| abnormal behavior | Actions, thoughts, and feelings that are harmful to the person or to others.
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| absolute threshold | The smallest magnitude of a stimulus that can be detected half the time.
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| acetycholine | A neurotransmitter used by somatic neurons that contract the body's large muscles and by neurons in the brain that apparently regulate wakefulness and dream sleep.
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| achievement motivation | The psychological need in humans for success.
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| acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) | A viral disease spread by blood and other body fluids that eventually destroys the body's immune system.
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| action potential | A brief electrical signal that travels the length of the axon.
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| adolescence | The period from the onset of puberty until the beginning of adulthood.
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| adolescent egocentrism | The quality of thinking that leads some adolescents to believe that they are the focus of attention in social situations, to believe that their problems are unique, to be unusually hypocritical, and to be "pseudostupid."
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| adolescent growth spurt | The rapid increase in weight and height that occurs around the onset of puberty.
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| adrenal glands | Two glands on the kidneys, which are involved in physical and emotional arousal.
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| afferent neurons | Neurons that transmit messages from sense organs to the central nervous system.
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| agoraphobia | An intense fear of leaving one's home or other familiar
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| algorithms | Systematic patterns of reasoning that guarantee finding a correct solution to a problem.
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| all-or-none principle | The law that states that, once a neural action potential is produced, its magnitude is always the same.
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| amphetamine psychosis | A prolonged reaction to the excessive use of stimulants, characterized by disordered thinking, confused and rapidly changing emotions, and intense suspiciousness.
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| amphetamines | Powerful stimulants that produce a conscious sense of increased energy and a euphoric high.
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| amygdala | The part of the limbic system that plays a role in emotional arousal.
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| anal expulsive | A personality type based on anal fixation in which the person is cruel, pushy, messy and disorderly.
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| anal retentive | A personality type based on anal fixation, in which the person is stingy, obstinate, stubborn, and compulsive.
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| anal stage | According to Freud, the second psychosexual stage (from 1 to 3 years), in which gratification is focused on the anus.
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| androgynous | Having both typical feminine and masculine characteristics.
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| angiotensin | A substance in the blood that signals the hypothalamus that the body needs water.
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| animism | The egocentric belief of preoperational children that inanimate objects are alive, as children are.
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| anterograde amnesia | A memory disorder characterized by an inability to store and/or retrieve new information in long-term memory.
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| antidiuretic hormone (ADH) | A hormone produced by the pituitary that causes the kidneys to conserve water in the body by reabsorbing it from the urine.
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| antisocial personality disorder | A personality disorder characterized by smooth social skills and a lack of guilt about violating social rules and laws and taking advantage of others.
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| anxiety disorders | Psychological disorders that involve excessive levels of negative emotions, such as nervousness, tension, worry, fright, and anxiety.
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| aphasia | An impairment of the ability to understand or use language.
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| applied psychologists | Psychologists who use knowledge of psychology to solve and prevent human problems.
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| approach-approach conflict | Conflict in which the individual must choose between two positive goals of approximately equal value.
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| approach-avoidance conflict | Conflict in which achieving a positive goal will produce a negative outcome as well.
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| assertiveness training | A method of behavior therapy that teaches individuals assertive rather than passive or aggressive ways of dealing with problematic situations.
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| association areas | Areas within each lobe of the cerebral cortex believed to play general rather than specific roles.
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| astral projection | Depersonalization that includes the illusion that the mind has left the body.
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| attachments | The psychological bonds between infants and caregivers.
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| attitudes | Beliefs that predispose one to act and feel in certain ways.
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| attribution | The process of trying to explain why things happen-that is, attribute them to some cause.
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| attribution theory | The theory that people tend to look for explanations for their own behavior and that of others.
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| audition | The sense of hearing.
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| autonomic nervous system | The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the involuntary actions of internal body organs, such as heartbeat and breathing, and is important in the experience of emotion.
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| availability heuristic | Reasoning on the basis of the information that is available in memory.
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| avoidance-avoidance conflict | Conflict in which the individual must choose between two negative outcomes of approximately equal value.
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| avoidance conditioning | Operant conditioning in which the behavior is reinforced because it prevents something negative from happening (a form of negative reinforcement).
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| axons | Neuron branches that transmit messages to other neurons.
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| basilar membrane | One of the membranes that separates the two tubes of the cochlea and on which the organ of Corti rests.
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| basket cells | Sensory receptor cells at the base of hairs that detect pressure.
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| behavior | Directly observable and measurable human actions.
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| behavior therapy | Psychotherapy based on social learning theory in which the therapist helps the client unlearn abnormal ways of behaving and learn more adaptive ways to take their place.
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| behaviorism | The school of psychology that emphasizes the process of learning and the measurement of overt behavior.
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| binocular cues | Two visual cues that require both eyes to allow us to perceive distance.
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| bipolar affective disorder | A condition in which the individual experiences periods of mania that alternate irregularly with periods of severe depression.
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| blind spot | The spot where the optic nerve attaches to the retina; it contains no rods or cones.
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| bone conduction hearing | Hearing accomplished through sounds transmitted through the bones of the head directly to the cochlear fluid.
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| brain | The complex mass of neural cells and related cells encased in the skull.
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| Broca's area | An area of the frontal lobe of the left cerebral hemisphere that plays a role in speaking language.
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| castration anxiety | According to Freud, the fear of a young boy that his father will punish his sexual desire for his mother by removing his genitals.
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| catatonic schizophrenia | A subtype of schizophrenia in which the individual spends long periods in an inactive, statuelike state.
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| catharsis | The release of emotional energy related to unconscious conflicts.
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| cell body | The central part of the neuron that includes the nucleus.
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| cell membrane | The covering of a neuron or another cell.
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| central nervous system | The brain and the nerve fibers that make up the spinal cord.
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| cerebellum | Two rounded structures behind the pons involved in the coordination of muscle movements, learning, and memory.
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| cerebral cortex | The largest structure in the forebrain, controlling conscious experience and intelligence and being involved with the somatic nervous system.
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| cerebral hemispheres | The two main parts of the cerebral cortex, divided into left and right hemispheres.
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| cervix | The neck of the uterus that is connected to the vagina.
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| child molestation | Sexual behavior with a child without force or direct threat of force.
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| child rape | Sexual behavior with a child achieved by force or direct threat of force.
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| chromosomes | The strips in cell nuclei that contain genes.
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| chunks | Units of memory.
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| ciliary muscle | The muscle in the eye that controls the shape of the lens.
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| cingulate cortex | The part of the limbic system that processes cognitive information in emotion.
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| cingulotomy | A type of psychosurgery for severe and otherwise untreatable obsessive-compulsive disorder; it involves surgical destruction of part of the cingulate cortex.
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| circadian rhythm | The cycle of waking and sleeping that regulates our pattern of sleep.
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| classical conditioning | A form of learning in which a previously neutral stimulus (CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) to elicit a conditioned response (CR) that is identical to or very similar to the unconditioned response (UCR).
