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AP Psychology Vocabulary
Abnormal Behavior: behavior that is personally disturbing or disabling or culturally so deviant that others judge it as
maladaptive, inappropriate or unjustifiable.
Accommodation: The creation of new cognitive schemas when objects, experiences, or other information does not fit
with existing schemas.
Active Listening: therapist listens to client & echoes, restates, or clarifies to demonstrate empathy, showing the client
that he/she was listening & understands what is being said.
Achievement Motive: desire to meet some internalized standard of excellence.
Actor-Observer Bias: tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes & the behavior of others to
personal causes.
Action Potential: The firing on a neuron that occurs when the charge inside the neuron becomes more positive than
the charge outside.
ADH (Antidiuretic Hormone): promotes water reabsorption in the kidneys
Adaptation-Level Phenomenon: tendency to assess stimuli (including material possessions) relative to a neutral level
defined by our previous experiences.
Addiction: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habitforming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
Afferent Neurons: sensory neurons
Affiliate Motive: the need to be with others
Agonists: mimic neurotransmitters, bind to receptor sites producing similar effects of the neurotransmitters
Algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
Alpha Waves: brain waves that occur when you are relaxed AND awake
Altruism: Behavior that is unselfish and benefits others; self-sacrifice to help others without the expectation of
reward
Alzheimer’s Disease: a progressive & irreversible disorder characterized by the gradual deterioration of memory,
reasoning, language, & finally physical functioning.
Angiotensin: kidneys release an enzyme that synthesizes this compound which stimulates thirst receptors in the
hypothalamus
Antagonists: inhibit or block the receptor sites preventing the neurotransmitters from binding to the receptor sites.
Amnesia: Loss of memory.
--retrograde amnesia: loss of memory generally around the time of the accident
--anterograde amnesia: inability to form new memories
Amygdala (limbic system): influence fear & aggression as well as other emotions
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Angular Gyrus: near Wernicke’s area, receives information from the visual cortex and recodes it into an auditory
form so Wernicke’s area can decipher its meaning.
Anorexia Nervosa: eating disorder generally associated with perfectionism, excessive exercising, weight loss, &
extreme desire for self-control. More common in young women – weigh less than 85% of their normal body weight.
Anosmia: People who cannot experience smell
Anterograde Amnesia: destruction of the hippocampus results in the inability to put new information into
explicit memory. No new semantic memories are stored.
Anxiety: The physiological and psychological reaction to an expected danger, whether real or imagined.
Aphasia: The impairment of the ability to communicate either through oral or written discourse as a result of brain
damage.
Arousal Theory: The theory stating that we are motivated by our innate desire to maintain an optimal level of
arousal.
Ashe, Solomon: Conformity Experiment – demonstrated the real power of social pressure on others to conform.
Assimilation: Incorporating objects, experiences, or information into existing schemas.
Associations: The phenomenon in learning that states we are better able to remember information if it is paired with
something we are familiar with or otherwise stands out.
Association Areas (cerebrum): involved in higher metal functions such as learning, remembering, thinking and
speaking
Attachment: The strong bond a child forms with his or her primary caregiver.
Attitudes: feelings based on our beliefs that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events.
Attribution Theory: How we explain someone’s behavior either by:
--dispositional attributes (personality & intelligence)
--situational attributes (environmental factors)
Authoritarian [parents]: Parenting style focused on excessive rules, rigid belief systems, and the expectation of
unquestioned obedience.
Authoritative [parents]: Parenting style focused on setting reasonable rules and expectations while encouraging
communication and independence.
Autism: a spectrum disorder that generally appears in the first 3 years of life & is marked by deficient communication,
social interaction, and understanding others’ states of mind.
Automatic Processing: unconscious encoding of information about space, time, & frequency that occurs without
interfering with our thinking
Autonomic Nervous System: conducts impulses from the CNS to the involuntary muscles and glands consists of:
--sympathetic NS: flight or fight response
--parasympathetic NS: calming (digestion)
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Availability Heuristic: A rule of thumb stating that information more readily available in our memory is more
important than information not as easily accessible: if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are
common.
Aversion Therapy A type of behavioral treatment where an aversive stimuli is paired with a negative behavior in
hopes that the behavior will change in the future to avoid the aversive stimuli.
Axon: The tail-like part of the neuron that the electrochemical impulse travels down toward the terminal branches.
Basal Metabolic Rate: the rate of energy expenditure necessary to maintain the basic life functions when the body is
at rest.
Behavior Modification: The application of behavioral theory to change a specific behavior.
Behavior Therapy: The application of behavioral theory (e.g. conditioning, reinforcement) in the treatment of mental
illness.
Behaviorism The school of psychology founded on the premise that behavior is measurable and can be changed
through the application of various behavioral principles.
Between-subjects design: experimental and control group participants are different individuals
Biographic Studies: case studies that investigate development in one person at a time.
Biological Psychology: studies the links between biology and behavior
Biological Rhythm: periodic physiological fluctuations that are controlled by internal “biological clocks”.
Binocular Cues: depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes to judge the distance of nearby objects.
Bisexuality: Being attracted to or aroused by members of both genders. See Sexual Orientation.
Bottom-up Processing: analysis that begins with sense receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory
information
Brain Lesion: natural or experimental destruction of brain tissue
Broca’s Area: controls language expression, located in the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere. Directs the
muscle movements involved in speech
Broca’s Aphasia: An aphasia associated with damage to the Broca's area of the brain, demonstrated by the impairment
in producing understandable speech.
Bulimia Nervosa: Eating disorder characterized by eating binges followed by purging through regurgitation/use of
laxatives, excessive exercise, fasting
Burnout: Changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior as a result of extended job stress and unrewarded repetition of
duties. Burnout is seen as extreme dissatisfaction, pessimism, lowered job satisfaction, and a desire to quit.
Bystander Effect: tendency for any given observer to be less likely to help if other people are present.
Cardinal Trait: (Trait theory) a defining characteristic that in a small number of people, shapes and defines them,
such as Freudian, Machiavellian, narcissism, Don Juan, Christ-like.
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Case Study: In-depth examination of a person or group of people that usually involves interviews, observations, and
test scores.
CAT or CT scan: computerized image using x-rays through various angles of the brain showing 2 dimensional slices
that can be arranged to show the extent of a lesion.
Central Traits: (Trait theory) general characteristics that form the basic foundations of personality, such as intelligent,
honest, shy and anxious.
Catharsis: (psychoanalysis) release of emotional tension after remembering or reliving an emotionally charged
experience from the past, which may ultimately result in relief of anxiety.
Cell Body (soma): The main part of a neuron where the information is processed.
Central Nervous System (CNS) : brain and spinal cord
Cerebellum: Extends from the rear of the brainstem, ball-shaped, and wrinkled, coordinates voluntary movement and
balance, storage of implicit memories
Chameleon Effect: Unconsciously mimicking others’ expressions, postures, & voice tones helps individuals to
experience others feelings.
Chaining: used to establish a specific sequence of behaviors by initially positively reinforcing each behavior in a
desired sequence & then later rewarding only the completed sequence.
Change Blindness: the failure of an observer to notice large changes in a visual display.
Change Deafness: inability to detect the changes between two voices when allocating one’s attention to a specific
task.
Chemical Imbalance: A generic term for the idea that chemical in the brain are either too scarce or too abundant
resulting in a mental disorder such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.
Choice Blindness: failure to detect conspicuous mismatches between intended (and expected) choice and the actual
outcome.
Chomsky, Noam (naturist): father of modern linguistics, language is innate (see language acquisition device)
Chunking: facilitate encoding by grouping information into meaningful units
Circadian Rhythm: regular body rhythms that naturally run on a 25 hour cycle, but with light during the day & dark
at night, it typically recurs on a 24 hr/day cycle
Classical Conditioning: The behavioral technique of pairing a naturally occurring stimulus and response chain with a
different stimulus in order to produce a response which is not naturally occurring.
Client Centered Therapy: A humanistic therapy based on Carl Roger's beliefs that an individual has an unlimited
capacity for psychological growth and will continue to grow unless barriers are placed in the way.
Clinical Psychologists: evaluate and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.
Cocktail Party Effect: the ability to single out one voice among many.
Coercive Power: Power derived through the ability to punish.
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Cognition: The process of receiving, processing, storing, and using information.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Treatment involving the combination of behaviorism (based on the theories of
learning) and cognitive therapy (based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large portion of our
behaviors).
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) results from conflicting beliefs, attitudes,
& opinions or values or when our behaviors do not coincide with our mental processes.
Cognitive Therapy: The treatment approach based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large part of
our behaviors and emotions. Therefore, changing the way we think can result in positive changes in the way we act
and feel.
Cognito Ergo Sum: I think therefore I am (dualist)
of people in one age group
Cohort: group Cohort effect: differences in the experiences of each age group as a result of growing up in different
historical times.
Cohort Effect: differences in the experiences of each age group as a result of growing up in different historical
times; can render a cross-sectional study invalid if one age group is significantly different in their experiences from
other age groups.
Cohort-Sequence Studies: used to minimize the major drawbacks of longitudinal & cross-sectional studies.
In such studies, groups are assessed at least two times over a span of months or years (instead of just once).
Collective Efficacy: our perception, that with collaborative effort, our group will attain its desired outcome
Compassionate Love: Deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined.
Compulsion: The physical act resulting from an obsession. Typically a compulsive act is done in an attempt to
alleviate the discomfort created by an obsession.
Conditioned Response (CR): The response in a stimulus-response chain that is not naturally occurring, but rather has
been learned through its pairing with a UCS and the NS.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): originally the NS, but through pairing with the UCS, now can generate the CR.
Conditioning: The process of learning new behaviors or responses as a result of their consequences.
Conditioned Taste Aversion: an intense dislike & avoidance of a food due to its association with an unpleasant or
painful stimulus through backward conditioning.
-- Garcia Effect: when rats were exposed to a tastes (NS) and then exposed them to radiation or drugs
(UCS) that led to nausea and vomiting (CR). The rats developed aversions for those tastes, even if they
did not get sick for hours after the initial exposure
Conduction Hearing Loss: hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound
waves to the cochlea.
Confabulation (Elizabeth Loftus): Memories of traumatic events suddenly recalled during therapy may result the
active reconstruction of memory where gaps are filled in by combining and substituting memories from events other
than the one we are trying to remember
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Conformity: Changing your attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, or behaviors in order to be more consistent with others.
Confounding Variable: Third or “lurking variable that can affect the dependent variable. Limits the confidence of
research conclusions
Conflict: being torn in different directions by opposing motives that block you from attaining a goal
-- Approach-approach Conflicts: where you must choose between 2 positive options
--Avoidance-Avoidance Conflicts: situation involving 2 negative options, (between a rock and a hard
place)
--Approach-avoidance Conflicts: situations where you decide if you want/do not want to choose an
option that has both positive and negative consequences
--Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts: there are several alternative options to choose from, all of
which have positive and negative consequences.
Consciousness: Awareness of yourself and the world around you.
Conscious processing: serial processing that is relatively slow , but allows us to perform voluntary acts solve novel
problems, and communicate with others.
Contralateral Function: when tissue of the motor cortex is stimulated on the one hemisphere, the opposite side of the
body part responds
Conservation: The understanding, typically achieved in later childhood, that matter remains the same even when the
shape changes
Consolidation: The physiological changes in the brain associated with memory storage.
Consolidation Failure: The failure to store information in memory.
Controlled Experiment: the researcher systematically manipulates a variable under controlled conditions and
observes the response
Context Dependent Memory The theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better
remembered when in that same situation or place.
Continuous Reinforcement: The application of reinforcement every time a specific behavior occurs.
Control Group: The group of subjects in an experiment that does not receive the independent variable.
Congenital: birth defect due to something that has gone awry during prenatal development, NOT due to genetics so
the condition is NOT hereditary
Contiguity Model (classical conditioning): temporal association between two events that occur closely together in
time. The more closely in time two events occurred, the more likely they were to become associated. (Pavlov)
Contingency Model (classical conditioning): challenges Pavlov - proposes that for learning to take place, a stimulus
must provide the subject information about the likelihood that certain events will occur (Robert Rescorla – cognitivist)
Coping: alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods
--Problem-focused Coping: attempting to alleviate stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we
interact with that stressor.
--Emotional-focused Coping: attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor & attending
to emotional needs related to one’s stress condition.
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Corpus Callosum: a large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres that carries messages between
them.
Correlation: Statistical representation of a relationship between two or more variables which does not determine
cause and effect.
Correlation Coefficient (r): measures the degree of association between two sets of data; range from -1to 1
Context-Dependent Memory: the physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the
information and becomes part of the memory trace.
Counterbalancing: If two treatments are used, the order of the treatments may have an effect on the outcome, so ½ of
the participants are assigned to one of the treatments first and the second half to the other treatment first.
Critical Period: A time frame deemed highly important in developing in a healthy manner; can be physically,
emotionally, behaviorally, or cognitively.
Cross-Sectional Studies: assess the developmental changes with respect to a particular factors by evaluating different
age groups of people at the same time.
Crowding: The psychological and psychological response to the belief that there are too many people in a specified
area.
Crystallized Intelligence: one’s accumulated knowledge & verbal skills tends to increase with age: people who work
hose in literature, history, & philosophy tend to produce their best work in their 40s and beyond.
Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values shared by a large group of people which are passed from one
generation to the next.
