ABA Design: ABA refers to a specific type of research design in which you have a baseline period where no treatment is given and/or no variable is introduced (A), followed by a period in which the treatment or variable is introduced (B), and then a period in which the treatment is removed so the behavior can be observed a second time (A). This way you can measure behavior before treatment, during treatment, and once treatment is removed.
Abnormal: Although the terms “normal” and “abnormal” can be argued at great length, psychologists often define the term “abnormal” as deviating from what is considered the “norm” and not conforming to the accepted social rules. Sounds pretty weak, right…”abnormal is anything that is not considered normal”. The reality is that we define all sorts of behaviors, thoughts, etc. by what the majority of people do, and say that this is the norm. Behavior that falls outside of this is considered abnormal. It is important to recognize that abnormality is affected significantly by society and culture…what is abnormal in the United States may be considered completely normal in another country.
Abnormal Psychology: A discipline or branch of psychology that studies patterns of normal and abnormal behavior as well as personality disorders. In addition, abnormal psychology is concerned with the origins and treatment of abnormal behavior and disorders. Although the term is not used in this way, it may be helpful for you to think of abnormal psychologists as counseling psychologists and/or clinical psychologists. Abnormal psychology is more of an umbrella term.
Absolute Threshold: This is a term that many students have a difficult time understanding, but it's not as complex as it might seem. One formal definition is that absolute threshold is the smallest intensity of a stimulus that has to be present for the stimulus to be detected. Let's use an example to clear this up. Think of an electric burner on a stove. Imagine turning that burner on and then placing your hand directly on it. At first you won't feel much heat because is takes time for the burner to heat up. But at some point it will get hot enough for you to detect…meaning, there is some temperature that is just hot enough for you to notice it. This isn't the point at which you get burned, but the point at which it is just hot enough for you to detect the presence of the heat.
Accommodation: This term stemmed from the work of Jean Piaget and his work on cognitive development of children. Accommodation is the cognitive process of revising existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding so that new information can be incorporated. In order to make sense of some new information, you actual adjust information you already have (schemas you already have, etc.) to make room for this new information. This is related to assimilation.
Acculturation: There are actually a couple of different meanings to this word (given in no particular order). The first definition here relates to the effects of groups or societies on people…"The modification of the culture of a group or individual as a result of contact with a different culture" or " The process by which the culture of a particular society is instilled in a human from infancy onward." Acculturation may also refer to a cognitive process that is similar to Piaget's "assimilation", as can be seen in this definition of acculturation: "the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive structure."
Acetylcholine: Acetylcholine (ACh) is the most common type of neurotransmitter, and the most well understood. It's found in parts of the peripheral nervous system, spinal cord, and areas of the brain. In the peripheral nervous system, ACh activates muscles that help the body move. When Ach is released to the muscle cells, the muscle contracts. In the brain, ACh is involved in breathing, attention, arousal, motivation, etc. Obviously there are many problems that can occur if ACh is blocked (muscles can't contract). One example is the black widow spider uses venom that causes a flood of ACh into muscle cells and results in violent, uncontrollable muscle contractions, paralysis, and death for it's prey.
Achievement test: An achievement test is a standardized test that is designed to measure an individual's level of knowledge in a particular area. Unlike an aptitude test which measures a person’s ability to learn something, an achievement test focuses specifically on how much a person knows about a specific topic or area such as math, geography, or science. One of the most well known achievement tests is the SAT, which is often used by college admission boards to determine who gets accepted to college. Unfortunately, schools often use the SAT to predict how well students will learn (or perform) in college, which means they are using an achievement test as though it was an aptitude test.
Acquisition: Acquisition refers to the initial stage of the learning or conditioning process. In this stage, some response is being associated with some stimulus to the point where we can say the organism (person, animal, etc.) has "acquired" the response. During this stage the response is strengthened (reinforced) so that it is truly "learned". For example, if you are trying to train a rat to press a lever in response to you ringing a bell (i.e., trying to condition the rat to press the lever when and only when you ring the bell), then once the rat presses the lever in only response to the bell, you can say the response is "acquired". You would then continue to gradually reinforce the lever pressing in response to the bell to make sure the response is strengthened.
Acrophobia: An irrational fear of heights or high places. Many people dislike heights, but someone with a clinical case of acrophobia can have intense emotional and physical responses at just the thought of being in a high place.
Action Potential: Many people often think that the neural impulse (the firing of a neuron) is actually the action potential. However, the action potential is really just one step in the entire sequence of steps that must occur for a neural impulse to occur (we have a nice description of how this occurs in the Class Notes section of AlleyDog.com…go to the Biological Psychology link to read it. During the sequence of events in the neural impulse, the neural membrane opens at one area and allows the positively charged ions to rush in and the negative ions to rush out. When this happens, the charge inside the neuron rises to approximately +40 mv (is this too much information?) for just a brief moment, but long enough to create a domino effect. As action potentials happen over and over within the neuron, it carries the electrical signal (the information) with it. The neural impulse is like a series of action potentials happening over and over again.
Active Listening: Active listening comes from the theories of Carl Rogers' person-centered-therapy. This type of listening involves a person (typically a therapist) listening to a person and then responding to the person using techniques such as paraphrasing. In this way the listener restates what has been said in order to demonstrate empathy, show that he/she was listening and understanding what was being said.
Actor-Observer Bias: This is a social psychology term that refers to the tendency of an individual to regard situations in which he or she is involved as caused by external factors, and to regard situations he or she observes as caused by the actions of those involved. Think of a time when someone was rude to you. Did you say to yourself, “Wow, that person must be having a bad day. I understand why they were rude to me” ? Or did you say something to the effect of, “What a jerk”? If your response was similar to the latter, then you attributed the persons behavior to internal factors (the person is a jerk) rather than external factors (bad day). The likelihood is that if the situation were reversed and you were rude to someone else, you would say it was because of something external and not some internal factor (like you think you are a jerk--I don't think so!).
Acute Schizophrenia: This term is no longer used commonly, but used to refer to a disorder characterized primarily by a sudden onset of schizophrenic symptoms such as aberrant behavior and disorientation. More recently schizophrenia has been classified as a chronic disorder which means that it does not come and go sporadically as the term acute schizophrenia implies.
Adaptation: Things change. As humans, we must also change. Adaptation refers to an individual's ability to adjust to changes and new experiences, and to accept new information. The ability to adapt helps us grow mentally and continually develop.
Addiction: Any time a person continues to exhibit harmful or obsessive behavior, we can say that they are addicted. There are many, many types of addictions, from gambling, to sex, to drugs and alcohol.
Adjustment: Adjustment may be defined as a process of altering behavior to reach a harmonious relationship with the environment. When people say they are in an “adjustment period” they typically mean they are going through a process of change and are searching for some level of balance or acceptance with the environment, others, or themselves.
Adolescence: The developmental stage that occurs from puberty to maturity, lasting from about ages 12 to 18 (there is some debate about the exact age range, but 12-18 is a commonly accepted range). There are numerous theories about the changes that occur during this stage of life, but one thing that is consistent is that this is a significant time of change and growth. During this time of life we transition to adulthood.
Adolescent: A person in the stage of adolescence, which is the developmental stage that occurs from puberty to maturity, lasting from about ages 12 to 18.
Affect: Affect is a fairly general term for feelings, emotions, or moods. To say someone has negative affect means that they have feelings, emotions, or moods that are negative in nature. I guess you can think of this as just a fancy way to say "feelings".
Affective Disorder: Since affect is a general term for feelings, emotion, or moods, affective disorder is a disorder characterized by wide fluctuation of feelings, emotions, and/or moods. For example, a person with affective disorder may be very happy one minute and then terribly depressed the next.
Agape: Agape is a Greek term meaning a purely spiritual love of a person. This type of love corresponds to the love of God.
Age Regression: Have you ever seen a movie in which some characters supposedly had something happen to them when they were young and some therapist says he/she will hypnotize the person so they can "go back" in time and remember the thing that happened? Well, that's basically what age regression is…a person is hypnotized so that they can relive a past experience (typically during childhood) which is supposed to help them resolve some internal problem. Unfortunately there are many problems associated with this including false memories.
Aggression: Let’s be really simple with this term…aggression is any form of behavior that is intended to harm or injure some person, oneself, or an object.
Alexithymia: This term was requested by a student and is a term we are not very familiar with. As a result, we searched for a definition and found the following...we hope you find it useful: "Sifneos (1972) coined the term alexithymia to designate a group of cognitive and affective characteristics typical of many patients with psychosomatic illnesses. It is thought to be a personality trait that is characterized by a decreased ability to communicate feelings, a decreased ability to identify feelings, a cognitive tendency toward detail and external operations or events, and a paucity of imaginative thought, dream recall, or fantasy" (Taylor, 1994).
Alpha Waves: Alpha waves are a type of brain wave that occur when a person is relaxed, but still awake. Alpha waves typically occur when you are falling asleep, as you pass from wakefulness into sleep (from wake into stage 1 sleep).
Altered State (of consciousness): If college students don’t know what this term means, who will? Just kidding. An altered state of consciousness is any mental state or condition that varies from a person’s normal state of awareness. Things that can produce altered states include alcohol, drugs, dreams, hypnosis, meditation, sensory deprivation, or hallucinations.
Altruism: Altruism refers to unselfish behaviors or actions done for the sake of someone else. For example, if you volunteer at a nursing home, or give money to someone in need, etc., you are helping someone else without receiving benefit. However, there is debate about altruism - some people who say altruism doesn't "really" exist because you do get something out of unselfish acts - you feel good about yourself. I'll leave it to you to decide if altruism exists.
Amnesia: Amnesia is the inability to recall past events. Amnesia can result from physical trauma (such as being in an accident and getting a blow to the head) or from psychological problems. One type of amnesia, dissociative amnesia, is the inability to recall events that results from psychological problems, specifically from too much stress. This is sometimes seen in victims of horrible events such as violent crimes, murder, war, etc. It is not a typical situation, but sometimes when an event is simply too difficult for a person to handle, they protect themselves by blocking the memory of the event. In these cases the problem is usually temporary.
Amphetamines: Amphetamines are a type of stimulant that speeds up bodily processes, and includes caffeine (coffee, tea, soda), nicotene (cigarettes), and cocaine. Some of the effects include increased heart rate, increased respiration, reduced appetite, and increased energy. Many modern-day "energy drinks" contain a lot of caffeine to give you all this energy.
Amygdala: No, this is not pronounced "ah-mig-DAH-la", but rather, "ah-MIG-dah-la" (don't ask me why I felt compelled to include the pronounciation!). The amygdala is actually 2 areas of the brain (not one) containing lots of neurons that influence anger, aggression, fear, and rage. Although there are other parts of the brain that influence these emotions, the amygdala may have the most influence. Early studies demonstrated that damaging these areas can turn very aggressive animals into docile, even fearful creatures.
Anaclitic Depression: This is a type of depression that occurs primarily in infants who have been separated from or lost their mothers or primary caretakers. If a child suffers from anaclitic depression there is a high risk of serious developmental problems both intellectually and physically. Although anaclitic depression has been reserved almost exclusively for infants, psychologists have found it in adults and even monkeys.
Anal Character: This term is an extension of Freud’s anal stage of development (you remember Freud’s stages of development, right?) in which a person develops a specific type of a personality that stems from unresolved conflicts during the anal stage of psychosexual development. A person with an anal character typically shows traits such as excessive neatness and orderliness, stinginess, and an inability to be flexible.
Anal Stage: The anal stage is one of the stages in Freud’s psychosexual theory of development, which occurs in the second year of life. During this stage, the anus becomes the focus of sexual gratification. This occurs because the child finds sexual pleasure in the sensations that come with having or withholding bowel movements.
Anal-Expulsive: Freud’s psychosexual theory of development has several stages and lots of elements within those stages. The term anal-expulsive refers to a time during the anal stage of development (which lasts from about 18 months to three or four years old) in which the focus of pleasure is the anus and children find sensual pleasure in having bowel movements (expelling feces). This is the opposite of anal-retentive in which children retain feces (they resist having bowel movements).

Freud believed that a child who does not successfully take control over their sphincter at the anal stage will become fixated and may end up with a anal-expulsive personality - which includes being disorganized, messy, careless, rebellious, and sometimes cruel.
Anal-Retentive (anal stage of motivational development): The anal stage of motivational development is characterized by the child's central area of bodily concern in the rectum. Bowel movements become a source of pleasure to the child. The child may defecate to receive pleasure. However, gaining pleasure from defecating brings the child into conflict with the parents regarding toilet training. Freud claimed that delays during this stage (or this stage occuring prematurely) can cause fixation. Fixation during the anal stage can result in anal retention in which a person exhibits compulsive cleanliness, ordderliness, or fussiness.
Androgyny: Someone who is androgynous has both male and female traits. This is not to say that the person has male and female genitalia, but that the person exhibits both male and female behaviors, emotions, etc. This type of person is very much a mix of maleness and femaleness.
Anecdotal Evidence: Anecdotal Evidence is information you obtain from a subjective report, an observation, or some kind of example that may or may not be reliable. In addition, anecdotal evidence is not scientifically valid or representative of a larger group or of conditions in another location.
Anorexia Nervosa: Anorexia nervosa (often referred to as just anorexia) is a very serious, pathological loss of appetite and self induced limiting of food intake. Anorexia nervosa can lead to severe psychological, emotional, and physical problems, including death. This disorder most often affects females (although males do suffer from anorexia as well), and is typically associated with a tremendous amount of concern for and misperception of one's own body image.
Antecedent Conflict: Antecedent conflict is the concept or theory that suggests events that happen early in life which are troubling, traumatic, or disturbing bring about intense reactions to conflict during adult life. This is not to say that people who simply don’t deal with problems well have antecedent conflict. Rather, responses to conflict are severe and very intense, well outside the “normal” range or responding.
Antisocial: People who are antisocial tend to have and exhibit hostility toward society or to the established values of the society in which they live.
Antisocial Behavior: Antisocial behavior is exhibited typically by people who are “antisocial” which is hostility toward society or the established values of society. When behaviors are exhibited that violates rules or conventions of society and/or personal rights, they are exhibiting antisocial behavior.
Antisocial Personality: This is a type of personality disorder in which the person has impulsivity, an inability to live by the rules, customs, and laws of the society in which they live, and a lack of anxiety or guilt about their behavior. It is synonymous with sociopathic personality and sociopath.
Anxiety: We all experience some anxiety sometimes, but many people don’t really know what it is. According to one dictionary definition, anxiety can be defined as a strong and unpleasant feeling of nervousness or distress in response to a feared situation, often accompanied by physiological effects such as nausea, trembling, breathlessness, sweating, and rapid heartbeat.
Anxiety Disorder: The class of disorders containing any disorder in which anxiety is the primary feature or in which anxiety appears when the individual tries to resist a phobia. There are a variety of anxiety disorders including Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Phobia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Acute Stress Disorder. Each of these anxiety disorders has specific criteria outlined in the DSM (diagnostic and statistical manual) that must be reached before someone is diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
Aphasia: Aphasia is the inability to use language appropriately and may include problems speaking language, hearing language, and reading language. Some with aphasia are able to read properly, but can't speak the language, speak the language but not be able to read it, or read letters but not numbers. Aphasia usually results from damage to parts of the brain such as Broca's (speaking problems) area or Wernicke's area (understanding language problems).
Applied Research: As opposed to basic research, applied research is the type of research which is conducted to solve practical problems, find cures to illnesses, develop therapies with the purpose of helping people, and other similar types of practical problem-solving research.
Aptitude Tests: As you probably know, aptitude refers to a person's capacity to learn. It should come as no surprise then that an aptitude test is a test designed to predict learning capacity for a particular area or particular skills. For example, the SAT is a test designed to predict how well you will perform in college (I won't get into the good and/or bad of this test). It is not designed to measure how will you did in high school (that would be an achievement test) but how capable you are of learning all the new skills necessary to do well in college.
Assimilation: This term stemmed from the work of Jean Piaget and his work on cognitive development of children. Assimilation is the cognitive process of fitting new information into existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding. This means that when you are faced with new information, you make sense of this information by referring to information you already have (information processed and learned previouly) and try to fit the new information into the information you already have. A similar process is accommodation (another one of Piaget's processes), but with accomodation the information you already have has to be adjusted to incorporate the new information.
Association: The term "association" has different meanings depending on whether you're viewing it from a cognitive or behavioral perspective. From the cognitive perspective, an association is a bond or connection between two images, thoughts, ideas, or other psychological phenomena, whereby the occurrence of one tends to bring to mind the other. The simple thought of one idea produces the thought of the other. For example, when you read the word “stop” did a word come to mind? (Maybe a stop sign or a red light?)

From a behavioral perspective, an association is the forming of a learned connection between a stimulus and a response, or between one stimulus and another. For a more comprehensive understanding of this, you should take a look at conditioning definitions such as conditioned response, conditioned stimulus, etc.
Association Theory: This theory stems from behaviorism and states that concepts are learned by simple, reinforced connections between a stimulus and a desired response. When an organism makes connections between a stimulus (e.g., a bell ringing) and a response (e.g., pressing a lever which may ultimately lead to a reward), it is making an association.
Associative Learning: This is a "learning" or "conditioning" term that refers to learning that two different events occur or happen together. This is really a fundamental component of conditioning since a response to a stimulus won't really be learned if the organism doesn't get the point that the stimulus and response are supposed to occur together. This doesn't have to be a conscious learning (remember, there is a big difference between classical and operant conditioning) but the association must be made for the learning to occur. For example, will a rat learn to press a lever if it never makes the association between pressing the lever and getting the reward? Or why would a dog salivate to a bell if it never makes the connection between the bell and getting food?
Ataxia: When the brain is unable to regulate the body's posture and direction of movement, it causes shaky and unsteady movements. This sometimes happens temporarily when you take medication, but can also be an ongoing medical condition.
Attachment: Attachment can pertain to all people, regardless of age, but typically relates to the attachment between children and caregivers (usually the mother). Attachment is an emotional tie or bond between two people. This is a very powerful bond that is important for survival - it keeps infants close to their mothers which is important for getting food, staying away from danger, and getting comfort.
Attitudes: Attitudes can be defined as an affective feelings of liking or disliking toward an object (which can be basically anything) that has an influence on behavior. As Don Forsyth describes in his text book (Our Social World), an attitude is not a feeling, a cognition, or a form of behavior; instead, attitudes combine all three components in an "integrated affect-cognition-behavior system." What this all means is that attitudes are made of three components that all influence each other. If one component changes, then it influences the entire attitude structure. In addition, each components not only have an influence on the attitude structure as a whole, but also on each other component. Although many people think attitudes are pretty simple (you like something or you don't), you can see that attitudes are actually quite complex and dynamic.
Attribution: Technically speaking, attribution is the process by which people use information to make inferences about the causes of behavior or events. Simply put, this is how we go about inferring behavior (our own and those of others). For example, if you take an exam and you do well but a friend of yours fails, you might say that you did well because you are smart but your friend failed because he partied all night and didn’t study. In this case, you “attributed” your success to an internal attribution (you’re smart) but “attributed” your friend’s behavior to an external attribution (partied all night).
Attribution Theory: Attribution theory is a Social Psychological theory that relates to the way in which people explain their own behavior and that of others. According to this theory, people tend to attribute (or explain) psychological or external causes as the determining factor in behavior. For example, if someone acts mean to you one day, would you attribute the behavior to the person being a jerk (internal attribution) or to the person having a bad day (external attribution)? Attribution theory examines the ways in which people make these attributions. Make sure you review the definition for the Fundamental Attribution Error, which relates directly to this.
Aversion Therapy: Similar to other types of behavior therapy, aversion therapy is based on the principles of learning (conditioning) and is done to eliminate the presence of some maladaptive behavior. This is done by pairing the maladaptive behavior (which is in some way rewarding to the person who engages in it -- like smoking) with a stimulus that is unpleasant. What happens then is that the pleasant behavior becomes less pleasant and decreases over time until it is gone completely.
Axon: Axons are the long, spider-thin, tail-like structures found on neurons (nerve cells). Each neuron has a nerve body, dendrites, and axons, all of which are used to send information throughout your body. The axon carries signals (electric voltages) between the dendrites (the neuron's input sites) and the terminal buttons (the neuron's output sites that are at the very end of the axon). The signal always travels in the same direction - the signal comes into the neuron through the dendrites, through the cell body (soma), to the axon, and then out the terminal buttons to the dendrites of the next neuron. In this way information travels all around your body by going from neuron to neuron.

Babbling (babbling stage): You have to love it when children begin to speak! The babbling stage is a very early stage of language development, usually occuring around ages 3-4 months, in which children spontaneously produce all sorts of nonsensical, unrelated sounds. No real words are formed at this point, but children are just beginning to put sounds together in order to form words, which happens after the babbling stage.
Babbling Stage: You have to love it when children begin to speak! The babbling stage is a very early stage of language development, usually occuring around ages 3-4 months, in which children spontaneously produce all sorts of nonsensical, unrelated sounds. No real words are formed at this point, but children are just beginning to put sounds together in order to form words, which happens after the babbling stage.
Barbiturates: This is a class of drug derived from barbituric acid that is often used for medical purposes as a sedative and/or hypnotic. The effects barbiturates produce are similar to alcohol, causing feelings of depression, sleepiness, impaired judgment, and reduced inhibitions. Barbiturates fall under the "depressant" drug class and can be very addictive.

One example you are probably familiar with is Pentothal, also known as truth serum. This barbiturate (and the reason people refer to it as truth serum) is because it produces a drunken-like state during which people are less inhibited and more likely to tell the truth.
Basal Ganglia: An area of the forebrain that is important to smooth muscle movement and actions. This area works in conjunction with the midbrain to help us avoid moving in choppy, fragmented ways.
Basic Research: As opposed to applied research, basic research is conducted with the intent of increasing the scientific knowledge base, and to find theoretical truth and understanding (not specifically to solve practical problems). For example, someone conducting basic research on cheating behavior may design a study examining whether students from divorced families cheat more often than students not from divorced families. Notice that the research is not done to reduce cheating, help people who cheat, or any other "applied" aspect, but to increase the understanding of cheating behavior.
Basic Trust: Erik Erikson conducted an enormous amount of research on developmental issues. One such issue is that of attachment. He indicated that children who have secure attachments with their parents have a general sense that the world is predictable and reliable (this is basic trust). This basic trust, according to Erikson, is formed by loving, sensitive, care givers and not from genetic makeup or to a continuously positive environment.
Basilar Membrane: This is a long membrane that is part of the auditory system. The membrane runs the length of the cochlea (inside the ear) and contains those tiny hairs that act as sound receptors.
Behavior Modification: A type of behavioral therapy in which the principles of Operant Conditioning (reinforcement, punishments, etc.) are used to eliminate some type of unwanted, maladaptive, behavior. For example, a person may feel that they no longer want to smoke (the maladaptive behavior) and so the person is given a favorite piece of candy every time a cigarette is desired but refused. So, when the person wants a cigarette but does not have one, they get a piece of their favorite candy as a reward.
Behavior Therapy: In 1952, Hans Eysenck coined this term in reference to a type of treatment that focuses on changing or reducing the occurrence of some maladaptive behavior as opposed to simply examining the unconscious conflicts or aspects associated with the maladaptive behavior. So instead of trying to "get to the root of a problem", behavior therapy aims to get rid of the problem regardless of the feelings about the behavior, the underlying causes, etc. In addition, behavior therapy is based on the premise that maladaptive behavior, like adaptive behaviors, are learned, and therefore can be unlearned. Thus, behavior therapies (like systematic desensitization, aversion therapy, and behavior modification) are based on the principles of learning.
Behavioral Psychology (behavioral approach): The behavioral approach was founded by John B. Watson and originally rejected the study of mental processes in favor of the study of overt behavior (observable behavior) and external factors – study of observable events. The behaviorists believed all behavior was determined by stimuli in the environment. Today, this approach still stresses the importance of the environment on behavior, but also allows for inclusion of cognitive processes and feelings (early behaviorists rejected cognition in the study of behavior).
Behaviorism: The school of thought that stresses the need for psychology to be an objective science. In other words, that psychology should be a science based on observable (and only observable) events, not the unconscious or conscious mind. This perspective was first suggested and propagated by John Watson in 1913, who wanted psychology to study only observable behaviors and get away from the study of the conscious mind completely. Watson's primary rationale was that only observable events are verifiable and thus, are the only events that can be proven false. This is an extremely important concept for science; without it, how can you ever find out what is true, false, real, or fake.
Between Subjects Design: In a Between Subjects Design (also known as a repeated measures design) each participant participates in one and only one group. The results from each group are then compared to each other to examine differences, and thus, effect of the IV. For example, in a study examining the effect of Bayer aspirin vs Tylenol on headaches, we can have 2 groups (those getting Bayer and those getting Tylenol). Participants get either Bayer OR Tylenol, but they do NOT get both.
Biastophilia: A paraphilia (or sexually practice that is considered deviant or not socially acceptable) in which sexual arousal becomes dependent on sexually attacking a nonconsenting, surprised, terrified, and struggling stranger. This is a kind of rape even though most rapes are committed by normophilic men (men who's sexually practices are not considered sexually deviant...other than rape, of course). The main source of the sexual arousal is the actual fear, surprise, and resistance from the victim.
Binocular Cues: Humans are able to see things that are both far and near, and can actually identify where those objects are in space (meaning, they can determine if those objects are close or far away). This sort of depth perception requires both of our eyes, which is referred to as binocular cues (depth cues that requires both of our eyes).
Biofeedback: A method of behavior modification that uses principles of operant conditioning to change a maladaptive behavior. With this method, a person is presented with visual or auditory information about some internal, involuntary process. The information is actual feedback about the internal process that the person can use to increase control of the internal process. For example, a person suffering from stress can be hooked up to a biofeedback machine that creates a sound whenever the person starts getting stressed (increased heart rate, blood pressure, etc., would cause the machine to produce the sound). By paying attention to the sounds, the person can use relaxation techniques when there are some internal changes due to the stress - even if they are not yet feeling them, the effects can be identified by the machine and then controlled by the person. Over time, the goal is to be able to control these behaviors without the use of the machine.
Biological Perspective: To understand behavior by understanding the biological processes associated with those behaviors. This includes the brain, nervous system, genetics, and more. This is becoming more prominent all the time.
Biological Psychology: Biological psychology is a branch or type of psychology that brings together biology and psychology to understand behavior and thought. Biological psychology looks at the link between biology and psychological events such as how information travels thoughout our bodies (neural impulses, axons, dendrites, etc.), how different neurotransmitters effect sleep, dreams, and other behaviors, just to name a few.
Biopsychological Perspective: The psychological school of thought based on the premise that physiological influences and factors are the most important factors in developing, determining, and causing behaviors and mental processes. In the classic "nature-nurture" debate, the physiological perspective IS the "nature".
Biopsychology: The scientific field of study that examines the relationships between biology and psychology, and how they influence behavior and cognition. For example, biopsychology examines topics such as how your eyes are able to inform your brain what you are reading, how the brain interprets this information, and how your brain communicates with your hand to move the mouse and click on different links.
Bipolar Disorder: Also known as manic depression, this is a mood disorder in which the person's mood swings from euphoric, manic stages to depressed (from one "pole" to the other). This is not simply being happy and then sad, but rather periods of uncontrollable, clinical mania and longer periods of depression. Although there are many different perspectives about the basis of bipolar disorder, the most popular view is that it is caused by a chemical imbalance. During periods of mania, the person may become incoherent, become irrational, hyperactive, unrealistic about themselves and others, and act in sexually, socially, and physically unhealthy ways (sleeping with many people, going on shopping sprees which they can't possibly afford, etc.).
Blind Spot: Visual information travels along the optic nerve in the eye before it begins its journey to the brain for processing. There is a certain spot on the optic nerve that does not have any receptor cells (the area where the optic nerve leaves the eye), and, as a result, can't receive information. The result is the blind spot.
Blocking: Sorry football fans, but this is something a little different than throwing a block on the field. Rather, this refers to a conditioning principle first addressed by Kamin (1969). Kamin indicated that having a CS (conditioned stimulus) that can predict a UCS (also known as US or unconditioned stimulus) is sufficient. What this means is that, if an animal learns that a CS is a realible predictor of a UCS (e.g., a pigeon learns that a light reliably predicts the onset of some painful sitmulus such as a shock), then the pigeon will not become conditioned to another CS or learn that any other CS predicts that UCS. So, our little pigeon friend will not learn that a bell predicts the onset of the shock the same way the light did. Once the pigeon learns one reliable association with the CS, it essentially "blocks" further associations.
Borderline Personality Disorder: This is a commonly diagnosed disorder that is characterized by unpredictable and impulsive behavior as well as sudden changes or shifts in mood. Because of this instability, people with this disorder have a difficult time maintaining relationships, and keeping a stable and positive self image. Some psychologists have suggested that this disorder hugs the line between mood disorders and personality disorders, which may cause some confusion when diagnosing people. The disorder is so commonly diagnosed that as much as 20% of all psychiatric patients are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (Frances & Widiger, 1986). The primary characterisitics include (not all of these symptoms have to be present for a person to be diagnosed with the disorder): unstable and intense interpersonal relationships chronic fears of abandonment chronic intense anger and loneliness self-destructive behavior a range of cognitive problems or distortions such as suspiciousness, unusual feelings of having a sixth sense, and unusual supersitiousness unstable social relations and repeated failures in job situations impulsive behavior such as fighting, running away, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, promoscuity, and binge eating
Brainstem: This area of the brain is not only the oldest area, but also is located in the most inner regions of the brain. The brainstem is located just above the spinal column. In fact, it is located directly above the spinal column, and is where the spinal cord enters the brain. The brainstem includes the medulla (responsible for functions such as respiration), and the reticular formation, which acts like a bridge; it allows information to pass back and forth from one side (hemisphere) of the brain to the other.
Broca's Area: Named for the French surgeon and anthropologist, Paul Broca, who found this area of the brain, Broca's Area is located in the frontal lobe of the brain and acts as the speech center. Although there are other areas of the brain that also influence speech (Wernicke's Area and the motor cortex), Broca's Area is considered the central component.
Bulimia Nervosa: People with this eating disorder engage in binge eating and purging behaviors. What this means is that a person who suffers from Bulimia Nervosa will have episodes during which they eat tremendous amounts of food (usually foods that are high in calories) and then go vomit or use laxatives to lose weight. While there are many men who suffer from this eating disorder, the majority of bulimics are women in their teens and mid twenties. Like other eating disorders, there tends to be a relationship between social views of attractiveness and bulimia; cultures that identify being thin with being attractive have higher rates of bulimia (of course there are many alternative perspectives on the causes and treatments for bulimia).
Burnout: This is an actual physical and emotional problem that results from excessive on-the- job hassles (oh, can I relate to this). The symptoms of burnout include fatigue and physical exhaustion, depression, mental fatigue, sleeping problems, etc. Although anyone with a job is susceptible to burnout, teachers, police officers, social workers, and doctors are more often subjected to the types of hassles that lead to burnout.
Butterfly Effect: This is really more of a physics/chaos theory, but it does relate to psychological as well, so here goes. The butterfly effect serves as a metaphor for life in a chaotic world. Specifically, it suggests that small events can have very large effects. This is a relatively new approach as it was once believed that small events produced small effects and large events produced large effects. Chaos theory, however, changed this view and now the butterfly effect sugests that little things, like a bird flapping its wings over China today, can have big effects, like causing a hurricane in America next week.
Bystander Effect: The Bystander Effect is a social phenomenon in which a person (or persons) are less likely to offer help to another person (or persons) when there are more people around who can also provide assistance. Many people believe that, when there is an emergency and lots of people are present, the people in need are more likely to get assistance. However, this is not the case. Rather, the more people there are who can help, the less likely each person is to offer help. Thus, when in a group, people are less likely to offer help than when they are alone.

Cannon-Bard Theory: this theory of emotion states that an emotion is produced when some stimulus triggers the thalamus to send information simultaneously to the brain (specifically, the cerebral cortex) and the autonomic system (including the skeletal muscles). Thus, the stimulus is perceived at both a physiological and the subjective level.
Cardinal Trait: According to Gordon Allport, the human personality is comprised of three traits. The most dominant of these traits are the cardinal traits which are dominant traits that characterizes almost all of a person's personality. For example, Mother Teresa is often identified as exemplifying the cardinal trait, altruism, as her life was completely devoted to helping others, even at her own expense.
Case Study: A case study is one type of observational data collection technique in which one individual is studied in-depth in order to identify behavioral, emotional, and/or cognitive qualities that are universally true, on average, of others. Case studies often include face-to-face interviews, paper and pencil tests, and more.
CAT Scan: A CAT Scan is "Computerized Axial Tomography" (also known as a CT Scan), which is a process of using computers to make a 3-dimensional image from a 2-dimensional picture (X-ray). During the process a series of x-ray photographs are taken from different angles and then combined by computer into a composite 3-dimensional representation. So, pictures are taken one slice at a time going through the whole object and then the slices are combined to get a great visual of the whole thing.

A large donut-shaped x-ray machine takes x-ray pictures at several different angles around the body. These images are processed by a computer to create cross-sectional pictures of the body. In each of these pictures the body is seen as an x-ray "slice" of the body, which is recorded on a film. It's like looking at a loaf of bread that has been sliced up--you can see the whole thing and also remove slices and see the entire slice and everything inside of it. If you want more info about CAT Scans,
Catatonic Schizophrenia: People with this type of schizophrenia exhibit unusual motor behaviors, and act in bizarre ways. There are two type of behavioral classes that the catatonic schizophrenic will engage in; catatonic excitement and catatonic stupor. During catatonic excitement, the schizophrenic will act in bizarre, high-strung like behaviors such as pacing quickly, babbling, talking incoherently, etc., while during catatonic stupors, the person will assume one position and remain that way for long periods of time (sometimes for hours). Even more interesting is the fact that the person will typically remain aware of what is going around them despite being frozen.
Catharsis: Catharsis is a psychodynamic principle that, in its most basic sense, is simply an emotional release. Further, the catharsis hypothesis maintains that aggressive or sexual urges are relieved by "releasing" aggressive or sexual energy, usually through action or fantasy. For example, a young male may watch a film in which an attractive woman engages in sexual behavior. The young male may become sexually aroused from this and subsequently frustrated because of his inability to act out his sexual desires. To release this sexual tension, the young male may go outside and play sports or engage in fantasies about himself and the woman.
Cathexis: The term cathexis refers to an investment of mental or emotional energy put into a person, object, or idea. For example, when you have a fight with your boyfriend/girlfriend and it is on your mind, you are stressed out about it, keep going over it, thinking about the other person, what will happen to the relationship, etc., you are investing mental and emotional energy in that situation, event, and person.
Causation: You are probably familiar with this word as it relates to "cause and effect"…which is a very important phrase in psychology and all science. Causation is the demonstration of how one variable influences (or the effect of a variable) another variable or other variables. When one variable does have an effect on another, you can say that you have "causation".
Cause and Effect: Cause and effect is the panacea for researchers. It is a term you've likely heard many times already, or will hear many times as you study psychology. Psychologists look to identify the "effect" one variable has on other variables…does one variable "cause" other variables to change. Establishing cause and effect is not easy and requires researchers to conduct studies that not only follow the scientific method, but also classify as "true experiments" (studies that include random assignment of participants to groups and manipulation of an independent variable). For example, can a psychologist truly say that smoking causes cancer? Can we conduct a true experiment on the effects of smoking…can you randomly assign participants to smoking and non-smoking groups, have them smoke or not smoke for a period of time and then measure the growth of cancer? You could, but not ethically. As a result, you can't establish a cause and effect relationship…you can establish that one variable (smoking) influences the other (cancer) using a correlational approach, but you really can't establish cause and effect.
Cell Assembly: In 1949, Donald O. Hebb coined this term. It refers to a group of cortical neurons that function to sustain the active memory trace that remains for a short time after some stimulus has been perceived.
Central Nervous System (CNS): CNS is a term that describes the brain and the spinal cord. This is a term you are probably familiar with, since it is one of the most commonly used scientific terms around. Despite this, there is some small debate about the CNS - some claim that the retina is also part of the CNS. However, the most accepted view is that the CNS contains only the brain and spinal cord, and that the retina is part of peripheral nervous system.
Cerebellum: The cerebellum is a structure often referred to as the "little brain" that is located in the rear of the brainstem. The cerebellum helps control voluntary movements such as eye movement and tracking of moving objects, as well as coordination and balance in behaviors that are very fast (for example, running or sprinting).
Cerebral Cortex: The thin outer layer of the brain's (approximately 2 mm) cerebral hemispheres that acts as the main control center and information processing center. The cerebral cortex is not required for performing many simple actions, but is crucial for creating new episodic memories, the fancier associations, and many new movement programs. The cerebral cortex is made up of two different sub-components: the motor cortex and the sensory cortex.
Chromosomes: The threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes. A human cell has twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, one member of each pair coming from each parent. It is these cells that are so important in determining who we are from a genetic standpoint. But don't forget, our genetic makeup is only one part of the equation. Who we are is a combination of our genetic makeup and our experiences (our environment).
Chunking: A very basic definition is that chunking is a way of organizing information into familiar groupings. This is done with all sorts of information, including numbers, single words, and multiple-word phrases which are collapsed into a single word, to create acronyms. The main advantage of this type of mnemonic device is that it enhances retention and memory. For example, how do you remember the names of the 5 Great Lakes? If you just remember the acronym, HOMES, you may find it easier to remember that the names of the Great Lakes are Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior.
Circadian Rhythms: Circadian rhythms are what people often refer to as your body's internal, biological clock. The typical human circadian rhythm occurs on a cycle of approximately 24 hours. However, the clock is not really functioning on time, but on body temperature. It is just that body temperature fluctuates on somewhat of a regular type of schedule, and so many people often believe that the circadian rhythms are time oriented instead of body temperature oriented. For example, your body temperature begins to increase in the morning (as you wake and start your day), then gets higher during the day while you are active, and begins to drop during the evening, producing feelings of fatigue and preparing for sleep.
Classical Conditioning: First proposed and studied by Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is one form of learning in which an organism "learns" through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. For example, when a neutral stimulus (such as a bell) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (such as food) which produces some involuntary bodily response all on its own (such as salivating), the neutral stimulus begins to trigger a response by the organism similar (some salivation) to that produced by the unconditioned stimulus. In this way, the organism has "learned" that the neutral stimulus equals something good (just like the unconditioned stimulus).
Clinical Psychology: Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology involving assessment and treatment of people with psychological disorders. In addition, clinical psychologists do conduct some research and experimentation, with topics that focus primarily on practical applications (such as developing new treatments, prevention for addictions, etc.).
Closure: Closure is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organization that explains how humans fill in visual gaps in order to perceive disconnected parts as a whole object. For example, can you tell what shape this elements make? [__] -- answer = square
Coactors: People who are work on the same noncompetitive task at the same time. When you play on a sports team, work on team or organizational group at the office, do a group project together, or anything where you work with other people toward a goal without competing with them, you are all coactors. This is an important component to social facilitation and the study of how people influence each other.
Cochlea: The cochlea (from the Greek word meaning "snail") is a bony, spiral-shaped, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves travel and trigger nerve impulses. The cochlea looks very much like a snail and is a vital component in hearing. Nerve impulses that send auditory signals to the brain for interpretation are sent from it.
Cognition: All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering. As you can tell, any of your ideas, thoughts, memories, etc., are all types of cognitive processes. What you are doing (reading and learning this explanation) is a type of cognition.
Cognitive Ability Tests: These tests are designed to measure a person's intelligence and mental ability. Some of the specific areas measured by cognitive ability tests include problem-solving, verbal ability, numerical ability, reasoning, memory, and general intelligence.
Cognitive Developmental Theory: Although there are many different theories of cognitive development, we are referring here to Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory. According to Piaget. His theory of cognitive development is a "stage theory" which has several stages of development, and in each stage of development, children are faced with challenging situations which they must deal with and overcome through increased mental abilities. Once the challenge is successfully dealt in that stage, the children can move on to the next stage of cognitive development. This is similar to Erikson's theory of psychosocial development, but this is a cognitive theory…it's based on cognitive challenges and cognitive advancements by the child which allow them to overcome the challenges. After each new stage is reached, there is a plateau during which the child/person is able to think in new and more advanced ways. For example, an infant can't think in abstract terms like you can because you have reached a more advanced stage of cognitive development and a higher stage in Piaget's theory.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Proposed by Festinger, the cognitive dissonance theory asserts that people often have two conflicting or inconsistent cognitions which produce a state of tension or discomfort (also known as "dissonance"). People are then motivated to reduce the dissonance, often in the easiest manner possible. For example, if you are a pacifist, but punched someone, there is inconsistency -- you think you should be passive, but you became angry enough to punch someone -- which would likely produce tension (you would feel discomfort from this - "how could I do this" ..." I don't believe in violence" ...etc.). You may reduce this tension by claiming that you don't believe in violence, EXCEPT in certain circumstances, like this one! In Festinger's classic study of dissonance, people who had engaged in a boring task for along period of time had to tell the next participant who was going to engage in the same task that it was actually a lot of fun (dissonance = telling a lie, but most people do not view themselves as liars). Participants were either paid $1 or $20 for engaging in the boring task. It turned out that people who were paid $1 told the biggest lies - they said the task was great, so much fun, etc...while the people paid $20 said it wasn't so great. Why? How can someone who just did a boring task for along time, and got paid so little for doing it, tell someone else how much fun it was? They change their attitude to actually believe that they DID enjoy the task. The people who received $20 didn't have to justify anything - the task was boring, but you get paid $20, so who cares. There is little or no dissonance in the $20 situation.
Cognitive Map: A cognitive map is a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. It seems that many animals, not just humans, are able to form a mental representation of an environment that they have been in or are currently in. For example, when a friend asks you for directions to your house, you are able to create an image in your mind of the roads, places to turn, landmarks, etc., along the way to your house from your friend's starting point. This representation is the cognitive map.
Cognitive Perspective: The Cognitive Perspective is the psychological viewpoint that the focuses on the how people (and other animals) process, store, and retrieve information and how this information is used to reason and solve problems. Obviously, the part about reasoning is generally reserved for humans, although there is some argument concerning the possibility that other animals also reason and engage in problem-solving behaviors.
Cognitive Therapy: Cognitive therapy is a form of therapy developed by Aaron Beck who suggested that our beliefs and perceptions influence our emotional responses to the world around us. According to cognitive therapy, our negative thought patterns (not unconscious conflicts or early life traumas as psychoanalysis suggests) cause depression, anxiety and some other mental disorders. Cogitive Therapy helps patients by making them aware of these beliefs, how they produce so many problems, and then working to change these dysfunctional beliefs.
Cohort: Essentially, cohort refers to people who are approximately the same age. When researchers conduct different types of studies (for example, developmental/cross sectional studies), they use cohorts to see how people of different ages compare on some topic at one point in time. For example, a researcher may compare the effects of a new study aid in three different cohorts: 10th graders, 11th graders, and 12th graders. In this way, you can examine the study aid across three different grade levels.
Collective Unconscious: According to Carl Jung, each person not only has their own unique unconscious mind, but also shares some elements of unconsciousness with all other people. He called this shared unconscious, the collective unconscious. Jung suggested that there are archetypes (images and memories of important human experiences) that are passed down from generation to generation. These archetypes can be common designs, shapes, colors, and figures seen over and over again throughout time. For example, Jung suggested that a rash of disk shaped UFO sightings were related to an archetype of god -- he believed that the disk-shape was an archetype of godlike form and perfection and the rash of sightings was an expression by people who wanted to be saved from destruction by some superhuman force.
Collectivism: Collectivism is a social psychological term that relates to the manner in which humans identify themselves and prioritize their goals. Collectivism, which is the opposite of individualism, focuses on the priorities of the group and not the individual. In a collectivist society, people identify themselves with the goals of the group much more so than the goals of individuals. Collectivism also focuses on things such as fitting into the group, behaving in ways that are line with social norms, group solidarity, and gaining a sense of identity from being part of the group. America is a more individualistic country (we do value individualism) whereas many Asian countries place a greater value on collectivism.
Color Constancy: Color constancy is a Gestalt principle of perception that suggests that the context in which an object we are viewing appears in, influences the way we perceive the color of that object. (Wow, is that as wordy and vague as I think??) Here is an example. You are looking at a bowl of fruit, which has in it a bright red apple, bananas, grapes, and some mangos. If you saw only a small portion of the apple, but did not know that it was an apple, the color would appear to change a little as the light changed. However, once you know it is an apple, you will still perceive the color as bright red even when the light changes a little (really).
Community Psychology: This is a branch of applied psychology that deals with mental health and social welfare issues within the community setting. In addition, community psychologists try to involve the community members in proposed solutions to those problems. According to Orford (1992), community psychology is about understanding people within their social worlds and using this understanding to improve people's well-being. Some of the topics addressed include substance abuse and prevention, addressing poverty issues, school failure, community development, risk and protective factors, empowerment, diversity, delinquency, and many more.
Companionate Love: Compassionate love is when two people first fall in love, they often have an intense passion for each other; they want to touch all the time, kiss all the time, and have very absorbing feelings, like "floating on a cloud". However, over time, this type of intense passion subsides. What evolves from this type of love can be nothing, or it can turn into "companionate love," a deep, mature, affectionate attachment between people who love each other, like each other, and respect each other.
Concept: A mental grouping of similar things, events, and people that is used to remember and understand what things are, what they mean, and what categories or groups they belong to. For example, if I say to you, "think of a car," the concept, "car" will evoke some ideas in your head about what a car is and what types of characteristics it contains -- does your concept of a car have black tires, two doors, four doors, is it red, white, black, etc.?
Concrete Operational Stage of Development: Jean Piaget, arguable the most prominent developmental theorist, outlined his perspective about the stages children pass through as they age and develop cognitively. In the concrete operational stage of cognitive development (from about 7 to 12 years of age) children gain the abilities and mental operations that allow them to think logically about concrete events such as mathematical operations and principles, and conservation.
Conditioned Response: In classical conditioning, the conditioned response (CR) is the learned response (reflexive behavior) to a conditioned stimulus (CS). This response is almost identical to the Unconditioned Stimulus except that now the reflexive behavior occurs in response to a conditioned stimulus as opposed to an unconditioned stimulus. For example, a dog salivates (UR) from the smell of a bone (US) naturally, without any conditioning. Once some neutral stimulus (CS) (for example, a "beep" that the dog would not naturally or normally cause the dog to salivate) has been paired with the bone for some time, the dog will salivate (CS) when the "beep" occurs.
Conditioned Stimulus: In classical conditioning, a formerly neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US), comes to produce a conditioned response. For example, a dog salivates (UR) from the smell of a bone (US) naturally, without any conditioning. Once some neutral stimulus (for example, a "beep" that the dog would not naturally or normally cause the dog to salivate) has been paired with the bone for some time, the dog will salivate (CS) when the "beep" occurs. Once the beep has the capacity to elicit the salivation, it is now considered a conditioned stimulus (CS).
Cone Receptor: Conereceptors are cells concentrated near the center of the retina that allow vision during daylight or in well-lit conditions. In addition, the cones aid in the detection of fine detail and aid in seeing colors. The cones can become washed out (like being bleached) after being in a dark environment for some time. This is why it is often painful when you have, for example, been asleep, and a light is turned on; the pain actually comes from the cones being reintroduced to the light.
Cones: The human eye has many different parts that are all needed to help us see, including rods, the optic nerve, and cones. The cones are receptor cells that help us see fine details of things and tend to help us see in situations where there is light or daylight. The majority of cones are in the center of the retina (we have approximately 6 million cones in each eye). When you squint to try to read or see something more clearly, what you are actually doing is focusing the image on this grouping of the cones in order to see the fine details. Cones also help us with color perception.
