Chapter 2

Question 1

Affect

Answer 1

Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.

Question 2

Agonist

Answer 2

Chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.

Question 3

Antagonist

Answer 3

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.

Question 4

Brain Circuits

Answer 4

Neurotransmitter currents or neural pathways in the brain.

Question 5

Cognitive Science

Answer 5

field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, process, store, and retrieve information.

Question 6

Diathesis-Stress Model

Answer 6

Hypothesis that both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.

Question 7

Dopamine

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Emotion

Answer 8

Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.

Question 9

Epigenetic

Answer 9

The study of factors other than inherited DNA sequence, such as new learning or stress, that alter the Phenotypic expression of genes.

Question 10

Equifinality

Answer 10

Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.

Question 11

Fight or Flight Response

Answer 11

Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.

Question 12

GABA (Gamma-AminoButyric Acid)

Answer 12

Neuro transmitter that reduces activity across the synapse and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety.

Question 13

Genes

Answer 13

Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules, the basic physical units of heredity that appear as locations on chromosomes.

Question 14

Glutamine

Answer 14

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neurons, leading to action.

Question 15

Hormone

Answer 15

Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands.

Question 16

Implicit Memory

Answer 16

Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them (contrast with explicit memory).

Question 17

Inverse Agonist

Answer 17

Chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.

Question 18

Learned Helplessness

Answer 18

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).

Question 19

Modeling (AKA Observational Learning)

Answer 19

Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.

Question 20

Mood

Answer 20

Enduring period of emotionality.

Question 21

Multidimensional Integrative Approach

Answer 21

Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders as always being the products of multiple interacting causal factors.

Question 22

Neuron

Answer 22

Individual nerve cell; responsible for transmitting information.

Question 23

Neuroscience

Answer 23

Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions.

Question 24

Neurotransmitters

Answer 24

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.

Question 25

Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline)

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

Prepared Learning

Answer 26

An ability has been adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations can be learned more readily than others.

Question 27

Reciprocal Gene-Environment Model

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

Reuptake

Answer 28

Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharging neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft.

Question 29

Serotonin

Answer 29

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.

Question 30

Synaptic Cleft

Answer 30

Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next.

Question 31

Vulnerability

Answer 31

Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.