D Flashcards
The ability of the eye to adjust to conditions of low illumination by means of an increased sensitivity to light
- The bulk of the process takes 30 minutes and involves expansion of the pupils and retinal alterations, specifically the regeneration of rhodopsin and iodopsin
Dark Adaptation
Observations or measurements, usually quantified and obtained in the course of research
Data
The process of applying graphical, statistical, or quantitative techniques to a set of data (observations or measurements) in order to summarize it or to find general patterns
Data Analysis
A systematic gathering of information for research or practical purposes
- Examples include mail surveys, interviews, laboratory experiments, and psychological testing
Data Collection
The automated (computerized) examination of a large set of observations or measurements, particularly as connected in a complex database, in order to discover patterns, correlations, and other regularities that can be used for predictive purposes
- Although a relatively new discipline, this has become a widely utilized technique within commercial and scientific research
- For example, retailers often use this to predict the future buying trends of customers or design targeted marketing strategies, while clinicians may use it to determine variables predicting hospitalization in psychological disorders
- This incorporates methods from statistics, logic, and artificial intelligence
Data Mining
A collection of individual but related observations or measurements considered as a single entity
- For example, the entire range of scores obtained from a class of students taking a particular test would constitute this
Data Set
A waking fantasy or reverie, in which wishes, expectations, and other potentialities are played out in imagination
- Part of the stream of thoughts and images that occupy most of a person’s waking hours, these may be unbidden and apparently purposeless or simply fanciful thoughts, whether spontaneous or intentional
- Researchers have identified at least three ways in which individuals’ daydreaming styles differ: positive-constructive daydreaming, guilty and fearful daydreaming, and poor attentional control
- These styles are posited to reflect the daydreamer’s overall tendencies toward positive emotion, negative emotion, and other personality traits
Daydream
A nonresidential facility where individuals with mental disorders receive a full range of treatment and support services during the day and return to their homes at night
- Specific service offerings vary across facilities but generally include psychological evaluation, individual and group psychotherapy, social and occupational rehabilitation, and somatic therapy
- Staff members are multidisciplinary, comprising psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, vocational counselors, and others
Day Hospital
The cutting or removal of sensory neurons or axons that convey information toward a particular nervous system structure (eg; the olfactory bulb)
Deafferentation
The partial or complete loss of the sense of hearing
- The condition may be hereditary or acquired by injury or disease
- The major kinds are conduction deafness, due to a disruption in sound vibrations before they reach the nerve endings of the inner ear; and sensorineural deafness, caused by a failure of the nerves or brain centers associated with the sense of hearing to transmit or interpret properly the impulses from the inner ear
Deafness
Learning activities or programs designed to educate people about death, dying, coping with grief, and the various emotional effects of bereavement
- It is typically provided by certified thanatologists from a wide array of mental and medical health personnel, educators, clergy, and volunteers
Death Education
In psychoanalytic theory, a drive whose aim is the reduction psychical tension to the lowest possible point, that is, death
- It is first directed inward as a self destructive tendency and is later turned outward in the form of the aggressive instinct
- In the Dual Instinct Theory of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the death instinct, or Thanatos, stands opposed to the life instinct, or Eros, and is believed to underlie such behaviors as aggressiveness, sadism, and masochism
Death Instinct
The process of giving participants in a completed research project a fuller explanation of the study in which they participated than was possible before or during the research
Debriefing
A theory of forgetting stating that learned material leaves in the brain a trace or impression that autonomously recedes and disappears unless the material is practiced and used
Decay Theory
A decrease in speed of movement or rate of change
Deceleration
In Piagetian Theory, the gradual progression of a child away from egocentrism toward a reality shared with others
- It includes understanding how others perceive the world, knowing in what ways one’s own perceptions differ, and recognizing that people have motivations and feelings different from one’s own
- It can also be extended to the ability to consider many aspects of a situation, problem, or object, as reflected, for example, in the child’s grasp of the concept of conservation
Decentration
Any distortion of fact or withholding of fact with the purpose of misleading others
- For example, a researcher who has not disclosed the true purpose of an experiment to a participant has engaged in deception, as has an animal that has given a false alarm call that disperses competitors and thus allows him or her to gain more good
Deception
(Symbol: dB)
A logarithmic unit used to express the ratio of acoustic or electric power (intensity)
- An increase of 1 bel is a 10 fold increase in intensity; a decibel is one tenth of a bel and is the more commonly used unit, partly because a 1-dB change in intensity is just detectable (approximately and under laboratory conditions)
Decibel
The cognitive process of choosing between two or more alternatives
- Psychologists have adopted two converging strategies to understand decision making: (a) statistical analysis of multiple decisions involving complex tasks and (b) experimental manipulation of simple decisions, looking at elements that recur within these decisions
Decision Making
In hypothesis testing, the formal statement of the set of values of the test statistic that will lead to rejection of the null hypothesis
Decision Rule
A broad class of theories in the quantitative, social, and behavioral sciences that aim to explain the decision making process and identify optimal ways of arriving at decisions (eg; under conditions of uncertainty) in such a way that prespecified criteria are met
Decision Theory
Memory that can be consciously recalled in response to a request to remember
- In some theories, it includes episodic memory and semantic memory
Declarative Memory
In Information Theory, the process in which a receiver (eg; the brain or a device, such as a cell phone) translates signals (sounds, writing, gestures, electrical impulses) into meaningful messages
Decoding
A breakdown in an individual’s defense mechanisms, resulting in progressive loss of normal functioning or worsening of psychiatric symptoms
Decompensation