Essential vocab and practice questions to help prepare for exam.
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| 165609666 | Absolute Threshold | the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time | |
| 165609667 | Accomadation (thinking-wise) | adapting one current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information | |
| 165609668 | Accomadation (Biology-wise) | The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. | |
| 165609669 | Acetylcholine | a neurotransmitter that, among its functions, triggers muscle contraction | |
| 165609670 | Undersupply of acetylcholine equals | Alzheimer's disease | |
| 165609671 | Achievement Motivation | a desire for significant accomplishment: for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for attaining a high standard | |
| 165609672 | Achievement Test | a test designed to assess what a person has learned | |
| 165609673 | Acoustic Encoding | the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words | |
| 165609674 | Acquisition | The initial stage in classical conditioning; the phase associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response. | |
| 165609675 | Action Potential | a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. the action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane | |
| 165609676 | Active Listening | Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy. | |
| 165609677 | Acuity | the sharpness of vision | |
| 165609678 | Adaption-Level Phenomenon | our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience. | |
| 165609679 | Adolescence | the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence | |
| 165609680 | Adrenal Glands | a pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. the adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress. | |
| 165609681 | Aerobic Exercise | sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety | |
| 165609682 | Aggresion | any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy | |
| 165609683 | Algorithm | a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier -- but also more error-prone -- use of heuristics | |
| 165609684 | Alpha Waves | the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state | |
| 165609685 | Altrusim | unselfish regard for the welfare of others | |
| 165609686 | Alzheimer's Disease | a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning | |
| 165609687 | Amnesia | the loss of memory | |
| 165609688 | Amphetamines | drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes | |
| 165609689 | Amygdala | two almond-shaped neural clusters that are components of the limbic system and are linked to emotion | |
| 165609690 | Anorexia Nervosa | an eating disorder in which a normal-weight person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve. | |
| 165609691 | Antisocial Personality Disorder | a personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist | |
| 165609692 | Anxiety Disorders | psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety | |
| 165609693 | Aphasia | impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to wernicke's area (impairing understanding) | |
| 165609694 | Applied Research | scientific study that aims to solve practical problems | |
| 165609695 | Aptitude Test | a test designed to predict a person's future performance; aptitude is the capacity to learn | |
| 165609696 | Assimilation | interpreting one's new experience in terms of one's existing schemas | |
| 165609697 | 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 | |
| 165609698 | Associative Learning | learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning). | |
| 165609699 | Attatchment | an emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on seperation | |
| 165609700 | Attitude | a belief and feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events | |
| 165609701 | Attribution Theory | the theory that we tend to give a casual explanation for someone's behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition | |
| 165609702 | Audition | the sense of hearing | |
| 165609703 | Autism | a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind | |
| 165609704 | Automatic Processing | unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings | |
| 165609705 | Autonomic Nervous System | The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms. | |
| 165609706 | Availability Heuristic | estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common | |
| 165609707 | Aversive Conditioning | a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol) | |
| 165609708 | Axon | the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands | |
| 165609709 | Babbling Stage | Beginning at 3 to 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language | |
| 165609710 | Barbiturates | drugs that depress the activity of the Central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement | |
| 165609711 | Basal Metabolic Rate | the body's resting rate of energy expenditure | |
| 165609712 | Basic Research | pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base. | |
| 165609713 | 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 | |
| 165609714 | Behavior Genetics | The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior | |
| 165609715 | Behavior Therapy | therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors. | |
| 165609716 | Behavioral Medicine | an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease | |
| 165609717 | Behaviorism | the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2). | |
| 165609718 | Belief Bias | the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning, sometimes by making invalid conclusions seem valid, or valid conclusions seem invalid | |
| 165609719 | Belief Perseverance | clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited | |
| 165609720 | Binocular Cues | depth cues, such as retinal disparity and convergence, that depend on use of two eyes. | |
| 165609721 | Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective | a contemporary perspective which assumes that biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors combine and interact to produce psychological disorders | |
| 165609722 | Biofeedback | a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension | |
| 165609723 | Biological Psychology | A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior. (Some biological psychologists call themselves behavioral neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, behavior geneticists, physiological psychologists, or biopsychologists.) | |
| 165609724 | Biological Rhythms | Periodic physiological fluctuations | |
| 165609725 | Bipolar Disorder | a mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania | |
| 165609726 | Blind Spot | the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there | |
| 165609727 | Bottom-Up Processing | analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information | |
| 165609728 | Brainstem | The oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions | |
| 165609729 | Broca's Area | controls language expression-an aread of the frontal, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech | |
| 165609730 | Bulimia Nervosa | an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually of high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise | |
| 165609731 | Bystander Effect | the tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present | |
| 165609732 | Cannon-Bard Theory | the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion | |
| 165609733 | Case Study | an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles | |
| 165609734 | Catharsis | emotional release. In psychology, the catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges. | |
| 165609735 | Central Nervous System | The brain and spinal cord | |
| 165609736 | Cerebellum | the "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem; it helps coordinate voluntary movement and balance | |
| 165609737 | Cerebral Cortex | the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center | |
| 165609738 | Chromosones | threadlike structures contain genetic information passes through cells | |
| 165609739 | Chunking | organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically. | |
| 165609740 | Circadian Rhythm | the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (for example, of temperature and wakefulness) that occur on a 24-hour cycle. | |
| 165609741 | Classical Conditioning | a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus that signals an unconditioned stimulus (US) begins to produce a response that anticipates and prepares for the unconditioned stimulus. Also called Pavlovian or respondent conditioning. | |
| 165609742 | Client-Centered Therapy | A humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth. | |
| 165609743 | Clinical Psychology | a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders. | |
| 165609744 | Cochlea | a coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses | |
| 165609745 | Cognition | all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating | |
| 165609746 | Cognitive Dissonance Theory | the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent. For example, when our awareness of our attitudes and of our actions clash, we can reduce the resulting dissonance by changing our attitudes. | |
| 165609747 | Cognitive Map | a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it. | |
| 165609748 | Cognitive Therapy | therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions | |
| 165609749 | Cognitive-Behavior Therapy | a popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy with behavior therapy | |
| 165609750 | Collective Unconscious | Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history | |
| 165609751 | Collectivism | giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly | |
| 165609752 | Color Constancy | perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object | |
| 165609753 | Compasionate Love | the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined | |
| 165609754 | Complementary and Alternative Medicine | Unproven health care treatments not taught widely in medical schools, not used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by insurance companies | |
| 165609755 | Computer Neural Networks | Computer circuits that mimic the brain's interconnected neural cells, performing tasks such as learning to recognize visual patterns and smells | |
| 165609756 | Concept | a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people | |
| 165609757 | Concrete Operational Stage | in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events | |
| 165609758 | Conditioned Reinforcer | A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer; also known as secondary reinforcer. | |
| 165609759 | Conditioned Response (CR) | in classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS) | |
| 165609760 | Conditioned Stimulus (CS) | In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response. | |
| 165609761 | Conduction Hearing Loss | hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea | |
| 165609762 | Cones | Receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations | |
| 165609763 | Confirmation Bias | a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions | |
| 165609764 | Conflict | a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas | |
| 165609765 | Conformity | adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. | |
| 165609766 | Consciousness | our awareness of ourselves and our environment | |
| 165609767 | Conservation | the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects | |
| 165609768 | Content Validity | the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest (such as a driving test that samples driving tasks). | |
| 165609769 | Echoic Memory | a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds | |
| 165609770 | Eclectic Approach | an approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy | |
| 165609771 | Continuous Reinforcement | reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs | |
| 165609772 | Control Condition | the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment | |
| 165609773 | Convergence | a binocular cue for perceiving depth; the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object | |
| 165609774 | Coronary Heart Disease | the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries | |
| 165609775 | Corpus Callosum | the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them | |
| 165609776 | Correlation Coefficient | A statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other | |
| 165609777 | Counterconditioning | a behavior therapy procedure that conditions new responses to stimuli that trigger unwanted behaviors; based on classical conditioning. Includes systematic desensitization and aversive conditioning | |
| 165609778 | Creativity | the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas | |
| 165609779 | Criterion | the behavior (such as future college grades) that a test (such as the SAT) is designed to predict; thus, the measure used in defining whether the test has predictive validity. | |
| 165609780 | Critical Period | an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development | |
| 165609781 | Critical Thinking | thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions. | |
| 165609782 | Cross-Sectional Study | a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another | |
| 165609783 | Crystallized Intelligence | one's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age | |
| 165609784 | CT (computed tomography) Scan | A series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice through the body (CAT Scan) | |
| 165609785 | Culture | the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next. | |
| 165609786 | Defense Mechanisms | in psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality | |
| 165609787 | Deindividuation | the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity | |
| 165609788 | Deja Vu | that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience | |
| 165609789 | Delta Waves | the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep | |
| 165609790 | Delusions | false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders | |
| 165609791 | Dendrite | the bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body | |
| 165609792 | Dependent Variable | the experimental factor that is being measured; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable | |
| 165609793 | Depressants | drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions. | |
| 165609794 | Depth Perception | the ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance | |
| 165609795 | Developmental Psychology | a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span | |
| 165609796 | Difference Threshold | the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference. (Also called just noticeable difference or jnd.) | |
| 165609797 | Discrimination | in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus | |
| 165609798 | Displacement | psychoanalytic defense mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet | |
| 165609799 | Dissociation | a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others | |
| 165609800 | Dissociative Disorders | disorders in which conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings | |
| 165609801 | Dissociative Identity Disorder | a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Also called multiple personality disorder. | |
| 165609802 | DNA | a complex molecule containing genetic information that make up the chromosomes. | |
| 165609803 | Double-Blind Procedure | an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo. Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies. | |
| 165609804 | Down Syndrome | A condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome in one's genetic makeup | |
| 165609805 | Dream | A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind | |
| 165609806 | Drive-Reduction Theory | the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need | |
| 165609807 | DSM-IV | the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders | |
| 165609808 | Dualism | the presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact | |
| 165609809 | Ecstacy | synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen that produces euphoria | |
| 165609810 | Effortful Processing | encoding that requires attention and conscious effort | |
| 165609811 | Ego | the largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain | |
| 165609812 | Egocentrism | in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view | |
| 165609813 | Electroconvulsive Therapy | a biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient | |
| 165609814 | Electroencephalogram | an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp. | |
| 165609815 | Embryo | the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month | |
| 165609816 | Emotion | a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience | |
| 165609817 | Emotional Intelligence | the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions | |
| 165609818 | Empirically Derived Test | a test (such as the MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups | |
| 165609819 | Empiricism | the view that (a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and (b) science flourishes through observation and experiment. | |
| 165609820 | Encoding | the processing of information into the memory system-for example, by extracting meaning | |
| 165609821 | Endocrine System | the body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream | |
| 165609822 | Endorphins | "morphine within"--natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure. | |
| 165609823 | Environment | every nongenetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us | |
| 165609824 | Equity | a condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it | |
| 165609825 | Estrogen | a sex hormone, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males. In nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity. | |
| 165609826 | Evolutionary Psychology | The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection. Natural selection has favored genes that designed both behavioral tendencies and information-processing systems that solved adaptive problems faced by our ancestors, thus contributing to the survival and spread of their genes. | |
| 165609827 | Experiment | a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable). By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors. | |
| 165609828 | Experimental Condition | the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable | |
| 165609829 | Explicit Memory | memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" | |
| 165609830 | Exposure Therapies | behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid | |
| 165609831 | External Locus of Control | the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one's personal control determine one's fate | |
| 165609832 | Extinction | the diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS); occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced. | |
| 165609833 | Extrasensory Perception | the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input. Said to include telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition. | |
| 165609834 | Extrinsic Motivation | a desire to perform a behavior due to promised rewards or threats of punishment |
