Psych Soc Review Terms

What is the primacy effect

Tendency to recall remember earlier objects in a series

What is the misinformation effect

Memory error in past memories are impaired by exposure to misleading information (e.g. imagine asking viewers of an accident how fast were the cars going when they hit each other vs how fast were the cars going when they smashed each other.)

What is egocentricism and how does it relate to piaget?

Egocentricism is a self centered point of reference and fails to see others point of view and belief that the world revolves around the individual. This can be applied very literally (e.g. A child exhibiting egocentricism would ask a question about something that their parents are not looking at). Occurs in Piagets preoperational (2-7)

What is an ethnographic study?

Systematic observation of people in their cultural settings

What is social reproduction

Social inequality that is passed down through generations

How does the idea of linguistic relativity relate to perception

People are better at identifying things if their language has a word for it (i.e. language effects the way we think)

What is the stated working memory capacity for the MCAT

7 +- 2

What is an assimilated group?

Group in which people have adopted values of a new culture

What is network redundancy

Repetition of ties within a social network and the degree to which connections are connected to each other

How does the size of group relate to its stability and intimacy

Stability increases with group size however intimacy decreases with size

What is the hierarchy of salience

Framework describing how an individuals identities are ordered based on how frequently they are used and how likely they are to be used in a particular situation. In other words some aspects of identity are more important than others depending on the situation

Describe primary, secondary, and tertiary circular reactions and which developmental theory they relate to

Piagets theory, occurs during sensorimotor

Primary: Repetitive pleasurable behaviors focused on infants body (sucking thumb)

Secondary: Repetitive behaviors involving environment (shaking rattle)

Tertiary: Trial and error (throwing bottle off table and adult picks it up and replaces it)

What is the theory of the mind?

Individuals have cognitive capacity to recognize others thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that differ form our own (opposite of egocentricism)

How do stimulants affect neurotransmitters

Decrease reuptake into the synaptic cleft

What is Self handicapping

Creating of obstacles to excuse potential failure

What is impression management

Maintaining public image through strategic actions to maintain social standing

What are Behavioral Scipts

Sequence of expected behaviors for a given situation

What is the idea of paternalism?

People with high status have a greater right to make decisions than others because they have better info

What is the difference between social cognitive and social behaviorism?

Social behaviorism: Personalities are shaped by operant conditioning through social interactions

Social cognitive: Interactions with environment (reciprocal determinism), observing others, and personal factors —> Behaviors are learned through observation

Describe the following:

1)Door in the face

2)Thats not all

3)Foot in the door

4)Low ball technique

Door in the face: Large initial request is rejected and follow up with smaller request and accepted

Thats-not-all: Initial offer made more attractive by adding a bonus

Foot-in-the-door: Acceptance of a small request is followed by a larger request (requires completion of a task)

Low-ball: Initial terms of agreement are heightened following agreement (requires commitment to a deal)

What is anterior cingulate cortex in charge of?

Impulse control

What class of drugs has the lowest rate of addiction

Hallucinogens

Give a brief overview of all 7 of Gardners theories of intelligence

X

What are the components of interpersonal attraction?

Physical attraction, proximity, mutual liking, self disclosure, and reciprocity (mere-exposure effect also plays a role)

What is reproductive v reconstructive memories?

Reproductive memories are when we are able to recall memories with high accuracy (less accepted)

Reconstructive memories are when over time we incorporate new false information, often semantic, into episodic memories thus distorting them (generally accepted)

What is a edietic memory

Photographic memory- recalling images from memory with high fidelity

What is REM Rebound

REM rebound occurs when individual do not get enough REM sleep. This in turn causes individuals to spend more time in REM and less in other phases of sleep while sleeping. This occurs because REM sleep is very important.

What is the difference between cultural and social capital

Social capital is the benefits provided to one due to their network

Cultural capital is the knowledge, education, understanding of the world, etc. that people have often due to being more affluent

What are dichotic listening tasks?

Playing two different sounds in the ears of participants

Describe the use cases for the following imaging techniques:

CT

PET

MRI

fMRI

EEG

CT: Focuses on structure with no information on function

PET: Allows imaging of structure as well as function

MRI: Focuses on structure and no function (less radiation)

fMRI: Allows imaging of structures and functions

EEG: Understanding of electrical impulses in brain and can be used over long periods of time

In terms of Piagets theory of cognitive development what are the difference between the following:

Accomodation

Assimilation

Accommodation is the altering of existing schema to incorporate new information that conflicts with old

Assimilation is the fitting new info into existing schema

Avoidance v Escape learning

Avoidance: Avoiding the harmful stimulus prior to its presentation

Escape learning: Learning how to terminate the harmful stimulus by escaping it (post stimulus presentation)

What is Rogers concept of incongruence

When the ideal self and the actual self have a large difference individuals will become stressed

What is base rate fallacy

Disregarding statistical information regarding the rate at which something confirms to enable you to maintain your belief

Glass Escalator v Glass cieling

Glass escalator: Men in women dominated fields will move up the ranks quickly

Glass ceiling: Women in men dominated fields tend to be passed over for promotions

What is social learning?

Learning through the observation of others

Describe the following terms in regards to language acquisition:

Naming explosion

Overextension

Bootstrapping

Naming explosion is the rapid acquiring of words from the ages 1-2

Overextension: Application of words to things that they do not belong to (e.g. calling a bow that looks like a butterfly a butterfly)

Bootstrapping: Learning grammar and syntax by building off pre-existing knowledge

What is elaborative encoding

Process of relating new information to pre-existing stored information to increase retention

What are the monocular depth cues

Relative size, relative height (things further away are higher, interposition, texture, constancy

What is disinhibition and what drug does it relate to?

Disinhibition is when alcohol aids in the removal of inhibition and resistance for interactions (causes increase in talking, more injuries, etc.)

What principles do the different parts of the mind use in Freunds pscychoananalytical theory

Id: Pleasure Principle

Ego: Reality principle

Superego: Moral principle

Webers law of ideal bureaucracy

1. formal selection- employment is based on technical qualifications

2. formal rules- employees follow standard operating protocol/procedures

3. impersonality- protocol is not catered toward personality; if you're in the same hierarchy, you're expected to follow protocol

4. career orientation- you follow the rules, you stay. you break them, you're fired.

5. division of labor- each position has a clear job description. employees don't take up a variety of tasks.

6. hierarchy- only big dawgs at the top call the shots and make decisions. there is no employee consensus

Describe what social strain theory explains

Explains that individuals with less resources are more likely to turn to deviance in order to reach their goals

What side of the brain is language comprehension and production localized to?

Left side

Describe the following research techniques

Word association testing

Psychophysical discrimination testing

Operational span testing

Word association: Word is presented and subject says first thing that comes to mind

Psychophysical discrimination: Testing between two stimuli to see if participants notice difference (tests jnd)

Operational span testing: Researchers alternate between presenting a word and a math problem and then ask participant to recall all words (tests working memory)

What are practice effects in research?

When tests are repeated, the additional attempts can improve performance in a task. This can act as a moderating variable

How is motivation state tested in operational conditioning?

Removing desirable reinforcer for period of time to see how hard the individual will work to return the reinforcer

How should you differentiate between when fMRI and PET scans are used?

PET scans require a radioactive tracer. Additionally PET scans are used to look at overall/average brain activity using metabolic uptake (uses radioactive glucose). Whereas, fMRI can look at quick changes based on blood flow.

What is the nucleus accumbens involved in?

Reward and pleasure center

What is stranger anxiety ?

Developmental milestone in which children are fearful of those who are not their caretaker. Begins around 8 months and ceases at end of sensorimotor (2 years of age)

What is the difference between atypical antipsychotics and neuroleptics

Atypical antipsychotics is the new generation of treatments and reduce both positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia

Neuroleptics are the old generation of treatments and reduced positive symptoms of schizophrenia but can worsen negative symptoms

What information can be processed automatically and what cannot?

Spatial, temporal, and frequency of events can be processed automatically whereas novel stimuli require explicit focus to process

What is the Thomas Theorem

Belief in subjective reality causes behaviors even though the objective reality contradicts the subjective

e.g. a person believes a group of people are talking about them so they throw something at them, when in reality the individuals were discussing something unrelated to the aggressor

Explain the difference between Mead’s description of Me and I

Me is the socialize version of yourself who abides by social norms and expectations other people have of you

I is your non-socialized spontaneous self who makes decisions that go against social norms (e.g. decisions made when black out drunk)

How is attachment theory related to individuals later in life?

