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Dictionary

Paradigm

An inclusive framework of methods, concepts and assumptions within which a scientific enterprise is usually possible to carry out.

Parapsychology

 A relatively new branch of psychology that studies the psychological aspects of supernatural phenomena.    

Partial Reinforcement

 A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is presented intermittently after occurrence of the correct response. 

Penis envy

A psychoanalytic concept showing a repressed desire of a female child to possess a penis like her brother.    

Peripheralism

 A kind of psychological phenomena that emphasizes the role of muscular action and similar events rather than upon the functioning of central nervous system.  

Persona

 In Jung’s theory an important archetype that represents a human being’s social self.    

Personal Equation

A sort of correction for individual differences in reaction time denoted by astronomers in noting the movement of stellar transists.  

Phallic stage

 A stage in psychosexual development in which pleasure is centered in the genital region.   

Phenomenology

 A kind of observation in which experiential data are accepted without any attempt to analyse it.

Phi-phenomenon

 A name given by Wertheimer to the perception of apparent motion produced by stationary stimulus.    

Phrenology

A concept emphasized by Gall which demonstrates that the mental characteristics can be understood by examining the contours of the skull.

Physiology

 A science that emphasizes the functions of various organ systems of the body.       

Pleasure Principle

 A principle in Freudian theory on which id operates and according to which immediate pleasure is the primary motivation for behaviour.

Pluralism

 A philosophical position relating to mind-body problem in which several different processes are assumed.

Positivism

 Any method designed to produce positive knowledge.   

Postulate

A theoretical proposition within a given logical framework and which is tested indirectly through its empirical implications.

Pragmatics

 Study of relationship between different signs and their users.    

Precouscious

In psychoanalytic theory that portion of mind which consists of materials not presently conscious but can be easily recalled if needed.    

Preoperational stage

 A stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development during which children become capable of mental representations of the external world.  

Principle of Parsimony

A simple principle that of the two hypotheses the simpler one should be accepted but at the same time it does not exclude the possibility of accepting the complex one if data so required.    

Probabilistic Functionalism

 A position held by Brunswik that both the correctness of perception and the effectiveness of action are only probable. An organism’s task simply reflects adaptive and functional relationship between distal stimuli and distal effects of responses.  

Proximal reactions

 A peripheral motor response of the organism without taking its consequences on the environment in account.    

Psychogenesis

Origin and development of mind and behaviour.    

Psychophysics

 Scientific study of interaction between stimuli and sensation.  

Psychotheraphy

A psychological technique for curing or treating a mental patient.

Purposivism

 A doctrine which emphasizes that behaviour is directed towards some goal rather than it is purely mechanical one.