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AP Survival Guide
Psych terms
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Centration | A young child's tendency to focus only on his or her own perspective of a specific object and a failure to understand that others may see things differently. |
| Chemical Imbalance | A generic term for the idea that chemical in the brain are either too scarce or too abundant resulting in a mental disorder such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. |
| Accommodation | The creation of new cognitive schemas when objects, experiences, or other information does not fit with existing schemas. |
| Action Potential | The firing on a neuron. Occurs when the charge inside the neuron becomes more positive than the charge outside. |
| Altruism | Behavior that is unselfish and may even be detrimental but which benefits others. |
| Amnesia | Loss of memory. Usually only a partial loss such as for a period of time or biographical information. |
| Anxiety | The physiological and psychological reaction to an expected danger, whether real or imagined. |
| Aphasia | The impairment of the ability to communicate either through oral or written discourse as a result of brain damage. |
| Arousal Theory | The theory stating that we are motivated by our innate desire to maintain an optimal level of arousal. |
| Assimilation | Incorporating objects, experiences, or information into existing schemas. |
| Associations | The phenomenon in learning that states we are better able to remember information if it is paired with something we are familiar with or otherwise stands out. |
| Attachment | The strong bond a child forms with his or her primary caregiver. |
| Attribution | An idea or belief about the etiology of a certain behavior. |
| Authoritarian [parents] | Parenting style focused on excessive rules, rigid belief systems, and the expectation of unquestioned obedience. |
| Authoritative [parents] | Parenting style focused on setting reasonable rules and expectations while encouraging communication and independence. |
| Availability Heuristic | A rule of thumb stating that information more readily available in our memory is more important than information not as easily accessible. |
| Aversion Therapy | A type of behavioral treatment where an aversive stimuli is paired with a negative behavior in hopes that the behavior will change in the future to avoid the aversive stimuli. |
| Axon | The tail-like part of the neuron through which information exits the cell. |
| Behavior Modification | The application of behavioral theory to change a specific behavior. |
| Behavior Therapy | The application of behavioral theory (e.g. conditioning, reinforcement) in the treatment of mental illness. |
| Behaviorism | The school of psychology founded on the premise that behavior is measurable and can be changed through the application of various behavioral principles. |
| Classical Conditioning | The behavioral technique of pairing a naturally occurring stimulus and response chain with a different stimulus in order to produce a response which is not naturally occurring. |
| Client Centered Therapy | A humanistic therapy based on Carl Roger's beliefs that an individual has an unlimited capacity for psychological growth and will continue to grow unless barriers are placed in the way. |
| Coercive Power | Power derived through the ability to punish. |
| Coercive Power | Power derived through the ability to punish. |
| Cognitive Behavioral Therapy | Treatment involving the combination of behaviorism (based on the theories of learning) and cognitive therapy (based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large portion of our behaviors). |
| Cognitive Dissonance | The realization of contradictions in one's own attitudes and behaviors. |
| Cognitive Therapy | The treatment approach based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large part of our behaviors and emotions. Therefore, changing the way we think can result in positive changes in the way we act and feel. |
| Compulsion | The physical act resulting from an obsession. Typically a compulsive act is done in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort created by an obsession. |
| Conditioned Response | The response in a stimulus-response chain that is not naturally occurring, but rather has been learned through its pairing with a naturally occurring chain. |
| Conditioned Stimulus | The stimulus in a stimulus-response chain that is not naturally occurring, but rather has been learned through its pairing with a naturally occurring chain. |
| Conditioning . | The process of learning new behaviors or responses as a result of their consequences |
| Conformity | Changing your attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, or behaviors in order to be more consistent with others. |
| Consciousness | Awareness of yourself and the world around you. |
| Conservation | The understanding, typically achieved in later childhood, that matter remains the same even when the shape changes (i.e., a pound of clay is still a pound of clay whether is is rolled in a ball or pounded flat). |
| Consolidation | The physiological changes in the brain associated with memory storage. |
| Consolidation Failure | The failure to store information in memory. |
| Context Dependent Memory | The theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better remembered when in that same situation or place. |
| Continuous Reinforcement | The application of reinforcement every time a specific behavior occurs. |
| Control Group | The group of subjects in an experiment that does not receive the independent variable. |
| Correlation | Statistical representation of a relationship between two or more variables which does not determine cause and effect. |
| Critical Period | A time frame deemed highly important in developing in a healthy manner; can be physically, emotionally, behaviorally, or cognitively. |
| Crowding | The psychological and psychological response to the belief that there are too many people in a specified area. |
| Crystallized Intelligence | The part of intelligence which involves the acquisition, as opposed to the use, of information. |
| Decay | Theory which states that memory fades and/or disappears over time if it is not used or accessed. |
| Declarative Memory | The part of long-term memory where factual information is stored, such as mathematical formulas, vocabulary, and life events. |
| Deductive Reasoning | Decision making process in which ideas are processed from the general to the specific. |
| Defenses (Defense Mechanisms) | Psychological forces which prevent undesirable or inappropriate impulses from entering consciousness (e.g., forgetting responsibilities that we really didn't want to do, projecting anger onto a spouse as opposed to your boss). . |
| Delusion | False belief system (e.g., believing you are Napoleon, have magical powers, or the false belief that others are 'out to get you.'). |
| Dependent Variable | The variable in an experiment that is measured; the outcome of an experiment. |
| Developmental Psychology | The area of psychology focused on how children grow psychologically to become who they are as adults. |
| Difference Threshold | The smallest change in perception which is noticeable at least 50% of the time. |
| Discrimination | In behavioral theory, the learned ability to differentiate between two similar objects or situations. |
| Displacement | The pushing out of older information in short term memory to make room for new information. |
| Dissociation | A separation from the self, with the most severe resulting in Dissociative Identity Disorder. Most of us experience this in very mild forms such as when we are driving long distance and lose time or find ourselves day dreaming longer than we thought. |
| Distinctiveness | The phenomenon in memory that states we are better able to remember information if it is distinctive or different from other information. |
| Divergent Thinking | The ability to use previously gained information to debate or discuss issues which have no agreed upon definitive resolution. |
| Double Blind Study | Research method in which both the subjects and the experimenter are unaware or 'blind' to the anticipated results. |
| Drive | An internal motivation to fulfill a need or reduce the negative aspects of an unpleasant situation. |
| Ego | In Psychoanalytical theory, the part of the personality which maintains a balance between our impulses (id) and our conscience (superego). |
| Ellis, Albert | A cognitive Psychologist who developed the concept of Rational-Emotive Therapy. |
| Emotion | Feelings about a situation, person, or objects that involves changes in physiological arousal and cognitions. |
| Emotional Intelligence (EQ) | The awareness of and ability to manage one's emotions in a healthy and productive manner. |
| Encoding | The transformation of information to be stored in memory. |
| Episodic Memory | Subcategory of Declarative memory where information regarding life events are stored. |
| Etiology | Causal relationships of diseases; theories regarding how the specific disease or disorder began. |
| Experimental Group | In research, the group of subjects who receive the independent variable. |
| Experimental Method | Research method using random assignment of subjects and the manipulation of variables in order to determine cause and effect. |
| Experimenter Bias | Errors in a research study due to the predisposed notions or beliefs of the experimenter. |
| Expert Power | Power derived through advanced knowledge or experience in a particular subject. |
| External Locus of Control | The belief that the environment has more control over life circumstances than the individual does. |
| Extinction | The reduction and eventual disappearance of a learned or conditioned response after it is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus-response chain. |
| Extrinsic Motivation | The desire or push to perform a certain behavior based on the potential external rewards that may be received as a result. |
| Factor Analysis | A statistical technique used to determine the number of components in a set of data. These components are then named according to their characteristics allowing a researcher to break down information into statistical groups. |
| Family Therapy | Treatment involving family members which seeks to change the unhealthy familial patterns and interactions. |
| Fixation | In Freud's theory of psychosexual development, the failure to complete a stage successfully which results in a continuation of that stage into later adulthood. |
| Fixed Interval Schedule | A schedule in which the reinforcement is presented after a specific period of time. |
| Fixed Ratio Schedule | A schedule in which the reinforcement is presented after a specific number of responses. |
| Frequency Effect | The phenomenon in memory which states that we tend to remember information better if it is repeated. |
| Freud, Sigmund | Often referred to as the father of clinical psychology. |
| Flooding | A behavioral technique used to treat phobias in which the client is presented with the feared stimulus until the associated anxiety disapears. |
| Fluid Intelligence | The part of intelligence which involves the use, as opposed to the acquisition, of information. |
| Framing | Presenting information either positively or negatively in order to change the influence is has on an individual or group. |
| Free Association | The psychoanalytic technique of allowing a patient to talk without direction or input in order to analyze current issues of the client. |
| Frontal Lobe | The lobe at the front of the brain associated with movement, speech, and impulsive behavior. |
| Frustration | The feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with not achieving a particular goal or the belief that a goal has been prematurely interrupted. |
| Fundamental Attribution Error | The tendency to over estimate the internal attributes of another person's actions. |
| Gender Identity | The internal sense of being either male or female. Usually congruent with biological gender, but not always as in Gender Identity Disorder. |
| Gender Role | The accepted behaviors, thoughts, and emotions of a specific gender based upon the views of a particular society or culture. |
| Gender Typing | The process of developing the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions associated with a particular gender. |
| Generalization | The tendency to associate stimuli, and therefore respond similarly to, due to their closeness on some variable such as size, shape, color, or meaning. |
| Gestalt | German word typically translated as meaning 'whole' or 'form.' |
| Gestalt Therapy | Treatment focusing on the awareness and understanding of one's feelings. |
| Group Polarization | The tendency for members of a cohesive group to make more extreme decisions due to the lack of opposing views. |
| Group Therapy | Psychotherapy conducted with at least three or four non-related individuals who are similar in some are, such as gender, age, mental illness, or presenting problem. |
| Group Think | The tendency for members of a cohesive group to reach decisions without weighing all the facts, especially those contradicting the majority opinion. |
| Gustation | Sense of taste. |
| Habituation | The decrease in response to a stimulus due to repetition (e.g., not hearing the ticking of a clock after getting used to it) |
| Hallucination | False perception of reality (e.g., hearing voices that aren't there or seeing people who do not exist) [auditory (hearing); visual (sight); olfactory (smell); tactile (touch); and taste] |
| Halo Effect | The tendency to assign generally positive or generally negative traits to a person after observing one specific positive or negative trait, respectively. |
| Health Psychology | The specific field in psychology concerned with psychology’s impact on health, physical well being, and illness. |
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