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level: Level 2

Questions and Answers List

level questions: Level 2

QuestionAnswer
The neutral, preferred category for a given object, at an intermediate level of specificity.Basic-level category
A set of entities that are equivalent in some way. Usually the items are similar to one another.Category
The mental representation of a category.Concept
An example in memory that is labeled as being in a particular category.Exemplar
The belief that members of a category have an unseen property that causes them to be in the category and to have the properties associated with it.Psychological essentialism
The difference in “goodness” of category members, ranging from the most typical (the prototype) to borderline members.Typicality
A numerical board game that seems to be useful for building numerical knowledge.Chutes and Ladders
Piagetian stage between ages 7 and 12 when children can think logically about concrete situations but not engage in systematic scientific reasoning.Concrete operations stage
Problems pioneered by Piaget in which physical transformation of an object or set of objects changes a perceptually salient dimension but not the quantity that is being asked about.Conservation problems
Ways in which development occurs in a gradual incremental manner, rather than through sudden jumps.Continuous development
The ability to actively perceive the distance from oneself of objects in the environment.Depth perception
Discontinuous developmentDiscontinuous development
Piagetian stage starting at age 12 years and continuing for the rest of life, in which adolescents may gain the reasoning powers of educated adults.Formal operations stage
Theories that focus on describing the cognitive processes that underlie thinking at any one age and cognitive growth over time.Information processing theories
The genes that children bring with them to life and that influence all aspects of their development.Nature
The sizes of numbers.Numerical magnitudes
The environments, starting with the womb, that influence all aspects of children’s development.Nurture
The Piagetian task in which infants below about 9 months of age fail to search for an object that is removed from their sight and, if not allowed to search immediately for the object, act as if they do not know that it continues to exist.Object permanence task
Awareness of the component sounds within words.Phonemic awareness
Theory that development occurs through a sequence of discontinuous stages: the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages.Piaget’s theory
Period within Piagetian theory from age 2 to 7 years, in which children can represent objects through drawing and language but cannot solve logical reasoning problems, such as the conservation problems.Preoperational reasoning stage
Large, fundamental change, as when a caterpillar changes into a butterfly; stage theories such as Piaget’s posit that each stage reflects qualitative change relative to previous stages.Qualitative changes
Gradual, incremental change, as in the growth of a pine tree’s girth.Quantitative changes
Period within Piagetian theory from birth to age 2 years, during which children come to represent the enduring reality of objects.Sensorimotor stage
Theory founded in large part by Lev Vygotsky that emphasizes how other people and the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the surrounding culture influence children’s development.Sociocultural theories
A characteristic that reflects a genetic liability for disease and a more basic component of a complex clinical presentation. Endophenotypes are less developmentally malleable than overt behavior.Endophenotypes
Measures the firing of groups of neurons in the cortex. As a person views or listens to specific types of information, neuronal activity creates small electrical currents that can be recorded from non-invasive sensors placed on the scalp. ERP provides excellent information about the timing of processing, clarifying brain activity at the millisecond pace at which it unfolds.Event-related potentials (ERP)
Entails the use of powerful magnets to measure the levels of oxygen within the brain that vary with changes in neural activity. That is, as the neurons in specific brain regions “work harder” when performing a specific task, they require more oxygen. By having people listen to or view social percepts in an MRI scanner, fMRI specifies the brain regions that evidence a relative increase in blood flow. In this way, fMRI provides excellent spatial information, pinpointing with millimeter accuracy, the brain regions most critical for different social processes.Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
The set of neuroanatomical structures that allows us to understand the actions and intentions of other people.Social brain
A parenting style characterized by high (but reasonable) expectations for children’s behavior, good communication, warmth and nurturance, and the use of reasoning (rather than coercion) as preferred responses to children’s misbehavior.Authoritative
The cognitive, emotional, and social influences that cause young children to create and act consistently with internal standards of conduct.Conscience
A temperament quality that enables children to be more successful in motivated self-regulation.Effortful control
A description of the negative effects of family financial difficulty on child adjustment through the effects of economic stress on parents’ depressed mood, increased marital problems, and poor parenting.Family Stress Model
Organized beliefs and expectations about maleness and femaleness that guide children’s thinking about gender.Gender schemas
The match or synchrony between a child’s temperament and characteristics of parental care that contributes to positive or negative personality development. A good “fit” means that parents have accommodated to the child’s temperamental attributes, and this contributes to positive personality growth and better adjustment.Goodness of fit
An infant’s confidence in the sensitivity and responsiveness of a caregiver, especially when he or she is needed. Infants can be securely attached or insecurely attached.Security of attachment
The process by which one individual consults another’s emotional expressions to determine how to evaluate and respond to circumstances that are ambiguous or uncertain.Social referencing
Early emerging differences in reactivity and self-regulation, which constitutes a foundation for personality development.Temperament
Children’s growing understanding of the mental states that affect people’s behavior.Theory of mind
These are rules that are learned early in life that specify the management and modification of emotional expressions according to social circumstances. Cultural display rules can work in a number of different ways. For example, they can require individuals to express emotions “as is” (i.e., as they feel them), to exaggerate their expressions to show more than what is actually felt, to tone down their expressions to show less than what is actually felt, to conceal their feelings by expressing something else, or to show nothing at all.Cultural display rules
This refers to the relationship or interaction between two or more individuals in a group. Thus, the interpersonal functions of emotion refer to the effects of one’s emotion on others, or to the relationship between oneself and others.Interpersonal
This refers to what occurs within oneself. Thus, the intrapersonal functions of emotion refer to the effects of emotion to individuals that occur physically inside their bodies and psychologically inside their minds.Intrapersonal
Society refers to a system of relationships between individuals and groups of individuals; culture refers to the meaning and information afforded to that system that is transmitted across generations. Thus, the social and cultural functions of emotion refer to the effects that emotions have on the functioning and maintenance of societies and cultures.Social and cultural
This refers to the process whereby individuals look for information from others to clarify a situation, and then use that information to act. Thus, individuals will often use the emotional expressions of others as a source of information to make decisions about their own behavior.Social referencing
A motivational system selected over the course of evolution to maintain proximity between a young child and his or her primary attachment figure.Attachment behavioral system
Behaviors and signals that attract the attention of a primary attachment figure and function to prevent separation from that individual or to reestablish proximity to that individual (e.g., crying, clinging).Attachment behaviors
Someone who functions as the primary safe haven and secure base for an individual. In childhood, an individual’s attachment figure is often a parent. In adulthood, an individual’s attachment figure is often a romantic partner.Attachment figure
(also called “attachment styles” or “attachment orientations”) Individual differences in how securely (vs. insecurely) people think, feel, and behave in attachment relationships.Attachment patterns
A laboratory task that involves briefly separating and reuniting infants and their primary caregivers as a way of studying individual differences in attachment behavior.Strange situation
Adolescent peer groups characterized by shared reputations or images.Crowds
The spread of problem behaviors within groups of adolescents.Deviant peer contagion
Genetic factors that make individuals more or less responsive to environmental experiences.Differential susceptibility
Individuals commit to an identity without exploration of options.Foreclosure
Adolescents tend to associate with peers who are similar to themselves.Homophily
Individuals have explored different options and then made commitments.Identity achievement
Adolescents neither explore nor commit to any roles or ideologies.Identity diffusion
State in which adolescents are actively exploring options but have not yet made identity commitments.Moratorium
Parents’ manipulation of and intrusion into adolescents’ emotional and cognitive world through invalidating adolescents’ feelings and pressuring them to think in particular ways.Psychological control
Belief system that emphasizes the duties and obligations that each person has toward others.Collectivism
The economically advanced countries of the world, in which most of the world’s wealth is concentrated.Developed countries
The less economically advanced countries that comprise the majority of the world’s population. Most are currently developing at a rapid rate.Developing countries
