part 2

Metacognition

"Thinking about thinking" or the ability to evaluate a cognitive task to determine how best to accomplish it, and then to monitor and adjust one's performance on that task (A student learns about what things help him or her to remember facts, names, and events. A student learns about his or her own style of learning. A student learns about which strategies are most effective for solving problems)

Reflexive movement

(0-1 year) include involuntary movements (e.g. blinking, grasping, sucking) they are primitive, involuntary movements that serve to "prime" the neuromuscular system and form the basis for more sophisticated movements to come

Trust vs. Mistrust

(0-1) Erikson's first stage during the first year of life, infants learn to trust when they are cared for in a consistent warm manner

Rudimentary movement

(0-2 years) these are the first voluntary movements (e.g. crawling, sitting, standing) these form the foundation on which the fundamental movements are built and are primarily dictated by genetics

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

(1-3) Erikson's stage in which a toddler learns to exercise will and to do things independently; failure to do so causes shame and doubt

Conventional morality

(10-16) second level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development in which the child's behavior is governed by conforming to the society's norms of behavior

Postconventional morality

(16-) third level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development in which the person's behavior is governed by moral principles that have been decided on by the individual and that may be in disagreement with accepted social norms (personal beliefs)

Fundamental movement

(2-7 years) Child learns to manipulate body through actions such as running, jumping, throwing, catching. Movements initially start out uncoordinated and poorly controlled, but as the child advances in age, movements become more refined, coordinated, and efficient

Gender typing

(2-7) the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role (For example, a male child may attribute himself to the male gender by growing up and wanting to be the stereotypical man. Because of society, the child may play with trucks and avoid societally dictated "girly" toys when growing up)

Gender constancy

(2-7) the idea that gender is fixed, and unchangeable

Initiative vs. Guilt

(3-6) Erikson's third stage in which the child finds independence in planning, playing and other activities

Industry vs. Inferiority

(6-12) Erikson's fourth stage between 6 and 11 years, when the child learns to be productive

Preconventional morality

(7-10) first level of Kohlberg's stages; self-interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards

Reversibility

(Concrete operational stage) the capacity to think through a series of steps and then mentally reverse direction, returning to the starting point (An example of is that a child might be able to recognize that his or her dog is a Labrador, that a Labrador is a dog, and that a dog is an animal)

Conservation

(Concrete operational stage) the idea that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects (for example, a child in the concrete operational stage would be able to say that there is the same amount of play doh if there are multiple pieces, but a child in the preoperational stage might say there is more play doh if there are more pieces)

Psychosocial development

(Erik Erikson) pattern of change in emotions, personality, and social relationships

Conversion disorder

(Formerly hyseteria) A rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found. (For example, imagine taking a hard fall off your bike and then not being able to move your arm. But your arm isn't injured)

Personal unconscious

(Jung) comprised of repressed memories and clusters of thought

Collective unconscious

(Jung) concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history, behavior and memory that is common to all humans

Internalization

(Lev Vygotsky) the absorption of knowledge into the self from environmental and social contexts

Equilibration

(Piaget) involves the assimilation of information to fit with an individual's own existing mental schemas and the accommodation of information by adapting it their way of thinking (For example, a child loves the soups that their family eats on a regular basis.)

Symbolic thinking

(Preoperational stage) the ability to use words to substitute for objects

Animism

(Preoperational stage) the belief that all things are living

Artificialism

(Preoperational stage) the belief that environmental features were made by people (For example, a child might say that it is windy outside because someone is blowing very hard, or the clouds are white because someone painted them that color)

Egocentrism

(Preoperational stage) the inability to see the world through anyone else's eyes

Dreams

(REM) a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind

Object permanence

(Sensorimotor stage) describes a child's ability to know that objects continue to exist even though they can no longer be seen or heard (For example, a very young child who is able to roll over at will, but not yet able to crawl, may consciously roll over multiple times to reach a favorite toy)

Application substage

(Specialized movement subdivision) defined more by conscious decisions to apply these skills to specific types of activity (For example, one child might choose to play basketball, whereas another might use the same set of skills and abilities to play baseball. Additionally, the application of strategy to movement is now possible; for example, a child choosing to delay shooting the basketball until she has a clear shot at the basket)

Transitional substage

(Specialized movement subdivision) where the combination of movements occur (running + grasping + throwing = basketball)

Analytical intelligence

(Triarchic Theory of Intelligence) the ability measured by most IQ tests; includes the ability to analyze problems and find correct answers.

Creative Intelligence

(Triarchic Theory of Intelligence) the ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine

Practical intelligence

(Triarchic Theory of Intelligence) the ability to solve everyday problems through skilled reasoning that relies on tacit knowledge

Actual development level

(Vygotsky) the level of ability that a child displays

Potential development level

(Vygotsky) the potential level of ability of which the child is actually capable

Intellectual disability

(formerly referred to as mental retardation) is characterized by delayed development in general mental abilities (reasoning, problem-solving, judgment, academic learning, etc. These delays translate into an impairment of adaptive functioning in aspects of daily life such as self-care, communication, or occupation. The severity can range from mild to moderate to severe to profound.

Stages of psychosexual development

1. Oral Stage 2. Anal Stage 3. Phallic Stage 4. Latency Stage 5. Genital Stage

Disordered behavior

1. The behavior is unusual (It deviates statistically from typical behavior) 2. The behavior is maladaptive: that is, it interferes with a person's ability to function in a particular situation 3. The behavior is labeled abnormal by the society in which it occurs 4. The behavior is characterized by perceptual or cognitive dysfunction In order for a behavior to be disordered, it should meet these criteria.

Ernst Weber

1795-1878; Field: perception; Contributions: just-noticeable-difference (JND) that eventually becomes Weber's law; Studies: 1st study on JND

Carl Jung

1875-1961; Field: neo-Freudian, analytic psychology; Contributions: people had conscious and unconscious awareness; archetypes; collective unconscious; libido is all types of energy, not just sexual; Studies: dream studies/interpretation

Carl Rogers

1902-1987; Field: humanistic; Contributions: founded person-centered therapy, theory that emphasizes the unique quality of humans especially their freedom and potential for personal growth, unconditional positive regard, fully functioning person

B.F. Skinner

1904-1990; Field: behavioral; Contributions: created techniques to manipulate the consequences of an organism's behavior in order to observe the effects of subsequent behavior; Studies: Skinner box

Anal stage

2nd stage, from about 2 to 3, toddlers learn that they are praised when they do well with toilet training and are not praised (or even scolded) when they do not. (According to Freud, success at this stage is dependent upon the way in which parents ​approach toilet training. Parents who utilize praise and rewards for using the toilet at the appropriate time encourage positive outcomes and help children feel capable and productive. Freud believed that positive experiences during the toilet training stage serve as the basis for people to become competent, productive, and creative adults. However, not all parents provide the support and encouragement that children need during this stage. Some parents punish, ridicule, or shame a child for accidents. According to Freud, inappropriate parental responses can result in negative outcomes. If parents take an approach that is too lenient, Freud suggested that an anal-expulsive personality could develop in which the individual has a messy, wasteful, or destructive personality. If parents are too strict or begin toilet training too early, Freud believed that an anal-retentive personality develops in which the individual is stringent, orderly, rigid, and obsessive.)

Phallic stage

3rd stage (3-6) the primary focus of the libido is on the genitals. At this age, children also begin to discover the differences between males and females.​ (people who become fixated during this stage might be super picky and choose the opposite sex parent)

Latency stage

4th stage (6-12) children in this stage are partly focused on gender identification, which is why many boys associate primarily with other boys and girls with girl. Both groups regard one another with suspicion and interest. People who become fixated here may not socialize with the same gender - homosexuality

Genital stage

5th stage (12-death) the genital region becomes the primary source of sexual/sensual pleasure unless trauma in prior stages has resulted in fixation. a person fixated here can become a rapist.

Stroboscopic effect

A (motion picture) visual illusion in which the perception of motion is generated by a series of stationary images that are presented in rapid succession

Type-A pattern

A behavior pattern characterized by high levels of competitiveness and hostility, impatience, and an intense disposition; supposedly associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease. (People with this would respond to stress quickly and aggressively, they also act in ways that tend to increase the likelihood that they will have a stressful experience)

Type-B pattern

A behavior pattern characterized by lower levels of competitiveness and hostility, patience, and an easygoing disposition; supposedly associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease. (People with this get stressed more slowly, and their stress levels do not seem to reach those height seen with Type-A.)

Flashbulb memory

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event. (For example: many might remember exactly what they were doing when they heard that the planes crashed into the World Trade Center "I was on call with an insurance company when I heard the planes crashed" )

conceptual definition and operational definition

A conceptual definition tells you what the concept means, while an operational definition only tells you how to measure it

G factor

A general ability, proposed by Spearman as the main factor underlying all intelligent mental activity

Exhaustion

A harmful third phase of the stress response, in which stress exceeds the body's ability to recover. Because the body cannot be aroused forever, the parasympathetic systems start to reduce the arousal rate, if the stressor still persists, it will take us into this phase and cause our body's resources to be exhausted, causing our body to be impaired and more susceptible to disease

Melatonin

A hormone manufactured by the pineal gland that produces sleepiness.

Transformational grammar

A linguistic theory that focuses on how changes in word order affect meaning (For example, it relates the active sentence "John read the book" with its corresponding passive, "The book was read by John")

Split-half reliability

A measure of reliability in which a test is split into two parts and an individual's scores on both halves are compared.

Mnemonic device

A memory trick or technique (For example, ROYGBIV is an acronym that is helpful in memorizing the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) )

Method of loci

A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations (For example: If you are using your work route as an example for a walk-through, you might mentally store the introduction of your speech in the mailbox near your front door, symbolizing the beginning of your speech. Continue throughout your imaginary walk, and in each new location, mentally store another element from your speech until you have completed your mental walk and reached the end of your speech)

Linear perspective

A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines draw closer together, the greater their perceived distance.

Hypothalamus

A neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward.

Working memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that involves conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory (Examples of working memory tasks could include holding a person's address in mind while listening to instructions about how to get there, or listening to a sequence of events in a story while trying to understand what the story means. In mathematics, a working memory task could involve keeping a formula in mind while at the same time using the formula to solve a math problem.)

Percentile

A point on a ranking scale of 0 to 100. The 50th percentile is the midpoint; half the people in the population being studied rank higher and half rank lower.

natural selection

A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

A projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent's inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure

Insulin

A protein hormone synthesized in the pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels by facilitating the uptake of glucose into tissues, when insulin rises, glucose decreases, so we have to eat something to maintain homeostasis or a glucostatic balance

Gestalt approach

A psychological school of thought originating in Germany that proposed that the whole of a perception must be understood rather than trying to deconstruct perception into its parts

longitudinal studies

A research method that studies the same participants multiple times over a period of time (Example: How does drinking kool-aid affect child growth - examines the same children over many years)

PET scans (positron emission tomography)

A small amount of radioactive glucose (a sugar) is injected into a vein. The PET scanner rotates around the body and makes a picture of where glucose is being used in the brain. Malignant tumor cells show up brighter in the picture because they are more active and take up more glucose than normal cells do. The more glucose that is being used by a part of a brain, the more active that part is.

Edward Titchener and introspection

A student of Wilhelm Wundt. A method of self-observation in which participants report their thoughts and feelings

Stream of consciousness (William James)

A term used by William James to describe the mind as a continuous flow of changing sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings.

Arousal theory

A theory of motivation suggesting that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness and physical and mental activation.

Systematic desensitization

A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

Sensory memory

A type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less.

Control Variable

A variable that is kept constant during a controlled experiment.

Afterimage

A visual image that persists after a stimulus is removed.

Inferiority complex

Adler's conception of a basic feeling of inadequacy stemming from childhood experiences; develops from being inferior for a while

Dorohea Dix

Advocated for the rights of the mentally ill, and she founded the first public mental hospital in the US

G. Stanley Hall

American psychologist who established the first psychology research laboratory in the United States and founded the American Psychological Association

Panic disorder

An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations (panic attacks)

Evolutionary approach

An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.

Humanistic approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny. Humanistic psychologists emphasize personal values and goals and how they influence behavior.

psychodynamic/psychoanalytical approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society's demands, and early childhood family experiences.

Sociocultural approach

An approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.

Escape

An individual learns how to get away from an aversive stimulus by engaging in a particular behavior. (For example, a child does not want to eat her vegetables (aversive stimulus), so she throws a temper tantrum. If the parents respond by not making the child eat the vegetables, then she will learn that behaving in a specific way will help her escape that particular aversive stimulus)

Experiment

An investigation done in order to make a discovery or test a hypothesis

Hobbes and materialism

Argued that spirit or soul is meaningless and all that exists is matter and energy. Materialism holds that everything can be explained by the machinery in our brains.

Reactive attachment disorder

Attachment disorder in which a child with disturbed behavior neither seeks out a caregiver nor responds to offers of help from one; fearfulness and sadness are often evident. The child was neglected.

John Bowlby

Attachment theory. Identified the characteristics of a child's attachment to his/her caregiver and the phases that a child experiences when separated from the caregiver.

Sigmund Freud

Austrian neurologist known for his work on the unconscious mind. Father of psychoanalysis. Also made a theory of psychosexual development.

Sigmund Freud

Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud (conscious mind vs. unconscious mind)

Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis.

Culture

Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people also effect one's development

Psychoanalytic school

Believed that the unconscious contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are hidden but still influence current behavior.

Contingency approach

Believes that the CS and US get paired because the CS comes to predict the US - Robert Rescorla (For example, the fish come to expect food upon seeing the light)

Dendrites

Branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information.

Delay conditioning

CS is present until US begins

Trace conditioning

CS is removed some time before the US is presented

Excitatory

Causes next cell to fire

Language acquisition device

Chomsky's concept of an innate, prewired mechanism in the brain that allows children to acquire language naturally

Factitious disorder

Condition in which a person acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick to get sympathy or aid from others

Jerome Kagan

Conducted longitudinal studies on temperament (infancy to adolescence) Found that children classified as low in effortful control were more likely to have higher baseline heart rates, more muscle tension, and greater pupil dilation

Cerebllum

Controls muscle tone and balance

Rationalization

Creating logical excuses for emotional or irrational behavior

Repression

Defense mechanism by which anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings are forced to the unconscious. (For example, some people involved in terrible accidents have no memory of the accidents at all. The memory, according to Freudian theory, has been repressed)

Olds and Milner

Demonstrated existence of pleasure center in the brain using "self-stimulation" studies in rats (limbic system)

Rene Descartes and dualism

Descartes, a dualist, theorized that the world and all its creatures were like machines (they were observable), but he believed that humans were the exception because they had minds. He believed that the mind is not observable, so it is not subject to natural laws. He hypothesized that the mind and body interact, and that the mind controls the body while the body provides sensory input for the mind. Dualism divides the world and all things in it into two parts: body and spirit.

Stimulants

Drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, and Ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.

John Watson (classical conditioning)

Early behaviorist; famous for the "Little Albert" experiments on fear conditioning. The idea of learning in which behavior evokes by a formerly neutral stimulus.

identity vs. role confusion

Erikson's fifth stage during which teenagers and young adults search for and become their true selves

integrity vs despair

Erikson's final stage in which those near the end of life look back and evaluate their lives for both the successes and failures

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Erikson's sixth stage in which individuals form deep personal relationships, marry, begin families

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Erikson's stage of social development in which middle-aged people begin to devote themselves more to fulfilling one's potential and doing public service. The stage where people want to contribute to the next generation with ideas and maybe kids

Lawrence Kohlberg

Famous for his theory of moral development in children; made use of moral dilemmas in assessment

Kurt Lewin

Father of Social Psychology

Warm fibers

Fire in response to warm stimuli

Margaret Floy Washburn

First female to be awarded a PhD in psychology; 2nd president of the APA (1921)

Oral stage

Freud's first stage of personality development, from birth to about age 2, during which the instincts of infants are focused on the mouth as the primary pleasure center. (Crying, sucking, people who develop fixations during this stage may become addicted to gum or verbal abuse)

Pleasure principle

Freud's theory regarding the id's desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in order to achieve immediate gratification.

Elizabeth Loftus

Her research on memory construction and the misinformation effect created doubts about the accuracy of eye-witness testimony, she asked misleading questions which created false memories

Self-esteem

How much we value ourselves

pre-screening/advertising bias

How volunteers are screened or where advertising is placed might skew the sample. (Example: Survey about men's shaving cream advertises by asking for people who shave their face regularly, you would get men mostly because they shave their face for the most part)

Abraham Maslow

Humanistic psychologist is known for his "Hierarchy of Needs" and the concept of "self-actualization"

Abraham Maslow

Humanistic psychologist known for his "Hierarchy of Needs" and the concept of "self-actualization"

Zone of proximal development

In Vygotsky's theory, the range between children's present level of knowledge and their potential knowledge state if they receive proper guidance and instruction (A student is able to perform simple addition when working with a teacher or parent, but is frustrated when performing the task alone. By guiding the student to use tools and strategies, and by asking questions about why he/she is using each tool or strategy, the student is able to fortify knowledge and eventually add independently.)

Bobo Doll experiment

In a classic study by Albert Bandura, children were waiting in a room with an adult confederate. For one group of children, the adult would simply wait. For another group of children, the adult would punch and kick an inflatable doll (thus the experiment is now nicknamed the Bobo Doll experiment, in both groups, the children were then brought into another room to play with interesting toys, but after a short time, the experimenters told the children that they had to stop playing with the interesting toys, and were brought back to the initial waiting room. The idea was to frustrate the children, and then see how they managed their frustration. Many of the children who had witnessed an adult abusing the doll proceeded to abuse the doll themselves. But most of the children who had witnessed an adult quietly waiting proceeded to quietly wait themselves.)

Experimental group

In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

Auditory input

In the form of sound waves, enters the ear by passing the outer ear, the part of the ear that is on the outside of your head, and into the ear canal.

Bipolar cells

In the retina, the specialized neurons that connect the rods and cones with the ganglion cells (cells of optic nerve)

Neurons

Individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit information. (nerve cells)

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)

Inhibitory neurotransmitter

Cognitive dissonance

Inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values or opinions

Superego

Is the internal representation of all of society's rules, morals, and obligations. It represents the polar opposite of the ID.

Evolutionary Theory

It focuses primarily on psychological adaptations: mechanisms of the mind that have evolved to solve specific problems of survival or reproduction.

Wisdom

It is assumed in many cultures that older members of society have a perspective or level of accumulated knowledge that gives them this. It is a form of insight into life situations and conditions that result in good judgements about difficult life problems

Opponent process theory

It posits that we start off at a motivational baseline, at which we are not motivated to act. Then we encounter a stimulus that feels good, such as a drug or even a positive social interaction. The pleasurable feelings we experience are the results of neuronal activity in the pleasure centers of the brain (the nucleus accumbens). We now have acquired a motivation to seek out the stimulus that made us feel good. Our brains, however, tend to revert back to a state of emotional neutrality over time. This reversion is a result of an opponent process, which works in opposition to the initial motivation toward seeking the stimulus. In other words, we are motivated to seek stimuli that makes us feel emotion, after which an opposing motivational force brings us back in the direction of a baseline. After repeated exposure to a stimulus, its emotional effects begin to wear off; that is, we begin to habituate to the stimulus. The opponent process, however, does not habituate as quickly, so what used to cause a very positive response now barely produces one at all. Additionally, the opponent process overcompensates, producing withdrawal. As with drugs, we now need larger amounts of the formerly positive stimuli just to maintain a baseline state. In other words, we are addicted.

Dual-coding hypothesis

It's easier to remember words associated with images than either one alone. (For example, quizlet terms with pictures)

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA, Garcia effect)

John Garcia determined that animals that eat a food that results in nausea (even by drug or radiation) will not eat that food if they ever encounter it again. This is highly resistant to extinction.

John Locke and Empiricism

John Locke extended Descartes's application of natural law, and applied it to all things. He believes that even the mind is under the control of such laws. Locke started empiricism, which is the acquisition of truth through observations and experiences because he believed humans started off with a blank slate.

Inhibitory

Keeps next cell from firing

Jean Piaget

Known for his theory of cognitive development in children

Wernicke's area

Language comprehension (controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe)

receptive aphasia

Language incomprehension (Damage to Wernicke's area can cause this condition in which a person hears a sound, but it has no meaning)

(observational learning/vicarious learning)Social learning

Learning through observing others

Julian Rotter

Locus of Control (internal/external)

Psychometric

Looks at the measurement of behavior through the development of psychological tests; assesses issues of validity and reliability as well as statistical modeling

Carl Rogers: unconditional positive regard

Love and support are given to another person with no conditions attached

Howard Gardner

Made the theory of Multiple intelligences, which consisted of verbal, mathematical, musical, spatial, kinesthetic, environment, interpersonal (people skills) and intarpersonal (insightful, self-awareness)

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or "rules of thumb" that often lead to a solution (but not always, Firefighters, for example, may have an instinctive sense for when a burning building might collapse).

Aerial perspective

Monocular cue to distance and depth based on the fact that more distant objects are likely to appear hazy and blurred.

Depressive disorders

Mood disorders in which the individual suffers from depression—an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life. These disorders go far beyond normal sadness or grief and last longer than usual periods of sadness.

Alfred Adler

Neo-Freudian; introduced concept of "inferiority complex" and stressed the importance of birth order

Karen Horney

Neo-Freudian; offered feminist critique of Freud's theory; talked about basic anxiety

Efferent

Neurons conveying information from the brain (motor neurons)

Afferent

Neurons sending information to the brain are sensory

nonassociative learning

Occurs when a single repeated exposure leads to a change in behavior.

Self-efficacy

One's belief in his or her own ability (One who has a high level of self-efficacy would be more confident in his or her work)

Conditions of worth

Other people's evaluations of our worth, distort our self concept

Authoritative style

Parents also expect compliance to rules but explain rules and encourage independence. Parents set limits, give out punishments, and forgive. Children of these parents have high self-esteem, are independent, and are articulate. Authoritative parents will exert a high level of control and high level of warmth.

Permissive style

Parents have few expectations and are warm and non-demanding. Children are rarely punished, and parents consider themselves friends of the child. Children of these parents are not good at accepting responsibility, controlling their impulses, or being generous in social relationships. Permissive parents will exert a low level of control and high level of warmth

Authoritarian style

Parents have high expectations for their child to comply with rules without debate or explanation. This style is the most likely to use corporal punishment (like spanking) for disobedience. Children of these parents are socially withdrawn, lack decision-making capabilities, and lack curiosity. Authoritarian parents will exert a high level of control and low level of warmth.

Contiguity approach

Pavlov and Watson believed that the pairing of the CS (initially neutral) and US (natural) stimuli occur because they are paired in time

Life-span psychologists

People who study psychological development throughout life.

Hoarding disorder

Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value

Abraham Maslow (self actualization)

Proposed the idea of self-actualization, which is the need for individuals to reach their full potential in a creative way. Attaining self-actualization means accepting yourself and your nature while knowing your limits and strengths.

Enzymes

Proteins that speed up chemical reactions

Child psychologists

Psychologists who focus on an earlier portion of people's lives (childhood).

surveys

Questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions. (Mass study)

Type I error

Rejecting null hypothesis when it is true

Memory Reconstruction

Remembering past events and features of these events and putting them together during memory recall.

