Ch 9-11 Flashcards
Intelligence
The ability to think, to learn from experience, to solve problems, and to adapt to new situations
What is the g-factor in intelligence research
General
Fluid intelligence
The capacity to learn new ways of solving problems and performing activities
Crystallized intelligence
Accumulated knowledge of the world we have acquired throughout our lives
Interpersonal intelligence
The capacity to understand the emotions, intentions, motivations, and desires of other people
Intrapersonal intelligence
The capacity to understand oneself, including one’s emotions
Reliability in testing
Means they are consistent over time
Validity in testing
Means that they actually measure intelligence not something else
The Flynn effect
The observation that scores on intelligence tests worldwide have increased substantially over the past decades
What does research in sex differences in intelligence say about variability in IQ scores?
The actual IQ distribution in men is more spread out than in women
What does the research say about sex differences in intelligence in terms of specific abilities?
The average difference between men and women is small compared to the average differences within each sex
Stereotype threat
A reduction in performance that is caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes
How did twin studies contribute to our knowledge about heritability of IQ?
The IQs of identical twins correlate higher than those of fraternal twins showing a genetic component in IQ
Emotional regulation
The ability to control and productively use one’s emotions
What does emotional regulation predict?
People who are better able to override their impulses to seek immediate gratification and who are less impulsive also have higher cognitive and social intelligence
Overextension in language development
The use of a given word in a broader context than appropriate. E.G. All men are “daddy” or all animals are “doggy”
Components of chomsky’s nature approach to language and supported or not
Human brains contain a language acquisition device (supported by research) that includes a universal grammar (not supported) that underlies all human language
Linguistic relativity hypothesis
The idea that language and its structures influence and limit human thought
Motivation
A driving force that indicates and directs behavior
Homeostasis
The natural state of the body’s systems, with goals, drives, and arousal imbalance
Two dimensions used to graphically represent emotions
Arousal (high to low) and valence (pleasant to unpleasant)
Basic emotions
Anger, discussed, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise
Secondary emotions and two ways they differ from basic emotions
The larger more complex emotions that are determined by level of arousal and by their valence
Daily hassles and how they affect stress and health
Our everyday interactions with the environment that are essentially negative. If they pile up they can lower the immune system
Three stages of general adaptation syndrome
Alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
Stress
The psychological responses that occur when an organism fails to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats
Two general behavioral responses to stress and associated hormones
Fight or flight - cortisol
Tend and befriend - oxytocin
Why aren’t people good at predicting what will make them happy?
People do not continuously experience very positive, or very negative effects over a long period of time, but rather adapt to their current circumstances
How do major life events affect happiness?
People’s happiness goes very high or very low for a short period of time and then they adjust
Proxemics
The branch of knowledge that deals with the amount of space that people feel is necessary to set between themselves and others EG personal bubble
Paralanguage
Clues to identify or emotions contain in our voices
Basal metabolic rate
The amount of energy expended while at rest
Social psychology
The scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave towards the other people around us, and how those people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior
Attitude
Our relatively enduring evaluations of people and things
Prejudice
The tendency to dislike people because of their appearance or group memberships
Discrimination
Negative behaviors towards others based on prejudice
Fundamental attribution error
The common tendency to overestimate the role of personal factors and overlook the impact of situations in judging others
Self-serving bias
We judge the causes of our behavior in overly positive ways
Self-fulfilling prophecy in social Psychology
When our expectations about the personality characteristics of others lead us to behave towards those others in ways that make those beliefs come true
Mere exposure effect
The tendency to prefer stimuli (including but not limited to people) that we have seen more frequently
Cognitive dissonance
The discomfort we experience when we choose to behave in ways that we see as inappropriate
The foot-in-the-door technique
A method of persuasion in which the person is first persuaded to accept a rather minor request and then ask for a larger one after that
Altruism
Any behavior that is designed to increase another person’s welfare, and particularly those actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them
Reciprocity norm
We should follow the principles of reciprocal altruism. If someone helps us, we should help them in the future, and we should help people now with the expectation that they will help us later if we need it. “Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”
Which part of the brain contributes to aggressive behavior and which part controls it?
Amygdala contributes to ingression, prefrontal cortex serves as a control center on aggression
Desensitization
The tendency over time to show weaker emotional responses to emotional stimuli
Difference between normative and informational conformity
The desire to be liked by others (normative) versus the belief that other people have accurate information and we want to have knowledge (informational)
Asch studied what?
The power of conformity. Whether or not a participant would change their answer to the majority wrong answer or go against conformity to choose the correct answer. Specific Target line experiment
Milgram studied what?
Obedience, the tendency to conform to those in authority. Electric shock experiment
