Term
|
Definition
| Experimental design in which participants first experience the baseline condition (A), then experience the experimental treatment (B), and then return to the baseline (A) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The area of psychological investigation concerned with understanding the nature of individual pathologies of mind, mood, and behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory signal is detected half the time |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The process by which the ciliary muscles change the thickness of the lens of the eye to permit variable focusing on near and distant objects
or
According to Piaget, the process of restructuring or modifying cognitive structures so that new information can fit into them more easily; this process works in tandem with assimilation |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The stage in a classical conditioning experiment during which the conditioned response is first elicited by the conditioned stimulus |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The nerve impulse activated in a neuron that travels down the axon and causes neurotransmitters to be released into a synapse |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A transient state of arousal with typically clear onset and offset patterns. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A condition in which the body requires a drug in order to function without physical and psychological reactions to its absence; often the outcome of tolerance and dependence. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Prejudice against older people, similar to racism and sexism in its negative stereotypes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Behaviors that cause psychological or physical harm to another individual. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An extreme fear of being in public places or open spaces from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Acronym for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a syndrome caused by a virus that damages the immune system and weakens the body's ability to fight infection. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A step-by-step procedure that always provides the right answer for a particular type of problem. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The rule that the size of the action potential is unaffected by increases in the intensity of stimulation beyond the threshold level. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Prosocial behaviors a person carries out without considering his or her own safety or interests. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A chronic organic brain syndrome characterized by gradual loss of memory, decline in intellectual ability, and deterioration of personality. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Cells that integrate information across the retina; rather than sending signals toward the brain, amacrine cells link bipolar cells to other bipolar cells and ganglion cells to other ganglion cells. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A perceptual object that may have more than one interpretation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A failure of memory caused by physical injury, disease, drug use, or psychological trauma. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The part of the limbic system that controls emotion, aggression, and the formation of emotional memory. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A branch of psychology that views the person as a constellation of compensatory internal forces in a dynamic balance. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An insufficient adjustment up or down from an original starting value when judging the probable value of some event or outcome. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The cognitive capabilities of nonhuman animals; researchers trace the development of cognitive capabilities across species and the continuity of capabilities from nonhuman to human animals. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| eating disorder in which an individual weighs less than 85 percent of her or his expected weight but still controls eating because of a self-perception of obesity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Efforts made in advance of a potentially stressful event to overcome, reduce, or tolerate the imbalance between perceived demands and available resources. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An intense emotional response caused by the preconscious recognition that a repressed conflict is about to emerge into consciousness. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Mental disorders marked by physiological arousal, feelings of tension, and intense apprehension without apparent reason. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A movement illusion in which one or more stationary lights going on and off in succession are perceived as a single moving light; the simplest form of apparent motion is the phi phenomenon. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A universal, inherited, primitive, and symbolic representation of a particular experience or object. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| According to Piaget, the process whereby new cognitive elements are fitted in with old elements or modified to fit more easily; this process works in tandem with accommodation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The parts of the cerebral cortex in which many high-level brain processes occur. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Emotional relationship between a child and their regular caregiver. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| state of focused awareness on a subset of the available perceptual information. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The learned, relatively stable tendency to respond to people, concepts, and events in an evaluative way. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| social-cognitive approach to describing the ways the social perceiver uses information to generate causal explanations. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Judgments about the causes of outcomes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The process of shaping a message depending on the audience for which it is intended. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The area of the temporal lobes that receives and processes auditory information. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The nerve that carries impulses from the cochlea to the cochlear nucleus of the brain. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Processes that do not require attention; they can often be performed along with other tasks without interference. |
|
|
Term
| autonomic nervous system (ANS) |
|
Definition
