AP Psychology (ALL!)

rTMS (Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

A biological treatment in which the patient is given repeated pulses right above the right eyebrow in order to stimulate the depressed left frontal lobe.

Psychosurgery

A biological treatment method involving the removal of brain tissue to treat certain organic issues. Because effects are irreversible, the practice is very limited.

(Gordon) Allport

A trait theorist that described personality in terms of fundamental traits, or characteristics patterns of behavior or dispositions to feel or act in a certain way. Identified three main types of traits as: cardinal, central, and secondary traits.

Somatosensory Cortex

Area at the front of the parietal lobe controlling bodily sensations such as touch, temperature, pressure, and pain. Electrical stimulation of a given area caused feeling of pressure on corresponding part of the body. The more sensitive the area of the body, the greater the portion of this region is dedicated to it.

Association Areas

Areas of the cerebral cortex that do not have specific sensory or motor functions but instead integrate, interpret, and act on information from the motor and sensory areas to perform higher mental functions such as thinking, planning, and communicating.

Sympathetic Nervous System

Arouses the body and PREPARES it for fight or flight response in stressful situations in determining how energy will be expended (ex. increase heart rate but stop digestion). A subdivision of the Autonomic ("AUTOMATIC") Nervous System.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Arranges biological and social needs in five ascending levels. Lower and more basic needs must be met, although not completely, before moving to the next need. Lacks evidence to support the theory and examples can disprove it. (ex. people may go on hunger strikes in order to gain political rights)

Mirror-Image Perception(s)

As we see our enemy as untrustworthy and evil intentioned, they see us in the same exact way.

Aptitude Tests

Assess a person's capacity to learn and predict future performance. (ex. the ACT and SAT that predict how well you will do in college)

Achievement Tests

Assess what a person has already learned. (ex. the AP psychology exam in May)

Cognitive Restructuring

Basis of cognitive-behavioral treatments that aims to turn faulty and disordered thoughts into more realistic thoughts that may allow the client to change their abnormal behavior.

Contingency Management

Basis of operant conditioning therapies that aim to change behavior by modifying its consequences.

Psychoanalytic Approach

Goal of treatment is to bring the patient's repressed feelings into conscious awareness, where they can deal with them. However, treatment does not offer a cure.

Cognitive Approach

Goal of treatment is to cognitively restructure by changing the thoughts and replacing irrational with more rational perceptions and changing more negative thinking to more positive ideas.

Humanistic Approach

Goal of treatment is to reduce the discrepancy between the ideal and real self and to boost self-fulfillment by helping people grow in self-acceptance and self-awareness.

Biological Approach

Goal of treatment is to restore mental balance through the use of antianxiety, antidepressant, and antipsychotic drugs, antimanic drugs, electroconvulsive shock treatment as well as psychosurgery.

Behavioral Approach

Goal of treatment is to unlearn maladaptive behavior and replace it with more appropriate and adaptive behavior.

Stressful Environments

Includes areas with higher temperatures, air pollution, and noise that have been found to increase aggressive tendencies. (ex. in Houston, murder rates skyrocket as the heat increases)

Stimulants

Includes drugs used to treat narcolepsy and ADHD.

Tranquilizers

Includes drugs used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder.

Antipsychotic (Neuroleptics)

Includes drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other disorders involving psychosis/psychotic behavior.

APA (American Psychological Association)

Includes guidelines detailing standards to promote best interest of client, guard against misuse, respect client's right to know results, and safeguard dignity.

Pons

Includes portion of reticular activating system or reticular formation critical for arousal and wakefulness; sends information to and from the medulla, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex.

Savant

Individuals otherwise considered mentally retarded that have one exceptional skill. (ex. a child who masters the piano at age 7 but struggles with other topics in school and in social interactions)

Grasping (Reflex)

Infant closes his or her fingers tightly around an object put in hand. Tested to confirm lack of brain damage.

Minority Influence

Influence of one person or a smaller portion of a group on the larger whole by holding on to unpopular beliefs.

Amygdala

Influences emotions such as aggression, fear, and self-protective behaviors. Almond-shaped neural cluster adjacent the hypothalamus.

Depression Cycle

Involves: 1) the negative stressful event 2) pessimistic explanatory style 3) hopeless depressed state 4) hampering of the way an individual thinks and acts, fueling rejection

Power Tests

Items of varying difficulty with adequate test period. Differences in score mainly based on the test taker's knowledge.

Functionalism

James Cattell and John Dewey are among the prominent founders of this school of psychology.

Dopamine

Lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with Parkinson's disease, while too much of it is associated with schizophrenia. It also plays a large part in drug addiction.

Serotonin

Lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with depression.

Speed Tests

Large number of relatively easy items in limited test period. Differences in score are mostly based on response speed.

Preconventional (Level)

Lawrence Kohlberg's first level of moral development when, at the preoperational stage of cognitive development, individuals do the right thing to: avoid punishment and obey authority (stage 1), and further self-interests and gain reward (stage 2). OVERALL, do the right thing based on rewards and punishments.

Conventional (Level)

Lawrence Kohlberg's second level of moral development when, at the concrete operational stage of cognitive development or formal operational stage for most teenagers and adults, individuals do the right thing to: conform and live up to the expectations of others (stage 3), and maintain law and order and do their duty (stage 4). OVERALL, perform actions to please others and do what is right by social laws.

Postconventional (Level)

Lawrence Kohlberg's third level of moral development reached only by some people in the formal operational stage in which they do the right thing to: abide by a social contract or promote society's welfare (stage 5), and promote social justice (stage 6). OVERALL, use higher reasoning to guide behavior and employ human rights when making decisions.

Crystallized Intelligence

Learned knowledge and skills such as vocabulary. Generally grows with age.

Crystallized Intelligence

Learned knowledge, skills, and wisdom, such as vocabulary, which tend to increase with age.

Social Motives

Learned needs, such as the need for achievement and the need for affiliation, that energize behavior acquired as part of growing up in a particular society or culture.

Latent Learning

Learning in the absence of rewards. (ex. Tolman's experiments, which showed that mice given the ability to wander around a maze without a goal or reinforcement were able to solve the maze later far faster than other mice not given the opportunity to wander, showing that they were able to learn the structure of the maze without being reinforced)

Aversive Conditioning

Learning involving an unpleasant or harmful stimulus (UCS) or reinforcer (either positive or negative punishment).

Interference

Learning some items prevents retrieving others, especially when the items are similar.

Observational (Vicarious) Learning

Learning that occurs by watching the behavior of others AND seeing them rewarded, which motivates us to learn and follow their model. Also applies on the other hand, for if we see the behavior of another organism punished, we will refrain from doing that behavior. Steps include attention, remembering, reproduction, and motivation.

Operant Conditioning

Learning that occurs when an active learner performs certain voluntary behavior, and the consequences of the behavior, pleasant or unpleasant, determine the likelihood of its reoccurrence. B.F. Skinner's interpretation of Thorndike's instrumental learning.

Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning

Learning which takes place when two or more stimuli are presented together; an unconditioned stimulus is paired repeatedly with a neutral stimulus until it acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response. The subject learns to give a response it already knows to a new stimulus. Applications include overcoming fears, increasing or decreasing attraction to people or products, etc.

Unconscious (subconscious)

Level of consciousness that includes often unacceptable feelings, wishes, and thoughts not directly available to conscious awareness. Processes information of which you are unaware, and operates whenever you feel or act without being aware of what's influencing you.

Preconscious

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

Signal Detection Theory

Maintains that absolute threshold does not exist because it varies so largely with factors such as fatigue, attention, expectations, motivation, emotional distress, and the individual person. (ex. more likely to hear a phone call amidst background noise when expected one you will be motivated to answer)

Constructionist Theory

Maintains that we learn through experience to convert sensations into accurate perceptions.

Psychoanalysts

May or may not be psychiatrists, but follow the teaching of Freud and practice psychodynamic therapies.

Telegraphic Speech

Meaningful two-word sentences, usually a noun and a verb, and usually in the correct order uttered by 2-year-olds. (ex. "eat cookie!")

Trace Conditioning

NS is presented and then disappears before the UCS appears.

Delayed Conditioning

NS is presented just before the UCS, with a brief overlap between the two. The most effective method, which is best when allowing half a second between the NS and UCS.

Descriptive Statistics

Numbers that summarize a set of research data obtained from a sample. Uses the data to provide descriptions of the population, either through numerical calculations or graphs or tables.

Interposition (or Overlap)

Objects that block other objects are perceived as closer.

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, deeming them invalid.

Surveys (and Tests)

Obtain large samples of self-reported abilities, beliefs, or behaviors at a specific time and place, usually by questioning a representative random sample of people.

Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement

Occasional reinforcement of a particular behavior used after acquisition to make the response more resistant to extinction. This method maintains behavior better than continuous reinforcement.

Identification

Occurs at the end of the phallic stage when the Oedipus and Electra Complexes are resolved and the child copes with threatening feelings by repressing them and identifying with the "rival" (same sex) parent. Their superego is strengthened by incorporating their parent's values.

Neuroticism

One of Eysenck's dimensions of personality that measures our level of instability - how moody, anxious, and unreliable we are - as opposed to stability - how calm, even-tempered, and reliable we are.

Psychoticism

One of Eysenck's dimensions of personality that measures our level of tough-mindedness - how hostile, ruthless, and intensive we are - as opposed to tender-mindedness - how friendly, empathetic, and cooperative we are.

Extroversion

One of Eysenck's dimensions of personality that measures our sociability and tendency to pay attention to the external environment, as opposed to our private mental experiences.

Existential

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences that involves exhibiting the proclivity to pose and ponder questions about life, death, and ultimate reality.

Intrapersonal

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences that involves having an understanding of yourself, knowing who you are, etc.

Naturalist

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences that involves the ability to discriminate among living things as well as sensitivity to other features of the natural world.

Interpersonal

One of Gardner's multiple intelligences that involves the ability to understand other people.

Analytical (Intelligence)

One of the intelligences in Sternberg's triarchic theory that can be assesses by intelligence tests and would be referred to as "school smarts."

Practical (Intelligence)

One of the intelligences in Sternberg's triarchic theory that involves the intelligence required for everyday tasks and would otherwise be referred to as "street smarts."

Creative (Intelligence)

One of the intelligences in Sternberg's triarchic theory that involves the intelligence that allows us to adapt to new situations and generate ideas never thought of before.

(William) James

One of the main founders of the School of Functionalism who believed that structuralists were asking the wrong questions and that humans are more actively involved in processing their sensations and actions. Wrote "Principles of Psychology."

Self-Esteem

One part of our self-concept or how we evaluate ourselves and our worth as a person. Can be raised by highlighting our strengths, and is beneficial in reducing sleepless nights, conforming easily, shyness and loneliness, and providing more persistence in the face of challenging tasks.

Holophrase

One-word utterances that convey meaning; characteristic of a 1-year-old during the one-word phase. (ex. "go!")

Self-Serving Bias

Our readiness to perceive ourselves favorably. Involves people taking more responsibility for good deeds than for poor actions and mistakes, and most people seeing themselves as above average.

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

Our tendency to judge various stimuli relative to ones we have previously experienced. Essentially, we adjust our neutral levels and then notice and react to variations up or down from these levels. (ex. after winning the lottery and living a rich lifestyle, you become accustomed to the happiness and eventually need more stimulation to achieve happiness)

Amygdala

Physical aspect of brain that encodes the emotional aspects of memories and the location at which emotional memories are strengthened. (memories with emotional ties are remembered better)

Prefrontal Cortex

Physical aspect of the brain involved in memory of the sequence of events, but not the events themselves.

Hippocampus

Physical aspect of the brain involved in the initial encoding and transferring of information into the long term memory.

Context-Dependent Memory (Context Effects)

Physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the information and becomes part of the memory trace. Therefore, retrieval is stronger in the same setting in which encoding takes place. (ex. scuba divers recall more words learned underwater when underwater)

Sensorimotor Stage

Piaget's first stage (0-2 years) of cognitive development during which the infant experiences the world through their five senses and action patterns (grasping, looking, touching, mouthing). The infant experiences STRANGER ANXIETY and progresses from reflexes to OBJECT PERMANENCE and symbolic thinking.

Formal Operational Stage

Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development (12+ years) during which the child begins to think logically about abstract concepts and engages in hypothetical thinking. Person obtains ABSTRACT LOGIC and potential for mature MORAL REASONING.

Preoperational Stage

Piaget's second stage of cognitive development (2-7 years) during which the child represents and manipulates objects with symbols (language) and images and is more intuitive than logical. The child is EGOCENTRIC and experiences PRETEND PLAY, LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT, and lack of the concept of conservation.

Concrete Operational Stage

Piaget's third stage of cognitive development (7-11 years) during which the child develops simple logic, thinks logically about concrete events, and grasps analogies and performs arithmetic operations. The child masters CONSERVATION concepts and realizes MATHEMATICAL TRANSFORMATION (ex. if 8+4=12, then 12-4=8)

Norms

Rules for socially accepted and expected behavior. (ex. personal space, expression of emotion, pace of life, etc.)

Syntax

Rules that are used to order words into grammatically sensible sentences. (ex. in English, adjectives come before nouns such as in "white house")

Plateau

SECOND stage of the Sexual Response Cycle in which excitement PEAKS and causes increased heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.

Amphetamines

STIMULANTS that suppress appetite, increase concentration and reduce fatigue, and increase anxiety and irritability. Tolerance grows quickly, requiring more and more of the drug to maintain its effects.

Experiment

STRENGTH: Can establish cause and effect relationship between the IV and the DV. WEAKNESS: Ability to generalize to real-world behavior can be limited.

Quasi-Experiment(s)

STRENGTH: Can provide strong evidence suggesting cause and effect relationships and allow research to be conducted on topics and in settings otherwise impossible. WEAKNESS: Lack of random assignment can weaken conclusions.

Surveys (and Tests)

STRENGTH: Ease of administration, scoring, and statistical analysis and allows for the acquisition of a large amount of information. WEAKNESS: Distorted results because of sampling error, poorly phrased questions, and response alteration and bias.

Case Studies

STRENGTH: Provide detailed descriptive data and analyses of new, complex, or rare phenomena and provide valuable information as testing ground for new treatment. WEAKNESS: May not be representative of phenomena and does not allow generalization to the entire population.

Naturalistic Observation

STRENGTH: Provides descriptive data about behavior with wide applicability and is valuable when other experimental methods are disruptive and misleading. WEAKNESS: Loss of experimental control and impact of the Hawthorne Effect (people act differently or in a certain expected way when under observation).

Depressive Disorders

Affective disorders characterized by extremely sad mood that affects normal perception, thought, and behavior.

Spontaneous Recovery

After extinction, and without training, the previous CS suddenly elicits the CR again temporarily. (ex. after conditioned response of salivating at the sound of the bell has gone extinct, you wait a day and suddenly response reappears temporarily)

Insecure Attachment

After her absence, the baby is either AVOIDANT, does not cry and avoids the mother upon returning, or is AMBIVALENT, and cries and returns angrily to the mother when she comes back. This behavior is due to the child's insecurity in relation to the mother and the unsureness of whether she will leave them again and/or return if she does so. These babies tend to become socially challenged children.

Scatterplot

The way in which correlations are graphed, comprised of points generated by values of the two variables. The slope of the points depicts the direction and strength of the relationship.

Association

The way in which we learn, by which our minds naturally connect events that occur in sequence.

Social Cognition

The way people gather, use, and interpret information about others and their social world. Explains why everyone has a different perception of reality.

Absolute Threshold

The weakest level of a stimulus that can be correctly detected at least 50% of the time. (ex. for sight, a candle flame at 30 miles on a dark, clear night)

Dream Theories

Theories attempting to explain why dreams take place, which include: Freud's wish-fulfillment theory, help us sort out the day's events and consolidate our memories (information processing), develop and preserve neural pathways (physiological function), activation-synthesis theory, and reflect cognitive development like knowledge and understanding (cognitive theory).

Sleep Theories

Theories attempting to explain why humans and animals sleep, which include: keeping us from the danger of predators that loom in the darkness, restoring and repairing brain tissue, restoring and rebuilding memories, and growing as the pituitary gland secretes growth hormones.

Connectionism

Theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons, many of which can work together to process a single memory. Changes in the strength of these connections is the basis of memory and its state.

Startle (Reflex)

When exposed to a loud noise or sudden drop, the neonate automatically arches his or her back, flings his or her limbs out, and quickly retracts them. Tested to confirm lack of brain damage, and is advantageous to make themselves large for the mother to see and protect them, after which they contract to protect themselves.

Sensory Interaction

When one sense affects another sense. (ex. the terrible smell of a food or its hideous appearance makes it taste terrible)

Stream of Consciousness (Spread of Activation)

When one thought, memory, or idea leads to another, which in turn leads to another, and so on.

Cognitive Dissonance (Theory)

When people become aware of the inconsistencies between their attitudes and behavior, they become anxious and are motivated to make them consistent. A large factor in changing one's attitude developed by LEON FESTINGER. (ex. when a smoker must acknowledge they are a smoker but also know that smoking is bad for them, they are motivated to quit smoking or change their attitude accordingly)

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.

Sensory Adaptation

When stimulation is unchanging, you become less sensitive to the stimulus. This permits you to focus your attention on informative changes in your environment without being distracted by irrelevant data such as odors or background noises, because they often go unchanged. (ex. no longer feeling your clothes after wearing them all day)

Oedipus Complex

When the boy has unconscious desire for mother and is jealous and has hatred for the father. Fears punishment (castration anxiety) if father discovers these desires.

Electra Complex

When the girl has unconscious desire for father and is jealous and has hatred for the mother. The counterpart of the Oedipus Complex added by Karen Horney and Freud's daughter, Anna.

Conception

When the male sperm fertilizes the female egg, at which the egg blocks all other sperm. Women are born with all of the eggs they will ever have, while men begin producing sperm at puberty continue to do so 24/7 for the rest of their life.

Polarization

When the neuron is in a resting state and the positive (outside) and negative (inside) charges are kept separate.

Threshold

When there are more excitatory messages than inhibitory messages at the dendrites, the cell body exceeds this and creates an electrical impulse (being told to fire and does so in response).

Functional Fixedness

When we are not able to recognize novel uses from an object because we are so familiar with its common use. (ex. we don't realized that we can use a paperclip to pick a lock, instead we only see it as a tool for paper clipping)

Beta Waves

When you are awake, an EEG displays these waves when you are alert. Displayed during REM sleep.

Alpha Waves

When you are awake, an EEG displays these waves when you are relaxed.

REM Rebound

When you get little or no sleep one night, you spend more of your sleep time the next night in REM sleep.

Overjustification Effect

Where promising a reward for doing something we already like to do results in us seeing the reward as the motivation for performing the task. When the reward is taken away, the behavior tends to disappear. Essentially, intrinsic motivation becomes extrinsic.

Correlation Research

Which method of research does not allow researchers to draw conclusions regarding cause-and-effect relationships?

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

Which therapy was developed by Albert Ellis?

Cognitive (Approach)

Wilhelm Wundt and the structuralists would most likely identify with the practices of this psychological perspective.

Behavioral (Approach)

William James and the functionalists would most likely identify with the practices of this psychological perspective.

Negative Punishment (Omission Training)

Withdrawing a desirable stimulus to decrease the probability a behavior will occur again (ex. revoking driver's license, time-out, etc.)

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS or US)

Without conscious thought, or automatically, brings about the unconditioned response. A.K.A. what the organism responds to NATURALLY.

Reticular Formation

Works with the thalamus and amygdala to monitor incoming information. If a threat is detected, it sets the response in motion and arouses your body into action. (ex. after amygdala hears loud noise in the night, kicks your body into action to respond appropriately)

Psychoanalytical Perspective

Young girls learn to act feminine from their mothers while young boys learn masculinity from their fathers at about age 5.

Next-in-Line Effect

Your recall is better for what other people say but poor for the person that speaks just before you in line. (ex. popcorn reading in class - you listen to everyone but panic and don't pay attention to the person before you)

Generalized Reinforcer

Secondary reinforcer associated with a number of different primary reinforcers. For example, money can be exchanged for a nearly infinite variety of things, such as food and drink.

Monism

Seeing mind and body as two different aspects of the same thing (form one whole). Proposed first by Aristotle and believed by John Locke.

Dualism

Seeing mind and body as two different things that interact (two separate things). Proposed by Hippocrates and believed by Plato and Descartes.

Stratified Random Sample

Selection in which the population is divided into relevant subcategories (ex. age, occupation, etc.) and a random sample is taken from each subcategory.

Stomach Contractions (Pangs)

Send signals to the brain which make us aware of hunger.

Gender Roles

Sets of expectations that prescribe how males and females should act, think, and feel. Varies based on culture and time. (ex. men shouldn't be at all feminine, shouldn't show much emotion, etc.)

Primary Mental Abilities

Seven distinct intelligence factors proposed by THURSTONE that include: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory.

Distributed Practice

Spreading out of the memorization of information or the learning of skills over several sessions typically produces better retrieval than massed practice (cramming).

Gestalt

Studies how the mind organizes sensations into perceptions of meaningful patterns or forms. These psychologists concluded that in perception, the whole is different from, and can be greater than, the sum of its parts. They believed that forms are perceived not as combinations of features, but as wholes.

Personality (Psychologists)

Study aspects of the individual such as traits, attitudes, and goals.

Positive (Psychologists)

Study human functioning with the goal of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities thrive.

Developmental Psychology

Study of physical, intellectual, social, and moral changes across the life span from conception to death.

Developmental (Psychologists)

Study physical, cognitive, and social change throughout a life span.

Cognitive (Psychologists)

Study the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Within-Subjects Design

Subjects act as their own control. For example, the behavior of a subject is measured before and after a given drug or treatment is administered.

Behaviorists

Such as Watson an Pavlov, which underestimated the importance of cognitive processes and the biological constraints upon learning.

Narcolepsy

Sudden and uncontrollable lapses into sleep, often directly to REM sleep. Victims often benefit from naps or drug therapy with stimulants and antidepressants.

Ethical Guidelines

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

(Pavlov's) Contiguity Theory

Suggests that classical conditioning is based on the association in time of the CS prior to the UCS. A behaviorist belief.

Learning (Behavioral) Perspective

Suggests that fear conditioning leads to anxiety, which involves associating anxiety with a certain stimulus that gets reinforced. Also states that observational learning can cause fear, such as when a monkey develops fear by watching another monkey react to something with fear.

Biological Perspective

Suggests that natural selection has led our ancestors to learn fears of such harmful things as snakes and spiders, which has ultimately allowed the species to survive over time. Also, twin studies show that genes may contribute to fears, as twins are more likely to share phobias.

Instinct Theory

Suggests that physical and mental instincts such as curiosity and fearfulness cause us to act. Questioned because instincts are not as common with humans as they are with other animals, and those that we are born with are primarily grown out of .

Place Theory

Suggests that sound frequencies stimulate the basilar membrane at specific places which causes perception of pitch. High frequencies produce waves that peak near the close end and are interpreted as high-pitched, while low-frequency waves travel farther and peak at the far end, being interpreted as low-pitched sounds. Accounts well for high-pitched sounds.

(Rescorla's) Contingency Model

Suggests that the key to classical conditioning is how well the CS predicts the appearance of the UCS. In other words, the subject being conditioned must be able to identify a pattern in the correlation between the CS and UCS, and therefore must think, in order for a response to be generated. (ex. A (bell ringing) is contingent upon B (food being given) because every time A (the bell rings) occurs, B (food is given) also occurs) A cognitivist belief.

Introspection

Systematic "inward looking" in which a subject is trained to objectively analyze their immediate conscious experiences of sensation. First practiced by Wilhelm Wundt of the School of Structuralism.

Cognitive Illusion

Systematic way of thinking that is responsible for an error in judgement.

Token Economy

System in which positive behaviors are rewarded by secondary reinforcers that can be exchanged for other rewards. Generally used to encourage socially acceptable behavior and discourage behavior that is not, usually within mental institutions.

Hierarchies

Systems in which concepts are arranged from more general to more specific classes.

Anchoring Effect

Tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point. (ex. making higher estimations when asked if a quantity is higher or lower than a higher number)

Halo Effect

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

Representativeness Heuristic

Tendency to judge the likelihood of things according to how well they relate to or represent a prototype. (ex. thinking a professor loves math more than a high school student based on his job and stereotype)

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to notice or seek information that already supports our preconceptions and ignore information that refutes our ideas.

Stroboscopic Motion

Tendency to perceive motion in a series of slightly varied still images flashed in rapid succession. (ex. movies)

Actor-Observer Bias

Tendency to attribute our behaviors to situational factors and the behavior of others to dispositional factors.

Mood-Congruent Memory (Mood Congruence)

Tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood. (ex. remember things from happy times when we are happy)

State-Dependent Memory (Effect)

Tendency to recall information better when in the same internal state as when the information was encoded.

Babinski Reflex

The automatic response of a baby to fan their toes and fingers when the sole of their foot or the palm of their hand is stroked.

Sucking (Reflex)

The automatic response of drawing in anything at the mouth. Advantageous because newborn babies cannot feed themselves and therefore must take advantage of everything presented to them.

Mental Age

The average age of individuals who achieve a certain level of performance. What Binet and Simon first set out to find with a standardized test.

