absentmindedness
A lapse in attention that results in memory failure.
absolute threshold
The minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus in 50 percent of the trials.
accommodation
The process by which infants revise their schemas in light of new information.
accommodation
The process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina.
acetylcholine (ACh)
A neurotransmitter involved in a number of functions, including voluntary motor control.
acquisition
The phase of classical conditioning when the CS and the US are presented together.
action potential
An electric signal that is conducted along a neuron’s axon to a synapse.
activation–synthesis model
The theory that dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sense of random neural activity that occurs during sleep.
actor–observer effect
The tendency to make situational attributions for our own behaviours while making dispositional attributions for the identical behaviour of others.
adolescence
The period of development that begins with the onset of sexual maturity (about 11 to 14 years of age) and lasts until the beginning of adulthood (about 18 to 21 years of age).
adulthood
The stage of development that begins around 18 to 21 years and ends at death.
aggression
Behaviour with the purpose of harming another.
agonists
Drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter.
agoraphobia
A specific phobia involving a fear of public places.
alcohol myopia
A condition that results when alcohol hampers attention, leading people to respond in simple ways to complex situations.
alexithymia
A low emotional intelligence whereby a person has difficulty identifying and describing their own emotions, and in appreciating the emotional states of others.
algorithm
A well-defined sequence of procedures or rules that guarantees a solution to a problem.
altered state of consciousness
A form of experience that departs significantly from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind.
altruism
Behaviour that benefits another without benefitting oneself.
amygdala
A part of the limbic system that plays a central role in many emotional processes, particularly the formation of emotional memories.
analogical problem solving
Solving a problem by finding a similar problem with a known solution and applying that solution to the current problem.
anal stage
The second psychosexual stage, in which experience is dominated by the pleasures and frustrations associated with the anus, retention and expulsion of feces and urine, and toilet training.
anorexia nervosa
An eating disorder characterized by an intense fear of being fat and severe restriction of food intake.
antagonists
Drugs that block the function of a neurotransmitter.
anterograde amnesia
The inability to transfer new information from the short-term store into the long-term store.
anti-anxiety medications
Drugs that help reduce a person’s experience of fear or anxiety.
antidepressants
A class of drugs that help lift people’s moods.
antipsychotic drugs
Medications that are used to treat schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.
antisocial personality disorder (APD)
A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.
anxiety disorder
The class of mental disorder in which anxiety is the predominant feature.
aphasia
Difficulty in producing or comprehending language.
apparent motion
The perception of movement as a result of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations.
appraisal
An evaluation of the emotion-relevant aspects of a stimulus.
approach motivation
A motivation to experience a positive outcome.
area A1
A portion of the temporal lobe that contains the primary auditory cortex.
area V1
The part of the occipital lobe that contains the primary visual cortex.
assimilation
The process by which infants apply their schemas in novel situations.
association areas
Areas of the cerebral cortex that are composed of neurons that help provide sense and meaning to information registered in the cortex.
attachment
The emotional bond that forms between newborns and their primary caregivers.
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
A persistent pattern of severe problems with inattention and/or hyperactivity or impulsiveness that cause significant impairments in functioning.
attitude
An enduring positive or negative evaluation of an object or event.
attribution
An inference about the cause of a person’s behaviour.
autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
A condition beginning in early childhood in which a person shows persistent communication deficits as well as restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours, interests, or activities.
autonomic nervous system (ANS)
A set of nerves that carries involuntary and automatic commands that control blood vessels, body organs, and glands.
availability bias
Items that are more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently.
avoidance motivation
A motivation not to experience a negative outcome.
axon
The part of a neuron that carries information to other neurons, muscles, or glands.
balanced placebo design
A study design in which behaviour is observed following the presence or absence of an actual stimulus and also following the presence or absence of a placebo stimulus.
basal ganglia
A set of subcortical structures that directs intentional movements.
basilar membrane
A structure in the inner ear that undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fluid.
behaviour
Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals.
behaviour therapy
A type of therapy that assumes that disordered behaviour is learned and that symptom relief is achieved through changing overt maladaptive behaviours into more constructive behaviours.
behavioural neuroscience
An approach to psychology that links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily processes.
behaviourism
An approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectively observable behaviour.
belief
An enduring piece of knowledge about an object or event.
belief bias
People’s judgments about whether to accept conclusions depend more on how believable the conclusions are than on whether the arguments are logically valid.
bias
The distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences.
Big Five
The traits of the five-factor model: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
binding problem
How features are linked together so that we see unified objects in our visual world rather than free-floating or miscombined features.
binocular disparity
The difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth.
biofeedback
The use of an external monitoring device to obtain information about a bodily function and possibly gain control over that function.
biological preparedness
A propensity for learning particular kinds of associations over others.
biopsychosocial perspective
Explains mental disorders as the result of interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors.
bipolar disorder
A condition characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mood (mania) and low mood (depression).
blind spot
A location in the visual field that produces no sensation on the retina.
blocking
A failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it.
bulimia nervosa
An eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging.
burnout
A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation and accompanied by lowered performance and motivation.
bystander intervention
The act of helping strangers in an emergency situation.
Cannon–Bard theory
The theory that a stimulus simultaneously triggers activity in the body and emotional experience in the brain.
case method
A procedure for gathering scientific information by studying a single individual.
catatonic behaviour
A marked decrease in all movement or an increase in muscular rigidity and overactivity.
category-specific deficit
A neurological syndrome that is characterized by an inability to recognize objects that belong to a particular category, although the ability to recognize objects outside the category is undisturbed.
cell body (or soma)
The part of a neuron that coordinates information-processing tasks and keeps the cell alive.
central nervous system (CNS)
The part of the nervous system that is composed of the brain and spinal cord.
cephalocaudal rule
The “top-to-bottom” rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the head to the feet.
cerebellum
A large structure of the hindbrain that controls fine motor skills.
cerebral cortex
The outermost layer of the brain, visible to the naked eye and divided into two hemispheres.
change blindness
When people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene.
childhood
The stage of development that begins at about 18 to 24 months and lasts until about 11 to 14 years.
chromosomes
Strands of DNA wound around each other in a double-helix configuration.
chronic stressors
Sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly.
chunking
Combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in short-term memory.
circadian rhythm
A naturally occurring 24-hour cycle.
classical conditioning
A type of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response.
cochlea
A fluid-filled tube that is the organ of auditory transduction.
cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
A blend of cognitive and behavioural therapeutic strategies.
cognitive development
The emergence of the ability to think and understand.
cognitive dissonance
An unpleasant state that arises when a person recognizes the inconsistency of his or her actions, attitudes, or beliefs.
cognitive map
A mental representation of the physical features of the environment.
cognitive neuroscience
The field of study that attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity.
cognitive psychology
The scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning.
cognitive restructuring
A therapeutic approach that teaches clients to question the automatic beliefs, assumptions, and predictions that often lead to negative emotions and to replace negative thinking with more realistic and positive beliefs.
cognitive symptoms
Deficits in cognitive abilities, specifically executive functioning, attention, and working memory.
cognitive therapy
Focuses on helping a client identify and correct any distorted thinking about self, others, or the world.
cognitive unconscious
All the mental processes that give rise to a person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour even though they are not experienced by the person.
colour-opponent system
Pairs of visual neurons that work in opposition.
common knowledge effect
The tendency for group discussions to focus on information that all members share.
comorbidity
The co-occurrence of two or more disorders in a single individual.
companionate love
An experience involving affection, trust, and concern for a partner’s well-being.
comparison level
The outcome people believe they should receive, in terms of rewards and costs, from their relationship.
comparison level for alternatives
The availability, and the cost–benefit ratio, of an alternative outcome.
concept
A mental representation that groups or categorizes shared features of related objects, events, or other stimuli.
concrete operational stage
The stage of cognitive development that begins at about 6 years and ends at about 11 years, during which children learn how various actions or “operations” can affect or transform “concrete” objects.
conditioned response (CR)
A reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a CS.
conditioned stimulus (CS)
A previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with a US.
conduct disorder
A persistent pattern of deviant behaviour involving aggression to people or animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, or serious rule violations.
cones
Photoreceptors that detect colour, operate under normal daylight conditions, and allow us to focus on fine detail.
conformity
The tendency to do what others do simply because others are doing it.
conjunction fallacy
When people think that two events are more likely to occur together than either individual event.
conscious motivations
Motivations of which people are aware.
consciousness
A person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind. (pp. 8, 178)
conservation
The notion that the quantitative properties of an object are invariant despite changes in the object’s appearance.
consolidation
The process by which memories become stable in the brain.
control group
The group of people who are not exposed to the particular manipulation, as compared to the experimental group, in an experiment.
conventional stage
A stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by the extent to which it conforms to social rules.
cooperation
Behaviour by two or more individuals that leads to mutual benefit.
corpus callosum
A thick band of nerve fibres that connects large areas of the cerebral cortex on each side of the brain and supports communication of information across the hemispheres.
correlation
Two variables are said to “covary” or “be correlated” when variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of the other.
correlation coefficient
A mathematical measure of both the direction and strength of a correlation, which is symbolized by the letter r.
correspondence bias
The tendency to make a dispositional attribution even when we should instead make a situational attribution.
crystallized intelligence
The ability to retain and use knowledge that was acquired through experience.
cultural psychology
The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.
debriefing
A verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study.
deep structure
The meaning of a sentence.
defence mechanisms
Unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by threats from unacceptable impulses.
deindividuation
A phenomenon that occurs when immersion in a group causes people to become less aware of their individual values.
delusion
A patently false belief system, often bizarre and grandiose, that is maintained in spite of its irrationality.
demand characteristics
Those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think someone else wants or expects.
dendrite
The part of a neuron that receives information from other neurons and relays it to the cell body.
dependent variable
The variable that is measured in a study.
depressants
Substances that reduce the activity of the central nervous system.
developmental psychology
The study of continuity and change across the life span.
deviation IQ
A statistic obtained by dividing a person’s test score by the average test score of people in the same age group and then multiplying the quotient by 100 (see ratio IQ).
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
A classification system that describes the features used to diagnose each recognized mental disorder and indicates how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems.
diathesis–stress model
Suggests that a person may be predisposed for a psychological disorder that remains unexpressed until triggered by stress.
dichotic listening
A task in which people wearing headphones hear different messages presented to each ear.
diffusion chain
A process in which individuals initially learn a behaviour by observing another individual perform that behaviour, and then serve as a model from which other individuals learn the behaviour.
diffusion of responsibility
The tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way.
discrimination
The capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli.
discrimination
Positive or negative behaviour toward another person based on his or her group membership.
disorganized speech
A severe disruption of verbal communication in which ideas shift rapidly and incoherently among unrelated topics.
display rule
A norm for the appropriate expression of emotion.
DNA methylation
Adding a methyl group to DNA.
door-in-the-face technique
An influence strategy that involves getting someone to deny an initial request
dopamine
A neurotransmitter that regulates motor behaviour, motivation, pleasure, and emotional arousal.
dopamine hypothesis
The idea that schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity.
double-blind
An observation whose true purpose is hidden from both the observer and the person being observed.
double depression
A moderately depressed mood that persists for at least 2 years and is punctuated by periods of major depression.
drive
An internal state caused by physiological needs.
drug tolerance
The tendency for larger doses of a drug to be required over time to achieve the same effect.
dynamic unconscious
An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces. (pp. 190, 485)
dysthymia
The same cognitive and bodily problems as in depression are present, but they are less severe and last longer, persisting for at least 2 years.
echoic memory
A fast-decaying store of auditory information.
ego
The component of personality, developed through contact with the external world, that enables us to deal with life’s practical demands.
egocentrism
The failure to understand that the world appears differently to different people.
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
A treatment that involves inducing a brief seizure by delivering an electrical shock to the brain.
electroencephalograph (EEG)
A device used to record electrical activity in the brain.
electrooculograph (EOG)
An instrument that measures eye movements.
embryonic stage
The period of prenatal development that lasts from the second week until about the eighth week.
emotion
A positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity.
emotional expression
An observable sign of an emotional state.
emotional intelligence
The ability to reason about emotions and to use emotions to enhance reasoning.
emotion regulation
The strategies people use to influence their own emotional experience.
empirical method
A set of rules and techniques for observation.
empiricism
The belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation.
encoding
The process of transforming what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory.
encoding specificity principle
The idea that a retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded.
endorphins
Chemicals that act within the pain pathways and emotion centres of the brain.
epigenetic marks
Chemical modifications to DNA that can turn genes on or off.
epigenetics
Environmental influences that determine whether or not genes are expressed, or the degree to which they are expressed, without altering the basic DNA sequences that constitute the genes themselves.
episodic memory
The collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place.
equity
A state of affairs in which the cost–benefit ratios of two partners are roughly equal.
evolutionary psychology
A psychological approach that explains mind and behaviour in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection.
exemplar theory
A theory of categorization that argues that we make category judgments by comparing a new instance with stored memories for other instances of the category.
existential approach
A school of thought that regards personality as governed by an individual’s ongoing choices and decisions in the context of the realities of life and death.
expectancy theory
The idea that alcohol effects can be produced by people’s expectations of how alcohol will influence them in particular situations.
experiment
A technique for establishing the causal relationship between variables.
experimental group
The group of people who are exposed to a particular manipulation, as compared to the control group, in an experiment.
explicit memory
The act of consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences.
exposure therapy
An approach to treatment that involves confronting an emotion-arousing stimulus directly and repeatedly, ultimately leading to a decrease in the emotional response.
expressed emotion
A measure of how much hostility, criticism, and emotional overinvolvement are used when speaking about a family member with a mental disorder.
external validity
An attribute of an experiment in which variables have been defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way.
extinction
The gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US.
extrinsic motivation
A motivation to take actions that lead to reward.
facial feedback hypothesis
Emotional expressions can cause the emotional experiences they signify.
factor analysis
A statistical technique that explains a large number of correlations in terms of a small number of underlying factors.
false recognition
A feeling of familiarity about something that has not been encountered before.
family resemblance theory
Members of a category have features that appear to be characteristic of category members but may not be possessed by every member.
fast mapping
The fact that children can map a word onto an underlying concept after only a single exposure.
feature-integration theory
The idea that focused attention is not required to detect the individual features that comprise a stimulus, but is required to bind those individual features together.
fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD)
A developmental disorder that stems from heavy alcohol use by the mother during pregnancy.
fetal stage
The period of prenatal development that lasts from the ninth week until birth.
fight-or-flight response
An emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action.
fixation
A phenomenon in which a person’s pleasure-seeking drives become psychologically stuck, or arrested, at a particular psychosexual stage.
fixed-interval schedule (FI)
An operant conditioning principle in which reinforcers are presented at fixed-time periods, provided that the appropriate response is made.
fixed-ratio schedule (FR)
An operant conditioning principle in which reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses have been made.
flashbulb memories
Detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events.
fluid intelligence
The ability to see abstract relationships and draw logical inferences.
foot-in-the-door technique
A technique that involves making a small request and following it with a larger request.
formal operational stage
The final stage of cognitive development that begins around the age of 11, during which children learn to reason about abstract concepts.
fovea
An area of the retina where vision is the clearest and there are no rods at all.
framing effects
When people give different answers to the same problem depending on how the problem is phrased (or framed).
fraternal twins (or dizygotic twins)
Twins who develop from two different eggs that were fertilized by two different sperm (see identical twins).
frequency distribution
A graphical representation of measurements arranged by the number of times each measurement was made.
frequency format hypothesis
The proposal that our minds evolved to notice how frequently things occur, not how likely they are to occur.
frontal lobe
A region of the cerebral cortex that has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgment.
frustration–aggression hypothesis
A principle stating that animals aggress when their goals are thwarted.
full consciousness
Consciousness in which you know and are able to report your mental state.
functional fixedness
The tendency to perceive the functions of objects as fixed.
functionalism
The study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
The primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.
gate-control theory of pain
A theory of pain perception based on the idea that signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped, or gated, by interneurons in the spinal cord via feedback from two directions.
gateway drug
A drug whose use increases the risk of the subsequent use of more harmful drugs.
gene
The major unit of hereditary transmission.
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
A three-stage physiological stress response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered.
generalization
The CR is elicited even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition.
generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
A disorder characterized by chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of the following symptoms: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance.
genetic dysphasia
A syndrome characterized by an inability to learn the grammatical structure of language despite having otherwise normal intelligence.
genital stage
The fifth and final psychosexual stage, the time for the coming together of the mature adult personality with a capacity to love, work, and relate to others in a mutually satisfying and reciprocal manner.
germinal stage
The 2-week period of prenatal development that begins at conception.
Gestalt psychology
A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
gestalt therapy
Has the goal of helping the client become aware of his or her thoughts, behaviours, experiences, and feelings and to “own” or take responsibility for them.
glial cells
Support cells found in the nervous system.
glutamate
The major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain.
grammar
A set of rules that specify how the units of language can be combined to produce meaningful messages.
grossly disorganized behaviour
Behaviour that is inappropriate for the situation or ineffective in attaining goals, often with specific motor disturbances.
group
A collection of people who have something in common that distinguishes them from others.
group polarization
The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than any member would have made alone.
group therapy
A technique in which multiple participants (who often do not know one another at the outset) work on their individual problems in a group atmosphere.
groupthink
The tendency for groups to reach consensus in order to facilitate interpersonal harmony.
habituation
A general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding.
hair cells
Specialized auditory receptor neurons embedded in the basilar membrane.
hallucination
A false perceptual experience that has a compelling sense of being real despite the absence of external stimulation.
hallucinogens
Drugs that alter sensation and perception, and often cause visual and auditory hallucinations.
haptic perception
The active exploration of the environment by touching and grasping objects with our hands.
health psychology
The subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health.
hedonic principle
The claim that people are motivated to experience pleasure and avoid pain.
helplessness theory
The idea that individuals who are prone to depression automatically attribute negative experiences to causes that are internal (i.e., their own fault), stable (i.e., unlikely to change), and global (i.e., widespread).
heritability
A measure of the variability of behavioural traits among individuals that can be accounted for by genetic factors.
heritability coefficient
A statistic (commonly denoted as h2) that describes the proportion of the difference among people in a given population that can be explained by differences in their genes.
heuristic
A fast and efficient strategy that may facilitate decision making but does not guarantee that a solution will be reached.
heuristic persuasion
The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to habit or emotion.
hindbrain
An area of the brain that coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord.
hippocampus
A structure critical for creating new memories and integrating them into a network of knowledge so that they can be stored indefinitely in other parts of the cerebral cortex.
histone modification
Adding chemical modifications to proteins called histones that are involved in packaging DNA.
homeostasis
The tendency for a system to take action to keep itself in a particular state.
humanistic psychology
An approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings.
human sexual response cycle
The stages of physiological arousal during sexual activity.
hypnosis
A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) makes suggestions that lead to a change in another person’s (the subject’s) subjective experience of the world.
hypnotic analgesia
The reduction of pain through hypnosis in people who are susceptible to hypnosis.
hypothalamus
A subcortical structure that regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sexual behaviour.
hypothesis
A falsifiable prediction made by a theory.
hysteria
A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences.
iatrogenic illness
A disorder or symptom that occurs as a result of a medical or psychotherapeutic treatment itself.
iconic memory
A fast-decaying store of visual information.
id
The part of the mind containing the drives present at birth; it is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives.
identical twins (or monozygotic twins)
Twins who develop from the splitting of a single egg that was fertilized by a single sperm (see fraternal twins).
illusions
Errors of perception, memory, or judgment in which subjective experience differs from objective reality.
illusory conjunction
A perceptual mistake where features from multiple objects are incorrectly combined.
immune system
A complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances.
implicit learning
Learning that takes place largely independent of awareness of both the process and the products of information acquisition.
implicit memory
The influence of past experiences on later behaviour and performance, even without an effort to remember them or an awareness of the recollection.
inattentional blindness
A failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention.
independent variable
The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.
infancy
The stage of development that begins at birth and lasts between 18 and 24 months.
informational influence
A phenomenon that occurs when another person’s behaviour provides information about what is true.
informed consent
A written agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all the risks that participation may entail.
insomnia
Difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep.
instrument
Anything that can detect the condition to which an operational definition refers.
intelligence
The ability to direct one’s thinking, adapt to one’s circumstances, and learn from one’s experiences.
intermittent reinforcement
An operant conditioning principle in which only some of the responses made are followed by reinforcement.
intermittent reinforcement effect
The fact that operant behaviours that are maintained under intermittent reinforcement schedules resist extinction better than those maintained under continuous reinforcement.
internal validity
An attribute of an experiment that allows it to establish causal relationships.
internal working model of relationships
A set of beliefs about the self, the primary caregiver, and the relationship between them.
interneurons
Neurons that connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, or other inter-neurons.
interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)
A form of psychotherapy that focuses on helping clients improve current relationships.
intrinsic motivation
A motivation to take actions that are themselves rewarding.
introspection
The subjective observation of one’s own experience.
ironic processes of mental control
Mental processes that can produce ironic errors because monitoring for errors can itself produce them.
James–Lange theory
The theory that a stimulus triggers activity in the body, which in turn produces an emotional experience in the brain.
just noticeable difference (JND)
The minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected.
kin selection
The process by which evolution selects for individuals who cooperate with their relatives.
language
A system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning.
language acquisition device (LAD)
A collection of processes that facilitate language learning.
latency stage
The fourth psychosexual stage, in which the primary focus is on the further development of intellectual, creative, interpersonal, and athletic skills.
latent content
A dream’s true underlying meaning.
latent learning
Something is learned, but it is not manifested as a behavioural change until sometime in the future.
law of effect
Behaviours that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” tend to be repeated and those that produce an “unpleasant state of affairs” are less likely to be repeated.
learning
The acquisition of new knowledge, skills, or responses from experience that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.
limbic system
A group of forebrain structures including the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala, which are involved in motivation, emotion, learning, and memory.
linguistic relativity hypothesis
The proposal that language shapes the nature of thought.
locus of control
A person’s tendency to perceive the control of rewards as internal to the self or external in the environment.
long-term memory
A type of storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years.
long-term potentiation (LTP)
A process whereby communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier.
loudness
A sound’s intensity.
lymphocytes
White blood cells (including T cells and B cells) that produce antibodies that fight infection.
major depressive disorder (or unipolar depression)
A disorder characterized by a severely depressed mood and/or inability to experience pleasure that lasts 2 or more weeks and is accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy, and sleep and appetite disturbance.
manifest content
A dream’s apparent topic or superficial meaning.
manipulation
Changing a variable in order to determine its causal power.
marijuana (or cannabis)
The leaves and buds of the hemp plant, which contain a psychoactive drug called tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC).
matched pairs technique
A technique whereby each participant is identical to one other participant in terms of a third variable.
matched samples technique
A technique whereby the participants in two groups are identical in terms of a third variable.
mean
The average value of all the measurements.
means–ends analysis
A process of searching for the means or steps to reduce differences between the current situation and the desired goal.
median
The value that is in the middle, that is, greater than or equal to half the measurements and less than or equal to half the measurements.
medical model
Abnormal psychological experiences are conceptualized as illnesses that, like physical illnesses, have biological and environmental causes, defined symptoms, and possible cures.
meditation
The practice of intentional contemplation.
medulla
An extension of the spinal cord into the skull that coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration.
memory
The ability to store and retrieve information over time.
memory misattribution
Assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source.
mental control
The attempt to change conscious states of mind.
mental disorder
A persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behaviour, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment.
mere exposure effect
The tendency for liking to increase with the frequency of exposure.
metabolism
The rate at which energy is used by the body.
mind
The private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings.
mind–body problem
The issue of how the mind is related to the brain and the body.
mindfulness meditation
Teaches an individual to be fully present in each moment; to be aware of his or her thoughts, feelings, and sensations; and to detect symptoms before they become a problem.
minimal consciousness
A low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behaviour.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
A well-researched, clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems.
mirror neurons
Neurons that are active when an animal performs a behaviour, such as reaching for or manipulating an object, and are also activated when another animal observes that animal performing the same behaviour.
mode
The value of the most frequently observed measurement.
monocular depth cues
Aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye.
mood disorders
Mental disorders that have mood disturbance as their predominant feature.
morphemes
The smallest meaningful units of language.
morphological rules
A set of rules that indicate how morphemes can be combined to form words.
motivation
The purpose for or psychological cause of an action.
motor development
The emergence of the ability to execute physical action.
motor neurons
Neurons that carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscles to produce movement.
myelination
The formation of a fatty sheath around the axons of a neuron.
myelin sheath
An insulating layer of fatty material.
narcissism
A trait that reflects a grandiose view of the self combined with a tendency to seek admiration from and exploit others.
narcolepsy
A disorder in which sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities.
narcotics (or opiates)
Highly addictive drugs derived from opium that relieve pain.
nativism
The philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn.
nativist theory
The view that language development is best explained as an innate, biological capacity.
natural correlation
A correlation observed in the world around us.
naturalistic observation
A technique for gathering scientific information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments.
natural selection
Charles Darwin’s theory that the features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations.
need for achievement
The motivation to solve worthwhile problems.
negative symptoms
Deficits or disruptions to normal emotions and behaviours (e.g., emotional and social withdrawal; apathy; poverty of speech; and other indications of the absence or insufficiency of normal behaviour, motivation, and emotion).
nervous system
An interacting network of neurons that conveys electrochemical information throughout the body.
neurons
Cells in the nervous system that communicate with one another to perform information-processing tasks.
neurotransmitters
Chemicals that transmit information across the synapse to a receiving neuron’s dendrites.
night terrors (or sleep terrors)
Abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal.
nonshared environment
Those environmental factors that are not experienced by all relevant members of a household (see shared environment).
non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI)
Direct, deliberate destruction of body tissue in the absence of any intent to die.
norepinephrine
A neurotransmitter that is particularly involved in states of vigilance, or heightened awareness of dangers in the environment.
normal distribution
A mathematically defined distribution in which the frequency of measurements is highest in the middle and decreases symmetrically in both directions.
normative influence
A phenomenon that occurs when another person’s behaviour provides information about what is appropriate.
norm of reciprocity
The unwritten rule that people should benefit those who have benefitted them.
norms
Customary standards for behaviour that are widely shared by members of a culture.
obedience
The tendency to do what powerful people tell us to do.
object permanence
The belief that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible.
observational learning
A condition in which learning takes place by watching the actions of others.
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
A disorder in which repetitive, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and ritualistic behaviours (compulsions) designed to fend off those thoughts interfere significantly with an individual’s functioning.
occipital lobe
A region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information.
Oedipus conflict
A developmental experience in which a child’s conflicting feelings toward the opposite-sex parent are (usually) resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent.
olfactory bulb
A brain structure located above the nasal cavity beneath the frontal lobes.
olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs)
Receptor cells that initiate the sense of smell.
operant behaviour
Behaviour that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment.
operant conditioning
A type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s behaviour determine whether it will be repeated in the future.
operational definition
A description of a property in concrete, measurable terms.
oral stage
The first psychosexual stage, in which experience centres on the pleasures and frustrations associated with the mouth, sucking, and being fed.
organizational encoding
The process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series of items.
outcome expectancies
A person’s assumptions about the likely consequences of a future behaviour.
panic disorder
A disorder characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of stark terror.
parasympathetic nervous system
A set of nerves that helps the body return to a normal resting state.
parietal lobe
A region of the cerebral cortex whose functions include processing information about touch.
passionate love
An experience involving feelings of euphoria, intimacy, and intense sexual attraction.
perception
The organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation.
perceptual confirmation
The tendency for people to see what they expect to see.
perceptual constancy
A perceptual principle stating that even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains consistent.
peripheral nervous system (PNS)
The part of the nervous system that connects the central nervous system to the body’s organs and muscles.
persistence
The intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget.
personal constructs
Dimensions people use in making sense of their experiences.
personality
An individual’s characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling.
personality disorders
Enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, or relating to others or controlling impulses that deviate from cultural expectations and cause distress or impaired functioning.
person-centred therapy (or client-centred therapy)
Assumes that all individuals have a tendency toward growth and that this growth can be facilitated by acceptance and genuine reactions from the therapist.
person–situation controversy
The question of whether behaviour is caused more by personality or by situational factors.
persuasion
A phenomenon that occurs when a person’s attitudes or beliefs are influenced by a communication from another person.
phallic stage
The third psychosexual stage, in which experience is dominated by the pleasure, conflict, and frustration associated with the phallic-genital region as well as coping with powerful incestuous feelings of love, hate, jealousy, and conflict.
phenomenology
How things seem to the conscious person.
pheromones
Biochemical odorants emitted by other members of its species that can affect an animal’s behaviour or physiology.
philosophical empiricism
The view that all knowledge is acquired through experience.
phobic disorders
Disorders characterized by marked, persistent, and excessive fear and avoidance of specific objects, activities, or situations.
phoneme
The smallest unit of sound that is recognizable as speech rather than as random noise.
phonological rules
A set of rules that indicate how phonemes can be combined to produce speech sounds.
phototherapy
A therapy that involves repeated exposure to bright light.
phrenology
A now defunct theory that specific mental abilities and characteristics, ranging from memory to the capacity for happiness, are localized in specific regions of the brain.
physiology
The study of biological processes, especially in the human body.
pitch
How high or low or somewhere in between, a sound is.
pituitary gland
The “master gland” of the body’s hormone-producing system, which releases hormones that direct the functions of many other glands in the body.
placebo
An inert substance or procedure that has been applied with the expectation that a healing response will be produced.
place code
The process by which different frequencies stimulate neural signals at specific places along the basilar membrane.
pons
A brain structure that relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain.
population
A complete collection of participants who might possibly be measured.
positive symptoms
Thoughts and behaviours present in schizophrenia but not seen in those without the disorder, such as delusions and hallucinations.
postconventional stage
A stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is determined by a set of general principles that reflect core values.
posthypnotic amnesia
The failure to retrieve memories following hypnotic suggestions to forget.
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
A disorder characterized by chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of things that call the traumatic event to mind.
power
An instrument’s ability to detect small magnitudes of the property.
practical reasoning
Figuring out what to do, or reasoning directed toward action.
preconventional stage
A stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by its consequences for the actor.
prejudice
A positive or negative evaluation of another person based on his or her group membership.
pre-operational stage
The stage of cognitive development that begins at about 2 years and ends at about 6 years, during which children develop a preliminary understanding of the physical world.
preparedness theory
The idea that people are instinctively predisposed toward certain fears.
primary sex characteristics
Bodily structures that are directly involved in reproduction.
priming
An enhanced ability to think of a stimulus, such as a word or object, as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus.
proactive interference
Situations in which information learned earlier impairs memory for information acquired later.
problem of other minds
The fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others.
procedural memory
The gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice, or “knowing how” to do things.
projective tests
Tests designed to reveal inner aspects of individuals’ personalities by analysis of their responses to a standard series of ambiguous stimuli.
prospective memory
Remembering to do things in the future.
prospect theory
People choose to take on risk when evaluating potential losses and avoid risks when evaluating potential gains.
prototype
The “best” or “most typical” member of a category.
proximodistal rule
The “inside-to-outside” rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the centre to the periphery.
psychoactive drugs
Chemicals that influence consciousness or behaviour by altering the brain’s chemical message system.
psychoanalysis
A therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders.
psychoanalytic theory
An approach that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviour.
psychodynamic approach
An approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness—motives that also can produce emotional disorders.
psychodynamic psychotherapies
Therapies that explore childhood events and encourage individuals to use this understanding to develop insight into their psychological problems.
psychology
The scientific study of mind and behaviour.
psychopharmacology
The study of drug effects on psychological states and symptoms.
psychophysics
Methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observer’s sensitivity to that stimulus.
psychosexual stages
Distinct early life stages through which personality is formed as children experience sexual pleasures from specific body areas and caregivers redirect or interfere with those pleasures.
psychosomatic illness
An interaction between mind and body that can produce illness.
psychosurgery
Surgical destruction of specific brain areas.
psychotherapy
An interaction between a socially sanctioned clinician and someone suffering from a psychological problem, with the goal of providing support or relief from the problem.
puberty
The bodily changes associated with sexual maturity.
punisher
Any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it.
random assignment
A procedure that lets chance assign people to the experimental or control group.
random sampling
A technique for choosing participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample.
range
The value of the largest measurement in a frequency distribution minus the value of the smallest measurement.
ratio IQ
A statistic obtained by dividing a person’s mental age by the person’s physical age and then multiplying the quotient by 100 (see deviation IQ).
rational choice theory
The classical view that we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the value of the outcome, and then multiplying the two.
rational coping
Facing a stressor and working to overcome it.
reaction time
The amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus.
re-appraisal
Changing one’s emotional experience by changing the way one thinks about the emotion-eliciting stimulus.
reasoning
A mental activity that consists of organizing information or beliefs into a series of steps in order to reach conclusions.
rebound effect of thought suppression
The tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression.
receptors
Parts of the cell membrane that receive the neurotransmitter and initiate or prevent a new electric signal.
reciprocal altruism
Behaviour that benefits another with the expectation that those benefits will be returned in the future.
reconsolidation
Memories can become vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, requiring them to become consolidated again.
referred pain
Feeling of pain when sensory information from internal and external areas converges on the same nerve cells in the spinal cord.
reflexes
Specific patterns of motor response that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation.
refractory period
The time following an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated.
reframing
Finding a new or creative way to think about a stressor that reduces its threat.
rehearsal
The process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it.
reinforcement
The consequences of a behaviour determine whether it will be more or less likely to occur again.
reinforcer
Any stimulus or event that functions to increase the likelihood of the behaviour that led to it.
relaxation response
A condition of reduced muscle tension, cortical activity, heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure.
relaxation therapy
A technique for reducing tension by consciously relaxing muscles of the body.
reliability
The tendency for an instrument to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.
REM sleep
A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity.
representativeness heuristic
A mental shortcut that involves making a probability judgment by comparing an object or event to a prototype of the object or event.
repression
A mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious.
repressive coping
Avoiding situations or thoughts that are reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint.
Research Domain Criteria Project (RDoC)
A new initiative that aims to guide the classification and understanding of mental disorders by revealing the basic processes that give rise to them.
resistance
A reluctance to cooperate with treatment for fear of confronting unpleasant unconscious material.
response
An action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus.
resting potential
The difference in electric charge when the cell is at rest.
reticular formation
A brain structure that regulates sleep, wakefulness, and levels of arousal.
retina
Light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball.
retrieval
The process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored.
retrieval cue
External information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind.
retrieval-induced forgetting
A process by which retrieving an item from long-term memory impairs subsequent recall of related items.
retroactive interference
Situations in which information learned later impairs memory for information acquired earlier.
retrograde amnesia
The inability to retrieve information that was acquired before a particular date, usually the date of an injury or surgery.
rods
Photoreceptors that become active under low-light conditions for night vision.
Rorschach Inkblot Test
A projective technique in which respondents’ inner thoughts and feelings are believed to be revealed by analysis of their responses to a set of unstructured inkblots.
sample
A partial collection of people drawn from a population.
schemas
Theories about the way the world works.
schizophrenia
A disorder characterized by the profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; and disturbances in thought, motivation, and behaviour.
scientific method
A procedure for finding truth by using empirical evidence.
seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern.
secondary sex characteristics
Bodily structures that change dramatically with sexual maturity but that are not directly involved in reproduction.
second-order conditioning
Conditioning where a new, neutral CS is paired with a stimulus that became associated with the US in an earlier procedure.
self-actualizing tendency
The human motive toward realizing our inner potential.
self-concept
A person’s explicit knowledge of his or her own behaviours, traits, and other personal characteristics.
self-consciousness
A distinct level of consciousness in which the person’s attention is drawn to the self as an object.
self-esteem
The extent to which an individual likes, values, and accepts the self.
self-regulation
The exercise of voluntary control over the self to bring the self into line with preferred standards.
self-report
A method in which people provide subjective information about their own thoughts, feelings, or behaviours, typically via questionnaire or interview.
self-selection
A problem that occurs when anything about a person determines whether he or she will be included in the experimental or control group.
self-serving bias
People’s tendency to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures.
self-verification
The tendency to seek evidence to confirm the self-concept.
semantic encoding
The process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already in memory.
semantic memory
A network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world.
sensation
Simple stimulation of a sense organ.
sensitization
A simple form of learning that occurs when presentation of a stimulus leads to an increased response to a later stimulus.
sensorimotor stage
A stage of cognitive development that begins at birth and lasts through infancy in which infants acquire information about the world by sensing it and moving around within it.
sensory adaptation
Sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions.
sensory memory
A type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less.
sensory neurons
Neurons that receive information from the external world and convey this information to the brain.
serotonin
A neurotransmitter that is involved in the regulation of sleep and wakefulness, eating, and aggressive behaviour.
shaping
Learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behaviour.
shared environment
Those environmental factors that are experienced by all relevant members of a household (see nonshared environment).
short-term memory
A type of storage that holds nonsensory information for more than a few seconds but less than a minute.
sick role
A socially recognized set of rights and obligations linked with illness.
signal detection theory
The response to a stimulus depends both on a person’s sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise and on a person’s response criterion.
sleep apnea
A disorder in which the person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep.
sleep paralysis
The experience of waking up unable to move.
social cognition
The processes by which people come to understand others.
social-cognitive approach
An approach that views personality in terms of how the person thinks about the situations encountered in daily life and behaves in response to them.
social exchange
The hypothesis that people remain in relationships only as long as they perceive a favourable ratio of costs to benefits.
social influence
The ability to control another person’s behaviour
social loafing
The tendency for people to expend less effort when in a group than when alone.
social phobia
A disorder that involves an irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed.
social psychology
The study of the causes and consequences of sociality. (pp. 27, 508)
social support
The aid gained through interacting with others.
somatic nervous system
A set of nerves that conveys information between voluntary muscles and the central nervous system.
somatic symptom disorders
The set of psychological disorders in which a person with at least one bodily symptom displays significant health-related anxiety, expresses disproportionate concerns about their symptoms, and devotes excessive time and energy to their symptoms or health concerns.
somnambulism (or sleepwalking)
Occurs when a person arises and walks around while asleep.
source memory
Recall of when, where, and how information was acquired.
specific phobia
A disorder that involves an irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual’s ability to function.
spinal reflexes
Simple pathways in the nervous system that rapidly generate muscle contractions.
spontaneous recovery
The tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period.
standard deviation
A statistic that describes the average difference between the measurements in a frequency distribution and the mean of that distribution.
state-dependent retrieval
The tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval.
stereotype threat
The fear of confirming the negative beliefs that others may hold.
stereotyping
The process by which people draw inferences about others based on their knowledge of the categories to which others belong.
stimulants
Substances that excite the central nervous system, heightening arousal and activity levels.
stimulus
Sensory input from the environment.
storage
The process of maintaining information in memory over time.
Strange Situation
A behavioural test used to determine a child’s attachment style.
stress
The physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors.
stress inoculation training (SIT)
A reframing technique that helps people to cope with stressful situations by developing positive ways to think about the situation.
stressors
Specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten the person’s well-being.
structuralism
The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind.
subcortical structures
Areas of the forebrain housed under the cerebral cortex near the very centre of the brain.
subliminal perception
Thought or behaviour that is influenced by stimuli that a person cannot consciously report perceiving.
subtyping
The tendency for people who receive disconfirming evidence to modify their stereotypes rather than abandon them.
suggestibility
The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections.
suicide
Intentional self-inflicted death.
suicide attempt
When a person engages in potentially harmful behaviour with some intention of dying.
sunk-cost fallacy
A framing effect in which people make decisions about a current situation based on what they have previously invested in the situation.
superego
The mental system that reflects the internalization of cultural rules, mainly learned as parents exercise their authority.
surface structure
How a sentence is worded.
syllogistic reasoning
Determining whether a conclusion follows from two statements that are assumed to be true.
sympathetic nervous system
A set of nerves that prepares the body for action in challenging or threatening situations.
synapse
The junction or region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrites or cell body of another.
syntactical rules
A set of rules that indicate how words can be combined to form phrases and sentences.
systematic persuasion
The process by which attitudes or beliefs are changed by appeals to reason.
taste buds
The organ of taste transduction.
tectum
A part of the midbrain that orients an organism in the environment.
tegmentum
A part of the midbrain that is involved in movement and arousal.
telegraphic speech
Speech that is devoid of function morphemes and consists mostly of content words.
telomerase
An enzyme that rebuilds telomeres at the tips of chromosomes.
telomeres
Caps at the end of each chromosome that protect the ends of chromosomes and prevent them from sticking to each other.
temperaments
Characteristic patterns of emotional reactivity.
template
A mental representation that can be directly compared to a viewed shape in the retinal image.
temporal code
The cochlea registers relatively low frequencies (up to about 5000 Hz) via the firing rate of action potentials entering the auditory nerve.
temporal lobe
A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.
teratogens
Agents that impair prenatal development, such as drugs and viruses.
terminal buttons
Knoblike structures that branch out from an axon.
terror management theory
A theory about how people respond to knowledge of their own mortality.
thalamus
A subcortical structure that relays and filters information from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
A projective technique in which respondents’ underlying motives, concerns, and the way they see the social world are believed to be revealed through analysis of the stories they make up about ambiguous pictures of people.
theoretical reasoning (or discursive reasoning)
Reasoning directed toward arriving at a belief.
theory
A hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon.
theory of mind
The understanding that human behaviour is guided by mental representations.
third-variable correlation
Two variables are correlated only because each is causally related to a third variable.
third-variable problem
The fact that a causal relationship between two variables cannot be inferred from the naturally occurring correlation between them because of the ever-present possibility of third-variable correlation.
thought suppression
The conscious avoidance of a thought.
timbre
A listener’s experience of sound quality or resonance.
token economy
A form of behaviour therapy in which clients are given “tokens” for desired behaviours, which they can later trade for rewards.
trait
A relatively stable disposition to behave in a particular and consistent way.
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
A treatment that involves placing a powerful pulsed magnet over a person’s scalp, which alters neuronal activity in the brain.
transduction
What takes place when sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the central nervous system.
transfer-appropriate processing
The idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match.
transference
An event that occurs in psychoanalysis when the analyst begins to assume a major significance in the client’s life and the client reacts to the analyst based on unconscious childhood fantasies.
transience
Forgetting what occurs with the passage of time.
two-factor theory
The theory that emotions are based on inferences about the causes of physiological arousal.
two-factor theory of intelligence
A theory that suggests that every task requires a combination of a general ability (g) and skills that are specific to the task (s).
Type A behaviour pattern
The tendency toward easily aroused hostility, impatience, a sense of time urgency, and competitive achievement strivings.
unconditioned response (UR)
A reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus.
unconditioned stimulus (US)
Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism.
unconscious
The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions.
unconscious motivations
Motivations of which people are not aware.
universality hypothesis
Emotional expressions have the same meaning for everyone.
validity
The goodness with which a concrete event defines a property.
variable
A property whose value can vary across individuals or over time.
variable-interval schedule (VI)
An operant conditioning principle in which behaviour is reinforced based on an average time that has expired since the last reinforcement.
variable-ratio schedule (VR)
An operant conditioning principle in which the delivery of reinforcement is based on a particular average number of responses.
vestibular system
The three fluid-filled semicircular canals and adjacent organs located next to the cochlea in each inner ear.
visual acuity
The ability to see fine detail.
visual form agnosia
The inability to recognize objects by sight.
visual imagery encoding
The process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures.
Weber’s law
The just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity.
working memory
Active maintenance of information in short-term storage.
zygote
A fertilized egg that contains chromosomes from both an egg and a sperm.