BSEH SS Psychology flashcards

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

Definition of psychology

The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes, using systematic observation and testable hypotheses rather than intuition or common sense.

Wundt's 1879 laboratory

Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory at Leipzig in 1879, an event conventionally treated as the birth of psychology as an independent science.

Structuralism vs functionalism

Structuralism, associated with Wundt and Titchener, analysed consciousness into basic elements by introspection; functionalism, associated with William James, studied the adaptive purpose of mental processes.

Behaviourism

The school led by Watson and Skinner that restricts psychology to observable, measurable behaviour and rejects unobservable mental states as proper subject matter.

Biopsychosocial approach

An explanatory framework holding that behaviour and mental processes result from interacting biological, psychological and social factors rather than any single cause.

Independent and dependent variables

In an experiment the independent variable is manipulated by the researcher; the dependent variable is measured to assess the effect of that manipulation.

Correlational research

A non-experimental method measuring the strength and direction of association between two variables, ranging from -1.00 to +1.00; it cannot establish causation.

Reliability and validity

Reliability is the consistency and reproducibility of a measure; validity is the extent to which the measure assesses the construct it is intended to assess.

Informed consent

An ethical requirement that participants receive adequate information about the study, understand it, and voluntarily agree to take part before data collection begins.

Piaget's preoperational stage

Ages roughly two to seven, marked by symbolic play and language growth but by egocentrism and failure to conserve quantity, number or volume.

Object permanence

The understanding that objects continue to exist when out of sight, developing in Piaget's sensorimotor stage, typically near the end of the first year.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do alone and what can be achieved with guidance from a more capable person.

Erikson's identity crisis

The psychosocial task of adolescence, identity versus role confusion, in which a coherent sense of self is formed or the person remains uncertain about who they are.

Secure attachment

An attachment pattern in which an infant uses the caregiver as a safe base, is distressed by separation and is readily comforted on reunion.

Absolute threshold

The minimum intensity of a stimulus that can be detected about fifty percent of the time under specified conditions.

Weber's law

The just noticeable difference between two stimuli is a constant proportion of the original stimulus intensity, not a fixed absolute amount.

Gestalt closure principle

The tendency to perceive an incomplete or fragmented figure as a complete whole by filling in missing parts of the pattern.

Perceptual constancy

The tendency to perceive an object as having stable size, shape or brightness despite large changes in the retinal image it produces.

Classical conditioning

A learning process in which a neutral stimulus repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response on its own.

Operant reinforcement

A consequence that increases the probability of the behaviour it follows; positive reinforcement adds a stimulus, negative reinforcement removes an aversive one.

Variable ratio schedule

A reinforcement schedule in which a response is rewarded after an unpredictable number of responses, producing high and extinction-resistant rates of responding.

Observational learning

Bandura's account of learning by watching models, requiring attention, retention, reproduction and motivation rather than direct reinforcement.

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response after a rest period without further conditioning trials.

Working memory

Baddeley's limited-capacity system for holding and manipulating information, comprising a central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad and episodic buffer.

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall the first items of a list best, reflecting long-term transfer, and the last items best, reflecting short-term storage.

Proactive interference

Forgetting caused by previously learned material interfering with the recall of newly learned material, as when an old phone number blocks a new one.

Levels of processing

The finding that meaning-based semantic encoding produces better long-term retention than shallow structural or phonemic processing of the same material.

Availability heuristic

A judgement rule in which the probability or frequency of an event is estimated from how easily relevant instances come to mind.

Functional fixedness

A problem-solving obstacle in which an object is seen only in its conventional use, blocking novel solutions that require reinterpreting its function.

Divergent thinking

Thinking that generates many varied and original solutions to an open-ended problem, as contrasted with convergent thinking, which seeks a single correct answer.

Yerkes-Dodson law

Performance is best at moderate arousal; the optimal level is higher for simple tasks and lower for complex or difficult tasks.

Two-factor theory of emotion

Schachter and Singer's view that emotion results from physiological arousal plus a cognitive label attached to that arousal in context.

Intrinsic motivation

Motivation arising from internal satisfaction, interest or enjoyment in the activity itself rather than from external rewards or pressures.

Maslow's hierarchy

An ordering of needs from physiological and safety through belonging and esteem to self-actualisation, with lower needs generally satisfied before higher ones.

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia

Symptoms that add to normal experience, such as delusions, hallucinations and disorganised speech, as contrasted with negative symptoms such as flat affect and avolition.

Major depressive disorder

A mood disorder involving persistent low mood or loss of interest for at least two weeks, with cognitive and somatic symptoms such as fatigue and worthlessness.

Obsessions and compulsions

Obsessions are intrusive, unwanted thoughts that cause anxiety; compulsions are repetitive behaviours performed to reduce that anxiety, as in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Systematic desensitisation

A behaviour therapy for phobias in which the client learns relaxation and is gradually exposed to a graded hierarchy of feared stimuli.

Cognitive restructuring

A cognitive therapy technique that identifies distorted automatic thoughts and replaces them with more accurate, evidence-based interpretations of events.

Unconditional positive regard

Rogers's client-centred condition in which the therapist accepts the client completely without judgement, fostering self-worth and personal growth.

Cognitive dissonance

Festinger's state of discomfort produced by holding inconsistent cognitions, reduced by changing an attitude, changing behaviour or adding consonant beliefs.

Fundamental attribution error

The tendency to overestimate dispositional causes and underestimate situational causes when explaining other people's behaviour.

Elaboration likelihood model

A persuasion model distinguishing the central route, based on careful evaluation of arguments, from the peripheral route, based on superficial cues.

Stereotype and prejudice

A stereotype is a generalised belief about a group's characteristics; prejudice is the negative attitude toward that group, often based on the stereotype.