UPMSP Intermediate Psychology - Code 133 flashcards

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

Psychology

The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes, covering both observable actions and internal states such as thought, emotion and memory.

Introspection

A method in which trained observers report their own conscious experiences in detail; central to structuralism but criticised for subjectivity and poor reliability.

Behaviourism

A school of psychology, associated with Watson and Skinner, that restricts psychology to the study of observable behaviour and rejects the study of consciousness.

Naturalistic observation

Systematic recording of behaviour as it occurs in its natural setting without manipulation; high ecological validity but vulnerable to observer bias and reactivity.

Correlation coefficient

A statistic ranging from -1 to +1 that expresses the direction and strength of a linear relationship between two variables; it does not establish causation.

Informed consent

The ethical requirement that participants be told the purpose, procedures, risks and right to withdraw before agreeing to take part in a study.

Object permanence

The understanding, developing in Piaget's sensorimotor stage, that objects continue to exist when they are out of sight.

Conservation

The understanding that quantity, mass or volume stays the same despite changes in appearance; achieved in Piaget's concrete operational stage around age seven.

Erikson's identity stage

The psychosocial crisis of identity versus role confusion in adolescence, in which the person forms a coherent sense of self and future direction.

Absolute threshold

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

Weber's law

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

Gestalt closure

The perceptual tendency to fill in missing parts and perceive an incomplete figure as a complete, whole shape.

Classical conditioning

Learning in which a neutral conditioned stimulus comes to elicit a response after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally produces it.

Negative reinforcement

Strengthening of a behaviour by removing or avoiding an unpleasant stimulus; it increases behaviour and is not the same as punishment.

Observational learning

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

Short-term memory

A limited-capacity store holding about seven plus or minus two items for roughly twenty to thirty seconds without rehearsal.

Proactive interference

Forgetting caused by previously learned material interfering with the recall of newly learned material.

Serial position effect

The tendency to recall the first items (primacy) and last items (recency) of a list better than those in the middle.

Functional fixedness

A mental set that prevents people from seeing new or unusual uses for familiar objects, hindering creative problem solving.

Availability heuristic

Judging the frequency or probability of an event by how easily examples come to mind, which can distort estimates.

Divergent thinking

Generating many varied and original responses to an open-ended problem; a core component of creative thinking.

Maslow's hierarchy

A model ordering needs from physiological and safety through belonging and esteem to self-actualisation, with lower needs generally satisfied first.

Two-factor theory of emotion

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

Intrinsic motivation

The drive to engage in an activity for its own inherent interest and satisfaction, rather than for external reward or pressure.

Deviation IQ

An intelligence score based on comparison with age-group norms, set with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15.

Big Five traits

The five-factor model of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism, often remembered by the acronym OCEAN.

Projective tests

Personality assessments such as the Rorschach and TAT that present ambiguous stimuli, assuming respondents project inner needs onto them.

Cognitive dissonance

Festinger's state of discomfort arising when beliefs and behaviour conflict, which motivates the person to change one of them.

Fundamental attribution error

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

Groupthink

Janis's term for flawed group decisions resulting from strong conformity pressure that suppresses dissent and alternative viewpoints.

Systematic desensitisation

A behaviour therapy pairing relaxation with a graded hierarchy of feared stimuli to reduce anxiety and phobic responses.

Schizophrenia symptoms

A severe disorder marked by positive symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations and negative symptoms such as flat affect and withdrawal.