Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

serial position effect The tendency to rememberitems at the beginning and end of alist better than items in the middle (p. 245).serotonin (ser-ah-TONE-in) Neurotransmitterinvolved in sensory perceptions, sleep,and emotions (p. 52).set-point theory Theory that proposes thathumans and other animals have a natural oroptimal body weight, called the set-pointweight, that the body defends from becominghigher or lower by regulating feelings ofhunger and body metabolism (p. 327).settling-point models of weight regulationGeneral model of weight regulation suggestingthat body weight settles, or stabilizes,around the point at which there is balancebetween the factors influencing energy intakeand energy expenditure (p. 327).sex chromosomes Chromosomes, designatedas X or Y, that determine biological sex;the 23rd pair of chromosomes in humans (p.371).sexual orientation The direction of a person’semotional and erotic attraction towardmembers of the opposite sex, the same sex, orboth sexes (pp. 335).shape constancy The perception of a familiarobject as maintaining the same shape regardlessof the image produced on the retina(p. 123).shaping The operant conditioning procedureof selectively reinforcing successivelycloser approximations of a goal behavior untilthe goal behavior is displayed (p. 209).short-term dynamic therapies Type ofpsychotherapy that is based on psychoanalytictheory but differs in that it is typically timelimited,has specific goals, and involves an active,rather than neutral, role for the therapist(p. 584).short-term memory The active stage ofmemory in which information is stored for upto about 20 seconds (p. 233).situational (contingency) theories of leadershipLeadership theories claiming thatvarious situational factors influence a leader’seffectiveness (p. B-9).Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire(16PF) A self-report inventory developedby Raymond Cattell that generates a personalityprofile with ratings on 16 trait dimensions(p. 449).size constancy The perception of an objectas maintaining the same size despite changingimages on the retina (p. 123).skewed distribution An asymmetrical distribution;more scores occur on one side of thedistribution than on the other. In a positivelyskewed distribution, most of the scores arelow scores; in a negatively skewed distribution,most of the scores are high scores (p. A-4).sleep disorders Serious and consistentsleep disturbances that interfere with daytimefunctioning and cause subjective distress(p. 153).sleep paralysis A temporary condition inwhich a person is unable to move upon awakeningin the morning or during the night(p. 144).sleep-related eating disorder A sleep disorderin which the sleeper will sleepwalk andeat compulsively (p. 158).sleepsex A sleep disorder involving abnormalsexual behaviors and experiences duringsleep; sexsomnia (p. 157).sleep spindles Short bursts of brain activitythat characterize stage 2 NREM sleep (p. 142).sleep terrors A sleep disturbance characterizedby an episode of increased physiologicalarousal, intense fear and panic, frighteninghallucinations, and no recall of the episodethe next morning; typically occurs duringstage 3 or stage 4 NREM sleep; also callednight terrors (p. 157).sleep thinking Vague, bland, thoughtlikeruminations about real-life events that typicallyoccur during Non-REM sleep; alsocalled sleep mentation (p. 147).sleepwalking A sleep disturbance characterizedby an episode of walking or performingother actions during stage 3 or stage 4 NREMsleep; also called somnambulism (p. 157).social categorization The mental processof categorizing people into groups (or socialcategories) on the basis of their shared characteristics(p. 460).social cognition The mental processes peopleuse to make sense out of their social environment(p. 458).social cognitive theory Albert Bandura’stheory of personality, which emphasizes theimportance of observational learning, consciouscognitive processes, social experiences,self-efficacy beliefs, and reciprocal determinism(p. 437).social influence The effects of situationalfactors and other people on an individual’sbehavior (p. 458).social learning theory of gender-roledevelopment The theory that gender rolesare acquired through the basic processes oflearning, including reinforcement, punishment,and modeling (p. 386).social norms The “rules,” or expectations,for appropriate behavior in a particular socialsituation (p. 460).social phobia or social anxiety disorderAn anxiety disorder involving the extremeand irrational fear of being embarrassed,judged, or scrutinized by others in social situations(p. 540).social psychology Branch of psychologythat studies how a person’s thoughts, feelings,and behavior are influenced by the presenceof other people and by the social and physicalenvironment (p. 458).social support The resources provided byother people in times of need (p. 575).somatic nervous system Subdivision of theperipheral nervous system that communicatessensory information to the central nervoussystem and carries motor messages from thecentral nervous system to the muscles (p. 57).source confusion A memory distortionthat occurs when the true source of the memoryis forgotten (p. 255).source memory or source monitoringMemory for when, where, and how a particularexperience or piece of information was acquired(p. 251).source traits The most fundamental dimensionsof personality; the broad, basic traitsthat are hypothesized to be universal and relativelyfew in number (p. 440).specific phobia An excessive, intense, andirrational fear of a specific object, situationmor activity that is actively avoided or enduredwith marked anxiety (p. 540).spinal reflexes Simple, automatic behaviorsthat are processed in the spinal cord (p. 56).split-brain operation A surgical procedurethat involves cutting the corpus callosum(p. 76).spontaneous recovery The reappearance ofa previously extinguished conditioned responseafter a period of time without exposureto the conditioned stimulus (p. 189).stage model of memory A model describingmemory as consisting of three distinctstages: sensory memory, short-term memory,and long-term memory (p. 232).standard deviation A measure of variability;expressed as the square root of the sum ofthe squared deviations around the mean dividedby the number of scores in the distribution(p. A-5).standard normal curve or standard normaldistribution A symmetrical distributionforming a bell-shaped curve in which themean, median, and mode are all equal and fallin the exact middle (p. A-8).standardization The administration of atest to a large, representative sample of peopleunder uniform conditions for the purpose ofestablishing norms (p. 297).statistically significant A mathematical indicationthat research results are not verylikely to have occurred by chance (p. 18).statistics A branch of mathematics used byresearchers to organize, summarize, and interpretdata (pp. 18, A-2).G-14 Glossary