|
|
|
Glossary
or stuff I'd like to remember - rcg
|
|
|
Ψ Alphabetical Links: Click on the letters below for words that begin with that letter.
- A -
Acronyms, initialisms, & alphabetisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name.
Allostatic load: The physiological wear & tear on the body that results from ongoing adaptive efforts to maintain stability (homeostasis) in response to stressors. Kathleen Berger more broadly defines it as the total, combined burden of stress & disease that an individual must cope with.
Aggression: verbal or physical behavior intended to hurt someone.
Amity: a friendly relationship. Synonyms: friendship, friendliness, harmony, harmoniousness, understanding, accord, cooperation, companionship, amicableness, goodwill, cordiality, warmth; formalconcord
Perfect anagrams: use all the letters of a word or name to make another name or meaning or revealing from the first. An anagram does not have to use all the letters of the first word. Anagramming Example : Sunrise. Sun is an anagram of sunrise. So is rise. So is siren. A perfect anagram of the name, MADONNA is AND AMON. Amon is a name of the God of Love & Reproduction.
Anecdote: Narrative that is often more compelling that statistical information.
Anomie: a condition of malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values. When applied to a government or society, anomie implies a social unrest or chaos.
Acrostic : A verse or saying in which the first letter of each word stands for a bit of information. For example, suppose you need to remember the names of the four corner states. You could make up a phrase such as this: Can anyone name us? The first letter of each word in this saying stands for one of the four corner states: Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, & Utah.
|
|
ASD: Autism Spectrum Disorders or autism spectrum conditions (ASC) is a spectrum of psychological conditions characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions & communication, as well as severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. The three main forms of ASD are autism, Asperger syndrome, &
PDD-NOS. Autism forms the core of the autism spectrum disorders. Asperger syndrome is closest to autism in signs & likely causes. Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) is diagnosed when the criteria are not met for a more specific disorder. Some sources also include Rett syndrome & childhood disintegrative disorder, which share several signs with autism but may have unrelated causes. Unlike autism, Asperger's has no significant delay in language development.
Aspire: To have a great ambition or ultimate goal. As in: To have a fervent hope or aspiration.
Attitude: A belief or feeling that can predispose our response to something or someone.
Automatic attitudes: are implicit.
Availability Heuristic: A mental shortcut that judges the likelihood of things in terms of their availability in memory.
- B -
Base-rate fallacy: the belief that probability rates are false.
Behavioral confirmation: a type of self-fulfilling prophecy based on social expectations.
Berra (Yogi): said "It ain't over till it's over."
Birth order effects: You should note that the influence of birth order (sometimes referred to as ordinal position) on the development of personality is a controversial issue in psychology. Most of the claims about birth order have not been supported by scientific research.
Blindsight: refers to a "medical condition in which the sufferer responds to visual stimuli
without consciously perceiving them" & is associated with damage to the primary visual cortex.
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is a 2005 book by Malcolm Gladwell.
It popularizes research from psychology & behavioral economics on the adaptive unconscious; mental processes that work rapidly & automatically from relatively little information. It considers both the strengths of the adaptive unconscious, for example in expert judgment, & its pitfalls such as stereotypes. Gladwell proposes that "Thin-slicing" ( our ability to gauge what is really important from a very narrow period of experience ) is often as good as or even better than carefully planned & considered decision making processes.
Bogus pipeline: A procedure that fools people into disclosing their attitudes. Participants are first convinced that a machine can use their psychological responses to measure their private attitudes, then they are asked to predict the machine's reading, thus revealing their attitudes. It refers also to a phony lie-detector device that is sometimes used to get respondents to give truthful answers to sensitive questions.
Brainwashing: potent social indoctrination.
The butterfly effect is a phrase that encapsulates the more technical notion of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory. Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system. More simply put: a change in something seemingly innocuous, such as a flap of a butterfly's wings, may cause unexpected larger changes in the future.
|
|
- C -
Cacophony: harsh or discordant sound.
Carillon: ( from the French, quaternio: set of four ) a set of fixed chromatically tuned bells.
Cephalo-Caudal Development: “Head to tail” - Control of head & neck before lower torso & feet.
Character: defined by what we do when we think no one is watching.
Cognitive dissonance: the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions.
Collectivism: giving priority to the group.
Comorbidity The presence of one or more disorders (or diseases) in addition to a primary disease or disorder; or the effect of such additional disorders or diseases. The term dual diagnosis is often applied to the comorbid existence of both a mental disorder & substance abuse.
Conflation occurs when the identities of two or more individuals, concepts, or places, sharing some characteristics of one another, become confused until there seems to be only a single identity.
Correlational Research: the study of naturally occurring relationships.
Couvade syndrome, also called sympathetic pregnancy, is a proposed condition in which a partner experiences some of the same symptoms and behavior of an expectant mother. These most often include minor weight gain, altered hormone levels, morning nausea, and disturbed sleep patterns. In more extreme cases, symptoms can include labor pains, postpartum depression, and nosebleeds. The labor pain symptom is commonly known as sympathy pain. Couvade syndrome is not a recognized medical condition. Its source is a matter of debate. Some believe it to be a psychosomatic condition, while others believe it may have biological causes relating to hormone changes.
Culture generally refers to patterns of human activity & the symbolic structures that give such activity significance.
- D -
Dead pool: also known as a death pool, is a game of prediction which involves guessing when someone will die. Sometimes it is a bet where money is involved. The combination of dead or death, and betting pool, refers to such a gambling arrangement. This term is commonly used in events where death is a possibility i.e. motor sports, motorcycle or car races. Urban Dictionary: Deadpool - A true hero. A merc who was cursed with terminal cancer he sold his body to the Weapon X
project so that they could not only save his life but make him a hero.
Delay Discounting: The tendency to undervalue, or downright ignore, future consequences & rewards in favor of more immediate
gratification. It is the opposite of delayed gratification which is the ability to wait in order to obtain something that one wants. A delayed gratification response is usually considered to be a personality trait which is important for life success.
Dependant variable: the experimental variable being measured.
Deviancy training: The process whereby children are taught by their peers to avoid restrictions imposed by adults.
Diathesis: Constitutional predisposition to a particular disease or abnormality.
|
|
Diathesis-Stress Model: In the diathesis-stress model a non-biological or genetic vulnerability or predisposition (diathesis) interacts with the environment & life events (stressors) to trigger behaviors or psychological disorders. The greater the underlying vulnerability, the less stress is needed to trigger the behavior / disorder. Conversely, where there is a smaller genetic contribution greater life stress is required to produce the particular result. Even so, someone with a diathesis towards a disorder does not necessarily mean they will ever develop the disorder. Both the diathesis & the stress are required for this to happen.
Dichotomy: a division into two especially mutually exclusive or contradictory groups or entities. Something with seemingly contradictory qualities.
Disraeli: said "Thought is the child of action."
Durability bias: the tendency to over-predict the duration of affective reactions to future events.
Dysphoria: a state of unease or generalized dissatisfaction with life.
- E -
E pluribus unum: Latin for "Out of Many, One,"
Edgework: Occupations or recreational activities that involve a degree of risk or danger, The prospect of "living on the edge" makes edgework compelling to some individuals.
Emerson: said "The ancestor of every action is a thought".
Empathy: one's ability to recognize, perceive & directly experientially feel the emotion of another.
Empirical: denotes information gained by means of observation, experience, or experiment. A central concept in science & the scientific method is that all evidence must be empirical, or empirically based, that is, dependent on evidence or consequences that are observable by the senses.
Endorphins: Compounds produced by the pituitary gland & the hypothalamus during strenuous exercise, excitement, & orgasm. They resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia & a sense of well-being.
Epinephrine: (a.k.a. adrenaline) is a hormone & neurotransmitter. Epinephrine is a "fight or flight" hormone, & plays a central role in the short-term stress reaction. It is released from the adrenal glands when danger threatens or in an emergency. Norepinephrine is both a hormone & a neurotransmitter. As a hormone, it works alongside epinephrine to give the body sudden energy in times of stress. As a neurotransmitter, it passes nerve impulses from one neuron to the next.
Equifinality: The principle that in open systems a given end state can be reached by many potential means. The term and concept is due to Hans Driesch, the developmental biologist, later applied by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, the founder of General Systems Theory.
Esoteric: belonging to the select few.
Estradiol: (oestradiol) is a sex hormone. Mislabeled the "female" hormone, it is also present in males; it represents the major estrogen in humans. Estradiol has not only a critical impact on reproductive & sexual functioning, but also affects other organs including bone structure.
Ethnotheory: cultural belief system.
