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Chapter 8 Vocabulary
AP Psych
46
Psychology
12th Grade
01/15/2013

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Term
Achievement Motive
Definition
The need to master difficult challenges, to outperform others, and to meet high standards of
excellence.
Term
Adaptation
Definition
An inherited characteristic that increased in a population (through natural selection) because it helped solve a problem of survival or reproduction during the time it emerged.
Term
Affiliation Motive
Definition
The need to associate with others and maintain social bonds.
Term
Androgens
Definition
The principal class of gonadal hormones in males.
Term
Argument
Definition
One or more premises used to provide support for a conclusion.
Term
Assumptions
Definition
Premises for which no proof or evidence is offered.
Term
Attitudes
Definition
Orientations that locate objects of thought on dimensions of judgment.
Term
Autonomic nervous system (ANS)
Definition
The system of nerves that connect to the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and glands.
Term
Bisexuals
Definition
Persons who seek emotional-sexual relationships with members of either sex.
Term
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Definition
Weight (in kilograms) divided by height (in meters) squared (kg/m2).
Term
Collectivism
Definition
Putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one's identity in terms of the groups one belongs to.
Term
Concordance rate
Definition
The percentage of twin pairs or other pairs of relatives that exhibit the same disorder.
Term
Discrimination
Definition
Behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group.
Term
Display rules
Definition
Cultural norms that regulate the appropriate expressions of emotions.
Term
Drive
Definition
An internal state of tension that motivates an organism to engage in activities that should reduce the tension.
Term
Emotion
Definition
A subjective conscious experience (the cognitive component) accompanied by bodily arousal (the physiological component) and by characteristic overt expressions (the behavioral component).
Term
Estrogens
Definition
The principal class of gonadal hormones in females.
Term
Extroverts
Definition
People who tend to be interested in the external world of people and things.
Term
Forebrain
Definition
The largest and most complicated region of the brain, encompassing a variety of structures, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, and cerebrum.
Term
Galvanic Skin response (GSR)
Definition
An increase in the electrical conductivity of the skin that occurs when sweat glands increase their
activity.
Term
Glucose
Definition
A simple sugar that is an important source of energy.
Term
Glucostats
Definition
Neurons sensitive to glucose in the surrounding fluid.
Term
Hedonic adaptation
Definition
An effect that occurs when the mental scale that people use to judge the pleasantness-
unpleasantness of their experiences shifts so that their neutral point, or baseline for comparison, changes.
Term
Heterosexuals
Definition
Persons who seek emotional-sexual relationships with members of the other sex.
Term
Homeostatsis
Definition
A state of physiological equilibrium or stability.
Term
Homosexuals
Definition
Persons who seek emotional-sexual relationships with members of the same sex.
Term
Hypothalamus
Definition
A structure found near the base of the forebrain that is involved in the regulation of basic biological needs.
Term
Incentive
Definition
An external goal that has the capacity to motivate behaivor.
Term
Individualism
Definition
Putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships.
Term
Lie detector
Definition
See Polygraph.
Term
Motivation
Definition
Goal-directed behavior.
Term
Obesity
Definition
The condition of being overweight.
Term
Parasympathetic division
Definition
The branch of the autonomic nervous system that generally conserves bodily resources.
Term
Parental investment
Definition
What each sex invests-in terms of time, energy, survival risk, and forgone opportunities-to
produce and nurture offspring.
Term
Personality
Definition
An individual's unique constellation of consistent behavioral traits.
Term
Pituitary gland
Definition
The “master gland“ of the endocrine system; it releases a great variety of hormones that fan out through the body, stimulating actions in the other endocrine glands.
Term
Polygraph
Definition
A device that records autonomic fluctuations while a subject is questioned, in an effort to determine whether the subject is telling the truth.
Term
Premises
Definition
The reasons presented to persuade someone that a conclusion is true or probably true.
Term
Projective tests
Definition
Psychological tests that ask subjects to respond to vague, ambiguous stimuli in ways that may reveal the subjects' needs, feelings, and personality traits.
Term
Set-point theory
Definition
The idea that the body monitors fat-cell levels to keep them (and weight) fairly stable).
Term
Settling-point theory
Definition
The idea that weight tends to drift around a level at which the constellation of factors that
determine food consumption and energy expenditure achieve an equilibrium.
Term
Sexual orientation
Definition
A person's preference for emotional and sexual relationships with individuals of the same sex, the
other sex, or either sex.
Term
Subjective well-being
Definition
Individuals' perceptions of their overall happiness and life satisfaction.
Term
Sympathetic division
Definition
The branch of the autonomic nervous system that mobilizes the body's resources for
emergencies.
Term
Thalamus
Definition
A structure in the forebrain through which all sensory information (except smell) must pass to get to the cerebral cortex.
Term
Vasocongestion
Definition
Engorgement of blood vessels.
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