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ABAB design  An experimental research design that seeks to confirm a treatment effect by showing that behavior changes systematically with alternate conditions of no treatment (A) and treatment (B).
abreaction  An intense reexperiencing of an event in memory retrieval.
absence seizures  Brief generalized epileptic seizures during which patients, usually children, seem to absent themselves from their surroundings.
acquired brain disorders  Damage to a normally developed or developing brain. The damage can result in cognitive, behavioral, and emotional dysfunction.
acquired dysfunction  A sexual dysfunction that develops after at least one episode of normal functioning.
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)  A disease caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which attacks the immune system, making patients susceptible to infection.
acrophobia  The fear of high places.
active phase  The second stage of schizophrenia, during which the patient begins showing prominent psychotic symptoms.
acute confusional state  The state of disorientation that a patient suffering from a brain contusion may experience upon awakening from the coma.
addiction  Condition traditionally defined as physiological need for a drug, wherein drug use altered the body's chemistry to the point where the body required the drug to feel normal.
agitated depression  A form of depression characterized by incessant activity and restlessness.
agnosia  A disturbance in the ability to recognize familiar objects.
agoraphobia  An anxiety disorder characterized by fear of being in any situation from which escape might be difficult and in which help would be unavailable in the event of panic symptoms.
alienation  An existentialist concept; a condition of modern life that results from a failure to choose an authentic life; a kind of spiritual death, a sense of the meaninglessness of life and terror over what comes with death.
alters  In dissociative identity disorder patients, the secondary or multiple identities the person adopts.
Alzheimer's disease  An organic brain disorder characterized by cognitive deficits such as failure of concentration and memory. The disease can occur as early as age 40, but its prevalence increases with age.
amnesia  The partial or total forgetting of past experiences. It can be associated with organic brain syndromes or with psychological stress.
amniocentesis  A clinical procedure that can identify abnormal chromosomes in a developing fetus.
amphetamines  A group of synthetic stimulants—the most common of which are Benzedrine, Dexedrine, and Methedrine—which reduce feelings of boredom or weariness.
anal stage  In psychodynamic theory, the second stage of psychosocial development, in which the child's focus is on the pleasurable feelings of retaining and expelling the feces; occurs in the second year of life.
analogue experiment  An experimental situation that attempts to reproduce, under controlled conditions, the essential features of naturally occurring psychopathology or its treatment.
anhedonia  A mood abnormality among schizophrenics in which the person's experience of pleasure is reduced. Often experienced by people during major depressive episodes, the inability to enjoy accustomed activities leads to a lack of interest in those activities.
anorexia nervosa  Chronic failure to eat for fear of gaining weight. Occurring usually among adolescent girls and young women, the disorder results in severe malnutrition, semistarvation, and sometimes death.
antidepressant drugs  Drugs used to elevate mood in depressed patients.
antimanic drugs  Drugs, principally lithium, used to prevent and treat manic episodes.
antipsychotic drugs  Drugs used to relieve symptoms such as confusion, withdrawal, hallucinations, and delusions in psychotic patients. Also called major tranquilizers or neuroleptics.
antisocial behavior  Behavior that violates the rights of others; usually associated with antisocial personality.
antisocial personality disorder (APD)  A disorder marked by chronic indifference to and violation of the rights of others.
anxiety  A state of fear that affects many areas of functioning and that involves three basic components: subjective reports of tension and dread, behavioral inhibitions and impairments, and certain physiological responses.
anxiety disorders  Disturbances characterized either by manifest anxiety or by behavior patterns aimed at warding off anxiety.
aphasia  A language impairment generally attributable to damage in the left hemisphere of the brain.
apraxia  Impairment of the ability to perform voluntary movements.
attachment theory  Theory holding that people who had close, caring bonds with a caregiver while growing up are more apt to develop an adaptive, interpersonal style of relating to others (i.e., a "secure" attachment style).
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)  A childhood disorder characterized by incessant restlessness and an extremely short attention span, leading to impulsive and disorganized behavior.
attribution  One form of cognitive appraisal concerning beliefs about the causes of life events; how people explain events to themselves will affect their emotional state.
autism  See infantile autism.
autogynephilia  Sexual arousal created by the fantasy of being a female or having a female body. This arousal underlies most transvestism and much cross-dressing.
autonomic nervous system (ANS)  The part of the nervous system that governs the smooth muscles, the heart muscle, the glands, and the viscera and controls their functions, including physiological responses to emotion. It has two divisions, the sympathetic and parasympathetic.
avoidant personality disorder  A disorder in which the individual withdraws from social contact out of fear of rejection.
barbiturates  A group of powerful sedative drugs used to alleviate tension and bring about relaxation and sleep.
behavioral experiments  Cognitive technique by which clients are urged to "reality test" their predictions and assumptions, looking for evidence much as is done in science.
behavior genetics  A subfield of psychology concerned with determining the extent to which behavior, including abnormal behavior, is influenced by genetics.
behavior therapy  A method of treatment for specific problems that uses the principles of learning theory.
behavioral high-risk design  A research design in which high-risk subjects are selected on the basis of behavioral traits thought to be associated with the disorder in question.
behavioral perspective  A theoretical approach that departs from psychodynamic theory in viewing all behavior as a result of learning.
benzodiazepines  A group of anti-anxiety drugs that reduce anxiety by activating the inhibitory neurotransmitter, GABA.
biofeedback training  A technique by which subjects, with the help of various machines, can monitor and control their own biological processes such as pulse, blood pressure, and brain waves.
biogenic  A term used to describe abnormal behavior that results from malfunction within the body. According to biogenic theory, mental disturbance is due to organic disorders.
bipolar disorder  A mood disorder involving both manic and depressive episodes.
blood alcohol level  The amount of alcohol in the bloodstream, expressed in terms of the number of milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
blunted affect  A mood abnormality among schizophrenics in which the person shows little emotion.
body dysmorphic disorder  A preoccupation with an imagined or a grossly exaggerated defect in one's appearance.
borderline personality disorder  A disorder marked by an unstable sense of self, distrust, impulsive and self-destructive behavior, and difficulty in controlling anger and other emotions.
brain plasticity  The brain's ability, during infancy, to be altered by environmental stimulation.
brain tumors  Abnormal growths within the brain, classified as either metastatic or primary.
bulimia nervosa  Excessive overeating or uncontrolled binge-eating followed by self-induced vomiting.
case-control design  A research design in which cases, people diagnosed as having a mental disorder, are compared with controls, people who have not been diagnosed as having the disorder.
case study  A research design that focuses on a single individual for description and analysis.
castration anxiety  In psychodynamic theory, the male child's fear that his penis will be cut off as punishment for his sexual desire for his mother.
catatonic schizophrenia  A form of schizophrenia characterized by a marked disturbance in motor behavior: decreases in motion, complete immobility, cessation of speech, or alternating periods of immobility and extreme agitation.
catatonic stupor  An extreme form of withdrawal in which the individual retreats into a completely immobile state, showing a total lack of responsiveness to stimulation.
catecholamine hypothesis  The biochemical theory that increased levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine produce mania, while decreased levels produce depression.
categorical classification  The sorting of patients into qualitatively distinct categories, as in the DSM.
central nervous system (CNS)  The part of the nervous system made up of the brain and spinal cord.
cerebral abscess  A brain infection that becomes encapsulated by connective tissue.
cerebral cortex  Outermost part of the brain.
cerebrovascular accident (CVA)  A blockage of or break in the blood vessels in the brain, resulting in injury to brain tissue. Commonly called stroke.
childhood depression  A disorder of emotional distress with symptoms similar to those of adult depression (sadness, hopelessness, etc.) but expressed differently by children (e.g., by clinging to their parents) and by adolescents (e.g., by engaging in delinquent acts).
chromosomes  Threadlike structures in all the cells of the body that carry genes in a linear order.
civil commitment  The commitment of a person to a mental institution because the state has decided that he or she is disturbed enough to require hospitalization.
clanging  In schizophrenia, the pairing of words that have no relation to one another beyond the fact that they rhyme or sound alike.
claustrophobia  The fear of enclosed places.
client-centered therapy  Style of therapy that creates a warm and accepting atmosphere for the patient by offering respect and approval, mirroring the patient's feelings, and attempting to perceive the patient's world as he or she does.
clinical psychologist  A Ph.D. or Psy.D. who spent four to six years in graduate school and completed a one-year clinical internship. Clinical psychology programs emphasize training in psychological assessment and therapeutic intervention, as well as research.
clinical significance  A statistical effect that has practical value or importance.
clinical trials  Studies of the effectiveness of treatments, involving randomized comparisons between two or more forms of therapy.
clinicians  Therapists who work with people with mental health problems.
cocaine  A natural stimulant, made from the coca plant, that produces feelings of euphoria and omnipotence.
coconscious  In dissociative identity disorder, the term used to refer to a subordinate personality that is fully aware of the dominant personality's thoughts and actions.
cognition  The act of knowing, including mental processes such as emotion, thought, expectation, and interpretation.
cognitive appraisal  According to cognitive behaviorists, the process by which a person evaluates a stimulus in accordance with his or her memories, beliefs, and expectations before responding. It accounts for the wide variation in responses to the same stimulus.
cognitive behaviorism  An alliance between cognitive theory and behavioral theory which claims that people's actions are often responses not so much to external stimuli as to their own individual mental processing of those stimuli.
cognitive case conceptualization  Process by which therapist and client gather information about the client's problems and the situational triggers for the client's feelings, thought patterns, and responses. It leads to an understanding of the interrelationships among developmental experiences, core beliefs, and faulty coping patterns. This conceptualization is used to coordinate, plan, and guide all aspects of the treatment.
cognitive distortion  A bias in information processing, patterns of faulty or distorted thinking.
cognitive perspective  The view of abnormal behavior as the product of mental processing of environmental stimuli (cognition).
cognitive restructuring  A variety of cognitive therapy techniques that help clients increase coping skills, develop problem-solving skills, and change the way they perceive and interpret their worlds.
communication deviance (CD)  A measurement of parental deviant or idiosyncratic verbal responses; used to predict the potential for their children's future schizophrenic behaviors.
community mental health centers  Facilities designed to provide a variety of psychological services for everyone within a specified area.
community psychology  The branch of psychology that deals with human-environment interactions and the ways society affects individual and community functioning; focuses on social issues, social institutions, and other settings and their interaction with individuals, groups, and organizations.
comorbidity  A condition in which a patient meets the criteria for more than one DSM-IV Axis I disorder.
complex partial seizure  A partial epileptic seizure in which cognitive functioning is interrupted.
compulsion  An action that a person feels compelled to repeat again and again in a stereotyped fashion, though he or she has no conscious desire to do so.
computerized tomography (CT)  A technique for mapping brain structure in which X rays are passed through cross sections of the brain, measuring the density of the tissue in each section.
concordant  Refers to sharing the same disorder.
concussion  A head injury caused by a blow to the head that jars the brain and momentarily disrupts its function.
conditioned reflex  A basic mechanism of learning; if a neutral stimulus is paired with a nonneutral stimulus, the organism will eventually respond to the neutral stimulus as it does to the nonneutral stimulus.
conditioned reinforcers  Stimuli or needs that one learns to respond to by associating them with primary reinforcers. Also called secondary reinforcers.
conditioned response  A simple response to a neutral stimulus that is the result of repeatedly pairing the neutral stimulus with a nonneutral stimulus that would have naturally elicited the response.
conditioned stimulus  The neutral stimulus that elicits a particular response as a result of repeated pairings with a nonneutral or unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits that response
conditions of worth  Extraneous values imposed on children; strings attached to positive regard that dictate which self-experiences are "good" and which are "bad."
conduct disorder  A childhood disorder in which a preadolescent or an adolescent persistently violates social norms through aggression against people or animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness or theft, and/or other serious violations of rules.
confounding  In a research study, a phenomenon that occurs when two or more causal factors are operating on the same thing simultaneously, interfering with accurate measurement of the causal role of either factor.
congenital disorders  Disorders acquired during prenatal development but not transmitted genetically.
contingency  In operant conditioning, a perceived association between action and consequence which, once learned, directs behavior: An individual will repeat a behavior or cease it in order to obtain or avoid the consequence.
contingency management  An operant-conditioning technique in which the consequences of a response are manipulated in order to change the frequency of that response.
continuity hypothesis  Theory resting on the idea that depression appears to be an exaggerated form of everyday sadness.
control  The ability to manipulate or change a phenomenon.
control groups  Groups that do not receive the experimental treatment or manipulation.
control techniques  The three methods by which the independent variable in an experiment can be controlled: manipulating, holding conditions constant, and balancing.
contusion  A head injury in which the brain is shifted out of its normal position and pressed against one side of the skull, thus bruising the neural tissue.
conversion disorder  The loss or impairment of some motor or sensory function for which there is no organic cause; formerly known as "hysteria" or "hysterical neurosis."
coronary heart disease  A disease brought about by atherosclerosis, the buildup of fatty deposits on the inside walls of the coronary arteries, and manifested as heart attack or sudden cardiac death.
corpus callosum  A band of nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain.
correlational research  Research studies that seek to find the relationships between subjects' characteristics and their performance. Such studies effectively meet two of the objectives of the scientific method—description and prediction—but the results of correlational studies should not be used to make causal inferences.
correlation coefficient  A numerical measure of the linear relationship between two variables.
covariation of events  The first condition to be met before causality can be demonstrated: Two events must vary together; when one changes, the other must also change.
crack cocaine  A cheaper and more powerful and highly addictive form of freebased cocaine, sold in small chunks or "rocks."
cretinism  A congenital disorder marked by serious mental retardation and physical disabilities; caused by lack of iodine in the pregnant woman's diet or damage to the thyroid during birth.
cyclothymic disorder  A chronic mood disorder in which, for years, the person goes no longer than a few months without a phase of hypomanic or depressive behavior.
decatastrophizing  A strategy used in cognitive therapy whereby clients are helped to realize that their fears are exaggerated by being asked to consider what would actually happen if their worst fears were realized.
defense mechanism  Any psychic stratagem that reduces anxiety by concealing the source of anxiety from the self and the world.
deficit symptoms  Negative symptoms of schizophrenia that are primary and endure across the prodromal, active, and residual phases.
degenerative disorders  Organic brain syndromes characterized by a general deterioration of intellectual, emotional, and motor functioning as a result of progressive pathological change in the brain.
deinstitutionalization  The widespread discharge of mental patients from the hospital into the community.
delirium  A global disorder of cognition and attention that begins suddenly and remits quickly, leaving most patients unharmed. Symptoms include confusion, hallucinations, and emotional lability.
delusional disorder  A psychosis in which the delusional system is the basic or even the only abnormality, and in all other respects the person seems quite normal.
delusions  False beliefs that have no basis in reality.
demand characteristics  A methodological problem in which a subject's response is strongly determined by the expectations of the subject or the researchers.
dementia  Severe mental deterioration.
dementia praecox  A syndrome identified by Kraepelin and marked by delusions, hallucinations, attention problems, and bizarre motor behavior. Now called schizophrenia.
dependent personality disorder  A disorder marked by extreme dependence on others.
dependent variable  In a research study, the factor (in psychology, a particular behavior) that will be affected by the experimenter's manipulation of the independent variable, and whose changes the researcher wishes to measure.
depersonalization  A sense of strangeness or unreality in oneself.
depersonalization disorder  A disruption of personal identity that is characterized by a sense of strangeness or unreality in oneself, e.g., feeling that one is viewing oneself from the outside or is functioning like a robot.
depressant  A drug that acts on the central nervous system to reduce pain, tension, and anxiety, to relax and disinhibit, and to slow intellectual and motor reactivity.
depression  An emotional state characterized by the exaggeration of negative feelings. The person becomes inactive and dejected and thinks nothing is worthwhile.
depth hypothesis  Freud's view that almost all mental activity takes place unconsciously.
derealization  A feeling of strangeness about the world. Other people, and the self, seem robotic, dead, or somehow unreal.
derived stimulus relations  The learning that occurs because the mind learns to group sets of different stimuli (e.g., pictures and objects for the same objects), called stimulus equivalence. This learning mechanism helps to explain why people learn to respond to symbols (e.g., the word money) much as they do to the actual object (e.g., dollar bills).
description  (1) The first objective of the scientific method: the procedure by which events and their relationships are defined, classified, catalogued, or categorized. (2) The first goal of psychological assessment: the rendering of an accurate portrait of personality, cognitive functioning, mood, and behavior.
descriptive validity  The degree to which an assessment device provides significant information about the current behavior of the people being assessed.
