Test 2 Flashcards
Harlow’s experiment
In Harlow’s experiment, the infant monkeys preferred spending their time clinging to the cloth mother. Even when only the wire mother could provide food, the monkeys visited her just to eat. Harlow concluded that there was much more to the mother/infant relationship than milk and that this “contact comfort” was crucial to the psychological development and health of infants. After monkeys were paired with a Wire Mother, they showed abnormal behavior, which could not be corrected later in life by pairing them with a Cloth Mother.
Anomie
Anomie refers to society feeling fragmented and lacking cohesiveness
Face validity
Face validity describes the extent to which a study appears to assess what it is intended to assess—that is, more or less, the degree to which it “seems right” to participants and researchers.
Content validity
Content validity refers to whether a study comprehensively accounts for all the relevant facets of the phenomenon it is intended to investigate.
Internal validity
Internal validity refers to the degree to which causal conclusions can be drawn from a study, which can include accounting for potential confounding variables.
General adaptation syndrome
General adaptation syndrome is a term created by Hans Selye to describe the body’s short-term and long-term reactions to stress. Selye thought that the general adaptation syndrome involved two major systems of the body, the nervous system and the endocrine system. He then went on to outline what he considered as three distinctive stages in the syndrome’s evolution.
Activation-synthesis theory
Activation-synthesis theory deals with the differences in neuronal activity of the brainstem during waking and REM sleep, and the hypothesis proposes that dreams result from brain activation during REM sleep.
The “theory of cognitive appraisal”
The “theory of cognitive appraisal” explains the mental processes which influence the stressors. According to the theory, stress is a two-way process; it involves the production of stressors by the environment as well as the response of an individual subjected to these stressors. Cognitive appraisal occurs when a person considers the threat posed by and the resources needed to minimize the stressors affecting them. In this study, the subjects were simply asked to make a decision, not to address their anxiety or the stressors causing it.
the house money effect
Thaler and Johnson have found that individual risk-taking behavior is affected by prior gains and losses. They found that after a prior gain, people become more open to assuming risk since the new money is not treated as one’s own. This is known as the house money effect.
The gambler’s fallacy
The gambler’s fallacy is the mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during some period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or vice versa. For example, someone who bets on red on a roulette wheel because the last 5 spins have all landed on black. This does not match with the reasoning discussed in paragraph 3.
The prisoner’s dilemma
The prisoner’s dilemma is a standard example from psychological game theory that shows why two completely “rational” individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so.
A ratio level of measurement
A ratio level of measurement is one in which there are a range of quantitative responses, ordered at equally-spaced intervals, and with it being possible to score 0 (complete absence of the quantity).
Anomie theory
Anomie theory states that individuals who experience weakened social values are less likely to behave in ways that are helpful to that society
Reciprocal determinism
Reciprocal determinism is the theory set forth by Albert Bandura that a person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the environment.
Subjective norms
Subjective norms refer to the perceived social pressure to engage or to not engage in a behavior.
