Psychology
Terms
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- rational-emotive therapy (RET)
- Albert Ellis's form of cognitive behavioral therapy; aimed at getting emotions under control by using reason
- extrinsic motivation
- motivation that comes from outside the individual
- positive reinforcement
- reinforcement that involves strengthening the tendency to repeat a response by following it with the addition of something pleasant
- sublimation
- the process of channeling emotional energy into constructive or creative activities
- psycholanalytic
- a theory that personality is based on impulses and needs in the unconscious; Freud, Jung
- approach-approach conflict
- a conflict involving a choice between 2 attractive alternatives
- mania
- a mood disorder involving extreme agitation, restlessness, rapid speech, and trouble concentrating
- psychological test
- systematic measure of what people know; how they act, think, and feel; or what their goals are
- person-centered therapy
- Rogers's humanistic approach; reflects the belief that the person and his or her therapist are partners in therapy
- Rorschach test
- an ink blot projective test developed by Hermann Roschach
- stimulus
- anything that elicits a response
- opponent-process theory
- theory that the presence of one emotion triggers its opposite, which then emerges somewhat later
- eustress
- stress that motivates us to do something desirable
- self-concepts
- the images we have of ourselves
- type A personality
- personality type associated with people who are always operating at full speed, are impatient, and are filled with distress
- somatoform disorder
- a condition in which psychological issues are expressed in bodily symptoms in the absence of any real physical problem
- Ideal self
- Roger's term for the goal of each person's development; the self each person would like to be in
- psychotherapies
- broad term for any method used to try to help people with emotional and psychological problems
- persona
- Jung's term for a 'mask' people wear to hide what they really are or feel
- central traits
- Allport's term for personality traits that are highly characteristic of a person
- Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
- a projective test using unclear pictures about which people make up stories
- fixed interval schedule
- schedule in which reinforcement occurs after a desired act is performed following a fixed amount of time
- panic disorder
- a type of anxiety disorder characterized by frequent and overwhelming attacks of anxiety that are not associated with specific objects or events
- Unconditioned response
- an automatic response to a particular natural stimulus, such as salivation to meat
- archetypes
- Jung's term for inherited universal human concepts
- major depression
- severe depression; involves loss of appetite, lack of energy, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts
- generalization
- a behavior that spreads from one situation to a similar one
- conflict
- a problem that demands a choice between alternatives
- behavioral therapy
- therapy that uses principals of learning to alter the person's actions actions or behavior
- stimulus generalization
- process in which a response spreads from one specific stimulus to other stimuli that resemble the original
- chaining
- reinforcing the connection between the parts of a sequence
- classical conditioning
- Ivan Pavlov's method of conditioning, in which associations are made between a natural stimulus and a learned, neutral stimulus
- bipolar disorder
- a mood disorder involving high and low moods
- clinical psychologists
- psychologists who deal with emotional problems of any kind, including those fitting into the formal classifications of mental disturbance
- aptitude
- one's special skills
- negative reinforcement
- reinforcement that involves strengthening a response by following it with the removal of something unpleasant
- personality traits
- more or less permanent personality chracteristics
- repression
- the process of pushing the needs and desires that cause guilt into the unconscious; Freud
- emotion
- a state of the body causing feelings, such as of hope, love, or fear
- Personality
- a person's broad, long-lasting patterns of behavior
- strong-campbell interest inventory
- the most widely used vocational interest test; based on answers of people successful in certain fields
- delusion
- a belief in something that is clearly not true
- unconscious
- according to psychoanalytic belief, the part of the mind that is beyond consciousness. Although we are unaware of its contents, they strongly affect our behavior; Freud's term
- safety needs
- needs at the second level of maslow's hierarchy: shelter, nest egg of money
- reinforcements
- events that follow responses and strengthen the tendency to repeat those responses
- displacement
- the process of venting our feelings on something or someone other than the true or original target
