PSYCH CHAPTER 2

abnormal

Outside of what would be considered as normal; unusual.

acting-out

When an internal and ambiguous wish or unavailable fear is managed by converting it into an external action.

anxiety

An excess of being nervous, or jumpy, or frightened.

change blindness

The difficulty associated with learning to see objects, experiences, ideas, concepts.

compassionate curiosity

A psychological attitude that invites us to swallow others’ truths rather than make meaning ourselves.

compulsions

What one must do in order to quiet obsessive thoughts.

confirmation bias

The tendency to take in information in a way that supports our existing ideas, deflecting or distorting threatening information.

correlational fallacy

Making the assumption that because two things happen together, one is causing the other.

description

A theory function where we start to speak our experience in psychological terms.

determinism

Refers to a cause that we can seek to know, observe, and describe with scientific compassionate curiosity.

explanation

A theory function that involves making careful inferences or guesses about causes.

five functions of theory

Observe, describe, explain, predict, intervene.

“hmmm… It’s complicated”

A doorway into a room where new, kind, clear psychological description is starting to happen.

imagine

Taking the time to form a mental image of something.

intervention

A theory function that uses descriptions, explanation, and predictions to understand suffering and promote kindness.

lookism

A confirmation bias and perceptual occlusion in which we privilege appearance over being.

normal

1. What we see when we watch and count; 2) Does not have anything to do with what is normal for you, but rather normal for us.

observation

A theory function that sensitizes us to a careful, compassionately curious noticing of what might matter.

obsessions

Persistent and unwelcome thoughts.

prediction

A theory function that allows us to involve ourselves with problems before they become problems.

prophylaxis

To prevent what might happen if we do not predict and try to prevent it from occurring.

science

A system of watching our experience in new, kind, clear, and careful ways.

structure & mechanism

A psychological bridge between what is observable (structure) and what can be seen or imagined (mechanism).

theory

A set of provisional, humble, testable, best guesses about how the world works.