Cannon-Bard theory: The view developed by Walter Cannon and L. L. Bard that the basis of emotion lies in the central nervous system, specifically in the thalamus. 11
case study: Intensive investigation and in-depth analysis of a single individual. 2castration anxiety: According to Freud, the fear a young boy experiences that his father will punish him for his Oedipal longings by cutting off his penis. 13
catatonic stupor: Characteristic of some schizophrenics, the victims are motionless, remaining in one position for hours at a time and responding neither to people nor to things. 15
catharsis: The release of aggressive energy. 18
causal attribution: How people attribute causes to behavior. 17
cell body: Region of the neuron that contains the cell nucleus and all other life-sustaining systems of the cell. 3
central nervous system (CNS: The ultimate control center of all human behavior, consisting of the brain and the spinal cord. 3
central tendency: A middle value (such as a mean, median, or mode) of a set of scores. 2
cerebellum: Located to the rear of the pons, it coordinates voluntary movement of the skeletal muscles and regulates physical balance. 3
cerebral cortex: The covering that surrounds the entire outer surface of the brain. Much of the “higher-order” processing occurs here, relating to learning, speech, reasoning, and memory. 3
cerebral hemispheres: Also the forebrain. The two large structures lying above the brain’s central core that are involved in learning, speech, reasoning, and memory. 3
childhood amnesia: Our lack of conscious memories from infancy. 9
chromosomes: Thread-shaped structures within the cell nucleus that carry the organism’s genes. 2
chunking: Perceiving related items as a larger unit or cluster; used to increase the capacity of normal short-term memory. 7
ciliary muscles: Muscles in the eye that change the shape of the lens for focus. 4
circadian rhythms: Naturally occurring daily cycles of the body. 5
circadian theory: The theory that sleep is not a time to restore lost energy but rather is an adaptive response to night and day; in other words, humans sleep at night because they are not well adapted to living in the dark environment. 5
classical conditioning: A process of learning discovered by Ivan Pavlov in which a conditioned stimulus (CS) repeatedly presented with an unconditional stimulus (US) that normally evokes an involuntary response develops into a learned or conditioned response even in the absence of the CS. 6
classically conditioned response: The behavior that results when a neural stimulus is repeatedly paired with another stimulus that evokes an involuntary response, such as emotions or physical reflexes. 6
client-centered therapy: Carl Rogers’ humanistic treatment in which the therapist helps clients to clarify their true feelings and come to value who they really are. 16
clinical psychologists: Practitioners in the subfield of psychology that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders. 1
cochlea: The spiral-shaped part of the inner ear containing the receptors for hearing. 4
cochlear implant: A surgical procedure in which microelectrodes are surgically positioned at various points along the cochlea. This procedure is designed to help people with neural deafness. 4
cognitive appraisal theory: The view proposed by Richard Lazarus that people are continually searching the environment for meaning, looking for cues not only on how to act but also on how to feel. Emotions arise from how we appraise events in our environment in relation to our short- and long-term goals and our abilities and resources for coping. 11
cognitive arousal interpretation: A theory developed by Stanley Schacter and Jerome Singer which holds that we explain our feelings by searching our surroundings for a reasonable cue. 11
cognitive consistency: The tendency of people to keep their various cognitions in relative agreement with one another. 17
cognitive development: The changes associated with the “thinking” components of behavior. 9
cognitive developmental perspective: A view of social and personality development based on the idea that a child’s understanding of the world changes with age. 10
cognitive dissonance: The unpleasant state of tension that develops when people are aware of entertaining two inconsistent thoughts simultaneously. 17
cognitive learning: Learning that involves the formation of concepts, schemas, theories, and other mental abstractions. 6
cognitive perspective: The view that the quality of one’s internal dialogue—accepting or berating oneself, building oneself up or tearing oneself down—has a profound effect on a person’s mental health. 15
cognitive psychology: An approach to understanding personality that emphasizes mental processes, or cognitions, and addresses topics like memory, language, thought, problem solving, and decision making. 1
cognitive therapy: A variation of cognitive restructuring therapy developed by Aaron Beck in which patients are questioned in such a way that they themselves discover the irrationality of their thoughts. 16
cognitive-behavior therapies: Therapies that stress the teaching of new, healthier ways of thinking, that is, the restructuring of negative cognitions. 16
companionate love: According to Robert Sternberg, a relationship (like best friends) that is based on intimacy and commitment but not love. 17
compliance: The act of assenting to an explicit request from someone who does not hold authority over you. 18
comprehension: The process of determining the meaning of a string of words and morphemes. 8
compulsion: A repetitive behavior a person feels compelled to engage in despite the fact that it is senseless or excessive. 15
concepts: Mental constructions involved in grouping together and classifying objects and events based on common features. 8
conceptually driven processing: Knowledge stored in the brain that influences what we hear, see, and feel. 4
concrete operations: Logical operations that involve reversible transformations of concrete objects and events. 9
concrete-operational period: The second stage of Piaget’s theory of intellectual growth (which usually consists of the elementary school years), during which a child begins to think logicallybut only in regard to concrete objects. 9
conditional positive regard: According to Carl Rogers, the withholding of love and praise from a child unless he or she conforms to parental and social standards. 13
conditioned operant response: Results from a learned association between a particular action and a desired consequence. 6
conditioned response (CR): A response to a previously neutral stimulus learned through association in the process of conditioning. 6
conditioned stimulus (CS): The stimulus that elicits a new response as a result of the conditioning process. 6
conditions of worth: Carl Rogers’ term for the strong ideals children hold about which thoughts and behaviors will bring positive regard and so are desirable and “good.” 13, 16
conduction deafness: Malfunctions of the outer or middle ear that impair the ear’s ability to mechanically amplify sound waves, for example, wax buildup in the ear canal. 4
cones: Receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to color and that are used primarily for daytime or high-light-intensity vision. 4
confirmatory hypothesis testing: The tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing schemes. 17
consciousness: An active awareness of the many thoughts, images, perceptions, and emotions that occupy one’s mind at any given time. 5
conservation: The recognition that certain features of an object remain the same (are conserved) despite changes in other features. 9
constituent: A group of words that make sense when placed together. 8
consummate love: According to Robert Sternberg, the kind of love that combines intimacy, passion, and commitmentthe most difficult type of relationship to achieve and maintain. 17
contiguity: In operant conditioning, the temporal relationship between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. In general, the closer the timing between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus, the stronger the associative relationship between them. 6
contingency: In operant conditioning, the likelihood that the conditioned stimulus signals the unconditioned stimulus, which can usually be expressed in terms of a probability. 6
contingency contracting: A behavioral technique used in therapy whereby a person makes a contract with another individual detailing the rewards or punishments that are contingent on succeeding or failing to make a behavior change. 12
contingency management: An operant-conditioning therapy that seeks to increase desirable behaviors by reinforcement and to decrease undesirable ones by punishment or withdrawal of rewards. 6
continuity: A gestalt principle of organization proposing that items will be perceived as belonging together if they appear to form a single, continuous grouping. 4
continuous reinforcement: Providing reinforcement each time the subject exhibits the desired behavior. 6
contralateral control: A basic principle of brain organization where the motor cortex of the right hemisphere controls movement on the left side of the body and the left hemisphere controls right-side movement. 3
control group: In an experiment, subjects who experience all the same conditions as experimental subjects except the key factor that is being evaluated. 2
conventional level: According to Kohlberg, the stage in moral development during which a child adheres to rules to win the approval of others, and is inclined to follow the dictates of established authority. 10
conversion disorder: The loss of a sensory or motor function without organic impairment, usually following some traumatic event. 15
coping: The process of managing internal and external demands that are taxing or even overwhelming. 12
cornea: The tough, transparent, curved outer covering of the front of the eyeball that admits light into the interior of the eye. 4
correlation coefficient: A numerical value that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. 2
correlational designs: Research studies used to find out the extent to which two variables are related when a true experiment is not feasible. 2
counseling psychologists: Professionals trained to help individuals deal with mild problems of social and emotional adjustment. 1
counterconditioning: The reduction or elimination of a classically conditioned response. See systematic desensitization. 6
criterion validity: The type of validity a test has if a person’s score on it can be correlated with some other yardstick of what is being measured. 14
cutaneous: Refers to the senses responsible for sensations of the skin. 4
cyclothymia: A chronic but milder form of bipolar disorder (manic-depression). 15