psych master vocab

• Absolute Threshold

  The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time
• Accommodation

  (1) The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina. (2) Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
• Achievement Motivation

  A desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard
• Achievement Tests

  Tests designed to assess what a person has learned
• Acoustic Encoding

  The encoding of sound, especially the sound of words
• Acquisition


  (In classical conditioning) The initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. (In operant conditioning) The strengthening of a reinforced response.
• Action Potential


  A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon
• Active Listening


  Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centered therapy.
• Adaptation-Level Phenomenon


  Our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience
• Addiction


  Compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences
• Adolescence


  The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
• Adrenal Glands


  A pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that helps arouse the body in times of stress
• Aerobic Exercise


  Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety
• Aggression


  Physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone
• Algorithm


  A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier--but also more error-prone--use of heuristics.
• Alpha Waves


  The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state
• Altruism


  Unselfish regard for the welfare of others
• Amnesia


  The loss of memory
• Amphetamines


  Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing sped-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
• Amygdala


  Two lima bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion (anger)
• Anorexia Nervosa


  An eating disorder in which a person (usually an adolescent female) diets and becomes significantly (15 percent or more) underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve
• Antianxiety Drugs


  Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation
• Antidepressant Drugs


  Drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety. Different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters.
• Antipsychotic Drugs


  Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder. Can cause tardive dyskinesia. They prevent neuron firings.
• Antisocial Personality Disorder


  A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrong-doing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.
• Anxiety Disorders


  Psychological disorders characterized by distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety
• Aphasia


  Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area- frontal lobe (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area- temporal lobe(impairing understanding)
• Applied Research


  Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
• Aptitude Tests


  Tests designed to predict a person's future performance, aptitude is the capacity to learn
• Arousal Theory

  The arousal theory refers to being motivated in order to do something to reach the optimal level of arousal. Low levels of arousal = best performance on new or complex tests. Moderate arousal = best performance overall. High arousal = best performance on easy tests.
• Assimilation


  Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas
• Association Areas


  Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking (larger in humans than other animals)
• Attachment


  An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation. Reciprocal relationship between caregiver and child.
• Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

  A psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity
• Attitude


  Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events
• Attribution Theory


  The theory that we explain someone's behavior by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition
• Audition


  The sense or act of hearing
• Autism

  A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind
• Automatic Processing


  Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings
• Autonomic Nervous System


  The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms.