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149 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Cognitive Development
The emergence of the ability to understand the world
Sensorimotor Stage
A stage of development that begins at birth and lasts through infancy in which infants acquire info. about the world by sensing it and moving around within it
Schemas
Theories about or models of the way the world looks
Assimilation
The process by which infants apply their schemas in novel situations
Accomodation
The process by which infants revise their schemas in light or new information
Object Permanence
The idea that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible
Childhood
The stage of development that begins at about 18-24 months and lasts until adolescence
Preoperational Stage
The stage of development that begins at about 2 years and ends at about 6 years, in which children have a preliminary understanding of the physical world
Concrete operational Stage
The stage of development that begins at about 6 years and ends at about 11 years, in which children acquire a basic understanding of the physical world and preliminary understanding of their own and others' minds
Conservation
The notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object's appearance
Formal Operational Stage
The stage of development that begins around the age of 11 and lasts through adulthood, in which children gain a deeper understanding of their own and others' minds and learn to reason abstractly
Egocentrism
The failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers
Theory of Mind
The idea that human behavior is guided by mental representation, which gives rise to the realization that the world is not always the way it looks and that different people see it differently
Preconventional Stage
A stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by its consequences for the actor
Conventional Stage
A stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by the extent to which it conforms to social rules
Postconventional Stage
A stage of moral development at which the morality of an action is determined by a set of general principles that reflect core values
Self-Report
A series of answers to a questionnaire that asks people to indicate the extent to which sets of statements or adjectives accurately describe their own behavior or mental state
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
A well-researched, clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems
Projective Techniques
A standard series of ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique responses that reveal inner aspects of an individual's personality
Rorschach Inkblot Test
A projective personality test in which individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots are analyzed to identify a respondent's inner feelings and interpret his or her personality structure
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A projective personality test in which respondents reveal underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world through the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people.
Big Five
The traits of the five-factor model: conscientousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and extraversion
Psychodynamic Approach
An approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires, largely operating outside of awareness-- motives that can also produce emotional disorders
Dynamic Unconscious
An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person's deepest instincts and desires, and the person's inner struggle to control these forces
ID
The part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives
Pleasure Principle
The psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse
Ego
The component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life's practical demands
Reality Principle
The regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world
Superego
The mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority
Defense Mechanisms
Unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses
Rationalization
A defense mechanism that involves supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) one's underlying motives or feelings
Reaction Formation
A defense mechanism that involves unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of their opposite
Projection
A defense mechanism that involves attributing one's own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group
Regression
A defense mechanism in which the ego deals with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development
Displacement
A defense mechanism that involves shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less-threatening alternative
Identification
A defense mechanism that helps deal with feelings of threat and anxiety by enabling us unconsciously to take on the characteristics of another person who seems more powerful or better able to cope
Sublimation
A defense mechanism that involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities
Psychosexual Stages
Distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasure from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures
Fixation
A phenomenon in which a person's pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage
Oral Stage
The first psychosexual stage, in which experience centers on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking, and being fed
Anal Stage
The second psychosexual stage, which is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training
Phallic Stage
The 3rd psychosexual stage, during which experience is dominated by the pleasure, conflict, and frustration associated with the phallic-genital region as well as powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy, and conflict
Oedipus Conflict
A developmental experience in which a child's conflicting feelings toward the opposite-sex parent (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent
Latency Stage
The 4th psychosexual stage, in which primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills
Qualify as mental disorder
Thoughts, feelings and emotions must be persistent, harmful to the person experiencing them, and uncontrollable

Approximately 40% of people will develop mental disorder over the course of their lives
Medical Model
The conceptualization of psychological abnormalities as diseases that, like biological diseases, have symptoms and causes and possible cures
Diagnosis
Clinicians seek to determine the nature of the problem by assessing symptoms
Symptoms
Behaviors, thoughts, and emotions suggestive of an underlying abnormal syndrome
Syndrome
Coherent cluster of symptoms usually due to a single cause
Diagnostic and Statisical Manual of Mental Disorders
Classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems
DSM-IV-TR takes concerns into account by focusing on 3 key elements that must be present for a cluster of symptoms to qualify as a potential disorder
1) The disorder is manifested in symptoms that involve disturbances in behavior, thoughts, or emotions

2) The symptoms are associated w/ significant personal distress or impairment

3) The symptoms stem from an internal dysfunction
Neurosis
A condition that involves anxiety but in which the person is still in touch w/ reality

ex) obsessive-compulsive
Psychosis
A condition in which the person experiences serious distortions of perception & thought that weaken his or her grasp on reality

ex) schizophrenia
Anxiety Disorder
The class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by 3 or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance
What group does GAD occur in more frequently?
Lower-socioeconomic groups

