PSY 440 Ch.2 Key Terms

Psychology 440 with Ostrowski at Western Kentucky University

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By: Jake Cheeseman
Created: 2011-02-13
Size: 30 flashcards
Views: 10

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Multidimensional integrative approach

Approach to the study of psychopathology that holds psychological disorders are always the products of multiple interacting casual factors.

Genes

Long deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule, the basic physical unit of heredity that appears as a location on a chromosome.

Diathesis-stress model

That both an inherited tendency (a vulnerability) and specific stressful conditions are required to produce a disorder.

Vulnerability

Susceptibility or tendency to develop a disorder.

Reciprocal gene-environment model

Hypothesis that people with a genetic predisposition for a disorder may also have a genetic tendency to create environmental risk factors that promote the disorder.

Neuroscience

Study of the nervous system and its role in behavior, thoughts, and emotions.

Neuron

Individual nerve cell responsible for transmitting information.

Synaptic cleft

Space between nerve cells where chemical transmitters act to move impulses from one neuron to the next.

Neurotransmitter

Chemical that crosses the synaptic cleft between nerve cells to transmit impulse from one neuron to the next. Relative excess or deficiency of neurotransmitters is involved in several psychological disorders.

Hormone

Chemical messenger produced by the endocrine glands.

Brain circuit

Neurotransmitter current or neural pathway to the brain.

Reuptake

Action by which a neurotransmitter is quickly drawn back into the discharge neuron after being released into a synaptic cleft.

Agonist

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that effectively increases the activity of a neurotransmitter by imitating its effects.

Antagonist

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that decreases or blocks the effects of a neurotransmitter.

Inverse agonist

In neuroscience, a chemical substance that produces effects opposite those of a particular neurotransmitter.

Glutamate

Amino acid neurotransmitter that excites many different neuron, leading to action.

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

Neurotransmitter that reduces activity across the synaptic cleft and thus inhibits a range of behaviors and emotions, especially generalized anxiety.

Serotonin

Neurotransmitter involved in processing of information and coordination of movement, inhibition, restraint, regulation of eating, sexual, and aggressive behaviors.

Norepinephrine

Neurotransmitter active in the central and peripheral nervous system, controlling heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, among other functions.

Dopamine

Neurotransmitter whose generalized function is to activate other neurotransmitter and to aid in exploratory and pleasure-seeking behaviors (thus balancing serotonin).

Cognitive science

Field of study that examines how humans and other animals acquire, posses, store, and retrieve information.

Learned helplessness

Martin Seligman’s theory that people become anxious and depressed when they make an attribution that they have no control over the stress in their lives (whether or not they actually have control).

Modeling

Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of other individuals and consequences of that behavior.

Prepared learning

Ability adaptive for evolution, allowing certain associations to be learned more readily than others.

Implicit memory

Condition of memory in which a person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them.

Emotion

Pattern of action elicited by an external event and a feeling state, accompanied by a characteristic physiological response.

Fight or flight response

Biological reaction to alarming stressors that musters the body’s resources (for example, blood flow and respiration) to resist or flee a threat.

Mood

Enduring period of emotionality.

Affect

Conscious, subjective aspect of an emotion that accompanies an action at a given time.

Equifinality

Developmental psychopathology principle that a behavior or disorder may have several causes.

About this deck

By: Jake Cheeseman
Created: 2011-02-13
Size: 30 flashcards
Views: 10

About StudyBlue

“I have used this website for three exams, and I see a huge difference in my test results.”
Naj