Psych Final

Cognitive psychology

 study of mental processes

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from specific observations to make generalizations

Deductive reasoning

Reasoning from a general case that is known to be true to a specific instance

Recognising problems

involves being aware of and open to experiences

algorithms

Strategies—including formulas, instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions—that guarantee a solution to a problem.

heuristics

Shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer.

Mindfulness

The state of being alert and mentally present for one’s everyday activities.

Sternberg's triarchic theory

intelligence comes in three forms: analytical, creative, and practical.

• Analytical intelligence: The ability to analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, and contrast.

• Creative intelligence: The ability to create, design, invent, originate, and imagine.

• Practical intelligence: The ability to use, apply, implement, and put ideas into practice.

Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences

a theory describing the different ways students learn and acquire information

prenatal development

a time of astonishing change, beginning with conception

infant reflexes

Newborns come into the world equipped with several genetically wired reflexes that are crucial for survival. (Ex: suck and swallow, briefly hold breath under water, automatic grasp of things that touch their fingers, etc.)

pubertal change in adolescents

a period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence

intuition

the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive feeling rather than conscious reasoning.

motivation

The force that moves people to behave, think, and feel the way they do

Piaget’ theory of cognitive development

• Sensorimotor. Birth through ages 18-24 months.

• Preoperational. Toddlerhood (18-24 months) through early childhood (age 7)

• Concrete operational. Ages 7 to 11.

• Formal operational. Adolescence through adulthood.

sensation

The process of ­receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into ­neural energy

perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense

instinct

An innate (unlearned) biological pattern of behavior that is assumed to be universal throughout a species.

reflex

an action that is performed as a response to a stimulus and without conscious thought.

drive reduction theory

A theory stating that imbalances to your body's internal environment generate drives that cause you to act in ways that restore homeostasis.

need

A deprivation that energizes the drive to eliminate or reduce the deprivation.

drive

An aroused state that occurs because of a physiological need

oxytocin

a neurotransmitter that is sometimes considered a “love drug,” in interpersonal trust

dopamine

helps to control voluntary movement and affects sleep, mood, attention, learning, and the ability to recognize rewards in the environment

leptin

 a protein secreted by fat cells, decreases food intake and increases energy expenditure. 

sex hormones

The endocrine system is deeply involved in sex. The two main classes of sex hormones are estrogens and androgens

personality

A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world.

artificial inteligence

A scientific field that focuses on creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence when they are done by people.

Freud’s theory

developed psychoanalysis, his approach to personality, through his work with patients suffering from hysteria

Collective unconscious contains

bystander effect - The tendency of an individual who observes an emergency to be less likely to help when other people are present than when the observer is alone.
Flynn effect - involving abstract and complex thought. More and more, the modern world requires complex ways of thinking, and Flynn believed that these changes help to explain the rapid increase in IQ

representativeness heuristic

Tendency to make judgments about group membership based on physical appearances or one’s stereotype of a group rather than available base rate information

availability heuristic

Prediction about the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events

a self-fulfilling prophecy

Social expectations that cause an individual to act in such a way that the expectations are realized

hindsight bias

The tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that one has accurately predicted an outcome.

self-actualization

The motivation to develop one’s full potential as a human being—the highest and most elusive of Maslow’s proposed needs 

the self-serving bias

refers to the tendency to take credit for one’s own successes and to deny responsibility for one’s own failures

the fundamental attribution error

Observers’ overestimation of the importance of internal traits and underestimation of the importance of external situations when they seek explanations of another person’s behavior 

the false consensus bias

 Observers’ overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts the way they do.

cognitive dissonance

An individual’s psychological discomfort caused by two inconsistent thoughts

attributions

 explanations of the causes of behavior. The way we explain the behaviors of other people can affect our beliefs about them and how we feel about them  

traits

Theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions that tend to lead to characteristic responses. 

attitudes

a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior.

cognitive dissonance theory

We are motivated toward consistency between attitudes and behavior and away from inconsistency 

peripheral route to persuasion

involves factors such as the attractiveness of the person giving the message or the emotional power of an appeal. effective when people are not paying close attention or lack the time or energy to think about the message 

norm of reciprocity

meaning that we help another person to increase the chances that the person will return the favor 

central route to persuasion

works by engaging the audience thoughtfully with a sound, logical argument 

foot-in-the-door technique

a compliance tactic that aims at getting a person to agree to a large request by having them agree to a modest request first 

dissociative disorders

Psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity due to the separation of the individual’s conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts

post-traumatic stress disorder

Anxiety disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event, a severely oppressive situation, cruel abuse, or a natural or unnatural disaster 

antisocial personality disorder

Psychological disorder characterized by guiltlessness, law-breaking, exploitation of others, irresponsibility, and deceit. 

panic disorder

Anxiety disorder in which the individual experiences recurrent, sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror, often without warning and with no specific cause. 

abnormal behavior

Behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a relatively long period of time 

Anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation 

Schizophrenia

Severe psychological disorder characterized by highly disordered thought processes; individuals suffering may be referred to as psychotic because they are so far removed from reality 

the sociocultural approach

An approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior

the psychological approach

a perspective, based on certain assumptions, about behavior

the humanistic approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing a person’s positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny 

the biological approach

An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system 

Psychosis

A state in which a person’s perceptions and thoughts are fundamentally removed from reality

Catatonia

State of immobility and unresponsiveness, lasting for long periods of time

Mania

an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state 

Depression

an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life

social anxiety disorder

An intense fear of being humiliated or embarrassed in social situations.

generalized anxiety disorder

sychological disorder marked by persistent anxiety for at least six months, and in which the individual is unable to specify the reasons for the anxiety. 

obsessive-compulsive disorder

 Disorder in which the individual has anxiety- provoking thoughts that will not go away and/or urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce some future situation

bipolar disorder

Mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania, an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state.