T Flashcards
A presentation of data in the form of an ordered arrangement of overlaid vertical columns and horizontal rows
- As with a graph, the purpose of this is to communicate information (either in words or numerical values) in a concise, space efficient manner that can be assessed at a glance and interpreted easily
- The columns have headings (the leftmost column is referred to as the stub column)
- The intersection of a column and row is called a cell
- These are often accompanied by explanatory notes
Table
A religious, moral, or social convention prohibiting a particular behavior, object, or person
Taboo
Knowledge that is informally acquired rather than explicitly taught (eg; knowledge of social rules) and allows a person to succeed in certain environments and pursuits
- It is stored without self reflective awareness and therefore not easily articulated
- Practical intelligence requires a facility for acquiring this
Tacit Knowledge
Loss or impairment of the ability to recognize and understand the nature of objects through touch
- Several distinct subtypes have been identified, including amorphagnosia, impaired recognition of the size and shape of objects; ahylognosia, impaired recognition of such object qualities as weight and texture; and finger agnosia, impaired recognition of one’s own or another person’s fingers
Tactile Agnosia
A false perception involving the sense of touch
- These sensations occur in the absence of any external stimulus and may include itching, feeling electric shocks, and feeling insects biting or crawling under the skin
Tactile Hallucination
The ability to perceive objects or judge sensations through the sense of touch
- The term often refers to judgements of spatial stimulation of the skin and patterns imposed on the skin
- This may also involve judging sensory events involving stimulation of the skin, for example, the thermal properties of a liquid
Tactile Perception
An innate skin or ability, or an aptitude to excel in one or more specific activities or subject areas, that cannot be accounted for by normal development patterns
Talent
A gradual reduction in the dose of a drug in order to avoid undesirable effects that may occur with rapid cessation
- Such effects may be extreme (eg; conversions) or relatively mild (eg; head pain, mild gastrointestinal distress)
- Drugs that produce physiological dependence (eg; opiates, benzodiazepines) must be tapered to prevent a withdrawal symptom
Tapering
The 1976 California supreme court decision in Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, which placed limits on a client’s right to confidentiality by ruling that mental health practitioners who know or reasonably believe that a client poses a threat to another person are obligated to protect the potential victim from danger
- Depending on the circumstances, that protection may involve such actions as warning the potential victim, notifying the police of the potential threat posed by the client, or both
Tarasoff Decision
A movement disorder associated with the use of antipsychotics, particularly conventional antipsychotics that act primarily as dopamine receptor antagonists
- Symptoms include tremor and spasticity of muscle groups, especially those of the face
- Onset is insidious and may be masked by continued use of the antipsychotic, only appearing when the drug is discontinued or the dose lowered
- It is more common with prolonged use and no effective treatment is known
Tardive Dyskinesia
The breakdown of a complex task into component tasks to identify the different skills needed to correctly complete the task
- For example, in organizational settings, a job may be broken down into the skills, knowledge, and specific operations required
Task Analysis
The sense devoted to the detection of molecules dissolved in liquid (also called gustation), or the sensory experience resulting from perception of gustatory qualities (eg; sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness)
- Dissolved molecules are delivered to these receptors - taste cells - on the tongue, soft palate, larynx, and pharynx
- This combines with smell, texture, and appearance to generate a sense of flavor
Taste
A goblet shaped structure, 30 x 50 um, about 6,000 of which occur in the human mouth
- Each one is a collection of about 50 taste cells arranged like sections of an orange
- At its apex is a taste pore through which each taste cell sends a slender, hairlike extention (microvillus) studded with receptor proteins to sample the environment
Taste Bud
A receptor cell for gustatory stimuli
- Each has a slender, hairlike extension (microvillus) that protrudes from the opening in the taste bud
- Humans have about 300,000 of these, though the number can vary across individuals, and there are about 50 cells per taste bud
- These can be divided into four anatomical types: Type I cells comprise 60% of the total, Type II cells 20%, Type III cells 15%, and Type IV cells 5%
- All but Type IV cells may be involved in taste transduction
Taste Cell
The science of classification - for example the biological one that groups organisms into a hierarchical system of ranks in ascending order: species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, and kingdom) - or any scheme of classification itself
Taxonomy
A disorder due to a deficiency of the enzyme hexosaminidase A, resulting in the accumulation of Gm2 gangliosides in all tissues
- This process gradually destroys the brain and nerve cells by altering the shape of neurons
- Development is normal until the 6th month of infancy, after which there is a deterioration of motor, visual, and cognitive abilities
- Death usually occurs between 3 and 5 years of age
Tay-Sachs Disease (TSD)
A theoretical probability distribution that plays a central role in testing hypotheses about population means among other parameters
- It is the sampling distribution of the statistic (M - uo)/s, where uo is the population mean of the population from which the sample is drawn, M is the data estimate of the mean of the population, and s is the standard deviation of the batch of scores
T Distribution
Part of the organ of corti in the cochlea
- It consists of a semigelatinous membrane in which the stereocilia of the outer hair cells are embedded
Tectorial Membrane
The roof of the midbrain, dorsal to the cerebral aqueduct
- This contains the superior colliculi, which act as relay and reflex centers for the visual system, and the inferior colliculi, which are sensory centers for the auditory system
Tectum
The central core of the midbrain and pons
- It contains sensory and motor tracts passing through the midbrain, the subthalamic nucleus, and several other nuclei
Tegmentum
Condensed or abbreviated speech in which only the most central words, carrying the highest level of information, are spoken
- Nouns and verbs are typically featured, while adjectives, adverbs, articles, and connective parts of speech are omitted
- It is typical of children roughly between the ages of 18 and 30 months, usually in the form of two word expressions up to the age of about 24 months (two word stage) and short but multi word expressions (eg; dog eat bone) thereafter
Telegraphic Speech
The process of measuring and transmitting quantitative information to a remote location, where it can be recorded and interpreted
- For example, a small radio transmitter may be implanted inside an animal to measure general activity level as well as a variety of physiological variables, including body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure
- This transmitter sends signals to a receiver located outside the animal
Telemetry
The position that certain phenomena are best understood and explained in terms of their purposes rather than their causes
- In psychology, its proponents hold that mental processes are purposive, that is, directed toward a goal
- The view that behavior is to be explained in terms of ends and purposes is frequently contrasted with explanations in terms of causes, such as instincts and conditioned responses
Teleology
The alleged direct communication of information from one mind to another, in the absence of any known sensory means of transmission
- It is a form of extrasensory perception
Telepathy
The basic foundation of personality, usually assumed to be biologically determined and present early in life, including such characteristics as energy level, emotional responsiveness, demeanor, mood, response tempo, and willingness to explore
Temperament
- Of or pertaining to time or its role in some process
- Relating or proximal to the temple, as in temporal lobe
Temporal
A type of neural plotting of the precise timing of the points of maximum intensity (“spikes”) between action potentials
- It can provide valuable additional detail to information obtained through simple rate coding
Temporal Coding
A procedure in Pavlovian conditioning in which the unconditioned stimulus is presented at regular intervals but in the absence of an accompanying conditioned stimulus
Temporal Conditioning
One of the four main lobes of each cerebral hemisphere in the brain, lying immediately below the lateral sulcus on the lower lateral surface of each hemisphere
- It contains the auditory projection and auditory association areas and also areas for higher order visual processing and for memory formation
Temporal Lobe
A memory disorder, secondary to injury of the temporal lobe (particularly medial structures, such as the hippocampus), that prevents the formation of new memories
Temporal Lobe Amnesia
A neural mechanism in which an impulse is propagated by two successive postsynaptic potentials (PSPs), neither of which alone is of sufficient intensity to cause a response
- The partial depolarization caused by the first one continues for a few milliseconds and is able, with the additive effect of the second one, to produce an above threshold depolarization sufficient to elicit an action potential
Temporal Summation
A proposed physiological and behavioral stress regulatory system in females, in which tending involves nurturant activities designed to protect the self and offspring, to promote a sense of safety, and to reduce distress, and befriending is expressed in the creation and maintenance of social networks that aid in this process
- This model has been characterized as a human stress response in females that is secondary to the classic fight or flight response
- Neuroendocrinal evidence from animal and human research suggests an underlying physiological mechanism mediated by oxytocin and moderated by female sex hormones and opioid peptide mechanisms
Tend and Befriend Response
A personality trait characterized by intellectualism, idealism, optimism, dogmatism, religiousness, and monism
Tender Mindedness
- A feeling of physical and psychological strain accompanied by discomfort, uneasiness, and pressure to seek relief through talk or action
- The force resulting from contraction or stretching of a muscle or tendon
Tension
An agent that induces developmental abnormalities in a fetus
- The process that results in such abnormal developments is called teratogenesis; a teratomorph is a fetus or offspring with developmental abnormalities
Teratogen
A rapid decline in cognitive abilities immediately before death
- The cognitive abilities that appear to be most prone to this are those least affected by normal aging
Terminal Drop
The defense by an animal of a specific geographic area (its territory) against intrusion from other members of the same species
- This is observed in a wide range of animals and is found most often where there are specific defensible resources, such as a concentration of food or shelter
- This is also extended to humans, denoting behavior associated with the need or ability to control and regulate access to a space, which reflects feelings of identity derived from use of and attachment to a familiar place
Territoriality
Systematic intimidation or coercion to attain political or religious objectives using unlawful and unpredictable force or violence against property, persons, or governments
Terrorism
A theory proposing that control of death related anxiety is the primary function of society and the main motivation in human behavior
- Individual self esteem and a sense of being integrated into a powerful human culture are regarded as the most effective ways for human beings to defend themselves against the frightening recognition of their own mortality
Terror Management Theory
Highly specialized care given to patients who are in danger of disability or death
- This often requires sophisticated technologies provided by highly specialized practitioners and facilities, for example, neurologists, neurosurgeons, thoracic surgeons, and intensive care units
Tertiary Care
In the Piagetian theory of cognitive development, an infant’s action that creatively alters former schemes to fit the requirements of new situations
- These emerge toward the end of the sensorimotor stage, at about the beginning of the 2nd year; they differ from earlier behaviors in that the child can, for the first time, develop new schemes to achieve a desired goal
Tertiary Circular Reaction
Intervention and treatment for individuals or groups with already established psychological or physical conditions, disorders, or diseases
- These interventions include attempts to minimize negative effects, prevent further disease or disorder related to complications, prevent relapse, and restore the highest physical or psychological functioning possible
Tertiary Prevention
- A standardized set of questions or other items designed to assess knowledge, skills, interests, or other characteristics of an examinee
- A set of operations, usually statistical in nature, designed to determine the validity of a hypothesis
Test
The degree to which a hypothesis or theory is capable of being evaluated empirically
Testability
A group or series of related tests administered at one time to obtain a comprehensive assessment of a particular factor or phenomenon (eg; intelligence, language skill)
- Scores may be recorded separately or combined to yield a single score
Test Battery
In studies of recognition memory, the phenomenon whereby taking an initial test improves subsequent memory performance in a later recall test
Testing Effect
The principal reproductive organ in males, a pair of which is normally located in the scrotum
- The testes produce sperm in the seminiferous tubules (spermatogenesis) and male sex hormones (androgens) in interstitial cells
Testis
A male sex hormone and the most potent of the androgens produced by the testes
- It stimulates the development of male reproductive organs, including the prostate gland, and secondary sex characteristics, such as beard, bone, and muscle growth
- Women normally secrete small amounts of this from the adrenal cortex and ovary
Testosterone
The numerical result of a statistical test, which is used to evaluate the viability of a hypothesis
- Common examples are the value of t in the T test and the value of Z in the Z test
Test Statistic
Describing individuals who have taken a number of tests and are therefore more adept at taking them than those who are relatively new to the testing process
Test Wise
One of a number of cannabinoids occurring in the cannabis plant that is the agent principally responsible for the psychoactive properties of cannabis
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
The progressively finer appearance of textures and surface grains of objects as the viewer moves away from them
Texture Gradient
Training group: a type of experiential group, usually of up to a dozen or so people, concerned with fostering the development of “basic skills” such as effective leadership and communication, and attitude change
- Although the term is sometimes used synonymously with encounter group, in this group less emphasis is placed on personal growth and more sensitivity training and practical interpersonal skills
T Group
A mass of gray matter, forming part of the diencephalon of the brain, whose two lobes form the walls of the third ventricle
- It consists of a collection of sensory, motor, autonomic, and associational nuclei, serving as a relay for nerve impulses traveling between the spinal cord and brainstem and the cerebral cortex
Thalamus
The study of death and death related behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and phenomena
- Death was mostly the province of theology until the 1960s, when existential thinkers and a broad spectrum of care providers, educators, and social and behavioral scientists became interested in death related issues
Thanatology
The personification of death and the brother of Hypnos (sleep) in Greek mythology, whose name was chosen by Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) to designate a theoretical set of strivings oriented toward the reduction of tension and life activity
- In Freud’s dual instinct theory, this is seen as evolved in a dialetic process with Eros (love), the striving toward sexuality, continued development, and heightened experience
Thanatos
A two step procedure for enhancing compliance that consists of presenting an initial, large request and then, before the person can respond, immediately reducing it to a more modest target request that is made more attractive by offering some additional benefit
- Compliance with the target request is greater following the initial request than would have been the case if the target request had been presented on its own
That’s Not All Technique
A projective test in which participants are held to reveal their altitudes, feelings, conflicts, and personality characteristics in the oral or written stories they make up about a series of relatively ambiguous black and white pictures
- Systematic coding schemes have been developed to assess different aspects of personality functioning derived from these stories, including motivation for achievement, power, affiliation, and intimacy; gender identity; defense mechanisms; and mental processes influencing interpersonal relations
- This is one of the most frequently used and researched tests in psychology, particularly in clinical settings for diagnosis, personality description, and assessment of strengths and weakness in personality functioning
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- A principle or body of interrelated principles that purports to explain or predict a number of interrelated phenomena
- In the philosophy of science, a set of logically related explanatory hypotheses that are consistent with a body of empirical facts and that may suggest more empirical relationships
Theory
The ability to imagine or make deductions about the mental states of other individuals: what does the other individual know? What actions is that individual likely to take?
- This is an essential component of attributing beliefs, intentions, and desires to others, specifically in order to predict their behavior
Theory of Mind
A theory that resembles the theory of reasoned action but also incorporates the construct of perceived behavioral control
- That is, the extent to which a person believes behavior is under his or her active control is added to attitude toward behavior and subjective norms (perceived expectations) as the antecedents influencing both the intention to perform a behavior and the performance of the behavior itself
Theory of Planned Behavior
The theory that attitudes toward a behavior and subjective norms (perceived expectations) regarding a behavior determine a person’s intention to perform that behavior
- Intentions are in turn assumed to cause the actual behavior
Theory of Reasoned Action
Any model of cognitive development that combines neonativism and constructivism, proposing that cognitive development progresses by children generating, testing, and changing theories about the physical and social world
Theory Theory
- Pertaining to therapeutics, the branch of medical science concerned with the treatment of diseases and disorders and the discovery and application of remedial agents or methods
- Having beneficial or curative effects
Therapeutic
A cooperative working relationship between client and therapist, considered by many to be an essential aspect of successful therapy
- Derived from the concept of the psychoanalytic working alliance, this comprises bonds, goals, and tasks
- Bonds are constituted by the core conditions of therapy, the client’s attitude toward the therapist, and the therapist’s style of relating to the client; goals are the mutually negotiated, understood, agreed upon, and regularly reviewed aims of the therapy; and tasks are the activities carried out by both client and therapist
Therapeutic Alliance
A setting for individuals requiring therapy for a range of psychosocial problems and disorders that is based on an interpersonal, socially interactive approach to treatment, both among residents and among residents and staff (ie; “community as method or therapy”)
- The term covers a variety of short and long term residential programs as well as day treatment and ambulatory programs
Therapeutic Community
An individual who has been trained in and practices one or more types of therapy to treat mental or physical disorders or diseases: often used synonymously with psychotherapist
Therapist
Remediation of physical, mental, or behavioral disorders or diseases
Therapy
A receptor or sense organ that is activated by temperature stimuli (eg; cold or warm stimuli)
Thermoreceptor
In philosophy, the first stage of a dialetical process: a proposition that is opposed by an antithesis, thereby generating a new proposition referred to as a synthesis
- The synthesis serves as this for the next phase of the ongoing process
Thesis
In electroencephalography, a type of brain wave with a frequency of 4-7 Hz
- These are observed in the REM sleep of animals, stage 2 sleep in humans, and in the drowsiness state of newborn infants, adolescents, and young adults
- These are also recorded in trances, hypnosis, and deep daydreams
Theta Wave
Cognitive behavior in which ideas, images, mental representations, or other hypothetical elements of thought are experienced or manipulated
- In this sense this includes imagining, remembering, problem solving, daydreaming, free association, concept formation, and many other processes
- This may be said to have two defining characteristics: (a) it is covert, that is, it is not directly observable but must be inferred from behavior or self reports; and (b) it is symbolic, that is, it seems to involve operations on mental symbols or representations, the nature of which remains obscure and controversial
Thinking
A tendency for a person to expect that others are more strongly influenced by (ie; respond to and take action as a result of) a persuasive communication in the mass media than himself or herself
