This What Is… Insights Into Psychology series, which runs weekly on Fridays, explores the meaning of a wide range of terms that come from the field of psychology, psychiatry, and other related areas. These are all researched posts with supporting references, which means I get to learn something new each week and you get to learn along with me!
If there’s a term you’d like to see covered in the Insights Into Psychology series, let me know in the comments below. For more about psychological effects, Wikipedia has a list of psychological effects page.
There’s also a collection of psychological tests here.
Insights Into Psychology posts
A – C terms
- Addictive personality
- Alexithymia
- Amnesia
- Anal triad in psychoanalytic theory
- Anosognosia
- Asocial vs. antisocial
- Anxiety vs worry
- Assertiveness
- Attachment theory
- Attention
- Attribution theory
- Autonomy
- CBT for pain (cognitive behavioural therapy)
- Codependency
- Cognitive biases
- Cognitive remediation
- Compassion
- Compassion-Focused Therapy
- Competitiveness
- Conformity
- Conspiracy theories—the psychology behind them
- Consumer culture
- Containment
- Conversion disorder
- Conversion “therapy”
- Critical thinking
D – G terms
- Dark triad/tetrad: psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and sadism
- DARVO: Deny; Accuse; Reverse Victim and Offender
- Defense mechanisms
- Deindividuation
- Diathesis-stress model
- Dreaming
- Dunning-Kruger effect
- Ego dystonic & ego syntonic thoughts/feelings/behaviours
- Emetophobia
- Emotional Abuse
- Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
- Emotional intelligence
- Enmeshment
- Enneagram
- Euphemism treadmill
- Exposure and response prevention (ERP)
- False pregnancy
- Folie à deux (shared psychotic disorder)
H – L terms
- Illusory truth effect
- Imposter syndrome
- Inner child
- Insanity
- Intergenerational trauma
- Invalidation
- IQ (intelligence quotient)
- Jealousy & envy
- Judgementality
- Just world fallacy (fallacy of fairness)
M – P terms
- Malingering
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Melancholia
- Memory
- Motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic)
- Motivational interviewing
- Munchausen by proxy (factitious disorder imposed on another)
- Myers-Briggs
- Narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder
- Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP)
- Neuroplasticity
- Neuroticism
- Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (NSSI)
- Paranoia and paranoid delusions
- Perfectionism
- Personality trait vs. disorder
- Philosophical razor (e.g. Occam’s razor)
- Pluralistic ignorance
- Pop psychology
- Psychoanalytic theory
- Psychodynamic psychotherapy
- Psychological testing
- Psychology of advertising
- Psychology of tyranny
- Psychomotor retardation
- Psychopathy
R – S terms
- Reactance
- Reading—how it’s affected by psychology
- Reality
- Recovery (psychosocial)
- Repression and suppression
- Resilience
- Rumination
- Safety behaviour in CBT
- Seasonal affective disorder
- Self-efficacy
- Self-esteem
- Sex vs. gender
- Shame and guilt
- Sleep
- Social isolation
- Stanford prison experiment
- Stockholm syndrome
- Stoicism
- Stress
T – Z terms
- Trauma vs PTSD
- Trolling
- Type A personality
- Ultra rapid cycling in bipolar disorder
- Unconditional positive regard
- Window of tolerance
- Wounded healer (Jungian archetype)