PSYC 101 Exam 3 Vocab

Basic Memory Model

Simple model with three stages of memory; sensory memory short term memory and long term memory.

Sensory Memory

Very brief initial recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Short Term Memory

Activated memory that holds a small amount of information for a short time before it is stored or forgotten.

Long Term Memory

Relatively permanent and essentially limitless storehouse of the memory system.

Encoding

Process of getting information into the memory system so it can be stored.

Storage

Retention of encoded information over time.

Retrieval

Process of getting information out of memory storage.

Deep Processing

Encoding information based on meaning; leads to better long term retention than shallow processing.

Rehearsal

Conscious repetition of information to maintain it in short term memory or encode it into long term memory; Example: going over flashcards repeatedly.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar manageable units; Example: breaking a phone number into three groups of digits.

Explicit Memory

Memory of facts and personal events that you can consciously know and declare.

Implicit Memory

Retention of learned skills or conditioned associations without conscious awareness; Example: riding a bike or typing.

Semantic Memory Channel

Part of long term memory that stores meanings facts and general knowledge.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Encoding strategy that links new information with existing knowledge or with meaningful examples.

Context-dependent Memory

Improved recall when the external context at retrieval matches the context at encoding; Example: remembering material better in the same classroom where you learned it.

Misinformation Effect

When misleading information presented after an event distorts a person’s memory of that event; Example: leading questions changing eyewitness reports.

Source Amnesia

Difficulty remembering where or how previously learned information was acquired while retaining the fact itself; Example: remembering a fact but not whether you heard it from a friend or on TikTok.

Representativeness Heuristic

Mental shortcut where we judge the likelihood of something by how well it matches our prototype; Example: assuming a quiet person is more likely a librarian than a salesperson.

Hindsight Bias

Tendency after learning an outcome to believe you would have predicted it; the “I knew it all along” effect.

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to search for notice and remember information that confirms our preexisting beliefs; Example: watching only news that matches your political views.

Functional Fixedness

Mental tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual function; Example: not seeing a box as something that can be used to hold a candle.

Framing Effect

How an issue is posed affects decisions and judgments; Example: people prefer a procedure with a “90 percent survival rate” over “10 percent mortality” even though they are the same.

Premature Closing/Anchoring

Tendency to latch onto an initial diagnosis or decision and close off consideration of alternatives; Example: assuming symptoms are purely psychological and ignoring physical causes.

Hassle Bias

Tendency to choose the option that involves the least hassle or effort rather than the option that may be best for the patient or situation.

Regret Bias

Tendency to choose actions that will minimize future regret or guilt; Example: ordering extra tests mainly to avoid feeling responsible for a missed diagnosis.

Wisdom of the Crowd Effect

Idea that individual judgments may be inaccurate but averaging many people’s judgments often produces a very accurate answer.

Processing Speed

How quickly a person can take in understand and respond to information; measured by timed tasks on the WAIS.

Working Memory

Short term mental “workspace” that holds information and allows us to manipulate it; involves both keeping and processing information.

Verbal Intelligence

Aspect of intelligence measured by verbal tasks such as vocabulary information comprehension and similarities.

Performance Intelligence

Aspect of intelligence measured by nonverbal tasks such as block design picture completion and picture arrangement.

Stereotype Threat

Feeling at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group which can interfere with performance; Example: women doing worse on a math test after stereotypes about women and math are mentioned.

Flynn Effect

Long term worldwide rise in average IQ scores observed over generations.

Drive Reduction Model of Motivation

Theory that physiological needs create an aroused state or drive that motivates an organism to satisfy the need; Example: hunger leads to eating.

Psychoanalytic Model of Motivation

View that behavior is driven by both conscious and unconscious motives and conflicts as described by Freud.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Motivation

Motivation theory that human needs are arranged in a hierarchy from basic physiological needs up through safety love and belonging esteem and finally self actualization.

Stages of Change Model of Motivation

Model of how people change addictive behaviors; stages are precontemplation contemplation preparation action and maintenance.

Explicit Motivation

Conscious stated goals that a person is aware of; Example: “I want to get an A in this class.”

Implicit Motivation

Unconscious goals measured by projective tests such as needs for achievement power or intimacy that influence behavior outside awareness.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Projective test where people make up stories about ambiguous pictures; their stories reveal implicit motives and themes.

James Lange Theory of Emotion

Body based theory that emotions result from our awareness of physiological responses to stimuli; we feel afraid because we notice our body shaking.

Schachter-Singer Theory of Emotion

Theory that emotion results from physiological arousal plus a cognitive label; the same arousal can be interpreted as different emotions depending on context.

Differences between emotion theories in terms of the role of conscious appraisal

James Lange emphasizes bodily feedback with little conscious interpretation while Schachter-Singer emphasizes conscious appraisal and labeling of arousal in creating emotion.

Implications of theories for psychotherapy

James Lange suggests changing bodily states can change feelings; Schachter-Singer suggests changing interpretations and thoughts about arousal can change feelings.

Cognitive Therapy

Therapy that focuses on identifying and changing distorted patterns of thinking that cause emotional problems; Example: challenging catastrophizing thoughts.

Emotion Focused Therapy

Therapy approach that views emotion as a separate system from cognition and helps clients become aware of transform and use emotions constructively.

Emotion Chaining

Process where one emotion triggers another leading to escalating reactions; Example: anger leads to fear of being angry which creates even more anger.

