Gate-Control Theory -- this theory of pain perception was developed by Melzack and
Wall's who indicated that the spinal cord contains a type of neurological "gate" which opens and
closes to either allow or block pain signals to travel to the brain. This gate does not actually open
and close like the gate on a fence, but simply allows pain signals to pass onto the brain when
they are traveling on the small nerve fibers, and does not allow pain signals to pass when they
are traveling on the larger fibers. In this case, there doesn't really need to be anything physical to
produce pain; you only need to have the small nerve fibers send signals onto the brain to feel
pain. This is why, for example, some people who are missing a limb often indicate that they can
feel the missing limb, have pain in the missing limb, etc. Pretty amazing, eh?
Gender -- definitions of masculinity and femininity that are determined by ones culture.
Therefore, the definitions of male and female can change across countries, societies, and
subcultures. Together, all of these socially defined expectations make up the Gender Roles for
masculinity and femininity. An example of gender: A tribe in New Guinea may define
masculinity according to the number of elk that a tribesman has killed, while in American some
might define masculinity according to how much money one makes or how much weight one
can lift. (Note: as small, weak, and poor people, we here at AlleyDog.com do not ascribe to this
definition of masculinity)
Gender Identity -- one's own perception or sense of being male or female. Please do not
confuse this with sexual orientation (as heterosexual or homosexual) or the strength of one's
gender-typing; it is just a person's own knowledge and feelings of being a male or female.
Gender Schema Theory -- a theory of gender development that combines social learning
and cognitive learning theory. Thus, gender roles are formed in part by observing others and
learning from how others act, and from accomplishing different cognitive tasks specific to
cultures that are done by men and by women.
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) -- Hans Selye was a young medical doctor
who noticed that a lot of people were experiencing similar types of symptoms but did not have
any physical cause for the problems. Over time, he came to realize that the problems were
caused by stress. He later determined that the body has a natural, adaptive response to stress that
is composed of three stages: alarm, resistance, exhaustion. When a person gets to the exhaustion
stage, they may experience severe physical problems.
General Experimental Psychology -- a branch of psychology that uses experimental
methods to discover principles of behavior, such as those underlying sensation and perception,
learning and memory, motivation and emotion.
General Intelligence -- when you take an intelligence test you get an overall score and
several specific scores. The overall score that you received, which is measured by all of the tasks
on the test, is considered the representation of your general intelligence.
Generalization -- this term refers to a process within Operant and Classical Conditioning,
where a conditioned response (CR) starts occurring in response to the presentation of other,
similar stimuli, not just the conditioned stimulus (CS). For example, a dog is trained to sit (CR)
when you give the command, "sit" (CS). Soon after that, the dog might sit when you say "hit",
"bit", and "kick". In this case, the CR (sitting) is not only done to the CS (the command, "sit")
but also to commands that are similar.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) -- this is a type of anxiety disorder (obviously)
in which a person feels tense and apprehensive on a very regular basis (sometimes
it seems like they feel this way all the time). In addition, these feelings are
accompanied by actual increases in the autonomic nervous system, such as increased
blood pressure, increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the muscles and
away from the GI tract, etc. A person with GAD may feel tense, upset, jittery,
on edge, etc. almost all the time, have a very difficult time relaxing, feel muscle
aches and pains quite often, be consistently looking around for danger, hardships,
and problems, and may also be depressed. Most often there isn't a definable, tangible
source of the anxiety. Instead these people have anxieties about general situations
and life events. They worry about situations that may arise somehow, some way
in the future. But most often the source is so general that the person can't even
identify it. They just know that something bad is out there and will happen to
them.
Generativity according to Erik Erikson's theory of adolescent development, people at
certain ages have the impulse to become more productive and do things more "worthwhile" in
their lives. For example, people a young adult may feel that it is time to get married, have a
family, and raise children; they may feel the need to start doing work that is more fulfilling and
creative, etc. These feelings of Generativity are most prominent during middle adulthood.
Genes -- the biochemical units of heredity that form the chromosomes. The genes are
essentially the segments of DNA molecules that contain the code for particular peptides or
proteins which then determine who we are (at birth and what we can become - let's not forget
about the importance of environment, but the genes give us the starting point). Our eye color,
skin color, hair color and type, athletic potential, "smarts" potential, etc., are all influenced at
this level.
