MCAT Psych/Sociology Comprehensive Study Guide | 100% Correct | Verified | 2024 Version

MCAT Psych/Sociology Comprehensive Study Guide | 100% Correct | Verified | 2024 Version Biopsychosocial approach to health and illness - Illness is determined by a variety of influences, rather than a single cause(NOT just biological factors). . The causes and effects of illness can be examined at multiple levels in the life of an individual, and no single level provides the whole picture. Collecting info about psychosocial context is key to the understanding of physical health and illness. How would a BPS approach look at a kidney vs how a BM approach would? - BPS- treat the alcoholism but also look at the persons living situation and stress level BM- would just treat the alcoholism Biomedical approach to health and illness - Disease is studied by examining only the biological factors of illness, neglecting contributing factors of psychological life and sociological context. ex- looking just at cardiac at muscle and genetic factors as to why someone has a heart attack and not looking at diet, exercise, stress at work what two types of therapy does the biopsychsocial model like to do? - direct therapy-treatment that acts directly on the individual (medicine) indirect therapy- aims to increase social support by educating and empowering family and friends Models - Provide an approximation (physical/conceptual representation) of a scientific phenomenon that cannot be observed directly Theories - Provides the conceptual framework for understanding objects of study example of framework? - How people behave in groups and why they do What else does a theory describe? - Explain the results of a study and help design new studies What are the two categories that sociological theories can be placed into? - 1. Macrosociology- focuses on broad social structures that affect society. Large scale perspective, looking at big phenomena that affect big portion of population. Social structures and institutions, whole civilizations/populations. Looking for patterns and effects the big picture has on lives on small groups. Broad social trends in cities and statistical data. Deals with matters like poverty, war, health care, world economy 2. Microsociology- focuses on the smaller scale of social interaction between individuals Face to face interactions, families, schools, other social interactions. Interpretive analysis of society, looking at sample of society and how individual interactions would affect larger groups in society Social constructionism - Macrosocial reflects on how we as a society construct concepts and principles. The beliefs and shared understandings of individuals create social realities. ex- coins didn't have value until we as peope constructed them value In the context of illness, there is a gap b/t the biological reality of a medical condition and the societally created meaning of the condition. (ex. changing conceptualizations of mental illness results in changes to the DSM). It is a dynamic, ongoing process. Social Construct from Khan Academy - Social constructionism is a theory that knowledge and many aspects of the world around us are not real in and of themselves. They only exist because we give them reality through social agreement. Things like nations, books, even money don't exist in the absence of human society. Even Natural occurring phenomenon they think still has some human implication. What are the two categories a constructionist divides reality into? - 1. brute facts 2. Institutional facts Brute facts vs Institutional Facts - -Part of WEAK social constructionism -Brute facts are physical realities that exist outside of human input(a fact that has no explanation it just naturally occurs and can't be explained with another fact) -Institutional facts only exist as a function of society's structures and beliefs (contingent on another fact) Explain the two concepts with using gravity? - Brute- objects seems to fall to earths surface when dropped from above Institutional- gravitational force on the entire planet