AP PSYCH EXAM
endorphins
- "nature's painkiller" - when we release endorphins, our pain is soothed - psychological influences can also distract us from pain, which is why many athletes might not realize they have an injury until after the same
repression
- "pushing" threatening or conflicting events or situations out of conscious memory - ex: Elise, who was badly injured in a fire as a child, cannot remember the fire at all
client centered therapy
- (person-centered therapy) - a humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathetic environment to facilitate clients' growth
socio-cultural psychology
- *Lev Vygotsky* - considers how your environment and culture play a role in your behavior and actions - race, religion, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexuality, gender, community - focuses on how behavior and thought processes can vary across cultures
dispositional theory
- *central traits* (core of personality) - *secondary traits* (attitudes and preferences) - *cardinal traits* (defines people's lives)
mirror neurons
- *frontal lobe* neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so - the brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation and empathy
five factor theory
- *o*penness - *c*onscientiousness - *e*xtroversion - *a*ggreeableness - *n*euroticism
psychosexual stages
- *oral* (0-18 months; pleasure centers on the mouth - sucking, biting, chewing) - *anal* (18-36 months; pleasure focuses on bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control) - *phallic* (3-6 years; pleasure zone is the genitals; coping with incestuous sexual feelings) - *latency* (6 to puberty; dormant sexual feelings) - *genital* (puberty on; maturation of sexual interests)
grouping
- *proximity* (grouping nearby objects together) - *similarity* (we group similar figures together) - *continuity* (we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than choppy, discontinuous ones) - *connectedness* (we perceive sets of complete, linked objects) - *closure* (we fill in gaps to create a complete, whole object
molecular depth cues
- *relative height* (we perceive higher objects as being further away) - *relative size* (if we assume two objects are similar in size, most people perceive the one that casts the smaller retinal image as farther away) - *interposition* (if one object partially blocks our view of another, we percieve it as cloer) - *linear perspective* (parallel lines, such as railroad tracks, appear to converge with distance. the more they converge, the greater their perceived distance) - *relative motion* (as we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move. ex: if while riding on a bus you fix your gaze on some object (say, a house) the objects beyond that fixation point appear to move with you; objects in front of the fixation point appear to move backward. the farther those objects are from the fixation point, the faster they seem to move) - *light and shadow* (nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes, thus given two identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away)
hierarchy of needs
- Abraham Maslow - physiological needs must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active
linguistic determinism
- Ben Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
collective unconscious
- Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory taxes from our species' history - the basis for the MBTI test
integrity vs despair
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - acceptance of one's lifetime accomplishments and sense of fulfillment - want control of their lives
initiative vs guilt
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - child becomes more assertive, takes more initiative, becomes more forceful
autonomy vs shame and doubt
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - children try to do things themselves
trust vs mistrust
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - if you cry you trust that your caregiver will feed you
generativity vs stagnation
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - men want to generate something (joining a rock band) they risk stagnation (growing old)
identity vs role confusion
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - teens mus achieve self-identity while deciphering their roles in occupation, politics, and religion - can develop negative identity
industry vs inferiority
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - the child must feel competent while risking a sense of inferiority and failure
intimacy vs isolation
- Erikson's stages of psychological development - the young adult must develop marriage-seeking relationships while comating feelings of isolation - intimacy --> marriage --> children --> whole new set of added joys and stresses
type a
- Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people
type b
- Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people
gestalt
- German word meaning "organized whole" or "form" - gestalt psychologists emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes - ex: we see a full cube here even though the image is just circles with pieces missing - *Max Wertheimer*
Margaret Washburn
- Harvard's first female psychology Ph.D since Calkins was denied a Ph.D from Harvard - wrote The Animal Mind and became the second female president of the APA - since she was a woman she was barred from joining the organization of experimental psychologists
conventional morality
- Lawrence Kohlberg's levels of moral thinking - characterized by an acceptance of social rules concerning right and wrong - at this level (most adolescents and adults), we begin to internalize the moral standards of valued adult role models
postconventional morality
- Lawrence Kohlberg's levels of moral thinking - characterized by an individual's understanding of universal ethical princples - preservation of life at all costs, the importance of human dignity
preconventional morality
- Lawrence Kohlberg's levels of moral thinking - children don't have a personal code of morality, and instead moral decisions are shaped by the standards of adults and the consequences of following or breaking their rules - for example, if an action leads to punishment it must be bad, and if it leads to a reward it must be good - last approx. until age 9
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
- Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases (alarm resistence, exhaustion)
psychoanalysis
- Sigmund Freud's therapeutic techniques - Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences (and the therapist's interpretations of them) released previously repressed feelings, allowing the participant to gain self-insight
trichromatic theory
- Young-Helmholtz - the retina contains three different color receptors (one for each of the primary colors: red, blue, green) which when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color
operant behavior
- a behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences
counterconditioning
- a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors - includes exposure therapies and averive conditioning
exposure therapy
- a behavioral technique, such as systematic desensitization, that treats anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid
self-fulfilling prophecy
- a belief that leads to its own fulfillment - ex: if you think you are going to fail a test you might act in a way that will eventually lead you to actually fail the test
retinal disparity
- a binocular cue for perceiving depth - by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance (the greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object) - the retinas from our two eyes are about 2.5 inches apart so they perceive different things which leads to the disparity
Alzheimer's disease
- a brain ailment where memory and reasoning severely deteriorate - memory and reasoning are severely impared (you might not know your kids' names or how to get home from the grocery store) - sense of smell can also diminished - after 5-20 years, you are essentially mentally vacant and a sort of living death - loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine - degeneration of critical brain cels and diminished brain activity might cause it, and also shriveled protein filaments in the cell body of acetylcholine-producing neurons
psychiatry
- a branch of medicine that deals with psychological disorders - licensed doctors and can give medial treatments (they can prescribe drugs) and psychological therapy
human factors psychology
- a branch of psycholody within industrial-organizational psychology that focuses on the interaction between people, machines, and the environment in which they exist in
counseling psychology
- a branch of psychology that deals with helping people cope with trauma and challenging experiences and to help them live a better, happier life
clinical psychology
- a branch of psychology that deals with helping people with psychological disorders
development psychology
- a branch of psychology that deals with how humans mature and grow over time, "from womb to tomb"
personality psychology
- a branch of psychology that deals with how society can influence people and how each person affects one another
educational psychology
- a branch of psychology that deals with learning and teaching
industrial-organizational psychology
- a branch of psychology that deals with making the workplace more efficient (help companies select and train employees, boost morale, design products, boost productivity, etc.)
psychometrics
- a branch of psychology that is devoted to measuring the limits of our abilities, attitudes, and traits
developmental psychology
- a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
action potential
- a brief electrical charge (neural impulse) that travels down an axon that is sent when neurons transmit messages
trait
- a characteristic pattern of behavior or disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
instinct
- a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned - a genetically programmed action pattern
schema
- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
equity
- a condition in which people recieve from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it
down syndrome
- a condition of intellectual disability and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21
intellectual disability
- a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life - varies from mild to profound
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- a condition of persistent mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock (typically involves disturbance of sleep, constant vivid recall of the experience, dulled responses to others and to the outside world) - frequent intrusive recalls of trauma, avoidance of stimuli of situations that may trigger memories, general numbing of emotional responsiveness, increased physical arousal associated with anxiety
reward deficiency syndrome
- a deficiency of pleasure emotions in the natural brain systems that cause people to crave things that provide that missing pleasure (drugs, alcohol, binge eating, etc.)
extrinsic motivation
- a desire to perform a behavior to *receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment*
lesion
- a destruction of brain tissue, usually intentional during experimentation - generally, some of the brain's neural tissues can reorganize in response to damage
autism
- a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind
illusory correlation
- a falsely perceived correlation - when you believe a correlation exists, you only notice and recall instances that prove your belief - can occur because dramatic or unusual events are more noticeable and memorable than events you would expect
perspective memory
- a form of memory that involves remembering to perform a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point in time
scatterplots
- a graph with dots for each data point, representing the value of two variables, that shows the correlation between the two variables (the slope is how strongly they are correlated)
posthypnotic suggestion
- a hypnotic suggestion made to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized - used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms or behaviors
visual cliffs
- a lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals - usually involves the subject being on high ground and placing a clear glass panel in front of them with a floor beneath them so the subject perceives a cliff or edge that could be potentially dangerous - visual cliff experiment shows that infants and newborns (children and animals) are born with the ability to perceive depth (it is not gained through experience or practice, however it can be improved over time). an infant child stopped crawling before they reached the glass, indicating that they could perceive depth
mylein sheath
- a layer of fatty tisse that insulates axons and neurons and helps to increase the transmission speed of neural impulses
mental age
- a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet - the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance; thus a child who does as well as the average 8 year old is said to have a mental age of 8
recall
- a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier - ex: fill-in-the-blank test
recognition
- a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned - ex: multiple choice questions
relearning
- a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time - easiest way of learning
prototype
- a mental image or best example of a category - matching new items to a prototype provides a quick and easy method for sorting items into categories (as when comparing feathered creatures to a prototypical bird, such as a robin)
perceptual set
- a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
cognitive map
- a mental representation of the layout of one's environment - ex: after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it
intelligence test
- a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
experimental psychology
- a method for understanding how the mind works by using experiments to discover qualities of behavior and thinking
algorithms
- a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem - benefit of a guaranteed right answer but drawback of being extremely slow with larger universe of possibilities
echoic memory
- a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli - if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
iconic memory
- a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli - a photographic of a picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second
retina
- a multilayered tissue on the eyeball's sensitive inner surface that contains receptor rods and cones and layers of neurons that help process visual information
motivation
- a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
lobotomy
- a now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients - the procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain
measure of central tendency
- a number in a data set that can be used to represent the whole data set - used to help summarize data - ex: mean, median, mode
phobia
- a person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread - an intense irrational fear that is triggered by a specific object or situation
major depression
- a person experiences two or more weeks of depressive moods - includes feelings of worthlessness and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities - depressive feelings last for at least two weeks - electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be used as a treatment (basically causing small controlled seizures in the brain)
projective test
- a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamic - attempt to reveal someone's personality and tendencies - "psychological x-ray" into the unconscious
physical dependence
- a physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued
meta-analysis
- a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies
double-blind procedure
- a procedure in which the participants nor the data collectors know which group has been given which treatment - helps reduce the placebo effect because people don't know which treatment (if any) they are given
shaping
- a procedure that reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior - rewarding in increments
reuptake
- a process in which the sending neuron reabsorbs excess neurotransmitters
experiment
- a process where researchers manipulate a number of factors (variables) and keep all other factors equal to determine if there is a correlation between variables - unlike correlational studies where naturally occurring relationships are observed, experiments look to manipulate a factor to determine its effect
thematic apperception test (TAT)
- a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interest through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes - ex: showing a picture of someone (seemingly dead) lying on a bed and someone else walking by (have to describe what happened)
psychological dependence
- a psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions
cognitive restructuring
- a psychotherapeutic process of learning to identify and dispute irrational or maladaptive thoughts known as cognitive distortions
personality inventory
- a questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors - used to assess selected personality traits
savant syndrome
- a rare condition in which someone with significant mental disabilities demonstrates certain abilities far in excess of average - contradicts g factor
dissociative identity disorder
- a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities
self serving bias
- a readiness to perceive oneself favorably
real smile vs fake smile
- a real smile will have activated muscles under the eyes and raised cheeks - a fake smile will usually continue for more than 4 or 5 seconds, but most authentic expressions fade after that long a time; also switched on and off more abruptly than real smiles
midlife transition
- a realization that most of your life is probably behind you than ahead of you - might trigger a midlife crisis
electroencephalogram (EEG)
- a recording of the waves of electrical activity of the brain (studying an EEG is like studying a car engine by listening to its hum) - detects electrical activity in the brain using electrodes attached to the scalp (diagram looks like a bunch of waves, not images of the brain)
correlation
- a relationship between two variables (traits/behaviors for psych) - implies a prediction, not a direct cause - there are underlying variables to account for - two variables can still be correlated (they can generally predict each other) without one causing the other
survey
- a research method to gain data from a self-reported (usually randomized) group of people, often through questioning them - does not explain behavior, instead it describes it - susceptible to many kinds of biases and can be easily manipulated to create a desired result - the groups in a survey might not be representative of the total population, and surveyors can ask questions in a way that leans toward one answer, which can cause results to be unreliable - require you to make generalizations to the population (unless you conduct a census, but those are hard to do with large groups of people), and that generalization might not be accurate depending on who you sample and how many people you sample
id
- a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives - operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification
refractory period
- a resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm
iris
- a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening - adjusts light intake by dilating or constricting in response to light intensity
endocrine system
- a second communication system interconnected with the nervous system - "slow" chemical communication system but the messages from the endocrine system tend to outlast the effects of neural messages - since messages from the endocrine system travel through the bloodstream, they are transmitted at a slower rate than the nervous system - secretes hormones
stereotype threat
- a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
role
- a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave
gender roles
- a set of expected behaviors for males or for females
heuristics
- a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently - usually faster than algorithms but also more prone to errors
social trap
- a situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior
night terrors
- a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified - unlike nightmares, night terrors will occur at stage 4 and are seldom remembered - mostly occur in children
narcolepsy
- a sleep disorder that brings about uncontrollable sleep attacks - someone with narcolepsy might lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times
sleep apnea
- a sleep disorder where people temporarily stop breathing during sleep and repeatedly awake - might stop breathing for a minute and then wake up gasping for air, and the cycle repeats numerous times per night causing you to lose sleep - episodes of waking and breathing are usually not remembered since what happens in the 5 minutes before we fall asleep is usually lost from memory
pituitary gland
- a small gland located in the brain, the most influential endocrine gland ("master gland") - influences the release of hormones by other endocrine glands - controlled by the hypothalamus - releases hormones that influence growth - ex: might trigger sex glands to release sex hormones under the brain's influence
cochlea
- a snail-shaped, coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear - where sound waves trigger nerve impulses - provides a sense of body movement
hypochondriasis
- a somatoform disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease
factor analysis
- a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test - used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score
discriminative stimulus
- a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement - in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcements
unconditioned stimulus
- a stimulus that unconditionally (naturally and automatically) triggers a response
cross-sectional studies
- a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another
health psychology
- a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine
insight
- a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem - contrasts with strategy-based solutions - right temporal lobe
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
- a survey that indicates a participant's feeling type or thinking type based on questions involving the participant's preferences to different types of things or activities
biofeedback
- a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension
hierarchies
- a system of organization in which large categories are broken up into smaller subcategories with increasing specifications and detail - in studying, starting with big topics/concepts and then branching off into more specific pieces from there (with each new branch, the information will be a sub-topic, or more specific but related idea, to the branch it came from
mental set
- a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
homeostasis
- a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state - the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level
confirmation bias
- a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence
empirically derived test
- a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
hypothesis
- a testable prediction that often arises from a theory - good theories produce testable predictions
terror-management theory
- a theory of death-related - explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death
signal detection theory
- a theory that seeks to predict how and when we will detect a faint stimulus, partly based on context - ex: new parents might hear their newborn child cry softly from across the house but not hear a train passing by
cerebral cortex
- a thin layer of interconnected neural cells that cover the cerebral hemispheres of the brain - the body's ultimate control and information processing center - active in decision making
midlife crisis
- a time of great struggle, regret, or even feelings of being struck down by life - can be caused by midlife transition
adaptive traits
- a trait is adaptive if it is developed to help our ancestors survive
operant conditioning
- a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher
corpus callosum
- a wide band of axon fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain - carries messages between the two hemirspheres of the brain
oedipus complex
- according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
fixation
- according to Freud, a lingering focus on pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved - ex: a four year old might still exhibit some of the tendencies found in the oral phase (because they are fixated in it because of an unresolved conflit) even though they are at the age of the phallic stage
unconscious
- according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories - according to contemporary psychologists, information processnig of which we are unaware
manifest content
- according to Freud, the *remembered story line* of a dream
latent content
- according to Freud, the *underlying meaning* 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 (be the best you can be)
unconditional positive regard
- according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person
Bacon
- accurately predicted research findings on noticing and remembering events - claimed that all superstition is the same and people only pay attention to the few times in which it lines up with actions that have happened and ignore the times when the actions and superstitions contradict
short-time 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
accomodation
- adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
conformity
- adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard
sensory neurons
- afferent neurons - carry incoming information from sensory receptors to go to the brain and spinal cord
critical period
- after a certain period of time, it is harder to develop new languages - deaf children who gain their hearing at age 2 can learn a language better than those who get theri hearing back at age 4 - after the window for learning language closes, learning a second language becomes more difficult
teratogens
- agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Descartes
- agreed with Socrates and Plato that knowledge is innate and can live past the death of the body - he dissected animals and concluded that the fluid in the brain's cavities contained "animal spirits", which flowed from the brain through nerves to muscles, which then caused movement - he believed memories were formed when experiences opened pores in the brain to allow "animal spirits" to flow
universal grammar
- all human languages have the same grammatical building blocks, such as nouns and verbs, subjects and objects, negations and questions
self-concept
- all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question "who am i"
debrief
- all participants in an experiment must be told about the purpose and methodology of the experiment after it has taken place (any deceptions must be revealed as well)
bone conduction
- allows you to hear without blocking the ear canal and also while bypassing the eardrum - devices in essence take the role of your eardrum; they decode soundwaves and convert them into vibrations that the cochlea and interpret. bone conduction allows deaf people to hear, and can even allow you to listen to music underwater
fear
- an "alarm system" that can help our bodies prepare to flee from danger - fear from injury can protect us from harm - helps us focus on a problem and rehearse coping strategies
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions) - a disorder characterized by far-fetched intrusive anxiety and distress producing thoughts and repetitive behaviors - perfectionists; preoccupied with details, rules, schedules; more concerned about work than pleasure; serious and formal; cannot express tender feelings
generalized anxiety disorder
- an anxiety disorder in which a person is continuously tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal - when one worry source is removed another takes its place
panic disorder
- an anxiety disorder marked by a minutes-long episode of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, and other frightening sensations - frequent and unexpected panic attacks
virtuality exposure therapy
- an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking
biopsychosocial approach
- an approach based off of levels of analysis, and considers biological, social, cultural, and psychological factors
passionate love
- an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship
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 person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15% or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve
sexual orientation
- an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation)
punishment
- an event that decreases the behavior that it follows - opposite of reinforcement (which increases a behavior)
social-responsibility norm
- an expectation that people will help those dependent upon them - we should help those who need our help even if the costs outweigh the benefits
reciprocity norm
- an expectation that people will help, no hurt, those who have helped them
phi phenomenon
- an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
aphasia
- an impairment of language that results from damage to the Broca's area (impairing speaking) or the Wernicke's area (impairing understanding)
long term potentiation (LTP)
- an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation - believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
dissociative fugue
- an individual will suddenly and unexpectedly take physical leave or his or her surroundings and sets off on a journey of some kind (journeys can last hours, days, or even months)
Stanford-Binet
- an intelligence test - the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test
cognitive psychology
- an introspective approach, considering how someone's thoughts and mental activities affect their actions - focuses on how humans process and store/receive information from their minds - *Jean Piaget* - thinking, dreaming, memory, perceptions, language, etc. - cognitive development (sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational)
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
prejudice
- an unjustifiable (and usually negative) *attitude* toward a group and its members - caused by social inequalities, ancestral need to belong to a group (us vs them), current events (ex: 9/11 -> anti-Muslim prejudice)
Sternberg's triarchic intelligence
- analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence - creative intelligence - practical intelligence
reinforcer
- any event that strengthens the behavior it follows
Locke
- argued that the mind was a tabula rasa/blank slate that experiences write on
sympathetic nervous system
- arouses the body and prepares energy in stressful situations - might raise heartrate, increase persperation, release glucose to liver, dilate pupils, slow digestion, etc.