A new life stage extending from approximately ages 18 to 25, during which the foundation of an adult life is gradually constructed in love and work. Primary features include identity explorations, instability, focus on self-development, feeling incompletely adult, and a broad sense of possibilities.Emerging adulthood
Belief system that exalts freedom, independence, and individual choice as high values.Individualism
Members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, comprised of the world’s wealthiest countries.OECD countries
Education or training beyond secondary school, usually taking place in a college, university, or vocational training program.Tertiary education
How old or young people feel compared to their chronological age; after early adulthood, most people feel younger than their chronological age.Age identity
A qualitative research method used to understand characteristics and life themes that an individual considers to uniquely distinguish him- or herself from others.Autobiographical narratives
Mean number of years that 50% of people in a specific birth cohort are expected to survive. This is typically calculated from birth but is also sometimes re-calculated for people who have already reached a particular age (e.g., 65).Average life expectancy
Group of people typically born in the same year or historical period, who share common experiences over time; sometimes called a generation (e.g., Baby Boom Generation).Cohort
Theory that proposes that the frequency, types, and reciprocity of social exchanges change with age. These social exchanges impact the health and well-being of the givers and receivers in the convoy.Convoy Model of Social Relations
Research method that provides information about age group differences; age differences are confounded with cohort differences and effects related to history and time of study.Cross-sectional studies
Type of intellectual ability that relies on the application of knowledge, experience, and learned information.Crystallized intelligence
Type of intelligence that relies on the ability to use information processing resources to reason logically and solve novel problems.Fluid intelligence
Individuals’ perceptions of and satisfaction with their lives as a whole.Global subjective well-being
Component of well-being that refers to emotional experiences, often including measures of positive (e.g., happiness, contentment) and negative affect (e.g., stress, sadness).Hedonic well-being
Inter-individual and subgroup differences in level and rate of change over time.Heterogeneity
Ability to focus on a subset of information while suppressing attention to less relevant information.Inhibitory functioning
Different patterns of development observed within an individual (intra-) or between individuals (inter-).Intra- and inter-individual differences
Theory of development that highlights the effects of social expectations of age-related life events and social roles; additionally considers the lifelong cumulative effects of membership in specific cohorts and sociocultural subgroups and exposure to historical events.Life course theories
Theory of development that emphasizes the patterning of lifelong within- and between-person differences in the shape, level, and rate of change trajectories.Life span theories
Research method that collects information from individuals at multiple time points over time, allowing researchers to track cohort differences in age-related change to determine cumulative effects of different life experiences.Longitudinal studies
The time it takes individuals to perform cognitive operations (e.g., process information, react to a signal, switch attention from one task to another, find a specific target object in a complex picture).Processing speed
Approach to studying intelligence that examines performance on tests of intellectual functioning.Psychometric approach
Type of memory task where individuals are asked to remember previously learned information without the help of external cues.Recall
Type of memory task where individuals are asked to remember previously learned information with the assistance of cues.Recognition
An individual’s perceptions of their own aging process; positive perceptions of aging have been shown to be associated with greater longevity and health.Self-perceptions of aging
Network of people with whom an individual is closely connected; social networks provide emotional, informational, and material support and offer opportunities for social engagement.Social network
Theory proposed to explain the reduction of social partners in older adulthood; posits that older adults focus on meeting emotional over information-gathering goals, and adaptively select social partners who meet this need.Socioemotional Selectivity Theory
A multidimensional construct that indicates how old (or young) a person feels and into which age group a person categorizes him- or herselfSubjective age
Includes three components: avoiding disease, maintaining high levels of cognitive and physical functioning, and having an actively engaged lifestyle.Successful aging
Memory system that allows for information to be simultaneously stored and utilized or manipulated.Working memory
Short for “general factor” and is often used to be synonymous with intelligence itself.G
An individual’s cognitive capability. This includes the ability to acquire, process, recall and apply information.Intelligence
Short for “intelligence quotient.” This is a score, typically obtained from a widely used measure of intelligence that is meant to rank a person’s intellectual ability against that of others.IQ
Assessments are given to a representative sample of a population to determine the range of scores for that population. These “norms” are then used to place an individual who takes that assessment on a range of scores in which he or she is compared to the population at large.Norm
Assessments that are given in the exact same manner to all people . With regards to intelligence tests standardized scores are individual scores that are computed to be referenced against normative scores for a population (see “norm”).Standardize
The phenomenon in which people are concerned that they will conform to a stereotype or that their performance does conform to that stereotype, especially in instances in which the stereotype is brought to their conscious awareness.Stereotype threat
The general factor common to all cognitive ability measures, “a very general mental capacity that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—‘catching on,’ ‘making sense of things,’ or ‘figuring out’ what to do” (Gottfredson, 1997, p. 13).g or general mental ability
Correspondence between an individual’s needs or preferences and the rewards offered by the environment.Satisfaction
Correspondence between an individual’s abilities and the ability requirements of the environment.Satisfactoriness
Cognitive abilities that contain an appreciable component of g or general ability, but also contain a large component of a more content-focused talent such as mathematical, spatial, or verbal ability; patterns of specific abilities channel development down different paths as a function of an individual’s relative strengths and weaknesses.Specific abilities
Psychological frameworks that miss or neglect to include one or more of the critical determinants of the phenomenon under analysis.Under-determined or misspecified causal models
The bias to be affected by an initial anchor, even if the anchor is arbitrary, and to insufficiently adjust our judgments away from that anchor.Anchoring
The systematic and predictable mistakes that influence the judgment of even very talented human beings.Biases
The systematic ways in which we fail to notice obvious and important information that is available to us.Bounded awareness
The systematic ways in which our ethics are limited in ways we are not even aware of ourselves.Bounded ethicality
Model of human behavior that suggests that humans try to make rational decisions but are bounded due to cognitive limitations.Bounded rationality
The systematic and predictable ways in which we care about the outcomes of others.Bounded self-interest
The tendency to place greater weight on present concerns rather than future concerns.Bounded willpower
The bias to be systematically affected by the way in which information is presented, while holding the objective information constant.Framing
cognitive (or thinking) strategies that simplify decision making by using mental short-cutsHeuristics
The bias to have greater confidence in your judgment than is warranted based on a rational assessment.Overconfident
Our intuitive decision-making system, which is typically fast, automatic, effortless, implicit, and emotional.System 1
Our more deliberative decision-making system, which is slower, conscious, effortful, explicit, and logical.System 2
Affective experiences that motivate organisms to fulfill goals that are generally beneficial to their survival and reproduction.Drive state
The tendency of an organism to maintain a stable state across all the different physiological systems in the body.Homeostasis
An ideal level that the system being regulated must be monitored and compared to.Homeostatic set point
A portion of the brain involved in a variety of functions, including the secretion of various hormones and the regulation of hunger and sexual arousal.Hypothalamus
A physical sexual posture in females that serves as an invitation to mate.Lordosis
A region in the anterior hypothalamus involved in generating and regulating male sexual behavior.Preoptic area
A neuropsychological measure of an outcome’s affective importance to an organism.Reward value
The state of being full to satisfaction and no longer desiring to take on more.Satiation
An experiential, physiological, and behavioral response to a personally meaningful stimulus.Emotion
The degree to which emotional responses (subjective experience, behavior, physiology, etc.) converge with one another.Emotion coherence
The degree to which emotions vary or change in intensity over time.Emotion fluctuation
The experience of mental and physical health and the absence of disorder.Well-being
An emotional process; includes moods, subjective feelings, and discrete emotions.Affect
Two almond-shaped structures located in the medial temporal lobes of the brain.Amygdala
A brain structure located below the thalamus and above the brain stem.Hypothalamus
The study of the nervous system.Neuroscience
A region of the basal forebrain located in front of the preoptic region.Nucleus accumbens
A region of the frontal lobes of the brain above the eye sockets.Orbital frontal cortex
The gray matter in the midbrain near the cerebral aqueduct.Periaqueductal gray
A part of the anterior hypothalamus.Preoptic region
A band of fibers that runs along the top surface of the thalamus.Stria terminalis
A structure in the midline of the brain located between the midbrain and the cerebral cortex.Thalamus
The part of the brain that processes visual information, located in the back of the brain.Visual cortex
In health, it is the ability of a patient to maintain a health behavior prescribed by a physician. This might include taking medication as prescribed, exercising more, or eating less high-fat food.Adherence
A field similar to health psychology that integrates psychological factors (e.g., emotion, behavior, cognition, and social factors) in the treatment of disease. This applied field includes clinical areas of study, such as occupational therapy, hypnosis, rehabilitation or medicine, and preventative medicine.Behavioral medicine
The process by which physiological signals, not normally available to human perception, are transformed into easy-to-understand graphs or numbers. Individuals can then use this information to try to change bodily functioning (e.g., lower blood pressure, reduce muscle tension).Biofeedback
A reductionist model that posits that ill health is a result of a deviation from normal function, which is explained by the presence of pathogens, injury, or genetic abnormality.Biomedical Model of Health
An approach to studying health and human function that posits the importance of biological, psychological, and social (or environmental) processes.Biopsychosocial Model of Health
A health condition that persists over time, typically for periods longer than three months (e.g., HIV, asthma, diabetes).Chronic disease
Feeling like you have the power to change your environment or behavior if you need or want to.Control
Irritations in daily life that are not necessarily traumatic, but that cause difficulties and repeated stress.Daily hassles
Coping strategy aimed at reducing the negative emotions associated with a stressful event.Emotion-focused coping
A three-phase model of stress, which includes a mobilization of physiological resources phase, a coping phase, and an exhaustion phase (i.e., when an organism fails to cope with the stress adequately and depletes its resources).General Adaptation Syndrome
According to the World Health Organization, it is a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.Health
Any behavior that is related to health—either good or bad.Health behavior
An experience or trait with cognitive, behavioral, and emotional components. It often includes cynical thoughts, feelings of emotion, and aggressive behavior.Hostility
The idea that our emotions and thoughts can affect how our body functions.Mind–body connection
A set of coping strategies aimed at improving or changing stressful situations.Problem-focused coping
A field of study examining the relationship among psychology, brain function, and immune function.Psychoneuroimmunology
An interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on how biological, psychological, and social processes contribute to physiological changes in the body and health over time.Psychosomatic medicine
The ability to “bounce back” from negative situations (e.g., illness, stress) to normal functioning or to simply not show poor outcomes in the face of adversity. In some cases, resilience may lead to better functioning following the negative experience (e.g., post-traumatic growth).Resilience
The belief that one can perform adequately in a specific situation.Self-efficacy
The size of your social network, or number of social roles (e.g., son, sister, student, employee, team member).Social integration
The perception or actuality that we have a social network that can help us in times of need and provide us with a variety of useful resources (e.g., advice, love, money).Social support
A pattern of physical and psychological responses in an organism after it perceives a threatening event that disturbs its homeostasis and taxes its abilities to cope with the event.Stress
An event or stimulus that induces feelings of stress.Stressor
Type A behavior is characterized by impatience, competitiveness, neuroticism, hostility, and anger.Type A Behavior
Type B behavior reflects the absence of Type A characteristics and is represented by less competitive, aggressive, and hostile behavior patterns.Type B Behavior
The fact that after people first react to good or bad events, sometimes in a strong way, their feelings and reactions tend to dampen down over time and they return toward their original level of subjective well-being.Adaptation
Situational factors outside the person that influence his or her subjective well-being, such as good and bad events and circumstances such as health and wealth.“Bottom-up” or external causes of happiness
The popular word for subjective well-being. Scientists sometimes avoid using this term because it can refer to different things, such as feeling good, being satisfied, or even the causes of high subjective well-being.Happiness
A person reflects on their life and judges to what degree it is going well, by whatever standards that person thinks are most important for a good life.Life satisfaction
Undesirable and unpleasant feelings that people tend to avoid if they can. Moods and emotions such as depression, anger, and worry are examples.Negative feelings
Desirable and pleasant feelings. Moods and emotions such as enjoyment and love are examples.Positive feelings
The name that scientists give to happiness—thinking and feeling that our lives are going very well.Subjective well-being
