P Flashcards
A type of cutaneous receptor organ that is sensitive to contact and vibration
- It consists of a nerve fiber ending surrounded by concentric layers of connective tissue
- These are found in the fingers, the hairy skin, the tendons, and the abdominal membrane [Filippo Pacini (1812 - 1883), Italian anatomist]
Pacinian Corpuscle
An unpleasant sensation due to damage to nerve tissue, stimulation of free nerve endings, or excessive stimulation (eg; extremely loud sounds)
- It is elicited by stimulation of pain receptors, which occur in groups throughout the body, but also involves various cognitive, affective, and behavioral factors
- This may also be a feeling of severe distress and suffering resulting from acute anxiety, loss of a loved one, or other psychological factors
- Psychologists have made important contributions to understanding this by demonstrating the psychosocial and behavioral factors in the etiology, severity, exacerbation, maintenance, and treatment of both physical and mental type
Pain
A somatoform disorder characterized by severe, prolonged pain that significantly interferes with a person’s ability to function
- The pain cannot be accounted for solely by a medical condition, and it is not feigned or produced intentionally
Pain Disorder
A technique used in studying learning in which participants learn syllables, words, or other items in pairs and are later presented with one half of each pair to which they must respond with the matching half
Paired Associates Learning
In behavioral studies, the juxtaposing of two events in time
- For example, if a tone is presented immediately before a puff of air to the eye, the tone and the puff here been paired
Pairing
The study of certain psychological processes in contemporary humans that are believed to have originated in earlier stages of human and, perhaps, nonhuman animal evolution
- These include unconscious processes, such as the collective unconscious
Paleopsychology
Terminal care that focuses on symptom control and comfort instead of aggressive, cure oriented intervention
- This is the basis of the hospice approach
- Emphasis is on careful assessment of the patient’s condition throughout the end phase of life in order to provide the most effective medications and other procedures to relieve pain
Palliative Care
An obsolete name for paralysis, still used in such compound names as cerebral palsy
Palsy
A sudden, uncontrollable fear reaction that may involve terror, confusion, and irrational behavior, precipitated by a perceived threat (eg; earthquake, fire, or being stuck in an elevator)
Panic
A sudden onset of intense apprehension and fearfulness, in the absence of actual danger, accompanied by the presence of such physical symptoms as palpitations, difficulty in breathing, chest pain or discomfort, choking or smothering sensations, excessive perspiration, and dizziness
- This occurs in a discrete period of time and often involves fears of going crazy, losing control, or dying
Panic Attack
An anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent, unexpected panic attacks that are associated with (a) persistent concern about having another attack, (b) worry about the possible consequences of the attacks, or (c) significant change in behavior related to the attacks (eg; avoiding situations, not going out alone)
Panic Disorder
A circular network of nerve centers and fibers in the brain that is associated with emotion and memory
- It includes such structures as the hippocampus, fornix, anterior thalamus, cingulate gyrus, and parchippocampal gyrus
Papez Circuit
Any of the four types of swelling on the tongue
- In humans, some 200 fungiform papillae are toward the front of the tongue; 10-14 foliate papillae are on the sides; 7-11 circumvallate papillae are on the back; and filiform papillae, with no taste function, cover most of the tongue’s surface
Papilla
- A model, pattern, or representative example, as of the functions and interrelationships of a process, a behavior under study, or the like
- A set of assumptions, attitudes, concepts, values, procedures, and techniques that constitutes a generally accepted theoretical framework within, or a general perspective of, a discipline
Paradigm
A ridge (gyrus) on the medial (inner) surface of the temporal lobe of cerebral cortex, lying over the hippocampus
- It is a component of the limbic system thought to be involved in spatial or topographic memory
Parahippocampal Gyrus
In parapsychology, the movement of objects in the absence of contact sufficient to explain the motion
- The phenomenon is closely related to that of psychokinesis, which involves manipulation of objects by thought alone
Parakinesis
The vocal but nonverbal elements of communication by speech, such as tone and stress, volume and speed of delivery, voice quality, hesitations, and nonlinguistic sounds, such as sighs or groans
- These paralinguistic cues help shape the total meaning of an utterance, for example, by conveying the fact that a speaker is angry when this would not be apparent from the same words written down
- In some uses, this term is extended to include gestures, facial expressions, and other aspects of body language
Paralanguage
An illusion of movement of objects in the visual field when the head is moved from side to side
- Objects beyond a point of visual fixation appear to move in the same direction as the head movement; those closer seem to move in the opposite direction
- This provides a monocular cue for depth perception
Parallax
Any model of cognition based on the idea that the representation of information is distributed as patterns of activation over a richly connected set of hypothetical neural units that function interactively and in parallel with one another
Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)
Any of the axons of the small, grainlike neurons that form the outermost layer of the cerebellar cortex
Parallel Fiber
Play in which a child is next to others and using similar objects but still engaged in his or her own activity
Parallel Play
Information processing in which two or more sequences of operations are carried out simultaneously by independent processors
- A capacity for this in the human mind would account for people’s apparent ability to carry on different cognitive functions At the same time, as, for example, when driving a car while also listening to music and having a conversation
- The term is usually reserved for processing at a higher, symbolic level, as opposed to the level of individual neural units described in models of parallel distributed processing
Parallel Processing
- A numerical constant that characterizes a population with respect to some attribute, for example, the location of its central point
- An argument of a function
Parameter
Statistical procedures that are based on assumptions about the distribution of the attribute (or attributes) in the population being tested
Parametric Statistics
Statistical procedures that are based on assumptions about the distribution of the attribute (or attributes) in the population being tested
Parametric Statistics
A condition characterized by delusions of persecution or grandiosity that are not as systematized and elaborate as in a delusional disorder nor as disorganized and bizarre as in paranoid schizophrenia
Paranoia
A personality disorder characterized by pervasive, unwarranted suspiciousness and mistrust, specifically expectation of trickery or harm, guardedness and secretiveness, avoidance of accepting blame, overconcern with hidden motives and meanings, hypersensitivity, and restricted affectivity
Paranoid Personality Disorder
A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by prominent delusions or auditory hallucinations
- Delusions are typically persecutory, grandiose, or both; hallucinations are typically related to the content of the delusional theme
- Cognitive functioning and mood are affected to a much lesser degree than in other types of schizophrenia
Paranoid Schizophrenia
Denoting any purported phenomenon involving the transfer of information or energy that cannot be explained by existing scientific knowledge
- The term is particularly applied to those forms of alleged extrasensory perception that are the province of parapsychological investigation
Paranormal
A sexual disorder in which unusual or bizarre fantasies or behavior are necessary for sexual excitement, including preference for a nonhuman object, activity involving real or simulated suffering or humiliation, or activity with nonconsenting partners
- These include such specific types as fetishism, frotteurism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, sexual masochism, and sexual sadism
Paraphilia
A minor cognitive or behavioral error
- Examples of such errors include slips of the pen, slips of the tongue, forgetting significant events, mislaying objects, and unintentional puns
- In psychoanalytic theory, this is believed to express unconscious wishes, attitudes, or impulses and is referred to as a Freudian slip
Parapraxis
A trained but not professionally credentialed worker who assists in the treatment of patients in both hospital and community settings
Paraprofessional
The systematic study of alleged psychological phenomena involving the transfer of information or energy that cannot be explained in terms of presently known scientific data or laws
- Such study has focused largely on the various forms of extrasensory perception, such as telepathy and clairvoyance, but also encompasses such phenomena as alleged poltergeist activity and the claims of mediums
- This is regarded with suspicion by many scientists, including most psychologists
Parapsychology
A disorder characterized by abnormal behavior or physiological events occurring during sleep or the transitional state between sleep and waking
- Types include nightmare disorder, sleep terror disorder, and sleepwalking disorder
- These form one of two broad groups of primary sleep disorders, the other being dyssomnias
Parasomnia
A range of behaviors involving deliberate self harm that falls short of suicide and may or may not be intended to result in death
Parasuicide
One of two branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS, which controls smooth muscle and gland functions), the other being the sympathetic nervous system
- It is the system controlling rest, repair, enjoyment, eating, sleeping, sexual activity, and social dominance, among other functions
- This stimulates salivary secretions and digestive secretions in the stomach and produces pupillary constriction, decreases in heart rate, and increased blood flow to the genitalia during sexual excitement
Parasympathetic Nervous System
A particular collection of neurons in the hypothalamus that synthesize numerous hormones, among them oxytocin and vasopressin
Paraventricular Nucleus
The proposition that many sex differences in sexually reproducing species (including humans) can be understood in terms of the amount of time, energy, and risk to their own survival that males and females put into parenting versus mating
Parental Investment Theory
All actions related to the raising of offspring
- Researchers have described different human parenting styles - Ways in which parents interact with their children - with most classifications varying on the dimensions of emotional warmth and control
- One of the most influential of these classifications is that of U.S. developmental psychologist Diana Baumrind (1927- ), which involves four types of styles: authoritarian, in which the parent or caregiver stresses obedience and employs strong forms of punishment; authoritative, in which the parent or caregiver encourages a child’s autonomy yet still places certain limitations on behavior; permissive, in which the parent or caregiver makes few demands and avoids exercising control; and rejecting neglecting, in which the parent or caregiver is more attentive to his or her needs than those of the child
Parenting
Partial or incomplete paralysis
Paresis
An abnormal skin sensation, such as tingling, tickling, burning, itching, or pricking, in the absence of external stimulation
- This may be temporary, as in the “pins and needles” feeling that many people experience (eg; after having sat with legs crossed too long), or chronic and due to such factors as neurological disorder or drug side effects
Paresthesia
One of the four main subdivisions of each cerebral hemisphere
- It occupies the upper central area of each hemisphere, behind the frontal lobe, ahead of the occipital lobe, and above the temporal lobe
- Parts of the parietal lobe participate in somatosensory activities, such as discrimination of size, shape, and texture of objects; visual activities, such as visually guided actions; and auditory activities, such as speech perception
Parietal Lobe
A progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of dopamine producing neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain, which controls balance and coordinates muscle movement
- Symptoms typically begin late in life with mild tremors, increasing rigidity of the limbs, and slowness of voluntary movements
- Later symptoms include postural instability, impaired balance, and difficulty walking
- Dementia occurs in some 20 - 60% of patients, usually in older patients in whom the disease is far advanced [first described in 1817 by James Parkinson (1755 - 1824), British physician]
Parkinson’s Disease
The correlation between two variables with the influence of a third variable removed from one (but only one) of the two variables
Part Correlation
The correlation between two variables with the influence of one or more other variables on their intercorrelation statistically removed or held constant
Partial Correlation
Increased resistance to extinction after intermittent reinforcement rather than after continuous reinforcement
Partial Reinforcement Effect
A seizure that begins in a localized area of the brain, although it may subsequently progress to a generalized seizure
- Simple ones produce no alteration of consciousness despite clinical manifestations, which may include sensory, motor, or autonomic activity
- Complex types may produce similar sensory, motor, or autonomic symptoms but are also characterized by some impairment or alteration of consciousness during the event
Partial Seizure
A person who takes part in an investigation, study, or experiment, for example by performing tasks set by the experimenter or by answering questions set by a researcher
- The participant may be further identified as an experimental participant or a control participant
- Participants are also called subjects, although the former term is now often preferred when referring to humans
Participant
A procedure for changing behavior in which effective styles of behavior are modeled (ie; demonstrated, broken down step by step, and analyzed) by a therapist for an individual
- Various aids are introduced to help the individual master the tasks, such as viewing videotaped enactments of effective and ineffective behavioral responses to prototypical situations in a variety of social contexts (eg; at school or work)
Participant Modeling
A type of observational method in which a trained observer enters the group under study as a member, while avoiding a conspicuous role that would alter the group processes and bias the data
- For example, cultural anthropologists become these when they enter the life of a given culture to study its structure and processes
Participant Observation
A type of observational method in which a trained observer enters the group under study as a member, while avoiding a conspicuous role that would alter the group processes and bias the data
- For example, cultural anthropologists become these when they enter the life of a given culture to study its structure and processes
Participant Observer
A learning technique in which the material is divided into sections, each to be mastered separately in a successive order
Part Method of Learning
The part of the visual system that projects to or originates from small neurons in the four dorsal layers (the parvocellular layers) of the lateral geniculate nucleus
- It allows the perception of fine details, colors, and large changes in brightness but conducts information relatively slowly because of its small cells and slender axons
Parvocellular System
An intense, driving, or overwhelming feeling or conviction, particularly a strong sexual desire
- This is often contrasted with emotion, in that this affects a person unwillingly
Passion
A type of love in which sexual passion and a high level of emotional arousal are prominent features; along with companionate love, it is one of the two main types of love identified by social psychologists
- These lovers typically are greatly preoccupied with the loved person, want their feelings to be reciprocated, and are usually greatly distressed when the relationship seems awry
Passionate Love
Characteristic of behavior that is seemingly innocuous; accidental, or neutral but that indirectly displays an unconscious aggressive motive
- For example, a child who appears to be compliant but is routinely late for school, misses the bus, or forgets his or her homework may be expressing unconscious resentment at having to attend school
Passive Aggressive
A personality disorder of long standing in which underlying ambivalence and negativism toward the self and others is expressed by such means as procrastination, dawdling, stubbornness, intentional inefficiency, “forgetting” appointments, or misplacing important materials
- The pattern persists even where more adaptive behavior is clearly possible; it frequently interferes with occupational, domestic, and academic success
Passive Aggressive Personality Disorder
The intentional withholding of treatment that might prolong the life of a person who is approaching death
- It is distinguished from active euthanasia, in which direct action (eg; a lethal injection) is taken to end the life
Passive Euthanasia
The use of very fine bore pipette microelectrodes, clamped by suction onto tiny parches of the plasma membrane of a neuron, to record the electrical activity of a single square micrometer of the membrane, including single ion channels
Parch Clamp Technique
A policy or attitude in which those having authority over others extend this authority into areas usually left to individual choice or conscience (eg; smoking or sexual behavior), usually on the grounds that this is necessary for the welfare or protection of the individuals concerned
Paternalism
A set of quantitative procedures used to verify the existence of causal relationships among several variables, displayed in graph form showing the various hypothesized routes of causal influence
- The causal relationships are theoretically determined, and this determines both the accuracy and the strength of the hypothesized relationships