Ethology: a branch of knowledge dealing with human character and with its formation & evolution. Ethologists tend to concentrate on innate behaviors (instincts). Ethology was influential in the development of the concept of human attachment patterns.
|
|
Experimental Realism: an experiment that absorbs & involves its participants has this.
Experimental Studies: seek clues to cause-effect relationships.
Existentialism: is a philosophical movement which posits that individuals create the meaning & essence of their lives, as opposed to it being created for them by deities or authorities or defined for them by philosophical or theological doctrines.
Eudaimonia: happiness, well-being, success.
Evolutionary psychology relies on the assumption that some of our behaviors have arisen because they have been naturally selected.
- F -
False Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions & one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
False Uniqueness Effect: The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities & one's desirable or successful behaviors.
Field research: research done in real-life settings.
Flow: an optimal state of absorption during which we lose consciousness of time & self. Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, & success in the process of the activity. Proposed by positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields. The psychological concept of flow as becoming absorbed in an activity is unrelated to the older phrase "to go with the flow" which means "to conform".
fomo: "fear of missing out". The fear that if you miss a party or event you will miss out on something great.
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon: The tendency to agree to a difficult request if one has first agreed to an easy request.
Fundamental Attribution Error: Tendency to blame the person rather than the situation.
- G -
Gaslighting or gas-lighting is a form of mental abuse in which information is twisted or spun, selectively omitted to favor the abuser, or false information is presented with the intent of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity.
The word gender defines the state of being male, female, or neither.
Generativity: The need to pass on what we know is reached primarily through employment & parenthood. Eric Erikson's proposed stage 7. Generativity versus Stagnation (middle adulthood, 40 - 65) - Care / reflectivity - If unresolved: fear of failure.
Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole".
Gethsemane was the garden where Jesus & his disciples retreated to pray after the Last Supper, the night before he was crucified. Gethsemane was also where Christ was betrayed by the disciple Judas Iscariot.
Glossary: An alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge; usually published as an appendix to a text on that field.
Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict & reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, & evaluating ideas.
|
|
- H -
Heuristic: rule of thumb.
Hindsight bias: a.k.a. The I knew it all along phenomenon.
Homunculus: The figure of a human sometimes superimposed (in relative size) on pictures of the surface of the brain to represent the motor or sensory regions of the body represented there.
Hubris: Greek for (to much) pride.
Humors: The Greek Physician Hypocrites put forward the 1st recorded systematic classification of
personality.
The system was based on the four humors & their relationship to temperament. It was thought that the humors should be balanced within a person.
• Choleric: tendency towards irascibility.
• Sanguine: tendency to be
optimistic.
• Melancholic: tendency towards sadness.
• Phlegmatic: tendency towards apathy
Hypothesis: a testable proposition.
- I -
Idiographic: relating to or dealing with the concrete, individual, or unique.
IEP: An Individualized Education Program is mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA requires public schools to develop an IEP for every student with a disability. The IEP must be designed to provide the child with a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). The IEP refers both to the educational program to be provided to a child with a disability & to the written document that describes that educational program.
|
|
Key considerations in developing an IEP include assessing students in all areas related to the suspected disability(ies), considering access to the general curriculum, considering how the disability affects the student’s learning, developing goals & objectives that make the biggest difference for the student, & ultimately choosing a placement in the least restrictive environment (LRE).
IHS is a symbolic monogram of Christ used by the Roman Catholic Church.
The letters of which are also used to spell out the phrase "Iesous Hominum Salvator," "Jesus, savior of man."
Illusory correlation: perception of a relationship where none exists.
Impact bias: the tendency for people to overestimate the length (durability) or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states.
Impossible figure example:
Independent variable: the experimental factor that is manipulated.
Individualism: - opposed to collectivism, giving priority to yourself.
Informed Consent: an ethical principle used when conducting research.
Innervate: to supply with nerves.
INRI: In most crosses as well as crucifixes, we see the letters INRI. These letters stand for 'Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudeum'. These are Latin words & literally translate to 'Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews'. These were the words that Pontius Pilate had the soldiers write & nail at the top of the crucifix during the crucifixion. The words have come to be universally associated with the cross itself, & have a profound place in Christianity.
Interaction: to have an effect on one another.
Intuition: understanding without apparent effort.
