Comprehensive Psychology Glossary: Terms and Definitions
Comprehensive Psychology Glossary
A
Aberration
The discharge or release of emotional tension associated with an idea, conflict, or repressed unpleasant memory. This is achieved by reliving a painful emotional experience.
Abstinence Syndrome
The set of signs and symptoms that occur after physical or psychological dependence on drug use and its abrupt cessation.
Abulia
Apathy and lack of willpower that includes failure to take one’s own initiatives.
Acrophobia
Fear of high places.
Adaptation
A state in which a subject establishes a balanced relationship, lacking conflict, with their social environment.
Adaptation Syndrome, General
The set of negative physical and psychological symptoms that appear when a subject must face a novelty.
Adrenaline
A hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, whose function is to increase blood pressure and heart rate frequency.
Affection
A pattern of observable behaviors that is the expression of feelings (emotions) experienced subjectively. Sadness, joy, and anger are common examples of affection. Expression varies greatly between different cultures.
Mood Disorders
Mood disorders include the following types:
- Flattened: Absence or near absence of any signs of affective expression.
- Dull: Significant reduction in the intensity of emotional expression.
- Inappropriate: Discordance between affective expression and the content of speech or ideation.
- Labile: Abnormal variability in affect with repeated, rapid, and sudden changes in affective expression.
- Restricted or Constrained: Reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression.
Affective Blockade
Inability to express feelings or emotions, sometimes characterized by a state of stupor.
Affectivity
The set of emotions and feelings that an individual may experience through different living situations.
Affiliation
A defense mechanism in which the individual turns to others for help or support, which means sharing problems without trying to attribute them to others.
Aphasia
Impaired understanding or communication of ideas through language in any form (reading, writing, or speech), due to trauma or disease of the brain centers involved in language.
Aphonia
Inability to produce speech sounds that require the use of the larynx, not due to central nervous system injury.
Agitation
A state of restlessness or continuous activity not focused on any objective.
Psychomotor Agitation
Excessive motor activity associated with a feeling of inner tension. Usually, the activity is unproductive, repetitive, and consists of behaviors such as fast walking, fidgeting, wringing one’s hands, fondling clothes, and an inability to sit still.
Agoraphobia
Fear of open spaces or crowds.
Aggressiveness
An emotional state consisting of feelings of hatred and desire to harm another person, animal, or object. Aggression is any behavior that seeks to hurt physically and/or psychologically.
Passive Aggression
A defense mechanism in which the individual shows aggression toward others indirectly and unassertively. There is an outward mask of submission to others, behind which lurks resistance, resentment, and covert hostility.
Alcoholism
The set of physical and psychological disorders caused by excessive and continuous consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Alpha Waves
Brain waves recorded on an electroencephalogram. They are high and slow, and occur when the subject is at rest, with eyes closed but not asleep.
Alogia
Impoverishment of thinking that is inferred from the observation of language and verbal behavior. Brief and incomplete replies to questions may be observed, as well as a restriction in the amount of spontaneous speech (poverty of speech). Sometimes the speech is quantitatively correct but contains little information for being too specific, too abstract, repetitive, or stereotyped (poverty of content).
Altruism
A specifically human attitude in which the focus is on achieving the good of others before one’s own, to meet the needs of others. Unlike the self-sacrifice sometimes characteristic of reaction formation, the individual receives a reward (e.g., appreciation from others).
Ambivalence
A motivational conflict that occurs when a person is simultaneously attracted and repelled by the same goal or desire.
Amnesia
Partial or complete loss of memory. It may be due to emotional or organic causes, or a combination of both. There are two types of amnesia:
- Anterograde: Memory leak on events that occurred after the action of the agent.
- Retrograde: Loss of memory about events that occurred before the action of the agent.
Amphetamines
A potent central nervous system stimulant. It decreases appetite and causes a state of subjective well-being with a delayed onset of fatigue. In excessive doses, restlessness, insomnia, irritability, and talkativeness appear. They have a high potential for addiction and create a strong dependency.
Anal Phase
According to Freud, the period between the second and third years of age when the child is concerned with control of sphincters.
Andropause
Termination or reduction, sometimes only temporary, of sexual activity in men.
Anguish
A state of high emotional arousal that contains a sense of fear or apprehension. Clinically defined as a fear reaction to a vague and unknown danger. It is also used as a synonym for anxiety or to refer to its most extreme expression.
Anorexia Nervosa
A psychiatric syndrome in which the patient refuses to eat, leading to alarming weight loss. It usually occurs in young, single women between the ages of puberty and adolescence.
Anticipation
Experiencing emotional reactions before internal or external threats occur, anticipating their consequences and possible future developments, and considering realistic alternative responses or solutions.
Antidepressant
A drug that elevates mood and is used to combat depression.
Anxiety
Anticipated fear of suffering future harm or misfortune, accompanied by a feeling of fear or somatic symptoms of tension.
Anxiogenic
A factor that generates anxiety.
Anxiolytic
A drug that reduces or eliminates anxiety.
Apathy
An impassive mood. A state in which the subject is indifferent and has an inability to react to situations that should arouse emotion or interest.
Apathy of the Beholder
A phenomenon of social behavior in which the observer of a situation where a person is in trouble shows little or no interest.
Applied Psychology
A branch of psychology that focuses on practical problems, dealing with various spheres of activity, in conjunction with other sciences such as pedagogy or linguistics (psycholinguistics).
Archetype
According to Carl Jung, an image or impression that all people innately have in common. It resides in the collective unconscious mind and is equivalent to the concept of instinct in animals.
Association
The mental process by which an idea is spontaneously associated with another.
Free Association
A technique used in psychoanalysis to explore the patient’s unconscious mental life. The patient is asked to talk about everything that comes to mind during the session, regardless of its logical consistency or moral, sexual, or aggressive content.
Aspiration Level
A goal that the subject establishes for themselves to perform a particular task.
Asthenia
Lack of energy, organic weakness.
Asthenic Type
According to E. Kretschmer, a constitutional type characterized by thinness, height, and delicacy. One of the key biotypes.
Ataxia
Partial or complete loss of coordination of voluntary muscle movement.
Attitude
The propensity of a person to respond in a certain way to a stimulus after evaluating it positively or negatively.
Attribution
In social psychology, a tendency to infer the motives, traits, intentions, and capabilities of others based on observation of their behavior. A more or less automatic tendency to seek explanations for the actions of others.
Autism
A mental disorder that particularly affects children. The subject is isolated from the environment, self-enclosed, and pays less attention to the reality that surrounds them.
Assertion
A characteristic of positive social behavior, which aims to defend a right or reach a goal.
Automatism
Dissociation between conduct and consciousness. The set of movements that are performed as an unconscious habit or as a result of a reflex.
Accomplishment
An innate tendency to develop and use one’s talents and potential to contribute to a feeling of satisfaction.
Autosuggestion
An often unconscious process by which the subject convinces themselves of something.
Auto-observation
A mechanism in which the individual reflects on their own thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviors, and acts accordingly.
Avolition
Inability to initiate activities and persist in them. When sufficiently serious to be considered pathological, avolition is widespread and prevents the subject from engaging in different types of activities (e.g., work, intellectual pursuits, self-care).
B
Babbling
A disturbance of language characterized by hesitant and confused speech.
Barbiturate
The generic name for drugs derived from barbituric acid, which have a strong hypnotic action.
Battery of Tests
A set of tests against which to measure certain aspects of a subject’s psychology.
Bella Indifference
Translated from the French name”la belle indifferenc” to describe the indifference or lack of emotional reactions in patients with hysterical conversion symptoms.
Benefit, Primary and Secondary
The advantage or benefit that the individual can draw from a pathological condition. The primary benefit is the reduction of internal tension or the recovery of tenderness or attention from another. The secondary benefit is more complete: once alerted to the symptoms, the patient does not see the interest in being cured, as healing will pose more distressing problems than the disease.