Twice as common in women as in men
Concordance Rates
the % of pairs that share the characteristic
Phobic Disorders
Disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear & avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations
Specific Phobia
An irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual's ability to function
Five categories of Specific Phobias
1) Animals
2) Natural environments (heights, darkness)
3) Situations (bridges, elevators)
4) Blood injections & injury
5) Other phobias including illness & death
Social Phobia
A disorder that involves an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarassed
Preparedness Theory
The idea that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears
Panic Disorder
Sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror
Symptoms of Panic Attack
Shortness of breath
Heart palpitations
Sweating
Dizziness
Depersonalization
Derealization
Fear that one is going crazy or about to die
How does DSM-IV-TR classify panic disorder
A person has a panic disorder only on experiencing recurrent unexpected attacks and reporting significant anxiety about having another attack

Individual also has to experience significant dread and anxiety about having another attack
Agoraphobia
Extreme fear of venturing into public places
Sodium Lactate
Chemical that produces rapid, shallow breathing and heart palpitations.

People with panic disorder are acutely sensitive to drug
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts that interfere significantly with an individual's functioning
More susceptible to OCD
Women

Approximately 2.5% of people develop this disorder
Most common obsessions
Contamination, aggression, death, sex, disease, orderliness, and disfigurement
Most common compulsions
cleaning, checking, repeating, ordering/arranging, counting
Mood Disorders
Mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature
Two Main forms of mood disorders
Depression and Bipolar Disorder
Depressive mood disorders are..
dysfunctional, chronic, & fall outside the range of socially or culturally expected responses
Major Depressive Disorder
(Unipolar depression) A severely depressed mood that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness and lack of pleasure, lethargy, and sleep, and appetite disturbances


On average, lasts about 6 months

Individuals with recurrent depression have more severe symptoms

Women diagnosed at a rate twice that of men

Heritability rates range from 33%-45%
Dysthymia
The same cognitive and bodily problems as in depression are present, but they are less severe and last longer, persisting for at least 2 years
Double Depression
(when both types co-occur) A moderately depressed mood that persists for at least 2 years and is punctuated by periods of major depression
Seasonal Affective Disorder
Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern
Depression may involve diminished activity and increased activity in what parts of the brain?
(decreased) Left prefrontal cortex and (increased) right prefrontal cortex
Helplessness Theory
The idea that individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (own fault), stable (unlikely to change), and global (widespread)

To demonstrate that negative thoughts contribute to depression, the thoughts must precede the development of the disorder
Bipolar Disorder
An unstable emotional condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mood (mania) and low mood (depression)

Typically a recurrent condition
Manic phase must last a week to meet DSM requirements
Mood can be elevated, expansive, or irritable

Grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, talkativeness, racing thoughts, distractability, and reckless behavior
Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder
Characterized by at least 4 mood episodes every year (manic or depressive)

More common in women than in men
Lithium
unrelated to neurotransmitters.. often helps stabilize both the depressive and manic symptoms associated with bipolar disorder
Schizophrenia
A disorder characterized by the profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; and disturbances in thought, motivation, and behavior

Occurs in about 1% of the population and is about equally common in women & men

First episode typically occurs during late adolescence or early adulthood.

females usually have later onset than males
Delusion
A patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose, that is maintained in spite of its irrationality
Hallucination
A false perceptual experience that has a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation

Perceptual disturbances can include: hearing, seeing, or smelling things that are not there
Disorganized Speech
A severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently from one to another unrelated topic
Grossly Disorganized Behavior
Behavior that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances

ex) constant childlike silliness
improper sexual behavior
rigid posturing
odd mannerisms
Catatonic Behavior
A marked decrease in all movement or an increase in muscular rigidity and overactivity
Negative Symptoms
Emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behavior, motivation, and emotion
Five Subtypes
Paranoid--
Catatonic-- (Depend primarily on the relative prominence of various symptoms)
Disorganized--
Undifferentiated Type (Doesn't fit with other types)
Residual Type (substantially recovered from at least one schiz. episode but still have lingering symptoms)
Dopamine Hypothesis
The idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity
Expressed Emotion
Emotional overinvolvement (intrusiveness) and excessive criticism directed toward the former patient by his or her family
Personality Disorders
Disorders characterized by deeply ingrained, inflexible, patterns of thinking, feeling, or relating to others or controlling impulses that cause distress or impaired functioning
Antisocial Personality Disorder
A pervasive pattern of disregard for & violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood

lack insight with what it means to hurt others

Occurrence rate is 3 times in men in that of women
In adulthood, diagnosis of APD is given if 3 or more of these 7 diagnostic signs show:
illegal behavior, deception, impulsivity, physical aggression, recklessness, irresponsibility, and a lack of remorse for wrongdoing
Three major obstacles can prevent from successful treatment
1) People may not recognize that treatment is needed
2) They may not be able or willing to get treatment
3) They may not even know if anything can be done
Psychotherapy
An interaction between a therapist and someone suffering from a psychological problem, with the goal of providing support or relief from the problem.
Eclectic Psychotherapy
Treatment that draws on techniques from different forms of therapy, depending on the client and the problem.
Psychodynamic Psychotherapies
A general approach to treatment that explores childhood events and encourages individuals to develop insight into their psychological problems
Psychoanalysis
A form of therapy that emphasizes the role of uncovering unconscious desires to develop insight into psychological problems
Free Association
The client reports every thought that enters the mind without censorship or filtering
Resistance
A reluctance to cooperate with treatment for fear of confronting unpleasant unconscious material
Transference
An event that occurs in psychoanalysis when the analyst begins to assume a major significance in the client's life and the client reacts to the analyst based on unconscious childhood fantasies
Collective Unconscious
The culturally determined symbols and myths that are shared among all people (Jung)
Interpersonal Psychotherapy
A form of psychotherapy that focuses on helping clients improve current relationships

Brief duration (12-16 weeks) and focus on improving relationships set it apart from most other psychodynamic therapies
Cognitive and Behavioral Treatments emphasize the current factors that contribute to the problem
Dysfunctional thoughts and maladaptive behavior
Behavior Therapy
A type of therapy that assumes that disordered behavior is learned and that symptom relief is achieved through changing overt maladaptive behaviors into more constructive behaviors
Aversion Therapy
Form of behavior therapy that uses positive punishment to reduce the frequency of an undesirable behavior

Eliminate

Better for short-term
Token Economy
A form of behavior therapy in which clients are given "tokens" for desired behaviors, which they can later trade for rewards

Promote
Exposure Therapy
Involves confronting an emotion-arousing stimulus directly and repeatedly, ultimately leading to a decrease in the emotional response

Reduce
Systematic Desensitization
A procedure in which a client relaxes all the muscles of his or her body while imagining being in increasingly frightening situations
Response Prevention
Involves resisting the urge to engage in a compulsive ritual or some other protective behavior
Humanistic and Existential Therapies
Emerged in 20th century

Assume human nature is generally positive and they emphasize the natural tendency of each individual to strive for personal improvement

Assume psychological problems stem from feelings of alienation and loneliness
Person Centered Therapy
An approach to therapy that assumes all individuals have a tendency toward growth and that this growth can be facilitated by acceptance and genuine reactions from the therapist

Developed by Carl Rogers

Assume each individual is qualified to determine his or her own goals for therapy
Three Basic Qualities for Therapists to have

(in person-centered therapy)
Congruence: Openness and honesty

Empathy: Continuous process of trying to understand the client by getting inside his or her way of thinking, feeling, and understanding the world

Unconditional Positive Regard: Providing nonjudgmental, warm, and accepting environment
Aggression
Behavior whose purpose is to harm another
Frustration-Aggression Principle
A principle stating that people aggress when their goals are thwarted
Social Psychology
The study of the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior
Much of our social behavior revolves around the two fundamental tasks of:
survival and reproduction
Premeditated Aggression
People consciously decide to use aggression to achieve their goals
Impulsive Aggression
People aggress spontaneously and without premeditation

response to unpleasant internal state
Cooperation
Behavior by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit
Altruism
Behavior that benefits another without benefiting oneself
Kin Selection
Process by which evolution selects for genes that cause individuals to provide benefits to their relatives
Reciprocal Altruism
Behavior that benefits another with the exception that those benefits will be returned in the future
Group
Collection of two or more people who believe they have something in common
Prejudice
A positive or negative EVALUATION of another person based on their group membership
Discrimination
Positive or negative BEHAVIOR toward another person based on their group membership
In-Group
A human category of which a person is a member
Out-Group
A human category of which a person is not a member
Deindividuation
When immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values
Social Loafing
The tendency for people to expend less effort when in a group than alone
Bystander Intervention
The act of helping strangers in an emergency situation
Diffusion of Responsibility
The tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way
Group Polarization
The tendency for a group's initial leaning to get stronger over time
Social Influence
Control of one person's behavior by another
Three Basic Wants that make People Susceptible to social influence
1) Hedonic Motive
Desire to experience pleasure & avoid pain

2) Approval Motive
Desire to be accepted & avoid being rejected

3) Accuracy Motive
Desire to believe what is true & to avoid believing what is false
Observational Learning
Learning that occurs when one person observes another person being rewarded or punished
Norm
A customary standard for behavior that is widely shared by members of a culture
Normative Influence
A phenomenon whereby one person's behavior is influenced by another person's behavior because the latter provides information about what is appropriate
Norm of Reciprocity
The norm that people should benefit those who have benefited them
Door-in-the-Face Technique
A strategy that uses reciprocating concessions to influence behavior

Ask someone for something more valuable than you really want.
Wait for person to refuse.
Ask for what you really want.
Conformity
Tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it

Asch's line test
Obedience
Tendency to do what authorities tell us to do simpy because they tell us to do it

Milgram's shock test
Attitude
An enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event

"what"
Belief
An enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event

"How"
Informational Influence
A phenomenon whereby a person's behavior is influenced by another person's behavior because the latter provides information about what is good or true