F

Question 1

Random speech that includes the recounting of imaginary incidents by a person who believes these incidents are real

Answer 1

Fabulation

Question 2

Apparent valid city: the extent to which the items or content of a test or other assessment instrument appear to be appropriate for measuring something, regardless of whether they really are

Answer 2

Face Validity

Question 3

In social interactions, a set of strategic behaviors by which people maintain both their own dignity (“face”) and that of the people with whom they are dealing
- These strategies include politeness, deference, tact, avoidance of difficult subjects, and the use of half truths and “white lies”
- The conventions governing this differ widely between cultures

Answer 3

Facework

Question 4

A hypothetical set of central nervous system structures that accounts for the patterning of universal, basic social expressions of emotion in humans
- Such a program could provide the link between a specific emotion and a given pattern of facial muscular activity

Answer 4

Facial Affect Program

Question 5

A technique for measuring the endogenous electrical activity of any muscle or muscle group in the face by the appropriate placement of electrodes
- This procedure is usually carried out to detect implicit, invisible facial movements related to emotion or speech

Answer 5

Facial Electromyography

Question 6

A form of nonverbal signaling using the movement of facial muscles
- As well as being an integral part of communication, facial expression also reflects an individual’s emotional state
- Cross cultural research and studies of blind children indicate that certain facial expressions are spontaneous and universally correlated with such primary emotions as surprise, fear, anger, sadness, and happiness; display rules, however, can modify or even inhibit these expressions

Answer 6

Facial Expression

Question 7

The hypothesis that sensory information provided to the brain from facial muscle movements is a major determinant of intrapsychic feeling states, such as fear, anger, joy, contempt, and so on

Answer 7

Facial Feedback Hypothesis

Question 8

The seventh cranial nerve, which innervates facial musculature and some sensory receptors, including those of the external ear and the tongue

Answer 8

Facial Nerve

Question 9

In neuroscience, the phenomenon in which the threshold for propagation of the action potential of a neuron is lowered due to repeated signals at a synapse or the summation of subthreshold impulses

Answer 9

Facilitation

Question 10

A professionally trained or lay member of a group who fulfills some or all of the functions of a group leader
- This encourages discussion among all group members, without necessarily entering into the discussion

Answer 10

Facilitator

Question 11

Any of a group of disorders in which the patient intentionally produces or feigns symptoms solely so that he or she may assume the sick role
- It is distinct from malingering, which involves a specific external factor as motivation

Answer 11

Factitious Disorder

Question 12

1. Anything that contributes to a result or has a causal relationship to a phenomenon, event, or action
   - In analysis of variance, for example, a factor is an independent variable, whereas in factor analysis it is an underlying, unobservable latent variable thought (together with other factors) to be responsible for the interrelations among a set of variables

Answer 12

Factor

Question 13

A broad family of mathematical procedures for reducing a set of intercorrelations among manifest variables to a smaller set of unobserved latent variables (factors)
- For example, a number of tests of mechanical ability might be intercorrelated to enable factor analysis to reduce them to a few factors, such as fine motor coordination, speed, and attention
- This technique is often used to examine the common influences believed to give rise to a set of observed measures (measurement structure) or to reduce a larger set of measures to a smaller set of linear composites for use in subsequent analysis (data reduction)

Answer 13

Factor Analysis

Question 14

An experimental design in which two or more independent variables are simultaneously manipulated or observed in order to study their joint and separate influences on a dependent variable

Answer 14

Factorial Design

Question 15

In factor analysis, the repositioning of factors (latent variables) to a new, more interpretable configuration by a set of mathematically specifiable transformations
- Rotations can be orthogonal (eg; varimax, quartimax), in which the rotated factors are uncorrelated, or oblique, in which the rotated factors are correlated

Answer 15

Factor Rotation

Question 16

In conditioning, the gradual changing of one stimulus to another, which is often used to transfer stimulus control
- Stimuli can be faded out (gradually removed) or faded in (gradually introduced)

Answer 16

Fading

Question 17

Significantly inadequate gain in weight and height by an infant
- It reflects a degree of growth failure due to inadequate release of growth hormone and, despite an initial focus on parental neglect and emotional deprivation, is currently believed to have multifactorial etiology, including biological, nutritional, and environmental contributors
- The condition is associated with poor long term developmental, growth, health, and socioemotional outcomes

Answer 17

Failure to Thrive (FTT)

Question 18

1. The treatment of physical or psychological illness by means of religious practices, such as prayer or “laying on of hands”
2. Any form of unorthodox medical treatment whose efficacy is said to depend upon the patient’s faith in the healer or the healing process
   - In such cases any beneficial effects may be attributed to a psychosomatic process rather than a paranormal or supernatural one

Answer 18

Faith Healing

Question 19

The practice of some participants in an evaluation or psychological test who either “fake good” by choosing answers that create a favorable impression or “fake bad” by choosing answers that make them appear disturbed or incompetent

Answer 19

Faking

Question 20

Either of the slender fleshy tubes in mammals that convey ova (egg cells) from each ovary to the uterus and where fertilization may occur [Gabriele Fallopius (1523 - 1562), Italian anatomist]

