NCERT Class XI Psychology - Core Vocabulary & Key Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering major terminology, theoretical frameworks, anatomical structures, and cognitive processes from NCERT Class XI Psychology.

Psychology

A discipline derived from the Greek words psyche (soul) and logos (science or study), formally defined as a science that studies mental processes, experiences, and behaviour in different contexts.

Introspection

A procedure used by structuralists in which individuals or subjects in psychological experiments were asked to describe in detail their own mental processes or experiences.

Functionalism

An approach to psychology developed by William James that focuses on what the mind does and how behaviour functions in helping people deal with their environment.

Gestalt Psychology

A perspective that emerged in Germany focusing on the organisation of perceptual experiences, maintaining that perceptual experience is holistic and more than the sum of its sensory inputs.

Behaviourism

An approach founded by John B. Watson proposing that scientific psychology must focus on observable and verifiable behaviour or responses to stimuli rather than unobservable mind or consciousness.

Constructivism

A view in modern cognitive psychology stating that human beings actively construct their minds through their exploration into the physical and social world.

Neuron Structure

The basic unit of the human nervous system consisting of three fundamental components: soma (cell body), dendrites (receiving ends), and axon (transmitting structure).

Synaptic Transmission

The process by which chemical neurotransmitters cross the synaptic cleft between the axon tip of a preceding neuron and the dendrites of an adjacent neuron to transmit neural impulses.

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

A division of the peripheral nervous system consisting of sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions that governs involuntary internal bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate, and digestion.

Major Brain Divisions

The primary structural organization of the human brain, consisting of the hindbrain (medulla, pons, cerebellum), midbrain (RAS), and forebrain (hypothalamus, thalamus, limbic system, cerebrum).

Major Endocrine Glands

The network of ductless glands—including the pituitary, thyroid, adrenal, pancreas, and gonads—that secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream to regulate physiological processes and behaviour.

Enculturation

All learning that takes place without direct, deliberate teaching due to its availability in a person's socio-cultural context, primarily occurring through observation.

Socialisation

The process by which individuals acquire knowledge, skills, and dispositions through deliberate teaching by socialisation agents (parents, school, peers, media) to participate as effective members of society.

Acculturation

Cultural and psychological changes resulting from continuous, first-hand contact between two or more distinctive cultural groups, involving strategies such as integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalisation.

Object Permanence

The awareness developed during Piaget's sensorimotor stage that objects continue to exist even when they are out of sight or not directly perceived.

Egocentrism

A salient feature of preoperational thought where children view the world solely from their own perspective and are unable to appreciate another person's point of view.

Hypothetical Deductive Reasoning

A type of systematic logical thinking appearing in Piaget's formal operational stage during adolescence, where individuals can evaluate options, hypothesize, and systematically deduce solutions.

Absolute Threshold (AL)

The minimum value or intensity of a stimulus required to activate a given sensory system and produce a sensation on $50\%$ of the trials.

Difference Threshold (DL)

The smallest difference in the value or intensity between two stimuli that is necessary to perceive them as different on $50\%$ of the trials.

Human Eye Structure

The visual sense organ consisting of three main layers (sclera/cornea, choroid, retina), aqueous and vitreous chambers, iris, pupil, lens, and fovea.

Human Ear Structure

The auditory sense organ divided into external ear (pinna, auditory meatus), middle ear (tympanum, ossicles: malleus, incus, stapes), and inner ear (semicircular canals, vestibule, cochlea).

Selective Attention

The cognitive process through which an individual selectively focuses on a limited number of stimuli or objects from a larger array of environmental stimuli.

Sustained Attention

The ability to maintain focused concentration on an object, event, or task over a longer duration; also referred to as vigilance.

Perceptual Constancy

The tendency to perceive physical objects as relatively stable in size, shape, and brightness despite continuous changes in retinal stimulation and environment.

Illusion

A non-veridical perception or misinterpretation of sensory information resulting in a mismatch between the physical stimulus and its visual or auditory perception.

Classical Conditioning

A form of associative learning investigated by Ivan Pavlov in which a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) until the CS alone elicits a conditioned response (CR).

Operant Conditioning

A form of learning investigated by B.F. Skinner where voluntary responses (operants) are learned, maintained, or modified through the consequences (reinforcers or punishers) that follow them.

Learned Helplessness

A phenomenon demonstrated by Seligman and Maier where an organism exposed to inescapable painful stimuli ceases attempts to escape or avoid future painful stimuli even when escape becomes possible.

Short-term Memory (STM)

A temporary memory store that holds a limited amount of information (capacity $7 \pm 2$ items) for a brief duration, usually 30 seconds or less, unless maintained through rehearsal.

Long-term Memory (LTM)

A permanent storehouse of memory with an unlimited capacity and duration where information is semantically encoded.

Episodic Memory

A component of declarative long-term memory containing personal biographical experiences and events tied to specific times and places in an individual's life.

Semantic Memory

A component of declarative long-term memory that stores general world knowledge, facts, concepts, ideas, and logical rules.

Proactive Interference

A cause of forgetting in which previously learned information interferes with the recall of subsequently learned material.

Retroactive Interference

A cause of forgetting in which newly learned material interferes with the recall of previously learned information.

Mnemonics

Specific strategies or devices used to enhance memory retention and recall by employing visual images or self-induced structural organisation of information.

Divergent Thinking

An open-ended, creative thinking process proposed by J.P. Guilford that produces a wide variety of novel and original ideas or solutions to a given problem.

Convergent Thinking

A type of logical thinking focused on finding the single correct answer or solution to a well-defined problem.

Lateral Thinking

A term coined by Edward de Bono referring to an open-ended, creative thinking approach that seeks alternative ways of defining and interpreting problems by making mental leaps.

Biological Motives

Innate motives guided primarily by physiological body mechanisms essential for individual survival, such as hunger, thirst, and sex.

Psychosocial Motives

Complex, acquired motives resulting mainly from an individual's interaction with her or his social environment, such as need for achievement, affiliation, and power.

Self-actualisation

The highest level in Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, representing an individual's motive towards the fullest realization and development of their personal potential.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

A physiological theory of emotion asserting that an environmental stimulus elicits specific visceral and physiological changes, and the individual's perception of these bodily changes constitutes the emotional experience.

Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

A physiological theory claiming that emotion-provoking stimuli simultaneously trigger subjective emotional experiences in the cerebral cortex and physiological arousal via the thalamus.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

A cognitive theory proposing that emotional experience depends on two factors: physiological arousal and an appropriate cognitive label assigning meaning to that arousal.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to monitor one's own and others' emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions.