Glossary / M

Psychology terms starting with M

1,545 terms with short definitions. Study these as flashcards

Mabbreviation: Used as a short label for memory, the mind's ability to store and recall information.
M-Catnoun: A slang name for mephedrone identifies a recreational stimulant that can produce euphoria, agitation, panic, and altered perception.
M-cellnoun: A large neuron in the lateral geniculate nucleus supports rapid visual processing of movement and brightness changes.
M–C SDSabbreviation: Developed by Marlowe and Crowne, this social desirability scale measures people's tendency to give answers that make them look good.
M’Naghten rule (McNaghten rule; McNaughten rule; McNaughton rule)noun: A legal insanity standard asks whether mental illness prevented understanding an act's nature or wrongfulness when it occurred.
MAabbreviation: Mental age expresses intelligence-test performance as the age at which that performance would typically be expected.
MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Statusnoun: A questionnaire uses two ten-step ladders to measure people's perceived social position within their community and wider society.
macenoun: This spice comes from nutmeg's surrounding seed covering and may contribute to the unusually happy feelings associated with nutmeg intoxication.
Mach bandsnoun: Adjacent gray bands can appear extra light or dark near their shared edges, creating an illusion of stronger contrast.
Mach cardnoun: A folded gray card demonstrates how perceived shape and lighting can change the apparent brightness of its surfaces.
Mach scalenoun: A personality measure assesses acceptance of deception and manipulation as ways to achieve personal goals.
Mach–Dvorak stereoillusionnoun: Flat motion seems to have depth when each eye sees it separately at different times, without simultaneous viewing.
Machian positivismnoun: Ernst Mach's philosophy grounds knowledge in sensory experience while questioning whether sensations accurately represent an independent outside reality.
Machiavellian hypothesisnoun: A proposed evolutionary explanation suggests that competition for social power helped intelligence develop by improving reproductive success.
Machiavellianismnoun: A personality tendency involves strategically manipulating others and accepting deception as a way to reach personal goals.
machine consciousnessnoun: An interdisciplinary research area explores computer models of consciousness and whether artificial systems could have subjective experiences.
Machover Draw-a-Person Test (DAP Test)noun: A historical projective assessment uses drawings of people to infer personality and emotional difficulties through an examiner's interpretation.
mAChRabbreviation: A muscarinic receptor responds to acetylcholine and muscarine, helping regulate signaling in the brain and other body tissues.
MacLean’s theory of emotionnoun: A historical extension of Papez's theory proposed that the broader limbic system, especially hippocampus and amygdala, controls emotional experience.
macro- (macr-)prefix: This word part indicates that something is large or enlarged.
macrobioticsnoun: This approach to eating emphasizes grains and vegetables, guided by philosophical ideas about balancing yin and yang.
macrocephalynoun: An unusually large measurement around the head falls over two standard deviations beyond the average for age and sex.
macroelectrodenoun: A relatively large electrical conductor records activity from living tissue or delivers electrical stimulation to it.
macroenvironmental factornoun: A broad external condition beyond an individual's control can influence their circumstances, opportunities, or well-being.
macroergonomicsnoun: This approach designs work systems by considering people, equipment, organization, surroundings, and mental demands together.
macroglianoun: These relatively large support cells help maintain, protect, and organize the environment around nerve cells.
macroglossianoun: An unusually enlarged tongue may make certain speech sounds harder to produce.
macrogyrianoun: A developmental brain difference produces unusually broad, thick folds on the outer brain surface.
macromastianoun: Breast tissue develops to a size considered unusually large in a medical assessment.
macropsianoun: Objects are visually perceived as bigger than their actual size.
macroskelicadjective: In historical body classifications, this describes a build distinguished by unusually long legs.
macrosplanchnic typenoun: In historical body classifications, this build has a trunk that is unusually large relative to the arms and legs.
macrosystemnoun: In ecological development theory, society's broad values and traditions shape the other environments influencing a person's development.
maculanoun: Within the inner ear, this sensory patch detects head position relative to gravity and changes in straight-line movement.
macula luteanoun: A yellowish region near the retina's center contains the fovea and supports detailed central vision.
macular degenerationnoun: Deterioration of the retina's macula causes increasing difficulty seeing clearly in the center of the visual field.
macular sparingnoun: Central sight remains preserved for about five degrees into an otherwise impaired half of the visual field.
macular splittingnoun: Central sight remains preserved for roughly one to five degrees into an otherwise impaired half of the visual field.
maculopathynoun: Disease or damage affecting the retina's macula can reduce the clarity of central vision.
mad cow diseasenoun: Misfolded proteins called prions cause this progressive cattle illness, formally named bovine spongiform encephalopathy, which damages the brain.
Mad Hatter’s diseasenoun: This historical name describes long-term mercury poisoning that can affect thinking, emotions, behavior, and physical functioning.
MADDabbreviation: Mothers Against Drunk Driving is an organization working to prevent impaired driving and support affected people and families.
Maddox rod testnoun: This eye alignment test compares a light with a line created by rods placed before one eye.
madnessnoun: An outdated label was used for mental illness or the legal concept of insanity.
MAEabbreviation: Motion aftereffect makes a still scene seem to move oppositely after someone watches movement for a while.
MAFabbreviation: Minimal audible field measures the faintest detectable tone presented in an echo-free space without headphones.
magazine trainingnoun: An experimental animal learns where and how to receive rewards from the delivery device before further conditioning.
magicnoun: Using rituals or spells to try to control events or forces in nature.
magic circlenoun: Children sit together in a circle to discuss personal experiences, concerns, and feelings as a group activity.
magic mushroomnoun: Certain mushrooms contain substances such as psilocybin and psilocin that can strongly change perception, mood, and thinking.
magical numbernoun: Miller's historical proposal placed short-term memory capacity at roughly seven meaningful units, with variation of about two.
magical thinkingnoun: Believing your thoughts, wishes, or rituals can directly change outside events or other people's behavior.
MAGLabbreviation: Monoacylglycerol lipase is an enzyme that breaks down 2-AG, a substance involved in regulating communication between nerve cells.
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)phrase: A body scan that uses strong magnets to make detailed 3-D pictures of organs and tissues.
magnetic sensenoun: Some organisms detect magnetic fields and use that information to guide their direction or orientation.
magnetic source imaging (MSI)noun: This method records tiny magnetic fields generated by brain electrical activity to study where that activity occurs.
magnetoencephalography (MEG)noun: Sensitive instruments measure magnetic signals produced by electrical activity in the brain.
magnification factornoun: This measure describes how much visual cortex represents a given amount of visual angle.
magnification powernoun: This number indicates how many times larger an object appears when viewed through a lens.
magnitude effectnoun: People tend to reduce the subjective value of smaller delayed gains proportionally more than that of larger delayed gains.
magnitude estimationphrase: A method where people rate how strong a sensation feels by giving it numbers on a scale.
magnitude of effectnoun: A numerical measure expresses how large a difference or relationship is in a study.
magnitude productionnoun: A participant adjusts a stimulus to match an assigned numerical strength relative to a numbered reference stimulus.
magnitude scaling of attitudesnoun: People express attitudes by adjusting a physical feature, such as brightness or line length, to represent their evaluation.
magnocellular systemnoun: A visual pathway involving large neurons rapidly processes movement, broad shapes, and brightness changes, with little sensitivity to color.
main clausenoun: A grammatical unit contains a subject and a verb and can stand independently as a complete sentence.
main diagonalnoun: In a square matrix, these entries occupy matching row and column positions, beginning with the first row and column.
main effectphrase: The overall influence of one independent variable on an outcome, averaging across the levels of other variables.
mainliningnoun: This slang expression means injecting an illicit drug directly into a vein.
mainstreamingnoun: Students with disabilities attend some general education classes while receiving special education separately for other portions of the day.
maintaining causenoun: An environmental influence helps keep a problematic behavior going after it has begun.
maintenance functionnoun: A bodily process helps keep internal conditions within a stable, workable range.
maintenance rehearsalphrase: Keeping information in short-term memory by repeating it, usually without helping it stick for long.
maintenance therapyphrase: Ongoing treatment, often with medication, keeps a person stable and lowers the chance of returning to symptoms or substance use.
major depressive disorderphrase: A disorder with lasting deep sadness and other depression symptoms, without periods of mania, or unusually high energy.
major depressive episodephrase: A period of at least two weeks of deep sadness or lost pleasure plus several other depression symptoms.
major histocompatibility complex (MHC)noun: This group of genes guides immune recognition and may influence odor-based mate choice and recognition of relatives in some animals.
major neurocognitive disorderphrase: Marked decline in memory or thinking that disrupts daily independence, not caused by delirium or another mental disorder.
major tranquilizernoun: This older name describes an antipsychotic medicine used to reduce symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and severely disorganized thinking.
majority influencephrase: Pressure from most group members that makes others adopt or publicly go along with the group's view.
majority vote techniquenoun: In parapsychology experiments, researchers count a person's most repeated guess about one target as their final answer.
majority-minorityadjective: An area has this description when groups historically called minorities together account for more than half its population.
mal de ojonoun: A cultural explanation attributes illness, often children's fever, troubled sleep, and digestive symptoms, to a harmful gaze.
mal de peleanoun: A historically described distress pattern in Puerto Rico involves prolonged brooding followed by sudden violence toward nearby people.
mal puestonoun: A folk explanation links illness to spells or witchcraft, often involving intense fear, anxiety, and physical complaints.
mal-prefix: This word beginning adds a meaning of something wrong, unhealthy, or developing in an unusual way.
maladaptationnoun: A biological feature or behavior pattern makes coping with surroundings or everyday demands less effective.
maladjustmentnoun: Poor coping that disrupts daily life, work, or relationships and makes handling stress hard.
malaisenoun: A person feels broadly unwell or uneasy without being able to clearly locate or explain the discomfort.
malapropismnoun: A speaker accidentally substitutes a similar-sounding word with a different meaning, sometimes creating a funny result.
Malcolm horizonnoun: An ergonomic flight display spreads its ground image across the cockpit so pilots can notice small changes in tilt.
maldevelopmentnoun: An individual's development is disrupted by inherited characteristics, nutrition, or conditions in the surrounding environment.
male chauvinismnoun: A prejudiced belief places men above women in worth or ability and favors men's interests.
male climactericnoun: A proposed aging-related phase in some men links hormone declines with changes in energy, mood, concentration, and sexual interest.
male continencenoun: During sexual intercourse, a man deliberately holds back ejaculation, the release of semen.
male erectile disordernoun: An older diagnosis described distressing, repeated difficulty getting or keeping an erection adequate for intercourse, excluding direct medical or substance causes.
male genitalianoun: These sexual and reproductive organs typically include the penis, testes, prostate, and glands that contribute fluid to semen.
male homosexual prostitutionnoun: An older label describes sexual services a man provides to another man in exchange for money or other benefits.
male hypoactive sexual desire disordernoun: This diagnosis describes persistently low or absent sexual desire in a man when it causes significant personal distress.
male menopausenoun: A proposed phase in some aging men associates declining hormones with changes in sexual interest, energy, and mood.
male orgasmic disordernoun: An older diagnosis described repeatedly delayed or absent orgasm in men despite arousal, excluding direct medical or substance causes.
male pseudohermaphroditismnoun: This outdated label here denotes androgen insensitivity, an inherited variation in how the body responds to hormones affecting sexual development.
male–male competitionnoun: Males compete for mating opportunities when more males are ready to reproduce than there are available receptive females.
malenessnoun: The concept concerns bodily features associated with male sex, including reproductive anatomy, physiology, and commonly XY chromosomes.
malevolent transformationnoun: Sullivan proposed that harsh childhood treatment can produce a lasting expectation that other people are enemies who cannot be trusted.
malformationnoun: An unusual body structure present because a part formed in an abnormal way.
malfunctionnoun: A failure of a body part, machine, or process to work the way it should.
mali-malinoun: A culturally described pattern in the Philippines involves unusually strong startle responses and sometimes automatic copying of speech or movements.
malice aforethoughtnoun: In criminal law, this describes a mental state supporting a murder charge, such as intent to kill or extreme recklessness.
malignantadjective: Describing a condition that keeps worsening, resists treatment, and can become deadly.
malignant hypertensionnoun: A rapidly developing, severe rise in blood pressure can damage organs, often affecting the eyes, and requires immediate treatment.
malingeringnoun: Purposely faking or exaggerating illness or injury to gain something outside yourself, like money, drugs, or avoiding duty.
malleationnoun: An involuntary tic makes the hands repeatedly jerk against the thighs in a hammer-like movement.
malleusnoun: A tiny middle-ear bone attached to the eardrum passes sound vibrations onward to the next bone, the incus.
malnutritionnoun: Poor health caused by getting too little, too much, or the wrong mix of nutrients from food.
malpracticenoun: Harm caused when a professional acts carelessly or wrongly, and that mistake can lead to a lawsuit.
Malthusian theorynoun: Malthus proposed that population could multiply faster than food production increases, eventually creating shortages unless population growth is limited.
maltreatmentnoun: Abuse, neglect, or exploitation that seriously harms a person's safety, health, development, or basic needs.
malumnoun: In this medical usage, a joint becomes painful as its tissues deteriorate with aging.
malum in sephrase: In law, an act is judged inherently wrong rather than wrong only because a rule forbids it.
malum prohibitumphrase: In law, an act counts as wrong because a legal rule forbids it, rather than because it is inherently immoral.
mammalingusnoun: In Ernest Jones's historical psychoanalytic account, breast suckling during intercourse was interpreted as symbolically equivalent to oral stimulation of the penis.
mammary glandnoun: A specialized gland in mammals produces milk to nourish young, with human mammary tissue located in the breasts.
mammillary bodynoun: One of two small brain structures in the limbic system that help support memory.
mammillothalamic tractnoun: This brain pathway sends signals to the thalamus from the mammillary bodies and helps support memory.
mammographynoun: Doctors use this imaging method to examine breast tissue with low doses of X-rays, checking for potentially concerning changes.
man–machine systemnoun: An older label describes an arrangement where people, machines, and working procedures depend on one another to perform tasks.
managed behavioral health organization (MBHO)noun: A specialized health organization arranges, manages, and provides coverage for behavioral health services, including mental health care.
managed carephrase: A health plan that controls services and payments to keep medical costs down.
management by objectives (MBO)noun: An organization sets clear work goals and judges performance by how well those goals are reached.
management developmentnoun: Planned learning activities help managers improve how they lead people, make decisions, and handle their responsibilities.
management fashionnoun: A way of managing organizations becomes widely popular even when its practical value or theoretical support may be uncertain.
management information systems (MIS)noun: These systems combine people, technology, data, and processing procedures to give managers information they can use when making decisions.
management psychologynoun: Psychological knowledge helps address leadership, decisions, and working relationships, usually from the perspective of those managing an organization.
management-simulation gamenoun: Learners practice business decisions by competing in imagined workplace situations and examining the results of their choices.
managerial gridnoun: Blake and Mouton's leadership model rates managers on separate nine-point scales for attention to people and production.
managerial psychologynoun: This field uses knowledge about human behavior to improve organizational management, especially leadership, decisions, and relationships at work.
MANCOVAabbreviation: Multivariate analysis of covariance tests group differences across several outcomes together while statistically accounting for other measured variables.
mandnoun: In behavioral accounts of language, a request or demand is strengthened when another person provides the desired response.
mandate phenomenonnoun: Leaders may exceed their authority when strong group support makes them expect little criticism or opposition.
mandated reportingphrase: Laws require certain helpers to report suspected abuse or neglect of children, dependent adults, or older adults.
mandibular reflexnoun: A light tap on the chin can trigger automatic jaw closure, helping clinicians examine nerve pathways controlling chewing muscles.
mandibulofacial dysostosisnoun: A genetic condition called Treacher Collins syndrome affects facial bone development and may cause hearing difficulties.
mandrakenoun: A poisonous nightshade plant contains chemicals that affect brain activity and can cause hallucinations and severe confusion.
manianoun: A mood state with unusually high energy, little need for sleep, and poor judgment.
mania a potunoun: A historical label describes unusually extreme behavioral and mental changes reported after drinking relatively little alcohol.
maniacnoun: An outdated, disrespectful label was applied to people experiencing mania and is also used as an insulting everyday description.
manicadjective: Showing the extremely high energy, little sleep, and poor judgment seen in mania.
manic episodephrase: A week or more of unusually high or irritable mood, little sleep, fast thinking, and risky behavior that disrupts life.
manic-depressive illnessnoun: An older name for bipolar disorder describes conditions involving episodes of elevated mood and energy, often with depression.
manifest anxietynoun: In psychoanalytic theory, noticeable anxiety symptoms are interpreted as signs of hidden emotional struggles or feelings kept outside awareness.
Manifest Anxiety Scalenoun: A questionnaire measures anxiety symptoms people report about themselves, with Taylor's scale and related versions for children.
manifest contentphrase: The remembered storyline and pictures in a dream, not its hidden unconscious meaning.
manifest goalnoun: An organization or program states this objective openly and specifies measurable signs that would show it has succeeded.
manifest variablenoun: A researcher directly records this measurable feature, sometimes using it to estimate an underlying quality that cannot be observed directly.
manifestationnoun: A visible sign or behavior that shows an underlying physical or mental condition.
manipulandumnoun: An object is specially provided for a participant to handle or operate during a psychological experiment or test.
manipulationnoun: A researcher's planned change to an independent variable to compare treatment and control groups.
manipulation checknoun: A researcher checks whether an experimental change actually produced the specific experience or condition it was intended to create.
Mann–Whitney U testnoun: A statistical test compares ranked observations from two independent groups to assess differences in their distributions.
mannerismnoun: A person's characteristic movement, expression, or way of speaking appears repeatedly and helps distinguish their usual behavior.
mannersnoun: Shared expectations guide behavior considered polite and respectful within a particular community, culture, or social setting.
manning theorynoun: An older name for staffing theory describes how having too many or too few participants affects behavior and relationships.
manoptoscopenoun: A hollow cone helps identify a person's preferred eye by testing which eye keeps a small target in view.
MANOVAabbreviation: A statistical test that compares groups on several related outcomes at the same time.
mantle layernoun: A middle zone of the developing neural tube contains young nerve cells and gives rise to gray matter.
mantranoun: A sacred sound or phrase, especially in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, may be repeated during spiritual practice or meditation.
manual arts therapynoun: Therapeutic training uses practical crafts, including woodwork and metalwork, to support recovery and develop useful abilities.
manual communicationnoun: People convey messages through hand movements and shapes, including signed languages and fingerspelling, often within Deaf communities.
manual dominancenoun: A person consistently favors a particular hand for activities such as writing, throwing, or using tools.
manual-assisted therapynoun: A therapist uses written treatment guidelines to help deliver an intervention consistently across practitioners and treatment settings.
manual-based therapynoun: Treatment follows an established written guide that specifies its procedures and supports consistent delivery by different therapists.
manual-control effectsnoun: Task demands, acceleration forces, and vehicle flight characteristics influence human performance when manually controlling aircraft or spacecraft.
manualismnoun: An educational approach teaches Deaf and hard-of-hearing students through signed language and fingerspelling.
manualized therapynoun: Therapy follows specified procedures in a treatment guide so its core methods can be delivered consistently.
MAOabbreviation: An enzyme that breaks down brain messenger chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.
MAOI (MAO inhibitor)abbreviation: A kind of antidepressant that blocks monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that breaks down mood-related brain chemicals.
MAPabbreviation: An inborn, species-typical behavior sequence triggered by a specific cue and usually carried out the same way.
map-tracing testnoun: A spatial ability test assesses how well someone understands directions and positions, including when familiar orientation clues are missing.
maple-syrup urine disease (MSUD)noun: An inherited metabolic disorder prevents normal breakdown of three amino acids, producing sweet-smelling urine and potentially disrupting brain development.
maprotilinenoun: A tetracyclic antidepressant has a four-ring chemical structure and can cause anticholinergic side effects and serious heart rhythm problems.
MARabbreviation: Missing at random means missingness is unrelated to unobserved values once the relevant observed information is taken into account.
marasmusnoun: Severe lack of food energy causes extreme loss of muscle and fat and can disrupt children's growth and thinking development.
marathon groupnoun: An encounter group holds one unusually long, secluded meeting, intended to deepen emotional sharing and interaction among participants.
Marbe’s lawnoun: A historical word-association finding links more widely shared word responses with faster response times.
marche à petits pasnoun: A walking pattern involves small, shuffling steps that may become progressively quicker, often in Parkinson's disease.
Marfan’s syndromenoun: A genetic disorder affects connective tissue, often involving the skeleton, eyes, and major blood vessels.
margin of error (MOE)phrase: Shows how far a sample result might be from the true population value.
marginaladjective: Placed at the edge, borderline, or only slightly important in a decision or situation.
marginal consciousnessnoun: Experiences remain within awareness while receiving little attention because something else occupies the mind's main focus.
marginal frequencynoun: A row or column total in a frequency table counts cases across the categories of another variable.
marginal groupnoun: A community experiences exclusion from mainstream social life because its members differ, or are perceived as different, from dominant groups.
marginal intelligencenoun: An outdated label described intellectual functioning below the typical range but above what was then classified as intellectual disability.
marginal sulcusnoun: An upward branch of the cingulate groove lies on the inner surface of each half of the brain.
marginal value theoremnoun: A foraging model predicts leaving a food patch when its current return falls below the overall average, including travel time.
marginalizationnoun: Being pushed to the edges of society, with less power, voice, and access to resources.
marianismonoun: An ideal traditional female role in some Latin American cultures stressing purity, self-sacrifice, obedience, and accepting male dominance.
marijuana (marihuana)noun: A mind-altering drug from the cannabis plant that can change mood, memory, thinking, and coordination.
Marinesco–Sjögren syndromenoun: A recessively inherited condition involves cataracts, coordination difficulties, muscle weakness, and sometimes intellectual disability.
Marinolnoun: A trade name identifies dronabinol, a synthetic THC medicine used for certain nausea and appetite problems.
marital adjustmentnoun: Married partners develop ways to meet shared goals and personal needs while preserving each person's individuality.
marital conflictphrase: Ongoing open or hidden disagreement between spouses that can strain their relationship and family life.
marital counselingnoun: Counseling helps married partners explore relationship difficulties, improve communication, and work through concerns together.
marital schismnoun: Open, ongoing conflict between married partners places strain on their relationship and may contribute to its breakdown.
marital separationnoun: Married partners stop sharing a home as a couple while their marriage remains legally intact.
marital skewnoun: A historical family concept describes one spouse accepting a more dominant spouse's seriously troubled behavior, creating an unequal relationship pattern.
marital subsystemphrase: The bond between spouses or partners, including their usual rules for working together and handling disagreements.
marital therapyphrase: A kind of counseling that helps married partners improve communication, solve problems, and strengthen their relationship.
mark-and-recapture samplingnoun: Researchers estimate population size by marking and releasing sampled individuals, then measuring how many marked individuals appear in another sample.
markernoun: A visible or measurable sign that helps show a trait, condition, or important process.
market researchnoun: Researchers study customers, competitors, and buying trends to understand a market's size, opportunities, and challenges.
marketing orientationnoun: Fromm proposed that some people measure human value like merchandise, favoring qualities that attract approval or success.
Markov chainnoun: A mathematical sequence has transition probabilities determined by its current state alone, without needing its earlier history.
Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale (M–C SDS)noun: A questionnaire estimates how strongly someone tends to give socially approved answers when describing themselves.
Maroteaux–Lamy syndromenoun: An inherited disorder disrupts the breakdown of certain complex sugars, affecting bones, connective tissues, and sometimes hearing.
Marplannoun: The brand name identifies isocarboxazid, an antidepressant that blocks monoamine oxidase and has important food and medicine interactions.
marriagenoun: A socially approved committed partnership that gives partners legal family rights and responsibilities toward each other and children.
marriage counselingphrase: Counseling that helps married partners work through problems and improve their relationship.
marriage-enrichment groupnoun: Married couples meet with a leader to discuss relationship concerns and support improvements in their marriages.
marsupialnoun: A mammal in this group gives birth to very immature young that continue developing attached to nipples, often inside a pouch.
Marxismnoun: A tradition based on Marx's ideas emphasizes economic ownership, labor, and class conflict while criticizing capitalism and seeking social equality.
Marxist feminismnoun: This feminist approach explains women's oppression through class inequality and capitalist economic arrangements, and seeks changes to those systems.
masculinitynoun: Socially expected traits, roles, and behaviors linked with being male, not simply a person's assigned sex.
masculinity–femininity testnoun: An assessment measures interests or traits that a culture associates with masculinity or femininity.
masculinizationnoun: Physical features typically associated with male development become more pronounced, often because of increased androgen effects.
masked audiogramnoun: A graph shows the minimum loudness needed to hear tones across pitches while an interfering sound stays unchanged.
masked depressionnoun: A historical description emphasizes physical complaints without an identified bodily cause during depression, while mood symptoms receive less attention.
maskingnoun: One stimulus hides all or part of another stimulus from being noticed.
masking level difference (MLD)noun: The minimum audible signal level changes when differences between the ears in the signal or interfering noise change.
masking patternnoun: Measurements show how faintly different pure tones can be heard while the interfering sound's loudness and frequency content remain fixed.
Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)noun: A questionnaire assesses burnout through exhaustion, detached attitudes toward people or work, and feelings of reduced accomplishment.
Maslow’s motivational hierarchynoun: Maslow proposed that human needs form levels, with survival needs generally taking priority over belonging, esteem, and personal growth.
Maslow’s theory of human motivationnoun: Maslow proposed that people pursue growth, understanding, beauty, and fulfillment as well as satisfying unmet basic needs.
masochismnoun: A person experiences pleasure from their own pain or humiliation, sometimes in a sexual context.
masochistic fantasiesnoun: Imagined situations involving one's own pain or humiliation provide pleasure, often including sexual excitement.
masochistic personality disordernoun: A controversial historical diagnosis described a lasting pattern of self-denial and humiliation thought to provide satisfaction or relieve guilt.
mass actionnoun: Lashley proposed that the amount of damaged cortex matters more than its location for impairment in complex learning.
mass contagionnoun: Behaviors, beliefs, or emotions spread quickly through a large population, even when its members live far apart.
mass hysterianoun: An older label describes unusual feelings, beliefs, symptoms, or actions emerging together among people through group influence.
mass mediaphrase: Ways of sharing news and entertainment with very large groups, such as TV, radio, print, and the internet.
mass media interventionnoun: A public health effort uses widely distributed media messages to influence health knowledge, attitudes, or behavior across a population.
mass murdernoun: An event involves the intentional killing of multiple people, usually within one incident or closely connected setting.
mass psychologynoun: This field studies shared thinking, feeling, and behavior across large populations, including responses to movements and media.
mass reflexnoun: One stimulus triggers a widespread, poorly selective response involving many muscles, glands, or other responding body parts.
mass suicidenoun: All or most members of a connected group intentionally end their own lives as part of a shared event.
mass-spring modelnoun: A movement model proposes that limbs reach targets through a balance between opposing muscle groups acting like springs.
mass-to-specific developmentnoun: Before birth and during infancy, broad whole-body movements gradually develop into more precise movements of individual body parts.
massa intermedianoun: A small bridge of gray matter spans the third ventricle between the thalamus's two halves in many people.
massagenoun: Using hands or devices to rub and press body tissues to reduce pain, stress, and muscle tension.
massed practicephrase: Practicing a skill in one long session or with very short breaks between tries.
massed repetitionphrase: Practicing the same material many times in one close-together session usually helps less than spacing it out.
masseter reflexnoun: A tap on the lower jaw stretches jaw muscles and can produce an automatic closing movement.
Masson disknoun: A rotating white disk with black markings produces gray bands used to measure the smallest detectable brightness difference.
MASTabbreviation: The Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test uses questions about drinking experiences to flag possible alcohol problems for further assessment.
mastery goalnoun: A person aims to build skill or understanding in a particular task or subject.
mastery learningnoun: An educational approach uses repeated practice, feedback, and varied instruction to help students develop thorough understanding before advancing.
mastery orientationnoun: A person approaches achievement by welcoming challenges, persisting through difficulty, and viewing setbacks as reasons to adjust effort or strategies.
mastery playnoun: Playful activities help a child develop and strengthen new abilities, including language, thinking, and practical skills.
mastery testsphrase: These tests check whether someone has learned all the important material in a subject.
mastery trainingnoun: People learn assertive communication and constructive ways to influence their surroundings before facing unpleasant situations or conflict.
mastoidnoun: A bony projection behind the ear contains air-filled spaces connected with the middle ear.
masturbationnoun: Touching or stimulating your own sexual body parts to create sexual pleasure, sometimes leading to orgasm.
masturbatory reconditioningnoun: A behavioral technique attempts to change sexual arousal patterns by associating different imagery with pleasure during masturbation.
masturbatory satiationnoun: A behavioral technique attempts to reduce certain sexual interests by pairing related fantasies with repetition until the activity becomes unrewarding.
MATabbreviation: The abbreviation names the Miller Analogies Test, an assessment of analytical reasoning through relationships between words and ideas.
mata elapnoun: An alternative name for amok describes a culturally reported episode of sudden violent behavior, often following withdrawal and followed by exhaustion.
matched samplesnoun: Researchers select participant groups that resemble one another on characteristics important to the study.
matched-pairs designnoun: Researchers pair similar participants on relevant background characteristics, placing each member in a different group for comparison.
matched-pairs t testnoun: A statistical test checks whether the average difference within paired observations provides evidence against a specified difference, usually zero.
matchingnoun: A method that pairs participants on important traits before randomly placing them into different study groups.
Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFF)noun: A visual assessment measures decision speed and accuracy by asking people to find an exact match among similar pictures.
matching hypothesisphrase: People often choose romantic partners whose overall social appeal, especially physical attractiveness, is similar to their own.
matching lawphrase: When choices give different rewards, behavior usually splits in the same proportions as the rewards received.
matching patientsnoun: Clinicians select treatments or therapists that fit each patient's needs and circumstances to improve care.
matching to samplenoun: A learning task rewards choosing the option that matches an example presented earlier in the trial.
mate guardingnoun: An animal's behavior limits opportunities for its mating partner to reproduce with other individuals.
mate poachingnoun: A person deliberately tries to attract a sexual partner who already has a committed romantic relationship.
mate selectionphrase: Choosing a reproductive partner based on traits that may improve offspring survival or successful parenting.
mate swappingnoun: Two or more adult couples agree to exchange partners for sexual activity.
mate valuenoun: Researchers use this concept to describe how desirable someone seems as a potential romantic or reproductive partner.
material causenoun: In Aristotle's philosophy, the substance something consists of helps explain its existence.
material feminismnoun: A historical feminist movement sought practical improvements in women's rights, education, employment, and household responsibilities.
material selfnoun: In William James's theory, personal identity includes physical things experienced as one's own, including the body and possessions.
materialismnoun: Valuing money and possessions as signs of success and self-worth, often above relationships or personal growth.
materializationnoun: In spiritualist belief, spirits or objects supposedly become physically present through supernatural powers.
maternal aggressionnoun: Female nonhuman animals sometimes threaten or attack intruders to protect their offspring.
maternal attitudesnoun: A mother's beliefs and feelings about her children can shape parenting, children's development, and her understanding of herself.
maternal behaviornoun: Mothers care for their young through actions such as feeding, warming, protecting, and teaching.
maternal brainnoun: Changes in a mammalian mother's brain around pregnancy and birth support thinking and behavior involved in caring for offspring.
maternal deprivationnoun: Insufficient nurturing from an absent, lost, or neglectful mother or main caregiver may disrupt a young individual's development.
maternal drivenoun: An internal motivation leads female animals to provide care for their offspring.
maternal environmentnoun: Conditions inside the uterus influence fetal development and may affect the child's health after birth.
maternal memorynoun: Female animals can retain caregiving patterns after pregnancy and raising young, helping them respond to offspring later.
maternal PKUnoun: During pregnancy, phenylketonuria can expose the fetus to excess phenylalanine, increasing risks to growth and brain development.
maternal reverienoun: In Bion's psychoanalytic theory, a mother can receive and understand her infant's feelings, helping make distress more manageable.
maternal stressnoun: Stress during pregnancy involves emotional and bodily changes that may influence fetal growth and later development.
maternity bluesnoun: Brief sadness, tearfulness, or shifting moods can occur during the early days after childbirth.
mathematical abilitynoun: Several skills work together to help someone understand numbers, calculate, and solve problems involving quantities.
mathematical biologynoun: Researchers build mathematical models to explain living processes, including nerve signals and learning.
mathematical learning theorynoun: These theories express learning processes or results through numbers, equations, and other mathematical relationships.
mathematical modelnoun: A process is shown with numbers and equations to describe how it works or changes.
mathematical psychologynoun: An approach uses mathematical models to explain mental processes and behavior and predict their outcomes.
mathematical statisticsnoun: This field develops the mathematical foundations of methods for describing data, estimating values, and testing claims.
mathematico-deductive methodnoun: Researchers build a theory by stating mathematical assumptions and logically deriving further claims from them.
mathematics anxietynoun: Worry and tension about doing math can interfere with concentration, performance, and willingness to practice.
mathematics disordernoun: An older diagnostic category described math achievement far below expectations based on age, schooling, and measured intelligence.
mating behaviornoun: Animals engage in reproductive activities such as attracting partners, choosing mates, and having sexual intercourse.
mating systemnoun: A species' usual pattern of reproductive partnerships describes how individuals pair with one or several mates.
matriarchynoun: Women hold the leading decision-making power within a community or household.
matricidenoun: A person causes their own mother's death by killing her.
matrifocaladjective: A family or culture centers its relationships and everyday organization around the mother.
matrilinealadjective: Family descent, group membership, or inheritance follows the maternal line across generations.
matrilocaladjective: A married couple lives near or shares a home with the wife's mother or other relatives.
matrixnoun: A grid of rows and columns used to organize numbers or test answers for analysis.
matrix algebranoun: Mathematical rules allow calculations with rectangular arrays of numbers, helping researchers work with many variables together.
matrix organizationnoun: Employees belong to both a functional department and a project team, reporting to managers for each.
Matthew effectnoun: Existing advantages can accumulate, widening performance gaps or bringing established researchers disproportionate recognition.
maturationnoun: Natural growth and aging make a person become more fully developed, and can change study results over time.
maturation hypothesisnoun: A proposed explanation holds that certain inborn abilities emerge only when the necessary body and brain systems become ready.
maturational crisisnoun: An expected life transition, such as retirement, creates a need for major emotional or behavioral adjustments.
maturational lagnoun: Some nervous system abilities develop more slowly than expected, potentially influencing thinking, perception, or behavior.
maturitynoun: Having reached full growth or development in body, mind, or behavior.
Maximally Discriminative Facial Movement Coding System (MAX)noun: Researchers classify facial patterns by proposed emotional meanings, mainly when studying infants and young children.
maximin strategynoun: A decision maker compares each option's lowest possible payoff and chooses the option with the highest minimum.
maximizernoun: A consumer seeks the best available choice, often comparing many options before deciding.
maximum likelihoodnoun: A statistical method selects model parameter values that give the observed data the greatest likelihood.
maximum-security unitnoun: A highly secure psychiatric hospital section provides care for patients assessed as likely to seriously hurt themselves or others.
Maxwell disksnoun: Overlapping slotted disks with colored sections spin rapidly so their colors appear blended.
Maxwellian viewnoun: An optical setup directs light from a visual stimulus through the central region of the pupil.
mazenoun: A path puzzle researchers use to study how people or animals learn and remember routes.
maze learningphrase: Learning is shown by finding a maze's goal from the start through practice, using the shortest path with few mistakes.
maze tasknoun: A planning test asks someone to trace paths through increasingly difficult mazes while avoiding dead ends.
maze-bright and maze-dull ratsnoun: These historical rat groups were selectively bred for better or poorer performance on particular maze tests.
MBDabbreviation: An obsolete label, minimal brain dysfunction, attributed attention, learning, or behavior difficulties to presumed mild problems in brain functioning.
MBEabbreviation: A leadership style where a manager steps in mainly when problems or rule violations appear.
MBHOabbreviation: A managed behavioral health organization arranges and oversees health benefits focused on mental health and related behavioral care.
MBIabbreviation: The Maslach Burnout Inventory uses questionnaire responses to assess exhaustion, detachment from people, and feelings about personal accomplishment.
MBOabbreviation: In management by objectives, organizations set work goals and judge performance by how well those goals are reached.
MBTabbreviation: In mentalization-based treatment, people practice understanding their own and others' feelings and thoughts to improve emotional regulation and relationships.
MBTIabbreviation: A self-report personality test that sorts people into 16 personality types using four preference pairs.
MC4-Rabbreviation: The melanocortin-4 receptor responds to a hormone signal and helps regulate eating and body weight.
MCAabbreviation: A statistical method for placing people or cases into groups using several measured variables.
McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilitiesnoun: This assessment measures thinking, memory, language, and movement skills in children aged two and a half through eight and a half.
McCarthy Screening Test (MST)noun: This brief assessment checks thinking and movement skills needed for school and helps identify children needing further evaluation.
McCollough effectnoun: After viewing colored stripes in different orientations, colorless stripes can appear tinted, with the apparent color depending on orientation.
MCEabbreviation: A medical care evaluation reviews care quality and service use, investigates problems, and plans improvements.
MCIabbreviation: A mild drop in memory or thinking that is noticeable but does not greatly disrupt daily life.
MCLabbreviation: An individual's most comfortable loudness is the speech sound level they find most pleasant to listen to.
MCMabbreviation: The metacognitive model of attitudes proposes that people attach judgments of truth or falsity to their positive and negative evaluations.
MCMIabbreviation: The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory uses a questionnaire to assess personality patterns and mental health problems in clinical populations.
McNaughton rule (McNaghten rule; McNaughten rule)noun: This legal insanity standard concerns whether mental disorder prevented someone from understanding their act's nature or knowing it was wrong.
MCOabbreviation: A managed care organization coordinates health services and controls benefit use to help limit costs.
MCSabbreviation: Short for minimally conscious state, this condition involves occasional purposeful responses showing some awareness despite serious brain damage.
MDabbreviation: The abbreviation means muscular dystrophy, a group of inherited conditions that cause muscles to weaken and deteriorate over time.
MDAabbreviation: The synthetic drug 3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine can increase alertness, alter perception, and produce unusually elevated mood.
MDMAabbreviation: The synthetic drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine can increase energy, alter perception, and intensify feelings of emotional closeness.
MDSabbreviation: Through multidimensional scaling, researchers map similarities as distances, placing more similar items closer together.
meother: The part of self made of everything a person can notice about themselves.
meannoun: The average found by adding all scores and dividing by how many scores there are.
mean deviationnoun: This measure describes spread by averaging each value's absolute distance from the dataset's mean.
mean differencephrase: The average distance between every pair of scores, ignoring whether one is higher or lower.
mean effect sizephrase: In meta-analysis, the average size of a result across studies, often giving better studies more weight.
mean length of utterance (MLU)noun: This language development measure averages the length of a child's spontaneous spoken units, usually counting their smallest meaningful parts.
mean squarenoun: A variance estimate found by dividing a sum of squares by its freedom count, meaning how many values can vary.
mean square errornoun: This statistic summarizes squared unexplained differences in data, with the divisor depending on the analysis.
mean square residualnoun: In regression, this statistic divides the sum of squared prediction errors by the residual degrees of freedom.
mean-gradation methodnoun: In this perception experiment, people adjust stimuli until the perceived differences between paired stimuli seem equal.
meaningnoun: The ideas or feelings that a word, sign, or event stands for.
meaning-centered therapynoun: This approach, also called logotherapy, helps people discover personal meaning through actions, experiences, relationships, and attitudes toward difficulties.
meaningful learningnoun: New information becomes understood by connecting it with knowledge or experiences the learner already has.
meaninglessnessnoun: Feeling that life lacks purpose, direction, or importance, often becoming a main issue in therapy.
means objectnoun: In purposive behaviorism, an object, action, event, or condition serves this role when it helps an organism approach a goal.
means–ends analysisnoun: This problem-solving strategy compares the present situation with a goal and creates smaller goals to reduce the gap.
measurenoun: A question, test, or tool used to show how much of something is being studied.
measure of associationnoun: A numerical summary describes the strength, and sometimes direction, of a connection between measured characteristics.
measurementnoun: Finding how much of something is present, often by giving it a score or number.
measurement errorphrase: The gap between a person's obtained test score and their true score caused by chance or testing problems.
measurement invariancenoun: A measure has this property when it represents the same underlying characteristic comparably across groups or conditions.
measurement levelnoun: A variable's scale determines whether its values represent categories, rankings, equal intervals, or ratios with a meaningful zero.
measurement modelnoun: In statistical modeling, this model specifies how observed measures relate to underlying characteristics that cannot be observed directly.
measurement scalephrase: A way to classify or number a variable using one of four levels of measurement.
measurement theoryphrase: Studies how numbers are assigned to traits so scores closely match the real quality being measured.
measures of intelligencephrase: Norm-based tests estimate how well someone can learn, reason, understand ideas, and gain knowledge.
mecamylaminenoun: This drug blocks nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and has been investigated for reducing smoking, alongside its use in lowering blood pressure.
mechanical aptitudenoun: This ability helps someone understand machines, work with them, and grasp the principles that explain their operation.
mechanical causalitynoun: This deterministic view explains events and behavior through necessary cause-and-effect links resembling interactions among machine parts.
mechanical intelligencenoun: This capacity helps someone figure out how physical things work and use or arrange them successfully.
mechanical-aptitude testnoun: This assessment measures abilities useful in mechanical work, such as spatial reasoning, understanding mechanisms, assembling parts, or skilled hand movements.
mechanical-comprehension testnoun: This assessment checks understanding of how tools and machines work, sometimes to estimate readiness for learning mechanical skills.
mechanical-man conceptnoun: This historical view proposes that people function as living machines governed entirely by physical processes.
mechanismnoun: The physical process or built-in way something works to cause an effect.
mechanistic interactionismnoun: This theory explains behavior through personal traits and situations, with their relative influence changing under different conditions.
mechanistic theorynoun: This perspective proposes explaining thought and behavior through simpler physical processes, using machines as a guiding model.
mechanoreceptornoun: A sensory receptor detects physical forces such as pressure, stretching, or vibration and converts them into nerve signals.
