Psychology Terms (Nov. 9th-Dec. 9th)

Algorithm

In many cases, System 2 solves problems by an algorithm, an explicit procedure for calculating an answer or testing every hypothesis.

Mania

In many respects, mania is the opposite of depression. In mania, people are constantly active and uninhibited.

Maintenance

Maintenance is taking steps to keep a disorder from becoming more serious.

Negative symptom

...a negative symptom by the absence of a behavior.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

A brief electrical shock is administered across the patient's head to induce a convulsion similar to epilepsy.

The fundamental attribution error

A common error is to make internal attributions for people's behavior even when we see evidence for an external influence on behavior. This tendency is known as the fundamental attribution error. It is also known as the correspondence bias, meaning a tendency to assume a strong similarity between one's current actions and his or her dispositions. If someone cuts in front of you in line, your immediate reaction is, "This person is a complete jerk!" But in reality, maybe he never cuts into lines and is doing it this time only because he is about to miss his plane, the one he's taking to be with his great aunt, who is on the verge of death.

A compulsion

A compulsion is a repetitive, almost irresistible action.

A cross-sectional study

A cross-sectional study compares groups of individuals of different ages at the same time. For example, we could compare drawings by 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and 10-year-olds.

A delusion of grandeur

A delusion of grandeur is a belief that you are unsually important, perhaps a special messenger from God.

A delusion of persecution

A delusion of persecution is a belief that enemies are persecuting you.

A delusion of reference

A delusion of reference is a tendency to take all sorts of messages personally. For example, someone may interpret a newspaper headline as a coded message of what he or she should do today.

Antipsychotic drug

A drug that can relieve schizophrenia.

Williams syndrome

A genetic condition characterized by mental retardation in most regards but surprisingly good use of language relative to their other abilities.

A longitudinal study

A longitudinal study follows a single group of individuals as they develop. For example, we could study a group of children from, say, age 6 to age 12.

A major depression

A major depression is a more extreme condition in which the person experiences little interest, pleasure, or motivation for weeks at a time.

The guilty-knowledge test

A modified version of the polygraph test. It produces more accurate results by asking questions that should be threatening only to someone who knows the facts of the crime. Instead of asking, "Did you rob the gas station?" the interrogator asks, "Was the gas station robbed at 8 p.m.? At 10:30? At midnight? Did the robber carry a gun? A knife? A club? Was the getaway care green? Red? Blue?" Someone who shows arousal only in response to the correct details is presumed to have "guilty knowledge" that only the guilty person or someone who had talked to the guilty person would possess.

A morpheme

A morpheme is a unit of meaning. Morphemes help us break an unfamiliar word into meaningful parts. For example, we can see reinvigoration as re-in-vigor-ation, meaning the process of increasing vigor again.

A night terror

A night terror causes someone to awaken screaming and sweating with a racing heart rate, sometimes flailing with the arms.

Jet lag

A period of discomfort and inefficiency while your internal clock is out of phase with your new surroundings.

A personality disorder

A personality disorder is a maladaptive, inflexible way of dealing with the environment and other people, such as being unusually self-centered.

A phobia

A phobia is a fear that interferes with normal living.

A phoneme

A phoneme is a unit of sound, such as f or sh.

A prejudice

A prejudice is an unfavorable attitude toward a group of people.

Discrimination

A prejudice is usually associated with discrimination, which is unequal treatment of different groups, such as minority groups, the physically disabled, people who are obese, gays and lesbians.

Disgust

A reaction to something that would make you feel contaminated if it got into your mouth.

A schema

A schema is an organized way of interacting with objects. For instance, infants have a grasping schema and sucking schema. Older infants gradually add new schemata and adapt their old ones through the processes of assimilation and accomodation. A schema is a pattern of cognition (e.g. "dogs are furry") or action (e.g. grabbing the fur of a dog) that guides interactions with the environment. The interaction between cognitive and motor schemas runs through all of development and involves continual adaptation, the process by which individuals change their cognition and actions in order to function effectively in an environment.

Angry aggression/instrumental aggression

A second group of theories, such as displaced aggression, propose that conflict is not rational, materialist, or balanced. Displaced aggression is not rational because the aggressors generally are not aware of why they are attacking a third-party target. It is not materialist because it is feelings, emotions, and psychological experiences, and not the material conditions, that fundamentally shape behavior in this realm. Third, displaced aggression is not balanced, because it does not follow the tit-for-tat pattern of violence. (Think of the example of the man hitting his child and wife when he is angry at his boss). Some critics contend that displaced aggression is limited in that it deals with emotional or angry aggression, such as an act of violence arising out of momentary passion, but not instrumental aggression, a premeditated, planned attack designed to gain material benefit for the aggressor.

A self-help group

A self-help group, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, operates much like group therapy, except without a therapist. Each participant both gives and receives help.

Social phobia

A severe avoidance of other people and a fear of doing anything in public.

The prisoner's dilemma

A situation where people choose between a cooperative act and a competitive act that benefits themselves but hurts others. The prisoner's dilemma is a canonical example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two purely "rational" individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so. A paradox in decision analysis in which two individuals acting in their own best interest pursue a course of action that does not result in the ideal outcome. The typical prisoner's dilemma is set up in such a way that both parties choose to protect themselves at the expense of the other participant. As a result of following a purely logical thought process to help oneself, both participants find themselves in a worse state than if they had cooperated with each other in the decision-making process. The prisoners' dilemma is the best-known game of strategy in social science. It helps us understand what governs the balance between cooperation and competition in business, in politics, and in social settings. prisoner's dilemma Definition Scenario where cooperation and trust wins and blind pursuit of self-interest loses. It is illustrated by the problem faced by two accomplices locked in separate cells. Each is offered three choices by the police: (1) if both confess to the charges, both will be jailed for five years, (2) if only one confesses, he will be freed but the non-confessor will be jailed for ten years, or (3) if neither confesses, both will be tried for a minor offense and will be jailed for one year. If both know that the other will not be selfish and will take the collective interest into consideration, neither will confess and serve one year in jail. Otherwise, where one cannot depend on the other, both have no choice but to confess and serve five years. It is an example of non zero sum game. (Check page 422 of Kalat for the scenario)

Cognitive dissonance

A state of unpleasant tension that people experience when they hold contradictory attitudes or when their behavior contradicts their stated attitudes, especially if the inconsistency distresses them. Suppose you pride yourself on honesty but find yourself saying something you do not believe. You feel tension that you can reduce in three ways: You can change what you are saying to match your attitudes, change your attitude to match what you are saying, or find an explanation that justifies your behavior under the circumstances.

A stereotype

A stereotype is a belief or expectation about a group of people.

Heuristic

A strategy for simplifying a problem and generating a satisfactory guess.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT)

A test that measures reactions to combinations of categories, such as flowers and pleasant. The implicit-association test (IAT) is a measure within social psychology designed to detect the strength of a person's automatic association between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. (Check page 429 of Kalat for examples)

Identity crisis

As Erikson pointed out, adolescence is a time of "finding yourself." An adolescent's concern with decision about the future and the quest for self-understanding has been called an identity crisis. The term crisis implies more emotional turbulence than is typical.

Exchange or equity theories

According to exchange or equity theories, social relationships are transactions in which partners exchange goods and services. It is easiest to establish a fair deal if the partners are about equally attractive and intelligent, contribute about equally to the finances and the chores, and so forth. For most couples, one partner contributes more in one way, and the other contributes more in another way.

Displaced aggression

Action intended to harm others by a person who feels provoked against a third-party target who is not responsible for the provocation. For example, a man could be provoked by his boss but displace his aggression onto his wife and child, soft targets. The idea of displaced aggression was first formally developed by Sigmund Freud.

An attitude

An attitude is a like or dislike that influences behavior.

Electroencephalograph (EEG)

An electroencephalograph (EEG) measures and amplifies tiny electrical changes on the scalp that reflect patterns of brain activity.

Atypical (or second-generation) antipsychotic drugs

Atypical (or second-generation) antipsychotic drugs, such as risperidone and clozapine, relieve schizophrenia without causing tardive dyskinesia. These drugs alter activity at both dopamine and serotonin synapses. However, the atypical antipsychotic drugs have side effects of their own.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to perceive, imagine, and understand emotions and to use that information in making decisions.

Conservation

According to Piaget, preoperational children lack the concept of conservation. They fail to understand that objects conserve such properties as number, length, volume, area, and mass after changes in the shape or arrangement of the objects. Conservation is the ability to recognize that the weight, volume, and other properties of objects can remain the same even when they change shape.

Egocentric

According to Piaget, young children's thought is egocentric. Piaget did not mean selfish. Instead, he meant that a child sees the world as centered around himself or herself and cannot easily take another person's perspective.

Autism

Autism is a lifelong condition characterized by impaired social contact. The main symptoms of autism are: impaired social relationships, impaired communication, stereotyped behaviors (repetitive movements such as flapping fingers).

Multiculturalism

Accepting, recognizing, and enjoying the differences among people and groups. A multiculturalist approach emphasizes the positive aspects of enjoying others as they are.

Accommodation

Accommodation means modifying an old schema to fit a new object or problem. A child may learn that "only living things move on their own" is a rule with exceptions and that the sun and moon are not alive.

broaden-and-build hypothesis

According to Barbara Fredrickson's (2001) broaden-and-build hypothesis of positive emotions, a happy mood increases your readiness to explore new ideas and opportunities. You think creatively, notice the details in the background that you ordinarily overlook, and increase your pursuit of new experiences that will help maintain your happy mood.

