Psychology & Sociology Flashcards
(40 cards)
The Hidden Curriculum
Unintended lessons learned from school not included in the formal curriculum.
In college, some students learn that earning high grades has more to do with adapting to the values and expetations of the instructor as opposed to learning for the sake of knowledge.
Differential Threshold
The minimum change in intensity of a stimulus that can be detected.
You may be able to tell the difference between the heaviness of a 5 kg weight and a 6 kg weight but the difference between a 5 kg weight and a 5.1 kg weight is harder to detect.
Role Conflict
The conflict between two or more roles held by an individual.
A common role conflict is the work-family conflict where an individual has both familial and professional obligations to fulfill.
Meditation
The practice of training the mind or inducing a state of consciouness.
Meditation can lower stress levels, increase immune function, and increase information processing speed.
Schizophrenia
A type of mental disorder characterized by altered perceptions of reality that leads to abnormal thoughts and behaviors.
Patients with schizophrenia may suffer from positive symptoms (such as hallucinations and delusions) and negative symptoms (such as the inability to experience pleasure, lack of interest, and lack of emotion).
Consciousness
The state of being aware of the external environment or an internal object such as emotions, memories, and thoughts.
You must be awake and aware to be conscious.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
A type of mental disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts and the need to perform ritualistic behaviors to relieve anxiety.
Common compulsions among patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder include excessive hand-washing, cleaning, and ordering items in a certain way.
Sensation
Activation of sensory receptors by stimuli followed by a signal sent to the brain.
Human’s have a variety of senses, including sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste, proprioception, and more.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
A type of mental disorder characterized by long-term stress responses from a severely traumatic event.
Patients with PTSD may experience persistant memories of the traumatic event, the tendancy to avoid stimuli associated with the event, and amnesia of the event.
Nonmaterial Culture
The intangible aspects of a culture that have no physical existence.
Symbolic culture includes beliefs, values, religion, language, etc.
Long-Term Memory
The storage of information for long periods of time.
Long-term memory can be explicit (factual) or implicit (procedural)
Relative Deprivation
The condition of being deprived of a resource that one feels to be entitled.
Relative deprivation is a potential source of social movements.
Absolute Poverty
A standard measure of poverty consistent over time and across different countries.
Absolute poverty is based on a minimum income necessary to live on in all countries.
Weber’s Law
The differential threshold is proportional to the magnitude of a stimulus.
If your differential threshold is 5%, this means that you can detect the difference between 1 kg and 1.05 kg but not 10 kg and 10.05 kg. You can detect a difference between 10 kg and 10.5 kg though.
Vestibular Sense
The sense of linear acceleration, rotational acceleration, and gravity for balancing purposes.
Your vestibular sense allows you to maintain balance when standing on the subway.
Social Movement
A group action that seek to carry out, prevent, or resist a social change.
A union that seeks to raise waiges for workers is an example of a social movement.
Stage 1 NREM Step
The first stage of sleep between wakefulness and sleep characterized by hypnic jerks, decreased muscle tone, and slow eye movement.
At this stage, the sleeper is easy to awake and often believes that they were fully awake the whole time.
Short-Tern Memory
he storage of a small amount of information for a short period of time.
The length of a short-term memory varies depending on the individual but can be prolonged by rehearsal.
Deviance
Behaviors that violate social norms.
Breaking a law and incest are both examples of deviance.
Stage 3 NREM Sleep
The stage of sleep called deep sleep characterized by loss of response to external stimuli and the occurance of parasomnia (sleep walking, sleep talking, night terrors, etc.).
At this stage, the sleeper is much harder to awake than Stages I and II NREM and will be groggy and disoriented if awakened.
Ascribed Status
A social position (status) that we don’t choose, such as sex, race, or the social class we are born into.
People born into wealthy families have a high ascribed status and are more likely to get accepted into college due to having more networks and resources. An ascribed status can happen to you mid-life or later, such as becoming disabled.
Absolute Threshold
The minimum intensity of a stimulus that can be detected.
Sounds with an intensity below the threshold of hearing cannot be heard by humans.
Divided Attention
The minimum intensity of a stimulus that can be detected.
Sounds with an intensity below the threshold of hearing cannot be heard by humans.
Relative Poverty
A measure of poverty based on the individual’s society and varies across different countries.
Relative poverty is typically some percentage of the average income of the society.
