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Projection

A defense mechanism where one attributes their own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to another person.

Displacement

A defense mechanism that involves redirecting emotions from a threatening target to a safer one.

Rorschach Test

A projective psychological test where subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and analyzed to reveal unconscious aspects of personality.

Self-actualization

In humanistic theory, the process of fulfilling one's full potential and achieving personal growth.

Unconditional Positive Regard

In humanistic theory, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person, regardless of their actions or thoughts.

Unconditional Positive Regard

In humanistic theory, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person, regardless of their actions or thoughts.

Id, Ego, Superego

According to Freud, the three parts of personality: the primitive Id (unconscious urges), the realistic Ego (mediates id and superego), and the internalized ideals of the Superego (conscience).

Repression

A defense mechanism that involves unknowingly pushing distressing memories, thoughts, or feelings out of the conscious mind.

Reciprocal Determinism

In social cognitive theory, the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition (thoughts and feelings), and environmental factors.

Self-Efficacy

One's belief in their ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a specific task.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute positive events to one's own character or efforts, but attribute negative events to external factors.

Spotlight Effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others' attention is directed toward us, imagining a 'spotlight' is on our appearance, performance, or mistakes.

Experimental Group

The group in an experiment that receives the treatment or independent variable being tested.

Control Group

The group in an experiment that does not receive the treatment and is used as a baseline for comparison.

Random Assignment

A procedure in an experiment where participants are assigned to experimental or control groups by chance, minimizing preexisting differences between the groups.

Double-Blind Procedure

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are unaware of who has received the treatment and who has received a placebo.

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.

Independent Variable (IV) and Dependent Variable (DV)

IV: The experimental factor that is manipulated by the researcher; DV: The outcome measured, which may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.

True Experiment

An experiment designed to establish cause-and-effect relationships, characterized by manipulation of an independent variable, random assignment, and control over extraneous variables.

Ethical Principles (in Research)

Guidelines governing research to ensure participant safety, informed consent, confidentiality, and debriefing.

Reliability and Validity (Research)

Reliability: The consistency of a measure or research study; Validity: The extent to which a test or study accurately measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Sample and Population

Sample: A subgroup of individuals chosen from a larger population for a study; Population: The entire group of individuals that the research is interested in.

Confounding Variables

Factors other than the independent variable that may cause a result in an experiment, making it difficult to determine the true effect of the independent variable.

Correlations

A measure of the extent to which two variables are statistically related, indicating how they change together.

Positive and Negative Correlation

Positive Correlation: Two variables tend to increase or decrease together; Negative Correlation: As one variable increases, the other tends to decrease.

Illusory Correlation

The perception of a relationship between two variables where none exists, or perceiving a stronger relationship than actually exists.

Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics

Descriptive Statistics: Numerical data used to summarize and describe characteristics of groups; Inferential Statistics: Numerical data used to generalize from sample data to infer the probability of something being true of a population.

Amygdala

A limbic system structure involved in memory, decision-making, and emotional responses, particularly fear and aggression.

Context Effects

The phenomenon where the context in which a stimulus is perceived influences its interpretation.

Long-Term Memory

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

Short-Term Memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as a phone number you are dialing, before the information is either stored or forgotten.

Concept

A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Prototype

A mental image or best example of a category, used for quickly recognizing and categorizing new items.

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem, but can be time-consuming.

Availability Heuristic

Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in 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 represent, or match, particular prototypes, often ignoring other relevant information.

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident than correct—to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Drive-Reduction Theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need and restore homeostasis.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

A theory proposing that human needs form a pyramid, with basic physiological needs at the bottom, which must be satisfied before higher-level psychological needs can be pursued.

Hunger Motivation

The internal and external factors that regulate our desire to eat, including physiological signals and environmental cues.

Set Point

The biologically determined point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.

Hypothalamus

A neural structure lying below the thalamus, directing several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helping govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and linked to emotion and reward.

Intrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake, driven by internal rewards or satisfaction.

Extrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment, driven by external incentives.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

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

Type A

A personality type characterized by being competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone.

Type B

A personality type characterized by being easygoing, relaxed, and less prone to stress or anger.

Sympathetic Division (Nervous System)

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations ('fight-or-flight').

Parasympathetic Division (Nervous System)

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy ('rest and digest').

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events, often involving involuntary responses.

Natural Stimuli / Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without any prior learning.

Conditioned Response (CR)

In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally
—naturally and automatically
—triggers an unconditioned response.

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher, often involving voluntary behaviors.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement: Increasing behaviors by presenting desirable stimuli (e.g., giving a reward); Negative Reinforcement: Increasing behaviors by stopping or removing undesirable stimuli (e.g., ending a loud noise).

Partial Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time, resulting in slower acquisition of the behavior but greater resistance to extinction.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses.

Variable-Ratio Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses.

Fixed-Interval Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.

Variable-Interval Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals.

Action Potential

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon, forming the basis of communication between neurons.

Interneuron

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.

Motor Neuron

Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands (aka efferent neurons).

Myelin Sheath

A fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses.

Sensory Neuron

Neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord (aka afferent neurons).

Synapse

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.

Central Nervous System (CNS) and Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

CNS: Comprises the brain and spinal cord; PNS: Consists of the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body.

Somatic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's voluntary skeletal muscles.

Autonomic Nervous System

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (e.g., heart, digestion); its sympathetic division arouses, its parasympathetic division calms.

Acetylcholine (ACh)

A neurotransmitter that enables muscle action, learning, and memory.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter that influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion; linked to reward and pleasure.

Epinephrine (Adrenaline)

A neurotransmitter and hormone involved in the 'fight-or-flight' response, alertness, and arousal.

GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid)

A major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain, reducing neuronal excitability.

Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline)

A neurotransmitter involved in alertness, arousal, learning, and mood regulation.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter that affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal; low levels are linked to depression.

Brain Plasticity

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

Cerebellum

The 'little brain' located at the rear of the brainstem, responsible for processing sensory input, coordinating voluntary movement, balance, and nonverbal learning/memory.

Frontal Lobe

The portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking, muscle movements, planning, judgment, and personality.

Medulla

The base of the brainstem, controlling vital functions such as heartbeat and breathing.

Motor Cortex

An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements.

Reticular Formation

A nerve network that travels through the brainstem and thalamus, playing an important role in controlling arousal and filtering incoming information.

Right and Left Hemisphere (Brain)

The two halves of the brain, each specializing in different functions (e.g., left for language and logic, right for spatial reasoning and creativity).

Somatosensory Cortex

An area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.

Thalamus

The brain's sensory control center, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.