Psychology Glossary Terms

Glossary of Psychology Terms

• Animism: the belief that all things are living, and attributing human-like qualities to inanimate objects
• Associationism: the philosophy that the mind is composed of elements, such as sensations and ideas, organized using various associations
• Behaviourism: the philosophical position that psychology should focus on the study of observable behavior, rather than mental processes
• Cognition: the mental events that take place inside a person's mind while behaving
• Consciousness: a person's subjective experiences of the world and the mind

Defence Mechanisms and Ego

• Defence mechanisms: unconscious psychological operations that function to protect a person against anxiety-producing thoughts and feelings related to internal conflicts and outer stressors
• Ego: a part of a person's personality that is experienced as the self and is in contact with the external world through perception

Humanism

• Humanism: a philosophy that stresses the idea that people have an ethical responsibility to live personally fulfilling lives and to contribute to the greater good of all people
• Focuses on the study of conscious experiences and the wholeness of human nature
• Emphasizes the whole individual, incorporating concepts such as free will and self-actualization
• People have the ability to reach their potential and become fully functioning individuals of their own accord

Other Psychology Terms

• Continuity: the process whereby events that occur close to one another in space or time tend to get linked together in the mind
• Contrast: seeing or recalling something may trigger the recollection of something opposite
• Frequency: the more often two things or events are linked, the more powerful the association between them
• Gestalt psychology: a school of thought that focuses on understanding the whole as opposed to individual elements
• Id: the personality component made up of unconscious psychic energy that works to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires
• Introspection: the subjective observation of one's own experiences
• Materialism: the philosophical position that everything, including mental events, is composed of physical matter and is therefore subject to the laws of physics
• Neurosis: a tendency to experience negative emotions or anxiety disorders or to engage in unhealthy behavior
• Penis envy: the process whereby a girl child feels hostility towards her mother and blames her mother because she does not have a penis
• Pleasure principle: the driving force of the id that seeks immediate gratification of all needs, wants, and urges
• Psychoanalysis: the psychological theory according to which mental or emotional forces that develop in early childhood affect adult behavior and mental states through unconscious processes
• Psychology: the scientific study of the mind and behavior
• Reality principle: the regulatory mechanism that represents the demands of the external world and requires the individual to modify instinctual gratification or to postpone it to a more appropriate time
• Similarity: when two things are similar, the thought of one will tend to trigger the thought of the other
• Superego: the component of personality that suppresses the biological, primitive urges of the id and tries to make the ego behave morally
• Tabula rasa: a hypothetical primary blank or empty state of the mind before it receives outside impressions