VCE Psychology flashcards

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

Central nervous system

Comprises the brain and spinal cord. It integrates incoming sensory information, coordinates responses, and issues motor commands, forming the body's main control and processing centre.

Sympathetic nervous system

Division of the autonomic nervous system that mobilises the body during threat: it raises heart rate, dilates bronchi and pupils, and suppresses digestion, supporting fight-or-flight responding.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Division of the autonomic nervous system that restores homeostasis after arousal. It slows heart rate, constricts pupils, and promotes digestion, counterbalancing sympathetic activity during calm conditions.

Synaptic transmission

Chemical communication between neurons: an action potential triggers neurotransmitter release into the synaptic gap, and molecules bind receptor sites on the postsynaptic neuron, exciting or inhibiting it.

Cerebral cortex lobes

Four lobes with distinct functions: frontal (movement, planning, speech production), parietal (somatosensory), temporal (hearing, language comprehension), and occipital (visual processing).

Neuroplasticity

The brain's capacity to reorganise its neural connections in response to experience, learning, or injury. It is greatest in childhood but persists throughout life.

Classical conditioning

Learning in which a neutral stimulus repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus acquires the capacity to elicit a conditioned response, as in Pavlov's salivating dogs.

Sensation versus perception

Sensation is the detection of stimulus energy by sensory receptors; perception is the brain's selection, organisation, and interpretation of that information into meaningful experience.

Piaget's concrete operational stage

Stage from roughly seven to eleven years. Children master conservation, classification, and reversibility, and reason logically about concrete objects, but still struggle with abstract hypothetical problems.

Object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight. It develops during Piaget's sensorimotor stage, typically emerging toward the end of the first year.

Secure attachment

Ainsworth's pattern in which an infant is distressed by separation but quickly comforted on reunion, using the caregiver as a safe base for exploration.

Erikson's identity crisis

Adolescent psychosocial stage of identity versus role confusion, resolved through exploration of values, beliefs, and roles followed by commitment to a coherent sense of self.

Positive reinforcement

Adding a desirable consequence after a behaviour, which increases the likelihood that the behaviour recurs. 'Positive' refers to adding a stimulus, not to pleasantness.

Negative reinforcement

Removing or avoiding an unpleasant stimulus after a behaviour, which increases the likelihood of that behaviour. It is not punishment, because the behaviour strengthens.

Variable-ratio schedule

Reinforcement delivered after an unpredictable number of responses. It produces high, steady response rates and strong resistance to extinction, as in gambling.

Observational learning

Bandura's account of learning by watching models. It requires attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation, and is strengthened when the model is rewarded.

In-group favouritism

The tendency to allocate more resources and positive evaluations to members of one's own group than to outsiders, arising from social categorisation even without real conflict.

Conformity

Yielding to perceived group pressure by changing behaviour or beliefs to match the majority, strongest with unanimous groups of three or more and public responding.

General adaptation syndrome

Selye's three-stage stress model: alarm (acute arousal), resistance (sustained coping while resources deplete), and exhaustion (breakdown of functioning and increased illness risk).

HPA axis

Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal pathway. It releases cortisol during stress, acting more slowly than adrenaline and affecting metabolism, immune function, and hippocampal activity.

Encoding

The first memory process, converting sensory information into a form the brain can store. Depth matters: semantic encoding yields better retention than acoustic or visual encoding.

Short-term memory

A limited-capacity store holding roughly seven plus or minus two chunks for about eighteen to thirty seconds without rehearsal, after which information decays or is displaced.

Working memory components

Baddeley's model: a phonological loop for verbal material, a visuospatial sketchpad for images, an episodic buffer integrating sources, and a central executive allocating attention.

Serial position effect

Superior recall of first and last list items. Primacy reflects long-term storage through rehearsal; recency reflects items still held in short-term memory.

Explicit memory

Conscious, declarative recollection of facts and events, divided into semantic memory for general knowledge and episodic memory for personally experienced events.

Mental wellbeing continuum

A model placing mental health on a range from flourishing to severe disorder. Wellbeing and mental illness are related but separable dimensions, so both can coexist.

Biopsychosocial model

An explanation of mental disorder as arising from interacting biological, psychological, and social factors. No single factor is sufficient, and intervention may target any level.

Specific phobia criteria

Marked, persistent, disproportionate fear of a circumscribed object or situation, cued or anticipated, lasting six months or more and causing significant distress or functional impairment.

Graded exposure

A treatment constructing a hierarchy of feared situations and progressively confronting them, often with relaxation, so the conditioned fear response extinguishes and arousal habituates.

Cognitive behaviour therapy

A structured, time-limited therapy targeting the cycle of distorted thoughts, unhelpful behaviours, and distress, using cognitive restructuring and behavioural experiments to change maintaining factors.

Benzodiazepines

Drugs enhancing GABA-A receptor activity, the brain's main inhibitory system. They reduce anxiety rapidly but risk tolerance and dependence, so are usually prescribed short-term.

SSRIs

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors block serotonin reuptake, increasing synaptic serotonin. Therapeutic effects typically take weeks, suggesting downstream neural adaptation rather than immediate correction.