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Psych/Soc MCAT
Memorize
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Thorndike’s law of effect | Behaviors followed by bad results are less likely to occur and behaviors followed by good results are more likely to occur again. |
| The law of diminishing returns | the value or enjoyment we get from something starts to decrease after a certain point |
| Weber’s law | the law that states to notice a specific difference in sensation such as weight, you have to pass a constant threshold |
| James-Lange theory | a physiological response like release of epinephrine causes emotions like fear (lot of criticisms) |
| Feature Detection | nervous system filters out background noise/stimuli (usually visual) and focuses on the more important objects, etc |
| Procedural memory | type of implicit memory which aids the performance of particular types of tasks without conscious awareness of these previous experiences |
| Episodic memory | what most people think of as memory and include information about recent or past events and experiences |
| Semantic memory | a type of long-term memory involving the capacity to recall words, concepts, or numbers |
| Eidetic memory | the ability to vividly recall an image you are exposed to, but only briefly |
| Stroop effect | it is harder for an individual to reconcile different pieces of information relating to colors than to reconcile similar pieces of information |
| Alpha waves in sleep | awake but not fully alert |
| Beta waves in sleep | awake but fully alert and REM sleep |
| Theta waves in sleep | stage 1, 2 |
| Delta waves in sleep | Stage 3 |
| Moderating variable | a variable in an experiment affects the intensity of relationship between independent and dependent variables |
| Mediating variable | a variable that explains the relationship between the independent and dependent variable |
| Cross-sectional study | a type of observational study that analyzes data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time |
| Retrospective study | uses existing data that have been recorded for reasons other than research. |
| Prospective study | carried out from the present time into the future |
| Role strain | difficulties related to handling the responsibilities associated with a particular role |
| Role conflict | difficulties related to balancing multiple roles |
| Role engulfment | happens when a particular role is dominant in a person’s life |
| Halo effect | tendency for positive impressions of a person, company, country, brand, or product in one area |
| Locus of control | an individual's perception about the underlying main causes of events in his/her life; do they believe it's because of external or internal factors |
| Game Theory | a branch of decision theory focusing on interactive decisions, applicable whenever the actions of two or more decision makers jointly determine an outcome that affects them all |
| Looking-glass theory | how others’ views influence how people perceive themselves |
| Self-schema | categories of knowledge that reflect how we expect ourselves to think, feel, and act in particular settings or situations |
| Piaget Stage 1 | Sensorimotor; 0-2 years; child learns by doing such as touching, sucking, etc; child understands cause-and-effect relationships; understand object permanence (object is still there even if they don't see it) |
| Piaget Stage 2 | Preoperational; 2-7 years; child uses language and symbols, can form mental images; more egocentric, and increased use of imagination and intuition |
| Piaget Stage 3 | Concrete Operational; 7-11 years; time space quantity better understood; thinks more logically and in categories; conversations |
| Piaget Stage 4 | Formal Operational; 12+; abstract thinking, logic, deductive reasoning, comparison, classification |
| How long must a patient experience symptoms of depression before he or she can be diagnosed with major depressive disorder? | 2 weeks |
| Cannon-Bard Theory | theory of emotion; stimulus causes physiological response such as epinephrine and emotion such as fear at the same time |
| Availability heuristic | incorrectly assessing the likelihood of an event based on examples that come to mind quickly |
| Representativeness heuristic | incorrectly assessing the likelihood of an event, but it is based on what is considered to be a stereotypical/prototypical example of a category |
| Causation bias | reflects a tendency to incorrectly infer causal relationships that do not exist |
| Hindsight bias | reflects a tendency to inaccurately believe that past events were highly predictable, even though the events may not have been predictable in the moment |
| Conflict theory | an arena for constant conflict between different groups of people; holds that social order is maintained by domination and power, rather than by consensus and conformity |
| Cocktail party effect | when there are many groups talking, and you hear one sentence from a random person because it relates to you; phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, |
| Social anomie | feeling of disconnection from moral boundaries in society. Thus, individuals feeling this way could perceive greater crime rates than what is actually occurring |
| Social anhedonia | an increased disinterest in all aspects of interpersonal relationships and a lack of pleasure in social situations |
| Social dysthymia | Dysthymia is a more subtle form of depression |
| Social escapism | avoidance of unpleasant, boring, difficult, or anxiety-inducing aspects of daily life |
| Disorganized speech | does not fall under schizophrenia or bipolar - only delusions and anhedonia |
| Primary deviance | actual violation of norm or law; not normal behavior, usually one time thing |
| Secondary deviance | behavior that results from being labeled deviant regardless if the person has engaged in deviance |
| Tertiary deviance | occurs when deviant fully accepts the deviant role and doesn't care about the stigma associated with it |
| Source monitoring effect | occurs when a person misattributes the source of a memory or a piece of knowledge |
| Dual-coding effect | describes how information presented via multiple modalities (e.g., visual, auditory) results in stronger mental associations |