- This has been studied extensively and is of particular interest in politics, social policy, and health psychology
- It generally is explained in terms of a desire for self enhancement: people are motivated to reinforce their positive self images and thus are unrealistically optimistic in comparing themselves to others
- Negative attitudes towards the media generally may also play a role
Third Person Effect
The fact that an observed correlation between two variables may be due to the common correlation between each of the variables and a third variable rather than because the two variables have any underlying relationship (in a causal sense) with each other
Third Variable Problem
A trade name for chlorpromazine
Thorazine
A disturbance in the cognitive processes that affects communication, language, or thought content
- This is considered by some to be the most important mark of schizophrenia, but these are also associated with mood disorders, dementia, mania, and neurological diseases (among others)
Thought Disorder
The skill of using a physical or cognitive cue to stop negative thoughts and redirect them to a neutral or positive orientation
- This skill is taught in some behavior therapies, when the therapist shouts “stop!” to interrupt a trend toward undesirable thoughts and trains clients to apply this technique to themselves
Thought Stopping
The attempt to control the content of one’s mental processes and specifically to rid oneself of undesired thoughts or images
Thought Suppression
A condition that is appraised as a danger to one’s self or well being or to a group
Threat
Any of various ritualized animal communication signals used to indicate that attack or aggression might follow
- Examples are fluffed out fur or feathers, certain facial expressions or body postures, and low frequency vocalizations (eg; growls)
- The use of ritualized ones can minimize direct physical aggression to the benefit of both individuals
Threat Display
A psychometric model of intelligence based on a factorial reanalysis of several hundred data sets available in the literature
- The three strata respond to (a) minor group factors at the first (lowest) level, (b) major group factors at the second level (fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, general memory and learning, broad visual perception, broad auditory perception, broad retrieval ability, broad cognitive speediness, and processing speed), and (c) the general factor at the third (highest) level
Three Stratum Model of Intelligence
- In psychophysics, the magnitude of a stimulus that will lead to its detection 50% of the time
- The minimum intensity of a stimulus that is necessary to evoke a response
- For example, an auditory threshold is the slightest perceptible sound and an excitatory threshold is the minimum stimulus that triggers an action potential in a neuron
Threshold
The presence or formation of a blood clot (thrombus) in a blood vessel
- This is likely to develop where blood flow is impeded by disease, injury, or a foreign substance
Thrombosis
An endocrine gland forming a shieldlike structure on the front and sides of the throat, just below the thyroid cartilage
- It produces the iodine containing thyroid hormones (thyroxine and triiodothyronine) in response to thyroid stimulating hormone from the anterior pituitary gland
- C cells (parafollicular cells) in the thyroid produce the hormone calcitonin, which controls levels of calcium and phosphate in the blood
Thyroid Gland
A sudden, involuntary contraction of a small group of muscles (motor) or vocalization (vocal) that is recurrent, nerrhythmic, and stereotyped
- These may be psychogenic in origin; alternatively, they may occur as an adverse effect of a medication or other substance or result from a head injury, neurological disorder, or general medical condition
Tic
The perceptual attribute relating to the quality of a sound
- Two perceptually different sounds with the same pitch and loudness differ in this
- This is determined primarily by the sound spectrum but also is affected by temporal and intensive characteristics
Timbre
An analysis of industrial operations or other complex tasks into their component steps, observing the time required for each
- Such studies may serve a number of different purposes, enabling an employer to set performance targets, increase productivity, rationalize pay rates and pricing policy, reduce employee fatigue, and prevent accidents
Time and Motion Study
A type of quasi experimental research in which participants of the same age are compared at different time periods
- For example, one of these of intelligence might compare a group of people who were 20 years old in 2005 with groups who were 20 years in 2006, 2007, and 2008
- Used in examining human developmental processes, these have the benefit of controlling for time of testing effects but the drawbacks of low internal validity and the difficulty in separating cohort effects from age effects
Time Lag Design
A technique, originating in behavior therapy, in which undesirable behavior is weakened and its occurrence decreased by moving the individual away from the area that is reinforcing the behavior
- For example, a child may be temporarily removed from an area when misbehaving
- The technique is used in schools and by parents to decrease the undesirable behavior by isolating the misbehavior for a period
Time Out
A strategy commonly used in direct observation that involves noting and recording the occurrence of a target behavior whenever it is seen during a stated time interval
- The process may involve fixed time periods (eg; every 5 minutes) or random time intervals
- For example, a researcher may observe a group of children for 10 seconds every 5 minutes for a specific 30 minute period each day, noting the occurrence or nonoccurrence of particular behaviors
- Observations taken during these periods are known as time samples
Time Sampling
A set of measures on a single attribute measured repeatedly over time
Time Series
An experimental design that involves the observation of units (eg; people or countries) over a defined time period
Time Series Design
A theoretical paradigm that describes adult psychosocial development as occurring relatively flexibly often unexpectedly) in response to particular life events
- A midlife crisis, for example, might be triggered at any time within a broad age spectrum between 35 and 65 years as a response to a particular event in a person’s life (eg; the death of a parent or spouse; a forced retirement) rather than occur invariably during a more specified period (eg; 40-45 years)
Timing of Events Model
Noises in one or both ears, including ringing, buzzing, or clicking sounds
Tinnitus
The experience of attempting to retrieve from memory a specific name or word but not being able to do so: the fact is ordinarily accessible and seems to hover tantalizingly on the rim of consciousness
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon
A technique used in determining the optimum dose of a drug needed to produce a desired effect in a particular individual
- The dosage may be either gradually increased until a noticeable improvement is observed in the patient or adjusted downward from a level that is obviously excessive because of unwanted adverse effects
Titration
A maze shaped like the letter T and consisting of a start box and stem leading to a choice between left and right arms, one being incorrect while the other leads to the goal box