amygdala
- associates various emotions, including fear, with certain situations - if deactivated, you won't be able to exhibit fear learning - carries messages that control heart rate, sweating, stress hormones, attention, and other engines that rev up in threatening situations - area of the brain which will not inhibit aggression if damaged or inactive - aggression is a complex behavior that occurs when certain neural systems and cortexes are provoked
systematic desensitizaion
- attempts to reduce a client's fears through a gradual exposure to an adverse stimulus
central route persuasion
- attitude change path in which interested people focus on the *arguments* and respond with favorable thoughts
peripheral route persuasion
- attitude change path in which people are influenced by *incidental cues*, such as a speaker's attractiveness
neutral stimulus
- becomes the conditioned stimulus - an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response
nature vs nurture
- before nurture molds our speech, nature enables a wide range of possible sounds - at the first stages of speech, babies will just make noises regardless of the language in the household they grow up in - after about 10 months of age, infants can start to make sounds and an outsider could recognize which language they speak
babbling stage
- beginning at about 4 months of age, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
two-word stage
- beginning at about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements
brainstem
- begins when the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull - responsible for automatic survival functions (regulate lungs, heart rate) - nerves in the brain connect to opposite side of the body, so the right side of the brain controls the left side of body and vice versa
respondant behavior
- behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
B.F Skinner
- behaviorist - argued that since science is rooted in observation, and you can't observe someone's feelings or thoughts, introspection was not a good method of defining psychology - instead, he argued that behavior is something that can be observed, so psychology should be defined by it
behaviorism
- behaviorists, such as B.F. Skinner, argued that psychology should be defined by behavior, since behaviors can be observed, instead of introspection, since feelings and thoughts cannot be observed - *John Watson* - observable and measurable behaviors - awards and punishments - we learn observable responses
culture
- beliefs, traditions, behaviors, and attitudes of a group of people brought down from generation to generation - can influence how you think and thus how you behave - one culture that believes one thing might act in a different way than another culture that disagrees with that view - beliefs and traditions are passed down from generation to generation so behaviors can be rooted in those beliefs and traditions and be passed down as well
Carol Gilligan
- believed that females are less concerned with viewing themselves as separate individuals and are more concerned with making connections - boys usually play in larger, competitive groups with little intimate discussions and girls usually play in smaller, intimate groups, often with just one friend - females are more interdependent than males, as they tend to spend less time alone and more time socializing with others
Alfred Adler
- believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood feelings of inferiority, feelings that trigger our strivings for superiority and power - agreed with Freud that childhood is important, but he argued that childhood social tensions, not sexual tensions, are crucial for personality formation - birth order, compensation
Lev Vygotsky
- believed that the child's mind grows through its social environment - parents can mentor children and give them new words, providing them with a temporary scaffold from which children can step to higher levels of thinking - language, an important ingredient of social mentoring, provides the building blocks for thinking - a child's zone of proximal development was the zone between what they could learn with and without help
females
- better at spelling, verbal ability, nonverbal memory, sensation (more sensitive to touch, taste, odor), and emotion-detecting ability - math and spatial aptitudes
males
- better scores on the SAT, AP Physics, and AP Comp Sci exams, and 99% of the world's chess grandmasters - math and spatial aptitudes - mental ability scores tend to vary more than those of females, and therefore males outnumbered females at both the low and high extremes
maturation
- biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
nature vs. nurture
- both nature and nurture sculpt our synapses - our brain maturation can provide us with an abundance of neural connections, but then our experiences trigger a pruning process
central nervous system
- brain & spinal cord
lateral hypothalamus
- brings on hunger - if it was damaged we would not feel hungry again - releases the hormone orexin, which causes us to feel hungry, and ghrelin, which is released when our stomachs are empty - obestatin is a sister hormone to ghrelin but it sends out a fullness signal that suppresses hunger
parasympathetic nervous system
- calms the body and conserves energy after a stressful situation (reverses sympathetic nervous system's effects) - works with sympathetic nervous system to keep steady internal state
false memories
- can be created in many ways (ex: misinformation effect, amnesia) - ex: if you witnessed a car crash and were asked how fast the cars were going before they "smashed into" each other vs. if they "hit" each other, you would likely remember them going faster if you were asked when they smashed into each other - repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions can create false memories
retrieval failure
- can be fought through retrieval cues - ex: if you are trying to remember a name and it is at the tip of your tongue, hearing that it starts with the letter "m" might help you remember the whole name
pain
- can be helpful to let us know that something is wrong or damaged - feeling discomfort and shifting your position is even important because otherwise, you might put too much strain on your joints or muscles and wear them out over a short period of time - those who cannot experience pain are more vulnerable to severe injuries or even death before ealy adulthood - some people carry a gene that boosts the availability of endorphins. these people are less bothered by pain, and their brains respond less when dealing with pain. other people have a mutated gene that can disrupt pain circuit neurotransmission. these people might not have the ability to experience pain at all - can be mitigated or enhanced with psychological and social factors - if you are distracted and thinking about other things, you might not feel as much pain (psychological influence). if everybody around you is experiencing pain doing the same activity you are, you might start to feel pain even if nothing is wrong with your body (social influence)
hypnotism
- can be therapeutic in some instances, especially with headaches, asthma, or stress-related skin disorders - can help relieve pain - generally, people who are open to the idea of hypnotism can be hypnotized - if people can start perceiving different things (without being hypnotized) just from being aware of them (you are told you see something that's not there and you actually do see it), they would likely be easily hypnotized - anyone who can turn attention inward and imagine is able to experience some degree of hypnosis
genetics
- can cause aggression - some animals have been bred for aggressiveness (pit bullt, cocker spaniels, etc) - in identical twins, if one twin admtis to having a violent temper, the other twin will usually independently admit the same thing - males generally tend to be more aggressive, as they commit the most violence (y chromosome)
reinforcement
- can cause people to think that if they have to be bribed into doing something, maybe the action isn't worth doing for its own sake (intrinsically)
encoding failure
- can cause you to forget in a couple ways - not encoding the information in the first place (ex: being unable to recall exactly what the heads or tails of a penny looks like) - age can also affect encoding efficiency, so as we grow older it becomes harder to encode information at the same level as our younger selves
standard deviation
- can give an indication of how spread apart the data is - if outliers are present, the mean alone can be misleading since it is highly susceptible to outliers - if standard deviation is high, then that is an indicator that there might be outliers in the data set that pull the mean to one extreme - in these cases, the median might be a better measure of central tendency to use to get a number in the middle of the data set that isn't too extreme
consciousness
- can help judge long-term interests instead of only acting for short-term pleasure
fMRI
- can reveal brain's functioning as well as its structure and it functions by using blood flow in the brain to show brain function - useful for determining which part of the brain is handling critical functions such as thought, movement, sensation, and speech - also helpful for monitoring tumors, assessing the effects of strokes, and guiding surgery planning - reveals that the brain is still active and conscious even if the body is not - a patient who lost control of her body and seemingly lost control of conscious awareness after a car accident seemed to have normal brain activity when asked to imagine playing tennis. an fMRI revealed that the parts of the brain associated with controlling arm and leg movements became active
subliminal stimuli
- can still affect our perceptions, mostly through priming - in an experiment, images were subliminally shown to participants before viewing slides of people's faces. the images were either positive (smiles, dogs, happy things) or negative (death, vicious animals, etc.) but were just seen as flashes of light since they went by so quickly. based on which sublimincal images a participant saw, their perception of the faces they saw later was influenced. if they saw the positive images, they perceived the faces to be of nice people
tutored human enrichment
- caregivers play language-fostering games with infants (imitating the babies' babbling, then engaging them in vocal follow-the-leader, and finally teaching them sounds from their native language) who were born into destitute environments
optic nerve
- carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
consonant phonemes
- carry more information than vowel phonemes - if all the vowels in a book were removed, you could still probably understand most of what the book is saying but if all the consonants were removed, you would have no idea what the book was saying
anger
- catharsis can alieviate aggression - chronic hostility is linked to heart disease
multiple sclerosis
- caused by degeneration of mylein sheath - mylein sheath helps to increase the transmission speed of neural impulses - when mylein sheath degenerates, communication to the muscles slows down, and loss of muscle control eventually ensues
change blindness
- change blindness is failing to notice changes in our environment - ex: might not notice someone changed outfits when you are focusing on listening to what they are saying
paranoid personality disorder
- characterized by a distrust or others and a constant suspicion that people around you have sinister motives (everyone is out to get you) - suspicious, argumentative, paranoid, continually on the lookout for trickery and abuse, jealous, tendency to blame others, cold and humorless
anti-social
- characterized by a lack of conscience - people with this disorder are prone to criminal behavior, believing that their victims are weak and deserving of being taken advantage of; tend to lie and steal - breaks rules and laws; takes advantage of other people for personal gain; feels little remorse or guilt; appears friendly and charming on the surface; often intelligent
avoidant personality disorder
- characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, and extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation - consider themselves to be social inept of personally unappealing and avoid social interaction for fear of being ridiculed or humiliated - want to be a part of the group and be social but are afraid to do so
borderline personality disorder
- characterized by mood instability and poor self-image - very hard on themselves, self-doubt, take anger out on themselves, suicidal thoughts and actions (self harm) - short fuse - very unstable relaitonships; erratic emotions; self-damaging behavior; impulsive; unpredictable aggressive and sexual behavior; monophobia; easily angered
narcissistic personality disorder
- characterized by self-centeredness - they exaggerate their achievemetns, expecting others to recognize them as being superior - tend to be choosy about picking friends since they believe that not just anyone is worthy of being their friend; generally uninterested in the feelings of others and take advantage - grandiose; crave admiration of others; extremely self-centered; feel they are privileged and special; expects favors from others; emotions are not erratic
hormones
- chemical messengers similar to neurotransmitters - travel through the bloodstream
neurotransmitters
- chemical messengers that can cross the synaptic gap and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron
flashbulb memories
- clear memories of emotionally significant moment or event - our memories can serve to predict the future and to alert us to potential dangers, which could explain why flashbulb memories occur - emotion-triggered hormonal changes can help us remember extreme sensory events (such as a first kiss or getting news of a friend's death)
belief perseverence
- clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited - can be stopped by considering the opposite - if you think about whether or not you would have made a different judgment had your prior belief been the opposite of what it was - the more you appreciate why your original belief is true, the more tightly you cling to it, so it is always good practice to question your beliefs and verify them as much as possible
evidence-based practice
- clinical decision-making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences
terminal decline
- cognitive decline typically accelerates within the least three or four years of life - saying whether someone is 70, 80, or 90 doesn't really tell you much about their mental sharpness, but saying if someone is 8 years vs 8 months from death can give better clues as to their mental abilities
electromagnetic pulses
- color does not strike our eyes, but rather pulses of electromagnetic energy - our visual system then perceives these electromagnetic pulses as color
expertise
- component of creativity - a well-developed base of knowledge can allow you to branch off into other creative ideas
intrinsic motivation
- component of creativity - driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenge rather than by external pressures; you can be more creative when you focus less on meeting deadlines or impressing people and focus more on doing something meaningful and satisfying for yourself
imaginative thinking skills
- component of creativity - exploring a problem in a new way after mastering its basic elements
venturesome personality
- component of creativity - seeking new experiences and tolerating ambiguity and risk can help spark new ideas and lead to a more creative mind
creative environment
- component of creativity - sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas
evolutionary psychology
- considering ancient ancestors and how certain traits or qualities might have helped them survive and therefore be more prevalent - focuses on how natural selection promoted the survival of certain genes - no main theorist but associated with *Darwin*/Darwinism - inherited behavoirs - focuses on the role of reproduction - evolution of behavior and mental processes
histrionic personality disorder
- constant attention seekers, they need to be the center of attention all the time, often interrupting others in order to dominate the conversation - they may dress provocative or exaggerate illnesses in order to gain attention; they also tend to exaggerate friendships and relationships, believing that everyone loves them - overly dramatic; attention seekers; easily angered; seductive; dependent on others; vain, shallow, and manipulative; displays intense, but often false emotions
inner ear
- contains the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs - has receptors for audition and vestibular sense
Alfred Kinsey
- contributed theories on sexual motivation
Stanley Schachter
- contributed to the two-factor theory (Schacter-Singer theory)
autonomic nervous system
- controls glands and internal muscle organs (peripheral nervous system) - reponsible for heartbeat, digestion, and other glandular activities - includes sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous systems
motor cortex control
- controls voluntary movements - located at the rear of the frontal lobes
Stanley Milgram
- controversial social psychologist - experiment involved a "teacher" (participant) and a "learner" - the teacher would give word pairs to the learner and for each wrong answer the learner gave, they would recieve an electric shock that increased in voltage with each successive wrong answer - eventually the learner would scream in agony and the teacher would try to stop, but the conductor of the experiment told them to keep going and that continuing was crucial to the experiment - most people ended up continuing up until the final shock
marijuana
- could be depressant, stimulant, or hallucinogen - works with inhibitory neurotransmitters, dopamine - impairs motor coordination and perceptual skills and reaction time, produce euphoric high, relaxes you, feeling of anxiety can strengthen
operant chamber
- created by B.F. Skinner - a chamber (aka a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate in order to obtain a food or water reinforces - attathced devices record the animals' rate of bar pressing or key pecking
5 stages of dying
- created by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross - denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance (DABDA)
Alfred Binet
- created the first intelligence test - believed that everyone follows the same course of intellectual development but some do so faster, so his test was designed to test for mental age (an average 9 year old has a mental age of 9, whereas a "dull" 9 year old could have a mental age of 7)
Hans Selye
- created the general adaptation syndrome concept
social-culture influences on eating
- culturally learned tast preferences, response to cultural preferences for appearance
death-deferral phenomenon
- death tends to be "put off" when there is an event to look forward to - ex: more people tend to die on the two days after Christmas than before it
left brain
- decision making, more "conscious" than the right brain an "interpreter" that can construct theories to explain our behavior - language, speech, logic
explicit memory
- declarative memory - memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"
habituation
- decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation - as infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner
intelligence quotient (IQ)
- defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 - ma/ca x 100 - on contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100
standardization
- defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
twin and adoption studies
- demonstrate that genetics do play a role in intelligence - identical twins had very similar scores on intelligence tests (especially when they were brought up together, but even if they were brought up separately) - fraternal twins and siblings also showed some level of similarity
heroin
- depressant - works with endorphins, dopamine, inhibitory neurotransmitters - reduces stress, reduces feelings of pain, become lethargic, breathing slows
alcohol
- depressent - works with GABA neurotransmitter - reaction slows, speech slurs, disrupts memory formation, brain activity slows - can suppress the brain centers that control judgment inhibition, and self-awareness, which might cause teens to make bad decisions regarding sexual activity and safety, leading to a greater risk of teen pregnancy
ventromedial hypothalamus
- depresses hunger - if damaged, we would not be able to feel full again - you might become overweight because you keep eating and don't feel satisfied
seasonal affective disorder
- depression that occurs at the same time every year, usually when there is less sunlight
monocular cues
- depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective available to either eye alone
binocular clues
- depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes - two eyes are better than one (makes seeing things and performing tasks involving depth much easier)
G. Stanley Hall
- described adolescence as a period of "storm and stress" - he believed that adolescence was a period of tensions between biological maturity and social dependence
operational definitions
- describes research variables used in an experiment - describe concepts with procedures or measures (unlike a dictionary definition) - a description of a word/concept that can be obtained through certain procedures ("generosity" can be operationally defined as "money contributed")
validity
- describes whether or not the data can be trusted and accepted - data that is not valid might be biased or full of confounding variables, whereas valid data would be found in experiments that attempt to minimize these things
Lewis Terman
- did a longitudinal study of intellectually gifted children - gifted children tend to be very successful later in life (get patents, PhDs, etc.)
