Psychology Web Glossary

I am Anna, a 19-year-old student at Ahuntsic College who is currently studying Social Science. I've been studying in this program for the past 2 years. This glossary is for future students who would like to study in the field of Psychology. In this glossary, you will find common words and their definitions which would help students better understand terms used in this field. You will find a total of 20 different terms featuring their pictures, audio pronunciation, translation in French and useful examples. I found the words throughout my English book and found their definitions on Google. For those who will read this glossary, the only thing that I would ask is for you to remember these terms and try to use them in future assignments and help those who won't understand these terms.

Acute stress: noun; An intense, unpleasant, and dysfunctional reaction beginning shortly after an overwhelming traumatic event and lasting less than a month.; Example: The events are usually very severe and an acute stress reaction typically occurs after an unexpected life crisis.; fr: Stress aigu
Analytical: adjective; Relating to or using analysis or logical reasoning.; Example: The technique is extremely sensitive and is used in many analytical applications.; fr: Analytique
Behavior: noun; The way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially toward others.; Example: Some researches suggested that 'stress induced by increased task demands decreases interpersonal sensitivity and helping behavior'.; fr: Comportement
Bipolar disorder: noun; A mental condition marked by alternating periods of elation and depression.; Example: Bipolar disorder often runs in families, and research suggests this is mostly explained by heredity—people with certain genes are more likely to develop bipolar disorder than others.; fr: Trouble bipolaire
Child development: noun; Child development refers to the biological, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the end of adolescence, as the individual progresses from dependency to increasing autonomy.; Example: The issue of birth weight is an important one when investigating child development of any kind, as smaller children, premature or full term, are at "increased risk of biological risk factors", especially those born below thirty weeks gestational age.; fr: Développement de l'enfant
Cognition: noun; The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.; Example: The mode of cognition used is determined by the task structure, the time available and the number of information cues, with cognition being viewed along a continuum from analysis to intuition; unstructured tasks are seen to require intuition while structured tasks require analysis.; fr: Cognition
Consultation: noun; A meeting of physicians to evaluate a patient’s case and treatment.; Example: Co-operation and consultation: H&S information pinned up for all employees, more than one employee for heavy jobs such as picking up cow in cubicle yards in order to prevent strain.; fr: Consultation
Discrimination: noun; Treating people less fairly because they belong to a different group.; Example: These members of the American movement did go on to criticise Hitler's policies but generally only on the basis of discrimination against the Jews.; fr: Discrimination
Egocentrism: adjective or noun; An inability on the part of a child to see any point of view other than his or her own.; Example: This has implications for children who do not have the opportunity to socialise at an early age as may not completely abolish the notion of egocentrism.; fr: Égocentrisme
Empathy: noun; The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.; Example: In future practice I will try to consider why I need to say no; say it clearly giving reasons for my decision and explain that I would help if I could as this shows that I have understood the request, considered my own needs and shown empathy.; fr: Empathie
Hypermnesia: noun; Unusual power or enhancement of memory, typically under abnormal conditions such as trauma, hypnosis, or narcosis.; Example: Evaluating hypnotic memory enhancement (hypermnesia and reminiscence) using multitrial forced recall.; fr: Hypermnésie
Ideal self: noun; An evolving construct which represents the goals and aspirations of an individual.; Example: The involvement in a task automatically leads to a comparison between the actual self, how one is performing, and the ideal self, how one would like to perform.; fr: Soi idéal
Illness: noun; A disease or period of sickness affecting the body or mind.; Example: This client, along with a small proportion of other sufferers is unlikely to ever recover from the illiness and remains in the chronic phase.; fr: Maladies
Lucid dreaming: noun; The view that conscious awareness of dreaming is a learnable skill that can enable dreamers to control the direction and content of their dreams.; Example: Lucid dreaming has been studied and reported for many years. Prominent figures from ancient to modern times have been fascinated by lucid dreams and have sought ways to better understand their causes and purpose.; fr: Rêve lucide
Paranoia: noun; A mental condition characterized by delusions of persecution, unwarranted jealousy, or exaggerated self-importance, typically elaborated into an organized system.; Example: The heroine tends to be a "'stand-in' for someone else" and which deepens her anxiety and paranoia.; fr: Paranoïa
Phobia: noun; An extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.; Example: This will lead to a sense of accomplishment of battling their phobia and also prevent a relapse as they have the knowledge that they are capable of controlling their fear and feel anxious about and anxiety.; fr: Phobie
Profiling: noun; The recording and analysis of a person’s psychological and behavioral characteristics to assist in identifying a particular subgroup of people.; Example: The application of sensory profiling enables comparison of the major sensory differences between food samples.; fr: Profilage
Psychoanalysis: noun; A system of psychological theory and therapy which aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association.; Example: Although the form of psychoanalysis used by Freud is rarely used today, many therapists still use similar techniques and ideas, reconstituted to form what is now called psychodynamic therapy.; fr: Psychanalyse
Stuttering: noun; A speech disorder characterized by spasmodic repetition of the initial consonant or syllable of words and frequent pauses or prolongation of sounds.; Example: Subjects of Milgram's experiment exhibited signs of extreme nervousness and started displaying sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting lips, groan and dug their fingernails into their flesh.; fr: Bégaiement
Welfare: noun; The health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.; Example: European law has now banned the installation of such systems and all existing conventional cage systems will be banned by January 2012 in the EU with the aim of improving animal welfare.; fr: Bien-être