Psychology Terms
Terms
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- drive-reduction theory
- the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state that motivates an organism to satisfy the need
- personality inventory
- a questionaire on which people respond to items designed to guage a wide range of feelings and behaviors' used to assess selected personality traits
- lymphocytes
- the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacerial infections T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses and foreign substances
- self-actualization
- according to Maslow, the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved.
- refractory period
- a resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot acheive another orgasm
- Thematic Apperception Test
- a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes.
- Empirically derived test
- a test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
- general adaptation syndrome
- Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three states alarm, resistence, and exhaustion
- psychophysiological illness
- literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related hysical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches
- reciprocal determinism
- the interacting influences between personality and environmental factors
- Rorschach inkblot Test
- the most widley used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach' seeks to identitfy peoples inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots.
- Social-cognitive perspective
- Views behavior as influenced by the interaction between persons and their social context
- catharsis
- emotional release. Releasing aggressive energy
- basal metabolic rate
- the body's resting rate of energy expenditure.
- collective unconscious
- Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history.
- ego
- the largley conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality.
- psychoanalysis
- Freud's theory of personality and therapeutic technique that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts.
- adaptive - level phenomenon
- our tendency to form judgments relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience
- reaction formation
- psychoanalytical defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites.
- projective test
- a personality test, such as the Rorschach or TAT, that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of ones inner dynamics
- complementary and alternative medicine
- as yet unproven health care treatments intended to supplement or serve as alternatives to conventional medicine, which typically are not widely taught in medical schools. When proven safe usually becomes accepted in medical practice.
- sexual response cycle
- the four stages of sexual responding described by Masters and Johnson -- excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution
- two-factor theory
- Schachter-Singers thoery that to experience emotion one must 1 be physically aroused and 2 cognitively label the arousal.
- superego
- the part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement.
- hierarchy of needs
- Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher level safety needs and then psychological needs become active
- relative deprivation
- the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself
- MMPI
- the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests.
- achievement motivation
- a desire for significant accomplishment: mastery of things, people, or ideas; for attaining a high standard.
- Free associations
- in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind.
- Cannon-Bard theory
- the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers 1. physiological responses and 2 the subjective experience of emotion.
- James-Lange theory
- the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
- subjective well being
- self-perceived hapines or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well being
- id
- contains a reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives.
- feel good - do good phenomenon
- people's tendencey to be helpful when already in a good mood
- set point
- the point at which an individual's weight thermostat is supposedly set.
- biofeedback
- a system for elctronically recording, amplifying, and feedig back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension
- psychosexual stages
- the childhood stages (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) of development during which, according to Freud, the id's pleasure seeking energies focus on distinct erogenous zones