Path Analysis
Any agent (eg; a bacterium or virus) that contributes to disease or otherwise induces unhealthy structural or functional changes
Pathogen
An impulse control disorder characterized by chronic, maladaptive wagering, leading to significant interpersonal, professional, or financial difficulties
Pathological Gambling
- The scientific study of functional and structural changes involved in physical and mental disorders and diseases
- More broadly, any departure from what is considered healthy or adaptive
Pathology
A person receiving health care from a licensed health professional (including the services of most psychologists and psychiatrists)
Patient
The dilemma of how to identify the recipient of psychological services or intervention (ie; the nomenclature used for the recipient)
- Psychiatrists, many clinical psychologists, and some other mental health providers tend to follow the traditional language of the medical model and refer to the people seeking their services as patients
- Counseling psychologists, some clinical psychologists, social workers, and counselors tend to avoid the word “patient,” which is associated with illness and dysfunction, using instead the word client to refer to the person seeking their services
Patient Client Issue
Any statement, listing, summary, or the like that articulates the rights that health care providers (eg; physicians, medical facilities) ethically ought to provide to those receiving their services in such basic categories as (a) the provision of adequate information regarding benefits, risks, costs, and alternatives; (b) fair treatment (eg; respect, responsiveness, timely attention to health issues); (c) autonomy over medical decisions (eg; obtaining full consent for medical interventions); and (d) confidentiality
Patient’s Rights
- A society in which descent and inheritance is patrilineal, that is, traced through the male only
- More loosely, a family, group, or society in which men are dominant
Patriarchy
The ability to identify a complex whole composed of, or embedded in, many separate elements
- This is not only a visual ability; in audition, it refers to (a) the recognition of temporal patterns of sounds or (b) the recognition of patterns of excitation of the basilar membrane, such as that which occurs during the perception of vowels in speech
Pattern Recognition
A theory postulating that each taste stimulus evokes a unique pattern of neural activity from the taste cell population and that this pattern serves as the neural representation of the evoking stimulus
- Taste quality is coded in the shape of the evoked pattern, while intensity is represented by the total discharge rate
Pattern Theory of Taste Coding
A type of learning in which an initially neural stimulus - the conditioned stimulus (CS) - when paired with a stimulus that elicits a reflex response - the unconditioned stimulus (US) - results in a learned, or conditioned, response (CR) when the CS Is presented
- For example, the sound of a tone may be used as a CS, and food in a dog’s mouth as a US
- After repeated pairings, namely, the tone followed immediately by food, the tone, which initially had no effect on salivation (ie; was neutral with respect to it), will elicit salivation even if the food is not presented [discovered in the early 20th century by Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936), Russian physiologist]
Pavlovian Conditioning
Any of various small neurons in the four dorsal layers of the six layered lateral geniculate nucleus
- These are the origin of the parvocellular system
- The retinal ganglion cells that provide input to these of the lateral geniculate nucleus are called P ganglion cells
P Cell
1-(1-phenylcyclohexyl)piperidine (phencyclidine):
A hallucinogenic drug originally developed for use in surgical anesthesia and later found to produce psychedelic or dissociative effects
- This has a complex mechanism of action - blocking the reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, among other activities - and in high doses may induce stupor or coma
- Additionally, this can produce symptoms resembling both the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, leading some to consider it a useful drug model of schizophrenia
- This became common as an elicit drug in the 1970s and remains so, despite speculation about its potential neurotoxicity (ability to damage nerve tissue)
PCP
In the humanistic psychology of U.S. psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970), a moment of awe, ecstasy, or sudden insight into life as a powerful unity transcending space, time, and the self that may at times be experienced by individuals in their pursuit of self actualization
Peak Experience
Regular patterns of dominance (pecking, threatening, chasing, fighting, avoiding, crouching, and vocalizing) in chickens and other animals
- This term has been extended to denote any (usually linear) sequence of authority, status, and privilege that prevails in some organizations and social groups, although this meaning is more properly referred to as a dominance hierarchy
Pecking Order
Pertaining to the health and medical care of children or to child development
Pediatric
A paraphilia in which sexual acts or fantasies with prepubertal children are the persistently preferred or exclusive method of achieving sexual excitement
- This is seen almost exclusively in men
Pedophilia
An individual who shares a feature or function (eg; age, sex, occupation, social group membership) with one or more other individuals
- In developmental psychology, this is typically an age mate with whom a child or adolescent interacts
Peer
A group of individuals who share one or more characteristics, such as age, social status, economic status, occupation, or education
- Members of this typically interact with each other on a level of equality and exert influence on each other’s attitudes, emotions, and behavior
Peer Group
The influence exerted by a peer group on its individual members to fit in with or adapt to group expectations by thinking, feeling, and (most importantly) behaving in a similar or acceptable manner
- This may have positive socialization value but may also have negative consequences for mental or physical health
Peer Pressure
The male organ for urination and intromission, which enters the female’s vagina to deliver semen
- The urethra runs through this, which is composed largely of erectile tissue and has a mushroom shaped cap (glans penis)
Penis
In the classic psychoanalytic theory of Austrian psychiatrist sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the hypothesized desire of girls and women to possess a male genital organ
- German born U.S. psychoanalyst Karen D. Horney (1885 - 1952), among others, later argued that this is not an envy of the biological organ itself but represents women’s envy of men’s superior social status
- In any sense, the concept has been actively disputed from the beginning and is rarely considered seriously in current psychology
Penis Envy
The scientific study of the management of correctional facilities and the rehabilitation of criminals
Penology
A short chain of amino acids linked by peptide bonds
- These are usually identified by the number of amino acids in the chain, for example, dipeptides have two, tripeptides three, tetrapeptides four, and so on
Peptide
Any hormone that is classed chemically as a peptide
- These include corticotropin, oxytocin, and vasopressin
Peptide Hormone
The location of a score in a distribution coded to reflect the percentage of cases in the batch that have scores equal to or below the score in question
- Thus, if a score is said to be at the 90th percentile, the implication is that 90% of the scores in the batch are equal to or lower than that score
Percentile
The production of perception: the stimulus object or event as experienced by the individual
Percept
The process or result of becoming aware of objects, relationships, and events by means of the senses, which includes such activities as recognizing, observing, and discriminating
- These activities enable organisms to organize and interpret the stimuli received into meaningful knowledge
Perception
The phenomenon in which a perceived object or its properties (eg; size, shape, color) appears to remain unchanged despite variations in the stimulus itself or in the external conditions of observation, such as object orientation or level of illumination
- Examples of this include brightness constancy, color constancy, shape constancy, and size constancy
Perceptual Constancy
In psychoanalytic theory, a misperception that occurs when anxiety arousing stimuli are unconsciously distorted
- If taboo words are rapidly presented, they may be misinterpreted; for example, if the stimulus word anal is presented, participants may report seeing the innocuous canal
Perceptual Defense
The process of focusing attention on a selected subset of the large number of sensory stimuli that are present at any one time
- This is necessary because the cognitive and physical capacity of an individual to process and respond to multiple sources of information is limited
Perceptual Filtering
The process enabling such properties as structure, pattern, and form to be imposed on the senses to provide conceptual organization
- Each of the senses establishes (or learns) such organizational schemata
- Recent research has more precisely defined the properties that enable such organized tasks
Perceptual Organization
- A temporary readiness to perceive certain objects or events rather than others
- For example, a person driving a car has one of these to identify anything that might impact his or her safety - A schema or frame of reference that influences the way in which a person perceives objects, events, or people
- For example, an on duty police officer and a painter might regard a crowded street scene with very different ones
Perceptual Set
A relationship between two variables in which the change in value of one variable is proportional to the change in value of the other variable; knowing the value of one variable will exactly predict the value of the other variable
- When plotted graphically, this forms a perfectly straight line
- If the variables change in the same direction (ie; they both increase or both decrease), the correlation is perfect positive, whereas if the variables change in opposite directions (ie; one increases as the other decreases or vice versa), the correlation is perfect negative
Perfect Correlation
The tendency to demand of others or of oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance, particularly when this is not required by the situation
- It is thought by some to be a risk factor for depression and other disorders
Perfectionism
- Any activity or collection of responses that leads to a result or has an effect upon the environment
- In linguistics, see competence
Performance
Anxiety associated with the apprehension and fear of the consequences of being unable to perform a task or of performing the task at a level that Will lead to expectations of higher levels of performance achievement
- Fear of taking a test, public speaking, participating in classes or meetings, playing a musical instrument in public, or even eating in public are common examples
- If the fear associated with this focused on negative evaluation by others, embarrassment, or humiliation, the anxiety may be classified as a social phobia
Performance Anxiety
Any test of ability requiring primarily motor, rather than verbal, responses, such as a test requiring manipulation of a variety of different kinds of objects
Performance Test
A region of the brainstem, rich in nerve cell bodies (ie; gray matter), that surrounds the cerebral aqueduct
- A component of the limbic system, it plays an important role in organizing defensive behaviors (eg; freezing)
Periaqueductual Gray (PAG)
The fluid that fills the space between the membranous labyrinth and the walls of the bony labyrinth in the inner ear
Perilymph
Any outcome associated with living during a particular time period or era, regardless of how old one was at the time
- This may be difficult to distinguish from age effects and cohort effects in research
Period Effect
A form of acquired dyslexia that is characterized by difficulties in processing the visual aspects of words (eg; difficulties identifying letter forms) and results from damage to the visual analysis system
Peripheral Dyslexia
The portion of the nervous system that lies outside the brain and spinal cord, that is, all parts outside the central nervous system
- Afferent fibers of this bring messages from the sense organs to the central nervous system; efferent fibers transmit messages from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands
- It includes the cranial nerves, spinal nerves, and parts of the autonomic nervous system
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
The process by which altitudes are formed or changed as a result of using peripheral cues (factors external to the merits of the argument) rather than carefully scrutinizing and thinking about the central merits of attitude relevant information
Peripheral Route to Persuasion
A structure in the medial temporal lobe adjacent to the hippocampus that plays an important role as an interface between visual perception and memory
Perirhinal Cortex
Very long term or permanent memory that develops after extensive learning, training, or experience
- Details of foreign languages or algebra learned years ago in school, and even the names of classmates, are said to be stored in this
Permastore
An interpersonal style or approach that involves giving a wide range of freedom and autonomy to those with whom one has dealings or over whom one has authority
- For example, regarding child rearing it refers to a particular parenting style in which the child is given wide latitude in expressing his or her feelings and opinions and in which artificial restrictions and punishment are avoided as much as possible
Permissiveness
An ordered sequence of elements from a set
- This is similar to a combination but distinguished by its emphasis on order
Permutation
The phenomenon in which people’s beliefs about themselves and others persist despite a lack of supporting evidence or even a contradiction of supporting evidence
Perseverance Effect
- An inability to interrupt a task or to shift from one strategy or procedure to another
- This may be observed, for example, in workers under extreme task demands or environmental conditions (mainly heat stress); in the abnormal or inappropriate repetition of a sound, word, or phrase, as occurs in stuttering; or in the inappropriate repetition of behavior in individuals with damage to the frontal lobe - According to the perseveration consolidation hypothesis, the repetition, after a learning experience, of neural processes that are responsible for memory formation, which is necessary for the consolidation of ions term memory
Perseveration
The hypothesis that information passes through two stages in memory formation
- During the first stage the memory is held by perseveration (repetition) of neural activity and is easily disrupted
- During the second stage the memory becomes fixed, or consolidated, and is no longer easily disrupted
- This guides much contemporary research on the biological basis of long term learning and memory
Perseveration Consolidation Hypothesis
- Continuance or repetition of a particular behavior, process, or activity despite cessation of the initiating stimulus
- The quality or state of maintaining a course of action or keeping at a task and finishing it despite the obstacles (such as opposition or discouragement) or the effort involved
Persistence
A prolonged biomedical condition in which rudimentary brain function and, usually, spontaneous respiration continue but there is no awareness of self or environment, no communication, and no voluntary response to stimuli
Persistent Vegetative State (PVS)
In the approach of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), the public face an individual presents to the outside world, in contrast to more deeply rooted and authentic personality characteristics
- This sense has now passed into popular usage
Persona
One of the concepts by which an individual perceives, understands, predicts, and attempts to control the world
- Understanding a client’s personal constructs is a central way of beginning to help that person change rigid or negative beliefs
Personal Construct
In the personality theory of U.S. psychologist Gordon W. Allport (1897 - 1967), any of a number of enduring characteristics that describe or determine an individual’s behavior across a variety of situations and that are peculiar to and uniquely expressed by that individual
- These are divided into three categories: cardinal dispositions are the most pervasive and influence virtually every behavior of that person; central dispositions are less pervasive but nonetheless generally influential; and secondary dispositions are much more narrowly expressed and situation specific
Personal Disposition
A belief in one’s uniqueness and invulnerability, which is an expression of adolescent egocentrism and may extend further into the lifespan
Personal Fable
- The philosophical position that human personality is the sole means through which reality can be understood or interpreted
- At the core of this approach is the concept of the person as a unique living whole irreducible in value or worth, who is striving toward goals and is simultaneously self contained yet open to the world around him or her
- This thus reorients the material of psychology around an experiencing individual as a systematic focal point
- In other words, the findings of psychology can be organized only by reference to such a unique, living individual as the originator, carrier, and regulator of all psychological states and processes
- This school of psychology stressing individual personality is more properly termed personalistic psychology - A tendency to believe that another person’s actions are directed at oneself rather than being an expression of that individual’s characteristics
Personalism
The configuration of characteristics and behavior that comprises an individuals unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self concept, abilities, and emotional patterns
- This is generally viewed as a complex, dynamic integration or totality, shaped by many forces, including: hereditary and constitutional tendencies; physical maturation; early training; identification with significant individuals and groups; culturally conditioned values and roles; and critical experiences and relationships
- Various theories explain the structure and development of this in different ways but an agree that this helps determine behavior
Personality
