Review - GaryShea's 400 Psychology Terms
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408 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 ablation | removal or destruction of brain tissue in a surgical procedure |
| absolute threshold | intensity level at which one can detect a stimulus 50% of the time |
| accommodation | the process of modifying a schema to account for new information; the process of the eyes lens changing shape in order to focus on distant or near objects |
| acetylcholine (ACh) | a neurotransmitter involved in learning, memory and muscle movement |
| need for achievement | desire for accomplishment, mastery of people, ideas, things, desire for reaching a high standard |
| achievement test | a test that assesses what one has learned |
| acquisition | a process in classical conditioning by which the association of a neutral stimulus with a natural stimulus is first established |
| action potential | the electrical process by which information is transmitted the length of an axon |
| activation synthesis | the idea that dreams are the result of the cerebral cortex interpreting and organizing random flashes of brain activity, originating in the lower brain structures, especially the pons |
| adrenal gland | source of the hormone norepinephrine which affects arousal |
| affective disorders | psychological disturbances of mood |
| need for affiliation | desire to associate with others, to be part of a group, to form close and intimate relationships |
| after image | an image that remains after a stimulus is removed, especially one in which the colors are reversed |
| agonists | drugs which mimic the activity of neurotransmitters |
| alcohol | the most frequently used and abused CNS depressant in most cultures; its use affects mood, judgment, cognition |
| all-or-nothing | description of the action of neurons when firing |
| alpha waves | seen when an individual is in a relaxed, unfocused, yet still awake state |
| amygdala | limbic system component associated with emotion, particularly fear and anger |
| anal stage | Freud's pychosexual period during which a child learns to control his bodily excretions |
| anorexia (nervosa) | an eating disorder in which one starves oneself even though significantly underweight |
| antagonist | drug which blocks the activity of neurotransmitters |
| anterograde amnesia | loss of memory for events that occur after the onset of the amnesia; eg, see in a boxer who suffers a severe blow to the head and loses memory for events after the blow |
| retrograde amnesia | loss of memory for events that occurred before the onset of amnesia; eg a soldier's forgetting events immediately before a shell burst nearby, injuring him |
| antisocial personality disorder | psychological disorder in which one demonstrates a lack of conscience |
| anvil | the middle of the three ossicles |
| aphasia | impairment of language usually caused by damage to the left hemisphere |
| arousal | condition in which the sympathetic nervous system is in control |
| artificial intelligence | a subdiscipline of computer science that attempts to simulate human thinking |
| assimilation | interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schema |
| association areas | areas of the cerebral cortex which have no specific motor or sensory repsonsibilities, but rather are involved in thinking, memory and judgment |
| associative learning | learning in which an organism learns that certain events occur together, such as my cat knowing that she will be fed when I get home from work |
| attachment | theory developed by Harlow; types include secure and insecure |
| attitude | a relatively enduring evaluation of a person or thing; Asch demonstrated that this doesn't always match one's behavior |
| attraction | feeling of being drawn toward another and desiring the company of a person |
| attribution theory | a way of explaining others' behavior by either one's disposition or one's situation |
| auditory canal | the area that sound waves pass through to reach the eardrum |
| authoritarian | style of parenting in which the parent creates strict rules for the child and the child has little or no input into determining the rules |
| autonomic nervous system | division of the nervous system that control the glands and organs; its divisions arouse or calm |
| autonomy vs. shame and doubt | Erikson's stage in which a toddler learns to exercise will and to do things independently; failure to do so causes shame and doubt |
| availability heuristic | this cognitive shortcut features the idea that events which are vividly in memory seem to be more common |
| axon | extension of the neuron which carries, via an action potential, information that will be sent on to other neurons, muscles or glands |
| babbling | stage of language development at about 4 months when an infant spontaneously utters nonsense sounds |
| basic research | scientific investigations intended to expand the knowledge base |
| applied research | scientific investigations intended to solve practical problems |
| behavioral | perspective on psychology that sees psychology as an objective science without reference to mental states |
| belief perseverance | situation in which one's beliefs continue despite the fact that the ground for the beliefs have been discredited |
| big 5 personality factors | openness to new experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism |
| binocular cues | retinal disparity and convergence which enable people to determine depth using both eyes |
| biological | perspective that stresses links between biology and behavior |
| bipolar cells | eye neurons that receive information from the retinal cells and distribute information to the ganglion cells |
| bipolar disorder | mood disorder in one experiences both manic and depressed episodes |
| blind spot | point in the retinal where the optic nerve leaves the retina so there are no rods or cones there |
| bottom-up processing | analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works its way up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
| hemispheres | we have two, right and left, and some brain functions seem to centered in one or the other |
| brainstem | oldest part of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells upon entering the skull; controls fundamental survival processes like heartrate and breathing |
| bulimia | eating disorder characterized by excessive eating followed by purging |
| bystander effect | the tendency to not offer help when needed if others are present who do not offer help |
| Cannon-Baird | theory of emotion that says that a stimulus causes simultaneously phsyiological arousal and the subjective experience of an emotion |
| case study | scientific investigation in which a single subject is studied in great detail |
| CAT scan | a method of creating static images of the brain through computerized axial tomography |
| catatonic | a form of schizophrenia in which the patient has muscle immobility and does not move |
| catharsis | release of aggressive energy through activity or fantasy |
| Central Nervous System | consists of the brain and the spinal cord |
| cerebellum | brain structure that controls well-learned motor activities like riding a bike |
| cerebral cortex | the fabric of interconnecting cells that blankets the brain hemispheres; the brain's center for information processing and control |
| chaining | using operant conditioning to teach a complex response by linking together less complex skills |
| chunking | organizing units of information into manageable units such as memorizing a phone number as three groups of information 248-555-1212 |
| circadian rhythm | the daily biological rhythms that occur in a 24-hour period |
| classical conditioning | method of learning in which a neutral stimulus can be used to elicit a response that is usually a natural response to a stimulus |
| client-centered therapy | developed by Carl Rogers, this humanistic therapy includes unconditional positive regard |
| clinical | this type of psychologist studies, assesses and treats those with psychological disorders |
| cochlea | this coiled structure in the inner ear is fluid-filled and in it the energy from sound waves stimulate hair cells |
| cognitive dissonance theory | this says that we will suffer discomfort and act to change the situation when our thoughts and actions seem to be inconsistent |
| cognitive | perspective on psychology that stresses the importance of mental activities associated with thinking, remembering, etc |
| cognitive therapy | treatment for psychological disorders that centers on changing self-defeating thinking |
| collective unconscious | Jung's theory that we all share an inherited memory that contains our culture's most basic elements |
| color blindness | a variety of disorders marked by inability to distinguish some or all colors |
| collectivist | this adjective describes cultures in which the individual is less important than the group |
| concrete operations | Piaget's stage in which children learn such concepts as conservation and mathematical transformations; about 7 - 11 years of age |
| concurrent validity | the extent to which two measures of the same trait or ability agree |
| conditioned response | in classical conditioning, the response elicited by the conditioned stimulus |
| conditioning | generally, learning in which certain experiences make certain behaviors more or less likely; there are two forms of this |
| conduction | one type of hearing impairment caused by mechanical problems in the ear structures |
| cones | neurons in the retina that are responsible for color vision |
| confirmation bias | a tendency to search for information that supports one's preconceptions |
| conformity | adjusting behavior to meet a group's standard |
| confounding variable | extraneous factor that interferes with the action of the independent variable on the dependent variable |
| consciousness | one's awareness of one's environment and oneself. |
| consummate love | includes passion, intimacy and committment |
| control group | subjects in an experiment who do not receive application of the independent variable but are measured nonetheless for the dependent variable |
| convergent thinking | a type of critical thinking in which one evaluates existing possible solutions to a problem to choose the best one |
| cornea | the transparent outer covering of the eye |
| corpus callosum | the fibers that connect the right and left hemispheres, enabling them to communicate |
| correlation | the degree of relationship and its direction (positive or negative) between two variables |
| correlation coefficient | a positive one near 1.0 indicates two variable are positively related; a negative number indicates a negative relationship; zero indicates no relationship |
| cross-sectional | type of study that measures a variable across several age groups at the same time |