IntraUterine Growth Restriction (IUGR): a term for a baby who is smaller than normal during pregnancy. The baby is not growing at the normal rate inside the uterus. These babies usually have a low weight at birth. Babies who have IUGR are more likely to have health problems (both during pregnancy & after birth). IUGR has various causes. A common cause is a problem in the placenta (the tissue that carries oxygen, food & blood to the baby). Birth defects & genetic disorders can also cause IUGR. If the mother has an infection, high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart disease, sickle cell anemia, is smoking, drinking alcohol or abusing drugs, her baby is at risk. Sometimes prescribed medicines that the mother is taking cause IUGR.
Irish Twins: Siblings born within 12 months of each other. The roots of the idea behind the term are actually quite old, although no one knows when, exactly, people first began to talk about Irish twins. In both England and the United States, a massive influx of Irish immigration in the 1800s led to a negative connotation with Irish people and society. This often happens when a large immigrant group begins to settle in mass numbers in a new country. The Irish were accused of being backwards and uncultured, and it was assumed that they were uneducated, dirty, and a general pox on society. As a result, the use of the word “Irish” began to be pejorative.
- J -
According to Jung, the collective unconscious; is inherited, consists of universal symbols & memories from the ancestral past, & explains why common themes occur in cultural myths & legends around the world.
|
|
Juxtaposition: an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.
- K -
Korsakoff's syndrome: An organic disorder in which the brain fails to cope with new information, though distant memory is preserved. It is usually due to chronic alcoholism. An ultimate & tragic consequence of years of alcoholic drinking, "wet brain" (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) occurs from a thiamine deficiency due to malnutrition. In early stages, the syndrome can be partially reversed through treatment with large doses of thiamine; in late stage cases, there is no effective treatment.
Kulechov effect: Perceptions of emotion are controlled by the setting the emotions are viewed in.
- L -
Lateralization: a.k.a. "sidedness." Each hemisphere of the brain performs basically the same motor & sensory functions, but each hemisphere’s association area is specialized for different operations, a phenomenon known as lateralization. Cerebral lateralization of cognitive functions: The left hemisphere shows superiority in tasks involving speech, language, reading, & writing. The right hemisphere functions better on tasks involving spatial construction, facial recognition, nonverbal imagery, sense of direction, musical recognition, & emotional states.
Learned helplessness: In psychology, a mental state in which a laboratory subject forced to bear aversive stimuli becomes unable or unwilling to avoid subsequent applications, even if they are “escapable”, presumably through having learned that situational control is generally out of one's hands.
Locus of control: a personality construct referring to an individual's perception of the locus of events as determined internally by his/her own behavior vs. fate, luck, or external circumstances.
Low-ball technique: Get a commitment by offering a good deal, then after getting the commitment raise the cost of completing the deal.
LRE: In public schools the placement of a student in the "Least Restrictive Environment" is often referred to as "mainstreaming."
- M -
Mandala: An integrated structure organized around a unifying center. "The pattern of creation." Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, & can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond & within our bodies & minds. Describing both material & non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, & moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, & community.
|
|
Matriarchal: There are no known societies that are unambiguously matriarchal, although there are a number of attested matrilinear, matrilocal & avunculocal societies, especially among indigenous peoples of Asia & Africa. Strongly matrilocal societies sometimes are referred to as matrifocal, & there is some debate concerning the terminological delineation between matrifocality and matriarchy. Note that even in patriarchical systems there may occasionally be queen regnants, as in the case of Elizabeth I of England or Victoria of the United Kingdom.
Matriarchy: a family, group, or state governed by a women.
Matrilineality: is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother & maternal ancestors. (e.g. the
Iroquois Indian tribes)
Metanoia  : changing one's mind. A transformative change of heart; especially a spiritual conversion. In the context of theological discussion, it is usually interpreted to mean repentance. In the context of rhetoric, metanoia is a rhetorical device used to retract a statement just made, & then state it in a better way. In the psychological theory of Carl Jung, metanoia denotes a process of reforming the psyche as a form of self healing, a proposed explanation for the phenomenon of psychotic breakdown.
Metaphysical: referring to an idea, doctrine, or posited reality outside of human sense perception. In modern philosophical terminology, metaphysics refers to the studies of what cannot be reached through objective studies of material reality.
Mickey Mouse World: A Mickey Mouse world is one in which people are overloaded with autocratic & bureaucratic nonsense / direction to the point where if something cute or funny is not made of it they will at the very least become depressed.
|
|
Mind guard: Groupthink happens when groups try to preserve harmony at the expense of exposing new or contrary information & diverse opinions. Often some members of the group will take on the role of a mind guard; telling people to stop bringing up anything that doesn’t fit the preferred ‘reality’ of a group.
Minimalism: Use of the fewest & barest essentials or elements, as in the arts, literature, or design.
Mirror neuron: a type of brain cell that responds equally when we perform an action & when we witness someone else perform the same action. The existence of mirror neurons might help explain not only empathy, but also autism & even the evolution of language. Note: Researchers haven't yet (2008) been able to prove that humans have individual mirror neurons like monkeys, although they have shown that humans have a more general mirror system which may act in a similar manner.
Morphology (mor-FAWL-uh-gee): is the system that we use to group phonemes into meaningful combinations of sounds & words.
Mundane Realism: to be superficially similar to everyday situations.
Muses: explicitly used in modern English to refer to an inspiration, as when one cites his/her own artistic muse. The canonical nine Muses In Greek mythology are: Euterpe (music), Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry), Terpsichore (dancing), Thalia (comedy) &
Urania (astronomy).
- N -
Naturalistic Fallacy: The claim that the way things are is the way they should be.
Natural Selection: Darwinian evolutionary process.
Neurotypical or NT, an abbreviation of neurologically typical, is a neologism originating in the autistic community as a label for people who are not on the autism spectrum. However, the term eventually became used for anyone who does not have atypical neurology.
Neuromodulator: can be conceptualized as a neurotransmitter that is not reabsorbed by the pre-synaptic neuron or broken down into a metabolite. Such neuromodulators end up spending a significant amount of time in the CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) & influencing (or modulating) the overall activity level of the brain. Some neurotransmitters are also considered neuromodulators. Examples of neuromodulators in this category are serotonin & acetylcholine.
Nihilism is the belief that all values are baseless & that nothing can be known or communicated. It is often associated with extreme pessimism & a radical skepticism that condemns existence. A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, & no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. Nihilism is most often associated with Friedrich Nietzsche who argued that its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, & metaphysical convictions & precipitate the greatest crisis in human history.
Nomothetic: relating to, involving, or dealing with abstract, general, or universal statements or laws.
A Norm is a rule that is socially enforced. George Robert Wendt is an American actor, best known for the role of Norm Peterson on the television show Cheers.
- O -
Obstreperous: adj. Noisily & stubbornly defiant. - aggressively boisterous.
Omega: (the last letter of the Greek alphabet) is often used to denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit of a set, in contrast to Alpha, the 1st letter of the Greek alphabet. In the New Testament book of Revelation, God is declared to be the "alpha & omega, the beginning & the end, the first & the last".
|
|
Optimism: predisposes a positive approach to life.
Overconfidence Bias: refers to the human tendency to be more confident in one's behaviors, attributes & physical characteristics than one ought to be.
Overregularization: is a language-learning process in which the regular ways of modifying or connecting words are mistakenly applied to words that require irregular modifications or connections. It is a normal effect observed in the language of beginner & intermediate language-learners.
- P -
Paladin: A benevolent, heroic champion, or the defender of a good cause.
Parabellum: from the ancient Latin saying Si vis Pacem, Para bellum - “If you want Peace, prepare for War”.
Paradigm: The generally accepted perspective of a particular discipline at a given time.
Parsimony: a "less is better" concept of frugality, economy or caution in arriving at a hypothesis or course of action.
Some synonyms are of course: economy, frugality, & stinginess.
Pascal said: “The heart has its reasons which reason does not know”.
Peale, Norman Vincent: author of "The Power of Positive Thinking".
Perfidious: deceitful and untrustworthy. Tending to betray; especially having a treacherous character as attributed to the Carthaginians by the Romans "the perfidious Judas".
Persephone is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. The Romans called her Proserpine. Her names means something like "she who destroys the light."
Personal Identity: defined by individual traits & goals.
Personal space: the buffer zone we like to maintain around our bodies.
Phoneme : the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language.
The exact number of phonemes in English depends on the speaker & the method of determining phoneme vs. allophone, but estimates typically range from 40 to 45, which is above average across all languages.
Phonology (FOE-nawl-uh-gee): specifies how we make meaningful sounds that are used by a particular language.
Pragmatism: The pursuit of practicality over aesthetic qualities; a concentration on facts rather than emotions or ideals.
Pragmatism: an American movement in philosophy founded by C. S. Peirce & William James & marked by the doctrines that the meaning of conceptions is to be sought in their practical bearings, that the function of thought is to guide action, & that truth is preeminently to be tested by the practical consequences of belief.
