psych

Prospective Memory

Remembering to perform a task at the original time intended, such as taking a pill daily.

Social Loafing

When an individual exerts less effort in a group than when working alone, often seen in group projects.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus on a single voice amidst many conversations in a noisy environment.

Neurotransmitter

A signaling molecule that carries messages in the brain.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter associated with pleasure.

Acetylcholine (ACh)

A neurotransmitter involved in muscle activation.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter that regulates mood, influencing happiness and sadness.

Epinephrine/Norepinephrine

Neurotransmitters involved in the fight or flight response.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

A neurotransmitter that inhibits neuron firing and helps regulate sleep-wake cycles.

Endorphins

Neurotransmitters that reduce pain.

Glutamate

A neurotransmitter important for memory, learning, and movement.

Display Rules

Cultural norms that dictate how emotions should be expressed.

Groupthink

A phenomenon where group members conform to a perceived consensus, often at the expense of individual beliefs.

Cognitive Dissonance

Mental strain from holding conflicting beliefs or values that needs to be resolved.

Schema

Categories used to organize information in the brain, such as types of vehicles or classes.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

An expectation that influences behavior, leading to the fulfillment of that expectation.

Big Five Personality Traits

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.

Kohlberg’s Theory

A theory of moral development.

Piaget

A theorist known for cognitive development stages.

Erikson

A theorist focused on psychosocial development.

Freud

A theorist known for psychosexual stages of development.

Context Dependent Memories

Memories retrieved based on the physical setting.

Mood Congruent Memories

Memories retrieved that match the current mood.

State Dependent Memories

Memories retrieved that correspond to the individual's current state.

Encoding Failure

The inability to remember specific details due to ineffective encoding.

Procedural Memory

A type of long-term memory for skills and tasks.

Explicit (Declarative) Memory

Memory with conscious recall, including episodic and semantic memories.

Implicit (Non-declarative) Memory

Memory without conscious recall, including procedural memory and conditioning.

Mass Practice

A study method involving cramming.

Distributed Practice

A study method involving spaced-out study sessions.

Convergent Thinking

The process of finding one best solution to a problem.

Divergent Thinking

The process of generating multiple creative solutions to a problem.

Social Facilitation

Performing well-learned tasks better in the presence of others.

Social Inhibition

Performing less well on difficult tasks in the presence of others.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

A principle describing the relationship between arousal and performance.

Operant Conditioning

A method to increase or decrease behavior through reinforcement or punishment.

Fluid Intelligence

The ability to solve new problems and reason abstractly, which declines with age.

Crystallized Intelligence

The accumulation of knowledge and skills that increases with age.

Deindividuation

Loss of self-awareness in group settings.

Self-efficacy

Confidence in one's ability to complete a task.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts for making quick decisions.

Availability Heuristic

Making decisions based on easily recalled information.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by internal rewards.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by external rewards.

Overjustification Effect

Decreased intrinsic motivation due to external rewards for an already enjoyable activity.

Conformity

Changing beliefs or behaviors to align with a group.

Asch’s Line Experiment

A study demonstrating conformity in group settings.

Normative Social Influence

Conforming to fit in with a group.

Informational Social Influence

Conforming because the group is perceived as correct.

Proactive Interference

Old information interfering with the recall of new information.

Retroactive Interference

New information interfering with the recall of old information.

Observational Learning

Learning behaviors by watching others.

Research Methods

Various methods including case studies, surveys, and experiments.

Correlation

A relationship between variables that does not imply causation.

Random Sample

A method of selecting participants to generalize findings.

Experiments

Research methods that determine cause and effect through manipulation of variables.

Hypothesis

A prediction about the relationship between variables