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Absolute threshold

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The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time

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Accommodation(Developmental)

answer

Adapting one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information

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Accommodation(Biological)

answer

The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus the image of near objects on the retina

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Acetylcholine (ACh)

answer

A neurotransmitter that, among its functions, triggers muscle contraction

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Achievement motivation

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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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Achievement test

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A test designed to assess what a person has learned

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Acoustic encoding

answer

The encoding of sounds, especially the sound of words

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Acquisition

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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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Action potential

answer

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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Active listening

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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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Acuity

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The sharpness of vision

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Adaptation-level phenomenon

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Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a "neutral" level defined by our prior experience

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Adolescence

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The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

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Adrenal glands

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A pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. The adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and nor epinephrine (noradrenaline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress

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Aerobic exercise

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Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety

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Aggression

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And physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

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Algorithm

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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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Alpha waves

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The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

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Altruism

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Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

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Alzheimer's disease

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A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and finally, physical functioning

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Amnesia

answer

The loss of memory

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Amphetamines

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Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded up body functions and associated energy and mood changes

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Amygdala

answer

Two almond-shaped neural clusters that are components of the limbic system and are linked to emotion

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Anorexia nervosa

answer

An eating disorder in which a normal-weight person (usually and adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve

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Antisocial personality disorder

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A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist

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Anxiety disorders

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Psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

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Aphasia

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Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernike's area (impairing understanding)

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Applied research

answer

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

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Aptitude test

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A test designed to predict a person's future performance, aptitude is the capacity to learn

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Artificial intelligence (AI)

answer

Science of designing and programming computer systems to do intelligent things and to stimulate human thought process 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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Assimilation

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Interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas

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Association areas

answer

Areas of cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

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Associative learning

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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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Attachment

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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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Attitude

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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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Attribution theory

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The theory that we tend to give a casual explanation for someone's behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition

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Audition

answer

The sense of hearing

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Automatic processing

answer

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

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Autonomic nervous system

answer

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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Availability heuristic

answer

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

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Aversive conditioning

answer

A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol)

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Axon

answer

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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Babbling stage

answer

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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Barbiturates

answer

Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment

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Basal metabolic rate

answer

The body's resting rate of energy expenditure

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Basic research

answer

Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

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Basic trust

answer

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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Behavior genetics

answer

The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

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Behavior therapy

answer

Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors

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Behavioral medicine

answer

An interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

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Behaviorism

answer

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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Belief bias

answer

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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Belief perseverance

answer

Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they formed has been discredited

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Binocular cues

answer

Depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on the use of two eyes

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Bio-psycho-social perspective

answer

A contemporary perspective which assumes that biological, psychological and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce psychological disorders

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Biofeedback

answer

A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension

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Biological psychology

answer

A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior. (Some biological psychologists call themselves behavioral neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, behavior geneticists, physiological psychologists, or biopsychologists

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Biological rhythms

answer

Periodic physiological fluctuations

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Bipolar disorder

answer

A mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania

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Blind spot

answer

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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Bottom-up processing

answer

Analysis that begins with the sense receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory information

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Brainstem

answer

The oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions

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Broca's area

answer

An area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech

question

Bulimia nervosa

answer

An eating disorder characterized by private "binge-purge" episodes of overeating, usually of highly caloric foods, followed by vomiting or laxative use

question

Burnout

answer

Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion brought on by persistent job-related stress

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Bystander effect

answer

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present

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Cannon-Bard theory

answer

The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion

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Case study

answer

An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

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Catharsis

answer

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)

answer

the brain and spinal cord

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Cerebellum

answer

The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem; it helps coordinate voluntary movement and balance

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Cerebral cortex

answer

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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Chromosomes

answer

Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes

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Chunking

answer

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

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Circadian rhythm

answer

The biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (for example, of temperature and wakefulness) that occur on a 24- hour cycle

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Classical conditioning

answer

A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned response (UCS) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus (also called Pavlovian Conditioning)

question

Client-centered therapy

answer

A humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth. (Also called person-centered therapy)

question

Clinical psychology

answer

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and trests people with psychological disorders

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Cochlea

answer

A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses

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Cognition

answer

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering

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Cognitive-behavior therapy

answer

A popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behavior therapy (changing behavior)

question

Cognitive dissonance theory

answer

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes

question

Cognitive map

answer

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

question

Cognitive therapy

answer

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

question

Collective unconscious

answer

Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history

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Collectivism

answer

Giving priority to the goals of ones group and defining one's identity accordingly

question

Color constancy

answer

Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

question

Companionate love

answer

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those whom are lives are intertwined

question

Complementary and alternative medicine

answer

Unproven health care treatments not taught widely in medical school, not used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by insurance companies

question

Computer neural networks

answer

Computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells, performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells

question

Concept

answer

mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

question

Concrete operational stage

answer

In Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

question

Conditioned reinforcer

answer

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power though its association with a primary reinforcer

question

Conditioned response (CR)

answer

In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS)

question

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

answer

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), comes to trigger a conditioned response

question

Conduction hearing loss

answer

Hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

question

Cones

answer

Receptor cells that are concentrates near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect finel detail and give rise to color sensations

question

Confirmation bias

answer

A tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

question

Conflict

answer

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

question

Conformity

answer

Adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

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Consciousness

answer

Our awareness of ourselves and our environments

question

Conservation

answer

The principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

question

Content validity

answer

The extent to which a test samples the behavior that is interest (such as driving test samples driving tasks)

question

Continuous reinforcement

answer

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

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Control condition

answer

The condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serces as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

question

Convergence

answer

A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object

question

Coronary heart disease

answer

The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in the United States

question

Corpus callosum

answer

The large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

question

Correlation coefficient

answer

A statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus, of how well either factor predicts the other

question

Counterconditioning

answer

A behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning

question

Creativity

answer

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

question

Criterion

answer

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

question

Critical period

answer

An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

question

Critical thinking

answer

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions

question

Cross-sectional study

answer

A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another

question

Crystallized intelligence

answer

One's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age

question

CT (computer tomography scan)

answer

A series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice through the body

question

Culture

answer

The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitude, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

question

Defense mechanisms

answer

In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

question

Deindividuation

answer

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

question

Déjà vu

answer

That eerie sense that "I've experienced this before". Cues form the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

question

Delta waves

answer

The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep

question

Delusions

answer

False beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders

question

Dendrite

answer

The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

question

Dependent variable

answer

The experimental factor- in psychology, the behavior or mental process -that is being measured; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

question

Depressants

answer

Drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

question

Depth perception

answer

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

question

Developmental psychology

answer

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span

question

Difference threshold

answer

The minimum difference that a person can detect two stimuli. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference

question

Discrimination

answer

In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

question

Displacement

answer

Defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet

question

Dissociation

answer

A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others

question

Dissociative disorders

answer

Disorder in which conscious awareness becomes separated from previous memories, thoughts, or feelings

question

Dissociative identity disorder

answer

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities

question

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)

answer

A complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes A DNA molecule has two strands - forming a double helix - held together by bonds between pairs of nucleotides

question

Double-blind procedure

answer

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 placebo. Commonly used in drug evaluation studies

question

Down syndrome

answer

A condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup

question

Dream

answer

A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind. Dreams are notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamer's delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it

question

Drive-reduction theory

answer

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

question

DSM-IV

answer

The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders

question

Dualism

answer

The presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact

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