Genetic Code -- the combination of the genes (arranged in a specific sequence) that is the
blueprint for who we can be. The genes are all independent units that can't do very much. But,
when they are combined into a big sequence or code, they produce and indicate who we can be.
BUT, it is important to know that having a certain genetic code does not necessarily mean that is
who we will become. Rather, there is a difference between all the genes we have (genotype) and
the genes that are actually expressed (phenotype). Plus, environment is absolutely crucial in
determining who we are and who we become.
Genital Stage -- the final stage in Freud's theory of psychosexual development, which begins
in puberty. During this stage, the teenager has overcome latency, made associations with one
gender or the other, and now seeks out pleasure through sexual contact with others. The sexual
contact sought has shifted from the opposite sex parent of the Phallic stage (and overcoming
this), and is now focused on opposite sex people of similar age. The pleasure that they gain is
now through actual physical stimulation of the genitals by opposite sex others.
Genotype -- the total set of genes contained within an organisms cells. Organisms contain
some genes that are expressed (you can consider the "expressed" to mean that the gene is active
or being used) and some that are not. Regardless, all the genes an organism has are considered
the genotype.
Germinal Stage -- the prenatal, developmental stage that begins at conception and lasts
through the second week (that is still prenatal/before birth) of pregnancy. During this time, the
fertilized egg (now called a zygote, and consists of a single cell) makes it way down the
fallopian tube, and begins to have cell reproduction. Eventually, the single celled zygote
becomes a multi celled ball that attaches itself to the wall of the uterus around the end of the
second week, which constitutes the beginning of the embryonic stage.
Gestalt -- this term means organized whole, and is the basis of Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt
Psychologists study how people integrate and organize perceptual information in into
meaningful wholes. For example, can you recognize this, (: > o) ? The reason you may be able to
recognize that these symbols look like a face, is because of some Gestalt principle of
organization that explains how people are able to see some meaningful organization and shape
when individual parts or seen together. Although each of the parts that make up the face have
meaning by themselves, when they are put together, we can are able to perceive them as a whole
unit.
Gestalt Therapy -- developed by Fritz Perls, this type of therapy combines the
psychoanalytic perspective of bringing unconscious feelings to awareness with the humanistic
emphasis of "getting in touch with oneself" in order to help people become more aware of and
able to express their feelings. In addition, it is not enough to just become aware of these feelings,
Gestalt Therapy also helps people realize the importance of taking responsibility for their
feelings and actions.
Good-Patient Role -- yes, this is an actual term. It refers to the situation in which patients
(quite often depressed, anxious, and helpless patients) exhibit cooperative, unquestioning,
undemanding patient behavior, to an excessive degree. These people may go to extremes
because they believe that, as a result of their condition, that they are so helpless and dependent
upon others that they must act in these ways for fear of being abandoned.
Group Polarization -- when people are placed into a group and these people have to deal
with some situation, the group as a whole typically has some overriding attitude toward the
situation. Over time and with group discussion, the group's attitude toward that situation may
change. When it changes in such a way that the group attitude is enhanced and strengthened,
then group polarization has occurred. For example, let's say a group of Republicans gather for a
discuss welfare reform and some new policy proposed by a democratic politician. The welfare
policy calls for more money to be taken from private sector businesses and given to welfare
centers. In the beginning of the discussion, the group as a whole may be somewhat against the
welfare reform policy (thus having an initial group attitude). After discussing the policy, the
group indicates that they are now more against the policy than ever. What has happened is that
the initial attitude has been bolstered and the group is more polarized against the policy.
Grouping -- humans have a tendency to organize stimuli into some coherent groups. We like
to categorize things and maintain some organization with most stimuli. For example, we meet a
new person, and immediately we group them into gender, height, weight, race, etc. This
categorization process is done by "grouping" information into logical categories.
Groupthink the best way to define this term is to tell you how Irving Janus (the main
researcher on this topic) describes it. Janus (1972) said that groupthink is "a deterioration of
mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures."
Essentially, people within a group become so consumed with the group, maintaining group
cohesiveness, and doing what is important for the group that they themselves lose their ability to
think independently and make good, sound judgments. There are quite a few symptoms and
causes of groupthink, but it is important to know what groupthink is and that it has been used to
explain a variety of tragic events throughout history such as, mass suicides (like the Heaven's
Gate suicides), poor political decisions (like the Bay of Pigs invasion), riots, and more.