Academic Prerequisites to Apply to Medical School

Academic Prerequisites to Apply to Medical School Perhaps it goes without saying that gaining admission to medical school is challenging.  Nearly 50,000 students submit applications each year and about 20,000 matriculate into medical school programs the following Fall semester. How do you ensure entry? While you cant ensure that youll be accepted, you can increase your odds. The successful medical student most commonly holds a pre-med major. But a pre-med major is not the only way to prepare for medical school admissions  Some applicants decide against premed majors.  They earn biology or chemistry degrees, either because their universities don’t offer premed majors or because of their own personal interests.  Science degrees are common because although it’s possible to gain admission to medical school without a pre-med degree, all med schools require that applicants take at minimum eight science classes. These requirements are outlined by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which accredits medical schools. That means that completing these courses is a non-negotiable part of your med school application. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, you must take, at minimum:   One year of BiologyOne year of Physics  One year of EnglishTwo years of Chemistry (organic and inorganic Chemistry) Why Is So Much Science Required? Medicine is an interdisciplinary field in that medical research incorporates skills, concepts, and findings from the many subfields within biology, chemistry, and other sciences.  Successful medical students have a background in these fields that serve as a baseline for their education in medicine.   Medical Schools Are Not Just Interested in Science Classes in mathematics are also important, though not required by the AAMC. Good grades in math indicate that you are able to reason and think like a scientist. The following courses are recommended but not required. Note the integration of liberal arts skills. Additional Recommendations Genetics (Often required)Calculus (Required by many)Molecular biologyStatistics or epidemiologyPsychology (Upper-level course)NeuroscienceEthicsWriting These recommended courses illustrate the basic educational themes that med schools look for in applicants:  the capacity for science, logical thinking, good communication skills, and high ethical standards. It’s Not Just About the Classes Getting into medical school does not simply require completing a set of classes.  Your performance in science classes (and all classes) matters. Specifically, you must earn high grades.  Your overall grade point average (GPA) must be no lower than 3.5 on the US 4.0 scale. Non-science and science GPAs are calculated separately but you should earn at least a 3.5 in each. Ultimately, you don’t need to be a pre-med major to complete these courses and meet the prerequisites for medical school, but a pre-med major makes it easier for you to fulfill all of the prerequisites within 4 years of college. A pre-med major is helpful but not necessary.