The evaluation of such factors as intelligence, skills, interests, aptitudes, creative abilities, attitudes, and facets of psychological development by a variety of techniques
- These include (a) observational methods that use behavior sampling, interviews, and rating scales; (b) personality inventories; such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory; and (c) projective techniques, such as the Rorschach Inkblot Test and Thematic Apperception Test
- The uses of these are manifold, for example, in clinical evaluation of children and adults; in educational and vocational counseling; in industry and other organizational settings; and in rehabilitation
Personality Assessment
Any of a group of disorders involving pervasive patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and the self that interfere with long term functioning of the individual and are not limited to isolated episodes
- Among the specific types are paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, borderline, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive compulsive - each of which has its own entry in the dictionary
Personality Disorder
A personality assessment device that usually consists of a series of statements covering various characteristics and behavioral patterns to which the participant responds by fixed answers, such as True, False, Always, Often, Seldom, or Never, as applied to himself or herself
Personality Inventory
A presentation of the results of psychological testing in graphic form so as to provide a summary of a person’s traits or other unique attributes and tendencies
- These are used to summarize the characteristics of groups of individuals as well (eg; people with a particular disorder, people employed in a particular profession)
Personality Profile
The systematic study of the human personality, with the aim of synthesizing cognitive, emotional, motivational, developmental, and social aspects of human individuality into integrative frameworks for making sense of the individual human life
- These psychologists tend to study more or less enduring and stable individual differences in adults and have traditionally assigned a central role to human motivation and the internal dynamics of human behavior
- The major families of personality theories include psychodynamic, behavioral, and humanistic families
Personality Psychology
Any instrument used to help evaluate personality or measure personality traits
- These may collect self report data, in which participants answer questions about their personality or select items that describe themselves, or they may take the form of projective tests, which claim to measure unconscious aspects of a participant’s personality
Personality Test
A relatively stable, consistent, and enduring internal characteristic that is inferred from a pattern of behaviors, attitudes, feelings, and habits in the individual
- These can be useful in summarizing, predicting, and explaining an individual’s conduct, and a variety of these theories exist
Personality Trait
An area of defended space around an individual
- This differs from other types of defended space (eg; territory) by being a surrounding “bubble” that moves with the individual
- Because human use of this varies among cultures, at least part of it must represent a learned behavior
Personal Space
In the analytic psychology of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), the portion of each individual’s unconscious that contains the elements of his or her own experience as opposed to the collective unconscious, which contains the archetypes universal to humankind
- This consists of everything subliminal, forgotten, and repressed in an individual’s life
Personal Unconscious
The branch of industrial and organization psychology that deals with the selection, placement, training, promotion, evaluation, and counseling of employees
Personnel Psychology
The processes by which people think about, appraise, and evaluate other people
- An important aspect of this is the attribution of motives for action
Person Perception
An active attempt by one person to change another person’s attitudes, beliefs, or emotions associated with some issue, person, concept, or object
Persuasion
Any one of a class of disorders characterized by severe and widespread impairment in social interaction and verbal or nonverbal communication or the presence of stereotyped behavior, interests, and activities
- These disorders are frequently apparent from an early age; they include Asperger’s Disorder, Autistic Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, and Rett Syndrome
- This term is synonymous with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Pervasive Developmental Disorder
The attitude that things will go wrong and that people’s wishes or aims are unlikely to be fulfilled
- These are people who expect unpleasant or bad things to happen to them and to others or who are otherwise doubtful or hesitant about positive outcomes of behavior
- This can be defined in terms of expectancy: lack of confidence of attaining desired goals
- Most individuals lie somewhere on the spectrum between the two polar opposites of pure optimism and pure pessimism but tend to demonstrate sometimes strong, relatively stable or situational tendencies in one direction or the other
Pessimism
In the classic psychoanalytic theory of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the third stage of psychosexual development beginning around age 3, when the libido is focused on the genital area (penis or clitoris) and discovery and manipulation of the body become a major source of pleasure
- During this period boys are posited to experience castration anxiety, girls to experience penis envy, and both to experience the Oedipus Complex
Phallic Stage
The penis or an object that resembles the form of the penis (the latter often referred to as a phallic symbol)
- As a symbolic object, it often represents fertility and potency
Phallus
In the object relations theory of Austrian born British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein (1882 - 1960), one of the unconscious constructions, wishes, or impulses that are presumed to underlie all thought and feeling
- The ph spelling is used to distinguish this from the everyday form of fantasy, which can include conscious daydreaming
Phantasy
The feeling that an amputated limb is still present, often manifested as a tingling or, occasionally, painful sensation in the area of the missing limb
- It is thought that the brain’s representation of the limb remains intact and, in the absence of normal somesthetic stimulation, becomes active spontaneously or as a result of stimulation from other brain tissue
Phantom Limb
The branch of science that involves the study of substances that interact with living organisms to alter some biological process affecting the homeostasis of the organism
Pharmacology
The treatment of a disorder by the administration of drugs, as opposed to such means as surgery, psychotherapy, or complementary and alternative methods
Pharmacotherapy
The tendency for a neural action potential to occur at the same point or phase of a puretone (single frequency) auditory stimulus
- This underlies the ability to localize sounds based on interaural phase differences or interaural time differences and has been proposed as a mechanism for the coding of pitch
Phase Locking
The tendency for a neural action potential to occur at the same point or phase of a puretone (single frequency) auditory stimulus
- This underlies the ability to localize sounds based on interaural phase differences or interaural time differences and has been proposed as a mechanism for the coding of pitch
Phase Locking
The self as experienced by the individual at a given time
- Only a small portion of self knowledge is active in working memory or consciousness at any time, with the remainder lying dormant or inactive
- The same person might have a very different one of these at different times, without any change in actual self knowledge, simply because different views are brought into awareness by events
Phenomenal Self
The environment as experienced by a given individual at a given time
- The term refers not to objective reality but to personal and subjective reality, including everything within one’s field of awareness
- In the phenomenological personality theory of U.S. psychologist Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987), it is also known as the phenomenological field
Phenomenal Space
A movement in modern European’s philosophy initiated by German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859 - 1938)
- Husserl argued for a new approach to human knowledge in which mental events should be studied and described in their own terms, rather than in terms of their relationship to events in the body or in the external world
- However, this should be distinguished from introspection as it is concerned with the relationship between acts of consciousness and the objects of such acts
- Husserl’s approach proved widely influential in psychology - especially gestalt psychology and existential psychology
Phenomenology
An observable event or physical occurrence
- In Greek philosophy, most notably that of Plato (c. 427 - c. 347 BCE), these are the sensible things that constitute the world of experience, as contrasted with the transcendent realities that are known only through reason
- German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) used the term to refer to things as they appear to the senses and are interpreted by the categories of the human understanding
- For Kant, knowledge of this is the kind of knowledge available to human beings, as knowledge of “noumena,” or things in themselves, remains beyond human experience or reason
Phenomenon
Any of a group of chemically related compounds most of which are used as antipsychotic drugs, originally developed as such in the 1950s
- It is commonly assumed that their therapeutic effects are produced by blockade of a particular type of dopamine receptor
- They also block acetylcholine, histamine, and norepinephrine receptors, actions that are associated with many of their adverse effects, which include extrapyramidal symptoms, tardive dyskinesia, and sedation
Phenothiazine
The observable characteristics of an individual, such as morphological or biochemical features and the presence or absence of a particular disease or condition
- This is determined by the expression of the individual’s genotype coupled with the effects of environmental factors (eg; nutritional status or climate)
Phenotype
An inherited metabolic disease marked by a deficiency of an enzyme (phenylalanine hydroxylase) needed to utilize the amino acid phenylalanine
- Unless it is diagnosed in early infancy and treated by a restricted dietary intake of phenylalanine, this leads to severe mental retardation and other nervous system disorders
Phenylketonuria
A chemical signal that is released outside the body by members of a species and that influences the behavior of other members of the same species
- For example, it may serve to attract the opposite sex or to act as an alarm
- The existence of these in humans is controversial
Pheromone
(Symbol: ø)
A measure of association for two dichotomous random variables
- This is the product moment correlation when both variables are coded (0,1)
Phi Coefficient
The intellectual discipline that uses careful reasoned argument to elucidate fundamental questions, notably those concerning the nature of knowledge (epistemology), and the nature of moral adjustments (ethics)
- As such, it provides an intellectual foundation for many other disciplines, including psychology
- Psychology as a scientific discipline has its roots in the epistemological preoccupations of 18th and 19th century philosophy and continues to be influenced by philosophical ideas
Philosophy
An illusion seen when two lights flash on and off about 150 m apart
- The light appears to move from one location to the other
- This is a form of beta movement
Phi Phenomenon
A persistent and irrational fear of a specific situation, object, or activity (eg; heights, dogs, water, blood, driving, flying), which is consequently either strenuously avoided or endured with marked distress
- The many individual types are classified as specific
Phobia
A speech sound that plays a meaningful role in a language and cannot be analyzed into smaller meaningful sounds, conventionally indicated by slash symbols: /b/
- A speech sound is held to be meaningful in a given language if its contrast with other sounds is used to mark distinctions of meaning: In English, for example, /p/ and /b/ are these because they distinguish between [pan] and [ban] and other such pairs
Phoneme
The branch of linguistics concerned with the classification and analysis of the phonemes in a language
- While phonetics tries to characterize all possible sounds represented in human language, this identifies which of the phonetic distinctions are considered meaningful by a given language
Phonemics
The branch of linguistics that studies the physical properties of speech sounds and the physiological means by which these are produced and perceived (placing the tongue or lip in contact with the teeth, directing the airstream against the hard palate, ect)
Phonetics
A communication disorder characterized by failure to develop and consistently use speech sounds that are appropriate for the Child’S age
- It most commonly involves misarticulation of the later acquired speech sounds, such as [l], [r], [s], [z], [ch], [sh], or [th], but may also include substitution of sounds (eg; [t] for [k]) or omission of sounds (eg; final consonants)
Phonological Disorder
A form of acquired dyslexia characterized primarily by difficulties in reading pronounceable nonwords
- Semantic errors are not seen in this type of dyslexia, a feature that distinguishes it from deep dyslexia
Phonological Dyslexia
The branch of linguistics that studies the system of speech sounds in a language or in language generally
- The term is less specific than either phonetics or phonemics
Phonology
A sensation of a light flash in the absence of actual light stimulation to the eye
- It can be caused by mechanical stimulation of the retina, by rubbing the eyes when closed, or by direct electrical stimulation of the visual cortex
Phosphene
Exceptionally detailed and highly accurate recollection of information or visual experiences
- This is widely but mistakenly considered synonymous with an eidetic image
Photographic Memory
A substance in a retinal rod or retinal cone that interacts with light to initiate a chemical cascade resulting in the conversion of light energy into an electrical signal
- All rods contain rhodopsin, while cones have one of three different iodopsins, each with a different wavelength sensitivity
- This is located in disks of membrane in the outer segment of a rod or cone
Photopigment
A visual receptor, especially a retinal rod or a retinal cone
Photoreceptor
Therapy involving exposure to ultraviolet or infrared light, which is used for treating not only certain skin conditions or disorders (eg; jaundice, psoriasis) but also depression, particularly for patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder
Phototherapy
A type of generative grammar in which a system of phrase structure rules is used to describe a sentence in terms of the grammatical structures that generate its form and define it as grammatical
- The phrase structure rules are usually set out in the form X —> Y + Z, in which the arrow is an instruction to reformulate (“rewrite”) X in terms of its immediate constituents (Y + Z)
- Formal phrase structure analysis of this kind was developed by U.S. linguist Noam Chomsky (1928 - )
- His transformational generative grammar added an important new dimension by proposing that sentences have a deep structure as well as the linear surface structure described in this, and that the relationship between the two levels can be described through a system of transformational rules
Phrase Structure Grammar
A theory of personality formulated in the 18th and 19th centuries by German physician Franz Josef Gall (1757 - 1828) and Austrian philosopher and anatomist Johann Kaspar Spurzheim (1776 - 1832)
- It stated that specific abilities or personality traits are represented by specific areas of the brain: the size of these brain areas, and hence the degree of the corresponding skill or trait, could be indicated by bumps and hollows on the skull surface
Phrenology
- The evolutionary origin and development of a particular group (species) of organisms
- A diagram that shows genetic linkages between ancestors and descendants
Phylogeny
Deliberately aggressive or violent behavior by one person toward another that results in bodily injury
- This may involve such actions as punching, kicking, biting, choking, burning, shaking, and beating, which may at times be severe enough to result in permanent damage (eg; traumatic brain injury) or death
- It is most frequently observed in relationships of trust, particularly between parents and children or between intimate partners (eg; in a marriage); indeed, violence against women and children is recognized as a major public health problem
- Individuals who experience this often feel helpless and isolated, and are prone to the subsequent development of numerous pathological conditions, including depression, eating disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, and substance use problems
Physical Abuse
The state of an individual who has repeatedly taken a drug and will experience unpleasant physiological symptoms if he or she stops taking the drug
Physical Dependence
- The form of a person’s physical features, especially the face
- The attempt to read personality from the facial features and expression, assuming, for example, that a person with a receding chin is weak or one with a high forehead is bright
- The idea dates back to Greek philosopher Aristotle (383 - 322 BCE) and was later developed into a pseudoscientific system by Swiss pastor Johann Lavater (1741 - 1801) and Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso (1835 - 1909)
Physiognomy
Aspects of arousal shown by physiological responses, such as increases in blood pressure and rate of respiration and decreased activity of the gastrointestinal system
- Such primary arousal responses are largely governed by the sympathetic nervous system, but responses of the parasympathetic nervous system may compensate or even overcompensate for the sympathetic activity
Physiological Arousal
An association between a physiological measure and a behavioral measure
- The existence of this may suggest a causal relation, but it does not establish a cause
Physiological Correlate
Any of the requirements for survival, such as food, water, oxygen, and sleep
- These make up the lowest level of Maslow’s Motivational Hierarchy
Physiological Need
A term used interchangeably with psychophysiology, or, less commonly, biological psychology
Physiological Psychology
The science of the functions of living organisms, including the chemical and physical processes involved and the activities of the cells, tissues, and organs, as opposed to static anatomical or structural factors
Physiology
The theory of cognitive development proposed by Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), according to which intelligence develops through four major stages: (a) the sensorimotor stage (roughly 0-2 years), (b) the preoperational stage (roughly 2-7 years), (c) the concrete operational stage (roughly 7-12 years), and (d) the formal operation stage (roughly 12 years and beyond)
- According to this theory, each stage builds upon the preceding one
- Passage through the stages is facilitated by a balance of two processes: assimilation, in which new information is incorporated into already existing cognitive structures; and accommodation, in which new information that does not fit into already existing cognitive structures is used to create new cognitive structures
Piagetian Theory
A culture bound syndrome observed primarily in female Inuit and other artic populations
- Individuals experience a sudden dissociative period of extreme excitement in which they often tear off clothes, run naked through the snow, scream, throw things, and perform other wild behaviors
- This typically ends with convulsive seizures, followed by an acute coma and amnesia for the event
Piblokto
A form of dementia characterized by progressive degeneration of the frontal and temporal areas of the brain with the presence of particles called pick bodies in the cytoplasm of the neurons
- The disease is characterized by personality changes and deterioration of social skills and complex thinking; symptoms include problems with new situations and abstractions, difficulty in thinking or concentrating, loss of memory, lack of spontaneity, gradual emotional dullness, loss of moral judgement, and disturbances of speech [described in 1892 by Arnold Pick (1851 - 1924), Czech psychiatrist and neuroanatomist]
Pick’s Disease
An improvised contact language incorporating elements of two or more languages, often devised for purposes of trading
- These are characterized by simple rules and limited vocabulary
Pidgin
A graphic display in which a circle is cut into pielike wedges, the area of the wedge being proportional to the percentage of cases in the category represented by the wedge
Pie Chart
A temporary raising of the hairs covering the surface of the skin caused by contraction of the piloerector muscles, which are attached to the individual follicles from which each hair arises
- This is involuntary, being directed by the sympathetic nervous system, and elicited by cold, fear, or a startling stimulus
- In mammals with a thick, visible covering of hair (eg; cats), this serves a protective function: the resulting “fluffed up” appearance makes the animal seem larger and may deter attack by others
- In humans, whose skin has only a sparse covering of hair, this creates a temporary roughness as the muscles pucker the surrounding skin, giving rise to such colloquial names for the effect as goose bumps, goose flesh, and goose pimples
Piloerection
A small, preliminary research project designed to evaluate procedures in preparation for a subsequent and more detailed research project
- Although these are conducted to reveal information about the viability of a proposed experiment and implement necessary modifications, they may also provide useful initial data on the topic of study and suggest avenues or offer implications for future research
Pilot Study
A small, cone shaped gland attached by a stalk to the posterior wall of the third ventricle of the brain; it is part of the epithalamus
- In amphibians and reptiles, the gland appears to function as a part of the visual system
- In mammals it secretes the hormone melatonin and is an important component of the circadian system regulating biological rhythms
Pineal Gland
The funnel shaped part of the external ear that projects beyond the head
- Consisting of cartilage, it collects and focuses sounds toward the external auditory meatus
Pinna
The subjective attribute that permits sounds to be ordered on a musical scale
- It is determined primarily by frequency but other physical parameters, such as intensity and duration, can affect this
- The unit of this is the mel
Pitch
A gland, pea sized in humans, that lies at the base of the brain, connected by a stalk (the infundibulum) to the hypothalamus
- The anterior lobe produces and secretes seven hormones - thyroid stimulating hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, corticotropin, growth hormone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, and melanocyte stimulating hormone - in response to releasing hormones from the hypothalamus
- The posterior lobe secretes two hormones, vasopressin and oxytocin, which are synthesized in the hypothalamus and transported down axons in the infundibulum
- This gland’s role of secreting such tropic hormones, which regulate the production of other hormones, has resulted in its designation as the “master gland of the endocrine system”
Pituitary Gland
A pharmacologically inert substance, such as a sugar pill, that is often administered as a control in testing new drugs
- These are generally used in double blind trials and may be dummies, which appear identical in all aspects (eg; dosage form, method of administration) to the active drug under investigation but have no pharmacological activity, or active, which have no therapeutic effect but may produce side effects characteristic of the drug under investigation
Placebo
A group of participants in a study who receive an inert substance (placebo) instead of the active drug under investigation, thus functioning as a neutral condition against which to make comparisons regarding the actual pharmacological effects of the active drug
Placebo Control Group
A clinically significant response to a therapeutically inert substance or nonspecific treatment, based on the recipient’s expectations or beliefs regarding the intervention
- It is now recognized that these accompany the administration of any drug (active or inert) and contribute to the therapeutic effectiveness of a specific treatment
Placebo Effect
Any of various neurons in the hippocampus that fire selectively when an animal is in a particular spatial location or moving toward that location
Place Cell
The specialized organ produced by the mammalian embryo that attaches to the wall of the uterus to permit removal of waste products and to provide nutrients, energy, and gas exchange for the fetus via the maternal circulation
Placenta
The theory that (a) different frequencies stimulate different places along the basilar membrane and (b) pitch is coded by the place of maximal stimulation
- The first proposition is strongly supported by experimental evidence and stems from the fact that the mammalian auditory system shows tonotopic organization
- The second hypothesis remains controversial
Place Theory
A comparison among two or more means in analysis of variance or regression analysis that has been specified prior to the observation of the data
Planned Comparison
The involuntary flexing of the toes of a healthy infant when the sole of the foot is stroked
- This appears around age 2 and replaces the earlier babinski reflex
Plantar Reflex
A region of the superior temporal cortex of brain, adjacent to the primary auditory cortex, that includes part of Wernicke’s area
- In most people it is larger in the left cerebral hemisphere than in the right hemisphere
Planum Temporale
A small patch of abnormal tissue on or within a bodily structure, formed as the result of an accumulation of substances or as the result of localized damage
- Examples of the former type include the senile plaques of Alzheimer’s disease, arising from clumps of beta amyloid protein, and the atheromatous plaques of atherosclerosis, consisting of lipid deposits on the lining of arterial walls
- Examples of the latter type include the demyelination plaques on the protective nerve sheaths of individuals with multiple sclerosis
Plaque
Flexibility and adaptability
- This of the nervous or hormonal systems makes it possible to learn and register new experiences
- Early experiences can also modify and shape gene expression to induce long lasting changes in neurons or endocrine organs
Plasticity
Describing a distribution of scores flatter than a normal distribution, that is, having more scores at the extremes and fewer in the center than in a normal distribution
Platykurtic
Activities that appear to be freely sought and pursued solely for the sake of individual or group enjoyment
- Although this is typically regarded as serving no immediate purpose beyond enjoyment, studies indicate that it contributes significantly to development
- Various types have been described, ranging from locomotor to social to cognitive, and numerous theories about this have been proposed
- Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1895 - 1980), for example, regarded it as advancing children’s cognitive development through mastery, playing games with defined rules (such as hide and seek), and symbolic
- Advocates of the practice theory of this propose that it prepareschildren for activities or roles they will encounter as adults, whereas others suggest that it serves a more immediate function, such as exercise, establishing social relations among peers, or using up excess energy
- Although the preponderance of research on this focuses on the activities of children, this behavior of nonhuman animals is also actively studied
Play
The use of play activities and materials (eg; clay, water, blocks, dolls, puppets, drawing, and finger paint) in child psychotherapy
- These techniques are based on the theory that such activities mirror the child’s emotional life and fantasies, enabling the child to “play out” his or her feelings and problems and to test out new approaches and understand relationships in action rather than words
Play Therapy
Any of various areas of the brain (including areas of the hypothalamus and limbic system) that, upon intracranial self stimulation, have been implicated in producing pleasure
- The existence of pure ones have not been definitively established, particularly because the self stimulation response rate varies according to such factors as the duration and strength of the electrical stimulation
Pleasure Center
The view that human beings are governed by the desire for instinctual gratification, or pleasure, and for the discharge of tension that builds up as pain or “unpleasure” when gratification is lacking
- According to psychoanalytic theory, this is the psychic force that motivates people to seek immediate gratification of instinctual, or libidinal, impulses, such as sex, hunger, thirst, and elimination
- It dominates the ID and operates most strongly during childhood
- Later, in adulthood, it is opposed by the reality principle of the ego
Pleasure Principle
The process of measuring and recording volume or volume changes in organs or body tissues, such as the blood supply flowing through an organ
Plethysmography
The state of affairs in which virtually every member of a group privately rejects what are held to be the prevailing attitudes and beliefs of the group
- Each member falsely believes that these standards are accepted by everyone else in the group
Pluralistic Ignorance
A numerical index reflecting the degree of relationship between two random variables, one continuous and one dichotomous
Point Biserial Correlation Coefficient
A single estimated numerical value of a given population parameter
Point Estimate
The value of a comparison stimulus that, for a given observer, is equally likely to be judged as higher or lower than that of a standard stimulus
Point of Subjective Equality
A difference in electric potential between two surfaces or two sides of one surface because of chemical activity
- This occurs normally in living cells, such as neurons and muscle cells, which maintain a positive charge on one side of the plasma membrane and a negative charge on the other
Polarization
An animal mating system in which a female mates with more than one male but a male mates with only one female
Polyandry
Marriage to more than one spouse at the same time, which is an accepted custom in certain cultures
Polygamy
Relating to two or more genes, as in polygenic inheritance
Polygenic
An attribute that is determined by numerous genes rather than only one
- An example is a person’s height
Polygenic Trait
A device that measures and records several physiological indicators of anxiety or emotion, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and skin conductance or galvanic skin response
- The instrument has been widely used in the interrogation of criminal suspects and in employee screening to measure marked physiological reactions to questions about such issues as theft, sexual deviation, or untruthfulness
- It has been colloquially referred to as a lie detector, although no one has ever documented a close relation between physiological patterns and deceptive behavior
Polygraph
An animal mating system in which females mate with multiple males and males mate with multiple females
Polygynandry
An animal mating system in which a male mates with more than one female but a female mates with only one male
Polygyny
- In biology, the condition of having multiple behavioral or physical types within a species or population
- In some fish species, for example, there are two distinct sizes of males - In genetics, the presence in a population of two or more variants of a gene (ie; alleles) at a given genetic locus
- For example, the variety of human blood groups is due to this of particular genes governing the characteristics of red blood cells
Polymorphism
In the classic psychoanalytic theory of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the response of the human infant to many kinds of normal, daily activities posited to provide sexual excitation, such as touching, smelling, sucking, rocking, defecating, and urinating
Polymorphous Perversity
A class of linear regression models in which one or more of the terms is raised to a power greater than 1 (eg; Yi = B0, + B1X1 + B2Xi2 + B3Xi3 + …)
Polynomial Regression
A molecule consisting of numerous (usually more than 10-20) amino acids linked by peptide bonds
- These are assembled by the cell into proteins
Polypeptide
The recording of various physiological processes (eg; eye movements, brain waves, heart rate, respiration) throughout the night, for the diagnosis of sleep related disorders
Polysomnography
A swelling on the ventral surface of the brainstem between the midbrain and the medulla oblongata
- It serves primarily as a bridge, or transmission structure, between different areas of the nervous system
- It also works with the cerebellum in controlling equilibrium, and with the cerebral cortex in smoothing and coordinating voluntary movements
Pons
A visual illusion in which the upper of two parallel horizontal lines of equal length appears to be longer than the bottom of the two lines when the horizontal lines are flanked by oblique lines that are closer together at the top than they are at the bottom [Mario Ponzo (1882 - 1960), Italian psychologist]
Ponzo Illusion
The estimate of a single common variance achieved by combining several independent estimates of that variance
Pooled Variance
In visual search tasks, a target that is different from the distractors
- One or more basic features will mark this as distinct from the other stimuli, hence allowing the target to be easily detected and identified regardless of the number of distractors
Pop Out
In statistics, a theoretically defined, complete group of objects (people, animals, institutions) from which a sample is drawn in order to obtain empirical observations and to which results can be generalized
Population
A relatively new subfield of psychology that studies the relationships between the characteristics and dynamics of human populations and the attitudes and behavior of individuals and groups
- Representing an interface between psychology and demography, this is particularly concerned with family planning and fertility regulation (ie; reproductive behavior), high population density, and public policy development
- Additional research topics include family formation and structure, migration, urbanization, mortality, and population education
- This also encompasses the conceptualization of specific theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches for the study of population
Population Psychology
The mechanism used in the motor cortex to encode the direction of an intended movement
- The activity in each neuron increases when the intended movement is close to its preferred direction
- The direction of the intended movement is derived from the activity across the population of neurons
Population Vector
The internal feeling state (affect) that occurs when a goal has been attained, a source of threat has been avoided, or the individual is satisfied with the present state of affairs
- The tendency to experience such states is called positive affectivity
Positive Affect
A relationship between two variables in which as the value of one variable increases or decreases the value of the other variable does as well
- For example, people with more years of education tend to have higher incomes
Positive Correlation
- An arrangement whereby some of the output of a system, whether mechanical or biological; is fed back to increase the effect of input signals
- This is rare in biological systems - Acceptance, approval, affirmation, or praise received by a person in response to his or her performance
Positive Feedback
A field of psychological theory and research that focuses on the psychological states (eg; contentment, joy), individual traits or character strengths (eg; intimacy, integrity, altruism, wisdom), and social institutions that enhance subjective well being and make life most worth living
- A manual, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, serves this perspective in a manner parallel to the DSM-IV-TR for the categorization of mental illness
Positive Psychology
Punishment that results because some stimulus or circumstance is presented as a consequence of a response
- For example, if a response results in presentation of a loud noise and the response becomes less likely as a result of this experience, then this has occurred
Positive Punishment
Feelings of warmth, caring, acceptance, and importance expressed by someone toward another
