F-H Flashcards
Feature detection
Specialized nerve cells in the brain that respond to particular features such as edges, angles, or movement. These feature detection neurons fire in response to images that have specific characteristics
Fertility
The average number of expected children born to a woman assuming that the woman will survive from birth to the end of her reproductive life
Fixed interval
Reinforcement after the first response, after a fixed time has elapsed (e.g. after a food pellet is given, no food pellets will be dispensed for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, the first lever press will get a food pellet)
Fixed ratio
Reinforcement after a fixed number of responses (e.g. a food pellet after every 5 lever presses)
Foot in the door phenomenon
Getting someone to agree to a small request increased the likelihood they will then agree to a much larger one
Formal operational stage
Piaget Stage 4: Age 11 onwards. Can do hypothetical and deductive reasoning and think about abstract concepts
Freud stages of psychosexual identity development
Oral: 0-1; oral fixation is a passive immature personality
Anal: 1-3 yr; anal fixation is obsessively neat/ organized personality
Phallic: 3-6 yr; fixation can be oedipus complex
Latency: 6-12 yr; fixation leads to sexual unfulfillment
Genital: puberty-death; fixation leads to frigidity, impotence
Front stage vs back stage
Front stage: how a person behaves when an audience is present, adhering to certain conventions for the audience; Backstage: how a person behaves when no audience is present
Functionalism
A large-scale sociological approach that analyzes particular social structures and functions that influence society as a whole
Fundamental attribution error
Overvaluing a personality-based explanation rather than environmental explanation. For example, explaining that members of an ethnic group must be poor because they are all lazy, rather than environmental impediments to their ability to get out of poverty
Generalization
When a new stimulus that is similar to a conditioned stimulus comes to generate the same or similar response
Gestalt principles
Laws of perceptual organization that guide the brain in making a whole out of sensory parts
Globalization
Interconnection and interdependence across national boundaries, involving the exchange of culture, ideas, good, etc.
Group polarization
Groups that tend to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial attitudes of the individual members
Group think
A breakdown in decision making in which group value coherence and loyalty to the in group over critical analysis of the decisions
Hair cells
Sensory receptors in the organ of Corti on the basilar membrane. Located in the cochlea of the inner ear. The hairs that detect sound as vibrations in the tectorial membrane
Heuristics in problem solving
A quick way to solve a problem using experience when a full exhaustive search would be impossible. Generates results that may not be the best. (e.g. rule of thumb, educated guess, intuition, common sense, stereotypes)
Humanistic perspectives on personality
Personality develops as a person grows psychologically. Emphasizes free will and self-actualization. Associated with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Hypnosis
A mental state in which the subject is forced intensely on particular thought or memory while being more open to suggestion
Hypothalamus
Portion of the brain connected to the endocrine system. Produces 1) Dopamine
2) Growth Hormone Releasing Hormone
3) Thyrotropin-releasing hormone
4) Somatostatin
5) Gonadotropin-releasing hormone
6) Corticotropin releasing hormone
7) Oxytocin
8) Vasopressin
