Instrumental aggression—hostile act intended to
achieve some goal.
Instrumental learning—learning that occurs when a
response is weakened or strengthened by its
consequence.
Intellectualization—Freudian defense mechanism
that involves reducing anxiety by reacting to emo-
tional situations in a detached, unemotional way.
Intelligence—the global capacity to act purposefully,
to think rationally, and to deal effectively with the
environment.
Intelligence quotient (IQ)—mental age divided by
chronological age multiplied by 100.
Interference theory—learning some items may pre-
vent retrieving others, especially when the items are
similar.
Intermittent reinforcement—the occasional rein-
forcement of a particular behavior; produces
response that is more resistant to extinction than
continuous reinforcement.
Internal locus of control—based on Julian Rotter’s
research, the belief that you control what happens
to you through your own individual effort and
behavior.
Internalization—the process of absorbing informa-
tion from a specified social environmental context
(according to Lev Vygotsky).
Interneuron—nerve cell in the CNS that transmits
impulses between sensory and motor neurons.
Intimacy vs. isolation—In Erikson’s theory, the
ability to establish close and loving relationships
is the primary task of late adolescence and early
adulthood.
Intrinsic motivation—a desire to perform an activity
for its own sake rather than for an external reward.
Introvert—Jungian term for the opposite of
extravert; a person with a tendency to get energy
from individual pursuits; a person with the trait of
shyness, the desire to avoid large groups, and who
prefers to pay attention to private mental experi-
ences (according to Eysenck).
Iris—colored muscle surrounding the pupil that reg-
ulates the size of the pupil’s opening.
James-Lange theory—the conscious experience of
emotion results from your awareness of autonomic
arousal and comes only after your behavioral
response to situations.
Jigsaw classroom—Aronson and Gonzales devised
learning experience where students of diverse back-
grounds are first placed in expert groups where
they learn one part of lesson, and then share that
information in jigsaw groups made up of one stu-
dent from each of the expert groups. Students are
dependent upon each other; self-esteem and
achievement of “poorer” students improves, and
former stereotypes are diminished.
Just noticeable difference (jnd)—experience of the
difference threshold.
Kinesthesis—body sense that provides information
about the position and movement of individual
parts of the body with receptors in muscles, ten-
dons, and joints.
Klinefelter’s syndrome—males with XXY sex
chromosomes.
Language—communication system based on words
and grammar; spoken, written, or gestured words
and the way they are combined to communicate
meaning.
Latency stage—fourth of the Freudian stages of
development (6–12); sublimation of sexual pleas-
ure into school work and other activities; if libido
fixates here, the result is feelings of inferiority and
poor self-concept.
Latent content—according to Freud, the underlying
meaning of a dream.
Latent learning—learning when no apparent
rewards are present; it becomes apparent only
when there is an incentive to demonstrate it.
Law of effect—Thorndike’s observation that behav-
iors followed by rewards are strengthened and
behaviors followed by punishment are weakened.
Learning principle that behavior is acquired by
virtue of its consequences.
Learned helplessness—the feeling of futility and
passive resignation that results from inability to
avoid repeated aversive events.
Learning—a relatively permanent change in behavior
as a result of experience.
Lens—structure in the eye behind the pupil that
changes shape, becoming more spherical or flatter,
to focus incoming rays into an image on the light-
sensitive retina.
Lesions—interruptions in tissue that result from
destruction of tissue by injury, tumors, scarring;
enables more systematic study of the loss of func-
tion when tissue loss results from surgical cutting
or removal (also called ablation), or destruction by
chemical applications.
Levels of processing theory or semantic network
theory—ability to form memories depends upon
the depth of the processing and the meaningfulness
of the information to the individual.326 á Glossary
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