Glossary of Psychological Terms
Definitions of terms used in psychology, psychometric testing and occupational assessment, organised alphabetically.
Obedience
In social psychology, a term used specifically for conformity to the demands or instructions of an authority figure, as distinguished from more general conformity to peers or social norms. Studied most famously in Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority.
Object blindness
See agnosia — the inability to recognise or interpret objects despite otherwise normal sensory function.
Object cathexis
In psychoanalysis, the investment of psychic energy (libido) in a chosen “love object,” typically involving the redirection of that energy from a purely sexual aim toward a broader, non-sexual attachment. See also: cathexis.
Object constancy
The tendency for a familiar object to be perceived as retaining the same fundamental properties even as the perceptual conditions around it — lighting, position, distance — change. See also: colour constancy.
Object loss
In psychoanalysis, the loss of love, attachment or connection to a valued external person or “object,” often a central concern in understanding grief and depression.
Object permanence
According to Jean Piaget, the understanding, acquired during the sensorimotor stage of infancy, that objects continue to exist even when they can no longer be seen, heard or otherwise perceived. This understanding is generally well established by around 18 to 24 months of age.
Object-relations school
A group of British psychoanalysts, including Ronald Fairbairn, Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott, who emphasised the formative importance of emotional relationships during the first two years of life. The “object” in question is typically the infant's mother, or more precisely the infant's internal perception and mental representation of her.
Objective
Describing something understood to exist independently of oneself, and capable of being observed or verified by others in the same way. Contrasted with subjective, which refers to a purely personal, individual experience or viewpoint.
Observational learning
Any form of learning that occurs through watching another person's behaviour, rather than through direct personal experience or reinforcement — encompassing both deliberate modelling and simple copying or imitation.
Obsession
A persistent, anxiety-provoking thought or idea that intrudes on a person's mind and proves difficult to dismiss or control. Compare with compulsion, the behavioural urge that often accompanies it.
Obsessive-compulsive neurosis
A condition in which a person is not only preoccupied by certain intrusive ideas (obsessions) but feels compelled to act on them, often through repetitive, ritualised behaviour such as excessive counting or handwashing (compulsions). Psychoanalytic theory interprets such behaviour as an unconscious attempt to relieve underlying guilt — as with Lady Macbeth's compulsive hand-washing in Shakespeare's play. Now generally referred to as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Occam's razor
A principle, attributed to the medieval philosopher William of Ockham, widely accepted as a cornerstone of scientific reasoning: when several competing explanations for a phenomenon are available, the simplest one that adequately accounts for the evidence should be preferred. Lloyd Morgan's canon, applied specifically to animal behaviour, is built on the same underlying logic.
Occupational psychology
See work psychology — the branch of psychology applying psychological principles to the workplace.
Occupational therapy
A therapeutic discipline, often used alongside psychotherapy in hospital settings, that engages patients in purposeful, useful tasks and activities to support physical recovery as well as self-esteem and a sense of personal worth.
Ockham's razor
An alternative spelling of Occam's razor.
Oestrogen
A hormone secreted during the period of oestrus, when a female animal experiences heightened sexual receptiveness. The relationship between oestrogen levels and sexual behaviour in humans is considerably less direct and simple than in many other animal species.
Old brain
The most evolutionarily primitive part of the human brain, situated beneath the cerebrum, responsible for basic reflexes and fundamental bodily regulation, and containing structures such as the limbic system.
Olfaction
The sense of smell, and the perceptual and neural processes involved in detecting and identifying airborne chemical odours.
One-trial learning
Learning that becomes established after only a single exposure or practice attempt, rather than requiring repeated trials.
Ontogeny
The developmental history of a single individual organism, from conception through to maturity. Contrast with phylogeny, the evolutionary history of an entire species.
Operant conditioning
A form of conditioning, introduced by B. F. Skinner, that shapes behaviour by reinforcing or punishing responses an organism spontaneously produces on its own, rather than eliciting a response to a specific paired stimulus as in classical conditioning. The emphasis is on the organism actively operating on its environment: a rat that happens to press a bar and receives a food pellet will gradually learn to press the bar deliberately to obtain food. Through carefully structured schedules of reinforcement, animals can be trained to perform remarkably complex sequences of behaviour.
Operational definition
Defining an abstract concept in terms of the concrete, observable procedures or operations used to measure or study it — for example, defining “hunger” as the number of hours since last eating.
Opinion leader
A term from sociology for a person of standing within a particular group whose views are especially respected, and who can therefore shape the opinions of other group members. See also: two-step flow of communication, the theory describing how mass-media influence often reaches most people indirectly, via such opinion leaders.
Oral stage
In Freud's theory of psychosexual development, the first stage of infancy, in which the infant's primary source of pleasure and preoccupation is the mouth and its functions (sucking, feeding). As with all of Freud's stages, excessive frustration or excessive gratification at this stage may leave an adult fixated on it, potentially producing an “oral character” marked by a strong need for oral stimulation through eating, drinking, smoking or talking — sometimes expressed, Freud suggested, through sharp or “biting” remarks.
Organisational culture
A concept drawing on both anthropology and psychology's use of “culture”: not just the shared beliefs, values, attitudes and expectations held by an organisation's members, but also the largely unquestioned assumptions embedded in its traditions and established ways of doing things.
Organising tendency
A term used in the study of perception for the way innate physiological processes combine with individual experience to actively structure and organise our perceptual world, rather than simply registering raw sensory input passively.
Orienting reaction
A term from physiological psychology for an animal's automatic behavioural response — typically shifting attention, posture or sensory orientation — to deal with a new or unexpected stimulus in its environment.
Out-of-body experience
The reported feeling of a free-floating, disembodied self, detached from one's physical body — sometimes described by people who have survived a state of clinical death, who often report the sensation of looking down at their own body, for instance lying on an operating table.
Outer-directed
A term introduced to sociology by American sociologist David Riesman for people who respond to their society mainly by conforming to prevailing social norms, seeking approval and popularity from those around them. Contrast with inner-directed.
Overachiever
A person whose accomplishments exceed what would typically be expected of them given their apparent ability; sometimes used, particularly in education, to describe someone perceived as trying harder than their natural aptitude alone would predict. Contrast with underachiever.
Overcompensation
Exerting a level of effort well beyond what is actually needed to overcome a difficulty or resolve a perceived shortcoming — often discussed in connection with attempts to counteract an underlying inferiority complex.
Overconforming
Describing a person who adheres excessively and rigidly to the demands of authority or the conventions of prevailing social norms, well beyond what the situation actually requires.
Overdetermined
In psychoanalysis, describing a phenomenon — particularly the origin of a neurosis, or the meaning of a dream — that has more than one underlying cause operating simultaneously. Since most neuroses and dreams are considered overdetermined in this sense, psychoanalytic interpretation typically looks beyond any single, simple explanation toward a more layered, multi-causal account.
Overlearning
Continuing to practise or rehearse a skill or piece of material well beyond the point needed for basic, adequate mastery. Overlearning is not generally considered harmful — unlike some popular assumptions, it is not thought possible to “learn something too well.”
