Definitions For All Units

Question 1

Stereotype

Answer 1

An oversimplified generalized set of beliefs about a group of people or a minority that are usually not true and don’t reflect reality.

Question 2

Discrimination

Answer 2

Acting upon your prejudices and actively discriminating against someone because of their race, religion, ethnicity by not giving them a job or doing something that brings them harm or distress.

Question 3

Generalising

Answer 3

Believing that all people in a group have a certain ability or personal characteristic or do something such as: Italians all love pizza
All Americans are fat
All Irish people like leprechauns

This is a very similar definition to a stereotype.

Question 4

Eye contact

Answer 4

When two people look into each other’s eyes and make “eye contact” AT THE SAME TIME

Question 5

Postural echo

Answer 5

When two people adopt the same posture, such as sitting with their arms folded. This may be because they are enjoying each other’s company and they get on well together.

Question 6

Pupil dilation

Answer 6

When someone pupils become bigger so they can absorb more light when the person is in he dark. This is an unconscious decision that the body makes and we have no choice over this.

Hess’s study shows that when your pupils dilate it can make you appear more attractive towards someone else

Question 7

Positive reinforcement

Answer 7

When someone has their behavior encouraged by the being given something such as a treat or reward.
For example:

Rat pulls lever-
Hatch releases pellet of food-
Rat wants to pull the lever.
Positive reinforcement.

Question 8

Negative reinforcement

Answer 8

Encouraging a behavior though the removal of a negative stimulus.
For example:

Floor is electrified-
Rat pulls lever-
Floor stops being electrified.
Negative reinforcement.

Question 9

Monozygotic twins

Answer 9

Two twins that came from the same ovum and have incredibly similar if not identical genetics.

Buss and Plomins’s study showed that monozygotic twins have very similar personalities like their:

Emotions
Sociability
Activity

Question 10

Multi-store theory

Answer 10

The process of memory goes through three stores-

Short term- a few chunks not a lot of information that can be stored for very long.

Sensory- a few seconds and can’t be remembered easily.

Long term- can be stored for up to a lifetime and memories can be accessed very easily.

Question 11

Social Loafing

Answer 11

When one or more people slack off and don’t work in a group. Many factors affect this such as group size and the task at hand.

Question 12

Temperament

Answer 12

It is the genetic, inherited aspects of our personality that we must try hard to change and come from our parents and family.

Question 13

Sex Identity

Answer 13

It is the biology behind our sex, which is the primary sex characteristics and chromosomes that make up our sex.

Question 14

Gender Identity

Answer 14

It is how we psychologically identify ourselves on the scale of masculine and feminine and is not made up of our biology it is purely how we feel and our attitudes towards sex and gender.

Question 15

Gender Schema

Answer 15

It is a mental building block of knowledge that makes up the ideas and how we feel about gender. An example of this is:

“Steven think all men are doctors and believes all women are nurses.” This is an example of Gender Schema.

Question 16

Thanatos

Answer 16

It is an inner aggressive drive that we are able to sublimate in a socially acceptable way such as playing rugby or boxing. We can also displace it onto others by hurting other people and both of these will reduce our inner Thanatos and that aggressive drive.

Question 17

Encoding

Answer 17

It is us when we encode new memories into our brains and we can encode these more deeply by using semantic processing which will allow us to retrieve these memories more easily.

Question 18

Storage

Answer 18

When we are storing these memories into our brains and people with retro-grade amnesia cannot access these memories before the accident or event that caused them to have amnesia.

Question 19

Retrieval

Answer 19

When we can access the memories by retrieving them and people with retro-grade amnesia struggle to do this.

Question 20

Antero-grade amnesia

Answer 20

When someone cannot form new memories and they struggle in the encoding process of making memories.

Question 21

Bystander Intervention

Answer 21

When a bystander will intervene in a situation. Many factors affect this such as the appearance of the victim and the amount of people in the surrounding area.

Question 22

Eye-witness Testimony

Answer 22

When a witness to an event gives a statement about what happened such as the victims appearance or the weapon they were carrying when a crime happened

Question 23

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 23

It is the addition of a pleasant stimulus or reward with the aim of encouraging a certain behaviour again.

Question 24

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 24

The removal of an unpleasant stimulus to encourage a behaviour from happening again.

Question 25

Gender Psychodynamic Theory

Answer 25

That boys and girls suffer from a complex where they unconsciously desire their same sex parent. (Oedipus and Electra Complex.)

They fear punishment and castration from their other parent and resolve the complex by associating with their same sex parent which will resolve their same sex parent.

Question 26

Social Learning Theory of Aggressive Behaviour

Answer 26

People model aggressive behaviour which is imitated by people who believe them to be role models and then the aggressive behaviour increases.

Question 27

De-individuation

Answer 27

When people lose their individuality and then they feel they are less responsible for their actions and this can potentially be dangerous for people to commit crimes.

Question 28

Anonymity

Answer 28

When someone becomes unknown and anonymous with a group of people and then this increases the probability they will commit crimes and often is accompanied by being de-individuated.

Question 29

Ritalin

Answer 29

A drug used to supress the behaviours of people with ADHD and there have been ethical issues such as the argument that they are numbing people into behaving and people become completely suppressed and numbed into behaving.

Question 30

Anti-social Personality Disorder

Answer 30

It is the condition where people have a lack of empathy for others and increases the likelihood they will commit crimes. A lot of people in prison and gang populations have APD.