U Flashcards
An account or explanation for a particular behavior in terms of its adaptive value
Ultimate Explanation
Any periodic variation in physiological or psychological function recurring in a cycle of more than 24 hours, such as the human menstrual cycle
Ultradian Rhythm
Sound whose frequency exceeds the human audibility range, often used to measure and record structures and structural change within the body in the imaging technique called ultrasonography
- Echoes from these waves reflected from tissue surfaces are recorded to form structural images for diagnostic purposes, for example, to examine a growing fetus during pregnancy or to examine internal organs, such as the heart, liver, kidneys, and gallbladder, for signs of health or disease
Ultrasound
Impartial or without net error
- For example, in these types of procedures, studies, and the like any errors that do occur are random and therefore self cancelling in the long run
Unbiased
A statistic whose expected value is the value of the parameter being estimated
- Thus if G is used to estimate the parameter Ō, G is said to be unbiased if and only if E(G) = Ō
Unbiased Estimator
- The state or condition in which something (eg; the probability of a particular outcome) is not accurately or precisely known
- Lack of confidence or clarity in one’s ideas, decisions, or intentions
Uncertainty
An attitude of caring, acceptance, and prizing expressed by others irrespective of an individual’s behavior and without regard to the other’s personal standards, which is considered conducive to self awareness, self worth, and personality growth
- Posited by U.S. psychologist Carl Rogers (1902 - 1987) to be a universal human need essential to healthy development, this is the centerpiece of his client centered therapy and is also emphasized in many other therapeutic approaches
Unconditional Positive Regard
The unlearned response to a stimulus: any original response that occurs naturally and in the absence of conditioning (eg; salivation in response to the presentation of food)
- This is a reflex that serves as the basis for establishment of the conditioned response in Pavlovian conditioning
Unconditioned Response
A stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response, as in withdrawal from a hot radiator, contraction of the pupil on exposure to light, or salivation when food is in the mouth
Unconditioned Stimulus
- In the classical psychoanalytic theory of Austrian psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939), the region of the psyche that contains memories, emotional conflicts, wishes, and repressed impulses that are not directly accessible to awareness but that have dynamic effects on thought and behavior
- Relating to or marked by absence of awareness or lack of consciousness
Unconscious
In psychoanalytic theory, wishes, impulses, aims, and drives of which the self is not aware
- Examples of behavior produced by this are purposive accidents, slips of the tongue, and dreams that express unfulfilled wishes
Unconscious Motivation
The incorrect restriction of the use of a word, which is a mistake commonly made by young children acquiring language
- For example, a child may believe that the label dog applies only to Fido, the family per
Underextension
The process of gaining insight about oneself or others or of comprehending the meaning or significance of something
- In many forms of counseling and psychotherapy understanding the network of relationships between a client’s behavior and such things as his or her environment, experiences, and feelings is considered essential to success
Understanding
A subtype of schizophrenia in which the individual exhibits prominent psychotic features, such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, or grossly disorganized behavior, but does not meet the criteria for any of the other subtypes of the disorder
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
Having a single dimension or composed of a single or a pure factor
Unidimensional
Denoting or relating to one side of the body or an organ or to one of two or more parties
- For example, this type of cerebral lesion involves one cerebral hemisphere, left or right, and this type of couple counseling is the counseling of one partner on his or her relationship with the other
Unilateral
A set of scores that has one mode (represented by one peak in their graphical distribution), reflecting a tendency for scores to cluster around a specific value
Unimodal Distribution
Any depressive disorder, that is, any mood disorder marked by one or more major depressive episodes or a prolonged period of depressive symptoms with no history of manic or hypomanic symptoms or mixed episodes
Unipolar Depression
Persistent or pervasive depression that does not involve a manic episode, a hypomanic episode, or a mixed episode
- As such, it contrasts with bipolar disorder
- The term is sometimes used synonymously with major depressive disorder
Unipolar Disorder
A neuron that has only a single extension of the cell body
- This extension divides into two branches, oriented in opposite directions and representing the axon
- One end is the receptive pole, and the other is the output zone
Unipolar Neuron
In factor analysis, the part of the variance of a variable that it does not share with any other variable in the system
Uniqueness
In experimental design and research, the group of people, things, or entities that are being investigated or studied
Unit of Analysis
Characterized by a single variable
Univariate
A theoretical linguistic construct positing the existence of a set of rules or grammatical principles that are innate in human beings and underlie most natural languages
- The concept is of considerable interest to psycholinguists who study language acquisition and the formation of valid sentences
Universal Grammar
The position that certain aspects of the human mind, human behavior, and human morality are universal and essential and are therefore to be found in all cultures and historical periods
- This is thus a form of essentialism and is opposed to relativism
Universalism
- The tendency to assume that one’s personal qualities and characteristics, including attitudes and values, are common in the general social group or culture
- In self help and psychotherapy groups, a curative factor fostered by members’ recognition that their problems and difficulties are not unique to them, but instead are experienced by many of the group members
Universality
A measure obtained without disturbing the participant or alerting him or her that a measurement is being made
- The behavior or responses of such participants are thus assumed to be unaffected by the investigative process or the surrounding environment
Unobtrusive Measure
An interview that imposes minimal structure by asking open ended (rather than set) questions and allowing the interviewee to steer the discussion into areas of his or her choosing
- These are used in a variety of contexts but are particularly popular in personnel selection, where the idea is that such an approach will reveal more of the applicant’s traits, interests, priorities, and interpersonal and verbal skills than a structured interview
Unstructured Interview
An ethical theory based on the premise that the good is to be defined at that which brings the greatest amount or degree of happiness; thus, an act is considered moral if, compared to possible alternatives, it provides the greatest good for the greatest number of people
- The doctrine is often reduced to the single maxim: the greatest good for the greatest number
Utilitarianism
The inability of individuals to improve task performance by using strategies that they have already acquired and demonstrated the ability to use because they are not spurred to do so by memory
- Although historically most frequently studied in children, current research suggests that such deficiencies are not developmental per se but may occur at any age as a byproduct of diminished working memory capacity
Utilization Deficiency
The larger of the two vestibular sacs in the inner ear, the other being the saccule
- Like the saccule, this senses not only the position of the head with respect to gravity but also acceleration and deceleration
- This is achieved by a special patch of the epithelium - the macula - inside both this and the saccule
Utricle
A unit of spoken language, which may be of any length but can usually be identified by conversational turn taking or by clear breaks in the stream of speech
- Mean length of this is considered an important index of language development in young children
Utterance
