Psychology Terminology Review

Rationalization

• Cognitive process of constructing a false but plausible explanation for behavior.

Reaction Formation

• Defense mechanism where a person expresses the opposite of their feelings (e.g., showing love for someone they actually dislike).

Recall vs. Recognition

• Recall: retrieving information without cues (e.g., essay exams).
• Recognition: identifying previously learned information with cues (e.g., multiple-choice exams).

Reciprocal Determinism

• Theory that behavior, environment, and personal factors all influence each other.

Reciprocity Norm

• Social norm that people should return benefits for benefits received.

Reflex Arc

• Neural pathway that controls an action reflex.

Refractory Period

• Time after an action potential during which a neuron is unable to fire again.

Regression

• Defense mechanism where an individual returns to an earlier stage of development in response to stress.

Rehearsal

• Maintenance rehearsal: repeating information to keep it in working memory.
• Elaborative rehearsal: connecting new knowledge with existing knowledge to improve encoding.

Reinforcement

• Process in operant conditioning that increases the likelihood of a behavior.

Reliability

• The consistency of a research study or measuring test.

REM Rebound

• Increased duration of REM sleep after deprivation of REM periods.

REM Sleep

• Stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement, increased brain activity, and vivid dreaming.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

• Sleep disorder where individuals act out their dreams during REM sleep due to a lack of typical muscle paralysis.

Replication

• The repetition of a research study to determine its reliability and validity across different conditions.

Repression

• Defense mechanism where unwanted thoughts and memories are unconsciously pushed out of awareness.

Resilience

• The ability to adapt well in the face of adversity, trauma, or significant stress.

Resting Potential

• The state of a neuron when it is not firing an action potential, typically around -70mV.

Restoration Theory

• Theory suggesting that sleep is essential for restoring energy and recouping physical health.

Reticular Activating System (RAS)

• Part of the brain involved in attention, alertness, and sleep-wake cycles.

Retina

• Layer at the back of the eye that contains photoreceptors and converts light into neural signals.

Retrieval

• The process of accessing information stored in memory.

Retroactive Interference

• Occurs when new information interferes with the ability to recall old information.

Retrograde Amnesia

• Loss of memory for events that occurred before brain injury.

Reuptake

• The process by which neurotransmitters are taken back into the presynaptic neuron after having transmitted a neural impulse.

Reuptake Inhibitors

• Substances that prevent the reabsorption of neurotransmitters, increasing their effects (e.g., SSRIs).

Rods

• Photoreceptor cells in the retina that function in low light and peripheral vision.

Rooting Reflex

• Automatic response of infants to turn their head toward a stimulus on their cheek and open their mouth.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

• A projective psychological test consisting of inkblots to assess personality and emotional functioning.

Sample

• A subset of a population used for statistical analysis.

Scaffolding

• Educational technique where support is gradually removed as students gain independence in learning.

Scatterplot

• A graphical representation of two variables plotted along two axes, indicating relationships between them.

Schachter’s Two-Factor Theory

• Theory of emotion positing that physiological arousal and cognitive labeling are required for emotional experience.

Schema

• Cognitive framework that helps organize and interpret information in the brain.

Scientific Method

• Systematic process of experimentation and observation to investigate phenomena.

Secondary Reinforcers

• Stimuli that acquire their reinforcing power through association with primary reinforcers (e.g., money).

Secure Attachment

• A healthy attachment style characterized by comfort with intimacy and a balance between closeness and independence.

Self-Actualization

• The realization of one’s potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

Self-Concept

• An individual's perception of themselves and their identity; composed of self-knowledge.

Self-Determination Theory

• Theory proposing that people are motivated to grow and change by intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

Self-Efficacy

• Belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• A prediction that causes itself to become true due to the positive feedback between belief and behavior.

Self-Serving Bias

• Tendency to attribute positive events to one’s own character, but attribute negative events to external factors.

Semicircular Canals

• Three fluid-filled structures in the inner ear that help maintain balance.

Sensation

• The process by which sensory receptors detect stimuli from the environment.

Sensation Seeking Theory

• Theory that describes the tendency to seek varied, novel, complex, and intense sensations and experiences.

Sensorineural Deafness

• Hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear or to the auditory pathways to the brain.

Sensory Adaptation

• The process where sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decrease over time.

Sensory Memory

• The initial stage of memory, which holds information for a very brief period (milliseconds to seconds).

Sensory Neurons

• Neurons responsible for converting external stimuli into internal signals that the brain can interpret.

Serial Position Effect: Primary and Recency

• Tendency to better recall the first and last items in a list but have difficulty with middle items.

Serotonin

• A neurotransmitter that affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal.

Seyle’s General Adaptation Syndrome

• A three-phase model of the body’s response to stress: alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Shaping

• An operant conditioning technique that reinforces successive approximations to a desired behavior.

Short-Term Memory

• A temporary storage system that holds a limited amount of information for a brief period (typically 20-30 seconds).

Signal Detection Theory

• A theory that explains how we detect a signal amid noise, factoring in sensitivity and decision-making criteria.

Single-Blind Procedure

• Experimental design where participants do not know which group (experimental or control) they are in, but the researchers do.

Situational Attribution

• Attribution of behavior to external situations rather than internal characteristics.

Skewed: Positive and Negative

• Positive skew: Longer tail on the right side of the distribution; Negative skew: Longer tail on the left side of the distribution.

Sleep Apnea

• Disorder characterized by repeated interruptions of breathing during sleep, leading to poor sleep quality.

Social Clock

• Cultural timetable for achieving life milestones, e.g., marriage and parenthood.

Social Comparison

• The process of comparing oneself to others to evaluate personal abilities or opinions.

Social Desirability Bias

• Tendency for respondents to provide answers that are more socially acceptable rather than their true feelings.

Social Facilitation vs. Social Inhibition

• Social Facilitation: improved performance on tasks in the presence of others; Social Inhibition: impaired performance on tasks in the presence of others.

Social Influence Theory

• Theory exploring how individuals change their behavior based on the presence or actions of others.

Social Learning Theory

• Theory that posits that people learn behavior through observation and imitation of others.

Social Loafing

• The phenomenon in which individuals exert less effort when working in a group than when alone.

Social Norms

• The expected standards of behavior within a group or society.

Social Trap

• Situation where individuals or groups act in their own self-interest contrary to the collective good, leading to negative outcomes.

Social-Cultural Perspective

• Psychological perspective emphasizing the effects of social and cultural factors on behavior.

Social-Responsibility Norm

• Expectation that individuals will help those who depend on them.

Soma

• The cell body of a neuron; contains the nucleus and organelles.

Somatic Nervous System

• The part of the peripheral nervous system responsible for voluntary muscle movements and sensory information processing.

Somatosensory Cortex

• Area of the brain responsible for processing sensory information from the body.

Somnambulism

• Also known as sleepwalking, a sleep disorder where individuals walk or perform other complex behaviors while still asleep.

Sound Localization

• The ability to identify the origin of a sound in space.

Source Amnesia

• Inability to remember where, when, or how one has learned something while retaining the actual information.

Spearman’s General Intelligence Theory

• Proposed that general intelligence ( factor ‘g’) underlies all cognitive abilities.

Split Brain Research

• Studies involving patients with severed corpus callosum, revealing lateralization of brain functions.

Spontaneous Recovery

• The re-emergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a pause.

Stages of Identity Development

• Description of the various phases individuals go through in developing a sense of self and identity.

Stages of Language Development

• Phases that outline the acquisition of language, often divided into pre-linguistic, one-word, two-word, and telegraphic stages.

Standard Deviation

• A statistic that measures the dispersion of data points from the mean value in a dataset.

Standardization

• Process of establishing norms for a test by administering it to a large, representative sample.

State-Dependent Memory

• Retrieval cues are more effective when the individual is in the same state as when the information was encoded.

Statistical Significance

• A measure of whether results from data are due to chance, typically assessed using significance tests.

Stereotype

• Overgeneralized belief about a group of people.

Stereotype Lift

• The phenomenon whereby members of a stigmatized group perform better when reminded of a positively stereotyped group.

Stimulants

• Substances that increase neural activity and speed up body functions (e.g., caffeine, amphetamines).

Stimulus Discrimination

• The ability to differentiate between similar stimuli.

Stimulus Generalization

• The tendency for a conditioned response to be elicited by stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.

Storage

• The retention of information over time in the memory system.

Subjective Well-Being

• An individual’s self-reported assessment of their overall happiness and life satisfaction.

Sublimation

• Defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses are transformed into socially acceptable actions.

Substance P

• A neuropeptide involved in the transmission of pain and other sensory signals in the nervous system.

Sucking Reflex

• An innate reflex in infants to suck in response to oral stimuli.

Sunk-Cost Fallacy

• Fallacy where individuals continue investing in a losing proposition due to already invested resources.

Superego

• Part of Freud's theory of personality that represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment.

Superordinate Goals

• Goals that require cooperation between two or more people or groups to achieve.

Superstitious Behavior

• Any behavior that occurs consistently in a given context but has no actual causal relationship.

Survey

• A research method involving the systematic collection of data from a population or sample.

Sympathetic Division

• The part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for the body's rapid involuntary response to dangerous or stressful situations (fight or flight response).

Synapse

• The junction between two neurons where neurotransmitters are released.

Synesthesia

• Condition where one sense is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more additional senses (e.g., seeing colors when listening to music).

Syntax vs. Semantics

• Syntax: rules governing the structure of sentences.
• Semantics: meanings associated with words and sentences.

Temperament

• An individual's innate personality characteristics, such as mood, activity level, and emotional reactivity.

Temporal Lobes

• Sections of the brain located on the sides of the head that are associated with processing auditory information and memory.

Tend and Befriend Response

• A behavioral reaction to stress characterized by nurturing behaviors and seeking out social support.

Teratogens

• Substances that cause birth defects during prenatal development (e.g., alcohol, drugs).

Terminal Buttons

• End of the axon in neurons that release neurotransmitters into the synapse.

Testing Effect

• The phenomenon where retrieving information from memory enhances learning and retention.

Thalamus

• Brain structure that acts as a relay station, conveying sensory information to the appropriate areas of the brain.

The Big Five Theory

• Model of personality highlighting five dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

The Levels of Processing Model

• Model proposing that deeper levels of processing make for more durable memory retention than shallow levels.

The Spacing Effect

• Phenomenon where information is better retained when study sessions are spaced out rather than massed together (massed practice vs. distributed practice).

The Three Box Model

• Model of memory describing three stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

The Working Memory Model

• Model that describes short-term memory as being made up of multiple components, including the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive.

Thematic Apperception Test

• A projective test that asks individuals to create stories about ambiguous pictures to reveal their underlying motives and concerns.

Theory of Mind

• The capacity to understand that others have thoughts, beliefs, and perspectives different from one's own.

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

• Temporary inability to retrieve a word or phrase from memory, often experienced when you feel you know it.