Glossary / W

Psychology terms starting with W

318 terms with short definitions. Study these as flashcards

Wabbreviation
A letter used in statistics for Kendall's concordance coefficient or the Wilcoxon rank-sum result.
Waardenburg’s syndromenoun
An inherited condition can affect hearing and pigmentation, sometimes producing a white hair patch or differently colored eyes.
WABabbreviation
The Western Aphasia Battery assesses language abilities to help identify the type and severity of language difficulties.
Wada testnoun
A medical assessment temporarily quiets one brain hemisphere with medication to examine how each side supports language and memory.
wage compressionnoun
The pay gap between newer and longer-serving employees becomes smaller than their differences in experience or responsibility would justify.
waggle dancenoun
A honeybee’s figure-eight dance communicates where food or possible nesting places are, including their direction and roughly how far away.
Wagner Actnoun
A 1935 United States law established labor protections for organizing unions and bargaining collectively, and created a national enforcement board.
Wainwright v. Wittnoun
A 1985 Supreme Court ruling allowed excluding jurors whose death-penalty views would prevent or substantially impair their duties.
WAISabbreviation
A widely used test that measures an adult's overall thinking and problem-solving abilities.
waist-to-hips rationoun
A body proportion is calculated by dividing the measurement around the waist by the measurement around the hips.
wait-list control groupnoun
Research participants wait to receive an intervention while their outcomes are compared with those of participants receiving it sooner.
waiting-list phenomenonnoun
A person's symptoms improve or disappear while awaiting therapy, possibly partly because they expect future help.
wake-promoting agentnoun
In this usage, a nonprescription caffeine tablet increases alertness and reduces feelings of sleepiness.
wakefulnessnoun
Being alert to your surroundings and able to respond, with the brain showing fast, uneven activity.
waking centernoun
An outdated name identified the rear hypothalamus as the brain area believed to control awakening.
waking dreamnoun
A person experiences visual scenes resembling dreams while awake rather than during sleep.
waking hypnosisnoun
Suggestions produce hypnotic effects without presenting the experience as sleep or a trance.
Wald–Wolfowitz testnoun
A statistical test counts consecutive group labels in ordered data to assess whether two samples could share the same distribution.
Walden Twonoun
Skinner's 1948 fictional story portrays an experimental society using operant conditioning to shape everyday behavior.
walk-in clinicnoun
A healthcare service offers assessment or treatment to people who arrive without booking a visit beforehand.
walk-through performance testing (WTPT)noun
An evaluator watches an employee complete job tasks, asks questions, and rates how well the work is done.
Wallerian degenerationnoun
After an axon is injured, its section beyond the injury breaks down, away from the neuron's cell body.
walleyenoun
An eye turns outward instead of lining up with the other eye.
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR)noun
A U.S. Army research organization studies health problems, including sleep loss and mental functioning, to support military personnel.
wanderingnoun
Aimless, confused moving from place to place, often seen with brain problems, dementia, alcohol misuse, or severe stress.
wandering attentionnoun
An attention disturbance leaves someone apparently alert but easily pulled away by almost any outside event.
wanderlustnoun
A strong desire or recurring urge leads someone to travel or roam.
war psychologynoun
Psychological knowledge is applied to military activities during war, including how people and groups function under stress.
warehousingnoun
A critical label describes keeping people in psychiatric institutions for long periods while providing little treatment beyond basic care.
warm spotnoun
A small area of skin is especially responsive to stimulation that feels warm.
warm stimulusnoun
Something touching or affecting the skin has a temperature higher than the skin itself.
warm-blooded animalnoun
An animal maintains its body temperature mainly through heat produced by its own internal chemical processes.
warm-upnoun
A brief physical routine gets the body and movement pathways ready for exercise or a specific skill.
warm-up effectnoun
Performance on a familiar task often starts slowly or inaccurately, then quickly improves as the session continues.
warmthnoun
Friendly affection and caring that make someone feel accepted, safe, and emotionally close.
warning colorationnoun
An organism's noticeable colors or markings signal to predators that eating or approaching it could be unpleasant or dangerous.
warning overloadnoun
A person receives more alerts than they can understand and respond to effectively.
Warrington Recognition Memory Testnoun
A memory assessment asks people to identify previously presented words and unfamiliar faces from pairs containing new alternatives.
wash-out periodnoun
A planned waiting interval allows an earlier drug or intervention's effects to fade before another treatment is evaluated.
