Biological Bases of Social Behavior (8C) - MCAT Psychological and Social Foundations

Theory of mind and perspective-taking. Enables understanding others' mental states and beliefs.

Cognitive control and regulation of impulses in social contexts. Maintains goal-directed behavior despite social distractions.

Executive control of social behavior (planning, inhibition, decision-making). Overrides automatic responses for appropriate social conduct.

Reward learning and motivation for social interaction. Reinforces social interactions through reward pathways.

Modulates mood and impulsive aggression. Low levels linked to increased reactive aggression.

Total genetic success via own offspring plus aiding relatives’ reproduction. Maximizes gene copies through direct and indirect means.

Stress can promote affiliative caregiving and social support seeking. Alternative to fight-or-flight, especially in females.

Kin selection. Altruism toward relatives preserves shared genes.

Kin selection: helps relatives; reciprocal altruism: helps nonkin with expected return. Kin share genes; reciprocal requires future benefit.

Increases dominance-related behavior and competitive/aggressive responding. Correlates with status-seeking and reduced empathy.

Stress hormone that biases vigilance and can impair social cognition. Chronic elevation disrupts prefrontal regulation.

Males: more physical; females: more relational/indirect aggression. Testosterone influences physical aggression more in males.

Kin selection (inclusive fitness). Helping relatives increases copies of shared genes.

Helping others with expectation of future return benefits. Evolved strategy where cooperation benefits both parties over time.

Facilitates bonding and trust; enhances affiliative behavior. Released during social bonding to promote prosocial behaviors.

Ventral striatum (including nucleus accumbens). Part of reward circuit activated by social rewards.

Conflict monitoring and social pain (rejection-related distress). Activates when detecting conflicts and experiencing social exclusion.

Threat detection and emotional salience, especially fear and aggression. Processes emotional stimuli and triggers fear/aggression responses.

Executive control of social behavior (planning, inhibition, judgment). Regulates impulses and complex social decision-making.

Processing emotional salience, especially fear and threat-related social cues. Rapidly detects threats to trigger fight-or-flight responses.

Interoception and disgust/empathy-related affective processing. Processes bodily sensations linked to social emotions.

Conflict monitoring and affective processing, including social pain. Detects social conflicts and processes rejection distress.

Perception of biological motion, gaze direction, and social intentions. Detects social cues from body language and eye movements.

Facial recognition and processing of facial identity. Specialized for distinguishing individual faces.

Linking observed actions to motor representations; supports imitation/empathy. Neurons fire both when performing and observing actions.

Promotes social bonding, trust, and attachment-related behaviors. Released during childbirth/nursing; enhances in-group favoritism.

Facilitates social bonding and pair-bonding; can increase aggression/territoriality. ADH analog that modulates social memory and mate guarding.

Epinephrine and norepinephrine from the adrenal medulla. Fight-or-flight response releases catecholamines rapidly.

Attributing mental states to self and others. Understanding others have different thoughts/beliefs.