Psychology Glossary

The Glossary of Psychology describes everything about the World of Psychology. Terms, Treatments, biographies, ... .

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The Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) refers to the disease caused by the human immunodeficiency (or immune deficiency) virus (HIV) that attacks the immune system and leaves the person susceptible to unusual infections.

Polio is defined as an infection caused by the Poliomyelitis enterovirus. The majority of infections in Polio are characterised by a mild fever, usually with diarrhea or vomiting. In a minority of subjects, weakness or complete paralysis of any of the skeletal muscles appears , although after a few days or weeks, the weakness begins to improve and may continue to do so for a few years. In the most severely Polio affected patients, however, all the trunk and limb muscles, and the swallowing and breathing muscles, may be affected and to maintain life, the treatment with mechanical respiratory support is required. After World War 2, Polio occurred in widespread epidemics, but with the introduction in the late 1950's of effective immunisation these epidemics have largely disappeared.

Fast mapping is defined as a process of quickly determining a word's meaning, which facilitates children's vocabulary development ; process of acquiring new words rapidly; ability to learn new words based on very little input. Moreover, Fast mapping, refers to the process children engage in when they hypothesize a meaning for a newly heard word on the basis of hearing the word once or at most a few times. It is teh formation of a rapid, initial, partial understanding of the meaning of a word by relating it to the known vocabulary and restructuring the known-word storage space and its related conceptual categories .

Cystic fibrosis refers to a fatal genetic disorder in which mucus obstructs the lungs and pancreas. Moreover, Cystic Fibrosis refers to an inherited condition that causes the sweat glands to produce excess salt, and the mucous glands to produce abnormally thick, adherent mucus. The two main areas of the body involved are the pancreas (part of the digestive system) and the lungs. In the pancreas, the small channels (through which the enzymes produced in the pancreas flow to reach the intestines) become blocked with mucus. This results in cysts forming and these lead to fibrosis in the pancreas. This is controlled by physiotherapy and drugs to help clear the mucus, and antibiotics to tackle the infections. The thick mucus also collects in the lungs, blocking some airways and resulting in damage from the infection. Much of this damage can be prevented by adequate treatment of infections.

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