AAMC FL 1: Psych/ Soc Flashcards
Misinformation effect
Refers to memory errors (usually errors of commission) in which our information introduced and encoded after the target information is retrieved along w some portions of the target information. In such cases, the subject usually has trouble identifying which retrieved information had been originally encoded and which information was introduced subsequently, a situation known as source confusion
Spreading activation
Suggests that, when the representation of a concept is activated in memory, the activation spreads to concepts that are semantically or associatively related to it .: People often retrieve un presented members of a category when tested on their memory for a series of presented concepts from that category
Source monitoring
Refers to a subjects ability to retrieve the details of the situation extant when memory items were encoded. More specifically, when some additional information is introduced after the original encoding, this post- event information can be mistakenly included in recall of the original event, leading to the misinformation effect
According to Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, at what age does the concrete operational stage start and end? What is a major characteristic of this stage?
- 7-11 y/o
- Mastery/ understanding of conservation
Classical conditioning is closely related to what approach of psychological disorders?
Behaviorist
Trait theory refers to what approach?
An approach to personality
Classical conditioning has to do with
Pavlov’s dog and developing conditioned stimuli and responses from unconditioned ones
Operant conditioning has to do with
postive/ negative reinforcements and punishments and fixed/ variables/ ratio/ interval approaches
Discriminatory stimuli
Allow an organism to tell whether an appetitive stimulus or an aversive stimulus is forthcoming in an operant conditioning situation
Signaling stimuli
Neutral stimulus that my potentially become conditioned stimuli
What is the reticular activation system responsible for and where is it located?
- Deep in the brain stem
- Concerned w functions involving arousal, particular the sleep wake cycle, and attention
What structures are part of the limbic system? Are changes in activity levels of these structures generally sensed?
- Thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus
- NO
Somatic nervous system
Division of the peripheral nervous system that controls sensory and motor functions of effectors that enable the organism to deal w its external environment
Cognitive appraisal
Has to do w interpretation
Affective processing
Emotional processing
Experimental studies are unlikely to be done when:
- It would extremely difficult to systematically manipulate participants physiological states and their sensitivity to changes in those states
- Random assignment to various conditions involving maintenance of what is being study would pose insurmountable ethical restrictions
Choroid
Located deep to the sclera
Retina
Forms the innermost layer along the posterior portion of the eye -> Where rod and cone cells are located
Cornea
Forms the outermost layer of the front of the eye (directly in context w the back of the eyelids)
Sound in ducked vibrations depolarize hair cells of the cochlea by opening opening ion channels that are gated in what way?
Mechanically: They generate tension within the membrane that directly activate ion channels responsible for auditory signaling
Olfaction and gustation use what kind of ion channels? What do they require
Chemically gated ions channels which require the binding of a molecule to the ion channel, causing it to open
Electrically gated ion channels activate upon a change in what? What is this associated w?
- Membrane potential
- Action potential propogration
Actor- observer bias
States that observers will attribute their own bad behavior to situational factors (EX: not feeling well), whereas observers will attribute actors behavior to dispositions factors (EX: Social awkwardness)
Habituation and dishabituation
-Habituation involves a repeating stimulus and getting use to it -> Leads to diminished response -Dishabituaiton occurs when the stimulus is changed and there is a fast recovery of the response that has undergone habituation
Optimal arousal theory
States that optimal performance requires optimal arousal and that arousal levels that are too high or too low will impede performance
Increases in electrical skin conductivity and elevated heart rate are physiological indications of increased ________________ arousal. These symptoms are associated with what response
- Sympathetic
- Stress response
Melatonin is a hormone involved in what? Where is it secreted from?
- Sleep wake cycle
- Pineal gland
Research on group dynamics has shown that people are more likely to trust _______________ members than _______________ members
- In- groups
- Out- group
-Ceiling effect -> What is the opposite known as?
- A situation in which the majority of values obtained for a variable approach the upper limit of the scale used its measurement
- Floor effect
Confounding variable
A third variable in a study examining a potential cause and effect relationship that can influence both the dependent and independent variable .: Making it difficult to separate the true effect of the independent variable from the effect of the confounding variable -> Can cause false associations
Selye’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
An organisms stress response will always follow a similar course, regardless of the nature of a stressor
Conformity vs group polarization vs group think
- Conformity: A type of social influence involving a change in belief or behavior in order to fit within a group
- Group polarization: People’s attitudes become more extreme after they discuss the attitude objects w like-minded individuals (think of political parties) -> Results in the form of conformity
- Group think: Results in decisions made based on the desire of not upsetting a group of people
Primary function of hippocampus
Memory
Functions of the hypothalamus
Processing sympathetic nervous inputs and control of the endocrine system through its connection not the pituitary gland
A major function of the cerebellum
Coordinating motor tasks
Primary function of cochlea
Reception of auditory sensory inputs
What is social facilitation? What is needed to make any real inferences about it?
- Related to the tendency for the presence of others to improve a person’s performance or task
- A manipulation to group size
Ethnographic methods involve what?
- The systematic observation of people in their cultural settings.
- May also include in- depth interviews as well to better understand a participants culture
What do experimental methods require? What is the exception?
- Manipulation of an independent variable and the random assignment to different groups (usually an intervention or experimental group and control group)
- Exception is that under circumstance it would unethical and impractical to randomly assign different groups, in which case a experimental methods cant be used
What does the median do?
Splits the sample distribution of values in half .: It represents the middle of the distribution
What does social network analysis involve?
