Maharashtra HSC Psychology flashcards

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

Introspection

The systematic self-observation and reporting of one's own conscious experiences, used by Wundt and Titchener; it was criticised for lacking objectivity and verifiability.

Independent variable

The variable the experimenter deliberately manipulates to observe its effect on behaviour. Its levels define the experimental conditions being compared.

Action potential

A brief electrical impulse that travels along the axon when depolarisation reaches threshold. It follows the all-or-none law and does not vary in size.

Sympathetic nervous system

The division of the autonomic nervous system that mobilises the body for fight-or-flight, raising heart rate, dilating pupils, and releasing glucose for energy.

Genotype

The complete set of genes an organism inherits, which interacts with environmental influences to produce the observable phenotype, such as eye colour or height.

Absolute threshold

The minimum intensity of a stimulus that can be detected about fifty percent of the time under ideal conditions, such as the faintest sound or light.

Size constancy

The tendency to perceive an object as the same size despite changes in the size of its retinal image caused by distance, underlying several visual illusions.

Perceptual set

A readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way, shaped by expectation, context, motivation, and prior experience, which biases interpretation of ambiguous input.

Classical conditioning

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

Negative reinforcement

The removal or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus after a behaviour, which increases the likelihood that the behaviour will be repeated in similar situations.

Spontaneous recovery

The reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a rest period without further conditioning, showing that extinction suppresses rather than erases learning.

Shaping

A procedure in operant conditioning in which successive approximations to a desired behaviour are reinforced, allowing complex responses to be built gradually.

Working memory

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

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall the first and last items of a list better than middle items, reflecting primacy in long-term memory and recency in short-term memory.

Proactive interference

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

Homeostasis

The body's tendency to maintain a stable internal state. Drive-reduction theory holds that needs create drives, and behaviour restores equilibrium.

Yerkes-Dodson law

The principle that performance is best at moderate arousal; simple tasks tolerate higher arousal, while complex tasks are performed best at lower arousal.

Two-factor theory of emotion

Schachter and Singer's view that emotion results from physiological arousal plus a cognitive label; the same arousal can become different emotions depending on interpretation.

Deviation IQ

A standard score comparing a person's test performance with the age-group average; the mean is set at 100 and the standard deviation at 15.

Test validity

The extent to which a test measures what it claims to measure, established through content, criterion, and construct evidence; it requires reliability but is not guaranteed by it.

Multiple intelligences

Gardner's proposal that intelligence comprises relatively independent abilities such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

Defence mechanisms

Unconscious strategies the ego uses to reduce anxiety from conflict, including repression, projection, displacement, rationalisation, reaction formation, denial, and sublimation.

Big Five model

A trait theory describing personality through five dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, often remembered as OCEAN.

Projective test

A personality assessment using ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots or pictures, so responses reveal inner motives; scoring is subjective and validity is weak.

Cognitive dissonance

Festinger's state of discomfort when attitudes and behaviour conflict; people reduce it by changing the attitude, the behaviour, or the perception of the conflict.

Social loafing

The tendency for individuals to expend less effort on a task when working in a group than when working alone, especially when individual contributions cannot be identified.

Groupthink

A flawed group decision process in which pressure for unanimity suppresses dissent, leading to poor choices; it is reduced by encouraging criticism and outside opinions.

Bystander effect

The finding that people are less likely to help in an emergency when others are present, partly because responsibility is diffused among the onlookers.

General adaptation syndrome

Selye's three-stage model of the stress response: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Prolonged stress in the exhaustion stage depletes resources and harms health.

Approach-avoidance conflict

A conflict in which a single goal has both desirable and undesirable aspects, producing vacillation and indecision as the person moves toward and away from it.

Hallucination

A sensory experience without an external stimulus, such as hearing voices. It is a positive symptom of schizophrenia and differs from an illusion.

DSM classification

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders provides standardised criteria for diagnosis. A disorder requires clinically significant distress or impaired functioning.