Psychology: Quick Revision Summary
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LEARNING THEORIES & PRINCIPLES
| Concept / Topic | Quick Definition / Principle | Exam Hook & High-Yield Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Habituation | A decrease in response to a repeated, harmless stimulus. | Hook: "Getting used to it." Vignette: A medical student becoming comfortable in an anatomy lab over time. The response diminishes. |
| Classical Conditioning | Learning by associating a neutral stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally elicits a response. | Hook: The classic model for phobia development. E.g., Elevator (CS) + Panic Attack (UCS) → Fear (CR). The UCS is the innately scary thing (panic attack, loud noise). The CS is the thing that becomes scary through association (elevator, mouse). |
| Backward Conditioning | The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is presented before the conditioned stimulus (CS). | Hook: Commonly used in advertising. E.g., An appealing scene (UCS) is shown before the product logo (CS) to create a positive association. Generally ineffective for other types of learning. |
| Stimulus Generalisation | A conditioned response spreads to stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus. | Hook: "Fear spreads." Vignette: A phobia of one type of spider generalizes to a fear of all insects. |
| Operant Conditioning | Learning where behaviour is controlled by its consequences (reinforcement or punishment). | Hook: Reinforcement ALWAYS INCREASES behaviour. Punishment ALWAYS DECREASES behaviour. Positive = ADD stimulus. Negative = REMOVE stimulus. |
| Positive Reinforcement | Adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behaviour. | Hook: Giving a reward. E.g., Praising a patient for attending therapy to make future attendance more likely. |
| Negative Reinforcement | Removing an aversive stimulus to increase a behaviour. | Hook: The engine of avoidance. This is the key mechanism that maintains OCD compulsions and phobic avoidance. The relief from anxiety is the powerful negative reinforcer. It's about taking away something bad, not giving something bad. |
| Schedules of Reinforcement | The rules determining when a behaviour will be reinforced. | Hook: Interval = Time. Ratio = Responses/Actions. Fixed = Predictable. Variable = Unpredictable. |
| ↳ Fixed Interval | Reinforcement after a predictable amount of time. | Hook: Monthly Salary or a pension. Response rate is low just after reinforcement and increases as the next time point approaches. |
| ↳ Fixed Ratio | Reinforcement after a predictable number of responses. | Hook: Piece-rate work. E.g., "Paid £1 for every 10 items assembled." Produces a high, steady rate of response. |
| ↳ Variable Ratio | Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses. | Hook: Gambling / Slot Machines. Generates a high, constant rate of response and is the most resistant to extinction. This explains addiction. |
| Learned Helplessness | After experiencing uncontrollable negative events, an organism stops trying to escape, even when escape is possible. | Hook: Seligman's dogs. The classic behavioural model for depression (passivity, hopelessness). The Forced Swim Test in animals is based on this principle. |
| Observational Learning (Modelling) | Learning by observing the behaviour of others ("models") and the consequences of that behaviour. | Hook: Bandura's Bobo Doll experiment. "Learning by watching." Key mechanism is vicarious reinforcement (seeing the model get rewarded motivates the observer to imitate). |
| Reciprocal Inhibition | The principle that two incompatible emotional states (e.g., anxiety and relaxation) cannot exist simultaneously. | Hook: Joseph Wolpe's principle. This is the core mechanism underlying Systematic Desensitisation. You can't be relaxed and anxious at the same time. |
PERCEPTION & ATTENTION
| Concept / Topic | Quick Definition / Principle | Exam Hook & High-Yield Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Top-Down Processing | Perception guided by higher-level knowledge, experience, and expectations. | Hook: Concept-driven. Your brain uses context to "fill in the gaps." Vignette: Being able to read a sentence with mssing lttres. This is Gregory's constructivist theory. |
| Gestalt Principles | Rules of perceptual organization describing how we naturally group stimuli into meaningful wholes. | Hook: Closure = We fill in gaps to see a complete shape. Proximity = We group nearby items together. Figure-Ground = Separating an object from its background. |
| Selective Attention | The ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out others. | Hook: The Cocktail Party Effect. E.g., Focusing on one conversation in a noisy room, but still having your attention captured when you hear your name. |
| Inattentional Blindness | Failing to see a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task. | Hook: The "Invisible Gorilla" experiment. Vignette: A driver using a sat-nav "doesn't see" a red light. It's a failure of attention, not vision. |
| Hypnosis | A state of consciousness involving highly focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness. | Hook: The key feature is highly focused, selective attention. It is the opposite of "indiscriminately directed" attention. |
MEMORY: SYSTEMS & PROCESSES
| Concept / Topic | Quick Definition / Principle | Exam Hook & High-Yield Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Short-Term Memory (STM) | A memory store with limited capacity and duration, holding what we are currently thinking about. | Hook: Capacity = 7 ± 2 chunks. Duration = ~30 seconds without rehearsal. Assessed by Digit Span. |
| LTM: Declarative vs. Non-Declarative | The primary division of long-term memory. | Hook: Declarative (Explicit) = "Knowing WHAT" (facts, events). Non-Declarative (Implicit) = "Knowing HOW" (skills, habits). This dissociation is key. |
| ↳ Episodic Memory | Declarative memory for personal events and experiences ("episodes"). Your mental diary. | Hook: The memory system most affected by amnesia. E.g., "What did you have for breakfast?" or recalling a past birthday. |
| ↳ Semantic Memory | Declarative memory for general knowledge and facts about the world. Your mental encyclopedia. | Hook: Factual knowledge. E.g., "What is the capital of France?" or naming the planets. |
| ↳ Procedural Memory | Non-declarative memory for skills and habits. | Hook: "Muscle memory" (e.g., riding a bike, tying shoes). This is the memory system most likely to be spared or preserved in organic amnesia and schizophrenia. |
| Priming | Unconscious memory effect where exposure to one stimulus influences the response to a subsequent stimulus. | Hook: Classified as non-declarative (implicit) memory. Happens automatically without conscious awareness. |
| Serial Position Effect | The tendency to best recall the first and last items in a list. | Hook: Primacy effect (remembering the first items) is due to LTM. Recency effect (remembering the last items) is due to STM. |
| Retroactive vs. Proactive Interference | Forgetting due to the interference of other memories. | Hook: Retroactive = Recent info interferes with recalling old info. Proactive = Prior info interferes with learning new info. |
| Flashbulb Memory | A vivid, detailed memory of the personal circumstances surrounding a shocking, emotionally arousing event. | Hook: A mental "snapshot" of the moment you heard about the event (e.g., 9/11). Feels very accurate but is not immune to distortion. |
| Cryptomnesia | A memory distortion where a forgotten memory is mistaken for a new, original thought. | Hook: Unintentional plagiarism. A historian writing passages from books he read years ago, believing them to be his own thoughts. |
| Ribot's Law | The temporal gradient in retrograde amnesia where recent memories are more vulnerable to loss than remote memories. | Hook: In amnesia, new memories go first. Childhood memories (remote) are more robust and resistant to brain damage than memories from last week (recent). |
| Prospective Memory | The ability to "remember to remember"—to carry out a planned action in the future. | Hook: Failure of this system is "absent-mindedness." Vignette: A patient forgets to take medication or misses appointments. |
INTELLIGENCE, COGNITION & PERSONALITY
| Concept / Topic | Quick Definition / Principle | Exam Hook & High-Yield Facts |
|---|---|---|
| NART (National Adult Reading Test) | A test used to estimate premorbid intelligence in people with cognitive decline. | Hook: Assesses premorbid IQ. Rationale: Pronunciation of irregular words is a "hold" ability that resists dementia. Vignette: Assessing a patient with suspected Alzheimer's. |
| Raven's Progressive Matrices | A non-verbal test of fluid intelligence. | Hook: The go-to test for non-verbal or "culture-fair" intelligence assessment. Involves completing abstract visual patterns. |
| Stroop Test | A neuropsychological test of selective attention and response inhibition. | Hook: Stroop = Selective Attention / Inhibition. The task of marking the ink colour of a word (e.g., "RED" in blue ink) is the classic test. |
| WCST (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) | A neuropsychological test of cognitive flexibility and set-shifting. | Hook: WCST = Cognitive Flexibility / Set-Shifting. The key is the ability to adapt when the sorting rule changes. A high number of perseverative errors indicates frontal lobe dysfunction. |
| Proverb Interpretation | A bedside test of abstract reasoning. | Hook: A test of abstraction. A concrete interpretation (e.g., "Don't throw stones because glass will break") suggests impairment. |
| The Big Five (OCEAN) | The dominant trait model of personality. | Hook: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. You MUST know these five. Any other trait (e.g., Psychoticism, Generosity) is a distractor. |
| Eysenck's PEN Model | A three-factor model of personality. | Hook: Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism. Eysenck's theory has a strong genetic/biological basis. |
| Nomothetic vs. Idiographic | Two approaches to studying personality. | Hook: Nomothetic = Norms (seeks universal traits to compare everyone). Idiographic = Individual (focuses on the unique makeup of one person). |
| Projective Tests | Personality tests using ambiguous stimuli to reveal unconscious conflicts. | Hook: TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) = Tell a story about a picture. Rorschach Inkblot Test = Describe what you see in an inkblot (useful for illiterate patients). |
| Theory of Mind (ToM) | The ability to understand that others have their own distinct mental states (beliefs, intentions, desires). | Hook: Assessed by the Sally-Anne "false belief" task. Key for empathy and social interaction. |
MOTIVATION, EMOTION & STRESS
| Concept / Topic | Quick Definition / Principle | Exam Hook & High-Yield Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs | A theory that people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to other, more advanced needs. | Hook: You must satisfy lower (deficiency) needs first. Vignette: A homeless, malnourished patient will prioritize physiological needs over engaging in psychotherapy. |
| Yerkes-Dodson Law | The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases. | Hook: The Inverted-U Curve. Performance is poor at both very low and very high levels of stress/arousal. Optimal performance occurs at a moderate level. |
| Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory | The theory that emotion results from two factors: physiological arousal and a cognitive label for that arousal. | Hook: Arousal + Cognitive Label = Emotion. The classic exam vignette is the adrenaline injection experiment, where participants' emotions are shaped by the social context. |
| Universal Basic Emotions | A set of innate, universally recognized emotions. | Hook: Ekman = 6 basic emotions (from facial expressions). Panksepp = 7 primary affective systems (from neuroscience). |
PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES
| Concept / Topic | Quick Definition / Principle | Exam Hook & High-Yield Facts |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle of Change | The stages a person goes through when changing a behaviour. | Hook: Precontemplation → Contemplation → Preparation (planning, seeking information) → Action → Maintenance. |
| Systematic Desensitisation | A behavioural therapy for phobias that pairs relaxation with a gradual hierarchy of feared stimuli. | Hook: Based on Reciprocal Inhibition. The key components are Relaxation + Gradual Hierarchy. |
| Flooding | A behavioural therapy that involves prolonged, intense exposure to a feared stimulus without relaxation. | Hook: The opposite of systematic desensitisation. The key is intense, non-gradual exposure and NO relaxation. |
| Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) | A therapy for BPD and emotional dysregulation that balances acceptance and change. | Hook: The #1 evidence-based therapy for reducing deliberate self-harm and suicidal behaviour. |
| Psychological Debriefing | A single-session intervention immediately following a trauma. | Hook: AVOID. This therapy is not effective for preventing PTSD and may even be harmful. It is a critical "negative" finding to know for the exam. |