Attachment theory states that individuals personality is influenced by the relationship they had with their caregiver

What is social control?

When individuals conform to societies norms due to moral codas and social ties. Explains why individuals relationships, commitments, values, and beliefs encourage conformity. Individuals are encouraged to limit deviance due to their relationships, commitments, values, and norms

What is set point theory and settling point theory?

Set point theory: States that individuals have genetically determined range of fat and muscle mass that they will carry. In other words, genetics determine an individuals body composition

Settling point theory: Proposes that individuals weight is determined by interactions with the environment

What is resource mobilization theory?

Use of resources and strategies in social movements to achieve goals. For instance, spreading new workout techniques to combat obesity.

Describe surveys, content analysis, and in-depth interviews as methods for research

Survey: Close ended questions

Content analysis: Investigating artifacts for visual and literary information

In-depth interview: Uses open ended questions

What are demand characteristics?

Unconscious desires of participants to conform to their interpretation of what the study tests for

Explain the diathesis-model of stress

Diathesis model states that individuals have a predisposed vulnerability to a disorder (diathesis) however, the disorder will not manifest until activated from some external trigger, often stress or a life event.

Diathesis is a predisposition towards a mental illness and can be genetic or situational (mutation in dopamine receptors, being an orphan)

For instance, an example of the diathesis model of stress would be an individual with a mutation the predisposes them to schizophrenia does not manifest schizophrenic symptoms until consuming large quantities of LSD

(Think Mrs. Rogers story)

What is depth of processing?

How much an individuals thinks about a specific thing

What explains increased recall of early information of a list (primacy effect) and increased recall of late information of a list (recency effect)

The separation of long-term and short-term memory

What is metacognition?

Reflection on ones own mental and emotional processes

What is self identification?

Recognition of oneself

What is a false-belief task?

Assessment on if individuals can understand that others hold beliefs that can be incorrect and differ from their own —> Often used to test theory of the mind

What is the facial feedback effect?

The idea that using particular muscles to make certain faces alone can trigger emotions associated with those face (e.g. smiling makes one happy)

What is diffusion of responsibility and what is it related to?

Focuses how being in a group reduces individuals likelihood of helping out (related to bystander effect)

Describe the following as the relate to functional attitude theory: utilitarian, knowledge, self/ego expressive, ego defensive

Utilitarian: Pursuit of rewards and avoiding punishments

Knowledge: Need for order, structure, and meaning

Self/ego expressive: Expressing an individuals values or self-concept

Ego defensive: protect us from external threats or internal feelings

What is alter casting?

Imposing an identify on someone else

Related to impression management as an individual who has been altercasted will engage in behaviors to maintain the given identity and avoid ones that would conflict

(e.g. A person labeled nice will only be nice and avoid being mean to maintain nice label)

Describe the differences between the lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus

Lateral control hunger via secretion of orexin which increases apatite

Ventromedial control satiety and tells us to stop eating

What occurs to hormone secretion during the exhaustion phase?

Hormones are no longer secreted despite maintained arousal of sympathetic NS

What is aligning actions in terms of impression management?

Making excuses for behavior

Describe Broadbent early selection theory and Deutsch & Deutsch late selection theory

Broadbent early selection states that only information that a person is attending to will make it through to perception and consciousness (e.g. you will not hear someone yelling your name from across the room while in conversation with another person) -Weakened by cocktail party effect

Deutsch and Deutsch states that all information undergoes analysis for meaning where it then undergoes a selective process to decide what enters conscious perception -Requires to much from limited resources of attention

Triesman Theory posits that instead of a filter, an attenuator weakens information initially deemed less important and analysis for meaning prioritizes information that was not attenuated, however if a initially deemed low importance signal occurs again the attenuator will not reduce the signal - The first time someone shouts your name while your in conversation you may not hear it due to attenuation however the second time you may

What is downward drift hypothesis?

Individuals with mental illnesses will fall down the socioeconomic ladder due to their mental illness which in turn worsens symptoms and can cause a negative spiral towards poverty and psychosis

What is empathy-altruism theory

When an individual feels empathetic towards another they will be altruistic to the individual regardless of cost

What are the roles of the ventral tegmental area, medial forebrain, and nucleus accumbens in the mesolimbic reward pathway

ventral tegmental area initiates dopamine signaling

medial forebrain connects vental tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens

nucleus accumbens receives dopamine signal

What is identity shift?

