Psychology & Behavior

🏥 Psychology Behavior

Part 1 of 7 — Sensation & Perception

Sensation: detection of stimuli by sensory receptors; Perception: interpretation by the brain.

Absolute threshold: minimum stimulus intensity detected 50% of the time.

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: Signal detection theory: ability to detect signal depends on sensitivity and response bias.

MCAT Tip: Weber law: just noticeable difference (JND) is proportional to stimulus magnitude (delta-I/I = constant).

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Learning & Memory

Part 2 of 7 — Learning & Memory

Classical conditioning (Pavlov): CS + UCS = CR; extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization.

Operant conditioning (Skinner): reinforcement increases behavior, punishment decreases it.

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: Memory encoding: elaborative rehearsal > rote memorization; levels of processing theory.

MCAT Tip: Memory types: sensory (brief), short-term/working (7 +/- 2 items), long-term (unlimited capacity).

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Cognition & Language

Part 3 of 7 — Cognition & Language

Problem solving: algorithms (systematic) vs heuristics (shortcuts — availability, representativeness).

Language development: Chomsky (innate LAD) vs Skinner (operant conditioning).

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: Brocas area: speech production (damage = nonfluent aphasia); Wernickes area: comprehension (damage = fluent aphasia).

MCAT Tip: Cognitive biases: confirmation bias, anchoring, framing effect, hindsight bias.

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Motivation & Emotion

Part 4 of 7 — Motivation & Emotion

Drive reduction theory: biological needs create drives that motivate behavior.

Maslows hierarchy: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization.

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: James-Lange theory: event causes physiological arousal, then emotion; Cannon-Bard: simultaneous.

MCAT Tip: Schachter-Singer (two-factor): arousal + cognitive label = emotion.

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Developmental Psychology

Part 5 of 7 — Developmental Psychology

Piagets stages: sensorimotor (0-2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), formal operational (11+).

Erikson: 8 psychosocial stages from trust vs mistrust to integrity vs despair.

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: Kohlberg: preconventional (reward/punishment), conventional (social norms), postconventional (universal principles).

MCAT Tip: Attachment: Ainsworth — secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, disorganized.

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Personality & Disorders

Part 6 of 7 — Personality & Disorders

Big Five (OCEAN): openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Freud: id (pleasure), ego (reality), superego (morality); defense mechanisms (repression, projection, etc.).

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: Psychological disorders: anxiety, mood, psychotic, personality, trauma-related.

MCAT Tip: DSM-5 classification: categorical diagnosis based on symptom criteria and duration.

Concept Check 🎯

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Review & MCAT Practice

Part 7 of 7 — Review & MCAT Practice

Big Five (OCEAN): openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Freud: id (pleasure), ego (reality), superego (morality); defense mechanisms (repression, projection, etc.).

Concept Check 🎯

Key Insight: Psychological disorders: anxiety, mood, psychotic, personality, trauma-related.

MCAT Tip: DSM-5 classification: categorical diagnosis based on symptom criteria and duration.

Concept Check 🎯

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