9/11
The epoch shaping attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 about which psychology has a great interest. Many Universities in the USA are conducting longitudinal case studies with victims and their families' regards the psychological impact such a disaster has on an individual.
In September 2001, the American Psychological Association's Board of Directors started a Subcommittee on Psychology's Response to Terrorism "to help government agencies and Congress combat terrorism and deal with the psychological causes and consequences of the attacks" (Carpenter). You might find its report of some interest? g, 2001).2001).
( Note the report will open in a new window. To return here simply close that window. )
Accomodation
Second stage in the adaptation of schema. In our bus example (see Organisation) accommodation occurs when the toddler forms new schema to accommodate similar stimuli to 'bus'. Such as a schema for lorries, tractors, caravans etc. What this means in a practical sense is that when the toddler sees a bus he/she says 'Bus'. A lorry, 'Lorry' etc. Accommodation helps us discriminate and make a specific interpretation of stimuli in our world. Piaget said that the process of adaptation of schema occurs because of imbalance. When we initially assimilate schema we are in a state of disequilibrium or imbalance. Our general interpretation of our world just isn't right. A lorry etc. isn't a bus! This discomfort sees us moved to accommodate the assimilated schema better. When done, we are in a state of balance, or equilibrium about the stimuli in our world.
Accessory structure
Each of our 6 senses, or sensory modes, has a related accessory structure that helps relay external information to our brain. The accessory structure associated with our visual sense is our eyes. Our olfactory sense, our nose. Our tactile sense, receptor cells in our fingertips & feet. Our gustatory sense, our tongue. Our auditory sense our lugs. Or ears for those outwith Scotland! Finally, our kinaesthetic sense relies on our ears, eyes, and sense of touch. Our kinaesthetic sense is a good example of cross-modal transfer, which is where our senses pool information. This gives us maximum sensory information about stimuli in our world. Hugely important in determining how we behave in our environment/react to our environment.
Acoustic encoding
This is our encoded memory of a stimulus on the basis of any sound associated with it. We encode any sound information to acoustic memory. Like the words, phrases etc. that we hear in our psychology lectures/classes. Or when we are studying hard, and say our notes to ourselves while reading. Acoustic memory is far better than visual memory. We also use acoustic encoding for STM.
Adaptation
Piaget says once a schema is formed we use another innate ability called adaptation to develop this mental representation of an object, event, or person. The adaptation of schema is a two-stage process. Assimilation is when the baby/toddler/child/adult initially 'opens up' the schema. Accommodation then follows, which is where the initial schema develops on the basis of experience. The individuals' thinking becomes more sophisticated.
Aggression
Anger or aggression is a key emotion necessary to our personal survival in our environment. In psychology it is understood from a biological point of view. The hormonal hypothesis regards aggression suggests that the male sex hormone androgen (testosterone) plays its part. As do other hormones such as adrenaline and progesterone (Kreuz and Rose, 1972). Our environment also plays its part. There are links between alcohol consumption and aggression, the weather and aggression, and environmental stressors and aggression (Keegan, 2002).
Amygdala
Shaped like an almond, our amygdala is part of our limbic system. It is often referred to as 'the window to the soul'. The amygdala is found just beneath the surface of the front, medial part of our temporal lobe.
The amygdala is crucial to instinctual emotions such as fear and anger, and our ability to feel emotional because of some external stimulus.
Anal stage
(1-2 years). The second stage of personality development, where according to Freud, libido moves to our anus, or bottom. The anal stage is all about how strictly or liberally we were toilet trained, at a time we get pleasure from playing with our bowel movements. (I know it sounds ridiculous, but please read on!). An overly strict toilet training regime can give rise to an anal retentive personality. This is the adult who is obsessively neat, tidy, and organised. They can be stubborn and tight-fisted with their cash and possessions. This is all related to pleasure got from holding on to their faeces when toddlers, and their mum's then insisting that they get rid of it by placing them on the potty until they perform! Not as daft as it sounds. The anal expulsive, on the other hand, underwent a liberal toilet-training regime during the anal stage. In adulthood the anal expulsive is the person who wants to share things with you. They like giving things away. In essence they are 'sharing their s**t'!
Anti-depressants
Common name for range of drugs, such as Prozac, used to treat depression. Control the symptoms thought caused by a dulling of neural receptors important to mood state. See depression.
Acquiescence response
This is a psychological phenomenon where in filling in a survey some respondents think they see a desired pattern of answer, which they duly follow. To avoid acquiescence response survey items should be mixed up or randomised. In a 20-question survey Question 1 in your pilot survey becomes Question 7, Question 7 Question 13 etc. in the one that is given to the public.
Assimilation
First stage in the adaptation of schema, assimilation allows a child to make a general interpretation of its world. In the 'bus' example (see Organisation), once the bus schema is formed the toddler for a while calls similar vehicles buses. On being contradicted by his/her mum, and also on the basis of experience in coming across more and more types of vehicle, he/she realises that a lorry etc. isn't a bus. They begin to be more stimuli specific and use the bus schema only in relation to buses. This is accommodation, or the second stage in the adaptation of schema.
Attention
Our cognitive ability to attend to one thing at a time, or all things all the time (Keegan, 2003). The former concerns focused attention, while the latter divided attention.
Attitude Organisation and Change
Our attitudes are organised and changed as a result of the principle of cognitive consistency. This principle suggests that we strive to achieve consistency between our beliefs, values and attitudes; attitudes and behaviour; and different attitudes.
Organising attitudes, beliefs and behaviour into internally consistent structures assume almost Vulcan-like human rationality, which is behaviour consistent to both us and other people. Cognitive consistency is such a powerful force in our social lives that it's absence, or opposite (inconsistency), is experienced by us as psychologically uncomfortable. We are motivated to reduce or avoid cognitive inconsistency. How we achieve consistency between pour thoughts, feelings and behaviours may differ quite markedly from what we would understand as rational behaviour. Psychology has a family of consistency theories that helps explain attitude organisation and change. Included here are Balance theory (Heider, 1958), Osgood and Tannenbaum's (1955) Congruity principle, and Festinger (1957) theory of Cognitive dissonance.
Attitudes
Rajecki (1990) says that an attitude is 'a predisposition to respond cognitively, emotionally, or behaviourally to a particular object in a particular way.'
Attitudes guide how we react to others, what causes we support, how we vote, our consumer preferences, our personal style etc. Attitudes are latent constructs. This means they cannot be observed directly. They must therefore be inferred from our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This is not so easy, as people have 'more faces that the town clock'!
There are two main approaches in social psychology to the study of attitudes, the structural approach, and the functional approach.
Atypical behaviour
Behaviour that is deemed abnormal, such as schizophrenia. How abnormal is itself defined is controversial in psychology. (Ab)normal behaviour can be identified in terms of its statistical frequency, how much the behaviour deviates from social norms, or how mentally unwell an individual appears to be. The study of individual differences and atypical behaviour is brilliant! Do some if you can.
Autonomic nervous system, the
Major division of the peripheral nervous system the ANS controls our internal organs and glands, involuntary movement and actions.
Aversion therapy
Type of behaviour therapy, its purpose being to replace a pleasant stimulus-response association with an unpleasant association. Aversion therapy is useful in teaching people to avoid things that are harmful to them.
Axons
Thin cylinders of protoplasm that carry signals from dendrites to other neurons, muscles or glands.
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