- fully functioning individual
- Roger's term for someone who has become what he or she should be
- humanistic therapies
- therapies that emphasize the individual's ability to heal himself or herself with some assitance
- catatonic schizophrenia
- type of schizophrenia characterized by disturbances of movement
- agoraphobia
- the fear of leaving a familiar environment, especially home
- reinforcement
- something that follows a response and strengthens the tendency to repeat that response
- response
- a reaction to a stimulus
- avoidance-avoidance conflict
- a conflict involving a choice between 2 unattractive alternatives
- psychiatrists
- medical doctors with special training in mental disorders
- free association
- Freudian process in which a person says everything that appears in is or her mind, even if ideas or images seem unconnected
- reaction formation
- the process of expressing the opposite of what we feel
- unconditional positive regard
- a principle of humanistic therapy in which the person's feelings and thoughts are accepted for whatever they are; Roger's term
- aptitude tests
- tests that measure one's special skills (in carpentry, medicine, and so forth); 3rd kind of test
- schedules of reinforcement
- different methods of reinforcing
- secondary traits
- Allport's term for weak personality traits that appear only on occasion
- secondary reinforcement
- anything that comes to represent a primary reinforcer, such as money
- situational assessment
- the process of looking at how the circumstances surrounding an event influence people responding to that event; interviews
- superego
- Freudian psychological unit roughly synonymous with the conscience
- Behaviorism
- a personality theory that focuses on overt acts or behaviors; Watson, Skinner, Bandura
- self-esteem needs
- needs at the fourth level of maslow's hierarchy: liking and respecting yourself, feeling important and useful
- variable interval schedule
- schedule in which reinforcement occurs after a desired act is performed following a variable amount of time
- approach-avoidance conflict
- a conflict involving a situation with both good and bad features
- Scholastic assessment test (SAT)
- test designed to measure ability to do college work
- id
- Freudian psychological unit containing basic needs and drives
- counseling psychologist
- psychologists who deal mostly with problems not fitting into the formal classifications of mental disturbance
- variable ratio schedule
- shedule in which reinforcement occurs after a desired act is performed a specific but variable number of times
- observational learning
- a form a social learning in which the organism observes and imitates the behavior of others
- selective forgetting
- forgetting only things that are very traumatic
- personality inventory
- a list of items about a person's beliefs, habits, needs, and desires; 1st kind of test
- California Psychological Inventory (CPI)
- personality inventory most often used in schools
- transference
- the process in which a person transfers emotional conflicts of earlier years onto the thrapist
- set point
- the body-regulating mechanism that determines a person's typical weight
- James-Lange theory
- theory of emotion proposing that first the body responds and then one feels the emotion
- specific phobia
- a phobic disorder associated with a specific object or situation, such as snakes, dogs, elevators, and heights
- belongingness needs
- needs at the third level of maslow's hierarchy: friendship, closeness with another
- autistic disorder
- a childhood disorder characterized by a failure to develop normal patterns of communication, social interactions, and emotional responses
- goal
- the target of a set of behaviors
- defense mechanisms
- psychological distortions we use to remain psychologically stable, or in balance
- projection
- the process of attributing our thoughts to someone else
- physiological needs
- needs at the bottom of maslow's hierarchy: hunger and thirst
- stress
- the physical strain that results from demands or changes in the environment
- ego
- Freudian psychological unit that is based in reality; the 'self' that allows controlled id expression within the boundaries set by the superego
- anxiety disorder
- disorder whose major symptom is anxiety
- libido
- Freudian term for internal energy forces that continuously seek discharge; Freud
- reverse halo
- the situation in which a person with one negative characteristic is assumed to have other negative traits; interviews
- serotonin
- a brain chemical. Levels that are too high lead to mania; levels that are too low lead to depression
- neo-Freudians
- those psychoanalysts who broke away from Freud to emphasize social forces in the unconscious; Horney, Adler, Erickson
- learned helplessness
- a condition in which a person has accepted the generalized idea that he or she can do nothing to help himself or herself
- undifferentiated schizophrenia
- schizophrenia that lacks distinguishing symptoms
- psychiatric nurses
- registered nurses with special education in psychiatric medicine
- reliability
- measure of a test's consistency; describe how well a test is made
- schizophrenia
- a psychosis involving disorganized thoughts and garbled speech as well as hallucinations and delusions; the most serious mental disorder
- type B personality
- personality type associated with people who are open to change, are flexible, enjoy life, and have low levels of stress
- flight of ideas
- a confusing state in which thoughts and speech go in all directions with no unifying concept
- modeing
- Bandura's term for learning by imitating others; Bandura
- vocational interest test
- a test that attempts to predict what occupational area an individual will like; 5th kind of test
- extinction
- the gradual loss of an association over time
- psychotic episodes
- periods of psychotic behavior; they can alternate with periods of relative coherence and calm
- hierarchy of needs
- a system that ranks human needs one above the other, with most basic needs for physical survival at the bottom of the pyramid; proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow; Phy, Safe, Bel,Self-e, Self-a
- attention deficit /hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
- a childhood disorder characterized by inattention, distractibility, impulsiveness, and/or excessive activity, and restlessness
- halo effect
- the situation in which a person who has one positive characteristic is assumed to have other positive traits; interviews
- fugue
- a dissociative disorder in which a person forgets his or her current life and starts a new one somewhere else
- Projective tests
- tests measuring inner feelings elicited by a vague stimulus, such as an ink blot or an unclear picture; 2nd kind of test
- Conditioned response
- a response to a stimulus that is brought about by learning - for example, salivating at the word pickle; always the same as unconditioned response
- double approach-avoidance conflict
- a conflict involving a choice between alternatives, both of which have good and bad parts
- cognitive approach
- an approach to the study of learning that emphasizes abstract mental processes and previous knowledge
- curiosity motive
- a drive that moves a person to seek new and different things
- self-actualized
- Maslow's term for the state of having brought to life the full potential of out skills
- conversion disorder
- a somatoform disorder in which a serious psychological trauma is changed into a symbolic physical dysfunction
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM - IV)
- a book published by the American Psychiatric Association that classifies the symptoms of mental disorders into formal categories
- emotional stability
- Eysenck's term for the personality dimension that concerns how much a person is affected by feelings
- manipulation motive
- a drive that moves a person to handle and use objects in the environment
- echolalia
- an autistic system in which the person 'echoes,' or repeats, what has just been said
- latent learning
- learning that is not obvious but goes on under the surface
- psychosis
- a severe mental disorder that may involve disorganized thought processes, hallucinations, delusions, and major problems with emotional responses
- hallucinating
- the act of seeing or hearing something that is not present
- standoutishness
- doing or wearing something that is so startling it distracts observers from noticing one's real abilities; interviews
- sociopath
- a person with antisocial personality disorder
- social learning
- learning from the behavior of others; used by Albert Bandura
- Harry Harlow
- Studied monkies; 2 fake mothers: wire mother with bottle and terry cloth mother; monkies ran to cloth mom when scared; contact comfort
- Extraversion
- Eysenck's term for the personality dimension of being outgoing and sociable
- achievement tests
- tests that measure the amount of specific material remembered from the classroom; 4th kind of test
- phobic disorder
- a type of anxiety disorder in which a person becomes disabled and overwhelmed by fear in the presence of certain objects or events. Examples include specific phobia and agoraphobia
- borderline personality disorder
- a personality disorder marked by unstable emotions and relationships, dependency, and manipulative, self-destructive behavior
- aversive conditioning
- a behavioral technique in which unpleasantness is associated with acts that are to be avoided
- OCD
- an anxiety disorder characterized by both thoughts (obsession) and ritualized, repetitive behavior (compulsion)
- Conditioned stimulus
- a previously neutral stimulus that has been associated with a natural (or unconditioned) stimulus
- standardization
- the process of developing clear directions for taking, scoring, and interpreting a test; describe how well a test is made
- spontaneous recovery
- the sudden reappearance of an extinguished response
