Social/Psych Flashcards
(105 cards)
1
Q
What is the function of the amygdala in the brain?
A
It is linked to fear and aggression when stimulated.
2
Q
Schachter-Singer theory of emotion
A
- Event triggers nervous system arrousal
- Arousal leads to cognitive appraisal/reasoning as to why one has this arousal
- This then leads to the emotion experienced
3
Q
What’s the Lazarus Theory of emotion?
A
- An event triggers thought.
- The thought triggers both emotion and physiological arrousal.
4
Q
What is the Cannon Bard theory?
A
- Some sort of event triggers the simultaneous experience of emotion and physiological arousal.
5
Q
What’s the James Lange theory of emotion?
A
- There is first some event.
- This event triggers physiological arousal.
- This arousal then triggers us to interpret this arousal.
- We experience emotion after interpreting this arousal.
6
Q
Type I Error
A
- Known as a false positive
- In this scenario, the null hypothesis is correct - that there is no relationship between two variables
- Incorrect rejection of a null hypothesis
7
Q
Type II Error
A
- This is “false negative”
- The null hypothesis is false, but it fails to be rejected
8
Q
Culture
A
This is defined as the beliefs, behaviors, and traditions of a group of people.
Culture can be based around shared gender or ethnicity.
9
Q
Ethnocentrism
A
Judging another culture based on the customs and norms of one’s own culture.
10
Q
Cultural relativism
A
The idea that a person’s beliefs or activities should be based on that person’s culture, rather than being judged against the criteria of another culture.
11
Q
What is linguistic relativism/the Sapir Whorf hypothesis?
A
The idea that one’s native language affects how one thinks/perceives the world.
Human cognition is affected by our native language.
Example: Inuit have several ways to say “snow,” and this affects how they view snow/the world.
12
Q
Fovea
A
A small indentation in the retina, in the back of the eye with a high concentration of cones (the cells in the eye that perceive color and work best in high light).
13
Q
Society
A
Large group of people who engage in persistent social interaction, and have shared political authority/cultural expectations.
This refers to the structural/organizational aspect of the social group.
14
Q
Social capital
A
Economic resources that one gains by being part of a network of relationships or groups.
15
Q
Cultural capital
A
The social assets a person has that promote social mobility within their society. These include: intellect, dress, speech.
For example, this could be someone dressing nicely, or speaking English well.
16
Q
Material culture
A
Physical objects that people use to define their culture. These include: universities, schools, cities, neighborhoods, churches, mosques, offices, factories, utensils, implements.
This can be thought of as culture’s “physical aspect.”
Ex: Fork versus chopsticks
17
Q
Symbolic culture
A
This refers to nonmaterial culture, or the symbols that people within a culture use. This can be gestures, languages, sanctions, norms, values.
18
Q
More
A
Cultural norms that are considered essential to a particular society, Violating them entails serious consequences.
19
Q
Folkway
A
Cultural norms that aren’t strictly enforced.
Example: someone walking down the street barefoot
-Jessica using a paper to blow her nose
20
Q
Conflict theory
A
- Theory based on Karl Marx’s ideas
- Focuses on inequalities of different groups within society, and focuses on power differentials
- Conflict is seen as an engine of change in society - the theory focuses mainly on change within a society and tension, not stability or consensus
21
Q
Social constructionism
A
How society constructs abstract concepts and principles - specifically beliefs and values.
Things won’t have a value until we assign it a value - for example: money (pieces of paper), nations (lines on a map), books (scribbles on pages).
22
Q
Symbolic interactionism
A
Similar to social constructionism, but applied on a small scale level. This examines how we use symbols to interact/communicate with each other. Specifically, it focuses on the communication aspect - how individuals and groups make meaning through communication/interactions.
23
Q
Functionalism
A
Examines society from a broad scale perspective - looks at a society as a whole. It focuses on how society is made of interconnected parts work together to strike a balance. The focus is on equilibrium/balance, and the society’s harmony and stability.