Affect Storms

Intense rapidly shifting emotional episodes created by emotion chaining and potentiation; like an emotional “storm.”

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

Official manual used by clinicians to classify and diagnose psychological disorders based on specific criteria.

Neurotic Disorders

Distressing psychological conditions typically involving intense emotions or risky behavior but without loss of contact with reality.

Personality Disorders

Long standing inflexible and maladaptive personality traits that cause problems in social or occupational functioning.

Psychotic Disorders

Severe psychological disorders characterized by loss of contact with reality including delusions hallucinations and disorganized thinking.

Biopsychosocial Model of Psychopathology

Perspective that psychological disorders result from interaction of biological psychological and social factors rather than from one cause alone.

Psychological Dependence on a Drug

Emotional or mental need to use a drug often to relieve negative emotions or stress.

Physical Dependence on a Drug

Physiological adaptation to a drug marked by tolerance and withdrawal symptoms when the drug is stopped.

Disease Model of Addiction

View that addiction is a medical disease in which certain people have a genetic or biological vulnerability that makes substances more reinforcing.

Type I and Type II Alcoholics

Type I has later onset and is generally less severe; Type II has early onset is more severe and is strongly influenced by genetics and seen mostly in men.

Alcoholics Anonymous Model of Recovery

12 step spiritual and support based group approach that views alcoholism as a lifelong condition and emphasizes sobriety service and reliance on a higher power.

Family Systems Model of Addiction

View that the family as a whole contributes to development and maintenance of alcohol problems through roles rules and interactions.

Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia

Idea that schizophrenia involves elevated dopamine activity in certain brain systems.

Stress Diathesis Model of Schizophrenia

Model suggesting schizophrenia develops when a biological vulnerability (diathesis) is triggered by stressful life events.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Disorder with unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and actions (compulsions) that the person recognizes as unreasonable and that take more than an hour a day.

Panic Disorder

Anxiety disorder marked by sudden episodes of intense dread or terror often with chest pain choking or other frightening sensations.

Major Depression

Mood disorder with at least two weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest plus other symptoms and significant impairment.

Phobias

Anxiety disorders involving persistent excessive and unreasonable fear of specific objects or situations leading to avoidance.

Behaviorism/Learning Theory Model of Addiction

Model emphasizing how classical conditioning operant conditioning and social learning contribute to substance use and relapse.

Triggers to Substance Use

Situations internal states or cues that have become associated with substance use and therefore elicit craving or use.

Dream Analysis (Psychoanalysis)

Technique where the therapist interprets manifest dream content to uncover latent unconscious conflicts or wishes.

Interpretation

Therapist’s explanations of the meaning of behaviors dreams or resistances to help the client gain insight.

Resistance

Client’s unconscious blocking of anxiety provoking material from awareness often by changing topics missing sessions or joking.

Transference

Process in which a client unconsciously transfers feelings about important figures from the past onto the therapist.

Free Association

Psychoanalytic technique in which the patient says whatever comes to mind in order to uncover unconscious material.

Systematic Desensitization

Behavior therapy using relaxation and a hierarchy of feared situations to gradually replace anxiety with relaxation through imagined or real exposure.

Flooding

Exposure technique in which the person is exposed to the feared situation at full intensity until anxiety decreases.

Cognitive Thought Record

Tool used in cognitive therapy where clients write down situations thoughts feelings and alternative balanced thoughts.

Electro-convulsive Therapy

Biomedical treatment for severe depression in which a brief electric current is passed through the brain of an anesthetized patient.

First Antipsychotic: Thorazine and the impact on the state hospital system

Thorazine was the first major antipsychotic medication; its use led to a dramatic decline in long term hospitalization in state and county mental hospitals.

How psychopharmacology works. Example: Prozac

Many psychiatric drugs change neurotransmitter activity; Prozac is an SSRI that blocks the reuptake of serotonin into the presynaptic neuron increasing serotonin in the synapse.

Psychedelic Treatments: Emerging evidence base for types of disorders they may be able to treat

Early research suggests psychedelics such as psilocybin MDMA ketamine and LSD may help with depression anxiety PTSD and addiction when used in controlled therapeutic settings.

Psychedelics: Stages of the intervention approach

Standard psychedelic therapy model with preparation sessions a supervised dosing session and later integration sessions to process the experience.

Psychedelics & the Default Mode Network

Psychedelics alter activity in the brain’s default mode network and increase communication between brain regions that usually do not interact which may relate to changes in self experience.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Theory that we feel discomfort when our thoughts or behaviors are inconsistent and we are motivated to reduce that discomfort by changing our attitudes or actions.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency when explaining others’ behavior to underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate personal traits.

Obedience Study

Milgram’s experiment in which participants believed they were giving electric shocks to a learner; showed that many people obey authority even when orders conflict with their morals.

Groupthink

Faulty group decision making when the desire for harmony or conformity overrides realistic appraisal of alternatives.

Bystander Effect

Tendency for an individual to be less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present.

Stanford Prison Experiment

Study in which college students randomly assigned as guards or prisoners quickly adopted abusive or submissive roles; showed how powerful social roles and the situation can be.

Descriptive Norms

Beliefs about what people actually do in a situation; Example: “Most guests reuse their towels.”

Injunctive Norms

Beliefs about what behaviors other people approve or disapprove of; Example: “Guests think conserving water is the right thing to do.”

Towel Conservation Study

Hotel study comparing messages based on descriptive norms and injunctive norms; found that messages about what most guests actually do (descriptive norms) increased towel reuse the most.