| debriefing | giving participants in a research study a complete explanation of the study after the study is completed |
| defense mechanisms | Freud's processes by which individuals express uncomfortable emotions in disguised ways |
| deindividuation | when an individual seems to lose himself or herself in the group's identity |
| deinstitutionalization | moving people with psychological or developmental disabilities from highly structured institutions to home- or community-based settings |
| delta waves | largest brain waves, associated with deep, dreamless sleep |
| delusion | irrational, highly improbable belief |
| dendrite | a branch off the cell body of a neuron that receives new information from other neurons |
| denial | a defense mechanism in which unpleasant thought or desires are ignored or excluded from consciousness |
| dependent variable | the variable that the experimenter measures at the end of the experiment |
| depressant | any agent that reduces the activity of the CNS |
| depth perception | an ability that we exercise by using both monocular and binocular cues |
| difference threshold | also called the jnd; smallest distinction between two stimuli that can consistently be detected |
| diffusion of responsibility | reduction in sense of responsibility often felt by individuals in a group; may be responsible for the bystander effect |
| discrimination | treating members of different races, religions, ethnic groups differently; usually associated with prejudice |
| displacement | defense mechanism in which unwanted feelings are directed towards a different object |
| dispositional attribution | assuming that another's behavior is due to personality factors, not situational ones |
| dissociative identity disorder | also called multiple personality disorder |
| dissociative fugue | disorder in which one travels away from home and is unable to remember details of his past, including often his identity |
| divergent thinking | a type of creative thinking in which one generates new solutions to problems |
| dopamine | a neurotransmitter that is associated with Parkinson's disease (too little of it) and schizophrenia (too much of it) |
| double blind | this term describes an experiment in which neither the subjects nor the experimenter knows whether a subject is a member of the experimental group or the control group |
| dreams | occur most often during REM sleep; may be caused by activation-synthesis, or may be a way of cementing memories |
| drive reduction | theory that claims that behavior is driven by a desire to lessen drives resulting from needs that disrupt homeostasis |
| DSM | initials of the American Psychiatric Association's book that lists diagnostic criteria for many psychological disorders |
| dyslexia | a learning disability that results in difficulty reading and writing |
| eardrum | also called the tympanic membrane |
| echoic | term that describes memory of sounds |
| EEG | initials of a method of representation of brain waves |
| ego | the Latin for "I"; in Freud's theories, the mediator between the demands of the id and the superego |
| egocentrism | in a toddler, the belief that others perceive the world in the same way that he or she does |
| Electra complex | counterpart to the Oedipus complex for females |
| electroconvulsive therapy | a treatment in which low level electric current is passed through the brain |
| embryo | early stage of human development, when cells have begun to differentiate |
| emotion theories | James-Lange, Cannon-Baird and Singer-Schachter are three |
| encoding | conversion of sensory information into a form that can be retained as a memory |
| endocrine system | the slow messenger system of the body; produces hormones that affect many bodily functions |
| endorphins | neurotransmitters that give one a feeling of well-being, euphoria or eliminate pain |
| episodic | describes a type of memory that includes specific events that one has personally experienced |
| evolutionary | perspective that stresses the value of behavior in Darwinian terms |
| experiment | form of scientific investigation in which one variable is tested to determine its effect on another |
| experimental group | subjects in an experiment to whom the independent variable is administered |
| explicit | term that describes memories that can be consciously recalled |
| external locus of control | this term describes what you have if your behaviors are driven mainly by outside forces |
| extinction | in classical conditioning, the process of eliminating the previously acquired association of the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response |
| extraversion | one of the Big 5, a personality trait orients one's interests toward the outside world and other people, rather than inward |
| extrinsic | term that describes motivations that drive behavior in order to gain rewards from outside forces |
| false consensus | a belief that others share the same opinion about something, when actually most don't |
| feature detection | the ability of the brain to identify specific components of visual stimuli such as corners or edges |
| fetal alcohol syndrome | sometimes the result in a child of the mother's excessive drinking while pregnant, characterized by low birth weight, facial abnormalities, mental retardation |
| fetus | a stage in human development extending from about ten weeks after conception to birth |
