Flashcards: Psychological theories

A need is something that is necessary for an organism to live a healthy life.

The fight-or-flight response (also called hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.

The broken windows theory is a criminological theory of the norm-setting and signaling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behavior.

Ecological systems theory, also called development in context or human ecology theory, identifies five environmental systems with which an individual interacts.

The mind–body problem is the problem of explaining how mental states, events and processes—like beliefs, actions and thinking—are related to the physical states, events and processes, given that the human body is a physical entity and the mind is non-physical.

Self-image is the mental picture, generally of a kind that is quite resistant to change, that depicts not only details that are potentially available to objective investigation by others (height, weight, hair color, gender, I.Q. score, etc.), but also items that have been learned by that person about themself, either from personal experiences or by internalizing the judgments of others.

The triangular theory of love is a theory of love developed by psychologist Robert Sternberg.

Authoritarian personality is a state of mind or attitude characterized by belief in absolute obedience or submission to one's own authority, as well as the administration of that belief through the oppression of one's subordinates.

The problem of mental causation is a conceptual issue in the philosophy of mind.

Buddhism includes an analysis of human psychology, emotion, cognition, behavior and motivation along with therapeutic practices.

Attachment theory is a psychological model that attempts to describe the dynamics of long-term and short-term interpersonal relationships between humans.

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time; performs an action that is contradictory to their beliefs, ideas, or values; or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas or values.

Linguistic relativity, also known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis or Whorfianism, is a concept-paradigm in linguistics and cognitive science that holds that the structure of a language affects its speakers' cognition or world view.

Psychological resilience is defined as an individual's ability to successfully adapt to life tasks in the face of social disadvantage or highly adverse conditions.

Nudge theory (or Nudge) is a concept in behavioural science, political theory and economics which argues that positive reinforcement and indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives and decision making of groups and individuals, at least as effectively – if not more effectively – than direct instruction, legislation, or enforcement.

Unconscious thought theory (UTT) posits that the unconscious mind is capable of performing tasks outside of one's awareness, and that unconscious thought (UT) is better at solving complex tasks, where many variables are considered, than conscious thought (CT), but is outperformed by conscious thought in tasks with fewer variables.

The variability hypothesis originated in the early nineteenth century with Johann Meckel, who argued that males have a greater range of ability than females, especially in intelligence.

The study of the causes of transsexuality investigates gender identity formation of transgender people, especially those who are transsexual.

There are many theories of humor which attempt to explain what humor is, what social functions it serves, and what would be considered humorous.

Cyberpsychology (or Internet psychology or web psychology) is a developing field that encompasses all psychological phenomena that are associated with or affected by emerging technology.