--Individualistic Culture: nurtures an individual’s personal identity
--Collectivist Culture: the individual identity is the same as the group identity
Daily Hassles: continued series of small everyday stressors are the most significant sources of stress for most people
Dark Adaptation: when it suddenly becomes dark, there is a gradual increase in sensitivity to the low level of light as
a shift occurs from predominantly cone vision to rod vision.
Decay: memory traces fade and/or disappear over time if it is not used or accessed.
Declarative Memory The part of long-term memory where factual information is stored, such as mathematical
formulas, vocabulary, and life events.
Deductive Reasoning
Decision making process in which ideas are processed from the general to the specific.
Deep Processing (memory): involves elaboration rehearsal where we attach meaning to information & create
associations between new memory and existing ones (elaboration) leading to better recall.
Defense Mechanisms (Freud): strategy used by the ego to protect itself from anxiety & to safeguard the mind against
feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope with. In some instances, may keep
inappropriate or unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.
Deindividuation: loss of self-awareness & self-restraint in group situations that foster arousal & anonymity
Delusion: False belief system (e.g., believing you are Napoleon, have magical powers, or the false belief that others
are 'out to get you.').
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Delta Waves: large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep; start in stage 3 & increase in stage 4
Demand Characteristics: clues participants discover about the purpose of the study including the rumors they hear
suggesting on how they should respond
Dependent Variable: The variable in an experiment that is measured
Depth Perception: the ability to see objects in three-dimensions although the images that strike the
retina are two dimensions; allows us to judge distance.
Descriptive Statistics: Numbers that summarize a set of data (generally in terms of interval or ratio scales)
Development: involves the processes and stages of growth from conception across the life span. It encompasses
changes in physical, cognitive, and social behaviors.
Developmental Psychology: The area of psychology focused on how children grow psychologically to become who
they are as adults.
Difference Threshold: The smallest change in perception which is noticeable at least 50% of the time.
--Just Notable Difference (jnd): how we experience the difference threshold
Discrimination (social psychology): unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group or its members
Discrimination (behavior psychology): The learned ability to differentiate between two similar objects or situations.
Disorientation: Inability to recognize or be aware of who we are (person), what we are doing (situation), the time
and date (time), or where we are in relation to our environment (place). To be considered a problem, it must be
consistent, result in difficulty functioning, and not due to forgetting or being lost.
Displacement: The pushing out of older information in short term memory to make room for new information.
Dissociation: A separation from the self, with the most severe resulting in Dissociative Identity Disorder. Most of us
experience this in very mild forms such as when we are driving long distance and lose time or find ourselves day
dreaming longer than we thought.
Distinctiveness The phenomenon in memory that states we are better able to remember information if it is distinctive
or different from other information.
Divergent Thinking The ability to use previously gained information to debate or discuss issues which have no
agreed upon definitive resolution.
Double-Blind Procedure: neither the experimenters directly involved with the participants, nor the participants know
which people in the experimental and control groups.
Drive Reduction Theory: a psychological need creates an aroused state that PUSHES the organism to reduce the
need by satisfying that drive/need.
Dualism: Socrates, Plato; mind and body are separate entities; knowledge is innate; Rene Descart
Ebbinghouse, Herman: first to experimentally investigate the properties of human memory, credited with the first
learning curve
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Eidetic Memory (photographic memory) : the ability to recall images with vividness bordering on actual visual
perception; total recall
Embryo: from 2 to 8 weeks in utero
EEG (Electroencephalogram): an amplified readout of brain wave electrical activity from neuronal impulses.
Effectors: muscles or glands
Effortful Processing: encoding that requires our focused attend and conscious effort
Ego: the part of the personality which maintains a balance between our impulses (id) and our conscience (superego).
Emotion: Feelings about a situation, person, or objects that involves changes in physiological arousal and cognitions.
Emotional Intelligence (EQ): The awareness of and ability to manage one's emotions in a healthy and productive
manner.
Empiricism: John Locke, his ideas helped to form the idea that knowledge originates in experience.
Encoding: getting information into the information (memory) system
Episodic Memory: subcategory of declarative memory where information regarding life events are stored.
Erogenous Zones: Freud, pleasure-sensitive areas of the body
Estrogen: hormone secreted by ovaries responsible for secondary sex characteristics (widening hips, secondary hair,
breast development), also responsible for developing the uterine lining each monthly cycle.
Ethnocentrism: basic belief that a person’s culture is superior to other cultures.
Etiology: Causal relationships of diseases; theories regarding how the specific disease or disorder began.
Evoked Potential: brain electrical wave that is a response to a given sensory stimulus
Experimental Group: In research, the group of subjects who receive the independent variable.
Experimental Method: Research method using random assignment of subjects and the manipulation of variables in
order to determine cause and effect.
Experimenter Bias: Errors in a research study due to the predisposed notions or beliefs of the experimenter.
Expert Power Power derived through advanced knowledge or experience in a particular subject.
Explicit Memory (Declarative Memory): memory of facts & experiences that we consciously know & verbalize
--Semantic Memory: facts & general knowledge
--Episodic Memory: personally experienced events
External Locus of Control : the environment has more control over life circumstances than the individual does.
Extinction The reduction and eventual disappearance of a learned or conditioned response after it is no longer
paired with the unconditioned stimulus-response chain.
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Extrinsic Motivation The desire or push to perform a certain behavior based on the potential external rewards that
may be received as a result.
Factor Analysis: A statistical technique used to determine the number of components in a set of data. These
components are then named according to their characteristics allowing a researcher to break down information into
statistical groups.
Family Therapy Treatment involving family members which seeks to change the unhealthy familial patterns and
interactions.
Fixation: In Freud's theory of psychosexual development, the failure to complete a stage successfully which results in
a continuation of that stage into later adulthood.
Fixed Interval Schedule: reinforcement is presented after a specific period of time.
Feel good, do-good phenomenon: tendency to be helpful when you are already in a good mood
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): represents a cluster of abnormalities that occur in infants of mothers who
drink alcohol during pregnancy; developmental issues include low intelligence, small head size with flat
faces, misshapen eyes, flat noses, and thin upper lips.
Fetus: from 9 weeks until birth
Fixation: inability to see a problem from a new perspective.
Fixed Ratio Schedule: schedule in which the reinforcement is presented after a specific number of responses.
Fetish: condition in which arousal and/or sexual gratification is attained through inanimate objects (shoes, pantyhose)
or non-sexual body parts (feet, hair). Is considered a problem when the object is needed in order to obtain arousal or
gratification and the individual cannot complete a sexual act without this object present.
Flashbulb Memory: a vivid memory of an emotionally rousing event; associated with an increase in
adrenal hormones, triggering the release of energy for neural processes & activation of the amygdala &
hippocampus.
Flooding: A behavioral technique used to treat phobias in which the client is presented with the feared stimulus until
the associated anxiety disappears.
