Psyc 102
Terms
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- group polarization
- The tendency for a group's dominant point of view to become stronger and more extreme with time
- Schachter theory
- A theory of emotion that argues that the cognitive interpretation, or appraisal, of a bodily reaction creates the subjective experience of emotion
- personal/group discrimination discrepancy
- The tendency for members of groups experiencing discrimination to minimize discrimination directed towards themselves as individuals, but to agree with others group members that discrimination against the group as a whole is significant
- attitude
- A positive or negative evaluation or belief held about something, which in turn may affect behaviour; are typically broken down into cognitive, affective, and behavioural components
- attributions
- the inference processes people use to assign cause and effect to behaviour
- conformity
- The tendency to go along with the wishes of the group; when people ________, their opinions, feelings, and behaviours generally start to move toward the group norm
- Cannon-Bard theory
- A theory of emotion that argues that body reactions and subjective experiences occur together but independently
- dissociative fugue
- A loss of personal identity that is often accompanied by a flight from home
- Burnout
- A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation
- actor-observer effect
- The tendency to attribute other's behaviour to internal forces and our own behaviour to external forces
- achievement motive
- A need that varies in strength on any given task depends on (1) expectations about success and (2) how much value a person places on succeeding at the task
- antianxiety drugs
- medicaions that reduce tension and anxiety; many work on the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA
- ingratiation
- The attempt to get someone to like you for some ulterior motive
- Empirically supported treatments
- Treatments or threapies that have been shown, based on extensive and well-validated research, to be effective in treating specific psychological disorders and problems
- schizophrenia
- A class of disorders characterized by fundamental disturbances in thought processes, emotion, or behaviour
- humanistic therapy
- Treatments designed to help clients gain insight into their fundamental self-worth and value as human beings; therapy is a process of discovering our own unique potential
- incentive motivation
- External factors in the environment - such as money, an attractive person, or tasty food- that exert pulling effects on people's actions
- in-group
- A group that you belong to or identify with
- family therapy
- A form of group therapy in which the therapist treats the family as a whole, as a kind of social system; the goals of the treatment are often to improve interpersonal communication and collaboration
- aversion therapy
- A treatment for replacing a positive reaction to a harmful stimulus, such as alcohol, with something negative, such as feeling nauseated
- General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
- Hans Selye's model of stress as a general. nonspecific reaction that occurs in three phases: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion
- panic disorder
- A condition marked by recurrent discrete episodes or attacks of extremely intense fear or dread
- James-Lange theory
- A theory of emotion that argues that body reactions precede and drive the subjective experience of emotions
- erotic plasticity
- The ability to shift from one sexual orientation to another and back
- client-centered therapy
- A form of humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, proposing that it is the client, not the therapist, who holds the key to psychological health and happiness; therapist's role is to provide genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and empathy
- hardy personality
- The set of traits, attitudes, and skills that make an individual less vulnerable to stress
- perfectionistic personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by an excessive and rigid need to achieve the highest level of quality in achievements
- somatoform disorder
- Psychological disorders that focus on the physical body
- Instincts
- Unlearned characteristic patterns of responding that are controlled by specific triggering stimuli in the world; not thought to an important factor in explaining goal-directed behaviour in humans
- internal attribution
- Attributing the cause of a person's behaviour to an internal personality characteristic
- ventromedial hypothalamus
- A portion of the hypothalamus that, when lesioned, causes an animal to typically overeact and gain a large amount of weight; once thought to be a kind of "stop eating," or satiety centre in the brain; its role in eating behaviour is currently unknown
- agoraphobia
- An anxiety disorder that cause an individual to restrict his or her normal activities; someone who has ____________ tends to avoid public places out of fear that a panic attack will occur
- lymphocytes
- Specialized white blood cells that have the job of attacking foreign substances, such as viruses and bacteria
- bulimia nervosa
- An eating disorder in which the principle symptom is binge eating, followed by purging in which the person voluntarily vomits or uses laxatives to prevent weight gain
- token economy
- A type of behavioural therapy in which institutionalized patients are rewarded with small tokens when they act in an appropriate way; tokens can then be exchanged for certain privileges