Meckel’s syndromenoun: An inherited developmental disorder commonly combines cystic kidneys, a skull opening containing protruding brain tissue, and additional digits.
Medea complexnoun: A historical concept describes maternal desires for killing one's own children with the motive of punishing their father.
media psychologynoun: This field studies how communication media shape people's thinking, feelings, behavior, and relationships.
media richnessnoun: A communication channel's richness reflects how many kinds of cues and how much complexity it can convey.
medialadjective: Closer to the body's middle line or the center of an organ.
medial amygdalanoun: This part of the amygdala processes smell and pheromone signals and contributes to fear responses.
medial bundlenoun: A group of sensory nerve fibers lies near the center of a body structure.
medial forebrain bundlenoun: A network of nerve fibers connects brainstem regions with the hypothalamus and other forebrain areas, supporting motivation and reward.
medial geniculate nucleusnoun: Each of two thalamic cell groups processes sound signals and passes them from the midbrain to the auditory cortex.
medial lemniscusnoun: A paired brainstem pathway carries information about touch, vibration, and body position toward the thalamus.
medial prefrontal cortexphrase: A brain area on the inner front surface helps with planning, handling conflict, and controlling mood.
medial preoptic area (mPOA)noun: A region near the front of the hypothalamus helps regulate body temperature, sexual behavior, parenting, and reproductive hormones.
medial rectusnoun: An outer eye muscle pulls the eyeball inward toward the nose.
medial temporal amnesianoun: Damage within the inner temporal lobes causes difficulty forming new memories and may also erase some earlier memories.
medial temporal gyrus (median temporal gyrus)noun: Another name for the middle temporal gyrus, this brain ridge contributes to language understanding and visual recognition.
medial temporal lobephrase: A brain area on each side, near the middle, that is especially important for learning and memory.
medial temporal lobe epilepsynoun: Repeated seizures begin in inner temporal lobe structures involved in memory and emotion, such as the hippocampus.
mediannoun: The middle score in an ordered set, with half the values above and half below.
median effective dosenoun: A treatment amount produces a specified effect in half the members of a tested group.
median lethal dosenoun: A substance amount causes death in half a tested animal group within a specified period.
median nervenoun: A major nerve running down the arm carries signals for sensation and movement in parts of the forearm and hand.
median testnoun: This statistical test compares independent groups by counting observations above and below their combined median.
median-cleft-face syndromenoun: A condition present at birth affects how central facial structures join, sometimes occurring alongside differences in intellectual development.
mediate experiencenoun: In Wundt’s framework, awareness of outside events includes interpretation that adds meaning beyond their directly perceived features.
mediated generalizationnoun: A learned response spreads to a different cue through an association with the original cue, rather than physical similarity.
mediated responsenoun: A reaction triggered by a cue then acts as an intermediate step that starts another behavior.
mediating behaviornoun: An action makes reinforcement for a target behavior more likely or helps that reinforcement happen more often.
mediationnoun: A neutral helper guides two sides to talk and work out a compromise.
mediation processnoun: A proposed mental operation, such as remembering or judging, occurs between noticing a cue and responding to it.
mediation theorynoun: A proposed explanation holds that events influence behavior through an intervening process, such as thoughts or interpretations.
mediational deficiencynoun: A person cannot use a particular problem-solving strategy to improve performance, even after receiving instruction in it.
mediational learningnoun: Learning connects events separated in time or space through another event or mental process that serves as a cue.
mediatornoun: A go-between process, variable, or person that links two sides and helps explain or settle what happens.
Medicaidnoun: A United States health coverage program uses national and state funding to help eligible people with limited income or resources.
Medicaid Waivernoun: In this context, a Medicaid funding arrangement supports eligible people with disabilities receiving services at home or in their communities.
medical anthropologynoun: A branch of anthropology examines how human cultures and ways of living shape health, illness, and health care.
medical auditnoun: A structured review examines how well methods of diagnosis and treatment work during care or after it ends.
medical care evaluation (MCE)noun: A review examines health care quality and use, investigates problems, and develops steps to correct them.
medical family therapynoun: Psychotherapy helps families manage health problems by addressing physical, emotional, and relationship needs in partnership with health professionals.
medical foodnoun: A specially formulated product meets nutritional needs linked to a medical condition and is used with medical supervision.
medical historynoun: A record of someone’s past health, illnesses, and treatments helps explain current health concerns.
medical homenoun: A care model gives a person an ongoing health team that coordinates services around their physical, emotional, and family needs.
medical modelphrase: Views mental problems as illnesses with physical causes that can be improved by specific treatments.
medical psychologynoun: An applied field uses psychological knowledge to understand and address people’s experiences of illness, disability, and medical treatment.
medical psychotherapynoun: An approach to treating mental health conditions combines psychotherapy with medication or other medical methods.
medical rehabilitationnoun: Treatment helps someone regain as much physical functioning as possible after illness, injury, or another bodily impairment.
medical social workernoun: A social work professional helps patients and families handle practical, social, financial, and emotional challenges connected with health problems.
medical tourismnoun: People travel elsewhere for medical treatment, often because it costs less or is unavailable where they live.
Medicarenoun: A U.S. government health insurance program for older adults and some disabled or seriously ill people.
Medicare Modernization Act (MMA)noun: A 2003 United States law changed Medicare and created Part D, adding coverage for prescription medicines.
medicationnoun: A drug taken to help treat a physical or mental health problem.
medication adherencephrase: How well a person takes medicine the way their health provider prescribed it.
medication management capacitynoun: A person’s mental and physical skills allow them to understand medication instructions and take medicines according to their prescription.
medication-induced movement disordernoun: Unwanted movement changes, such as shaking or stiffness, develop as a side effect of a medicine.
mediodorsal nucleusnoun: A group of thalamic nerve cells connects with frontal brain regions and contributes to memory and emotion.
meditationnoun: A practice of calmly focusing attention to relax, become more aware, or enter an altered state.
Mediterranean dietnoun: Traditional meals around the Mediterranean inform this eating pattern, which favors plants, olive oil, and fish while limiting red meat.
mediumnoun: A middle level or amount that falls between low and high on a scale.
medium trancenoun: A proposed middle depth of hypnosis may involve later memory gaps or responses to suggestions given during hypnosis.
medium-wavelength pigmentnoun: A light-sensitive substance in some retinal cones responds most strongly to middle wavelengths of visible light and supports color vision.
medullanoun: The lowest part of the brainstem controls breathing, heart rate, and other automatic body functions.
medulla oblongatanoun: Lowest part of the hindbrain that helps control breathing, heartbeat, blood pressure, and messages between brain and spinal cord.
medullary reticular formationnoun: A network of nerve cells in the lowest brainstem region helps coordinate movement and participates in sexual behavior.
medullary sheathnoun: An insulating covering called myelin surrounds many nerve fibers and helps their electrical signals travel faster.
medullationnoun: Support cells build myelin insulation around nerve fibers, helping those fibers carry electrical signals more quickly.
mefloquinenoun: A medicine used against malaria can also cause unwanted effects involving sleep, mood, thinking, or other nervous system functions.
MEGabbreviation: Magnetoencephalography measures tiny magnetic fields generated by brain electrical activity; the abbreviation can also name the recording device.
mega-prefix: A word beginning adds the meaning of something very large or great.
megadose pharmacotherapynoun: A historical approach rapidly gave extremely high antipsychotic doses, hoping for faster improvement, but added serious risks without clear benefit.
megalencephalynoun: An unusually large brain develops, sometimes alongside seizures, developmental delays, or difficulties with movement.
megalomanianoun: A person has an extremely exaggerated sense of their own importance, abilities, or power.
megalopsianoun: Objects look larger than their actual size because visual perception is distorted.
Megan’s lawnoun: A United States law requires public access to certain information about people registered following convictions for sexual offenses.
megavitamin therapynoun: Very large vitamin doses, sometimes with minerals, are used as proposed mental health treatments whose effectiveness remains uncertain.
meiosisnoun: A cell-splitting process that makes sperm or egg cells with half the usual number of chromosomes.
Meissner’s corpusclenoun: A small sensory structure in the skin detects gentle touch and changes as something moves across it.
melnoun: A unit measures perceived pitch, expressing how high a sound seems to a listener.
melancholianoun: An old word for depression, a disorder marked by deep sadness and loss of interest.
melancholia agitatanoun: A historical label described catatonic excitement, involving extreme restlessness and excessive movement without an obvious purpose.
melancholic featuresphrase: Describes a severe depression pattern with no pleasure, worse mornings, early waking, slowed or restless movement, and strong guilt.
melancholic typenoun: Galen's historical personality theory described a gloomy temperament supposedly caused by too much black bile.
melano- (melan-)prefix: This word element adds the meaning black or dark to another part of a word.
melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4-R)noun: A cell protein responds to alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone and helps regulate eating and body weight.
melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH)noun: A hormone affects skin pigmentation in some animals, and certain forms also help regulate eating in mammals.
melatoninnoun: A hormone from a small brain gland helps control sleep timing, body rhythms, and seasonal changes.
meliorationnoun: Time shifts toward activities offering better rewards per time spent, tending to equalize those reward rates across activities.
Mellarilnoun: This trade name identifies thioridazine, an antipsychotic medicine that can cause serious heart rhythm problems.
Melnick–Needles syndromenoun: A rare genetic condition involving changes in the FLNA gene affects bone development and can also affect hearing.
melodic intonation therapy (MIT)noun: A speech treatment uses patterned melody and rhythm to help some people regain spoken communication after language impairment.
member checknoun: Researchers ask participants to review recorded accounts or interpretations of their experiences and offer corrections or comments.
membership groupnoun: A social group includes a person as an actual member, through formal enrollment or informal acceptance.
membranenoun: A thin cell covering that holds the inside together and controls what can enter or leave.
membrane potentialphrase: An electrical charge difference across a cell membrane makes the cell's inside usually more negative at rest.
membranous labyrinthnoun: A network of soft, fluid-filled passages inside the inner ear contains sensory structures supporting hearing and balance.
memenoun: A cultural idea, belief, or practice spreads as people copy and share it with others.
memorandum as a wholenoun: In Karpman's historical written psychotherapy, a therapist's final memorandum brings together the insights developed during treatment.
memorizeverb: To learn something so it can be remembered later, often by repeating it many times.
memorynoun: The mind's ability to encode, store, and later bring back information and past experiences.
memory abilitiesphrase: Skills for remembering information, measured by recalling, recognizing, or matching learned items in different ways.
memory aidnoun: A memory aid is a simple trick or cue that helps you remember information later.
memory attributionnoun: A person assigns a remembered detail to an origin, such as direct experience, imagination, or someone else's account.
memory colornoun: An object's remembered color can differ from its actual color and influence how the object currently looks.
memory consolidationphrase: The process that stabilizes new memories over time, especially during sleep.
memory curvenoun: A graph shows how much learned information a person retains as time passes.
memory decayphrase: Remembered information grows weaker over time when it is not used or brought back to mind.
memory disordernoun: A condition disrupts the ability to take in information, keep it, or bring it back to mind.
memory distortionphrase: Remembering something in a changed or mistaken way, including false memories or odd familiarity.
memory drumnoun: An older laboratory device rotated learning material past a viewing window, controlling when each item appeared.
memory illusionnoun: A recollection changes what happened or includes something that never occurred, while still feeling like a memory.
memory impairmentphrase: Difficulty remembering things because of a disorder that affects memory.
memory inhibitionnoun: A mental process reduces access to distracting or competing memories, helping relevant information come to mind.
memory rehabilitationnoun: Clinician-guided support uses practice, routines, and memory aids to reduce how memory difficulties interfere with daily life.
memory retentionphrase: Keeping learned information available in memory over time, so it can be used later.
memory retrainingnoun: Rehabilitation strategies help people with neurological difficulties practice holding and working with information briefly in mind.
memory spanphrase: The amount someone can repeat in order right after hearing or seeing a list once.
memory storagephrase: Keeping learned information over time through lasting changes in brain connections.
memory systemphrase: One of the brain's different memory types, each handling a particular kind of information or task.
memory tracenoun: A lasting brain change thought to store information from learning or experience.
memory trainingnoun: Planned practice and instruction teach strategies intended to improve remembering across one or more kinds of memory.
memory-enhancing drugnoun: A medicine is used to support memory or other thinking abilities, often in people with dementia or brain injury.
memory-operating characteristic curve (MOCC)noun: A graph plots the rate of correct memory recognition against the rate of mistakenly recognizing items.
men’s liberation movementnoun: Several social movements examine men's roles and masculinity, with differing views on gender expectations, relationships, and equality.
menacmenoun: The menstrual phase of a person's life extends from their first menstrual period until menopause.
ménage à troisnoun: Three people share a sexual relationship within one household, or participate together in sexual activity.
menarchenoun: A girl's first menstrual period, usually marking the start of puberty.
Mendelian inheritancenoun: Traits pass between generations through gene versions following Mendel's principles of separation and, for unlinked genes, independent assortment.
Ménière’s diseasenoun: An inner-ear disorder linked to abnormal fluid buildup causes episodes of spinning dizziness, hearing changes, and ringing sounds.
meningesnoun: Three protective tissue layers surround the central nervous system, covering both the brain and the spinal cord.
meningiomanoun: A usually noncancerous tumor grows from cells in the brain's protective membranes and may press on nearby nervous tissue.
meningitisnoun: The protective membranes surrounding the brain and the spinal cord become inflamed, commonly because of an infection.
meningocelenoun: A birth defect allows protective membranes around nervous tissue to push through a bone opening, creating a sac containing fluid.
meningococcal meningitisnoun: Infection with Neisseria meningitidis bacteria inflames the protective membranes around the brain and the spinal cord.
meningoencephalitisnoun: Inflammation affects brain tissue together with the protective membranes surrounding it.
meningomyelocelenoun: A birth condition leaves spinal cord tissue and its protective membranes protruding through an opening in the backbone.
menkeitinoun: Historical accounts from Siberian communities describe a syndrome involving apparently involuntary copying of other people's actions.
menopausal depressionnoun: Significant depressed mood occurs around menopause or its preceding transition, especially in people with a previous history of depression.
menopausal hormone therapynoun: Treatment supplies estrogen, sometimes alongside a progestogen, to relieve symptoms related to hormonal changes around menopause.
menopausenoun: Menstrual periods permanently end as ovarian function declines, marking the end of the menstrual reproductive stage.
menorrhagianoun: Menstrual bleeding is unusually heavy or prolonged, potentially interfering with everyday activities.
mens reanoun: A person's guilty state of mind needed, along with the act, to hold them criminally responsible.
Mensanoun: An organization admits members whose intelligence test results place them among the highest scoring two percent.
mensesnoun: Blood and shed uterine lining leave the body through the vagina during a menstrual period.
menstrual agenoun: Pregnancy duration is counted from the first day of the pregnant person's most recent menstrual period.
menstrual cyclenoun: Repeating hormone changes guide egg development, possible ovulation, and preparation and shedding of the uterine lining.
menstrual migrainenoun: Migraine attacks occur in a recurring pattern around the start of menstrual bleeding.
menstrual synchronynoun: A disputed proposal suggests that people spending substantial time together develop menstrual periods with increasingly similar timing.
menstrual taboonoun: A cultural rule restricts activities, contact, or participation for people during menstruation.
menstruationnoun: During a period, the uterus sheds lining tissue and blood, which exit through the vagina.
mentaladjective: About the mind and its private experiences, like thinking, feeling, sensing, and remembering.
mental aberrationnoun: An older expression describes disturbed thinking considered a possible sign of psychological illness.
mental abilitiesphrase: Skills such as memory, reasoning, language, and spatial thinking that intelligence tests try to measure.
mental accountingnoun: People sort money into imagined categories that influence how they judge spending, gains, and losses.
mental age (MA)noun: A historical intelligence measure expresses test performance as the age at which children typically achieve similar results.
mental apparatusnoun: Freud's theory describes interacting mental systems that organize awareness, wishes, and inner conflicts.
mental asymmetrynoun: A person's abilities differ markedly across areas, such as language and understanding spatial relationships.
mental ataxianoun: A historical concept describes poor coordination among a person's thinking, feelings, and intentions.
mental balancenoun: Different mental activities work together as a coordinated whole.
mental blocknoun: Thinking or speaking suddenly stalls, leaving someone temporarily unable to complete an intended mental task.
mental chemistrynoun: John Stuart Mill proposed that combining simple ideas can produce new qualities absent from the original ideas.
mental chronometrynoun: Researchers vary what people encounter and measure response speed to infer how mental activities work.
mental claudicationnoun: Brief changes in mental functioning result when blood supply to a brain region is temporarily interrupted.
mental coachingnoun: Guided instruction develops thinking skills such as concentration, confidence, and motivation to support more consistent performance.
mental combinationnoun: In Piaget's theory, toddlers begin solving problems by working with imagined objects and actions before trying them physically.
mental confusionnoun: Clear thinking and decision making become difficult, sometimes with uncertainty about surroundings, time, or people's identities.
mental defectivenoun: An obsolete, offensive label was historically applied to people with intellectual disabilities or learning disabilities.
mental deficiencynoun: An outdated, offensive expression historically named intellectual disability, sometimes emphasizing severe limitations linked to biological causes.
mental developmentphrase: Gradual changes in thinking and other mental abilities as a person matures, learns, and gains experience.
mental diplopianoun: Someone experiences an illusion, hallucination, or false memory while recognizing that it does not reflect reality.
mental diseasephrase: An outdated way to say someone has a mental disorder.
mental disordernoun: A pattern of thoughts, feelings, or behavior that causes distress or makes daily life harder.
mental effortnoun: A task requires a certain amount of attention and thinking work to complete.
mental energynoun: The limited brain resources used for paying attention, thinking carefully, and controlling quick, automatic reactions.
mental examinationnoun: A thorough assessment examines behavior, attitudes, and thinking abilities to determine whether psychological problems are present.
mental facultynoun: A distinct area of mental ability supports activities such as remembering, using language, or recognizing faces.
mental fognoun: Awareness of surroundings becomes less clear, with difficulty concentrating and a sense of confusion.
mental functionnoun: An activity of the mind enables abilities such as sensing, thinking, or reasoning.
mental growthnoun: Mental abilities, often intelligence, gradually improve as a person gets older.
mental handicapnoun: An outdated, offensive expression described cognitive limitations that made independent daily living more difficult.
mental healingnoun: People attempt to ease physical or psychological illness through mental methods such as imagery or suggestion.
mental healthphrase: Good emotional well-being, healthy behavior, and ability to handle stress, daily demands, and relationships.
Mental Health America (MHA)noun: A nonprofit in the United States promotes psychological well-being through advocacy, public education, research, and services.
mental health carephrase: Services from different professionals that assess, treat, and support people's emotional, behavioral, and thinking problems.
mental health clinicphrase: A place where people get diagnosis and treatment for emotional or behavior problems without staying overnight.
mental health consultationphrase: A mental health expert advises caregivers or professionals to help a person and improve future care skills.
mental health counselornoun: A trained, credentialed professional offers counseling for emotional and psychological concerns, working alone or with other care providers.
mental health nursingnoun: A nursing specialty supports people experiencing mental health difficulties through physical care, therapeutic relationships, education, and treatment assistance.
mental health parityphrase: Insurance rules requiring mental health and substance treatment coverage to be no more limited than medical coverage.
mental health programphrase: A service that treats, prevents, rehabilitates, or teaches to improve a person's or community's mental health.
mental health servicesphrase: Professional help such as assessment, diagnosis, counseling, or treatment given to support mental health or address mental disorders.
mental health support organizationnoun: An organized group supports people experiencing mental illness and may promote better services, public understanding, or research.
mental health workernoun: A support team member helps professional staff deliver services for people receiving mental health care.
mental historynoun: A record gathers someone's past mental health experiences and often relevant information about their family.
mental hospitalnoun: A specialized hospital provides treatment and supervised care for people staying there because of mental health conditions.
mental housecleaning hypothesisnoun: A proposed explanation suggests dreams reorganize recent learning by simplifying information and reducing overlap.
mental hygienenoun: An older approach promotes psychological well-being and prevents illness through education, supportive living conditions, early care, and public health efforts.
mental illnessnoun: A pattern of thoughts, feelings, or behaviors causing distress or problems in daily life.
mental imageryphrase: Seeing, hearing, or sensing something in your mind without it being there outside you.
mental institutionphrase: A hospital-like place where people with severe mental disorders get supervised care and treatment.
mental lexiconnoun: A person's stored word knowledge includes words they use and understand, along with information about meanings and sounds.
mental loadnoun: The amount of thinking and remembering work your mind is handling at one time.
mental mapnoun: An internal picture of places and directions that helps someone navigate through two- or three-dimensional space.
mental maturityphrase: Having the fully developed thinking ability expected of an average adult.
mental measurementnoun: Researchers and practitioners use numerical methods to assess psychological abilities, activities, or characteristics.
mental mechanicsnoun: James Mill proposed that complex ideas consist entirely of simpler ideas joined through learned associations.
mental mechanismnoun: In psychodynamic theory, mental functions help people meet demands, satisfy needs, manage conflict, and protect their sense of self.
mental modelnoun: A person's inner picture of how parts fit and work together, used to predict outcomes and guide choices.
mental paper-folding testnoun: A spatial ability test asks people to predict the three-dimensional shape paper will form when folded as instructed.
mental practicenoun: A person rehearses a skill through imagined performance without physically carrying out the action.
mental processnoun: An activity occurring within the mind supports experiences such as noticing, remembering, learning, or solving problems.
mental rehearsalphrase: Practicing a behavior or skill by vividly imagining yourself doing it.
mental representationnoun: An internal stand-in for something you perceive, remember, or think about while your mind works on it.
mental retardation (MR)noun: An obsolete, offensive diagnostic label named developmental limitations in intellectual abilities and practical, social, or conceptual daily skills.
mental rotationphrase: Ability to turn images in your mind and judge how they look from new angles.
Mental scalenoun: An earlier Bayley assessment component measured young children's thinking abilities, including how they notice, remember, and learn.
mental setnoun: A temporary readiness to think or respond in a particular way shapes how someone approaches a task.
mental shiftnoun: A person changes from one prepared way of thinking to another, often when a task changes.
mental statusphrase: An overall check of a person's thinking, feelings, and behavior during a clinical exam.
mental status examination (MSE)noun: A clinician systematically assesses a person's current thinking, feelings, behavior, and awareness through conversation, observation, and brief tasks.
mental synthesisnoun: The mind combines separate ideas, images, or experiences into a meaningful whole.
mental testnoun: An assessment measures thinking abilities, such as reasoning, memory, or general intelligence.
mental testingnoun: Researchers or practitioners use numerical measures to assess psychological abilities and processes.
mental topographynoun: A theory organizes mental processes into proposed regions of the mind, such as conscious and unconscious areas.
mental workloadnoun: A task places demands on available thinking resources, including attention and memory.
mentalesenoun: A proposed internal language represents thoughts through concepts and statements rather than necessarily using spoken words.
mentalismnoun: A philosophical position treats thoughts and feelings as real phenomena that cannot be fully reduced to physical processes.
mentalitynoun: A person's characteristic outlook shapes how they interpret situations and approach life.
mentalizationnoun: People make sense of behavior by considering their own and other people's feelings, beliefs, wishes, and intentions.
mentally defectiveadjective: An offensive historical label classified people with intellectual or learning disabilities and also appeared in legal descriptions of impaired understanding.
mentationnoun: The mind carries out activities such as thinking, imagining, remembering, and considering possibilities.
mentornoun: A more experienced person guides, teaches, and supports someone less experienced as that person grows and learns.
mentoringnoun: Guidance, encouragement, and support from an experienced person help someone grow, learn, and reach school or work goals.
meperidinenoun: A manufactured opioid pain medicine activates mu receptors and can also produce sleepiness and dependence.
mephedrone (4-methyl-N-methylcathinone)noun: A synthetic stimulant in the cathinone family can cause intense pleasure, agitation, and changes in perception.
mephenytoinnoun: A medicine in the hydantoin family was developed to reduce epileptic seizures.
meprobamatenoun: An older sedative medicine reduces anxiety by slowing nervous system activity and can cause dependence.
mercury switchnoun: A device uses moving liquid mercury to open or close an electrical connection when tilted, enabling control through small movements.
mercynoun: A person responds kindly to another's suffering or chooses gentleness when able to punish or control them.
mercy killingnoun: A person directly ends a dying person's or animal's life with the intention of stopping prolonged suffering.
mere-exposure effectnoun: Repeated encounters with something can increase how much a person likes it, even without deliberate evaluation.
mere-thought polarizationnoun: Thinking about an existing attitude can make that attitude stronger in its original direction.
Meridianoun: A former brand name identified sibutramine, an appetite suppressant withdrawn in many countries because of serious health risks.
meridional amblyopianoun: Early astigmatism can leave lasting difficulty seeing detail at certain angles, even after lenses correct the focusing problem.
Meritalnoun: A former brand name identified nomifensine, an antidepressant withdrawn because it could cause severe adverse reactions.
meritocracynoun: A social or political system distributes rewards and positions according to people's achievements or demonstrated abilities.
Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinsonnoun: A 1986 Supreme Court decision recognized that workplace sexual harassment creating a hostile environment can violate federal employment discrimination law.
Merkel’s corpusclenoun: A specialized touch receptor in skin detects sustained pressure and helps distinguish fine details of objects.
Merkel’s lawnoun: A historical principle proposed that equal increases in detectable stimulus intensity produce equal increases in experienced sensation.
Merkel’s tactile disknoun: A skin touch receptor responds to continuing pressure and contributes to sensing edges, shapes, and textures.
MERS-CoVabbreviation: The abbreviation names Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, a virus that can cause serious respiratory illness.
merycismnoun: Swallowed food repeatedly returns to the mouth for chewing again, swallowing again, or spitting out, usually without nausea.
mescal buttonsnoun: The rounded crowns of peyote cacti contain mescaline, a substance that changes perception and other mental experiences.
mescalinenoun: A psychedelic substance found in peyote and other cacti can strongly alter perception, mood, and thinking.
mesencephalic nucleusnoun: A group of trigeminal nerve cells extending through the upper brainstem carries information about jaw position and chewing muscles.
mesencephalic tegmentumnoun: An inner midbrain region contains nerve pathways and cell groups involved in movement, alertness, and other functions.
mesencephalonnoun: The midbrain is an upper brainstem region that connects major brain divisions and supports movement, alertness, and sensory responses.
mesial temporal lobe epilepsynoun: Repeated seizures begin in inner temporal lobe structures, often including the hippocampus, and may affect memory or emotional experiences.
mesmerismnoun: A historical healing practice used trance and rituals based on Mesmer's unsupported claim that an invisible magnetic force could cure illness.
meso- (mes-)prefix: This word part adds the meaning middle or intermediate to a larger word.
mesocephalicadjective: A head has an intermediate width relative to its length within a traditional system of measuring head shape.
mesocortical systemnoun: Dopamine pathways connect the ventral tegmental area with frontal cortical regions involved in thinking, motivation, and emotional regulation.
mesodermnoun: An embryo's middle tissue layer develops into structures including muscles, bones, blood, kidneys, and reproductive organs.
mesokurticadjective: A distribution has kurtosis equal to the normal curve's value, meaning kurtosis of three or excess kurtosis of zero.
mesolimbic systemnoun: Dopamine pathways connect the ventral tegmental area with limbic regions, especially the nucleus accumbens, supporting motivation and reward learning.
mesomorphnoun: Sheldon's historical body classification describes a muscular build that his theory linked to an energetic, assertive temperament.
mesontomorphnoun: A historical body classification describes a broad, stocky build considered roughly comparable to a mesomorph.
mesopic visionnoun: At intermediate light levels, such as dusk, both rod and cone cells contribute to seeing.
mesoridazinenoun: An older antipsychotic medicine used for schizophrenia can also cause dangerous changes in heart rhythm.
mesoskelicadjective: A historical body classification describes leg length between relatively short and relatively long proportions.
mesosomaticadjective: In a historical body-build classification, someone's height and chest score falls no farther than one standard deviation from the group's average.
mesostriatal systemnoun: Dopamine nerve pathways connect the midbrain with the basal ganglia, including a route important for voluntary movement.
mesosystemnoun: In Bronfenbrenner’s theory, connections among everyday settings, such as home and school, influence a person’s development.
message factorsphrase: Features of a persuasive message, like using one or both sides, that change how convincing it is.
message tailoringnoun: Information is personalized around someone’s needs, beliefs, and circumstances to support decisions or encourage changes in behavior.
message-learning approachnoun: A persuasion theory proposes that attitudes change through encountering, noticing, understanding, accepting, and remembering a message.
messenger RNA (mRNA)noun: A molecule called messenger ribonucleic acid carries genetic instructions that guide cells in building proteins.
Messiah complexnoun: An informal label describes a compelling need to save others, sometimes accompanied by a belief in personal divinity.
Mestinonnoun: This brand contains pyridostigmine, a medicine that improves muscle strength in people with myasthenia gravis.
METverb: Used to show that a rule, condition, or diagnosis requirement has been satisfied.
meta- (met-)prefix: Placed before a word, it usually means beyond, behind, or at a higher level.
meta-analysisnoun: A statistical method that combines results from many studies to estimate the overall size of an effect.
meta-attentionnoun: A person recognizes what helps, disrupts, or otherwise influences their ability to pay attention.
metabolic anomalynoun: An inherited biological problem disrupts chemical processes that cells need to function properly.
metabolic defectnoun: A problem with proteins or movement of substances across cell boundaries disrupts metabolism through inherited or acquired causes.
metabolic disordernoun: A health condition disrupts the body's chemical processes for using nutrients, producing energy, or building and maintaining tissues.
metabolic encephalopathynoun: A disturbance in body chemistry disrupts brain functioning, often causing confusion or changes in alertness.
metabolic equivalentnoun: A unit called MET expresses an activity's energy demand as a multiple of a standard resting level.
metabolic ratenoun: The amount of energy an organism uses during a specified time describes how quickly it spends energy.
metabolic screeningnoun: Tests look for possible inherited problems in body chemistry, often using blood samples collected soon after birth.
metabolic syndromenoun: A group of body problems, like high blood pressure and obesity, that greatly raises diabetes and heart disease risk.
metabolic tolerancenoun: Repeated drug exposure makes the body break down the drug faster, reducing its effects at the same dose.
metabolic–nutritional modelnoun: An approach studies mental disorders through long-term population assessments of influences such as toxins and nutritional deprivation.
metabolismnoun: The body's chemical processes build up and break down substances to keep it alive and working.
metabolitenoun: A substance participates in, supports, or results from chemical reactions that keep an organism alive.
metabotropic receptornoun: A cell receptor responds to a chemical messenger by activating internal signaling, rather than directly opening its own ion channel.
metachromatic leukodystrophynoun: An inherited disorder causes certain fats to accumulate, damaging nerve insulation and progressively affecting movement and thinking.
metacognitionnoun: People notice how their own thinking works and may use that awareness to guide it.
metacognitive model of attitudes (MCM)noun: A theory proposes that people link evaluations with judgments of their truth, which influence deliberate responses more than automatic ones.
metacommunicationnoun: Additional signals, often gestures or expressions, convey how an interaction should be understood beyond the words themselves.
metacontrastnoun: A briefly presented visual target becomes harder to perceive when another nearby, nonoverlapping image appears immediately afterward.
metacriterionnoun: Lakatos proposed judging theories of science by how rationally they explain scientific history and uncover previously unnoticed historical facts.
Metadatenoun: A brand of methylphenidate provides a stimulant medicine used to improve attention and reduce impulsivity in ADHD.
metaemotionnoun: A person notices emotions in themselves or others and holds feelings or attitudes about those emotions.
metaesthetic rangenoun: Faint pain sensations occupy a range just below the point where pain becomes clear and unmistakable.
metaethicsnoun: A branch of philosophy examines what moral judgments mean and whether they express objective truths or subjective views.
metaevaluationnoun: A systematic review judges an evaluation's quality, usefulness, and fit with accepted standards.
metagnomynoun: An alleged ability supplies knowledge about past or present events without using ordinary sensory information.
metalanguagenoun: Words or symbols are used to explain, examine, or describe language or another symbol system.
metalinguistic awarenessnoun: A person consciously recognizes how language is structured, what it means, and how people use it.
metamemorynoun: A person understands aspects of their own remembering and may use that knowledge to manage memory.
metamorphopsianoun: A visual disturbance makes real objects appear distorted in features such as shape, size, position, or distance.
metamorphosisnoun: An organism's bodily shape or organization changes, usually as it passes into a new stage of development.
metamotivationnoun: Maslow proposed a drive toward personal growth, fulfillment, and purposes beyond oneself that emerges after basic needs are satisfied.
metaneednoun: Maslow proposed higher needs, such as creativity, knowledge, and beauty, that become prominent once basic needs are largely satisfied.
metapathologynoun: Maslow proposed that unmet needs for creativity, understanding, or beauty can produce a vague sense of frustration or dissatisfaction.
metaphornoun: A way of speaking that compares unlike things without using like or as.
metaphor therapynoun: A therapy approach explores and changes symbolic comparisons to help people reconsider experiences and develop possible solutions.
metaphoric symbolismnoun: An experience or idea is expressed indirectly through a comparison that carries symbolic meaning.
metaphysicsnoun: A branch of philosophy asks what fundamentally exists and what reality is ultimately like.
metapsychicsnoun: An older name for parapsychology describes investigations of alleged abilities such as telepathy and claims of consciousness surviving death.
metapsychological profilenoun: Anna Freud developed a psychoanalytic description of someone's inner psychological functioning and overall personality beyond their symptoms.
metapsychologynoun: An area of inquiry examines psychology's underlying principles, especially the broad theoretical explanations developed by Freud.
metastasisnoun: Cancer cells spread from their original location to another body site, where they form additional cancer growths.
metatheorynoun: A theory examines other theories, helping explain their assumptions and compare how they organize and interpret ideas.
metatheticadjective: A sensory dimension is described this way when increasing stimulus strength can change the kind of experience it produces.
metaworrynoun: Persistent concern about your own thinking includes worrying that your worrying is uncontrollable or could affect you badly.
metempiricaladjective: A claim is described this way when experience cannot test it, placing it beyond what scientific methods can establish.
metempsychosisnoun: Some religious and philosophical traditions hold that after death, a soul enters a different human or animal body.
metencephalonnoun: This hindbrain region develops into the pons and cerebellum, structures involved in communication, movement, and other brain functions.
methnoun: This slang name means methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant that increases alertness and carries a substantial risk of addiction.
methadonenoun: A long-acting opioid medicine used for pain and to prevent withdrawal in people stopping heroin.
methadone maintenance therapynoun: Ongoing treatment uses prescribed methadone to reduce opioid cravings and withdrawal, helping people manage opioid use disorder.
methamphetaminenoun: A powerful stimulant increases brain activity and alertness, with risks including addiction and serious changes in thinking and behavior.
methaqualonenoun: A synthetic sedative once used to help people sleep can cause dependence and slows central nervous system activity.
methocarbamolnoun: A medicine helps manage painful muscle conditions through central nervous system effects, although its exact mechanism remains uncertain.
method of absolute judgmentnoun: Researchers present sensory items in random sequence and ask participants to assign each item to a category.
method of adjustmentnoun: Participants change a sensory stimulus until it seems to match a fixed reference, helping researchers measure perception.
method of agreementnoun: Mill proposed finding a possible necessary cause by identifying the sole condition shared across different cases of an outcome.
method of agreement and differencenoun: Mill proposed combining shared conditions in outcome cases with contrasting cases to identify conditions both required and sufficient.
method of average errornoun: Participants adjust a changeable stimulus until its perceived strength matches a fixed reference, allowing researchers to measure matching errors.
method of choicenoun: Participants examine several groups of sensory items and select the group containing a specified target.
method of concomitant variationnoun: Mill proposed investigating possible causal connections by examining whether changes in one phenomenon consistently accompany changes in another.
method of constant adjustmentnoun: Participants continuously change a stimulus until they stop detecting it, helping researchers estimate a sensory threshold.
method of constant stimulinoun: Researchers repeatedly present preset stimulus strengths in random sequence to estimate the level detected on half the trials.
method of differencenoun: Mill proposed identifying a cause by comparing cases that differ in one condition and whether an outcome occurs.
method of equal and unequal casesnoun: Researchers present pairs drawn from preset sensory stimuli and ask whether the two members seem equal or different.
method of equal-appearing intervalsnoun: Participants adjust sensory stimuli so that the perceived gaps within different pairs seem equally large.
method of equivalentsnoun: Participants tune a changeable sensory stimulus until it seems equal to a fixed reference stimulus.
method of exclusionnoun: Bacon proposed narrowing possible causes by ruling out explanations inconsistent with cases where an outcome occurs or fails to occur.
method of just noticeable differencesnoun: Researchers increase and decrease a comparison stimulus against a fixed reference to estimate the smallest difference participants can detect.
method of limitsnoun: Researchers raise and lower stimulus strength in steps, averaging the points where participants switch between detecting and missing it.
method of lociphrase: A memory trick that links vivid mental pictures to familiar places to help you recall items in order.
method of momentsnoun: Researchers estimate a statistical model's parameters by matching its predicted numerical summaries, such as averages, to summaries from observed data.
method of oppositionnoun: Researchers estimate deliberate and automatic memory contributions using tasks that make these processes cooperate or compete.
method of ratio estimationnoun: Participants compare two sensory stimuli and estimate how many times stronger one seems than the other.
method of residuesnoun: Mill proposed explaining an outcome's remaining portion by removing effects of known causes and investigating what is left.
method of right and wrong casesnoun: Researchers estimate sensory detection thresholds by repeatedly testing a fixed selection of stimulus strengths in random sequence.
method of selective adaptationnoun: Researchers repeatedly present a particular stimulus, then examine how sensory adjustment changes perception of a later stimulus.
method of serial explorationnoun: Researchers vary a comparison stimulus upward and downward against a reference to find the smallest reliably noticed difference.
method of single stimulinoun: Participants judge individual sensory items presented separately, without a supplied reference item for comparison.
method of successive approximationsnoun: A behavior is shaped by reinforcing early attempts, then gradually requiring closer matches to the target behavior.
method of successive intervalsnoun: Participants sort sensory stimuli into ordered categories representing progressively smaller amounts of a particular quality.
method of triadsnoun: Participants examine three sensory stimuli and select one according to a specified feature, such as being least similar.
methodological behaviorismnoun: This approach accepts conscious experiences but holds that science should study them through observable behavior.
methodological individualismnoun: This approach explains social outcomes through individuals' actions and characteristics, giving those explanations priority over accounts centered on social structures.
methodological objectivism versus methodological subjectivismphrase: This distinction contrasts requiring research methods others can repeat and verify with accepting methods others cannot independently repeat or verify.
methodological pluralismnoun: This view supports multiple research approaches because each has strengths and limitations, with no method best for every purpose.
methodological solipsismnoun: This philosophical stance accepts only one's own conscious existence as certain because alternative positions are considered impossible to justify.
methodological triangulationphrase: Using several different ways to gather data so findings can support each other on one question.
methodologynoun: The set of methods and rules used to collect and analyze information in a field.
methods analysisnoun: Researchers examine a work task's steps, movements, tools, and resources to develop more efficient ways of performing it.
methotrimeprazinenoun: An antipsychotic medicine also called levomepromazine belongs to the phenothiazine family and has sedating and pain relieving effects.
methoxyhydroxyphenylglycol (MHPG)noun: This chemical forms during norepinephrine breakdown, and researchers measure it to investigate activity involving that nervous system messenger.
methyldopanoun: A blood pressure medicine works through an active product that reduces sympathetic nervous system signals from the brain.
methylphenidatenoun: A stimulant medicine that boosts attention and wakefulness, often used to treat ADHD and narcolepsy.
methylphenyl-tetrahydropyridinenoun: Known as MPTP, this chemical becomes a toxin that damages dopamine producing neurons and is used in Parkinson's research.
methylxanthinenoun: A member of this chemical family, which includes caffeine, can stimulate the nervous system and affect alertness.
methysergidenoun: An ergot derived medicine historically used to prevent migraines affects serotonin signaling, including blocking some serotonin receptors.
metonymynoun: A figure of speech replaces something's usual name with a closely associated word, such as using crown to mean monarchy.
Metrazol shock treatmentnoun: A discontinued psychiatric treatment used injections of pentylenetetrazol to trigger seizures in hopes of relieving severe mental illness.
metricnoun: A way to measure and show how much of something there is.
metronomic pacingnoun: A speech technique uses regularly spaced sounds to help someone maintain a steadier speaking rhythm.
Meyer’s loopnoun: A curved bundle of visual nerve fibers travels through the temporal lobe, carrying information about the upper visual field.
Meyer’s theorynoun: Adolf Meyer proposed that mental disorders develop through unhelpful responses to situations, shaped by biological, psychological, and social influences.
Meynert’s nucleusnoun: A group of forebrain nerve cells supplies acetylcholine to broad brain areas, supporting functions such as attention and memory.
MFFabbreviation: The Matching Familiar Figures Test measures decision speed and accuracy by asking people to select pictures matching a sample.
MHAabbreviation: Mental Health America is an American nonprofit that supports mental health through public education, advocacy, research, and services.
MHCabbreviation: The major histocompatibility complex contains genes that guide immune recognition and may influence some animals' recognition of relatives and mates.
MHPGabbreviation: Methoxyhydroxyphenylglycol is a chemical produced during norepinephrine breakdown, measured by researchers to study activity involving this messenger.
MHVabbreviation: The Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale assesses learned verbal knowledge by asking people to explain words or identify their meanings.
mianserinnoun: An antidepressant medicine changes signaling involving norepinephrine and serotonin through actions on several kinds of brain receptors.
Michelangelo phenomenonnoun: Close partners help one another develop toward the qualities and goals each person personally wants to achieve.
Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST)noun: A questionnaire uses yes-or-no answers about drinking experiences to screen for possible alcohol problems.
Mickey Finnnoun: A historical slang name describes a drink secretly containing chloral hydrate and alcohol to make someone lose consciousness.
micro- (micr-)prefix: A word beginning adds the meaning small to the word or word part that follows it.
microaggressionnoun: A small everyday insult or dismissal, often unintended, that sends a hurtful message about someone's identity.
microbiomenoun: An environment's community of microscopic organisms, together with their genetic material, makes up its microbiome.
microcephalynoun: A birth condition in which a child's head is much smaller than expected for age and sex.
microcounselingnoun: A training approach teaches individual counseling skills through brief practice sessions, recordings, feedback, and repeated attempts.
microdatanoun: Research records preserve information about individual people or other study units before it is combined into group summaries.
microdialysisnoun: A research technique collects chemicals from fluid between tissue cells through a tiny tube's membrane for measurement.
microelectrodenoun: A very fine electrical probe records or stimulates activity in small areas of tissue, sometimes within one nerve cell.
microergonomicsnoun: An approach to work design closely examines how one person interacts with a particular machine or tool.
microfilamentnoun: A thin protein strand forms part of a cell's supporting framework and helps shape the cell.
microgenetic developmentnoun: Developmental changes unfold over brief spans, such as seconds or days, as a person's thinking or abilities take shape.
microgenetic methodnoun: Researchers closely track frequent observations during developmental change to understand how new thinking or skills emerge.
microglianoun: Small immune cells in the brain and spinal cord remove cellular waste and help maintain healthy nerve tissue.
microglossianoun: A tongue that develops unusually small can sometimes affect how clearly a person produces speech sounds.
micrographianoun: Handwriting becomes unusually tiny and sometimes difficult to read, a movement symptom often associated with Parkinson's disease.
micromastianoun: Breast tissue develops to a size considered unusually small for the person's stage of physical development.
micromelianoun: A condition present at birth involves limbs that are unusually short or small because of differences in development.
microorchidismnoun: One testicle or both testicles are unusually small for the person's age and stage of development.
microphonianoun: Difficulty producing enough vocal sound results in an unusually quiet or weak speaking voice.
micropolygyrianoun: A brain development condition produces an unusually large number of small folds on the cerebral cortex.
micropsianoun: A change in visual perception makes real objects look smaller than their actual size.
micropsychosisnoun: A brief episode of psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, occurs during stress and lasts minutes to hours.
microptic hallucinationnoun: A person sees tiny people, animals, or objects that are not actually present in the surroundings.
microsaccadesnoun: Tiny, rapid eye movements happen even while someone tries to keep their gaze fixed on one target.
microscopic levelphrase: An approach to investigation examines the smallest identifiable parts of a process, sometimes individual cells in psychological research.
microsleepnoun: A very brief period of sleep interrupts wakefulness, often when someone is tired or has not slept enough.
microsmianoun: A reduced sense of smell makes some or all odors harder to detect than usual.
microsocial engineeringnoun: A family conflict technique establishes clear responsibilities, privileges, rewards, and consequences through an agreed behavior schedule.
microspectrophotometernoun: A scientific instrument measures how much light a tiny sample absorbs at different wavelengths, including samples of visual pigments.
microsplanchnic typenoun: A historical body classification described people with a relatively long body and a small abdomen.
microsystemnoun: In ecological systems theory, a person's immediate settings and direct relationships shape development through everyday interactions.
microtomenoun: A laboratory instrument slices tissue into very thin pieces so researchers can examine its structure under a microscope.
microtrainingnoun: A focused teaching method builds counseling skills one at a time using brief recorded practice, feedback, and another attempt.
microtubulenoun: A tiny hollow protein tube helps support cells and provides tracks for moving materials within nerve cells.
microvillusnoun: A microscopic, fingerlike extension of a cell membrane can hold receptors that help taste cells detect dissolved chemicals.
micturitionnoun: The body releases stored urine through the urethra as the bladder contracts and its outlet relaxes.
micturition reflexnoun: Stretching as the bladder fills triggers an automatic response that contracts the bladder to help release urine.
midazolamnoun: A benzodiazepine medicine produces brief sedation and can reduce memory formation, commonly during medical procedures.
midbrainnoun: A small upper brainstem area linking hindbrain and forebrain, helping process movement and sights and sounds.
middle cerebral arteryphrase: A major brain blood vessel that supplies much of the outer sides of the cerebral hemispheres.
middle classnoun: A social group occupies an intermediate position in wealth, education, and occupational standing within a society.
middle cranial fossanoun: A central hollow inside the skull supports the brain’s temporal lobes.
middle earnoun: An air-filled chamber behind the eardrum contains tiny bones that pass vibrations onward to the inner ear.
middle insomnianoun: A person wakes during the night after initially falling asleep and struggles to return to sleep.
middle knowledgenoun: A proposed state involves recognizing a terminal illness while not fully taking in the reality of approaching death.
middle temporal gyrus (MTG)noun: A fold midway down the temporal lobe may help with language understanding and recognizing familiar faces.
middle-child syndromenoun: An unsupported proposal claims that children born between siblings share a distinctive personality pattern because of their birth position.
midgetnoun: An outdated, offensive label was used for people with dwarfism, a condition involving unusually short stature.
midget bipolar cellnoun: A specialized nerve cell in the retina receives signals from a single cone and passes visual information onward.
midlife crisisnoun: A proposed period of distress in middle adulthood involves questioning life, but evidence does not establish a special age-linked crisis.
midlinenoun: An imagined central line divides the body or one of its parts into left and right portions.
midparentadjective: A measurement is described this way when it averages the two parents’ values for the same characteristic.
midpointnoun: The middle value in an ordered set of scores, with half above and half below.
midrangenoun: A measure of a dataset’s center is calculated by adding its smallest and largest values and dividing by two.
midspreadnoun: A measure of spread subtracts the 25th percentile from the 75th percentile, showing the width of the middle half.
midwifenoun: A trained health professional provides medical care during pregnancy, birth, and recovery, often also offering other reproductive healthcare.
Mignon delusionnoun: A historical concept describes a child’s belief that their caregivers are foster parents and their birth family has distinguished ancestry.
migraine headachephrase: A severe, repeated headache often on one side, sometimes with nausea, light sensitivity, or visual warning signs.
Migranalnoun: A brand name identifies dihydroergotamine, a medication used to treat migraine attacks.
migrationnoun: During brain development, nerve cells move from where they begin to the places where they will work.
migratory restlessnessnoun: Animals become more active as migration approaches, including captive animals that cannot make the journey.
MIHabbreviation: Müllerian-inhibiting hormone is an early developmental signal from fetal testes that prevents certain ducts from forming internal female reproductive organs.
mild cognitive impairment (MCI)phrase: Small but noticeable thinking decline that goes beyond normal aging without seriously disrupting daily independence.
mild mental retardationnoun: An outdated, offensive diagnostic label described mild intellectual disability, historically using IQ scores alongside difficulties with everyday functioning.
mild neurocognitive disorderphrase: A small drop in memory or thinking that still lets someone manage daily life alone.
mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI)noun: An external impact or force disrupts brain functioning, with initial signs placing the injury in the mild severity category.
milieunoun: A person’s social surroundings and their overall atmosphere can shape behavior, personality, and adjustment.
milieu therapynoun: Treatment deliberately organizes a person’s surroundings, relationships, and daily routines to support healthier thoughts, feelings, and actions.
military environmentnoun: Physical conditions, equipment, attitudes, and team features together influence how people perform during military operations.
military officer selectionnoun: An assessment process identifies military personnel suited to the leadership duties and special responsibilities of officer roles.
military peacekeepingnoun: Military forces help preserve an agreed truce and support diplomatic progress with permission from the opposing sides.
Military Personnel Managementnoun: A proposed U.S. defense framework sought accurate tracking of deployed personnel while reducing waste, duplicated work, and costs.
military psychologynoun: Psychological knowledge supports military personnel’s selection, training, performance, and mental health, as well as equipment design.
military stress factorsnoun: Conditions such as operational demands, losses, and team support influence whether military stress prevents personnel from performing their duties.
Military Testing Associationnoun: This former name identifies a research association whose conferences address military job assessment, leadership, and other behavioral topics.
milk letdown reflexnoun: Suckling or related cues trigger oxytocin to squeeze stored milk into breast ducts, making it available to a nursing infant.
Mill Hill Vocabulary Scale (MHV)noun: A vocabulary assessment measures learned verbal knowledge through word definitions or synonym choices, often accompanying Raven’s Progressive Matrices.
Mill’s canonsnoun: Five rules developed by Mill use comparisons between observations to eliminate possible explanations and reason about causes.
millenarianismnoun: A belief anticipates an approaching transformation into an ideal age, often understood religiously as a thousand years of peace.
Miller Analogies Test (MAT)noun: A standardized assessment uses incomplete analogies to evaluate analytical reasoning and knowledge across many subjects.
Miller–Mowrer shuttle boxnoun: A laboratory box with two sections tests whether animals learn to prevent or escape shocks by crossing a central doorway.
milling crowdnoun: People gathered in a shared area move about restlessly or without an obvious common direction.
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI)noun: A clinical self-report questionnaire uses true-or-false answers to help assess personality patterns and mental health difficulties.
Miltownnoun: A trade name identifies meprobamate, a sedating medication historically prescribed to ease anxiety.
mimeticadjective: An action or feature is described this way when it imitates or resembles something else.
mimicrynoun: Without meaning to, people often copy another person's gestures, expressions, speech, or mood during social interactions.
min strategynoun: A child solves addition by starting with the larger number and counting upward by the smaller number.
mindnoun: A person's organized thoughts, feelings, motives, awareness, and mental abilities, usually linked to brain activity.
mind controlnoun: Intense social pressure is used to try to reshape someone’s beliefs and attitudes to match a group’s views.
mind readingphrase: Claiming to know another person's thoughts without normal communication, as in telepathy.
mind stuffnoun: William Clifford proposed that reality consists of one substance with a mental inner nature and a material outer appearance.
mind wanderingnoun: Attention drifts away from an ongoing activity toward thoughts about other matters, often without deliberate intention.
mind–body interventionnoun: A therapeutic approach uses mental practices, such as meditation or relaxation, to influence bodily responses or ease symptoms.
mind–body problemnoun: A philosophical question asks how thoughts and experiences relate to physical events in the brain and body.
mind–brain–education (MBE)noun: An interdisciplinary field connects brain science, psychology, and teaching to understand learning and explore improvements in education.
mind’s eyenoun: A person can mentally picture remembered scenes or imagined sights without those things being present.
mindblindnessnoun: A debated concept describes difficulty understanding behavior through other people’s beliefs and desires, historically proposed as an explanation of autism.
mindfulnessnoun: Paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings right now without judging or reacting too fast.
mindfulness meditationphrase: A meditation practice of noticing breath, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations as they happen without judging them.
mindfulness-based cognitive therapyphrase: A treatment that teaches noticing thoughts without getting stuck in them to help prevent depression from returning.
mindsetnoun: A person's way of thinking can help or block how they choose and carry out goals.
mindset theorynoun: A framework proposes that beliefs about whether abilities can develop influence motivation, responses to difficulty, and learning behavior.
mindsightnoun: A disputed proposal suggests people can sense visual changes and make judgments without clearly seeing what changed.
mineralocorticoidnoun: A steroid hormone helps control the body's mineral balance and how much salt and water leave through urine.
MINERVA 2noun: A mathematical memory model proposes that experiences leave separate records whose combined activation supports remembering events and general knowledge.
Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE)noun: A brief screening test checks thinking skills, including memory, attention, language, and awareness of time and location.
miniature end-plate potentialnoun: A tiny electrical change occurs in a muscle membrane when a nearby nerve ending spontaneously releases a neurotransmitter packet.
miniature systemnoun: An organized collection of facts, assumptions, and explanations addresses a narrowly limited topic.
minimal audible field (MAF)noun: The faintest detectable tone in an echo-free space is measured at head position while the listener faces its source without headphones.
minimal audible pressure (MAP)noun: The faintest detectable headphone tone is expressed as sound pressure measured or estimated at the eardrum.
minimal brain dysfunction (MBD)noun: An outdated label attributed attention, learning, movement, or behavior difficulties to presumed mild problems in brain functioning.
minimal groupnoun: A grouping has little shared history, connection, or dependence among members, often allowing researchers to study effects of group labels.
minimal intergroup situationnoun: A research setup creates temporary groups of strangers with almost no mutual dependence to study behavior between groups.
minimal pairnoun: Two spoken words differ by one sound feature, showing that this difference can distinguish meanings within a language.
minimally conscious state (MCS)noun: Following major brain damage, someone shows small but clear signs of awareness, sometimes only occasionally.
minimax strategynoun: A decision rule chooses the option with the smallest possible worst loss, or limits an opponent's greatest possible gain.
minimizationnoun: Making important events seem small or unimportant to yourself or other people.
minimum power theorynoun: A theory predicts alliances that win with minimum total power, treating equally decisive members as equally powerful and dividing rewards by power.
minimum resource theorynoun: A theory predicts that people form winning alliances with the smallest sufficient combined resources and divide rewards according to contributions.
minimum separablenoun: The smallest visible gap allows two neighboring, strongly contrasting targets to be seen as separate.
minimum visiblenoun: The narrowest target a person can notice when it is presented by itself marks this visual threshold.
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)phrase: A widely used true-false questionnaire that measures personality patterns, emotional problems, and whether someone may be answering dishonestly.
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ)noun: A questionnaire measures how satisfied employees feel about aspects of their jobs, including the work itself and outside rewards.
minornoun: Someone who has not yet reached the legal age of adulthood.
minor depressionnoun: An older, broad expression describes depressed mood of mild or moderate intensity and sometimes points to dysthymia.
minor depressive disordernoun: A historical proposed diagnosis described ongoing sadness or reduced enjoyment with symptoms below the requirements for major depression or dysthymia.
minor tranquilizernoun: An older name describes medication used to ease anxiety, sometimes also helping with restlessness or difficulty sleeping.
minority groupphrase: A social group with less power or status than dominant groups, even if not smaller in number.
minority influencephrase: A small group can sway the larger group, especially by staying consistent and making others rethink beliefs.
minority stressnoun: Extra mental and body strain can come from prejudice, rejection, hiding identity, and shame aimed at stigmatized groups.
mintyadjective: In a proposed smell theory, this describes one of seven odor categories linked to how scent molecules fit receptors.
miosis (myosis)noun: The pupil becomes smaller as the opening that admits light into the eye narrows.
Miranda warningnoun: A United States police notice explains protections concerning silence, legal help, and statements used as evidence before questioning in custody.
mirror drawingnoun: A task tests movement learning by having someone trace a shape while seeing the pencil and shape only through a mirror.
mirror imagingnoun: Some paired traits in twins appear on opposite sides, such as opposite handedness or reversed hair patterns.
mirror neuronnoun: A brain cell that fires when you act and when you watch the same act.
mirror phasenoun: Lacan proposed an early developmental period when identifying with a reflected image helps an infant form a sense of self.
mirror readingnoun: A reading task involves recognizing words whose letters and arrangement have been reversed as they would appear in a mirror.
mirror signnoun: Someone cannot identify their mirrored image as themselves, a problem sometimes seen when dementia has become more advanced.
mirror techniquenoun: A therapist listens carefully and reflects a client's feelings and body language to build understanding and a stronger working relationship.
mirror transferencenoun: In self psychology, a client seeks a therapist's recognition and admiration in ways understood as reviving early needs for affirmation.
mirror writingnoun: Letters and word sequences are written backward so that a mirror makes them appear in their usual form.
mirror-box techniquenoun: A rehabilitation method uses a moving limb's reflection to create apparent movement in an affected or missing limb.
mirror–touch synesthesianoun: Seeing someone else being touched automatically produces a feeling of touch on the observer's own body.
mirroringnoun: Matching another person's speech or body style to show understanding and build connection.
mirtazapinenoun: An antidepressant medicine changes norepinephrine and serotonin signaling by blocking certain receptors involved in regulating those brain chemicals.
MISabbreviation: An abbreviation means Müllerian-inhibiting substance, a hormone that prevents certain embryonic ducts from developing into structures such as the uterus.
mis-prefix: This word beginning expresses hatred or strong aversion in terms derived from the combining form miso-.
misandrynoun: An attitude involves hatred toward men or viewing them with contempt because they are men.
misanthropynoun: A broad attitude involves disliking, distrusting, or feeling hatred toward humanity and human nature.
misarticulationnoun: Speech sounds are formed inaccurately or unclearly, sometimes making spoken words difficult for listeners to understand.
misattributionnoun: Mistakenly assigning the wrong cause to someone's behavior, feelings, or a social event.
misattunementnoun: A caregiver's response misses an infant's emotional signals, leaving the infant without a sense of being understood.
miscarriagenoun: A pregnancy that ends on its own before the fetus can survive outside the womb.
miscegenationnoun: This outdated, prejudiced word labels marriages, sexual partnerships, or childbearing across racial or ethnic boundaries.
misclassification costnoun: An estimate captures the consequences of putting something in the wrong category, including wasted money, time, or other losses.
misdiagnosisnoun: Giving someone the wrong, incomplete, or missed label for a disease or mental disorder.
miseducationnoun: Being taught wrong information, whether by mistake or on purpose.
misidentificationnoun: Incorrectly recognizing or naming a person because memory is weak or thinking is confused.
misidentification syndromenoun: A person holds a fixed false belief about the identity of themselves, another person, a place, or an object.
misinformation effectphrase: Memory can be changed when later misleading details make someone recall an event incorrectly.
miso- (mis-)prefix: This combining form adds the meaning of hatred or strong aversion to a word.
misocainia (misocainea)noun: An intense dislike of novelty and change can involve strongly insisting that familiar routines and conditions stay the same.
misogamynoun: A strong dislike or rejection of marriage characterizes this attitude toward the institution or practice.
misogynynoun: An attitude involves hatred toward women or viewing them with contempt because they are women.
misologianoun: Someone strongly dislikes talking or participating in verbal disagreements.
misoneismnoun: An intense dislike of new things leads someone to strongly resist change.
misopedianoun: A strong hatred of children characterizes this attitude toward an age group.
misorientation effectnoun: Recognizing something becomes harder when its angle differs from the angle originally learned.
missnoun: Saying no signal was there even though one was actually present.
missing at random (MAR)phrase: Missingness may depend on observed information but not missing values themselves once that observed information is accounted for.
missing fundamentalnoun: Listeners hear a sound's lowest underlying pitch even when that frequency is absent but related higher frequencies remain.
missing-parts testnoun: An assessment asks people to identify absent details in pictures to examine observation and aspects of intellectual ability.
missionaries and cannibals problemnoun: A classic planning puzzle requires moving six characters across a river with limited boat space and strict group balance rules.
misspecificationnoun: A statistical model represents data poorly because its variables, relationships, or other assumptions are incorrectly chosen.
mistressnoun: A woman has an ongoing sexual relationship with a married man who is married to someone else.
mistrustnoun: A feeling that people or the world are unsafe, unreliable, or will not meet your needs.
