Free MCAT-style practice, 8A
MCAT Self-Concept, Identity and Locus of Control Practice Questions
Eight free MCAT-style practice questions on self-schema, self-esteem versus self-efficacy, locus of control, identity statuses and social identity, with full explanations.
Quick concept primer
Self-concept is the whole set of beliefs a person holds about who they are. Its building blocks are self-schemas, organized beliefs about the self in one domain ("I am a musician") that speed up noticing and remembering information tied to that domain. Self-esteem is the overall evaluation of that self, how much a person values themselves. Self-efficacy, from Bandura, is narrower: the belief that one can succeed at a specific task, built from mastery experiences, watching similar others succeed, verbal persuasion and how one reads one's own arousal.
Locus of control, from Rotter, describes where people place the causes of outcomes: internal (my effort, my choices) or external (luck, fate, powerful others). Identity can be personal (traits and goals) or social (group memberships that become part of the self). Marcia sorted identity formation by two questions, has the person explored options and have they committed: diffusion (neither), foreclosure (commitment without exploration), moratorium (exploring, no commitment) and achievement (both).
Traps: self-esteem is global while self-efficacy is task specific, so a person can be high on one and low on the other. Foreclosure involves commitment, diffusion does not. Locus of control is a general belief about causes, not a single attribution. The 8A Self-Concept and Identity pack adds flashcards and more practice across the whole category, and you can try a free sampler first.
8 practice questions
Question 1
A college sophomore thinks of herself as a dedicated cyclist. In a lab task, she spots bicycle-related words in a list faster than other participants and recalls more of them an hour later. Which concept best explains her performance?
- High global self-esteem
- A self-schema for cycling
- An external locus of control
- Identity foreclosure
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. A self-schema for cycling
A self-schema is an organized set of beliefs about the self in one domain, and schema-relevant information is detected faster and remembered better. Self-esteem is an overall evaluation, not a domain filter; locus of control concerns beliefs about causes of outcomes; foreclosure is an identity status, not an attention or memory effect.
Question 2
A graduate student reports that she generally likes and respects herself and feels she is a worthwhile person. However, before her first statistics exam she says, "I do not think I can handle regression problems no matter how much I prepare." Which description fits her best?
- Low self-esteem and high self-efficacy for statistics
- Low self-esteem and low self-efficacy for statistics
- High self-esteem and high self-efficacy for statistics
- High self-esteem and low self-efficacy for statistics
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. High self-esteem and low self-efficacy for statistics
Liking and valuing herself overall is high global self-esteem, while doubting she can succeed at one specific task is low self-efficacy for that task. The two constructs are separate, so they can diverge. The choices with low self-esteem misread her global self-evaluation, and the high self-efficacy choices contradict her stated doubt.
Question 3
A researcher gives four students a 20-item locus of control questionnaire. Each item scores 1 point when the student picks the externally oriented answer, so scores range from 0 (fully internal) to 20 (fully external).
| Student | Score |
|---|---|
| P | 4 |
| Q | 15 |
| R | 9 |
| S | 12 |
What is the mean score of the four students, and which student is most likely to explain a failed exam by saying they did not study enough?
- 10, student P
- 10, student Q
- 11, student P
- 9.5, student Q
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. 10, student P
The mean is (4 + 15 + 9 + 12) / 4 = 40 / 4 = 10. Student P has the lowest external score and so the most internal locus of control, which predicts blaming one's own effort for a failure. Student Q is the most external and would be more likely to cite luck or an unfair test, and 11 and 9.5 are arithmetic errors.
Question 4
A 19-year-old has always planned to take over the family farm. When asked whether he ever considered other careers, beliefs or lifestyles, he says he never really thought about it because the plan was settled when he was a child. In Marcia's framework, his identity status is:
- identity diffusion.
- moratorium.
- foreclosure.
- identity achievement.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. foreclosure.
Foreclosure is commitment to an identity without a period of exploration, often adopting a path set by parents. Diffusion lacks commitment as well as exploration, moratorium is active exploration without commitment, and achievement requires both exploration and commitment, so none of those fit a committed person who never explored.
Question 5
A physical therapist wants to raise a patient's belief that she can climb stairs unaided after knee surgery. Each of the following is a recognized source of self-efficacy EXCEPT:
- having the patient succeed at climbing two steps before attempting a full flight.
- showing the patient a video of a similar patient completing the same exercise.
- giving the patient a questionnaire that reports she has high overall self-esteem.
- having the therapist tell the patient, with specific reasons, that she is ready.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. giving the patient a questionnaire that reports she has high overall self-esteem.
Bandura's sources of self-efficacy are mastery experiences (choice A), vicarious experiences from similar models (choice B), verbal persuasion (choice D) and interpretation of physiological states. Learning that one has high global self-esteem does not supply task-specific evidence of capability, so it is not one of the recognized sources.
Question 6
After his university's basketball team wins a championship, a student who has never played on the team wears the team jersey to class, tells friends "we won," and scores higher than usual on a self-worth survey that week. This pattern is best explained by:
- social identity, in which group membership becomes part of the self-concept.
- an internal locus of control for the team's results.
- identity moratorium triggered by a public event.
- a self-efficacy gain from mastery of basketball skills.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. social identity, in which group membership becomes part of the self-concept.
Social identity theory holds that groups we belong to become part of the self, so a group's success can raise our own self-evaluation, which shows in "we" language and displaying group symbols. He did not cause the result, so internal locus of control does not apply; moratorium concerns exploring identity options; he gained no basketball mastery.
Question 7
In a study based on Rogers' idea of congruence, four participants rate their actual self and their ideal self on the same traits using a 1 to 10 scale. The table shows each participant's mean ratings.
| Participant | Actual self | Ideal self |
|---|---|---|
| W | 7.5 | 8.0 |
| X | 4.0 | 9.0 |
| Y | 6.0 | 7.5 |
| Z | 8.5 | 8.5 |
Which participant is predicted to report the most psychological distress, and what is the size of that participant's actual to ideal gap?
- Z, with a gap of 0.0
- W, with a gap of 0.5
- Y, with a gap of 1.5
- X, with a gap of 5.0
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. X, with a gap of 5.0
Rogers predicted that a large gap between the actual self and the ideal self (incongruence) brings anxiety and lower self-worth. The gaps are W 0.5, X 5.0, Y 1.5 and Z 0.0, so X has the largest incongruence. Z shows full congruence and would be predicted to report the least distress.
Question 8
Four patients describe why their blood pressure readings improved over three months. Which statement most clearly reflects an internal locus of control?
- "My numbers dropped because the new clinic has better equipment."
- "My numbers dropped because I cut back on salt and started walking daily."
- "My numbers dropped because I got lucky this season."
- "My numbers dropped because my doctor knows what she is doing."
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. "My numbers dropped because I cut back on salt and started walking daily."
An internal locus of control attributes outcomes to one's own behavior, which is what cutting salt and walking describes. Better equipment and a skilled doctor are powerful others or outside circumstances, and luck is the classic external cause, so choices A, C and D all reflect an external locus of control.