Psychology 101 FINAL

Metacognition
- Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.
- Involves planning, monitoring, and evaluating one’s learning strategies.
Multitasking
- The ability to conduct two or more tasks at the same time, both requiring attention and various advanced cognitive processes.
Motivation
- The process that initiates, guides, and sustains goal-oriented behavior.

Behaviorism
- Focus on observing and controlling behavior.
Cognitive Psychology
- Study of cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to experiences and actions.
Psychology
- Scientific study of the mind and behavior.

Cause and Effect Relationship
- Changes in one variable cause changes in another variable; determined only through experimental research design.
Correlation
- Relationship between two or more variables; when correlated, one variable changes as the other does.
Hypothesis
- A testable prediction about how the world behaves if an idea is correct, often worded as an if-then statement.

Fight-or-Flight Response
- Activation of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, providing energy reserves and heightened sensory capacity to deal with threats.
Neurotransmitter
- Chemical messenger of the nervous system.

Sensation
- What happens when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor.
Perception
- The way sensory information is interpreted and consciously experienced.
Sensory Adaptation
- Not perceiving stimuli that remain constant over prolonged periods.

Classical Conditioning
- Learning where a stimulus occurs before a behavior and then gets paired with that behavior.
Reinforcement
- Implementation of a consequence to increase a behavior.
Observational Learning
- Learning that occurs by watching others.

Cognition
- Thinking processes including perception, learning, problem solving, judgment, and memory.
Mental Set
- Reliance on an old solution to a problem without considering alternative solutions.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
- Score on a test designed to measure intelligence.

Levels of Processing
- Information thought of more deeply becomes more meaningful and better committed to memory.
Retrieval
- Act of retrieving information from long-term memory storage into conscious awareness.

Misinformation Effect
- Misremembering an event after exposure to additional and possibly inaccurate information.
Emerging Adulthood
- A lifespan development period from 18 to mid-20s characterized by prolonged transitions to adulthood.
Adolescence
- Developmental period from puberty until early adulthood.
Psychosocial Development
- Examines emotions, personality, and social relationships during various life stages.

Five Factor Model
- Theory that personality consists of five factors: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Locus of Control
- Beliefs about the power one holds over their life; external locus indicates belief outcomes are out of one's control, while internal locus indicates belief in personal control.
Personality
- Long-standing traits and patterns that drive consistent thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Fundamental Attribution Error
- Tendency to overemphasize internal factors for behavior and underestimate situational influences.
Obedience
- Behavior change to comply with an authority figure, often to avoid negative consequences.
Conformity
- Behavior change to align with group norms, even without agreement.

Coping
- Mental or behavioral efforts to manage problems related to stress and its emotional impact.
Stress
- Process by which an individual perceives and reacts to overwhelming or threatening events.

Psychological Disorder
- Characterized by abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Diathesis-Stress Model
- Suggests predisposed individuals develop disorders more likely when faced with stress.
Diagnosis
- Determining which disorder a set of symptoms indicates.

Unconditional Positive Regard
- Fundamental acceptance of a person regardless of their actions or statements; important in humanistic psychology.
Psychotherapy
- Psychological treatment using various methods to help overcome personal challenges or achieve growth.
Biomedical Therapy
- Treatment involving medication or medical procedures to address psychological disorders.