Wason selection tasknoun
A reasoning puzzle asks which of four cards must be checked to discover whether an if-then rule is broken.
water on the brainphrase
An informal expression describes excess fluid within brain tissue or in the brain's fluid-filled chambers.
water regulationnoun
Body processes keep water and dissolved salts at suitable levels inside cells and in surrounding fluids.
water-jug problemnoun
A reasoning task asks how to measure an exact water amount using jugs with specified capacities.
waterfall illusionnoun
After watching falling water for a while, nearby stationary scenery can seem to move upward.
watershed infarctionnoun
Brain cells die when blood supply fails in a border region between areas served by different arteries.
watershed zonenoun
A border area between territories supplied by two arteries is especially vulnerable when blood or oxygen delivery drops.
Watson–Glaser critical thinking appraisalnoun
An assessment measures how well people judge written arguments, recognize assumptions, and evaluate conclusions.
wave of excitationnoun
Electrical activation spreads through living tissue, such as a nerve or muscle.
wave-interference patternsnoun
Overlapping light waves create patterns of strengthening and cancellation that holograms use to encode three-dimensional images.
wavelengthnoun
The space from one wave peak to the next, linked to a wave's frequency.
wavelength thresholdsnoun
The shortest and longest detectable wavelengths mark the limits of an organism's sensitivity to light or sound.
waxy flexibilitynoun
A person's limbs show slight, even resistance when repositioned and then remain in the new position, as can occur in catatonia.
way findingnoun
A person learns to navigate a place by using landmarks, directions, and distances along a route.
Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WAYS)noun
A 66-item questionnaire asks adults how much they used different thoughts and actions to handle a particular stressful encounter.
WBISabbreviation
An early intelligence test called Wechsler–Bellevue Intelligence Scale measured verbal and nonverbal abilities and produced a combined score.
WCSTabbreviation
A test of flexible thinking where people sort cards and adjust when the rule changes.
we-groupnoun
A group someone identifies with creates a sense of belonging, shared connection, and loyalty among its members.
weak central coherencenoun
A proposed thinking tendency emphasizes individual details over overall context and has been studied as one account of autistic processing.
weak egonoun
In psychoanalytic theory, a person has difficulty managing impulses and coping with frustration, inner conflict, or stress.
weak law of effectnoun
Thorndike's revised learning principle proposed that satisfying consequences strengthen responses, dropping his earlier claim that unpleasant consequences symmetrically weaken them.
weak law of large numbersnoun
Under suitable conditions, increasing the number of observations makes their average increasingly likely to fall near the expected value.
weak methodsnoun
General problem-solving strategies work across many kinds of tasks without relying on specialized knowledge, though they may be inefficient.
weaningnoun
An infant or young animal becomes accustomed to replacing milk with other foods, often through gradually ending breastfeeding.
weaning aggressionnoun
In certain animal species, mothers use aggressive behavior to stop their young from nursing during the transition away from milk.
weapon-focus effectnoun
An eyewitness's attention to a weapon can reduce memory for other details, including the appearance of people nearby.
weapons effectnoun
Seeing a weapon can increase aggressive thoughts or behavior in some circumstances, particularly when someone has been provoked.
wear-and-tear theory of agingnoun
A biological theory proposes that aging develops as damage from environmental exposures and harmful substances builds up throughout the body.
Weber fractionnoun
Dividing the smallest detectable change in a stimulus by its starting intensity gives a measure of relative sensory sensitivity.
Weber–Fechner lawnoun
A mathematical model proposes that sensation increases logarithmically, so equal proportional increases in physical intensity produce equal increases in sensation.
Weber’s lawnoun
A sensory rule predicts that the smallest noticeable change is roughly a fixed proportion of a stimulus's starting intensity.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)phrase
A widely used test measures adult thinking skills and gives IQ and other cognitive scores.
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)phrase
A widely used IQ test for children ages 6 to 16 that measures several thinking skills.
Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS)phrase
A test battery measuring several kinds of memory in people ages 16 to 90.
Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI)phrase
A Wechsler intelligence test measures thinking skills in children from about age two and a half to seven and a half.
Wednesday Evening Societynoun
An early group gathered with Sigmund Freud from 1902 onward to learn about and discuss psychoanalysis.
weekend alcoholicnoun
An informal label describes someone who drinks heavily on weekends while consuming little or no alcohol on weekdays.
weekend hospitalizationnoun
A person receives psychiatric care in a hospital on weekends while living in the community during weekdays.
weightnoun
How heavy a body or object is because gravity pulls it downward.
weight discriminationnoun
People receive unfair or unfavorable treatment because of their body weight or size.
weight lossphrase
A drop in body weight that may be planned, illness-related, or caused by drugs.
weight regulationnoun
Brain and body processes influence eating and energy use to help maintain body weight, while environmental factors also contribute.
Weight Watchersnoun
A commercial program aims to support weight management through structured guidance, self-help practices, and support from other participants.
weight-loss surgerynoun
These operations change the stomach or digestive tract to help manage severe obesity and related health problems.
weighted application blank (WAB)noun
A hiring form scores applicants’ background information, giving more influence to answers that better predict suitability for a job.
weighted averagenoun
An average gives values different influence by multiplying each by its weight, then dividing their total by the weights’ sum.
weighted kappanoun
This statistic measures agreement between raters beyond chance, allowing larger differences between their ratings to count more heavily.
weighted meannoun
An average is calculated by multiplying values by assigned weights, adding the products, and dividing by the total weight.
weighted multidimensional scalingnoun
This statistical method maps similarity judgments while allowing people to give different importance to the features being compared.
weightingnoun
Giving some test parts extra value when combining them into one total score.
Weismannismnoun
This historical theory proposed that hereditary material continues through reproductive cells, separately from changes acquired by other body cells.
well-beingnoun
Feeling healthy, satisfied, and emotionally balanced, with little distress and a good quality of life.
well-child carenoun
Regular preventive appointments check children’s health and development, provide protection against illness, and help families discuss concerns.
Wellbutrinnoun
This brand of bupropion treats depression by affecting brain chemicals, especially dopamine and norepinephrine.
wellnessnoun
Good physical, mental, and social health that people can build and maintain through daily choices and support.
wellness coachingnoun
A coach helps someone choose health goals, build motivation, and develop practical steps toward healthier habits.
wellness programnoun
A health plan that helps people stay healthy instead of only treating illness.
Welsh Figure Preference Test (WFPT)noun
This personality assessment uses likes and dislikes of 400 monochrome drawings to explore proposed traits, including creativity and anxiety.
Weltanschauungnoun
A person’s or group’s broad understanding of reality and humanity’s place within it shapes their thinking and actions.
Werdnig–Hoffmann diseasenoun
This inherited form of spinal muscular atrophy begins in early infancy, damaging movement-controlling nerve cells and causing severe muscle weakness.
Werner syndromenoun
This rare inherited condition causes unusually early signs of aging, generally becoming apparent in adolescence or early adulthood.
Wernicke–Geschwind modelnoun
This historical model explains language through connected brain regions assigned different roles in understanding words and producing speech.
Wernicke–Korsakoff syndromenoun
Severe thiamine shortage can cause sudden confusion and movement problems followed by lasting difficulty learning and remembering.
Wernicke’s aphasiaphrase
Brain damage causing fluent but confusing speech and poor understanding of spoken words.
Wernicke’s areanoun
A left temporal brain region that helps people understand spoken language and meaningful sounds.
Wernicke’s encephalopathynoun
A serious brain condition develops from too little thiamine, often causing confusion, poor balance, and unusual eye movements.
Werther syndromenoun
An increase in suicides can follow widespread reporting about someone admired who died by suicide, potentially reflecting imitation.
Wessex Head Injury Matrix (WHIM)noun
A structured observation tool records small behavioral changes as people recover from serious brain injuries, helping assess returning awareness.
Westermarck effectnoun
This proposal suggests that people raised closely together during early childhood tend to feel less sexual attraction toward one another.
Western Aphasia Battery (WAB)noun
A collection of language tasks helps assess the kind and severity of difficulties with speaking, understanding, reading, and writing.
Western blotnoun
This laboratory method separates proteins, transfers them onto a membrane, and uses antibodies to reveal a particular protein.
wet dreamnoun
An involuntary release of semen happens during sleep, sometimes alongside a sexual dream.
wet nursenoun
A lactating caregiver breastfeeds a baby who is not their own child.
wet-globe bulb temperaturenoun
A heat stress measure combines environmental conditions, including warmth and moisture, to help judge risks during work or activity.
Wever–Bray effectnoun
Inner-ear hair cells produce an electrical signal whose changing pattern closely follows the sound entering the ear.
WFabbreviation
This abbreviation stands for word fluency, meaning how readily someone generates words meeting a given rule.
WFPTabbreviation
The initials name the Welsh Figure Preference Test, which explores personality through preferences among 400 monochrome drawings.
WGTAabbreviation
The initials name the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus, a device for studying primate learning through object choices and food rewards.