Mapping the social relationships that exist among a set of individuals
Social reproduction
Refers to the perpetuation of inequality through social institutions
Social stratification
Refers to the hierarchy of social positions in a society (often according to ether social class or status)
Social support
Refers to the tangible and intangible forms of assistance that individuals receive from their social ties
What does gentrification describe? W the arrival of more affluent residents, what happens?
- Describes the process in which relatively affluent individuals move into a neighborhood that recently consisted of residents with moderate to low income
- Housing demands increases and often leads to a decrease in affordable housing available to lower income residents -> Given the increase in real estate prices, it could lead to an increased tax revenue/ tax base for the local government
Superego, ego, and id are constructs used in what theory?
Psychoanalytic theory
Peer pressure is what kind of influence?
Normative social influence
What does the validity of a study have to do with? What is normally considered a necessary condition for validity? What is this condition?
- The study’s ability to actually measure what it was intended to measure
- Reliability or a consistency among recorded values
In Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, what is the major crises facing adults? Explain this crisis
- Generativity vs stagnation
- Through generativity we develop a sense of being a part of the bigger picture -> Success leads to feelings of usefulness, accomplishment, and valuable contribution
- Failing to find a way to leads to stagnation -> We become stagnant, feel unproductive, and disconnected and unloved by their community
Assimilation refers to what? It is often used in the context of what? What does it assume?
- Refers to the process in which new members of a society adopt the normas and values of the dominant culture -> Has to do w cultural adaptation, adopting new norms, and relinquishing old norms)
- Often used in the context of migration: Movement both within a nation and across nations), describing the process of cultural adaption that occurs as a result of moving to a different location
- Presumes that individuals will not retain the norms that previously held when they were younger
What is linguistic relativity AKA Whorf-Sapir hypothesis? What relationship does it emphasize?
- The idea that the structure of a language affects the perceptions of its speakers
- A relationship bt language and cognition
Nativist hypothesis
Concerned w the acquisition of a child’s first or NATIVE language
What is Weber’s law?
The name given to. The robust psychophysical observation that the just noticeable difference (JND) bt two physical stimuli is a constant proportion (Weber’s constant) of the original (or standard) stimulus
Social support is generally associated w what?
Better health
What does social support refer to?
Social network ties (friends, family, and other relationships) that provide an individual w various type of assistance, some of which can improve health or reduce harms
What is the short-memory store rule or working capacity? Who named it?
George Miller (1956) named it the “Magical number 7 plus or minus 2”, indicating the capacity of STM is bt 5 and 9 items
Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation
- Intrinsic motivation: Doing something bc it is personally rewarding to you or you find it interesting -> Doing it bc YOU want to do it
- Extrinsic motivation: Doing something bc it you want to earn a reward or avoid punishment
Chunking
Combining information into groups to make it easier to recognize
Episodic memory
Refers to long term memory representations of events experience by someone
The Atkinson- Shiffrin multistore memory model, the initial registration of the information processed in the form of what kind of memory? How long is it?
Sensory memory which is extremely brief in duration
Prior to the creation of the Baddeley’s working memory (WM) model, the Atkinson-Shiffrin multistore memory model included what?
A short term memory store, which came to be termed short- term memory (STM)
What is content analysis? How can it be applied to studying a group’s website?
- A sociological method that is used to make inferences about a group’s communication
- Can be used to jelp determine which beliefs the organization emphasizes to the general public
Assimilated group
Refers to a group that adopts the normas and values of a new culture
What are reference groups? What are they important for?
- Individuals often emulate the attitudes and behaviors of groups that they would like to join -> This group that they emulate is known as their reference group
- Sociologists say they are important for self- evaluation and identity formation
What are peer groups made up of?
Individuals in a similar social position or social role
Independent vs dependent variable
- Independent variable: Variable that is changed or manipulated
- Dependent variable: Variable that is measured to see how the independent variable changes or influences it
Semantic memory
Refers to memory for general world knowledge and other meaningful information like the meanings of words and phrases
Explicit memory
Refers to the information retrieval as demonstrated by a direct memory track like free recal, serial recall, yes-no recognition, or forced choice recognition task
What is procedural memory? It is a variety of what kind of memory?
- Refers to the memory for performing a particular task -> EX: Muscle memory, riding a bike: It just seems to come back to you, you know how to do it
- Variety of implicit memory
Network redundancy
Refers to the repetition of ties within a social network
Homogeneity
Refers to similarity in demographic characteristics of social ties in a network, such as based on gender identity, race/ ethnicity or social class
Role strain
The tension that results from competing demands within the context of a single social role
Role conflict
Refers to the tension that can exist bt social expectations of two or more social olds that a single individual holds
Members of in-groups tend to share what? How does this affect trust? What are some characteristics that can be important of an in-group? This rests in a shared what?
- Members of an in-group tend to share common backgrounds and similar social group identities
- This generally results in high levels of trust among in-group members
- Racial/ ethnic identity can be important of an in-group, resintg in a shared culture, language, and community
What are dyads? What are triads? Which is considered more stable?
- Dyads are two person groups
- Triads are three person groups
- Dyads are unstable bc either party can break the single social tie at any time. Triads are considered to be more stable bc of the additional social tie holding the group tg
From a perspective of group dynamics in sociology, are larger are smaller groups considered to be more stable? Which are considered to be more intimate?
- Larger groups are considered to be more stable, but less intimate
- Smaller groups are considered to be more intimate, but less stable
Master status
Specifically identifies a status of an individual that tends to supersede all other statuses that individual has
Must status hierarchies rely on SES differences only?
No, status can refer to general social status or to other thymes of social categories such as gender identity, race, or ethnicity
Qualitative study
Involves research methods using non-numerical data
Quantitive study
Involves data collecting numerical data
Mixed methods study
Research design that employs both a quantitive and qualitative component
Case study
Focuses on the examination of a single case
Comparative methods
Involve comparing an organization, geographic region, government, or other entity
What is class system? Is there room for social mobility?
- Has status positions, but are not generally considered to be closed
- Yes, but opportunities for social mobility can vary
What are caste system?
Generally, they are closed stratification systems that do not provide many opportunities for social mobility
Economic systems
Refers to how the economy of a society is structured
Financial systems
Refers to how a society finances its encompass and organizations
What is the functionalist theory? How would a functionalist interpret status hierarchies?
- Assumes that social phenomena have a specific function that work within a systematic whole
- They would assume that they exist to serve a function like organizational efficient while at the same time recognizing that discrimination can occur as a possible dysfunction of social system like a byproduct
Symbolic interactionism
Focuses on social interactions and the subjective me meaning that emerges from social interactions
What does the conflict theory emphasize and assume?
- Emphasizes COMPETITION bt social groups over the allocation of resources
- Assumes that power and authority are unequally distributions across a society and that groups attempt to maintain their advantages
The fovea is directly involved in
Color sensation
What is the optic disc? Are there any light sensitive rods or contes there to respond to light?
- AKA optic nerve head: The location where ganglion cell axons exit the eye to form the optic nerve
- NO
What is the sclera? What is is continuous with?
- White outer layer of the eyeball
- At the front it is continuous w the cornea
What lobe of the brain is responsible for vision?
Occipital
What lobe of the brain is responsible for hearing?
Temporal
What is the somatosensory cortex? Where is it located?
area of the cerebral cortex receives sensory information from the somatic senses, plus proprioceptive senses and some visceral senses. It is located on the postcentral gyrus of the parietal lobe
What is the motor cortex? Where is it located? What 3 parts does it consist of?
- The primary function of the motor cortex is to generate signals to direct the movement of the body.
- It is part of the frontal lobe and is anterior to the central sulcus.
- It consists of the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, and the supplementary motor area.
When is reinforcement delivered in a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule? What about fixed interval?
- In this schedule, reinforcement is delivered after the completion of a number of responses. The required number of responses remains constant
- A fixed-interval schedule is when behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time
What does the sociological paradigm of conflict theory broadly calls attention to
competition among social groups, including generational conflict.
What is the dependency ratio? Who is considered economically dependent? Who is considered economically productive?
- is a ratio of the number of economically dependent members of the population to the number of economically productive members.
- The economically dependent are those considered too young or too old to work
- economically productive are the working-age population (approximately between the ages of 18 and 65)
What is the life course prespective?
A multidisciplinary approach to understanding an individual’s mental, physical and social health. Done by analyzing people’s lives through social, structural, and cultural contexts. -> The life course approach in social epidemiology (not to be confused with the life course theory of aging!) refers to the idea that experiences earlier in life may affect health outcomes later in life
What does linguistic relativity suggest?
human cognition is affected by language.
What are source monitoring errors?
Occurs when the details of an event are correctly remembered, but the origin or context of the information (the “source”) is incorrectly attributed.
A patient selectively forgetting distracting elements of his/her life, indicates
A dissociative disorder
Reward seeking motivation is most closely associated with what kind of learning/ conditioning? What does this kind of learning cause?
- Operant conditioning
2. Change in behavior due to past outcomes
Findings from comparative studies of social mobility have led some scholars to question which aspect of U.S. society? What does this aspect assume?
- Meritocracy
2. That opportunity is based on a combination of talent and effort.
What does relative poverty refer to?
refers to social disadvantage by income or wealth as compared to the social advantages linked to income or wealth in a society.
What may partly explain the relatively good health of individuals from some immigrant groups in the United States (when compared to U.S.-born individuals with otherwise similar demographic characteristics)?
Strong social support in local immigrant communiteisn
Immigrant groups that are more assimilated (or as they become assimilated) tend to have worse what? Why? They are less likely
- worse health outcomes (or lose their previous health advantages) than less assimilated immigrant groups.
- more assimilated groups are likely to have less social support over time. Reducing that protective factor could thus lead to worse health overall
What is the socioeconomic gradient in health?
refers to the graded relationship between social class and health, in which each “step” up on the hierarchy of social stratification tends to be associated with better health.
What does the fundamental attribution error refer to?
Refers to stressing the importance of dispositional (i.e., personality) factors in one’s explanations of other people’s behavior and underemphasizing situational factors.
What are memory schemas?
Organized clusters of knowledge
What does modeling refer to?
otherwise known as observational learning, occurs from watching, retaining, and replicating a behavior observed from a model
What is interference? What is the difference bt proactive and retroactive interference?
- All memories interfere with the ability to recall other memories.
- Proactive interference occurs when memories from someone’s past influence new memories
- Retroactive interference occurs when new ones change old memories, sometimes so much that the original memory is forgotten.
What is cognitive dissonance?
Asserts that people will feel distress when they hold conflicting attitudes or beliefs, or when the exhibit behavior that is inconsistent with their beliefs.
What are affective attitudes?
The affective component of attitude relates to a person’s feelings or emotions in their shaping on attitudes to a person or object. If you feel more positive about someone you are more likely to address them in a positive manner.
What are the components of attitude?
ABC: Affective (feelings) , behavioral (affect of the attitude on behavior), cognitive (belief and knowledge)
Stereotype threat
the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group.
Bias tends to be directed toward what kind of groups?
Out- groups
Primary vs secondary group
-Primary group = long-term relationship/interaction, such as family and friends. -Secondary group = short-term relationship/interaction, such as classmates, colleagues.
In gropu vs out group
- you identify with/belong to your in-group.
- Groups that you don’t identify with/belong to is called an out-group
Craving symptoms
Strong desire to ingest a drug
Which type of psychoactive drug has the lowest risk of dependence?
Hallucinogens
Class- based concepts of society are most often associated with what theory?
Conflict theory
What is the difference between an agonist and atnagonist?
- Agonist: A drug or substance that binds to a receptor inside a cell or on its surface and causes the same action as the substance that normally binds to the receptor.
- Antagonist: An antagonist can be considered a compound that binds to the same receptor as an endogenous ligand but doesn’t elicit a response AKA inhibits the initial response
A physician approaches a new patient with the assumption that the patient is not well educated and thus less knowledgeable about health issues. Does this scenario illustrate discrimination?
- No; the scenario describes an attitude but does not specify differential treatment.
- The hypothetical physician displays a biased attitude, and thus a prejudice potentially based on a stereotype. However, no action or behavior is specifically identified with the scenario in the question.-> ***Without a description of differential treatment or behavior, discrimination is not identified.
What does research suggest about ones creativity alone vs working in a group?
Suggests that individuals are less critical and less creative in groups
What does social loafing refer to?
Refers to the fact that people are more productive alone than in a group.
Independent variable
What is manipulated or changed
Dependent variable
What is measured in response to the changes/ manipulation made to the dependent variable
At what age to children reach Piaget’s formal operational stage?
11/12 and older
What are Piaget’s stages and what age range is associated w each?
- Sensorimotor: 0-2 yo
- Preoperational: 2-7 yo
- Concrete operational: 7-11
- Formal operational: 11/12+
Function of amygdala
Plays a role in intense emotional reactions
Where is the medulla oblongata located? What does it help control?
- At the bottom-most part of your brain
- It’s a a key conduit for nerve signals to and from your body. It also helps control vital processes like your heartbeat, breathing and blood pressure
What is the thalamus composed of? What is its function?
Composed of different nuclei that each serve a unique role, ranging from relaying sensory and motor signals, as well as regulation of consciousness and alertness.
What are Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development and what age range is associated w each stage?
- Trust vs mistrust: 0-18 months
- Autonomy vs shame/doubt: 18 months- 3 yo
- Initiative vs guilt: 3-5 yo
- Industry vs inferiority: 5-13 yo
- Identity vs confusion: 13-21 yo
- Intimacy vs isolation: 21-39 yo
- Generativity vs stagnation: 40-65 yo
- Integrity vs despair: 65+
What are Freud’s stages of psychosexual development and their associated age ranges?
- Oral: 0 to 1 yo (or 12-18 months)
- Anal: 1 to 3 yo
- Phallic: 3 to 6 yo
- Latency: 6 to 11/ 12 yo
- Genital: 12+ (Puberty and later)
What is characteristic of Erikson’s oral stage of psychosexual development?
Characteristic of interest in oral gratification from sucking, eating, and biting
When does groupthink occur? What makes it more likely to occur? What do the group members believe after coming to a decision?
- When situational pressures hinder groups from critically evaluating relevant information -> Occurs within groups of people when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
- A powerful leader makes groupthink more likely, and the other group members are largely complicit in the behaviors and beliefs that produce groupthink.
- Groups affected by groupthink wrongly believe they have followed a sound decision-making process.
What is the central problem of groupthink?
Pressures to reach consensus and stifle dissent make people less likely to discuss risks and introduce new facts, and it makes them more likely to make more rationalizations to keep harmony within the group
As with a group affected by groupthink, an individual’s confirmation bias causes the person to
seek, and attend to, only information that confirms his or her existing point of view and to ignore disconfirming evidence.
What is the self-serving bias?
- altering perception of causality to preserve self-esteem, and when you attribute your own success to internal abilities and efforts, but with failures to external factors.
- When you do something well you attribute to your own hard work and abilities
- When you do something bad you attribute to situational and outside factors, placing the blame on someone other than yourself
The left cerebral hemisphere in humans is most often linked with which cognitive function?
Vocabulary skills
visuospatial skills, music perception, and emotion processing tend to be lateralized to which side of the brain?
The right hemisphere
Interference states that when people study new material, any new information introduced between the initial learning (i.e., encoding) and retrieval, will interfere with…..
Memory consolidation
Primacy vs recency effect? Together these are called?
- Primacy effect: We are more likely to recall information that was listed in the beginning (as opposed to information mentioned in the middle of a list)
- Recency effect explains that we are more likely to recall information that was listed last.
- Serial position effect
What does emotional intelligence refer to? Emotionally intelligent people are in terms of achieving long term rewards?
- The ability to perceive, express, understand, and manage one’s emotions.
- self-aware and can delay gratification in pursuit of long-term rewards, rather than being overtaken by immediate impulses
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (8)
- Visual- spatial
- Linguistic- verbal
- Logical-mathematical
- Bodily-kinesthetic
- Musical
- Interpersonal
- Intrapersonal
- Naturalistic
Alzheimer’s disease is associated w the build up of? If researchers wanted to create a good mouse model what would they need to do?
- β-amyloid (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) proteins
- Therefore, the researchers would most likely overexpress both Aβ and NFT in the genetically modified mice to create a good mouse model for AD.
What is a conditioned stimulus?
a stimulus that, only after being paired several times with an unconditioned stimulus, triggers a conditioned response
What is acquisition in classical conditioning?
period of initial learning in classical conditioning in which a human or an animal begins to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus will begin to elicit the conditioned response.
Shaping
a method of positive reinforcement of behavior patterns in operant conditioning and/ or classical conditioning
Latency:
the delay between a stimulus and the response it triggers in an organism.
Extinction
when a behavior ceases because it is no longer reinforced.
Alzheimer’s disease is typically associated with? What are 3 examples? Would you expect to see increased synaptic connections bt neurons?
1/2. Declines in cellular function and survival -> EX:Malfunction of transporting nutrients along axons, extracellular aggregation of neurofibrillary tangles, increased expression of apoptotic markers
3. NO
The presence of Aβ plaques and neurofibrillary tangles typical of Alzheimer’s disease will not allow for what?
An increase in synaptic connections bt neurons
Correlational study
Study that attempts to determine if there is simply a relationship between two variables.
Double blind study
A type of clinical trial in which neither the participants nor the researcher knows which treatment or intervention participants are receiving until the clinical trial is over.
What is a randomized study?
Patients are randomly assigned to receive the treatment or a control
A randomized controlled trial is a type of
Experimental trial
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) first addresses what? What usually follows?
CBT first addresses maladaptive behaviors through behavior therapy to systematically modify a person’s behavior. This is followed by sessions designed to foster cognitive change, through self-assessments
From the functionalist perspective, almost all social actions have what?
both manifest functions and latent functions, both of which are connected to overall social stability.
The sociological paradigm of functionalism makes a distinction between what?
manifest, or intended, and latent, or unintended, functions of social activities.
Theory of symbolic interactionism
Symbolic Interactionism focuses on small scale perspectives with small interactions between individuals. It explains how individuals act in society and can be expanded to look at the interactions of larger social groups to explain social change
What does medicalization refer to? When does a behavior undergo medicalization?
the taken-for-granted process in which a problem comes to be defined and treated by the social institution of medicine. A behavior undergoes medicalization when both the definition of the problem and the therapy intended to improve it are couched in medical terms.
What does a strong negative correlation mean? What does “strong negative” mean
- As one variable increases, there is an associated decrease in another variable
- Strong= A correlation close to -1
What does horizontal mobility describe?
a situation in which an individual changes some aspect of social identity (from employed to unemployed, for example) but maintains the same relative status (income remains the same)
What does the Hawthorne effect describe?
Changes in research participants as a result of their awareness that they are being observed
What is the self- fulling prophecy?
An individual’s internalization of a label that leads to a fulfillment of that label. -> One ends up becoming a criminal bc they are labeled as such
What is impression management?
refers to individuals actively managing how they are perceived by others.
What does the Thomas theorem state?
States that if an individual believes something to be real, then it is real in its consequences.
What does exchange mobility suggest?
that society is made up of classes and that these classes maintain a relatively static number of people. Should a set number of people move upward from the middle class, an equal number is expected to move down from the upper class.
In Piaget’s Theory of cognitive development, five-year-olds are in what stage? What are they limited by?
- Preoperational
- Egocentrism .: They can only view the world from their own perspective and have difficulties looking at things from different perspectives
What are 3 things that predict interpersonal attraction?
Similarity, physical attractiveness, proximity
What does validity tell us in a study?
Whether the study measures what we’re actually trying to measure
Flashbulb memory has to do w
compelling memories of details associated with reception of news about emotionally arousing events
Eidetic memory
the ability to recall an image from memory with high precision for a brief period after seeing it only once, and without using a mnemonic
Episodic memory
stores personally experienced episodes with tags for context and time
Semantic memory
conscious long-term memory for meaning, understanding, and conceptual facts about the world. Semantic memory is one of the two main varieties of explicit, conscious, long-term memory, which is memory that can be retrieved into conscious awareness after a long delay (from several seconds to years).
Iconic memory
the storage for visual memory that allows people to visualize an image after the physical stimulus is no longer present. It is a type of sensory memory that lasts just milliseconds before fading
Memory is
Reconstructive
intrusions of false information into episodic memories of events are referred to as
False memories
generalizability refers to? It is dependent on?
- external validity, which is the extent to which the results of a scientific investigation would generalize to other settings and populations.
- It is dependent on the extent to which the processes studied in the investigation represent the processes presumed to be operating outside the laboratory.
The Easterbrook hypothesis posits that? This has been supported by studies in which memories for? This basically states that
- is a person will notice information that elicits arousal, but fail to process other information
- an (emotional) event’s “central” aspects (directly tied to the emotion elicitor) is compared to memory for “peripheral” aspects (removed from the source of the emotional arousal).
