PSYC102 Comprehensive Lecture & E-Text Flashcards

A comprehensive vocabulary flashcard set covering foundational psychology topics including research methods, statistics, evolutionary psychology, emotion, cognitive development, attachment, cooperation, decision-making, anxiety, mood disorders, personality disorders, and positive psychology.

Systematic Observation

The careful, organized observation of the natural world under controlled or varied conditions to gather objective data and track or tally information.

Empirical Methods

Approaches to scientific inquiry that are directly tied to actual measurement and systematic observation.

Hypothesis

A specific, logical, and testable prediction derived from a theory about what will be observed under certain conditions.

Theory

A comprehensive framework or set of interrelated ideas that explains and predicts observed real-world phenomena.

Falsifiability

A defining feature of a scientific claim or theory, meaning that it can be conceivably tested and demonstrated to be false or untrue.

Operational Definition

Defining an abstract psychological construct specifically in terms of the exact procedures or operations used to measure and observe it.

Independent Variable

The variable in an experiment that is intentionally manipulated or controlled by the researcher to observe its effect.

Dependent Variable

The outcome variable in an experiment that is measured by the researcher and depends on changes in the independent variable.

Random Assignment

The procedure of assigning participants to different experimental conditions purely by chance, ensuring that groups are equivalent on average prior to manipulation.

Confound

An uncontrolled factor or variable that varies systematically with the independent variable, undermining the ability to draw clear causal conclusions.

Placebo Effect

A phenomenon where participants experience measurable changes in behavior, perception, or health simply due to receiving a treatment or believing they are receiving a treatment.

Double-Blind Procedure

An experimental setup in which neither the research participants nor the experimenters interacting with them know which condition each participant has been assigned to.

Correlation Coefficient ($r$)

A statistic summarizing the direction and strength of the linear association between two variables, ranging from $-1.0$ to $+1.0$.

Longitudinal Study

A research design that repeatedly tracks and observes the exact same group of individuals over an extended period of time.

Quasi-Experimental Design

A study design that compares pre-existing groups (e.g., married vs. single) on a dependent variable without using random assignment to conditions.

$p$-value

The probability of obtaining an observed sample result (or one more extreme) purely by random chance, assuming the null hypothesis is true.

Margin of Error

The expected range of random sampling variation around a sample statistic, typically calculated for a $95\%$ confidence level.

Null Hypothesis

A default statistical proposition asserting that no real relationship or difference exists between variables or conditions in the broader population.

Type I Error

The error committed when a researcher incorrectly rejects a true null hypothesis (a false positive).

Type II Error

The error committed when a researcher fails to reject a false null hypothesis (a false negative).

Null Hypothesis Decision Matrix

A framework contrasting actual reality against research findings to evaluate accurate detections versus Type I and Type II errors.

Levels of Analysis

The concept that a single phenomenon can be simultaneously understood and explained at complementary levels (e.g., biological, cognitive, behavioral, social/cultural).

Natural Selection

Differential reproductive success resulting from heritable differences in traits that aid an organism's survival and reproduction.

Sexual Selection

The evolution of characteristics due to the mating advantages they confer rather than direct survival benefits.

Intrasexual Competition

A process of sexual selection in which members of one sex compete directly against each other for mating access to members of the opposite sex.

Intersexual Selection

A process of sexual selection in which evolution is driven by the mate preferences of one sex choosing specific desired qualities in the opposite sex.

Gene Selection Theory

The modern evolutionary theory stating that differential gene replication is the ultimate defining process driving evolutionary change.

Inclusive Fitness

An individual's total genetic success, measured by their direct reproductive success plus their indirect effects on the survival and reproduction of genetic relatives.

Psychological Adaptation

An evolved information-processing mechanism in the mind designed to solve specific ancestral problems of survival or reproduction.

Sexual Strategies Theory

An evolutionary theory proposing that human mating preferences and behaviors depend adaptively on short-term versus long-term contexts, parental investment, and gender.

Error Management Theory (EMT)

A theory positing that under conditions of uncertainty, adaptive cognitive biases evolve to consistently err toward the less costly error.

Sexual Overperception Bias

A male cognitive bias predicted by EMT wherein men tend to misinterpret minimal friendly cues from women as signals of sexual interest.

Ought-Is Problem

The logical fallacy of allowing one's moral beliefs about how the world should be to dictate what one concludes is factually true about reality.

Is-Ought Problem (Naturalistic Fallacy)

The logical error of asserting that because a trait or behavior exists in nature or evolved, it is inherently good, moral, or desirable.

Exaptation

A trait or feature that originally evolved for one specific function but was later co-opted through evolution to serve a different adaptive purpose.

Vestigial Trait

An ancestral structure or characteristic that persists within a population despite having lost its original evolutionary function or benefit.

Environment of Evolutionary Adaptiveness (EEA)

The specific ancestral environment and set of selection pressures under which a given adaptation originally evolved.

Mismatch Theory

The principle that adaptations selected for ancestral environments (EEA) can lead to non-optimal or maladaptive outcomes in modern environments.

Heuristics

Cognitive short-cuts or rules of thumb that simplify complex decision-making processes.

James-Lange Theory of Emotion

A theory proposing that an emotion-provoking stimulus triggers a specific physiological reaction, which is then subjectively perceived as the emotion.

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

The hypothesis stating that physical facial muscle movement can directly influence and modulate subjective emotional experiences.

Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory

A theory proposing that emotion results from two factors: general physiological arousal and a cognitive label applied to explain that arousal based on environmental cues.

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Antonio Damasio's theory proposing that emotional bodily reactions ('somatic markers') guide and facilitate complex decision-making processes.