MCAT BEHAVIORAL
primacy effect - individuals tend to remember the first few items in a list/given order
recency effect - individuals tend to remember the last (most recent) items in a list/order/events
state dependency effect - match between the conditions that you encoded the information under + the conditions present when attempting to recall that information
dual coding effect - easier to remember words associated w/ images than words alone; involves a visual and verbal cue that was encoded
spreading activation - all ideas in the brain are interconnected; thinking of one concept spreads to all those related to it
source monitoring error - recalling information but mixing up the source
ex: say you learned something from school but you actually saw it on tv
source amnesia - complete inability to recall where information is from
trait theory - personality is made of common traits exhibited to a certain extent in subject → influences behavior
psychoanalytic theory - freud; personality is shaped by childhood experiences and a person’s unconscious thoughts/desires
humanistic theory - carl rogers; healthy personality development where humans are seen as ‘good’; innate self-actualization to enhance oneself
behaviorist theory - personality is the result of learned behavior based on subject’s environment (start as blank state and get filled by environment); based on observable and measurable behavior
steps to demographic transition model (transition from high birth/death rates → low):
preindustrial: birth/death rates high, population growth slow
industrializing: low death rates, food/medicine availability, sanitation increase, population growth rapid
urbanizing: population grows, birth rates decline, contraception increases
developed: birth/death rates low, slow population growth
highly developed: if low birth rate persists, population decline
structural functionalism - social institutions work together to form a societal balance; macro-level perspective
division of labor - specialization of tasks in society that are independent
intersectionality - multiple, interconnected social identities that impact individuals’ lives, treatment and perspectives
life course approach - framework for how psychological, biological, and sociocultural factors across a lifetime effect health outcomes
james-lange theory - stimuli → physiological response → specific emotions/subjective experiences
physiological response is transmitted to the brain as sensory info
discriminatory stimuli - signals what behavior will get reinforced; informs the subject that if they perform an action they will likely receive an award
positive punisher/punishment - something is added to decrease the likelihood that something will occur again
ex: giving a speeding ticket to reduce the likelihood of speeding again
negative punisher/punishment - removal of something in order to decrease the tendency of it happening
ex: taking away someone’s license after accident
reticular formation - functions involving arousal, sleep-wake cycle, and attention
limbic system - regulates emotions; consists of hippocampus, hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala
affective processes - mechanisms involved in experiencing and regulating emotions
cognitive processes - involve thinking, reasoning and use of info; based on our thoughts/beliefs
sound vibrations depolarize cochlea hair cells via… - mechanically gated ion channels
actor-observer bias:
actors attribute their own bad behavior to situational factors
observers will attribute actor behavior to dispositional factors (personally based)
habituation - response to a stimulus decreases over time
dishabituation - when the previously habituated stimulus is removed; new stimulus is introduced
optimal arousal theory - performance requires optimal arousal; too high/low impairs performance
how can you measure the degree of sympathetic arousal experienced by a subject? - measure the electrical conductivity of the skin
selye’s general adaptation syndrome - 3 phases:
alarm — stress rxn kicks in, body is mobilized and ready for fight/flight response
resistance — the actual flight or fight response, high BP, high cortisol levels
exhaustion — if resistance isn’t followed by recovery, the body’s stress resources are depleted + immune system is dampened
→ according to this theory, an organism’s stress response always follows a similar course, regardless of the nature of the stressor
classical conditioning - an innate response to a stimulus is learned to be elicited in response to a “neutral” stimulus
→ does not involve change in behavior
operant conditioning - observes relationship b/w behavior and consequences + how consequences impact behavior; involves reinforcements and punishments
extrinsic motivation - motivation that results from incentives to perform a behavior
external motivation - falls under extrinsic motivation; based on social pressure
incongruence - the gap between a person’s actual and ideal self
base rate fallacy - error people make when ignoring base rates (prior probabilities) when evaluating the probability of an event
availability heuristic - tendency to estimate the likelihood of events based on how easily examples of those events can be retrieved from memory
self-serving bias - people attribute their own successes to internal factors; failures to external fair
insight - cognitive psychology; novel realization to the solution of a problem
critical period - stage in early development where the individual is more receptive to learning from specific types of experiences