PYB 101 / PSYCH 1: Introduction to Psychology - Module II Flashcards

Flashcards for reviewing key concepts in Psychology, focusing on Individual Differences, Intelligence, Personality, Attitudes, Attitude Changes, and Lifespan Development.

Intelligence

Intelligence is often characterized as brightness or sharpness, suggesting responsiveness, perceptiveness, and the ability to understand.

Intelligence

Intelligence is the ability to learn or profit from formal instruction, to adapt effectively to the environment, or the ability to reason.

Terman and Tyler's Definition of Intelligence

An individual is intelligent in proportion to his ability to carry on abstract thinking.

Intelligence

Intelligence is a cluster of relatively distinct abilities, such as memory, reasoning, and verbal fluency.

Alfred Binet

French psychologist who believed that intelligence was too complex to be described by one number and limited his measurement to the abilities to learn.

Lewis Terman

Developed a standard IQ test known as the Standford-Binet (SB) test, which expresses intelligence in terms of a single number called intelligence quotient, or IQ.

David Weschler

Defined intelligence as “an overall ability to act purposely, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment.

Charles Spearman

Believed a general factor of intelligence he called g was at the core of different mental abilities.

Louis Thurstone

Disagreed with the idea that intelligence is a single, general mental ability; believed in the organization of mental abilities in terms of group factors.

Verbal Ability (V)

The ability to understand and utilize verbal ideas effectively, primarily measured by vocabulary and other verbal tests.

Number Ability (N)

The ability to carry out the fundamental arithmetic operations accurately and rapidly.

Spatial Ability (S)

The ability to deal with objects in space and spatial relationships, as demanded in geometric problems.

Perceptual Speed (P)

The ability to identify objects quickly and accurately, as required in reading, map work, and the like.

Memory Ability (M)

The ability to learn and retain information.

Reasoning Ability (R)

The ability to perceive and utilize abstract relationships; to put together past experience in the solution of new problems.

Word Fluency (W)

The ability to think of words rapidly, related to personality variables as well as to intellective factors.

Fluid Intelligence

A capacity for insight into complex relationships, for acquiring new concepts and demonstrating general brightness and adaptability in novel situations, independent of education.

Crystallized Intelligence

A combination of acquired knowledge and developed intellectual skills, showing the influence of the environment.

J. P. Guilford

Denied the existence of a general factor, G, and even rejected the possibility of intelligence being reduced to just a few factors; specified three major dimensions of mental functioning – content, operations and product.

Guilford's Dimensions of Mental Functioning

Content refers to what we think about, operations refer to the way we think, and product refers to the results and conclusions we gain from performing operations on content.

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

Eight types of intelligences, including linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist.

Robert Sternberg's Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Three distinct forms of intelligence are analytic (ability to solve problems), creative (ability to apply old information to new problems) and practical (ability to adapt to the environment).

James McKeen Cattell's Mental Test

The field of psychology profited from Cattell in that he influenced the development of American psychology in the direction of an eminently practical, test-oriented approach to the study of mental processes.

Alfred Binet's Intelligence Test

Assesses which school children would be successful in the French school system and which children should be given specialized instruction.

Measuring IQ scores today

Compares your performance on an IQ test with that of others of your age statistically.

Stanford-Binet test calculates IQ

Calculating IQ using the concept of mental age (MA) as related to one’s chronological age (CA).

IQ

A number that indicates how a person has fared on a particular test as compared to others in the same age bracket.

IQ score

Simply indicates your present intellectual functioning and cannot measure your intellectual potential.

Intelligence

An overall capacity for particular mental activities that cannot be measured directly.

Cognitive dissonance

An unpleasant psychological state (dissonance) that happens when two thoughts or perceptions (cognitions) contradict each other.

Mental Age (MA)

Refers to the age of most people who can perform a particular test item successfully.

Chronological Age (CA)

Refers to one’s actual age.

Genetic Relationship and Measured Intelligence

Research studies have shown that, in general, the closer the genetic relationship of individuals, the greater the similarity of their measured intelligence.

Down’s Syndrome (Mongolism)

The most common and best known of chromosome abnormality which occurs in one out of every 600 babies born, and which usually result in mental retardation from moderate to severe.

Attitude

A tendency to react positively or negatively towards an object in the social environment.

Prejudice

Negative judgment about the object of the attitude based on insufficient and inadequate grounds.

Discrimination

Behavior of treating one person or group in an unfavorable or unfair way.

Prejudice

Refers to a negative judgment about the object of the attitude based on insufficient and inadequate grounds.

Attitude

Can be defined as a tendency to react positively or negatively towards an object in the social environment.

Semantic Differential Scale

The instrument used in rating a concept stimulus on bipolar scales set on seven steps from one end to the other end of the continuum

Classical Conditioning

Parents hold certain attitudes and early in life, children likewise ascribe to the same position even though their parents have not specifically tried to teach them. These are, quite possibly, learned by association with pleasant things that occur in social settings in families – in naturally occurring forms of classical conditioning.

Instrumental Conditioning

Attitudes are learned through instrumental conditioning when some desired behavior is reinforced and/or some undesired behavior is punished. An instrumental component is generally involved in attitude formation in real life situations. Children are often reinforced for being nice or polite by social and material rewards; they are often punished for being rude or discourteous.

Imitation by modeling

Attitudes can be learned by mere observation of others, i.e., by watching a model.

Sigmund Freud

His theory later developed into a five-stage theory of personality development. He highlighted the sex drive as a driving force in personality development.

Freud's Theory of Psychosexual

Human personality underwent developmental stages called psychosexual stages.

Fixation

Is the person gets stuck in a particular stage of development.

Erogenous Zones

The person gets stuck in a particular stage of development. When a person is prevented from satisfying urges for pleasure at the erogenous zones during crucial stages, his personality will be affected.

Erickson's theory consist

Consists of eight stages of psychosocial development.

Jean Piaget's Four Stages

Identified four stages of cognitive development.

Sensori-motor (birth to age two)

The child learns the difference between self and other objects, the influence of action upon the environment, and the concept of object permanence. The world is explored using the senses, rather than by thinking about the environment.

Concrete Operational (seven to eleven years)

Concrete operation means that cognitive processes are intimately tied to actual objects. The child becomes capable of logical thought and continues to develop ideas of relationships, but uses abstract terms only in relation to concrete objects.

Scaffolding

This refers to the support provided by peers, teachers, parents and adults to the child in learning.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

This refers to the difference between what a child can do alone compared to what she can learn to do with the help of a teacher.