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Psychology terms glossary page 2

Psychology terms explained in plain English. 268 words and meanings, most familiar first.

Word	Meaning
plurality noun	The condition of a single body/person displaying multiple distinct personas.
priming noun	The implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a subsequent stimulus.
projective noun	An assessment test that presents subjects with some sort of stimulus to which they react by projecting or imagining details.
psychogenic adjective	Originating from or caused by state of mind; having a psychological rather than a physiological cause.
purposive adjective	Pertaining to purpose, as reflected in behaviour or mental activity.
rationalization noun	The concealment of true motivation in some non-threatening way.
recidivism noun	Chronic repetition of criminal or other antisocial behavior.
reciprocity noun	The responses of individuals to the actions of others.
rumination noun	Negative cyclic thinking; persistent and recurrent worrying or brooding.
scatology noun	Interest in or obsession with faeces or other excrement.
schizoid noun	Someone with schizoid personality disorder
sensorium noun	The entire sensory apparatus of an organism.
singlet noun	A person who does not have a form of multiplicity, i.e. a single persona occupying one human body.
socialization noun	The process of learning how to live in a way acceptable to one's own society, said especially about children.
stickiness noun	An overemotional attachment to others; clinging in interpersonal relations; difficulty with ending conversations.
structuralism noun	A school of thought that focuses on exploring the individual elements of consciousness, how they are organized into more complex experiences, and how these mental phenomena correlate with physical events.
symbolization noun	The unconscious mental representation of one thing by another.
synaesthesia noun	A neurological or psychological phenomenon whereby a particular sensory stimulus triggers a second kind of sensation.
transposition verb	To take on the role of another person
traumatize verb	To cause a trauma in.
viscosity noun	A tendency to prolong interpersonal encounters.
fixated adjective	Attached to someone or something in a neurotic or pathological manner
abulia noun	Absence of willpower or decisiveness, especially as a symptom of mental illness.
affectionless adjective	Incapable of empathy.
agonic adjective	Of a mode of social interaction based on threats, displays of power, or inducements of anxiety.
agrypnia noun	Persistent loss of sleep; insomnia; sleeplessness.
ambiversion noun	A personality trait having balanced characteristics of both extroversion and introversion.
ambivert noun	A person who is neither clearly extroverted nor introverted, but has characteristics of each.
anhedonia noun	The inability to feel pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable, such as exercise, hobbies, music, sexual activities or social interactions.
anhedonic adjective	Showing anhedonia; having no capacity to feel pleasure.
anlage noun	Temperament, the predominant personality type.
antianxiety adjective	Acting to combat or reduce anxiety.
apperceive verb	To be aware of perceiving; to understand a perception by linking it mentally with a mass of existing ideas of the same object.
associationism noun	A theory that association (of experiences etc) is the basis of consciousness and mental activity
associationist noun	A proponent of associationism.
associationistic adjective	Of or pertaining to associationism.
asyndetic adjective	Of, related to, or characterized by asyndesis: demonstrating an inability or diminished capacity to order thought or speech.
asyndetically adverb	Demonstrating asyndesis, expressed with a seeming inability or diminished capacity to connect ideas.
autosuggest verb	To suggest to oneself.
autotelic adjective	Containing its own meaning or purpose; deriving meaning and purpose from within.
behaver noun	An individual whose behaviour is being monitored or studied.
cathect verb	To focus one's emotional energies on someone or something.
concretization noun	An inability to generalize or perform abstraction accompanied by excessive concentration on specific details, as in a mental disorder or in cognition by children.
constructivism noun	A psychological epistemology which argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from their experiences.
coprophilia noun	A marked interest in excrement; especially the paraphilia involving sexual arousal and pleasure from feces and defecation.
counterconditioning noun	A form of conditioning in which a negative response to a stimulus is replaced by a positive one.
daimonic noun	The unrest that exists in us all which forces us into the unknown, leading to self-destruction and/or self-discovery.
decompensate verb	To deteriorate in function due to an inability to invoke normal defensive mechanisms that compensate for ailments and other stresses.
decompensation noun	The deterioration of cognitive or emotional functionality in a person who is distressed or who suffers from a psychological disorder.
delusionary adjective	Delusional.
derealization noun	The psychological symptom in which the world appears to be unreal, and the patient has a sense of detachment from it.
derepress verb	To cease to repress (a belief, memory, etc.).
derepression noun	The cessation of repression of a belief, memory, etc.
disintegrative adjective	Having disorganized psychological and behavioral processes.
divorcement noun	Complete detachment or disunion.
dystonic adjective	Relating to dystonia.
effortfulness noun	Subjective experience of exertion or effort involved in performing an activity
emotionality noun	The observable component of emotion.
epiphenomenal adjective	Of or pertaining to a mental process that occurs only as an incidental effect of electrical or chemical activity in the brain or nervous system.
epiphenomenalism noun	The doctrine that mental states and processes are simply incidental effects of physiological events in the brain or nervous system and cannot themselves cause any effects in the material world.
exploder noun	A person who directs their anger outward.
fugal adjective	Relating to a fugue
gestaltist noun	A practitioner of gestalt therapy.
habituation noun	The process of becoming accustomed to an internal or external stimulus, such as a noxious smell or loud noise.
hedonics noun	The ethical study of pleasure
hyperkinetic adjective	Of, relating to, or affected with hyperkinesis or hyperactivity.
hypermnesia noun	An elevated level of memory recall.
hysteroid adjective	Similar to hysteria
idiographic adjective	Of or pertaining to individuals
imprinting noun	Any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior.
infrahuman noun	A creature that is not (yet) at the level of understanding of a human being, such as a presymbolic child or an animal.
intellectualize verb	To use (excessive) reasoning and rationalization to block out emotional stress and anxiety associated with painful or traumatic experiences.
interventionism noun	The idea that a person develops cognition through explicit instruction by others, and not merely by being nurtured and allowed to develop individually.
introjection noun	The process whereby the ideas of another are unconsciously incorporated into one's own psyche.
introversive adjective	Introverted

