Intro Psych Study Guide: Stress & Health, Memory, and Consciousness

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering key definitions, theories, and empirical details from the Intro Psych Study Guide across Stress & Health, Memory, and Consciousness.

Stress

The physical and psychological response to events perceived as taxing or exceeding one's resources.

Stressor

The event or stimulus itself that acts as the cause of stress (such as an exam or a breakup).

Primary Appraisal

The initial evaluation in Lazarus's model determining whether an event is a threat, a challenge, or irrelevant.

Secondary Appraisal

The second cognitive evaluation in Lazarus's model assessing whether one has the necessary resources to cope with a stressor.

Life Events

Stressors evaluated by Holmes and Rahe based on the amount of change they require, including positive transitions such as marriage or a new job.

Hassles

Daily annoyances, such as traffic or deadlines, that accumulate and often predict health problems as well as or better than major life events.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Selye's three-stage physiological response pattern to stress, consisting of alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Alarm Stage

The initial stage of GAS where the sympathetic nervous system activates to initiate the fight-or-flight response.

Resistance Stage

The second stage of GAS where the body adapts and stays on high alert with ongoing cortisol release while appearing to cope.

Exhaustion Stage

The final stage of GAS where bodily resources become depleted, leaving an individual vulnerable to illness under chronic stress.

Psychophysiological Disorders

Physical illnesses with genuine psychological or stress contributors, including hypertension, ulcers, tension headaches, IBS, and asthma.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

The field of study examining the interactions between the mind, nervous system, and immune system.

Type A Personality

A behavior pattern characterized by competitiveness, time urgency, and hostility, with hostility being the primary factor tied to heart disease.

Type B Personality

A behavior pattern characterized by a relaxed and easygoing demeanor associated with lower cardiovascular risk.

Type C Personality

A personality type characterized by the suppression of emotions and excessive cooperativeness, weakly linked to cancer.

Type D Personality

A distressed personality type marked by negative emotions combined with social inhibition, linked to cardiovascular problems.

Coping

The cognitive and behavioral effort applied to manage demands that exceed an individual's resources.

Problem-Focused Coping

A coping mechanism that directly targets the stressor itself, which is most effective when the situation is controllable.

Emotion-Focused Coping

A coping mechanism that manages emotional reactions to a stressor, which is most effective when the situation cannot be controlled.

Encoding

The initial step of the information processing model that involves getting information into memory.

Storage

The step in the memory process focused on maintaining encoded information over time across sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Retrieval

The process of accessing and pulling stored information back out of memory when needed.

Iconic Memory

Visual sensory memory that holds raw visual input for a fraction of a second.

Echoic Memory

Auditory sensory memory that retains raw sound input for roughly $3$ to $4\,\text{seconds}$.

Levels of Processing Theory

Craik and Lockhart's framework positing that deeper semantic processing results in better memory retention than shallow structural or phonemic processing.

Elaborative Rehearsal

A deep processing technique that enhances memory retention by connecting new material to existing knowledge.

Self-Reference Effect

A method of deepening memory processing by relating the information directly to oneself.

Maintenance Rehearsal

The simple repetition of information, considered a shallow form of processing.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A mental workspace with a capacity of approximately $7 \pm 2$ items (Miller's Magic Number) and a duration of roughly $20$ to $30\,\text{seconds}$ without rehearsal.

Chunking

A memory strategy that organizes information into meaningful units to allow each short-term memory slot to hold more data.

Recall

A retrieval method involving the generation of information with minimal or no cues, which is more challenging than recognition.

Recognition

A retrieval method involving the identification of correct information from a set of provided options.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The principle stating that memory retrieval is most successful when the cues available at retrieval match those present during encoding.

Priming

An implicit memory phenomenon in which exposure to one stimulus facilitates the subsequent retrieval or recognition of related information.

Context-Dependent Memory

The enhancement of memory retrieval when it takes place in the same physical environment where encoding occurred.

State-Dependent Memory

The enhancement of memory retrieval when an individual's internal physiological or emotional state matches their state at the time of learning.

