← MCAT®

6C: Responding to the World

Emotion and stress: the same event sent down three rival theories in three different orders, and a resistance curve that runs out of road.

13 topics · 53 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

6C. The Three Components of Emotion

  1. How it worksHow do the physiological, cognitive and behavioral components of an emotion run in parallel?
  2. Worked exampleShow me the three components pulled apart for one person meeting a bear on a trail.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't the feeling of an emotion the same thing as the bodily arousal underneath it?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to the emotion when the facial expression component is blocked by paralysis?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A hiker meeting a bear shows her heart rate climb from 73 to 146 beats per minute, rates the experience 10 out of 10 for unpleasantness, and backs away within 3 seconds. By how many beats per minute did the physiological component change?

6C. Universal Emotions and Facial Expression

  1. How it worksHow do fear, anger, happiness, surprise, disgust and sadness show up as distinct muscle patterns?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't every emotional display the same across cultures despite the expressions being universal?
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to felt emotion when you are made to hold a smile with a pen between your teeth?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Judges are shown photographs of facial expressions and must pick one label from a list of 8 emotion words. If a judge responded at random, what percentage of trials would be correct by chance?

6C. The Adaptive Role of Emotion

  1. How it worksHow does each basic emotion prepare one specific action the body is about to need?
  2. How it worksWalk me through disgust guarding against contamination and anger signaling a boundary was crossed.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't more emotional control always better for decision-making?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to choices in a patient whose emotional signal for risk has been destroyed?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Volunteers withdraw from a looming threat in 236 ms when their emotional response is intact and in 378 ms when a drug blunts it. By what percentage is the blunted group slower?

6C. James-Lange, Cannon-Bard and Schachter-Singer

  1. How it worksHow does James-Lange put the bodily response first and the felt emotion second?
  2. How it worksWalk me through Cannon-Bard sending arousal and emotion out at the same instant along separate routes.
  3. How it worksWalk me through Schachter-Singer needing arousal plus a cognitive label before any emotion exists.
  4. Worked exampleShow me one racing heart on a first date routed down all three theories side by side.
  5. Common mistakeWhy isn't Schachter-Singer just James-Lange with an extra step bolted on?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
Participants injected with a substance that produces unexplained arousal are placed with a euphoric confederate and report euphoria on 72 percent of trials; with an angry confederate, 33 percent of a matched group report anger. What is the difference in percentage points between the two reported emotions?

6C. The Limbic System and the Amygdala

  1. How it worksHow does a fast thalamus-to-amygdala route beat the slow route through the cortex?
  2. How it worksWalk me through amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus and prefrontal cortex dividing emotional work.
  3. Worked exampleShow me what a rat does when the amygdala is lesioned and a tone that once meant shock plays.
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't the amygdala only a fear center?
  5. Going furtherWhat changes about emotion regulation when prefrontal control over the amygdala weakens?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A threatening image reaches the amygdala in 17 ms by the direct thalamic route and in 49 ms by the route through visual cortex. How many milliseconds does the direct route save?

6C. Emotion and the Autonomic Nervous System

  1. How it worksHow does sympathetic activation mobilize the body while the parasympathetic branch brings it back down?
  2. Worked exampleShow me heart rate, pupil size, digestion and sweat all moving during one sympathetic surge.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't fight or flight an all-or-nothing switch that is either on or off?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to the recovery curve when the parasympathetic rebound is slow or incomplete?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
A sympathetic surge takes heart rate from 72 to 156 beats per minute, and the parasympathetic rebound brings it back to 72 over 115 seconds. What is the average rate of decline during the recovery, in beats per minute per second?

6C. Physiological Markers of Emotion

  1. How it worksHow do skin conductance, heart rate and facial EMG trace different signatures for different emotions?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't a polygraph a reliable lie detector despite measuring real physiological change?
  3. Going furtherWhat changes when emotion is inferred from brain imaging instead of from peripheral signals?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A participant's skin conductance rises from a baseline of 4 microsiemens to a peak of 13 microsiemens during a startle. By what percentage has it risen?

6C. Appraisal: Primary and Secondary

  1. How it worksHow does primary appraisal ask whether an event matters and secondary appraisal ask whether you can cope?
  2. Worked exampleShow me one looming deadline appraised as harm, as threat and as challenge with different outcomes.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't the stressfulness of an event a property of the event itself?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to the stress response when a secondary appraisal of coping resources is raised?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Of 245 students sitting the same examination, 66 describe it beforehand as a challenge they can meet and 67 describe it as a threat, with the rest undecided. What percentage of the group appraise it as a threat?

6C. Types of Stressors

  1. How it worksHow do cataclysmic events, significant life changes and daily hassles differ in shape and duration?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't a positive event like a wedding free of physiological stress?
  3. Going furtherWhat changes about the damage when a stressor becomes chronic instead of acute?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
A commuter reports 6 distinct hassles on a typical day, each rated 4 out of 10 for severity. Over 11 weeks of the same commute, what total severity load does it contribute?

6C. The General Adaptation Syndrome

  1. How it worksHow do alarm, resistance and exhaustion trace one resistance curve rising, holding and falling?
  2. Worked exampleShow me where a medical student sits on that curve during week one, week eight and finals week.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't the resistance stage a sign that the body has successfully adapted?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to the curve when a second new stressor arrives during the resistance stage?
  5. Ties togetherHow does exhaustion in the general adaptation syndrome connect to immune suppression and illness?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Resistance to infection measures 64 units at baseline, dips to 40 units during alarm, climbs to 118 units during the resistance stage and falls to 21 units at exhaustion. By how many units is exhaustion below the original baseline?

6C. The Physiology of the Stress Response

  1. How it worksHow does the sympathetic route fire adrenaline in seconds while the HPA axis releases cortisol in minutes?
  2. How it worksWalk me through hypothalamus to pituitary to adrenal cortex and the cortisol that comes back.
  3. Worked exampleShow me cortisol plotted across a two-hour stressor and the negative feedback that should shut it off.
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't cortisol simply a harmful hormone the body would be better off without?
  5. Going furtherWhat happens to the hippocampus when cortisol stays elevated for months on end?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Salivary cortisol rises from 7 to 26 micrograms per decilitre across a 57 minute laboratory stressor. What is the average rate of rise, in micrograms per decilitre per minute?

6C. Emotional, Behavioral and Cognitive Outcomes of Stress

  1. How it worksHow does chronic stress narrow attention, impair working memory and push behavior toward habit?
  2. Worked exampleShow me performance against arousal tracing an inverted U for an easy task and a hard one.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't all stress bad for performance?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to health behaviors like sleep and eating when stress becomes chronic?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Performance on a well-practised easy task peaks at an arousal level of 8 on a 10 point scale, while performance on a demanding novel task peaks at 3. By how many points is the optimum lower for the demanding task?

6C. Managing Stress

  1. How it worksHow do problem-focused and emotion-focused coping attack two completely different parts of the problem?
  2. How it worksWalk me through exercise, relaxation, social support and spirituality each lowering a different marker.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't avoidance a form of coping that works over the long run?
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about the stress response when perceived control over the stressor is restored?
Your turneasy1 of 3
Resting heart rate falls from 82 to 64 beats per minute after 15 weeks of regular aerobic exercise, with the stressors in the person's life unchanged. What is the percentage reduction in resting heart rate?

AP®, SAT® and PSAT/NMSQT® are trademarks registered by the College Board (PSAT/NMSQT® jointly with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation). ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT Education Corp. GRE® is a registered trademark of ETS. LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admission Council. MCAT® is a registered trademark of the Association of American Medical Colleges. ISEE® and SSAT® are registered trademarks of their owners. None of these organizations is affiliated with, or endorses, Jentoo.