Compulsions

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that are performed to prevent or reduce anxiety. (excessive cleaning and hand washing; repeatedly checking doors, locks, appliances, and such; rituals designed to ward off contact with superstitious objects; using prayers or chants to prevent bad things from happening; arranging and rearranging objects)

correlational research

Research that examines the relationships between variables, whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together.

Harry and Margaret Harlow

Researchers known for their controversial experiments with monkeys in which they showed that baby monkeys are drawn to mothers that provide comfort rather than simply food. Also showed that monkeys raised in isolation developed severe mental and social deficits

Confidentiality

Respecting the privacy of both parties and keeping details secret

Stereotyped ingestive responses

Responses by babies that involve sucking and smacking their lips if someone places a drop of sugar water in their mouths, and gaping and sticking out the tongue (and probably crying) if lemon juice is used. (This behavior makes evolutionary sense given that sour and bitter flavors are often associated with harmful bacteria that can make the baby ill)

Amacrine cells

Retinal cells that connect the rods and cones, and bipolar cells to the ganglion cells (cells of optic nerves)

Cones

Retinal receptors that are near the center of the retina are sensitive to bright light and detect color vision

Rods

Retinal receptors that are sensitive to low light and detect black, white, and gray

Regression

Reverting to childish behaviors

Positive symptoms

Schizophrenic symptoms that involve behavioral excesses or peculiarities, such as hallucinations, delusions, bizarre behavior, and wild flights of ideas.

General Adaptation Syndrome

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Sensory coding

Sensory receptors translate the physical properties of stimuli into patterns of neural impulses (receptors send information to the brain)

single-or double-blind placebo

Single-blind means that the subjects do not know if they are in a control or experimental. Double-blind is when neither the experimenters nor the participants know who got the placebo.

B. F. Skinner and Operant Conditioning

Skinner's box is a soundproof box with a key or bar that an animal can press to release a reward of food or water and a device that records these responses taught us about precise conditions that allow for efficient and enduring learning. Operant conditioning is the idea that a subject learns through the consequences of its behavior.

William Dement

Sleep researcher who discovered and coined the phrase "rapid eye movement" (REM) sleep (He studied the affects of depriving the REM cycle, and he found that people tend to have longer REM sessions immediately after going back to sleep)

Terminal buttons

Small knobs at the end of axons that secrete chemicals called neurotransmitters

Primary reinforcement

Something that is naturally reinforcing, such as food (if you were hungry), warmth (if you were cold), and water (if you were thirsty).

Secondary reinforcement

Something that you have learned to value, like money (money is a good example of a secondary reinforcer. In nature, money is just paper or metal; it has no intrinsic value. We have learned, however, that money can be exchanged for primary reinforcers)

Receptor cells

Specialized cells in every sensory system of the body that can turn other kinds of energy into action potentials (neural impulses) that the brain can process. (For example, the visual system has specialized receptor cells for detecting light waves)

Physical development

Starts at conception; a developmental process that refers to the physical growth of a person's body; this growth affects height, weight, and internal body systems

Eric Kandel

Studied the sea slug Aplysia and posited that learning and memory are evidenced by changes in synapses and neural pathways. (continued Donald Hebb's idea, found that when there's a correlation between two stimuli, and every time it is activated, it causes the neurons to release neuromodulators)

Environmental interaction

Stuff someone interacts with (It has been demonstrated that children raised in situations in which their ability to crawl or walk is restricted have impaired motor skills. This occurs, for example, in some institutions in counties without regulation of childcare facilities. Additionally, perceptual development can be delayed by lack of stimulation.

Shadowing

Technique where a participant is asked to repeat a word or phrase immediately after its heard

George Sperling

Tested recall time by flashing rows of numbers and saw if participants could immediately recall the numbers

Disorganized attachment

The child has an erratic relationship with the primary caretaker and with other adults. This attachment style is more common in cases of severe neglect and/or abuse (For example, a child might be distressed to be left with a new babysitter or unfamiliar caregiver)

Secure attachment

The child is generally happy in the presence of the primary caretaker, is distressed when he or she leaves, but can be consoled again quickly after he or she returns

Avoidant attachment

The child may be inhibited in the presence of the primary caretaker, and may pretend to not be distressed when he or she leaves (Blood pressure and cortisol analyses show that the child is in fact quite stressed out)

Ambivalent attachment

The child may have a "stormed" relationship with the primary caretaker, is distressed when he or she leaves, and has difficult being consoled after his or her return

Forward conditioning

The conditioned stimulus signals that the unconditioned stimulus is coming

Tympanic membrane

The eardrum. A membrane where vibrations from the outer ear enter. The vibrations that enter vibrate the membrane and then the ossicles (the ossicles are right next to the membrane)

Overjustification effect

The effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task. Intrinsic to extrinsic behavior (For example, a person may love to play the violin for fun, but when he is a paid concert performer, he will play less for fun and view using the violin as a part of his job)

Pituitary gland

The endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands.

independent variable

The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

Germinal stage

The first phase of prenatal development, encompassing the first two weeks after conception, here the zygote undergoes cell division, expanding to 64 cells and implanting itself in the uterine wall

Social comparison theory

The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people (For example, a music student might compare herself to the star student of the class. If she finds that her abilities do not measure up to her peer's talents, she might be driven to achieve more and improve her abilities)

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. (Loud noise and rat)

Just noticeable difference (JND) (Difference threshold)

The minimum amount of distance between two stimuli that can be detected as distinct

Pearson correlation coefficient

The most common statistical measure of the strength of linear relationships among variables

Law of Pragnanz

The most general Gestalt principle, which is the idea that we tend to see objects in their simplest forms

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.

Cerebral cortex

The outer layer of the brain. It is involved in higher cognitive functions such as thinking, planning, language use, and fine motor control. It receives input (sensory cortex) and sends out motor information (motor cortex)

Visual persistence

The perceptual phenomenon in which a visual stimulus still seems to be present even after its termination, usually a few hundred milliseconds to a few seconds.

16PF (Personality Factory) Questionnaire

The personality model developed my Raymond Cattel, it signifies one of the 16 traits

Transduction

The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity (We hear something -> recepts in the ear convert mechanical vibrations into electrochemical signals (action potential) )

Insight learning

The process of learning how to solve a problem or do something new by applying what is already known, or it is the process of mentally working through a problem until the sudden realization of a solution occurs "a ha moment"

Spreading activation

The process through which activity in one node in a network flows outward to other nodes through associative links. Memory is organized into neighborhoods divided by like topics (For instance, subjects respond faster to the word "doctor" when it is preceded by "nurse" than when it is preceded by an unrelated word like "carrot".)

Parallel processing

The processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. This contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem-solving.

Denial

The refusal to acknowledge or accept unwanted beliefs or actions

Flynn effect

The rise in average IQ scores that has occurred over the decades in many nations. The need for restandardization every so often

Embryonic stage

The second stage of prenatal development, lasting from two weeks until the end of the second month/beginning of the third month. Here, the organs form.

Resistance

The second stage of the general adaptation syndrome, when there are intense physiological efforts to either resist or adapt to the stressor.

Context-dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better remembered when in that same situation or place. (For example: I remember that a triangle with a 90 degree angle is a right triangle at school because I learned that at school)

State-dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind. (For example: I learned that blue + yellow makes green when I was sad, so it would be more likely that I remember that fact when I am sad again)

Fetal stage

The third stage of prenatal development, lasting from two months through birth. Here, sexual differentiation occurs and movement begins to develop, growth is rapid in this stage.

Musical intelligence

Theory of Multiple intelligences; potential to appreciate, compose and perform music

Intrapersonal intelligence

Theory of Multiple intelligences; potential to understand and regulate oneself

Spatial intelligence

Theory of Multiple intelligences; the ability to generate, retain, retrieve, and transform well-structured visual images

Environmental intelligence (naturalistic)

Theory of Multiple intelligences; the ability to identify, classify and manipulate elements of the environment, objects, animals or plants

Interpersonal intelligence

Theory of Multiple intelligences; the ability to read, empathize, and understand others (people smart)

Verbal intelligence (Linguistic)

Theory of Multiple intelligences; the ability to think in words and use language to express meaning

Secondary traits

Traits that are more preferences/attitudes (public speaking anxiety, or impatience while waiting in line)

Nomothetic analysis

Traits, like the big five, that are thought to be universal

Lens

Under the cornea, its curvature of the lens changes to accommodate for focal distance so that the light can focus on the retina

Attention resource theories

We have a fixed amount of attention, and this resource can be divided up as is required in a given situation. It is inadequate, however, because all attention is not equal. (For example, a conversation occurring near you is more likely to interfere with your reading than is some other nonverbal noise)

Contralateral processing

When stimuli is processed on the opposite side where it was detected: e.g. Information from the left half of the visual field is detected by the right half of each retina and is processed by the right hemisphere of the brain, and vice versa for left visual field.

healthy user bias

When study population is likely healthier than the general population (Example: Asking people about how their lives are in a rich community)

Edward L. Thorndike

Widely known for the law of effect- the principle that rewarded behavior is likely to recur and punished behavior is unlikely to recur. This principle was the basis for BF Skinner's behavioral technology.

Wilhelm Wundt and structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt opened the first laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, and was the "founder" of psychology. Structuralism entails looking for patterns in thought, which are illuminated through introspection.

William James and functionalism

William James, an American, opposed structuralism, instead he argued that the function of the mind is more important. Functionalism focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function- how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

Strange situation

a behavioral test developed by Mary Ainsworth that is used to determine a child's attachment style. Here, a parent or primary guardian leaves a child with a stranger and then returns, Ainsworth recognized four attachment patterns: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized

biological

a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior

biological psychology

a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior (Example: Which part of the brain is involved in x function?)

counseling

a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being

Developmental

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span

Developmental psychology

a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span

clinical

a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders

Panic attack

a brief, intense episode of extreme fear characterized by sweating, dizziness, light-headedness, racing heartbeat, and feelings of impending death or going crazy

corpus callosum

a broad band of nerve fibers joining the two hemispheres of the brain.

Unconditional positive regard

a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients to develop self-awareness and self-acceptance

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

a child's mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100. The mental age is calculated by the Stanford-Binet test.

Approach-avoidance

a choice must be made about whether to pursue a single goal that has both attractive and unattractive aspects (For example, a college you got in is good, and you got your major, but it costs a lot )

Approach-approach

a choice must be made between two attractive goals (For example: two similar colleges)

Avoidance-avoidance

a choice must be made between two unattractive goals (For example, a person has to choose between getting an F in Math, or an F in Science)

Narcotics

a class of opium-related drugs that suppress the sensation of pain by binding to and stimulating the nervous system's natural receptor sites for endorphins and increases relaxation

Cochlea

a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses. it gets vibrated by the oval window, which is like the gate to the inner ear

Standard deviation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Schema

a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information (For example a child may develop one when he encounters dogs and cats. When he goes to the zoo and sees a more exotic four-legged animal like elephants or giraffes, he must assimilate this new information into his existing category of animals.)

Desensitization therapy

a conditioning technique designed to gradually reduce anxiety about a particular object or situation (For example, if you have a phobia of snakes, you might engage in systematic desensitization, where you look at a picture of a snake until your reaction is normal, and in various therapy sessions, you get closer and closer to the snake, eventually even handling it. By being exposed to the stimulus but having no bad outcomes, you can become desensitized to the stimulus and thus overcome your phobia)

Desensitization

a decreased responsiveness to an aversive stimulus after repeated exposure

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions) (Obsessions cause compulsions)

Illness anxiety disorder

a disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease (For example a noisy stomach might lead to fears of severe stomach problems or a minor rash might create fears of skin disease)

Binge eating

a disorder in which a person repeatedly eats too much food at one time, and it is usually followed by inappropriate means of loosing weight (purging)

Depersonalization

a dissociative disorder characterized by persistent or recurrent feelings of detachment from one's mental processes or body; "this is not happening to me" (for example, like you're living in a movie or a dream. Feeling emotionally disconnected from people you care about, as if you were separated by a glass wall)

Derealization

a dissociative disorder situation in which the individual loses a sense of the reality of the external world; "This is not really happening" (for example, like you're living in a movie or a dream. Feeling emotionally disconnected from people you care about as if you were separated by a glass wall)

Confounding (Third/Extraneous) Variables

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment (Unknown factor)

Stagnation

a failure to develop, progress, or advance, which can be caused if one cannot successfully complete the generativity vs stagnation phase

Myelin sheath

a fatty tissue layer that surrounds the axon, and they serve as insulation for the electrical information that travels down the axon (The better insulated the axon is, the faster the electrical signals go)

Mental set

a fixed frame of mind, that we use when approaching the problems. (For example, if the last time your computer froze you restarted it and it worked, that might be the only solution you can think of the next time it freezes)

Self

a force that balances all of the opposing forces and desires of the mind

Motor disorders

a group of disorders characterized by motor symptoms such as tics, stereotypic movements, or dyscoordination

Population

a group of interest, to be studied

Axon

a long tubelike structure attached to a neuron that transmits impulses away from the neuron cell body

Heritability coefficient

a measure (derived from a correlation coefficient) of the extent to which a trait or characteristic is inherited. (Taking the IQ from two separated twins and calculating it to find out what that coefficient is to find how nature affects one's IQ)

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

a medical condition in which body deformation or facial development or mental ability of a fetus is impaired because the mother drank alcohol while pregnant

Declarative (or explicit) memory

a memory a person can consciously consider and retrieve, such as episodic and semantic memory (For example: I can remember y=mx+b on the spot)

Prototype

a mental image or best example of a category (For example, when I think of a phone, I think of an iPhone)

Cognitive map

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

Test-retest method

a method of calculating reliability by repeating the same measure at two or more points in time (after the participants forget about the terms on the first test)

Cross-sectional method

a method of research that looks at different age groups at the same time in order to understand changes that occur during the life span (This approach can reveal the average age at which certain skills or abilities appear. However, the data collected in cross sectional studies tells us little about the actual development of any single individual)

Elaborative rehearsal

a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way. You can do this by organizing and understanding the information

Motivation

a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

Reticular formation

a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal

Semantic memory

a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world (For example: I know the math equation y=mx+b)

Autism spectrum disorder

a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social interaction and communication across different life settings (e.g., home, school) and by restricted and repetitive behavior, interests or activities, and in which symptoms begin during early childhood

Reuptake

a neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron

B.F. Skinner

a noted behaviorist, countered Chomsky's argument for language acquisition. He explored the idea of the "language acquisition support system," which is the language-rich or language-poor environment the child is exposed to while growing up. Chomsky's language acquisition device (LAD) provides the foundational structure of language, while the language acquisition support system (LASS) provides the scaffolding to help young children learn language.

Cocktail party phenomenon

a phenomenon in which people tune in one message even while they filter out others nearby, additionally, it demonstrates the subliminal perception as when we hear our name, we focus our attention on it. It is the process of our unconscious.

Vanishing point

a point in space, usually located on the horizon, where parallel edges of an object appear to converge. A point where two lines become indistinguishable from a single line.

Thematic Apperception Test

a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about pictures that are presented to someone

Schizophrenia

a psychological disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression

Attention-defecit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 12 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

Eysenck Personality Inventory

a questionnaire designed to examine people's personalities based on their traits

Dissociative identity disorder (DID)

a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Formerly called multiple personality disorder. This disorder is most often associated with significant trauma or abuse in childhood.

Sucking reflex

a reflex a neonate has that is triggered by placing something in the baby's mouth

Palmar reflex

a reflex a neonate has that is triggered by placing something on its hands, it will cause it to grasp whatever is placed in its palm

Head-turning reflex

a reflex response elicited by touching the baby's cheek

Babinski reflex

a reflex where in response to the sole of the foot being stroked, a baby's big toe moves upward or toward the top surface of the foot and the other toes fan out

Learning

a relatively permanent or stable change in behavior as a result of experience

Standardization sample

a representative group of people who take the test and establish the norms.

cross-sectional studies

a research method that test a wide array of subjects from different backgrounds to increase generalizability (Example: I test the effect of drinking coffee on people aged from 16 to 90, variety is age here)

Wolfgang Kohler

a researcher who studied insight learning in chimps. He put a chimp in a cage with two sticks, and put some bananas outside the cage. The chimp wanted the bananas, but he could not reach them with either stick. After struggling for a while, the chimp took the two stocks, and put the thinner end of one into the hollow end of the other, making one long stick of sufficient length to reach the bananas. The novel approach of combining sticks was presumably the result of this.

Id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification.

Representative Sample

a sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population as a whole

Random sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

Sleep apnea

a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings (stops breathing -> wakes up in like a min or two cause you can't breathe)

alertness and arousal

a state of consciousness that allows us to remain attentive to our surroundings

correlation coefficient

a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other (-1 to 1+)

Insight

a sudden understanding of a problem or potential strategy for solving a problem that usually involves conceptualizing the problem in a new way (A dog is in a room with a small gate to keep him from leaving. He pushes a box over to the gate in order to stand on it and jump over the gate.)

Bias of selection

a systematic difference in the enrollment of participants in a study that leads to an incorrect result (e.g., risk ratio or odds ratio) or inference. (Example: I select participants near a girls college, population is likely to favor girls)

Single-cell recording

a technique by which the firing rate and pattern of a single receptor cell can be measured in response to varying sensory input

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

a test that consists of a series of items that vary according to the age of the person being tested

Longitudinal method

a type of research in which the same people are studied over a long time period

MMPI-2-RF

a widely used self-report test that identifies people with psychological difficulties and is employed to predict some everyday behaviors, essentially measures personality to mental disorders

Effortful control

ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behavior

Parasomnias

abnormalities of movement during deep sleep; they include sleep walking (somnambulism and night terrors

Manifest content

according to Freud, the remembered storyline of a dream

Self-actualization

according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential

Bottom-up processing

achieves recognition of an object by breaking it down into its component parts, using stimulus to perceive (no preconceived idea before, and stimulus allows you to understand by piecing and object together)

Short-term memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Accommodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information (For example, a child's schema of an animal might go through this process if he encountered a kangaroo that hopped on two legs)

Norepinephrine

affects levels of alertness (a lack of it is implicated in depression)

Acetylcholine

affects memory function, as well as muscle contraction, particularly in the heart (neurotransmitter)

Tetragens

agents, such as chemicals and viruses, basically any harmful environmental agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm (alcohol for example_

Louis Terman

altered Binet's IQ test, calling it the Stanford-Binet

Negative affect

amount of frustration and sadness

Surgency

amount of positive affect and activity level

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. If something related to the trauma comes up, a person may react. (For example, a soldier hears a sound that sounds like a bomb, he falls and hides)

Carl Wernicke

an area of the brain (in the left temporal lobe) involved in language comprehension and expression was named for him because he discovered it

Temperament

an aspect of personality concerned with emotional dispositions and reactions and their speed and intensity; the term often is used to refer to the prevailing mood or mood pattern of a person.

Bulimia nervosa

an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually of high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise

Anorexia nervosa

an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person diets and becomes significantly underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve

Anorexia nervosa

an eating disorder in which an irrational fear of weight gain leads people to starve themselves

Informed consent

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Second-order conditioning

an existing conditioned stimulus can serve as an unconditioned stimulus for a pairing with a new conditioned stimulus (The fish is now trained with a new CS, such as tone, which would be paired with light, which would now serve as the new US. If the conditioning were successful, the fish would learn to swim to the top in response to the tone)

Partial report

an experimental technique in which participants recall just a specified subset of the study material, which showed that iconic memory has more capacity than was revealed by the full report technique

Phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Dissociative amnesia

an inability to recall life events that goes far beyond normal forgetting (For example, a crime victim may have no memory of being robbed at gunpoint but can recall details from the rest of that day. Generalized: Memory loss affects major parts of a person's life and/or identity, such as a young woman being unable to recognize her name, job, family, and friends)

long-term potentiation

an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory. "Neurons that fire together, wire together"

Sensitization

an increase in behavioral response after exposure to a stimulus (For example, the sound of a car backfiring might sound like a gunshot to a war veteran, and the veteran may drop to the ground in response, even if there is no threat present)

Fight-or-Flight reaction

an increase in heart rate and respiration, accompanied by a decrease in digestion and salivation

Persona

an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Personality

an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Biopsychosocial approach

an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

an intelligence test for children between the ages of 6 and 16 inclusive that can be completed without reading or writing. The WISC generates an IQ score

Token economy

an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats (For example, your teacher gives you tickets when you behave super well, and she says you can trade them in at the end of the year for prizes. This economy will encourage you to behave your best so you can get some prizes)

Shaping (differential reinforcement of successive approximations)

an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior (For example: to get the rats to learn to press a lever, the experimenter would use this technique in which a rat first receives a food reward for being near the lever, then for touch the lever, and finally for pressing the lever. In the end, the rat is rewarded only for pressing the lever)

Critical period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development (language - Noam Chomsky)

Operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning)

an organism's learning to make a response in order to obtain a reward or avoid punishment

alternative hypothesis

anything other than the null hypothesis, is false until proven true

generalizable

applicable to similar circumstances because of the predictable outcomes of repeated tests

Overgeneralization

applying grammar rules in areas they don't apply ("I writed a story"; goed; comed)

Dyssomnias

are abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep, and they include insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea

Syllogism

are deductive conclusions drawn from two premises (For example, consider the following argument: All politicians are trustworthy. Janet is a politician, Therefore, Janet is trustworthy)

Stages

are patterns of behavior that occur in a fixed sequence

Association areas

areas responsible for associating information in the sensory and motor cortices

Surface traits

aspects of personality that can easily be seen by other people in the outward actions of a person

Echoic

auditory sensory memory

Parenting styles

authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative

Mean

average

Delusions

beliefs that are not based in reality (For example, believing that one can fly, that one is the president of a country, or that one is being pursed by the CIA)

Maturation

biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience (Biological>Environmental)

Circadian rhythms

biological patterns that occur at regular intervals as a function of time of day

Tabula Rasa

blank slate

Blood glucose

blood sugar, the main source of energy for the body

Endorphins

body's natural painkillers (neurotransmitter)

Central nervous system (CNS)

brain and spinal cord

Theta waves

brain waves indicating the early stages of sleep

Tegmentum

brain's floor

Tectum

brain's roof

Nerves

bundles of neurons

Soma

cell body

Altered consciousness

change in consciousness (Example: head injuries, drugs, toxins, or medical conditions)

Leak channels

channels that are always open and allow ions to move along their gradient

Neurotransmitters

chemical messengers

Lev Vygotsky

child development; investigated how culture & interpersonal communication guide development; zone of proximal development; play research (Piaget focused on biological impact, vs this guy who did social impact)

Binocular depth cues

clues about distance based on the differing views of the two eyes

Edward Tolman

cognitive psychologist; latent learning and cognitive map; researched rats in a maze

Pica

compulsive eating of nonnutritive substances such as (ice, chalk, dirt, plastic, soap)

Divided attention

concentrating on more than one activity at the same time

Basic concept

concepts that have a moderate number of instances and that are easier to acquire than those having few or many instances (For example, bread, instead of the superordinate concept: food)

Albert Bandura

conducted the famous Bobo doll experiments that showed that people imitate others' actions, regardless of whether or not they observe the consequences

Source confusion

confusion about the origin of a memory (For example: if children read and reread a story, they may come to think the events of the story happened to them rather than to the character, I remembered the time I thought I was on a cliff)

Reliability

consistency of measurement

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

continual feelings of worry, anxiety, physical tension, and irritability across many areas of life functioning. A constant state of autonomic nervous system arousal and feelings of dread and worry.

