ap psych comprehensive test 2

Psychology

The science of human behavior & mental processes.

The Biological Perspective

Emphasizes the links between biology (genetics, neurology, ability to adapt) and behavior.

Ecology

The science of the relationships between organisms and their environment.

The Environmental Perspective

Emphasizes the non-genetic influences from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Culture

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, technology, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

The Cognitive Perspective

Emphasizes the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

The Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective

Emphasizes that biological, psychological (cognitive), and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce behavior - including psychological disorders.

Triangulation

Comparison of at least two views or explanations of the same thing.

Epistemology

The study and theory of the nature of Knowledge.

Empiricism

The view that (a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and (b) science flourishes through observation and experiment.

Critical Thinking

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions; it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking, assumptions, methods, goals.

Introspection

Reporting on subjective (conscious) events, feelings, and experiences.

Reflexivity

Metacognition that is critical and honest concerning one's own influences and motives; the "U-N-the Process of thought."

Schema

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Framing

The way an issue or a questions is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments; 90% chance of living vs. 10% chance of dying.

Emotion

A response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience.

Empathy

Understanding so intimate that the feelings, thoughts, and motives of one are readily comprehended by another.

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others.

Reciprocity

The mutual or cooperative interchange of favors.

Equity

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.

Self-Disclosure

Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others.

Relative Deprivation

The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.

Upward Comparison

When we view ourselves as worse off than the standard for comparison.

Downward Comparison

Seeing ourselves as better off than the standard for comparison.

Facial Expressions

Researched by Paul Ekman; a universal form of "body language" that reveals one's emotions; "For news of the heart, ask the face" - Guinean proverb; true for the blind and all cultures - even if it is not considered appropriate.

Facial Feedback

Researched by James Laird; when sad face muscles are consciously or artificially activated one feels sad - the reverse is true for happy face muscles.

Radar for Threats

Researched by Arne Ohman; people spot an angry face in the crowd before a happy face.

Experience Influences How We Perceive Emotions

Researched by Sue Pollock; abused children perceive fear as anger more quickly than non-abused children.

James-Lange Theory

The theory that our experience of emotion is our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.

Cannon-Bard Theory

The theory that emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion.

Schachter & Singer's Two-Factor Theory

Explains that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal.

Theories of Emotion

The theories of emotions include James-Lange, Cannon-Bard, Schachter-Singer, Zajonc-LeDoux, and Lazarus.

Two Routes to Emotion

Zajonc and LeDoux emphasize that some emotions are immediate, without conscious appraisal. Lazarus, Schachter, and Singer emphasize that appraisal also determines emotions. Also states that emotional information can be characterized in two dimensions (1) arousal or (2) valence

Behavior Feedback Effect

The tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Other-Race Effect

The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races.

Relational Aggression

An act of aggression (physical or verbal) intended to harm a person's relationship or social standing.

passionate love

an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship

affiliation need

the need to build relationships and to feel part of a group

yerkes-dodson law

the principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases

companionate love

the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

feel-good, do-good phenomenon

people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

subjective well-being

self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.

adaptation-level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

polygraph

a machine used in attempts to detect lies that measures several of the physiological responses (such as respiration, heart rate, and breathing changes) accompanying emotion

catharsis

in psychology, the idea that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

intrinsic motivation

a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

extrinsic motivation

a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment

overjustification effect

the effect of promising a reward for doing what one already likes to do. The person may now see the reward, rather than intrinsic interest, as the motivation for performing the task.

hierarchy of needs

Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active

instinct

a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned

drive-reduction theory

the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

homeostasis

a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level

glucose

the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger.

set point

the point at which your "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When your body falls below this weight, increased hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may combine to restore the lost weight

basal metabolic rate

the body's resting rate of energy output

anorexia nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly underweight; sometimes accompanied by excessive exercise

bulmia nervosa

an eating disorder in which a person's binge eating (usually of high-calorie foods) is followed by inappropriate weight-loss promoting behavior, such as vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise

sexual response cycle

the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson - excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution

refractory period

as in neutral processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired; subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state. in human sexuality, a resting period that occurs after orgasm, during which a person cannot achieve another orgasm

sexual disorder

a problem consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning at any point in the sexual response cycle

estrogen

sex hormones, such as estradiol, that contribute to female sex characteristics and are secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics. In nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity

sexual orientation

an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation) or both sexes (bisexual orientation)

industrial-organizational psychology

the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces

personnel psychology

an I/O psychology subfield that helps with job seeking, and with employee recruitment, selection, placement, training, appraisal, and development

structured interviews

interview process that asks the same job-relevant questions of all applicants, each of whom is rated on established scales

achievement motivation

a desire for significant accomplishment: for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for attaining a high standard

task leadership

goal-oriented leadership that sets standards, organizes work, and focuses attention on goals

social leadership

group-oriented leadership that builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support

theory X

assumes that workers are basically lazy, error-prone, and extrinsically motivated by money and, thus, should be directed from above.

theory Y

assumes that, given challenge and freedom, workers are motivated to achieve self-esteem and to demonstrate their competence and creativity.

emotional intelligence

researched by Daniel Goleman, the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

triangular theory of love

a scientific analysis on love based on the observations of intimacy, passion, and commitment

objective well-being

people's quality of life evaluated through physical and economic indicators

flow and diagram

researched by Csikszentmihalyi; a completely involved, focused state of consciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal engagement of one's skills

Othello error

mistaking the fear of not being believed for the fear of being caught

deception clues

convoluted answers or sophisticated evasions; long pauses--'uhh...uhh'; people with a conscience want to confess, those w/o brag of their skill in lying and show "duping delight"

interviewer illusion

interviewers overrate their abilities to discern people's skills

halo error

overall evaluation on appearance or friendliness; one trait

leniency and severity errors

too easy or too harsh

recency error

focus on easy to remember recent behavior

instrumental behaviors

directed at achieving some emotion-relevant goal

approach-approach conflict

occurs when we face two attractive alternatives and selecting one means losing the other

avoidance-avoidance conflict

occurs when we must choose between two undesirable alternatives

approach-avoidance conflict

involves being attracted to and repelled by the same goal

expectancy X value theory

goal-directed behavior is jointly influenced by (1) the person's expectancy that a particular behavior will contribute to reaching the goal and (2) how positively or negatively the person values the goal

personality

an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Rorschach inkblot test

the most widely used projective test; a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

defense mechanism

in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

rationalization

defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions

denial

defense mechanism that refuses to accept reality or fact

displacement

defense mechanism that redirects anger toward a safer outlet

projection

defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

reaction formation

defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

free association

in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

unconscious

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. according to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware

id

a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. It operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification