Psychology Final
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164 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Trait | relatively enduring predispositions that influence our behavior across many situations. |
| Nomothetic approach | approach to personality that focuses on identifying generalities that govern the behavior of all individuals. |
| Idiographic approach | approach to personality that focuses on identifying the unique configuration of characteristics and life history experiences within a person. |
| Molecular genetic studies | investigations that allow researchers to pinpoint genes associated with specific personality traits. |
| Somatogenic | physiologically caused |
| Catharsis | feeling of relief following a dramatic outpouring of emotion. |
| Psychogenic | psychologically caused |
| Psychic determinism | the assumption that all psychological events have a cause |
| Id | reservoir of our most primitive impulses including sex and aggression |
| Pleasure principle | tendency of the id to strive for immediate gratification. |
| Ego | psyche's executive and principal decision maker. |
| Reality principle | tendency of the ego to postpone gratification until it can find an appropriate outlet. |
| Superego | our sense of morality. |
| Erogenous zone | sexually arousing zone of the body. |
| Oedipus complex | conflict during phallic stage in which boys supposedly love their mothers romantically and want to eliminate their fathers as rivals |
| Electra complex | conflict during phallic stage in which girls supposedly love their fathers romantically and want to eliminate their mothers as rivals. |
| Penis envy | supposed desire of girls to possess a penis. |
| Latency stage | psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses are submerged into the unconscious. |
| Genital stage | psychosexual stage in which sexual impulses awaken and typically begin to mature into romantic attraction towards others. |
| Neo-Freudian theories | theories derived from Freud's model, but that placed less emphasis on sexuality as a driving force in personality and were more optimistic regarding the prospects for long-term personality growth |
| Style of life | according to Adler, each person's distinctive way of achieving superiority. |
| Inferiority complex | feelings of low self-esteem that can lead to overcompensation for such feelings. |
| Lexical approach | approach proposing that the most critical features of personality are embedded in our language |
| Face validity | extent to which respondents can tell what the tests are measuring |
| Stress | tension, discomfort, or physical symptoms that arise when a situation (stressor- type of stimulus) strains our ability to cope effectively. |
| Primary appraisal | initial decision regarding whether an event is harmful |
| Secondary appraisal | perceptions regarding our ability to cope with an event that follows primary appraisal |
| Problem-focused coping | coping strategy by which we problem solve and tackle life's challenges head-on. |
| Emotion-focused coping | coping strategy that features a positive outlook on feelings/situations accompanied by behaviors that reduce painful emotions. |
| Corticosteroid | stress hormone that activates the body and prepares us to respond to stressful circumstances. |
| Fight of flight response | physical and psychological reaction that mobilizes people/animals to either defend themselves (fight) or escape (flee) a threatening situation. |
| Tend and befriend | reaction that mobilizes people to nurture or seek social support under stress. |
| Immune system | our body's defense system against invading bacteria/viruses/illness-producing organisms and substances. |
| Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) | life-threatening, incurable, yet treatable condition in which the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) attacks and damages the immune system. |
| Psychoneuroimmunology | study of the relationship between the immune system and the central nervous system. |
| Type A personality | personality type that describes people who are competitive, driven, hostile, and ambitious. |
| Social support | relationships with people and groups that can provide emotional comfort and personal and financial resources. |
| Proactive coping | anticipation of problems and stressful situations that promotes effective coping. |
| Hardiness | set of attitudes marked by a sense of control over events, commitment to life and word, and courage and motivation to confront stressful events. |
| Social psychology | study of how people influence others' behavior, beliefs, and attitudes. |
| Social facilitations | enhancement of performance brought about by the presence of others. |
| Attribution | process of assigning causes to behavior. |
| Fundamental attribution error | tendency to overestimate the impact of dispositional influences on other people's behaviors. |
| Social comparison theory | theory that we seek to evaluate our beliefs, attitudes, and abilities by comparing our reactions with others'. |
| Mass hysteria | outbreak of irrational behavior that is spread by social contagion. |
| Conformity | tendency of people to alter their behavior as a result of group pressure. |
| Parametric studies | studies in which an experimenter systematically manipulates the independent variable to observe its effects on the dependent variable. |
| Deindividuation | tendency of people to engage in uncharacteristic behavior when they are stripped of their usual identities. |
| Gene-environment interaction | situation in which the effects of genes depend on the environment in which they are expressed |
| Nature vs. Nurture | tendency of individuals with certain genetic predispositions to seek out and create environments that permit the expression of those predispositions. |
| Gene expression | activation/deactivation of genes by environmental experiences throughout development. |
| Prenatal | prior to birth |
| Zygote | fertilized egg |
| Blastocyst | ball of identical cells early in pregnancy that haven't yet begun to take on any specific function in a body part. |
| Embryo | 2nd to 8th week of prenatal development, during which limbs, facial features, and major organs of the body take form. |
| Fetus | period of prenatal development from 9th week until birth after all major organs are established and physical maturation is the primary change. |
| Groupthink | emphasis on group unanimity at the expense of critical thinking and sound decision making |
| Group polarization | tendency of group discussion to strengthen the dominant positions held by individual group members. |
| Cults | groups of individuals who exhibit intense and unquestioning devotion to a single cause. |
| Inoculation effect | approach to convincing people to change their minds about something by first introducing reasons why the perspective might be correct and then debunking it. |
| Obedience | adherence to instructions from those of higher authority. |
| Pluralistic ignorance | error of assuming that no one in a group perceives things as we do. |
| Diffusion of responsibility | reduction in feelings of personal responsibility in the presence of others. |
| Social loafing | phenomenon whereby individuals become less productive in groups. |
| Altruism | helping others for unselfish reasons. |
| Enlightenment effect | learning about psychological research can change real world behavior for the better. |
| Aggression | behavior intended to harm others, either verbally or physically. |
| Relational aggression | forms of indirect aggression, prevalent in girls, involving spreading rumors, gossiping, and nonverbal putdowns for the purpose of social manipulation. |
| Belief | conclusion regarding factual evidence. |
| Attitude | belief that includes an emotional component. |
| Self-monitoring | personality trait that assesses the extent to which people's behavior reflects their true feelings and attitudes. |
| Cognitive dissonance | unpleasant mental experience of tension resulting from two conflicting thoughts or beliefs |
| Self- perception theory | theory that we acquire our attitudes by observing our behaviors. |
| Impression management theory | theory that we don't really change our attitudes, but report that we have so that our behaviors appear consistent with out attitudes. |
| Foot in the door technique | persuasive technique involving making a small request before making a bigger one. |
| Door in the face technique | persuasive technique involving making an unreasonably large request before making the small request we're hoping to have granted. |
| Low ball technique | persuasive technique in which the seller of a product starts quoting a low sales price, and then mentions all of the "add on" costs once the customer has agreed to purchase the product. |
| Prejudice | drawing conclusions about a person, group, or situation prior to evaluating the evidence. |
| Adaptive conservatism | evolutionary principle that creates a predisposition towards distrusting anything or anyone unfamiliar or different. |
| In group bias | tendency to favor individuals within our group over those from outside our group. |
| Out group homogeneity | tendency to view all individuals outside out group as highly similar. |
| Discrimination | negative behavior toward members of out-groups. |
| Stereotype | a belief, positive or negative, about the characteristics of members of a group that is applied generally to most members of the group. |
| Implicit and explicit stereotypes | beliefs about the characteristics of an out-group about which we're either unaware (implicit) or aware (explicit). |
| Ultimate attribution error | assumption that behaviors among individual members of a group are due to their internal dispositions. |
| Scapegoat hypothesis | claim that prejudice arises from a need to blame other groups for our misfortunes. |
