AP Psych terms
Endorphins
"morphine withIN"--natural, neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure
Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
(1) Trust vs. Mistrust; (2) Autonomy vs. Shame; (3) Initiative vs. Guilt; (4) Industry vs. Inferiority; (5) Identity vs. Confusion; (6) Intimacy vs. Isolation; (7) Generativity vs. Self-absorption; (8) Integrity vs. Despair.
group therapy advantages
-low cost -exposure to other people with similar problems; social interaction with others -social and emotional support from people with similar disorders or problems
Clever Hans experiment
.Clever Hans was an horse that was claimed to have been able to perform arithmetic and other intellectual tasks. Disproved that he was only going along with the reaction of his observers and did not actually have any intellectual thinking going on
Freud's stage of psychosexual development
1. Oral Stage (birth to 18 mos.) Primary satisfaction from sucking & chewing 2. Anal Stage (18 mos. to 3) Pleasure derived from elimination 3. Phallic Stage (3 to 5 or 6) Pleasure derived from sexual organs Sexual desire for opposite sex parent. Oedipus or Electra complex 4. Latency Period (6 to 12) Id impulses not a factor 5. Genital Stage (adulthood) Heterosexual interests predominate
Oedipal conflict
A child's sexual interest in his or her opposite-sex parent, typically resolved through identification with the same-sex parent
Down's Syndrome
A congenital disorder caused by having an extra Chromosome 21
linear perspective
A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.
Hippocampus
A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.
temporal lobe
A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.
Frontal lobe
A region of the cerebral cortex that has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgement
systematic desensitization
A type of counterconditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli
inductive reasoning
A type of logic in which generalizations are based on a large number of specific observations.
John B. Watson founded
Behaviorism
blood-brain barrier
Blood vessels (capillaries) let certain substances enter the brain tissue and keep other substances out
Expressive aphasia located in the left frontal lobe
Broca's- Difficulty forming words and sentences or may be nonverbal
Multicultural conflict
Clashes between cultures and their differing values
Ganglia
Collections of nerve cell bodies
cross-sectional studies
Compares data from a population at a certain point in time
basal nuclei (basal ganglia)
Controls muscle activity and posture; largely inhibits unintentional movement when at rest
descriptive statistics
DESCRIBE characteristics and responses of group
reaction formation
Defense mechanism by which people behave in a way opposite to what their true but anxiety-provoking feelings would dictate.
Psychodynamic dream theory
Dreams are unconscious urges
Cognitive theory of dreaming
Dreams help with problem solving and creativity, thoughts that occur doing sleep
Francis Galton's research
His contributions include such things as helping develop the first personality tests, developing the science of eugenics (better humans through breeding), using statistics in research, arguing that nature is more important in personality than nurture. He is most well known for his belief in eugenics.
endocrine organs and hormones secreted by them
Hypothalamus & pituitary gland. The hypothalamus regulates pituitary gland
IDEAL (strategy for solving problems)
I- identify the problem D- define the problem E- explore alternatives, brainstorm A- make a plan of implementation and act on it L- look at or evaluate the effects- Is solution working?
iconic memory
ICON, a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
inferential statistics
INFER conclusions about LARGER POPULATION
Flynn effect
IQ scores increase by generation as education increases
Internalization
Idea/belief/behavior that has be been integrated into our own values. We conform to the belief privately. Stronger than other types of conformity
control group
In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment, serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
cognitive dissonance
Inner tension that person experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values/opinions
Babinski response
Normal baby reflex, big toe points up and others fan out
Formal operations
One of Piaget's stages; includes the ability to use abstract thinking
Asch Conformity Study (line segments)
People went along with the majority instead of sticking to their gut
Four kinds of conflict
Personality, intergroup, multicultural, work-family
Fetal alcohol syndrome: characteristics
Physical deformities, mentally challenged, learning disorders, vision difficulties, behavioral problems
Cannon's critique of James-Lange theory
Physical sensations and emotions aren't always connected & physical reactions don't have a single corresponding emotion
Neostriatum
Receives input from the cerebral cortex and other brain areas and provides output to the basal nuclei.
heuristics: major types
Representativeness Heuristic- when making likelihood judgments, people rely on an item's similarity to the prototypes of existing categories. Availability Heuristic Anchoring-and-adjustment Heuristic- rely too much on pre-existing information or the first information they find when making decisions. For example, if you first see a T-shirt that costs $1,200 - then see a second one that costs $100 - you're prone to see the second shirt as cheap.
linguistic relativity hypothesis
Sapir and Whorf- language influences thinking
Repair and restoration dream theory
Sleep allows body to repair
Michael Gazzaniga studied
Split-brain patients
Fear immediately actives the
Sympathetic nervous system
latent learning
TOLMAN- learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful
depression: trycyclic antidepressants are most widely used to treat it
The early drugs used to treat depression were known as "tricyclic" antidepressants. They worked but often had serious side effects and could be quite toxic if mixed with other substances. - Not used much anymore, relying instead on SSRI drugs like Prozac which target very specific receptor sites in the brain and don't have the severe side effects
Determinism
The idea that people's behavior is produced primarily by factors outside of their willful control
Cerebral cortex
The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.
engram/memory trace
The physical changes in the brain associated with a memory
gate control theory of pain
The theory that pain is a product of both physiological and psychological factors that cause spinal gates to open and relay patterns of intense stimulation to the brain, which perceives them as pain.
Drives
Urges to perform certain behaviors in order to resolve physiological arousal when that arousal is caused by the biological needs of the organism
brain: what part do we share with animals? How do we differ?
We share the same basic hind brain at the base of our skull where the brain meets the spinal cord, which are important for basic vital functions. It's the higher parts (cerebral cortex) that distinguishes us
dominant responses (aided by social facilitation)
What you do well, you are likely to do even better in front of an audience, especially a friendly audience; what you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched.
equity theory of relationships
a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it
conversion disorder
a disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found
Carl Rogers: person (client) centered therapy
a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic (understanding, not quite agreeing or relating) environment to facilitate clients' growth (Rogers called his patients "clients", not "patients")
CAT scan
a method of creating static images of the brain
Brainstorming
a method of generating ideas for speech topics by free association of words and ideas
echoic memory
a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli
Reticular formation
a nerve network that travels through the brainstem into the thalamus and plays an important role in controlling arousal
Hypothalamus
a neural structure lying below the thalamus; directs eating, drinking, body temperature; helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion
dream analysis
a psychoanalytic technique for interpreting a person's dreams
Psychosis
a psychological disorder in which a person loses contact with reality, experiencing irrational ideas and distorted perceptions
refractory period
a resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm
Social trap
a situation in which the conflicting parties become caught in mutually destructive behavior
correlation coefficient
a statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1 to +1)
industrial/organizational psychology
a subfield of psychology that studies and advises on workplace behavior. Industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists help organizations select and train employees, boost morale and productivity, and design products and assess responses to them
fugue state
a sudden temporary loss of memory or change in identity and wander off, often in response to an overwhelmingly stressful situation
fMRI scan
a technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans, showing brain function.
Mental set
a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Classical conditioning
a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
PET scan
a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task
cocktail party effect
ability to attend to only one voice among many
accomodation
adapting current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
bottom-up processing
analysis that begins with the sense receptors
Ainsworth Strange Situation (Paradigm)
assesses infant's security based on different strangers entering and leaving in different rooms with it
achievement test
assesses what a person has learned
behavior as being adaptive
behavior skills that a person learns in the process of adapting to surroundings
Mary Cover Jones
behaviorism, pioneer in systematic desensitization, maintained that fear could be unlearned
Lithium carbonate treats
bipolar disorder
optic disc
blind spot
developmental psychology
branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
Dendrite (purpose of)
branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body
lithium
can treat or reduce bipolar disorder
Fovea
central focal point in the retina, where eye cones cluster
John Garcia's ideas on the limits of conditioning
challenged the belief that all associations can be learned equally well 1) even if the rats became sick hours later they avoided that flavor of water 2) developed aversions to tastes, but not to sights or sounds
Hawthorne effect
change in a subject's behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied
sublimation (defense mechanism)
channeling socially unacceptable impulses into accepted behavior
complementary colors
colors opposite each other on the color wheel
long-term potentiation (LTP)
communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier
altruism
concern for others
arousal
condition in which the sympathetic nervous system is in control
inter-group conflict
conflict between groups
Aversive conditioning
counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior
hue
determined by the wavelength of light, shade of a color
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
diagnoses mental illness
Benjamin Worf's theory of linguistic relativism (determinism)
differences in language create differences in thought
dissociative disorders
disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings
implicit memory (non-declarative)
does not require conscious effort and often cannot be verbally described
activation-synthesis theory
dreams are caused by widespread, random activation of neural circuitry
Chaining
each step of a sequence must be learned and must lead to the next until the final action is achieved
telegraphic speech
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs
electroconvulsive shock therapy
electric shock therapy used to treat severe cases of depression
resting potential
electrical charge across cell membrane of a resting neuron
semantic encoding
encoding words by meaning
Alfred Adler- inferiority complex
everyone is born with a sense of inferiority and strives to overcome difference by becoming superior; driving force behind all human thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
Gansfeld Procedure
experimental design that supposedly enables people who claim to have mental telepathy to read the minds of others.
Elizabeth Loftus' research on eyewitness testimony
eyewitnesses are unreliable & memory can be radically altered after an eyewitness is questioned
work-family conflict
feeling of being pulled in multiple directions by incompatible demands from one's job and one's family
Alfred Binet created the
first intelligence test, mental age
opponent-process theory of emotions
following a strong emotion, an opposing emotion counters the first emotion, lessening the experience of that emotion; on repeated occasions, the opposing emotion becomes stronger
Pons
helps control breathing, sends info to cerebellum, links medulla and thalamus
high vs. low self-monitors
if you care alot about what other people think you're a high self-monitor. If you care a little what other people think (or not at all), then you're a low self-monitor self-monitoring is defined as "the degree to which we vary our self-presentation to match the people we're with." The more you vary your personality, conversation, and social presence to suit the people you're with, the higher you are on the self-monitoring scale.
apparent/induced motion
illusion of movement in a still object
confounding variable
in an experiment, a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect
anterograde amnesia
inability to form new memories
misinformation effect
incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event
Galvanic skin response (GSR)
increase in the electrical conductivity of the skin that occurs when sweat glands increase their activity
Deindividuation
individuals seems to lose self in the group's identity
normative social influence
influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval
top-down processing
information processing guided by higher-level mental processes
personality conflict
interpersonal opposition based on personal dislike or disagreement
Assimilation
interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
feature analysis
is the process of detecting specific elements in visual input and assembling them into a more complex form
Martin Seligman researched
learned helplessness
Episodic memory (flashbulb)
long term memory of specific experience or events linked to a place and time
retrograde amnesia
loss of memories from our past
anosmia
loss of sense of smell
explicit memory (declarative)
memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "DECLARE"
Alfred Binet researched
mental age
absolute threshold
minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time
Deinstitutionalization
moving people with psychological or developmental disabilities from highly structured institutions to home- or community-based settings
Ethics of testing
must be met when designing on experiments; informed consent, confidentiality, person may quit at anytime, and person must be debriefed
Retroactive Interference (RI)
new memories disrupt old memories
Proactive interference (PI)
old memories disrupt new memories
self-efficacy
one's sense of competence and effectiveness
instrumental conditioning
operant conditioning
Chunking
organizing items into familiar, manageable units
character disorders: major ones
paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic, avoidant, dependent and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder
Aaron Beck's view of depression
people tend to view themselves, their environment, and the future because in a negative light because of errors in their thinking. -These errors include focusing on the negative aspects of any situation, misinterpreting facts in negative ways, and blaming them for any misfortune. - In Beck's view, people learn these self-defeating ways of looking at the world during early childhood.
social loafing
phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups
Hierarchy of needs (Maslow) in order
physiological, safety, belongingness/love, esteem, (self actualization)
Carol Gilligan's critique of Kohlberg's theory
pointed out that Kohlberg's early research was conducted entirely with male subjects, yet it became the basis for a theory applied to both males and females
aptitude test
predicts a person's future performance
occipital lobe
processes vision, at back of brain
American Psychological Association (APA)
professional organization representing psychologists in the United States
cross-cultural studies
provide information about the degree to which development is similar, or universal, across cultures, and the degree to which it is culture-specific
Projection
psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
Denial
psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or perceive painful realities
Displacement
psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
Hans Seyle's General Adaptation Response
reaction to stress follows - alarm (sympathetic system - fight or flight); resistance (body tries to fight the stress); exhaustion (prolonged resistance leads to exhaustion)
deductive reasoning
reasoning in which a conclusion is reached by stating a general principle and then applying that principle to a specific case (The sun rises every morning; therefore, the sun will rise on Tuesday morning.)
Parietal lobe
receives sensory input for touch and body position
effects of marijuana
relaxation, enhanced auditory & visual perception, loss of sense of time, confusion, emotional distress. Long term; Apathy, lethargy, lowering fertility, risks linked to tobacco smoking
Major defense mechanisms
repression, regression, displacement, denial, reaction formation, rationalization, projection, sublimation
vestibular sense
sense of balance in relation to the world
acuity-vision
sharpness of vision
holophrastic speech
single word to convey whole sentence
binocular disparity
slightly different view of the world that each eye receives
aversive conditions
stimulus that elicits an undesirable response
social facilitation
stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
Ebbinhaus' research on memory
studied the learning curve of memory. Found that we remember things with meaning the best. People forget a great deal of learned material right after it is processed, but that rate slows down over time
insight
sudden realization of a problem's solution
state-dependent learning
superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding
glial cells
support, nourish, and protect neurons
Harry Harlow experiment
surrogate monkey experiment
halo effect
tendency of positive impression to affect feelings of the person
fundamental attribution error
tendency to attribute others' behavior to their dispositions and our own behaviors to our situations
outgroup bias
tendency to focus on negative aspects of other people's groups
Cerebellum
the "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance
eidetic memory
the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on the basis of short-term exposure
visual acuity
the ability to see fine detail
Differential conduction
the act of the ions moving across the membrane
motion parallax
the apparent movement of stationary objects relative to one another that occurs when the observer changes position
internal consistency reliability
the assessment of reliability using responses at only one point in time
Medulla
the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing
Daniel Goleman's views on emotional intelligence
the capacity to understand and manage your own emotional experiences and to perceive, comprehend, and respond appropriately to the emotional responses of others. (Goleman stated that people tend to lack the ability to manage their own emotions)
retroactive interference
the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
proactive interference
the disruptive effect of previous learning on the recall of new information
stranger anxiety
the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
motion aftereffect
the illusion of motion of a stationary object that occurs after prolonged exposure to a moving object
sensory memory
the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
operant conditioning
the learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses
Difference Threshold
the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time
Groupthink
the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives
identical twin research
the optimal population to study for the nature v. nurture debate.
blind spot
the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there
Animism (Piaget)
the preoperational child's belief that inanimate objects are alive
frustration-aggression hypothesis
the principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression
Modeling
the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior
kinesthesis
the sense of movement and body position
Bystander effect
the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present
just-world phenomenon
the tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get
self-serving bias
the tendency for people to take personal credit for success but blame failure on external factors
hindsight bias
the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
ingroup bias
the tendency to favor our own group
false consensus effect
the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
James-Lange Theory
the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
social exchange theory
the theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs
attribution theory
the theory that we explain situation by crediting internal or external factors
Gestalt Theory
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
David McClelland's achievement motivation studies
theorized that people with high achievement motivation enjoy personal challenges and are willing to take moderate risks to achieve their goals -believed it could be taught/acquired through proper learning -Went to India, chose people who fit personality profile of an entrepreneur and gave them skills/how to achieve- it worked
Albert Ellis Rational Emotive Therapy (RET)
therapy in which patients are forced to confront and connect their own illogical thinking
latent/implicit learning
unreinforced learning not reflected in behavior unless there is an incentive to do so
MRI scan
uses radio waves and a very strong magnetic field to produce images of the soft tissue
Somatic Nervous System
voluntary movement
Generalizability of a study
when a study can be generalized to a larger population
next-in-line effect
when we are next in line, we focus on our own performance and often fail to process the last person's words
Bystander intervention: factors that influence it
whether or not you are in a hurry, whether you feel competent, whether the person is like you, whether you are with a small group versus a large group, whether or not you are in a good mood
