MCAT KING Psych/Soc Companion Course

MCAT KING Psych/Soc Companion Course

The MCAT KING Psych/Soc Companion Course is an 18-lesson, AAMC-aligned video curriculum designed to help students systematically master the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section of the MCAT. Rather than asking students to work through hundreds of videos without a clear sequence, this course organizes Khan Academy’s freely available MCAT educational material into a structured progression that follows the AAMC content framework from Foundational Concept 6 through Foundational Concept 10.

Students begin with sensation, perception, consciousness, memory, cognition, emotion, and stress; then move into the biological and psychological bases of behavior, learning, conditioning, personality, motivation, psychological disorders, social processes, identity, attribution, group behavior, sociology, demographics, culture, social inequality, and health disparities. Each lesson includes an ordered set of curated Khan Academy videos, a focused list of high-yield MCAT terms and concepts, and guidance for connecting the material to MCAT-style reasoning and practice.

This course is intended to serve as a companion to MCAT KING’s main MCAT curriculum. Students should use the videos to build or reinforce content knowledge, take concise notes on the listed key terms, and then apply the material through MCAT KING review and passage-based practice. Because the MCAT Psych/Soc section tests both content knowledge and the ability to interpret research, data, behavior, and social phenomena in passages, students should focus on understanding relationships between concepts rather than memorizing definitions in isolation.

Coverage is organized around the AAMC’s Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior blueprint, including Foundational Concepts 6–10. The AAMC currently describes the section as approximately 65% introductory psychology, 30% introductory sociology, and 5% introductory biology, with Foundational Concepts 6–10 contributing approximately 25%, 35%, 20%, 15%, and 5%, respectively.

Content Attribution: This companion course curates and organizes freely available Khan Academy MCAT educational resources and links students to the original material. Khan Academy and AAMC are the original sources of the linked educational resources. MCAT KING is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Khan Academy or AAMC. Third-party videos should be embedded or linked only as permitted by the source platform and should not be downloaded or re-hosted without permission.

