Psychology Definitions - Details

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Consists of the brain and the spinal cord and is the origin of all complex commands and decisions.

Central Nervous System

Sends information to the CNS from the outside environment, and transmits messages from the CNS to muscles and glands in the body.

Peripheral Nervous System

Transmits information from receptor cells in the sense organs to the CNS. It also receives information from the CNS directing muscles to act.

Somatic Nervous System

Transmits information to and from internal bodily organs. It is 'autonomic' as the system operates involuntarily. It has two main divisons: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

Autonomic Nervous System

One of the body's major information systems that instructs glands to release hormones directly into the bloodstream. These hormones are carried towards target organs in the body.

Endocrine System

An organ in the body that synthesises substances such as hormones.

Gland

Chemical substances that circulate in the bloodstream and only affect target organs. They are produced in large quanties but disappear quickly. They have very powerful effects and regulate the activity of certain cells or organs.

Hormones

The basic building blocks of the nervous system, neurons are nerve cells that process and transmit message through electrical and chemical signals.

Neuron

Carry messages from the PNS to the CNS. They have long dendrites and short axons.

Sensory Neurons

Connect the seonsry neurons to the motor neurons or other relay neuron. They have short dendrites and short axons.

Relay Neurons

Connect the CNS to effectors such as muscles and glands. They have short dendrites and long axons.

Motor Neurons

The process by which neighbouring neurons communicate with each other by sending chemical messages across the gap that separates them.

Synaptic Transmission

Brain chemicals released from synaptic vesicles that relay signals across the synapse from one neuron to another. They can be broadly dividedinto those that perform an exitatory function and those that perform an inhibitory function.

Neurotransmitter

When a neurotransmitter increases the positive charge of the postsynaptic neuron, increasing the likelihood that the neuron will fire and pass on the electrical impulse.

Excitation

When a neurotransmitter makes the charge of the postsynaptic neuron more negative, decreasing the likelihood that the neuron will fire and pass on the electrical impulse.

Inhibition

The theory that different areas of the brain are responsible for different behaviours, processes or activities.

Localisation of Function

A region of the frontal lobe involved in regulating movement.

Motor Area

An area of the parietal lobe that processes sensory information such as touch.

Somatosensory Area

A part of the occipital lobe that receives and processes visual information.

Visual Area

Located in the temporal lobe and concerned with the analysis of speech-based information.

Auditory Area

An area of the left frontal lobe of the brain responsible for speech production.

Broca's Area

An area of the left temporal lobe (encircling the auditory cortex) responsible for language comprehension.

Wernicke's Area

The brain's tendancy to change and adapt (functionally and physically) as a result of experience and new learning.

Plasticity

A form of plasticity - following damage through trauma, the brain's ability to redistribute or transfer functions usually performed by a damaged area(s) to other, undamaged area(s).

Functional Recovery

The idea that two halves of the brain are functionally different and that certain mental processes and behaviours are mainly controlled by one hemisphere rather than the other, i.e. language.

Hemispheric Lateralisation

A method used to measure brain activity while a person is performing a task that uses MRI technology. This enables researchers to detect which regions of the brain are rich in oxygen and thus are active.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

A record of the tiny electrical impulses produced by the brain's activity. By measuring characteristic wave patterns, the EEG can help diagnose certain conditions of the brain.

Electrogencephalogram

The brain's electrophysiological response to a spectific sensory, cognitive or motor event can be isolated through statistical analysis of EEG data.

Event-Related Potentials

The brain is analysed after death to detemine whether certain observed behaviours during the patients lifetime can be linked to abnormalities in the brain.

Post-Mortem Examinations

Distinct patterns of change in body activity that conform to cyclical time periods. They are influenced by internal body clocks as well as external changes to the environment.

Biological Rhythms

A type of biological rhythm, subject to a 24-hour cycle, which regulates a number of body processes such as the sleep/wake cycle and changes in core body tempature.

Circadian Rhythm

A type of biological rhythm with a frequency of less than one cycle in 24 hours, such as menstruation.

Infradian Rhythm

A type of biological rhythm with a frequency of more than one cycle in 24 hours, such as sleep stages.

Ultradian Rhythm

Internal body clocks that regulate many of our biological rhythms, such as the influence of the suprachiasmatic nucleus on the sleep/wake cycle.

Endogenous Pacemakers

External cues that may affect or entrain our biological rhythms, such as the influence of light on the sleep/wake cycle.

Exogenous Zeitgebers

A daily cycle of biological activity based on a 24 hour period that is influenced by regular variations in the environment such as the alternation of night and day.

Sleep/Wake Cycle

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all despite differences of experence and upbring.

Universality

Psychological research or theory which may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women.

Gender Bias

(male centred) when 'normal' behaviour is judeged according to a male standard often resulting in female behaviour is judged to be 'abnormal' or 'deficient'.

Androcentrism

Psychological theories that suggest there are real and enduring differences between men and women. These may enhance or undervalue members of either sex, but typically undervalue women.

Alpha Bias

Theories that ignore or minimse differences between the sexes.

Beta Bias

Refers to a tendancy to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture.

Cultural Bias

Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture - in extreme cases it is the belief in the superiority of one's own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures.

Ethnocentrism

The idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningul and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.

Cultural Relativism

The notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces.

Freewill

The view that an individual's behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal or external forces rather than an individual's will to do something.

Determinism

Implies that freewill is not possible as behaviour is caused by internal or external events beyond our control.

Hard Determinism

While everything has a cause, behaviour can also be determined by our conscious choices in the absence of coercion.

Soft Determinism

The belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control.

Biological Determinsim

The belief that behaviour is caused by features fo the environment that we cannot control.

Environmental Determinism

The belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control.