Semantic Memory

A form of explicit memory containing general facts and conceptual knowledge not tied to a specific personal time or place.

Episodic Memory

A form of explicit memory consisting of personal experiences and autobiographical events linked to a specific time and context.

Procedural Memory

A branch of implicit memory that stores information regarding how to execute motor skills and learned habits.

Retroactive Interference

A memory disruption that occurs when newly acquired information hinders the retrieval of previously learned information.

Proactive Interference

A memory disruption that occurs when older, previously learned information interferes with the acquisition or recall of new information.

Serial Position Effect

The tendency when learning a list to remember items at the beginning (primacy effect) and the end (recency effect) better than items in the middle.

Flashbulb Memories

Vivid and detailed recollections of emotionally significant events that, despite high subjective confidence, fade and distort over time like normal memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

The loss of memories that were acquired prior to brain trauma, disease, or injury.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to form new explicit memories following an injury or trauma, as observed in patient H.M.

Circadian Rhythms

Roughly $24\,\text{hour}$ biological cycles controlling sleep/wake cycles, body temperature, hormone release, and alertness.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

The master circadian pacemaker located in the hypothalamus that signals the pineal gland to regulate melatonin release based on light cues.

Stage 1 Sleep (NREM 1)

A light stage of sleep featuring theta waves and occasional hypnic jerks, from which a person is easily awakened.

Stage 2 Sleep (NREM 2)

The sleep stage characterized by sleep spindles and K-complexes, accompanied by drops in heart rate and body temperature, where individuals spend the majority of sleep time.

Stage 3 Sleep (NREM 3 / Slow-Wave Sleep)

The deepest sleep stage, characterized by slow, high-amplitude delta waves, during which somnambulism and enuresis are most likely to occur.

REM Sleep

A sleep stage characterized by rapid eye movements, fast mixed brain waves, vivid dreams, and voluntary muscle paralysis (atonia).

Sleep Inertia

The groggy, disoriented feeling experienced immediately after waking up, which is most intense when awakening from deep sleep.

REM Rebound

The phenomenon in which an individual spends an increased amount of time in REM sleep following a period of REM deprivation.

Insomnia

A sleep abnormality involving persistent difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking too early, leading to daytime impairment.

Night Terrors

Episodes of screaming and extreme panic occurring during deep NREM 3 sleep, typically accompanied by lack of awareness and no memory of the event.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by sudden and uncontrollable daytime sleep attacks, frequently accompanied by cataplexy.

Cataplexy

A sudden loss of voluntary muscle tone often triggered by strong emotions, commonly seen in narcolepsy.

Sleep Apnea

A disorder where breathing repeatedly stops during sleep, causing loud snoring, brief awakenings, and heavy daytime fatigue, often managed with a CPAP machine.

Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT)

A cognitive treatment for chronic nightmares where the patient rewrites the dream with a less distressing ending while awake and mentally rehearses it.

Tolerance

A state in which an individual requires progressively larger doses of a drug to achieve the original effect.

Withdrawal

The unpleasant physical or psychological symptoms that occur when drug use is stopped or substantially decreased.

Physical Dependence

A physiological condition where the body has adapted to a drug such that discontinuation triggers physical withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological Dependence

An intense emotional or cognitive craving and compulsive need for a drug.

Depressants

A drug class that slows central nervous system activity, lowers inhibitions, and impairs coordination (e.g., alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines).

Stimulants

A drug class that speeds up central nervous system activity, elevates heart rate, increases alertness, and often boosts dopamine (e.g., caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines).

Opioids

Drugs that relieve pain and generate euphoria by mimicking natural endorphins, carrying high addiction and respiratory depression risks (e.g., morphine, heroin, fentanyl).

Hallucinogens

Psychoactive substances that alter perceptual experiences and evoke hallucinations, often modulating serotonin (e.g., LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, PCP).

Mindfulness

The intentional practice of attending to present-moment thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations without judgment.