antidepressant drugs
- different types of drugs that work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters - also increasingly prescribed for anxiety
sensory adaptation
- diminished sensitivity to an unchanging stimulus - ex: your neighbor's living room smells musty to you but they don't notice it and after a while of being in the room you don't notice it either - happens because after constant exposure to a stimulus, our nerve cells fire less frequently - we perceive the world not as it is, but as it is useful for us to perceive it
disorganized schizophrenia
- disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotions - the type of schizophrenia that is characterized by a.) extremely disorganized behavior, b.) disorganized speech and flat affect, c.) delusions and hallucinations sometimes present but not organized, and d.) silliness, laughing, and giggling may occur without apparent reason
correlaiton coefficient
- displays the strength of the correlation (scale from -1 to 1)
dissociation
- divided consciousness theory - a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others
barbiturates
- drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement - "tranquilizers" that mimic the effects of alcohol
stimulants
- drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions - ex: nicotine and caffeine
depressants
- drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions - ex: alcohol, barbiturates, opiates
amphetamines
- drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing sped-up body functions and energy/mood changes
telegraphic speech
- early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram (in chunks of two words, ex: "go car", "want juice") using mostly nouns and verbs
motor neurons
- efferent neurons - carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands
alpha waves
- emitted during stage 1 and stage 2 of sleep - the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state
delta waves
- emitted during stage 3 and 4 of sleep - the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
catharsis
- emotional release - "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
active listening
- empathetic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies - a feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy
availability heuristics
- estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory - if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common - blowing things out of proportion - ex: casinos entice people to gamble more by making small wins very memorable with flashing lights and loud bells to allow people to remember more wins and thus give the perception that their odds of winning are higher than they truly are
random sampling
- every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected in the sample - refers to how subjects are selected for a group
depression
- every thought, emotion, or psychological event is also a biological event - depression can be both a brain disorder (bio) and a thought disorder (psych) since the depressing thoughts exist in the mind, but since thoughts are also biological events, depression is also a brain disorder
critical thinking
- examines assumptions, looks at hidden values and evidence, comes to reasonable conclusions based off of observation and evidence - does not blindly accept claims
computer tomography scan (CT/CAT)
- examines brain by taking x-ray photos from multiple angles using radioactive tracers
Albert Bandura
- experiment with bobo doll - children who observe adults lashing our at a doll are much more likely to do so themselves when frustrated and left alone in a room with that doll - the children even said the same phrases they heard from the adult lashing out at the doll
psychological influences on sexual behavior
- exposure to stimulating conditions, sexal fantasies
displacement
- expressing feelings that would be threatening if directed at the real target onto a less threatening substitute target - ex: Sandra gets reprimanded by her teacher and goes home to angrily pick a fight with her brother
inattentional blindness
- failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere - ex: experiment with counting basketball passes and a gorilla walks through
regression
- falling back on childlike patterns as a way of coping with stressful situations - ex: four-year-old Donald starts wetting his bed after his parents bring home a new baby
delusions
- false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders
social-culture influences on sexual behaviors
- family and society values, religious and personal values, cultural expectations, media
agoraphobia
- fear of leaving house and open spaces - fear of experiencing a panic attack in a public situation and being unable to escape or get help
social phobia
- fear of social settings - fear of being embarassed, judged, or scrutinized by others in social situations (eating, talking, using the bathroom)
hypnagogic sensations
- feelings that you are falling or floating - usually experienced during stage 1 of sleep and may later be incorporated into memories
attitude
- feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events
ovulation
- female hormones, the estrogens, peak in secretion, which makes the female more sexually receptive
humanistic psychology
- focuses more on current environmental influences and being loved and accepted rather than early childhood memories - *Carl Rogers* and *Abraham Maslow* - positive growth - attempt to seek self-actualization (be all you can be) - you can't meed the next need without meeting the one before it (physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization)
arousal theory
- focuses on finding the right level of stimulation - *strength*: we look for a way to increase arousal to the optimal level when we are bored and need something to do - *weakness*: too mch stimulation can cause stress and then we need to find a way to decrease arousal
instinct theory
- focuses on genetically predisposed behaviors - *strength*: the underlying assumption that genes predispose species-typical behavior is strong - *weakness*: fails to explain human motives ("oh it's just instinct"... ok but why?)
humanistic theory
- focuses on our inner capacities for growth and self fulfillment - focused on normal behavior - personality is driven by the need to adapt and learn - methods of assessment include interviews, intimate conversation, and questionnaires - criticized for being too warm and fuzzy (can't test all the concepts), many feel self esteem isn't a cause of behavior, but a byproduct of it
levels of processing
- focuses on the depth of processing involved in memory, and predicts the deeper information is processed, the longer a memory trace will last - ex: in a memory study, the experimenter reads the same list of words to two groups. she asks group a to count the letters in each word, and she asks group b to focus on the meaning of each word for a later memory quiz. during a recall test, participants in group b recall significantly more words than participants in group a
neo-Freudians
- followers of Freud who developed their own competing psychodynamic theories
reaction formation
- forming an emotional reaction or attitude that is the opposite of one's threatening or unacceptable actual thoughts - ex: seven-year-old Darnell likes his female classmate, Annie, but he makes fun of her and acts rudely in her presence
Wilhelm Wundt
- founded the first psychological laboratory - experiment on reaction time and awareness using a telegraph key and a ball hitting the ground
general intelligence
- g factor - a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
secondary reinforcers
- gain their reinforcing power through their association with primary reinforcers - ex: money, good grades, pleasant tone of voice
epinephrine & norepinephrine
- give the body energy in stressful situations - increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar
taste
- good tastes allowed our ancestors to survive because they attracted our ancestors toward sources of energy or protain-rich foods - bad tasting foods would deter our ancestors from potentially harmful substances
GRIT
- graduated and reciprocated initiatives in tension-reduction - a strategy designed to decrease international tensions
Phineas Gage
- had a rod shot through his frontal lobe in an accident which caused his personality to change from being a nice, affable person to being very irritable and mean (everything else was fine, he still had memories and could speak) - frontal lobe controls personality
disturbed perceptions
- hallucinations (sensory experiences without sensory stimulation)
Heather Sellers
- has perfect vision and prosopagnosia - can see perfectly fine and sees what any other person would see, but her brain cannot recognize faces - her sensory receptors detect the same information anyone else would, but her perception is lacking in certain aspects - illustrates the difference between sensation and perception because we can sense the same things (we have the same sensory information being sent to our brains), yet we might perceive different things from those sensations
Edward Titchener
- he aimed to discover the structural elements of the mind using self-reflective introspection - he had subjects report their experiences after stimulating their five senses - believed that the only thing that we know more about than we can learn from external observations is ourselves - results vary since we sometimes don't always know why we do what we do or feel what we feel
conduction hearing loss
- hearing loss that is caused by *physical and mechanical damage* to the ear (punctured eardrum, tiny bones in middle ear can't vibrate, etc.)
feature detector
- help us identify certain objects based on their perceivable physical features - there are different areas in our brains that light up when we look at certain objects - ex: different regions of the brain might light up when we look at a chair vs a hours. this is because our feature detectors identify different shapes and sizes with each object
problem-solving strategies
- heuristics, algorithms, and trial and error
limbic system
- hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus - emotions and drives
Carl Rogers
- humanistic theorist - people are good - everybody has the capacity for growth with unconditional positive regard - "Mr. Rogers" vibes
Abraham Maslow
- humanistic theorist who created the hierarchy of needs
biological influences on eating
- hypothalamic centers in the brain monitoring appetite, appetite hormones, stomach pangs, weight set/settling point, attraction to sweet and salty tastes, adaptive wariness toward novel food
Benjamin Lee Whorf
- hypothesized that since language shapes our ideas, it can impose different conceptions of reality - ex: in one language there is no past tense for a verb, so native speakers of this language do not readily think about the past and therefore have a different perspective on reality - language can influence our thinking and speaking another language might cause us to align ourselves with beliefs of that language's culture
placebo effect
- if you think you are getting a certain treatment, your body can act like it has actually gotten that treatment and thus disturb the result
imagination
- imagining a physical activity can cause the same areas in the brain to trigger as if you were actually performing that action - mental rehearsal can activate the neural networks used when actually performing the activity imagined
outcome simulation
- imagining the result of an event prior to it happening - ex: imagining looking at the posted grades for a test and seeing an A
environment
- impacts intelligence - among the poor, environmental conditions can override genetic differences, depressing cognitive development - if you grow up in a poor environment, you might not have the resources available to increase your intelligence levels as much as other environments (poor schools don't have the best teachers so students don't learn as much and therefore aren't as intelligent)
extinction
- in *classical* conditioning: the diminishing response that occurs when the CS no longer signals an impending US (ex: in the experiment involving Pavlov's dogs, if the CS (tone) no longer signals the US (food), the dog will start salivating less and less upon hearing the tone) - in *operant* conditioning: occurs when a response in no longer reinforced
acquisition
- in *classical* conditioning: the initial stage when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response - in *operant* conditioning: the strengthing of a reinforced response
intimacy
- in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships - a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood
egocentrism
- in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view
preoperational stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage (from 2 to about 6/7 years), during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic - ex: if the same amount of milk is poured into a glass that is short and wide and a glass that is tall and skinny, the child will think the tall and skinny glass has more milk because the milk is visually at a higher height
sensorimotor stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities - babies take in the world through their senses and actions (looking, hearing, touching, mouthing, grasping, etc.)
