AP psych

Absolute Refractory Period

After firing, no chance of a refire until regrouped or at proper voltage.

Absolute Threshold

The lowest level of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time.

Accommodation

The lens changing shape to focus on objects at different distances.

Acetylcholine

Involved in muscle movement, memory, and learning. An undersupply can lead to paralysis while an oversupply can lead to violent muscle contractions.

Achievement Tests

Measure an individual's acquired knowledge and skills in specific areas like math or reading.

Achievement

The realization of personal or societal goals.

Acquisition

The process of learning the association between stimuli.

Activation

Synthesis Theory

Actor/Observer Bias

The tendency to attribute one's own actions to external factors but others' actions to their internal characteristics.

Addiction

Compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences.

Adrenaline

A hormone that prepares the body for "fight or flight" responses.

Adverse Childhood Experiences

Events including abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction that can have lasting impacts on relationships.

Agonists

Mimic or enhance a neurotransmitter's effects, encouraging neural firing. Examples include opioids.

Agoraphobia

Fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable. Could include public transportation, open spaces, and crowds.

All

or

Altruism

Selfless concern for the well

Alzheimer's Disease

A degenerative brain disorder leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.

Amnesia

A loss of memory, typically due to brain injury or psychological trauma.

Amplitude

The magnitude of a wave; the primary determinant of loudness.

Amygdala

A small, almond

Animism

A belief, typically in young children, that inanimate objects have feelings, thoughts, or life

Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of gaining weight and severe restriction of food intake.

Antagonists

Block a neurotransmitters effects, discouraging neural firing. Examples include caffeine.

Anterograde Amnesia

Involves the inability to form new memories after the onset of amnesia.

Anxious Attachment Style

An attachment style characterized by a strong desire for closeness but fear of abandonment.

Approach

Approach Conflict

Approach

Avoidance Conflict

Aptitude Tests

Aim to predict future performance or potential in a particular domain like the SAT for college readiness or LSAT for law school.

Arousal Theory

Proposes people seek an optimal level of psychological arousal and engage in behaviors to maintain that level.

Assimilation

The process of interpreting new information in terms of existing schemas.

Authoritarian Parenting

Characterized by strict rules, limited warmth, and high expectations of obedience.

Authoritative Parenting

Balances clear boundaries with emotional responsiveness and encouragement of independence.

Autobiographical Memory

Memory of personal experiences and events.

Autonomic Nervous System

Governs processes that are involuntary and includes the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

Availability Heuristic

Basing our judgement regarding the likelihood of an event on how readily information comes to our mind.

Avoidance

Avoidance Conflict

Avoidant Attachment Style

An attachment style where individuals are emotionally distant and avoid intimacy in relationships.

Behavioral Perspective

A psychological approach that emphasizes the role of learning and environment in shaping behavior.

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to cling to a belief even when presented with contradictory evidence. Is very difficult to overcome.

Big Five Theory

Proposes that personality can be described by five broad dimensions or traits: agreeableness, openness to experience, extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.

Binocular Depth Cues

Visual cues for depth perception that require both eyes.

Biological Perspective

A psychological approach that focuses on the physiological and genetic influences on behavior.

Biological Preparedness

The idea that organisms are biologically programmed to learn certain associations more easily than others.

Biopsychosocial Model

Recognizes that psychological problems often involve a complex interplay of biological, psychological and sociocultural factors.

Bipolar I Disorder

Type of disorder that involves full manic episodes.

Bipolar II Disorder

Type of disorder that involves hypomania, or less severe manic symptoms.

Blindsight

Ability to respond to visual stimuli without consciously perceiving them.

Bottom

Up Processing

Brain Plasticity

Ability of the brain to rewire itself or modify or create new connections throughout development. Allows for the function of a damaged part of the brain to be assumed by a different part.

Broaden

and

Broca's Area

A brain region crucial for speech production.

Bulimia Nervosa

Involves recurrent episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors such as purging and excessive exercise.

Bystander Effect

The tendency for individuals to be less likely to help in an emergency when others are present.

Case Study

An in

Catatonia

A state of motor immobility and behavioral abnormality seen in some mental disorders.

Catatonic Stupor

A state characterized by a lack of movement and response, often associated with catatonia.

Central Executive

The component of working memory responsible for controlling attention and coordinating tasks.

Central Nervous System

Includes the brain and the spinal cord and interacts with all processes in the body.

Cerebellum

Controls coordination of muscle movement, balance, and some forms of procedural learning.

Cerebral Cortex

Divided into two hemispheres and includes the limbic system (thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, hippocampus, amygdala), corpus callosum, and the lobes of the cortex.

Change Blindness

A failure to notice large changes in the environment when focusing elsewhere.

Chronosystem

Considers the individual's current life stage and how historical events shape their development: growing up during a recession and experiencing a major world event.

Chunking

Information encoding strategy that combines smaller pieces of information into larger, meaningful units.

Circadian Rhythm

The body's internal biological clock regulating sleep and wakefulness.

Classical Conditioning

Involves learning to associate one stimulus with another stimulus, which then triggers a specific response.

Closure

In the realm of Gestaltism, it is believed that we cannot accept incompleteness. Our sensory information is taken over by perception to see a "whole" object even when none exists.

Cluster A

A cluster of personality disorders characterized by odd or eccentric behavior (e.g., paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal).

Cluster B

A cluster of personality disorders characterized by dramatic, emotional, or erratic behavior (e.g., borderline, narcissistic, antisocial).

Cluster C

A cluster of personality disorders characterized by anxious or fearful behavior (e.g., avoidant, dependent, obsessive

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to focus on one conversation in a noisy environment.

Cognitive Appraisal

The process of evaluating the significance and potential impact of an event or situation.

Cognitive Dissonance

The mental discomfort experienced when actions and attitudes are inconsistent

Cognitive Perspective

A psychological approach that focuses on mental processes such as thinking, memory, and problem

Cognitive Restructuring

A therapeutic technique that helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns.

Cognitive Triad

A concept in cognitive therapy that involves the relationship between negative thoughts about oneself, the world, and the future.

Cold Receptors

Sensory receptors in the skin that respond to cold.

Collectivism

A cultural orientation that emphasizes group goals, relationships, and interdependence.

Concepts

Mental categories or groups used to organize objects, events, or ideas based on shared characteristics.

Concrete Operational Stage

Occurs from around 7 to 11 years old, when children think logically about concrete events.

Conditioned response

The response one has, after conditioning has taken place, to the conditioned stimulus alone.

Conditioned Stimulus

An originally neutral stimulus that is paired up enough with the original unconditioned stimulus that it too will allow for the same response.

Conduction Deafness

Hearing loss caused by problems with the outer or middle ear.

Cones

Specialized nerves that convert light into neural impulses. They are responsible for color vision and are concentrated in the fovea, the central area of the retina.

Confidentiality

Keeping participants' information private and secure.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Confounding Variable

An extraneous factor that could influence results alongside the independent variable.

Conservation

The understanding that quantity remains the same even when the shape or appearance of objects changes.

Construct Validity

The degree to which a test accurately measures the concept or construct it is intended to assess.

Constructive Memory

Fills in memory gaps with imagined details, creating false memories.

Context

Dependent Memory

Continuous Development

Views growth as a gradual, incremental process without distinct stages.

Continuous Reinforcement

Schedules that provide reinforcement for every correct behavior.

Control Group

The group not exposed to the independent variable, used for comparison.

Convenience Sampling

Choosing participants based on availability and ease of access.

Convergence

The inward turning of the eyes to focus on a nearby object. The brain uses the degree of convergence to estimate the distance of the object.

Convergent Thinking

A type of thinking that focuses on finding a single, correct solution to a problem by narrowing down options.

Corpus Callosum

Nerve fibers connecting the brain's two hemispheres.

Correlational Coefficient

A statistical measure (r) that indicates the strength and direction of a relationship.

Correlational Research

Type of research technique based on the naturally occurring relationship between two or more variables. Involves the use of scatterplots.

Cortex Specialization

The idea that different brain areas have specialized functions.