Definition: therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, providing benefits from group interaction.

Definition: the hopelessness and passive resignation humans and other animals learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

Definition: a disturbance in people's thoughts, emotions, or behaviors that causes distress or suffering and impairs their daily lives.

Definition: a psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain.

Definition: a group of disorders that originate in childhood and involve impairment in personal, social, academic, or occupational functioning.

Definition: a biomedical therapy for severe depression in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized person.

Definition: Sigmund Freud's therapeutic technique; Freud believed the patient's free associations, resistances, dreams, and transferences — and the analyst's interpretations of them — released previously repressed feelings, allowing the patient to gain self-insight.

Definition: the perception that we control our own fate.

Definition: a humanistic therapy, developed by Carl Rogers, in which the therapist uses techniques such as active listening within an accepting, genuine, empathic environment to facilitate clients' growth.

Definition: a statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion.

Definition: the application of repeated pulses of magnetic energy to the brain; used to stimulate or suppress brain activity.

Definition: treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth.

Definition: a group of disorders in which a person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of mania. (Formerly called manic-depressive disorder.)

Definition: clinical decision-making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and client characteristics and preferences.

Definition: a hyperactive, wildly optimistic state in which dangerously poor judgment is common.

Definition: a group of disorders characterized by altered consumption or absorption of food that impairs health, functioning, or both.

Definition: self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with other measures (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.

Definition: a personality disorder in which a person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members; may be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist.

Definition: a social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur; in a therapeutic context, the first person attempts to use suggestion to reduce unpleasant physical sensations or emotions.

Definition: fear or avoidance of situations, such as crowds or wide open places, where one may experience a loss of control and panic.

Definition: under stress, people (especially women) may nurture themselves and others and bond with and seek support from others.

Definition: a disorder in which a person experiences five or more symptoms lasting two or more weeks, in the absence of drug use or a medical condition, at least one of which must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.

Definition: an operant conditioning procedure in which people earn a token for exhibiting a desired behavior and can later exchange tokens for privileges or treats.

Definition: the scientific study of human flourishing, with the goals of promoting strengths and virtues that foster well-being, resilience, and positive emotions, and that help individuals and communities to thrive.

Definition: an eating disorder in which a person (usually a young woman) maintains a starvation diet despite being significantly underweight.

Definition: therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition; views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and seeks to enhance self-insight.

Definition: an eating disorder characterized by episodes of overeating, usually high-calorie foods, followed by vomiting, laxative use, fasting, or excessive exercise.

Definition: the process, begun in the late twentieth century, of moving people with psychological disorders out of institutional facilities.

Definition: an anxiety disorder marked by unpredictable, minutes-long episodes of intense dread in which a person may experience terror and accompanying chest pain, choking, or other frightening sensations; often followed by worry over a possible next attack.

Definition: therapies that aim to improve psychological functioning by increasing a person’s awareness of underlying motives and defenses.

Definition: a caring, accepting, nonjudgmental attitude, which Carl Rogers believed would help clients develop self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Definition: the personal strength that helps people cope with stress and recover from adversity and even trauma.

Definition: a confrontational cognitive therapy, developed by Albert Ellis, that vigorously challenges people's illogical, self-defeating attitudes and assumptions.

Definition: (also called process schizophrenia) a form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood. As people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten.

Definition: the concept that genetic predispositions combine with environmental stressors to influence psychological disorder.

Definition: a group of disorders characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking or speech, disorganized or unusual motor behavior, and negative symptoms (such as diminished emotional expression).

Definition: a suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors.

Definition: a psychological disorder marked by the appearance by age 7 of one or more of three key symptoms: extreme inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Definition: the concept that diseases – in this case, psychological disorders – have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured, often through treatment in a hospital.

Definition: attempting to alleviate stress directly – by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

Definition: therapy that treats people in the context of their family system; views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members.

Definition: the drive to move toward or away from a stimulus.

Definition: the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision; a widely used system for classifying psychological disorders.

Definition: a controversial, rare group of disorders characterized by a disruption of or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control, and behavior.

Definition: Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases – alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Definition: positive psychological changes following a struggle with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises.

Definition: an anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.

Definition: a split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.

Definition: attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.

Definition: a group of disorders characterized by an enduring sad, empty, or irritable mood, along with physical and cognitive changes that affect a person's ability to function.

Definition: in psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.

Definition: a disorder in which people with intact brains reportedly experience memory gaps; people with __________ may report not remembering trauma-related specific events, people, places, or aspects of their identity and life history.

Definition: behavioral techniques, such as systematic desensitization and virtual reality exposure therapy, that treat anxieties by exposing people (in imaginary or actual situations) to the things they fear and avoid.

Definition: a classification system to identify positive traits; organized into categories of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.

Definition: an appreciative emotion people often experience when they benefit from other's actions or recognize their own good fortune.

Definition: a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Definition: the perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves.

Definition: the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; a leading cause of death in many developed countries.

Definition: the perception that outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

Definition: drugs used to treat depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder. (Several widely used drugs of this type are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – SSRIs.)

Definition: a subfield of psychology that explores the impact of psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors on health and wellness.

Definition: empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and seeks clarification. A feature of Rogers' person-centered therapy.

Definition: the most severe form, in which people experience a euphoric, talkative, highly energetic, and overly ambitious state that lasts a week or longer.

Definition: people's tendency to be helpful when in a good mood.

Definition: intense fear and avoidance of social situations.

Definition: prescribed medications or procedures that act directly on the person's physiology.

Definition: an anxiety disorder marked by a persistent, irrational fear and avoidance of a specific object, activity, or situation.

Definition: a disorder in which people experience a depressed mood on more days than not for at least two years. (Formerly called dysthymia.)

Definition: a type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat specific phobias.

Definition: associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).

Definition: a disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by significant deficiencies in communication and social interaction, and by rigidly fixated interests and repetitive behaviors.

Definition: therapy that uses learning principles to reduce unwanted behaviors.

Definition: behavior therapy procedures that use classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; include exposure therapies and aversive conditioning.

Definition: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Definition: drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorders.

Definition: a disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions), actions (compulsions), or both.

Definition: a group of disorders in which exposure to a traumatic or stressful event is followed by psychological distress.

Definition: a disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, hypervigilance, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, numbness of feeling, and/or insomnia that lingers for 4 weeks or more after a traumatic experience.

Definition: a group of disorders characterized by enduring inner experiences or behavior patterns that differ from someone's cultural norms and expectations, are pervasive and inflexible, begin in adolescence or early adulthood, are stable over time, and cause distress or impairment.

Definition: a bond of trust and mutual understanding between a therapist and client, who work together constructively to overcome the client's problem.

Definition: (also called reactive schizophrenia) a form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to a traumatic event, and from which recovery is much more likely.

Definition: an approach to psychotherapy that uses techniques from various forms of therapy.

Definition: in psychology, the idea that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.

Definition: surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue to change behavior.

Definition: a false belief, often of persecution or grandeur, that may accompany psychotic disorders.

Definition: a group of disorders characterized by excessive fear and anxiety and related maladaptive behaviors.

Definition: a counterconditioning technique that treats anxiety through creative electronic simulations in which people can safely face specific fears, such as flying, spiders, or public speaking.

Definition: in psychoanalysis, the patient's transfer to the analyst of emotions linked with other relationships (such as love or hatred for a parent).

Definition: a rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating identities. (Formerly called multiple personality disorder.)

Definition: proposes that positive emotions broaden our awareness, which over time helps us build novel and meaningful skills and resilience that improve well-being.

Definition: our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience.

Definition: a less severe form of bipolar in which people move between depression and a milder hypomania.

Definition: therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking; based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

Definition: a group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality.