High-Yield P/S MCAT Topics Exam questions and answers | 2024/2025

McDonaldization - when a society adopts the characteristics of a fast-food restaurant. Ethnography - the method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have social loafing - the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable Structural Functionalism - a conceptual framework positing that each element of society serves a particular function to keep the entire system in equilibrium Intersectionality - an analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender, and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification cognitive dissonance theory - the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent Mead theory of identity - According to Mead's theory, the self has two sides or phases: 'me' and 'I.' The 'me' is the socialized and responsible aspect of the Self The 'I' is the spontaneous, less socialized aspect of the Self World Systems Theory - Theory originated by Immanuel Wallerstein and illuminated by his three-tier structure, proposing that social change in the developing world is inextricably linked to the economic activities of the developed world