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| client-centered psychotherapy | Carl Rogers' approach to humanistic psychotherapy, in which the therapist creates an atmosphere that encourages clients to discover feelings of which they are unaware.
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| climacteric | The period between about ages 45 and 60 in which there is a loss of capacity to sexually reproduce in women and a decline in the reproductive capacity of men.
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| cochlea | A curved structure of the inner ear that is filled with fluid.
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| cognition | The intellectual processes through which information is obtained, transformed, stored, retrieved, and otherwise used.
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| cognitive dissonance | The discomfort that results from inconsistencies between attitudes and behavior.
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| cognitive map | An inferred mental awareness of the structure of a physical space or related elements.
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| cognitive psychology | The viewpoint in psychology that emphasizes the importance of cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, and thinking.
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| cognitive theory of emotion | The theory that the cognitive interpretation of events in the outside world and stimuli from our own bodies is the key factor in emotions.
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| cognitive therapy | An approach to therapy that teaches individuals new cognitions-adaptive beliefs, expectations, and ways of thinking-to eliminate abnormal emotions and behavior.
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| collective unconscious | According to Jung, the content of the unconscious mind with which all humans are born.
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| companionate love | The blend of friendship, intimacy, commitment, and security that generally develops after passionate love.
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| concepts | Categories of things, events, and qualities that are linked together by a common feature or features, in spite of their differences.
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| concrete operational stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of cognitive development from ages 7 to 11.
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| conditioned response (CR) | A response that is similar or identical to the unconditioned response that comes to be elicited by a conditioned stimulus.
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| conditioned stimulus (CS) | A stimulus that comes to elicit responses as a result of being paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
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| conditions of worth | The standards used by others or ourselves in judging our worth.
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| cones | The 6 million receptor cells located mostly in the center of the retina that transduce light waves into neural impulses, thereby coding information about light, dark, and color.
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| conflict | The state in which two or more motives cannot be satisfied because they interfere with one another.
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| conformity | Yielding to group pressure even when no direct request to comply has been made.
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| conjunctive concepts | Concepts defined by the simultaneous presence of two or more common characteristics.
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| conscience | According to Freud, the moral inhibitions of the superego.
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| conscious mind | That portion of the mind of which one is presently aware.
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| consciousness | A state of awareness.
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| conservation | The concept understood by concrete operational children that quantity (number, mass, etc.) does not change just because shape or other superficial features have changed.
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| continuity hypothesis | The view that abnormal behavior is just a more severe form of normal psychological problems.
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| convergent thinking | Thinking that is logical and conventional and that focuses on a problem.
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| conversion disorders | Somatoform disorders in which individuals experience serious somatic symptoms such as functional blindness, deafness, and paralysis.
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| cooperative play | Play that involves cooperation between two or more children.
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| coping | Attempts by individuals to deal with the source of stress and/or control their reactions to it.
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| cornea | The protective coating on the surface of the eye through which light passes.
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| corpus callosum | The link between the cerebral hemispheres.
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| cortisol | A hormone produced by the adrenal glands.
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| counterconditioning | The process of eliminating a classically conditioned response by pairing the conditioned stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) for a response that is stronger than the conditioned response (CR) and that cannot occur at the same time as the CR.
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| creativity | The ability to make human products and ideas (such as symphonies or solutions to social problems) that are both novel and valued by others.
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| cretinism | A type of mental retardation in children caused by a deficiency of thyroxin.
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| critical period | A biologically determined period in the life of some animals during which certain forms of learning can take place most easily.
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| criticism trap | An increase in the frequency of a negative behavior that often follows the use of criticism, reinforcing the behavior it is intended to punish.
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| crystallized intelligence | The ability to use previously learned skills to solve familiar problems.
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| cultural relativity | The perspective that promotes thinking of different cultures in relative terms rather than judgmental terms.
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| culture | The patterns of behavior, beliefs, and values shared by a group of people.
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| cupula | A gelatin-like structure containing a tuft of hairlike sensory receptor cells in the semicircular canals.
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| dark adaptation | Increased sensitivity of the eye in semidarkness following an abrupt reduction in overall illumination.
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| day residue | Day content that is similar to events in the person's waking life.
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| daydreams | Relatively focused thinking about fantasies.
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| decay theory | The theory that forgetting occurs as the memory trace fades over time.
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| decenter | To think about more than one characteristic of a thing at a time; a capacity of concrete operational children.
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| decibel (db) | Measurement of the intensity of perceived sound.
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| declarative memory | Semantic and episodic memory.
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| deep structure | The underlying structure of a statement that holds its meaning.
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| defense mechanisms | According to Freud, the unrealistic strategies used by the ego to discharge tension.
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| deindividuation | State in which people in a group can feel anonymous and unidentifiable and therefore feel less concerned with what others think of their behavior.
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| delay of reinforcement | The passage of time between the response and the positive reinforcement that leads to reduced efficiency of learning.
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| delusional disorder | A nonschizophrenic disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur and persecution that are more logical than those of paranoid schizophrenics in their absence of hallucinations.
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| delusions | False beliefs that distort reality.
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| dendrites | Extensions of the cell body that receive messages from other neurons.
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| deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) | The complex molecule containing the genetic code.
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| depersonalization | The perceptual experience of one's body or surroundings becoming distorted or unreal.
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| depolarization | The process during which positively charged ions flow into the axon, making it less negatively charged inside.
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| depressants | Drugs that reduce the activity of the central nervous system, leading to a sense of relaxation, drowsiness, and lowered inhibitions.
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| development | The more-or-less predictable changes in behavior associated with increasing age.
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| developmental psychology | The field of psychology that focuses on the development across the life span.
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| deviation IQ | The intelligence quotient based on the degree of deviation from average of the person's score on an intelligence test.
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| difference threshold | The smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time.
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| diffusion of responsibility | The effect of being in a group that apparently reduces the sense of personal responsibility of each group member to act appropriately.
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| directed consciousness | Focused and orderly awareness.
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| discontinuity hypothesis | The view that abnormal behavior is fundamentally different from normal psychological problems.
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| disinhibition | A temporary increase in the strength of an extinguished response caused by an unrelated stimulus event.
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| disjunctive concepts | Concepts defined by the simultaneous presence of one of two common characteristics or both.
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| disorganized schizophrenia | A subtype of schizophrenia characterized by shallow silliness, extreme social withdrawal, and fragmented delusions and hallucinations.
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| displacement | A defense mechanism in which the individual directs aggressive or sexual feelings away from the primary object to someone or something safe.
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| dispositional attribution | An explanation for behavior that is based on a personal characteristic of the individual.
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| dissociative amnesia | A dissociative disorder that involves a loss of memory and that has a psychological rather than a physical cause.
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| dissociative disorders | A category of conditions involving sudden abnormal cognitive changes, such as a change in memory, perception, or identity.
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| dissociative fugue | A period of "wandering" that involves a loss of memory and a change in identity.
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| dissociative identity disorder | A dissociative disorder in which the individual appears to shift abruptly and repeatedly from one "personality" to another.
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| divergent thinking | Thinking that is loosely organized, only partially directed, and unconventional.
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| divided consciousness | The splitting off of two conscious activities that occur simultaneously.
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| dizygotic twins | Twins formed from the fertilization of two ova by two sperm.
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| dominant gene | The gene that produces a trait in an individual even when paired with a recessive gene.
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| dopamine | A neurotransmitter substance used by neurons in the brain that control large muscle movements and by neurons in pleasure and reward systems in the brain.
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| Down syndrome | An abnormality caused by the presence of an additional 21st chromosome.
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| dream interpretation | A method developed by Freud in which the symbols of the manifest content of dreams that are recalled by the patient are interpreted to reveal their latent content.
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| drug therapy | A medical therapy that uses medications to treat abnormal behavior.
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| dyspareunia | A sexual dysfunction in which the individual experiences pain during intercourse.
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| eardrum | The thin membrane that sound waves cause to vibrate; a structure of the middle ear.
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| early experiences | Experiences occurring very early in development, believed by some to have lasting effects.
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| efferent neurons | Neurons that transmit messages from the central nervous system to organs and muscles.
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| ego | According to Freud, that part of the mind that uses the reality principle to satisfy the id.
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| ego ideal | According to Freud, the standard of perfect conduct of the superego.
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| egocentric | The self-oriented quality in the thinking of preoperational children.
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| elaboration | The process of creating associations between a new memory and existing memories.
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| electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) | A medical therapy that uses electrical current to induce controlled convulsive seizures that alleviate some types of mental disorders.
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| electroencephalogram (EEG) | A recording of the electrical activity of the brain obtained through electrodes placed on the scalp.
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| electromagnetic radiation | A form of energy, including electricity, radio waves, and X rays, of which visible light is a part.
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| emotion | Positive or negative feelings generally in reaction to stimuli that are accompanied by physiological arousal and related behavior.
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| encode | To represent information in some form in the memory system.
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| endocrine system | The system of glands that secretes hormones.
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| engram | The as yet unidentified memory trace in the brain that is the biological basis of memory.
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| epididymis | The structure that holds sperm cells until ejaculation.
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| epinephrine | A hormone produced by the adrenal glands.
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| episodic memory | Memory for specific experiences that can be defined in terms of time and space.
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| equity theory | The theory that partners will be comfortable in their relationship only when the ratio between their perceived contributions and benefits is equal.
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| erectile dysfunction | A condition in which the penis does not become erect enough for intercourse under sexually arousing circumstances.
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| erogenous zone | A part of the body that releases sexual energy when stimulated.
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| escape conditioning | Operant conditioning in which the behavior is reinforced because it causes a negative event to cease (a form of negative reinforcement).
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| estrogen | A female sex hormone.
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| ethnic group | A group of persons who are descendants of a common group of ancestors.
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| ethnic identity | Each person's sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group.
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| evolutionary theory of gender differences | The theory that gender differences are based on genes that resulted from different evolutionary pressures on ancestral women and men.
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| exhibitionism | The practice of obtaining sexual pleasure by exposing one's genitals to others.
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| external auditory canal | The tube connecting the pinna to the middle ear.
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| extinction | The process of unlearning a learned response because of the removal of the original source of learning.
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| extrinsic motivation | Human motives stimulated by external rewards.
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| extroversion | According to Jung, the tendency of some individuals to be friendly and open to the world.
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| fear of success | The fear of the consequences of success, particularly the envy of others.
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| feelings of inferiority | According to Adler, the feelings that result from children being less powerful than adults that must be overcome during the development of the healthy personality.
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| female sexual arousal disorder | A condition in which sexual arousal does not occur in appropriate circumstances in a female.
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| fertilization | The uniting of sperm and ovum, which produces a zygote.
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| fetishism | The practice of obtaining sexual arousal primarily or exclusively from specific objects.
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| fixed interval schedule | A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given following the first response occurring after a predetermined period of time.
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| fixed ratio schedule | A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given only after a specified number of responses.
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| flooding | A method of behavior therapy in which the client is confronted with high levels of the phobic stimulus until the fear response is extinguished.
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| flowing consciousness | Drifting, unfocused awareness.
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| fluid intelligence | The ability to learn or invent new strategies to deal with new problems.
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| forebrain | The parts of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, and cerebral cortex, that cover the hindbrain and midbrain and fill much of the skull.
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| formal operational stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of intellectual development usually reached by about age 11 and characterized by the ability to use abstract concepts.
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| fovea | The central spot of the retina, which contains the greatest concentration of cones.
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| framing | The way in which a problem or question is presented.
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| free association | A tool used by Freud in which the patient is encouraged to talk about whatever comes to mind, allowing the contents of the unconscious mind to slip past the censorship of the ego.
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| free nerve endings | Sensory receptor cells in the skin that detect pressure, temperature, and pain.
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| frequency of cycles | The rate of vibration of sound waves; determines pitch.
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| Freud's instinct theory | The theory that aggression is caused by an inborn aggressive instinct.
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| frontal lobes | The part of the cerebral cortex in the front of the skull involved in planning, organization, voluntary motor movements, and speech.
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| frustration | The result of being unable to satisfy a motive.
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| frustration-aggression theory | The theory that aggression is a natural reaction to frustration of important motives.
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| functional MRI | A type of MRI that measures the activity of parts of the brain by measuring the use of oxygen by groups of neurons.
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| functionalism | The nineteenth-century school of psychology that emphasized the useful functions of consciousness.
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| fundamental attribution error | The tendency to underestimate the impact of situations on others while overestimating the impact on oneself.
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| g | A broad general factor of intelligence, a concept endorsed by some investigators of intelligence.
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| gamete | A sex cell, which contains 23 chromosomes instead of the normal 46.
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| ganglia | Clusters of cell bodies of neurons outside of the central nervous system.
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| gender | The psychological experience of being male or female.
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| gender identity | One's view of oneself as male or female.
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| gender role | The behaviors consistent with being male or female in a given culture.
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| general adaptation syndrome (GAS) | According to Selye, the mobilization of the body to ward off threats, characterized by a three-stage pattern of the alarm reaction, the resistance stage, and the exhaustion stage.
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| generalized anxiety disorder | An uneasy sense of general tension and apprehension that makes the individual highly uncomfortable because of its prolonged presence.
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| generative | The ability to create an infinite set of utterances using a finite set of elements and rules.
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| genes | The hereditary units made up of deoxyribonucleic acid.
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| genital stage | According to Freud, the psychosexual stage (from 11 years through adulthood) in which sexual and romantic interest is directed toward one's peers.
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| gestalt | An organized or unified whole.
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| Gestalt psychology | The school of thought based on the belief that human consciousness cannot be broken down into its elements.
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| Gestalt therapy | A humanistic therapy in which the therapist takes an active role (questioning and challenging the client) to help the client become more aware of his or her feelings.
