This Glossary was made to be able to help people understand the common words in the psychology/education field of study.
abience
noun
An urge to withdraw or avoid a situation or an object.
Example: A child's willingness to approach other children playing a game on a playground.
en: No translation
academia
noun
A collective term for the scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole.
Example: A university is a academia.
en: milieu universitaire
behaviour
noun
The aggregate of the responses made by an organism.
Example: I started apologizing for my behaviour straightaway, said I’d been feeling really down, but that I was pulling myself together, turning over a new leaf.
en: comportement
behaviourism
noun
An approach to psychology that emphasizes observable measurable behavior.
Example: McCarthy, Minsky and other Intelligentists had bought in to behaviourism, a field straddling the natural and human sciences and offering access to a rich psychological vocabulary.
en: behaviorisme
brainstorming
verb
An organized approach for producing ideas by letting the mind think without interruption.
Example: Ive been brainstorming ideas about this project.
en: remue-méninges
coaching
verb
The act of teaching and directing through advice and encouragement.
Example: I coached him to be able to do better in exams.
en: entraînement
cognition
Noun
The psychological result of perception and reasoning.
Example: Perhaps the most common—and the most important—forms of rapid cognition are the judgments we make and the impressions we form of other people.
en: cognition
e-learning
verb
An approach to facilitate and enhance learning through, and based on, both computer and communications technology. Such devices can include personal computers, CD-ROMs, Digital Television, P.D.A.s and Mobile Phones. Communications technology enables the use of the Internet, email, discussion forums, collaborative software and team learning systems.
Example: He e-learned how to do pancakes at home.
en: apprentissage en ligne
engagement
noun
The sentiment a student feels or does not feel towards learning or the learning environment.
Example: This student showed alot of engagement during the school project.
en: engagement
heuristic
noun
A commonsense rule to help solve some problem.
Example: It needed heuristic value to survive, and this was lacking.
en: heuristique
hypothesis
noun
A tentative insight that is not yet verified or tested.
Example: Emma’s teachers were always telling her she had a scientific mind, but science only helped when you had enough data to come up with a good hypothesis.
en: hypothèse
inhibition
noun
The conscious exclusion of unacceptable thoughts or desires.
Example: He’s always been a cheerful, good-natured kid, with very few inhibitions, which sometimes does not lead to the best classroom behavior.
en: inhibition
lecture
noun
An oral presentation intended to teach people about a particular subject.
Example: Lectures are used to convey critical information, history, background, theories and equations.
en: lecture
obscurantism
noun
Opposition to extension or dissemination of knowledge beyond certain limits and to questioning dogmas.
Example: Obscurantism is the opposite of freethought and is often associated with religious fundamentalism by its opponents.
en: obscurantisme
pedagogy
noun
the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.
Example: We work together with students or delegates to design activities and exercises for learning.
en: pedagogie
phobia
noun
A phobia is an intense and irrational fear of something. If seeing a spider makes you scream and jump on top of a table, then you might suffer from a phobia.
Example: I have a phobia of spiders.
en: phobie
research
noun
Often described as an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting and revising facts.
Example: Research can be as simple as seeking to answer a question that already has a known answer, like reading an article to learn why the sky is blue.
en: recherche
schizophrenia
noun
A psychotic disorder characterized by distortions of reality.
Example: An initial list of “hereditary diseases” was drawn up, including mental deficiency, schizophrenia, epilepsy, depression, blindness, deafness, and serious deformities.
en: schizophrénie
tension
noun
A state of mental or emotional strain or suspense.
thesis
noun
An unproved statement advanced as a premise in an argument.
Example: I worked for a solid year, and at the end of it I had a draft of my thesis: Humans are part animal.