- memory for the fundamental gist of the emotional event is retained AKA the central features of an event, whereas memory for details AKA peripheral details (if they are encoded at all)
Every time a volunteer in a sleep study begins to exhibit rapid eye movements (REM), the experimenter wakes the person up. On the following night, when his or her sleep is uninterrupted, the person will most likely exhibit
REM rebound so they’ll have more REM sleep than usual the next night to make up for the lack of it from the previous night
Something in a study can’t be claimed to make an actual difference without an indication of
Statistical significane
Elaboration likelihood
The elaboration likelihood model considers the variables of the attitude change approach—that is, features of the source of the persuasive message, contents of the message, and characteristics of the audience are used to determine when attitude change will occur.
Self- fulfilling prophecy
phenomenon in which the expectations of a person or event unknowingly influence outcomes, leading the realization of those expectations.
Social capital refers to
the benefits provided by social networks
the hypothalamus is the brain structure that controls what gland that initiates the stress response?
The pituitary gland
Main function of the hippocampus?
Learning and memory .: v plastic
Function of the pons
handles unconscious processes and jobs, such as your sleep-wake cycle and breathing
Function of the medulla oblongata?
Helps control vital processes like your heartbeat, breathing and blood pressure
The fundamental attribution error occurs
when a person’s explanation of someone else’s behavior emphasizes personality or dispositional traits, minimizing the possible influence of situational contingencies.
When two independent measures of the same variable converge, it supports
the validity of both measures
The standard version of a dichotic listening task involves:
presenting two different auditory messages, one to each ear.
What is a major characteristic of the life course perspective?
Attending to life stages and the experiences associated w those stages in life
the social construction of race refers to what? What would challenged this ideas?
the idea that there is little biological basis for race (or ethnicity). Instead, racial/ethnic categories mostly result from history, culture, and society. If a significant biological basis or a genetic basis to racial categories were discovered, however unlikely that might be, it would challenge the idea that race is socially constructed.
Which imaging technique is best suited for localizing brain area activation/ function?
PET scans
What kind of group is a peer group?
A primary group referring to more intimate social ties
Out group vs in group
an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify.
Primary group vs secondary group
Primary groups are small and characterized by close, personal relationships that last a long time. Secondary groups include impersonal, temporary relationships that are goal-oriented.
Social faciltation states what? When does the rule no apply?
- people perform simple tasks better when in the presence of others
- This rule does not apply for complex tasks since you might get nervous and mess up.
Learning behaviors through modeling constitutes what kind of learning?
Observational learning
Associative learning
Similar to observational learning but when the person pairs an observable behavior w a punishment/ reinforcement AKA the other kid put their hand on a stove and hurts themselves and another kid learns to associate hot stoves w pain so they learn/ are conditioned to not put their hands on a hot stove
NMDA receptors are a subtype of what kind of receptor?
NMDA receptors are a subtype of glutamate receptor.
Pheremones are detected by what kind of receptors?
Chemosensory neurons
What is self verification?
refers to the tendency to seek out (and agree with) information that is consistent with one’s self-concept.
Self serving bias
altering perception of causality to preserve self-esteem, and when you attribute your own success to internal abilities and efforts, but with failures to external factors.
conscientiousness and neuroticism are personality traits that are consistent with which perspective of personality?
The Big Five or Five Factor Model
Serotonin is involved in the regulation
of both mood (specifically, aggression) and appetite (it is also used to regulate intestinal movements).
GABA
Counteracts natural stimulants by relaxing the brain and reducing neuronal excitability by inhibiting nerve transmission.
Where are endorphins released from? What effect do they have on body?
- Hypothalamus and pituitary gland in response to pain and stress
- Endorphins can also release stress and create a feeling of well-being AKA the body’s natural painkillers
In the Big Five personality traits, conscientiousness and neuroticism involve?
Conscientiousness includes responsibility and planning and neuroticism includes insecurity and anxiety
Self- determination theory and its 3 innate needs
- focuses on the degree to which an individual’s behavior is self-motivated and self-determined. SDT identifies three innate needs that, if satisfied, allow optimal function and growth
- 3 innate needs: Autonomy, competence, relatedness
Drive reduction theory
Acting in a way that satisfies physiological and instinctual needs and maintains homeostasis
Expectancy value theory and its mathematical expression
- Expectancy value theory = motivation depends on how successful one expects to be and how much one values the rewards that come with that success
- Can be expressed mathematically as B = f(E × V), where behavior (B) is a function of expectancy (E) times value (V)
Incentive theory
people are driven by extrinsic (outside) motivators (rewards and punishments)
Role engulfment
refers to how a person’s identity becomes based on a role the person assumes, superseding other roles
Symbolic interactionism is most directly related to studying what?
social practices and rituals
What is sensory interaction?
the idea that one sensory modality (e.g., vision) may influence another (e.g., balance)
Motion parallax
the interrelated movements of elements in a scene that can occur when the observer moves relative to the scene AKA things closer to you move faster than those farther away (on a road trip the road moves much much faster than the clouds)
Vestibular sense
Our sense of balance and acceleration: contributes to our ability to maintain balance and body posture based on the organs in the inner ear
What do the semicircular canals tell you?
how level you are with the environment by sending rotational acceleration information (balance)
What do the utricle and saccule tell you?
how fast you’re accelerating forward/backward and up/down, respectively.
Perceptual maladaptation
trait that is more harmful than helpful
Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping: Closure
Occurs when people perceive objects that are incomplete as complete.
Gestalt principle of perceptual grouping (7)
- Proximity: Group nearby figures tg
- Similarity: Group figures that are similar tg
- Continuity: Perceive continuous patterns
- Closure: Fill in gaps
- Connectedness: Objects that are connected by other elements are grouped tg
- Figure ground: Organization depends on what we see as figure (object) and what we perceived as ground (context)
- Common fate: Objects moving or aligned in the same direction are grouped tg
The somatic nervous system controls
voluntary movements.
The occipital cortex is involved in the processing
visual stimuli
The parietal cortex is involved
somatosensory and spatial processing,
What are discriminating stimuli?
They signal the availability of reinforcement or punishment. -> the antecedent stimulus that has stimulus control over behavior because the behavior was reliably reinforced in the presence of that stimulus in the past. Discriminative stimuli set the occasion for behaviors that have been reinforced in their presence in the past.
The behaviorist theory holds that
only actual outcomes of a behavior determine whether that behavior will be repeated, not cognition or conscious thought
What does incongruence refer to?
refers to the gap between a person’s actual self and ideal self.
What does the base rate fallacy refer to?
to the error people make when they ignore the base rates (i.e., prior probabilities) when evaluating the probabilities (or frequencies) of events.
What does the hindsight bias refer to?
the “I knew it all along” effect) refers to the tendency for a person to overestimate how well he or she could have successfully predicted a known outcome (i.e., a “forecast,” given before the outcome was known).
What is public verifiability?
the reason other scientists are attempting to replicate the original findings.
What is the observer bias in an experimental study?
Any bias on the part of the observers recording the data could have contaminated the original results. In this case, it is possible that proper precautions (for example, ensuring that observers were “blind” with respect to which patients received the drug and which patients received the placebo) were not taken.
Lens
focus the incoming light rays on the photoreceptors.
The cornea and the iris can
accommodate and focus the incoming light rays
The retina contains
contains photoreceptors such as rods and cones, which detect light and transduces light to energy. The energy eventually becomes an action potential and the signal travels through the optic nerve and travels to the primary visual cortex.
What does the sociological concept of the “glass elevator” suggest?
men who pursue occupations that have high proportions of women (such as teaching or nursing) will quickly ascend the career ladder with promotions.
Availability heuristic
efers to the tendency to estimate the likelihood of events based on how easily (i.e., how rapidly) examples of those events can be retrieved from memory.
Intense group conflict increases the effects of?
the in-group and out-group bias and would most likely have the same effects on the attributions made by the different groups.
The in group is treated as an
Extension of self
In addition, people will match their attributions about their own behavior in accordance w the self serving bias to the attributions they make for their what? Why?
in-groups, because the in-group is treated as an extension of the self. If the in-group looks good, then the self looks good.
In Piaget’s preoperational stage, children are
imaginative and unable to reconcile errors in their thinking such as errors in a conservation task
Labeling theory suggests what? What is this often associated w?
- that people are often placed into social categories, one of which could be a stigmatized category
- Social stigma
Socialization has to do w the learning of?
Social norms and peer values
In a positive correlation
the values of both variables change in the same direction (whether it be increasing or decreasing)
In a negative correlation
he values of both variables change in opposite directions. As variable X increases, variable Y decreases, and vice versa.
Reaction formation
a Freudian defense mechanism -> a feeling you have subconsciously is presented as the opposite in the conscious. An example would be even though at a deep level you know you are really stressed out to take the MCAT you approach it with extreme calmness.
Sublimation
when you channel unwanted/unhealthy desires into something that is accepted by society. A classic example is working out when you are really mad at someone.
Status groups are defined based on
noneconomic characteristics such as prestige.
Group affiliation (attraction and commitment) is likely to be greatest when the members or participants in the group share
similar outlooks, knowledge, preferences, skills, and other aspects of cultural capital AKA the shared values aspect of attraction
Maladaptiveness
behavior that interferes with an individual’s activities of daily living or ability to adjust to and participate in particular settings.
Statistical deviancy
akes into account whether the behavior is statistically rare.
According to Erikson’s theory, an elderly person struggles with
integrity versus despair.
According to Erikson’s theory, a middle-aged person struggles with
generativity versus stagnation.
According to Erikson’s theory, adolescents struggle with
identity versus role confusion.
According to Erikson’s theory, young adults struggle with
intimacy versus isolation.
Patients with Parkinson’s disease already have insufficient levels of? Administering to them a dopamine antagonist would affect them in what way?
- Dopamine
- Therefore, a drug that blocks dopamine receptors will further reduce dopamine’s impact, and worsen the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as decreased mobility and increased frequency of tremors.
Patients with schizophrenia has high levels of? How would administering a dopamine antagonist affect them?
Patients with schizophrenia have high levels of dopamine activity and a dopamine antagonist will lead to decreased levels of dopamine resulting in decreased, not increased, positive symptoms of schizophrenia such as hallucinations and delusions, respectively.
Scripts and knowledge structures are subtypes of
Schemas
Which came first? The James Lange or Schachter Singer theory? What is the main difference bt them?
- James Lange
- Schacter Singer theory involves cognitive appraisal
Habituation refers to
loss of responsiveness to a stimulus due to repeated exposure
learning of norms and values associated with masculinity or femininity occur through
Gender socialization
The cognitive component of an attitude consists of an individual’s
beliefs about the attitude object
The behavioral component of an attitude consists of
the typical responses made when the individual is in the presence of the attitude object.
The affective component of an attitude consists of
the emotional experience evoked by the attitude object.
Cross-sectional designs measure at
ne specific point in time
Historical research focuses on
examining past events, usually through primary or archival sources.
Retrieving autobiographical information is an important type
Episodic memory
Semantic memory refers to the processing of
general world knowledge
rocedural memory is a form of
Implicit memory
Implicit memory does not require
the conscious or explicit recollection of past events or information, and the individual is unaware that remembering has occurred. Implicit memory is usually thought of in terms of procedural memory, but also involves the process of priming.
What are the Big Five personality traits?
OCEAN: Openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
What is overextension?
“Overextension” is the term for applying a term for one class of objects to other objects that bear only a superficial resemblance
Categorical perception
Humans perceive things based on categories we have formed
What is bootstrapping? When is it often used? What theory is it part of?
- any process or operation in which a system uses its initial resources to develop more powerful and complex processing routines, which are then used in the same fashion, and so on cumulatively.
- Language acquisition and early grammar development in kids: they learn syntax and grammar by building upon (bootstrapping from) the knowledge they’ve already acquired
- nativist theory of language development since kids innately possess the ability to bootstrap and learn grammar.
The naming explosion refers to?
a stage in language development, usually occurring during a child’s 2nd year, when a marked increase occurs in the rate at which new words are added to the child’s productive vocabulary.
Spontaneous recovery is the process by which
a previously extinguished behavioral response returns after a delay (i.e., a rest period) following extinction.
Shaping involves what? What is it used for?
Shaping involves reinforcing successive approximations
Elaborative encoding refers to
combining new (to-be-remembered) information with existing memory representations, which enhances the probability of retrieving that new information
Systematic desensitization is a
classical conditioning technique in which the intensity of an unconditioned stimulus is gradually increased until it no longer elicits the conditioned response.
What are monocular depth cues? What are specific examples?
- the information in the retinal image that gives us information about depth and distance but can be inferred from just a single retina (or one eye)
- Examples include: Occlusion, retinal height, texture gradient, relative size, shading, linear perspective, cast shadows, distance to horizon, relative size
Retinal disparity is what kind of depth cue? What does it refer to? What is an example?
- Binocular depth cue bc it requires both eyes
- It refers to the fact that each of your eyes recevies slightly different information about an object and then your brain then uses this disparity ti construct a perception of the object’s location in 3D space
- Distance from the object of focus and knowing how far away it is
Culture lag
Occurs when norms and values have yet to catch up with technological advances.
Globalization has to do w
the process of integrating governments, cultures, and financial markets through international trade into a single world market. • Many factors contribute to globalization including communication technologies and economic interdependence. -> Results in the spread and transmission of knowledge across the globe
Anomie refers to
a feeling of detachment from society due to a lack of stable social norms
Biopsychosocial model has to w the interplay of what factors? Posits that psychological disorders can not be understood by only examining what factors?
- biological, psychological, and social factors
- Biological
Macrosociology has to do w
the discussion of structural factors
Microsociology has to do with a
focus on smaller scale group interactions
Biomedical model of psychological disorders posits that
mental disorders are brain diseases and emphasizes pharmacological treatment to target presumed biological abnormalities
Social epidemiology focuses on
the social determinants or factors of health and how things like poverty, racial/ethnic minority status, SES and other social factors that can lead to the incidence of disease and affect health
Medicalization is
the process in which a social problem comes to be defined as a disease or disorder.
Negative reinforcement refers to
the strengthening of a behavior after the response has been followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus.
Positive reinforcement refers to
the strengthening of a behavior after the response has been followed by the delivery of an appetitive stimulus.
Relative deprivation is
when expectations surpass the material resources that a group or individual has.
Self efficacy refers to
a person’s belief in his or her ability to accomplish tasks,
An odds ratio below 1 indicates
Decreased likelihood
What do odds ratios tell us? What does an odds ratio of 1 tell us? Above 1? Below 1?
how much higher the odds of exposure are among case-patients than among controls.
- An odds ratio of 1.0 (or close to 1.0) indicates that the odds of exposure among case-patients are the same as, or similar to, the odds of exposure among controls.
- Above 1= increase likelihood
- Below 1= Decreased likelihood
Institutional discrimination calls attention to
- policies at the organizational or institutional level in health care (instead of individual interactions)
- Rather than being directly exclusionary, these policies tend to have a disproportionate impact on certain groups.
A researcher applying the concept of assimilation to immigrant health would propose which hypothesis?
An immigrant group’s life expectancy will:
The concept of assimilation proposes that an immigrant group will eventually adopt the customs (norms, values, etc.) of the majority group in a society. Because of taking on such norms over time, the immigrant group’s health outcomes (including life expectancy) would be likely to approximate the majority group’s health outcomes (including life expectancy). (Not surpass or fall behind)
According to the paradigm of symbolic interactionism, individuals develop a sense of identity primarily through:
-Social relationships bc Symbolic interactionism posits that individuals develop a sense of self, or identity, through the interactions and relationships that they have with others. The theory suggests that social relationships are fundamental for individuals to develop a sense of who they are.
Reflective contemplation is an ______ process
Internal
Proprioceptors are a type of sensor that helps an individual to what? Where are these receptors found?
- determine the location of a body part and/or its position
- within the vestibular system, muscles, and/or tendons.
What do osmoreceptors usually detect? Where are they usually found?
Osmoreceptors are usually located in the hypothalamus and they usually detect the change in osmotic pressures.
What are chemoreceptors and where are they usually found?
Chemoreceptors are specialized receptors that transduce chemical signals and generate an output. Chemoreceptors are found in the carotid bodies and the aortic arch.