Reticular activating system (RAS)

controls arousal (wakefulness and alertness)

medulla oblongata

controls involuntary actions, such as breathing, digestion, heart rate, and swallowing (basic life functions)

Autonomic nervous system

controls the non skeletal or smooth muscles, such as those of the heart and digestive tract, and it is not voluntary, rather it is automatic. it is also part of the peripheral nervous system.

Hypothalamus

controls the temperature and water balance of the body; controls hunger and sex drives; orchestrates the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system; and it is divided into the lateral hypothalamus and ventromedial hypothalamus

Motor cortex

controls voluntary movements

Factor analysis

correlations among many variables are analyzed to identify closely related clusters of variables (For example, when you take a multiple choice Introductory Psychology test, a (term) can be done to see what types of questions you did best on and worst on (maybe they did best on factual types of questions but really poorly on conceptual types of questions)

left and right cerebral hemispheres

covered by the cortex of the brain and joined by the corpus callosum

Charles Spearman

creator of "g-factor", or general intelligence, concept

Individualist culture

culture in which personal accomplishments are a more important component of one's self-concept than group membership (For example, workers in an individualist culture are more likely to value their own well-being over the good of the group, independence) People in these societies value making their children independent, both socially and economically. Self-worth and self-esteem are developed by focusing on individual achievement.

expressive aphasia

damage to Broca's area can cause this condition in which person cannot talk, though understand speech. Inability of speech.

anterograde amnesia

damage to the hippocampus can cause this, which is the inability to form new memories

Sensorineural deafness

deafness that results from damage to the auditory nerve (cochlea)

Habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation (For example: you hear trains when you first move into a house, but after a couple of months, you become used to it and it may even become background noise if you've gotten used to it so much)

Shadow

deep, passionate, inner person

ventromedial hypothalamus

depresses hunger

ventromedial hypothalamus

depresses hunger (set point)

Retinal convergence

depth cue that results from the fact that your eyes must turn inward slightly to focus on near objects

Need for affiliation

desire to associate with others, to be part of a group, to form close and intimate relationships

Richard Lazarus

developed a cognitive theory of how we respond to stress--in this approach, the individual evaluates whether the event appears to be stressful (PRIMARY APPRAISAL), then (SECONDARY APPRAISAL) it is assessed whether the individual can handle the stress--stress is minimized or maximized by the individuals ability to respond to the stressor

Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk

developed the visual cliff to test depth perception

Mary Rothbart

developmental psychologist--temperament is generally assessed on three scales: 1) surgency (amount of positive affect and activity level) 2) negative affect (amount of frustration and sadness) 3) effortful control (ability of a child to self-regulate moods and behavior)

Mary Ainsworth

developmental psychology; compared effects of maternal separation, devised patterns of attachment; "The Strange Situation": observation of parent/child attachment

Equivalent-form reliability

different but similar tests covering the same concepts are given to the same group of subjects and the results are correlated

Specific learning disorders

difficulties in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing, reasoning, or mathematical abilities

Agnosia

difficulty processing sensory input

Paul Broca

discovered area in the brain (named for him) in the left frontal lobe responsible for language production

Ivan Pavlov

discovered classical conditioning; trained dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell

Incongruence

discrepancies between our self-concept and our actual thoughts and behavior as well as feedback from out surroundings

Disorganized thinking

disjointed and incoherent thought processes, usually detected by what a person says

Bipolar disorders

disorders marked by alternating or intermixed periods of mania and depression

Androgyny

displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics

Body dysmorphia

distorted body image

Natural reinforcement

doesn't need to be learned to be liked (food, water, sex)

Secondary drive

drives that are learned or acquired through experience, such as the drive to achieve monetary wealth

Barbiturates

drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment

Anxiolytics

drugs that reduce anxiety

Depressants

drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

Amphetemines

drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes

Telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs. usually 2-3 word groups (For example, "mommy food" would mean "mommy, give me food".) It is called this because back in the day they only sent the essential words to save money.

Limbic system

emotional center of the brain, composed of thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus

Daniel Goleman

emotional intelligence, and created programs to help those lacking it

Latent content

emotional significance and underlying meaning of the dream (freud)

Maturationists

emphasize the role of genetically programmed growth and development on the body, and particularly on the nervous system

Cognition

encompasses the mental processes involved in acquiring, organizing, using, and constructing knowledge.

Purging

engaging in behaviors such as vomiting or misusing laxatives to rid the body of food, commonly used to loose weight

Hans Selye

enhanced fight or flight, made General Adaptation Syndrome

Glutamate

excitatory neurotransmitter

Divergent thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions, how to succeed in school)

external validity

extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings

Extrinsic factors

factors coming from the outside world (Usually associated with pressures from society such as getting an education, having a job, and being sociable)

Intrinsic factors

factors originating from within ourselves (For example: Curiosity, competition, control)

Decay

fading away of memory over time

Type II error

failing to reject a false null hypothesis

Agoraphobia

fear of open spaces

Albert Bandura

felt that sexual roles could be acquired through vicarious or social learning. (Young boys see older boys being rewarded for being masculine and punished for being feminine, parents reward independence and competition in boys, while they reward nurturing and caring behavior for girls)

Estrogens

female sex hormones

Anima

female side of personality

Zygote

fertilized egg

Walter Cannon

fight or flight

Cold fibers

fire in response to cold stimuli

Mary Whiton Calkins

first female president of the APA (1905); a student of William James; denied the PhD she earned from Harvard because of her sex (later, posthumously, it was granted to her)

Attention

focusing awareness on a narrower range of stimuli or events (allows us to focus on one small aspect of our perceptual world by filtering stuff out)

kinesthesis

found in the joints and ligaments, transmits information about the location and position of the limbs and body parts

Nodes of Ranvier

gaps in the myelin sheath which help speed up neural transmission

CAT scans (computerized axial tomography)

generate cross-sectional images of the brain using a series of X-ray pictures taken from different angles (This is just a snapshot, not real time)

Instinct

genetically programmed patterns of behavior (Examples of this include a dog shaking after it gets wet, a sea turtle seeking out the ocean after hatching, or a bird migrating before the winter season)

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

groups responsible for evaluating and overseeing the ethical soundness of research practices at an institution

temporal lobe

handles auditory input and is critical for processing speech and appreciating music

paretial lobe

handles somatosensory information and is the home of the primary somatosensory cortex. This area receives information about temperature, pressure, texture, and pain. Basically, sense of touch.

Speed tests

have very easy items, but the test is timed, making completion difficult (How many 5th grade level multiplications can you do out of 100)

Relative clarity

hazy object seen as more distant

Conductive deafness

hearing loss caused by damage to the middle ear, thus interfering with the transmission of sound waves to the cochlea (Eardrum and ossicles)

Diana Baumrind

her theory of parenting styles had three main types (permissive, authoritative, & authoritarian)

Sociocultural approach

holds that society and cultures help define what is acceptable behavior

Psychodynamic

how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Quantitative dimension

how much of a stimulus there is (Bright light = more neurons going to occipital lobe)

Perceptual processes

how our mind interprets different stimuli

Active self

how we behave

cognitive

how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information (For example, cognitive effect on learning - If humans can be conditioned to salivate to the word style, they would also be likely to salivate to the word fashion. These words are not acoustically similar, but rather semantically similar, meaning they have a related meaning instead of sounding alike, so this pattern of behavior results from cognitive evaluation)

Social self

how we interact with others

Interposition

if one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer

Autokinetic effect

illusion, caused by very slight movements of the eye, that a stationary point of light in a dark room is moving (twinkle)

Amygdala

implicated in the expression of anger and frustration

Preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

Sensorimotor stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities (For example, if an infant kicks its legs and hits the mobile on its crib with its foot, stimulating movement, the infant is likely to repeat the action in the future)

Concrete operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Formal operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

Frequency theory

in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch

Phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit (for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat)

Morpheme

in language, the smallest unit that carries meaning (Examples would be the parts "un-", "break", and "-able" in the word "unbreakable".)

Variable-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses (For example, putting in money and pulling out money of a slot machine, is reinforced with the payout in a random manner. Reinforcement can come at any time. This type of schedule takes longer to condition a response, but it is basically resistant to extinction)

Variable-interval schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals (For example, getting paid randomly, and this would make you wanna come to work everyday because if not, you might miss the paycheck, if it is based on your attendance)

Fixed-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses (For example, a rat might have to press a lever 10 times to get a food pellet. This schedule is called a 10:1 ration schedule)

Fixed-interval schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed (For example, getting paid every two weeks. The paycheck arrives regardless of your work performance (as long as you show up) )

Free association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Confederates

in psychological and social research, a confederate is a person who is working with the experimenter and posing as a part of the experiment, but the subjects are not aware of this affiliation

Apraxia

inability to organize movement

Alexia

inability to read

Color blindness

inability to see some or all colors, common in males

Insomnia

inability to sleep

Agraphia

inability to write

Semantically encoded

information in the long term memory that is encoded in the form of word meanings

Repression

information that was put down by the Defense mechanism by which anxiety-provoking thoughts and feelings are forced to the unconscious.

Archetypes

inherited memories or common themes found in all cultures, religions, and literature, both ancient and modern

Primary drives

innate drives, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire, that arise from basic biological needs

Raymond Cattell

intelligence: fluid & crystal intelligence; personality testing: 16 Personality Factors (16PF personality test)

Robert Sternberg

intelligence; devised the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence (analytical, practical, and creative)

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

Night terrors

involve behaviors such as screaming, crying, jerking/lunging movement while asleep

Hippocampus

involved in processing and integrating memories

Somatic symptom disorder

involves a person having a significant focus on physical symptoms, such as pain, weakness or shortness of breath, that results in major distress and/or problems functioning. The individual has excessive thoughts, feelings and behaviors relating to the physical symptoms (For example, after a heart attack, they may completely recover physically, but they may continue to behave as invalids or constantly worry about having another heart attack)

Body dysmorphic disorder

involves an excessive preoccupation with an imagined defect in physical appearance

Social development

involves the ability to interact with others and with the social structures in which we live

Phobias

irrational fears of specific objects or situations

Fixations

is a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage

Positive reinforcement

is a reward or event that increases the likelihood that a particular type of response will be repeated (For example, picture an experiment in which a rat is given a food pellet every time it presses a lever. The food provides positive reinforcement, increasing the likelihood that the rat will press the lever again)

Concept

is a way of grouping or classifying the world around us (For example, chairs come in a large variety of sizes and shapes, yet we can identify them as theirs. The concept of chairs allows us to identify them without learning every possible trait of all chairs.)

Orienting reflex

is activated when they orient themselves to sudden changes in their surroundings (For example, if there is a loud crash, infants will search for the origin of the noise to orient themselves. This reflex persists into adulthood, however, most of the reflexes mentioned above disappear months after as the child matures and develops)

Hypnosis

is an altered state of consciousness in which a hypnotized person is very relaxed and open to suggestion

Nightmares

is an elaborate dream sequence that produces a high level of anxiety or fear for the dreamer

Adaptation

is an unconscious, temporary change in response to environmental stimuli (Going from a heated room to a cold pool, you will feel cold because you were adapted to the heated room)

Dopamine

is associated with movement, attention, and reward (neurotransmitter, and its imbalances may play a role in Parkinson's disease and in schizophrenia)

Retina

is at the back of the eye and serves as the screen onto which the proximal stimulus is projected. It is covered with receptors called rods and cones.

Behaviorism approach

is based on the notion that all behavior, including disordered behavior is learned. Disordered behavior has, at some point, been rewarded or reinforced, and has now been established as a pattern of behavior. Treatment involves the unlearning of the maladaptive behavior, or the modification of the learned responses to certain stimuli.

Continuous

is development gradual? (skills for example)

Discontinuous

is development stage-oriented? (growth for example)

Serotonin

is related to arousal, sleep, pain sensitivity, and mood and hunger regulation (neurotransmitter)

Frontal lobe

is responsible for higher level thought and reasoning. That includes working memory, paying attention, solving problems, making plans, forming judgements, and performing movements

Somatic nervous system

is responsible for voluntary movements of large skeletal muscles, and it is a part of the peripheral nervous system

Typicality

is the degree to which an object fits the average (For example, what are the average characteristics of a chair? When we picture "chair," an image emerges in our brain. Thy typical image we envision is referred to as a prototype, but we can imagine other images of a chair that are distant from the prototype to varying degrees.)

Psychosexual development

is the development of an awareness of one's own sexuality, including the identification of the self with a particular gender

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

is the initially meaningful stimulus (the food in the fish example)

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

is the initially neutral stimulus (light in the fish example)

Normative development

is the predictable and relatively stable stages of growth or maturation that the majority of people of a specific age are expected to achieve (For example, some developmental psychologists talk about development occurring in a series of stages, universal to human development, or the individual pattern of development, including differences among individuals during development)

Inductive reasoning

is the process of drawing general inferences from specific observations. (For example, you might notice that everybody on the football team seems to be a good student. You could infer that all people who play football are good students. However, this is not necessarily true. You are drawing an inference based on a common occurrence. Inductive reasoning, while useful, is not as airtight as deductive reasoning : My mother is Irish. She has blond hair. Therefore, everyone from Ireland has blond hair.)

Deductive reasoning

is the process of drawing logical conclusions from general statements (My mother is Irish. Everyone from Ireland has blond hair. Therefore, my mother has blond hair.)

Negative reinforcement

is the removal of an aversive event in order to encourage the behavior (For example, a rat sitting on a mildly electrified cage floor. Pressing a bar in the cage turns off the electrical current. The removal of the negative experience (shock) is rewarding)

Conditioned response (CR)

is the response to the conditioned stimulus after conditioning

Moro reflex

is the splaying out of the limbs in response to loss of support, such as when a baby believes it is falling

Representativeness heuristic

judging objects and events in terms of how closely they match the prototype of that object or event (For example, many people view high school athletes as less intelligent. However, most high school athletes must meet certain academic standards in order to participate in sports. A person's particular view of the athlete will determine whether the (term) is leading to a correct or incorrect conclusion. Unfortunately, such erroneous conclusions are how racism, sexism, and ageism persist, stereotyping sort of)

Noam Chomsky

language development; disagreed with Skinner about language acquisition, stated there is an infinite # of sentences in a language, humans have an inborn native ability to develop language

K complexes

large single spikes in the EEG (sometimes break sleep spindles)

Weber's law

law that states that the greater the magnitude of the stimulus, the larger the differences must be to be notices

Latent learning

learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful (For example, suppose that Ravi's dad drives him to school every day. In this way, Ravi learns the route from his house to his school, but he's never driven there himself, so he has not had a chance to demonstrate that he's learned the way. One morning Ravi's dad has to leave early for a meeting, so he can't drive Ravi to school. Instead, Ravi follows the same route on his bike that his dad would have taken in the car. This demonstrates latent learning. Ravi had learned the route to school, but had no need to demonstrate this knowledge earlier)

Deafness

loss of the ability to hear (can occur from damage to the ear structure or neural pathway)

Compensation

making up for failures in one area by success in others

Androgens

male sex hormones

Animus

male side of personality

Ossicles

malleus, incus, stapes (the three bones that the eardrum vibrates)

Multiple approach-avoidance

many options are available, but each has positives and negatives (For example, you got into college x and y, college x is your major and high in prestige, but costs a lot, but college y is lower in prestige, and its still your major, but it costs significantly less)

Positive skew

mean > median

Central tendency

mean, median, mode, range

Variability

measure of how loosely or tightly bunched scores are

Functional MRI (fMRI)

measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area of the brain is in use, blood flow to that region also increases. (MRIs measure structure and FMRIs measure blood flow, which can let us see brain activity)

Power tests

measures candidates' level of performance in a certain topic (One example would be an English vocabulary examination in which a list of words is presented to a group of sixth-grade students who then have to find a synonym for each word without using any external help)

EEG (electroencephalogram)

measures subtle changes in brain electrical activity through electrodes placed on the head (This data can be filtered mathematically to yield evoked potentials, which allow psychologists to get an electrical picture of brain activity during various cognitive states or tasks)

Negative skew

median > mean

Nondeclarative (or implicit) memory

memory beyond conscious (unconscious) consideration and would include procedural memory, priming, and classical conditioning (For example: Riding a bicycle or driving a car. Buttoning and unbuttoning a shirt. Recalling the words of a song when you hear its beginning. Doing everyday activities like brushing your teeth.)

Interference

memory displaced by new information (original memory is forgotten)

Deception

misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the events that will actually transpire

Carol Gilligan

moral development studies to follow up Kohlberg. She studied girls and women and found that they did not score as high on his six stage scale because they focused more on relationships rather than laws and principles. Their reasoning was merely different, not better or worse

Convergent thinking

narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution (Factoring out a problem)

Self-determination

need to feel competent and in control (intrinsic factor)

Feature detector

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement (they detect various traits of something)

Action potential

nerve impulse

Cutaneous receptors

nerve receptors in the skin that respond to pressure, temperature, or pain (skin)

Retroactive interference

new information pushes out old information out of short-term meory

Neonate

newborn baby

Stanley Milgram

obedience to authority; had participants administer what they believed were dangerous electrical shocks to other participants; wanted to see if Germans were an aberration or if all people were capable of committing evil actions

naturalistic observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

Specialized movement

occurs 7-14. Applies fundamental movements to a specific task- e.g. playing basketball (subdivided into to transitional substage and application substage)

Contralateral shift

occurs at the level of the thalamus; process in which much of the sensory input from one side of the body travels to the opposite side of the brain

Dishabituation

occurs when a change in the stimulus, even a small change, causes us to notice it again (You get used to the AC sound in the room, but after a few minutes, the compressor kicks in and now you notice it even after the compressor turns off)

Pavlonian Conditioning (Classical conditioning)

occurs when a neutral stimulus, paired with a previously meaningful stimulus, eventually takes on some meaning itself (For example: if you shine a light in your fish tank, the fish will ignore it. If you put food in the tank, they will typically swim to the top to get food. If, however, each time you feed the fish, you shine the light in the tank before putting in the food, the fish will begin to learn about the light. Eventually, the light alone will cause the fish to swim to the top, as if food had been placed in the tank)

Avoidance

occurs when a person performs a behavior to ensure an aversive stimulus is not presented (For example, a child notices Mom cooking vegetables for dinner and fakes an illness so Mom will send him to bed with ginger ale and cracker. The child has effectively avoided confronting the aversive stimulus (the offensive vegetables) altogether)

Addiction or Dependence

occurs when an individual continues using a drug despite overarching negative consequences in order to avoid unpleasant physical and/or physiological feelings associated with not taking it

Learned helplessness

occurs when consistent efforts fail to bring rewards. If this situation persists, the subject will stop trying. (Psychologist Martin Seligman's original experiment placed dogs in a room with an electrical floor. At first, the dogs would try to escape the room or avoid the floor, but they ultimately learned that there was nothing they could do to prevent being shocked. Eventually, when the dogs' leashes were removed, they still stayed on the electrified floor, even though they could have escaped. This fact shows that they have learned to be helpless. Seligman sees this condition as possibly precipitating depression in humans. If people try repeatedly to succeed at work, school, and/or relationships, and find their efforts are in vain no matter how hard they try, depression may result)

Self-selection

occurs when participants place themselves in a sample, rather than being selected for inclusion by a researcher. (Example: an optional subway survey for a free cookie might attract those who really like subway only)

Serial processing

occurs when the brain computes information step-by-step in a methodical and linear matter (one at a time) (action can turn into parallel processing if there is practice, for example riding a bike, at first you take your time but soon you are used to it)

Visual sensation

occurs when the eye receives light input from the outside world

Proactive interference

old information makes it more difficult to learn new information

Collectivist culture

one in which the needs of society are placed before the needs of the individual (For example, children in these societies are likely to take care of elderly parents if they fall ill and will change their own plans in the event of a family emergency, interdependence) This affects the development of children as it would make children in dependent behaviors including obedience, calmness, politeness and respect toward others. Ultimately, these child-rearing practices emphasize feeling responsible for behavior and avoiding shaming both personally and for the family, clan or community

Opponent process theory

one of the two processes that contributes to our ability to see in color, says that cells in our thalamus respond to opponent pairs of receptor sets (black/white, red/green, blue/yellow) and that if one color in a set is activated, the other is turned off.

Young-Helmholtz theory (trichromatic theory)

one of the two processes that contributes to our ability to see in color, says that the cones in the retina of the eyes are activated by light waves associated with blue, red, and green--we see all colors through combinations of these three

Self-efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness (If i have a high of this in something, i am more likely to do that something)

Holophrases

one-word utterances that stand for a whole phrase, whose meaning depends on the particular context in which they are used, commonly used by infants (For example, the child may say "go" to mean "I want to leave now," or "mine" to say "This is my toy and I don't want you to play with it.")

Big Five

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

Somnambulism

or sleepwalking, occurs when an individual walks around and sometimes even talks, while sleeping

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Vestibular sacs

organs in the inner ear that connect the semicircular canals and the cochlea and contribute to the body's sense of balance

Psychogenic

originating in the mind

Physical self

our body, our name, and the like

Psychological self

our feelings and personalities

Serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Self-concept

our understanding and evaluation of who we are

Prefrontal cortex

part of frontal lobe responsible for thinking, planning, and language

Inventory-type tests

participants answer a standard series of questions

Pons

passes neural information from one brain region to another

Dichromats

people who are blind to either red-green or yellow-blue

Monochromats

people who can only see in shades of black and white

Environmentalists

people who study the learning persepctive on development (Environmental effects on people)

Split-brain patients

people whose corpus callosum has been surgically severed (used to control epileptic seizures)

Motion detection

perception of motion, either through the perception of its changing position, or through how we move our heads to follow the stimuli

Hallucinations

perceptions that are not based in reality, such as seeing things or hearing things that are not there (feeling spiders on my skin, hearing a dead person you used to know, etc)

Obsessions

persistent ideas, thoughts, or impulses that are unwanted and inappropriate, causing marked distress (fear of contamination, illness, or harm)

Communication disorders

persistent problems in understanding or producing language (stuttering)

Projective tests

personality assessments that present ambiguous visual stimuli to the client and ask the client to respond with whatever comes to mind

Hans Eysenck

personality theorist; asserted that personality is largely determined by genes, used introversion/extroversion, made the Eysenck Personality Inventory

Corticosterone

physiological index of stress

Drive-reduction theory

physiological need creates an aroused tension states (drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy that need (For example, if I am hungry, the body will create a state of tension to let me know that I am hungry (drive) so that I can reduce this drive by eating something)

Alfred Binet

pioneer in intelligence (IQ) tests, designed a test to identify slow learners in need of help-not applicable in the U.S. because it was too culture-bound (French) it measured the "mental age" of children so they can get the help they need to be up to standard

