People, Tests, and Experiments

Type 1 Error

Rejecting null hypothesis when it is true

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)

a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid

Heroin

narcotic drug derived from opium that is extremely addictive (depressant)

Delirium Tremens

a disorder involving sudden and severe mental changes or seizures caused by abruptly stopping the use of alcohol

Depolarization

The process during the action potential when sodium is rushing into the cell causing the interior to become more positive.

Phoneme

in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

Morpheme

in language, the smallest unit that carries meaning

Projective Test

a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics (SUBJECTIVE)

TAT: (Thematic Apperception Test) a projective test in which subjects look at and tell a story about ambiguous pictures

Rorschach Inkblot Test:

the most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots

IQ test

a test designed to measure intellectual aptitude, or ability to learn in school

internal locus of control

the perception that you control your own fate

external locus of control

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate.

Id, Ego, Superego (Freud)

the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories

the super-ego operates as a moral conscience

ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.

cognitive dissonance

Inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values or opinions

REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy)

a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people's illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions

foot-in-the-door phenomenon

the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request

door-in-the-face phenomenon

Start with a big request, then come back with a smaller one which makes it more likely to accept

self-fulfilling prophecy

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

Biofeedback

The process of learning to control bodily states by monitoring the states to be controlled

Milgram Experiment

A series of psychological experiments which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

Solomon Asch

conformity; showed that social pressure can make a person say something that is obviously incorrect ; in a famous study in which participants were shown cards with lines of different lengths and were asked to say which line matched the line on the first card in length

Zimbardo's Prison Experiment

Done at Stanford; assigned a group of students to play either the role of prison guard or prisoner; prisoners were locked up in the basement of the psychology building, and the guards were put in charge of their treatment - students took their assigned roles perhaps too well, and the experiment had to be ended early because of the cruel treatment the guards were inflicting o the prisoners

CAT scan

a method of creating static images of the brain through computerized axial tomography

PET scan

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

MRI

a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images that distinguish among different types of soft tissue; allows us to see structures within the brain

fMRI (functional MRI)

A technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. fMRI scans show brain function.