Hello Nicole,

Q22. I do not believe this is addressed in any of your materials. We do not discuss General Adaptation Syndrome in any of the PsychSoc classes, and it does not appear to be in the Exams Krackers study guide either. Some of the content in the practice exams may be slightly out of date with current day MCAT curriculum, so it's best not to worry too much about questions like this one and trust that the current course will have your prepared for what is currently being testing on the MCAT.
That being said, should a situation like this arise, you likely won't be able to confidently answer the question without knowing what something is, you may be able to at least narrow down your choices with some common sense to eliminate potential answers. In this case you can look at answers like b, which suggests that psychological stressors always cause approach-approach conflict. This would mean that all social stress is the result of having to choose between two desirable options, which doesn't make a lot of sense given the passage outlining a negative stress experience. Eliminating answers like those can help so that even if you end up guessing your final answer you have better odds of it being the right answer.

Q23. Group polarization is not just about the actions being extreme, but more specifically that the actions of the group are more extreme than the actions of any individual would have been. Because the confederate is there with the purpose of suggesting they play the aggravating sound the group does not take any actions beyond what any of the individuals would have done, they have simply conformed to the suggestion of one of the group's members.

Q35. Because we are dealing with immigrants, the implication is that childhood norms where established in a culture different from the one they are now in. Any time cultural norms are being relinquished in place of new cultural norms you are likely seeing the effects of assimilation. The process of assimilation may have consequences on an individuals health depending on the culture being adopted, but answer A reduced assimilation to just an impact on health, and it certainly involves more than just that.

Q38. The wording of these answers as well as the findings of the study are a little bit tricky. Having social relationships that help an individual cope with stress would be considered part of a supportive relationship. The fact that stress was not considered to have an affect could mean that whether an individual was experiencing stress or not wasn't in and of itself impactful, but rather how well they were supported and equipped to deal with their stresses was impactful, which is why the impact was attributed to having social supports and not the stress itself. Additionally, D was the only answer option that had no direct reference to social relationships or family. Social activities that help an individual to avoid boredom may not involve any relationships whatsoever, and therefore isn't necessarily relevant.

Q54. Conflict Theory is all about different groups competing for power and acting out of self-interest. Answer option B (the correct answer) acknowledges and emphasizes that a particular group of people are in power, and looking to maintain that structural power by discriminating against other groups to keep them powerless. They are acting in self interest to compete against other groups of people. The other answer options all theorize some other sort of motivation. A suggests that the discriminatory actions are for the efficiency of an organization, implying there is something inherently inefficient about the discriminated, similarly C suggests that the discriminated cause ineffective social interactions and that the discrimination itself is subjective. Finally D calls the discrimination necessary, once again referring to the discriminated as ineffective simply because their race or gender differs from those in power.
Conflict Theory does not require anything to be inherently flawed about groups that are not in power, and the groups in power needn't have any reason to keep them powerless beyong maintaining the power balance in their own favour.

Nicole