Glossary Flashcards
Acquisition
In classical conditioning, the process of learning the association between a conditioned stimulus and response.
Activation-synthesis pathway
The theory that dreams are simply byproducts of brain activation during REM sleep.
Suggests that the content of dreams is not purposeful.
Actor-observer bias
The tendency to blame actions on the situtation and blame actions of others on their personality.
Adrenal Cortex
Outer region of the adrenal gland.
Produces cortisol in response to long-term stress (chronic) and aldosterone in response to low bl. pr. or low bl. osmolarity.
Adrenal Medulla
Inner region of the adrenal gland.
Part of the sympathetic nervous system and releases epinephrine and NE.
Adrenicorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
Tropic hormone produced by the anterior pituitary that targets adrenal cortex, stimulating it to release cortisol and aldosterone.
Affect
A person’s visible emotion in the moment.
Affirmative action
Policies that take factors like race or sex into consideration to benefit underrepresented groups in admission or job hiring decisions; these policies have been used to benefit those believed to be current or past victims of discrimination.
Aggregate
People who exist in the same space but do not interact or share a common sense of identity.
Ainsworth, Mary - Famous for her “strange situation experiment”
“Strange situation experiment” is where mothers would leave their infants in an unfamiliar environment to see how they would react.
Studies suggested a distinction between securely attached infants and insecurely attached infants.
Algorithm
Step-by-step detailing aid to problem solving.
Alpha Waves
Low amplitude, high frequency brain waves present in a relaxed state.
Alpha waves are the first indicator that a person is ready to drift off to sleep.
Altruism
A behavior that helps ensure the success or survival of the rest of a social group, possibly at the success or survival of the individual.
Alzheimer’s disease
The most prevalent form of dementia.
Characterized behaviorally by an inability to form new memories, known as anterograde amnesia.
Amygdala
Almond-shaped structure deep within the brain that orchestrates emotional experiences.
Amalgamation
Occurs when maj and min groups combine to form a new group.
Anal stage
The second of the Freud’s five pshycosexual stages, in this stage the child seeks sensual pleasure through control of elimination.
Anterograde amnesia
inability to form new memos.
Antisocial personality disorder
A psychological disorder characterized by a history of serious behavior problems beginning in adolescence, including significant aggression against people or animals, deliberate property destruction, lying or theft, and serious rule violation.
Anxiety disorder
Anxiety is an emotional state of unpleasant physical and mental arousal; a preparation to flight or flee. In a person with an anxiety disorder, the anxiety is intense, frequent, irrational (out of proportion) and uncontrollable; it causes significant distress or impairment of normal functioning.
Asch, Solomon
Conducted research on conformity and group pressure by placing subjects in a room with several confederates (the subjects believed the confederates to be fellow study subjects) and observing the behavior of the subject when the confederates provided clearly wrong answers to questions.
Ascribed status VS Achieved status
Asc: those that are assigned to a person by society regardless of the person’s own efforts.
Ach: Those that are considered to be due to an individual’s own efforts.
Attenuation model of selective attention
Model of selective attention in which the mind has an attenuator, like a volume knob, that can turn up inputs to be attended and tune down unattended inputs, rather than totally eliminating them.
Accounts for cocktail party effect.
Cocktail party effect
Phenomenon of info of personal importance from previously unattended channels “catching” one’s attention.
Availability heuristic
Mental shortcut of making judgments on the frequency of something occurring based on how readily it is available in our memos.
Avoidant personality disorder
A psychological disorder characterized by feelings of inadequacy; inferiority, and undesirability, and preoccupation with fears of criticism.
Babinski reflex
In response to the sole of the foot being stroked, a baby’s big toe moves upwards or toward the top surface of the foot and the other toes fan out.
Back stage Vs Front
In the dramaturgical perspective, this is where we can “let down our guard” and be ourselves, as opposed to the “front stage” where we are playing a role for others.
Bandura, Albert
Famous for his Bobo doll studies that demonstrated observational learning; also pioneered the idea of the importance of self-efficacy in promoting learning.
