Psychology Unit 3 Vocabulary

Question 1

Chromosomes

Answer 1

Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes

Question 2

Genes

Answer 2

The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA

Question 3

Heredity

Answer 3

The genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring

Question 4

Interaction

Answer 4

The interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity)

Question 5

Epigenetics

Answer 5

The study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

Question 6

Zygote

Answer 6

The fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Question 7

Embryo

Answer 7

The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month

Question 8

Fetus

Answer 8

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Question 9

Teratogen

Answer 9

An agent, such as a chemical or virus, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm

Question 10

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Answer 10

Physical and mental abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking

Question 11

Maturation

Answer 11

Biological growth processes loading to orderly changes in behavior, mostly independent of experience

Question 12

Temperament

Answer 12

A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity

Question 13

Critical Period

Answer 13

A period in early life when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences is needed for proper development

Question 14

Cognition

Answer 14

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Question 15

Schema

Answer 15

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Question 16

Sensorimotor stage

Answer 16

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to nearly 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

Question 17

Preoperational stage

Answer 17

In Piaget’s theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) in which a child learns to use language but cannot yet perform the mental operations of concrete logic

Question 18

Conservation

Answer 18

The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in shapes

Question 19

Egocentrism

Answer 19

In Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view

Question 20

Theory of mind

Answer 20

People’s ideas about their own and other’s mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict

Question 21

Concrete operational stage

Answer 21

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 to 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

Question 22

Formal operational stage

Answer 22

In Piaget’s theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning at about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Question 23

Adolescence

Answer 23

The transition period from child to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Question 24

Puberty

Answer 24

The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Question 25

Intimacy

Answer 25

In Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in early adulthood

Question 26

Emerging adulthood

Answer 26

A period from about 18 to the mid-twenties, when many in Western cultures are no longer adolescents but have not yet achieved full independence as adults

Question 27

Menopause

Answer 27

The end of menstruation; the biological transition a woman experiences from before until after the end of menstruation

Question 28

Social clock

Answer 28

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Question 29

Associative learning

Answer 29

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (operant conditioning)

Question 30

Cognitive learning

Answer 30

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Question 31

Generalization

Answer 31

In classical conditioning, the tendency, after conditioning, to respond similarly to stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus

Question 32

Discrimination

Answer 32

In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other irrelevant stimuli

In social psychology, unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members

Question 33

Law of effect

Answer 33

Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Question 34

Behaviorism

Answer 34

The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most psychologists agree with (1) but not with (2)

Question 35

Latent learning

Answer 35

Learning that is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

Question 36

Mirror neuron

Answer 36

Neuron that fires when we perform certain actions and when we observe others performing those actions; neural basis for imitation and observational learning

Question 37

Sensory memory

Answer 37

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Question 38

Short-term memory

Answer 38

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly (such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing) before the information is stored or forgotten

Question 39

Long-term memory

Answer 39

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

Question 40

Working memory

Answer 40

A newer understanding of short-term memory that stresses conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory

Question 41

Explicit memory

Answer 41

Memory of facts and personal events you can consciously retrieve (also called declarative memory)

Question 42

Mnemonics

Answer 42

Memory aids, especially techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Question 43

Flashbulb memory

Answer 43

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Question 44

Amnesia

Answer 44

Literally “without memory” - a loss of memory, often due to brain trauma, injury, or disease

Question 45

Memory trace

Answer 45

Lasting physical changes in the brain as a memory forms

Question 46

Repression

Answer 46

In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness the thoughts, feelings, and memories that arouse anxiety

Question 47

Misinformation effect

Answer 47

When a memory has been corrupted by misleading information

Question 48

Deja vu

Answer 48

That eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before”. Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience