General Psychology Test #2 - Cornerstone University

Evolution

A scientific theory holds that present life forms have developed from preexisting species through a series of modifications governed by laws of natural selection and diversification of species

Eugenics

The science of improving the human population through controlled reproduction

Fitness

An organism's ability to produce offspring who produce offspring with the fittest organism's producing the most offspring, and thus passing along more advantageous genotypes

Gender Roles

The typical patterns of behaviors that are considered culturally and socially appropriate and provide the parameters for femininity and masculinity

Gender Differences

Learned sexual attitudes and behaviors that are socially and culturally influenced

Temperament

Innate, unlearned dispositional and emotional patterns that are present from birth, that characterize our behavioral reactions to environmental stimuli

Determined by our biology; it remains relatively stable throughout our lifespan

What is temperament believed to be determined by?

Alexander Chess & Stella Thomas

What 2 psychiatrists are associated with theories of temperament?

Teratogen

An environmental agent that causes damage to a developing embryo or fetus

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) aka Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)

Term used to describe the variety of physical and mental health conditions caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol

Prenatal Development

The 9-month period from conception to birth

Reflexes

Involuntary and unlearned motor responses to sensory stimuli that help newborns adapt to and engage with the world around them until they can learn to voluntarily control their movements

Neonate

"Scientific" name for newborn is...

1. Risk of Alzheimer's

2. Extraversion

3. Likelihood of getting divorce

List 3 ways identical twins are more alike than fraternal twins:

1. Reading

2. Sports

3. Religion

4. Assisted Suicide

List 4 attitudes identical twins are more alike than fraternal twins in:

Habituation

The process of making or becoming accustomed to something

Maturation

The biological growth and development that occurs because of the typical aging process (nature) rather than the influences of the environment or learning (nurture)

Accommodation

The process of altering existing schemas to integrate discrepant information

Assimilation

The process of integrating new information into existing schema

1. Sensorimotor — birth-18/24 months old — object permanence

2. Pre operational — 2-7 years old — symbolic thought

3. Concrete operational — 7-11 years old — concrete logic

4. Formal operational — 11+ years old — abstract reasoning

What are the stages of Piaget's cognitive development stages? (In order) — and what are their ages and achievements?

Sensorimotor Stage

Stage of cognitive development that begins at birth and lasts until age 2. In this stage, babies interact with their environments through their senses and motor abilities. This is stage 1 of Piaget's cognitive development stages

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's 2nd stage of cognitive development that lasts from about 2 to 7 years old and builds off the cognitive structures developed in the sensorimotor period

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's 3rd stage of cognitive development which lasts from about 7 to 11 years and is marked by the transition from intuitive thinking to more logical or operational thought

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's 4th and final stage of cognitive development that starts around age 11 and includes when children gain the ability to form mental representations and use them operationally

Autism [Spectrum Disorder] (ASD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder of varying severity characterized by persistent, pervasive, and sustained impairments in how an individual interacts with or communicates with others, often accompanied by repetitive patterns of thought and behavior

Attachment

An emotional bond between a child and their caregiver

1. Emotional tie

2. Seeking closeness to the caregiver

3. Displaying distress upon separation

What are the 3 points of Attachment Theory according to the notes?

1. Secure attachment

2. Disorganized attachment

3. Avoidant attachment

4. Anxious attachment

What are the 4 attachment styles?

Secure Attachment

Describes a positive attachment where the child is comforted by the presence of their caregiver

Avoidant Attachment

Describes a form of insecure attachment where a child does not seek closeness or comfort from their caregiver

Ambivalent Attachment

Describes a form of insecure attachment where a child displays a combination of positive and negative responses to caregivers

Disorganized Attachment

Describes a form of insecure attachment where a child exhibits unpredictable and inconsistent responses to their caregiver

1. Basic Trust vs. Mistrust

2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

3. Initiative vs. Guilt

4. Industry vs. Inferiority

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation

8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair

What are the 8 stages of Erik Erikson's stages of psychological development?

- Infancy (Birth to 1 year)

- Feeling of trust in a caregiver and safety in the environment

Basic Trust vs. Mistrust; age and achievement

- Adolescence (12-18 years)

- The formation of a coherent sense of self and clear outlook

Identity vs. Role Confusion; age and achievement

Adolescent

The developmental period that begins with the onset of puberty and marks the transition from childhood to adulthood

1. Post conventional level

2. Conventional level

3. Pre conventional level

From top to bottom, list each step in Kohlberg's Moral Ladder

Post conventional level - Kohlberg's moral ladder

Morality of abstract principles: to affirm agreed upon rights and personal ethical principles

Conventional level - Kohlberg's moral ladder

Morality of law and social rules: to gain approval or disapproval

Pre conventional level - Kohlberg's moral ladder

Morality of self-interest: to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards

Classical Conditioning

Learning through stimulus substitution because of repeated pairings of an unconditional stimulus with a conditional stimulus

Operant Conditioning

(Skinner) describes changes in the probability of a response as a function of its consequences

Extinction

Process by which classically conditioned responses are eliminated

Spontaneous Recovery

A classical conditioning-related behavior referring to the rapid reemergence of a previously extinguished behavior

Generalization

Stimuli that resembles stimuli you're conditioned to

Discrimination

Distinction between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal a unconditioned stimulus

Cognitive Map

Latent learning (the acquisition of knowledge or skills that is not demonstrated until a later time, when there is a motivation or need to use it)

Observational Learning

Bandura's theory involving learning through observing and imitating models (modeling = learning)

- Displayed that we learn by observation

- One example was the Bobo doll experiment which was a study on aggression

Albert Bandura's Experiments; what did they display and what was one example

* similar to a computer

1. Write to file

2. Save to memory unit

3. Read from memory unit

What is memory similar to and what 3 steps makes it so?

Encoding

Processing of information into the memory system

Retrieval

Getting information out of memory using recall or recognition

Storage

Retaining information

Recall

Retrieving learned information (as on a fill-in-the-blank test)

Recognition

Identifying learned items (as on a multiple choice test)

- As encoding failure; some memories cannot be encoded without effort

- As retrieval failure; encoding, but inability to retrieve

Forgetting (two types of failures and what they mean)

Proactive Interference

When old information presents the formation or recall of newer information

Retroactive Interference

A theory of forgetting in which more recent information gets in the way of trying to recall older information

1. Mood-Congruent Memory: current mood serves as cues to retrieval

2. State-Dependent Memory: state of mind (or alterations thereof) affects memory

3. Flashbulb Memories: automatic encoding where the memory does not fade away with age due to a strong emotional association

What are the 3 main retrieval cues? What are they?

Iconic Memory

Momentary sensory of visual stimuli that lasts a few tenths of a second

Echoic Memory

Momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Short-Term Memory

Short duration and capacity ("magic" number beings 7 +/- )

Long-Term Memory

One of the human memory systems that can store information for a long period of time

1. Effortful processing; requires attention and conscious effort

2. Automatic Processing; unconscious encoding of incidental information

What are the 2 main ways information is encoded?

Mnemonic Methods

Memory techniques that help encode and recall information by creating associations between new and familiar concepts

IQ = Ma/Ca x 100

(Intelligence quotient equals mental age divided by chronological age times 100 to remove the decimal)

What was the old Intelligence Quotient (IQ) formula?

Validity

Whether a test measures or predicts what it's supposed to

Reliability

Consistency of results

Content Validity

The extent to which a test measures the behavior or knowledge of interest

Predictive Validity

How well a test predicts the behavior (criterion) it is designed to predict

Sensation

Stimulation of sense organs

Perception

Selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input

Bottom-Up Processing

Sensory processing — going up to the brain from the environment

Top-Down Processing

Perceptual — coming from the brain to interpret the world, guided by higher-level mental processes

Perceptual Organization

The brain's process of structuring and interpreting sensory information into meaningful patterns and coherent wholes

Depth Perception

Uses binocular clues (retinal disparity: images from the two eyes differ, and convergence: two eyes move inward for nearer objects) and monocular clues to make sense of the environment (such as relative size, clarity, texture, height, motion, brightness, linear perspective, and interposition)

Binocular Clues (2)

1. Retinal Disparity: images from the two eyes differ

2. Convergence: two eyes move inward for nearer objects

Monocular Clues

Relative size, clarity, height, motion, brightness, as well as interposition, texture, and linear perspective

Perceptual Adaptation

Ability to adjust to an artificially displaced visual field

Perceptual Set

Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another