Psychic Determinism

The genetic transmission of mental and physical characteristics from one generation to another.

Heredity

Any influence on human behaviour that is non-genetic. This may range from pre-natal influences in the womb through to cultural and historical influences at a societal level.

Environment

An argument/theory which proposes that it only make sense to study an indivisible system rather than its constituent parts.

Holism

The belief that human behaviour is best explained by breaking it down into smaller constituent parts.

Reductionism

A form of reductionism which attempts to explain social and psychological phenomena at a lower biological level.

Biological Reductionism

The attempt to explain all behaviour in terms of stimulus-response links that have been learned through experience.

Envionmental Reductionism

An approach to research that focuses more on the individual case as a means of understanding behaviour.

Idiographic Approach

An approach which attempts to study human behaviour through the development of general principles and universal laws.

Nomothetic Approach

The impact that psycholgoical research may have in terms of the rights of other people especially partipants, including influencing public policy and/or the way in which certain groups of people are regarded.

Ethical Implications

Studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research. (Sieber and Stanley)

Social Sensitivity

The biological differences between males and females including chromosomes, hormones and anatomy.

Sex

The psychological and cultural differences between males and females including attitudes, behaviours and social roles.

Gender

A set of beliefs and preconceived ideas about what is expected or appropriate for males and females in a given society.

Sex-Role Stereotype

Displaying a balance of masculine and feminine characteristics in one's personality.

Androgyny

The first systematic attempt to measure androgyny using a rating scale of 60 traits to produce scores across two dimensions: masculinity-femininity and androgynous-undifferentiated.

Bem Sex Role Inventory

Found in the nucleus of living cells carrying information in the form of genes; the twenty-third pair of chromosomes determines biological sex.

Chromosomes

Hormones

A hormone from the androgen group that is produced mainly in the male testes (and in smaller amounts in the female ovaries). It is associated with aggressiveness.

Testosterone

The primary female homorone, playing an important role in the menstrual cycle and repoductive system.

Oestrogen

A hormone which causes contraction of the uterus during labour and stimulate lactation.

Oxytocin

Any sex chromosome that deviates from the ususal XX/XY formation and which tends to be associated with a distinct pattern of physical and psychological symptoms.

Atypical Sex Chromosome Patterns

A syndrome affecting males in which an individual's genotype has an extra X chromosome, characteristiced by a tall thin physique, small infertile testes and enlarged breasts.

Klinefelter's Syndrome

A chromonal disorder in which affected women have only one X chromosome, causing developmental abnormalities and infertility.

Turner's Syndrome

Acquired around age 2, the child recognises that they are a boy or a girl and posseses the ability to label others as such.

Gender Identity

Accquired around age 4, the child understands that their own gender is fixed and they will be male or female when they are older, however, they cannot apply this to other people.

Gender Stablilty

Usually accquired around age 6/7, the child realises that gender is consistent over time and situations, they begin to identify with people of their own gender and start to behave in gender-appropriate ways.

Gender Constancy

An organised set of beliefs and expectations related to gender that are derived from experiences. Schemas guide a person's understanding of their own gender and gender appropriate behaviour in general.

Gender Schema

A desire to be associated with a particular person or group often because they posses certain desirable characteristics.

Identification

An individual adopts the attitudes and/or behaviour of another.

Internalisation

A set of behaviours and attitudes that are considered appropriate for one gender and inappropriate for the other.

Gender Roles

The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society.

Culture

Characterised by strong, persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one's own assigned sex. People with GID desire to live as members of the opposite sex and often dress and use mannerisms associated with the opposite gender. (also referred to as transgenderism or gender dysphroia).

Gender Identity Disorder

A severe mental illness where contact with relaity and insight are impaired.

Schizophrenia

Atypical symptoms experienced in addition to normal experiences. They include hallucinations and delusions.

Positive Symptoms

A sensory experience of stimuli that either have no basis in reality or are distorted perceptions of reality.

Hallucinations

Involve beliefs that have no basis in reality, i.e. delusions of paranoria, grandeur etc.

Delusions

Atypical symptoms experienced which represent the loss of a usual experience such as clear thinking or 'normal' levels of motivation.

Negative Symptoms

Involves reduced frequency and quality of speech.

Speech Poverty

Involves the loss of motivation to carry out tasks and results in lowered activity levels.

Avolition

The occurence of two illnesses or conditions together - where two conditions are frequently diagnosed together it calls into question the validty of classifying the two disorders separately.

Co-Morbidity

Occurs when two or more conditions share symptoms - where conditions share many symptoms this calls into question the validity of classicaying the disorders separately.

Symptom Overlap

Genes consist of DNA strandds which produce 'instructions' for general physical features of an organism and also specific physical features. These may impact in psychological features. Genes are transmitted from parent to offspring.

Genetics

A neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect and is associated with the sensation of pleasure. Unusually high levels are associated with schizophrenia and unusually low levels are associated with Parkinson's disease.

Dopamine

Patterns of structure or activity in the brain that occur in conjunction with an experience and may be implicated in the oirgins of that experience.

Neural Correlates

Abnormal processes within a family such as poor family communication, cold parenting and high levels of expressed emotion. These may be risk factors for both the development and maintenance of schizophrenia.

Family Dysfunction

Explanations that focus on mental processes such as thinking, language and attention.

Cognitive Explanations

A general term meaning information processing that is not functioning normally and produces undesirable consequences.

Dysfunctional Thought Processing

Drugs used to reduce the intensity of symptoms, particulalry positive symptoms of conditions such as schizophrenia.

Antipsychotics

The first generation of antipsychotic drugs, having been used since the 1950s. They work as dopamine antagonists and include Chlorpromazine.

Typical Antipsychotics

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