IB Psychology HL flashcards

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

Neurotransmitter

A chemical messenger released from a presynaptic neuron into the synapse that binds to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, exciting or inhibiting it. Acetylcholine, serotonin and dopamine are examples.

Localisation of function

The principle that specific brain structures support specific behaviours or cognitive processes, for example the hippocampus in declarative memory and the amygdala in fear processing.

Neuroplasticity

The brain's capacity to reorganise its structure and connections in response to experience, learning or injury, as when London taxi drivers show enlarged posterior hippocampi.

fMRI

A brain-imaging technique that measures changes in blood oxygenation, the BOLD signal, to infer neural activity. It offers good spatial but poor temporal resolution and is correlational.

Concordance rate

The probability that one twin has a trait given that the other has it. Higher concordance in monozygotic than dizygotic twins suggests a genetic influence.

Heritability

The proportion of variance in a trait within a population attributable to genetic differences, estimated as roughly twice the difference between monozygotic and dizygotic correlations.

Multi-store model

Atkinson and Shiffrin's model proposing three memory stores, sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory, linked by the processes of attention, rehearsal and retrieval.

Working memory model

Baddeley and Hitch's model of short-term memory as an active system in which a central executive controls the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and episodic buffer.

Schema

A mental framework of knowledge built from experience that guides encoding, interpretation and retrieval; it aids memory but can distort recall of unfamiliar material.

Reconstructive memory

The view that remembering involves rebuilding an event from fragments plus schemas and expectations, so errors and confabulations are normal rather than exceptional.

Flashbulb memory

A vivid, detailed memory of learning about a shocking public event, thought to arise from emotional arousal; longitudinal studies show that detail fades over time.

Dual-process model

Kahneman's distinction between System 1, fast automatic intuitive thinking, and System 2, slow effortful analytical thinking that monitors and sometimes corrects System 1.

Social identity theory

Tajfel and Turner's theory that people derive self-esteem from group membership, categorising others into in-groups and out-groups and favouring their own group.

Social cognitive theory

Bandura's theory that behaviour is learned by observing models and is regulated by attention, retention, reproduction and motivation, including vicarious reinforcement.

Stereotype threat

The risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one's own group, which can raise anxiety and impair performance on tasks relevant to that stereotype.

Enculturation

The process by which individuals acquire the values, norms and behaviours of their culture through agents such as parents, peers, school and the media.

Acculturation

Berry's model of change following contact between cultures, defined by whether people maintain their heritage culture and adopt the host culture: integration, assimilation, separation or marginalisation.

Statistical infrequency

Defining abnormality as deviation from the statistical average, typically more than two standard deviations from the mean; it is objective but ignores cultural desirability.

Deviation from ideal mental health

Jahoda's criteria for psychological health, including self-actualisation, autonomy, accurate reality perception and resistance to stress; failing to meet them defines abnormality.

Labelling in diagnosis

The view, supported by Rosenhan's 1973 pseudo-patient study, that diagnostic labels can create self-fulfilling expectations and persist even when behaviour appears normal.

Negative triad

Beck's cognitive explanation of depression: negative views of the self, the world and the future, arising from dysfunctional schemas and distorted information processing.

SSRIs

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors block presynaptic reuptake of serotonin, increasing synaptic availability; they are first-line antidepressants but show modest advantage over placebo in mild cases.

Triangulation

Using multiple data sources, methods, researchers or theories to examine one phenomenon, thereby strengthening the credibility of qualitative findings.

Reflexivity

The researcher's critical examination of how their own position, assumptions and reactions shape the research process and the interpretation of the data.

Purposive sampling

Selecting participants deliberately because they meet criteria relevant to the research question, prioritising rich information over statistical representativeness.

Thematic analysis

A qualitative method that identifies, develops and reports patterns of meaning across a data set, typically through six phases from familiarisation to writing up.

Credibility

The extent to which qualitative findings are a believable account of participants' experiences, supported by member checking, triangulation, prolonged engagement and peer debriefing.

Null hypothesis

A statement that there is no difference or relationship between the variables in the population; inferential tests estimate the probability of the observed data if it is true.

Operational definition

Specifying a variable in measurable terms, for example defining helping behaviour as the number of seconds before a participant offers to pick up dropped papers.

Counterbalancing

Presenting conditions in different orders across participants, for example ABBA, to cancel out order effects such as practice and fatigue in repeated measures designs.

Mann-Whitney U test

A non-parametric test comparing two independent groups on at least ordinal data; the obtained U value is compared with a critical value at the chosen significance level.

Standard deviation

A measure of the average spread of scores around the mean; a large value indicates that participants' scores were widely dispersed.