Psych Final Exam Study Guide

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Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.

Aphasia

Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding).

Aptitude Test

A test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn

Autonomic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms.

Behaviorism

The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).

Blind Spot

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

Broca's Area

Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Conscious Processing

Processing of what we are literally focusing on

Culture

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

Dissociative Identity Disorder

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Also called multiple personality disorder.

Disorders

a disturbance in the normal function of a part of the body

DSM5

The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

Emerging Adulthood

A period from about age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults

Emphasis of Humanistic Therapies

Focuses on a person's positive qualities, it can help people feel more empowered and active in the process of making changes in their lives

Endorphines

"Morphine within"- natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.

Erikson's Stages

Infant - 18 Months -- Trust vs. Mistrust --- Learns 'Hope'

18 Months - 3 Years -- Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt --- Learns 'Will'

3-5 Years -- Initiative vs. Guilt --- Learns 'Purpose'

5-13 Years -- Industry vs. Inferiority --- Learns 'Competency'

13-21 Years -- Identity vs. Confusion --- Learns 'Fidelity'

21-39 Years -- Intimacy vs. Isolation --- Learns 'Love'

40-65 Years -- Generativity vs. Stagnation --- Learns 'Care'

65 and Older -- Integrity vs. Despair --- Learns 'Wisdom’

Functionalism

Early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function- how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish

Gender Identity

Our sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two

Inattentional Blindness

Failure to detect stimuli that are in plain sight when our attention is focused elsewhere

Learned Helplessness

The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

Panic Attack

Sudden onset of intense panic in which multiple physical symptoms of stress occur, often with feelings that one is dying

Parallel Processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions.

Parenting Styles

Authoritative, Authoritarian, Permissive, Uninvolved

Phobia

An anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation

Physiological Need

A basic bodily requirement

Psychodynamic Theory

Freudian theory that unconscious forces determine behavior

Psychological Drive

Aroused, motivated state

Psychosis

A psychological disorder in which a person loses contact with reality, experiencing irrational ideas and distorted perceptions

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Social-Exchange Theory

The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs

Structuralism

Early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind

Synaptic Gap

Space between the axon terminal of one neuron and the receptors of the next neuron

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs.

Teratogens

(Literally, "monster maker") agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Three Major Issues that Interest Developmental Psychologists

Nature and Nurture- What you are born with vs. your environment

Continuity and Stages- Whether development is gradual and continuous or a series of relatively abrupt changes

Stability and Change- Whether our traits endure of change as we age

Watson

Behaviorism; "Little Albert Study"; aversion therapy

Wernicke's Area

Controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

Wundt

"Father of Psychology"; introspection

Scapegoat Theory

The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

Schizophrenia

A group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions

Self-Serving Bias

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably

Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases- alarm, resistance, exhaustion