GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 100: PSYCHOLOGY IN YOUR LIFE FINAL

Behaviorism

Conscious and unconscious mind weren't appropriate topics for psychological investigation. Environments effect behavior. (John B Watson & BF Skinner)

Psychoanalytic

Therapist and patient work together in bringing the contents of the patients unconscious into a patients conscious awareness . Once revealed the therapist helps the patient deal with it constructively. (Freud)

Descriptive Method

Research method provides systematic and objective description of what is occurring. Helpful in early stages of research

Observational Studies

Systematically assessing and coding observable behavior.

Self Reports

Interviews, Surveys

Case Studies

Few unique people or organizations

nervous system

A network of billions of cells in the brain and the body, responsible for all aspects of what we feel, think, and do.

Central Nervous System

The part of the nervous system that consists of the brain and the spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The part of the nervous system that enables nerves to connect the central nervous system with the muscles, organs, and glands.

Neurons

The basic units of the nervous system: cells that receive, integrate, and transmit information in the nervous system. Neurons operate through electrical impulses, communicate with other neurons through chemical signals, and form neural networks.

Dendrites

Branchlike extensions of the neuron with receptors that detect information from other neurons.

Cell Body

Part of the neuron where information from thousands of other neurons is collected and integrated.

Axon

A long narrow outgrowth of a neuron that enables the neuron to transmit information to other neurons.

Synapse

The site where communication occurs between neurons through neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters

chemical substances that transmit signals from one neuron to another

Encoding

The first process of making a memory.

Storage phase

Lets you maintain the information in your brain.

Retrieval

Process of accessing information from memory later.

Selective attention

The ability to direct mental resources to the most relevant information to further process it.

Sensory storage

Very brief maintenance system for sensory information. Most people can maintain things in their sensory storage for about .3 seconds.

Short-term storage

Simply a buffer, a holding place.

Working memory

Process that is included in short-term storage. It allows you to work on the information stored there (repeating a phone number in order to memorize it).

Chunking

Using working memory to organize information into meaningful groups or units.

Long-term storage

Your permanent memory. Consists of a massive amount of space - everything you've learned and ever will learn.

Maintenance rehearsal

Simply repeating the item over and over in order to memorize.

Elaborative rehearsal

Making information meaningful in some way in order to memorize.

Primacy effect

Better memory people have for the items at the beginning of a list.

Recency effect

Better memory for the most recent items on a list.

Retrieval

Process of accessing information from memory later.

Retrieval cue

Anything that helps a person access information in long-term storage.

Context-dependent memory effect

When a person is in the same environment the information was learned an therefore has aids surrounding them.

State-dependent memory effect

When a person is in the same mental state the information was learned in and is able to easily retrieve that information from memory.

Forgetting

The inability to retrieve memory from long-term storage

Retroactive interference

Access to older memories is impaired by newer memories.

Proactive interference

Access to newer memories is impaired by older memories.

Blocking

Temporarily unable to remember something

Absentmindedness

Inattentive or shallow encoding of events.

Memory bias

The changing of memories over time so that they become consistent with current beliefs or attitudes.

Flashbulb memories

The first time you heard about something shocking, the memory acts like a flash photo of the circumstances.

Suggestibility

The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections.

Developmental psychology

the scientific study of how humans change over the lifespan from conception until death

physical domain

growth of body, hormones, brain

socio-emotional domain

development effects social interactions, how we understand ourselves, interact with others, and experience and regulate emotion

cognitive domain

thinking, processing, problem solving

germinal period

conception, implantation, formation of placenta, period in prenatal development from conception to two weeks after conception when the zygote divides rapidly and implants in the uterine wall

embryonic period

2 weeks-8 weeks, formation of vital organs
brain, spine, major organs, and bodily structures begin to form in the embryo

fetal period

9 weeks-birth, bodily growth continues, movement capability, brain continues developing, bodily structures are refined, and the fetus grows in length and weight and accumulates fat

inborn reflexes

rooting reflex
sucking reflex
grasping reflex

Harlow monkey study

children can be comforted by contact with their mothers and fathers even if not fed by them

Attachment

refers to the unique intimate bond that develops between infant and caregivers

Secure attachment

upset when parent leaves, happy when comes back

Ambivalent attachment

very upset when parent leaves, not happy when comes back

Schema

set of expectations about objects and situations

Assimilation

incorporation of new learning into existing schema, without the need to revise the schema

Accommodation

incorperation of new learning into existing schema that requires the revision of the schema

Piaget's cognitive stage sensorimotor stage

birth-2yrs, acquire information through their senses and motor exploration, begins to act intentionally.
Achieves object permanence by realizing that things continue to exist even when no longer present to the senses

Piaget's cognitive stage 2:
pre-operational stage

2-7yrs, learns to use language and to represent objects by images and words, can think intuitively, not logically, classifies objects by single feature

Piaget's cognitive stage 3:
concrete operational stage

7-12yrs, children can reason about concrete but not abstract problems, take things literally, classifies by several features (single dimension, size)

Piaget's cognitive stage 4:formal operational stage

12 and up, mentally manipulate abstract concepts, scientific approach, think hypothetically, concerned with the future and ideological problems

egocentrism

having or regarding the self or the individual as the center of all things

Object permanence

the understanding that an object continues to exist even when it is hidden from view

Law of conservation

even if the appearance of a substance changes in one dimension, the properties of that substance remain unchanged

Erikson’s theory

Identified eight stages of personal and social development, each of which takes the form of a resolution of an identity crisis.

identity versus role confusion

fifth stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, in which adolescents face the challenge of figuring out who they are.

integrity versus despair

major psychosocial crisis of old age

ivan pavlov

known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs.

classical conditioning

learning that two stimuli go together

stimulus generalization

tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response

stimulus discrimination

differentiation between two similar stimuli when only one of them is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus

unconditioned stimulus

nothing is learned

unconditioned response

No learned reaction, unconscious
(salvation from food)

conditioned stimulus

stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place

conditioned response

a response to a conditioned stimulus (learned)

Stimulus generalization

ability to behave in a new situation in a way that has been learned in other similar situations

Stimulus discrimination

ability to distinguish between one stimulus and similar stimuli

Phobia

an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something

Little Albert Experiment

Operant Conditioning

method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behavior

Reinforcement

consequence that follows an operant response that increase (or attempts to increase) the likelihood of that response occurring in the future.

Positive Reinforcement

Introduction of a desirable or pleasant stimulus after a behavior

Positive Punishment

when you add a consequence to unwanted behavior

Negative Punishment

involves taking something good or desirable away to reduce the occurrence of a particular behavior

Premack principle

person will perform a less preferred activity (low probability behavior) to gain access to a more preferred activity

Modeling

method used in certain cognitive-behavioral techniques of psychotherapy whereby the client learns by imitation alone

Vicarious conditioning

learning by observing the reactions of others to an environmental stimulus that is salient to both the observer and the model

Observational learning

learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others

Biopsychosocial model

A model of health that integrates the effects of biological, behavioral, and social factors on health and illness

Stress

group of behavioral, mental, and physical processes occurring when events match or exceed the organism's ability to respond in a healthy way.

Stressor

An environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism

Major Life Stressors

Large Disruptions, especially unpredictable and uncontrollable catastrophic events, that affect central areas of people's lives.

Daily Hassles

Everyday irritations that cause small disruptions, the effects of which can add up to a large impact on health

Type A

Personality traits characterized by competitiveness, achievement orientation, aggressiveness, hostility, restlessness, impatience with others and an inability to relax.

Type B

pattern
Personality traits characterized by being noncompetitive, relaxed, easygoing, and accomodating

Type H

Mixture of Type A and Type B

Primary appraisals

Part of coping that involves making decisions about whether a stimulus is stressful

Secondary appraisals

The aspect of coping that involves deciding how to manage and respond to a stressful stimulus

Emotion-focused coping

A type of coping in which people try to prevent an emotional response to a stressor.d

Problem-focused coping

A type of coping in which people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor

Personal Attributions

People's explanations for why events or actions occur that refer to people's internal characteristics, such as abilities, traits, moods, or efforts.

Situational Attributions

People's explanations for why events or actions occur that refer to external events, such as the weather, luck, accidents, or other people's actions