Wh- questionnoun
A question requests specific information using words such as who, what, where, when, why, or how.
what pathwaynoun
A visual processing route toward the temporal lobe helps identify objects using features such as shape, color, and texture.
wheelchairnoun
A wheeled chair helps someone move around when walking is hard or not possible.
wheelchair sportnoun
Athletes compete in individual or team activities using wheelchairs, for recreation, competition, or rehabilitation.
where pathwaynoun
A visual processing route toward the parietal lobe tracks object locations and movement, helping guide actions.
WHIMabbreviation
This structured observation scale follows behavioral signs of recovery in people who have experienced serious brain injury.
whiplashnoun
A sudden back-and-forth movement of the head can injure the neck’s soft tissues, producing pain that sometimes lasts.
Whipple’s diseasenoun
A rare bacterial illness can interfere with intestinal nutrient absorption and sometimes affect the brain and other organs.
whipsawingnoun
A workplace strategy pairs people or groups on shared work, often using competition to increase output.
whirl sensationnoun
A feeling that you or your surroundings are spinning arises through the body’s balance system.
whisker barrelnoun
A rounded cluster of nerve cells in an animal’s touch-processing cortex responds mainly to signals from one particular whisker.
white blood cellnoun
A blood cell that helps protect the body by fighting germs and other harmful invaders.
white commissurenoun
A bundle of insulated nerve fibers carries signals across the spinal cord, connecting pathways on its two sides.
white lightnoun
Light appears white when its mixture of wavelengths stimulates the eye’s color receptors in suitable balance.
white matterphrase
Brain and spinal cord tissue made of myelin-coated nerve fibers that carry signals between areas.
white noisenoun
A random signal spreads equal average power across equal-width frequency bands, producing a steady hiss when heard.
white rami communicantesnoun
These insulated nerve branches link chest and upper lower-back spinal nerves with the sympathetic chain, carrying signals toward its relay stations.
white-collar crimenoun
People misuse trusted professional positions to commit nonviolent offenses, such as fraud or stealing money they manage.
white-collar workernoun
An employee mainly performs office, administrative, or professional tasks rather than substantial manual labor.
Whitehall studiesnoun
Two long-term studies of British government employees examined how job rank, working conditions, and social circumstances relate to health and mortality.
whiteness constancynoun
A white surface tends to retain its perceived whiteness even when the amount of light reaching it changes.
whiteout syndromenoun
A historical label describes losing contact with reality, proposed to result from lengthy stays in white surroundings with little visual variety.
whitikonoun
This historical, disputed psychiatric label describes reports of fearing transformation into a human-eating spirit in some Algonquian cultural contexts.
Whitten effectnoun
Odor signals from adult males can trigger or synchronize reproductive cycles and ovulation in females of some rodent species.
WHOabbreviation
The United Nations agency that tracks health and sets global health guidelines.
WHO (10) Well-Being Indexnoun
A World Health Organization questionnaire combines ten answers about positive and negative experiences into one measure of well-being.
whole medical systemnoun
A complete approach to health combines its own explanations of illness, assessment methods, and treatments outside conventional Western medicine.
whole method of learningnoun
A learner practices an entire set of material together instead of memorizing separate sections first.
whole object assumptionnoun
Children often take an unfamiliar word to name an entire thing rather than one feature or piece.
whole reportnoun
In visual memory experiments, participants try to name everything they saw in a briefly displayed set.
whole-channeladjective
An approach to instruction aims to involve every available sense when presenting information to learners.
whole-interval recordingnoun
Observers divide a session into equal periods and count a behavior only when it continues throughout a period.
whole-language approachnoun
Reading instruction emphasizes making meaning from complete texts and often gives little or no attention to explicit phonics teaching.
whole-word methodnoun
Reading instruction teaches learners to recognize complete written words and their meanings rather than sound out their separate parts.
whooping coughnoun
A bacterial illness spreads easily through respiratory droplets and can cause intense coughing fits followed by a whooping breath.
Whorfian hypothesisnoun
A proposed view holds that the language people speak determines the mental categories they use to understand experience.
Wiccanoun
A modern Pagan religion centers on reverence for nature and often includes goddess worship and ritual practices.
Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT)noun
A standardized assessment measures reading, spelling, and mathematics skills to help identify academic strengths and areas needing support.
wide-range testnoun
A brief screening uses questions spanning many difficulty levels to estimate ability and guide decisions about further assessment.
Widow-to-Widow Programnoun
A peer support program connects people grieving a spouse with others who have experienced that loss.
