Psychology Terms A–Z

Wholeness means accepting both your bright and dark sides, your strengths and weaknesses, and integrating them into one complete self. It is the practice of loving yourself exactly as you are.

The intense mental and physical stress that can happen during or after exposure to combat.

Phone anxiety refers to feeling intense nervousness and fear when making or receiving phone calls.

A condition involving symptoms of movement or sensation that are not explained by a typical neurological disease pattern.

When evaluating an experience, we tend to judge it based on the most intense moment (peak) and the final moment (end), rather than the experience as a whole.

An approach to reducing alcohol consumption to a healthy level rather than quitting entirely.

Procedural memory is the memory for skills and habits learned through the body, like riding a bike or playing an instrument. It allows you to perform these actions naturally and automatically, without consciously thinking about them.

A therapeutic approach that flexibly combines techniques from various theories to best suit each individual client, rather than being bound to a single framework. It provides personalized care tailored to each person's unique needs.

Fortune telling is predicting the future negatively and believing that prediction as if it were already fact.

A technique where you tense and release each muscle group one by one to achieve overall relaxation throughout your body.

A treatment method where you slowly approach feared situations step by step, gradually reducing anxiety along the way.

Priming is the phenomenon where an earlier stimulus unconsciously influences your later judgments, actions, and memories. Your mind is quietly being prepared by previous experiences without you even realizing it.

The kindling effect is a phenomenon where repeated stress or trauma makes the brain increasingly sensitive, so that smaller and smaller triggers produce stronger reactions. It's like a spark that more and more easily ignites into a flame.

A theory that attitude change occurs through two routes when receiving a persuasive message: one involving deep analysis of the content, and another responding to surface-level cues.

A broad, background feeling state experienced moment-to-moment, more basic than specific emotions like joy or sadness, encompassing the general sense of feeling good or bad, energized or depleted.

Anchoring bias is a cognitive tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions, causing all subsequent judgments to be pulled toward that initial reference point.

Healthy ways to protect your mind when too much incoming information leaves you feeling overwhelmed and unable to focus.

A theory that systematically explains how the human mind receives, stores, transforms, and outputs information. It helps us understand how we make sense of the world and form memories.

Information fatigue is a state where exposure to excessive amounts of information clouds your judgment and leaves you mentally exhausted.

A psychological tactic where information is strategically distorted, withheld, or spread to cloud someone's judgment and create a situation favorable to the manipulator.

The ability to understand and use your own and others' emotions effectively. It's just as important as IQ!

A state where you can barely feel emotions. Your mind is blocking feelings to protect itself.

Emotional support means acknowledging and empathizing with someone's feelings, and being a source of emotional strength for them.

Emotional validation means acknowledging that another person's feelings are understandable and natural. It's about recognizing that their emotional response makes sense given their situation.

Emotional abuse is the ongoing act of harming another person's emotional well-being through criticism, humiliation, manipulation, and neglect.

A therapy approach that improves relationships by strengthening emotional bonds. It is especially effective for couples therapy.

Mental fitness refers to the ability to function in a psychologically healthy and flexible way, much like building muscle strength for the mind. Just like physical fitness, it can be developed through consistent care and practice.

A professional process of assessing a person's mental state within legal proceedings. It plays a crucial role in determining criminal responsibility and mental condition during trials.

Mental health literacy means having accurate knowledge about mental health and knowing how to seek appropriate help when problems arise. Understanding the basics of mental well-being is the essential first step.

A legal framework that protects the rights of people with mental health conditions and ensures they receive appropriate treatment and support.

This is a law created to protect the human rights, welfare, and social reintegration of people with mental illness. It has evolved to strengthen the requirements for involuntary hospitalization and to respect individuals' right to self-determination.

A comprehensive support process that helps people with serious mental health challenges live independent and meaningful lives in the community. It focuses not only on managing symptoms but also on restoring social functioning.

Psychophysics is the scientific study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the psychological experiences they produce. It seeks to answer questions like how much louder a sound needs to be before we notice a difference.

Psychotic depression is a severe form of depression where psychotic symptoms like hallucinations or delusions also appear alongside the depressive episode.

A therapy founded by Freud that explores unconscious conflicts to resolve psychological problems.

Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of how psychological states, the nervous system, and the immune system influence one another. It provides scientific evidence that our mental state can directly affect our immune function.

A therapy evolved from psychoanalysis that explores how unconscious patterns and past experiences shape your present life. It helps uncover the deeper roots behind recurring struggles.

A state in which thinking and physical movement become noticeably slowed down, commonly seen as a symptom of depression.

A state where inner anxiety and tension manifest as physical movements, making it impossible to stay still.

A legal defense claiming that due to a severe mental illness at the time of the crime, the person was unable to understand that their actions were wrong.

Mental toughness is the inner strength that allows you to stay focused and keep moving toward your goals even when things get difficult. It helps you remain steady and confident under pressure, stress, and adversity.

Mental load refers to the invisible burden of planning, managing, and remembering everything in a household or relationship that one person carries alone. It's not just the physical tasks — it's the unseen labor of 'remembering and coordinating what needs to be done.'

Mental fatigue is a state where your mind feels heavy and unfocused after prolonged mental activity or accumulated stress. Even when your body has rested, your mind can feel hazy, like a fog has settled in your head.

Psycho-Oncology is a field that understands and cares for the psychological difficulties experienced during cancer diagnosis and treatment. It is a compassionate discipline that studies how mental well-being plays a vital role in healing and recovery.

Psychodermatology is a field that studies how mental states affect skin health. It scientifically explores how stress and anxiety can worsen skin conditions.

Mentalizing is the ability to understand the thoughts, feelings, and intentions behind your own and others' behavior — perceiving the mental states that drive human actions.

Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT) is a treatment that builds your ability to understand the mental states of yourself and others — called 'mentalization' — to improve relationships and emotional regulation. It is especially effective for treating borderline personality disorder.

During adolescence, this is the task of exploring 'Who am I?' It's a crucial period of searching for one's sense of self.

Identity development is the process of exploring and forming a sense of who you are and what you value. It's a lifelong journey of self-discovery that unfolds across all stages of life.

A state where it feels unclear who you are or what you want. Your sense of self shifts frequently.