Procrastination: involves an unintended drift towards self-harm. (Sabini & Sliver, 1982)
Prosopagnosia : face blindness
Protagonist: The principal character in a work of fiction.
Proximal-Distal Development: “Central to peripheral” - Control of shoulder before hands.
Pygmalion effect: A self-fulfilling prophecy whereby people tend to behave the way others expect them to.
- Q -
Qualitative research methods: emphasize detailed, personal descriptions of phenomena.
- R -
Random Assignment: helps us infer cause & effect.
Random Sampling: helps us generalize to a population.
Psychological Reactance: People act to protect their sense of freedom. Attempts to restrict a person's freedom often produce an anticonformity "boomerang effect". "The essence of reactance is rebellion." - unknown
Reductionism: “the simple is the source of the complex”. That is to say; a complex phenomenon (like human behavior) needs to be reduced it to its constituent elements in order to understand it. The experimental & laboratory approach in certain areas of psychology (e.g. behaviorism, biological, & cognitive) reflects a reductionist position. Reductionism's opposite is Holism, which refers to any approach that emphasizes the whole rather than its constituent parts. In other words "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts". Qualitative methods of the humanistic approach reflect a holistic position. Social psychology also takes a holistic view.
Relativism: A theory, that conceptions of truth & moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them.
Renunciation: The formal rejection of something, typically a belief, claim, or course of action.
Resilient: to be resilient is to cope readily.
Role: a socially expected behavior pattern usually determined by an individual's status in a particular society
A gender role is a set of behavioral expectations associated with males & females.
Rosy retrospection: refers to the finding that we rate past events more positively than we do when the event occurred. "The past is always well remembered."
Rumination (mental) is contemplation or reflection on a particular topic. If very persistent or repetitively focused on problems, it is thought to play a role in the development of clinical depression. It is more common among females than males.
- S -
Schadenfreude : enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others.
Schema: mental template.
Schrödinger's cat: a famous illustration of the principle in quantum theory of superposition (1935).
Self-concept: independent or interdependent.
Self-efficacy (Albert Bandura - Social Cognitive Theory): Your self-efficacy is how competent you feel to do something; your self-esteem is your sense of self worth, e.g. a skilled thief might feel high self-efficacy & low self-esteem.
Self-esteem: a sense of self-worth - is adaptive!
Self-perception theory: asserts that people simply infer their attitudes from their own behavior in the same way that an outside observer might.
Self-reference effect: the tendency to process efficiently & remember well info related to self.
Self-schemas: organize & guide the processing of self-relevant info.
Self-Serving Bias: The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
Semantics (si-MANT-iks): specifies the meaning of words or phrases when they appear in various sentences or contexts.
Sine qua non : from the Latin, without which not.
Refers to something that is absolutely indispensable or essential.
Snap: (urban dictionary) A word used to express a feeling of excitement generated during an unexpected or impressive event. The meaning of the word depends on its context and can range from disappointment to extreme satisfaction. It is an expression used to describe 1. dismay 2.
disbelief 3. surprise 4. joy
Socrates: said, " Know Thyself". This is a powerful principle that leaders, managers & effective people intuitively know. When you understand your own strengths & preferences you are in a position to maximize those strengths & compensate for any weaknesses either by working differently or surrounding yourself with people with different strengths.
|
|
Sophistry: A deliberately invalid argument displaying ingenuity in reasoning in the hope of deceiving someone.
Structuralism as a school of psychology seeks to analyze the adult mind (the total sum of experience from birth to the present) in terms of the simplest definable components and then to find how these components fit together to form more complex experiences as well as how they correlated to physical events. To do this, psychologists employ introspection, self-reports of sensations, views, feelings, emotions, etc. Believed, "the whole is equal to the sum of the parts.
Sunk-cost Fallacy: When one makes a hopeless investment, one sometimes reasons: I can’t stop now, otherwise what I’ve invested so far will be lost. This is true, of course, but irrelevant to whether one should continue to invest in the project. To continue to invest in a hopeless project is irrational. The irrationality is a way to save face, to appear to be knowledgeable, when in fact one is acting like an idiot.
Surgency is a personality attribute that is part of the Big Five personality traits, or the Five-factor model (FFM). It is most commonly referred to as the dimension of Extraversion.
