M Flashcards
A condition in which the head is abnormally large in relation to the rest of the body
Macrocephaly
A relatively large type of nonneural central nervous system cell (glia), including astrocytes, cells of the ependyma, and oligodendrocytes
Macroglia
In ecological systems theory, the level of environmental influence that is most distal to the developing individual and that affects all other systems
- It includes the values, traditions, and sociocultural characteristics of the larger society
Macrosystem
In hearing, a patch of sensory tissue in the utricle and saccule of the inner ear that provides information about the position of the body in relation to gravity
- This contains sensory hair cells whose processes (stereocilia) are embedded in a gelatinous matrix (cupula) containing calcareous particles (otoliths)
- When the orientation of the head changes, the relatively dense otoliths respond to gravity, causing the gelatinous mass to shift and the stereocilia to flex, which triggers nerve impulses in the hair cell fibers
Macula
A small spot in the retina that is in direct alignment with the optics of the eye
- It contains a yellow pigment and a central depression, the fovea centralis
Macula Lutea
Dystrophy of the macula lutea, which affects both eyes and causes progressive loss of central vision
Macular Degeneration
An obsolete name for mental illness or for legal insanity
Madness
The belief that events or the behavior of others can be influenced by one’s thoughts, wishes, or rituals
- This is typical of children up to 4 or 5 years of age, after which reality thinking begins to predominate
Magical Thinking
A noninvasive diagnostic technique that uses the responses of hydrogen in tissue molecules to strong magnetic impulses to form a three dimensional picture of body organs and tissues, particularly the brain, with more accuracy than computed tomography
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
The measurement of the magnetic fields arising from the electrical activity of the brain, using a device called a magnetoencephalograph
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
A psychophysical procedure in which the participant makes subjective judgements of the magnitude of stimuli by assigning them numerical values along a scale
Magnitude Estimation
The part of the visual system that projects to or originates from large neurons in the two most ventral layers (the magnocellular layers) of the lateral geniculate nucleus
- It allows the rapid perception of movement, form, and changes in brightness but is relatively insensitive to stimulus location and color
Magnocellular System
The consistent total effect of a particular independent variable on a dependent variable over all other independent variables in an experimental design
- It is separate from, but may be obscured by, an interaction effect
Main Effect
The placement of children with disabilities into regular classroom environments on a part time basis, such that they attend only some regular education classes during the school day and spend the remaining time in special education classes
- The aim is to offer each child the opportunity to learn in an environment that has the highest probability of facilitating rehabilitation efforts and supporting academic growth
Mainstreaming
Repeating items over to maintain them in short term memory, as in repeating a telephone number until it has been dialed
- According to the levels of processing model of memory, this does not effectively promote long term retention because it involves little elaboration of the information to be remembered
Maintenance Rehearsal
A depressive disorder in which the individual has experienced at least one major depressive episode but has never experienced a manic episode, mixed episode, or hypomanic episode
Major Depressive Disorder
An episode of a mood disorder in which, for at least 2 weeks, the individual has either persistent depressed mood or anhedonia as well as at least four other symptoms
- These other symptoms include: poor or increased appetite with significant weight loss or gain; insomnia or excessive sleep; psychomotor agitation or psychomotor retardation; loss of energy with fatigue; feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt; reduced ability to concentrate or make decisions; and recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideation, or attempted suicide
- All of these symptoms cause significant distress or impair normal functioning (social, occupational, ect)
Major Depressive Episode
A condition in which biological traits or behavior patterns are detrimental, counterproductive, or otherwise interfere with optimal functioning in various domains, such as successful interaction with the environment and effectual coping with the challenges and stresses of daily life
Maladaptation
Inability to maintain effective relationships, function successfully in various domains, or cope with difficulties and stresses
Maladjustment
A linguistic error in which one word is mistakenly used for another having a similar sound, often to ludicrous effect, as in she was wearing a cream casserole (for camisole)
Malapropism
A culture bound syndrome found in Puerto Rico that is similar to amok
Mal de pelea
Persistent or recurrent delay in, or absence of, male orgasm during sexual stimulation that produces arousal
Male Orgasmic Disorder
Describing a condition that gets progressively worse or is resistant to treatment, particularly a tumor that spreads to other sites by invading and destroying neighboring tissues
Malignant
The deliberate feigning of an illness or disability to achieve a particular desired outcome
- For example, it may take the form of faking mental illness as a defense in a trial or faking physical illness to win compensation
- This is distinguished from factitious disorder in that it involves a specific external factor as the motivating force
Malingering
Abuse or neglect of another person, which may involve emotional, sexual, or physical action or inaction, the severity or chronicity of which can result in significant harm or injury
- This also includes such actions as exploitation and denial of basic needs (eg; food, shelter, medical attention)
Maltreatment
Either of a pair of small, spherical nuclei at the base of the brain, slightly posterior to the infundibulum (pituitary stalk), that are components of the liimbic system
Mammillary Body
A diagnostic procedure that uses law dose x ray photography to detect breast tumors or other abnormalities, either noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant)
- The x ray negative produced is called a mammogram
Mammography
Any system of health care delivery that regulates the use of member benefits to contain expenses
- The term is also used to denote the organization of health care services and facilities into groups to increase cost effectiveness
- Managed care organizations (MCOs) include HMOs (health maintenance organizations), PPOs (preferred provider organizations), point of service plans (POSs), exclusive provider organizations (EPOs), physician hospital organizations (PHOs), integrated delivery systems (IDSs), and independent practice associations (IPAs)
Managed Care
In linguistics, a category of utterances in which the speaker makes demands on the hearer, as in listen to me or pass the salt, please
- According to the behaviorist analysis of language, this form of verbal behavior is reinforced by the compliance of the listener
Mand
Excitement, over activity, and psychomotor agitation, often accompanied by impaired judgement
Mania
A period lasting at least 1 week characterized by elevated, expansive, or irritable mood with three or more of the following symptoms: an increase in activity or psychomotor agitation; talkativeness; racing thoughts; inflated self esteem or grandiosity; a decreased need for sleep; extreme discratability; and involvement in pleasurable activities that are likely to have unfortunate consequences, such as buying sprees or sexual indiscretions
- All of these symptoms impair normal functioning and relationships with others
Manic Episode
In psychoanalytic theory, the images and events of a dream or fantasy as experienced and recalled by the dreamer or fantasist, as opposed to the latent content, which is posited to contain the hidden meaning
Manifest Content
A variable that is directly observed or measured, as opposed to one whose value is inferred
Manifest Variable
Conscious behavior designed to exploit, control, or otherwise influence others to one’s advantage
Manipulation
Any means by which an experimenter evaluates the efficacy of the experimental manipulation, that is, verifies that the manipulation affected the participants as intended
Manipulation Check
A non parametric statistical test of centrality for ranked data that contrasts scores from two independent samples sin terms of the probabilities of obtaining the ranking distributions [Henry Berthold Mann (1905 - 2000), Austrian born U.S. mathematician; Donald Ransom Whitney (1915 - 2001), U.S. statistician]
Mann Whitney U Test
Any verbal formula used for spiritual, religious, or meditative purposes to block out extraneous thoughts and induce a state of relaxation that enables the individual to reach a deeper level of consciousness
Mantra
Interventions that are performed according to specific guidelines for administration, maximizing the probability of therapy being conducted consistently across settings, therapists, and clients
Manualized Therapy
A condition of extreme emaciation in infancy, resulting from severe protein energy malnutrition and leading to delayed physical and cognitive development and potentially death
- This tends to occur mostly in developing countries, often as a result of famine
Marasmus
A reciprocal process through which an individual or group with relatively distinctive qualities, such as idiosyncratic values or customs, becomes identified as one that is not accepted fully into the larger group
Marginalization
A statistic expressing the confidence interval associated with a given measurement; it is an allowance for a slight miscalculation or an acceptable deviation
- The larger the margin of error for the sample data, the less confidence one has that the results obtained are accurate for the entire population of interest