| The subdivision of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's involuntary motor responses by connecting the sensory receptors to the central nervous system (CNS) and the CNS to the smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glands. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A judgment based on the information readily available in memory. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A type of behavioral therapy used to treat individuals attracted to harmful stimuli; an attractive stimulus is paired with a noxious stimulus in order to elicit a negative reaction to the target stimulus. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The extended fiber of a neuron through which nerve impulses travel from the soma to the terminal buttons. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The level of categorization that can be retrieved from memory most quickly and used most efficiently. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A membrane in the cochlea that, when set into motion, stimulates hair cells that produce the neural effects of auditory stimulation. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The actions by which an organism adjusts to its environment. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The area of psychology that focuses on the environmental determinants of learning and behavior. |
|
|
Term
| behavior modification or behavior therapy |
|
Definition
| The systematic use of principles of learning to increase the frequency of desired behaviors and/or decrease the frequency of problem behaviors. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The process by which people behave in ways that elicit from others specific expected reactions and then use those reactions to confirm their beliefs. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Observational reports about the behavior of organisms and the conditions under which the behavior occurs or changes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Overt actions and reactions that are observed and recorded, exclusive of self-reported behavior. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Procedures used to establish and strengthen basic skills; as used in social-skills training programs, requires the client to rehearse a desirable behavior sequence mentally. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A scientific approach that limits the study of psychology to measurable or observable behavior. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The psychological perspective primarily concerned with observable behavior that can be objectively recorded and with the relationships of observable behavior to environmental stimuli. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A situation that occurs when a person's prior knowledge, attitudes, or values distort the reasoning process by influencing the person to accept invalid arguments. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A research design in which different groups of participants are randomly assigned to experimental conditions or to control conditions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A self-regulatory technique by which an individual acquires voluntary control over nonconscious biological processes. |
|
|
Term
| biological constraints on learning |
|
Definition
| Any limitations on an organism's capacity to learn that are caused by the inherited sensory, response, or cognitive capabilities of members of a given species. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The approach to identifying causes of behavior that focuses on the functioning of the genes, the brain, the nervous system, and the endocrine system. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Treatments for psychological disorders that alter brain functioning with chemical or physical interventions such as drug therapy, surgery, or electroconvulsive therapy. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A model of health and illness that suggests that links among the nervous system, the immune system, behavioral styles, cognitive processing, and environmental factors can put people at risk for illness. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Nerve cells in the visual system that combine impulses from many receptors and transmit the results to ganglion cells. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A mood disorder characterized by alternating periods of depression and mania. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A phenomenon in which an organism does not learn a new stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus, because the new stimulus is presented simultaneously with a stimulus that is already effective as a signal. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The subjective experience of the appearance of one's body. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Perceptual analyses based on the sensory data available in the environment; results of analyses are passed upward toward more abstract representations. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The brain structure that regulates the body's basic life processes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The dimension of color space that captures the intensity of light. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The region of the brain that translates thoughts into speech or sign. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by measures to purge the body of the excess calories. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Willingness to assist a person in need of help. |
|
|
Term
| Cannon-Bard theory of emotion |
|
Definition
| A theory stating that an "emotional stimulus produces two co-occurring reactions-arousal "and experience of emotion-that do not cause each other. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Intensive observation of a particular individual or small group of individuals. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The process of expressing strongly felt but usually repressed emotions. |
|
|
Term
| central nervous system (CNS) |
|
Definition
| The part of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A thought pattern common during the beginning of the preoperational stage of cognitive development; characterized by the child's inability to take more than one perceptual factor into account at the same time. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The region of the brain attached to the brain stem that controls motor coordination, posture, and balance as well as the ability to learn control of body movements. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The outer surface of the cerebrum. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The two halves of the cerebrum, connected by the corpus callosum. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The region of the brain that regulates higher cognitive and emotional functions. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A special form of speech with an exaggerated and high-pitched intonation that adults use to speak to infants and young children. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A continuous state of arousal in which an individual perceives demands as greater than the inner and outer resources available for dealing with them. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The number of months or years since an individual's birth. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The process of taking single items of information and recoding them on the basis of similarity or some other organizing principle. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A consistent pattern of cyclical body activities, usually lasting 24 to 25 hours and determined by an internal biological clock. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A type of learning in which a behavior (conditioned response) comes to be elicited by a stimulus (conditioned stimulus) that has acquired its power through an association with a biologically significant stimulus (unconditioned stimulus). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The term used by clinicians who think of psychological disorders as problems in living, and not as mental illnesses, to describe those being treated. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A humanistic approach to treatment that emphasizes the healthy psychological growth of the individual; based on the assumption that all people share the basic tendency of human nature toward self-actualization. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A field of psychology that relates disorders such as anxiety and depression to environmental irritants and sources of trauma. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An individual who has earned a doctorate in psychology and whose training is in the assessment and treatment of psychological problems. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A mental health professional whose specialized training prepares him or her to consider the social context of people's problems. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A perceptual organizing process that leads individuals to see incomplete figures as complete. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| primary organ of hearing; a fluid-filled coiled tube located in the inner ear. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Processes of knowing, including attending, remembering, and reasoning; also the content of the processes, such as concepts and memories. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| With respect to emotions, the process through which physiological arousal is interpreted with respect to circumstances in the particular setting in which it is being experienced; also, the recognition and evaluation of a stressor to assess the demand, the size of the threat, the resources available for dealing with it, and appropriate coping strategies. |
|
|
Term
| cognitive appraisal theory of emotion |
|
Definition
| A theory stating that the experience of emotion is the joint effect of physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal, which serves to determine how an ambiguous inner state of arousal will be labeled. |
|
|
Term
| cognitive behavior modification |
|
Definition
| A therapeutic approach that combines the cognitive emphasis on the role of thoughts and attitudes influencing motivations and response with the behavioral emphasis on changing performance through modification of reinforcement contingencies. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The development of processes of knowing, including imagining, perceiving, reasoning, and problem solving. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The theory that the tension-producing effects of incongruous cognitions motivate individuals to reduce such tension. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A mental representation of physical space. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The perspective on psychology that stresses human thought and the processes of knowing, such as attending, thinking, remembering, expecting, solving problems, fantasizing, and consciousness. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Higher mental processes, such as perception, memory, language, problem solving, and abstract thinking. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The study of higher mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, and thinking. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The interdisciplinary field of study of the approach systems and processes that manipulate information. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A type of psychotherapeutic treatment that attempts to change feelings and behaviors by changing the way a client thinks about or perceives significant life experiences. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The part of an individual's unconscious that is inherited, evolutionarily developed, and common to all members of the species. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The experience of more than one disorder at the same time. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Colors opposite each other on the color circle; when additively mixed, they create the sensation of white light. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A change in behavior consistent with a communication source's direct requests. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Mental representations of kinds or categories of items or ideas. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In classical conditioning, formerly neutral stimuli that have become reinforcers. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In classical conditioning, a response elicited by some previously neutral stimulus that occurs as a result of pairing the neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| In classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The ways in which events, stimuli, and behavior become associated with one another. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Photoreceptors concentrated in the center of the retina that are responsible for visual experience under normal viewing conditions and for all experiences of color. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The tendency for people to adopt the behaviors, attitudes, and values of other members of a reference group. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A stimulus other than the variable an experimenter explicitly introduces into a research setting that affects a participant's behavior. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A state of awareness of internal events and of the external environment. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The mutual affirmation of conscious views of reality. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| According to Piaget, the understanding that physical properties do not change when nothing is added or taken away, even though appearances may change. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The observation that personality ratings across time and among different observers are consistent, while behavior ratings across situations are not consistent. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Comfort derived from an infant's physical contact with the mother or caregiver. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The idea that direct contact between hostile groups alone will reduce prejudice. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The initial phase of research, in which observations, beliefs, information, and general knowledge lead to a new idea or a different way of thinking about some phenomenon. |
|
|
