Are you interested in psychology? If so, you may want to find out and learn several terms related to psychology. Some people decide to learn it formally by taking psychology majors in universities.
However, nowadays, we are able to learn the terms of psychology without having to study formally because now there are a lot of online resources that provide the information such as in articles, podcasts, educational videos or webinars.
In this article, you are able to learn 15 terms of psychology with the aim to minimize misinterpretation about psychological terms in everyday life. So, here are 15 psychological terms and their meanings that are often used in everyday life where the source is from the Kampus Psikologi site in an article written by Anjuni Khofifah Hanifi, S.Psi. However, it is important for you to note that these are only a few of the thousands of other terms used in psychology.
1. Post Traumatic Growth
If we talk about trauma, psychological conditions that can appear in individuals are not only limited to post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. There is also another phenomenon that can be found related to trauma namely post traumatic growth (PTG).
Kanako Toku (in Collier, 2016) explained that PTG is a condition where people who have poor resilience experience traumatic experiences that have a deep impact or cause mental disorders and in the end the person concerned can find personal growth.
2. Delusion
Delusion is a condition where a person has a false belief and feels that the incorrect belief is true. Kiran and Chaudhury (2009) explained that these false beliefs have nothing to do with certain cultures or religions.
The condition of delusion experienced by an individual is also shown by how strongly the person concerned believes that the incorrect belief is a correct belief (Kiran & Chaudhury, 2009). For example, a person believes that he or she has a superpower that can withstand the falling sky.
3. Hallucination
In Psychology, hallucination is a false sensory perception and appears in the absence of an external source or stimulus (Gazzaniga et al., 2011).
The forms of hallucinations can be various such as smell to vision. For example, someone who experiences olfactory hallucination feels that he or she smells an odor that no one else can smell and also that there is no source or object that emits the odor.
4. Social Loafing
Social loafing is a psychological term which describes the phenomenon where one or some group members do not do the group work as much as they work alone because they feel that other members are also responsible for the group’s work (Pandeirot & Aseng, 2017)
5. Moral Dilemmas
The term “moral dilemmas” is not only used as a psychological term, but it is also often used in other disciplines. In psychology, moral dilemmas are defined as conditions where people who make decisions need to consider two or more moral values in making decisions and choose one thing that still violates existing norms (Kvalnes, 2019). For example, someone needs to choose between self-defense by shooting criminals and consider that the behavior of shooting other people is wrong.
6. Prejudice
You may have heard the term discrimination to describe a condition, but have you ever heard the term prejudice?
Prejudice prefers to a certain preconceived judgement, attitude, or opinion about a person based on membership in a particular group which leads to discrimination (Rouse at al., 2011). For example, when Tania sees Rio who has tattoos and has a piercing, Tania considers that Rio is a bad person or part of a gangster group.
7. Executive Function
In cognitive psychology, executive function is defined as a high-level cognitive skill that functions to control and coordinate behavior and other cognitive abilities possessed by humans (Executive Functions).
Because of this ability, humans become different from other living things. It is because executive function can regulate and direct humans such as resisting temptation, focusing and paying attention to thinking out of the box (Diamond, 2013).
8. Mnemonics
The term mnemonics may be rarely heard in our daily life, but actually this term is often used by students. Mnemonics is a term in psychology for certain strategies used to enhance the memory of new information by connecting it with existing memories (Gazzaniga et al., 2011; Mnemonic).
9. Delay of Gratification
Basically, this term is still related to executive function. Mischel, Shoda and Rodriguez (in Drobetz, 2012) define this term as a reward delay or a quick but small value reward to get a reward of greater value even though it is not obtained quickly. For example, you refrain from playing with smartphones while doing schoolwork in order to remain concentrated so that you are able to get good grades after the assignment is submitted.
10. Freudian Slip
The phenomenon of Freudian slip is often found in our society. However, what is Freudian slip in psychology? It is often used to refer to the term parapraxis which is defined as a temporary dysfunction of a set of memory “tools” that exist in an individual which usually occurs unconsciously and interferes with conscious performance (Mahon, 2016). Freudian slip can have various manifestations, such as mispronouncing, misreading, or making a typo.
11. Vicarious Learning
Have you ever learnt from other people’s mistakes? For example, you see your friend who is late for class and he gets punished and then you make that a lesson so that you are not late.
The educational psychology term called vicarious learning is used by Bandura to indicate an individual’s ability to learn from what the person observes or sees without experiencing it himself (Mayes, 2015).
12. Catharsis
Based on psychoanalytic theory, catharsis is defined as the process of eliminating hysterical symptoms by “talking” about the problems they have (Breuer and Freud in Feist & Feist, 2019).
In more detail, the American Psychological Association defines catharsis as a form of release of affect or emotions or feelings related to trauma which were previously repressed when the traumatic experience is repeated or rethought (Catharsis).
For example, when someone feels emotions that peak for a certain experience, the person releases his or her emotions by doing certain activities such as singing, painting, drawing, sports and so on.
13. Intelligence
In general, the term intelligence is able to be interpreted in various forms depending on the context. According to psychology, intelligence is defined as an individual’s ability to solve problems, adapt and learn from existing experiences (Santrock, 2014). Intelligence in adults consists of two forms, namely crystalized which is in the form of an accumulation of individual abilities that will continue to increase with age and fluid which is the person’s ability to think abstractly which will decrease when the person reaches middle adulthood.
14. Scaffolding
This term is commonly used, especially in explaining children’s cognitive skills. Vygotsky (in Santrock, 2014) defines scaffolding as a term that describes where a more skilled person provides assistance whose amount is adjusted to the child’s abilities.
For example, when a child is still struggling to walk on his own, then someone else helps the child by holding both hands and then reducing it to one hand, according to the child’s need.
15. Sensitive Periods
In the development of a child, there is also the term sensitive periods. This term is used to denote an idea that at certain times the stimulus from the environment can have a stronger effect on the individual than at other times during the developmental period (Bodin et al., 2011). For example, the sensitive period for developing secure attachment in children occurs in the first year of the child’s age, which is 0 to one year (Sensitive Period).
That’s all the discussion of 15 terms in psychology that you need to understand. Hopefully, this explanation can increase your knowledge and reduce misunderstandings related to terms in psychology in everyday life.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