Defense mechanisms

According to Freud, it is in order to avoid disabling anxiety that individuals employ various defense mechanisms, behavioral and cognitive strategies intended to reduce anxiety. The primary defense mechanism is repression. Other important examples include projection, whereby what are actually one's own wishes, motives, and thoughts are attributed to another person or group rather than oneself. Another secondary defense mechanism is rationalization, whereby individuals reinterpret their own thoughts and feelings to make them more acceptable.

James-Lange theory

According to the James-Lange theory, your interpretation of a stimulus evokes autonomic changes and sometimes muscle actions. Your perception of those changes is the feeling aspect of your emotion. In Jame's original article, he said simply that the situation (e.g., the sight of a bear) gives rise to an action (e.g., running away), and your perception of the action is the emotion. That is, you don't run away because you are afraid; you feel afraid because you perceive yourself running away. The sight of a bear doesn't automatically cause you to run away. You first appraise the situation. If it is a caged bear or a circus bear, you do not run. If it appears dangerous, you do run. Your appraisal of the situation is the cognitive aspect of the emotion. Your perception of yourself running away, with soaring heart rate and breathing rate, is what you feel as the emotion.

Activation-synthesis theory of dreams

According to the activation-synthesis theory of dreams, dreams occur because the cortex takes the haphazard activity that occurs during REM sleep plus whatever stimuli strike the sense organs and does its best to make sense of this activity. According to their theory, dreams are what result when the cerebral cortex attempts to make sense of (or synthesize) the neural activity that is taking place in lower, less-advanced portions of the brain, like the brain stem.

Frustration-aggression hypothesis

According to the frustration-aggression hypothesis, the main cause of anger and aggression is frustration-an obstacle that stands in the way of doing something or obtaining something.

Terror-management theory

According to the terror-management theory, we cope with our fear of death by avoiding thoughts about death and affirming a worldview that provides self-esteem, hope, and value in life.

Spatial neglect

After damage to parts of the right hemisphere, people are still conscious, but sometimes they are apparently conscious of only half of the information they receive. They show spatial neglect-a tendency to be unconscious of the left side of the body, the left side of the world, or the left side of objects.

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is the habitual overuse of alcohol.

Groupthink

An extreme form of group polarization, known as groupthink, occurs when the members of a group suppress their doubts about a group's decision for fear of making a bad impression or disrupting a group harmony. The main elements leading to groupthink are overconfidence by the leadership, underestimation of the problems, and pressure to conform. Groupthink is the tendency for people in groups to converge on unwise courses of action they would have avoided if they were making the decision individually. It is in part that individuals were conforming to incorrect and to some extent arbitrary group norms.

Attachment

An important aspect of human life is attachment-a feeling of closeness toward another person. It is useful to remind ourselves of the evolutionary function of attachment: at a critical time in development, infants become attached to particular others who seem most likely, in terms of proximity and availability, to provide them with warmth, comfort, and food. Konrad Lorenz showed that ducklings can even become attached to a moving objected such as his booted legs, if the ducklings are exposed to the object at a critical time in their development.

Anxiety

An increase in the startle reflex.

An obsession

An obsession is a repetitive, unwelcoming stream of thought, such as worrying about doing something shameful.

Looking-glass self

Another approach to explaining how we see ourselves is associated with the term "looking-glass self," coined by Charles Cooley over a century ago to propose that how we see ourselves depends largely on how others see us. This suggests that our perception of ourselves is context dependent, that we change our views of ourselves when there is a change of feedback about ourselves.

Intersubjectivity

Another debate in psychology that has influenced thinking on attachment concerns intersubjectivity, how individuals come to understand one another and to some extent share an understanding of the world. Infants develop ideas about other minds, with "mother" typically being the most important in their lives.

Consistency information

Another information for attributions is consistency information (how the person's behavior varies from one time to the next). If someone almost always seems friendly, you make an internal attribution ("a friendly person"). If someon'es friendliness varies, you make an external attribution, such as an event that elicited a good or bad mood. If Jane is generous all the time, she shows high consistency. If Jane is rarely generous or is generous only at specific times, perhaps around the holidays, she shows low consistency. High consistency is attributed to the person (Jane is a generous person), while low consistency is attributed to the circumstance (the holidays make people generous).

Dream analysis

Another technique is dream analysis, seeking to understand symbolism in reported dreams.

Posthypnotic suggestion

Another use of hypnosis is posthypnotic suggestion, a suggestion to do or experience something after coming out of hypnosis.

Tardive dyskinesia

Antipsychotic drugs produce unwelcome side effects, including tardive dyskinesia, a condition characterized by tremors and involuntary movements.

Autonomic nervous system

Any stimulus that arouses emotion alters the activity of the autonomic nervous system, the section of the nervous system that controls the organs such as the heart and intestines.

Companionate love

As time passes, the relationship develops into companionate love, marked by sharing, care, and protection.

Attention deficit disorder (ADD)

Attention deficit disorder (ADD) is characterized by easy distraction, impulsiveness, moodiness, and failure to follow through on plans.

Attention

Attention is the tendency to respond to and to remember some stimuli more than others.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the same except with excessive activity and "fidgetiness."

Assimilation

Assimilation means applying an old schema to new objects or problems. For example, when a child sees animals move and then sees the sun and moon move, the child may assume that the sun and moon are alive, like animals.

Stage of concrete operations

At about age 7, children enter the stage of concrete operations and begin to understand the conservation of physical properties. According to Piaget, during the stage of concrete operations, children perform mental operations on concrete objects but still have trouble with abstract of hypothetical ideas. For example, ask this question: "How could you move a mountain of whipped cream from one side of the city to the other?" Older children enjoy devising imaginative answers, but children in the concrete operations stage complain that the question is silly.

Libidinal ties

At both the inter-personal and inter-group levels Freud postulated a central role for libido, consisting of the energy of instincts that come under the broad label "love," and libidinal ties consisting of "love relations" that are sexual but also other types of love relations such as between parents and children, or between close friends, or the love of citizens for their national leaders. All love relations arise out of the same instinctual emotions and are characterized by complexity and ambivalence. Individuals in libidinal ties experience psychological ambivalence because such ties involve feelings of both love and hostility. In Freud's writings about intense emotional relationships between people, it is proposed that repulsion and attraction, love and hate, are always interwoven. Lovers who feel pain when they are apart always have bittersweet experiences, because their feelings are a mixture of attraction and aversion.

Behavior therapy

Behavior therapy begins with a clear, well-defined goal, such as eliminating test anxiety, and then attempts to achieve it through learning.

Far transfer

Benefit from practicing something less similar. Examples: Transfer from reading the shuttle bus schedule to reading an airline schedule. Transfer from using a knife and fork to using chopsticks.

Near transfer

Benefit to a new skill based on practice of a similar skill. Examples: Transfer from using a knife and fork to using a different size of knife and fork. Transfer from using one shuttle bus to another.

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic-depressive disorder, is a condition in which someone alternates between mood extremes.

John Bowlby's Four-Phase Model

Bowlby's main long-term contribution may be that he systmatically explored the emotional sense of loss (for example, as associated with low confidence and self worth) experienced by children as a result of rejection or abandonment by caregivers. Bowlby's model of attachment, like the developmental models of Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg, is hierarchical, stepwise, and universal. Preattachment (birth to about 6-8 weeks): For the first eight weeks or so of life infants do not show strong reactions when they are left alone with an unfamiliar caregiver. As long as they receive adequate care, nourishment, warmth, and comfort, infants at this stage do not show strong preferences between caregivers. Beginnings of attachment (6-8 weeks to about 6-8 months): There is a slow, gradual, but definite increase in the infant's tendency not only to differentiate between other persons but to show preferences for familiar faces. Infants at this stage tend to be more cautious and wary when confronted by strangers. Clear-cut attachment (6-8 months to 2-3 years): At the start of this phase, the infant is able to crawl, and by the end of the phase the toddler is able to run around with some speed. Thus, not it is not just the mother who can move away and cause a mother-infant separation, but the infant also. The movement of the mother and infant seem to take place within the boundary of an invisible sphere; if either of them steps outside the boundary, separation anxiety arises. To avoid separation anxiety, the infant uses the mother as a secure base and continually checks back with her before venturing out toe explore. Mother-infant partnership (2-3 years and older): The toddler is now able to move around fairly well, and the challenge is to coordinate with the mother to arrive at a satisfactory equilibrium between dependence and independence. Separation anxiety gradually declines. A secure relationship between the mother and infant is precious, because it can serve as the working model for later relationships experienced by the maturing individual. Thus, Bowlby highlighted the sensitivity of children to parental rejection and abandonment, and he gave particular importance to the bonding of the mother with the infant at a critical stage.

Preoperational stage

By age 1.5-2, children begin speaking. A child who asks for a toy obviously understands object permanence. Nevertheless, young children still misunderstand much. They do not understand how a mother can be someone else's daughter. A boy with one brother will assert that his brother has no brother. Piaget refers to this period as the preoperational stage because the child lacks operations, which are reversible mental processes. Another example: Four-year-old Samantha can describe the dolls and the dollhouse on the table from where she is sitting, but cannot describe them from the perspective of her sister sitting on the other side of the doll table.

The sympathetic nervous system

Chains of neuron clusters just to the left and right of the spinal cord comprise the sympathetic nervous system, which arouses the body for vigorous action. It is often called the "fight-or-flight" system because it increases your heart rate, breathing rate, sweating, and flow of epinephrine, thereby preparing you for vigorous activity.

Language acquisition device

Chomsky and his followers suggest that people are born with a built-in mechanism for acquiring language.

Cognition

Cognition means thinking and using knowledge. Cognitive psychologists also deal with how people organize their thoughts into language.

Cognitive therapy

Cognitive therapy seeks to improve psychological well-being by changing people's interpretations of events.

Zygote

During prenatal development, everyone starts as a fertilized egg cell, or zygote, which develops through its first few stages until the stage of fetus about 8 weeks after conception.

Community psychologists

Community psychologists try to help people change their environment, both to prevent disorders and to promote a positive sense of mental well-being, analogous to the goals set by Alfred Adler.

System 1

Daniel Kahneman (2011) described human thinking in terms of two systems. We use System 1 for quick, automatic processes (such as recognizing familiar faces and routines actions) and for questions we think are easy. System 1 often proceeds unconsciously, or at least without much effort. It uses heuristics.

Deinstitutionalization

Deinstitutionalization is the removal of patients from mental hospitals to give them the least restrictive care possible.

Delusions

Delusions are beliefs that are strongly held despite a lack of evidence for them. Three common types are delusions of persecution, grandeur, and reference.

Equilibration

Equilibration is the establishment of harmony or balance between assimilation and accommodation, and according to Piaget, equilibration is the key to intellectual growth.

Antabuse

Disulfiram, available under the trade name Antabuse, is sometimes used in treating alcoholism. Alcoholics who take a daily Antabuse pill become sick if they have a drink. The threat of sickness is more effective than the sickness itself.

Type II (or Type B)

Early-onset or Type II (or Type B) alcoholism develops rapidly, usually by age 25, occurs more often in men than in women, is usually severe, and shows a stronger genetic basis.

Prototypes

Eleanor Rosch aruged that many categories are best described by familiar or typical examples called prototypes. After we identity good prototypes of country music or bald person, we compare other items to them. Depending on how closely something matches, we call it a member of the category, a nonmember, or a borderline case. For example, cars and trucks are members of the category "vehicle." Flowers are nonmembers. Escalators and water skis are borderline cases.

Equity theory

Equity theory focuses on determining whether the distribution of resources is fair to both relational partners. Equity is measured by comparing the ratio of contributions (or costs) and benefits (or rewards) for each person. This theory proposes that a person's motivation to stay in any relationship is based on the equality (or inequality) of the contributions made to the relationship by each person. For example, much like any barter system, we tend to trade our friendship for the friendship of others. Imagine you just met someone new, named Samantha, at work. Over a couple of weeks, as you talk more and spend more time together, you become friendly. You buy her lunch one day, and she buys you lunch a few weeks later in return. She does you a favor; you do her a favor. You invite her to a party; she invites you to a party. As long as the give and take is equal, the relationship remains stable and is considered satisfactory.

Erving Goffman's dramaturgical model

Erving Goffman explored the ways in which all of us are performers on the giant stage of everyday life. The dramaturgical model is the view that all of us are performers. Among the main concepts of this model are a performance, the activities of a person that influence others in the situation; a team, a group of people who collaborate to sustain a set of performances, the activities of a person that influence others in the situation; a region, the "back-stage" and "front-stage" spaces available for performances; and impression management, the art of maintaining a performance in accordance with the intended or desired presented self. For example, consider the hectic scene at a five-star restaurant when it is packed with clients. The kitchen is the "back-stage" where performances are rehearsed by the waiters and other staff, while the restaurant area where clients are served is the "front-stage." In the "back-stage" of the restaurant, there may be a great deal of chaos and confusion. The head wine waiter may have just engaged in a fierce fight with the head chef back-stage, but when he steps out onto front-stage, he is suddenly transformed into a calm, refined, super-caring being whose only concern in the world is the clients' enjoyment.

Productivity

Every species of animal has ways of communicating, but only human language has the property of productivity, the ability to combine words into new sentences that express an unlimited variety of ideas. Every day, you invent new sentences that no one has ever said before.

Internal attributions

Explanations based on someone's attitudes, personality traits, abilities, or other characteristics.

External attributions

Explanations based on the situation, including events that would influence almost anyone.

Identity achievement

Finally, identity achievement is the outcome of having explored various possible identities and then making one's own decisions.

Stage of formal operations

Finally, in Piaget's stage of formal operations, adolescents develop logical, deductive reasoning and systematic planning. At this stage, the individual can plan ahead and tackle problems with foresight. The individual has the ability to manipulate concepts and ideas and to make plans about hypothetical situations. According to Piaget, children reach the stage of formal operations at about age 11. Later researchers found that many people reach this stage later or not at all.

Self-fulfilling prophecies

First impressions can become self-fulfilling prophecies, expectations that increase the probability of the predicted event. Have you ever woken up and just knew it was going to be a bad day? Sure enough, you stub your toe, people at work seem to be in a bad mood, and negative things just seem to happen. If so, you were likely experiencing a self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy is when a person unknowingly causes a prediction to come true, due to the simple fact that he or she expects it to come true.

Similarity-attraction hypothesis

Freud argued that the more dissimilar the out-group, the more likely it will be selected as the target of displaced aggression. Thus, Freud formulated an early version of what became known as the similarity-attraction hypothesis, that individuals will be positively disposed toward others who are more similar to them and negatively inclined toward those who are less similar to them. Although similarity-attraction seems to be a universal relationship, the criteria selected for defining similarity are highly influenced by local culture.

Season-of-birth effect

Furthermore, a person born in the winter or early spring is slightly more likely to develop schizophrenia than a person born at other times. This season-of-birth effect occurs in northern climates, not near the equator.

Significant symbols/role taking

George Herbert Mead further developed the idea that self-perceptions arise out of social interactions, by focusing on significant symbols, actions and word children learn to use in order to elect the desired behavior from others. Through participation in symbolic interaction, children learn role taking, imagining oneself in the place of others, and to arrive at a clearer perception of both others and themselves. In other words, our self-perceptions are based not so much on how others see us, but on how we come to believe that others see us.

Identification with the leader

Group members, "followers," develop bonds with the group through identification with the leader, a process through which followers form emotional ties with the leader and act as if they are the person with whom the tie exists. Perhaps the most important role of the group leader is to manage the negative feelings that surge up inside the group, the jealousy, hatred, vengefulness, and so on that group members feel. Leaders achieve this through displaced aggression and the re-directing of negative feelings outside the group. Libidinal ties not only involve love and positive emotions; they also involved hostility and negative emotions. The displacement of aggression from in-groups, groups to which a person belongs, and out-groups, groups to which a person does not belong, is one of the most effective strategies through which leaders can strengthen in-group cohesion.

Group therapy

Group therapy is administered to several people at once.

Habituation

Habituation is decreased response to a repeated stimulus.

Hallucinations

Hallucinations are perceptions that do not correspond to anything in the real world, such as hearing voices that no one else hears.

Harry Harlow's experiment

Harlow showed that the mother-infant attachment involves much more than the reinforcing role of food. Harlow used newborn rhesus monkeys in an experiment to test directly the hypothesis that the basis of attachment is the role of the mother in providing food, against the hypothesis that the basis of attachment is the role of the mother in providing comfort and security. The newborn rhesus monkeys were separated from their mothers and raised in isolation. Each monkey had the company of two surrogate stationary mothers: one wire figure, the other a softer figure covered with cloth. Irrespective of whether the milk bottle was attached to the wire figure or the soft cloth figure, the monkeys spent more time in contact with the soft cloth figure. The clear implication of Harlow's research is that attachment arises out of a need for comfort and security, rather than food.

Consensus information

Harold Kelley proposed that three types of information influence us to make an internal or external attribution. One is consensus information (how the persons's behavior compares with other people's behavior). If someone behaves the same way you believe other people would in the same situation, you make an external attribution, recognizing that the situation led to the behavior. When a behavior seems unusual, you look for an internal attribution. If lots of people find Lisa attractive, consensus is high. If only Johnny finds Lisa attractive, consensus is low. High consensus is attributed to the stimulus (in the above example, to Lisa), while low consensus is attributed to the person (in this case, Johnny).

Altruistic behavior

Helping others despite a cost to ourselves.

Circadian rhythm

Humans have mechanisms that prepare us for activity during the day and sleep at night. Like other animals, we generate a circadian rhythm, a rhythm of activity and inactivity lasting about a day.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a condition of increased suggestibility that occurs in the context of a special hypnotist-subject relationship.

Identity foreclosure

Identity foreclosure is a state of reaching firm decisions without much thought. For example, a young man might be told that he is expected to go into the family business with his father, or a young woman might be told that she is expected to marry and raise children.

Group polarization

If nearly all the people who compose a group lean in the same direction on a particular issue, then a group discussion moves the group as a whole even further in that direction. This phenomenon is known as group polarization. Note that it requires a fairly homogenous group. If the group has several disagreeing factions, the trends are less predictable. In social psychology, group polarization refers to the tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. For example, let's say a group of Republicans gather to discuss welfare reform and some new policy proposed by a democratic politician. The welfare policy calls for more money to be taken from private sector businesses and given to welfare centers. In the beginning of the discussion, the group as a whole may be somewhat against the welfare reform policy (thus having an initial group attitude). After discussing the policy, the group indicates that they are now more against the policy than ever. What has happened is that the initial attitude has been bolstered and the group is more polarized against the policy.