Confirmation Bias: Do you know anyone who identifies things that support some position or opinion they have but ignore information that contradicts it? If so, you know someone who is exhibiting the confirmation bias, which is a tendency for a person to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions. For example, I know someone who says that all Republicans are only concerned with healing the upper class at the expense of those who are not wealthy. He likes to identify Republican politicians who try to pass, for example, tax laws that help the upper class, which confirms his position. However, when some Republican politician proposes a law that favors those in the lower socioeconomic class, he says that it is just a smoke screen -- that they know it will never pass and only do it to make themselves look like they care when they actually don't.
Conflict: Although conflict is a very common term, in psychology it refers to anytime you have opposing or incompatible actions, objectives, or ideas, you have conflict. Conflicts can be between two people, countries, groups, or even within one person (an internal conflict). Conflicts are problematic and must be addressed in order to have peace, productivity, or harmony
Conformity: Conformity can be defined as adjusting one's behavior or thinking to match those of other people or a group standard. There are lots of reasons why people conform, including the desire/need to fit in or be accepted by others and maintaining order in ones life. For example, when you go to class, do you sit in a chair like other students or sit in the aisle? Do you face the front of the room like everyone else or do you sit facing the back wall? Why? Well, according to Muzafer Sherif (he was one of the most influential conformity researchers in psychological history), "When the external surroundings lack stabile, orderly reference points, the individuals caught in the ensuing experience of uncertainty mutually contribute to each other a mode of orderliness to establish their own orderly pattern." (Sherif, 1996, pp. xii-xiii; cited in Forsyth, 1995).
Confound: Confounding is when a researcher does not control some extraneous variables that may influence the results…the only variable that should influence the results is the variable being studied. If a variable other than the one that is manipulated by the researcher has any affect at all on the measurements, then the study is said to be confounded. This is a very serious problem since the researcher can't really claim that he/she established cause and effect. If the researcher is studying the effect of some pain medication (drug A) on the reduction of pain, but the researcher fails to control for participants taking other medications at the same time, how can the researcher claim that the results are due to the pain medication (drug A) or the other drugs that participants took? When the researcher controls all extraneous variables and can claim that only the variable that was manipulated has any effect on the results, the study is said to have internal validity.
Congruence: Carl Rogers stated that the personality is like a triangle made up of the real self, the perceived self, and ideal self. According to Rogers, when there is a good fit between all three components, the person has congruence. This is a healthy state of being and helps people continue to progress toward self-actualization.
Connectedness: Connectedness is a sensation and perception term that refers to the perception of uniform or linked spots, lines, or areas as a single unit. When these these forms are linked together or uniform, they simply appear to form a single unit and seem to go together. For example, do you perceive the following as belonging together?: 0-0 0-0 0-0
Consciousness: Consciousness, many have argued, is what separates humans from other animals. Consciousness refers to our awareness of our own mental processes, such as our thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It is possible that we are the only beings on this planet that have this type of self awareness or level of consciousness and the ability to introspect, or look inward and examine these processes. For example, if you are angry, you can try to understand your anger, why you are angry, what that anger feels like, etc. But can a cat?
Conservation: Conservation is one of Piaget's developmental accomplishments, in which the child understands that changing the form of a substance or object does not change its amount, overall volume, or mass. This accomplishment occurs during the operational stage of development between ages 7 and 11. You can often see the lack of conservation in children when there are, for example, several different sizes of juice on a table, and they chose the glass that is the tallest because they perceive the taller glass as having more juice inside of it (even though the tallest glass may also be the thinnest). All the glasses may have the same amount of juice in them, but children who haven't accomplished conservation will perceive the tall glass as being most full.
Construal: Construal is a social psychological term that refers to the way in which (or the process of) people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the world around them. We all need to interpret the world around us so that we can make sense of the world and determine our own actions and judgements. For example, imagine you are walking down the street and in front of you someone stops, falls to the ground, grabs their chest, and starts to turn blue. You would begin to interpret this situation, running through all the possible explanations for this situation and the person's behavior. Is it a joke, are they choking, having a heart attack, is this an emergency, etc. This would be contrual - your interpretation of the situation.
Constructive Recall: According to schema theory of memory organization (please look up the term "schema" for additional information), long-term memories are stored as parts of schemas (cognitive structures used for organizing information about events). Ulric Neisser suggested that there are times when our memories are distorted by adding or changing some of the details in order to fit with a schema. It is possible to have very accurate memory of the themes of specific events but innacurate accounts of the specific details of the event. We may change or tweak the memory a bit in order that it be more consistent with a schema. In other words, we adjust the memory a little bit so that it is more consistent with some schema we already have.
Content Validity: Content validity is an important research methodology term that refers to how well a test measures the behavior for which it is intended. For example, let's say your teacher gives you a psychology test on the psychological principles of sleep. The purpose of this test is to measure your knowledge or mastery of the psychological priniciples of sleep, right? If the test does indeed measure this, then it is said to have content validity -- it measures what it is supposed to measure.
Context: This term refers to the situation or circumstances in which an event occurs…the particular setting in which the event occurs. For example, when attempting to understand behavior, it is important to look at the situation or circumstances present at the time of the behavior. If a person was rude to you, was it because they are simply rude or because of something in the situation? To make a determination, you need to look at the context.
Contiguity: Contiguity is a behaviorist approach that states, for learning to occur, the response must occur in the presence of or very soon after a stimulus is presented, or an association will not occur. In essence, this is a behaviorist view based on the idea that learning will occur only if events occur relatively close together in time.
Continuity: Continuity is a Gestalt principle of perceptual organization that states people have a tendency to group stimuli into continuous lines and patterns. For example, when you see geese flying south for the winter, they fly in a formation that, to us, looks like a big "V".
Continuous Reinforcement: This is an operant conditioning principle in which an organism is reinforced every single time that organism provides the appropriate operant response. For example, you, as a researcher, might present a food pellet every time the rat presses the lever. One of the biggest dangers when using this type of reinforcement is saturation (the organism basically gets full - you keep feeding it and it no longer wants the reinforcement because it is stuffed), so the idea that giving reinforcement all the time is the best way to teach/learn is not necessarily true.
Control Condition (control group): During many experiments, researchers often include treatment groups (the groups that are given the treatment/IV) and a control group, which is identical to the treatment group in every single way except that the control group does not get the treatment/IV. In this way, the researcher can study effect(s) of the treatment thoroughly. For example, if I am studying the effects of 2 different pain medications of headaches, I may give people who have headaches (the treatment groups) either Tylenol or Bayer (these are the levels of the IV). I can then wait one hour and ask participants to rate the level of pain they are experiencing. If the amount of pain in one group goes down significantly more than the other, I may conclude that one medication is more effective than the other in reducing headache pain. However, I can't say that either are more effective than giving nothing at all. Maybe there was a placebo effect, and simply getting a pill made people believe their pain was reduced. So, I could include another group - a control group - which is treated and exposed to everything the other groups are except that they are given a placebo (maybe a sugar pill) instead of either Tylenol or Bayer. (Also see Experimental Condition).
Convergence: In order to perceive depth properly, your eyes must move slightly inward or converge. In so doing, people are able to determine if objects are close to them or far away.
Convergent Thinking: A cognitive process (a mode of critical thinking) in which a person attempts to find a single, correct answer to a problem. This is opposite from divergent thinking in which a person generates many unique, creative responses to a single question or problem.
Convergent Validity: Convergent validity refers to the degree to which scores on a test correlate with (or are related to) scores on other tests that are designed to assess the same construct. For example, if scores on a specific form a aggressiveness test are similar to people's scores on other aggressiveness tests, then convergent validity is high (there is a positively correlation between the scores from similar tests of aggressiveness).
Conversion Disorder: There are lots of disorders that people often believe are just made up. While I may not necessarily agree with this opinion, conversion disorder doesn't help the clinical perspective. The reason is that conversion disorder is a rare somatoform disorder in which a person has specific, genuine, physical symptoms, but there is no physiological basis for the symptoms; at least there is no physiological basis that can be found.
Coronary Heart Disease: Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and is a narrowing of the blood vessels that nourish the heart muscle, thus depriving the heart of the necessary blood to function properly.
Corpus Callosum: This area contains the largest bundle of nerve fibers in the brain and connects the two sides (hemispheres) of the brain. The corpus callosum doesn't just sit there, it is responsible for allowing the two hemispheres to communicate with each other and share information. Thus, the corpus callosum carries massages between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Correlation: A correlation is a statistical index used to represent the strength of a relationship between two factors, how much and in what way those factors vary, and how well one factor can predict the other. Using correlations does NOT (I repeat, does not) provide you with cause and effect information; it will not tell you if one factor causes or is caused by the other. This fact was an important component in the court cases against the tobacco companies that occurred in the late 1990's. The studies conducted previously on the effects of smoking indicated a positive correlation between smoking and cancer. This means that the studies found that as the rate of smoking increased, so did the occurrence of cancer; smoking goes up, presence of cancer goes up. BUT, this does not demonstrate that smoking causes cancer (does anyone disagree that it does?), only that there is a relationship between the two factors.
Correlation Coefficient: This is a measure of the direction (positive or negative) and extent (range of a correlation coefficient is from -1 to +1) of the relationship between two sets of scores. Scores with a positive correlation coefficient go up and down together (as with smoking and cancer). A negative correlation coefficient indicates that as one score increases, the other score decreases (as in the relationship between self-esteem and depression; as self-esteem increases, the rate of depression decreases).
Counseling Psychology: The branch of psychology that focuses on personal problems not classified as serious mental disorders, such as academic, social, or vocational difficulties of students. This is similar to clinical psychology, except that most of the issues addressed by counseling psychologists are less "serious". For example, a clinical psychologist would be more likely to deal with schizophrenia and other "serious" psychological disorders than a counseling psychologist.
Counterbalance: Counterbalancing is a type of experimental design in which all possible orders of presenting the variables are included. For example, if you have two groups of participants (group 1 and group 2) and two levels of an independent variable (level 1 and level 2), you would present one possible order (group 1 gets level 1 while group 2 gets level 2) first and then present the opposite order (group 1 gets level 2 while group 2 gets level 1). This way you can measure the effects in all possible situations. Obviously there are limitations with this procedure as not all studies can be designed this way and as you increase the number of variables, conditions, etc., it just becomes logistically problematic.
Counterconditioning: Counterconditioning is a type of therapy based on the principles of classical conditioning that attempts to replace bad or unpleasant emotional responses to a stimulus with more pleasant, adaptive responses. For example, do you remember the case of Little Albert - the boy that John Watson conditioned to fear little white rats? Well, if Watson attempted to "uncondition" the fear response to the rats, he would be engaging in counterconditioning - attempting to replace the unpleasant response (fear) to the rats with a more pleasant response (happiness).
Countertransference: Countertransference is a situation in which a therapist, during the course of therapy, develops positive or negative feelings toward the patient. These feelings may be the therapist's unconscious feelings that are stirred up during therapy which the therapist directs toward the patient. A therapist might start feeling uneasy about therapy or the patient, unhappy with the way therapy is going, or unhappy with themselves. Just like transference, this is not an uncommon situation in the therapeutic situation. Of course, therapists must not act on any feelings they have
Creativity: This is a simple one that you probably already know, but here it is anyway. Creativity is the ability to produce new ideas. Some definitions also state that ideas created should be valuable, but I'm not convinced this is accurate. The reason I say this because the term "valuable" is subjective and varies according to situations such as culture and social values. But, the "valuable" aspect is included in some definitions so I wanted to make sure it's mentioned here.
Criterion: When you take a test or create a test, what is it that the test is designed to measure? Regardless of what the "that" may be (future performance, intelligence, aptitude, etc), it is the criterion. For example, if you are trying to predict how a person will perform in school, you may try to predict grades (the behavior) using a predictive test (such as the SAT). But does that mean that a test is valid? Hmmmm, if you are not sure, you better look up validity and reliability.
Critical Thinking: Some people say I'm argumentative, opinionated, even a pain in the ass. I like to think I am a critical thinker. Being a critical thinker (and thus the meaning of critical thinking) means that you do not simply accept arguments or perspectives that are presented to you blindly. Instead, you think about things carefully, consider different aspects of the arguments, evaluate the merits, and generally make more in depth conclusions. Okay, maybe I'm a pain in the ass, but that IS the definition of critical thinking.
Cross-Sectional Study: A cross-sectional study is one type of study in which people of different ages are examined at the same time(s). This is usually done with cohorts, so that researchers can examine how people of different ages perform, behave, or respond to a particular function. For example, a researcher may give one type of test to children in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, to examine the differences in performance across these age groups.
Crystallized Intelligence: The amount of information you obtain and the verbal skills you develop over time. Together these elements form your crystallized intelligence. One argument that many people have offered against tests such as the SAT is that, although the creators and supports claim that the SAT is designed to measure potential, that it in fact measures crystallized intelligence, which is not predictive, but achievement.
Culture: Culture is the set of ideas, behaviors, attitudes, and traditions that exist within large groups of people (usually of a common religion, family, or something similar). These ideas, behaviors, traditions, etc. are passed on from one generation to the next and are typically resistant to change over time. Cultures vary widely not only across the world, but even right next door. For example, if you live in America and then visit different areas of Europe, you may notice that people often get closer to each other physically in social settings - tables are often closer together at restaurants, people stand closer to each other when they speak, etc. These are examples of cultural differences.

Data: Data are sets of numbers or pieces of information obtained during research studies. Data may be either qualitative (categorical and usually non-numerical) or quantitative (numerical) in nature, but in general, data are numerical pieces of information.
Debriefing: When a study or experiment ends, researchers are required to "debrief" participants. In a "debreifing" a researcher explains the purpose of the study, explains the use of deception (if any was used), encourages the participant to ask questions about the study, and allows the researcher to address any harm to the participant that may have resulted from their participation in the study. Debreifing is important to make sure the participant does not feel harmed from the the study in any way.
Decay: Decay is a type of forgetting that occurs when memories fade over time. This does NOT apply to Long Term Memory, but rather sensory storage and Short Term Memory. The main reason this occurs in sensory and/or short term memory is that we don't need to process and store all the information that we encounter in the world, so we simply don't attend to, recognize, or rehearse all the information, and this information just fades away not to be stored in our long term memories.
Decibel: This is simply a measure of sound intensity. When you are at the Smashing Pumpkins concert, standing next to the speakers, banging your head, the volume of the music is measured in decibels. The higher the decibels, the louder the music and the higher the decibel level, the more likely it is to cause damage to your auditory system....What did you say?
Declarative Memory: Declarative memory, also known as explicit memory, is a type of long-term memory in which we store memories of fact. In addition, declarative memory is divided further into semantic and episodic memories (please look those up for complete definitions). So, if you have memories of things such as when Columbus sailed to America or what day and time your baby brother was born, you have declarative memories.
Defense Mechanism: A defense mechanism is a way for the mind to protect us from being consciously aware of thoughts or feelings that are too difficult to tolerate. Since the thought or feeling is too difficult to tolerate the defense mechanism only allows the unconscious thought or feeling to be expressed indirectly in some type of disguised form. Doing this allows us to reduce anxiety that is caused by the unconscious thought or feeling.

The concept of the defense mechanism was popularized by Freud and the psychoanalytic perspective. There are several different types of defense mechanisms including repression, regression, denial (my personal favorite), projection, compensation, sublimation, reaction formation, rationalization, and hallucination.
Deindividuation: Have you ever been in a group and acted in a manner that was completely out of character for you? How about when you hear on the news that some group of people did something so violent or stupid that you just couldn't believe it? One reason this happens is that people in groups tend to lose some of their own self-awareness and self-restraint when in groups. They become less of an individual and more anonymous. In a sense, people will do things in groups they otherwise would not because they feel less responsible for their actions and less like an individual. This process of deindividuation can have powerful effects. For example, how can soldiers kill innocent children? They often answer this question by saying that they are not monsters, but that they were going along with the group and that they were just following orders, and that they were not the only ones doing it....all engaged in heinous acts of violence because, in part, they had become deindividuated.
Delta Wave: A delta wave is a type of brain wave that is large (high amplitude) and slow (low frequency), and is most often associated with slow wave sleep (stages 3 and 4; often referred to as deep sleep). Delta waves, like other brain waves, are measured using an electro-encephalogram (EEG).
Delusions: People with certain psychological disorders (or those having a psychotic episode), such as schizophrenia, may demonstrate delusions, or false beliefs, often of persecution or grandeur. For example, a schizophrenic may insist they he is a great football player who has won many awards and has been the hero of many games, even though in reality, he was never even been on a football team.
Demand Characteristic: Sometimes during an experiment, a participant might pick up on some clue or bias from the researcher, the situation, or something about the experiment that gives the participant and idea of what type of response the researcher is looking for. This doesn't mean that the participant is right, just that something makes them act in a way they think is what the researcher wants and not necessarily in their normal manner. This is similar to oberver bias except that the bias is found in the participants and not the observers of the research.
Dendrite: Dendrites are the branch-like structures of neurons that extend from the cell body (soma). The dendrites receive neural impulses (electrical and chemical signals) from the axons of other neurons. The signal always travels in the same direction - the signal comes into the neuron through the dendrites, through the cell body (soma), to the axon, and then out the terminal buttons to the dendrites of the next neuron. In this way information travels all around your body by going from neuron to neuron.
Denial: Denial is a defense mechanism in which a person unconsciously rejects thoughts, feelins, needs, wishes, or external realities that they would not be able to deal with if they got into the conscious mind. For example, when people are told that they have a terminal illness and are going to die in a short period of time, the news can be so overwhelming that they enter into a state of denial--they refuse (on every level) to accept that they are going to die soon because it is much too painful to handle.
Dependent Variable (DV): In an experiment there are two variables; the independent variable (IV) and the dependent variable (DV). In the most basic sense, you need two variables because as a researcher, you want to be able to examine if something (a drug, a therapy, a teaching technique, whatever) has an effect on some participant (person, people, animals, etc.). To accomplish this, you not only need something to examine (and manipulate - this is the IV), but also something to measure the effect the IV has (this is the DV). Thus, we can define the DV as the variable that is being measured. It is this variable that we, as the researchers, look at for change. IF there is a change, we may conclude that the IV affected the DV. The ultimate here is to establish that the IV caused the change in the DV (this is the magical "cause-effect" relationship).
Depressants: Depressants are drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow down body functions. Many people think that alcohol is not a depressant and actually makes them have more fun. However, what alcohol does is lower inhibitions, so you may act in ways you otherwise would not. Also, it diminishes your senses - makes you less alert, less attentive, less "sharp", essentially depressing the nervous system.
Depressive Realism: Depressive Realism is the tendency for mildly depressed people to make judgments that are typically more accurate than people who are not depressed. Those who are not depressed often make judgments and attributions that are self-serving. For example, if you did well on a psychology test you might say that you did so because you're a genius and know everything about psychology. This would be a pretty self-serving attribution, wouldn't you say? But a mildly depressed person who got an A might make a more accurate attribution such as saying it was not because she is a genius, but because she studied well or the test was particularly easy. Your way might make you feel better, but it also might be less accurate.
Deprivation Study: A deprivation study is a form of research in which an organism is prevented from having something they want or need for a designated period of time in order to examine the effect the deprivation has on the organism. For example, I used to work in a sleep lab where we often deprived people of sleep for days at a time. During the study we presented participants with all sorts of tests to see the effects sleep deprivation had on their cognitive functioning, motor skills, coordination, and many other factors.
Depth Perception: Depth perception is the ability to judge the distances of objects, which also allows us to see them in three dimensions. Obviously, images that strike the retina are two dimensional, but because our visual systems have the capacity to interpret stimuli in terms of relative depth, we see these objects not as flat, but as having some depth.
Descriptive Statistics: Descriptive statistics are used by researchers to summarize and "describe" data found during research. Typically researchers deal with lots of data and descriptive statistics provide a way for the researchers to summarize the main properties of a large group of data into just a few numbers. This lets the researcher show what the data are without tons and tons of numbers. Some examples of descriptive statistics are frequency distributions, measures of center (i.e., mean, median, mode), range, and standard deviation. (This is not a complete list of descriptive stats)
Developmental Psychology: Developmental psychology is the branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change of humans throughout their life cycle. Some argue that developmental psychologists study changes over time which all psychologists study, not just developmentalists. However, the difference is that the topics studied by developmental psychologists revolve around the maturation and aging process; what affects it and what it affects. For example, a developmental psychologist and myself may each conduct a study addressing how children of different ages perform on a particular test. The developmental Psychologist would be concerned with the differences between the age groups, why they performed differently, what developmental issues may be the causal factors in the differences, etc., while I may explain the differences in terms of the test, not the developmental differences of the children (i.e., the test is age appropriate, can we use it on people of other ages, what does having an age difference mean on whatever the test actually measured, etc.).
Difference Threshold: The difference threshold, also known as the just noticeable difference (jnd), is the minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50 percent of the time. We experience the difference threshold as a just noticeable difference. For example, let's say I asked you to put your hand out and in it I placed a pile of sand. Then, I add tiny amounts of sand to your hand and ask you to tell me when you notice any change in the overall weight. As soon as you can detect any change in the weight, that difference between the weight of the sand before I added that last bit of sand and the amount of sand after I added it, is the difference threshold.
Differential Psychology: This is the field of psychology established by Galton, that studies all the behavioral and cognitive differences between people including individual differences in personality, intellect, and physical characteristics.
Differentiation: Differentiation typically refers to a developmental process when a skill becomes more sophisticated and broken into subsets. For example, a child may first learn the skill of walking, which can later become more sophisticated and break into skipping, running, jumping, and more. The child has not reached a new level of walking (if you will), but rather differentiated one skill into multiple subsets.
Discriminant Validity: Discriminant validity is the degree to which scores on a test *do not* correlated with scores from other tests that *are not* designed to assess the same construct. For example, if discriminant validity is high, scores on a test designed to assess aggressiveness should not be positively correlated with scores from tests designed to assess intelligence.
Discrimination: Discrimination is a term that is used in both classical and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, it refers to an ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and other, similar stimuli that don't signal an unconditioned stimulus (US). For example, if Pavlov's dog had developed discrimination, it would have salivated to the tone that had been paired with the delivery of the meat powder, and not a similar tone with a slightly different pitch. In operant conditioning, the definition is essentially the same, but here the organism discriminates between a learned, voluntary response and an irrelevant, non-learned response. For example, a dog that has learned to sit when a person says "sit" in order to receive a treat, but the dog does not sit when a person says "bit".
Displacement: According to Freudian in psychoanalytic theory, displacement is when a person shifts his/her impulses from an unacceptable target to a more acceptable or less threatening target. For example, if you are very angry at your teacher because you did poorly on a test and think the reason for your poor performance is because the teacher asked tricky, unfair questions, you may become angry at your teacher. But, you obviously can't yell at your teacher (really, you can't!), hit your teacher, or express your angry in any other hostile way toward the teacher, so you go home and "displace" your anger by punching your little brother instead.
Dissociation: Dissociation is a split in the mind in which there can be two independent streams of consciousness occurring at the same time, allowing some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others. According to some, dissociation is the foundation of hypnosis - the hypnotized person is able to maintain control of certain thoughts and behaviors, while others are being influenced by the hypnotist.
Dissociative Disorders: Dissociative disorders are disorders such as psychogenic fugue, multiple personality, and psychogenic amnesia in which a person's conscious awareness becomes separated (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings. When this happens, the person is unable to recall certain events that happened in their lives. For example, you may have heard of people committing heinous crimes and them claiming to have no recollection whatsoever of the event. This would be a case of psychogenic amnesia.
Dissociative Fugue: Dissociative Fugue (also known as just Fugue) is a really interesting type of disorder in which a person suffers a bout of amnesia and then flees their home and identity. Often the person will travel far away from their home, assume a new identity, and live as a different person until they "snap" out of their amnesic state.

The DSM criteria for Dissociative Fugue are:
1. The main disturbance is sudden, unexpected travel away from home or one's customary place of work, with inability to recall one's past.
2. Confusion about personal identity or assumption of a new identity (partial or complete).
3. The disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of Dissociative Identity Disorder and is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (for example, a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (for example, temporal lobe epilepsy).
4. The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
Distress: This term refers to the "bad" type of stress (the opposite of Eustress), and occurs when we have excessive adaptive demands placed upon us. This occurs when the demands upon us are so great that they lead to bodily and mental damage. Distress is damaging, excessive or pathogenic (disease producing) stress.
Divergent Thinking: A cognitive process (a mode of critical thinking) in which a person generates many unique, creative responses to a single question or problem. This is different from convergent thinking which attempts to find a single, correct answer to a problem.
DNA: Your genetic makeup (who you are genetically which controls things like eye color, hair color, bone structure, organ size, etc.) is controlled by the paring of the chromosomes contained from the female's egg (23 chromosomes from her) and the chromosomes from the male's sperm (23 from him too) (you know how those chromosomes come together, right??). Each of the 46 total chromosomes is made up of long threads of a very specific type of molecule called DNA, or deoxyrivonucleic acid. It goes one step further - each molecule of DNA is made up of thousands of genes, which determine your "genetic makeup". So you see, DNA is really the carrier of the genetic material that determines who you are (genetically).
Door-in-the-Face Technique: This is a technique used to get compliance from others (to get them to behave in a way you want) in which a large request is made knowing it will probably be refused so that the person will agree to a much smaller request. The real objective is to get the person to agree to the small request, which is made to seem very reasonable because it is compared to such a large, seemingly unreasonable request. In essence, the large request gets you the "door in the face" when you ask it. For example, someone might ask you to give to give 5 hours of your time a week for the next year as a volunteer to a charity. After hearing this offer you may think it is a huge request, after which you may be asked to, instead of committing to all this volunteering time, to just donate a small amount of money. Compared to the time commitment, this request seems much more acceptable.
Double-Blind Procedure: This is one type of experimental procedure in which both the patient and the staff are ignorant (blind) as to the condition (or group) that the participant is in. This would make it impossible for the participant or researcher to know if the participant is receiving the treatment (for example a drug) or a placebo. This type of design is commonly used in drug evaluation studies, and is used to prevent the researchers from acting differently to people in one group, or from giving the participant any information that could make them act and/or behave unnaturally.
Down Syndrome: Down syndrome is a condition of mental retardation and associated physical disorders caused by an extra chromosome. Each person has 23 pairs of chromosomes, one pair from each parent. A person with down syndrome has a 3rd chromosome on the 21st pair. The results are both mental and physical, and often include small eyes, and hands, protruding tongues, short necks and fingers. There are all different levels of the disorder, and the probability of a child being born with it increases as the mother's age increases; this is especially true as the mother becomes middle aged.
Drive: An aroused state of psychological tension that typically arises from a need. A drive, such as hunger or thirst, motivates the organism to act in ways that will reduce the tension. So, for example, when you become hungry (tension caused by need for food) you are motivated to eat (method of reducing the tension).
Drive Reduction Theory: How do you know when it is time to get a glass of water? You know because you get this feeling of being thirsty which motivates you to reduce the thirst by drinking water. This is what happens according to drive reduction theory. According to this theory, some physiological need (need for water) occurs that creates a state of tension (you feel thirsty) which in turn motivates you to reduce the tension or satisfy the need (drink water).
DSM: The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is a system used for classifying psychological disorders. This is the most widely accepted set of guidelines and definitions for mental disorders, and is often referred to as, "the clinician's bible". There are approximately 230 disorders listed in the DSM-IV-R which are organized into 17 categories.
DSM-IV: DSM-IV stands for the title of the book, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition). This book is published by the American Psychological Association and is the primary book used in diagnosing psychological problems. You can think of this book as the "guide" for diagnosing psychological disorders used by clinical psychologists, counselors, and therapists. The DSM-IV has all the definitions of disorders, criteria for diagnosis, etc.
Dualism: Dualism is the presumption proposed by Descartes that the human mind and body are two distinct entities that interact with each other to make a person. Descartes reasoned that the mind and the body communicate with each other through a small structure at the base of the brain called the pineal gland.
Dyad: The presence of two entities. For example, two people, two animals, etc. Some have argued that a dyad can be considered a "group", so a dyad could be considered a group consisting of two organisms. The key is that there are 2.
Dysphoria: Dysphoria is a psychological state that causes someone to experience feelings of anxiety, restlessness, and depression. This is not necessarily a diagnosible disorder like schizophrenia or something else that would be identified in the DSM-IV, but it is more of a state of being.
Dysthymia: Dysthymia is a chronic type of depression that occurs on most days and lasts for a period of 2 or more years. In children and adolescents, mood can be irritable and duration must be at least 1 year. Also, the person has to display at least two of the following symptoms during the 2 year period: poor appetite or overeating, insomnia or hypersomnia, low energy or fatigue, low self-esteem, poor concentration or difficulty making decisions, or feelings of hopelessness.

Echoic Memory: Humans remember sounds and words in slightly different ways. Memory for sound is referred to as echoic memories, which can be defined as very brief sensory memory of some auditory stimuli. Typically, echoic memories are stored for slightly longer periods of time than iconic memories (visual memories). Echoic and iconic memories are sensory memories, not types of long-term memory, and thus are very temporary and fade quickly.