detoxification  A medical treatment for alcoholism that consists of getting the alcohol out of the alcoholic's system and seeing him or her through the withdrawal symptoms.
dexamethasone suppression test (DST)  A laboratory test used to identify people suffering from endogenous depression. In nondepressed individuals, dexamethasone suppresses cortisol secretion for at least 24 hours. Cortisol secretion of individuals with endogenous depression returns to high levels within 24 hours despite administration of dexamethasone.
diagnosis  The classification and labeling of a patient's problem within one of a set of recognized categories of abnormal behavior.
dialectical behavior therapy  A form of therapy developed to treat borderline personality disorder, integrating acceptance with change.
diathesis  A genetic predisposition toward an abnormal or diseased condition.
diathesis-stress model  The belief that certain genes or gene combinations may lead to a diathesis, or predisposition, toward a disorder and that, if this is combined with certain kinds of environmental stress, abnormal behavior will result. In schizophrenia research, this approach holds that a predisposition to schizophrenia is inherited but that the disorder must be triggered by environmental stresses.
differential deficits  Deficits that are specific to the disorder in question (as opposed to other disorders) and that are presumably central to it.
dimensional classification  The assignment of patients to scores on quantitative dimensions, such as personality, course, and functioning.
discrimination  The process of learning to distinguish among similar stimuli and to respond only to the appropriate one.
disorder-specific biases  The idea that there is a specific mental processing bias associated with each disorder (e.g., social anxiety, depression). It is reflected in different typical thoughts associated with each disorder and can involve different patterns of selective attention, memory, interpretation, etc.
disorganized schizophrenia  A form of schizophrenia characterized by pronounced incoherence of speech, childlike disturbed affect such as giggling wildly and assuming ab- surd postures, and disorganized behavior, or lack of goal orientation. Also called hebephrenic schizophrenia.
disruptive behavior disorders  Childhood disorders characterized by poorly controlled, impulsive, acting-out behavior in situations where self-control is expected.
dissociative amnesia  Memory loss without any apparent physiological cause, as a response to psychological stress. Dissociative amnesia tends to be anterograde, blotting out a period of time after the precipitating stress.
dissociative disorders  Disorders resulting from the splitting off of some psychological function—such as identity or memory—from the rest of the conscious mind.
dissociative fugue  A condition related to amnesia in which a person not only forgets most or all of his or her past but also takes a sudden, unexpected trip away from home.
dissociative identity disorder (DID)  A condition in which the personality breaks apart into two or more distinct personalities, each well integrated and well developed, which then take turns controlling the person's behavior. Also known as multiple personality.
dizygotic twins  Twins who develop from two eggs fertilized by two different sperm; they have 50 percent of their genes in common.
dopamine hypothesis  The theory that schizophrenia is associated with excess activity of the parts of the brain that use dopamine as a neurotransmitter.
double-blind  A procedure in scientific research that seeks to minimize the influence of subjects' and experimenters' expectations. Both the subject and the experimenter are unaware of what treatment is being administered—that is, whether the subject is in the experimental group or the control group.
down-regulation  Process where postsynaptic receptors decrease in number or become less sensitive to the neurotransmitter in response to too much neurotransmitter being released into the synapse.
Down syndrome  A form of mental retardation caused by an extra chromosome. Individuals with this condition usually have IQs of 50 or less and distinctive physical characteristics, such as an extra fold of skin on the upper eyelid, a flat nose, and poor muscle tone.
DSM-IV-TR  The most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the handbook that classifies the symptoms and types of mental disorders.
dyspareunia  A sexual dysfunction characterized by pain during intercourse.
dysthymic disorder  A chronic mood disorder involving a mild, persistent depression. Symptoms are similar to those of a major depressive episode, but they are not as severe or as numerous.
echolalia  A speech deficit, characteristic of autistic children and some catatonic schizophrenics, in which the child aimlessly repeats what other people say.
ego  According to Freud, the psychic component that mediates between the id and the forces that restrict the id's satisfactions.
ego psychology  School of psychology that sees the development of the personality as involving the formation of mental models of the world and how the world works; it focuses on the ego and the interplay between its conflict-solving functions and its conflict-free functions, particularly cognitive processes.
Electra complex  Freud's concept, complementary to the Oediupus complex, which holds that a very young girl reorients her sexual interests toward her father, because she experiences penis envy and wishes to obtain the organ vicariously.
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)  The administering of an electric shock to a patient, thus inducing a convulsion; used in the treatment of serious depression.
electroencephalogram (EEG)  A brain test in which electrodes, attached to the head with tape, pick up electrical activity within the brain and measure it in oscillating patterns known as brain waves.
electromyogram (EMG)  A polygraph recording of the changes in the electrical activity of muscles.
elimination of plausible alternative causes  The third condition to be met before causality can be demonstrated: The proposed causal relationship can be accepted only after other likely causes have been ruled out.
embolism  The obstruction of a blood vessel by a ball of a substance such as fat, air, or clotted blood, thus cutting off the blood supply; a common cause of infarction.
encephalitis  Any acute infection of the brain.
encopresis  A lack of bowel control past the age when such control is normally achieved.
endocrine glands  Glands responsible for the production of hormones that, when released into the bloodstream, affect various bodily mechanisms such as physical growth and development.
endocrine system  The system of endocrine, or ductless, glands— such as the hypothalamus and the pituitary—that is closely integrated with the central nervous system and is responsible for the production of hormones.
endogenous  In depression, the term used to describe patients whose symptoms are primarily physical.
endorphins  Brain chemicals, similar to morphine, that may underlie one's natural control of pain and natural experience of pleasure.
enuresis  A lack of bladder control past the age when such control is normally achieved. Children with primary enuresis have never achieved bladder control. Those with secondary enuresis have lost the control they once had.
epidemiology  The study of the frequency and distribution of disorders within specific populations.
epilepsy  A generic term for a variety of organic disorders characterized by irregularly occurring disturbances in consciousness in the form of seizures or convulsions. The seizures seem to be caused by a disruption in the electrical and physiochemical activity of the discharging cells of the brain.
episodic memory  Memory of personal experience.
essential hypertension  Chronically high blood pressure for which no organic cause can be found.
event-related potentials  An EEG that measures changes in brain activity as a consequence of specific sensory, cognitive, or motor stimuli.
exhibitionism  Sexual gratification through displaying one's genitals to an involuntary observer.
exorcism  The practice of expelling evil spirits from a person believed to be possessed by such demons.
experimenter effects  A methodological problem in which researchers inadvertently influence the subject's responses or perceive the subjects' behavior in terms of their own biases.
explicit memories  Memories we are aware of, which may disappear in amnesia. Cf.implicit memories.
exposure  A behavioral treatment for anxiety in which the client is confronted (suddenly or gradually) with his or her feared stimulus.
expressed emotion (EE)  A measurement of key relatives' level of criticism and emotional overinvolvement, used in determining the family type of a hospitalized schizophrenic.
external validity  The degree to which research results can be generalized, or applied, to different populations, settings, and conditions.
extinction  A process in which a conditioned response is reduced to its preconditioned level. Previously reinforced responses are no longer reinforced.
false negative  In commitment hearings, a failure to commit a person when commitment is justified and necessary.
false positive  In commitment hearings, an unjustified commitment.
female orgasmic disorder  A recurrent, lengthy delay or absence of orgasm in a woman.
female sexual arousal disorder  In women, the absence or weakness of the physiological changes or feelings of sexual excitement that normally occur in the arousal phase of sexual response.