Fetal alcohol syndrome

If the mother drinks too much alcohol during pregnancy, the infant may develop fetal alcohol syndrome, a condition marked by malformations of the face, heart, and ears; and nervous system damage, including seizures, hyperactivity, and impairments of learning, memory, problem solving, attention, and motor coordination.

Biculturalism

Immigrants, their children, and sometimes further generations experience biculturalism, partial identification with two cultures.

Spontaneous remission

Improvement without therapy.

Person-centered therapy

In Carl Roger's version of humanistic therapy, person-centered therapy, also known as nondirective or client-centered therapy, the therapist listens to the client with total acceptance and unconditional positive regard.

Biopsychosocial model

In Western cultures today, the predominant view is the biopsychosocial model that emphasizes three aspects of abnormal behavior: biological, psychological, and sociological. The biological roots of abnormal behavior include genetic factors, infectious diseases, poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, drugs, and other influences on brain functioning. The psychological component includes reactions to stressful experiences. For example, people who were physically or sexually abused in childhood are more likely than others to develop psychological problems in adulthood. Also, behavior must be understood in a social and cultural context. Behavior that is considered acceptable in one society might be labeled abnormal in another.

A coma

In a coma, caused by traumatic brain damage, the brain shows a steady but low level of activity and no response to any stimulus, including potentially painful stimuli.

A sequential design

In a sequential design, a researcher starts with people of different ages and studies them again at later times. For example, one might study 6-year-olds and 8-year-olds and then examine the same children 2 years later.

Brain death

In brain death, the brain shows no activity and no response to any stimulus.

Psychological dependence

In contrast, a psychological dependence is a strong desire for something without withdrawal symptoms. For example, habitual gamblers have a psychological dependence.

Peripheral route to persuasion

In contrast, when people listen to a message on a topic they consider unimportant, they attend to more superficial factors such as the speaker's appearance and reputation and sheer length of someone's speech. This peripheral route to persuasion also influences people who are too tired or distracted to pay careful attention the argument.

Family systems therapy

In family systems therapy, the guiding assumption is that most people's problems develop in a family setting and that the best way to deal with them is to improve family relationships and communication.

Base-rate information

In general, to decide whether something belongs in one category or another, you should consider the base-rate information-that is, how common the two categories are.

Midlife transition

In middle adulthood, according to Levinson (1986), people go through a midlife transition, a period of reassessing goals, setting new ones, and preparing for the rest of life.

Pure autonomic failure

In people with pure autonomic failure, the autonomic nervous system stops regulating the organs. That is, nothing in the nervous system influences heart rate, breathing rate, and so forth. With regard to emotions, affected people still recognize that some situation calls for anger, fear, or sadness, but they report that their emotions feel less intense than before. The cognitive aspect of emotion remains, but the feeling is weak, exactly as the James-Lange theory predicts.

Seasonal affective disorder

In seasonal affective disorder (SAD), people repeatedly become depressed during a particular season of the year.

Relative deprivation theory

In sociology, relative deprivation theory is a view of social change and movements, according to which people take action for social change in order to acquire something (for example, opportunities, status, or wealth) that others possess and which they believe they should have, too. Let's say that it's Christmas and your parents just bought you a brand new iPhone. You've wanted this phone for a long time, and you were so excited to receive it as a gift. A few days after you get the phone you decide to go to your friend's house to show it off a little bit. When you get there, you find out that your friend's parents bought him a brand new car. How do you feel about your phone now? Are you still as happy as you were before? If you feel a little jealous of your friend or are not as happy with your gift, you are experiencing relative deprivation. Relative deprivation is the belief that a person will feel deprived or entitled to something based on the comparison to someone else. In this case, the point of reference would be your friend who now possesses a new car. Since you don't have a car, this becomes a new desire and something you wish to acquire. Egotistical relative deprivation=for yourself Fraternatal relative deprivation=for the group you belong to

Tarasoff

In the 1976 Tarasoff case, a California court ruled that a therapist who has reason to believe that a client is dangerous to someone must warn the endangered person or take other steps to prevent harm.

Lorenz and inhibitory mechanisms

In the animal world when animals fight each other, it rarely ends in death, and when it does, it's usually by accident. Animals and humans, Lorenz argues, have in-built "inhibitory mechanisms" that prevent them from killing another species. For example: very rarely does/can a person kill another person with his bare hands. Something within the person prevents him from doing so. Yet, Lorenz argues, advances in technology and weapons help us side-step and avoid these inhibitory mechanisms, making killing easier. A good way to enforce inhibitory mechanisms with these new advances in technology, therefore, is to show people (such as on TV) images and clips of how brutal war and death really is.

Inoculation effect

In the closely related inoculation effect, people first hear a weak argument and then a stronger argument supporting the same conclusion. After they have rejected the first argument, they usually reject the second one also. So if you want to convince someone, start with your strong evidence.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

In the mide-1950s, French and American researchers independently discovered a stage of sleep called paradoxical sleep, or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. During this stage of sleep, the sleeper's eyes move rapidly back and forth under the closed lids. REM sleep is paradoxical because it is light in some ways and deep in others. It is light because the brain is active and the body's heart rate, breathing rate, and temperature fluctuate substantially. It is deep because the large muscles of the body that control posture and locomotion are deeply relaxed. Adults who are awakened during REM sleep report dreams about 85-90% of the time, whereas those awakened during NREM (non-REM) sleep report dreams on 50-60% of occasions. REM dreams are on average longer, more complicated, and more visual, with more action byt he dreamer, but not always. REM sleep is important because it is the restorative part of our sleep cycle. Typically, you begin the sleep cycle with a period of non-REM sleep followed by a very short period of REM sleep. The period of non-REM sleep is made up of stages 1 to 4. Each stage can last from 5 to 15 minutes.

The that's-not-all technique

In the that's-not-all technique, someone makes an offer and then improves the offer before you have a chance to reply.

Intervention

Intervention is identifying a disorder and relieving it.

Insomnia

Insomnia is not enough sleep for the person to feel rested the next day.

Panic disorder (PD)

People with panic disorder (PD) have frequent periods of anxiety and occasional attacks of panic-rapid breathing, increased heart rate, chest pains, sweating, faintness, and trembling.

Authoritarian parents

Like the authoritative parents, authoritarian parents set firm controls, but they tend to be emotionally more distant from the child. They set rules without explaining the reasons behind them.

Paranoid schizophrenia

People with prominent hallucinations and delusions are classified as having paranoid schizophrenia.

Lucid dreaming

Lucid dreaming is another example in which part of the brain is awake and another part asleep. Someone having a lucid dream is aware that it is a dream.

Majority/minority

Majority groups, those who command more power, have more influence, and minority groups, who by definition possess less power, have less influence (in the psychology literature, majority/minority status is defined in terms of power and not the number of people in a group).

Agoraphobia

Many people with panic disorder also develop agoraphobia, an excessive fear of open or public places, or social phobia...

Cognitive-behavior therapy

Many therapists combine features of behavior therapy and cognitive therapy to form cognitive-behavior therapy, in which therapists set explicit behavioral goals, but also try to change people's interpretation of situations.

Self-serving biases

Many vary their attributions to try to present themselves in a favorable light. For example, one might credit his good grades to his intelligence and hard work (an internal attribution) but blame his worst grades on unfair tests (an external attribution). Attributions that we adopt to maximize credit for success and minimize blame for failure are called self-serving biases.

Maximizing

Maximizing is thoroughly considering as many choices as possible to find the best one.

Meditation

Meditation a systematic procedure for inducing a calm, relaxed state through the use of special techniques, follows traditions that have been practiced in much of the world for thousands of years, especially in India.

Stanley Milgram's obedience studies

Milgram recruited participants by advertising for volunteers aged 20-50 to take part in a study on the effect of punishment and learning. Participants were told that a goal of the research was to discover how much punishment is good for learning, how much difference it makes whether an older or younger person is giving the punishment, and similar questions. When the selected participants arrived at Milgram's laboratory, they were introduced to another person who was supposedly also a participant but was actually a middle-aged accountant selected to act as Milgram's confederate. It was explained to the participants that this learning experiment required a teacher and a student. There was also a scientist in a white laboratory coat in the room, purpotedly in charge of the "learning study." The task of the teacher (the real participant) was to teach the student (the confederate) word associations. The teacher read out a series of word pairs, following each pair with four terms. The task of the student was to identify which of the four terms had been originally paired with the first word of each pair. The teacher was instructed that each time the student got the answer wrong, a punishment would have to be administered. There were clear labels on each group of four switches, increasing from "slight shock," to "moderate shock," "strong shock," "very strong shock," "intense shock," "extreme intense shock," "danger," "danger: severe shock," and finally several switches marked "XXX." Before the start of the actual experiment the teachers knew both how to work the "Shock Generator" and also how it felt to receive a shock generated by this machine. The task of the teachers was to instruct the students, but also to administer punishment at an increased voltage level each time the student gave an incorrect answer. If the teacher became unsure about what to do, the scientist in the white laboratory coat provided a series of prods, starting from a mild "Please continue" but becoming more firm if the teacher disobeyed. The scientist also provided assurance that the electric shocks would not leave permanent tissue damage-even though when the shock level reached 150 volts the student cried out that he wanted to be freed, and at 300 volts the student called out in agony and let it be known that he would no longer provide answers to the memory test. Those teachers who continued and eventually reached the maximum shock level of 450 volts were instructed to continue to give shocks at that level. An important feature of the experimental procedures is that the participants are not suddenly placed in a situation in which they are asked to take extraordinary action, but are eased into such a situation step by step from a rather uneventful start. The results of the Milgram studies showed that about sixty-five percent of the participants were fully obedient, meaning that they continued to give shocks until they reached the highest voltage level marked "XXX." The most important factor influencing degrees of freedom was the physical presence of the authority figure. When Milgram introduced a second authority figure and there was disagreement between the two authority figures, the participants were far less obedient. When the authority figure was giving orders from another room, obedience levels declined again. Another factor influencing degrees of freedom was the distance between the teacher (the real participant) and the student: when the teacher was forced to stand next to the student, there was less likelihood of him obeying and administering high levels of shock. When the teacher was administering shock from another room and could only hear the student's calls through a wall, obedience increased.

