UWorld Psych/Soc Quiz 2

• Group polarization leads to more extreme opinions in a group.
• Regression to the mean: Extreme measurements tend to move closer to the average over time.
• Demographic transition model: Population shifts change without considering resource constraints.
• Malthusian theory: Population growth puts a strain on resources.
• Bystander effect: Increased onlookers decrease the likelihood of assistance.
• Diffusion of responsibility: Onlookers assume someone else will take action.
• Manipulation involves creating conditions to influence the independent variable and observe its effect on the dependent variable.
• Autocommunication involves a sender transmitting a signal and receiving it back.
• Altruism: Actions that benefit others at a cost to oneself.
• Social facilitation: Presence of others affects performance
• Front-stage self: Behaviors to manage impressions in public.
• Back-stage self: Private behaviors in informal settings.
• Dependent variable: What is measured or observed in an experiment.
• Fundamental attribution error: Blaming internal traits rather than external factors for behavior.
• A dyad has one social tie and ceases to exist if either person leaves.
• A triad has three potential social ties.
• Intragenerational vertical mobility: Change in social status within one's lifetime.
• Self-serving bias: Attributing successes to internal factors and failures to external factors.
• Indirect fitness: Helping relatives to increase shared genetic survival.
• Game theory: Analyzing strategies for success in social interactions.
• Modernization: Reduced importance of religion as society industrializes.
• Secularization: Reduced power of religion as religious involvement declines.
• Fundamentalism: Renewed commitment to traditional religion.
• James-Lange theory: Physiological response occurs first; emotion arises from interpreting it.
• Schachter-Singer theory: Physiological response plus cognitive interpretation yields emotion.
• Cannon-Bard theory: Emotion and physiological response occur simultaneously and independently.
• Appraisal theory: Evaluation of a stimulus determines emotional response.
• Primary appraisal: An individual determines whether a stimulus is a threat, positive, or irrelevant
• Secondary appraisal: The individual evaluates whether their resources are sufficient enough to cope with the stressor
• Reaction formation: Expressing the opposite of true feelings when those feelings are distressing.
• Projection: Misattributing your internal feelings or thoughts to others.
• Displacement: Redirecting emotions to a safer target.
• The universal emotions are happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, and surprise.
• The three components of emotion are cognitive, behavioral, and physiological.
• Cognitive component: Mental processes that accompany emotion.
• Behavioral component: Immediate outward reactions.
• Physiological component: Bodily reactions (e.g., increased heart rate).
• PET scans measure glucose metabolism in the brain.
• MEG measures magnetic fields produced by electrical brain activity.
• EEG measures electrical signals of the cortex below the skull.
• Dissociative disorders are characterized by disruptions to memory and identity.
• Dissociative amnesia involves the inability to recall important autobiographical information (e.g., personal history, traumatic event).
• Dissociative identity disorder is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personalities and amnesia.
• Drive-reduction theory: Motivation results from disrupted homeostasis, producing a physiological need (e.g., hunger), leading to a drive (e.g., desire to eat).
• Homeostasis is reestablished once the drive is reduced.
• Personality disorders are characterized by long-term, inflexible patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that deviate from social norms, cause functional impairment, and persist across settings and time.
• Social dysfunction in mood disorders arises from temporary changes in emotional state.
• Personality disorders are defined by consistent, inflexible patterns of behavior and relationships that persist over time and across situations.
• The hypothalamus influences the physiological component of emotion by regulating the pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system.
• Hippocampus function: memory consolidation
• Amygdala function: primal emotions
• Cingulate gyrus function: emotional sensory imput.
• The prefrontal cortex modulates emotions, helping to regulate emotional responses.
• Thalamus function: relays information
• Vicarious emotions involve the ability to intuit how someone else feels and encourage prosocial behaviors through shared emotional expression.
• Cognitive dissonance occurs when an individual's beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors conflict, creating internal discomfort.
• People reduce cognitive dissonance by aligning their thoughts or actions by changing one of the conflicting elements.
• Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) is characterized by extreme distress and concern regarding one or more actual bodily/physical symptoms (e.g., fatigue, pain).
• Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by excessive and uncontrollable worry about a range of topics (e.g., health, finances, career, relationships).
• Individuals with an external locus of control believe outcomes are determined by external factors; those with an internal locus of control believe outcomes are determined by their own actions.
• The serial position effect means items presented one at a time are more likely to be remembered if they appear at the beginning (primacy effect) or end (recency effect) of a sequence.
• The serial position effect diminishes when items are studied as a set with no emphasis on presentation order.
• Long-term memory includes implicit/nondeclarative (e.g., "how to") and explicit/declarative memory (e.g., "what is").
• Declarative memory includes semantic memory (e.g., facts) and episodic memory (e.g., personal experiences).
• Semantic memory involves declarative facts and concepts not tied to personal experiences.
• Sensitization occurs when a repeated stimulus leads to an increasing response over time, while desensitization occurs when a response to a previously sensitized stimulus decreases.
• Operant conditioning is a type of associative learning where the likelihood of a behavior is influenced by reinforcement (increases behavior) or punishment (decreases behavior).
• Generalization in classical conditioning occurs when a conditioned response is elicited by stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus.
• The learning theory of language development proposes that language is a learned behavior acquired through environmental exposure, imitation, and operant conditioning, where reinforcement encourages repeated language production, assuming humans are born as "blank slates."
• The interactionist theory suggests that language develops through both biological and social processes.
• The nativist theory emphasizes the importance of language exposure during a critical (time-sensitive) period in early life.
• Universalism emphasizes that cognition is the foundation for language.
• Linguistic relativity suggests that language influences thought and perception, but does not fully control them.
• Vygotsky emphasizes social interaction in shaping cognition and language.
• Linguistic determinism asserts that language fully controls cognition, meaning thought is entirely shaped by language, and without language, thinking cannot occur.

Piaget's Stages of Development

• Sensorimotor stage (0–2 years): explore through senses and actions, develop object permanence.
• Preoperational stage (2–7 years): language and pretend play emerge, children are egocentric.
• Concrete operational stage (7–11 years): logical thinking about concrete events develops, children understand conservation.
• Formal operational stage (12+ years): abstract thinking and reasoning about hypothetical situations emerge.

Memory Processes

• The basic memory processes are encoding (inputting information), storage (retaining), and retrieval (accessing).
• State-dependent memory effects occur when it is easier to retrieve a memory while in the same mood as when the memory was encoded.
• Context-dependent memory effects occur when it is easier to retrieve a memory while in the same physical environment as when the memory was encoded.

Consequences

• Avoidance: Action taken before the unpleasant stimulus to prevent it.
• Escape: Action taken after the unpleasant stimulus to stop it.
• Taste aversions are long-enduring associations, not short-term.
• Behaviorism focuses on how an individual's behavior is shaped by the environment, particularly through reinforcement and punishment.
• Rationalization is an ego defense mechanism in which an individual generates an acceptable excuse for an unacceptable behavior or thought.
• A token economy involves using secondary reinforcers, such as tokens or stars, which can be accumulated and exchanged for a desirable reward.
• Long-term potentiation (LTP) strengthens synaptic transmission, forming the basis of learning and memory through increased neurotransmitter release or receptor density.
• Tonic receptors continuously produce action potentials during a stimulus and are located in the peripheral nervous system.
• Procedural memory, a type of implicit memory, involves learning motor skills and tasks that do not require conscious thought, such as spatial navigation or physical activities.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy attempts to change negative thoughts/beliefs (conditions) & maladaptive behaviors.
• Psychoanalytic therapy attempts to uncover how unconscious conflicts rooted in childhood shape behaviors.
• Humanistic therapy attempts to empower individuals to move toward self-actualization.
• Implicit memory involves automatic, unconscious responses, such as reflexive or emotional reactions, which do not require conscious recall, making it responsible for natural responses like fear or startle reflexes to stimuli.
• Fluid intelligence is the ability to solve new problems and think logically.
• Crystallized intelligence is the use of knowledge and experience.
• Fluid intelligence declines with age, while crystallized intelligence grows or stays stable.
• Selective attention involves focusing on a single task or stimulus while filtering out distractions.
• Divided attention requires managing multiple tasks or stimuli simultaneously.

Erikson's Stages of Development

• Trust vs. Mistrust (0–1 years): Infants develop trust when caregivers are attentive and sensitive, while inconsistent care leads to mistrust.
• Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt (1–3 years): Encouragement fosters independence in toddlers, while scolding for failure leads to feelings of shame and doubt.
• Initiative vs. Guilt (3–6 years): Children who engage successfully with others develop initiative, while excessive criticism results in guilt
• Industry vs. Inferiority (6–12 years): Developing new skills promotes feelings of industry, while lack of encouragement leads to inferiority.
• Identity vs. Role Confusion (12–20 years): Adolescents form self-identity through peer interactions; failure to do so results in role confusion.
• Intimacy vs. Isolation (20–40 years): Adults who build loving, committed relationships experience intimacy; those who do not feel isolated.
• Generativity vs. Stagnation (40–65 years): Contributing to society fosters a sense of productivity, while failing to do so results in stagnation.
• Integrity vs. Despair (>65 years): Older adults feel integrity when reflecting on a fulfilling life; unfulfilled experiences lead to despair.
• Aging is associated with declines in episodic, flashbulb, and source memory.
• Semantic and procedural memory remain relatively stable with age.
• Context-dependent memory is tested by comparing recall or recognition in the same environment where learning occurred versus a different environment, with consistent initial conditions.
• Reliability is the consistency of an experiment or measure, producing similar results every time.
• Validity is the accuracy of a measure or experiment.
• The right hemisphere is specialized for visuospatial, emotional, and artistic/musical processing; the left hemisphere for linguistic and analytical processing.
• Mirror neuron system activation occurs during observation and imitation of actions, playing a crucial role in observational learning, action understanding, and social behaviors.
• Non-overlapping confidence intervals (CIs) indicate statistically significant differences.
• Semantic memory consists of facts and general knowledge (eg, presidents' names).
• Episodic memory consists of memories of personal experiences (eg, what you wore your first day of college).
• Implicit memory is memory stored without effort or awareness.
• Procedural memory, a main type of implicit memory, is memory of how to do things (eg, ride a bicycle, tie a shoe).