Psychology

Important concepts

• Psychology - the science of mind and behaviour; normal or abnormal
• Psychodynamics - The study of behaviour or mental states in terms of mental or emotional forces or processes
• Behavioural science - The study of behaviour in the context of learned responses
• Operant conditioning - Behavioural responses established on the presence of reward or punishment in relationship to the stimulus e.g ringing a bell followed by salivation if a ringing bell is typically associated with food
• Classical conditioning - Fearful responses established by temporal association with an unrelated event e.g. loud noise when playing with a rat eventually leads to fear of rats
• Anxiety - uneasiness, apprehension or fearfullness stemming from external threats or internal psychological conflict
• Coping mechanisms - conscious efforts that serve to resolve emotional conflict and decrease anxiety e.g. rationalisation, sublimation
• Defense mechanisms - unconscious and specific internal psychological adjustments that serve to resolve emotional conflict and decrease anxiety e.g. repression
• Personality - The sum total of a person's internal and external patterns of adjustment to life usually established in early adulthood
• Personality traits - The characteristic mental and behavioural patterns of an individual
• Personality disorder - personality traits that have become maladaptive resulting in social or occupational dysfunction
• Psychiatry - the medical speciality devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders

List of mental forces

• Pleasure principle - maximising pleasure and minimising pain
• Reality principle - constraints of outside world on expressing basic drives
• Basic drives - survival, immortality, identity, purpose, pleasure, hunger, sex, creativity, procreation, security, safety, predictability, belonging, recognition, acknowledgment, love

Anxiety arise when internal or external conflicts prevent these from being fulfilled.  All finals thoughts and actions are manifestations of the means to reduce anxiety independent of the presence or absence of mental disorder.

List of coping and defence mechanisms (see psychiatric dictionary)

• Repression
• Suppression
• Regression
• Fixation
• Identification
• Incorporation
• Introjection
• Projection
• Rationalisation
• Intellectualisation
• Compensation
• Reaction Formation
• Sublimation
• Denial
• Substitution
• Restitution
• Displacement
• Isolation
• Undoing
• Dissaociation
• Symbolisation
• Idealisation
• Fantasy
• Splitting
• Projective identification