The tendency among humans and animals to explore their environment for its own sake.

The outline or boundary of an object which is essential to its PERCEPTION.

Usually used in connection with teenagers and often called ‘juvenile delinquency’ to describe breaches of the law like theft and vandalism. Many factors have been proposed to explain it over the years such as depressing environment, unhappy home life, innate sinfulness and the SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY engendered by LABELLING.

A situation in which the interviewer tries to get beyond the CONSCIOUS responses of the interviewee to probe UNCONSCIOUS feelings.

Imagery that occurs during sleep, usually with a certain coherence but sometimes with bizarre, unusual or confusing aspects as well.

A disabling disorder of both COGNITION and AFFECT which impairs the higher mental processes of learning, thinking, decision-making and, especially, MEMORY and is accompanied by changes in PERSONALITY and ways of relating to other people.

Associated with GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY, continuity is the idea that the brain will perceive stimuli as belonging with each other and forming a pattern if they follow each other closely and regularly in time or space.

In the work of PIAGET, this is the most important achievement in the STAGE of CONCRETE OPERATIONS (7-11 years). Children learn that an object stays the same (is conserved) even while its appearance changes. Thus, they understand for the first time that when water is transferred from a tall thin glass to a short fat one, the amount of water remains constant.

The study of people as buyers and consumers of goods and services. It started in the 1960’s mainly with a PSYCHOANALYTIC interpretation of product choice. More recently COGNITIVE and SOCIAL approaches have become very influential, especially in studying the effects of advertising and marketing.

A modern variant in SOCIOLOGY of the old idea of GROUP MIND. In this version, the effect of a crowd is to assimilate individuals within it, producing an overriding psychological unity, and changing an individual’s usual psychological responses in the process. Compare with COLLECTIVE MIND.