IB Psychology Concepts

Diathesis-Stress Model

way of explaining how mental disorders and abnormal behaviors are developed through the interaction of genetic and environmental stress: cups example to explain alcohol addiction

Enculturation

the process of learning the behaviors, characteristics and norms of the culture you belong to at the start of birth: explains how children learn the norms of their culture

Models of Acculturation

changing a behavior or characteristic as a result of contact between two different cultures, either by integration (people keep their heritage culture and adopt some norms of their new culture), assimilation (people do not keep the norms of their heritage culture and only adopt the norms of their new culture), seperation (people keep the norms of their heritage culture, and dont adopt the norms of their new culture) and marginalization, (do not do both)

Chemical Messengers

a molecule that sends a signal between cells to coordinate bodily functions. A signaling cell releases a chemical messanger, it travels through the bodily fluids, binds to a specific receptor on the surface of the targetted cell which activates the receptor and triggers a change of events in the target cell. The target cell respeonds to the signal and performs a function. Dopamine is a chemical messenger, that are released by signalling cells into the synapse, they bind to dopamine receptors and send a signal that something rewarding has happened. High dopamine can increase motivation, and low dopamine could lead to depression.

Compliance Techniques

psychological strategies used to influence people to say yes to a request, even if they might not have agreed otherwise. Foot in the door: start with a small request and then when the person agrees, follow up with a bigger request. Door in the face: start with a big request you know the person will reject, and follow with a smaller, more reasonable one. Reciprocity: people feel pressured to return favours.

Cognitive Dissonance

The mental discomfort humans feel when our actions or new information goes against our beliefs, attitudes and values. To reduce the discomfort, we either change our beliefs, change our behavior or find excuses. When we know smokingg is bad for our heath, but we do it anyways as we say it helps us calm down.

Social Identity Theory

a persons sense of self is shaped by the group they blong to, through categorization (when people classyfy themselves and others into groups us vs them), identification (people adopt the idenitty of the group they belong to, changing their behavior and attitude), comparison (people compare their group to other groups to feel goof about themselves): causes: discrimination, bias and favoritism

Conformity

changing your behvior, beliefe, or attitude to meet the norms of a group to be socially accepted, not rejecting or get information. This can happen consciously or unconsciously. Causes peer pressure

Social learning theory

People learn behaviors, attitutudes and values by observing others rather than only through direct participation. they need to pay attention to the model, remeber the behavior, have a reason or motivation to copy them and have self eficacy meaning the beliefe they can do it. Explains how chidlren learn agression

Emic Approach

Way of studying culture by understanding the behavior from within the culture itself, having the insiders perspective. Helps explain behaviors in context and prevents misunderstanding. explains gender norms

Cultural Dimensions

ways to compare cultures based on their values, behaviors and beliefs, which shows why people from different cultures think differently. Explains power distances, why people from different cultures treat authority differently.

Etic Approach

the study of culture from the outside as an objective observer, which allows comparisons. Allows us to see is behavior is culture-specific or universal.

Neuroplasticity

The brains ability to change, adapt and reorganize itself based on new information, experiances or injury. explains how children's brain adapts quickly to new experiences, because their neural connections are still forming

Operant conditioning

learning where behavior is influenced by its consequences. Behavior is increased by either giving something pleasent or taking away something unpleasemnt as reinforcemnt. Behavior is decreased when giving something unpleasent or taking away something pleasent. explains how children learn behaviors through rewards and consequences.

Classical Conditioning

learning process when we learn to associate two stimuli so that one begins to trigger a repsonse that orgininally only came afrter the other. explain how children develop automatic responses to certain stimuli

animal research/models

valuable when studying the memories of humans, as we are 96 to 99 percent similar, are part of the same animal kingdom and have structural similarities, like the brain. explain human long term and short term memories, rats experiment. when conducting animal research, there are three ethical conciderations, reduce the number of animals use, refine the amount of harm and replace with humans when possible

schema theory

schemas are mental molds into which we pour our expiriances, they help us organize information and predict outcomes. explains how we create stereotypes, as we categorize people, which can lead to overgeneralization so our percpetion fits our already made schemas.

Dual Processing Theory

outlines how humans think and make decisions based on two systems. system 1: fast thinking, automatic, quick, based on intuitions. system 2: slow thinking, deliberate, logical. The law of least effort states that we are cognitive misers, we might experiance ego depletion becasue even if we want to focus we cant and sometimes we have too much goign on in our mind becasue of cognitive overload. explains why people make irrational decisions and snap judgments.

Anchoring Bias

Part of the dual processing theory System 1. States that huamsn are anchored and prioritize the first piece of information they have received. effects social preceptions, as our first impressions of people can anchor our opinions on them.

Neurotransmission

a neuron sends a chemical messenger, a neurotransmitter, to a targeted cell, another neuron, across a tiny gap called the synapse. when the neurotransmitter enters the synapse, it can either bind to a receptor, reuptake or go back to the presynaptic nerve or be broken down by enzymes in our body. Serotonin is an neurotransmitter that impacts our mood, sleep and apetite, and low levels, meaning too many are broken down by enzymes, could cause depression.

confirmation bias

the tendency to look for information that supports your ideas, rather than rejects them, by interpreting evidence evidence to confirm existing beliefs and rejecting anything else. explains media consumption, how humans tend to watch news or social media that aligns with their worldview.

Cognitive Load Theory

Explains how our brain has a limited capacity and how too much information can overwhelm it and reduce learning. There are three types of cognitive loads: intrinsic: the natural difficulty of the material itself, extraneous: poor instructions, germane: the mental effort to process information into long term memory. the goal is to reduce cognitive overload by promoting effective learning and expanding long-term memory. explains stress and mental exhaustion.

biological reductionism

idea that we can understand human behavior and mental health problmes by looking just at the basic bilogical components them make them, like hormones, genes, neurotransmitters, and brain structure. explains how we can study depression by focusing purely on low serotonin levels, and ignoring the social and environmental factors. can lead to loss of meaning, oversimplification, and incompleteness.

localization of functions

idea that different part of the brain have specific different functions, tht are repsonsible for specific behaviors. there is a debate that brain structures and their functions sometimes overlap. explains how, after a brain injury to the amygdala, we have difficulties processing and regulating our emotions

Cognitive models

simplified representations of how our brains processes information and help psychologists predict human thought, memory, preceptions and decision making.

genetic inheritance

the process by which parents pass down their genes, a section of their DNA, to their offsprings. The DNA is the genetic information found in the cell of the body. each gene has a different versions called alleles that show how the trait apears. some genes make people more prone to impulsivity and risk taking.

Brain imaging techniques

tools to look at the structure and activity of the brain. we use surgerys, where we remove different part of the brain to see how that impacts human behavior, accidents, to see how brain damage has impacted their abilities, brain stimulation and brain imaging technology, such as EEG, CAT scans, MRI, fMRI, PET and etc. using an fMRI shows which parts of the brain are active when doing a specific task. for example, taxi drivers in London use their hippocampus extensively as they have to memorize each route.