Psychology Flashcards
The Mere Exposure Effect
Tendency to develop preferences for things because we are familiar with them.
AKA: Familiarity Principal
Mnemonic Device
Using acronyms, chunking, and rhymes to help the brain naturally store/remember data
Schachter Two-Factor Theory
Stimulus –> physiological arousal –> cognitive labelling –> emotion
Locus of Control
Measurement of how much control a person feels they have in their own behaviour.
In Group Bias
Tendency to favour one’s own group over another. This affects our perception of others, giving preferential treatment to the members of our own group while excluding other groups.
Regression
Defense mechanism in which people seem to return to an earlier developmental stage. This tends to occur around periods of stress.
Operant Conditioning
Method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behaviour. Through operant conditioning, reward behaviour is likely to be repeated, while punishment is prone to happen less.
Circadian Rhythm
Physical, mental, and behavioural changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle.
Psychology 5 Basic Goals
- Describe - observe behaviour as objectively as possible.
- Explain - go beyond what is obvious(observable data) and ask “Why did the subject do what he/she did”.
- Predict - Predicting what future behaviour will be from past behaviour.
- Control - Intervene to change negative behaviour/excerpt control over it.
- Improve - Control behaviour positively and improve someone’s life. (Although not always the case, it should be the intention).
Psychoanalysis
Ice Berg Theory of the Unconscious
- Set of psychological theories and methods of therapy.
- Revolves around the belief that everyone has unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories.
- Used to release repressed emotions and experiences.
Founded by: Sigmund Freud
Humanist
Hierarchy of Needs
- Higher needs in the hierarchy emerge when people feel they have fully satisfied the previous needs.
Founded by: Abraham Maslow
Behaviourist
Skinner Box - Operant Conditioning
- Focuses on the idea that all behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment
- Inherited factors have very little influence on behaviour.
By: B. F. Skinner
Psychology
Modern Definition: The science of behaviour and mental processes
Latin Definition: Study of the soul
Aristotle
- Believed that human consciousness was in the heart not the head
Zakariya al-Rhazes
- Persian doctor from the late 800s
- Rhazes was the first to describe mental illness and even treated patients in an early psych ward in his Baghdad hospital.
Consciousness
Awareness of internal and external existence.
Notion Of Self
How an individual perceives their own identity including their thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and experiences that make them who they are.
Freud
- Freud’s theories helped build our views on childhood, personality, dreams, and sexuality.
- Developed his revolutionary ideas by building in the work of others.
- After the Anna O case study, he told his patients to “free associate”. This provided the basis for his career and an entire branch of psychology.
- He came up with psychoanalysis and believed this “unconsciousness” could be discovered and understood through therapeutic techniques.
- Using dreams, projections, and free association to root out repressed feelings and gain self-insight.
- Freud’s message was that mental disorders could be healed through talk therapy and self-discovery.
- This was a huge breakthrough because people with mental illnesses would be confined and given up on.
Structuralism
- The idea of breaking down the brain into structures. The approach to getting patients to look inwards to understand the structures of consciousness is structuralism.
- Relied too much on introspection - too subjective - very short-lived
Functionalism
- Questions focused on why we think, feel, smell, and lick.
- Focused on the function of behaviour.
Psychoanalysis
The theory that unconscious motives shape our personalities.
Anna O Case Study
- Josef Breuer treated Anna O with a new “talking cure”. He let her talk about her symptoms and the more she pulled up traumatic memories, the more her symptoms were reduced.
- This case study is a breakthrough, and it also changed Freud forever.
Behaviourism
Focuses on the idea that all behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment.
Humanist Psychology
The approach that emphasizes individual potential, personal growth, and the importance of self-actualization in understanding human behaviour.
Cognitive Psychology
The branch of psychology that studies mental processes such as perception, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving to understand how people think, learn, and remember.
Neuroscience
The interdisciplinary study of the nervous system, focusing on its structure, function, development, and the biological basis of behaviour and cognitive processes.
Hindsight Bias
- Cognitive bias that occurs when people overestimate their ability to predict outcomes after they have occured.
- “I knew it all along” phenomenon
Psychological Hypothesis
A testable prediction
Naturalistic Observation
- Watching behaviour to let subjects continue doing their thing without trying to manipulate or control the situation.
- Great at describing behaviour but bad at explaining it.
Case Study
- Can’t be repeated (risk of over-generalizing)
- Shows what CAN happen
- Extensive/generalizable studies
- In depth look on one individual
Surveys/Interviews
- Used to collect data by asking people to report their opinions and behaviours.
- Great way to access consciously held attitudes/beliefs but subtle word choices can influence results by eliciting different reactions.
Sampling Bias
When a sample isn’t representative of the population being studied.
Correlate
- How something(trait/behaviour) relates to another.
- Shows relationship between 2 variables.
Causation
1 variable directly causing change in another.
Experiment
Allows investigators to isolate different effects by manipulating an independent variable and keeping other variables constant.
Double-blind Experiment
When the researchers themselves don’t know which group is experimental so they don’t unintentionally influence the results of their own behaviour.
Psychosexual Theory(Freud)
- Ego(visible): Freud’s term for the rational part of the mind, which operates on the reality principle. Finds a balance between the superego and id.
- Superego(invisible): Freud’s term for the moral centre of the mind.
- id(invisible): Freud’s term for the instinctual part of the mind, which operates on the pleasure principle.
Psychodynamic Theory
An approach to therapy that focuses on resolving a patient’s conflicted conscious and unconscious feelings.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Sigmund Freud’s theory that all human behaviour is influenced by early childhood and that childhood experiences influence the unconscious mind throughout life.
Unconscious
- Information processing in our mind that we are not aware of
- According to Freud, it holds our unacceptable thoughts, feelings, and memories.
- According to Jung, it includes patterns of memories, instincts, and experiences common to all.
Conscious
- Information that we are always aware of.
- Our conscious mind performs thinking when we take in new information.
Defence Mechanism
The ego’s way of distorting reality to deal with anxiety.
Repression
Unknowingly placing an unpleasant memory or thought in the unconscious.
Regression
Reverting back to immature behaviour from an earlier stage of development.
Displacement
Redirecting unacceptable feelings from the original source to a safer, substitute target.
Sublimation
Replacing socially unacceptable impulses with socially acceptable behaviour.
Reaction Formation
Acting in exactly the opposite way to one’s unacceptable impulses.
Projection
Attributing to one’s own unacceptable feelings and thoughts to others and not yourself.
Rationalization
Creating false excuses for one’s unacceptable feelings, thoughts, or behaviours.
Conflict Resolution Balance
- Struggle between pleasure and avoidance of pain(id) and the moral judgement of doing what is right(superego)
- Successful conflict resolution requires a healthy balance between 2 extremes.
- Unresolved conflicts at earlier stages will result in difficulties at later stages.
NS
Neutral stimulus that doesn’t produce an automatic response.
UCS
Unconditioned stimulus that leads to an automatic response.
UCR
- Classical conditioning requires an unconditioned stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response, that reliably elicits an unlearned response in the experimental subject.
- AKA: reflexes
CS
- Conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus.
- When repeatedly presented prior to the unconditioned stimulus, evokes a similar response to the unconditioned stimulus.
CR
Conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus.
