Chapter 2 Flashcards
Affect
Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.
Agonist
Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.
Antagonist
In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.
Brain Circuits
Neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain.
Cognitive Science
field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.
Diathesis-Stress Model
Hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.
Dopamine
Neurotransmitter whose generalized function is to activate other neurotransmitters and to aid in exploratory and pleasure-seeking behaviors (thus balancing serotonin). A relative excess of dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia (although contradictory evidence suggests the connection is not simple), and its deficit is involved in Parkinson’s disease.
Emotion
Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.
Epigenetic
The study of factors other than inherited DNA sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the Phenotypic expression of genes.
Equifinality
Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.
Fight or Flight Response
Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.
GABA (Gamma-AminoButyric Acid)
Neuro transmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety.
Genes
Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes.
Glutamine
Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.
Hormone
Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands.
Implicit Memory
Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them (contrast with explicit memory).
Inverse Agonist
Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.
Learned Helplessness
Martin Seligman’s theory that people become anxious and depressed when they make an attribution that they have no control over the stress in their lives (whether or not they do in reality).
Modeling (AKA Observational Learning)
Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.
Mood
Enduring period of emotionality.
Multidimensional Integrative Approach
Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple interacting causal factors.
Neuron
Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information.
Neuroscience
Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions.
Neurotransmitters
Chemicals that cross the synaptic cleft between nerve cells to transmit impulses from one neuron to the next. Their relative excess or deficiency is involved in several psychological disorders.
Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline)
Neurotransmitter active in the central and peripheral nervous systems, controlling heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, among other functions. Because of its role in the body’s alarm reaction, it may also contribute generally and indirectly to panic attacks and other disorders.
Prepared Learning
An ability has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations can be learned more readily than others.
Reciprocal Gene-Environment Model
Hypothesis that people with a genetic predisposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.
Reuptake
Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharging neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft.
Serotonin
Neurotransmitter involved in processing of information and coordination of movement, as well as inhibition and restraint. It also assists in the regulation of eating, sexual, and aggressive behaviors, all of which may be involved in different psychological disorders. Its interaction with dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia.
Synaptic Cleft
Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next.
Vulnerability
Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.
