AP Psych terms

Endorphins

"morphine withIN"--natural, neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure

Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development

(1) Trust vs. Mistrust; (2) Autonomy vs. Shame; (3) Initiative vs. Guilt; (4) Industry vs. Inferiority; (5) Identity vs. Confusion; (6) Intimacy vs. Isolation; (7) Generativity vs. Self-absorption; (8) Integrity vs. Despair.

group therapy advantages

-low cost -exposure to other people with similar problems; social interaction with others -social and emotional support from people with similar disorders or problems

Clever Hans experiment

.Clever Hans was an horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks. Disproved that he was only going along with the reaction of his observers and did not actually have any intellectual thinking going on

Freud's stage of psychosexual development

1. Oral Stage (birth to 18 mos.) Primary satisfaction from sucking & chewing 2. Anal Stage (18 mos. to 3) Pleasure derived from elimination 3. Phallic Stage (3 to 5 or 6) Pleasure derived from sexual organs Sexual desire for opposite sex parent. Oedipus or Electra complex 4. Latency Period (6 to 12) Id impulses not a factor 5. Genital Stage (adulthood) Heterosexual interests predominate

Oedipal conflict

A child's sexual interest in his or her opposite-sex parent, typically resolved through identification with the same-sex parent

Down's Syndrome

A congenital disorder caused by having an extra Chromosome 21

linear perspective

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

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

temporal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.

Frontal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex that has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgement

systematic desensitization

A type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

inductive reasoning

A type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations.

John B. Watson founded

Behaviorism

blood-brain barrier

Blood vessels (capillaries) let certain substances enter the brain tissue and keep other substances out

Expressive aphasia located in the left frontal lobe

Broca's- Difficulty forming words and sentences or may be nonverbal

Multicultural conflict

Clashes between cultures and their differing values

Ganglia

Collections of nerve cell bodies

cross-sectional studies

Compares data from a population at a certain point in time

basal nuclei (basal ganglia)

Controls muscle activity and posture; largely inhibits unintentional movement when at rest

descriptive statistics

DESCRIBE characteristics and responses of group

reaction formation

Defense mechanism by which people behave in a way opposite to what their true but anxiety-provoking feelings would dictate.

Psychodynamic dream theory

Dreams are unconscious urges

Cognitive theory of dreaming

Dreams help with problem solving and creativity, thoughts that occur doing sleep

Francis Galton's research

His contributions include such things as helping develop the first personality tests, developing the science of eugenics (better humans through breeding), using statistics in research, arguing that nature is more important in personality than nurture. He is most well known for his belief in eugenics.

endocrine organs and hormones secreted by them

Hypothalamus & pituitary gland. The hypothalamus regulates pituitary gland

IDEAL (strategy for solving problems)

I- identify the problem D- define the problem E- explore alternatives, brainstorm A- make a plan of implementation and act on it L- look at or evaluate the effects- Is solution working?

iconic memory

ICON, a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

inferential statistics

INFER conclusions about LARGER POPULATION

Flynn effect

IQ scores increase by generation as education increases

Internalization

Idea/belief/behavior that has be been integrated into our own values. We conform to the belief privately. Stronger than other types of conformity

control group

In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment, serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

cognitive dissonance

Inner tension that person experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values/opinions

Babinski response

Normal baby reflex, big toe points up and others fan out

Formal operations

One of Piaget's stages; includes the ability to use abstract thinking

Asch Conformity Study (line segments)

People went along with the majority instead of sticking to their gut

Four kinds of conflict

Personality, intergroup, multicultural, work-family

Fetal alcohol syndrome: characteristics

Physical deformities, mentally challenged, learning disorders, vision difficulties, behavioral problems

Cannon's critique of James-Lange theory

Physical sensations and emotions aren't always connected & physical reactions don't have a single corresponding emotion

Neostriatum

Receives input from the cerebral cortex and other brain areas and provides output to the basal nuclei.

heuristics: major types

Representativeness Heuristic- when making likelihood judgments, people rely on an item's similarity to the prototypes of existing categories. Availability Heuristic Anchoring-and-adjustment Heuristic- rely too much on pre-existing information or the first information they find when making decisions. For example, if you first see a T-shirt that costs $1,200 - then see a second one that costs $100 - you're prone to see the second shirt as cheap.

linguistic relativity hypothesis

Sapir and Whorf- language influences thinking

Repair and restoration dream theory

Sleep allows body to repair

Michael Gazzaniga studied

Split-brain patients

Fear immediately actives the

Sympathetic nervous system

latent learning

TOLMAN- learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful

depression: trycyclic antidepressants are most widely used to treat it

The early drugs used to treat depression were known as "tricyclic" antidepressants. They worked but often had serious side effects and could be quite toxic if mixed with other substances. - Not used much anymore, relying instead on SSRI drugs like Prozac which target very specific receptor sites in the brain and don't have the severe side effects

Determinism

The idea that people's behavior is produced primarily by factors outside of their willful control

Cerebral cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.

engram/memory trace

The physical changes in the brain associated with a memory

gate control theory of pain

The theory that pain is a product of both physiological and psychological factors that cause spinal gates to open and relay patterns of intense stimulation to the brain, which perceives them as pain.

Drives

Urges to perform certain behaviors in order to resolve physiological arousal when that arousal is caused by the biological needs of the organism

brain: what part do we share with animals? How do we differ?

We share the same basic hind brain at the base of our skull where the brain meets the spinal cord, which are important for basic vital functions. It's the higher parts (cerebral cortex) that distinguishes us

dominant responses (aided by social facilitation)

What you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience, especially a friendly audience; what you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched.

equity theory of relationships

a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it

conversion disorder

a disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found

Carl Rogers: person (client) centered therapy

a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic (understanding, not quite agreeing or relating) environment to facilitate clients' growth (Rogers called his patients "clients", not "patients")

CAT scan

a method of creating static images of the brain

Brainstorming

a method of generating ideas for speech topics by free association of words and ideas

echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Reticular formation

a nerve network that travels through the brainstem into the thalamus and plays an important role in controlling arousal

Hypothalamus

a neural structure lying below the thalamus; directs eating, drinking, body temperature; helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion

dream analysis

a psychoanalytic technique for interpreting a person's dreams

Psychosis

a psychological disorder in which a person loses contact with reality, experiencing irrational ideas and distorted perceptions

refractory period

a resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm

Social trap

a situation in which the conflicting parties become caught in mutually destructive behavior

correlation coefficient

a statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1 to +1)

industrial/organizational psychology

a subfield of psychology that studies and advises on workplace behavior. Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists help organizations select and train employees, boost morale and productivity, and design products and assess responses to them

fugue state

a sudden temporary loss of memory or change in identity and wander off, often in response to an overwhelmingly stressful situation

fMRI scan

a technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans, showing brain function.

Mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Classical conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

PET scan

a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

cocktail party effect

ability to attend to only one voice among many

accomodation

adapting current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

bottom-up processing

analysis that begins with the sense receptors

Ainsworth Strange Situation (Paradigm)

assesses infant's security based on different strangers entering and leaving in different rooms with it

achievement test

assesses what a person has learned

behavior as being adaptive

behavior skills that a person learns in the process of adapting to surroundings

Mary Cover Jones

behaviorism, pioneer in systematic desensitization, maintained that fear could be unlearned

Lithium carbonate treats

bipolar disorder

optic disc

blind spot

developmental psychology

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

Dendrite (purpose of)

branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

lithium

can treat or reduce bipolar disorder

Fovea

central focal point in the retina, where eye cones cluster

John Garcia's ideas on the limits of conditioning

challenged the belief that all associations can be learned equally well 1) even if the rats became sick hours later they avoided that flavor of water 2) developed aversions to tastes, but not to sights or sounds

Hawthorne effect

change in a subject's behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied

sublimation (defense mechanism)

channeling socially unacceptable impulses into accepted behavior

complementary colors

colors opposite each other on the color wheel

long-term potentiation (LTP)

communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier

altruism

concern for others

arousal

condition in which the sympathetic nervous system is in control

inter-group conflict

conflict between groups

Aversive conditioning

counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior

hue

determined by the wavelength of light, shade of a color

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

diagnoses mental illness

Benjamin Worf's theory of linguistic relativism (determinism)

differences in language create differences in thought

dissociative disorders

disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

implicit memory (non-declarative)

does not require conscious effort and often cannot be verbally described

activation-synthesis theory

dreams are caused by widespread, random activation of neural circuitry

Chaining

each step of a sequence must be learned and must lead to the next until the final action is achieved

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs

electroconvulsive shock therapy

electric shock therapy used to treat severe cases of depression

resting potential

electrical charge across cell membrane of a resting neuron

semantic encoding

encoding words by meaning

Alfred Adler- inferiority complex

everyone is born with a sense of inferiority and strives to overcome difference by becoming superior; driving force behind all human thoughts, emotions, and behaviors

Gansfeld Procedure

experimental design that supposedly enables people who claim to have mental telepathy to read the minds of others.

Elizabeth Loftus' research on eyewitness testimony

eyewitnesses are unreliable & memory can be radically altered after an eyewitness is questioned

work-family conflict

feeling of being pulled in multiple directions by incompatible demands from one's job and one's family

Alfred Binet created the

first intelligence test, mental age

opponent-process theory of emotions

following a strong emotion, an opposing emotion counters the first emotion, lessening the experience of that emotion; on repeated occasions, the opposing emotion becomes stronger

Pons

helps control breathing, sends info to cerebellum, links medulla and thalamus

high vs. low self-monitors

if you care alot about what other people think you're a high self-monitor. If you care a little what other people think (or not at all), then you're a low self-monitor self-monitoring is defined as "the degree to which we vary our self-presentation to match the people we're with." The more you vary your personality, conversation, and social presence to suit the people you're with, the higher you are on the self-monitoring scale.

apparent/induced motion

illusion of movement in a still object

confounding variable

in an experiment, a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

Galvanic skin response (GSR)

increase in the electrical conductivity of the skin that occurs when sweat glands increase their activity

Deindividuation

individuals seems to lose self in the group's identity

normative social influence

influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

top-down processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes

personality conflict

interpersonal opposition based on personal dislike or disagreement

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

feature analysis

is the process of detecting specific elements in visual input and assembling them into a more complex form

Martin Seligman researched

learned helplessness

Episodic memory (flashbulb)

long term memory of specific experience or events linked to a place and time

retrograde amnesia

loss of memories from our past

anosmia

loss of sense of smell

explicit memory (declarative)

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "DECLARE"

Alfred Binet researched

mental age

absolute threshold

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

Deinstitutionalization

moving people with psychological or developmental disabilities from highly structured institutions to home- or community-based settings

Ethics of testing

must be met when designing on experiments; informed consent, confidentiality, person may quit at anytime, and person must be debriefed

Retroactive Interference (RI)

new memories disrupt old memories

Proactive interference (PI)

old memories disrupt new memories

self-efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness

instrumental conditioning

operant conditioning

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units

character disorders: major ones

paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Aaron Beck's view of depression

people tend to view themselves, their environment, and the future because in a negative light because of errors in their thinking. -These errors include focusing on the negative aspects of any situation, misinterpreting facts in negative ways, and blaming them for any misfortune. - In Beck's view, people learn these self-defeating ways of looking at the world during early childhood.

social loafing

phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups

Hierarchy of needs (Maslow) in order

physiological, safety, belongingness/love, esteem, (self actualization)

Carol Gilligan's critique of Kohlberg's theory

pointed out that Kohlberg's early research was conducted entirely with male subjects, yet it became the basis for a theory applied to both males and females

aptitude test

predicts a person's future performance

occipital lobe

processes vision, at back of brain

American Psychological Association (APA)

professional organization representing psychologists in the United States

cross-cultural studies

provide information about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific

Projection

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Denial

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or perceive painful realities

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

Hans Seyle's General Adaptation Response

reaction to stress follows - alarm (sympathetic system - fight or flight); resistance (body tries to fight the stress); exhaustion (prolonged resistance leads to exhaustion)

deductive reasoning

reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)

Parietal lobe

receives sensory input for touch and body position

effects of marijuana

relaxation, enhanced auditory & visual perception, loss of sense of time, confusion, emotional distress. Long term; Apathy, lethargy, lowering fertility, risks linked to tobacco smoking

Major defense mechanisms

repression, regression, displacement, denial, reaction formation, rationalization, projection, sublimation

vestibular sense

sense of balance in relation to the world

acuity-vision

sharpness of vision

holophrastic speech

single word to convey whole sentence

binocular disparity

slightly different view of the world that each eye receives

aversive conditions

stimulus that elicits an undesirable response

social facilitation

stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others

Ebbinhaus' research on memory

studied the learning curve of memory. Found that we remember things with meaning the best. People forget a great deal of learned material right after it is processed, but that rate slows down over time

insight

sudden realization of a problem's solution

state-dependent learning

superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding

glial cells

support, nourish, and protect neurons

Harry Harlow experiment

surrogate monkey experiment

halo effect

tendency of positive impression to affect feelings of the person

fundamental attribution error

tendency to attribute others' behavior to their dispositions and our own behaviors to our situations

outgroup bias

tendency to focus on negative aspects of other people's groups

Cerebellum

the "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance

eidetic memory

the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on the basis of short-term exposure

visual acuity

the ability to see fine detail

Differential conduction

the act of the ions moving across the membrane

motion parallax

the apparent movement of stationary objects relative to one another that occurs when the observer changes position

internal consistency reliability

the assessment of reliability using responses at only one point in time

Medulla

the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

Daniel Goleman's views on emotional intelligence

the capacity to understand and manage your own emotional experiences and to perceive, comprehend, and respond appropriately to the emotional responses of others. (Goleman stated that people tend to lack the ability to manage their own emotions)

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

proactive interference

the disruptive effect of previous learning on the recall of new information

stranger anxiety

the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

motion aftereffect

the illusion of motion of a stationary object that occurs after prolonged exposure to a moving object

sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

operant conditioning

the learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses

Difference Threshold

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time

Groupthink

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

identical twin research

the optimal population to study for the nature v. nurture debate.

blind spot

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

Animism (Piaget)

the preoperational child's belief that inanimate objects are alive

frustration-aggression hypothesis

the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression

Modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

kinesthesis

the sense of movement and body position

Bystander effect

the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

just-world phenomenon

the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

self-serving bias

the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors

hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

ingroup bias

the tendency to favor our own group

false consensus effect

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors

James-Lange Theory

the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

social exchange theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs

attribution theory

the theory that we explain situation by crediting internal or external factors

Gestalt Theory

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

David McClelland's achievement motivation studies

theorized that people with high achievement motivation enjoy personal challenges and are willing to take moderate risks to achieve their goals -believed it could be taught/acquired through proper learning -Went to India, chose people who fit personality profile of an entrepreneur and gave them skills/how to achieve- it worked

Albert Ellis Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)

therapy in which patients are forced to confront and connect their own illogical thinking

latent/implicit learning

unreinforced learning not reflected in behavior unless there is an incentive to do so

MRI scan

uses radio waves and a very strong magnetic field to produce images of the soft tissue

Somatic Nervous System

voluntary movement

Generalizability of a study

when a study can be generalized to a larger population

next-in-line effect

when we are next in line, we focus on our own performance and often fail to process the last person's words

Bystander intervention: factors that influence it

whether or not you are in a hurry, whether you feel competent, whether the person is like you, whether you are with a small group versus a large group, whether or not you are in a good mood