Top 100 Psychological Words & Meaning

Words/Term	Meaning
Absolute threshold	Intensity level at which one can detect a stimulus 50% of the time
Action potential	The electrical process by which information is transmitted the length of an axon
Aggression	Overt or suppressed hostility, either innate or resulting from continued frustration and directed outward or against oneself
Anxiety disorders	Mental problems characterized mainly by anxiety. They include panic disorder, specific phobias, and obsessive compulsive disorders.
Associationism	Any of several theories that explain complex psychological phenomena as being built up from the association of simple sensations, stimuli and responses, or other behavioral or mental elements considered as primary
Attachment	Theory developed by Harlow; types include secure and insecure
Attitude	A relatively enduring evaluation of a person or thing; Asch demonstrated that this doesn't always match one's behavior
Attribution theory	Way of explaining others' behavior by either one's disposition or one's situation
Avoidance learning	Avoidance learning is the process by which an individual learns a behavior or response to avoid a stressful or unpleasant situation.
Behavior	A perspective on psychology that sees psychology as an objective science without reference to mental states
Binocular depth cues	Retinal disparity and convergence which enable people to determine depth using both eyes
Central nervous system	Consists of the brain and the spinal cord
Cerebellum:	Brain structure that controls well-learned motor activities like riding a bike
Cerebral cortex	The fabric of interconnecting cells that blankets the brain hemispheres; the brain's center for information processing and control
Cerebral hemispheres	Either of the two symmetrical halves of the cerebrum, designated right and left; in mammals, the cerebral hemispheres are connected by the corpus callosum, a transverse band of nerve fibers
Classical conditioning	Method of learning in which a neutral stimulus can be used to elicit a response that is usually a natural response to a stimulus
Cognitive development	Is defined as thinking, problem solving, concept understanding, information processing and overall intelligence
Cognitive dissonance theory	A highly motivating state in which people have conflicting cognitions, especially when their voluntary actions conflict with their attitudes
Conditioned stimulus	In classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit he conditioned response
Conditioned reflex	A new or modified response elicited by a stimulus after conditioning, also known as a conditioned response
Conformity	Adjusting behavior to meet a group's standard
Consciousness	One's awareness of one's environment and oneself
Contrast	The phenomenon that when two different but related stimuli are presented close together in space and/or time they are perceived as being more different than they really are
Control group	Subjects in an experiment who do not receive application of the independent variable but are measured nonetheless for the dependent variable
Correlation coefficient	A positive one near 1.0 indicates two variable are positively related; a negative number indicates a negative relationship; zero indicates no relationship
Correlational method	A type of research that is mainly statistical in nature; also, correlational studies determine relationship between two variables
Dendrite	A branch off the cell body of a neuron that receives new information from other neurons
Deoxyribonucleic acid	The complex substance that is the main carrier of genetic information for all organisms and a major component of chromosomes
Dependent variable	The variable that the experimenter measures at the end of the experiment
Depression	A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, feelings of extreme sadness, helplessness, etc.
Depth perception	An ability that we exercise by using both monocular and binocular cues
Determinism:	The scientific doctrine that all occurrences in nature take place in accordance with natural laws
Developmental stages:	Periods of life initiated by significant transitions or changes in psychical or psychological functioning
Distance cues	In order to receive information from the environment we are equipped with sense organs e. g. eye, ear, nose; each sense organ is part of a sensory system which receives sensory inputs and transmits sensory information to the brain
Ego	The Latin for "I"; in Freud's theories, the mediator between the demands of the id and the superego
Electroencephalograph	A method of representation of brain waves
Empiricism	A system of acquiring knowledge that rejects all o priori knowledge and relies solely upon observation, experimentation, and induction
Etiology	The study of the causes for and origin of any phenomena, also spelled aetiology.
Evolution	A perspective that stresses the value of behavior in Darwinian terms
Experimental group	In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
Extinction	In classical conditioning, the process of eliminating the previously acquired association of the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response
Extroversion	One of the Big Five, a personality trait orients one's interests toward the outside world and other people, rather than inward
Forgetting curve	A graph plotting the amount of retention and forgetting over time for a certain batch of material, such as list of syllables; a typical curve is steep first, becoming flatter as time goes on
Free association	A clinical technique of psychoanalysis devised by Sigmund Freud
Free recall	An individual attends to previously processed stimuli (i.e. words, sounds, numbers, etc) and uses subjective organization to retrieve the memories in categories
Frequency	A theory of hearing which states that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the tone's frequency
Functionalism	William James's school of thought that stressed the adaptive and survival value of behaviors
Gestalt	A German word for "whole", it refers to our tendency to perceive incomplete figures as complete
Gestalt Psychology	Sought to understand how the brain works by studying perception, arguing that percepts consist of meaningful wholes (in German, Gestalts)
Hypothesis	A prediction of how the an experiment will turn out
Id	In Freud's conception, the repository of the basic urges toward sex and aggression
Independent variable	A type of variable manipulated by the experimenter
Information processing	Humans accomplish this either in parallel (unconsciously) or in serial fashion (consciously)
Instrumental behavior	Is a concept stemming from the Behaviorist movement, which asserts that disorders are learned responses to traumatic experiences
Intelligence	The ability to learn from experience, to use information, to understand things
Intelligence quotient	The average is 100; there are many definitions of this attribute, including multiple and crystallized
Introversion	A personality trait that signifies that one finds energy from internal sources rather than external ones
Just noticeable difference	The threshold at which one can distinguish two stimuli that are of different intensities, but otherwise identical
Law of effect	Thorndike's rule that behaviors which have positive outcomes tend to be repeated
Long term memory	Refers to memory that is stored effectively in the brain and may be accessed over an extended period of time
Longitudinal research	A type of study in which one group of subjects is followed and observed (or examined, surveyed, etc.) for an extended period of time (years)
Meaning	Meaning is communicated through the use of language, (and has to do with the distribution of signs in sign relations (symbols), while in a relationship between ontology and truth, and as a reference or equivalence)
Mental illness	A psychological or physiological pattern that occurs in an individual and is usually associated with distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture.
Mental imagery	A mental representation that mirrors or resembles the thing it represents; mental images can occur in many and perhaps all sensory modalities
Nature vs. nurture	The long-standing discussion over the relative importance of nature (heredity) and nurture (environment) in their influence on behavior and mental processes
Neocortex	The newer portion of the cerebral cortex that serves as the center of higher mental functions for humans.
Neurotransmitter	A chemical that is released by a neuron for the purpose of carrying information across the gaps (synapses) between neurons
Normal distribution	Describes a symmetrical, bell shaped curve that shows the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes
Obedience	Is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure
Operant conditioning	A method of influencing behavior by rewarding desired behaviors and punishing undesired ones
Origins of Species	Book by Charles Darwin where he discusses the theory of "natural selection of spices," where he coined the term "survival of the fittest"
Personality	A consistent pattern of thinking, acting, feeling
Phobias	A group of anxiety disorders involving a pathological fear of a specific object or situation
Placebo effect	Phenomenon that some people get better even though they receive not medication but an inert substance which should have no medical effect
Positive reinforcement	A stimulus presented after a response and increasing the probability of that response happening again
Prejudice	A negative attitude formed toward an individual or group without sufficient experience with the person or group
Pro-social behavior	Positive, constructive, helpful behavior; the opposite of antisocial behavior
Psychoanalytic theory	Freud's personality theory, basis for his therapeutic technique called Psychoanalysis
Psychosis	A disorder involving profound disturbances in perception, rational thinking, or affect
Psychosomatic disorder	Condition in which psychological stresses adversely affect physiological (somatic) functioning to the point of distress.
Psychotherapy	Psychotherapy is a general term for a process of treating mental and emotional disorders by talking about your condition and related issues with an educated, trained and licensed professional
Rehearsal	The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage
Reinforcement	Is an increase in the strength of a response following the change in environment immediately following that response
Right hemisphere	The cerebral hemisphere to the right of the corpus callosum that controls the left half of the body
Sample	Sampling is the process of selecting units (e.g., people, organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying the sample we may fairly generalize our results back to the population from which they were chosen.
Semantic memory	A subdivision of declarative memory that stores general knowledge, including the meaning of words and concepts
Serial position function	Refers to the concept of "magic seven," which stipulates that people normally remember the first seven items on a list, for example, after which recall they start forgetting the following items
Short-term memory	A system for temporarily storing and managing information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension.
Significance level	The probability of a false rejection of the null hypothesis in a statistical test; also known as level of significance
Social influence	Is the change in behavior that one person causes in another, intentionally or unintentionally, as a result of the way the changed person perceives themselves in relationship to the influencer, other people and society in general
Socialization	The process by which children learn the behaviors, attitudes, and expectations required of them by their society or culture
Traits	A stable personality characteristics that are presumed to exist within the individual and guide his or her thoughts and actions under various conditions
Unconscious	In classical Freudian theory, the psychic domain of which the individual is not aware but that houses memories, desires, and feelings that would be threatening if brought to consciousness
Unconscious motivation	Having a desire to engage in an activity but being consciously unaware of the desire
Visual depth perception	The ability to perceive spatial relationships, especially distances between objects, in three dimensions

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Control Stress!

Controlling your stress is important to your mental and physical health. 

Unrelenting stress can turn to distress. 

Stress is the body's reaction to any change that requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment or response. 

Stress is a normal part of life. 

Many events that happen to you and around you -- and many things that you do to yourself -- put stress on your body. 

Some stress can be good. It keeps us alert, motivated, and ready to avoid danger. But too much stress can make us sick.

How Does Stress Affect Your Health?

The body's autonomic nervous system has a built-in stress response 
that causes physiological changes to allow the body to combat stressful situations. 
This stress response, also known as the "fight or flight response," 
is activated in case of an emergency. 
However, this response can become chronically activated during 
prolonged periods of stress, which can cause wear and tear on the body -- 
both physical and emotional.

Stress that continues without relief can lead to a condition called distress -- a negative stress reaction. Distress can disturb the body's internal balance or equilibrium, 

leading to physical symptoms such as headaches, an upset stomach, 

elevated blood pressure, chest pain, sexual dysfunction, and problems 

sleeping. Emotional problems can also result from distress. 

These issues included depression, panic attacks or other forms of anxiety and worry. 

Research suggests that stress also can bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases. Stress is linked to six of the leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.

Stress also becomes harmful when people engage in the compulsive 
use of substances or behaviors to try to relieve their stress. 
These substances or behaviors may include food, 
alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, sex, shopping, and the Internet. 
Rather than relieving the stress and returning the body to a relaxed state, 
these substances and compulsive behaviors tend to keep the body in a 
stressed state causing more problems. The distressed person becomes
trapped in a vicious circle.

How do you find out the signs of Your Stress?

Chronic stress can wear down the body's natural defenses,
leading to a variety of physical symptoms, including:

• Dizziness or a general feeling of "being out of it"
• General aches and pains
• Grinding teeth, clenched jaw
• Headaches
• Indigestion or acid reflux symptoms
• Increase in or loss of appetite
• Muscle tension in neck, face or shoulders
• Problems sleeping
• Racing heart
• Cold and sweaty palms
• Tiredness, exhaustion
• Trembling/shaking
• Weight gain or loss
• Upset stomach, diarrhea
• Sexual difficulties

Tips to reduce Your Stress:

People can learn to manage stress and lead happier, healthier lives.
Here are some tips to help you keep stress at bay.

• Keep a positive attitude.
• Accept that there are events that you cannot control.
• Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.
• Learn and practice relaxation techniques; try meditation, yoga, or tai-chi.
• Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit.
• Eat healthy, well-balanced meals.
• Learn to manage your time more effectively.
• Set limits appropriately and say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.
• Make time for hobbies and interests.
• Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.
• Don't rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors to reduce stress.
• Seek out social support. Spend enough time with those you love.
• Seek treatment with a psychologist or other mental health professional trained in stress management or biofeedback techniques to learn more healthy ways of dealing with the stress in your life. 

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Various Types of Psychological Testing:

Psychological testing is a field characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to infer generalizations about a given individual. The technical term for the science behind psychological testing is psychometrics. By samples of behavior, one means observations over time of an individual performing tasks that have usually been prescribed beforehand, which often means scores on a test. These responses are often compiled into statistical tables that allow the evaluator to compare the behavior of the individual being tested to the responses of a norm group.

Psychological assessment is similar to psychological testing but usually involves a more comprehensive assessment of the individual. Psychological assessment is a process that involves the integration of information from multiple sources, such as tests of normal and abnormal personality, tests of ability or intelligence, tests of interests or attitudes, as well as information from personal interviews. Collateral information is also collected about personal, occupational, or medical history, such as from records or from interviews with parents, spouses, teachers, or previous therapists or physicians. A psychological test is one of the sources of data used within the process of assessment; usually more than one test is used. Many psychologists do some level of assessment when providing services to clients or patients, and may use for example, simple checklists to assess some traits or symptoms, but psychological assessment is a more complex, detailed, in-depth process. Typical types of focus for psychological assessment are to provide a diagnosis for treatment settings; to assess a particular area of functioning or disability often for school settings; to help select type of treatment^[1] or to assess treatment outcomes; to help courts decide issues such as child custody or competency to stand trial; or to help assess job applicants or employees and provide career development counseling or training
A useful psychological measure must be both valid (i.e., there is evidence to support the specified interpretation of the test results^[2]) and reliable (i.e., internally consistent or give consistent results over time, across raters, etc.).

• 1 Interpreting scores
• 2 Types of Psychological Tests
  • 2.1 IQ/achievement tests
  • 2.2 Neuropsychological tests
  • 2.3 Personality tests
    • 2.3.1 Objective tests (Rating scale)
    • 2.3.2 Projective tests (Free response measures)
  • 2.4 Sexological tests
  • 2.5 Direct observation tests

Types of Psychological Tests

There are several broad categories of psychological tests:

IQ/achievement tests

IQ tests purport to be measures of intelligence, while achievement tests are measures of the use and level of development of use of the ability. IQ (or cognitive) tests and achievement tests are common norm-referenced tests. In these types of tests, a series of tasks is presented to the person being evaluated, and the person's responses are graded according to carefully prescribed guidelines. After the test is completed, the results can be compiled and compared to the responses of a norm group, usually comprised of people at the same age or grade level as the person being evaluated. IQ tests which contain a series of tasks typically divide the tasks into verbal (relying on the use of language) and performance, or non-verbal (relying on eye-hand types of tasks, or use of symbols or objects). Examples of verbal IQ test tasks are vocabulary and information (answering general knowledge questions). Non-verbal examples are timed completion of puzzles (object assembly), making designs out of coloured blocks (block design).
IQ tests (e.g., WAIS-III, WISC-IV, Cattell Culture Fair III and academic achievement tests (e.g. WIAT, WRAT) are designed to be administered to either an individual (by a trained evaluator) or to a group of people (paper and pencil tests). The individually-administered tests tend to be more comprehensive, more reliable, more valid and generally to have better psychometric characteristics than group-administered tests. However, individually-administered tests are more expensive to administer because of the need for a trained administrator (psychologist, school psychologist, or psychometrician) and because of the limitation of working with just one client at a time.

Neuropsychological tests

Main article: Neuropsychological test

These tests consist of specifically designed tasks used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. They are typically used to assess impairment after an injury or illness known to affect neurocognitive functioning, or when used in research, to contrast neuropsychological abilities across experimental groups.

Personality tests

Main article: Personality test

Psychological measures of personality are often described as either objective tests or projective tests. Some projective tests are used less often today because they are more time consuming to administer.

Objective tests (Rating scale)

Objective tests have a restricted response format, such as allowing for true or false answers or rating using an ordinal scale. Prominent examples of objective personality tests include the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III,^[3] Child Behavior Checklist,^[4] and the Beck Depression Inventory.^[5] Objective personality tests can be designed for use in business for potential employees, such as the NEO-PI, the 16PF, and the Occupational Personality questionnaire, all of which are based on the Big FiveBig Five personality factors and important criterion variables. taxonomy. The Big Five, or Five Factor Model of normal personality, has gained acceptance since the early 1990s when some influential meta-analyses (e.g., Barrick & Mount 1991) found consistent relationships between the

Projective tests (Free response measures)

Projective tests allow for a freer type of response. An example of this would be the Rorschach test, in which a person states what each of ten ink blots might be. The terms "objective test" and "projective test" have recently come under criticism in the Journal of Personality Assessment. The more descriptive "rating scale or self-report measures" and "free response measures" are suggested, rather than the terms "objective tests" and "projective tests," respectively.
As improved sampling and statistical methods developed, much controversy regarding the utility and validity of projective testing has occurred. The use of clinical judgement rather than norms and statistics to evaluate people's characteristics has convinced many that projetives are deficient and unreliable (results are too dissimilar each time a test is given to the same person). However, many practitioners continue to rely on projective testing, and some testing experts (e.g., Cohen, Anastasi) suggest that these measures can be useful in developing therapeutic rapport. They may also be useful in creating inferences to follow-up with other methods. Possibly they have lingered in usage because they have a mystical and fascinating reputation, and are more attractive to uninformed people than answering objective tests, e.g., true/false questionnaires. The most widely used scoring system for the Rorschach is the Exner system of scoring.^[6] Another common projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT),^[7] which is often scored with Westen's Social Cognition and Object Relations Scales^[8] and Phebe Cramer's Defense Mechanisms Manual.^[9] Both "rating scale" and "free response" measures are used in contemporary clinical practice, with a trend toward the former.
Other projective tests include the House-Tree-Person Test, Robert's Apperception Test, and the Attachment Projective.

Sexological tests

Main article: Sexological testing

The number of tests specifically meant for the field of sexology is quite limited. The field of sexology provides different psychological evaluation devices in order to examine the various aspects of the discomfort, problem or dysfunction, regardless of whether they are individual or relational ones.

Direct observation tests

Although most psychological tests are "rating scale" or "free response" measures, psychological assessment may also involve the observation of people as they complete activities. This type of assessment is usually conducted with families in a laboratory, home or with children in a classroom. The purpose may be clinical, such as to establish a pre-intervention baseline of a child's hyperactive or aggressive classroom behaviors or to observe the nature of a parent-child interaction in order to understand a relational disorder. Direct observation procedures are also used in research, for example to study the relationship between intrapsychic variables and specific target behaviors, or to explore sequences of behavioral interaction.
The Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II (PCIA)^[10] is an example of a direct observation procedure that is used with school-age children and parents. The parents and children are video recorded playing at a make-believe zoo. The Parent-Child Early Relational Assessment (Clark, 1999)^[11] is used to study parents and young children and involves a feeding and a puzzle task. The MacArthur Story Stem Battery (MSSB)^[12] is used to elicit narratives from children. The Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System-II (Eyberg, 1981) tracks the extent to which children follow the commands of parents and vice versa and is well suited to the study of children with Oppositional Defiant Disorders and their parents.
For more details visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_tests

Psycho - Analysis

Psychoanalysis

Main article: Psychoanalysis

From the 1890s until his death in 1939, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freudpsychotherapy known as psychoanalysis.
developed a method of

Freud's understanding of the mind was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection and clinical observations, and was focused in particular on resolving unconscious conflict, mental distress and psychopathology.

Freud's theories became very well-known, largely because they tackled subjects such as sexuality, repression, and the unconscious mind as general aspects of psychological development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly discussed in polite society. Clinically, he helped to pioneer the method of free association and a therapeutic interest in dreams.

Freud had a significant influence on Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, whose analytical psychology became an alternative form of depth psychology.

Other well-known psychoanalytic thinkers of the mid-twentieth century included Sigmund Freud's daughter, psychoanalyst Anna Freud;

German-American psychologist Erik Erickson, Austrian-British psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, English psychoanalyst and physician D. W. Winnicott, German psychologist Karen Horney, German-born psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, and English psychiatrist John Bowlby. Throughout the 20th century, psychoanalysis evolved into diverse schools of thought, most of which may be classed as Neo-Freudian.^[8]

Psychoanalysis was criticized by psychologists

such as B. F. Skinner and Hans Eysenck, and by philosophers including Karl Popper. Skinner and other behaviorists believed that psychology should be more empirical and efficient than psychoanalysis, although they frequently agreed with Freud in ways that are overlooked today.^[9]

Popper argued that Freud's psychoanalytic theories were presented in irrefutable, and therefore scientifically untestable, form,^[10] whereas Eysenck maintained that although Freudian ideas could be subjected to experimental science, they had not withstood experimental tests. Psychology departments in American universities today are experimentally oriented, and have marginalized Freudian theory, regarding it as a "desiccated and dead" historical artifact, according to a recent APA study.^[11] Nearly a century after Freud, however, researchers in the emerging field of neuro-psychoanalysis defended some of Freud's ideas on scientific grounds.^[12]

• • 
    
  • 1.2 Psychoanalysis
  • 1.3 Behaviorism
  • 1.4 Humanism and existentialism
  • 1.5 Cognitivism
• 2 Schools of thought
• 3 Subfields
  • 3.1 Abnormal
  • 3.2 Biological
  • 3.3 Cognitive
  • 3.4 Comparative
  • 3.5 Counseling
  • 3.6 Clinical
  • 3.7 Critical
  • 3.8 Developmental
  • 3.9 Educational
  • 3.10 Evolutionary
  • 3.11 Forensic
  • 3.12 Global
  • 3.13 Health
  • 3.14 Industrial/organizational
  • 3.15 Legal
  • 3.16 Occupational health
  • 3.17 Personality
  • 3.18 Quantitative
  • 3.19 Social
  • 3.20 School
• 4 Research methods
  • 4.1 Qualitative and quantitative research
  • 4.2 Controlled experiments
  • 4.3 Survey questionnaires
  • 4.4 Longitudinal studies
  • 4.5 Observation in natural settings
  • 4.6 Qualitative and descriptive research
  • 4.7 Neuropsychological methods
  • 4.8 Computational modeling
  • 4.9 Animal studies
  For more details please visit:
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology

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