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| glands | Structures in the body that secrete substances.
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| glucagon | A hormone produced by the islets of Langerhans that causes the liver to release sugar into the bloodstream.
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| gonads | The glands that produce sex cells and hormones important in sexual arousal and that contribute to the development of secondary sex characteristics.
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| graded exposure | A behavior therapy technique in which a person with a phobia is first exposed to a stimulus that is mildly fear provoking. Once the client has mastered his or her anxiety in that situation, he or she is exposed to a graded series of more fearful situations.
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| groupthink | The faulty decision-making processes that may occur in groups.
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| gustation | The sense of taste.
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| hallucinations | False perceptual experiences that distort reality.
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| hallucinogens | Drugs that alter perceptual experiences.
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| hammer, anvil, stirrup | Three linked bones of the middle ear, which help pass sound waves to the inner ear.
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| health psychology | The field of psychology that uses psychological principles to encourage healthy lifestyles and to minimize the impact of physical illness.
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| hertz (Hz) | The measurement of the frequency of sound waves in cycles per second.
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| heuristics | Efficient problem-solving strategies that do not guarantee a correct solution.
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| hindbrain | The lowest part of the brain, located at the rear base of the skull.
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| hippocampus | The part of the limbic system that plays a role in emotional arousal and memory.
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| homeostatic mechanisms | Internal body mechanisms that sense biological imbalances and stimulate actions to restore the proper balance.
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| hormones | Chemical substances, produced by endocrine glands, that influence internal organs.
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| humanistic psychology | The psychological view that human beings possess an innate tendency to improve and determine their lives by the decisions they make.
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| humanistic theory | The psychological view that human beings possess an innate tendency to improve and to determine their lives by the decisions they make.
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| hyperphagia & | Excessive overeating that results from the destruction of the satiety center of the hypothalamus.
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| hypnagogic state | A relaxed state of dreamlike awareness between wakefulness and sleep.
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| hypnosis | An altered state of consciousness in which the individual is highly relaxed and susceptible to suggestions.
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| hypochondriasis | A mild form of somatization disorder characterized by excessive concern about one's health.
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| hypothalamus | The small part of the forebrain involved with motives, emotions, and the functions of the autonomic nervous system.
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| id | According to Freud, the inborn part of the unconscious mind that uses the primary process to satisfy its needs and that acts according to the pleasure principle.
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| ideal self | According to humanists, the person one wishes one were.
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| identification | The tendency to base one's identity and actions on individuals who are successful in gaining satisfaction from life.
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| immune system | The complex body system of defenses to illness, such as white cells and natural killer cells of the blood.
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| imprinting | A form of early learning that occurs in some animals during a critical period.
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| incentives | External cues that activate motives.
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| incest | Sexual relations between relatives.
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| inhalants | Toxic substances that produce a sense of intoxication when inhaled.
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| inhibited female orgasm | A female sexual dysfunction in which the individual is unable to experience orgasm.
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| inhibited sexual desire | A condition in which a person desires sex rarely or not at all.
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| inner-directedness | A force that humanists believe all people possess that internally leads them to grow and improve.
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| insanity | A legal definition concerning a person's inability to tell right from wrong, ability to understand legal proceedings, or whether the person is a direct danger to self or others.
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| insight | A form of cognitive change that involves recognition of previously unseen relationships.
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| insomnia | A disorder in which the person sleeps less than desired.
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| insulin | A hormone produced by the islets of Langerhans that reduces the amount of sugar in the bloodstream.
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| intelligence | The cognitive abilities of an individual to learn from experience, to reason well, and to cope with the demands of daily living.
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| intelligence quotient (IQ) | A numerical value of intelligence derived from the results of an intelligence test.
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| intensity | The density of vibrating air molecules; determines the loudness of sound.
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| interference theory | The theory that forgetting occurs because similar memories interfere with the storage or retrieval of information.
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| interneuron | Neurons in the central nervous system that connect other neurons.
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| interpersonal psychotherapy | A form of psychological therapy, based on the theories of neo-Freudian Harry Stack Sullivan, that focuses on the accurate identification and communication of feelings and the improvement of current social relationships.
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| interview | A subjective method of personality assessment that involves questioning techniques designed to reveal the personality of the client.
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| intrinsic motivation | Human motives stimulated by the inherent nature of the activity or its natural consequences.
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| introspection | The process of looking inward at one's own consciousness.
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| introversion | According to Jung, the tendency of some individuals to be shy and to focus their attention on themselves.
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| ions | Electrically charged particles.
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| iris | The colored part of the eye behind the cornea that regulates the amount of light that enters.
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| islets of Langerhans | Endocrine cells in the pancreas that regulate the level of sugar in the blood.
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| kinesthetic receptors | Receptors in the muscles, joints, and skin that provide information about movement, posture, and orientation.
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| Korsakoff's syndrome | A disorder involving both anterograde and retrograde amnesia caused by excessive use of alcohol.
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| labia majora | The larger, outer lips of the vulva.
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| labia minora | The smaller, inner lips of the vulva.
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| language | A symbolic code used in communication.
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| latency stage | According to Freud, the fourth psychosexual stage (from about 6 to 11 years) during which sexual energy is sublimated and converted into socially valued activities.
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| latent content | According to Freud, the true meaning of dreams that is found in the symbols in their manifest content.
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| lateral hypothalamus | A portion of the hypothalamus involved in feeling hungry and starting to eat (the feeding center).
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| learned taste aversion | Negative reaction to a particular taste that has been associated with nausea or other illness.
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| learning | Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about through experience.
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| learning set | Improvement in the rate of learning to solve new problems through practice solving similar problems.
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| lens | The transparent portion of the eye that focuses light on the retina.
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| levels of processing model | An alternative to the stage theory of memory stating that the distinction between short-term and long-term memory is a matter of degree rather than different kinds of memory and is based on how incoming information is processed.
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| libido | The energy of the life instincts of sex, hunger, and thirst.
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| life events | Psychologically significant events that occur in a person's life, such as divorce, childbirth, and change in employment.
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| light adaptation | Regaining sensitivity of the eye to bright light following an abrupt increase in overall illumination.
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| limbic system | A complex brain system, composed of the amygdala, hippocampus, septal area, and cingulate cortex, that works with the hypothalamus in emotional arousal.
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| linguistic relativity hypothesis | The idea that the structure of a language may influence the way individuals think.
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| long-term memory (LTM) | The third stage of memory, involving the storage of information that is kept for long periods of time.
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| magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) | An imaging technique using magnetic resonance to obtain detailed views of brain structure and function.
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| major depression | An affective disorder characterized by episodes of deep unhappiness, loss of interest in life, and other symptoms.
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| male sexual arousal disorders | Conditions in which sexual arousal does not occur in appropriate circumstances in a male.
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| mania | A disturbance of mood in which the individual experiences a euphoria characterized by unrealistic optimism and heightened sensory pleasures.
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| manifest content | According to Freud, the obvious, but superficial, meaning of dreams.
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| mantras | Words or sounds containing religious meaning that are used during meditation.
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| Maslow's hierarchy of motives | The concept that more basic needs must be met before higher-level motives become active.
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| maturation | Systematic physical growth of the body, including the nervous system.
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| medical therapies | Those therapies-including drug therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and psychosurgery-generally designed to correct a physical condition that is believed to be the cause of a psychological disorder.
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| medulla | The swelling at the top of the spinal cord responsible for controlling breathing and a variety of reflexes.
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| menarche | The first menstrual period.
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| menopause | The cessation of menstruation and the capacity to reproduce in women.
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| mental processes | Private psychological activities that include thinking, perceiving, and feeling.
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| mental set | A habitual way of approaching or perceiving a problem.
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| metabolism | The process through which the body uses energy.
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| midbrain | The small area at the top of the hindbrain that serves primarily as a reflex center for orienting the eyes and ears.
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| modeling | Learning based on observation of the behavior of another.
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| monocular cues | Eight visual cues that can be seen with one eye and that allow us to perceive distance.
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| monozygotic twins | Twins formed from a single ovum; they are identical in appearance because they have the same genetic structure.
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| mons | The fleshy mound that sits at the top of the vulva.
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| mood disorders | Psychological disorders involving depression and/or abnormal elation.
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| morphemes | The smallest units of meaning in a language.
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| motivated forgetting | Forgetting that is believed to be based on the upsetting or threatening nature of the information that is forgotten.
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| motivation | The internal state or condition that activates and gives direction to our thoughts, feelings, and actions.
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| motive for affiliation | The need to be with other people and to have personal relationships.
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| motives | Internal states or conditions that activate behavior and give it direction.
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| multiple approach-avoidance conflict | Conflict that requires the individual to choose between two alternatives, each of which contains both positive and negative consequences.
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| myelin sheath | The insulating fatty covering wrapped around part of the neuron.
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| myoclonia | An abrupt movement that sometimes occurs during the hypnagogic state in which the sleeper often experiences a sense of falling.
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| narcolepsy | A sleep disorder in which the person suddenly falls asleep during activities usually performed when fully awake.
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| narcotics | Powerful and highly addictive depressants.
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| negative reinforcement | Reinforcement that comes about from the removal or avoidance of a negative event as the consequence of behavior.
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| neonatal period | The first two weeks of life following birth.
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| nerve | A bundle of long neurons outside the brain and spinal cord.
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| neuron | An individual nerve cell.
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| neuroscience perspective | The viewpoint in psychology that focuses on the nervous system in explaining behavior and mental processes.
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| neurotransmitters | Chemical substances, produced by axons, that transmit messages across the synapse.
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| nightmares | Dreams that occur during REM sleep and whose content is exceptionally frightening, sad, angry, or in some other way uncomfortable.
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| nocioceptors | Receptors for stimuli that are experienced as painful.
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| nodes of Ranvier | Gaps in the myelin sheath covering the nerves.
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| norepinephrine | A hormone produced by the adrenal glands.
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| normal distribution | The symmetrical pattern of scores on a scale in which a majority of the scores are clustered near the center and a minority are at either extreme.
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| norms | Standards (created by the scores of a large group of individuals) used as the basis of comparison for scores on a test.
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| novel stimulation | New or changed experiences.
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| obedience | Doing what one is told to do by people in authority.
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| object permanence | The understanding that objects continue to exist when they are not in view.
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| objectivity | Lack of subjectivity in a test question so that the same score is produced regardless of who does the scoring.
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| observational methods | Methods of personality assessment that involve watching a person's actual behavior in a natural or simulated situation.
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| obsessive-compulsive disorders | Disorders that involve obsessions (anxiety-provoking thoughts that will not go away) and/or compulsions (irresistible urges to engage in specific irrational behaviors).
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| occipital lobes | The part of the cerebral cortex, located at the base of the back of the head, that plays an essential role in the processing of sensory information from the eyes.
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| olfaction | The sense of smell.
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| olfactory epithelium | The sheet of receptor cells at the top of the nasal cavity.
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| operant conditioning | Learning in which the consequences of behavior lead to changes in the probability of its occurrence.
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| opiates | Narcotic drugs derived from the opium poppy.
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| opponent-process theory of color vision | The theory of color vision contending that the visual system has two kinds of color processors, which respond to light in either the red-green or yellow-blue ranges of wavelength.
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| optic chiasm | The area in the brain where the optic nerves cross.
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| optic nerve | The nerve that carries neural messages about vision to the brain.
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| optimal level of arousal | The apparent human need for a comfortable level of stimulation, achieved by acting in ways that increase or decrease it.
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| oral aggressive personality | A personality type in which the person seeks pleasure by being verbally hostile to others.
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| oral receptive personality | A personality type in which the person seeks pleasure through overeating, smoking, and other oral means.
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| oral stage | According to Freud, the first psychosexual stage (from birth to 1 year), in which id gratification is focused on the mouth.
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| organ of corti | A sensory receptor in the cochlea that transduces sound waves into coded neural impulses.
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| oval window | The membrane of the inner ear that vibrates, creating sound waves in the fluid of the cochlea.
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| ovaries | Female endocrine glands that secrete sex-related hormones and produce ova, or eggs.
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| pancreas | The organ near the stomach that contains the islets of Langerhans.
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| panic anxiety disorder | A pattern of anxiety in which long periods of calm are broken by an intensely uncomfortable attack of anxiety.
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| papillae | Clusters of taste buds on the tongue.
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| parallel play | Playing near but not with another child.
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| paranoid schizophrenia | A subtype of schizophrenia in which the individual holds delusions of persecution and grandeur that seriously distort reality.
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|
| parasympathetic division | The division of the autonomic nervous system that generally "calms" internal organs.
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| parathormone | A hormone that regulates ion levels in neurons and controls excitability of the nervous system.
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| parathyroid glands | Four glands embedded in the thyroid that produce parathormone.
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| paraventricular nucleus | A part of the hypothalamus that plays a role in the motive of hunger by regulating the level of blood sugar.
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|
| parietal lobes | The part of the cerebral cortex located behind the frontal lobes at the top of the skull containing the somatosensory area.
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|
| partial reinforcement effect | Responses that have been reinforced on variable ratio or variable interval schedules are more difficult to extinguish than responses that have been continuously reinforced.
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| passionate love | The mixture of romantic, sexual, and other feelings of love.
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| peak experiences | Intensely moving experiences in which the individual feels a sense of unity with the world.
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| penis envy | According to Freud, the desire of a girl to possess a penis.
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| perception | The process of organizing and interpreting information received from the outside world.
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| perceptual constancy | The tendency for perceptions of objects to remain relatively unchanged, in spite of changes in raw sensations.
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| peripheral nervous system | The network of nerves that branches from the brain and spinal cord to all parts of the body.
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| person perception | The process of forming impressions of others.
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| person 3 situation interactionism | The view that behavior is influenced by a combination of the characteristics of both the person and the situation.
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| person variables | All characteristics of an individual that are relatively enduring, such as ways of thinking, beliefs, or physiological reactivity to stress.
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|
| personal growth therapy | Psychotherapy for normal individuals who want to enhance their personal adjustment, improve interpersonal relationships, learn to react better to stress, and so on.
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|
| personal unconscious | According to Jung, the motives, conflicts, and information that are repressed by a person because they are threatening to that individual.
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|
| personality | The sum total of the typical ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that makes each person unique.
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| personality disorders | Psychological disorders that are believed to result from personalities that developed improperly during childhood.
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| persuasion | The process of changing another person's attitudes through arguments and other related means.
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|
| phallic personality | A personality type caused by fixation in the phallic stage in which the person is selfish, impulsive, and lacking in genuine feeling for others.
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|
| phallic stage | According to Freud, the third psychosexual stage (from 3 to 6 years), in which gratification is focused on the genitals.
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|
| pheromones | Chemicals that stimulate receptors in the vomeronasal organ in some animals, influencing some aspects of reproductive behavior.
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|
| phi phenomenon | The perception of apparent movement between two stationary stimuli.
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| phobia | An intense, irrational fear.
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| phonemes | The smallest units of sound in a language.
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|
| pineal gland | The endocrine gland that is largely responsible for the regulation of biological rhythms.
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| pinna | The external part of the ear.
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| pitch | The experience of sound vibrations sensed as high or low.
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|
| pituitary gland | The body's master gland, located near the bottom of the brain, whose secretions help regulate the activity of the other glands in the endocrine system.
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|
| plasticity | The ability of parts of the brain, particularly the cerebral cortex, to acquire new functions that partly or completely replace the functions of a damaged part of the brain.
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|
|
| pleasure principle | According to Freud, the attempt of the id to seek immediate pleasure and avoid pain, regardless of how harmful it might be to others.
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|
| polarization | The tendency for group discussion to make beliefs and attitudes more extreme.
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|
| polarized | The resting state of a neuron, when mostly negative ions are inside and mostly positive ions are outside the cell membrane.
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|
| pons (ponz) | The part of the hindbrain that is involved in balance, hearing, and some parasympathetic functions.
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|
| positive reinforcement | Any consequence of behavior that leads to an increase in the probability of its occurrence.
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|
|
| positron emission tomography (PET) | A brain-imaging technique that produces an X-ray-like image.
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|
|
| post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) | The condition caused by extremely stressful experiences in which the person later experiences anxiety and irritability; has upsetting memories, dreams, and realistic flashbacks of the experience; and tries to avoid anything that reminds him or her of the experience.
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|
| preconscious mind | That portion of the mind containing information that is not presently conscious but can be easily brought into consciousness.
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|
| prejudice | A harmful attitude based on inaccurate generalizations about a group of people.
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|
| premature ejaculation | A male sexual dysfunction in which the individual reaches orgasm and ejaculates sperm too early.
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|
| preoperational stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of cognitive development from ages 2 to 7.
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| pressure | Stress that arises from the threat of negative events.
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|
| primacy effect | The tendency for first impressions to heavily influence opinions about other people.
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|
| primary motives | Human motives for things that are necessary for survival, such as food, water, and warmth.
|
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|
| primary process thinking | According to Freud, the attempt by the id to satisfy its needs by forming a wish-fulfilling mental image of the desired object.
|
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|
| primary reinforcers | Innate positive reinforcers that do not have to be acquired through learning.
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| primary sex characteristics | Ovulation and menstruation in females and production of sperm in males.
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| proactive interference | Interference created by memories from prior learning.
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| problem solving | The cognitive process through which information is used to reach a goal that is blocked by some obstacle.
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| procedural memory | Memory for motor movements and skills.
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|
| progressive relaxation training | A method of learning to deeply relax the muscles of the body.
|
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|
| projective test | A test that uses ambiguous stimuli designed to reveal the contents of the client's unconscious mind.
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|
|
| psychoanalysis | A method of psychotherapy developed by Freud based on his belief that the root of all psychological problems is unconscious conflicts between the id, the ego, and the superego.
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|
| psychoanalytic theory | Freud's theory that the origin of personality lies in the balance among the id, the ego, and the superego.
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| psychological motives | Motives related to the individual's happiness and well-being, but not to survival.
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| psychology | The science of behavior and mental processes.
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|
| psychometrics | The perspective in psychology founded by Binet that focuses on the measurement of mental functions.
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|
| psychophysics | A specialty area of psychology that studies sensory limits, sensory adaptation, and related topics.
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|
|
| psychosurgery | A medical therapy that involves operating on the brain in an attempt to alleviate some types of mental disorders.
|
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|
|
| psychotherapy | A form of therapy in which a trained professional uses methods based on psychological theories to help a person with psychological problems.
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| psychotropic drugs | The class of drugs that alters conscious experience.
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|
| puberty | The point in development at which the individual is first physically capable of sexual reproduction.
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|
| punishment | A negative consequence of a behavior, which leads to a decrease in the frequency of the behavior that produces it.
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| pupil | The opening of the iris.
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| rape | The act of forcing sexual activity on an unwilling person.
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|
| ratio IQ | The intelligence quotient based on the ratio between the person's mental age and chronological age.
|
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|
|
| reality principle | According to Freud, the attempt by the ego to find safe, realistic ways of meeting the needs of the id.
|
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|
|
| recall method | A measure of memory based on the ability to retrieve information from long-term memory with few cues.
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| receptor sites | Sites on the dendrite that receive the neurotransmitter substance.
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|
| recessive gene | The gene that produces a trait in an individual only when the same recessive gene has been inherited from both parents.
|
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|
| reciprocal determination | Bandura's observation that the individual's behavior and the social learning environment continually influence one another.
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|
| recognition method | A measure of memory based on the ability to select correct information from among the options provided.
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|
| reflection | A technique in humanistic psychotherapy in which the therapist reflects the emotions of the client to help clients clarify their feelings.
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|
| refractory period | The period of time following orgasm during which males are incapable of sexual arousal.
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|
| rehearsal | Mental repetition of information for retention in short-term memory.
|
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|
| relearning method | A measure of memory based on the length of time it takes to relearn forgotten material.
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|
|
| reliability | A test's ability to produce similar scores if the test is administered on different occasions or by different examiners.
|
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|
|
| REM sleep | Rapid-eye-movement sleep, characterized by movement of the eyes under the lids; often accompanies dreams.
|
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|
|
| representativeness heuristic | The strategy of making judgments about the unknown on the assumption that it is similar to what we know.
|
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|
|
| repression | Sigmund Freud's theory that unpleasant information is often pushed into unconsciousness without our being aware of it.
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|
| repressors | Persons who tend to avoid information and do not think about stressful events.
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|
| resistance | Any form of patient opposition to the process of psychoanalysis.
|
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|
| resolution phase | The stage in the sexual response cycle following orgasm when arousal and pleasure diminish.
|
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|
| response prevention | The prevention of avoidance responses to ensure that the individual sees that the negative consequence will not occur to speed up the extinction of avoidance responses.
|
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|
| retarded ejaculation | A condition in which a male does not ejaculate despite adequate sexual stimulation.
|
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|
|
| reticular formation | The system of neural structures spanning parts of the hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain that plays a role in cortical arousal and attention.
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| retina | The area at the back of the eye on which images are formed and that contains the rods and cones.
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| retroactive interference | Interference created by memories from later learning.
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| retrograde amnesia | A memory disorder characterized by an inability to retrieve old long-term memories, generally for a specific period of time extending back from the beginning of the disorder.
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| reversibility | The concept understood by concrete operational children that logical propositions can be reversed (if 2 1 3 5 5, then 5 2 3 5 2).
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| rods | The 125 million cells located outside the center of the retina that transduce light waves into neural impulses, thereby coding information about light and dark.
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| role playing | A therapeutic technique in which the therapist and client act as if they were people in problematic situations.
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| rooting reflex | An automatic response in which an infant turns its head toward stimulation on the cheek.
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| round window | The membrane that relieves pressure from the vibrating waves in the cochlear fluid.
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| saccule, utricle | Fluid-filled sacs of the vestibular organ that inform the brain about the body's orientation.
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| schema theory | The theory that information stored in LTM sometimes changes over time to become more consistent with our beliefs, knowledge, and expectations.
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| schizoid personality disorder | A personality disorder characterized by blunted emotions, lack of interest in social relationships, and withdrawal into a solitary existence.
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| schizophrenia | A severe psychological disorder characterized by strange, false beliefs and distorted perceptions.
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| science | Approach to knowledge based on systematic observation.
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| scrotum | The loose skin sac that encloses the testes.
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| secondary reinforcers | Learned positive reinforcers.
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| secondary sex characteristics | Development of the breasts and hips in females; growth of the testes, broadening of the shoulders, lowered voice, and growth of the penis and facial hair in males; and growth of pubic and other body hair in both sexes.
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| sedatives | Depressants that in mild doses produce a state of calm relaxation.
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| self | According to humanists, the person one thinks one is.
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| self-actualization | According to Maslow, the seldomly reached full result of the inner-directed drive of humans to grow, improve, and use their potential to the fullest.
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| self-concept | Our subjective perception of who we are and what we are like.
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| self-efficacy | According to Bandura, the perception of being capable of achieving one's goals.
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| self-regulation | According to Bandura, the process of cognitively reinforcing and punishing our own behavior, depending on whether it meets our personal standards.
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| semantic content | The meaning in symbols, such as language.
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| semantic memory | Memory for meaning without reference to the time and place of learning.
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| semen | The fluid that contains sperm cells.
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| semicircular canals | Three nearly circular tubes in the vestibular organ that inform the brain about tilts of the head and body.
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| seminal vesicle | One of the structures that produce fluid for semen.
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| semipermeable | A surface that allows some, but not all, particles to pass through.
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| sensation | The process of receiving, translating, and transmitting messages from the outside world to the brain.
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| sense organs | Organs that receive stimuli.
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| sensitizers | Persons who tend to seek out information and think about stressful events.
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| sensorimotor stage | In Piaget's theory, the period of cognitive development from birth to 2 years.
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| sensory adaptation | Weakened magnitude of a sensation resulting from prolonged presentation of the stimulus.
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| sensory receptor cells | Cells in sense organs that translate messages into neural impulses that are sent to the brain.
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| sensory register | The first stage of memory, in which an exact image of each sensory experience is held briefly until it can be processed.
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| separation anxiety | The distress experienced by infants when they are separated from their caregivers.
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| septal area | The part of the limbic system that processes cognitive information in emotion.
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| serial position effect | Immediate recall of items listed in a fixed order is often better for items at the beginning and end of the list than for those in the middle.
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| serotonin | A neurotransmitter used by systems of neurons believed to regulate sleep, dreaming, appetite, anxiety, depression, and the inhibition of violence.
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| sex | The distinction between male and female based on biological characteristics.
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| sexual aversion disorder | A condition in which a person fearfully avoids sexual behavior.
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| sexual masochism | A condition in which receiving pain is sexually exciting.
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| sexual orientation | The tendency to prefer romantic and sexual partners of the same or different sex.
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| sexual sadism | The practice of obtaining sexual pleasure by inflicting pain on others.
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| shaping | A strategy of positively reinforcing behaviors that are successively more similar to desired behaviors.
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| short-term memory (STM) | The second stage of memory, in which five to nine bits of information can be stored for brief periods of time.
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| situational attribution | An explanation for behavior that is based on an external cause.
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| situationism | The view that behavior is not consistent but is strongly influenced by different situations.
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| Skinner box | A cage for animals, equipped with a response lever and a food tray dispenser, used in research on operant conditioning.
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| sleep apnea | The sudden interruption of breathing during sleep.
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| sleep disorders | Disturbances of sleep.
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| sleeper effects | According to Hovland, the potential for low-credibility speakers to influence opinion after a period of time.
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| sleep-inhibiting system | An area of the brain that inhibits sleep.
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| sleep-promoting systems | Two areas of the brain that lead to sleep.
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| sleeptalking | Talking during any phase of the sleep cycle.
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| social facilitation | An effect in which working in a group improves one's performance on individual projects.
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| social impairment | An effect in which working in a group impairs individual performance.
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| social learning theory | The viewpoint that the most important parts of our behavior are learned from other persons in society-family, friends, and culture.
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| social loafing | The tendency of members of groups to work less hard when group performance is measured than when individual performance is measured.
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| social norms | Guidelines provided by every culture for judging acceptable and unacceptable behavior.
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| social phobia | A phobic fear of social interactions, particularly those with strangers and those in which the person might be viewed negatively.
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| social psychology | The branch of psychology that studies individuals as they interact with others.
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| social roles | Culturally determined guidelines that tell people what behavior is expected of them.
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| social-role theory of gender differences | The theory that the opportunities and restrictions inherent in women's and men's different social roles create psychological gender differences.
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| social skills training | The use of techniques of operant conditioning to teach social skills to persons who lack them.
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| social support | The role played by friends and relatives in providing advice, assistance, and someone in whom to confide private feelings.
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| sociocultural perspective | The theory of psychology that states that it is necessary to understand one's culture, ethnic identity, and other sociocultural factors to fully understand a person.
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| solitary play | Playing alone.
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| somatic nervous system | The division of the peripheral nervous system that carries messages from the sense organs, muscles, joints, and skin to the central nervous system and from the central nervous system to the skeletal muscles.
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| somatization disorders | Intensely and chronically uncomfortable psychological conditions that involve numerous symptoms of somatic (body) illnesses without physical cause.
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| somatoform disorders | Disorders in which the individual experiences the symptoms of physical health problems that have psychological rather than physical causes.
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| somatoform pain disorders | Somatoform disorders in which the individual experiences a relatively specific and chronic pain that has a psychological rather than physical cause.
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| somatosensory area | The strip of parietal cortex running parallel to the motor area of the frontal lobes that plays a role in body senses.
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| sound waves | Vibratory changes in the air that carry sound.
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| specialized end bulbs | Sensory receptor cells that detect pressure and skin pleasure.
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| specific phobia | A phobic fear of one relatively specific thing.
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| spinal cord | The nerve fibers in the spinal column.
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| spontaneous recovery | A temporary increase in the strength of a conditioned response, which is likely to occur during extinction after the passage of time.
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| stage | One of several time periods in development that is qualitatively distinct from the periods that come before and after.
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| stage theory of memory | A model of memory based on the idea that we store information in three separate but linked memories.
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| standardization | Administering a test in the same way to all individuals.
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| stereochemical theory | The theory that different odor receptors can be stimulated only by molecules of a specific size and shape that fit them like a "key" in a lock.
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| stereotype | An inaccurate generalization on which a prejudice is based.
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| stimulants | Drugs that increase the activity of the central nervous system, providing a sense of energy and well-being.
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| stimulus | Any aspect of the outside world that directly influences our behavior or conscious experience.
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| stimulus discrimination | The tendency for responses to occur more often in the presence of one stimulus than others.
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| stimulus generalization | The tendency for similar stimuli to elicit the same response.
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| stimulus incorporation | Stimuli that occur during sleep that are incorporated into dreams either directly or in altered form.
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| stress | Any event or circumstance that strains or exceeds an individual's ability to cope.
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| stroke | A rupture of a blood vessel in the brain that results in the destruction of a part of the brain.
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| structuralism | The nineteenth-century school of psychology that sought to determine the structure of the mind through controlled introspection.
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| subjective reality | Each person's unique perception of reality that, according to humanists, plays a key role in organizing our personalities.
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| sublimation | According to Freud, a form of displacement in which a socially desirable goal is substituted for a socially harmful goal; the best form of displacement for society as a whole.
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| superego | According to Freud, that part of the mind that opposes the desires of the id by enforcing moral restrictions and by striving to attain perfection.
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| surface structure | The superficial spoken or written structure of a statement.
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| symbolization | In Rogers' theory, the process of representing experience, thoughts, or feelings in mental symbols of which we are aware.
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| sympathetic division | The division of the autonomic nervous system that generally activates internal organs during emotional arousal or when physical demands are placed on the body.
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| synapse | The space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another.
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| synaptic facilitation | The process by which neural activity causes structural changes in the synapses that facilitate more efficient learning and memory.
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| synaptic gap | The small space between two neurons at a synapse.
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| synaptic knobs | The knoblike tops of axons.
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| synaptic vesicles | Tiny vessels containing stored quantities of the neurotransmitter substance held in the synaptic knobs of the axon.
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| syntax | The grammatical rules of a language.
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| syphilis | A sexually transmitted disease caused by spirochete bacteria.
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| systematic desensitization | A behavior therapy method in which the client is taught not to fear phobic stimuli by learning to stay relaxed in the presence of successively more threatening stimuli.
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| tacit intelligence | The practical knowledge and skills needed to deal with everyday problems that are usually not taught in school.
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| tactile discs | Sensory receptor cells that detect pressure.
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| taste cells | The sensory receptor cells for gustation located in the taste buds.
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| telegraphic speech | The abbreviated speech of 2-year-olds.
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| temporal lobes | The part of the cerebral cortex extending back from the area of the temples beneath the frontal and parietal lobes containing areas involved in the sense of hearing and understanding language.
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| testes | Male endocrine glands that secrete sex-related hormones and produce sperm cells.
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| testosterone | A male sex hormone.
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| thalamus | The part of the forebrain that primarily routes sensory messages to appropriate parts of the brain.
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| theories | Tentative explanations of facts and relationships in sciences.
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| thyroid gland | The gland below the voice box that regulates metabolism.
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| thyroxin | A hormone produced by the thyroid that is necessary for proper mental development in children and helps determine weight and level of activity in adults.
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| timbre | The characteristic quality of a sound as determined by the complexity of the sound wave.
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| traits | Relatively enduring patterns of behavior (thinking, acting, and feeling) that are relatively consistent across situations.
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| transduction | The translation of energy from one form to another.
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| transductive reasoning | Errors in understanding cause-and-effect relationships that are commonly made by preoperational children.
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| transference | The phenomenon in psychoanalysis in which the patient comes to feel and act toward the therapist in ways that resemble how he or she feels and acts toward other significant adults.
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| trial and error | The random application of one possible solution after another.
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| trichromatic theory | The theory of color vision contending that the eye has three different kinds of cones, each of which responds to light of one range of wavelength.
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| Type A personality | The pattern of behavior characterized most by intense competitiveness, hostility, overwork, and a sense of time urgency.
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| unconditioned response (UCR) | An unlearned, inborn reaction to an unconditioned stimulus.
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| unconditioned stimulus (UCS) | A stimulus that can elicit a response without any learning.
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| unconscious mind | The part of the mind of which we can never be directly aware; the storehouse of primitive instinctual motives and of memories and emotions that have been repressed.
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| vaginismus | A female sexual dysfunction in which the individual experiences involuntary contractions of the vaginal walls, making the vagina too narrow to allow the penis to enter comfortably.
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| validity | The extent to which a test measures what it's supposed to measure.
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| variable interval schedule | A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given following the first response occurring after a variable amount of time.
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| variable ratio schedule | A reinforcement schedule in which the reinforcer is given after a varying number of responses have been made.
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| ventromedial hypothalamus | A part of the hypothalamus involved in inhibiting eating when sufficient food has been consumed (the satiety center).
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| vestibular organ | The sensory structures in the inner ear that provide the brain with information about movement.
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| vicarious punishment | Observed punishment of the behavior of a model, which also decreases the probability of the same behavior in the observer.
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| vicarious reinforcement | Observed reinforcement of the behavior of a model, which also increases the probability of the same behavior in the observer.
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| visual acuity | Clearness and sharpness of vision.
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| vomeronasal organ | An organ in the nasal cavity of many animals that contains receptors for pheromones.
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| voyeurism | The practice of obtaining sexual pleasure by watching members of the opposite sex undressing or engaging in sexual activities.
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| vulva | The external genital structures of the female.
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| wavelength | The frequency of light waves; it determines the color we see.
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| Weber's law | A law stating that the amount of change in a stimulus needed to detect a difference is in direct proportion to the intensity of the original stimulus.
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| Wernicke's aphasia | A form of aphasia in which persons can speak normally but cannot make sense out of language spoken to them by others.
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| Wernicke's area | The language area of the cortex that plays an essential role in understanding spoken language.
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| Yerkes-Dodson law | A law stating that effective performance is more likely if the level of arousal is suitable for the activity.
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| zygote | The stable cell resulting from fertilization; in humans, it has 46 chromosomes-23 from the sperm and 23 from the ovum.
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