Glossary / Z
Psychology terms starting with Z
62 terms with short definitions. Study these as flashcards
- z scorenoun
- A standardized value expresses distance from an average using standard deviation as the measuring unit.
- z testnoun
- This statistical test uses a standard normal curve to evaluate how compatible observed results are with a stated hypothesis.
- z transformationnoun
- Fisher's procedure converts a correlation coefficient into a value whose sampling distribution is approximately normal under suitable conditions.
- z-axisnoun
- The third coordinate axis runs at right angles to the other two axes in a three-dimensional Cartesian graph.
- z-score transformationphrase
- Changes raw scores into standard units showing how far each score is from the average in standard deviations.
- zaarnoun
- Within some communities across northern Africa and the Middle East, distress and altered awareness are interpreted as possession by spirits.
- zaleplonnoun
- This prescription sleep medicine acts briefly on GABA receptors to help people with insomnia fall asleep.
- zar (zaar)noun
- Some communities in northern Africa and the Middle East interpret episodes of emotional, bodily, or awareness changes through spirit possession beliefs.
- Zarontinnoun
- This brand names ethosuximide, a medicine used to control absence seizures that briefly interrupt awareness.
- Zeigarnik effectnoun
- People often remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than ones they have already completed.
- Zeitgebernoun
- An outside cue, such as daylight, helps synchronize the timing of an organism's internal biological rhythms.
- Zeitgeistnoun
- The ideas, values, and attitudes common during a historical period shape its cultural atmosphere and influence people's thinking.
- Zelen’s designnoun
- This controversial research design randomly assigns patients to treatment groups before seeking their consent to study participation.
- zelotypianoun
- This uncommon word describes excessive enthusiasm or insistence when promoting a cause.
- Zen Buddhismnoun
- This Buddhist tradition emphasizes meditation and direct insight as paths toward awakening beyond understanding gained only through words.
- Zen therapynoun
- This psychotherapy approach draws on Zen meditation and philosophy to explore personal meaning, awareness, and connection with existence.
- Zener cardsnoun
- A deck containing 25 cards with five repeated symbols was designed for experiments investigating claimed extrasensory abilities.
- Zeno’s paradoxesnoun
- These ancient philosophical arguments challenge motion and the existence of multiple things by exposing puzzles involving endless division.
- zero-delay matching to samplenoun
- In this task, participants select a matching item from choices displayed immediately after the original sample disappears.
- zero-order correlationnoun
- This statistic describes how two variables vary together without adjusting for additional variables that might influence their relationship.
- zero-sum gamenoun
- A situation has this structure when gains for some participants are exactly balanced by losses for others.
- zestnoun
- A sense of physical or mental energy gives a person liveliness and enthusiasm.
- ZIFTabbreviation
- In zygote intrafallopian transfer, eggs fertilized in a laboratory are placed into a person's fallopian tubes.
- zimbonoun
- Dennett's hypothetical being behaves like a human and examines its own mental activity, while supposedly lacking private conscious qualities.
- zincnoun
- This chemical element is an essential nutrient that helps many enzymes carry out the body's chemical reactions.
- ZIOFabbreviation
- This abbreviation names the range of bodily activation associated with a particular person's best performance.
- Zipf’s lawnoun
- In the word-length sense, frequently used words tend to be shorter than words people use less often.
- ziprasidonenoun
- This second-generation antipsychotic medicine treats schizophrenia and manic or mixed episodes in bipolar disorder.
- zoanthropynoun
- A person experiencing this delusion believes they are an animal or can physically become one.
- ZOFabbreviation
- This abbreviation describes a range of bodily activation within which someone performs most effectively.
- Zofrannoun
- This brand names ondansetron, a medicine that blocks certain serotonin receptors to prevent or reduce nausea and vomiting.
- Zöllner illusionnoun
- Parallel lines seem tilted relative to each other when short diagonal strokes cross them at contrasting angles.
- Zoloftnoun
- This brand names sertraline, an antidepressant that reduces serotonin reuptake and treats depression and several anxiety-related conditions.
- zolpidemnoun
- This prescription insomnia medicine increases GABA's calming effects at particular brain receptors to help promote sleep.
- zombienoun
- In philosophy, an imagined being behaves exactly like a conscious person while having no subjective experiences.
- zombie argumentnoun
- This philosophical argument proposes that an imaginable human duplicate lacking inner experience challenges purely physical explanations of consciousness.
- zone of comparison testnoun
- This polygraph method arranges comparison and relevant questions to compare bodily responses and reduce adjustment to the questioning pattern.
- zone of optimal functioning (ZOF)noun
- An individual performs best within a particular range of bodily activation, which can differ across people and tasks.
- zone of potentialitynoun
- A student's possible growth in a particular subject or skill falls within this range of capacity.
- zone of proximal developmentphrase
- The gap between what a child can do alone and what they can do with skilled help.
- zonulesnoun
- Fine fibers suspend the eye's lens from nearby ciliary structures and transmit tension that helps change its shape for focusing.
- zoo-prefix
- This word-building element adds the meaning of animal or animals to a word.
- zooerasty (zooerastia)noun
- This older word describes sexual contact between a human and a nonhuman animal for sexual gratification.
- zoolagnianoun
- This word describes sexual attraction directed toward nonhuman animals rather than toward people.
- zoom-lens model of attentionnoun
- This model proposes that visual attention can cover wider or narrower areas, with broader coverage reducing processing detail.
- zoomorphismnoun
- People assign animal characteristics to humans, gods, or objects, or use animal processes to explain human behavior.
- zoopharmacognosynoun
- Some nonhuman animals select plants or plant parts that can help relieve illness or remove parasites.
- zoophilianoun
- A person experiences a recurring pattern of sexual attraction toward nonhuman animals.
- zoosadismnoun
- A person experiences sexual excitement from deliberately causing an animal to suffer.
- Zuckerman Sensation-Seeking Scalenoun
- A questionnaire measures how strongly someone prefers excitement, new experiences, adventure, and freedom from routine.
- zuclopenthixolnoun
- A first-generation antipsychotic medicine helps manage psychotic symptoms but can cause sleepiness, stiffness, and involuntary movements.
- Zugunruhenoun
- Animals become more active and restless as their seasonal migration period approaches.
- Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS)noun
- A 20-item questionnaire asks adults about depressive symptoms to estimate their severity and track changes over time.
- Zurich Schoolnoun
- An early group of psychoanalysts based in Zurich followed Carl Jung's ideas about the mind.
- Zwaardemaker olfactometernoun
- An early smell-testing device delivered an odor through a glass tube to one nostril when a person sniffed.
- Zwaardemaker smell systemnoun
- A historical classification proposed nine basic odor qualities whose combinations could explain the smells people experience.
- Zybannoun
- This brand of bupropion is used to help people stop smoking.
- Zydisnoun
- In this context, the name identifies a dissolving tablet form of olanzapine, an antipsychotic medicine.
- zygomaticusnoun
- These facial muscles help lift the upper lip and mouth corners, and researchers measure their activity when studying emotion.
- zygotenoun
- A fertilized egg with a full set of chromosomes that begins developing into an embryo.
- zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)noun
- A fertility procedure places eggs fertilized in a laboratory into the fallopian tubes.
- Zyprexanoun
- This brand of olanzapine is an antipsychotic medicine used to treat schizophrenia and episodes of mania.
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