Psych Final Vocab
intellectual disability
(formerly referred to as mental retardation) 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.
a neurocognitive disorder marked by neural plques, often with onset after age 80, and entailing a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive abilities
Alzheimers Disease
Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Assimilation
An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to their caregiver and showing distress on seperation
Attachment
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant defiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
growth mindset
Believing intelligence is changeable, results in a focus on learning and growing
Driving to school one snowy day, Marco narrowly misses a car that slides through a red light. "Slow down! What a terrible driver," he thinks to himself. Moments later, the city plows need to get out here." What social psychology principle has Marco just demonstrated? Explain
By attributing the other person's behavior to the person("he's a terrible driver") and his own to the situation ("these roads are awful"), Marco has exhibited the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR
Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh call this social contagion the ___________________
Chamelean effect
All the mental actities associted with thinking,knowing,remembering, and communicating
Cognition
When people act in a way that is not in keeping with their attitudes, and then change their attitudes to match those actions, ______________ ______________ theory attempts to explain why.
Cognitive dissonance
Jamal's therapist has suggested that Jamal should "act as if" he is confident, even though he feels insecure and shy. Which social psychological theory would best support this suggestion, and what might the therapist be hoping to achieve?
Cognitive dissonance theory best supports this suggestion.
In Piagets theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Concrete Operational stage
The principle (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
Consvervation
an optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development
Critical Period
research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time
Cross sectional study
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
Developmental Psychology
In Piagets theory, the preoperational childs difficulty taking anothers point of view
Egocentrism
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month
Embryo
A period from about age 18 to the mid twenties, when many in Western Cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults
Emerging Adulthood
Attitude is define as ??
Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a preganant womans heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out of porportion head and abnormal facial features
Fetal alcohol syndrome
The developing human organism feom 9 weeks after conception to birth
Fetus
We tend to agree to a larger request more readily if we have already agreed to a small request. This tendency is called the ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ phenomenon.
Foot-in-the-door
in Piagets theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about the age of 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
Formal Operational Stage
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner
Habituation
our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescents task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and intergrating various roles
Identity
the process by which certain animals form strong attachments during early life
Imprinting
in Eriksons theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in young adulthood
Intimacy
research that follows and retests the same people over time
Longitudinal Study
the time of natural cessation of menstruation;also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
Menopause
If we encounter a person who appears to be high on drugs, and we make the fundamental attribution error, we will probably attribute the person's behavior to
Moral weakness or an addictive personality.
acquired disorders marked by cognitive deficits; often related to Alzheimers disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. In older adults, neurocognitive disorders were formerly called dementia
Neurocognitive Disorders (NCDs)
Actions affect attitudes
Not only will people stand up for what they believe, they also will more strongly believe in what they have stood up for.
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not percieved
Object Permanence
IQ (intelligence quotient)
Originally a ratio of mental age to chronological age x 100 developed by William Stern, contemporary average is 100, this scoring doesn't work on adults so relative scoring is used
How do our attitudes and our actions affect each other?
Our attitudes often influence our actions as we behave in ways consistent with our beliefs. However our actions also influence our attitudes; we come to believe in what we have done.
Celebrity endorsements in advertising often lead consumers to purchase products through ______________ route persuasion.
Peripheral
in Piagets theory,the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
Preoperational Stage
Attitude follows behavior
Promote both good and bad behavior.
The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
Puberty
In Vygotskys theory, a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking
Scaffold
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Schema
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "who am I".
Self concept
In Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
Sensorimotor Stage
Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
Accommodation
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
Adolescence
the "we" aspect of our self concept; the part of our answer to "who am I"? that comes from our group memberships
Social Identity
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
Stranger Anxiety
"monster makers" agents, such as chemicals and viruses , that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Teratogens
emotional intelligence
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions. generally more socially and self-aware
Peoples ideas about their own and others mental states about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the bahaviors these might predict
Theory of mind
Role Playing Affects Attitudes
Zimbardo (1972) assigned the roles of guards and prisoners to random students and found that guards and prisoners developed role- appropriate attitudes.
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
Zygote
savant syndrome
a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing, usually on the autism spectrum
cohort
a group of people sharing a common characteristic, such as from a given time period
mental age
a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance
intelligence test
a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
stereotype threat
a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype (ex. reminding a kid that they are black before their test ruins their scores)
What is Role?
a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave
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, Spearman uses this to confirm that their is a g factor
achievement test
a test designed to assess what a person has learned, intended to reflect what you've learned
aptitude test
a test designed to predict a person's future performance; test the capacity to learn
general intelligence
according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test (g)
According to Erik Erikson, a sense that th world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate epxperiences with responsive caregivers
basic trust
Social Contagion is not confined to ___________________
behaviour
Adjusting our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard is called what
conformity
standardization
defining uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
normal curve
describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes, the peak is the average
Social psychologists great lesson is the
enormous power of social influence.
The central route persuasion is occurs when?
interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.
Weshcler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
most widely used intelligence test
fluid intelligence
our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
crystalized intelligence
our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age, reflected in vocab/analogies tests
practical intelligence
required for everyday tasks, which may be ill-defined, with multiple solutions
cross-sectional study
research that compares people of different ages at the same point in time
longitudal study
research that follows and retest the same people over time
primary mental abilities
seven abilities proposed by Thurstone as crucial to intelligence (word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory)
Imitative behavior involving the spread of behavior, emotions, and ideas is known as
social contagion
analytical intelligence
the ability to break problems down into component parts, or analysis, for problem solving. assessed by intelligence tests with a single right answer, predicts school and vocational success more modestly
creative intelligence
the ability to deal with new and different concepts and to come up with new ways of solving problems (innovative smarts)
intelligence
the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
existential intelligence
the ability to ponder large questions about life, death, and existence, the ninth possible intelligence
validity
the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
predictive validity
the extent to which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and criterion behavior
content validity
the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (ex. driver's road test)
reliability
the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting
heritability
the proportion of variation among individuals that can be attributed to genes. may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied
What is social psychology?
the scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another
What is the 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
What is the foot-in-the-door phenomenon?
the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
What is cognitive dissonance theory?
the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent
relatively independent intelligences
the verbal and mathematical aptitudes assessed by standardized tests, eight identified by Gardner
Stanford-Binet
the widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test.
Flynn effect
the worldwide phenomenon that shows intelligence test performance has been increasing over the years
Attribution theory is define as what?
theory that we explain someones behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.
triarchic theory
three aspects of intelligence: (a) cognitive processes, (b) identifying situations that require intelligence, and (c) using intelligence in practical ways, developed by Sternberg
social intelligence
understanding social situations and managing ourselves, first proposed by Thorndike
When does the peripheral route to persuasion occur?
when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness.