24
Q
Manifest function
A
From functionalism, these are the intended consequences for specific parts of society. An example is that education is meant to impart skills and knowledge to train people to work.
25
Latent function
From functionalism, these are unintended, hidden consequences of different parts of society. Colleges have a manifest function of preparing people for the workplace, but people can also find their partners in the environment.
26
Dependency ratio
This is a measure of the ratio of "dependents" (people who are unable to work, such as those under 14 or over 65) and the amount of people able to work (people between 15-64)
It is based on age
27
Life course approach
It examines individuals' lives, and how that interacts with the social, historical, and economic contexts they are in throughout their lives. This looks at how earlier events may affect their development and precipitate later events in life, such as health outcomes.
28
Age stratification
Refers to the hierarchical ranking of age groups within a society.
29
Source monitoring error
When someone forgets where they learned something from, and misattribute it to a different source of info.
30
What does interference refer to in relation to memory?
This means that learning new information can hinder one from recalling long-term memories. The long-term memories are still intact, but they are just more difficult to retrieve because of the new info.
31
Horizontal mobility
A person moving between positions at the same social level; that is, there is no change in social/economic status or occupational status.
32
Meritocracy
A system with extreme social mobility; idea that people attain their position through their ability/achievements.
33
Absolute poverty
Condition of acute deprivate of basic needs, such as food, water, or shelter. This is a set standard - such as when people quote the figure of making less than $1.25 per day - this is defined as absolute poverty.
It applies **across countries - absolute poverty would be the same in the US, Liberia, Lithuania.**
34
Relative poverty
People whose incomes are low within their particular society. For instance, in the US, they might make $60 a day, which is significantly higher than other countries, but for this particular society, it is significantly lower than the median income.
35
Social disorganization theory
The theory that the conditions of a neighborhood affect the likelihood that a person who lives there will be involved in crime.
36
Exchange mobility
Within the US, the idea that each social class contains a certain/static number of people.
37
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Anxiety disorder characterized by the following:
* **Obsessions like** uncontrollable, intrusive beliefs, thoughts, ideas
* negative emotions like anxiety and guilt
* **Compulsions like** repetitive and ritualistic behaviors or actions (repetitive hand-washing)
38
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Anxiety that develops after traumatic experiences, with symptoms like:
* Reliving the event
* Avoidance of situations/things related to trauma
* Hyperarousal - heightened physical arousal/increased stress
* Changes in thoughts/feelings - feeling sad, numb
39
Schizophrenia
Psychological disorder with symptoms like:
* Hallucinations - see/hear things that aren't there
* Delusions - have false beliefs
* Disorganized/confused
* Flat affect
* Isolate themselves
40
Dissociative Disorder
Psychiatric disorder with the following traits:
* Experience of detachment or feeling outside of one's own body
* Breakdown in sense of self, memory
41
Anxiety disorder
Psychological disorders that are the following:
* Generalized anxiety disorder
* Panic disorders
* Phobia
* Obsessive compulsive disorder
* Post traumatic stress disorder
42
Generalized anxiety disorder
Type of anxiety disorder
* Excessive, uncontrollable worry that interferes with daily life
* Can include physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, nausea
* Much more common in women
43
Panic disorder
Type of anxiety disorder
* Characterized by presence of panic attacks - sweating, heart palpitations, shortness of breath
* Panic attacks are disproportionate to the situation that the person is in
44
Phobia
Type of anxiety disorder
* Fear focused on specific thing
* E.g. crowds, animals, insects, heights
* Characterized by people avoiding the thing they're afraid of
45
Agonist
Chemical that binds a receptor, and induces the receptor to produce a response.
46
Drug antagonist
This blocks a chemical from binding a receptor, thereby preventing a biological response.
47
Somatic symptom disorder
Psychological disorder with physical symptoms that can't be supported by medical tests - that is, the patient exhibits physical symptoms with no physical illness. Patient must also show disproportionate worry about their physical symptoms.
48
Schema
This is a pattern of thought that organizes categories of information and their relationships to each other. Each person has a different schema - different ways that they categorize information and different ways they link the different pieces of information.
49
What are the stages of cognitive development, according to Piaget?
1. Sensorimotor stage
2. Preoperational stage
3. Concrete operational stage
4. Formal operational stage
50
What is modeling, in psychology?
This is related to observational learning - specifically, the fact that the teacher can teach the learner by showing some behavior without verbal explanation, and the learner can learn the behavior through imitation.
51
What is the sensorimotor stage, according to cognitive development by Piaget?
* The first stage, among children 0-2 years old
* Infants gain knowledge about the world through interaction - touching and moving around ("sense" "motor")
* **Object permanence** is the key accomplishment of this stage - children learn that objects continue to exist even if they can't see/touch/hear them
52
Describe Piaget's preoperational stage
* The 2nd stage - between ages 2 to 7
* Children play a lot in this stage - symbolic play, where items will represent other items (box will be a table)
* The child is very egocentric - can't understand others' viewpoints
* Think about things concretely, struggle with abstract ideas
* They don't understand **conservation -** Ifequal amounts of water into two glasses - one tall, and one short - they'll think that the taller one has more
53
What's the concrete operational stage, according to Piaget?
* Between ages 7 to 11
* Children begin to think more logically, in a more organized way
* They understand the idea of **conservation** - for instance, they recognize that if you pour equal glasses of water into two different containers - one tall, one short - they will have equal amounts, even though the containers have different height
* Less egocentric
54
What's Piaget's formal operational stage?
* Last stage, for children ages 12+
* Increase in logic, capable of abstract thought
* Able to think about moral/philosophical reasoning
55
Social desirability bias
In research, this is when respondents tend to respond to questions in a way that will make others view them in a better light.
Ex: someone being asked about bigotry and intolerance will often deny, even if they do have these attitudes
56
Craving
Refers to drug addiction, specifically, the desire to use the drug again. It can be thought of as a deep yearning for the drug. The brain forms memories about the drug, helping to increase craving.
57
Tolerance
After some time of using drugs, this results in a need to take a higher dose of drugs to achieve the same effect. The person doesn't respond to the same dose in the same way, so they need to increase the dose to achieve the same high.
58
Withdrawal
When someone stops drugs and they have a drug dependence, they'll experience certain symptoms - anxiety, shaking, sweating.
59
N1 sleep
The first stage of sleep. Can be thought of as "relaxed wakefulness." You'll see "hypnic jerks" here, associated with a sense of falling. You'll see theta waves during this stage of sleep.
60
N2 sleep
You spend 50% of your night here. This is "light sleep." You'll see theta waves interrupted by sleep spindles and K complexes during this stage.
61
N3 sleep
During this stage, sleepwalking occurs. Deeper stage of sleep.
Delta waves occur here - signifying deepest stage of sleep.
62
Recall (memory)
This is the ability to retrieve information from the memory. There are different types:
* Serial recall - remembering events in the order they occur (can see **recency/primary** here)
* Free recall - remembering events in any order; remembering them "out of the blue"
* Cued recall - remembering something when you're asked/cued
63
Shadowing (psychology)
This refers to where a subject repeats back the words that they hear (usually through earphones/listening tests.)
64
Agent of socialization
People/groups responsible for socializing us from childhood - they teach us how to interact with other people.
* Family
* Schools
* Peers
* Mass media
65
Nativist theory (language)
This is the theory that we are born with an innate ability to learn languages. We have a LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE (LAD) in our brains, which allows us to learn other languages.
66
In what hemisphere of the brain are language functions?
The left side - the key parts are:
* Broca's area - region in the frontal lobe linked to speech production
* Wernicke's area - region in temporal lobe involved in language comprehension
67
What does reliability, in reference to a study, refer to?
This refers to the "repeatibility" of findings - that is, how likely is it that if the study was repeated, we could have the same outcomes?
68
Validity
This refers to how credible/genuine the study is. That is, how well does this study measure what it's supposed to measure.
* **External validity -** can we generalized this research beyond this setting?
* **Internal validity -** does this study show cause and effect, and can we attribute it to the variables we chose, and not confounding variables?
69
Proactive interference
When previously learned information gets in the way of learning new information.
For example, this would be if I gave my old cell phone number instead of my new cell number - the old information gets in the way of my retrieving the newer information.
70
Semantic memory
Type of long-term memory, related to facts/knowledge.
Ex: knowing what a dog is, knowing that grass is green, knowing how to use a phone
-Subset of declarative/explicit memory
71
Episodic memory
The memory of past personal experiences/events - the places, times, associated emotions. These events can be explicitly stated.
- remembering your first day of school
- remembering your wedding day
- knowing who your college lab partner is
It's a subset of declarative/explicit memory.
72
What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
Race is based on how you physically look.
Ethnicity is the culture you identify with.
73
What is statistical adjustment?
This is a practice, especially in observational studies, where there is an attempt to control for confounding factors. For instance, if there's an association between people watching football games and having heart attacks, there needs to be a statistical adjustment to find out what exactly is happening - it's highly unlikely that watching a football game "causes" heart attacks.
74
What are the factors underlying population growth rate?
These are:
* fertility (how many babies are people having)
* migration (how many people are moving in/out of the area)
* mortality (how many people are dying)
75
Demographic transition model
This refers to the changes in birth and death rates as a society proceeds from pre-industrial society to industrialized society.
* Pre-industrial: high birth rates, high death rates
* Better conditions: death rate decreases
* Better population control: birth decreases
* Industrialized society: low birth and death rates
76
Malthusian theory
This relates to demographic change. Population grows exponentially and will outstrip its resources, so war, famine and disease will reduce the population to a more reasonable amount. Population control (like later marriage, contraceptives) keep the population from outgrowing the resources.
77
Age cohort
This refers to a group of people who are from the same generation (20-25 years); have some sort of common experience; and grew up in the same historical era.
78
What's a sensitive/critical period in development?
This can be viewed as "window of opportunity" in child development - a child is ready to learn particular skills or grow in a certain way. This period of time is critical for the child to grow in a certain skill.
79
What's a within-subjects study?
This is an experimental research study where all subjects are exposed to every experimental condition/treatment.
80
Case study in research
A case study is where one individual is followed over time to thoroughly understand that particular individual.
81
Cross-sectional study
This is a type of study that looks at a population at one point in time. It can thought of as a **snapshot of that population at that time.**
ex: looking at the prevalence of HIV in a population, looking at the levels of cholesterol in cyclists and non-cyclists at one point
82
Sensory memory
This is the shortest-term memory; it is the memory that captures the sensory information we receive - the smell, touch, taste, sight, hearing.
Its different components:
* iconic memory - the visual part (0.5 seconds)
* echoic - the hearing (lasts 4 seconds)
83
Short-term memory/Working Memory
* Temporary storage of information, important for reasoning/decision-making - **prefrontal lobe**
* ex: remembering a phone number until you can write it down, reading the step of a recipe and then doing it without looking at it again
* Includes: **visuo-spatial sketchpad** (stores visual info); **phonological loop** (sound of language)
* **Central executive** directs these two, and can combine sounds/visuals into combined memory in the **episodic buffer**
84
Long-term memory
This is information that can be stored for long periods of time.
Types include:
* Implicit memory (procedural memory)
* Explicit/declarative memory - this is memory that you can **declare** or describe
* Episodic memory
* Semantic memory
85
Describe the difference between explicit and implicit memory in long-term memory.
Explicit memory is the intentional recollection of facts (semantic memory, episodic memory), while implicit is the unconscious retrieval.
86
Implicit memory
Type of long-term memory that is used unconsciously.
Its types include:
* procedural memory - type of memory that allows people to perform certain activities, like tying shoes, or turning on a light
* priming - exposure to one stimulus influences response to another stimulus (ex: you'll recognize NURSE more quickly if it follows DOCTOR than if it follows BREAD, because NURSE & DOCTOR related)
87
Incentive theory
Theory about motivation that says that we are driven to do certain things because of **external** rewards or reinforcement/punishment. These rewards can include getting money, praise from family/teachers, or punishment like criticism.