Self-report surveys or questionnaires in which participants indicate their levels of subjective well-being, by responding to items with a number that indicates how well off they feel.Subjective well-being scales
The person’s outlook and habitual response tendencies that influence their happiness—for example, their temperament or optimistic outlook on life.“Top-down” or internal causes of happiness
The belief that everyone and everything had a “soul” and that mental illness was due to animistic causes, for example, evil spirits controlling an individual and their behavior.Animism
A place of refuge or safety established to confine and care for the mentally ill; forerunners of the mental hospital or psychiatric facility.Asylum
A model in which the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors is seen as influencing the development of the individual.Biopsychosocial model
A therapeutic procedure introduced by Breuer and developed further by Freud in the late 19th century whereby a patient gains insight and emotional relief from recalling and reliving traumatic events.C​athartic method
The idea that cultural norms and values of a society can only be understood on their own terms or in their own context.Cultural relativism
The causal description of all of the factors that contribute to the development of a disorder or illness.Etiology
A belief held by ancient Greek and Roman physicians (and until the 19th century) that an excess or deficiency in any of the four bodily fluids, or humors—blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm—directly affected their health and temperament.Humorism (or humoralism)
Term used by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians to describe a disorder believed to be caused by a woman’s uterus wandering throughout the body and interfering with other organs (today referred to as conversion disorder, in which psychological problems are expressed in physical form).Hysteria
Term referring to behaviors that cause people who have them physical or emotional harm, prevent them from functioning in daily life, and/or indicate that they have lost touch with reality and/or cannot control their thoughts and behavior (also called dysfunctional).Maladaptive
Derived from Franz Anton Mesmer in the late 18th century, an early version of hypnotism in which Mesmer claimed that hysterical symptoms could be treated through animal magnetism emanating from Mesmer’s body and permeating the universe (and later through magnets); later explained in terms of high suggestibility in individuals.Mesmerism
Developing from psychological origins.Psychogenesis
Developing from physical/bodily origins.Somatogenesis
Developing from origins beyond the visible observable universe.Supernatural
Involving a particular group of signs and symptoms.Syndrome
A therapeutic regimen of improved nutrition, living conditions, and rewards for productive behavior that has been attributed to Philippe Pinel during the French Revolution, when he released mentally ill patients from their restraints and treated them with compassion and dignity rather than with contempt and denigration.“Traitement moral” (moral treatment)
The drilling of a hole in the skull, presumably as a way of treating psychological disorders.Trephination
A sort of anxiety disorder distinguished by feelings that a place is uncomfortable or may be unsafe because it is significantly open or crowded.Agoraphobia
A mood state characterized by negative affect, muscle tension, and physical arousal in which a person apprehensively anticipates future danger or misfortune.Anxiety
A specific genetic and neurobiological factor that might predispose someone to develop anxiety disorders.Biological vulnerability
A learned reaction following classical conditioning, or the process by which an event that automatically elicits a response is repeatedly paired with another neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus), resulting in the ability of the neutral stimulus to elicit the same response on its own.Conditioned response
Stimuli in the outside world that serve as triggers for anxiety or as reminders of past traumatic events.External cues
A biological reaction to alarming stressors that prepares the body to resist or escape a threat.Fight or flight response
Sudden, intense re-experiencing of a previous event, usually trauma-related.Flashback
Excessive worry about everyday things that is at a level that is out of proportion to the specific causes of worry.Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
Physical sensations that serve as triggers for anxiety or as reminders of past traumatic events.Internal bodily or somatic cues
Avoidance of situations or activities that produce sensations of physical arousal similar to those occurring during a panic attack or intense fear response.Interoceptive avoidance
A disorder characterized by the desire to engage in certain behaviors excessively or compulsively in hopes of reducing anxiety. Behaviors include things such as cleaning, repeatedly opening and closing doors, hoarding, and obsessing over certain thoughts.Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
A condition marked by regular strong panic attacks, and which may include significant levels of worry about future attacks.Panic disorder (PD)
A sense of intense fear, triggered by memories of a past traumatic event, that another traumatic event might occur. PTSD may include feelings of isolation and emotional numbing.Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)