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id In Freud's theory, a term for the most primitive reactions of human personality, consisting of blind strivings for immediate biological satisfaction regardless of cost. See also ego, superego.
ideas of reference A characteristic of some mental disorders, notably schizophrenia, in which the patient begins to think that external events are specially related to her personally (e.g., "People walk by and follow me").
identical twins Twins that originate from a single fertilized egg that then splits into two exact replicas that develop into two genetically identical individuals. See also fraternal twins.
identity crisis A hypothesized period of adolescence in which the individual must discover who and what he really is.
ill-defined problems Problems for which the goal state is defined only in general terms, and for which the available steps in reaching that goal state are not specified.
illusory conjunction A pattern of errors found, for example, in visual search tasks, in which observers correctly perceive the features present (redness, greenness, roundness, angularity) but misperceive how these were combined in the display (and so they might see a green O and a red X when, in fact, a green X and red O were presented).
illusory correlation A perception that two facts or observations tend to occur together, even though they do not, such as the erroneous belief that all accountants are introverted.
implicit attitude An attitude that a person does not realize she holds, but which nonetheless influences her actions and other beliefs.
implicit memory Memory retrieval in which there is no awareness of remembering at the time of retrieval. See also explicit memory.
implicit theories of personality Beliefs about the way in which different patterns of behavior of people hang together and why they do so.
impression management The steps that people take to influence or guide how other people perceive them.
imprinting A learned attachment that is formed at a particular period in life (the critical, or sensitive, period) and is difficult to reverse (e.g., the duckling's acquired tendency to follow whatever moving stimulus it encounters twelve to twenty-four hours after hatching).
incidental learning Learning without trying to learn (e.g., as in a study in which participants judge a speaker's vocal quality when she recites a list of words and are later asked to produce as many of the words as they can recall).
incubation The hypothetical process of continuing to work on a problem unconsciously after one has ceased to work on that problem consciously. Most contemporary investigators are skeptical about whether such a process truly exists.
independent variable The variable used within a study as a possible basis for making predictions. In an actual experiment, the independent variable is manipulated by the experimenter; in a correlational study, the independent variable is observed and then used as a (potential) basis for predicting other data.
individualism A cultural pattern in which people are considered to be fundamentally independent and in which the emphasis is on the ways a person can stand out through achieving private goals. Individualist societies include the dominant cultures of the United States, Western Europe, Canada, and Australia. See also collectivism.
induced motion Perceived movement of an objectively stationary stimulus that is enclosed by a moving framework.
induced motion of the self A pattern in which surrounding objects are in fact moving but are perceived as stationary, and in which the self is therefore (falsely) perceived as moving. An example occurs in traffic, when the next car rolls forward but is misperceived as stationary and one's own car is misperceived as rolling backward.
inductive reasoning Reasoning in which one observes a number of particular instances and tries to determine a general rule that covers them all.
information-processing approach A perspective that seeks to explain some aspect of behavior by referring to the underlying capacities to remember, pay attention, solve problems, and so on.
informed consent A procedural step, conducted before an experiment begins, in which the research participants are asked to give their agreement to participate, based on full information about what the experiment will involve.
in-group The social group that one is a member of, usually perceived as more homogeneous than other groups of which one is not a member.
inhibitor A stimulus which signals that an event is not coming, and which thereby produces a response opposite to that ordinarily produced by the stimulus that is now signaled as not coming.
initial state The status a person is in at the start of her attempts toward solving a problem. In solving the problem she hopes to move from this initial state to the problem's goal state.
inner ear The portion of the ear in which the actual transduction of sound takes place.
instrumental conditioning Also called operant conditioning. A form of learning in which a reinforcer (e.g., food) is given only if the animal performs the instrumental response (e.g., pressing a lever). In effect, what has to be learned is the relationship between the response and the reinforcer. See also classical conditioning.
internal validity The degree to which a study is successful at measuring what it purports to measure, with all confounds removed and the dependent variable sensibly measured.
interneurons Neurons that carry information from one neuron to another (rather than to a gland or muscle fiber or from a sensory receptor).
interpersonal therapy (IPT) A mode of therapy originally intended as a brief method to counter depression, but now extended to other disorders. In this therapy, the focus is on the patient's gaining an understanding of how she interacts with others, and then learning new and more beneficial ways of interacting and communicating.
interposition A monocular depth cue in which objects that are farther away are blocked from view by any other opaque object obstructing their optical path to the eye.
interrater reliability A measure of the agreement among several independent observers of an event or stimulus.
intersexual A child who is not clearly male or female, in some cases because of genetic factors, in others because of morphology.
interval scale A scale in which equal differences between scores can be treated as equal so that the scores can be added or subtracted. See also categorical scale, nominal scale, ordinal scale, ratio scale.
intrinsic motivation Motivation that seems inherent in an activity itself, as when we engage in an activity for its own sake or merely because it is fun.
introspection The process of "looking within" through which a person might try to observe (and perhaps report) the contents of his own mind — his thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, and in some cases the processes through which he came to those current thoughts, beliefs, or feelings.
in vivo desensitization A step used in treating phobias in which the person, at the end of therapy, is gradually exposed to instances of the phobic stimulus or situation in the real world.
ion channels Biochemical "windows" in a cell wall that allow ions to flow in or out of the cell.
ion pumps Biochemical mechanisms that use energy to move ions either into or out of the cell.
iris The smooth circular muscle in the eye that surrounds the pupil and contracts or dilates under reflex control in order to govern the amount of light entering.
ITP See interpersonal therapy.
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