The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View, 2nd Edition (King)

Glossary


abnormal behavior  Behavior that is deviant, maladaptive, or personally distressful over a relatively long period of time.
absolute threshold  The minimum amount of stimulus energy that a person can detect.
accommodation  An individual's adjustment of his or her schemas to new information.
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)  A sexually transmitted infection, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), that destroys the body's immune system.
acquisition  The initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired.
action potential  The brief wave of positive electrical charge that sweeps down the axon.
activation-synthesis theory  Theory that dreaming occurs when the cerebral cortex synthesizes neural signals generated from activity in the lower part of the brain and that dreams result from the brain's attempts to find logic in random brain activity that occurs during sleep.
addiction  Either a physical or a psychological dependence, or both, on a drug.
adrenal glands  Glands at the top of each kidney that are responsible for regulating moods, energy level, and the ability to cope with stress.
aerobic exercise  Sustained activity—jogging, swimming, or cycling, for example—that stimulates heart and lung functioning.
affectionate love  Also called companionate love; love that occurs when individuals desire to have another person near and have a deep, caring affection for the person.
affective commitment  A kind of job commitment deriving from the employee's emotional attachment to the workplace.
afferent nerves  Also called sensory nerves; nerves that carry information about the external environment to the brain and spinal cord via sensory receptors.
aggression  Behaviors that are intended to harm another person.
alcoholism  A disorder that involves long-term, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcoholic beverages and that impairs the drinker's health and social relationships.
algorithms  Strategies—including formulas, instructions, and the testing of all possible solutions—that guarantee a solution to a problem.
all-or-nothing principle  The principle that once the electrical impulse reaches a certain level of intensity (its threshold) , it fires and moves all the way down the axon without losing any intensity.
altruism  Unselfish interest in helping another person.
amnesia  The loss of memory.
amygdala  An almond-shaped structure within the base of the temporal lobe that is involved in the discrimination of objects that are necessary for the organism's survival, such as appropriate food, mates, and social rivals.
androgens  The main class of male sex hormones.
androgynous  Having attributes that we typically associate with both genders.
anorexia nervosa  Eating disorder that involves the relentless pursuit of thinness through starvation.
anterograde amnesia  A memory disorder that affects the retention of new information and events.
antianxiety drugs  Commonly known as tranquilizers, drugs that reduce anxiety by making individuals calmer and less excitable.
antidepressant drugs  Drugs that regulate mood.
antipsychotic drugs  Powerful drugs that diminish agitated behavior, reduce tension, decrease hallucinations, improve social behavior, and produce better sleep patterns in individuals with a severe psychological disorder, especially schizophrenia.
antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)  A psychological disorder characterized by guiltlessness, law-breaking, exploitation of others, irresponsibility, and deceit.
anxiety disorders  Psychological disorders involving fears that are uncontrollable, disproportionate to the actual danger the person might be in, and disruptive of ordinary life.
apparent movement  The perception that a stationary object is moving.
applied behavior analysis  Also called behavior modification, the use of operant conditioning principles to change human behavior.
archetypes  Jung's term for emotionally laden ideas and images in the collective unconscious that have rich and symbolic meaning for all people.
artificial intelligence (AI)  A scientific field that focuses on creating machines capable of performing activities that require intelligence when they are done by people.
assimilation  An individual's incorporation of new information into existing knowledge.
association cortex  Sometimes called association areas , the region of the cerebral cortex that is the site of the highest intellectual functions, such as thinking and problem solving.
associative learning  Learning that occurs when we make a connection, or an association, between two events.
Atkinson-Shiffrin theory  Theory stating that memory storage involves three separate systems: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
attention  The process of focusing awareness on a narrowed aspect of the environment.
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)  One of the most common psychological disorder, of childhood, in which individuals show one or more of the following: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
attitudes  Our feelings, opinions, and beliefs about people, objects, and ideas.
attribution theory  The view that people are motivated to discover the underlying causes of behavior as part of their effort to make sense of the behavior.
auditory nerve  The nerve structure that receives information about sound from the hair cells of the inner ear and carries these neural impulses to the brain's auditory areas.
authoritarian parenting  A restrictive, punitive style in which the parent exhorts the child to follow the parent's directions and to value hard work and effort.
authoritative parenting  A parenting style that encourages the child to be independent but that still places limits and controls on behavior.
autobiographical memory  A special form of episodic memory, consisting of a person's recollections of his or her life experiences.
automatic processes  States of consciousness that require little attention and do not interfere with other ongoing activities.
autonomic nervous system  The body system that takes messages to and from the body's internal organs, monitoring such processes as breathing, heart rate, and digestion.
availability heuristic  A prediction about the probability of an event based on the ease of recalling or imagining similar events.
aversive conditioning  A form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus.
avoidance learning  An organism's learning that it can altogether avoid a negative stimulus by making a particular response.
axon  The part of the neuron that carries information away from the cell body toward other cells.
barbiturates  Depressant drugs, such as Nembutal and Seconal, that decrease central nervous system activity.
basal ganglia  Large neuron clusters located above the thalamus and under the cerebral cortex that work with the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex to control and coordinate voluntary movements.
base rate fallacy  The tendency to ignore information about general principles in favor of very specific but vivid information.
behavior  Everything we do that can be directly observed.
behavioral approach  An approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants.
behavioral genetics  The study of the inherited underpinnings of behavioral characteristics.
behavioral medicine  An interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing and integrating behavioral and biomedical knowledge to promote health and reduce illness; overlaps with health psychology.
behaviorism  A theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors, discounting the importance of such mental activity as thinking, wishing, and hoping.
behavior therapies  Treatments, based on the behavioral and social cognitive theories of learning, that use principles of learning to reduce or eliminate maladaptive behavior.
big five factors of personality  The five broad traits that are thought to describe the main dimensions of personality: neuroticism (emotional instability), extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
binding  In the sense of vision, the bringing together and integration of what is processed by different neural pathways or cells.
binge eating disorder (BED)  Eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food during which the person feels a lack of control over eating.
binocular cues  Depth cues that depend on the combination of the images in the left and right eyes and on the way the two eyes work together.
biological approach  An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.
biological rhythms  Periodic physiological fluctuations in the body, such as the rise and fall of hormones and accelerated and decelerated cycles of brain activity, that can influence our behavior.
biological therapies  Also called biomedical therapies, treatments that reduce or eliminate the symptoms of psychological disorders by altering aspects of body functioning.
bipolar disorder  Mood disorder characterized by extreme mood swings that include one or more episodes of mania , an overexcited, unrealistically optimistic state.
bisexual  Referring to a sexual orientation in which the individual is sexually attracted to people of both sexes.
borderline personality disorder (BPD)  A psychological disorder characterized by a pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, and emotions, and of marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts.
bottom-up processing  The operation in sensation and perception in which sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it up to the brain for interpretation.
brain stem  The stemlike brain area that includes much of the hindbrain (it does not include the cerebellum) and the midbrain; it connects with the spinal cord at its lower end and then extends upward to encase the reticular formation in the midbrain.
broaden-and-build model  Fredrickson's model of positive emotion, stating that the function of positive emotions lies in their effects on an individual's attention and ability to build resources.
bulimia nervosa  Eating disorder in which an individual (typically female) consistently follows a binge-and-purge eating pattern.
burnout  A distressed psychological state in which a person experiences emotional exhaustion and little motivation for work.
bystander effect  The tendency of an individual who observes an emergency to help less when other people are present than when the observer is alone.
