Psychology Terms A–Z

The ability to notice what emotions you are feeling in the moment. It's the first step in emotional regulation.

Emotional contagion is when another person's emotions transfer over to you. Feelings really are contagious!

Emotional manipulation is the act of cleverly exploiting another person's feelings to steer them into behaving or thinking in a way that serves the manipulator's own agenda.

The ability to recognize, experience, and manage how emotions are expressed. It involves learning to coexist with emotions in a healthy way, rather than suppressing them.

Emotional dysregulation is difficulty managing the intensity, duration, or expression of emotions. Feelings come on too strong, last too long, or feel disproportionate to the situation.

Emotion regulation strategies are the various psychological methods we use to influence which emotions we feel, when we feel them, and how intensely we experience and express them. Healthy emotion regulation is a cornerstone of mental stability and well-being.

Emotion-focused coping is a way of dealing with stress by regulating and managing the negative emotions that arise from stressful situations.

A couples therapy approach that explores the emotions and attachment needs hidden beneath relationship conflicts, helping partners build a deeper and more secure emotional bond.

Emotional exploitation is the deliberate act of taking advantage of another person's feelings, empathy, and kindness for personal gain. It involves misusing someone's goodwill and generous nature.

It means showing your feelings through words or actions. Healthy expression deepens your relationships with others.

An emotional flashback is a sudden, overwhelming resurgence of intense feelings connected to past trauma. Unlike typical flashbacks, it involves no visual scenes — instead, emotions like fear, sadness, and helplessness flood in on their own.

A mental shortcut in which people make judgments based on their current emotions or gut feelings rather than logical analysis, as proposed by Paul Slovic.

The emotional brain refers to the collection of brain regions involved in feeling and processing emotions. Centered around the limbic system, structures like the amygdala and hippocampus work together to create our emotional experiences.

Emotional availability is the state of being sensitively attuned to another person's feelings and ready to be emotionally present with them.

Emotional memory is the phenomenon where experiences accompanied by strong emotions are stored more vividly and for longer than ordinary memories. Emotions such as joy, sadness, and fear play a role in strengthening how memories are encoded.

Emotional maturity is the ability to understand your own emotions and those of others, and to respond in a balanced way even in difficult situations. It's a capacity anyone can develop, regardless of age.

Emotional eating refers to eating food not because you're physically hungry, but to soothe emotions like stress, sadness, or anxiety. It's a pattern where emotions and eating become closely linked.

An emotional affair refers to forming a deep emotional bond with someone other than your partner, even without any physical relationship. It involves sharing secret emotional intimacy and directing emotional energy toward someone outside the partnership.

Emotional courage is the inner strength to willingly face uncomfortable or painful feelings rather than avoiding them. True healing and growth become possible only when we have the courage to meet our emotions head-on.

Emotional reasoning means judging reality based on how you feel. It's the sense that 'I feel anxious, so something must be dangerous.'

Emotional shock refers to an intense, sudden state of psychological overwhelm triggered by an unexpected event. It can temporarily numb your feelings or cause a loss of sense of reality, but this is a completely natural response.

Emotional intimacy is the state of a relationship where two people honestly share their inner worlds and feel a deep emotional connection with each other.

Emotional blackmail is a manipulative behavior where someone uses another person's fear, sense of obligation, or guilt to get what they want. It's a form of psychological control that often occurs in close relationships.

Alexithymia is a trait characterized by difficulty identifying and describing one's own emotions, not an absence of feelings but an inability to recognize or articulate them.

This field studies how changes in thyroid hormones affect mental health, including mood, energy, and cognitive function. It reveals that hormonal changes in the body can have a profound impact on the mind as well.

An obsession is an unwanted, anxious, and distressing thought that keeps coming to mind even when you don't want it to. These intrusive thoughts can cause significant anxiety and discomfort.

A personality pattern marked by excessive preoccupation with perfectionism, order, and control. It is different from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

OCD is characterized by unwanted intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors performed to relieve them (compulsions).

Obsessive love is when feelings for another person cross the line from genuine affection into fixation and control. Under the name of 'love,' an intense need to know everything about the other person and possess them completely begins to take over daily life.

Persistent difficulty discarding possessions, even items with little practical value, until clutter disrupts everyday life.

A repeated action or mental ritual done to reduce anxiety, even when it does not truly solve the problem.

A pattern of domination that uses fear, isolation, monitoring, and humiliation to take away another person’s freedom.

Hardiness refers to the psychological quality that allows a person to stay resilient and healthy even under stressful conditions. It is made up of three core elements: commitment, control, and challenge.

Positive qualities like kindness, courage, honesty, or creativity that help you live in a fuller way.

The strengths-based approach is a way of discovering and building on the strengths you already have, rather than trying to fix what's lacking. It's a warm, affirming perspective that focuses on the parts of you that shine.

Reinforcement happens when a good outcome follows a behavior, making you more likely to do that behavior again.

A tendency to be receptive to new experiences, ideas, and imagination. It reflects curiosity and creativity.

Personal values are your inner compass that points to what matters most and holds the deepest meaning in your life. They guide the big and small decisions you make every day.

A theory that people understand and predict the world through their own unique system of concepts (constructs). Each person is seen as a kind of scientist who interprets the world in their own way.

Personal Growth Initiative is the active, intentional attitude of proactively planning and taking action for one's own growth and development. It goes beyond simply wishing to grow — it means actually doing something about it.

Individualism is a cultural value system that prioritizes personal freedom, independence, and self-fulfillment over the needs of the group.

A cultural value system that prioritizes an individual's independence, autonomy, and self-fulfillment over the goals of the group. It emphasizes personal freedom and individual achievement as core values.

Personalization is the tendency to blame yourself for things that have nothing to do with you.

An intervention refers to any professional therapeutic action or measure taken by a specialist to help someone experiencing psychological difficulties. It encompasses all intentional strategies used to reduce distress and promote positive change.

Mirror neurons are brain cells that activate when you observe someone else's action, just as if you were doing it yourself.

Fear of rejection refers to an overwhelming dread of being turned down or not accepted by others. This fear can lead people to hide their true selves in order to avoid the possibility of being rejected.

Rejection sensitivity refers to the tendency to feel intense anxiety about the possibility of being rejected, and to experience overwhelming emotional pain even in response to minor rejections.

Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (RSD) is an intense, overwhelming emotional pain triggered by real or perceived rejection, criticism, or failure — particularly common in people with ADHD.

Rejection hurts, but it doesn't define your worth — and learning to handle it can make you more resilient over time.

Residential treatment is an intensive mental health care approach where a person lives at a treatment facility to focus fully on recovery. It provides a structured, supportive environment away from everyday life.