Psychology Vocabulary

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from lecture notes on various psychology topics.

Gateway Drug

A drug that, once tried, makes it more likely that a user will try other “harder” drugs.

Typical Progression of Drug Use

nonusers è beer/wine è cigarettes/hard liquor è cannabis è other illicit drugs.

Sequencing (Gateway Hypothesis)

One substance is regularly initiated before another.

Association (Gateway Hypothesis)

One substance increases likelihood of second substance.

Causation (Gateway Hypothesis)

Use of first substance actually causes use of second substance.

Learning (Gateway Drugs)

Children learn drug-related behaviours, acclimatize to inhaling smoke, alter moods with drugs, and cope with stress using chemicals.

Perceptions of Risk (Gateway Drugs)

Accepting risk with tobacco makes risk with other drugs seem less severe.

Social Factors (Gateway Drugs)

Peer pressure, norms, and glamour influence drug use.

Pharmacological Factors (Gateway Drugs)

Nicotine is thought to create a biochemical pathway so that the next drug becomes more pleasurable than it would otherwise.

Diminishing High (Cannabis)

The concern that high resulting from cannabis use diminishes over time, leading users to seek bigger highs from other drugs

Increased risks from cannabis use

psychosis with heavy use during adolescence, car accidents, memory problems

Kandel (1984) Gateway Drugs

Showed that the earlier the age at which any drug was used, the more likely the user moved to next drug in sequence

Reasons against causality of cannabis use with other drugs

Cannabis is used before other drugs simply because it was more socially acceptable and readily available; twin studies

Monozygotic

Identical twins

Dizygotic

non-identical twins

Portugal Drug Policy

Decriminalised all drugs à with a concurrent focus on treatment, resulted in less use and less deaths

SUDI

Sudden Unexpected Death of an Infant, known as SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

Oxytocin

Hormone known in the media as the “love drug” è increases when you are in love, even when you look at your dog; stimulates maternal behaviour

Nativism

Belief that certain aspects of language (e.g., grammar) were innate because of the poverty of the stimulus (the input available to the child was insufficient to be learnable)

Statistical Learning

Learning of patterns

Specific Language Impairment (SLI)

Use short sentences, have small vocabularies, word finding problems, difficulty learning new words

Imprinting

Process by which mother-offspring attachments are formed in many species of birds

Precocial

Mobile birds follow 1st moving object they encounter after hatching

Critical Period

A specific time during development when the organism in particularly susceptible to the effects of a particular experience

Partial Isolation (Harlow)

Rhesus monkeys raised in bare wire cages è could see and smell other monkeys but not touch them

Genotype

the total complement of genes that an individual inherits

Phenotype

the organism’s observable characteristics (behaviour)

Dizygotic twins

Fraternal twins: share 50% of their genes

Monozygotic twins

Identical twins: share 100% of their genes

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

A genetic disorder with a deficiency in enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase which metabolises phenylanine into tyrosine causing brain damage, seizure and intellectual disability if left untreated

Recessive Gene

a gene that can be masked by a dominant gene

Polygenetic

Controlled by a large number of genes

Teratogen

An agent that causes deviations in normal development that lead to serious abnormalities or death

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Caused by pregnant mother taking in high and chronic doses of alcohol during fetal period (week 10 to birth) è 10% of pregnant mothers drink, 2% binge drink (5 or more drinks)