Self-efficacy
The belief in one’s own competence and effectiveness.
competence
The ability to do something successfully or efficiently.
Attribution theory
A theory that attempts to explain how individuals view behavior - both our own behavior and the behavior of others - by attributing behavior to either internal or external causes.
Auditory tube: AKA Eustachian tube
Connects the middle ear cavity with the pharynx.
It functions to equalize middle ear pressure with atmospheric pressure so that pressure on both sides of the tympanic membrane is equal.
Authoritarian Parenting
Parenting style in which parents impose strict rules that are expected to be followed unconditionally in an attempt to control children. This style is demanding and often relies on punishment.
Authoritative parenting
Parenting style that places limits on behavior and consistently follows through on consequences, but also expresses warmth and nurturing and allows for two-way communication between parents and children.
Basal nuclei
AKA basal ganglia, these structures in the brain help to smooth coordinated movement by inhibiting excess movement.
Basilar membrane
The flexible membrane in the cochlea that supports the organ of Corti (the structure that contains the hearing receptors). The fibers of the basilar membrane are short and stiff near the oval window and long and flexible near the apex of the cochlea.
This difference in structure helps the basilar membrane to transduce pitch.
Behavioral genetics
Study of the role of inheritance in interacting with experience to determine an indv’s personality and behaviors.
Behavioral therapy
This type of therapy uses conditioning to shape a client’s behavior in the desired direction.
Behaviorism
According to this perspective, personality is a result of learned behavior patterns based on a person’s environment.
Behaviorism is deterministic, proposing that people begin as blank slates and that env reinforcement and punishment completely determine an individual’s subsequent behavior and personalities.
Beliefs
The conviction or principles that people within a culture hold.
Belief bias
A tendency to draw conclusions based on what one already believes rather than sound logic.
Belief perseverance
The maintenance of beliefs even in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Bilateral descent
A system of lineage in which the relatives on the mother’s side and father’s side are considered equally important.
Biofeedback
Means of recording and feeding back information about subtle autonomic responses to an individual in an attempt to train the individual to control previously involuntary responses (ex, muscle tension, heart rate, respiratory rate)
Bipolar disorder
A psychological disorder characterized by cyclic mood episodes at both extremes or “poles”, depression and mania.
In bipolar disorder I, a person has experienced at least one manic or mixed episode.
In BD II, the manic phases are less extremes.
Bipolar neuron
A neuron with a single axon and a single dendrite, often projecting from opposite sides of the cell body. Bipolar neurons are typically associated with sensory organs.
Body dysmorphic disorder
A pschylogical disorder characterized by a preoccupation with a slight physical anomaly or imagined defect in appearance, often involving the face, hair, breasts, or genitalia.
Borderline personality disorder
A psych disorder characterized by enduring or recurrent instability in impulse control, mood, and image of self or others.
Impulsive and reckless behavior, together with extreme mood swings, reactivity, and anger, can lead to unstable relationships and to damage both of the person with the disorder and of others in his or her life.
Bottom-up processing
A type of sensory processing that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the complex integration of information occurring in the brain;
Note that the brain in fact uses a combination of bottom-up proc. and top-down processing.
Top-down processing
A type of info processing that occurs when the brain applies experience and expectations to interpret sensory information.
Broca’s area
Region of the brain located in the left hemisphere of the frontal lobe and involved with speech PRODUCTION.
Damage –> Broca’s aphasia, where indvs know what they want to say but are unable to verbally express it.
Bystander effect
The fact that a person is less likely to provide help when there are other people around.
Canon-Bard Theory
Theory of emotion.
Asserts that physiological and cognitive aspects of emotion occur simultaneously and collectively lead to the behavioral reaction.
Capitalism:
An economic system in which resources and production are mainly privately owned and goods/ services are produced for a profit.
Caste system
A closed social stratification where people can do nothing to change the category that they are born into.
Catatonic-type schizophrenia
A psych d characterized by psychosis in the form of catatonic behavior (including extremely retarded or excited motor activity)
