All MCAT Social and Behavioral Sciences Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #11 : Psychological Disorders And Anomalies
Major depression is classified as which type of disorder?
Mood
Impulse control
Psychosomatic
Anxiety
Dissociative
Mood
Affective disorders are a group of disorders marked by a disturbance of mood. Included in the category is major depression. People with major depression see nothing but sorrow in the future and may not wish to live anymore. Anxiety disorders are characterized by unreasonable anxiety or fear that is inappropriate to the circumstances and disrupts the person's life. Psychosomatic disorder is a real physical disorder that has a psychological cause, such as tension headaches. Dissociative disorder is a type of personality disorder that involves a disassociation of past experiences from present memory. The origin of dissociative disorders is a need to escape extreme trauma, usually some form of abuse. Impulse control disorders are an inability to resist an impulse to perform an action that is harmful to others. Includes in this category are kleptomania and pyromania.
Example Question #31 : Mcat Social And Behavioral
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been used to compare the brains of people who have depression with those who do not have depression. Which is the correct list of areas of the brain that show up differently on MRIs depending on whether a person has, or does not have, depression?
Mood, vision, sleep, appetite, and behavior
Speech, mood, thinking, sleep, and appetite
Mood, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior
Vision, movement, memory, speech, sleep
Mood, thinking, sleep, movement, appetite
Mood, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior
The correct answer is mood, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior. Other functions, such as speech, memory, and movement do not appear different depending on whether the patient is depressed.