Answer 20

Fallopian Tube

Question 21

The tendency to assume that one’s own opinions, beliefs, attributes, or behaviors are more widely shared than is actually the case
- A robustly demonstrated phenomenon, the false consensus effect is often attributed to a desire to view one’s thoughts and actions as appropriate, normal, and correct

Answer 21

False Consensus Effect

Question 22

A distorted recollection of an event or, most severely, recollection of an event that never happened at all
- These are errors of commission, because details, facts, or events come to mind, often vividly, but the remembrances fail to correspond to prior events
- Even when people are highly confident that they are remembering “the truth” of the original situation, experimental evidence shows that they can be wrong
- The phenomenon is of particular interest in legal cases, specifically those involving eyewitness memories and false memory syndrome (FMS), in which adults seem to recover memories of having been physically or sexually abused as children, with such recoveries often occurring during therapy
- The label is controversial, as is the evidence for and against recovery of abuse memories; false memory syndrome is not an accepted diagnostic term, and some have suggested using the more neutral phrase recovered memory

Answer 22

False Memory

Question 23

The tendency to underestimate the extent to which others possess the same beliefs and attributes as oneself or engage in the same behaviors, particularly when these characteristics or behaviors are positive or socially desirable
- It is often attributed to a desire to view one’s thoughts and actions as unusual, arising from personal, internal causes

Answer 23

False Uniqueness Effect

Question 24

The condition of admitting falsification: the logical possibility that an assertion, hypothesis, or theory can be shown to be false
- The most important properties that make a statement falsifiable in this way are (a) that it makes a prediction about an outcome or a universal claim of the type “all Xs have property Y” and (b) that what is predicted or claimed is observable
- Austrian born British philosopher Karl Popper (1902 - 1994) argued that falsifiability is an essential characteristic of any genuinely scientific hypothesis

Answer 24

Falsifiability

Question 25

A study in which some measure or measures of an attribute or condition (eg; a disorder, intelligence, suicidal behavior) among people of a known genetic relationship are correlated
- The extent to which performance on a given measure varies as a function of genetic similarity is used as an indication of the heritability of that measure

Answer 25

Familial Study

Question 26

A form of remembering in which a situation, event, place, person, or the like provokes a subjective feeling of recognition and is therefore believed to be in memory, although it is not specifically recalled

Answer 26

Familiarity

Question 27

A cultural value common in collectivist or traditional societies that emphasizes strong interpersonal relationships within the extended family together with interdependence, collaboration, and the placing of group interests ahead of individual interests

Answer 27

Familism

Question 28

A broad conceptual model that focuses on the relationships between and among interacting individuals in the family
- Combining core concepts from such areas as general systems theory, object relations theory, and social learning theory, this stresses that therapists cannot work only with individual family members to create constructive family changes but must see the whole family to effect systemic and lasting changes

Answer 28

Family Systems Theory

Question 29

A form of psychotherapy that focuses on the improvement of interfamilial relationships and behavioral patterns of the family unit as a whole, as well as among individual members and groupings, or subsystems, within the family
- This includes a large number of treatment forms with diverse conceptual principles, processes and structures, and clinical foci
- Some of these approaches (eg; that based on object relations theory) reflect extensions of models of psychotherapy with individuals in the interpersonal realm, whereas others (eg; structural family therapy) evolved in less traditional contexts

Answer 29

Family Therapy

Question 30

1. Any of a range of mental experiences and processes marked by vivid imagery, intensity of emotion, and relaxation or absence of logic
   - This is normal and common and often serves a healthy purpose of releasing tension, giving pleasure and amusement, or stimulating reactivity
   - It can also be indicative of pathology, as in delusional thinking or significant disconnection from reality
2. In psychoanalytic theories, a figment of the imagination: a mental image, night dream, or daydream in which a person’s conscious or unconscious wishes and impulses are fulfilled

Answer 30

Fantasy

Question 31

The ability of young children to learn new words quickly on the basis of only one or two exposures to these words

Answer 31

Fast Mapping

Question 32

A substitute for a persons biological father, who performs typical paternal functions and serve as an object of identification and attachment
- These may include such individuals as adoptive fathers, stepfathers, older brothers, teachers, and others

Answer 32

Father Surrogate

Question 33

A decline in performance on a prolonged or physically demanding research task that is generally attributed to the participant becoming tired or bored with the task

Answer 33

Fatigue Effect

Question 34

A theoretical probability distribution widely used in the analysis of variance and other statistical tests of hypotheses about population variances
- It is the ratio of the variances of two independent random variables each divided by its degrees of freedom

Answer 34

F Distribution

Question 35

An intense emotion aroused by the detection of imminent threat, involving an immediate alarm reaction that mobilizes the organism by triggering a set of physiological changes
- These include rapid heartbeat, redirection of blood flow away from the periphery toward the gut, tensing of the muscles, and a general mobilization of the organism to take action
- According to some theorists, this differs from anxiety in that it has an object (eg; a predator, financial ruin) and is a proportionate response to the objective threat, whereas anxiety typically lacks an object or is a more intense response than is warranted by the perceived threat

Answer 35

Fear

Question 36

An adult attachment style characterized by a negative internal working model of attachment of oneself and of others
- Individuals with fearful attachment doubt both their own and others’ competence and efficacy and are presumed not to seek help from others when distressed

Answer 36

Fearful Attachment

Question 37

Persistent and irrational anxiety about failing to measure up to the standards and goals set by oneself or others
- This may be associated with perfectionism and is implicated in a number of psychological disorders, including some anxiety disorders and eating disorders

Answer 37

Fear of Failure

Question 38

A fear of accomplishing one’s goals or succeeding in society, or a tendency to avoid doing so
- This was originally thought to be experienced primarily by women, because striving for success was held to place a women in conflict between a general need for achievement and social values that tell her not to achieve “tou much”
- It is now thought that men and women are equally likely to experience this

Answer 38

Fear of Success

Question 39

Any of various hypothetical or actual mechanisms within the human information processing system that respond selectively to specific distinguishing features
- For example, the visual system has these for lines and angles of different orientations or even for more complex stimuli, such as faces
- These are also thought to play an important role in speech perception, where their function would be to detect those features that distinguish one phoneme from another

Answer 39

Feature Detector

Question 40

A two stage theory of visual attention
- In the first (preattentive) stage, basic features (eg; color, shape) are processed automatically, independently, and in parallel
- In the second (attentive) stage, other properties, including relations between features of an object, are processed in series, one object (or group) at a time, and “bound” together to create a single object that is perceived

Answer 40

Feature Integration Theory

Question 41

A mathematical formula relating subjective experience to changes in physical stimulus intensity: specifically, the sensation experienced is proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus magnitude
- It is derived from weber’s law and expressed as Y = K logS, where Y is the sensation, K is a constant, and S is the physical intensity of the stimulus [Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801 - 1887), German physician and philosopher]

Answer 41

Fechner‘s Law

Question 42

Information about a process or interaction provided to the governing system or agent and used to make adjustments that eliminate problems or otherwise optimize functioning
- It may be stabilizing negative feedback or amplifying positive feedback
- The term’s origins in engineering and cybernetics lend it a distinct connotation of input output models that is not as strictly applicable to the wide variety of usages found in psychology, such as biofeedback, information feedback, and social feedback

Answer 42

Feedback

Question 43

In cybernetic theory, a self regulatory model that determines whether the current operation of a system is acceptable and, if not, attempts to make the necessary changes
- Its operation is summarized by the acronym TOTE (test, operate, test, exit)
- The two test phases compare the current reality against the goal or standard
- Operate refers to any processes or interventions designed to resolve unacceptable discrepancies between the reality and the standard
- Exit refers to the closing down of the supervisory feedback loop because the circumstances have been brought into agreement with the standard

Answer 43

Feedback Loop

Question 44

1. A self contained phenomenal experience
   - These are subjective, evaluative, and independent of the sensory modality of the sensations, thoughts, or images evoking them
   - They are inevitably evaluated as pleasant or unpleasant but they can have more specific intrapsychic qualities as well
   - The core characteristic that differentiates these from cognitive, sensory, or perceptual intrapsychic experiences is the link of affect to appraisal
   - These differ from emotions in being purely mental, whereas emotions are designed to engage with the world
2. Any experienced sensation, particularly a tactile or temperature sensation (eg; pain or coldness)

Answer 44

Feeling

Question 45

A condition in which a woman recurrently or persistently has difficulty obtaining orgasm or is unable to reach orgasm at all following sexual stimulation and excitement, causing marked distress or interpersonal difficulty
- This is the second most frequently reported women’s sexual behavior

Answer 45

Female Orgasmic Disorder

Question 46

A condition in which a woman recurrently or persistently is unable to attain or maintain adequate vaginal lubrication and swelling during sexual excitement, causing marked distress or interpersonal difficulty
- It is a prevalent sexual problem for women and has a complex etiology involving a variety of physiological and psychological factors

Answer 46

Female Sexual Arousal Disorder

Question 47

Any of a number of perspectives that take as their subject matter the problems and perspectives of women, or the nature of biological and social phenomena related to gender
- Although some feminist perspectives focus on issues of fairness and equal rights, other approaches emphasize what are taken to be inherent and systematic gender inequities in Western society
- In psychology, this has focused attention on the nature and origin of gender differences in psychological processes

Answer 47

Feminism

Question 48

The fusion of a sperm and an egg cell to produce a zygote
- In humans, this occurs in a fallopian tube

Answer 48

Fertilization

Question 49

A group of adverse fetal and infant health effects associated with heavy maternal alcohol intake during pregnancy
- It is characterized by low birth weight and retarded growth, craniofacial anomalies (eg; microcephaly), neurobehavioral problems (eg; hyperactivity), and cognitive abnormalities (eg; language acquisition deficits); mental retardation may be present
- Children showing some (but not all) features of this syndrome are described as having fetal alcohol effects (FAE)

Answer 49

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)

Question 50

A type of paraphilia in which inanimate objects - commonly undergarments, stockings, rubber items, shoes, or boots - are repeatedly or exclusively used in achieving sexual excitement
- This occurs primarily among males and may compete or interfere with sexual contact with a partner

Answer 50

Fetishism

Question 51

An animal embryo in the later stages of development
- In humans, the fetal period is from the end of the eighth week after fertilization until birth

Answer 51

Fetus

Question 52

1. A defined area or region of space, such as the visual field
2. A complex of personal, physical, and social factors within which a psychological event takes place
3. Somewhere other than a laboratory, library, or academic setting in which experimental work is carried out or data collected

Answer 52

Field

Question 53

A cognitive style in which the individual consistently relies more on external referents (environmental cues) than on internal referents (bodily sensation cues)
- The opposite tendency, relying more on internal than external referents, is called field independence
- Both were discovered during experiments conducted in the 1950s to understand the factors that determine perception of the upright in space

Answer 53

Field Dependence

Question 54

An experiment that is conducted outside the laboratory in a “real world” setting
- Participants are exposed to one of two or more levels of an independent variable and observed for their reactions; they are likely to be unaware of the experiment

Answer 54

Field Experiment

Question 55

Research conducted outside the laboratory, in a natural, real world setting
- Participants are exposed to one of two or more levels of an independent variable and observed for their reactions; they are likely to be unaware of the experiment

Answer 55

Field Research

Question 56

A systematic approach describing behavior in terms of patterns of dynamic interrelationships between individuals and the psychological, social, and physical situation in which they exist
- This situation is known as the field space or life space, and the dynamic interactions are conceived as forces with positive or negative valences (subjective values)

Answer 56

Field Theory

Question 57

A pattern of physiological changes elicited by activity of the sympathetic nervous system in response to threatening or otherwise stressful situations that leads to mobilization of energy for physical activity (eg; attacking or avoiding the offending stimulus), either directly or by inhibiting physiological activity that does not contribute to energy mobilization
- Specific sympathetic responses involved in the reaction include increased heart rate, respiratory rate, and sweat gland activity; elevated blood pressure; decreased digestive activity; pupil dilation; and a routing of blood flow to skeletal muscles

Answer 57

Fight or Flight Response

Question 58

Relating to the principle that perceptions have two parts: a figure that stands out in good contour and an indistinct, homogenous background

Answer 58

Figure Ground

Question 59

The fact that a large proportion of all studies actually conducted are not available for review because they remain unpublished in “file drawers,” having failed to obtain positive results

Answer 59

File Drawer Problem

Question 60

An early theory of attention proposing that unattended channels of information are filtered prior to identification
- This theory continues to be influential in the form of its successor, the attenuation theory

Answer 60

Filter Theory

Question 61

Describing activities or skills that require coordination of small muscles to control small, precise movements, particularly in the hands and face
- Examples of these skills include handwriting, drawing, cutting, and manipulating small objects

Answer 61

Fine Motor

Question 62

A mathematical transformation of the product moment correlation coefficient (r) to a new statistic (Z) whose sampling distribution is the normal distribution
- It is used for testing hypotheses about correlations and constructing confidence intervals on correlations [Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890 - 1962), British statistician and geneticist]

Answer 62

Fisher’s r to Z Transformation

Question 63

A cleft, groove, or indentation in a surface, especially any of the deep grooves in the cerebral cortex

Answer 63

Fissure

Question 64

1. A set of attributes that people have or are able to achieve relating to their ability to perform physical work and to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure pursuits
2. In biology, the extent to which an organism or population is able to produce viable offspring in a given environment, which is a measure of that organism’s or population’s adaptation to that environment

Answer 64

Fitness

Question 65

A model of personality in which five dimensions of individual difference - extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness (being responsible and hardworking), agreeableness (acting in a cooperative, unselfish manner), and openness to experience (participating in new aesthetic, cultural, or intellectual experiences) - are viewed as core personality structures
- Unlike the Big Five Personality Model, which views the five personality dimensions as descriptions of behavior and treats the five dimensional structure as a taxonomy of individual differences, the Five Factor Personality Model also views the factors as psychological entities with causal force
- The two models are frequently and incorrectly conflated in the scientific literature, without regard for their distinctly different emphases

Answer 65

Five Factor Personality Model

Question 66

1. An obsessive preoccupation: excessive interest in or focus upon something, such as a particular idea or approach to solving a problem
2. In psychoanalytic theory, either the persistence of an early stage of psychosexual development or an inappropriate attachment to an early object (especially the mother or father)
3. The orientation of the eyes so that the image of a viewed object falls on the fovea centralis, in the central part of the retina

Answer 66

Fixation

Question 67

In classical ethology, a stereotyped, genetically preprogrammed, species specific behavioral sequence that is evoked by a releaser stimulus and is carried out without sensory feedback
- In contemporary ethology, the term modal action pattern is more often used

Answer 67

Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)

Question 68

In conditioning, an arrangement in which the first response after a set interval has elapsed is reinforced
- “FI 3 minute” means that reinforcement is given to the first response occurring at least 3 minutes after a previous reinforcement
- Often, experience with FI schedules results in a temporal pattern of responding, characterized by little or no responding at the beginning of the interval, followed by an increased rate later on as reinforcement becomes more imminent
- This pattern is often referred to as the fixed interval scallop

Answer 68

Fixed Interval Schedule (FI Schedule)

