Psychology Key Concepts: Schools, Perspectives, Methods, and Brain Functions

Structuralism

What early school of thought, promoted by Wundt and Titchener, used introspection to reveal the basic structural elements of the mind?

Functionalism

Which early school of thought, promoted by William James, focused on how mental and behavioral processes enable an organism to adapt and survive?

The Psychodynamic Perspective, associated with Sigmund Freud

Which psychological perspective focuses on how unconscious drives and conflicts from childhood influence behavior?

Behavioral

What perspective focuses on how observable responses are acquired through learning, reinforcement, and punishment?

The Behavioral Perspective

Which perspective, associated with figures like John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner, emphasizes the study of observable responses?

The Humanistic Perspective

What psychological perspective emphasizes an individual's potential for personal growth, self-actualization, and free will?

The Cognitive Perspective

The study of mental activities like thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating falls under which psychological perspective?

The Biological Perspective

Which perspective explains behavior and mental processes by focusing on the brain, genetics, hormones, and neurotransmitters?

Socio-Cultural

What perspective examines how thinking and behavior vary across different situations, social contexts, and cultures?

The Evolutionary Perspective

Which perspective explains psychological traits as adaptations that evolved because they promoted the survival of our ancestors' genes?

An experiment

What is the only research method that can establish a cause-and-effect relationship?

Case Study

A detailed study of one or a few individuals in the hope of revealing universal principles is known as what?

Naturalistic Observation

What research method involves observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without manipulation?

The Independent Variable (IV)

In an experiment, what is the name for the factor that is manipulated by the investigator?

Dependent Variable (DV)

In an experiment, the variable that is measured as the outcome is known as what?

Correlation

What statistical measure indicates the extent to which two factors vary together, but does not prove causation?

Correlation Coefficient (r)

The statistical index of the relationship between two variables, ranging from -1.0 to +1.0, is called what?

Random Sampling (or Random Selection)

What is the process of selecting participants so that every person in the population has an equal chance of being included in the study?

Random Assignment

What procedure minimizes preexisting differences between groups in an experiment by assigning participants to conditions by chance?

Informed Consent, protection from Harm, Confidentiality, and Debriefing

What are the four key ethical principles for psychological research?

Mean (average), Median (middle score), and Mode (most frequent score)

What are the three measures of central tendency?

Standard Deviation

A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score is called what?

The neuron (a nerve cell)

What is the basic building block of the nervous system?

Dendrites

Which part of a neuron consists of bushy, branching extensions that receive messages?

Axon

The extension of a neuron that passes messages away from the cell body is called what?

The Myelin Sheath

What is the fatty tissue layer that encases some axons and enables greater transmission speed?

Plasticity

The brain's ability to change by reorganizing after damage or building new pathways based on experience is known as what?

The Brain and the Spinal Cord

The Central Nervous System (CNS) is composed of which two structures?

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body make up what?

The Sympathetic Nervous System

Which division of the autonomic nervous system arouses the body and mobilizes its energy in stressful 'fight or flight' situations?

The Parasympathetic Nervous System

Which division of the autonomic nervous system calms the body and conserves its energy for 'rest and digest' functions?

The Cerebellum

What brain structure, located at the rear of the brainstem, coordinates voluntary movement and balance?

Amygdala

The two lima-bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system linked to fear and aggression are known as what?

The Hippocampus

Which neural center in the limbic system helps process explicit (conscious) memories of facts and events for storage?

Depressants, Stimulants, and Hallucinogens

What are the three main categories of psychoactive drugs?

REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep

During which stage of sleep do vivid dreams, muscle paralysis, and rapid eye movements typically occur?

The Retina

Which part of the eye contains receptor cells (rods and cones)?

The Cochlea

What fluid-filled tube in the inner ear contains hair cells that act as auditory receptors?

Color/hue; brightness

In vision, what does wavelength determine and what does amplitude determine?

Pitch; loudness/volume

In hearing, what does frequency determine and what does amplitude determine?

Rods

Which photoreceptors in the retina are necessary for black-and-white vision and function best in dim light?

Cones

Which photoreceptors in the retina detect fine detail and color, and are clustered in the fovea?

Top-Down Processing

What is the term for information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, such as experience and expectations?

Bottom-Up Processing

What type of processing begins at the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information?

Weber's Law

What principle states that for two stimuli to be perceived as different, they must differ by a constant minimum percentage?

The Young-Helmholtz (Trichromatic) Theory

Which theory of color vision proposes that the retina has three types of color receptors: red, green, and blue?

Opponent-Process Theory

What theory explains color vision through opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black)?

The Gate-Control Theory

Which theory proposes that the spinal cord contains a neurological 'gate' that blocks or allows pain signals to pass to the brain?

Absolute Threshold

What is the term for the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time?

Difference Threshold (or Just Noticeable Difference, JND)

What is the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time called?

Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

What are the three stages in the process of making a memory?

Short-Term/Working Memory

Which type of memory has a limited capacity of about 7 items and involves active, conscious processing?

Automatic Processing

What is the unconscious encoding of incidental information like space, time, and frequency known as?

Flashbulb Memory

What is a clear, sustained memory of an emotionally significant or surprising event called?

A Prototype

What is a mental image or best example that incorporates all the features we associate with a category?

Algorithm

What is a methodical, logical procedure that guarantees solving a problem called?

Heuristic

What is a simpler, faster but more error-prone mental shortcut called?

Confirmation Bias

What is the tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore contradictory evidence?

Convergent Thinking

What type of thinking narrows problem solutions to find the single best one?

Divergent Thinking

What type of thinking expands the number of possible solutions?

Explicit (or Declarative) Memory

What is the memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and 'declare' called?

Retroactive Interference

What is it called when new learning disrupts the recall of old information?

Proactive Interference

What is it called when prior learning disrupts the recall of new information?

Mnemonics

What are memory aids that use vivid imagery and organizational devices known as?

Flynn Effect

What is the phenomenon that observed intelligence test scores have been increasing over time worldwide called?

Fluid Intelligence

Which type of intelligence refers to the ability to reason speedily and abstractly?

Crystallized Intelligence

Which type of intelligence refers to our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills?

Reliability

What is the extent to which a test yields consistent results known as?

Validity

What is the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to known as?

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

In classical conditioning, what is a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response?

Unconditioned Stimulus (US) (experiment)

In Pavlov's experiment, what was the food considered?

Unconditioned Response (UR) (experiment)

In Pavlov's experiment, what was the dog's salivation to the food considered?

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, what is an originally irrelevant stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response?

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) (experiment)

In Pavlov's experiment, after conditioning, what did the bell become?

Conditioned Response (CR) (experiment)

In Pavlov's experiment, what was the salivation to the bell considered?

Operant Conditioning

What type of learning involves strengthening a behavior if it's followed by a reinforcer?

Positive Reinforcement

What is it called when a student is given money for getting good grades?

Negative Reinforcement

What is it called when a nagging complaint stops once chores are completed?

Positive Punishment

What is scolding a child for running into the street an example of?

Negative Punishment

What is taking away a favorite toy after misbehavior an example of?

Observational Learning (or Modeling)

What is learning by observing others and imitating their behavior called?

Mirror Neurons

What are the frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or observing another doing so called?

The 'Little Albert' experiment

Which famous experiment demonstrated that fear could be classically conditioned in humans?

It proposes a single underlying general intelligence factor, known as 'g'.

What is Spearman's theory of intelligence?