Review
Product Description
The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology has become a byword for demystifying the language of this complex subject. Now fully updated for its fourth edition, this wide-ranging and accessible dictionary is invaluable for both students and professionals, and an indispensable guide to all areas of psychology and psychiatry.
-Covers related fields such as neuroscience and social psychology
-Describes how terms are employed, their wider connotations and past usage
-Looks in detail at such key concepts as addiction and instinct
From the Publisher
Some sample entries:
EXCITATION
1 In physiology, a process whereby some stimulus energy pattern sets up a change or pattern of changes in a receptor. The energy here may be either physical or other neutral activity; see STIMULATION. 2 In the study of learning, a general high level of activity in the whole nervous system; a reasonable synonym here is drive state. 3 In social psychology, an increase in psychological tension; this meaning is intuitively close to conventional usage.
TROXLER'S EFFECT
A visual phenomenon. When an observer maintains fixation on a point directly in front while attempting to view a stationary line off to one side, this peripheral stimulus disappears. It is especially striking at low illumination levels but occurs at high levels as well, when a sort of visual fog seems to creep in from the periphery, obscuring objects. A slight movement in the periphery causes the peripheral stimuli to reappear.
SEROTONIN
A neurotransmitter found in neural pathways of peripheral ganglia and in the central nervous system. Also known as 5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT, it is an inhibitory transmitter the actions of which have been implicated in various processes, including sleep, pain, and the psychobiology of various affective disorders, specifically depression and bipolar disorder. At the time or writing, at least nine different types of serotonin receptors have been identified. Interestingly, while serotonin is involved in mediating many important behaviours, only some 1-2% of the body's serotonin is found in the nervous system: most is in the mucous membranes of the gastrointestinal system and blood platelets.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Rhianon Allen was born in Dinbych, in the north of Wales in 1950. She completed her BA at the University of British Columbia and her PhD at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is a Professor Emerita at Long Island University in New York, where she began work in 1985.
Arthur S. Reber was born in 1940 in Philadelphia. He took his BA degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1961 and his PhD at Brown University in 1967. He is Broeklundian Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Emily Reber (Roberts) was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1969. She did her BA in Behavioural Science at the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Princeton University.