Question 69

In conditioning, an arrangement in which reinforcement is given after a specified number of responses
- “FR 1” means that reinforcement is given after each response; “FR 50” means that reinforcement is given after 50 responses

Answer 69

Fixed Ratio Schedule (FR Schedule)

Question 70

1. The reliving of a traumatic event after the initial adjustment to the trauma appears to have been made
   - These are part of posttraumatic stress disorder: forgotten memories are reawakened by words, sounds, smells, or scenes that are reminiscent of the original trauma (eg; when a backfiring car elicits the kind of anxiety that a combat veteran experienced when he or she was the target of enemy fire)
2. The spontaneous recurrence of the perceptual distortions and disorientation to time and place experienced during a previous period of hallucinogen intoxication
   - These may occur months or even years after the last use of the drug and are associated particularly with LSD

Answer 70

Flashback

Question 71

A vivid, enduring memory associated with a personally significant and emotional event
- Such memories have the quality of a photograph taken the moment the individual experienced the emotion, including such details as where the individual was or what he or she was doing

Answer 71

Flashbulb Memory

Question 72

Total or near absence of appropriate emotional responses to situations and events

Answer 72

Flat Affect

Question 73

The bending of a joint in a limb (eg; the elbow joint) so that two parts of the limb (eg; the forearm and upper arm) are brought toward each other

Answer 73

Flexion

Question 74

A muscle whose contraction bends a part of the body, such as the biceps muscle of the upper am

Answer 74

Flexor

Question 75

In psychotherapy, an abrupt “recuperation” by a prospective client after or during intake interviews and before entry into therapy proper or, more commonly, by a client in ongoing therapy
- Psychoanalytic theory interprets this as an unconscious defense mechanism

Answer 75

Flight into Health

Question 76

In psychotherapy, the sudden development of physical or other symptoms by a client or prospective client
- Psychoanalytic theory interprets this as an unconscious defense mechanism that is used to avoid examination of a deeper underlying conflict

Answer 76

Flight into Illness

Question 77

A technique in behavior therapy in which the individual is exposed directly to a maximum intensity anxiety producing situation or stimulus, either in the imagination but most often in reality, without any attempt made to lessen or avoid anxiety or fear during the exposure
- For an individual with claustrophobia, for example, this would entail spending extended periods of time in a small room
- These techniques aim to diminish or extinguish the undesired behavior and are used primarily in the treatment of individual with phobias and similar disorders
- It is distinct from systematic desensitization, which involves a gradual, step by step approach to encountering the feared situation or stimulus while attempting throughout to maintain a nonanxious state

Answer 77

Flooding

Question 78

A situation in which a large proportion of participants perform as poorly as, or nearly as poorly as, possible on a task or other evaluative measure, thus skewing the distribution of scores and making it impossible to discriminate differences among the many individuals at that low level
- For example, a test whose items are too difficult for those taking it would show this because most people would obtain or be close to the lowest possible score of 0

Answer 78

Floor Effect

Question 79

A state of optimal experience arising from intense involvement in an activity that is enjoyable, such as playing a sport, performing a musical passage, or writing a creative piece
- This arises when one’s skills are fully utilized yet equal to the demands of the task, intrinsic motivation is at a peak, one loses self consciousness and temporal awareness, and one has a sense of total control, effortlessness, and complete concentration on the immediate situation (the here and now)

Answer 79

Flow

Question 80

The form of intelligence that comprises those abilities, such as memory span and mental quickness, that are functionally related to physiological condition and maturation
- This appears to increase during childhood and to deteriorate, to some extent, in old age

Answer 80

Fluid Intelligence

Question 81

An antidepressant that is the prototype of the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
- This differs from other SSRIs in that it and its biologically active metabolic product, nor- fluoxetine, have a prolonged half life of 5-7 days after a single dose
- U.S. Trade name: Prozac

Answer 81

Fluoxetine

Question 82

The gradual cross cultural rise in raw scores obtained on measures of general intelligence
- These increases have been roughly 9 points per generation (ie; 30 years) [James Flynn (1934 - ), New Zealand philosopher who first documented its occurrence]

Answer 82

Flynn Effect

Question 83

A form of brief psychotherapy in which a single problematic area (eg; excessive anxiety) is made the target of the entire course of treatment
- The therapist continually redirects the process so as to avoid deviations from this specifically identified aim, for example, by preventing discussion of material he or she deems irrelevant to the intended therapeutic goal

Answer 83

Focal Psychotherapy

Question 84

A small group of people who share common characteristics and are selected to discuss a topic of which they have personal experience
- Originally used in marketing to determine consumer response to particular products, these are now used for determining typical reactions, adaptations, and solutions to any number of issues, events, or topics

Answer 84

Focus Group

Question 85

A cluster of cells enclosing, protecting, and nourishing a cell or structure within

Answer 85

Follicle

Question 86

A gonadotropin released by the anterior pituitary gland that, in females, stimulates the development in the ovary of graafian follicles
- The same hormone in males stimulates Sertoli cells in the testis to produce spermatozoa

Answer 86

Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH)

Question 87

A long term study designed to examine the degree to which effects seen shortly after the imposition of a therapeutic intervention persist over time

