NEUROTIC concern for one’s health. Refers to excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness. An individual suffering from hypochondriasis is known as a hypochondriac. Often, hypochondria persists even after a physician has evaluated a person and reassured them that their concerns about symptoms do not have an underlying medical basis or, if there is a medical illness, the concerns are far in excess of what is appropriate for the level of disease. Many hypochondriacs focus on a particular symptom as the catalyst of their worrying, such as gastro-intestinal problems, palpitations, or muscle fatigue.

Literally the opposite of EVOLUTION, i.e. decline or deterioration: used of mid-life physical and psychological crises and changes.

See INVOLUTIONAL MELANCHOLIA and MIDDLESCENCE.

The attempt to infer general principles from specific cases.

Compare with DEDUCTIVE REASONING.

Forming a generalised judgement of a person by trying to make sense of the various bits of information we have about them.

See also IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT.

Having a memory for previously learned activities or material that one apparently is not CONSCIOUS of. Unlike EXPLICIT MEMORY, it is often largely intact in people with AMNESIA.

The process of organising different parts into a whole of a higher order: used widely in science, from the organisation of nervous impulses necessary for any kind of BEHAVIOUR to the organisation of a whole society.

The comparison of people’s characteristics and performance, especially INTELLIGENCE and INTELLIGENCE TEST scores.

An approach to the study of PSYCHOLOGY that emphasises uniqueness and the individual rather than general laws or principles.

Compare with NOMOTHETIC.

A genetically inherited tendency that is present at birth though it may not become active until later life.

Compare with CONGENITAL.

The appearance of understanding, usually sudden, in dealing with a problem. Insight involves both the finding of a cognitive solution to a practical problem (as in the AHA REACTION) and the self-knowledge that can be achieved in PSYCHOTHERAPY.

Contrast with TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING.