Comprehensive Psychology Review: Development, Motivation, Emotion, Learning, Cognition, Memory, and Consciousness

Comprehensive practice flashcards matching key terminology, empirical studies, and conceptual paradigms across developmental psychology, motivation, emotion, conditioning, cognitive processes, memory storage and failures, and states of consciousness.

Attachment

The capacity to form and maintain healthy emotional relationships, beginning in early childhood, marked by an enduring bond with a special person that provides security, soothing, and distress upon separation.

Attachment Behavioral System

An evolved, innate proximity regulator conceptualized by John Bowlby that motivates humans, particularly infants, to rely on attachment figures for safety, comfort, and emotional regulation from infancy through adulthood.

Secure Attachment Style (Infant)

An attachment pattern in which an infant may or may not be distressed when the caregiver leaves and greets their return positively through smiling, seeking comfort, and easily calming down.

Anxious Attachment Style (Ambivalent / Preoccupied)

An attachment pattern in which an infant becomes severely distressed upon caregiver departure and responds negatively upon reunion by clinging, showing anger, or refusing calming attempts.

Avoidant Attachment Style (Dismissive)

An attachment pattern in which an infant displays no outward distress when the primary caregiver departs and actively avoids or ignores them upon their return.

Disorganized Attachment Style (Fearful)

An attachment pattern characterized by confusing, contradictory, or absent coping strategies during separation and reunion, typically stemming from trauma, neglect, or caregiver abuse.

Internal Working Model

A cognitive framework of beliefs and expectations that infants construct through early caregiver interactions regarding how close interpersonal relationships function.

Adolescence

The developmental transitional phase that begins with the onset of sexual maturity (approximately $11\text{--}14$ years of age) and lasts until the beginning of adulthood (approximately $18\text{--}21$ years of age).

Protracted Adolescence

The lengthening gap between earlier biological maturation (puberty) and the later assumption of adult societal roles and legal responsibilities, which can contribute to adolescent risk-taking.

Oral Stage

Freud's first psychosexual stage (birth to $18$ months), where psychic energy centers on the mouth, lips, and tongue, centering psychologically on dependency and passivity.

Anal Stage

Freud's second psychosexual stage ($18$ months to $5$ years), centered physically on the anus and elimination organs, with psychological themes revolving around self-control, toilet training, and obedience.

Phallic Stage

Freud's third psychosexual stage (approximately $3\frac{1}{2}$ to $7$ years), focused physically on sexual organs, where children navigate gender identity, morality, superego formation, and the Oedipus crisis.

Latency Stage

Freud's fourth psychosexual stage ($7$ years to puberty), viewed as a temporary developmental break where sexual energies subside and children focus on mastering childhood tasks and social learning.

Genital Stage

Freud's final psychosexual stage (puberty to death), attained rather than passed through, where psychic energy is directed toward mature sexuality, love, productivity, and life enhancement.

Psychosocial Stages (Erikson)

An eight-stage lifespan theory positing that personality development is driven by successfully resolving progressive existential crises from trust vs. mistrust through integrity vs. despair.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

A lifespan theory suggesting that younger adults prioritize future-oriented information acquisition, whereas older adults focus preferentially on present-oriented, positive emotional satisfaction.

Cross-Sectional Research

A developmental research design in which groups of individuals of varying chronological ages are observed and compared simultaneously at a single point in time.

Longitudinal Research

A developmental research design in which the exact same cohort of individuals is tested and followed repeatedly across an extended time span.

Germinal Stage

The first two weeks of prenatal development following conception, characterized by rapid zygotic cell division, blastocyst formation, and implantation into the uterine wall.

Embryonic Stage

The second prenatal phase ($2^{\text{nd}}$ to $8^{\text{th}}$ week), marked by structural differentiation of major internal organ systems, physical feature emergence, and maximal vulnerability to teratogens.

Fetal Stage

The prenatal period extending from the $9^{\text{th}}$ week until birth, marked by massive somatic growth, muscular movement, bone hardening, and neural myelination.

Teratogen

Any environmental chemical, drug, pathogen, or maternal factor that crosses the placental barrier and raises the risk of congenital abnormalities or birth defects in a developing organism.

Infant Motor Reflexes

Innate, involuntary motor reactions elicited automatically by specific sensory stimuli that facilitate early survival, including rooting, gripping, toe curling, Moro (startle), and Galant reflexes.

Cephalocaudal Rule

The 'top-to-bottom' developmental principle stating that motor coordination and muscular control emerge sequentially from the head downwards toward the feet.

Proximodistal Rule

The 'inside-to-outside' developmental principle stating that motor skills emerge sequentially from the center of the body outward toward the peripheral extremities.

Scale Error

A developmental occurrence where a young child misjudges the functional size relation between a miniature toy object and its full-sized real counterpart due to immature perceptual-motor integration.

Schema (Piaget)

An organized mental framework, model, or theory developed by a child to interpret, represent, and interact with the physical and social world.

Assimilation (Piaget)

The cognitive process of interpreting and incorporating new environmental experiences into existing schemas without altering the core schema.

Accommodation (Piaget)

The cognitive process of restructuring and modifying existing schemas when confronted with new information that contradicts previous understandings.

Object Permanence

The cognitive understanding acquired during infancy that physical objects continue to exist even when they are hidden from sensory perception.

Egocentrism (Piaget)

The developmental tendency of preoperational children to perceive, understand, and interpret the physical and social world exclusively from their personal vantage point.

Conservation (Piaget)

The understanding that quantitative properties of an object (such as volume, mass, or number) remain identical despite superficial transformations in its physical shape or arrangement.

Theory of Mind

The ability to attribute internal mental states (such as beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives) to oneself and others, using them to anticipate and explain behaviors.

Joint Attention

A critical social-cognitive ability where an infant coordinates visual attention with another individual to simultaneously focus on the same external object or event.

Social Referencing

The behavioral tendency of an infant to observe a caregiver's affective and facial reactions to deduce how to interpret and respond to an unfamiliar or ambiguous environment.

Imprinting (Lorenz)

A rapid, biologically constrained form of learning observed in precocial birds (such as goslings), whereby newborns bond to the first moving visual stimulus encountered within a critical period.

Preconventional Stage (Kohlberg)

The primary level of moral development in which an action is judged moral or immoral based almost entirely on its direct physical consequences (punishment or reward) for the actor.

Conventional Stage (Kohlberg)

The secondary level of moral reasoning in which moral judgments are based primarily on strict adherence to established social rules, legal conventions, and interpersonal approval.

Postconventional Stage (Kohlberg)

The advanced level of moral reasoning in which decisions are guided by self-chosen ethical principles and universal values of human rights that transcend specific laws.

Drive-Reduction Theory

A motivational theory asserting that biological deficiencies produce internal states of tension (drives) that compel organisms to act in order to restore physiological equilibrium.

Homeostasis

The active physiological tendency of an organism to monitor and maintain steady, optimal internal baseline conditions (such as core body temperature, hydration, and blood sugar).

Incentive Theory

A motivational framework proposing that behavior is pulled forward by external rewards, desirable stimuli, and positive reinforcements rather than biological drives alone.

Intrinsic Motivation

The drive to engage in an activity purely for its inherent enjoyment, satisfaction, and curiosity, where the performance itself serves as the reward.

Extrinsic Motivation

The drive to carry out an activity primarily to obtain tangible external incentives, praise, or grades, or to avoid punitive consequences.

Overjustification Effect

The psychological phenomenon where offering extrinsic rewards for an already intrinsically enjoyable task diminishes an individual's baseline intrinsic interest once the reward is discontinued.

Self-Efficacy (Bandura)

An individual's personal belief and conviction regarding their capability to mobilize the cognitive resources and actions needed to succeed at specific tasks.

Terror Management Theory (TMT)

A theory proposing that existential anxiety aroused by the awareness of inevitable death is buffered by upholding cultural worldviews and cultivating personal self-esteem.

Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins)

A self-regulation model stating that emotional distress arises from perceived gaps between one's actual self and internalized self-guides (the ideal self and ought self).

Promotion Focus

A self-regulatory orientation geared toward achieving ideals, hopes, and aspirational gains through proactive approach behaviors and vigilance against omissions.

Prevention Focus

A self-regulatory orientation geared toward fulfilling obligations, security, and oughts through cautious avoidance behaviors to prevent errors of commission and losses.

Affective Forecasting

The cognitive process of predicting one's future emotional reactions to upcoming events, frequently prone to errors caused by focalism and immune neglect.

Circumplex Model of Emotion

A two-dimensional affective model classifying emotional states along two continuous axes: valence (pleasantness to unpleasantness) and arousal (activation to deactivation).

Alexithymia

A subclinical condition marked by a pronounced inability to identify, articulate, and differentiate personal emotional states and bodily sensations.

A somatic theory of emotion stating that physiological arousal occurs first in response to a stimulus, and the brain's subsequent perception of these visceral changes constitutes the emotional experience.

theory of emotion

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion (Schachter-Singer)

A cognitive-physiological theory stating that emotional experience results from undifferentiated bodily arousal combined with an active cognitive appraisal that labels the arousal.

Misattribution of Arousal

The psychological error whereby an individual mistakenly attributes lingering physiological excitation to an incorrect environmental source (such as attributing fear-induced arousal to romantic attraction).

Display Rules

Culturally prescribed norms and expectations governing how, when, and to what extent emotions should be expressed through intensification, deintensification, masking, or neutralizing.

Classical Conditioning

A basic associative learning process wherein a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus until the neutral stimulus independently elicits a reflexive response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US / UCS)

A naturally occurring stimulus that reliably elicits an automatic, unlearned, and reflexive physiological reaction without requiring previous conditioning.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An originally neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus, acquires the power to elicit a learned, reflexive response.

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency of a conditioned response to be elicited by stimuli that share physical similarities with the original conditioned stimulus.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

The gradual diminution and eventual cessation of a conditioned response that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is continually presented alone without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response following a rest period without any intermediate retraining pairings.

Biological Preparedness

An organism's evolutionary predisposition to form specific associations rapidly and selectively between certain environmental cues and biological consequences (such as taste and nausea).

Law of Effect (Thorndike)

The behavioral principle stating that actions followed by satisfying states of affairs are stamped in and repeated, whereas actions followed by annoying or discomforting outcomes become less likely.

Operant Conditioning

The learning paradigm founded on the premise that voluntary behaviors are emitted and shaped, increased, or reduced by the subsequent consequences they produce in the environment.

Positive Reinforcement

An operant procedure in which the presentation of a desirable stimulus following a response increases the probability of that response recurring in the future.

Negative Reinforcement

An operant procedure in which the removal, termination, or avoidance of an aversive stimulus following a response increases the probability of that response recurring in the future.

Positive Punishment

An operant procedure in which an aversive stimulus is presented following an unwanted behavior in order to suppress or decrease the occurrence of that behavior.

Negative Punishment

An operant procedure in which a valued, rewarding stimulus is removed following an undesirable behavior in order to decrease the future occurrence of that behavior.

Fixed-Ratio (FR) Schedule

An intermittent reinforcement schedule where a reward is delivered exclusively after a specific, constant number of correct nonreinforced behavioral responses have occurred.

Variable-Ratio (VR) Schedule

An intermittent reinforcement schedule where a reward is delivered after an unpredictable, varying number of responses centered around an average, yielding rapid, extinction-resistant response rates.

Fixed-Interval (FI) Schedule

An intermittent reinforcement schedule where the first target response emitted after a fixed, predetermined duration of time has passed is rewarded, creating a scalloped response pattern.

Variable-Interval (VI) Schedule

An intermittent reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is delivered for the first response made after varying, unpredictable time intervals have elapsed, generating steady, moderate responding.

Learned Helplessness

A condition resulting from exposure to uncontrollable, inescapable aversive stimuli, producing passive resignation and the cognitive conviction that one's actions are entirely futile.

Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis

The proposition, associated with Benjamin Whorf, that the structural and semantic characteristics of a native language systematically shape and constrain the thoughts of its speakers.

Algorithm

A systematic, step-by-step logical procedure or formula that guarantees a correct resolution to a specific problem if carried out properly.

Heuristic

A cognitive rule of thumb or intuitive shortcut that enables fast, efficient problem-solving and judgment without guaranteeing a correct outcome.

Mental Set

A cognitive obstacle characterized by a persistent tendency to approach novel problems using previously successful solutions, inhibiting flexible thinking.

Functional Fixedness

A cognitive bias involving a rigid perception of familiar objects exclusively in terms of their intended functions, preventing creative problem solving as illustrated in Duncker's candle problem.

Prospect Theory

A behavioral economic framework (Kahneman and Tversky) showing that people make decisions based on subjective perceived gains and losses, showing pronounced loss aversion and diminishing sensitivity.

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut in which the subjective likelihood of an event is judged by the mental ease with which past instances or vivid examples can be recalled from memory.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

The cognitive bias where decisions to persist in an endeavor are driven by past irrecoverable investments of money, time, or energy rather than realistic assessments of future utility.

Analogical Problem Solving

A problem-solving strategy that entails mapping structural parallels between a known, solved problem (such as the fortress problem) and an unfamiliar target domain (such as tumor radiation).

Semantic Encoding

The memory process of actively linking and relating new incoming information in a meaningful way to knowledge that already exists within long-term storage.

Working Memory

A limited-capacity cognitive system dedicated to the active, conscious maintenance and executive manipulation of nonsensory information during complex reasoning tasks.

able to use recent memory and apply it to complete a task

Serial Position Effect

The psychological phenomenon where items positioned at the start (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of an informational series are recalled substantially better than intermediate items.

Anterograde Amnesia

The neuropsychological inability to encode and transfer new information from short-term memory stores into long-term memory, as demonstrated following bilateral medial temporal lobe resection in patient H.M.

Retrograde Amnesia

The memory loss characterized by an inability to access or retrieve events, knowledge, and personal memories that occurred prior to a critical neurological trauma or brain surgery.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The principle stating that a retrieval cue is most effective when it closely reinstates the specific internal and environmental contextual conditions present during initial memory encoding.

The neuroimaging finding showing that successful recollection of memories engages the hippocampus, whereas active, deliberate searching for elusive memories predominantly activates the left frontal lobe.

Memory Retrieval Localization

Explicit Memory

The conscious, intentional recollection of past experiences, facts, and autobiographical events that can be verbally declared.

Implicit Memory

The unconscious influence of past experience on present behavior and performance without intentional recollection or awareness, such as motor skills or priming.

Retroactive Interference

A forgetting mechanism where recently acquired information impairs and disrupts the retrieval of older, previously stored information.

Proactive Interference

A forgetting mechanism where earlier established memories disrupt and impair the subsequent encoding, retention, or retrieval of newly learned information.

Flashbulb Memory

An exceptionally vivid, detailed, and enduring recollection of personal circumstances at the moment one first learned of a surprising, emotionally shocking public event.

Cocktail Party Effect (selectivity)

The selective auditory attention phenomenon enabling a person to focus on a single voice amid competing background noise while still unconsciously filtering for salient personal cues (such as one's name).

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to consciously perceive an unexpected, visible object located directly within the visual field because focused selective attention is devoted to another task.

Ironic Process Theory

A cognitive theory (Daniel Wegner) explaining how deliberate mental suppression can cause unwanted thoughts to rebound and manifest more frequently when conscious control falters.

REM Sleep

A recurrent stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, high EEG cortical activation, vivid dreams, autonomic fluctuations, and muscular motor paralysis.