Biotype
A biological type characterized by the constancy of certain physical and mental characteristics.
Boredom
An emotional state of dissatisfaction within an existence that, during that period, is perceived as dull and pointless.
Bulimia
An abnormally intense and sometimes uncontrollable urge to eat.
C
Caffeine
A tonic that stimulates the central nervous system and heart. It enhances brain activity, but its abuse causes cardiac arrhythmia, insomnia, and headaches.
Capacities
Hypothetical mental abilities that would allow the human mind to act and perceive in a way that transcends natural laws.
Catalepsy
A neurological disorder characterized by a complete loss of the ability to voluntarily amend muscle tone, with the patient remaining in the same position for an extended period of time.
Cataplexy
Episodes of sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone that cause the individual to collapse, often in association with intense emotions such as laughter, anger, fear, or surprise.
Catharsis
Liberation, through words, of ideas relegated to the unconscious as a defense mechanism.
Catatonia
A psychomotor syndrome characterized by loss of motor initiative, muscle tension, catalepsy, the presence of parakinetic phenomena (mannerisms, stereotypy, drives), and a mental state of negativism and stupor.
Catecholamine
A hormone that activates the central nervous system.
Censorship
According to Freud, the part of the psyche that blocks or masks thoughts prohibited by the superego.
Character
The set of characteristics that distinguish one person from another.
Character Neurosis
Exaggeration of certain personality traits that cause disorders.
Practical
A person of practical character or temperament is guided by facts, permanently adopts useful attitudes towards them, and does not get carried away by sentimentality.
Chromosome
A structure located inside the cell nucleus. It transmits the genetic code, on which hereditary traits depend.
Claustrophobia
Phobia of enclosed spaces.
Kleptomania
A disturbance in impulse control, characterized by the pathological tendency to steal objects that are subsequently not used for any practical purpose.
Climacteric
The phase of the sexual aging process in which a woman loses her reproductive capacity.
Clinical Psychology
The study of abnormal or pathological behavior.
Closure
Closure is an innate organizing principle of perception, in which gaps separating each sensation are automatically”close” to form complete wholes or configurations.
Cocaine
A stimulant that comes from the coca plant, an evergreen shrub from South America. From this comes coca paste or cocaine hydrochloride, a white powder that acts as a stimulant of the central nervous system. It causes euphoria, excitement, and a sense of well-being. The user does not feel physical or mental fatigue, leading to an overestimation of their abilities.
Cognition
The conscious process of thought and images.
Cognitive Dissonance
When an individual holds two conscious thoughts that are antagonistic to each other.
Cognitive Development
The growth of the intellect over time, the maturation of higher processes of thought from infancy to adulthood.
Cognitive Learning
The active process by which the individual modifies their behavior, giving it a personal meaning.
Compensation
An unconscious psychological mechanism whereby the subject attempts to counter real or imagined inferiority.
Complex
Oedipus Complex
According to Freud, the set of relations established between a child and their parents between two and five years of age, during the phallic phase. The child identifies as a sexual being and directs their amorous desires to the opposite-sex parent, establishing a troubled relationship with the other parent, with jealousy, fear, and guilt. (From the Greek myth of Oedipus.)
Electra Complex
According to Freud, the female equivalent of the Oedipus complex. (From the Greek myth of Electra.)
Inferiority Complex
A complex in which someone constantly feels inferior to others, although there is no cause that justifies this continued feeling.
Compulsion
The unnecessary repetition of acts, derived from a feeling of necessity not under the control of the will. It differs from delusions in that the subject who suffers from it is aware of the absurdity of their conduct.
Concept Formation
The learning process by which we create mental or cognitive classes.
Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning occurs when a previously neutral stimulus becomes capable of causing a learned response.
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the consequences of an organism’s conduct result from its immediate environment. The organism”operate”, so to speak, on the world around it.
Counterconditioning
A process that combines conditioning with extinction. It requires: 1) the presentation of a conditioned stimulus capable of provoking an undesirable response, and 2) the simultaneous presentation of a stimulus capable of provoking an antagonistic response to the undesirable one.
Conduct
The overall reaction of the subject to various environmental situations.
Aggressive Behavior
Occurs when an organism attacks another organism or object, either physically or verbally.
Abnormal Behavior
Behavior that departs significantly from a cultural norm, criterion, or group standard. If the word”abnorma” is used in a negative or pejorative sense, it refers to maladaptive, self-destructive behavior that is usually a cause of distress for the individual or others.
Type A Behavior
A behavior pattern dominated by aggressiveness, impatience, selfishness, and an inability to relax.
Hyperkinetic Behavior
Characterized by restlessness, inattention, and excessive muscle movement.
Instinctive Behavior
Innate behavior, considered more or less a reflex, and a repertoire covering more complex behaviors that depend on maturation and learning.
Neurotic Behavior
Inflexible, maladaptive behavior associated with one or more of the following attributes: excessive anxiety, emotional conflicts, irrational fears, somatic disorders without an organic basis, and a tendency to avoid stressful situations rather than address them effectively.
Social Behavior
Any conduct in which there is interaction between two or more humans.
Conflict
The simultaneous presence, in the same person, of two opposite motivations of equal intensity.
Confusion
Decreased activity of consciousness, from mild lethargy to stupor.
Consciousness
The personality structure in which psychic phenomena are fully perceived and understood by the person.
Object Constancy
The perceived tendency of an object to maintain its size, shape, color, brightness, or other attributes with relative independence of the variations produced in the retinal image.
Constitution
General body conformation. According to certain currents, it is related to personality.
Content
Latent Content
In psychoanalysis, the latent content of a dream is its true meaning, hidden by the manifest or superficial content.
Manifest Content
What the subject recalls and/or consciously tells of a dream, a fantasy, or their thoughts and emotions.
Contiguity
Proximity between two objects or events when they touch each other or are very close in time and space. There is a tendency for people to associate such objects or events with each other.
Conversion
Transformation of an unconscious conflict into somatic, sensory, or motor complaints. A typical phenomenon of conversion hysteria or neurosis.
Convulsion
Contraction or widespread involuntary muscle spasm.
Correlation
Two variables are correlated when they change so that the values of one are, to some extent, predictable from the values of the other.
Cortisone
A hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex.
Countertransference
The unconscious projection of feelings toward the patient by the doctor.
Creativity
An intellectual process characterized by originality, the spirit of accommodation, and the opportunity to make concrete achievements.
Cretinism
Severe mental deficiency, associated with a delay in bone development and due to a malfunction of the thyroid gland.
Crisis
Panic Attacks
Involves the sudden onset of anxiety of high intensity. The typical crisis usually occurs suddenly, without previous warning symptoms. These crises are experienced as a sign of impending doom, the intensity of suffering being equivalent to someone who believes they are about to be killed. It is accompanied by physical symptoms of panic: tachycardia, palpitations, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, nausea or abdominal distress, dizziness, fainting or lightheadedness, pallor, cold hands and feet, chest tightness that sometimes reaches the point of chest pain, sweating, paresthesia (numbness or tingling), fear of losing control or”going craz”, and fear of death.
D
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is an organic molecule whose structure is shaped like a”double heli”. DNA molecules are the basic units from which genes are formed.
Death Instinct
As formulated by Freud, the death instinct or death drive is an innate tendency to seek the destruction of other organisms and self-destruction.
Defense Mechanism
An automatic psychological process that protects the individual from anxiety and awareness of threats, internal or external dangers. Defense mechanisms mediate the individual’s reaction to emotional conflicts and external threats. Several defense mechanisms (e.g., projection, dichotomization, and”acting ou”) are almost always maladaptive. Others, like suppression and denial, may be maladaptive or adaptive depending on their severity, inflexibility, and the context in which they occur.
Delirium
A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained. The belief is not ordinarily accepted by other members of the subculture or culture to which the individual belongs (e.g., there is an article of religious faith). When an erroneous belief involves value judgments, it is only considered a delusion when the judgment is so extreme that it defies credibility. Delusions are subdivided according to their content. Some of the most common types are:
- Delusional Jealousy: The subject believes they are being betrayed by their sexual partner.
- Of Grandeur: Delusions of exaggerated courage, power, knowledge, or identity, or a special relationship to a deity or famous person.
- Of Reference: The subject believes that certain events, objects, or people from their immediate environment take on a particular and unusual significance. These delusions are usually negative or pejorative in nature, but may be of grandeur. They differ from ideas of reference, where the false belief is not held as firmly or as organized as a true belief.
- Of Being Controlled: The subject believes that certain feelings, impulses, or acts are controlled by some external force rather than by themselves.
- Thought Broadcasting: The subject believes that their thoughts are being broadcast out loud so they can be perceived by others.
- Erotomanic: The subject believes that another person, usually of higher status, is in love with them.
- Bizarre: The delusion involves a phenomenon that the individual’s culture considers completely implausible.
- Thought Insertion: The subject believes that certain thoughts are not their own but are being embedded in their mind.
- Persecutory: The subject believes that they (or someone close to them) are being attacked, harassed, beaten, persecuted, or conspired against.
- Somatic: The main content of the delusion concerns the appearance or function of the body.
Depersonalization
Impaired perception or experience of oneself so that one feels separated from one’s body or mental processes, as if one were an outside observer (e.g., feeling like one is dreaming).
Depression
A mood disorder characterized by sadness, apathy, and loss of interest in pleasurable activities.
Deprivation
Emotional Deprivation
Lack of a satisfactory and lasting relationship with one or more persons. It is detrimental to the normal emotional and intellectual development of children.
Derailment (Loose Associations)
A language pattern in which a person’s ideas move away from each other so that they are mutually unrelated or only tangentially related. Moving from one phrase or sentence to another, the subject changes the topic idiosyncratically from one frame of reference to another, saying things as a juxtaposition that has no significant relationship. The disorder occurs between sentences, unlike incoherence, where the disorder occurs within sentences. An occasional change of topic with no obvious connection is not derailment.
Derealization
Impaired perception or experience of the outside world so that it seems strange and unreal (e.g., people may seem unfamiliar or mechanical).
Deterioration
Mental Deterioration
Loss of some of the intellectual capacities of the individual.
Devaluation
Attributing exaggerated negative qualities to oneself or others.
Development
Psychosexual Development
The combination of biological maturation and learning that generates changes in both sexual behavior and personality from infancy to adulthood and throughout the latter.
Psychosocial Development
The growth of a subject’s personality in relation to others and in their capacity as a member of society, from childhood and throughout their life.
Deviation
Sexual Deviation
An anomaly in the choice of an adequate stimulus for sexual arousal.
Standard Deviation
A measure of the dispersion of a set of scores around the mean. To calculate the standard deviation, begin by subtracting the average from each of the scores, which leads to a new set of values called deviation scores. Then square these deviation scores, add the squares, and divide the sum by the number of values in the series to obtain the root mean square deviation or variance. The standard deviation is the square root of the variance.
Disorientation
Confusion about the time of day, date, or season (time); about where one is (place); or about who one is (person).
Displacement
Redirecting a feeling or response from one object to another, usually less important one.
Displacement of Aggression
Occurs when aggressive behavior, whether verbal or physical, moves from the original source of frustration to a substitute object.
Dissociation
Alteration of the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception of the environment. Certain behaviors or thoughts lose their normal relationship with the rest of the personality and act autonomously. The disorder may be sudden or gradual, transient or chronic.
Distractibility
Inability to maintain attention, moving from one area or topic to another with minimal provocation, or paying excessive attention to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli.
Distributed Practice
A learning situation characterized by the inclusion of rest periods or”break” between trials. Contrast this concept with massed practice, a learning situation in which one trial follows another without any rest period.
Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance
When an individual holds two conscious thoughts that are antagonistic to each other.
Double Bind
A communication process in which a person is given two contradictory statements or instructions.
Dreams
An important psychic experience that occurs during sleep. A periodic, spontaneous disruption of conscious activity, accompanied by functional changes in some organs.
Drugs
Natural or synthetic substances that temporarily modify the state of consciousness.
Dualism
The conception that mind and matter are two different entities.
Dysarthria
Imperfect articulation of speech due to disturbances of muscular control.
Dyskinesia
Distortion of voluntary movements with involuntary muscular activity.
Dysmenorrhea
Painful menstruation.
Dyspareunia
Painful intercourse.
Dysphoria
Dysphoria by Sexual Identity
Persistent displeasure with some or all of the physical characteristics or social roles that connote one’s own biological sex.
Dyssomnia
Primary disorders of sleep or awakening characterized by insomnia or hypersomnia as the major symptom. Dyssomnias are disorders of the quantity, quality, or timing of sleep.
Dystonia
Altered muscle tone.
Vegetative Dystonia
Poor coordination of the functions of the two major branches of the autonomic nervous system: sympathetic and parasympathetic. It adversely affects organic functioning, causing palpitations, sweating, etc.
E
Echolalia
Pathological, parrot-like repetition, without apparent meaning, of a word or phrase just uttered by another person.
Echopraxia
Repetition by imitation of the movements of another person. The action is not voluntary and has a semiautomatic and uncontrollable nature.
Ectomorph Type
According to W. Sheldon, a tall and thin morphology.
Effect
Law of Effect
States that if an organism’s response to a stimulus is satisfying, the response will be learned and”imprinte” in its nervous system.
Egocentrism
Exaltation of the personality, considering oneself as the center of attention and general activity. It is common in children and immature adults.
Egoism
Excessive affection for oneself, putting one’s own convenience before others.
Electroencephalogram
A chart of the potential differences produced in brain cells.
Emotion
An affective state, a subjective reaction to the environment, accompanied by organizational changes (physiological and endocrine) of innate origin, influenced by experience, and having an adaptive function. Emotions refer to internal states such as desire or need that drive the body. The basic categories of emotions are fear, surprise, disgust, anger, sadness, and joy.
Emotional Impulse
The innate tendency of an organism to seek physical or emotional contact with another organism.
Emotional Isolation
The separation of ideas from the feelings originally associated with them. The affective component associated with a particular idea (e.g., a traumatic event) is detached, but the cognitive elements (e.g., descriptive details) remain.
Empathy
A mental state in which a subject identifies with another group or person, sharing the same mood.
Empiricism
The doctrine that all our ideas and concepts are derived from experience, and that experience, in turn, is based solely on the information that reaches us through the sense organs.
Endomorph Type
According to W. Sheldon, the type with a soft body and rounded lines.
Endorphins
Natural opiates produced in the brain and pituitary gland. They are considered a class of neurotransmitters.
Enuresis
Involuntary, unconscious emission of urine.
Environment
The living space in which the subject develops. The set of stimuli that influence the individual from the moment of conception.
Environmental Psychology
The part of applied psychology that studies the effects of humans on the environment and vice versa.
Erogenous Zone
A part of the body particularly sensitive to sexual arousal.
Eros
The Greek god of love.
Erotic
Relating to Eros, or love and desire.
Ethology
The science that studies animal behavior.
Euphoria
A state of mental excitement that accompanies a high emotional tone.
Euthymic
A mood within the”norma” range, implying the absence of depressed or elevated mood.
Exaltation
A change in affective tone characterized by feelings of euphoria.
Exhibitionism
A pathological tendency to show one’s genitals in public.
Experimental Psychology
The branch of psychology that uses controlled experiments and observation for the study of behavior.
Extinction
The active process during which the probability of occurrence of a conditioned response gradually decreases. It can be regarded as the unlearning of a habit.
Extraversion
According to C.G. Jung, a characteristic of the”conciliator” individual, apparently open and available, who easily adapts to any situation, relates smoothly and without problems, and faces unfamiliar situations with confidence.
F
Factor Analysis
A statistical tool designed to identify clusters of items correlated with each other in standardized psychological tests. Each of these groups or clusters of related items is called a factor.
Family Therapy
Psychotherapeutic approaches for treating families.
Fantasy
The free movement of thought by which premises and conclusions can ignore reality. Also, a defense mechanism by which mentally produced images substitute invented satisfactions for unreal ones.
Autistic Fantasy
Excessive fantasizing that replaces the search for interpersonal relationships, effective action, or problem-solving.
Fear
An emotional reaction to a threat recognized in consciousness.
Fetish
A psychosexual disorder consisting of achieving sexual excitement through an object.
Fixation
The linking of libido to particular objects belonging to one of its evolutionary states.
Flattened
Absence or near absence of any signs of affective expression.
Flight of Ideas
A nearly continuous flow of accelerated speech with abrupt thematic changes, which are usually based on understandable associations, distracting stimuli, or word games. When severe, speech may be incoherent and disorganized.
Formation
Concept Formation
The learning process by which we create mental or cognitive classes.
Reaction Formation
Replacing behaviors, thoughts, or feelings that are unacceptable with others that are diametrically opposite. (This defense mechanism tends to operate simultaneously with repression.)
Frigidity
Inability to achieve female orgasm.
Frustration
A situation in which the subject encounters an obstacle that prevents them from satisfying a desire or achieving a goal.
G
Gene
The basic unit of heredity.
Generalization
In learning, the phenomenon of giving a response learned to one stimulus in the presence of similar stimuli.
Stimulus Generalization
The tendency of a stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus to evoke a conditioned response, although to a slightly lesser extent.
Genetics
Behavior Genetics
The study of the influence of the genetic structure inherent to an organism in determining traits, talents, and predispositions.
Glands
Adrenal Glands
See adrenal glands.
Grandiosity
Disproportionate evaluation of one’s value, power, knowledge, importance, or self-identity. When extreme, grandiosity can reach delusional proportions.
Group
A number of people who influence each other and pursue a common goal: for example, a family, a political party, or a basketball team.
Control Group
The set of subjects used in an experiment to provide an observation that can be compared with the behavior of the experimental group, which is being studied.
Group Therapy
The simultaneous treatment of many patients (6 to 12) by one or more psychotherapists.
H
Habit
The tendency to act mechanically, especially when the habit has been acquired by exercise or experience. It is characterized by being deeply entrenched and because it can run automatically.
Hallucination
A sensory perception that has the compelling sense of reality of a true perception but that occurs without stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. Hallucinations should be distinguished from illusions, in which an actual external stimulus is misperceived or misinterpreted. The subject may or may not be aware that they are experiencing a hallucination. A person with auditory hallucinations may recognize that they are having a false sensory experience, while another may be convinced that the cause of the sensory experience has an independent physical reality. Here are some types of hallucinations:
- Auditory: Hallucinations involving the perception of sounds, most commonly voices. Some clinicians and researchers do not include experiences that are perceived as originating inside the head and limit the concept of true auditory hallucinations to those sounds whose source is perceived as external.
- Gustatory: Hallucinations involving the perception of taste (usually unpleasant).
- Olfactory: Hallucinations involving the perception of smells, for example, burning rubber or decaying fish.
- Somatic: Hallucinations involving the perception of a physical experience localized in the body (such as a feeling of electricity). Somatic hallucinations must be distinguished from certain physical sensations arising from an undiagnosed medical condition, a hypochondriacal preoccupation with normal physical sensations, and tactile hallucinations.
- Tactile: Hallucinations involving the perception of being touched or having something under one’s skin. Tactile hallucinations are most frequently sensations of tingling and electric shock (the feeling that something is moving or crawling under the skin).
- Visual: Hallucinations involving structured images, for example, people, or informal images, for example, flashes of light. Visual hallucinations should be distinguished from illusions, which are misperceptions of real external stimuli.
Hallucinogens
Substances that can cause sensory disorders, affecting emotion and thinking. They can produce illusions and hallucinations (seeing or feeling something that does not exist in reality).
Hashish
A drug extracted from cannabis. It causes euphoria and excitement in large doses, and hallucinations.
Hate
An emotion reactive against a person or an experience that has hurt or threatened.
Hedonism
The conception that the primary motivating factor of human behavior is the pleasure-pain dimension.
Heroin
Derived from the opium poppy, specifically morphine, which is extracted from a resin called”opiu”. It acts as a depressant of the central nervous system.
Heterosexual
. Individual sexually attracted to persons of the opposite sex.
Hyperacusis. Painful sensitivity to sound.
Hypersomnia. Excessive sleepiness, as evidenced by prolonged nocturnal sleep, difficulty maintaining alertness during the day or daytime sleep episodes unwanted.
Hypersensitivity theory. Theory that whatever the effect of a drug, withdrawal will produce opposite effects. For example, if exciting, abstinence produce depression.
Hypnosis. State of altered consciousness induced by cooperating subject. It is characterized by a narrowing of focus and increased suggestibility.
Hypnotic. A drug that produces a dream-like nature (sleeping pill).
Hypochondria. State characterized by excessive concern for health or disease.
Hypoglycemia. It is an organic disorder that appears in low blood sugar. In people suffering from hypoglycemia and clinical condition this state tends to be chronic, in which case the body is weakened.
Homeostasis. Term indicating regulating the balance of the internal environment and in general of all the body’s activity.
Homosexual. Subject whose affection and erotic desires are directed toward individuals of their own sex.
I I
Delusion. False belief based on incorrect inference on the external reality that is firmly sustained. The belief is not ordinarily accepted by other members of the subculture or culture to which the individual belongs (eg., There is an article of religious faith). When an erroneous belief involves value judgments, only considered when the trial delusion is so extreme that it defies credibility. Delusions are subdivided according to its content. Some of the most common types are:
Delusional jealousy. Delusional thinking that is the subject who is betrayed by her sexual partner.
Of greatness. Delusion of courage, power, knowledge or identity exaggerated, or a special relationship to a deity or famous person.
Reference. Delusion whose theme is that certain events, objects or people from the immediate environment of the subject take a particular and unusual significance. These delusions are usually negative or pejorative nature, but may be of grandeur. They differ from ideas of reference, where the false belief does not hold as firmly as organized nor as a true belief.
To be controlled. Delusion that certain feelings, impulses or acts are experienced as if they were controlled by some external force rather than under the self.
Dissemination of ideas. Delusion that one’s thoughts are being broadcast out loud so they can be perceived by others.
Erotomanic. Delusion that another person, usually of higher status, is in love with the subject.
Strange. Delusion that involves a phenomenon that consider the individual’s culture completely implausible.
Thought insertion. Delusion that certain thoughts are not one’s own sake, but rather are embedded in one’s mind.
Persecutory. Delusion whose theme is that the subject (or someone close to him) is being attacked, harassed, beaten, persecuted or conspired against him.
Somatic. Delusion whose main content is part of the appearance or function body.
Overvalued idea. Persistent and unreasonable belief that is maintained with less intensity than the delusion (that is, the subject is able to accept the possibility that his belief can not be true). Belief is not commonly accepted by other members of the culture or subculture to which the individual belongs.
Paranoid ideation. Ideation involving suspicion or belief of being tormented, persecuted or treated unfairly, but in proportions lower than a delusion.
Idealization. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources attributing exaggerated positive qualities to others.
Ideas of reference. Feeling that certain incidents causal or that certain external events have a particular and unusual meaning is specific for each subject. Be distinguished from a delusion of reference, in which there is a belief held with delusional conviction.
