APA College Dictionary of Psychology

491 Pages·2009·29.32 MB·English

by  American Pscyhological Association

APA
College
Dictionary
Psydfology
APA
College
Dictionary
Psycliology
American Psychological Association
Washington, DC
Copyright © 2009 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.
Except as pennitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
APA college dictionary of psychology. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4338-0433-5
ISBN-10: 1-4338-0433-6
1. Psychology—Dictionaries. I. American Psychological Association. II. Title: College
dictionary of psychology. III. Title: A.P.A. college dictionary of psychology.
BF31.A68 2009
150.3—dc22
2008048226
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record is available from the British Library.
Printed in the United States of America
First Edition
The citation for this publication is APA coUege dictionary of psychology. (2009).
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Contents
Preface vii
Editorial Staff ix
Quick Guide to Format xi
APA College Dictionary of Psychology 1
Appendix
Significant Historical Figures in 465
Psychology
Preface
This dictionary is the third in a family of reference works published by
the American Psychological Association (APA). The parent reference, the
APA Dictionary of Psychology—the culmination of some ten years of
research and lexicographic activity—was released in 2006, and has since
won wide critical endorsement and recognition from both the publishing
and reference library communities.
An abridgment of this parent work, the APA Concise Dictionary of
Psychology, was released two years later. Whereas the original dictionary
offered a deeply layered approach to the lexicon of the field in its
approximately 25,000 entries, the Concise, through an editorial process
of reduction and synthesis, offered an equally informative exploration
of the fundamental vocabulary, but with broader general appeal, in
approximately 10,000 entries. The lexicographical journey undertaken
to create both of these works is described in detail for the interested
user in their prefaces.
The latest offspring in this reference family, the APA College Dictionary
of Psychology, naturally carries the same genetic material as its predecessors
and bears witness to an ongoing evolutionary process. APA offers it as
an even more highly concentrated, easily portable, and economical
altemative for the student of psychology—whether he or she is at the
advanced placement level in high school, a college undergraduate
enrolled in Intro Psych, or an undergraduate considering or making
psychology his or her major field of study.
How did we further focus and refine the lexicon so that it answers the
needs of this specific population? A brief review of our editorial method
and process may be useful here:
In order to delimit an appropriately representative universe of terms
for inclusion in a college dictionary, APA reference staff researched
psychology texts in use at some three dozen institutions of higher
learning in the United States. These schools fell into three broad
categories: major public and private universities, small liberal arts
colleges, and community colleges. It was important not only to look
across these general categories, but also to include predominantly
institutions with psychology departments of high repute and with strong
programs in the arts and sciences generally. From this spectrum, we
sought to pinpoint primary introductory undergraduate texts in general,
social, developmental, abnormal, and cognitive psychology, as well as
neuroscience and basic methodology and statistics.
Glossaries and indexes from the most popular texts (i.e., those used at
several institutions) were then assessed against the corpus of 25,000
entries in the parent dictionary and the 10,000 entries in Concise, in
order to ascertain overlap (and gaps). Reference staff decided to include
the 5,000 most common terms (i.e., those appearing in multiple
sources), bearing in mind (a) the abbreviated physical format, (b) our
desire to bring out an affordable college dictionary expediently, and (c)
coverage at this level easily surpasses that of any similarly focused
resource currently available (in a couple instances by almost 3,000
entries). Staff also made use of the APA 2.7-million-records PsycINFO
database of citations to the scholarly literature in order to review
which of the entries that appeared in only a single source should be
considered for inclusion.
As with the method used to create the APA Concise Dictionary, our
staff of lexicographers then reviewed the text of each selected entry
(typically working from the version used in Concise), in some cases
retaining it and in some cases further cutting or rewording text. Each
consideration of a definition has brought opportunities for updating
and general textual improvement, and this enhancement is reflected in
numerous entries throughout the APA College Dictionary. Three
excellent examples are placebo control group, social age, and two-factor
theory ofwork motivation.
Another important gain achieved through vetting our corpus of
headwords (i.e., entry terms) with the actual language used in the
primary college texts was an accretion of some 200 terms that have not
previously appeared in our parent or abridged dictionaries. They range
from the relatively broad (e.g., absolutism, diversity, normal) to the highly
specific (e.g., acetaldehyde, perseverance effect, skewness), and their
definitions were developed through a careful process of research and
successive review by multiple individuals. In addition to appearing in
this college context, most of these newly developed entries will be
subsumed into second editions of the full and concise versions of the
dictionary as well.
We hope that the editorial undertaking described above has resulted
in a useful tool for students navigating the sometimes murky waters of
the psychology lexicon. Beyond this, we recognize once more the
participation of the full editorial board of the APA Dictionary of
Psychology, whose earlier efforts we gratefully acknowledge as the
foundation upon which this college dictionary rests.
We invite the student users of the APA College Dictionary of Psychology
to participate in the ongoing task of defining the field. Reference staff
will appreciate hearing from you with regard to this resource as an
entirety or with regard to a particular entry or family of entries. How
does the text match your study needs? In what ways can it be
improved? Please contact us by post in care of APA Books, 750 First
Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002, Attention: Reference; or by e-mail
at [email protected].
Gary R. VandenBos, PhD
APA Publisher
Editorial Staff
Editor in Chief
Gary R. VandenBos, PhD
Senior Editors (American Psychological Association)
Theodore J. Baroody
Julia Frank-McNeil
Patricia D. Knowles
Marion Osmun
Senior Editors (Market House Books, Ltd.)
Alan Isaacs
Jonathan Law
Elizabeth Martin
Assistant Editor (American Psychological Association)
Marian E. Haggard
Editorial Board
Mark Appelbaum, PhD
Elizabeth D. Capaldi, PhD
Debra L. Dunivin, PhD
Alan E. Kazdin, PhD
Joseph D. Matarazzo, PhD
Susan H. McDaniel, PhD
Susan K. Nolen-Hoeksema, PhD
Suparna Rajaram, PhD
Editorial Contributors
John G. Albinson, PhD C. Alan Boneau, PhD
Mark Appelbaum, PhD Marc N. Branch, PhD
Bernard J. Baars, PhD Laura S. Brown, PhD
Andrew S. Baum, PhD Joseph J. Campos, PhD
Roy F. Baumeister, PhD Daniel Cervone, PhD
Daniel S. Beasley, PhD Stanley H. Cohen, PhD
Leonard Berkowitz, PhD Deborah J. Coon, PhD
David F. Bjorklund, PhD James C. Coyne, PhD
Editorial Contributors (continued)
Robert L. Dipboye, PhD Barbara G. Melamed, PhD
Maria L. Dittrich, PhD Theodore Millon, PhD, DSc
Gail Donaldson, PhD Bryan P. Myers, PhD
Deborah K. Elliott-DeSorbo, Peter E. Nathan, PhD
PhD Raymond S. Nickerson, PhD
David G. Elmes, PhD Andrea Farkas Patenaude,
Gary W. Evans, PhD PhD
Leandre R. Fabrigar, PhD Christopher Peterson, PhD
Erica L. Fener, PhD Robert W. Proctor, PhD
Donelson R. Forsyth, PhD Stacey M. Rosenfeld, PhD
Robert G. Frank, PhD Robert Rosenthal, PhD
Donald K. Freedheim, PhD Mark R. Rosenzweig, PhD
Charles J. Golden, PhD Preeti Saigal, PhD
Maria A. Gomez, DVM, PhD Morgan T. Sammons, PhD
Kenji Hakuta, PhD Julie H. Sandell, PhD
Dennis C Harper, PhD Thomas R. Scott, PhD
Curtis P. Haugtvedt, PhD Anderson D. Smith, PhD
Morton A. Heller, PhD Tonya L. Smith-Jackson, PhD
John W. Jacobson, PhD Charles T. Snowdon, PhD
Robert J. Kastenbaum, PhD Michael A. Stadler, PhD
John F. Kihlstrom, PhD Robert J. Sternberg, PhD
Bruce E. Kline, PsyD Cheryl V. Tan, PhD
Debra L. Kosch, PhD W. Scott Terry, PhD
Michael J. Lambert, PhD J. Kevin Thompson, PhD
Joseph LoPiccolo, PhD Mieke H. Verfaellie, PhD
George F. Luger, PhD Neal F. Viemeister, PhD
Raelynn Maloney, PhD Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD
A. David Mangelsdorff, PhD Kim-Phuong L. Vu, PhD
Colin Martindale, PhD Leighton C. Whitaker, PhD
Kenneth I. Maton, PhD Richard N. Williams, PhD
Randi E. McCabe, PhD, Abraham W. Wolf, PhD
Charles E. Wright, PhD
CPsych
Josef Zihl, PhD
Katharine McGovern, PhD
Editorial Consultants
Robert F. Bornstein, PhD
Claude Conyers
George J. Demakis, PhD
Douglas E. McNeil
Ingrid R. Olson, PhD
Thomas F. Shipley, PhD
Margaret Sullivan
Quick Guide to Format
Headword jcausationlHthe empirical relation Part-of-speech label
between two events, states, or vari
ables such that one (the cause) is
held or known to bring about the
other (the effect). See also CAUSAL
I T Y . !^ Derived word
cautions shift a CHOICE SHIFT
in which an individual making a
decision as part of a group adopts
a more cautious approach than
the same individual would have
adopted had he or she made the
decision alone. Studies suggest that
such shifts are rarer than the op-
Hidden entry posite|riskyshlft.|See also GROUP
POLARIZATION.
chronological ageKCAJlthe Abbreviation
amount of time elapsed since an in
dividual's birth, typically expressed
in terms of months and years.
client n. a person receiving treat
ment or services, especially in the
context of counseling or social
work.|See PATIENT-CLIENT ISSUE.) Cross-reference
Plural form crisis n. (p;.|crises)[ria situation Sense niunber
(e.g., a traumatic change) that pro
duces significant cognitive or
emotional stress in those involved
Sense number in it. [23 a tuming point for better or
worse in the course of an iUness.
Cronbach's alpha an index of
Cross-reference [INTERNAL CONSISTENCY) reliability,
that is, the degree to which a set
of items that comprise a measure
ment instrument tap a single,
unidimensional construct. Also
Altemative name calledlalpha coefficient.HfLee J,
Cronbach (1916-2001), U.S. psy
chologist] | Etymology