Synonyms for surgency include Dominance, Self-confidence, Competitiveness, Outgoingness, Decisiveness, Talkativeness, Frankness,
Adventurousness, Assertiveness, Sociability, Energetic, Composed, Interest in Opposite Sex, & Cheerfulness. Surgency involves patterns of behavior often
exhibited in group settings & generally concerned with getting ahead in life.
Surgency behavioral patterns often appear when someone is trying to influence or control others. Individuals lower in surgency (introverts) prefer to work by themselves & have relatively little interest in influencing, controlling, or competing with others.
Syntax, or grammar: is a set of rules that specifies how we combine words to form meaningful phrases & sentences.
- T -
A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature. A thing, process or action is teleological when it is for the sake of an end, i.e., a telos or final cause.
Teratology: from the Greek, meaning monster. Refers to the study of birth defects.
Thanatology: The study of death.
Thorazine (Chlorpromazine), is one of the most widely known phenothiazine neuroleptics that has ever been used. Typical antipsychotic drugs of this type have been used to control psychosis & have been used in mental institutions for patients who do not have a comfortable grasp on reality. Side effects include convulsions, increased sweating, tardive dyskinesia, & changes to pigmentation.
Transcendence: In everyday language, means "going beyond", & "self-transcendence" means going beyond a prior form or state of oneself. Complete transcendence might well be a state
of no desire.
Transcendent: (1) exceeding usual limits: surpassing. (2) extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience (3) in Kantian philosophy: being beyond the limits of all possible experience & knowledge.
Twins
Identical (monozygotic) twins do not have identical fingerprints because they are not an entirely genetic characteristic. The shape of fingerprints are believed to be influenced by environmental factors during pregnancy, thus, you will find similar patterns of whorls & ridges in the fingerprints of identical twins but there will also be differences.
Typical antipsychotics (sometimes referred to as 1st generation antipsychotics, conventional antipsychotics, classical neuroleptics, or major tranquilizers) are a class of antipsychotic drugs developed in the 1950s & used to treat psychosis (in particular, schizophrenia), Typical antipsychotics are generally being replaced by atypical antipsychotic drugs.
- U -
Ubiquitous: Being present everywhere at once. To be omnipresent.
- V -
Verbalized attitudes: are explicit.
Viability (fetal): is defined as the ability of fetuses to survive outside the womb. There is no sharp limit of development, age, or weight at which a fetus automatically becomes viable or beyond which survival is assured, but it is rare for a baby to survive whose weight is less than 500 gm or whose fertilization age is less than 22 weeks.
Visceral: In a figurative sense, something "visceral" is felt "deep down." It is a "gut feeling."
- W -
Wikipedia: a multilingual, Web-based, free content encyclopedia project. The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau (combination of words & their meanings) of the words wiki (a type of collaborative Web site) & encyclopedia.
Wisdom: the coordination of knowledge and experience & its deliberate use to improve well being.
- X -
Generation X: People born between 1965 & 1976 – 1980. Gen Xers are independent, enjoy Informality, are entrepreneurial, & seek emotional maturity. On the job they want to build skills & experiences they can take with them if they need to, & they want their career path laid out in front of them or they’ll move on. Gen Xers seek balance in their lives now, not when they retire. They don't want to commit their lives to work as their parents did. Try to give them immediate & honest feedback when you deal with them.
Xenophobia : a fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown.
- Y -
Generation Y: sometimes referred to as "Millennials or "Echo Boomers" refers to the cohort of individuals born, roughly, between 1982 & 1994. Generation Y, like other generations, was shaped by the events, leaders, developments & trends of its time. The rise of instant communication technologies made possible through use of the internet, such as email, texting, & IM & new media used through websites like YouTube & social networking sites, may explain Generation Y's reputation for being peer oriented & for seeking instant gratification.
- Z -
Zeitgeist: is a German language expression literally translated: Zeit, time; Geist, spirit, meaning "the spirit of the age and its society". The word zeitgeist describes the intellectual, cultural, ethical & political climate, ambience & morals of an era (similar to the English word "mainstream") or also a trend.
ZYPREXA: is the brand name is an atypical antipsychotic drug (Olanzapine) approved by the FDA for treating the symptoms of schizophrenia, acute mixed or manic episodes of bipolar I disorder & for maintenance treatment in bipolar disorder.
The Glossary or stuff I'd like to remember.
Robert C. Gates
|
|
 “Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
|
|