Wiedemann syndromenoun
A rare condition, also called Proteus syndrome, causes uneven overgrowth of body tissues and sometimes affects brain function.
Wiener Schulenoun
An early twentieth-century group of psychoanalysts in Vienna developed their work around Sigmund Freud's ideas.
wife beatingnoun
Physical violence directed at a wife by her spouse is one form of intimate partner abuse.
wife swappingnoun
An older expression describes couples consensually exchanging partners for sexual activity.
wihtigo (wihtiko)noun
A disputed historical label described distress involving fears of becoming a human-eating windigo within some Algonquian cultural settings.
Wilcoxon rank-sum testnoun
A statistical test compares two independent groups by ranking their pooled scores and adding the ranks within a group.
Wilcoxon signed-ranks testnoun
A statistical test ranks the sizes of differences from a proposed center, then compares ranks for positive and negative differences.
Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney testnoun
A rank-based statistical test checks whether scores from one independent group tend to exceed those from another.
wild boy of Aveyronnoun
A historical name identifies Victor, a child found in France around 1800 whose education by Itard influenced special education.
wilderness experiencenoun
A group program uses extended, challenging outdoor journeys with the aim of building confidence, motivation, and social abilities.
Wildervanck syndromenoun
A rare condition present from birth combines fused neck vertebrae, hearing loss, and limited movement of an eye.
Wilks’s lambdanoun
A statistic helps test whether groups differ when several measured outcomes are considered together.
willnoun
The ability to choose and control your actions despite outside pressures.
will disturbancenoun
Bleuler used this historical concept for reduced purposeful motivation or aimless activity that he associated with schizophrenia.
will psychologynoun
An early name for action theory describes explanations of behavior centered on intentions, goals, and the surrounding situation.
will therapynoun
Otto Rank's historical psychotherapy proposed that developing personal will and psychological independence could reduce emotional difficulties.
will to livenoun
A person feels determined to stay alive despite serious illness or other extremely difficult circumstances.
will to meaningnoun
In logotherapy, the desire to discover purpose and significance in life is considered a central human motivation.
will to powernoun
Adler proposed a drive toward superiority and control, while Nietzsche described a drive toward strength, creation, and self-affirmation.
will to survivenoun
A strong determination to remain alive can persist even under severe hardship or illness.
will-do factorsnoun
Aspects of work motivation influence how employees perform, beyond what their skills and knowledge make possible.
Wille zur Machtphrase
Nietzsche's German expression for will to power describes a proposed drive toward strength, creativity, and self-affirmation.
Williams syndrome (Williams–Barratt syndrome; Williams–Beuren syndrome)noun
A rare genetic condition causing friendly behavior, strong language skills, poor visual-spatial skills, and heart, growth, and learning problems.
Williams v. Floridanoun
A 1970 Supreme Court decision allowed six-person juries in state criminal trials and upheld required advance disclosure of alibi witnesses.
Willie M. class actionnoun
A North Carolina group lawsuit secured education and treatment services for eligible children with disabilities and histories of violent behavior.
willpowernoun
The ability to stick with your goals and control your actions, even when tempted.
win–lose dynamicnoun
Competition can increase conflict when people believe their own success requires someone else's failure.
win–stay, lose–shift strategynoun
A learner repeats a choice while it brings rewards and switches choices when rewards stop.
wind tunnelnoun
A passage with controlled airflow lets researchers test objects or study how wind affects human and animal behavior.
windigo psychosisnoun
A disputed historical syndrome described distress about becoming a human-eating windigo in accounts concerning some Algonquian peoples.
windmill illusionnoun
A spinning object sometimes seems to turn backward even though its actual direction has not changed.
winktenoun
A Lakota term describes a culturally specific gender identity or role, sometimes discussed within the broader two-spirit umbrella.
winner effectnoun
After winning a competitive encounter, an animal or person may become more likely to win later encounters.
Winsorized meannoun
An average is calculated after selected extreme scores are replaced with the nearest retained scores, reducing their influence.
Winsorizingnoun
Researchers limit extreme scores by replacing selected low and high values with the closest values left inside the chosen cutoffs.
wirelessadjective
Sending information through air or space instead of through physical cables or wires.
WISCabbreviation
A test that measures children's thinking skills and overall intelligence.
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)phrase
A test of executive function where people change card-sorting rules based on feedback without being told.