Innate ideas. Ideas in the body since birth, not necessarily in its final form and mature, but at least in germinal form.
Projective identification. Defense mechanism in which the individual incorrectly attributed to other feelings, impulses or thoughts themselves that are unacceptable. Unlike simple projection, in this case the individual is not totally repudiate what he projects. Rather, the individual is aware of their emotions or impulses, but misinterprets the reactions considered justifiable compared to others. It is not uncommon for the individual attributed their feelings to others, making it difficult to clarify who did what to whom first.
Identity. Crisp and clear concept of self.
Sexual identity. A person’s inner conviction about being male or female.
Identification. Unconscious psychic mechanism which induces a subject to behave, think and feel as one who acts as his model.
Idiocy. Grave form of mental impairment, congenital or acquired following brain injury in early childhood.
Illusion. Perception or misinterpretation of real external stimuli, eg listening to the murmur of leaves or the sound of voices.
Picture. Mental representation of an object, person or an event.
Imagination. Faculty of mental objects, people, situations not present in reality.
Imbecility. Form of mental impairment, less severe than idiocy, but from living in an autonomous manner. Oligophrenia intermediate.
Imitation. Voluntary acquisition of a behavior observed in others. Fundamental element of learning.
Impotence. Inability to achieve or maintain penile erection. It is often motivated by psychological factors.
Printing. Visión general opinion or a fact any other subject, which immediately arises.
Mark. It is a variety of learning both fast and irreversible, which takes place at certain critical periods of early development of an organism.
Momentum. Tendency to act without previous deliberation. Phenomenon contrary to an act of will.
Emotional impulse. It is the innate tendency under which an organization aspires to touch, physically or emotionally, with another agency.
Biological drives. Mobilizers are a set of innate behavior, which reflect the needs of the organs and physiological processes in the body.
Social maladjustment. State in which the subject establishes conflictual relations with their social environment.
Inconsistency. Speech or thought that is essentially incomprehensible to others because words or phrases come together without logical or meaningful connection. The irregularity occurs within sentences, unlike the derailment or dispersion, in which the change occurs between sentences. The inconsistency has sometimes been called “word salad” to highlight the degree of linguistic disorganization. Inconsistency should not be regarded as certain grammatical constructions and idiomatic usage hardly characteristic of a particular culture or region, a lack of schooling or low intelligence level. The term is usually applied when there is no evidence that the speech disorder is due to aphasia.
Unconsciousness. State in which the perception and ability to act consciously are muted. The deepest state of unconsciousness is a state of coma.
Unconscious. Area “shadow” of our personality, of which the subject is not directly aware. Its contents are of a drive (drive) and your organization is governed by condensation and displacement. His attempts to access consciousness are held back by repression and just get success in so far as, through the distortions of censorship, there are compromise formations (dreams, slips, etc.). It consists mainly of psychological material from childhood wishes.
Collective unconscious. According to Jung, the set of ideas and memories that belong to all humanity and are a consequence of accumulated memories after the experiences of countless generations.
Child Psychology. Branch of psychology that studies the processes of child development and behavior.
Infantilism. Attitude. Presence of childish behavior in adults.
Inhibition. Lack or decrease of certain types of behavior, especially aggressive.
Reactive inhibition. Specific measurable amount of fatigue that accumulates in a body every time you take a certain response. The result is a decrease or disappearance by the body to produce this response to the stimulus.
Immaturity. Insufficient degree of emotional development that can occur in people chronologically and intellectually mature.
Insomnia. Subjective complaints of difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep or because of poor sleep quality. These are the types of insomnia:
Initial insomnia. Difficulty falling asleep. Middle insomnia. Waking up at midnight after falling asleep, though with difficulty.
Terminal insomnia. Waking up before the usual time to do with inability to resume sleep.
Death instinct. As formulated by Freud, instinct or death drive is an innate tendency to seek the destruction of other agencies and self-destruction.
Intelligence. In general, mental capacity to understand, remember and use in a practical and constructive knowledge in new situations.
Intellectualization. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources by engaging in widespread or too abstract thoughts to control or minimize feelings that cause discomfort.
Retroactive interference. Phenomenon of learning by which to learn a second set or list of materials, it inhibits or reduces the ability to remember a first list or set previously learned.
Intimacy. According to transactional analysis, privacy is a state of emotional closeness to another person, characterized by the absence of manipulation and the presence of genuine communication.
Introspection. The mental process through which the subject is carefully noting their own experiences.
Introversion. According to Jung, nature of the subject property slow, thoughtful and closed, avoid contact with others and easily put on the defensive.
Introvisión. According to Gestalt psychology, the perception is introvisión sudden manner in which the parties are linked to the organized whole. In psychoanalysis, is precisely capture the patient achieves the meaning of ideas, motifs and recovered memories from the unconscious of his personality.
Introjection. Defense mechanism by which they own personality traits of a subject.
Intuition. Form direct knowledge characterized by the immediacy and contemporaneity.
L L
Lability. Emotional state characterized by an alteration of conscious control of emotional reactions.
Latency phase. According to Freud, stage of child development in that sexuality remains more or less dormant. It stretches from age seven through adolescence.
Latent content. The hidden part of a dream, a fantasy, thoughts and emotions. Masked is expressed in the manifest content.
Body language. Form completed nonverbal communication through gestures, movements, etc..
Lexitimia: neurological disease that, due to head injury, the person fails to recognize their feelings.
Law of effect. This law states that if a body of its response to a stimulus to your satisfaction, to learn and stay “print” in your nervous system.
Libido. According to Freud, is of vital energy that directs and produces the manifestations of the sexual instinct.
Logorrea. Loquacity excessive.
Logotherapy. Is a kind of psychotherapy designed to help people with problems to rediscover the meaning of his life, he has lost.
Psychomotor slowing. Visible generalized slowing of movements and speech.
LSD 25. Semisynthetic derivative of one of the alkaloids of ergot (a fungus). It is a colorless and tasteless liquid that causes his action at the CNS.
Obsession. Inrush at the thought of an idea, a feeling or a trend, which appears in the patient at odds with his conscious thought, but it persists despite all efforts of the subject to get rid of him.
Obsessive-compulsive neurosis. Neurosis in the obsessions and compulsions that have become chronic, disrupting normal life of the subject.
Hate. Emoción reactive against a person or an experience that hurt or threat.
Oligophrenia. See Weakness of mind.
Forgetfulness. Inability to recall an individual piece of information that is surely there in his memory.
Omnipotence. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources thinking, or acting as if he had special powers or abilities and longer than others.
Nail biting. Nail biting habit.
Dream. Relative to the world of dreams.
Opium. Estupefaciente extracted from capsules Papaverum album.
Oral phase. Period covered the first year of life. According to Freud, during this phase needs, perceptions and ways of expression for children focus on the mouth, through which it obtains all its immediate gratification.
Agency. Any living entity.
Orgasm. Reflex action caused by sexual stimulation, is the climax of pleasure during the excitement.
M M
Macropsia. Visual perception that objects are larger than they really are.
Mania. Disease mood characterized by hyperactivity and psychological background of joy, euphoria and frenetic activity that does not have any real motivation.
Manic-depressive psychosis. Mental condition characterized by alternating manic and depressive phases.
Manifest content. The subject recalls and / or consciously tells of a dream, a fantasy or their thoughts and emotions.
Marijuana. Popular name of the extract of a part of cannabis, produces euphoria and a feeling of floating.
Masochism. Psychosexual disorder in which sexual arousal is achieved through physical pain or humiliation violated and / or requested by a partner to another.
Masturbation. Self-excitation of the erogenous zones, to the climax.
