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• Classic-Fiction

Contact theory—if members of two opposing groups are brought together in an emergency situation, group cooperation will reduce prejudice thinking.

Context-dependent memory—physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the information and becomes part of the memory trace.

Contextual intelligence—what Sternberg calls “street smarts”; intelligence that reflects behaviors that help us to adapt and fit into the environment by developing useful skills and behaviors.

Contiguity—Pavlovian theory that classical conditioning is based on the association in time of the CS prior to UCS.

Contingency—Rescorla theory that the predictability of UCS following CS determines classical conditioning.

Continuity-discontinuity controversy—deals with the issue of whether development is a gradual, continuous process or a sequence of separate stages.

Continuous reinforcement—the schedule of reinforcement where each behavior emitted by the organism is rewarded.

Contralaterality—control of one side of your body by the other side of your brain.

Control group—in a controlled experiment, the comparison group; the subgroup of the sample that is similar to the experimental group in every way except for the presence of the independent variable.

Controlled experiment—research method in which the experimenter manipulates the independent variable (IV) to see the effect on the dependent variable (DV) in order to establish a cause and effect relationship between the IV and DV.

Conventional level—Kohlberg’s second level of moral development, in which people realize that society has instituted rules to maintain order and to serve the best interests of its citizens.

Convergent thinking—conventional thinking; thinking directed toward a single correct solution.

Conversion disorder—a somatoform disorder involving the actual loss of bodily function, such as blindness, paralysis, and numbness, due to excessive anxiety with no physiological cause.

Convolutions—folding-in and out of the cerebral cortex that increases surface area of the brain.

Coping—active efforts to reduce or tolerate perceived levels of stress.

Cornea—transparent, curved layer in the front of the eye that bends incoming light rays.

Corpus callosum—broad band of nervous tissue that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres transmitting information from one side of the brain to the other.

Correlation coefficient (r)—a statistical measure of the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data that ranges from -1 to +1.

Counseling psychologists—psychologists who help people adapt to change or make changes in their lifestyle.

Counterconditioning—replacing one emotion with its exact opposite such as relaxation as opposed to fear in phobias.

Creative self—Alder’s term for the conscious control of problem-solving strategies in daily life.

Creativity—the ability to generate ideas and solutions that are original, novel, and useful.

Critical period—a time interval during which specific stimuli have a major effect on development that the stimuli do not produce at other times.

Critical period hypothesis—an optimal time after birth during which an organism must be exposed to certain influences if it is to develop properly. (Language is on example.)

Cross-sectional research—a method of assessing developmental changes by evaluating different age groups of people at the same time.

Crystallized intelligence—learned knowledge and skills such as vocabulary which tend to increase with age.

Culture—behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions transmitted from one generation to the next within a group of people who share a common language and environment.

Daily hassles—everyday annoyances such as having to wait on lines, arguing with a friend, etc.

Dark adaptation—increased visual sensitivity that gradually develops when it gets dark.

Daydreaming—state of consciousness characterized by focus on inner, private realities which can generate creative ideas.

Decay theory