When an individuals state of harmony is disrupted by the threat of social rejection thus, they often conform to group norms

What are the four stages of James Marcia’s theory of identity?

Diffusion: Low commitment, low exploration (Do nothing all day)

Foreclosure: High commitment, low exploration (Career was chosen for you)

Moratorium: Low commitment, high exploration (Testing out many new careers)

Achievement: High commitment, high exploration (satisfied with career, and chose the career)

What is the tactical self?

Who we market ourselves to other people in order to meet their expectations

Describe the Jungian archetypes

The shadow: Sex and life instincts as well as repressed ideas, weaknesses, and shortcomings

Animus: Masculine behaviors in females

Anima: Feminine behaviors in males

Persona: How we present ourselves the world in order to fit in and adapt

The self: he unified conciousness and unconciousness. Integration of all aspects of personality. The goal is to achieve a cohesive self. Disharmony leads to psychological problems.

What is self verification?

Seeking out information and agreeing with information that verifies an individuals self concept

What aspect of words is related to different pronunciation of the same word in different dialects?

Phonology

What is latent learning?

Learning that occurs without a reward and then manifests in the presence of a reward. In other words the subject is not aware about the learning until it becomes necessary

What is the difference between ego-dystonic and ego-syntonic and there relations to personality and psychological disorders

Ego-syntonic describes personality disorders and is the idea that the person with the personality disorder sees their behavior as normal and that there is nothing wrong with it

All other psychological disorders are ego-dystonic which is the idea that the disorder has been placed on the individual unwillingly

What is Synthesia

Synthesia is when the activation of one cognitive/sensoy pathway triggers the activation of another thus an individual experiences two different senses

(e.g. Hearing a music note causes and individual to see a color)

Describe the following Baumrind parenting styles

Authoritarian: (High demand and low response) strict rules with expectation of obedience, little room for negotiation

Results in obedient children will low self esteem, social skills, and high anxiety

Authoritative (High demand and high response: Clear expectations in regards to rules but warm and open to negotation

Best outcomes with self-reliant, socially competent, and high self-esteem children

Permissive (Low demand and high response): Highly affectionate but with little rules and avoid conflict

Struggle with authority and self-discipline

Neglectful: Low demand and low response

Most at risk children for poor academic performance, low self esteem, and social withdrawal

Describe the following theories of depression: Behaviorist, cognitive, evolution, psychodynamic

Behaviorist: Depression manifests from negative experiences with the environment that leads to feelings such as learned helplessness (operant and classical conditioning)

Cognition: Depression manifests from maladaptive thoughts and beliefs

Evolution: Depression was an adaptive trait acquired for protection or problem solving

Psychodynamic: Depression is the result of conflict between unconscious processes such as different structures of personality

Describe the function of inferior colliculus and superior olive

Inferior colliculis: Startle and vestibulo-occular reflex

Superior olive: Localization of sound, or identifying where sound is coming from in space

What increases group affiliation?

Equivalent social and cultural capital

What is the pre-frontal cortex involved in?

Decision making

What is the role of the hippocampus in regards to memory

The conversion of short-term to long-term memory

Describe the 5 stages of the demographic transition theory

1: High birth and high death

Stable or slow increase

2: Continued high birth rate but mortality rate has dropped substantially

Rapid increase

3: Falling birth rate and slightly lower death rate relative to 2

Increase substantially slowed down

4: Low birth and low death rate

**Population size is decreasing and then stabalizes

5: Birth rate begins to increase and mortality remains low

Slow increase

What is cultural transmission

The passing of culture from one generation to another

According to the MCAT what is the most common way people resolve cognitive dissonance?

By changing their beliefs

What is the hawthorne effect?

When individuals who are being observed for a study change how they behave in the presence of an observer

Describe the following theories of dreaming

Problem-solving

Cognitive Process

Neurocognitive

Problem-solving: Dreams are a way in which we solve problems and deal with the stresses of our day

Cognitive Process: Dreams are a replication of our awake cognitive processes (e.g. if you were thinking about eating ice cream prior to sleeping you will dream about it) in addition to the idea that our dreams are related to things we want

Neurocognitive: Combines the cognitive theory with information related to physiological changes

What is problem focused coping?

Problem focused coping aim to address the stressor at hand

e.g. asking someone for help