Psychological dysfunction pertains to specific thoughts, feelings, or actions that cause distress or hinder the daily functioning of an individual. It is one of the key defining characteristics of mental disorders. The source of dysfunction is multifactorial, deriving either from biological, cognitive, or contextual elements. It can be the absence of order within thoughts, an […]
Permissiveness in psychology refers to a parenting or social style characterized by high levels of warmth and responsiveness but low levels of structure, boundaries, and behavioral expectations. Permissive parents tend to be nurturing and accepting while avoiding confrontation and rarely enforcing rules. Research in developmental psychology, particularly Diana Baumrind’s work on parenting styles, suggests that […]
In psychology and epidemiology, prevalence refers to the proportion of individuals in a population who have a particular condition, disorder, or characteristic at a given point in time or over a specified period. Point prevalence measures how many people are affected at a specific moment, while lifetime prevalence captures how many people have ever experienced […]
Passionate love has a strong emotional and physical aspect with feelings of longing, enthusiasm, and exaltation. Psychologists view this stage as the first phase of a courtship, as there is a predominance of intense preoccupation within the cognitive system of the individual. In Sternberg’s triangular theory of love, passionate love is one component alongside intimacy […]
Eysenck defined ‘psychoticism’ as a dimension of personality marked by impulsivity, hostility, and a scarcity of social concern. One manifests a high psychoticism score by exhibiting unconventional and antisocial behaviors, while scoring low reflects greater self-control and empathy. With respect to extraversion and neuroticism, psychoticism is one of the three pillars of personality proposed by […]
Perspective taking means an individual understands the thoughts and feelings of another person and their viewpoint. It is key in empathy, communication, and moral development. It helps in social cooperation, conflict resolution, and prosocial behavior. It begins in childhood, when a person recognizes that others have different thoughts and feelings from their own. Improving this […]
A personality trait refers to an individual’s characteristic thinking, feeling, and behavioral patterns. Psychologists describe and assess individual differences using traits and frameworks such as the Big Five (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism). Traits shape one’s perceptions, responses to situations, relational dynamics, and decision-making processes. Predicting an individual’s behavior enables improvements in personal growth, […]
The term ‘privation’ describes the absence of a basic need or the lack of any psychological or emotional bonds for the adequate psychological growth. Different from deprivation, where there is a loss of something after its initial presence, privation involves much more severe scenarios. It happens when the loss of something as essential as nurturing, […]
Polymorphism in psychology and behavioral science is the presence within a population of differences which pertain to a psychological characteristic, behavior, or even a biological component. More specifically, it is used in the context of genetic psychology where associated with behavioral and personality differences, as well as the tendency to suffer with specific mental disorders, […]
A perturbation is the temporary emotional, mental, or physical disturbance which causes alteration in the functioning level of the affected individual. This is commonly used in clinical and cognitive contexts, describing periods of disorganization and pronounced emotional sensitivity, where the individual’s customary mechanisms of regulation and management may tend to collapse. For instance, psychological perturbation […]