I almost cringe to ask this, but in my prep for the MCAT psychology section (I'm using the REA AP Psychology Test Prep Guide, given how dreadfully deficient the MCAT psych books seem to be), psychology seem like a lumbering morass of "Name Theories". That is [Enter psychologist's name] Theory of [Enter topic]. (If the MCAT Physics section was like that, they'd be busy asking us about phlogiston and ether theories, and would never get around to probing our understanding on what physicists know today.) In the learning chapter alone, there must be more than 20 Name Theories, and the whole thing is doing nothing but careening from one to the other.
Is it necessary to memorize all of these names and the details of their theories, or does it suffice to simply hit the big ones (Milgram, Freud, Bandura, Piaget), and try to understand the underlying concepts? Because if is the former, I'm probably in trouble. In glancing through the book, I estimate probably on the order of 100-200 Name Theories. I can do it, but it'll take more time than I have, given that I've not taken psych since 1987. Plus I've got a lot of biochem to go back and re-memorize.
Cheers!
Is it necessary to memorize all of these names and the details of their theories, or does it suffice to simply hit the big ones (Milgram, Freud, Bandura, Piaget), and try to understand the underlying concepts? Because if is the former, I'm probably in trouble. In glancing through the book, I estimate probably on the order of 100-200 Name Theories. I can do it, but it'll take more time than I have, given that I've not taken psych since 1987. Plus I've got a lot of biochem to go back and re-memorize.
Cheers!