MITabbreviation: Melodic intonation therapy uses sung speech patterns to help people with certain language or speech difficulties practice speaking.
mitigating factornoun: A circumstance concerning an offense or defendant supports giving a less severe criminal sentence.
mitochondrionnoun: A structure inside a cell converts nutrients into usable energy and contains its own DNA.
mitosisnoun: A cell's nucleus divides into two nuclei, each normally receiving a matching set of chromosomes.
mitral cellnoun: A neuron in the olfactory bulb gathers signals from smell receptors and sends information onward into the brain.
mittelschmerznoun: Some people experience lower abdominal pain around ovulation, when an ovary releases an egg.
Mitweltnoun: Within existential psychology, this dimension of human existence concerns living among others and relating to them.
mixed cerebral dominancenoun: A historical proposal described motor control as lacking clear dominance by either half of the brain.
mixed deafnessnoun: Hearing loss combines difficulty conducting sound through the ear with problems in inner-ear sensory cells or hearing nerves.
mixed dementianoun: Two or more brain disease processes together cause declining thinking abilities that interfere with everyday independence.
mixed designphrase: Combines separate participant groups with repeated testing of the same people over time.
mixed distributionnoun: A probability distribution combines chances concentrated at particular values with chances spread continuously across a range.
mixed dysarthrianoun: Neurological damage produces speech movement difficulties combining features of multiple types of dysarthria.
mixed emotionsnoun: One situation brings about different emotions together, sometimes creating competing urges to act.
mixed episodenoun: An older diagnostic category described a period meeting both manic and major depressive symptom requirements.
mixed lateralitynoun: A person favors different body sides for different tasks or changes side preference within an activity.
mixed methods researchnoun: A study integrates numerical evidence with descriptions or accounts of experience to investigate a question.
mixed modelnoun: A statistical model combines fixed effects for selected comparisons with random effects representing variation across sampled people, groups, or conditions.
mixed receptive-expressive language disordernoun: An older developmental diagnosis described difficulties both understanding language and using it to communicate.
mixed reinforcement schedulenoun: Different rules for delivering reinforcement alternate without distinct signals showing which rule currently applies.
mixed schizophrenianoun: An older classification described schizophrenia when positive and negative symptoms were both prominent or neither clearly predominated.
mixed transcortical aphasia (MTcA)noun: Brain injury severely limits understanding language and producing spontaneous speech while leaving repetition relatively preserved.
mixed-design analysis of variancenoun: In this usage, a statistical test examines two factors and their interaction, treating one as fixed and the other as random.
mixed-effects designnoun: This ambiguous label can describe group comparisons with repeated measurements or an approach combining fixed and random effects.
mixed-effects modelnoun: A statistical model estimates fixed effects for chosen comparisons and random effects capturing variation among sampled units or conditions.
mixed-function antidepressantnoun: An antidepressant of this kind works mainly through more than one system of chemical messengers in the nervous system.
mixed-model analysis of variancenoun: A statistical test examines two factors and their interaction, with one factor treated as fixed and the other as random.
mixed-motive gamenoun: A simulated social situation gives players reasons both to cooperate and to pursue competing personal interests.
mixed-standard scalenoun: An employee rating method compares performance against examples at several quality levels, then scores the pattern of judgments.
mixoscopianoun: An older sexual-interest label describes reaching orgasm while watching a loved partner engage sexually with someone else.
mixoscopia bestialisnoun: An older label describes sexual arousal from observing sexual activity between another person and an animal.
MLDabbreviation: Masking level difference measures how changing sound relationships between the ears changes detection of a signal amid noise.
MLEabbreviation: Maximum likelihood estimation selects model settings that make the observed data most likely under that model.
MLH1abbreviation: A gene involved in correcting DNA copying errors can carry inherited variants that increase the risk of certain cancers.
MLUabbreviation: Mean length of utterance tracks language development by averaging spoken utterance length, usually in the smallest meaningful language units.
MMECTabbreviation: Multiple monitored electroconvulsive treatment is a historical approach inducing several seizures during one session to shorten the treatment course.
MMPIabbreviation: A widely used questionnaire that measures personality patterns and mental health symptoms.
MMSEabbreviation: A brief test that checks memory, attention, language, and orientation to screen for cognitive problems.
MMTabbreviation: Multimodal therapy combines techniques addressing behavior, emotions, sensations, mental images, thoughts, relationships, and biological needs.
mnemenoun: A proposed physical trace of an experience in the brain provides a basis for remembering it.
mnemonicnoun: A memory helper that links new information to something you already know.
mnemonic tracenoun: An experience is thought to leave lasting brain changes that support its later recall.
mnemonistnoun: A person shows unusually strong ability to learn and recall information, sometimes using strategies or excelling in particular subjects.
mnesticadjective: This adjective describes processes, abilities, or other features connected with memory.
mobnoun: A large, emotionally stirred crowd that can act impulsively, sometimes aggressively, around a shared event or goal.
mob psychologynoun: The study of mobs examines how crowd membership shapes people's thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Mobannoun: A former brand name identified molindone, an older antipsychotic medicine used to treat symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.
mobbingnoun: Small birds or mammals sometimes gather to drive away a predator, often making loud, distinctive calls.
mobilitynoun: A person's ability to move from place to place, especially an infant learning to crawl or walk.
MoCAabbreviation: The Montreal Cognitive Assessment briefly checks thinking abilities to help detect possible mild cognitive impairment or early dementia.
MOCCabbreviation: A memory-operating characteristic curve plots the rate of correct remembering against the rate of mistakenly claiming to remember.
moclobemidenoun: A medicine for depression reversibly reduces enzyme activity, mainly MAO-A, helping preserve certain chemical messengers in the brain.
modafinilnoun: A wakefulness medicine used to treat narcolepsy when other stimulants are not tolerated.
modalnoun: Connected to a specific way of doing, sensing, or classifying something.
modal action pattern (MAP)noun: An animal's usual response sequence to a triggering signal can vary somewhat between individuals and occasions.
modal frequencynoun: The count of observations sharing the most common value tells how frequently the mode appears.
modal model of memorynoun: A general memory theory describes brief and lasting storage systems, including how information enters storage and is later recovered.
modalitynoun: One way the body takes in information from the world, such as sight, hearing, or touch.
modality effectnoun: People tend to remember a list's final items better after hearing them than after seeing them.
modenoun: In a group of scores, the mode is the value that shows up most often.
MODE theorynoun: A theory proposes that motivation and opportunity determine whether attitudes guide actions through careful thought or more automatic judgments.
modelnoun: A simplified picture or idea shows how a body or behavior process works.
model human processornoun: A model estimates how perception, thinking, and movement work together to predict people's performance when using products or systems.
model psychosisnoun: Researchers historically used drugs to produce symptoms resembling psychosis so they could study those experiences under controlled conditions.
modelingnoun: Learning by watching another person or example and then copying what they do.
modeling effectnoun: A participant unknowingly gives answers resembling those the researcher would give because the researcher influences them.
modeling theorynoun: A theory proposes that watching others' actions and their results can change what people do, think, or feel.
moderate mental retardationnoun: An outdated, offensive diagnostic label classified intellectual disability as moderate largely using IQ scores between 35 and 49.
moderated drinkingphrase: A goal of reducing alcohol use to safer, limited amounts instead of complete abstinence.
moderating effectnoun: An association between two variables changes in strength or direction depending on a third variable.
moderatornoun: A third variable changes how strongly or in what direction two other variables are related.
modern racismphrase: Subtle prejudice shows up through indirect dislike, such as avoiding another racial group or criticizing its culture.
modernismnoun: A broad philosophical outlook emphasizes reason and scientific investigation as foundations for knowledge, influencing psychology's search for general behavioral principles.
modernizationnoun: The shift from a mostly rural, traditional society to a more urban, industrial, and technology-centered one.
modes of learningnoun: Information can reach learning and memory through different senses, including sight, hearing, and touch.
modestynoun: A person shows limited self-importance and avoids presenting their abilities or achievements as making them superior.
modified replicationnoun: Researchers repeat an earlier study while changing procedures or adding conditions to examine whether its findings hold.
Modified Rhyme Test (MRT)noun: A hearing test asks listeners to match a spoken, one-syllable word to one of six printed choices differing in consonants.
modifiernoun: A gene that changes how another gene shows up but matters little by itself.
modularitynoun: A theory proposes that some mental processes operate in specialized systems that work relatively independently.
modulationnoun: Changes in a wave's feature, such as size or speed, to carry information.
modulation thresholdnoun: The smallest detectable amount of repeated change in a stimulus's strength depends on how quickly that change occurs.
modulatory rolephrase: How some hormones keep nerve circuits and body tissues sensitive to later hormone effects.
modulatory sitenoun: A location on a receptor lets a bound substance change how that receptor responds to its usual activating messenger.
modulenoun: A self-contained part of a larger study plan or test-prep system.
modulusnoun: A real number's absolute value gives its distance from zero, ignoring whether its sign is positive or negative.
modus operandinoun: An individual's characteristic way of acting or carrying out tasks forms a recognizable pattern.
MOEabbreviation: The margin of error gives the distance from an estimate to its confidence interval's limits, usually reflecting sampling uncertainty.
Mogadonnoun: A brand name identifies nitrazepam, a long-lasting benzodiazepine medicine used to help people sleep.
mogigraphianoun: An uncommon name describes writer's cramp, involving muscle spasms that interfere with writing and may cause pain.
mogilalianoun: Speech comes with difficulty or hesitation, which may include disruptions such as stuttering.
moiré interference modelnoun: This theory proposes that overlapping fine spatial firing grids produce larger repeating patterns that support the brain's representation of space.
molaradjective: An approach examines behavior as a whole pattern unfolding over time, emphasizing its overall organization.
molecularadjective: An approach examines behavior through its small components, sometimes tracking individual actions from moment to moment.
molecular geneticsnoun: This biological field examines how DNA and related molecules are built, work, and carry inherited information.
molecular layernoun: Within the dentate gyrus, this brain tissue layer contains the branching extensions that receive signals for granule cells.
molecularismnoun: A theoretical view explains mental life by breaking it into basic elements and examining how those elements combine.
molestationnoun: Sexual advances or touching occur without the other person's freely given, valid consent.
molilalianoun: An alternative name describes difficulty producing speech smoothly, including hesitation and sometimes stuttering.
molindonenoun: An older, first-generation antipsychotic medicine is used to reduce symptoms of psychosis, including hallucinations and delusions.
Molyneux’s questionnoun: A philosophical question asks whether someone blind from birth could immediately recognize familiar shapes visually after gaining sight.
momentnoun: A numbered summary of a score distribution, such as its average, spread, lopsidedness, or peakedness.
moment about the meannoun: A statistical measure averages specified powers of differences from the mean to describe features of a distribution.
mommy and daddy issuesphrase: An informal, sometimes dismissive label attributes adult emotional or relationship difficulties to troubled early relationships with parents.
mommy tracknoun: An informal label describes a career path associated with working mothers that offers flexibility but restricts opportunities for advancement.
mon-prefix: A word-building element adds the meaning of one, single, or alone to another word part.
monadnoun: Leibniz proposed an indivisible unit of reality that acts independently while remaining coordinated with others through divine arrangement.
monauraladjective: A sound presentation or listening experience involves only one ear.
monestrousadjective: An animal described this way undergoes a single yearly reproductive cycle that includes a sexually receptive phase.
mongolismnoun: An obsolete, offensive name was used for Down syndrome, a developmental condition involving extra genetic material from chromosome 21.
moniliasisnoun: An older medical name describes candidiasis, an infection caused by excessive growth of Candida fungi.
monismnoun: A philosophical view holds that everything, including mental and physical experience, ultimately belongs to one underlying kind of reality.
mono- (mon-)prefix: This word part adds the meaning of one, a single unit, or being alone.
monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL)noun: An enzyme called MAGL breaks down 2-AG, a body-made cannabinoid that helps regulate communication between nerve cells.
monoaminenoun: A brain messenger chemical with one amine, a nitrogen-containing part, such as serotonin, dopamine, or norepinephrine.
monoamine hormonenoun: A hormone in this group forms when the body chemically changes one amino acid, as with melatonin.
monoamine hypothesisnoun: A historical theory proposed that too little serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine activity causes depression, an explanation now considered oversimplified.
monoamine oxidase (MAO)phrase: An enzyme, a protein that speeds reactions, that breaks down brain chemicals like serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.
monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI; MAO inhibitor)phrase: An antidepressant that blocks monoamine oxidase, raising serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine levels.
monochorial twinsnoun: These twins develop inside one shared outer membrane, called the chorion, during pregnancy.
monochromatic lightnoun: This light consists of just one wavelength, or a very narrow range close to it.
monochromatism (monochromacy; monochromasy; monochromatopsia)noun: Color vision is extremely limited when only one kind of cone pigment functions in the eyes.
monoclonal antibody (mAb)noun: An antibody made from one cell lineage binds a particular molecular target and can support research or treatment.
monocularadjective: Using or involving only one eye rather than both eyes.
monocular cellnoun: A nerve cell in the brain's outer layer responds to visual input from one particular eye.
monocular cuephrase: A depth signal one eye alone can use to judge how far away things are.
monocular deprivationnoun: Light or useful visual input is blocked from one eye, limiting the information it receives.
monocular rearingnoun: Researchers raise an animal with vision available through only one eye from birth to study visual development.
monocular suppressionnoun: The brain reduces or ignores visual input from one eye, interfering with the eyes' ability to work together.
monocular visionphrase: Seeing with just one eye instead of using both eyes together.
monodramanoun: A therapy group watches one member perform a situation solo, then discusses and evaluates how that person behaved.
monogamynoun: A relationship or mating arrangement involves one partner at a time, with exclusivity defined socially, sexually, or through marriage.
monogenicadjective: A trait or condition results primarily from variation in one gene, though other influences can affect its expression.
monogenismnoun: A historical belief proposes that every human being descends from one original ancestral pair.
monoideismnoun: One idea occupies someone's thoughts so completely and persistently that other ideas receive little or no attention.
monomanianoun: An older expression describes an extreme, sometimes rigid preoccupation with one topic or idea.
monomorphismnoun: Within one species, the sexes have similar physical features, including coloring, shape, or overall size.
monopediomanianoun: An uncommon label describes sexual attraction specifically toward people who have one leg.
monophagismnoun: An older clinical label describes habitually restricting eating to one food type or a single daily meal.
monophasic sleepnoun: A person's daily sleep occurs in one extended stretch, usually during the night.
monoplegianoun: Paralysis affects just one body part, such as an arm, a leg, or a finger.
monopolar neuronnoun: A nerve cell has one projection leaving its body, which can divide into branches that carry incoming and outgoing signals.
monorchidismnoun: Only one testicle is present in the scrotum, while another may be absent or located elsewhere.
monorhinicadjective: An odor is delivered to just one nostril using equipment that controls its presentation.
monosomynoun: A chromosome condition where one member of a pair is missing from a cell.
monosomy 5pnoun: Missing genetic material from chromosome 5's short arm causes cri du chat syndrome, which can affect learning and development.
monosymptomaticadjective: A condition is mainly characterized by one noticeable symptom.
monosynaptic arcnoun: A simple reflex pathway connects a sensory nerve cell directly to a motor nerve cell through one junction.
monosynaptic stretch reflexnoun: A suddenly stretched muscle automatically contracts through a pathway with one junction between sensory and motor nerve cells.
monosynaptic transmissionnoun: A nerve signal passes directly between two nerve cells across just one connecting junction.
monotherapynoun: Treating a problem with just one method instead of combining several approaches.
monoticadjective: Sound is presented to just one ear during listening or an experiment.
monotonicadjective: As one variable increases, another never reverses direction, either staying level or consistently moving upward or downward.
monozygotic twins (MZ twins)phrase: Two same-sex siblings who come from one fertilized egg that splits, so they usually share identical DNA.
Monte Carlo researchnoun: Researchers repeatedly generate random computer samples under chosen conditions to examine how statistical methods or estimates behave.
Montessori methodnoun: An educational approach supports children's independent learning through chosen activities, specially designed materials, mixed-age groups, and teacher guidance.
Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA)noun: A brief screening test, abbreviated MoCA, checks several thinking abilities to help identify possible cognitive difficulties.
moodnoun: A lasting emotional tone, often mild, that may continue without a clear cause.
mood congruentadjective: A feeling, thought, behavior, or symptom fits the person's overall mood or emotional context.
mood disorderphrase: A group of mental disorders marked by lasting, serious changes in mood, such as depression or bipolar disorder.
mood incongruentadjective: A feeling, thought, behavior, or symptom does not fit the person's overall mood or emotional context.
mood inductionnoun: A procedure aims to shift someone's mood, for example through music, memories, or emotionally meaningful statements.
mood stabilizerphrase: A medicine that helps prevent extreme highs and lows in bipolar disorder.
mood swingnoun: A person's emotional state shifts noticeably, such as moving from happiness toward sadness or back again.
mood-altering drugnoun: A substance changes a person's emotional state through its chemical effects on the body and brain.
mood-as-information theorynoun: This theory proposes that people use their current feelings as clues when judging situations and choosing how carefully to think.
mood-as-resource modelnoun: This theory proposes that positive moods provide mental resources for pursuing goals, handling unpleasant information, and responding flexibly.
mood-congruent memorynoun: People tend to recall experiences whose emotional tone matches how they currently feel.
mood-congruent psychotic featurenoun: A hallucination or delusion has content that fits the emotional themes of a person's depressive or manic episode.
mood-dependent memorynoun: Recall can improve when someone's mood during remembering matches their mood when the experience was first stored.
mood-incongruent psychotic featurenoun: A hallucination or delusion has content that does not fit the emotional themes of a depressive or manic episode.
moon illusionnoun: The moon looks larger near the horizon than high overhead, despite having nearly the same apparent angular size.
moon-phase studiesnoun: Researchers investigate whether the moon's changing phases are associated with differences in behavior or mental health.
moraladjective: Describes beliefs, choices, or actions about what is right, wrong, and ethically proper.
moral absolutismnoun: This belief holds that fixed moral rules determine whether actions are right or wrong regardless of circumstances.
moral codenoun: A person or community accepts these rules as obligations for deciding which actions are right or wrong.
moral commitmentnoun: In Johnson’s relationship model, someone stays with a partner because personal values make staying feel like a duty.
moral consistencynoun: Someone shows similar beliefs about right and wrong across situations and throughout time.
moral determinismnoun: This philosophical position claims that truly knowing what is good necessarily makes a person act accordingly.
moral developmentphrase: Over time, people build ideas about right and wrong that guide conscience, values, attitudes, and behavior.
moral dilemmaphrase: A hard choice where important values clash and any option may break a rule or cause harm.
moral exclusionnoun: People place others outside the circle of those they believe deserve basic fairness, rights, and protection.
moral independencenoun: In Piaget’s theory, children become able to judge actions by intentions and circumstances instead of outcomes alone.
moral integritynoun: A person acts according to their moral beliefs even when pressure or personal costs make doing so difficult.
moral judgmentnoun: Deciding whether an action is right or wrong based on values, rules, and possible harm.
moral masochismnoun: Historical psychoanalysis proposed that unconscious guilt about repressed childhood desires creates a nonsexual need for punishment from authority figures.
moral nihilismnoun: This philosophical view holds that no moral principle has genuine validity.
moral philosophynoun: This branch of philosophy examines what makes actions right or wrong and what moral judgments actually mean.
moral realismnoun: Young children often judge right and wrong by obedience and visible results, not by intentions.
moral relativismnoun: This view holds that social customs determine moral judgments, without one fixed standard applying to every culture.
moral therapynoun: A historical approach to mental health care emphasized kindness, dignity, comfortable surroundings, meaningful activity, and supportive conversation.
moralenoun: A person's or group's shared confidence and enthusiasm for a goal, especially during stress, affecting how well they work.
moralitynoun: Personal beliefs about right and wrong that people use to judge behavior and choices.
morality of constraintnoun: In Piaget’s theory, younger children obey parental rules without questioning them, viewing rules as unchangeable and fearing disobedience.
morality of cooperationnoun: In Piaget’s theory, children follow rules through understanding and recognize that people can change them by agreement.
moralsnoun: Personal beliefs about right and wrong that guide how someone chooses to act.
moratoriumnoun: An adolescent pause for trying out roles and beliefs before making lasting choices about identity.
morbidadjective: This adjective describes something connected with illness or unhealthy functioning.
morbid dependencynoun: Reliance on another person or situation becomes so strong that managing life independently is difficult.
morbid jealousynoun: Someone holds a false, fixed belief that their partner is unfaithful, dismissing contrary facts and treating unsupported clues as proof.
morbid obesitynoun: An older medical label describes severe obesity associated with increased risks of serious health conditions.
morbiditynoun: The presence of illness or a disorder affects the body or its functioning.
morbidity ratenoun: A population measure describes how frequently illness occurs in a group, using a stated population and time frame.
morbidity risknoun: A statistical estimate describes someone’s chance of developing a particular illness or disorder.
