AP Psychology Flashcards - Biological Bases of Behavior, Cognition, Development and Learning, Social and Personality, Mental and Physical Health

1.1 Interaction of Heredity and Environment

• Heredity and environment interact to shape behavior and mental processes.
  • Heredity ("nature") refers to genetic predispositions influencing traits.
  • Environmental factors ("nurture") are external experiences like family and education.
  • The evolutionary perspective explores how natural selection affects behavior and mental processes.
• Twin, family, and adoption studies research genes' effects on behavior.

1.2 Overview of the Nervous System

• Central Nervous System (CNS): brain and spinal cord.
• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): relays messages; includes autonomic and somatic systems.
  • Autonomic: involuntary processes (parasympathetic and sympathetic).
  • Somatic: voluntary processes.

1.3 The Neuron and Neural Firing

• Neurons transmit information; glial cells provide support.
• Reflex arc: sensory, motor, and interneurons work together.
• Neural transmission involves: all-or-nothing principle, depolarization, refractory period, resting potential, reuptake, and threshold.
• Neurotransmitters: affect behavior; can be excitatory or inhibitory.
  • Examples: dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, glutamate, GABA, endorphins, substance p, acetylcholine.
• Hormones (e.g., adrenaline, leptin, ghrelin, melatonin, oxytocin) act like neurotransmitters.
• Psychoactive drugs affect neurotransmitter function.
  • Agonists encourage firing; antagonists discourage it; reuptake inhibitors block reabsorption.
  • Types: stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, opioids.
  • Can lead to tolerance and addiction.

1.4 The Brain

• Brain stem (medulla): basic functions like breathing and heart rate.
• Reticular activating system: voluntary movement, eye movement, learning, cognition, emotion.
• Cerebellum: coordination, balance, procedural learning.
• Cerebral cortex: hemispheres, limbic system, corpus callosum, lobes.
  • Occipital: visual processing.
  • Temporal: auditory and linguistic processing.
  • Parietal: association areas, somatosensory cortex.
  • Frontal: linguistic processing, higher-order thinking, executive functions, motor cortex.
• Split-brain research: hemispheres specialize.
  • Left hemisphere: language (Broca's area for speech production, Wernicke's area for comprehension).
  • Contralateral organization tested via visual fields.
• Brain plasticity: rewiring and new connections.
• Brain research: scans (EEG, fMRI), case studies, lesioning.

1.5 Sleep

• Consciousness: varying awareness. Sleep and wakefulness are types.
• Sleep/wake cycle: circadian rhythm (24-hour cycle).
• Sleep stages: identified by EEG patterns.
  • NREM (Stages 1-3): decreases in duration.
  • REM: paradoxical (similar to wakefulness), dreaming, increases in frequency, REM rebound.
• Dream theories: activation-synthesis, consolidation.
• Sleep functions: memory consolidation, restoration.
• Sleep disorders: insomnia, narcolepsy, REM sleep behavior disorder, sleep apnea, somnambulism.

1.6 Sensation

• Sensation: Detecting stimuli and transducing them to neurochemical messages. Absolute threshold: detected 50% of the time.
• Just-noticeable difference: detecting change; Weber's law.
• Sensory interaction: systems working together; synesthesia.
• Visual system:
  • Retina: photosensitive surface; blind spot.
  • Accommodation: lens focusing.
  • Rods: periphery, shapes, movement, low light.
  • Cones: fovea, color, detail, wavelengths (blue, green, red).
  • Color vision: trichromatic & opponent-process theories.
  • Disorders: prosopagnosia, blindsight.
• Auditory system:
  • Sound: wavelengths (pitch), amplitudes (loudness).
  • Pitch perception: place, volley, frequency theories.
  • Sound localization.
  • Hearing loss: conduction, sensorineural.
• Chemical senses:
  • Smell: olfactory stimuli; pheromones.
  • Taste: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, oleogustus.
  • Interaction: smell affects taste.
• Touch:
  • Skin structures transduce stimuli. "Hot" from warm/cold receptors.
• Pain:
  • Processed in body and brain; gate control theory; phantom limb sensation.
• Vestibular sense: balance (semicircular canals).
• Kinesthesis: body movement.

