boundless drive for immediate gratification

Factitious disorder

Condition in which a person acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick.

Informational influence

conformity occurring when people accept evidence about reality provided by other people in a group because they probably have a good reason

High response rate, no pause

Variable ratio is reinforcing behavior after an unknown /variable number of responses

What is the activity?

Ex: slot machine pays off on average once every 50 pulls

Slow after reinforcement, then increases

Fixed ratio is einforcing behavior after a fixed number of responses

What is the activity?

Ex: trick or treating and getting one piece of candy for saying trick or treat per house.

steady activity

Variable interval is reinforcing behavior after an unknown/variable amount of time

What is the activity like?

Ex: fishing and getting the fish on first bite on average once every 20 minutes

Increases as deadline nears

Fixed interval is reinforcing behavior after a fixed or set amount of time

What is the activity like?

Ex: working and getting paid 20$ per hour

Social more

a social norm with a morally-based expectation

Anomie

lack of the usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group

Generalizability

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied

Reliability

consistency of measurement

Symbolic interactionism

micro theory

emphasizes how people interact through a share set of symbols, including shared words and gestures. All of these symbols have assigned meanings that are dynamic

Ex: the word "dog" is a series of letters, but you associety a fluffy canine with it

ethnocentrism

judging people who are not part of one's own group according to standards, values and beliefs of one's own group

functionalism

Focuses on the actions of individuals and contributions to society (no objects) to promote stability

social products embedded with norms and values

Functions: actions that contribute positively to society

Dysfunctions: actions with negative consequences

Ex: family, school, religion (parts of society as a cohesive whole)

Conflict theory

Macro theory that societies change and adapt in response to conflict between social classes

Focuses on the unequal distribution of resources and power, status quo

Creates interclass competition

social constructionism

macro theory

societies are formed by people agreeing on social constructs, like honor and justice, work ethic, gender roles, or even value of physical money

arise from humans communicating and working together to agree on significance of concept or principle. Intersections ideas.

Ex: the idea that pink is for girls and blue for boysre

Latent function

the unrecognized and unintended consequences of any social pattern

ex: college libraries being open all night during finals week, and students sleep in them (which was not intended by the school)

manifest function

intended and recognized consequence of some element of society

Cultural diffusion

The spread of ideas, customs, and technologies from one culture to another

cultural transmission

The passing down cultural values from one generation to the next

cultural relativism

Refers to an awareness of differences across cultures in norms, values, and other elements of culture.

cultural lag

culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, resulting in social problems

intergenerational mobility

difference in position between a child and their parents in society

intragenerational mobility

difference in position an individual mobilizes in their own lifetime

patient centered psychotherapy

Developed by Carl Rogers who believed people have the freedom to control their own behavior.

No solutions or diagnoses are provided, but people are helped with reflection, making choices, and determining their own destiny and self-actualization

No environment, only individual

humanistic

Roger's concept of incongruence

The belief that people strive to become self actualized or the "the best version" of themselves or the "ideal self"

The gap between the "ideal" self and the real self can cause discomfort, unpleasant feelings, and lead to defensive behaviors

Behaviorist approach

Sees outcomes, not cognition, as the drive behind an individual's choices and behaviors.

Concerned with how environmental factors affect observable behavior

social cognitive theory

Emphasize the role of cognitive processes, such as thinking, beliefs and judging, in the development of personality

Behaviors are learned through observing others and modeling their actions

biological perspective

personality can be explained as a result of genetic expression in the brain

ex: diathesis stress model

rational choice perspective

assumes that individual behavior will be based on an implicit analysis of the costs and benefits of actions

Ex: Reduce the cost of fruits and vegetables while increasing the cost of processed foods

personality disorder

1. include a pattern of behavior that is inflexible (unwilling to change) and maladaptive (no adjust to environment)

2. cause distress/impaired functioning in two of the following (cognition, emotion, interpersonal functioning, impulse control)