- intrinsic motivation
- motivation that comes from within the individual
- dysthymic disorder
- a mood disorder involving a moderate depression
- Humanism
- a personality theory that emphasizes the positive potential of the person; Rogers, Maslow
- amnesia
- a dissociative disorder in which traumatic events seem to disappear from memory
- cardinal traits
- Allport's term for very strong personality characteristics that affect most of what a person does
- frustration
- the process by which we are blocked or hindered from reaching goals
- mood disorders
- disorders characterized by emotional states; include depression and mania
- psychiatric social workers
- mental health workers with a degree in social work; help patients and families deal with problems
- psychoanalysis
- therapy practiced by followers of Freud, who analyze the psyche via the unconcious
- collective unconscious
- Jung's term for the portion of a person that contains ideas or archetypes (such as hero, mother, and so on) shared by the whole human race
- discrimination learning
- learning to tell the difference between one event or object and another; the reverse of generalization
- self-actualization needs
- needs at the top of maslow's hierarchy: establishing meaningful goals and a purpose in life
- intellectualization
- the process of removing our feelings about an event and discussing it in a coolly rational and unemotional way
- dissociative disorder
- disorders in which memory of a part of one's life becomes disconnected from other parts; amnesia, fugue, and dissociative identity disorder are examples
- token economy
- a behavioral technique in which rewards for desired acts are accumulated through tokens, which represent a form of money
- Unconditioned stimulus
- a stimulus that automatically elicits a response, as meat causes salivation
- validity
- the extent of which a test measures what it is supposed to measure; describe how well a test is made
- anxiety
- the feeling that something is wrong and disaster is imminent
- operant conditioning
- conditioning that results from the individual's actions and the consequences they cause; B.F. Skinner - bedroom pulley
- norms
- patterns of test answers from different types of peoples; describe how well a test is made
- MMPI-2
- latest version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the most widely used personality inventory
- dissociative identity disorder
- a dissociative identity disorder in which a person divides himself or herself into separate personalities that can act independently
- primary reinforcement
- something necessary for psychological or physical survival that is used as a reward
- distress
- stress that is overwhelming or that causes problems
- drives
- forces that push an organism into action to reach a goal
- denial
- the process of refusing to admit that there is a problem
- personality disorder
- a disorder in which a person has formed a peculiar or unpleasant personality
- motivation
- the drive to seek a goal, such as food, water, or friends
- cognitive map
- a mental image of where one is located in space
- contact comfort
- the satisfaction obtained from pleasant, soft physical stimulation
- shaping
- the process of gradually refining a response by successively reinforcing closer approximations of it
- fixed ratio schedule
- schedule in which reinforcement occurs after a desired act is performed a fixed number of times
- thought disorder
- a serious distortion in the ability to think or speak in a lucid and coherent way
- Cannon-Bard theory
- theory of emotion proposing that the bodily reaction and the emotional response to an event occur at the same time
- emotional intelligence
- the ability to properly feel, deal with, and recognize emotions
- hypochondriasis
- a somatoform disorder characterized by feeling excessive concern about one's health and exaggerating the seriousness of minor physical complaints
- cognitive theory
- theory of emotion proposed by Stanley Schachter; it holds that people label a bodily response by giving it the name of the emotion they think they are feeling
- self-esteem
- the degree to which we think we are worthwhile
- surface traits
- Cattell's term for characteristics that can be easily observed by others
- systematic desensitization
- a behavioral technique in which the therapist increases that patient's anxiety and counters it with relaxation in a graduated sequence
- antisocial personality disorder
- a personality disorder in which the person seems to have no conscience and is in constant conflict with the law
- paranoid schizophrenia
- type of schizophrenia marked by strong feelings of suspiciousness and persecution
- repression
- the process of pushing a painful event or thought out of consciousness
- source traits
- Cattell's term for personality traits that underlie surface behavior
- punishment
- the process of weakening a response by following it with unpleasant consequences