abnormal psychology - ANSWER The scientific study of mental disorders and their treatment.
absolute threshold - ANSWER The minimum amount of energy in a sensory stimulus detected 50 percent of the time.
accommodati
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abnormal psychology - ANSWER The scientific study of mental disorders and their treatment.
absolute threshold - ANSWER The minimum amount of energy in a sensory stimulus detected 50 percent of the time.
accommodation - ANSWER 1. In Piagetian theory, Piaget's term for the modification of present schemas to fit with new experiences.
2. In vision, the focusing of light waves from objects of different distances directly on the retina.
acetylcholine (ACh) - ANSWER A neurotransmitter involved in learning, memory, and muscle movement.
acquisition - ANSWER (in classical conditioning) Acquiring a new response (the conditioned response) to the conditioned stimulus.
acquisition - ANSWER (in operant conditioning) The strengthening of a reinforced operant response.
actor-observer bias - ANSWER The tendency to overestimate situational influences on our own behavior, but to overestimate dispositional influences on the behavior of others.
additive mixtures - ANSWER Direct mixtures of different wavelengths of light in which all of wavelengths reach the retina and are added together.
agonist - ANSWER A drug or poison that increases the activity of one or more neurotransmitters.
agoraphobia - ANSWER An anxiety disorder indicated by a marked and persistent fear of being in places or situations from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing.
algorithm - ANSWER A step-by-step problem-solving procedure that guarantees a correct answer to a problem.
amnesic - ANSWER A person with severe memory deficits following brain surgery or injury.
amplitude - ANSWER The amount of energy in a wave, its intensity, which is the height of the wave at its crest.
amygdala - ANSWER A part of the brain that is involved in emotions by influencing aggression, anger, and fear and by providing the emotional element of our memories and the interpretation of emotional expressions in others.
anchoring and adjustment heuristic - ANSWER A heuristic for estimation problems in which one uses his or her initial estimate as an anchor estimate and then adjusts the anchor up or down (often insufficiently).
antagonist - ANSWER A drug or poison that decreases the activity of one or more neurotransmitters.
anterograde amnesia - ANSWER The inability to form new explicit long-term memories for events following surgery or trauma to the brain. Explicit memories formed before the surgery or trauma are left intact.
antianxiety drugs - ANSWER Drugs used to treat anxiety problems and disorders.
antidepressant drugs - ANSWER Drugs used to treat depressive disorders.
antipsychotic drugs - ANSWER Drugs used to treat psychotic disorders.
anxiety disorders - ANSWER Disorders in which excessive anxiety leads to personal distress and atypical maladaptive, and irrational behavior.
appetitive stimulus - ANSWER A stimulus that is pleasant.
arousal theory - ANSWER A theory of motivation which proposes that our behavior is motivated to maintain an optimal level of physiological arousal.
assimilation - ANSWER Piaget's term for the interpretation of new experiences in terms of present schemas.
association cortex - ANSWER All of the cerebral cortex except those areas devoted to primary sensory processing or motor processing. This is where all the higher-level cognitive processing that requires the association (integration) of information, such as perception and language, occurs.
attachment - ANSWER The lifelong emotional bond between infants and their mothers or other caregivers, formed during the first 6 months of life.
attitudes - ANSWER Evaluative reactions (positive or negative) toward objects, events, and other people.
attribution - ANSWER The process by which we explain our own behavior and that of others.
authoritarian parenting - ANSWER A style of parenting in which the parents are demanding, expect unquestioned obedience, are not responsive to their children's desires, and communicate well with their children.
automatic processing - ANSWER Memory processing that occurs subconsciously and does not require attention.
autonomic nervous sytem - ANSWER The part of the PNS that regulates the functioning of our internal environment (glands and organ like the heart, lungs, and stomach).
availability heuristic - ANSWER A heuristic for judging the probability of an event by how available examples of the event are in memory (the more available, the more probable).
aversive stimulus - ANSWER A stimulus that is unpleasant.
axon - ANSWER The long, singular fiber projecting out of the cell body of a neuron whose function is to conduct the neural impulse from the cell body to the axon terminals triggering chemical communication with other neurons.
babbling - ANSWER The rhythmic repetition of various syllables including both consonants and vowels.
baby talk (motherese) - ANSWER The different format of speech that adults use when talking with babies that involves the use of shorter sentences with a higher, more melodious pitch.
basal ganglia - ANSWER A part of the brain that is involved in the initiation and execution of movements.
Beck's cognitive therapy - ANSWER A type of cognitive therapy developed by Aaron Beck in which the therapist works to develop a warm relationship with the person and has a person carefully consider the evidence for his or her beliefs in order to see the errors in his or her thinking.
behavior modification - ANSWER The application of classical and operant conditioning principles to eliminate undesirable behavior and to teach more desirable behavior.
behavioral perspective - ANSWER A research perspective whose major explanatory focus is how external environmental events condition observable behavior.
behavioral therapy - ANSWER A style of psychotherapy in which the therapist uses the principles of classical and operant conditioning to change the person's behavior from maladaptive to adaptive.
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