Psychology Terms A–Z

A investigative technique that analyzes crime scene evidence and behavioral patterns to build a picture of who the offender might be.

Offender rehabilitation is the process of providing psychological and social support to help people who have committed crimes reintegrate healthily into society.

A structured interview conducted for legal purposes, used to accurately and safely collect statements from victims of child abuse or other crimes without leading or influencing their responses.

A specialized psychological evaluation conducted to answer legal questions, systematically analyzing competency to stand trial, risk level, mental state, and related issues.

Wernicke's Area is a region in the brain's temporal lobe that plays a key role in understanding language and grasping meaning from both spoken and written words.

Weber's Law states that in order to notice a change in a stimulus, the change must be proportional to the size of the original stimulus. The stronger the original stimulus, the larger the change needs to be for us to detect it.

A 21-question self-report questionnaire used to measure the severity of anxiety symptoms.

A 21-question self-report questionnaire used to measure the severity of depressive symptoms.

Keeping someone interested without really choosing them or moving the relationship forward.

Discrimination is the ability to notice differences between similar stimuli and respond to them differently.

The limbic system is a collection of brain structures responsible for emotions, memory, and motivation.

A therapy that intensively trains emotional regulation and interpersonal skills. It balances acceptance of who you are with the need for meaningful change.

Transformative learning is a deep learning process that fundamentally changes the framework of your existing thoughts and beliefs. It's an experience where the very lens through which you see the world becomes different.

The process of helping people and organizations adjust to change in a clear, structured, and supportive way.

A model that explains the process of behavior change through five distinct stages. It shows that change doesn't happen all at once, but progresses step by step.

Finding ways to adapt when a shift in work, relationships, or daily life brings stress or uncertainty.

A perception effect where people miss an obvious change right in front of them, especially when their attention is elsewhere.

Pathological gambling refers to a condition where a person cannot control their urge to gamble, causing serious problems across all areas of their life.

The reward pathway is a neural circuit in the brain responsible for feelings of pleasure and motivation, with dopamine playing a central role in this system.

A neural pathway in the brain that processes pleasure and reward, closely linked to addiction.

A family therapy approach that looks at emotional patterns across generations.

In Piaget's theory, understanding that an amount remains the same even when its shape or arrangement changes.

Obedience is the act of following the commands or instructions of someone in authority. It describes how people comply with directives from authority figures.

A key brain region that produces dopamine, serving as the starting point for reward, motivation, and pleasure.

A prolonged, intense grief that does not ease over time and makes daily life feel very hard.

A trauma-related condition that can develop after repeated or long-term trauma, especially when escape or safety was limited.

Instinct refers to innate behavioral patterns that don't need to be learned. These are natural responses built in for survival — like instinctively pulling away from danger or seeking food when hungry.

This is a long-standing debate about whether human personality and behavior are determined by genetics (nature) or shaped by environment (nurture). Modern psychology recognizes that both play important roles.

The parasympathetic nervous system is the 'rest and digest' mode of your body — it helps you relax and restore energy after stress.

Healthy ways to process the anger and frustration that come from being treated unfairly, so you can find some inner peace again.

Softened startup is a communication skill where you begin a difficult conversation with gentleness and respect rather than criticism or attack, even when addressing conflict or complaints.

Healthy ways to protect your emotional wellbeing while maintaining a loving relationship when a parent's expectations feel overwhelming.

The emotional and behavioral interactions between parents and children that have the greatest influence on a child's development.

Filial Therapy is an approach where parents learn play therapy skills and conduct therapeutic play sessions directly with their own children. It deepens the parent-child bond and allows emotional difficulties to be addressed together at home.

Tension or repeated disagreements with parents about needs, expectations, boundaries, or independence.

Parentification is when a child takes on parental roles during childhood, preventing them from fully experiencing and enjoying their own childhood.

A type of therapy where partners work together to improve their relationship.

Small triangular endocrine organs located atop each kidney that produce hormones essential for the stress response, including cortisol and adrenaline.

Denial is an unconscious psychological defense where the mind refuses to accept a painful or overwhelming reality. It's a natural response that emerges when the mind isn't yet ready to cope with difficult truths.

Maladaptive daydreaming is when someone becomes so deeply absorbed in an imaginary world that it interferes with daily life. Daydreaming itself is natural, but when you spend more time in fantasy than in reality, it can create real difficulties.

A general term for uncomfortable feelings like sadness, anxiety, and anger. These aren't bad emotions — they're necessary ones.

We tend to react more strongly to negative things than positive ones, and remember them longer.

Protecting your well-being when a steady stream of distressing news leaves you anxious or drained.

Inattentional blindness is when you're so focused on one thing that you completely fail to notice something else right in front of you. Because attention is limited, our brains simply can't be aware of everything at the same time.

Encoding is the process of converting information received from the outside world into a form that the brain can store. As the first stage of memory, how well encoding occurs determines how long a memory will last.

Anger management is not about eliminating anger but about recognizing it in healthy ways, expressing it appropriately, and using it constructively. The way anger is expressed matters more than the anger itself.

Anger rumination is the repetitive mental replaying of anger-inducing experiences — replaying them over and over until the anger, rather than fading, actually grows stronger.

Anger management therapy is a structured psychotherapeutic approach that teaches people to recognize, understand, and express anger in healthy ways rather than in harmful or destructive ones.

Separation anxiety is the intense fear or distress felt when separated from a loved one. It is a normal part of development in young children.

Separation Anxiety Disorder is a condition where excessive anxiety about being apart from attachment figures persists in a way that is inappropriate for one's age.