88
Drive reduction theory
This is a theory of motivation, that says that we are motivated to do things to reduce internal **drives, or psychological/biological needs.** These include: hunger, thirst, sex - primary drives that are very **vital**.
Secondary drives - like money - are those learned through conditioning. These aren't innate.
89
Intersectionality
This refers to interplay/overlap between multiple identities that one can have, which can compound the experience of oppression and discrimination.
90
Social cognitive theory
People learn much of their behavior by observing others and replicating their behavior. That is, rather than trial and error, people imitate the behavior of others - through a process known as modeling.
The main theorist behind this was Albert Bandura (proposed the social learning theory), who illustrated this process through the Bobo Doll.
91
Looking glass self
This is the concept that people develop an understanding of themselves through the way that others view them.
92
Functional MRI (FMRI)
This is a type of neuroimaging where brain activity is measured through mapping blood flow to different regions of the brain. That is, increased blood flow to a region indicates brain activity.
93
Dopamine
Neurotransmitter that functions in the brain's pleasure/reward center, also helps with movement and emotional responses.
94
Describe the different parts of the reward pathway in the brain
* **Ventral tegmental area** - releases dopamine
* Dopamine then travels to:
* **amygdala** (which deals with emotions)
* **nucleus accumbens** (controls body's motor functions)
* **prefrontal cortex** (focuses attention and planning)
* **hippocampus** (responsible for formation of memories)
95
As dopamine levels increase in the reward pathway, what neurotransmitter decreases?
Serotonin decreases, which is linked to satiety - explains why it's hard to feel "satisfied" or "satiated"
96
What is the evolutionary theory of motivation?
This view states that individuals are motivated to engage in behaviors that maximize their **fitness** - allow them to survive to reproductive age, so they can propagate their traits. The idea is that people act on **instincts**, rather than conscious decisions - all to propagate genes.
* Maximize energy taken in (increased food/calorie intake)
* Minimize energy expended
97
Hearing and place theory
This is the theory that different parts of the basilar membrane of the cochlea correspond to different frequencies - so different sounds will selectively vibrate at different parts of the cochlea.
98
Parallel processing
This is related to the brain's ability to process different types of information at the same time. This is salient in relation to vision, as we're often processing color, shape, motion, and depth at the same time.
99
General adaptation syndrome
How the body responds to stress in 3 stages:
1. Alarm - the body recognizes the stressor, activates fight-or-flight system
2. Resistance - body's stress level reduces; it repairs damaged muscle tissues (from alarm stage); still on guard
3. Exhaustion - stress has persisted for long enough that body is losing ability to combat stressors/reduce impact of them; going toward stress overload
100
Sensory adaptation
Sensory receptors change their sensitivity/response to stimulus
101
What is potency?
This is the amount of a drug needed to produce some effect
102
Describe the difference between efficacy and effectiveness
Efficacy - refers to the ability of a treatment to work in the lab setting
Effectiveness - refers to the ability of a treatment to work in the clinical setting
103
What is the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning?
* **Deductive reasoning -**"top-down approach"; it goes from the general to the specific. We would start wtih broad theories and then apply them to smaller details/data.
* **Inductive reasoning -** it goes from specific observations to broad theories/concepts
104
What is the availability heuristic?
This is a mental shortcut used in decision-making - related events/information will spring to your mind.
For instance, if you're deciding whether or not to ride the bus, but you heard about a few car accidents with buses recently, you would decide, based on these examples that you can recall in recent time, that you will take a train.
105
Representativeness heuristic
Mental shortcut that helps us make a decision by comparing the information to some prototype we have in our mind.
We're walking down the street and we see a large, menacing bulldog. In our minds, we have a prototype that this is what a mean dog would look like, so we try to avoid it. The dog could actually be friendly, but we have a certain prototype that we adhere to.