Word	Meaning
kleptomania noun	A psychological disorder that causes an uncontrollable obsession with stealing without economic or material need.
maladaptation noun	The state of being poorly adapted to an environment
maladaptive adjective	Showing inadequate or counterproductive mental and behavioral adaptation to a new situation.
maladjustment noun	The inability to adapt oneself to the needs of others, or to the stresses of normal life.
mateship noun	A relationship based on mating.
metamer noun	One of multiple physically distinct stimuli (particularly those of colour) that exhibit metamerism.
metamerism noun	The matching of a perceived attribute between objects with differing physical attributes.
metapsychology noun	The philosophical study of psychology and of the mind.
minimization noun	The tendency to present events as trivial or unimportant; trivialization
neurasthenia noun	An ill-defined medical condition characterized by lassitude, fatigue, headache, and irritability, associated chiefly with emotional disturbance.
nonself noun	Any entity other than oneself.
nurturance noun	The provision of physical and emotional care.
nurturant adjective	That provides nourishment; nurturing.
orthopsychiatry noun	Branch of psychiatry concerned with the prevention of mental illness, especially in the young
overlearn verb	To learn (something) to the point where responses become instinctive.
preconscious adjective	(of memories) that one is not aware of, but which can be recalled through conscious effort
preconsciously adverb	In terms of, or by means of, the preconscious.
pregenital adjective	Describing psychosexual development prior to the genital phase
presentative adjective	Of or pertaining to a presentation ("an image formed in the mind after an object is perceived").
psychobiology noun	The study of the biological basis for cognition and other mental processes.
psychohistory noun	The scientific study of psychology and motivation in history.
psychometrician noun	A person who administers psychometric tests.
psychometrics noun	The design of psychological tests to measure intelligence, aptitude and personality; and the analysis and interpretation of their results.
psychometry noun	The use of psychological tests to measure intelligence, abilities, attitudes, and personality traits.
psychophysics noun	The branch of psychology concerned with the effects of physical stimuli on mental processes
puerilism noun	Childlike behavior by an adult, especially as indicating a mental disorder.
pyromania noun	A compulsive disorder characterized by obsession with fire or uncontrollable urges to start fires.
reactance noun	An emotional reaction in direct contradiction to rules or regulations that threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms.
recept noun	An idea that is formed by the repetition of percepts.
redintegrate verb	To reinstate a memory by redintegration.
redintegration noun	The reinstatement of a memory upon the presentation of a stimulus element that was a part of the stimulus complex that had aroused the event.
selfhood noun	State of having a distinct identity, or being an individual distinct from others; individuality.
stim verb	To perform such a repetitive self-stimulatory action.
stressor noun	An environmental condition or influence that stresses (i.e. causes stress for) an organism.
sublimation noun	The transformation of an impulse into something socially constructive.
supraliminal adjective	Being above the threshold of consciousness or of sensation.
syntonic adjective	In harmony or synergy with one's personality and milieu.
systemize verb	To engage in a cognitive process described as the drive to analyze and construct systems.
transactional adjective	Based on value derived from transactions rather than on morals, ethics, or principles; pragmatic or amoral rather than moral.
transpersonal adjective	That transcends the personal or individual
traumatization noun	The infliction of trauma; the act or process of traumatizing.
unipolar adjective	Not both depressive and manic; not bipolar.
veridicality noun	The degree to which something, such as a knowledge structure, is veridical; the degree to which an experience, perception, or interpretation accurately represents reality.

Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources