Psychology Terms A–Z

Psychopathy is a personality trait marked by a striking lack of empathy and guilt, along with emotional coldness toward others. It often appears alongside superficial charm and impulsive behavior.

When we start seeing our filtered, retouched photos as our 'true' appearance, dissatisfaction with our real, unedited looks tends to grow. This is the psychological impact of photo editing on how we perceive ourselves.

Puberty is the transitional period from childhood to adolescence, marked by significant physical and psychological changes.

Social cognition is the mental process of taking in, storing, and interpreting information about other people and social situations. It plays a central role in understanding others' thoughts, feelings, and intentions, and in forming meaningful social relationships.

Social Identity Theory explains how people form a sense of self through the groups they belong to, and why they tend to evaluate their own group more positively than others. It reveals how feelings of belonging and group membership shape our attitudes and behaviors.

Social Skills Training is a structured program where you systematically learn and practice the skills needed to communicate smoothly and build relationships with others. It helps you grow confidence in interpersonal situations.

A condition where someone feels extreme fear of being judged or embarrassed in front of others. It goes beyond ordinary shyness and can seriously interfere with everyday life.

Social isolation refers to the objective state of having little to no contact or interaction with other people, spending time largely alone.

The Social Brain Hypothesis proposes that the human brain grew so large primarily to manage the complex social relationships we form with others.

Social comparison is the natural psychological process of evaluating yourself by comparing your abilities, opinions, and circumstances to those of others.

Gender refers to the roles, behaviors, and expectations that society and culture assign to men and women. Unlike biological sex, it is a socially constructed concept learned through socialization.

Social jet lag is the chronic misalignment between your biological sleep schedule and your social schedule, causing fatigue similar to crossing time zones every week.

Social withdrawal is a behavioral pattern where a person pulls back and avoids social situations and interpersonal relationships. It involves actively distancing oneself from others, often in response to anxiety, low self-esteem, or past negative experiences.

Social identity is the part of your self-concept that comes from the groups you belong to. It reflects how membership in various groups shapes who you are.

Social support refers to the emotional, practical, and informational help and assistance we receive from the people around us.

When others are watching, people tend to perform better on easy tasks but worse on difficult ones.

Social loafing is the phenomenon where individuals put in less effort when working as part of a group than when working alone. It tends to occur when personal contributions are less visible or when people expect others to pick up the slack.

Learning by observing and imitating others. Bandura's theory is the most well-known example.

A theory that learning occurs by observing and imitating the behavior of others. You don't have to experience something directly to learn from it.

Social Emotional Learning is the process of developing the ability to understand emotions, build healthy relationships with others, and make responsible decisions. It's essentially learning to strengthen the muscles of the mind.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to feel 'I knew it all along' after an event has already occurred. Once we know the outcome, our memory distorts to make it seem as though we could have predicted it from the very beginning.

Postpartum depression is a form of depression that appears after childbirth. Hormonal changes and the stress of caring for a newborn are key contributing factors.

A serious mental health condition that appears shortly after childbirth, involving difficulty perceiving reality and requiring urgent professional help.

Life satisfaction refers to the degree of contentment and fulfillment you feel when evaluating your life as a whole. It's not a fleeting mood, but an overall judgment about how your life is going.

Life purpose refers to a meaningful goal that comes from understanding why you exist and what direction your life is heading. Having a sense of life purpose can give you strength even in the face of hardship.

A deep inner sense that gives direction and meaning to your life. People with a strong sense of purpose can find the strength to keep moving forward even in difficult circumstances.

Quality of life refers to how satisfying and fulfilling a person's life is across physical, psychological, and social dimensions. It goes beyond simply the absence of illness to encompass overall well-being.

Triangulation is a relationship pattern where a third person is brought into a conflict between two people in order to reduce tension.

A Japanese practice of immersing oneself slowly and mindfully in a forest environment, using all senses to absorb nature — with scientifically proven benefits for stress reduction and immune function.

An early type of antidepressant that acts on multiple neurotransmitters. It's effective but comes with more side effects.

Therapy resistance is when a person unconsciously sabotages or blocks the therapeutic process due to fear or discomfort about change. It's a natural response, and can actually be a signal that you're getting closer to an important psychological issue.

The promise that what you share in therapy will stay protected unless there is a serious safety or legal exception.

A way to organize your thoughts and feelings before attending therapy in order to get more out of each session. Preparing ahead of time helps you use your therapy time more meaningfully.

A branch of psychology that helps people work through everyday emotional and personal challenges so they can live healthier, more fulfilling lives.

A therapeutic technique where you vividly imagine a feared situation in your mind, gradually becoming comfortable with the anxiety in a safe environment.

Finding meaning after loss is the process of rediscovering purpose and significance in life after losing someone or something deeply important to you. It's possible to find new meaning without denying or minimizing the pain of the loss.

State-dependent memory is the phenomenon where memories stored during a particular emotional or physical state are more easily recalled when you return to a similar state.

Upward comparison is when you compare yourself to someone who is doing better or is in a more favorable situation than you. The outcome can be either motivating or discouraging depending on how you interpret the comparison.

Understanding something by starting with raw sensory details.

Reciprocity means that giving and receiving are balanced in a relationship. It's an essential element of healthy relationships.

It's the psychological obligation to give back when you receive something. It can work through genuine goodwill, but it can also be exploited as a tool of manipulation.

Interdependence is a way of relating where you healthily rely on others while still respecting each person's independence. It's the mature form of connection where you're okay on your own, but life becomes richer when you're together.

Repeatedly waking in the early morning hours is a type of sleep maintenance insomnia. Identifying the cause can help you improve it.

Erotomania is a delusional condition in which a person firmly believes that someone else — usually a celebrity or person of high status — is deeply in love with them. It is also known as De Clérambault's Syndrome.

The sandwich generation refers to middle-aged adults who are simultaneously caring for aging parents above and raising children below. The dual caregiving burden creates enormous stress for this generation.

A way of understanding health by looking at the body, the mind, and life circumstances together.

In middle adulthood, this is the challenge of contributing to the next generation and leaving behind something meaningful.

Generativity is the desire to leave something meaningful for the next generation and to contribute to others' growth. It's a warm inner motivation to make a lasting, meaningful impact on the world beyond yourself.

The psychological burden felt during major life changes such as graduation, starting a job, marriage, or retirement. Even positive changes can become a source of stress.

The subjective sense of why one's life is valuable and what purpose it holds. People who feel a sense of meaning in life tend to have better psychological health.