Human behavior Essays

Human behavior Essays Human behavior Essay Human behavior Essay After instinct theories were discredited, explanations for behavior shifted to needs. A need was defined as an internal state of disequilibrium or deficiency which has the capacity to trigger a behavioral response. The cause of the deficiency could be physiological, such as hunger; psychological, such as a need for power; or sociological, such as a need for social interaction. The presence of a need motivates an individual to action to restore a state of equilibrium, as shown . A basic assumption of all need theories is that when need deficiencies exist, individuals are motivated to action to satisfy them. One of the earliest theories of needs was the manifest need theory proposed by Henry A. Murray. Murray believed that needs are mostly learned rather than inherited and are activated by cues from the external environment. For example, an employee who has a high need for affiliation will pursue that need by associating with others only when the environmental conditions are appropriate. Only then would the need be manifest. When the need was not cued, the need was said to be latent or not activated. Murray identified a wide range of needs that people supposedly acquire to one degree or another through interaction with their environment. Murray first developed a list of fifteen needs that were classified as viscerogenic (primary) and psychogenic (secondary). The needs for food, water, sex, urination, defecation, and lactation, all associated with physiological functioning, are examples of Murrays viscerogenic needs. Murrays psychogenic needs include abasement, achievement, affiliation, aggression, autonomy, deference, dominance, and power. Murrays need categories attempted to focus on specific, relatively narrow need-related issues and a separate need was created for almost every human behavior. Murrays list of needs was not derived from empirical research but from his personal observations and clinical experience. Periodically he added additional needs to his list, and the length of the list increased with his career. Maslows need hierarchy Abraham Maslow was a clinical psychologist whose theory of motivation was part of a larger theory of human behavior. Maslow was a humanist who was deeply concerned about the dignity and worth of individuals. He frequently talked of the differences between healthy and unhealthy individuals, and believed that individuals had a positive capacity to improve the quality of their lives . His theory of behavior emerged from his clinical experiences as he was able to sift and integrate the ideas of other leading psychologist. Maslow formulated a hierarchy of five general needs. The term drive was first introduced by Woodworth (1918) to describe the reservoir of energy that impels an organism to behave in certain ways. While Woodworth intended the term to mean a general supply of energy within an organism, others soon modified this definition to refer to a host of specific energizers (such as hunger, thirst, sex) toward or away from certain goals. With the introduction of the concept of drive, it now became possible for psychologists to predict in advance-at least in theory-not only what goals an individual would strive toward but also the strength of the motivation toward such goals. A major theoretical advance in drive theory came from the work of Cannon in the early 1930s. Cannon (1939) introduced the concept of homeostasis to de- scribe a state of disequilibrium within an organism which existed whenever internal conditions deviated from their normal state. When such disequilibrium occurred (as when an organism felt hunger), the organism was motivated by internal drives to reduce the disequilibrium and to return to its normal state. Inherent in Cannons notion was the idea that organisms exist in a dynamic environment and that the determining motives for behavior constantly change, depending upon where the disequilibrium exists within the system. Thus, certain drives or motives move to the forefront and then, once satisfied, retreat while other paramount. This concept is also reflected in the works of Maslow. The first comprehensive-and experimentally specific- elaboration of drive was put forth by Hull. In his major work Principles of Behavior, published 1943, Hull set down a specific equation to explain an organisms impetus to Effort = Drive X Habit. Drive was defined by Hull as an energizing influence which determined the intensity of behavior, and which theoretically Habit was seen as the strength of relationship between past stimulus and response (S-R). Hall hypothesized that the resulting effort, or motivational force, was a multiplicative function of these two central variables. If we apply Hulls theory to an organization setting, the motivation to seek employment would be seen as a multiplicative function of the need for money (drive) and the strength of the feeling that been associated with the receipt of money in the past (habit). Later, Hull added an incentive variable to his equation. His later formulation thus read: Effort = Drive x Habit X Incentive. This incentive factor, added in large mea- sure in response to the attack by the cognitive theorists, was defined in terms of anticipatory reactions to future goals. Just as drive theory draws upon Thorndikes law of effect, so do modem reinforcement approaches (e. g. , Skinner, 1953). The difference is that the former theory emphasizes an internal state (i. e. , drive) as a necessary variable to take into account, while reinforcement theory does not. Rather, the reinforcement model places total emphasis on the consequences of behavior. Behavior initiated by the individual that produces an effect or consequence is called operant behavior (i. e. , the individual has operated on the environment), and the theory deals with the contingent relationships between this operant behavior and the pattern of consequences. It ignores the inner state of the individual and concentrates solely on what happens to a person when he or she takes some action. Thus, strictly speaking, reinforcement theory is not a theory of motivation because it does not concern itself with what energizes of initiates behavior.

The Development of Motivation Theory in Business Essay - 1

The Development of Motivation Theory in Business - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Maslow’s theory asserts that people are motivated by the quest to satisfy their needs or deficiencies. Maslow grouped needs into five categories with the needs occurring in a specific hierarchy where the lower needs had to be satisfied before advancing to those of higher order. Physiological needs are basic survival needs like food while safety needs are personal security needs such as the need for a steady job. Social needs are social acceptance and support needs while egoistical needs are desired by an individual to be valued by others. Self-actualization is the aspiration of an individual to acquire the finest out of his/her abilities. From the hierarchical system, Maslow deduced that those needs which had already been satisfied no longer provided motivation for action. Due to lack of empirical support for Maslow’s theory, Alderfer postulated the Alderfer’s Existence-Relatedness-Growth (ERG) theory, which condensed Maslow’s n eeds to three. These three needs were existence or physical survival needs, relatedness or social needs and growth or need for personal growth and development. Alderfer, however, did not insist on a hierarchical system rather he claimed that the needs ought to be experienced simultaneously. Alderfer’s theory got more appeal from practitioners and had greater empirical support. Though the needs theory has limited empirical support, some of its assertions like the self-actualization principle have gained currency among managers and executives who perceive this high-level need as a potent motivator. Herzberg claimed that motivation emanates from the job itself and not from other external characteristics. He explained that those factors leading to job satisfaction or motivators are distinct from those that cause job dissatisfaction; that is, hygiene or maintenance factors. The hygiene factors are factors surrounding the task which do not lead to satisfaction but prevent dissatisf action if well maintained. Examples of such factors are job status and remuneration.