Psych Final

culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, technology, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

the bio-psycho-social perspective

emphasizes the biological, psychological (cognitive), and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce behavior-including psychological disorders

triangulation

comparison of at least two view or explanations of the same thing

metacognition

thinking about thinking, assumptions, methods, goals

reflexivity

metacognition that is critical and honest concerning one's own influences and motives; the "U-N-the Process of thought"

framing

the way an issue or a question is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgment; 90% chance of living vs. 10% chance of dying

emotion

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

reciprocity

the mutual or cooperative interchange of favors

relative deprivation

the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

subjective well-being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.

adaptation-level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgment (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

intrinsic motivation

a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake

drive-reduction theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

homeostasis

a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level

the halo error

overall evaluation on appearance or friendliness; one trait

approach-approach conflict

occurs when we face two attractive alternatives and sleeking one means losing the other

avoidance-avoidance conflict

occurs when we must choose between two undesirable alternatives

approach-avoidance conflict

involves being attracted to and repelled by the same goal

displacement

psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

projection

psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

psychosexual stages

the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

trait

a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

spotlight effect

overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance and blunders (As if we presume a ____ shines on us).

passive aggressive

a DM where the individual indirectly and unassertively expresses aggression towards others

reciprocal determinism

the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors

Albert Bandura

Reciprocal Determinism was researched by

external locus of control

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one's personal control determine one's fate

Julian Rotter

External Locus of Control was researched by

learned helplessness

the hopelessness and passive resignation and animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

Martin Seligman

Learned Helplessness was researched by

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism - emotional stability

The Big 5 Factors, OCEAN

regression

a DM in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Freud's iceberg model

consciousness is like an iceberg's visible tip. The id is totally unconscious, but ego and superego operate both consciously and unconsciously.

congruence

consistency between self-perceptions and experience

self-efficacy

beliefs concerning one's ability to perform the behaviors needed to achieve desired outcomes; your personal control

working memory

a newer understanding of short-term memory that involves conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

spacing effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

imagery

mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding

iconic memory

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

long-term potentation

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

explicit memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare." Also called declarative memory

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

proactive interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

autobiographical memory

recollections of personally experienced events that make up the stories of our lives

overlearning

refers to continued rehearsal past the point of initial learning, and it significantly improves performance on memory tests

concept

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

prototype

a mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to this provides a good and easy method for including items in a category

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier--but also more error-prone--use of heuristics.

heuristic

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but more error-prone than algorithms

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

functional fixedness

the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

anchoring

the tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response towards that point

loss aversion

researched by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky; losing $100 produces a feeling of negativity that is more intense than the feelings of elation produced by a gain of $100

convergent thinking

conventional thinking; thinking directed toward a single correct solution

divergent thinking

thinking that produces many alternatives or ideas; creativity

script

a schema that unfolds in a regular or standardized order

means-ends analysis

identify differences between the present situation and the desired goal, then make changes that will reduce the differences

linguistic determinism

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

displacement

language allows us to communicate about events and objects that are not physically present.

surface structure

consists of the symbols that are used and their order.

deep structure

the underlying meaning of the combined symbols.

language acquisition device (LAD)

an innate biological mechanism that contains the general grammatical rules common to all languages.

semantic drift

the tendency for words' meanings to morph gradually over time to the point that the distance between the original meaning and the current one can be quite striking: silly used to mean blessed.

semantic broadening

the development over time of a word's meaning into one more general: bird once referred to small birds but now refers to all birds.

semantic narrowing

the development over time of a word's meaning into one more specific: hound once referred to all dogs but now refers to only a subset of them.

semantic overlap

the range that words share in common in contrast to how they are specifically different: intelligence, skill and wisdom share a common core and have their own exact definitions.

esperanto

the most successful of the many artificial languages

Ludwig Zamenhof

creator of esperanto

critical-age hypothesis

the ability to acquire language flawlessly decreases sharply after puberty; referred to extensively by the Chomskyan school as evidence that the ability to learn language is innately specified.

pidgin

a makeshift, reduced version of a language used by people with little need or inclination to master the language itself, usually for purposes of trade; if used as an everyday language, a _____ can form a grammar and become a real language, a creole. Derek Bickerton observed this process among the children of migrant workers in Hawaii; thus supporting Chomsky's theory that grammar is innate.

Derek Bickerton

who observed a pidgin process

creole

the result of the expansion of a reduced version of language (a pidgin) into a full language.

habituation

decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

mutation

a random error in gene replication that leads to a change.

assimilation

interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas.

accommodation

adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.

conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects.

theory of mind

people's ideas about their own and others' mental stages---about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior these might predict.

attachment

an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.

critical period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development.

imprinting

the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.

Konrad Lorenz

researcher of Imprinting

cross-sectional study

a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another.

longitudinal study

research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

authoritarian parents

assertion of parental power without warmth; rejecting relationship.

authoritative parents

demanding, but caring; good child-parent communication.

indulgent parents

warm toward child, but lax in setting limits.

neglecting parents

indifferent and uninvolved with child.

zone of proximal development

the difference between what a child can do independently and what the child can do with assistance from adults or more advanced peers.

Lev Vygotsky

researcher of zone of proximal development

the expectancy-violation procedure

we look at the unusual because we are surprised and curious.

Renee Raillargeon

person who used the expectancy-violation procedure to research infants

temperament

a person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.

heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The _____ of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied.

interaction

the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity).