I.B. Psychology Exam Terms
Order by
106 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Absolute Threshold | the minimum amount of stimulation for a person to detect a stimulus 50% of the time |
| Abstract awareness | symbols we use to represent big ideas or emotions; liberty, love etc |
| accommodation | Piaget; the process of restructuring or modifying cognitives structures so that new information can fit into them |
| Acetylcholline | neurotransmitter; functions as a chemical messengar and its message is read via receptors in the neurons and muscle tissue |
| ACh | Acetylcholline |
| Achievement Motivation | a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastering skills or ideas, for control, and for rapidly attaining a high standard. |
| Achievement tests | psychological tests that measure your current level of knowledge or competence in a particular subject area |
| Acoustic encoding | the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words |
| Acquisition | the stage in classical conditioning when the conditioned response is first elicited by the conditioned stimulus |
| ACTH | a polypeptide tropic hormone produced and secreted by the anterior pituitary gland, often produced in response to biological stress. It increases production of andogens and cortisol from the adrenal cortex |
| Action Potential | a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon |
| activation-synthesis theory | neurobiological theory of dreams put forwrd by Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977, which states that dreams are random events caused by firing neurons in the brain |
| Active listening | empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies; a feature of Roger's client-centered therapy |
| Actor-observer Bias | We attribute our failure to external causes |
| Adaptation level phenomenon | our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by a prior experience |
| attention deficit disorder (ADD) | a condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders |
| ADHD | a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity |
| Adolescence | the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence |
| Adoption Studies | Research studies that assess hereditary influence by examining the resemblence between adopted children and both their biological and their adoptive parents |
| adrenaline | a catecholamine secreted by the adrenal medulla in response to stress (trade name Adrenalin) |
| adrenal glands | pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. the adrenals secrete epinephrine(adrenaline) and nonepinephrine (nonadrenaline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress |
| algorithm | a methodical, logical rule or procedure that gurantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier but also more error-prone heuristics |
| Afferent Neurons | sensory neurons: the dendrites are connected to receptors(eyes ears, other sense organs)and axons are connected to other neurons. |
| Afterimages | Images continue to appear after they a gone due to images persisting upon the retina |
| aggression | any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy |
| agonist | excites neurons & increases firing by mimicking a neurotransmitter or blocking reuptake |
| agoraphobia | an extreme fear of being in public places or open spaces from which escape may be difficult or embarassing |
| AIDS | a serious (often fatal) disease of the immune system transmitted through blood products especially by sexual contact or contaminated needles |
| Mary Ainsworth | Developmental Psychology (placed human infants into a "Strange situation" in order to examine attatchment to parents) |
| Alarm reaction | first stage of the general adaptation syndrome, involving mobilization of the body's resurces to cope with an immediate stressor |
| All or none response | a nerve or muscle fibre responds completly or not at all to a stimulus |
| Gordon Allport | american psychologist and trait theorist who researched the idea that individual personalities are unique |
| Alpha Waves | the average brain wave pattern (8-13 p/s) while in relaxed,wakeful state |
| Ames room | A distorted room, first built by Adelbert Ames, which creates an erroneous perception of the sizes of people in the room. The room is constructed so that two people at the far wall of the room appear to stand at the same distance from an observer. In actuality, one of the people is much farther away than the other. |
| Altruism | unselfish regard for hte welfare of others |
| Alzheimer's | a progressive form of pre-senile dementia that is similar to senile dementia except that it usually starts in the 40s or 50s |
| APA | American psychiatric/Psychological Association |
| Ambiguity | a perceptual object that may have more than one interpretation |
| Amnesia | the loss of memory |
| amphetamines | drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded up body functions and associated energy and mood changes |
| Amygdala | two almond shaped neural clusters that are components of hte limbic system and are linked to emotion |
| Anal expulsive personality | a person fixated in the anal stage who is messy, destructive, and hostile. |
| Anal retentive personality | a person fixated in the anal stage who is neat, fussy, stingy, and stubborn |
| Anal Stage | the 2nd stage in Fraud's theory of psychosexual development. from 15 months to 3 years., child's main source of pleasure is the anus. |
| androgynous | having both male and female characteristics |
| anger | A strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure, or hostility |
| Angular Gyrus | Helps with the ability to read and write, located towards the back of the brain |
| Animal research | the use of non-human animals in empirical study, on the basis of greater control, objectivity, and similar genetic makeup. |
| Analogical Reasoning | compare a familiar example with an unfamiliar one |
| Anorexia nervosa | a disorder evidenced by a severely restricted food intake and being obsessively concerned with body weight, and a distorted body image |
| antabuse | (aka disulfiram) used to treat alcoholics - inhibits acetaldehyde dehydrogenase (DHDII) leading to a build up of acetaldehyde and sickness |
| antagonists | substances that hinder the activity of a neurotransmitter, through reducing the amount available. |
| anterograde amnesia | loss of memory or experience that occurs after traumatic or amnesia-causing event |
| antianxiety drugs | medications that reduce tension and anxiety; many work on the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA |
| antidepressants | medicines that increase the activity of certain brain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and norepinephrine; used in he treatment of depression and other disorders. |
| Antisocial Personality Disorder | a personality disroder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrong doing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist. |
| Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) | the part of hte peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and hte muscles of hte itnernal organs. Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms |
| Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) | an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate to the actual source of worry. This excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning |
| OCD | an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts and or actions |
| Panic | an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety |
| Phobia | anxiety disorder marked by persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation |
| PTSD | an anxiety disorder associated with serious traumatic events and characterized by such symptoms as survivor guilt, reliving the trauma in dreams, numbness and lack of involvement with reality, or recurrent thoughts and images |
| Aphasia | impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to broca's area or to Wernicke's area |
| Apnea | sleep disorder; characterized by difficulty breathing, snoring, & exhaustion during the day because breathing stops during sleep and individual wakes to just under waking consciousness; individual also complain of depression, sexual dysfunction, difficulty concentrating, and headaches; affects 10-12 million Americans; in children-implicated in aggression, hyperactive, and conduct disorder; in adults-overweight |
| Approach-Approach Conflict | A psychological conflict or a situation of indecision where an individual is confronted having to choose between equally desirable alternatives. |
| Approach - Avoidance Conflict | A psychological conflict or a situation of indecision and vacillation when an individual is confronted with an event or an object that has desirable and undesirable qualities. |
| Aptitude tests | a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn |
| Archetypes | universal themes or symbols that can be activated by forces operating in the psyche |
| Archival research | Research in which existing data, such as census documents, college records, or newspaper clippings, are examined to test a hypothesis (3) |
| Arousal | A function in the reproductive system, controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system, that includes erection (via dilation of erectile arteries) and lubrication. |
| Asche Experiment | series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the "Asch Paradigm". |
| AI | the science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to simulate the human thought process, such as intuitive reasoning, learning, and understanding language. |
| assimilation | interpreting one's new experience terms of one's existing schemas |
| associative learning | learning that certain events occur together. The ents may be two stimuli or a response and its consequences |
| asynchrony | the relation that exists when things occur at unrelated times |
| attachment | the emotional tie with another person, shown in young children by their seeking closeness ot their caregiver and showing distress on separation |
| attention | The process by which an individual allocates part of his or her mental activity to a stimulus. |
| perception | becoming aware of something via the senses |
| attitude | a belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events |
| attribution bias | the tendency to emphasize situational factors when explaining one's own behavior while stressing dispositional factors when explaining the same behavior in others. |
| attribution theory | we tend to give casual explanations for someone else's behavior, often crediting either the situation or the person's distribution |
| Auditory Nerve | a composite sensory nerve supplying the hair cells of the vestibular organ and the hair cells of the cochlea |
| autism | a disorder that appears in childhood and his marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understand of others' states of mind |
| Automatic processing | unconcious encoding of incidental information such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information such as word meaings |
| Autonomy | immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence |
| availability heuristic | estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory, if instances come readily to mind, perhaps because of their vividness we presume such events as common |
| aversive therapy | undesirable behaviors paired with electric shock or other unpleasant stimulus |
| avoidant personality | extremely sensitive to rejection and therefore avoid relationships, unless they bring uncritical acceptance |
| Axon | the extension of a neuron ending in the branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands |
| Axon terminal | the endpoint of a neuron where neurotransmitters are stored |
| Babbling stage | beginning at 3-4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language |
| Babinski reflex | extension upward of the toes when the sole of the foot is stroked firmly on the outer side from the heel to the front |
| Bait and Switch technique | Offer them something that appears to be very good value. This should be a real bargain, an offer they can't possibly refuse, even if they were not thinking about it. Later, replace the item with something of less value to them (and more profit to you) |
| Balance Theory | The idea that people need to organize their beliefs in a way that is in harmony with those of the people around them. |
| Albert Bandura | canadian-american psychologist who developed the social cognitive perspective |
| Barbiturates | drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety, but impairing memory and je |
| Barnum effect | the acceptance of stock, positive descriptions (like in astronomy) |
| Basilar membrane | a membrane in the cochlea that supports the Organ of Corti |
| Behavioral Perspective | perspective of psychology that sees psychology as an objective science without reference to mental states; sees behavior as the result of conditioning & reinforcement |
| Behaviorism | The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior withough reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2). |
| Behavior modification | psychotherapy that seeks to extinguish or inhibit abnormal or maladaptive behavior by reinforcing desired behavior and extinguishing undesired behavior |
| Behavior therapy | therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors |
| Classical Conditioning | Type of learning discovered by Ivan Pavlov in which a neutral stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response |
| Operant | skinner's term for an actively emitted or voluntary behavior that operates on the environment to produce consequences |
| Belief Bias | the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conculstions seem valid or vice versa |
| Belief perseverance | clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.