Psyc102
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- menopause
- The time during which a woman's menstrual cycle slows down and finally stops
- predictive validity
- assesses how well a test predicts an important criterion
- longitudinal design
- a research design in which the same people are studied or tested repeatedly over time
- intelligence
- an internal capacity hypothesized to explain people's ability to solve problems, learn new material, and adapt to new situations; its strength appears to differ across individuals
- cardinal traits
- Allport's term to describe personality traits that dominate an individual's life, such as passion to serve others or to accumulate wealth
- aptitude tests
- psychological tests that measure your ability to learn and solve problems in a particular subject area
- morality
- The ability to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate actions; a child's sense of morality may be tied to his or her level of cognitive ability.
- secondary traits
- the less obvious characteristics of an individual's personality that does not always appear in his or her behaviour, such as grouchiness at early morning meetings.
- zygote
- the fertilized human egg, containing 46 chromosomes (23 from father, 23 from mother) which pair up to form the master genetic blueprint
- intelligence prototype
- the characteristics each person believes are present in perfectly intelligent people
- embryonic period
- the period of prenatal development lasting from implantation to the end of the eight week; during this period, the human develops from an unrecognizable mass of cells to a somewhat familiar creature
- bell curve
- the plot of frequencies obtained for many psychological tests; most people's scores are in the middle range, and the decline in frequencies is similar whether scores get higher or lower than the mean.
- preoperational period
- Piaget's second stage of cognitive development, lasting from age two to about age seven; children begin to think symbolically but often lack the ability to perform mental operations, like conservation
- object permanence
- the ability to recognize that objects still exist when they are no longer in sight
- emotional intelligence
- the ability to perceive, understand, and express emotion in ways that are useful and adaptive
- fluid intelligence
- The natural ability to solve problems, reason, and remember; thought to be relatively uninfluenced by experience
- heritability
- a mathematical index that represents the extent to which IQ differences in a particular population can be accounted for by genetic disorders
- creativity
- the ability to generate ideas that are original, novel, and useful
- conscientiousness
- Big 5 dimension: ethical/ dependable/ productive/ purposeful
- psychometrics
- The use of psychology tests to measure the mind, especially individual differences
- mental retardation
- a label commonly assigned to someone who scores below 70 on an IQ test; other factors, such as the ability to adapt to the environment, are also considered before putting someone in this category
- phallic stage
- Freud's third stage of psychosexual development, lasting from about age three to age five,; pleasure is derived from self-stimulation of the sexual organs
- personal identity
- A sense of who we are as individuals and how well we stack up against peers; Erik Erickson's theory postulates that personal identity is shaped by a series of personal crises that each person confronts at characteristic stages of development
- objective test
- A test that is scored in a standardized fashion so that anyone calculating the result gets the same answer
- intelligence tests
- tests that evaluate your overall cognitive ability to learn and solve problems
- teratogens
- Environmental agents - such as disease, organisms, or drugs - that can potentially damage the developing embryo or fetus
- positive regard
- the idea that we value what others think of us and constantly seek others' approval, love, and companionship
- incremental theorists
- people who see intelligence as malleable and something that people gradually acquire through hard work.
- conservation
- the ability to recognize that the physical properties of an object remain the same despite superficial changes in the object's appearance
- denial
- A defence mechanism involving the refusal to accept an external reality that creates anxiety.
- id
- In Freud's theory, the portion of personality that is governed by inborn instinctual drives, particularly those linked to sex and aggression
- fetal period
- the period of prenatal development lasting from the ninth week until birth, during which the fetus develops functioning organ systems, and increases are seen in body size and in the complexity of brain tissue
- conventional level
- In Kohlberg's theory of moral development, the stage in which actions are judged to be right or wrong based on whether they maintain or disrupt the social order
- primary mental abilities
- The 7 distinct forms of intelligence Thurstone uncovered with modern forms of factor analysis
- accommodation
- the process through which people change or modify existing schemas to accommodate new experiences when they occur
- psychodynamic theory
- an approach to personality development, based largely on the ideas of Sigmund Freud, which holds that much of behaviour is governed by unconscious forces. (a theory)
- temperament
- behavioural tendencies that have biological origins
- socially desirable responding
- The tendency to describe ourselves as having positive, or at least normal traits.
- incongruence
- a discrepancy between the image we hold of ourselves - our self concept - and the sum of all our experiences
- content validity
- assesses the degree to which the content of a test samples broadly across the domain of interest
- self-efficacy
- The beliefs that we would hold about our own ability to perform a task or accomplish a goal
- split-half reliability
- the ability of a test to give the same scores in the first and second halves of the test
- trait taxonomies
- systems for distinguishing the most important individual differences in personality; these trait taxonomies are usually associated with an inventory of psychometric tests designed to measure these traits.
