PSYC0001 Midterm 3

PSYC0001 MIDTERM 3

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, solve problems and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

General intelligence

Charles Spearman’s theory that there is an underlying common factor for all intelligence, where those excelling in one area will typically excel in others as well

Cattell-Horn-Carroll intelligence theory

A theory that recognizes specific intellectual abilities exist under one cumulative framework; combines general, fluid, and crystallized intelligence

Fluid intelligence

A type of general intelligence for reasoning speedily and abstractly; may decline with age, while social reasoning increases

Crystallized intelligence

A type of general intelligence for accumulated knowledge in vocabulary and applied skills; increases up to old age

Emotional intelligence

Intelligence for perceiving, understanding, managing, and using emotions

L.L. Thurstone

This psychologist identified seven clusters of primary mental abilities (word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, memory), suggesting an underlying g factor

Howard Gardner

This psychologist identified eight relatively independent intelligences and proposed existential intelligence as a possible ninth one, believed in distinctly separate abilities, and influenced the idea of learning styles in education

Existential intelligence

The intelligence to ponder large questions about life, death and existence

Robert Sternberg

This psychologist identified three intelligences that can be reliably measured (analytical, creative, and practical)

Analytical (academic problem-solving) intelligence

This intelligence is best suited for well-defined problems with a single right answer, predicts school grades reasonably well and vocational success more modestly

Creative intelligence

This intelligence is the ability to adapt to new situations and generate novel ideas

Practical intelligence

This intelligence is for poorly defined everyday tasks that might have multiple solutions, and can also be known as “street smarts”

Savant syndrome

A syndrome where people are brilliant in one area, but score low on intelligence tests otherwise and have a limited or nonexistent language ability

Ericsson’s 10-year rule

10 years of intense daily practice is a common factor for expert-level performance

Intelligence test

A test which assesses mental aptitudes and compares them with others using numerical scores; must be standardized, reliable, and valid to be widely accepted

Standardization

The basis for comparison, taking the test following the same procedures as a representative sample of people

Reliability

A measurement of how much a test gives consistent scores when taken multiple times

Validity

The extent to which a test actually measures or predicts what it promises to; another word for accuracy

Predictive validity

The ability to predict the criterion of future performance

Achievement tests

Tests that are meant to reflect what you have already learned

Aptitude tests

Tests that predict what you are able to learn; the strongest predictions occur in the early school years and happen with a wide scoring range

Francis Galton

This psychologist believed in the inheritance of genius, which he attempted to showcase at the London Health Exhibition. However, of the 10,000 visitors who had their intellectual strengths assessed, well-regarded adults did not outscore others, and there was no correlation between measures.

Alfred Binet

This psychologist was tasked with assessing children’s learning potential in France. He established the concepts of mental age, and believed environment was the largest factor for a child’s intelligence

Mental age

The level of performance associated with a certain chronological age

Lewis Terman

This psychologist was a believer in eugenics and assumed intelligence tests revealed a mental capacity present from birth. He adapted Binet’s original test to create the Stanford-Binet test

Stanford-Binet test

An adaptation of Binet’s original test with additional items and extending the age range past 12 to include “superior adults”

William Stern

This psychologist came up with the concept of IQ, calculated by the mental age divided by chronological age, multiplied by 100

Intelligence quotient (IQ)

Created by William Stern. The original formula was calculated by 100 * (mental age / chronological age), which worked well for children, but not adults. Now, it scores a test-taker’s performance relative to the average performance of others at the same age.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

A scale created by David Wechsler, consisting of 15 subtests

Normal curve

Also known as the bell curve; 68%, 95%, 99.7% of scores lie within one, two or three standard deviations respectively

Flynn effect

The observed rise over time in intelligence test performance; possible reasons include better nutrition, greater educational opportunities, smaller families, and rising living standards

Intellectual developmental disorder

A neurodevelopment disorder apparent before age 18, requiring a score of 70 or below on an intelligence test

Cross-sectional studies

A study of different age groups at one time

Longitudinal studies

A study of the same group at different times in their life span

High-scoring intelligence

Proven to facilitate more education, better jobs, and a healthier environment

Cohort

The same group of people

Heritability

The proportion of population variation due to genes, calculated by genes / (genes + environment); never applies to an individual, only between different groups

Growth mindset

Proposed by Carol Dweck; believing that intelligence is flexible can lead to more learning and growing. On the other hand, overemphasizing this belief can imply failures are a moral flaw, when they are also due to circumstance and environment

Stereotype threat

Expectations can influence perceptions and behaviors eg. black students taking verbal aptitude tests performed worse when reminded of their race

SAT

A standardized test with a mean of 500, standard deviation of 100, reliability of r=0.9, and validity of r=0.5 with first year GPA

Stereotype lift

A performance boost on tests experienced by individuals reminded of a negatively stereotyped outgroup

Pygmalion effect

Also known as the Rosenthal effect; expectations influence results

Personality

an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

psychodynamic theory

The theory that human behavior is a dynamic interaction between the conscious and unconscious

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s theory of personality and associated treatment techniques; includes the belief that personality springs from conflict between impulse and restraint

Id

The part of the psyche that stores unconscious energy, seeks instant gratification and tries satisfying basic drives to survive and reproduce