Neuron

The basic unit of structure and function of your nervous system. These perform three major functions: receive information, process it, and transmit it to the rest of your body.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The behavior or mental process that is measured in an experiment or quasi-experiment (the effect).

(John B.) Watson

The behaviorist that ushered in the era of behaviorism by writing three sentences that became known as the "behaviorist manifesto:" 1. Psychology content should be behavior (not cognition or anything internal) 2. It's method should be objective rather than introspective (more scientific rather than subjective "inward looking") 3. Goal should be "prediction and control of behavior" rather than understanding mental events (only outward behavior matters; nothing internal)

Artificialism

The belief of a preoperational child that all objects are made by people.

Ethnocentrism

The belief that our culture or social group is superior to others.

Just-World Phenomenon

The belief that people get what they deserve based on the fact that the world is just and fair. A part of the cognitive basis of prejudice.

Belief Perseverance

The tendency to hold onto a belief after the basis for the belief is discredited. (ex. despite scientific evidence and the word of an expert, you still hold onto your belief that grass is purple)

Social Impairment

The tendency to perform worse due to the presence of a crowd or other people.

Organizational Psychology

The subfield of industrial-organizational psychology that involves studying how work environments and management styles influences worker motivation, satisfaction, and productivity.

Sample

The subgroup of the population that participates in the study. Should be acquired randomly in order for results to be applicable to the entire population.

Experimental Group

The subgroup of the sample that receives the treatment or independent variable.

Insight

The sudden appearance (often creative) or awareness of a solution to a problem. However, previous experience and initial trial-and-error is often needed.

Insight

The sudden appearance of an answer or solution to a problem.

Meta-Analysis

The systematic statistical method of synthesizing the results of numerous research studies dealing with the same variables.

Belief Bias

The tendency for our preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, making illogical conclusions seem valid or logical conclusions seem invalid.

Foot-in-the-Door (Technique)

The tendency for people who agree to a small request to eventually comply with a large one. (ex. when your friend first asks you for a small amount of money and you comply, a larger amount of money later on doesn't seem so significant)

Body Image

The tendency of a certain culture or environment to over-emphasize a certain body shape, size, or weight. The greater the emphasis, the higher the rates of eating disorders.

Social Loafing

The tendency of individuals to put less effort into group projects than when they are individually accountable. (ex. an individual exerts more pulling force when playing tug of war in a group than when they are playing alone)

(Baddeley's) Working Memory

Acts as an active workspace in which information is retrieved, manipulated, and maintained through rehearsal. Takes place of the STM, and proposes that a "central executive" containing auditory and and visual processing makes decisions and reasons. Essentially allows us to briefly maintain information in an active state so that we can do something with the information.

(Robert) Rescorla

Added cognition to the behavioral standpoint that the conditioned behaviors of various animals could be reduced to mindless mechanisms by emphasizing the presence of thinking necessary to connect the UCS and NS in order to generate to CR to the CS.

Dissociative Fugue

Memory loss relating to flight after which someone establishes a new identity and maintains amnesia for the previous one. Usually caused by abundant stress or imminent danger.

Sensory Memory

Memory system that holds external events from the senses for up to a few seconds. Allows us to take in all of the information from our environment and then decide what is important for us to pay attention to. If the information is not passed on, it is lost (decay). (ex. sparkler images in the air (metaphor))

Implicit Memory (Non-Declarative)

Memory that you are not consciously aware of, but that still affect your behavior. Includes procedural (memories of perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills) and other memories. (ex. tying your shoes, not liking someone because of first time you met someone, brushing your teeth, etc.)

Mnemonic Devices

Memory tricks or strategies to make information easier to remember by using vivid imagery.

Concepts

Mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. Can be developed based on a definition (ex. triangles have three sides) or a prototype (ex. all birds are like robins). (ex. the common features of chairs define them as a group)

Gender Schema

Mental set of what society considers appropriate behavior for each of the sexes.

Defense Mechanisms

Methods used by the ego to unconsciously protect itself against anxiety caused by the conflict between the id's demands and the superego's constraints. Can become unhealthy when these cause self-defeating behavior.

Difference Threshold (or Just Noticeable Difference)

Minimum difference required between two stimuli for a person to be able to detect the difference at least 50% of the time. (ex. how much must you change the volume of the music to hear a difference)

Thalamus

Immediately after pain is experienced, the message is sent to this location in the brain.

Aphasia

Impairment of the ability to understand or use language.

Cognitive Approach

Believes that the cause of abnormal behavior is irrational and faulty thought processes and perceptions.

Cerebellum

Physical aspect of brain involved in memories involving movement.

Dual Processing

Processing information on conscious and unconscious levels at the same time.

Behavioral Approach

Believes that the cause of abnormal behavior is learned maladaptive behavior through faulty contingencies of reinforcement.

Explicit/Declarative Memory

(two answers) Memory of facts and experiences that one consciously knows and can verbalize. Subdivided into SEMANTIC memory, memory of general knowledge or objective facts, and EPISODIC memory, memory of personally experienced events. (ex. remembering information when taking a test)

Humanistic Approach (Carl Rogers)

Believes that the cause of abnormal behavior is poor self-concept as a result of conditions of worth.

Pons

Deals with motor messages especially involved with sleep and breathing. The bridge between the brain and the brainstem.

(Ivan) Pavlov

A behaviorist known for classical conditioning of dogs. However, his concept of classical conditioning was criticized because it did not take into account voluntary human behavior.

(John) Watson

A behaviorist known for experiments in classical aversive conditioning.

(B.F.) Skinner

A behaviorist known for experiments in operant conditioning.

Psychopharmacotherapy

A biological treatment based on the use of psychotropic and psychoactive drugs to treat mental disorders, which include anxiolytics, antidepressants, stimulants, and neuroleptics.

Sleep Cycle

A 90-minute cycle consisting of sleep stages 1-4 and then REM sleep after returning through stages 3 and 2. Most people experience 4-6 of these throughout the night, during which stage 4 sleep decreases and no longer occurs while the duration of REM sleep increases.

Counterconditioning

A CLASSICAL CONDITIONING method of behavior therapy that involves conditioning new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors.

Exposure Therapy

A CLASSICAL CONDITIONING method of behavior therapy that involves exposing patients to things that they fear and avoid, and through repeated exposures their anxiety is lessened because they habituate to the things feared.

Alcohol

A DEPRESSANT drug that, in low doses, causes relaxation by slowing the sympathetic nervous system, and in high doses causes slurred speech, slower reactions, and lessened performance in skilled activities. Also causes attention on immediate situation and disrupts processing recent events into long-term memory.

Zygote

A FERTILIZED OVUM with the genetic instructions for a new individual, normally contained within 46 chromosomes. Fewer that 1/2 survive this STAGE, which consists of the first two weeks after conception.

(Philippe) Pinel

A French physician who was instrumental in the development of a more humane psychological approach to the custody and care of psychiatric patients, referred to today as moral therapy.

(Alfred) Binet

A French psychologist that, along with his colleague Theodore Simon, was commissioned by the French government to design the first standardized test in order to identify children that would have problems in school. Set out to find children's MENTAL AGE and improve the French educational system (NOT label children).

(Alfred) Adler

A Neo-Freudian ("new Freudian") that also believed in childhood tensions but saw them as social in nature and not sexual. Saw it that children struggle with inferiority complexes during growth and strive for superiority and power.

(Karen) Horney

A Neo-Freudian ("new Freudian") that attacked Freud's male bias and suggested the male counterpart for penis envy (which she found ridiculous) is womb envy, and that women do not have weak superegos as Freud accused them of. Also believed in social aspects of childhood growth and believed children were trying to overcome a sense of helplessness.

(Carl) Jung

A Neo-Freudian ("new Freudian") that believed in the collective unconscious that contains a common reservoir of images derived from our species' past called archetypes.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A STIMULANT and mild hallucinogen that increases empathy and peacefulness and causes the user to feel relaxed and calm despite seeming to have an unending supply of energy. With prolonged physical activity, causes severe risks of overheating and increased blood pressure.

Heroin

A STIMULANT that causes the user to get a blissful pleasure for about 3-5 hours, followed by craving for another fix, the need for larger doses, and physical withdrawal symptoms.

Caffeine (and Nicotine)

A STIMULANT that increases heart and breathing rates, and other autonomic functions to provide energy. Increases attentiveness and improves mood by mimicking the neurotransmitter adenosine. Addictive and can cause physical withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, drowsiness, irritation, etc.

Social Skills Training

A behavior therapy to improve interpersonal skills that involves modeling, behavioral rehearsal, and shaping.

ECT (Electroconvulsive Shock Treatment)

A biological treatment used as a last resort when drugs are not effective to treat severe depression. Administered humanely while patient is under anesthetics, and shocks are repeated many times to restore a condition of health to the depressed and/or suicidal patient. Occasionally, the treatment causes minor memory less following the operation.

Similarity

A cause of attraction that involves having similar views between individuals causing the bond of attraction to strengthen.

Matching Hypothesis

A cause of attraction which states that people tend to date, marry, or form other committed relationships with people that are similar to them in physical attractiveness.

Retrieval Failure

A cause of forgetting which states that although the information is retained in the memory store, but cannot be accessed. (ex. tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon)

Storage Decay

A cause of forgetting which states that poor durability of stored memories leads to their decay. Believed to be due to the gradual fading of the memory trace in the brain (neural synaptic connections) that aren't as strong as they once were. Shown in Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve.

Encoding Failure

A cause of forgetting which states that we cannot remember what we did not originally encode. If we aren't paying attention to entering the information into our long-term memory in the first place, we cannot retrieve it later.

Stimulus

A change in the environment that can be detected by sensory receptors.

Stimulus

A change in the environment that elicits (brings about) a response.

Obedience

A change of behavior in response to the command of a person in higher authority. On the high extreme of the of the social influence continuum. Investigated in Stanley Milgram's shock experiment. (ex. a dog's response to its owner)

Secondary Trait

A characteristic apparent in only certain situations. Our unique pattern of traits determines our behavior. (ex. being uncomfortable in confined spaces, liking Chinese food, etc.) Identified by Gordon Allport.

Psychoactive Drug

A chemical that can pass through the blood-brain barrier (small enough to do so) to alter perception and mood and affect consciousness. Can produce a wide range of effects from mild relaxation to increased alertness and vivid hallucination.

Gender Consistency

A child's understanding that his or her own sex won't change even if he or she acts like the opposite sex.

Gender Stability

A child's understanding that sex identity is stable over time.

Dependent

A chronic fearfulness/avoidant personality disorder involving excessively lacking in self-confidence; subordinates own needs; allows others to make all decisions (more common in females).

Avoidant

A chronic fearfulness/avoidant personality disorder involving excessively sensitive to potential rejection, humiliation; desires acceptance but is socially withdrawn.

Obsessive-Compulsive

A chronic fearfulness/avoidant personality disorder involving usually preoccupied with rules, schedules, details; extremely conventional; serious; emotionally insensitive.

Aversive Conditioning

A classical conditioning method of behavior therapy and a form of counterconditioning by which the client is trained to associate physical or physiological pain with behaviors, thoughts, or situations they want to stop or avoid. (ex. putting Antabuse in an alcoholic's drink that gives them nausea upon drinking, so that they associate the drink with the pain and quit the behavior)

Systematic Desensitization

A classical conditioning method of behavior therapy and a form of exposure therapy that involves conditioning the crucial conditioned stimulus to elicit the new conditioned response (fear conditioned to bring relaxation). The client is taught progressive relaxation, forms an anxiety hierarchy, and finally learns to associate each of their fears with relaxation until they no longer elicit fear.

Attachment

A close emotional bond or relationship between the infant and a particular individual, the primary caregiver that is usually the mother.

FAS (Fetal Alcohol Syndrome)

A cluster of abnormalities that occurs in babies of mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy, which includes low intelligence, small head with flat face, misshapen eyes, flat nose, and thin upper lip, as well as some degree of slowed intellectual impairment. The leading cause of developmental disorders in the United States.

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)

A cognitive-behavioral therapy developed by ALBERT ELLIS and based on the idea that anxiety, guilt, depression, and other issues are caused by self-defeating thoughts and aims to address these thoughts by confronting the ABCs of treatment: the client's Actions, their Beliefs about the actions, and the Consequences.

(Jean) Piaget

A cognitivist that studied cognitive development in children.

Social Phobia

A phobia involving the fear and embarrassment in dealing and interacting with others. Afraid of the scrutiny of others.

Sleep

A complex combination of states of consciousness, each with its own level of consciousness, awareness, responsiveness, and physiological arousal. During this, we synthesize proteins and consolidate memories from the preceding day.

Problem-Focused Coping

A coping strategy in which stress is reduced by changing events that can cause stress or by changing how we react to stress. (ex. your car breaks down, and you simply buy a new car to address the problem)

Emotion-Focused Coping

A coping strategy in which we cannot change the situation, so we instead respond by attending to our own emotional needs. (ex. breaking up with girlfriend and seeking support from family and friends)

(L.L.) Thurstone

A critic of Charles Spearman and his proposal of the g-factor of general intelligence that instead analyzed subjects and their intelligence based on seven clusters known as PRIMARY MENTAL ABILITIES. However, his work in the end essentially proved Spearman's proposal by showing that excelling in one area is associated with excelling in all of them.

Circadian Rhythm

A cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep, rise, eat, etc. - regulating many physiological processes.

Repression

A defense mechanism and the tendency to forget unpleasant or traumatic memories hidden in the unconscious mind. A FREUDIAN theory and a form of motivated forgetting. Believed that these memories could be retrieved with effort. A very debated topic!

Reaction Formation

A defense mechanism involving acting in a manner exactly opposite of our true feelings in order to make the acceptable. (ex. you hate a teacher, but instead pretend you love them and tell them about how much you appreciate their work)

Projection

A defense mechanism involving attributing our own undesirable thoughts, feelings, or actions to others. (ex. wanting to break up with partner and accuse them of wanting to break up with you)

Rationalization

A defense mechanism involving offering socially acceptable reasons for our inappropriate behavior; making unconscious excuses. (ex. justifying going to the movies and not studying for a test by saying that you would have failed the test anyways.

Sublimation

A defense mechanism involving redirecting unacceptable sexual or aggressive impulses into more socially acceptable behaviors. (ex. you like to hit things/people, so you take up boxing as a hobby)

Denial

A defense mechanism involving refusing to perceive reality to protect ourselves from it. (ex. getting rejected from a college but still telling everyone that you're going their)

Regression

A defense mechanism involving retreating to an earlier level of development (level of a child) in order to avoid adult issues.

Displacement

A defense mechanism involving shifting unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions from a more threatening person or object to another less threatening person or object. (ex. taking your anger out on the family dog)

Operational Definition

A description of the specific procedure used to determine the presence of a variable/the validity of the hypothesis. Essentially defines how certain variables are being measured (ex. the dependent variable of alertness will be measured via a vision and hearing exam).

Intrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform an activity for its own sake or for our own desire because we genuinely enjoy the activity and find it personally satisfying. (ex. I am motivated to do well in school because I enjoy learning and studying)

Extrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform an activity to obtain a concrete, tangible reward such as money, applause, or another outside reward. (ex. I am motivated to do well in school in order to get good grades and earn a living in the future)

ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

A developmental disability characterized by the inability to focus attention, distractibility, extreme difficulty in remaining active for any period, and significant impatience (impulsivity). Easily distracted, have difficulty focusing on one thing, learning something new, remembering details, etc. Includes 3 subtypes: predominantly hyperactive-impulsive, predominantly inattentive, and combined hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive.

Paranoid (Personality Disorder)

A disorder involved in schizophrenia characterized by individuals who display pervasive distrust and suspiciousness, and display Cluster A (odd or eccentric) behavior. Usually involves beliefs that others are exploiting them, accusing friends and associates of being untrustworthy, thinking there is hidden meaning in every remark, etc.

Histrionic

A dramatic/emotionally problematic personality disorder involving excessively dramatic; seeking attention and tending to overreact; egocentric (more common in females).

Narcissistic

A dramatic/emotionally problematic personality disorder involving unrealistically self-important; manipulative; lacking empathy; expects special treatment; can't take criticism (more common in males).

Activation-Synthesis Theory

A dream theory stating that, during a dream, the pons generates bursts of action potentials to the forebrain (activation) and the dreamer tries to make sense of the stimulation by creating a story line (synthesis). Implies that the origin of dreams in physiological and simply the brain's interpretation of its own activity.

Alzheimer's Disease

A fatal degenerative disease in which brain neurons progressively die, causing loss of memory, reasoning, emotion, control of bodily functions, and then death.

Myelin Sheath

A fatty covering of the axon made by glial cells, which speeds up conduction of the action potential and increases the speed of neuron communication.

Anxiety

A feeling of impending doom or disaster from a specific or unknown source that is characterized by mood symptoms of tension, agitation, and apprehension; bodily symptoms of sweating, muscular tension, and increased heart rate and blood pressure; as well as cognitive symptoms of worry, rumination, and distractibility.

Community Psychology

A field and movement whose goals are to promote psychosocial change and treat and prevent those with mental disorders in the community. Developed from the results of deinstitutionalization as an urgent need to aid local communities and homeless people with mental illness was presented.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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

Statistics

A field that involves the analysis of numerical data about representative samples of populations.

Stimulus-Stimulus Learning

A form of classical conditioning in which we associate one stimulus with another.

Escape (Behavior)

A form of negative reinforcement that takes away the unpleasant stimulus after it has already started. (ex. a dog jumps a hurdle to stop ongoing shock)

Avoidance (Behavior)

A form of negative reinforcement that takes away the unpleasant stimulus before it begins. (ex. a dog jumps a hurdle to avoid shock)

Tay-Sachs (Disease)

A genetic defect and the inability of a newborn baby to break down fat, which causes these substances to build up in and destroy brain and nerve cells until the nervous system shuts down. Signs begin to be exhibited at around 4-6 months of age, and most children usually die by the age of 5.

PKU (Phenylketonuria)

A genetic defect and the inability of a newborn baby to digest protein, which can cause tremendous defects physically and cognitively. Every baby born in a hospital is tested for this condition, which can be dealt with via a change in diet.

Down Syndrome

A genetic defect caused by one parent giving an extra chromosome (24 total) at the moment of conception, which causes mental retardation usually in the mild to moderate range. Probability increases with the age of the mother, and results in slanted eyes, smaller noses, ears and mouth, and sometimes smaller hands and necks. Also accompanied by health problems of the heart, vision, and hearing.

Context Effects

A given stimulus can evoke radically different perceptions, based on the immediate context of the stimulus. (ex. "mom the police are at the door because I just robbed the gas station. Only kidding, I just got a D on my math test.")

Flavor

A gustatory sensation caused by the interaction of taste, temperature, texture, and olfaction.

LSD

A hallucinogenic drug that only takes one-millionth of an ounce to produce altering effects. Causes trips lasting 6-14 hours in which the user may experience visual distortions and hallucinations, intense and unstable emotions, and impaired thought. May also cause panic and can cause sudden flashbacks at later times because the drug is stored in the spinal cord.

Marijuana (THC)

A hallucinogenic drug that produces feelings of elation, promotes relaxation, lowers inhibitions and anxiety but increases sensitivity to sights, sounds, and touch. Chronic use causes lack of motivation and apathy, and causes respiratory damage even faster than the use of cigarettes.

(Abraham) Maslow

A humanistic psychologist known for his namesake hierarchy of needs.

(Carl) Rogers

A humanistic psychologist that believed in the tendency of individuals to grow personally and that people are innately good. Also emphasized the importance of SELF-CONCEPT, or essentially how we view our own abilities either positively or negatively, and believed that all people need the following to grow and fulfill: GENUINENESS, ACCEPTANCE, and EMPATHY.

(Abraham) Maslow

A humanistic psychologist that emphasized satisfying more and more sophisticated needs to eventually achieve the goal of self-actualization.

Client-Centered (or Person-Centered) Therapy

A humanistic therapy developed by Carl Rogers in which the therapist listens to the needs of the patient and in an accepting and non-judgmental way, addressing their problems in a productive way to build their self-esteem. Revolves around the belief that problems arise because the client's goodness and emotional growth is stifled by external factors. Aims to provide the most comfortable atmosphere in order to permit inner strength and qualities to surface, leading to self-actualization.

Group Polarization

A like-minded group of people sharing their ideas results in a more extreme position (either more supportive or more against) for every individual. May be beneficial or harmful. (ex. after discussion, a group of entirely anti-gun protesters are even more against guns and fired up about their position)

Axon

A long, single conducting fiber extending from the cell body of a neuron that transmits an action potential and that branches and ends in tips called terminal buttons which secrete neurotransmitters. Essentially carries the neuron's message to other body areas.

Relearning

A measure of retention of information that assesses time saved by comparing the amount of time necessary to learn information for the first time vs. the next time. If this takes as much time as initial learning did, our memory has decayed. (ex. takes 10 trials to learn a list but only 5 trials the next day = 50% saving)

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another.

Intelligence Testing

A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and COMPARING THEM WITH OTHERS using numerical score values.

Agoraphobia

A phobia involving the fear of entering certain fear-evoking or unfamiliar situations which often accompany panic attacks. Often involves avoiding crowds where such attacks may occur. Afraid of fear itself and your own internal cues.

Emotions

A mix of physiological activation (physical response), expressive behavior (how response is outwardly displayed), and conscious experience (cognitive process occurring in the brain). Expression depends on both genetics and gender as well as, most importantly, culture and custom. Basic ones such as joy and fear are inborn.

Peg Word System

A mnemonic device that involves memorizing a jingle and then associating a list of items with those in the jingle. ("one is a bun (lettuce), two is a shoe (banana), etc.").

Motion Parallax

A monocular cue that requires the active use of your eye in viewing. 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.

Accomodation

A monocular cue that requires the active use of your eye in viewing. Involves the process of changing the curvature of the lens to focus light rays on the retina. This increases as an object gets closer.

Need

A motivated state caused by a physiological deficit.

Deinstitutionalization

A movement of the 1950s, with overcrowding in mental institutions and the acquisition of better drugs, advocated for the release of patients not considered a threat to recover in familiar community and home settings. Partly successful, but consequences include today's homeless population.

Parallel Processing

A natural mode of information processing that involves several information streams simultaneously.

Motive

A need or want that causes us to act.

Action Potential

A neural impulse (firing) that consists of a brief electrical charge that travels down the axon generated by the movement of positively charged sodium ions in and negatively charged potassium ions out of channels in the axon's membrane.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter associated primarily with sleep and emotions (ex. arousal, mood, etc.).

Norepinephrine

A neurotransmitter associated with learning, memory, and physical arousal.

Endorphins

A neurotransmitter associated with opiate addiction because drugs such as morphine mimic it and its effects.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter involved in movement, thought processes (alertness, attention, etc.), and, most importantly, rewarding sensations.

ACh (Acetylcholine)

A neurotransmitter that causes contraction of muscles, is involved in learning and memory, and transmits messages between the brain and spinal cord.

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)

A neurotransmitter that inhibits firing of postsynaptic neurons.

Endorphins

A neurotransmitter that relieves and allows the toleration of pain, and also induces feelings of pleasure and positive emotions.

Glutamate

A neurotransmitter that stimulates cells throughout the brain, but especially in the hypothalamus, and is associated with memory formation and information processing.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A neutral stimulus (NS) at first, but when paired with the UCS, elicits the conditioned response (CR). A.K.A. what the organism LEARNED to respond to.

Schwann Cell(s)

A non-neural cell on the myelin sheath of the neuron that generates the myelin.

Permissive (Parenting Style)

A parenting style proposed by Diana Baumrind in which parents set no firm guidelines for behavior and tends to give in to demands of the child. Children tend to be immature, moody, dependent, and have low self-control because they have never been taught such things via rules and regulations.

Authoritative (Parenting Style)

A parenting style proposed by Diana Baumrind in which the parents focus on flexible rules for which reasons are generally given. Parents are warm and nurture independence within guidelines. Children tend to be likable, self-reliant, independent, and cooperative.

Uninvolved (Parenting Style)

A parenting style proposed by Diana Baumrind in which the parents make few demands, show low responsiveness and little communication. Typically detached from children's lives and see parenting as only providing food, clothes, and shelter. Children tend to feel unloved and emotionally detached.

Authoritarian (Parenting Style)

A parenting style proposed by Diana Baumrind in which the parents set up absolute and restrictive rules accompanied by punishment for disobedience. Have strict standards and discourage disagreement. Children tend to be unsociable, unfriendly, and withdrawn because they cannot handle situations on their own.

Broca's Area

A part of the left (LEFT HEMISPHERE) frontal lobe that controls movements involved in the production of speech. Destruction of this region results in expressive aphasia, or the inability to speak.

Wernicke's Area

A part of the left (LEFT HEMISPHERE) temporal lobe that plays a role in understanding language and making meaningful sentences. Destruction of this region results in receptive aphasia, or the inability to understand written and spoken language.

Id

A part of the unconscious that strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives operating on the PLEASURE PRINCIPLE.. Has a "give me, I want" mentality and is irrational and self-centered. The "devil on your shoulder."

Amnesia

A partial or complete loss of memory.

Gender Identity

A person's sense of being male or female, usually linked to their anatomy and physiology. How someone identifies themselves as either male or female.

MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2)

A personality inventory involving 567 true-false items which is scored OBJECTIVELY (no interpretation; based on formula) by machine and compared to that of a "normal person," looking for patterns to test for 10 clinical issues and 15 personality characteristics.

Experimenter Bias

A phenomenon that occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained.

Specific Phobia

A phobia involving fear associated with a particular object.

Placebo

A physical or psychological treatment given to the control group that resembles the treatment given to the experimental group, but that contains no active ingredient. Given so that the subjects are not aware of which treatment they are receiving and so that they do not intentionally alter their behavior accordingly.

Active Listening

A practice of humanistic therapy in which the therapist echoes, restates, and clarifies patient's thinking, acknowledging expressed feelings. Does not give input or tell the client what to do, but rather lets them do the work to correct themselves.

(Prefrontal) Lobotomy

A practice seen between 1935 and 1955 involving the cutting of the main neural tracts connecting the brain. Usually performed on those with schizophrenia, but it caused most patients to be left as emotional zombies with significant brain damage.

Algorithm

A problem-solving strategy that involves a step-by-step procedure that GUARANTEES a solution to certain types of problems. Exhausts all possibilities before finding the correct solution, and therefore is slower but effective.

Heuristic

A problem-solving strategy used as a mental shortcut to quickly simplify and solve the problem, but that does not guarantee a correct solution. More error prone. (ex. looking for oatmeal at the store and reading every sign at the end of the aisles before finding "cereal" and then entering to look at the shelves)

Splitting the Brain

A procedure usually performed on patients with severe epilepsy in which the two hemispheres of the brain are isolated by severing the corpus collosum.

TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)

A projective test in which the subject is presented ambiguous scenes and is asked to compose a story about them. Expected that they will express their inner feelings and interests in doing so. Developed by Henry Murray.

(Edward) Titchener

A prominent founder of the School of Structuralism that brought introspection into his own lab at Cornell University to analyze the basic elements of consciousness and how they are related.

(Wilhelm) Wundt

A prominent founder of the School of Structuralism that first used introspection to study the structure of the mind and the basic elements composing consciousness. Founder of scientific psychology in Leipzig, German.

(G. Stanley) Hall

A prominent founder of the School of Structuralism. Brought introspection to his lab at Johns Hopkins University in the United States; first president of the American Psychological Association.

Free Association (Psychoanalysis)

A psychoanalytic method first used by Sigmund Freud which involves instructing patients to say whatever comes to their mind in order to gain access to their unconscious. Resulted in release of painful and embarrassing memories, which caused the patient to feel better.

Phineas Gage

A railroad foreman whose skull was breached by a 3-foot rod during an accident. Although he maintained his speech, memory, and motor capabilities, damage to his frontal lobe permanently changed his personality: no longer had the ability to censor emotions and became short-tempered and "potty mouthed."

DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder)

A rare disorder in which two or more distinct personalities exist within the same person, each of which can speak, act, and write in different ways. These different identities also seem to have their own memories, wishes, and impulses that often conflict and must take turns. Many clinicians believe it is first caused by a trauma that caused the person to separate their personalities to ease the stress and anxiety.

Response

A reaction to a stimulus.

Informative Social Influence

A reason for conformity involving accepting the opinions of others about reality due to the fact that they may provide valuable information. This occurs especially under conditions of uncertainty or when making a tough decision when we do not want to stand alone.

Normative Social Influence

A reason for conformity involving going along with the decisions and norms of a group in order to gain its social approval and avoid rejection.

Immediate Reinforcer

A reinforcer occurring close to a behavior in time. (ex. rat receiving food for pressing a bar) We may be more inclined to engage with these than delayed reinforcers because of the instant gratification and reward they provide (ex. we want $2 right now rather than $5 next week to mow the lawn).

Delayed Reinforcer

A reinforcer that comes an extended time after a certain behavior. (ex. getting an A in a course - consistent study now pays off at the end)

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience, or nurture.

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.

Positive Reinforcement

A rewarding consequence (adding a stimulus) that follows a voluntary behavior thereby increasing the probability that the behavior will be repeated. (ex. when a rat presses a lever and receives food, it is likely to do it again)

Stereotype

A scheme used to quickly judge others by categorizing into too broad of groups based on common characteristics. Part of the cognitive basis of prejudice.

Hypnagogic State

A semi-wakeful state of dreamlike awareness during which you feel relaxed, fail to respond to outside stimuli, and begin stage 1 sleep.

Schizophrenia

A serious mental disorder (psychosis) characterized by disorganized/fragmented and delusional/false thinking (delusions), disturbed perceptions of things that are not there (hallucinations), and inappropriate emotions and actions (ex. laugh at the news of someone dying, or show no emotion at all). Strikes young people as they mature into adults; symptoms usually begin to appear between 18-20. Affects 1 in 100 people, men and women equally, but men suffer more severely.

Semantics

A set of rules we use to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences. (ex. adding -ed, a morpheme, to the word "laugh," signifies that it happened in the past)

Personality

A set of unique behaviors, attitudes, and emotions that characterize a particular individual.

Tardive Dyskinesia

A severe side effect of antipsychotics that causes problems walking as well as drooling and involuntary muscle spasms resulting from the blocking of dopamine at sites others than those necessary for the purpose of the drug.

Nap(s)

A smaller period of sleep in the middle of the afternoon that begins around 12 hours after the middle of the primary sleep period (at night).

Achievement Motivation (Need for Achievement)

A stable, learned characteristic in which satisfaction is obtained by striving for and attaining a level of excellence, success, and productivity. People with a HIGH need/motivation choose moderately challenging tasks to satisfy their needs, avoiding easy tasks where success is attained easily and tasks in which success is very unlikely. People with LOW need/motivation will either choose tasks so easy that everyone succeeds or those so difficult that absolutely nobody succeeds.

Drive

A state of psychological tension, induced by a need, which motivates us.

Correlation Coefficient (r)

A statistical measure of the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data or two variables that ranges from -1 to +1. The sign indicates whether the relationship is positive or negative and the total from 0 to 1 indicates the strength of the correlation.

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies common factors among groups of items by determining which variables have a high degree of correlation.

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies common factors among groups of items, to determine traits and characteristics of personality and other concepts.

Neutral Stimulus (NS)

A stimulus that initially does not elicit a response but, when paired with the UCS, begins to elicit the CR as the CS.

Retrieval Cue

A stimulus that provides a trigger to get an item out of long-term memory. Strength and capability depends on that of the memory itself. Can be other words, phrases, etc. in a specific hierarchy, context, etc.

Chronic Stressor

A stressor that continues over a long period of time and causes/demands a more extreme response and adaptation. (ex. chronic illness, high crime potential in your neighborhood, etc.)

(Margaret Floy) Washburn

A student of Edward Titchener (structuralist) and the first woman to complete her PhD in psychology.

(Mary Whiton) Calkins

A student of William James at Harvard who viewed her psychological perspective as a reconciliation between structuralism and functionalism. First female president of the American Psychological Association.

Psychoanalytical Approach

A subset of psychodynamics concerned with specifically how unconscious instincts, conflicts, motives, and defenses influence behavior. Also believes in the importance of early life experiences for personality development.

Antagonist

A substance from the environment (ex. chemical or drug) that blocks a receptor site, preventing the effect of the neurotransmitter when it binds.

Agonist

A substance from the environment (ex. chemical or drug) that mimics a neurotransmitter and binds to its receptor site to produce the effect of a neurotransmitter. Also may increase activity by inhibiting reuptake and therefore causing the sending neuron to send messages repeatedly.

Catatonic (Schizophrenia)

A subtype of schizophrenia that involves immobility (or excessive, purposeless movement), extreme negativism, and parrot-like repetition of another person's speech or movements.

Undifferentiated (Schizophrenia)

A subtype of schizophrenia that involves many and varied ("a hodge-podge") of symptoms.

Paranoid (Schizophrenia)

A subtype of schizophrenia that involves preoccupation usually with delusions or hallucinations, often with themes of persecution or grandiosity.

Disorganized (Schizophrenia)

A subtype of schizophrenia that involves scattered speech and behavior or flat or inappropriate emotion.

Residual (Schizophrenia)

A subtype of schizophrenia that involves withdrawal, after hallucinations and delusions have disappeared.

Grammar

A system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others. Consists of semantics and syntax.

Bisexuality

A tendency to direct sexual desire to people of both sexes.

Heterosexuality

A tendency to direct sexual desires towards people of the opposite sex.

Homosexuality

A tendency to direct sexual interest toward another person of the same sex.

Availability Heuristic

A tendency to estimate the probability of certain events in terms of how readily they come to mind. (ex. having ridden in a car, we are often afraid to ride in an airplane although it is far safer)

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A tendency to let preconceived expectations influence one's behavior towards another person, thus evoking those very expectations in the other person.

Overconfidence (Bias)

A tendency to overestimate the accuracy of your own beliefs and judgments. Can be harmful when it comes to decision-making. (ex. showing up to the ACT without studying and getting a lower score than you could have if you actually did study)

Trait

A tendency to respond in a certain way in many different kinds of situations. Believed that every single one applies to all people with two extremes and a continuum in the middle on which everyone lies. (ex. extrovert, introvert, or somewhere in between)

Paradoxical Sleep

A term referring to REM sleep which signifies that the brain is so active that the body's muscles are paralyzed.

TAT (Thematic Apperception Test)

A test used to determine someone's level of achievement motivation by showing them ambiguous pictures and telling them to write a story about what is happening in the picture. Scored objectively based on the amount of achievement imagery in the person's story.

Critical Period

A time interval during which specific stimuli have a major effect on development that the stimuli do not produce at other times.

Free Association

A traditional method of psychoanalysis in which the therapist sits behind the patient and asks them to say whatever comes to mind. Expected that the patient will reveal unconscious thoughts, desires, and issues and bring them to conscious awareness.

Standardization

A two-part test development procedure during which norms are established by piloting the test on a representative sample of people and norms are established based on their scores. (ex. AP tests are first piloted on college freshman to establish the markers for 1s, 2s, etc.)

Instrumental Aggression

A type of aggression to achieve a certain goal.

Hostile Aggression

A type of aggression to inflict pain upon someone else caused by anger, frustration, etc.

Episodic Memory

A type of explicit/declarative memory for biographical details of our individual lives. Stores temporal coding (time tags) for the context of when and where a certain event took place. (ex. I remember when I fell off my bike at 5 years old)

Semantic Memory

A type of explicit/declarative memory for language, facts, general knowledge and concepts that includes much of what is learned in school. (ex. I know that the capital of Nigeria is Abuja)

Flashbulb Memory

A vivid memory of an emotionally significant event or moment caused by an increase in hormones triggering the release of energy for neural processes. Not free from errors.

Groupthink

A way of thinking within a group that involves the desire for harmony in decision-making that causes individuals to self-censor their opinions and objections to avoid making waves. (ex. although nobody wants to shorten their breaks by 15 minutes, nobody speaks up against the boss in order to preserve the harmony of the decision-making)

Test-Retest Method

A way to determine reliability by giving the same test to the same group of test takers on two different occasions. (to see if scores are consistent from time to time)

Split-Half Method

A way to determine reliability in which scores on one half of the questions are compared to those of the other half. (to see if scores are consistent from one half to the other)

Alternate (Equivalent) Form Method

A way to determine reliability in which two different versions of the same test are given to the same takers and scores are compared. (to see if scores are consistent between the two equal tests)

Attribution Theory

A way to understand how people explain the behavior of others.

Short-Term Memory (STM)

A working memory of about 30 seconds before forgetfulness; capacity of 7 +/- 2 items. Has greater storage capability when items are chunked/grouped together, while information that is not rehearsed or repeated is forgotten. (Ex. remembering a 7-digit phone number after looking it up)

Positive Punishment

Administering an aversive stimulus to decrease the probability a behavior will occur again. (ex. spanking, parking ticket, etc.)

Behavioral Approach

According to Skinner, our history of reinforcement shapes our behavior, which is our personality.

Disassociation of Consciousness (Theory)

According to this theory, hypnotized individuals experience two or more streams of consciousness cut off from each other. Part of the consciousness responds to suggestions, while the other, the "hidden observer," remains in the background monitoring behavior. Evidence for this theory is provided by hypnotized subjects who indicate, for example, that a part of them is experiencing more pain with hands submerged in ice water than the hypnotized subjects acknowledge.

Fluid Intelligence

Abilities requiring speed or rapid learning. Generally diminishes with age.

Acuity

Ability to detect fine details; sharpness of vision. Provided by cones responsible for color and fine detail in vision. Can be affected by small distortions in the shape of the eye.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Acceptance and love for and from others independent of how we and others behave, that Rogers believed we need to receive AND offer in order to grow and fulfill.

Manifest Content

According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream.

Latent Content

According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream.

Secure Attachment

After her absence, the baby is happy to see the mother and is receptive to her contact. This behavior is due to the baby's security that the mother will stay with them and will return if she ever leaves. These babies tend to become socially competent children.

Longer Phrase (Stage)

After telegraphic speech, children start uttering phrases that make syntactical sense and, by early elementary school, may contain humor. (ex. "Mommy, get ball")

Industrial/Organizational (Psychologists)

Aim to improve productivity and the quality of work life by applying psychological principles and methods to the workplace.

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Aims to alter the way that people act and alter the way that they think.

Correlational Studies

Aims to determine if a relationship exists between two or more variables, and if so, to what degree the relationship occurs. Includes naturalistic observation and survey research.

Behavior Therapy

Aims to extinguish maladaptive behavior and replace it with more adaptive and appropriate behavior via classical and operative conditioning, observation, and social learning. To treat phobias or sexual behaviors, therapists do not delve deep below the surface looking for inner causes. Most commonly used to treat anxiety disorders.

Gestalt Therapy

Aims to push the client to decide whether they will let past events control them or whether they will focus on now and choose their own destiny. Uses a more direct approach and challenges the client to become aware of and choose their own feelings.

Population

All of the individuals in the group to which the study applies.

Cognition (Thinking)

All the mental activities associated with knowing, understanding, remembering, and communicating.

(Carl) Rogers

Along with Maslow, a humanistic psychologist.

(Roger) Sperry

Also studied split brain patients and showed that left/right hemispheres have different functions. Used monkey and rat brains.

REM Sleep (Rapid Eye Movement)

Although still asleep, the brain engages in low amplitude, fast and regular BETA waves very similar to an awake-aroused state. Occurs after reaching stage 4 sleep and returning back through stages 3 and 2. A person in this state experiences the darting about of their eyes and vivid dreams.

Intensity

Amount of energy in a light wave determined by amplitude. (greater the amplitude, brighter the color)

(Dorothea) Dix

An American activist on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums

(Dorothea) Dix

An American activist on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first generation of American mental asylums.

EEG (electroencephalogram)

An amplified tracing of brain activity (FUNCTION) produced when electrodes positioned over the scalp transmit signals about the brain's electrical activity ("brain waves") to a special machine.

Psychodynamic Approach

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

Gestalt Approach

An approach to psychology that argues against dividing human thought and behavior into discrete structures, but rather tries to examine a person's total experience because the way we experience the world is more than simply the accumulation of various perceptual experienced.

Unconditioned Response (UCR or UR)

An automatic, involuntary, NATURAL reaction to an unconditioned stimulus. Done without conscious thought.

Punishment

An aversive consequence that follows a voluntary behavior thereby decreasing the probability that the behavior will be repeated. May be occasionally justified, but usually leads to negative effects (results in unwanted fears, justifies pain to others, organism only knows what not to do, etc.)(ex. a child spanked after running in the street will likely walk on the sidewalk)

Bulimia (Nervosa)

An easting disorder characterized by a pattern of eating binges involving intake of thousands of calories, followed by purging, either by vomiting using laxatives, exercising excessively, etc. A result of low self-esteem, stress, social influences, depression, or biological lack of satisfaction.

Anorexia (Nervosa)

An eating disorder in normal-weight people (usually adolescent women) that is characterized by weight less than 85% of normal as a result of dramatic and continuous weight loss. A result of abnormally restrictive food consumption caused by BOTH body chemistry/genetics AND social factors such as weight expectations.

Pain

An evolutionary advantage and a way for the body to tell that something has gone wrong.

(David) Buss

An evolutionary psychologist that attributes the universality of basic personality traits to natural selection because traits such as extraversion and agreeableness ensure physical survival and reproduction of the species.

Little Albert Experiment

An experiment of classical conditioning conducted by Watson and Rayner (assistant) in which the pairing of the sound of the gong (UCS that produced UCR of fear) and the presentation of a mouse (NS) was used to condition 11-month old Albert to show fear (CR) when exposed to a mouse. It took only seven trials for Albert to respond to the rat, and he generalized his fear to other furry things like fur coats and Santa's beard. Eventually, the fear (CR) went extinct when it was no longer strengthened by the re-introduction of the gong (UCS).

Flooding

An exposure technique by which the reason for being afraid is extinguished as a result of the client being continually exposed to the fear and, subsequently, the fear is extinguished as well. A classical conditioning method.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation and possibly the neural basis for learning and memory, involving an increase in the efficiency with which signals are sent across the synapses within neural networks. Essentially, the more we use a memory, the stronger it physically becomes at the synapses.

La Belle Indifference

An indicator of conversion disorder that involves a person having extreme anxiety in other areas of life, but lack of concern about what appears to be an incapacitating physical ailment. However, these symptoms often happen to allow the individual to escape a certain situation. (ex. a quarterback's arm is suddenly paralyzed going into the championship game so that he cannot play and therefore cannot succeed or fail and receive attention for it)

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test

An individual IQ test created by Lewis TERMAN in which children are given figures to copy or everyday problems to solve and adults are asked to solve analogies, explain proverbs, and find similarities between sets of words. The examiner moves up to higher mental ages and more difficult questions until the subject can no longer answer any more items, at which their mental age has been discovered.

Temperament

An infant's natural disposition to show a particular mood at a particular intensity for a specific period. Affects his or her behavior and determines whether they are an easy or difficult baby.

Prestige

An influence on obedience that involves the level of importance of an authority figure. The higher this is, the more difficult it is to disobey the figure. (ex. in Milgram's shock experiment, more subjects obeyed the experimenter when he appeared more official in a white lab coat than when he was simply dressed in jeans and a sweater)

Low-Ball (Technique)

An initial bargain is used to convince someone to buy in or participate, but requirements are hiked up later in secret.

(Conditioned) Taste Aversion

An intense dislike and avoidance of a food because of its association with an unpleasant or painful stimulus. Only applicable to humans and intelligent animals that can associate the food (NS) with the unpleasantness (UCS) despite an extended period of time in between exposure to them. Likely an adaptation of response to foods that could sicken or kill.

Black

An object appears to be this color if it absorbs all of the wavelengths that it receives.

White

An object appears to be this color if it reflects all of the wavelengths that it receives.

Phantom Limb Pain

An occurrence in which people missing a limb feel painful sensations that seem to be originating from the missing part. Caused by "cross-wiring" in the somatosensory cortex with nearby areas taking over for the missing limb, so stimulation of those areas causes such a sensation.

Schizotypal

An odd/eccentric personality disorder involving odd thinking; often suspicious and hostile.

Schizoid

An odd/eccentric personality disorder involving poor capacity for forming social relationships; shy, withdrawn behavior; considered "cold" (more common in males).

Behavior Modification

An operant conditioning process of behavior therapy by which the client selects a goal and receives a reward for each step they make towards achieving it until they finally attain their goal.

Frequency Distribution

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

(Principle of) Proximity

An organizing principle in relation to the nearness of objects to each other, stating that we perceive objects that are close together as parts of the same pattern.

Basic Research

Analyzes how things work and includes subfields such as biological, developmental, cognitive, educational, personality, and social psychology.

Stereotype Threat

Anxiety influencing members of a group concerned that their performance will confirm a negative stereotype.

Aggression

Any physical and verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy, whether done reactively out of hostility, or proactively as a calculated means to an end. It has been proven that there are genetic, anatomical (amygdala and frontal lobes), and biochemical influences (exposure to amount of testosterone). While Freud and Lorenz believed that this is an innate feeling, the fact that different cultures display differing levels of it supports the belief that it is learned (seen more in individualist cultures).

Limbic System

Associated with emotions such as fear, aggression, and drives for food and sex. A system of neural structures bordered by the brainstem and cerebrum which includes the hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Instrumental Learning

Association in which a behavior becomes more or less probable depending on its consequences. (Ex. Thorndike's cat in a puzzle box experiment)

Feature-Detector Theory

Assumes that you construct perceptions of stimuli from activity in neurons of the brain that are sensitive to specific features of those stimuli, such as lines, angles, even a letter or face.

Biological Perspective

Attributes gender differences to heredity; differences in chromosomes influence development of hormones which cause physical differences in the brain and body.

Source Amnesia

Attributing an event to the wrong source we have experienced, heard, read, or imagined. Forgetting where you learned a certain piece of information. (ex. attributes a story heard on the radio to a news television program)

Swallowing (Reflex)

Automatic contraction of throat muscles that enables food to pass into the esophagus without choking.

Central Tendency

Average or most typical scores of a set of research data or distribution. Measured using the mean, median, and mode.

Auditory Nerve

Axons of neurons in the cochlea converge transmitting sound messages through the medulla, pons, and thalamus to the auditory cortex of the temporal lobes.

Nature and Nurture

BOTH of these debated factors contribute IN SOME WAY to intelligence.

Mental Sets

Barriers to problem solving that occur when we apply only methods that have worked in the past and have the inability to see new or different strategies to solve the problem.

Attraction (and Friendship)

Based on many factors that include proximity (geographic nearness), the mere-exposure effect, physical attractiveness, similarity, reciprocal liking, complementary skills, and utilitarian value.

Source Traits

Basic traits that underlie personality characteristics.

Two-Word Stage

Before the 2nd year a child starts to speak in telegraphic speech through sentences of only two words. (ex. "go car" means "I would like to go for a ride in the car")

Babbling (Stage)

Begins around 4 months of age, during which the infant spontaneous produces speech sounds that have no meaning. Consists only of phonemes, learned and naturally produced. Because babies cannot differentiate the language of their household until 9 or 10 months, there is no difference during this stage between various cultures. (ex. "ah-goo")

One-Word Stage

Begins at or around the first birthday, when the child starts to speak in one-word utterances (holophrases) to make family and adults understand them. Children in this stage are capable of understanding a lot of language, but simply cannot replicate much of it. (ex. "doggy" means "look at that dog")

Adolescence

Begins with puberty which usually occurs between ages 11 and 14 and results in the development and maturation of sex organs. This development has important implications for the way the child feels about themself based on when and to what extent they mature (early developing boys tend to be more athletic, generally more popular, and have higher self-esteem, have more difficulty in high school but become the most responsible in the long run / early developing girls are more sought after for dates and have better self-esteem but may embarrassed in early maturation / late developing boys are typically smaller and less coordinated and are often ridiculed for this / late developing girls have disadvantage early in high school but later report more satisfaction with their bodies).

Oppositional Defiant Disorder

Behavior typically starts by age 8 or earlier and must last for at least six months and be more than "normal" childhood misbehavior. This includes actively disobeying adult requests, being angry and resentful with others, arguing with adults, blaming others for their own mistakes, etc.

Animism

Belief of a preoperational child that all things are living.

Freud's Psychosexual Theory of Development

Belief stating that personality develops in life's first few years in stages during which the id focuses its energy on various pleasure-sensitive erogenous zones and encounters conflict. If conflict is not successfully resolved, the result is fixation.

Out-Group Homogeneity

Belief that members of another group are more similar in their attitudes that they actually are.

Evolutionary Perspective

Believe that our behavioral similarities arise from our biological similarities (nature). Our behavioral tendencies prepare us to survive and reproduce as genes providing an adaptive edge are selected and passed on. Also states that men are attracted to young women, while women are collectively attracted to mature, dominant, affluent men - this occurs because sperm is "cheap" compared to eggs, so women must wisely choose where they send their genes while men can pair widely.

Jung's Analytic Theory

Believed personality is shaped by collective experiences of past generations. States that the psyche (whole personality) consists of interacting systems including the ego, the personal unconscious with archetypes, attitudes, and functions, and the self.

(Jean) Piaget

Believed that children move from between four stages as they mature and are exposed to relevant types of experiences; we learn from out mistakes! These stages include the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete preoperational, and formal operational stages.

Eysenck (and Eysenck)

Believed that there are two basic dimensions of personality that are rated on a continuum: EXTRAVERSION vs. INTROVERSION and EMOTIONAL STABILITY vs. INSTABILITY.

Sociocultural (Perspective on Abnormal Behavior)

Believes that abnormal behavior is shaped by family, society, and culture. Also believes that ones relationships with others and the stress that they encounter in life can support and even cause abnormal behavior.

Humanistic Approach

Believes that humans are born good and strive for positive personal growth, and that we control their own behavior. Became discontented in the 1960s with Freud's negativity and the mechanic psychology of the behaviorists. CRITICIZED because concepts are very vague, subjective, and lack research; and it is far too based on the self and discredits the impact and importance of others.