Defense mechanism. Automatic psychological process that protects the individual from anxiety and awareness of threats, internal or external dangers. Defense mechanisms mediate the individual’s reaction to emotional conflicts and to external threats. Several defense mechanisms (eg., Projection, dichotomization, and “acting out”) are almost always maladaptive. Others, like the suppression and denial, may be maladaptive or adaptive depending on its severity, inflexibility and the context in which they occur.
Agonist. Extrinsic Chemical substances produced endogenously, which acts on a receptor and is capable of producing the maximum effect that can be achieved by stimulating the receptor. A partial agonist is capable only of producing less than maximum effect, although administered in sufficient concentration to bind to all available receptors.
Agonist / antagonist. Extrinsic Chemical substances produced endogenously acting on a family of receptors (such as opioid receptors), so that is an agonist or partial agonist for a type of receptor and antagonist over another.
Agonist drug. Extrinsic Chemical substances produced endogenously occupied by a receiver, does not produce physiological effects and prevents endogenous and exogenous chemical factors produced any effect on this receptor.
Meditation. The mental process through which the subject reaches his deeper self.
Megalomania. Feelings of power and superiority that has no real foundations.
Identical twins. Are those that derive from the same zygote and therefore have the same genetic structure.
Memory. Mental capacity to retain and recall what has been experienced. Very complex psychological phenomenon at play on the psyche elemental (left traces that sensations in the nerve tissue), the higher nervous activity (creation of new neural connections by repetition, ie conditioned reflexes) and the conceptual system or intelligence itself. As specifically human activity entails an acknowledgment of the past image as pass.
Menarche. Apparition of the first period.
Menopause. Cessation of menses.
Menstruation. Cyclic bleeding that occurs in sexually mature women.
Mesamorfo. According to W. Sheldon, corporeal type active and energetic.
Mescaline. Alkaloid derived from the peyote cactus peyoti or capable of producing significant toxic disorders, especially hallucinatory.
Experimental method. It is a method for collecting data which compares the measurements of the behavior of a control group, at least as measured in an experimental group, at least.
Alice in Wonderland. Visual perception that objects are smaller than they really are.
Fear. Emotional reaction against a threat recognized in consciousness.
Morphine. Principal alkaloid extracted from opium, has therapeutic properties, especially as an analgesic and spasmolytic. It is also a drug.
Motivation. The set of reasons involved in an act of election, according to their origin the reasons may be either innate physiological (hunger, sleep), or social, the latter are acquired during socialization, in terms of forming interpersonal relationships, values , norms and social institutions.
Reason. One reason is an inner state budget of an organism in order to explain their choices and behavior-oriented goals. From the subjective point of view, is a desire or craving.
Stereotyped movements. Repetitive motor behavior, seemingly driven and nonfunctional (eg., Shake or move his hands, body rocking, head banging, mouthing of objects, automorderse, picking at skin or bodily orifices, hitting own body) .
Rapid eye movement (REM). They are spontaneous and abrupt changes in the position of the eyeballs during sleep. These shifts occur both in the vertical direction as in the horizontal, and resemble what actually happens when the individual provides a real event with his eyes open.
Mutism. Inability to speak is not caused by lesions in the vocal cords.
N N
Narcissism. Defense mechanism characterized by an excessive concern to the individual.
Narcolepsy. Irresistible tendency to sleep.
Narcotic. Chemicals that signal the onset of sleep.
Necrophilia. Psychosexual disorder in which there is a sexual orientation to the bodies.
Denial. Defense mechanism by the rejection of those aspects that are considered unpleasant reality. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external source refusing to acknowledge some painful aspects of external reality or subjective experiences that are obvious to others. The term psychotic denialis used when there is a total impaired ability to grasp reality.
Nerve. A nerve is a bundle of axons of neurons that form part of the peripheral nervous system. The nerves may be sensory or motor (there are also mixed). The first convey information from outside to the nerve centers, while the latter is transmitted to the effector organs.
Nervousness. State of slight imbalance of the nervous system with mental health problems of a certain intensity (irritability, poor attention, etc..) And organic (motor restlessness, etc.)..
Neurasthenia. The set of alterations in the excitability of the nervous system, characterized by increased fatiguability, with sensation of somatic and mental exhaustion.
Neuroleptic. Psychological Drug with sedative, anxiolytic and antipsychotic drugs.
Neurology. Medical discipline that studies the pathological aspects of peripheral nervous system.
Neuron. It is a specialized cell in the communication of information. It is the basic functional unit of the brain and nervous system.
Neurosis. The set of mental and emotional symptoms caused by psychological conflicts that have become chronic. It retains the ability to think coherently.
Neurotransmitter. It is a chemical “messenger” that allows one to excite or inhibit neuronal depolarization (ie, the “discharge”) from another neuron adjacent to it.
Empty nest syndrome. Feeling emotional vacuum that parents experience when their children become independent, leaving the parental home.
Nymphomania.Female psychosexual disorder characterized by the absolute disinhibition of sexual instincts.
Nystagmus. Involuntary rhythmic movement of the eyes, which consists of small-amplitude rapid tremors in one direction and a recurrent stroke, older, slower, in the opposite direction. Nystagmus can be horizontal, vertical or rotary.
Level of aspiration. Subjective pattern according to which an individual sets goals and evaluates its achievements.
O O
Obsession. Inrush at the thought of an idea, a feeling or a trend, which appears in the patient at odds with his conscious thought, but it persists despite all efforts of the subject to get rid of him.
Obsessive-compulsive neurosis. Neurosis in the obsessions and compulsions that have become chronic, disrupting normal life of the subject.
Hate. Emoción reactive against a person or an experience that hurt or threat.
Oligophrenia. See Weakness of mind.
Forgetfulness. Inability to recall an individual piece of information that is surely there in his memory.
Omnipotence. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources thinking, or acting as if he had special powers or abilities and longer than others.
Nail biting. Nail biting habit.
Dream. Relative to the world of dreams.
Opium. Estupefaciente extracted from capsules Papaverum album.
Oral phase. Period covered the first year of life. According to Freud, during this phase needs, perceptions and ways of expression for children focus on the mouth, through which it obtains all its immediate gratification.
Agency. Any living entity.
Orgasm. Reflex action caused by sexual stimulation, is the climax of pleasure during the excitation
P P
Panic. Episodio acute anxiety states characterized by an intense and irrational fear.
Role or gender role. Attitudes, behavior patterns and personality traits defined by the culture in which the individual lives and social roles stereotypically “male” or “female”.
Paranoia. Delirio interpretive evolves progressively, with a seemingly perfect logic and without intellectual impairment. Paranoia is rarely established in pure form, is therefore more appropriate to speak of paranoid personality, whose essential features are an inordinate sensitivity, a hipervaloración of self confidence and a mental construct peculiar.
Parasomnia. Abnormal behavior or physiological events that occur during sleep or sleep-wake transitions.
Pedagogy. Science education.
Pedophilia. Psychosexual disorder characterized by the erotic interest to children.
Thought. A generic term that indicates a set of mental activities such as reasoning, abstraction, generalization, and so on. whose aims are, among others, problem solving, decision-making and representation of external reality.
Magical thinking. Erroneous belief that one’s thoughts, words or actions will cause or prevent a specific event in a way that defies the laws of cause and effect commonly accepted. Magical thinking can be part of normal child development.
Perception. Mental function allowing the body through the senses, to receive and process the data from abroad and become fully organized and equipped with meaning for the subject.
Profile. Graphical representation of the results of a Tes. or battery of tests.
Perseveration. Repeat persistent and aimless activity, words or phrases.
Person. The individual understood as a living being endowed with consciousness.
Personality. Psychic structure of each individual, the way it reveals how they think and express themselves in their attitudes and interests and in their actions. They are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating and thinking about the environment and oneself. Personality traits are prominent aspects that are manifested in a wide range of important social and personal contexts. Personality traits are only a personality disorder when they are inflexible and maladaptive and cause subjective distress or significant functional deficit.
