AP PSYCHOLOGY VOCABULARY

1. Acetylcholine (ACh): a neurotransmitter that plays a role in memory and movement; low

levels are correlated to Alzheimer’s disease

2. Acommodation: changing our current understandings (schemas) or creating new schemas to

incorporate new info

3. Achievement tests: tests designed to assess what a person has already learned

4. Accommodation: act of state of adjustment or adaptation, changes in shape of the ocular

lens for various focal distances

5. Acoustic encoding: the processing of sound, especially the sound of words

6. Acquisition: in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and

an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned

response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

7. Action potential: a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

8. Active listening: empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A

feature of Carl Rogers’ client-centered therapy

9. Adaptation-level phenomenon: our tendency to form judgments relative to a neutral level

defined by our prior experience

10. Addiction: compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences

11. Adolescence: the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to

independence

12. Adrenal glands: a pair of endocrine glands that secrete hormones that help arouse the body

in times of stress

13. Aggression: any physical/verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

14. Algorithm: a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular

problems

15. Alpha waves: small, short brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

16. Altruism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others

17. Amnesia: loss of memory

a. Retrograde amnesia: type of memory loss that occurs when you cannot remember old

memories

b. Anterograde amnesia: type of memory loss that occurs when you cannot form new

memories

c. Source amnesia: attributing to the wrong source an event we have experiences, heard

about, read about, or imagined the heart of many false memories

18. Amygdala: two lima bean-sized part of the brain in the limbic system; linked to emotion (fear

and aggression)

19. Anorexia nervosa: an eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) diets

and becomes significantly (15% or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve

20. Antianxiety drugs: drugs used to control anxiety and agitation

21. Antidepressant drugs: drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety.

a. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors): types of antidepressants that block

the reuptake of serotonin into the axon

22. Antipsychotic drugs: drugs used to treat schizophrenia

23. Antisocial personality disorder: a personality disorder in which the person exhibits a lack of

conscience for wrongdoing, even towards friends and family members; may be aggressive and

ruthless or a clever con artist

24. Anxiety disorders: psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or

maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety

25. Aphasia: impairment of language

a. Broca’s aphasia: damage in Broca’s area in the frontal lobe that results in difficulty

producing speech

b. Wernicke’s aphasia: damage in Wernicke’s area in the temporal lobe that results in

difficulty understanding speech

26. Applied research: scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

27. Aptitude tests: tests designed to predict a person’s future performance, capacity to learn

28. Assimilation: interpreting new experiences in terms of our existing schemas

29. Association areas: areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or

sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning,

remembering, thinking, and speaking.

30. Associative learning: learning that certain events occur together

a. Classical conditioning: a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli

and anticipate events

b. Operant conditioning: a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed

by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punishment

31. Attachment: an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking

closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation

32. Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A psychological disorder marked by the

appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention,

hyperactivity, and impulsivity

33. Attitude: feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a

particular way to objects, people, and events

34. Attribution Theory: theory that we explain someone’s behavior by crediting either the

situation or the person’s disposition – dispositional vs. situational

35. Audition: the sense or act of hearing

36. Autism: a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social

interaction, and understanding of others’ states of minds

37. Automatic processing: unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time

and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

38. Aversive conditioning: a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state with

an unwanted behavior

39. Axon: the extension of a neuron that allows the message to travel through

40. Babbling stage: beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the

infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

41. Barbiturates: drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety

but impairing memory and judgement

42. Basal metabolic rate: the body’s resting rate of energy spending

43. Basic research: pure science that aims to increase scientific knowledge base (through

experiments mostly)

44. Basic trust: according to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy;

said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

45. Behavior therapy: therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted

behaviors

46. Behavioral psychology: the school of psychology that believes that behaviors are the result

of associations, observation, and rewards and punishments.

47. Belief perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were

formed has been discredited

48. Binge-eating disorder: significant eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust or guilt, but

without compensatory purging or fasting that marks bulimia nervosa.

49. Binocular cues: vision and depth perception that depends on the use of two eyes

50. Biofeedback: a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information

regarding a subtle psychological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension

51. Biological psychology: the school of psychology that believes that behaviors are the result of

hormones, neurotransmitters, genetics, and parts of the brain

52. Biomedical therapy: prescribed medications or medical procedures that act directly on the

patient’s nervous system

53. Biopsychosocial approach: an integrated method that includes biological, psychological, and

social levels of analysis

54. Bipolar disorder: a mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness

and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania

55. Blind spot: the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, and no information is received

there so the brain fills it so we do not notice it

56. Bottom-up processing: analysis that begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brain

(“What am I looking at?”)

57. Brainstem: the oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord

ends. Responsible for automatic survival functions

58. Broca’s area: controls language expression – an area in the left frontal lobe (“boca” = mouth)

59. Bulimia nervosa: an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, followed by

vomiting, purging, fasting, or extreme exercise

60. Bystander effect (OR Kitty Genovese Syndrome): tendency for less people to respond the

more people are around

61. Cannon-Bard Theory: the theory of emotion that a stimulus triggers (1) a physiological

response (arousal) and (2) emotion at the same time

62. Case study: an observation technique in which one or a specific group of people are studied

in depth in the hopes of revealing universal principles

63. Catharsis: an emotional release

64. Central nervous system (CNS): the brain and the spinal cord

65. Central route persuasion: attitude change in which interested people focus and are convinced

by the actual argumentation, facts, and details.

66. Cerebellum: the “little brain” located in the back of our heads that is responsible for

coordinating movement and balance.

67. Cerebral cortex: the fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the brain; the body’s

ultimate control and information-processing center

68. Change blindness: the tendency to fail to detect changes in any part of a scene to which we

are not focusing our attention

69. Chromosomes: the structure made up of DNA molecules that contain the genes

70. Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units

71. Circadian rhythm: our biological 24-hour clock of bodily patterns of temperature and

wakefulness

72. Client-centered therapy (OR person-centered therapy): a humanistic therapy developed by

Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine,

accepting, and empathic environment to facilitate the client’s growth.

73. Clinical psychology: a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with

psychological disorders

74. Cochlea: the fluid-filled, shell-shaped tunnel in the inner ear that contains the receptors for

hearing (frequencies)

75. Cognition: the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and

communicating

76. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): a popular integrated therapy that attempts to address

a change in a person’s thinking through healthier behaviors

77. Cognitive dissonance theory: theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two

of our thoughts are inconsistent; change our attitudes rather than our behaviors

78. Cognitive map: a mental representation of the layout of one’s environment

79. Cognitive Psychology: the school of psychology that argues that behaviors are a result of

mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

80. Cognitive Therapy: therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and

acting

81. Collective unconscious: Carl Jung’s concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces

from our species’ history

82. Collectivism: a society that prioritizes the goals of the group over the individual

83. Color constancy: perceiving familiar objects as having one consistent color

84. Companionate love: the deep affectionate attachment we feel as a relationship settles

85. Concept: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

86. Concrete Operational stage: the 3rd stage of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (7-11

years old) during which children gain the mental operations to think logically about events

and ideas

87. Conditioned (OR secondary) reinforcer: a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through

it’s association with a primary reinforcer (something biological)

88. Conditioned stimulus (CS): an originally irrelevant catalyst that, after association with an

unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response

89. Conductive hearing loss: hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that

produces sound waves to the cochlea

90. Cones: retinal receptor cells near the center of the retina that allow us to see color in well-

lit conditions (we have 3 types – red, green, and blue)

91. Confirmation bias: the tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions

and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

92. Conflict: a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas

a. Approach-approach conflict: conflicts in which you must decide between desirable

options

b. Approach-avoidance conflict: conflict in which you must decide between desirable and

undesirable options

c. Avoidance-avoidance conflict: a conflict in which you must decide between

undesirable options

93. Conformity: adjusting our behavior to coincide with a group standard

94. Confounding variable: a factor other than the changing independent variable that might

produce an effect in an experiment

95. Consciousness: awareness of ourselves and our environment

96. Conservation: the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational

reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and numbers remain the same despite

changes in the forms of objects

97. Context-dependent memory: information is best remembered when it is recalled in the same

place it was initially learned

98. Continuous reinforcement: reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

99. Control group: in an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment

100. Conversion disorder: a rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific

genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found

101. Corpus callosum: the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and

carrying messages between them

102. Correlation: the extent to which two variables vary together (or have a relationship); THIS IS

NOT PREDICTIVE OF CAUSATION*

a. Illusory correlation: the perception of a relationship where none exists

103. Correlation coefficient (OR r-value): a statistical index of the relationship between two

things (from -1 to +1)

104. Counterconditioning: a behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke

new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies

and aversive conditioning.

105. Creativity: the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas

a. Convergent thinking: looks at obtaining one solution to a problem

b. Divergent thinking: looks at obtaining multiple solutions to the same problem

106. Critical period: an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism’s exposure to certain

stimuli or experience produces proper development

107. Critical thinking: thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions

108. Cross-sectional study: a study in which people of different ages are compared with one

another

109. Crystallized intelligence: our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; increases with age

110. CT (Computed Tomography) scan (OR a CAT scan): a series of x-ray photographs taken from

different angles to form a composite image

111. Culture: the enduring behaviors, attitudes, ideas, and traditions shared by a group and

transmitted from one generation to the next

112. Debriefing: the post experimental explanation for a study, including its purpose and any

deceptions, to its participants

113. Defense mechanism: in psychodynamic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing

anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality

114. Deindividuation: the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations

that foster arousal or anonymity

115. Déjà vu: the eerie sense of “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation

may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

116. Delta waves: large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep

117. Delusions: false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic

disorders (like schizophrenia)

118. Dendrite: the bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct

impulses toward the cell body

119. Denial: psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even perceive

painful realities

120. Dependent variable: the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to the

manipulations of the independent variable

121. Depressants: drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity

and slow body function

122. Depth perception: the ability to see objects in 3D and allow us to judge distance

123. Developmental psychology: a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social

change throughout the lifespan

124. Discrimination: unjustifiable negative behavior toward a group and its members

125. Discrimination: in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a

conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

126. Displacement: a psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts unwanted or inappropriate

impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

127. Dissociation: a split in consciousness, which allows one’s thoughts and behaviors to occur

simultaneously with others

128. Dissociative disorders: disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated from

previous memories, thoughts, and feelings

129. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID, formerly Multiple-Personality Disorder): a rare

dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating

personalities.

130. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): a complex molecule containing our genetic information that

makes up chromosomes

131. Dopamine: a neurotransmitters in charge of mood and arousal; surplus leads to schizophrenia

and deficit results in Parkinson’s disease

132. Double-blind procedure: an experiment procedure in which both the research participants

and the research staff are ignorant about which participants are receiving the treatment or

placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies.

133. Dream: a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s

mind that are notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and for the dreamer’s

delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it

134. Drive-reduction theory: the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state

that motivates an organism to satisfy the need

135. DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders): A classification system that

describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how

the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems

136. Dual processing: the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on conscious

and unconscious tracks

137. Eclectic approach: an approach to therapy that, depending on the client’s problems, uses

techniques from various forms of therapy

138. Ecstasy (OR MDMA): a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen that produces feelings of

euphoria and social intimacy

139. Effortful processing: encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

140. Ego: the largely conscious, “executive” part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates

the demands of the id, superego, and reality

a. Id: your “instant demand” center (or the devil on your shoulder) that strives to satisfy

basic sexual and aggressive drives

b. Superego: the angel on your shoulder that strives to represent internalized ideals and

provides standards for judgement (the conscience)

141. Egocentrism: in Piaget’s theory, the preoperational child’s difficulty in taking another’s point

of view

142. Electroconvulsive therapy: a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a

brief electrical current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient

143. Electroencephalogram (EEG): an amplified recording of the waves of electric activity that

sweep across the brain’s surface

144. Embryo: the developing human organism from about 2 weeks of fertilization to the second

month

145. Emerging adulthood: a period from late teens to mid-twenties bridging the gap between

adolescent dependence and adulthood independence

146. Emotion: a response of the whole organism involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive

behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

147. Emotional intelligence: the ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions

148. Empirically derived test: a test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those

that discriminate between groups

149. Encoding: the processing of information into working or long-term memory

150. Endocrine system: the body’s “slow” chemical communication system that secrete hormones

into the blood stream

151. Endorphins: “morphine within” – natural, opiatelike neutrotransmitters linked to pain control

and pleasure

152. Estrogen: sex hormones secreted in greater amounts by females and contributing to female

sex characteristics

153. Evolutionary Psychology: the school of psychology that believes that behaviors are rooted in

survival and reproductive advantages in the past that have continued through natural selection

154. Experiment: a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors

(independent variable) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental processes

(dependent variable). Requires random sampling and random assignment to reduce

confounding variables.

155. Experimental group: in an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment

156. Exposure therapy: behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat

anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear or avoid

157. External locus of control: the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal

control determine your fate

158. Extinction: the diminishing of a conditioned response

159. Extrasensory perception (ESP): the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from

sensory input – examples include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

160. Extrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid

threatened punishment

161. Facial-feedback effect: the effect of facial expressions on experienced emotions

162. Factor analysis: a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test

163. Family therapy: a type of socio-cultural therapy that views the individual’s unwanted

behaviors as influenced by or directed at other family members

164. Feature detectors: nerve cells in the brain that response to shape, angle, or movement

165. Feel-good, do-good phenomenon: people’s tendency to be helpful when already in a good

mood

166. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a

pregnant woman’s heavy drinking

167. Fetus: the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception of birth

168. Figure-ground: the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their

surroundings

169. Fixation: according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier

psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved

170. Fixed-interval schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a

response only after a specified time has elapsed (1 cookie every 5 minutes)

171. Fixed-variable schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a

response only after a specified number of responses (1 cookie every 5 math problems

successfully completed)

172. Flashbulb memory: a clear memory of an emotionally charged moment or event

173. Flooding: a technique in behavior therapy in which the individual is exposed directly to an

anxiety-producing situation without any attempt made to lessen or avoid anxiety

174. Fluid intelligence: our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; decreases with age

175. fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging): a technique for revealing bloodflow and,

therefore, brain activity and shows brain function

176. Foot-in-the-door technique/phenomenon: the tendency for people who have agreed to a

small request to comply later with a larger request

177. Formal operational stage: the 4th stage in Piaget’s theory (12 years – onward) during which

people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

178. Fovea: the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster

179. Framing: the way an issue is posed can affect our decisions and judgements

180. Fraternal twins: twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs

181. Free association: in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the

person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind

182. Frequency: the number of complete waves that pass a given point in a certain amount of time

(determines pitch)

183. Frequency theory: in hearing, the theory that the rate of neural impulses traveling up the

auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch

a. Volley Theory: explains why we can hear frequencies higher than 1000 Hz (neurons can

only travel that fast); argues that multiple neurons fire at once to produce frequencies

and pitches higher than 1000 Hz

184. Frontal lobes: portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; responsible in

speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements

185. Frustration-aggression principle: the blocking of an attempt to achieve a goal creates anger

186. Functional fixedness: the tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions;

an impediment to problem solving

187. Functionalism: a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral

processes work – how they enable us to adapt, survive and flourish

188. Fundamental attribution error: the tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s

behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of

personal disposition

189. GABA: a neurotransmitter that regulates sleep-wake cycles; lack can result in epilepsy,

insomnia

190. Gate-control theory: theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological gate that blocks pain

signals or allows them to pass

191. Gender: the biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male

or female

192. Gender identity: our sense of being male or female

193. Gender role: a set of expected behaviors for male or females

194. Gender typing: the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role

195. General adaptation syndrome (GAS): Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to

stress in three phases – alarm, resistance, exhaustion

196. General intelligence (g): an general intelligence factors that according to Charles Spearman,

underlines specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence

test

197. Generalization: the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for a stimuli similar to

the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

198. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually

tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal

199. Gestalt: an organized whole; our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful

wholes

200. Glial cells: cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons

201. Glucose: the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy

for body tissues

202. Grammar: in language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand

others

203. Grit: a personality trait characterized by perseverance and passion for achieving long-term

goals

204. GRIT (Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction): a strategy designed to

decrease international tensions

205. Group polarization: tendency of group members to move to an extreme position after

discussing an issue as a group

206. Grouping: the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent categories

207. Groupthink: a group of well-intentioned people make irrational or non-optimal decisions

spurred by the urge to conform and make peace

208. Habituation: decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation

209. Hallucination: false sensory experiences (visual or auditory)

210. Hallucinogens: psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke imagery in

the absence of sensory input

211. Hemispherectomy: surgical removal of part of or an entire hemisphere

212. Heritability: the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes

213. Heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that allows us to make judgments and solve problems

efficiently; usually speedier but more error-prone

a. Availability heuristic: estimating the likelihood of events based on how accessible they

are in our memory (if instances come readily to mind, we presume such events are

common)

b. Representativeness heuristic: judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well

they seem to align with certain prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant

information

214. Hierarchy of needs: Maslow’s pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with

physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level needs

215. Higher-order conditioning: a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning

experienced is paired with a new neutral stimulus, producing the same response

216. Hindsight bias (OR I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon): the tendency to believe, after learning

the outcome, that one would have foreseen it

217. Hippocampus: a neural center located in the limbic system, responsible for the processing of

explicit memories for storage

218. Homeostasis: a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state

219. Hormones: chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands

220. Hue: the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, etc.

221. Humanistic Psychology: the school of psychology that believes that behaviors are determined

by the fostering of personal growth

a. Unconditional positive regard: a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude

222. Hypnosis: a social interaction in which one person suggest to another that certain perceptions,

feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur

223. Hypothalamus: a part of the brain located below the thalamus and in the limbic system;

directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the

endocrine system via the pituitary gland and is linked to emotion and reward

a. Lateral hypothalamus: the “on” switch for eating, lesion here would lead to decreased

hunger drive

b. Ventromedial hypothalamus: the “off” switch for eating, lesion here would cause

obesity

224. Hypothesis: a testable prediction

225. Identical twins: twins who develop from a single fertilized egg

226. Identity: our sense of self

227. Illness Anxiety Disorder (formerly Hypochondriasis): a somatoform disorder involving

excessive concern about health and disease

228. Imagery: mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing

229. Imprinting: the process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period

very early in life

230. Inattentional blindness: failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

231. Incentive: a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior

232. Independent variable: the experimental factor that is manipulated

233. Individualism: a society or culture that gives priority to one’s own goals over group goals

234. Informative social influence: impact resulting from one’s willingness to accept others’

opinions about reality

235. Informed consent: an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable

them to choose whether or not they wish to participate

236. Ingroup: us; people with whom we share a common identity

237. Ingroup bias: tendency to favor our own group

238. Inner ear: structures and liquids that relay sound waves to the auditory nerve fibers on a path

to the brain for the interpretation of sound

239. Insight: an “aha!” moment; a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

240. Insight therapy: a variety of therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by

increasing the client’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses

241. Insomnia: a sleep disorder resulting in recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

242. Instinct: a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned through a species and is unlearned

243. Intellectual disability: a conditioned of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence

score of 70 or below

a. Down syndrome: a condition of intellectual disability and associated with physical

disorders caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

244. Intelligence: mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems,

and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

245. Intelligence quotient (IQ): mental age/chronological age x 100

a. Mental age: a measure of intelligence test performed by Alfred Binet; the chronological

age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.

246. Intelligence test: a method for assessing an individual’s mental aptitudes and comparing them

with those of others, using numerical scores

247. Intensity: the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or

loudness, as determined by the wave’s amplitude

248. Internal locus of control: the perception that you control your own fate

249. Interpretation: in psychoanalysis, the analyst’s noting of supposed dream meanings,

resistances, and other significant behaviors and events in order to promote insight

250. Intrinsic motivation: a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

251. Iris: a ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye around the pupil and

controls the size of the pupil opening

252. James-Lange Theory: the theory that physiological arousal comes before experiencing an

emotion

253. Just-world phenomenon: tendency for people to believe the world is good and that people

therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get

254. Kinesthesis: the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

255. Language: our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to

communicate meaning

256. Latent content: according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

257. Latent learning: knowledge that only becomes evident when a person has an incentive to

display it

258. Lateralization: the differing functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain

259. Law of effect: the idea that behaviors followed by a favorable consequence become more

likely, and behavior followed by an unfavorable consequence become less likely

260. Learned helplessness: the hopelessness and passive resignation an organism learns when

unable to avoid repeated aversive events

261. Learning: a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience

262. Lens: the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on

the retina

263. Lesion: tissue destruction

264. Limbic system: doughnut-shaped system (consisting of the hippocampus, amygdala, and

hypothalamus) associated with emotions and drives

265. Linguistic determinism: Whorf’s hypothesis that language impacts the way we think

266. Localization of function: different functions are in different, specific areas of the brain

267. Localization of sound: the ability of an organism to discover where a sound is coming from

based on intensity and timing

268. Long-term memory: the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

a. Explicit memory (OR declarative memory): memory of facts and experiences that one

can consciously know and “declare”

i. Episodic memory: the long-term storage of information regarding personal

experiences

ii. Semantic memory: the storehouse of permanent knowledge, such as the

meanings of words in a language and huge collection of facts about the world

b. Implicit memory (OR nondeclarative OR procedural memory): retention independent

of conscious recollection

269. Long-term potentiation (LTP): an increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid

stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

270. Longitudinal study: a type of research in which the same people are restudied and retested

over a long period

271. LSD: a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid

272. 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

273. Mania: a mood disorder marked by a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state

274. Manifest content: according to Freud, the remembered storyline of a dream

275. Maturation: biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively

uninfluenced by experience

276. Mean: the average of a distribution

277. Median: the middle score of a distribution

278. Medulla: the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing

279. Memory: the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of

information

280. Menarche: first menstrual period

281. Mnemonics: memory aids

282. Menopause: the time of natural cessation of menstruation

283. Mental set: a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has

been successful in the past

284. Mere-exposure effect: the phenomenon that familiarity breeds fondness

285. Metacognition: thinking about one’s thinking

286. Methamphetamine: a powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system,

with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes

287. Middle ear: the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones

(hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s

oval window

288. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): the most widely researched and

clinically used of all personality tests. Originally developed to identify emotional disorders.

289. Mirror-image perceptions: mutual views often held by conflicting people, as when each side

sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive

290. Misinformation effect: incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event

291. Mode: the most frequently repeating number(s) in a distribution

292. Modeling: the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

293. Monocular cues: depth cues available to either eye alone

294. Mood disorders: psychological disorders characterized by emotional extremes

295. Mood-congruent memory: the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s

current good or bad mood

296. Morpheme: in a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or a part of

a word (such as a prefix)

297. Motor cortex: an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements

298. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan: a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio

waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue.

299. Myelin sheath: a layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the axon; enables vastly greater

transmission speed of neural impulses. Lack of myelin sheath results in multiple sclerosis.

300. Narcolepsy: a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may

lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inappropriate times.

301. Natural selection: the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those that

lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed onto the succeeding

generations

302. Naturalistic observation: a descriptive study that attempts to document behavior as it

spontaneously occurs in a real-world setting

303. Nature-nurture issue: the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes

or experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors

304. Neurons: a nerve cell; basic building block of the nervous system

a. Interneurons: neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate between the

sensory and motor neurons

b. Mirror neurons: frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when

observing another doing so

c. Motor neurons: neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord

to the muscles and glands

d. Sensory neurons: neurons that carrying information to the brain from the senses

305. Neurotransmitters: chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons

306. Night terrors: a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being

terrified; unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during Stage 4 sleep, within two or three

hours of falling asleep, and are seldom remembered

307. Norepinephrine: a neurotransmitter that is responsible for arousal and alertness; a surplus

results in anxiety

308. Norm: an understood rule for accepted/expected behavior

309. Normative social influence: impact resulting from a person’s desire to gain approval or avoid

disapproval

310. NREM sleep: non-rapid eye movement sleep, encompasses all sleep stages except for REM

311. Object permanence: the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

312. Observational learning (OR social learning): learning by watching others

313. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): an anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted

repetitive thoughts and/or actions

314. Occipital lobes: portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas

that receive information from the visual fields

315. Oedipus complex: according to Freud, a boy’s sexual desires toward his mother and feelings

of jealousy and hatred for the rival father (Electra Complex in girls)

316. One-word stage: the stage in speech development, from about age 1-2, during which a child

speaks mostly in single words

317. Operant behavior: behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

318. Operational definition (of the dependent variable): a statement of the procedures used to

define research variables, allowing the experiment to be replicated in the future.

