Serotonin—a neurotransmitter associated with
arousal, sleep, appetite, moods and emotions.
Lack of serotonin is associated with depression.
Set point—a preset natural body weight, deter-
mined by the number of fat cells in our body.
Sex-linked traits—recessive genes located on the X
chromosome with no corresponding gene on the
Y chromosome result in expression of recessive
trait more frequently in males.
Sexual orientation—the direction of an individual’s
sexual interest.
Sexual response cycle—Master’s and Johnson’s four
stages of bodily response during sex: excitement,
plateau, orgasm, and resolution.
Shadow—according to Jung represents our baser
instinctual urges we attempt to keep hidden from
others.
Shallow processing—encoding into memory super-
ficial sensory information without making it rele-
vant which seldom results in enduring memory.
Shaping—positively reinforcing closer and closer
approximations of a desired bahavior through
operant conditioning.
Short-Term Memory—also called working memory,
which can hold about seven unrelated items for
about twenty to thirty seconds without rehearsal.
Simultaneous conditioning—in classical condi-
tioning the CS and UCS are paired together at the
same time; weaker conditioning technique than
the ideal delayed conditioning.
Single-blind procedure—research design in which
participants don’t know whether they are in the
experimental or control group.
Situational attributions—look at factors in the
environment to explain what happened.
Sleep—a complex combination of states of con-
sciousness each with its own level of conscious-
ness, awareness, responsiveness, and physiological
arousal.
Sleepwalking—most frequently a childhood sleep
disruption that occurs during stage 4 sleep
characterized by trips out of bed or carrying on of
complex activities.
Social clock—idea that society has certain age
expectations for when someone should marry and
have kids and people feel compelled to meet these
expectations or face a crisis.
Social cognition—refers to the way people gather,
use, and interpret information about the social
aspects of the world around them.
Social facilitation—improved performance of well-
learned tasks in front of others.
Social group—two or more people sharing
common goals and interests interact and influence
behavior of the other(s).
Social impairment—when first learning a new task,
the unsatisfactory results if performed before an
audience.
Social interactivist perspective—babies are biolog-
ically equipped for learning language which may
be activated or constrained by experience.
Social learning theory—Bandura’s idea that we can
learn behavior from others by first observing it
and then imitating it.
Social loafing—individuals put less effort into
group projects than individual projects.
Social motives—learned needs that energize behav-
ior; acquired as part of growing up in a particular
society or culture.
Social psychologists—psychologists who focus on
how a person’s mental life and behavior are shaped
by interactions with other people.
Social psychology—the study of how groups influ-
ence the attitudes and behavior of the individual.
Social referencing—observing the behavior of
others in social situations to obtain information
or guidance.
Social skills training—cognitive behavioral therapy
where the therapist can model the behavior for the
client and then place the client in a simulated sit-
uation for practice.
Sociobiology—study of the biological basis of social
behavior.
Sociocultural approach—psychological perspective
concerned with how cultural differences affect
behavior.
Somatic nervous system—subdivision of PNS that
includes motor nerves that innervate skeletal (vol-
untary) muscle.
Somatization disorder—sematoform disorder char-
acterized by recurrent complaints about usually
vague and unverifiable medical conditions such as
dizziness, heart palpitations, and nausea which do
not apparently result from any physical cause.
Somatoform disorder—a mental disorder involving
a bodily or physical problem for which there is no
physiological basis.
Somatotype theory—William Sheldon’s theory that
body types determine personality.
Somnambulism—sleepwalking.334 ❯ Glossary