Cannon-Bard theory  The proposition that emotion and physiological reactions occur simultaneously.
case study or case history  An in-depth look at a single individual.
catatonia  State of immobility and unresponsiveness lasting for long periods of time.
cell body  The part of the neuron that contains the nucleus, which directs the manufacture of substances that the neuron needs for growth and maintenance.
central nervous system (CNS)  The brain and spinal cord.
cerebral cortex  Part of the forebrain, the outer layer of the brain, responsible for the most complex mental functions, such as thinking and planning.
chromosomes  In the human cell, threadlike structures that come in 23 pairs, one member of each pair originating from each parent, and that contain the remarkable substance DNA.
circadian rhythms  Daily behavioral or physiological cycles. Daily circadian rhythms involve the sleep/wake cycle, body temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar level.
classical conditioning  Learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response.
client-centered therapy  Also called Rogerian therapy or nondirective therapy, a form of humanistic therapy, developed by Rogers, in which the therapist provides a warm, supportive atmosphere to improve the client's self-concept and to encourage the client to gain insight into problems.
cognition  The way in which information is processed and manipulated in remembering, thinking, and knowing.
cognitive affective processing systems (CAPS)  Mischel's theoretical model for describing that our thoughts and emotions about ourselves and the world affect our behavior and become linked in ways that matter to behavior.
cognitive appraisal  Individuals' interpretation of the events in their lives as harmful, threatening, or challenging and their determination of whether they have the resources to cope effectively with the events.
cognitive approach  An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.
cognitive-behavior therapy  A therapy that combines cognitive therapy and behavior therapy with the goal of developing self-efficacy.
cognitive dissonance  An individual's psychological discomfort (dissonance) caused by two inconsistent thoughts.
cognitive reappraisal  Regulating one's feelings about an experience by reinterpreting that experience or thinking about it in a different way or from a different angle.
cognitive theory of dreaming  Theory proposing that we can understand dreaming by applying the same cognitive concepts we use in studying the waking mind; rests on the idea that dreams are essentially subconscious cognitive processing involving information and memory.
cognitive therapies  Treatments that point to cognitions (thoughts) as the main source of psychological problems and that attempt to change the individual's feelings and behaviors by changing cognitions.
collective unconscious  Jung's term for the impersonal, deepest layer of the unconscious mind, shared by all human beings because of their common ancestral past.
concept  A mental category that is used to group objects, events, and characteristics.
concrete operational stage  Piaget's third stage of cognitive development, lasting from about 7 to 11 years of age, during which the individual uses operations and replaces intuitive reasoning with logical reasoning in concrete situations.
conditioned response (CR)  The learned response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after conditioned stimulus–unconditioned stimulus pairing.
conditioned stimulus (CS)  A previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
conditions of worth  The standards that the individual must live up to in order to receive positive regard from others.
conduct disorder  A pattern of offensive behavior that violates the basic rights of others.
cones  The receptor cells in the retina that allow for color perception.
confederate  A person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated.
confirmation bias  The tendency to search for and use information that supports our ideas rather than refutes them.
conformity  A change in a person's behavior to coincide more closely with a group standard.
connectionism  Also called parallel distributed processing (PDP), the theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections among neurons, several of which may work together to process a single memory.
consciousness  An individual's awareness of external events and internal sensations under a condition of arousal, including awareness of the self and thoughts about one's experiences.
continuance commitment  A kind of job commitment deriving from the employee's perception that leaving the organization would be too costly, both economically and socially.
control group  The participants in an experiment who are as much like the experimental group as possible and who are treated in every way like the experimental group except for a manipulated factor, the independent variable.
controlled processes  The most alert states of human consciousness, during which individuals actively focus their efforts toward a goal.
convergence  A binocular cue to depth and distance in which the muscle movements in our two eyes provide information about how deep and/or far away something is.
convergent thinking  Thinking that produces the single best solution to a problem.
coping  Managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life's problems, and seeking to master or reduce stress.
corpus callosum  The large bundle of axons that connects the brain's two hemispheres, responsible for relaying information between the two sides.
correlational research  Research that examines the relationships between variables, whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together.
counterconditioning  A classical conditioning procedure for changing the relationship between a conditioned stimulus and its conditioned response.
couples therapy  Group therapy with married or unmarried couples whose major problem lies within their relationship.
creativity  The ability to think about something in novel and unusual ways and to devise unconventional solutions to problems.
critical thinking  The process of reflecting deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence.
culture-fair tests  Intelligence tests that are intended to be culturally unbiased.
decay theory  Theory stating that when we learn something new, a neurochemical memory trace forms, but over time this trace disintegrates; suggests that the passage of time always increases forgetting.
decision making  The mental activity of evaluating alternatives and choosing among them.
deductive reasoning  Reasoning from a general case that is known to be true to a specific instance.
deep brain stimulation  A procedure for treatment-resistant depression that involves the implantation of electrodes in the brain that emit signals to alter the brain's electrical circuitry.
defense mechanisms  Tactics the ego uses to reduce anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
deindividuation  The reduction in personal identity and erosion of the sense of personal responsibility when one is part of a group.
delusions  False, unusual, and sometimes magical beliefs that are not part of an individual's culture.
demand characteristics  Any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave.
dendrites  Treelike fibers projecting from a neuron, which receive information and orient it toward the neuron's cell body.
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)  A complex molecule in the cell's chromosomes that carries genetic information.
dependent variable  The outcome; the factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable.
depressants  Psychoactive drugs that slow down mental and physical activity.
depressive disorders  Mood disorders in which the individual suffers from depression—an unrelenting lack of pleasure in life.
depth perception  The ability to perceive objects three-dimensionally.
descriptive research  Research that determines the basic dimensions of a phenomenon, defining what it is, how often it occurs, and so on.
descriptive statistics  Mathematical procedures that are used to describe and summarize sets of data in a meaningful way.
development  The pattern of continuity and change in human capabilities that occurs throughout life, involving both growth and decline.
diathesis-stress model  View of schizophrenia emphasizing that a combination of biogenetic disposition and stress causes the disorder.
difference threshold  The degree of difference that must exist between two stimuli before the difference is detected.
discrimination  An unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group.
discrimination (in classical conditioning)  The process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others.
discrimination (in operant conditioning)  Responding appropriately to stimuli that signal that a behavior will or will not be reinforced.
disorders of sexual development (DSD)  Congenital conditions in which the development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical; formerly called intersex conditions (or hermaphroditism ).
display rules  Sociocultural standards that determine when, where, and how emotions should be expressed.
dissociative amnesia  Dissociative disorder characterized by extreme memory loss that is caused by extensive psychological stress.
dissociative disorders  Psychological disorders that involve a sudden loss of memory or change in identity due to the dissociation (separation) of the individual's conscious awareness from previous memories and thoughts.
dissociative fugue  Dissociative disorder in which the individual not only develops amnesia but also unexpectedly travels away from home and sometimes assumes a new identity.
dissociative identity disorder (DID)  Formerly called multiple personality disorder, a dissociative disorder in which the individual has two or more distinct personalities or identities, each with its own memories, behaviors, and relationships.
divergent thinking  Thinking that produces many solutions to the same problem.
divided attention  Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time.
divided consciousness view of hypnosis  Hilgard's view that hypnosis involves a splitting of consciousness into two separate components, one of which follows the hypnotist's commands and the other of which acts as a “hidden observer.”
dominant-recessive genes principle  The principle that, if one gene of a pair is dominant and one is recessive, the dominant gene overrides the recessive gene. A recessive gene exerts its influence only if both genes of a pair are recessive.
double-blind experiment  An experimental design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group until the results are calculated.
downsizing  A dramatic cutting of the workforce that is an increasingly popular business strategy to enhance profitability.
dream analysis  A psychoanalytic technique for interpreting a person's dreams.
drive  An aroused state that occurs because of a physiological need.
DSM-IV  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; the major classification of psychological disorders in the United States.
dysthymic disorder (DD)  Mood disorder that is generally more chronic and has fewer symptoms than MDD; the individual is in a depressed mood for most days for at least two years as an adult or at least one year as a child or an adolescent.
efferent nerves  Also called motor nerves; nerves that carry information out of the brain and spinal cord to other areas of the body.
ego  The Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality.
egoism  Giving to another person to ensure reciprocity; to gain self-esteem; to present oneself as powerful, competent, or caring; or to avoid censure from self and others for failing to live up to society's expectations.
elaboration  The formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at a given level of memory encoding.
elaboration likelihood model  Theory identifying two ways to persuade: a central route and a peripheral route.
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)  Also called shock therapy a treatment, commonly used for depression, that sets off a seizure in the brain.
emerging adulthood  The transitional period from adolescence to adulthood, spanning approximately 18 to 25 years of age.
emotion  Feeling, or affect, that can involve physiological arousal (such as a fast heartbeat), conscious experience (thinking about being in love with someone), and behavioral expression (a smile or grimace).
emotion-focused coping  The coping strategy that involves responding to the stress that one is feeling—trying to manage one's emotional reaction—rather than focusing on the problem itself.
empathy  A feeling of oneness with the emotional state of another person.
empirically keyed test  A type of self-report test that presents many questionnaire items to two groups that are known to be different in some central way.
empirical method  Gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning.
encoding  The first step in memory; the process by which information gets into memory storage.
endocrine system  The body system consisting of a set of glands that regulate the activities of certain organs by releasing their chemical products into the bloodstream.
episodic memory  The retention of information about the where, when, and what of life's happenings—that is, how individuals remember life's episodes.
ergonomics  Also called human factors, a field that combines engineering and psychology and that focuses on understanding and enhancing the safety and efficiency of the human–machine interaction.
estrogens  The main class of female sex hormones.
ethnocentrism  The tendency to favor one's own ethnic group over other groups.
evolutionary approach  An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.
exercise  Structured activities whose goal is to improve health.
experiment  A carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable.
experimental group  The participants in an experiment who receive the drug or other treatment under study—that is, those who are exposed to the change that the independent variable represents.
experimenter bias  Occurs when the experimenter's expectations influence the outcome of the research.
explicit memory  Also called declarative memory, the conscious recollection of information, such as specific facts or events and, at least in humans, information that can be verbally communicated.
external validity  The degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address.
extinction (in classical conditioning)  The weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent.
extinction (in operant conditioning)  Decreases in the frequency of a behavior when the behavior is no longer reinforced.
extrinsic motivation  Motivation that involves external incentives such as rewards and punishments.
face validity  The extent to which a test item appears to be a good fit to the characteristic it measures.
facial feedback hypothesis  The idea that facial expressions can influence emotions as well as reflect them.
false consensus effect  Observers' overestimation of the degree to which everybody else thinks or acts the way they do.
family therapy  Group therapy with family members.
feature detectors  Neurons in the brain's visual system that respond to particular features of a stimulus.
fetish  An object or activity that arouses sexual interest and desire.
figure-ground relationship  The principle by which we organize the perceptual field into stimuli that stand out (figure) and those that are left over (ground).
fixation  Using a prior strategy and failing to look at a problem from a fresh new perspective.
flashbulb memory  The memory of emotionally significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events.
flat affect  The display of little or no emotion— a common negative symptom of schizophrenia.
flow  The optimal experience of a match between one's skills and the challenge of a task.
forebrain  The brain's largest division and its most forward part.
formal operational stage  Piaget's fourth stage of cognitive development, which begins at 11 to 15 years of age and continues through the adult years; it features thinking about things that are not concrete, making predictions, and using logic to come up with hypotheses about the future.
free association  A psychoanalytic technique that involves encouraging individuals to say aloud whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing.
frequency theory  Theory on how the inner ear registers the frequency of sound, stating that the perception of a sound's frequency depends on how often the auditory nerve fires.
frontal lobes  The portion of the cerebral cortex behind the forehead, involved in personality, intelligence, and the control of voluntary muscles.
functional fixedness  Failing to solve a problem as a result of fixation on a thing's usual functions.
functionalism  James's approach to mental processes, emphasizing the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment.
fundamental attribution error  Observers' overestimation of the importance of internal traits and underestimation of the importance of external situations when they seek explanations of an actor's behavior.
gender  The social and psychological aspects of being female or male; gender goes beyond biological sex to include a person's understanding of the meaning to his or her own life of being male or female.
gender identity  An individual's multifaceted sense of belonging to the male or female sex.
gender identity disorder (GID)  Strong, persistent cross-sex identification and a continuing discomfort with, or sense of inappropriateness of, one's assigned sex.
gender roles  Expectations for how females and males should think, act, and feel.
gender similarities hypothesis  Hyde's proposition that men and women (and boys and girls) are much more similar than they are different.
gender stereotypes  Overly general beliefs and expectations about what women and men are like.
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)  Selye's term for the common effects of stressful demands on the body, consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.
generalization (in classical conditioning)  The tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response.
generalization (in operant conditioning)  Performing a reinforced behavior in a different situation.
generalized anxiety disorder  Psychological disorder marked by persistent anxiety for at least six months and in which the individual is unable to specify the reasons for the anxiety.
genes  The units of hereditary information, consisting of short segments of chromosomes composed of DNA.
genotype  An individual's genetic heritage; his or her actual genetic material.
gestalt psychology  A school of thought interested in how people naturally organize their perceptions according to certain patterns.
gifted  Possessing high intelligence (an IQ of 130 or higher) and/or superior talent in a particular area.
glands  Organs or tissues in the body that create chemicals that control many of our bodily functions.
glial cells  Also called glia; the second of two types of cells in the nervous system; glial cells provide support, nutritional benefits, and other functions and keep neurons running smoothly.
gonads  Glands that produce sex hormones and generate ova (eggs) in females and sperm in males; collectively called gametes, the ova and sperm are the cells that will eventually be used in reproduction.
group polarization effect  The solidification and further strengthening of an individual's position as a consequence of a group discussion or interaction.
group therapy  A sociocultural approach to the treatment of psychological disorders that brings together individuals who share a particular psychological disorder in sessions that are typically led by a mental health professional.
groupthink  The impaired group decision making that occurs when making the right decision is less important than maintaining group harmony.
habituation  Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations.
hallucinations  Sensory experiences that occur in the absence of real stimuli.
hallucinogens  Also called psychedelics, psychoactive drugs that modify a person's perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real.
halo effect  A bias, common in performance ratings, that occurs when a rater gives a person the same rating on all of the items being evaluated, even though the individual varies across the dimensions being assessed.
hardiness  A personal quality characterized by a sense of commitment rather than alienation, and of control rather than powerlessness; a hardy person sees problems as challenges rather than threats.
Hawthorne effect  The tendency of individuals to perform better simply because of being singled out and made to feel important.
health behaviors  Practices that have an impact on physical well-being, such as adopting a healthy approach to stress, exercising, eating right, brushing one's teeth, performing breast and testicular exams, not smoking, drinking in moderation (or not at all), and practicing safe sex.
health psychology  A subfield of psychology that emphasizes psychology's role in establishing and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness.
heritability  The proportion of observable differences in a group that can be explained by differences in the genes of the group's members.
heterosexual  Referring to a sexual orientation in which the individual is generally sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex.
heuristics  Shortcut strategies or guidelines that suggest a solution to a problem but do not guarantee an answer.
hierarchy of needs  Maslow's theory that human needs must be satisfied in the following sequence: physiological needs, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization.
hindbrain  Located at the skull's rear, the lowest portion of the brain, consisting of the medulla, cerebellum, and pons.
hindsight bias  The tendency to report falsely, after the fact, that we accurately predicted an outcome.
hippocampus  The structure in the limbic system that has a special role in the storage of memories.
homeostasis  The body's tendency to maintain an equilibrium, or steady state.
homosexual  Referring to a sexual orientation in which the individual is generally sexually attracted to members of the same sex.
hormones  Chemical messengers that are produced by the endocrine glands and carried by the bloodstream to all parts of the body.
humanistic approach  An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.
humanistic perspectives  Theoretical views stressing a person's capacity for personal growth and positive human qualities.
humanistic therapies  Treatments, unique in their emphasis on people's self-healing capacities, that encourage clients to understand themselves and to grow personally.
human relations approach  A management approach emphasizing the psychological characteristics of workers and managers, stressing the importance of factors such as morale, attitudes, values, and humane treatment of workers.
human sexual response pattern  Masters and Johnson's model of human sexual response, consisting of four phases—excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.
hypnosis  An altered state of consciousness or a psychological state of altered attention and expectation in which the individual is unusually receptive to suggestions.
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis)  The complex set of interactions among the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands that regulates various body processes and controls reactions to stressful events.
hypothalamus  A small forebrain structure, located just below the thalamus, that monitors three pleasurable activities—eating, drinking, and sex—as well as emotion, stress, and reward.
hypothesis  An educated guess that derives logically from a theory; a prediction that can be tested.
id  The part of the person that Freud called the “it,” consisting of unconscious drives; the individual's reservoir of sexual energy.
identity versus identity confusion  Erikson's fifth psychological stage, in which adolescents face the challenges of finding out who they are, what they are all about, and where they are going in life.
implementation intentions  Specific strategies for dealing with the challenges of making a life change.
implicit memory  Also called nondeclarative memory, memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience.
independent variable  A manipulated experimental factor; the variable that the experimenter changes to see what its effects are.
individual psychology  Adler's view that people are motivated by purposes and goals and that perfection, not pleasure, is thus the key motivator in human life.
inductive reasoning  Reasoning from specific observations to make generalizations.
infant attachment  The close emotional bond between an infant and its caregiver.
inferential statistics  Mathematical methods that are used to indicate whether results for a sample are likely to generalize to a population.
infinite generativity  The ability of language to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences.
informational social influence  The influence other people have on us because we want to be right.
inner ear  The part of the ear that includes the oval window, cochlea, and basilar membrane and whose function is to convert sound waves into neural impulses and send them to the brain.
insight learning  A form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problem's solution.
instinct  An innate (unlearned) biological pattern of behavior that is assumed to be universal throughout a species.
instinctive drift  The tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning.
integrative therapy  A combination of techniques from different therapies based on the therapist's judgment of which particular methods will provide the greatest benefit for the client.
integrity test  A type of job-screening examination that is designed to assess whether a candidate will be honest on the job.
intellectual disability  A condition of limited mental ability in which an individual has a low IQ, usually below 70 on a traditional intelligence test, and has difficulty adapting to everyday life.
intelligence  All-purpose ability to do well on cognitive tasks, to solve problems, and to learn from experience.
intelligence quotient (IQ)  An individual's mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100.
interference theory  The theory that people forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember.
internal validity  The degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable.
interpretation  A psychoanalyst's search for symbolic, hidden meanings in what the client says and does during therapy.
intrinsic motivation  Motivation based on internal factors such as organismic needs (competence, relatedness, and autonomy), as well as curiosity, challenge, and fun.
investment model  A model of long-term relationships that examines the ways that commitment, investment, and the availability of attractive alternative partners predict satisfaction and stability in relationships.
James-Lange theory  The theory that emotion results from physiological states triggered by stimuli in the environment.
job analysis  The process of generating a description of what a job involves, including the knowledge and skills that are necessary to carry out the job's functions.
job crafting  The physical and cognitive changes individuals can make within the constraints of a task to make the work “their own.”
job satisfaction  The extent to which a person is content in his or her job.
job stress  The experience of stress on the job and in the workplace setting.
kinesthetic senses  Senses that provide information about movement, posture, and orientation.
KSAOs (KSAs)  Common elements in a personoriented job analysis; an abbreviation for knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics.
language  A form of communication—whether spoken, written, or signed—that is based on a system of symbols.
latent content  According to Freud, a dream's hidden content; its unconscious and true meaning.
latent learning  Also called implicit learning, unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior.
law of effect  Thorndike's law stating that behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthened and that behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened.
learned helplessness  An organism's learning through experience with unavoidable negative stimuli that it has no control over negative outcomes.
learning  A systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.
leisure  The pleasant times before or after work when individuals are free to pursue activities and interests of their own choosing, such as hobbies, sports, and reading.
levels of processing  A continuum of memory processing from shallow to intermediate to deep, with deeper processing producing better memory.
limbic system  A loosely connected network of structures under the cerebral cortex, important in both memory and emotion. Its two principal structures are the amygdala and the hippocampus.
lithium  The lightest of the solid elements in the periodic table of elements, widely used to treat bipolar disorder.
longitudinal design  A special kind of systematic observation, used by correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time.
long-term memory  A relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a long time.
major depressive disorder (MDD)  Psychological disorder involving a significant depressive episode and depressed characteristics, such as lethargy and hopelessness, for at least two weeks.
manifest content  According to Freud, the surface content of a dream, containing dream symbols that disguise the dream's true meaning.
mean  A measure of central tendency that is the average for a sample.
median  A measure of central tendency that is the middle score in a sample.
medical model  The view that psychological disorders are medical diseases with a biological origin.
memory  The retention of information or experience over time as the result of three key processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
mental age (MA)  An individual's level of mental development relative to that of others.
mental processes  The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.
mentoring  A relationship between an experienced employee—a mentor—and a novice, in which the more experienced employee serves as an advisor, a sounding board, and a source of support for the newer employee.
mere exposure effect  The phenomenon that the more we encounter someone or something, the more probable it is that we will start liking the person or thing even if we do not realize we have seen it before.
meta-analysis  A method that allows researchers to combine the results of several different studies on a similar topic in order to establish the strength of an effect.
midbrain  Located between the hindbrain and forebrain, an area in which many nerve-fiber systems ascend and descend to connect the higher and lower portions of the brain; in particular, the midbrain relays information between the brain and the eyes and ears.
middle ear  The part of the ear that channels sound through the eardrum, hammer, anvil, and stirrup to the inner ear.
mindfulness  The state of being alert and mentally present for one's everyday activities.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)  The most widely used and researched empirically keyed self-report personality test.
mode  A measure of central tendency that is the most common score in a sample.
monocular cues  Powerful depth cues available from the image in one eye, either the right or the left.
mood disorders  Psychological disorders—the main types of which are depressive disorders and bipolar disorder—in which there is a primary disturbance of mood: prolonged emotion that colors the individual's entire emotional state.
morphology  A language's rules for word formation.
motivated forgetting  Forgetting that occurs when something is so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering it is intolerable.
motivation  The force that moves people to behave, think, and feel the way they do.
motor cortex  A region in the cerebral cortex that processes information about voluntary movement, located just behind the frontal lobes.
myelin sheath  A layer of fat cells that encases and insulates most axons.
naturalistic observation  The observation of behavior in a real-world setting.
natural selection  Darwin's principle of an evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce off spring.
nature  An individual's biological inheritance, especially his or her genes.
need  A deprivation that energizes the drive to eliminate or reduce the deprivation.
negative affect  Unpleasant emotions such as anger, guilt, and sadness.
negative punishment  The removal of a positive stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior.
negative reinforcement  An increase in the frequency of a behavior in response to the subsequent removal of something that is unpleasant.
neglectful parenting  A parenting style characterized by a lack of parental involvement in the child's life.
neocortex  The outermost part of the cerebral cortex, making up 80 percent of the cortex in the human brain.
nervous system  The body's electrochemical communication circuitry.
neural networks  Networks of nerve cells that integrate sensory input and motor output.
neurons  One of two types of cells in the nervous system; neurons are the nerve cells that handle the information-processing function.
neuroscience  The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.
neurotransmitters  Chemical substances that are stored in very tiny sacs within the terminal buttons and involved in transmitting information across a synaptic gap to the next neuron.
noise  Irrelevant and competing stimuli—not only sounds but also any distracting stimuli for our senses.
normal distribution  A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve, with a majority of the scores falling in the middle of the possible range and few scores appearing toward the extremes of the range.
normative commitment  A kind of job commitment deriving from the employee's sense of obligation to the organization for the investment it has made in the individual's personal and professional development.
normative social influence  The influence others have on us because we want them to like us.
nurture  An individual's environmental and social experiences.
obedience  Behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority.
observational learning  Learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior.
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)  Anxiety disorder in which the individual has anxietyprovoking thoughts that will not go away and/ or urges to perform repetitive, ritualistic behaviors to prevent or produce some future situation.
occipital lobes  Structures located at the back of the head that respond to visual stimuli.
Oedipus complex  According to Freud, a boy's intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother.
olfactory epithelium  The lining of the roof of the nasal cavity, containing a sheet of receptor cells for smell.
open-mindedness  The state of being receptive to other ways of looking at things.
operant conditioning  Also called instrumental conditioning, a form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behavior's occurrence.
operational definition  A definition that provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study.
opiates  Opium and its derivatives; narcotic drugs that depress activity in the central nervous system and eliminate pain.
opponent-process theory  Theory stating that cells in the visual system respond to complementary pairs of red-green and blue-yellow colors; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another cell might be excited by yellow and inhibited by blue.
optic nerve  The structure at the back of the eye, made up of axons of the ganglion cells, that carries visual information to the brain for further processing.
organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)  Discretionary actions on the part of an employee that promote organizational effectiveness but are not included in the person's formal responsibilities.
organizational culture  An organization's shared values, beliefs, norms, and customs.
organizational identity  Employees' feelings of oneness with the organization and its goals.
orientation  A program by which an organization introduces newly hired employees to the organization's goals, familiarizes them with its rules and regulations, and lets them know how to get things done.
outer ear  The outermost part of the ear, consisting of the pinna and the external auditory canal.
ovaries  Sex-related endocrine glands in the uterus that produce hormones related to women's sexual development and reproduction.
overlearning  Learning to perform a task so well that it becomes automatic.
overt aggression  Physically or verbally harming another person directly.
pain  The sensation that warns us of damage to our bodies.
pancreas  A dual-purpose gland under the stomach that performs both digestive and endocrine functions.
panic disorder  Anxiety disorder in which the individual experiences recurrent, sudden onsets of intense apprehension or terror, often without warning and with no specific cause.
papillae  Rounded bumps above the tongue's surface that contain the taste buds, the receptors for taste.
parallel processing  The simultaneous distribution of information across different neural pathways.
paraphilias  Sexual disorders that feature recurrent sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or behaviors involving nonhuman objects; the suffering or humiliation of oneself or one's partner; or children or other nonconsenting persons.
parasympathetic nervous system  The part of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body.
parietal lobes  Structures at the top and toward the rear of the head that are involved in registering spatial location, attention, and motor control.
pedophilia  A paraphilia in which an adult or an older adolescent sexually fantasizes about or engages in sexual behavior with individuals who have not reached puberty.
perception  The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it has meaning.
perceptual constancy  The recognition that objects are constant and unchanging even though sensory input about them is changing.
perceptual set  A predisposition or readiness to perceive something in a particular way.
performance appraisal  The evaluation of a person's success at meeting his or her organization's goals.
peripheral nervous system (PNS)  The network of nerves that connects the brain and spinal cord to other parts of the body.
permissive parenting  A parenting style characterized by the placement of few limits on the child's behavior.
personality  A pattern of enduring, distinctive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that characterize the way an individual adapts to the world.
personality disorders  Chronic, maladaptive cognitive-behavioral patterns that are thoroughly integrated into an individual's personality.
personological and life story perspectives  Theoretical views stressing that the way to understand the person is to focus on his or her life history and life story.
phenotype  An individual's observable characteristics.
phobic disorder or phobia  Anxiety disorder characterized by an irrational, overwhelming, persistent fear of a particular object or situation.
phonology  A language's sound system.
physical dependence  The physiological need for a drug that causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms such as physical pain and a craving for the drug when it is discontinued.
pituitary gland  A pea-sized gland just beneath the hypothalamus that controls growth and regulates other glands.
placebo  In a drug study, a harmless substance that has no physiological effect, given to participants in a control group so that they are treated identically to the experimental group except for the active agent.
placebo effect  Occurs when participants' expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an outcome.
place theory  Theory on how the inner ear registers the frequency of sound, stating that each frequency produces vibrations at a particular spot on the basilar membrane.
plasticity  The brain's special capacity for change.
polygraph  A machine, commonly called a lie detector, that monitors changes in the body, used to try to determine whether someone is lying.
population  The entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions.
positive affect  Pleasant emotions such as joy, happiness, and interest.
positive illusions  Positive views of the self that are not necessarily rooted in reality.
positive psychology  A branch of psychology that emphasizes human strengths.
positive punishment  The presentation of an unpleasant stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior.
positive reinforcement  An increase in the frequency of a behavior in response to the subsequent presentation of something that is good.
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)  Anxiety disorder that develops through exposure to a traumatic event that has overwhelmed the person's abilities to cope.
pragmatics  The useful character of language and the ability of language to communicate even more meaning than is said.
preferential looking  A research technique that involves giving an infant a choice of what object to look at.
prejudice  An unjustified negative attitude toward an individual based on the individual's membership in a particular group.
preoperational stage  Piaget's second stage of cognitive development, lasting from about 2 to 7 years of age, during which thought is more symbolic than sensorimotor thought.
preparedness  The species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others.
primary reinforcer  A reinforcer that is innately satisfying; one that does not take any learning on the organism's part to make it pleasurable.
priming  The activation of information that people already have in storage to help them remember new information better and faster.
proactive interference  Situation in which material that was learned earlier disrupts the recall of material that was learned later.
problem-focused coping  The coping strategy of squarely facing one's troubles and trying to solve them.
problem solving  The mental process of finding an appropriate way to attain a goal when the goal is not readily available.
procedural memory  Memory for skills.
projective test  A personality assessment test that presents individuals with an ambiguous stimulus and asks them to describe it or tell a story about it—to project their own meaning onto the stimulus.
prosocial behavior  Behavior that is intended to benefit other people.
prospective memory  Remembering information about doing something in the future; includes memory for intentions.
prototype model  A model emphasizing that when people evaluate whether a given item reflects a certain concept, they compare the item with the most typical item(s) in that category and look for a “family resemblance” with that item's properties.
psychoactive drugs  Drugs that act on the nervous system to alter consciousness, modify perception, and change mood.
psychoanalysis  Freud's therapeutic technique for analyzing an individual's unconscious thoughts.
psychodynamic approach  An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society's demands, and early childhood family experiences.
psychodynamic perspectives  Theoretical views emphasizing that personality is primarily unconscious (beyond awareness).
psychodynamic therapies  Treatments that stress the importance of the unconscious mind, extensive interpretation by the therapist, and the role of early childhood experiences in the development of an individual's problems.
psychological dependence  The strong desire to repeat the use of a drug for emotional reasons, such as a feeling of well-being and reduction of stress.
psychology  The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
psychoneuroimmunology  A new field of scientific inquiry that explores connections among psychological factors (such as attitudes and emotions), the nervous system, and the immune system.
psychopathology  The scientific study of psychological disorders and the development of diagnostic categories and treatments for those disorders.
psychosurgery  A biological therapy, with irreversible effects, that involves removal or destruction of brain tissue to improve the individual's adjustment.
psychotherapy  A nonmedical process that helps individuals with psychological disorders recognize and overcome their problems.
puberty  A period of rapid skeletal and sexual maturation that occurs mainly in early adolescence.
punishment  A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur.
random assignment  Researchers' assignment of participants to groups by chance, to reduce the likelihood that an experiment's results will be due to preexisting differences between groups.
random sample  A sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected.
range  A measure of dispersion that is the difference between the highest and lowest scores.
rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT)  A therapy based on Ellis's assertion that individuals develop a psychological disorder because of irrational and self-defeating beliefs and whose goal is to get clients to eliminate these beliefs by rationally examining them.
reasoning  The mental activity of transforming information to reach conclusions.
referential thinking  Ascribing personal meaning to completely random events.
reflective speech  A technique in which the therapist mirrors the client's own feelings back to the client.
reinforcement  The process by which a rewarding stimulus or event (a reinforcer ) following a particular behavior increases the probability that the behavior will happen again.
relapse  A return to former unhealthy patterns.
relational aggression  Behavior that is meant to harm the social standing of another person.
reliability  The extent to which a test yields a consistent, reproducible measure of performance.
REM sleep  An active stage of sleep during which dreaming occurs.
renewal  The recovery of the conditioned response when the organism is placed in a novel context.
representativeness heuristic  The tendency to make judgments about group membership based on physical appearances or the match between a person and one's stereotype of a group rather than on available base rate information.
research participant bias  Occurs when the behavior of research participants during the experiment is influenced by how they think they are supposed to behave or their expectations about what is happening to them.
resilience  A person's ability to recover from or adapt to difficult times.
resistance  A client's unconscious defense strategies that interfere with the psychoanalyst's understanding of the individual's problems.
resting potential  In an inactive neuron, the voltage between the inside and outside of the axon wall.
reticular formation  A system in the midbrain comprising a diffuse collection of neurons involved in stereotyped patterns of behavior such as walking, sleeping, and turning to attend to a sudden noise.
retina  The multilayered light-sensitive surface in the eye that records electromagnetic energy and converts it to neural impulses for processing in the brain.
retrieval  The memory process that occurs when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage.
retroactive interference  Situation in which material that was learned later disrupts the retrieval of information that was learned earlier.
retrograde amnesia  Memory loss for a segment of the past but not for new events.
retrospective memory  Remembering information from the past.
risky shift  The tendency for a group decision to be riskier than the average decision made by the individual group members.
rods  The receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light but not very useful for color vision.
role conflict  The kind of stress that arises when a person tries to meet the demands of more than one important life role, such as worker and mother.
romantic love  Also called passionate love; love with strong components of sexuality and infatuation, often dominant in the early part of a love relationship.
Rorschach inkblot test  A famous projective test that uses an individual's perception of inkblots to determine his or her personality.
sample  The subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study.
schedules of reinforcement  Specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced.
schema  A preexisting mental concept or framework that helps people to organize and interpret information. Schemas from prior encounters with the environment influence the way we encode, make inferences about, and retrieve information.
schizophrenia  Severe psychological disorder characterized by highly disordered thought processes, referred to as psychotic because they are so far removed from reality.
science  The use of systematic methods to observe the natural world, including human behavior, and to draw conclusions.
scientific management  The managerial philosophy that emphasizes the worker as a well-oiled machine and the determination of the most efficient methods for performing any work-related task.
script  A schema for an event, often containing information about physical features, people, and typical occurrences.
secondary reinforcer  A reinforcer that acquires its positive value through an organism's experience; a secondary reinforcer is a learned or conditioned reinforcer.
secondary sex characteristics  Traits that differ between the two sexes but are not part of the reproductive system; they include breasts in females and facial hair in males.
secure attachment  The ways that infants use their caregiver, usually their mother, as a secure base from which to explore the environment.
selective attention  The process of focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.
self-actualization  The motivation to develop one's full potential as a human being—the highest and most elusive of Maslow's proposed needs.
self-determination theory  Deci and Ryan's theory asserting that all humans have three basic, innate organismic needs: competence, relatedness, and autonomy.
self-efficacy  The belief that one can master a situation and produce positive change.
self-objectification  The tendency to see oneself primarily as an object in the eyes of others.
self-perception theory  Bem's theory on how behaviors influence attitudes, stating that individuals make inferences about their attitudes by perceiving their behavior.
self-regulation  The process by which an organism effortfully controls behavior in order to pursue important objectives.
self-report test  Also called an objective test or an inventory, a method of measuring personality characteristics that directly asks people whether specific items describe their personality traits.
self-serving bias  The tendency to take credit for our successes and to deny responsibility for our failures.
semantic memory  A person's knowledge about the world, including his or her areas of expertise; general knowledge, such as of things learned in school; and everyday knowledge.
semantics  The meaning of words and sentences in a particular language.
semicircular canals  Three fluid-filled circular tubes in the inner ear containing the sensory receptors that detect head motion caused when we tilt or move our head and/or body.
sensation  The process of receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy.
sensorimotor stage  Piaget's first stage of cognitive development, lasting from birth to about 2 years of age, during which infants construct an understanding of the world by coordinating sensory experiences with motor (physical) actions.
sensory adaptation  A change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation.
sensory memory  Memory system that involves holding information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant, not much longer than the brief time it is exposed to the visual, auditory, and other senses.
sensory receptors  Specialized cells that detect stimulus information and transmit it to sensory (afferent) nerves and the brain.
serial position effect  The tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle.
set point  The weight maintained when the individual makes no effort to gain or lose weight.
sex  The properties of a person that determine his or her classification as male or female.
sex chromosomes  In humans, the pair of genes that differs between the sexes and determines a person's sex as male or female.
sexual harassment  Unwelcome behavior or conduct of a sexual nature that offends, humiliates, or intimidates another person.
sexuality  The ways people experience and express themselves as sexual beings.
sexually transmitted infection (STI)  An infection that is contracted primarily through sexual activity—vaginal intercourse as well as oral and anal sex.
sexual orientation  The direction of an individual's erotic interests.
sexual selection  According to Darwin's theory of evolution, the differentiation between the male and female members of a species because of the differences between the two in competition and choice.
shaping  Rewarding approximations of a desired behavior.
short-term memory  Limited-capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless we use strategies to retain it longer.
signal detection theory  A theory of perception that focuses on decision making about stimuli in the presence of uncertainty.
sleep  A natural state of rest for the body and mind that involves the reversible loss of consciousness.
social cognitive behavior view of hypnosis  Theory that hypnosis is a normal state in which the hypnotized person behaves the way he or she believes that a hypnotized person should behave.
social cognitive perspectives  Theoretical views emphasizing conscious awareness, beliefs, expectations, and goals.
social comparison  The process by which individuals evaluate their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and abilities in relation to those of other people.
social contagion  Imitative behavior involving the spread of actions, emotions, and ideas.
social exchange theory  The view of social relationships as involving an exchange of goods, the objective of which is to minimize costs and maximize benefits.
social facilitation  Improvement in an individual's performance because of the presence of others.
social identity  The way we define ourselves in terms of our group membership.
social identity theory  Tajfel's theory that our social identities are a crucial part of our self-image and a valuable source of positive feelings about ourselves.
social loafing  Each person's tendency to exert less effort in a group because of reduced accountability for individual effort.
social psychology  The study of how people think about, influence, and relate to other people.
social support  Information and feedback from others indicating that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and included in a network of communication and mutual obligation.
sociocultural approach  An approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.
somatic nervous system  The body system consisting of the sensory nerves, whose function is to convey information from the skin and muscles to the CNS about conditions such as pain and temperature, and the motor nerves, whose function is to tell muscles what to do.
somatosensory cortex  A region in the cerebral cortex that processes information about body sensations, located at the front of the parietal lobes.
spontaneous recovery  The process in classical conditioning by which a conditioned response can recur after a time delay, without further conditioning.
stages of change model  Theoretical model describing a five-step process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles.
standard deviation  A measure of dispersion that tells us how much scores in a sample differ from the mean of the sample.
standardization  The development of uniform procedures for administering and scoring a test, and the creation of norms (performance standards) for the test.
stem cells  Unique primitive cells that have the capacity to develop into most types of human cells.
stereotype  A generalization about a group's characteristics that does not consider any variations from one individual to another.
stereotype threat  An individual's fast-acting, self-fulfilling fear of being judged based on a negative stereotype about his or her group.
stimulants  Psychoactive drugs that increase the central nervous system's activity. The most widely used stimulants are caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine.
storage  The retention of information over time and how this information is represented in memory.
stream of consciousness  Term used by William James to describe the mind as a continuous flow of changing sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings.
strengths-based management  A management style emphasizing that maximizing an employee's existing strengths is much easier than trying to build such attributes from the ground up.
stress  The responses of individuals to environmental stressors.
stress management program  A regimen that teaches individuals how to appraise stressful events, how to develop skills for coping with stress, and how to put these skills into use in everyday life.
stressors  Circumstances and events that threaten individuals and tax their coping abilities and that cause physiological changes to ready the body to handle the assault of stress.
structuralism  Wundt's approach to discovering the basic elements, or structures, of mental processes; so called because of its focus on identifying the structures of the human mind.
structured interview  A kind of interview in which candidates are asked specific questions that methodically seek to obtain truly useful information for the interviewer.
subgoals  Intermediate goals or intermediate problems that put us in a better position for reaching the final goal or solution.
subjective well-being  A person's assessment of his or her own level of positive affect relative to negative affect, and the individual's evaluation of his or her life in general.
subliminal perception  The detection of information below the level of conscious awareness.
superego  The Freudian structure of personality that serves as the harsh internal judge of our behavior; what we often call conscience.
suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)  A small brain structure that uses input from the retina to synchronize its own rhythm with the daily cycle of light and dark; the mechanism by which the body monitors the change from day to night.
sustained attention  Also called vigilance, the ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time.
sympathetic nervous system  The part of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body.
synapses  Tiny spaces between neurons; the gaps between neurons are referred to as synaptic gaps.
syntax  A language's rules for combining words to form acceptable phrases and sentences.
systematic desensitization  A method of behavior therapy that treats anxiety by teaching the client to associate deep relaxation with increasingly intense anxiety-producing situations.
temperament  An individual's behavioral style and characteristic way of responding.
temporal lobes  Structures in the cerebral cortex that are located just above the ears and are involved in hearing, language processing, and memory.
testes  Sex-related endocrine glands in the scrotum that produce hormones related to men's sexual development and reproduction.
thalamus  The forebrain structure that sits at the top of the brain stem in the brain's central core and serves as an important relay station.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)  A projective test that is designed to elicit stories that reveal something about an individual's personality.
theory  A broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations and to make predictions about future observations.
theory of planned behavior  Theoretical model that includes the basic ideas of the theory of reasoned action but adds the person's perceptions of control over the outcome.
theory of reasoned action  Theoretical model stating that effective change requires individuals to have specific intentions about their behaviors, as well as positive attitudes about a new behavior, and to perceive that their social group looks positively on the new behavior as well.
Theory X managers  Managers who assume that work is innately unpleasant and that people have a strong desire to avoid it; such managers believe that employees need direction, dislike responsibility, and must be kept in line.
Theory Y managers  Managers who assume that engaging in effortful behavior is natural to human beings; they recognize that people seek out responsibility and that motivation can come from allowing employees to suggest creative and meaningful solutions.
therapeutic alliance  The relationship between the therapist and client—an important element of successful psychotherapy.
thermoreceptors  Sensory nerve endings under the skin that respond to changes in temperature at or near the skin and provide input to keep the body's temperature at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
thinking  The mental process of manipulating information mentally by forming concepts, solving problems, making decisions, and reflecting critically or creatively.
third variable problem  The circumstance where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two other variables. Third variables are also known as confounds.
360-degree feedback  A method of performance appraisal whereby an employee's performance is rated by a variety of individuals, including himself or herself, a peer, a supervisor, a subordinate, and perhaps a customer or client.
tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon  A type of effortful retrieval that occurs when we are confident that we know something but cannot quite pull it out of memory.
tolerance  The need to take increasing amounts of a drug to get the same effect.
top-down processing  The operation in sensation and perception, launched by cognitive processing at the brain's higher levels, that allows the organism to sense what is happening and to apply that framework to information from the world.
training  Teaching a new employee the essential requirements to do the job well.
trait theories  Theoretical views stressing that personality consists of broad, enduring dispositions (traits) that tend to lead to characteristic responses.
tranquilizers  Depressant drugs, such as Valium and Xanax, that reduce anxiety and induce relaxation.
transactional leader  An individual in a leadership capacity who emphasizes the exchange relationship between the worker and the leader and who applies the principle that a good job should be rewarded.
transference  A client's relating to the psychoanalyst in ways that reproduce or relive important relationships in the individual's life.
transformational leader  An individual in a leadership capacity who is concerned not with enforcing the rules but with changing them.
transgender  Experiencing one's psychological gender as different from one's physical sex, as in the cases of biological males who identify as female, and biological females who identify as male.
triarchic theory of intelligence  Sternberg's theory that intelligence comes in three forms: analytical, creative, and practical.
trichromatic theory  Theory stating that color perception is produced by three types of cone receptors in the retina that are particularly sensitive to different, but overlapping, ranges of wavelengths.
two-factor theory of emotion  Schachter and Singer's theory that emotion is determined by two factors: physiological arousal and cognitive labeling.
Type A behavior pattern  A cluster of characteristics—such as being excessively competitive, hard-driven, impatient, and hostile—related to the incidence of heart disease.
Type B behavior pattern  A cluster of characteristics—such as being relaxed and easygoing—related to good health.
unconditional positive regard  Rogers's construct referring to the individual's need to be accepted, valued, and treated positively regardless of his or her behavior.
unconditioned response (UCR)  An unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus.
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)  A stimulus that produces a response without prior learning.
unconscious thought  According to Freud, a reservoir of unacceptable wishes, feelings, and thoughts that are beyond conscious awareness; Freud's interpretation viewed the unconscious as a storehouse for vile thoughts.
validity  The extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.
variable  Anything that can change.
vestibular sense  Sense that provides information about balance and movement.
volley principle  Modification of frequency theory stating that a cluster of nerve cells can fire neural impulses in rapid succession, producing a volley of impulses.
waigawa system  A management system dedicated to the idea that when the corporation faces a difficult problem, all rank-related concerns are temporarily set aside so that anyone from any level of the organization can propose a solution.
Weber's law  The principle that two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount) to be perceived as different.
well-being therapy (WBT)  A short-term, problem-focused, directive therapy that encourages clients to accentuate the positive.
wisdom  Expert knowledge about the practical aspects of life.
working memory  A three-part system that allows us to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks; a kind of mental workbench on which the brain manipulates and assembles information to help us understand, make decisions, and solve problems.
Yerkes-Dodson law  The psychological principle stating that performance is best under conditions of moderate arousal rather than either low or high arousal.
King: The Science of Psychology, 2nd Edition
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