Psychiatry Definitions: Glossary of Behavioral Science
Behavioral Science Definitions
Psychiatric Symptoms
Disturbances of Consciousness
- Disorientation – disturbance of orientation in time, place, or person
- Clouding of consciousness – incomplete clear-mindedness w/disturbances in perception & attitudes
- Stupor – pt’s akinetic, a state of unresponsiveness w/immobility & mutism
- Delirium – clouded or low level of consciousness; memory difficulties, judgment reduction, disoriented, & hallucinations (esp visual)
- Coma – profound degree of unconsciousness
- Coma vigil – coma where pt appears to be asleep, but is readily arousable
- Twilight state – transitory disturbance of consciousness w/hallucinations
- Dreamlike state – often used for complex partial seizure or psychomotor epilepsy
- Somnolence – abnormal drowsiness
Emotion – complex feeling state w/psychic, somatic, & behavioral components related to affect & mood
- Affect – feeling-tone that accompanies an idea; observed expression of emotion; may be inconsistence w/pt’s description of emotion
o Appropriate – condition in which emotional tone is in harmony w/accompanying idea, thought, or speech
o Inappropriate – disharmony b/t emotional feeling tone & idea, thought, or speech accompanying it
o Restricted or constricted – reduction in intensity of feeling tone less severe than blunted affect but clearly reduced
o Blunted – disturbance in affect manifested by severe reduction in intensity of externalized feeling tone
o Flat – absence or near absence of any signs of affective expression; voice monotonous, face immobile (mask-like face)
o Labile – rapid & abrupt changes in emotional feeling tone, unrelated to external stimuli
- Mood – pervasive & sustained emotion; subjectively experienced & reported by pt & observed by others; ie depression, elation, anger
o Euthymic – normal range of mood, implying absence of depressed or elevated mood
o Euphoria – abnormally intense feeling of well being
o Elation – euphoria + exaggerated motor activity
o Exaltation – elation + attitude of grandeur
o Expansive – expression of one’s feelings w/o restraint, frequently w/an overestimation of one’s significance or importance
o Ecstasy – feeling of intense rapture; highest degree of elevated mood
o Dysphoric – unpleasant mood; depression or sadness
o Depression – psychopathological feeling of sadness
o Mood swings (labile mood) – constant oscillations b/t euphoria & depression or anxiety
- Other emotions
o Anxiety – feeling of apprehension caused by anticipation of danger, which may be internal or external
o Fear – anxiety caused by consciously recognized & realistic danger
o Agitation – severe anxiety asso’d w/motor restlessness
o Panic – acute, episodic, intense attack of anxiety asso’d w/overwhelming feelings of dread & autonomic discharge
o Ambivalence – coexistence of 2 opposing impulses toward the same thing in the same person at the same time or situation
Motor behavior
- Echopraxia – pathological imitation of mvmts of 1 person by another
- Catatonia – motor anomalies (stupor or excitement) in some d/o; not lack of activity
o Catalepsy (stupor) – general term for an immobile position that’s constantly maintained
o Catatonic excitement – agitated, purposeless motor activity, uninfluenced by external stimuli
o Catatonic stupor – markedly slowed motor activity, often to a point of immobility & seeming unawareness of surroundings
o Catatonic rigidity – voluntary assumption of a rigid posture
o Catatonic posturing – voluntary assumption of an inappropriate or bizarre posture
o Cerea flexibilitas (waxy flexibility) – pt can be molded into a position that’s then maintained; when examiner moves pt’s limb, the limb feels as if it were made of wax
- Negativism – motiveless resistance to all attempts to follow instructions, requests, or directions
- Cataplexy – temporary loss of muscle tone & weakness
- Mannerism – ingrained, habitual involuntary mvmt; meaningless mvmt repetition
- Command automatism (automatic obedience) – automatic following of suggestions
- Mutism – voicelessness w/o structural abnormalities
- Overractivity
o Hyperactivity (hyperkinesis)
o Tic – involuntary, spasmodic motor mvmt
o Sleepwalking – motor activity during sleep
o Akathisia – subjective feeling of muscular tension that can cause restlessness, pacing, repeated sitting & standing; can be mistaken for psychotic agitation
o Compulsion – uncontrolled impulse to perform an meaningful act repetitively
o Ataxia – failure of muscle coordination
o Polyphagia (hyperphagia) – pathological overeating
- Hypoactivity (hypokinesis) – ¯ motor & cognitive activity; visible slowing of thought, speech, & mvmts; characteristic of depression
Thinking – goal-directed flow of ideas initiated by a problem or task & leading toward a reality-orientated conclusion; parapraxis (unconsciously motivated lapse from logic, AKA Freudian slip) is considered part of normal thinking
