Term
| Aaron Beck’s view of depression |
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Definition
| developed a cognitive theory of depression; identified patterns of thinking that correlated with symptoms of depression. In an effort to better understand depression and related illness, he developed the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Scale for Suicide Ideation. Beck believes that depression is maintained because depressed patients are unaware of the negative automatic thoughts that they habitually formulate. |
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Definition
| The minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory signal is detected half the time. |
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Term
| Achievement vs. aptitude tests |
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Definition
| Achievement: measures what has been acquired (terminal); selection purposes; designed for K-12; group or individually administered. Aptitude: predicts future performance or ability; decisions about future; designed for high school+; group or individually administered |
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Term
| Action vs. resting potential |
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Definition
| Action: nerve impulse activated by in a neuron that travels down the axon and causes neurotransmitters to be released into a synapse. Resting: polarization of cellular fluid within a neuron, which provides the capability to produce an action potential. |
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Definition
| Acuteness of vision or perception; keenness. |
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Term
| Ainsworth Strange Situation (Paradigm) |
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Definition
The Strange Situation procedure, developed by American psychologist Mary Ainsworth, is widely used in child development research. The goal of the Strange Situation procedure was to provide an environment that would arouse in the infant both the motivation to explore and the urge to seek security. An observer (often a researcher or therapist) takes a mother and her child (usually around the age of 12 months) to an unfamiliar room containing toys. A series of eight separations and reunions are staged involving mild, but cumulative, stress for the infant.Separation in such an unfamiliar setting would also likely activate the child's attachment system and allow for a direct test of its functioning. Ainsworth categorized the responses into three major types:
(A) Anxious/avoidant--the child may not be distressed at the mother's departure and may avoid or turn away from her on her return;
(B) Securely attached--the child is distressed by the mother's departure and easily soothed by her on her return;
(C) Anxious/resistant--the child may stay extremely close to the mother during the first few minutes and become highly distressed at her departure. When she returns, the child will simultaneously seek both comfort and distance from the mother. The child's behavior will be characterized by crying and reaching to be held and then attempting to leave once picked up. |
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Term
| Albert Bandura: major view on learning and Bobo Doll experiment |
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Definition
| Bandura argued that individuals, especially children, learn aggressive responses from observing others, either personally or through the media or environment. He stated that many individuals believed that aggression will produce reinforcements. In the Bobo Doll experiment, he had children witness a video of a model aggressively attacking a plastic clown. After the video, the children were placed in a room with attractive toys, but they could not touch them. The process of retention had occurred. Therefore, the children became angry and frustrated. Then the children were led to another room where there were identical toys used in the Bobo video. The motivation phase was in occurrence. Bandura and many other researchers found that 88% of the children imitated the aggressive behavior. Eight months later, 40% of the same children reproduced the violent behavior observed in the Bobo doll experiment |
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Term
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Definition
| Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) - The RET is a comprehensive system of personality change based on changing irrational beliefs that cause undesirable, highly charged emotional reactions such as severe anxiety. |
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Term
| Albert Adler inferiority complex |
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Definition
| This feeling of inferiority is derived from physical disability or from faulty relationships. The inferiority complex is a need to validate one’s self by oneself; it is the need for individual accomplishment. It arises from the experience of denigration as a child. |
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Term
| All-or-nothing law (all-or-none) of neural firing |
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Definition
| The rule that the size of the action potential is unaffected by increases in the intensity of stimulation beyond the threshold level. |
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Term
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Definition
| prosocial behaviors a person carries out without considering his or her own safety or interests. |
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Term
| American Psychological Association (APA) |
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Definition
an organization that includes psychologists
from all over the world. At the end of 1998, the organization was reported to have over 155,000 members worldwide. |
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Term
