First-year courses · Social sciences

Intro psychology: learning, development and social

Second-term intro psychology flashcards: conditioning, memory, thinking errors, development, personality, motivation, disorders, therapy and social influence.

40 cards6 topicsAbout 15 minutes a roundTypical first-year Introduction to Psychology, second term (learning, memory, development, personality, disorders, social)

Print cards to cut out (PDF)Print a study list (PDF)

About this deck

This deck follows the second half of a standard introductory psychology sequence in Canada. It moves from how we learn through conditioning and observation, to how memory and everyday reasoning work, to how people change across the lifespan. It then covers personality, motivation and emotion, the main categories of psychological disorders and treatments, and the classic findings of social psychology.

Before starting, make sure you can tell the difference between an experiment and a correlational study, since many of the famous studies here (Asch, Milgram, Bandura) are remembered for their design as much as their results. The foundations deck on StudyBrix covers that background.

Try explaining each term with a fresh example from your own life rather than repeating the one on the card. For conditioning cards, write out the stimulus and response labels for a new situation, such as a phone notification sound. For disorders, focus on the defining features and remember that diagnosis requires a trained clinician; flashcards are for study, not self-assessment.

Watch for three frequent errors. Negative reinforcement is not punishment: it removes something unpleasant to increase a behaviour. Extinction in classical conditioning means the learned response fades, not that it is erased forever, since spontaneous recovery can occur. And the bystander effect does not mean people do not care; it describes how responsibility spreads thin in a group.

Before you start: Helpful to finish the foundations deck first or have completed the first term of introductory psychology.

All 40 cards

Cover the definitions with a sheet of paper and test yourself, or use the study modes above.

Learning

Classical conditioning: Learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to trigger a response after being repeatedly paired with a stimulus that already causes that response.Example: Pavlov's dogs salivated to a tone that had been paired with food.
Unconditioned stimulus: Something that naturally and automatically triggers a response without any prior learning.Example: The smell of food that makes you salivate.
Conditioned response: A learned reaction to a previously neutral cue that has been paired with a natural trigger.Example: Feeling anxious at the sound of a dentist's drill.
Extinction: The gradual weakening of a learned response when the cue is no longer followed by the original trigger or reward.Example: A dog stops drooling at the tone after many trials with no food.
Spontaneous recovery: The sudden reappearance of a weakened learned response after a rest period.Example: The faded fear of a dentist's drill briefly returns at the next visit months later.
Operant conditioning: Learning in which behaviour becomes more or less likely depending on the consequences that follow it.Example: A student studies more after earning praise and a high mark.
Positive reinforcement: Adding a desirable consequence after a behaviour to make that behaviour more likely.Example: Earning loyalty points for every coffee purchase.
Negative reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant condition after a behaviour, which makes that behaviour more likely in the future.Example: Buckling your seatbelt makes the car's warning chime stop.
Punishment: A consequence that makes the behaviour it follows less likely, either by adding something unpleasant or taking away something pleasant.Example: Losing phone privileges after missing curfew.
Observational learning: Learning by watching others and the results of their actions; studied by Albert Bandura, who was born in Mundare, Alberta.Example: Children who watched an adult hit a Bobo doll were more likely to hit it themselves.

Memory and cognition

Encoding: The process of transforming information into a form the brain can store.Example: Linking a new classmate's name to someone famous with the same name.
Working memory: A limited-capacity system that holds and manipulates information briefly while you use it.Example: Keeping a phone number in mind while you type it.
Episodic memory: Explicit memory for specific personal events tied to a time and place.Example: Remembering your first day on campus.
Semantic memory: Explicit memory for general facts and knowledge, independent of when they were learned.Example: Knowing that Ottawa is the capital of Canada.
Procedural memory: Implicit memory for skills and habits that are performed without conscious recall.Example: Skating or riding a bike after years without practice.
Serial position effect: Tendency to recall the first and last items of a list better than those in the middle.Example: Remembering the first and last groceries on a list but forgetting the middle ones.
Misinformation effect: Distortion of a memory caused by misleading information received after the event.Example: Witnesses who heard 'smashed' estimated higher car speeds than those who heard 'hit'.
Availability heuristic: Judging how likely something is by how easily examples come to mind.Example: Overestimating plane crash risk after heavy news coverage of one crash.
Confirmation bias: Tendency to seek, notice and remember information that supports what you already believe.Example: Only reading reviews that agree with the phone you already chose.

Development

Object permanence: Understanding that things continue to exist when they cannot be seen; Piaget placed its development in the sensorimotor stage.Example: A baby searches under a blanket for a hidden toy.
Conservation: Understanding that quantity stays the same despite changes in shape or appearance, which Piaget linked to the concrete operational stage.Example: Knowing a tall thin glass and a short wide glass can hold the same juice.
Attachment style: Pattern of emotional bond between an infant and caregiver, classified by Ainsworth's Strange Situation as secure, avoidant, or ambivalent (resistant), with disorganized added later.Example: A secure infant is upset when the parent leaves and calms quickly on reunion.
Erikson's psychosocial stages: Eight lifespan stages, each defined by a social conflict to resolve, such as trust versus mistrust or identity versus role confusion.Example: A first-year student exploring majors and values is working on identity.

Personality and motivation

Big Five personality traits: Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism: five broad dimensions that describe most personality differences.Example: A highly conscientious student plans assignments weeks ahead.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Model ranking motives from physiological and safety needs up through belonging and esteem to self-actualization.Example: A person facing food insecurity is less likely to focus on creative goals.
Intrinsic motivation: Desire to do something because it is interesting or satisfying in itself rather than for a reward.Example: Learning guitar purely because you enjoy it.
Two-factor theory of emotion: Schachter and Singer's view that emotion depends on physical arousal plus a cognitive label explaining that arousal.Example: A racing heart is felt as excitement at a concert but as fear in a dark alley.

Disorders and therapy

DSM-5-TR: The current American Psychiatric Association manual that lists criteria clinicians use to diagnose mental disorders; widely used in Canada.Example: It specifies how many symptoms, for how long, are needed for a diagnosis.
Major depressive disorder: Condition marked by at least two weeks of depressed mood or loss of interest, plus symptoms such as sleep change, fatigue and feelings of worthlessness.Example: Treatment often combines psychotherapy and medication.
Generalized anxiety disorder: Condition involving excessive, hard to control worry about many everyday matters on most days for at least six months.Example: Constant worry about grades, money and health even when things are going well.
Schizophrenia: Serious disorder involving symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and reduced emotional expression or motivation.Example: Hearing voices that others do not hear.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT): Structured, goal-focused treatment that helps people identify and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours.Example: Testing the belief 'everyone will laugh at me' by speaking once in a seminar.
Exposure therapy: Treatment that reduces fear by gradually and safely confronting the feared object or situation.Example: A person afraid of elevators rides one floor, then two, then ten.
SSRI: Class of antidepressant medication that increases serotonin available at synapses by blocking its reabsorption.Example: Fluoxetine and sertraline belong to this class.

Social psychology

Fundamental attribution error: Tendency to explain other people's behaviour by their personality while underestimating the role of the situation.Example: Assuming a driver who cut you off is rude, not rushing to a hospital.
Cognitive dissonance: Discomfort felt when actions and beliefs conflict, which often leads people to change a belief to match what they did.Example: After buying an expensive jacket, deciding it was worth every dollar.
Conformity: Adjusting behaviour or beliefs to match a group; Asch showed many people gave clearly wrong answers to match others.Example: Standing up in a waiting room when everyone else does at a beep.
Obedience: Following direct orders from an authority figure; Milgram found most participants kept giving what they believed were painful shocks when told to.Example: An employee follows a manager's instruction they personally doubt.
Bystander effect: Finding that a person is less likely to help in an emergency when other people are present, partly because responsibility feels shared.Example: Many people walk past someone fallen on a busy sidewalk.
Social facilitation: Improved performance on simple or well-practised tasks, and worse performance on complex or new tasks, when others are watching.Example: A skilled runner posts a faster time in a crowded race than alone.