Margin of Error
Research undertaken to understand the competitive challenges in a particular market by assessing the relative positions of various suppliers in the minds of consumers
Market Research
In perception, the partial or complete obscuring of one stimulus (the target) by another (the masker)
- The stimuli may be sounds (auditory masking), visual images (visual masking), tastes, odorants, or tactile stimuli
- Forward masking occurs when the masker is presented a short time before the target stimulus, backward masking occurs when it is presented shortly afterward, and simultaneous masking occurs when the two stimuli are presented at the same instant
Masking
The hierarchy of human motives, or needs, as described by U.S. psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970)
- Physiological needs (air, water, food, sleep, sex, ect) are at the base; followed by safety and security (the safety needs); then love, affection, and gregariousness (the love needs); then prestige, competence, and power (the esteem needs); and, at the highest level, aesthetic needs, the need for knowing, and self actualization (the metaneeds)
Maslow’s Motivational Hierarchy
The derivation of pleasure from experiencing pain and humiliation
- The term generally denotes sexual masochism but is also applied to other experiences not involving sex, such as martyrdom, religious flagellation, or asceticism
- In psychoanalytic theory, this is interpreted as resulting from the death instinct or from aggression turned inward because of excessive guilt feelings [Leopold Sacher Masoch (1835 - 1895), Austrian writer]
Masochism
The generalization of U.S. Psychologist Karl S. Lashley (1890 - 1958) that the size of a cortical lesion, rather than its specific location, determines the extent of any resulting performance decrement
- Proposed in 1929 following experimental observations of the effects of different brain lesions on rats’ ability to learn a complex maze, the concept reflects Lashley’s belief that large areas of the cortex function together in learning and other complex processes
Mass Action
A learning procedure in which material is studied either in a single lengthy session or in sessions separated by short intervals
- This is often found to be less effective than distributed practice
Massed Practice
An adaptive pattern of achievement behavior in which individuals enjoy and seek challenge, persist in the face of obstacles, and tend to view their failings as due to lack of effort or poor use of strategy rather than to lack of ability
Mastery Orientation
Manipulation of one’s own genital organs for purposes of sexual gratification
Masturbation
An experimental design in which experimental and control groups are matched on one or more background variables before being exposed to the experimental or control conditions
Matched Group Design
A research technique for ensuring comparability of participants by making sure that they all have similar background variables
- The individuals in a control group and in an experimental group might be matched, for example, on years of education, income, and marital status
Matching
The proposition that people tend to form relationships with individuals who have a similar level of physical attractiveness to their own
- Research indicates that this similarity tends to be greater for couples having a romantic relationship than for friends
Matching Hypothesis
The philosophical position that everything, including mental events, is composed of physical matter and is thus subject to the laws of physics
- From this perspective, the mind is considered to exist solely as a set of brain processes
Materialism
Lack of adequate nurturing for a young animal or child due to the absence or premature loss of, or neglect by, its mother or primary caregiver, postulated to negatively impact a child’s emotional development by disrupting attachment formation
Maternal Deprivation
A learning disorder in which mathematical ability is substantially below what is expected given the person’s chronological age, formal education experience, and measured intelligence
- It may involve difficulties, for example, in counting, learning multiplication tables, or performing mathematical operations
Mathematics Disorder
- A society in which descent and inheritance is matrilineal, that is, traced through the female only
- More loosely, a family, group, or society in which women are dominant
Matriarchy
The biological processes involved in an organism’s becoming functional or fully developed
Maturation
A state of completed growth or development, as in adulthood
Maturity
A complex system of intersecting paths and blind alleys that must be navigated from an entrance to an exit
- Various types are used in learning experiments for animals and humans
Maze
Any of various large neurons in the two most ventral layers of the lateral geniculate nucleus
- These are the origin of the magnocellular system
- The large retinal ganglion cells that provide input to the M cells of the lateral geniculate nucleus are called M ganglion cells
M Cell
3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine: a catecholamine like hallucinogen with amphetamine like stimulant properties that is among the most commonly used illicit drugs, generally sold under the name ecstasy
- Taken orally, onset of effects is rapid; the high lasts several hours, and residual effects can be experienced for several days
- Intoxication is characterized by euphoria, feelings of closeness and spirituality, and diverse symptoms of autonomic arousal
MDMA
(Symbol: X; M)
The numerical average of a batch of scores (Xi): the most widely used statistic for describing central tendency
- It is computed as:
X = (£Xi)/n, where n is the number of scores; that is, the scores are added up, and the total is divided by the number of scores
Mean
For a set of numbers, a measure of dispersion or spread equal to the average of the differences between each number and the mean value
- It is given by (£|xi - ųl)/n, where ų is the mean value and n the number of values
Mean Deviation
A measure of language development in young children based on the mean length of utterances in their spontaneous speech
- It is usually calculated by counting morphemes rather than words, and is based on at least 100 successive utterances
Mean Length of Utterance
A technique to solve problems that sets up subgoals as means to achieve the goals lends) and compares subgoals and goals using a recursive goal reduction search procedure
- This originated in artificial intelligence and expanded into human cognition as a general problem solving strategy
Means Ends Analysis
A sum of squares divided by its degrees of freedom
- This is a variance estimator
Mean Square
The act of appraising the extent of some amount, dimension, or criterion - or the resultant descriptive or quantified appraisal itself - often, but not always, expressed as a numerical value
Measurement
A difference between an observed measurement and the true value of the parameter being measured that is attributable to flaws or biases in the measurement process
Measurement Error
The degree of specificity, accuracy, and precision reflected in a particular set of observations or measurements
- Examples of common levels of measurement include nominal scales, ordinal scales, interval scales, and ratio scales
Measurement Level
A statistical modeling technique that quantifies the association between observations obtained during research (observed indicators) and theoretical underlying constructs
- In contrast with a structural equation model, this specifies the relationships between observed indicators and the latent variables that support or affect them
Measurement Model
Any of four methods for quantifying attributes of variables during the course of research, listed in order of increasing power and complexity: nominal scale, ordinal scale, interval scale, and ratio scale
Measurement Scale
The assumption that psychological processes and behaviors can ultimately be understood in the same way that mechanical or physiological processes are understood
- Its explanations of human behavior are based on the model or metaphor of a machine, reducing complex psychological phenomena to simpler physical phenomena
Mechanistic Theory
A receptor that is sensitive to mechanical forms of stimuli
- Examples of this are the receptors in the ear that translate sound waves into nerve impulses, the touch receptors in the skin, and the receptors in the joints and muscles
Mechanoreceptor
Toward or at the middle of the body or of an organ
Medial
A collection of nerve fibers passing through the midline of the forebrain to the hypothalamus
- It provides the chief pathway for reciprocal connections between the hypothalamus and the biogenic amine systems of the brainstem
Medial Forebrain Bundle
Either of two small oval clusters of nerve cell bodies in the thalamus, just medial to the lateral geniculate nucleus, that receive information from the inferior colliculus and relay it to the auditory complex
Medial Geniculate Nucleus
Either of a pair of somatosensory tracts in the midbrain carrying fibers from the spinal cord that communicate with the thalamus
Medial Lemniscus
The score that divides a distribution into two equal sized halves
Median
A nonparametric statistical procedure that tests the equality of the medians in two or more samples
Median Test
In dispute resolution, use of a neutral outside person - the mediator - to help the contending parties communicate and reach a compromise
- The process of this has gained popularity, for example for couples involved in separation or divorce proceedings
Mediation
In problem solving, inability to make use of a particular strategy to benefit task performance even if it is taught to a person
Mediational Deficiency
The concept that mental and emotional problems are analogous to biological problems, that is, they have detectable, specific, physiological causes (eg; an abnormal gene or damaged cell) and are amenable to cure or improvement by specific treatment
Medical Model
Profound and extended contemplation or reflection, sometimes in order to attain an altered state of consciousness