Albert Bandura

pioneer in observational learning (AKA social learning), stated that people profit from the mistakes/successes of others; Studies: Bobo Dolls-adults demonstrated 'appropriate' play with dolls, children mimicked play

Discrimination threshold

point at which one can distinguish the difference between two stimuli

Maintenance rehearsal

practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one's head in order to maintain it in short-term memory (For example: repeating a phone number to yourself over and over again until you can dial it)

Reality principle

principle by which the ego functions; the satisfaction of the demands of the id only when negative consequences will not result

inferential statistics

procedures used to draw conclusions about larger populations from small samples of data

Homeostasis

process by which organisms maintain a relatively stable internal environment, when the balance shifts, the body becomes motivated to get back into balance. (For example, we are running low on food, so we get a metabolic signal to tell us to eat food, and it stops once we eat something)

Visual cliff

process to tell if a baby has a sense of depth (most babies didn't so they had a sense of depth)

Occipital lobe

process visual input

Social and emotional learning

programs at school which help develop empathy and conflict resolution in students

Adjustment disorders

prolonged negative emotional reaction following a major life stressor (I took a test, I feel like I failed, and I feel like poop for a while)

Filter theories

propose that stimuli must pass through some form of screen or filter to enter into attention (disregarded because our names can catch our attention, so the filter has to be at a higher processing level that that of the receptors because the meaning has already been processed)

Donald Hebb

proposed that human learning takes place by neurons forming new connections with one another or by the strengthening of connections that already exist

Lewis Thurstone

proposed that intelligence could be even broader than the Triarchic theory of Intelligence, and this idea was moved forward with Howard Gardner

Cornea

protective layer on the outside of the eye

Leptin

protein hormone secreted by fat cells; when abundant, causes the brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger

Tactile receptors

provide sensations of touch, pressure, and vibration (skin)

Hallucinogens

psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input

Reaction formation

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings. (For example, a person who unconsciously hates the poor might consciously experience this feeling as a strong desire to help the homeless. Or a lawmaker who is gay but closeted may speak and vote against gay rights)

Displacement

psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet (For example, a boy angry with his father may not want to show hostility to his father, instead, he may yell at a friend or stuffed animal, displaying his rage but in a way that does not make his situation worse)

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

psychologist who created the 5 stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

George Miller

psychologist; found that short term memory has the capacity of about 7 (plus or minus 2) items

Reflexes

quick, involuntary, stereotyped reactions of glands or muscle to stimulation

Flashback

recall of the memory of the experience

Walter Mischel

recognized that traits are not necessarily consistent across various situations, but often vary depending upon the circumstances

Dishabituation

recovery of a habituated response after a change in stimulation (For example: I get used to the water in my old house, I go to an hotel and drink their water for a week, and when I come back to my house, the water tastes weird because I am no longer habituated to the water)

Feature detector approach

reduces an image to its simplest form by positing (put in position; place) that organisms respond to specific aspects of a particular stimulus (For example, when driving a car, we use feature detection to anticipate the movement of other cars and pedestrians that demand our immediate attention, helping us to be more aware of the enviorment)

Critical period

refers to a time during which a skill or ability must develop; if the ability does not develop during that time, it probably will never develop or may not develop as well (language and walking for example)

Self-concept

refers to how we view ourselves

Relative size

refers to the fact that images that are farther from us project a smaller image on the retina than do those that are closer to us. Therefore, we expect an object that appears much larger than another to be closer to us.

Partial (intermittent) reinforcement schedule

reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement

Continuous reinforcement schedule

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs (rapid learning, but rapid extinction as well, and it will cause the disappearance of a response once the behavior is no longer reinforced)

Thalamus

relays sensory information; receives and directs sensory information from visual and auditory systems

Child attachment patterns

secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized

Omission training

seeks to decrease the frequency of behavior by withholding the reward until the desired behavior is demonstrated (For example, if a high school student got a speeding ticket (undesirable behavior) their parents might take away their driving privileges. Not wanting to lose driving privileges again, the student will drive slowly to avoid getting another ticket. So the parents give the privileges back once he demonstrates desired behavior, causing the undesirable to reduce in frequency because it is associated with the punishment)

Olfaction

sense of smell

Gustation

sense of taste (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami)

sleep spindles

short bursts of brain waves detected in stage 2 sleep

Binge-eating disorders

significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging or fasting that marks bulimia nervosa

Confederate

someone who is "in" on the experiemnt

null hypothesis

something we believe or expect to be true

Chronic (stressors)

sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly and those that effect one's health

Disorganized speech

speaking in an incoherent fashion that involves frequently changing topics and saying strange or inappropriate things

Stressors

specific events or pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person's well-being (from mild traffic jams to a divorce)

Crystallized intelligence

specific knowledge of facts and information (Examples include recalling historical events and dates, remembering geographical locations, building one's vocabulary, and reciting poetic texts) As one ages, this increase.

Broca's area

speech production (Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech)

Rapid eye movement (REM)

stage of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids and the person is typically experiencing a dream

Norms

standards of performance against which anyone who takes a give test can be compared

Henry Murray

stated that the need to achieve varied in strength in different people and influenced their tendency to approach success and evaluate their own performances; devised the TAT (Thematic Appreciation Test)

Lipostatic hypothesis

states that fat is the measured and controlled substance in the body that regulates hunger. Leptin might be the substance used to monitor fat. So basically, less fat = you hungry, more fat = more metabolism

Yerkes-Dodson Law

states that tasks of moderate difficulty, neither too easy nor hard, elicit the highest level of performance. It also posts that high levels of arousal for difficult tasks and low levels of arousal for easy tasks are detrimental, while high levels of arousal for easy tasks and low levels of arousal for difficult tasks are preferred.

Theory of linguistic relativity

states that the differences among languages result in similar differences in how people think of and perceive the world (For example, Garo people of Burma, who have many words for rice. English speakers have only a few words to describe rice. The hypothesis is that rice is critical to the Garo way of life and so involves more categorization and complexity of thought than it does for someone in an English-speaking culture)

Descriptive statistics

statistics that summarize the data collected in a study

lateral hypothalamus

stimulates hunger

Lateral hypothalamus

stimulates hunger (set point)

Monocular depth cues

stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye

Stapes

stirrup; last of the three auditory ossicles of the middle ear, this bone vibrates against the oval window, which is the beginning of the inner ear

Encoded

storing and making it possible for information to be recalled later, putting information into long-term memory

Neuromodulators

strengthen the synapses between the sensory neurons and the motor neurons. In other words, the neurons sensing shock and those that withdraw the gill become more connected than they were before)

Roger Sperry

studied split brain patients; showed that left/right hemispheres have different functions

case studies

studies that involve extensive, in-depth interviews with a particular individual or small group of individuals (Example: Studying the guy with the rod in his head)

Psychoanalytic

study of the unconscious, includes childhood and aggression issues

Humanistic

study that says that humans are basically good and possess a free will

Humanistic school

suggests that abnormal behavior is, in part, a result of people being too sensitive to the criticisms and judgments of others. This tendency is related to people being unable to accept their own nature and having low self-esteem. This lack of acceptance may result from feelings of isolation due to a lack of unconditional positive regard received as a child.

Negative symptoms

symptoms of schizophrenia that are marked by deficits in functioning, such as apathy, lack of emotion, and slowed speech and movement

Algorithms

systematic, mechanical approaches that guarantee an eventual answer to a problem

Transient (stressors)

temporary challenges that cause stress

Self-reference effect

tendency to better remember information relevant to ourselves. A useful took for memory, then, is to relate new information to existing knowledge by making it personally relevant (participants could recall more people with the same first name as their own than could paired participants. For example, Simon retrieved more people called Simon than David did, but David retrieved more people called David than Simon did.)

Attachment

tendency to prefer specific familiar individuals to others

Primacy effect

tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well

Recency effect

tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well

Belief perseverance

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them (An example is a person who believes that smoking does not cause cancer despite the abundance of evidence that shows that smoking does cause cancer.

Achievement tests

tests designed to assess what a person has learned. (AP)

Aptitude tests

tests designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn (Road test - Drivers license)

DSM-5

the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

the WAIS is the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests

Visual perception

the ability to interpret the surrounding environment by processing information that is contained in visible light (depth, size, shape, and motion)

Emotional intelligence

the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

Creativity

the ability to produce novel, new and valuable ideas (Coming up with a way to cure cancer)

Fluid intelligence

the ability to think in terms of abstract concepts and symbolic relationships (Examples include solving puzzles, constructing strategies to deal with new problems, seeing patterns in statistical data, and engaging in speculative philosophical reasoning) as one ages, this decreases

Alpha

the accepted probability that the result of an experiment can be attributed to chance rather than the manipulation of the independent variable

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

Accommodations

the adjustments of the lens

Receptive field

the area from which our receptor cells receive input (Mechanical - touch, Electromagnetic - vision, Chemical - tase)

Nature-nurture debate

the arguments concerning whether psychological characteristics are biologically innate or acquired through education, experience, and culture

Gender identity

the awareness that one is a boy or a girl, usually gained by the age of 2 or 3

Mind and brain

the brain is the physical matter. The mind is the thoughts and ideas that are not readily observed.

Psychophysics

the branch of psychology that deals with the effects of physical stimuli on sensory response

Fovea

the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster

Moral development

the changes in people's sense of justice and of what is right and wrong, and in their behavior related to moral issues (Lawrence Kohlberg)

Sublimation

the channeling or redirecting of sexual or aggressive feelings into a more socially acceptable outlet

Episodic memory

the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place (For example: the time I went to San Miguel with my friends on June 1st)

inter-rater reliability

the degree of agreement between observers of the same events

representativeness

the degree to which a sample reflects the diverse characteristics of the population that is being studied

internal validity

the degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable, not the confounding variable

External validity

the degree to which results from the test can be generalizable to the "real world"

Internal validity

the degree to which the subject's results are due to the questions being asked and not another variable

Generativity

the desire, in middle age, to use one's accumulated wisdom to guide future generations, contributing babies or ideas

Signal detection theory (SDT)

the detection of a stimulus depends on both the intensity of the stimulus and the physical/psychological state of the individual. Basically, we notice things based on how strong they are and on how much we're paying attention

Cognitive development

the development of thinking, problem solving, and memory

Range

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Binocular disparity

the difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth

Tolerance

the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced. (rat does not produce unpleasant response anymore)

sympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations

Sympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations (flight or fight)

Parasympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

parasympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

Resting membrane potential

the electrical charge of a neuron when it is not active (-70mV)

Acoustically encoded

the encoding of audio into the long (into the long term)

Visually encoded

the encoding of picture images (into the long term)

Halo effect

the error by which we generalize a high-self evaluation from one domain to another (An example this is when one assumes that a good-looking person in a photograph is also an overall good person)

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Locus of control theory

the extent to which people believe that their successes or failures are due to their own efforts plays a major role in personality (For example, students with an internal locus of control might blame poor grades on their failure to study, whereas students with an external locus of control may blame an unfair teacher or test for their poor performance.)

Basis anxiety

the feeling of being alone in an unfamiliar or hostile world. The idea that the interaction between the child and the parent, as the child deals with this anxiety, forms the basis for adult personality. Children who find security in their relationships with their parents will find security in other adult relationships. Children who lack secuirotu in their relationships with their parents and their surroundings will grow up insecure and distrusting, and they are likely to end up with various unhealthy personality styles.

Alarm

the first phase of the stress response, in which the person faces a challenge and starts paying attention to it.

