| A | B |
|---|
| Aphasia | impairment of the ability to understand (receptive) or use (expressive) language |
| Approach-approach conflict | a conflict in which the individual must choose between two positive stimuli or circumstances |
| Approach-avoidance conflict | a conflict in which the individual must choose whether or not to choose a circumstance involving a single stimulus that has both positive and negative characteristics |
| Aptitude test | test that measures what our potential should be and whether or not we will benefit from some training predicts our future capacity to learn and develop |
| Archetypes | according to Jung a number of universal themes that are part of the collective unconscious |
| Arousal | level of alertness wakefulness and activation caused by activity in the central nervous system optimal level varies with the person and the activity |
| Artificialism | the belief of the preoperational child that all objects are made by people |
| Artificial intelligence (AI) | a field of study in which computer programs are designed to simulate human cognitive abilities such as reasoning learning and understanding language |
| Assimilation | process by which we incorporate new information into our existing cognitive structures or schemas |
| Association areas | regions of the cerebral cortex that do not have specific sensory or motor functions but are involved in higher mental functions such as thinking planning and communicating |
| Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory | assumes three different memory systems sensory memory short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) |
| Attachment | close emotional bond or relationship between the infant and the caregiver |
| Attention | a state of focused awareness |
| Attention deficit/hyperactive disorder | a disorder in which the individual is unable to focus attention for a normal length of time and often shows an elevated level of activity |
| Attitude | learned predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to certain people objects or events |
| Attribution theory | a study of our causal explanations of behavior We attribute behavior to the individual’s disposition or to the situation |
| Authoritarian parenting style | sets up absolute and restrictive rules accompanied by punishment for disobedience |
| Authoritative parenting style | focuses on flexible rules for which reasons are generally given Parents are warm and nurture independence within guidelines |
| Autism | a severe childhood disorder characterized by language impairment lack of social responsiveness and possibly self-injurious behavior |
| Automatic processing | unconscious encoding of information about space time and frequency that occurs without interfering with our thinking about other things |
| Autonomic nervous system (ANS) | subdivision of PNS that includes motor nerves that innervate smooth (involuntary) or heart muscle Its sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for fight or flight the parasympathetic nervous system causes bodily changes for maintenance or rest |
| Availability heuristic | a tendency to estimate the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind |
| Aversive conditioning | a form of behavior therapy in which the client is trained to associate physical or psychological discomfort with behaviors thoughts or situations the client wants to stop or avoid |
| Avoidance behavior | behavior that results in the removal of an ongoing event |
| Avoidant attachment | infant neither seeks support or comfort from nor shows distress towards caregivers in the Strange situation |
| Avoidance-avoidance conflict | a conflict in which the individual must choose between two unattractive stimuli or circumstances |
| axon | a long single conducting fiber (usually covered in myelin) extending from the cell body of a neuron that transmits an action potential and that branches and ends in tips called terminal buttons (aka axon terminals or synaptic knobs) that secrete neurotransmitters |
| Babbling | a stage of speech development that is characterized by spontaneous utterance of speech sounds begins around 4 months of age |
| Behavior modification | therapy in which the client selects a goal and as he/she gets close to that goal receives small rewards until finally reaching the intended goal |
| Behavior therapy | treatment approach that uses applications of learning principles to eliminate unwanted behaviors |
| Behavioral approach | psychological perspective concerned with behavioral reactions to stimuli learning as a result of experience |
| Behaviorism | the view that psychology should be an objective science based on observable and measurable behaviors |
| Belief bias | the tendency for our preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning making illogical conclusions seem valid or logical conclusions seem invalid |
| Belief perseverance | the tendency for people to cling to a particular belief even after information that led to the formation of that belief has been discredited |
| Big 5 or OCEAN | trait theory of personality that says our personalities are composed of different amounts of common traits-openness conscientiousness extraversion agreeableness neuroticism |
| Biofeedback | a system for electronically recording amplifying and giving back information regarding a subtle physiological state |
| Biological preparedness | the species-specific predisposition to learn in certain ways but not in others |
| Bipolar disorder | a mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings from unusual excitement to serious depression |
| Bisexuality | a tendency to direct sexual desire toward people of both sexes |
| Blood-brain barrier | a collection of cells that press together against the walls of capillaries to block many substances from entering the brain while allowing others to pass |
| Borderline personality disorder | maladaptive behavior characterized by rapidly shifting and unstable mood self-concept and interpersonal relationships as well as impulsiveness self-mutilation and anger directed inwards; promiscuous and other self-destructive habits like drugs addiction common |
| Brain | portion of the central nervous system above the spinal cord |
| Hindbrain | includes the medulla pons cerebellum |
| Brainstorming | a popular technique practiced during creative problem-solving that encourages the generation of many ideas in a nonjudgmental environment |
| Broadbent filter theory of memory | inputs are analyzed for each stage of memory and most filtered out only the most important are encoded |
| Broca’s area | region in left frontal lobe that controls production of speech |
| Bulimia nervosa | an eating disorder characterized by a pattern of eating binges involving intake of thousands of calories followed by purging either by vomiting or using laxatives |
| Cannon-Bard theory | theory that emotions and physiological states occur simultaneously |
| Cardinal trait | defining personality characteristic in a small number of us that dominates and shapers our behavior (according to Allport) |
| Case study | intensive investigation of the behavior and mental processes associated with a specific person or situation |
| Catatonic schizophrenia | a psychotic disorder characterized by bizarre motor behavior which some times taken the form of an immobile stupor and waxy flexibility |
| Catharsis | in Freudian psychoanalysis the release of emotional tension after remembering or reliving an emotionally charged experience from the past as a coping device for stress the release of pent up emotions through exercise or other means |
| Cell body | also called the cyton or soma the part of the neuron that contains cytoplasm and the nucleus which directs synthesis of such substances as neurotransmitters |
| Central route of persuasion | in the elaboration likelihood model |
| Central tendency | average or most typical scores of a set of research data or distribution |
| Central trait | a general characteristic that shapes much of our behavior ( according to Allport) |
| Cerebellum | part of the brainstem that controls posture equilibrium and movement |
| Cerebral cortex | convoluted part of forebrain that is the center for higher order processes such as thinking planning judgment receives and processes sensory information and directs movement |
| Chromosome | structure in the nucleus of cells that contains genes determined by DNA sequences |
| Chunking | grouping information into meaningful units expands the capacity of short-term memory beyond seven unrelated bits of information |
| Circadian rhytms | daily patterns of changes that cycle approximately every 24 hours such as the sleep/wake cycle |
| Classical conditioning | learning that takes places when two or more stimuli are presented together; unconditioned stimulus is paired repeatedly with a neutral stimulus until it acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response |
| Client-centered of person-centered therapy | humanistic therapy introduced by Carl Rogers in which the client rather than the therapist directs the treatment process |
| Clinical depression | also called major depression |
| Clinical psychologists | psychologists who evaluate and treat mental emotional and behavioral disorders |
| Cognition | all the mental activities associated with thinking knowing and remembering information |
| Cognitive approach | psychological perspective concerned with how we receive store and process information think/reason and use language |
| Cognitive dissonance | according to Festinger |
| Cognitive learning | a type of learning that involves mental events problem solving and rule formation |
| Cognitive map | a mental picture of the layout of ones environment |
| Cognitive therapy | therapy that teaches people more adaptive ways of thinking and acting in order to eliminate maladaptive thinking and emotional reactions |
| Collective unconscious | according to Jung the powerful and influential system of the psyche that contains universal memories and ideas that all people have inherited from our ancestors over the course of evolution |
| Collectivism | primary identification of an individual as member of a group (family school company community) and goals of the group as ones goals |
| Color blindness | sex-linked trait more common in males where individual cannot see certain colors most often red and green |
| Compliance | modification of our behavior at another persons request |
| Compulsion | an irresistible impulse to repeat some action over and over although it serves no useful purpose |
| Computerized axial tomography (CAT or CT ) | a computerized image using x-rays passed through the brain to show structure and/or the extent of a lesion |
| Concept | a mental grouping or category for similar objects one of the basic elements of thought |
| Concrete operational stage | Piaget’s third stage of cognitive development (7-12 years) during which the child develops simple logic and masters conservation concepts |
| Concurrent validity | measure of test showing how much of a skill a person has at the moment |
| Conditioned response (CR) | in classical conditioning |
| Conditioned stimulus (CS) | in classical conditioning originally is a neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response after being repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus |
| Confabulation | filling in gaps in memory by combining and substituting memories from events other than the one youre trying to remember |
| Confirmation bias | a tendency to search for and use information that supports our preconceptions and ignore information that refutes our ideas often a hindrance to problem solving |
| Conformity | the adoption of attitudes and behaviors shared by a particular group of people |
| Confounding variables | in a controlled experiment differences between the experimental group and the control group other than the independent variable |
| Consciousness | awareness of the outside world and ourselves including our own mental processes thought feelings and perception EEGs of wakeful consciousness record alpha and beta waves |
| Conservation concepts | changes in the form of an object do not alter physical properties of mass volume and number acquired during Piagets concrete operational stage |
| Consolidation | the process by which information in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory presumably because of physical changes that occur in neurons in the brain |
| Construct validity | the true measure of validity Construct validity is the extent to which the test measures a given characteristic trait or construct |
| Contact comfort | Harlow study with monkeys and surrogate moms—need for close contract with caregiver independent of feeding questions Hulls drive reduction theory |
| Context-dependent memory | physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the information and becomes part of the memory trace |
| Contextual intelligence | what Sternberg calls street smarts intelligence that reflects behaviors that help us to adapt and fit into the environment by developing useful skills and behaviors |
| Contiguity | Pavlovian theory that classical conditioning is based on the association in time of the CS prior UCS |
| Contingency | Rescorla theory that the predictability of UCS following Cs determines classical conditioning |
| Continuity-discontinuity controversy | deals with the issue of whether development is a gradual |
| Continuous reinforcement | the schedule of reinforcement where each behavior emitted by the organism is rewarded |
| Control group | in a controlled experiment |
| Contolled experiment | research method in which the experimenter manipulates the independent variable ( IV) to see the effect on the dependent variable ( DV ) in order to establish a cause and effect relationship between the IV and DV |
| Conventional Level | Kohlberg’s second level of moral development |
| Convergent thinking | conventional thinking; thinking directed toward a single correct solution |
| Conversion disorder | a somatoform disorder involving the actual loss of bodily function |
| Coping | active efforts to reduce or tolerate perceived levels of stress |
| Corpus callosum | broad band of nervous tissue that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres transmitting information from one side of the brain to the other |
| Correlation coefficient (r ) | a statistical measure of the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data that ranges from -1 to + 1 |
| Counseling psychologists | psychologists who help people adapt to change or make changes in their lifestyle |
| Counterconditioning | replacing one emotion with its exact opposite |
| Creativity | the ability to generate ideas and solutions that are original novel and useful |
| Criterion-related validity | both predictive and concurrent validity checks scores on a test against performance in the future of presently |
| Critical period | a time interval during which specific stimuli have a major effect on development that the stimuli do not produce at other times |
| Critical period hypothesis | an optimal time after birth during which an organism must be exposed to certain influences if it is to develop properly language is an example |
| Cross-sectional research | a method of assessing developmental changes by evaluating different age groups of people at the same time |
| Crystallized intelligence | learned knowledge and skills such as vocabulary that tend to increase with age |
| Culture | behaviors ideas attitudes and traditions transmitted from one generation to the next within a group of people who share a common language and environment |
| Daydreaming | state of consciousness characterized by focus on inner private realities which can generate creative ideas |
| Decay theory | assumes that memories deteriorate as time passes |
| Deep processing | involves attaching meaning and creating associations between the new memory and existing memories |
| Defense mechanisms | unconscious deceptive reactions that protect the ego from unpleasant emotions that are threatening |
| Deindividuation | high arousal and anonymity in groups may lead to antisocial acts |
| Deinstitutionalization | movement began in 1950s and 1960s to remove patients from mental hospitals who were not considered a threat to themselves or the community |
| Delayed conditioning | ideal training in classical conditioning where the CS precedes UCS and briefly overlaps |
| Delusion | thought disorder characterized by false belief that others are plotting against them that they are famous or that their thoughts and actions are controlled by others symptomatic of schizophrenia and sometimes depression |
| Dendrites | branching tubular processes of neuron that have receptor sites for receiving information |
| Denial | Freudian defense mechanism a refusal to admit a particular aspect of reality |
| Dependent variable (DV) | the behavior or mental process that is measured in an experiment or quasi-experiment (the effect) |
| Depressants | psychoactive drugs that reduce the activity of the central nervous system and induce relaxation include sedatives such as barbiturates tranquilizers and alcohol |
| Descriptive statistics | numbers that summarize a set of research data obtained from a sample |
| Developmental psychology | study of physical intellectual social and moral changes over the lifespan from conception to death |
| Deviation IQ | Weschler’s procedure for computing the intelligence quotient compares a child’s score with those received by other children of the same chronological age |
| Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM IV-1994) | a widely used manual for mental health professionals that classifies psychological disorders published by American Psychiatric Association |
| Diathesis-stress Model | an account of the cause of mental disorders based on the idea that mental disorders develop when a person possesses a genetic predisposition for a disorder and later faces stressors that exceed his or her abilities to cope with them |
| Diffusion of responsibility | a phenomenon that seems to reduce the sense of personal responsibility that any one person feels to help others increases in proportion to the size of the group present |
| Discrimination | in classical conditioning |
| Disinhibition | a behavior therapy for phobias where modeling is used |
| Disorganized schizophrenia (habephrenia) | a type of schizophrenia characterized primarily by disturbances of thought and inappropriate affect-silly behavior or absence of emotions |
| Displacement | expressing feelings toward something or someone besides the target person |
| Dispositional attributions | hold an individual responsible for his behavior |
| Dissociation | experience of two or more streams of consciousness cut off from each other |
| Dissociative amnesia | repression of memory for a particularly troublesome event or period of time into the unconscious mind characterized by the inability to remember important events or personal information |
| Dissociative disorders | class of disorders in which traumatic events or unpleasant memories cause a massive repression into the unconscious mind |
| Dissociative fugue | sometimes called the traveling amnesiac disorder in which a person moves away assumes a new identity and experiences amnesia related to the previous identity |
| Dissociative identity disorder | formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder a rarely seen dissociative disorder in which two or more distinct personalities exist within the same person |
| Divergent thinking | thinking that produces many alternatives or ideas creativity |
| Dizygotic or fraternal twins | twins who develop from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperms |
| Dominant gene | the gene expressed when the genes for a trait are different |
| Dopamine | a neurotransmitter that stimulates the hypothalamus to synthesize hormones and affects alertness attention and movement Lack of dopamine is associated with schizophrenia |
| Double-bind | a theory that serious mental illness may result from a child that is given mutually inconsistent messages such as love and hate from a parent |
| Double-blind procedure | research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group |
| Double-blind procedure | research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is the control group |
| Down syndrome | usually with three copies of chromosome-21 in their cells |
| Drive reduction theory | theory of motivation that focuses on internal states of tension such as hunger |
| Dualism | sees mind and body as two different things that interact |
| Echoic memory | auditory sensory memory |
| Eclectic | use of techniques and ideas from a variety of approaches to psychotherapy |
