• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Somnambulism—sleepwalking.

Sound localization—the process by which one determines the location of a sound.

Source trait—Cattell’s underlying 16 traits that guide one’s behavior.

Speed test—measures how fast you can answer easy questions in a specified time period.

Spinal cord—portion of the central nervous system below the medulla oblongata.

Split-half reliability—is a method where the score on one half of the test questions is compared with the other half of the questions to see if they are consistent.

Spontaneous recovery—the reappearance of a previously extinguished CR after a rest period.

Sports psychologists—psychologists who help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, increase motivation, and deal with anxiety or fear of failure.

Stability vs. change—deals with the issue of whether or not personality traits present during infancy persist throughout the lifespan.

Stage 1 sleep—sleep stage lasting a few minutes in which we gradually lose responsiveness to outside stimuli and experience drifting thoughts and images. EEGs of stage 1 sleep show theta waves which are lower in amplitude and frequency than alpha waves.

Stage 2 sleep—sleep stage whose EEGs show high frequency bursts of brain activity called sleep spindles, and K complexes.

Stage 3 sleep—deep sleep stage whose EEGs show some very high amplitude and very low frequency delta waves.

Stage 4 sleep—deepest sleep stage whose EEGs show mostly very high amplitude and very low frequency delta waves. Heart rate, respiration, temperature, and blood flow to the brain are reduced. Growth hormone involved in maintaining physiological functions is secreted.

Standard deviation (SD)—a measure of the average difference between each score and the mean of the data set; the square root of the variance.

Standardization—two-part test development procedure that first establishes test norms by giving the test to a large representative sample of those for whom the test is designed, then assures that the test is both administered and scored uniformly for all test takers.

Standardized tests—set of tasks administered under standard conditions to assess an individual’s knowledge, skill, or personality characteristics.

Stanford-Binet intelligence test—Terman’s revision of Binet’s original individual IQ test.

State-dependent memory—tendency to recall information better if you are in the same internal state as when the information was encoded.

Statistical significance (p)—the condition that exists when the probability that the observed findings are due to chance is less than 1 in 20 (p <.05) according to some psychologists or less than 1 in 100 (p <.01) according to those with more stringent standards.

Statistics—field that involves the analysis of numerical data about representative samples of populations.

Stereotype—overgeneralized and false belief about the characteristics of members of a particular group; schema used to quickly judge others.

Stereotype threat—anxiety that influences members of a group concerned that their performance will confirm a negative stereotype.

Stimulants—psychoactive drugs that activate motivational centers and reduce activity in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system by increasing activity of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine neurotransmitter systems; include caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and cocaine.

Stimulus—a change in the environment that can be detected by sensory receptors; elicits (brings about) a response.

Storage—the retention of encoded information over time.

Stranger anxiety—the fear of strangers that infants develop around 8 months of age.

Stress—the process by which we appraise and respond to environmental threats.

Stressors—stimuli such as heat, cold, pain, that are perceived as endangering our well-being.

Strive for superiority—according to Adler, this tendency is a result of a need to compensate for our feelings of inferiority.

Structuralism—early psychological perspective that emphasized units of consciousness and identification of elements of thought using introspection.

Sublimation