| Term | Definition |
|---|
| discomfort, bizzare, inefficient | a workable definition of abnormality or disorder involving three criteria |
| inflexibility | people in need of psychological help often show this lack of ability to "go with the flow", they have a fixed set or responses to daily stimuli |
| threatening environment | people with mental illnesses see the world this way, as dangerous and "out to get them" |
| DSM-IV | a book that classifies the symptoms of mental problems into formal categories |
| anxiety disorders | group of disorders whose major symptom is a feeling of dread, uneasiness, worry, and fear |
| anxiety | a generalized feeling of apprehension and pending disaster |
| panic disorder | disorder in which one cannot relax and is plagued by frequent and overhelming attacks of anxiety |
| specific phobia | major anxiety reaction when faced witha specific object or situation (snake, spider, heights, etc.) |
| agoraphobia | disorder involving intense anxiety felt when leaving a familiar environment |
| obsession | an endless preoccupation with an urge or thought (often causes anxiety) |
| compulsion | symbolic, ritualized behavior that a person does to reduce anxiety |
| obsessive-compulsive disorder | disorder involving having continued anxiety producing thoughts about performing a certain act over and over |
| somatoform disorders | disorders in which psychological issues are expressed in bodily symptoms in the absence of any real physical problem |
| conversion disorder | disorder in which a serious psychological trauma is changed into a symbolic physical dysfunction (numbness, blindness, etc.) |
| hypochondriasis | disorder characterized by excessive concern over one's health and exaggerating the seriousness of minor complaints (often thinks he/she has a serious disease) |
| dissociative disorders | group of disorders in which a part of one's life or consciousness becomes disconnected from other parts |
| amnesia | disorder in which traumatic events "disappear" from conscious memory |
| selective forgetting | "forgetting" only things that are very traumatic |
| fugue | condition of having amnesia for your current life and starting a new life somewhere else |
| dissociative identity disorder | condition in which a person divides himself into two or more separate personalities that can act independently |
| mood disorders | category of disorders characterized by an abnormal emotional state |
| dysthymic disorder | a moderate depression, not associated with suicide, very common, lasts years |
| major depression | extremely low emotional state involving loss of appetite, motivation, and energy - associated with suicidal thoughts and hopelessness |
| mania | a rare mood disorder involving extreme agitation, restlessness, rapid speech, and trouble concentrating (usally part of another disorder) |
| flight of ideas | a confused state in which thoughts and speech go in all directions with no unifying concept (can't finish one thought 'cause they're all coming at once) |
| bipolar disorder | disorder with up and down mood swings, usually longer periods of depression and short but wild epiodes of mania |
| serotonin | neurotransmitter, low levels of which is commonly associated with depression |
| psychosis | a mental state involving major problems with emotional responses, disorganized thought, and distorted perceptions of the world (can be a part of more than one type of mental disorder) |
| thought disorder | a serious distortion of the ability to think and speak in a clear coherent way (leads to loose associations of ideas and speaking gibberish) |
| hallucination | and sight or sound perceived but that is not actually happening |
| delusion | a beilief in something that is not true (and is illogical) - ex. - you are Jesus, the CIA is poisoning your Coke |
| schizophrenia | most serious mental disorder involving loss of contact with reality, thought disorders, hallucinations, delusions, emotional problems, etc, |
| word salad | speech in which words are mixed together incoherently, but which is based on a reasonable intended sentence |
| clang associations | psychotic speech in which words are rhymed and spoken for their appealing sound |
| catatonic schizophrenia | schizophrenia characterized by disturbances of movement |
| paranoid schizophrenia | schizophrenia characterized by strong delusions of persecution and extreme suspiciousness |
| undifferentiated schizophrenia | schizophrenia that lacks any distinguishing symptoms |
| psychotic episodes | periods of psychotic behavior alternating with periods of clarity and calm |
| rule of thirds | idea that one third of schizophrenics improve with treatment, one third get better and worse repeatedly, and one third do not respond well to treatment |
| dopamine | high levels of this neurotransmitter are linked with development of schizophrenia |
| personality disorder | disorder in which the person's whole fundamental personality is unpleasant or peculiar in some debilitating way |
| antisocial personality disorder | disorder in which the person has no sense of right and wrong, often a criminal (don't respond to treatment) |
| borderline personality disorder | disorder marked by unstable emotions and relationships, dependency and manipulative, self-destructive behavior |
| personality | a person's broad long-lasting patterns of behavior |
| psychoanalysis | theory that personality is based on impulses and needs from the unconscious and on childhood experience |
| Freud (Sigmund) | developed the pschoanalytic perspective to personality |
| unconscious | the part of our mind or personality that contains information or conflicts of which we are not aware and have no access to |
| free association | Freudian technique where a patients says anything that comes to mind and thereby reveals true unconscious material |
| repression | the process of pushing needs and desires that cause guilt or fear into the unconscious |
| libido | Freudian idea of internal energy force that seeks discharge in sexual or aggressive actions |
| id | part of our psyche (mind/personality) that contains our basic survival needs and primal drives such as sex, aggression - very much like an animal |
| ego | part of our psyche (mind/personality) that balances desires of the id and superego - the "self" |
| superego | part of our psyche (mind/personality) that holds our moral code, our conscience |
| oral stage | first of the psychosexual stages of development in which weaning is the major obstacle to overcome |
| anal stage | second of Freud's psychosexual stages in which potty-training is the key part of development |
| phallic stage | third part of Freud's psychosexual stages of development in which the Oedipus complex emerges |
| Oedipus complex | Freudian theory that little boys have their first sexual feelings toward their mothers and must seek to identify with the father instead of compete with him |
| Jung (Carl) | a disciple of Freud, one of the neo-Freudians - believed in the collective unconscious |
| archetypes | Jung's term for inherited universal human concepts such as hero, mother, underdog) |
| collective unconscious | Jung;s term for the portion of a person that contains ideas shared by the whole human race |
| persona | Jung's term for a "mask" people wear to hide their real selves in different situations |
| neo-Freudians | psychologists who believed in the unconscious, but thought it had more to do with social interactions than deep sexual and aggressive urges |
| Erikson (Erik) | Developed a theory of 8 stages of development - there is a major confilct to overcome at each stage |
| Identity vs. Identity Confusion | the stage of Erikson's model that adolescents are at as they try to define who they are and what they value |
| Bandura (Albert) | believed personality is formed in large part from modeling our behaviors on those we observe around us |
| modeling | learning by imitating others |
| ideal self | the humanist idea that we all have a perfect version of ourselves that we try to live up to |
| fully functioning individual | humanist idea of who we are once we behave the way we feel we should (live up to our ideal selves) |
| Maslow (Abraham) | developed a sequence of needs that we fill in order and developed the idea of self-actualization |
| self-actualized | Maslow's term for a person who has realized the full potential of his or her skills and abilities |
| personality traits | more or less permanent personality characteristics (agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, etc.) |
| 16 personality factors | theory of personality developed by Raymond Cattell that argues we have a certain set number of personality traits |
| psychology | the scientific study of human and animal behavior |
| theory | a general framework for scientific study, allows us to make predictions, smaller parts of this can be tested |
| research psychologists | psychologists who apply their skills to discovering and testing theories about behavior |
| applied psychologists | psychologists who make direct use of other psychologists findings and deal directly with clients |
| psychiatrist | a psychologist (M.D.) who has undergone medical school training and can prescribe medicine |
| Darwin (Charles) | he was important to psychology because his theories showed that we could learn about human behavior by studying animals |
| Wundt (Wilhelm) | developed the first laboratory dedicated to the psychological study of humans, father of psychology |
| introspection | psychological measurement technique, looking into yourself and describing your sensations and feelings |
| James (William) | famous early American psychologist known for his emphasis on studying humans as "wholes" not looking at one aspect of them alone |
| Watson (John) | the first behaviorist, he studied the effects of learning on behavior |
| eclecticism | the process of making your own theory by borrowing parts from two or more other theories |
| neurobiological approach (biological approach) | approach to psychology that views behavior as the result of nervous system functions and physiological processes |
| behavioral approach | perspective on psychology that ses behavior as the product of learning and associations, studies only overt behaviors |
| Skinner (B.F.) | famous behaviorist who studied operant conditioning and discounted free will |
| humanistic approach | approach to psychology that sees humans as basically good and striving to reach their ideal self |
| cognitive approach | approach to psychology that emphasizes our thought processes and how we uniquely perceive the world and how this affects our personality |
| sociocultural approach | newer approach to psychology that believes behaviors are primarily developed by the different groups we belong to and how the create our personality |
| fissure | a lengthy crevice that separate the two hemispheres of the brain |
| hemisphere | one-half of the two halves of the brain, controls the opposite side of the body |
| corpus callosum | bundle of nerve fibers that connects and sents information between the two hemispheres of the brain |
| frontal lobe | area of the cortex that contains the motor strip and is responsible for complicated thought, associations, and mental processing |
| motor strip (cortex) | band running down the side of the frontal lobe that controls all bodily movement |
| parietal lobe | lobe of the cortex that is responsible for interpreting sensory information and contains the somatosensory cortex |
| sensory strip | also called the somatosensory cortex, this strip of cortex registers all bodliy sensations |
| tempral lobe | lobe of cortex responsible for hearing and some speech functions |
| occipital lobe | are of the cortex that interprets visual information |
| hemispheric specialization | term used to describe the fact the two hemisheres of the brain are designed to handle specific tasks (Left - logic, language; Right - creativity, spatial reasoning, art, emotion) |
| cerebral cortex | the unit of the brain that covers the mid and lower brain and is involved in higher level processing |
| lower brain | "animal" part of the brain that regulates survival functions |
| thalamus | part of the brain that acts as a relay station to and from the brain to the body |
| cerebellum | part of the brain that coordinates body movements and maintains balance |
| hypothalamus | part of the brain that controls hunger, thirst, sex, and aggression - all pleasure drives |
| reticular formation | part of the brain stem that monitors our awareness; keeps us awake or puts us to sleep based on its assessment of changes in our body and environment |
| neuron | a nerve cell, billions of which combine to create our brain and nervous system |
| dendrite | part of a neuron which receives information from other neurons |
| axon | part of a neuron that carries an action potential toward the synapse |
| synapse | the junction point of two or more neurons, this empty space represents an area where two neurons communicate |
| vesicles | small pouches in axon terminals that contain neurotransmitters |
| neurotransmitters | chemicals in neurons that send information across the synapse |
| dopamine | neurotransmitter that sends signals about pleasure |
| endorphins | neurotransmitters that send information about pain and give a sense of well-being |
| acetylcholine | neurotransmitter that regulates physical movement |
| spinal cord | functions as an "automatic brain" sending signals from the body to the brain and back again, also controls reflexes |
| hormones | chemical regulators that control bodily processes such as emotion, growth and sexuality: they are long-lasting messengers present in the blood |
| glands | units of the body that create and contain hormones |
| endocrine system | sytem of all the glands and their chemical messages |
| pituitary gland | master gland of the body, controls all other glands and produces growth hormone |
| thyroid gland | gland that regulates the speed of bodily processes and how we use energy |
| metabolism | the speed at which the body uses up energy |
| adrenal glands | glands that cause excitement in order to prepare the body for an emergency |
| adrenaline | the chemical that prepares the body for emergency by increasing blood pressure, breathing rates, and energy level |
| gonads | sex glands that make sperm or eggs for reproduction |
| androgen | male sex hormone, activates sex drive and makes men have characteristics of male humans |
| estrogen | female sex hormone, activates sex drive and makes women have characteristics of female humans |
| sensation | process of receiving information from the environment |
| perception | process of organizing incoming sensory information and giving it meaning |
| white light | light as it originates from the sun or a bulb, contains all wavelengths |
| cornea | clear outer covering of the eye |
| iris | colored circular muscle in the eye whcih controls the amount of light that gets in |
| lens | part of the eye that focuses images on the back of the eye |
| pupil | the opening in the eye to allow light in |
| retina | the back of the eye which contains receptors that allow us to sense images |
| blind spot | area in the retina in which there are no rods or cones and therefore no sensory detection |
| rod | visual receptor sensitive in low light, no real color vision or sharpness and detail |
| cone | visual receptor active in high light levels, detects color and sharpness of vision |
| afterimage | firing of cones not used after viewing an object for a time that causes an image to appear in opposite colors |
| audition | the sense of hearing |
| pitch | how high or low a tone is |
| timbre | the complexity of a tone (why a guitar sounds different from a piano) |
| intensity | also called volume, how loud a sound is (measured in decibels) |
| eardrum | membrane in the inner ear that detects vibrations in the air and sends them on to the cochlea |
| cochlea | snail-shaped part of the ear that has hair cells that respond to vibration and determines qualities of the sounds we hear |
| hair cells | receptor cells for hearing found in the cochlea |
| cutaneous receptors | our three types of touch receptors which respond to pressure, temperatuer, and pain |
| olfaction | our sense of smell |
| cilia | tiny hair-like receptor cells that receive odor molecules for detection |
| olfactory bulbs | specialized neuron receptors cells that communicate the types of smells we receive to the brain |
| pheromones | odor molecules that communicate a message (often sexual interest) |
| size constancy | our ability to retain the size of an object mentally regardless of its distance from us (the size of its image on our retina) |
| color constancy | ability to perceive an object as the same color regardless of the changing light it may be reflecting |
| space constancy | ability to keep objects in the environment steady in our mind despite movement around us |
| depth perception | ability to see objects in space and judge their distance from us |
| binocular disparity | difference between the two images each eye perceives (aids in depth perception) |
| visual texture | depth perception based on how detailed or blurry an object appears |
| gestalt | organized whole, something that is greater than the sum of its parts (a school of thought in perception) |
| similarity | principle that we group thins together that are alike |
| closure | principle that we see things as wholes by filling in the missing details of what we see |
| proximity | principle that we group things together based on their closeness to each other |
| illusion | an inaccurate perception often occuring because it violates perceptual constancies |
| subliminal perception | ability to perceive or sense information below our level of consciousness |
| motivation | the drive to seek a goal such as food, water, friendship, etc.... |
| emotion | a state of the body causing feelings such as hope, fear, love, etc. (a cognitive and physical experience) |
| homeostasis | body's motivation to maintaina balanced internal state |
| blood-sugar level | the amoung of sugar dissolved in the blood - it affects hunger |
| glucose | another name for sugar in the blood |
| set point | body regulating mechanism that determines a persons typical weight (body's "preferred" weight) |
| curiosity motive | drive that moves a person to see and experience new and different things |
| manipulation motive | drive to handle and use objects in the environment |
| intrinsic motivation | seeking satisfaction that comes from within the individual (rewards from within) |
| extrinsic motivation | seeking a reward from outside the organism |
| contact comfort | satisfaction obtained from pleasant, soft physical stimulation |
| Harlow (Harry) | learned about contact comfort in his studies with monkeys |
| hierarchy of needs | system that ranks needs one above the other with the most basic needs at the bottom of the sequence |
| need for affiliation | motivation for belonging to and identifying with groups |
| need for approval | motivation for obtaining other people's good opinion of you |
| need for achievement | motivation for personal accomplishment |
| cognition | symbolic thought processes |
| James-Lange Theory | a theory of emotion that argues that the body has a physical response to a situation and this physical response is detected as an emotion (physical response MUST happen to feel emotion) |
| Cannon-Bard Theory | theory of emotion that argues that physical and emotional response occur at the same time and therefore must be independent of each other |
| Schachter's Cognitive Theory | theory of emotion that states that we have body responses and we "label" them as an emotion based on our environment and other information at hand (we interpret our body reactions) |
| construct | concept requiring belief in something that cannot be seen or touched, but that seems to exist |
| consciousness | the awareness of what is happening in and around an organism |
| subconscious | thoughts and memories that are just below our level of awareness and that can be easily accessed with attention |
| unconscious | thoughts and memories and desires about which we have no direct knowledge or access |
| chronobiology | study of forces that control the body based on time of day, month, year, etc. |
| biological clocks | internal chemical units that control regular cycles in parts of the body (there's one for temperature, menstruation, etc.) |
| free-running cycles | cycles run by biological clocks that are under their own control and not affected by the environment |
| entrainment | the process of altering free-runing cycles to fit a different rhythm |
| circadian rhythm | sequences of behavioral and body changes that occur every 24 hours |
| twilight state | relaxed state just before we fall asleep where the mind wanders |
| REM sleep | rapid eye movement occurs during this stage and we dream and experience cataplexy |
| beta waves | rapid brain waves appearing when a person is awake |
| alpha waves | failry relaxed brain waves that occur as we fall asleep (stage 1 sleep) |
| delta waves | slow , lazy, deep-waves occuring during stage 4 sleep |
| NREM sleep | sleep involving partial thoughts & images, deep restorative sleep, no paralysis |
| nightmare | disturbing dream during REM sleep |
| incubus attack | also called a night terror , a horrible dream that occurs during NREM sleep and therefore feels real |
| insomnia | inability to get to sleep or stay asleep |
| narcolepsy | disorder in which a person fall instantly into REM sleep regardless of their environment or the time |
| sleep apnea | breathing stopages during sleep, leads to excessive tiredness and in extreme cases, death |
| hypnosis | a trance state in which attention is highly focused on certain things (brought about by a professional who often asks questions) |
| meditation | trance state brought on by oneself in which you cut off the outside world from consciousness, has been shown to have health benefits |
| latent content | according to Freud, this is the true unconscious meaning behind what goes in your dreams |
| manifest content | the actual description of what happens in your dreams |
| wish fulfllment | Freud's main contention of the purpose of dreams |
| activation-synthesis theory | theory of dream interpretation that argues that dreams are simply a random collection of thoughts and memories and your brain automatically strings them together in a story: holds that these stories have no real significance |
Combine with other sets
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