Glossary of Psychological Terms
Definitions of terms used in psychology, psychometric testing and occupational assessment, organised alphabetically.
J curve
A frequency distribution describing conforming behaviour, in which most people's behaviour clusters at or near what is socially expected, with far fewer people deviating from it — the resulting graph resembles the shape of a capital J, or its mirror image.
James-Lange theory of emotions
A theory combining similar proposals from American philosopher William James and Danish physiologist Carl Lange, holding that emotion is essentially our conscious awareness of bodily changes that follow an arousing event — in this view, we feel sad because we cry, rather than crying because we feel sad. Contrasted with the Cannon-Bard theory, which holds that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously and independently rather than one causing the other.
JND
An abbreviation for just noticeable difference — see that entry.
Job analysis
A key task performed by work psychologists, involving systematic study of a job's component tasks and demands in order to match them appropriately with the abilities of the people who perform them.
Jones, Ernest (1879-1958)
A British psychoanalyst and one of Sigmund Freud's earliest and closest followers, who went on to write Freud's official biography.
Jung, Carl Gustav (1875-1961)
A Swiss psychiatrist and one of Freud's earliest close colleagues, at one point considered the likely heir to the psychoanalytic movement Freud founded. Jung broke away in 1914, largely over his rejection of Freud's insistence on sexuality as the central cause of neurosis, and founded his own school, analytical psychology, drawing on interests ranging from mythology and alchemy to Eastern spiritual traditions that Freud's commitment to strict rationalism could not accommodate. See especially: collective unconscious, introversion, extraversion.
Just noticeable difference
The smallest difference between two stimuli that a person can reliably detect — a foundational concept in psychophysics.
Just-world hypothesis
In social psychology, the largely unconscious assumption that the world operates fairly, rewarding the deserving and punishing the undeserving. This belief can lead people to assume that anyone who suffers misfortune must, in some way, have deserved it — a mechanism that helps explain why victims of crime or tragedy are sometimes unfairly blamed for their own circumstances. See also: distributive justice.
