100 Psychological Terms Every Adult Should Know

100 Psychological Terms Every Adult Should Know

No. Item Definition
1. amnesia Significant loss of memory.
2. anchoring Relying too much on first information.
3. anxiety Worry and tension about possible threats.
4. arousal Level of physiological activation.
5. attachment Emotional bond with another person.
6. attention Focused awareness on selected information.
7. availability bias Judging by easily recalled examples.
8. avoidance Evading feared thoughts or situations.
9. bias Systematic distortion in judgment.
10. black-and-white thinking Seeing things in extremes only.
11. burnout Exhaustion from prolonged stress.
12. bystander effect Less helping when others are present.
13. catastrophizing Expecting the worst possible outcome.
14. codependency Unhealthy reliance on another’s needs.
15. cognition Mental processes involved in knowing.
16. cognitive dissonance Discomfort from conflicting beliefs or actions.
17. compulsion Repetitive act driven by anxiety.
18. conditioning Learning through associations or consequences.
19. confirmation bias Favoring evidence that supports beliefs.
20. coping Managing stress or difficult emotions.
21. defense mechanism Unconscious strategy reducing emotional conflict.
22. delusion Fixed false belief despite evidence.
23. dementia Severe decline in thinking abilities.
24. denial Refusing to accept painful reality.
25. depression Persistent low mood and loss of interest.
26. discrimination Distinguishing between different stimuli.
27. displacement Redirecting feelings to a safer target.
28. dissociation Disconnection from thoughts, feelings, or surroundings.
29. emotion A felt response with bodily changes.
30. emotional regulation Managing intensity and expression of feelings.
31. empathy Understanding or sharing another’s feelings.
32. executive function Mental skills for planning and control.
33. extinction Weakening of a learned response.
34. extraversion Outgoing, socially energized personality tendency.
35. flashback Vivid reexperiencing of past trauma.
36. flow Deep absorption in an activity.
37. framing Presentation that shapes interpretation.
38. fundamental attribution error Overemphasizing personality when explaining others.
39. gaslighting Manipulation making someone doubt reality.
40. generalization Applying learning to similar situations.
41. groupthink Poor decisions from pressure for agreement.
42. habituation Reduced response after repeated exposure.
43. hallucination Perception without an external stimulus.
44. heuristic Mental shortcut for quick judgment.
45. hypervigilance Excessive alertness to possible danger.
46. identity Sense of who one is.
47. impulsivity Acting quickly without enough thought.
48. inhibition Restraining impulses or responses.
49. insight Clear understanding of oneself or situation.
50. introspection Examining one’s own thoughts and feelings.
51. introversion Inward-focused, solitude-preferring tendency.
52. irritability Tendency to become easily annoyed.
53. learned helplessness Giving up after repeated uncontrollable failure.
54. learning Lasting change from experience.
55. locus of control Belief about what controls outcomes.
56. mania Abnormally elevated, energized mood state.
57. memory Storing and recalling information.
58. metacognition Thinking about one’s own thinking.
59. mindfulness Present-focused, nonjudgmental awareness.
60. mood Sustained emotional state.
61. motivation Forces that energize and direct behavior.
62. narcissism Excessive self-focus and need for admiration.
63. neuroticism Tendency toward emotional instability and worry.
64. obedience Following orders from an authority.
65. obsession Intrusive, unwanted recurring thought.
66. openness Tendency toward curiosity and imagination.
67. overgeneralization Drawing broad conclusions from limited evidence.
68. panic Sudden intense fear with bodily symptoms.
69. paranoia Unfounded suspicion or mistrust.
70. perception Interpreting information from the senses.
71. personality Enduring patterns of thinking and behaving.
72. phobia Intense irrational fear of something.
73. priming Earlier exposure influencing later response.
74. projection Attributing one’s feelings to others.
75. psychosis Loss of contact with reality.
76. punishment Consequence that decreases a behavior.
77. rationalization Creating acceptable reasons for behavior.
78. regression Returning to earlier behavior patterns.
79. reinforcement Consequence that increases a behavior.
80. repression Unconsciously blocking distressing thoughts.
81. resilience Ability to recover from adversity.
82. rumination Repeatedly dwelling on distressing thoughts.
83. schema Mental framework for organizing information.
84. self-concept Beliefs about who you are.
85. self-efficacy Belief in one’s ability to succeed.
86. self-esteem Overall sense of personal worth.
87. self-regulation Managing emotions, thoughts, and behavior.
88. stress Pressure that strains coping abilities.
89. sublimation Channeling impulses into acceptable activities.
90. suppression Deliberately pushing thoughts away.
91. temperament Inborn emotional and behavioral style.
92. trait Stable personal characteristic.
93. transference Redirecting feelings onto another person.
94. trauma Psychological injury from overwhelming experiences.
95. unconditional positive regard Acceptance without judgment or conditions.
96. unconscious Mental processes outside awareness.
97. validation Acknowledging another’s feelings as understandable.
98. vicarious learning Learning by observing others.
99. well-being Overall mental and emotional health.
100. working memory Temporary holding and using of information.