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)  A complex of physical and behavioral defects found in many children of alcoholic women. The defects include distinctive facial characteristics, retarded physical growth, and, frequently, mental retardation.
fetishism  Sexual gratification via inanimate objects or some part of the partner's body to the exclusion of the person as a whole.
flat affect  A mood abnormality among schizophrenics in which the person shows no emotion.
flooding  A method of imagined exposure in which the person is confronted with the feared stimulus for long periods of time.
fragile X syndrome  A condition in which an individual's X chromosome shows a weak spot; the most common genetic cause of mental retardation.
free association  A psychoanalytic technique in which the patient verbalizes whatever thoughts come to mind, without structuring or censoring the remarks.
frontal lobe  Largest and anterior division of each cerebral hemisphere. Involved in motor function, language, memory, impulse control, and many other functions.
frontotemporal dementia  A dementia that occurs in middle-aged people and results from progressive deterioration of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain; it is characterized by a profound change in behavior.
frotteurism  Sexual gratification through touching and rubbing against a nonconsenting person.
functional MRI  Variation of MRI that measures the magnetic action of blood oxygen and thus produces images of brain metabolism.
galvanic skin response (GSR)  A polygraphic recording of the changes in the electrical resistance of the skin, an indication of sweat gland activity. There is an intimate relationship between emotion and physiological functioning; when a person's anxiety level rises, so may the activity of the sweat glands.
gender dysphoria  The symptom of being unhappy with one's assigned gender; one of the components of gender identity disorder.
gender identity disorder (GID)  A condition in which people identify with the opposite sex so completely that they feel that they belong to that sex and that their own gender is simply a mistake. Also called transsexualism.
gender reassignment  The process of changing one's gender to the other gender, usually through adopting the dress, manner, appearance, and physical characteristics of the other gender. This may include hormonal treatment and gender reassignment surgery.
general paresis  A final stage of syphilis, involving the gradual and irreversible breakdown of physical and mental functioning.
generalizability  The ability of research results to be applied to different populations, settings, and conditions.
generalization  The process by which an organism, conditioned to respond in a certain way to a particular stimulus, will respond to other, similar stimuli in the same way.
generalized anxiety disorder  A chronic state of diffuse anxiety characterized by excessive worry, over a period of at least six months, about several life circumstances (most often family, money, work, and health).
generalized dysfunction  A sexual dysfunction that occurs in all sexual situations.
generalized seizures  Epileptic seizures that either involve the entire brain at the outset (primary) or soon spread from one part to the whole brain (secondary). Cf. partial seizure.
genes  The units of heredity on a chromosome that carry the instructions, inherited from the parents at conception, about the proteins that the body should produce. The proteins, in turn, determine the hereditary characteristics of the person—height, hair and eye color, and so on.
genetic high-risk design  A research design in which high-risk subjects are selected on the basis of genetic factors associated with the disorder in question.
genetic marker  A gene with a known location on the human chromosome set; provides a clue to the location of a gene controlling a disorder.
genital stage  According to Freud, the final phase of mature sexuality, by which he meant heterosexual genital mating.
genotype  The unique combination of genes that represents one's biological inheritance from one's parents.
genotype-environment correlation  The tendency for individuals' genetic predispositions for a trait or disorder to be associated with environmental experiences that also influence the trait or disorder.
good-poor premorbid dimension  A dimension describing a patient's adaptive functioning prior to the onset of a disorder.
group therapy  Treatment of up to 8 or 10 clients at a time by a single therapist.
hallucinations  Sensory perceptions that occur in the absence of any appropriate external stimulus.
hallucinogens  A class of drugs that acts on the central nervous system in such a way as to cause distortions in sensory perception.
hashish  A "minor hallucinogen" derived from the resin of cannabis, a hemp plant. It is five times stronger than marijuana, another cannabis derivative.
health psychology  A research discipline that focuses on the relationship between mental and physical health. Also called behavioral medicine.
helplessness-hopelessness syndrome  A thought process characteristic of deeply depressed persons in which they regard their condition as irreversible, believing that they are both unable to help themselves and unlikely to be helped by external forces.
hemorrhage  A cerebrovascular accident in which a blood vessel in the brain ruptures, causing blood to spill out into the brain tissue.
heroin  An addictive opiate derived from morphine.
hierarchy of fears  A list of anxiety-producing situations in order of their increasing horror to the client (ascending from least to most frightening), established by a patient and therapist as a part of systematic desensitization.
hierarchy of needs  Concept originating with Abraham Maslow, a series of needs that must be met in the process of development before the adult can begin to pursue self-actualization.
high-risk design  A form of longitudinal research that involves the study of people who have a high probability of developing a disorder.
histrionic personality disorder  A disorder involving the exaggerated display of emotion.
hormones  Chemical messengers that are released directly into the bloodstream by the endocrine gland and that affect sexual functioning, physical growth and development, and emotional responses.
host  In dissociative identity disorder patients, the personality corresponding to who the person was before the onset of the disorder.
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)  The virus that attacks and breaks down the human immune system and causes AIDS. It is transmitted by blood, semen, vaginal secretions, or breast milk of an infected person through unsafe sex, the sharing of hypodermic needles, a contaminated blood transfusion, or passage to a child in the womb of an infected mother.
humanistic existential perspective  View taken by a group of thinkers, many trained as psychoanalysts, who rejected the pessimistic determinism of the psychodynamic approach and emphasized the positive, optimistic aspects of human potential for health, creativity, and constructive living.
humors  In Hippocrates' view, the four vital fluids possessed by humans: phlegm, blood, black bile, and yellow bile. The balance of these humors in each individual was thought to influence personality.
Huntington's chorea  A fatal organic brain disorder that is transmitted genetically. Symptoms include spasmodic jerking of the limbs, bizarre behavior, and mental deterioration.
hypertension  Chronic elevation of blood pressure due to constriction of the arteries; a stress-related physical disorder. Also called high blood pressure.
hypnosis  An artificially induced trance, or sleeplike state, in which the subject is highly susceptible to suggestion.
hypoactive sexual desire disorder  A chronic lack of interest in sex.
hypochondriasis  A disorder in which a person converts anxiety into a chronic fear of disease. The fear is maintained by the constant misinterpretation of physical signs and sensations as abnormal.
hypomanic episode  Briefer and less severe manic episode.
hypothesis  A tentative explanation for behavior that attempts to answer the questions "How?" and "Why?" Scientific research often begins with a hypothesis.
hypothesis testing  A strategy used in cognitive therapy whereby clients are urged to test their assumptions in the real world.
hysteria  A psychogenic disorder that mimics a biogenic disorder.
iatrogenic  A type of symptom brought about as a consequence of therapy or treatment.
id  According to Freud, the basic psychic structure, consisting of primitive biological drives toward sex and aggression.
idiopathic epilepsy  A convulsive disorder for which there is no known cause.
immune system  The body's system of defense against infectious disease and cancer.
implicit memories  Memories that a person with amnesia cannot call into conscious awareness but that still affect his or her behavior. Cf.explicit memories.
impulse-control disorders  Patterns of impulsive behavior that seem to exist not as part of another major syndrome but independently. Their essential feature is the inability to resist the impulse to act in ways harmful to oneself or to others.
inappropriate affect  A mood abnormality among schizophrenics in which the person's emotional responses seem unsuitable to the situation.
incest  Sexual relations between family members.
informed consent  An individual's agreeing to participate in a research study based on an understanding of the purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits of the study.
incidence  The number of new cases of a disorder reported during a specific time period.
independent variable  In a research study, a factor that has been determined before the experiment and may be manipulated by the experimenters in order to measure its effect.
indeterminate sentences  Periods of incarceration with no limit, often given to defendants acquitted by reason of insanity.
individual response specificity  The principle that people seem to have characteristic patterns of autonomic nervous system response which carry over from one kind of stress to another.
infantile autism  A disorder in children in which the primary symptom, apparent from infancy, is the inability to relate to anyone outside of oneself.
infarction  A cerebrovascular accident in which the supply of blood to the brain is cut off, resulting in the death of brain tissue fed by that source.
inpatient  A mental patient who is hospitalized.
insanity defense  A legal plea in which the defendant admits to having committed the crime but pleads not guilty, stating that because of mental disturbance he or she was not morally responsible at the time of the crime.
insomnia  The chronic inability to sleep. The condition can stem from both physical and psychological factors.
intelligence quotient (IQ)  The subject's final score on an adult version of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence scale, a test that measures a child's ability to perform a range of intellectual tasks. IQ tests play an important part in the diagnosis of mental retardation and brain damage.
intelligence tests  Psychological assessment techniques effective in predicting success in school but questionable as a valid measure of intelligence.
interjudge reliability  A criterion for judging the reliability of a psychological test: The test should yield the same results when scored or interpreted by different judges.
internal consistency  A criterion for judging the reliability of a psychological test: Different parts of the test should yield the same result.
internal validity  The extent to which the results of an experiment can be confidently attributed to the effects of the independent variable.
interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)  Short-term therapy for depression that looks for solutions and strategies to deal with interpersonal problems rather than spending time on interpretation and analysis.
interpretation  Freud's primary tool for revealing hidden, intrapsychic motives; it involves going beyond observing surface behavior to uncover its latent content.
interview  An assessment method consisting of a face-to-face conversation between subject and examiner.
knockouts  Genes that are deleted to learn what they do—through observation of what the deletion does to behavior.
