The concise dictionary of psychology

149 Pages·1998·2.338 MB·English

by  David A Statt

THE CONCISE DICTIONARY OF
PSYCHOLOGY

With more than 1,300 entries, this new edition of The Concise Dictionary
of Psychology is comprehensive, clear and user-friendly. With extensive
cross-referencing to related entries, it includes many additional entries
and entries from peripheral fields, such as Babinski reflex, Doppler
effect, Little Albert and Murphy’s Law. Updated to take account of
recent developments in psychology, it is a lean and efficient source of
information, written in a straightforward and readable manner.
From atavistic to folie à deux, from engram to Weltschmerz and
Seashore test, this book will be an indispensable reference tool for
students of psychology, for professionals and for people in the health
and caring professions.
David A.Statt is Director of Studies at the Graduate School of
International Business at the University of Bristol. His other books
include Psychology: Making Sense (1977), Concise Dictionary of
Management (Routledge, 1990), Psychology and the World of Work
(1994) and Understanding the Consumer: A Psychological Approach

(1997).

THE CONCISE DICTIONARY OF
PSYCHOLOGY
Third Edition

David A.Statt

London and New York
First published 1981 by Harper & Row

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003.

Second edition published 1990
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Third edition 1998

© 1981, 1990, 1998 David A.Statt
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library
of Congress

ISBN 0-203-45052-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-75876-5 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-17939-4 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-17940-8 (pbk)
In memory of Toffs,
who taught me a thing or two about
psychology
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

I am grateful to my editor at Routledge, Vivien Ward, for encouraging
me to produce this new edition. While it is inevitably a little fuller than
the previous edition, each entry, in keeping with the original aim of
the book, remains as concise as I can make it.
My grateful thanks also go to my wife Judith for producing the
typescript with good-humoured despatch.
David A.Statt

vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author and publisher are very grateful to Macmillan Press Limited
for their kind permission to reproduce Figure 2, Attitude, and Figure
13, Memory, from Understanding the Consumer.

vii

A
ablation Surgical operation to remove part of the BRAIN.
abnormal Can only be defined in relation to the term NORMAL, about
which there is probably more disagreement than anything else in
PSYCHOLOGY. In whatever sense it is used abnormal implies
divergence from what is normal. It is generally used to describe
someone’s behaviour when it disturbs the regular course of his
everyday life, or that of other people. People who believe they are
Jesus Christ or who lie in a trance for days on end would be called
abnormal by most mental health professionals.
However, there is an important school of thought which believes
that much, if not all, of the behaviour described as abnormal can
be found in normal people from time to time, that mental institutions
may be a convenient way for a society to get rid of people who are
socially troublesome, that a society can itself in some sense be
psychologically abnormal (the clearest example being Nazi
Germany), and that ‘going crazy’ may be a way of escaping

intolerable social conditions. See FLIGHT INTO ILLNESS.
abnormal psychology The field of PSYCHOLOGY that investigates
and deals with BEHAVIOUR regarded as ABNORMAL. See also
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOANALYSIS
and PSYCHOPATHOLOGY.
abreaction The relief of tension that patients experience in
PSYCHOANALYSIS when they relive a conflict or TRAUMA
which they had REPRESSED. See also CATHARSIS.
absolute threshold The point at which a stimulus can just be picked
up by the sense organs.
1