Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
psych 120 module 1
cognitive and biological bases of psychology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Behaviourism | A school of psychology based on the premise that the mind cannot be objectively studied, and that therefore psychology should be limited to the study of behaviour, which can be predicted without knowing what happens inside - Watson, Pavlov, Skinner |
| Cognitive psychology | A field of psychology studying mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgement - Piaget, Broadbent, Kahneman, Miller, Rosch, and Tversky - behaviourism is insufficient because stimuli is interpreted |
| Collectivism | Valuing harmonious social relationships with others, teaching children to focus on developing them and valuing togetherness, connectedness, duty, and responsibility to groups |
| Conformity | We frequently change our beliefs and behaviours to be more similar to those of the people we care about - one key example of social influence and perception in play |
| Culture | Common set of social norms, including religious/family values and moral beliefs shared by people living in a geographic region - this determines the most important social norms, and is studied by cross-cultural psychologists |
| Data | Information collected through formal observation or measurement |
| Depression | A psychological disorder with causes at all three levels of explanation - biological (treated by SSRIs, ect), interpersonal (treated by therapy and learning to cope) and social/cultural (forces such as gender and culture impact depression rates) |
| Dualism | The idea that the mind is fundamentally different from the mechanical body, championed by Descartes |
| Empirical methods | The process of collecting and organizing data and then drawing conclusions about it. This process has developed over many years and has created a basis for collecting, interpreting, and analyzing data in a format that can be shared |
| Evolutionary psychology | A branch of psychology applying Darwinian theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour. This evolved from functionalism, accepting its basic assumption - that human psychological systems serve adaptive functions |
| Facts | Objective statements determined to be true through empirical study |
| Fitness | The extent to which having a given characteristic helps an organism survive and reproduce at a higher rate than organisms in the same species without it. They are more likely to pass on genes, making the trait more likely |
| Heritability of the characteristic | The proportion of the observed differences of characteristics among people (e.g., in terms of their height, intelligence, or optimism) that is due to genetics - this differs between traits and is a key part of the nature v nurture debate |
| Hindsight bias | The tendency to think we could have predicted something that has already happened when we probably could not have |
| Individual differences | The physical/psychological variations between people on an individual level |
| Individualism | Valuing the self and one's independence from others, which is a norm valued in Western cultures that teaches children to develop and value personal self and see yourself as separate from others |
| Introspection | Asking research participants to describe exactly what they experience as they work on mental tasks. Used by the structuralists to try and map the elements of conciousness. Critics argued this is not feasible and relies on the memory of sensation |
| Levels of explanation | Perspectives used to understand behaviour, going from low (biological, personal) to middle (abilities and characteristics of individuals) to high (social groups, cultures, organizations) |
| Multiply determined | Something produced by many factors - this applies to almost all behaviour, where factors may be interconnected, unconcious, or exist at varying levels of explanation |
| Neuroimaging | The use of various techniques to provide pictures of the structure and function of the living brain - used to view active information processing |
| Psychoanalysis | The process of revealing unconcious drives by using talk therapy and dream analysis to reveal deep and thorough explorations of sexual desires and early sexual experiences |
| Psychodynamic psychology | An approach to understanding behaviour that focuses on the role of unconcious thoughts, feelings, and memories - created by Freud and extended by Jung, Adler, Erikson, and Horney. |
| Psychologist-practitioners | Psychologists who use existing knowledge to better the lives of others |
| Psychology | The scientific study of the mind and behaviour |
| Repressed | Something that remains outside of our consciousness, such as memories - while these are outside of our conscious awareness they still have an impact on our behaviour |
| Research psychologists | Psychologists who use scientific methods to create new knowledge about causes of behaviour |
| School of functionalism | The group of psychologists who aimed to understand why humans and animals developed particular current psychological aspects - contrasts structuralism by only considering thought as it concerns behaviour - championed by William James. No longer exists |
| Scientific method | The set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientist use to conduct empirical research - |
| Social norms | The ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate, including customs, traditions, standards, rules, and values |
| Social-cultural psychology | The study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behaviour - perception and influences of others |
| Structuralism | Uses introspection to identify basic elements of human experience - marked the beginning of psychology as a science over a philosophy by trying to scientifically classify conscious experience. Championed by Wundt and Titchener |
| Theory of natural selection | Theory proposing that physical characteristics of animals and humans evolved because they were useful or functional - created by Charles Darwin |
| Access | A type of conscious experience that recalls experiences from memory |
| Activation-synthesis theory | Neurobiological theory on dreaming: they don't mean anything, they're merely electrical impulses pulling random things out of our brains that we construct stories about after waking up to try and make sense of |
| Active Imagination | The process of activating our imaginal processes in daily life to tap into the unconscious meanings of our symbols - created by Carl Jung |
| Adaptations | Products of natural selection — that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive, and reproduce. In evolutionary psychology, these are the origin of relevant internal mechanisms |
| Affect | Emotion - these interact with environment/events to create perception, a key aspect of cognitive/functionalist psychology |
| Anima | The archetype symbolizing the unconscious female component of the male psyche, containing tendencies or qualities typically thought of as feminine |
| Animus | The archetype symbolizing the masculine component of the female psyche, containing tendencies or qualities typically though of as masculine |
| Archetypes | Primordial images reflecting basic patterns or universal themes common to all people and unconsciously present. These exist outside of space and time - created by Carl Jung |
| Associative shifting | It is possible to shift any response from occurring with one stimulus to occurring with another stimulus. (response to A then to AB then to B) - Part of Thorndike's theory of learning and also how classical conditioning works |
| Attention | A state of focused awareness on a subset of the available perceptual information - this functions to filter out irrelevant data |
| Authoethnography | A narrative approach to introspective analysis. Able to study phenomenological experiences such as prison and the adaptations/transformations they evoke |
| Autonomic nervous system | The part of the peripheral nervous system responsible for regulation of automatic processes such as heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure - it is composed of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems |
| Availability | The ease of getting a specific response - it is easier to learn to do a response that is easier to do generally- part of Thorndike's theory of learning |
| Avoidance learning | Discovered by BF Skinner through the Skinner box - learning in response to negative reinforcement by predicting the negative stimuli, associating it with another stimuli, and then doing the avoidance behaviour in response to the associated stimuli |
| Behaviourism | Focuses on observable behaviour as a means to studying the human psyche - behaviour is the only aspect of psychology that can be empirically studied |
| Biological drive | One of the two main drives behind human behaviour, the drive behind hunger, thirst and intimacy |
| Biological psychology | Psychologists interested in measuring biological, physiological, or genetic variables in an attempt to relate them to psychological or behavioural variables: all behaviour is controlled by the CNS so the brain must be understood to understand behaviour. |
| Black box model | An element of Jungian consumer behaviour psychology - captures the interaction of stimuli, consumer characteristics, decision processes, and consumer responses, focusing on stimuli (inter or intrapersonal) and consumer response |
| Classical conditioning | As we learn, we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or behave. This is based on making associations based on the pairing of stimuli. Created by Ivan Pavlov |
| Client- or person-centred therapy | Provides a supportive environment in which clients can reestablish their true identity away from judgement - humanist |
| Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) | Replaces maladaptive strategies with adaptive ones by changing ways of thinking and reaction. This involves challenging patterns and beliefs, and replacing erroneous thinking (cognitive distortions) |
| Collective unconscious | One half of Jung's theory of the unconscious - This aspect of the unconscious manifests in universal themes of human life, and assumes that all the history of the human race lives on in all people |
| Complexes | Unconscious and repressed emotionally toned symbolic material that is incompatible with consciousness - these can cause constant psychological disturbances and symptoms of neurosis |
| Conscious | The level of awareness in human consciousness consisting of all the things we are aware of, including things we know about ourselves and our surroundings |
| Consciousness | The awareness of self in space and time - human awareness of both internal and external stimuli. It varies in both arousal and content, and consists of both phenomenal and access experiences |
| Continual-activation theory | Neurobiological theory of dreaming suggesting that it is a result of brain activation and synthesis - dreaming and REM sleep are controlled simultaneously by different mechanisms, so sleep processes, encodes, and transfers memory through consolidation |
| Deficiency needs | A person does not feel anything if these needs are met, but feels anxious if they are not |
| Divided attention | A person’s ability to focus on two or more things at one time - this was shown to exist via a study where people had to listen to messages through one ear, but the message would switch between ears - they were able to recreate the information. |
| Dreams | Specific expressions of the unconscious that have a definite, purposeful structure indicating an underlying idea or intention - their general function is to restore psychic equilibrium |
| Episodic memory | Episodic memory: memory of autobiographical events that can be explicitly stated, contains all memories that are temporal in nature, such as when you last brushed your teeth, or where you were when you heard about a major news event. |
| Escape learning | Discovered by BF Skinner through the Skinner box - learning in response to negative reinforcement, such as stepping on a lever to stop an electric shock |
| Existential therapy | A branch of humanistic psychology focusing on "man in the world" - emphasizes choices to be made in present and future, accepting mortality and limits, and fundamental freedom and responsibility |
| Expectation fulfillment theory | Theory on dreams emerging from Freud: Dreaming serves to discharge emotional arousals from the day, fulfilling expectations metaphorically to free up space in the brain and allow instinctive urges to stay intact |
| Extinction | Removing something in order to decrease a behaviour - also known as negative punishment. This could be taking away privileges in response to bad behaviour |
| Extravert | Outer-directed: chooses people as a source of energy, needs sociability, action-oriented |
| Feeling function | Creative, warm, intimate: has a sense of valuing things positively or negatively |
| Fight-or-flight response | A reflex preparing the body to respond to danger in the environment controlled by the sympathetic nervous system |
| Frontal lobe | Also known as the motor cortex - involved in motor skils, higher level cognition, and expressive language. Located at the front of the brain |
| Gamification | Applying game incentives such as prompts, competition, badges, and rewards to ordinary activities |
| Gestalt therapy | Focuses on the skills and techniques that allow an individual to be more aware of their feelings - focuses on the here and now instead of the why |
| Growth need | The need to self-actualize and reach your greatest potential - you feel something if this is met, but you do not necessarily feel anxious/etc if it is not met |
| Holist | The whole is more than the sum of its parts - a complex phenomenon will lose some important aspects when broken down into elements |
| Humanistic psychology | Holds a hopeful, constructive view of human beings and their substantial capacity for self-determinism - intentionality and ethical forces are key psychological forces |
| Identical elements theory of transfer | The more similar the situations are, the greater the amount of information that will transfer. Part of Thorndike's theory of learning, and tied to the idea of response by analogy |
| Identifiability | Identification of a situation is a first response of the nervous system, which can recognize it. Then connections may be made to another response - learning is made up of changes in identifiability of situations - part of Thorndike's theory of learning |
| Individuation | Humans are inwardly whole, but most people have lost tough with important parts of themselves. The goal of life is to reintegrate the conscious and unconscious to synergize the components of the psyche |
| Information Processor | The role of the brain in functionalism - the brain evolved for the purpose of bettering its carrier's survival odds by processing information an executing functions like a computer |
| Integrative Psychology | Psychology that combines the nature and actions of mind, body, and spirit - this may be the next major stage of development for psychology |
| Intrinsic motivation | Proposed by Harlow - the third drive of human behaviour, based on the intrinsic reward of the task rather than biology or reward/punishment, and that reward/punishment can decrease intrinsic motivation |
| Introvert | Inner-directed: Needs privacy and space, requires solitude to recover energy, often reflective |
| Intuitive | Sees many possibilities in situations - goes with hunches, impatient with earthy details, impractical, sometimes not present |
| Latent content | Freudian dream theory: deep unconscious wishes or fantasies hidden within dreams |
| Law of disuse | The longer an association is unused, the weaker it becomes - part of Thorndike's theory of learning, the less you practice something the harder it will be to do it |
| Law of effect | If an association is followed by satisfaction, it will be strengthened, and if it is followed by annoyance, it will be weakened - one aspect of Thorndike's theory of learning. When the result of using a new skill is a reward it's more likely to be used |
| Law of readiness | A quality in responses and connections that results in readiness to act. Part of Thorndike's theory of learning - behaviour and learning are influenced by readiness and strength of responses |
| Law of recency | The most recent response is most likely to reoccur - part of Thorndike's theory of learning - the thing you learned the most recently is likely the thing you will use |
| Law of use | The more often an association is used, the stronger it becomes - part of Thorndike's theory of learning - the things you practice most often you can do more easily |
| Mandala | To Jung, this circle symbolized the self and was a symbol of wholeness, completeness, and perfection |
| Manifest content | Freudian dream theory: superficial and meaningless content that often masks the latent wishes or fantasies within the dream |
| Metacognition | involves conscious thought about thought processes and might include monitoring a person’s performance on a given task, understanding a person’s capabilities on particular mental tasks, or observing a person’s ability to apply cognitive strategies. |
| Motivation theory | Holds that all work consists of simple, uninteresting tasks and the only way to get people to do those tasks is through incentives and motivation - rewarding and punishing behaviour |
| Multiple response | An animal will try multiple responses (trial and error) if the first response does not lead to a specific state of affairs - part of Thorndike's theory of learning |
| Myers-Briggs Type Indicator | Psychometric questionnaire based on Jungian personality theories designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions |
| Mystery | A key aspect of Jung's theories - that we know and understand very little of life |
| Negative reinforcement | Taking something negative away in order to increase a - when you stop nagging, or when a Skinner box grid turns off. |
| Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) | An area of study that seeks to link activity within the brain to subjective human experiences in the physical world |
| Neurogenesis | The generation or growth of new brain cells, particularly the creation of neurons - this shows that the human brain is not static |
| Neurophilosophy | An area where progress has been made by focusing on the body rather than the mind within the field of NCC by seeing the brain activity correlated to consciousness as its cause |
| Neurosis | Jung believed that passing for normal was what shattered the personality and was in itself a pathology that violates a person's inner nature |
| Non-rapid eye movement or non-REM (NREM) sleep | Within the continual activation theory, NREM sleep allows us to consolidate conscious-related (declarative) memory |
| Occipital lobe | Also known as the visual cortex, this portion of the brain is involved in interpreting visual stimuli and information. It is located at the back of the brain |
| Operant conditioning | How an organism operates on the environment or how it responds to what is presented to it in the environment - This is typically done through reinforcement in order to encourage or discourage behaviour. |
| Paradigm | A prevailing scientific model within a field that creates a general approach and set of assumptions that guide researchers within a certain era - psychology does not have one due to the scope of the field |
| Parasympathetic nervous system | The part of the autonomic nervous system that works to bring the body back to its normal state after a fight or flight response |
| Peripheral nervous system | Nerves located outside of the CNS (brain and spinal cord), which is divided into two key parts: somatic and autonomic |
| Persona | The mask/image a person presents to the world - designed to make a particular impression on others and conceal one's true nature |
| Personal unconscious | One half of Jung's theory of the unconscious - this aspect of the psyche does not enter an individual's awareness but appears in overt behaviour or dreams |
| Phenomenal | A type of conscious experience that exists in the moment |
| Positive psychology | A form of neohumanistic psychology combining reason and research with intuition and emotion - |
| Positive reinforcement | Positive reinforcement involves adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting - this is often praise and reward, and is shown to be the most effective out of the types of reinforcement |
| Preconscious | The level of awareness in human consciousness consisting of things we could pay conscious attention to if we desired and where memories are stored for easy retrieval. These thoughts are unconscious but not repressed |
| Prepotency of elements | A subject can filter out irrelevant aspects of a problem and focus on and respond to significant elements of a problem. Part of Thorndike's theory of learning |
| Problem restructuring | Hypothesis on unconscious-conscious effect on problem-solving: when you let go of the initial problem, you're free to restructure your interpretation of the problem and capitalize on newly relevant info, rearrange info, or change strategies |
| Procedural memory | memory for the performance of particular types of action, is often activated on a subconscious level, or at most requires a minimal amount of conscious effort (e.g., driving to work along the same route). |
| Punishment | Adding something aversive in order to decrease a behaviour - also known as positive punishment, such as spanking in response to misbehaviour |
| Radical behaviourism | Seeks to understand behaviour as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences. This applied behaviourism does not accept internal events in a causal account of an organism’s behaviour. Created by BF Skinner |
| Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep | Within the continual activation theory, REM sleep allows us to consolidate unconscious-related (procedural) memory |
| Reductionist | The simple is the source of the complex - to explain a complex phenomenon like behaviour, it needs to be reduced to its elements. One example of this viewpoint is experimental/laboratory approaches to psychology |
| Reinforcement | Any stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response - this is tied to operant conditioning. There are four types: Positive, negative, punishment, and extinction |
| Response by analogy | Responses from a related or similar context may be used in a new context - part of Thorndike's theory of learning |
| Scientific management | Fredrick Taylor's principles born of the industrial revolution focusing on the scientific study of the workplace - created motivation theory |
| Selective forgetting | Hypothesis on conscious-unconscious effect on problem-solving: when you disengage from the process you can let go of ideas or concepts that might be inhibiting the process, allowing for a clearer view that shows you new routes to seeing the process |
| Self | The archetype symbolizing the totality of the personality - represents the striving for unity, wholeness, and integration |
| Self-actualize | To reach your full potential as a human being - this requires uncommon qualities such as honesty, independence, awareness, objectivity, etc as well as for all deficiency needs to be met. Therefore, only a small handful of people have achieved it. |
| Semantic memory | Semantic memory: the encyclopedic knowledge that a person possesses, such as what the Eiffel Tower looks like, or the name of a friend from Grade 6. |
| Sensing function | Sensory- oriented towards the body and senses, detailed, concrete, and present |
| Set or attitude | Animals are predisposed to act in a specific way - this is part of Thorndike's theory of learning and can have effects on what they will learn and how they will learn it |
| Shadow | The side of a personality that a person does not consciously display in public - this could have positive or negative qualities |
| Skinner box | Also known as the operant conditioning chamber - used to measure responses of organisms and their orderly interactions with the environment. This involved both negative and positive reinforcement, as well as escape learning and avoidance learning. |
| Story | According to Jung, every person has a personal story and its denial or rejection can lead to derangement. Healing and reintegration come from discovering/rediscovering this personal story. |
| Somatic nervous system | The part of the central nervous system responsible for controlling the actions of skeletal muscles |
| Spreading activation | Hypothesis explaining conscious-unconscious effects on problem-solving: when you disengage from the task, you expose yourself to more information that can inform the process and can benefit from conceptual combination of disparate related ideas |
| Symbol | A name, term, or picture that is familiar in daily life but has other connotations besides its conventional and obvious meaning |
| Sympathetic nervous system | The part of the autonomic nervous system responsible for the fight-or-flight reaction |
| Temporal lobe | Also known as the auditory cortex, this portion of the brain is involved in the interpretation of the sounds and language we hear - it is located at the sides of the brain |
| Thinking function | Logical: seeing cause and effect reactions, cool, distant, frank, and questioning: one of Jung's trait scales |
| Third force | Humanistic psychology, as it was the third major movement and change of direction within the field of psychology |
| Threat-simulation theory | Theory on dreams emerging from the work of Freud: Dreaming is an ancient biological defense mechanism that simulate threats to enhance our neurocognitive threat perception/avoidance mechanisms |
| Unconscious | The level of awareness in human consciousness consisting of things that are outside of consciousness, including memories, thoughts, and urges we are not aware of. These are often unpleasant or conflicting |
| Visual attention | The brain's ability to selectively filter unattended or or unwanted information from reaching awareness - this reduces as we get older, so you're less able to filter out filter out distracting or irrelevant information |
| Word association test | A research test Jung used to test for complexes in the personal unconscious - it consists of having someone respond to each word in a list of 100 or so as quickly as possible |
| Parietal lobe | also known as the somatosensory cortex, this portion of the brain is involved in the processing of other tactile sensory information such as pressure, touch, and pain. It is located at the top of the brain |
| Developmental psych: consciousness | Consciousness is not a single entity, but is instead a developmental process with potential higher stages of cognitive, moral, and spiritual quality |
| Social psych: consciousness | Consciousness is a product of cultural influence having little to do with the individual. |
| Neuropsych: consciousness | Consciousness is ingrained in neural systems and organic brain structures. |
| Cognitive psych: consciousness | Understanding of consciousness is based on computer science |
| Reward-punishment drive | One of the two main drives behind human behavior assumed to exist by productivity scientists - however, its lack of expected behaviour demonstrated the existence of intrinsic motivation |
| ABCDE model | Learned optimism - comes from adversity, negative beliefs, considering the consequences of quitting, challenging the belief that has formed, forming new belief in capacity to grow, and becoming energized to pursue a new path |
| Flow | A state of optimal performance that typically arises when performing tasks for intrinsic motivation |
Created by:
qcx048
Popular Psychology sets