- Traditionally associated with spiritual and religious exercises, it is now increasingly also used to provide relaxation and relief from stress
Meditation
The central or innermost region of an organ, such as the adrenal medulla
Medulla
The most inferior (lowest), or caudal (tailward), part of the hindbrain
- It contains many nerve tracts that conduct impulses between the spinal cord and higher brain centers, as well as autonomic nuclei involved in the control of breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure
Medulla Oblongata
A highly inflated conception of one’s importance, power, or capabilities
Megalomania
A special type of division of the cell nucleus that occurs during the formation of the sex cells - ova and spermatozoa
- During this, a parental cell in the gonad produces four daughter cells that are all haploid, that is, they possess only one of each chromosome, instead of the diploid complement of homologous pairs of chromosomes
- During the process of fertilization, the ova and spermatozoa undergo fusion, which restores the double set of chromosomes within the nucleus of the zygote thus formed
Meiosis
An archaic name for depression
Melancholia
A hormone, produced mainly by the pineal gland as a metabolic product of the neurotransmitter serotonin, that helps to regulate seasonal changes in physiology and may also influence puberty
- It is implicated in the initiation of sleep and in the regulation of the sleep wake cycle
Melatonin
A thin layer of tissue that covers a surface, lines a cavity, or connects or divides anatomical spaces or organs
- One of the fundamental functions of a membrane is to contain the components within it
- In cells, the membrane surrounds the cytoplasm and is composed of proteins and lipids
- It is semipermeable, and acts to control the passage of substances in and out of the cell
Membrane
A difference in electrical potential across a membrane, especially the plasma membrane of a cell
Membrane Potential
A unit of practice or belief through which a society or culture evolves and that passes from one generation to the next
- In this sense the term (derived from the Greek word for “imitation”) is a kind of metaphorical parallel to the term gene
Meme
- The ability to retain information or a representation of past experience, based on the mental processes of learning or encoding, retention across some interval of time, and retrieval or reactivation of the memory
- Specific information or a specific past experience that is recalled
- The hypothesized part of the brain where traces of information and past experiences are stored
Memory
The number of items that can be recalled immediately after one presentation
- Usually, the items consist of letters, words, numbers, or syllables that the participant must reproduce in order
- A distinction may be drawn between visual type and auditory type, depending on the nature of the presentation
Memory Span
A hypothetical modification of the nervous system that encodes a representation of information or experience
Memory Trace
The first incidence of menstruation in a female, marking the onset of puberty
- The age at which this occurs varies among individuals and cultures
Menarche
A type of inheritance that conforms to the basic principles developed around 1865 by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel (1822 - 1884), regarded as the founder of genetics
- This is essentially determined by genes located on chromosomes, which are transmitted from both parents to their offspring
- It includes autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, and sex linked inheritance
Mendelian Inheritance
The three membranous layers that provide a protective cover for the brain and spinal cord
- They consist of a tough outer dura mater, a middle arachnoid mater, and a thin, transparent pia mater, which fits over the various contours and fissures of the cerebral cortex
Meninges
A benign brain tumor that develops in the arachnoid layer of the meninges
- These are typically slow growing and cause damage mainly by pressure against the brain
Meningioma
A modified estrous cycle that occurs in most primates, including humans (in which it averages about 28 days)
- The events of the cycle are dependent on cyclical changes in the concentrations of gonadotropins secreted by the anterior pituitary grand, under the control of gonadotropin releasing hormone, and can be divided into two phases
- In the follicular phase, follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone stimulate development of an ovum and secretion of estrogen within the ovary, culminating in ovulation
- The estrogen stimulates thickening of the endometrium (lining) of the uterus in preparation to receive a fertilized ovum
- The luteal phase begins immediately after ovulation and is characterized by the formation of the corpus luteum, a yellowish glandular mass that inhibits further secretion of releasing hormone (and hence of FSH and LH)
- If fertilization does not occur, this phase ends with menstruation and a repeat of the follicular phase
Menstrual Cycle
A periodic discharge of blood and endometrial tissue from the uterus through the vagina that occurs in fertile women as part of the menstrual cycle
Menstruation
- Of or referring to the mind or to processes of the mind, such as thinking, feeling, sensing, and the like
- Phenomenal or consciously experienced
- In contrast to physiological or physical, which refer to objective events or processes, mental denotes events known only privately and subjectively; it may refer to the cognitive processes involved in these events, to differentiate them from physiological processes
Mental
A pathological deviation from normal thinking, particularly as a symptom of a mental or emotional disorder
Mental Aberration
A numerical scale unit derived by dividing an individuals results in an intelligence test by the average score for other people of the same age
- Thus, a 4 year old child who scored 150 on an IQ test would have a mental age of 6 (the age appropriate average score is 100; therefore, MA = (150/100) x 4 = 6)
- The MA measure of performance is not effective beyond the age of 14
Mental Age (MA)
Any condition characterized by cognitive and emotional disturbances, abnormal behaviors, impaired functioning, or any combination of these
- Such disorders cannot be accounted for solely by environmental circumstances and may involve physiological, genetic, chemical, social, and other factors
- Specific classifications of mental disorders are elaborated in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases
Mental Disorder
The condition of being unable to function independently in the community because of arrested or delayed cognitive development
- Its use is generally discouraged nowadays in preference to mental retardation and other terms considered more objective and less offensive
Mental Handicap
A state characterized by emotional well being, good behavioral adjustment, and a capacity to establish constructive relationships and cope with the ordinary demands and stresses of life
Mental Health
A general approach aimed at maintaining mental health and preventing mental disorder through such means as educational programs, promotion of a stable emotional and family life, prophylactic and early treatment services, and public health measures
- The term itself is now less widely used than formerly
Mental Hygiene
A position that insists on the reality of explicitly mental phenomena, such as thinking and feeling
- It holds that mental phenomena cannot be reduced to physical or physiological phenomena
- The term is often used as a synonym for idealism, although some forms of this may hold that mental events, while not reducible to physical substances, are nonetheless grounded in physical processes
- Most modern cognitive theories are examples of this latter type
Mentalism
The set of words that a person uses regularly (productive vocabulary) or recognizes when used by others (receptive vocabulary)
- Psycholinguistics has proposed various models for such a lexicon, in which words are mentally organized with respect to such features as meaning, lexical category (eg; noun, verb, ect), frequency, length, and sound
Mental Lexicon
Any internal representation of the relations between a set of elements, as, for example, between workers in an office or the configuration of objects in a space
- Such models may contain perceptual qualities and may be abstract in nature
- They can be manipulated to provide dynamic simulations of possible scenarios and are thought to be key components in decision making
Mental Model
A hypothetical entity that is presumed to stand for a perception, thought, memory, or the like in the mind during cognitive operations
- For example, when doing mental arithmetic, one presumably operates on those that correspond to the digits and numerical operators; when one imagines looking at the reverse side of an object, one presumably operates on a mental representation of that object
Mental Representation
A disorder characterized by intellectual function that is significantly below average: specifically that of an individual with a measured IQ of 70 or below, whose level of performance of tasks required to fulfill typical roles in society - including maintaining independence and meeting cultural expectations of personal and social responsibility - is impaired, and in whom the condition is manifested during the developmental period, defined variously as below the ages of 18 or 22
- This may be the result of brain injury, disease, or genetic causes
Mental Retardation
A temporary readiness to perform certain psychological functions that influences response to a situation or stimulus, such as the tendency to apply a previously successful technique in solving a new problem
- It is often determined by instructions but need not be
Mental Set
The provision of instruction, encouragement, and other support to an individual (eg; a student, youth, or colleague) to aid his or her overall growth and development or the pursuit of greater learning skills, a career, or other educational or work related goals
- Numerous programs for this exist today within occupational, educational, and other settings; they use frequent communication and contact between mentors and their respective protégés as well as a variety of other techniques and procedures to develop positive productive relationships
