psych exam #4 vocab

Allostatic Load: Cumulative wear and tear on biological systems after repeated or chronic stressful events

Anticipatory Coping: Coping before onset of future stressor

B-Cells: Produces antibodies that attach themselves to foreign agents and mark them for destruction

Biopsychosocial Model: Influences on human mental life and behavior are biological, psychological, and social-contextual

Buffering Hypothesis: Other people can provide direct emotional support in helping individuals cope with stress

Chronic Stress: Ongoing challenges

Coping Response: Any attempt made to avoid or minimize a stressor

Creation of Positive Events: Giving positive meaning to normal events

Daily Hassles: Small, daily issues

Discrimination-Related Stress: Stress experienced by marginalized groups

Distress: Caused by negative events

Downward Comparison: Comparing to those worse off

Emotion-Focused Coping: Type of coping where people try to prevent an emotional response to stress

Eustress: Caused by positive events

Fight-Or-Flight Response: Psychological preparedness to deal with danger by fighting or fleeing

General Adaptation Syndrome: A consistent pattern of responses to stress that consists of the alarm, resistance, and exhaustion stage

Health Behaviors: Actions people can take that promote well-being and healthiness

Health Disparities: Differences in health outcomes between groups of people

Health Psychology: Application of psychology to promote health and well-being

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis: Slow body system involved in stress response

Immigrant Paradox: First generation immigrant in the US have better health than their future generations

Immune System: Body’s mechanism for dealing with invasion

Lymphocytes: Specialized white blood cells that make up the immune system

Major Life Stressors: Changes that strain central areas of lives

Metabolic Syndrome: High block sugar, insulin resistance, and heart disease

Natural Killer Cells: Kill viruses and attack tumors

Primary Appraisals: Part of coping that involves making decisions about whether a stimulus is stressful, benign, or irrelevant

Problem-Focused Coping: Type of coping where people take direct steps to solve a stressor

Rational Coping: Face stressor and work to overcome

Reframing: Finding new way to think about stressor to reduce threat

Repressive Coping: Avoid/ignore thoughts of stressor

Secondary Appraisals: Part of coping involved in evaluating options and choosing coping behaviors

Socioeconomic Status: Relative standing in society as a function of resources

Stress: Type of response that involves an imbalance and an unpleasant state

Stressor: Something perceived as a threat producing stress

T-Cells: Assist in attacking intruders and increase immune strength

Tend-And-Befriend Response: Tendency to protect and care for offspring and form social alliances rather than fight or flee

Type A Behavior Pattern: Pattern of behavior characterized by hostility, competitiveness, etc

Well-Being: Positive state involving striving for optimal life health and satisfaction

Actor/Observer Discrepancy: Tendency to focus on situations to explain own behavior but dispositions to explain others behavior

Aggression: Any behavior that involves the intention to harm

Altruism: Providing help when needed without an apparent reward

Attitudes: People’s evaluations of other things

Attributions: Explanations for why things occur

Bystander Intervention Effect: Failure to offer help to someone in need when others are present

Companionate Love: Strong commitment based on friendship, trust, respect, and intimacy

Compliance: Tendency to agree to things requested by others

Conformity: Altering one’s behaviors to match others or their expectations

Deindividuation: State of reduced individuality and self-awareness when in a group

Discrimination: Differential treatment of people due to prejudice

Elaboration Likelihood Model: Persuasive messages lead to attitude changes through the central route or the peripheral route

Explicit Attitudes: Attitudes that a person is aware they have

Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to overemphasize personality traits and underestimate situational factors when describing others behavior

Group Polarization: Initial attitudes of groups become extreme over time

Groupthink: Tendency of a group to make a bad decision under pressure to preserve the group

Implicit Attitudes: Attitudes that unconsciously influence a person

Inclusive Fitness: Explanation for altruism that focuses on benefit of transmitting genes over own survival

Informational Influence: Tendency to conform when they assume others are responding correctly

Ingroup Favoritism: Tendency to evaluate ingroup members better than others

Mere Exposure Effect: Greater exposure to a stimulus leads to greater liking for it

Modern Racism: Subtle prejudice that coexists with rejection of racism

Nonverbal Behavior: Facial expressions and movements of communication

Normative Influence: Tendency to conform to fit in

Obedience: Following orders of an authority figure

Outgroup Homogeneity Effect: Tendency to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members

Passionate Love: State of intense longing and desire

Personal Attributions: Explanations of people’s behavior that refer to personal characteristics

Persuasion: Conscious effort to change an attitude through a message

Prejudice: Negative feelings and opinions associated with a stereotype

Prosocial Behaviors: Actions that benefit others

Situational Attributions: Explanations of people’s behavior that refer to external events

Social Facilitation: Idea that presence of others generally enhances performance

Social Identity Theory: Ingroups consist of individuals who perceive themselves to be members of the same social category and have pride in that

Social Loafing: People work less hard in a group

Social Norms: Expected standards of behavior

Stereotype Threat: Fear of confirming negative stereotypes about own group

Ingroups: Where people belong

Outgroups: Where people don’t belong

Reciprocity: Treating others as others treat them

Transitivity: People share friends opinions of others

Reciprocal Helping: Helping someone who may return the favor in the future

Diffusion of Responsibility: People expect other bystanders to help

Central Route: Motivated to process information

Peripheral Route: Information is minimally processed

Foot in the Door: If you agree to a small request, you are more likely to comply to a larger one

Door in the Face: If you refuse a large request, you are more likely to comply to a smaller one

Low-Balling: When you agree to buy a product to a certain price, you are likely to comply with a request to pay more

Addiction: Use of substance continues despite negatives and desire to quit

Agoraphobia: Anxiety disorder marked by fear of being in an inescapable situation

Anorexia Nervosa: Eating disorder marked by excessive fear of becoming fat and extreme intake limiting

Antisocial Personality Disorder: Personality disorder marked by socially undesirable behavior and lack of empathy

Anxiety Disorders: Psychological disorders characterized by excessive fear in absence of danger

Assessment: Examination of a person’s functioning to diagnose possible disorders

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Disorder characterized by restlessness, inattentiveness, and impulsivity

Autism Spectrum Disorder: Developmental disorder characterized by impaired communication, restricted interests, and impaired social interaction

Binge-Eating Disorder: Eating disorder characterized by extreme eating that causes distress

Bipolar I Disorder: Disorder characterized by extremely elevated moods during manic episodes and frequent depressive episodes

Bipolar II Disorder: Disorder characterized by alternation depression and elevated mood

Borderline Personality Disorder: Personality disorder characterized by disturbance in identity, affect, and impulse control

Bulimia Nervosa: Eating disorder characterized by alternating between dieting, binging, and puring

Cognitive Behavioral Approach: Diagnostic model that views psychopathology as a result of learned, maladaptive thoughts

Delusions: False beliefs based on incorrect inferences about reality

Diathesis-Stress Model: Diagnostic model proposing that a disorder develops due to vulnerability and amplified by stress

Disorganized Behavior: Acting in strange or unusual ways

Disorganized Speech: Incoherent speech patterns involving frantic topics and inappropriate speech

Dissociative Disorders: Disorders involving disruptions of identity, memory, or awareness

Etiology: Factors that contribute to the development of a disorder

Family Systems Model: Model that considers problems with an individual indicating family problems

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Diffuse state of non-associated constant anxiety

Hallucinations: False sensory perceptions without an external source

Learned Helplessness: Model of depression where people feel out of control in their lives

Major Depressive Disorder: Disorder characterized by severe negative moods and lack of interest

Negative Symptoms: Symptoms of schizophrenia that are marked by deficits

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts and compulsive actions

Persistent Depressive Disorder: Form of depression that is not as severe as MDD but lasts longer

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Disorder involving frequent nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and flashbacks related to a trauma

Psychopathology: Sickness of mind

Research Domain Criteria (RDoC): Method that defines basic aspects of function and considers multiple levels of analysis

Schizophrenia: Disorder characterized by alterations in thoughts, perceptions, consciousness and psychosis

Sociocultural Model: Diagnostic model that views disorders as a result of interaction

Trauma: Prolonged response to a distressing event

Comorbidity: Different disorders can occur together

Persecutory Delusions: Belief others are persecuting them

Referential Delusions: Belief that things have particular significance

Grandiose Delusions: Belief one has greater power

Identity Delusions: Belief someone is someone else

Guilt Delusions: Belief one has committed a terrible sin

Control Delusions: Belief that one’s processes are controlled by external forces