| Just world hypothesis | claim that our attributions and behaviors are shaped by a deep-seated assumption that the world is fair and all things happen for a reason. |
| Jigsaw classrooms | educational approach designed to minimize prejudice by requiring all children to make independent contributions to a shared project. |
| Intelligence quotient (IQ) | systematic means of qualifying differences among people in their intelligence. |
| Intelligence test | diagnostic tool designed to measure overall thinking ability. |
| Abstract thinking | capacity to understand hypothetical concepts. |
| g (general intelligence) | hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in intellect among people. |
| s (specific abilities) | particular ability level in a narrow domain. |
| Fluid intelligence | capacity to learn new ways of solving problems. |
| Crystallized intelligence | accumulated knowledge of the world acquired over time. |
| Multiple intelligences | ideas that people vary in their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill |
| Triarchic model | model of intelligence proposed by Robert Stemberg positing 3 distinct types of intelligence: analytical, practical, and creative. |
| Mental age | age corresponding to the average individual's performance on an intelligence test. |
| Deviation IQ | expression of a person's IQ relative to his/her same-aged peers. |
| Eugenics | movement in the early 20th century to improve a population's genetic stock by encouraging those with good genes to reproduce, preventing those with bad genes from reproducing, or both. |
| Association fallacy | error of confusing a claim's validity with the people who advocate it. |
| Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) | most widely used intelligence test for adults today, consisting of 14 subtests to assess different types of mental abilities. |
| Stanford-Binet IQ test | intelligence test based on the measure developed by Binet and Simon, adapted by Lewis Terman of Stanford University. |
| Culture-fair IQ tests | abstract reasoning items that don't depend on language and are often believed to be less influenced by cultural factors that other IQ tests. |
| Bell curve | distribution of scores in which the bulk of them fall towards the middle, with progressively fewer scores towards the "tails" or extremes. |
| Mental retardation | condition characterized by an onset prior to adulthood, an IQ below 70, and an inability to engage in adequate daily functions. |
| Flynn effect | finding that average IQ scores have been rising at a rate of 3 points a decade. |
| Test bias | tendency of a test to predict outcomes better in one group than another. |
| Within group heritability | extent to which the variability of a trait within a group is genetically influenced. |
| Between group heritability | extent to which differences in a trait between groups is genetically influenced. |
| Stereotype threat | fear that we may confirm a negative group stereotype. |
| Demonic model | view of mental illness in which odd behavior, hearing voices, or talking to oneself was attributed to evil spirits infesting the body. |
| Medical model | perception that regarded mental illness as due to a physical disorder requiring medical treatment. |
| Asylums | institutions for the mentally ill created in the 15th century. |
| Moral treatment | approach to mental illness calling for dignity, kindness, and respect for the mentally ill. |
| Deinstitutionalization | 1960's and 1970's governmental policy that focused on releasing hospitalized psychiatric patients into the community and closing mental hospitals. |
| Bulimia nervosa | eating disorder associated with a pattern of binging and purging in an effort to lose or maintain weight. |
| Anorexia nervosa | eating disorder associated with excessive weight loss and the irrational perception that one is overweight. |
| Incompetence to stand trial | assessment of a defendant's mental capacity to stand trial in a court of law |
| Involuntary commitment | procedure of placing some mentally ill people in a psychiatric hospital or other facility based on their potential danger to themselves or others, or their inability to care for themselves |
| Somatoform disorders | conditions marked by physical symptoms that suggest an underlying medical illness, but that are actually psychological in origin. |
| Hypochondirasis | an individual's continual preoccupation with the notion that he is suffering from a serious physical disease. |
| Panic attacks | brief, intense episodes of extreme fear characterized by sweating, dizziness, light headedness, racing heartbeat, and feelings of impending death or going crazy. |
| Panic disorder | repeated and unexpected panic attacks, along with either persistent concerns about future attacks or a change in personal behavior in an attempt to avoid them |
| Generalized anxiety disorder | continual feelings of worry, anxiety, physical tension, and irritability across many areas of life functioning. |
| Phobia | intense fear of an object/situation that's greatly out of proportion to its actual threat. |
| Agoraphobia | fear of being in a place or situation from which escape is difficult or embarrassing, or in which help is unavailable in the event of a panic attack. |
| Specific phobias | intense fear of objects, places, or situations that are greatly out of proportion to their actual threat. |
| Social phobia | marked fear of public appearances in which embarrassment or humiliation is possible. |
| Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | marked emotional disturbance after experiencing/witnessing a severely stressful event. |
| Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) | condition marked by repeated and lengthy (at least an hour a day) immersion in obsessions, compulsions or both. |
| Obsessions | persistent ideas, thoughts, or impulses that are unwanted and inappropriate, causing marked distress. |
| Compulsions | repetitive behaviors or mental acts performed to reduce or prevent stress. |
| Anxiety sensitivity | fear of anxiety-related sensations. |
| Major depressive episode | state in which a person experiences a lingering depressed mood or diminished interest in pleasurable activities, along with symptoms that include weight loss and sleep difficulties. |
| Cognitive model of depression | theory that depression is caused by negative beliefs and expectations. |
| Learned helplessness | tendency of feeling helpless in the face of events we can't control. |
| Manic episode | experience marked by dramatically elevated mood, decreased need for sleep, increased energy, inflated self-esteem, increased talkativeness, and irresponsible behavior. |
| Bipolar disorder | condition marked by a history of at least one manic episode. |
| Schizophrenia | severe disorder of thought and emotion associated with a loss of contact with reality. |
| Delusions | strongly held, fixed beliefs that have no basis in reality. |
| Psychotic symptoms | psychological problems reflecting serious distortions in reality. |
| Hallucinations | sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of an external stimulus. |
| Catatonic symptoms | motor problems, including extreme resistance to complying with simple suggestions, holding the body in bizarre or rigid postures, or curling up in a fetal position. |
| Diathesis stress models | perspective proposing that mental disorders are a joint project of a genetic vulnerability, called a diathesis, and stressors that trigger this vulnerability. |
| Autistic disorder | disorder marked by severe deficits in language, social bonding, and imagination, usually accompanied by mental retardation. |
| Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) | childhood condition marked by excessive inattention, impulsivity, and activity. |
| Psychotherapy | a psychological intervention designed to help people resolve emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems, and improve the quality of their lives. |
| Paraprofessional | person with no professional training who provides mental health services. |
| Behavior therapists | therapist who focuses on specific problem behaviors, and current variables that maintain problematic thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. |
| Systematic desensitization | patients are taught to relax as they are gradually exposed to what they fear in a stepwise manner. |
| Exposure therapy | therapy that confronts patients with what they fear with the goal of reducing the fear. |
| Dismantling | research procedure for examining the effectiveness of isolated components of a larger treatment. |
| Response prevention | technique in which therapists prevent patients from performing their typical avoidance behaviors. |
| Participant modeling | technique in which the therapist first models a problematic situation and then guides the patient through the steps to cope with it unassisted. |
| Token economy | method in which desirable behaviors are rewarded with tokens that patients can exchange for tangible rewards. |
| Aversion therapy | treatment that uses punishment to decrease the frequency of undesirable behaviors. |
| Cognitive behavior therapy | treatment that attempts to replace maladaptive or irrational cognitions with more adaptive, rational cognitions. |
| Group therapy | therapy that treats more than one persona at a time. |
| Structural family therapy | treatment in which therapists deeply involve themselves in family activities to change how family members arrange and organize interactions. |
| Empirically supported therapies (ESTs) | treatments for specific disorders supported by high-quality scientific evidence. |
| Pharmacotherapy | use of medications to treat psychological problems. |
| Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) | patients receive brief electrical pulses to the brain that produce a seizure to treat serious psychological problems. |
| Psychosurgery | brain surgery to treat psychological problems. |
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