Psychology by Credo Reference: Fields & Influences

Branch of biology concerned with the study of body structure of various organisms, including humans.

Branch of biology concerned with the study of heredity and variation - inheritance. It aims to explain how characteristics of living organisms are passed on from one generation to the next.

Scientific study of language, covering the structure (morphology and syntax; see grammar), sounds (phonology), and meaning (semantics), as well as the history of the relations of languages to each other and the cultural place of language in human behavior.

The science and art of treating and preventing disease.

A branch of medical science which studies the actions, uses, and undesirable side-effects of drugs. The first descriptions of remedies from plant sources were made by the ancient Greeks and Chinese.

Study of the ultimate reality, causes, and principles underlying being and thinking.

In its broadest sense, the study of all pharmacological agents that affect mental and emotional functions. The term is usually applied more specifically to the study and synthesis of drugs used in the control of psychiatric illnesses, namely the antipsychotic, antianxiety, antidepressant, and antimanic medications.

Scientific study of human social behavior. As the study of humans in their collective aspect, sociology is concerned with all group activities—economic, social, political, and religious.

The supervisory center of the nervous system in all vertebrates. It also serves as the site of emotions, memory, self-awareness, and thought.

Body control system composed of a group of glands that maintain a stable internal environment by producing chemical regulatory substances called hormones.

From The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
Ever since Scoville and Milner’s 1957 report on the patient H.M., who suffered a profound amnesia following bilateral surgical resection of the medial temporal lobe, it has been clear that the hippocampal region of the brain plays a critical role in memory.

In biology, a chemical secretion of the ductless endocrine glands and specialized nerve cells concerned with control of body functions.

From The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology
A relatively small (peanut-sized) but extremely complex structure at the base of the brain (below the thalamus) that is intimately involved in control of the autonomic nervous system and a variety of functions that are crucially related to survival, including temperature regulation, heart rate, blood pressure, feeding behavior, water intake, emotional behavior and sexual behavior.

Network of specialized tissue that controls actions and reactions of the body and its adjustment to the environment.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Chemical that transmits information across the junction (synapse) that separates one nerve cell (neuron) from another nerve cell or a muscle.

In anthropology, the integrated system of socially acquired values, beliefs, and rules of conduct which delimit the range of accepted behaviors in any given society.

Process, beginning at birth, of developing intellectual capacity, skills, and social awareness, especially by instruction.

In ecology, the sum of conditions affecting a particular organism, including physical surroundings, climate, and influences of other living organisms. Areas affected by environmental issues include the biosphere and habitat.

Transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents.

In psychology, the patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion unique to an individual, and the ways they interact to help or hinder the adjustment of a person to other people and situations.

A system of thought, feeling, and action that is shared by a group and that gives the members an object of devotion; a code of behavior by which individuals may judge the personal and social consequences of their actions; and a frame of reference by which individuals may relate to their group and their universe.

Level of consumption that an individual, group, or nation has achieved. The evaluation of a standard of living is relative, depending upon the judgment of the observer as to what constitutes a high or a low scale.

Structures in a cell nucleus that carry the many thousands of genes, in sequence, that determine the characteristics of an organism.

From Penguin Dictionary of Biology
Branch of biology which studies those causal interactions between genes and their products which bring the phenotype into being.

Slow gradual process of change from one form to another, as in the evolution of the universe from its formation to its present state, or in the evolution of life on Earth.

From The Sage Dictionary of Cultural Studies
Evolutionary psychology is concerned with the evolution of the cognitive mechanisms that arose as fitness-enhancing effects in the context of our ancestral environments.

Basic unit of inherited material, encoded by a strand of DNA and transcribed into RNA. In higher organisms, genes are located on linear chromosomes.

Transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents.

Process of nuclear division in a living cell by which the number of chromosomes is reduced to half the original number.

Process of "shuffling" of genes by which new combinations can be generated.

In biology, the process by which a living organism produces other organisms more or less similar to itself.