General Psychology: Intelligence, Psychological Disorders, and Learning

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering theories of intelligence, psychopathology and DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, and behavioral conditioning and learning paradigms.

Construct Validity

The degree to which a test adequately and accurately assesses the specific theoretical construct or trait (such as intelligence) it was designed to measure.

Predictive Validity

The extent to which test results can successfully predict future performance or relevant real-world outcomes, such as academic grades or job success.

Internal Validity

The extent to which an experiment or research design is methodologically sound and allows for confident conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships.

External Validity

The extent to which research findings and conclusions can be generalized beyond the specific study context to other populations, settings, and times.

Alfred Binet and Henri Simon (1904)

French researchers who developed the first intelligence test to objectively measure intellectual performance and identify school children needing special education services.

Mental Age

The age corresponding to the average individual's performance on an intelligence test; a child who solves problems typical of older individuals exhibits a higher mental age.

Spatial Intelligence

The capacity to mentally manipulate, rotate, and understand spatial relationships between objects; it can be formally tested with mental rotation tests and trained using video games.

General Intelligence ($g$ Factor)

Charles Spearman's concept proposing that positive correlations across various mental ability subtests indicate a single underlying, common factor of overall mental capacity.

Crystallized Intelligence

Raymond Cattell's concept denoting the store of knowledge, facts, and learned skills accumulated over an individual's lifespan, which steadily increases from infancy into old age.

Fluid Intelligence

Raymond Cattell's concept denoting the innate capacity to think logically, reason abstractly, and solve novel problems, which typically peaks in young adulthood and declines into old age.

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Robert Sternberg's intelligence model identifying three primary components: analytical intelligence (mental steps used to solve problems), creative intelligence (using experience to foster insight), and practical intelligence (adapting to everyday life).

Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

A model proposing eight distinct intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist.

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

A standardized measure invented by Wilhelm Stern in $1912$, historically calculated using the formula: $\text{IQ} = \left(\frac{\text{Mental Age}}{\text{Chronological Age}}\right) \times 100$.

Normal Distribution of IQ Scores

A bell-shaped distribution of standardized test scores where the population mean is $100$, the standard deviation is $15$, and approximately $68.26\%$ of scores fall between $85$ and $115$.

Standardizing Test Scores

The procedure of administering an exam to a representative sample of an entire population to establish normative reference standards for comparing individual performances.

Neuronal Plasticity (in Intelligence)

The biological malleability of brain tissue linked to intelligence, in which prolonged childhood development of the cerebral cortex provides higher neuroplasticity across the lifespan.

The Flynn Effect

The substantial, long-sustained rise in average fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores measured across diverse populations worldwide over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

A commonly administered standardized test battery designed to evaluate adult intellectual functioning across various verbal and performance subtests.

Demonic Model

A Middle Ages conception attributing mental illnesses to evil spirits, demonic possession, or witchcraft, which were historically addressed with treatments such as exorcisms.

Medical Model (Renaissance)

A historical approach perceiving mental illness as a biological or physical illness requiring dedicated medical care, leading to the creation of asylums.

Moral Treatment

An Industrial Revolution reform movement championed by Phillippe Pinel in France and Dorothea Dix in the USA that advocated for humane and dignified conditions in psychiatric facilities.

Deinstitutionalization

A policy shift during the $1960\text{s}$ and $1970\text{s}$ aimed at releasing psychiatric patients from restrictive inpatient asylums into community-based mental health care settings.

Clinical Disorder

A psychological condition characterized by serious personal distress, impairment in everyday functioning, socially disruptive behaviors, and underlying biological or psychological dysfunction.

DSM-5

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th Edition), which provides clinical decision rules, explicit symptom thresholds, prevalence statistics, and criteria for differential diagnosis.

Diathesis-Stress Model

A psychological framework proposing that mental disorders develop from an interaction between internal predisposing vulnerabilities (genetic or biological) and precipitating environmental stressors.

Anorexia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by severe self-imposed restriction of food intake, an intense fear of weight gain, and significantly low body weight.

Bulimia Nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by recurrent cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory purging behaviors (such as self-induced vomiting or excessive exercise).

Borderline Personality Disorder

A personality disorder marked by extreme instability in interpersonal relationships, mood, self-image, and impulse control, leading to rapid emotional shifts.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

A personality disorder characterized by a chronic pattern of irresponsible, illegal actions, superficial charm, lack of remorse, and callous disregard for the rights of others.

Psychopathic Personality

A condition (not formally defined as a standalone disorder in DSM-5) marked by manipulativeness, egocentricity, superficial charm, low fear conditioning, and hypoarousal.

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder involving recurrent, unexpected panic attacks accompanied by persistent worry about experiencing additional attacks or maladaptive behavioral changes to avoid them.

