AP Psych Final Exam

Outgroup

"Them" - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup

Ingroup

"Us" - people with whom we share a common identity

Watson & Skinner

2 Scientists that emphasized the study of over behavior as the subject matter of scientific psychology

Youth & Symmetry

2 culturally universal marks of attractiveness

Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT/CT) Scan

3D x-ray of the brain; good for tumor locating, but tells nothing about function

Structuralism, functionalism, gestalt psychology, behaviorism, psychoanalysis

5 branches of modern psychology

Retinal Disparity

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing images from the retinas in the 2 eyes, the brain computes distance - the greater the disparity between the 2 images, the closer the object

Educational Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies children in an educational setting and is concerned with teaching and learning methods, cognitive development, and aptitude assessment. Type of basic research

Unconditional Positive Regard

A caring, accepting, non-judgemental attitude, in which Carl Rogers believed to be conducive to developing self-awareness and self-acceptance

Threshold Theory

A certain level of intelligence is necessary, but not sufficient for creative work

Traits

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports; people's characteristic behaviors and conscious motives

Flashbulb Memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

A cluster of abnormalities that occurs in babies of mothers who drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy, which includes low intelligence, small head with flat face, misshapen eyes, flat nose, and thin upper lips, as well as some degree of intellectual impairment

Flow

A completely involved, focused state of consciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal engagement of one's skills

Culture

A complex blend of beliefs, customs, values, and traditions developed by a group of people shared with others in the same environment

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid)

A complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes

Standard Deviation

A computed measure of how much score vary around the mean score. Square root of the sum of deviations squared, divided by the number of the samples

Savant Syndrome

A condition in which a person other wise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing. Often score low on intelligence tests but have an isolated brilliance

Equity

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it

Split Brain

A condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly corpus callosum) connecting them

Instinctive Drift

A conditioned response that moves toward the natural behavior of the organism (Pavlov's contiguity theory & Rescorla's contingency theory)

Cochlear Implant

A device used for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea. Can help with Sensorineural deafness

Behavior Modification

A field that applies the behavior approach scientifically to solve problems (applied behavioral analysis)

Stereotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

Reward Deficiency Syndrome

A genetically disposed deficiency in the natural brain systems for pleasure and well-being that leads people to crave whatever provides that missing pleasure or relieves negative feelings

Scatterplot

A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. Slope suggests direction of the relationship between the two variables and amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation

Mental Age

A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance. Thus, a child who does well as the average 8-year-old is said to have a mental age of 8

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test. We tend to remember more than we ______.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple choice test. Impressively quick & vast

Relearning

A memory measure that assess the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

Intelligence Test

A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores

Echoic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3-4 seconds

Iconic Memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second; discovered by spelling by quickly flashing images & seeing how much of it people could remember

Premack Principle

A more probable behavior can be used as a reinforcer for a less probable one

Neuron

A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

Reticular Formation

A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal; finger shaped network of neurons that extends from the spinal cord right up the thalamus

Working Memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual spatial information and information retrieved from long-term memory

Lobotomy

A now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain.

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

Dissociative Fugue

A person moves away and assumes a new identity, with amnesia for the previous identity. Sometimes called the "traveling amnesiac" disorder

Temperament

A person's characteristic emotional relativity and intensity; emotional excitability

Projective Test

A personality test, such as Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics. Low reliability and low validity.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

A projective test in which people express their inner feeling and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

Hypnosis

A psychoanalytic therapeutic technique that supposedly reaches into the unconscious mind. Deep state of relaxation where an individual is more susceptible to suggestions

Personality Inventory

A questionnaire (often with true/false or agree/disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits

Mutation

A random error in gene replication that leads to a change

Conversion Disorder

A rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found; existence of a severe physical problem with no biological reason

Self Serving Bias

A readiness to perceive one's favorability

Experimentation

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior/mental process

Placebo Effect

A response to the belief that the independent variable will have an effect, rather than the actual effect of the independent variable, which can be a confounding variable

Refractory Period (Neurological level)

A resting pause when the neuron pumps the positively charged sodium (Na+) ions back outside the membrane. Allows the neuron to fire again

Random Sample

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

Functionalism

A school of psychology that emphasizes functions of consciousness and the ways consciousness helps people adapt to their environment. Applies psychological findings to practical situations.

Stereotype Threat

A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype. Observed by Steele, Aronson, and Spencer when black students, taking verbal aptitude tests under conditions designed to make them feel threatened, performed lower

Role

A set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave

Gender Roles

A set of expected behaviors for males and females

Reflex

A simple, autonomic response to a sensory stimulus

Social Trap

A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

Operational Definitions

A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical index of the relationship between two variables

Factor analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score. Developed by Spearman

Statistical Significance (p)

A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

Graduated & Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction (GRIT)

A strategy designed to decrease international tensions created by Charles Osgood

Normal Curve

A symmetrical, bell shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data. Also called a normal distribution. Most scores fall near the mean, or average (68% fall within 1 standard deviation of it, 2 SD is 95%, and 3 SD is 99%), and fewer & fewer near the extremes

Survey

A technique for ascertaining the self reported attitudes, opinions, or behaviors of people usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group

Functional MRI (fMRI)

A technique for revealing blood flow and therefore brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans; shows brain function (PET + MRI)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

A technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer generated images of soft tissue; show brain anatomy and types of tissue

Empirically Derived Test

A test (such as the MMPI) developed by a testing pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups

Achievement Tests

A test designed to assess what a person has learned (reflect, exam, AP)

Aptitude Tests

A test designed to predict a person's future performance (predict, SAT)

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory to enable us to accept or revise the theory. Leads to research and experiments

Pitch

A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan

A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a give task (active neurons are glucose hogs); shows which brain areas are the most active as the person performs the task

Perceptual Adaptation

Ability to adjust to an artificially developed or even inverted visual field

Existential Intelligence

Ability to think about the question of life, death, and existence. Speculated Gardner's 9th intelligence

Negative Symptoms

Absence of appropriate behaviors; have toneless voices, expressionless faces, or mute and rigid bodies (social withdraw). More common in men.

Satiety

Absence of hunger

Neo-Freudians

Accepted Freud's basic ideas: the personality structure of the id, ego, and superego, the importance of the unconscious, the shaping of personality in childhood, the dynamics of anxiety, and the defense mechanisms. Placed more emphasis on the conscious mind's role in interpreting experience in coping with the environment and doubted that sex and aggression were all-consuming motivations. Tended to emphasize loftier motives and social interactions instead

Basic Trust

According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Industry

According to Erik Erikson, children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to certain tasks

Oedipus Complex

According to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father. Electra complex & vise versa for girls

Psychodynamic Fixation

According to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved. Result of deprivation or overindulging

Self Archetype

According to Jung, our sense of wholeness or unity

Shadow

According to Jung, represents our basic instinctual urges we attempt to keep hidden from others

Persona

According to Jung, this is the outward part of the personality or the mask we wear when dealing with society and opposite of the unconscious shadow

Self-Actualization

According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential

Organismic Self

According to Rogers, the original (real) self that strives toward positive goals until it is influenced by society

Genuineness, acceptance, and empathy

According to Rogers, the three conditions necessary to promote growth in personality

Perceived Control

Accounts for people's greater fear of commercial air flights than of driving an automobile

Short-Term Memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten. Holds about 7 (give or take 2) items for about 20 seconds and holds digits better than numbers

Accommodation

Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

Positive Punishment

Addition of something unpleasant; type of punishment

Conformity

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Teratogens

Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during the prenatal development and cause harm; drugs that pass the placental barrier

Instrumental Aggression

Aggression to achieve a goal

Hostile Aggression

Aggression to inflict pain upon someone else

Constraint Induced Therapy

Aims to rewire brains by restraining a fully functioning limb and forcing use of the uncooperative limb. Gradually reprograms the brain, improving the dexterity of a brain damaged child or adult stroke victim

Population

All of the cases in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

Self Concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question "Who am I?"

Self-Concept

All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question "Who am I?"

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Coping

Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods

Action Potential (AP)

Also called a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon caused by a depolarization. 5 steps: resting potential, threshold, polarize -> depolarize, refractory period

Mental Retardation

Also called intellectual disability. A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound

Sensorineural Deafness

Also called nerve deafness; hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's nerve cells or to the auditory nerve. Common effect of genes, aging, and prolonged exposure to earsplitting noises or music. Cochlear implants can help but cannot fix the problem

Cell Body

Also called the soma; spherical part of the neuron that contains the nucleus, connects to the dendrites and axon

Near Death Experience

Altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death; often similar to drug-induced hallucinations. Often report a dark tunnel with a light at the end

Infantile Amnesia

Amnesia before 3 years of age

Relative Luminance

Amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings

90 min

Amount of time in which we regularly pass through a cycle of 5 sleep stages

Diathesis-Stress Model

An account of the cause of mental disorders based on the idea that mental disorders develop when a person possesses a genetic predisposition for a disorder, and later faces stressors that exceed his or her abilities to cope with them

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for four or more weeks after a traumatic experience

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and or actions (compulsions). PET scans show increased metabolic activity in the frontal lobes (direct attention)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal. Unable to identify or avoid cause of certain feelings

Phobia

An anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation

Panic Disorder

An anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations

Psychodynamic Perspective

An approach to psychology that emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. Type of level of analysis

Motor Cortex

An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements

Passionate Love

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship

Intuition

An effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning

Attachment

An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress upon separation

Sexual Orientation

An enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation)

Punishment

An event that decreases behavior that it follows. Sureness & swiftness. Much more effective in actions instead of words

Social-Responsibility Norm

An expectation that people will help those dependent upon them

Reciprocity Norm

An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them

Double Blind Procedure

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have reviewed the treatment or placebo

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Phi Phenomenon

An illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Long-Term Potential (LTP)

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

Sexually Transmitted Infection

An infection you can get by having sex. Some (such as gonorrhea and chlamydia) infect your sexual and reproductive organs. Others (such as HIV, hepatitis B, and syphilis) cause general body infections

Primary Reinforcers

An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need (getting food when hungry)

Interposition

An object partially covered by another is seen as farther away

Case Study

An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in hope of revealing universal principles

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Frequency Distribution

An orderly arrangement of scores indicating the frequency of each score or group of scores

Manic Episode

An overabundance of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine is most likely to be associated with a...

Compulsion

An uncontrollable impulse to perform an act, often repetitively, as an unconscious mechanism to avoid unacceptable ideas and desires which, by themselves, arouse anxiety. Behaviors or mental acts in response to obsessions.

Prejudice

An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members. Generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action

Bottom-Up Processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors & works up to the brain's integration of sensory information. Associated with sensation

Neocortex

Another name for the cerebral cortex

Olfaction

Another word for smell; cannot be separated into more elemental orders like light

Gustation

Another word for taste

Xanax

Anti-anxiety (side effect drowsiness)

Prozac

Antidepressant that blocks repute of serotonin

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

Anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.

Reinforcers

Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows (food, money, good/bad attention, activity, etc.) in operant conditioning. Can vary between individuals

Variable

Anything that can vary among participants in a study

Confounding Variables

Anything that could cause change in a theory that one thing causes or effects another

Overgeneralization (Overregularization)

Application of grammatical rules without making appropriate exceptions

Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology

Application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces

Forensic Psychology

Apply psychological principles to legal issues (ability to testify in court).

Eclectic Approach

Approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

Broca's Area

Area of the brain that directs muscles for speech production

John B. Watson

Argued that a true and objective science of psychology should only deal with observable events

Texture Gradient

As an object becomes increasingly distant, it appears progressively less distinct

Convergence

As an object comes closer, our eyes have to come together to stay focused on the object

Relative Motion

As we move, objects at different distances appear to move at different rates

Complementary & Alternative Medicine (CAM)

As yet unproven health care treatments intended to supplement (complement) or serve as alternatives to conventional medicine, and which typically are not widely taught in medical schools, used in hospitals, or reimbursed by insurance companies. When research shows a therapy to be safe and effective, it usually then becomes part of accepted medical practice

School Psychology

Assess and counsel students, consult with educators and parents, and perform behavioral intervention when necessary. Optimize learning environments of specific students.

Random Assignment

Assigning participants to the experimental and control groups by chance to minimize the pre-existing differences between those assigned to the different groups

Instrumental Learning

Associative learning in which a behavior becomes more or less probable depending on its consequences

Decay Theory

Assumes that memories deteriorate as time passes

Emotion Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction

Problem Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor

Source Amnesia

Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined; also called source misattribution. We retain the memory or an event but not the context in which we acquired it

Sigmund Freud

Austrian physician & his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior

Central Tendency

Average or most typical scores of a set of research data or distribution (mean, median, and mode)

Auditory Nerve

Axons surrounding the hair cells converge to form this structure; sends neural messages (via thalamus) to the temporal lobe's auditory cortex

Obese

BMI of 30 or higher is considered _________

Syphilis

Bacterial infection that infects the brain and distorts the mind

Triadic Reciprocality Model of Personality

Bandura's scheme that our personal traits, the environment, and our behavior all interact to account for our behavior

Histogram

Bar graph created from the frequency distribution

Anxiolytics

Barbiturates and tranquilizers

Preventive Mental Health

Based on the assumption that psychological disorders result from stressful social situations. Minimize psychological disorders by working to reduce the incidence of child abuse & illiteracy in society

Cognitive Triad

Beck's cognitive therapy which looks at what people think about their Self, their World, and their Future

Babbling Stage

Beginning about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters sounds at first unrelated to the household language

Two-Word Stage

Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development in which a child speaks mostly 2 word statements. Begin to put words in a sensible order

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to a stimulus

Operant Behavior

Behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Avoidance Behavior

Behavior that results in the removal of an ongoing event, or prevents a future event from occurring

Disinhibition

Behavior therapy for phobias where modeling is used

Counterconditioning

Behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behavior; include exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.

Exposure Therapies

Behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid.

Artificialism

Belief of a preoperational child that all objects are made by people

Animism

Belief of a preoperational child that all things are living

Out-Group Homogeneity

Belief that members of another group are more similar in their attitudes than they really are

Ethnocentrism

Belief that our culture or social group is superior to others

Hilgard

Believed hypnosis involves not only social influence, but also a special state of dissociation. Proposed dissociation and divided consciousness theories

Erik Erikson

Believed that our personality and social development was influenced by our experience with others

Eysencks

Believed that we can reduce many of our normal individual variations to 2-3 dimensions (extraversion-introversion, emotional stability-instability). Created the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to discover factors were inevitably emerged as basic personality dimensions that are genetically influenced

Subliminal

Below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Primacy Effect

Better recall of items at the beginning of a list

Circadian Rhythm

Biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle

Maturation

Biological growth progresses that enables orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

Biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient.

Antagonist

Blocks a neurotransmitter's functioning (botulin, curare)

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Brain region that monitors our actions and checks for errors, hyperactive in OCD

Theta Waves

Brain waves that occur during stage 1-2

Glutamate

Brain's major excitatory neurotransmitter, creates links between neurons that form basis of learning, and long-term memory

Gamma-aminobutyric Acid (GABA)

Brain's major inhibitory neurotransmitter

Psychiatry

Branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders and can prescribe medicines

Counseling Psychology

Branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living, coping with change, and achieving greater well being. Help improve personal & social functioning

Gestalt Psychology

Branch of psychology that looks at how the brain works by studying perceptual thinking; examines the whole.

Personality Psychology

Branch of psychology that studies personality and its variation among individuals. Type of basic research

Clinical Psychology

Branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders (mental, emotional, and behavioral)

Sir Charles Sherrington

British psychologist that discovered the synaptic gap

Papillae

Bumps on the tongue

Nerves

Bundled axons that are a part of the PNS and form neural "cables" connecting the CNS with muscles, glands, ands sense organs

Sleep Spindles

Bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity

Conventional Morality

By early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws and rules

Superstitious Behaviors

Can result from unintended reinforcements of unimportant behavior

Strong Stimulus

Can trigger more neurons to fire and fire more often but does not affect the action potential's strength or speed

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history/universal experiences

Optic Nerve

Carries neural impulses to the thalamus (connected to visual cortex)

Etiology

Cause and development of the disorder

Multiple Sclerosis

Caused by a degeneration of the myelin sheath; communication to muscles slows with eventual loss of muscle control

Astigmatism

Caused by an irregularity in the shape of the cornea and/or the lens. Distorts and blurs the image at the retina

Fat Cells

Cells in the body that store energy and expand and divide with increased weight gain

Glial cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons. Increase with higher level thinking animals

Blindsight

Certain stroke victims with damage to their visual cortex report seeing nothing when shown a series of sticks, yet they are able to correctly report whether the sticks are vertical or horizontal

Stimulus

Change in the environment that can be detected by sensory receptors

Auditory Canal

Channels sound waves from the outer ear to the eardrum

Reversibility

Characteristic of Piaget's concrete operational stage, the logical negation of an operation, for example, if 4 + 2 = 6 then 6 - 2 = 4

Hormones

Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic cleft between neurons. Influence whether the neuron across the synaptic cleft will generate a neural impulse

Psychoactive Drugs

Chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods through their actions at the neural synapses (depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens). Must be small enough to pass the blood-brain barrier

Horney

Claimed Freud was sexist and countered penis envy with womb envy. Also claimed childhood anxiety triggers desire for love and security

Acuity

Clarity/sharpness of vision. Would be most affected in the fovea was damaged

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Evidence-Based Practice

Clinical decision-making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences.

Coronary Heart Disease

Clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries

Social Skills Training

Cognitive behavioral therapy where the therapist can model the behavior for the client and then place the client in a simulated situation for practice

Jean Piaget

Cognitive psychologist that discovered that children's cognitive development occurs in distinct stages

Irrational Thinking

Cognitive psychology's explanation for depression

Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive therapy in which clients discuss their fears and are led to change their attitudes and beliefs about the situations that frighten them

Cochlea

Coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear that transforms sound vibrations to auditory signals/neural impulses

Outer Ear

Collects and sends sounds to the eardrum through the auditory canal

Pain

Combines bottom-up and top-down processing. Is not triggered by one specific physical energy

Cohort Sequential

Combines cross-sectional and longitudinal studies to correct for cohort effect

Anterograde Amnesia

Complete loss of memory after the hippocampus is removed

Prosopagnosia

Complete sensation in the absence of complete perception. Inability to recognize faces

Instinct

Complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned

Sound Waves

Compressing and expanding air molecules

Addiction

Compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences

Weber's Law

Computes the JND; change needed is proportional to the original intensity of the stimulus (more intense = more change needed to hear JND). The principle that to be perceived as different, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage/proportion (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as different

Schema

Concepts formed through experience to organize and interpret unfamiliar information

Conditions of Worth

Conditions that others place on us for receiving their positive regard

William James

Considered evolved functions of our sensations & actions. Under influence of Darwin & assumed thinking was adaptive to increase one's chance of survival. Wrote the first psychology textbook. Focused on functions and not just structures.

Contact Theory

Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are made to work towards a superordinate goal

Id

Contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. Operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification

Contralaterality

Control of one side of your body by the other side of your brain

Nature-Nurture Issue

Controversy over relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors

Ganglion Cells

Converge to form the optic nerve

Transduction

Conversion of stimulus energies to neural impulses that the brain can interpret

Order of structures of the eye that light passes through

Cornea, pupil, lens

Miller

Correctly defined the capacity of short term memory as the magical number 7 giver or take 2. Also established chunking

Kinsey

Created a scale of sexuality. 0-6 = exclusively heterosexual. 6 = homosexual. 7 = asexual

Sternburg's Triarchic Theory

Creative, analytical, and practical intelligence (CAP). Most commonly theory of intelligence

Crack

Crystallized cocaine that works faster and can be smoked. Gives a more intense and briefer high that leads to a more intense crash and cravings

Déjà Vu

Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience; french for already seen

Demand Characteristics

Cues the participants to discover the purpose of the study that suggest how they should respond

Display Rules

Culturally determined rules that prescribe the appropriate expression of emotions in particular situations

Bekesy

Cut holes in cochleas of pigs & cadavers, examined with a microscope, and discovered the cochlea vibrates in response to sound.

Expressive Aphasia

Damage to the Broca's area causing loss of ability to speak

Receptive Aphasia

Damage to the Wernicke's area resulting in loss of the ability to comprehend written and spoken language

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes & they look away sooner

Denial

Defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even perceive painful realities

Rationalization

Defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions

Projection

Defense mechanism that puts your own beliefs/behaviors onto someone else

Parkinson's disease.

Deficit of Dopamine results in this disease

Depressed

Deficit of Norepinephrine and Serotonin results in this mood

Cardinal Trait

Defining characteristic, in a small number of us, that dominates and shapes all of our behavior

Standardization

Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pre-tested group

Lee, Beat, & Rhodes

Demonstrated how we recognize people by facial features that cartoonists can caricature. People tended to recognize the caricature faces over the actual and anti-caricature

Edward Tolman

Demonstrated latent learning using rats and mazes with reinforcements

Kubler-Ross's Stages of Death/Grief

Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

Ventromedial Hypothalamus

Depresses hunger. If lesioned, one would never feel full again. Activated when you gain weight

Seasonal Affective Disorder

Depression in the winter months due to lack of sunlight. Treated with light therapy

Monocular Depth Cues

Depth cues, such as interposition & linear perspective, available to either eye alone (relative size, texture gradient, light/shadowing)

Binocular Cues

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of 2 eyes

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Describes important personality differences based on their responses to 126 questions (introversion vs. extroversion, intuitive vs. sensing, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. prospecting)

Achievement Motivation

Desire for significant accomplished; for mastery of things people, or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard

Intrinsic Motivation

Desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake. Enhanced by allowing a person to choose between possible options. Interest in an activity

Extrinsic Motivation

Desire to perform a behavior to receive promised reward or avoid threatened punishment. Reward that we get from accomplishments outside ourselves

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Detects brain waves through their electrical output (mainly in sleep research). An amplified recording of the waves of the electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp

Self-Referent Encoding

Determining how new information relates to us personally

Psychological Disorders

Deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional behavior patterns. Persistently harmful thoughts, feelings, and actions

Structuralism

Devoted to uncovering the basic structures that make up the mind and thought - looking for the elements of conscious experience.

Place Theory

Different pitches stimulate different parts of the basilar membrane within the cochlea. Best explains high pitch sensations. Theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated (brain determines pitch by recognizing the specific place on the membrane that is generating the neural impulse). Theory of Helmholtz

Waves

Different ways of thinking over time

Sensory Adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation (nerve cells fire less frequently)

Tolerance

Diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger & larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect

Extinction

Diminishing of a CR. Occurs in classical conditioning when an US does not follow a CS. Occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced

Light & Shadow

Dimmer, or shaded, objects seem further away

Withdrawal

Discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug

Ivan Pavlov

Discovered classical conditioning through his studies of digestion in dogs and their tendency to salivate. Laid foundation for behaviorism (Watson)

Gibson & Walk

Discovered depth perception using a visual cliff

Delgado

Discovered electrical stimulation overrides human will on the brain. Repeatedly demonstrated mechanics of motor cortex by stimulating a spot on the left motor cortex which would trigger the right hand to make a fist against the patient's will

Fritsch & Hitzig

Discovered motor cortex. Applied mild electrical stimulation to parts of a dog's cortex and discovered they could make parts of its body move when the stimulation was applied to an arch shaped region at the back of the frontal lobe, running roughly ear to ear across the top of the brain

Gosling

Discovered personality differences among dogs are as evident and consistently judged as personality differences among humans. Person-Situation controversy

Jameson

Discovered that color is relative to its surrounding objects. Comparisons govern perception. Noted that a blue chip indoors matches the wavelengths reflected by a gold chip in sunlight but a bluebird does not have the same effect

Pert & Snyder

Discovered that when they attached a radioactive tracer to morphine, showing where it was taken up in an animal's brain

Human Factors Psychology

Discovers and applies information about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and other characteristics to the design and evaluate products, systems, jobs, tools, and environments for enhancing productive, safe, and comfortable human use. Study of how to improve and adapt to life. Also called engineering psychology.

Optical/Visual Illusions

Discrepancies between the appearance of a visual stimulus and its physical reality. Common examples include reversible figures, illusory contours, the Muller-Lyer illusion, Ponzo illusion, and moon illusion

Effects of depressants

Disinhibitions, slowed neural processing, memory disruption, reduced self-awareness & control, expectancy

Dissociative Disorders

Disorder in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

Sleep Apnea

Disorder of breathing during sleep. Typically accompanied by loud snoring. Can be fatal

Sleep Talking

Disorder that runs in families and is more common in children and twins

Moulton & Kosslyn

Disproved telepathy. Harvard researchers that had a sender try to send 1 of 2 pictures telepathically to a receiver in an fMRI machine. The receivers guessed correctly 50% of the time (chance) and their brains did not respond any differently

Garcia & Koelling

Disproved the idea that the US must immediately follow the CS with radioactive water for rats. Also that any stimulus could be a CS

Skewed

Distributions where most of the scores are squeezed into one end. Positive is to the left and negative is to the right

Category Hierarchies

Dividing broad concepts into increasingly smaller and detailed subgrouping

Split-Half Reliability

Dividing test into two equal halves and assessing how consistent the scores are

Somatic Nervous System

Division of the PNS that controls the body's skeletal muscles through voluntary control

Autonomic Nervous System

Division of the PNS that controls the glands and muscles of the internal organs. Influences glandular activity, heartbeat, and digestion, through involuntary control. Breaks down into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system

Huntington's Disease

Dominant gene defect that involves degeneration of the nervous system, characterized by tremors, jerky motions, blindness, and death

Geropsychology

Draw on psychology, sociology, biology, and other disciplines to study factors associated with the development and aging of the older adult.

Cognitive Information Processing Theory

Dreams that are the interplay of brain waves and psychological functioning of interpretive parts of the mind

Depressants

Drugs (alcohol, barbiturates, & opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

Stimulants

Drugs (caffeine, nicotine, & more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, & Ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions. More powerful give feeling of invincibility

Barbiturates

Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment (Nembutal, Seconal, and amytal - prescriptions that reduce anxiety and induce sleep).

Amphetamines

Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes

Anti-Anxiety Drugs

Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation. Also called anxiolytics

Antidepressant Drugs

Drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety. Different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters.

Antipsychotic Drugs

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder. Also called neuroleptics

Evoked Potentials

EGGs resulting from a response to a specific stimulus presented to the subject

4

Each hemisphere has ___ lobes separated by prominent fissures

Tastebuds

Each papillae has 200+ of these, enable taste sensations. These and their sensitivity decrease with age

Pore

Each taste bud contains one of these; catches food chemicals

Somatotype Theory

Early biological theory by William Sheldon. Correlative only and has not been replicated. Endomorphs, Mesomorphs, Ectomorphs

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram using mostly nouns and verbs

Stage 1

Early, light sleep stage. Theta waves. Daydreaming. Only a few minutes once a night

Bulimia Nervosa

Eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually of high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise

Anorexia Nervosa

Eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) diets and become significantly (>15%) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve

Ions

Electrically charged atoms; generate electricity in neurons

Active Listening

Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy.

Lazarus, Schachter, & Singer

Emphasized appraisal also determines emotion

Maslow & Rogers

Emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential and our need for love and acceptance. To fully understand people's behavior, psychology must take into account human drive for personal growth.

Skinner

Emphasized nurture (environment) and minimum role of free-will (mental processes). Extended law of effect. Used an operant chamber to prove his concepts.

Zajonc & LeDoux

Emphasized that some emotions are immediate without conscious appraisal

Noam Chomsky

Emphasized that the acquisition of language by children is facilitated by an inborn readiness to learn grammatical rules. Suggested that diverse human languages share a universal grammar. Scientist who said we learn language not from rewards and punishments (behaviorism) but we are born with a language acquisition device. Coined LAD

Frontal Association Areas

Enable judgement, planning, and processing new memories - impulse control

Parietal Association Areas

Enable mathematical and spatial reasoning (texture)

Semantic Encoding

Encoding of meaning (including the meaning of words)

Visual Encoding

Encoding of picture images

Acoustic Encoding

Encoding of sound (especially words)

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort. Often produces durable and accessible memories

Pineal Gland

Endocrine gland in the brain that produces melatonin that helps regulate circadian rhythms and is associated with seasonal affective disorder

Compliance

Engaging in a particular behavior at another person's request

Stanley Hall

Established first research lab at John Hopkins Univ. Studied under Wundt. Created first American journal.1st APA president

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common

Environment

Every nongenetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us

Personal Fable

Exaggerated belief in a person's uniqueness and immortality in adolescence

Evolutionary Approach

Examines psychological traits from a modern evolutionary perspective. Behavior and mental processes adapt for survival and reproduction. Seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations (functional products of natural selection or sexual selection).

Overstimulation, Possible Seizures

Excess of glutamate does this to your brain (why people avoid MSG - Monosodium = this neurotransmitter)

Histrionic Personality Disorder

Exhibits dramatic/impulsive behaviors, needs to be the center of attention

Big Five Factors Personality Test

Expanded Eysenck's test (consciousness, agreeableness, neuroticism (emotional stability-instability), openness, extraversion - CANOE)

George Michael

Experiment indicated dominant hand was chosen by genes or parental influence. Observed newborns and which side they preferred to tilt their head and later in life, what hand they wrote with, finding the exact same preferred side of tilting their head was the hand they wrote with.

Between-Subjects Design

Experiment that has two or more groups of subjects each being tested by a different testing factor simultaneously

Independent Variable

Experimental factor that is manipulated and while its effect is studied

Placebo

Experimental results caused by expectations alone; sugar pill

Giuseppe & Moruzzi

Experimented with a cat's brain stem and reticular formation to discover the reticular formation's role in arousal

Jigsaw Classroom

Expert groups with diverse backgrounds learn one part of a lesson and share information in jigsaw groups. Students are dependent upon others; self-esteem and achievement motivation of 'poorer' students improve; former stereotypes are diminished. Friendships are based on proximity, similarity, reciprocal liking, and utilitarian value. Created by Aronson and Gonzalez

Learning Perspective

Explains anxiety through fear conditioning (stimulus generalization -> reinforcement) and observational learning

Biological Perspective

Explains anxiety through natural selection, genes, and the brain. Explains mood disorders through genetic predispositions, brain activity, and biochemical imbalances Views behavior as a result of the interaction of heredity and environment

Neuropsychology

Explore the relationships between the brain & nervous system and behavior. Also called biological psychologists, behavior geneticists, physiological psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists.

Lorenz

Explored the rigid attachment process of imprinting. Found duck imprint on the first moving thing they see but children do not imprint at all

Correlation

Expresses relationship between two variables. A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together and thus how well either factor predicts the other

Schizoid Personality Disorder

Expressess eccentric behaviors (emotionless disengagement)

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Delusions

False beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders. Result from a breakdown of selective attention-cannot filter out information

Hemophobia

Fear of blood

Claustrophobia

Fear of closed spaces

Acrophobia

Fear of heights; most common phobia

Agoraphobia

Fear of inescapable situations or places

Avoidant Personality Disorder

Fearful sensitivity to rejection that predisposes the withdrawn; personality disorder characterized by social discomfort and avoidance of interpersonal contact

Secure Attachment

Feeling safe in a new environment when a child is with their mother. Common in more sensitive and responsive parents

Emotion

Feelings about a situation, person, or objects that involves changes in physiological arousal and cognitions

Attitude

Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

Turner Syndrome

Females with only one X sex chromosome who are short, often sterile, and have difficulty learning

Zygote

Fertilized egg

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Field of study in which computer programs are designed to simulate human cognitive abilities such as reasoning, learning, and understanding language

Statistics

Field that involves the analysis of numerical data about representative samples of population

Closure

Filling gaps to create a whole or complete image

Aristotle

First to theorize about learning & memory, motivation & emotion, and perception & personality

Umami

Flavor enhancer; monosodium glutamate. Has a savory, meaty taste; proteins to grow and repair tissue

Arousal Theory

Focuses on finding the right level of stimulation

Behavioral Therapy

Focuses on maladaptive behaviors and changing them; not concerned with the why of the behavior

Behavioral Approach

Focuses on measuring and recording observable behavior in relation to the environment. Behavior results from learning. Looks at the antecedent, behavior, & consequence (ABC)

Selective Attention

Focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Convulsions

Fold in & out of the cerebral cortex to increase surface area of the brain

Opponent-Process Theory of Emotions

Following a strong emotion, an opposing emotion counters the first emotion lessening the experience of that emotion. On repeated occasions, the opposing emotion becomes stronger

Taste Aversion

Food that leads to nausea and dislike of the food. Discovered in Garcia & Koelling's experiment - taste is dominant because it is the sense most important for survival. Time between US & CS can only be prolonged in taste for this reason

Emerging Adulthood

For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to the early twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full indecent & responsible adult

Shortly before the US

For the most rapid acquisition of a CR, the CS should be presented

3 Divisions of the Brain

Forebrain, midbrain, hindbrian

Prognosis

Forecast about the disorder

Type B Lymphocytes

Form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections

Type T Lymphocytes

Form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances

Glucose

Form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues. When its level is low, we feel hunger. Regulated by stomach, liver, and intestines that send signals to the hypothalamus

Placenta

Forms as the zygote's outer cells attached to the uterine wall transfers nutrients and oxygen from mother to fetus. Also screens out many potentially harmful substances

Raine

Found PET scans of murderers showed decreased anxiety in frontal lobes (area of the cortex that helps control impulses). Especially apparent in those who murdered impulsively. Violent repeat offenders had 11% less frontal lobe tissue than normal

Asch

Found people would rather give the wrong but popular answer than what they know is right

Wilhelm Wundt

Founder of scientific psychology. Explored introspection & structuralism.

Rene Descartes

French philosopher who argued that human sensations and behaviors were based on activity in the nervous system

Low

Frequency theory best explains how we hear ______ pitch sounds

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality and therapeutic technique that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences - and the therapist's interpretations of them -released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Intellectualization (Defense Mechanism)

Freudian defense mechanism that involves reducing anxiety by reacting to emotional situations in a detached, unemotional way

Lashley

Further demonstrated that memories do not reside in single, specific spots. Cut out sections of a rat's brain where they thought memories where stored (in a specific spot) and repeatedly put the rat through a maze (and always found its way out).

Central Trait

General characteristic; between 5 and 10 of these shape much of our behavior

General Intelligence (g)

General intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on intelligence test

Ebbinghaus

German philosopher who studied his own learning and forgetting of nonverbal materials. Also created the forgetting curve

Token

Given overtime a desired behavior is performed. Can be traded for a variety of prized (reinforcers)

Collectivism

Giving priority to goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly

Individualism

Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Parathyroid Gland

Gland in neck, regulates calcium

Thyroid Gland

Gland in neck, regulates metabolism

Adrenal Glands

Gland that consists of adrenal medulla & cortex. Medulla secretes hormones (epinephrine & norepinephrine) during stressful and emotional situations while cortex regulates salt and carbohydrate metabolism. Pair of glands that sit just above the kidneys

Pancreas

Gland that regulates the level of sugar in the blood

Task Leadership

Goal-oriented leadership that sets standards, organizes work, and focuses attention on goals

Plato

Greek philosopher who assumed that character and intelligence are largely inherited and that certain ideas are inborn. Aristotle disagreed with him and claimed there is nothing in the mind that does not first come from the external world through senses. First to locate the mind/brain in the head

Experimental Group

Group exposed to the treatment

Control Group

Group not exposed to the treatment; serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

Schizophrenia

Group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions. On average, appears around age 20. Caused by excess of dopamine and theorized as a result of the break down of selective attention

Social Leadership

Group-oriented leadership that builds teamwork, meditates conflict, and offers support

Similarity

Grouping objects similar in appearance as being part of the same group

Proximity

Grouping objects that are close together as being part of same group

Connectedness

Grouping objects that are uniform and linked as being part of a single unit

Continuity

Grouping objects that form a continuous form as being part of the same group

Contact Comfort

Harlow study with monkeys and surrogate moms—need for close contact with caregiver independent of feeding (baby monkeys preferred cloth mother over wire mother with food); questions Hull's drive-reduction theory

Abnormal Behavior

Harmful dysfunction in which behavior is judged to be disturbing, analytical, maladaptive, and unjustifiable

Margaret Flay Washburn

Harvard's "first" female psychology PhD graduate, APA's 2nd female president. Titchener's first graduate student. 1st female with psychology PhD

Chronic Depression

Has been treated through a chest implant that intermittently stimulated the vagus nerve to increase brain activity

Conduction Deafness

Hearing loss caused by damage to the vibration process that conducts sound waves to the cochlea. Can be fixed with hearing aids

Rehabilitation Psychology

Help clients with mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and disabilities resulting from stroke or accidents adapt to their situations

Left Hemisphere

Hemisphere that processes reading, writing, speaking, arithmetic, reasoning, and understanding, portrays emotion, makes quick and literal interpretations of language. Handles language

Right Hemisphere

Hemisphere that understands simple requests, easily projective objects, and is more engaged when quick, intuitive responses are needed. Creative side of the brain, perceives emotion, recognizes faces, makes inferences in language, modulate speed (a head vs. ahead), help orchestrates sense of self

Lateralization

Hemispheric specialization; the two hemispheres of the brain have differing functions. Apparent after brain damage

Learned Helplessness

Hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events

Insulin

Hormone (secreted by the pancreas) that diminishes blood glucose, partly by converting it to stored fat. Increase hunger

PPY

Hormone secreted by the digestive tract to reduce hunger

Intensity & Slight time difference

How we localize sounds

Perceptual Organization

How we organize our visual experiences; grouping senses (clock ticking, word breakage in a new language). Involves perception and interpretation (discerning meaning in what we perceive)

Nativist Perspective

Human brain has an innate capacity for acquiring language (language acquisition device), possibly during a critical period of time after birth. Children are born with a universal sense of grammar (Chomsky)

Rogers

Humanist who believed human behavior was governed by individual sense of self or self acceptance

Client-Centered Therapy

Humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate client's growth (Also called person- centered therapy)

Ghrelin

Hunger arousing hormone secreted by an empty stomach. Increases hunger

Divided Consciousness Theory

Hypnosis is a special state of dissociated (divided) consciousness. Proposed by Hilgard

Diagnostic Axis of Psychological Disorders

I: Clinical syndrome, II: Personality disorder or mental retardation, III: General medical condition, IV: Psychosocial or environmental problems, V: Global assessment of person's functioning

Drive Reduction Theory

Idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

Baumrind

Identified three parenting styles that affect emotional growth of children

Diagnosis

Identifying (symptoms) and distinguishing one disease from another

Relative Size

If 2 objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that casts a smaller retinal image as further away

Threshold

If excitatory signals minus inhibitory signals exceed a minimum intensity, the combined signals trigger an action potential. Neuron fires based on all/nothing response

Armel & Ramachandran

Illustrated psychological influence on pain by slightly bending back on the unforeseen hands of 16 volunteers while simultaneously bending back a finger on a visible fake rubber hand. They felt as if their real finger was bent back & responded with skin perspiration

Sensory Memory

Immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Aphasia

Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to the Broca's area (impaired speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impaired understanding)

Intimacy

In Erik Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood

Grammar

In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Polarized

In a resting state, an axon has positively charged particles outside the membrane and negatively charged particles inside the membrane

Self

In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the center of personality, the organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions

Phoneme

In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morpheme

In language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word/part of a word (prefix/suffix)

Operant Chamber

In operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a skinner box) containing a bar/key that an animal can manipulate to obtain food/water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing/key pecking and responses

Free Association

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Interpretation

In psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight.

Resistance

In psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.

Transference

In psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred of a parent).

Repression

In psychoanalytic theory the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness

Defense Mechanisms

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

Blocking

Inability to condition a second stimulus because of prior conditioning to another stimulus that is also present during training

Fixation

Inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set (6 matches & 3D triangle)

Basilar Membrane

Incoming vibrations vibrate the cochlea and causes ripples in this mucus structure bending the hair cells lining its surface

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

D4 Dopamine Receptors

Increased dopamine levels intensify brain signals in schizophrenia, creating positive symptoms such as hallucinations and paranoia. Leads to an excess of _

Dark Adaptation

Increased visual sensitivity that gradually develops when it gets dark

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli (food); any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

Negative Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping/reducing negative stimuli (shock); any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. NOT punishment - removes punishment to increase the odds of repeating the event

Lateral Hypothalamus

Induces hunger by releasing orexin (hormone that increases hunger). If lesioned, one would never be hungry again.Activated during a diet

Cocaine

Induces immediate euphoria followed by a crash. Blocks reuptake of dopamine

The age-related timing but not the sequence

Infant motor development is typically characterized by individual differences in ________ of the major developmental milestones.

Normative Social Influence

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval

Informational Social Influence

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality

Spinal Cord

Information highway connecting the PNS to the brain

Top-Down Processing

Information processing guided by higher level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions, drawing on our experience & expectations. Associated with perception.

Archetypes

Inherited memories or common themes found in all cultures, religions, and literature, both ancient and modern. According to Jung, a number of universal themes that are part of the collective unconscious

Acquisition

Initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus & an US so that the neutral stimulus begins to trigger the CR in classical conditioning. Strengthening of a reinforced response in operant conditioning.Not permanent and leads to extinction

All or None

Initiation of neural impulses is an _____ or ________ response

Inner Ear

Innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

Taste Receptor Cells

Inside each pore, there are 50-100 of these. Project antenna-like hairs that sense food molecules and tells the temporal lobe what the taste is. Reproduce themselves every week or two

Pinel

Insisted madness is not demon possession but a sickness of the mind caused by severe stress and inhumane conditions. Introduced moral treatment boosting patients' moral by unchaining them and talking with them, and by replacing brutality with gentleness, isolation with activity, and filth with clean air and sunshine

Myelin Sheath

Insulates the axons of some neurons and helps speed their impulses

Neural Networks

Interconnected neurons; regular connections/routes of communication for different tasks, processes, etc. (muscle memory)

Behavioral Medicine

Interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

Cognitive Neuroscience

Interdisciplinary study of brain activity linked with our mental processes. Scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain

Association Areas

Interpret, integrate, and act on information processed by the sensory areas. Found in all 8 lobes (4/hemisphere). Areas of the cerebral cortex that are involved in higher mental functions (learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking) rather than primary motor or sensory functions.

Assimilation

Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas

Perception

Interpreting/understanding information taken in. The process of organizing & interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects & events.

Structured Interviews

Interview process that asks the same job-relevant questions of all applicants, each of whom is rated on established scales

Phrenology

Invented by Franz Gall, popular but ill-fated theory that claimed bumps on the skull could reveal our mental abilities and character traits. Correctly focused on the idea that various regions have particular functions

Tardive Dyskinesia

Involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target certain dopamine receptors.

Motion Parallax

Involves images of objects at different distances moving across the retina at different rates. Closer objects appear to move more than distant objects when you move your head. Extremely far away objects like the moon seem to move with you

Thinking

Involves mental images, symbols, concepts, and rules of language

Izard

Isolated 10 basic emotions, most of which are present in infancy. Joy, interest, excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seems to represent/match particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

Fechner

Key figure in psychophysics; expressed the just noticeable difference (JND) as a mathematical formula (Weber's Law)

Visual Cliff

Laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants & young animals; miniature cliff covered with sturdy glass. Implies we are born with depth perception (as soon as we are old enough to crawl, we can see depth)

Delta Waves

Large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep and last about 30 minutes. Starts in stage 3 and increases in stage 4

Recency Effect

Last items in a list are still in working memory so people briefly recall them especially quickly & well

Blood-Brain Barrier

Layer of capillaries that protect the brain; if a drug is small enough to pass through it, it is considered a psychoactive drug

(Learning) Discrimination

Learned ability to distinguish between a CS and a stimulus that signals an US in classical conditioning

Social Motives

Learned needs that energize behavior; acquired as part of growing up in a particular society or culture

Conditioned Response (CR)

Learned response to previously neural (but now conditioned) stimulus in classical conditioning

Observational Learning

Learning by observing others. Begins very early in life

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together. May be 2 stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response to it's consequence (operant conditioning)

Latent Learning

Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. Shows that learning does not completely depend on consequences

Max Wertheimer

Led Gestalt Psych movement, focused less on how we feel, but on how we experience the world

Insanity

Legal definition of abnormal behavior that means a person was unable to distinguish right and wrong at the time they committed a crime

Unconscious

Level of consciousness that includes often unacceptable feelings, wishes, and thoughts not directly available to conscious awareness. Also called subconscious

Preconscious

Level of consciousness that is outside of awareness but contains feelings and memories that can easily be brought to conscious awareness

Pons

Lies above the medulla on the brainstem and helps coordinate movements

Libido

Life/sexual energy force of the id (according to Freud)

Nearsightedness

Light rays from distant objects converge in front of the retina (rather than on it), and nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects

Farsightedness

Light rays from nearby objects converge behind the retina and distant objects are seen more clearly than nearby objects

Frequency Polygon

Line graph created from a bar graph of a frequency distribution that replaces bars with single points and connects the points with a line

Gardner's 8 Intelligences

Linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, body-kinesthetic, intra-personal (self), inter-personal (others), naturalist (SLIM BLIN). Speculates about a 9th - existential intelligence

Chaining Behaviors

Link multiple responses to get a reward

Depression

Linked to an undersupply of serotonin

Macrophage

Literally means "big eater"; identifies, pursues, & ingests harmful invaders and worn-out cells. Part of the immune system

Psychophysiological Illness

Literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches

Learning

Long lasting change in behavior due to experience

Viral Infections

Long term sleep deprivation leads to _____ _________

Red

Longest visible electromagnetic waves

Ex Post Facto Studies

Look at an effect and seek the cause after an experiment is conducted.

Evolutionary/Sociobiological Psychology

Looks at individual's behaviors through lens of natural selection. Behavior is adaptive, hereditary, and cultural

Beta Waves

Low-amplitude, fast, and regular waves. Mimic an awake, aroused state.

Polygraph

Machine, commonly used in attempts to detect lies, that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion (such as perspiration and cardiovascular and breathing changes)

Brain

Made up of neurons, glial cells, connective tissue, and cerebrospinal fluid

THC

Major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations

Borderline Personality Disorder

Maladaptive behavior characterized by rapidly shifting and unstable mood, self-concept, and interpersonal relationships, as well as impulsiveness; self-mutilation, and anger directed inwards; promiscuity and other self-destructive habits like drug addiction are common

Klinefelter's Syndrome

Males with XXY sex chromosomes

Experimental Methods

Manipulate factors that discover their effects

Foerster & Penfield

Mapped the motor cortex in hundreds of wide awake patients by stimulating different cortical areas and observing the body's responses. Discovered that the body areas requiring precise control (fingers, mouth) occupied the greatest amount of cortical space

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active

Pituitary Gland

Master gland, the endocrine system's most influential gland; under the influence of the hypothalamus, regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands. Anterior releases hormones while posterior regulates water and salt balance

Interval Scale

Meaningful difference between numbers (degrees)

Ratio Scale

Meaningful ratio that can be made with two numbers. Has a real or absolute zero point

Standard/Z Score

Measure of how many standard deviations below or above the population mean a raw score is

Helmholtz

Measured the speed at which nerve impulses travel

Decibels

Measurement of sound. Increase in 10 d is 10x as louder (60 d to 80 d is 100x louder)

Selectively Permeable

Membrane that allows certain molecules or ions to pass through it by means of active or passive transport

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Explicit Memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare; declarative memory

State Dependent Memory

Memory that is recalled under the conscious conditions it was formed

Concepts

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, or people (hispanic)

Prototype

Mental image or best example of a category. Matching new items to this provides a quick & easy method for sorting items into categories

Imagery

Mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding

Intelligence

Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adopt to new situations

Cognitive Map

Mental representation of the layout of one's environment (why exploring a maze is easier the 2nd time)

Gender Schema Theory

Mental set of what society considers appropriate behavior for each of the sexes; assumes that gender becomes a cognitive "lens" through which children experience and acquire their gender identity

Social Script

Mental tapes for how to act provided by our culture

Algorithm

Methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Telepathy

Mind to mind communication; one person sending thoughts to another and the other receiving or perceiving another's thoughts

Olds & Milner

Misplaced an electrode the hypothalamus of a rat instead of the reticular formation and discovered the location of the brain's pleasure and reward center

Subtractive

Mixing colored paints is _________________

Additive

Mixing lights, as Young & Helmholtz did, is _________________

Agonist

Molecule similar enough to a neurotransmitter to mimic its effects or block the neurotransmitters reuptake (Black widow venom floods synapses with ACh -> violent muscle contractions and possible death)

Major Depressive Disorder

Mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks or significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities. Displays at least 5 signs of consistent depression: lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, loss of interest in family, friends, and activities

Bipolar Disorder

Mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania (formerly called manic-depressive disorder). PET scans show brain energy consumption is increased/decreased with manic and depressive episodes

Mania

Mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state (and surge in creativity)

Hearing

Most common sensation manipulated during a hallucination for those with schizophrenia

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Most widely used intelligence test; contains 11 subtests and cues into strengths by using factor analysis. Designed to assess clinical and educational problems. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) for kids

Stanford-Binet

Most widely used, American revision (by Treman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test

Catatonia

Motionless waxy flexibility common in schizophrenia patients

Hair cells

Movement of these in the basilar membrane triggers neural impulses in the adjacent nerve cells whose axons converge to for the auditory nerve. Lined with mucus membrane

Psychokinesis

Moving remote objects through mental processes. Mind over matter (levitating a table or influencing the outcome of a die)

Empirical Approach

Much like scientific method, uses a set of standards to conduct a study which emphasizes careful observation and scientifically based research

Retina

Multi-layered (brain) tissue on the eyeballs sensitive inner surface. Contains sensory receptors that process visual information and sends it to the thalamus. Contains rods, cones, and bipolar ganglion cells

Effector

Muscle cell that contracts or gland cell that secretes in response to an action potential carried by an efferent neuron

Iris

Muscle that expands (dilates) and contracts to change the size of the opening (pupil) for light. A colored muscle that adjusts light intake (dilates/constricts in response to light intensity and even inner emotions)

Sensory Receptors

Muscles and glands

Mirror-Image Perceptions

Mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive

Motivation

Need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

What we dream

Negative emotional content, failure dreams, sexual dreams, activation synthesis theory, cognitive development

Psychological Dependence

Negative emotions of withdrawal

Feature Detector

Nerve cells in the visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus (shape, angle, movement, edges)

Limbic System

Neural system (includes hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located between the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives. Primarily associated as emotional control center

Sensory Neurons

Neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord

Afferent (Sensory) Neuron

Neurons that carry information from the sensory receptors to the brain & spinal cord

Efferent (Motor) Neuron

Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands

Motor Neurons

Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands

Interneuron

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

Dopamine

Neurotransmitter that affects motor movement, alertness, and attention.

Endorphins

Neurotransmitter that affects pain control, stress reduction, feelings of pleasure, and "natural opiates"

Acetylcholine (ACh)

Neurotransmitter that is critical to motor movement (delivers messages from neurons to muscles), learning, and memory.

Norepinephrine (noradrenaline)

Neurotransmitter that is the "fight or flight" response, controls alertness and arousal, elevates heart rate, circulation, respiration, mood, etc. Neurotransmitter and hormone

Serotonin

Neurotransmitter that regulates mood, hunger, and sleep. Abnormal in children with long term separation from their parents and abused animals. Calms aggressive impulses and can explain post-abuse trauma nightmares, depression, substance abuse, binge eating, or aggression

Neonate

Newborn baby from birth to one month old; shows reflexive behavior

0

No correlation is...

NREM Sleep

Non-rapid eye movement sleep or dreamless sleep

Secondary Sex Characteristics

Non-reproductive sexual characteristics

Biochemical Influences on Mood Disorders

Norepinephrine & serotonin

Insecure Attachment

Not feeling safe in a new environment whether a child's mother is with them or not. When she leaves, they seem indifferent and remain upset to her departure and return

Hering

Noted yellow is a combination of red and green but color blind people can still see yellow (Most common color blindness is red-green). Found a clue in afterimages - 1 responsible for red-green, and 1 for blue-yellow

Nominal Scale

Numbers that are used simply to name something and can be used to count the number of cases (girls = 1 and boys = 2). Numbers have no intrinsic meaning

Ordinal Scale

Numbers that can be ranked and can be put in order. Cannot be averaged

Descriptive Statistics

Numbers that summarize a set of research data obtained from a sample. Key concepts include frequency distribution and central tendency

Relative Height

Objects appear lower in the visual field are seen as nearer

Relative Clarity

Objects that appear hazy are seen as farther away

Cohort Effect

Observed group differences based on the era when people were born and grew up, exposing them to particular experiences that may affect results of cross-sectional studies

Kandel & Schwartz

Observed how experience modifies the brain's neural network in the afferent neurons of a sea slug before & after conditioning and were able to pinpoint changes. When learning occurs, the slug releases more serotonin at certain synapses and these synapses become more efficient in transmitting signals.

Naturalistic Observation

Observing and recording behavior in naturally recurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

Opiate Drugs

Occupy the same receptor sites as endorphins

Overjustification Effect

Occurs when an expected external incentive (money or prizes) decreases a person's intrinsic motivation to perform a task

Central Route to Persuasion

Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

Peripheral Route to Persuasion

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness

Multimodal

Occurs when three or more scores occur most frequently in a distribution

Bimodal

Occurs when two scores occur most frequently in a distribution (2 modes)

Titchener

One of Wundt's students who introduced structuralism.

Self-Esteem

One's feelings of high/low self-worth

Criticisms of Freud

Only studied wealthy women in Austria, not empirically verifiable, no predictive power, research problems in defense mechanisms

Pressure

Only touch sensation with identifiable receptors; all other sensations are a variation of pressure, warmth, cold, and pain

Controlled Experiment

Only way to determine a cause and effect relationship

Token Economy

Operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats.

Morphine

Opiate drug; elevates mood and eases pain bound to receptors in areas linked with mood and pain sensations

Opiates

Opium & its derivatives (morphine, heroin, methadone, and codeine); depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety. Agonist for endorphins. Derived from poppy plant. Teratogen. Highly addictive. Depressant and hallucinogenic.

Zimbardo

Organized the famous Stanford Prison Experiment to display the power of roles and deindividuation

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

Originally irrelevant stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR) after association of the two events in classical conditioning

Shape Constancy

Our ability to perceive form from different angles

Size Constancy

Our ability to perceive objects having constant size from different distances (we infer size based on distance (& vis versa) unconsciously). Why the moon looks larger when it is at the horizon line

Fluid Intelligence

Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood

Crystallized Intelligence

Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

Self-Efficacy

Our belief that we can perform behaviors that are necessary to accomplish tasks and that we are competent

Adaptability

Our capacity to learn new behaviors that help us cope with changing circumstances

Cognitive-Appraisal Theory

Our emotional experience depends on our interpretation of the situation we are in

Collective Efficacy

Our perception that with collaborative effort our group will obtain its desired outcome. Research studies indicate high self-efficacy is more beneficial in individualistic societies and high collective efficacy in collectivistic societies for achievement of group goals

Self-Serving Bias

Our readiness to perceive one's own favorability

Gender Identity

Our sense of being male or female

Identity

Our sense of self; according to Erik Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

Serial Position Effect

Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Spotlight Effect

Overestimating others' noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)

Narcolepsy

Overpowering urge to fall asleep while talking or standing up. Uncontrollable sleep attacks that lapse directly into REM sleep. Last less than 5 minutes.

Linear Perspective

Parallel lines appear to converge in the distance

Authoritative

Parenting style in which parents are both demanding and responsive. They exert control by setting rules and enforcing them, but they also explain the reasons for rules. Especially with older children, they encourage open discussion when making the rules and allowing exceptions

Authoritarian

Parenting style in which parents impose rules and expect obedience

Permissive

Parenting style in which parents submit to their child's desires, make few demands, and use little punishment

Hypothalamus

Part of the limbic system below the thalamus; directs several maintenance activities (hunger and thirst), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion & reward. 2 parts: lateral and ventromedial

Hippocampus

Part of the limbic system that is vital for basic emotions and forming new memories. A neural center that is located in the limbic system of the temporal lobe and helps process explicit memories for storage. Where new explicit memories are laid down. Lateralized - produces different effects if one is damaged

Festinger & Carlsmith

Participants completed a boring task and were paid ($1 or $20) to lie and tell the next subject it was an enjoyable task. Those paid less were found to have significantly more positive attitudes towards the experiment

Contiguity

Pavlov's theory that classical conditioning is based on the association in time of the conditioned stimulus prior to the unconditioned stimulus

Gyri

Peaks on the surface of the cortex, form convulsions

Barnum Effect

People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality

Belief Bias

People tend to accept any and all conclusions that fit in with their system of belief, without challenging or seriously considering what they believe

Theory of Mind

People's ideas about their own and other's mental states (feelings, perceptions, and thoughts) and the behaviors these might predict

Feel Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

People's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

Color Constancy

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object. Depends on context

Precognition

Perceiving future events (political leaders death or a sporting event outcome)

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging (having constant shape, size, lightness, and color) even as illumination and retinal images change. Top-down processing that allows us to identify people and things quickly

Percentile Score

Percentage of scores at or below a particular score (from 1 to 99)

Lightness Constancy

Perception of an object as having a constant lightness even when its illumination (amount of color absorbed/reflected) varies; also called brightness constancy. Perceived lightness is dependent on relative luminance

Clairvoyance

Perception of remote events (sensing a friend's house in on fire)

Relative Deprivation

Perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

Extrasensory Perception (ESP)

Perception without sensory input. The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

Embryonic

Period of prenatal development when the heart begins to beat

Critical Period

Period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Sleep

Periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness. Distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation.

Informed Consent

Permission granted in the knowledge of the possible consequences, typically that which is given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits

Insomnia

Persistent inability to fall asleep. No problem falling asleep but difficulty staying asleep (many awakenings), and waking up too early

Gerontologist

Person who specializes in the study of aging

Nomothetic Methods

Personality assessment techniques such as tests, surveys, and observations that focus on variables at the group level, identifying universal trait dimensions or relationships between different aspects of personality

Idiographic Methods

Personality assessment techniques that look at the individual, such as case studies, interviews, and naturalistic observations

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of empathy for wrongdoing, even towards friends and family. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con-artist. Formally called a sociopath or psychopath. Views world as hostile and only looks out from themselves. Lack impulse control (frontal lobe) and take action without thinking about the consequences. Experience very little anxiety

Behavioral Perspective

Perspective in which learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. Type of level of analysis

Psychodynamic Approach

Perspective originated with work of Freud. Emphasized the role of the unconscious mind, early childhood experiences, and interpersonal relationships to explain human behavior and to treat people suffering from mental illness. ID - bad, Ego - reality, Superego- ideal, moral self - This approach says our personality is a conflict between these 3 things

Experimenter Bias

Phenomenon that occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained. Also called experimenter expectancy effect. Type of confounding variable

Stroboscopic Effect

Phenomenon where the brain perceives continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images

Pseudo-Psychology

Phony/unscientific psychology which pretends to be a real thing causing people to miss out on real psychological insights which are more helpful

Stress

Physical and psychological result of internal or external pressure

Aggression

Physical/verbal behavior intended to hurt someone

Eustress

Physiological and emotional arousal that may be productive and motivating

Physical Dependence

Physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued

Leta Stretter Hollingworth

Pioneered work in adolescent development, mental retardation, and gifted (exceptionally smart) children. Tried to invalidate certain theories of her time (women inferior to men).

High

Place theory best explains how we hear ______ pitch sounds that hit the beginning of the basilar membrane

Jung

Placed less emphasis on social factors and agreed with Freud that the unconscious exerts a powerful influence. Unconscious contains more than our repressed thoughts and feelings and collective unconscious

Set Point

Point at which an individual's "weight thermostat' is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight

Mischel

Pointed out that traits may be enduring but the resulting behavior in various situation is different - traits are not good predictors of behaviors

Curare

Poison certain South American Indians have applied to hunting dart tips, occupies and blocks ACh receptor sites, leaving the neurotransmitter unable to affect the muscles (paralyzed)

Botulin

Poison that can form in improperly canned food; causes paralysis by blocking ACh release

Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

Popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior).

Occipital Lobes

Portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields (R half of each retina goes to L of this lobe and vise versa)

Parietal Lobes

Portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position. Contains somatosensory cortex

Frontal Lobes

Portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking, muscle movements, making plans, judgements, emotional control, and abstract thought. Contains motor cortex and Broca's Area

Temporal Lobes

Portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear. Not lateralized. Contains Wernicke's Area

Incentive

Positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior

Post-Traumatic Growth

Positive psychology changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises. Discovered by Tedeschi and Calhoun

Prosocial Behavior

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. Opposite of antisocial behavior

LSD

Powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide)

Methamphetamines

Powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the CNS, with speeded-up body functions & associated energy & mood changes; over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels. Crystal meth is it's most addictive form. Cocaine and heroin are the most dangerous.

Trephination

Practice in the Stone Age to cut holes in a skull to let evil spirits out.

Self-Fulfilling Bias

Prediction that causes itself to be true

Signal Detection Theory

Predicts how and when we detect the presence of a stimulus. Theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Assumes there is not single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue

Preparedness

Predisposition to easily learn behaviors related to survival of the species

Mirror Neurons

Premotor cortex neurons that fire during goal directed actions and observation of similar actions. May enable imitation and empathy. Activity provides a neural basis for imitation and observational learning. Discovered by Giacomo Rizzolatti who implanted wires next to a monkey's motor cortex, an area of the frontal lobe that enables planning & enacting movement (premotor cortex)

Biomedical Therapy

Prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the patient's nervous system.

Positive Symptoms

Presence of inappropriate behaviors; experience hallucinations and delusions, talk in disorganized and deluded ways, and exhibit inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage. More likely to respond to drug therapy

Sensory Interaction

Principle that 1 sense may influence another (when the smell of food influences taste - why eating is not fun with a cold)

Dual Processing

Principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious tracks. (We know more than we know we know). Theory that provides an account of how thought can arise in two different ways. Often consist of an implicit (automatic), unconscious process and an explicit (controlled), conscious process

Sexual Disorder

Problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning

Meta-Analysis

Procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies

Higher Order Conditioning

Procedure in which the CS in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weakened) conditioned stimulus; also called second-order conditioning

Counterbalancing

Procedure that assigns half of the subjects to one of the treatments and the other half of the subjects to the other treatment

Visual Accommodation

Process by which the lens focuses the rays by changing its curvature

Random Selection

Process of gathering a representative sample for a particular study; people are chosen by chance (each person has the same probability of being chosen like picking names out of a hat)

Retrieval

Process of getting information out of memory storage

Conditioning

Process of learning associations

Modeling

Process of observing and imitating others

Neuroadaptation

Process of the brain adapting its chemistry to offset a drug's effect

Auditory Cortex

Processes all sounds in temporal lobes

Encoding

Processing of information into the memory system

Magnetic Source Image (MSI)

Produced by MEG scan

Atkinson & Shiffrin

Proposed that we form memories in three stages (sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory)

Leptin

Protein secreted by fat cells and acts to diminish the rewarding pleasure of food. Decreases hunger

Stratton

Proved mankind's vast perceptual adaptation by inventing and wearing optical headgear for 8 days that flipped left & right and up & down.

Herz

Proved smell's link to memory. Conducted an experiment at Brown Univ. that stimulated students with a rigged computer game in a scented room. When they were exposed to the same scent later, their frustrations was rekindled and gave up sooner

Psychiatric Social Work

Provide mental health services to individuals with high needs. May perform psychotherapy and diagnose mental illness

Insula

Prune sized part of the frontal lobe that lights up when we crave drugs. If injured, patient is unable to experience addiction

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs (LSD) that distort perceptions & evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input. Reverse tolerance of synergistic effect

Reaction Formation

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings

Regression

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated

Displacement

Psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual/aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable/less threatening object/person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

Anxiety Disorder

Psychological disorder characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

Somatoform Disorders

Psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form without apparent physical cause (conversion disorder, hypochondriasis, etc.)

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one/more of 3 key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

Mood Disorders

Psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes (major depressive disorder, mania, and bipolar disorder)

Personality Disorders

Psychological disorders characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning. Usually without anxiety, depression, or delusions

Trait View

Psychological perspective that views behavior and personality as products of enduring psychological characteristics. Behavior results from each person's unique combination of traits

Individuation

Psychological processes by which we become an individual; a unified whole, including conscious and unconscious processes

Everything _____________ is simultaneously __________

Psychological; biological

Sperry, Myers, Gazzangia

Psychologists that divided the corpus callosum in cats and monkeys with no serious effects - allowed to limit seizures to one side of the brain

Philosophy & Biology

Psychology is a blend of many subjects but it borrows heavily from ____________ and ____________

Stress Inoculation Training

Psychotherapy method intended to help patients prepare themselves in advance to handle stressful events successfully & with a minimum of upset through positive thoughts.

Basic Research

Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base (biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, and social psychologists)

Lesion

Purposeful tissue destruction (electrical probing, psychosurgery)

Natural-killer Cells

Pursue diseased cells (infected by virus/cancer). Part of the immune system

Incubation

Putting aside a problem temporarily; allows the problem solver to look at the problem from a different perspective

Debriefing

Question about a completed mission or undertaking

Stage 5

REM sleep stage

Saltatory Conduction

Rapid conduction of impulses when the axon is myelinated since depolarizations jump from node (of ranvier) to node

REM Sleep

Rapid eye movement; recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep (active brain but paralyzed body). Vivid dreams and beta waves.

Acute/Reactive

Rapidly developing schizophrenia following particular life stresses. Recovery is much more likely and show positive symptoms

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

Rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Formerly called multiple personality disorder. Commonly have a history of childhood abuse or trauma. Possible learned response that reinforces anxiety reduction

Spontaneous Recovery

Reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished CR

Deductive Reasoning

Reasoning from the general to the specific

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from the specific to the general

Bipolar Cells

Receive messages from photoreceptors and transmit them to ganglion cells. Located closest to the back of the retina for visual processing

Thalamus

Receives sensory information (all senses except smell) and sends it to the appropriate areas of the forebrain. The brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

Sex-Linked

Recessive genes located on the X chromosome with no corresponding gene on the Y chromosome, which result in expression of recessive trait, more frequently in males

Tay-Sachs Syndrome

Recessive trait that produces progressive loss of nervous function and death in a baby

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

Recessive trait that results in severe, irreversible brain damage unless the baby is fed a special diet low in phenylalanine

Harlow

Recognized an intense attachment monkeys grown in solidarity had to a blanket (contradicted the idea that attachment derives from an association with nourishment). Monkeys preferred the blanket over food

Sublimation

Redirecting unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulses into more socially acceptable behaviors

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

Refers to a proposed innate human ability to construct and understand the syntactical structures of language

Retrograde Amnesia

Refers to problems with recall of information prior to trauma

Social Cognition

Refers to the way people gather, use, and interpret information about the social aspects of the world around them

Wernicke's Area

Region of the brain that contains motor neurons involved in the comprehension (understanding) of speech

Sensory cortex

Registers and processes body touch and movement sensations. Receives information from the skin's surface and sensory organs. The more sensitive the body region, the larger the area of the cortex that is devoted to it. Also called parietal cortex; area at the front of the parietal lobes and parallel to and just behind the motor cortex. Discovered by Penfield

Basal Ganglia

Regulates initiation of movements, balance, eye movements, and posture, and functions in processing implicit memories

Variable-Ratio Schedules

Reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses in operant conditioning

Variable-Interval Schedules

Reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals in operant conditioning

Fixed-Ratio Schedules

Reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses in operant conditioning

Fixed-Interval Schedules

Reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed in operant conditioning

Delayed Reinforcement

Reinforcer that is delayed in time for a certain behavior

Immediate Reinforcement

Reinforcer that occurs instantly after a behavior

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction. Four types include variable-interval, variable-ratio, fixed interval, and fixed-ratio

Continuous Reinforcements

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs. Learning occurs rapidly but extinction does too when behavior is no longer rewarded

Positive Correlation

Relationship between two variables in which both variables move in tandem. Exists when one variable decreases as the other variable decreases, or one variable increases while the other increases

Negative Correlation

Relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other decreases, and vice versa

Negative Punishment

Removal of something pleasant; also called omission training. Type of punishment

Tsang

Removed rat stomachs, connected the esophagus to the small intestine, and rats still felt hungry

Replication

Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

Thorazine

Replaced lobotomy

Perrett

Reported that for biologically important objects and events our brains have a "vast visual encyclopedia" distributed as cells that specialize in responding to 1 type of stimulus (gaze, head angle, posture, body movement, etc.). Other supercell clusters integrate this information and fire when the cues collectively indicate the direction of someone's attention and approach

Contingency

Rescorla's theory that the key to classical conditioning is how well the conditioned stimulus predicts the appearance of the unconditioned stimulus

Quasi-Experimental Research

Research design similar to controlled experiments, but participants are not randomly assigned (behavior differences between men and women)

Within Subjects Design

Research design that uses each participant as his or her own control

Single-blind procedure

Research designs in which participants do not know whether they are in the experimental or control group but the researchers do.

Longitudinal Study

Research in which the same groups are restudied and retested over a long period

Hubel & Wiesel

Researched visual sensation/perception; discovered feature detector. Demonstrated that the neurons in the occipital lobes visual cortex receive information from individual ganglion cells in the retina

Linkage Analysis

Researchers find families in which a disorder appears across several generations and examine the DNA of affected and unaffected family members to look for differences in DNA

Refractory Period

Resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm

Coma

Result of damage to the reticular formation

Alzheimer's Disease

Results in a deficit of ACh

Seizures & Insomnia

Results of deficit of GABA

Implicit Memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection; non-declarative memory

Storage

Retention of encoded information over time

Cones

Retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight/well-lit conditions. Detect fine detail and give rise to color sensation

Rods

Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral & twilight vision when cones do not respond

Reconstruction

Retrieval of memories often distorted by adding, dropping, or changing details to fit a schema

Self-Disclosure

Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others

Phinneas Gage

Rod went through his cheek and out his skull critically damaging his frontal lobe. Healed but was irrational, profane, and dishonest

Photoreceptors

Rods & Cones; located closest to the back of the retina

Norms

Rules for accepted and expected behavior

Syntax

Rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language

Maslow

Said that humans have a hierarchy of needs. We are motivated by needs and not all are created equal. We are driven to satisfy lower level needs first

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Scan similar to EEG and is able to detect slight magnetic field caused by the electric potentials in the brain. Can pinpoint locations of seizures

Amygdala (fear)

Schizophrenia patients' brain act abnormally in these three brain regions

Psychopathology

Scientific study of mental disorders

Positive Psychology

Scientific study of optimal human functioning

Applied Research

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

B. F. Skinner

Scientist most famous of the behaviorists, for operant conditioning. Emphasized the importance of reinforcement in language acquisition

Hofman

Scientist who accidentally created and ingested LSD. Gave insight to hallucinations.

Ellis, Beck, & Glasser

Scientists famous for their reality therapy (Rational Emotive/Cognitive Therapy - are your thoughts realistic or rational)

Loftus's

Scientists who analyzed the vivid "memories" triggered by brain stimulation and found the seeming flashbacks appeared to have been invented, not relieved

Petersons

Scientists who discovered working memory lasts about 20 seconds

Ethologists

Scientists who study animal behavior and how it has evolved in different species

Generalized Reinforcer

Secondary reinforcer associated with a number of different primary reinforcers (Money - can be traded for just about anything)

Monism

Seeing mind and body as different aspects of the same thing

Dualism

Seeing mind and body as two different things that interact

Temporal Lobe

Seizures in this part of the brain report similar hallucinations to near death experiences

Cocktail Party Effect

Selective attention to one voice among many

Alpha Waves

Selectively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state; onset of sleep. Produces mild hallucinations

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Self-focused and self-inflating. Unwarranted sense of self-importance

Subjective Well Being

Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life. Positive moods with 6-7 hours after waking up. Negative emotions more/less are the same throughout the day

Phantom Limb

Sensation of pain in an amputated limb

Touch

Sense that is a mix of pressure, warmth, cold, and pain

Hallucinations

Sensory experiences without sensory explanation. False perception of reality. Occurs during brief stage 1 sleep and can later be incorporated into memories

Nociceptors

Sensory receptor cells for pain that detect hurtful temperatures, pressures, or chemicals

Opponent-Process Theory

Sensory receptors come in pairs. Theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white) enable color vision. Stimulated by one (red) causes the other (green) to be inhibited in the retina & thalamus

Cerebral Hemispheres

Separate the left and right brain

Dissociation

Separation from the self, with the most severe resulting in Dissociative Identity Disorder. Most of us experience this in very mild forms such as when we are driving long distance and lose time or find ourselves daydreaming longer than we thought

Dream

Sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind. Notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the person's delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it.

Internal Review Board (IRB)

Set ethical guidelines for research on humans and animals

Psychosis

Set of disorders including schizophrenia characterized by an apparent break from reality

Semantics

Set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also the study of meaning

Meditation

Set of techniques used to focus concentration away from thoughts and feelings in order to create calmness, tranquility, and inner peace

Gonades

Sex glands, regulate body development and maintain reproductive organs in adults

Estrogen

Sex hormones, such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics. In non-human female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity

Color Blindness

Sex-linked trait with which an individual cannot see certain colors, most often red & green

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

Terminal Decline

Sharp decrease in mental ability in the last three to four years of life

Endomorphs

Sheldon's somatotype theory that says fat people tend to be friendly and outgoing

Mesomorphs

Sheldon's somatotype theory that says muscular people tend to be more aggressive

Ectomorphs

Sheldon's somatotype theory that says thin people tend to be more shy and secretive

Blue-violet

Shortest visible electromagnetic waves

Rosenzweig & Krech

Showed how environment affects neural connections by raising rats in a solitary and social environment

Watson & Rayner

Showed how specific fears might be conditioned through an 11 month old baby (Baby Albert). Later used his knowledge of associative learning for advertisements (introduced coffee break)

Wolfgang Kohler

Showed learning takes place through the "ah ha" experience (gaining insight) through his chimpanzee & boxes/bananas experiment

Rescorla & Wagner

Showed that animals can learn the predictability of an event. The more predictable the association, the stronger the conditioned response (CR)

Binge Eating Disorder

Significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fating or excessive exercise that mark bulimia nervosa

Heuristic

Simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; speedier but also more prone to error

Measures of Tendency

Single score that represents a whole set of scores

Obestatin

Sister hormone to ghrelin that sends off a fullness signal that suppress hunger

Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Situations involving several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict

Situations involving two negative options, one of which we must choose

Approach-Approach Conflict

Situations involving two positive options, only one of which we can have

Approach-Avoidance Conflict

Situations involving whether or not to choose an option that has both positive and negative consequence(s)

Neural Chain

Skin receptors detect. Sensory information carried to spinal cord. Interneurons in CNS process information. Motor neuron carry response

Night Terrors

Sleep disorder characterized by high arousal & an appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares, occur during stage 4 sleep and are rarely remembered. More likely to sleepwalk when older. Most common in boys 2-8

Stage 3

Sleep stage that acts as a transition to Stage 4. Slows delta waves

Stage 2

Sleep stage that lasts about 20 minutes and is characterized by the periodic appearance of sleep spindles. Sleep talking. Slower theta waves

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking; occurs in stage 4 sleep

Chronic Process

Slow developing schizophrenia with doubtful recovery. Usually display negative symptoms

Pupil

Small adjustable opening in the center of the eye surrounded by the iris

Botox

Small injections of Botulin; smooths wrinkles by paralyzing the underlying facial muscles

Difference Threshold

Smallest amount of change needed to detect a change in stimulus. Also called the just noticeable difference (JND); the minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time

Hypochondriasis

Somatoform disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease

Consistency of Expressive Style

Some traits seem more easily judged/pervasive than others

Neutral Events

Something in classical conditioning that does not trigger a response

Kohlberg

Sought to describe the development of moral reasoning by posing moral dilemmas to children and adolescents

Nodes of Ranvier

Spaces between segments of myelin sheath on the axons of neurons

Vogel & Bogen

Speculated that major epileptic seizures were caused by an amplification of abnormal brain activity bouncing back and forth between 2 cerebral hemispheres

Variability

Spread or dispersion of a set of research data or distribution

Preoperational Stage

Stage during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic. 2-6 or 7 years old

Sensorimotor Stage

Stage during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities. Birth-2 years old

Concrete Operational Stage

Stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events. 6 or 7-11 years old

Formal Operational Stage

Stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts. Begins about age 12

Preconventional Morality

Stage of morality before age nine when most children focus on their own self interest (obey rules to avoid punishment or to gain concrete awards)

Principles for Test Construction

Standardization, reliable, and valid

Daydreaming

State with focus on inner, private realities, which can generate creative ideas

Inference

Statistical statement of how frequently an obtained result occurred by experimental manipulation or chance

Inferential Statistics

Statistics that are used to interpret data and draw conclusions

Discriminative Stimulus

Stimulus different from the rest that is rewarded when an animal reacts to it and not others

Conditioned Reinforcers

Stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as a secondary reinforcer

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

Stimulus that naturally triggers a response in classical conditioning

1 or -1

Strong Correlation is closet to...

