NCEA L3 Psychology cheat sheet

Operationalisation = defining a variable so it can be measured (e.g. 'aggression' as number of hits in 10 min); without it, replication is impossible.

Independent variable is manipulated by the researcher; dependent variable is measured. Confusing them is the most common NCEA error.

Internal validity = extent to which changes in the DV are caused by the IV; threatened by confounding variables and demand characteristics.

External validity = generalisability to other settings/people/times; ecological validity is a subset about real-world settings.

Reliability = consistency of a measure (repeatable); validity = accuracy (measures what it claims). A scale can be reliable but invalid.

Ethics in NZ: informed consent, avoidance of deception (or debrief if used), confidentiality, right to withdraw, minimisation of harm - assessed by an ethics committee.

Correlation coefficient r ranges −1 to +1; r near 0 = no linear relationship. Correlation does not establish causation.

Descriptive statistics summarise (mean, median, mode, SD); inferential statistics (t-test, chi-square) test whether differences are likely due to chance, usually p < .05.

Sampling: random, opportunity, volunteer, stratified. Opportunity samples are common in NZ school studies but limit generalisability.

Neuron structure: dendrites receive, soma integrates, axon transmits, myelin sheath speeds conduction, terminal buttons release neurotransmitter into the synapse.

Action potential = electrical impulse (depolarisation then repolarisation); neurotransmitter = chemical signal across the synaptic gap.

Key neurotransmitters: dopamine (reward/motivation, movement), serotonin (mood, sleep), acetylcholine (muscle and memory), GABA (main inhibitory), noradrenaline (arousal).

Lobes: frontal (planning, motor, personality), parietal (somatosensory), temporal (hearing, language comprehension), occipital (vision).

Left hemisphere typically language-dominant (Broca's and Wernicke's areas); right hemisphere contributes to spatial and emotional processing.

Limbic system: amygdala (fear/emotion), hippocampus (memory formation), hypothalamus (homeostasis, hormones).

Split-brain research (Sperry) shows information in the left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere and cannot be verbally reported.

Neuroplasticity = the brain reorganises synaptic connections with experience; greatest in childhood but persists in adulthood.

Methods: EEG (timing, poor spatial resolution), fMRI (good spatial resolution, correlational), lesion studies and case studies (rare but not generalisable).

Multi-store model: sensory memory (brief, large capacity) → short-term memory (about 7±2 items, ~18–30 s) → long-term memory (unlimited, durable).

Working memory (Baddeley & Hitch) has a central executive plus phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad; it explains dual-task interference.

Encoding specificity: recall is best when retrieval context matches encoding context (context-dependent memory).

Levels of processing: semantic (meaning-based) encoding produces better retention than acoustic or visual encoding.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (0–2, object permanence), preoperational (2–7, egocentrism, no conservation), concrete operational (7–11, conservation), formal operational (11+, abstract reasoning).

Vygotsky: learning is social; Zone of Proximal Development = gap between what a learner can do alone and with guidance; scaffolding supports crossing it.

Attachment (Bowlby, Ainsworth): secure, insecure-avoidant, insecure-resistant; Strange Situation measures reactions to separation and reunion.

Classical conditioning (Pavlov): neutral stimulus paired with unconditioned stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus eliciting conditioned response.

Operant conditioning (Skinner): reinforcement increases behaviour, punishment decreases it; positive = adding a stimulus, negative = removing one.

Conformity (Asch): participants gave wrong answers on line-judging tasks in about one-third of critical trials; group size and unanimity affect conformity.

Obedience (Milgram): about 65% of participants continued to the maximum 450 V; proximity, authority legitimacy and peer defiance change obedience rates.

Bystander effect (Darley & Latané): the more witnesses present, the less likely any one person helps; diffusion of responsibility explains it.

Attribution: dispositional (personality) vs situational (context) causes; fundamental attribution error = over-weighting disposition for others' behaviour.

Cognitive dissonance (Festinger): holding conflicting cognitions creates discomfort, motivating attitude change to restore consistency.

Social identity theory (Tajfel): self-concept derives from group membership; in-group favouritism and out-group derogation follow from categorisation.

Stereotypes are cognitive generalisations, prejudice is an attitude, discrimination is behaviour - distinguish these in exam answers.

Personality: trait theory (Big Five - openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) describes rather than explains behaviour.

Abnormal behaviour is judged against statistical infrequency, violation of social norms, maladaptive functioning and subjective distress - no single criterion is sufficient.

Experimental designs: independent measures (different participants), repeated measures (same participants, order effects possible), matched pairs (reduces participant variables).

Counterbalancing reduces order effects in repeated-measures designs; random allocation reduces bias in independent-measures designs.

A case study gives rich qualitative depth but cannot establish causation or generalise; useful for rare phenomena.

Naturalistic observation has high ecological validity but low control; the observer must guard against observer bias.

Self-report (questionnaires, interviews) risks social desirability bias; Likert scales convert attitudes to ordinal data.

Measures of spread: range (simple, sensitive to outliers), standard deviation (uses all scores, in original units).

A hypothesis must be testable and directional (one-tailed) or non-directional (two-tailed); a null hypothesis predicts no difference.

Synaptic transmission: impulse reaches terminal button → vesicles release neurotransmitter → binds receptors on next neuron → reuptake or enzyme breakdown ends the signal.

Agonists mimic or enhance a neurotransmitter; antagonists block receptor sites.

Broca's area (frontal, left) = speech production; damage causes non-fluent speech with intact comprehension.

Wernicke's area (temporal, left) = language comprehension; damage causes fluent but meaningless speech.

The corpus callosum connects the hemispheres; severing it (split-brain surgery) reduces seizure spread but isolates the hemispheres.

Fight-or-flight response: hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal glands (adrenaline, cortisol).

Hormones act more slowly than neurotransmitters but have longer-lasting effects (e.g. testosterone, cortisol, oxytocin).

Neuroimaging ethics: fMRI and EEG require informed consent, and incidental findings may need disclosure.

Memory stores differ in duration, capacity and encoding: sensory (iconic ~0.5 s), STM (~18–30 s, acoustic), LTM (semantic, unlimited).

Chunking increases STM capacity by grouping items into meaningful units.

Proactive interference = old learning disrupts new; retroactive interference = new learning disrupts old.

Flashbulb memories feel vivid but are not necessarily more accurate than ordinary memories.

Schemas are mental frameworks that guide encoding and can cause distortion (Bartlett's reconstructive memory).

Conservation (volume, number, mass) typically develops in the concrete operational stage, around age 7.

Egocentrism in the preoperational stage: the child struggles to take another's viewpoint (Piaget's three-mountains task).

Reinforcement schedules: continuous gives fastest learning; variable ratio gives greatest resistance to extinction.

Longitudinal studies track the same participants over time (control for individual differences) but risk attrition and practice effects.

Group polarisation = discussion shifts group decisions toward a more extreme version of the initial view.

Groupthink (Janis) = desire for harmony suppresses dissent; symptoms include illusion of unanimity and self-censorship.

Social loafing = individuals exert less effort in a group than alone; reduced by making individual contributions identifiable.

Obedience is higher when the authority figure is physically present and perceived as legitimate; lower when a peer rebels.

Stereotype threat = anxiety about confirming a negative group stereotype can impair performance.

Prejudice can be reduced by the contact hypothesis: equal status, common goals, cooperation and institutional support.

Reciprocal determinism (Bandura): behaviour, personal factors and environment influence each other; aggression can be learned through observation.

Stress and coping: Lazarus's appraisal model distinguishes primary appraisal (is this a threat?) from secondary appraisal (can I cope?).