GLOSSARY G-5
developmental psychology area of psychology in which the psychologists
study the changes in the way people think, relate to others, and feel as
they age.
deviation IQ scores a type of intelligence measure that assumes that IQ is
normally distributed around a mean of 100 with a standard deviation of
about 15.
diffusion process of molecules moving from areas of high concentration to
areas of low concentration.
diffusion of responsibility occurs when a person fails to take responsibil-
ity for actions or for inaction because of the presence of other people who
are seen to share the responsibility.
directive therapy in which the therapist actively gives interpretations of a
client’s statements and may suggest certain behavior or actions.
direct observation assessment in which the professional observes the client
engaged in ordinary, day-to-day behavior in either a clinical or natural
setting.
discrimination treating people differently because of prejudice toward the
social group to which they belong.
discriminative stimulus any stimulus, such as a stop sign or a doorknob,
that provides the organism with a cue for making a certain response in
order to obtain reinforcement.
displaced aggression taking out one’s frustrations on some less threatening
or more available target.
displacement redirecting feelings from a threatening target to a less threat-
ening one.
display rules learned ways of controlling displays of emotion in social
settings.
dispositional cause cause of behavior attributed to internal factors such as
personality or character.
dissociation divided state of conscious awareness.
dissociative disorders disorders in which there is a break in conscious
awareness, memory, the sense of identity, or some combination.
dissociative identity disorder (DID) disorder occurring when a person
seems to have two or more distinct personalities within one body.
distress the effect of unpleasant and undesirable stressors.
distributed practice spacing the study of material to be remembered by
including breaks between study periods.
disuse another name for decay, assuming that memories that are not used
will eventually decay and disappear.
divergent thinking type of thinking in which a person starts from one
point and comes up with many different ideas or possibilities based on
that point.
dizygotic twins often called fraternal twins, occurring when two individ-
ual eggs get fertilized by separate sperm, resulting in two zygotes in the
uterus at the same time.
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) special molecule that contains the genetic
material of the organism.
dominant referring to a gene that actively controls the expression of a trait.
door-in-the-face technique asking for a large commitment and being
refused and then asking for a smaller commitment.
double approach–avoidance conflict conflict in which the person must
decide between two goals, with each goal possessing both positive and
negative aspects.
double-blind study study in which neither the experimenter nor the
subjects know if the subjects are in the experimental or the control
group.
drive a psychological tension and physical arousal arising when there is
a need that motivates the organism to act in order to fulfill the need and
reduce the tension.drive-reduction theory approach to motivation that assumes behavior
arises from physiological needs that cause internal drives to push the
organism to satisfy the need and reduce tension and arousal.
drug tolerance the decrease of the response to a drug over repeated uses,
leading to the need for higher doses of drug to achieve the same effect.
echoic memory auditory sensory memory, lasting only 2 to 4 seconds.
eclectic approach to therapy that results from combining elements of sev-
eral different approaches or techniques.
educational psychology area of psychology in which the psychologists are
concerned with the study of human learning and development of new
learning techniques.
efferent (motor) neuron a neuron that carries messages from the central
nervous system to the muscles of the body.
ego part of the personality that develops out of a need to deal with reality;
mostly conscious, rational, and logical.
egocentrism the inability to see the world through anyone else’s eyes.
ego integrity sense of wholeness that comes from having lived a full life,
possessing the ability to let go of regrets; the final completion of the ego.
eidetic imagery the ability to access a visual memory for 30 seconds or more.
elaboration likelihood model model of persuasion stating that people will
either elaborate on the persuasive message or fail to elaborate on it and
that the future actions of those who do elaborate are more predictable than
those who do not.
elaborative rehearsal a way of increasing the number of retrieval cues
for information by connecting new information with something that is
already well known.
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) form of biomedical therapy to treat severe
depression in which electrodes are placed on either one or both sides of a
person’s head and an electric current is passed through the electrodes that
is strong enough to cause a seizure or convulsion.
electroencephalogram (EEG) a recording of the electrical activity of large
groups of cortical neurons just below the skull, most often using scalp
electrodes.
electroencephalograph machine designed to record the electroencephalogram.
embryo name for the developing organism from 2 weeks to 8 weeks after
fertilization.
embryonic period the period from 2 to 8 weeks after fertilization, during
which the major organs and structures of the organism develop.
emerging adulthood a time from late adolescence through the 20s referring
to those in who are childless, do not live in their own home, and are not
earning enough money to be independent, mainly found in developed
countries.
emotion the “feeling” aspect of consciousness, characterized by a certain
physical arousal, a certain behavior that reveals the emotion to the outside
world, and an inner awareness of feelings.
emotional intelligence the awareness of and ability to manage one’s own
emotions to facilitate thinking and attain goals, as well as the ability to
understand emotions in others.
emotion-focused coping coping strategies that change the impact of a
stressor by changing the emotional reaction to the stressor.
empathy the ability of the therapist to understand the feelings of the client.
encoding the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory
information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the
brain’s storage systems.
encoding failure failure to process information into memory.
encoding specificity the tendency for memory of information to be
improved if related information (such as surroundings or physiological
state) that is available when the memory is first formed is also available
when the memory is being retrieved.Z03_CICC7961_05_SE_GLOS.indd 5 9/3/16 12:59 AM