- More complicated mazes can be formed by joining several of these in sequence
T Maze
In behavior therapy, a program, sometimes conducted in an institutional setting (eg; a hospital or classroom), in which desired behavior is reinforced by offering tokens that can be exchanged for special foods, television time, passes, or other rewards
Token Economy
- A condition, resulting from persistent use of a drug, characterized by a markedly diminished effect with regular use of the same dose of the drug or by a need to increase the dose markedly over time to achieve the same desired effect
- This is one of the two prime indications of physical dependence on a drug, the other being a characteristic withdrawal syndrome - Acceptance of others whose actions, beliefs, physical capabilities, religion, customs, ethnicity, nationality, and so on differ from one’s own
Tolerance
A technique for revealing the detailed structure of a tissue or organ through a particular plane that involves the compilation of a series of images taken from multiple perspectives
- Examples include computed and positron emission
Tomography
In linguistics, a phonetic variable along the dimension of pitch
- In a tonal language, such as Mandarin or Thai, differences in this are sufficient to mark a distinction between words that are otherwise pronounced identically
- In English, different patterns of intonation distinguish between different types of utterance, such as statements and questions
Tone
Of or relating to muscle tone, especially a state of continuous muscle tension or contraction, which may be normal (tonus) or abnormal
- For example, this phase of facial muscles prevents the lower jaw from falling open, a normal function
- Abnormally, in this phase of a tonic clonic seizure, the muscles controlling respiration may undergo tonic spasm, resulting in a temporary suspension of breathing
Tonic
A seizure characterized by both tonic and clonic motor movements (it was formerly known as a grand mal seizure)
- In the tonic phase the muscles go into spasm and the individual falls to the ground unconscious; breathing may be suspended
- This is followed by the clinic phase, marked by rapidly alternating contraction and relaxation of the muscles, resulting in jaw movements (the tongue may be bitten) and urinary incontinence
Tonic Clonic Seizure
The fundamental principle that different frequencies stimulate different places within structures of the mammalian auditory system
- This organization begins in the cochlea, where different frequencies tend to cause maximal vibration at different places along the basilar membrane and thus stimulate different hair cells
- The hair cells are discretely innervated, and thus different auditory nerve fibers respond to a relatively limited range of frequencies
- This frequency to place mapping is preserved in the auditory cortex
Tonotopic Organization
Information processing that proceeds from a hypothesis about what a stimulus might be: a person’s higher level knowledge, concepts, or expectations influence the process of lower level information
- Typically, perceptual or cognitive mechanisms use this when information is familiar and not especially complex
Top Down Processing
A revered animal, plant, natural force, or inanimate object that is conceived as the ancestor, symbol, protector, or tutelary spirit of a people, clan, or community
- It is usually made the focus of certain ritual activities and taboos, typically against killing or eating it
Totem
A personality trait characterized by empiricism, materialism, skepticism, and fatalism
Tough Mindedness
A disorder characterized by many motor tics and one or more vocal tics, such as grunts, yelps, barks, sniffs, and in a few cases an irresistible urge to utter obscenities
- The tics occur many times a day for more than a year, and the age of onset for the disorder is before 18 years
Tourette’s Disorder
The capacity of a substance to produce toxic (poisonous) effects in an organism
- This generally is related to the size of the dose per body weight of the individual, expressed in terms of milligrams of chemical per kilogram of body weight
- It also may be expressed in terms of the median lethal dose
Toxicity
A procedure in Pavlovian conditioning in which a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus are separated by a constant interval, with the conditioned stimulus presented first
Trace Conditioning
The process of following a moving object with the eyes or using eye movements to follow a path of some kind
Tracking
- A bundle or group of nerve fibers within the central nervous system
- The name of this typically indicates its site of origin followed by its site of termination; for example, the reticulospinal tract runs from the reticular formation of the brainstem to the spinal cord - A series of organs that as a whole accomplishes a specific function (eg; the digestive tract)
Tract
Psychoanalysis of a trainee analyst
- Its purpose is not only to provide training in the concepts and techniques of psychoanalysis, but also to increase insight into personal sensitivities or other emotional reactions that might interfere with the process of analyzing patients in the form of a countertransference
Training Analysis
- An enduring personality characteristic that describes or determines an individual’s behavior across a range of situations
- In genetics, an attribute resulting from a hereditary predisposition (eg; hair color or facial features)
Trait
Approaches that explain personality in terms of traits, that is, internal characteristics that are presumed to determine behavior
- An example is the Five Factor Personality Model
Trait Theory
An altered state of consciousness involving markedly reduced awareness of and responsiveness to stimuli
- It may be induced by hypnosis or autosuggestion and characterized by openness to suggestion
Trance
A drug that is used to reduce physiological and subjective symptoms of anxiety
- In the past, distinctions were made between so called major ones (antipsychotics) and minor ones (anxiolytics, eg; benzodiazepines)
Tranquilizer
Any interaction between the individual and the social or physical environment, especially during encounters between two or more people
Transaction
A theory of personality and a form of dynamic group or individual psychotherapy focusing on characteristic interactions that reveal internal “ego states” and the games people play in social situations
- Specifically, the approach involves: (a) a study of three primary ego states (parent, child, adult) and determination of which one is dominant in the transaction in question; (b) identification of the tricks and expedients, or games, habitually used in the client’s transactions; and (c) analysis of the total script, or unconscious plan, of the client’s life, in order to uncover the sources of his or her emotional problems
Transactional Analysis
An approach to perception that emphasizes the interaction of people and their environment
- Rather than being mere passive observers, people draw on past experiences in order to form perceptions of present situations and even of novel stimuli
Transactionalism
A style of leadership in which the emphasis is on ensuring followers accomplish tasks
- These influence others through exchange relationships in which benefits are promised in return for compliance
Transactional Leadership
A system in which information to be remembered is distributed among various members of a group, who can then each be relied on to provide that information when it is needed
Transactive Memory System
A technique of concentrative meditation for achieving a transcendental state of consciousness involving ultimate self awareness and restful alertness
- It consists of six steps that culminate in sitting with one’s eyes closed, while repeating a mantra, for two 20 minute periods a day
- Repetition of the mantra serves to block distracting thoughts and to induce a state of relaxation and tranquility in which images and ideas can arise from deeper levels of the mind and from the cosmic source of all thought and being
Transcendental Meditation
Localized electrical stimulation of the brain through the skull caused by changes in the magnetic field in coils of wire placed around the head
- The technique was originally devised and is primarily used as an investigatory tool to assess the effects of electrical stimulation of the motor cortex
- It is also being investigated as a possible therapy for some types of movement disorders and psychological conditions, such as depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Tourette’s disorder
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
In genetics, the process whereby the genetic information contained in DNA is transferred to a molecule of messenger RNA (mRNA), which subsequently directs protein synthesis
- The base sequence of the mRNA is complementary to that of the coding DNA strand and faithfully represents the instructions for assembling the component amino acids of the protein encoded by the gene
Transcription
Any form of psychodynamic psychotherapy that emphasizes cultural sensitivity and awareness, including culturally defined concepts of emotion, psychodynamics, and behavior
- In the psychiatric community the term is used somewhat more often in a sense similar to multicultural therapy in clinical psychology
Transcultural Psychotherapy
A device or system that converts energy from one form to another
- Sensory receptor cells are an example
Transducer
The process by which one form of energy is converted into another, especially sensory type: the transformation of the energy of a stimulus into a change in the electrical potential across the membrane of a receptor cell
Transduction
A concept of mental processing based on the idea that memory performance is better when a person processes material during study in the same way as the material will be processed during testing
- For example, test performance should be relatively good if both study and test conditions emphasize either semantic processing on the one hand or perceptual processing on the other; but test performance will not be as good if study conditions emphasize one (eg; semantic) and list conditions emphasize another (eg; perceptual)
Transfer Appropriate Processing
In psychoanalysis, the displacement or projection onto the analyst of unconscious feelings and wishes originally directed toward important individuals, such as parents, in the patient’s childhood
- This process, which is at the core of the psychoanalytic method, brings repressed material to the surface where it can be reexperienced, studied, and worked through
- In the course of this process, it is posited that the sources of neurotic difficulties are frequently discovered and their harmful effects alleviated
- Although quite specific to psychoanalysis, the term’s meaning has had an impact far beyond its narrow confines, and this - as unconscious repetition of earlier behaviors and projection onto new subjects - is acknowledged as ubiquitous in human interactions
- The role of this in counseling and short term dynamic psychotherapy is well recognized, and ongoing attempts to study its role in a range of therapeutic encounters promise to expand and elucidate its meanings
Transference
The influence of prior learning on new learning, either to enhance it (positive transfer) or to hamper it (negative transfer)
- The general principles of mathematics, for example, transfer to computer training, but a knowledge of Spanish may have both positive and negative effects in learning Italian
Transfer of Training
Any change in appearance, form, function, or structure
- In mathematics, for example, it is the conversion of data to a different form through a rule based process, whereas in psychoanalytic theory it is the process by which unconscious wishes or impulses are disguised in order that they can gain admittance to consciousness
Transformation
In linguistics, a type of generative grammar based on the idea that sentences have an underlying deep structure as well as the surface structure observable in speech or writing, and that the former gives rise to the latter through the operation of a small number of transformational rules involving the movement, addition, and deletion of constituents
- This approach to syntactic structures was pioneered by U.S. linguist Noam Chomsky (1928 - ) in the late 1950s as a means of supplementing the more limited analysis made possible by phrase structure grammar
Transformational Generative Grammar
A charismatic, inspiring style of leading others that usually involves heightening followers’ motivation, confidence, and satisfaction, uniting them in the pursuit of shared, challenging goals, and changing their beliefs, values, and needs
Transformational Leadership
Having or relating to gender identities that differ from culturally determined gender roles and biological sex
- These states include transsexualism and intersexuality
Transgender
Impermeance that implies ending and may invoke anticipation of loss
- In classical psychoanalytic theory, the idea that everything is transient may interfere with enjoyment and preclude the establishment of deep or lasting relationships
Transience
An episode during which an area of the brain is suddenly deprived of oxygen because its blood supply is temporarily interrupted, for example by thrombosis, embolism, or vascular spasm
- Symptoms are the same as those of stroke but disappear completely, typically within 24 hours
Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)
The quality of a relationship among elements such that the relationship transfers across elements
- For example, this type of relationship would be: given that a > b, and b > c, it must be the case that a > c
Transitivity
A method of ensuring that the translation of an assessment instrument into another language is adequate, used primarily in cross cultural research
- A bilingual person translates items from the source language to the target language, and a different bilingual person then independently translates the items back into the source language
- The researcher can then compare the original with the back translated version to see if anything important was changed in the translation
Translation and Back Translation
An area in humanistic psychology concerned with the exploration of the nature, varieties, causes, and effects of “higher” states of consciousness and other experiences that transcend personal identity and individual, immediate desires
Transpersonal Psychology
A protein complex that spans a cell membrane and conveys ions, neurotransmitters, or other substances between the exterior and interior of the cell
- For example, at synapses between neurons, these in the presynaptic membrane recognize and bind to neurotransmitter molecules and return them to the presynaptic neuron for reuse
Transporter
A gender identity disorder consisting of a persistent sense of discomfort and inappropriateness relating to one’s anatomical sex, with a persistent wish to be rid of one’s genitals and to live as a member of the other sex
- Many transsexuals feel that they belong to the opposite sex and are somehow trapped in the wrong body