Flow: completely focused, involved state of consciousness, with limited awareness of space & time
Fluid Intelligence: one’s ability to reason speedily & abstractly; peaks in the late 20s to 30s. (math & science people
do their best work during these years)
Foot in the Door Phenomenon: tendency for people who have agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger
request.
Framing: Presenting information either positively or negatively in order to change the influence is has on an
individual or group.
Fraternal Twins (dizygotic twins): 2 eggs, 2 sperm
Free Association: The psychoanalytic technique of allowing a patient to talk without direction or input in order to
analyze current issues of the client.
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Frontal Lobes: lies just behind the forehead, involved in speaking, muscle movements, making plans, and judgments
Frequency Effect: phenomenon in memory which states that we tend to remember information better if it is repeated.
Frustration: The feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with not achieving a particular goal or the belief
that a goal has been prematurely interrupted.
Freud, Sigmund: often referred to as the father of clinical psychology. His extensive theory of personality
development (psychoanalytical theory) is the cornerstone for modern psychological thought, and consists of (1) the
psychosexual stages of development, (2) the structural model of personality (id, ego, superego), and (3) levels of
consciousness (conscious, subconscious, and unconscious).
Frustration: The feelings, thoughts, and behaviors associated with not achieving a particular goal or the belief that a
goal has been prematurely interrupted.
Functional Fixedness: the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): show the brain at work at higher resolution than a PET scan.
Fundamental Attribution Error: The tendency to overestimate the depositional attributes & underestimate the
impact of the situation (environment) on another person’s actions
Gametes: Sex cells (sperm and egg)
Gate Control Theory (pain): a “gate” in the spinal cord either opens to permit pain signals traveling up small nerve
fibers to reach the brain or closes to prevent their passage.
Gender Identity: The internal sense of being either male or female. Usually congruent with biological gender, but not
always as in Gender Identity Disorder.
Gender Role: The accepted behaviors, thoughts, and emotions of a specific gender based upon the views of a
particular society or culture.
Gender Schema Theory: assumes that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be
male or female and adjust their behavior accordingly.
Gender Typing: The process of developing the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions associated with a particular gender.
Generalization: The tendency to associate stimuli, and therefore respond similarly to, due to their closeness on some
variable such as size, shape, color, or meaning.
Gestalt: German word typically translated as meaning 'whole' or 'form.' (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts)
Gestalt Therapy: Treatment focusing on the awareness and understanding of one's feelings.
Ghrelin: secreted by the stomach, triggers feelings of hunger as mealtimes approach.
Glial Cells: provide protection and support for interneurons of brain and spinal cord
Gonads: sex organs (testes and ovaries)
Group Polarization: discussion in a group of like-minded people tends to strengthen pre-existing attitudes.
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Group Therapy Psychotherapy conducted with at least three or four non-related individuals who are similar in some
are, such as gender, age, mental illness, or presenting problem.
Groupthink: The tendency for members of a cohesive group to reach decisions without weighing all the facts,
especially those contradicting the majority opinion in an effort to maintain group harmony
Gustation: Sense of taste.
Habituation: The decrease in response to a stimulus due to repetition (e.g., not hearing the ticking of a clock after
getting used to it)
Hallucination: False perception of reality (e.g., hearing voices that aren't there or seeing people who do not exist)
[auditory (hearing); visual (sight); olfactory (smell); tactile (touch); and taste]
Halo Effect: The tendency to assign generally positive or generally negative traits to a person after observing one
specific positive or negative trait, respectively.
Hawthorne Effect: when people know they are being observed, they change their behavior to what they think the
observer expects or to make themselves look good.
Health Psychology: The specific field in psychology concerned with psychology’s impact on health, physical well
being, and illness.
Heterosexuality: Being attracted to or aroused by members of the opposite gender. See Sexual Orientation.
Heritability: the proportion of variation among s given group of individuals in a trait that is attributable to genetic
factors.
Heuristic: A rule of thumb problem-solving strategy (see availability & representative heuristics)
Hierarchy of Needs: Maslow’s Theory of Motivation which states that we must achieve lower level needs, such as
food, shelter, and safety before we can achieve higher level needs, such as belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.
Higher Order Conditioning Pairing a second conditioned stimulus with the first conditioned stimulus in order to
produce a second conditioned response
Hindsight Bias: Tendency to falsely report, after the event, that we correctly predicted the outcome of the event.
Hippocampus: processing & storage of long-term memory
Homeostasis: The tendency of the body (and the mind) to natural gravitate toward a state of equilibrium or balance.
Homophobia: An irrational hostility, hatred, or fear of homosexuals.
Homosexuality: Being attracted to or aroused by members of the same gender.
Hormones: chemical messengers that are mostly manufactured by the endocrine glands, most often produced in one
part of the body and sent through the blood to affect tissue in other parts of the body,
Humanistic Psychology A theoretical view of human nature which stresses a positive view of human nature and the
strong belief in psychological homeostasis.
Humanistic Therapy Treatment focused on increasing awareness of one's self concept.
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Hypochondriasis: misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of physical illness
Hypothalamus: thirst, hunger, sex drive, temperature, pleasure center, inked to pleasurable awards. Also the only part
of the brain that secretes hormones which influence the pituitary gland and its secretions.
Hypnosis: A deep state of relaxation where an individual is more susceptible to suggestions.
Hypnotherapist A trained, and often licensed, therapist who utilizes the therapeutic technique of hypnosis as part of a
treatment regimen.
Hypnotist An individual, most likely unlicensed, who uses hypnosis techniques or variations of these techniques for a
variety of reasons, including treatment and/or entertainment.
Hypothalamus:
-- Lateral Hypothalamus: promotes eating behavior when stimulated
--Ventromedial Hypothalamus: turns off the urge to eat
--Paraventricular Nucleus: helps to regulate eating behaviors through stimulations/inhibition of specific
neurotransmitters
Hypothesis: A prediction about the relationship between two or more variables.
Id: In Psychoanalytical theory, the part of the personality which contains our primitive impulses such as sex, anger,
and hunger.
Identical Twins (monozygotic twins): 1 egg, 1 sperm
Illusion: Misperception of reality (e.g., the illusion of a lake in the middle of a desert).
Imagery: Utilizing the mind to create a mental representation of a sensory experience.
Implicit Memory (Nondeclarative Memory): retention independent of conscious memory
--Procedual Memory: memory of motor & cognitive skills
--Classical & Operant Conditioning Effects such as automatic association between stimuli.
Imprinting: the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period early in life; Common
among ducklings, goslings, and chicks.
Inappropriate Affect: Expressing contradictory behavior when describing or experiencing an emotion (e.g., smiling
when discussing something sad; laughing when talking about the death of a loved one).
Inattentional Blindness: failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Incentive Theory: secondary motives or external stimuli such as money approval, or grades regulate & PULL us
toward a goal
Independent Variable: The variable in an experiment that is manipulated or compared.
Inductive Reasoning: Decision making process in which ideas are processed from the specific to the general.
Industrial-organizational (I/O) psychology: the application of psychological principles, concepts, and methods to
optimize human behavior in the workplace.
Industrial/Organizational Psychology The area or specialty in psychology focused on the application of
psychological principles in the work force.
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Informational Social Influence: Influence resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’ opinions about reality
In-group: people with whom a person shares a common identity
In-group Bias: tendency to favor one’s own group
Innate: Occurring without learning, inborn.
Insight (Kohler) :the sudden appearance of an answer or solution to a problem.
Insomnia: persistent problems in falling and/or staying asleep.
Instinctive Drift: a conditioned response that drifts back toward the natural or instinctive behavior of the organism.
Instrumental Learning (EL Thorndike): a form of associative learning in which a behavior becomes more
or less probable depending on its consequences (later termed operant conditioning by Skinner)
Internal Locus of Control : an individual has more control over life circumstances than the environment does.
Instincts: Behaviors we are born with that do not need to be learned.
Instinct Theory: instincts propel our behaviors
Intelligence The ability to adapt to one’s environment.
Intelligence Quotient [IQ] The scores achieved on psychological tests aimed at quantifying intellectual ability.
Intrinsic Motivation The motivation or desire to do something based on the enjoyment of the behavior itself rather
than relying on or requiring external reinforcement.
Introversion The tendency to focus energy inward resulting in decreased social interaction.
Just Noticeable Difference The smallest change in a sensory perception that is detectable 50% of the time.
Just World Phenomenon: people get what they deserve
Language Acquisition Device (LAD) (Chomsky): a hypothetical module of the brain suggested to account for
children's innate predisposition for language acquisition.
Latent Learning: Learning that occurs without apparent reinforcement but is not demonstrated until such time as
reinforcement occurs.
Law of Effect: Theory proposed by Thorndike stating that those responses that are followed by a positive consequence
will be repeated more frequently than those that are not.
Learned Helplessness: A condition that occurs after a period of negative consequences where the person begins to
believe they have no control.
Learning Theory: Based on the idea that changes in behavior result more from experience and less from our
personality or how we think or feel about a situation.
Legitimate Power: Power derived through one's position, such as a police officer or elected official.
Leptin: produced by adipose (fat tissue), suppress appetite as levels increase
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Libido: Sigmund Freud’s terminology for sexual energy or sexual drive.
Locus of Control : A belief about the amount of control a person has over situations in their life.
Long Term Memory: Relatively permanent memory.
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; may be the
neural basis for learning and memory
Longitudinal Studies: follow the same group of people over a period of time from months to many years to evaluate
changes in those individuals over time.
Lucid Dream : A dream in which you are aware of dreaming and are sometimes able to manipulate
Maturation: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relative uninfluenced by experience.
Memory: the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information
Medulla Oblongata: part of brainstem that controls involuntary muscle such as heart, diaphragm, arteries, smooth
muscles of the digestive system
Mean: A method of determining an average where the sum of the scores are divided by the number of scores.
Measure of Central Tendency: An average (see Mean, Median, and/or Mode)
Median: A method of determining an average by using the score that falls in the middle of the distribution.
Meditation: a series of techniques used to focus concentration away from thoughts & feelings in order to create
calmness, tranquility, inner peace, leading to a sense of well-being.
Menarche: the first menstrual period
Mental Set: a type of fixation that involves the tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often in a way that
has been successful in the past.
Mere-Exposure Effect: repeated exposure to an individual increases your familiarity & liking of that person.
Meta-analysis: provides a means of statistically combining the results of individual research studies to reach an
overall conclusion.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, 2nd. Edition: An objective test utilizing 567 items which have been
empirically derived to measure a variety of psychological concerns of personality
MMPI-2: See Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, 2nd. Edition.
Milgram, Stanley: Obedience studies with “electric shock” - demonstrated situational factors that will facilitate
obedience
Minority Influence: the power of one or two dissenters to sway the majority.
Mirror Image Perceptions: When in conflict, enemies tend to “demonize” each other forming images of one another
that are quite similar.
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Mirror Neurons: frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or observing another
doing so; transform the sight of someone else’s actions into the motor program you would use to do the same thing;
may enable imitation, language training, & empathy
Misattribution Error (Source Amnesia): attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced,
heard about, read about, or imagined.
Misinformation Effect: Occurs when we incorporate misleading information into our memory of an event.
Mnemonic Devices: memory tricks or strategies to make information easier to remember (peg word system)
Mode: A method of determining an average by using the score(s) which occurs most frequently.
Modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.
Molecular Geneticists: attempt to identify the specific genes that influence behavior.
Monism: Aristotle, John Locke, mind and body are one.
Monocular Cues: Depth cues that are available to each eye separately.
Mood Congruence (mood-dependent memory): tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current
good/bad mood.
Moro (startle) Reflex: loud noises cause infants to arch their backs, fling limbs out & quickly retract them
Motivation: The process that energizes and/or maintains a behavior.
--Intrinsic motivation: desire to perform a task for its own sake
--External motivation: desire to perform an activity/task in order to obtain an external reward such as
money or material goods.
Motor Cortex: the area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movement
Narcolepsy: characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks, where the person may lapse directly into REM sleep often
during inopportune times.
Naturalistic Observation: research method where the subject(s) is(are) observed without interruption under normal or
natural circumstances.
Near Death Experiences: altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death.
Negative Correlation: Indirection relationship; one variable increases, the other decreases.
Neurons: basic unit of structure and function of the nervous system. Three types:
--sensory neurons: carry information from the environment to the CNS
--interneurons: make up the spine and brain
--motor neurons: carry interpreted information from the CNS to the muscles/glands
Neuron Networks: clusters of neurons in brain; each neural network is connected with other neural networks to
perform various tasks
Neurotransmitters: chemicals that carry the impulse across the synapse; play an important role in our behavior,
cognitions, and emotions.
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Neutral Stimulus (classical conditioning): does not illicit a UCR from the subject
Nightmare: dream occurring during REM sleep that results in feelings of strong terror, fear, distress or extreme
anxiety; tends to occur in the latter part of the night and often awakens the sleeper, who is likely to recall the content of
the dream.
Night Terrors: characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified during stage 4 within
2 or 3 hours of falling asleep & usually are not remembered the next morning.
Nonconscious: level that is devoted completely to processes inacceptable to conscious awareness, such a blood flow,
filtering of blood by the kidneys, secretion of hormones, lower processing of sensations
Nondeclarative Memory: A subsystem within Long term memory which consists of skills we acquire through
repetition and practice (e.g., dance, playing the piano, driving a car)
Normal Curve: A graphical interpretation of a population that is ‘bell shaped’ as it has the highest frequency in the
middle and this frequency diminishes the farther you get from the center on either end.
Norms: Expectations (implicit/explicit rules) that apply to all members of a group & govern acceptable behavior &
attitudes.
Normative Social Influence: influence resulting from a desire to gain social approval or avoid disapproval
Object Permanence: The understanding that objects exist even when they are not directly observed.
Objective Techniques: A generic term for the psychological procedures used to measure personality which rely on
measurable or objective techniques such as the MMPI-2 and WAIS-III.
Obsession: A persistent and seemingly uncontrollable thought.
Occipital Lobes: lie to the back of the head; includes visual areas, which receive visual information from the opposite
visual field
Olfaction: The sense of smell.
Omission Training: A response is followed by taking away something of value from the learner
By changing his/her behavior, the learner can get back the positive reinforcer. ex: Time-out
Operant Chamber (Skinner Box): contained a bar or key that an animal could manipulate to obtain food or water
reinforcer with attached devices in record the animal’s rate of bar pressing or key pecking.
Operant Conditioning: Learning that occurs due to the manipulation of the possible consequences.
Optimistic or Pessimistic Attribution Style: individual’s way of explaining events and is a measure of how helpless
or effective you feel.
Operational Definition: a statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables
Optic chiasm: the optic nerve from each eye criss-cross, routing information from the left half of each retina to the left
side of the brain and right half of each retina to the right side of the brain.
Out-group: those perceived as different from the in-group
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Out-group Homogeneity: tendency to believe that all members of another group are alike
Organizational Psychology: examines organizational influences on worker satisfaction and productivity and
facilitates organizational change
Overlearning Effect (Ebbinghouse): A technique used to improve memory where information is learned to the point
that it can be repeated without mistake more than one time.
Panic Attack: Period of extreme anxiety and physical symptoms such as heart palpitations, shakiness, dizziness, and
racing thoughts. Initial attacks are often reported to feel like a heart attack due to the heart palpitations.
Parallel Processing: the processing of several aspects of a problem simultaneously – this is the brain’s natural mode
of information processing for many functions including vision.
Paradoxical Sleep: The brainstem blocks activity from the cortex so the muscles are so relaxed that you are
essentially paralyzed. In essence, the body is internally aroused and externally calm.
Parapsychology: The study of the evidence for psychological phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and
psychokinesis, which are inexplicable by science
Parietal Lobes: lie at the top of the head behind the frontal lobes; involved with sensory input for touch and body
position,
Partial Reinforcement (intermittent schedule): reinforcing the behavior only some of the time.
--Fixed Ratio schedule: reinforces only after a fixed number of responses. The learner will pause
briefly after a reinforcement & then will return to a high rate of responding.
-- Variable Ratio Schedule: reinforces a behavior after an unpredictable number of responses (slot
Machine)
-- Fixed Interval Schedule: reinforces behaviors only after a specified time has elapsed (cramming
for a test)
--Variable Interval: reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals Ex. Studying every night
because the teacher gives pop quizzes.
Percentile Score: indicates the percentage of scores at or below a particular score
Perception: Process of selecting, organizing & interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful
objects & events
Perceptual Adaptation: in vision, the ability to adjust to an artificially displaced or even inverted visual field
Perceptual Set: a mental predisposition to perceive one thing & not the other.
Peripheral Nervous System: consists of autonomic & somatic nervous systems; connects the CNS with the body’s
sensory receptors, muscles, and glands.
Personal Space: Buffer zone we maintain around our bodies.
Person Centered Therapy : The therapeutic technique based on humanistic theory which is non-directive and
empathic.
Personality: The stable set of individual characteristics that make us unique.
Personality Inventory: a self-report questionnaire on which people respond true/false or agree/disagree items;
designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors.
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Permissive [parents]: Parenting style consisting of very few rules and allowing children to make most decisions and
control their own behavior.
Personnel Psychology: focus on employee recruitment, placement, training, appraisal, & development
Persuasion: The deliberate attempt to influence the thoughts, feelings or behaviors of another.
--central route of persuasion: speaker uses facts, figures, and other data to enable listeners to process
information and think about their opinions (opinion change is more stable)
--peripheral route of persuasion: superficial information is used to distract the audience to win
favorable approval of their products or to increase sales
Phi Phenomenon: an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick
succession, as seen in a marquee sign or holiday lights.
Phobia: An intense fear of a specific object or situation. Most of us consider ourselves to have phobias, but to be
diagnosable, the fear must significantly restrict our way of life.
Phrenology (Francis Gall): ill-fated theory that claimed bumps on the skull could reveal our mental abilities and our
character traits.
Photoreceptors: modified neurons that convert light energy to electrochemcial impulses. They include rods (color)
and cones (black/white)
Placebo: imitation pill, injection, patch, or other treatment used to control for the placebo effect.
Placebo Effect : The phenomenon in research where the subject’s beliefs about the outcome can significantly effect
the outcome without any other intervention.
Plasticity: The ability of the brain, especially in our younger years to compensate for damage.
Pleasure Principle: Freud’s theory regarding the id’s desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain in order to
achieve immediate gratification.
Pons: Region of the brain that acts as a relay station between the cerebellum and the cerebrum; also aids the medulla
in the control of breathing.
Population: The entire group from which the participants are randomly chosen
Positive Correlation: A correlation where as one variable increases, the other also increases, or as one decreases so
does the other.
Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan): produces color computer graphs that depend on the amount of
metabolic activity in the imaged brain region
Positive Reinforcement: Something positive provided after a response in order to increase the probability of that
response occurring in the future.
Preconscious: Level of consciousness that is outside of awareness but contains feeling & memories that can easily be
brought into conscious awareness.
Prejudice: Negative beliefs, attitudes, or feelings about a person's entire character based on only one characteristic.
This belief is often based on faulty information.
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Premack Principle: a more probable behavior can be used as a reinforcer for a less probable one.
Preparedness: through evolution, animals are biologically disposed to easily learn behaviors related to their survival
& that behaviors contrary to an animal’s natural tendencies are learned slowly or not at all.
Primacy Effect: The tendency to remember the first bit of information in a series due to increased rehearsal.
Primary Reinforcer : A reinforcer that meets our basic needs such as food or water.
Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, predisposing our perceptions, memory or
responses.
Proactive Interference: the process by which old memories prevent the retrieval of newer memories (forward acting)
Projection: In Psychoanalytic Theory, the defense mechanism whereby we transfer or project our feelings about one
person onto another.
Projective Techniques A generic term for the psychological procedures used to measure personality which rely on
ambiguous stimuli.
Prosocial Modeling: positive, constructive, helpful behavior.
Psychiatrist: A medical doctor with training in mental illness.
Psychoactive Drugs: chemical substances that alter perceptions and moods
Psychoanalysis: Developed by Sigmund Freud, this type of therapy is known for long term treatment, typically several
times per week, where the unresolved issues from the individual's childhood are analyzed and resolved. These issues
are considered to be primarily unconscious in nature and are kept from consciousness through a complex defense
system.
Psychodynamic Therapy: modern adaptation of psychoanalytic therapy which has made sometimes minor and
sometimes major changes to Freud's original theories.
Psychology: The study of emotion, cognition, and behavior, and their interaction.
Psychophysiological Diseases (“Mind-Body”): refers to any stress related illnesses (hypertension and some
headaches
Psychophysics: The study of physical energy & psychological experiences.
Psychosis: Break from reality, usually identified by hallucinations, delusions, and/or disorientation.
Puberty: period of sexual maturation; individual becomes capable or reproducing
Punishment: The adding of a negative stimulus in order to decrease a response (e.g., spanking a child to decrease
negative behavior).
Random Assignment: Assigning subjects to experimental groups based on chance.
Random Sample: A group of subjects representing the population who are selected through chance.
Range: A statistical term representing the difference between the highest score and the lowest score.
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Rapid Eye Movement (REM): A stage in the normal sleep cycle during which dreams occur and the body undergoes
marked changes including rapid eye movement, loss of reflexes, and increased pulse rate and brain activity. See
Paradoxical Sleep
Rational Emotive Therapy: A Cognitive Therapy based on Albert Ellis' theory that cognitions control our emotions
and behaviors; therefore, changing the way we think about things will affect the way we feel and the way we behave.
Rationalization: A defense mechanism where one believes or states an acceptable explanation for a behavior as
opposed to the real explanation.
Reaction Formation: A defense mechanism where unacceptable impulses are converted to their opposite.
Recall: a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier
Recency Effect: The tendency to remember the last bit of information due to the shorter time available for forgetting.
Reciprocal Determinism: (the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors
Reciprocity Norm: we should return help, not harm, those who have helped us.
Recognition: a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned
Reconstruction: Tendency to fill in the gaps in our memory and often believe these represent true memories.
Referent Power: Power given to an individual due to respect and/or desire to be similar to that individual.
Relative-Deprivation Principle: perception that we are less well-off then others we compare ourselves to.
Rehearsal: Repeating information in order to improve our recall of this information.
Reinforcer: Anything that follows a behavior that increases the chances of that behavior occurring again.
--Primary Reinforcer: something that is biologically important, so it is rewarding, such as food & drink.
--Secondary (conditioned) Reinforcer: something neutral that when associated with a primary
reinforcer, becomes rewarding such as gold stars, money, & tokens.
Regression: defense mechanism where one reverts to an earlier stage of development.
Relearning: measure of retention of memory that assesses the time saved compared to learning the first time when
learning information again.
Reliability: A statistical measure of a tests consistency, or ability to result in similar scores if given repeatedly.
REM Rebound: the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM deprivation (created by repeated awakening
during REM sleep) generally accompanied with nightmares.
Replication: in order to validate the results of an experiment as reliable, research studies must be repeated
Representativeness Heuristic: A rule of thumb where we judge the likelihood of things in terms of how well they
seem to represent or match particular prototypes. This can lead to ignoring of relevant information.
Repression: defense mechanism whereby our thoughts are pulled out of our consciousness and into our unconscious.
Resistance: blocking of anxiety-provoking feelings & experiences by talking about trivial issues or coming late for
sessions is a sign that the patient has reached an important issue that needs to be discovered.
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Reticular Formation: a diffuse network of nerve pathways in the brainstem connecting the spinal cord, cerebrum, and
cerebellum, mediating the overall level of consciousness (arousal)
Retrieval: The process of bringing material out of long term memory and into consciousness.
Retroactive Interference: the process by which new memories prevent the retrieval of older memories. (backward
acting)
Retrograde Amnesia: memory loss for a segment of the past, usually around the time of the accident (such as a blow
to the head). May result from a disruption in the process of long-term potentiation
Retrospective or ex post facto studies: look at an effect and look for a possible explanation through surveys of
affected groups.
Reuptake: The sending neuron reabsorbs excess neurotransmitter molecules released across the synapse.
Rorschach Inkblot Test: A projective technique utilizing ambiguous inkblots as stimuli.
Saltatory Conduction: When an axon is myelinated, conduction speed is increased since depolarization jumps from
node to node.
Sample Population: research participants, represents a subgroup of the general population
Saving Method (Ebbinghouse): Amount of repetitions required to relearn a list compared to the number of repetitions
it took to learn the list originally. Ebbinghouse used this method to measure retention of information.
Scatterplots (scattergrams): graphically illustrate the strength and direction of correlations where the slope of the line
that best fits the pattern of points suggests the degree and direction of the relationship between two variables.
Schemas: concepts or framework that organizes and interprets information.
Secondary Reinforcer : A reinforcer other than one which meets our basic needs such as food or water (e.g.,
intellectual stimulation, money, praise).
Secondary Traits: (Trait theory) characteristics that apparent in only certain situations, such as being
uncomfortable in confined spaces, getting anxious when speaking to a group
Selection Bias : Errors in the selection and placement of subjects into groups that results in differences between
groups which could affect the results of an experiment.
Self-Actualization: The process of understanding oneself more completely, being aware of issues affecting one's life,
transcendence toward spirituality & post-conventional morality
Self-Concept: sense of one’s identity and personal worth.
Self-Esteem: one part of our self-concept; deals with how we evaluate ourselves.
Self Efficacy: One's belief in his or her own ability.
Self-referent Encoding: relating new information to ourselves: one of the best ways to facilitate later recall.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Tendency to allow our preconceived notions of others influence how we treat them, bring
about the very behavior that we expected come true
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Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to assign dispositional attributes to successes and situational attributes to failures.
Semantic Encoding: Encoding the meaning of a word & relating it to similar words with similar meaning.
Semantic Memory: The part of declarative memory that stores general information such as names and facts.
Sensation: Process by which we detect physical energy from our environment and encode it as neural signals.
Sensory Adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Sensory Cortex: the area in the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement
sensations.
Sensory Memory: The brief storage of information brought in through the senses; typically only lasts up to a few
seconds.
Sensory Interaction: the principle that one sense of will influence another, as when the smell of food
influences its taste.
Sensorineural Hearing Loss (nerve deafness): hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the
auditory nerves.
Serial Position Effect: when trying to retrieve a long list of words, we recall the last word and the first
words best, forgetting the words in the middle.
Set-Point Theory: we have a preset natural body weight determined by the number of fat cells in our body
Sexual Orientation: an enduring sexual attraction toward members of the same or opposite sex
Shaping: Gradually molding a specific response by reinforcing responses that come close to the desired response.
Shallow Processing: encoding that emphasizes the structure of incoming information such as the typeface of
work or how a letter looks.
Signal Detection Theory: predicts how & when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background
stimulation (noise).