Korsakoff's psychosis  An irreversible nutritional deficiency due to vitamin B1 deficiency associated with alcoholism; characterized by anterograde amnesia and confabulation.
la belle indifférence  A response often seen in conversion disorder in which the person does not seem at all disturbed by his or her disability.
latency  The dormancy of a particular behavior or response.
lateralization  The differences in structure and function between the right and the left hemispheres of the brain.
law of effect  Thorndike's formulation of the importance of reward in the learning process which states that responses that lead to satisfying consequences are strengthened and, therefore, are likely to be repeated, while responses with unsatisfying consequences are weakened and, therefore, unlikely to be repeated.
lead encephalopathy  Toxic brain disorder caused by excessive ingestion of lead, in which fluid accumulates in the brain, causing extreme pressure.
learned helplessness  In behavioral theory, the depressed person's inability to initiate adaptive responses, possibly due to a helplessness conditioned by earlier, inescapable trauma.
learning  The process whereby behavior changes in response to the environment.
learning disorders  Three conditions characterized by reading, writing, or mathematical skills that are substantially below what would be expected for the person's age, education, and intelligence and by a resulting interference with the person's adjustment. The three conditions are reading disorder (dyslexia), disorder of written expression, and mathematics disorder.
Lewy body disease  A relatively common form of dementia produced by the presence of Lewy bodies in neurons in the brain. The disease may produce Parkinson's symptoms, visual hallucination, and deficits in attention, concentration, and visual-perceptual skills.
libido  Freud's term for a basic sexual drive, which he saw as the major source of psychic energy.
lifelong dysfunction  A sexual dysfunction that has existed, without relief, since the person's earliest sexual experiences.
lithium  A mood-altering drug used to control manic episodes.
longitudinal studies  Scientific research designs in which a group of subjects is studied several different times over an extended period of time. Also called prospective studies.
loosening of associations  The rambling, disjointed quality that is characteristic of schizophrenic speech.
LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)  A hallucinogen derived from a fungus; it interferes with the processing of information in the nervous system, causing perceptual distortions.
Lyme disease  Tickborne disease that can affect the central nervous system; if untreated, it can lead to encephalitis or meningitis.
mad cow disease  A spongiform brain disease of cows that results in neurological impairment and eventually death. The disease may be related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which causes similar results in humans.
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)  The use of magnetic fields to produce a highly precise picture of the brain.
major depressive disorder  A condition characterized by one or more major depressive episodes with no intervening periods of mania.
major depressive episode  An extended period of intense depression that usually begins and ends gradually and causes a radical change in most aspects of the individual's functioning.
male erectile disorder  In the second phase of sexual arousal, a failure of the tissues in a man's penis to become congested with blood.
male orgasmic disorder  A recurrent, lengthy delay or absence of ejaculation and orgasm in a man.
malingering  The conscious faking of disease symptoms in order to avoid responsibility.
managed behavioral health care  Managed care for mental health. See  managed care.
managed care  Umbrella term for the varied organizational structures, insurance benefits, and regulations that provide for and control the cost of health care.
mania  An emotional state characterized by the exaggeration of positive feelings. The person becomes feverishly active and excited and feels capable of accomplishing anything.
manic episode  An extended period of intense mania that usually begins and ends suddenly and causes a radical change in an individual's social functioning.
MAO inhibitors  The first important class of antidepressants. Although named on the assumption that they block the action of monoamine oxidase (MAO), their mechanism has not been established.
marijuana  A "minor hallucinogen" derived from the dried, crushed leaves of cannabis, a hemp plant.
masochism  Sexual gratification through pain and/or humiliation inflicted on oneself.
matching  In alcohol treatment, directing the patient to a treatment program best suited to his or her personal characteristics.
MDMA  Hallucinogenic drug commonly known as Ecstasy, associated with high-risk sexual behaviors; users may suffer paranoia, panic attacks, and depression as well as long-term impairment in memory with prolonged use.
medical model  The conceptualization of psychological abnormality as a group of diseases analogous to physical diseases.
meningitis  A cerebral infection characterized by acute inflammation of the meninges, the membrane covering of the brain and spinal cord.
mental retardation  A condition that is characterized by subaverage intellectual functioning, by serious deficits in adaptive skills, and by onset before age 18.
mental status exam  The mental status exam is a set of mental tests used to detect dementia (severe mental deterioration) and other organic brain disorders. The diagnostician evaluates the patient on appearance, speech, mood, perception, thought content, and cognitive processes (e.g., memory).
metastatic brain tumors  Brain tumors that originate in some other part of the body and then metastasize, or spread, to the brain.
methadone  A synthetic opiate that satisfies the craving for narcotics but does not produce narcotic euphoria.
migraine headache  A severe form of chronic headache that is usually localized on one side of the head, is sometimes preceded by perceptual distortion, and is typically accompanied by other symptoms such as nausea or confusion; a stress-related disorder.
mind-body problem  The issue of the relationship between the psychic and somatic aspects of human functioning.
mini mental status exam  A shorter version of the mental status exam.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2)  The most widely used self-report personality inventory, the purpose of which is to simplify differential diagnosis by comparing self-descriptive statements endorsed by new patients to statements endorsed by groups of people already diagnosed with a particular condition.
minor tranquilizers  Drugs taken to reduce anxiety or tension.
mixed episode  An episode of mania that also meets the criteria for a major depressive disorder.
monozygotic twins  Twins who develop from the same fertilized egg and have exactly the same genotype.
mood disorders  Emotional conditions in which feelings of depression or mania become so extreme and prolonged that the person's life is completely disrupted. Also called affective disorders.
moral therapy  A nineteenth-century approach to treatment that involved providing an environment in which the mentally ill would be treated humanely and could discuss their difficulties, live in peace, and engage in some useful employment.
morphine  A dangerously addictive depressant drug, derived from one of the most powerful ingredients in opium; used as a painkiller.
motivational interviewing  In drug and alcohol rehabilitation, a question-and-answer method of interviewing aimed at increasing the patient's motivation to change, leading to discontinuing substance abuse.
multiple-baseline design  An experimental research design in which treatment is introduced at different intervals across subjects, behaviors, or situations.
narcissistic personality disorder  A disorder characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance, often combined with periodic feelings of inferiority.
negative reinforcement  A conditioning procedure in which a response is followed by the removal of an aversive event or stimulus, thereby promoting the response.
negative symptoms  In schizophrenia, the absence of something that is normally present; poverty of speech, flat affect, withdrawal, apathy, and attentional impairment.
neologisms  Words and phrases used in schizophrenic speech, but not found in dictionaries, sometimes formed by combining parts of two or more regular words.
nervous system  The vast electrochemical conducting network that extends from the brain through the rest of the body and carries information, in the form of electrical impulses, from the brain to the rest of the body and back to the brain.
neurons  The cells of the nervous system, which connect motor and receptor cells and transmit information throughout the body.
neuroscience perspective  A theory of abnormal behavior that concentrates on the physical aspects of a disorder in an effort to understand its characteristics.
neuroses  Conditions in which maladaptive behaviors serve as a protection against a source of unconscious anxiety.
neurosyphilis  The deterioration of brain tissue as a result of syphilis.
neurotransmitter  One of a group of chemicals that facilitate the transmission of electrical impulses between nerve endings in the brain.
nightmares  Frightening dreams, which do not cause physiological arousal and do not necessarily awaken the dreamer. During early childhood, nightmares are distinguished from sleep terrors, which are both more physically arousing and more harrowing.
norms  The rules in any society that define "right" and "wrong." Norms guide most of our actions and are an important standard for defining abnormality.
null hypothesis  The assumption that the independent variable had no effect on the differences between experimental groups.
object relations  In psychodynamic terminology, "objects" are the people to whom one is attached by strong emotional ties. According to object-relations theorists, the most powerful determinant of psychological development is the child's interaction with the primary caregiver, the child's chief object.
obsession  A thought or an image that keeps unwillingly intruding into a person's consciousness, though the person may consider it senseless or even unpleasant.
obsessive-compulsive disorder  Involuntary dwelling on an unwelcome thought (obsession) and/or involuntary repetition of an unnecessary action (compulsion).
obsessive-compulsive personality disorder  A disorder marked by excessive preoccupation with trivial details, at the cost of both spontaneity and effectiveness.
occipital lobe  Posterior lobe of each cerebral hemisphere; contains the visual center.
