Key Terms Flashcards
To learn and master key terms within general psychology.
Define: Abnormal Behavior
Behavior that causes people to experience distress and prevents them from functioning in their daily lives.
Define: psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process.
Define: Absolute Threshold
The smallest intensity of a stimulus that must be present for the stimulus to be detected.
Define: Action Potential
An electric nerve impulse that travels through a neuron’s axon when it is set off by a “trigger” changing the neuron’s charge from negitive to positive.
Define: activation-synthesis theory
Hobson’s theory that the brain produces random electrical energy during REM sleep that stimulates memories stored in the brain.
Define: activity theory of aging
A theory that suggests that the elderly who are most successful whileaging are those who maintain the interests and activities the had during middle age.
Define: Adaptation
An adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to unchanging stimuli.
Define: Addicitive drugs
Drugs that produce a biological or psychological dependence in the user so that withdrawal from them leads to a craving for the drug that, in some causes, may be nearly irresistible.
Define: Adolescence
The developmental stage between childhood and adulthood.
Define: Age of viability
The point at which a fetus can survive iforn prematurely.
Define: Aggression
The intention injury of, or harm to, another person
Define: Algorithm
A rule that, if applied appropriately, guaarantees a solution to a problem
Define: All-or-none law
The rule that neurons are either on or off.
Define: Altruism
Helping behavior that is beneficial to others but clearly requires self-sacrifice.
Define: Alzheimer’s disease
A progressive brain disorder that leads to a gradual and irreversible decline in cognitive abilities.
Define: Annesia
Memory loss that occurs without other mental diffioulties.
Define: Anal stage
According to Freud, a stage from age 12 to 18 months to 3 years of age, in which a child’s pleasure is centered on the anus.
Define: Androgens
Male sex hormones seoreted by the testes.
Define: Anorexia nervosa
A severe eating disorder in which people may refuse to eat while denying that their behavior and appearance– which can become skeleton like– are unusual.
Define: Anterograde amnesia
Amnesia in which memory is lost for events that follow an injury.
Define: Antianxiety drugs
Drugs that reduce the level of anxiety a person experiences essentially by reducing excitability and increasing feeling of well-being.
Define: antidepressant drugs
Medications that improve a severely deressed patient’s mood and feeling of well-being.
Define: Antipsychotic drugs
Drugs that temporarily reduce psychotic symptoms such as agitation, hallucinations, and delusions.
Define: Antisocial personality disorder
A disorder in which individuals show no regard for the moral and ethical rules of society or the rights of others.
Define: Anxiety disorder
The occurrence of anxiety without an obvious external cause that effects daily functioning.
Define: Archetypes
According to Jung, universal symbolic representations of a particular person, object, or experience (such as good and evil.)
Define: Archival Research
Research in which existing data, such as census documents, college records, and mewspaper clippings are examined to test a hypothesis.
Define: arousal approaches to motivation
The belief that we try to maintain certain level of stimulation and activity increasing or ruducing them as necessary
Define: Association areas
One of the magor regions of the cerebral cortex; the site of the higher mental processes, such as thought, language, memory and speech.
Define: assumed-similarity bias
The tendenoy to think of people as being similar to oneself even when metting them for the first time.
Define: attachment:
The positive emotional bond that develops between a child and a particular individual.
Define: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
A disorder marked by inattention, impulsiveness, a low tolerance for frustration and a great deal of inappropriate activity.
Define: attitudes
Evaluations of a particular person, behavior, belief, or concept.
Define: Attribution Theory
The theory of pesonality that seeks to explain how we decide, on the basis of samples of an individual’s behavior, what the specific causes of that person’s behavior are.
Define: Authoritarian Parents
Parents who are rigid and punitive and value unquestioning obediences from their childhood.
Define: Authoritative Parents
Parents who are firm, set clear limits, reason with their children, and explain things to them.
Define: Autism
A severe developmentl disability that impairs children’s ability tocommunicate and relate to others.
Define: Autobiographical memories
Our recollections of circumstances and episodes from our own lives.
Define: Autonomic division
The part of the peripheral mervous system that controls involuntary movement of the heart, glands, lungs, and other orgens.
Define: Autonomy-versus-shame-and-doubt stage
The period during which, according to Erikson, toddlers (ages 1/2 to 3 years) develop independence and autonomy if explortion and freedom are encouraged or shame and self-doubt if they are restricted and overprotected.
Define: aversive conditioning
A form of therapy that reduces the frequency of undesired bhavior by pairing an aversive, unpleasant stimulus with undesred behavior.
Define: Axon
The part of the neuron that carries message destined for other neurons.
Define: Hypnosis
A tancelike state of heigtened susceptibility to the suggestions of others.
Define: Hypothesis
A prediction, stemming from a theory, stated in a way that allows it to be tested.
Define: Scientific Method
The approach through which psychologists systematically acquire knowledge and understanding about behavior and other phenomena of interest.
