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Gyri—folding-out portions of convolutions of the cerebral cortex.

Habituation—decreasing responsiveness with repeated presentation of the same stimulus.

Hallucinations—perceptual experiences that occur in the absence of external stimulation of the corresponding sensory organ; characteristic of schizophrenia and some drug states.

Hallucinogens—also called psychedelics, a diverse group of psychoactive drugs that alter moods, distort perceptions, and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input; include LSD, PCP, marijuana (THC), psilocybin from mushrooms, and mescaline (Peyote).

Hawthorn effect—when people know that they are being observed, they change their behavior to what they think the observer expects or to make themselves look good.

Health psychologists—psychologists who study how health and illness are influenced by emotions, stress, personality, and lifestyle.

Heritability—the proportion of phenotypic variation among individuals, in a population, that results from genetic causes.

Heterosexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward people of the opposite sex.

Heterozygous—also called hybrid, the condition when the genes for a trait are different.

Heuristic—a problem-solving strategy used as a mental shortcut to quickly simplify and solve a problem, but that does not guarantee a correct solution.

Hierarchies—systems in which items are arranged from more general to more specific classes.

Hierarchy of needs theory—Abraham Maslow’s humanistic theory of priorities from the lower levels of 1) basic biological needs, 2) safety and security needs, 3) belongingness and love, 4) self-esteem needs to 5) self-actualization needs; a lower need must be fulfilled before we can fulfill the next higher need.

Higher-order conditioning—classical conditioning in which a well-learned CS is paired with an NS to produce a CR to the NS.

Hindsight bias—a tendency to falsely report, after the event, that we correctly predicted the outcome of the event.

Hippocampus—part of limbic system of brain that enables formation of new long-term memories for facts and personal experiences.

Holophrase—one-word meaningful utterances of children from ages of 1 to 2.

Homeostasis—the body’s tendency to maintain a balanced internal state.

Homosexuality—a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another person of the same sex.

Homozygous—the condition when both genes for a trait are the same.

Hormone—chemical messenger that travels through the blood to a receptor site on a target organ.

Hostile aggression—deliberate infliction of pain upon an unwilling victim.

Humanistic approach—psychological perspective concerned with individual potential for growth and the role of unique perceptions in growth toward one’s potential.

Huntington’s disease—dominant gene defect that involves degeneration of the nervous system characterized by tremors, jerky motions, blindness, and death.

Hypnagogic state—relaxed state of dreamlike awareness as we fall asleep.

Hypnosis—a technique that involves an interaction between the person (hypnotist) who suggests that certain feelings, thoughts, perceptions, or behaviors and the subject who experiences them.

Hypochondriasis—a somatoform disorder involving persistent and excessive worry about developing a serious illness.

Hypothalamus—part of brain under the thalamus that controls feeding behavior, drinking behavior, body temperature, sexual behavior, threshold for rage behavior, activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and secretion of hormones of the pituitary.

Hypothesis—prediction of how two or more factors are likely to be related.

Iconic memory—visual sensory memory.

Id—Freud’s original system of the personality; it operates on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification of its wants and needs; unconscious reservoir of primal urges and libido.

Ideal self—Rogerian term for the self we desire to be; discrepancy with real self causes psychological problems.

Identical twins—also called monozygotic