concrete operational stage
- in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years) 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 at age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts - ex: "if this, then that"
morphemes
- in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning - may be a word or part of a word (such as a prefix or suffix like -ed or -ing) - ex: "bats" has bat-s
discrimination
- in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus - ex: if you see a guard dog, your heart might race but if you see a guide dog, it wouldn't, even though they are both dogs
phonemes
- in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit - sometimes a letter or combination of letters ("bat" has b, a, t and "chat" has ch, a, t) - if you grow up with one set of phonemes and try to learn a language that has ones you've never used before, it might be difficult to pronounce some of the sounds
Weber's Law
- in order for there to be a perceptible difference between two stimuli, they must differ by a *constant proportion* rather than by a constant amount - ex: in order to perceive a difference between the weight of two objects, the weight must differ by 2%
door-in-the-face phenomenon
- in order to persuade someone to agree to do a small task, first ask them to do a large favor that they will likely turn down (makes the second task, the thing you actually wanted them to do, seem more manageable)
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 - Freud supported the idea that repressed thoughts and feelings could be successfully resolved if they were brought into one's conscious awareness
interpretation
- in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight
resistance (psychoanalysis)
- in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material
transference
- in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a patient)
defense mechanism
- in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
gender
- in psychology, the biologically and social influenced characteristics by which epople define males and females
perceptual adaptation
- in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displced or even inverted visual field - ex: if you put on glasses that flip everything upside down, eventually your eyes will adjust and you can function normally
occipital lobe
- includes areas that receive information from the visual fields
misinformation effect
- incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event - leads to the creation of false memories
normative social influence
- influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval
informational social influence
- influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality (based on data and information that they have provided)
dreams
- information processing/memory, physiological benefits, activation-synthesis theory
primary reinforcer
- innately reinforcing and unlearned, such as satisfying a biological need - ex: getting food when you are hungry
Flynn effect
- intelligence scores tend to increase over time (generally, society today is more intelligent than society 100 years ago)
assimilation
- interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
tardive dyskinesia
- involuntary movements of the faical muscles, tongue, and limbs - a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target certain dopamine receptors
frontal lobe influence
- involved in speaking and muscle movements, as well as in making plans and judgements - influences personality (Phineas Gage)
polygenetic
- involving many genres (ex: intelligence)
drugs
- it is not a good idea to overload the brain with endorphins found in drugs such as heroin and morphine because the brain may stop producing its own natural opiates - when the effects of the drugs wear off, the brain could be deprived of any form of opiate, which could cause intense discomfort and depressive feelings - drugs and other chemicals can affect brain chemistry at synapses, usually by amplifying or blocking neurotransmitter activity - some drugs are agonists and produce a temporary "high" by amplifying the normal sensations of arousal or pleasure
medulla
- it is the slight swelling of the spinal cord as it enters the skull and at the base of the brainstem - controls heartbeat and breathing
representativeness heuristics
- judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes - may lead us to ignore other relevant information - ex: if someone describes a person who is short, slim, and likes to read poetry and asks you to guess if they are an ivy league classics professor or a truck driver, you would probably guess professor, even though there are very few ivy league classics professors compared to truck drivers
Gustav Fechner
- known for his work with absolute thresholds and psychophysics
inappropriate emotions/actions
- laugh at inappropriate times, flat effect (no emotion), senseless compulsive acts, catatonia (motionless waxy movements)
classical conditioning
- learn to associate two stimuli and thus to anticipate an event - ex: we learn that a flash of lightning signals a crack of thunder, so upon seeing lightning we brace ourselves for thunder - we can study an organism through behaviorism by looking at how it responds to that given stimuli
associative learning
- learning that certain events can occur together - the events could be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning)
latent learning
- learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it - ex: making scrambled eggs just by watching other people do it
sternberg's triangular model of love
- liking (intimacy) - companionate love (intimacy + commitment) - empty love (commitment) - fatuous love (passion + commitment) - infatuation (passion) - romantic love (passion + intimacy)
Noam Chomsky
- linguist - believed that given adequate nurture, language will naturally occur - children overgeneralize grammar rules sometimes; for example they might say "holded" instead of "held"
Gardner's 8 intelligences
- linguistic - logical-mathematical - musical - spatial - bodily-kinesthetic - intrapersonal (self) - interpersonal (other people) - naturalist
association areas
- link sensory inputs with stored memories - involved with higher menta functions like learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking (not involved in motor or sensory functions) - found in all four lobes
theory
- linked with observation - an explanation using a set of core principles that attempts to predict events or behaviors - a good theory organizes and links observations and fact, and implies clear predictions and hypotheses that can be tested
psychophysiological illness
- literally "mind-body" illness - any stress-related physical illness such as hypertension and some headaches
sensory cortex control
- located at the front of the parietal lobes and processes body touch and movement sensations and sends them to the motor cortex
cerebellum
- located at the rear of the brainstem and the hindbrain - helps judge time, modulate emotions, discriminate sounds, coordinate voluntary movement, keeps you balanced
reticular formation
- located in the brainstem - a network of neurons that extends from the spinal cord to the thalamus that plays an important role in controlling arousal - filters incoming stimuli and relays important information to other areas of the brain
basilar membrane
- located in the cochlea - has hairs that vibrate that allow you to hear different frequencies (helps determine pitch)
Broca's area
- located in the left frontal lobe - controls language expression and directs the muscle movements involved in speech - if damaged, one might not be able to speak clearly or well
Wernicke's area
- located in the left temporal lobe - controls language reception and is involved in language comprehension and expression - if damaged, one might be able to speak but only in meaningless words (words wouldn't really relate to the topic or be useful to communicate effectively)
pons
- located just above the medulla and it connects the hindbrain with the midbrain and forebrain - helps coordinate movements, sleeping, waking, dreaming, facial expressions - if severed, the body can still move but not with much intention
adrenal glands
- located on top of the kidneys - glands of the endocrine system that secrete hormones that arouse the body in stressful situations (fight or flight) - release epinephrine and norepinephrine
naturalistic observation
- looking at behavior in a natural setting without imposint treatment or intervening in any way - does not explain behavior, instead it describes it
behavioral psychology
- looking at how someone reacts to stimuli to understand their thought processes and how they think
introspection
- looking inward and reflecting on your experiences with a stimulus - used in Titchener's experiments with structuralism
amnesia
- loss of memory
Rober Rescorla
- made a model of classical contingency state - conditioning occurs only when one event reliably predicts another
rationalization
- making up acceptable excuses for unacceptable behavior - ex: "if i don't have breakfast, i can have that piece of cake later on without hurting my diet"
undifferentiated schizophrenia
- many and varied symptoms of schizophrenia
protection
- many researchers have pushed for government legislation on protections for animals in research experiments, and many professional organizations and funding agencies already have guidelines in place for the ethics of experimenting on animals - in experiments done with human subjects, consent is always given beforehand, the subjects are protexted from harm and discomfort, information about each subject is confidential, and the test subjects are fully debriefed about the experiment afterward
hypnosis
- memories recovered under hypnosis are not reliable because hypnotized subjects can incorporate hypnotic suggestions into their own memories and therefore believe that those suggestions were in fact true events when they actually weren't
dementia
- mental erosion from a loss of brain cells
intelligence
- mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations - people who have higher intelligence scores might also have slightly larger brains and more synapses - slightly higher neural plasticity - slightly higher neural processing speed - those who are early readers tend to score higher on intelligence tests later on in life (high scoring 11 year olds were more likely to be living independently at age 77 and were less likely to have suffered late-onset Alzheimer's disease - by age 4, we can begin to predict the intelligence of adolescents and adults - tends to vary based on ethnic background
source amnesia
- misattribution - attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined - the inability to remember where, when, or how previously learned information has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge - can cause false memories
agonist molecules
- molecules that are very similar to neurotransmitters and are able to bind to their receptors and mimic the effect of neurotransmitters
mirror-image perceptions
- mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other's side as evil
Carl Jung
- neo-Freudian - emphasized the collective unconcscious - believed in the personal unconscious (similar to the id) - said sexual instinct (Freud's focus) is only one motive, there are others that guide our behavior
feature detectors
- nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement
sensorineural hearing loss
- nerve deafness - hearing loss that results from damage to the cochlea's hair receptor cells or to the auditory nerves - more common and can be caused by disease but is usually caused by biological changes linked by biological changes linked with heredity, aging, and prolonged exposure to loud noises
biological psychology
- neuroscience - looking at psychological through a physical lens - ex: looking at what goes on in the body or your brain when you blush, hereditary experiences that might affect your mind, etc. - focuses on how the body, brain, and genes can influence emotions, memories, and sensory experiences - hormones, genes, chemicals
implicit memory
- nondeclarative - retention independent of conscious recollection - involves learning how to do things such as ride a bike or play an instrument
secondary sex characteristics
- nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair
in fantis
- not speaking
desensitization
- occurs after witnessing violence (ex: in media) - over time, one will become more indifferent - after watching many violent scenes, they do not bother the individual as much as they used to, and the actions do not seem as awful as they once did
effortful processing
- occurs when we make an effort to process something - requires us to focus
automatic processing
- occurs without actively trying to process something - happens naturally and unconsciously
case study
- one person is studied in depth to attempt to reveal a universal application to other people - one of the oldest research methods - individual case studies may be misleading if the test subject is atypical - does not explain behavior, instead it describes it
opponent process theory
- opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision - ex: some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green
shape constancy
- our ability to perceive the form of familiar objects as unchanging even while our retinal image of it changes - ex: we perceive the door as having an unchanging shape, even though its position and angle changes in our visual field (in the first image, it looks like a rectangle, in the next two it kinda looks like a trapeoid but we still perceive it as a rectangle)
fluid intelligence
- our ability to reason speedily and abstractly - tends to decrease during late adulthood
crystalized intelligence
- our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills - increase with age
cognitive social-learning theory
- our behavior is determined by two factors: the expectation of attaining a goal & the personal value of the goal - locus of control (our belief that we control the outcome of our own lives (intrinsic vs extrinsic control)
circadian rhythm
- our biological clock that helps control regular and daily bodily rhythms like temperature and wakefulness that occur on a 24 hour period
psychodynamic theory
- our motivation comes from the deep, dark parts of our unconscious mind (the id) - two basic needs - *eros*: desire for sex - *thanatos*: aggression and destruction (this tries to explain mental disorders, not everyday behaviors)
gender identity
- our sense of being male or female
locus of control
- our sense of controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless
identity
- our sense of self - according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles
adaptation level phenomenon
- our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience
spotlight effect
- overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)
association
- pairing the sights of things with the sounds of the words that depict them
REM
- paradoxical sleep - vivid dreams usually occur, muscles are relaxed by other bodily systems are active, body is internally aroused by externally calm, deepest stage of sleep and cannot be easily awakened
authoritative
- parenting style - parents are both demanding and responsive, exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but also explain the reasons for the rules - especially with older children, encourage open discussion when making rules and allow exceptions
authoritarian
- parenting style - parents impose ryles and expect obedience - ex: "don't stay out late or you'll be grounded" - harsher
permissive
