Glossary of Psychology Terms
A
Aberration
The release of emotional tension associated with a challenging idea, conflict, or suppressed unpleasant memory. This release is often achieved by revisiting the difficult emotional experience.
Abstinence Syndrome
The collection of physical and psychological symptoms that occur when a person abruptly stops using a substance they are physically or psychologically dependent on.
Abulia
Apathy and lack of motivation, characterized by an inability to initiate and follow through on activities.
Boredom
An emotional state of dissatisfaction with an existence perceived as dull and meaningless.
Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
The organic molecule shaped like a double helix that forms the basic units of genes.
Acrophobia
Fear of heights.
Attitude
A person’s tendency to respond in a particular way to a stimulus after evaluating it positively or negatively.
Adaptation
A state of balance and lack of conflict between an individual and their social environment.
General Adaptation Syndrome
The set of negative physical and psychological symptoms that appear when a person faces a new or challenging situation.
Adrenaline
A hormone secreted by the adrenal glands that increases blood pressure and heart rate.
Aphasia
Impaired ability to understand or communicate ideas through language (reading, writing, or speaking) due to brain injury or disease.
Affectivity
The range of emotions and feelings an individual can experience in different life situations.
Affective Blockade
The inability to express feelings or emotions, sometimes characterized by a state of stupor.
Affect
Observable behaviors that express subjectively experienced feelings (emotions). Sadness, joy, and anger are common examples. Affect expression varies greatly between and within cultures. Mood disorders include the following types:
- Flattened: Absence or near absence of any signs of affective expression.
- Blunted: 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 Constricted: Mild reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression.
Affiliation
A defense mechanism where an individual seeks help or support from others, sharing problems without blaming them on others.
Aphonia
The inability to produce speech sounds requiring 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. The activity is typically non-productive and repetitive, such as pacing, fidgeting, wringing hands, and an inability to sit still.
Agoraphobia
Fear of open or crowded spaces.
Aggression
An emotional state consisting of feelings of hostility and a desire to harm another person, animal, or object.
Passive Aggression
A defense mechanism where an individual expresses aggression towards others indirectly and unassertively. There is an outward appearance of submission, masking underlying resistance, resentment, and hostility.
Emotional Isolation
The separation of ideas from their originally associated feelings. The affective component associated with a particular idea (e.g., a traumatic event) is detached, while the cognitive elements (e.g., descriptive details) remain.
Alcoholism
The set of physical and psychological disorders caused by excessive and continuous consumption of alcoholic beverages.
Alpha Waves
High and slow brain waves recorded on an electroencephalogram, occurring when a person is awake, resting with eyes closed, but not asleep.
Alogia
Impoverishment of thinking inferred from observing language and verbal behavior. This can manifest as brief and unelaborated replies to questions and a reduction in spontaneous speech (poverty of speech). Sometimes speech is adequate in quantity but lacks information due to being overly concrete, abstract, repetitive, or stereotyped (poverty of content).
Altruism
A human attitude focused on achieving the well-being of others before one’s own. Unlike the self-sacrifice sometimes characteristic of reaction formation, the individual receives a reward (e.g., appreciation from others).
Hallucination
A sensory perception that feels compellingly real but occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. Hallucinations should be distinguished from illusions, which are misperceptions of actual external stimuli. The person may or may not be aware they are experiencing a hallucination. Here are some types of hallucinations:
- Auditory: Perception of sounds, most commonly voices. Some clinicians and researchers exclude experiences perceived as originating inside the head and limit the concept of true auditory hallucinations to sounds perceived as external.
- Gustatory: Perception of taste (usually unpleasant).
- Olfactory: Perception of smells, such as burning rubber or decaying fish.
- Somatic: Perception of a physical experience localized within the body (e.g., a feeling of electricity). Somatic hallucinations should be distinguished from physical sensations arising from an undiagnosed medical condition, hypochondriacal preoccupation with normal physical sensations, and tactile hallucinations.
- Tactile: Perception of being touched or having something under one’s skin. Tactile hallucinations are often sensations of tingling, prickling, or bugs crawling under the skin.
- Visual: Perception of structured images (e.g., people) or unstructured images (e.g., flashes of light). Visual hallucinations should be distinguished from illusions, which are misperceptions of real external stimuli.
Hallucinogens
Substances that can cause sensory disturbances, affecting emotions and thinking. They can produce illusions and hallucinations.
Environmental Psychology
The branch of applied psychology that studies the effects of humans on the environment and vice versa.
Environment
The living space in which a subject develops. It encompasses all stimuli that influence the individual from conception onwards.
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 can be due to emotional or organic causes, or a combination of both. There are two types of amnesia:
- Anterograde: Memory loss for events that occurred after the causative agent.
- Retrograde: Memory loss for events that occurred before the causative agent.
Love
Intense emotional experiences directed towards another person, who may or may not be of the opposite sex.
Anal Phase
According to Freud, the period between the second and third years of age when the child is concerned with controlling their bowel movements.
Factor Analysis
A statistical tool used to identify clusters of correlated items in standardized psychological tests. Each cluster of related items is called a factor.
Andropause
The cessation or reduction, sometimes temporary, of sexual activity in men.
Amphetamines
Powerful central nervous system stimulants derived from chemicals. They decrease appetite and cause a subjective state of well-being with delayed fatigue onset. Excessive doses can lead to restlessness, insomnia, irritability, and talkativeness. They are highly addictive and create strong dependency.
Anguish
A state of high emotional arousal that includes 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 characterized by a patient’s refusal to eat, leading to alarming weight loss. It typically occurs in young, single women between puberty and adolescence.
Anxiety
Anticipated fear of suffering future harm or misfortune, accompanied by a feeling of dread or somatic symptoms of tension.
Anxiogenic
A factor that generates anxiety.
Anxiolytic
A drug that reduces or eliminates anxiety.
Anticipation
The individual, faced with emotional distress and threats from internal or external sources, experiences emotional reactions before they 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.
Anthropomorphism
The tendency to attribute human characteristics to plants, animals, or objects.
Apathy
An impassive mood. A state in which the subject is indifferent and unable to react to situations that should arouse emotion or interest.
Bystander Apathy
A social behavior phenomenon where an observer of a situation where a person is in trouble shows little or no interest in helping them.
Applied Psychology
The branch of psychology that focuses on studying and addressing practical problems in various spheres of activity, often in conjunction with other sciences like pedagogy or linguistics (psycholinguistics).
Learning
A permanent change in a person’s behavior as a result of experience. It refers to the change in behavior or potential behavior of a subject in a given situation, resulting from their repeated experiences in that situation. This behavioral change cannot be explained based on the innate response tendencies of the individual, their maturation, or temporary states (such as fatigue, alcohol intoxication, impulses, etc.).
Cognitive Learning
An active process by which the individual modifies their behavior, giving it a personal learning style.
Avoidance Learning
Behavior that attempts, through preventive action, to stop an unpleasant or painful stimulus, announced by a sign.
Escape Learning
Behavior by which a subject attempts, through action, to stop uncomfortable or painful stimuli.
Incidental Learning
Learning that occurs unintentionally and without effort.
Latent Learning
Modification of behavior that occurs without any apparent reason. It is not manifested in the act but appears through subsequent conduct.
Observational Learning
Learning that occurs when an individual copies or imitates the behavior of another. Also called modeling.
Verbal Learning
Learning that occurs when the content acquired by the subject consists of words, nonsense syllables, or concepts.
Aptitude
The ability to benefit from education, training, or experience in a particular area of performance.
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 connected with another.
Free Association
A technique used in psychoanalysis to explore the patient’s unconscious mental life. The patient is encouraged to talk about everything that comes to mind during the session, regardless of its logical consistency or moral, sexual, or aggressive content.
Aspiration Level
The goal that a subject sets 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, tall stature, and delicacy. One of the key biotypes.
Ataxia
Partial or complete loss of coordination of voluntary muscle movement.
Attention
The ability to persistently focus on a specific stimulus or activity. An attention disorder may manifest as easy distractibility or difficulty concentrating on tasks or work.
Athletic Type
According to E. Kretschmer, a robust constitutional type.
Attribution
In social psychology, the tendency to infer motives, traits, intentions, and capabilities of others based on observing 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 increasingly pays less attention to the reality that surrounds them.
Assertion
A characteristic that distinguishes positive social behavior, which aims to defend a right or achieve a goal.
Automatism
Dissociation between conduct and consciousness. The set of movements that are performed as an unconscious habit or the result of the partnership reflects.
Self-Actualization
The innate tendency to develop and utilize one’s talents and potential to contribute to a feeling of self-satisfaction.
Autosuggestion
An often unconscious process by which the subject convinces themselves of something.
Self-Observation
A mechanism in which the individual reflects on their own thoughts, feelings, motivations, and behaviors, and acts accordingly.
Avolition
The inability to initiate and persist in goal-directed activities. When severe enough to be considered pathological, avolition is pervasive and prevents the subject from engaging in various activities (e.g., work, intellectual pursuits, self-care).
B
Babbling
A language disturbance 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 used to measure certain aspects of a subject’s psychology.
La Belle Indifférence
A French term meaning “beautiful indifference” used to describe the indifference or lack of emotional reaction in patients with hysterical conversion symptoms.
Primary Gain, Secondary Gain
The advantage or benefit that an individual can derive from a pathological condition. The primary gain is the reduction of internal tension or the recovery of tenderness or attention from another. The secondary gain is more complete; once alerted to the symptoms, the patient does not see the interest in being cured: the cure will pose more distressing problems than the disease.
Biotype
A biological type characterized by the constancy of certain physical and mental characteristics.
Bulimia
An abnormally intense and sometimes uncontrollable urge to eat.
C
Caffeine
A central nervous system and heart stimulant. It enhances brain activity, but its abuse can cause 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.
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 character or temperament who is practically guided by facts, permanently adopts useful attitudes towards them, and does not get carried away by sentimentality.
Catalepsy
A neurological disorder characterized by complete loss of voluntary muscle tone, causing the patient to remain in the same position for an extended period.
Cataplexy
Episodes of sudden bilateral loss of muscle tone that cause the individual to collapse, often associated with intense emotions like laughter, anger, fear, or surprise.
Catharsis
Liberation, through verbal expression, 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, impulsivity), 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 prohibited thoughts or desires imposed by the superego.
Brain
The complex structure of the nervous system located within the skull, responsible for higher thought processes like memory and reasoning.
Brainwashing
The disruption of intellect and emotions that leads to the revelation of secrets and false confessions by the subject, as well as a change in their political and moral ideals.
Sexual Response Cycle
A pattern of physiological activation consisting of four stages: 1) excitement, 2) plateau, 3) orgasm, and 4) resolution.
Cyclothymia
Alternating periodic phases of mania and depression.
Closure
An innate organizing principle of perception, where gaps separating sensations are automatically “closed” to form complete wholes or configurations.
Claustrophobia
Fear of enclosed spaces.
Kleptomania
An impulse control disorder characterized by the pathological tendency to steal objects that are not subsequently 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.
Cocaine
A stimulant derived from the coca plant, a South American shrub. It is a white powder that acts as a stimulant of the central nervous system, causing euphoria, excitement, and a sense of well-being. It masks physical and mental fatigue, leading to overestimation of abilities.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
An index number resulting from the division between the mental age measured by tests and chronological age. It is an indicator of an individual’s intelligence relative to others of the same age. IQ tends to remain relatively stable over time.
Cognition
The conscious process of thought and images.
Compensation
An unconscious psychological mechanism whereby the subject attempts to counter real or imagined inferiority.
Oedipus Complex
According to Freud, the set of relationships 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 towards the opposite-sex parent, establishing a troubled relationship with the same-sex parent characterized by 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 where an individual constantly feels inferior to others, even without justification for this feeling.
Compulsion
The unnecessary repetition of acts, driven by a feeling of necessity not under the control of the will. It differs from delusions in that the subject is aware of the absurdity of their conduct.
Consciousness
The personality structure where psychic phenomena are fully perceived and understood by the person.
Condensation
The merging of two or more persons or concepts into a single image.
Classical Conditioning
Learning that occurs when a previously neutral stimulus becomes capable of eliciting a learned response.
Operant Conditioning
A type of learning where the consequences of an organism’s behavior in its environment influence the likelihood of that behavior occurring again. The organism “operates” on the world around it.
Conduct
The overall reaction of the subject to various environmental situations.
Aggressive Behavior
Occurs when an organism attacks another organism or object in a hostile manner, either physically or verbally.
Abnormal Behavior
Behavior that deviates significantly from a cultural norm or criterion.
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 than a reflex, and a repertoire covering more complex behaviors that depend on maturation and learning.
Neurotic Behavior
Inflexible maladaptive behavior associated with 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 involving interaction between two or more humans.
Conflict
The simultaneous presence, within the same person, of two opposing motivations of equal intensity.
Confusion
Decreased activity of consciousness, ranging from mild lethargy to stupor.
Object Constancy
The perceived tendency of an object to maintain its size, shape, color, brightness, or other attributes relatively independently of variations in the retinal image.
Constitution
General body conformation. According to certain theories, it is related to personality.
Latent Content
In psychoanalysis, the true meaning of a dream or other symbolic material, hidden by the manifest or superficial content.
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.
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.
Countertransference
The unconscious projection of feelings by the therapist towards the patient.
Conversion
The transformation of an unconscious conflict into somatic, sensory, or motor complaints. A typical phenomenon of conversion hysteria or neurosis.
Seizure
A widespread involuntary muscle contraction or spasm.
Correlation
A statistical relationship between two variables where changes in one variable are associated with changes in the other.
Cortisone
A hormone secreted by the adrenal cortex.
Creativity
An intellectual process characterized by originality, adaptability, and the ability to produce concrete achievements.
Cretinism
Severe mental deficiency associated with delayed bone development and due to thyroid gland malfunction.
Panic Attack
The sudden onset of intense anxiety. The typical attack occurs abruptly, without warning symptoms. These attacks are experienced as a sign of impending doom, with an intensity of suffering equivalent to someone believing they will die. They are accompanied by physical symptoms of panic: tachycardia, palpitations, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, nausea or abdominal distress, dizziness, lightheadedness, pallor, cold hands and feet, chest tightness, sweating, paresthesia (numbness or tingling), fear of losing control or “going crazy,” and fear of death.
Chromosome
A structure located inside the cell nucleus that transmits the genetic code responsible for hereditary traits.
Questionnaire
A set of questions that a subject can answer orally or in writing, designed to highlight certain psychological aspects.
Guilt Feeling
A painful experience derived from a more or less conscious feeling of having transgressed personal or social ethics.
Normal Curve
A theoretical probability distribution that describes the relationship between a random variable and the frequency of occurrence of its values. It is bell-shaped and also known as the Gaussian curve.
D
Field Dependence
A cognitive style characterized by relying primarily on external cues to make perceptual judgments.
Displacement of Aggression
Occurs when aggressive behavior, whether verbal or physical, is redirected from the original source of frustration to a substitute object.
Cognitive Development
The growth of the intellect over time, the maturation of higher thought processes from infancy to adulthood.
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 an individual’s personality in relation to others and as a member of society, from childhood throughout life.
Derailment (Loose Associations)
A speech pattern where a person’s ideas shift from one to another in a way that is unrelated or only tangentially related. Moving from one phrase or sentence to another, the subject changes the topic idiosyncratically, often saying things that have no meaningful connection. The disorder occurs between sentences, unlike incoherence, where the disorder occurs within sentences.
Disorientation
Confusion about the time of day, date, or season (time); about where one is (place); or who one is (person).
Depersonalization
An altered perception or experience of oneself, feeling detached from one’s body or mental processes, as if one were an outside observer (e.g., feeling like one is in a dream).
Displacement
The individual, faced with emotional distress and threats from internal or external sources, redirects a feeling or response from one object to another, usually less important.
Derealization
An altered perception or experience of the external world, making it seem strange and unreal (e.g., people may seem unfamiliar or mechanical).
Standard Deviation
A measure of the dispersion of a set of scores around the mean.
Sexual Deviation
An anomaly in the choice of an adequate stimulus for sexual arousal.
Mental Deterioration
Loss of some of the individual’s intellectual capacities.
Devaluation
The individual, faced with emotional distress and threats from internal or external sources, attributes exaggerated negative qualities to themselves or others.
Body Size
William H. Sheldon, a doctor and psychologist, proposed three body sizes: endomorphy, mesomorphy, and ectomorphy. Endomorphy predisposes the subject to having a soft and flabby body; mesomorphy predisposes them to having a compact and muscular body; and ectomorphy predisposes them to having a thin, frail body.
Dynamic Psychology
A current of psychology that holds that any mental phenomenon is set in motion by forces arising from within the individual.
Dysarthria
Imperfect articulation of speech due to disturbances of muscular control.
Dyskinesia
Distortion of voluntary movements with involuntary muscular activity.
Dyschromatopsia
The generic name for all disorders characterized by a disturbance of color vision.
Gender Dysphoria
Persistent displeasure with some or all of the physical characteristics or social roles that connote one’s own biological sex.
Dysmenorrhea
Painful menstruation.
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.
Dyssomnia
Primary disorders of sleep or awakening characterized by insomnia or hypersomnia as the major presenting symptom. Dyssomnias are disorders of the quantity, quality, or timing of sleep.
Cognitive Dissonance
The presence of two conscious thoughts in the individual that are antagonistic to each other.
Mindset
A state of readiness to think or feel a certain way. It is a trend that decisively governs cognition.
Dyspareunia
Painful intercourse.
Dispersion
See Derailment.
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.
Distractibility
The inability to maintain attention, characterized by shifting from one area or topic to another with minimal provocation or focusing excessive attention on unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli.
Double Bind
A communication process where a person receives two contradictory statements or instructions.
Drugs
Natural or synthetic substances that temporarily modify the state of consciousness.
Dualism
The conception that mind and matter are two distinct entities.
E
Eclecticism
The viewpoint that appreciates the value of concepts derived from two or more psychological systems or schools of thought. An eclectic does not arbitrarily reject any finding or principle simply because it does not fit well with established premises.
Echolalia
The pathological, parrot-like repetition of a word or phrase just spoken by another person.
Echopraxia
The imitation of another person’s movements. The action is not voluntary and has a semi-automatic and uncontrollable nature.
Ectomorph Type
According to W. Sheldon, a tall and thin body morphology.
Mental Age (MA)
The overall level of intellectual development for a given age.
Halo Effect
The tendency for an observer to evaluate another person in a biased way (either positive or negative) based on noticeable characteristics that are irrelevant to what should be evaluated.
Law of Effect
The principle that only responses immediately followed by a reinforcer are acquired.
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, prioritizing one’s own convenience over others.
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
A recording of the electrical activity of the brain.
Id
According to Freud, the area of the psyche where the most primary mental processes and instinctual drives reside.
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. They 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.
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, which in turn is based solely on information received through the sense organs.
Endomorph Type
According to W. Sheldon, a body type with soft and rounded lines.
Endorphins
Natural opiates produced in the brain and pituitary gland, considered a class of neurotransmitters.
Psychosomatic Illness
An illness caused or aggravated by psychological factors such as stress, lifestyle changes, personality variables, and emotional conditions.
Biofeedback Training
A conditioning method that achieves voluntary control of certain autonomic responses of the body, such as heart rate, brain wave patterns, circulation in the cardiovascular system, and muscle tension.
Enuresis
Involuntary, unconscious urination.
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.
Living Space
The physical and psychological space that every living being requires for normal development.
Body Schema
Global awareness of one’s body.
Schizophrenia
A severe mental illness characterized by a split personality and a breakdown of normal psychological mechanisms, causing incomprehensible behavior and a loss of contact with reality.
Mood
A pervasive and persistent emotion that influences the perception of the world. Common examples include depression, joy, anger, and anxiety. These are the types of mood:
- Dysphoric: An unpleasant mood, such as sadness, anxiety, or irritability.
- Elevated: An exaggerated feeling of well-being, euphoria, and joy. A person with elevated mood may say they feel “on top of the world” or “high.”
- Euthymic: A mood within the “normal” range, implying the absence of depressed or elevated mood.
- Expansive: Lack of control over the expression of feelings, often with an overestimation of the meaning or significance of events.
- Irritable: Easily susceptible to anger and rage.
Intersex State
A state in which an individual manifests characteristics of both sexes to varying degrees, including physical form, reproductive organs, and sexual behavior.
Stereotype
In social psychology, a fixed set of attributes that an observer assigns to all members of a particular group.
Stimulant
A drug that increases motor activity and mental functioning.
Conditioned Stimulus
An originally neutral stimulus that eventually elicits an unconditioned (innate) response in the individual.
Unconditioned Stimulus
Any stimulus that regularly elicits an unlearned or innate response. The individual cannot control the response to such stimuli as it occurs as a reflex.
Stimulus-Response
A theory that explains an individual’s behavior as a set of reactions to preceding stimuli.
Stress
Any demand that produces a state of tension in the individual and requires a change or adjustment.
Psychosocial Stressor
Any event or life change that can be temporally (and perhaps causally) associated with the onset, occurrence, or exacerbation of a mental disorder.
Ethology
The science that studies animal behavior.
Stupor
A state of unresponsiveness to stimulation, accompanied by immobility and silence.
Stuporous State
A particular state characterized by slow psychomotor activity and inert behavior, accompanied by a torpor of consciousness.
Euphoria
A state of mental excitement that accompanies a high emotional tone.
Exaltation
A change in affective tone characterized by feelings of euphoria.
Exhibitionism
The pathological tendency to expose one’s genitals in public.
Experimental Psychology
The branch of psychology that uses controlled experiments and observation to study behavior.
Ecstasy
A synthetic hallucinogenic drug manufactured in clandestine laboratories. It is an amphetamine derivative capable of altering behavior and vital body functions.
Extinction
The active process during which the probability of occurrence of a conditioned response gradually decreases. It can be considered the unlearning of a habit.
Extraversion
According to C.G. Jung, a characteristic of the “outgoing” individual, apparently open and approachable, who easily adapts to any situation, relates smoothly and without problems, and confidently faces unfamiliar situations.
Premature Ejaculation
In men, the inability to control sexual arousal, resulting in premature expulsion of semen.
F
Phallic Stage
According to Freud, the stage of psychosexual development where the child’s sexual interest is focused on the genitals. It arises concurrently with the Oedipus complex.
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 where mental images produce invented unreal satisfactions.
Autistic Fantasy
The individual, faced with emotional distress and threats from internal or external sources, uses excessive fantasies to replace the search for interpersonal relationships, more effective action, or problem-solving.
Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy
The treatment of psychiatric diseases and disorders through psychotropic drugs.
Residual Phase
The stage of a disease that occurs after the remission of florid symptoms or the full syndrome.
Fetish
A psychosexual disorder consisting of achieving sexual excitement through an object.
Fixation
The attachment of libido to particular objects belonging to one of its evolutionary states.
Phobia
A persistent and irrational fear of an object, situation, or specific activity (the phobic stimulus) that results in an irrepressible desire to avoid it. This often leads to avoiding the phobic stimulus or coping with terror.
Concept Formation
The learning process by which we create mental or cognitive classes.
Reaction Formation
A defense mechanism where the individual, faced with emotional distress and threats from internal or external sources, replaces unacceptable behaviors, thoughts, or feelings with diametrically opposite ones (this defense mechanism tends to operate simultaneously with repression).
Frigidity
The 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.
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.
G G
Gen. basic unit of heredity.
Generalization. In learning phenomenon that gives a response to a stimulus, also in the presence of similar stimuli.
Stimulus generalization. Is the tendency of a stimulus, similar to other original conditioned stimulus to evoke a conditioned response also, although to a slightly lesser extent.
Behavior genetics. It is the study of the influence of the genetic structure inherent to a body in determining traits, talents and predispositions.
Adrenal glands. View adrenal glands.
Greatness. Evaluation disproportionate value, power, knowledge, importance or self-identity. When extreme, greatness can reach delusional proportions.
Group. A group of people influenced each other and pursuing a common goal: for example the 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 experimental group behavior, which is being studied.
Group therapy. Contemporary treatment of many patients (6 to 12) by one or more psychotherapists.
H H
Talk pressing. Speech that is excessive in amount, accelerated, and difficult or impossible to interrupt. It is usually excessive volume and empathetic. Frequently the person talks without any social incitement and may continue to do so even if nobody listens.
Ability. Ability to act that develops through learning, exercise and experience.
Habit. Tendency to act in a mechanical way, especially when the habit has been acquired by exercise or experience. It is characterized by deeply entrenched and because it can run automatically.
Hashish. Estupefaciente extracted from cannabis. It causes euphoria and excitement in large doses and hallucinations.
Hedonism. Conception whereby the primary motivating factor of human behavior is the pleasure-pain bipolar dimension.
Heroin. Derived from the opium plant specifically morphine, whose capsule is called “Poppy”, which is extracted from a resin called “bread of opium, which is the active substance. It acts as a depressant of the central nervous system (CNS).
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.
V V
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.
X X
Xenophobia. Fear of the unknown persons.
Y Y
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.
Z Z
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