Authoritarian personality. The authoritarian personality individual usually presents the following features: blind obedience to authority, strict adherence to rigid rules, expectation of unquestioning loyalty from his subordinates, hostility towards members of other groups and admiration for the powerful.
Multiple personality. Mental disorder characterized by the appearance altered in a subject of two or more contradictory personalities.
Nightmare. Dreams with frightening and distressing nature, without pathological significance if they are not very severe or repeated.
Fleshy type. According to E. Kretschmer constitutional type short and stocky.
Pyromania. Need not subject to voluntary control by fire and presence.
Placebo. Drugs or treatment without effect but provides relief to the patient by a process of persuasion.
Placebo effect. Effect medicine causing more by suggestion than by their actual drug efficacy.
Polarization. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources seeing himself or others as entirely good or bad, without getting integrated into cohesive images positive or negative qualities of each. Unable to experience mixed emotions simultaneously, the individual excluded from the insight and emotional awareness balanced expectations of himself and others. Often the person alternately idealizes and devalues the same person or oneself: give qualities exclusively loving, powerful, useful, nutritious, good-natured or only bad, hateful, angry, destructive, repellents or useless.
Distributed practice. It is a learning situation characterized by the inclusion of rest periods or “breaks” between trials. Contrast this concept with practice grouped learning situation in which, by contrast, a study follows another without any rest period.
Negative practice. Method used to extinguish and which habits are repeated in a conscious and deliberate the wrong trend associated with these habits.
Prejudice. Attitude, belief or opinion not based on a sufficient knowledge or experience to reach a categorical conclusion. Literally defined as “due process”.
Premenstrual syndrome. The set of physiological and psychological symptoms that appear a few days before menstruation.
Premack Principle.If we assume that two of the actions that comprise the behavioral repertoire of an organism have different degrees of probability as to its occurrence: one is very likely to occur, and the other is unlikely. The Premack principle states that the action with high probability of occurrence may be used to bolster low probability.
Emotional deprivation. Lack of a satisfactory and lasting relationship with one or more persons. It is negative for normal emotional and intellectual development of children.
Projection. Defense mechanism that the individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources incorrectly attributing to others feelings, impulses or thoughts themselves that are unacceptable. Is to project qualities, desires or feelings that cause anxiety outside itself toward something or someone completely attributed.
Psychoanalysis. Psychotherapeutic approaches for treating mental disorders, using free association techniques and interpretation of dreams. It is a theory of personality based on such concepts as unconscious motivation, the self, the id and the superego.
Psychobiology. It is the study of behavior in its biological function.
Psychosurgery. It’s the brain surgery performed in order to treat a mental disorder.
Psychoactive drug. A chemical substance capable of modifying the normal or pathological psyche.
Psychophysics. It is the study of the functional relationship between the magnitudes of physical stimuli and sensory responses to them.
Psychophysiology. Tendency of experimental psychology that considers the psychic functions from a physiological standpoint.
Psychogenic. Referred to pathological manifestations in general, whose origin lies in an organic lesion but a mental disorder.
Psychology. Science that studies psychic activity and behavior of organisms.
Comparative psychology. It is the study of similarities and differences that manifest in their behavior contrasting species of organisms with each other.
Psychopathy. Generic name for a mental disorder characterized by antisocial behavior.
Psychotherapy. Reeducation is any process that aims to help a person with problems, drawing principally on psychological interventions, in contrast with organic treatments such as administration of drugs.
Psychotic. This term has historically received many different definitions, none of which has achieved universal acceptance. The narrowest definition of psychotic is restricted to delusions or prominent hallucinations, in the absence of awareness of its pathological nature. A slightly less restrictive definition would also include significant hallucinations that the individual accepts as hallucinatory experiences. Even more comprehensive definition that also includes other positive symptoms of schizophrenia (ie, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior intensely). Finally, the term has been defined conceptually as a loss of ego boundaries or a significant alteration of reality check.
Psyche. The set of sensory functions, emotional and mental health of an individual.
Psychiatry.Branch of medicine that studies diseases of the psyche.
Psycho. Serious mental disorder that affects a total way of personality and behavior of the subject, with disruption of the trial, the will and emotions.
Psychosomatics. Relative, while both the psychic or mental component of the personality as to the organic.
Psychotherapist. Specialist in Psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy. The set of therapeutic methods based on interpersonal relationship, through dialogue, and interventions of the therapist, allows for overcoming of psychic conflict.
Puberty. Stage of life which are a set of morphological and physiological changes that enable the initiation of sexual function, marking the transition from childhood to adolescence.
Pulse. Pushes instinctive tendency to do or shun certain acts.
R R
Rationalization. Defense mechanism which tends to give a logical explanation for the feelings, thoughts or behaviors that otherwise would cause anxiety or feelings of inferiority or guilt.
Rapport. It is said that a relationship between two or more people there are rapport when your thoughts or feelings harmonize with each other or when they present a set of shared views.
Trait. Element characteristic of relatively stable personality. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources to invent their own explanations, reassuring but wrong, to conceal the true motives that govern their thoughts, feelings or actions.
Reactive training. Defense mechanism by which everything that can not be satisfied is replaced by the opposite: for example the love for a person who becomes incumbent upon us to hate, and so on.
Recognition. Ability to identify a number of elements of a previously learned set.
Reconstruction. Phenomenon whereby memories return to memory stimuli connected to past events.
I remember. Playback of something experienced or learned before.
Reflection. Answer unlearned spontaneous and organic.
Reinforcement. Any stimulus that increases the probability of occurrence of some kind of answers.
Mnemonic. It is a cognitive strategy used to underpin the functioning of memory.
Regression. Defense mechanism is to return to earlier periods of development or old behaviors that were more satisfactory.
Figure-ground relationship. The perception tends to isolate one or more objects (figures) of the perceptual field (background). The figure-ground relationship is to collect a set of well defined shape or pattern, which differs from the indeterminate and amorphous background.
Repression. Defense mechanism is to reject out of awareness anything that is painful or unacceptable to the subject. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats of expelling internal or external sources of consciousness or not being understood cognitively aware of the desires, thoughts or experiences that cause discomfort. The affective component may be active in consciousness, detached from its associated ideas.
Resistance.Perhaps unconscious or conscious opposition to bring the level of consciousness experiences, ideas, emotions, etc.., Past, that would cause anxiety.
Answer. Defining a response in the field of psychology, any behavior is caused by a stimulus.
Mental retardation. Incomplete or inadequate development of intellectual development.
Retrospective. Recurrence of a memory, feeling or perceptual experience from the past.
Ritual. The set of acts so repetitive. Typical of the obsessive behaviors.
Rol. In social psychology it is considered that the role is the public personality of each individual, ie the role more or less predictable than assumed in order to adapt to the society of which it forms part.
S S
Sadism. Psychosexual disorder in which the subject gets pleasure from the act of inflicting pain and humiliation to another person to satisfy their sexual desires.
Sedative. Substance that attenuates the emotional states of arousal or motor.
Sensation. The process by which the organs of sense stimuli from the outside world become in the elementary data or raw material of experience.
Sign. Demonstration of a state objective that can be pathological. The signs are observed by the clinician rather than described by the individual concerned.
Symbolization. Defense mechanism that uses a mental picture or a conscious thought as a symbol to disguise an unconscious thought that makes us a state of anxiety.
Symbol. Any stimulus representative of an idea or an object distinct from it.
Synapses. Is the functional connection point between two adjacent neurons.
Syndrome. Grouping of signs and symptoms based on their frequent co-occurrence, which may suggest a pathogenesis, an evolution, a family history or a common therapeutic selection.
General adaptation syndrome. It is a pattern of physiological reaction caused by chronic stress, which aims to remove the effects of this and allow the body to conserve its resources. The pattern is divided into three stages: 1) the alarm reaction, 2) resistance and 3) exhaustion.