Single Blind Study: As a way to avoid the placebo effect in research, this type of study is designed without the
subject's knowledge of the anticipated results and sometimes even the nature of the study.
Short Term Memory (STM) : The stage of memory where information is stored for up to 30 seconds prior to either
being forgotten or transferred to long term memory.
Skinner, B. F. Considered the father of behavioral therapy. He once stated that with the ability to control a child's
environment, he could raise a child to become anything he wanted.
Sleep: periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness.
Sleep Apnea: characterized by the temporary cessation of breathing during sleep & repeated momentary awakenings.
Sufferers often display loud snoring; may complain of being irritable & sleepy but are unaware of their condition.
Social Clock: the cultural prescription of “the right time” to leave home, get a job, marry, & have children varies from
culture to culture as well as era to era.
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Social Exchange Theory: Our social behavior is an exchange process; we aim to maximize benefits & minimize
costs.
Social Facilitation: We perform simple, well-learned tasks better in front of others.
Social Impairment: Tasks we find difficult to do will be nearly impossible to perform when being watched.
Social Learning Theory (Alfred Bandura): assumes that children learn gender-linked behaviors by observing and
imitating
significant others and by being rewarded and punished.
Social Loafing: The tendency for people to work less on a task the greater the number of people working on that task.
Social Psychology :The branch of psychology which focuses on society and its impact on the individual.
Social Responsibility Norm: An expectation that people will help those dependent on them
Social Roles:Accepted behaviors associated with a particular position within a group.
Somatic Nervous System: voluntary muscles; conducts impulses from the CNS to the skeletal muscles
Somnambulism: sleepwalking
Spillover Effect: tendency for our moods to affect those around us.
Standard or z score: standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean.
Standard Deviation: A statistical formula used to determine the amount of difference expected from one score to the
next.
State Dependent Memory: The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy,
somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.
Stimulus:Anything in the environment to which one responds.
Storage: The process of saving information in long term memory
Stranger Anxiety: the fear of strangers that infants commonly display from about 8 months of age.
Stress: The physical and psychological result of internal or external pressure.
Stressor: Anything, internal or external, which applies psychological pressure on an individual.
Stroboscopic Movement: our brains perceive continuous movement in a rapid series of slightly varying images.
Sublimation: A defense mechanism where undesired or unacceptable impulses are transformed into behaviors which
are accepted by society.
Subliminal messages: any sensory stimuli below an individual's absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
Superego: In Psychoanalytical theory, the part of the personality that represents the conscience.
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Supertraits: Hans Eysenck's term for his two distinct categories of personality traits. They include IntroversionExtroversion and Neuroticism. According to Eysenck, each of us fall on a continuum based on the degree of each
supertrait.
Suppression: The defense mechanism where we push unacceptable thoughts out of consciousness and into our
unconscious.
Survey: A research technique in which subjects respond to a series of questions.
Synapse: the space between two adjacent neurons
Systematic Desensitization: A treatment technique where the client is exposed to gradually increasing anxiety
provoking stimuli while relaxing; the goal is for the client to eventually confront a phobia or fear without the
previously associated anxiety.
Tabula rosa (blank slate): John Locke, we are born without knowledge, knowledge comes from experience
Tactile: The sense of touch.
Temperament: inherited part of one’s personality
Temporal Lobes: lie roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each of which receives auditory information
primarily from the opposite ear.
Thalamus (midbrain): receives messages from all the senses except for smell, routes them to the proper brain regions
for interpretation
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) – David McCelland : A subjective personality test where ambiguous pictures
are shown to a subject; subject tells a story about picture; reveals inner personality
Theory: A general idea about the relationship of two or more variables.
Theory of the Mind: allows one to attribute thoughts, desires, and intentions to others, to predict or explain their
actions, and to posit their intentions.
Tip-of –the-Tongue Phenomenon: a often temporary inability to access information accompanied by a
feeling that the information is in LTM.
Token Economies: positive behaviors are rewarded with secondary reinforcers such as tokens or points that can be
exchanged for extrinsic rewards
Tolerance: the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to
take large doses of the drug in order to experience the drug’s effect.
Top-down Processing: Information processing guided by our higher-level mental processes as we construct
perceptions drawing on our experience & expectations.
Trait: A relatively permanent internal characteristic (e.g., friendly, outgoing)
Transduction: the conversion of one form of energy to another
-- Sensory Transduction: the transforming of stimulus energies such as sight, sounds, and smells into
neural impulses our brains can interpret.
Transference: Intense feelings directed toward the therapist that many clients experience in the process of therapy.
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Triune Brain: One model of evolution with respect to the brain; 3 major divisions with overlapping layers; the most
resent neural systems nearest the front and the top
Type A Personality: person with a significant number of traits focused on urgency, impatience, success, and excessive
competition.
Type B Personality: person with a significant number of traits focused on relaxation, lack of urgency, and normal or
reduced competition.
Umami: newly discovered taste receptor, best experienced as the flavor enhancer MSG (monsodium
glutamate).
Unconditional Positive Regard: The nonjudgmental empathy and respect for another person.
Unconditioned Response (UCR): The response in a stimulus-response chain that is naturally occurring as opposed to
learned. (classical conditioning)
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): The stimulus in a stimulus-response chain that is naturally occurring as opposed to
learned. (classical conditioning)
Unconscious: According to Freud, the area of the psyche where unknown wishes and needs are kept that play a
significant role in our conscious behavior.
Unconscious processing: parallel processing that enables us to perform familiar tasks automatically.
Validity: Statistical technique used to determine if a test is actually measuring what it is intended to measure.
Variable: Any factor which has the potential to influence another factor in a research study.
Variable Interval Schedule: A schedule in which the reinforcement is presented after a varying amount of time.
Variable Ratio Schedule: A schedule in which the reinforcement is presented after a varying number of responses.
Vestibluar Sense: the sense of body movement & position, including the sense of balance.
Visual Capture: the tendency for vision to dominate the other senses
Visual Cliff: a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals.
WAIS-II: See Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third Edition.
Weber’s Law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum
percentage; the exact proportion varies, dependent on the stimulus.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Third Edition :An objective measure of intelligence. The Stanford-Binet test is
also used, has very similar validity, but is not as popular.
Wernicke’s Area: controls language reception, usually located in the left temporal lobe. Involved in language
comprehension and expression
Wernicke’s Aphasia: Aphasia resulting from damage to the Wernicke’s area of the frontal lobe. Affects written and
spoken language.
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Withdrawal: the discomfort and stress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.
Within-Subjects Design: a research design that uses each participant as his/her control, researchers look at the
behavior of each participant pre- and post- treatment.
Working Memory (Baddley): conscious, active processing of incoming auditory & visual-spatial information, & of
information retrieved from long-term memory.
Zimbardo, Phillip: Prison Study – the roles people play within a given situation can shape their behavior & attitudes.
Zygote: fertilized egg
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