Studied by 32 people
Glucose
The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues
Grammar
In language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
Grit
A personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion for achieving long-term goals
GRIT Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction
A strategy designed to decrease international tensions
Group polarization
Tendency of group members to move to an extreme position after discussing an issue as a group
Grouping
The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent categories
Groupthink
A group of well-intentioned people make irrational or non optimal decisions spurred by the urge to conform and make peace
Habituation
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimuli into coherent categories
Hallucination
False sensory experiences (visual or auditory)
Hallucinogens
Psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke imagery in the absence of sensory input
Hemispherectomy
Surgical removal of part of or an entire hemisphere
Heritability
The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes
Heuristic
A simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but more error-prone
Availability heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on how accessible they are in our memory (if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are common)
Representativeness heuristic
Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to align with certain prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information
Hierarchy of needs
Maslows pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher -level needs
Higher-order conditioning
A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experienced is paired with a new neutral stimulus, producing the same response
Hindsight bias or (I knew it all along phenomenon)
The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would have foreseen it
Hippocampus
A neural center located in the limbic system, responsible for the processing of explicit memories for storage
Homeostasis
A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state
Hormones
Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands
Hue
The dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, etc
Humanistic psychology
The school of psychology that believes that behaviors are determined by the fostering of personal growth
Unconditional positive regard
A caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude
Hypnosis
A social interaction in which one person suggest to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
Hypothalamus
A part of the brain located below the thalamus and in the limbic system; directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temp), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland and is linked to emotion and reward
Lateral hypothalamus
The on switch for eating, lesion here would lead to decreased hunger drive
Ventromedial hypothalamus
The off switch for eating, lesion here would cause obesity
Hypothesis
A testable prediction
Identical twins
Twins who develop from a single fertilized egg
Identity
Our sense of self
Illness Anxiety Disorder formerly Hypochondriasis
A somatoform disorder involving excessive concern about health and disease
Imagery
Mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing
Imprinting
The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
In attentional blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
Incentive
A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior
Independent variable
The experimental factor that is manipulated
Individualism
A society or culture that gives priority to one’s own goals over group goals
Informative social influence
Impact resulting from one’s willingness to accept others opinions about reality
Informed consent
An ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether or not they wish to participate
Ingroup
Us; people with whom we share a common identity
In group bias
Tendency to favor our own group
Inner ear
Structures and liquids that relay sound waves to the auditory nerve fibers on a path to the brain for the interpretation of sound
Insight
An aha moment; a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem
Insight therapy
A variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the clients awareness of underlying motives and defenses
Insomnia
A sleep disorder resulting in recurring problems in falling or staying asleep
Instinct
A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned through a species and is unlearned
Intellectual disability
A conditioned of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below
Down syndrome
A condition of intellectual disability and associated with physical disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21
Intelligence
Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations
Intelligence quotient IQ
Mental age/chronological age x 100
Mental age
A measure of intelligence test performed by Alfred Binet; chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance
Intelligence test
A method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores
Intensity
The amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the waves amplitude
Internal locus of control
The perception that you control your own fate
Interpretation
In psychoanalysis, the analysts noting of supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight
Intrinsic motivation
A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake
Iris
A ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and controls the size of the pupil opening
James-Lange theory
The theory that physiological arousal comes before experiencing an emotion
Just-world phenomenon
Tendency for people to believe the world is good and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get
Kinesthesis
The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
Language
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
Latent content
According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream
Latent learning
Knowledge that only becomes evident when a person has an incentive to display it
Lateralization
The differing functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain
Law of effect
The idea that behaviors followed by a favorable consequence become more likely, and behavior followed by an unfavorable consequence become less likely
Learned helplessness
The hopelessness and passive resignation an organism learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
Learning
A relatively permanent change in an organisms behavior due to experience
Lens
The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina
Lesion
Tissue destruction
Limbic system
Doughnut shaped system (consisting of the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) associated with emotions and drives
Linguistic determinism
Whorfs hypothesis that language impacts the way we think
Localization of function
Different functions are in different, specific areas of the brain
Localization of sound
The ability of an organism to discover where a sound is coming from based on intensity and timing
Long-term memory
The relativity permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system
Explicit memory or declarative memory
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare
Episodic memory
The long term storage of information regarding personal experiences
Semantic memory
The storehouse of permanent knowledge, such as the meanings of words in a language and huge collection of facts about the world
Implicit memory or non declarative or procedural memory
Retention independent of conscious recollection
Long term potentiation LTP
An increase in a synapses firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation
Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
Longitudinal study
A type of research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period
LSD
A powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid
Major depressive disorder
A mood disorder in which a person experiences, in the absence of drugs or a medical condition, two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods, feelings of worthlessness, and diminished interest or pleasure in most activities
Mania
A mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state
Manifest content
According to Freud, the remembered storyline of a dream
Maturation
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
Mean
The average of a distribution
Median
The middle score of a distribution
Medulla
The bae of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing
Memory
The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information
Menarche
First menstrual period
Mnemonics
Memory aids
Menopause
The time of natural cessation of menstruation
Mental set
A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Mere - exposure effect
The phenomenon that familiarity breeds fondness
Meta cognition
Thinking about one’s thinking
Methamphetamine
A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
Middle ear
The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones ( hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window
Minnesota multi phasic personality inventory MMPI
The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders
Mirror image perceptions
Mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive
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