MCAT Psych/Soc — High-Yield Terms & Theorists flashcards
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Sensation and perception, learning and reinforcement schedules, memory models, cognition and language, emotion and stress theories, personality, DSM-level disorders, social psychology classics, developmental theorists, and the core sociology frameworks and terms.
Learn deck · part of MCAT · written against: AAMC MCAT content outline (2015 exam, current through 2026). Updated 2026-10-10.
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What is the difference between an absolute threshold and a difference threshold?The absolute threshold is the weakest stimulus a person can detect half the time; the difference threshold (just-noticeable difference) is the smallest change between two stimuli that can be detected half the time. Both are statistical, not sharp cut-offs.Sensation & Perception
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In Pavlov's experiment, what were the unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus and conditioned response?Unconditioned stimulus: food; unconditioned response: salivating to food; conditioned stimulus: the bell, after being paired with food; conditioned response: salivating to the bell alone. The unconditioned pair is built in; the conditioned pair is learned.Learning
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What are the three stores in the Atkinson–Shiffrin model, and how long does each hold information?Sensory memory holds a raw trace for a fraction of a second (iconic) to a few seconds (echoic); short-term memory holds about seven items for up to about 30 seconds without rehearsal; long-term memory has essentially unlimited capacity and duration. Attention moves information from sensory to short-term memory, and encoding (rehearsal, elaboration) moves it into long-term memory. Seven is Miller's classic 1956 estimate; more recent research puts short-term capacity nearer four chunks.Memory
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What is the difference between the availability heuristic and the representativeness heuristic?The availability heuristic judges how common something is by how easily examples come to mind, so vivid news makes plane crashes seem frequent. The representativeness heuristic judges probability by how well something matches a stereotype while ignoring base rates, so a quiet book-lover is assumed to be a librarian rather than a far more common salesperson.Cognition & Language
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What does the James–Lange theory say about the order of body and feeling in an emotion?The physiological response comes first and the emotion is our perception of it: we feel afraid because we tremble and our heart races, not the other way around.Emotion & Stress
Watch out: it predicts that each emotion needs a distinct bodily pattern, which has been hard to demonstrate. -
What roles do the id, ego and superego play in Freud's model of personality?The id is the unconscious reservoir of drives that runs on the pleasure principle, the superego is the internalized conscience and ideals, and the ego mediates between them and reality using the reality principle. Anxiety from their conflict is what defense mechanisms manage.Personality
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What is the difference between positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia?Positive symptoms add something that is normally absent: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior. Negative symptoms take something away: flat affect, reduced speech (alogia), lack of motivation (avolition) and social withdrawal. Negative symptoms respond less well to older antipsychotics.Psychological Disorders
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What is the fundamental attribution error, and how does it relate to the actor–observer bias?The tendency to explain other people's behavior by their character while underrating the situation, so a late colleague is lazy rather than stuck in traffic. The actor–observer bias is the mirror image: we explain our own behavior by circumstances because we can see the situation we are in.Social Psychology
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In Erikson's theory, what is the central crisis of adolescence, and what follows it in young adulthood?Identity versus role confusion: adolescents try out roles and values to build a stable sense of self. Young adulthood then faces intimacy versus isolation, forming committed relationships. Each of the eight stages pairs a healthy outcome with a risk, from trust versus mistrust in infancy to integrity versus despair in old age.Identity & Development
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How does functionalism view society, and what is the difference between a manifest and a latent function?As a system of interdependent parts that each contribute to stability, like organs in a body. A manifest function is the intended, recognized purpose of an institution (schools teach skills); a latent function is an unintended consequence (schools also create friendships and keep children supervised). Dysfunctions undermine stability.Sociology
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About these cards
Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.
Checked against:
- APA Dictionary of Psychology (dictionary.apa.org), NIH and MedlinePlus pages and the original studies, consulted as references; no text copied.
- Disorder descriptions follow the DSM-5-TR criteria (reference only; no text copied).
- OpenStax Introduction to Sociology 3e, consulted as a reference; no text copied.
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