Developmental psychology.pdf

Glossary 571
catch trials A research procedure designed to minimize or
eliminate faking or dishonesty among subjects. In a test
of auditory ability, for example, during one trial the tone
might not be presented at all, yet the subject would be
asked to describe what he had heard.
catecholamine A neurotransmitter substance; a chemical
at the synapse which seems to be involved in changes
of mood.
catharsis A release of tensions by expressing pent-up
emotions and by reliving early traumatic events; an
aspect of psychotherapy often encouraged by the
therapist.
catharsis hypothesis The conjecture that the expression
of anger and other emotional reactions leads to a
decrease of these feelings. The hypothesis is not well
supported.
cell body The compact central portion of a neuron; the
neuron exclusive of its projections, axon, and dendritescellular
dehydration The lack of water in the cells. The
body is dry due to fluid loss through urination,
perspiration, and so forth. This condition needs to be
alleviated by water intake.
central fissure The crevice or invagination separating the
frontal and parietal lobes of the brain.
central nervous system The brain and spinal cord.
central tendency, measures of Statistical measurements
indicating a typical score in a group; the mode, median,
or mean.
central trait A trait which is at the core of the personality;
a trait which influences our judgment of an individual in
a global way. For example, the warm-cold dimension
influences our judgment about other characteristics of
an individual, such as whether that person is honest,
outgoing, and even artistic.
centration The tendency of a child in Piaget's second
stage of intellectual development, the preoperational
stage, to focus attention on the dominant stimulation.
The child's attention is so fixed on the height of a
beaker, for example, that he or she ignores the
operations which have been performed on the contents
of the beaker.
cephalocaudal development (sef-uh-l5-kawd'-l) A
gradient of growth, particularly in the embryonic stage,
proceeding from head to tail. In a fetus, the head is
likely to be more fully developed than the trunk and
lower body parts.
cerebral cortex The greatly invaginated outer layer of
cerebral cells (gray matter); the region for many
complex neural connections.
cerebral hemispheres The two hemispheres, left and
right, of the cerebral cortex, separated by the
longitudinal fissure.
cerebrotonia (sa-ree-bra-to"-nee-uh) Temperament
characterized by such features as restraint, shyness,
hypersensitivity, and reflection.
cerebrum (sa-ree'-brum) The largest portion of the human
brain, consisting of two symmetrical divisions known as
the cerebral hemispheres. The outer layer (cortex) is
gray; the inner area is white matter. This structure plays
a vital role in the versatility of human functioning.
chaining Learning related behaviors in a series, in which
each response serves as a stimulus for the next
response, as when a child learns to write his or her
name letter by letter. When the child writes the name
quickly and as a single unit, the chaining is complete.
character Personality viewed from the standpoint of what
is ethical or moral, such as a person's honesty;
ordinarily it has reference to relatively fixed traits.
chemosensitivity The senses of smell, with gaseous
forms, and taste, with soluble substances.
chemotherapy Treatment of mental disorders by the use
of drugs and other chemicals.
chlorpromazine (klor-pro"m'-uh-zeen) A tranquilizing drug.
choroid coat (kor'-oyd) The middle, pigmented layer of the
eyeball. Its primary function is to exclude light.
chromosomes (kr5-'muh-s5mz) Structures within the
nucleus of a cell which contain the hereditary
determiners, or genes.
chronological age Actual age from birth, regardless of
developmental level.
chunking The grouping of items for facilitating memory. A
dozen household items, perhaps too much for a child to
remember in a series, are grouped into four chunks,
those concerning food, furniture, transportation, and
play. The child's task is to remember the four chunks
and then the two, three, or four items in each chunk,
rather than to remember all twelve items in one group.
clairvoyance One of three alleged capacities of
extrasensory perception, involving the ability to know
current events or circumstances without any obvious
sensory awareness. See also precognition and
telepathy.
clarification of feelings An approach in personal-centered
counseling in which the counselor attempts to express
the other person's feelings in a clearer form. The
counselor, by his or her manner or choice of words,
attempts to reveal more precisely what has been said or
what the interviewee is feeling.
classes In the structure-of-intellect model of intelligence, a
products dimension. The outcome of the individual's
thought is that certain items or events are considered
together as a group or class. In concept formation, for
example, animals of various descriptions are all referred
to as a dog.
classical conditioning A form of learning, as in the
experiments of Pavlov, in which a previously neutral
stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus—capable of
eliciting a given response—after being repeatedly
presented with an unconditioned stimulus. The process
is sometimes called stimulus substitution because a
new stimulus evokes the response in question, such as
salivation.
classical experiment See experiment, classical.
clerical aptitude The abililties required of office workers;
usually perceptual speed, language and numericals
facility, and also finger and manual dexterity. For
example, using and maintaining a file efficiently requires
all of these capacities.