Psychology Exam Preparation Vocabulary

Flashcards covering essential vocabulary, theories, methodology, and biological structures from introductory psychology based on the lecture notes.

Biological Level of Analysis

The perspective in psychology that analyzes what occurs within the brain, nervous system, hormones, and bodily processes.

Psychological Level of Analysis

The perspective in psychology that analyzes mental processes including thoughts, emotions, motivation, learning, memory, and attention.

Social Level of Analysis

The perspective in psychology that analyzes how individuals are influenced by other people, groups, culture, and social situations.

Wilhelm Wundt

A foundational figure in psychology who established an early psychological laboratory, marking the transition from philosophy to systematic empirical research.

Fechner

An early researcher who investigated the scientific relationship between physical stimulation and subjective psychological experience.

Ebbinghaus

A pioneer in experimental psychology who systematically investigated human memory.

Structuralism

An early school of psychology focused on breaking down conscious experience to ask what consciousness consists of.

Functionalism

A psychological perspective associated with William James that asks what consciousness does and why humans evolved to have it.

Behaviorism

A school of psychology focused strictly on observable behavior, stimuli, responses, and learning to make psychological science objective.

Natural Selection

The evolutionary mechanism where heritable traits that enhance survival or reproduction become more common over successive generations.

Mutation

A genetic change that introduces genetic variation, which can be negative, neutral, or advantageous depending on the environmental context.

Reaction Range

The concept that genetic factors set boundaries for an individual's potential developmental outcomes, while environmental factors determine where within those boundaries the outcome lands.

Heritability

The proportion of trait variation within a specific population and environment that can statistically be attributed to genetic differences.

Identical Twins

Monozygotic twins who share approximately 100 percent of their genetic code.

Fraternal Twins

Dizygotic twins who share approximately 50 percent of their genetic material on average.

Central Nervous System

The primary control center of the nervous system composed of the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System

The network of nerves connecting the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Autonomic Nervous System

A division of the peripheral nervous system that regulates involuntary bodily functions.

Sympathetic Nervous System

A branch of the autonomic nervous system that mobilizes bodily resources for action during threat or emergency.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

A branch of the autonomic nervous system that promotes calm, rest, and physiological recovery.

Dendrite

The branch-like structure of a neuron designed to receive incoming signals from other cells.

Axon

The long projection of a neuron that conducts electrical signals away from the cell body.

Myelin

A fatty substance encasing axons that facilitates faster electrical signal transmission.

Synapse

The junction between two neurons across which signals are transmitted chemically.

Action Potential

An electrical impulse that travels down the axon inside a neuron.

Neurotransmitter

A chemical messenger released into the synaptic gap to transmit signals to an adjacent cell.

Prefrontal Cortex

The brain area essential for executive functions such as planning, decision-making, and behavioral control.

Motor Cortex

The cortical region responsible for directing voluntary bodily movements.

Sensory Cortex

The cortical region dedicated to processing tactile and bodily sensory inputs.

Occipital Lobe

The region at the back of the cerebral cortex dedicated to visual processing.

Hippocampus

A critical subcortical structure necessary for learning and memory formation.

Amygdala

A brain structure involved in processing emotions, particularly threat detection and fear.

Broca's Area

A specific brain region responsible for motor speech production.

Wernicke's Area

A specific brain region responsible for speech and language comprehension.

Association Cortex

Cortical areas that integrate information across modalities to perform complex mental processing.

Consciousness

The subjective awareness of oneself, internal experiences, and the external environment.

Priming

The phenomenon where exposure to a prior stimulus unconsciously influences a person's response to a subsequent stimulus.

Blindsight

A phenomenon where a person unconsciously reacts to visual stimuli despite having no conscious experience of visual perception.

Selective Attention

The cognitive mechanism of focusing awareness on a specific stimulus while screening out irrelevant background information.

Cocktail Party Phenomenon

The ability to focus on a single conversation amid noise while remaining unconsciously responsive to personally significant stimuli like one's own name.

Adenosine

A chemical compound in the brain that accumulates during waking hours to promote sleep pressure and is inhibited by caffeine.

Melatonin

A hormone central to maintaining sleep-wake cycles and circadian rhythms.

Learning

A relatively persistent change in behavior or behavioral capacity resulting from experience.

Habituation

A learning process characterized by a decreased response to a repeated, harmless stimulus.

Classical Conditioning

A form of learning demonstrated by Pavlov where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

Generalization

The tendency for stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus to trigger the same conditioned response.

Discrimination

The capacity to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other similar stimuli.

Higher-Order Conditioning

A procedure where a established conditioned stimulus acts as an unconditioned stimulus to condition a secondary neutral stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

A learning paradigm associated with Skinner where behavior is modified based on its post-behavior consequences.

Positive Reinforcement

The addition of a desirable outcome following a behavior to increase the frequency of that behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

The removal of an unpleasant stimulus following a behavior to increase the frequency of that behavior.

Positive Punishment

The addition of an unwanted stimulus following a behavior to decrease the frequency of that behavior.

Negative Punishment

The removal of a desired stimulus following a behavior to decrease the frequency of that behavior.

Observational Learning

A learning theory proposed by Bandura stating that individuals learn behaviors and outcomes by observing the actions of models.

Drive Theory

A motivational theory asserting that biological needs create internal tension or drives that organisms seek to reduce.

Homeostasis

The physiological tendency of an organism to maintain a stable internal equilibrium.

Optimal Arousal

The concept that individuals are motivated to maintain an ideal level of physiological activation rather than complete rest.

Expectancy x Value Theory

A model stating that motivation depends on the product of an individual's expectation of success and the value they place on the target outcome.

Appraisal

The cognitive evaluation or interpretation of a stimulus or situation that determines emotional response.

James-Lange Theory

An emotion theory proposing that physiological bodily arousal occurs first and directly produces emotional experience.

Cannon-Bard Theory

An emotion theory asserting that emotional experience and physiological arousal take place simultaneously.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency when analyzing another person's behavior to overestimate personal dispositions while underestimating situational factors.

Stereotype

A generalized cognitive belief or image directed toward a specific social group.

Prejudice

An affective feeling or attitude felt toward an individual based solely on group membership.

Discrimination (Social)

The behavioral action or differential treatment given to people based on their social group identity.

Cognitive Dissonance

The psychological discomfort experienced when holding contradictory beliefs, values, or behaviors.

Central Route to Persuasion

A persuasion pathway involving deep cognitive evaluation of message arguments, requiring motivation, time, and mental effort.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

A persuasion pathway influenced by superficial cues such as speaker attractiveness, authority, or emotional appeal.

Conformity

The adjustment of beliefs or behaviors to align with group norms, as studied in Asch's experiments.

Informational Social Influence

Conformity motivated by the belief that others possess accurate facts or knowledge.

Normative Social Influence

Conformity driven by the desire to gain social acceptance and avoid rejection.

Falsifiability

The scientific criterion requiring that a claim or theory must be testable in a way that allows it to potentially be proven wrong.

Correlation

A measure indicating that two variables are statistically related, which does not inherently demonstrate causation.

Experiment

A empirical design where an independent variable is manipulated under controlled conditions to determine cause-and-effect relationships.

Confound

An unmeasured alternative variable that provides a competing explanation for research findings.

Internal Validity

The confidence within a study that changes in the independent variable directly caused the observed effect in the dependent variable.

External Validity

The degree to which scientific findings can be generalized to external populations, settings, and contexts.

Operationalization

The process of defining abstract psychological concepts into explicit, measurable variables.

Representative Sample

A study sample that accurately reflects the relevant characteristics of the broader target population.

Hypothalamus

A brain region involved in regulating physiological drives such as hunger, thirst, hormones, and motivation.

REM Sleep

A sleep stage characterized by heightened brain activity, rapid eye movements, and temporary muscle paralysis.

Change Blindness

The cognitive phenomenon where individuals fail to notice obvious visual changes due to a lack of directed attention.