NMAT Social Sciences Practice Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts across Psychology, Sociology, and Anthropology as presented in the NMAT Social Sciences lecture handouts.

Psychology

The scientific study of mind and behavior.

Wilhelm Wundt

The first Psychologist; the first to use the scientific method to study the mind and to build a psychology laboratory in $1879$.

Structuralism

School of thought that used the method of introspection to identify the basic elements or structures of psychological experience.

Functionalism

Sought to understand how mental processes operate in individuals and how they contribute to their adaptation to their environment.

Gestalt Psychology

Claims that an individual perceives an object as a whole, not in parts or bits.

Psychoanalysis

Proposes that a person’s behavior is influenced by their unconscious drives and stresses the importance of early life experiences.

Behaviorism

Proposes that all behaviors are learned through interactions with the environment; only observable behavior must be studied.

Cognitivism

Focuses on understanding mental processes and emphasizes the importance of internal mental structures and representations in shaping behavior.

Humanism

Focuses on the agency and the maximization of well-being and potential of individuals.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Field of applied psychology focused on enhancing workplace productivity, employee satisfaction, and organizational effectiveness.

Hawthorne Effect

A research bias where participants change their behavior simply because they know they are being observed.

Halo Effect

A bias where a person’s overall impression of something influences judgments about unrelated traits.

Reliability

The consistency and stability of a test’s results over time or across different raters.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures what it intends to measure.

Projective Test

A subtype of personality tests using ambiguous stimuli to reveal unconscious thoughts and motives.

Frontal lobe

Lobe that controls executive functions such as cognition, attention, decision-making, and speech production (Broca's area).

Parietal lobe

Lobe that processes sensory information like touch, pressure, and spatial awareness.

Temporal lobe

Lobe that manages auditory processing, memory, and language comprehension (Wernicke's area).

Occipital lobe

Lobe that specializes in visual processing and interpretation.

Amygdala

Limbic structure that handles emotion processing, particularly fear and aggression.

Hippocampus

Limbic structure critical for memory formation and spatial navigation.

Acetylcholine (Ach)

Neurotransmitter involved in muscle contraction, learning, and memory; associated with Alzheimer's disease when deficient.

Dopamine (DA)

Neurotransmitter regulating movement, reward, and motivation; associated with Parkinson's disease (-) and Schizophrenia (+).

Serotonin (5-HT)

Neurotransmitter regulating mood, sleep, and appetite; associated with depression when deficient.

NREM Stage 3

The most restorative stage of sleep, dominated by delta waves, involving body repair and growth.

Difference threshold

The smallest detectable change in stimulus, also known as the Just Noticeable Difference.

Sensory adaptation

Reduced sensitivity to constant stimuli over time.

Bottom-up processing

Perception that starts from raw sensory input and builds up to recognition.

Top-down processing

Perception influenced by prior knowledge and expectations.

Pragnanz

A Gestalt principle stating that we naturally perceive things in their simplest form or organization.

Procedural memory

Long-term memory for skills, which is often preserved even in amnesia.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus to elicit a similar response.

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing the likelihood of a behavior by adding a stimulus.

Negative Punishment

Decreasing the likelihood of a behavior by removing a stimulus.

Self-efficacy

An individual's belief in their ability to succeed in specific tasks.

Id

Part of the psychic apparatus consisting of instinctual desires seeking immediate gratification.

Repression

Defense mechanism involving withdrawal from consciousness of an unwanted idea or desire by pushing it into the unconscious.

Sublimation

Defense mechanism where unwanted urges are channeled into a productive or admissible outlet.

Oral Stage

Psychosexual stage ($0-1$ year old) where the lips, tongue, and gums are the focus of pleasurable sensations.

Industry vs. Inferiority

Psychosocial crisis for grade school children where they develop a sense of competence or feel inadequate.

Object Permanence

The understanding developed in the sensorimotor stage that objects continue to exist even when not seen or heard.

Egocentrism

Difficulty seeing things from perspectives other than one’s own, characteristic of the pre-operational stage.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The range between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with help.

Scaffolding

Temporary support provided by a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO) to help learners bridge the gap in their ZPD.

Authoritative Parenting

Style characterized by high responsiveness and high control; parents set clear rules but remain warm.

Strange Situation Experiment

A structured observational study used by Mary Ainsworth to assess attachment styles in children.

DSM-5 TR

The Handbook used by psychiatrists as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders.

Schizophrenia

Chronic mental disorder marked by persistent hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking lasting at least six months.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

A three-stage process (Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion) describing physiological changes under stress.

James-Lange Theory

Theory stating that emotions arise from physiological arousal (e.g., 'I feel afraid because my heart is racing').

Cannon-Bard Theory

Theory stating that emotions and physiological responses occur simultaneously.

Homeostasis

The state of internal stability that individuals are motivated to maintain by reducing biological drives.

Self-Actualization

The fulfillment and maximization of one's full potential, sitting at the top of Maslow's hierarchy.

Stereotype

The cognitive component of attitude; shortcuts that categorize people based on group membership.

Prejudice

The affective component of attitude; emotional biases based on stereotypes.

Social Loafing

The tendency for individuals to exert less effort in group tasks when personal performance cannot be evaluated separately.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

A compliance technique starting with a small request to increase the likelihood of agreement to a larger request later.

Consummate Love

A type of love that combines intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Sociological Imagination

The ability to see the connection between personal experiences and larger social forces.

Mechanical solidarity

Unity in traditional societies based on shared beliefs and common social bonds.

Anomic Suicide

Suicide occurring during states of normlessness caused by social upheaval or disruption.

Historical Materialism

The Marxist idea that society evolves through class struggle driven by economic forces.

Iron Cage

A concept by Max Weber describing how technological and bureaucratic advancements prioritize efficiency while limiting individual freedom.

Looking-glass Self

The process by which individuals develop their sense of self through their interactions with others, according to Charles Horton Cooley.

Gemeinschaft

A German term for 'community' describing strong, close-knit social bonds based on kinship and tradition.

Ascribed status

A social position assigned at birth or based on characteristics like race or gender.

Role Strain

Difficulty fulfilling multiple expectations within a single social role.

Innovation

A mode of adaptation in Strain Theory where an individual accepts societal goals but rejects approved means.

Enculturation

The process of learning and adopting your own culture’s customs and beliefs.

Cultural Hegemony

Dominance of a ruling class’s values over society, making them seem natural and universally accepted.

Folkways

Social norms for everyday behavior and politeness (Right vs. Rude).

Nuclear Family

A family structure consisting of a Mother, Father, and child/ren.

Polyandry

A marriage custom involving one woman and multiple men.

Coercive power

Power based on the ability to threaten or deliver punishment.

Theocracy

A form of government ruled by religious leaders based on religious laws.

Armchair Anthropology

The practice of relying on secondhand accounts to study a society rather than conducting fieldwork.

Culture-Specific Disorders

Mental conditions shaped by cultural beliefs, such as Amok in Southeast Asia.

Bipedalism

Walking upright; the hallmark of hominins that frees hands for tool use.

Homo habilis

Known as the 'Handy man,' the first species in the genus Homo to use basic stone tools like Oldowan tools.

Homo erectus

The first species to leave Africa, control fire, and use Acheulean hand axes.

Neolithic Period

The period (~$8000$ BCE to ~$3300$ BCE) defined by the Agricultural Revolution, farming, and permanent villages.

Phonology

The study of speech sounds and their patterns in a language.

Pragmatics

The study of language use in context, considering social and cultural influences on meaning.