Cognitive Perspective (on Abnormal Behavior)

Believes that irrational and faulty thinking cause abnormal behavior, and therefore that changing thoughts and beliefs are the only way to change behavior.

Behavioral Perspective (on Abnormal Behavior)

Believes that maladaptive behaviors learned from inappropriate rewards and punishment causes abnormal behaviors.

Humanistic Perspective (on Abnormal Behavior)

Believes that people are responsible for their own behavior, even abnormal behavior. Focuses on conditions of worth imposed by society, which cause lowered self-concept, that causes abnormal behavior.

Evolutionary Perspective

Believes that people help their relatives because it increases the chance that their helper genes will survive to be passed on to future generations.

Biological Approach

Believes that personality is primarily affected by heredity and one's traits.

Psychoanalytic Perspective (on Abnormal Behavior)

Believes that psychological disorders stem from unresolved childhood conflicts. Therefore, to understand the roots of a disorder, we must look back at a person's life history.

Biological Approach

Believes that the cause of abnormal behavior is an imbalance of neurotransmitters and hormones and that genetic predisposition and other brain abnormalities may contribute as well.

Psychoanalytic Approach

Believes that the cause of abnormal behavior is unconscious internal conflict, possibly stemming from early childhood trauma. Hard to refute because it cannot be proven or disproven, and treatment takes a very long time and is expensive.

Behavioral Perspective (Skinner)

Believes that we learn to talk through operant conditioning, explained through learning concepts of association, imitation, and reinforcement. Children learn to speak because of the reward they receive for forming more and more complex sounds and phrases. (ex. B.F. Skinner)

Normal Distribution

Bell-shaped curve that represents data about how lots of human characteristics are dispersed in the population. The mean and median are the same.

Instinctual Drift

Biological constraints predispose organisms to learn associations that are naturally adaptive, meaning animals already operantly trained may revert to their initial, original, instinctive behavior. Shown by Marian Breland Bailey in 1961. (ex. you can train a dog when to bark, but it's impossible to train them to never bark because it is an instinctual behavior)

Sensory/Afferent (Neurons)

Bipolar neurons found only in the Peripheral Nervous System (in sense organs) that carry information from sensory receptors to the spine of the Central Nervous System. (ex. sense the heat of a fire you are too close to and send an alert message to the spine)

Physiological Dependence (addiction)

Blood chemistry changes from taking a drug, making taking the drug again to prevent withdrawal symptoms necessary.

Parietal Lobes

Bodily senses are processed in these lobes at the Somatosensory Cortex.

Vestibular Sense

Body sense of equilibrium or body orientation, with semicircular canals in your ears at right angles to each other, hair-like receptors that are stimulated by acceleration caused when you turn your head, and sacs that respond to straight-line accelerations with similar receptors.

Kinesthesis

Body sense that provides information about the position and movement of individual parts of your body with receptors in muscles, joints, and tendons. (ex. ability to close your eyes and touch your nose with your finger)

Temporal Lobe and Hippocampus

Both parts of the brain involved in encoding and transferring new explicit memories to the long-term memory.

Alzheimer's Disease

Brain neurons progressively die, resulting in loss of memory, reasoning, and emotion.

Dendrites

Branching tubular processes of a neuron that have receptor sites for receiving information from other neurons and sensory receptors.

Gender Role Stereotypes

Broad categories that reflect our impressions and beliefs about males and females.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Calms the body and helps it conserve energy and maintain a constant internal state. A subdivision of the Autonomic ("AUTOMATIC") Nervous System.

Relative Clarity

Can be seen when closer objects appear sharper than more distant, hazy objects.

Relative Brightness

Can be seen when the closer of two identical objects reflects more light to your eyes.

Relative Height (or Elevation)

Can be seen when the objects closest to the horizon appear to be the farther from you. The lowest objects in our field of vision generally seem the closest.

Dissociative Amnesia

Characterized by inability to remember repressed events or personal information. Involves dissociative fugue with remaining amnesia for the previous identity.

Naturalistic Observation

Careful observation of humans or animals in real-life situations.

Far-Sightedness

Cause by too little curvature of the cornea and/or lens, focusing images behind the retina so distant objects are seen more clearly than nearby ones.

Astigmatism

Caused by an irregularity in the shape of the cornea and/or lens, which distorts and blurs images at the retina.

Near-Sightedness

Caused by too much curvature in the cornea and/or lens, which focuses an image in front of the retina so nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects.

Panic Disorder

Causes unpredictable attacks of acute anxiety accompanied by high levels of physiological arousal that last from a few seconds to a few hours. Must be recurrent within a one-month period, and the person with the disorder feels additional worry about experiencing another attack.

Conservation Concepts

Changes in the form of an object do not alter physical properties of mass, volumes, and number. (ex. understanding that 8 ounces of Kool-Aid is the same in both a wide, short glass and a tall, skinny glass)

Dysfunctional

Characteristic necessary to diagnose someone with a behavioral disorder involving altering the person's daily life and causing them dysfunction.

Unjustifiable

Characteristic necessary to diagnose someone with a behavioral disorder involving being unreasonable.

Dangerous

Characteristic necessary to diagnose someone with a behavioral disorder involving causing harm to self or others.

Distressful

Characteristic necessary to diagnose someone with a behavioral disorder involving causing the person distress and disturbing them.

Deviant

Characteristic necessary to diagnose someone with a behavioral disorder involving going against the norm of behavior. May be abnormal in one culture by normal in another.

Suggestibility

Characteristic of a subject that determines their susceptibility to hypnosis. About 20% of the population has a very high level of this because of how easily they are absorbed in imaginary events such as those in novels and movies.

Borderline (Personality Disorder)

Characterized by a pervasive pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationship, self-perception, and moods. Impulse control is significantly impaired, and Cluster B behavior (dramatic and emotional) is shown. Usually involves: unstable relationships, chronic feelings of emptiness, inappropriate and intense anger, etc.

Conduct Disorder

Characterized by children who tend to be more impulsive, difficult to control, and unconcerned about the feelings of others. Includes behaviors such as bullying and fighting, breaking rules without apparent reason, cruel or aggressive behavior, etc. without remorse. Associated with child abuse and family conflict, genetic defects and poverty, and parental drug addiction and alcoholism. Essentially one step above ODD in which the individual, in addition to disobedience with family and peers, now breaks laws, assaults others, vandalizes, etc. Possessed in children that usually go on to have antisocial personality disorder.

Delirium

Characterized by impaired attention and lack of awareness often involving loss of recent memory and language disturbance.

Autism (Autistic Disorder)

Characterized by impaired social interaction, poor communication and speech, limited activities and interests, and emphasis on sameness and routine beginning in childhood, often before the age of 3. More frequent in males, and often accompanied by an intellectual disability. On the autism spectrum, which also includes Asperger's syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder (not otherwise specified).

Personality Disorders

Characterized by long-standing, inflexible personality traits that impair social functioning. Such traits are seen within three primary clusters: Clusters A (odd or eccentric behavior), B (dramatic or emotional), and C (anxious or fearful). Often treated at the insistence of others, for the patient is not distressed by their own condition but rather only others are.

Unconsciousness

Characterized by loss of responsiveness to the environment resulting from disease, trauma, or anesthesia.

REM Behavior Disorder (RBD)

Characterized by muscles not being paralyzed during REM sleep, allowing the victim to act their dreams which are usually violent and intense.

Somatoform Disorders

Characterized by physical symptoms that seem to suggest a physical disorder, yet have no physical causes or evidence suggests that the symptoms are linked to psychological factors.

Dissociative Disorders

Characterized by separation of critical parts of the personality, such as memory, consciousness, or identity, that are normally integrated and work together. Caused because it allows people to prevent disturbing memories or perceptions from reaching their awareness. Much like a defense mechanism, but is used so much that it disorders the patient's life.

Bipolar Disorder

Characterized by the alteration between depression and mania signals in the brain. While depression involves feelings of gloom, withdrawnness, tiredness, the inability to make decisions, and slowness of thought; mania involves elation, euphoria, desire for action, and multiple ideas. Biologically can be inherited, and psychosocially triggered by factors such as stressful events. Often treated with LITHIUM. Formerly called manic-depressive disorder.

Excitatory (Neurotransmitter)

Chemical message secreted at terminal buttons and received at dendrites that causes the neuron to generate an action potential (essentially telling it to FIRE).

Inhibitory (Neurotransmitter)

Chemical message secreted at terminal buttons and received at dendrites that reduces or prevents neural impulses in the neuron (essentially telling it DON'T FIRE).

Hormone

Chemical messenger that travels through the blood to a receptor site on a target organ.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers released by the terminal buttons of the presynaptic neuron that jump the synapse and land on receptor sites of the receiving neuron. Varieties of them have different chemical structures and perform different tasks.

Cognitive Perspective

Children actively engage in make meaning out of the information they hear about gender. Children form schemas of gender that filter their perceptions of what is acceptable for both genders, which in turn influences their gender role stereotypes.

Behavioral Perspective

Children respond to rewards and punishments and imitate role models to acquire gender identity.

Random Sample

Choosing of members of a population so that every individual has an equal chance of being chosen to participate in a study.

Work

Claimed by Sigmund Freud as a crucial part of a healthy life. Seen by some as a necessary way to make money (job), by others as a way to advance from position to position (career), by others as a calling or socially useful activity (calling), etc.

(Paul) Ekman

Claimed that people speak and understand essentially the same "facial language" around the world. Supported by cultural diverse people all recognizing basic facial expressions. These universals include: HAPPINESS, FEAR, CONTEMPT, SADNESS, ANGER, DISGUST, and SURPRISE.

Higher-Order Conditioning

Classical conditioning in which a well-learned CS is paired with an NS to produce a CR to the NS. In this case, the old CS acts as the UCS. However, the new CR is not as strong as the original.

Stereotype Threat

Claude Steele's concept that anxiety influences achievement of members of a group concerned that their performance on a test will confirm a negative stereotype. This may account for lower scores of blacks on intelligence tests or girls on math tests.

Antisocial (Personality Disorder)

Clinical features include: lack of conforming to laws (repeatedly committing crimes), repeated deceitfulness to others, failure to think or plan ahead, tendency towards anger and aggression (repeatedly assault others), and disregard for personal safety or that of others. Sometimes referred to as psychopaths or sociopaths, and feel no remorse or concern about their actions. Thought to be caused by chronic under-arousal of autonomic and central nervous systems as well as environmental factors such as broken homes. Possessed in adults that usually had conduct disorder as children.

Monocular Cues

Clues about distance based on the image of one eye. These include interpositions or overlap, relative size, aerial perspective or relative clarity, texture gradient, relative height or elevation, linear perspective, relative brightness, motion parallax, and accommodation.

Binocular Cues

Clues about distance requiring two eyes. These include the more important retinal disparity and less important convergence.

Demand Characteristics

Clues participants discover about the purpose of the study that suggest how they should respond.

Neural Network (or Parallel Processing Model)

Clusters of neurons that are interconnected (and computer models based on neuron-like systems) and process information simultaneously, automatically, and without awareness. Have the ability to learn, adapt, and deal with incomplete information.

Iris

Colored muscle surrounding the pupil that regulates the size of the pupil opening based on the amount of light in the environment.

Operant Chamber ("Skinner Box")

Comes with a bar or key that an animal must manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer. Connected to devices that allow the researcher to have complete control over the animal's environment. First designed by B.F. Skinner to reward a mouse for pressing a key by giving it food and water, which eventually strengthened its behavior and ability to complete the task and obtain the reward and eliminated errors preventing it from doing so (based on Thorndike's Law of Effect).

Collectivistic (Cultures)

Communal Asian and African cultures that emphasize family honor and dignity (shaming yourself is shaming your family), a greater concern for social harmony, and tend to be more shy and less social with strangers.

Language

Communication system based on words and grammar; spoken, written, or gestured words and the way in which they are combined to communicate meaning from person to person and to transmit civilization's accumulated knowledge.

Information Processing Model

Compares our mind to a computer that involves encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Schemas

Concepts or frameworks that organize and interpret information. These can account for people's interpretations of UFOs, the Lochness monster, or seeing a cloud of dust in a movie.

Sherif

Conducted an experiment in which a boys' camp containing two competitive and hateful groups was subject to an emergency situation requiring cooperation between the two groups. Found that prejudices were dropped and that the two groups came together to solve the problem. (contact theory and superordinate goals)

Latané and Darley

Conducted an experiment in which an emergency situation was created to test people's helping behavior. Found that people help when they think they are alone, but the larger the group present, the less likely anyone is to act. (diffusion of responsibility and bystander intervention)

(Richard) Lapierre

Conducted an experiment in which he wrote letters to several hotel and restaurant owners during a time when many Asian Americans were discriminated against and asked them if they would allow Asians into their place of business. Most refused these potential customers. But, in person, those same restaurant and hotel owners invited these people in. Showed that peoples attitudes do not necessarily correspond with their behavior.

(Solomon) Asch

Conducted an experiment in which participants were put on a team with confederates (actors in the study) and asked to select the line in a triad that matched the stimulus line. Despite the answer being obvious, the actors all answered unanimously erroneous and the subject often cooperated simply to agree with the group. Found that subjects conformed 1/3 of the time to give clearly incorrect answers solely because the confederates voted unanimously, and that 75% of all participants conformed at least once. (conformity, social and normative influence)

(Stanley) Milgram

Conducted an experiment in which teachers (subjects) were told by the authoritarian experimenter to apply electric shocks to the student (actor) when they answered questions incorrectly. Found that 66% of subjects obeyed the experimenter's demand to continue and delivered what they thought to be 450 volts, a deadly dose, solely based on their obedience to the authority of the experimenter that they saw as a legitimate figure. Believed that this occurred because the subjects rationalized their behavior and thought that ultimately the experimenter was responsible for the results. (obedience to authority)

Rosenthal and Jacobsen

Conducted an experiment in which teachers were told prior to the school year to expect certain students to "bloom" academically during the year. Found that teacher expectations did come true because of the teacher's behavior that conformed to their preconceived notions. Because they invested themselves more into the students expected to bloom, these students did bloom while the other students struggled. (self-fulfilling prophecy)

(Leon) Festinger

Conducted an experiment in which two different groups of students were told to lie about a task being interesting that, in reality, was very boring. One group was paid $1 to lie while to the other was given $20 to lie. Found that the group paid $1 actually conformed their own opinion to match the lie because they thought the money was not enough to justify their actions. (cognitive dissonance)

(Philip) Zimbardo

Conducted an experiment to simulate a prison setting at Stanford University and assigned roles of prisoner and guard to a group of students. Found that, although no instructions were given on how to behave, even the least hostile students became sadistic guards in order to conform to their social role and meet their social expectations. (social roles)

(Albert) Bandura

Conducted an experiment with Bobo dolls to showcase the power of observational learning, in which children that watched adults being rewarded for aggression against the Bobo dolls in turn also acted aggressively (and in a heightened manner with additional profane language, toy guns, etc.) towards the Bobo dolls in anticipation of the same reward. Shows that prosocial models have prosocial effects, but that antisocial models also have antisocial effects on observers.

(Elizabeth) Loftus

Conducted research into the construction of memories in which, after being questioned about events that did actually happen in their lives, college students bought into and fabricated stories in response to being asked about an event that did not happen to them. Shows that false memories can be just as detailed and can feel just as real as memories that are accurate and truthful.

(Michael) Gazzaniga

Conducted the "HE-ART" split-brain experiments and concluded that the conscious left hemisphere is an "interpreter" that instantly constructs theories to explain our behavior.

(James) Bouchard

Conducted the Minnesota Twins Project at the University of Minnesota to investigate the genetic influences of intelligence and personality. Found that there is a significant effect from genetics that even resulted in identical twins separated at birth to marry women of the same name, name their children the same, etc.

(Jane) Elliott

Conducted the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment in which she aimed to display prejudice to 3rd graders by dividing her class by eye color and treating one group with privileges and the other with contempt. Quickly, the innocent young students began socially and physically lashing out at each other aggressively. Also showed the self-fulfilling prophecy, which involved students in the non-special treatment group having worse test scores that when they are in the special treatment group.

(Alfred) Kinsey

Conducted the first major study of sex, in the 1940s and '50s in which over 17,000 people were interviewed about their everyday sexual behavior and were asked to rate themselves on a scale: 0=exclusively heterosexual, 6=exclusively homosexual.

Corpus Collosum

Connects and carries messages between the two hemispheres of the brain.

Rehearsal

Conscious repetition of information to either maintain information in the STM (maintenance) or to encode it for storage in the LTM (elaborative).

Imprinting

Considered an instinct in which an attachment is made to something and a behavior is formed around it. (ex. a duck's following of the first moving thing they see when they are born)

Reliability

Consistency of results over time (repeatability) that contributes to proving a test as legitimate; methods of measurement include test-retest, split half, and alternate form.

Reliability

Consistency or repeatability of results.

CNS (Central Nervous System)

Consisting of the brain and spinal cord, which are the body's control center and a means of transmitting messages between the brain and the body respectively.

(Mary) Ainsworth

Constructed "strange situation" research in which the mother and her baby enter an unfamiliar room together and then an unfamiliar person enters at the same time as the mother leaves. Found that ALL children experience anxiety upon the mother's absence, but that SECURELY attached children explore the room while returning to mom frequently and go to her when she returns, while INSECURELY attached children are either avoidant (don't cry when mother leaves but avoid her when she returns) or ambivalent (cry when mother leaves and return angrily to her when she comes back).

Overlearning

Continuing to practice after memorizing information makes it more resistant to being forgotten.

Contralaterality

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

Taste Preference

Controlled by BOTH body chemistry and environmental factors that determine not only when we are hungry, but also WHAT we are hungry for and what we traditionally eat.

ANS (Autonomic Nervous System)

Controls INVOLUNTARY functions (that you do not intentionally control) and items that happen automatically such as breathing, heartbeat, digestion, etc. A subdivision of the Peripheral Nervous System that consists of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems.

Somatic Nervous System

Controls VOLUNTARY movements (that you intentionally control) and communication to and from the sense organs. A subdivision of the Peripheral Nervous System.

Cerebellum

Controls posture, balance, and voluntary movement. The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem.

Hypothalamus

Controls your biological clock, regulating changes in blood pressure, body temperature, pulse, blood sugar levels, hormonal levels, activity levels, sleep, and wakefulness over 24 hours in a normal environment (25 hours in a place without normal night and day).

Massed Practice

Cramming the memorization of information or the learning of skills into one session. Shown to be inferior to distributed practice.

Blocking Effect

Created by Leon Kamin to suggest that an already conditioned response prevents the addition of a new stimuli's conditioning. For example, a rat already conditioned to produce fear cannot be conditioned to fear only a flashlight.

DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

Created by the American Psychiatric Association (ASA) to describe psychological disorders. Starts by providing the possible list of psychological disorders, and then looks at the psychosocial and environmental problems present as well as the person's level of functioning before making a diagnosis. Beneficial for keeping all psychologists on the same page, but criticized for simply applying labels to the disordered, which is thought to stigmatize their condition. The most recent edition described 400 disorders, compared to only 60 that it contained in the 1950s.

(Hermann) Ebbinghaus

Created the FORGETTING CURVE curve, which shows an initially very large drop in retention of information after the first time it is learned, but eventually less and less forgetfulness as the information is reviewed and rehearsed more often.

CAT (Computerized Axial Tomography)

Creates a computerized image using x-rays passed through the brain to show STRUCTURE and/or the extent of a lesion.

MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

Creates more detailed computerized images, using a magnetic field and pulses of radio waves, that cause emission of signals that depend upon the density of tissue. (shows STRUCTURE)

Bonding

Creation of close emotional bond or relationship between the mother or parents and baby shortly after birth.

Barbiturates

DEPRESSANT drugs that mimic the effects of alcohol. Depress the CNS and, in large doses, can lead to impaired memory and judgment. Essentially tranquilizers.

Opiates

DEPRESSANTS consisting of opium and its derivatives (morphine and heroin) that depress neural activity and temporarily lessen pain and anxiety. Highly addictive.

Circadian Rhythms

Daily patterns of changes including sleep and wakefulness. Controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus that controls the release of melatonin (makes us sleep) by the pineal gland based on the level of light. Without any visual or time cues, this actually lasts 25 hours.

Nature-Nurture Controversy

Deals with the extent to which heredity and the environment each influence behavior. Biological and evolutionary psychologists believe the basic structures for behavior are genetic and the environment determines how they're expressed, while behaviorists believe physical structures are genetic and intellectual structures are shaped by the environment. (agreed that both have at least some influence)

Continuity-Discontinuity Controversy

Deals with the issue of whether development is a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages.

Stability-Change Controversy

Deals with the issue of whether or not personality traits presented during infancy endure throughout the life span.

Cardinal Trait

Defining characteristic, in a small number of us, that dominates and shapes all of our behavior. (ex. Mother Teresa has a life focused on altruism) Identified by Gordon Allport.

Narcotics

Depress the Central Nervous System, relieve pain, and induce feelings of euphoria. These include the opiates and synthetic opiates codeine, heroin, morphine, and opium. Their chemical properties are very similar to the endorphins that our brains produce.

Individualistic (Cultures)

Describes Western cultures in which the most self-reliant and socially competent children with the highest self-esteem tend to have warm, authoritative parents that encourage kids to think independently, be themselves, set their own personal goals, etc.

Ex Post Facto

Describes studies that look at an effect and seek to find a cause. For example, a study may be searching for the cause of a recent spike in deformed babies being born.

Key-Lock (Mechanism)

Describes the manner in which a neurotransmitter binds to the receptor site of a receiving neuron. Neurotransmitters, each with a unique chemical configuration, are only accepted by specific receptors.

Positive Correlation

Describes the relationship between two variables that either increase or decrease together. (ex. the number of gallons of gas pumped and the amount of money spent on gas)

Negative Correlation

Describes the relationship between two variables that move in opposite directions. (ex. the distance traveled and the amount of gas remaining in the tank)

Psychometricians (Psychometric Psychologists)

Focus on methods for acquiring, analyzing, and measuring psychological data.

Identical Twins

Develop from a single fertilized egg and are genetically identical.

Fraternal Twins

Develop from separate eggs and are no more similar genetically than ordinary siblings.

Object Permanence

Developed at around 9 months and involves awareness that objects still exist when out of sight.

Aronson and Gonzales

Devised a teaching strategy (jigsaw) making Anglo and Latino children interdependent upon each other. Found that it raised efficacy of minority children and reduced prejudice on the part of the Anglo children. (Jigsaw classroom)

Nurture

Did the following believe in nature, that ideas are inborn, or in nurture, and the idea that we attain our ideas and knowledge through experience? - Aristotle and John Locke

Nature

Did the following believe in nature, that ideas are inborn, or in nurture, and the idea that we attain our ideas and knowledge through experience? - Socrates and Plato

Weber's Law

Difference thresholds increase in proportion to the size of the stimulus. If the stimulus intensity is high, the JND will be large, but if the stimulus intensity is low, the JND will be small.

Hue

Dimension of color determined by the wavelength of light. (higher frequency/shorter wavelength = bluish colors, lower frequency/longer wavelength = reddish colors)

Hypothalamus

Directs maintenance activities such as feeding behavior, drinking behavior, body temperature, and sexual behavior. The link between the nervous system and endocrine system that governs via the pituitary gland. Lies below the thalamus.

Thalamus

Directs visual, auditory, taste, and somatosensory information to/from appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex. Also transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.

Optical (or Visual) Illusions

Discrepancies between the appearance of a visual stimulus and its physical reality. Common examples of these include reversible figures, which illustrate the mind's tendency to separate figure and ground in the absence of sufficient cues to prove which is which, and illusory contours, which illustrate the tendency of the perceptual system to fill in missing elements to perceive whole patterns.

Psychosis

Disorder characterized by an apparent break with reality.

Mood Disorders

Disturbances in emotional feelings that are strong enough to interfere with everyday living. Shown primarily as either major depressive or bipolar disorders.

Random Assignment

Division of the sample into groups so that every individual has an equal chance of being put in any group or condition. Minimizes pre-existing differences between the subjects and groups.

Experimental (Psychologists)

Do research and add new knowledge to the field.

Huntington's (Disease)

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

Depressants

Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions of the Central Nervous System. Include ALCOHOL, OPIATES, and BARBITURATES.

Transference

During free association, the psychoanalyst looks for this: behavior in which the client finally opens up and reveals their innermost private thoughts to the therapist and develops positive or negative feelings towards them as a result. What the psychoanalyst tries to avoid.

Resistance

During free association, the psychoanalyst looks for this: the blocking of anxiety-provoking feelings and experiences, evidenced by behavior such as discussing trivial matters and coming late to sessions. A sign that the client has reached an important issue that needs to be discovered, which the psychoanalyst will then push them to discuss further.

(School of) Functionalism

Early psychological perspective concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to adapt to its environment.

(School of) Structuralism

Early psychological perspective that emphasized units of consciousness and identification of elements of thought using introspection.

Social Eating

Eating at an event because you are "expected" to.

Eating by the Clock

Eating because it is "time" to eat a certain meal. You may become hungry at a certain time after eating consistently on a certain schedule.

External Incentive(s)

Eating because you are triggered by the presence of food, especially tasty, high calorie food.

Social Norms

Either implicit (implied) or explicit (stated clearly) rules that govern the behavior and attitudes of members within a social group. Can be either very broad (ex. political or religious beliefs) or very specific (ex. be quiet while in the library!).

Evolutionary Perspective

Emotions developed because of their adaptive value, allowing the organism to avoid danger and survive. We often know how we feel before we know what we think.

(Wolfgang) Kohler

Emphasized insight learning by finding that chimps could solve complex problems by combining simpler behaviors they had learned separately. One chimp learned to pile boxes and use a stick to get dangling bananas, so when the bananas were hung even further, the chimp was able to stack boxes AND use the stick to get to the bananas.

Zajonc (and LeDoux)

Emphasized that some emotions are immediate and bypass conscious appraisal. Emotional response directly follows the event. Supported by neural pathways of emotion that bypass the cortical areas of thinking. (ex. we are scared while walking in the woods, and without thinking are immediately scared at the sound of a twig breaking)

Adler's Individual (or Ego) Theory

Emphasizes social interest as the primary determinant of personality. We strive for superiority and try to compensate for inferiority complexes, and our self creates personality from heredity and experience.

Lazarus (and Schachter-Singer)

Emphasizes that cognitive appraisal, along with the occurrence of a stimulus, lead to an emotional response. States that we would have no other way of knowing what we are responding to, and that the appraisal ALWAYS occurs although it may be unconscious or unnoticed. (ex. while walking scared in the woods, your mind labels the situation are dangerous and therefore responds with fear after hearing a twig snap)

Hippocampus

Enables formation of new long-term memories. Finger-like structure attached to the amygdala.

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires our attention and conscious effort in order to be committed to memory. Such processing, with greater effort, results in more durable and accessible memories.

Pineal Gland

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

Pituitary Gland

Endocrine gland in the brain that attempts to keep all endocrine responses under control and regulation by sending hormone signals to other endocrine glands. Under the control of the hypothalamus. (the "master" gland)

Pancreas

Endocrine gland near stomach that secretes the hormones insulin, which regulates blood sugar (level of sugar in the blood). Imbalances result in diabetes and hypoglycemia.

Adrenal Gland(s)

Endocrine glands atop the kidneys that secrete adrenaline (epinephrine) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) to prepare the body for "fight or flight" and to regulate the metabolism.

Parathyroid Gland(s)

Endocrine glands in neck that produce a namesake hormone, which helps maintain calcium ion level in blood necessary for normal functioning of neurons and growth and development.

Thyroid Gland(s)

Endocrine glands in neck that produces thyroxine, which stimulates and maintains metabolic activities and growth and development.

Compliance

Engaging in a particular behavior at another person's implicit (implicit) or explicit (stated outright) request (a want, not a demand). In the middle of the social influence continuum. (ex. implicit request: a salesman saying "that dress would look so great on your figure!" explicit request: "buy that dress, please!")

(Selye's) General Adaptation Syndrome

Entails a three-stage process that describes our body's reaction to stress: ALARM REACTION (stressor triggers increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system), RESISTANCE (raised temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration are maintained while levels of adrenaline and corticosteroids rise), and EXHAUSTION (immune system is weakened, increased susceptibility to ulcers, depression, possible death).

Situational Factors

Environmental stimuli that affect a person's behavior.

Type II Error

Error in which the null is accepted and the original hypothesis is rejected although it is actually correct.

Type I Error

Error in which the null is rejected and the original hypothesis is accepted, although the null is actually true.

Gender Schema Theory

Essentially the SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY + consideration of COGNITION. States that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be male or female and then think and adjust their behavior accordingly. (ex. you compare yourself with the concept of a boy and adjust your behavior to fit that)

Counterconditioning

Essentially unlearning the CR by training to respond in a different manner when exposed to the CS. Applicable to counseling situations. (ex. training someone afraid of snakes to respond calmly to a snake so that eventually the fear dissipates and the phobia disappears)

Chaining

Establishes a specific sequence of behaviors by initially positively reinforcing each behavior in a desired sequence and then later rewarding only the completed sequence. For example, dolphins are given fish ONLY after swimming the pool, jumping through a ring, AND honking a horn.

Heredity

Estimates from twin and adoption studies suggest that both this and the environment have about equal roles in determining at least some of our personality characteristics.

Clinical (Psychologists)

Evaluate and treat more serious mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.

Daily Hassles

Everyday annoyances that TOGETHER can raise our blood pressure, cause headaches, and lower out immunity. (ex. daily commute to work, long lines to wait in, etc.)

Cognitive Triad Therapy

Examines what the client thinks about themselves, their world, and their future in the belief that those struggling with issues often have negative views surrounding these. The goal is to change these irrationally negative beliefs into more positive and realistic views that highlight success, remove the blame of failure from the client and attribute it to another person or thing, and suggest alternative thoughts and courses of action.

Stimulants

Excite neural activity and speed-up bodily functions of the CNS. Include caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, cocaine, and ecstasy. Used to treat hyperactivity and narcolepsy.

Bipolar II (Hypomania)

Experiencing manic episodes to a lesser degree, but still experiencing severe depressive episodes.

Bipolar I

Experiencing manic episodes with very severe and major depressive episodes.

Jigsaw Classroom

Expert groups with diverse backgrounds learn one part of a lesson and share information in groups. Students are therefore dependent upon each other and the self-esteem and achievement of "poorer" students improve and former stereotypes are diminished.

Neuropsychologists

Explore the relationships between brain/nervous systems and behavior. Also called biological psychologists or biopsychologists, behavioral geneticists, physiological psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists.

Unconscious

Expresses emotion through a fast-paced system relying on deep-brain circuitry that operates automatically (ex. amygdala is always on the lookout for potential threats; even subliminal ones). Acts as an early defense mechanism by producing emotions to guide us out of dangerous situations. Linked to implicit memory and fear that we are not aware we have and that are learned via conditioning.

Predictive Validity

Extent to which a test accurately predicts a future result. For example, how well the ACT actually predicts your performance in college.

Heritability

Extent to which differences in the appearance of a trait within a population is due to the differences in their genes (and is therefore not due to the environment). "The difference of a trait amongst a population due to genetic differences and not environment." Therefore, increases as environments become more similar because differences are thus due to genetic differences. (ex. identical twins have a near-zero level because their genetics are identical and therefore their differences must be due to the environment)

Content Validity

Extent to which the test measures all of the knowledge and skills that are supposed to be in the domain being tested.

Interrater Reliability

Extent to which two or more scorers grade a test differently, therefore measuring the consistency of results based on the methods of the scorers.

Excitement

FIRST stage of the Sexual Response Cycle in which genitals become engorged with blood, the vagina expands and secretes lubricant, and the penis enlarges.

Resolution

FOURTH (final) stage of the Sexual Response Cycle in which engorged genitals release blood, males go through a refractory period, and women resolve.

Confounding Variables

Factors that cause differences between the experimental group and the control group other than the independent variable. (ex. experimenter winces when the experimental group incorrectly places a puzzle piece but does not wince when the control group does the same.)

Hallucination

False sensory perception such as hearing voices, seeing images, or hearing or smelling things that are not present. A symptom of schizophrenia that typically involves hearing voices that make insulting remarks or give orders.

(Sigmund) Freud

Father of psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytical approach.

Turner (Syndrome)

Females with only one X sex chromosome (XO) who are typically short with a webbed neck, lack of ovaries, and fail to develop secondary sex characteristics during puberty. Although usually of normal intelligence, they typically show deficits in arithmetic, spatial organization, and visual perception.

(Carl) Wernicke

First discovered the area of the brain (LEFT TEMPORAL LOBE) involved in language comprehension and expression was named for him because he discovered it

(William) Stern

First formulated the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) to be calculated as mental age/chronological age times 100. (it is no longer computed this way)

(Paul) Broca

First identified the part of the brain (LEFT FRONTAL LOBE) responsible for coordinating muscles involved in speech.

Menarche

First menstrual period at about age 12.5 marks female fertility. Male fertility is marked by ejaculation of semen with viable sperm at about age 14. Adolescent brain changes include selective pruning of dendrites and development of emotional limbic system and frontal lobes.

Attention

First stage in Bandura's theory of observational learning in which we perceive the features of another's behavior that is rewarded.

Modeling

First step of social skills training in which the client learns by observing socially acceptable behavior.

Sweet, Sour, Salty, Bitter, Umami (new)

Five basic taste sensations.

Delusion

Fixed, distorted, and false belief such as being plotted against (persecution), being extraordinarily important (grandeur), and that everything is a sign for oneself (reference). A symptom of schizophrenia that is maintained even when compelling evidence to the contrary is presented.

Cochlea

Fluid filled tube in the inner ear with hair cells on the basilar membrane that transduce the mechanical energy of vibrating molecules to the electrochemical energy of neural impulses. Hair cell movement triggers impulses in adjacent nerve fibers of the auditory nerve that send the auditory message to the thalamus.

Social (Psychologists)

Focus on how a person's mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people and how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.

Educational (Psychologists)

Focus on how effective teaching and learning take place and how psychological processes can enhance them.

Drive Reduction Theory

Focuses on internal states of tension, such as hunger, that motivate us to pursue actions that reduce the tension and imbalance and bring us back to homeostasis. Accounts well for primary motive such as hunger, but does not account well for secondary motives such as achievement. (ex. need for hunger leads to drive to attain food which leads to reduction of hunger and imbalance in homeostasis)

Psychodynamic Approach

Followers and members include Jung, Adler, Horney, and Kohut.

Opponent-Process Theory

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.

(John B.) Watson

Forced to retire from research and psychology in 1930 after becoming romantically involved with assistant Rosalie Rayner despite being married. However, joined advertising and used his knowledge of association develop successful campaigns (ex. using testimonials from Queens to associate beauty and power with the use of a cream). Awarded APA gold medal in 1958 for overall contributions to psychology.

Insight Learning

Form of cognitive learning in which problem solving occurs by means of sudden reorganization of perceptions. (ex. Kohler's chimp experiment in which the abilities to stack boxes and use a stick to get to dangling bananas was combined by the chimp to get to bananas hung even higher)

Operant Conditioning

Forms association between a certain behavior and its consequences. (ex. dog learns to associate sitting with presence of a snack, and therefore sits when told because it expects to be given a snack when it does so)

Classical Conditioning

Forms associations between two stimuli, the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus. (ex. dogs learn to associate the ringing of the bell with the presence of food, and therefore salivate upon hearing the bell because they expect the food)

Mirror Neurons

Found in premotor cortex and other locations in the temporal and parietal lobes of the brain. Activated when you perform an action and when you observe someone else perform an action. Make observational learning possible.

(Harry) Harlow

Found that monkeys separated from their mothers at birth seek comfort from a soft sloth-covered substitute or surrogate rather than a bare wire substitute with a feeding bottle, showing attachment isn't based on feeding but rather a feeling of comfort. In terms of humans, shows that attachment grows the more the caregiver responds to the baby and makes them feel comfortable.

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

Four or more weeks of haunting memories, nightmares/flashbacks, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, or sleep problems that occur as the result of a previous traumatic event.

Motivation

Fourth stage in Bandura's theory of observational learning in which we feel the desire to learn and carry out the behavior because it was rewarded and we, too, want the same reward.

Schema

Framework of basic ideas and preconceptions about people, objects, and events based on past experience in long-term memory. Essentially the mental molds into which we pour our experiences.

Conscious

Freud's first level of the mind, which includes everything we are currently aware of.

Preconscious

Freud's second level of the mind, which contains information and feelings we can easily recall.

Unconscious

Freud's third level of the mind, which mostly contains unacceptable wishes, impulses, memories, and feelings inaccessible to the conscious that can still influence our behavior.

Limbic System

From the thalamus, one of two locations that a pain message is sent to analyze the primary emotional and motivational components of the pain resulting in immediate unpleasantness and a desire to escape.

Somatosensory Cortex

From the thalamus, one of two locations that a pain message is sent to analyze the sensory components of the pain and judge the pain quality, location, and intensity.

Parietal Lobe(s)

Front strip is the somatosensory cortex that processes sensory information including touch, temperature, pressure, and pain from body parts; association areas perceive objects. Also controls body posture.

Central Trait

General characteristic; between 5 and 10 of these shape much of our behavior. (ex. cheerfulness and shyness) Identified by Gordon Allport.

Fixation

Generally, the inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective, which is therefore an impediment to solving the problem. Examples include mental sets and functional fixedness.

Conscious

Generates emotions at a far slower rate, but delivers more complete information to the consciousness because of its availability to stimuli. Relies heavily on the cerebral cortex, and is linked to explicit memory and fear that we try to actively remember.

Reaction Range Model

Genetically determines the upper and lower limits for one's intelligence.

Biofeedback (Training)

Gives client immediate feedback relating to their ability to lessen their own physiological arousal caused by anxiety or a stimulus. Such arousal may include increased heart rate, muscle tension, etc.

Group Cohesion

Group togetherness, which is determined by how much group members perceive that they share common attributes, goals, and values.

Chunking

Grouping information into meaningful units to increase the capacity of the STM. (ex. a date rather than simply a group of numbers or an acronym such as PEMDAS)

In-Groups

Groups to which we belong and tend to favor. (ex. "we sit at this lunch table, the best lunch table")

Out-Groups

Groups to which we do not belong and tend to attribute negative qualities. (ex. "they sit at that lunch table, they are so weird and different")

Moral Development

Growth in the ability to tell right from wrong, control impulses, and act ethically.

Teratogen(s)

Harmful substances (drugs or viruses) from the environment during the prenatal period that can cause birth defects. For example, these include drugs, alcohol, viruses, tobacco ingredients, and other poisons.

Counseling Psychologists

Have degrees in counseling and tend to deal with less severe mental health problems, such as providing a supportive ear to all parties during a family conflict or divorce.

Intellectual Disability

Having significantly below-average intellectual functions and limitations in at least two areas of adaptive functioning that include communication skills, self-care, ability to live independently, etc. Considered to be possessed by those who score a 70 or below on an IQ test.

Temporal Lobes

Hearing information is processed at the Primary Auditory Cortex in these lobes.

Stress

Heightens emotions and creates stronger memories at a moderate level by boosting the brain's activity in memory-forming areas. However, lengthy occurrence can disrupt and damage memory.

Counseling (Psychologists)

Help people adapt to change or make changes in their lifestyle and assists people with problems in living (ex. a child experiencing his parents' divorce)

Theta Waves

Higher in amplitude and lower in frequency than alpha waves. Stage one of sleep typically shows these.

Ancient Treatments

Historically, to combat psychological disorders, these have included trephination (boring holes in the skull to remove evil forces), exorcism, being caged like animals, beaten, burned, castrated, mutilated, and transfused with animal's blood.

Law of Effect

Holds that behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened while behaviors followed by annoying or negative consequences are weakened. Established by E.L. Thorndike based on his experiments with cats in a puzzle box, showing that their errors in solving the box were eliminated and effective methods were continued after learning of the presence of the food outside the box (associated effective methods with gaining food and errors with not gaining food).

Cognitive Information Processing Theory

Holds that when we sleep, information from the external world is largely cut off. So the only world our constantly active brain can model is the one already inside it from stored memories, recent concerns, current emotions, and expectations, which can be activated by electrical impulses discharged from within the brain. Essentially states that dreams are a mix of physiological stimulation and psychological functioning.

Procedural Memory

Implicit memory for skills and habits which comes without conscious need to think or recollect. (ex. walking, riding a bike, etc.)

Expectations

How one believes the drug will have an effect before one consumes it, which influences and promotes a certain effect upon them.

Memory

Human capacity to register, retain, and remember information. Essentially any indication that knowledge has persisted over time.

Surface Traits

Hundreds of visible areas of personality.

Constructs

Hypothetical abstractions related to behavior and defined by groups of objects or events. Examples include intelligence, happiness, and honesty.

Nativist Perspective (Chomsky)

Idea that the human brain has an innate capacity for acquiring language (language acquisition device) possibly during a critical period of time after birth, and that children are born with a universal sense of grammar. Opposes behavioral ideas of Skinner by emphasizing that language acquisition is so fast it could not possibly occur through conditioning. (ex. Noam Chomsky)

Recognition

Identification of something/a certain item among others. (ex. multiple choice and matching questions on a test)

Fixation

If a traumatic event occurs, one can essentially become stuck in the particular stage of psychosexual development that they are in.

Contact Hypothesis

If members of two opposing groups are brought together, their stereotypes and prejudices against each other will diminish proportionally to the amount of contact between them.

Methamphetamines

Illegal STIMULANT drugs that are either smoked or injected and immediately after the high result in a crash during which the user exhibits withdrawal symptoms such as fatigue, deep sleep, intense mental depression and increased appetite. Over time reduces baseline levels of dopamine and leaves user in a permanent depressed functioning.

Cocaine

Illegal STIMULANT used today as anesthetics. When inhaled or snorted, reaches the brain almost immediately and produces intense euphoria, mental alertness and self-confidence. Blocks the reuptake of dopamine, causing the brain to flood with pleasure sensations.

Social Facilitation

Improved performance of well-learned tasks in front of others. When performing difficult or new tasks, however, one performs worse. (ex. you are a professional basketball player and perform better in games when being watched by thousands than in practice)

Environmental Influences

In addition to just PARENTAL INFLUENCE (affect attitudes, manners, faith, etc.), also includes PRENATAL ENVIRONMENT (mother's use of drugs and/or illnesses that affect the fetus), EXPERIENCE and BRAIN DEVELOPMENT (enriched environment and stimulating experience develops neural connections in brain), PEER INFLUENCE (affect ideas on cooperation, popularity, interaction, etc.), GENDER (gender roles, identity, etc), CULTURE (entail what is expected and accepted through norms and customs), and other external factors that determine one's behavior and self.

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, learning to give the UCR (CR) to the NS (CS) by pairing the NS and the UCS. In most cases, the NS must come before the UCS for conditioning to occur, with roughly a half second gap in between. For example, Pavlov used a tuning fork to acquire the conditioned response of the dogs.

Relative Size

In relation to familiar objects, it provides a cue to their distance when the closer of two same-size objects casts a larger image on your retina than the farther one.

Maladaptive Coping Strategies

Include aggression, indulging ourselves by eating, drinking, smoking, using drugs, spending money, or sleeping too much, or using defense mechanisms.

Adaptive Coping Strategies

Include taking direct action through problem solving, exercising, seeking the social support of friends, finding help through religious organizations and prayer, and accepting the problem. Relaxation, visualization, meditation, and biofeedback can help lessen the effects of stress in our lives and boost our immunes systems.

Inner Ear

Includes the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs. The cochlea, which is caused to vibrate by the stirrup of the middle ear, contains basilar membranes with hair cells that are bent by the vibrations and transduce the mechanical energy into the electrochemical energy of neural impulses. The hair cells synapse with the auditory nerve which sends the message to the thalamus.

Motivation

Includes the influences that account for the initiation, direction, intensity, and persistence of our behavior. Explains why we do what we do.

Outer Ear

Includes the pinna, the visible portion of the ear; the auditory canal, the opening into the head; and the eardrum or tympanic membrane. This channels sound waves to the ear drum, which vibrates with the sound waves and causes the three tiny bones of the middle ear to vibrate.

Middle Ear

Includes three tiny bones called the ossicles: the hammer, anvil, and stirrup. These are caused to vibrate by the eardrum, and the vibrating stirrup pushes against the oval window of the cochlea in the inner ear.

Misinformation Effect

Incorporation of misleading information into memories of a given event. Likely the result of reconstruction in which our brain adds or changes details to complete a memory, although what is added is not true.

Mere Exposure Effect

Increased liking for a person or another stimulus resulting from repeated presentation or exposure. Essentially, we grow to like someone the more that we are around them.

Hunger

Increases with stomach contractions caused by low blood sugar and high insulin levels detected by receptors in the digestive system that that stimulate the lateral hypothalamus (LH). Also influenced by environmental factors such as the sight and smell of desired foods, and stress. Stimulation of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) stops eating behavior.

Feature Detectors

Individual neurons in the primary visual cortex/occipital lobes (in the brain, not the eye) that respond to specific features of a visual stimulus such as edges, angles, length, etc.

Dispositional Factors

Individual personality characteristics that affect a person's behavior. Specifically, the largest factor that influences one's obedience.

Between-Subjects Design

Individuals in the control and experimental groups are different people.

Top-Down Processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes as we construct perceptions drawing on our pre-existing knowledge, experiences, expectations, biases, etc. (ex. being able to read a sentence with every third letter missing)

Bottom-Up Processing

Information processing that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information to construct perceptions. (ex. viewing six flags and finally deciding which is the American flag)

Archetypes

Inherited memories or common themes found in all cultures, religions, and literature both ancient and modern and composing the collective unconscious, according to Jung. (ex. the hero or the villain)

Instinct(s)

Innate, automatic disposition toward responding in a particular way when confronted with a particular stimulus. If it is helpful towards survival, it is genetically passed down through a species. (ex. birds build nests, and do it perfectly the first time because it is engrained in their genetic code)

Case Studies

Intensive investigation of the behavior and mental process associated with a specific person or situation.

Assimilation

Interpreting new information in terms of an existing schema. (ex. calling a moose a cow based on your information of cows)

Development Disorders

Involve disturbances in learning, language, and motor or social skills showing up in infancy, childhood, or adolescence. Include intellectual disability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder.

Antimanic Drugs

Involved in biological therapy to reduce manic activity. Examples include lithium, which is used to treat bipolar disorder and usually sees results within a week.

Antipsychotics

Involved in biological therapy, including the use of powerful medicine that blocks dopamine inhibitors to lessen agitation, reduce tension, decrease hallucinations and delusions, produce better sleep behavior, and improve social behavior (ex. to treat schizophrenia). However, extreme side effects often cause patients to abandon treatment and return to the presence of psychotic behavior.

Thalamus

Involved in encoding sensory memory into the STM (part of brain).

Antianxiety Drugs (Tranquilizers)

Involved in psychopharmacotherapy and biological therapy, including the use of drugs that increase the availability of GABA to the limbic and reticular activating systems to lessen the arousal that causes anxiety.

Antidepressants

Involved in psychopharmacotherapy and biological therapy, including the use of medication that elevates mood by making neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and/or dopamine more available at the synapse to the postsynaptic neurons by blocking reuptake.

Stimulants

Involved in psychopharmacotherapy and biological therapy, including the use of psychoactive drugs that activate motivational centers, reduce activity in the central nervous system, and increase the activity of neurotransmitter systems.

Psychotherapy

Involves an emotionally charged, confiding interaction between a trained therapist and a mental patient.

Excitation Transfer

Involves arousal from one experience being carried over to another independent situation when it triggers aggression. (ex. activity from your run causes your excess aggression when your brother insults you upon returning home)

Central Route of Persuasion (Direct)

Involves attitudes changing when interested people focus on the scientific evidence/arguments and respond with favorable thoughts.

Meta-Analysis

Involves combining the results of many studies to reach a larger conclusion.

Link Method

Involves forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together. (ex. applying shaving cream to newspaper while putting up my umbrella)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Involves prolonged, vague, and unexplained but intense fears that are not attached to a particular source or object. Must occur for at least 6 months and causes impairment in social or occupational life. More common among women than men, becomes evident in the late teens and 20s, and is experienced by 4.1 to 6.6 percent of the population.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Involves recurrent, unwanted thoughts or ideas or compelling urges (obsessions) to engage in repetitive, ritual-like behavior (compulsions). Victims are so unsure and don't trust themselves, which causes them to do things repeatedly. Involves high metabolic activity in frontal lobe areas associated with directing attention. (ex. an obsession with the presence of germs and an unsureness if there are germs on you that causes you to continually wash your hands)

Selection Effect

Kids choose friends similar to themselves in the "important ways" such as personality and appearance.

ACh (Acetylcholine)

Lack of this neurotransmitter is associated with Alzheimer's disease.

SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Light therapy is primarily used to treat which mood disorder?

Retina

Light-sensitive surface in the back of the eye containing rods and cones that transduce light energy. Also has layers of bipolar cells and ganglion cells that transmit visual information to the brain. Forms an image from the incoming light that has passed through the eye.

Déja Vu

Literally means "I've done this before," and involves cues from a current situation (context) unconsciously triggering retrieval of an earlier similar experience.

Triplett

Looked at the effect of an audience when learners had learned a task well or were just beginning to learn it. Found that well-learned tasks were enhanced by an audience while newly learned tasks were impaired when an audience was present. (social facilitation and impairment)

ELM (Elaboration Likelihood Model)

Looks at attitudinal change through two routes; central or peripheral.

(Kelly's) Personal Construct Theory

Looks at how we develop bipolar mental constructs to judge and predict others' behavior.

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

Looks at our changes in our interactions and understanding of one another as well as in our knowledge and understanding of ourselves as members of society. Shows development across the life span in a social context in 8 sequential stages, EACH OF WHICH provide us with a crisis to resolve.

Social Development

Looks at the influence of others on the development of a person.

Medical Model

Looks at the physical causes of disorder, including the steps of etiology (causation and development of the disorder), diagnosis (identifying and distinguishing one disease from another), treatment, and prognosis (forecast of the disorder).

