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magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): is a painless diagnostic tool which uses a magnetic field and radio waves to see inside the body without using x-rays or surgery; a computer then interprets the radio waves and creates a picture of the internal body tissues.
maladaptive behavior: behavior that bring stress.
manic depressive disorder: see bipolar disorder/depression
manifest content: in Freud’s theory of dreams, the superficial, symbolic form of a dream which the conscious mind is aware of, both during sleep and on waking, which is assumed to hide the true meaning.
mania:
an
emotional state typified by intense elation, unrestricted
euphoria,
hyperactivity, excessive talkativeness, grandiose feelings or thoughts
and disrupted thought processes.
Mann-Whitney U test:
A non-parametric
inferential statistical test. Employed with
ordinal data and independent groups.
Maslow (1908-1970)
:
a
humanistic psychologist who proposed
humanistic psychology as a third force?in reaction to
the perspectives of
psychoanalysis and
behaviourism, and the belief that humans are essentially
good. Maslows ‘hierachy
of needs‘proposes a
psychological structure of needs and tendencies, whereby
basic needs (e.g. hunger) must be satisfied before higher
needs (e.g. self-esteem) can be achieved, towards an
ultimate goal of
self-actualisation.
matched pairs design
:
participants
in different conditions are matched according
to certain characteristics, e.g. age or
gender.
maternal deprivation:
children deprived of maternal care and love in early
childhood are likely to suffer some degree of
emotional,
social or
intellectual retardation in later life. Prolonged
separation (resulting in an
attachment bond breaking) was
proposed by
Bowlby to cause the
deprivation syndrome.
maturation/a>:
processes
in development which seem to be relatively independent of
environmental influences, such as depth perception and
walking; implied in the term is the assumption that the
characteristics are governed by
heredity.
mean:
measure of central tendency, calculated by the total sum of all the
scores, divided by the total number of scores.
median: measure of central tendency
that utilises the mid-point of the ranked data.
means-ends analysis:
a type of problem solving strategy that is used in
computer programs, whereby problems are broken down into
their constituent parts and then solved in turn until the
solution is found.
measure of
dispersion:
a measurement of the spread or variability in a set of
scores.
medical model:
a
theory of
abnormal behaviour which assumes that all such disorders
have
physiological causes.
medical model of
abnormality:
views
mental disorders as having
physiological causes , e.g.
genetic and
biochemical.
meditation: refers to
techniques that focus the
mind and promote a state of
calmness so that the
mind and body can be brought into greater harmony to
facilitate health and healing.
medulla:
a small region of the
brain stem, that regulates basic
bodily processes including breathing and the heartbeat.
MEG (magnetoenecephalography):
non-invasive technique for visualising (imaging) the
brain by
recording tiny magnetic fields produced by active
neurons.
melancholia:
originally first described by the Greeks and Romans, and
characterised by a deep and persistent sadness and now
corresponds closely to
depression.
memory:
the
capacity to encode, retain, store and retrieve information.
mental:
refers to the
mind, the collective aspects of
intellect and
consciousness.
mental set:
in
Gestalt
theory
, the
schema used to organise perception of
a new problem.
mental age:
the level of
intellectual functioning which is suitable for
children of a particular age. Typically, mental age is
equivalent to chronological age, but if a child is of
lower/higher
intelligence the mental age will be accordingly
lower/higher than chronological age.
mental disorders:
anxiety disorders,
conduct disorder,
depressive disorders,
oppositional defiant disorder,
pervasive development disorder or
Tourette’s syndrome.
mental health:
a state of
psychological and
emotional well-being that enables an individual to work,
love, relate to others effectively, and resolve conflicts.
mental retardation:
individuals who have significantly below average
intellectual functioning, with
IQ scores of 70-75 or below,
combined with inability to use adaptive skills.
mere exposure effect:
the
higher the levels of exposure to a
stimulus, the more likely
we are to develop a greater attraction to it.
meta-analysis:
a
statistical technique that involves combining and analysing
the data of a number of independent studies.
metabolic:
pertaining to all chemical functions within
the body.
method of loci:
a technique
to increase
memory effectiveness through memorising a series
of different locations (such as rooms in a house) and then
imagining an item to be remembered at each location. Items
are then
recalled by mentally
“walking through” the house
and “seeing” the item.
midbrain:
a region of the
brain that relays sound input to the
auditory cortex.
milieu therapy:
a
humanistic approach to the treatment of
psychological
disorders that emphasises the importance of an institution
in recovery. An environment is created whereby staff and
patients are viewed as equal, and an atmosphere is fostered
of self-respect.
