MCAT psych/soc wrong questions

Role strain vs role conflict

Role strain: difficulty satisfying multiple requirements in same role

Role conflict: difficulty fulfilling expectations of multiple roles

What is the iron law of oligarchy?

Domination of a government by elite individuals overtime

Ascribed status

Status based on factor’s outside of one’s control such as race, gender, family background

Structural-functionalism

Society is made from several structures: institutions (meet the needs of society) or social facts (ways of thinking or acting that outlive society)

Latent function (functionalism)

Unintended beneficial function of society

Manifest function (functionalism)

Intended beneficial function of society

Latent dysfunction (functionalism)

Unintended harmful function of society

Manifest function (functionalism)

Unintended beneficial function of society

Conflict theory

Sociological perspective that attempts to understand society by examining conflicts between groups based on inequality and competition for resources

Symbolic interactionism

Micro-level sociological analysis inspecting human action and interaction by studying symbols people use to communicate

Social constructionism

Knowledge and experiences aren’t real and only exist because individuals and society give them meaning

Power

The ability of people or groups to achieve their goals despite any obstacles and the ability to control resources

What aspects of power and economic differentials do 21st century sociologists focus on?

Class, gender, sex, race, ethnicity

Social constructionism

Aims to understand a society through the study of society’s social constructs

Social construct

Any idea that has been created and accepted by people in a society

Rational Choice/Exchange Theory

All social interactions are transactions based on associated benefits and costs to an individual

Feminist Theory

Describes societies as inherently patriarchal with men seeking to preserve their position of power over women

Master status

Dominant social position

Achieved status

Attained social position

Labeling theory

Suggests when someone is labeled a deviant, the act of being labeled produces further deviance

Differential association theory

Suggests that deviance is learned through interaction

Types of groups

In-group, out-group, reference group, primary group, secondary group

Reference group

Group to which individual compares self

In-group

Group to which individual identifies and belongs

Out-group

Group to which individual does not identify or belong

Primary group

Group of individuals who are emotionally close

Secondary group

Group of individuals who come together to accomplish something

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to blame others’ behavior on internal instead of external factors

Actor-observer bias

Describes tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external factors but actions of others to internal factors

Experimenter bias

Researchers deliberately or inadvertently influence their own study that often leads to results that conform to what the researcher was expecting

Self-serving bias

Occurs when individuals credit successes to internal factors but blame failures on external factors

McDonaldization

Critical perspective of bureaucracy that describes process by which extreme efficiency and rationalization produce negative consequences

How does symbolic interactionism occur?

The definition of a situation describes how shared expectations of behavior help people understand the roles of everyone involved in interaction

Hawthorne effect

Describes research subjects acting differently when they know they are being observed

Inclusive fitness theory

Defines one’s overall fitness as a combination of direct fitness (number of offspring produced by an organism") and indirect fitness (number of relatives an organism aids through altruistic behavior)

Self-fulfilling prophecy

Occurs when a belief about something (that may or may not be true) influences the behavior of the person who believes it, resulting in an outcome that may validate the belief as true.

Self-concept

Refers to beliefs about oneself, including beliefs about race/ethnicity, gender, ability, talent, and so on

Cultural relativism

Culture in which there are no "right" or "wrong" cultural practices, is most inclusive of cultural differences

The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

proposes that when an individual is uninterested in a message, superficial factors (eg, an attractive celebrity spokesperson) might be most persuasive.

Display rule

Cultural expectations of emotion which govern which emotions can be expressed and to which degree

Social construction model

Culture provides a foundation for understanding and interpreting behaviors

What are the three models of emotional expression

Basic, Appraisal, and Social Construction

Basic model of emotional expression

emphasizes the biological basis of emotions: emotions are universal across cultures

Appraisal model of emotional expression

Thoughts precede, shape, and drive emotional expression (cognitive antecedent to emotional expression once it is expressed)

Social construction model

There is no biological basis for emotion; emotions are based on situational context and experience alone

Five components of the basic model

Facial expressions, behaviors, postures, vocal changes, physiological changes

Social construct

Idea that is created, defined and accepted by people in a society — science, math, etc go beyond this

Life course approach

this perspective considers a person’s age and cumulative life experiences when analyzing their personality, social status, health and other social metrics