Psych Key Terms

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developmental psychology

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the study of continuity and change across the life span

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zygote

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a fertilized egg that contains chromosomes from both a sperm and an egg

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germinal stage

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the 2-week period of prenatal development that begins at conception - one-celled zygote begins to divide

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embryonic stage

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the period of prenatal development that lasts from the second to the eighth week- zygote continues to divide, now called embryo, and cells begin to differentiate

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fetal stage

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period that lasts from ninth week until birth 0- embryo is now called fetus, has skeleton and muscles that make it capable of movement

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myelination

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the formation of a fatty sheath around the axons of a neuron, begins during the fetal stage

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teratogens

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agents that damage the process of deelopment - include environmental poisons such as lead in the water, paint dust in the air, mercury in fish - most common teratogen is alcohol, also tobacco

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fetal alcohol syndrome

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a developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy - brain abnormalities, distinctive facial features, and cognitive deficits

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infancy

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stage of development that begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months - attentive to physical and social stimuli

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motor development

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the emergence of the ability to execute physical actions

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reflexes

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specific patterns of motor response that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation, with which infants are born. rooting reflex - the tendency for infants to move their mouths toward any object that touches their cheek; sucking reflex - tendency to suck any object that enters their mouths

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cephalocaudal rule

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the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet - gain control over heads first

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proximodistal rule

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tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the center to the periphery - learn to control trunks before elbows and knees, elbows and knees before hands and feet

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cognitive development

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the emergence of the ability to think and understand
- how the physical world works
- how their minds represent it
- how other minds represent it

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Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development

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1. Sensorimotor Stage (birth-2 years)
2. Preoperational (2-6 years)
3. Concrete Operational (6-11 years)
4. Formal Operational (11 years and up)

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Sensorimotor stage

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stage of development that begins at birth and lasts through infancy

infant experiences world through movement and senses, develops schemas, begins to act intentionally, and shows evidence of understanding object permanence

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schemas

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theories about or models of the way the world works

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assimilation & accommodation

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assimilation: infants apply their schemas in novel situations
accommodation: infants revise their schemas in light of new information

schema: "Things come closer if I pull them" - infant tugs the tail of cat (assimilation), the cat runs in the opposite direction
accommodation: infant adjusts schema "Aha! Inanimate things come closer when I pull them"

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Preoperational stage

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child acquires motor skills but does not understand conservation of physical properties. Child begins this stage by thinking egocentrically but ends with a basic understanding of other minds

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concrete operational stage

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child can think logically about physical objects and events and understands conservation of physical properties

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formal operational stage

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child can think logically about abstract propositions and hypotheticals

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object permanence

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the idea that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible. - begin to understand object permanence during sensorimotor stage

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conservation

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the notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object's appearance (when eggs are in a group vs. when eggs are spread out in a straight line - there are not more eggs when they are in a straight line, even though they take up more space)

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egocentrism

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the failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers

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theory of mind

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the idea that human behavior is guided by mental representations - children come to understand that they and others have minds and that these minds represent the world in different ways

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What did Piaget get wrong?

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- there is not a particular moment of graduating from one stage to another; modern psychologists see development as a more continuous and less step-like progression

- children acquire many of the abilities that Piaget described much earlier than he realized

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internal working model of relationships

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a set of beliefs about the self, the primary caregiver, and the relationship between them

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preconventional stage

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a stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by its consequences for the actor (childhood)

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conventional stage

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stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by the extent to which it conforms to social rules (adolescence)

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postconventional stage

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stage of moral development at which the morality of an action is determined by a set of general principles that reflect core values

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adolescence

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the period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity

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puberty

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the bodily changes associated with sexual maturity

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primary sex characteristics

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bodily structures that are directly involved in reproduction, such as the onset of menstruation and the enlargement of the testes, scrotum and penis

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secondary sex characteristics

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bodily structures that change dramatically with sexual maturity but that are not directly involved in reproduction, such as the enlargement of breasts and the appearance of facial, pubic, underarm hair and lowering of voices

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adulthood

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stage of development that begins around 18-21 years and ends at death

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Personality

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an individual's characteristic style of behaving, thinking and feeling

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traits

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relatively stable dispositions to behave in particular and consistent ways

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The Big Five

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the traits of the five-factor personality model: CANOE

Conscientiousness
- ranges from flexible to focuses
Agreeableness
- challenging to adaptive
Neuroticism
- resilient to reactive
Openness to experience
- preserving to exploring
Extraversion
- introvert to extravert

this set of five factors strikes the right balance between accounting for as much variation in personality while avoiding overlapping traits