Wisconsin General Test Apparatus (WGTA)noun
A primate learning device uses a partition and object tray where animals move objects to uncover food rewards.
wisdomnoun
Good judgment in hard life situations, using knowledge and experience for your own and others' good.
wisdom of crowdsnoun
Averaging many people's independent estimates can produce a more accurate answer than individual guesses.
wishnoun
A mental expression of an instinct that can work in conscious or unconscious awareness.
wish fulfillmentnoun
In psychoanalytic theory, a dream or fantasy acts out a wish someone wants satisfied.
wishful thinkingnoun
A person judges what is true according to their hopes instead of giving enough weight to evidence.
witnoun
A person uses quick, clever humor to reveal something interesting about a situation or person.
witch doctornoun
An older, sometimes disrespectful label describes a traditional healer believed to use spiritual powers against illness or harmful magic.
witchcraftnoun
Practices understood as using magic to influence events or people have different meanings across cultures and religious traditions.
withdrawalnoun
Unpleasant physical or mental symptoms that happen when a person stops or cuts down a drug.
withdrawal designphrase
A single-case experiment tests a treatment by adding it, removing it, and watching whether behavior changes back.
withdrawal dyskinesianoun
Unwanted or poorly controlled movements can appear when someone stops taking a drug or other substance.
withdrawal reflexnoun
An automatic, rapid movement pulls part of the body away from a painful or potentially damaging stimulus.
withdrawal-destructivenessnoun
Fromm proposed that fear of depending on others can lead people to seek distance through isolation, destructive behavior, or both.
withdrawing responsenoun
An action ends contact with something unpleasant that a person or animal is already experiencing.
withdrawn-rejected childnoun
Researchers use this label for a child who shows anxious withdrawal and receives rejection from peers.
Witherspoon excludablesnoun
Historically, prospective jurors could be excluded from death penalty cases if they would never consider that sentence.
within-dimension attitude consistencynoun
Information about one aspect of something supports an attitude consistently when its evaluations agree in being positive or negative.
within-groups designnoun
An experiment compares each participant’s results across all conditions, so participants serve as their own comparison.
within-groups variancenoun
Scores differ among people in a group even though they receive the same experimental treatment.
within-subjects analysis of variancenoun
A statistical test compares averages across repeated measurements of the same participants while accounting for differences between people.
within-subjects designphrase
The same people are measured in every condition so their scores can be compared across treatments.
within-subjects factorphrase
A variable in which every participant experiences each of its different conditions or levels.
within-subjects variancenoun
In this usage, scores vary among people receiving the same treatment within an experimental group.
witigo (witiko; wittigo)noun
Historical accounts describe a disputed syndrome involving fear of becoming a human-eating spirit among some northern Algonquian peoples.
Wittmaack–Ekbom syndromenoun
A neurological condition causes an urge to move the legs during rest, often with uncomfortable sensations and nighttime worsening.
Witzelsuchtnoun
A persistent urge to make inappropriate jokes or tell pointless stories can occur with damage to the brain’s frontal regions.
WLMabbreviation
The abbreviation names the women’s liberation movement, which campaigns for gender equality and freedom from restrictive expectations.
WMDSabbreviation
Weighted multidimensional scaling maps similarity judgments while allowing people to give different importance to the features being compared.
WMSabbreviation
A test that measures different kinds of memory in teens and adults.
wobble switchnoun
An accessible control activates when its stick moves away from center, allowing operation without precise finger movements.
Wohlwill–Corino Andrade syndromenoun
An inherited disease causes abnormal protein deposits that damage nerves, affecting strength, sensation, and automatic body functions.
wolf childrennoun
This historical label names Amala and Kamala, whose alleged upbringing among wolves in India rests on a seriously challenged account.
Wolf Mannoun
Freud used this nickname for a patient whose symptoms he interpreted as evidence supporting his ideas about early childhood sexuality.
Wolf–Hirschhorn syndromenoun
A genetic condition results from a missing section of chromosome 4’s short arm and can affect development.
Wolffian ductnoun
An embryonic tube can develop into several male reproductive structures, including sperm-carrying ducts, under appropriate hormonal signals.
Wolman’s diseasenoun
An inherited enzyme deficiency prevents normal fat breakdown, causing harmful buildup in cells and sometimes delaying movement and mental development.
woman-centered psychologynoun
An approach to understanding mind and behavior places women’s bodily, emotional, and social experiences at the center of study.
womb envynoun
Karen Horney proposed that some men unconsciously envy women’s capacity for pregnancy and may respond by devaluing women.
womb fantasynoun
Psychoanalytic theory describes an imagined return to life inside the womb, sometimes represented through enclosed or underwater settings.
women’s liberation movement (WLM)noun
A social movement that expanded during the late 1960s sought women’s equality, greater freedom, and changes to restrictive gender roles.
