Was this discussed on tips when it came out in April? I was gone and may have missed a conversation. I guess I had better check the archives. If not, here it is now:
Pre-Med’s New Priorities: Heart and Soul and Social Science http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/education/edlife/pre-meds-new-priorities-heart-and-soul-and-social-science.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 We can all rest assured that the MCAT is now going to assess psychology, to make sure that applicants to medical school are well-grounded in understanding human behavior. Read that statement as sarcastic! Here are some snippets from the above linked article on what the new MCAT will assess as the important areas of psychology: "How to prepare pre-med students long primed to answer questions like “Where are the serotonin receptors 5-HT2A and 5-HT2B mostly likely to be located in hepatocytes” to tackle more ambiguous challenges, like: “Which of the following explanations describes why the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage likely affects views about voting and being a voter?” and: "Three components of emotion (cognitive, physiological, behavioral). Universal emotions (fear, anger, happiness, surprise, joy, disgust and sadness). Adaptive role of emotion. Theories of emotion (James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, Schachter-Singer theory). " I am so happy to know that the most important things a premed student can learn from psychology is Erikson (which I never teach any longer in favor of more current and empirically supported information on development), James-Lange/Cannon-Bard and Schachter-Singer (which I never teach any longer in favor of more currenta nd empirically supported information on development) and all those emphases on emotion (which I barely touch on in favor of other material). So I guess if a premed student takes intro psych from me...well, drat! They still might not pass the psych items on the MCAT. I wonder in the big picture of an intro psych class how much value there will be here for the premeds. Of course, the more difficult question might be, if not this stuff then what should be on the test? Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Professor, Psychological Sciences University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 tay...@sandiego.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=20959 or send a blank email to leave-20959-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
