Psych Definitions Quiz 2

Audience design

Constructing utterances to suit the audience’s knowledge.

Common ground

Information that is shared by people who engage in a conversation.

Linguistic intergroup bias

A tendency for people to characterize positive things about their ingroup using more abstract expressions, but negative things about their outgroups using more abstract expressions.

Priming

A stimulus presented to a person reminds him or her about other ideas associated with the stimulus.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

The hypothesis that the language that people use determines their thoughts.

Situation model

A mental representation of an event, object, or situation constructed at the time of comprehending a linguistic description.

Social brain hypothesis

The hypothesis that the human brain has evolved, so that humans can maintain larger ingroups.

Social networks

Networks of social relationships among individuals through which information can travel.

Theory of Mind

The human capacity to understand minds, a capacity that is made up of a collection of concepts and processes.

Automatic empathy

A social perceiver unwittingly taking on the internal state of another person.

False-belief test

An experimental procedure that assesses whether a perceiver recognizes that another person has a false belief.

Folk explanations of behavior

People’s natural explanations for why somebody did something or felt something.

Intention

An agent’s mental state of committing to perform an action believed to bring about a desired outcome.

Intentionality

The quality of an agent’s performing a behavior intentionally.

Joint attention

Two people attending to the same object and being aware that they both are attending to it.

Mirror neurons

Neurons that fire both when an action is performed and perceived.

Projection

A social perceiver’s assumption that the other person shares their wants, knowledge, or feelings.

Simulation

The process of representing another person’s mental state.

Synchrony

Two people displaying the same behaviors or having the same internal states.

Visual perspective taking

Perceiving something from another person’s spatial vantage point.

Basic-level category

The neutral, preferred category for a given object.

Concept

The mental representation of a category.

Exemplar

An example in memory that represents a particular category.

Psychological essentialism

The belief that members of a category have an unseen property that defines them.

Typicality

The difference in “goodness” of category members.

Concrete operations stage

Piagetian stage between ages 7 and 12 when children think logically about concrete situations.

Conservation problems

Problems involving transformation of objects that change a perceptually salient dimension but not quantity.

Formal operations stage

Piagetian stage starting at age 12, where adolescents gain reasoning powers of educated adults.

Object permanence task

Piagetian task assessing infants' understanding of object existence beyond sight.

Phonemic awareness

Awareness of the sound components within words.

Preoperational reasoning stage

Stage from age 2 to 7 where children can represent objects but not solve logical reasoning problems.

Qualitative changes

Large, fundamental changes in development.

Quantitative changes

Gradual, incremental changes in development.

Sociocultural theories

Theories emphasizing the influence of social relationships on children’s development.

Endophenotypes

Genetic characteristics that reflect a liability for disease.

Event-related potentials (ERP)

Measures neuronal activity in response to specific types of information.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Technique measuring oxygen levels in the brain related to neural activity.

Social brain

Neuroanatomical structures that allow understanding actions and intentions of others.

Authoritative parenting

A parenting style characterized by high expectations and good communication.

Effortful control

A temperament quality aiding in self-regulation.

Family Stress Model

Describes negative effects of family financial difficulty on child adjustment.

Gender schemas

Organized beliefs and expectations about gender.

Goodness of fit

Match between child’s temperament and parental care that influences development.

Security of attachment

An infant’s confidence in caregiver's sensitivity and responsiveness.

Social referencing

Consulting emotional expressions of others to evaluate responses to uncertain situations.

Temperament

Early differences in reactivity and self-regulation affecting personality.

Cultural display rules

Learned rules managing emotional expressions according to social circumstances.

Interpersonal functions of emotion

Effects of one's emotions on relationships.

Intrapersonal functions of emotion

Effects of emotion within oneself.

Social and cultural functions of emotion

Effects of emotions on societal and cultural operations.

Attachment behavioral system

Motivational system evolved to maintain proximity to primary attachment figure.

Attachment behaviors

Behaviors attracting a primary attachment figure's attention.

Attachment figure

Primary safe haven and secure base for an individual.

Attachment patterns

Individual differences in secure vs. insecure attachment.

Strange situation

Task involving separating and reuniting infants with caregivers to study attachment.

Deviant peer contagion

Spread of problem behaviors among adolescents.

Differential susceptibility

Genetic responsiveness to environmental experiences.

Foreclosure

Committing to an identity without exploring options.

Homophily

Tendency for adolescents to associate with similar peers.

Identity achievement

Explored options and made commitments regarding identity.

Identity diffusion

Neither exploring nor committing to roles or ideologies.

Moratorium

Actively exploring options without identity commitments.

Psychological control

Intrusion into adolescents' emotional and cognitive worlds by parents.

Emerging adulthood

Life stage from ages 18 to 25 characterized by identity exploration.

Individualism

Belief system valuing freedom and independence.

Age identity

How old people feel compared to their chronological age.

Autobiographical narratives

Research method for understanding individual life themes.

Convoy Model of Social Relations

Theory on how social exchanges change with age.

Cross-sectional studies

Research method comparing age group differences.

Crystallized intelligence

Intellectual ability relying on knowledge and experience.

Fluid intelligence

Intelligence involving logical reasoning and problem-solving.

Global subjective well-being

Individuals' perceptions and satisfaction with their lives.

Hedonic well-being

Emotional experiences including positive and negative affect.

Inhibitory functioning

Ability to suppress attention to less relevant information.

Intra- and inter-individual differences

Differences in development observed within or between individuals.

Life course theories

Theories emphasizing social expectations and events affecting development.

Life span theories

Theories focusing on differences in developmental trajectories.

Longitudinal studies

Research method tracking changes over multiple time points.

Psychometric approach

Examines performance on tests of intellectual functioning.

Self-perceptions of aging

Individual views on their aging process.

Social network

Network of people closely connected providing support.

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

Theory explaining reduction of social partners in older adulthood.

Successful aging

Avoiding disease and maintaining high levels of functioning.

Working memory

System for simultaneously storing and manipulating information.

G

General factor common to cognitive ability measures.

IQ

Score obtained from intelligence measures compared to others.

Norm

Range of scores determined from representative sample assessments.

Standardize

Giving assessments in the same manner to all.

Stereotype threat

Concern about conforming to a stereotype affecting performance.

Satisfaction

Correspondence between individual needs and environmental rewards.

Satisfactoriness

Correspondence between individual abilities and environmental requirements.

Specific abilities

Cognitive abilities with significant components of general intelligence.

Under-determined causal models

Psychological frameworks neglecting critical determinants.

Anchoring

Bias influenced by an initial arbitrary anchor.

Bounded awareness

Failing to notice obvious information.

Bounded ethicality

Systematic limitations in ethics without awareness.

Bounded rationality

Model suggesting decisions are limited by cognitive capacities.

Bounded self-interest

Predictable ways individuals consider others' outcomes.

Bounded willpower

Greater weight placed on present concerns over future.

Framing

Bias affected by how information is presented.