Chapter 03 - TERMS

What is Oedipal conflict?
In Freudian theory, the erotic attachment to opposite sex parent, involving feelings of competition and hostility toward same-sex parent, and fears of retaliation (castration anxiety in boys) from the same-sex parent.

What is Unconscious?
In psychoanalytic theory, that part of the mind outside of conscious awareness, containing hidden instincts, impulses, and memories.

What is Defense Mechanisms?
In Freudian theory, strategies whereby a person avoids anxiety-arousing experiences.

What is Repression?
Defense mechanism in which the anxiety-arousing memory or impulse is prevented from becoming conscious.

What is Reaction Formation?
Defense mechanism in which a person behaves in a way directly opposite from some underlying impulse.

What is Isolation?
Defense mechanism in which person separates emotions from intellectual content, or otherwise separates experiences that would be anxiety arousing if permitted to occur together.

What is Displacement?
Defense mechanism in which the person shifts a reaction from some original target person or situation to some other person or situation (e.g., anger displaced from boss to family.)

What is Projection?
Defense mechanism in which the person disowns some impulse and attributes it to another person.

What is Intrapsychic?
Refers to unobservable mental events such as ideas, wishes, and unconscious conflicts.

What is Id?
In Freudian theory, that part of the mind from which instinctual impulses originate.

What is Ego?
In Freudian theory, that part of the mind that mediates between id impulses and external reality.

What is Superego?
In Freudian theory, the internalized representative of parental or cultural values.

What is Libido?
Psychoanalytic concept referring to the sexual instincts.

What is Fixations?
In Freudian theory, refers to an unusual investment of libidinal energy at a certain psychosexual stage.

What is Regressions?
In Freudian theory, refers to a return to some earlier stage of psychosexual development in the face of some current frustration.

What is Phobia?
Strong, irrational fear of some specific object, animal, or situation.

What is Free Association?
Basic procedure in psychoanalysis in which the patient is asked to say whatever comes to mind without censorship.

What is Resistance?
In psychoanalysis, the phenomenon in which patients unconsciously resist gaining insight into unconscious motives and conflicts.

What is Transference?
Irrational emotional reaction of a patient to the therapist (usually in psychoanalysis) in which early attitudes toward parents are 'transferred' to the therapist.

What is Behaviorism?
An approach to understanding behavior that emphasizes the relation between observable behavior and specifiable environmental events (or stimuli).

What is Reinforcement?
Consequence following a response that increases the likelihood that, in the same situation, the response will be repeated in the future.

What is Primary Reinforcers?
Events, usually biological in nature, that almost always provide reinforcement, such as eating when hungry; primary reinforcers do not acquire their reinforcing properties through learning.

What is Punishers?
Types of consequences that weaken or suppress the behaviors that produce them.

What is Positive Reinforcement?
The contingent presentation of a pleasant result, which strengthens subsequent responding.

What is Negative Reinforcement?
The contingent removal of an unpleasant stimulus, which strengthens subsequent responding.

What is Discriminative Stimulus?
A stimulus that serves as a signal that a certain response will lead to a reinforcement.

What is Reversal Design?
Experimental design in which new reinforcement contingencies are instated for a period of time, followed by reinstatement of the old reinforcement contingencies and finally the installment of the original, new contingencies; sometimes a fourth reversal is included. Purpose is to show that the new contingencies are causing any observed changes in behavior.

What is Modeling?
Teaching a behavior by performing the behavior and having the learner imitate it.

What is Systematic Desensitization?
A counterconditioning procedure in which subjects are exposed to gradually stronger anxiety-producing stimuli while maintaining a state of relaxation.

What is Covert Sensitization?
Form of behavior therapy in which the person is asked to imagine an upsetting scene in order to produce a form of aversion conditioning.

What is Chromosomes?
Elongated bodies in cells that carry genetic information; there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells.

What is Genes?
Units of hereditary information carried in a chromosome by DNA.

What is Genotype?
Total set of inherited characteristics determined by a person's genetic makeup.

What is Phenotypes?
Observed characteristics that result from the interaction between genotype and environmental influences.

What is Identical or Monozygotic (MZ) twins?
Twins resulting from the splitting of a single fertilized ovum who have exactly the same genetic makeup.

What is Fraternal or Dizygotic (DZ) twins?
Twins that result from the simultaneous fertilization of two separate ova; such a pair has the same degree of genetic similarity as any two non-twin siblings born to the same parents.

What is Phenylketonuria (PKU)?
Rare form of mental retardation caused by error in protein metabolism, recessively inherited.

What is Neurons?
Individual nerve cells.

What is Dendrites?
Branching fibers of a neuron that receive input from other neurons.

What is Axon?
Part of the neuron that carries neural impulses to other cells.

What is Synapse?
A tiny gap separating neurons, across which chemical communication between cells can occur.

What is Neurotransmitters?
Chemical substances released into the synapse that enable transmission of impulses from one neuron to another.

What is Electroconvulsive Therapy, or ECT?
Therapeutic induction of convulsive seizures by applying electrical current to the head; found to have some effectiveness with severe depressions.

What is Psychosurgery?
Procedures that attempt to treat abnormal behavior by surgical intervention on the brain.

What is Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia?
Proposed that the disorder was caused by excessive dopamine activity in the brain (hence, DA-blocking drugs like Thorazine were useful).

What is Catecholamine Hypothesis of Depression?
Proposed that the mood disorder resulted from a relative depletion of NE in the brain (hence, MAO-I drugs were useful because they enhanced NE activity).

What is Tardive Dyskinesia?
Occasional long term sideeffect of pheno thiazine treatment of schizophrenia. Involves rhythmical, stereotyped movements and lip smacking.

What is Humanistic Approach?
Emphasis on viewing people as whole human beings rather than analyzing them in an impersonal fashion.