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Aaron Beck

Psychologist who used cognitive therapy to challenge and change patients' negative beliefs about themselves and their futures

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulation required to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

Accommodation

Adjusting existing schemas to incorporate new information

Achievement tests

Assess what a person has learned

Accommodation

Changes in the shape of the ocular lens for different focal distances

Acoustic encoding

Encoding of sound, especially words

Acquisition

Initial stage in classical conditioning; strengthening of a reinforced response in operant conditioning

Action potential

Neural impulse; brief electrical charge traveling down an axon

Active listening

Empathic listening involving echoing, restating, and clarifying, a feature of client-centered therapy

Adaptation-level phenomenon

Tendency to judge experiences relative to a neutral level based on prior experiences

Addiction

Compulsive drug use despite adverse consequences

Adolescence

Transition period from childhood to adulthood

Adrenal glands

Endocrine glands above the kidneys secreting stress hormones

Aggression

Physical or verbal behavior intended to harm

Aggression

Behavior intended to hurt someone

Algorithm

Logical rule guaranteeing problem-solving, contrasting with heuristics

Alpha waves

Slow brain waves in a relaxed, awake state

Altruism

Unselfish concern for others' welfare

Amnesia

Loss of memory

Amphetamines

Stimulant drugs affecting neural activity and mood

Amygdala

Neural clusters linked to emotions in the limbic system

Anorexia nervosa

Eating disorder leading to significant underweight despite feeling fat

Antianxiety drugs

Medications controlling anxiety and agitation

Antidepressant drugs

Medications treating depression and anxiety by altering neurotransmitter availability

Antipsychotic drugs

Medications for severe thought disorders like schizophrenia

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Lack of conscience for wrongdoing, aggression, or manipulation

Anxiety Disorders

Psychological disorders involving distressing anxiety or maladaptive behaviors

Aphasia

Language impairment due to brain damage

Applied research

Scientific study aiming to solve practical problems

Aptitude tests

Assessing a person's potential performance

Assimilation

Interpreting new experiences based on existing schemas

Association areas

Cerebral cortex regions for higher mental functions

Associative learning

Linking events together in learning

Attachment

Emotional bond with a caregiver

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Disorder with symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity

Attitude

Feelings influencing responses to objects, people, events

Attribution theory

Explaining behavior by situational or dispositional factors

Audition

Sense of hearing

Autism

Childhood disorder affecting communication and social interaction

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for information that supports preconceptions and ignore contradictory evidence.

Conflict

A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas.

Conformity

Adjusting behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.

Confounding variable

A factor other than the independent variable that might affect an experiment's outcome.

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Conservation

The principle that properties like mass, volume, and number remain constant despite object changes.

Content validity

The extent to which a test samples relevant behavior.

Continuous reinforcement

Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs.

Control group

The group not exposed to the treatment in an experiment, used for comparison.

Conversion Disorder

A somatoform disorder with genuine physical symptoms but no physiological basis.

Coronary heart disease

Vessel clogging that nourishes the heart muscle, a leading cause of death in North America.

Corpus callosum

The neural fibers band connecting brain hemispheres.

Correlation

A measure of how two factors vary together and predict each other.

Correlation coefficient

A statistical index showing the relationship between two things.

Counseling psychology

A branch aiding people with living problems and well-being.

Counterconditioning

A behavior therapy using classical conditioning to evoke new responses.

Creativity

The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas.

Critical period

An optimal period after birth for proper development.

Critical thinking

Thinking that evaluates evidence, assumptions, and conclusions.

Cross-sectional study

Comparing people of different ages in a study.

Crystallized intelligence

Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills increasing with age.

CT (computed tomography) scan

X-ray photographs combined into a body slice representation.

Culture

Enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values shared by a group and transmitted through generations.

Debriefing

Postexperimental explanation including purpose and deceptions to participants.

Defense mechanisms

Ego's protective methods reducing anxiety by distorting reality unconsciously.

Fixation

The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set.

Flashbulb memory

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Functional fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving.

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases - alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

General intelligence

A general intelligence factor that underlies specific mental abilities and is measured by every task on an intelligence test.

Gate-control theory

Theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass.

Gender identity

Our sense of being male or female.

Gestalt

An organized whole; Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

Glucose

The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues.

Group polarization

Tendency of group members to move to an extreme position after discussing an issue as a group.

Linguistic determinism

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think

Lobotomy

Invented by Egas Moniz, a now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain.

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system; includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Long-term potentiation

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Longitudinal study

Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.

LSD

A powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide).

Lymphocytes

The two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system. B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances.

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 story line of a dream (as distinct from its latent, or hidden, content).

PET (positron emission tomography) scan

A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

Phi phenomenon

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Phobia

An anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object or situation

Phoneme

In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Physical dependence

A physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued

Pitch

A tone's highness or lowness; depends on frequency

Pituitary gland

The endocrine system's most influential gland under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

Place theory

In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

Placebo effect

Experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent

Plasticity

The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

Sensorineural hearing loss

Hearing impairment due to cochlear or auditory nerve dysfunction.

Sensorimotor stage

Piaget's stage (birth to 2 years) where infants understand the world through senses and motor activities.

Sensory adaptation

Reduced sensitivity from constant stimulation.

Sensory cortex

Brain area processing touch and movement sensations.

Sensory interaction

One sense influencing another, like smell affecting taste.

Sensory memory

Brief recording of sensory info in memory.