- subjective definition
- a definition based on personal opinion; each person's definition seems designed to suit their personal needs and world views.
- personality
- The entire organization of psychological characteristics - thinking, feeling, and behaving - that differentiates one person from another.
- achievement tests
- psychological tests that measure your current level of knowledge or competence in a particular subject area
- assimilation
- the process through which people fit - or assimilate - new experiences into existing schemas
- construct validity
- assesses how well a test captures all the details of the theoretical construct
- 16 personality factor
- a self-report inventory developed by Cattell and colleagues to measure 16 primary personality factors.
- self- report questionnaires
- Personality test that ask the person of interest a set of questions about how he or she thinks, acts, or feels.
- strange situation test
- Gradually subjecting a child to a stressful situation and observing his or her behaviour toward the parent or caregiver; this test is used to classify children according to type of attachment: secure, resistant, or avoidant
- cross-sectional design
- a research design in which people of different ages are compared at the same time
- gifted
- a label commonly assigned to someone who scores above 130 on a standard IQ test
- preconventional level
- In Kohlberg's theory of moral development, the lowest level of moral development, in which decisions about right and wrong are made primarily in terms of external consequences
- Sternberg's three facets of intelligence
- Robert Sternberg's theory of intelligence that includes three types of intelligence: 1) analytic 2) creative 3) practical
- deviation IQ
- an intelligence score that is derived from determining where your performance sits in an age-based distribution of test scores
- central traits
- Allport's term to describe the 5 - 10 descriptive traits that you would use to describe someone you know - friendly, trustworthy, so on
- Flynn effect
- Average IQ scores have increased slightly every decade since the 1930's, this is called...
- collective unconscious
- The notion proposed by Carl Jung that certain kinds of universal symbols and ideas are present in the unconscious of all people
- agreeableness
- Big 5 dimension: sympathetic/ warm/ trusting/ cooperative
- extroversion
- Big 5 dimension: talkative/ sociable/ fun-loving/ affectionate
- g (general intelligence) factor
- The large, underlying factor that contributes to performance on a variety of ability tests
- ego
- In Freud's theory, the portion of personality that induces people to act with reason and deliberation and helps them conform to the requirements of the external world
- conscious mind
- The contents of awareness - those things that occupy the focus of your current attention.
- IQ (intelligence quotient)
- a single number calculated to represent a person's intelligence; originally, mental age divided by chronological age and then multiplied by 100; more recently, defined in terms of deviation from the average score on an IQ test
- reciprocal determinism
- the idea that beliefs, behaviour, and the environment interact to shape what is learned from experience
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
- A widely used self-report inventory for assessing personality traits and for diagnosing psychological problems.
- postconventional level
- Kohlberg's highest level of moral development, in which moral actions are judged on the basis of personal codes of ethics that are general and abstract and that may not agree with societal norms
- self-monitoring
- The degree to which a person monitors a situation closely and changes his or her behaviour accordingly; people who are high self-monitors may not behave consistently across situations
- culture-fair test
- Tests that avoid the use of language (eg. by using only pictures or symbols) so that the test is fair to all cultures
- dementia
- Physically based losses in mental functioning
- concrete operational period
- Piaget's third stage of cognitive development, lasting from age 7 to age 11; children acquire the capacity to perform a number of mental operations but still lack the ability for abstract reasoning
- entity theorists
- people who see intelligence as fixed, a permanent quality that people are born with
- validity
- an evaluation of how well a test measures what the label of the test says its measuring
- person-situation debate
- a controversial debate centering on whether people really do behave consistently across situations
- neuroticism
- Big 5 dimension: anxious/ insecure/ guilt-prone/ self-conscious
- reaction formation
- a defence mechanism used to transform an anxiety-producing desire into a kind of opposite- people behave in a way counter to the way they truly feel.
- puberty
- the period during which a person reaches sexual maturity and is potentially capable of producing offspring
- preconscious mind
- The part of the mind that contains all the inactive but potentially accessible thoughts and memories
- defence mechanism
- according to Freud, unconscious processes used by ego to ward off the anxiety that comes from conflicts between superego and id.
- s (specific) residual
- The remainder part of a specific ability test that is unique and not explained by "g"
- oral stage
- the first stage in Freud's conception of psychosexual development, occurring in the first year of life; in this stage, pleasure is derived primarily from sucking and placing things in mouth
- egocentrism
- The tendency to see the world from your own unique perspective only; a characteristic of thinking in the preoperational period of development
- development
- the age-related physical, intellectual, social, and personal changes that occur through an individual's lifetime
- sensorimotor period
- Piaget's first stage of cognitive development, lasting from birth to about two years of age; schemas revolve around sensory and motor abilities
- gender roles
- specific patterns of behaviour that are consistent with how society dictates the way males and females should act
- openness
- Big 5 dimension: nonconforming/ showing unusually broad interests/ imaginative
- savant
- an individual with a special talent despite generally low intelligence
- thematic apperception test
- a projective personality test that requires people to make up stories about the characters in ambiguous pcitures
- superego
- In Freud's theory, the portion of personality that motivates people to act in a proper fashion, that is, in accordance with the moral customs defined by parents and culture
- Rorschach test
- a projective test that requires people to interpret ambiguous ink blots
- conditions of worth
- the expectation or standards that we believe others place on us
- NEO-PI-R
- A self-report inventory developed to measure the Big Five personality dimensions
- locus of control
- The amount of control that a person feels he or she has over the environment
- humanistic psychology
- An approach to personality that focuses on people's unique capacity for choice, responsibility, and growth
- multiple intelligences
- the notion proposed by Howard Gardner that people posses a set of separate and independent "intelligences", ranging from musical to linguistic to interpersonal abilities
- social learning theory
- The idea that most important personality traits come from modeling, or copying the behavior of others
- germinal period
- the period in prenatal development from conception to implantation of the fertilized egg on the wall of the uterus
- artificial intelligence
- the attempt to understand the meaning of intelligence by building intelligent machines; such machines - usually computer programs - can simulate or surpass many human capabilities
- sublimation
- a defence mechanism used to channel unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.
- crystallized intelligence
- the knowledge and abilities acquired as a result of experience (as from schooling and cultural influence)
- standardization
- keeping the testing, scoring, and interpretation procedures similar across all administrations of a test
- gender schemas
- the organized set of beliefs and perceptions held about men and women
- genital stage
- Freud's final stage of psychosexual development, during which a person develops mature sexual relationships with members of the opposite sex
- reliability
- a measure of consistency of test results; reliable tests give people similar scores across time and across parts of a test
- projection
- a defence mechanism in which unacceptable feelings or desires are dealt with by attributing them to others
- unconscious mind
- The part of the mind that Freud believed housed all the memories, urges, and conflicts that are truly beyond awareness
- tacit knowledge
- the special knowledge in a specific area which allows one to think quickly and efficiently
- trait
- a stable predisposition to act or behave in a consistent fashion.
- anal stage
- Freud's second stage of psychosexual development, occurring in the second year of life; pleasure is derived from the process of defecation
- schemas
- mental models of the world that people use to guide and interpret their experiences
- formal operational period
- Piaget's last stage of cognitive development; thought processes become adult-like, and people gain mastery over abstract thinking
- self-concept
- an organized set of perceptions that we hold about our abilities and characteristics.
- habituation
- the decline in responsiveness to repeated stimulation; habituation has been used to investigate the perceptual capabilities of infants
- test-retest reliability
- the ability of a test to give consistent scores over time
- big five
- The 5 dimensions of personality (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) that have been isolated through the application of factor analysis; it is widely believed that virtually all personality terms in language can be accounted for by appealing to one or more of these basic dimensions.
- attachments
- strong emotional ties formed to one or more intimate companions
- self-realization
- The ingrained desire to reach our own true potential as human beings
- factor analysis
- a statistical procedure developed by Charles Spearman determines how many subsets of highly correlated items are in a larger test; each subset is called a "common factor", useful for summarizing the subset under a single name
- latency period
- Freud's period of psychosexual development, from age five to puberty, during which the child's sexual feelings are largely suppressed.
- repression
- A defence mechanism used to bury anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings in the unconcious
- achievement motivation tests
- psychological tests that measure your desire to perform challenging tasks and reach difficult goals
- projective test
- a type of personality test in which individuals are asked to interpret ambiguous stimuli; the idea is that subjects will project their true thoughts and feelings into the interpretation, thereby revealing elements of their personality
- mental age
- the chronological age that best fits a child's level of performance on a test of mental ability; typically calculated by comparing a child's test score with the average scores for different age groups
- cognitive-behavioral theories
- an approach to personality that suggests it is reward-punishment experiences, and interpretation of those experiences, that determine personality growth and development