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g6-g8 vocab AP PSYCH

Terms in this set (127)

functional fixedness
the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving
functionalism
a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.
fundamental attributional error
the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
gate-control theory
the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The "gate" is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain.
gender
in psychology, the biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female
gender-typing
the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role
gender identity
one's sense of being male or female
gender role
a set of expected behaviors for males and for females.
gender-schema theory
the theory that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be male and female and that they adjust their behavior accordingly
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three stages—alarm, resistance, exhaustion. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 552)
general intelligence (G)
a general intelligence factor that according to Spearman and others underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 432)
generalization
the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 320)
generalized anxiety disorder
an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 649)
genes
the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; a segment of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 096)
genome
the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 096)
gestalt
an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 242)
glial cells (glia)
cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 075)
glucose
the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 475)
grammar
in a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 411)
GRIT
Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction, strategy designed to decrease international tensions. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 769)
group polarization
the enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 740)
grouping
the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 243)
groupthink
the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 740)
habituation
decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 143)
hallucinations
false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 277)
hallucinogens
psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 302)
health psychology
a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 549)
heritability
the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 102)
heuristic
a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 398)
hierarchy of needs
Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 472)
hindsight bias
the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.) (Myers Psychology 8e p. 020)
hippocampus
a neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 368)
homeostasis
a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 471)
hormones
chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 065)
hue
the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, and so forth. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 205)
human factors psychology
a branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 261)
humanistic psychology
historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people; used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 7)
hypnosis
a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 290)
hypothalamus
a neural structure lying below (hypo) the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion.
hypothesis
A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
iconic memory
a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 362)
id
contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 598)
identical twins
* - Twins who develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms. (Myers Psychology 7e p. 105)
identification
the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 599)
identity
one's sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 171)
illusory correlation
the perception of a relationship where none exists. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 033)
imagery
mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 358)
implicit memory
retention independent of conscious recollection. (Also called procedural memory.) (Myers Psychology 8e p. 367)
imprinting
the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 156)
inattentional blindness
failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 238)
incentive
a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 471)
independant variable
the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied
individualism
giving priority to one's own goals over group goals, and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 121)
industrial-organizational psychology (I/O)
the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 499)
informational social influence
influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 733)
ingroup
"us"—people with whom one shares a common identity. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 746)
inner ear
the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs (Myers Psychology 8e p. 217)
insight
a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; it contrasts with strategy-based solutions. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 398)
insomnia
recurring problems in falling or staying asleep. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 283)
instinct
a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 470)
intelligence
mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 431)
intelligence quotient (IQ)
defined originally as the ratio of mental age (ma) to chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 [thus, IQ = (ma/ca) x 100]. On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 444)
intelligence test
A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores. (Myers Psychology 7e p. 420)
intensity
the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 205)
interaction
the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity). (Myers Psychology 8e p. 105)
internal locus of control
the perception that one controls one's own fate. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 625)
interneurons
central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 062)
interpretation
in psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 687)
intimacy
in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 172)
intrinsic motivation
a desire to perform a behavior for its own sake. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 335)
iris
a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 205)
James-Lange theory
the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 514)
Just-world phenomenon
the tendency of people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 748)
kinesthesis
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts. (Myers Psychology 7e p. 227)
language
our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.
latent content
according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream (as distinct from its manifest content). Freud believed that a dream's latent content functions as a safety valve. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 287)
latent learning
learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 334)
law of effect
Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 327)
learned helplessness
the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 625)
learning
a relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 313)
lens
the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 205)
lesion
tissue destruction. A brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 068)
levels of analysis
the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 010)
limbic system
a doughnut-shaped system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem and cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions such as fear and aggression and drives such as those for food and sex. Includes the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 072)
linguistic determinism
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 418)
lobotomy
a now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves that connect the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 717)
long-term memory
the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 351)
long-term potentiation (LTP)
an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 365)
longitudinal study
research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 183)
LSD
a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide). (Myers Psychology 8e p. 302)
lymphocytes
the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 557)
major depressive disorder
a mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 659)
mania
a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 659)
manifest content
According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream (as distinct from its latent, or hidden, content).
maturation
biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 145)
mean
the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 041)
median
the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it and half are below it. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 041)
medical model
the concept that diseases have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured. When applied to psychological disorders, the medical model assumes that these mental illnesses can be diagnosed on the basis of their symptoms and cured through therapy, which may include treatment in a psychiatric hospital. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 642)
medulla
the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing
memory
the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 349)
menarche
the first menstrual period
menopause
the time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 176)
mental age
a measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does as well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 443)
mental retardation
a condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 452)
mental set
a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 400)
mere exposure effect
the phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 759)
meta-analysis
a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 703)
methamphetamines
a powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes; over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels
middle ear
the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 217)
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 616)
mirror neurons
frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 341)
misinformation effect
incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 383)
mnemonics
memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices
mode
the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution
modeling
the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 341)
molecular genetics
the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 105)
monism
the presumption that mind and body are different aspects of the same thing. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 310)
monocular cues
depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 246)
mood-congruent memory
the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 374)
mood disorders
psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes. See major depressive disorder, mania, and bipolar disorder. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 658)
morpheme
in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix). (Myers Psychology 8e p. 411)
motivation
a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 470)
motor cortex
an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 077)
motor neurons
neurons that carry outgoing information from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 062)
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images that distinguish among different types of soft tissue; allows us to see structures within the brain. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 069)
mutation
a random error in gene replication that leads to a change
myelin sheath
a layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next
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