- coping
- efforts to manage or master conditions of threat or demand that tax resources
- manic state
- A disordered state in which the person becomes hyperactive, talkative, and has a decreased need for sleep; a person in a manic state may engage in activities that are self-destructive or dangerous
- major depressive episode
- A type of mood disorder characterized by depressed mood and other symptoms
- bystander effect
- The reluctance to come to the aid of a person in need when other people are present
- dissociative identity disorder (Multiple personality disorder)
- A condition in which an individual alternates between what appears to two or more distinct identities or personalities
- Environmental psychology
- A speciality area in psychology devoted to the study of environmental effects, such as crowding or noise, on behaviour and health
- sexual script
- Learned cognitive programs that instruct us on how, why, and what to do in our interactions with sexual partners; their nature differ across gender and may vary across culture
- erogenous zones
- stimulation to these regions causes intense stimulation
- cognitive therapies
- Treatments designed to remove irrational beliefs and negative thoughts that are presumed to be responsible for psychological disorders
- obedience
- The form of compliance that occurs when people respond to the orders of an authority figure
- dependent personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by an excessive and persistent need to be taken care of by others
- social influence
- The study of how the behaviours and thoughts of individuals are affected by the presence of others
- social facilitation
- The enhancement in performance that is sometimes found when an individual performs in the presence of others
- leptin
- A hormone that may regulate the amount of energy stored in fat cells
- polygraph
- A device that measures various indexes of physiological arousal in an effort to determine whether someone is telling a lie; the logic behind the test is that lying leads to greater emotionality, which can be picked up through such measures of arousal as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, and perpiration
- glucose
- A kind of sugar that cells require for energy production
- Spontaneous remission
- Improvement in a psychological disorder without treatment - that is, simply a function of the passage of time
- fundamental attribution error
- The fact that causal attributions tend to overestimate the influence of internal personal factors and underestimate the role of situational factors
- auto-stereotyping
- A belief system about discrimination that is widely shared by group members
- social cognition
- The study of how people use cognitive processes - such as perception, memory, thought, and emotion - to make sense of other people as well as themselves
- diffusion of responsibility
- The idea that when people know, or think, that others are present in a situation, they allow their sense of responsibility for action to diffuse, or spread widely, among those who are present
- health psychology
- The study of how biological, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors are involved in physical health and the prevention of illness
- cultural deviance criterion
- Behaviour is abnormal if it violates the rules or accepted standards of society
- Anxiety disorders
- A class of disorders marked by excessive apprehension and worry that in turn impairs normal functioning
- lateral hypothalamus
- A portion of the hypothalamus that, when lesioned, causes an animal to be reluctant to eat; probably plays some role in eating behaviour, but the precise role is unknown
- specific phobic disorder
- A highly focused fear of a specific object or situation
- group therapy
- A form of therapy in which several people are treated simultaneously in the same setting
- medical model
- The view that abnormal behaviour is symptomatic of an underlying "disease" that can be "cured" with the appropriate therapy
- free association
- A technique used in psychoanalysis to explore the contents of the unconscious; patients are asked to relax and freely express whatever thoughts and feelings happen to come into their minds
- Social psychology
- The study of how people think about, influence and relate to other people
- intrinsic motivation
- Goal-directed behaviour that seems to be entirely self-motivated
- statistical deviance criterion
- A criterion for abnormality based on a low frequency of occurence among the members of a population
- insanity
- A legal term in the United States usually defined as the inability to understand that certain actions are wrong, in a legal or moral sense, at the time of a crime
- Service Gap
- The difference between the number of people who could benefit from receiving psychological services and those who receive them
- Psychotherapy
- Treatment designed to help people deal with mental, emotional, or behavioural problem
- psychopathy
- An alternative construct to the antisocial personality disorder; as well as criminal tendencies, it focuses on the underlying personality traits or manipulation, callousness, and impulsive thrill-seeking
- generalized anxiety disorder
- Excessive worrying, or free-floating anxiety, that lasts for at least six months and cannot be attributed to any single identifiable source
- aerobic exercise
- high-intensity activities, such as running and swimming, that increase both heart rate and oxygen consumption
- meta-analysis
- A statistical technique used to summarize findings across all available studies; comparisons are based on some common evaluation index, such as the numerical difference between the success rate of the treatment and control conditions
- prejudice
- An unrealistic negative evaluation of a group and its members
- Posttraumatic stress disorder
- An anxiety disorder characterized by flashbacks, avoidance of stimuli associated with the traumatic event, and chronic arousal symptoms
- aggression
- Behaviour meant to harm someone
- bio-psycho-social perspective
- The idea that psychological disorders are influenced, or caused, by a combination of biological, psychological (cognitive) and social (environmental) factors
- self-serving bias
- The tendency to make internal attributions about our own behaviour when the outcome is positive and to blame the situation when our behaviour leads to something negative
- bipolar disorder
- A type of mood disorder in which the person experiences disordered mood shifts in two directions - from depression to a manic state
- Type A
- An enduring pattern of behaviour linked to coronary heart disease; the tendency to be hard driving, ambitious, easily annoyed, and impatient all seem to derive from the trait of hostility
- Type B
- People who experience less stress and, therefore better health outcomes
- psychoanalysis
- Freud's method of treatment that attempts to bring hidden impulses and memories, which are locked in the unconscious, to the surface of awareness, thereby freeing the patient from disordered thoughts and behaviours
- social loafing
- The tendency to put out less effort when several people are supposed to be working on a task than when only one is working
- biomedical therapies
- Biologically based treatments, including drug therapies, shock treatments, and, very rarely, psychosurgery
- dysfunctional criterion
- Behaviour is abnormal if it interferes with the ability to pursue daily activities, such as work and relationships
- facial-feedback hypothesis
- The proposal that muscles in the face deliver signals to the brain that are then interpreted, depending on the pattern, as a subjective emotional state
- social interference
- The impairment in performance that is sometimes found when an individual performs in the presence of others
- obsessive-compulsive disorder
- An anxiety disorder that manifests itself through persistend and uncontrollable thoughts or by the compelling need to perform repetitive acts
- conversion disorder
- The presense of a real physical problem, such as blindness or paralysis, that seems to have no indentifiable causes
- Stress
- People's physical and psychological reactions to demanding or threatening situations
- cognitive dissonance
- The tension produces when people act in a way that is inconsistent with their attitude; attitude changes may occur as a result of attempting to reduce this
- need hierarchy
- the idea popularized by Maslow that human needs are prioritized in a hierarchy, some needs, especially physiological ones, must be satisfied before others, such as the need for achievement or self-satisfaction can be pursued
- alcohol myopia
- A state induced by alcohol intoxication that results in more extreme social behaviours
- Stressors
- The demanding or threatening situations that produces stress
- self-fulfilling prophecy effect
- When our expectations about the actions of another person actually lead that person to behave in the expected way
- Emotion
- A psychological event involving (1) a physiological reaction, usually arousal, (2) some king of expressive reaction, such as a distinct facial expression, and (3) some kind of subjective experience, such as the conscious feeling of being happy or sad
- sociological model
- The view that abnormalities is a label that each society assigns to behaviours that it finds unacceptable, even if the behaviours are not criminal in nature
- ultimate factors
- Causes of behaviour that refer to the evolutionarily adaptive significance and reproductive consequences for the organism
- social schema
- A general knowledge structure, stored in long-term memory, that relates to social experiences or people
- dissociative amnesia
- A psychological disorder characterized by an inability to remember important personal information
- anorexia nervosa
- An eating disorder diagnosed when an otherwise healthy person refused to maintain a normal weight level because of an intense fear of being overweight
- antisocial personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by repeated criminal behaviour and a failure to learn from punishment
- out-group
- A group of individuals that you do not belong to or identify with
- passionate love
- An intense emotional state characterized be a powerful longing to be with a specific person; marked by a combination of intimacy and passion, but commitment may be lacking
- behavioural therapies
- Treatments designed to change behaviour through the use of established learning techniques
- external attribution
- Attributing the cause of a person's behaviour to an external event or situation in the environment
- dissociative disorders
- A class of disorders characterized by the separation of conscious awareness from previous thoughts or memories
- transference
- In psychoanalysis. the patient's expression of thoughts and feelings towards the therapist that are actually representative of the way the patient feels about other significant people in his or her life
- antipsychotic drugs
- Medications that reduce the positive symptoms of schizophernia; the majority act on the neurotransmitter dopamine
- antidepressant drugs
- Medications that modulate the availability or effectiveness of the neurotransmitters implicated in mood disorders; prozac, for example, increases the action of the neurotransmitter serotonin
- insulin
- A hormone released by the pancreas that helps pump nutrients in the blood into the cells, where they can be stored as fat or metabolized into needed energy
- AIDS
- Acquired immunedeficiency syndrome, a disease that gradually weakens and disables the immune system
- resistance
- In psychoanalysis, a patient's unconsciously motivated attempts to subvert the process of therapy
- electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
- A treatment used primarily for depression in which a brief electric current is delivered to the brain
- emotional distress criterion
- Behaviour is abnormal if it regularly leads to personal distress or emotion upset
- companionate love
- A kind of emotional attachment characterized by feelings of trust and companionship; marked by a combination of intimacy and commitment, but passion may be lacking
- mood disorder
- Prolonged and disabling disruptions in emotional state
- dream analysis
- A technique used in psychoanalysis; Freud believed that dreams are symbolic and contain important information about the unconscious
- somatization disorder
- A long-lasting preoccupation with body symptoms that have no identifiable physical cause
- Therapeutic alliance
- The bond formed between the client and therapist in successful psychotherapy that is focused on working together constructively to solve the client's problems
- Motivation
- The set of factors that initiate and direct behaviour, usually toward some goal
- Insight therapies
- Treatments designed to give clients self-knowledge, or insight, into their psychological problems, usually through one-on-one interactions with a therapist
- deindividuation
- The loss of individuality, or depersonalization, that comes from being in a group
- secondary drive
- A drive learned by association with a primary drive (e.g. the need for money)
- abnormal behaviour
- An observed behaviour that is unsual, maladaptive, socially deviant, or accompanied by continuing distress
- paranoid personality disorder
- A personality disorder characterized by pervasive distrust of others
- Gestalt therapy
- Form of humanistic therapy where the client is encouraged - even forced - to express their feelings openly
- proximate factors
- Causes of behaviour that derive from an organism's immediate internal or external environment
- set point
- A natural body weight, perhaps produced by genetic factors, that the body seeks to maintain; when body weight falls below the set point, people are motivated to eat; when weight exceeds set point, people feel less motivated to eat
- social support
- The resources that individuals receive from other people or groups, often in the form of comfort, caring or help
- social phobia
- An incapacitating fear of social interactions
- homeostasis
- The process through which the body maintains a steady state, such as a constant internal temperature or an adequate amount of fluids
- discrimination
- Behaving in an unfair way toward members of another group
- obesity
- A weight problem characterized by excessive body fat
- Primary drive
- A psychological state that arises in response to an internal physiological need such as hunger or thirst
- Perceived control
- The amount of influence you feel you have over a situation and your reaction to it
- self-perception theory
- The idea that people use observations of their own behaviour as a basis for inferring their internal beliefs
- DSM-IV
- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or Mental Disorders, which is used for the diagnosis and classification of psychological disorders; comprises five major rating dimensions, called axes
- rational-emotive therapy
- A form of cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, in which the therapist acts as a kind of cross-examiner, verbally disputing the client's irrational thought processes
- meta-stereotyping
- A person's beliefs regarding the stereotype that out-group members hold about his or her own group
- hypochondriasis
- A long-lasting preoccupation with the idea that one has developed a serious disease, based on what turns out to be a misinterpretation of normal body reactions
- personality disorders
- Chronic or enduring patterns of behaviour that lead to significant impairments in social functioning
- sexual orientation
- The direction of a person's sexual and emotional attraction: homosexuality, hereosexuality, and bisexuality are all sexual orientations
- systematic desensitization
- A technique that uses counterconditioning and extinction to reduce the fear and anxiety that have become associated with a specific object or event; a multiple step process that attempts to replace the negative learned association with something relaxing
- psychological disorder
- A specific psychological problem that causes abnormal behaviour to occur
- Biofeedback
- Specific physiological feedback that people are given about the effectiveness of their relaxation efforts
- reciprocity
- The tendency for people to return in kind the feelings that are shown toward them
- stereotypes
- The collection of beliefs and impressions held about a group and its members
- groupthink
- The tendency for members of a group to become so interested in seeking a consensus of opinion that they start to ignore and even suppress dissenting views