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psychodynamic approach

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personality is formed by needs, striving, and desires largely operating outside of awareness - motives that can produce emotional disorders

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dynamic unconscious

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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

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id

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the most basic system of the mind - 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 - operates according to the pleasure principle

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ego

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the component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life's practical demands; operates according to the reality principle, the regulating mechanism that enables the individual to delay gratifying immediate needs and function effectively in the real world

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superego

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the mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority; set of guidelines, internal standards, and other codes of conduct

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defense mechanisms

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- rationalization: involves supplying a reasonable-sounding explanation for unacceptable feelings and behavior to conceal (mostly from oneself) one's underlying motives or feelings [creating "reasonable" excuses/justifications]
- reaction formation: involves unconsciously replacing threatening inner wishes and fantasies with an exaggerated version of the opposite [being excessively nice to someone you dislike]
- projection: involves attributing one's own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group
- regression: the ego deals with internal conflict and perceived threat by reverting to an immature behavior or earlier stage of development [use of baby talk or whining, return to thumb-sucking]
- displacement: involves shifting unacceptable wishes or drives to a neutral or less threatening alternative [yelling at your cat because you are angry at your boss]
- identification: 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 [a child whose parent bullies may later begin bullying others]
- sublimation: involves channeling unacceptable sexual or aggressive drives into socially acceptable and culturally enhancing activities [ football or rugby]

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Oedipus conflict

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a developmental experience in which a child's conflicting feelings toward the opposite-sex parent are (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent

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self-actualizing tendency

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the human motive toward realizing our inner potential

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Approaches to Personality:

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- the trait approach: identifying patterns of behavior
- the psychodynamic approach: forces that lie beneath awareness
- the humanistic-existential approach: personality as choice
- the social-cognitive approach: personalities in situations

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self-concept

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a person's explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviors, traits, and other personal characteristics

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self-esteem

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the extent to which an individual likes, values, and accepts the self

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self-serving bias

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people tend to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures

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intelligence

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the ability to direct one's thinking, adapt to one's circumstances, and learn from one's experiences

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Alfred Binet

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developed intelligence test - in order to select children to be educated

- test to measure a child's aptitude for learning independence of the child's prior educational achievement - to test "natural intelligence"

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Lewis Terman - claims on group differences in intelligence

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1. Intelligence is genetic (genetics CONTRIBUTE to intelligence)
2. some groups reliably outscore others on IQ tests
3. therefore, some groups are inherently smarter than others (Not necessarily true – controversial claim)

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deviation IQ

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a statistic obtained by dividing a person's test score by the average test score of people in the same age group and then multiplying the quotient by 100 - offers intelligence comparison of people within same age group

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Three-level hierarchy of intelligence

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top: GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

- middle- level abilities: memory, reasoning, verbal skill

bottom: specific abilities - recalling movie titles, remembering birthdays, solving logic problems, making legal arguments, giving speeches, solving crossword puzzles

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two-factor theory of intelligence

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every task requires a combination of a general ability and skills that are specific to the task

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comorbidity

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the co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual

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diathesis-stress model

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suggests that a person may be predisposed for a mental disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress

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Fear/Anxiety Disorders

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- generalized anxiety disorder
- phobic disorders
- panic disorders
- obsessive-compulsive disorder

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

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a disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance


a. Characterized by chronic, day-to-day, uncontrollable worry about what is to happen
b. Belief that bad things will happen and they have little control over it
c. Benzodiazepines stimulate GABBA production

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phobic disorders

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disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities or situations

e. Phobias more common with women than with men. There seems to be a genetic component to phobias
f. One of the disorders that is the MOST responsive to therapy
i. Systematic Desensitization: introducing the source of the phobia very gradually in the least threatening way possible and ever so gradually increasing the threat

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specific phobia

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a disorder that involves an irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual's ability to function

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social phobia

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a disorder that involves an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed

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preparedness theory

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the idea that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears - humans and monkeys can quickly be conditioned to have a fear response to stimuli such as snakes and spiders but not for neutral stimuli such as flowers or toy rabbits

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panic disorder

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a disorder characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror

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agoraphobia

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an extreme fear of venturing into public places - often a common complication of panic disorder; fear of having a panic attack in a public place

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obsessive-compulsive disorder

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a disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviors (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual's functioning

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mood disorders

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mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature
- depression
-bipolar disorder

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major depressive disorder

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a disorder characterized by a severely depressed mood that lasts 2 weeks or more and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness and lack of pleasure, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbances

depressive mood disorders are dysfunctional, chronic, and fall outside the range of socially or culturally expected responses

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dysthymia

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a disorder that involves the same symptoms as in depression only less severe, but the symptoms last longer, persisting for at least 2 years.

