MCAT Social and Behavioral Sciences : Other Concepts of Emotion

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for MCAT Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Emotion

Emotion plays a critical role in attitude change. A great deal of attitude research notes the importance of affective/emotional components. Important factors to consider in emotion’s impact on attitude are: self-efficacy, attitude accessibility, issue involvement, and message/source features. Of these factors, which has the greatest potential to change the individual’s emotional self-perception—the way they feel about themselves?

Possible Answers:

Message source/features

Issue involvement

Self-efficacy

Attitude accessibility

None of these

Correct answer:

Self-efficacy

Explanation:

Self-efficacy is a perception of human agency, the perception of one’s ability to face a situation. It dictates one’s ability to deal with emotion brought up by a situation, and to process it via perception.

While intriguing, the other choices are incorrect. Attitude accessibility refers to the activation of an attitude from memory. Studies have shown that accessible attitudes are change-resistant. Issue involvement is the relevance and salience of an issue or situation to an individual; it is correlated with attitude access and attitude strength—both of which are distinct from perception. Message source and features of the message being sent are on an object-subject correlative; they are not directly relevant to perception.

All MCAT Social and Behavioral Sciences Resources

133 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept
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