3. Ego-syntonic: perceives their behavior as correct, normal, or in harmony with their goals

ego-dystonic

the individual sees the illness as something thrust upon her that is intrusive and bothersome

confounding variable

A variable that offers an alternative explanation for the observed effect

Produces the same results, but offers a different reason.

hindbrain

evolved first

Portion of the brain that controls balance, motor coordination, breathing, digestion, and general arousal processes

Cerebellum, medulla oblongata, and reticular formation

metencephalon, rhombencephalon, myelencephalon

midbrain

inferior and superior colliculi

with hindbrain they are the most primitive region

Portion of the brainstem that manages sensorimotor reflexes to visual and auditory stimuli and gives rise to some cranial nerve

mesencephalon

forebrain

The largest and most complicated region of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, basal ganglia limbic system, and cerebral cortex

telencephalon, diencephalon, prosencephalon

EEG

An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity (culmination of action potentials) that sweep across the brain's surface under varying conditions.

These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.

Chunking

A memory technique also known as clustering that takes individual items on a large list and groups them together into groups with related meanings

Ex: breaking down the 100 digits of pi into parts that are the length of phone numbers

Acrostics

Use the first letters of each word in a list to create a sentence or phrase that also starts with those letters but is more easily memorized (acronyms)

Method of loci

A memory technique that associates each item on a list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized

mental walk through locations with items

peg-word system

A memory trick that associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble numbers

ex: personal peg list like "one with a sun" translated to "eggs being fried by the sun" on a grocery list

ex: assigning items to a list of colors mentally

semantic encoding

the process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory

ex: remembering a birthday based on a person's name

The best way to remember something

Retrieval

Process of demonstrating that something that has been learned and retained can be pulled back from long term memory

sensory memory

short-term memory with which the brain perceives and stores auditory and visual information

<1 sec

synaptic pruning

The process over time (months or years) that the brain goes through to remove connections that are weak or unhelpful and strengthens connections that are helpful

self-reference effect

the tendency to recall information best when we can put it into the context of our own lives

7 +/- 2 rule

Notion that short-term memory (immediate) is limited in capacity to approximately 7 +/- 2 items

cohort study

Also known as longitudinal studies, involve a case-defined population who have a certain exposure or receive a particular treatment that are followed over time and compared with another group

case-control study

Patients who already have a certain condition/sickness are compared with people who do not

Draw conclusions from comparing each history

Experimental study

the random selection of participants and the random assignment of the participants to groups in the study

observational research

involves studying subjects in non-experimental settings and without changing of variables

correlational research

involves measuring variables and their relationships

implies that each variable may cause each other (very different from causation)

admiration stereotype

High warmth (no competition with ingroup) and high competence (high status)

Viewed with pride and other positive feelings

"she really applied herself and worked hard" or "she is just such a nice person, her promotion is well deserved"

contemptuous stereotypes

Low warmth and competence

Viewed with resentment, annoyance or anger

Poor people and welfare recipients perceived as "work shy" or "not willing to improve their own situation"

envious stereotypes

low warmth, high competence

viewed with jealousy, bitterness, or distrust

"she was born with a silver spoon"

paternalistic stereotypes

high warmth, low competence

looked down upon as inferior, dismissed, or even ignored

elderly or disabled people, 50s housewife

"he is just an old geezer" or "she drives like a grandma"

Parasympathetic nervous system

rest & digest

constrict pupils

slow heartbeat

vasodilation

constrict airways

stimulate stomach activity

inhibit glucose release

stimulates bladder contraction

stimulate sexual arousal

sympathetic nervous system

fight or flight

dilate pupils but decreased field of vision

increase heartbeat

vasoconstriction

relax airways

inhibit stomach activity

stimulate glucose release

secrete adrenaline

inhibits bladder contraction

promote orgasm

family study

Compare rates of a given trait among family members to those among unrelated individuals/the population

Limited as families share both genetic and environmental components

stimulus discrimination

Process by which two similar but distinct conditioned stimuli produce different responses

Ex: when participants answer 5 numbers, they get a reward. When participants answer more than 5 numbers, they get an electric shock.

sustained attention

the ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time