Milgram (1933- 1984):
an
influential
social psychologist who is best known for his
controversial study on obedience to authority, under
conditions whereby obeying conflicts with personal
conscience.
mind:
collectively refers to the aspects of
intellect and
consciousness manifested as combinations of
thought,
perception,
memory,
emotion,
will and
imagination;
mind is the stream of
consciousness. It includes all of the
brain’s
conscious processes.
minority influence:
the effect when a persuasive minority exerts pressure to
change the
attitudes, beliefs or behaviours of the majority.
Minorities are most influential when they appear consistent
and principled.
misattribution:
a mistaken
attribution of an
emotional response to a cause that
did not produce it.
mitosis:
a type of
cell division within the body, whereby cells divide into
other cells, each with the full set of
chromosomes.
Each of these cells receives an exact copy of the
chromosomes in the original cell. During development,
mitosis occurs again and again, until finally the adult
organism is created.
mnemonics:
techniques that improve
memory, often through using existing
familiar information (e.g. imagery) during the encoding of
new information to aid later retrieval and access. See
method of loci.
mock juries:
a
group of
participants who are required to imagine and act as
members of a jury, to investigate factors affecting the
decision making process.
mode:
the
score that occurs most frequently within a data sample.
modelling:
the term
used by
Bandura to describe the process of learning and
socialisation, through observing and
imitating others.
monism:
the view that
mind and body are a single unit.
monozygotic
(identical) twins:
twins that develop from the same
zygote (egg) and therefore
share 100 percent of their
genes.
mood:
mental or
emotional state.
mood disorders:
a mood
disturbance, characterised by
emotional extremes,
alternating between extreme
depression and
mania.
moral development:
the
process through which children learn to understand the
differences between right and wrong and can make independent
decisions on moral issues.
morality:
in the strictest sense of the word, deals with that which is
innately regarded as right or wrong. The term is often used
to refer to a system of principles and judgments shared by
cultural, religious, and
philosophical concepts and beliefs,
by which humans
subjectively determine whether given actions
are right or wrong.
moral realism:
part of
Piagets
theory of
moral development, whereby children
understand that the rules of adults are firm and
unquestionable.
moratorium:
a term
devised by
Erikson to describe a period during which
adolescents consider various values and goals, in order to
understand and establish their own individual identity.
mores:
refers to
standards of behaviour or
customs that are appropriate
within a society, and accepted by the majority.
morpheme:
the
smallest significant unit of speech that conveys meaning.
motivation:
an
internal state that
arouses, drives and directs behaviour,
that have been accounted for by
physiological explanations
(e.g. internal drives such as hunger),
behavioural
explanations and
psychological explanations (e.g. for
complex human behaviours, such as the need for achievement).
motive:
a specific need or desire, such
as hunger or achievement, that energizes and directs
behavior.
motor neuron:
nerves that
transmit messages from the central nervous system (i.e.
spinal cord or
brain) to individual muscle cells .
MRI: see
magnetic resonance imaging.
multiaxial diagnosis:
used in the
DSM classification system of
mental disorders, whereby patients are assessed on a variety
of axises (e.g. clinical conditions,
psychosocial and
environmental factors)
multimodal therapy:
a
cognitive behavioural therapy developed by
Lazarus,
which aims to consider all aspects of a disorder. To be
effective, seven different dimensions, represented by BASIC
IB?(behavior, affects, sensations, images, cognitions,
interpersonal relationships, and biological functioning)
must be focused on and treated.
multiple personality
disorder (MPD):
a
dissociative disorder, whereby two or more distinct and
separate personalities are manifested within the same
individual, each displaying different interests,
memories
and behaviour patterns.
multi-store
model of memory:
devised
by
Atkinson and
Shiffrin, represents memory as a flow of
information in a set sequence between a rigid set of
structures, including sensory
memory,
short-term memory and
long-term memory.
myelin sheath:
a layer of
fatty tissue that covers the
axons of nerve cells,
insulating the
axon from other
axons and to increase the
conduction of nerve impulses along the
axon.
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