AP Psychology Unit 12 Extra Definitions

Anterior cingulate cortex

A brain region that monitors our actions and checks for errors; regulates blood pressure and heart rate and rational cognitive functions such as decision-making and emotion

Free-floating

A chronic sense of dread or hollowness; from Freud

Susto

A condition marked by severe anxiety, restlessness, and a fear of black magic; originating in Latin America

Trauma

A deeply distressing or disturbing experience; a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident

Word salad

A meaningless mixture of words and phrase characteristic of advanced schizophrenia

Paranoia

A mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions and the projection of personal conflicts

Mental health movement

A movement opposing the treatment of those with 'demon possessions'; a mental illness (also called a psychopathology) needs to be diagnosed on the basis of its symptoms and cured through therapy, which may include treatment in a psychiatric hospital

Specific phobia

A persistent and excessive or unreasonable fear of a circumscribed, well-defined object or situation

Explanatory style

A psychological attribute that indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event, either positive or negative

Taijin-kyofusho

A social anxiety about one's appearance combined with a readiness to blush and a fear of eye contact; originating in Japan

Norepinephrine

A substance, both a hormone and neurotransmitter, secreted by the adrenal medulla and the nerve endings of the sympathetic nervous system to cause vasoconstriction and increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and the sugar level of the blood; scarce during depression and overabundant during mania

Panic attack

A sudden feeling of acute and disabling anxiety; can last for minutes and may be accompanied by heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking sensations, trembling, or dizziness

Catatonia

A wide group of motor abnormalities, most involving extreme under or over activity

Fugue state

An altered state of consciousness in which a person may move about purposely and even speak but is not fully aware; these events are generally not remembered

Social phobia

An intense fear of being scrutinized by others by avoiding potentially embarrassing social situations - such as speaking up, eating out, or going to parties - or risk sweating, trembling, and having diarrhea; shyness to the extreme

Schizoid personality disorder

Characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, and apathy; may demonstrate a rich, elaborate and exclusively fantasy world

Histrionic personality disorder

Characterized by a pattern of excessive emotionality and attention-seeking, including an excessive need for approval and inappropriately seductive behavior; lively, dramatic, vivacious, enthusiastic, and flirtatious

Avoidant personality disorder

Characterized by a pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation, and avoidance of social interaction

Narcissistic personality disorder

Characterized by an excessive preoccupation with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity

Seasonal affective disorder

Depression associated with late autumn and winter and thought to be caused by a lack of light

Dissociate

Disconnect or separate; separation of conscious awareness from painful memories, thoughts, and feelings

Agoraphobia

Extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places - places that would difficult to escape should panic strike

Anxiety gene

Genes that affect brain levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences sleep and mood

Glutamate

Glutamic acid, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in learning and memory

Self-defeating beliefs

Injurious to one's own purposes or welfare

Negative explanatory style

Negative ways to explain events in one's life

Paranoid

Of, characterized, or suffering from the mental condition of paranoia

Psychotic disorders

Severe mental disorders in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality

Linkage analysis

Study aimed at establishing linkage between genes; linkage is the tendency for genes and other genetic markers to be inherited together because of their location near one another on the same chromosome

Flat affect

The absence or near absence of emotional response to a situation that normally elicits emotion

Reinforcement

The action or process of reinforcing or strengthening; the process of encouraging or establishing a belief or pattern of behavior

Positive symptoms

Thoughts, behaviors, or sensory perceptions present in a person with a mental disorder, but not present in people in the normal population

Negative symptoms

Thoughts, feelings, or behaviors normally present that are absent or diminished in a person with a mental disorder

Stimulus generalization

Transfer of a response learned to one stimulus to a similar stimulus