Mentoring
The finding that individuals show an increased preference (or liking) for a stimulus (eg; a name, sound, or picture) as a consequence of repeated exposure to that stimulus
- Research indicates that this effect is most likely to occur when there is no preexisting negative attitude toward the stimulus object, and that it tends to be strongest when the person is not consciously aware of the stimulus preservations
Mere Exposure Effect
A hallucinogen derived from the peyote cactus
- Its effects often include nausea and vomiting as well as visual hallucinations involving lights and colors; they have a slower onset than those of LSD and usually last 1-2 hours
Mescaline
An old name, used in the mid 18th through the mid 19th centuries, for hypnosis [Franz Anton Mesmer (1733 - 1815), Austrian physician and an early proponent of hypnosis]
Mesmerism
Describing a statistical distribution that is neither flatter nor more peaked than a comparison, such as the normal distribution
Mesokurtic
In ecological systems theory, the groups and institutions outside the home (eg; daycare, school, or a child’s peer group) that influence the child’s development and interact with aspects of the microsystem (eg; relations in the home)
Mesosystem
A type of RNA that carries instructions from a cell’s genetic material (usually DNA) to the protein manufacturing apparatus elsewhere in the cell and directs the assembly of protein components in precise accord with those instructions
- The instructions are embodied in the sequence of bases in the mRNA, according to the genetic code
Messenger RNA (mNRA)
A quantitative technique for synthesizing the results of multiple studies of a phenomenon into a single result by combining the effect size estimates from each study into a single estimate of the combined effect size or into a distribution of effect sizes
Meta Analysis
The physical and chemical processes within a living cell or organism that are necessary to maintain life
- It includes catabolism, the breaking down of complex molecules into simpler ones, often with the release of energy; and anabolism, the synthesis of complex molecules from simple ones
Metabolism
A neurotransmitter receptor that does not itself contain an ion channel but may use a G protein to open a nearby ion channel
Metabotropic Receptor
Awareness of one’s own cognitive processes, often involving a conscious attempt to control them
- The so called tip of the tongue phenomenon, in which one struggles to “know” something that one knows one knows, provides an interesting example of this
Metacognition
A conscious awareness of the formal properties of language as well as its functional and semantic properties
- It is associated with a mature stage in language and metacognitive development and does not usually develop until around age 8
Metalinguistic Awareness
Awareness of one’s own memory processes, often involving a conscious attempt to direct or control them
- It is an aspect of metacognition
Metamemory
In the humanistic psychology of U.S. psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970), those motives that impel an individual toward self actualization and transcendence
- This is distinct from the motivation operating in the lower level needs, which he calls deficiency motivation, and it emerges after the lower needs are satisfied
Metamotivation
In the humanistic psychology of U.S. psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970), any need for knowledge, beauty, and creativity
- These are involved in self actualization and comprise the highest level of needs and come into play primarily after the lower level needs have been met
Metaneed
The study of, or a concern for, the fundamental underlying principles of any psychology
- The term was used by Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) to denote his own psychological theory, emphasizing its ability to offer comprehensive explanations of psychological phenomena on a fundamental level
Metapsychology
A higher order theory about theories, allowing one to analyze, compare, and evaluate competing theories
- The concept of this suggests that theories derive from other theories such that there are always prior theoretical assumptions and commitments behind any theoretical formulation
- These prior assumptions and commitments are worthy of study in their own right, and an understanding of them is essential to a full understanding of derivative theories
Metatheory
A synthetic opioid analgesic that is used for pain relief and as a substitute for heroin in methadone maintenance therapy
- It is quite effective when orally ingested and has a long duration of action
Methadone
A drug rehabilitation therapy in which those with heroin dependence are prescribed a daily oral dose of methadone to blunt craving for opioid drugs
- A controversial treatment, it is nonetheless widely considered the most effective approach to heroin addiction
Methadone Maintenance Therapy
A stimulant whose chemical structure is similar to that of amphetamine but that has a more pronounced effect on the central nervous system
- It is used for treating attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder in children and as a short term aid to obesity treatment in adults
- Like all amphetamines, this is prone to abuse and dependence
Methamphetamine
The procedures and system of analysis used in scientific investigation in general or in a particular research project
Method
A psychophysical technique in which the participant adjusts a variable stimulus to match a constant or standard
- For example, the observer is shown a standard visual stimulus of a specific intensity and is asked to adjust a comparison stimulus to match the brightness of the standard
Method of Adjustment
A psychophysical procedure for determining the sensory threshold by randomly presenting several stimuli known to be close to the threshold
- The threshold is the stimulus value that was detected 50% of the time
Method of Constant Stimuli
A psychophysical procedure for determining the sensory threshold by gradually increasing or decreasing the magnitude of the stimulus presented in discrete steps
- That is, a stimulus of a given intensity is presented to a participant; if it is perceived, a stimulus of lower intensity is presented on the next trial, until the stimulus can no longer be detected
- If it is not perceived, a stimulus of higher intensity is presented, until the stimulus is detected
Method of Limits
A mnemonic in which the items to be remembered are converted into mental images and associated with specific positions or locations
- For instance, to remember a shopping list, each product could be imagined at a different location along a familiar street
Method of Loci
A form of behaviorism that concedes the existence and reality of conscious events but contends that the only suitable means of studying them scientifically is via their expression in behavior
Methodological Behaviorism
- The science of method or orderly arrangement; specifically, the branch of logic concerned with the application of the principles of reasoning to scientific and philosophical inquiry
- The system of methods, principles, and rules of procedure used within a particular discipline
Methodology
A stimulant related to the amphetamines and with a similar mechanism of action
- It blocks the reuptake of of catecholamines from the synaptic cleft and stimulates presynaptic release of catecholamines
- This is used for the treatment of attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy and as an adjunct to antidepressant therapy and to increase concentration and alertness in patients with brain injuries, brain cancer, or dementia: U.S. trade name (among others): Ritalin
Methylphenidate
A condition in which the head is abnormally small in relation to the rest of the body
Microcephaly
An electrode with a tip no larger than a few micrometers in diameter, sometimes less than 1 ųm, that can be inserted into a single cell
- In the microelectrode technique, used in studies of neurophysiology and disorders of the nervous system, intracellular microelectrodes with tips less than 1 ųm in diameter are able to stimulate and record activity within a single neuron (single cell or single unit recording)
Microelectrode
A research methodology that looks at developmental change within a single set of individuals over relatively brief periods of time, usually days or weeks
Microgenetic Method
An extremely small type of nonneural central nervous system cell (glia) that removes cellular
Microglia
A disorder characterized by very small, often unreadable writing and associated most often with parkinson’s disease
Micrographia
A disorder characterized by very small, often unreadable writing and associated most often with parkinson’s disease
Micrographia
A brief interval of dozing or loss of awareness that occurs during periods when a person is fatigued and trying to stay awake while doing monotonous tasks, such as driving a car, looking at a computer screen, or monitoring controls
- Such periods of “nodding off” typically last for 2-30 seconds and are more likely to occur in the predawn and mid afternoon hours
Microsleep
A brief interval of dozing or loss of awareness that occurs during periods when a person is fatigued and trying to stay awake while doing monotonous tasks, such as driving a car, looking at a computer screen, or monitoring controls
- Such periods of “nodding off” typically last for 2 - 30 seconds and are more likely to occur in the predawn and mid afternoon hours
Microsleep
A small, hollow, cylindrical structure (typically 20-26 nm in diameter), numbers of which occur in various types of cell
- These are part of the cells internal scaffolding (cytoskeleton) and form the spindle during cell division
- In neurons, these are involved in axonal transportation
Microtubule
A relatively small region of the upper brainstem that connects the forebrain and hindbrain
- It contains the tectum (and associated inferior and superior colliculi), tegmentum, and substantia nigra
Midbrain
A membrane lined cavity in the temporal bone of the skull
- It is filled with air and communicates with the nasopharynx through the eustachian tube