| Sensory memory | memories that are stored for only a few seconds |
| Spreading activation | the conceptual network of associations in the brain is related to information retrieval. high-empathy individuals have stronger links between negative cues and memories, -> recall traumatic memories more readily than low-empathy individuals |
| Affect heuristic | rely on emotions rather than concrete info when making decisions |
| symbolic interaction theory | people act based on the meanings of cultural symbols that are derived from social interaction; focuses on meanings attached to human interaction, both verbal and non-verbal, and to symbols |
| Behaviorist theory | all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment |
| Functionalist theory | sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability. This approach looks at society through a macro-level orientation and broadly focuses on the social structures that shape society as a whole. |
| Self-efficacy | a person’s beliefs in their ability to achieve a particular outcome |
| Deindividuation | tendency for people to abdicate self-awareness and responsibility in large anonymous groups, AKA a “mob mentality.” |
| Paired samples t-test | when we are interested in the difference between two variables for the same subject. Often separated by time. For example, in the Dixon and Massey data set we have cholesterol levels in 1952 and cholesterol levels in 1962 for each subject |
| Independent samples t-test | conducted when researchers wish to compare mean values of two unrelated groups |
| Regression | used to predict scores from independent variables. It allows researchers to identify the unique effects of independent variables while controlling for other independent variables |
| Pearson correlation coefficient | calculated to compare the association between two variables. It would not identify the unique effect of each characteristic. |
| The theory of mind | involves being able to take another person’s perspective; knowledge that others' beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different from one's own |
| Chomsky’s language acquisition theory | argues that human brain structures naturally allow for the capacity to learn and use languages; an innate language acquisition capacity |
| Freud’s drive theory | development is motivated by innate drives. |
| Skinner’s operant conditioning theory | Operant conditioning contends that behavior is motivated by contingencies. |
| Vygotsky’s social learning theory | the role of people and interactions in the acquisition of cognitive skills such as language, which would involve mirror neurons; cognitive development occurs as a result of social interactions |
| Stage 3 of sleep | Stage 3 is a deep sleep that typically lasts about 30 minutes. Sleepwalking and bed-wetting typically occur at the end of Stage 3; no eye movement or muscle activity. This is when some children may also experience sleepwalking or night terrors. |
| Context effect | influence of environmental characteristics on a person’s perception of a stimulus. For example, a participant may have better recall when the original learning and recall take place in similar environments. |
| False alarm | primed with airplane-related words and then incorrectly identifies another airplane-related word as having been a part of the list. |
| Sexual dimorphism | degree to which males and females resemble each other |
| Milgram | Stanley Milgram’s-> obedience experiment, where he demonstrated that participants would follow the orders of a superior if instructed to go against their conscience |
| Sigmund Freud | most associated with psychoanalysis and theories about the unconscious, not obedience studies. |
| Abraham Maslow | best known for his “hierarchy of needs” and humanistic theories of personality. He did not directly address obedience. |
| B.F. Skinner | most associated with behaviorism and conditioning studies, not obedience studies. |
| Schachter-Singer | emotions are based on a physiological stimulus; Processing context of stimulus creates the emotion felt;a person at a dinner party with friends they love (stimulating event) and feeling an increased heart rate and perspiration (physiological arousal). |
| Locke-Adams | goal setting is basically linked to task. performance. It states that specific and challenging goals, together with appropriate. feedback, contribute to higher and better task performance |
| Intersectionality | concerned with the intersection of different identities and how this unique combination influences people |
| Internal validity | degree of confidence that the causal relationship being tested is trustworthy and not influenced by other factors or variables |
| External validity | the extent to which results from a study can be applied (generalized) to other situations, groups, or events |
| Prescriptive | what people believe should occur |
| Descriptive | what actually occurs |
| Priming | occurs when an individual's exposure to a certain stimulus influences their response to a subsequent prompt, without any awareness of the connection |
| George Mead Social Theory | the self is divided into the “I” and the “me.” The “me” is the collection of attitudes taken from society, whereas the “I” is the autonomous sense of self that reacts to the “me.” |
| Freud mind and ego connection | ego-> act through the conscious mind (awareness at the present moment), the unconscious mind (processes that occur automatically in the mind), and the preconscious mind (thoughts in the mind, typically unconscious, but can be recalled if needed). |
| Freud ID | primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories; unconscious |
| Freud Ego | realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego; conscious, unconscious, and preconscious |
| Freud Superego | operates as a moral conscience; conscious, unconscious, and preconscious |
| Dispositional attribution | assigns the cause of behavior to some internal characteristic of a person rather than to outside forces |
| External/Situational attribution | interpreting an event or behavior as being caused by the situation that the person is in, such as their social or physical environment |
| Stapes | a footplate that acts as a piston, making contact with the cochlear fluid at the oval window |
| Social Constructivism Theory | the way we perceive reality is shaped by our social and cultural context. They argue that our perceptions are not simply a reflection of objective reality, but are rather shaped by the cultural and social values and beliefs that we hold. |
| Within-Subjects Design | when all participants are exposed to every condition in a study |
| Field Experiment | occurs in all natural conditions |
| Self-determination theory | focuses on the causes of intrinsic motivation, in particular competence, autonomy, and relatedness |
| Opponent-process theory | explains how the primary or initial reaction to an emotional event will be subsequently followed by an opposite secondary emotional state |
| Elaboration likelihood model | explains different ways people may be persuaded, including central and peripheral routes of influencing others |
| General Adaptation Stage | alarm, resistance, exhaustion |
| Sherif's Robber’s Cave Experiment | children were grouped into different camps and, through manipulation, were encouraged to have negative attitudes towards each other. However, after being given a task in which they had to collaborate, they began to view each other more favorably |
| Dramaturgical approach | distinguishes between a front-stage self (reflecting how someone acts in front of an audience) and a back-stage self (reflecting how someone acts when not in public) |
| Aligning actions | presenting one’s actions in a light that is more favorable. |
| Expectancy effects | occurs when a researcher unconsciously influences the behavior of the participants |
| Hawthorne effects | the idea that individuals are affected by being observed. |
| Self-serving bias | attributing successes to dispositional (internal) attributes and failures to situational (external) factors. |
| Actor-observer bias | attribution of others’ actions to internal factors and one’s own actions to external factors |
| distal stimulus | perceived by the sensory receptors that provides information for the proximal stimulus. Essentially, a distal stimulus is the object or event that is perceived. For example, when an individual sees a flower, the flower is the distal stimulus. |
| proximal stimulus | For ex, when a person "sees" a dog, it is because the dog (the distal stimulus) created a retinal image (the proximal stimulus) that was interpreted as a dog by the person's visual system. pattern of energy impinging on the observer's sensory receptors |
| principle of similarity | things that look alike are more likely to be grouped together during perceptual processing; increased likelihood of objects with a similar appearance being perceived as a single unit |
| principle of continuity | when visual elements are aligned with each other, our visual perception is biased to perceive them as continuous forms rather than disconnected segments |
| Gestalt psychology | heoretical approach that emphasized the idea that the ways in which people’s perceptual experience is organized result from how human brains are organized |
| Cohort differences | usually means generational differences |
| Centration | focusing all attention on one characteristic or dimension of a situation while disregarding all others; center |
| Neuroticism | a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings |
| Reproductive memory | recall that is hypothesized to work by storing the original stimulus input and reproducing it during recall |
| Flashbulb memory | vivid, long-lasting memory about a surprising or shocking event that has happened in the past |
| Prospective memory | memory for tasks which must be completed in the future |
| Iconic memory | sensory memory that stores sensory information |
| Somatic symptom disorder | characterized by psychological distress caused by the experience of physical symptoms |
| REM Rebound | if you have less hours of REM the previous night, then your body will go through REM more the next day to kind of make up for it |
| Classical conditioning | associating an involuntary response and a stimulus; dog hears bell gets food, so whenever he hears bell, he starts salivating because he thinks food will come |
| Operant conditioning | associating a voluntary behavior and a consequence; rat presses lever, gets food, presses button, gets shocked -> presses lever not button |
| Elaboration likelihood | explains how people can be persuaded to change their attitudes. When people are invested in a topic and have the time and energy to think over an issue, they're more likely to be persuaded through the central route. |
| Fundamental attribution error | making judgements abt other people and their decisions without thinking about their situation (situational is an important of what makes something a fundamental attribution error) |
| Cognitive dissonance | psychological discomfort one experiences when holding two conflicting attitudes or when their attitude conflicts with their behavior |
| Stereotype threat | when ur worried abt following through with negative stereotypes abt u |
| Self-fulfilling prophecy | worrying abt something and making it come true through that worry; belief that leads to its own fulfillment |
| Medulla oblongata | primarily responsible for the regulation of basic life functions such as respiration and heart rate |
| Pons | primarily responsible for the regulation of sleep |
| Shaping | the process of training a learned behavior that would not normally occur. For each action closer to the desired outcome, a reinforcement or reward is provided until the target behavior is achieved. |
| Stimulus discrimination | stimulus-controlled behavior occurs specifically to the original controlling stimulus and is not elicited by stimuli that resemble the original stimulus |
| Stimulus generalization | stimulus-controlled behavior occurs in response to stimuli that closely resemble the original controlling stimulus |
| Social facilitation | the theory that people perform better when in the presence of others, like a coworker or an audience |
| Social loafing | when an individual puts in less effort working in a group than they would working on a task individually |
| Social Solidarity | emphasizes interdependence between individuals in society, allows individuals to feel that they can make other lives better; Farmers, for ex, produce food that feeds the factory workers who produce the tractors that allow the farmers to produce the food |
| Structural mobility | changes in the socioeconomic status of the whole population |
| intERgenerational mobility | between diff generation - ses changes |
| intRAgenerational mobility | one individual change in ses |
| Self-verification | refers to the tendency to seek out (and agree with) information that is consistent with one’s self-concept |
| Self-serving bias | how we explain our behavior depending on whether the outcome of our behavior is positive or negative. For example, an athlete is more likely to say a good performance bc their own ability, and a poor one on external causes like the event environment. |
| Self-efficacy | one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes |
| Five Factor Model | hierarchical organization of personality traits in terms of five basic dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience |
| Myers-Briggs inventory | INFP, ENFP, etc |
| psychodynamic approach (personality) | does not focus on personality traits but rather on the sub- and unconscious influences on personality and behavior. |
| biopsychosocial model (personality) | not focus on personality traits but rather on the various logical, psychological, and social influences which shape personality formation |
| Incentive theory | focus on the role that extrinsic motivators play in shaping behavior |
| Drive Theory | a motivational state caused by psychological or physiological needs |
| Expectancy–value theory | focuses on how motivation varies depending on how a person evaluates their likelihood of success at an activity. |
| Self-determination theory | focuses on the innate need for psychological growth. |
| Manifest functions | intended outcomes of social practices |
| Equalizing function | refer to anti-discriminatory practices in social institutions |
| Latent function | an unintended positive outcome of a social practice |
| Discriminatory function | unfair treatment of an individual due to their social background |
| Motion Parallax | objects moving at a constant speed across the frame will appear to move a greater amount if they are closer to an observer |
| Sensory interaction | one sense influences the other |
| Perceptual maladaptation | Ability of the body to adapt to an environment by filtering out distractions. |
| Gestalt principle of closure | occurs when people perceive objects that are incomplete as complete |
| Proactive interference | when a person is trying to learn or recall a new memory while the old memory keeps interfering |
| Retroactive interference | when new memories interfere with trying to remember old memories or information |
| Belief perservance | a tendency to hold one’s initial beliefs despite new information that disproves these beliefs |
| Belief bias | tendency to judge results based on one’s held beliefs, rather than on logic or academic merit |
| Confirmation bias | a tendency for people to focus only on information that agrees with their previously held beliefs. |
| Implicit Memory | unconscious or automatic memory, information that we do not store purposely and is unintentionally memorized; we cannot consciously bring that memory into awareness; singing a familiar song, typing on your computer keyboard, and brushing your teeth |
| parietal brain | sensory perception and integration, including the management of taste, hearing, sight, touch, and smell |
| discriminating stimuli | signal the availability of reinforcement or punishment; five numbers -> electric shock; five numbers -> reward |
| traditional behaviorist approach | strict behaviorists believe that all behaviors are the result of experience; from question -> cognitions don't lead to changes, actual behavior leads to changes |
| Extrinsic motivation | refers to any motivation that results from incentives to perform a behavior that are not inherent to the behavior itself. |
| External motivation | social pressure, which is an example of extrinsic motivation |
| Incongruence | gap between a person’s actual self and ideal self |
| autonomous motivation | internal desire driving you to do things |
| Base Rate Fallacy | the tendency to ignore relevant statistical information in favor of case-specific information |
| Glass escalator sociological approach | men who pursue occupations that have high proportions of women (such as teaching or nursing) will quickly ascend the career ladder with promotions. |
| Functional fixedness | tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions |
| Kohlberg preconventional | obedience; people desire to avoid punishment (mark doesn't drive above the speed limit bc he doesn't want traffic fine; morality is externally controlled |
| Kohlberg conventional | law and order; emphasis shifts from self-interest to relationships with other people and social systems.; cati doesn't drive above the speed limit bc driving fast is dangerous and could cause more accidents |
| Kohlberg postconventional | an individual makes choices based on their own personal beliefs, even if those beliefs are not in accordance with laws or social convention |
| Monocular cues | relative size (distant objects subtend smaller visual angles than near objects), texture gradient, occlusion, linear perspective, contrast differences, and motion parallax |
| Disinhibition | the inability to withhold a prepotent response or suppress an inappropriate or unwanted behavior |
| social epidemiology | the study of how society and different forms of social organization influence the health and well-being of individuals and populations |
| social constructivism | the view that learning occurs through social interaction and the help of others, often in a group |
| Stage 2 of sleep | sleep spindles |
| Place theory | one is able to hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger activity at different places along the cochlea’s basilar membrane |
Created by:
tharab34