Key Terms

Question 1

Define psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those which affect behaviour

Question 2

Define introspection

Answer 2

The systematic analysis of your conscious experience of a stimulus

Question 3

Define inferences

Answer 3

To infer is to go beyond the evidence presented to make assumptions about mental processes that cannot be directly observed

Question 4

Define Schema

Answer 4

Little ‘packages’ of information/ideas that are filled through experience and help us make sense of the world. They provide a framework for understanding and we refer to these when new incoming information is received.

Question 5

What is the Oedipal complex?

Answer 5

Takes place in the phallic stage. Freud believed that young boys have a jealousy and dislike for their fathers a as they desire their mothers romantically. they then develop a fear of their fathers as they know if he finds out their true feelings he will be angry. This develops into castration anxiety whereby the young boy becomes scared that their father will castrate them as punishment so repress their incestuous feelings. overtime he will start to identify with his father, whilst doing so the young boy will start to internalise his sense of morality. this is when the superego is formed.

Question 6

What is the Electra complex?

Answer 6

The female equivalent of the Oedipal complex. Girls instead experience penis envy as they recognise their father has a penis and they don’t. they hate their mother and as a result desire their father. They replace the desire they have for their father with the desire for a baby instead so identify with their mothers to learn how to do this.

Question 7

Define defence mechanisms

Answer 7

Strategies used by the ego to protect us from situations that cause anxiety.

Question 8

Define structuralism

Answer 8

A method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behaviour, culture, and experience, which focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system.

Question 9

Define Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Answer 9

The stimulus which causes an automatic reaction (the UCR).

Question 10

Define Neutral Stimulus (NS)

Answer 10

Something which doesn’t naturally produce a response of any kind.

Question 10

Define Unconditioned Response (UCR)

Answer 10

The natural reaction to the UCS.

Question 11

Define Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Answer 11

Once the NS has been paired with the UCS s number of times it becomes the CS.

Question 11

Define Conditioned Response (CR)

Answer 11

The behaviour in response to the CS. This is not a natural reaction, it is learned (conditioned).

Question 12

Define positive reinforcement

Answer 12

The addition of something positive following a behaviour will encourage that behaviour to continue.

Question 13

Define negative reinforcement

Answer 13

The removal of something negative following a behaviour will encourage the behaviour to continue.

Question 14

Define punishment

Answer 14

The addition of something negative following a behaviour will discourage later displays of that behaviour.

Question 15

Define vicarious reinforcement

Answer 15

Looking to see how a role models behaviour was received before we imitate it. if the role model was positively reinforced, we are more likely to imitate their behaviour than if it was punished.

Question 16

Define identification

Answer 16

Identifying with the role model if they possess similar characteristics to ourselves and/or hold a sense of status that is to be desired. the more similar the role model is to us, the more likely it is that imitation/modelling will occur.

Question 17

what are meditational factors?

Answer 17

The likelihood of imitation depends on mediational factors. It suggests mental processes play a role in determining behaviour.

Question 18

What is Attention?

Question 19

What is Retention?

Question 20

What is Motor reproduction?

Question 21

What is Motivation?