- It contains the ossicles, which transmit sound vibrations from the outer ear and the tympanic membrane (eardrum) to the oval window of the inner ear
Middle Ear
A period of psychological distress occurring in some individuals during the middle years of adulthood, roughly from ages 35 to 65
- Causes may include significant life events and health or occupational problems and concerns
Midlife Crisis
A bisecting or median line, especially in reference to an imaginary median line or plane through the body or a part of the body
Midline
The point or value halfway between the highest and lowest values in a frequency distribution
Midpoint
A headache that is recurrent, usually severe, usually limited to one side of the head, and likely to be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light (photophobia)
- These headaches may be preceded by a subjective sensation of flickering or flashing light, blacking out of part of the visual field, or illusions of colors or patterns
Migraine
- In animal behavior, travel over relatively long distances to or from breeding areas
- This is observed in birds, fish, and some mammals and insects (among others)
- In some species it is seasonal, involving movement from a breeding area to an overwintering area; in others, particularly the salmon, it is observed only once in the lifetime of an individual - In the development of the nervous system, the movement of nerve cells from their origin in the ventricular zone to establish distinctive cell populations, such as brain nuclei and layers of the cerebral cortex
Migration
The environment in general or, more typically, the social environment
Milieu
Psychotherapeutic treatment based on modification or manipulation of the client’s life circumstances or immediate environment
- This attempts to organize the social and physical settings in which the client lives or is being treated in such a way as to promote healthier, more adaptive cognitions, emotions, and behavior
Milieu Therapy
- The presence of physical or behavioral traits in one species that so closely resemble those of another species that they confuse observers
- This serves either to evade predators or to attract prey - A form of social learning that involves duplication of a behavior without any understanding of the goal of that behavior
Mimicry
- Most broadly, all intellectual and psychological phenomena of an organism, encompassing motivational, affective, behavioral, perceptual, and cognitive systems; in other words, the organized totality of the mental and psychic processes of an organism and the structural and functional cognitive components on which they depend
- The term, however, is often used more narrowly to denote only cognitive activities and functions, such as perceiving, attending, thinking, problem solving, language, learning, and memory
- The nature of the relationship between this and the body, including the brain and its mechanisms or activities, has been, and continues to be, the subject of much debate - A set of emergent properties automatically derived from a brain that has achieved sufficient biological sophistication
- In this sense, it is considered more the province of humans and of human consciousness than of organisms in general - Human consciousness regarded as an immaterial entity distinct from the brain
- The brain itself and its activities: in this view, it essentially is both the anatomical organ and what it does
Mind
The problem of accounting for and describing the relationship between mental and physical processes (psyche and soma)
- Solutions to this problem fall into six broad categories: (a) interactionism, in which mind and body are separate processes that nevertheless exert mutual influence; (b) parallelism, in which mind and body are separate processes with a point to point correspondence but no causal connection; (c) idealism, in which only mind exists and the soma is function of the psyche; (d) double aspect theory, in which body and mind are both functions of a common entity; (e) epiphenomalism, in which mind is a byproduct of bodily processes; and (f) materialism, in which body is the only reality and the psyche is nonexistent
- Categories (a) and (b) are varieties of dualism; the remainder are varieties of monism
Mind Body Problem
Full awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings: the opposite of absent mindedness
- The concept has been applied to various therapeutic interventions - for example, mindfulness based cognitive behavior therapy, mindfulness based stress reduction, mindfulness for addictions, and mindfulness meditation - to help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present moment experiences without judging or reacting to them
Mindfulness
Any corticosteroid hormone that affects ion concentrations in body tissues and helps to regulate the excretion of salt and water
- In humans, this principal is aldosterone
Mineralocorticoid
A relatively mild impairment of brain function that is presumed to account for a variety of subtle and nonspecific clinical, behavioral, or neurological disturbances seen in certain learning or behavioral disabilities
- These disturbances include hyperactivity, impulsivity, emotional lability, and distractibility
Minimal Brain Dysfunction
A temporary group of anonymous people lacking interdependence, cohesion, structure, and other characteristics typically found in social groups
- An example is a group of people disembarking from a bus
- These are an essential component of a particular research procedure, used mainly in studies of intergroup conflict, called the minimal intergroup situation or the minimal group paradigm
- It has been found that individuals in such groups respond in biased ways when allocating resources to ingroup and outgroup members, even though the groups are not psychologically or interpersonally meaningful
Minimal Group
A personality inventory first published in 1940 and now one of the most widely used self report methods for assessing personality and psychological maladjustment across a range of mental health, medical, substance abuse, forensic, and personnel screening settings
- It features 567 true false questions that assess symptoms, attitudes, and beliefs that relate to emotional and behavioral problems
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Social pressure exerted on the majority faction of a group by a smaller faction of the group
- Studies suggest that minorities who argue consistently for change prompt the group to reconsider even long held or previously unquestioned assumptions and procedures
Minority Influence
A type of cell in the brains of primates that responds in the same way to a given action (eg; reaching out to grasp an object) whether it is performed by the primate itself or whether the primate has merely observed another primate perform the same action
Mirror Neuron
Hatred or contempt for men
Misandry
A hatred, aversion, or distrust of human beings and human nature
Misanthropy
An incorrect inference as to the cause of an individual’s or group’s behavior or of an interpersonal event
- For example, Misattribution of arousal is an effect in which the physiological stimulation generated by one stimulus is mistakenly ascribed to another source
Misattribution
A phenomenon in which a person mistakenly recalls misleading information that an experimenter has provided, instead of accurately recalling the correct information that had been presented earlier
- This is studied in the context of eyewitness memory
Misinformation Effect
Hatred or contempt for women
Misogyny
A specialized, membrane bound structure (organelle) that is the main site of energy production in cells
- These are most numerous in cells with a high level of metabolism
- They also have their own DNA
Mitochondrion
The type of division of a cell nucleus that produces two identical daughter nuclei, each possessing the same number and type of chromosomes as the parent nucleus
- It is usually accompanied by division of the cytoplasm, leading to the formation of two identical daughter cells
Mitosis
An experimental design that combines features of both a between subjects design and a within subjects design
- For example, a researcher studying the influence of different types of music on relaxation might use this
- He or she divides participants into a control group (listening to no music) and two experimental groups (one listening to classical music and one listening to rock music)
- The researcher then gives participants in all groups a pretest to determine the baseline level of physiological arousal prior to hearing any music, introduces the music, and then gives a posttest to determine what specific reduction in arousal may have occurred
- In this situation, music type is a between subjects factor (each participant hears only a single genre of music) and physiological arousal is a within subjects factor (each participant is evaluated on this variable on multiple occasions and the different assessments compared)
Mixed Design
An episode of a mood disorder lasting at least 1 week in which symptoms meeting criteria for both a major depressive episode and a manic episode are prominent over the course of the disturbance
Mixed Episode
A communication disorder characterized by levels of language comprehension and production substantially below those expected for intellectual ability and developmental level
Mixed Receptive Expressive Language Disorder
Any device or technique used to assist memory, usually by forging a link or association between the new information to be remembered and information previously encoded
- For instance, one might remember the numbers in a password by associating them with familiar birth dates, addresses, or room numbers
Mnemonic
Crowd psychology, as applied to disorderly, unruly, and emotionally charged gatherings of people
Mob Psychology
Pertaining to a particular mode, model, technique, or process
- In linguistics, this refers to the mood of a verb; that is, for example, whether it is indicative (states a fact), imperative (expresses an order or command), or subjunctive (expressing a wish or a state of possibility)
Modal
The typical or most common behavioral pattern expressed in response to a releaser