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double depression

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combination of major depression and dysthymia: a moderately depressed mood that persists for at least 2 years and is punctuated by periods of major depression

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seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

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depression that involves recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern

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helplessness theory

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the idea that individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (i.e., their own fault), stable (i.e., unlikely to change), and global (i.e., widespread).

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bipolar disorder

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an unstable emotional condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mood (mania) and low mood (depression)
- manic episode must last at least a week to meet DSM requirements. symptoms include grandiosity, decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, reckless behavior (compulsive gambling). psychotic features such as hallucinations and delusions may be present

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dissociative disorder

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a condition in which normal cognitive processes are severely disjointed and fragmented, creating significant disruptions in memory, awareness, or personality that can vary in length from a matter of minutes to many years.

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

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the presence within an individual of two or more distinct identities that at different times take control of the individual's behavior

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dissociative amnesia

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the sudden loss of memory for significant personal information. the memory loss is typically for a traumatic specific event or a period of time but can involve extended periods of a person's life

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dissociative fugue

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the sudden loss of memory for one's personal history, accompanied by an abrupt departure from home and the assumption of a new identity. The fugue state is usually associated with stressful life circumstances and can be brief or lengthy.

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Schizophrenia

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the profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; and disturbances in thought, motivation, and behavior.
symptoms:
- delusion
- hallucination
- disorganized speech
- grossly disorganized behavior or catatonic behavior
- negative symptoms

the closer a person's genetic relatedness to a person with schizophrenia, the greater the likelihood of developing the disorder

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Delusion

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a patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose, that is maintained in spite of its irrationality. Ex. an individual believing he/she is Jesus Christ
- grandeur
- persecution
- external agency

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Hallucination

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a false perceptual experience that has a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation. hearing, seeing, or smelling things that are not there

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Disorganized speech

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a severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently from one to another unrelated topic. difficulties in organizing thoughts and focusing attention

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grossly disorganized behavior/catatonic behavior

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behavior that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances. Childlike silliness, improper sexual behavior.

Catatonic behavior: a marked decrease in all movement or an increase in muscular rigidity and overactivity

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Negative symptoms

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emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behavior, motivation, and emotion

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dopamine hypothesis

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the idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity - amphetamines, which increase dopamine levels, often aggravate the symptoms of schizophrenia

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Personality disorder

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disorder 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

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Antisocial personality disorder (APD)

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a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood
- any pattern of extreme disregard for other people

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prejudice

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a positive or negative evaluation of another person based on their group membership

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discrimination

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positive or negative behavior toward another person based on their group membership

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deindividuation

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a phenomenon that occurs when immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values.
- one reason for bad behavior in groups - lynching, rioting, gang-raping

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diffusion of responsibility

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the tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way.
- reason for bad behavior in groups

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altruism

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behavior that benefits another without benefitting oneself

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reciprocal altruism

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behavior that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future

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mere exposure effect

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the tendency for liking to increase with the frequency of exposure

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Attractive Physical features:

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- body shape - testosterone causes male bodies to become "inverted triangles" (broad shoulders with narrow waist and hips) just as estrogen causes female bodies to become "hourglasses". body shape is an indicator of male dominance and female fertility.

- symmetry: both symmetry and averageness are signs of genetic health.

- age: younger women are generally more fertile than older women, whereas older men generally have more resources than younger men.

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Normative influence

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present in the Approval Motive

- a phenomenon that occurs when another person's behavior provides information about what is appropriate.

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norm of reciprocity

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the unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefited them.

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door-in-the-face technique

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a strategy that uses reciprocating concessions to influence behavior.

you ask someone for something more valuable than what you really want, you wait for that person to refuse, and then you ask the person for what you really want.

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informational influence

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(accuracy motive)

a phenomenon that occurs when a person's behavior provides information about what is good or right. for ex. standing in the middle of the street and looking up at a building - other people will stop and look too, due to your informational influence. (rather than informing about what is socially appropriate - normative influence)

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systematic persuasion

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the process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason

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heuristic persuasion

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the process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to habit or emotion.