- This is considered necessary for psychological health and the development of a consistent sense of self worth and is also a cornerstone of certain therapeutic approaches, particularly that of U.S. psychologist Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987)
Positive Regard
An increase in the probability of occurrence of some activity because that activity results in the presentation of a desired stimulus or of some desired circumstance
Positive Reinforcement
A form of schizophrenia in which positive symptoms predominate, as evidenced in the person’s bizarre behavior, illogical speech or writing, or expression of hallucinations and delusions
- Although more dramatically evident than negative schizophrenia, the positive aspect is usually less challenging to treat
Positive Schizophrenia
A symptom of schizophrenia that represents an excess or distortion of normal function, as distinct from a deficiency in or lack of normal function
- These include delusions or hallucinations, disorganized behavior, and manifest conceptual disorganization
- These are more dramatic than negative symptoms and are less distinctive of schizophrenia
Positive Symptom
The improvement or enhancement of present learning by previous learning
- For instance, learning to program a digital video recorder could facilitate learning to program a digital telephone
Positive Transfer
A family of philosophical positions holding that all meaningful propositions must be reducible to sensory experience and observation, and thus that all genuine knowledge is to be built on strict adherence to empirical methods of verification
- Its effect is to establish science as the model for all forms of valid inquiry and to dismiss the truth claims of religion, metaphysics, and speculative philosophy
- This was extremely influential in the early development of psychology and continues to be a major force in contemporary psychology
Positivism
A technique used to evaluate cerebral metabolism using radio labeled tracers, such as 2- deoxyglucose labeled with fluorine-18, which emit positions as they are metabolized
- This technique enables documentation of functional changes that occur during the performance of mental activities
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
In models of self concept, a mental representation of what one could become
- These are cognitive manifestations of enduring goals, aspirations, fears, and threats that provide plans and strategies for the future
- They may be positive, providing an image of something to strive for, or negative, providing an image of something to be avoided
Possible Self
A ridge in the parietal lobe of the brain, just behind the central sulcus, that is the site of the primary somatosensory area
Postcentral Gyrus
In Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development, the third and highest level of moral reasoning, characterized by an individuals commitment to moral principles sustained independently of any identification with family, group, or country
- This level is divided into two stages: the earlier social contract orientation, in which moral behavior is that which balances general individual rights with public welfare and democratically agreed upon societal rights; and the later ethical principle orientation, in which moral behavior is based upon self chosen, abstract ethical standards
Postconventional Level
In back of or toward the back
- In reference to two legged upright animals, this term sometimes is used interchangeably with dorsal to mean toward the back surface of the body
Posterior
Adult cognition that includes an understanding of the relative, nonabsolute nature of knowledge; an acceptance of contradiction as a basic aspect of reality; the ability to synthesize contradictory thoughts, feelings, and experiences into more coherent, all encompassing wholes; and the ability to resolve both ill and well defined problems
- It is an extension of the formal operational stage beyond adolescence
Postformal Thought
A comparison among two or more means in analysis of variance or multiple regression analysis that is formulated after the data have been examined
Post Hoc Comparison
An individual’s incapacity to remember what transpired during a period of hypnosis, typically by instruction of the hypnotist
- However, highly susceptible individuals may show spontaneous ones
Posthypnotic Amnesia
A suggestion made to a person under hypnosis and acted upon after awakening from the hypnotic trance
- Usually, the act is carried out in response to a prearranged cue from the hypnotist, and the participant does not know why he or she is performing the act
Posthypnotic Suggestion
A number of related philosophical tendencies that developed in reaction to classical modernism during the late 20th century
- They see the ideal of objective truth that has been a guiding principle in the sciences and most other disciplines since the 17th century as basically flawed: there can be no such truth, only a plurality of “narratives” and “perspectives”
- This emphasizes the construction of knowledge and truth through discourse and lived experience, the similar construction of the self, and relativism in all questions of value
Postmodernism
A major depressive episode that affects women within 4 weeks after childbirth
Postpartum Depression
A broad intellectual movement that developed from French structuralism in the late 1960s and 1970s and is rooted in the structuralist account of language given by Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913), which holds that linguistic signs acquire meaning only through structural relationships with other signs in the same language system
- This endorses the arbitrariness of the sign, but from this basis proceeds to question the whole idea of fixed and determinate meaning, and ultimately the idea of personal identity itself
- In psychology, this is mainly significant because of its influence on the radical psychoanalytical theories of the 1960s and 1970s
- For example, Jacques Lacan (1901 - 1981), who trained and practiced as a psychiatrist, rejected the idea of a stable autonomous ego and reinterpreted the Freudian unconscious in terms of Saussure’s structural linguistics
Poststructuralism
The electric potential at a dendrite or other surface of a neuron after an impulse has reached it across a synapse
- These may be either excitatory or inhibitory
Postsynaptic Potential (PSP)
- A test administered after completion of the principal test or instruction program
- It may be given in conjunction with a pretest to assess comprehension of the content and nature of the main test as well as its effectiveness as an assessment instrument - A test administered after the application of an intervention or control condition
Posttest
A disturbance of memory following a physical injury (eg; a concussion) or a psychologically upsetting experience (eg; sexual abuse)
- The traumatic event itself may be forgotten or events following the trauma may be forgotten
- The period of forgetting may be continuous, or the person may experience vague, incomplete recollections of the traumatic event
Posttraumatic Amnesia
A disorder that results when an individual lives through or witnesses an event in which there is a threat to life or physical integrity and safety and experiences fear, terror, or helplessness
- The symptoms are characterized by (a) reexperiencing the trauma in painful recollections, flashbacks, or recurrent nightmares; (b) emotional anesthesia or numbing, with disinterest in or active avoidance of activities and with feelings of detachment and estrangement from others; and (c) chronic physiological arousal, leading to such symptoms as exaggerated startle response, disturbed sleep, and difficulty in concentrating or remembering
- When the symptoms do not last longer than 4 weeks a diagnosis of acute stress disorder is given instead
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
The position or bearing of the body
- Movements typically involve coordinated changes in this (eg; to maintain balance or distribute forces)
Posture
- The ability of a male to perform sexual intercourse, that is, to maintain an erection and achieve ejaculation
- In pharmacology, see dose response relationship
Potency
- The capacity to develop or come into existence
- Electric potential, measured in volts: a property of an electric field equal to the energy needed to bring unit electric charge from infinity to a given point
- The potential difference between two points is the driving force that causes a current to flow
- Because messages in the nervous system are conveyed by electrochemical potentials, many kinds are of importance in neuroscience and biological psychology, including the action, graded, membrane, postsynaptic, and resting
Potential
- The capacity to influence others, even when they try to resist this influence
- Social type derives from a number of sources: control over rewards and punishments; a right to require and demand obedience; others’ identification with, attraction to, or respect for the powerholder; others’ belief that the powerholder possesses superior skills and abilities; and the powerholder’s access to and use of informational resources - In hypothesis testing, the probability that the null hypothesis will be rejected when it is in fact false and the alternative hypothesis is true
Power
A type of test intended to calculate the participant’s level of mastery of a particular topic under conditions of little or no time pressure
- The test is designed so that items become progressively more difficult
Power Test
The ability to apply one’s intelligence in practical, everyday situations
- In the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence it is the aspect of intelligence that requires adaptation to, shaping of, and selection of new environments
Practical Intelligence
Any change or improvement that results from practice or repetition of task items or activities
- This is of particular concern in experimentation, as the performance of participants on the variable of interest may improve simply from repeating the activity rather than from any manipulation or intervention imposed by the researcher
Practice Effect
The analysis of language in terms of its functional communicative properties (rather than its formal and structural properties, as in phonology, semantics, and grammar) and in terms of the intentions and perspectives of its users
Pragmatics
A philosophical position holding that the truth value of a proposition or a theory is to be found in its practical consequences: if, for example, the hypothesis of God makes people virtuous and happy then it may be considered true
- Although some forms of this emphasize only the material consequences of an idea, more sophisticated positions recognize conceptual and moral consequences
Pragmatism
One of the gestalt principles of organization
- It states that people tend to perceive forms as the simplest and most meaningful, stable, and complete structures that conditions permit
Pragnanz
- A medical name for motor planning, or the brain’s ability to conceive, organize, and carry out a sequence of actions
- Inadequate ones are apraxia - Practice, as opposed to theory
- The term is sometimes used to denote knowledge derived from and expressed chiefly in practical or productive activity, as opposed to theoretical or conceptual knowledge
Praxis
Unconscious mental processing of a stimulus that occurs before attention has focused on this particular stimulus from among the array of those present in a given environment
- An example of this is the disambiguation of the meaning of a particular word from among an array of words present in a given visual stimulus before conscious perception of the word
Preattentive Processing
A ridge in the frontal lobe of the brain, just in front of the central sulcus, that is crucial for motor control, being the site of the primary motor cortex
Perceptual Gyrus
The particular factor, sometimes a traumatic or stressful experience, that is the immediate cause of a mental or physical disorder
Precipitating Cause
A measure of accuracy
- In statistics, an estimate with a small standard error is regarded as having a high degree of this
Precision
In parapsychology, the purported ability to see or experience future events through some form of extrasensory perception
- In a test of this, the participant would be asked to predict the outcome of a future set of trials involving Zener cards or similar stimulus materials
Precognition
- In the classical psychoanalytic theory of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the level of the psyche that contains thoughts, feelings, and impulses not presently in awareness, but which can be more or less readily called into consciousness
- Examples are the face of a friend, a verbal cliché, or the memory of a recent event - Denoting or relating to thoughts, feelings, and impulses at this level of the psyche
Preconscious
In Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development, the first level of moral reasoning, characterized by the child’s evaluation of actions in terms of material consequences
- This level is divided into two stages: the earlier punishment and obedience orientation, in which moral behavior is that which avoids punishment; and the later naive hedonism (or instrumental relativist) orientation, in which moral behavior is that which obtains rewards or serves one’s needs
Preconvential Level
An attempt to foretell what will happen in a particular case, generally on the basis of past instances or accepted principles
- In science, the use of this and observation to test hypotheses is a cornerstone of the empirical method
- However, by their very nature, the theories, constructs, and explanatory models current in psychology are not always open to direct validation or falsification in this way
Prediction
An index of har well A test correlates with a variable that is measured in the future, at some point after the test has been administered
- For example, this of a test designed to predict the onset of a disease would be calculated by the extent to which it was successful at identifying those individuals who did, in fact, later develop that disease
Predictive Validity
A variable or other information used to estimate future events or circumstances
- In personnel selection, for example, obvious ones used to estimate an applicant’s future job performance include qualifications, relevant work experience, and job specific skills such as the ability to type or speak a particular language
Predictor
A factor that increases the probability that a mental or physical disorder or hereditary characteristic will develop but is not the immediate cause of it
Predisposing Cause
A susceptibility to developing a disorder or disease, the actual development of which is initiated by the interaction of certain biological, psychological, or environmental factors
Predisposition
A method for assessing the perceptual capabilities of nonverbal human infants and animals
- Infants will preferentially fixate a “more interesting” stimulus when it is presented at the same time as a “less interesting” stimulus, but only if the stimuli can be distinguished from one another
- To minimize bias, on each trial the investigator is positioned so that he or she can observe the infant and make a judgement about which stimulus the infant fixates, but the stimuli themselves are visible only to the infant
Preferential Looking Technique
The most anterior (forward) part of the cerebral cortex of each frontal lobe in the brain
- It functions in attention, planning, working memory, and the expression of emotions and appropriate social behavior and is divided into a dorsolateral region and an orbitofrontal region
Prefrontal Cortex
The furthest forward area of each cerebral hemisphere of the brain, which is concerned with such functions as memory and learning, emotion, and social behavior
Prefrontal Lobe
- A negative attitude toward another person or group formed in advance of any experience with that person or group
- These include an affective component (emotions that range from mild nervousness to hatred), a cognitive component (assumptions and beliefs about groups, including stereotypes), and a behavioral component ((negative behaviors, including discrimination and violence)
- They tend to be resistant to change because they distort this individual’s perception of information pertaining to the group
- This based on racial grouping is racism; this based on sex is sexism - Any preconceived attitude or view, whether favorable or unfavorable
Prejudice
Denoting or relating to the period of an infant’s life before it has acquired the power of speech
- This period includes the earliest infant vocalizations as well as the babbling stage typical of the second half of the first year
- Holophrases usually emerge around the time of the child’s first birthday
Prelinguistic
The view that the opportunity to engage in behavior with a relatively high baseline probability will reinforce behavior of lower baseline probability
- For example, a hungry rat may have a high probability of eating but a lower probability of pressing a lever
- Making the opportunity to eat depend on pressing the lever will result in reinforcement of lever pressing [David Premack (1925 - ), U.S. psychologist
Premack’s Principle
A sexual dysfunction in which male orgasm occurs with minimal sexual stimulation, before, on, or shortly after penetration or simply earlier than desired
- The diagnosis takes into account such factors as age, novelty of the sexual partner, and the frequency and duration of intercourse
Premature Ejaculation
A state of underdevelopment, particularly the birth of a baby before it has completed the full gestational period of a normal pregnancy
Prematurity
A mood disorder in women that begins in the week prior to the onset of menstruation and subsides within the first few days of menstruation
- Women experience markedly depressed mood, anxiety, feelings of helplessness, and decreased interest in activities
- In contrast to premenstrual syndrome, the symptoms must be severe enough to impair functioning in social activities, work, and relationships
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder
A collection of psychological and physical symptoms experienced by women during the week prior to the onset of menstruation and subsiding within the first few days of menstruation
- Symptoms can include mood swings, irritability, fatigue, headache, bloating, abdominal discomfort, and breast tenderness
- In contrast to the more severe premenstrual dysphoric disorder, this has a less distinctive pattern of symptoms and does not involve major impairment in social and occupational functioning
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
A proposition forming part of a larger argument: a statement from which a further statement is to be deduced, especially as one of a series of such steps leading to a conclusion
Premise
In the theory of moral development proposed by Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 - 1980), the stage at which young children (under the age of 5) are unaware of rules as cooperative agreements, that is, they are unable to distinguish right from wrong
Premoral Stage
Characterizing an individuals condition before the onset of a disease or disorder
Premorbid
An area of the motor cortex concerned with motor planning, or the ability to conceive, organize, and carry out a sequence of actions
- In contrast to the supplementary motor area, input to this is primarily visual, and its activity is usually triggered by external events
Premotor Area
Prior to birth: pertaining to that which exists or occurs between conception and birth
Prenatal
A state of being self absorbed and “lost in thought”
Preoccupation
An adult attachment style that combines a negative internal working model of attachment of oneself, characterized by doubt in one’s own competence and efficacy, and a positive internal working model of attachment of others, characterized by one’s trust in the ability and dependability of others
Preoccupied Attachment
The second major period in the Piagetian Theory of cognitive development, approximately between the ages of 2 and 7, when the child becomes able to record experience in a symbolic fashion and to represent an object, event, or feeling in speech, movement, drawing, and the like
- During the later two years of this, egocentrism diminishes noticeably with the emerging ability to adopt the point of view of others
Preoperational Stage
A region of the hypothalamus lying above and slightly anterior to the optic chiasm
- Nuclei here are involved in temperature regulation and in the release of hypothalamic hormones
Preoptic Area
A species specific and innate tendency to quickly learn a certain type of knowledge
- Some associations between stimuli, responses, and reinforcers may be more easily formed due to biological preparedness
- For examples, animals readily associate foods with illness, and it has been suggested that humans learn certain phobias more readily due to preparaness
Prepared Learning
A genetically influenced predisposition for certain stimuli to be more effective than others in eliciting particular responses
- For example, flavors may be more effective as stimuli in establishing a conditioned taste aversion than are colors of lights
Preparedness
The gradual diminution of hearing acuity associated with aging
Presbycusis
A normal, age related change in vision due to decreased lens elasticity and accommodative ability, resulting in reduced ability to focus vision on near tasks (eg; reading)
Presbyopia
A symptom or problem (eg; anxiety, insomnia) that is offered by a client or a patient as the reason for seeking treatment
- In psychotherapy, such symptoms may become the focus of treatment or may represent a different, underlying problem that is not recognized or regarded by the client as requiring help
Presenting Symptom
Excessive or stressful demands made on an individual to think, feel, or act in particular ways
- The experience of this is often the source of cognitive and affective discomfort or disorder, as well as of maladaptive coping strategies, the correction of which may be a mediate or end goal in psychotherapy
Pressure
Visually responsive regions in the cerebral cortex outside the striate cortex
- On the basis of function and connectivity, this has been divided into multiple visual areas
Prestriate cortex
- A preliminary test or trial run to familiarize the person or group tested with the content and nature of a particular test
- It may be given in conjunction with a posttest - A trial run administered before the application of an intervention or control condition
Pretest
The total number of cases (eg; of a disease or disorder) existing in a given population at a given time (point type) or during a specified period (period type)
Prevalence
Behavioral, biological, or social interventions intended to reduce the risk of disorders, diseases, or social problems for both individuals and entire populations
Prevention
A self conscious emotion that occurs when a goal has been attained and one’s achievement has been recognized and approved by others
- It differs from joy and happiness in that these emotions do not require the approval of others for their existence
- This can become antisocial if the sense of accomplishment is not deserved or the reaction is excessive
Pride
The tendency for facts, impressions, or items that are presented first to be better learned or remembered than material presented later in the sequence
- This can occur in both formal learning situations and social contexts
- For example, it can result in a first impression bias, in which the first information gained about a person has an inordinate influence on later impressions and evaluations of that person
Primacy Effect
In psychoanalytic theory, the child’s first observation of parental intercourse
Primal Scene
Any of the seven unitary factors proposed in the early 20th century to be essential components of intelligence: verbal ability, word fluency, numerical ability, spatial intelligence, memory, perceptual speed, and reasoning
Primary Ability
Changes associated with normal aging that are inevitable and caused by intrinsic biological or genetic factors
- Examples include the appearance of gray hair and skin wrinkles
- However, some age related diseases have genetic influences, making the distinction between this and secondary aging imprecise
Primary Aging
The first region of the cerebral cortex that receives auditory (sound) input, analyzing and processing information from the medial geniculate nucleus in the thalamus
- Located on the upper side of the temporal lobe, this is equivalent to Brodmann’s Area 41 and encompasses Heschl’s gyrus
- It displays both frequency selectivity and tonotopic organization, and is critical to the discrimination and localization of sounds
- Neurons in this predominantly project to Wernicke’s Area
Primary Auditory Cortex (A1)
The basic or general health care a patient receives when he or she first seeks assistance from a health care system
- General practitioners, family practitioners, internists, obstetricians, and pediatricians are known as primary care providers (PCPs)
Primary Care
In Piagetian Theory, a type of repetitive action that represents the earliest nonreflexive infantile behavior
- For example, in the first months of life, a hungry baby may repeatedly attempt to put a hand in the mouth
- These develop in the sensorimotor stage, following the activation of such reflexes as sucking, swallowing, crying, and moving the arms and legs
Primary Circular Reaction
Any of the regions of the cerebral cortex that receive the main input from sensory receptors or send the main output to muscles
- Examples are primary motor cortex, primary visual cortex, primary taste cortex, and the primary somatosensory area
- Most neurons in primary sense regions have more direct sensory input than do neurons in adjacent sensory cortical regions
Primary Cortex
An innate drive, which may be universal or species specific, that is created by deprivation of a needed substance (eg; food) or the need to engage in a specific activity (eg; nest building in birds)
Primary Drive
In psychoanalytic theory, any of various basic psychological benefits derived from possessing neurotic symptoms, essentially relief from anxiety generated by conflicting impulses or threatening experiences
Primary Gain
Any of the small, long term groups characterized by face to face interaction and high levels of cohesion, solidarity, and group identification
- These groups are primary in the sense that they are the initial socializers of the individual members, providing them with the foundation for attitudes, values, and a social orientation
- Families, partnerships, and long term psychotherapy groups are examples of such groups
Primary Group
Research and programs, designed for and directed to nonclinical populations or populations at risk, that seek to promote and lay a firm foundation for mental, behavioral, or physical health so that psychological disorders, illness, or disease will not develop
Primary Prevention
In psychoanalytic theory, unconscious mental activity in which there is free, uninhibited flow of psychic energy from one idea to another
- Such thinking operates without regard for logic or reality, is dominated by the pleasure principle, and provides hallucinatory fulfillment of wishes
- Examples are the dreams, fantasies, and magical thinking of young children
- These processes are posited to predominate in the ID
Primary Process
- In operant conditioning, the process in which presentation of a stimulus or circumstance following a response increases the future probability of that response, without the need for special experience with the stimulus or circumstance
- That is, the stimulus or circumstance functions as effective reinforcement without any special experience or training - The contingent occurrence of such a stimulus or circumstance after a response
Primary Reinforcement
Any area within the neocortex of the brain that acts to receive sensory input - for most senses, from the thalamus
- This for hearing is in the temporal lobe, for vision in the occipital lobe, and for touch and taste in the parietal lobe
Primary Sensory Area
An area of the cerebral cortex, located in a ridge of the anterior parietal lobe just posterior to the central sulcus, where the first stage of cortical processing of tactile information takes place
- It receives input from the ventroposterior nuclear complex of the thalamus and projects to other areas of the parietal cortex
Primary Somatosensory Area (S1)
The area of cerebral cortex that is the first cortical relay for taste
- Located along the sharp bend that includes the frontal operculum laterally and the anterior insula medially, it receives taste, touch, visceral, and other sensory inputs from the thalamus and permits an integrated evaluation of a chemical
- Its output goes to regions that control oral and visceral reflexes in response to foods
Primary Taste Cortex
A member of the primates, an order of mammals that includes the lemurs, monkeys, apes, and humans
- Characteristics of the order include an opposable thumb (ie; a thumb capable of touching other digits), a relatively large brain, and binocular vision
- The young are usually born singly and mature over an extended period
Primate
The effect in which recent experience of a stimulus facilitates or inhibits later processing of the same or a similar stimulus
- In repetition type, presentation of a particular sensory stimulus increases the likelihood that participants will identify the same or a similar stimulus later in the test
- In semantic type, presentation of a word or sign influences the way in which participants interpret a subsequent word or sign
Priming
A statistical technique in which the interrelationship among many correlated variables can be completely reproduced by a smaller number of new variables (called principal components) that are mutually orthogonal and ordered in terms of the percentage of the total system variance for which they account
- Often, most of the total variance can be captured in the first few principal components
- This technique is similar in its aims to factor analysis but has different technical features
Principal Component Analysis
In game theory investigations of competition and cooperation, a situation in which each participant must choose between a self beneficial course of action that could be costly for the other players and an action that would bring a smaller individual payoff but would lead to some benefits for all the players
- The name derives from a police tactic, used when incriminating evidence is lacking, in which two suspects are separated and told that the one who confesses will go free or receive a light sentence
- This has implications for social exchange theory and the study of social dilemmas
Prisoner’s Dilemma
- The right to control (psychologically and physically) others’ access to one’s personal world, for example by regulating others’ input through use of physical or other barriers (eg; doors, partitions) and by regulating one’s own output in the form of communication with others
- The right of patients and other consumers to control the amount and disposition of the information they divulge about themselves
Privacy
Spontaneous self directed talk in which a person “thinks aloud,” particularly as a means of regulating cognitive processes and guiding behavior
- In the theorizing of Russian psychologist Lev Semenovich Vygotsky (1896 - 1934), this is considered equivalent to egocentric speech
Private Speech
Absence of something needed or desired, particularly something required to satisfy essential physiological needs, such as those for food and sleep
- It is distinct from deprivation, which involves the initial presence and then removal of such requirements or wants
Privation
Confidential information, especially as provided by an individual to a professional in the course of their relationship, that may not be divulged to a third party without the knowledge and consent of that individual
- This protection applies to communications not only between patients and physicians, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, or other healthcare professionals, but also between clients and attorneys, confessors and priests, and spouses
Privileged Communication
(Symbol: p)
The degree to which an event is likely to occur
Probability
A curve that specifies, by the areas below it, the probability that a random variable occurs at a particular point
- The best known example is the Bell shaped normal distribution
Probability Distribution
The p value for a particular statistical test in significance testing
- It indicates the likelihood of obtaining the observed effect if there is indeed no real effect in nature (ie; of falsely rejecting the null hypothesis and thus committing a Type I error)
- Small p values suggest that the chance of experimental results mistakenly being attributed to the independent variables present in the study (instead of the actual random factors responsible) is small
Probability Level
The family member whose possible genetic disease or disorder forms the center of the investigation into the extent of the illness in the family
Proband
A follow up question in an interview, survey, or other type of research that is designed to ascertain additional information or explore in depth a topic previously introduced
Probe
A form of regression analysis for a dichotomous dependent variable
- In this model an observable independent variable is thought to affect a latent continuous variable that determines the probability that a dichotomous event will occur
Probit Analysis
A type of self report scale listing various personal, social, educational, or vocational problems
- The participant indicates the items that apply to his or her situation
Problem Checklist
A type of coping strategy that is directed toward decreasing or eliminating stressors, for example, by generating possible solutions to a problem
Problem Focused Coping
The process by which individuals attempt to overcome difficulties, achieve plans that move them from a starting situation to a desired goal, or reach conclusions through the use of higher mental functions, such as reasoning and creative thinking
- In laboratory studies, many animals display these strategies, such as the win stay, lose shift strategy, which allows an animal to solve a new problem quickly, based on whether the first response was successful or unsuccessful
Problem Solving
The set of all possible paths to the solution of a given problem
Problem Space
Long term memory for the skills involved in particular tasks
- This is demonstrated by skilled performance and is often separate from the ability to verbalize this knowledge
- Knowing how to type or skate, for example, requires this
Procedural Memory
A sequence of steps or actions delineating the manner in which a study is to be conducted or has been conducted
Procedure
The period during mating behavior when females actively solicit males for copulation
- This is distinguished from the more passive receptivity to indicate the female’s active role in mating
Proceptivity
In the social psychology of groups, any action, operation, or dynamic that prevents the group from reaching its full potential, such as reduced effort (social loafing), inadequate coordination of effort, poor communication, or ineffective leadership
Process Loss
A form of schizophrenia that begins early in life, develops gradually, is believed to be due to endogenous (biological or physiological) rather than environmental factors, and has a poor prognosis
- Psychosocial development before the onset of the disorder is poor; individuals are withdrawn, socially inadequate, and indulge in excessive fantasies
Process Schizophrenia
An individual, typically a child, who displays unusual or exceptional talent or intelligence, quite often in a discrete area of expertise, such as mathematics, music, or chess
- They do not always develop into accomplished adults: there appears to be an important transition between the two, and only a proportion of these successfully negotiate this transition
Prodigy
An early symptom or symptoms of a mental or physical disorder
- This frequently serves as a warning or premonitory sign that may, in some cases, enable preventative measures to be taken
- Examples are the auras that often precede epileptic seizures or migraine headaches and the headache, fatigue, dizziness, and insidious impairment of ability that often precede a stroke
Prodrome
In problem solving, failure to find the right or best strategy for completing a task (even, sometimes, after successful instruction), as opposed to failure in implementing it
Production Deficiency
The capacity to produce goods and services having exchange value
- Vocational rehabilitation programs often use this of people with disabilities as a major measure of the effectiveness of the programs
Productivity
A statistic that indexes the degree of linear relationship between two variables
- Invented by British statistician Karl Pearson (1857 - 1936), it is often known as Pearson’s r
Product Moment Correlation
A hormone that stimulates proliferation of the endometrium (lining) of the uterus required for implantation of an embryo
- If implantation occurs, this continues to be secreted, maintaining the pregnant uterus and preventing further release of egg cells from the ovary
- It also stimulates development of milk secreting cells in the breasts
Progesterone
A prediction of the future course, duration, severity, and outcome of a condition, disease, or disorder
