MCAT Behavioral Sciences

Extrinsic motivation

Reward or punishment, competition

Intrinsic motivation

Interest in a task, enjoyment

Goal of motivation

To satisfy needs, mantain arousal, and reduce uncomfortability

Motivation influences

Instincts, arousal, needs, drives

Instinct theory

Innate, fixed behavior drives motivation`

Arousal theory

Motivation is drive to mantain arousal, follows Yerkes-Dodson’s law that performance peaks at intermediate arousal

Drive reduction theory

Reducing uncomfortable state, primary drives for homestasis, secondary for learning

Primary needs

Physiological, food, water, shelter, sleep

Secondary needs

Mental states, power, acheivement, social belonging

Maslow definition of needs

Relief or satisfactions influence actions

Maslows hierarchy of needs

Physiological needs, safety, beonging, esteem, then self actualization can be satisfied

Self determination theory

Autonomy, competence, and accepted in relationships must be met for healthy relationships

Incentive theory

Behavior is driven by reward and avoiding punishment

Expectancy-value thory

Motivation depends on expectation of meeting goal and value of goal

Opponent-process theory

Bodies physiologically counteract effects from drugs after repeated use, causes withdrawal

Sexual motivation

From cultural norms, pleasure, smell, secretion of estrogen, progesterone, androgens

Elements of emotion

Cognitive, physiologic in ANS, behavioral facial expressions and body language

Universal emotions

Happiness, fear, saness, anger, contempt, disgust, suprise

Facial feedback effect

Darwin, facial expressions influence emotions

James-Lange theory

Stimulus first physically arouses, which is labeled with an emotion

Cannon-Bard theory

Emotion and physiologic response happen at the same time, then action

Schachter-Singer theory

Two factor, stimulus and arousal must be known to then feel the emotion

Limbic system

Below cerebrum, amygdala, thalmus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, fornix, septal nuclei

Amygdala

Makes emotion signals from environment, facial expressions, involved in fear and attention, controls implicit memory storage

Hippocampus

Stores and retrieves emotional or implicit memories, gives context to make an emotion

Thalamus

Sensory processing station, routes info

Hypothalamus

Dictates emotional states via neurotransmitters, modulates homeostasis and emotion

Facial expressions are interpreted by

Right temporal lobe

Prefrontalcortex

Planning, personality, making decisions, coordinates arousal and cognition

Pre frontal cortex breakdown by area

Right is negative emotions, left is positive, dorsal is attention, ventral is emotion, ventromedial controls emotions from amygdala

Cognitive appraisal

Evaluation of a stress-inducing situation, 2 stages, can reocurr in reappraisal

Primary appraisal

Environment and threat assessment to identify stressor

Secondary appraisal

If individual can cope with the stress based on harm, threat, and potential to overcome

Stressor types

Distressor is unpleasant, eustressor is pleasent

Social readjustment rating scale

How stress levels are measured

General adaption syndrome

After SNS activation to stressor, alarm with cortisol epi norepi, resistance that continues hormones, then exhaustion that ends with panic zone then burnout

Conflicts

Approach-approach with two good options, avoidance-avoidance with two bad ones, approach-avoidance with one goal but outcome could be good and bad

Diathesis-stress model

Predisposition to genetic traits and exposure to stressors can trigger MDD, schizophrenia

Stress management

Overcome stressor and getting support or confronting issue head on by solving it

Social stratification

Who gets what and why, based on SES

Prestige

Respect society has for a status, person, idea

Power

Ability to affect behavior through reward, punishment, due to resources

Social inequality due to

Anomie lack of universal social norms, strain theory says anomic conditions cause deviance, no social solidarity

Marx

Class consciousness organizes working class for a goal, false when people don’t know their position in society

Social capital

More investment in networks, high integration and cultural capital, need strong peer and kin ties with communites, not weak ties

Intragenerational, intergenerational mobility

Changes in social status within a lifetime, within a generation from parent to kid

Social reproduction

Same social status across generations, horizontal mobility

Poverty

Absolute is not enough money to mantain basic quality of life, relative is less then their population

Incidence

Number of new cases/population at risk in a period of time

Prevalence

Total cases overall new and chronic/population in a period of time

Morbidity

Degree of illness, burden

Mortality

Deaths caused by a disease

Second sickness

Exacerbated morbididty due to social injustice

Medicare, Medicaid

For seniors, for those with financial need

Gender identity

Androgeny is high on both masculine and feminine, undifferentiated is low on both, schema says its trasnmitted by culture

Ethnic identity

Common ancestry, heritage, language, while nationality is country’s history, media, cuisine, symbols

Hierarchy of salience

Identities are organized by how important they are in our environment

Self evaluation

Begins at self-identification of our appearance

Self discrepancy theory

Actual self we see ourselves as, ideal self we would like to be, out self others would like us to be should align for high self esteem

Self efficacy

Belief that we will succeed, high in overconfidence, low in learned helplessness

Locus of control

Internal we think we control our fate, external fate is not in our hands

Social comparison theory

Upward when compared with with better people, lateral with comprable, and downwards with worse people, can effect self esteem

Metacognition

Awareness of self thoughts, emotions

Influences on how we feel about ourselves

Self identification, self discrepancy, self efficacy, locus of control, social comparison, metacognition

Psychosexual development

Libido is present since birth, fixation when frusterated or indulged, neurosis occurs when personality pattern starts from fixation

Psycosexual stages

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital

Oral stage

Infant 0-1 yrs, gratification from putting objects in mouth

Anal stage

Toddler 1-3 yrs, libido from waste elimination and retention

Anal stage fixation causes

Too much sloppiness, orderliness

Phallic stage

3-5 yrs, learn to sublimate libido, more in males due to oedipal effect or jealousy and fear of father, elektra for females

Latency stage

Sublimated libido till puberty

Genital stage

Starts at puberty, if normal till this then heterosexual relationships form, if not then homosexuality, asexuality, fetishism

Ericksons psychosocial development

Positive or negative resolutions to emotional and social conflicts drive development

Trust and mistrust

Infants, can I trust the world

Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

Toddlers, is it OK to be me

Intiative vs. guilt

Pre-school age kids, is it ok for me to do things

Industry vs inferiority

School age kids, can I make it in the world

Identity vs role-confusion

Adolescents, who am I, what can I be

Intimacy vs. isolation

Young adults, can I love

Generativity vs. stagnation

Middle aged adults, can I make my life worth it

Integrity vs. despair

Older adults, was it OK being me

Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning

With age, we get nuance and changes in morality, preconventional, conventional, postconventional

Preconventional morality

Stages 1 obedience and 2 self-interest, 0-12 yrs, emphasis on consequence and reward

Conventional morality

Stages 3 conformity and 4 law and order, 12-20 yrs, emphasis on relationships to others, social rules

Postconvential morality

Stages 5 social contract and 6 unviersal human ethics, not for everyone, emphasis on principiles and greater good vs. individual rights

Vygotsky zone of proximal development

Skills that can be performed with help, scaffolding or support needed to progress

Theory of mind

Ability to interpret, understand how someonelse thinks

Role taking

Children experiment with identities, good for understanding other perspectives

Looking glass self

Understanding how others see us

Reference group

The group we evualuate ourselves by, our standard

Psychoanalytic perspective

Personality thoryt that unconscious influences actions, personality, supported by Freud

Id

Primal urges to survive and reproduce according to pleasure principle, wants instant gratification

Primary process

Id when frusterated, get immediate satisfaction

Wish fulfillment

Mental images, fantasies that give immediate satisfaction

Ego

Guides or postpones id’s pleasure based on reality, reality principle via secondary process

Ego, id and reality

Ego gets power from id, give and take with reality

Superego

Moderated by ego, needs for ideal self, self judgement based on conscience, improper actions, and ego-ideal, proper actions

Freud on access to ego, id, superego

Through conscious access, thoughts we aren’t aware of, and repressed thoughts

Freud on instinct

Biological needs manifest in psyche, life for hunger thirst sex, and wish for death, destruction

Defense mechanism

By ego when superego, id disagree, don’t accept reality then operate unconsciously