- They therefore seek to change their sex through surgical and hormonal means
Transsexualism
A theory to explain changes in people’s health behavior in terms of five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance
- It suggests that change takes time, that different interventions are effective at different stages, and that there are multiple outcomes occurring across the stages (eg; belief structure, self efficacy)
Transtheoretical Model
A paraphilia consisting of the persistent wearing by a heterosexual male of female clothes with the purpose of achieving sexual excitement and arousal
- It typically begins in childhood or adolescence and should not be confused with transvestism, the nonpathological cross dressing by men or women of any sexual preference
Transvestic Fetishism
The process or habit of wearing the clothes of the opposite sex
- This is also called cross dressing and is distinct from transvestic fetishism
Transvestism
- Any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation, confusion, or other disruptive feelings intense enough to have a long lasting negative impact on a person’s attitudes, behavior, and other aspects of functioning
- Traumatic events include those caused by human behavior (eg; rape, toxic accidents) as well as by nature (eg; earthquakes) and often challenge an individual’s view of the world as a just, safe, and predictable place - Any serious physical injury, such as a widespread burn or a blow to the head
Trauma
Damage to brain tissue caused by external mechanical forces, as evidenced by objective neurological findings, posttraumatic amnesia, skull fracture, or loss of consciousness
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
- The administration of appropriate measures (eg; drugs, surgery, therapy) that are designed to relieve a pathological condition
- The level of an independent variable in an experiment, or the independent variable itself
Treatment
The magnitude of the effect of a treatment (ie; the independent variable) upon the response variable (ie; the dependent variable) in a study
- It is usually measured as the difference between the level of response under a control condition and the level of response under the treatment condition in standardized units
Treatment Effect
The specific condition to which a group or participant is exposed in a study or experiment
- For example, in a design employing four groups, each of which is exposed to a different dosage of a particular drug, each dosage amount represents a level of the treatment factor
Treatment Level
Any involuntary trembling of the body or a part of the body (eg; the hands) due to neurological or psychological causes
- A coarse one involves a large muscle group in slow movements, whereas a fine one is caused by a small bundle of muscle fibers that move rapidly
- Some of these occur only during voluntary movements (action type); others occur in the absence of voluntary movement (resting type)
Tremor
Any of several analytic techniques designed to uncover systematic changes (trends) in a set of variables, such as linear growth over time or quadratic increases in response with increased dosage levels
Trend Analysis
A surgical procedure in which a disk of bone is removed from the skull with a circular instrument (a trephine) having a sawlike edge
- On the basis of evidence found in skulls of Neolithic humans, this is believed to be one of the oldest types of surgery
- Among the numerous conjectural reasons given for the practice is the possibility that it was a treatment for headaches, infections, skull fractures, convulsions, mental disorders, or supposed demonic possession
Trephination
- In testing, conditioning, or other experimentation, one performance of a given task (eg; one run through a maze) or one presentation of a stimulus (eg; an ordered list of three letter words)
- A clinical trial: a research study design to compare a new treatment or drug with an existing standard of care
Trial
A type of learning in which the organism successively tries various responses in a situation, seemingly at random, until one is successful in producing the goal
- In successive trials, the successful response appears earlier and earlier
- Maze learning, with its eventual elimination of blind alley entrances, is an example of this
Trial and Error Learning
The proposition that the various kinds of love can be characterized in terms of the degree to which they possess the three basic components of love relationships: passion, intimacy, and commitment
Triangular Theory of Love
- The process of confirming a hypothesis by collecting evidence from multiple sources or experiments or using multiple procedures
- The data from each source, experiment, or procedure support the hypothesis from a somewhat different perspective - In family therapy, a situation in which two members of a family in conflict each attempt to draw another member onto their side
- This can occur, for example, when two parents are in conflict and their child is caught in the middle
Triangulation
A theory of intelligence proposing three key abilities - analytical, creative, and practical - which are viewed as largely although not entirely distinct
- According to the theory, intelligence comprises a number of information processing components, which are applied to experience (especially novel experiences) in order to adapt to, shape, and select environments
- The theory contains three subtheories: one specifying the components of intelligence (componential subtheory), another specifying the kinds of experience to which the components are applied (experiential subtheory), and a third specifying how the components are applied to experience to be used in various kinds of environmental contexts (contextual subtheory)
Triarchic Theory of Intelligence
One of several concepts of the physiological basis of color vision based on a mixture of three primary colors
- The Young - Helmholtz Theory of Color Vision is the best known one
- Subsequent studies determined that there are three different retinal cone photopigments with peak sensitivities roughly corresponding to the three primary colors of this: blue, green, and red
Trichromatic Theory
Normal color vision: the capacity to distinguish the three primary color systems of light dark, red green, and blue yellow, attributable to the presence of all three types of photopigment
Trichromatism
Any of a group of drugs, developed in the 1950s, that were the original first line medications for depression and represented the mainstay of antidepressant treatment until fluoxetine (Prozac) - the first SSRI - was introduced in 1987
- They are presumed to act by blocking the reuptake of monoamine neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine), thereby increasing the amount of neurotransmitter available
- Side effects of these include significant anticholinergic effects (eg; dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, urinary retention), drowsiness or insomnia, confusion, anxiety, nausea, weight gain, and impotence
- They can also cause cardiovascular complications (particularly disturbances in heart rhythm)
- Although they are effective as antidepressants, their adverse side effects and their lethality in overdose have led to a profound decline in their use
Tricyclic Antidepressant (TCA)
The fifth and largest cranial nerve, which carries both sensory and motor fibers
- The motor fibers are primarily involved with the muscles used in chewing, tongue movements, and swallowing
- The sensory fibers innervate the same areas, including the teeth and most of the tongue in addition to the jaws
- Some fibers of this innervate the cornea, face, scalp, and the dura mater membrane of the brain
Trigeminal Nerve
Any three letter combination, particularly a nonesense syllable
Trigram
The exclusion of a fixed percentage of cases at each end of a distribution before calculating a statistic on the batch of data
- This is done to eliminate the influence of extreme scores on the estimate
Trimming
The fourth cranial nerve, which contains motor fibers supplying the superior oblique muscle of the eyeball
Trochlear Nerve
A set of scores lacking values beyond a specific maximum point, below a specific minimum point, or both
Truncated Distribution
Reliance on or confidence in the worth, truth, or value of someone or something
- This is considered by most psychological researchers to be a primary component in mature relationships with others, whether intimate, social, or therapeutic
Trust
Any of a set of scores scored so that they have a mean equal to 50 and standard deviation equal to 10
T Score
Any of a class of statistical tests based on the fact that the test statistic follows the T distribution when the null hypothesis is true
- Most of these deal with hypotheses about the mean of a population or about differences between means of different populations
T Test
A post hoc testing procedure that allows for the comparison of all pairs of groups while maintaining the overall significance level of the set of tests at a prescribed level [John Wilder Tukey (1915 - 2000), U.S. statistician]
Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference Test
A chromosomal disorder, specific to women, marked by the absence of all or a part of one of the two X (female) chromosomes
- The effects include underdevelopment or absence of primary and secondary sex characteristics, infertility, and various physical abnormalities (eg; short stature, lack of menstruation) [Reported in 1938 by Henry H. Turner (1892 - 1970), U.S. endocrinologist]
Turner’s Syndrome
A distinctive approach to overcoming addictive, compulsive, or behavioral problems that was developed initially in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to guide recovery from alcoholism and is now used, often in an adapted form, by a number of other self help groups
- In the context of alcoholism, for instance, this in AA asks each member to (a) admit that he or she cannot control his or her drinking; (b) recognize a supreme spiritual power, which can give the member strength; (c) examine past errors, a process that is carried out with another member who serves as sponsor; (d) make amends for these errors; (e) develop a new code and style of life; and (f) help other alcoholics who are in need of support
Twelve Step Program
Any research design utilizing twins
- The purpose of such research is usually to assess the relative contributions of heredity and environment to some attribute (eg; intelligence)
- Specifically, these often involve comparing the characteristics of identical and fraternal twins and comparing twins of both types who have been reared together or reared apart
- The assumptions made in these studies are, however, never completely fulfilled, making the estimations of heritability of any attribute open to some doubts
Twin Study
An experimental design in which there are two independent variables each having two levels
- When this design is depicted as a matrix, two rows represent one of the independent variables and two columns represent the other independent variable
Two by Two Factorial Design
A theory holding that the factors causing worker satisfaction (those addressing higher order psychological needs such as achievement, recognition, and advancement; motivators) and the factors causing worker dissatisfaction (those addressing basic needs and interpersonal processes, including salary, work conditions, and supervision; hygiene factors) are not opposites of one another but are, in fact, independent factors
- Thus, to improve job attitudes and productivity - that is, work motivation - employers and administrators must evaluate and address both sets of factors separately
Two Factor Theory of Work Motivation
The point of stimulus separation, that is, the smallest distance between two points of stimulation on the skin at which the two stimuli are perceived as two stimuli rather than as a single stimulus
Two Point Threshold
A statistical test of an experimental hypothesis that does not specify the expected direction of an effect or a relationship
Two Tailed Test
A statistical test analyzing the joint and separate influences of two independent variables on a dependent variable
Two Way Analysis of Variance
The developmental period, between approximately 18 and 24 months of age, when children use two words at a time when speaking (eg; dog bone, mama cup)
Two Word Stage
A conically shaped membrane that separates the external ear from the middle ear and serves to transform the pressure waves of sounds into mechanical vibration of the ossicles
- The first ossicle (malleus) is attached to the inner surface of this
Tympanic Membrane
A personality pattern characterized by chronic competitiveness, high levels of achievement motivation, and hostility
- The lifestyles of these individuals are said to predispose them to coronary heart disease
Type A Personality
A personality pattern characterized by low levels of competitiveness and frustration and a relaxed, easy going approach
- These individuals typically do not feel the need to prove their superiority or abilities
Type B Personality
A “distressed” personality pattern, characterized by a high degree of negative affectivity (ie; a tendency to experience negative emotions) in combination with a conscious tendency to suppress self expression in social interaction (social inhibition)
- Accumulating evidence suggests that these individuals are at increased risk of developing coronary heart disease and other chronic medical conditions
Type D Personality
The error of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is in fact true
- Investigators make this error when they believe they have detected an effect or a relationship that does not actually exist
Type I Error
The error of failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is in fact not true
- Investigators make this error if they conclude that a particular effect or relationship does not exist when in fact it does
Type II Error
An error in direction (positive/ negative, higher/ lower) when two groups are shown empirically to be different
- Researchers frequently investigate the direction rather than the size of the relationship (eg; investigating “which is more?” or “which is better?”), and they make this when they use a nondirectional two tailed test to make a directional decision: after conducting the test and finding statistical significance, the researcher inspects data visually to decide (incorrectly) upon the direction of the observed relationship
Type III Error
Any hypothetical proposition or principle for the grouping of people by kind of personality or by personality characteristics
- An example of such a theoretical system of personality classification is that of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), who divided individuals into types according to (a) attitudes of introversion and extraversion and (b) the dominant functions of the psyche
Type Theory
Any analysis of a particular category of phenomena (eg; individuals, things) into classes based on common characteristics, for example, this of personality
Typology
