[Q] Level of detail needed for Psychology/Sociology section?

[TheAnonymous]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for yet another thread/question. Any feedback, specially from those who took the MCAT 2015 in April/May, would be appreciated a lot.

I'm using TPR to study for psychology/sociology and I was wondering to what level of detail I need to study/memorize. I know for undergrad I had to memorize everything but considering the scope of the MCAT, to what extent do we have to know the material for this section? To make it clear, do you guys think we should know:

• All the names of the people mentioned in the content review books, including the "less important ones"
• For example, details surrounding the psychological disorders (i.e. # of months required to be diagnosed with disease X, or every single symptom of the disease Y)
• Things like "the 16 emotions" or similar stuff (are we supposed to have everything memorized)

I know no one has a definitive answer but I would appreciate any thoughts/ideas.

Thank you all !

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[mcatjelly]

Psych/Soc is definitely the one section where understanding of the material needs to involve both depth and breadth. However, I found that the only details you really need to remember are those that are relevant to the big picture.

For instance:

• I don't think memorizing the names of the "less important" theorists will be high yield. TPR had a good grasp on the important ones, IMHO.
• You should definitely know the major symptoms of the various disorders. However, speaking also as a mental health buff, the only instances where knowing symptom time frames would be crucial is in differentiating between dysthymia and MDD, or cyclothymia and bipolar disorder.
• Just know the big five (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion) as they are much more prevalent on the field

 

[TheAnonymous]

Psych/Soc is definitely the one section where understanding of the material needs to involve both depth and breadth. However, I found that the only details you really need to remember are those that are relevant to the big picture.

For instance:

• I don't think memorizing the names of the "less important" theorists will be high yield. TPR had a good grasp on the important ones, IMHO.
• You should definitely know the major symptoms of the various disorders. However, speaking also as a mental health buff, the only instances where knowing symptom time frames would be crucial is in differentiating between dysthymia and MDD, or cyclothymia and bipolar disorder.
• Just know the big five (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extroversion) as they are much more prevalent on the field

thank you @mcatjelly as always! You have been very helpful

 

[torontopharm]

Hey i had a similar question! So i'm going through the Kaplan book and Khan Academy at the same time for psyc..and while Khan videos only mention Freud's psychoanalytical theory, the Kaplan book goes into other psychoanalytical theories like Carl Jung's, Karen horney's etc under personality theories. The AAMC outline vaguely states to learn "Theories of personality: Psychoanalytic perspective" but wondering if i should even bother learning about the other guys or just focus on only the theories mentioned in Khan videos for psyc.

Thanks in advance!

 

[mcatjelly]

Hey i had a similar question! So i'm going through the Kaplan book and Khan Academy at the same time for psyc..and while Khan videos only mention Freud's psychoanalytical theory, the Kaplan book goes into other psychoanalytical theories like Carl Jung's, Karen horney's etc under personality theories. The AAMC outline vaguely states to learn "Theories of personality: Psychoanalytic perspective" but wondering if i should even bother learning about the other guys or just focus on only the theories mentioned in Khan videos for psyc.

Thanks in advance!

Hmm... I think Freud and Jung would be much higher yield than Horney.