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• Classic-Fiction

Affiliation motive—the need to be with others.

Age of viability—the end of the second trimester in pregnancy; the point at which there is a reasonable chance the fetus will survive if born prematurely.

Aggression—any behavior intended to hurt someone, either physically or psychologically.

Alarm response—first stage of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS) to stress; involves increasing activity of the sympathetic nervous system speeding up heart rate, blood pressure, and releasing adrenaline.

Albinism—recessive trait that produces lack of pigment, and involves quivering eyes and inability to perceive depth with both eyes.

Algorithm—problem-solving strategy that involves a slow, step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution to certain types of problems.

All-or-none-principle—the law that the neuron either generates an action potential when the stimulation reaches threshold or it doesn’t fire when stimulation is below threshold. The strength of the action potential is constant whenever it occurs.

Altruism—an unselfish interest in helping others.

Alzheimer’s disease—a fatal degenerative disease in which brain neurons progressively die, causing loss of memory, reasoning, emotion, control of bodily functions, then death.

Amnesia—a loss of memory.

Amygdala—part of the limbic system of brain that influences emotions such as aggression, fear, and self-protective behaviors; is involved in the storage of emotional memories.

Anal stage—Freud’s second stage of development in which the child receives pleasure from the anal region especially during elimination.

Analytical—one of the three parts of Sternberg’s triarchic theory of intelligence; is similar to what is tested by traditional IQ tests and what we are asked to do in school: compare, contrast, analyze, and figure out cause-effect relationships.

Anchoring effect—the tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response toward that point.

Androgyny—the presence of desirable masculine and feminine characteristics in one individual.

Animism—belief of a preoperational child that all things are living just like him/her according to Piaget.

Anorexia nervosa—eating disorder more common in the adolescent female characterized by weight less than 85% of normal, abnormally restrictive food consumption, and an unrealistic body image that she is still fat.

Anterograde amnesia—a disorder caused by brain damage that disrupts a person’s ability to form new long-term memories of events that occur after the time of the brain damage.

Antidepressant drugs—medicines which elevate mood states; three main categories include tricyclics (such as Elavil), MAO inhibitors (such as Nardil), and SSRI inhibitors (such as Prozac).

Antipsychotic drugs—powerful medicines that lessen agitated behavior, reduce tension, decrease hallucinations and delusions, improve social behavior, and produce better sleep behavior especially in schizophrenic patients (also called neuroleptics).

Antisocial personality disorder—a disorder characterized by a failure to conform to standards of decency; repeated lying and stealing; a failure to sustain lasting, loving relationships; low tolerance of boredom; and a complete lack of guilt.

Anxiety hierarchy—a listing of frightening events in increasing order of severity used in systematic desensitization treatment for phobias.

Anxiolytics—anti-anxiety drugs (tranquilizers) such as benzodiazepines including Librium, Valium, Xanax; and Buspirone.

Aphasia—impairment of the ability to understand (receptive) or use (expressive) language.

Approach-approach conflict—a conflict in which the individual must choose between two positive stimuli or circumstances.

Approach-avoidance conflict—a conflict in which the individual must decide whether or not to choose a circumstance involving a single stimulus that has both positive and negative characteristics.

Aptitude test—test that measures what our potential should be and whether or not we will benefit from some training; predicts our future capacity