G-3 GloSSARy
episodic memories Memories of personally experienced events and the
contexts in which they occurred.
equilibrium The sense of balance.
ethnic identity A person’s identification with a racial or ethnic group.
ethnocentrism The belief that one’s own ethnic group, nation, or religion
is superior to all others.
evolutionary psychology A field of psychology emphasizing evolutionary
mechanisms that may help explain human commonalities in cognition,
development, emotion, social practices, and other areas of behavior.
existential therapy A form of therapy designed to help clients explore the
meaning of existence and face the great questions of life, such as death,
freedom, and loneliness.
existentialism A philosophical approach that emphasizes the inevitable
dilemmas and challenges of human existence.
experiment A controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher
manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.
experimenter effects Unintended changes in subjects’ behavior as a
result of cues that the experimenter inadvertently conveys.
explicit memory Conscious, intentional recollection of an event or of an
item of information.
extinction The weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned
response. In classical conditioning, it occurs when the conditioned stim-
ulus is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus; in operant con-
ditioning, it occurs when a response is no longer followed by a reinforcer.
extrinsic motivation The pursuit of an activity for external rewards, such
as money or fame.
extrinsic reinforcers Reinforcers that are not inherently related to the
activity being reinforced, such as money, prizes, and praise.
facial feedback The process by which the facial muscles send messages
to the brain about the basic emotion being expressed.
factor analysis A statistical method for analyzing the intercorrelations
among various measures or test scores; clusters of measures or scores
that are highly correlated are assumed to measure the same underlying
trait, ability, or aptitude (factor).
fairness bias The bias, in some circumstances, to value cooperation and
fair play over rational self-interest.
familiarity effect The tendency of people to feel more positive toward a
person, item, product, or other stimulus the more familiar they are with it.
family-systems perspective An approach to doing therapy with individu-
als or families by identifying how each family member forms part of a
larger interacting system.
feature-detector cells Cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to spe-
cific features of the environment.
field research Descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natu-
ral setting outside the laboratory.
flooding In behavior therapy, a form of exposure treatment in which the
client is taken directly into the feared situation until his or her panic
subsides.
fluid intelligence The capacity to reason and use new information to
solve problems; it is relatively independent of education and tends to
decline in old age.
fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) A fast version of MRI used
to study brain activity associated with specific thoughts and behaviors.
framing effect The tendency for people’s choices to be affected by how a
choice is presented or framed; for example, whether it is worded in terms
of potential losses or gains.
frequency distribution A summary of how frequently each score in a set
occurred.
frequency polygon (line graph) A graph showing a set of points obtained
by plotting score values against score frequencies; adjacent points are
joined by straight lines.
frontal lobes Lobes at the front of the brain’s cerebral cortex; they con-
tain areas involved in short-term memory, higher-order thinking, initia-
tive, social judgment, and (in the left lobe, typically) speech production.descriptive methods Methods that yield descriptions of behavior but not
necessarily causal explanations.
descriptive statistics Statistics that organize and summarize research
data.
dialectical reasoning A process in which opposing facts or ideas are
weighed and compared, with a view to determining the best solution or
to resolving differences.
difference threshold The smallest difference in stimulation that can be
reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared; also
called just noticeable difference (jnd).
diffusion of responsibility In groups, the tendency of members to avoid
taking action because they assume that others will.
discriminative stimulus A stimulus that signals when a particular
response is likely to be followed by a certain type of consequence.
display rules Social and cultural rules that regulate when, how, and
where a person may express (or suppress) emotions.
dissociation A split in consciousness in which one part of the mind oper-
ates independently of others.
dissociative identity disorder A controversial disorder marked by the
apparent appearance within one person of two or more distinct person-
alities, each with its own name and traits; formerly known as multiple
personality disorder (MPD ).
doctrine of specific nerve energies The principle that different sensory
modalities exist because signals received by the sense organs stimulate
different nerve pathways leading to different areas of the brain.
double-blind study An experiment in which neither the participants nor
the individuals running the study know which participants are in the
control group and which are in the experimental group until after the
results are tallied.
effect size An objective, standardized way of describing the strength of
the independent variable’s influence on the dependent variable.
ego In psychoanalysis, the part of personality that represents reason,
good sense, and rational self-control.
elaborative rehearsal Association of new information with already stored
knowledge and analysis of the new information to make it memorable.
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) A procedure used in cases of prolonged
and severe major depression, in which a brief brain seizure is induced.
electroencephalogram (EEG) A recording of neural activity detected by
electrodes.
embryonic stem (ES) cells Stem cells from early embryos that can
develop into any cell type.
emotion A state of arousal involving facial and bodily changes, brain
activation, cognitive appraisals, subjective feelings, and tendencies
toward action.
emotion work Expression of an emotion, often because of a role require-
ment, that a person does not really feel.
emotional intelligence The ability to identify your own and other people’s
emotions accurately, express your emotions clearly and appropriately, and
regulate emotions in yourself and others.
empirical Relying on or derived from observation, experimentation, or
measurement.
endocrine glands Internal organs that produce hormones and release
them into the bloodstream.
endogenous Generated from within rather than by external cues.
endorphins [en-DoR-fins] Chemical substances in the nervous system
that are similar in structure and action to opiates; they are involved in
pain reduction, pleasure, and memory and are known technically as
endogenous opioid peptides.
entrapment A gradual process in which individuals escalate their com-
mitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money,
or effort.
epigenetics The study of stable changes in the expression of a particular
gene that occur without changes in DNA; the Greek prefix epi- means
“on top of” or “in addition to.”