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Psychology Gre > Terms > Flashcards

Terms Flashcards

1
Q

Authoritarian parenting style

A

A parenting style tending to use punitive control methods and lacking emotional warmth

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2
Q

Authoritative parenting style

A

A parenting style tending to have reasonably high demands for child compliance coupled with emotional warmth

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3
Q

Autism

A

A disorder whose essential features are lack of responsiveness to other people, gross impairment in communication skills, and behaviors and interests that are repetitive, inflexibly routine, and stereotyped

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4
Q

Autokinetic effect

A

An illusion that occurs when a spot of light appears to move erratically in a dark room simply because there’s no frame of reference

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5
Q

Availability heuristic

A

A decision-making shortcut that people tend to use when trying to decide how likely something is based upon how easily similar instances can be imagined

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6
Q

Aversion therapy

A

A behavioral therapy of pairing unpleasant stimuli with undesirable behavior

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7
Q

Balance theory

A

Fritz Heider’s consistency theory that is concerned with balance and imbalance in the ways in which three elements are related

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8
Q

Behavioral contracts

A

A therapeutic technique that is a negotiated agreement between two parties that explicitly stipulates the behavioral change that is desired and indicates consequences of certain acts

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9
Q

Behavioral stimulants

A

A class of drugs that increase behavioral activity by increasing motor activity or by counteracting fatigue, and which are thought to stimulate receptors for dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin

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10
Q

Békésy’s traveling wave theory

A

Proposed by Von Békésy, the theory holds that high-frequency sounds maximally vibrate the basilar membrane near the beginning of the cochlea close to the oval window and low frequencies maximally vibrate near the apex, or tip, of the cochlea

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11
Q

Between-subjects design

A

An experimental design whereby each subject is exposed only one level of each independent variable

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12
Q

Binocular disparity (stereopsis)

A

A cue for depth perception that depends on the fact that the distance between the eyes provides two slightly disparate views of the world that, when combined, give us a perception of depth

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13
Q

Bipolar disorder

A

A mood disorder characterized by both depression and mania

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14
Q

Boomerang effect

A

In theories of attitude persuasion, it is an attitude change in the opposite direction of the persuader’s message

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15
Q

Borderline personality disorder

A

A personality disorder characterized by an instability in interpersonal behavior, mood, and self-image that borders on psychosis

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16
Q

Bottom-up processing (data-driven processing)

A

Information processing that occurs when objects are recognized by the summation of the components of incoming stimulus to arrive at the whole pattern

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17
Q

Brightness

A

The subjective impression of the intensity of a light stimulus

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18
Q

Brightness contrast

A

In brightness perception, it refers to when a particular luminance appears brighter when surrounded by a darker stimulus than when surrounded by a lighter stimulus

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19
Q

Broca’s aphasia

A

Impairments in producing spoken language associated with lesions to Broca’s area

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20
Q

Bulimia nervosa

A

An eating disorder that involves binge eating and excessive attempts to compensate for it by purging, fasting, or excessive exercising.

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21
Q

Bystander effect

A

The reluctance of people to intervene to help others in emergency situations when other people also witness the situation

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22
Q

Cannon-Bard theory

A

A theory of emotions stating that awareness of emotions reflects our physiological arousal and our cognitive experience of emotion

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23
Q

Case study

A

An experimental method used in developmental psychology to take a very detailed look at development by studying a small number of individuals. This is also called the clinical method

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24
Q

Centration

A

A term from Piaget’s theory, it is the tendency for preoperational children to be able to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon

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25
Chi-squared test
A statistical method of testing for an association between two categorical variables. Specifically, it tests for the equality of two frequencies or proportions
26
Chlorpromazine
An antipsychotic drugs thought to block receptor sites for dopamine, making it effective in treating the delusional thinking, hallucinations, and agitation commonly associated with schizophrenia
27
Circadian rhythms
Internally generated rhythms that regulate our daily cycle of waking and sleeping, approximating a 24 hour cycle
28
Classical conditioning
Also known as respondent conditioning, it is a result of learning connections between different events
29
Claustrophobia
An irrational fear of closed places
30
Client-centered therapy, Person-centered therapy, nondirective therapy
Carl Rogers' therapeutic technique that is based on the idea that clients have the freedom to control their own behavior, and that the client is able to reflect upon his or her problems, make choices, and take positive action
31
Clustering
A technique to enhance memory by organizing items into conceptually related categories
32
Cognitive dissonance theory
Leon Festinger's consistency theory that people are motivated to reduce dissonant elements or add consonant elements to reduce tension
33
Cognitive map
A mental representation of a physical space
34
Collective unconscious
From Carl Jung's Personality theory, it is the idea that all humans share an unconscious, a residual of the experiences of our early ancestors
35
Color constancy
Refers to the fact that the perceived color of an object does not change when we change the wavelength of the light we see
36
Compensation
A defense mechanism whereby something is done to make up for something that is lacking
37
Conception
Takes place in the Fallopian tubes where the ovum or egg cell is fertilized by the male sperm cell
38
Conditioned response
In classical conditioning, it is the learned response to a conditioned stimulus
39
Conditioned stimulus
In classical conditioning, it is a neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response
40
Confounding variables
Unintended independent variables
41
Connectionism
Also called parallel distribution processing, it is a theory of information processing that is analogous to a complex neural network
42
Consistency theories
Theoretical perspectives from social psychology that hold that people prefer consistency between attitudes and behaviors, and that people will change or resist changing attitudes based upon this preference
43
Construct validity
A type of validity that refers to how well a test measures the intended theoretical construct
44
Content validity
A type of validity that refers to how well the content items of a test measure the particular skill or knowledge area that it is supposed to measure
45
Control group design
A technique of treating experimental and control groups equally in all respects, except that one group is exposed to the treatment in the experiment, and the other group is not exposed to the treatment
46
Conversion disorders
Disorders characterized by unexplained symptoms affecting voluntary motor or sensory functions. Conversion disorder used to be referred to as "hysteria"
47
Electroencephalograph (EEG)
It records a gross average of the electrical activity in different parts of the brain
48
Emmert's law
A lot describing the relationship between size constancy and apparent distance--The farther away the object appears to be, the more the scaling device in the brain will compensate for its retinal size by enlarging our perception of the object
49
Empathy
The ability to vicariously experience the emotions of another, and thought by some social psychologists to be a strong influence on helping behavior
50
Encoding
The process of putting new information into memory
51
Encoding specificity theory
A theory that recall is best if the context at recall approximates the content during the original encoding
52
Endorphins
Peptides that are natural painkillers produced in the brain
53
Episodic memory
A type of declarative memory, episodic memory refers to memories for particular events, Or episodes, from personal experience
54
Equity theory
A theory stating that individuals strive for fairness and feel uncomfortable when there is a perception of a lack of fairness
55
Eros
In Freud's structural dynamic model of personality, it refers to the life instincts that serve the purpose of individual survival (hunger, thirst, and sex)
56
Ethology
The study of animals in their natural environment
57
Exchange theory
The tendency to evaluate interactions and relationships in terms of relative costs and benefits
58
External validity
In research methodology, it refers to how generalizable the results of an experiment are
59
Extinction
In operant conditioning, it is when a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly not reinforced and as a result, the conditioned response is no longer produced as consistently
60
Extirpation
A process of removing various parts of the brain and then observing the behavioral consequences
61
Extrinsic motivation
Behavior that is motivated by some external reward
62
Face validity
A type of validity that refers to whether test items appear to measure what they're supposed to measure
63
Factor analysis
A statistical technique using correlation coefficients to reduce a large number of variables to a few factors
64
Fechner's law
A lot of that expresses the relationship between the intensity of the sensation and the intensity of the stimulus, and states that sensation increases more slowly as intensity increases
65
Fictional finalism
A concept in Alfred Adler's theory of personality, it is the notion that an individual is motivated more by his or her expectations of the future based on a subjective or fictional estimate of life's values, than by past experiences
66
Field independence-field dependence
A personality style characterized by ability/inability to distinguish experience from its context
67
"Fight or flight" responses
The emotional experience associated with the sympathetic nervous system and managed by the hypothalamus during high arousal
68
Figur
A concept in visual perception referring to the integrated visual experience that stands out at the center of attention
69
Fixation
From psychoanalytic theory, it is an inability to successfully proceed through a stage in development because of an overindulgence or frustration
70
Fixed action pattern
A behavior that is relatively stereotyped and appears to be species-typical
71
Fixed-interval (FI)
In operant conditioning, it is when behavior is reinforced on the first response after a fixed period of time has elapsed since the last reinforcement
72
Fixed-ratio (FR)
In operant conditioning, it is when behavior is reinforced after a fixed number of responses
73
Flooding
A behavioral modification technique used to treat anxiety disorders by exposing the client to the anxiety-producing stimulus
74
Fluid intelligence
Proposed by Raymond Cattell, it is a type of intelligence that has the ability to quickly grasp relationships in novel situations and make correct deductions from them (e.g., solving analogies)
75
Follicle-stimulating hormone
A hormone that is secreted by the pituitary gland to stimulate the growth of an ovarian follicle, which is a small protective sphere surrounding the egg or ovum
76
Free association
A psychoanalytic technique in which the client says whatever comes to his or her mind regardless of how personal, painful, or seemingly irrelevant it may appear to be so that the analyst and patient together can reconstruct the nature of the client's original conflict
77
Frequency
In sound perception, it is the number of sound wave cycles per second
78
Frequency theory
A theory suggesting that the basilar membrane of the ear vibrates as a whole, that the rate of vibration equals the frequency of the stimulus, and that the vibration rate is directly translated into the appropriate number of neural impulses per second
79
Functional autonomy
A given activity or form of behavior may become an end or a goal in itself, regardless of its original reason for existence
80
Functional fixedness
An impediment to effective problem solving because of an inability to use a familiar object in an unfamiliar way
81
Functionalism
A system of thought in psychology that was concerned with studying how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environments
82
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to attribute individual characteristics as causes of others' behaviors and situational characteristics to one's own behavior
83
g
Propose by Charles Spearman, this is an individual difference in intelligence that refers to a general, unitary factor of intelligence
84
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
A neurotransmitter that produces inhibitory postsynaptic potentials and is thought to play an important role in stabilizing neural activity in the brain

Psychology Gre (1 decks)

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