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- Thread starter fa21212
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Hi @fa21212:
Re: cognitive theory and arousal, there is definitely support for the idea that cognitive theorists recognize the importance of arousal (as in this article), although it may not be the primary focus of cognitive theory. The key point here is that "arousal" is an answer that both a drive-reduction theorist and a cognitive theorist could agree on, which makes it a better answer than "self-efficacy."
Re: your larger question, an important thing to keep in mind about the AAMC content outline is that—especially for sociology and social psychology—some very big topics are included in small bullet points. For example, "feminist theory" gets a single bullet point, although many researchers have spent their entire careers researching and publishing on feminist theory. This means that it can sometimes be challenging to identify an absolute black-and-white list of terms that can be tested versus terms that cannot be tested, and we believe that a prudent part of preparing for the P/S section is developing strategies for dealing with terms that may come as a surprise. We constantly review the content of our FL exams to ensure that they offer the most representative experience possible.
Thanks for the question & best of luck in your review process!
Re: cognitive theory and arousal, there is definitely support for the idea that cognitive theorists recognize the importance of arousal (as in this article), although it may not be the primary focus of cognitive theory. The key point here is that "arousal" is an answer that both a drive-reduction theorist and a cognitive theorist could agree on, which makes it a better answer than "self-efficacy."
Re: your larger question, an important thing to keep in mind about the AAMC content outline is that—especially for sociology and social psychology—some very big topics are included in small bullet points. For example, "feminist theory" gets a single bullet point, although many researchers have spent their entire careers researching and publishing on feminist theory. This means that it can sometimes be challenging to identify an absolute black-and-white list of terms that can be tested versus terms that cannot be tested, and we believe that a prudent part of preparing for the P/S section is developing strategies for dealing with terms that may come as a surprise. We constantly review the content of our FL exams to ensure that they offer the most representative experience possible.
Thanks for the question & best of luck in your review process!