Erik Erikson

the first to successfully champion the view that development occurs across an entire lifetime

Meditation

the focusing of attention to clear one's mind and produce relaxation (used as a stress reducer or manage pain, stress, and anxiety disorders)

Schedule of reinforcement

the frequency with which an organism receives reinforcement for a type of response

Procedural memory

the gradual acquisition of habits and skills as a result of practice, or "knowing how" to do things (For example: knowing how to tie my shoe)

Control group

the group that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Glucostatic hypothesis

the hypothesis that hunger is caused by a low level of glucose in the blood; glucose levels are assumed to be monitored by specialized sensory neurons called glucostats

Selective attention

the idea that we try to attend to one thing while ignoring another (I watch a movie and ignore the people talking behind me)

Proximal stimulus

the image of the object on the retina (because of the shape of the retina and the positions of the cornea and the lens, the proximal stimulus is inverted. The brain, through perceptual processes, is then capable of interpreting this image correctly)

Fight-or-Fight response

the initial reaction of the body to stress

Synapse

the junction between the terminal buttons of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron

Ego

the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain.

Nerve impulse

the message carried by a neuron

Median

the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it

Absolute threshold

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time

Source traits

the more basic traits that underlie the surface traits, forming the core of personality

Mode

the most frequently occurring score in a distribution

Superordinate concept

the most general form of a type of concept, such as "animal" or "fruit"

Subordinate concept

the most specific category of a concept, such as sourdough bread

Unconditioned response (UR)

the natural response to the unconditioned stimulus (fish swimming to the top of the tank)

Optic nerves

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain (in the brain, it will go to the visual cortex areas for processing)

Sample size

the number of observations or individuals measured

Distal stimulus

the object as it exists in the environment

Behavior

the observable actions of a person or animal

Overextension

the overly broad use of words, overgeneralizing their meaning, common among children (For example, it is not uncommon to hear an infant call any passing women "mama")

Underextension

the overly restrictive use of words, common among children just mastering spoken language (For example, a child thinks her "mama" is the only "mama")

reticular activating system

the part of the brain that is involved in attention, sleep, and arousal

The unconscious (Sigmund Freud)

the part of the mind that operates outside of awareness but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions

Autonomic nervous system

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms.

Sensory cortex

the parts of the brain that receive information from the sensory receptors

Motion parallax

the perception of motion of objects in which close objects appear to move more quickly than objects that are farther away

Apparent motion

the perception of movement as a result of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations. It is an issue as it makes us believe that it is moving.

External locus of control

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate.

Internal locus of control

the perception that you control your own fate

Set point

the point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.

optic chiasm

the point in the brain where the visual field information from each eye "crosses over" to the appropriate side of the brain for processing

Optic chiasm

the point in the brain where the visual field information from each eye "crosses over" to the appropriate side of the brain for processing (left eye goes to the right brain)

Debriefing

the postexperimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants

Central traits

the primary characteristics of the person (kindness, honesty, or friendliness)

p-value

the probability of making a type I error

Punishment

the process by which a behavior is followed by a consequence that decreases the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated (For example, (positive punishment) if cadets speak out of turn in military boot camp, the drill sergeant makes them do push-ups. (Negative punishment) For example, if a child breaks a window while throwing a baseball in the house, he loses TV privileges for a week. Positive punishment adds and negative punishment removes)

Convergence

the process by which information becomes more complex as it travels through the sensory system

Habituation

the process by which we become accustomed to a stimulus and notice it less and less over time (Going in to a room with the AC on, after a few minutes, you don't realize the sound)

Reasoning

the process of drawing a conclusion on the basis of evidence

modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Sensation

the process of taking in information from the enviorment

Withdrawal

the process of weaning off a drug one has become dependent upon; this often involves physical and psychological symptoms of a highly unpleasant nature

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response (You shine a light, and don't give food for a couple of times, the fish stops coming, but after a while, you shine a light, and it pops right up)

Subliminal perception

the registration of sensory input without conscious awareness

Long-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Prosody

the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech (For example, it provides clues about attitude or affective state: The sentence "Yeah, that was a great movie," can mean that the speaker liked the movie or the exact opposite, depending on the speaker's intonation. It is also used to provide semantic information)

Availability heuristic

the rule of thumb is judged by what events come readily to mind (For example, we see terrorists attacks and violence on the news, and assume violence is at an all-time high even though it is not, we use the things we see and notice to judge our decisions and thinking)

Psychology

the science of behavior and mental processes

Behaviorism

the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only, not mental processes and the mind because they cannot be observed (Many people today do not agreed with this).

Cognitive

the scientific study of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Social

the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

Cognitive Psychology

the scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning

Positive

the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive

Psychometrics

the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits. To do this, ethics must be followed -Confidentiality -Information about the study -Institutional Review Board combs through studies for unethical behavior -Questions should be answered

Confirmation bias

the search for information that supports a particular view, also hinders problem solving by distorting objectivity (If I was a Republican, I would only look for stuff that supports Republicans)

Vestibular sense

the sense of balance and equilibrium (located in the semicircular canals of the inner ear)

Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body

Grammar

the set of rules by which language is constructed, is governed by syntax and semantics

Syntax

the set of rules used in the arrangement of morphemes into meaningful sentences (For example, "Eugene walked the dog" versus "The dog walked Eugene." The order of words is not arbitrary—in order for the sentence to convey the intended meaning, the words must be in a certain order.)

Correct rejection

the signal was absent, and the participant did not report sensing it

False alarm

the signal was absent, but the participant reported sensing it

Hit

the signal was present, and the participant reported sensing it

Miss

the signal was present, but the participant did not sense it

Detection thresholds

the smallest amount of sound, pressure, taste, or other stimuli that an individual can detect

Experimental

the study of behavior and thinking using the experimental method

Physiological Psychology

the study of behavior as influenced by biology. It draws its techniques and research methods from biology and medicine to examine psychological phenomena

Personality

the study of characteristic thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in people and how they vary across social situations

Educational

the study of how psychological processes affect and can enhance teaching and learning

industry-organizational

the study of how psychology can help and hinder the workplace

clinical research

the study of individuals or small groups of people who seek help from mental health professionals or other social scientists

behavioral genetics

the study of the effects of heredity on behavior (Example: How is depression linked to genetics?)

Surface structure of language

the superficial way in which words are arranged in a text or in speech

Normal curve

the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

the temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach

Hindsight bias

the tendency after the fact to think you knew what the outcome would be, also distorts our availability to view situations objectively. (For example, after attending a baseball game, you might insist that you knew that the winning team was going to win beforehand.)

REM rebound

the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)

Texture gradient

the tendency for textured surfaces to appear to become smaller and finer as the distance from the viewer increases (pebbles up close are rough, but afar are smooth as a pair of butt cheecks)

Functional fixedness

the tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use (For example, people may assume that a textbook is meant for learning, but it can also serve as a pillow or a riser for something)

Constancy

the tendency to perceive certain objects in the same way regardless of changing angle, distance, or lighting (For example, people who have never seen airplanes on the ground will have trouble perceiving the actual size of the plane because of their experience with the size of the object when airborne. The ability to achieve constancy, which is innate, and the experience, which is learned, both contribute to our development of the various types of constancy)

Continuity

the tendency to perceive fluid or continuous forms, rather than jagged or irregular ones

Symmetry

the tendency to perceive preferentially forms that makeup mirror images

Similarity

the tendency to prefer to group like objects together

Stimulus generalization

the tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response (For example, you eat a peach and get sick. You may never want to eat a peach again, but you may also develop an aversion to other similar fruits, such as nectarine. The two fruits are similar, so you generalize from one stimulus (the peach) to the other (the nectarine) )

Closure

the tendency to see closed objects rather than those that are incomplete

Proximity

the tendency to see objects near each other as forming groups (two groups of lines)

Generalization

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses (little albert experiment - Rat and rabbit are similar white fluffy animals)

Instinct theory

the theory that all organisms are born with innate biological tendencies that help them survive (For example, cats and other predatory animals have an instinctive motivation to react to movement in their environment to protect themselves and their offspring)

Cannon-Bard Theory

the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion (For example, the sight of a tarantula, which acts as an emotion-provoking stimulus, would stimulate the thalamus. The thalamus would send simultaneous messages to both the autonomic nervous system and the cerebral cortex. Messages to the cortex produce the experience of emotion (fear), and messages to the autonomic nervous system produce physiological arousal (running, heart palpitations)

Place theory

the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

James-Lange Theory

the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli (For example, if an argument makes you angry, it is the physiological response (increased heart rate and increased respiratory rate) that prompts the experience of emotion) This theory is incorrect, For example, cutting onions makes us water our eyes, but it does not make us sad

Schachter-Singer two-factor theory

the theory that to experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal (For example, if we cry at a wedding, we interpret our emotion as happiness, but if we cry at a funeral, we interpret our emotion as sadness) it is a twist from the James-Lange theory.

Modal model

the three-stage memory model that divides memory into 3 areas--sensory, short term, and long term

behavior modification

the use of operant-conditioning techniques to eliminate unwanted behaviors and replace them with desirable ones (Example: I get hit if I bite my nails, so after a while, the behavior of biting nails will be replaced by not biting my nails)

Framing

the way a question is phrased (For example, take two yogurt pots. One says "10 percent fat" and another says "90 percent fat free")

Perception

the way we recognize, interpret, and organize our sensations

Stanford-Binet Test

the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test.

Social-cognitive theories

theories that emphasize how behavior is learned and maintained through observation and imitation of others, positive consequences, and cognitive processes such as plans, expectations, and beliefs

Edward Sapir

theory of linguistic relatively with Benjamin Lee Whorf

Bejamin Lee Whorf

theory of linguistic relatively with Edward Spair

Paul Ekman

theory that facial expressions are universal (anger, fear, disgust, surprise, happiness, and sadness) emotion = inate (For example, anger can cause a heightened state of mind, allowing for a better fighting experience)

Top-down theory

this view holds that most perceptual stimuli can be broken down into figure-ground relationships. Figures are those things that stand out, whereas the ground is the field against which the figures stand out. (vase face)

Stereopsis

three-dimensional vision

Gordon Allport

trait theory of personality; 3 levels of traits: cardinal, central, and secondary

Idiographic analysis

traits that are unique to the individual, such as openness or curiosity

Cardinal traits

traits that override a person's whole being (Don Juan, for example, was so renowned for his sexual exploits that his name became a synonym for heartbreaker and libertine)

Fidelity

truthfulness to one's self

Bimodal

two modes

Narcolepsy

uncontrollable sleep attacks

Deep structure of language

underlying meaning of words and sentences

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

uses extremely powerful electromagnets and radio waves to get 3-D structural information from the brain (This is just a snapshot, not real time)

Top-down processing

uses your background knowledge to influence perception, using whatever is in our head to perceive

Biological view

views disordered behavior as a manifestation of abnormal brain function, due to either structural or chemical abnormalities in the brain. This point of view supports medication as a providing appropriate treatment for various types of disordered behavior.

Cognitive perspective

views disordered behavior as the result of faulty or illogical thoughts. Distortions in the cognitive process, according to this point of view, lead to misperceptions and misinterpretations of the world, which in turn lead to disordered behavior. The cognitive approach to treatment involves changing the contents of thought

Iconic

visual sensory memory

short-term visual memory (ionic memory)

visual sensory memory register which stores visual images after the extinction of a physical stimulus. While it contains a huge capacity, it declines rapidly. Information stored in it generally disappears within half a second (depending on the brightness).

delta waves

waves associated with deep sleep (stage 4)

Beta waves

waves that are present when you are awake and alert

Alpha waves

waves that indicate a state of relaxation

Explanatory styles

ways in which people explain themselves or react in different situations

Qualitative dimension

what the stimulus is (Example: neurons firing in occipital lobe indicate that the sensory info is light)

framing

when repeated suggestions and misleading questions create false memories

Semantics

word meaning