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| Accommodation (cognitive development) |
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Definition
| Adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information |
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| The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus images of near objects on the retina |
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| A neurotransmitter that, among its functions, triggers muscle contraction |
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| A desire for significant accomplishment for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for attaining a high standard |
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| The encoding of sounds, especially the encoding of words |
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| The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. |
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| A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. The action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane |
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| Empathetic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers client-centered therapy. |
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| Adaptation-level phenomenon |
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| Our tendency to form judgments ( of sounds, lights, income) relative to a "neutral" level defined by our prior experience |
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| A pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. The adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and nor epinephrine (non-adrenaline) which help to arouse the body in times of stress |
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| Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness, may also alleviate depression and anxiety |
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| A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier- but also more error prone use of heuristics |
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| The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed awake state |
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| A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reason, language, and finally, physical functioning |
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| eating disorder in which a normal weight person diets and becomes significantly (15% or more) underweight, yet still feeling fat, continues to starve |
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| Antisocial personality disorder |
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Definition
| A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits the lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even towards friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless, or a clever con artist |
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| Psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persisting anxiety, or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety |
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| Impairment of language usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impaired speaking) or Wernikes' area (imparied understanding) |
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| Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems |
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| Artificial intelligence (AI) |
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Definition
| Science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to stimulate human thought processes such as intuitive reasoning, learning, and understanding language. Includes practical implications (chess playing, industrial robots, expert systems) and efforts to model human thinking inspired by our current understanding of how the brain works. |
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| Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schema |
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| Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning) |
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| An emotional tie with another person: shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation |
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| A belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects, people and events |
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| The theory that we tend to give a casual explanation for someone's behavior, often by crediting the situation or the person's disposition |
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| A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind. |
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| Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency and of well learned information, such as word meanings |
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| Autonomous nervous system |
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Definition
| The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms |
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| Estimating the likelihood of events based on the availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness) we presume such events are common |
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| A type of counter-conditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol) |
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| The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages are sent to other neurons or to muscles or glands |
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| Beginning at 3 to 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first, unrelated to the household language |
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| Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment |
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| The body's resting rate of energy expenditure |
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| Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base |
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| According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers |
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| The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior |
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| Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors |
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| An interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease |
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| The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not (2) |
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| The tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid |
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| clining to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they formed has been discredited |
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| Depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes |
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| A system for electrically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle psychological state such as blood pressure or muscle tension |
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| A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior(behavioral neuroscientists, neuro-psychologists, geneticists, physiological psychologists, or bio-psychologists) |
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| Periodic physiological fluctuations |
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| Biopsychosocial perspective |
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| A contemporary perspective which assumes that biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce psychological disorders. |
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| The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind spot" because no receptor cells are located there |
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| The oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skill; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions |
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| An area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech |
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| Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion brought on by persistent job-related stress |
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| The theory that emotion arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological response and (2) the subjective experience of emotion |
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| Emotional release. In psychology the catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges |
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| Central nervous system (CNS) |
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| The brain and the spinal cord |
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| The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem; it helps coordinate voluntary movement and balance |
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| The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center |
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| The biological clock; regular body rhythms (ex. temp/ awake) that occur on a 24-hour cycle |
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| A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and test people with psychological disorders |
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| All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering |
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| Cognitive-behavior therapy |
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| A popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior) |
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| Cognitive dissonance theory |
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| They theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognition) are inconsistent. |
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| Therapy that teaches people new more adaptive ways of thinking and acting based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions |
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| Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history |
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| Giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly |
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| Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object |
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| Complementary and alternative medicine |
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Definition
| Unproven healthcare treatments not taught widely in medical school, not used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by insurance companies |
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| Computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells, performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patters and smells |
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Definition
| A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people |
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| Concrete operational stage |
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Definition
| In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development from about 6/7 to 11 years of age during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events |
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Definition
| A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer |
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| Conditioned response (CR) |
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Definition
| In classical conditioning, the learned response to previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) |
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Definition
| In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that , after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR) |
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| Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanism system that connects sound waves to the cochlea |
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| A tendency to search from information that confirms one's preconceptions |
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| A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas |
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| Our awareness of ourselves and our environment |
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| The principle (Piaget believed to be a part of concrete op. reasoning) that properties such a s mass, volume and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of the objects |
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| The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (such as driving test samples) |
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| Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs |
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| The condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment |
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| A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object |
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| The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; leading cause of death in the U.S. |
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| Statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus, of how well either factor predicts the other |
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| The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas |
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| The behavior (such as college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict; thus, the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity |
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| An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development |
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| Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather it examen assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions |
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| CT (Computer Tomography Scan) |
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| A series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by a computer into a complete composite representation of a slice through the body |
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| The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity |
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| The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep |
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| Drugs (such as alcohol barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions |
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| A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span |
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| The minimum difference that a person can detect to stimuli. We experience the difference threshold as just noticeable difference. |
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| Classical conditioning: the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus |
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| Defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less dangerous object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet |
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| A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others |
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| Disorder in which conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, or feelings |
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| Dissociative identity disorder |
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Definition
| A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and altering personalities |
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| A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping persons mind. Dreams are notable form their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamer's delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it |
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| The idea that a psychological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need |
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| The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders |
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| The presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact |
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