Course Content

Lesson 1: Sensation, Thresholds & Perception
13 Topics
Absolute threshold of sensation
Bottom-up vs. top-down processing
Gestalt principles
Overview of Sensation and Meissner’s Corpuscle
Pacinian’s Corpuscle and Merkel’s Disk
Ruffini’s Ending and Hair Follicle Receptor
Sensory adaptation
Signal detection theory – part 1
Signal detection theory – part 2
Somatosensation
The vestibular system, balance, and dizziness
Visual cues
Weber’s law and thresholds
Lesson 2: Vision, Hearing & the Other Senses
18 Topics
Auditory processing
Auditory structure – part 1
Auditory structure – part 2
Cochlear implants
Feature detection and parallel processing
Gustation – structure and function
Olfaction – structure and function
Pain and temperature
Pheromones
Photoreceptor distribution in the fovea
Photoreceptors (rods vs cones)
Proprioception and kinesthesia
Sensory adaptation and amplification
Somatosensory homunculus
The phototransduction cascade
The structure of the eye
Visual field processing
Visual sensory information
Lesson 3: Consciousness, Sleep, Drugs & Attention
20 Topics
Breathing related sleep disorders
Dream theories Freud, activation synthesis hypothesis
Dreaming
Drug dependence and homeostasis
Hypnosis and meditation
Overview of psychoactive drugs
Psychoactive drugs: Depressants and opiates
Psychoactive drugs: Hallucinogens
Psychoactive drugs: Stimulants
Reward pathway in the brain
Routes of drug entry
Sleep disorders
Sleep stages and circadian rhythms
States of consciousness
Substance use disorders
The spotlight model of attention and our ability to multitask
Theories of selective attention
Tolerance and withdrawal
Treatments and triggers for drug dependence
Lesson 4: Memory, Cognition & Language
21 Topics
Aging and cognitive abilities
Alzheimer’s disease and Korsakoff’s syndrome
Cognitive dissonance
Decay and interference
Decision making
Encoding strategies
Information processing model: Sensory, working, and long term memory
Intelligence
Language and the brain: Aphasia and split-brain patients
Long term potentiation and synaptic plasticity
Memory reconstruction, source monitoring, and emotional memories
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development
Problem solving
Retrieval cues
Retrieval: Free recall, cued recall, and recognition
Schemas, assimilation, and accommodation
Semantic networks and spreading activation
Theories of intelligence
Theories of language and cognition
Theories of language development: Nativist, learning, interactionist
Theories of the early stages of language acquisition
Lesson 5: Emotion & Stress
11 Topics
Autonomic nervous system (ANS) and physiologic markers of emotion
Behavioral effects of stress
Emotions: cerebral hemispheres and prefrontal cortex
Emotions: limbic system
Physical effects of stress
Responding to stress
Stress management
Stressors
Theories of Emotion
Three components of emotion and the universal emotions
What is stress?
Lesson 6: Nervous System, Endocrine System & Development
39 Topics
Adaptive value of behavioral traits
Autonomic nervous system
Brain changes during adolescence
Brainstem
Cerebellum
Cerebral cortex
Early methods of studying the brain
Egg, sperm, and fertilization
Endocrine system and influence on behavior – Part 1
Endocrine system and influence on behavior – Part 2
Functions of the nervous system
Gene environment interaction
Genes, environment, and behavior
Germ layer derivatives
Gestation
Gray and white matter
Hemispheric differences and hemispheric dominance
Heritability
Implantation
Lesion studies and experimental ablation
Major motor milestones
Modern ways of studying the brain
Motor development
Motor unit
Muscle stretch reflex
Neonatal reflexes
Neurotransmitter anatomy
Overview of the functions of the cerebral cortex
Peripheral somatosensation
Physical development in adolescence
Regulatory genes
Somatosensory tracts
Structure of the nervous system
Subcortical cerebrum
Temperament, heredity, and genes
The old brain
Twin studies and adoption studies
Upper motor neurons
Lesson 7: Genetics, Personality, Motivation & Psychological Disorders
37 Topics
Anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder
Attitude influences behavior
Behavior influences attitude
Behavioral theory
Biological and Sociocultural Factors Food, Sex, and Drugs
Biological basis of depression
Biological basis of parkinson’s disease
Biological basis of schizophrenia
Biological theory
Categories of mental disorders
Components of attitudes
Defense mechanisms
Depression and bipolar disorder
Depression and major depressive disorder
Freud – Death drive, reality principle, and pleasure principle
Humanistic theory
Incentive theory
Introduction to mental disorders
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Personality disorders
Physiological concept of positive and negative feedback
Psychoanalytic theory
Schizophrenia
Situational approach
Sleep wake disorders breathing related sleep disorders
Somatic symptom disorder and other disorders
Trait theory
What is obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)?
What is post traumatic stress disorder?
Drug dependence and homeostasis
Reward pathway in the brain
Sleep disorders
Substance use disorders
Tolerance and withdrawal
Cognitive dissonance
Lesson 8: Social Influence, Norms, Deviance & Socialization
15 Topics
A closer look at the Stanford prison experiment
Agents of socialization
Asch conformity studies (Asch line studies)
Aspects of Collective Behavior: Fads, Mass Hysteria, and Riots
Bystander effect
Conformity and groupthink
Conformity and obedience
Events that inspired the Milgram studies on obedience
Factors that influence obedience and conformity
Milgram experiment on obedience
Social facilitation and social loafing
What can we learn from the Milgram experiment
What is normal? Exploring folkways, mores, and taboos
Zimbardo prison study The Stanford prison experiment
Lesson 9: Learning & Conditioning
11 Topics
Biological constraints on learning
Non associative learning
Operant conditioning: Escape and avoidance learning
Operant conditioning: Innate vs learned behaviors
Operant conditioning: Schedules of reinforcement
Operant conditioning: Shaping
Long term potentiation and synaptic plasticity
Lesson 10: Attitude & Behavior Change
7 Topics
Locus of control, learned helplessness, and the tyranny of choice
Persuasion, attitude change, and the elaboration likelihood model
Reciprocal determinism
Self control
Attitude influences behavior
Behavior influences attitude
Components of attitudes
Lesson 11: Self-Concept & Identity Development
10 Topics
Charles Cooley- Looking glass self
Erikson’s psychosocial development
Freud’s psychosexual development
George Herbert Mead- The I and the Me
Kohlberg moral development
Overview of theories of development
Self concept, self identity, and social identity
Self esteem, self efficacy, and locus of control
Social influences
Vygotsky sociocultural development
Lesson 12: Attribution, Social Perception, Prejudice & Bias
11 Topics
Attribution theory – Attribution error and culture
Attribution Theory – Basic covariation
Emotion and cognition in prejudice
Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in group and out group
Social perception – Primacy recency
Social perception – The Halo Effect
Social perception – The Just World Hypothesis
Stereotypes stereotype threat and self fulfilling prophecies
Stigma – Social and self
Locus of control, learned helplessness, and the tyranny of choice
Lesson 13: Social Behavior, Relationships & Interactions
18 Topics
Aggression
Altruism
Characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy
Discrimination individual vs institutional
Dramaturgical approach
Harlow monkey experiments
Impression management
Organizations and bureaucratization
Physical attraction
Prejudice vs discrimination
Primary and secondary groups
Proximity and the mere exposure effect
Role strain and role conflict
Secure and insecure attachment
Similarity
Social support
Status
Three components of emotion and universal emotions
Lesson 14: Animal Social Behavior & Discrimination
6 Topics
Animal behavior: foraging
Animal communication
Evolutionary game theory
Examples of discrimination in society today
Mating behavior and inclusive fitness
Types of animal communication
Lesson 15: Social Structure, Institutions & Sociological Theory
13 Topics
Conflict theory
Functionalism
Macrosociology vs microsociology
Rational choice-exchange theory
Relating social theories to medicine
Social constructionism
Social institutions
Social institutions – education, family, and religion
Social institutions – government, economy, health and medicine
Social theories overview (part 1)
Social theories overview (part 2)
Symbolic interactionism
What are social groups and social networks?
Lesson 16: Demographics, Population Change & Globalization
13 Topics
Demographic structure of society – age
Demographic structure of society – immigration
Demographic structure of society – race and ethnicity
Demographic structure of society overview
Demographic transition
Globalization theories
Globalization- trade and transnational corporations
Overview of demographics
Population dynamics
Social movements
Urbanization
What is urban growth?
Lesson 17: Culture & Society
8 Topics
Culture and society
Culture lag and culture shock
Diffusion
Evolution and human culture
Jim goes to college subculture
Mass media
Overview of culture
Subculture vs counterculture
Lesson 18: Social Inequality & Health Disparities
13 Topics
Absolute and relative poverty
Class consciousness and false consciousness
Environmental justice
Global inequality
Health and healthcare disparities in the US
Intergenerational and intragenerational mobility social mobility
Intersectionality
Overview of social inequality
Residential segregation
Social exclusion (segregation and social isolation)
Social reproduction
Upward and downward mobility, meritocracy
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