My name is Éliane, and I am currently in my second year of Social Sciences program at Cégep Montmorency in Laval. For anyone who’s curious, a Cégep is a level of education in Quebec attended by students right after high school, and just before starting university. This glossary is made for anyone interested in learning more about psychology. For non-native speakers, psychology terms can be difficult to pronounce, and understand in certain contexts. That’s why I created this glossary that contains 20 psychology terms I learned during my time in Cégep. For each term, you will find the word, its parts of speech, pronunciation found with the help of the Virtual Writing Tutor, definition, a French translation, an example sentence to see how it could be used, and an image from Wikimedia Commons. Please feel free to scroll through my glossary to improve your understanding and pronunciation on psychology.
addiction
noun
A chronic medical condition characterized by a compulsive, uncontrollable need to use a substance or engage in a behavior despite harmful physical, psychological, and social consequences.
Example: We know that alcohol increases production of the neurotransmitter dopamine (Eaves & Swinson 1978) which gives us a feeling of well-being; it is thought that this feeling is what contributes to the ADDICTION.
fr: dépendance
anxiety
noun
A natural mental and physical state of worry, nervousness, or unease directed toward future-oriented, anticipated threats or uncertainties.
Example: This reflective essay has examined the problems that stress and ANXIETY can induce, the effects on quality of care caused by bad time management and ideas that I can use in practice that will reduce my ANXIETY.
fr: anxiété
behavior
noun
The way a person, animal, or system acts and reacts to internal thoughts or external surroundings.
Example: Also, persistence of a single thought (Perseveration), inability to focus on task (Attending), mood changes (Emotionally Labile), changes in social BEHAVIOR, specifically lack of inhibition.
fr: comportement
bipolar
noun
A mental health condition causing extreme shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels.
Example: BIPOLAR affective disorder, current episode severe depression without psychotic symptoms (F31.4) - characterised by depressive episodes and at least one authenticated hypomanic manic episode in the past.
fr: bipolaire
brain
noun
The main organ of the nervous system located inside the skull that controls all body functions, thoughts, memories, and emotions.
Example: Lesions on this area were found to cause symptoms including problems in formulating and understanding spoken language; the same area of the BRAIN is responsible for motor functions, possibly resulting in disrupted movement of the limbs, a symptom of apraxia (Kempler, 1993).
fr: cerveau
depression
noun
A common and serious mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness, emptiness, and a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities.
Example: This can be seen as an ethical issue as DEPRESSION is a mental health issue and can not be improved by a change in lifestyle directed by the participant.
fr: dépression
diagnosis
noun
The process of identifying a disease, condition, or problem by examining its signs, symptoms, and test results, or the final decision reached from that examination.
Example: During a recent mental health placement, I worked with several service users with dual DIAGNOSIS : a mental health problem with comorbid substance misuse (Holland & Midson 2004).
fr: diagnostic
emotions
noun
Complex biological and psychological responses that help people react to important events, situations, or memories.
Example: As computers cannot think in the way that humans do, they do not also possess 'feelings' or EMOTIONS.
fr: émotions
feeling
noun
A conscious physical or emotional experience, such as a touch sensation, an inner emotion, or a general impression.
Example: Transformational leaders develop, inspire and challenge followers 'not by pushing them in the right direction as control mechanisms do but by satisfying basic human needs for achievement, a sense of belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a FEELING of control over one's life, and the ability to live up to one's ideals' (Kotter, 1990: 107).
fr: sentiment
identity
noun
The qualities, beliefs, personality traits, and expressions that make a person or group who they are.
Example: Thus, it is worth analysing the factors that construct human class IDENTITY and finding out whether it is differently constructed for men and women.
fr: identité
memory
noun
The mental faculty or power of encoding, storing, and retrieving information and past experiences.
Example: With this idea comes a change in the way we perceive memories, there are many thoughts and permutations of what a MEMORY is, from memories being the recollection of past events to learning skills and facts and keeping them 'at the back of your mind' for later use.
fr: mémoire
mental disorder
noun
A health condition that disrupts how a person thinks, feels, or behaves, making it hard to cope with daily life and relate to others.
Example: The social model proposes that MENTAL DISORDER is triggered by life events that appear to be independent; social forces linked to class, occupational status and social role are the precipitants of MENTAL DISORDER (Tyrer & Steinberg 1998).
fr: trouble mental
nerves
noun
A cable-like bundle of fibers in the body that carries electrical signals between the brain and organs.
Example: If the tunnel is too small tendons and NERVES are compressed producing the symptoms you are experiencing.
fr: nerfs
neurons
noun
A specialized nerve cell that transmits electrical and chemical signals throughout the brain, spinal cord, and body.
Example: NEURONS containing endorphin receptors are numerous in the VTA where they exert an inhibitory influence on GABAergic NEURONS which otherwise inhibit the firing of the dopaminergic NEURONS that project along the mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways (Hooper & Teresi, 1991; Wise & Rompre, 1989b).
fr: neurones
psychologist
noun
A trained professional who studies the human mind, emotions, and behavior.
Example: If this boundary was properly addressed, as found in some psychological disciplines, a shift would be evident in both experimental methods and PSYCHOLOGIST's approach to the human in general.
fr: psychologue
resilience
noun
The ability to bounce back quickly after facing problems, hardship, or change.
Example: Carrying the onerous secret for them both augments her strength, making her compassionate and self-sufficient; as one unable to look to others for support she is forced to draw on her inner-RESILIENCE.
fr: résilience
stress
noun
A state of mental or emotional tension resulting from difficult or demanding situations.
Example: However, being continually urged or exhorted to search for better methods of doing things, which probably leads to overtime work, followers are more likely to experience STRESS both mentally and physically, and be 'burnt out by the prolonged STRESS' (Yulk, 1999: 7).
fr: stress
symptoms
noun
A personal feeling or experience that shows you might have an illness or condition.
Example: SYMPTOMS are divided into positive SYMPTOMS including hallucinations (e.g. hearing voices) and delusions (bizarre or unusual ideas and beliefs), and negative SYMPTOMS such as emotional apathy, lack of drive, poverty of speech, social withdrawal and self neglect.
fr: symptômes
thought
noun
An idea, plan, or opinion formed in your mind, or the act of thinking itself.
Example: Paintings, engravings and sculptures that are unquestionably art suggest that the artists were people who were to all intensive purpose like us, they THOUGHT and felt in the same way we do.
fr: pensée
trauma
noun
A deeply distressing or harmful experience—either physical or psychological—that overwhelms an individual's ability to cope.
Example: It is little wonder that these collective factors can quell the appetite of a patient whose desire to eat is already impaired by the physiological and psychological effects of illness, TRAUMA and medication, not to mention the radical change to personal routine that any period of hospital stay engenders.