- parenting style - parents submit to their children's desires, make few demands, and use little punishment
catatonic schizophrenia
- parrot-like repetition of another's speech and movements - the type of schizophrenia that is characterized by highly disturbed movements or actions and waxy flexibility
semicircular canals
- part of the ear that helps with balance
light
- passes through the eye by way of the cornea, pupil, lens, then retina
schizoid personality disorder
- people will avoid relationships and do not show much emotion (loners) - they genuinely prefer to be alone and do not secretly wish for popularity - tend to seek jobs that require little social contact; their social skills are often weak and they do not show a need for attention or acceptance - indifferent to praise and criticism of others; unable to form close relationships; no warm or tender feelings for other people
ingroup
- people with whom we share a common identity ("us") - we tend to favor our own group
feel-good, do-good phenomenon
- people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood
color constancy
- perceiving familiar objects as having constant color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object
perceptual constancy
- perceiving objects as unchanging (having constant shapes, sizes, colors, and lightness) even as illumination and retinal images change
bipolar disorder
- person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania - episodes last anywhere from a few days to a couple of months
alarm
- phase 1 in general adaptation syndrome - heart rate races, blood is diverted to skeletal muscles, you feel the faintness of shock - body mobilizes its resources to cope with a stressor
resistance
- phase 2 in general adaptation syndrome - temperature, blood pressure, and respiration remain high, and there is a sudden outpouring of hormones - the body seems to adapt to the prescence of the stressor
exhaustion
- phase 3 in general adaptation syndrome - you are more vulnerable to illness or even in extreme cases collapse and death - the body depletes its resources
three structural components of language
- phonemes, morphemes, and grammar
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
- physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking - in severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions
projection
- placing one's own unacceptable thoughts onto others, as if the thoughts belonged to them and not to oneself - ex: Keisha is attracted to her friend's boyfriend, but denies this and believes the boyfriend is attracted to her
structuralism
- popularized by *Edward Titchener* - an approach to discovering the structural elements of the mind by looking at each element of an experience a test subject has - no longer accepted since introspection is unreliable
functionalism
- popularized by *William James* - an approach to psychology that looks at the function of thoughts and feelings - our behavior is a product of our environment - influenced behaviorism - consciousness cannot be studied
law of effect
- popularized by Edward L. Thorndike - behaviors that are rewarded are likely to recur and behaviors that are punished are likely to diminish
post-traumatic growth
- positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstance and life crises
prosocial behavior
- positive, constructive, helpful behavior - the opposite of antisocial behavior
paranoid schizophrenia
- preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations - believes someone is out to get you - the type of schizophrenia that is characterized by a.) delusions, hallucinations, or both; b.) virtually no cognative impairment, and c.) well organized delusions of persecution or grandeur
skin sensations
- pressure, warmth, cold, pain - pressure is the only one that has definable receptors
hypothalamus
- pretty much everything - directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps regulate the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, linked to emotion and reward, monitors blood chemistry and takes orders from other parts of the brain - *f*ighting, *f*leeing, *f*eeding, *f*ornication - might be the most important structure in the brain so when in doubt, guess hypothalamus
Aristotle
- principles were derived from observations - argued the opposite of Socrates and Plato, saying that knowledge is NOT preexisting and that instead it grows from experiences stored in our memories
interneurons
- process the incoming information from the sensory neurons into the outgoing information in motor neurons
visual information
- processed by the abstract layers of the retina, along with millions of rods, cones, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells - this information is sent to the occipital lobe in the brain - from a scene, the reina processes the situation using receptor rods and cones which send information to the bipolar cells which then send information to the ganglion cells. after that, the brain detects features using feature detection. the brain's detectors cells respond to significant features (edges, lines, angles, etc.) from the scene. parallel processing occurs throughout and the brain cell combines information about color, movement, form and depth with the other information it is receiving simultaneously. finally is the recognition phase where the brain interprets the constructed image based on informaiton from stored images
smell
- processed by the olfactory cortex in the temporal lobe (part of the limbic system)
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- produces images of soft tissue in the brain by using magnetic fields and radio waves - a test used to make pictures of structures inside our bodies - the head is put into a strong magnetic field that aligns with the spinning atoms in the brain molecules, then a radio wave pulse temporarily disorients the atoms, and when the atoms return to their normal spin they release signals that provide detailed pictures of the brain's soft tissues
telomeres
- protective tips of the chromosomes that tend to wear down with age - as they shorten, aging cells may die without being replaced with perfect genetic replicas
sleep
- protects, helps us recuperate, make memories, feeds creative thinking, plays a role in growth process
glial cells
- provide nutrients and protect neurons in the nervous system - many participate in information transfer and memory by communicating with neurons
schizophrenia
- psychological disorder - brain normalities include enlarged ventricles in the brain, overabundance of dopamine, and use of drugs - genetic factors can include heretability - psychological facors can include extreme emotional trauma
somatoform disorders
- psychological disorders in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause
Solomon Ash
- psychologist who studied conformity - had a bunch of people in a room answer easy questions (such as line length comparisons) - the first two rounds went with no errors & all correct answers, but for the third round everyone but the participant gave incorrect answers to see if the participant would conform.
conversion disorders
- rare somatoform disorders in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found
temporal lobe
- receives auditory information - the temp. lobe of people who are born deaf waits for stimulation but eventually it looks for other signal to process, like those of the visual system
parietal lobe
- receives sensory input for touch and body positions (tactile sensations)
random assignment
- refers to splitting up a sample (not necessarily a random sample) in a random way - purpose is to minimize possible confounding variables or alternative explanations - ex: hand-pick 20 people out of 100 (not randomly) and then randomly assign them to one of two groups
achievement
- reflect on what you have already learned
denial
- refusal to recognize or acknowledge a threatening situation - ex: Ben is failing his classes and denies struggling academically
variable-ratio schedule
- reinforcing a response after an *unpredictable number of responses* - ex: slot machine - produces high rates of responding
variable-interval schedule
- reinforcing a response at *unpredictable time intervals* - tend to produce slow, steady responses - ex: getting a snow day
fixed-ratio schedule
- reinforcing a response only after a *specified number of responses* - ex: get a free coffee drink after 10 purchases - produces high rate or responding
fixed-interval schedule
- reinforcing a response only after a *specified time has elapsed* - the response tends to increase as the time approaches - ex: getting a paycheck (you get it every two weeks)
partial (intermittent) reinforcements
- reinforcing a response only part of the time - results in slower acquisition of response but much greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement
continuous reinforcement
- reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs - learning (and extinction) occurs rapidly under this method, relative to partial reinforcement
replication
- repeating an experiment using different participants to see if the findings still hold true - allows you to verify results and gain confidence in conclusions drawn from experiments - if the same experiment is repeated on a different group of test subjects and the same results occur, the repetition shows that those results are likely universal to larger groups of people than just those tested - if an experiment is repeated and the results are different, the results will likely be unreliable
imitation
- repeating words and syntaz modeled by others
longitudinal studies
- research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time
longitudinal study
- research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time (rather than a cross-sectional study, where there is a younger group and an older group tested at the same time)
informed consent
- research participants must be told enough information to agree o take part in the experiment
applied research
- research that is "applied" to the real world to solve practical problems
basic research
- research that is conducted that builds psychology's knowledge base
cones
- retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and help us to see colors and fine details - function in daylight or in well-lit conditions - found buried inside the retina's outer layer of cells (cluster around the fovea)
rods
- retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray - used in peripheral vision and in low-light situations, when cones don't respond - found buried inside the retina's outer layer of cells (around the peripheral region of the retina)
self-disclosure
- revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others
higher-order conditioning
- second order conditioning - a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weeker) conditioned stimulus - ex: an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone
well-being
- self-percieved happiness or satisfaction with life - used along with measures of objective well-bring (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life
nociceptor
- sensory receptors that help detect pain - can identify hurtful temperatures, pressures, or chemicals and cause you to feel pain because of them. there is no singular type of stimulus that triggers pain (unlike how vision is only triggered through light)
estrogens
- sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics - in nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity
gender prejudice
- sexism - leads to improper population ratios - if there are more men than women, it can be harder for a man to find a partner and therefore there will be less children which will throw off the ratio even more
biological influences on sexual behavior
- sexual maturity, sex hormones (especially testosterone), sexual orientation
superordinate goals
- shared goals that override differences among people adn require their cooperation
positron emission tomography scan (PET)
- shows brain activity by showing each region's consumption of a glucose (more dramatic than a CT scan) - radioactive dye is used to analyze activity and function in the brain
reliability
- shows consistency in the data - if the same experiment can be repeated with different subjects multiple times and the results are similar, then the data is said to be reliable - you can rely on it to be similar no matter who you experiment with
psychological influences on eating
- sight and smell of food, variety of foods available, memory of time elapsed since last meal, stress and mood, food unit size
binge-eating disorder
- significant binge-eating episodes followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fasting, or excessive exercise that marks bulimia nervosa
sound
- since we have two ears, we can perceive sound intensity and depth and in essence perceive sound in "three dimensions" - if we hear a noise on our right side, we know it comes from our right side because our right ear is closer to the sound and thus receives a more intense signal and it receives this signal slightly sooner, since it is closer to the source. when dealing with sounds that come from a distance equidistant to both ears, we can make mistakes sometimes when identifying the location of the sound. that is why sometimes when we want to hear something better, we might tilt our heads to allow one ear to hear the sound first and thus enable us to better pinpoint the location of the sound
thalamus
- sits at the top of the brainstem and serves as the brain's "sensory switchboard" or "relay system" - receives information from all senses (except smell) and routes them to higher brain regions (directs messages to sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla)
somatic nervous system
- skeletal muscles (peripheral nervous system) - carries instructions to your brain to move your muscles
suggestibility
- social influence theory - the subject is so caught up in the hypnotized role that they ignore the cold feeling of the water
observational learning
- social learning - learning by observing others
peripheral nervous system
- somatic nervous system & autonomic nervous system - composed of sensory and motor neurons that connect to the CNS and the rest of the body
animal research
- some studies and research experiments cannot be done on humans due to their unpredictable response to and organism - in this case, animals may be beneficial to research to see how effective a treatment might be, without risking health issues on a human being - many animals are also much simpler than humans, so studying them might actually be easier to see results or simply easier to do in general
Karen Horney
- sought to balance Freud's masculine biases - disputed oedipus complex and penis envy - believed normal growth involved social relationships - believed unhealthy development is due to neurotic needs (normal desires taken to extremes)
sound energy into neural messages
- sounds are just vibrating air waves that have compressions and rarefractions. the ear transforms these vibrations into neural impulses which our brains can decode as sounds. first, the outer ear transmits the sound waves through the auditory canal to the eardrum. the middle ear then transmits the eardrum's vibration through a piston made of three tiny bones to the cochlea. these vibrations cause the cochlea to vibrate, which causes the surrounding fluid to fill the cochlea. this motion then causes ripples in the basilar membrane, which bends the hair cells lining its surface. the hair cells then trigger impulses in adjacent nerve cells, whose axons converge to form the auditory nerve which then sends neural messages (via the thalamus) to the temporal lobe's auditory cortex
nicotine
- stimulant - epinephrine and norepinephrine (released when smoking a cigarette) - release of dopamine - calms anxiety, reduces pain, diminished appetite, boosts alertness, alters mood
meth
- stimulant - works with dopamine - heightened energy and euphoria, increased heart rate, breathing rate increases, reduces baseline dopamine levels over time
cocaine
- stimulant - works with dopamine - more alert, euphoric high, prone to dangerous activities through feelings of invincibility, depressive crash
caffeine
- stimulant - works with dopamine and adrenaline - increased alertness and wakefulness, withdrawal can be uncomfortable, insomnia can ensue
ecstacy (MDMA)
- stimulant/hallucinogen - works with serotonin - euphoric feelings, dehydration, overheating, increased blood pressure
neurons
- stimulated to transmit messages from signals from our senses or from chemical signals from other nearby neurons. at these times the action potential ensues, and an electrical charge is sent down the axon - externally with sensory neurons and internally with neurotransmitters - to transmit information: 1) the dendrite fibers receive information and send it to the cell's axons. 2) from there, the axons pass the information to other neurons and muscle glands. 3) information travels from sensory neurons to motor neurons throughout the whole process. 4) when a neuron is stimulated by signals from our senses or from chemical signals, an action potential impulse is fired off down an axon
social facilitation
- stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others - ex: performing better in a basketball game if the gym is full of people watching rather than empty
Mary Calkins
- student of William James - James admitted her into his grad seminar but since Calkins was a woman all the men dropped out - Calkins was being taught alone by James and got all the necessary requirements for a Ph.D but Harvard only offered her a degree from Radcliffe College which was the sister school for women (refused) - first female president of the APA (American Psychological Association)
Mary Ainsworth
- studied attachment - mothers who are sensitive and responsive had infants who exhibited secure attachment and mothers who are insensitive and unresponsive had infants who often became insecurely attached
Wolfgang Kohler
- studied learning using a chimpanzee named Sultan - placed Sultan in a cage with a short stick, and put a long stick outside the cage and then an apple out of reach. Sultan had an "aha" moment as he used the short stick to pull the long stick closer and then used the long stick to grab the apple - conclusion was that this evidence of animal cognition showed that there is more to learning than conditioning
Hermann Ebbinghaus
- studied storage decay - revealed that there is a forgetting curve that is very steep initially but then it levels off - ex: after learning something, you will forget a lot of it in the first few days/weeks/month but then after that, your forgetting slows down by a great amount and you tend to retain whatever is left over that you originally learned
Harry Harlow
- studies body contact (contact comfort) - a comforting mother that doesn't nourish is preferable to monkeys than a mother who nourishes but is uncomfortable - monkeys were isolated at birth from their mothers and raised with two artificial mothers (one was a bare wire cylinder with a feeding bottle and the other was a cylinder wrapped with foam rubber and terry cloth but no feeding tube) - even though the second mother did not provide food, the monkeys still clung to it and seemed to prefer it, and they even clung to it when feeding from the other
proximity
- studies show that people are more likely to like or even marry those who live in the same neighborhood, sit nearby in class, work in the same office, share the same parking lot, etc. - one reason could be that repeated exposure to stimuli increases our liking for them (mere exposure effect)
dysthymic disorder
- suffering from mild depression every day for at least two years - a less invasive and incapacitating form of depression
B.F. Skinner
- suggested that we can develop language through learning principles such as association, imitation, reinforcement, and operant conditioning - we can associate an image with the sounds used to describe that image, imitate words and syntax that others use, and when we do so correctly, we are reinforced by the smiles and hugs of our parents who encourage us to speak properly
serial position effect
- suggests that we can better recall the first and last items in a list over the middle items - *primary effect* suggests that we can remember the first item in a in a list, and the *recency effect* suggests that the last items we hear in a list will be easier to recall since they are the freshest in our memory
synapse
- synaptic gap - the point at which the axon tip of the sending neuron meets the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron (empty space)
blank slate
- tabula rasa - idea created by Locke in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding - the mind is a blank slate that is written on by experience
chunks
- taking the information you need to know and then breaking it down into smaller pieces that revolve around some central idea or theme
social identity
- the "we" aspect of our self-concept - the part of our answer to "who am i?" that comes from our group memberships
DSM-V
- the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, - a manual guide for assessing and diagnosing mental disorders but does NOT include guidance on treatment for any disorders
receptive language
- the ability to comprehend speech
emotional intelligence
- the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions - better interactions with friends and other people - reading others' emotions and controlling their own - better job performances than those who scored lower on such a test
productive language
- the ability to produce words and speak
depth perceptions
- the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two dimensional - allos us to judge distances
gender typing
- the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role
priming
- the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory - someone's behavior can be primed by introducing a piece of minor information that will influence their future behavior - ex: if you see a missing child poster, you might think of a kidnapping the next time you see an adult with a child
pupil
- the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters
intensity
- the amount of energy in a light or sound wave - we percieve the intensity as brightness or loudness and it is determined by the amplitude of the wave
repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (RTMS)
- the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain - used to stimulate or suppress brain activity and to help treat some mental disorders
object permanence
- the awareness that thigns continue to exist even when not perceived - if an infant has a toy and then the toy is covered with a blanket, the infant might think the object is gone since they cannot see it
primary sex characteristics
- the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
nervous system
- the body's communication network - central & peripheral nervous systems
basal metabolic rate
- the body's resting rate of energy expenditure
plasticity
- the brain's ability to modify itself (especially during childhood) after some kind of damage or by building new pathways based on experience
split brain
- the brain's two hemispheres are isolated after an operation cutting the fibers in the corpus callosum - done by Philip Vogel and Joseph Bogen - done because they believed that epileptic seizures were caused by abnormal brain activity bouncing back and forth between the two hemispheres, and they suspected that severing the corpus callosum would resolve the problem
dendrites
- the bushy fibers of a neuron that receive information and conduct impulses toward the cell body
aptitude
- the capacity to learn a new skill
fovea
- the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster
middle ear
- the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea that contains three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window
hue
- the colors we experience (red, blue, green, etc) - determined by the wavelength
androgyny
- the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form - ex: Sabrina plays on a rugby team and collects antique dolls and Peter is on a football team and loves to cook
medical model
- the concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases cured, often through treatment in a hospital
rehearsal
- the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage
context dependent memory
- the context in which you remember something can help you later recall the information that you stored in memory - ex: if you are doing homework at your desk and then go downstairs to get a piece of paper, you might forget why you went downstairs as soon as you get there, but when you go back up and sit down again, you might remember that you need to get paper since you have returned to the place where you originally stored that information
fetus
- the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth - if a mother is HIV positive, the baby might carry the virus as well - if a mother is a frequent smoker, the baby might be born underweight and receive fewer nutrients - a baby whose mother drinks or does drugs might also be prone to do the same thing
embryo
- the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month
retroactive interference
- the disruptive effect of *new* learning on the recall of *old* information - remembering the new stuff so it forgets the old stuff
proactive interference
- the disruptive effect of *prior* learning on the recall of *new* information - remembering the old stuff and forgetting the new stuff
semantic encoding
- the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words - ex: to study for a vocab quiz, you relate each word to a real-life scenario that is meaningful to you
visual encoding
- the encoding of pictures and images - ex: drawing a picture on the back of a flashcard to help you remember vocab words
acoustic encoding
- the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words - ex: if you are studying for a language test, you can link sound files of vocab words to help you remember
group polarization
- the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group
content validity
- the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest
personal control
- the extent to which people perceive control over their environment rather than feeling helpless
nearsighted
- the eyeball is longer than normal
rape myth
- the false notion that some women "invite" or "enjoy" rape - after attempting to flee their attacker at first, they become aroused and enjoy the interaction - more commonplace in media than in reality
zygote
- the fertilized egg - it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
psychophysics
- the first area of psychology to be studied as a science
menarche
- the first menstrual period
fissures
- the folds in the brain to separate the four lobes
glucose
- the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues - when glucose levels are low, we feel hungry
neurogenesis
- the formation of new neurons, which originate deep in the brain and then migrate to other parts to form connections with neighboring neurons
sexual response cycle
- the four stages of sexual responding (excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution) described by Masters and Johnson
pitch
- the frequency of the wave (low frequency = low pitch)
population
- the group of people that results can be drawn to from a sample of people being studied/surveyed
control group
- the group that does not receive any treatment, and is used to compare against the experimental group - can receive a placebo to help in double blind experiments
experimental group
- the group that receives the treatment
learned helplessness
- the hopelessness and passive resignation an organism learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events - ex: if a dog is strapped down and given repeated shocks (with no opportunity to avoid them), the dog will not attempt toavoid the shocks even when it is not strapped down and has an opportunity to escape them
dual processing
- the idea that information is often simultaneously processed on seperate conscious and unconscious levels
drive-reduction theory
- the idea that physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need - *strength*: we are strongly driven by our top needs that we need for survival - *weakness*: doesn't say how each motive is pushed by our physiological needs and pulled by incentives in the environment - it doesn't matter what causes the drive (instinct, desire, etc)
hindsight bias
- the idea that something unpredictable seemed so obvious now that you look back on it - hindsight bias and overconfidence often lead us to overestimate our intuition
parallel processing
- the idea that we can process many aspects simultaneously (unlike step-by-step or serial processing that computers use) - the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision
selective attention
- the idea that your conscience only focuses on very few pieces of sensory information while the unconscience tracks the rest - it's hard to focus on multiple things at a time - ex: if you are driving and talking on the phone, you might stop talking when you need to focus on an upcoming turn
sensory memory
- the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system - can be broken into iconic and echoic memory
infantile amnesia
- the inability to remember things from very young ages, usually up to four years old - adults also have a hard time remembering memories before the age of ten
reciprocal determinism
- the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment
cognitive neuroscience
- the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with our mental processes (perception, thinking, language, memory, etc.)
social intelligence
- the know-how involved in comprehending social situations and managing oneself successfully
ego
- the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality - operates on the reality principle satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
conditioned response
- the learned response to a previously neutral stimulus - weakens during extinction - when the conditioned stimulus no longer predicts the unconditioned stimulus - ex: if a dog is trained so that a tone (CS) signals food (US) which causes it to salivate, after a while, the dog will salivate at the sound of the tone. if the tone is palyed and food is not presented, after a while the dog will salivate less and less at the sound of the tone
blind spot
- the location where the optic nerve leaves the eye (no receptor cells at these spots)
deindividuation
- the loss of self-awareness and self-restrain occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
cognition
- the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Socrates & Plato
- the mind is separable from the body and continues while you die - knowledge is born within us
difference threshold
- the minimum difference a person can detect between any two timuli half the time - ex: if you held two objects with different weights, the difference threshold would be the minimum weight difference between the two objects that you can sense half the time
absolute threshold
- the minimum stimulation needed to detect one particular stimulus 50% of the time - ex: can see a candle flame 30 miles away on a clear night, feel the wing of a bee falling on a cheek, smell a drop of perfume in a three-room apartment, etc.