Prognosis
The orderly death and disposal of surplus tissue cells, which occurs as part of tissue remodeling during development, or of worn out and infected cells, which occurs throughout life
Programmed Cell Death
A learning technique, used for self instruction and in academic and some applied settings, in which the material is presented in a series of sequential, graduated steps, or frames
- The learner is required to make a response at each step: if the response is correct, it leads to the next step; if it is incorrect, it leads to further review
Programmed Instruction
A technique in which the individual is trained to relax the entire body by becoming aware of tensions in various muscle groups and then relaxing one muscle group at a time
- In some cases, the individual consciously tenses specific muscles or muscle groups and then releases tension to achieve relaxation throughout the body
Progressive Relaxation
The process by which one attributes one’s own individual positive or negative characteristics, affects, and impulses to another person or group
- This is often a defense mechanism in which unpleasant or unacceptable impulses, stressors, ideas, affects, or responsibilities are attributed to others
- For example, the defense mechanism of this enables a person conflicted over expressing anger to change “I hate him” to “he hates me”
Projection
Any personality assessment procedures that consists of a fixed series of relatively ambiguous stimuli designed to elicit unique, sometimes highly idiosyncratic, responses
- Examples of this type of procedure are the Rorschach inkblot test, the thematic apperception test, and various sentence completion and word association tests
- These are quite controversial, with opinions ranging from the belief that personality assessment is incomplete without data from at least one or more of these procedures to the view that such techniques lack reliability and validity and that interpretations of personality organization and functioning derived from them are hypothetical and unscientific
Projective Technique
Rapid reproduction or multiplication, particularly of new or diseased cells
- Both benign and malignant tumors, for instance, experience a high rate of cell division and growth
Proliferation
Transient, casual sexual relations with a variety of partners
- In humans, this type of behavior is generally regarded unfavorably; however, in many other animal species females appear to display this to prevent certainty of paternity but often mate with the most dominant or successful male at the time when conception is most likely
Promiscuity
The geographic nearness of two or more people to each other, an element in the formation of close relationships
Propinquity
In statistics, a relationship between two variables in which one changes in constant ratio to another
- Two variables are directly proportional if x = ay, where a is a constant
- They are inversely proportional if x = a/y
Proportionality
The sense of body movement and position, resulting from stimulation of specialized receptors called proprioceptors located in the muscles, tendons, and joints and of specialized vestibular receptors in the labyrinth of the inner ear
- This enables the body to determine its spatial orientation without visual clues and to maintain postural stability
Proprioception
Denoting or exhibiting behavior that benefits one or more other people, such as providing assistance to an older adult crossing the street
Prosocial
The pattern of stress, rate, intonation, or rhythm of speech
Prosody
Remembering to do something in the future, such as taking one’s medicine later
- This contrasts with retrospective memory, or remembering past events
Prospective Memory
Research that is planned before the data have been collected; that is, research that starts with the present and follows subjects forward in time, as in randomized experiments and in longitudinal research
Prospective Research
A method for determining which subjects or cases to include in experiments or other research that selects cases on the basis of their exposure to a risk factor
- Participants are then followed in order to see if the condition of interest develops
- A study design using this method is referred to as a prospective study
Prospective Sampling
A variable or clearly defined behavior that promotes relative healthiness and wellbeing because it is associated with a decreased probability that a particular disease or disorder will develop or because it reduces the severity of an existing pathological condition
- For example, exercising regularly can serve as this by decreasing the likelihood or severity of coronary heart disease, hypertension, and depression
- Likewise, supportive social networks and positive coping skills are examples of these that help alleviate depression and anxiety and enhance mental health generally
Protective Factor
A molecule that consists of a long chain polymer of amino acids
- These are involved in virtually every function performed by a cell; they are the principal building blocks of living organisms and, in the form of enzymes, the basic tools for construction, repair, and maintenance
Protein
Any of a class of substances secreted into the bloodstream that regulates processes in distant target organs and tissues and that consists of a long chain polymer of amino acids
- Examples are growth hormone and insulin
Protein Hormone
The original notes of a study or experiment recorded during or immediately after a particular session or trial, particularly as recorded from participant’s verbalizations during the process
Protocol
A methodology in which people are encouraged to think out loud as they perform some task
- Transcripts of these sessions (protocols) are then analyzed to investigate the cognitive processes underlying performance of the task
Protocol Analysis
In the formation of concepts, the best or average exemplar of a category
- For example, the prototypical bird is some kind of mental average of all the different kinds of birds of which a person has knowledge or with which a person has had experience
Prototype
The study of interpersonal spatial behavior
-This is concerned with territoriality, interpersonal distance, spatial arrangements, crowding, and other aspects of the physical environment that affect behavior
Proxemics
- Situated near or directed toward the trunk or center of an organism
- Near, or mostly closely related, to the point of reference or origin
Proximal
The physical energy from a stimulus as it directly stimulates a sense organ or receptor, in contrast to the distal stimulus in the actual environment
- In reading, for example, the distal stimulus is the print on the page of a book, whereas this is the light energy reflected by the print that stimulates the photoreceptors of the retina
Proximal Stimulus
The most direct or immediate cause of an event
- In a sequence of occurrences, it is the one that directly produces the effect
- For example, the proximate cause of Smith’s aggression may be an insult, but the remote cause may be Smith’s early childhood experiences
Proximate Cause
An explanation for behavior in terms of physiological mechanisms or developmental experiences, rather than in terms of the adaptive value of the behavior
Proximate Explanation
One of the gestalt principles of organization
- It states that people tend to organize objects close to each other into a perceptual group and interpret them as a single entity
Proximity
From the central to the peripheral
- The term typically is used in the context of maturation to refer to the tendency to acquire motor skills from the center outward, as when children learn to move their heads, trunks, arms, and legs before learning to more their hands and feet
Proximodistal
Deterioration or impairment of cognitive functions in the absence of neurological disorder or disease
- The condition may occur, reversibly, in a major depressive episode - particularly among older adults - or as a psychological symptom of factitious disorder
Pseudodementia
An approach to understanding or analyzing the mind or behavior that utilizes unscientific or fraudulent methods
- Examples include palmistry, phrenology, and physiognomy
Pseudopsychology
- The Greek letter, ¥, often used to symbolize psychology
- The phenomena or alleged phenomena studied by parapsychology, including extrasensory perception, precognition, and psychokinesis
Psi
An indolealkylamine hallucinogen that is the principal psychoactive compound in “magic mushrooms” of the genus Psilocybe
- Psilocybin, first isolated in 1958, differs from this only in having an additional phosphate group; it is rapidly metabolized in the body and converted to this
Psilocin
In psychology, the mind in its totality, as distinguished from the physical organism
- The term had earlier been used to refer to the soul or the very essence of life
Psyche
A public or private institution providing a wide range of diagnostic techniques and treatment to individuals with mental disorders on an inpatient basis
Psychiatric Hospital
A physician who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and study of mental and emotional disorders
- In the United States, education for this profession consists of 4 years of premedical training in college; a 4 year course in medical school, the final 2 years of which are spent in clerkships studying with physicians in at least five specialty areas; and a 4 year residency in a hospital or agency approved by the American Medical Association
Psychiatrist
The medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of personality, behavioral, and mental disorders, based on the premise that biological causes are at the root of mental and emotional problems
- Training for this includes the study of psychopathology, biochemistry, psychopharmacology, neurology, neuropathology, psychology, psychoanalysis, genetics, social science, and community mental health, as well as the many theories and approaches advanced in the field itself
Psychiatry
The medical specialty concerned with the study, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of personality, behavioral, and mental disorders, based on the premise that biological causes are at the root of mental and emotional problems
- Training for this includes the study of psychopathology, biochemistry, psychopharmacology, neurology, neuropathology, psychology, psychoanalysis, genetics, social science, and community mental health, as well as the many theories and approaches advanced in the field itself
Psychiatry
- Denoting phenomena associated with the mind
- Denoting a class of phenomena, such as telepathy and clairvoyance, that appear to defy scientific explanation
- The term is also applied to any putative powers, forces, or faculties associated with such phenomena - A medium, sensitive, or other person with alleged paranormal abilities
Psychic
The position, associated particularly with Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), that mental (psychic) events do not occur by Chance but always have an underlying cause that can be uncovered by analysis
Psychic Determinism
In psychoanalytic theory, the dynamic force behind all mental processes
- According to Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the basic sources of this energy are the instincts or drives that are located in the ID and seek immediate gratification according to the pleasure principle
- Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) also believed that there is a reservoir of this, but objected to Freud’s emphasis on the pleasurable gratification of biological instincts and emphasized the means by which this energy is channeled into the development of the personality and the expression of cultural and spiritual values
Psychic Energy
Any of a group of drugs that have significant effects on psychological processes, such as thinking, perception, and emotion
- These include those taken recreationally to produce an altered state of consciousness (eg; hallucinogens) and therapeutic agents designed to ameliorate a mental condition (eg; antidepressants, antipsychotics)
- These are often referred to as psychotropic drugs in clinical contexts
Psychoactive Drug
An approach to the mind, psychological disorders, and psychological treatment originally developed by Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) at the beginning of the 20th century
- The hallmark of this is the assumption that much of mental activity is unconscious and, consequently, that understanding people requires interpreting the unconscious meaning underlying their overt, or manifest, behavior
- This focuses primarily, then, on the influence of such unconscious forces as repressed impulses, internal conflicts, and childhood traumas on the mental life and adjustment of the individual
- The foundations on which classic type rests are: (a) the concept of infantile sexuality; (b) the Oedipus complex; (c) the theory of instincts; (d) the pleasure principle and the reality principle; (e) the threefold division of the psyche into the ID, ego, and superego; and (f) the central importance of anxiety and defense mechanisms in neurotic reactions
- This as a form of therapy is directed primarily to psychoneuroses, which it seeks to eliminate by bringing about basic modifications in the personality
- This is done by establishing a constructive therapeutic relationship, or transference, with the analyst, which enables him or her to elicit and interpret the unconscious conflicts that have produced the neurosis
- The specific methods used to achieve this goal are free association, dream analysis, analysis of resistances and defenses, and working through the feelings revealed in the transference process
Psychoanalysis
A therapist who has undergone special training in psychoanalytic training and practice and who applies the techniques developed by Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) to the treatment a mental disorders
- This involves a thorough study of the works of Freud and others in the field, supervised clinical training, a training analysis, and a personal program of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalyst
The diverse complex of assumptions and constructs underlying the approach known as psychoanalysis
- Classically - and properly - the term focuses specifically on the formulations of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), but it may also be taken to include such subsequent offshoots and counter approaches as analytic psychology, individual psychology, object relations theory, and others that are based on psychodynamic theory
Psychoanalytic Theory
- A school of thought in the mental health professions in which the individual is viewed as a holistic unit and both normal and abnormal behavior are explained in terms of the interaction of biological, sociological, and psychological determinants
- A rare synonym for biological psychology
Psychobiology
A technique of psychotherapy in which clients achieve new insight and alter undesired patterns of behavior through acting out roles or incidents
- The process involves: (a) a protagonist, or client, who presents and acts out his or her emotional problems and interpersonal relationships; (b) trained auxiliary egos, who play supportive roles representing significant individuals in the dramatized situations; and (c) a director, or therapist, who guides this process and leads an interpretive session when it is completed
Psychodrama
A handbook for the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders that attempts to characterize an individual’s personality and the full range of his or her emotional, social, and interpersonal functioning
- Published in 2006, by a task force of various major psychoanalytical organizations, the PDM is meant to serve as a complement to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and the ICD (International Classification of Diseases)
Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM)
Those forms of psychotherapy, falling within or deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition, that view individuals as reacting to unconscious forces (eg; motivation, drive), that focus on processes of change and development, and that place a premium on self understanding and making meaning of what is unconscious
- Most psychodynamic approaches share common features, such as emphasis on dealing with the unconscious in treatment, emphasis on the role of analyzing transference, and the use of dream analysis and interpretation
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
A constellation of theories of human functioning that are based on the interplay of drives and other forces within the person, especially (and originating in) the psychoanalytic theories developed by Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) and his colleagues and successors, such as Anna Freud (1895 - 1982), Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), and Melanie Klein (1882 - 1960)
- Later ones, while retaining concepts of the interworking of drives and motives to varying degrees, moved toward the contemporary approach, which emphasizes the process of change and incorporates interpersonal and transactional perspectives of personality development
Psychodynamic Theory
Resulting from mental factors
- The term is used particularly to denote or refer to a disorder that cannot be accounted for by any identifiable organic dysfunction and is believed to be due to psychological factors (eg; a conversion disorder)
- In psychology and psychiatry, these disorders are improperly considered equivalent to functional disorders
Psychogenic
The application of psychoanalytic theory to the study of historical figures, events, and movements
Psychohistory
The alleged ability to control external events and move or change the shape of objects through the power of thought
- Examples include the supposed ability of certain psychics to influence the roll of dice or to bend a piece of metal by exerting “mind over matter”
Psychokinesis
A branch of psychology that employs formal linguistic models to investigate language use and the cognitive processes that accompany it
- In particular, the models of generative grammar proposed by U.S. linguist Noam Chomsky (1928 - ) and others have been used to explain and predict language acquisition in children and the production and comprehension of speech by adults
- To this extent this is a specific discipline that can be distinguished from the more general area of psychology of language, which encompasses many other fields and approaches
Psycholinguistics
The gathering and integration of data in order to evaluate a person’s behavior, abilities, and other characteristics, particularly for the purposes of making a diagnosis or treatment recommendation
