AP Psychology

Absolute Threshold

The smallest amount of stimulation needed for a person to detect a sensation at least 50% of the time.

Accommodation

The eye's ability to change the shape of its lens to focus light onto the retina, allowing for clear vision at different distances.

Acquisition

The process in classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus, leading to the neutral stimulus becoming a conditioned stimulus that elicits a conditioned response.

Agonist

A psychoactive drug that increases the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter by mimicking it, increasing its production, or blocking its reuptake.

Algorithm

A step-by-step, systematic procedure for solving a problem that guarantees a solution.

Altruism

Selfless concern for the well-being of others.

Amygdala

Two round clusters in the limbic system involved in emotional reactions, such as fear, anxiety, and aggression.

Animism

In Piaget's preoperational stage, giving human-like qualities to non-living things.

Antagonist

A psychoactive drug that decreases the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter by blocking its release or preventing it from binding to receptors.

Apparent Movement

The perception of motion when nothing is actually moving, created by specific visual cues and contexts.

Arousal Theory

A theory of motivation stating that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of physiological and psychological arousal.

Autokinetic Effect

An apparent movement phenomenon where a stationary point of light in a dark environment appears to move due to lack of visual references.

Availability Heuristic

A mental shortcut where judgments are made based on how easily examples come to mind, potentially leading to errors based on recent or vivid memories.

Axon Terminal

The end of a neuron's axon where signals are converted and sent to another neuron across the synapse.

Babbling Stage

A stage of language development around 4-6 months where infants combine consonants and vowels to make sounds like 'Baba' or 'Gaga,' experimenting with the sounds of their language.

Beta Waves

Low amplitude and fastest brain waves, generally occurring when a person is engaged in mental activities.

Big Five Theory of Personality

A trait theory suggesting five core traits make up personality: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (Emotional Stability).

Binocular Cues

Depth perception cues that rely on both eyes working together, such as convergence and retinal disparity.

Biopsychosocial Model

A model that understands health and illness (including psychological disorders) as resulting from the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors.

Blindsight

A phenomenon occurring after damage to the primary visual cortex where an individual appears blind in part of their visual field but can still respond to some visual stimuli without conscious awareness.

Borderline Personality Disorder

A Cluster B personality disorder characterized by instability in relationships, self-image, emotions, fear of abandonment, self-harming behaviors, and intense mood swings.

Broca's Area

An area typically in the left hemisphere in front of the motor cortex crucial for language production and controlling muscles involved in speech.

Bystander Effect

A phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help in a situation when other people are present, due to diffusion of responsibility.

Cerebellum

A structure in the hindbrain that plays a major role in coordinating voluntary movements, balance, and processing information on precise movements.

Change Blindness

A type of inattentional blindness where a person fails to notice changes in the environment due to their attention being focused elsewhere.

Chronosystem

The outermost layer of the Ecological Systems Theory, representing the influence of historical events, societal changes, and the timing of experiences on an individual's development.

Circadian Rhythm

A biological clock that operates on an approximately 24-hour cycle, influencing blood pressure, internal temperature, hormones, and the sleep-wake cycle.

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning where an individual links a neutral stimulus to an unconditioned stimulus, resulting in the neutral stimulus triggering a learned response.

Cognition

All forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem-solving.

Cognitive Neuroscience

The study of how brain activity is linked with cognition.

Color Constancy

The ability to perceive the color of an object as remaining constant even if the lighting changes.

Cones

Photoreceptors in the retina that are responsible for color vision and vision in bright light, concentrated in the fovea.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response that is triggered by a previously neutral stimulus that has become a conditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a learned response.

Conductive Deafness

Hearing loss caused by a blockage or damage that prevents sound from traveling efficiently from the outer ear to the middle and inner ear.

Content Validity

The extent to which a test inquires about the information or behaviors that are of interest of the test.

Continuous Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule where reinforcement is provided every time a correct behavior is performed.

Contralateral Hemispheric Organization

The way in which the brain's hemispheres control opposite sides of the body and process sensory information.

Convergence

A binocular depth cue where the eyes move inward when focusing on something close and straighten out when focusing on something farther away.

Cooing Stage

A stage of language development around 2-3 months where infants make soft, repetitive vowel sounds like 'ooh' and 'ah.'

Cornea

The transparent outer layer of the eye that light first passes through.

Crystallized Intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills that an individual has, which generally increases as a person gets older.

Dementia

A broad term for cognitive disorders that significantly impair memory, reasoning, and other mental abilities; Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause.

Dendrite

Branch-like extensions of a neuron that receive chemical signals from other neurons.

Dependent Personality Disorder

A Cluster C personality disorder consisting of a strong need to be taken care of, difficulty making decisions independently, and struggling with separation from those they depend on.

Depolarization

The process in neural firing where an outside stimulus causes the inside of the neuron's cell membrane to become more positive, eventually reaching the threshold for firing an action potential.

Depressants

Psychoactive drugs that reduce neural activity, causing drowsiness, muscle relaxation, and lowered breathing (e.g., alcohol, sleeping pills).

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive the relative distance of an object in one's visual field.

Dermis

The layer of skin below the epidermis consisting of connective tissue, blood vessels, and nerve endings, involved in the sense of touch and pain.

Diathesis-Stress Model

A model suggesting that psychological disorders result from the interaction of an inherent vulnerability and environmental stressors.

Difference Threshold

The minimum change between two stimuli that is needed for an individual to detect the change.

Diffusion of Responsibility

In the bystander effect, the phenomenon where individuals feel less personal responsibility to help when other people are present.

Dispositional Attributions

Explanations for a person's behavior based on their internal characteristics, such as their intelligence, attitude, or personality.

Divergent Thinking

A type of thinking that involves exploring multiple possible solutions to a problem, often associated with creativity.

Drive Reduction Theory

A theory of motivation stating that physiological needs create aroused psychological states (drives) that motivate organisms to reduce the need and restore homeostasis.

Ego

In Freud's psychodynamic theory, the part of the personality that operates on the reality principle, mediating between the demands of the id and the superego and interacting with the external world.

Egocentric

In Piaget's preoperational stage, having difficulty seeing the world from another person's point of view.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A model explaining how people are persuaded, suggesting they are persuaded through either the central route (using facts and logic) or the peripheral route (using emotions and quick thinking).

Elaborative Encoding

An encoding strategy where new information is paired with prior knowledge, linking it to information already known.

Encoding

The process and strategies used to take in information and store it in long-term memory.

Episodic Memory

A type of explicit memory that involves the recall of personal experiences, events, and their associated contexts.

Exosystem

In the Ecological Systems Theory, environments or settings that an individual is not directly part of but is still indirectly impacted by.

Explicit Memory

Conscious memory for facts, knowledge, and personal experiences; includes semantic and episodic memory.

Extinction

In classical conditioning, the gradual diminishing of the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Factor Analysis

A statistical method used in personality inventories to identify clusters of related questions that measure the same underlying trait.