Biological Psych
The part of the nervous system that includes the brain and spinal cord
What is the central nervous system?
The process of detecting physical stimuli from the environment
What is sensation?
Learning through association between two stimuli
What is classical conditioning?
The tendency to attribute others’ behavior to internal traits rather than situations
What is the fundamental attribution error?
The three-stage body response to stress involving alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
What is general adaptation syndrome?
A neurotransmitter involved in reward, motivation, and pleasure
What is dopamine?
Mental shortcuts used to make quick decisions and judgments
What are heuristics?
The process of strengthening a behavior through reinforcement or punishment
What is operant conditioning?
The phenomenon where individuals exert less effort when working in groups
What is social loafing?
A coping strategy that directly targets the source of stress
What is problem-focused coping?
The division of the autonomic nervous system responsible for “fight or flight”
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
The failure to notice changes in a visual scene
What is change blindness?
The tendency for learned behaviors to revert back toward natural instincts over time
What is instinctive drift?
The theory of persuasion that includes central and peripheral routes
What is the elaboration likelihood model?
A disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors
What is obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?
The electrical signal that occurs when a neuron fires after reaching threshold
What is an action potential?
A mental framework used to organize and interpret information
What is a schema?
The theory that people learn by observing and imitating others
What is social learning theory?
The tendency to favor members of one’s own group over outsiders
What is in-group bias?
A hormone that increases hunger and stimulates appetite
What is ghrelin?
A disease that damages the myelin sheath and disrupts neural communication
What is multiple sclerosis?
The ability to solve new problems without relying on prior knowledge
What is fluid intelligence?
The Piaget stage characterized by abstract and hypothetical thinking
What is the formal operational stage?
A group decision-making problem where desire for harmony overrides critical thinking
What is groupthink?
A model that explains disorders using biological, psychological, and social factors
What is the biopsychosocial model?