Help
Options
Didn't know it?
click below
click below
Knew it?
click below
click below
Don't Know
Remaining cards (0)
Know
retry
shuffle
restart
0:00
Embed Code - If you would like this activity on your web page, copy the script below and paste it into your web page.
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Normal Size Small Size show me how
#All the chapters
All the chapters
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Empiricism | The view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation |
| Structuralism | An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind |
| Functionalism | a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish |
| Experimental Psychology | The study of behavior and thinking using the experimental method |
| Psychodynamic Psychology | A branch of psychology that studies how unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior, and uses that information to treat people with psychological disorders |
| Nature-Nurture Psychology | nature - biology; nurture - raising |
| Psychiatry | A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who often provide medical treatments as wells as psychological therapy |
| Confounding Variable | A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment |
| Correlational Coefficient | A statistical index of the relationship between two things (from -1 to +1) |
| Standard Deviation | A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score |
| Aphasia | Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (imparing speaking) or to the Wernicke's area (imparing understanding) |
| Association Areas | Areas of the cerebral cortext that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking |
| Autonomic Nervous System | Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in the primary motor functions; higher mental functions - learning, remembering, thinking and speaking |
| Broca's Area | Control's language expression - frontal left lobe that directs the muscle movements involved in speech. |
| Central Nervous System (CNS) | Brain and Spinal cord |
| Cognitive Neuroscience | Interdisciplinary study of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating. |
| Computed Tomography | scan uses X-rays to make detailed pictures of structures inside the body. |
| Corpus Callosum | large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them |
| Electroencephalogram | recording of electrical activity along the scalp |
| Endocrine System | the body's "slow" chemical communication systerm; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the blood stream |
| Functional MR(fMRI) | technique for measuring brain activity. It works by detecting the changes in blood oxygenation and flow that occur in response to neural activity |
| Genome | the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all genetic material in that organism's chromosomes |
| Glial Cells | cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons |
| Limbic System | doughtnut-shaped neural system (including hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives |
| Medulla | the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing |
| Motor Cortex | an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements |
| Motor Neurons | neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands |
| Neurogensis | the formation of new neurons |
| Parasympathetic Nervous System | the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving it's energy |
| Parietal Lobes | portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position |
| Paripheral Nervous System (PNS) | portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position |
| Positron Emission Tomography (PET) | uses gamma rays to produce 3D image of the body |
| Reticular Formation | a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal |
| Sensory Cortex | area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations |
| Sensory Neurons | neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord |
| Somatic Nervous System | the division of hte peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles |
| Temporal Lobes | portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear |
| Thalamus | the brain's sensory switchboard, located on the top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla |
| Threshod | the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse |
| Wernicke's Area | controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe |
| Audition | Sense/act of hearing |
| Binocular Cues | depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes |
| Bottom-up Processing | anaylsis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information |
| Conduction Healing Loss | hearing loss cause by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea |
| Extrasensory Perception | the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition |
| Feature Detectors | nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement |
| Fovea | the central focus point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster |
| Frequency Theory | in hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulse traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch |
| Gestalt | an organized whole. Emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes |
| Inattentional Blindness | failing to see visible objects when our attention is direected elsewhere |
| Monocular Cues | depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone |
| Opponent-Processing Theory | the theory that opposing retinal processes enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green |
| Optic Nerve | the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain |
| Parapsychology | the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis |
| Perceptual Constancy | perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change |
| Perceptual Set | a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another |
| Phi Phenomenon | an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession |
| Place Theory | in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated |
| Priming | the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response |
| Psychophysics | the study of relationships between physical charcteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them |
| Retinal Disparity | a binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing images from teh reinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance - greater the difference between the two images, the closer the object |
| Selective Attention | the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus |
| Sensorineural Hearing Loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves |
| Signal Detection Theory | a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness |
| Subliminal Top-Down Processing | |
| Vestibular Sense | the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance |
| Weber's Law | the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage |
| Trichromatic Processing | the Young-Helmholtz theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one most sensitive to red, one to green, and ones to blue - which when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color |
| THC | the major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations |
| Biofeedback | a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension |
| Cognitive Map | a mental representation of the layout of one's environment |
| Extrinsic Motivation | a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment |
| Higher-order Conditioning | a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second conditioned stimulus |
| Intrinsic Motivation | a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake |
| Mirror Neurons | frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when oberving another doing so. |
| Operant Conditioning | a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer and deminished if followed by a punishment |
| Echoic Memory | a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds |
| Effortful Processing | encoding that requires attention and conscious effort |
| Explicit Memory | memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" |
| Iconic Memory | a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image lasting no more than a few tenths of a second |
| Long-term Potentiation (LTP) | an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory |
| Parallel Processing | the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving |
| Working Memory | a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved from long-term memory |
| Basal Metabolic Rate | the body's resting rate of energy expenditure |
| Cannon-Bard Theory | the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion |
| Catharsis | emotional release |
| Drive-reduction Theory | the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state that motivates an organism to satisfy the need |
| Lymphocytes | two types of white blood cells that're a part of the body's immune system. B form in bone marrow, release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T form in the thymus & other lymphatic tissue & attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances |
| Psychoneuroimmunology | the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health |
| Relative Deprivation | the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves |
| Concrete Operational Stage | in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 - 11 years old) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events |
| Conservation | the principle (which Piaget believed to be part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects |
| Cross-sectional Study | a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another |
| Formal Operational Stage | in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts |
| Longitudinal Study | research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time |
| Preoperational Stage | in Piaget's theory, the stage (from 2 to about 6 or 7 years old) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic |
| Social Learning Theory | the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitation and by being rewarded or punished |
| Teratogens | agents, such as chemical or viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm |
| Zygote | the fertilized egg; it enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division |
| Collectivism | giving priority to goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly |
| Empirically Derived Test | a test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups |
| External Locus of Control | the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate |
| Fixation | (1) the inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set. (2) according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved |
| Free Association | in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing |
| Internal Loss of Conntrol | the perception that you control your own fate |
| MMPI | the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes |
| Oedipus Complex | according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father |
| Positive Psychology | the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive |
| Projection | psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others |
| Psychosexual Stages | the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones |
| Reaction Formation | psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses to their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiet-arousing unconscious feelings |
| Reciprocal Determinism | the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment |
| Rorschach Test | the most widely used projective test; seeks to indetify people's inner feelings by anazlying their interpretations of a set of 10 inkblots |
| Self-Actualization | according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical needs and psychological need are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential |
| Sublimation | psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re-chanel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activites |
| Superego | the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment and for future aspirations |
| Terror-Mamagement Theory | a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death |
| Thematic Apperception | projective measure intended to evaluate a person's patterns of thought, attitudes, observational capacity, and emotional responses to ambiguous test materials. |
| General Intelligence (g) | a general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test |
| Normal Curve | the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes. |
| Stanford-Binet | the widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test |
| WAIS | most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance subtests |
| DID | Dissociative identity disorder |
| DSM | the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, updates as a 2000 "text revision"; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders |
| Hypochondriasis | a somatoform disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease |
| Somatoform Disorder | psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a somatic form without apparent physical cause |
| Evidence-base practice | clinical decision-making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences |
| Insight Therapies | a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client's awareness of underlying motives and defenses |
| Psychopharmacology | the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior |
| Psychosurgery | surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior |
| Psychotherapy | treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth |
| Regression Toward the Mean | the tendency for extreme or unusal scores to fall back toward their average |
| rTMS | Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation |
| Systematic Desensitization | a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias |
| Tardive Dyskinesia | involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long term use of antipsychotic drugs that target certain dopamine receptors |
| Token Economy | an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange tokens for various privileges or treats |
| Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy | an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking |
| Frustration-Aggression Principle | the principle that frustration - the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal - creates anger, which can lead to aggression |
| GRIT | Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction a strategy designed to decrease international tensions |
| Social-responsibility Norm | an expectation that people will help those dependent upon them |
Created by:
#jkossmannap
Popular Psychology sets