| figure-ground | refers to our ability to distinguish foreground from background in visual images |
| fixed interval | describes the schedule of reinforcement wherein a worker receives a paycheck every Friday |
| fixed ratio | describes a schedule of reinforcement wherein a worker is paid for a certain sum for each product produced |
| flashbulb | term describes a vivid memory of a personally significant and emotionalevent |
| fluid | term describes a type of intelligence used to cope with novel situations and problems |
| crystallized | term describes a type of intelligence which applies cultural knowledge to solving problems |
| foot-in-the-door | term describes a phenomenon in which people who agree to a small request are more likely to later agree to a larger request |
| formal operations | One of Piaget's stages; includes the ability to use abstract thinking |
| fovea | the central focus area of the retina |
| frequency | theory of hearing which states that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the tone's frequency |
| functional fixedness | the tendency to think about things only in terms of their usual uses; can be a hindrance to creative thinking |
| functionalism | William James's school of thought that stressed the adaptive and survival value of behaviors |
| fundamental attribution error | tendency to attribute others' behavior to their dispositions and our own behaviors to our situations |
| ganglion cells | their axons form the optic nerve |
| general adaptation syndrome | Seyle's concept that the body responds to stress with alarm, resistance and exhaustion |
| generativity vs. stagnation | Erikson's stage of social development in which middle-aged people begin to devote themselves more to fulfilling one's potential and doing public service |
| gene | made of DNA, it is the basic building block of heredity |
| genital stage | Freud's stage of psychosexual development when adult sexuality is prominent |
| gestalt | German word for "whole", it refers to our tendency to perceive incomplete figures as complete |
| glial cell | this acts as a support system for neurons |
| grammar | a system of rules in a language |
| social norm | a group's determination of socially acceptable behavior |
| group polarization | tendency of group members to move to an extreme position after discussing an issue as a group |
| groupthink | tendency for group members to think alike with certainty of correctness, biased perceptions of outgroup members, and generally defective decision-making processes |
| hallucination | a false sensory perception that seems to be real but for which there is not an actual external stimulus |
| hallucinogen | a substance capable of producing a sensory effect in the absence of real external sensory stimuli |
| hammer | the first of the ossicles |
| heritability | the extent to which differences in a group of a characteristic is due to genetics, not environment |
| heuristic | a useful, but unprovable, cognitive shortcut, such as a "rule of thumb" |
| hierarchy of needs | Maslow's theory of the most important motivations people have |
| hindsight bias | the tendency, after an event occurs, to overestimate the likelihood that the event could have been predicted |
| hippocampus | limbic system component associated with memory |
| homeostasis | the steady, stable state that the body's regulatory processes try to maintain |
| hormone | chemical substance secreted by endocrine glands that affect body processes |
| humanist | perspective in psychology that stresses the goodness of people and their possibility of reaching their fullest potential |
| hunger | it is regulated by the lateral hypothalamus and the ventromedial hypothalamus |
| hypnosis | a social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain events or emotions will occur |
| hypochondriasis | a disorder characterized by an unreasonable fear that one has a serious disease |
| hypothalamus | limbic system component that regulates hunger, body temperature and other functions |
| hypothesis | a prediction of how the an experiment will turn out |
| iconic | term that describes the memory of images |
| id | in Freud's conception, the repository of the basic urges toward sex and agression |
| identity vs. role confusion | Erikson's stage during which teenagers and young adults search for and become their true selves |
| imprinting | evidence of critical period in some animals; they follow the first moving thing they see after hatching |
| in-group bias | tendency to favor one's own group over other groups |
| incentive | an external stimulus that tends to encourage behavior |
| incus | also called "anvil"; the second ossicle |
| independent | type of variable manipulated by the experimenter |
| individualist | culture in which the individual is valued more highly than the group |
| industry vs. inferiority | Erikson's stage between 6 and 11 years, when the child learns to be productive |
| inferiority complex | Adler's conception of a basic feeling of inadequacy stemming from childhood experiences |
| information processing | humans accomplish this either in parallel (unconsciously) or in serial fashion (consciously) |
| informed consent | agreement to participate in psychology research, after being appraised of the dangers and benefits of the research |
| initiative vs guilt | Erikson's third stage in which the child finds independence in planning, playing and other activities |