groupthink
- the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives
psychology
- the modern definition is "the science of behavior and mental processes" - behavior being anything an organism does (yell, laugh, smile, cry, etc.) and mental processes being the internal experiences inferred from behavior
testosterone
- the most important of the male sex hormones - both males and females have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and development of the male sex characteristics during puberty
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
- the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests - originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
- the most widely used intelligence test - contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests
Rorschach inkblot test
- the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach - seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots
figure-ground organization
- the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out (the figures) from their surroundings (the ground) - ex: the words on the page are the figure and the white space that the words appear on is the ground
superego
- the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations
axons
- the part of the neuron that passes the message from a dendrite to other neurons or muscle glands
external locus of control
- the perception that change or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate
relative depression
- the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves
internal locus of control
- the perception that you control your own fate
puberty
- the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
mere-exposure effect
- the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them - ex: if you hear a song once you might not like it but after listening to it over and over you start to like it
place theory
- the pitch we hear is based on where a specific location in the cochlea's membrane vibrates (high pitched sounds vibrate a certain part of the membrane) - drawback: doesn't really address how we hear low pitched sounds since the neural signals generalized by low pitched sounds aren't as neatly localized on the basilar membrane
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
frustration-aggression principle
- the principle that frustration (the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal) creates anger, which can generate aggression - especially true in the presence of an aggressive cue, such as a gun
sensory interaction
- the principle that one sense may influence another - ex: the aroma of the food you are eating can influence how it tastes
conservation
- the princple (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects
imprinting
- the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
stress
- the process by which we percieve and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging - provoked by catastrophes, significant life changes, and daily hassles - can lead to depression which can have some serious psychological issues - can decrease your physical health levels - increased blood pressure can cause coronary heart disease - if you're stressed, you might be inclined to eat worse foods, causing you to become obese - can also disrupt your immune system so you might be more prone to illness - hypertension, headaches
process simulation
- the process of an event prior to actually doing it - ex: imagining studying efficiently for a big test - tends to be more effective than outcome simulation
transduction
- the process of converting one form of energy into another - in sensation, it is transforming stimulus energies (sights, sounds, smells, etc) to neural impulses that our brains can interpret
memory retrieval
- the process of getting information out of memory storage
modeling
- the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
sensation
- the process of receiving information from environmental stimuli through sensory receptors and the nervous system
perception
- the process of taking the sensory stimuli and organizing them into a meaningful item or experience
encoding
- the processing of information into the memory system (for example, by extracting meaning)
heritability
- the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes - the heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied - the heritability of intelligence )the variation in intelligence test scores attributable to genetic factors) is about 50% - heritability never pertains to an individual, only to why people differ from one another
spontaneous recovery
- the reappearing of a weakened CR after a pause - ex: (Pavlov's dogs) if several hours pass before sounding the tone again, the dog would start salivating again upon hearing the tone, even after some form of extinction occurred
insomnia
- the recurring problem of falling or staying asleep - treatments: exercise, avoid caffeine, sleep on a regular schedule, relax before bedtime
long-term memory
- the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system - includes knowledge, skills, and experiences
memory storage
- the retention of encoded information over time
social psychology
- the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another
vestibular sense
- the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance *(semicircular canals in ear help with balance)* - the "biological gyroscopes" for this sense are located in the ear (semicircular canals and vestibular sacs, which contain fluid that moves when your head rotates or tilts) - you can touch your nose even with your eyes closed because of your vestibular sense (you know where it is without seeing it)
semantics
- the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language - the study of meaning - ex: adding the suffix "-ed" to a verb can indicate that it is in the past tense
x chromosome
- the sex chromosome found in both men and women - females have two, men have one - one from each parent produces a female child
y chromosome
- the sex chromosome found only in males - when paired with an x chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child
one-word stage
- the stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words
psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
- the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health
psychopharmacology
- the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior
predictive validity
- the success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict
REM rebound
- the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprevation (created by awakenings during REM sleep)
bystander effect
- the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present
spacing effect
- the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice
fundamental attribution error
- the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
social loafing
- the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
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 - good is rewarded and evil is punished
foot-in-the-door phenomenon
- the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
overconfidence
- the tendency to be more confident than correct - we tend to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments - caused by our use of intuitive heuristics when forming judgements, our eagerness to confirm the beliefs we already hold, and our knack for explaining away failures all help to create overconfidence within ourselves
mood congruent memory
- the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood (if you are in a good mood when you encode something, you are more likely to remember it when you are also in a good mood)
- functional fixedness
- the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions - an impediment to problem solving
generalization
- the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stiulus to elicit similar responses - ex: (Pavlov's dogs) the dog might salivate a little bit when a different tone (one that had not been paired with food) is sounded
other-race effect
- the tendendy to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races - we tend to simplify our world into categories. when we categorize people into groups, we often stereotype them. it's easier for "us" to see how we differ from other people in "our" group, but we overestimate the similarity of those within other groups - cross-race effect, own-race bias
color deficiency
- the the inability to distinguish between certain shades of colors - different from color blindness because you can still see color, but you might struggle to tell the difference between some of the primary colors - if you are dichromatic or monochromatic instead of trichromatic, you would only be able to distinguish the difference between two or one of the primary colors respectively - genetics impacts this imairment because it is a sex-linked trait, and usually color deficient people will be male
social exchange theory
- the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs - ex: if you are considering donating blood, you would think about the benefits you would get from doing so vs the costs, and if the benefits outweigh the cost, you would donate the blood
scapegoat theory
- the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
gate-control theory
- the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain - the "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain
cognitive dissonance theory
- the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent - ex: when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes
attribution theory
- the theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the person's *situation* or the person's *disposition* - affects and changes our behaviors depending on the circumstances - ex: if someone cuts you off and you ____ it to them being in a rush (situation) you might not be as mad at them as if you were to ____ it to them just being a bad driver or inconsiderate person (disposition)
disorganized thinking
- the thinking of a person with schizophrenia is fragmented and bizarre and distorted with false beliefs - disorganized thinking comes from a breakdown in selective attention, they cannot filter out information
menopause
- the time of natural cessation of menstruation - also refers to the biological changes a woman experience as her ability to reproduce declines
adolescence
- the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence - begins with the physical beginnings of sexual maturity and ends with the social achievement of independent, adult status (puberty --> adulthood) - frontal lobe maturation can lag the emotional limbic system and puberty's hormonal surge and limbic system development can help explain risky behavior, impulsiveness, and emotional storms in teens
lens
- the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina
unconditioned response
- the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus
aversive conditioning
- the use of something unpleasant, or a punishment, to stop an unwanted behavior
independent variable
- the variable in the experiment that is manipulated and does not rely on other factors
dependent variable
- the variable that can change depending on what the independent variable is - the outcome factor
empiricism
- the view that science should rely on observation and experimentation since knowledge is created from experience - was formed with ideas from Locke and Bacon
language processing
- the visual cortex receives written words as visual stimulation - the angular gryus transforms visual representations into auditory code - the Wernicke's area interprets auditory code - the Broca's area controls speech and muscles via the motor cortex - through the motor cortex words are pronounced
framing
- the way an issue is posed - how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments - ex: telling a patient that 10% of people die from a particular condition has a much different effect than telling the patient 90% of people survive, even though the information is the same
social-cognitive theory
- theory based on the idea that personality is a result of learning, perception, and social interaction
trait theory
- theory that personality is a composit of traits - methods of assessment include MMPI, MBTI, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire - criticisms: people can lie on personality inventories, people's behavior varies across different situations
cognitive therapists
- therapists who identify the client's irrational beliefs and provide alternative ways of believing
levels of analysis
- there are many different tiers of systems to consider in a situation (everyone is part of society by has their own individual selves that are made up of different organs and sysems which are then made up of molecules and atoms, etc.) - looking at a situaiton from different complementary perspectives because everything is related
nerve cells
- there is a synaptic gap between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite cell body of another neuron - when the action potential reaches the terminal at the end of an axon, it triggers the release of neurotransmitters - these neurotransmitters are able to cross the synaptic gap and bind to the receptor sites on the receiving neuron - the neurotransmitters are like a key fitting into a lock, as they open tiny channels at the receiving site, which allow electrically charged atoms to flow in - then in the reuptake process, excess neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the sending neuron
cochlear implants
- they convert sounds into electrical signals and stimulate the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea - can restore hearing for people with nerve deafness
thinking vs language
- thinking affects our language which then can affect our thoughts - thinking can allow new words to be created
dissociative amnesia
- this disorder is characterized by a blocking out of critical personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature
flooding
- this technique uses exposure to a stimulus that causes fear with the understanding that the body cannot maintain a heightened level or fear and anxiety - clients are exposed to the objects of their irrational fears and allowed to experience an extended period of fear until the fear subsides, thereby becoming extinct
outgroup
- those percieved as different or apart from our ingroup ("them")
William James
- thought it was more useful to identify the structure of the mind from the function of thoughts and feelings (smelling is what the nose does, thinking is what the brain does, etc.) rather than trying to create a structure of the mind from simple elements (like trying to figure out how a car works by looking at each of its individual parts) - James assumed that thinking was adaptive and was developed because it helped our ancestors survive (this idea was influenced by Darwin)
Gordon Allport
- trait theorist - dispositional theory
psychotherapy
- treatment involving psychological techniques - consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth
identification
- trying to become like someone else to deal with one's anxiety - ex: Marie really admires Susie, the most popular girl in school, and tries to copy her behavior and style
compensation (substitution)
- trying to make up for areas in which a lack is perceived by becoming superior in some other areas - ex: Reggie is not good at athletics, so he puts all of his energies into becoming an academic scholar
sublimation
- turning socially unacceptable urges into socially acceptable behavior - ex: Alan, who is very aggressive, becomes a professional hocky player
right brain
- understands simple requests, easily perceives objects; skilled at perceiving and portraying emotions; more engaged when quick, intuitive responses are needed; can copy drawings and recognize faces better; more "intuitive" than left brain - creativity kinetic
altruism
- unselfish regard for the welfare of others
divergent thinking
- used for creativity - contained mostly in certain areas of the frontal lobes
convergent thinking
- used in intelligence tests and situations that demand a single correct answer - mostly centered in the left parietal lobe
antipsychotic drugs
- used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder - ex: chlorpromazine
positive reinforcement
- using a stimulus that, when *presented* after a repsonse, *strengthens* the response - something is being added to strengthen behavior - ex: presenting food, money, attention
negative reinforcement
- using a stimulus that, when *removed* after a response, *strengthens* the response - increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as a shock - NOT punishment but rather removes a punishing or aversive event - ex: taking an aspirin for a headache, hitting snooze on the alarm (these events end pain/annoyance and thus increase the odds that these events will be repeated)
confounding variables
- variables, other than the independent variable, that can possibly explain the results of an experiment or contribute to them in some way - reduced through random assignment - typically not good
opiates
- versions of opium that depress neural activity and temporarily reduce pain and anxiety - ex: narcotics (such as codeine and morphine) and heroin
social-cognitive perspective
- views behavior as influenced by the interactions between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context
visual information to neural messages
- visual information passes through many different levels, each progressively becoming more abstract. the retina processes information before routing it via the thalamus to the brain's cortex. the retina's neural layers help encode and analyze sensory information. after being processed by the retina, information travels to the bipolar cells, then to the ganglion cells, then through their axons to the brain
Jackie Larsen
- was able to detect details about Christopher Bono - presumably due to her gender - women's nonverbal sensitivity gives them an edge in spotting lies and women are better than men in discerning certain details about others (such as spotting a real vs fake couple) - greater emotional literacy
magic number 7
- we can only store about 7 bits (give or take a couple) of information - we can probably remember the 7 digits of a phone number pretty easily with short-term memory, but wehen we also have to remember the area code as well it becomes more difficult
frequency theory
- we hear different pitches based on the frequency of neural impulses traveling up the auditory nerve - the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, which allows us to hear its pitch - the whole basilar membrane vibrates with the incoming sound wave which triggers an impulse at the same rate to the brain
theory of mind
- what allows us to infer another mental state - as we observe the actions of another person, our brain generates an inner simulation, which allows us to experience the other person's experiences within ourselves - fire when we see others perform certain actions, and these mirror neurons help us empathize with other people and see things from their perspective
rooting reflex
- when a newborn infant is touched on the cheek, the infant will turn its head toward the source of stimulation and begins sucking
statistically significant
- when something is statistically significant, the probability of it occurring by chance alone is very small, indicating that there likely is some kind of correlation
pain reflex
- when you induce pain, sensory neurons carry information and pass them to interneurons in the spinal cord. these interneurons then activate motor neurons, which causes muscles to move away from the souce of the pain. if you touch a flame, it feels like your hand jerks away before your brain tells it to since the simple pain reflex pathway runs through the spinal cord and right back out
top-down processing
- you see the big picture first (can also draw in outside information and past experiences) and then focus in on the details - perception
bottom-up processing
- you start with small details and work your way up to the big picture - begins to the sensory receptors and works upt to the brain's integrations of sensory information - how the physical characteristics of stimuli influence their interpretation - sensation
kinesthesis
- your sense of position and movement of your body parts - involves information from muscles, tendons, and joints
happiness
- your thinking broadens and becomes more playful and creative - your relationships, self-image, and hopes for the future seem more promising - can encourage you to do something nice for someone else (feel-good, do-good phenomenon) which then in turn makes you happier - if you are struggling financially, money can make you happier but once all your basic needs are met there is diminishing marginal utility
