kaplan behavioral health

Absolute poverty

Poverty wherein people do not have enough resources to acquire basic life necessities such as shelter, food, clothing, and water

Absolute threshold

The minimum stimulus energy needed to activate a sensory system

Accommodation

Process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass new information

Acetylcholine

A NT associated with voluntary muscle control

Achieved status

A status gained as a result of direct, individual action

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the process of taking advantage of reflective responses to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus

Actor-observer bias

The tendency to make situational attributions about the self, but dispositional attributions about others, regarding similar behaviors

Adaptation

In perception, a decrease in stimulus perception after a long duration of exposure; in learning, the process by which new information is processed, consists of assimilation and accomodation

Adaptive value

The extent to which a trait benefits a species by influencing the evolutionary fitness of the species

Affect

the experience and display of emotion; can be described as a scale with both positive and negative affect having separate scales

afferent neuron

Sensory neurons that send information to the brain from the body in response to sensory input

Ageism

Prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a persons age

Agent of socialization

any part of society that is important when learning societal values and norms

Aggression

A behavior with the intent to cause harm or increase relative social dominance; can be verbal or physical

Agnosia

The loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds

Alcohol myopia

The inability to think about consequences and possible outcomes or one’s actions due to alcohol intoxication

Alertness

State of consciousness in which one is aware, able to think, and able to respond to the environment; nearly synonymous with arousal

Algorithm

A formula or procedure for solving a certain type of problem

Aligning action

An impression management strategy in which one makes questionable behavior acceptable through excused

Alter-casting

An impression management strategy in which one imposes an identity onto another person

Altruism

A form of helping behavior in which people’s intent to benefit someone else at a cost to themselves

Alzheimer’s disease

Degenerative brain disorder that is characterized by dementia and memory loss; neurofibrillary tangles and