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foot-in-the-door technique

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a technique that involves a small request followed by a larger request. - asking homeowners to sign a petition and then install a sign in yard saying drive carefully. 55% agreed to the sign after signing petition, whereas only 17% agreed to the sign alone.

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cognitive dissonance

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an unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his/her actions, attitudes, or beliefs.
- either change one's actions, attitudes or beliefs in order to restore consistency among them.

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perceptual confirmation

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a phenomenon that occurs when observers perceive what they expect to perceive.

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self-fulfilling prophecy

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the tendency for people to cause what they expect to see.

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subtyping

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the tendency for people who are faced with disconfirming evidence to modify their stereotypes rather than abandon them.

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stereotype threat

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fear of confirming an observer's stereotype; ironically, this fear can cause people to behave in precisely the way that the stereotype predicts.

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attribution

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an inference about the cause of a person's behavior

situational attribution - "He was lucky that the wind carried the ball into the stands."

dispositional attributions: "He's got a great eye and a powerful swing."

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correspondence bias

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the tendency to make a dispositional attribution even when a person's behavior was caused by the situation.
so common that it is sometimes called the fundamental attribution error.

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Transduction

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what takes place when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the central nervous system

sensation --> perception

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absolute threshold

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the minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus -

a candle flame 30 miles away on a dark, clear night; a single drop of perfume diffused through an area equivalent to the volume of six rooms; a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in two gallons of water; etc.

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just noticeable difference (JND)

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the minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected - not a fixed quantity

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Weber's law

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The just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity.

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signal detection theory

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an observation that the response to a stimulus depends both on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise AND on a person's response criterion.

measures perceptual sensitivity - how effectively the perceptual system represents sensory events.

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sensory adaptation

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sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions.

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visual acuity

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the ability to see fine detail

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retina

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light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball

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(visual) accommodation

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the process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina - the muscles change the shape of the lens to focus objects at different distances (flatter for father objects, rounder for nearby objects)

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cones vs rods

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cones: detect color, operate under normal daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail

rods: become active under low-light conditions for night vision

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fovea

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an area of the retina where vision is the clearest and there are no rods at all.

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blind spot

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the location in VISUAL FIELD that produces no sensation on the retina because the corresponding area of the retina contains neither rods nor cones and therefore has no mechanism to sense light [blind spot caused by hole in retina, through with the optic nerve leaves the eye]

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trichromatic color representation

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the pattern of responding across the three types of cones [blue, green & red] provides a unique code for each color

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color-opponent system

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pairs of visual neurons work in opposition - red-sensitive cells against green-sensitive, blue-sensitive against yellow-sensitive

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visual-form agnosia

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the inability to recognize objects by sight

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ventral stream

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travels across the occipital lobe into the lower levels of the temporal lobes and includes brain areas that represent an object's SHAPE and IDENTITY - the "what pathway"

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dorsal stream

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travels up from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobes, connecting with brain areas that identify the LOCATION and MOTION of an object - the "where pathway"

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binding problem (in perception)

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concerns how features are linked together so that we see unified objects in our visual world rather than free-floating or miscombined features

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illusory conjunction

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a perceptual mistake where features from multiple objects are incorrectly combined. - seeing a blue A or a red X instead of the red A and the blue X that had actually been shown.

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feature integration theory

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focused attention is not required to detect the individual features that comprise a stimulus, such as the color, shape, size, and location of letters, but is required to bind those individual features together. illusory conjunctions occur when it is difficult for participants to pay full attention

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perceptual constancy

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even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains constant

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monocular depth cues

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aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye.

- linear perspective
- texture gradient: size of pattern elements, as well as distance between them, grows smaller as surface recedes
- interpositionL when one object partly blocks another, you can infer that the blocking object is closer than the blocked object
- relative height in the image: objects that are closer to you are lower in your visual field

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binocular disparity

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the difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth

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frequency of a sound wave

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determines pitch - how high or low a sound is.

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amplitude of sound wave

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determines loudness - a sound's intensity

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complexity of sound wave

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determines timbre, a listener's experience of sound quality or resonance

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the human ear

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the outer ear collects sound waves and funnels them toward the middle ear, which transmits the vibrations to the inner ear, embedded in the skull, where they are transduced into neural impulses

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cochlea

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a fluid-filled tube that is the organ of auditory transduction - in the inner ear

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thermoreceptors

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nerve fibers that sense cold and warmth; respond when your skin temperature changes

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haptic perception

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the active exploration of the environment by touching and grasping objects with our hands