Morel’s syndromenoun: This syndrome involves thickening of the skull’s frontal bone alongside obesity, headaches, and possible nervous system or intellectual difficulties.
moresnoun: A community treats these shared customs as morally necessary for maintaining its way of life.
Morgan’s canonnoun: This principle favors simpler psychological explanations of animal behavior when they adequately account for what is observed.
morianoun: A persistent, excessive urge to joke can produce humor unsuited to the situation, sometimes occurring with dementia.
Morita therapynoun: Developed for shinkeishitsu in Japan, this therapy builds acceptance of feelings, traditionally progressing from isolated bed rest toward everyday responsibilities.
morning sicknessnoun: Pregnancy can cause nausea, sometimes with vomiting, at any hour, especially during its early months.
morning-after pillnoun: An emergency contraceptive pill helps prevent pregnancy after sex when contraception was absent or failed.
morning-glory seedsnoun: Seeds of Rivea corymbosa contain substances that alter perception and have a history of hallucinogenic use in Mexico.
Moro reflexphrase: A newborn's normal startle reaction makes the arms fling outward, then quickly come back in.
moronnoun: An obsolete, offensive classification was formerly applied to people described today as having mild intellectual disability.
morphemenoun: The smallest language part that carries meaning, such as a whole word or an ending.
morphinenoun: A strong opioid painkiller from opium that can cause dependence and withdrawal when misused.
morpho- (morph-)prefix: This word part adds the meaning of shape or structure to a larger word.
morphogenesisnoun: During development, biological processes give an organism and its parts their shapes and organized structures.
morphological indexnoun: A numerical measure uses the proportions between body measurements to describe a person’s body build.
morphologynoun: The study of how words are built from smaller meaning parts and changed by grammar.
morphometricsnoun: Researchers measure and compare the sizes, shapes, and structures of organisms or body parts, including brains.
morphophilianoun: A person experiences sexual interest in partners whose physical features differ from their own.
morphophonemenoun: An abstract sound unit groups alternative speech sounds that represent the same meaningful word part.
morphophonemicsnoun: This area of language study examines how meaningful word parts take different sound forms depending on surrounding speech sounds.
Morris water mazenoun: Researchers test animals’ spatial learning using a pool where surrounding landmarks help them locate a platform beneath the water.
morsicatio buccarumnoun: A repeated habit of biting the inner cheeks may produce sores or thickened white tissue.
morsicatio labiorumnoun: A person repeatedly bites their lips as a habit or as part of another condition.
mort doucenoun: In literature, a peaceful death is portrayed as releasing all tension in a way compared with sexual fulfillment.
mortalitynoun: Being able to get sick, grow weaker, and eventually die as a living creature.
mortality effectnoun: A circumstance or behavior changes how frequently deaths occur within a population.
mortality ratenoun: A statistical measure describes how frequently people die within a specified population during a stated period.
mortality saliencephrase: Being reminded that death is unavoidable, which can increase anxiety and defensive support for your group.
mortality tablenoun: A statistical chart lists chances of survival and death across successive ages for a population.
morulanoun: An early embryo forms a compact ball of cells through repeated divisions before developing an internal fluid-filled space.
mosaic testnoun: A projective assessment asks someone, usually a child, to freely arrange hundreds of colorful pieces for possible clues about psychological characteristics.
mosaicismnoun: Having two or more groups of body cells with different genetic makeups, all developing from one fertilized egg.
mossy fibernoun: In the hippocampus, this nerve fiber carries signals from a dentate gyrus granule cell to the CA3 region.
most comfortable loudness (MCL)noun: An individual finds spoken words most comfortable to hear at this particular sound level.
mother archetypenoun: Jung proposed an inherited, shared unconscious image of a life-giving, nurturing mother that appears across myths and cultures.
mother figurenoun: Someone fills a mothering role for a child, providing care and an important emotional relationship.
mother substitutenoun: A person takes on a mother's caregiving role or, in psychoanalytic theory, receives feelings originally directed toward a mother.
mother surrogatenoun: A caregiver assumes responsibilities usually held by a biological mother and may become an important source of attachment.
motheresenoun: Caregivers often speak to babies using simple wording, clear sounds, and a higher, musical voice.
motheringnoun: A mother or another maternal caregiver provides the care, comfort, and protection a child needs.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)noun: This organization works to prevent impaired driving and underage drinking while supporting people affected by related crashes.
motilitynoun: An organism or body structure has the ability to move spontaneously through its own activity.
motion aftereffect (MAE)noun: After watching steady movement, a still scene can briefly seem to move in the reverse direction.
motion agnosianoun: Damage to brain regions that process movement can make moving objects appear as separate still images.
motion and time studynoun: Researchers break a job into steps and measure their duration to understand and improve how work gets done.
motion detectionnoun: The visual system notices changes in position that indicate something is moving, sometimes also identifying its direction.
motion economynoun: Work design principles aim to reduce unnecessary movements and make physical tasks smoother and less tiring.
motion in liminenoun: A legal request asks a judge to keep specified evidence, remarks, or questions out of a trial, usually before proceedings begin.
motion parallaxphrase: When you move, nearby things seem to shift faster than faraway things, helping you judge depth.
motion sicknessnoun: Actual or perceived movement can cause nausea and dizziness when signals about motion and balance do not agree.
motivated forgettingnoun: Wanting to avoid an unpleasant memory can influence whether someone later recalls it.
motivationnoun: Internal drives and outside rewards or pressures that energize behavior and steer it toward goals.
motivation researchphrase: Uses in-depth interviews and other qualitative methods to uncover hidden reasons people buy or avoid products.
motivational enhancement therapyphrase: A counseling approach that builds readiness to change by matching help to a person's stage of change.
motivational factorphrase: A need, interest, or reward that starts, keeps, and aims behavior toward a goal.
motivational hierarchynoun: Maslow proposed that human needs form levels, moving from basic survival toward belonging, esteem, understanding, and personal fulfillment.
motivational interviewingphrase: A counseling style guides people to uncover their own reasons for change and work through mixed feelings.
motivational selectivitynoun: People's goals and needs can shape what they notice and how they interpret the same situation.
motivational stylenoun: A person's usual way of finding reasons to act may emphasize enjoyment, rewards, improvement, or competition.
motivatorsnoun: In Herzberg's theory, job features like achievement and responsibility that raise satisfaction and drive better work.
motivenoun: A need or reason that pushes a person toward a goal or action.
motoneuronnoun: A nerve cell sends signals that control muscles, either directly or through other motor neurons.
motoradjective: Related to body movement caused by muscles and the nerves controlling them.
motor agraphianoun: Difficulty coordinating hand muscles interferes with a person's ability to write.
motor amimianoun: A communication difficulty prevents a person from using suitable gestures to express meaning.
motor amusianoun: A loss of musical ability makes a person unable to reproduce melodies.
motor aphasiaphrase: After brain damage, a person knows what to say but struggles to form clear speech.
motor aprosodianoun: A person cannot produce the voice patterns that convey emotion, often following damage to the brain's right frontal region.
motor areanoun: The primary motor cortex helps control voluntary muscle movements, with different regions linked to different body parts.
motor behaviornoun: Human movement includes how actions are controlled, learned through experience, and changed across a person's lifetime.
motor controlphrase: Brain and nerve processes that guide and adjust body movement.
motor conversion symptomsnoun: In functional neurological disorder, movement problems such as weakness or poor balance show patterns inconsistent with recognized neurological diseases.
motor coordinationphrase: Working together of automatic and chosen movements lets a person perform smooth, complex actions.
motor cortexnoun: A frontal-lobe brain area controls voluntary body movements and helps plan learned actions.
motor developmentphrase: Changes in movement skills across life, shaped by body growth, aging, the environment, and each person's traits.
motor disordernoun: Problems doing learned movements because brain movement areas are damaged or not working normally.
motor disturbancenoun: A disruption in movement can involve unusual speed, repetition, stiffness, or difficulty controlling actions.
motor dominancenoun: One brain hemisphere has a leading role in controlling a particular movement or motor activity.
motor end platenoun: A specialized patch on a muscle cell receives chemical signals from a nearby motor neuron.
motor equivalencenoun: A person can achieve the same task using different movements or different body parts as conditions change.
motor evoked potentialnoun: An electrical response appears in motor pathways or muscles after stimulation of brain regions or nerves involved in movement.
motor functionphrase: Body actions caused by motor neurons, including reflexes, gland activity, and both voluntary and involuntary movements.
motor homunculusnoun: A distorted body drawing shows how much motor cortex is associated with controlling each body part.
motor imitationphrase: Copying another person's movements or facial expressions right after seeing them, especially in babies and young children.
motor impersistencenoun: A neurological difficulty prevents someone from maintaining a simple movement or posture beyond a brief period.
motor incoordinationphrase: Poor control of body movements, making actions like walking or reaching awkward or unsteady.
motor learningnoun: Practice-based improvement in body movements until skills can be done smoothly with little conscious effort.
motor memorynoun: Previously learned movements remain available for later use, such as the actions needed to tie a knot.
motor milestonesphrase: Major movement skills babies usually gain during the first two years, such as sitting, crawling, and walking.
motor neglectnoun: After brain damage, someone uses one body side less than expected despite preserved strength, reflexes, and sensation.
motor nervenoun: A nerve carries outgoing commands from the central nervous system to muscles or glands.
motor neuronnoun: A nerve cell that carries signals from the nervous system to muscles, causing them to move.
motor neuron diseasenoun: A group of disorders progressively damages movement-controlling nerve cells, leading to muscle weakness and wasting.
motor neuron lesionnoun: Damage affects a nerve cell involved in controlling muscles, sometimes involving its main cell body.
motor neuron poolnoun: A group of motor neurons supplies one muscle, even when its cells occupy different spinal cord levels.
motor overflownoun: Unwanted movements occur in additional muscles during a deliberate action, sometimes because of disrupted nervous system control.
motor pathwaynoun: A connected route of nerve cells carries movement commands toward muscles.
motor planningphrase: The brain's ability to plan, organize, and perform a new series of body movements.
motor primacy theorynoun: A proposed developmental account places mechanisms for motor nerve activity earlier than mechanisms for sensory nerve activity.
motor programnoun: A stored movement plan, shaped through practice, helps organize the actions needed to perform a coordinated skill.
motor rootnoun: A bundle leaving the front of the spinal cord carries motor nerve fibers toward the body.
Motor scalenoun: This part of the Bayley developmental assessment measures babies' and toddlers' abilities in large movements and precise hand actions.
motor setnoun: The body and nervous system prepare to make a particular movement before the action begins.
motor speech disordernoun: Difficulty planning, coordinating, or powering speech movements interferes with producing clear speech sounds.
motor stripphrase: A band of brain tissue in the frontal lobe controls voluntary muscle movements.
motor systemphrase: The body network of brain, nerves, and muscles that plans and controls movement.
motor tensionnoun: Muscles remain tense while a person feels restless and tires easily, sometimes in connection with anxiety.
motor testnoun: An assessment measures movement abilities, including large body actions and small, carefully controlled movements.
motor theory of speech perceptionnoun: This theory proposes that understanding speech depends on internally identifying the movements needed to produce the sounds heard.
motor tractnoun: A bundle of nerve fibers carries movement-related commands downward from brain centers toward the spinal cord.
motor unitnoun: One motor neuron and the muscle fibers it supplies act together when that neuron sends a signal.
mouches volantesnoun: Small spots or threads appear to drift across a person's vision, often called eye floaters.
mountain-climber’s syndrome (mountain sickness)noun: Illness develops when reduced oxygen availability at high elevations affects the body and sometimes thinking.
mourningnoun: The feelings and actions of grief after someone close dies, usually painful but not a mental disorder.
mouse-movement adapternoun: An assistive device helps people with movement disabilities control a computer pointer when a regular mouse is difficult to use.
mouthsticknoun: A tool held in the mouth lets someone reach, point to, or operate objects when hand movement is limited.
movementnoun: A body or object changes its position, whether as a whole or through individual parts.
movement chainingnoun: A sequence develops when each movement, or the feedback it produces, triggers the movement that follows.
movement disorderphrase: Problems with body movement, especially posture, coordination, or walking, that are not typical or smooth.
movement illusionnoun: A stationary object seems to move because of how the visual system interprets what it sees.
movement learningnoun: Practice and experience help someone acquire movement skills or learn a particular sequence of physical responses.
movement perspectivenoun: Distance changes apparent speed, so nearby objects can seem faster than distant objects that actually travel more quickly.
movement sensenoun: Signals from muscles, tendons, and joints let you sense bodily movement and help coordinate your actions.
movement therapynoun: A therapeutic approach uses bodily movement and rhythm to support body awareness, social connection, and mental and physical functioning.
movement-sensitive retinal cellsnoun: Certain nerve cells in the retina respond selectively to motion patterns, such as small moving spots or particular directions.
moving-edge detectornoun: A visual neuron responds especially strongly when a boundary between light and dark moves through the area it monitors.
moving-window techniquenoun: Researchers study reading by revealing a small section of otherwise hidden text through a window that advances at a set pace.
Mowat sensornoun: A handheld mobility aid uses ultrasound and changing vibration rates to signal the nearest object to someone with limited vision.
Mozart effectnoun: Some studies reported brief improvements in spatial reasoning after hearing Mozart, without establishing lasting increases in intelligence.
mPOAabbreviation: The medial preoptic area is a hypothalamic region involved in body temperature, sexual behavior, parenting, and reproductive hormone control.
MPSabbreviation: The abbreviation can mean mucopolysaccharidosis, involving complex sugar buildup, or myofascial pain syndrome, involving painful muscle trigger points.
MPTPabbreviation: This research chemical becomes MPP+, which damages dopamine-producing neurons and can produce Parkinson-like movement problems.
MRabbreviation: An outdated abbreviation for mental retardation names what is now called intellectual disability, involving intellectual and everyday adaptive difficulties.
MRHabbreviation: Müllerian regression hormone causes embryonic Müllerian ducts to shrink, preventing their development into the uterus and related reproductive structures.
MRIabbreviation: A scan that uses magnets and radio waves to make detailed pictures of the brain and body.
mRNAabbreviation: Messenger RNA carries genetic instructions to cellular machinery that builds proteins in the specified order.
MRTabbreviation: The Modified Rhyme Test checks spoken-word recognition by asking listeners to choose a heard word from six similar printed options.
MSabbreviation: Multiple sclerosis involves damage to nerve insulation in the brain and spinal cord, affecting movement, sensation, and sometimes thinking.
MSEabbreviation: A mental status examination assesses a person's current thinking, feelings, perceptions, and behavior using observation and questions.
MSHabbreviation: Melanocyte-stimulating hormone affects pigment cells and, in mammals, can also help regulate eating behavior.
MSH2abbreviation: A DNA repair gene on chromosome 2 can carry inherited changes that increase colorectal cancer risk.
MSIabbreviation: Magnetic source imaging uses magnetic signals generated by brain activity to help locate where that activity occurs.
MSISabbreviation: The multistate information system stores mental health service records electronically to compare programs and treatment results across participating facilities.
MSLTabbreviation: A daytime sleep test that measures how quickly someone falls asleep during several scheduled naps.
MSPabbreviation: This historical diagnosis describes a caregiver who deliberately presents another person as ill by inventing symptoms or making them happen.
MSQabbreviation: The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire asks workers to rate satisfaction with different parts of their jobs, including tasks and pay.
MSRabbreviation: Mean square residual estimates unexplained variation by dividing the sum of squared prediction errors by the residual degrees of freedom.
MSTabbreviation: An intensive home and community treatment for serious youth behavior problems that works with family, school, and peers.
MSUDabbreviation: Maple-syrup urine disease is an inherited disorder that prevents normal processing of three amino acids, potentially affecting brain development.
MT (middle temporal)abbreviation: The middle temporal visual area, also called V5, helps process how fast things move and in which direction.
MTcAabbreviation: Mixed transcortical aphasia limits understanding and producing speech while leaving the ability to repeat heard words relatively intact.
MTGabbreviation: The middle temporal gyrus is a fold of the temporal lobe involved in language understanding and aspects of visual recognition.
MTMMabbreviation: A multitrait–multimethod matrix or model compares several traits measured in several ways to check whether measures capture their intended qualities.
muother: The Greek letter μ represents the average value of a measured characteristic across an entire population.
mu opioid receptornoun: A cell receptor activated by opioids contributes to pain relief, pleasure, sleepiness, and slowed breathing.
mucocutaneous skinnoun: Hairless tissue at places such as the lips forms a transition between outer skin and moist internal linings.
mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS)noun: An inherited enzyme disorder causes complex sugars to accumulate in tissues, with some forms affecting learning and development.
mucous colitisnoun: An older name for irritable bowel syndrome describes recurring abdominal discomfort with changes in bowel movements.
mucous ophthalmianoun: An older medical name describes inflammation of the conjunctiva, the eye's surface lining, accompanied by pus-containing discharge.
muinanoun: In some Latino communities, this cultural illness concept links intense anger with bodily distress and disturbed hot–cold balance.
muliebritynoun: An uncommon word describes womanhood or qualities that a society associates with women.
Müller cellnoun: A long supporting cell extends through the retina, helping maintain nerve cells and guide light toward rods and cones.
Müller-Lyer illusionnoun: Equal lines can appear unequal in length when their ends have differently directed arrow-like fins.
Müller–Urban processnoun: A psychophysical procedure estimates a difference threshold from the midpoint of an S-shaped curve fitted to constant-stimulus responses.
Müller–Urban weightsnoun: Numerical adjustments give observations different influence when fitting a normal curve to estimate the precision of psychophysical responses.
Müllerian ductnoun: One of two embryonic tubes can develop into uterine tubes, the uterus, and the upper vagina unless hormonal signals cause regression.
Müllerian mimicrynoun: Different defended species share similar warning appearances, helping predators learn to avoid them after encountering just one species.
Müllerian-inhibiting hormone (MIH)noun: A hormone released by developing testes causes prenatal ducts that could form the uterus and fallopian tubes to shrink.
multa loca tenens principlenoun: A proposed rule suggests that drugs copying one effect of a natural body chemical may copy its other effects too.
multi-infarct dementianoun: Repeated strokes damage brain tissue, causing lasting difficulties with memory, thinking, and daily activities.
multiattribute utility analysisnoun: A decision method compares options by scoring several features and giving more weight to features judged more important.
multiaxial classificationnoun: A diagnostic system records mental health conditions across separate categories, including symptoms, physical health, and life circumstances.
multicollinearitynoun: When predictors overlap too much in regression, their separate effects on an outcome are hard to tell apart.
multicultural educationnoun: An educational approach promotes fair opportunities and understanding of different cultures while helping students explore their own cultural identities.
multicultural psychologynoun: A branch of psychology examines how cultural backgrounds and intersecting identities shape experience, behavior, research, and psychological care.
multicultural therapyphrase: Therapy that understands a person's problems within their cultural identities, life context, and experiences with bias and power.
multiculturalismnoun: A social approach values cultural diversity and supports equal participation while different groups retain their cultural identities.
multideterminationnoun: Several interacting influences, such as biology, experiences, and surroundings, contribute to the development of a disorder.
multidetermined behaviornoun: Human actions arise from interacting influences, including genes, bodily processes, surroundings, thoughts, and earlier experiences.
Multidimensional Scale for Rating Psychiatric Patientsnoun: A historical rating tool assessed several aspects of psychiatric symptoms and became the basis for the Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale.
multidimensional scalingnoun: A statistical method places items on a map so that greater similarity corresponds to shorter distances between them.
multidimensionalitynoun: When a test or trait has several important parts, one score alone cannot describe it well.
multidisciplinary approachnoun: Specialists from different fields contribute their knowledge to understand a problem or provide coordinated care.
multidisciplinary teamphrase: Professionals from different fields work together to understand a case and help a person or family.
multifactorialadjective: Caused by several different influences working together, rather than by just one cause.
multifactorial inheritancenoun: A trait develops through the combined influence of several genes and environmental conditions.
multifactorial modelphrase: Traits appear when combined genetic and environmental risk passes a hidden threshold.
multifinalitynoun: The same starting problem or risk can lead people to very different outcomes over time.
multiform layernoun: The deepest layer of the neocortex contains neurons with varied shapes, including spindlelike and pyramidlike cells.
multifunctional antidepressantnoun: An antidepressant medicine produces its main effects through several systems that use chemical messengers in the brain.
multigenerational transmissionphrase: Anxiety and other harmful family patterns can quietly pass from grandparents to parents to children across generations.
multigenerational traumanoun: The psychological effects of overwhelming experiences can reach later generations through family relationships, social conditions, and possibly biological pathways.
multigravidanoun: A person who has been pregnant at least twice receives this obstetric description, regardless of pregnancy outcomes.
multilevel modelnoun: A statistical model accounts for related observations within groups, such as students sharing classrooms within schools.
