Abnormal, 9
Abnormality Behavior disorganization and/or
adaptive inefficiency, 9
Acetylcholine, 11
Action (activity) Mental and behavioral process
that produces a change with a purpose, 4, 9,
11, 17, 18, 22, 27, 36, 42, 44
Adaptation The process of keeping a balance
between individual and environment, 8, 23
Adrenal glands, 14
Adolescence, 45
Adulthood, 45
Affective operations Production of emotion by
relating knowledge to needs, 16, 38
Affectivity the process of signaling satisfaction
or non-satisfaction of the individual's needs,
4, 38
Alzheimer's dementia A common type of
dementia (mental impairment) produced by a
specific degenerative process of the brain, 11
Amygdala, 13
Anger, 7
Anxiety Unjustified fear, 39
Aphasia, 35
Aristotle, 7
Attention A set of regulative operations of
concentrating mental activity on a task, 16,
17, 20, 45
Autistic, 46
Behavior The set of visible movements and
acts, occurring spontaneously or in response
to stimuli, 7, 14
Behavioral, 47
Bible, 7
Binet, 50
Biopsychology The branch of psychology
studying the relationship between organism,
mental states, and behavior, 8
Brain, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, 19, 23–26, 28, 33, 35,
41, 44
Rogers, 48
Central nervous system, 9, 10, 12
Cerebellum, 13
Character the system of values and attitudes of
an individual, formed through education and
that determines his moral conduct, 48
Childhood, 45
Chromosome, 10
Cinical, 9
Cognitive operations Mental processing of
sensory information by language, leading to
concepts, 8, 16, 22
Coma, 19
Computerized axial tomography, 13
Consciousness What a person perceives, thinks
and feels at a certain moment, 8, 17, 18
Contrast, 23
Creativity The ablity to create, to produce new
things, 52
Depression Excessive and unmotivated sadness,
40
Dementia Gradual loss of general cognitive
abilities due to brain lesions, 33
Development (mental) The process of building
up mental structures, 4, 9, 14, 15, 41, 43, 45, 46,
50, 51, 56
Developmental psychology, 8
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, 49
DNA, 10
Dopamine, 11
Dream An ensemble of images, thoughts and
emotions that occur during sleep, 19, 52
Education The environmental process of
facilitating learning and development, 15, 56
Educational/school psychology, 9
Electroencephalogram, 18
Emotional expressions, 40, 53
Emotions Affective states, 19, 22, 27, 33, 34,
36, 38–41
Endocrine system, 14
Environment (psychological) The totality of
external objects interacting with the mind, 3,
7–9, 14, 15, 17, 19, 23, 32, 41, 44, 46, 48, 51,
56
Environmental psychology, 9
Epinephrine, 14
Expressive operations Behavioral expressions Mental operations transformations engaging
of emotions, 16, 38, 40 two types of mental contents (for example, an
image generates a positive emotion by meeting a
Forensic/crime psychology, 9 need) 16
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, 13
GABA, 11 Mind The set of subjective experiences and
Glutamate, 11 internal actions to adapt to the environment,
Guthrie, 43 based on brain functions and external
Health, 9 influences, 3, 5, 7, 8, 14, 41
Hearing, 24 Mood, 40
Hippocrates, 7 Motivation The set of internal forces or needs
Human genome, 10 that support and guide cognition and action,
Hypnosis A changed state of consciousness in and give rise to emotions based on
which the individual blindly obeys the information about the degree in which their
hypnotist's command, 20, 42 goals are attained, 8, 11, 16–18, 22, 27, 34,
Hypothalamus, 14 36–39, 40, 49, 52
Hypothesis, 54, 55 Neuron, 10, 11, 26
Identification, 28 Neuroscience The science of the nervous
Imagination The production of new images system, 8
based on processing existing mental images, Neurotransmitters, 11
3, 29 Norepinephrine, 11
Industrial/organizational psychology, 9 Olfaction The sense and function of smell, 25
Intelligence The ability to do things well and Oxytocin, 14
timely, 50 Parathyroid glands, 14
Interpretation, 28 Parkinson’s disease A neurological disease
Joy, 7 affecting motor control, 11
Kraepelin, 7 Pavlov, 7, 43
Language The ability to communicate using Perception The overall reflection of the features
words from a spoken language, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, of objects during their action on sense organs,
16, 17, 22, 27, 30, 33–35, 38, 46, 50, 53 3,27, 28
Learning The accumulation, through exercise, Perceptual projection, 28
of persistent and organized mental products, Personality The way a person is, presents
enriching mental functionality, 4, 5, 8, 11, 15, herself and is perceived by others, 4, 8, 20,
41–44, 49, 50, 56 47–49, 56
Limbic structures, 13 Personality psychology, 8
Mania, 11 Piaget, 45
Maslow, 36 Pineal gland, 14
McKeen Cattel, 50 Pinel, 7, 15, 56
Pituitary gland, 14
Meditation A modified state a consciousness Plato, 7
achieved through breathing exercises, Positron emission tomography, 13
adopting a certain body position and focusing Practical operations Voluntary or automatic
on an external stimulus or a mental image, 20 behaviors controlled by language (walking,
melatonin, 14 handiwork etc.), 3, 16, 22, 33
Memory the persistence and repetition of Problem solving Overcoming an internal or
mental and behavioral contents (images, external obstacle that blocks action, 32
words, concepts, needs, emotions, Psychoactive drugs Drugs that change the
movements), 8, 11, 13, 20, 25, 28, 41, 42, 45 mental state, 21
Mental illness Dysfunction of mind and
behavior, 7
Mental images, 28, 29

2
Psychoanalysis Psychological theory that to changes at the surface or inside the body,
explains conscious behavior by unconscious 26
forces, 47 Spiritual, 8, 48, 52
Psychological testing, 9 Stage, 45, 46, 50, 52
Psychology The science of mind and behavior, Statistics, 54
5, 7, 56 Stuttering, 35
Psychotherapy Treatment of psychological Stern, 50
problems by psychological means, usually
communicational methods, 9 Subconscious The set of images or ideas that
Recall, 42 once were conscious, are no longer so, but can
Regulative operations, Mental operations that always get back into consciousness, 8
control mind and behavior through motivation Subjective reflection, 8
and language (attention and volition), 16, 17 Substance-related disorders, 21
Synapse Connection between two neurons, 11,
Relationships Stable connections within 12
persons and between people, 53 Taste, 24
Reticular formation, 13 Temperament The innate way of being, which
Rorschach, 48 depends on the amount of energy that the
Schizophrenia (schizophrenic disorders) person possesses, 48
Mental disorders are characterized by Thinking The process of complex information
dissociation of thought, language, and processing, which leads to the formation of
emotions, 11, 33, 40 concepts and ideas, starting from images and
Selectivity, 27 words, 3, 30, 31
Sensation, 22 Thorndike, 43
Sensitization, 23 Threshold, 22
Sensory disorders, 27 Thyroid gland, 14
Serotonin, 11, 40 Tolman, 44
Freud, 45, 47 Traits, Recurring behaviors that define
Sensory-motor operations The main mental someone's personality 7
Unconscious A set of needs, images and ideas
and behavioral operations by which sensory
of which the subject has no knowledge, 8
information induces and controls movement, 16, Vision, 23
17 Volition (will) The ability to mobilize energy to
overcome obstacles and achieve the goals, 3,
Skinner, 7, 43 16, 17
Sleep, 14, 19, 36 Vygotsky, 50
Social psychology The psychological study of Watson, 7
relationships and groups, 8 Wechsler, 50
Socrates, 7 Wundt, 7
Somatosensory system A complex system of
sensory neurons and pathways that responds