Answer 87

Follow Up Study

Question 88

A two step procedure for enhancing compliance in which a minor initial request is presented immediately before the more substantial target request
- Agreement to the initial request makes people more likely to agree to the target request than would have been the case if the latter had been presented on its own

Answer 88

Foot in the Door Technique

Question 89

Describing any procedural format or assessment instrument in which participants are provided with a predetermined set of alternatives from which they must choose a response
- For example, this type of test in signal detection tasks is a test in which two or more intervals are presented, one of which contains the signal
- The observer must choose the interval in which the signal was presented

Answer 89

Forced Choice

Question 90

The tendency of a person who has behaved in a way that contradicts his or her attitude to subsequently alter the attitude to be consistent with the behavior
- It is one way of reducing cognitive dissonance

Answer 90

Forced Compliance Effect

Question 91

The part of the brain that develops from the anterior section of the neural tube in the embryo, containing the telencephalon and the diencephalon
- The former comprises the cerebral hemispheres with their various regions (eg; basal ganglia, amygdala, hippocampus); the latter comprises the thalamus and hypothalamus

Answer 91

Forebrain

Question 92

The application of psychological principles and techniques to situations involving the civil and criminal legal systems
- Its functions include assessment and treatment services, provision of advocacy and expert testimony, and research and policy analysis

Answer 92

Forensic Psychology

Question 93

The failure to remember material previously learned
- Numerous processes and theories have been proposed throughout its long history of study to account for forgetting, including decay theory and interference theory
- Forgetting typically is a normal phenomenon that plays an important adaptive role in restricting access to information that is likely to be needed in current interactions with the environment, but may also be pathological,as, for example, in amnesia

Answer 93

Forgetting

Question 94

Willfully putting aside feelings of resentment toward an individual who has committed a wrong, been unfair or hurtful, or otherwise harmed one in some way
- This is not equated with reconciliation or excusing another, and it is not merely accepting what happened or ceasing to be angry
- Rather, it involves a voluntary transformation of one’s feelings, attitudes, and behavior toward the individual, so that one is no longer dominated by resentment and can express compassion, generosity, or the like toward the individual
- This is often considered an important process in psychotherapy or counseling

Answer 94

Forgiveness

Question 95

The fourth and final stage in the Piagetian theory of cognitive development, beginning around age 12, during which complex intellectual functions, such as abstract thinking, logical processes, conceptualization, and judgement, develop

Answer 95

Formal Operational Stage

Question 96

Disruptions in the form or structure of thinking
- Examples include derailment, frequent interruptions and jumps from one idea to another, and tangentiality, constant digressions to irrelevant topics
- It is distinct from thought disorder, in which the disturbance relates to thought content

Answer 96

Formal Thought Disorder

Question 97

The frequency bands of sounds produced by the vocal cords and other physical features of the head and throat in speaking
- A simple sound, such as the vowel /a/, may span several kilohertz of frequencies

Answer 97

Formants

Question 98

Any arch shaped structure, especially the long tract of white matter in the brain arching between the hippocampus and the hypothalamus

Answer 98

Fornix

Question 99

In Pavlovian conditioning, the pairing of two stimuli such that the conditioned stimulus is presented before the unconditioned stimulus

Answer 99

Forward Conditioning

Question 100

A technique used in creating multiple regression models in which independent variables are added to the regression equation in the order of their predictive power until a preset criterion is reached

Answer 100

Forward Selection

Question 101

Temporary care provided to children in settings outside their family of origin and by individuals other than their natural or adoptive parents, under the supervision of a public child welfare agency
- This is intended to keep children whose parents are unavailable or incapable of proper care safe from harm, with the ultimate goal being to find a secure and permanent home
- Typically, a child is placed with a family approved for this and paid a fee for such by a public child welfare agency
- Although these foster home arrangements are most common, children may also be placed in group homes or other institutions

Answer 101

Foster Care

Question 102

The mathematical analysis of complex waveforms using the fact that they can be expressed as an infinite sum of sine and cosine functions
- It is accomplished via a Fourier transform, a mathematical operation that analyzes any waveform into a set of simple waveforms with different frequencies and amplitudes
- This is particularly important in the study of sound and the theoretical understanding of visual analysis [Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768 - 1830), French mathematician and physicist]

Answer 102

Fourier Analysis

Question 103

A small depression in the central portion of the retina in which retinal cone cells are most concentrated and an image is focused most clearly

Answer 103

Fovea Centralis

Question 104

A psychophysical procedure to scale the magnitude of sensations in which an observer adjusts a variable stimulus to be half that of a standard stimulus

Answer 104

Fractionation

Question 105

A genetic condition that differentially affects males and causes a range of developmental problems including learning disabilities and mental retardation
- The disorder is so named because of alterations in the FMR1 gene, on the arm of the X chromosome, that normally expand and destabilize it
- Males with this have characteristic physical features that become more apparent with age, such as large ears, prominent jaw and forehead, a long and narrow face, and enlarged testicles
- Both males and females with this may exhibit hyperactivity and attention deficits, while some males also show autistic behavior

Answer 105

Fragile X Syndrome

Question 106

In social psychology, the set of assumptions or criteria by which a person judges ideas, actions, and experiences
- This can often limit or distort perception, as in the case of prejudice and stereotypes

Answer 106

Frame of Reference

Question 107

The process of defining the context or issues surrounding a question, problem, or event in a way that serves to influence how the context or issues are perceived and evaluated

Answer 107

Framing

Question 108

(Symbol: F)
In an analysis of variance of a multivariate analysis of variance, the ratio of explained to unexplained variance; that is, the ratio of between groups variance to within group variance

Answer 108

F Ratio

Question 109

A basic process in psychoanalysis and other forms of psychodynamic psychotherapy, in which the patient is encouraged to verbalize without censorship or selection whatever thoughts come to mind, no matter how embarrassing, illogical, or irrelevant
- The object is to allow unconscious material, such as traumatic experiences or threatening impulses, and otherwise inhibited thoughts and emotions to come to the surface where they can be interpreted

Answer 109

Free Association

Question 110

The right of a research participant to drop out of an experiment at any time

Answer 110

Freedom to Withdraw

Question 111

A diffuse, chronic sense of uneasiness and apprehension not directed toward any specific situation or object
- It may be a characteristic of a number of anxiety disorders, in particular generalized anxiety disorder

Answer 111

Free Floating Anxiety

Question 112

A highly branched terminal portion of a sensory neuron
- Found particularly in the different layers of skin, free nerve endings are the most common type of nerve ending and act as pain and temperature receptors

Answer 112

Free Nerve Ending

Question 113

An atom or molecule that has at least one “unpaired” electron in its outer shell
- This makes it highly reactive and able to engage in rapid chain reactions that destabilize the molecules around it, thus causing the formation of more free radicals
- These can damage cells and have been implicated in aging, inflammation, and the progression of various pathological conditions, including cancer

Answer 113

Free Radical

Question 114

A type of memory task in which a list of items is presented one at a time and participants attempt to remember them in any order

Answer 114

Free Recall

Question 115

Describing any procedural format or assessment instrument in which participants construct their own responses to items rather than choosing from a list of alternatives as in forced choice techniques
- An essay test is an example of this method

Answer 115

Free Response

Question 116

A cycle of behavior or physiological activity that occurs if external stimuli do not provide entrainment

Answer 116

Free Running Rhythm

Question 117

The power or capacity of a human being for self direction
- The concept of this will thus suggest that inclinations, dispositions, thoughts, and actions are not determined entirely by forces over which people have no independent directing influence
- This is generally seen as necessary for moral action and responsibility and is implied by much of our everyday experience, in which we are conscious of having the power to do or forbear
- However, it has often been dismissed as illusory by advocates of determinism, who hold that all occurrences, including human actions, are predetermined

Answer 117

Free Will

Question 118

The number of occurrences of a particular phenomenon in a given period
- More specifically, this is the number of repetitions of a periodic waveform in a given unit of time
- The standard measure of this is the hertz (Hz); this replaces, and is equivalent to, cycles per second (cps)

Answer 118

Frequency

Question 119

A plot of the frequency of occurrence of scores of various sizes, arranged from lowest to highest score

Answer 119

Frequency Distribution

Question 120

A graph depicting a statistical distribution, made up of lines connecting the peaks of adjacent intervals

Answer 120

Frequency Polygon

Question 121

The property of a system that enables it to be “tuned” to respond better to certain frequencies than to others
- The frequency selectivity of the auditory system is a fundamental aspect of hearing and has been a major research theme for many decades

Answer 121

Frequency Selectivity

Question 122

A late 19th century theory specifying that pitch is coded by the rate at which action potentials are generated by auditory neurons within the basilar membrane of the ear
- According to this theory, the wavelength (frequency) of a tone is precisely replicated in the electrical impulses transmitted through the auditory nerve
- For example, a 100 Hz tone would be signaled by 100 impulses per second in the auditory nerve
- However, this cannot explain the perception of sounds above 500 Hz because the refractory period of a neuron renders it incapable of firing at a rate greater than 500 impulses per second
- This discrepancy was accounted for by the later volley theory

Answer 122

Frequency Theory

Question 123

In the popular understanding of psychoanalytic theory, an unconscious error or oversight in writing, speech, or action that is held to be caused by unacceptable impulses breaking through the ego’s defenses and exposing the individual’s true wishes or feelings

Answer 123

Freudian Slip

Question 124

A non parametric test of the equality of medians in J repeated measures of a matched group [Herbert Friedman (1933 - 1996), U.S. Psychologist and statistician]

Answer 124

FriedmanTest

Question 125

A voluntary relationship between two or more people that is relatively long lasting and in which those involved tend to be concerned with meeting the others’ needs and interests as well as satisfying their own desires

Answer 125

Friendship

Question 126

The cerebral cortex of the frontal lobe

Answer 126

Frontal Cortex

Question 127

One of the four main lobes of each cerebral hemisphere of the brain, lying in front of the central sulcus
- It is concerned with motor and higher order executive functions

Answer 127

Frontal Lobe

Question 128

Deterioration in personality and behavior resulting from lesions in the frontal lobe
- Typical symptoms include loss of initiative, inability to plan activities, difficulty with abstract thinking, perseveration, impairments in social judgement and impulse control, and mood disturbances such as apathy or mania

