MCAT Pioneers: Psychology & Sociology Practice Passages

The purpose of this book is to help examinees that will be sitting for the new MCAT test format as from Spring 2015 to prepare for the sections on Social and Behavioral Sciences which encompass psychological, social, and biological foundations of behavior. The questions in the new sections are based on knowledge of important introductory psychology and sociology concepts that relate to mental processes and behavior. The new changes expect acquisition of information and skills in areas that were previously not tested on MCAT. There is also the realization that the 21st Century medical student and doctor need to be knowledgeable not only about facts related to disease, but equally important, about the psycho-social environment that interacts with the individual patient to produce or mitigate disease. The book is titled "MCAT Pioneers" because we are happy and proud to be pioneers in utilizing a biopsycho-social (BPS) lens to assist MCAT applicants in understanding and integrating the concept of health and disease as a product of the inter-play among biological (e.g., genetic/epigenetic, molecular, cellular and hormonal), psychological (e.g., our thoughts, perceptions, attitudes, reactions and behaviors) and social (e.g., institutional, cultural, political and socio-economic) environments. This yields a comprehensive and unified multi-factorial approach to health and disease thus preparing the future medical student to draw on this understanding in his/her interactions with and management of patients within a context rather than in isolation. Above all, the book will aid examines who aim to achieve high scores in the new MCAT format.