319. Opponent-process theory: the theory that opposite retinal processes (red-green, yellow-

blue, white-black) enable color vision.

320. Optic nerve: the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

321. Other-race effect: the tendency to recall faced of one’s own race more accurately than faces

of another race

322. Outgroup: them; those perceived as different or apart from the ingroup

323. Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct – to overestimate the

accuracy of our beliefs and judgements

324. Over justification: our tendency to become less intrinsically motivated to partake in an

activity that we used to enjoy when offered an external incentive such as money or a reward

325. Panic disorder: an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable minutes-long episodes of intense

dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other

frightening sensations.

326. Parallel processing: acknowledging many aspects of a problem simultaneously

327. Parietal lobes: portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the

rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position

328. Partial (intermittent) reinforcement: reinforcing a response only part of the time

329. Passionate love: an aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present

at the beginning of a love relationship

330. Perception: the process of organizing and interpretating sensory information, enabling us to

recognize meaningful objects and events

331. Perceptual set: a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

332. Peripheral nervous system (PNS): the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central

nervous system to the rest of the body

a. Autonomic nervous system: the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls

the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Its sympathetic nervous system

arouses, and its parasympathetic nervous system calms and relaxes.

i. Sympathetic nervous system: part of the nervous system that arouses the body

ii. Parasympathetic nervous system: part of the nervous system that calms the

body

b. Somatic nervous system: the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls

the body’s skeletal muscles

333. Peripheral route persuasion: attitude change in which people are influenced by how

attractive or likeable the person presenting the information is

334. Personality: an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

335. Personality disorders: psychological disorders characterized by inflexible and enduring

behavior patterns that impair social functioning

336. PET (positron emission tomography) scan: a visual display of brain (metabolic) activity that

detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

337. Phi phenomenon: an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink

off and on in quick succession

338. Phobia: an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific

object or situation

339. Phoneme: in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit

340. Pitch: a tone’s highness or lowness; depends on frequency

341. Pituitary gland: the endocrine system’s most influential gland; under the influence of the

hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls the endocrine glands

342. Place theory: in hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the location where the

cochlea’s membrane is stimulated

343. Placebo effect: experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior

caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which was recipient assumes

is an active agent

344. Plasticity (OR neuroplasticity): the brain’s ability to modify itself after damage

345. Polygraph: a “lie-detector” machine that measures several of the physiological responses

accompanying emotion

346. Population: all the cases in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

347. Positive psychology: the scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and

promote strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive

348. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting

memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and/or insomnia that lingers for

four weeks or more after a traumatic experience

349. Prejudice: an unjustifiable attitude toward a group and its members

350. Preoperational stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage (2-7 years old) during which a child

exhibits egocentrism, but lack of conservation and theory of mind

351. Primary reinforcer: an innately reinforcing stimulus, one that satisfies a biological need

352. Primary sex characteristics: the body structures (ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that

make sexual reproduction possible

353. Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one’s

perception, memory, or response

354. Proactive interference: old information blocks the recall of new information

355. Projection: a psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people disguise their own

threatening impulses by attributing them to others

356. Projective test: a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous

stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner thoughts and dynamics

357. Prosocial behavior: positive, constructive, helpful behavior

358. Prototype: a mental image or best example of a category

359. Psychiatry: a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; can prescribe

medication

360. Psychoactive drug: a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods

361. Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to

unconscious motives and conflicts; it is also a technique used in treating psychological

disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

362. Psychodynamic Psychology: a school of psychology that argues that behaviors are a result of

unconscious drives and childhood experiences

363. Psychological disorder: deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional patterns of thoughts, feelings,

or behaviors that impact day to day functioning

364. Psychology: the science of behavior and mental processes

365. Psychopharmacology: the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

366. Psychosexual stages: the childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency,

genital) during which, according to Freud, the id’s pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct

erogenous zones

367. Psychosurgery: a medical procedure that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to

change behavior

368. Psychotherapy: treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions

between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or

achieve personal growth

369. Puberty: the period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of

reproducing

370. Punishment: an event that decreases the behavior that it follows

a. Positive punishment: decreasing behaviors by getting rid of a positive stimulus

b. Negative punishment: decreasing behaviors by adding a negative stimulus

371. Pupil: the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

372. Random assignment: placing participants in experimental and control groups by change, thus

minimizing the differences between those assigned to the different groups

373. Random sample: a group that fairly represents a population because each member has an

equal chance of inclusion

374. Range: the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

375. Rational-emotive behavior therapy: an action-oriented approach that’s focused on helping

people deal with irrational beliefs and learn how to manage their emotions

376. Rationalization: psychoanalytic defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in

place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions

377. Reaction formation: psychodynamic defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously

switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites

378. Recall: a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier,

is in a fill-in-the-blank test

379. Reciprocal determinism: the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and

environment

380. Reciprocity norm: an expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped

them

381. Recognition: a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously

learned, as on a multiple-choice test

382. Reflex: a simple automatic response to a sensory stimulus, activated through the spinal cord

383. Refractory period: a resting period after orgasm; a resting period after a neuron fires

384. Regression: a psychoanalytic defense mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety

retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage

385. Rehearsal: the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or

to encode it for storage

a. Elaborative rehearsal: an encoding of information by making it meaningful to you

b. Maintenance rehearsal: an encoding of information by continuously practicing

386. Reinforcement: an event that increases the behavior that it follows

a. Positive reinforcement: increasing behaviors by adding or continuing positive stimuli

b. Negative reinforcement: increasing behaviors by getting rid of a negative stimulus

387. Relative deprivation: the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we

compare ourselves

388. Relearning: a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning

material for a second time

389. Reliability: the extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency

of scores on two halves of the tests, or on retesting

390. REM rebound: the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation

391. REM sleep (OR paradoxical sleep): rapid eye movement sleep; a recurring sleep stage during

which vivid dreams commonly occur. The muscles are relaxed, but other body systems are

active

392. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS): the application of repeated pulses of

magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity

393. Replication: repeating the essence of a research study

394. Repression: in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-

arousing thoughts, feelings and memories from consciousness

395. Resilience: the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from

adversity and trauma

396. Resistance: in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material

397. Reticular formation: the nerve network in the brainstem that plays a role in controlling

arousal

398. Retina: the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones

plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

399. Retinal disparity: a binocular cue for perceiving depth; by comparing images from both eyes,

the brain computes distance

400. Retrieval: the process of getting information out of memory storage

401. Reuptake: a neurotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending neuron

402. Rods: retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and

twilights vision, when cones don’t respond

403. Role: a set of expectations (norms) about a social position, defining how one ought to behave

404. Rorschach inkblot test: the most widely used projective test that seeks to identify people’s

inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the inkblots

405. Savant syndrome: a condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an

exceptional specific skills, such as in computation or drawing

406. Scapegoat theory: prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame

407. Scatterplot: a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables

408. Schema: a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

409. Schizophrenia: a group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional

thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions

410. Secondary sex characteristics: nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female

breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair

411. Selective attention: the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

a. Cocktail party effect: when you can differentiate between voices in a room and switch

back and forth between conversations

412. Self-actualization: according to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises

when one reaches their full potential

413. Self-concept: all our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question “Who

am I?”

414. Self-disclosure: revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others

415. Self-efficacy: our belief in our abilities

416. Self-esteem: one’s feelings of high or low self-worth

417. Self-fulfilling prophecy: an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that

expectation come true

418. Self-serving bias: a readiness to perceive oneself favorably

419. Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and

sentences in a given language; also the study of meaning

420. Sensation: the faculty through which the external world is apprehended

421. Sensorineural hearing loss: hearing impairment caused by lesions or dysfunction of the

cochlea or auditory nerve

422. Sensorimotor stage: in Piaget’s theory, the stage (from birth to 2 years) during which infants

know the world mostly in terms of sensory impressions and motor activities

423. Sensory adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

424. Sensory cortex: area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch

and movement sensations

425. Sensory interaction (OR sensory integration): the principle that one sense may influence

another, like smell with taste

426. Sensory memory: the immediate, very brief recording of information from the senses that

lasts for 1-3 seconds

a. Echoic memory: a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

b. Iconic memory: a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

427. Serial position effect: our tendency to recall best the first and last items in a list

a. Primacy effect: the tendency to recall the first items in a list

b. Recency effect: the tendency to recall the last items in a list

428. Serotonin: a neurotransmitter that is responsible for mood regulation, hunger and sleep;

lack is related to depression

429. Set point: the 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

430. Sexual orientation: an enduring sexual attraction

431. Sexual response cycle: the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson

– excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution

432. Shaping: an operant conditioning procedure in which you gradually guide behavior closer and

closer to the desired behavior

433. Short-term memory (OR working memory): activated memory that holds a few items briefly

for 20 seconds before the information is stored or forgotten

434. Signal detection theory: a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint

stimulus amid background stimulation

435. Sleep: periodic, natural loss of consciousness

436. Sleep apnea: a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep

and repeated momentary awakenings

437. Social clock: the culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood,

and retirement

438. Social exchange theory: theory that our social behavior is an exchange process; the aim of

which is to maximize benefits and minimize costs

439. Social facilitation: stronger responses on simple/well-learned tasks in the presence of others

440. Social loafing: tendency for people in a group to exert less effort toward attaining a common

goal than when by themselves

441. Social psychology: the study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

442. Social trap: a situation in which conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-

interest, become caught in mutually destructive behavior

443. Social-cognitive psychology: is a school of psychology that views behavior as influenced by

the interaction between people’s traits and their social context

444. Social responsibility norm: an expectation that people will help those dependent upon them

445. Somatoform disorder: psychological disorder in which the symptoms take a bodily form

without apparent physical cause

446. Spacing effect (OR spaced practice): the tendency for distributed study of practice to yield

better long-term retention than is achieved through mass study or cramming

447. Split-brain: a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain’s two hemispheres by

cutting the corpus callosum

448. Spontaneous recovery: the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned

response

449. Spotlight effect: overestimating others’ noticing and evaluating our appearance,

performance, and blunder.

450. Standard deviation: a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean

451. Standardization: defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a

pretested group

452. Stanford-Binet: the widely used American revision of Binet’s original intelligence test

453. Statistical significance (OR p-value): a statistical statement of how likely it is that an

obtained result occurred by chance

454. Stereotype: generalized belief about a group of people

455. Stereotype threat: a self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated based on a negative

stereotype

456. Stimulants: drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine,

and Ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up bodily functions

457. Storage: the retention of encoded information over time

458. Stranger anxiety: the fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8

months of age

459. Stress: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that

we appraise as threatening or challenging

460. Structuralism: an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental

structure of the human mind

a. Introspection: looking inward towards ones thoughts or emotions

461. Sublimation: psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re-channel their

unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities

462. Superordinate goals: shared goals that override differences among people and require their

cooperation

463. Survey: a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular

group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of a group

464. Synapse: the space between the axon tip of the sending neuron and dendrite of the receiving

neuron

465. Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a language

466. Systematic desensitization: a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant, relaxed

state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli

467. Tardive dyskinesia: involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a

possible neurotic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs

468. Telegraphic speech: early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram – “go car”

469. Temperament: a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and sensitivity

470. Temporal lobes: portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the

auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear

471. Terror-management theory: a theory of death-related anxiety

472. Testosterone: the most important of the male sex hormones

473. Thalamus: the brain’s sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; it directs

messages to the sensory reviving areas (EXCEPT SMELL) in the cortex and transmits replies to

the cerebellum and medulla

474. THC: the major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild

hallucinations

475. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): a projective test in which people express their inner

feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes

476. Theory of mind: people’s ideas about their own and others’ mental states

477. Threshold: the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

a. Absolute threshold: the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus

50% of the time.

b. Difference threshold (OR just-noticeable difference): the minimum change between

two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.

478. Token economy: an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a prize of some sort

for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange for various privileges or treats

479. Tolerance: the diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the

user to take longer and larger doses before experiencing the drug’s effect

480. Top-down processing: information guided by expectation and experience (“Have I seen this

before?”)

481. Trait: a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act

482. Transduction: conversion of one form of energy into another; in sensation, the transforming

of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can

interpret.

483. Transference: in psychoanalysis, when feelings directed at one person become redirected to

another person, often the therapist

484. Two-factor theory (OR the Schachter-Singer theory): in order to experience emotion one

must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal

a. Spillover effect: an arousal response to one event effects our response of the next

event

485. Two-word stage: beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child

speaks mostly two-word statements

486. Type A: Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally

aggressive, and anger-prone people

487. Type B: Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people

488. Unconditioned response (OR UR/UCR): in classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally

occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus

489. Unconditioned stimulus (OR US/UCS): in classical conditioning, something that naturally and

automatically triggers a response

490. Unconscious: according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes,

feelings, and memories; for contemporary psychologists, information processing of which are

unaware

491. Validity: the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

a. Content validity: the extent to which a test samples of the behavior that is of interest

b. Predictive (OR criterion-related) validity: the success to which a test predicts the

behavior it is designed to predict; assessed by computing the correlation between test

scores and the criterion behavior

492. Variable-interval schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces

a response at unpredictable time interval (1 cookie around every 5-6 minutes)

493. Variable-ratio schedule: in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a

response after an unpredictable number of responses (1 cookie around every 5-6 math

problems correctly solved)

494. Vestibular sense: a sensory system located in structures of the inner ear that registers the

orientation of the head

495. Virtual reality exposure therapy: an anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to

simulations of their greatest fears such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking

496. Visual cliff: a laboratory device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals

497. Weber’s Law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a

constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)

498. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): the most widely used intelligence test

499. Withdrawal: the discomfort and distress that follows discontinuing the use of an addictive

drug

500. Yerkes-Dodson Law (OR optimal-arousal theory): for easy tasks, the higher the level of

physiological arousal or mental arousal, the higher the performance. But if the task is difficult,

a higher level or arousal will only increase performance until a certain point.

501. Young-Helmholtz trichromatic color theory: retina contains three different color receptors

(red, blue, and green)