Multilingual Aphasia Examination (MAE)noun: A collection of language tests helps identify and measure acquired difficulties with speaking, understanding, reading, and writing after brain damage.
multilingualismnoun: A community uses several languages, which may have different roles and carry different amounts of social prestige.
multimethod approachphrase: Using several ways to measure the same trait helps researchers get a fuller, more trustworthy picture.
multimethod–multitrait modelnoun: Researchers compare several traits measured in different ways to check whether measures capture their intended traits rather than measurement methods.
multimodal distributionnoun: A pattern of data has several peaks where values occur more often than nearby values.
multimodal therapy (MMT)noun: Lazarus's therapy approach tailors techniques to seven connected areas: behavior, feelings, sensations, mental images, thoughts, relationships, and biology.
multimodal treatmentnoun: A treatment plan combines different methods at the same time to address a person's condition.
multinomialadjective: A measurement or outcome described this way has several possible categories, typically more than two.
multinomial distributionnoun: A probability model describes category counts across a fixed number of independent trials when category probabilities stay constant.
multinormal distributionnoun: A joint probability pattern for several variables has a normal distribution for every weighted sum with nonzero variance.
multiparousadjective: This describes someone who has completed at least two pregnancies reaching the stage counted as birth.
multipayer systemnoun: A health care system uses several insurers or other organizations to pay for patients’ services.
multiphilianoun: A person prefers several brief sexual relationships without seeking lasting romantic commitment.
multiple baseline designphrase: Tracks several behaviors at first, then starts treatment one at a time to show whether the treatment causes change.
multiple causationnoun: Events or behaviors develop through several causes acting together in potentially complex ways.
multiple classificationnoun: A person can sort objects by several features at once, such as both color and shape.
multiple comparison testnoun: A statistical procedure examines which group averages differ, often after an overall analysis detects a difference.
multiple comparisonsphrase: Several follow-up tests compare group averages while keeping the chance of a false positive under control.
multiple correlation coefficientphrase: A number showing how strongly one variable relates to several other variables taken together.
multiple correlation coefficient squarednoun: The statistic R² measures the share of outcome variation accounted for by a linear model using several predictors.
multiple cutoff model of selectionnoun: A hiring method requires applicants to reach a minimum score on every assessment, without a required testing sequence.
multiple delusionsnoun: Several firmly held beliefs persist despite strong contrary evidence, occur together, and fall outside the person's cultural understanding.
multiple determinationnoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes that several unconscious wishes, conflicts, or defenses can jointly produce one symptom or behavior.
multiple discriminant analysisnoun: A statistical method combines several predictors to distinguish among three or more groups and classify observations.
multiple drafts hypothesisnoun: A theory proposes that conscious experience emerges from distributed, changing interpretations of sensory information rather than one central brain location.
multiple family therapynoun: Several families participate together in therapeutic sessions, learning from shared experiences and practicing more effective ways of relating.
multiple hurdle model of selectionnoun: A hiring method requires applicants to pass each assessment before moving to the next assessment in a sequence.
multiple imputationnoun: Researchers create several datasets with plausible replacements for missing values, analyze each, and combine results to reflect uncertainty.
multiple linear regressionnoun: A statistical method estimates a numerical outcome using a weighted combination of at least two predictors.
multiple marital therapynoun: Each spouse works with a separate therapist, with possible coordination between therapists and occasional shared sessions.
multiple matingnoun: A female animal mates with several males, potentially affecting which male fathers offspring and reducing certainty about fatherhood.
multiple monitored electroconvulsive treatment (MMECT)noun: A historical electroconvulsive treatment approach induced several seizures during one session in an attempt to shorten the treatment course.
multiple orgasmnoun: A person experiences successive orgasms without fully returning to their usual unaroused state between them.
multiple personality disordernoun: An older diagnostic name describes dissociative identity disorder, involving disruptions in identity with distinct identity states and recurring memory gaps.
multiple Rnoun: The multiple correlation coefficient measures how strongly an observed outcome relates to predictions combining several variables.
multiple range testnoun: Duncan’s statistical procedure compares group averages after an overall analysis finds differences, helping identify which groups differ.
multiple regressionnoun: A statistical method that predicts one continuous outcome using the combined effects of two or more predictors.
multiple regression model of selectionnoun: A hiring method combines weighted applicant scores to predict job performance, allowing strengths in some areas to offset weaknesses elsewhere.
multiple reinforcement schedulenoun: Different rules for reinforcing one behavior take turns, with an external signal identifying which rule currently applies.
multiple relationshipphrase: A professional has another role with a client that could blur boundaries or cause harm.
multiple roles in persuasionnoun: A persuasion theory proposes that one factor can influence attitudes through different routes depending on how carefully someone thinks.
multiple sclerosis (MS)phrase: A disease where the immune system damages nerve insulation in brain and spinal cord, slowing messages.
multiple selvesnoun: A psychoanalytic view proposes that a person’s self includes several states with differing feelings, perceptions, and thoughts.
Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT)noun: A laboratory assessment measures how quickly someone falls asleep during repeated daytime nap opportunities to investigate excessive sleepiness.
multiple trace hypothesisnoun: A memory proposal suggests that each repeated encounter creates a separate stored record instead of updating an earlier record.
multiple-aptitude testnoun: A collection of assessments measures different abilities separately, producing a profile useful for educational or career guidance.
multiple-choice experimentnoun: A study asks participants to select the correct option from several alternatives, usually by learning what a particular signal means.
multiple-choice questionphrase: A test item that gives several answer options and asks the person to choose one.
multiple-impact therapynoun: Several mental health professionals provide concentrated help to a family together over a brief, planned period.
multiple-intelligences theorynoun: Howard Gardner proposed that intelligence includes eight distinct forms, covering abilities involving language, reasoning, music, movement, space, nature, oneself, and others.
multiple-resource modelnoun: An attention theory proposes separate resource pools, so tasks interfere more when they need the same kind of mental resources.
multiple-role playingnoun: A management training exercise assigns six roles within small groups tackling an identical problem before sharing solutions with everyone.
multiple-spike recordingnoun: Researchers use tiny electrodes and computers to capture and analyze electrical pulses from rapidly firing nerve cells.
multiple-task performancenoun: Doing several tasks during the same period requires sharing attention, which can affect how well each task goes.
multiplexnoun: A coding method allows several messages or streams of data to share one communication channel at the same time.
multiplication rulenoun: For independent events, multiplying their individual probabilities gives the chance that all of them happen.
multiplicative modelnoun: A statistical model multiplies predictor contributions, allowing one factor’s effect on an outcome to depend on another factor.
multiplicity-versus-unity dimensionnoun: An art psychology dimension describes how much an artwork emphasizes complexity or harmony, which may influence a viewer’s arousal.
multipolar neuronnoun: A nerve cell of this type has several branching dendrites and one axon projecting from its central body.
multisensory learningnoun: People learn material presented through several senses, such as combining what they see with what they hear or touch.
multisensory methodnoun: A reading and spelling approach combines seeing, hearing, movement, and touch during instruction.
multiskilled (multiskill)adjective: Someone described this way can perform competently in several different areas of work or activity.
multistage samplingnoun: Researchers select a sample through successive levels, first choosing larger groups and then smaller units within those selected groups.
multistage theorynoun: A theory explains a process as several ordered stages that operate one after another.
multistate information system (MSIS)noun: An automated records system supplies comparative statistics for evaluating programs and treatments across American mental health facilities.
multistore model of memorynoun: A memory theory proposes several storage systems that retain information for different durations and allow information to move between them.
multisynaptic arcnoun: A nerve pathway links sensory input to motor output through intermediate neurons, crossing several connections between cells.
multitrait–multimethod matrix (MTMM)noun: A table displays correlations between measurements of several traits assessed using several methods, helping evaluate what those measurements capture.
multitrait–multimethod model (MTMM)noun: Researchers evaluate measurement validity by comparing how several traits relate when each is measured using several different methods.
multivariateadjective: Using or studying several different variables at the same time in one analysis.
multivariate analysisphrase: Statistical methods that examine how multiple variables are related at the same time, often across several outcomes.
multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA)noun: A statistical method compares groups across several outcomes together while adjusting for other measured factors related to those outcomes.
multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)phrase: Tests whether groups differ across several measured outcomes at the same time.
multivariate distributionnoun: A pattern describes how combinations of values across several variables occur together and how common those combinations are.
multivariate normal distributionnoun: A joint probability pattern for several variables has normally distributed weighted sums, extending the familiar bell curve to multiple dimensions.
multivariate normalitynoun: Several variables have this property when their joint pattern follows a normal distribution in multiple dimensions.
multivariate researchnoun: A study examines several outcomes together and investigates how they relate to each other and to predictor variables.
multivariate statisticsnoun: Statistical methods examine several variables together to understand their relationships, shared patterns, or differences between groups.
multivariate testnoun: A statistical procedure evaluates a question using several outcome variables together, taking their relationships into account.
mum effectnoun: People hesitate to pass along unwelcome information, including employees holding back bad news from managers.
Münchausen syndromenoun: A historical label describes severe, persistent factitious disorder involving deliberately fabricated or induced illness and repeated presentation as a patient.
Münchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP)noun: A historical label describes a caregiver deliberately inventing or causing illness in another person and presenting that person as sick.
mundane realismnoun: The degree of everyday resemblance in a study describes how closely its setting and activities match ordinary life.
Munsell color systemnoun: A standardized system identifies colors using hue, value for lightness, and chroma for color strength.
murdernoun: A person unlawfully kills another under circumstances meeting the legal requirements for murder, often involving intent to kill.
murder–suicidenoun: An event involves someone intentionally killing another person and then ending their own life.
muscae volitantesnoun: Small spots or threadlike shapes appear to drift across someone’s vision and are commonly called eye floaters.
muscarinenoun: A mushroom poison that activates muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, affecting glands, smooth muscles, the heart, and brain.
muscarinic receptor (mAChR)noun: A cell protein responds to acetylcholine and muscarine, helping regulate signaling in the brain and other body tissues.
muscimolnoun: A psychoactive substance in certain mushrooms activates GABA receptors, changing brain activity and potentially producing sedation and altered perception.
musclenoun: Body tissue that tightens to create force and move body parts, including the heart.
muscle action potentialnoun: A brief electrical change travels along a muscle cell’s membrane and triggers processes that produce contraction.
muscle contractionphrase: When nerve signals trigger muscle fibers to shorten and pull, creating force or movement.
muscle dysmorphianoun: A form of body dysmorphic disorder involves distressing preoccupation with being insufficiently muscular, even when others see adequate muscularity.
muscle fibernoun: An individual muscle cell contains protein filaments that use chemical energy to generate force.
muscle memorynoun: Practice helps the nervous system learn movements that can later happen with little conscious attention.
muscle relaxantnoun: A medicine reduces unwanted muscle tightening by acting on muscles, nerves, or the central nervous system.
muscle relaxationphrase: Letting muscles loosen from tight to slack, which lowers physical tension and often calms the body.
muscle sensationnoun: Signals from muscles, tendons, and joints let you feel bodily movement and tension.
muscle spindlenoun: A sensory structure inside a skeletal muscle detects stretching and sends that information to the nervous system.
muscle tonusnoun: Muscles maintain a small amount of tension even while resting, helping support posture and readiness for movement.
muscle twitchnoun: A muscle briefly tightens in a small, sudden movement without a deliberate decision.
muscle-contraction headachenoun: This older label describes head pain attributed to tightened muscles, often around the neck.
muscle-tension gradientnoun: This measure describes how quickly muscle tension changes during an activity, estimated through recordings of muscle electrical activity.
muscular dystrophy (MD)noun: A group of genetic conditions causes muscle tissue to deteriorate and strength to decrease over time.
muscular rigiditynoun: Stiff muscles resist being moved by someone else, even when muscle strength remains normal.
muscular typenoun: A historical body classification described people whose muscles and movement structures were considered especially developed compared with other body systems.
musculocutaneous nervenoun: An arm nerve controls several upper arm muscles and carries touch information from the outer forearm.
musculoskeletal disordernoun: A condition damages or limits muscles, bones, joints, or the tissues that support and connect them.
musculoskeletal systemnoun: Bones, skeletal muscles, joints, and connecting tissues work together to support the body and make movement possible.
music therapynoun: A trained therapist uses musical activities to support a person's emotional, thinking, social, or physical treatment goals.
musical intelligencenoun: Gardner's theory proposes a distinct ability for creating, performing, recognizing, and understanding music.
musical intervalnoun: The difference in pitch between two musical tones can be described through the ratio of their frequencies.
musician’s crampnoun: Unwanted muscle contractions during instrument playing interfere with a musician's control, often affecting the hand or arm.
musicogenic epilepsynoun: In this rare form of epilepsy, hearing certain music can trigger a seizure.
mussitationnoun: A person mutters words that cannot be understood or moves their lips without audible speech.
musturbationnoun: Albert Ellis described rigid thinking that turns wishes for achievement, acceptance, or comfort into absolute personal demands.
mustyadjective: Describing a smell quality in one proposed system of seven basic odor types.
mutationnoun: A lasting change in DNA or chromosomes that may alter development or be passed to children.
mutilationnoun: Severe damage or removal of a body part, often leaving the person permanently disfigured.
mutismnoun: A person's absence of speech because of body, brain, emotional, or chosen reasons.
muttering deliriumnoun: This descriptive label identifies delirium with quiet, unclear, or repeated speech, often accompanied by restless movement and trembling.
mutual exclusivity assumptionnoun: Children learning words often expect each object to have one category name, so unfamiliar words suggest something else.
mutual gazenoun: Two people look directly into each other's eyes at the same time.
mutual helpnoun: People with similar concerns support one another and share ways of coping without professional leadership.
mutual masturbationnoun: Partners stimulate each other's genitals for sexual pleasure, or stimulate their own while together.
mutual pretensenoun: People who recognize an important fact all behave as though they do not know it, often avoiding difficult feelings.
mutual reward theorynoun: This workplace theory proposes that managers and employees cooperate more effectively when each rewards the other's helpful performance.
mutual storytelling techniquenoun: A therapist responds to a child's invented story with a similar story that models a more helpful solution.
mutual support groupnoun: People facing a shared difficulty meet regularly to exchange understanding, practical knowledge, and encouragement.
mutualismnoun: Organisms from different species interact in a relationship that benefits both species.
mutualitynoun: Partners experience themselves as a connected pair, or depend about equally on each other's actions for valued outcomes.
mutually exclusive eventsnoun: Two or more possible events share no outcomes, so they cannot both happen within the same trial.
my-prefix: This word-building form means muscle when joined to other parts of a word.
myasthenianoun: Unusual muscle weakness that makes it hard to keep moving or hold effort.
myasthenia gravisnoun: An immune attack on acetylcholine receptors causes nerve-to-muscle messages to weaken, leading to unusual muscle tiredness and weakness.
mydriasisnoun: The eye's pupil becomes unusually wide, which can occur with certain medicines or during opioid withdrawal.
myel-prefix: This word-building form can indicate either bone marrow or the spinal cord.
myelencephalonnoun: The lowest hindbrain region connects with the spinal cord and helps regulate breathing, heart activity, and blood pressure.
myelinnoun: A fatty covering around many nerve fibers helps messages travel faster through the nervous system.
myelin sheathphrase: A fatty covering around many nerve fibers helps messages travel much faster along the axon.
myelinated fiberphrase: A nerve cell extension wrapped in myelin, a fatty coat that speeds messages.
myelinationnoun: The growth of fatty insulation around nerve fibers that helps brain signals travel faster.
myelitisnoun: Inflammation affects spinal cord tissue and can disrupt the nerve signals passing through it.
myelo- (myel-)prefix: This word part indicates a connection to bone marrow or to the spinal cord.
myeloarchitecturenoun: The brain's nerve fibers develop and form organized patterns, especially fibers wrapped in the insulating material called myelin.
myelocelenoun: A developmental opening in the backbone allows spinal cord tissue to project through it.
myelomeningocelenoun: A birth condition leaves an opening in the backbone through which spinal cord tissue and its coverings form a sac.
myenteric plexusnoun: A network of nerve cells between digestive muscle layers helps coordinate movements that carry food through the gut.
Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)noun: A personality questionnaire assigns one of sixteen types using reported preferences across four paired categories, though its scientific support is limited.
myesthesianoun: Your muscle sense lets you notice muscle tightening and feel how your muscles and joints move.
myo- (my-)prefix: This combining form adds the meaning of muscle to a larger word.
myocardial infarctionnoun: Part of the heart muscle dies after losing its blood supply, usually because a coronary artery becomes blocked.
myoclonicadjective: Describes sudden, brief muscle jerks that happen without a person's control.
myoclonic epilepsynoun: A form of epilepsy includes seizures with sudden muscle jerks, sometimes alongside other kinds of seizures.
myoclonic movementsnoun: Brief, sudden muscle jerks move parts of the body without deliberate control.
myoclonic seizurephrase: A seizure causing sudden, brief muscle jerks in many parts of the body.
myoclonusnoun: A muscle or several muscles jerk suddenly and briefly, sometimes during normal sleep onset and sometimes with neurological conditions.
myoclonus epilepsynoun: A form of epilepsy involves seizures with sudden, brief muscle jerks, sometimes alongside other seizure types.
myoelectric prothesisnoun: An artificial limb uses electrical signals from a person's contracting muscles to control its powered movements.
myofascial pain syndrome (MPS)noun: A lasting muscle pain condition involves tender trigger points and stiffness in particular body areas.
myographynoun: A recording technique measures muscle activity, including contraction strength, timing, movement, or electrical signals.
myoneural junctionnoun: A communication site connects a movement-controlling nerve cell with a muscle fiber through chemical signals.
myopathynoun: A muscle disease affects muscle tissue and may be inherited or develop during life.
myopianoun: A focusing error makes distant objects blurry because incoming light focuses ahead of the retina.
myosinnoun: A motor protein uses chemical energy to pull against actin, helping muscles contract.
myosisnoun: The pupil becomes smaller, reducing the size of the opening through which light enters the eye.
myositisnoun: An inflammatory condition affects muscle tissue and can cause pain or weakness.
myotatic reflexnoun: An automatic muscle contraction follows stretching of that same muscle, helping maintain posture.
myotonianoun: A muscle remains contracted longer than expected because it has difficulty relaxing after activation.
myotonic disordernoun: A usually inherited disease causes voluntary muscles to relax slowly after contraction, producing stiffness.
myotonic muscular dystrophynoun: An inherited disease causes progressive muscle weakness and wasting, delayed muscle relaxation, and sometimes problems in other organs.
myriachitnoun: Historical reports from Siberian communities describe a condition involving apparently involuntary copying of other people's movements.
Mysolinenoun: A brand name identifies primidone, a medicine used to control certain kinds of epileptic seizures.
mysophilianoun: An unusually strong attraction to dirt or unclean conditions can sometimes involve sexual interest.
mystic unionnoun: A spiritual experience brings a feeling of being one with a divine presence, nature, or the whole universe.
mystical participationnoun: A historical concept describes experiencing self, surroundings, nature, and spirit without clear boundaries between them.
mysticismnoun: A belief holds that deep truths or connection with the divine can emerge through direct inner experience beyond ordinary reasoning.
Mytelasenoun: A brand name identifies ambenonium, a medicine that supports nerve-to-muscle communication in myasthenia gravis.
mythologynoun: In Jung's view, shared ancient images called archetypes live in the collective unconscious, a deeper common mind.
mythomanianoun: A persistent pattern involves elaborate false stories and exaggeration, sometimes with the storyteller partly believing their own accounts.
myxedemanoun: Severe thyroid hormone deficiency slows bodily processes and can cause fatigue, slowed thinking, and characteristic tissue swelling.
MZ twinsabbreviation: Twins that develop from one fertilized egg and usually share nearly all their genes.

Learn one EPPP term a day

Add a flashcard widget to your home screen. Tap a term to see what it means. Cards you miss come back sooner.

Get iPhone app Get Android app