Nerve (Sensorineural) Deafness

Loss of hearing that results from damage to the cochlea, hair cells, or auditory neurons. This may be the result of disease, aging, or continued exposure to loud sound. Cochlear implants may restore some hearing because they can translate sounds into electrical signals, which are wired into the cochlea's nerves, conveying some information to the brain about incoming sounds (not like real hearing). This is permanent.

Conduction Deafness

Loss of hearing that results from the eardrum being punctured or any of the ossicles losing their ability to vibrate. A person with this can still hear if vibrations reach the cochlea by a way other than through the middle ear. A hearing aid may restore hearing by amplifying the vibrations conducted by other facial bones to the cochlea.

Deindividuation ("Mob Mentality")

Loss of self-awareness and self-restraint in group situations that promote high arousal and anonymity. (ex. when part of a riot, you feel less accountable for committing illegal actions because you feel as simply a part of the larger whole that cannot be pointed out)

Norepinephrine

Low levels of this neurotransmitter are associated with depression while excess levels are associated with stress.

Sexual Response Cycle

MASTERS and JOHNSON brought sex to the laboratory and found a common pattern of four sexual stages: arousal, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. The entire cycle takes place far slower for women.

Door-in-the-Face (Technique)

Making a very large request first that we deny makes us feel obligated to accept a smaller request later. (ex. asking your parents to go on a trip to Europe, which they deny as ridiculous, and then asking to simply go to Chicago, which they will accept because it sounds so much better)

Klinefelter's (Syndrome)

Males that arise from an XXY zygote. This becomes evident at puberty when male secondary sex characteristics fail to develop, but breast tissue does.

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)

Malfunctions with this neurotransmitter are associated with anxiety disorders and Huntington's disease.

Experiment

Manipulation of IV under controlled conditions and measurement of its effects on DV.

Quasi-Experiment(s)

Measurement of a DV when random assignment to groups is not possible (ex. testing the behavioral differences between men and women, young and old, etc.). Used because it would be unethical to test with random assignment (ex. assigning pregnant women randomly to a group that either receives a placebo or actual cocaine).

Standard Deviation (SD)

Measures the average differences between each score and the mean of the data set. Calculated by finding the sum of each term minus the mean squared, dividing this sum by the number of items minus one, and then square rooting this quotient.

Psychiatrists

Medical doctors that can prescribe medication and perform surgery. Usually follow the biological approach in treatment.

Photoreceptors

Modified neurons that convert light energy to electrochemical neural impulses. They include rods and cones, and form the first layer of the retina in the back (image hits the back and works its way forward from these to the bipolar to the ganglion cells).

Night Terrors

Most frequently a childhood sleep disruption characterized by sudden arousal from sleep accompanied by physiological reactions. Not the same as a nightmare or bad dream; simply seeing images. Occurs usually during the first cycle.

Sleepwalking (somnambulism)

Most frequently a childhood sleep disruption that occurs during stage 4 of sleep, characterized by trips out of bed or carrying on of complex activities. Typically, sufferers do not recall anything in the morning.

Mode

Most frequently occurring score in a set of research data.

Deep Processing

Mostly semantic encoding that involves forming an association or attaching meaning to sensory impression and results in longer-lasting memories.

Motor/Efferent (Neurons)

Multipolar neurons that transmit impulses/messages from the Central Nervous System (brain) to muscle cells that contract or gland cells that secrete. (ex. allows your brain to tell your legs to back away from a fire)

Sex

Necessary for survival of the species, but not the individual (if we don't do it, we don't die). Testosterone levels in humans seem related to sexual motivation in both sexes, in addition to the luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormones which cause stimulation in the gonads.

Optic Nerve

Nerve formed by the ganglion cell axons; carries the neural impulses from the eye to the thalamus of the brain.

Reticular Formation (Reticular Activating System)

Neural network in brainstem (medulla and pons) and midbrain essential to the regulation of sleep, wakefulness, arousal, and attention.

Biological Perspective (on Abnormal Behavior)

Neurochemical and/or hormonal imbalances, genetic predispositions, and structural damage to brain parts, and/or faulty processing of information by the brain causes abnormal behavior.

Neonate

Newborn baby from birth to 1 month old; shows reflexive behavior.

Depolarization

Occurs when positively charged sodium ions (Na+) rush into the neuron and make it more susceptible to firing an action potential.

Figure-Ground (Relationship)

Organization of the visual field into the objects (figure) that stand out from their surroundings (ground). A Gestalt principle.

Theories

Organized sets of concepts that explain phenomena.

Psychoanalytical (Psychodynamic) Approach

Originated with Sigmund Freud, who emphasized unconscious motivations and conflicts, and the importance of early childhood experiences in his psychosexual stages of development. Continued with Neo-Freudians that also believed in early development but saw it as more social and less sexual.

Consciousness

Our awareness of the outside world and of ourselves, including our own mental processes, thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Enables you to analyze, compare, and interpret experiences, and allows you to integrate what you already know, perceive, and anticipate. Can be altered by sleep, hypnosis, meditation, and drugs.

Self-Efficacy

Our belief that we can perform behaviors that are necessary to accomplish tasks and that we are competent. Has a profound impact on a person's behavior although not actually considered a trait because it changes drastically on the basis of different situations.

Cognitive Appraisal Theory

Our emotional experience depends on our interpretation of the situation we are in. Primary appraisal involves assessing potential consequences, and secondary appraisal involves assessing what we should do.

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 while this is more beneficial in collectivist societies for achievement of group goals.

Attitudes

Our predisposition to respond in a certain way (favorably or unfavorably) to certain people, objects, or events. Social psychologists believe this is composed of cognitive (set of beliefs about something), affective (feelings about something), and behavioral (way people act toward something) factors.

Conflict

PERCEIVED incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas. Can cause a destructive cycle with social traps and distorted perceptions.

Gate-Control Theory

Pain is experienced only if the pain messages can pass through a gate in the spinal cord on their route to the brain. The gate is opened by substance P, a neurotransmitter that carries pain signals, and the message is sent to the brain.

Peripheral Route of Persuasion

Pairs superficial positive factors (supermodels, celebrities, athletes, etc.) with an argument leading to less stable change in attitude.

Lateral Hypothalamus (LH)

Part of the brain that brings on hunger and tells you to start eating. If destroyed, the animal would never know of its hunger needs and would starve.

Ventromedial Hypothalamus (VMH)

Part of the brain that depresses your hunger stimulation and tells you to stop eating. If destroyed, the animal would never know when to stop eating and would overeat to death.

Cerebral Cortex

Part of the brain that interprets events and associates them with memory and feeling. While the right hemisphere specializes in negative emotions, the left specializes in positive emotions.

Nucleus

Part of the neuron contained within the cell body that provides energy for the neuron to carry out its functions.

Conscience

Part of the superego that punishes us by making us feel guilty.

Ego-Ideal

Part of the superego that rewards us by making us proud of ourselves.

Superego

Partly belongs to the conscious and partly to the unconscious and is composed of the conscience that punishes us by making us feel guilty, and the ego-ideal that rewards us by making us feel proud of ourselves. Guided by the MORAL PRINCIPLE.

Ego

Partly belongs to the conscious and partly to the unconscious and mediates between instinctual needs and conditions of the environment to maintain our life and ensure that our species lives on; guided by the REALITY PRINCIPLE and functions as the "executive between the devil and angel perspectives."

Cocktail Party Effect

People gather more from a conversation if it contains their name.

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving an object as unchanging even when the immediate sensation of the object changes.

Refractory Period

Period after the neuron fires in which it pauses to recharge itself in order to fire again. At this time, the neuron cannot fire again until it has achieved homeostasis (sodium ions have moved out and potassium ions have returned back in).

Early (and Middle) Adulthood

Period from 20 to 65 years of age that is centered on one's career and sees them experience a "midlife" transition around 40 in which they question their accomplishments and must come to terms with an impending death. Also contains marriage and development of life with another person and potential family, although this may end in divorce and result in remarriage. A high percentage of women with children have jobs outside of the home but often come home and do the majority of house work and cleaning.

Late Adulthood

Period from 65 years of age and beyond that is characterized primarily by physical changes such as the thinning and graying of hair, the wrinkling of the skin, slight loss in height, and slowing in functionality and loss of sensitivity of the senses. Fluid intelligence (ability to adapt in unfamiliar situations) decreases while crystallized intelligence (wisdom and knowledge) remains steady. Although neural processing does slow, memory does not necessarily decline naturally and rather it just takes the brain longer to process memories, resulting in some loss of episodic memory. Usually naturally entails some social withdrawal to provide opportunity for reflection and less emotional investment, although it may be better to stay more involved and active to replicate when we once thrived.

Prenatal Development

Period of development that begins with fertilization, or conception, and ends with birth.

Phobia

Persistent and irrational fear of specific objects or situations, such as animals or enclosed spaces, that disrupts behavior. Patients know exactly what their are afraid of, but their worry is out of proportion with reality. (ex. a specific and massive fear of heights that prevents you from flying in a plane)

Psychological Dependence

Person has intense desire to achieve the drugged state in spite of adverse effects.

Type B

Personalities that are more relaxed and calm in their approach to life and who do not become stressed easily, get anxious easily, or angered easily.

Type A

Personalities with traits of anger, hostility, and cynicism who are easily stressed out in most cases. High achievers, competitive, impatient, multi-taskers, who walk, talk, and eat quickly.

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.

Emotional Intelligence

Peter Salovey and John Mayer's construct defined as the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions; similar to Gardner's interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences.

Cones

Photoreceptors that detect COLOR and fine DETAIL in daylight or in bright-light conditions. Most concentrated at the fovea of the retina; none are in the periphery.

Rods

Photoreceptors that detect black, white, and gray and that detect movement. These are necessary for peripheral and dim-light vision when cones do not respond. Distributed throughout the retina, except none are found in the fovea. There are far more of these than cones, and they explain why there is little color vision in the farthest periphery of our vision.

Reticular Formation

Plays an important role in controlling arousal involved in attention and sleep. A nerve network along the back of the brainstem.

Brain

Portion of the central nervous system above the spinal cord. According to the evolutionary model, it consists of the reptilian brain (medulla, pons, cerebellum), the old mammalian brain (limbic system, hypothalamus, thalamus), and the new mammalian brain (cerebral cortex). However, according to the developmental model, it consists of the hindbrain (medulla, pons, cerebellum), the midbrain (small regions with parts involved in eye reflexes and movements), and the forebrain (including the limbic system, hypothalamus, thalamus, and cerebral cortex).

Ventromedial (Hypothalamus)

Portion of the hypothalamus that tells you when to STOP eating. ("vomit")

Lateral (Hypothalamus)

Portion of the hypothalamus that tells you when you are hungry and should therefore START eating. ("let's eat!")

PNS (Peripheral Nervous System)

Portion of the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord that connects them to the rest of the body; includes all of the sensory and motor neurons, and subdivisions called the autonomic and somatic nervous systems.

Incentive Theory

Positive or negative environmental stimuli PULL us toward a goal. Beyond the primary motives of food, drink, and sex which push us toward a goal, secondary motives or external stimuli such as money, approval, and grades PULL us toward that goal. (ex. earning a dollar pulls us into doing our chores)

Shaping

Positively reinforcing closer and closer approximations of a desired behavior to teach a new behavior. Each reward comes when the learner gets a bit closer to the desired behavior. (ex. teaching a manatee to discriminate between objects of different shapes - have to teach step-by-step)

Egocentrism

Possessed by preschool children during Piaget's preoperational stage in which they only see the world from their own perspective and have the inability to see reality from the perspective of another person.

Brain Lesions

Precise destruction of brain tissue, enabling a more systematic study of the loss of function resulting from surgical removal (also called ablation), cutting of neural connections, or destruction by chemical applications.

Hypothesis

Prediction of how two or more factors are likely to be related. A testable prediction formatted in an "if...then..." statement.

(Biological) Preparedness

Predisposition to easily learn behaviors related to survival of the species. Also, behaviors contrary to natural tendencies are learned slowly or not at all.

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Preoccupation with an imagined or exaggerated defect in personal appearance (specifically characterized by imagination). This preoccupation is time consuming and is often tied to the shape or size of facial features, acne, wrinkles, etc. (ex. at an extreme, spending millions of dollars on plastic surgery to change and "perfect" every part of your body)

Hypochondriasis

Preoccupation with the idea that one has or might get a serious disease, along with misinterpretation of bodily systems or functions. Three primary characteristics include: 1) physiological arousal (worried, anxious, etc.), 2) bodily focus (close monitoring of bodily features and frequent physical complaints over nothing), and 3) behaviors designed to avoid or check for physical illness (avoids those with disease and continually self-inspects).

Projective (Personality) Tests

Presenting ambiguous stimuli, such as inkblots or pictures, with the assumption that the test taker will project their unconscious thoughts or feelings onto the stimuli. Examples include the Rorschach inkblot and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). CRITICIZED because they lack reliability (consistency of results) and validity (predict what they are supposed to).

Temporal Lobe(s)

Primary area for hearing (auditory cortex), storing long term memory, understanding language and music/tonality, and processing smell (includes Wernicke's area).

Occipital Lobe(s)

Primary area for processing visual information (visual cortex). Each part of this cortex corresponds to just one part of the retina, with all of these visual pieces coming together to form a whole.

Physiological Motives

Primary motives such as hunger, thirst, pain, and sex influenced by biological factors, environmental factors, and learned preferences and habits.

Priming

Procedure of providing cues that stimulate memories without awareness of the connection between the cue and the retrieved memory. Predisposes us to remember or interpret information in a certain way. (ex. seeing the picture of a bear and spelling out "bear" rather than "bare")

Reification

Process by which a construct is treated as a concrete, tangible object. (ex. attempting to define intelligence as a meaningful number, which psychologists believe cannot be done)

Accommodation

Process by which we modify our schemas to fit new information. (ex. seeing a baby moose, recognizing that it lacks the size and antlers of an adult, and adapting your schema of a moose to fit different ages)

Amygdala (Limbic System)

Processes emotion at the extreme end of aggression and fear. Unconsciously always alert for even subliminal threats. (ex. listens and hears for loud noises during the night, even when you are barely conscious)

Self-Reference Effect (or Self-Reference Encoding)

Processing information deemed important or relevant to ourselves more deeply, making it easier to recall.

Human Factors (Psychologists)

Promote the development and application of psychology to improve technology, consumer products, energy systems, communication and information, transportation, decision making, work settings, and living environments.

(Bandura's) Social Learning Theory

Proposed by Albert Bandura, and states that children LEARN gender-linked behaviors by observing and imitating, as well as through rewards and punishments. Research has shown that even despite parents discouraging traditional gender roles, children will still organize themselves into girls and boys based on what they learn and observe from cultural influences (ex. differences in types of toys that girls play with vs. boys).

Linguistic Determinism (Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis)

Proposed by Benjamin Whorf and states that language guides and determines our thinking. It is more accurate to say that language influences thought, and that our environment determines our perception. (ex. the Hopi people do not have a past verb tense, and therefore cannot think readily about the past)

g (General Intelligence)

Proposed by Charles Spearman that many clusters identifiable by factor analysis combine to form one underlying aspect of intelligence. (ex. clusters for verbal intelligence, spatial ability, reasoning ability, etc. combine to form an all-around intelligence) Research by Thurstone later showed that excelling in one cluster is associated with excelling in all others, partially proving the theory.

External Locus of Control

Proposed by Julian Rotter as perception that chance and outside forces determine one's fate.

Internal Locus of Control

Proposed by Julian Rotter as the perception that one controls their own destiny and fate. Research shows that people with this get better grades, are less likely to succumb to the pressure of others, and are more likely to engage in physical activity. Limited because there are some things that one simply cannot control, such as getting into a car accident that wasn't their fault.

Sociocultural Theory

Proposed by Lee Vygotsky, emphasizing the role of the environment (nurture) and gradual growth (continuity) in intellectual functioning.

Learned Helplessness

Proposed by Martin Seligman as the hopelessness and passive resignation learned when one is unable to avoid repeated traumatic events from which one cannot or feels that he or she cannot escape. Has no feeling of control over the situation and denies help even when it is offered. (ex. no matter how much I study, I am going to fail this test and class regardless so why would I even try)

(Elisabeth) Kubler-Ross

Proposed five stages of grief that all people face in the process of death and dying as well as in may other traumas during life, which include the following in no particular order: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Trichromatic (Young-Helmholtz) Theory

Proposed mechanism for color vision with cones that are differentially sensitive to different wavelengths of light; each color you see results from a specific ratio of activation among the three types of receptors sensitive to either red, green, or blue.

Opponent-Process Theory

Proposed mechanism for color vision with opposing retinal processes for red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black. Some retinal cells are stimulated by one of a pair and inhibited by the other.

Feature-Integration Theory

Proposes that detection of individual features of stimuli and integration into a whole occur sequentially in two different stages. First, detection of features involves bottom-up parallel processing, and second, integration of features involves less automatic, partially top-down serial processing.

Motivated Forgetting

Proposes that people unknowingly revise their memories. Essentially, signifies that we do not remember things that we don't WANT to remember. A FREUDIAN theory. (ex. repression)

Texture Gradient

Provides a cue to distance when closer objects have a coarser, more distinct texture than far away objects that appear more densely packed or smooth.

Linear Perspective

Provides a cue to distance when parallel lines, such as edges of sidewalks, seem to converge in the distance.

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic drugs that alter mood, distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input. Some users report profound, dreamlike feelings. Include LSD, PCP, and Marijuana (THC).

Behavioral Approach

Psychological perspective concerned with behavioral reactions to stimuli; learning as a result of experience. Supports psychology as a science because it relies on direct observation. Studies the ABCs of behavior (Antecedent conditions, Behavior, and Consequences of behavior on environment).

Sociocultural Approach

Psychological perspective concerned with how cultural differences affect behavior.

Evolutionary Approach

Psychological perspective concerned with how natural selection favored behaviors that contributed to survival and spread of our ancestors' genes: evolutionary psychologists take a Darwinian approach to the study of human behavior.

Cognitive Approach

Psychological perspective concerned with how we receive, store, and process information; think/reason; and use language.

Humanistic Approach

Psychological perspective concerned with individual potential for growth and the role of unique perceptions in growth toward one's potential. Believe that, under the correct circumstances, one can become self-actualized and reach their full potential.

Biological Approach

Psychological perspective concerned with physiological and biochemical factors that determine behavior and mental processes. How the body and brain enables, emotions, perceptions, and memory.

Individualation

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

Incubation

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

Within-Group Differences

Range of scores for variables being measured for a group of individuals. Greater than that between the group and others.

Self-Actualization

Reaching toward the best person we can be and attempting to fulfill our own unique potential. What Maslow believed was the ultimate goal of humans that is spoiled by the effects of the environment.

Deductive Reasoning

Reasoning from the general to the specific. Speculating about some members of a group based on all of them.

Inductive Reasoning

Reasoning from the specific to the general. Speculating about all members of a group based on some of them.

Subliminal Stimulation

Receiving messages below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness. The stimulus is not detected, but they may still have an impact. (ex. a different message of a song when listened to backward

Albinism

Recessive trait that produces lack of pigment and involves quivering eyes and inability to perceive depth with both eyes.

Tay-Sachs (Syndrome)

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

Antisocial

Refers to a person that still interacts with others, but does so in a way that results in a negative outcome.

Prosocial

Refers to someone that promotes and engages in social interaction that ends positively.

Sexual Orientation

Refers to the direction of an individual's interest emotionally and in sexual relationships. Although homosexuality was formerly listed as a mental health condition, it is now supported by most evidence as biological and genetic. Shown to run in families and is largely tied to prenatal hormones (fetuses exposed to high testosterone are attracted to females, while those exposed to high estrogen are attracted to males).

Intellectually Gifted

Refers to those that have IQ score above 130-135. Research shows that these people do well in school, stay healthy, and are generally happy as they continue on a path of success; however, they may be more susceptible to certain physical and psychological disorders and often lead ordinary, undistinguished lives.

Intelligence

Regardless of cultural differences, refers to the global capacity to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the environment.

Reinforcement

Regardless of whether it is positive or negative, always INCREASES the probability that a certain behavior will occur.

Synapse

Region of communication found in the gap between the terminal buttons of the pre-synaptic "sending" neuron and the dendrites of the post-synaptic "receiving" neuron over which the terminal buttons send the message.

Blind Spot

Region of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye so there are no receptor cells; creates an area with no vision.

Medulla (Oblongata)

Regulates heart rhythm and blood flow as well as breathing rate. Found towards the base of the brainstem.

Variable Ratio

Reinforcement (schedule) of a particular behavior after a number of responses that changes at random. HOW MUCH behavior for reinforcement CHANGES. MOST RESISTANT to extinction because of unpredictability. (ex. gamblers will pull the lever of a slot machine hundreds of times as their anticipation of the eventual award becomes stronger)

Fixed Ratio

Reinforcement (schedule) of a particular behavior after a specific number of responses. Used in ratio schedules. Know HOW MUCH behavior for reinforcement. (ex. buy 10, get one free)

Variable Interval

Reinforcement (schedule) of the particular response made after a length of time that changes at random. WHEN behavior is reinforced CHANGES. (ex. if your teacher gives pop quizzes, you will study every night in anticipation)

Fixed Interval

Reinforcement of the particular response made after a specific length of time. Results in lots of behavior as time for reinforcement approaches, but little behavior until the next time approaches. Know WHEN behavior is reinforced. (ex. getting paid every two weeks)

Self-Referent Encoding

Relating information to ourselves, making it personally meaningful and more durable in terms of storage capability.

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Relatively permanent storage with unlimited capacity that is filed and coded for retrieval when necessary. Subdivided into explicit (declarative) memory and implicit memory.

Omission Training (Negative Punishment)

Removal of a rewarding consequence that follows a voluntary behavior thereby decreasing the probability the behavior will be repeated. (ex. taking away a student's right to be a part of the class and placing them on time-out)

Negative Reinforcement

Removal of an aversive consequence (taking away a stimulus) that follows a voluntary behavior thereby increasing the probability the behavior will be repeated; two types include escape and avoidance. (ex. if you take an aspirin that makes your headache disappear, you are more likely to take one the next time you have a headache)

Extinction

Repeatedly presenting a CS without a UCS leads to return of the NS. (ex. after dogs have been conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell, the strength of this response weakens with continued presentation of only the bell)

Replication

Repetition of the methods used in a previous experiment to see whether the same methods will yield the same results.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Repetition that creates associations between the new memory and existing memories stored in the LTM.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Repetition that keeps information in the STM about 20 seconds.

Double-Blind (Procedure)

Research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group. Eliminates bias from both parties and potential confounding variables.

Single-Blind (Procedure)

Research design in which participants do not know whether they are in the experimental or control group. Eliminates bias and potential confounding variables.

Density

Research studies show that the brain does not have to be large for someone to be intelligent, but that rather it must have this quality and possess a greater concentration of gray matter in neural networks. Also have shown about a +0.40 correlation between brain size and intelligence.

Brainstem

Responsible for automatic survival functions. The oldest part of the brain beginning where the spinal chord swells and enters the skull.

Frontal Lobe(s)

Responsible for: judgment, planning, producing speech (includes Broca's area), controlling emotion, determining personality and temperament, and coordinating movement (with motor cortex).

Motor Cortex

Responsible for: voluntary movement of the parts of the body. Movements precise and delicate, such as those of the hands, are controlled by much larger portions of this region. Electrical stimulation of a given part causes the movement of a corresponding body part. (part of frontal lobe)

Color-Blindness

Results from a lack of chemical usually produced by one or more types of cones that prevents discrimination between certain colors, most commonly red and green. More often possessed by males because it is a sex-linked trait that results from a defective gene on the X-chromosome.

Sleep Deprivation

Results from not getting enough sleep, and can cause: difficulty focusing, diminished productivity, greater tendency to make mistakes, irritability and fatigue, diminished immune system, and even hallucinations.

Asperger's (Disorder/Syndrome)

Results in impairment of social interaction, restricted interests and repetitive behavior, yet no significant delays in language or cognitive development (on the milder end of the autism spectrum). Usually have average or above average IQ and not diagnosed until school age. Characterized by interest in objects other than people, routine oriented, motor clumsiness (awkward walking, trouble throwing/catching balls), etc.

Recall

Retrieval of information from the LTM in the absence of any other information or cues using effort. (ex. an essay question or fill-in on a test)

Reconstruction (Memory Construction)

Retrieval that can be distorted by adding, dropping, or changing details to complete a picture from incomplete stored information (to fit a schema).

Fully Functioning

Roger's term for self-actualization. Believed we must merge our ideal and real selfs and to accept ourselves to attain this.

Self-Concept

Rogers' belief of how we all overall view our own abilities, behavior, and personality. Immature in youth but broadened and individualized with age.

Continuous Reinforcement

Schedule that provides reinforcement following the particular behavior EVERY TIME it is exhibited; necessary for acquisition of a new behavior. However, even failing to reinforce the behavior once can result in extinction of behavior.

Acute (or Reactive) Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia that is quick to develop and which offers great opportunity for recovery. Such schizophrenics show positive symptoms.

Chronic (or Process) Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia that is slow to develop and recovery is doubtful. Such schizophrenics display negative symptoms.

Applied Research

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems with the use of psychological concepts and includes such subfields as industrial/organizational, engineering and human factors, counseling, clinical, positive, community, and other psychologists.

Bipolar Cells

Second layer of neurons in the retina that transmit impulses from rods and cones to ganglion cells. One of these pairs with one cone (allowing for clarity and color) or many rods.

Remembering

Second stage in Bandura's theory of observational learning in which we recall the behavior that we perceived.

Behavioral Rehearsal

Second step of social skills training in which the client practices appropriate social skills in a structured situation that is reinforces by the therapist.

Individualism

Shared by Western cultures that put more emphasis on independent self and believe that people are defined by personal values, personal goals, and personal attributes.

Collectivism

Shared by most Asian and African cultures that put more emphasis on the collective self and believe people are defined by their connections with family and friends and believe the goals of the group are a larger priority than individual goals.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Shorter than traditional psychoanalysis and involves the client talking directly with the therapist who points out and interprets associations to help gain insight on the unresolved conflict.

Twin Studies

Show that correlation of IQ score between identical twins is much higher than that of fraternal twins or other siblings, even when raised in separate households (favoring nature). Also show a far higher correlation of children's intelligence to their biological parents rather than their adoptive parents. Suggesting there is a significant genetic contribution to intelligence.

Social Dilemma

Situations in which selfish behavior that benefits individuals in the short run may spell disaster for an entire group in the long run. (ex. the "Prisoner's Dilemma" that depends on cooperation that is not an option)

(Edward) Tolman

Showed evidence of cognition in operant learning and displayed latent learning through his experiment with rats, which showed that mice given the ability to wander around a maze were able to form a cognitive map without reinforcement and solved the maze later far faster than other mice not given the opportunity to wander.

fMRI (Functional MRI)

Shows brain activity (FUNCTION) by changes in oxygen concentration near active neurons which alter magnetic qualities that are monitored, recorded, and displayed via the colors of the rainbow.

PET (Positron Emission Tomography)

Shows brain activity (FUNCTION) when radioactively tagged glucose rushes to active neurons and emits positrons.

Statistical Significance (p)

Shows that the relationship observed is NOT due to chance. The condition that exists when the probability that the observed findings are due to chance is less than 1 to 20 (p < 0.05) according to some psychologists, or less than 1 in 100 (p < 0.01) according to those with more stringent standards.

Wish Fulfillment

Sigmund Freud's theory suggesting that dreams provide a safety valve to discharge unconscious wants and desires.

Passive Processing

Simply trying to memorize a piece of information to remember it right now, with no real processing involved.

Parallel Processing

Simultaneously analyzing different elements of visual sensory information, such as color, brightness, shape, etc.

Multiple Approach-Avoidance Conflicts

Situations involving several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects. Difficult to resolve because it may be hard to compare the options. (ex. which college to attend among a pool of five)

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts

Situations involving two negative options, one of which we must choose. Very difficult to resolve and often creates intense emotions. (ex. declaring bankruptcy or selling your family into slavery)

Approach-Approach Conflicts

Situations involving two positive options, only one of which we can have. Difficulty in making decision increases with its importance. (ex. being accepted to both Harvard and Yale)

Approach-Avoidance Conflicts

Situations involving whether or not to choose an option that has both a positive and negative consequence or consequences. Difficult to resolve and often results in long period of indecision. (ex. ordering a large dessert ruins your diet but satisfies your craving)

Social Trap(s)

Situations where we pursue our own personal interests at the expense of the group's collective well-being.

NREM (Non-REM Sleep)

Sleep stages 1-4 without rapid eye movement.

Freudian Slip

Slips of the tongue that Sigmund Freud believed to be the surfacing of our true unconscious thoughts. (ex. seeing "organism" and saying "orgasm")

Pupil

Small adjustable opening in the iris that is smaller in bright light and larger in darkness. The third thing that incoming light passes through when entering the eye.

Fovea

Small area of the retina in the most direct line of sight where cones are most concentrated for highest visual acuity in bright light.

Phonemes

Smallest units of sound in spoken language. (ex bat consists of three of these: b - a - t)

Frontal Lobes

Smell/olfactory information is processed in the lower portion of these lobes at the Olfactory Cortex. (and on the lateral side of the temporal lobes)

Social Roles

Socially defined patterns of behavior that are expected of persons in a given setting or group. These prescribe your behavior by making it clear what you should do, how you should do it, and when.

Sexual Scripts

Socially learned programs of sexual interpretation and responsiveness taken from one's CULTURE.

Primary Reinforcer

Something that is biologically important and, thus, rewarding. (ex. food and drink)

Secondary (Conditioned) Reinforcer

Something that is rewarding because it is associated with a primary reinforcer. (ex. money, grades, etc.)

Nodes of Ranvier

Spaces between segments of myelin on the axons of neurons in which the message depolarizes.

Norms

Standards used to compare the scores of test takers that are acquired via standardization and piloting a given test on a representative sample of people.

Hypnosis

State with deepened relaxation, heightened suggestibility, increased awareness, and focused attention. Cannot make the subject do something against their will or make them remember long forgotten events, but can motivate them with the phrasing of questions and form memories through combining fact with fiction. Can have therapeutic benefits by convincing the subject to do something with more suggestibility (ex. stop smoking) that they then will carry out.

Daydreaming

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

(Reinforcement) Schedule

States HOW and WHEN reinforcers will be given to the learner.

Disengagement Theory (of Aging)

States that aging naturally produces a gradual withdrawal from the world on physical, psychological, and social levels. Provides an opportunity for more reflection and less emotional investment at a time when people are dying off and relationships are ending.

Set Point Theory

States that everyone has a sort of predisposed/preset body weight that the lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus work to maintain. If the weight is exceeded, the body will trigger less eating and more energy expenditure by increasing the basal metabolic rate (resting metabolism), and if weights goes below it, the opposite will happen.

Frustration-Aggression Principle

States that frustration, which is caused by being blocked from achieving a certain goal, creates anger and therefore aggression. Essentially, people must be frustrated first before becoming aggressive. Shown to be a bit simplistic, but aggression is linked to a negative affect.

Optimum Arousal Theory

States that human motivation aims not to eliminate arousal but to seek optimum levels of arousal. We generally aim to increase arousal when it is too low (bored) and decrease arousal when it is too high (stressed). (ex. some people are most comfortable watching tv on the couch while others prefer exercise or daring activities)

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

States that moral thinking develops in stages as cognitive abilities develop and proposed dilemmas help people reason at different levels, with 3 levels divided into 6 sequential stages. These levels do not correspond to age, although it is thought that one must be 13 to reach the highest level based on cognitive capability. Criticized because it focuses on males, and women rarely reach the highest stages. Women follow an ethic of care, rather than justice.

Bandura's Theory (of Observational Learning)

States that observational learning occurs in four stages: attention, remembering, reproduction, and motivation.

Empathy-Altruism Theory

States that people help for completely altruistic reasons and are motivated to step in and help by their desire to increase another person's well being, dependent upon their amount of empathy for them.

Social Exchange Theory

States that people help in order to reduce the unpleasant arousal and feelings caused by another person's distress. However, at the same time, they attempt to minimize the cost and effort required in doing this deed and will do so accordingly. Also influenced by clarity of the need for help (if someone is about to die, we will help),

Activity Theory (of Aging)

States that people who age most successfully are those who maintain their interests, activities, and level of social interaction they experienced during middle adulthood. Should reflect a continuation of the times when they were "thriving."

James-Lange Theory

States that physiological activity and stimulation is what leads to and causes emotional experience. Entails stimulus - physiological arousal - emotion. (ex. stimulus: see a man outside your window - physiological arousal: sympathetic nervous system activates heavy breathing, increased pulse, etc. - emotion: experience of fear)

Scapegoat Theory

States that prejudice is an outlet for anger and emotion by providing someone to blame. The emotional basis of prejudice. (ex. many Americans blamed Arabs for the events of 9/11 directly following its occurrence)

(Principle of) Similarity

States that related/alike stimuli tend to be perceived as parts of the same pattern.

Catharsis Hypothesis

States that releasing aggressive energy relieves aggressive urges. Research has shown that expressing anger can be temporarily calming, but it usually does not clear feelings of rage and can lead to anger as a habitual behavior. Best to physiologically calm ourselves before reacting with significant anger.

Cannon-Bard Theory

States that the thalamus sends information to the limbic system and cerebral cortex SIMULTANEOUSLY, so that conscious experience of emotion accompanies physiological processes. We experience emotion and physiological stimuli at the same time. (ex. stimulus of seeing man outside your window leads to SIMULTANEOUS experience of fear and physiological activity of perspiration, increased pulse, etc.)

Atkinson-Schiffrin Model

States that there are three memory systems - SENSORY memory, SHORT-TERM memory, and LONG-TERM memory.

Null Hypothesis

States that there is NO relationship between two sets of data. (ex. "There is no relationship between the number of lost workdays and the years of experience.") Used because, until the research SHOWS that there is a relationship, the researcher must assume that any relationship present is due to chance.

(Bandura's) Reciprocal Determinism

States that three types of factors all affect one another in explaining our behavior, personality characteristics, and cognitive processes: cognitive (internal) factors, behaviors, and environmental factors. (ex. you believe that hard work will benefit your future (cognitive), so you work hard to get good grades (behavior) and are praised by your family and admired by peers (environmental)) Also states that the individual can interact with their environment in three ways: choosing different environments, reacting to events based on our personality, and creating situations to which we react.

(Schachter-Singer) Two-Factor Theory

States that we determine an emotion from BOTH our physiological arousal AND our cognitive label. (ex. stimulus of seeing a man in the dark ally causes the physiological activity of higher pulse, perspiration, etc.; however, cognitive interpretation of man waving at you and smiling causes the emotion of happiness rather than fear)

(Principle of) Closure

States that we tend to fill in gaps and patterns, which is not limited to only vision and occurs in other cases such as music.

(Principle of) Continuity

States that we tend to group stimuli into forms that follow continuous lines or patterns.

Yerkes-Dodson Law

States that, for easy tasks, moderately high arousal is optimal; for difficult tasks, moderately low is optimal; and for most average tasks, a moderate level of arousal is optimal.

Abnormal Behavior

Statistically rare, violates cultural norms, personally interferes with day-to-day living, and legally may cause a person to be unable to know right from wrong (insanity).

Inferential Statistics

Statistics that allow estimation of what is happening in a sample population for the purpose of making decisions about that population's characteristics. (ex. if the medication worked for the sample, we estimate that it will have the same effect on the rest of the population)

(Stimulus) Generalization

Stimuli similar to the CS also elicit the CR without training. (ex. fearing all dogs after being bitten by one of them and conditioned to fear it)

Stressor(s)

Stimuli we perceive as endangering to our well-being and that require adaptation in response.

Personal Unconscious

Storehouse of our own past memories, instincts, and urges. Contains complexes of emotional thought that influence our attitude.

Significant Life Events (Changes)

Stressful changes in our lives to which we must adjust. (ex. death of a loved one, marriage, starting college, etc.)

Shallow Processing

Structural encoding emphasizes the structure of incoming sensory information. Assigned no relevance and not remembered.

Lens

Structure behind the pupil that changes shape, becoming more spherical or flatter to focus on incoming rays into an image on the light-sensitive retina. The fourth thing that incoming light passes through when entering the eye.

Synaptic Vesicles

Structures within the terminal buttons that store neurotransmitters.

Glial Cells

Supportive cells of the nervous system that guide the growth of developing neurons, help provide nutrition for and get rid of wastes of neurons, and form an insulating sheath around neurons that speeds conduction.

Positive Symptoms

Symptoms that ADD to normal functions. In schizophrenia, distortion or excess of normal functions tend to be most frequent in the first stages or early episodes of the disorder. (ex. delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech ("word salad") and behavior (compulsive actions such as continually rubbing the arm), etc.)

Negative Symptoms

Symptoms that TAKE away from normal functions. A symptom of schizophrenia that include the "flat affect" (avoiding eye contact, monotone voice, expressionless, etc.), poverty of speech (long lapses and slowed speech), and lack of directedness (slowed movement and lack of interest in social interaction).

Major Depressive Disorder

Symptoms, which must last for at least 2 weeks without a cause, include depressed mood or loss of interest, marked weight gain/loss, sleeping problems, agitated or slowed behavior, etc. Biologically caused by insufficient amounts of neurotransmitters SEROTONIN, NOREPINEPHRINE, and DOPAMINE, and social-cognitively caused the "Depression Cycle."

Orgasm

THIRD stage of the Sexual Response Cycle in which contractions and sexual release occur all over the body, and breathing, pulse, and blood pressure increase even further.

Parietal Lobes

Taste information is processed at the Primary Gustatory Cortex in this lobes.

Sleep Apnea

Temporary cessations of breathing that awaken the sufferer repeatedly during the night. Most often results from the obstruction or collapse of air passages, which occurs more frequently in obese people. Weight loss, sleeping on the side, and the use of a positive pressure pump that provides a steady flow of air through a face mask can help alleviate the problem.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Tendency when judging the behavior of others to overestimate the role of personal (internal disposition) factors and underestimate situational factors. (ex. believe that person dropped her food on the floor and didn't pick it up because she is lazy and inconsiderate, not even considering her broken back from a recent car accident)

joy, interest/excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, guilt

The 10 basic emotions proposed by Carroll Izard.

Gender-Type(d)

The ACQUISITION of a masculine or feminine role. How you acquire your gender identity, which includes what you do or learn in order to be masculine or feminine.

Olfaction

The CHEMICAL sense of smell detected by olfactory receptors on the roof of the nasal cavity. Molecules reach the membrane through the nostrils or mouth, binding to receptor sites and causing an action potential. The sensory info is then transmitted to the hypothalamus and structures of the limbic system (hippocampus) associated with memory and emotion, as well as directly to the primary olfactory cortex on the underside of the frontal lobes. NO PATHWAYS TO THE THALAMUS.

Gustation

The CHEMICAL sense of taste detected by receptor cells in taste buds in papillae on the tongue, on the roof of the mouth, and in the throat. Molecules must dissolve in saliva or liquid to be sensed. Taste messages travel to the brainstem, thalamus, and primary gustatory cortex, of which different regions are activated by receptors for different tastes.

CR

The CS results in the ...

Safety Needs

The SECOND level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs which includes protection, security, order, law, limits, stability, etc.

Storage

The SECOND process of memory that involves the retention of encoded information over time. Involved in three stores of memory: sensory, short-term/working, and long-term.

Self-Actualization

The FIFTH (top) level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs which includes personal growth and fulfillment of potential.

Biological (and Physiological) Needs

The FIRST (bottom) level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs which includes basic life needs such as food, air, water, shelter, warmth, sex, sleep, etc.

Encoding

The FIRST process of memory that involves putting information into the memory system. Some information is automatically processed, while other information requires attention and effort (effortful).

Alarm Reaction

The FIRST stage of Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome in which the hypothalamus sets the fight or flight into action by releasing hormones and neurotransmitters to deal with the situation. If the stressor persists, this can result in a depletion of the body's energy and defense resources.

Esteem Needs

The FOURTH level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs which includes achievement, status, responsibility, reputation, etc.

UR

The NS + US results in the ...

Resistance

The SECOND stage of Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome in which, IF the organism was not overwhelmed in during the alarm reaction, the body begins to gain an advantage and attempts to restore homeostasis while still coping with the stress. This only applies to the original stressor, for if another is introduced, defenses may be so depleted that continued response is not possible.

Belongingness and Love Needs

The THIRD level of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs which includes family, affection, relationships, work groups, etc.

Retrieval

The THIRD process of memory that involves getting/pulling information out of memory storage.

Exhaustion

The THIRD stage of Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome in which, if resistance fails to relieve stress, the symptoms of the alarm stage begin to reappear. This time, however, because the Autonomic Nervous System has already used so much energy, exhaustion and eventual death may occur if the stressor is not removed.

Altruism

The UNSELFISH concern of one individual for the welfare of others. (ex. first responders and bystanders that put their lives in danger to help others during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina)

UR

The US results in the ...

Depth Perception

The ability to judge the distance of objects. Gibson and Walk conducted the Visual Cliff experiment to show that human infants of crawling age and new born animals show this ability.

(Stimulus) Discrimination

The ability to tell the difference between stimuli so that ONLY the CS elicits the CR. (ex. discerning between different tones of the bell to only salivate at the sound of a certain tone and not at that of another)

Bystander Intervention

The active involvement of a person in a situation that appears to require his or her aid. Depends on the amount of people present (i.e. diffusion of responsibility and bystander effect), the personality and mood of the helper, nice weather, being in a small town or low populated area, not being in a hurry, etc.

Conformity

The adoption of attitudes and behaviors shared by a particular group of people. On the low extreme of the social influence continuum. (ex. buying a dress because your friend buys a dress)

Heritability

The amount of trait variation within a group that can be attributed to genetic differences. (highest in groups that share an environment, because therefore their differences are almost entirely a result of their genetic differences)

Mean

The arithmetic average of a set of scores.

Serial Position (Primacy-Recency) Effect

The better recall for information that comes at the beginning (primacy effect) and at the end of a list of words (recency effect). (ex. you likely remember the first two and most recent two presidents, but all of them in between are very foggy)

Primacy Effect

The better recall of items at the beginning of a list. A result of greater rehearsal.

Recency Effect

The better recall of items at the end of a list. A result of such items still being in working memory after learning.

Maturation

The biological growth process that is uninfluenced by experience. Includes the universal process of motor development, or the progression of a baby from sitting to crawling to walking.

Stress Response System

The biological response of our body to smaller, temporary stressors that involves the hypothalamus and pituitary gland which respond by triggering outer adrenal glands to secrete cortisol.

Memory Trace (Engram)

The biological/physical manifestation or existence of the long-term memory. Searching for this takes two approaches: looking at synapses and the biochemical changes involved in strengthening memories, and looking at the neural circuitry or networks that work together to maintain/form a memory.

Endocrine System

The body's slow chemical communication system that, under normal circumstances, works with the Parasympathetic Nervous System to sustain our basic processes, and during crisis works to support the actions of the Sympathetic Nervous System.

Cerebral Cortex (Cerebrum)

The body's ultimate control and processing center for higher-order and sophisticated processes such as thinking, planning and judgment. The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that cover the cerebral hemispheres and accounts for 80% of the brain's total mass.

Plasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize to take over its function when one of its regions is damaged. Also dictates that the more the brain or one of its specific areas is used, the more connections are created (if you don't use it, you lose it).

Menopause

The cessation of the ability to reproduce accompanied by a decrease in production of female sex hormones; occurs at about age 50.

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory (of Intelligence)

The idea that there are three separate and testable intelligences: ANALYTICAL, PRACTICAL, and CREATIVE.

Aqueous Humor

The clear fluid filling the space in the front of the eyeball between the lens and the cornea. Incoming light rays pass through this area after being bent by the cornea. The second thing that incoming light passes through when entering the eye.

(Aaron) Beck

The cognitive therapist that suggested depressed patients believe they can never be happy and thus associate minor failings as major causes for their depression. Therefore, believed that this "cannot be happy" thought needed to be changed for the patients to recover.

Color Constancy

The color of an object will remain roughly constant even if the lighting and wavelengths change.

Social-Cognitive Perspective (Social-Learning)

The combination of behavioral and cognitive perspectives that stresses the interaction of our traits with our situations. Takes into account how we are inclined to act based on our genetics, and also considers how this is affected by our circumstances and environment. Criticized because it does not consider unconscious influences as well as emotions or pervasive traits.

Control Group

The comparison group; the subgroup of the sample that is similar to the experimental group in every way except for the presence of the independent variable. Given a placebo treatment.

Shape Constancy

The constancy by which an object appears to maintain its normal shape regardless of the angle from which it is viewed.

Size Constancy

The constancy by which an object appears to stay the same size despite changes in the size of the image it casts on the retina as it moves farther away or closer.

Brightness Constancy

The constancy by which an object maintains a particular level of brightness regardless of the amount of light reflected from it.

ESP (Extrasensory Perception)

The controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. (ex. clairvoyance of sensing that a friend's house is on fire) Scientists cannot validate these claims because they cannot replicate instances of supposed abilities under lab conditions. Investigated in parapsychology.

Tolerance

The decreased responsiveness to a drug as a result of repeated use. The intensity of effects produced by the same dose may decrease, causing the person to take larger doses.

Rotter's Locus of Control

The degree to which we expect that a reinforcement or outcome of our behavior is contingent on our own behavior or personal characteristics (internal), as opposed to the degree to which we expect that a reinforcement or outcome of our behavior is a function of luck or fate, is under the control of others, or is unpredictable (external). Limited by things that no person can control.

Embryonic Stage

The developmental prenatal STAGE after the zygotic stage lasting from about 2 weeks through 8 weeks after fertilization. By 4 weeks, the organism has recognizable internal organs, and by 8 weeks, the organism is about an inch long with arms, legs, and a distinct face. Also includes development of sex organs, etc.

Fetal Stage

The developmental prenatal STAGE lasting from about 8 weeks after conception to birth. By 4 months, the movement of the organism can be detected by the mother, and by 6 months the eye lids open and the organism has grasp and taste buds.

Range

The difference between the largest score and the smallest score.

Arousal

The dimension of emotion that determines the level of intensity of the emotion.

Valence

The dimension of emotion that determines whether the emotion is either a positive or negative continuum.

Wavelength

The distance from the top of one wave to the top of the next. The smaller this property is, the higher pitched the sound and the brighter the color.

Puberty

The early adolescent period, marked by accelerated growth and onset of the ability to reproduce.

Biopsychosocial Model

The eclectic and overarching psychological perspective that integrates biological processes, psychological factors, and social forces to provide a more complete picture of behavior and mental processes than a single approach.

Integrity vs. Despair (Stage Eight of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The eighth stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place beyond 65 years of age in which the individual seeks a sense of satisfaction with a life well-lived and questions whether it has all been worth it. Either look back happily and feel self-acceptance or conclude with anger and disappointment.

Visual Encoding

The encoding of picture images. A powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding. (ex. showing harms of smoking in a picture is more effective than simply talking about it)

Flow

The experience between no work and a lot of work. Marks immersion into one's work and the area in between apathy and being underwhelmed and anxiety and being overwhelmed.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure that is necessary for a test to be legitimate; methods of measurement include face, content, predictive, and construct. (ex. would you measure your weight with a ruler? no because this doesn't measure what it is supposed to)

Validity

The extent to which an instrument measures or predicts what it is supposed to measure or predict.

Nature-Nurture (Controversy)

The extent to which behavior results from heredity or experience. (Plato and Descartes believed that behavior is inborn (nature) while Aristotle, Locke, Watson, and Skinner believed that behavior results from experience (nurture))

Reaction Range

The extent to which traits, abilities, or IQ scores may increase or decrease as the result of environmental factors.

Genetics

The factor that influences exactly how much sleep a given person needs, although most people will sleep for 9-10 hours if left unhindered. Adults also require less sleep than teenagers and teenagers even less than infants based on the amount of growth that is occurring.

Independent Variable (IV)

The factor the researcher manipulates in a controlled experiment and what is assigned to either the experimental or control group (the cause).

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of unfamiliar people developed at about 8 months during Piaget's sensorimotor stage. Also the age at which infants form schemas for familiar faces and cannot assimilate a new face.

Learned Helplessness

The feeling of futility and passive resignation that results from the inability to avoid repeated events. If it becomes possible to avoid these events later, it is unlikely that the learner will respond.

Genital Stage

The fifth of Freud's psychosexual stages that takes place from 12+ years of age. Adolescent to adulthood and gaining pleasure from intercourse and intimacy with another person.

Identity vs. Role Confusion (Stage Five of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)`

The fifth stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place between 12 and 20 years of age in which the individual seeks a unified sense of self and questions who they are and what their purpose is in the world. They either discover a commitment to future as adult or a confusion over who they will be and what they will do. Pivotal period in which one relies most on their peer group and feels great pressure to "solve" their future.

Oral Stage

The first of Freud's psychosexual stages that takes place from 0-1 years of age. The baby finds pleasure from sucking, biting, and swallowing. Conflict is encountered in weaning from bottle or breast, and fixation may cause gullibility, overeating, and passiveness, as well as personalities that are sarcastic and argumentative.

Stage One (Sleep)

The first part of light sleep in which you are just drifting off to sleep and may experience visual or auditory hallucinations. Displays THETA WAVES and contains the hypnagogic state.

Trust vs. Mistrust (Stage One of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The first stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place from 0 to 18 months of age in an individual's life in which they seek a sense of security and base their ability to trust based on attachment to caregiver and their responding behavior.

Stage Three (Sleep)

The first stage of deep sleep that serves as a transitional stage to deeper sleep and significantly slowed brain activity. Displays DELTA WAVES, the slowest and highest-amplitude brainwaves that are associated with slow-wave sleep.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance

The five stages of grief proposed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross that apply to the death and dying process as well as other traumas in life.

Selective Attention

The focusing of awareness on stimuli in sensory memory that facilitates its encoding into the STM.

Latency Stage

The fourth of Freud's psychosexual stages that takes place from 5-12 years of age. The child suppresses their sexual interest and plays mostly with same-sex peers, finding pleasure in accomplishments. Fixation and falling short of expectations may result in development of feelings of inferiority.

Industry vs. Inferiority (Stage Four of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The fourth stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place between 6 and 11 years of age in which an individual seeks a sense of social self-confidence. Based on their skill and ability, they either feel a sense of pride or the opposite and feel below other people.

Neurogenesis

The growth of new neurons which occurs throughout life.

Pitch

The highness or lowness of a sound. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the amplitude, the higher this is. The longer the wavelength, the lower the frequency, the lower this is.

Amplitude

The hight of a sound wave. The greater the compression (of the molecules causing the sound), the larger this is, and thus the louder the sound.

Glucose (C6H12O6)

The hormone insulin decreases its levels in the blood, which makes us feel hungry. We do not consciously notice this, but rather it is measured by receptors in the stomach, liver, and intestines that send signals to the hypothalamus.

Norepinephrine

The hormone responsible for feelings of anger.

Serotonin

The hormone responsible for feelings of depression.

Epinephrine

The hormone responsible for feelings of fear.

Phi Phenomenon

The illusion of movement created by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession. Videos consist of slightly different frames projected rapidly on after another, giving the illusion of movement. (ex. neon signs)

Resting Potential

The imbalanced electrical charge of the axon in its inactive state (when the neuron is ready to fire). The inside of the cell, with potassium (K+), has a negative charge, while the outside of the cell, with sodium (Na+), has a positive charge.

Retrograde Amnesia

The inability to remember events that occurred BEFORE the incidence of trauma or the onset of the disease that caused the amnesia. (ex. after a car crash, cannot remember anything from before the accident such as why you were in the car, etc.)

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to remember ongoing (current) events AFTER the incidence of trauma or the onset of the disease that caused the amnesia. (ex. after a car crash, memory from past is still intact, but new memories cannot be formed)

Forgetting

The inability to retrieve information. Results from failure to encode (poor storage), decay of stored memories, or inability to access stored information (poor retrieval).

Insomnia

The inability/difficulty to fall asleep and/or stay asleep. Can be avoided by going to bed at a set time each night and getting up at the same time in the morning, exercising for half an hour a day about 5 or 6 hours before going to bed, avoiding alcohol, sleeping pills, and stimulants, avoiding stress, and relaxing before bed.

Hearing Loss

The inevitable loss of the ability to hear and detect sounds of higher frequency and pitch as time progresses and noise damages the hair cells within the basilar membranes of the cochlea.

Convergence

The inward turning of your eyes that occurs when you look at an object that is close to you. The closer an object, the more of this that occurs.

Client Perception

The largest determinant in the outcome of therapy, for a client that perceives their experience positively and believes in the benefit of the therapy will likely improve. Under debate.

Prefrontal Cortex

The last location to which a pain message is sent from either the somatosensory cortex or the limbic system at which secondary emotional and motivational components are analyzed and suffering and worry for the future is encountered.

All-or-Nothing (Principle/Response)

The law that the neuron either generates an action potential when the stimulation reaches threshold or doesn't fire when stimulation is below threshold. There is no "in between". The strength of the action potential is constant whenever it occurs.

s (Specialized Intelligence)

The less important, specialized abilities of intelligence as proposed by Charles Spearman.

Psychological

The level of analysis within the biopsychosocial model that has to do with cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations, emotional responses, and learned fears and expectations.

Biological

The level of analysis within the biopsychosocial model that has to do with hormonal influences, brain mechanisms, genetic predispositions, and natural selection of adaptive traits.

Sociocultural (Social-Cultural)

The level of analysis within the biopsychosocial model that has to do with the presence of other people, the influences of peers and other groups, and other cultural, societal, and family expectations.

Nonconscious

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

Schemas

The list of characteristics or features that define the objects, events, or people that fall under a certain concept. Frameworks of basic ideas and preconceptions about people, objects, and events based on past experience. A preexisting framework that expands as knowledge and experience are gained.

Cerebral Cortex

The location in the brain at which memories are transformed into relatively permanent memories.

Dementia

The loss of mental abilities.

Correlation

The measure of the relationship between two items or variables.

Hormones

The method of communication of the endocrine system. Synthesized by various glands and secreted into the blood stream, transmitted slowly, and has a longer effect.

Neurotransmitters

The method of communication of the nervous system. Made in and travel among neurons, are transmitted quickly, and last for a brief duration.

Median

The middle score when a set of data is ordered by size.

Five-Factor Model of Personality ("The Big Five")

The most accepted theory of traits to this day that was developed by Paul Costa, Robert McCrae, and the work of many other psychologists. Identifies five broad dimensions of personality, common in all people and rated on a continuum, which include: OPENNESS, CONSCIENTIOUSNESS, EXTROVERSION, AGREEABLENESS, and NEUROTICISM (emotional instability).

Repression

The most frequently used and powerful defense mechanism that underlies all others. The pushing away of threatening thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind. Essentially unconscious forgetting.

Prototypes

The most typical and best examples of a concept (ex. "robin" is one of these under the concept "bird").

WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale)

The most widely used IQ test to this day that measures overall intelligence and consists of both verbal and performance sections. During the verbal portion, the subject must give definitions and comprehend vocabulary, while during the performance section they must assemble small objects and arrange pictures correctly.

Rorschach Inkblot Test

The most widely used projective test with a set of 10 ambiguous ink pictures that are displayed to the subject. The subject is then asked to analyze and interpret what they see in the pictures, expressing their inner feelings and interests.

Dopamine (Overactivity)

The neurotransmitter that is found in excess levels in schizophrenic patients, which often causes overactivity of the brain and loss of brain tissue itself.

Rooting (Reflex)

The newborn's tendency to move its head when stroked on the cheek, turn toward the stimulus as if searching for a nipple, and open its mouth. Advantageous because newborn babies cannot feed themselves and therefore must take advantage of everything presented to them.

Secondary Sex Characteristics

The non-reproductive sexual characteristics, including developed breasts in females; facial hair, Adam's apple, and deepened voice in males; and pubic hair and underarm hair in both.

Frequency

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given amount of time (per second = Hertz or Hz). The wavelength is inversely proportional to this (the longer the wavelength, the lower this is). This or wavelength determines the hue of a light wave and the pitch of a sound.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

The often temporary inability to access information accompanied by a feeling that the information is in the LTM. Caused by the lack of a strong retrieval cue for the desired information. Providing retrieval cues can help us resolve the issue.

Experiment(s)

The only research method which can isolate a variable and allow researchers to legitimately determine cause and effect.

Exaggerated Fear

The opposite of overconfidence in which we tend to over-exaggerate the horror that may accompany a certain event, thing, person, etc. (ex. air travel declined significantly after 9/11 because of widespread fear of another similar occurrence)

Self

The organizer of our thoughts, feelings, and actions. The most important item in personality, according to humanistic psychologists.

Cell Body (also Soma or Cyton)

The part of the neuron that contains cytoplasm and the nucleus, which directs synthesis of such substances as neurotransmitters.

Amnesia

The partial or complete loss of memory that either results from physical causes (damage to some part of the brain) or psychological causes (triggered by traumatic event).

Percentile Score

The percentage of scores at or below a particular score (1 to 99).

Stress

The physical and mental REACTION/changes that occur in response to a challenging or threatening situation. Any circumstance that may be real or perceived and threatens one's well-being. When this is felt at a sever level, our ability to cope with it is impaired. This reaction is composed by: COGNITIVE APPRAISAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSE, SUBJECTIVE FEELINGS, and BEHAVIOR. Can cause significant health consequences such as hypertension, heart attack, etc.

Erogenous Zone(s)

The pleasure sensitive body areas on which the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus in Freud's psychosexual stages.

Age of Viability

The point at 24 weeks/6 months of development at which the developing fetus has a chance of surviving if born mature. Only 50% of babies born at this time survive, with the chances increasing with every additional week of development.

Collective Unconscious

The powerful and influential system that contains universal memories and ideas that all people have inherited from ancestors over the course of evolution called archetypes, according to Carl Jung.

Retinal Disparity

The principle binocular cue, which is the slightly different view the two eyes have of the same object because they are just centimeters apart. The degree of this decreases with distance. With both eyes open, your brain fuses the the two images, resulting in the perception of depth.

Reuptake

The process by which leftover neurotransmitters in the synapse, after the receptor sites on the receiving neuron have been filled, are taken back into the sending neuron to prevent the message from being sent again.

Retroactive Interference

The process by which new memories prevent the retrieval of older memories. (ex. when asked for an old address, the information is blocked by the memory of a new one) BACKWARDS-ACTING.

Proactive Interference

The process by which old memories prevent the retrieval of newer memories. (ex. cannot remember a new phone number because of the memory of an old one) FORWARD-ACTING.

Sensation

The process by which you detect physical energy from your environment and encode it as neural signals. (ex. detecting the presence of an object in your hand, seeing it, smelling it, etc.)

Sound Localization

The process by which you determine the location of a sound. Your brain uses parallel processing, comparing both the intensity and timing differences between the sounds received by both ears.

Attribution

The process of explaining the causes of people's behavior, including one's own, either by crediting external factors (external disposition) or personality (internal disposition).

Perception

The process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensations, enabling you to recognize meaningful objects and events. Biologically speaking, this begins once external energy has been transduced into neural messages understandable by the brain. (ex. recognizing that the object in your hand is a ball)

Strength (Intensity)

The property of the action potential that does not change and instead remains the same throughout the length of the axon.

(Charles) Spearman

The psychologist that believed that there is a single, general factor for all mental and intelligence-related capability. He did not deny that some people have outstanding talents, but felt that these differences shouldn't blind us from a single general intelligence. Proposed g (general intelligence) and s (specialized intelligence).

(David) Rosenhan

The psychologist that conducted an experiment in which many subjects faked hallucinations and hearing noises to enter psychiatric hospitals and expose the invalidity of psychiatric diagnoses. Showed that essentially anyone could make a diagnosis without any scientific or psychological basis.

(David) Wechsler

The psychologist that developed the WAIS (Adult Intelligence Scale), the WISC (Intelligence Scale for Children), and the WPPSI (Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence). These are now the MOST WIDELY USED IQ tests to this day.

(Daniel) Goleman

The psychologist that proposed EQ or Emotional Intelligence, which involves a set of skills that underlie the accurate expression, assessment, evaluation, and regulation of emotions. Believed that EQ is what allows one to get along with others and, despite their level of IQ, allows them to be extremely successful because they can "read people." Criticized because others believe it stretches the construct of intelligence way too far and is impossible to test objectively.

(Lewis) Terman

The psychologist that, in the United States, revised Binet's test for American school children and created the STANFORD-BINET IQ TEST, forms of which are still in use today. Also studied students considered intellectually gifted and found that they do well in school, stay healthy, and are generally happy on a path of success, but often only end up leading ordinary lives.

ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development)

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. Child and mentor work together to child's upper limit when they can attain a goal independently. When this level is reached, a new zone is formed.

Frequency Theory

The rate of the neural impulses traveling up the auditory nerves matches the frequency of a tone, enabling you to sense its pitch. This explains well how you hear low-pitched sounds, but not high-pitched sounds, thus intermediate-range sounds must be a combination of this and the place theory.

Catharsis

The release of emotional tension after remembering or reliving an emotionally charged experience from the past. Can result in relief of anxiety.

Primary Sex Characteristics

The reproductive organs (ovaries, uterus, and testes) and external genitals (vulva and penis).

Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes.

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another. In contrast to sociology, has large emphasis on social cognition.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of optimal human functioning. Subjective well-being, or your assessment of how happy or satisfied you are.

Anal Stage

The second of Freud's psychosexual stages that takes place from 1-3 years of age. Pleasure is found from holding in or letting go of feces. Conflict is encountered with toilet training, and fixation may result in orderly, obsessively neat, stingy, and stubborn personalities (anal-retentive) as well as messy, disorganized, and short-tempered personality (anal-expulsive).

Stage Two (Sleep)

The second part of light sleep in which you are more relaxed and clearly asleep. Sleep spindles, or short bursts of brain activity, and a K complex, or an extreme burst in brain activity, occur.

Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Stage Two of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The second stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place from 18 months to 3 years of age in an individual's life in which they seek a sense of independence and question their control over their own life. Based on their confidence to do things on their own as a result of their parents' boundaries and willingness to let them make decisions independently.

Stage Four (Sleep)

The second stage of deep sleep composed by the deepest sleep of all that is the hardest to awaken from. Only occurs during the first few cycles of the night. Displays mostly DELTA WAVES, slowed heart rate and respiration, lowered temperature and lowered blood flow to the brain. Growth hormones are secreted.

Audition

The sense of hearing. The loudness of a sound is determined by the amplitude or height of the sound wave, while the pitch is determined by the wavelength and frequency.

Attention

The set of processes from which you choose among the various stimuli bombarding your senses at any instant, allowing some to be further processed by your senses and brain.

Generativity vs. Stagnation (Stage Seven of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The seventh stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place from 30 to 65 years of age in which the individual seeks to promote the well-being of others and questions whether they are productive and can give back to the world. Person is either happy with their life and feels assured about their impact or accomplishment or feels worthless and is pre-occupied with their own needs (mid-life crisis).

Reflex

The simplest form of behavior. Involves impulse conduction over a few (possibly three) neurons.

Reflex

The simplest form of behavior. Those such as rooting and sucking in newborn babies disappear after the first few months of age and are replaced by more complex behaviors.

Intimacy vs. Isolation (Stage Six of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The sixth stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place from 20 to 30 years of age in which the individual seeks to form close personal relationships and questions whether they can or cannot be loved. Person either develops a sense of connectedness or draw into themself and avoid emotional contact.

Somatosensation (Touch)

The skin sensations of pressure, warmth, cold, and pain. Other tactile sensations result from simultaneous stimulation of more than one type of receptor. (ex. burning, itching, tickling, etc.)

Delta Waves

The slowest and highest-amplitude brainwaves displayed in sleep stages 3 and 4.

Morphemes

The smallest unit of language that has meaning. (ex. "farm" is just one of these)

Reciprocity Norm

The social expectation that we should return help to those that have previously helped us, which can also be a technique used to persuade someone. For example, solicitors may give you a pamphlet or small gift before their pitch so that you feel obligated to say yes to a donation, commitment, etc.

Social Responsibility Norm

The social expectation, largely learned, that tells us to help others when they need us, even if we know they will likely not repay us. (ex. giving money to a homeless person)

Human Factors Psychology

The subfield of industrial-organization psychology that involves designing optimum work environments, optimizing person-machine interaction, and developing systems technologies.

Personnel Psychology

The subfield of industrial-organizational psychology that involves selecting and evaluating workers.

Gender

The sociocultural dimension of being biologically male or female. Determined by the X or Y of the 23rd chromosome that is given by the father (mother always provides X): XX = female while XY = male.

Variability

The spread or dispersion of a set of research data or distribution.

Flynn Effect

The steady increase in performance on IQ tests over the last 80 years, possibly resulting from better nutrition, educational opportunities, and health care (favoring nurture). A score of 100 today is approximately equivalent to a score of 120 seventy years ago.

Phenomenology

The study of natural, unanalyzed perception.

Behavioral Genetics

The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior. Uses identical twins, separated identical twins, and adopted children to analyze the differences between these two (nature and nurture).

Gonads

The testes and ovaries in males and females, respectively, that produce hormones necessary for reproduction and development of secondary sex characteristics.

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

The theory that people process information differently and that intelligence is composed of many different factors, including at least nine intelligences: logical-mathematical, verbal-linguistic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical-rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, existential, and naturalistic.

Phallic Stage

The third and most crucial of Freud's psychosexual stages that takes place from 3-5 years of age. Pleasure is found from self-stimulation of genitals. Conflict is encountered with castration anxiety or penis envy. Healthy resolution of Oedipus/Electra complex results in identification with same sex parents, while fixation may result in homosexuality or relationship problems.

Initiative vs. Guilt (Stage Three of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development)

The third stage of Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development that takes place between 3 and 6 years of age in which an individual seeks a balance between spontaneity and restraint based on their confidence in their own skills and abilities. If parents respond positively to their children's actions, they will have confidence and will feel assured taking risks, whereas if the parents respond negatively the child will have low self-esteem and will fear punishment when making their own decisions.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The thought process that causes the bystander effect, which involves a situation when several bystanders are present, no one person assumes responsibility for helping because such responsibility is spread among everyone present. (ex. 38 witnesses of Kitty Genovese murder all saw it happen and did nothing)

Vitreous Humor

The transparent jelly-like tissue filling the eyeball behind the lens. Incoming light rays pass through here after being further bent by the lens. The fifth thing that incoming light passes through when entering the eye.

Valence and Arousal

The two dimensions that compose emotion.

Hemispheres

The two sides of our brain that are roughly mirror images of each other, are connected by and communicate via the corpus collosum, and control the body in a criss-cross fashion (left controls right and right controls left).

Automatic Processing

The unconscious encoding of information about SPACE (reading a textbook and encoding the place of a picture on a page), TIME (taking note of the events in a day), and FREQUENCY (keeping track of how often things happen to you) that occurs without interfering without thinking about other things.

Sexual Cues

The various stimuli that begin the biological and neural response cycle involved in sex. What people find sexually stimulating, which depends on what they are conditioned and have learned to respond to over time.

Rogers' Self Theory

The view that the individual's self-concept is formed by society's conditions of worth and the need for unconditional positive regard.

Framing

The way an issue is stated. Can significantly affect decisions and judgement. (ex. we are more likely to buy a product that says "90% fat-free" than one that says "10% fat")

States of Consciousness

These include consciousness, daydreaming, sleep, hypnosis, meditation, and drug-induced states.

Metacognition

Thinking about how you think and knowing what you know, which in turn also means that you know what you do not know.

Ganglion Cells

Third layer of neurons in the retina that receive visual information from the bipolar cells and transmit it to the brain via the optic nerve formed by their axons.

Reproduction

Third stage in Bandura's theory of observational learning in which we act out and replicate what we remember of the behavior that we perceived.

Shaping

Third step of social skill training by which more and more complexity is added to the reinforced situation that the client is attempting to master.

Self-Serving Bias

To take personal credit for our own achievements and successes (due to internal disposition) and blame our failures on situational factors (due to external dispositions). (ex. I got an A on that test because I am a genius, but I failed that test because the teacher is so unfair)

Cognitive Therapy

This type of therapy is exemplified by Rabin's training of depressed patients to daily record events and relate how they contributed to these events to show the control that they hold over them. Compared to other depressed patients, these trained patients showed lower depression scores.

Fluid Intelligence

Those cognitive abilities requiring speed or rapid learning, such as information-processing and memory, that tend to diminish with adult aging.

Mild (Intellectual Disability)

Those that can care for themselves, hold a job, live independently, and form social relationships but have academic abilities of a 6th grader. Composes about 85% of those who have intellectual disability, and is characterized by an IQ score of 50-70.

Severe (Intellectual Disability)

Those that have limited language and limited ability to take care of themselves, lack social skills, and require close supervision but function at the academic level of a 5-year-old. Composes about 3-4% of those with intellectual disability and is characterized by an IQ score of 20-34.

Moderate (Intellectual Disability)

Those that may be able to care for themselves, can hold a menial job, and can learn to read and write but need some supervision and function at the academic level of a 2nd grader.. Composes about 10% of those who have intellectual disability and is characterized by an IQ score of 35-49.

Profound (Intellectual Disability)

Those that require complete custodial care, have close to no ability to communicate, and require constant supervision. Composes about 1-2% of those with intellectual disability and is characterized by an IQ score below 20.

Clinical (or Psychiatric) Social Workers

Those with a master's degree or doctoral degree in social work, including a supervised internship and a certification exam.

Clinical Psychologists

Those with doctoral degrees that use different therapeutic approaches depending on training and diagnosis. Usually use a combination of medicine and supportive psychotherapy.

Terminal Buttons

Tips at the end of axons that secrete neurotransmitters when stimulated by the action potential.

Transduction

Transformation of stimulus energy to the electrochemical energy of neural impulses understandable by the brain by sensory organs.

Cornea

Transparent, curved layer in the front of the eye that bends incoming light rays. The first thing that incoming light passes through when entering the eye.

Psychiatrist(s)

Treat psychological disorders by actually providing medical treatments as well as psychological therapy, and can do so because they are legitimate doctors.

Social Group

Two or more people sharing common goals and interests interact and influence behavior of the others.

Simultaneous Conditioning

UCS and NS are paired together at the same time.

Backward Conditioning

UCS comes before the NS.

Conversion Disorder

Unexplained symptoms or deficits affecting voluntary motor or sensory function that suggest a medical condition, although no medical condition exists. Usually onset by a stressful event, and includes symptoms such as paralysis, blindness, deafness, or difficulty walking, many of which are anatomically impossible (therefore all psychological).

Interneuron(s)

Unipolar neurons only found in the Central Nervous System that transmits impulses/messages between sensory and motor neurons. (ex. bring the alert message of the sensory neurons from the spine to the brain and the response from the brain to the motor neurons)

Prejudice

Unjustifiable (usually negative) ATTITUDES that we hold towards another group and its members, often cultural, ethnic, or gender groups. Involves beliefs, emotions, and a predisposition to act that primarily works at the UNCONSCIOUS level. Caused by social inequalities (has vs. doesn't have), social division, scapegoating, and thought patterns.

Discrimination

Unjustifiable action against an individual or group that is the result of prejudice.

Catastrophes

Unpredictable, sudden, large-scale disasters that are traumatic and potentially life-threatening.

Withdrawal

Upon no longer taking a drug, the experience of undesirable effects such as intense craving for the drug, shaking, sleep problems, nausea, hallucinations, and seizures.

Eclectic

Use of techniques and ideas from a variety of approaches.

Twin Studies

Used in biological genetics to study the differences between the influences of both nature and nurture, which have produced the following conclusions: identical twins are much more similar than fraternal twins in relation to abilities, personalities, and interests; heredity accounts for 64-74% of the differences seen in IQ between identical twins; identical twins, despite separation at birth, end up very similar as adults; differences between fraternal twins is far greater than that between identical twins.

Adoption Studies

Used in biological genetics to study the differences between the influences of both nature and nurture, which have produced the following conclusions: while the personality of adoptees is most similar to their genetic parents, their attitudes, values, manners, faith, and politics is most similar to their adoptive parents.

(Raymond) Cattell

Used statistics and factor analysis to identify 16 Personality Factors (16PF) that he believed compose the building blocks of every person's personality. Everyone has these same characteristics, just to different degrees.

(Hans) Eysenck

Used three genetically influenced dimensions - extroversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism - to describe personality.

Personality Inventories

Used to assess traits. Questionnaires on which people respond to a wide variety of items, covering feelings and behavior. The most used and recognized is the MMPI-2.

Polygraphs

Used to measure the subject's arousal while being asked critical questions, irrelevant questions, and control questions in a mixed order. Arousal is measured through respiratory rate, perspiration of fingertips, and blood pressure and heart rate to discriminate whether the subject is lying. Results are not accurate enough to guarantee their conclusion.

Biomedical Therapy

Uses drugs or other procedures that act on the patient's nervous system, curing them of the psychological disorder.

Method of Loci

Uses visualization with familiar objects on a path to a series of locations to recall information in a list. (ex. to remember a series of school supplies, imagining walking through a series of classrooms that would contain such supplies)

Group Therapy

Usually consists of 6-9 people in 90-minute sessions that can benefit more people and cost less. Clients benefit from knowing that other people share their problems and are able to collectively work to conquer such problems.

Dreams

Usually story-like unfolding mental imagery. Most commonly have some degree of likeness to daily activities, yet tend to be more bizarre and realistic.

Between-Group Differences

Usually the difference between the means of two groups of individuals for a common variable. Smaller than the variance within one of the given groups.

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.

Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Very short treatment aiming to gain insight on the cause of problems by looking at current emotions in order to relieve the symptoms.

Visual Capture

Vision usually dominates when there is a conflict among the senses. Gestalt psychology proposes organizing principles by which we perceive wholes rather than combinations of features including figure-ground, proximity, similarity, and continuity ("the whole is different than the sum of its parts").

Perceptual Adaptation

Visual ability to adjust to an artificially displaced visual field (ex. drunk goggles, etc.) Humans even have the capability of adapting to an upside down world.

Occipital Lobes

Visual information is processed in these lobes at the Primary Visual Cortex.

Active Processing

Visualizing what you are trying to remember and actively trying to put it into your memory.

Focused Attention

We are required to focus on one task over another.

Spacing Effect

We retain information better when our rehearsal is distributed over time. (ex. studying a bit every night is better than cramming the night before the test)

Monists

Were the following dualists, believing in the mind and body being distinct and separate, or monists, believing that the mind and body are connected? - Aristotle, John Locke, The Hebrews, and Augustine

Dualists

Were the following dualists, believing in the mind and body being distinct and separate, or monists, believing that the mind and body are connected? - Socrates, Plato, and Descartes

Conditioned Response (CR)

What the subject LEARNS to do in response to the conditioned stimulus.

Ideal Self

What we believe society wants us to be or what we want to be from our own desire. If this matches closely with our real self, then we have a positive self-concept, but if this is far more extreme and distant, then we do not, according to Carl Rogers.

Real Self

What we were born as; our authentic self. If this matches closely with the ideal self, one has a positive self-concept, according to Carl Rogers.