2.1 Perception

• Internal vs. External Factors: Perception relies on either external sensory information (bottom-up processing) or internal prior expectations (top-down processing).
• Internal Factors: Schemas and perceptual sets filter perceptions.
• External Factors: Context, experiences, and cultural expectations filter perceptions.
• Gestalt Psychology: Principles (closure, figure-ground, proximity, similarity) explain perceptual organization.
• Attention: Selective attention (cocktail party effect) and inattention (change blindness).

2.1.B Visual Perception

• Binocular Depth Cues: Retinal disparity and convergence provide depth perception.
• Monocular Depth Cues: Relative clarity, size, texture gradient, linear perspective, interposition create depth on 2D surfaces.
• Visual Constancies: Perception remains constant despite changing images.
• Apparent Movement: Visual perception of movement without actual movement.

2.2 Thinking, Problem-Solving, Judgments, & Decision-Making

• Concepts: Basis of thought; prototypes are ideal examples.
• Schemas: Modified through assimilation and accommodation.
• Algorithms: Attempt all solutions until correct one found.
• Heuristics: Mental shortcuts leading to judgment errors (representativeness, availability).
• Decision Making: Influenced by prior experiences (mental set), priming, and framing.
• Cognitive Processes: Gambler’s fallacy and sunk-cost fallacy can hinder decisions.
• Executive Functions: Cognitive processes for goal-directed behavior and critical thinking.
• Creativity: Generating novel ideas, divergent thinking; hindered by functional fixedness.

2.3 Introduction to Memory

• Memory Types: Learned knowledge, events, experiences are processed, stored, and retrieved differently.
• Explicit Memory: Episodic and semantic; easily described.
• Implicit Memory: Procedural; challenging to describe.
• Prospective Memory: Related to future actions.
• Long-Term Potentiation: Synaptic connections strengthen with activation.
• Working Memory Model: Dynamic interaction with central executive, phonological loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.
• Multi-Store Model: Sensory, short-term, and long-term memory systems rely on automatic and effortful processing.
• Levels of Processing Model: Encoding from shallowest to deepest (structural, phonemic, semantic).

2.4 Encoding Memories

• Encoding: Strategies to get information into memory affect storage and retrieval.
• Mnemonic Devices: Method of loci aids encoding.
• Chunking: Grouping information into meaningful chunks, categories, or hierarchies.
• Spacing Effect: Distributed practice improves encoding and consolidation.
• Serial Position Effect: Beginning (primacy) or end (recency) of a list is more memorable.

2.5 Storing Memories

• Memory Processes: Sensory, short-term, working, and long-term memory differ in storage duration, capacity, and content.
• Rehearsal: Maintenance and elaborative rehearsal prolong storage.
• Autobiographical Memory: Superior memory connected to personal lives.
• Storage Impairments: Amnesia, Alzheimer’s disease, infantile amnesia.

2.6 Retrieving Memories

• Memory Retrieval: Recall (without cues) or recognition (with cues).
• Enhanced Retrieval: Context-dependent, mood-congruent, state-dependent memory improves retrieval.
• Retrieval Practice: Testing effect and metacognition enhance retrieval.

2.7 Forgetting & Other Memory Challenges

• Forgetting Curve: Rapid forgetting after initial learning, levels off over time.
• Retrieval Issues: Encoding failure, interference (proactive or retroactive), inadequate retrieval (tip-of-the-tongue).
• Psychodynamic Theory: Repression defends ego from distress.
• Memory Accuracy: Misinformation effect, source amnesia, constructive memory.

2.8 Intelligence & Achievement

• Defining Intelligence: Consensus is elusive; debated whether general ability (g) or multiple abilities.
• Measuring Intelligence:
  • Early tests yielded IQ (mental age/chronological age).
  • Modern IQ scores identify students for educational services.
  • Psychometric Principles: Standardized, valid, and reliable tests.
  • Socio-Culturally Responsive Assessments: Reduce stereotype threat and inequity.
• Systemic Issues:
  • Flynn Effect: IQ scores increased due to societal factors.
  • Variance Within and Between Groups: Personal biases impact score interpretation.
  • Historically: Used to limit access to jobs and education.
• Academic Achievement:
  • Achievement Tests: Measure what someone knows.
  • Aptitude Tests: Predict how someone will perform.
  • Mindset: Fixed vs. growth mindset affects achievement.

3.1 Themes and Methods in Developmental Psychology

• Themes
  • Developmental psychology focuses on chronological order and thematic issues of development across the lifespan.
  • Key themes: stability vs. change, nature vs. nurture, continuous vs. discontinuous stages.

3.2 Physical Development Across the Lifespan

• Prenatal Development:
  • Teratogens, maternal illness, genetic mutations, hormonal, and environmental factors influence prenatal milestones.
• Infancy and Childhood:
  • Physical development occurs in same order, timing varies.
  • Fine and gross motor coordination define infancy and childhood.
  • Infants possess reflexes (e.g., rooting reflex).
  • Visual cliff apparatus demonstrates depth perception.
  • Critical/sensitive periods have strong developmental effects (e.g., language).
• Adolescence:
  • Adolescent growth spurt and puberty are major milestones; reproductive ability develops.
  • Primary and secondary sex characteristics develop (menarche, spermarche).
• Adulthood:
  • Leveling off, then decline in reproductive ability, mobility, flexibility, reaction time, sensory acuity.

3.4 Cognitive Development Across the Lifespan

• Piaget’s Theory:
  • Children develop schemas via assimilation and accommodation.
  • Stages:
    • Sensorimotor: Object permanence develops.
    • Preoperational: Mental symbols and pretend play; lacks conservation and reversibility; animism and egocentrism; theory of mind develops.
    • Concrete Operational: Corrects preoperational errors; logical thinking.
    • Formal Operational: Abstract and hypothetical thinking.
• Vygotsky’s Theory:
  • Children learn through social interaction and scaffolding within sociocultural contexts; zone of proximal development.
• Adulthood:
  • Crystallized intelligence remains stable; fluid intelligence declines.
  • Cognitive disorders include dementia.

3.5 Communication & Language Development

• Language Components:
  • Language is a shared system of arbitrary symbols (phonemes, morphemes, semantics) governed by grammar and syntax.
• Language Development:
  • Nonverbal gestures; stages (cooing, babbling, one-word, telegraphic speech); overgeneralization.

3.6 Social Emotional Development Across the Lifespan

• Ecological Systems Theory:
  • Social environment influences development through microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem.
• Parenting Styles:
  • Authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive; cultural differences affect outcomes.
• Attachment Styles:
  • Secure vs. insecure (avoidant, anxious, disorganized); temperament related.
  • Separation anxiety; comfort over food in attachment.
• Peer Relationships:
  • Children engage in parallel and pretend play.
  • Adolescents rely more on peers; demonstrate egocentrism via imaginary audience and personal fable.
• Adult Social Development:
  • Culture determines adulthood onset and life events (social clock); emerging adulthood.
  • Adult relationships form families; childhood attachment affects adult attachments.
• Psychosocial Stage Theory:
  • Conflicts at each stage: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs):
  • Affect relationships; sociocultural differences exist.
• Identity Development:
  • Achievement, diffusion, foreclosure, and moratorium; racial/ethnic, gender, sexual orientation, religious, occupational, and familial identities.

3.7 Classical Conditioning

• Behaviorism: Focuses on observable behavior.
• Classical Conditioning:
  • Association of stimuli; acquisition involves pairing.
    • UCS elicits UCR; CS elicits CR.
  • Order of presentation matters.
  • Extinction occurs when CS is no longer paired with UCS; spontaneous recovery.
  • Stimulus discrimination and generalization.
  • Higher-order conditioning: CS used as UCS.
• Emotional Responses:
  • Can be classically conditioned; basis for therapeutic interventions.
• Taste Aversions:
  • One-trial conditioning and biological preparedness.
• Habituation:
  • Diminished response to repeated stimulus.

3.8 Operant Conditioning

• Focuses on associating consequences with behaviors.
  • Law of Effect: Reinforcing consequences increase repetition; punishing consequences decrease repetition.
  • Reinforcement and punishment (positive or negative); primary and secondary reinforcers.
  • Reinforcement discrimination and generalization.
• Shaping: Rewarding successive approximations.
  • Instinctive drift limits shaping.
  • Superstitious behavior: Reinforcing unrelated behaviors.
  • Learned helplessness: No control over consequences.
• Reinforcement Schedules:
  • Continuous: Every correct behavior.
  • Partial: Fixed/variable interval/ratio; graphs show distinctive patterns.