| insanity | a legal term describing one's inability to be responsible for one's action due to the condition of the mind |
| insight | in psychoanalysis, the basic understanding one develops of the underlying sources of emotion or behavioral difficulty |
| insomnia | inability to fall asleep or remain asleep long enough for sufficient rest |
| instinct | a complex pattern of behavior that is fixed across a species |
| integrity vs despair | Erikson's final stage in which those near the end of life look back and evaluate their lives |
| Intelligence | the ability to learn from experience, to use information, to understand things |
| IQ | the average is 100; there are many definitions of this attribute, including multiple and crystallized |
| cat | to demonstrate displacement, Mr Shea might kick this |
| internal locus of control | people with this tned to respond to internal states and desires; they tend to see their successes as the result of their own efforts |
| interneurons | cells in the spinal cord through which reflexes travel without going to the brain |
| interposition | monocular visual cue in which two objects are in the same line of vision and one patially conceals the other, indicating that the first object concealed is further away |
| intimacy vs isolation | Erikson's stage in which individuals form deeply personal relationships, marry, begin families |
| intrinsic | term that describes motivations that derive from one's interest in the object of the motivation, rather than from rewards that one might gain |
| introversion | a personality trait that signifies that one finds energy from internal sources rather than external ones |
| James-Lange | theory of emotion in which physiological arousal precedes the emotion |
| just world | phenomenon that describes the belief that what happens to people is what they deserve |
| just noticeable difference | the threshold at which one can distinguish two stimuli that are of different intensities, but otherwise identical |
| kinethesis | sense of balance and of one's physical position |
| latent | Freud's stage of psychosexual development occuring from about age 6 to puberty during which little happens in psychosexual terms |
| latent content | the hidden or disguised meaning of dreams |
| latent learning | a change in behavior due to experience acquired without conscious effort, s, for example, a student using a quote in an exam essay that the student had never tried to memorize, though eh had encountered it in studying |
| law of effect | Thorndike's rule that behaviors which have positive outcomes tend to be repeated |
| learned helplessness | lack of motivation to avoid unpleasant stimuli after one has failed before to escape similar stimuli |
| lens | a curved, transparent element of the vision system that provides focus |
| lesion | any destruction or damage to brain tissue |
| lithium | in psychopharmacology, this is used to control bipolar symptoms |
| longitudinal | describes research that measures a trait in a particular group of subjects over a long period of time |
| long term | refers to memory that is stored effectively in the brain and may be accessed over an extended period of time |
| long term potentiation | a possible source of the formation of memories; improvement in a neuron's ability to transmit caused by repeated stimulations |
| lucid | describes a dream in which the dreamer is aware that he or she is dreaming and is able to influence the progress of the dream narrative |
| eidetic | describes a type of visual memory that is retained for a long time; photographic |
| malleus | another term for the hammer in the inner ear |
| mania | high state of arousal, often accompanied by poor judgment |
| manifest | describes, in Freudian terms, the surface content of a dream |
| marijuana | a drug, often smoked, whose effects include euphoria, impairment of judgment and concentration and occasionally hallucinations; rarely reported as addictive |
| mean | numerical average of a set of numbers |
| median | the middle one of a set of numbers |
| medulla | part of the brain nearest the spinal cord which controls breathing, heart rate and blood pressure |
| memory | functions associated with this include encoding, storage and retrieval |
| mental age | developed by Binet; equal to one's chronological age times the percentage score on an IQ test |
| mere exposure effect | this phenomenon causes one to prefer a stimulus as a consequence of repeated exposures to that stimulus, particularly is there is no adverse result of the exposure |
| metacognition | thinking about thinking |
| MMPI | the initials of a long, detailed personality inventory |
| mnemonic device | method of improving memory by associating new information with previously learned information |
| mode | the most commonly occurring term in a batch of data |
| modeling | the process of observing and imitating a behavior |
| monocular | terms that means "one eyed", used to indicate the sort of of enviromental cues to depth perception tha tonly require one eye, for example, interposition |
| morpheme | in language, the smallest unit that carries meaning |
| motion parallax | a depth cue in which the relative movement of elements in a scene gives depth information when the observer moves relative to the scene |
| motivation | a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior |
| motor cortex | an area of the brain, near the rear of the frontal lobes, that controls voluntary movement |
| motor neuron | this carries information from the brain to the muscles; also called "efferent" |
| MRI | a technique that enables us to see static images of the brain's structures; uses magnetism to achieve this effect |
| dissociative identity disorder | also called multiple personality disorder |
| myelin sheath | a layer of fatty tissue encasing a neuron's axon that speeds transmission |
| narcolepsy | a disorder characterized by sudden sleep attacks, often at inopportune times |
| naturalistic | term refers to observations made of individual's behavior in an everyday life setting |
| nature vs nurture | name for a controversy in which it is debated whether genetics or environment is responsible for driving behavior |
| negative reinforcement | in operant conditioning, removing something unpleasant in order to elicit more of a particular behavior |
| neural network | refers to interconnected neuron cells |
| neuron | the fundamental building block of the nervous system |
| neuroscience | perspective on psychology that emphasizes the study of the brain and its effects on behavior |
| neurotransmitter | a chemical that is released by a neuron for the purpose of carrying information across the gaps (synapses) between neurons |
| neutral | describes a stimulus in classical conditioning that would normally not elicit the response intended, such as the tone in Pavlov's experiments before it was associated with the food |
| night terrors | also called sleep terror disorder, these include the characteristic of waking abruptly in a state of panic, usually in children, less often in adults |
| normal | describes a symmetrical, bell shaped curve that shows the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes |
| norm | an understood rule for social behavior |
| NREM | refers to sleep during which there is no rapid eye movement |
| obesity | condition of having excess body fat resulting in being greatly overweight |
| object permanence | recognition that things continue to exist even though hidden from sight; infants generally gain this after 3 to 7 months of age |
| observational learning | change in behavior due to watching other people behave |
| obsessive-compulsive disorder | an anxiety disorder characterized by repetitive obsessions and compulsions |
| occipital | this lobe contains the primary vision processing function |
| Oedipus complex | in Freud's theory, the conflict which results in a boy gaining a superego and beginning to emulate his father |
| olfactory bulb | the first brain structure to pick up smell information from the nose |
| omission training | a procedure in which reinforcement occurs when a specific behavior does not occur in a fixed period of time |
| operant conditioning | a method of influencing behavior by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing undesired ones |
| operational definition | a description of an experimental variable in such a way that the variable can be measured and the procedure can be replicated |
| optic chiasm | the point in the brain where the visual field information from each eye "crosses over" to the appropriate side of the brain for processing |
| optic nerve | the axons of the ganglion cells form this |
| oral stage | Freud's first stage of psychosexual development during which pleasure is centered in the mouth |
| opponent process theory | term used in both vision theory and emotion theory |
| outgroup | generally, any group that one does not belong to |
| oval window | membrane at the enterance to the cochlea through which the ossicles transmit vibrations |
| ovary | the female reproductive organ; it produces ova and sex hormones |
| overconfidence | a tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's judgment |
| overjustification | a paradoxical situation in which rewarding a person's efforts on a task done for primarily intrinsic reasons tends to lead to lower, not higher, performance |
| panic disorder | characterized by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks |
| parallel processing | handling information in such a way that two or more streams of information are handled at once; usually done unconsciously according to Myers |
| paranoid | a type of schizophrenia characterized by prominent delusions that are persecutory or grandiose |
| parasympathetic | the branch of the nervous system that automatically calms us down when the reason for arousal has passed |
| parietal | lobe that contains the sensory cortex |
| Parkinson's disease | this ailment, whose symptoms includes tremors and later difficulty walking, is caused by inability to produce dopamine |
| perception | the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information |
| peripheral nervous system | the subsystem of the nervous system that does not include the CNS |
| permissive | describes a parenting style that is characterized by the parent making few demands on the child |
| person-centered | therapy developed by Rogers featuring the patient's self-discovery and actualization; also called client-centered |
| personality | a consistent pattern of thinking, acting, feeling |
| PET scan | method of brain imaging using positron emissions |
| phallic | name for Freud's stage which features the Oedipus stage |
| phobia | fear |
| phoneme | in language, smallest distinctive sound unit |
| pituitary | gland that is the master gland of the endocrine system |
| place theory | the idea that different sound frequencies stimulate different locations on the basilar membrae |
