Social Sciences Concepts
Social sciences concepts
This domain tests psychology and sociology as empirical sciences. Questions ask you to identify concepts in scenarios, interpret research, and connect individual behavior to social structure: learning, memory, cognition, identity, stratification, institutions, and health disparities.
Core rules and concepts
- Learning: classical conditioning pairs a neutral conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus; operant conditioning shapes behavior through reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement increases behavior; punishment decreases it. Schedules matter: variable ratio produces high, persistent responding.
- Memory: working memory is limited; long-term memory includes explicit (semantic, episodic) and implicit (procedural) forms. Encoding depth and retrieval cues affect recall.
- Social structure: status, role, norms, and institutions constrain action. Stratification by class, race, gender, and education shapes access to resources.
- Health: social determinants include income, education, neighborhood, and discrimination; disparities reflect structural factors, not only individual choices.
Worked example
A patient receiving chemotherapy feels nauseated when entering the clinic before treatment. The drug is the unconditioned stimulus (UCS); nausea is the unconditioned response (UCR). The clinic, repeatedly paired with the drug, becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS); nausea in the clinic is the conditioned response (CR). This is classical conditioning. If the patient instead learns to arrive early to avoid waiting, and early arrival increases, that would be operant negative reinforcement-removing an aversive wait.
Traps that cost marks
Negative reinforcement is not punishment: it removes a stimulus and increases behavior. Prejudice is an attitude; discrimination is behavior. Correlation in social data does not prove causation. Avoid fundamental attribution error-overweighting personality and underweighting situation. Distinguish material culture from symbolic culture, and status from role.