10 terms from psychology that everyone should know

Psychology is a complex and multifaceted science. Therefore, it is not necessary for us, ordinary people, to know what, for example, apperception or exposure is. However, there are such psychological terms that will be useful in everyday life to better express your emotions, evaluate the behavior of other people ... well, just to show off your mind. Here are some of them.

This word is familiar to many, but not everyone understands its true meaning. Procrastination is not the same as laziness. This term describes a state when a person wants to do something, but all the time transfers it "for later". The main difference from laziness is that procrastinating, a person reproaches himself for it and worries. Laziness is a more indifferent state: I didn't do it — well, okay, I was lazy… In addition to the usual procrastination, there is also procrastination of sleep, when we cannot force ourselves to go to bed on time. But this is a separate story.

Another familiar term that means a mental state arising from "unfulfilled hopes." In other words, when desires do not correspond to our capabilities. The feelings we experience at this moment are frustration. Frustration can be associated with deprivation, loss or conflict, and the element itself that provoked this state is called a frustrator.

This beautiful word describes a person's ambivalent attitude to something. Especially, the duality of experiences, when, for example, the same object simultaneously causes absolutely opposite feelings in a person. Eigen Bleiler, who first coined the term, considered ambivalence to be one of the signs of schizophrenia. But Sigmund Freud put a different meaning into it: in his opinion, ambivalence is the coexistence in one person of two opposing deep beliefs, such as, for example, the attraction to life and to death.

It's funny, but many people confuse "rigidity" and "frigidity". In fact, "rigidity" in psychology means a person's unpreparedness for any changes, fear of unforeseen circumstances. A rigid person is used to acting according to a plan; he is a hostage to rules, beliefs and stereotypes, so all changes in the "program" cause him discomfort. Usually these include people with autism. Rigid thinking is very banal and cliched, and such people themselves are too pedantic, old-fashioned and irritable if something goes wrong.

Conformity or conformity is one of the key concepts of social psychology. It means changing a person's behavior under the influence of pressure from society (individuals). And sometimes this pressure exists only in his imagination. In simple words, conformity can be explained as adaptability, unwillingness to leave the "comfort zone".

Non-conformism is the exact opposite of this term. This is a person's desire to defend opinions that contradict those that prevail in a particular group or society. Often non-conformism manifests itself in the form of rebellion and protests.

If a person is able to accurately convey his emotions and feelings, and at the same time they really correspond to his real feelings, he can be called congruent. It is very pleasant to communicate with such people, they are sincere, flattery, lies and hypocrisy are alien to them.

In a broader sense, congruence is the integrity and self—consistency of the individual as a whole. A concept close to congruence is authenticity.

Empaths are also pleasant to communicate with, because they, like no one else, are able to empathize, listen and support. They can easily visit the "skin" of the interlocutor, feel everything that the other person feels, but at the same time remaining in their mind.

It is curious that empathy has a dark side — in response to the negative emotions of another person, an empath can have a whole tangle of unpleasant states: anger, irritation, resentment, anger, etc. This phenomenon in psychology is called personal distress or the phenomenon of deregulation of empathy.

Introspection can be described as "introspection." This is a method of deep tracking and studying one's own activity: feelings, experiences, reflections, etc. Introspection is good because with its help a person can get to know himself better, understand what he really wants, and what desires are imposed.

However, this method has one significant disadvantage — it is not always during such studies that a person can be objective about himself. Therefore, despite the popularity of introspection in the nineteenth century, it is now considered a subjective and even unscientific branch of psychology.

This word is probably familiar to you, but do you know what it really means? Insight is a conscious and sudden finding of a solution to a problem that has become the result of his unconscious brain activity. It is also called insight or insight. And there are even special practices that allow you to cause insight, for example, business games or brainstorming.

Therefore, calling every smart thought an insight, as bloggers often do, is not quite right. Unless, of course, you had a difficult task before, and this very sudden thought became its solution.

Catharsis literally translates as "elevation", "liberation". This term refers to the process of releasing emotions, deep relief, resolving internal conflicts, in general, everything that leads to emotional discharge and anxiety relief. There comes a catharsis at the moment when a person was very worried, suffered, literally tormented himself and reached the peak of stress, when suddenly the problem is solved, and he feels incredible relief. This is catharsis.