Ego

The part of the psyche which gratifies the id’s impulses in realistic ways for long-term pleasure

Superego

The part of the psyche serving as a moral compass for how we ought to behave, forcing the ego to consider the ideal

Unconscious

What is not available for introspection in the human mind; Freud believed this constituted the majority of the mind

Free association

A therapy technique of immediately saying whatever comes to mind without self-filtering to retrieve unconscious memories

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety through distorting reality

Regression

A defense mechanism of retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage

Reaction formation

A defense mechanism of switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites

Projection

A defense mechanism of disguising one’s own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Rationalization

A defense mechanism of giving self-justifying explanations for actions instead of their true, more threatening unconscious reasons

Displacement

A defense mechanism of shifting sexual or aggressive impulses towards a more acceptable or less threatening target

Denial

A defense mechanism of refusing to believe or perceive painful realities

Repression

The underlying factor for all other defense mechanisms; banishing anxiety-inducing wishes or feelings from consciousness

Psychosexual stages

Freud’s theory that psychosexual development occurs through five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital

Oral (0-18mo)

The first psychosexual stage, where pleasure centers on the mouth (sucking, biting, chewing)

Anal (18-36mo)

The second psychosexual stage, where pleasure focuses on controlling bowel and bladder movements

Phallic (3-6yr)

The third psychosexual stage, where pleasure is in the genitals, and incestuous sexual feelings develop

Oedipus complex

Occurs during the phallic stage. Boys develop unconscious sexual desire for mother, causing jealousy and hatred for their father. Can be resolved by identifying with the rival parent, allowing superego to gain strength

Latency (6yr-puberty)

The fourth psychosexual stage of relative calm and a dormant libido

Genital (puberty-onwards)

The last psychosexual stage, where sexual interests mature

Fixation

When pleasure-seeking energies remain in a specific psychosexual stage as a result of unresolved conflicts, which later resurfaces as maladaptive behavior

Alfred Adler and Karen Horney

Two Neo-Freudians who believed childhood social, not sexual, tensions are crucial for personality formation

Carl Jung

A Neo-Freudian psychologist who believed in collective unconscious and archetypes

Collective unconscious

A shared, universal and inherited aspect of the unconscious mind present in all humans, and contains archetypes

Archetypes

Shared memories and images that represent fundamental human experiences and motivations

Terror-management theory

A psychological theory explaining that humans confronted with their own mortality creates a conflict between the self-preservation instinct and accepting that death is inevitable and unpredictable

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Created by Henry Murray; a projective test where people view ambiguous pictures and make up stories about them 

Rorschach inkblot test

A projective test where inkblots are used to assess an individual’s perceptions, thoughts and emotions; difficult to tell whether it is truly accurate

Humanistic theorists

Theorists who opposed Freud, emphasizing consciousness and how people strive for self-determination and self-realization instead

Hierarchy of needs

Proposed by Abraham Maslow; the idea that satisfying basic needs allows people to pursue higher needs

Self-actualization

The process of fulfilling our potential, which people seek after achieving self-esteem

Self-transcendence

The act of finding a greater purpose and identity beyond the self

Unconditional positive regard

An attitude of grace that values oneself while accepting failures

Self-concept

All thoughts and feelings about yourself which can shape your worldview

Traits

Characteristic behaviors and conscious motives; Gordon Allport viewed personality in terms of these

Isabel Briggs Myers

The creator of the MBTI test, which sorts people according to personality types but is not a valid job performance predictor

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure identifying clusters to reveal basic components of a trait

Hans and Sybil Eysenck

Two psychologists who theorized that individual traits can be reduced to two dimensions: extraversion-introversion and emotional stability-instability

Personality inventories

Longer self-report questionnaires covering a wide range of feelings and behaviors to assess several traits at once

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

A personality inventory that assesses personality traits and identifies emotional disorders; questions are empirically derived from differences in diagnostic groups

Big Five Factors

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (OCEAN) reliably predicts life outcomes and everyday behaviors

Social-cognitive perspective

A perspective on how our traits interact with social situations; our behaviors are learned through conditioning or observing others

Reciprocal determinism

The belief that our behavior, internal personal factors, and environmental influences all determine each other

Self

A person’s essential being; the organizer of thoughts, feelings and actions

Spotlight effect

When we presume too readily that others are noticing and evaluating us at all times

Self-esteem

Feelings of low or high self-worth

Self-efficacy

Our sense of competence on performing a task well; can predict school achievement

Glove anesthesia

The loss of sensation in the hand and forearm, similar to the feeling of wearing a glove. Given how no combination of nerves cover this area, Freud knew this was a psychological symptom, not physical

Dream analysis

A Freudian technique where a patient described the dream’s manifest content, which would reveal the latent content that shows real conflict

Freudian slip

An unintentional error in speech that reveals subconscious feelings

False consensus effect

A tendency to overestimate how many people share our beliefs and behaviors

Electra Complex

Female version of the Oedipus complex; a girl whose penis envy creates desire for the father, and jealousy towards the mother; outcome is the development of superego

Barnum effect

When individuals give high accuracy ratings to personality descriptions that are so general, they could apply to anyone

Illusory correlation

Seeing a relationship that isn’t actually there eg. the correlation of a Draw a Man test with personality description