- In classical ethology the term fixed action pattern was used to describe behavioral responses, but this term obscures the variation in behavior typically seen within and between individuals
Modal Action Pattern (MAP)
- A particular therapeutic technique or process
- A medium of sensation, such as vision or hearing
Modality
The most frequently occurring score in a batch of data, which is sometimes used as a measure of central tendency
Mode
A graphic, theoretical, or other type of representation of a concept (eg; a disorder) or of basic behavioral or bodily processes that can be used for various investigative and demonstrative purposes, such as enhancing understanding of the concept, proposing hypotheses, showing relationships, or identifying epidemiological patterns
Model
- A technique used in cognitive behavior therapy and behavior therapy in which learning occurs through observation and imitation alone, without comment or reinforcement by the therapist
- In developmental psychology, the process in which one or more individuals or other entities serve as examples (models) that a child will emulate
- Models are often parents, other adults, or other children, but may also be symbolic, for example, a book or television character
Modeling
In statistics, a variable that alters the relationship between other variables
- In regression analysis, for example, it is a variable that is unrelated to a criterion variable but is retained in the regression equation because of its significant relationship to other predictor variables
Moderator Variable
A philosophical position whose defining characteristics include a sense that religious dogma and classical metaphysics can no longer provide a sure foundation in intellectual matters and a quest for certain knowledge from other sources
- Traditional psychology can be seen as the product of this to the extent that it is characterized by faith in scientific method, pursuit of control and prediction of behavior, explanation in terms of laws and principles, and the assumption that human behavior is ultimately rational as opposed to irrational
Modernism
A contemporary form of prejudice against members of other racial groups that is expressed indirectly and covertly, typically by condemning the cultural values of the outgroup or by experiencing aversive emotions when interacting with its members but not acting on those negative emotions
Modern Racism
A theory of the human mind in which the various components of cognition are characterized as independent modules, hypothetical centers of information processing each with its own specific domain and particular properties
- More recently, evolutionary psychologists have shown interest in the idea that the various modules may be adaptive specializations
Modularity
Changes in some parameter of a waveform so that the information contained by the variations of this parameter can be transmitted by the wave, which is known as the carrier wave
- Amplitude modulation (AM) refers to changes in amplitude that are relatively slow compared to the usually sinusoidal variations in the carrier
- In frequency modulation (FM) the frequency of the carrier is varied but its amplitude remains constant
- In phase modulation the relative phase of the carrier wave is varied in accordance with the amplitude of the signal variations
Modulation
Characterized by or pertaining to units, masses, and systems in their entirety
- Molar analysis in psychology is a way of examining behavioral processes as holistic units, extended through time
- This approach stresses comprehensive concepts or overall frameworks or structures
Molar
Characterized by or pertaining to the component parts of a phenomenon, process, or system
- Molecular analysis in psychology is a way of examining behavioral processes in terms of elemental units, sometimes analyzing them in a moment by moment or phase by phase manner
Molecular
The branch of biology that is concerned with the structure and processes of genetic material at the molecular level
Molecular Genetics
The power to which the expected value of a random variable is raised
- Thus, E(Xk) is the kth moment of X
- These are used for computing distribution measures, such as the mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis
Moment
The position that reality consists of a single substance, whether this is identified as mind, matter, or God
- In the context of the mind body problem, this is any position that avoids dualism
Monism
The process of watching or overseeing individuals and their behavior, often for the purpose of collecting information (eg; as in a study) or influencing function (eg; as in a therapeutic intervention)
Monitoring
A chemical compound that contains only one amine group, -NH2
- These include neurotransmitters, such as the catecholamines norepinephrine and dopamine and the indoleamine serotonin
Monoamine
The theory that depression is caused by a deficit in the production or uptake of monoamines (serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine)
- This theory has been used to explain the effects of monoamine oxidase inhibitors, but is now regarded as too simplistic
Monoamine Hypothesis
Any of a group of antidepressant drugs that function by inhibiting the activity of the enzyme monoamine oxidase in presynaptic neurons, thereby increasing the amounts of monoamine neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine) available for release at the presynaptic terminal
- There are two categories of MAOIs: irreversible and reversible inhibitors
- Irreversible MAOIs bind lightly to the enzyme and permanently inhibit its ability to metabolize any monoamine
- This may lead to dangerous interactions with foods and beverages containing the amino acid tryptophan or the amine tyramine
- Reversible inhibitors of monoamine oxidase do not bind irreversibly to the enzyme, thereby freeing it to take part in the metabolism of amino acids and other amines
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor
A partial color blindness in which the eye contains only one type of cone photopigment instead of the typical three: everything appears in various shades of a single color
Monochromatism
A cue to the perception of distance or depth that involves only one eye, such as linear perspective, relative position, relative movement, and accommodation
Monocular Cue
- An animal mating system in which two individuals mate exclusively with each other
- Many species display serial monogamy, in which there is an exclusive social bond with each of a series of sexual partners at different times during the individual’s life - Traditionally, marriage to only one spouse at a time
Monogamy
Denoting a variable that progressively either increases or decreases but that does not change its direction
- For example, a monotonically increasing variable is one that rises as a second variable increases
Monotonic
Twins, always of the same sex, that develop from a single fertilized ovum (zygote) that splits in the early stages of mitosis to produce two individuals who carry exactly the same complement of genes; that is, they are clones, with identical DNA
- Also called identical twins
Monozygotic Twins
A disposition to respond emotionally in a particular way that may last for hours, days, or even weeks, perhaps at a low level and without the person knowing what prompted the state
- These differ from emotions in lacking an object; for example, the emotion of anger can be aroused by an insult, but an angry mood may arise when one does not know what one is angry about or what elicited the anger
- Disturbances in mood are characteristic of mood disorders
Mood
Relating to a consistency or agreement between a particular expressed feeling and the general emotional context within which it occurs
- Thus, crying at a time of sadness or personal distress is viewed as this
- Similarly, in psychiatric diagnosis, the term relates to a consistency between the expression of a particular symptom or behavior with those characteristics or patterns of ideation or action used to classify a particular mental disorder
- In both instances, inconsistencies are described as this
Mood Congruent
A condition in which memory for some event can be recalled more readily when one is in the same emotional mood (eg; happy or sad) as when the memory was initially formed
Mood Dependent Memory
A psychiatric disorder in which the principal feature is a prolonged, pervasive mood disturbance, such as a depressive disorder (eg; major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder) or bipolar disorder
- A mood disorder is less commonly called an affective disorder
Mood Disorder
Any of various drugs used in the treatment of cyclic mood disorders (bipolar disorders and cyclothymic disorder)
- Because they reduce the symptoms of mania or manic episodes, mood stabilizers are sometimes known as antimanics
Mood Stabilizer
Relating to the distinction between right and wrong or to behavior that is considered ethical or proper
Moral
The belief that the morality or immorality of an action can be judged according to fixed standards of right and wrong
- According to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), this is characteristic of young children in the heteronomous stage of moral development, who interpret laws and rules as absolute
Moral Absolutism
The gradual formation of an individual’s concepts of right and wrong, conscience, ethical and religious values, social attitudes, and behavior
- Some of the major theorists in the area of this are Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), German born U.S. psychologist Erik Erikson (1902 - 1994), and U.S. psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (1927 - 1987)
Moral Development
A system of beliefs or set of values relating to right conduct, against which behavior is judged to be acceptable or unacceptable
Morality
The type of thinking characteristic of younger children, who equate good behavior with obedience just as they equate the morality of an act only with its consequences
- For example, 15 cups broken accidentally would be judged to be a far worse transgression than 1 cup broken mischievously, because more cups are broken
- This shapes the child’s thinking until the age of about 8, when the concepts of intention, motive, and extenuating circumstances begin to modify the child’s early moral absolution
Moral Realism
The belief that the morality or immorality of an action is determined by social custom rather than by universal or fixed standards of right and wrong
- According to Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), this is characteristic of children in the autonomous stage of moral development, who consider the intention behind an act along with possible extenuating circumstances when judging its rightness or wrongness
Moral Relativism
A form of psychotherapy from the 19th century based on the belief that a person with a mental disorder could be helped by being treated with compassion, kindness, and dignity in a clean, comfortable environment that provided freedom of movement, opportunities for occupational and social activity, and reassuring talks with physicians and attendants
- This approach advocating humane and ethical treatment was a radical departure from the prevailing practice at that time of viewing the “insane” with suspicion and hostility, confining them in unsanitary conditions, and routinely abusing them through the use of such practices as mechanical restraint, physical punishment, and bloodletting
- This originated in the family care program established in the Gheel colony, Belgium, during the 13th century, but came to fruition in the 19th century through the efforts of Philippe Pineal and Jean Esquirol (1772 - 1840) in France, William Tuke (1732 - 1822) in England, and Benjamin Rush (1745 - 1813), Issac Ray (1807 - 1881), and Thomas Kirkbride (1809 - 1883) in the United States
- The therapeutic community today has its roots in this movement
Moral Therapy
In Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development, the experimental period of adolescence in which, during the task of discovering who one is as an individual separate from family of origin and as part of the broader social context, young people try out alternative roles before making permanent commitments to an identity
Moratorium
Unhealthy, diseased, or otherwise abnormal
Morbid
A reflex in which a newborn infant, when startled, throws out the arms, extends the fingers, and quickly brings the arms back together as if clutching or embracing
- In normal, healthy babies, this disappears during the first year [Ernst Moro (1874 - 1951), German physician]
Moro Reflex
In linguistic analysis, a unit of meaning that cannot be analyzed into smaller such units
- For example, the word books is composed of two morphemes, book and the suffix -s signifying a plural noun
Morpheme
The primary active ingredient in opium, first synthesized in 1806 and widely used as an analgesic and sedative
- Prolonged administration or abuse can lead to dependence and to withdrawal symptoms on cessation
Morphine
- The branch of biology concerned with the forms and structures of organisms
- The branch of linguistics that investigates the form and structure of words
- It is particularly concerned with the regular patterns of word formation in a language
- With syntax, this is one of the two traditional subdivisions of grammar
Morphology
A device used to test animal spatial learning, consisting of a water filled tank with a platform hidden underwater
- An animal is placed in the water and can escape only by finding and climbing on the hidden platform
- Typically a variety of external cues are provided for spatial reference [devised in 1981 by Richard M. Morris, British neuroscientist]
Morris Water Maze
The death rate in a population
Mortality
The distinctive form of speech used by parents and other caregivers when speaking to infants and young children
- It is characterized by grammatically simple and phonologically clear utterances, often delivered in a high pitched sing song intonation
Motherese
A substitute for an individual’s biological mother (eg; a sister, grandmother, stepmother, or adoptive mother), who assumes the responsibilities of that person and may function as a role model and significant attachment figure
Mother Surrogate
The perception that a stationary object or scene moves following prolonged fixation of a moving stimulus
- The illusory movement is in the opposite direction to the movement of the stimulus that induced the effect
- The best known example is the waterfall illusion, produced by watching a waterfall for a period and then shifting one’s gaze to the stationary surrounding scenery; the stationary objects appear to move upward
Motion Aftereffect
The interrelated movements of elements in a scene that can occur when the observer moves relative to the scene
Motion Parallax
A memory lapse motivated by a desire to avoid a disagreeable recollection
- It is one of the cognitive mechanisms that has been suggested as a cause of delayed memories of childhood trauma
Motivated Forgetting
The impetus that gives purpose or direction to human or animal behavior and operates at a conscious or unconscious level
- Motives are frequently divided into (a) physiological, primary, or organic motives, such as hunger, thirst, and need for sleep, and (b) personal, social, or secondary motives, such as affiliation, competition, and individual interests and goals
- An important distinction must also be drawn between internal motivating forces and external factors, such as rewards or punishments, that can encourage or discourage certain behaviors
Motivation
In the two factor theory of work motivation, those aspects of the working situation that can increase satisfaction and motivation
- These involve the work itself rather than the work context and are increased by means of job enrichment and expansion of responsibilities
Motivators
- A specific physiological or psychological state of arousal that directs an organism’s energies toward a goal
- A reason offered as an explanation for or cause of an individual’s behavior
Motive
Involving, producing, or referring to muscular movements
Motor
The region of the frontal lobe of the brain responsible for the control of voluntary movement
- It is divided into two parts
- The primary motor cortex, or motor area, is the main source of neurons in the corticospinal tract
- The secondary (or nonprimary) motor cortex, made up of the premotor area and the supplementary motor area, is specialized for planning upcoming movements and learning new movements
Motor Cortex
The changes in motor skills that occur over an entire life span, which reflect the development of muscular coordination and control and are also affected by personal characteristics, the environment, and interactions of these two factors
Motor Development
A neuron whose axon connects directly to muscle fibers
- There are two types: lower motor neurons (or alpha motor neurons), which are responsible for muscle contraction; and upper motor neurons (or gamma motor neurons), which modulate the sensitivity of muscle spindles, thus influencing activity of the lower motor neurons
Motor Neuron
A stored representation, resulting from motor planning and refined through practice, that is used to produce a coordinated movement
- These store the accumulated experience underlying skill at a task
Motor Program
The complex of skeletal muscles, neural connections with muscle tissues, and structures of the central nervous system associated with motor functions
Motor System
A group of muscle fibers that respond collectively and simultaneously because they are connected by nerve endings to a single motor neuron
Motor Unit
The process of feeling or expressing grief following the death of a loved one, or the period during which this occurs
- It typically involves feelings of apathy and dejection, loss of interest in the outside world, and diminution in activity and initiative
- These reactions are similar to depression, but are less persistent and are not considered pathological
Mourning
The process of feeling or expressing grief following the death of a loved one, or the period during which this occurs
- It typically involves feelings of apathy and dejection, loss of interest in the outside world, and diminution in activity and initiative
- These reactions are similar to depression, but are less persistent and are not considered pathological
Mourning
A temporary increase in the performance of research participants on tasks involving spatial temporal reasoning after listening to the music of Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791)
- More generally, the term refers to the possibility that listening to music enhances inherent cognitive functioning
- Apart from the neurological research on this effect, some experts propose an arousal theory perspective, such that listening to music heightens emotional levels that correspond to higher performance on intelligence tests
- The notion of this has entered into popular culture to carry the as yet unsupported suggestion that early childhood exposure to certain types of music has a beneficial effect on mental development
Mozart Effect
An elongated nonneuronal central nervous system cell iglia) that traverses and supports all the layers of the retina, collecting light and directing it toward the photoreceptors
- A component of the inner nuclear layer, these cells were originally called Müller fibers because of their thin, stretched shape [Heinrich Müller (1820 - 1864), German anatomist]
Müller Cell
Either of a pair of ducts that occur in a mammalian embryo and develop into female reproductive structures (fallopian tubes, uterus, and upper vagina) if testes are not present in the embryo [Johannes Müller (1801 - 1858), German anatomist]
Müllerian Duct
A geometric illusion in which a difference is perceived in the length of a line depending upon whether arrowheads at either end are pointing toward each other or away from each other [first described in 1889 by Franz Müller Lyer (1857 - 1916), German psychiatrist]
Müller Lyer Illusion
In multiple regression, a state that occurs when the independent (predictor) variables are extremely highly interrelated, making it difficult to determine separate effects on the dependent variable
Multicollinearity
Any form of psychotherapy that takes into account not only the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of clients in many countries but also diversity in spirituality, sexual orientation, ability and disability, and social class and economics; the potential cultural bias (eg; racism, sexism) of the practitioner; the history of oppressed and marginalized groups; diversity within diversity; acculturation and issues involving living in two worlds; and the politics of power as they affect clients
2. Any form of therapy that assesses, understands, and evaluates a client’s behavior in the multiplicity of cultural contexts (eg; ethnic, national, demographic, social, and economic) in which that behavior was learned and is displayed
Multicultural Therapy
Having a number of different dimensions or composed of many aspects: complex
Multidimensional
A scaling method that represents perceived similarities among stimuli by arranging similar stimuli in spatial proximity to one another, while disparate stimuli are represented far apart from one another
- This is an alternative to factor analysis for dealing with large multidimensional matrices of data or stimuli
Multidimensional Scaling
Consisting or arising out of several factors, variables, or causes
Multifactorial
Inheritance of a trait, such as height or predisposition to a certain disease, that is determined not by a single gene but by many different genes acting cumulatively
- Such traits show continuous, rather than discrete, variation among the members of a given population and are often significantly influenced by environmental factors, such as nutritional status
Multifactorial Inheritance
A theoretical probability distribution that describes the distribution of n objects sampled at random from a population of k kinds of things with regard to the number of each of the kinds that appears in the sample
Multinomial Distribution
An experimental design in which two or more behaviors are assessed to determine their naturally occurring expression (baseline) and then an intervention or manipulation is applied to one of the behaviors while the others are unaffected
- After a period, the manipulation is then applied to the next behavior while the remaining behaviors are unaltered, and so forth until the experimental manipulation has been applied in sequential fashion to all of the behaviors in the design
Multiple Baseline Design
(Symbol: R)
- A numerical index of the degree of relationship between a particular variable (eg; a dependent variable) and two or more other variables (eg; independent variables)
Multiple Correlation Coefficient
The idea that intelligence is made up of eight distinct categories: linguistic, musical, bodily kinesthetic, logical mathematical, spatial, naturalist, intrapersonal, and interpersonal
Multiple Intelligences Theory
A statistical technique for examining the linear relationship between a continuous dependent variable and a set of two or more independent variables
- It is often used to predict the score of individuals on a criterion variable from multiple predictor variables
Multiple Regression
A chronic disease of the central nervous system characterized by inflammation and multifocal scarring of the protective myelin sheath of nerves, which damages and destroys the sheath and the underlying nerve, disrupting neural transmission
- Symptoms include visual disturbances, fatigue, weakness, numbness, tremors, difficulties with coordination and balance, and difficulties with speaking
- The cause of this is unknown, but the destruction of myelin may be due to an autoimmune response
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
A neuron that has many dendrites and a single axon extending from the cell body
Multipolar Neuron
Any theory hypothesizing that information can move through and be retained in any of several memory storage systems, usually of a short term and long term variety
Multistore Model of Memory
Consisting of or otherwise involving two or more variables
- For example, a multivariate analysis is any statistical technique that simultaneously assesses multiple dependent variables; examples include the multivariate analysis of variance and factor analysis
Multivariate
Any of several types of statistical analysis that simultaneously model multiple dependent variables
Multivariate Analysis
An extension of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) model that identifies the simultaneous effects of the independent variables upon a set of dependent variables
Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA)
A severe and chronic form of factitious disorder characterized by repeated and elaborate fabrication of clinically convincing physical symptoms and a false medical and social history
- Other features are recurrent hospitalization and widespread or excessive traveling from place to place (preregrination), and there may be multiple scars from previous (unnecessary) investigative surgery [Baron Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchausen (1720 - 1797), German soldier adventurer famous for his tall tales]
Münchausen Syndrome
A psychological disorder in which caregivers fabricate or intentionally cause symptoms in those they are caring for in order to seek and obtain medical investigation or treatment
- Typically, the caregiver is a parent, who behaves as if distressed about the child’s illness and denies knowing what caused it
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
The extent to which an experimental situation resembles a real life situation or event
- This is related to experimental realism, the degree to which experimental procedures elicit valid responses even if the events of the experiment do not resemble ordinary occurrences
Mundane Realism
Type of acetylcholine receptor that responds to the alkaloid muscarine as well as to acetylcholine
- These are found in smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, endocrine glands, and the central nervous system and mediate chiefly the inhibitory activities of acetylcholine
Muscarinic Receptor (mAChR)
A microscopic strand of muscle tissue that functions as a molecular machine converting chemical energy into force
- Thousands of muscle fibers are linked by connective tissue into a muscle
- Each fiber is, in turn, composed of millions of longitudinally aligned protein filaments
- It is the interaction of actin and myosin protein molecules (sometimes together referred to as actomyosin) in these filaments that creates muscle contraction
Muscle Fiber
A receptor that lies within skeletal muscle, parallel to the main contractile muscle fibers, and sends impulses to the central nervous system when the muscle is stretched
Muscle Spindle
The use of music as an adjunct to the treatment or rehabilitation of individuals to enhance their psychological, physical, cognitive, or social functioning
Music Therapy
A permanent change in the genetic material of an organism
- It may consist of an alteration to the number or arrangement of chromosomes (a chromosomal mutation) or a change in the composition of DNA, generally affecting only one or a few bases in a particular gene (a point mutation)
- A mutation occurring in a body cell (ie; a somatic mutation) cannot be inherited, whereas a mutation in a reproductive cell producing ova or spermatozoa (ie; a germ line mutation) can be transmitted to that individual’s offspring
Mutation
Lack or absence of speaking
- The condition may result from neurological damage or disorder, a structural defect in the organs necessary for speech, congenital or early deafness in which an individual’s failure to hear spoken words inhibits the development of speech, psychological disorders (eg; conversion disorder, catatonic schizophrenia), or severe emotional disturbance (eg; extreme anger)
- The condition may also be voluntary, as in monastic vows of silence
Mutism
An interaction in which two species live together in close association, to the mutual benefit of both species
Mutualism
An autoimmune disorder in which the body produces antibodies against a acetylcholine receptors, causing faulty transmission of nerve impulses at neuromuscular junctions
- Affected muscles - initially those of the face and neck - are easily fatigued and (eg; muscles involved in eating may fail to function normally toward the end of a meal, or speech may become slurred after a period of talking)
- The disease is progressive, eventually affecting muscles throughout the body
Myasthenia Gravis
The substance that forms the insulating myelin sheath around the axons of many neurons
- It consists mainly of phospholipids, with additional myelin proteins, and accounts for the whitish color of white matter
- Myelinated fibers conduct nerve impulses much faster than nomyelinated fibers
Myelin
The insulating layer around many axons that increases the speed of conduction of nerve impulses
- It consists of myelin and is laid down by glia, which wrap themselves around adjacent axons in a process called myelination
- The myelin sheath is interrupted by small gaps, called Nodes of Ranvier, which are spaced about every millimeter along the exon
Myelin Sheath
A personality test designed to classify individuals according to their expressed choices between contrasting alternatives in certain categories of traits
- The categories are (a) extraversion - introversion, (b) sensing - intuition, (c) thinking - feeling, and (d) judging - perceiving
- The perception is assigned a type (eg; INTJ or ESFP) according to the pattern of choices made
- The test has little credibility among research psychologists but is widely used in educational counseling and human resource management to help improve work and personal relationships, increase productivity, and identify interpersonal communication preferences and skills [Isabel Briggs Myers (1897 - 1980), U.S. personologist, and her mother Katharine Cook Briggs (1875 - 1968)]
Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Nearsightedness, a refractive error due to an abnormally long eye: the retinal image of distant objects is blurred because the focal point of one or both eyes lies in front of, rather than on, the retina
Myopia
Increased tone and contractility of a muscle, with slow or delayed relaxation
Myotonia
A culture bound syndrome found in Siberian populations
- Similar to Latah, it is characterized by indiscriminate, apparently uncontrolled imitations of the actions of other people encountered by the individual
Myriachit
