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| The scientific study of behavior and mental processes |
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| the view that (a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses and(b) science flourishes through observation and experiment |
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| and early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind |
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| A school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function-how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish |
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| Historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people; used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth |
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| the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors |
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| the principal that, among the range of inherited traid variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations |
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| the differing couplemetary views from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon |
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| An integrated perspective that incorporates biological psychological and social-cultural levels of analysis |
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| pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base |
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| scientific study that aims to solve practical problems |
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| the branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being. |
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| a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders |
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| a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders;practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy. |
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| the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have forseen it. |
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| thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. rather, it examines, assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions |
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| an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations. |
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| a testable prediction often implied by a theory |
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| a statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables. For example human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an itelligence test measures |
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| repeating the essence of a research study. Usually with different participant in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extendts to other participants and circumstances. |
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| an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principals |
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| a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of peple, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them |
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| the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors |
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| all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study(except for national studies.. not a whole country's pop.) |
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| a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion |
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| observing and recording behavior in naturally occuring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation |
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| Naturalistic observations |
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| involves watching and recording the behavior of organisms in their natural environment. |
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| a 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 mathematical expression of the relationship ranging from -1 to +1 |
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| the perception of a relationship where none exists |
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| a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factor to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process. by random assingment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors. |
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| an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. commonly used in drug evaluation studies. |
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| experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substanceor condition, which is assumed to be an active agent |
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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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| assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups. |
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| the experemental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied |
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| the outcomefactor;the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable |
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| the most frequently occuring score(s) in a distribution |
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| the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the # of scores |
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| the middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it, half the scores are below it |
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| the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution |
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| a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score |
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| a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance. |
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| the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of peple and transmitted from one generation to the next |
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| a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system |
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| the bushy branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body |
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| the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands |
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| a layer of fatty tissue semnetally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as impulse hops from one node to the next |
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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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| a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior |
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| a level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse |
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| the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or cleft |
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| chemical messengers that traverse the snaptic gaps between neurons. Whne released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby inluencing whether that neuron will generate a teural impulse. |
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| a neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction |
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| "morphine within" -natural opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure. |
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| the body's speedy electrochemical communication network consisting of all the nerve cells of the periperal and central nervous systems |
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| central nervous system (CNS) |
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| Peripheral nervous system (PNS) |
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| the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body |
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| Peripheral nervous system (PNS) |
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| the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body |
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| neural cables containing many axons. part of peripheral nervous system. connect to central nervous system w/ muscles glands and sense organs. |
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| neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the central nervous system |
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| neurons that carry outgoing information from the central nerous system to the msucles and glands |
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| central nervous sysem neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs |
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| the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. also called "skeletal nervous system" |
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| the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. its sympathetic division arouses/ it's parasympathetic division calms. |
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| parasympathetic nervous system |
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| the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving it's energy. |
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| a simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee jerk response |
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| interconnected neural cells. with experience, networks can learn, as feedback strengthens or inhibits connections that produce certain resuldts. coputer simulations of neural networks show analogous learning. |
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| the body's slow chemical communication system; a set of clands that secrete hormoned into the bloodstream |
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| chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another |
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| a pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. the adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrin (adrenaline) and noneinephrine (nonadrenaline) which helps to arouse the body in times of stress |
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| the endocrine system's most influential gland. under the influence of teh hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands. |
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| tissue destruction. a brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue. |
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| electroencephalogram (EEG) an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep accross the brains surface. these waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp. |
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| PET (positron emission tomography) scan |
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| a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task. |
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| MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) |
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| a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images that distinguish among different types of soft tissue; allows us to see structures within the brain |
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| fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) |
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| a technique for revealing blood flow and therefor brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. MRI scans show brain anatomy; fMRI scans show the brains function. |
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| the oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters teh skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival funcitons |
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| the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breahing |
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| a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal. |
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| the rains sensory switchboard. located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and sransmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla |
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| the "little brain" attatched to the rear of the brainstem; it's functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance. |
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| doughnut shaped system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem and cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions, drivese for food and sex. includes the hippocampus, amigdala, and hypothalamus. |
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| two lima bean sized neural clusters that are components of the lymbic system that are linked to emotion. |
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| a neural structure lying below (hypo) the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating & body temp) Helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland and is linked to emotion |
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| the intricate fabric of interconnected nerual cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center |
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| cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons. |
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| the portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and msucle movements and making plans and judgements |
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| the portion of ther ecerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position |
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| the portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes the visual, areas, which receive visual information form the opposite visual feild. |
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| the protion of the cerebral cortex lyin roughly above the ears;included the auditory areas which receives auditory information primarily from the opposite ear. |
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| an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movement. |
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