Women’s Sexual Interest Diagnostic Interview (WSID)noun
A structured assessment evaluates women’s sexual desire, related difficulties, and personal distress to help identify clinically significant low desire.
Woodcock–Johnson Psychoeducational Batterynoun
A collection of standardized tests measures thinking abilities and academic skills to help understand learning strengths and difficulties.
wool-hwa-byungnoun
A Korean cultural syndrome involves emotional and physical distress understood as connected to holding back anger.
word approximationnoun
A speech disturbance involves unusual uses of familiar words or newly combined words whose intended meaning remains understandable.
word attacknoun
A reading method helps someone work out an unfamiliar written word by breaking it into individual speech sounds.
word blindnessnoun
Brain damage or neurological illness can impair a person’s ability to understand written words, even when eyesight remains intact.
word countphrase
Counting how often certain words appear in a chosen set of spoken or written language samples.
word deafnessnoun
A language impairment makes spoken words difficult or impossible to understand even though the person can hear sounds normally.
word fluency (WF)noun
A person quickly produces words that follow a given rule, such as naming animals or words beginning with one letter.
word of mouthnoun
People informally pass news, opinions, or recommendations to one another through conversation.
word realismnoun
A person treats an object’s name as part of its actual nature rather than a changeable label.
word saladnoun
Speech or writing becomes very difficult to understand because words and ideas lack clear connections.
word spurtnoun
A child begins adding new spoken words much faster than before, often during the second year of life.
word-association testnoun
An assessment asks someone to hear or read a word and immediately say whichever word occurs to them.
word-form dyslexianoun
An acquired reading difficulty affects how someone visually processes the letters and arrangement of written words.
word-fragment completion tasknoun
Participants supply missing letters in incomplete words, allowing researchers to examine how earlier word exposure influences their answers.
word-frequency studynoun
Researchers compare memory for common and uncommon words to learn how frequency of language use affects remembering.
word-length effectnoun
People can usually immediately recall more short words than long words in tasks testing memory span.
word-recognition skillsnoun
Reading abilities help identify written words through familiar appearance, letter sounds, word parts, and clues from surrounding text.
word-recognition thresholdnoun
The shortest display time that allows someone to correctly identify a written word marks this measured threshold.
word-span testnoun
A memory assessment measures how many words someone can repeat in the order they were given.
word-stem completionnoun
A research task asks people to finish words from starting letters, often to study memory without deliberate recall.
word-superiority effect (WSE)noun
People identify briefly shown letters more accurately within recognizable words than when those letters appear by themselves.
word–gustatory synesthesianoun
Hearing certain words automatically produces particular taste experiences that tend to stay consistent over time.
worknoun
In physics, energy is transferred when a force moves something along the force's direction.
work ethicnoun
A personal or shared belief treats hard work, effort, and self-discipline as valuable and morally important.
work evaluationnoun
An assessment judges how well an employee performs their job and handles related responsibilities or relationships.
work groupnoun
A set of people brought together mainly to complete assigned tasks at work.
work motivationphrase
The drive to put effort into a job because of pay, goals, recognition, or meaningful work.
work psychologyphrase
Studies how people act at work and how workplaces can become fairer and more effective.
work rehabilitation centernoun
A facility helps injured workers recover and prepare for employment through tailored treatment, practice tasks, and safety education.
work satisfactionnoun
How pleased a person feels with their job, including the work, pay, and setting.
work systemphrase
The whole setup of people, tools, tasks, surroundings, and schedules that shapes how an organization gets work done.
work therapynoun
Treatment uses paid or unpaid work tasks to help people build or regain skills, confidence, and everyday functioning.
work-for-pay unitnoun
A rehabilitation facility offers people with mental health conditions paid, supervised tasks alongside job assessment and training.
work-limit testnoun
An assessment gives everyone an identical task and scores performance by how long completion takes.
work-sample testnoun
A hiring assessment checks applicants’ abilities by asking them to perform tasks resembling the actual job.
work-study programnoun
An educational arrangement combines classes with employment to provide students with practical experience, financial support, or both.
work–life balancenoun
The fit between employment and other life roles reflects how people manage demands, time, and involvement across them.
work–rest cyclenoun
A fixed or repeating schedule alternates periods of task activity with breaks.
workaholismnoun
A hard-to-control urge drives excessive working and difficulty stopping, potentially affecting health, relationships, and well-being.
workflow integrationnoun
Work tasks are arranged so employees whose activities depend on one another can coordinate more efficiently.
working backwardnoun
A problem-solving approach starts with the desired outcome and traces possible steps back toward the starting situation.
working forwardnoun
A problem-solving approach starts with what is given and develops steps toward the desired outcome.
working hypothesisnoun
A temporary, testable proposal describes how variables may relate and can change as new evidence appears.
working knowledgenoun
Information tied to an attitude’s subject becomes active in memory when a person encounters that subject.
working memorynoun
The mind's small mental workspace briefly holds and uses information for learning, reasoning, and understanding.
Working Memory Indexphrase
A test score showing how well someone holds and mentally uses sounds and pictures for a short time.
working memory trainingnoun
Repeated mental exercises, often adjusted in difficulty, aim to improve temporarily holding and using information.
working self-conceptnoun
The parts of someone’s self-knowledge currently in awareness shape how they experience themselves at that moment.
working throughphrase
Gradually facing painful thoughts and feelings with a therapist so they can be understood and handled better.
working vocabularynoun
The words a person regularly uses when speaking or writing make up their active vocabulary.
workplace violencenoun
Workers experience threats, intimidation, harassment, verbal abuse, or physical attacks connected with their employment, including away from work.
workspacenoun
A limited mental space that briefly holds and works on information you are using now.
workspace designnoun
Planning a workstation’s layout, seating, and equipment placement helps people perform tasks safely, comfortably, and effectively.
workupnoun
A complete patient evaluation using history, tests, and other procedures to figure out the problem.
world designnoun
Binswanger’s existential approach describes how someone’s whole personality connects with their basic way of experiencing and relating to life.
World Federation for Mental Healthnoun
An independent international organization founded in 1948 promotes mental well-being, prevention, and better care for people with mental health conditions.
World Health Organization (WHO)noun
A United Nations agency coordinates international health efforts, develops guidance, supports countries, and tracks health conditions around the globe.
world regionsnoun
An existential framework distinguishes three connected aspects of lived experience: one’s inner life, relationships, and surrounding physical world.
worldviewnoun
A person's basic beliefs and values that shape how they understand people, events, and life.
wormnoun
A computer program copies itself and spreads its code between computers.
worrynoun
Ongoing uneasy thoughts about possible future problems or danger.
worse-than-average effectnoun
People may judge their abilities as lower than others’ abilities, especially when a task seems difficult.
worshipnoun
Religious acts like prayer or rituals used to show deep respect for a god or sacred belief.
WPPSIabbreviation
An intelligence test for young children in preschool and early elementary school.
WRAIRabbreviation
These initials name a U.S. Army research institute studying health topics including infections, sleep, mental health, and brain function.
wraparound servicesnoun
A person, family, and providers jointly plan tailored, coordinated community services and everyday supports around that person’s needs.
WRATabbreviation
Called Wide Range Achievement Test in full, this standardized assessment measures reading ability, spelling accuracy, and basic math skills.
writer’s blocknoun
Difficulty beginning or continuing writing can arise from psychological factors, fatigue, or burnout.
writer’s crampnoun
Involuntary muscle contractions interfere with writing and may cause pain or unusual hand positions.
writing disordernoun
A difficulty involving movement, sensation, or language disrupts a person’s ability to produce writing.
writing testnoun
An assessment measures writing abilities, which may include handwriting movements, spelling, grammar, and the ideas expressed.
wrong number techniquenoun
Researchers pretend to dial incorrectly and request help, testing whether the caller’s apparent social group affects willingness to assist.
WSEabbreviation
The word-superiority effect describes better identification of briefly displayed letters inside words than of letters shown separately.
WSIDabbreviation
These initials name a structured assessment developed to identify distressing low sexual desire in women and related sexual difficulties.
WTPTabbreviation
In walk-through performance testing, evaluators watch employees doing job tasks, ask questions, and rate their performance.
Wundt curvenoun
A proposed bell-shaped relationship suggests stimulation becomes more pleasant as intensity rises moderately, then less pleasant at higher levels.
Wundt illusionnoun
After a prism makes straight lines look bent, removing it can make those lines seem bent the other way.
Würzburg schoolnoun
A historical psychology movement led by Oswald Külpe argued that conscious thinking could involve meanings and judgments without mental images.
Wyatt v. Stickney decisionnoun
A 1972 Alabama federal court ruling required adequate treatment, staffing, and humane conditions for people held involuntarily in hospitals.

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