Essential Psychology Terminology and Concepts

Emotions and Feelings

• Disgust: An emotion caused by not liking something.
• Anger: An emotion of feeling very upset or dissatisfied with someone.
• Experience: To feel or have sensations of something.
• Joy: An emotion in which someone feels good.
• Feeling: The way a person feels when undergoing a certain emotion.
• Fear: An emotion of feeling scared.
• Emotion Wheel: A graphical representation of emotions and feelings.

Key Emotional Concepts

• Happiness: A feeling of well-being and contentment.
• Anticipation: The expectation of an event.
• Sadness: The opposite of joy.
• Surprise: Experienced when unexpected events happen.
• Trust: Relates to one person's general attitude towards another.
• Submission: A combination of trust and fear.
• Contempt: A combination of disgust and anger.
• Remorse: A combination of disgust and sadness.
• Awe: A combination of fear and surprise.
• Love: A combination of trust and joy.
• Acceptance: The realization that something cannot be avoided.
• Disappointment: A combination of sadness and surprise.

Motivation and Biological Drives

• Drive Theory: A theory of motivation focusing on physical needs.
• Biological: Related to physical processes of living things.
• Opponent-Process: A theory of motivation focusing on emotions.
• Motivation: The desire to perform actions.
• Hunger: The feeling of wanting or needing to eat.
• Instinctive Behavior: Actions that are not learned or taught.
• Curiosity: The desire to learn about unknown things.
• Hierarchy of Needs: A system of ranking needs by importance.

Stress and Coping Mechanisms

• Life Event: An important occurrence in a person's life.
• Stressor: Something that causes a person to feel stress.
• Primary Appraisal: The first evaluation of a stressor.
• Secondary Appraisal: An assessment of what someone can do about a stressful event.
• Alarm: A stage of stress response when energy levels are heightened.
• Resistance: A stage of stress response when energy levels start to drop.
• Exhaustion: A stage of stress response when the body is extremely tired.

Foundations of Psychology

• Structuralism: A school of thought popular in the early 20th century.
• Introspection: The act of examining one's own thoughts.
• Functionalism: A theory focusing on the purposes of processes.
• Behaviorism: A school of psychology focusing on behavioral conditioning.
• Gestalt Psychology: A field studying the perception of patterns.
• Psychoanalysis: A therapy that resolves conflicts in the mind.
• Evolutionary Psychology: The idea that behavior evolves like physical bodies.