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572 Cards in this Set
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The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
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Social Psychology
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An approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy.
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Eclectic Approach
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The theory that we explain someone's behaviour by crediting either the situation or the person's disposition.
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Attribution Theory
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The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
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Hindsight Bias
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The tendency for observers, when analysing another's behaviour, to underestimate the impact of the situation and to overestimate the impact of personal disposition
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Fundamental Attribution Error
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Treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions b/w a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.
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Psychotherapy
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Feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events.
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Attitude
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The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behaviour.
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Behaviour Genetics
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Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favourable thoughts
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Central Route to Persuasion
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In psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material
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Resistance
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Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness
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Peripheral Route to Persuasion
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The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
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Sensation
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The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
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Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
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In psychoanalysis, the analyst's noting supposed dream meanings, resistances, and other significant behaviours and events in order to promote insight
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Interpretation
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A set of explanations (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
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Role
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The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information
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Memory
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The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort (dissonance) we feel when two of our thoughts (cognitions) are inconsistent.
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Cognitive Dissonance Theory
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The patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent)
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Transference
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Adjusting one's or thinking to coincide with a group standard
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Conformity
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Our awareness of ourselves and out environment
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Consciousness
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Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval
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Normative Social Influence
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Therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance self-insight.
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Psychodynamic Therapy
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Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality
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Informational Social Influence
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An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
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Personality
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Stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others
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Social Facilitation
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A variety of therapies which aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing the client's awareness of underlying motives and defences.
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Insight Therapies
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The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable
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Social Loafing
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An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind
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Structuralism
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The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity
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De-individuation
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A humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within a genuine, accepting, empathic environment to facilitate client's growth (a.k.a. person-centred therapy)
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Client-Centred Therapy
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The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group
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Group Polarisation
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A response of the whole organism involving (1) psychological arousal, (2) expressive behaviours, and (3) conscious experience
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Emotion
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The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives
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Groupthink
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Empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers' client-centred therapy
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Active Listening
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An unjustifiable (and usually negative) attitude toward a group and its members; generally involves stereotyped beliefs, negative feelings, and a predisposition to discriminatory action.
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Prejudice
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A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
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Higher-Order Conditioning
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A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralised) belief about a group of people.
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Stereotype
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A caring, accepting, non-judgemental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed to be conductive to developing self-awareness and self-acceptance.
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Unconditional Positive Regard
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Unjustifiable negative behaviour toward a group and its members
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Discrimination
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A need or desire that energises and directs behaviour
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Motivation
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"Us"- people with whom we share a common identity
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Ingroup
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Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviours
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Behaviour Therapy
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"Them"- those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup
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Outgroup
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A method for assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them with those of others, using numerical scores.
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Intelligence Test
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The tendency to favour our own group
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Ingroup Bias
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A behaviour therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviours; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning
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Counterconditioning
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The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
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Scapegoat Theory
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A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
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Developmental Psychology
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The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races. a.k.a cross-race effect and own-race bias
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Other-Race Effect
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Behavioural techniques, such as systematic desensitization, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imagination or actuality) to the things they fear and avoid.
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Exposure Therapies
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The tendency for people to believe the world is just and that people therefore get what they deserve and deserve what they get
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Just-World Phenomenon
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A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behaviour.
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Biological Psychology
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Any physical or verbal behaviour intended to hurt or destroy
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Aggression
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A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias
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Systematic Desensitisation
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The principle that frustration - the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal - creates anger, which can generate aggression
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Frustration-Aggression Principle
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Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions
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Critical Thinking
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The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of them
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Mere Exposure Effect
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An anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to stimulations of their greatest fears, such as aeroplane flying, spiders, or public speaking.
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Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy
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An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a love relationship
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Passionate Love
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The theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
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James-Lange theory
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The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined
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Companionate Love
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A type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behaviour (such as drinking alcohol)
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Aversive Conditioning
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A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it.
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Equity
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The processing of info into the memory system
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Encoding
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Revealing intimate aspects of oneself to others
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Self-Disclosure
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An operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token of some sort for exhibiting a desired behaviour and can later exchange the tokens for various privileges or treats
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Token Economy
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Unselfish regard for the welfare of others
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Altruism
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The process of organising and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognise meaningful objects and events.
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Perception
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The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present
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Bystander Effect
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Therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene b/w events and our emotional reactions
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Cognitive Therapy
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The theory that our social behaviour is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maximise benefits and minimize costs
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Social Exchange Theory
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The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosome
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Genes
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An expectation that people will help, not hurt, those who have helped them
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Reciprocity Norm
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A popular integrated therapy that combines cognitive therapy (changing self-defeating thinking) with behaviour therapy (changing behaviour)
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Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy
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An expectation that people will help those dependent upon them
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Social-Responsibility Norm
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Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
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Intelligence
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A perceived incompatibility of actions, goals, or ideas
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Conflict
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Therapy that treats the family as a system; views and individual's unwanted behaviours as influenced by, or directed at, other family members
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Family Therapy
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A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each rationally pursuing their self-interest, become caught in mutually destructive behaviour
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Social Trap
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focuses on genetically predisposed behaviours;
replaced by______ |
Instinct Theory; Evolutionary Perspective
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Mutual views often held by conflicting people as when each side sees itself as ethical and peaceful and views the other side as evil and aggressive
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Mirror-Image Perceptions
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The tendency for extremes of unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average
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Regression Toward the Mean
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Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation
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Superordinate Goals
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Behaviour that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
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Respondent Behaviour
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Graduated and Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension-Reduction - a strategy designed to decrease international tensions
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GRIT
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A procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies
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Meta-Analysis
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Agents that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
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Teratogens
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Clinical decision-making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences
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Evidence-Based Practice
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A school of psychology that focused on how out mental and behavioural processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish
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Functionalism
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Prescribed medications or medical procedure that act directly on the patient's nervous system
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Biomedical Therapy
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A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system
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Neuron
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The study of the effects of drugs on mind and behaviour
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Psychopharmacology
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A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing
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Free Association
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Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder
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Antipsychotic Drugs
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A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people
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Concept
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Involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of anti-psychotic drugs that target certain dopamine receptors
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Tardive Dyskinesia
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Thorndike's principle that behaviours followed by favourable consequences become more likely, and the behaviours followed by unfavourable consequences become less likely.
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Law of Effect
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Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation
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Anti-anxiety Drugs
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The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behaviour without reference to mental processes
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Behaviourism
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Drugs used to treat depression; also increasingly prescribed for anxiety. Different types work by altering the availability of various neurotransmitters
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Antidepressant Drugs
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The theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion
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Cannon-Bard theory
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A biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anaesthetized patient
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Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
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The retention of encoded info over time
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Storage
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The application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity
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Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)
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The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
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Dual Processing
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Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behaviour
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Psychosurgery
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The complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosome
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Genome
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A now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centres of the inner brain
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Lobotomy
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Neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord
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Sensory Neurons
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Freud's theory of personality that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; technique used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions
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Psychoanalysis
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Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation
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Habituation
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Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information
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Bottom-Up Processing
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An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organises observations and predicts behaviours or events
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Theory
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A mental image or best example of a category
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Prototype
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A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and other, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test
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General Intelligence (g)
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Twins who develop from a single fertilized egg
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Identical Twins
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The Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must (1) to be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal
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Two-Factor Theory
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The process of getting info out of memory storage
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Retrieval
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The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
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Selective Attention
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Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.
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Motor Neurons
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Info processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perception drawing on our experience and expectation
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Top-Down Processing
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Historically significant perspective that growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth
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Humanistic Psychology
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focuses on finding the right level of stimulation
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Arousal theory
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An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need
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Primary Reinforcer
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According to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. According to contemporary psychologists, information processing of which we are unaware
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Unconscious
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A testable prediction, often implied theory
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Hypnosis
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A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test, used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score
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Factor Analysis
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A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
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Algorithm
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A concept of framework that organises and interprets information
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Schema
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Twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs
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Fraternal Twins
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The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them
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Psychophysics
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The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)
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Cognitive Neuroscience
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The immediate, very brief recording of sensory info in the memory system
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Sensory Memory
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Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.
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Interneurons
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Interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas
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Assimilation
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Instinct theory failed because it____?
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"instincts" were readily named but not explained.
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Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
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Inattentional Blindness
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Contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives; operates on the "pleasure principle," demanding immediate gratification
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id
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A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer
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Conditioned Reinforcer (Secondary Reinforcer)
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A statement of the procedures used to define research variables
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Operational Definition
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A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently
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Heuristic
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A machine that measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion (such as perspiration and cardiovascular and breathing changes)
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Polygraph
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A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill
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Savant Syndrome
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The science of behaviour and mental processes
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Psychology
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The mimimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time
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Absolute Threshold
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The largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, acc. to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality; operates on the "reality principle," satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain
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Ego
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The interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor depends on another factor
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Interaction
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The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body.
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Dendrite
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The ability to produce novel and valuable ideas
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Creativity
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Repeating the essence of a research study to whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances
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Replication
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Failing to notice changes in the environment
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Change Blindness
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Emotional release
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Catharsis
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Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information
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Accommodation
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Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten
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Short-Term Memory
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A sudden and often novel realisation of the solution to a problem
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Insight
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A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
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Fixed-Ratio Schedule
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a complex behaviour that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned
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Instinct
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The sub-field of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes
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Molecular Genetics
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The stage (birth - app. 2 years) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities
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Sensorimotor Stage
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The relatively persistent and limitless storehouse of the memory system, includes knowledge, skills, and experiences
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Long-Term Memory
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The part of personality that, acc. to Freud, represents internalised ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations
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Superego
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The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviours
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Nature-Nurture issue
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The idea that a physiological need creates an arousal tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
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Drive-Reduction Theory
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The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibres, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands
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Axon
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The biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle
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Circadian Rhythm
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The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions.
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Emotional Intelligence
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maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges
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Catharsis Hypothesis
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An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
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Case Study
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A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectation, motivation, and level of fatigue.
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Signal Detection Theory
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A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore distort contradictory evidence
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Confirmation Bias
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A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
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Variable-Ratio Schedule
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The study of the evolution of behaviour and the mind using principles of natural selection
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Evolutionary Psychology
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The inability to see a problem from a new perspective, by employing a different mental set
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Fixation
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The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analysing any given phenomenon
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Levels of Analysis
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The childhood stages of development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital) during which, acc. to Freud, the id's pleasure-seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zone
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Psychosexual Stage
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The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
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Object Permanence
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People's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood
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Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon
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Below one's absolute threshold for concious awareness
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Subliminal
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A tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose
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Homeostasis
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A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviours of a particular group
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Survey
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A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed.
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Fixed-Interval Schedule
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A recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur; paradoxical sleep because the muscles are relaxed but other body systems are active
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REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep
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A new understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information retrieved from long-term memory
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Working Memory
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A measure of intelligence test performance devised by Binet; the chronological age that most typically corresponds to a given level of performance.
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Mental Age
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A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibres of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.
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Myelin Sheath
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Unconscious encoding of incidental information (i.e. space, time, and frequency and of well learned information such as word meanings)
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Automatic Processing
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The widely used American revision of Binet's original intelligence test
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Stanford-Binet
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The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state
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Alpha Waves
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the activation, often unconciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
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Priming
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Stage during which a child learns to used language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
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Preoperational Stage
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Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life
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Subjective Well-Being
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An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis
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Biopsychosocial Approach
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All the cases in a group being studied from which samples may be drawn
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Population
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acc. to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father
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Oedipus Complex
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A tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
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Mental Set
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A set of expectation about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave
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Role
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A reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
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Variable-Interval Schedule
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A positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behaviour
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Incentive
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A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon
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Action Potential
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The theory that we learn social behaviour by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished
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Social Learning Theory
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The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual function
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Functional Fixedness
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The process by which, acc. to Freud, children incorporate their parents' values into their developing superegos
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Identification
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The preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view
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Egocentrism
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the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time; experienced as the "just noticeable difference"
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Difference Threshold
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The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.
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Threshold
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Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
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Basic Research
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Periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness
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Sleep
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Our tendency to form judgements relative to a neutral defined by out prior experience
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Adaptation-Level Phenomenon
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Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the vase with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active
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Hierarchy of Needs
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Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
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Effortful Processing
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Defined originally as the ration of mental age (ma) to chron. age (ca) times 100 (thus IQ=ma/ca x 100).
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Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
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A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
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Random Sample
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A relatively permanent change in an organism's behaviour due to experience
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Learning
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The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage
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Weber's Law
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The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself
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Relative Deprivation
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The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.
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Synapse
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The form of sugar that circulates in the blood and provides the major source of energy for body tissues
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Glucose
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The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage
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Rehearsal
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Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
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Applied Research
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People's ideas about their own and others' mental states
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Theory of Mind
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Observing and recording behaviour in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation
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Naturalistic Observation
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Learning that certain events occur together
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Associative Learning
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Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent or match particular prototypes
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Representativeness Heuristic
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False sensory experiences
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Hallucinations
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Every nongenetic influence from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us
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Environment
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acc. to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
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Fixation
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A test designed to assess what a person has learned
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Achievement Test
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Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes
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Chromosomes
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The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through masses study or practice
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Spacing effect
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The stage of cognitive development during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
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Concrete Operational Stage
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The point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set
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Set Point
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The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
|
Delta Waves
|
|
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
|
Defence Mechanisms
|
|
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory
|
Availability Heuristic
|
|
diminished sensativity as a consequence of contant stimulation
|
Sensory Adaptation
|
|
designed to predict a person's future performance (... capacity to learn)
|
Aptitude Test
|
|
Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons.
|
Neurotransmitters
|
|
An interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioural and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease
|
Behavioural Medicine
|
|
A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
|
Classical Conditioning
|
|
A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together and thus oh how well either factor predicts the other
|
Correlation
|
|
A branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living and in achieving greater well-being
|
Counselling Psychology
|
|
The tendency to be more confident than correct - to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgements
|
Overconfidence
|
|
The stage of cognitive development during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
|
Formal Operational Stage
|
|
the most widely used intelligence test; contains verbal and performance (nonverbal) subtests
|
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
|
|
The body's resting rate of energy expenditure
|
Basal Metabolic Rate
|
|
Recurring problems in failing or staying asleep
|
Insomnia
|
|
our tendency to recall vest the last and first items in a list
|
Serial Position Effect
|
|
Conversion of one form of energy into another
|
Transduction
|
|
Complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes
|
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
|
|
A sub-field of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioural medicine
|
Health Psychology
|
|
A statistical index of the relationship between two things
|
Correlation Coefficient
|
|
A neurotransmitter's re-absorption by the sending neuron.
|
Reuptake
|
|
A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders
|
Clinical Psychology
|
|
The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging
|
Stress
|
|
The encoding of picture images
|
Visual Encoding
|
|
The distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next
|
Wavelength
|
|
Psychoanalytic defence mechanism in which an individual faced with anxiety retreats to a more infantile psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated
|
Regression
|
|
Our accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
|
Crystallized Intelligence
|
|
In classical conditioning, the unlearning naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US)
|
Unconditioned Response (UR)
|
|
Defining meaningful scores by comparison with the performance of a pretested group
|
Standardization
|
|
Clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
|
Belief Perseverance
|
|
An eating disorder in which a person diets and becomes significantly underweight yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve
|
Anorexia Nervosa
|
|
A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviours to occur simultaneously with others
|
Dissociation
|
|
A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
|
Temperament
|
|
A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables
|
Scatterplots
|
|
A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatment as well as psychology therapy
|
Psychiatry
|
|
"morphine within;" natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure
|
Endorphins
|
|
The symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psych. attributes.
|
Normal Curve
|
|
The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes; may vary depending on the the range of populations and environments studied
|
Heritability
|
|
The perception of a relationship where none exists
|
Illusory Correlation
|
|
The encoding of sound
|
Acoustic Encoding
|
|
the dimension of colour that is determined by the wavelength of light
|
Hue
|
|
The body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems
|
Nervous System
|
|
Selye's concept of the body' adaptive response to stress in three states - alarm, resistance, exhaustion
|
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
|
|
Psychoanalytic defence mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites; thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings
|
Reaction Formation
|
|
Our ability to reason speedily and abstractly; tends to decrease during late adulthood
|
Fluid Intelligence
|
|
In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally - naturally and automatically - triggers a response
|
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
|
|
Drugs that depress the activity of the CNS; reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement
|
Barbiturates
|
|
An effortless, immediate automatic feeling or thought
|
Intuition
|
|
An eating disorder characterised by episodes of overeating usually of high-calorie foods followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise
|
Bulimia Nervosa
|
|
A study method incorporating five steps
|
Survey, Question, Read, Rehearse, Review (SQ3R)
|
|
The way an issue is posed
|
Framing
|
|
The principle that among the range of inherited trait variations, those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations
|
Natural Selection
|
|
The major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations
|
THC
|
|
The fertilised egg; enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
|
Zygote
|
|
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of a test, or on retesting
|
Reliability
|
|
The encoding of meaning
|
Semantic Encoding
|
|
The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries
|
Coronary Heart Disease
|
|
The brain and spinal cord
|
Central Nervous System (CNS)
|
|
the amount of energy in a light or sounds wave, which we percieve as brightness or oloudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude
|
Intensity
|
|
Research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behaviours or mental process (the dependent variable)
|
Experiment
|
|
Psychoanalytic defence mechanism by which people disguise their own threatening impulses by attributing them to others
|
Projection
|
|
In classical conditioning, the learning response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus
|
Conditioned Response (CR)
|
|
Episodes of significant overeating, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fasting, or excessive exercise that marks bulimia nervosa
|
Binge-Eating Disorder
|
|
The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body
|
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
|
|
The four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution
|
Sexual Response Cycle
|
|
The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
|
Validity
|
|
The developing human organism from about 12 weeks after fertilisation through the second month
|
Embryo
|
|
the adjustable opening in the centre of the eye through which light enters
|
Pupil
|
|
Sleep disorder characterised by uncontrollable sleep attacks; sufferers may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times
|
Narcolepsy
|
|
Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning
|
Language
|
|
Mental pictures
|
Imagery
|
|
In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to trigger a conditioned response
|
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
|
|
Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people
|
Type A
|
|
Defence mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions
|
Rationalization
|
|
Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance
|
Random Assignment
|
|
A random error in gene replications that lead to a change
|
Mutation
|
|
The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
|
Fetus
|
|
Sleep disorder characterised by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings
|
Sleep Apnea
|
|
Psychoanalytic defence mechanism that shifts sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person, as when redirecting anger toward a safer outlet
|
Displacement
|
|
Memory aids, esp. those techniques that used vivid imagery and organizational devices
|
Mnemonics
|
|
In psychology, the biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male and female
|
Gender
|
|
In language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
|
Phoneme
|
|
In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response
|
Acquisition
|
|
Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people
|
Type B
|
|
extent to which a test samples the behaviour that is of interest
|
Content Validity
|
|
Bundled axons that form neural "cables" connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs.
|
Nerves
|
|
An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo
|
Double-Blind Procedure
|
|
a ring of muscle tissue that forms the coloured portion of the eye around the pupil and controld the size of the pupil opening
|
Iris
|
|
A resting period after orgasm during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm
|
Refractory Period
|
|
the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina
|
Lens
|
|
The success with which a test predicts the behaviour it is designed to predict assessed by computing the correlation b/w test scores and and criterion behaviour
|
Predictive Validity
|
|
The enduring behaviours, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
|
Culture
|
|
The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles; a.k.a the skeletal nervous system
|
Somatic Nervous System
|
|
The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus does not follow a conditioned stimulus; occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced
|
Extinction
|
|
Sleep disorder characterised by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during Stage 4 sleep, within two or three hours of falling asleep and are seldom remembered
|
Night Terrors
|
|
Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking
|
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
|
|
Organising items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically
|
Chunking
|
|
Literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness
|
Psychophysiological Illness
|
|
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with an understand others
|
Morpheme
|
|
Experimental results cause by expectations alone
|
Placebo Effect
|
|
Defence mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities
|
Denial
|
|
A problem that consistently impairs sexual arousal or functioning
|
Sexual Disorder
|
|
The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health
|
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
|
|
The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
|
Spontaneous Recovery
|
|
The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs; its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms
|
Autonomic Nervous System
|
|
the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information
|
Retina
|
|
Sex hormones secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characteristics
|
Estrogens
|
|
In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment (i.e. the independent variable)
|
Experimental Group
|
|
In a language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and understand others
|
Grammar
|
|
Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from out species' history
|
Collective Unconscious
|
|
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behaviour, relatively uninfluenced for experience
|
Maturation
|
|
An understood rule for accepted and expected behaviour; prescribe "proper" behaviour
|
Norm
|
|
A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind. Dreams are a notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamer's delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it
|
Dream
|
|
A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; "photographic"
|
Iconic Memory
|
|
A condition of limited mental ability indicated by an i.s of 70 - and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life
|
Mental Retardatiion
|
|
The two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: B-type form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T-type form in the thymus and similar tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances
|
Lymphocytes
|
|
The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
|
Generalization
|
|
The set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language
|
Semantics
|
|
The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina
|
Accommodation
|
|
The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations
|
Sympathetic Nervous System
|
|
The buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies
|
Personal Space
|
|
In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment
|
Control Group
|
|
An enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homo-) or the opposite sex (hetero-)
|
Sexual Orientation
|
|
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
|
Cognition
|
|
According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream
|
Manifest Content
|
|
A personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics
|
Projective Test
|
|
A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli
|
Echoic Memory
|
|
A condition of retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra copy of a chrm 21
|
Down syndrome
|
|
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences in a given language
|
Syntax
|
|
The principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects; believed by Piaget to be part of concrete operational thinking
|
Conservation
|
|
The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied
|
Independent Variable
|
|
The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy
|
Parasympathetic Nervous System
|
|
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond
|
Rods
|
|
In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal unconditioned stimulus
|
Discrimination
|
|
Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
|
Individualism
|
|
An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
|
Long-Term Potentiation
|
|
Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioural methods
|
Coping
|
|
According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream
|
Latent Content
|
|
A self-confirming concern that one will be evaluated on a negative stereotype
|
Stereotype Threat
|
|
A projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
|
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
|
|
A completely involved, focused state of conciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal engagement of one's skills
|
Flow
|
|
The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)
|
REM Rebound
|
|
The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable
|
Dependent Variable
|
|
The most widely used projective test, a set of 100 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analysing their interpretations of the blots
|
Rorschach Inkblot test
|
|
The application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behaviour in workplaces
|
Industrial-Organizational (I/O) psychology
|
|
retinal receptors cells that are concentrated near the centre of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions; detect find detail and give rise to colour sensation
|
Cones
|
|
Giving priority to goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly
|
Collectivism
|
|
Beginning at about 4 months, the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utters various sounds at first unrelated to the household language
|
Babbling Stage
|
|
Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction
|
Emotion-Focused Coping
|
|
A type of learning in which behaviour is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher
|
Operant Conditioning
|
|
A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response
|
Reflex
|
|
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind
|
Autism
|
|
A clear memory of and emotionally significant moment or event
|
Flashbulb Memory
|
|
The stage in speech development, from about age 1 to 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words
|
One-Word Stage
|
|
the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
|
Optic Nerve
|
|
The most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution
|
Mode
|
|
The loss of memory
|
Amnesia
|
|
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age
|
Stranger Anxiety
|
|
The body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
|
Endocrine System
|
|
Social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviours will spontaneously occur
|
Hypnosis
|
|
Physical or verbal chromosome intended to hurt someone
|
Aggression
|
|
Behaviour that operates on the environment, producing consequences
|
Operant Behaviour
|
|
Attempting to alleviate stress directly - by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor
|
Problem-Focused Coping
|
|
According to Maslow, one of the ultimate psychological needs that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfil one's potential
|
Self-Actualisation
|
|
A sub-field of I/O psychology that focuses on employee recruitment, selection, placement, training, appraisal, and development
|
Personnel Psychology
|
|
The sex chromosome found in both men and women; females have two; males have one
|
X Chromosome
|
|
the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye; no receptor cells are located there
|
Blind Spot
|
|
The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores
|
Mean
|
|
Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety
|
Aerobic Exercise
|
|
Retention independent of conscious recollection
|
Implicit (non-declarative) Memory
|
|
In operant conditioning research, a chamber (a.k.a. Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking.
|
Operant Chamber
|
|
Chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream and affects other tissues
|
Hormones
|
|
Beginning about age 2, the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements
|
Two-Word Stage
|
|
An emotional tie with another person; shown in your children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
|
Attachment
|
|
According to Rogers, an attitude of total acceptance toward another person
|
Unconditional Positive Regard
|
|
A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotised
|
Posthypnotic Suggestion
|
|
A sub-field of I/O psychology that examines organizational influences on worker satisfaction and productivity and facilitates organizational change
|
Organizational Psychology
|
|
The sex chromosome found only in males
|
Y Chromosome
|
|
The middle score in a distribution
|
Median
|
|
the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster
|
Fovea
|
|
Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"
|
Explicit (declarative) Memory
|
|
Interview process that asks the same job-relevant questions of all applicants, each of whom is rated on established scales
|
Structured Interviews
|
|
Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - "go car" - using mostly nouns and verbs
|
Telagraphic Speech
|
|
An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development
|
Critical Period
|
|
An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behaviour toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behaviour
|
Shaping
|
|
A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension
|
Biofeedback
|
|
A pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress
|
Adrenal Glands
|
|
A chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood
|
Psychoactive drug
|
|
The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life
|
Imprinting
|
|
The most important of the male sex hormones
|
Testosterone
|
|
The endocrine system's most influential gland
|
Pituitary Gland
|
|
The diminishing effect with regular used of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect
|
Tolerance
|
|
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution
|
Range
|
|
nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimuluos such as shape, angle, or movement
|
Feature Detectors
|
|
In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behaviour it follows
|
Reinforcer
|
|
Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding)
|
Aphasia
|
|
As yet unproven health care treatments intended to supplement or serve as alternatives to conventional medicine, and which typically are not widely taught in medical schools, used in hospitals, or reimburse by insurance companies
|
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
|
|
A neural centre that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage
|
Hippocampus
|
|
A desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard
|
Achievement Motivation
|
|
A characteristic pattern of behaviour or a disposition to feel and act
|
Trait
|
|
Tissue destruction
|
Lesion
|
|
The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously
|
Parallel Processing
|
|
The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug
|
Withdrawal
|
|
Increasing behaviours by presenting positive stimuli such as food
|
Positive Reinforcement
|
|
Goal-oriented leadership that sets standards, organises work, and focuses attention on goals
|
Task Leadership
|
|
Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech
|
Broca's Area
|
|
According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers
|
Basic Trust
|
|
A questionnaire (often with true-false or agree-disagree items) on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviours; used to assess selected personality traits
|
Personality Inventory
|
|
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier
|
Recall
|
|
A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score
|
Standard Deviation
|
|
the theory that the retina contains three different colour recptors which, when stimulated in combonation, can produce the perception of any colour
|
Young-Heimholtz trichomatic (three-colour) theory
|
|
The most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests; originally developed to identify emotional disorder (still considered its most appropriate use), this test is now used for many other screening purposes
|
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
|
|
Physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued
|
Physical Dependence
|
|
Our understanding and evaluation of who we are
|
Self-Concept
|
|
Group-oriented leadership that builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support
|
Social Leadership
|
|
Controls language reception; usually in the left temporal lobe
|
Wernicke's Area
|
|
Any stimulus that when presented after a response strengthens the response
|
Positive Reinforcer
|
|
An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by the electrodes placed on the scalp.
|
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
|
|
A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance
|
Statistical Significance
|
|
A set of expected behaviours for males and for females
|
Gender Role
|
|
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items preciously learned
|
Recognition
|
|
Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think
|
Linguistic Determinism
|
|
The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
|
Adolescence
|
|
the theory that opposing retinal processes enable colour vision
|
Opponent-Process Theory
|
|
Our sense of being male or female
|
Gender Identity
|
|
Increasing behaviours by stopping or reducing negative stimuli such as shock
|
Negative Reinforcement
|
|
A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of the glucose goes while the brain performs a given task
|
PET (Positron Emission Tomography) Scan
|
|
A test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
|
Empiraclly Derived Test
|
|
A psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions
|
Psychological Dependence
|
|
A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time
|
Relearning
|
|
Views behaviour as influenced by the interactions between people's traits and their social context
|
Social-Cognitive Perspective
|
|
The sense or act of hearing
|
Audition
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The period of sexual maturation, during with a person becomes capable of reproducing
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Puberty
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The activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
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Priming
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The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role
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Gender Typring
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Compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences
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Addiction
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Any stimulus that when removed after a response strengthens the response
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Negative Reinforcer
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A technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue; show brain anatomy
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
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The interacting influences of behaviours, internal cognition, and environment
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Reciprocal Determinism
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The body structures (i.e. ovaries, testes, and external genitalia) that make sexual reproduction possible
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Primary Sex Characteristics
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That eerie sense that "I've experience this before."
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Déjà Vu
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Reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
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Continuous Reinforcement
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Drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions
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Depressants
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coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses
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Cochlea
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A technique for revealing blood-flow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans; show brain function
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Function MRI (fMRI)
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The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones's current good or bad mood
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Mood-Congruent Memory
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The oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skill; responsible for automatic survival functions
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Brainstem
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The extent to which people perceive control over their environment rather than feeling helpless
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Personal Control
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Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement
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Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement
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Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; depress neural activity, temporarily, lessening pain and anxiety
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Opiates
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Non-reproductive sexual characteristics such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair
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Secondary Sex Characteristics
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contains three tiny bones(hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window
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Middle Ear
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The perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate
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External Locus of Control
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The first menstrual period
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Menarche
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The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
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Proactive Interference
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The base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing
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Medulla
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Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up bodily functions
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Stimulants
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contains cochlea, semicicular cannals, and vestibular sacs
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Inner Ear
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An event that decreases the behaviours that it follows
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Punishment
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The perception that you control your own fate
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Internal Locus of Control
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The disruptive effect of new information on the recall of old information
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Retroactive Interference
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Our sense of self
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Identity
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Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
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Amphetamines
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A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal
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Reticular Formation
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A mental representation of the layout of one's environment
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Cognitive Map
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___ channels the sound wavesthrough the ___ to the ___, a tight membrane that vibrates with the waves
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Outer ear; auditory canal; eardrum
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The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events
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Learned Helplessness
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The brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.
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Thalamus
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The "we" aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships
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Social Identity
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Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
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Latent Learning
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incoming vibration cause the cochlea's membrane (the ___) to vibrate, causing ripples in the ___ bending the ___ lining its surface.
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oval window; basicular membrane; hair cells
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In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defence mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
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Repression
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A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes; over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels
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Methamphetamine
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The "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement out-put and balance
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Cerebellum
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Synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen; produces euphoria and social intimacy but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition
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Ecstasy (MDMA)
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Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event
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Misinformation Effect
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In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood
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Intimacy
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A desire to perform a behaviour effectively for its own sake
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Intrinsic Motivation
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The scientific study of optimal human functioning; aims to discover and promote strengths, and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive
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Positive Psychology
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The ___ sends neural messages via the ___ to the ___ lobe's ___
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auditory nerve; thalamus; temporal; auditory cortex
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the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated
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Place Theory
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Psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input
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Hallucinogens
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Neural system (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives
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Limbic System
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In contemporary psychology, assumed to be the centre of personality, the organiser of our thoughts, feelings, and actions
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Self
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For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to early twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood
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Emerging Adulthood
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Attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined
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Source Amnesia
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A desire to perform a behaviour to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment
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Extrinsic Motivation
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Two lima bean-sizes neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion
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Amygdala
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The time of natural cessation of menstruation; also refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
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Menopause
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The theory that the rate of nerve impulses travelling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch
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Frequency theory
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Overestimating others noticing and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders
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Spotlight Effect
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Learning by observing others
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Observational Learning
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A powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as "acid"
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Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)
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The process of observing and imitating a specific behaviour
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Modelling
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One's feelings of high or low self-esteem
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Self-esteem
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hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea
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Conduction Hearing Loss
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Directs several maintenance activities, helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward; lies below the thalamus
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Hypothalamus
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An altered state of consiousness reported after a close brush with death; often similar to drug-induced hallucination
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Near-Death Experience
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A study in which people of different ages are compared with one another
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Cross-sectional study
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The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing centre
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Cerebral Cortex
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Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period
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Longitudinal Study
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hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; (nerve deafness)
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Sensorineural Hearing Loss
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Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so
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Mirror Neurons
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A readiness to perceive oneself favorable
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Self-Serving Bias
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The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
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Social Clock
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Positive, constructive, helpful behaviour
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Prosocial Behaviour
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Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons
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Glial Cells (Glia)
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a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
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Cochlear Implant
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the term for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
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Kinethesis
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Portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements
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Frontal Lobes
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the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance
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Vestibular Sense
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Portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position
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Parietal Lobes
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the theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain
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Gate-Control Theory
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Portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields
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Occipital Lobes
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the principle that one sense may influence another
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Sensory Interaction
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Portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear.
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Temporal Lobes
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An organised whole; emphasis on our tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes
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Gestalt
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An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements
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Motor Cortex
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The perceptual tendency to organise stimuli into coherent groups
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Grouping
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Area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations
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Sensory Cortex
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The ability to see objects in three dimension although the images that strike the retina are two-dimension; allows us to judge distance
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Depth Perception
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Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking.
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Association Areas
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The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganising after damage or by building new pathways based on experience
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Plasticity
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lab device for testing depth perception in infants and young animals
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Visual Cliff
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The formation of new neurons
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Neurogenesis
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Depth cues, such as retinal disparity, that depend on the use of two eyes
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Binocular cues
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The large band of neural fibres connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them
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Corpus Callosum
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A binocular cue for perceiving depth; the greater the disparity between two images, the closer the object
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Retinal Disparity
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Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone
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monocular cues
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A condition resulting from surgery that isolated the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibres (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them
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Split Brain
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an illusion of movement when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession
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Phi Phenomenon
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Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change
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Perceptual Constancy
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In vision, the ability to adjust to an artifically displaced or even inverted visual field
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Perceptual Adaptation
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A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another
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Perceptual Set
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A branch of psychology that explores how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environment can be made safe and easy to use
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Human Factors Psychology
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the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory inpu; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition
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Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
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Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent colour
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Colour Constancy
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The study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis
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Parapsychology
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The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
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Frequency
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A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
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Pitch
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The organization of the visual field into objects (the figures) that stand out from their surroundings (the ground)
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Figure-Ground Theory
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