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#cgrigorieffap

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Empiricism   the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation  
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Structuralism   an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind  
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Functionalism   a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function -- how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish  
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Level of Analysis   the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon  
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Confounding Variable   a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment  
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Illusory Correlation   the perception of a relationship where none exists  
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Action Potential   a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon  
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Amygdala   two lima bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion  
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Aphasia   impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke's area (impairing understanding)  
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Association Areas   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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Behavioral Genetics   the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior  
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Broca's Area   controls language expression -- an area, usually in the left frontal lobe, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech  
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Cerebral Cortex   the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center  
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Dual Processing   the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks  
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Endocrine System   the body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream  
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Endorphins   "morphine witihin" -- natural opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure  
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Functional MRI (fMRI)   a technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. fMRI scans show brain function  
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Genes   the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA capable of synthesizing protein  
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Genome   the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes  
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Glial Cells   cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons  
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Heritability   the proportion of variation among individuals that we attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied  
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Limbic System   doughnut-shaped neural system (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheresl associated with emotions and drives  
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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)   a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue. MRI scans show brain anatomy  
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Medulla   the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing  
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Molecular Genetics   the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes  
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Motor Cortex   an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements  
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Motor Neurons   neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands  
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Mutation   a random error in gene replication that leads to a change  
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Neurogenesis   the formation of new neurons  
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Parasympathetic Nervous System   the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy  
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Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)   the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body  
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Pituitary Gland   the endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands  
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Positron Emission Tomography (PET)   a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task  
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Reticular Formation   a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal  
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Sensory Cortex   area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations  
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Sensory Neurons   neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and the spinal cord  
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Somatic Nervous System   the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system  
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Split Brain   a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them  
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Sympathetic Nervous System   the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations  
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Threshold   the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse  
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Wernicke's Area   controls language reception -- a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe  
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Absolute Threshold   the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time  
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Accommodation   the process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus near of far objects on the retina  
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Audition   the sense or act of hearing  
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Cochlear Implant   a device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea  
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Conduction Hearing Loss   hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea  
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Cones   retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. These cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations  
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Difference Threshold   the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50 percent of the time  
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Feature Detectors   nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement  
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Fovea   the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster  
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Frequency   the number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time  
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Frequency Theory   the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch  
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Gate-Control Theory   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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Gestalt   an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes  
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Grouping   the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups  
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Hue   the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light; what we know as the color names blue, green, etc  
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Inattentional Blindless   failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere  
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Inner Ear   the innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs  
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Intensity   the amount of energy in a light or sound wave, which we perceive as brightness or loudness, as determined by the wave's amplitude  
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Kinesthesis   the system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts  
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Lens   the transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina  
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Middle Ear   the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window  
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Monocular Cues   depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone  
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Opponent-Processing Theory   the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. Some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red  
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Optic Nerve   the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain  
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Parallel Processing   the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision  
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Perception   the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events  
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Perceptual Set   a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another  
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Phi Phenomenon   an illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent light blink on and off in a quick succession  
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Pitch   a tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency  
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Place Theory   the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated  
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Priming   the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response  
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Psychophysics   the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them  
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Pupil   the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters  
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Retina   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  
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Retinal Disparity   a binocular cue for perceiving depth by comparing images from the retinas in the two eyes, the brain computes distance -- the greater disparity (difference) between the two images, the closer the object  
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Rods   retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don't respond  
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Sensation   the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment  
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Sensorineural Hearing Loss   hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea's receptor cells or to the auditory nerves; also called nerve deafness  
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Subliminal   below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness  
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Vestibular Sense   the sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance  
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Wavelength   the distance from the peak of one light or sound wave to the peak of the next  
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Weber's Law   the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must duffer by a constant percentage  
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Young-Hemholtz Trichromatic Processing Theory   the theory that the retina contains three different color receptors -- one sensitive to red, green, and blue -- which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color  
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Amphetamines   drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes  
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Barbiturates   drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment  
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Delta Waves   the large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep  
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Ecstasy (MDMA)   a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risk and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition  
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Hallucinations   false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus  
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LSD   a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid  
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Methamphetamines   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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NREM Sleep   non-rapid eye movement sleep; encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep  
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Opiates   opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety  
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Posthypnotic Suggestion   a suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors  
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Psychoactive Drug   a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods  
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REM Rebound   the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)  
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Sleep Apnea   a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings  
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Stimulants   drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, and ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions  
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THC   the major addictive ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations  
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Acquisition   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  
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Associative Learning   learning that certain events occur together  
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Biofeedback   a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension  
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Discriminative Stimulus   in operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association with reinforcement  
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Fixed-Interval Schedule   in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed  
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Fixed-Ratio Schedule   in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses  
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Higher-Order Conditioning   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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Law of Effect   Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely  
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Mirror Neurons   front lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so  
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Prosocial Behavior   positive, constructive, helpful behavior  
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Variable-Interval Schedule   in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals  
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Variable-Ratio Schedule   in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable number of responses  
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Acoustic Encoding   the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words  
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Automatic Processing   unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings  
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Effortful Processing   encoding that requires attention and conscious effort  
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Explicit Memory   memory of facts and experiences that one and consciously know and "declare"  
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Hippocampus   a neural center that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage  
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Implicit Memory   retention independent of conscious recollection  
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Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)   an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory  
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Priming   the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response  
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Adaptation-Level Phenomenon   our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, lights, incomes) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience  
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Anorexia Nervosa   an eating disorder in which a person diets and becomes significantly underweight, yet, still feeling fat, continues to starve  
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Basal Metabolic Rate   the body's resting rate of energy expenditure  
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Behavioral Medicine   an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease  
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Binge-Eating Disorder   significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fasting, or excessive exercise that marks bulimia nervosa  
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Bulimia Nervosa   an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually of high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise  
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Cannon-Bard Theory   the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological and the subjective experience of emotion  
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Catharsis   emotional release. The catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges  
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Drive-Reduction Theory   the idea that physiological need creates an aroused tension (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need  
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General Adaptation Syndrome   Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases -- alarm, resistance, exhaustion  
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Glucose   the form of sugar that circulates in the blood and performs the major source of energy for body tissues. When the level is low, we feel hunger  
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Homeostasis   a tendency to maintain a balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level  
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James-Lange Theory   the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli  
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Lymphocytes   the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system. B form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections. T form in the thymus and lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, and viruses  
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Psychoneuroimmunology   the study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect the immune system and resulting health  
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Relative Deprivation   the perception that we are worse off relative to those whom we compare ourselves  
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Two-Factor Theory of Emotion   the Schachter-Singer theory that to experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal  
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Type A   Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people  
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Type B   Friendman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people  
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Accommodation   adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information  
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Assimilation   interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas  
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Concrete Operational Stage   in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (6-11 years) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events  
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Conservation   the principle that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain despite changes in the forms of objects  
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Cross-Sectional Stud   a study in which people of different ages are compared with one another  
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Embryo   the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month  
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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)   physical and cognitive abnormalities caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking  
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Fetus   the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth  
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Formal Operational Stage   in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (12 years) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts  
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Habituation   decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation  
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Longitudinal Study   research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period  
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Preoperational Stage   in Piaget's theory, the stage (2-7 years) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic  
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Schema   a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information  
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Social Learning Theory   the theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished  
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Theory of Mind   people's ideas about their own and others' mental states -- about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict  
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Zygote   the fertilized egg  
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Collective Unconscious   Carl Jung's concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history  
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Collectivism   giving priority to goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly  
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Empirically Derived Test   a test (such as MMPI) developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups  
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External Locus of Control   the perception that chance or outside forces beyond your personal control determine your fate  
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Internal Locus of Control   the perception that you control your own fate  
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MMPI   the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests  
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Oedipus Complex   according to Freud, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father  
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Personal Control   the extent to which people perceive control over their environment rather than feeling helpless  
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Personality Inventory   a questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of findings and behaviors; used to assess selected personality traits  
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Rationalization   psychoanalytic defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanation in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one's actions  
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Reaction Formation   psychoanalytic defense 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  
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Reciprocal Determinism   the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment  
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Rorschach Inkblot Test   the most widely used projective test, seeks to identify people's inner feelings by analyzing their interpretations of the blots  
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Sublimation   psychoanalytic defense mechanism by which people re-channel their unacceptable impulses into socially approved activities  
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Terror-Management Theory   a theory of death-related anxiety; explores people's emotional and behavioral responses to reminders of their impending death  
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Thematic Apperception Test   a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes  
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Achievement Tests   tests designed to assess what a person has learned  
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Aptitude Tests   tests designed to predict a person's future performance  
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Content Validity   the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest  
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WAIS   the most widely used intelligence tests; consists of verbal and performance subtests  
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Conversion Disorder   a rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found  
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Evidence-Base Practice   clinical decision-making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences  
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Psychopharmacology   the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior  
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Psychotherapy   treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interacting between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth  
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Regression Toward The Mean   the tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average  
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Resilience   the personal strength that helps most people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma  
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Resistance   in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material  
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rTMS   the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity  
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Tardive Dyskinesia   involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target certain dopamine receptors  
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GRIT   a strategy designed to decrease international tensions  
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Informational Social Influence   influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality  
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