inability to remember important events or per-
sonal information.
Dissociative disorders—class of disorders in which
traumatic events or unpleasant memories cause a
massive repression of these into the unconscious
mind.
Dissociative fugue—sometimes called the “travel-
ing amnesiac” disorder, in which a person moves
away and assumes a new identity, with amnesia
for the previous identity.
Dissociative identity disorder—formerly known as
Multiple Personality Disorder, a rarely seen disso-
ciative disorder in which two or more distinct per-
sonalities exist within the same person.
Divergent thinking—thinking that produces many
alternatives or ideas; creativity.
Dizygotic orfraternal twins—twins who develop
from two different eggs fertilized by two different
sperms.
Dominant gene—the gene expressed when the
genes for a trait are different.
Dopamine—a neurotransmitter that stimulates the
hypothalamus to synthesize hormones and affects
alertness, attention and movement. Lack of
dopamine is associated with Parkinson’s disease;
too much with schizophrenia.
Double-bind—a theory that serious mental illness can
be expressed in an individual who has been given
mutually inconsistent messages, such as love and
hate, typically from a parent during childhood.
Double-blind procedure—research design in which
neither the experimenter nor the participants
know who is in the experimental group and who
is in the control group.
Down syndrome—usually with three copies of
chromosome-21 in their cells, individuals are typ-
ically mentally retarded, have a round head, flat
nasal bridge, protruding tongue, small round ears,
a fold in the eyelid, and poor muscle tone and
coordination.
Drive-reduction theory—theory of motivation that
focuses on internal states of tension such as
hunger that motivate us to pursue actions that
reduce the tension and bring us back to homeo-
stasis or internal balance.
Dualism—sees mind and body as two different
things that interact.
Echoic memory—auditory sensory memory.
Eclectic—use of techniques and ideas from a variety
of approaches to psychotherapy.
Ectomorph—Sheldon’s body type characterized by
thin, frail body, introversion, and intelligence.
Educational psychologists—psychologists who focus
on how effective teaching and learning take place.
EEG(electroencephalogram)—an amplified tracing
of brain activity produced when electrodes posi-
tioned over the scalp transmit signals about the
brain’s electrical activity (“brain waves”) to an
electroencephalograph machine.
Effector—muscle cell that contracts or gland cell
that secretes.
Efferent neuron—also called motor neuron, nerve
cell in your PNS that transmits impulses from
sensory or interneurons to muscle cells that con-
tract or gland cells that secrete.
Ego—Freud’s personality structure that is the only
rational component; it serves as the mediator
between the id and superego and also as the deci-
sion-maker for the personality.
Egocentrism—seeing the world from one’s own per-
spective; the inability to see reality from the per-
spective of another person characteristic of the
preoperational child.
Elaboration likelihood model (ELM)—accounts
for how attitudes can be changed.
Elaborative rehearsal—movement of information
into long-term memory by making it meaningful.
Electroconvulsive treatment(ECT)—is used as a
last resort to treat severely depressed patients;
involves passing small amounts of electric current
through the brain to produce seizure activity and
a change in affect.
Embryo—the developmental prenatal stage (from
about 2 weeks through 2 months after fertiliza-
tion) when most organs begin to develop.
Emotional intelligence—the ability to perceive,
express, understand, and regulate emotions.
Emotions—feelings, highly subjective personal ten-
dencies to respond to internal and external vari-
ables; includes physical arousal, expressive
behaviors, and conscious experience.
Encoding—the process of converting information
into some form that enables it to be stored into
our memory system.
Encoding specificity principle—retrieval depends
upon the match between the way information is
encoded and the way it’s retrieved.
Endocrine system—ductless glands that typically
secrete hormones directly into the blood which
help regulate body and behavioral processes.320 ❯ Glossary