Psychology Terms A–Z

A child who grows up forming a unique identity that belongs neither to their parents' home culture nor to the culture of the country where they currently live. They are shaped by the experience of navigating multiple cultures during their formative years.

The James-Lange Theory proposes that emotions are felt after the body reacts first. Rather than crying because you are sad, this theory says you feel sad because you are crying.

Learning through association, when one thing starts triggering a response because it has been linked with something else.

An enabler is a person who, regardless of their intentions, helps sustain another person's harmful behavior or addiction. Their actions often prevent the other person from facing the consequences of their choices.

Words and actions that laugh at, tease, or imitate someone to belittle them. Even when framed as "just a joke," repeated ridicule can become emotional aggression that deeply wounds self-esteem.

Doing the minimum required at work without formally resigning — setting clear limits on effort and availability rather than going above and beyond.

A manipulation tactic where someone deflects their own negative feelings or behaviors onto another person, making that person feel guilty or at fault. It causes confusion and self-doubt in the victim while shielding the manipulator from accountability.

Operant conditioning is a type of learning where behaviors are strengthened or weakened based on their consequences (rewards or punishments).

In Piaget’s theory, accommodation is the process of modifying existing mental schemas or creating new ones when encountering information that doesn’t fit current understanding.

Mania is a state where mood becomes abnormally elevated, energy surges, and judgment becomes impaired.

Organizational justice refers to how fairly employees perceive rewards, procedures, and treatment within their organization.

Organizational culture is the total set of values, beliefs, and behavioral norms shared by the members of an organization.

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that causes a person to perceive reality differently from others. With proper treatment, living a full daily life is absolutely possible — so please don't lose hope.

A personality pattern characterized by little interest in social relationships and a strong preference for being alone.

A personality pattern characterized by unusual ways of thinking and behaving, along with difficulty forming close relationships.

The founder of Attachment Theory, Bowlby showed that the emotional bond formed with a caregiver in early infancy shapes relationship patterns throughout life. He scientifically demonstrated the critical importance of secure attachment.

John Watson was the founder of behaviorist psychology, who argued that psychology should study only observable behavior. His famous Little Albert experiment demonstrated that emotions can be learned through conditioning.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, who scientifically integrated Eastern meditation traditions into Western medicine. He played a central role in introducing mindfulness into modern psychotherapy and healthcare.

The process of emotionally coming to terms with an ending so you can move forward.

Religious coping refers to using religious beliefs, spiritual practices, or faith communities to manage stress and difficult situations. Prayer, meditation, and community activities can all provide meaningful comfort.

This is the concept that the left and right hemispheres of the brain are each specialized for different functions.

Responding to the anger or helplessness that arises when a goal is blocked.

Guilt is the feeling that something you did was wrong. Unlike shame, it's about regret over a specific action — not about who you are as a person.

Guilt is that uncomfortable feeling that shows up when we think we've done something wrong — and coping with it means finding healthy ways to process it and move toward self-forgiveness.

Guilt induction is a manipulation technique where someone intentionally instills feelings of guilt in another person to make them comply with their demands or to control their behavior.

Guilt tripping is a manipulation tactic where someone intentionally makes another person feel guilty in order to get them to act a certain way. It's an unhealthy pattern that can damage relationships over time.

Day treatment is a structured therapeutic program where you participate in treatment at a hospital or center during daytime hours without being admitted overnight. You can receive intensive mental health care while still maintaining your daily life.

It refers to a person's own evaluation of and satisfaction with their life.

A pioneering researcher in psychological trauma who proposed the concept of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD). She taught that trauma recovery requires three stages: safety, remembrance, and reconnection.

A form of depression that occurs during pregnancy or after childbirth, where hormonal changes and psychological pressures work together to affect a person's mental health.

Major Depressive Disorder is the official diagnosis for when depressed mood or loss of interest persists for 2 weeks or more.

Attention is the cognitive process of selectively focusing on specific information while filtering out other stimuli. It acts like a mental spotlight, determining what we consciously perceive and process.

The attention economy treats human attention as a scarce and valuable resource that digital platforms compete to capture. Apps, social media, and news sites are all designed to hold your focus as long as possible.

A neurodevelopmental condition marked by ongoing difficulty sustaining and regulating attention, controlling impulses, and managing activity level. It often begins in childhood and continues into adulthood, but with the right treatment and strategies, people can do very well.

The tendency to see yourself as the protagonist of your own life story — believing that the world revolves around you and that others are merely supporting cast.

Assertiveness training is a structured program that teaches people to express their feelings, opinions, and needs clearly and respectfully without resorting to aggression or passive silence.

Agency is the psychological sense of having control over one's own actions and life direction — the feeling of being the author of your own choices and behaviors.

Fear of Death refers to a state of excessive fear and anxiety about death or the process of dying. Also known as Thanatophobia, it can be intense enough to interfere with everyday life.

Death anxiety refers to an intense fear and worry about death or the process of dying. While it's a feeling anyone can experience, when it becomes excessive it can make daily life very difficult.

Death and dying refers to the psychological and spiritual processes experienced in the final stage of life. How we understand and accept death has a profound impact on our quality of life.

This is the stage where you make concrete plans to put change into action. It describes the state just before actually doing something — like saying 'I'm going to start next week.'

A one-sided sense of closeness you feel toward a media figure like a celebrity or YouTuber, even though they don't know you exist.

Zoom Fatigue is a unique form of mental exhaustion that comes from overusing video conferencing platforms. Because your brain has to work differently than it does in face-to-face communication, it leads to a distinct kind of tiredness.

A healthy way of working through the self-doubt, regret, and anxiety that often surface during your 40s and 50s.

A psychological transition in one's 40s–60s marked by deep questioning of life's meaning and direction. It often involves looking back on the life lived while experiencing anxiety about the time that remains.

The intense stress response that follows experiencing or witnessing a shocking event like a disaster, accident, or violent incident.

The part of working memory that helps manage attention, shift tasks, and keep mental information organized.

Evidence-based practice means applying treatment methods whose effectiveness has been scientifically verified to clients. It integrates the best research evidence, clinical expertise, and the client's own values.

A field that studies the psychological processes—including memory, perception, and emotion—of witnesses who testify in court, in order to understand the accuracy and reliability of their testimony.

Perception is the process by which the brain interprets and assigns meaning to information received through the senses. Even when looking at the same thing, different people can perceive it in different ways.