3.9 Social, Cognitive, and Neurological Factors in Learning

• Social Learning Theory:
  • Learning by observation; vicarious conditioning; copying models.
• Cognitive Factors:
  • Insight learning: Solution occurs without association/consequence.
  • Latent learning: Learned without reinforcement, evident later; cognitive maps.

4.1 Attribution Theory and Person Perception

• Attribution Theory:
  • Explores how people explain behavioral motives.
    • Subject to biases based on culture, dispositions, experiences, errors.
• Locus of Control
  * internal: belief that one can control their life.
  * External: belief that life is controlled by outside forces.
• Person Perception:
  • Mere exposure effect: Repeated exposure increases liking.
  • Self-fulfilling prophecy: Behavior elicits confirmation.
  • Social comparison: Evaluating self based on others (upward or downward).
    • Relative deprivation: Judging deprivation relative to others.

4.2 Attitude Formation and Attitude Change

• Stereotypes:
  • Generalized concepts about a group; reduce cognitive load but can cause bias.
• Implicit Attitudes:
  *Individuals hold but may be unaware of; reflect negative evaluations like out-group homogeneity bias, in-group bias, and ethnocentrism.
• Belief Perseverance:
  • Belief persists despite contradictory evidence; confirmation bias.
• Cognitive Dissonance:
  • Discomfort when actions/attitudes conflict; motivated to reduce discomfort.

4.3 Psychology of Social Situations

• Social Norms:
  • Expectations and roles in social situations.
• Social Influence Theory:
  • Social pressure to behave/think in certain ways (normative or informational).
• Persuasion:
  • Techniques to convince others; central vs. peripheral routes (elaboration likelihood model).
    • halo effect.
  • Foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face techniques.
• Conformity:
  • Conditions that strengthen adherence to unspoken rules.
• Obedience:
  • Conditions that strengthen compliance with authority.
    Group Influence
    Phenomena. Such as individualism, collectivism, and multiculturalism can influence how one perceives and behaves towards themselves and others. Group polarisation, groupthink, diffusion of responsibility, social loafing, and deindividuation.
    Prosocial Behavior
• Altruism: Selfless behavior, possibly due to social debt (social reciprocity and responsibility norms).
• Bystander Effect: Situational and attentional variables predict helping behavior.

4.4 Psychodynamic and Humanistic Theories of Personality

• Psychodynamic Theory:
  • Unconscious processes drive personality.
    • Ego defense mechanisms: Denial, displacement, projection, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, repression, sublimation.
  • Assessment: Projective tests probe unconscious mind.
• Humanistic Theory:
  • Focuses on unconditional regard and self-actualizing tendency.

4.5 Social Cognitive & Trait Theories of Personality

• Social-Cognitive Theory:
  • Reciprocal determinism shapes personality. Self-concept, self-efficacy, and self-esteem contribute.
• Trait Theories:
  • Enduring characteristics lead to typical responses.
• Big Five Theory:
  • Agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, openness, neuroticism.
  • Measured via personality inventories using factor analysis.

4.6 Motivation

• Theories:
  Drive-reduction theory, and Arousal theory, Self-determination theory, Incentive theory explores the role of rewards.
• Drive reduction: maintain homeostasis.
  *Arousal: Yerkes-Dodson law
  *intrinsic or extrinsic motivaton
  *animal instinct
  *Motivational Conflicts: Lewin’s theory (approach-approach, approach-avoidance, avoidance-avoidance).
• Sensation Seeking:
  • Experience-seeking, thrill-seeking, disinhibition, boredom susceptibility.
• Eating Motivation:
  • Hormones (ghrelin, leptin) regulated by hypothalamus via pituitary.
  • External factors: Presence of food, time of day, social gatherings.
• Belongingness.

4.7 Emotion

• Theories: *Broden and build theory
  • Facial feedback hypothesis
• The expression of emotions is universally common
• Culture plays a role, display rules and elicitors.