UIC Psych 100 Exam 3

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering cultural influences on emotion, behavioral learning theories, self-regulation and goal pursuit, personality models, intelligence and language, and social cognition and intergroup bias.

Emotion

More than just feelings; the dynamic interaction of what we think, feel, what our bodies do physiologically, and what we do behaviorally.

Universalist Perspective (Emotion)

The scientific view proposing that emotions and emotional processes are fundamentally the same across all human cultures.

Social Constructivist Perspective (Emotion)

The scientific view arguing that culture strongly shapes emotional experience, expression, regulation, and valuation.

Display Rules

Cultural expectations that govern when emotions should be shown, which specific ones are appropriate, how strongly they may be expressed, and to whom.

Independent Self

A cultural model of self characterized by the belief 'I am unique,' emphasizing individuality, personal goals, and self-expression.

Interdependent Self

A cultural model of self characterized by the belief 'I am connected to others,' emphasizing interpersonal relationships, social roles, and group harmony.

Actual Affect

The emotional state that an individual is currently feeling at any given moment.

Ideal Affect

The emotional state that an individual desires or wants to feel, which is heavily shaped by cultural values.

Goal

A mental representation of a desired future state.

Motivation

The psychological force that energizes and drives action toward a goal.

Learning

Any relatively long-lasting change in behavioral abilities or emotional reactions that results directly from experience.

Classical Conditioning

A form of behavioral learning where a neutral stimulus, after being repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits a reflex, begins to trigger that reflex on its own.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that initially elicits no natural reflex or automatic response prior to conditioning.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically elicits a biological reflex or response without requiring prior learning.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An automatic, unlearned physiological or emotional reaction elicited directly by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

An initially neutral stimulus that, through repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus during conditioning, acquires the ability to elicit a learned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response triggered specifically by the conditioned stimulus following conditioning.

Acquisition

The initial stage in classical conditioning when the conditioned response first occurs reliably in response to the conditioned stimulus alone.

Operant Conditioning

A learning process in which the frequency of a voluntary behavior is modified by its consequences, namely rewards or punishments.

Positive Reinforcement

The act of presenting a rewarding stimulus following a behavior in order to increase the likelihood of that behavior occurring again.

Negative Reinforcement

The act of removing an unpleasant or aversive stimulus following a behavior in order to increase the likelihood of that behavior occurring again.

Positive Punishment

The administration of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus following an undesired behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior.

Negative Punishment

The removal of a pleasant or desired stimulus following an undesired behavior to decrease the likelihood of that behavior.

Schedule of Reinforcement

A timetable or operational rule that dictates when and how reinforcers are administered in relation to the execution of a target behavior.

Ratio Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where rewards are delivered after a specified number of behavioral responses.

Interval Schedule

A reinforcement schedule where rewards are delivered after a specified period of elapsed time, provided the behavior occurs.

Fixed Schedule

A schedule of reinforcement in which the requirement (number of responses or duration of time) remains consistent and predictable from one trial to the next.

Variable Schedule

A schedule of reinforcement in which the requirement (number of responses or duration of time) changes unpredictably or randomly from one trial to the next.

Intrinsic Motivation

Pursuing an activity or goal because the actual process of doing it is inherently enjoyable or rewarding.

Extrinsic Motivation

Pursuing an activity or goal driven by external outcomes, tangible rewards, or consequences rather than the task itself.

Self-Regulation

The conscious and unconscious process of directing and managing one's thoughts, emotions, and actions to successfully attain a goal.

Deliberative Phase

The initial phase of goal pursuit characterized by deciding which goal to commit to and pursue.

Implemental Phase

The action-oriented phase of goal pursuit focused on planning and executing how the chosen goal will actually be accomplished.

Prevention Focus

A motivational orientation where goals are framed around safety, responsibility, and the avoidance of negative outcomes.

Promotion Focus

A motivational orientation where goals are framed around advancement, growth, ideals, and the pursuit of positive outcomes.

Cybernetic Self-Regulation

An internal feedback control system that monitors current progress against a standard and directs behavioral adjustments accordingly.

Self-Control

The capacity to resist an immediate temptation or impulse in order to protect a more valued long-term objective.

Precommitment

An evidence-based self-control strategy that involves making an advance decision to eliminate temptations or make them inaccessible before encountering them.

Personality Traits

Enduring, relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that show consistency across situations, stability over time, and individual variation.

Lexical Hypothesis

The proposition that the most important individual differences in personality become encoded into natural human language as descriptive words over time.

Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN)

The prominent five-factor model of personality consisting of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

HEXACO Model

A dimensional model of personality structure that expands upon the Big Five by adding a sixth dimension: Honesty-Humility.

Person-Situation Debate

A historical controversy, ignited by Walter Mischel, questioning whether human behavior is primarily determined by internal personality traits or external situational contexts.

Intelligence

The mental capability to acquire knowledge, solve complex problems, and utilize learned knowledge to generate new, valued products.

General Intelligence (g)

A broad measure of overall cognitive ability derived from aggregate performance across a diverse array of intellectual assessments.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A standardized score reflecting an individual's reasoning and problem-solving ability relative to the statistical average for their age group, set at $100$.

Flynn Effect

The documented generational rise in average raw performance on standardized intelligence tests across human populations over time.

Multiple Intelligence Theory

Howard Gardner's model asserting that humans possess several distinct and independent forms of mental abilities rather than a single unified intelligence.

Broca's Area

A specialized region of the frontal lobe located in the left hemisphere of the brain essential for the physical production of speech.

Wernicke's Area

A region in the temporal lobe of the brain's left hemisphere critical for language comprehension and the formulation of meaningful sentences.

Aphasia

An impairment of language comprehension or production resulting from localized brain damage while other general cognitive functions remain intact.

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

The linguistic theory proposing that the structural categories and vocabulary of a language actively shape and constrain the thoughts of its speakers.

Confirmation Bias

The psychological tendency to selectively notice, search for, and interpret information that confirms preexisting beliefs while disregarding contradictory data.

Schema

A cognitive framework or mental blueprint that organizes, categorizes, and interprets stored information about the world, people, and events.

Heuristics

Efficient, rule-of-thumb mental shortcuts utilized to make quick decisions and judgments under conditions of uncertainty.

Representativeness Heuristic

A mental shortcut where the likelihood of an event or object belonging to a category is judged based on how closely it resembles an existing mental prototype.

Availability Heuristic

A decision-making shortcut in which the frequency or likelihood of an event is estimated based on how easily relevant examples come to mind.

Planning Fallacy

The systematic cognitive tendency to substantially underestimate the amount of time required to successfully finish a project or task.

Affective Forecasting

The process of predicting one's future emotional reactions to upcoming events, frequently distorted by cognitive biases.

Impact Bias

A cognitive error in affective forecasting characterized by overestimating the emotional intensity of a anticipated future event.

Durability Bias

A cognitive error in affective forecasting characterized by overestimating how long future emotional reactions will last.

Hot Cognition

Cognitive processing and decision-making that is biased and directly driven by immediate feelings, physiological states, or personal desires.

Priming

An implicit memory effect in which exposure to a specific stimulus unconsciously activates related concepts, making them more cognitively accessible.

Attitude

A learned psychological tendency expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor, operating explicitly or implicitly.

Stereotype

A cognitive belief or generalized expectation held about the characteristics, attributes, or behaviors of a particular social group.

Prejudice

An affective evaluation, preconceived feeling, or negative emotional reaction directed toward an individual solely based on their group membership.

Discrimination

Unjustified, differential behavioral action or treatment directed toward individuals on the basis of their social group categorization.

In-Group

Any social group to which an individual perceives themselves as belonging and psychologically identifies with ('us').

Out-Group

Any social group with which an individual does not identify and perceives as distinctly separate from their own group ('them').

Social Identity Theory

A theoretical framework postulating that a significant portion of an individual's self-concept originates from their perceived membership in social groups.

Aversive Racism

A subtle form of racial bias where an individual consciously endorses egalitarian values and equality while experiencing implicit discomfort or unease in intergroup contexts.

Stereotype Content Model

A social psychological framework proposing that social groups are universally evaluated along two primary dimensions: warmth (friend or foe) and competence (capability).