Panic Attack

A sudden episode of overwhelming fear accompanied by physiological symptoms like sweating, nausea, heart palpitations, hyperventilation, trembling, chills, and dizziness.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

An anxiety disorder characterized by persistent, uncontrollable worry spanning multiple domains for at least $60\%$ of daily hours, accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, and muscle tension.

Specific Phobia

An intense, irrational, and persistent fear of a distinct object or situation lasting at least $6$ months, which is out of proportion to the real threat and provokes active avoidance.

Agoraphobia

An anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear and avoidance of places or environments (like open crowds or public transport) where escape might be difficult or embarrassing, lasting at least $6$ months.

Social Phobia

A marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which an individual is exposed to potential scrutiny, negative evaluation, or public humiliation, lasting at least $6$ months.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

A psychiatric disorder marked by intrusive, distressing thoughts (obsessions) and rigid repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) typically consuming more than $1\,\text{hour}$ per day.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A condition triggered by experiencing, witnessing, or learning of severe trauma, marked by intrusive flashbacks, avoidance of trauma reminders, negative mood alterations, and persistent hyperarousal.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

A mood disorder marked by severe depressive episodes with feelings of sadness, anhedonia, appetite/weight shifts, fatigue, cognitive trouble, and suicidal ideation, affecting around $16\%$ of Americans.

Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia)

A chronic low-grade mood disorder characterized by a depressed mood for most of the day, for more days than not, lasting continuously for at least $2$ years.

Bipolar I Disorder

A psychological condition characterized by the occurrence of at least one full manic episode lasting at least $1\,\text{week}$, regardless of whether major depressive episodes have occurred.

Bipolar II Disorder

A disorder characterized by a clinical history of at least one hypomanic episode (lasting at least $4$ days) and at least one major depressive episode, without any full manic episodes.

Schizophrenia

A severe psychiatric disorder marked by disruptions in thought, perception, and reality contact, presenting with positive symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech) and catatonia.

Comorbidity

The clinical condition in which two or more distinct medical or psychiatric disorders simultaneously co-occur in the same individual.

Habituation

A basic form of non-associative learning where an individual shows a progressive decrease in behavioral responsiveness or attention to a stimulus following repeated presentations.

Dishabituation

The recovery or increase in responsiveness toward a previously habituated stimulus following the presentation of a novel or altered stimulus.

Behaviorism

A theoretical orientation asserting that psychology should focus strictly on observable outward behaviors shaped by the environment, rather than internal, unobservable mental processes.

Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning

A learning procedure wherein an initially neutral stimulus becomes paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a learned conditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that automatically, naturally, and reflexively triggers an unlearned physiological or behavioral response without prior training.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

An unlearned, automatic, reflexive physiological or behavioral reaction elicited directly by an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, through repeated association with an unconditioned stimulus, acquires the capacity to elicit a learned conditioned response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response elicited by a conditioned stimulus after an association has been established through classical conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

A form of associative learning in which the future probability of an intentional behavior is modified by the consequences (reinforcement or punishment) that follow it.

Positive Reinforcement

An operant procedure where the presentation or addition ($$+$) of a rewarding stimulus increases the likelihood of the preceding behavior being repeated.

Negative Reinforcement

An operant procedure where the removal or termination ($-$) of an unpleasant or aversive stimulus increases the likelihood of the preceding behavior being repeated.

Positive Punishment

An operant consequence involving the addition ($$+$) of an aversive or noxious stimulus, which serves to decrease the future likelihood of a behavior.

Negative Punishment

An operant consequence involving the removal or withdrawal ($-$) of a desirable stimulus, which serves to decrease the future likelihood of a behavior.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Rules determining the delivery of reinforcers based on ratios or intervals, which systematically influence the cumulative response rate and resistance to extinction.

Acquisition

The initial learning phase during which an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus is established, forming a conditioned response.

Extinction

The gradual reduction and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response when a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The sudden reappearance of an apparently extinguished conditioned response after a rest period or delay without any renewed conditioning trials.

Stimulus Generalization

The tendency for stimuli that are perceptually similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit the conditioned response.

Stimulus Discrimination

The acquired ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli, exhibiting the conditioned response exclusively to specific target cues.

Conditioned Taste Aversion

A biological exception to classical conditioning rules where a severe avoidance reaction to a food taste develops after a single exposure, across delays of $6$ to $8\,\text{hours}$.

Thorndike's Law of Effect

A psychological principle stating that responses accompanied or followed closely by satisfaction (reinforcement) become more likely to reoccur, while those followed by discomfort become less likely.

Cognitive Map

An internal mental representation of external physical space used to acquire, code, store, recall, and decode environmental information.

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's concept demonstrating that individuals acquire novel behaviors through modeling and imitation of social models, as illustrated in the Bobo Doll Experiment.