QCAA Psychology EA flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight. It develops during Piaget's sensorimotor stage and is typically established by around 18 to 24 months.

Conservation

The recognition that quantity stays the same despite changes in appearance or arrangement. Piaget placed its achievement in the concrete operational stage, roughly ages seven to eleven.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do unaided and what they can achieve with skilled guidance, where instruction is most effective.

Scaffolding

Temporary support provided by a more capable person that is gradually withdrawn as the learner gains competence, allowing independent performance on a task initially beyond reach.

Secure attachment

An attachment pattern in which an infant uses the caregiver as a safe base, shows distress at separation and is readily comforted on reunion, linked to sensitive caregiving.

Erikson's identity crisis

The psychosocial task of adolescence, resolving identity against role confusion by integrating values, beliefs and social roles into a coherent sense of self.

Cross-sectional design

A research design comparing different age groups at a single point in time. It is quick but confounded by cohort effects, since groups differ in generation, not only age.

Classical conditioning

Learning in which a neutral stimulus paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response, as in Pavlov's salivation experiments with dogs.

Negative reinforcement

An increase in the frequency of a behaviour because it removes or prevents an aversive stimulus. The term refers to stimulus removal, not to punishment or unpleasantness.

Variable ratio schedule

A reinforcement schedule delivering reward after an unpredictable number of responses. It produces high, steady response rates and strong resistance to extinction.

Observational learning

Bandura's account of learning by watching models, requiring attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. Consequences observed for the model influence whether behaviour is imitated.

Working memory capacity

The limited amount of information held and manipulated in short-term processing, classically about seven plus or minus two chunks, lasting only seconds without rehearsal.

Chunking

Grouping separate items into larger meaningful units so that more information fits within limited short-term memory capacity, such as remembering digits as dates.

HPA axis

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway that releases cortisol during stress, producing slower but longer-lasting effects than the fast sympathomedullary adrenaline response.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The principle that performance is best at moderate arousal. The optimal level is lower for complex or unfamiliar tasks and higher for simple, well-practised ones.

System 1 thinking

Fast, automatic, intuitive processing that requires little effort and operates outside deliberate control, generating impressions that System 2 may then endorse or correct.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret and remember information in ways that support existing beliefs, while discounting or ignoring evidence that contradicts them.

Availability heuristic

Judging the frequency or probability of an event by how easily examples come to mind, so vivid or recent events are overestimated relative to common but unremarkable ones.

Functional fixedness

A cognitive obstacle in which an object is seen only in its conventional role, blocking novel uses needed to solve a problem, as in the candle-and-box task.

Loss aversion

The tendency for losses to feel more psychologically significant than equivalent gains, so people take risks to avoid losses and prefer sure gains when framed positively.

Reliability versus validity

Reliability is consistency of a measure across occasions or items; validity is whether it measures the intended construct. Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity.

Sternberg's triarchic theory

A model proposing three aspects of intelligence: analytical problem-solving, creative novelty generation and practical adaptation to everyday environmental demands.

Metacognition

Knowledge and regulation of one's own thinking, including monitoring comprehension and adjusting strategies, which improves accuracy of judgements about what one knows.

Conformity

Changing behaviour or beliefs to match a group, driven by normative influence (wanting acceptance) or informational influence (believing others are more accurate).

Obedience

Compliance with a direct order from an authority figure. Milgram found obedience declined when authority was distant, the victim was close, or peers disobeyed.

Bystander effect

The finding that individuals are less likely to help when others are present, explained by diffusion of responsibility, pluralistic ignorance and fear of embarrassment.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when explaining other people's behaviour, especially for negative outcomes.

Self-serving bias

The tendency to attribute one's own successes to internal qualities such as ability and effort, while attributing failures to external factors such as task difficulty or bad luck.

Cognitive dissonance

The discomfort felt when holding inconsistent cognitions, reduced by changing a belief, adding supporting beliefs, or trivialising the inconsistency, as in effort justification.

Groupthink

A flawed group decision process arising from high cohesion, directive leadership and insulation, producing premature consensus and failure to consider alternatives or risks.

Social loafing

The reduction in individual effort when working in a group, strongest when personal contributions cannot be identified or evaluated individually.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

A persuasion model distinguishing a central route based on argument quality from a peripheral route based on cues such as source attractiveness or credibility.