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Definition
| a failure of memory caused by physical injury, disease, drug use, or psychological trauma. |
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Term
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Definition
| a movement illusion in which one or more stationary lights going on and off in succession are perceive as a single moving light; the simplest form or apparent motion is the phi phenomenon. |
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Term
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Definition
| a motivational state of excitement and tension brought about by various stimuli. A result is emotions, which serve as a motivational function. |
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Term
| Asch’s conformity study (line segments) |
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Definition
| male college students were led to believe that they were in a study of simple visual perception. They were shown cards with three lines of differing lengths and asked to indicate which of the three lines was the same length as the standard line. Most of the participants, when faced with conflicting beliefs, who yielded to the majority’s opinion, were described as “disoriented” and “doubt-ridden.” Two-thirds of the time, however, participants gave the correct, nonconforming answer. |
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Term
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Definition
| emotional relationship between a child and the “regular” caregiver. |
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Term
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Definition
| a social-cognitive approach to describing the ways the social perceiver uses information to generate causal explanations. |
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Term
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Definition
| In aversive conditioning, the client is exposed to an unpleasant stimulus while engaging in the targeted behavior, the goal being to create an aversion to it. In adults, aversive conditioning is often used to combat addictions such as smoking or alcoholism. One common method is the administration of a nausea-producing drug while the client is smoking or drinking so that unpleasant associations are paired with the addictive behavior. |
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Term
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Definition
| One common method is the administration of a nausea-producing drug while the client is smoking or drinking so that unpleasant associations are paired with the addictive behavior. In addition to smoking and alcoholism, aversive therapy has also been used to treat nail biting, sex addiction, and other strong habits or addictions. |
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Term
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Definition
| A reflex produced by stroking the sole of the foot that manifests in dorsal flexion of the big toe. |
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Term
| behavior as being adaptive |
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Definition
| Behavior that is learned in response to a set of stimuli in an environment |
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Term
| bell curve (normal distribution) |
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Definition
| used to assess intelligence on a bell shaped curve; most people's scores cluster in the middle and fewer are found toward the two extremes of genius and mental deficiency. |
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Term
| Benjamin Whorf's theory of linguistic relativism (determinism) |
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Definition
| through cross-linguistic exploration, came to the conclusion that differences in language created differences in thought. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: linguistic relativity- structural differences between languages will generally be paralleled by nonlinguistic cognitive differences in the native speakers of two languages. linguistic determinism- the structure of language strongly influences or fully determines the way that its native speakers perceive and reason about the world. |
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Term
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Definition
| the displacement between the horizontal positions of corresponding images in the two eyes. |
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Term
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Definition
| a.k.a., the optic disc, which is the region in the retina where optic nerve leaves each eye; contains no receptor cells. You do not experience total blindness for two reasons: The blind spots of the two eyes are positioned so that receptors in each eye register what is missed in the other, and, The brain "fills in" this region with appropriate sensory information from the surrounding area. |
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Term
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Definition
| made up of specialized glial cells (astrocytes) that form a continuous envelope of fatty material around blood vessels in the brain. Protects the brain from poisons and harmful substances that are not fat-soluble. |
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Term
| What part of the brain do we share with animals? |
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Definition
| We and animals share the same basic hind brain, at the base of our skull where the brain meets the spinal cord. These structures (medulla, cerebellum, reticular system, pons, etc.) are important for basic vital functions such as heartbeat, balance, digesting and breathing. So humans and animals all have the same lower part to their brains. It’s only the higher parts (cerebral cortex) that distinguishes us from the apes, dogs, lions, tigers and bears. |
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Term
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Definition
| A way to generate novel solutions to problems. Everyone in the room just sort of shouts out ideas about something and the ideas are written on the board, no one is allowed to criticize the ideas until everyone has said everything they want. By reducing criticism, there is a free flow of ideas from which you can go back later on and judge which ones are good or which ones are bad. But the initial idea is to get those ideas out and on the board. If you know you’ll be instantly criticized, they someone with a good idea might not speak up in the first place. |
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Term
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Definition
| this is a kind of language disorder that is caused by damage to the left frontal lobe. Damage in this area could lead to an inability to "produce speech." A person has a hard time forming the words, moving his mouth, much like a stroke victim that can’t actually make the correct sounds for the words he’s trying to say. Aphasia means language problem and Paul Broca was the French physician who discovered the specific area in the brain that contributes to it. |
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Term
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Definition
| This has to do with the factors or forces that influence whether or not you are likely to come to someone’s aid if you are an innocent bystander. What affects whether or not you stop to help someone in need? Surprisingly enough, there are number of factors: whether or not you are in a hurry, whether you feel competent, whether the person is like you, whether you are with a small group versus a large group, whether or not you are in a good mood |
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Term
| Cannon/Bard critique of James |
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Definition
| Lange Theory of Emotions: The first theory of emotions was developed by two researchers James & Lange. They argued that emotions result from reading our visceral (physiological) reactions and thereby concluding certain emotions. For example, we see a bear, we feel our heart beat, feel our sweat pour out, notice our hair stand on end and we conclude "I’m afraid." This was too simplistic for Cannon/Bard. The argued that 1) sometimes we feel and emotion first and only after realize what it did to our body 2) different emotions may have similar physiological responses (for example both fear and joy might cause the heart to beat) so how can one certain physiological response lead to any specific emotion? They argued instead that emotions and our perception of them are simultaneous. The raised the question of whether or not one’s bodily response (heart beating) occurs before, after or simultaneously with one’s perceived emotional reaction (I am afraid). |
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Term
| Carl Rogers Person Centered Therapy |
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Definition
| A gifted American psychologist, Rogers reformed traditional therapy. He called his patients "clients" and not "patients". He sat them up to face him, the therapist, rather than have them lie down and look away, and he believed that if he truly accepted the client, unconditionally, and surrounded the client with unconditional positive regard, then in this accepting and caring relationship he could best help the client grow in the way the client wanted to grow. He didn’t see therapists as some aloof, intellectual, who was only there to figure out what was wrong with the patient. His techniques revolutionized therapy as we used to know it. |
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Term
| Carol Gilligan’s Critique of Kohlberg |
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Definition
| Lawrence Kohlberg did a lot of studies on moral reasoning. His research had a distinct male bias as not many of his subjects that he surveyed and interview were female. He seems to suggest that males often reason through moral issues at higher levels than females. Gilligan pointed out the male bias in Kohlberg’s research and argued that females have different ways of reasoning through moral issues, this does not make them inferior to male reasoning, but only points out the females value different things when trying to reason through moral issues. |
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Term
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Definition
| this is a term from learning theory that refers to putting several learned behaviors together to make one complete whole routine. For example, suppose you were to break down all the small routines that might go into a marching band performance. There are lots of little routines going on that when they are all put together make for a grand show. Chaining is linking each smaller routine to the larger whole. |
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Term
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Definition
| another name for these is Personality Disorders. There are 10 of them in DSM-IV. They have to do with character "flaws" that interfere with a persons relationship to others, their performance on the job and even their image of themselves. They are not "crazy" in the sense that they have lost touch with reality, but they have inappropriate or disproportional personality traits that often put them at odds with other people. For example, the Antisocial Personality has an inability to feel guilt when he does something wrong and feels no shame or remorse (thus he’s always in trouble with the law), the Paranoid Personality always feels he’s being watched or others are out to get him, the Schizoid Personality is the extreme loner, to the point of being a recluse, etc. These disorders are a whole different category in DSM and separate from the other major categories |
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Term
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Definition
| this is grouping items into smaller chunks so that they can be memorized easier. For example, your social security number is chunked into a 3-2-4 pattern. This is easier than trying to memorize 9 digits as one whole. |
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Term
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Definition
| Pioneered by Pavlov, this is a kind of learning by association. The subject learns to associate a one stimulus with a certain response. This is also called Pavlovian conditioning. It’s a very basic yet powerful kind of learning. |
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Term
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Definition
| This is the tendency to think animals are smarter than they actually are. There was a horse trainer in Germany that told everyone his horse, Hans, was super intelligent. The horse could tap out the date with his hooves, nod his head at the saying of the correct Prime Minister of Germany, neigh when he recognized the correct month, etc., etc. Everyone was amazed at Hans. Then we found out the Hans was merely associating certain nonverbal body language cues that the trainer would give after he asked a certain question. The trainer would touch his ear and the horse would neigh, adjust his cap and the horse would tap three times, etc. The horse didn’t understand anything, he was just trained to do certain things when he saw the trainer give certain subtle body language cues |
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Term
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Definition
| refers to the state of uneasiness within a persons mind whenever they are "shaken up". Suppose you learned that your minister was secretly a serial killer. You would be taken aback, your mind would be in a state of disbelief. You’d have contradictory thoughts prompting you to reevaluate your attitude toward your minister and probably change your behavior toward him. We often create a state of cognitive dissonance in people to get them to think about something, sort of shake them up a little. |
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Term
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Definition
| It’s caused because people lack certain photoreceptors (neurons tuned to respond to certain frequencies of light) on their retina. Most common form is distinguishing red/green colors. Mostly in males (attached to the X-chromosome). Those that can’t distinguish any color are very rare. |
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Term
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Definition
| Mostly black/white, red/green, blue/yellow. There are pairs of cones that are antagonistic (work opposite each other) on the retina and they are tuned to these colors. |
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Term
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Definition
Generally, there are four kinds of conflicts that we often get caught in and that will result in stress. a. Approach/Avoidance: having to choose something that has some good qualities but it also has some bad qualities. You want to go to Princeton but it’s so expensive. b. Approach/Approach – having to choose between two things, both of which have something good to offer. You get into Princeton and Harvard and you like them equally.
c. Avoidance/Avoidance – Choosing between two equally bad things. Caught between a rock and a hard place. You can eat your spinach (which you hate) or you can eat your asparagus (which you also hate). d. Double Approach/Avoidance – having to choose between two or more things all of which have something good and bad about them. You got into Princeton but it’s so expensive, you also got into Harvard, but it’s too far from home. |
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Term
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Definition
| The group in an experiment in which all variables are kept constant. It is necessary to figure out whether or not a certain variable affected an experiment and to what extent |
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Term
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Definition
| A statistic that indicates the degree of relationship between two variables |
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Term
| corteces of the brain: major ones |
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Definition
cerebral cortex- The outer surface of the brain.
motor cortex- The region of the cerebral cortex that controls the action of the body’s voluntary muscles.
auditory cortex- The area of the temporal lobes that receives and processes auditory information.
visual cortex- The region of the occipital lobes in which visual information is processed.
association cortex- The parts of the cerebral cortex in which many high-level brain processes occur. |
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Term
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Definition
| Studies in which researchers try to figure out whether a certain behavior, belief, practice, etc. transcends cultural boundaries or differs from culture to culture |
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Term
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Definition
| A research method in which groups of participants of different chronological ages are observed and compared at a given time. |
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Term
| crystallized intelligence |
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Definition
The facet of intelligence involving the knowledge a person has already acquired and the ability to access that knowledge; measures by vocabulary, arithmetic, and general information tests.
It generally increases with age, which is why older people know more than younger people. Unless it is affected by disease (e.g. Alzheimer’s), one’s crystallized intelligence just keeps on growing. |
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Term
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Definition
| These are acronyms for terms in classical conditioning. They stand for conditioned stimulus, conditioned response, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response |
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Term
| Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence |
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Definition
| He believes that we have something called "emotional intelligence" which is the knowledge and ability to manage our emotions, respond appropriately to situations and the ability to make sound emotional decisions. He argues that this kind of intelligence is more important in life than the traditional math/verbal kind of intelligence that schools seem to glorify to the detriment of developing kids with good emotional skills needed to make sound decisions. |
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Term
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Definition
| American psychologist who studied something called "achievement motivation." His research led him to believe that achievement motivation could be taught and acquired through proper learning. He even went to India once, selected people who fit the personality profile of an "entrepreneur" and then gave them the skills to develop a successful business, or in other words, "taught" them how to be high achievers. Guess what? The project worked. A ten year follow up showed most of his students were quite successful at building businesses. McClelland researched the conditions necessary to develop achievement motivation in people. |
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Term
| Defense mechanisms:major ones |
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Definition
| "defense mechanism" is a little mental technique (cognitive strategy) for defending the fragile ego from hurt, shame, embarrassment or guilt. It’s sort of a protective device to defend our self-image. Common defense mechanisms are: repression, regression, displacement, projection, sublimation, denial, avoidance, reaction-formation, rationalization, withdrawal, identification, intellectualization, etc. |
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Term
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Definition
| is what happens when people lose a sense of personal identity and accountability (responsibility). We usually think of this happening when people get caught up in a mob and do things that they would never do if acting alone. Factors that contribute to deindividuation are anonymity (darkness, wearing a mask, being one person in a large group) or intense physical activity (dancing, running) which floods a persons senses with feedback and they sort of "lose themselves." Unfortunately, this might lead to all kinds of antisocial behavior: riots, stealing, murder, etc. for which people feel might feel sorry for later. |
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Term
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Definition
| refers to what happened across America in the 70s when mental hospitals had to open their doors and let all kinds of folks with mental disorders go. This came about because new drugs were developed that could treat symptoms of many disorders and the folks didn’t need to be locked up anymore, and the legal proponents who said we can’t lock up someone just because they have bizarre thoughts or actions. So, we let close to 80% of folks with disorders go and asked them to come back twice a week for their medications. Of course, they didn’t come back, they usually ended up living as street people in the alleys of America. |
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Term
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Definition
| The major purpose of a dendrite is to receive incoming signals from other neurons |
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Term
| Depression: trycyclic antidepressants are most widely used to treat it |
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Definition
| The early drugs used to treat depression were known as "tricyclic" antidepressants. They worked but often had serious side effects and could be quite toxic if mixed with other substances. We don’t use them much anymore, relying instead on SSRI drugs like Prozac which target very specific receptor sites in the brain and don’t have the severe side effects. |
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Term
| Descriptive vs inferential statistics |
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Definition
| Descriptive statistics merely describe data, inferential statistics try to infer causation between variables. |
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Term
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Definition
| is the belief that human behavior can be boiled down to one or two major factors that "determine" everything about you. For example, biological determinism is the belief that biology is destiny. Everything you are can be explained by a few biological principles. Economic determinism would be the belief that everything about humans could be reduced to a few simple economic principles. Human beings are thought to be too complicated to be reduced to any simple principle. |
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Term
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Definition
| is concerned with changes that occur to humans as we grow throughout the life span. It encompasses changes from infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and old age. |
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Term
| Diagnostic statistical manual of mental disorders(purpose and limits) |
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Definition
| DSM-IV is published by the American Psychiatric Association to help diagnose mental disorders. It merely gives symptoms and statistics about the disorders. It does not give causes nor treatments. It is updated about every 20 years. |
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Term
| Afferent Neurons vs Efferent Neurons |
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Definition
Afferent neurons-neuron conducting impulses inwards to the brain and spinal cord
Efferent Neurons- neurons conducting impulses outwards from the brain or spinal cord |
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Term
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Definition
Agonist- Produces a response, such as exciton or inhibition of action potential when it binds to a special receptor, Ex: opiates, cannabis, nicotine.
Antagonist- When binded to a receptor, block receptor and prevents it from responding, preventing agonists from binding to receptors. Ex: Caffine, Nicotine |
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Term
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Definition
| A step by step procedure that shops provides right answers for a particular type of problem |
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Term
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Definition
| Having a mix of both male and female gender characteristics |
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Term
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Definition
Process of expressing strongly felt but usually repressed emotions.
-an analyst encourages a potion and to express these feelings that have been repressed to fear of punishment on retaliation.
-Usually strong feelings toward authority figures |
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