Learn: General Psychology Comprehensive Review

Instinct

Environmental releasers trigger fixed response patterns.

Drive

Drive reduction theory states physiological needs create a motivational state.

Arousal

Yerkes-Dodson law links optimal arousal levels to performance.

Incentive

External stimuli that pull us in a motivational direction.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

Pyramid of needs from physiological to self-actualization.

Self-transcendence

Seeking meaning and purpose beyond the self at Maslow's peak.

Self-actualization

Fulfilling one's potential and realizing personal growth.

Esteem

Need for recognition, respect, and achievement.

Belongingness and love

Need to feel accepted, loved, and part of groups.

Safety

Need for security, stability, and protection from harm.

Physiological

Basic biological survival needs like food, water, and shelter.

Hunger

Drive state stimulated by physiological needs for food.

Physiological mechanisms of hunger

Regulated by glucose, hypothalamus, and hormones like leptin.

Eating disorders

Conditions involving abnormal eating habits and severe body weight distress.

Anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder involving self-starvation and dangerously low body weight.

Bulimia nervosa

Eating disorder involving binge eating followed by purging.

Role of self-esteem/media images in eating disorders

Cultural pressure and low self-esteem contribute to eating disorders.

Fallon and Rozin study

Study showing discrepancy between ideal and perceived body weight.

Social Motives

Needs for affiliation, achievement, and power shaped by social context.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Motivation from internal interest versus external rewards.

Well-defined and Ill-defined problems

Problems with clear paths and goals versus ambiguous ones.

Algorithms

Step-by-step procedures that guarantee a correct solution.

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts used to solve problems quickly.

Trial and error

Trying multiple solutions until one successfully works.

Difference reduction

Heuristic of reducing distance between current state and goal.

Hill climbing

Heuristic of continuously moving toward a state closer to the goal.

Working backwards

Solving a problem by starting at the goal and moving backward.

Importance of problem representation

How a problem is framed affects how it is solved.

Analogous problems

Solving a new problem using a solution to a similar past problem.

Mental set

Tendency to approach problems using only previously successful methods.

Functional fixedness

Inability to see an object used outside its typical function.

Representativeness heuristic

Judging likelihood based on how well something matches a prototype.

Availability heuristic

Judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.

Framing effect

How a choice is presented influences decision making.

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident in judgments than correct.

Anchoring bias

Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered.

Prototypes

Mental image or best example of a category.

Insight problems

Problems solved suddenly through a 'eureka' moment.

Properties of language

Features including communicative, symbolic, generative, and structured rules.

Phonemes

The smallest units of sound in a language.

Phoneme production

Produced by manipulating the vocal tract, tongue, and lips.

Vowels

Speech sounds produced without significant obstruction of the vocal tract.

Consonants

Speech sounds produced by obstructing airflow.

Stop consonants

Consonants produced by completely stopping airflow.

Voicing

Vibration of the vocal cords during speech sound production.

Morphemes/Morphology

The smallest units of meaning in a language.

Syntax

Rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Broca's aphasia

Impairment in speech production caused by frontal lobe damage.

Wernicke's aphasia

Impairment in speech comprehension caused by temporal lobe damage.

Conduction aphasia

Aphasia caused by damage impairing speech repetition.

Linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

Linguistic relativity

The view that language influences, rather than determines, thought.

Sapir/Whorf Hypothesis

Theory that language structure shapes speakers' worldview and cognition.

Studies of color naming

Research testing whether language differences affect color perception.

Codability

How easily a concept can be expressed in a language.

Language development (Phonemes)

Infants discriminate all phonemes in year one, then lose non-native ones.

Motherese

Infant-directed speech with high pitch and exaggerated intonation.

Holophrastic stage

One-word stage of language development in infancy.

Telegraphic stage

Two-word stage of language development omitting non-essential words.

Learning syntax/rules/generalization

Children apply grammatical rules over-regularly, showing U-shaped learning.

Johnson and Newport study

Research showing age-related decline in second language acquisition.

Kanzi the bonobo chimp

Famous bonobo who learned symbolic communication via lexigrams.

Koko the gorilla

Gorilla known for learning American Sign Language.

Clever Hans

Horse who appeared to answer math questions by reading human cues.

Anthropomorphism problem

Mistakenly attributing human traits to animals or objects.

Freud's topographical model

Conscious, preconscious, and unconscious levels of the mind.

Freud's structural model

Id, ego, and superego components of personality.

Psychoanalysis

Freud's therapy and theory based on the unconscious mind.

Id

Instinctual, pleasure-seeking part of personality.

Ego

Rational part mediating between id, superego, and reality.

Superego

Moral conscience and internal standards based on societal norms.

Pleasure principle

Drive for immediate gratification of desires.

Reality principle

Ego's control of pleasure-seeking in accordance with reality.

Freudian slips

Slips of the tongue revealing unconscious thoughts.

Manifest content

The literal storyline and imagery of a dream.

Latent content

The underlying, symbolic meaning of a dream.

Psychosexual stages

Oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages of development.

Fixation

Persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage.

Oedipus complex

Boy's sexual desire for his mother and jealousy of his father.

Defense mechanisms

Unconscious ego strategies to reduce anxiety by distorting reality.

Repression

Defense mechanism of banishing anxiety thoughts from consciousness.

Denial

Defense mechanism of refusing to accept reality.

Projection

Defense mechanism of attributing one's unacceptable impulses to others.

Reaction formation

Defense mechanism of switching unacceptable impulses into opposites.

Rationalization

Defense mechanism offering self-justifying explanations.

Regression

Defense mechanism of retreating to an earlier developmental stage.

Displacement

Defense mechanism of shifting impulses toward a safer outlet.

Sublimation

Defense mechanism of transferring impulses into socially valued motives.

Humanistic theories

Personality theories focusing on potential for healthy personal growth.

Real vs. ideal self

Discrepancy between who we are and who we want to be described by Carl Rogers

Unconditional positive regard

Acceptance of another person regardless of behavior.

Conditional positive regard

Acceptance given only when certain standards are met.

Self-actualization (Humanistic)

Process of fulfilling one's human potential.

Personality trait

Characteristic pattern of behavior or disposition.

Five factor model

Traits: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness.

Consistency of personality traits

Degree to which traits persist across varying situations.

Heritability of personality traits

Proportion of trait variation attributable to genetics.

Cognitive-social learning theory

Personality theory emphasizing interaction of traits, learning, and situation.

Self-efficacy

One's belief in one's ability to succeed.

Self-esteem

Overall evaluation of one's self-worth.