psychology 

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Psychology Term-Adrenal cortex
The outermost layer of the adrenal gland secretes corticosteroid hormones, including cortisol (hydrocortisone), into the bloodstream in reaction to stress.


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Psychology Terms – ADP
ADP, an abbreviation for adenosine diphosphate, is a nucleotide molecule generated when stored energy is liberated from ATP by ATPase during muscle contractions or nerve impulse transmission.


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Psychology Terms - An adoption study
It is an investigation in behavior genetics that examines the correlations between adopted children and their biological or adoptive parents regarding a measurable trait. This study aims to estimate the heritability of that trait, based on the premise that a higher heritability corresponds to a stronger correlation with biological parents, while a lower heritability indicates a stronger correlation with adoptive parents. Since the late 1970s, certain adoption studies have investigated the correlations between biological and adoptive siblings residing in the same households. The premise is that if the heritability of a trait is substantial, the scores of biological children will exhibit a stronger correlation with those of other biological children, who share fifty percent of their genetic material, than with the scores of adoptive children, to whom they are not genetically linked. Conversely, if heritability is minimal, the opposite should be observed.


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Psychology Terms - Adonis complex
The anxiety and uneasiness that boys and men have with their appearance or body image. In severe instances, the complex may fulfill the criteria for body dysmorphic disorder. The word was coined in 2000 by US psychiatrist Harrison G. Pope, Jr. (born 1947) in the title of his book, The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession.


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Psychology Terms - Adolescent
. 1. An individual in the stage of adolescence. Adjective 2. Pertaining to, or characteristic of adolescence, or being in a state or phase of adolescence.


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Psychology Terms - Action slip
An inadvertent action or sequence of behaviors, typically arising from a lapse in attention due to absent-mindedness, and generally involves open-loop control of an action that necessitates closed-loop control for proper execution.


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Psychology Terms - action research
A phrase introduced in the 1940s by German-American psychologist Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) for a type of applied research that integrates experimental methods with social action initiatives to achieve intended social transformations.



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Psychology Terms – Action Potential
Action potential refers to the transient alteration in the voltage differential across a neuron's membrane, typically initiated by nerve impulses from multiple other neurons at synapses. This phenomenon is characterized by the influx of positively charged sodium ions through the cell membrane, leading to the propagation of an impulse along the neuron's axon. This process reverses the resting potential, which is approximately −70 millivolts (mV), where the inner surface is negative relative to the outer surface, and the membrane exhibits greater permeability to potassium ions than to sodium ions. The potential shifts to approximately +40 mV, enhancing the membrane's permeability to sodium ions and facilitating the influx of positively charged ions, thereby transmitting the potential from the axon hillock down the axon at velocities ranging from about 0.1 to 10 meters per second. Also referred to as a nerve impulse.


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Psychology Terms - Action
​ In social psychology and the broader social sciences, any behavior marked by intentionality and thus subjectively comprehensible, as delineated by the German economist and sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) in the initial chapter of his posthumously published work, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society), released in 1922. For instance, involuntarily burping during a dinner party constitutes behavior, whereas subsequently apologizing represents an action. Refer to Verstehen as well. The act of doing an action or a specific occurrence of an action executed. [Derived from the Latin term actio, meaning action, which originates from agere, signifying to do or to act, combined with the suffix -ion that denotes a process.



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Psychology Terms - acting out
1. In psychoanalysis, the performance of past experiences, particularly those associated with transference during therapy, is emphasized over mere remembrance. It is frequently impulsive and violent, typically deviating from the patient's customary behavior. The notion was presented by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) in An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (1938/40): the patient 'enacts the past experience before us, rather than merely recounting it.' Standard Edition, XXIII, p. 2. A defense mechanism whereby unconscious emotional conflicts or impulses are addressed by behaviors, including parapraxes, rather than through thought or reflection.




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