Synesthesia. State in which a sensory experience stimulates another type of sensory experience (eg., A sound produces the sensation of a specific color).
Symptom. Subjective manifestation of a pathological condition. The symptoms are described by the affected individual rather than observed by the examiner.
Conversion symptom. Loss or alteration of voluntary motor or sensory functioning suggesting a neurological or medical illness. It is assumed that i are certain psychological factors associated with the development of the symptom, so the sign can not be explained entirely by a medical or neurological disease or the direct effects of a substance. The symptom is not intentionally produced or feigned is, and is not culturally sanctioned.
Psychotic symptoms consistent with the mood. Delusions or hallucinations whose content is fully consistent with the typical themes of a depressed mood or mania. If the mood is depressed, the contents of the delusions or hallucinations consistto issues of personal inadequacy, guilt, sickness, death, nihilism or deserved punishment. The content of the delusion may include issues of persecution if they are based on concepts autodespectivos as deserved punishment. If the mood is manic, the content of delusions or hallucinations include topics on value, power, knowledge or identity exaggerated or on a special relationship to a deity or famous person. The content of the delusion may include issues of persecution if they are based on concepts like an exaggerated value or a deserved punishment.
Incongruent psychotic symptoms with mood. Delusions or hallucinations whose content is not consistent with items typical of a depressive or manic mood. In the case of depression, delusions or hallucinations do not involve issues of personal inadequacy, guilt, sickness, death, nihilism or deserved punishment. In the case of mania, delusions or hallucinations do not involve issues of value, Power, knowledge or identity exaggerated or special relationships with a deity or famous person. Examples of incongruent psychotic mood delusions of persecution (without content autodespectivo or greatness), thought insertion, thought broadcasting, and delusions of being controlled whose content is unrelated to any apparent of the topics listed above.
Autonomic nervous system. See autonomic nervous system.
Central nervous system. Part of the nervous system comprises the brain and spinal cord.
Parasympathetic nervous system. Part of the autonomic nervous system that is predominant inhibitory action.
Peripheral nervous system. Part of the nervous system formed by the roots that emerge from the central nervous system and which will form the nerves. According to the function may be sensory, motor and mixed.
Sympathetic nervous system. Part of the autonomic nervous system stimulant that has action.
Autonomic nervous system. The set of nerve fibers not controlled by will. Its role is to coordinate and guide the work of the internal organs. It is subdivided into sympathetic and parasympathetic system.
Social Psychology. Study of the relationship between individual and society.
Socialization. The process by which an individual develops those qualities essential to their full affirmation in society where he lives.
Sociobiology. It is the study of social behavior of organisms based on the premise that such behavior stems from genetic patterns.
Sociogram. Representation of positive relationships and negative or quantity of exchanges between members of a group.
Somatization. The process by which are transformed or become emotional problems in somatic symptoms.
Soteria. Reaction to a given stimulus, which gives a feeling of safety and security absurd and unjustified.
Sotero, object. An object that provides an unfounded sense of security.
Subconscious. The phenomena subsumed under the term are a set of subconscious mental processes or personality stratum whose activity is below the conscious levels. Its manifestations are often endowed with greater burden and stress than fully conscious and emerge at this level through complex mechanisms of displacement, projection, etc.., Or in a dream.
Sublimation. Form of displacement in which energy is diverted to an object that has some ideal values. The individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources channeling potentially maladaptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable behaviors (eg., Contact sports to channel aggressive urges).
Dream. Important psychic experience that occurs during sleep. Physiological disruption periodic spontaneous activity of consciousness, accompanied by functional changes in some organs.
Non-REM sleep. Sleep period in which they are not seen REM.
REM sleep. Period of sleep in which rapid eye movements are seen.
Suggestion. Ability to influence the behavior of a person. Superstition. Belief in the existence and effectiveness of some phenomena that have no rational explanation.
Suicide. Consists in removing life voluntarily.
Superego. According to Freud, one of the parts of the personality of the role of being the moral conscience, ideals. Be formed at an early age to assume the model of an important person with whom the child identifies.
Deletion. Defense mechanism in which the individual is faced with emotional distress and threats to internal or external sources intentionally avoiding thinking about problems, desires, feelings or experiences that make you upset.
T T
Thanatology. It is the study of death and the process that leads to it.
Temperament. It is the reactive conformation of an individual, spontaneous aspect of his personality. It comes from the mix of characteristics that emanate from his appetites, emotions and moods.
Central tendency. The statistical concept of central tendency refers to the grouping of a series of scores around a common intermediate step.
Tic. Involuntary motor movement or vocalization, sudden, rapid, recurrent, rhythmic and stereotyped.
Shyness. Tendency for the person feel uncomfortable, inhibited, awkward and very self-conscious in the presence of others. This results in inability to participate in social life, although they want to do and know how.
Muscle tone. State of muscular tension and excitement, higher in wakefulness and low during sleep.
Addiction. Typical use of toxic and harmful, drugs or narcotics. Is generally accompanied by a psychological dependence and sometimes also physical.
Trance. Particular mental state in which consciousness is limited and frequent states of amnesia.
Transsexualism. Important for gender identity dysphoria associated with a persistent desire to be with the physical and social roles that connote the other biological sex.
Download. Projection of the patient to a series of emotions and unconscious emotions in the figure of the doctor.
Personality disorder. Is a type of behavioral disorder characterized by causing considerable problems for social adaptation. The person with personality disorder are not always or necessarily upset, but instead others often consider it disturbing or annoying.
Phobic disorder. It is a kind of mental disorder characterized by irrational fears that the subject recognizes itself as exaggerated and unfounded.
Mental disorder. Pathologic state characterized by confusion of ideas, emotional distress and maladaptive behavior. You can have organic or functional.
Organic mental disorder. It is one in which a pathological condition of the body, particularly the brain and nervous system generates a maladaptive behavior.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is a mental disorder characterized by involuntary and irrational ideas repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the distress associated with such irrational ideas.
Psychotic disorders. Serious mental disorders in which one loses contact with reality and manifests maladaptive behavior well. Some of the symptoms associated with psychotic disorders, personality disorganization, disruption in thought, the imbalance of mood and the presence of delusions and hallucinations.
Psychological trauma. Emotional shock that leaves a mark on the subconscious.
Transvestism. Psychosexual disorder in which the subject experiences an erotic satisfaction by dressing in clothes of the opposite sex.
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Validity. In psychology, the concept of validity applies primarily to standardized psychological tests. We say that a Th. is valid if it measures what it is supposed to measure.
Functional vagina. Contracture of the muscles of the lower third of the vagina that prevents or disturbs consistently intercourse.
Variable. In statistics is any trait, attribute, dimension or property capable of taking more of a value or magnitude.
Will. The psychic faculty that an individual has to choose between making or not a particular act. Reports directly to the desire and intention to perform a specific act.
Will to meaning. According to Viktor Frankl, the will to meaning is the innate urge to find meaning and purpose in life.
Voyeurism. Psychosexual disorder in which the subject gets the excitement and erotic pleasure secretly watching people undress or are naked, or couples in sexual acts.
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Xenophobia. Fear of the unknown persons.
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I (ego). According to Freud, is the “reality principle” is conscious and has the function of reality testing and the regulation and control of desires and impulses from the id. Your task is self-preservation and uses all the psychological defense mechanisms.
Yoga. Physical and mental discipline designed to achieve mystical union with the totality of the individual, the Universe, the Great Being, the Cosmic Consciousness or Godhead.
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A Zen Buddhist meditative variety that seeks to help the individual reach a state of enlightenment is characterized by the direct experience of the genuine nature of reality without the mediation of abstractions, words, beliefs, concepts or dualisms.
Zoofilia. Misuse of the power of sexual attraction, in which the excitation is obtained with animals