PSM101 - MIDTERM

Consciousness

The individual's current awareness of external and internal stimuli, including events in the environment, body sensations, memories, and thoughts.

Monitoring

The act of being aware of and paying attention to stimuli in our surroundings and within our own bodies.

Controlling

The ability to initiate and terminate behavioral and cognitive activities.

Preconscious Memories

Memories that are not currently part of our consciousness but can be brought to consciousness when needed.

The Unconscious

The part of the mind that contains memories, impulses, and desires that are not accessible to consciousness.

Automaticity

The habituation of responses that initially required conscious attention, making them become habitual or automatic.

Dissociation

The splitting off or dissociation of thoughts and actions from the rest of consciousness, functioning outside of awareness.

Sleep

A circadian state characterized by partial or total suspension of consciousness, voluntary muscle inhibition, and relative insensitivity to stimulation.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

The graphic recording of the electrical changes, or brain waves, that measures the average electrical potential of neurons on the surface of the cortex.

Stages of Sleep

The different stages of sleep, including Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, and Stage 4, each characterized by specific brain wave patterns and physiological changes.

REM Sleep

Rapid Eye Movement sleep, characterized by rapid eye movements and vivid dreaming.

NREM vs REM

The differences between Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep and REM sleep in terms of brain and body activity.

The Sleep Theory

The opponent-process model proposed by Dale Edgar and William Dement, which includes the Homeostatic Sleep Drive and the Clock-Dependent Alerting Process.

Circadian Rhythm

The internal biological clock that controls psychological and physiological changes, including rhythms of alertness.

Dreaming

An altered state of consciousness in which picture stories are constructed based on memories, emotions, fantasies, and images.

Meditation

Achieving an altered state of consciousness through rituals and exercises, resulting in mental and physical relaxation.

Hypnosis

A responsive state in which individuals focus their attention on the hypnotist and accept suggestions.

Induction of Hypnosis

The process of inducing a hypnotic state by the hypnotist using various methods.

Characteristics of a Hypnotized State

Planfulness ceases, attention becomes more selective, enriched fantasy is readily evoked, reality testing is reduced, suggestibility is increased, and posthypnotic amnesia may be present.

Posthypnotic Response

Involuntary movement in response to a prearranged signal by the hypnotist after being roused from hypnosis.

Posthypnotic Amnesia

Forgetting events that occurred during hypnosis until a signal from the hypnotist enables recall.

Hallucinations

Perceiving objects or hearing voices that are not actually present (positive hallucinations) or not perceiving something that should be perceived (negative hallucinations).

The Hidden Observer

A mental structure that monitors everything that happens, even events that the hypnotized individual is not consciously aware of perceiving.

Hypnosis as a Therapy

The use of hypnosis in therapeutic interventions for various conditions.

Psychoactive Drugs

Any substance (other than food) that chemically alters the functioning of an organism.

Drug Dependence

The state of being physically or psychologically dependent on a drug, characterized by tolerance, withdrawal, and compulsive craving.

Depressants

Drugs that depress the central nervous system, such as tranquilizers, barbiturates, inhalants, and alcohol.

Cannabis

A psychoactive substance that creates a high feeling, cognitive and motor impairments, and sometimes hallucinations.

Opiates

Drugs that diminish physical sensation and the capacity to respond to stimuli by depressing the central nervous system.

Heroin

An opiate that can be injected, smoked, or inhaled, producing a special thrill or "rush."

Stimulants

Drugs that increase alertness and general arousal, physically and mentally.

Amphetamines

Powerful stimulants that increase alertness and decrease feelings of fatigue and boredom.

Cocaine

A substance obtained from the dried leaves of the coca plant, increasing energy and self-confidence.

Ecstasy

A drug with stimulant effects and occasional hallucinogenic properties, associated with poor performance on cognitive tests and increased rates of anxiety, depression, and paranoia.

Memory

The means by which we retain and draw on our past experiences to use that information in the present.

Encoding

The process of transforming sensory data into a mental representation.

Storage

The process of keeping encoded information in memory.

Retrieval

The process of pulling out or using information stored in memory.

Recall

The act of producing a fact, word, or other item from memory.

Recognition

The act of selecting or identifying an item as one that has been previously encountered.

Relearning

The process of learning once again items that were learned in the past.

Mnemonists

People with outstanding memory who use special techniques for memory enhancement.

Amnesia

Severe loss of explicit memory, including retrograde amnesia (loss of memory for events prior to trauma) and anterograde amnesia (inability to remember events after trauma).

Alzheimer's Disease

A disease of older adults that causes dementia and progressive memory loss, characterized by plaques and tangles in the brain.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of experience.

Non-Associative Learning

Involves learning about a single stimulus.

Habituation

A type of non-associative learning characterized by a decreased behavioral response to an innocuous stimulus.

Sensitization

A type of non-associative learning characterized by an increase in a behavioral response to an intense stimulus.

Associative Learning

Involves learning relationships among events.

Classical Conditioning

An organism learns that one event follows another.

Ivan Pavlov

A Russian physiologist who proposed classical conditioning.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An unlearned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that automatically elicits a response without prior conditioning.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

An unconditioned stimulus that may lead to other responses.

Instrumental Conditioning

Certain behaviors are learned because they operate on the environment.

Burrhus F

An American psychologist who contributed to our understanding of instrumental conditioning.

Edward L

Carried out important conditioning experiments and studied trial-and-error learning in animals.

Insight

An understanding of the situation leading to the solution of a problem.

Reinforcement

The process whereby the delivery of a stimulus increases the probability of a behavior.

Punishment

Decreases the probability of a behavior.

Positive Reinforcement

Giving an appetitive stimulus.

Positive Punishment

Giving an aversive stimulus.

Negative Reinforcement

Removing an aversive stimulus.

Negative Punishment

Removing an appetitive stimulus.

John B

The most important 'spokesman' for behaviorism.

Observational Learning

Copying the behavior of others based on successful observations.

Albert Bandura

The researcher connected with the study of observational learning.

Model

Actual persons whose behaviors we observe.

Imitator

The individual who expects to be reinforced like the model.

Intelligence

The concept of intelligence has been one of the most contentious across the history of psychology.

Charles Spearman

The originator of factor analysis who proposed the Two-Factor Theory of Intelligence.

Factor Analysis

A statistical technique that examines intercorrelations among tests and reduces them to a smaller number of independent dimensions.

General Factor (g factor)

The major determinant of performance on intelligence tests.

Special Factor (s factor)

Specific to particular abilities or tests.

Howard Gardner

Developed the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

Linguistic Intelligence

The capacity for speech and language-related mechanisms.

Musical Intelligence

The ability to create, communicate, and understand meanings made of sound.

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence

The ability to use and appreciate relationships in abstract thought.

Spatial Intelligence

The ability to perceive and manipulate visual or spatial information.

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence

The ability to use the body to solve problems or manipulate objects.