- Psychologists assess diverse psychiatric problems (eg; anxiety, substance abuse) and nonpsychiatric concerns (eg; intelligence, career interests) across a range of areas, including clinical, organizational, health, and forensic settings
- Assessment data may be gathered through various methods, such as interviews, observation, projective techniques, standardized tests, physiological or psychophysiological measurement devices, or other specialized procedures and apparatuses
Psychological Assessment
An analysis that is conducted following a person’s death in order to determine his or her mental state prior to death
- These are often performed when a death occurs in a complex or ambiguous manner and are frequently used to determine if a death was the result of suicide
Psychological Autopsy
Reliance on a psychoactive substance for the reinforcement it provides, such as relief from tension
- It has been suggested that reinforcement is the driving force behind drug addiction, and that tolerance and physical dependence are co occurring but not essential related phenomena
Psychological Dependence
In the social psychology of German born U.S. psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890 - 1947), the individual’s life space or environment as he or she perceives it at any given moment
Psychological Field
- A theory, usually including a mechanism for predicting psychological outcomes, intended to explain specific psychological processes
- A representation of human cognitive and response characteristics used to approximate and evaluate the performance of an actual individual in a complex situation, such as a novel aircraft cockpit
Psychological Model
Any need that is essential to mental health or that is otherwise not a biological necessity
- It may be generated entirely internally, as in the need for pleasure, or it may be generated by interactions between the individual and the environment, as in the need for social approval, justice, or job satisfaction
- These comprise the four higher levels of Maslow’s Motivational Hierarchy
Psychological Need
Any standardized instrument, including scales and self report inventories, used in measuring behavior, emotional functioning, intelligence and cognitive abilities (reasoning, comprehension, abstract thinking, etc), aptitudes, attitudes, values, interests, personality characteristics, or other attributes of interest to psychologists
Psychological Test
A broad class of activities designed to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of soldiers and civilians with regard to military operations
- Such activities include attempts to bolster the attitudes and morale of one’s own people as well as to change or undermine the attitudes and morale of an opposing army or civilian population
Psychological Warfare
Any position or theoretical perspective that holds one or more of the following: (a) that the rules of logic are reflective of the way the mind works, so that logic is persuasive only because it “fits” the working of the mind; (b) that truth is established by verifying the correspondence of external facts to ideas in the mind; (c) that epistemological questions can be answered by an understanding of the laws by which the mind works; and (d) that the meanings of words are established by the ideas corresponding to them
- The term is generally employed as a criticism of particular approaches or theories on the grounds that such positions make psychological processes that are accidental and contingent the foundation of knowledge
Psychologism
An individual who is professionally trained in the research, practice, or teaching (or all three) of one or more branches or subfields of psychology
- Training is obtained at a university or a school of professional psychology, leading to a doctoral degree in philosophy (PhD), psychology (PsyD), or education (EdD)
- They work in a variety of settings, including laboratories, schools, colleges, universities, social agencies, hospitals, clinics, the military, industry and business, prisons, the government, and private practice
- The professional activities of them are also varied but can include psychological counseling, health care services, educational testing and assessment, research, teaching, and business and organizational consulting
Psychologist
- The study of the mind and behavior
- Historically, this was an area of philosophy
- It is now a diverse scientific discipline comprising several major branches of research (eg; experimental, biological, cognitive, developmental, personality, and social), as well as several subareas of research and applied type (eg; clinical, industrial and organizational, school and educational, human factors, health, neuro, cross cultural)
- Research in this involves observation, experimentation, testing, and analysis to explore the biological, cognitive, emotional, personal, and social processes or stimuli underlying human and animal behavior
- The practice of this involves the use of psychological knowledge for any of several purposes: to understand and treat mental, emotional, physical, and social dysfunction; to understand and enhance behavior in various settings of human activity (eg; school, workplace, courtroom, sports arena, battlefield, ect); and to improve machine and building design for human use - The supposed collection of behaviors, traits, attitudes, and so forth that characterize an individual or a group (eg; the psychology of women)
Psychology
- Of or relating to psychometrics
- Of or relating to psychophysics
Psychometric
The psychological theory and technique (eg; the science and process) of mental measurement
Psychometrics
Relating to movements or motor effects that result from mental activity
Psychomotor
Restless physical and mental activity that is inappropriate for its context
- It includes pacing, hand wringing, and pulling or rubbing clothing and other objects and is a common symptom of both major depressive episodes and manic episodes
Psychomotor Agitation
A slowing down or inhibition of mental and physical activity, manifest as slow speech with long pauses before answers, slowness in thinking, and slow body movements
- This is a common symptom of major depressive episodes
Psychomotor Retardation
The study of how the brain and behavior affect immune responses
Psychoneuroimmunology
Of or relating to psychonomics, the science that seeks to identify laws governing the mind through an emphasis on quantitative measurement, experimental control, and operational definitions
Psychonomic
- The scientific study of mental disorders, including theory, etiology, progression, symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment
- The term in this sense is sometimes used synonymously with abnormal psychology - The behavioral or cognitive manifestations of such disorders
- The term in this sense is sometimes considered synonymous with mental disorder itself
Psychopathology
A former term for a personality trait marked by egocentricity, impulsivity, and lack of such emotions as guilt and remorse
Psychopathy
The study of the influence of drugs on mental, emotional, and behavioral processes
- This is concerned primarily with the mode of action of various substances that affect different areas of the brain and nervous system, including drugs of abuse
Psychopharmacology
The use of pharmacological agents in the treatment of mental disorders
- For example, acute or chronic schizophrenia is created by administration of antipsychotic drugs or other agents
- Although such drugs do not cure mental disorders, they may - when used appropriately - produce significant relief from symptoms
Psychopharmacotherapy
Of or relating to the relationship between physical stimuli and mental events
Psychophysical
A relationship between a stimulus and judgements about the stimulus, as expressed in a mathematical formula
- In the method of constant stimuli, for example, it is the proportion of “yes” responses (ie; that the stimulus was perceived) as a function of physical magnitude of the stimuli
Psychophysical Function
Any of the standard techniques used in investigating psychophysical problems, such as the method of adjustment and the method of limits
Psychophysical Method
Any of the procedures used to construct scales relating physical stimulus properties to perceived magnitude
- Methods are often classified as direct or indirect, based on whether the observer directly judges magnitude
Psychophysical Scaling
A branch of psychology that studies the relationship between the objective physical characteristics of a stimulus (eg; its measured intensity) and the subjective perception of that stimulus (eg; its apparent brightness)
Psychophysics
The study of the relation between the chemical and physical functions of organisms (physiology) and cognitive processes, emotions, and behavior (psychology)
Psychophysiology
In the classic psychoanalytic theory of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the step by step growth of sexual life from infancy through adulthood as it affects personality development
- Freud posited that the impetus for this stems from a single energy source, the libido, which is concentrated in different organs throughout the process and produces the various psychosexual stages: the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and genital stage
- Each stage gives rise to its own characteristic erotic activities (eg; sucking and biting in the oral stage), which may persist in characteristic tendencies is sexual development is arrested in a fixation at one particular stage
Psychosexual Development
- An abnormal mental state involving significant problems with reality testing and characterized by serious impairments or disruptions in the most fundamental higher brain functions - perception, cognition and cognitive processing, and emotions or affect - as manifested in behavioral phenomena, such as delusions, hallucinations, and significantly disorganized speech
- Historically, any severe mental disorder that significantly interferes with functioning and ability to perform activities essential to daily living
Psychosis
Describing the intersection and interaction of social and cultural influences on mental health, personality development, and behavior
Psychosocial
- According to the theory of German born U.S. psychologist Erik Erikson (1902- 1994), personality development as a process influenced by social and cultural factors throughout the life span
- The development of normal social behavior, both prosocial behavior (eg; cooperation) and negative (eg; aggressive) behavior
- This involves changes not only in children’s overt behavior but also in their social cognition
- For example, they become able to take the perspective of others and to understand that other people’s behavior is based on their knowledge and desires
Psychosocial Development
Characterizing an approach based on the belief that the mind (psyche) plays a role in all the diseases affecting the various bodily systems (soma)
Psychosomatic
A type of disorder in which psychological factors are believed to play an important role in the origin or course (or both) of the disease
Psychosomatic Disorder
The treatment of a mental disorder by surgical removal or destruction of selective brain areas
- The most well known example of this is prefrontal lobotomy, historically used particularly for schizophrenia but also a variety of other disorders
- This was most popular from 1935 to 1960 and is among the most controversial of all psychiatric treatments ever introduced
- Contemporary approaches are far more precisely targeted and confined in extent than the early techniques, employing high tech imaging and a variety of highly controllable methods of producing minute lesions
- Additionally, they are used only as a last resort and only for a handful of specific psychiatric disorders - major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder - that have been resistant to other available therapies
Psychosurgery
Any psychological service provided by a trained professional that primarily uses forms of communication and interaction to assess, diagnose, and treat dysfunctional emotional reactions, ways of thinking, and behavior patterns of an individual, family, or group
- There are many types of this, but generally they fall into four major categories: psychodynamic therapy, cognitive or behavior therapy, humanistic therapy, and integrative therapy
- The psychotherapist is an individual who has been professionally trained and licensed (in the United States by a state board) to treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders by psychological means
Psychotherapy
Of, relating to, or affected by psychosis or a psychotic disorder
Psychotic
Any one of a number of severe mental disorders, regardless of etiology, characterized by gross impairment in reality testing
- The accuracy of perceptions and thoughts is incorrectly evaluated, and incorrect inferences are made about external reality, even in the face of contrary evidence
- Specific symptoms indicative of these are delusions, hallucinations, and markedly disorganized speech, thought, or behavior; individuals may have little or no insight into their symptoms
Psychotic Disorder
A dimension of personality in the typology developed by German born British psychologist Hans Eysenck (1916 - 1997), characterized by aggression, impulsivity, aloofness, and antisocial behavior
Psychoticism
The stage of development when the genital organs reach maturity and secondary sex characteristics begin to appear, signaling the start of adolescence
- It is marked by ejaculation of sperm in the male, onset of menstruation and development of breasts in the female, and, in both males and females, growth of pubic hair and increasing sexual interest
Puberty
The period or process of reaching puberty
Pubescence
A large reference book that contains hundreds of guidelines on how to present written material in the behavioral and social sciences clearly and effectively
- Based on the special requirements of psychology but applicable to sociology, business, economics, nursing, social work, criminology, and other disciplines as well, the Publication Manual describes the editorial style established by the American Psychological Association (APA) and used in all of the books and journals that it publishes (ie; APA style)
- In addition to guidance on the content and organization of a manuscript, the Publication Manual offers direction in such areas as grammar and the mechanics of writing, the uniform use of punctuation and abbreviations, the construction of tables and figures, the selection of headings, the citation and formatting of references, and the presentation of statistics
- The forerunner of the Publication Manual was a brief article published in the February 1929 issue of the APA journal Psychological Bulletin that discussed instructions for the preparation of journal manuscripts
- A revised and expanded version of these instructions was published as a first edition of the Publication Manual in 1952, as a supplement to an article in the Psychological Bulletin
- The second edition was published in 1974, the third edition in 1983, and the fourth in 1994; APA released the current fifth edition in 2001
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
A theory of evolution proposing that periods of rapid change, resulting in the development of new species, are separated by longer periods of little or no change
Punctuated Equilibrium
In operant conditioning, the process in which the relationship, or contingency, between a response and some stimulus or circumstance results in the response becoming less probable
- For example, a pigeon’s pecks on a key may at first occasionally be followed by presentation of food; this will establish some probability of pecking
- Next, each peck produces a brief electric shock (while the other conditions remain as before)
- If pecking declines as a result, then this is said to have occurred, and the shock is called a punisher
Punishment
The aperture through which light passes on entering the eye
- It is located immediately in front of the lens
- The size of the opening is controlled by a circle of muscle (the iris) innervated by fibers of the autonomic nervous system
Pupil
The automatic change in size of the pupil in response to light changes
- The pupil constricts in response to bright light and dilates in dim light
Pupillary Reflex
A type of auditory agnosia in which an individual is unable to understand spoken language but can comprehend nonverbal sounds and read, write, and speak in a relatively normal manner
- The syndrome is considered “pure” in the sense that it is relatively free of the language difficulties encountered in the aphasias
Pure Word Deafness
The activity of expelling food that has just been ingested, usually by vomiting or the use of laxatives
- This often occurs in conjunction with an eating binge in anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa; its purpose is to eliminate or reduce real or imagined weight gain
Purging
A type of large, highly branched cell in the cerebellar cortex of the brain that receives incoming signals about the position of the body and transmits signals to spinal nerves for coordinated muscle actions [Johannes Evangelista Purkinje (1787 - 1869), Czech physiologist and physician]
Purkinje Cell
A part of the lenticular nucleus in the basal ganglia of the brain
- It receives input from the motor cortex and is involved in control of movements
Putamen
A consequence or reaction in which the expectations of a leader or superior lead to behavior on the part of followers or subordinates that is consistent with these expectations: a form of self fulfilling prophecy or expectancy effect
- For example, raising manager expectations regarding the performance of subordinate employees has been found to enhance the performance of those employees
Pygmalion Effect
A type of large neuron that has a roughly pyramid shaped cell body and is found in the cerebral cortex
Pyramidal Cell
The primary pathway followed by motor neurons that originate in the motor area of the cortex, the premotor area, and the somatosensory area
- Fibers of this cross in the pyramid of the medulla oblongata and communicate with fibers supplying the peripheral muscles
- This includes the corticospinal tract, and the two terms are occasionally used synonymously
Pyramidal Tract
A pear shaped region of the rhinencephalon, at the base of the medial temporal lobe of the brain, that forms part of the olfactory cortex
Pyriform Area
An impulse control disorder characterized by (a) repeated failure to resist impulses to set fires and watch them burn, without monetary, social, political, or other motivations; (b) an extreme interest in fire and things associated with fire; and (c) a sense of increased tension before starting the fire and intense pleasure, gratification, or release while committing the act
Pyromania