| placebo | an inert substance given to the control group in an experiment |
| placebo effect | phenomenon that some people get better even though they receive not medication but an inert substance which should have no medical effect |
| plasticity | the ability of the brain to adapt to damage by reorganizing functions |
| pons | part of the brain, works with the cerebellum in coordinating voluntary movement; neural stimulation studied in activation synthesis theory may originate here |
| population | all of the individuals from which subjects for an experiment may be drawn |
| positive psychology | field of study which concentrates on good psychological traits such as contentment and joy; it also studies character traits such as wisdom, integrity and altruism |
| PTSD | initials representing a disorder in which one relives painfully stressful events |
| preconscious | in Freud's theory, the level of consciousness in which thoughts and feelings are not conscious but are readily retrieveable to consciousness |
| preconventional | Kohlberg's stage of moral development in which rewards and punishments dominate moral thinking |
| predictive | type of test validity that indicates how well a test correlates with a variable that is measured in the future; |
| prejudice | a negative attitude formed toward an individual or group without sufficient experience with the person or group |
| preoperational | Piaget's second stage of cognitive development, when egocentrism declines |
| proactive interference | when prior learning disrupts the recall of new information |
| projection | defense mechanism in which one disguises one's won unacceptable impulses by attributing them to others |
| projective | term describes a personality test in which ambiguous stimuli trigger revelation of inner feelings, thoughts |
| prosocial | term describes behavior that is positive, constructive, altruistic |
| psychiatrist | medical doctor who has specialized in treating psychological disorders |
| psychoanalysis | Freud's therapeutic technique |
| psychodynamic | term describes the perspective on psychology in which inner feeling and unconscious tensions are emphasized |
| psychopharmacology | the study of the effects of drugs on the mind and behavior |
| punishment | can be either positive or negative, intended to reduce the occurrence of a behavior |
| random | term that describes assignment in which all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to the control group or to the experimental group |
| REBT | Albert Ellis's form of therapy for psychological disorders |
| rationalization | "The only reason I flunked the test is because our teacher is no good." |
| reaction formation | defense mechanism in which unacceptable impulses are transformed into their opposite |
| reciprocal determinism | Bandura's idea that though our environment affects us, we also affect our environment |
| refractory period | resting time; occurs in both neuron firing and in human sexual response |
| regression | defense mechanism in which one retreats to an earlier stage of life |
| rehearsal | conscious repetition of information in order to fix it in memory, such as practicing a list of terms to memorize |
| reinforcer | in operant conditioning any event that strengthens the behavior it follows |
| reliability | in testing, the characteristic of a test that produces consistent scores through retesting or alternate halves or other methods |
| REM | describes sleep in which vivid dreams typically occur; this type of sleep increases as the night progresses while stage 4 sleep decreases |
| replication | other researchers can do this to your research if you provide good operational definitions |
| representative | this kind of sample accurately reproduces the characteristics of the population a researcher is studying |
| representativeness heuristic | this cognitive short cut enables one to generalization based on how closely a stimulus matches a typical member of a class; given a picture of a man in a tweed jacket with a textbook, is this man a professor or a truck driver? |
| repression | defense mechanism in which painful memories are excluded from consciousness |
| recovered | term describes a type of memory in which events of the past, that one may not even know occurred, are brought to consciousness, usually during therapy; there is much controversy about whether these memories are accurate |
| reticular formation | a network of cells in the brainstem that filters sensory information and is involved in arousal and alertness |
| retina | the sensory reception system of the eye; includes rods and cones |
| retrieval | the process of recovering information stored in memory |
| retroactive interference | when new learning disrupts the recall of previously-learned information |
| rods | responsible for black and white vision |
| role-play | technique in therapy and training in which participants act out new behaviors or skills |
| rooting | a reflex in which a newborn turns its head in response to a gentle stimulus on its cheek |
| Rorschach test | a projective test that uses inkblots as the ambiguous stimulus |
| safety | the second rung of Maslow's hierarchy; refers to need for freedom from danger |
| scapegoat | this theory says that having suffered negative experience, an individual might blame an innocent person or group for the experience and subsequently mistreat the person or group |
| scatterplot | name for a graph of data points in a two variable correlation |
| schedules of reinforcement | these include fixed interval and variable ratio |
| schema | a collection of basic knowledge about a category of information; serves as a means of organization and interpretation of that information |
| schemata | plural form of schema |
| schizophrenia | disorder characterized by hallucinations and delusions |
| higher-order | term describes conditioning in which the CS for one experiment becomes the UCS in another experiment so that another neutral stimulus can be made to elicit the original UCR |
| selective attention | this term describes the situation when you are focused on certain stimuli in the environment while other stimuli are excluded |
| self-concept | one's idea and evaluation of oneself; this contributes to one's sense of identity |
| self-efficacy | one's ability to act effectively to bring about desired results; from Bandura |
| self-actualization | the highest of Malow's needs; "the full use of talent" |
| self-esteem | the more positive one's estimation of one's qualities and characteristics, the higher this is |
| self-fulfilling prophecy | a belief or expectation that helps to make itself true |
| self-serving bias | he tendency to assign oneself credit for successes but to blame failures on external forces |
| semantics | in language, study of meanings of words |
| sensorimotor | describes Piaget's stage in which the child explores the world through interaction of his mouth and hands with the environment |
| sensory adaptation | reduced responsiveness caused by prolonged stimulation |
| sensory cortex | the parts of the brain that receive information from the sensory receptors |
| sensory neurons | nervous system cells that receive information from the environment |
| afferent | in neurons, another name for sensory |
| serial position effect | this tells us that the best recall of a list of items will be of those at the beginning of the list |
| serotonin | a neurotransmitter; associated with improved mood and other positive emotions |
| SSRI | class of drugs used to relieve anxiety by limiting reuptake of a neurotransmitter |
| set point | the point at which one's body tries maintain weight |
| sexual response | its four stages are excitement, plateau, orgasm and resolution |
| shaping | an operant conditioning technique in which reinforces guide behavior to closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior |
| short-term | type of memory that holds a few items briefly before they are lost |
| working | another term for short-term, as in memory |
| signal detection | this theory predicts how and in what circumstances we can detect a stimulus; assumes there is no single threshold |
| sleep apnea | a disorder characterized by cessation of breathing during sleep |
| sleep spindles | short bursts of brain waves detected in stage 2 sleep |
| socio-cultural | a perspective on psychology that emphasizes effects on behavior and thinking of one's culture and the people around one |
| social exchange | a theory that suggests that our behavior is based on maximizing benefits and minimizing costs |
| social facilitation | a phenomenon in which we perform simple or well-learned tasks better when in the presence of others |
| social learning | a theory that suggests we learn social behaviors by watching and imitating others |
| somatic | a division of the nervous system that controls voluntary muscle movements |
| somatoform disorder | any of a group of psychological disturbances characterized by physical symptoms for which there is not a medical cause |
| split brain | a condition in which the two brain hemispheres are isolated by cutting the corpus callosum |
| spontaneous recovery | in classical conditioning the re-occurence of conditioning after it had appeared to be extinct |
| standard deviation | a computation of how much scores vary around a mean |
| stereotype | a set of generalizations about a group |
| structuralism | school of psychology developed by Wilhelm Wundt |
| sublimation | a defense mechanism in which unacceptable energies are directed into socially admirable outlets, such as art |
| superego | the part of the personality in Freud's theory that is responsible for making moral choices |
| sympathetic | part of the nervous system that controls the "flight or fight" response |
| synaptic gap | space between the axon terminal of one neuron and the receptors of the next neuron |
| syntax | in language the set of rules that describe how words are arranged to make sentences |
| temperament | personality component that ranges from very calm to very exitable |
| temporal | the lobe that controls audition |
| thalamus | the sensory switchboard |
| TAT | a projective test in which subjects look at and tell a story about ambiguous pictures |
| theory | this organizes data and is used to make predictions |
| threshold | in a neuron, reaching this causes the neuron to fire |
| token economy | a technique in operant conditioning by which desired behaviors receive forms of currency that can be exchanged for rewards |
| transduction | receiving one form of energy and transforming it into another form |
| twin studies | a common method of investigating whether nature or nurture affects behavior |
| unconditioned response | in conditioning the behavior elicited by the unconditioned stimulus |
| unconditioned stimulus | in conditioning it elicits the UCR |
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