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Somatic nervous System

AKA skeletal nervous system. This is us manually moving out skeletal muscles. One of the two components of the peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Synapse

AKA synaptic gap. It's the tiny amount of space between one neurons axons tips and the other neurons dendrites

Temporal Lobes

Above the ears and under the frontal and parietal lobes. Includes primary auditory cortex. Mainly associated with hearing.

Identification

According to Freud the process in which the child incorporated their parents values into their superego, to be more like their parent, since they can't compete with them for their other parent

Ego

According to Freud, the decision-making component of personality that operates according to the reality principle. Tries to satisfy the id's impulses in a realistic way that will bring them long term pleasure.

Superego

According to Freud, the moral component of personality that incorporates social standards about what represents right and wrong. This tries to satisfy what the ego does, but also in an ideal manner, and by using morals.

id

According to Freud, the primitive, instinctive component of personality that operates according to the pleasure principle. Seeks immediate gratification without thinking of the future. Ex: people drinking alcohol and doing drugs who would rather party now than sacrifice the temporary feel good for long term success.

Ingroup

"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity.

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Refractory Period

After a neuron has fired, before there can be another action potential, the axon needs to fully go back to a resting state

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

After a quick stimulation, a cell's firing potential increases so it's more likely to fire

Enviorment

All non genetic influences, ex: prenatal nutrition. people and things around us

Richard Lazarus

American psychologist who concluded that some emotional responses do not require conscious thought, but that we appraise what happened (immidiately take in a situation as a threat for example)

EEG (Electroencephalogram)

An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.

Phobia

An anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations. Often followed by worry over a possible next attack, and someone might fear going into situations they think might bring an attack.

Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder in which a person aintains a starvation diet despite being significantly underweight, sometimes accompanied by excesive excersize

Action Potential

An electrical charge that travels down an axon, that contains a message.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

An intelligence test made by David Wechsler that measures one overall intelligence. There are 15 tests.

Prototype

An overall mental image or best example of a category. This for a bird might make it hard to accept a penguin as a bird

Outgroup

"them" - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup

Edward L. Thorndike

#Blank created law and effect

Chronic Schitzophrenia

(also called process schizophrenia) a form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood. As people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten. This is slow developing schitzophrenia

John Darley And Bibb Latane

- studied bystander intervention by staging emergencies. They found the bystander effect and the stages that conclude if we will help. 1.) Do we notice the incident? 2.) Do we interpret the incident as an emergency? 3.) Do we assume responsability? 4.) Do we come up with a plan to help? 5.) Do we help?

Babbling Stage

4 Months. State of speech development infants utter sounds that have nothing to do with language. Deaf babies seeing parents sign, babble more with their hands

Histogram

A bar graph that shows frequency in data

Standard Deviation

A calculation to see how far the scores are from the mean, a way to measure variation

DNA

A complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes.

Semantic Memory

A constant memory system that memorizes facts and general knowledge

Episodic Memory

A constant memory system that memorizes personally experienced events

Jean Piaget

A developmental psychologist who studied children and thought it was interesting how children's wrong answers on a test were stikingly similar. Found that a child's mind develops through a series of stages.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A drug that is a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Has a high and euphoria, but later feel the bad effects

Methamphetamine (Meth)

A drug that stimulates CNS and body functions, reduces how much dopamine your brain naturally produces. Causes energy and mood changes

Amphetimines

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

Variable

A factor that can change in an experiment, to measure the change it makes

Cognitive Neuroscience

A field that attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity.

Schitzophrenia

A group of severe disorder characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions and inappropriate emotions and actions

Hypnosis

A hypnotist can make the subject to feel, think or act a certain way

Corpus Collosum

A large band (looks like a sideways C) that connects the left and right hemisphere, and is made of axons. This sends messages between the two hemispheres.

Cerebellum

A large structure of the hindbrain that controls fine motor skills like balance and posture. Is behind the brainstem. 40% of all neurons in the brain are in this.

Myelin Sheath

A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of some neurons; helps speed transmission of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.

Polygraph

A lie detector. Measures several physiologial responses (heart rate, breathing etc) that go with emotion. Not reliable.

Major Depressive Disorder

A mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities.

Bipolar Disorder

A mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania.

Alzheimer's Disease

A neurocognitive disorder that typically happens after the age of 80 and progressively declines memory and other cognitive abilities.

All-Or-Nothing Response

A neuron either fires full strength or not at all

Pituitary Gland

A pea-sized gland just beneath the hypothalamus that controls growth and other endocrine glands, think manager. Also is controlled by the hypothalamus.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.

Cohort

A population group unified by a specific common characteristic, such as age, and subsequently treated as a statistical unit.

Meta-Analysis

A procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies. Instead of actually conducting an experiment someone might do this instead and collect data from many already existing experiments.

Conversion Disorder

A rare disorder related to somatic symptom disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Also called multiple personality disorder.

Experiment

A research method in a controlled environment, where factors are manipulate to find a pattern, where people are randomly typically assigned

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times. Typically happens when someone is very emotional.

Posthypnotic Suggestion

A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors

Normal Curve

A symmetrical, bell-shape that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean (68 percent fall within one standard deviation of it) and fewer and fewer near the extremes.

fMRI (Functional MRI)

A technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. fMRI scans show brain function as well as structure

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

Arousal Theory

A theory of motivation suggesting that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness and physical and mental activation. This meets no physiological need. (ex: curiosity and need for stimulation)

Social-Cognitive Theories

A theory that personality is the interaction of traits and situations. Focusses on how our personal experiences and schemas and conditioned responses interact with teh enviorment. Used tests to predict how people would do on something (like a certain job) in the future.

Repression

A theory that we forget anxiety inducing memories as a defense mechanism

Aaron Beck

A therapist who helped a client see that her feelings on a test are what makes her sad. She put so much value into the test that if she fails the test she feels like she's not smart enough, so she needs to change her overall thinking

Systematic Desensitization

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

Strange Situation

A way to study a child to care giver attatchment where the child is placed in an unfamiliar enviorment and theur caregiver leaves and returns, measured by observing the childs reactions

Psychodynamic Theories

theories that see personality with focusing on the unconscious mind and childhood experiences

Humanistic Theories

theories that view personality with a focus on the potential for healthy personal growth

Insight Therapies

therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person's awareness of underlying motives and defenses

Group Therapy

therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction. One way it can help is by showing people that they are not alone in their struggles

Psychodynamic Therapy

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance self-insight.

Behavior Therapy

therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

Cognitive Therapy

therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions

Family Therapy

therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members

Behavior Genetics

this studies how much effect genetics and enviormental inflences have on behavior

Developmental Psychology

this studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span

Stanley Schachter

thought that how we interpret our emtotion also mattered and thought that our reaction and our interpretation of the situation together made emotion. Created the two-factor theory. We may interpret our arousal as fear or excitement depending on the context.

Chromosomes

threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes

Psychotherapy

treatment with psychological techniques. Involves a therapist and someone wanting to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

Amygdala

two lima bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion. Think inside out movie.

Automatic Processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space (remembering and visualizing where we left something), time (we note sequence of events and can retrace our steps), and frequency (keeping track of how many times something happens, like running into a specific person), and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.

Tend-And-Befriend Response

under stress, people (especially women) often provide support to others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend)

Norms

understood rules for accepted and expected behavior. Norms prescribe "proper" behavior

Discrimination

unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members

Altruism

unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Negative Symptoms In Schitzophrenia

when apropriate behaviors are absent in schitzophrenia. (might exhibit an absense of emotion in their voices, expressionless faces, or have unmoving-mute and rigid- bodies)

Priming

Associations being made unconsciously. Like when hearing "rabbit", being more likely to spell "hare" and not "hair" later on

Obesity

BMI of 30 or higher.

Parietal Lobes

Behind the frontal lobes, goes from the top of the head to the back. This is in charge of skin sensations. Includes touch, temperature, pain, and pressure (TTPP)

Carol Dweck

Believed that intelligence is changeable and recieving prase for challenges helps teens understand hard work leads to success

Hypothalamus

Below the thalamus. Tells the body when to eat/drink, when to fight/flight, and when it wants fornication (frisky)

Sex

Biological characteristics that define male and female

Alfred Kinsey

Biologist who questioned americans about ther sexuality and had them write about their experiences.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord

Charles Spearman

Came up with General Intelligence (g). When people excel at one thing, they excel at others and so only one scale is needed

Charles Darwin

Came up with natural selection

Ernest Hilgard

Came up with the idea that our mind does dissociation for everyday activities like drawing and listening

Collective Unconsciousness

Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history

Hallucinogens

Causes people to see thing like shapes and past emotional experiences ex: LSD, and THC

Imprinting

Certain animals do this where they form strong attatchments early in life

Priming

Changing someone's memory and response by using subliminal messages

Teratogens

Chemicals and viruses that can reach the embryo or fetis during prenatal development that can cause harm

Hue

Colors determined by the wavelength of light

Philip Zimbardo

Conducted Stanford Prison experiment. Volunteers were randomly assigned to either play a guard or a prisoner. Throughout the experiment the volunteers acted more like their role. Guards acted more violent and prisoners started breaking down and attempting to escape.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Connects the CNS to the rest of the body. Gathers info and sends it out into the body.

Broca's Area

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

Martin Seligman

Created Positive psychology

Soloman Asch

Created an experiment where people were in a study with four confederates, and they were told to chose the line that looked most simiar to the first line. The choices seemed obvious for the first two sets of lines, but in the third set of lines, the choice still seemed obvious, but they saw the 4 confederates chosing a different line. 1/3 of participants changed their answers to conform.

Alfred Binet

Created mental age

Sigmund Freud

Created psychoanalysis. He believed there were things that people repressed, and that therapy should try to bring those memories to conscious awareness

Robert Sternberg

Created the 5 components that creativity has. 1.) expertise (the more knowledge we have, the more we can do with that knowledge) 2.) imagintive thinking skills (making connections and recognizing patterns) 3.) venturesome personality (new experiences and risks) 4.) intrinsic motivation (being driven by interest and satisfaction) 5.) creative enviorment. Also made the Triarchich Theory with three intelligences.

David Wechsler

Created the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). This had 15 tests and could help point out if someone had a reading disability (for example) if someone had an overall high score but low in reading.

Robert McCrae and Paul Costa

Created the big 5. If a test specifies whether you are on the five dimensions, it has said much of what there is to say about your personality.

Stanley Milgram

Created the experiment where people were chosen to be the "teacher" and have a confederate list out the correct answer, and if they got it wrong, the teacher was supposed to give the conferderate a shock, and increase the voltage with each wrong answer. Throughout the experiment they heard shriecks from the confederates. The teachers were nervous and shaking, but 60% continued to the end of the experiment. The experimentist was standing next to the teacher saying they had no choice but to continue. Learned about obediance from this study and related it to the holocaust.

Joseph LeDoux

Created the low road and the high road. The low road happens from negative emotions and bypasses the cortex directly to the amygdala, this enables quick responses and reflexes.

Kurt Lewin

Created the motivational conflicts theory.

Sigmund Freud

Created the psychodynamic theories and thought that personality was made by how people expressed impulses that brought satisfaction without feeling guilty or being punished. Created the id, ego, and superego, and the psychosexual stages, and defense mechanisms that humans use. PsychoANALYTICAL

Albert Bandura

Created the social-cognitive perspective and reciprocal determinism

Encoding Specificity Principle

Cues and contexts that come with a memory to help to trigger/recall a memory

Mary Ainsworth

Designed the strange situation experiment and found out about secure and insecure attatchment

George A. Miller

Did research and found the magic number 7 is the number of things that we can remember at once in our short term memory

Somatosensory Cortex

Directly in front of the parietal lobe and behind the motor cortex. Registers touch and movement sensations. A bigger part associated to a certain body part means the body part is more sensative.

Walter Cannon

Disagreed with the James-Lange Theory and said that the physiological responses are too similar to trigger specific emotions. Made the Cannon-Bard theory.

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel

Discovered feature detectors and proved that our visual process deconstructs then reconstructs visual images

Eric Kandel

Discovered that sea slugs release more serotonin neurotransmitters and those neurons become more efficient at transmitting signals, so synapses are increased.

Active Listening

Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy.

Estrogens

Female sex hormones (ex: estradiol). Males have significantly less. Estrogen levels peak during ovulation. Promotes sexual receptivity in non-human mamals.

Behavioral Approach

Focusses on how learning effects our personality development. Such as conditioned responses.

Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin

Found 3 stage model in the memory making process: the immediate and brief sensory memory, shot term memory, then long term memory. (the model now includes working memory and automatic process) #1 memory process, 2 Richards, 3 stage model

Lawrence Kohlberg

Found stages of moral development that people go through. Only explains moral reasoning, and not moral actions.

Wolfgang Kohler

Found that other animals can display insight #wolfgang & animal insigh

Psychoanalysis

Freuds theory of personality that explains thoughts and actions from unconscious motives. To treat psychological disorders you would try to expose the unconscious tensions.

Psychoanalysis

Freuds therapy technique. The patienst free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences-and therapists interpretations of them- released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people. These people were more likely to suffer from heart attacks.

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people

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, language learning, and empathy.

Endocrine System

Glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Takes seconds to fully communicate unlike 1/10000 of a second for the nervous system.

GRIT

Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction - a strategy designed to decrease international tensions. One side first announces recognitino of mutual interests and its intent to reduce tentions and then it gradually increases to really reduce tensions between countries.

L.L. Thurstone

Had 56 different intelligence tests and had 7 clusters of primary mental abilities

Neo-Freudians

Had similar ideas of personality to Freud, but thought that the conscious mind weighed more and that there were more important motivations to people other than sex and aggression. Used projective tests

General Adaption System (GAS)

Hans Selye's three fases of the bodies responses to stress. 1.) Alarm reaction (feel shock and get faster heart rate etc). 2.) Resistance (your temperature, blood pressure remains high, fully engaged to meet the challenge) 3.) Exhaustion (more vulnerable to illness and collapsing)

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Happens to a child because their mother drank while pregnant which causes physical, cognitive issues, and sometimes abnormal head and facial features

William James

He called stream of consiousness when we foccus on something while also doing another easy action

Paul Broca

He discovered Broca's area in the left hemispher's frontal lobe. If this area is damaged it disrupts a persons speaking. (Only saying the sound "ta")

Carl Wernicke

He discovered Wernicke's area in the temporal lobe. If this area is damaged it disrupts understanding. (Still able to read a passage out loud but not able to explain the meaning).

John B. Watson

He said that we should study how organisms respond to stimuli and their enviorments. He got inspiration from Pavlov. #Blank studies responses to stumuli and enviorment

B. F. Skinner

He studied reinforcement and the law of effect. Created a box with a lever in it and would give an animal a reward if they pulled the lever to study positive reinforcement. #Blank pulled a lever

Wavelength

Horizontal distance between the waves. Gamma rays are very short and radio waves are very long

Reliability

How much a test has consistant results and consistancy in alternative forms of the test (different questions) and retesting

Fetus

Human organism developing from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Regression to the mean

If something out of the norm happens/ someone behaves out of character, it typically goes back to normal

Erickson's Generativity vs. Stagnation (40s-60s)

In Middle Adulthood people discover the sense of contributing to the world through family/work or they feel a lack of purpose

Erickson's Identity vs. Role Confusion (Teen-20s)

In adolescence teens either identify their sense of self and fuse their roles into one identity or they get confused over who they are

Control group

In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment. Has a predictable outcome

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.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

Erickson's Competence vs Inferiority (6-Puberty)

In elementary school, children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior

Erickson's Integrity vs. Despair (60s and up)

In late adulthood, through reflecting on their lives they might feel satisfied or like a failure.