Answer 128

Frontal Lobe Syndrome

Question 129

A paraphilia in which an individual deliberately and persistently seeks sexual excitement by rubbing against other people
- This may occur as apparently accidental contact in crowded public settings, such as elevators or lines

Answer 129

Frotteurism

Question 130

1. The thwarting of impulses or actions that prevents individuals from obtaining something they have been led to expect based on past experience, as when a hungry animal is prevented from obtaining food that it can see or smell or when a child is prevented from playing with a visible toy
2. The emotional state an individual experiences when such thwartting occurs

Answer 130

Frustration

Question 131

The theory that (a) frustration always produces an aggressive urge and (b) aggression is always the result of prior frustrations

Answer 131

Frustration Aggression Hypothesis

Question 132

The ability of an individual to delay gratification or to preserve relative equanimity on encountering obstacles
- The growth of adequate frustration tolerance generally occurs as part of a child’s cognitive and affective development but may also be strengthened to more adaptive levels later in life through therapeutic intervention

Answer 132

Frustration Tolerance

Question 133

Any of a class of statistical tests, notably including the widely used analysis of variance, that rely on the assumption that the test statistic - the F ratio - follows the F distribution when the null hypothesis is true
- These are tests of hypotheses about population variances

Answer 133

F Test

Question 134

In client centered therapy, a person with a healthy personality, who experiences freedom of choice and action, is creative, and is able to live fully in the present and respond freely and flexibly to new experience without fear

Answer 134

Fully Functioning Person

Question 135

1. In biology, an activity of an organ or an organism that contributes to the organism’s fitness, such as the secretion of a sex hormone by a gonad to prepare for reproduction or the defensive behavior of a female with young toward an intruder
2. (Symbol: f) a mathematical procedure that relates one number, quantity, or entity to another according to a defined rule
   - For example, if y = 2x + 1, y is said to be a function of x
   - This is often written y = f(x)

Answer 135

Function

Question 136

1. Denoting or referring to a disorder for which there is no known organic or structural basis
   - In psychology and psychiatry, functional disorders are improperly considered equivalent to psychogenic disorders
2. Based on or relating to use rather than structure

Answer 136

Functional

Question 137

An individual’s age as determined by measures of functional capability indexed by age normed standards
- This is distinct from chronological age and represents a combination of physiological, psychological, and social age
- In adults it is calculated by measuring a range of variables, such as eyesight, hearing, mobility, cardiopulmonary function, concentration, and memory
- This of a child is measured in terms of the development level he or she has reached

Answer 137

Functional Age

Question 138

The detailed analysis of a behavior to identify contingencies that sustain the behavior

Answer 138

Functional Analysis

Question 139

The ability of a person to perform independently the various tasks required in daily life, a core concept in such areas as rehabilitation and successful aging
- For example, decline in this is a major component of symptoms in severe dementia
- Very few instrumental activities of daily living remain, and there is a gradual loss of self care, or basic activities of daily living

Answer 139

Functional Autonomy

Question 140

The tendency to perceive an object only in terms of its most common use
- For example, people generally perceive cardboard boxes as containers, thus hindering them from potentially flipping the boxes over for use as platforms upon which to place objects (eg; books)

Answer 140

Functional Fixedness

Question 141

A general psychological approach that views mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to environmental challenges and opportunities
- This was developed at the beginning of the 20th century as a revolt against the atomistic point of view of structuralism, which limited psychology to the dissection of states of consciousness and the study of mental content rather than mental activities
- This emphasizes the causes and consequences of human behavior; the union of the physiological with the psychological; the need for objective testing of theories; and the applications of psychological knowledge to the solution of practical problems, the evolutionary continuity between animals and humans, and the improvement of human life

Answer 141

Functionalism

Question 142

A form of magnetic resonance imaging that detects changes in blood flow and therefore identifies regions of the brain that are particularly active during a given task

Answer 142

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Question 143

In stimulus response experiments, the characteristic of the stimulus that actually produces a particular effect on the organism and governs its behavior
- This may be different from the nominal stimulus as defined by the experimenter
- For example, if an experimenter presents a blue square to a pigeon as a nominal stimulus, the functional stimulus may simply be the color blue

Answer 143

Functional Stimulus

Question 144

In linguistics, a word that has little or no meaning of its own but plays an important grammatical role: examples include the articles (a, the, ect), prepositions (in, of, ect), and conjunctions (and, but, ect)
-The distinction between these words and content words is of great interest to the study of language disorders, language acquisition, and psycholinguistic processing

Answer 144

Function Word

Question 145

In attribution theory, the tendency to overestimate the degree to which an individual’s behavior is determined by his or her abiding personal characteristics, attitudes, or beliefs and, correspondingly, to minimize the influence of the surrounding situation on that behavior (eg; financial or social pressure)

Answer 145

Fundamental Attribution Error

Question 146

A spindle shaped ridge on the inferior (lower) surface of each temporal lobe in the brain
- It lies between the inferior temporal gyrus and the para hippocampal gyrus and is involved in high level visual processing, including color perception and face recognition

Answer 146

Fusiform Gyrus