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs)

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) block the metabolic breakdown of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin by the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO). Thus, MAOIs also increase the effects of these neurotransmitters.

Strange Situation

Most research on attachment has measured it in the Strange Situation (usually capitalized), pioneered by Mary Ainsworth (1979). In this procedure, a mother and her infant (typically 12 to 18 months old) come into a room with many toys. Then a stranger enters the room. The mother leaves and then returns. A few minutes later, both the stranger and the mother leave. Then the stranger returns, and finally, the mother returns. Through a one-way mirror, a psychologist observes the infant's reactions to each coming and going. Observers classify infant's responses in the following categories: Securely attached=the infant uses the mother as a base of exploration, cooing at her, showing her toys, and making eye contact with her. THe infant shows some distress when the mother leaves but cries only briefly if at all. When she returns, the infant goes to her with apparent delight, cuddles for a while, and then returns to the toys. Anxious (or resistant)=Responses toward the mother fluctuate between happy and angry. Avoidant=While the mother is present, the infant does not stay near her and seldom interacts with her. The infant may or may not cry when she leaves and does not go to her when she returns. Disorganized=The infants seems not even to notice the mother or looks away while approaching her or covers his or her face or lies on the floor. The infant alternates between approach and avoidance and shows more fear than affection.

Authoritative parents

Much research on the effects of parenting styles is based on four parenting styles described by Diana Baumrind (1971). Authoritative parents set high standards and impose controls, but they are also warm and responsive to child's communications. They set limits but adjust them when appropriate. They encourage their children to strive toward their own goals.

Systematic desensitization

One common and usually successful type of behavior therapy for phobia is systematic desensitization, a method of reducing fear by gradually exposing people to the object of their fear.

Consciousness

One definition of consciousness is the subjective experience of perceiving oneself and one's surroundings. However, that definition relies on the phrase "subjective experience," which is no better defined that consciousness itself. For practical purposes, many researchers use the operational definition that you are conscious of something if you can report it in words. This definition works only for people who speak. We don't assume that infants remain unconscious until they learn to talk.

Sleep apnea

People with sleep apnea, however, fail to breathe for a minute or more and then wake up grasping for breath. Sleep apnea is most common in overweight middle-aged men whose breathing passages become narrower than usual.

The mere exposure effect

One reason proximity is important is that people who live nearby discover what they have in common. The principle that the more often we come in contact with someone or something, the more we tend to like that person or object.

Free association

One technique used in psychoanalysis is free association, in which the client says everything that comes to mind-a word, phrase, or image-without censoring anything or even speaking in complete sentences. The psychoanalyst listens for links that might tie the remarks together.

Attentive process

One that requires searching through the items in series.

Primacy effect

Other things being equal, the first information we learn about someone influences us more than later information does. This tendency is known as the primacy effect.

Narcolepsy

People with narcolepsy experience sudden attacks of sleepiness during the day. A chronic sleep disorder that causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

People with obsessive-compulsive disorder have two kinds of problems. An obsession...

A cohort

People of different generations differ in many ways, called cohort effects. A cohort is a group of people born at a particular time or a group of people who enter an organization at a particular time. (We could talk about the cohort of students entering a college in a given year, or the cohort of workers a corporation hires in a given year.)

Hyperventilation

Panic disorder is linked to having strong autonomic responses, such as rapid heartbeat and hyperventilation, rapid deep breathing.

Self-handicapping strategies

People also protect their images with self-handicapping strategies, in which they intentionally put themselves at a disadvantage to provide an excuse for failure. Suppose you fear you will do poorly on a test. You stay out late at a party the night before. Now you can blame your low score on your lack of sleep without admitting that you might have done poorly anyway.

The actor-observer effect

People are more likely to make internal attributions for other people's behavior and more likely to make external attributions for their own. You are an "actor" when you try to explain the causes of your own behavior and an "observer" when you try to explain someone else's behavior.

Identity moratorium

People in identity moratorium are considering the issues but not yet making decisions. They experiment with various possibilities and imagine themselves in different roles before making a choice. Researchers distinguish between two kinds of moratorium-simply delaying a decision and actively searching for a decision.

A dependence/an addiction

People who are unable to quite a self-destructive habit are said to have a dependence on it or an addiction to it.

Broca's aphasia

People with damage in the frontal cortex, including Broca's area, develop Broca's aphasia, a condition characterized by difficulties in language production. The person speaks slowly an inarticulately and is no better with writing or typing. Someone with Broca's aphasia is especially impaired with using and understanding grammatical devices such as prepositions, conjunctions, and word endings. Broca's aphasia is also referred to as nonfluent or expressive aphasia. This type of aphasia can be very frustrating, as a person with Broca's aphasia knows what he or she wants to say, but is unable to accurately produce the correct word or sentence. Expressing language in the form of speech and writing will be severely reduced. It is expressive aphasia (non-fluent aphasia). Loss of the ability to produce language (spoken or written). Patient have insight to their problem and are frustrated.

Wernicke's aphasia

People with damage in the temporal cortex, including Wernick's area, develop Wernicke's aphasia, a condition marked by impaired recall of nouns and impaired language comprehension, despite fluent and grammatical speech. Because these people omit most nouns, their speech is hard to understand. Persons diagnosed with Wernicke's aphasia are unaware that the words they are producing are incorrect and nonsensical. He or she may have severe comprehension difficulties and be unable to grasp the meaning of spoken words, yet may be able to produce fluent and connected speech. Reading and writing are often severely impaired as well. It is receptive aphasia (fluent aphasia) Inablity to understand language (written or spoken form) They can not use correct words to express thoughts. When they speak, they think they know what they are saying but a bunch of random words come out. Patient is unaware of his problem.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

People with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have frequent and exaggerated worries.

Sex roles

People's behaviors depend partly on sex roles, the different activities that society expects of males and females.

Permissive parents

Permissive parents are warm and loving but undemanding.

Object permanence

Piaget argued that infants in the first few months of life lack the concept of object permanence, the idea that objects continue to exist even when we do not see or hear them. That is, for an infant, "Out of sight, out of existence."

Genetic epistomology

Piaget called his research approach genetic epistomology, the search for how humans develop an understanding of the world, particularly causality, quantity and space. He took the position that development takes place through the interaction of factors internal and external to the individual.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget called the first stage of intellectual development the sensorimotor stage because at this early age (the first 1.5-2 years) behavior is mostly simple motor responses to sensory stimuli.

Change blindness

The failure to detect changes in parts of a scene.

Subjective well-being

Positive psychology includes not only momentary happiness, but also subjective well-being, a self-evaluation of one's life as pleasant, interesting, satisfying, and meaningful.

Positive psychology

Positive psychology studies the features that enrich life, such as happiness, hope, creativity, courage, spirituality, and responsibility.

Prevention

Prevention is avoiding a disorder from the start.

Priming

Priming a concept gets it started. Reading or hearing one word makes it easier to think of or recognize a related word. Seeing something makes it easier to recognize a related object. Priming is important during reading. When you come to a word that you barely know, you find it easier to understand if the preceding sentences were about closely related concepts. They provide hints about the meaning of the new word.

The Minimal Group Paradigm

Prior to Tajfel's work, it was believed that group bias (favoritism and/or prejudice) arose from personal interests of group members or from conflict. Tajfel demonstrated that the minimal condition needed for group favoritism is simply categorization into a group, no matter how arbitrary the criteria for categorization.

Proximity

Proximity means closeness. We are most likely to become friends with people who live or work in proximity to us.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis tries to bring unconscious thoughts and emotions to consciousness.

Psychodynamic therapies

Psychodynamic therapies attempt to understand conflicting impulses, including some that the individual does not consciously recognize.

The autokinetic effect

Psychologists have experimentally demonstrated the arbitrary nature of norms. For example: If you focus on a single star, something strange seems to happen: the star dances around. This perception of movement (the star only seems to move; it does not actually move) is called the autokinetic effect. The amount of movement seen varies among individuals. This perceptual phenomenon was used in a highly creative way by Mozafer Sherif to demonstrate conformity to arbitrary group norms. Sherif placed participants in a darkened room and asked them to estimate the amount of movement they see in a single tiny light. He found that over the course of four hundred estimates, each participant arrives at a "personal norm." Next, Sherif brought the participants together and asked them to give estimates in a group. He discovered that in the group setting there is a convergence of individual estimates to create a group norm. Two additional findings are particularly noteworthy. First, when individuals are taken out of a group and asked to make estimates by themselves, the group norm still influences what they see. Thus, the group does not need to be physically present for it to have an impact on the individual through the group norm. Second, the group norm does not have as much impact on participants who were previously alone participants as it does on participants who start by making estimates as part of a group and only after that make estimates alone. This suggests that the formation of a personal norm before being placed in a group to some extent inoculates a person against group pressure to conform with group norms. Sherif's original studies focused on spontaneous norms, norms that evolve naturally within groups without any effort to manipulate norm formation. Subsequent research used manipulated norms, norms explicitly brought about by design, demonstrated that group norms could be influenced, for example by planting "extremists" in the midst of the group. Of course, these extremists were confederates of the experimenters, and their job was to give exaggerated estimates of how much they saw the light move. The exaggerated estimates of such confederates had an impact on the group norm, even after the confederates left the group and were replaced by naive participants. The most crucial feature of Sherif's study is that the group members are always wrong in their estimate of movement, because the light never moves. Despite being wrong, the group norm continues to influence individuals after they leave the group and make estimates of their own. The origin of Sherif's ideas for the classic norm formation studies using the autokinetic effect lie in the concept of collective representations, shared views of the world prevalent in a group. The shared, collective nature of norms means that they are not dependent on any individual; norms are present before we arrive in society and they persist after we have left. Norms are in the collective culture and are taught to individuals as they are socialized to become part of the larger society.

Positive symptom

Psychologists note a positive symptom by the presence of some behavior, and...

Theory of mind

Psychologists say that a young child lacks, but gradually develops, theory of mind, which is an understanding that other people have a mind, too, and that each person knows some things that other people don't know.

Sleeper effect

Psychologists use the term sleeper effect to describe delayed persuasion by an initially rejected message. After some time passes, the message is remembered but the source may be forgotten, so any effect from source degradation or similar tactics is lost. Suppose you hear an idea from someone with poor qualifications. Because of what you think of the speaker, you reject the idea. Weeks later, you forget where you heard the idea (source amnesia) and remember only the idea itself. At that point, its persuasive impact may increase. If you completely forget the source, you might even claim it as your own idea.

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is a treatment of psychological disorders by methods that include a personal relationship between a trained therapist and a client.

Saccades

Quick eye movements from one fixation point to anther. You read during fixations, not during saccades.

Sherif's summer camp study

REALISTIC CONFLICT THEORY: The research of Sherif built a base for most of the understanding we have today about the nature of groups and its members. One famous theory, developed by Sherif in 1961, became known as the Realistic Conflict Theory which accounts for inner group conflict, negative prejudices, and stereotypes as a result of actual competition between groups for desired resources. Sherif validated his theory in one his most famous experiments, "The Robber's Cave." In this experiment, 22 white, fifth grade, 11 year old boys with average-to- good school performance and above average intelligence with a protestent, two parent background were sent to a special remote summer camp in Oklahoma, Robbers Cave State Park. The remoteness of the part ensured that the study remained free from external influences and that the true nature of conflict and prejudice could be studied. None of the boys knew each other prior to the study. The researchers divided the boys into two different groups and assigned them cabins far apart from each other. During this first phase, the groups did not know of the other group's existence. The boys developed an attachment to their groups throughout the first week of the camp by doing various activities together; hiking, swimming, etc. The boys chose names for their groups, The Eagles and The Rattlers, and stenciled them onto shirts and flags. At this point, the next portion of the study began. Researchers set up a four day series of competitions between the groups and promised trophies, medals, and camping knives to the winners. As the competition went on , prejudice began to become apparent between the two groups. At first, this prejudice was only verbally expressed, such as through taunting or name calling. As the competition wore on, this expression took a more direct route. The Eagles burned the The Rattler's flag. Then the next day, the Ratler's ransacked The Eagle's cabin, overturned beds, and stole private property. The groups became so aggressive with each other that the researchers physically separated them. During a following two day cooling off period, the boys listed characteristics of the two groups. The boys tended to characterize their group in highly favorable terms and the other group in very unfavorable terms. Sherif then attempted to reduce the prejudice between the two groups. Simply increasing the contact of the two groups only made the situation worse. Forcing the groups to work together to reach superordinate goals, or common goals, eased the prejudice and tension among the groups. This experiment confirmed Sherif's realistic conflict theory.

Rape

Rape is sexual activity without the consent of the partner.

Self-esteem/collective esteem

Received wisdom informs us that individuals are motivated by a concern to achieve positive self-esteem, a sense of self worth, as well as positive collective esteem, a sense of worth in one's in-group (the group to which one belongs).

The parasympathetic nervous system

The parasympathetic nervous system consists of neurons whose axons extend from the medulla and the lower part of the spinal cord to neuron clusters near the organs. The parasympathetic nervous system decreases the heart rate and promotes digestion and other nonemergency functions.

Copy number variants

Researchers have found copy number variants (deletions and duplications of tiny parts of a chromosome) in about 15% of people with schizophrenia.

The availability heuristic

The tendency to assume that if we easily think of examples of a category, then that category must be common. However, this heuristic leads us astray when uncommon events are highly memorable.

Zone of proximal development

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1978) argued that educators should not wait for children to rediscover the principles of physics and mathematics. Vygotsky certainly did not mean that adults should ignore a child's developmental level. Rather, every child has a zone of proximal development, the distance between what a child can do alone and what is possible with help. Instruction should remain within that zone. The traditional approach of development places greater emphasis on the individual as an independent biological entity, self-regulated through pre-set internal mechanisms. Individual development is thus self-regulated, in the sense that it is to a significant degree independent of instruction. It is "pre-set," in the sense that the stages are largely determined by biological factors, and the order of stages is fixed. Vygotsky is considering as having been particularly successful in putting forward a more dynamic view of the environment and identifying important new behaviors that arise out of person-environment interactions. An important feature of the environment, as conceived by Vygotsky, are "ideal forms" represented by adults; the child draws on such environmental resources particularly through imitation and play. This emphasis on the environment is in agreement with the Gestalt idea of psychological field, the particular social space that a person is subjectively aware of and interacting with at any one time. A Vygotskian sense of development involves the interaction of individuals who collaboratively construct a new behavior. The emphasis here is on the collaborative construction, so that all parties exert some influence and help shape the outcome. Vygotsky's understanding of the environment, the importance he gave to ideal forms, to imitation, to play, and to mutually upheld social activities, all were associated with a re-assessment of how the cognitive abilities of children should be testedand how teaching in schools should be organized. The approach adopted by Binet and others was that tests should establish the cognitive level of the child. This strategy tested the zone of actual development, meaning the level of development of the isolated individual. But it did not test what the child could do through collaboration with others. It is also necessary to measure the zone of proximal development, the difference between the score achieved by an individual when tested alone and the score achieved when tested in interaction with a supportive adult. The zone of proximal development is not the same for all individuals. Some individuals benefit less from interactions, and some benefit a lot. However, all children benefit to some degree. Most and perhaps all children can perform above their zone of actual development when they are provided with supportive hints and suggestions by skilled adults. The support adults provide acts rather like scaffolding around a building under construction. When the work is complete and the building is finished, the scaffolding is dismantled and the building is now able to stand on its own.

Satisficing

Satisficing is searching only until you find something satisfactory.

Selective attrition

Selective attrition is the tendency for certain kinds of people to drop out of a study for many reasons, including health, moving far away, or loss of interest.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (e.g., fluoxetine, trade name Prozac)

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) (e.g., fluoxetine, trade name Prozac) have similar effect, but block reuptake of only serotonin.

Self-perception theory

Self-perception theory argues that we know ourselves the same way as we know others, by observation of behavior. Self-perception theory is in the behaviorist tradition and proposes that there is no need for explanations of the self based on introspection: we simply known ourselves by observing our own behavior. But another line of research suggests that when we observe our own behavior, we can give explanations that are misleading.

Moscovici and minority/majority influence

Serge Moscovici and other European researchers have put the Asch paradigm on its head and examined conditions in which a minority can influence a majority to conform to minority-established norms. The general consensus is that a minority that is seen as taking a consistent position, but not one that is rigid or dogmatic, is more likely to influence the majority. Four main factors have been identified as important for a minority to have an influence over a majority. These are behavioral style (consistency, confidence, appearing unbiased etc.), style of thinking, flexibility, and identification. The more controversial claim of Moscovici and his associates is that minority influence leads to conversion, conformity (changing of one's mind) arising out of a persuasive argument, rather than compliance, conformity (changing of one's behavior) arising through forceful pressure, whereas majority influence is more likely to lead to compliance rather than conversion.

Passionate love

Sexual desire, romance, and friendship increase in parallel during the stage called passionate love.

The forewarning effect

Simply informing people that they are about to hear a persuasive speech activates their resistance and weakens the persuasion.

Polysomnograph

Sleep researchers combine an EEG measure with a simultaneous measure of eye movements to produce a polysomnograph.

Social psychologists

Social psychologists study social behavior and how people influence one another.

Pluralistic ignorance

Social psychologists use the term pluralistic ignorance to describe a situation in which people say nothing, and each person falsely assumes that others have a better-informed opinion. Other people's inactivity implies that doing nothing is acceptable (a norm) and that the situation is not an emergency (information).

Neurodevelopmental hypothesis

Some cases of schizophrenia probably don't result from genetic factors at all. According to the neurodevelopmental hypothesis, schizophrenia originates with nervous system impairments that develop before birth or in early childhood because of either genetics or early environment, especially prenatal environment.

Bilingual

Some children grow up in a bilingual environment, learning two languages. Bilingualism has two disadvantages: Children take longer to master two languages than one, and their vocabulary lags behinds that of someone who speaks only one language. Bilingual people often taken longer than average to think of a word. The primary advantage of bilingualism is obvious: People who know another language can communicate with more people. A second advantage is that bilingual people gain practice in controlling their attention, shifting from one language frame to another.

Central route to persuasion

Some of our attitudes come from careful examination of the evidence, and some have only a superficial basis. When people take a decision seriously, they invest the necessary time and effort to evaluate the evidence and logic behind each message. This logical approach, the central route to persuasion, is generally most successful with people who are intelligent enough and motivated enough to evaluate the evidence.

Periodic limb movement disorder

Some people have prolonged "creepy-crawly" sensations in their legs, accompanied by repetitive leg movements strong enough to awaken the person, especially during the first half of the night.

Vegetative state

Someone starting to emerge from a coma enters a vegetative state, marked by limited responsiveness, such as increased heart rate in response to pain.

Bait-and-switch technique

Someone using the bait-and-switch technique first offers an extremely favorable deal, gets the other person to commit to the deal, and then makes additional demands. For example, a retail store may offer a free ink cartridge for each printer sold while supplies of the cartridge last. But the supplies are limited and are gone by the time a majority of the consumers arrive at the store. In lieu of giving you a free cartridge, the store will try to sell you one instead. This is an example of how retail stores use limited supply specials as a bait and switch.

Physical dependence

Someone who uses a drug to reduce unpleasant withdrawal symptoms is said to have a physical dependence.

Sleep spindles

Stage 2 of sleep is marked by sleep spindles, waves of activity at about 12-14 per second that result from an exchange of information between the cerebral cortex and the underlying thalamus. Sleep spindles are important for storing memory.

Schachter and Singer's theory of emotions

Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer (1962) proposed a theory of how we identify one emotion from another. According to Schachter and Singer's theory of emotions, the intensity of the physiological state-that is, the degree of sympathetic nervous system arousal-determines the intensity of the emotion, but a cognitive appraisal of the situation identifies the type of emotion.

System Justification Theory

System Justification Theory (SJT) is a theory of social psychology that postulates that people are motivated, often unconsciously, to bolster, defend, and justify the status quo--that is, the prevailing social, economic, and political systems. The term "system" is, intentionally, loosely defined to include a wide array of such arrangements and institutions from relationship dyads to family systems, to corporations and organizations, to economic systems and governments, thus the effort is to identify the general social psychological processes that play out in variety of social establishments. The system justification goal may manifest itself in different forms, such as stereotyping, attribution, and ideology, and is proposed to serve the three more basic existential, epistemic, and relational needs. In particular, according to this theory, individuals like to perceive the world as predictable; otherwise, they would not feel a sense of control, and negative emotional states would prevail (cf Lerner, 1980; Rankin, Jost, & Wakslak, 2009). To perceive the world as predictable, they feel motivated to assume that society is fair and just. Accordingly, they justify the existing structures and hierarchies in society, which substantiates the legitimacy of societal principles and practices. For example, to reinforce the assumption that society is fair, individuals often embrace the stereotype that deprived individuals are actually happy--or that wealthy individuals are often unhappy. After they are exposed to anecdotes that reinforce these assumptions, they perceive society as fairer

Meta-analysis

Taking the results of many experiments, weighting each one in proportion to the number of participants, and determining an overall effect.

Manifest content

The Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, maintained that dreams reveal the dreamer's unconscious thoughts and motivations. Each dream has a manifest content-the content that appears on the surface-and a latent content-the hidden ideas that the dream experience represents symbolically.

Binocular rivalry

The alternation between seeing the pattern in the left retina and the pattern in the right retina is known as binocular rivalry. Binocular rivalry is a type of perceptual rivalry. When two different images are presented to the two eyes simultaneously, you are only conscious of one of the two images at a time. One is dominant, the other is suppressed. Every few seconds, the perceptual dominance will switch.

Representativeness heuristic

The assumption that an item that resembles members of a category is probably also in that category. This heuristic is usually correct, except when we deal with uncommon categories. If you see something that looks like a rare bird, you should check carefully to make sure it isn't a similar, more common species.

Critical thinking

The careful evaluation of evidence for and against a conclusion.

The word-superiority effect

The effect of context is made clear in a phenomenon called the word superiority effect (e.g., Reicher, 1969). In the experiment, an isolated letter such as K or a word such as WORK is briefly flashed on the screen and then immediately replaced by a mask of Xs and Os. The observer is then forced to choose between whether a D or a K was presented. A key component of the experiment is that both of the choices at the end of WOR would create a valid word. Thus, the observer's knowledge that the presentation contained a word does not automatically tell the observer which letter was presented. Even with this control, the experimental finding is that detection of K is better when it is part of a word than when it is presented in isolation. This is the word superiority effect.

The deja vu experience

The deja vu experience, a feeling that an event is uncannily familiar, is fairly common in young adults and less so as people grow older.

Methadone

The drug methadone is sometimes offered as a less dangerous substitute for opiates. Methadone, chemically similar to morphine and heroin, can itself be addictive. When methadone is taken as a pill, however, it enters the bloodstream gradually and departs gradually. Thus, methadone does not produce the "rush" associated with injected opiates. It satisfies the craving without producing a strong "high" and blocks heroin or morphine from reaching the same receptors. However, methadone does not eliminate the addiction.

Transformational grammar

The famous linguist Noam Chomsky (1980) described those rules as a transformational grammar, a system for converting a deep structure into a surface structure. The deep structure is the underlying logic or meaning of a sentence. The surface structure is the sequence of words as they are actually spoken or written. According to this theory, we transform a given deep structure into any of several sentences with different surface structures. Two surface structures can resemble each other without representing the same deep structure, or they can represent the same deep structure without resembling each other. (Check page 279 of Kalat for examples)

Duchenne smile

The full expression including the muscles around the eyes is called the Duchenne smile.

Single self?

The idea of a single self in a single body seems to be challenged by our everyday experiences. Each of us is capable of reflecting back on our own self. As I sit thinking about the sentences I write, I can reflect back on "me," the "myself" doing the writing. This I/me distinction, with the "I" as the narrator and the "me" as the subject of narration, seems to suggest that there indeed are two selves within the body. However, this is an example of how language we use can mislead us. The fact that there are two terms in English, "I" and "me," that can refer to the self does not mean that there are multiple selves. There are multiple terms we can use to describe the social roles of any one individual, such as "mother," "sister," "engineer," "cook," and so on. Each social role is akin to a self-presentation.

Social Identity Theory

The idea that people have a need for a positive and distinct identity. Social identity is a person's sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups (e.g. social class, family, football team etc.) which people belonged to were an important source of pride and self-esteem. A social identity is the portion of an individual's self-concept derived from perceived membership in a relevant social group.

Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia

The idea that the underlying cause of schizophrenia is excessive stimulation of certain types of dopamine synapses.

Readiness potential

The increased motor cortex activity prior to the start of the movement is known as the readiness potential. A measure of activity in the motor cortex and supplementary motor area of the brain leading up to voluntary muscle movement. A change in the electrical activity of the brain that occurs before the subject's conscious decision to move a muscle.

Kohlberg's stage model of moral development

The main focus of Kohlberg's stage model is moral development. Kohlberg is specifically interested in the reasoning behind moral decisions, in how people come to certain decisions on moral issues. Kohlberg studied moral reasoning by asking participants in his studies to provide solutions to hypothetical moral dilemnas. For example, consider the case of a husband who does not have the money to buy the medication needed to save his wife's life (this is called the "Heinz Dilemma.") Should he break into the pharmacy and steal the medication, or should he obey the law? Kohlberg was interested in the reasons for a moral decision, rather than the decision itself. Kohlberg proposed that people move through six stages, with two stages at each of three levels. The lowest level (stages 1 and 2) is characterized by pre-conventional thinking, avoiding punishment and seeking reward: "I am not going to steal the medication from the pharmacy, because I will end up in jail" (the implication being that if I could get away with it, I would steal the medication). The middle level (stages 3 and 4) is characterized by conventional thinking, doing what societal norms and laws require: "I am not going to steal the medication from the pharmacy, because it is against the law" (the implication being that if the law allowed it, I would steal the medication). The highest level (stages 5 and 6) involves post-conventional thinking, acting according to internalized principles: "I am not going to steal the medication from the pharmacy because it is wrong to steal" (implying that even if I can get away with it, and even if the law allows it, I will not steal because I believe it is wrong). An alternative solution could be: "I will steal the medication from the pharmacy, because I must save a life." Very few people, according to Kohlberg, reach the post-conventional stage of moral development (which is the best way of moral thinking). http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EqVgcNAoTno/UhgX9Z3GECI/AAAAAAAAAB4/sUdyhZftnJU/s1600/Z5CEi.png

Alcoholics Anonymous

The most popular treatment for alcoholism in North America is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), a self-help group of people who are trying to abstain from alcohol use and help others do the same.

Minimally conscious state

The next step up is a minimally conscious state, in which people have brief periods of purposeful actions and speech comprehension.

The polygraph

The polygraph, or "lie-detector test," records sympathetic nervous system arousal, as measured by blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, and electrical conduction of the skin. The assumption is that when people lie, they feel nervous and therefore increase their sympathetic nervous system arousal.

Imprinting

The research by ethologists (people who study animals in natural settings), particularly Konrad Lorenz, has demonstrated the importance of imprinting, a learned and stable attachment formed at a critical period in early development. Rapid learning that occurs during a brief receptive period, typically soon after birth or hatching, and establishes a long-lasting behavioral response to a specific individual or object, as attachment to parent, offspring, or site. Why does a duckling follow the mother duck? How does it know which duck to follow? The answer is imprinting. Imprinting is an inherited tendency that newborn animals exhibit to respond to their environment. Ducklings, geese, and other animals imprint within hours of hatching and imprint on what they first see and follow it.

The Rouge Test

The rouge test is a self-recognition test that identifies a human child's ability to recognize a reflection in a mirror as his or her own. Using rouge makeup, an experimenter surreptitiously places a dot on the nose and/or face of the child. Human infants eighteen months and older touched the red spot on their noses, and this was taken as a sign that these infants recognized themselves in the mirror. Received wisdom informs us that this research shows the sense of self develops at around eighteen months in humans. When they are younger than this age, infants fail to touch the red dot on their noses when they look into the mirror, and this is taken to mean that they fail to see that "it is me with the red dot on my nose in the mirror." But there are reasons why one might question this interpretation. When an infant learns to cry out for attention, must there not already be a sense of "this is me crying out, and it is me who is soon going to receive attention?" However, it could be argued that crying, feeling hungry, and the like are inborn behaviors that do not require a sense of self. But another type of infant behavior seems to provide a more solid evidence of the early appearance of a sense of self. Research on infants only a few minutes old shows they can repeat an act carried out by another human, such as poking their tongues out in response to watching an adult poke her or his tongue out. In order for imitation to take place, it could be argued that the infant has to have a sense of "another" and a "self."

Attribution

The set of thought processes we use to assign causes to our own behavior and that of others. In social psychology, attribution is the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events. Attribution theory is the study of models to explain those processes.

DISC1

The strongest evidence would be a demonstration linking schizophrenia to a specific gene. Researchers have found links to at least 14 genes, including DISC1, meaning disrupted in schizophrenia-1, a gene that regulates production of new neurons in the hippocampus. However, none of these 14 genes shows a consistent link to schizophrenia across all populations.

Social loafing

The tendency to "loaf" (or work less hard) when sharing work with other people.

The framing effect

The tendency to answer a question differently when it is framed differently is called the framing effect.

The Stroop effect

The tendency to read the words instead of saying the color of ink. A phenomenon in which individuals take longer to name the colour of words printed in a non-matching colour, such as the word blue printed in red ink, than when the words are printed in the same colour as the word designates, such as the word blue printed in blue ink.In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. A demonstration of the reaction time of a task and is often used to illustrate the nature of automatic processing versus conscious visual control.

Temperament

The tendency to respond vigorously, nervously, or quietly to new experiences. In terms of the characteristics of the infant, a great deal has been made of temperament, a style of reacting to the environment as well as a characteristic level of energy, and resilience, the ability to overcome quickly adverse environmental conditions and negative experiences. The two concepts are different, since temperament is assumed to be inborn, whereas resilience is supposed to be something individuals can learn, at least to some degree and with appropriate training. But they are similar in that they are supposed to determine how well an individual copes in different, and particularly adverse, environmental conditions.

Distinctiveness

The third time of information for attributions is distinctiveness (how the person's behavior varies from one situation to another). If your friend is pleasant to all but one individual, you assume that person has done something to irritate your friend (an external attribution). Distinctiveness refers to how unique the behavior is to the particular situation. There is a low distinctiveness if an individual behaves similarly in all situations, and there exists a high distinctiveness when the person only shows the behaviour in particular situations. If the distinctiveness is high, one will attribute this behaviour more to the circumstance instead of person. Referring to the example of Dr. Stanton's complimenting Barry's work, if Dr. Stanton almost never compliments other people's work, he shows high distinctiveness. But if he compliments everybody's work, this is low distinctiveness, and one will attribute the behaviour to the person, in this case, Dr. Stanton.

Sunk cost effect

The willingness to do something because of money or effort already spent.

Realistic conflict theory

Theories of conflict can be usefully categorized into two groups: first, rational theories, such as realistic conflict theory, based on materialism and balance. These theories assume that aggression has an instrumental or "realistic" basis and that it is driven by competition for resources. For example, X and Y are fighting in order to gain control of oil reserves in a region. When X attacks the material interests of Y, conflict arises and escalates in a tit-for-tat way: for example, Y strikes X, then X strikes back at Y to gain access to scarce oil reserves. Each side of the conflict is behaving "rationally" in the sense that each side knows what they are doing and why. The conflict is "balanced" in the sense that each aggressive act by one party receives an aggressive response from the opposing party; action brings about reaction directed at the original source of action.

Transference

Therapists also attend to transference, in which clients transfer onto the therapist the behaviors and feelings they originally established toward their father, mother, or other important person. The redirection of feelings and desires and especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object.

Empirically supported treatments

Therapists have felt pressure to test their methods and adopt empirically supported treatments, therapies demonstrated to be helpful.

Foot-in-the-door technique

There are some special techniques of persuasion. Many people will try to persuade you to buy something, contribute to a cause, or do something else that may or may not be in your best interests. Sometimes, someone starts with a modest request, which you accept, and follows with a larger request. This is the foot-in-the-door technique.

Indifferent or uninvolved parents

These parents spend little time with their children and do little more than provide them with food and shelter.

Spreading activation

Thinking about one of the concepts show in this figure (page 265 of Kalat) will activate, or prime, the concepts linked to it through a process called spreading activation. For example, if you hear flower, you are primed to think of rose, violet, and other flowers.

Identity diffusion

Those who have not yet given any serious thought to making decisions and who have no clear sense of identity are said to have identity diffusion. They are not actively concerned with their identity at the moment. Identity diffusion is more common among people with low self-esteem and a hopeless, pessimistic attitude toward life.

Schizophrenia

To be diagnosed with schizophrenia, someone must exhibit a deterioration of daily activities such as work, social relations, and self-care, and some combination of the following: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and thought, movement disorder, and loss of normal emotional responses and social behaviors.

The M'Naghten rule

To be regarded as insane under the M'Naghten rule, people must be so disordered that they do not understand what they are doing.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)

To standardize their definition and diagnoses, psychiatrists and psychologists developed a reference book called the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) that sets specific criteria for each psychological diagnosis.

Tricyclic drugs

Tricyclic drugs interfere with the axon's ability to reabsorb the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin after releasing them. Thus, tricyclics prolong the effect of these neurotransmitters at the synapses.

Type I (or Type A)

Type I (or Type A) alcoholism develops gradually over the years, affects about as many women as men, is generally less severe, and often occurs in people with no family history of alcoholism.

Eclectic therapy

Using a combination of methods and approaches.

Confirmation bias

We often err by accepting a hypothesis and then looking for evidence to support it instead of considering other possibilities. A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" supporting their already existing belief. This individual might even seek out "proof" that further backs up this belief, while discounting examples that do not support this idea.

Microexpressions

We especially watch facial expressions. People sometimes control their expressions voluntarily. However, very brief, sudden emotional expressions, called microexpressions, are harder to control. For example, someone who is pretending to be calm or happy may show occasional brief signs of anger, fear, or sadness.

Diffusion of responsibility

We feel less responsibility to act when other people are equally able to act.

Social perception and cognition

We need information of people to form expectations about how others will act and whom we can trust. The processes for learning about others and making inferences from that information. Social perception and cognition influence our observations, memory, and thinking.

System 2

We use System 2 for mathematical calculations, evaluating evidence, and anything else that requires attention. Because System 1 saves time and energy, we rely on it whenever we can.

Dishabituation

When a change in a stimulus increases a previously habituated response, we say that the stimulus produced dishabituation.

Preattentive process

When anything differs drastically from items around it in size, shape, color, or movement, we find it by a preattentive process, meaning that it stands out immediately.

Fixations

When psychologists monitored eye movements, they discovered that a reader's eyes move in a jerky fashion. You move your eyes steadily to follow a moving object, but when scanning a stationary object, such as a page of print, you alternate between fixations, when your eyes are stationary, and saccades...

Philip Zimbardo's prison studies

Zimbardo first screened potential participants and selected about two dozen intelligent young people with normal personality profiles. Next, he randomly assigned them to take on the roles of prison guard and prisoner in a simulated prison. The simulation had to be ended after only six days, well short of the planned two weeks, because the guards mistreated the prisoners to a dangerous degree. Both prisoners and guards conformed to what they assumed were the norms of a real prison, and as a consequence exhibited high levels of hostility, aggression, and mistreatment of others.

Solomon Asch's line lengths experiment

http://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html The objective of Solomon Asch was to place individuals in a situation where they could clearly see they were correct and the majority was wrong, but felt pressure to conform to the incorrect majority-established norm. In the Asch study, then, individuals who know they are correct are under pressure to give incorrect answers.