THC

In marijuana, is a mild hallucinogen that also causes a euphoric high. Stays in the body for over a week.

Erickson's Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6)

In preschool children either initiate tasks or feel guilty about trying to be independent

Transference

In psychoanalysis, the patients transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

Occipital Lobe

In the back of the brain, is a region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information, and can send the information to other parts of the brain to recognize faces, etc.

Hippocampus

In the limbic system and processes conscious memories to go to storage or trash

Dichotomous Thinking

In this type of thinking, situations are viewed in either something was abosultely amazing or the worst thing in the world. Since most things aren't great, most things seem like the worst thing in the world.

Erickson's Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (1-3)

In toddlerhood todlers either do things for themselves or doubt their abilities

Erickson's intimacy vs. isolation (20s-Early 40s)

In young adulthood, people struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated

Agonist

Increases neurotransmitter's action. Inhibits neurons firing.

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response. Like giving a kid a piece of candy (what is presented), after they say please (the response)

Erickson's Stages Of Physchosocial Development

Infancy birth-1: trust vs mistrust (if needs are met the infant develops a sense of trust with that person) Toddlerhood1-3: autonomy vs shame and doubt (todlers either do things for themselves or doubt their abilities) Preschool 3-6: initiative vs guilt (either initiate tasks or feel guilty about trying to be independent) Elementary school 6-pubtery: competence vs inferiority (children learn the pleasure of applying themselves or they feel inferior) Adolescence teen-20s: identity vs role confusion (teens either identify their sense of self and fuse their roles into one identity or they get confused over who they are) Young Adulthood 20s-early 40s: Intimacy vs isolation (either struggle to form relationships and get the capacity for love or they feel socially isolated Middle Adulthood 40s-60s: generativity vs stagnation (discover the sense of contributing to the world through family/work or they feel a lack of purpose Late Adulthood 60s-up: integrity vs despair (through reflecting on their lives they might feel satisfied or like a failure.

Natural Selection

Inheritable traits that help an organism survive and reproduce are most likely to be passed on to succeeding generations

Social Anxiety Disorder

Intense fear and avoidance of social situations

Paul Eckman

Interested in the universality of facial expressions: facial expressions carry same meaning regardless of culture, context, or language.

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Kurt Lewin's conflict where you feel attracted and repelled at the same time. (adore some things about your boyfriend, but dislike others.)

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

Kurt Lewin's conflict. Try to get away from two undesirable conflicts. (Avoid studying your least liked subject or avoid failure by doing the reading for your least liked subject)

Approach-Approach Conflict

Kurt lewin's least stressful conflict. Two attractive but incompatable goals pull us. (Do we want to go to a sporting event or to get pizza) (Do we want to take a dance or music class)

Cell Body

Largest part of a neuron; contains the nucleus and is the life support center

Albert Bandura's

Learned about aggression in the bobo doll experiment

Structuralism

Learning about the mind, what thoughts come from, and why we think what we think

Memory

Learning that percists/exists over time from encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

Nerves

Lots of axons that make a cable called this. Connects CNS with muscles, glands, and sense organs.

Lewis Terman

Made a revision to mental age to fit americans called the standford-binet

William James

Made the James-Lange Theory. Thought that e feel sorry because we cry, we feel angry because we strike.

Howard Gardner

Made the mulitple intelligences theory and had 8 (9) different intelligence

Testosterone

Male sex hormones. Females have significantly less. Stimulates male sex organs during fetal period and development of male sex characteristics during puberty.

Hierarchy Of Needs

Maslow created this pyramid of human needs. The base is the most basic and important needs and works its way up. The lower levels need to be satisfied before one can attempt to satisfiy higher levels. This pyramid is not fixed, as some have starved themselves to make a political stand.

Secure Attachment

Mothers who notice what their baby is doing and respond appropriately have babies with this, who comforatbly explore their enviorments in the presence of their caregiver, show temporary stress when the caregiver leaves, and finds comfort in the caregivers return

Sleep

Naturally losing consciousness

Fourth Need On Hierarchy Of Needs

Need for esteem. (need for self esteem, achivement, competence, independance, recognition and respect from others.

Sixth Need On Hierarchy Of Needs

Need for self-transcendence (need to find meaning and identity beyond the self)

Source Amnesia

Not correctly remembering how, when, or where something was learned. Like thinking you came up with a good joke, but you actually heard it somewhere else

Neurotransmitters

Once an action potential reaches the end of an axon, it releases these, which are messages that go to the other neuron and then either does or doesn't trigger another action potential. Each one has a specific receptor site that it can fit into in the other neuron

hindsight bias

Once you learn something, you think you knew it all along

Axon

One extension cord that passes the message from the cell body to the terminal branches that connect to other neurons, muscles, or glands

Lesion

One in the brain is when brain tissue is experimentally (or accidentally) destroyed to learn about the brain.

Gestalt

Organizing everything into a whole. Like both eyes putting the images they see together into one image.

Chunking

Organizing info into familiar/manageable units. Happens automatically

Trait

Peoples characteristic behaviors and conscious motives. (ex: curiosity)

Base of Hierarchy Of Needs

Physiological needs (hunger and thirst)

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's Theory that from 2-6/7 years old, a child learns to use language but lacks logic. Ex: a child might think that there is a lot of milk in a tall and skinny glass, but when they see it being poured into a short wide glass, seems like just enough milk.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's Theory the stage of cognitive developemet starting at 12 years old when people start to think logically about abstract events. Ex: can think of hypothetical situations and think of consequences

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's theory of cognitive developement that grows from 7-11 years old when children are able to think logically about concrete events

Sensorimorot Stage

Piaget's theory that from birth-2 years old, babies take in the world from their senses and actions and as their hands and limbs begin to move they learn to make things happen

Hippocampus

Process new experiences and decides what's worth remembering. Shrinks and worsens as we get older.

Neurogenesis

Producing/forming new neurons.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Randomly learned syllables and found that the next day he could remember a few syllables and found as rehearsal time increases, relearning time decreases. Discovered relearning. Think of the ebbing house.

REM Sleep (Rapid Eye Movement)

Rapid eye movement sleep, a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep, because the muscles are relaxed (except for minor twitches) but other body systems are active. This is the fourth stage of sleep.

Carol Gilligan

Reaserched about how different gender's find their identity and thinks females are more concerned with making connections with others and less concerned than men about viewing themselves as seperate individuals. Men typically have large groups of friends and women typically have smaller groups of friends and talk more about emotions.

Joseph Wolpe

Refined Mary Cover jone's work into exposure therapies.

B. F. Skinner

Researched operant conditioning and found that consequences strongly influence our voluntary behaviors.

Implicit Memory

Retaining learned skills or classical conditioning associations from automatic processing

Motor Cortex

Right behind the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements. Each part controls a specific action.

Noam Chomsky

Said that language is an unlearned human trait and that learning grammar rules are built in us

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Said that language shapes our basic ideas and came up with linguistic determinism

Steven Pinker

Said that the hisses and squeals we make (talking) contains information

genes

Segments of DNA capable of synthesizing proteins and are biochemical uits of heridity that make up chromoomes

Embodied Cognition

Senses can influence how we think of things. People holding a warm drink think other people are more warm and kind

Edward C. Tolman

Set up the rat maze experiment and discovered that organisms make a cognitive map even if we aren't trying to learn our surroundings. Also learned that latent learning (learning that happens but isn't seen/applied until there is an incentive) has a play in cognitive maps.

CT scan (computed tomography)

Several x-rays of the brain to show a part of the brains structure.

Elizabeth Loftus

She did the experiment with showing a few original faces, then two faces nect to each other, where one was an original face and when compared to the same face but 20% changed, most people chose the wrong face

MRI Brain Scan (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

Show brain anatomy, soft tissues are shown by using magnetic fields and radio waves.

Near-Death Experience

Similar to drug expeiences, but after this happens instead. Oeioke see tunnels and past experiences.

Gender

Social characteristics that define boy, girl, man, and woman

Robert Zajonc

Some reactions can happen instantly without conscious thought.

Roger Sperry And Michael Gazzaniga

Split the brains of cats and monkeys to see if there was an effect of stopping seizures and did more research on split brain patients later on.

Jean Piagets Stages

Stage 1: sensorimotor stage (birth-2) (babies are constantly using their senses to try to understand the object. Stage 2: Preoperational (2-7) (starting to develope large rules like what more, less, bigger, and smaller mean. Stage 3: Concrete operational (7-12) (children can't imagine something that they haven't experienced or they equate an abstract concept to something they have experienced. Stage 4: Formal operational (12+) (children can hypothetically imagine what certain experiences are like)

Ivan Pavlov

Studied dogs and saw that they would learn to salivate when they heard a tone and food would be given to them afterwards. Discovered classical conditioning #Blank discovered classical conditioning

Gustav Fechner

Studied the edge of our awareness and faint stimuli called the absolute threshold

Functionalism

Studying emotions, habbits, will power, and memories, and why we evolved to do this

Cognitive Neuroscience

Studying how brain activity is linked with cognition (and thinking, perception, memory, and language)

Psychoneuroimmunology

Studying how your thoughts and feelings (psycho), influences your brain (neuro), which influence your indocrine hormones that effect your disease fighting immune system (immun), and the science of it (ology)

Behaviorism

Studying peoples behavior that can be an effect of emotions, since people aren't always reliable to explain their emotions accurately.

SQ3R

Survey-look quickly over the lesson. Question-attempt to answer questions you see. Read-to answer the questions. Retrieve-the main idea and write it down. Review-continue testing.

John Garcia

Tested rats who got sick after drinking bad water even though the US did not immidiately follow the CS. Found out that many animals have aversion to the taste of something that made them sick

Testing Effect

Testing by retrieving info from our brain is better than rereading the info

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

The application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity. works on 30-40% of people with depression and does not have a side effect of memory loss.

Mean

The average

Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, and Extraversion

The big 5

Parallel Processing

The brain processes many thing at once, both consciously and unconsciously

Self

The center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

Cornea

The clear and protective outer layer in the eye that protects the pupil and iris

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores

Sexual Response Cycle

The four sages of sexual responding, found by William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

Embryo

The human organism development from 2 weeks after fertalization through the second month

Testosterone

The main male sex hormone that males have more of than females and so it starts to grow male sex organs during the fetal period and develops males sex characteristics during puberty

Homeostasis

The maintencance of a steady internal state, regulation of body chemistry, like blood glucose, around a certain level. Not equilibrium.

Second Need On Hierarchy Of Needs

The need for Safety (world is organized and predictable, need to feel safe)

Mode

The number in the data that shows up the most often

Frontal Lobes

The part of the cerebral cortex going from just behind the forehead to the top of our head, the prefrontal cortex is in here. This is considered higher thinking and includes decision making, and smell goes directly here.

Hertiability

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.

Placebo

The results are changed by what the person given the placebo think is going on. Has a mental effect but no physical effect.

X Chromosome

The sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two X chromosomes; males have one. An X chromosome from each parent produces a female child.

Predictive Validity

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior. ex: Do well on Sat means do well in college.

Cerebral Cortex

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

Othe-Race Effect

The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races. Also called the cross-race effect and the own-race bias

James-Lange Theory

The theory that emotion comes after the bodies response. goes from stimulus -> arousal -> emotion. EX: someone noticed their racing heart, and then shaking with fright felt the emotion of fear. Made by William James and also proposed by Carl Lange

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theroy that the stimulus simutaneously triggers the physiological response (heart rate etc) and the emotion, and that neither caused the other. Made by Walter Cannon and Philip Bard.

Population

The total of the group being studied. Each individual in the population might not be studied, but instead samples of the population are being taken

Insinct Theory

There is a genetic basis for unlearned species-typical behavior (the reason we do things is because its instictual)

Hormones

These are made by endocrine glands, and are chemical messages that are sent through the bloodstream. They effect other tissues.

Confounding variable

These are variables that can effect the result, but not being tested for, so trying to eliminate these variables by using random assignment. An example is age.

Opiates

These drugs depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety ex: opium, morphine, and heroin.

Barbiturates

These drugs that depress the activity of the CNS, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment

Dendrites

They are attached to the cell body and are like brushy branchy extensions that receive messages and send them towards the cell body.

Stimulants

They excite neural activity and speed up body functions. ex: caffeine, nicotine, cocaine amphetamines, ecstasy

Mnemonics

Things that we do to help us remember something. The best ones use imagery and organizational devices. Ex: acronym, ROYGBV

Misinformation Effect

This happens when a memory is changed because of misleading information

Dependent variable

This is effected by the by the independent variable. Its what is being measured (y axis), is the outcome of the experiment. Think "effect".

Short-Term Memory

This is encoded through rehearsal and briefly remembers a small amount (like a phone number, as we look to dial it), happens before memory is either stored or forgotten

Avoidance

This is getting rid of something unwanted by knowing about it in the future and doing the correct behavior in the first place. Like doing your chores the day before you want to hang out with your friends, and getting the full time with them

Escape

This is learning to stop something unwanted by correcting your behavior. Like parents not letting you go out with your friends so you correct your behavior by doing chores, and then getting to join your friends a little late.

Recognition

This is measuring memory by identifying what you previously learned. Ex: multiple choice tests

Recall

This is measuring memory by retrieving information that your not currently learning, but learned at another time. Ex: fill in the bank tests

Relearning

This is measuring memory by when do this with something. It takes less time then what it took originally to learn it.

Memory Consolidation

This is the process of the hippocampus and stores long-term memories

independent variable

This is the variable that can be changed and manipulated. Think "cause". (x axis)

Maximization/ Minimization

This is when someone blows up a bad event to make it seem way worse. (got an f on their test and think they will fail the class so they will never succeed in life and be living on the streets.) and minimize good things that happen to them (got an a on a test but says "oh everyone got an a on that test" or "the teacher made the questions easy on purpose")

Sampling Bias

This is when the sample is biased and doesn't reflect all groups so can skew the results

Descriptive Statistics

This uses numbers to show stats and data, can help show variation

Theory

This uses observations to explain a prediction of behaviors and events

Law Of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Freud

Thought dreams were connected with inner conflict and came up with the manifest content and latent content.

Critical Thinking

To have an open mind, to ask questions, and to look for the answer, to not simply take an answer but for it to create more questions.

Insecure Attatchment

Unresponsive mothers who only attend to their babies some of the times have babies with this who don't explore their surroundings, and either cling to their mother and and have an anxious attatchment or avoid attatchment and resists closeness with them

Francis Galton

Wanted to measure natural ability and thought smart peopleshould have kids together so that their kids would be smart. Came up with nature and nurture.

Lev Vygotsky (459)

Was a developmental psychologist and emphasized how the child's mind grows through interaction with the social enviorment. Thought langauge provided building blocks for thinking.

Carl Rogers

Was a humanistic psychologist nd created the client-centered therapy, where the therapist listens to the client without judgement, and to have empathy.

Carl Rogers

Was a humanistic psychologist who thought of the growth promoting social climate (acceptance, genuineness, and empathy)

Belief Perserverance

We continue to believe our beliefs even when they are disproven

Proximodistal

We develope from the center out, our internal organs develope first

Cephalocaudal

We develope from the head down, the head is much bigger in proportion to the rest of the body

Reciprocal Determinism

What Bandura calls the interaction of behavior (learnng to rock climb), internal cognition (thoughts and feelings about risky activities), and enviorment (rock-climbing friends)

Reuptake

When a neuron reabsorbs left over neurotransmitters

Menopause

When a woman stops her period and significantly lowers her chance for reproduction

Median

When data is stored least to highest, its the score in the middle, more useful than the mean when there are extreme outliers

Mood-Congruent Memory

When in a certain mood, people remember other times when also in that mood. Like when your upset, you remember other things that made you upset in the past

Positive Symptoms In Schitzophrenia

When inapropriate behaviors of schitzophrenia are present. (might experience hallucinations, talk in disorganized ways, or laugh/cry at inapropriate times)

Retroactive Interference

When new learning interferes with remembering old learning. ex: hearing new lyrics being sung to an old song, and now only recalling the new lyrics

Proactive Interference

When old learning interferes with new learning. ex: getting a new locker combo but only being able to remember old locker combo

Random Assignment

When there a groups to study, the groups are randomly assigned

Pupil

Where the light enters the eye and adjusts its size. (Smaller hole when brighter to protect the eye)

Linguistic Determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think. Ex: If you have a name for two different kinds of blues in your language, you will remember them as more different than if you called two blue colors the same blue

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

William Sterm made this from Stanford-Binet test which is mental age devided by age all times 100

Linguistic Influence

Words influence, but do not determine, thinking. A weaker form of linguistics relativity. Ex: Someone's angry mom might speak in mandarin and when she gets really angry, speak in cantonese.

Mary Cover Jones

Worked with a 3 year old who was scared of rabits by associating the rabit with a relaxed state. So when the 3 year old was eating and relaxed she introduced the rabit far away, and got the rabit closer everyday. The fear was replaced with a relaxed state.

Physiological Need

a basic bodily requirement, like breathing, or food and water.

Counterconditioning

a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment. If Juan believes Maria is annoyed with him, he may snub her, causing her to act in ways that justify his perception.

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 in each eye, the closer the object. This works because our eyes are 2.5 inches apart

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient, causes a seizure in the brain.

Therapeutic Alliance

a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem

MEG (magnetoencephalography)

a brain imaging technique that measures magnetic fields from the brain's natural electrical activity, created by humans doing activities.

Unconditional Positive Regard

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

Psychoactive Drug

a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods

Flashbulb Memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. Like when people remember everything about when they heard about 9/11

Cochlea

a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

Instinct

a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned, for example when birds imprint and think the first moving thing they see is their mother.

Blindsight

a condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it

Savant Syndrome

a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing

Equity

a condition in which people receive 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

Intersex

a condition present at birth due to unusual combinations of male and female chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy; possessing biological sexual characteristics of both sexes

Split Brain

a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them

Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people's illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions. Helps the client see how absurd their self-defeating thoughts are.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

a counterconditioning technique that treats anxiety by creative electronic simulations in which people can safely face their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking

Social Script

a culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations

Monocular Cue

a depth cue, such as interposition or linear perspective, available to either eye alone. Used when things are super far that still allow us to judge distance

Binocular Cue

a depth cue, such as retinal disparity, that depends on the use of two eyes

Achievement Motivation

a desire for significant accomplishment: for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for attaining a high standard. A billionaire will want more money, reality tv stars will want even more followers

Cochlear Implant

a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience

Illness Anxiety Disorder

a disorder related to somatic symptom disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease. (someone might have symptoms and go to the doctor, and doesn't believe their doctor when they are told they will be fine, because they think its a serious illness, so they then might go to many doctors until they are told they have something serious)

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

a disorder that is found in childhood that has deffitiencies in communication and social interaction, and causes fixated interests and repetitive behaviors. Ex: Someone with this might have a harder time reading facial expressions, and also have difficulty understanding other's state of mind and perspective

General Intelligence (g)

a factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test

Delusion

a false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders. If someone has paranoid tendencies, they might believe they are being threatened or persued.

Identical (Monozygotic) Twins

a fertilized egg splits in two that creates two genetically identical organisms

Scaffold

a framework that offers children temporary support as they develop higher levels of thinking

Stereotype

a generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

Psychotic Disorders

a group of psychological disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality

Client-Centered Therapy

a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth. (Also called person-centered therapy.)

Mania

a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgement is common

Visual Cliff

a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals. (putting a baby on the opposite end of the table from their mom and making them think there is a cliff)

classical conditioning

a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response that is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone. We associate two things that are out of our control and automatically respond.

AIDS

a life threatening STI caused by HIV. Depletes the imune system, leaves the person vulerable to infections

Mental Age

a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Alfred Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. An averaging of age 8 intelligence means they have a this of 8.

Concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Perceptual Set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another because of our assumptions and expectations

Intelligence Test

a method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

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 or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

Motivation

a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

Neuron

a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

Reticular Formation

a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal, and noticing something that captures your attention, like your name being called. Goes through vertically the brainstem and thalamus.

Working Memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

a pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm. In response to light, the SCN causes the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production, thus modifying our feelings of sleepiness

Adrenal Glands

a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress. The feeling lingers. Think fight or flight, and increasing heartrate and blood pressure.

Conflict

a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Projective Test

a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics. Where someone's unconsciousness can be made clear.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

a popular integrative therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

Incentive

a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior

Cocaine

a powerful and addictive stimulant, producing temporarily increased alertness and euphoria

LSD

a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid.

Reconsolidation

a process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes (pictures that they are shown)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

a psychological disorder marked by extreme inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity. The criteria to be diagnosed is getting broader every year which is controversial.

Lobotomy

a psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients, or on people with severe OCD. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain. Not performed anymore.

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.

Mutation

a random error in gene replication that leads to a change

Self-Serving Bias

a readiness to perceive oneself favorably (people accept more responsibility for good deeds than for bad, and for success than failure)

Mindfulness Meditation

a reflective practice in which people attend to current experiences in a nonjudgmental and accepting manner.

Skewed Distribution

a representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value. My definition, when the mean is effected by extreme outliers.

Emotion

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

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

Random Sample

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

Stereotype Threat

a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype

Dream

a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind.

Role

a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

Heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and shortcuts and solve problems efficiently (like using and educated guess); usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Reflex

a simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response

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 occur during Stage 4 sleep, within two or three hours of falling asleep, and are seldom remembered

Sleep Apnea

a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings

Dissociation

a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others. The thought that we are still aware of what is happening to us during hypnosis comes from this.

Operational Definition

a statement of the procedures used to define research variables/if you're measuring something that is objective you come up with a specific way to measure it, so it can be repeated in more experiments

Correlation Coefficient

a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other. Can use a graph, scatter plot, can have a positive or negative correlation, or no relationship

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.

Statistical Significance

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

Algorithm

a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem that guarantees a solution

Nicotine

a stimulating and highly addictive psychoactive drug in tobacco

Conditioned Reinforcer

a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer. Like if a rat learns that a light comes on before its food is delivered, the rat will try to turn on the light

Cross-Sectional Study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another at one point in time.

Cross-Sectional Study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another at the same point in time. Ex: When researchers did this, they found mental ability declines with age, but they wre comparing people who were less educated because they were born in a different time period

Longitudinal Study

a study that observes the same participants on many occasions over a long period of time

Health Psychology

a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine. They study how stress influence health and illness.

Insight

a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

Psychological Disorder

a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior. They interfere with our normal lives

Survey

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group

Mental Set

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

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

Achievement Test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned

Aptitude Test

a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn

Terror-Management Theory

a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death. This anxiety and fear of death can increase someone's aggression and self esteem

Signal Detection Theory

a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

Pitch

a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Aversive Conditioning

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)

Convergent Thinking

a type of critical thinking in which one evaluates existing possible solutions to a problem to choose the single best answer

Operant Conditioning

a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer. This is associating our own behaviors with their consequences.

Endorphins

a type of neurotransmitters that is an opiate, linked to pain control and to pleasure.

PET Scan (Positron Emission Tomography)

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

Basic Trust

according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers, securely attatched children have this

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 of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage (oral, anal, phallic, latency, or genital), in which conflicts were unresolved

Unconscious

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware.

Psychosexual Stages

according to Freud, the id's pleasure seeking energies focus on these childhood stages of development: Oral (0-18 months where the baby sucks and bites and chews a lot), anal (18-36 months where the baby tries to control their bladder), phallic (3-6 years where the child copes with sexual feelings), latency (6-puberty where the child has dormant sexual feelings), and genital (puberty and up where the person has a maturation of sexual interests)

Manifest Content

according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

Latent Content

according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

Unconditional Positive Regard

according to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person

Neurocognitive Disorders

acquired (not lifelong) disorders marked by cognitive deficits; often related to Alzheimer's disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. In older adults neurocognitive disorders were formerly called dementia

accommodation (development)

adapting our schemas to fit new information. When a toddler learns that there are several animals with four legs, and changes their schema to now have dog and cat.

Positive Punishment

adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior. Like getting a ticket for speeding

Alfred Adler and Karen Horney

agreed with Freud that childhood is important. But they believed that childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation

Alcohol Use Disorder

alcohol use marked by tolerance, withdrawal, and a drive to continue problematic use

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?"

Self-Concept

all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?" and an understanding of their self esteem and how they feel about who they are

Cognition

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

Relational Aggression

an act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person's relationship or social standing

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal

Eclectic Approach

an approach to psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy

Passionate Love

an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship

Bullimia Nervosa

an eating disorder involving gorging with food, followed by induced vomiting or laxative abuse

Intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought od what the answer is

Attatchment

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

informed consent

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

Punishment

an event that decreases the behavior that it follows. Like a rat being shocked after touching something will learn not to touch it anymore.

Social-responsibility Norm

an expectation that people will help those needing their help, even if the costs outwiegh the benefits.

Reciprocity Norm

an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them. Can also include paying it forward.

double-blind procedure

an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies.

Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (EMDR)

an exposure treatment in which clients move their eyes in a rhythmic manner from side to side while flooding their minds with images of objects and situations they ordinarily avoid. Used for people with PTSD or trauma victims.

Phi Phenomenon

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

Anterograde Amnesia

an inability to form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past, like old long-term memories

Personality

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

Primary Reinforcer

an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need

Case Study

an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in a descriptive technique in the hope of revealing universal principles

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

Shaping

an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. Like giving food to a mouse whenever it gets closer to a button, then only giving food to the mouse when it presses the button

Critical Period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Transgender

an umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex

Prejudice

an unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Prejudice generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.

Bottom-Up Processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Aggression

any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone physically or emotionally

Association Areas

areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

Door-In-The-Face Technique

asking for a large commitment and being refused and then asking for a smaller commitment that in comparison seems much better.

Two-Word Stage

beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements. EX: want juice

Acute Schitzophrenia

begins at any age, frequently occurs in response to an emotionally traumatic event, and has extended recovery periods. They more often have positive symptoms that respond to drug therapy, and has a more likely chance for recovery.

Exposure Therapies

behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid

Subliminal

below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Hypnagogic Sensations

bizarre experiences, such as jerking or a feeling of falling or floating weightlessly, while transitioning to sleep

Antagonist

blocks neurotransmitter's action. Blocks production or release.

Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow

bred monkeys and discovered that baby monkeys formed attachment based on "contact comfort," which was not based on nourishment

Principal Of Motor Primacy

can't make a child do something that its brain and body aren't ready to do yet

Glial Cells

cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons. Involved in thinking, learning, and memory.

Magic Omnipitance

children think inanimant objects are animant and think that their stuffed animals are real in their pretend tea parties

Evidence-Based Practice

clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences, and therapists will use the best techniques suited for their clients problems.

Rumination

compulsive fretting; overthinking our problems and their causes

Schema

concepts or framework that organies and interprets information. we pour our experiences into a mental mold

The Big Five Personality Factors

conscientiousness (organized, careful, disciplined), agreeableness (soft-hearted, trusting, helpful), neuroticism (anxious, insecure, self-pitying), openness (imaginative, prefers variety, independent), extraversion (sociable, fun-loving, affectionate)

Substance Use Disorder

continued substance craving and use despite significant life disruption and/or physical risk

Wernicke's area

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

Transduction

conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret.

Albert Ellis

created Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET), focuses on altering client's patterns of irrational thinking to reduce maladaptive behavior and emotions

Ernest Weber

created Weber's law

Abraham Maslow

created hierarchy of needs.

Leon Festinger

created the cognitive dissonance theory

Hans Selye

created the general adaptation syndrome. Thought that the bodies reaction to stress is so general that it sounds no matte what intrudes. Although the body can cope well with temporary stress, prolonged stress can damage it.

Social Script

culturally modeled guide for how to act in various situations (ex: gender roles have these)

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.

Standardization

defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group. Uniform testing procedures and meaningful scores.

Ostracism

deliberate social exclusion of individuals or groups. Can feel like a punishment for children if they need to be isolated for even a short amount of time.

Sensory Adaptations

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation. (ex: not being able to smell someone's perfume after a bit because you've gone nose blind to it)

Dissociative Disorders

disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings. (one man left the world trade center right before 9/11 and felt sad from his comarades deaths. He went missing for 6 months and when he was found in a homeless shelter he had no memories of his identity or family)

Androgyny

displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics

Personalization

distortion of thinking in which a person takes responsibility or blame for events that are unconnected to the person. A kid might think that they're parents are getting devorced because of them. Someone might get an f on their test and say its because they are lazy and stupid.

Depressants

drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

Antianxiety Drugs

drugs used to control anxiety and agitation. They depress the central nervous system activity

Antidepressant Drugs

drugs used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, OCD, and PTSD. Many of these drugs are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). They block the reuptake of serotonin so that there is excess serotonin in the synapse which enhances its mood lifting effect. Takes around 2 weeks to fully kick in.

Antipsychotic Drugs

drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder. They block activity in receptor sites

Telegraphic Speech

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

Deep Processing

encoding at a high level and semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention

Effortful Processing

encoding explicit memories, that requires attention and conscious effort

Shallow Processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

NREM Sleep (Non-Rapid Eye Movement)

encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep. There is no eye movement or dreams.

Availability Heuristic

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. Ex: Seeing a vivid shark attack on TV might cause fear of sharks, when its actually very unlikely

Narcissism

excessive self-love and self-absorption

Divergent Thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions). Thinkinh of a problm from different ways and have different options.

Role

expectations abous a social position and defining how that position should behave

Gender Role

expected behaviors, attitudes, and traits for male or females

Konrad Lorenz

explored imprinting in baby ducks and found that they will imprint on the first moving object they see no matter what it is

Change Blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment, a kind of inattentional blindness

Inattentional Blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. (ex: not seeing a motorcycle on the road because you don't expect to see it)

Hallucinations

false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus

Hallucinations

false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus. Some people with schitzophrenia have these.

Agoraphobia

fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one has felt loss of control and panic

Attitude

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

Spermarche

first ejaculation

Erik Erikson

found out about basic trust and believed seucurely attatched children had this and that they have a lifelong attitude of trust rather than fear

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman

found that heuristis shortcuts can lead smart people into dumb decisions and researched heuristics

lowball Technique

getting a commitment from a person and then raising the cost of that commitment. Ex: Asking someone to join a psychology study, then after they agree, tell them its at 7 am on a saturday and they are more likely to agree than if you originally told them it was at 7am on a saturday first

Individualism

giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications. (if their team won in a game might think more of all the good plays they did.)

Collectivism

giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly. (if their team one in a game they would be more proud of the team as a whole)

Sensorineural Hearing Loss

hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness. This is the most common hearing loss

Conduction Hearing Loss

hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system (middle ear) that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. Less common hearing loss

Diana Baumrind

her theory of parenting styles had four main types (permissive, negligent, authoratative, & authoritarian)

Humanistic Psychology

historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth

Humanistic Psychology

historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth. Thought to grow, people needed to be provided acceptance, genuinness, and empathy. Abraham Maslow was a humanistic psychologist and mostly studied healthy "normal" people

Heritability

how much variation we can attribute to genes. Can vary based on range of population and enviorments studied.

Aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Social Facilitation

improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others, and worsened performance on difficult tasks in the presence of others. ex: expert pool players who made 71% of their shots when alone made 80% when four people came to watch them. Poor shooters, who made 36% of their shots when alone made on 25% when watched.

intimacy

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood

Grammar

in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Semantics are rules that get meaning from sound, syntax are rules for combining words into a sentence

Morpheme

in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix). EX: readers has 3: "READ" "ER" "S"

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response. Like a dog salivating, it wasn't learned, but automatically happens.

Conditioned Stimulus

in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant (neutral) stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response. (Like the tone that the dog heard, which was originally neutral, but then did trigger a response after the dog was conditioned)

Discrimination

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. Such as someone feeling fear when seeing a guard dog, but not a guide dog

Conditioned Response

in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS) (the dog salivating after hearing the tone)

Place Theory

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

Frequency Theory

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

Erickson's Trust VS Mistrust (Birth-1)

in infancy if needs are met the infant develops a sense of trust with that person

Phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit. Ex: "that" has 3: "TH" "A" "T"

Discriminative Stimulus

in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement). Like when we see a green light, we press on the gas

Reinforcement

in operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

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

Interpretation

in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight

Resistance

in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material. Like when you filter what you say to the therapist.

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Defense Mechanisms

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Catharsis

in psychology, the idea that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

Perceptual Adaptation

in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field (wearing glasses that make everything look skewed to the left, and then getting used to it)

Stranger Anxiety

infants around 8 months develope a fear of strangers (around the time the understand object permanence and think that their parent is leaving them)

Personality Disorders

inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning. They are in three clusters characterizzed by either anxiety, eccentric or odd behaviors (schitzophrenia), or dramatic or impulsive behaviors (attention seeking disorders)

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

Top-Down Processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Biopsychosocial Approach

integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis to get the full picure.

Assimilation

interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. A toddler might call every four legged animal a dog

Representativeness Heuristic

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: assuming a skinny poetry loving guy is a harvard english professor and not a truck driver, when there are 7,000 times more truck drivers than harvard professors

Explicit Memory

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

Intelligence

mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Mirror-Image Perceptions

mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive

Fifth Need On Hierarchy Of Needs

need for self-actualization (need to live up to our fullest and unique potential)

Carl Jung

neo-Freudian who created concept of "collective unconscious"

Feature Detectors

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement

Limbic System

neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives

Sensory (Afferent) Neurons

neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord. (Inward)

Motor (Efferent) Neurons

neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands (Outwards)

Interneurons

neurons within the brain and spinal cord that only communicate with each other to process info from sensory inputs and motor outputs.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair

Inferential Statistics

numerical data that allow one to generalize- to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population

Naturalistic Observation

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

Peripheral Route Persuasion

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness. Uses attention getting cues to trigger emotion based reactions. This is like a celeberaty endorsement.

Central Route Persuasion

offers evidence and arguments to trigger thoughtful responses. To get support to stop climate change, someone would show statstics.

Self-Esteem

one's feelings of high or low self-worth

Self-Efficacy

one's sense of competence and effectiveness (might have high-efficacy in someones math class)

Fluid Intelligence

our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Crystallized Intelligence

our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Consciousness

our awareness of ourselves and our environment

Gender Identity

our sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two

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 and deciding what to do with their future

Language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning

Adaption-Level Phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience. We adjust our neutral level with our past experiences. If people win the lottery they will be so happy that they will get a new neutral and so it will take even more to make them happy again.

Serial Position Effect

our tendency to recall best the last (recency effect) and first (primary effect) items in a list

Spotlight Effect

overestimating how much others notice and evaluate us (as if we think the spotlight shines on us)

Grit

passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals

Theory Of Mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

Color Constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object (seeing all tomatoes in a salad as the same exact red even if one tomato is under a shadow)

Perceptual Constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change, no matter the distance, angle or lighting (still being able to identify a square turned at an angle, as a square)

Aggression

physical or verbal harm that was intended to harm someone physically or emotionally

Scatterplot

plotting the variable and each result, lines mean more correlation then a lot of variation/scatter in the dots

Posttraumatic Growth

positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises

Prosocial Behavior

positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior

Kohlberg's Stages Of Moral Development

preconventional (where childrens moral reasoning is for personal gain. They know something is wrong only because they get a punishment, or they do something good only to get a reward.) conventional (In this stage adolescents do things based on the law and don't question that the law might be wrong, or they might start to question the law.) postconventional (adults will do things based on their personal beliefs and experiences. Not everyone might reach these stages.)

Biomedical Therapy

prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the patient's nervous system

Maturation

processes in biological growing that causes changes in behavior, and is not much influenced by enviorment

Somatic Symptom Disorder

psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause. (ex: a woman has mixed feelings about her husband which triggers dizzyness and nausea shortly before she expects her husband home. She doesn't know whats causing this reaction everyday.)

Anxiety Disorders

psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

William Masters and Virginia Johnson

recorded physiological responses of people that masturbated or had intercourse and made the sexual response cycle.

Insomnia

recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

Variable Ratio

reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. Like slot machines only reward people with money after an unpredictable amount of plays

Variable Interval

reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals. Like checking our phones for a text message

Fixed Ratio

reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. Like a coffee shop giving a free drink after 10 purchases

Fixed Interval

reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. Like when people check the mail (the response) closer to when it is delivered (the reinforcement)

Partial Reinforcement

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

Continuous Reinforcement

reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

Testing effect

repeated self-testing and rehearsal of previously studied material helps one to remember the material better

Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

Longitudinal Study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. Ex: when researchers did this they found that mental intelligence remains stable over time

Robert Rescorla

researched classical conditioning; found subjects learn the predictability of an event through trials (cognitive element). The animal can predict the event if another certain event always precedes it.

Albert Bandura

researcher famous for work in observational or social learning including the famous Bobo doll experiment.

Cones

retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. (Think the three C's: C---- in the Center for Color)

Rods

retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision (low light), when cones don't respond

Correlation

seeing how two factors relate to each other and does something doing this predict something else happening

Subjective Well-Being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.

Olfaction

sense of smell

Sensory Receptors

sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli

Fraternal (Dizygotic) Twins

seperate fertilized eggs. They have the same amount of closeness as any siblings, but share a prenatal enviorment

Sexual Orientation

sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex, same sex, or both sexes

Superordinate Goals

shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation. Can cause a group of people to like each other more and feel connected and forget their differences.

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

Asexual

someone who does not experience sexual attraction

Epigenetics

studies environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change. (An african butterfly is green in the summer and turns brown in the fall, uses the same genes that has a temperature controlled genetic switch)

Molecular Behavior Genetics

studies how the structure and function of genes interact with our environment to influence behavior

Molecuar Genetics

studies the molecular structure and functions of genes and is a form of biology

Psychosurgery

surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior. Used as a last resort because it is irreversable. Not performed anymore

Aerobic Exercise

sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety (ex: jogging, swimming, biking etc)

Negative Punishment

taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behavior. Like taking away someones phone for missbehaving.

Deja Vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

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-5

the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders. Has criteria that people have to meet to be diagnosed with a disorder but is getting more broad for criteria every year.

Two-Factor Theory

the Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal. And that both together create emotion. Thought we need to counciously interpret the arousal. Made by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer.

Emotional Intelligence

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

Creativity

the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

Depth perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Gender Typing

the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

Self-Disclosure

the act of revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others. This breeds liking someone else, and liking someone else breeds this

Intensity

the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude. (high intensity=brighter and louder. amplitude is length (vertical) of wave)

Object Permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived. From birth- 8 months old, infants lack this.

Medulla

the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing. We can live with only this in our brain.

Circadian Rhythm

the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle, telling us when to be sleepy or awake

Primary Sex Characteristics

the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible

Basal Metabolic Rate

the body's resting rate of energy output to maintain basic body functions.

Nervous System

the body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems

Plasticity

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

Thalamus

the brain's sensory control center (minus smell), located on top of the brainstem; it directs sensory messages to the correct parts of the brain, and takes reply's to the cerebellum and medulla. Smell goes directly to frontal lobe.

Fovea

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

Middle Ear

the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window

Coronary Heart Disease

the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries

genome

the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes

Medical Model

the concept that psychological disorders have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Social Clock

the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Companionate Love

the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

Tolerance

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

Extinction

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

withdrawal

the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug

Sympathetic Nervous System

the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations. (arousing). Think heartbeat increasing.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy. Think slower heartbeat.

Culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

Group Polarization

the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group. Ex: when low-prejeduce students become more accpeting while discussing racial issues, or when high-prejeduce studentsbecome more prejudiced when discussing ractial issues.

Validity

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

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to, seeing if there is maybe something else had an effect

Content Validity

the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (ex: road drivers test has good validity because is samples the tasks a driver routinely faces)

Zygote

the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Menarche

the first menstrual period

Selective Attention

the focusing of conscious awareness on a single particular stimulus

Glucose

the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger.

Heredity

the genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring

Experimental Group

the group in an experiment that receives the variable being tested. The result isn't always predictable. Is exposed to the independent variable.

Drive-Reduction Theory

the idea that a physiological need (food and water) creates a drive (hunger and thirst) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need (eat and drink)

Sensory Memory

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

Fixation

the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set

Egocentrism

the inability to see the world through anyone else's eyes

Inner Ear

the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

Interaction

the interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity)

Delta Waves

the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep. When this happens its hard to be awoken, in NREM-3 sleep.

Threshold

the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

Retina

the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

Deindividuation

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity. A group setting that fosters arousal and anonymity then causes reduced self awareness, which then causes lowered self restraint. This is why normal poeple might do severe actions in mobs and riots.

Cognition

the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Difference Threshold

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

Absolute Threshold

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time. Think the lowest sound needed to possibly hear the sound half the time

Groupthink

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

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.

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

Third Need On Hierarchy Of Needs

the need for Belongingness and love (need to love and be loved, to belong and be accepted, avoid lonliness and seperation)

Affilliation Need

the need to build relationships and to feel part of a group

Optic Nerve

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

Frequency

the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (like per second)

Brainstem

the oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions

Figure-Ground

the organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground).

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Things that our body does on its own to keep us alive.

Illusory Correlation

the perception of a relationship where none exists, only noticing when the pattern shows up so it seems like there is a correlation

Relative Deprivation

the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself. Someone will feel worse about their 25k income if someone they meet makes 50k and even worse if they make 100k.

Grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups to see a certain pattern, shape, or continuous line etc

Puberty

the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Resilience

the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma

Mere Exposure Effect

the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them. Something that is more familiar to us will then cause us to like it more.

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.

Blind Spot

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

Debriefing

the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants

Frustration-Aggression Principle

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

Dual Processing

the principle that information is often simultaneously processed consciously and unconsciously

Sensory Interaction

the principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste

Yerkes-Dodson Law

the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases. Such as you should be moderatly aroused when taking a test (being alert) but not so much as to be trembling with nervousness where performance would start to decrease.

Conservation

the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in shape. Children lack this until age 6. ex: understanding that milk in a tall skinny glass is the same amount of milk when poured into a short fat glass

Weber's Law

the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)

Sensation

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Accomodation

the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Stress

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage for use

Modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Perception

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Storage

the process of retaining encoded information over time

Encoding

the processing of information getting into the brain and the memory system—for example, by extracting meaning.

Parallel Processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously, this is used for well learned info or easy problems.

Parallel Processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

Sequential Processing

the processing of one aspect of a problem at a time; used when we focus attention on new info or harder problems

Spontaneous Recovery

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

Negative Reinforcement

the reinforcement of a response by the removal of something unwanted. Like taking ibuprofen (the response) and the headache going away (reinforcement)

Long-Term Memory

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

Alpha Waves

the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

Refractory Period

the resting period after an orgasm where someone can't achieve another orgasm. Significantly longer for a male.

Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Social Psychology

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

Positive Psychology

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

Vestibular Sense

the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance

Audition

the sense or act of hearing

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

Epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

Parapsychology

the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

Psychophysics

the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

Psychopharmacology

the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Evolutionary Psychology

the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection

Normal Curve

the symmetrical bell-shaped curve. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes.

Kinesthesia

the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

REM Rebound

the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep). Catching up on REM sleep basically.

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. We might see someone always be quiet in the cafeteria and assume thats how they always are.

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

Foot-In-The-Door Phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. Chinese captors had American prisoners write trivial sentence, and increase to list off everything wrong with capitalism, the prisoners then changed their beliefs to be more consistant with their public acts.

Behavior Feedback Effect

the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions. If you walk with shuffled feet and you head down and then sudenly start walking with long strides and swinging arms you will feel a shift in your behavior.

Facial Feedback Effect

the tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness. If you smile, you will start to feel a little happy.

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Ingroup Bias

the tendency to favor our own group

Generalization

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. Like the dog still salivating after it hears a different tone

Opponent-Process Theory

the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green

Social Exchange Theory

the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs. Before we decide to help we think of what are the benifits and the costs and decide if its worth it.

Scapegoat Theory

the theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame. Ex: in the 9/11 attacks people decided to blame all muslims and had a prejudice of them.

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic (Three-Color) Theory

the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors—one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue—which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color.

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. For example, 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 situation or the person's disposition.

Social Learning Theory

the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished

Adolescence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Lens

the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina

Empiricism

the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation

Framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments. Ex: people are more likely to support gun safety than gun control.

Stanford-Binet

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