General disturbances
o Psychosis – inability to distinguish reality from fantasy; impaired reality testing w/creation of a new reality; may have delusion or hallucinations
o Formal thought d/o – thinking characterized by loosened asso’ns, neologisms, & illogical constructs; pt defined as psychotic
o Autistic thinking – preoccupation w/inner, private world; daydreaming is normal
o Magical thinking – thoughts, words, or actions assume power
- Specific disturbances in thought form
o Irrelevant answer – answer that’s not in harmony w/question asked
o Loosening of asso’n – flow of thought (phrases) in which ideas shift from one subject to another in a completely unrelated way
o Incoherence – words w/no logical or grammatical connection
o Salad – incoherent mixture of words & phrases
o Neologism – new word created by pt
o Verbigeration – meaningless repetition of specific words or phrases
o Preseveration – persisting response to a prior stimulus after a new stimulus
o Blocking – abrupt interruption in train of thinking before a thought or idea is finished; after a brief pause, pt indicates no recall of what was being said or was going to be said
o Pressure of speech – rapid speech that’s in amt & difficult to interrupt
o Volubility (logorrhea) – copious, coherent, logical speech, impossible to interrupt
o Flight of ideas -continuous verbalization or plays on words produce constant shifting from one idea to another; ideas tends to be connected, & in less severe form, a listener may be able to follow them
o Clang asso’n – asso’n of words similar in sound but not in meaning; words have no logical connection, may include rhyming & punning
o Circumstantiality – indirect speech that’s delayed in reaching the point but eventually gets from original point to desired goal
o Tangentiality – inability to have goal-directed asso’n of thought; pt never gets from desired point to desired goal
o Echolalia – psychopathological repeating of words or phrases of one person by another; tends to be repetitive & persistent
o Corprolalia – compulsive utterance of obscene words
o Glossolalia (speaking in tongues) – neologisms that simulates coherent speech
o Dysprosody (prosody) – loss of normal speech melody (tone of speech)
o Dysarthria – difficulty in articulation, not in word finding or grammar
- Specific disturbances in thought content
o Delusion – false belief not consistent w/pt’s intelligence & cultural background
§ Bizarre – absurd, totally implausible, strange, false belief
§ Systematized – false belief(s) united by a single event or theme; logical, well-organized, makes sense
§ Mood-congruent – delusion w/mood appropriate content
§ Mood incongruent – delusions w/content that has no asso’n to mood or is mood-neutral
§ Nihilistic – false belief that self, others, or world is nonexistent or ending; negation
§ Delusion of poverty – false belief that one’s bereft or will be deprived of all material possessions
§ Somatic – false belief involving functioning of one’s body
§ Paranoid – includes:
- Delusion of persecution – false belief that one’s being harassed, cheated or persecuted
- Delusion of grandeur – exaggerated conception of one’s importance, power or identity
- Delusion or reference – false belief that behavior of others refers to oneself; normal perception – delusional interpretation
§ Delusion of self-accusation – false feeling of remorse & guilt
§ Delusions of control – false feeling that one’s will, thoughts or feelings are being controlled by external forces
- Thought withdrawal – delusion that one’s thoughts are being removed from one’s mind by other people or forces
- Thought insertion – delusion that thoughts are being implanted in one’s mind by other people or forces
- Thought broadcasting – delusion that one’s thoughts can be heard by others
- Thought control – delusion that one’s thoughts are being controlled by other people or forces
§ Erotomania (Clerambault complex) – delusional belief, more common in women, that someone is deeply in love w/them
§ Pseudologia phantastica – type of lying, in which pt appears to believe in the reality of his/her fantasies & acts on them
o Hypochondria – exaggerated concern about one’s health that’s based not on real organic pathology but on unrealistic interpretations of physical signs or sensations as abnormal
o Obsession – pathological persistence of an irresistible thought or feeling that can’t be eliminated from consciousness by logical effort, which is asso’d w/anxiety
o Phobia – persistent, irrational, exaggerated dread of some specific type of stimulus or situation
Perception
- Disturbances of perception
o Hallucination – false sensory perception not asso’d w/real external stimuli
§ Hypnagogic – false sensory perception occurring while falling asleep
§ Hypnopopic – false perception occurring while awakening from sleep
§ Auditory – false perception of sound
§ Visual – false perception involving sight
§ Olfactory – false perception of smell
§ Gustatory – false perception of taste; asso’d w/epilepsy
§ Tactile – false perception of touch or surface sensation; asso’d w/IVDU
§ Somatic – false sensation of things occurring in or to the body
§ Lilliputian (micropsia) – false perception in which objects are seen as reduced in size
o Illusion – misperception or misinterpretation of real external sensor stimuli
- Disturbances asso’d w/cognitive d/o
o Agnosia – inability to recognize & interpret the significance of sensory impressions
- Disturbance asso’d w/conversation & dissociative phenomena
o Macropsia – state in which objects seem larger than they are
o Micropsia – stat in which objects seem smaller than they are
o Depersonalization – subjective sense of being unreal, strange or unfamiliar to oneself; may feel out-of-body or at 2 places at same time
o Derealization – subjective sense that environment is strange or unreal; felling of changed reality
Memory
- Amnesia – partial or total inability to recall past experiences; origin may be organic or emotional
o Anterograde – amnesia for events occurring after a point in time
o Retrograde – amnesia prior to a point in time
- Paramnesia – falsification of memory by distortion of recall; may be due to emotional state at time of event
o Fausse reconnaissance – false recognition
o Retrospective falsification – memory becomes unintentionally distorted by being filtered through pt’s present emotional, cognitive & experiential state
o Confabulation – unconscious filling of gaps in memory by imagined or untrue experiences that pt believes but that have no basis in fact
o Déjà vu – illusion of visual recognition in which a new situation is incorrectly regarded as a repetition of a previous memory
o Déjà pense – illusion that a new thought is recognized as a thought previously felt or expressed
o Jamais vu – false feeling of unfamiliarity w/a real situation one has experienced
Defense Mechanisms
- Acting out – individual deals w/emotional conflict or internal or external stressors by actions rather than reflections or feelings; isn’t synonymous w/”bad behavior” b/c it requires evidence that the behavior is related to emotional conflicts
- Affiliation – individual deals w/stressors by turning to others for help or support
- Aim inhibition – placing a limitation upon instinctual demands; accepting partial or modified fulfillment of desires
- Altruism – individual deals w/stressors by dedication to meeting needs of others
- Anticipation – individual deals w/stressors by experiencing emotional rxns in advance of, or anticipating consequences of, possible future events & considering realistic, alternative responses or solutions; one of the best defense mechanisms
- Autistic fantasy – individual deals w/stressors by excessive daydreaming as a substitute for human relationships, more effective action or problem solving
- Avoidance – defense mechanism consisting of refusal to encounter situations, objects, or activities b/c they represent unconscious sexual or aggressive impulses and/or punishment for those impulses; avoidance, according to the dynamic theory, is a major defense mechanism in phobias; [Phobias use 3 defense mechanisms: avoidance, symbolization & displacement]
- Compensation – encountering failure or frustration in some sphere of activity, one overemphasizes another; process of overcorrecting for a handicap or limitation
- Conversion – conflicts are presented by physical symptoms involving portions of body innervated by sensory or motor nerves; this mechanism & somatization are the only ones that are always pathological
- Deflection – detected when individual is in grp therapy & consists of redirecting attention to another grp member
- Denial – failing to recognize or acknowledge obvious implications or consequences of a thought, act or situation
- Devaluation – individual deals w/emotional conflict or stressors by attributing exaggerated negative qualities to self or others
- Displacement – change in object by which an instinctual drive is to be satisfied; shifting emotional component from one object or idea to another; often quite satisfactory & workable mechanisms
- Dissociation – splitting-off a grp of thoughts or activities from main portion of consciousness; compartmentalization; some dissociation is helpful in keeping one portion of one’s life from interfering w/another
- Fixation – cessation of process of development of personality at a stage short of complete & uniform mature independence
- Help-rejecting complaining – individual deals w/stressors by complaining or making repetitious requests for help that disguise covert feelings or hostility or reproach toward others, which are then expressed by rejected suggestions, advice or help that others offer
- Humor – individual deals w/emotional conflict or external stressors by emphasizing amusing or ironic aspects of conflicts or stressors; one of the best defense mechanisms
- Idealization – overestimation of desirable qualities & underestimation of limitations of a desired object
- Identification – similar to introjection, but of less intensity & completeness; unconscious modeling of one’s self upon another; may also identify w/values & attitudes of a grp; conscious analogs of identification are intentional imitation of others & volitional efforts to conform to a grp
- Incorporation – assimilation of object into one’s own ego and/or superego; one of earliest mechanisms used
- Intellectualization – individual deals w/stressors by excessive use of abstract thinking or making of generalizations to control or minimize disturbing feelings
- Introjection – process of assimilation of picture of an object (as individual conceives object to be)
- Isolation – splitting-off of emotional components from a thought; may be temporary (affect postponement); commonly over utilized by obsessive compulsives
- Omnipotence – individual deals w/stressors by feeling or acting as if s/he possesses special powers or abilities & is superior to others
- Passive aggression – individual deals w/stressors by indirectly & unassertively expressing aggression toward others; is a façade of overt compliance masking covert resistance, resentment or hostility; often occurs in response to demands for independent action or performance or lack of gratification of dependent wishes but may be adaptive for individuals in subordinate positions who have no other way to express assertiveness more avertly
- Projection – attributing one’s thoughts or impulses to another person; in common use, this is limited to unacceptable or undesirable impulses; commonly over utilized by the paranoid; broader definition includes certain operations that allow for empathy & understanding of others
- Projective identification – as in projection, individual deals w/stressors by falsely attributing to another his/her own unacceptable feelings, impulses or thoughts; unlike simple projection, individual doesn’t fully disavow what’s projected; instead s/he remains aware of his/her own affects or impulses but misattribute them as justifiable rxns to the other person; not infrequently, individual induces the very feelings in others that were first mistakenly believed to be there
- Rationalization – offering a socially acceptable & apparently more or less logical explanation for an act or decision actually produced by unconscious impulses; person rationalizing isn’t intentionally inventing a story to fool someone else, but instead is misleading self as well as the listener
- Rxn formation – going to opposite extreme, overcompensation for unacceptable impulses; transforming negative idea into positive act or idea; intentional efforts to compensate, for conscious dislikes & prejudices are sometimes analogous to this mechanism
- Regression -anxiety-evading mechanism where personality may suffer a loss of some of the development already attained & may revert to a lower level of adaptation & expression
- Restitution – mechanism of relieving mind of a load of guilt by making up or reparation (paying w/interest)
- Self-assertion – individual deals w/stressors by expressing his/her feelings & thoughts directly in a way that isn’t coercive or manipulative
- Somatization – conflicts are represented by physical symptoms involving parts of body innervated by sympathetic & parasympathetic sys; when shown, always pathological
- Splitting – used to explain coexistence within ego of contradictory states, representative of self & others, as well as attitudes to self & others; other individuals or self is perceived as “All good or all bad;” used by people w/multiple personalities; w/projective identification
- Sublimation – attenuating force of an instinctual drive by using energy in other, usu constructive activities; often combined w/other mechanisms, among them aim inhibition, displacement & symbolization; conscious use of work or hobbies to divert one’s thoughts from a problem or from a rejected wish is an analog of this; one of best defense mechanisms
- Substitution – individual secures alternative or substitutive gratification comparable to those that would have been employed has frustration not occurred
- Suppression – usu fisted as an ego defense mechanism but actually conscious analog of repression; intentional exclusion of material from consciousness; at times, may lead to subsequent repression
- Symbolization – object or act represents a complex grp of objects & acts, some of which may be conflictual or unacceptable to the ego; objects or acts stand for a repressed desire
- Undoing – act or communication which partially negates a previous one
Tags: behavioral science, psychiatry
