PSY 200 Introduction to Psychology - Video Notes: Vocabulary Flashcards

A comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering the major concepts, theories, and phenomena discussed across the PSY 200 lecture notes.

Critical thinking

Examining our own assumptions, appraising sources, discerning hidden biases, and assessing conclusions.

Structuralism

Early school of psychology that used introspection to explore mental processes; declined as methods varied and unreliable.

Introspection

Self-observation of one's own mental processes; deemed unreliable because it depends on language and personal reporting.

Functionalism

School focusing on how mental processes enable adaptation, survival, and flourishing; emphasizes function over structure.

The Animal Mind

Early work introducing psychology’s focus on mental life and behavior.

First psychology laboratory (1879, Germany)

Birthplace of experimental psychology led by Wilhelm Wundt.

Behaviorism

School emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavior over inner mental states.

Psychoanalytic psychology

Freud’s perspective on how unconscious processes and childhood experiences shape behavior.

Humanistic psychology

Approach emphasizing growth potential, need for love/acceptance, and nurturing environments.

Cognitive psychology

Study of how we perceive, process, store, and retrieve information and how thought interacts with emotion.

Cognitive neuroscience

Field combining cognitive psychology and neuroscience to study mind-brain connections.

Biopsychosocial approach

Integrated view across biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.

Evolutionary psychology

Study of behavior and mind with principles of natural selection.

Behavior genetics

Study of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.

Nature–nurture interaction

Psychological events often arise from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors.

Brain plasticity

The brain’s enormous capacity to learn and adapt through experience.

Natural selection

Process by which traits that aid survival and reproduction become more common.

Positive psychology

Study of human flourishing and promoting strengths and virtues that help communities thrive.

Biopsychosocial approach (summary)

Three-level analysis providing a more complete view than any single perspective.

Hindsight bias

“I knew it all along” effect; results seem obvious after they are known.

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident than correct in judgments.

Random sequences look nonrandom

People often perceive patterns in random data even when none exist.

Post-truth

Emotions/personal beliefs outweigh objective facts in judgment.

False news

Misinformation presented as fact.

Scientific Method

Curiosity, skepticism, and humility used to ask and answer questions.

Theory (in science)

A well-substantiated explanation that organizes observations, makes predictions, and stimulates research.

Description (in science)

Initial stage that records observations and phenomena.

Case studies

In-depth analyses of individuals or groups; provide rich detail but limited generalizability.

Naturalistic observations

Describing behavior in natural settings without manipulation.

Surveys

Asking people questions; highlights issues like wording effects and sampling.

Correlation

A measure of how closely two variables vary together; does not imply causation.

Experimentation

Research method that manipulates one or more factors to determine causal effects.

Placebo effect

Improvement due to participants’ expectations rather than the actual treatment.

Double-blind procedure

Neither researchers nor participants know who receives the real treatment; controls bias.

Independent variable

The factor deliberately manipulated to assess its effect.

Dependent variable

The outcome measured in an experiment.

Confounding variable

An outside influence that can distort the results if not controlled.

Random sampling

Technique to ensure a sample represents the population being studied.

Random assignment

Randomly placing participants into experimental or control groups to equalize groups.

Testing effect

Enhanced memory from retrieval practice rather than rereading.

SQ3R

Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review—study method for learning.

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking; awareness of one’s own cognitive processes.

Cognition

All mental activities involved in thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, or ideas.

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution but may be time-consuming.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts that speed reasoning but can lead to errors.

Confirmation bias

Tendency to search for information that confirms preconceptions.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging likelihood by how closely something matches a prototype.

Availability heuristic

Estimating likelihood by how easily examples come to mind.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; can influence decisions and judgments.

Intuition

Quick, automatic judgments born from experience; often adaptive.

Insight

A sudden realization of a solution after a problem-solving pause.

Fixation

Inability to see a problem from a new perspective.

Convergent thinking

Thinking that aims for a single correct solution.

Divergent thinking

Expanding the number of possible solutions; creative problem solving.

Expertise

Well-developed knowledge in a particular area.

Imaginative thinking

Ability to see things in novel ways and recognize patterns.

Venturesome personality

Tolerates ambiguity and risk; pursues new experiences.

Intrinsic motivation

Drivenness from internal interest, satisfaction, and challenge.

Creative process boosters

Developing expertise, incubation time, and free mental roam to enhance creativity.

Nudge

A subtle guideline that influences decisions without restricting choice.

Consciousness

Our subjective awareness of ourselves and the environment.

Hard Problem (cognitive neuroscience)

How brain activity creates subjective experience.

Neuroplasticity

The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections.

Selective attention

Awareness focused on a small portion of sensory input.

Cocktail party effect

Focusing on a single conversation in a noisy environment; can shift when your name is mentioned.

Inattentional blindness

Failure to notice unexpected stimuli when attention is engaged elsewhere.

Change blindness

Failing to notice substantial changes in a visual scene.

Blindsight

Condition where someone can respond to visual stimuli without conscious seeing.

Memory

Learning that persists over time; encoded, stored, and retrieved.

Encoding

Getting information into memory.

Storage

Maintaining information over time.

Retrieval

Getting information back out of memory.

Sensory memory

Brief, initial recording of sensory information.

Iconic memory

Brief visual memory that lasts a fraction of a second.

Echoic memory

Brief auditory memory lasting a few seconds.

Short-term memory

Temporary storage system holding a few items for briefly processing.

Working memory

Active system where information is held and manipulated; includes the central executive.

Explicit memory

Conscious memories of facts and experiences (semantic and episodic).

Implicit memory

Unconscious memories formed automatically; includes procedural memory and conditioned associations.

Hippocampus

Brain region that acts as a temporary “save” button for explicit memories and supports memory consolidation.

Frontal lobes / Prefrontal cortex

Brain regions involved in working memory, recall, and memory processing; left/right specialize in verbal/visual recall.

Amygdala

Emotion-processing brain area that modulates memory formation via stress hormones.

Cerebellum

Brain region essential for implicit memories and classical conditioning (reflexes).

Basal ganglia

Brain structures that support procedural memory and skill learning.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Long-lasting strengthening of synapses as a basis for learning and memory.

Synaptic changes

Changes in synapses due to activity; underlie learning and memory.

Kandel & Schwartz

Researchers showing memory changes involve neurotransmitter release and synaptic changes (sea slug model).

HM (Henry Molaison)

Patient with severe anterograde amnesia; could not form new explicit memories but retained implicit learning.

Infantile amnesia

Adults’ inability to recall memories from the first few years of life.

Memory consolidation

Process by which memories become stable in long-term storage, aided by sleep.

Sleep and memory

Sleep supports memory consolidation and memory replay across brain regions.

Explicit vs. implicit memory

Two-track memory: conscious (explicit) vs automatic (implicit) memory processing.

Memory retrieval cues

Associations (context, mood, surroundings) that trigger memory recall.

Context-dependent memory

Memory retrieval is improved when the retrieval context matches encoding context.

State-dependent memory

Recall improved when in the same physiological/psychological state as encoding.

Mood-congruent memory

Current mood biases memory retrieval toward mood-consistent events.

Priming

Subconscious cueing of responses; exposure influences later behavior or judgments.

Misinformation effect

After exposure to misleading info, people remember events inaccurately.

Imagination inflation

Repeatedly imagining an event can create false memories.