Dictionary of Psychology [antikvár]

IntroductionThis dictionary of psychological terms has been designed to explain the meanings of technical terms in psychology. Terms from the related disciplines of psychoanalysis, psychiatry, and biology have been freely included where these have found wide usage in the literature of psychology. A number of semipopular terms and terms from the literature of pseudopsychology and spiritualism have been included for the convenience of those who may find these terms discussed in psychological or popular writing. Because many of the more specialized terms have been deliberately coined by writers who wish to convey special meanings, the names of responsible individuals or schools have been included in many instances.Every attempt has been made to render accurate, concise, and meaningful definitions. Technical jargon has been avoided as far as it is possible to do so without loss of accuracy. Pronunciation has not been included, since readers rarely consult a technical dictionary for this purpose and because most technical terms are derived from easily pronounced Latin and Greek word elements. Occasionally variant spellings have been indicated where these are commonly found in the literature. In general, the use of hyphenated forms and old spellings has been eliminated, consistent with the parallel tendency to eliminate such forms in general English usage. No attempt has been made to suggest guidelines for usage among different definitions of the same term. It would certainly be desirable if all psychologists could agree on the meaning of such terms as reinforcement or emotion, but until such agreement has been reached, the user's theoretical or systematic position will have to serve as his guide.In the case of the more central concepts of psychology, such as memory, perception, the schools of psychology and theories of learning, and of the discussion under psychology, the entries have been made encyclopedic rather than lexicographical, on the assumption that these entries will be consulted primarily by student readers or laymen in search of somewhat extended discussions of these topics. For much the same reason, short biographies of famous men of the prescientific period who