Social Facilitation

Stronger responses on simple or well-learned task in the presence of others. Discovered by Triplett

Milgram

Student of Asch who wanted to see what the conformity rate would be for demands and how far people would go to obey commands in the student-teacher shock experiment. Most never disobeyed

Sperry & Gazzangia

Studied people with split brains and complementary functions of the two hemispheres

Webb & Campbell

Studied sleep patterns of twins & found identical twins had very similar sleep patterns (suggesting genetic influence)

Biological Approach

Studies how our physical makeup and operation of our brains influence our personality, preferences, behavior patterns, and abilities. Views behavior as the result of hereditary, nervous system, endocrine system (hormones), and environmental impacts. Focuses on brain, nervous system, neurotransmitters, and hormones to explain our behaviors. The mind is what the brain does.

Marijuana

Studies of its effects have shown that regular users may achieve a high with less of the drug than occasional users

Cross-Sectional Study

Study in which people of different ages are compared with one another. Younger adults score better

Social Influence

Study of attitudes, beliefs, decision, actions, and they way they are modeled

Thanatology

Study of death and dying; Kubler-Ross's five stages of facing death: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance

Cognitive Approach

Study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)

Study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health

Parapsychology

Study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

Developmental Psychology

Study of physical, intellectual, social, and moral changes across the lifespan from conception to death

Psychopharmacology

Study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior.

Sport Psychology

Study psychological & mental factors that influence and are influenced by participation and performance in sport, exercise, and physical activity.

Organizational Psychology

Subfield of I/O psychology that examines organizational influences that examines organizational influences on worker satisfaction and productivity and facilitates organizational change

Personnel Psychology

Subfield of I/O psychology that focuses on employee recruitment, selection, placement, training, appraisal, and development

Molecular Genetics

Subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes

Health Psychology

Subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine

Insight

Sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem; contrasts with strategy-based solutions. Results in a burst of activity in the right temporal lobe

Dysthymic Disorder

Suffering from mild depression everyday for at least two years

Ethical Guidelines

Suggested rules for acting responsibly and morally when conducting research or in clinical practice

Posthypnotic Suggestion

Suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors

Activation Synthesis Theory

Suggests the brain engages in a lot of random neural activity and dreams make sense of this activity. Cerebral cortex is trying to interpret random electrical activity we have while we sleep

Lewinsohn

Summarized facts that any theory of depression must explain (many behavioral and cognitive changes that accompany depression, depression is widespread, women are twice as vulnerable to depression, most major depressive episodes self-terminate, stressful events related to work, marriage, and close relationships often precede depression, and with each new generation, depression is strikingly earlier and affecting more people)

Psychosurgery

Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior.

Klüver & Bucy

Surgically lesioned a monkey's brain (including the amygdala). The normally aggressive monkey became very mellow. Noticed same effect on other animals

Aerobic Exercise

Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety

5 types of taste sensations

Sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami

Ecstasy (MDMA)

Synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Derivative of amphetamine. Produces euphoria & social intimacy, but with short-term health risks & long-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons & to mood and memory

Biofeedback

System for electronically recording, amplifying, & feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state (blood pressure or muscle tension)

Nicotine

Takes away unpleasant cravings (negative reinforcement) by triggering epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, and endorphins. Stimulant

Chemical

Taste is a ___________ sense

Smoking & Alcohol

Taste is affected by _________ & ___________ use

REM Rebound

Tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)

Spacing Effect

Tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

Regression Toward the Mean

Tendency for extremes of unusual scores or events to regress towards the average

Flat Affect

Tendency of schizophrenia patients to display the wrong emotion at the wrong time (laughing when told someone died)

Visual Capture

Tendency of vision to dominate the other sense

Face-in-the-door Phenomenon

Tendency to accept small requests after rejecting large requests

Mental Set

Tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute our behaviors to situational factors and other's behaviors to dispositional factors

Overconfidence

Tendency to be more confident than correct

Halo Effect

Tendency to generalize a favorable impression to unrelated dimensions of the subject's personality

Homeostasis

Tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore/distort contradictory evidence

Functional Fixedness

Tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving

Generalization

Tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for a stimuli similar to the CS to elicit similar responses

Hunger pangs

Term for stomach growling

Sherif & Camp

Tested how enemies could overcome their differences by having two Boy Scout group work against each other, creating competition, and then having them work towards a common goal (superordinate goal)

Cerebellum

The "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input, coordinating voluntary movement output, and balance. Enables a type of nonverbal learning and memory. Plays a key role in forming and storing the implicit memories created by classical conditioning. If damaged, a person cannot develop a conditioned response.

Social Identity

The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships

DSM-IV-TR

The APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, with an updated text revision; widely used system for classifying psychological disorders

Two-Factor Theory

The Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion, one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal

Lucid Dreaming

The ability to be aware of and direct one's dreams. Has been used to help people make recurrent nightmares less frightening

Early adulthood

The ability to identify scents peaks in _______ ____________ and declines thereafter

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

Creativity

The ability to produce novel & valuable ideas. Requires divergent thinking, expertise, imaginative thinking, venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, and a creative environment

Depth Perception

The ability to see objects in 3D although the images that strike the retina are 2D; enables us to judge distance

Gender Type

The acquisition of a traditional masculine/feminine role

Priming

The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

Infancy

The age of a newborn to a toddler

Childhood

The age of a toddler to teenager

Intensity

The amount of energy in light waves. Determines brightness and is determined by a waves' amplitude

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

The application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity.

Mean

The average of a distribution

Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Medulla Oblongata

The base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat, respiration, and blood pressure

Genes

The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; a segment of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein. About 30,000 per person

Gender

The biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female

Primary Sex Characteristics

The body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that makes sexual reproduction possible

Basal Metabolic Rate

The body's resting rate of energy expenditure. Rate of energy expenditure for maintaining basic body functions when the body is at rest

Nervous System

The body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consists of all the nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The brain and spinal cord

Plasticity

The brain's ability to modify itself after some types of injury or illness, especially during childhood

Experimental Psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific investigation of basic psychological processes such as learning, memory, and cognition in humans and animals

Dendrite

The bushy, short branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses towards the cell body

Fovea

The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster. Damage would mostly affect visual acuity

Middle Ear

The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window

Psychosexual Stages

The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones

Hue

The color we experience

Genome

The complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material that organism's chromosomes

Medical Model

The concept that diseases (psychological disorders) have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases cured, often through treatment in a hospital

Homozygous

The condition when both genes for a trait are the same

Heterozygous

The condition when the genes for a trait are different; also called hybrid

Rehearsal

The conscious reputation of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage

Social Clock

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement (differs between cultures)

Companionate Love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined

Contraception

The deliberate use of artificial methods or other techniques to prevent pregnancy as a consequence of sexual intercourse

Fetus

The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth

Embryo

The developing human organism from about two weeks after fertilization through the second month (2-8 weeks)

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Levels of Analysis

The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon

Retroactive Interference

The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Proactive Interference

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

Wavelength

The distance of 1 peak to the next. Determines hue

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations (Fight or Flight response)

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserves energy, and inhibits further release of stress hormones (Rest and Digest)

Age of Viability

The end of the second trimester in pregnancy; the point at which there is a reasonable chance the fetus will survive if born prematurely

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group

Perceptual Set

The experiences, assumptions, and expectations that influence our perception. Mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Phenotype

The expression of the genes

Axon

The extensions of a neuron, ending in long branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands (sometimes several feet long)

Validity

The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Content Validity

The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (such as a driving test that samples driving tasks)

Reliability

The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, or on retesting

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning about 8 months

Zygotes

The fertilized egg; it enter a two week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo

Menarche

The first menstrual period

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons. Originate deep in the brain and may then migrate elsewhere and form connections with neighboring neurons

Sexual Response Cycle

The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson - excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution

Dominant Gene

The gene expressed when the gene for a trait are different

Recessive Gene

The gene that is hidden or not expressed when the genes for a trait are different

Genotype

The genetic makeup of an individual

Amplitude

The height/strength of a wave. Determines intensity

Reciprocal Determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment

Mental Processes

The internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior

Interaction

The interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (environment) depends on another factor (heredity)

Cerebral Cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center. Functions in awareness of one's own name and self-identity. Expands with higher level thinking animals allowing adaptability

Synaptic Gap/Cleft

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron

Corpus Callosum

The large band of neural fiber connecting the 2 brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

Ego

The largely conscious, "executive" part of the personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the of the id, superego, and reality. Operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desire in ways that will realistically bring pleasure than pain

Nonconscious

The level of consciousness devoted to processes completely inaccessible to conscious awareness

Amnesia

The loss of memory; learn without knowing they are learning and can be classically conditioned. Caused by brain damage, shock, repression, and illness

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

Median

The middle score in a distribution

Absolute Threshold

The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

Groupthink

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

Mode

The most frequently occurring score in a distribution

Testosterone

The most important of the male sex hormones. Both males and females have it, but the additional _______________ in males stimulates the growth of male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes

Rorschach Inkblot Test

The most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

Affiliation Motive

The need to be with others

Rooting Reflex

The newborn's tendency to move its head when stroked on the cheek, turn toward the stimulus as if its searching for a nipple, and open its mouth

Frequency

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time. Determines pitch

Brainstem

The oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; responsible for automatic survival functions. Crossover point where most nerves to and from each side of the brain connect with the body's opposite side

Figure-Ground

The organization of the visual field into objects (the figure) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground); also called form perception

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable. What is being measured

Amygdala

The part of the limbic system that is 2 lima bean sized neural clusters and is linked to emotion (aggression & fear)

Superego

The part of the personality trait that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscious) and for future aspirations

Reflex Arc

The path over which the reflex travels, which typically includes the sensory receptor, afferent neuron, interneuron, efferent neuron, and effector

Illusory Correlation

The perception of a relationship where none exists. Caused because human try to find order in chaos

External Locus of Control

The perception that chance/outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate

Internal Locus of Control

The perception that you control your own fate

Grouping

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups (proximity, similarity, continuity, connectedness, closure)

Puberty

The period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Memory

The persistence of learning overtime through the storage and retrieval of information

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them

Blind Spot

The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye & no photoreceptors are located

Personal Space

The portable buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies

Egocentrism

The preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view

Androgyny

The presence of desirable masculine and feminine characteristics in one individual

Conservation

The principle (which Piaget believed to be apart of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

Frustration-Aggression Principle

The principle that frustration - the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal - creates anger, which can generate aggression

Natural Selection

The principle that, amount the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed onto other generations - explaining animal structures and behaviors

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life

Sound Localization

The process by which one determines the location of a sound

Identification

The process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos

Internalization

The process of absorbing information from a specified social environmental context (according to Lev Vygotsky)

Catharsis

The process of expressing strongly felt but usually repressed emotions

Parallel Processing

The process of many aspects of an object simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions (vision is broken down into color, movement, form, and depth)

Heritability

The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. May vary between traits, depending on the range of populations and environments studied

Timbre

The quality of a sound determined by the purity of a waveform. What makes a note of the same pitch and loudness sound different on different musical instruments

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

The range between the level at which a child can solve a problem working alone with difficulty, and the level at which a child can solve a problem with the assistance of adults or more-skilled children

Intelligence Quotient (IQ)

The ratio of mental age (ma) to a chronological age (ca) multiplied by 100 (IQ = ma/ca x 100). On contemporary intelligence tests, the average performance for a given age is assigned a score of 100. Created by William Stern with eugenic view in mind

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experience

Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes

Psychometrics

The science of measuring mental capacities and processes

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

Reuptake

The sending neuron reabsorbs the excess neurotransmitters

Vestibular Sense

The sense of head and body position (including balance). Involves inner ear structures (semicircular canals & vestibular sacs contain fluid that move with your head)

Audition

The sense or act of hearing; highly adaptive

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body (All nerves excluded from the brain and spinal cord). Break into the somatic and autonomic nervous system

Attention

The set of processes from which you choose among various stimuli bombarding your senses at any instant, allowing some to be further processed by your senses and brain

X-Chromosome

The sex chromosome found in both men and women. Females have two; males have one. One from each parent results in a female baby

Y-Chromosome

The sex chromosome found only in males. When paired with an x-chromosome from the mother, it produces a male child

Somatosensation

The skin sensation (touch/pressure, warmth, cold, and pain)

Approximations

The small steps of shaping

One-Word Stage

The stage in speech development, from about age 1-2, during which a child speaks mostly single words; also called holophrase

Resting Potential

The state of an axon membrane to have negatively charged particles inside and positively charged particles outside the membrane. Neuron is waiting to fire

Consciousness

The state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings; the awareness or perception of something by a person. Awareness of yourself and the world around you. Allows us to assemble information from many sources as we reflect brain activity to sleeping, dreaming, and other mental states.

Psychophysics

The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli (intensity) & our psychological experience of them (light & brightness, sound & volume, pressure & weight, sugar & sweet)

Evolutionary Psychology

The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection

Behavior Genetics Perspective

The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior. Type of level of analysis

Predictive Validity

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict; it is assessed by computing the correlation between test scores and the criterion behavior (Also called criterion-related validity)

Telekinesis

The supposed ability to move objects at a distance by mental power or other nonphysical means

Kinesthesis

The system for sensing the position & body movement of individual body parts; also called kinesthetic sense

Bystander Effect

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition

Social Loafing

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

Just-World Phenomenon

The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small requests to comply later with a larger request

Anchoring Effect

The tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Ingroup Bias

The tendency to favor our own group

False Consensus Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share out beliefs

Mood-Congruent Memory

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good/bad mood. Why moods linger and affect our day

Other-Race Effect (Cross-Race Effect/Own-Race Bias)

The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races

Empiricism

The theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience

Social Exchange Theory

The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs

Scapegoat Theory

The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory

The theory that the retina contains 3 types of cones (red, blue, green) which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color. Does not explain after images or color blindness

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

Attribution Theory

The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition. Proposed by Heider

Menopause

The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines

Adolescence

The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

Lymphocytes

The two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: Type B and Type T

Unconditioned Response (UR)

The unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US) in classical conditioning

Flynn Effect

The unlimited and slow increase of intelligence overtime worldwide. Increase in intelligence greatest in lower economic levels. Cause unknown

Behaviorism

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior through observation without reference to mental processes or the unconscious mind. Based solely on observation

Framing

The way an issue is proposed; can significantly affect decisions and judgements

Binet & Simon

Theorized that mental aptitude is a general capacity that shows up in various ways

Anderson

Theorizes neural speech prosthetics. California Tech neuroscientist that speculates that researchers could implant electrodes in speech areas of the brain - by having the patient think of the word, they can build a database and predict the words they want to say and connect it to a speech synthesizer

Dissociation Theory

Theory proposed by Hilgard, we voluntarily divide our consciousness up (ice water experiment)

Cannon Bard Theory

Theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion

Social Learning Theory

Theory that combines observational learning and operant conditioning principles. The theory that we learn social behavior by observing & imitating and by being rewarded/punished

Connectionism

Theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons, many of which can work together to process a single memory

James Lange Theory

Theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion arousing stimuli

Information Processing Theory

Theory that says dreams are a way to deal with the stress of everyday life; we tend to dream more when we are more stressed

State Theory

Theory that says hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness with dramatic health benefits (especially for pain)

Role Theory

Theory that says hypnosis is not an altered state of consciousness. Different people have various state of hypnotic suggestibility. Social phenomenon where people want to believe. Works better one people with fancy lives

Social Influence Theory

Theory that says hypnotic subjects may simply be imaginative actors playing a social role. Hypnotic phenomena are extensions of everyday social behavior, not something unique to hypnosis. Social reward

Double-Blind

Theory that serious mental illness can be expressed in an individual who has been given mutually inconsistent messages, such as love and hate, typically from a parent during childhood

Frequency Theory

Theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch. The whole basilar membrane vibrates with the incoming sound waves, triggering neural impulses to the brain at the same rate of the sound wave.

Gate Control Theory of Pain

Theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological 'gate' that blocks pain signals (large fiber activity - acupuncture, or by information coming from the brain) or allows them to pass (small fiber activity) onto the brain. Theorized by Melzark & Wall

Type A Personality

Theory used to describe a person with a significant number of traits focused on urgency, impatience, success, and excessive competition

Type B Personality

Theory used to describe person with a significant number of traits focused on relaxation, lack of urgency, and normal or reduced competition

Psychodynamic Therapy

Therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance self-insight.

Behavior Therapy

Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors.

Cognitive Therapy

Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

Family Therapy

Therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

Endocrine System

They body's 'slow' chemical communication system; a system of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream. Controlled by the hypothalamus. Influences growth, reproduction, metabolism, and mood

Metacognition

Thinking about how you think

Critical Thinking

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions but rather examines assumptions, discern hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusion

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behavior followed by favorable consequences become more likely, & behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Chromosome

Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes. A child receives 23 from each parent. Errors during fertilization can result in the wrong number of chromosomes in cells of a baby and result in turner syndrome, klinefelter's syndrome, or down syndrome

Hans Seyle's General Adaptation Response

Three stage progression of physical changes that occur when an organism is exposed to intense and prolonged stress. The three stages are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

Eardrum

Tight membrane that vibrates with sound waves from the outer ear and auditory canal

Terminal Buttons

Tips at the end of axons that secrete neurotransmitters when stimulated by the action potential; also called axon terminals, end bulbs, or synaptic knobs

Free-based

To inject or smoke a drug

Association

To learn by looking for connections or combinations. Can feed into our habitual behavior

Introspection

To look at one's own inner thoughts and feelings

Sniff

To snort a drug

Angular Gyrus

Transforms representations into an auditory code

Lens

Transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus incoming light rays into an image on the retina. Loose speed to focus with age

Cornea

Transparent tissue where light enters; protects the eye and bends light to provide focus

Treatment

Treating a disorder in a psychiatric hospital

Psychotherapy

Treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

Triggered by light to decrease melatonin (in the morning) from the pineal gland & increase melatonin (at night). Pair of rice grain sized, 20,000 cell clusters in the hypothalamus

Fraternal Twins

Twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs. Genetically no closer than siblings, but share a fetal environment; also called dizygotic twins

Identical Twins

Two individuals who share all of the same genes/heredity because they develop from the same zygote; also called monozygotic twins

Cerebrum

Two large hemispheres that contribute 85% of the brain's weight, form specialized work teams that enable our perceiving, thinking, and speaking

Brelands

Two scientists that showed animals drift towards their biologically predisposed instinctive behaviors. Skinner's students who used their knowledge of operant conditioning to train thousands of animals needed to perform a certain way for entertainment

Disorganized Schizophrenia

Type of Schizophrenia characterized by disorganized speech/behavior, or flat/inappropriate emotions

Catatonic Schizophrenia

Type of Schizophrenia characterized by immobility (or excessive, purposeless movement), extreme negativism, and/or parrotlike repeating of another's speech or movements

Undifferentiated Schizophrenia

Type of Schizophrenia characterized by many and varied symptoms

Residual Schizophrenia

Type of Schizophrenia characterized by withdrawal after hallucinations and delusions have disappeared

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Type of Schizophrenia preoccupied with delusions or hallucinations, often with themes of persecution or grandiosity

Aversive Conditioning

Type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)

Manifest Content

Type of dream analysis that has actual events in one's dream. Remembered story line

Narcotics

Type of drugs that depress the central nervous system, relieve pain, and induce feelings of euphoria

Systematic Desensitization

Type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias.

Operant Conditioning

Type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. Learning is not passive and based on consequence. Pushing a vending machine button with the delivery of a candy bar

Classical Conditioning

Type of learning in which one learns to link 2 or more stimuli and anticipate events. Discovered by Pavlov. Passive learning

Escape

Type of negative reinforcement that takes away the aversive stimulus after it has already started

Avoidance

Type of negative reinforcement that takes away the aversive stimulus before it begins

Defensive Self-Esteem

Type of self-esteem that is fragile and egotistic

Secure Self-Esteem

Type of self-esteem that is less fragile and less dependent on external evaluation

Inhibitory Signal

Type of threshold that makes it less likely for the neuron to fire/trigger an action potential

Excitatory Signal

Type of threshold that makes it more likely for the neuron to fire/trigger an action potential

Morphine & Heroin

Types of Opiates

Automatic Processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information (space, time, and frequency) of well-learned information (word meanings)

Latent Content

Underlying but censored meaning of a dream; consists of unconscious drives and wishes that would be threatening if expressed directly

Intellectualization

Undertaking an academic, unemotional study of a topic

Discrimination

Unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members. Action based on prejudice

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Obsessions

Unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, images, and sensations.

Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology

Use psychological principles and research methods to solve problems in the workplace and improve the quality of life

Aserinsky

Used an EEG on his son while he slept and observed the fast, jumpy movements on the graph occur throughout the night as Armod (his son) dreamt

Boyer

Used magnetic pulses to shut down the brain's primary visual cortex and showed his patients a horizontal/vertical line or a red/green dot. They could not see it but guessed what it was correctly 75% of the time for orientation & 81% of the time for color of the dot

Pegword Mnemonics System

Uses association of terms to be remembered with a memorized scheme (One in a bun, two is...)

Method of Loci

Uses visualization with familiar objects on a path to recall information in a list

Test-Retest Reliability

Using the same test on two occasions to measure consistency

Down Syndrome

Usually with three copies of chromosome-21 in their cells, individuals typically have intellectual disability and have a round head, flat nasal bridge, protruding tongue, small round ears, a fold in the eyelid, and poor muscle tone and coordination.

Sulci

Valleys on the surface of the cortex, form convulsions

Prenatal viral infections (flu), oxygen deprivation during birth, overcrowded living situations

Variables that put people at higher risk for developing schizophrenia

Insight Therapies

Variety of therapies which aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client's awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

Layperson's Conceptions of Intelligence

Verbal, practical, and social intelligence

Sociocultural Approach

View of psychology that emphasizes the importance of social interaction, social learning, and a cultural perspective

Humanistic Approach

View of psychology that emphasizes unique qualities of humans. Especially freedom and potential for personal growth. Maslow & Rogers.

Reification

Viewing an abstract, immaterial concept as if it were a concrete thing

Developmental View

Viewpoint that emphasizes changes that occur across our lifespan (nature vs. nurture)

Spanos

Views DID to be merely role-playing

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people's traits (including their thinking) and their social context (situations); proposed by Albert Bandura

Garder

Views intelligence as multiple abilities that come in packages. Finds evidence in studies of people with diminished or exceptional abilities. Created 8 intelligences theory

Stage 4

Vital for restoring body's growth hormones and good health overall. Decrease with each 90 min cycle and increase REM sleep. Brain speeds up and goes through sleep stages backwards. Slow wave sleep

Instinct Theory

We are motivated by our inborn, automated behaviors. Focuses on genetically predisposed behavior; replaced by evolutionary perspective

Gestalt

We innately look at things in groups, not isolated elements. An organized whole; emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes (the whole may exceed the sum of its parts). Combines top-down and bottom-up processing and is based on our experiences and expectations

Yerkes Dodson Law

We perform best when moderately aroused, and efficiency of performance is usually lower when arousal is either low or high. New tasks are better at low arousal and mastered tasks at higher arousal.

Rosenhan

Went to hospital admissions office with seven others complaining of hearing voices and all eight normal people were misdiagnosed with disorders. Until being released an average of 19 days later, they exhibited no further symptoms

Synesthesia

When 1 sensation produces another (smelling colors)

Depolarize

When a neuron fires, the selectively permeable membrane allows positive sodium (Na+) to flow inside the membrane

Moro/Startle Reflex

When exposed to a loud noise or sudden drop, the neonate automatically arches their back, flings their limbs out, and quickly retracts them

Interference

When old and new information compete with each other

Hawthorn Effect

When people know that they are being observed, they change their behavior to what they think the observer expects or to make themselves look good

McGurk Effect

When we hear a speaker saying 1 syllable and hearing another, we perceive a 3rd syllable that blends both inputs. Discovered by McGurk & McDonald

Linguistic Determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think. Underestimates the extent to which thinking occurs without language

Sensation

Window into the world; how we take in information. The process by which our sensory receptors & nervous system receive & represent stimulus energies from our environment.

Postconventional Morality

With the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought, people may reach a third moral level in which actions are judged "right" because they flow from people's rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles

Internal Disorders (depression)

Women are more vulnerable than men to...

Mary Calkins

Women who James allowed in his class against Harvard University's president's word. All the men dropped out of the class and he tutored her privately. First female President of the APA. Denied her doctoral degree in Psychology even though she outscored her male classmates. Founded labs at Wellesley College and invited widely used technology for studying memory. Beginning of behaviorism

Belaev & Trut

Wondered how our ancestors domesticated dogs, replicated an experiment with fox, breed calmer and calmer foxes, and domesticated fox over many years and generations

Fissures

Wrinkles on the cerebral cortex that increase surface area

Incongruence

in Rogerian therapy, discrepancy between a client's real and ideal selves