| Ectomorph | Sheldon’s body type characterized by thin frail body introversion |
| Educational psychologists | psychologists who focus on how effective teaching and learning take place |
| EEG (electroencephalogram) | an amplified tracing of brain activity produced when electrodes positioned over the scalp transmit signals about the brain’s electrical activity (“brain waves”) to an electroencephalograph machine |
| Efferent neuron | also called motor neuron |
| Ego | Freud’s personality structure that is the only rational component it serves as the mediator between the id and superego and also as the decision-maker for the personality |
| Egocentrism | seeing the world from one’s own perspective the inability to see reality from the perspective of another person characteristic of the preoperational child |
| Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) | attitudinal change-central or peripheral route |
| Elaborative rehearsal | stored in long-term memory meaningful |
| Electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) | is used as a last resort to treat severely depressed patients involves passing small amounts of electric current through the brain to produce seizure activity and change in affect |
| Embryo | the developmental prenatal stage (from about 2 weeks through 2 months after fertilization) when most organ development begins |
| Emotional intelligence | the ability to perceive express understand and regulate emotions |
| Emotions | feelings highly subjective personal tendencies to respond to internal and external variables includes physical arousal expressive behaviors and conscious experience |
| Encoding | the process of converting information into some form that enables it to be stored into our memory system |
| Encoding specificity principle | retrieval depends upon the match between the way information is encoded and the way it is retrieved |
| Endocrine system | ductless glands that typically secrete hormones directly into the blood |
| Endomorph | Sheldon’s body type characterized by round spherical body lover of comfort sociability |
| Endorphins | neurotransmitters similar to the opiatemorphine that relieves pain and may induce feelings of pleasure |
| Engineering psychologists | psychologist who do research on how people function best with machines |
| Engrams | memory traces of information you acquire during life that is encoded in your brain |
| Episodic memories | personal experiences that become consolidated into our long-term memory |
| Escape behavior | behavior that terminates an ongoing event negative reinforcement |
| Ethical guidelines | suggested rules for acting responsibly and morally when conducting research or in clinical practice |
| Ethnocentrism | belief that our culture or social group is superior to others |
| Ethologists | scientists who study animal behavior and how it has evolved in different species |
| Eustress | physiological and emotional arousal that may be productive and motivating |
| Evoked potentials | EEGs resulting from a response to a specific stimulus presented to the subject |
| Evolutionary psychologist | one who studies how natural selection favored behaviors that contributed to survival and spread of our ancestors’ genes evolutionary psychologists look at universal behaviors shared by all people |
| Excitatory neurotransmitter | chemical secreted at terminal button that causes the neuron on the other side of the synapse to generate an action potential (to fire) |
| Exhaustion stage | third stage of Selye’s general adaptation theory in which our resistance to illness decreases and we are susceptible to many stress-related disorders |
| Existential therapies | focuses on helping clients find a purpose and meaning in their lives and emphasized individual freedom and responsibility |
| Experimental intelligence | according to Sternberg |
| Experimental group | in a controlled experiment the subgroup of the sample that receives the treatment or independent variable |
| Experimenter bias | a phenomenon that occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of study influence the results obtained |
| Explicit memory (declarative memory) | long-term memory of facts and experiences we consciously know and can verbalize |
| External locus of control | based on Julian Rotter’s research the belief that what happens to you is due to fate luck or others |
| Extinction | the weakening of a response In classical conditioning |
| Face validity | a test that on its surface seems to be meaningfully related to what is being testes |
| Factor analysis | a statistical procedure that identifies common factors among groups of items by determining which variables have a high degree of correlation |
| False consensus bias | the tendency of a person to perceive his or her own views as representative of a general consensus |
| Feature extraction (pattern recognition) | when new information comes into sensory storage we actively search through long-term memory in an effort to find a match for this new raw data |
| Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) | a cluster of abnormalities that occurs in babies of mothers who drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy |
| Fetus | the developing human organism from about 9 weeks after conception to birth when organ systems begin to interact and sex organs and sense organs become refined |
| Fight-or Flight Response | physiological reactions that help ready us to fight or to flee from a dangerous situation activation of the sympathetic nervous system |
| Fixation | (for problem solving) an inability to look at a problem from fresh perspective; using a prior strategy that does not lead to success In Freud’s theory continuing to engage in behaviors associated with an earlier stage of development |
| Fixed interval | schedule of reinforcement in which the first response after a specific time has passed is reinforced |
| Fixed ratio | schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is presented after a set number of responses have been made since the previous reinforcement |
| Flashbulb memory | clear and vivid memory of an emotionally significant moment or event |
| Flooding | behavior treatment for phobias client is repeatedly exposed to feared object for extended periods of time and without escape until the anxiety diminishes |
| Fluid intelligence | those cognitive abilities requiring speed or rapid learning which tend to diminish with adult aging |
| Foot-in the door | compliance strategy an agreement to a smaller request leads to agreement with a larger request later |
| Forensic psychologists | psychologists who apply psychological principles to legal issues |
| Formal operational stage | Piaget’s fourth stage of cognitive development (12+years) during which the child begins to think logically about abstract concepts and engages in hypothetical thinking |
| Framing | refers to the way an issue is stated How an issue is framed can significantly effect people’s perceptions decisions and judgments |
| Fraternal twins | also called dizygotic twins siblings that share about half of the same genes because they develop from two different zygotes |
| Free association | a psychoanalytic procedure in which the client is encouraged to say whatever is on his or her mind without censoring possibly embarrassing or socially unacceptable thoughts or ideas |
| Frequency distribution | an orderly arrangement of scores ondicating the frequency of each score or group of scores |
| Frontal lobes | front region of the cerebral cortex that interprets and controls behaviors makes decisions carries out plans motor cortex that strip just in front of somatosensory cortex that initiates movements and integrates activities of skeletal muscles produces speech (Broca’s area) |
| Functional fixedness | inability to recognize novel uses for a familiar object because we’re fixated on its common use; a hindrance to problem solving |
| Functional MRI (MRI) | shows brain activity at higher resolution than the PET scan when changes in oxygen concentration near active neurons alters its magnetic qualities |
| Functionalism | early psychological perspective concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to adapt to its environment |
| Fundamental Attribution Error | the tendency to overestimate the significance of dispositional factors and underestimate the significance of situational factors in explaining other people’s behavior |
| g—According to Spearman | a factor of intelligence that is common to all intellectual tasks; generalized intelligence which fuels special abilities |
| Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) | a neurotransmitter that inhibits firing of postsynaptic neurons Huntington’s disease and seizures are associated with malfunctioning GABA systems |
| Gender | the social definition of being male or female |
| Gender consistency | a child’s understanding that his/her sex won’t change even if he/she acts like the opposite sex |
| Gender identity | person’s sense of being male or female |
| Gender roles | sets of expectations that prescribe how males and females should act |
| Gender role stereotypes | broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about males and females |
| Gender schema theory | mental set of what society considers appropriate behavior for each of the sexes assumes that gender becomes a cognitive “lens” through which children experience and acquire their gender identity |
| Gender stability | a child’s understanding that sex identity is stable over time |
| Gene | each DNA segment of chromosome that determines a trait |
| General adaptation syndrome (GAS) | Selye’s threestage process (alarm resistance and exhaustion) that describes our biological reaction to sustained and unrelenting stress |
| Generalization | in classical conditioning CRs elicited by stimuli that resemble the CS used in training In operant conditioning the occurrence of responding when a stimulus similar (but nor identical) to the discriminative stimulus is present |
| Generalized anxiety disorder | an anxiety disorder characterized by persistent pervasive feelings of doom for at least 6 months not associated with a particular object or situation |
| Generalized reinforcer | secondary reinforcers that are associated with a wide variety of other reinforcers such as money which is almost guaranteed to be motivating |
| Genital stage | the final of Freud’s psychosexual stages |
| Gerontologist | person who specializes in the study of aging |
| Glial cells | supportive cells of the nervous system that guide the growth of developing neurons |
| Grammar | a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others |
| Gyri | folding-out portions of convolutions of the cerebral cortex |
| Group polarization | when like-minded people share ideas outcome is likely to be more extreme than individual positions; looked at in jury’s decisions |
| Group test | many people are tested at same time; cheaper and more objective scoring than individualized testing may not be as accurate |
| Groupthink | the tendency for individuals to censor their own beliefs to preserve the harmony of the group lack of diversity of viewpoints that can cause disastrous results in decision making |
| Habituation | decreasing responsiveness with repeated presentation of the same stimulus |
| Hallucinations | perceptual experiences that occur in the absence of external stimulation of the corresponding sensory organ characteristic of schizophrenia and some drug states |
| Hallucinogens | also called psychedelics a diverse group of psychoactive drugs that alter moods distort perceptions |
| Hawthorn effect | when people know that they are being observed |
| Health psychologists | concentrate on biological psychological and social factors involved in health and illness |
| Health Psychology | a subfield of psychology that looks at how health and illness are influenced by emotions stress personality and lifestyle |
| Heritability | the proportion of variation among individuals that results from genetic causes |
| Heterozygous | also called hybrid the condition when the genes for a trait are different |
| Heuristic | a problem-solving strategy used as a mental shortcut to quickly simplify and solve a problem but that does not guarantee a correct solution |
| Hierarchies | systems in which items are arranged from more general to more specific classes |
| Hierarchy of needs theory | Abraham Maslow’s humanistic theory or priorities from the lower level of 1) basic biological needs 2) safety and security needs 3) belongingness and love 4) self-esteem needs to 5) self-actualization needs lower needs must be fulfilled before we can go to the next higher need |
| Higher-order conditioning | classical conditioning in which a well-learned CS is paired with an NS to produce a CR to the NS |
| Hindsight bias | a tendency to falsely report |
| Hippocampus | part of limbic system of brain that enables formation of new long-term memories for facts and personal experiences |
| Holophrastic | speech one word meaningful utterances of children from ages 1 to 2 |
| Homeostasis | the body’s tendency to maintain a balanced internal state |
| Homosexuality | a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another person of the same sex |
| Homozygous | the condition when both genes for a trait are the same |
| Hormone | chemical messenger that travels through the blood to a receptor sit e on a target organ |
| Humanistic approach | psychological perspective concerned with individual potential for growth and the role of unique perceptions in growth towards one’s potential |
| Hypnosis | a technique that involves an interaction between the person (hypnotist) who suggests certain feelings thought perceptions or behaviors and the subject who experiences them |
| Hypochondriasis | a somatoform disorder involving persistent and excessive worry about developing a serious illness |
| Hypothalamus | part of brain under the thalamus that controls feeding behavior drinking behavior body temperature sexual behavior threshold for rage behavior activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems and secretion of hormones of the pituitary |
| Hypothesis | prediction of how two or more factors are likely to be related |
| Iconic memory | visual sensory memory |
| Ideal self | according to Rogers the person we feel we must become to gain acceptance from others |
| Identical twins | also called monozygotic twins two individuals who share all of the same genes/heredity because they develop from the same zygote |
| Identity vs role confusion | in Erikson’s theory establishing an identity is the developmental task of adolescence or stage 5 of his psychosocial theory of development |
| Imagery | mental pictures |
| Implicit memory (nondeclarative memory) | long term memory for skills and procedures to do thing affected by precious experience without that experience being consciously recalled |
| Imprinting | the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life |
| Incentive | a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior pulling us toward a goal |
| Incongruence | in Rogerian therapy discrepancy between a client’s real and ideal selves |
| Incubation | putting aside a problem temporarily allows the problem solver to look at the problem from a different perspective |
| Independent variable (IV) | the factor the research manipulates in a controlled experiment (the cause) |
| Individualism | identifying oneself in terms of personal traits with independent |
| Individualized tests | given to individuals in 11 setting cost of hiring a professional makes them somewhat prohibitive probably better for determining individual IQ scores subjective grading |
| Individuation | according to Jung |
| Industrial/Organizational psychologists | those who aim to improve productivity and the quality of work life by applying psychological principles and methods to the workplace |
| Inferential statistics | statistics that are used to interpret data and draw conclusions |
| Information-processing model of memory | explanation of memory that compares operation of human memory to a computer involving encoding transfer to storage and retrieval from storage |
| Informational social influence | accepting of others opinions about reality especially in conditions of uncertainty |
| Inhibitory neurotransmitter | chemical secreted at terminal button that reduces or prevents neural impulses in the postsynaptic dendrites |
| Insight learning | the sudden appearance (often creative) or awareness of as solution to a problem |
| Insomnia | the inability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep |
| Instincts | inherited complex automatic species-specific behaviors |
| Instinctive Drift | the tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning |
| Instinct theory | theory of motivation that physical and mental instincts |
| Instrumental learning | learning that occurs when a response is weakened or strengthened by its consequence |
| Intelligence | the global capacity to act purposefully to think rationally and to deal affectively with the environment |
| Intelligence quotient (IQ) | mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100 |
| Intellectualization | Freudian defense mechanism that involves reducing anxiety by reacting to emotional situations in a detached |
| Interference theory | learning some items may prevent retrieving others |
| Intermittent reinforcement | the occasional reinforcement of a particular behavior; produces responding that is more resistant to extinction |
| Interneuron | nerve cell in the CNS that transmits impulses between sensory and motor neurons |
| Internal locus of control | based on Julian Rotter’s research the belief that you control what happens to you through your own individual effort and behavior master of your own identity |
| Internalization | the process of absorbing information from a specified social environmental context (according to Lev Vygotsky) |
| Intimacy vs isolation | In Erikkson’s theory the ability to establish close and loving relationships is primary task of late adolescence and early adulthood |
| Intrinsic motivation | a desire t perform an activity for its own sake rather than an external reward |
| Introvert | Jungian term for the opposite of extravert a person with a tendency to get energy from individual pursuits a person with the trait of shyness the desire to avoid large groups and the preference to pay attention to private mental experiences (according to Eysenck) |
| In vivo desensitization | behavior therapy for phobics the client actually is placed in the fearful set-tings rather than imagining them as in systematic desensitization |
| James-Lange theory | the conscious experience of emotion results from one’s awareness of autonomic arousal and come sonly after the behavioral response to situations |
| Just-world phenomenon | tendency to believe in fairness that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get |
| Klinefelter’s syndrome | males with XXY sex chromosomes |
| Language | communication system based on words and grammar spoken written or gestures words and the way they are combined to communicate meaning |
| Latency stage | fourth of the Freudian stages of development (ages 6-12) sublimation of sexual pleasure into school work and other activities if libido fixated here results in feelings of inferiority and poor self-concept |
| Latent content | according to Freud the underlying meaning of a dream |
| Latent learning | learning when no apparent rewards are present it only becomes apparent when there is an incentive to demonstrate it |
| Law of effect | Thorndike’s observation that behaviors followed by rewards are strengthened and behaviors followed by punishment are weakened Learning principle that behavior is acquired by virtue of its consequences |
| Learned helplessness | the feeling of futility and passive resignation that results from inability to avoid repeated aversive events |
| Learning | a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience |
| Lesion | interruptions in tissue that result from precise destruction of tissue enabled more systematic study of the loss of function resulting from surgical removal (also called ablation) cutting of neural connections or destruction by chemical applications |
| Levels of processing theory or semantic network theory | ability to form memories depends upon the depth of the processing and the meaningfulness of the information to the individual |
| Libido | life/sexual energy force of the id (according to Freud) |
| Linguistic relativity hypothesis | Whorfian belief that the language people speak guides and determines their thinking largely discredited |
| Lithium carbonate | the drug treatment of choice for bipolar disorder |
| Long-term memory (LTM) | the relatively permanent and unlimited capacity memory system into which information from short-term memory may pass |
| Long-term potentiation (LTP) | an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief rapid stimulation |
| Longitudinal research | a method of assessing developmental changes by evaluating the same group of people at different times in their lives |
| Lucid dreaming | the ability to be aware of and direct one’s dreams |
| Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) | detailed computerized images obtained by using a magnetic field and pulses of radio waves that cause emission of signals which depend upon the density of tissue |
| Maintenance rehearsal | repeating a given item over and over again extends your short-term memory usually limited to about 20 seconds |
| Major (Clinical) depression | persistent and severe feelings of sadness (dysphoria) and worthlessness accompanied by changes in appetite sleeping and behavior |
| Maladaptive behavior | behavior which is counterproductive interferes with one’s interaction in society and is a factor in mental illness |
| Mandala | according to Jung a type of magical circle symbolizing the self archetype in the collective unconscious |
| Mania | excessive emotional arousal (euphoria) and wild exuberant unrealistic activity |
| Manifest content | according to Freud the remembered story line of a dream |
| Maturation | the biological growth processes that bring about orderly changes in behavior thought or physical growth relatively unaffected by experience (nature argument) |
| Mean | the arithmetic average of a set of scores |
| Median | the middle score when a set of data is ordered by size |
| Medulla oblongata | part of brainstem that regulates heart rhythm blood flow breathing rate digestion and vomiting |
| Memory | human capacity to register retain and retrieve information over time the persistence of learning |
| Menarche | first menstrual period at about age 12 ½ |
| Menopause | the cessation of the ability to reproduce accompanied by a decrease in production of female sex hormones |
| Mental age | a measure of your intellectual development the level of mental development relative to others |
| Mental retardation | intellectual deficiency characterized by intelligence quotient at least two standard deviations below the mean and difficulty in adapting to and coping with environmental demands of independent living |
| Mental set | tendency to apply problem-solving methods that have worked in the past rather than trying new or different strategies to solve a new problem which may or may not work |
| Metabolism | the sum total of all chemical processes that occur in our bodies and are necessary to keep us alive |
| Metacognition | thinking about how you think |
| Method of loci | a mnemonic device which uses visualization of familiar objects on a familiar path to recall information in a list |
| Misattribution error | distortion of information at retrieval resulting from confusion about the source of information as when we put words in someone else’s mouth |
| Misinformation effect | the tendency for people to incorporate misleading information into their memories of a given event as evidenced in eyewitness testimony |
| Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory | (MMPI-2) most widely used objective test of personality originally designed to distinguish individuals with different psychological problems from normal individuals today used to identify personality characteristics of people in many everyday settings |
| Mnemonic devices | memory aids such as the method of loci and peg word systems which help to organize encode and more easily retrieve information from long-term memory |
| Mode | most frequently occurring score in a set of research data (quick and dirty) |
| Modeling | process of watching and imitating a specific behavior important in observational learning |
| Monozygotic twins—identical twins | Genetically identical siblings who share 100% of their genes because they developed from a single fertilized egg in utero |
| Mood disorder | affective disorders characterized by significant shifts or disturbances in mood that affect normal perception thought and behavior depression and bipolar disorders |
| Moral development | growth in the ability to tell right from wrong control impulses and act ethically |
| Morality Principle | in psychoanalytic theory |
| Morphemes | the smallest unit of language that has meaning |
| Motive | a need or want that causes us to act |
| Motivation | a general term for a group of phenomena that affect the nature strength or persistence of an individual’s behavior goal-directed behavior |
| Multiple intelligences | Howard Gardner’s theory that intelligence is composed of many different factors |
| Myelin sheath | a fatty covering of the axon made by glial cells which speeds up conduction of the action potential |
| Narcolepsy | a condition in which an awake person suddenly and uncontrollably falls asleep |
| Narcissistic personality disorder | exaggerated sense of self importance and demand for attention |
| Narcotics | analgesics (pain reducers) that work by depressing the central nervous system; can also depress the respiratory system include the opiates and synthetic opiates codeine heroin morphine opium Percodan Darvon Talwin Dilaudid methadone and Demerol |
| Nativist perspective | belief that human brain has an innate capacity for acquiring language |
| Naturalistic observation | research method that records behaviors of humans or other animals in real-life situations without intervention |
| Nature-nurture controversy | deals with the extent to which heredity and the environment each influence behavior |
| Neocortex | the cerebral cortex |
| Negative reinforcement | a consequence of behavior that increases the frequency of a response that takes away something aversive two types include avoidance and escape |
| Neural network | clusters of neurons that are interconnected to process information |
| Neuroleptics | antipsychotic drugs to reduce hallucinations delusions and jumbled thought processes include Thorazine (chlorpromazine) Haldol and Clozaril |
| Neuron | the basic unit of structure and function of the nervous system Neurons perform three major functions receive information process it and transmit it to the rest of the body |
| Neuropsychologist | neuroscientists who explore the relationships between brain/nervous systems and behavior Neuropsychologists are also called biopsychologists behavioral geneticists physiologic psychologists and behavioral neuroscientists |
| Neuroticism | Eysenck’s personality dimension that measures our level of instability-how moody |
| Neurotransmitters | chemical messengers released by the terminal buttons of the presynaptic neruron into the synapse |
| Night terrors | most frequent childhood sleep disruptions from stage 4 sleep characterized by a bloodcurdling scream and intense fear |
| Nightmares | frightening dreams that occur during REM sleep |
| Nodes of Ranvier | spaces between segments of myelin on the axons of neurons |
| Nonconscious | level of consciousness devoted to processes completely incaccessible to conscious awareness |
| Nondeclarative memory (implicit) | memory of the skills and procedures to do things thought to be stored in the cerebellum |
| Non-REM or NREM sleep | sleep stages 1-4 during which rapid eye movements do NOT occur |
| Normal distribution | bell-shaped curve that represents data concerning how most human characteristics are dispersed in the population |
| Norms | in social psychology-rules either implicit or explicit that govern the behavior of group members in testing-scores established from the test results of the representative sample which are then used as a standard for assessing the performances of subsequent test takers |
| Object permanence | awareness that objects still exist when out of sight milestone of Piaget’s sensorimotor period 0-2 years |
| Observational learning | learning that takes place by watching and imitating behavior of others |
| Obsessive-compulsive disorder | recurrent unwanted thoughts or ideas and compelling urges to engage in repetitive ritual-like behavior |
| Obsession | an involuntary recurring thought idea or image |
| Occipital lobes | region in the back of the cerebral cortex that is the primary area for processing visual information |
| Omission training | after behavior is emitted a reward is taken away from the learner thus decreasing the probability of recurrence of original behavior |
| Operant conditioning | an active learner performs certain voluntary behaviors and the consequences of the behavior (pleasant or unpleasant) determine the likelihood of its reoccurrence |
| Operational definition | a description of the specific procedure used to determine the presence of a variable (such as a smile for happiness) |
| Opponent process theory of emotions | following a strong emotion |
| Oral stage | Freud’s first psychosexual stage in which pleasure is derived from sucking; crisis is weaning from bottle or breast fixation; results in dependent personalities who are smokers |
| Out-group homogeneity | belief that members of another group are more similar in their attitudes than they are |
| Ovaries | gonads in females that produce hormones necessary for reproduction and development of secondary sex characteristics |
| Overconfidence bias | the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one’s beliefs and judgments which proves to be a hindrance in problem solving |
| Overgeneralizing | uses an incomplete understanding of a concept and applies it to too many situations uses one from of a word when a different form should be used |
| Overjustification effect | when promising a reward for doing something we already like to do results in us seeing the reward as the motivation for performing the task When the reward is taken away the behavior tends to disappear |
| Pancreas | gland near stomach that secrets the hormones insulin and glucagons and regulate blood sugar that fuels all behavior processes |
| Panic disorder | unpredictable attacks of acute anxiety accompanied by high levels of physiological arousal that last from a few seconds to a few hours |
| Parallel processing | a natural mode of information processing that involves several information streams simultaneously |
| Parallel distributive processing (PDP) | performing several operations simultaneously as opposed to serially or one operation after another |
| Paranoid personality disorder | symptoms include delusions of persecution that are generally organized around one theme |
| Paranoid schizophrenia | a form of schizophrenia in which the person suffers from delusions of persecution grandeur reference or control |
| Parasympathetic nervous system | subdivision of PNS and ANS whose stimulation calms the body following sympathetic stimulation by restoring normal body processes |
| Parathyroids | endocrine glands in neck that produce parathyroid hormone which helps maintain calcium ion level in blood necessary for normal functioning of neurons |
| Parietal lobes | region on the top of the cerebral cortex |
| Peg word mnemonic | memory device which uses a scheme (one is a bun two is…) we memorize then associate with names or objects in a series |
| Percentile score | the percentage of scores at or below a particular score |
| Peripheral nervous system (PNS) | portion of the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord It includes all of the sensory and motor neurons |
| Peripheral route of persuasion | according to the Elaboration Likelihood model superficial factors (supermodels and celebrities) are used as distractors associating an argument with a positive stimulus leading to less stable change in attitudes |
| Permissive parenting style | sets no firm guidelines for behavior and tends to give into demands of the child |
| Personal unconscious | according to Jung, we have a collective unconscious (ancestors) and this one |
| Personality | a unique pattern of consistent feelings thoughts and behaviors that within the individual |
| Personality disorders | chronic maladaptive thought and behavior patterns that are troublesome to others harmful or illegal |
| Phallic stage | Freud’s third stage of psychosexual development the primary erogenous zone is the genital area during this time children become attached to the opposite-sex parent |
| Phenotype | the expression of the genes |
| Phenylketonuria (PKU) | recessive trait that results in severe irreversible brain damage unless the baby is fed a special diet low in phenylalanine |
| Phobia | irrational fear of specific objects or situations such as animals or enclosed spaces |
| Phonemes | smallest possible sound units of spoken language |
| Physiological motivations | hunger thirst sex Each is influenced by biological factors environmental factors and learned preferences and habits The hypothalamus and endocrine system are implicated in each of these motives |
| Pineal gland | endocrine gland in brain that produces melatonin which helps regulate circadian rhythms and is associated with seasonal affective disorder |
| Pituitary gland | (sometimes called master gland) endocrine gland in brain that produces stimulating hormones which promote secretion by other glands including TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone) ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) which stimulates the adrenal glands FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) which stimulates egg or sperm production ADH (antidiuretic hormone) which helps retain water in your body and HGH (human growth hormone) |
| Placebo | a physical or psychological treatment given to the control group that resembles the treatment given to the experimental group but contains no active ingredient |
| Placebo effect | a response to the belief that the independent variable will have an effect rather than to the actual effect of the independent variable which can be a confounding variable |
| Plasticity | modifiability of neural connections that enables generation of new synapses |
| Pleasure principle | Freud claims that the id part of the personality seeks immediate gratification of its wants and needs |
| Pons | part of brainstem that includes portion of reticular activating system or reticular formation critical for arousal and wakefulness sends information to and from medulla |
| Population | all of the individuals in the group to which the study applies |
| Positive reinforcement | behavior emitted receives a reward thus increasing the probability of that behavior |
| Positron emission tomography (PET) | shows brain activity when radioactively tagged glucose rushes to active neurons and emits positrons |
| Postconventional level | Kohlberg’s third and final level of moral development in which people come to understand that moral rules include principles that apply across all situations and societies |
| Postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | an anxiety disorder in which the individual has feelings of social withdrawal accompanied by atypically low levels of emotion caused by prolonged exposure to a stressor such as a catastrophe may experience flashbacks and nightmares |
| Preconscious | the level of consciousness that is outside of awareness but contains feelings and memories that can easily be brought to conscious awareness |
| Preconventional level | Kohlberg’s first level of moral development which bases moral behavior on obedience and punishment or acting in one’s own best interests |
| Prefrontal lobotomy | a surgical procedure that destroys the tracts connecting the frontal lobes to lower centers of the brain once believed to be an effective treatment for schizophrenia |
| Prejudice | unjustified attitudes we hold about others generally negative evaluation based on ethnicity race sex or some other criteria |
| Premack Principle | a high probability response can serve as a reward for a low probability behavior |
| Prenatal development | period of development that begins with fertilization or conception and ends with birth |
| Preoperational stage | Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development (2-7 years) during which the child represents and manipulates objects with symbols (language) and is egocentric |
| Primacy Effect (Law of Primacy) | the tendency to remember initial information in the memorization of a list of words the primacy effect is evidenced by better recall of the words early in the list |
| Primary emotions | joy fear anger sadness surprise and disgust which are inborn |
| Primary reinforces | important automatic and unlearned (inborn) rewards like food and drink |
| Primary sex characteristics | the reproductive organs (ovaries uterus and testes) and external genitals (vulva and penis) |
| Priming | activating specific associations in memory either consciously or unconsciously |
| Proactive interference | occurs when something learned earlier disrupts recall of something experienced later |
| Problem solving | the active efforts undertaken to discover what must be done to achieve a goal that isn’t readily attainable |
| Procedural memory | memories of perceptual |
| Projection | Freudian defense mechanism that attributes our undesirable feelings to others |
| Projective personality test | present ambiguous stimuli such as inkblots (Rorschach) or pictures (TAT) with the assumption that test takers will put their unconscious thoughts or feeling onto the stimuli (according to psychoanalytic approach) |
| Prosocial behavior | positive helpful and constructive behavior |
| Prototype | a mental image or “best example” that incorporates all the features you associate with a particular category |
| Psychiatrist | a medical doctor and the only mental health professional who can prescribe medication or perform surgery |
| Psychoactive drug | a chemical that can pass through the blood-brain barrier to alter perception thinking behavior and mood |
| Psychoanalysis | Freudian form of therapy involving free association dream analysis resistance and transference aimed at providing the patient insight into his/her unconscious motivations and conflicts |
| Psychoanalyst | a therapist who has taken specialized postdoctoral training in psychoanalysis after earning either an MD or a PhD |
| Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic approach | psychological perspective concerned with how unconscious instincts conflicts motives and defenses influence behavior |
| Psychology | the science of behavior and mental processes |
| Psychometricians | (measurement psychologists) focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data measure mental traits abilities and processes |
| Psychopathology | a pattern of abnormality evidenced by emotions behaviors or thoughts inappropriate to the situation which lead to personal distress or the inability to achieve important goals |
| Psychopharmacotherapy | the use of psychotropic drugs to treat mental disorders |
| Psychosis | set of disorders including schizophrenia with which there is an apparent break from reality |
| Psychoticism | Eysenck’s personality dimension that measures our level of tough-mindedness how hostile ruthless and insensitive we are as opposed to tender-mindedness how friendly empathetic and cooperative we are |
| Puberty | the early adolescent period marked by accelerated growth and onset of the ability to reproduce |
| Punishment | after a behavior is emitted in operant conditioning an aversive stimulus or consequence that is given to decrease the behavior it follows |
| Random assignment | division of the sample into groups so that every individual has an equal chance of being put in any group or condition |
| Random selection | choosing of members of a population so that every individual has an equal chance of being chosen |
| Range | the difference between the largest score and the smallest score (quick and dirty) |
| Rational emotive therapy (RET) | cognitive treatment developed by Ellis which is based on facing the irrational thoughts in a rather confrontational way changing irrational thinking will lead to a change in irrational behavior |
| Rationalization | a Freudian defense mechanism that provides socially acceptable reasons for our inappropriate behavior |
| Reaction formation | the Freudian defense mechanism involving acting in manner exactly opposite to our true feelings |
| Reality principle | the manner in which the ego delays gratification and otherwise deals with the environment in a planned rational fashion (in Freudian theory) |
| Real self | according to Rogers the positive and original organism we are before society imposes conditions of worth on us |
| Recall | retrieval of previously learned information |
| Recessive gene | the gene that is hidden or not |
| Reciprocal determinism | the characteristics of the person the person’s behavior and the environment all affect one another in two-way causal relations (according to Bandura) |
| Reciprocity | compliance technique used by groups individuals feel obligated to go along with a request for a small donation if they have first accepted a small gift |
| Recognition | identification of learned items when they are presented |
| Reconstruction | retrieval of memories often distorted by adding dropping or changing details to fit a schema |
| Reflex | the simplest form of behavior |
| Reflex arc | the path over which the reflex travels |
| Regression | Freudian defense mechanism with which individual displays immature behaviors that have relieved anxiety in the past |
| Rehearsal | the conscious repetition of information to either maintain information in short-term memory or to encode it for storage into long-term memory |
| Reinforcer | in operant conditioning |
| Relearning | a measure of retention of memory that assesses the time saved compared to learning the first time when learning information again |
| Reliability | consistency or repeatability of results |
| Replication | repetition of the methods used in a precious experiment to see whether the same methods will yield the same results |
| Representativeness heuristic | tendency to judge the likelihood of things according to how they relate to a prototype in social psychology the prejudgment of people in the same way |
| Repression | the tendency to forget unpleasant or traumatic memories hidden in the unconscious mind according to Freud defense mechanism and possible explanation for dissociative disorders |
| Resistance | blocking of anxiety-provoking feelings and experiences in the process of psychoanalysis |
| Resistance stage | second stage of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome characterized by the use of “fight or flight” mechanisms to control cope or flee from the stressful situation |
| Resistant attachment | ten percent of infants show mixed reactions to their mothers in the Strange Situation They may approach their mothers upon their return but at the same time |
| Reticular formation (aka reticular activating system) | a network of neurons extending from the brainstem/hindbrain into the midbrain essential to the regulation of sleep wakefulness arousal and attention |
| Retrieval | the process of getting information out of memory storage |
| Retrieval cue | a stimulus that provides a trigger to get an item out of memory |
| Retroactive inference | recently learned information disrupts our ability to remember older information |
| Retrograde amnesia | involves memory loss for a segment of the past usually around the time of an accident such as a blow to the head |
| Reversibility | characteristic of Piaget’s concrete operational stage the logical negation of an operation-if 4 + 2 = 6 then 6 – 2 = 4 |
| Rorschach inkblot test | a projective test in which a person is shown a series of symmetrical inkblots and is asked to describe what he or she thinks they present |
| Roles | ascribed social positions in groups and defined behavior expectations |
| Rooting reflex | the newborn’s tendency to move its head when stroked on the cheek turn toward the stimulus as if searching for a nipple and open its mouth |
| Sample | the subgroup of the population that participates in the study |
| Satiety | absence of hunger, feeling full |
| Scrachter-Singer two-factor theory of emotions | theory that an emotion is inferred from physiological arousal |
| Scapegoat theory | attributes prejudice to frustration when own self-worth is in doubt or jeopardy we find others to blame |
| Schema | framework of basic ideas and preconceptions about people objects and events based on past experience in long-term memory |
| Schizophrenia | a serious mental disorder characterized by thought disturbances hallucinations anxiety emotional withdrawal and delusions |
| School psychologists | those who assess and counsel students consult with educators and parents |
| Seasonal effective disorder | a mood disorder characterized by depression lethargy sleep disturbances and craving for carbohydrates generally occurs during the winter when the amount of daylight is low sometimes treated with exposure to bright lights |
| Secondary motives | internal mechanism directing behavior learned through society as being desired such as power and wealth |
| Secondary reinforcers | stimuli we learn to see as important because they are connected to primary reinforcers |
| Secondary sex characteristics | the non reproductive sexual characteristics including developed breasts in females facial hair Adam’s apple and deepened voice in males and public hair underarm hair in both |
| Selective attention | focusing of awareness on a specific stimulus in sensory memory |
| Self-actualization | the realization of our true intellectual and emotional potential (according to Maslow) |
| Self-awareness | consciousness of oneself as a person |
| Self-concept | Our overall views of our abilities behavior and personality or what we know abut ourselves |
| Self-efficacy | how competent and able we feel to accomplish tasks an expectation of success |
| Self-esteem | one part of our self-concept or how we evaluate ourselves |
| Self-fulfilling prophecy | a tendency to let our preconceived expectations of others influences how we treat them and thus evoke the very expectations to come true |
| Self-referent encoding | determining how new information relates to us personally |
| Self-report methods | most common personality assessment technique which involves person answering a series of questions such as a personality questionnaire or supplying information abut himself/herself |
| Self-serving bias | our tendency to take personal credit for our achievements and blame failures on situational factors to perceive ourselves favorably |
| Semantic encoding | information processed for meaning into short-term memory and long-term memory |
| Semantics | a set of rules we use to derive meaning from morphemes words and sentences |
| Semantic memories | a type of long-term memory that includes general knowledge objective facts |
| Semantic networks | model of long-term memory with more irregular and distorted systems than strict hierarchies |
| Sensorimotor stage | Piaget’s first stage (0-2 years) during which the infant experiences the world through senses and action patterns-progresses from reflexes to object permanence and symbolic thinking |
| Sensory memory | primitive brief type of memory that holds incoming information just long enough for further processing |
| Sensory receptor | cell typically in sense organs that initiates action potentials which then travel along sensory/afferent neurons to the CNS |
| Separation anxiety | a set of fearful responses such as crying arousal and clinging to the caregiver that an infant exhibits when the caregiver that an infant exhibits when the caregiver attempts to leave the infant |
| Serial position effect | the tendency to remember and recall information that comes at the beginning (primacy effect) and at the end of a list of words (recency effect) more easily than those in the middle |
| Set point | a preset natural body weight determined by the number of fat cells in the body |
| Serotonin | a neurotransmitter associated with arousal sleep appetite moods and emotions Lack of serotonin is associated with depression |
| Sex-linked traits | recessive genes located on the X chromosome with no corresponding gene on the Y chromosome result in expression of recessive trait more frequently in males |
| Sexual orientation | the direction of an individual’s sexual interest |
| Sexual response cycle | Master’s and Johnson’s four stages of bodily response during sex excitement plateau orgasm and resolution |
| Shallow processing | encoding into memory superficial sensory information without making it relevant which seldom results in enduring memory |
| Simultaneous conditioning | in classical conditioning CS and UCS are paired together at the same time weaker conditioning technique than the ideal delayed conditioning |
| Shaping | the operant conditioning procedure for establishing a new response by reinforcing successively approximations of the desired behavior or goal |
| Short-Term Memory | also called working memory which can hold about seven unrelated items for about 20 to 30 seconds without rehearsal |
| Single-blind procedure | research design in which participants don’t know whether they are in the experimental or control group |
| Situational attributions | look at factors in the environment to explain what happened |
| Sleep | a complex combination of states of consciousness each with its own level of consciousness awareness responsiveness and physiological arousal |
| Sleepwalking | most frequently a childhood sleep disruption that occurs during stage 4 sleep characterized by trips our of bed or carrying on complex activities |
| Social cognition | refers to the way people gather use and interpret information about the social aspects of the world around them |
| Social facilitation | improved performance of well-learned tasks in front of others |
| Social group | two or more people sharing common goals and interest interact and influence behavior of the other |
| Social interactivist perspective | babies are biologically equipped for learning language which may be activated or constrained by experience |
| Social learning theory | Bandura’s idea that we can learn behaviors from others by first observing it and then imitating it |
| Social loafing | when individuals put less effort into group projects than individual projects |
| Social motives | learned needs that energize behavior acquired as part of growing up in a particular society or culture |
| Social psychologists | those who focus on how a person’s mental life and behavior is shaped by interactions with other people |
| Social psychology | the study of how groups influence the attitudes and behavior of the individual |
| Social skills training | cognitive behavioral therapy in which the therapist can model the behavior for the client and then place the client in simulated situation for practice |
| Sociobiology | study of the biological basis of social behavior |
| Sociocultural approach | psychological perspective concerned with how cultural differences affect behavior |
| Somatic nervous system | subdivision of PNS that includes motor nerves that innervate skeletal (voluntary) muscle |
| Somatization disorder | characterized by recurrent complaints about usually vague and unverifiable medical conditions such as dizziness heart palpitations and nausea that do not apparently result from any physical cause |
| Somatoform disorder | a mental disorder involving a bodily or physical problem for which there is no physiological basis |
| Somatotype theory | William Sheldon’s theory that body types determine personality |
| Somnambulism | sleepwalking |
| Source trait | Cattell’s underlying 16 traits that guide one’s behavior |
| Speed test | measures how fast subject can answer easy questions in specified time period |
| Spontaneous recovery | the reappearance of a previously extinguished CR after a rest period |
| Stage 1 sleep | sleep stage lasting a few minutes in which we gradually lose responsiveness to outside stimuli and experience drifting thoughts and images EEGs of stage 1 sleep show theta waves which are lower in amplitude and frequency than alpha waves |
| Stage 2 sleep | sleep stage whose EEGs show high frequency bursts of brain activity called sleep spindles and K complexes |
| Stage 3 sleep | deep sleep stage in which EEGs show some very high-amplitude and very low-frequency delta waves |
| Stage 4 sleep | deepest sleep stage in which EEGs show mostly very high-amplitude and very low-frequency delta waves Heart rate respiration temperature and blood flow to the brain are reduced Growth hormone involved in maintaining physiological functions is secreted |
| Standardization | Two –part test development procedure that first establishes test norms by giving the test to a large representative sample of those for whom the is designed then assures that the test is both administered and scored uniformly for all test takers |
| Spinal cord | portion of the central nervous system below the level of the medulla |
| Sports psychologists | psychologists who help athletes refine their focus on competition goals increase motivation and deal with anxiety and fear of failure |
| Standard deviation (SD) | a measure of the average difference between each score and the mean of the data set |
| Standardization | the process of defining meaningful scores on a test by administering it to a large representative sample of people |
| Standardized tests | set of tasks administered under standard conditions to assess an individual’s knowledge skill or personality characteristics |
| Stanford-Binet intelligence test | Terman’s revision of Binet’s original individual IQ test |
| State-dependent memory | tendency to recall information better if your are in the same internal state as when the information was encoded |
| Statistical significance (p) | the condition that exists when the probability that the observed findings are due to chance is less than 1 in 20 (p<05) according to some psychologists or less than 1 in 100 (p<01) according to those with more stringent standards |
| Statistics | field that involves the analysis of numerical data about representative samples of populations |
| Stereotype threat | anxiety that influences members of a group concerned that their performance will confirm a negative stereotype |
| Stereotypes | overgeneralized and false belief about the characteristics of members of a particular group; schemas used to quickly judge others |
| Stimulants | psychoactive drugs that activate motivational centers and reduce activity in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system by increasing activity of serotonin dopamine and norepinephrine ceurotransmitter systems include caffeine nicotine amphetamines and cocaine |
| Stimulus | a change in the environment that elicits (brings about) a response |
| Storage | the retention of encoded information over time |
| Stranger anxiety | the fear of strangers that infants develop at around 8 months age |
| Stress | the process by which we appraise and respond to environmental threats |
| Stressors | stimuli such as heat |
| Strive for superiority | according to Adler, people want to be the best |
| Structuralism | early psychological perspective that emphasized units of consciousness and identification of elements of thought using introspection with other people |
| Sublimation | Freudian defense mechanism, repressing sexual feelings into good deeds |
| Sucking | the automatic response of drawing in anything at the mouth |
| Superego | the third part of Freud’s personality systems |
| Survey | research method that obtains large samples of abilities |
| Sympathetic nervous system | subdivision of PNS and ANS whose stimulation results in responses that help the body deal with stressful events |
| Synapse | region of communication between the transmitting presynaptic neuron and receiving postsynaptic neuron or muscle or gland consisting of the presynaptic terminal buttons a tiny space and receptor sites typically on the post-synaptic dendrites |
| Syntax | rules that are used to order words into grammatically sensible sentences |
| Systematic desensitization | behavior treatment for phobias in which the client is trained to relax to increasingly fearful stimuli |
| Tardive dyskinesia | serious side effects from antipsychotic drugs including problems walking drooling and involuntary muscle spasms |
| Taste aversion | negative response to particular foods may be a combination of both nature and nurture acquired through classical conditioning |
| Telegraphic speech | meaningful two-word sentences usually a noun and a verb |
| Temperament | an infant’s natural disposition to show a particular mood at a particular intensity for a specific period |
| Temporal conditioning | in classical conditioning |
| Temporal lobes | side regions of cerebral cortex that are primary areas for hearing understanding language (Wernicke’s area) understanding music/tonality and processing smell |
| Teratogen | harmful substances (drugs or viruses) during the prenatal period that can cause birth defects |
| Terminal buttons | (also called axon terminals end bulbs or synaptic knobs) tips at the end of axons that secrete neurotransmitters when stimulated by the action potential |
| Testes | gonads in males that produce hormones necessary for reproduction and development of secondary sex characteristics |
| Thalamus | part of forebrain that relays visual auditory taste somatosensory (skin sensation) information to/from appropriate areas of cerebral cortex |
| Thematic apperception test (TAT) | a projective test composed of ambiguous pictures about which a person is asked to write a complete story |
| Theories | organized sets of concepts that explain phenomena |
| Thinking | involves mental images symbols concepts and rules of language |
| Thyroid gland | endocrine gland in neck that produces thyroxin which stimulates and maintains metabolic activities |
| Token economies | a program used in institutions in which a person’s acceptable behavior is reinforced with tokens that can be exchanged for special privileges or good |
| Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon | retrieval problem that involves information we are sure we know but can only retrieve some incomplete information |
| Tolerance | condition in which diminished effectiveness of drug necessitates larger dosages to produce desired effect |
| Trace conditioning | in classical conditioning the CS is presented first removed then the UCS is presented |
| Trait | a relatively permanent and stable characteristic about ourselves that can be used to predict our behavior |
| Transference | in psychoanalysis the venting of emotions both positive and negative by patients treating their analyst as the symbolic representative of someone important in their past |
| Triadic reciprocality model of personality | Bandura’s scheme that our personal traits the environment and our behavior all interact to account for our behavior |
| Trial and error | trying possible solutions and discarding those that fail to solve the problem |
| Triarchic theory of intelligence | Robert Sternberg’s idea of three separate and testable intelligences |
| Type A personalities | hard-driving, fast talking, aggressive |
| Type B personalities | more relaxed and calm individuals who are less likely to suffer health complications due to stress than Type A personalities |
| Unconditional positive regard | Roger’s term for acceptance value and love from others independent of how we behave |
| Unconditioned response | (UCR) in classical conditioning the unlearned naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus |
| Unconditioned stimulus | (UCS) in classical conditioning the stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers the reflexive unconditioned response (UR) |
| Unconscious | the level of consciousness of which we are unaware that includes often unacceptable feelings wishes and thoughts not directly available to conscious awareness according to psycho-dynamic psychologists/psychoanalysts According to cognitive psychologists the unconscious is the level of consciousness that parallel processes information of which we are unaware |
| Undifferentiated schizophrenia | simple schizophrenia characterized by fragments of the symptoms of other different types of schizophrenia |
| Validity | the extent to which an instrument measures of predicts what it is supposed to |
| Variable interval | schedule of reinforcement in which responses are reinforced after varying lengths of time |
| Variable ratio | schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is presented after a varying number of responses |
| Visual encoding | the encoding of pictorial images into our memory |
| Wernicke’s area | region in left temporal lobe that plays role in understanding language and making meaningful sentences |
| Weschler intelligence tests | the most widely used measurement of intelligence three age-related individual IQ tests (WPPSI WISC WAIS) that provide two scores verbal and performance |
| Womb envy | Horney’s counterpart to penis envy of Freudian theory male’s desire to procreate |
| Yerkes-Dodson rule | for easy tasks a moderately high level of arousal is needed to do well; for difficult tasks moderately low and for most average tasks a moderate level of arousal |
| Zygote | a fertilized ovum with the genetic instructions for a new individual normally contained in 46 chromosomes |