Oedipus complex  According to Freud, the desire that all male children have during the phallic stage to do away with the parent of the same sex in order to take sexual possession of the parent of the opposite sex; a crucial stage of development which determines the child's future sexual adjustment.
operant conditioning  The process by which an organism learns to associate certain consequences with certain actions it has taken. Also called instrumental conditioning.
operational definitions  The definitions of concepts involved in a hypothesis in terms of operations that can be observed and measured, so that the hypothesis can be tested.
opiates  A class of drugs that induces relaxation and reverie and provides relief from anxiety and pain.
opium  A depressant derived from the opium poppy.
oral stage  In psychodynamic theory, the first stage of psychosocial development, in which the mouth is the primary focus of libidinal impulses and pleasure; occurs in the first year of life.
outpatient  A mental patient who receives treatment outside of the hospital.
pain disorder  A syndrome characterized by chronic pain that is more severe or persistent than can be explained by medical causes.
panic attack  An attack of almost unbearable anxiety, beginning suddenly and unexpectedly and usually lasting several minutes, though possibly continuing for hours.
panic disorder  A disorder characterized by recurrent panic attacks followed by psychological or behavioral problems.
paranoid personality disorder  A disorder defined by suspiciousness in almost all situations and with almost all people.
paranoid schizophrenia  A form of schizophrenia characterized by consistent delusions and/or hallucinations, often related to themes of persecution and grandeur.
paranoid-nonparanoid dimension  The classification of schizophrenics according to the presence (paranoid) or absence (nonparanoid) of delusions of persecution and/or grandeur.
paraphilias  Sexual patterns—such as fetishism and transvestism—that deviate from the standard of normal sexuality as consisting of a nondestructive interplay between consenting adults.
parasympathetic division  The division of the autonomic nervous system that decreases physical arousal and is usually dominant under less emotional conditions. It regulates breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, stomach and intestinal activity, and elimination. Cf.sympathetic division.
parietal lobe  Middle division of each cerebral hemisphere; involved in sensation, perception, and integrating sensory input.
Parkinson's disease  An organic brain disorder involving damage to the basal ganglia. Symptoms include tremors, a masklike countenance, a stiff gait, and psychological disturbances such as a general mental deficit and social withdrawal.
partial seizures  Epileptic seizures that originate in one part of the brain rather than in the brain as a whole. May be either simple or complex. Cf.generalized seizures.
passive avoidance learning  Learning to stop making certain behavioral responses to stimuli when those responses will result in punishment.
PCP (phencyclidine)  Also called "angel dust," a hallucinogen widely used in the 1970s that poses the risk for users of harming themselves through burns, falls, or accidents, or harming others as a result of perceptual distortions and paranoia.
pedophilia  Child molesting—that is, sexual gratification, on the part of an adult, through sexual contact with children.
penetrating head injury  Potentially, the most serious form of brain trauma, in which a foreign object, such as a bullet or piece of metal, enters the skull and directly ruptures and destroys brain tissue.
peripheral nervous system  The network of nerve fibers that leads from the central nervous system to all parts of the body and carries out the commands of the CNS. It has two branches: the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system.
person variables  A person's stable traits. Adherents of the psychometric approach hold that personality issues mainly from person variables.
personality disorder  An enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual's culture, that is pervasive and inflexible, that has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, that is stable over time, and that leads to distress or impairment.
phallic stage  In psychodynamic theory, the third stage of psychosocial development, in which pleasure is derived from masturbation, the stroking and handling of the genitals; occurs from the third to the fifth or sixth year of life.
phenomenological approach  Therapy method in which the therapist tries to see the world through clients' own perceptions and subjective experience.
phenothiazines  A group of antipsychotic drugs that relieve symptoms such as confusion, withdrawal, hallucinations, and delusions.
phenotype  The unique combination of observable characteristics that results from the combination of a person's genotype with the environment.
phenylketonuria (PKU)  A genetic defect caused by a deficiency in a liver enzyme, phenylalanine 4-hydroxylase, which results in severe retardation, hyperactivity, and erratic behavior.
phobia  An intense and persistent fear of an object or a situation that poses no real threat.
placebo  An inert substance used in research, which may manifest some effects of the drug it has been substituted for.
play therapy  A psychodynamic technique in which the therapist provides young patients with drawing materials and toys, rather than asking them questions, on the assumption that whatever is troubling them will be expressed in their drawings and games.
polygenic  Refers to traits that are the products of the interaction of many genes.
polygraph  A recording device equipped with sensors, which, when attached to the body, can pick up subtle physiological changes in the form of electrical impulses. The changes are recorded on a moving roll of paper.
positive-negative symptoms dimension  A dimension describing a schizophrenic patient's symptoms. Cf.negative symptoms; positive symptoms.
positive psychology  Movement that focuses on helping people to live more fulfilling lives; sees psychology as a study of strength and virtue, not just disease, weakness, and damage.
positive regard  Affection and approval.
positive reinforcement  A situation in which a response is followed by a positive event or stimulus, thereby increasing the probability that the response will be repeated.
positive symptoms  In schizophrenia, the presence of something that is normally absent, including hallucinations, delusions, bizarre behavior, and incoherent thought patterns.
positron emission tomography (PET)  A means of examining the brain. The patient is injected with a radioactively labeled sugar solution, and the path of the radioactive particles through the brain is traced.
postsynaptic receptors  Special proteins on the surface of neurons that bind with neurotransmitters squirted into the synapse from the dendrites of adjoining neurons. Molecules in the neurotransmitter fit into the receptor like a key into a lock.
posttraumatic stress disorder  A severe psychological reaction to intensely traumatic events, including assault, rape, natural disasters, and wartime combat. Victims may reexperience the traumatic event in recollections or in nightmares, show diminished responsiveness to their present surroundings, and suffer physical symptoms and intense irritability. Generally appearing shortly after the trauma, the symptoms usually disappear within six months, but some may last for years.
poverty of content  A characteristic of schizophrenic speech in which words are used correctly but communication is poor.
prediction  (1) The second objective of the scientific method: the ability to predict the relationship between events. (2) The second goal of psychological assessment: the development of hypotheses about future behavior, treatment, and statistical likelihoods.
predictive validity  The degree to which a test's findings are consistent with the subject's future performance.
prefrontal lobotomy  A psychosurgical procedure for severely disturbed patients in which some of the connections between the frontal lobe and the lower parts of the brain are severed; very rarely performed today.
premature ejaculation  A sexual disorder in which the rapidity of ejaculation interferes with the couple's enjoyment.
prevalence  The percentage of a population that has a particular disorder at a particular time.
prevention  The process of keeping psychological disorders from beginning in the first place by changing the environment, the family, or the individual.
primary brain tumors  Tumors that originate either within the brain or outside the brain but inside the skull.
primary gain  In conversion disorder, the relief from anxiety that is experienced by the person as a result of the conversion symptom, which blocks the person's awareness of internal conflict.
primary prevention  The first level of prevention of psychological disorder, the goal of which is to prevent disorders from developing.
primary reinforcer  A stimulus or need that one responds to instinctively, without learning.
procedural memory  Memory for skills.
process-reactive dimension  The classification of people with schizophrenia according to whether the onset of symptoms is gradual (process) or abrupt and precipitated by a traumatic event (reactive).
prodromal phase  The initial stage of schizophrenia, during which the person generally becomes withdrawn and socially isolated.
projective personality tests  Assessment techniques used to draw out, indirectly, individuals' true conflicts and motives by presenting them with ambiguous stimuli and allowing them to project their private selves into their responses.
prospective studies  Longitudinal studies in which the hypothesized predictors or causes of a phenomenon are measured or manipulated prior to the onset of the phenomenon.
psychiatric social worker  Someone who has earned an M.S.W. (master of social work), with special courses and training in psychological counseling.
psychiatrist  An M.D. who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental disorders. Because of their medical degree, psychiatrists can also prescribe psychoactive drugs.
psychoactive drug  A drug that alters one's psychological state.
psychoanalysis  The psychodynamic therapy method that relies heavily on the techniques of free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference. The aim is to give patients insight into their unconscious conflicts, impulses, and motives.
psychoanalyst  Someone who has had postgraduate training at a psychoanalytic institute and has undergone psychoanalysis him- or herself. (Most psychoanalysts are psychiatrists, but other mental health professionals may undertake this training.)
psychodynamic perspective  A school of thought united by a common concern with the dynamics, or interaction, of forces lying deep within the mind. Almost all psychodynamic theorists agree on three basic principles: Much human behavior is determined by intrapsychic forces; such forces generally operate unconsciously; and the form taken by these forces is deeply affected by developmental factors, especially by family relationships.
psychogenic theory  The theory that psychological disturbance is due primarily not to organic dysfunction but to emotional stress.
psychological assessment  The collection, organization, and interpretation of information about a person and his or her situation.
psychological dependence  The nonphysiological dimension of drug abuse, characterized by the abuser's growing tendency to center his or her life on the drug.
psychological test  An assessment technique in which the subject is presented with a series of stimuli to which he or she is asked to respond.
psychometric approach  A method of psychological testing that aims at locating and measuring stable underlying traits.
psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)  The subspecialty of health medicine that studies the interaction between psychological factors and the immune system, mediated by the central nervous system.
psychopathology  Abnormal psychology.
psychopharmacology  Study of the drug treatment of psychological disorders.
psychoses  See  psychosis.
psychosexual development  Freud's theory that personality development takes place in a series of stages, in each of which the child's central motivation is to gratify the drive for pleasure in a different zone of the body.
psychosis  A condition in which adaptive functioning is drastically curtailed and the person may be out of touch with reality.
psychosurgery  Surgery aimed at reducing abnormal behavior in the absence of any signs of organic brain pathology.
punishment  The process in which an organism, in order to avoid (or, less often, obtain) a consequence, stops performing a behavior.
radical behaviorism  The form of behaviorism developed by B. F. Skinner that proposes that everything a person does, says, or feels constitutes behavior and, even if unobservable, is subject to experimental analysis.
random assignment  A balancing control technique that involves assigning subjects randomly to the different groups in an experiment.
random sample  A sample in which every element of a population has an equal likelihood of being included.
rape  Sexual intercourse with a nonconsenting partner.
rational-emotive therapy  Albert Ellis' approach to cognitive therapy, which sees emotional disturbances as the result of irrational beliefs that guide people's interpretation of events. Clients are helped to appraise their situations realistically and develop new ways of interpreting experience.
reactive  In depression, the term used to describe patients whose symptoms are primarily emotional and cognitive.
reattribution training  A strategy used in cognitive therapy whereby the client is helped to change distorted ideas of cause and effect and to attribute events to their causes in a realistic manner.
reinforcement  The process by which behavior is increased or maintained by rewarding consequences. Operant conditioning depends on reinforcement: Most people would not go to work if it weren't for the paycheck.
relapse prevention  In alcohol rehabilitation, an approach aimed at reducing the likelihood of "slipping" and preventing an escalation of usage if "slips" do occur; in the treatment of rapists, an approach that trains rapists how to avoid situations that place them at risk for repeating the crime and how to resist the impulse to commit the offense.
relaxation training  A technique that behaviorists have used in stress-relief programs in which the subject alternately tenses, then relaxes, groups of muscles. The goal is to teach the patient to distinguish between tension and relaxation and ultimately achieve the latter.
reliability  (1) In the scientific method, the degree to which a description remains stable over time and under different testing conditions. (2) The degree to which a measurement device yields consistent results under varying conditions.
replicate  To repeat aspects of a research study with some changes in certain variables in order to show whether a previous study's results are found under similar circumstances.
representativeness  The degree to which a research sample's characteristics match those of the population under study.
repression  A defense mechanism in which unacceptable id impulses are pushed down into the unconscious, thereby rendered unable to disturb the person consciously.
residual phase  The third phase of schizophrenia, during which behavior is similar to that seen during the prodromal phase.
respondent conditioning  The process of learning a conditioned response. Also called classical conditioning.
response sets  Test-taking attitudes that lead subjects to distort their responses, often unconsciously.
retarded depression  A type of depression in which there is little spontaneous motor activity. Movement is slow and deliberate, with a minimum number of gestures and little verbalization.
Rorschach Psychodiagnostic Inkblot Test  The most well-known projective personality test, in which subjects are asked to interpret 10 cards, each showing a symmetrical inkblot design.
sadism  Sexual gratification through infliction of pain and/or humiliation on others.
sadomasochistic  The term applied to sexual partners in which either a sadist and a masochist pair up to satisfy their complementary needs, or both partners enjoy both sadism and masochism and switch between the two.
savant syndrome  A disorder in which a person with greatly diminished mental skill shows extraordinary proficiency in one, isolated skill.
schema  An organized structure of information about a particular domain in life; it is stored in the mind and helps a person to organize and process newly learned information.
schizoaffective disorder  Diagnosis made when an individual has a manic or major depressive episode while at the same time exhibiting the symptoms of schizophrenia.
schizoid personality disorder  A disorder marked by social withdrawal and isolation.
schizophrenia  A group of psychoses marked by severe distortion of thought, perception, and mood; by bizarre behavior; and by social withdrawal.
schizotypal personality disorder  A disorder marked by odd speech, behavior, thinking, and/or perception.
seasonal affective disorder (SAD)  A mood disorder characterized by depression that occurs only during the winter.
secondary gain  In conversion disorder, the "benefit," of being excused from responsibilities and of attracting sympathy and attention, which accrue to the person as a result of the conversion symptom.
secondary prevention  The second level of prevention of psychological disorder, the goal of which is to detect and treat disorders at an early stage, so that minor disorders do not develop into major ones.
selective attention  An adaptive mechanism by which human beings take in and process only some of the information bombarding their senses at any given moment.
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)  A class of antidepressants that work by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
self-actualization  The process of exploring and fulfilling one's potential—not only by staying alive but also by testing and fulfilling their vision of their highest capabilities.
self-instructional training  A cognitive therapy technique that teaches people to control their behavior by controlling what they say to themselves before, during, and after their actions.
self-report personality inventories  Psychological tests which, unlike projective tests such as the Rorschach and TAT, ask the subjects direct questions about themselves.
semantic memory  General knowledge.
separation anxiety disorder  A childhood disorder characterized by intense fear and distress upon being separated from parents or other caretakers.
sexual aversion disorder  Active avoidance of sex as a result of feelings of disgust or fear about it.
sexual dysfunctions  Disorders involving either a disruption of the sexual response cycle or pain during intercourse.
sheltered workshops  Special work centers designed to meet the needs of mentally retarded people employed in them.
simple partial seizure  A partial epileptic seizure in which cognitive functioning remains intact.
single-case experiment  A research design that focuses on behavior change in one person but, unlike the case study, methodically varies the conditions surrounding the person's behavior and monitors the behavior under the changing conditions.
single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)  Technique of brain imaging used to measure blood flow and glucose metabolism in the brain.
situational dysfunction  A sexual dysfunction that occurs only in certain situations or with certain partners.
situational variables  The environmental stimuli that precede and follow any given action by a person.
sleep terrors  Sleep disorder with harrowing dreams arising out of slow-wave sleep, in which a child shows intense psychological arousal but then has no memory of the event.
sleepwalking  A dissociative disorder in which the person walks and performs some complex action while asleep. It is much more common in children than in adults. Also called somnambulism.
social phobia  A phobic disorder in which the person's anxiety is aroused by one or more social situations and is related to the person's fear of being humiliated or criticized. In childhood, this disorder typically takes the form of a paralyzing fear of strangers—peers as well as adults.
social-skills training  A behavioral therapy that teaches depressed or schizophrenic people basic techniques for engaging in satisfying interactions with others.
sociocultural perspective  The theory that abnormal behavior is the product of broad social forces and conditions such as poverty, urbanization, and inequality.
