Author: Glossary

In operant or instrumental conditioning, ensuring that desired behavior is followed by positive consequences and that undesired behavior is not rewarded.  

Someone who uses the services provided or whom the clinician is treating. One who purchases health products and services. One who may receive or is receiving health services. While all people at times consume health services, a consumer as the term is used in health legislation and programs is usually someone who is never a…

An area of special interest in general psychiatry that addresses the psychiatric and psychosocial aspects of medical care, particularly in a general hospital setting. This area is now called psychosomatic medicine and has achieved subspecialty status. The consultation-liaison psychiatrist works closely with medical-surgical physicians and nonphysician staff to enhance the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients…

An acquired difficulty in drawing two dimensional objects or forms or in producing or copying threedimensional arrangements of forms or shapes. Inability to draw or construct two- or three-dimensional forms or figures and impairment in the ability to integrate perception into kinesthetic images.  

Term referring to how well a test or experiment measures up to its claim. Construct validity is a device used almost exclusively in social sciences, psychology, and education. How accurately a test measures a particular attribute, content validity face validity; concurrent validity. In a research study, the fitness of a particular research method for the…

Constellations of morphological, physiological, and psychological traits as earlier proposed by various scholars, such as the Greek physician and philosopher Galen (129–210 A.D.): sanguine, melancholic, choleric, and phlegmatic types; German PSYCHIATRIST Ernst Kretschmer (1888–1961): pyknic (stocky), asthenic (slender), athletic, and dysplastic (disproportional) types; and American PSYCHOLOGIST William Sheldon (1898–1977): ectomorphic (thin), mesomorphic (muscular), and endomorphic…

A person’s intrinsic physical and psychological endowment; sometimes used more narrowly to indicate physical inheritance or intellectual potential. In psychology, the relatively constant biological makeup of the person resulting from the interaction of heredity and environment. The general health and strength of a person. Person’s physical and mental makeup, including inherited qualities and general physique.…

The content of mind or mental functioning of which one is aware. In neurology, awake, alert. Those aspects of mental function of which a person is aware, conscious action. Awake and aware of what is happening. Deliberate and intended. Alert, aware, or attentive, able to perceive and respond.  

The morally self-critical part of one’s standards of behavior, performance, and value judgments. Commonly equated with the superego. One’s psyche that distinguishes right from wrong. One’s inner sense of what is right, wrong, or fair, especially regarding relations with people or society. This sense can inhibit or reinforce the individual’s actions and thoughts.  

A form of marital therapy in which a therapist sees the partners together in joint sessions.