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Sonja's MCAT Flashcards > Psych-soc > Flashcards

Psych-soc Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 stages of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome?

A

alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

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2
Q

According to Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, is our response to stress specific or nonspecific?

A

nonspecific, our body will response to all perceived stressors with alarm, resistance and exhaustion the same (including eustress and distress

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3
Q

What is the difference between conformity and group polarization?

A

conformity- shifting behavior

group polarization- a process of decision making, often followed by conformity but not neccesarily

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4
Q

What is social facilitation?

A

The improvement of a task in the presence of others vs alone

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5
Q

What is the difference between obedience, compliance, and conformity?

A

Obedience- change in behavior by authority
Compliance- individuals change behavior based on request of another (could be peer)
Conformity- change in beliefs in order to fit in

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6
Q

What is the difference between validity and reliability in research?

A

Validity- measures accuracy of study

Reliability- the consistence of a measure.

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7
Q

Sapir–Whorf hypothesis is also known as what? What is it?

A

linguistic relativity, describes out perception of life and cognition is relative to our spoken language

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8
Q

What is priming in pschology?

A

How the introduction of one stimulus influence how one perceives subsequent stimuli. Part of IMPLICIT memory

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9
Q

Which type of group is considered more stable, dyads or triads?

A

The larger group, triads, is considered more stable but less intimate, than the dyad

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10
Q

What governs society according to conflict theory?

A

competition between groups. In conflict theory, power/authority are unequally distributed across a society, and groups attempt to maintain their advantages.

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11
Q

According to cognitive dissonance theory, what happens when an individual is presented with information incongruent with their behavior?

A

can change attitudes or behavior as result of new info in order to eliminate cognitive dissonance, however individuals are more likely to adjust attitude than behavior

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12
Q

What is a reference group in psychology?

A

any group individuals use as a standard for eval themselves and their behavior

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13
Q

What is the difference between fixed ratio and variable ratio?

A

in fixed ratio, reward is given for specific # of responses (ie if youre right, you get rewarded). in variable ratio, the number of correct responses needed for reward varies (ie could be after 1 correct response or 4)

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14
Q

What is the dependency ratio?

A

the number of people NOT in labor force: number of people who are (ie kids and oldies vs adults)

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15
Q

what is the life course perspective?

A

approach that incorporated life stage and life span into overall health

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16
Q

What is source monitoring error?

A

not remembering where certain memories come from (such as remembering a dream as reality)

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17
Q

What is the difference between absolute and relative poverty?

A

absolute poverty- being unable to afford basic needs

relative poverty- compared to other people, you are poor

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18
Q

What is the difference between affective and cognitive components of attitude?

A

affective- emotional reaction

cognitive-beliefs and ideas (stereotypes happen here)

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19
Q

Eriksons stages of cog development

A 
0-1 trust vs mistrust
1-3  autonomy vs shame
3-7 initiative vs guilt
7-11 inductry vs inferiorirty
11-20 identity versus role conufsion
20-40 isolation vs intimacy
40-60 generativity vs stagnation
60+ integrity vs despair
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20
Q

left cerebral hemisphere vs right cerebral hemisphere

A

vocabulary/lanuage skills tend to be lateralized to the left hemisphere, whereas visuospatial skills, music perception, and emotion, attention processing tend to be lateralized to the right hemisphere.

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21
Q

What is base rate fallacy?

A

Using stereotype or bias instead of actual data

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22
Q

What is the difference between automatic and controlled processing?

A

Controlled processing requires active attention, automatic processing does NOT require active attention to a task

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23
Q

What is Maslov’s hierarchy of needs theory?

A

a pyramid of needs where lower needs must be met before higher needs are able to be met. IN order: physiological needs, safety, love, esteem, self actualization

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24
Q

What is the difference between dispositional and situational attributions?

A

dispositional attributions are internal, situational attributions are external

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25
Describe the 4 stages of the demographic transition model:
Stage 1- high birth rates and high mortality rates, stable population Stage 2-high birth rates but low mortality rates, due to modern medicine. Population increases. Stage 3-birth rates decrease, due to birth control, feminism, children needing more education. population decreases Stage 4-low mortality and low birth rates, population stabilized
26
What is Darwin's theory of emotion?
emotional expressions are part of evolution, therefore they are hereditary
27
How does learned helplessness develop?
as a result of uncontrollable exposure to an aggressive stimulus
28
What does the variable ratio schedule result in?
High response, no predictable pauses (best option)
29
What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?
Proactive interference- old information preventing learning new info Retroactive interference- new info makes you forget old
30
What is the difference between retrograde memory and anterograde memory?
Retrograde memory- recalling past events | anterograde memory- forming new memories
31
What is reciprocal exchange?
its social, exchanging help from others
32
What is symbolic interactionism?
a theory that focuses on small scale perspectives and small interactions between individuals, can be expanded to understand how larger groups interact and create change.
33
What is a meritocracy?
a society where people move into power, earn things, etc based off of MERIT and deservedness.
34
How does the humanist perspective explain human behavior?
as a function of self concept and incongruence
35
What stage of cognitive development is egocentrism associated with?
Preoperational (2-7). They can only view the world from their perspective.
36
What does neuroticism measure?
tendency toward negative traits-- people high in neuroticism get frustrated easily, give up easily. one of the five factor trasits of personality (OCEAN)
37
What is flashbulb memory?
a vivid enduring memory associated with a personally significant and emotional event
38
What is reproductive memory?
remembering something EXACTLY (we dont really do this)
39
What is prospective memory?
remembering to perform a planned action
40
What is eidetic memory?
photographic memory
41
What is semantic memory?
long term memory where you store facts (not your experiences)
42
What is iconic memory?
short term visual memories after seeing something, stored as an image
43
What is REM rebound?
increasing freq and depth of REM sleep after a period of sleep deprivation
44
What imaging technique is best suited for localizing brain areas?
PET - locates where in the brain neural firing is taking place (uses glucose)
45
What is groupthink?
a practice of thinking in a group that discourages individuality
46
What is self serving bias?
taking credit for the good things that happen, blaming outside world for negative outcomes
47
What is self verification?
The tendency to seek out (and agree with) information that is consistent with one's self concept
48
What are latent functions?
aspects of a social institution that service unacknowledged purposes
49
What is sensory interaction?
the idea that one sensory modality may influence another
50
what is motion parallax?
objects that are closer appear faster than those that are farther
51
What is perception mal-adaption?
a trait more harmful than helpful
52
What is ethnocentrism?
the process of judging another culture based off of ones own culture
53
What is the hidden curriculum? which sociology theory is it associated with?
The hidden curriculum is the expected social and cultural norms that are taught informally. It is a latent function in functionalism
54
What is the mean in an IQ test?
100, standard deviation of 15
55
What is instinctual drift?
the phenomenon where established habits, learned via operant techniques, are replaced by innate food-related behaviors
56
What does NOT diminish with age?
retrieval of general info (semantic memory, crystalized intelligence)
57
What is incentive theory of motivation?
how outside factors of individuals, including community values and other aspects of cultures, can motivate behavior
58
What is incentive theory of motivation?
how outside factors of individuals, including community values and other aspects of cultures, can motivate behavior
59
What is drive theory of motivation?
people are driven to take action to reduce internal tensions due to unmet needs (often instinctual such as thirst)
60
What is the difference between social capital and cultural capital?
social capital is Who You Know vs cultural capital is your educational/academic credentials or knowledge
61
What are the three components of attitude?
Affective (emotional-- prejudicce), behavioral (discrimination), and cognitive (believes and stereotypes)
62
What is the difference between punishment and reinforcement?
punishment aims to decrease the behavior, reinforcement aims to increase the behavior
63
What is a p-value?
between 0 and 1, the probability that a test statistic was found by random chance. typically less than 0.05 (alpha) means its significant and can reject null. if p value not significant, fail to reject null
64
What is the James langer theory of emotion?
physiological response --> emotion. James loves to power pose.
65
What is the Schatcher singer theory of emotion?
cognitive appraisal + physiological response --> emotion
66
What are key components of bureaucracy?
nonelected officials on fixed salary who have rights by making career out of being officials, regular salary increases, rigidity of organization,
67
What is a cross sectional study?
a type of observational study that analyzes data from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time
68
Taking an advil to get rid of a HA is what type of operant conditioning?
Negative reinforcement
69
What is negative punishment?
removing TV time to reduce bad behavior
70
What is positive punishment?
hitting your kid to reduce bad behavior
71
What is the concept of diffusion as it pertains to sociology?
invention or discovery from one place to another and often involves the spread of ideas across the globe
72
What are the 5 Gestalt principles?
1. Closure 2. Similarity 3. Proximity 4. Continuity 5. Connectedness/ common fate (birds moving in the same direction)
73
What is the difference between a proximal and a distal stimulus?
proximal stimuli actually reach your senses, distal are farther away
74
What is the partial report technique?
a memory test where you are asked just for a portion of something shown previously
75
what is context effect?
bias of environmental factors on perception in top down processing
76
what are feature detectors?
individual neurons in the brain which code for perceptually signfifcant stimuli
77
what are practice effects?
change in performance resulting from repeated testing
78
What does fMRI show?
monitors blood flow in brain (good spatial resoluation, poor temporal)
79
What does a PET scan measure?
glucose metabolism (used to pick up tumors) poor spatial, good temporal resoluation
80
When does stranger anxiety begin in infants?
8months of age
81
When does stranger anxiety begin in infants?
8months of age
82
What is place theory?
place theory is AUDITORY, posits that one is able to hear different pitches because different sound waves trigger activity at different places along the choclea's basilar membrane
83
What is parallel processing?
the brain simulatanously processing diff stimuli at once
84
What is interposition?
one object partially covering another
85
What is a dependent stressor?
a stressor that happens to you that was caused by your OWN behaviour/feeling/attitude
86
What information do we automatically visually process?
due to the brains capacity for parallel processing, information about space, time and freq of events is automatically processed, but novel info is not
87
What is a confounding variable?
introduces an alternative explanation for observed effect
88
What is mass society theory?
social movements are bad-- dysfuctions of society
89
What is reaction formation?
the tendency for a repressed wish to return in its opposite form
90
What are the three stages of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
preconventional- avoids punishment conventional- law and order post conventional- morals, beyond law and order
91
What is the difference between a periphery nation and a core nation?
periphery nations have weak governments and weak economies, rely on core nations. core nations have strong governments and strong economies
92
In Mead's theory of identity, what is the difference between I and me?
I is our response to the social self, me is the social self (me is who we are outwardly, I is our internal reflection). mead believed both of these together made up identity
93
What is the difference between the ego, superego, and id?
superego- ideal self id- innate urges, brute self ego- mediator between superego and id
94
What is the Looking glass self via cooley?
we are influenced by what we imagine our appearance to others must be (correct and incorrect) and adapt to fit that
95
What does vygotskys theory of dev state?
learning takes place through interaction with others- zone of proximal development (what a learning can accomplish with a guide)
96
What is sublimation in psychology?
channeling a negative urge into a socially acceptable behaviour
97
what is confounding bias in psychology?
the impossibility of differentiating the variable's effects in isolation from its effects in conjunction with other variables.
98
What is extrinsic motivation?
any motivation that results from incentives to perform a behavior that are not inherent to the actual self
99
What is extrinsic motivation?
any motivation that results from incentives to perform a behavior that are not inherent to the actual self
100
What is incongruence?
the gap between the person's actual self and the ideal self
101
What is the function of the retina in the eye?
the retina contains photoreceptors such as rods/cones which detect light, then the energy becomes an AP and travel to optic nerve then primary visual cortex
102
What is the function of the retina in the eye?
the retina contains photoreceptors such as rods/cones which detect light, then the energy becomes an AP and travel to optic nerve then primary visual cortex
103
What is functional fixedness?
only thinking of something in terms of its normal use
104
what does labeling theory say?
labeling theory suggests that people are placed into social categories, including ones that are stimgatized
105
when is group affiliation greatest?
when members share similar outlooks, knowledge, preferences, skills, or other aspects of cultural capital
106
what are the 4 criterion of abnormality for psychological disorders?
distress- whether the behavior demonstrates unusual levels of stress maladaptiveness- whether the behavior is negatively impacting the person's life or poses a threat to others statistical deviancy-whether the behavior is statistically rare violation of social normals
107
what are the 4 criterion of abnormality for psychological disorders?
distress- whether the behavior demonstrates unusual levels of stress maladaptiveness- whether the behavior is negatively impacting the person's life or poses a threat to others statistical deviancy-whether the behavior is statistically rare violation of social normals
108
If a curve is skewed right, how does that change the median and mean?
skewed right curves will have greater outliers, the mean will be much greater than the median
109
If a graph is skewed left, how does that change the mean and median?
skewed left means that the mean will be less than the median
110
If a graph is skewed left, how does that change the mean and median?
skewed left means that the mean will be less than the median
111
What is the difference between episodic and semantic memory?
episodic memory is past experiences (autobiographical information), semantic memory is general world knowledge
112
What is the difference between episodic and semantic memory?
episodic memory is past experiences (autobiographical information), semantic memory is general world knowledge
113
what are the big 5 personality traits?
OCEAN- openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism
114
What is "overextension" ?
applying a term for one class of objects to other objects that bear only a superficial resemblance (ie- child saying doggie for a cow)
115
What is medicalization?
the process in which a social problem becomes defined as a disease or disorder
116
what is self efficacy?
ones believe in their ability to accomplish tasks
117
what is self efficacy?
ones believe in their ability to accomplish tasks
118
How would assimilation affect an immigrant groups life expectancy?
it would take on the norm of the group it was assimilated into
119
What is categorical perception?
when an acoustic dimension is perceived as having distinct categories with sharp discontinuities at different points ( (e.g., /ba/ versus /da/)
120
What is bootstrapping in language development?
children acquiring language (semantic and syntactic hypotheses) by building on innate knowledge (thats the bootstrapping part)
121
What are parvocellular cells
DEPTH, texture, color
122
What are magnocellular cells?
measure MOVEMENT
123
What is gellenschaft?
groups with shared interested SOCIETY
124
What is Gemienschaft?
groups unified by similar beliefs, ancestry, geography (community)
125
What is the recognition primed decision model?
when experiences in similar situations play a large role in decision making
126
When does "explosion of language" occur?
18 months (two word sentences)
127
When does babbling start in lang development?
9 to 12 months
128
When do infants start to add one word per month?
12 to 18 months
129
When is language largely mastered by?
age 5
130
What are the signs of Kosakoff's syndrome?
thymine deficiency and retrograde amnesia (associated with alcohol abuse)
131
What are the signs of alzheimers?
beta amyloid plaques and neurofibulary triangles
132
What is incidence in disease?
number of NEW cases in the at risk population
133
What is prevalence in disease?
number of total cases in population
134
What is dissociative amnesia?
dont remember who you are likely from trauma, fugue (take on new identity)
135
what is dissociative personality disorder?
multiple personalities
136
Whats the difference between low density lipoproteins and high density lipoproteins and VERY low density lipoproteins??
LDL- low density is bad, moves chloesterl to the tissues HDL-high density is good, moves cholesterol to the liver for detox from system VLDL- moves fat from liver to tissues
137
What is avoidant attachment?
no response when caregiver leaves or returns- no preference between caregiver and stranger. caused by caregiver with no response to distress
138
What is ambivalent attachment?
cry when caregiver leaves but dont care when they come back. caused by caregiver with inconsistent response to distress
139
disorganized attachment?
no clear pattern of behavior
140
What is actor-observer bias?
ones own actions to external causes, anotehrs to internal
141
What components of attitude are prejudice?
affective

Sonja's MCAT Flashcards (4 decks)

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