Socratic questioning  Technique by which the cognitive therapist asks a series of questions designed to get the client to look more objectively at the truth of thoughts, assumptions, and beliefs, and to think about whether they are adaptive.
somatic nervous system  The part of the peripheral nervous system that senses and acts on the external world, relaying to the brain information picked up by the sense organs and transmitting the brain's messages to the skeletal muscles, which move the body.
somatization disorder  A syndrome characterized by numerous and recurrent physical complaints, persisting for several years, for which no medical basis can be found.
somatoform disorders  Conditions in which psychological conflicts take on a somatic or physical form. These disorders include hypochondriasis, somatization disorder, and conversion disorder.
source-monitoring deficit theory  Theory that proposes that patients with dissociative identity disorder do not retrieve a sufficient number or a proper configuration of features that would allow them to identify past experiences as memories.
specific phobia  A phobic disorder with a particular stimulus, such as heights, enclosed places, injury, or a certain type of animal.
spectator role  A sexual dysfunction in which a person is constantly watching and judging his or her sexual performance and is not able to relax and experience pleasure. This worry often causes the much-feared failure, because the tension blunts response to sexual stimuli.
standard of proof  In commitment hearings, the degree of certainty required in order to commit someone to a mental institution. There must be "clear and convincing evidence" that the person is mentally ill and dangerous.
state-dependent memory  Phenomenon where knowledge obtained in a certain state (e.g., under the influence of drugs) may not be retained when the person is no longer in that state.
statistical inference  A technique used by researchers to try to determine whether differences between experimental groups are due to the independent variable. It begins by assuming the null hypothesis and then using probability theory to determine the likelihood of having obtained the experimental results if the independent variable had had no effect. If the likelihood is small, the result is judged to be statistically significant, and the independent variable is assumed to have had an effect.
stereotypy  The act of engaging in purposeless behaviors repetitively for hours, sometimes manifested by schizophrenics.
stigma  A label identified with a certain characteristic, usually negative—such as the stigma of being mentally ill.
stimulants  A class of drugs that provides energy, alertness, and feelings of confidence.
stimulus equivalence  The learning of stimulus response connections without direct learning or mere physical similarities between stimuli. People can transfer stimulus-response connections learned for a set of pictures of animals to a new set of stimuli, such as words that symbolically represent the same stimuli (e.g., the words dog and horse).
stimulus specificity  The principle that different kinds of stress produce different kinds of physiological response.
stress  Variously defined as environmental stimulus of the body, as the body's response to the demands of the environment, and as the interaction between an environmental stimulus and the body's appraisal of it.
stroke  See  cerebrovascular accident (CVA).
structural hypothesis  Freud's belief that the mind can be divided into three broad forces: the id, the ego, and the superego.
stuttering  The interruption of fluent speech through blocked, prolonged, or repeated words, syllables, or sounds.
substance abuse  A pattern of maladaptive drug use that has not progressed to full-blown dependence. It is determined by the appearance of any one of the following symptoms: recurrent drug-related failure to fulfill major role obligations (e.g., absenteeism from school or work, neglect of children); recurrent drug use in physically dangerous situations (e.g., drunk driving); drug-related legal problems; and continued drug use despite social or interpersonal problems caused by the effects of the drug. Cf.substance dependence.
substance dependence  The diagnostic category to which a drug user is assigned who fulfills any three of these seven criteria: preoccupation with the drug; unintentional overuse; tolerance; withdrawal; persistent desire or efforts to control drug use; the abandonment of important social, occupational, or recreational activities for the sake of drug use; and continued drug use despite serious drug-related problems. Cf.substance abuse.
superego  According to Freud, the part of the mind that represents the moral standards of the society and parents, as internalized by the child.
sympathetic division  The division of the autonomic nervous system which becomes dominant in times of stress and which heightens the body's arousal, causing blood pressure, heart rate, perspiration, and adrenaline to increase, pupils to dilate, and salivation and digestive functions to diminish. Cf.parasympathetic division.
symptomatic epilepsy  The label applied to convulsions that are a function of brain damage caused by pathologies such as neurosyphilis, alcohol or drug intoxication, tumors, encephalitis, trauma, or strokes.
synapse  The gap between two neurons across which nerve impulses pass.
syndrome  The distinct cluster of symptoms that tends to occur in a particular disease.
synergistic effect  The combined impact of two drugs, which is greater than the effect of either drug when taken alone.
systematic desensitization  A behavior therapy technique in which the patient, while in a relaxed state, imagines his or her anxiety-provoking stimuli or is presented with the actual stimuli. Progressing from the least to the most feared situations, the patient learns to remain relaxed—a response that should carry over to real-life situations.
tardive dyskinesia  A muscle disorder that causes uncontrollable grimacing and lip smacking; caused by antipsychotic drugs.
Tay-Sachs disease  A genetic disorder of lipid metabolism marked by the absence of the enzyme hexosominidase A in brain tissues; causes mental retardation, muscular deterioration, convulsions, and death before the age of six.
temporal lobe  Large lobe of each cerebral hemisphere that is located in front of the occipital lobe and contains the sensory center associated with hearing. Also involved in organization of sensory input.
test-retest reliability  A criterion for judging the reliability of a psychological test: The test should yield the same results when administered to the same person at different times.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)  A frequently used projective personality test in which the subject is presented with a series of pictures showing one, two, or three people doing something. The scenes are ambiguous enough to allow for a variety of interpretations, yet they nudge the subject in the direction of certain kinds of associations, unlike the Rorschach test. For example, a picture of a man in a business suit might tap a subject's feelings about his or her father.
theory of mind  The ability, lacking in autistic children, to appreciate the existence of purely mental states, such as beliefs or desires, and to predict or understand behavior based on such states.
third-variable problem  In scientific research, an alternative factor, not considered by the researchers, that may be causing the covariation of the two factors being investigated.
three-term contingency  A description including a discriminating stimulus, a response, and the consequence of the response.
thrombosis  The obstruction of a blood vessel by a buildup of fatty material coating the inside of the vessel, thus blocking the flow of blood; a common cause of infarction.
time-order relationship  The second condition to be met before causality can be demonstrated: the presumed cause must occur before the presumed effect.
token economy  A behavior modification procedure, based on operant-conditioning principles, in which patients are given a conditioned reinforcer such as tokens for performing target behaviors. The patients can exchange the tokens for backup reinforcers such as snacks or special privileges.
tolerance  The physiological condition in which the usual dosage of a drug no longer produces the desired effect.
tonic-clonic seizures  Generalized epileptic seizures that typically begin with a tonic, or rigid, extension of the arms and legs, followed by a clonic, or jerking, movement throughout the body.
traits  Stable underlying characteristics that presumably exist in differing degrees in everyone.
tranquilizers  A group of drugs that produce mild calm and relaxation. They can be addictive and have side effects.
transsexual  See  gender identity disorders (GID).
transvestism  Sexual gratification through dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex.
traumatic brain injury  Injury to brain tissue as a result of jarring, bruising, or cutting.
tricyclics  A class of drugs widely used to treat depression, which generally works by blocking the reuptake of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine by the presynaptic neuron.
trisomy 21  A condition in which there is an extra chromosome in pair 21 in the human cell; the genetic basis of Down syndrome.
Type A  A personality characterized by pressure to achieve, impatience, high standards of self-evaluation, and hostility.
Type I schizophrenia  A dimension of schizophrenia characterized by positive symptoms.
Type II schizophrenia  A dimension of schizophrenia characterized by negative symptoms.
unconditioned response  A natural, unlearned response to a stimulus.
unconditioned stimulus  A stimulus that elicits a natural, or unconditioned, response.
unconscious  In Freudian theory, the level of consciousness that contains all memories not readily available to the perceptual conscious, because they have been either forgotten or repressed.
understanding  The identification of the cause or causes of a phenomenon.
up-regulation  Process where postsynaptic receptors increase in number or become more sensitive when presynaptic neurons are not releasing enough neurotransmitter to carry the impulse.
vaginismus  A sexual dysfunction in which the muscles surrounding the entrance to the vagina undergo involuntary spasmodic contractions, making intercourse either impossible or painfully difficult.
validity  The degree to which a description or test measures what it is supposed to measure.
valuing process  Part of process of self-actualization whereby experiences perceived as enhancing to oneself are valued as good and sought after whereas experiences perceived as not enhancing are valued as bad and are avoided.
vascular dementia  The impairment of many of the brain's faculties as the cumulative result of many infarctions.
voyeurism  Sexual gratification through clandestine observation of other people's sexual activities or sexual anatomy.
vulnerability-stress models  Models that identify which persons might be vulnerable to developing clinical disorders (individuals with a particular cognitive style), when (after a stress), and even which disorders they are vulnerable to (depression, eating disorder, etc.).
withdrawal  Temporary psychological and physiological disturbances resulting from the body's attempt to readjust to the absence of a drug.
word salad  A schizophrenic speech pattern in which words and phrases are combined in a disorganized fashion, seemingly devoid of logic, meaning, and even associational links.





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