Glossary / D

Psychology terms starting with D

1,483 terms with short definitions. Study these as flashcards

d primenoun: A signal detection score measures how well someone distinguishes signals from background noise while accounting for response tendencies.
D trisomy syndromenoun: An extra copy of chromosome 13 causes a genetic condition involving major developmental disabilities and differences in organ development.
D-cognitionnoun: In Maslow’s theory, deficiency cognition means perceiving the world mainly through personal needs and what might satisfy them.
D-lovenoun: Maslow proposed deficiency love as attachment driven mainly by meeting personal needs, often with dependency and limited mutual concern.
D–KEFSabbreviation: Nine tasks assess how children and adults organize actions, switch approaches, and solve unfamiliar problems.
D.A.R.E.abbreviation: Drug Abuse Resistance Education is a school program where police officers teach students skills for resisting drug use and peer pressure.
D’Acosta’s syndromenoun: An older name for altitude sickness describes illness from reduced oxygen availability at high elevations, sometimes affecting thinking.
d′other: The symbol d′ stands for d prime, a score showing how clearly someone separates signals from noise.
DAabbreviation: Depending on context, this abbreviation means developmental age, an age-based estimate of skills, or dopamine, a brain chemical messenger.
Da Costa’s syndromenoun: A historical syndrome described racing heartbeat, fatigue, chest discomfort, and breathing difficulties in soldiers, often linked to anxiety.
DABSabbreviation: The Diagnostic Adaptive Behavior Scale assesses everyday conceptual, social, and practical abilities to help evaluate possible intellectual disability.
dACCabbreviation: An upper region of the anterior cingulate cortex helps manage attention, detect mistakes, and adjust responses.
dactylologynoun: A method of communication uses finger positions and movements to convey meaning, especially through manual alphabets.
DAFabbreviation: Delayed auditory feedback lets speakers hear their own voice after a brief delay, which can change speech fluency.
DAH Testabbreviation: This projective assessment uses someone's house drawing to suggest personality characteristics through the examiner's interpretation.
DAIabbreviation: Diffuse axonal injury involves widespread damage to brain nerve fibers caused by sudden, strong changes in head movement.
daily stressornoun: An ordinary event or ongoing demand creates stress during everyday life and can affect mental or physical well-being.
daily-living aidnoun: A device or system helps a person with a disability carry out everyday activities or maintain their abilities.
DAISYabbreviation: This accessibility standard helps readers navigate digital books through organized sections and supported formats, including speech, text, and braille.
Dale’s lawnoun: A historical claim held that a neuron’s endings contain just one neurotransmitter type, although many neurons contain several.
Dallenbach stimulatornoun: A research device applies carefully controlled temperatures to the skin to study responses to warmth and cold.
Dalmanenoun: A brand name for flurazepam identifies a benzodiazepine medicine used for brief treatment of difficulty sleeping.
DALYsabbreviation: Disability adjusted life years estimate health loss by combining years lost through early death with weighted years lived with illness or disability.
damage-risk criteria (DRC)noun: Guidelines combine sound intensity and exposure time to estimate when noise could cause lasting hearing damage.
damped regressionnoun: A statistical method called ridge regression shrinks estimated effects to make predictions more stable when predictors strongly overlap.
dampingnoun: Stretching the vocal cords too tightly to try to hit higher notes.
dance therapynoun: A therapeutic approach uses dance and movement to support emotional expression, body awareness, relationships, and physical functioning.
dancing languagenoun: Bees use patterned movements to share information about the location and quality of food or possible nesting places.
dancing madnessnoun: A historical label described apparently uncontrollable dancing, including episodes reported among groups in medieval Europe.
dancing manianoun: An older name for choreomania describes an apparently irresistible urge to dance, sometimes reported in historical group outbreaks.
dancing mousenoun: A mouse from certain inherited strains shows circling movements associated with inner-ear sensory cell loss, deafness, and balance difficulties.
Dandy–Walker syndromenoun: A condition present from birth involves underdevelopment of the cerebellum’s middle region and enlargement of a nearby brain fluid space.
dangerousnessnoun: A person’s likelihood of causing harm to themselves or someone else depends on their situation, behavior, and other relevant factors.
dantrolenenoun: A medicine acts directly on skeletal muscles to reduce excessive contraction and may help manage some serious medication reactions.
Daoismnoun: A Chinese philosophical and spiritual tradition emphasizes living in harmony with the Dao, the underlying way of existence.
DAP Testabbreviation: This projective assessment asks people to sketch human figures, which an examiner interprets for possible personality clues.
dark adaptationphrase: Eyes gradually become more sensitive in dim light, usually over about 30 minutes.
dark cellnoun: A Type I taste-bud cell looks dark under an electron microscope and helps support the surrounding taste-bud environment.
dark lightnoun: A faint experience of light occurs without incoming visual stimulation and is thought to arise from activity within visual pathways.
dark-adaptation curvenoun: A graph tracks how someone’s ability to notice faint light changes while their eyes adjust to darkness.
darkness fearnoun: Anxiety about dark places or nighttime can be common in childhood or, when severe and disruptive, become a phobia.
Darvocetnoun: A former pain medicine brand combined the opioid propoxyphene with acetaminophen.
Darvonnoun: A former brand name identified propoxyphene, an opioid medicine used to relieve pain.
Darwinian algorithmnoun: Evolutionary psychologists propose an inborn mental program shaped by natural selection to solve a particular recurring survival or reproduction problem.
Darwinian fitnessnoun: An organism’s or genetic type’s reproductive success is measured relative to others by its contribution of surviving offspring.
Darwinian reflexnoun: A newborn automatically closes their fingers around something that touches their palm.
Darwinismnoun: An evolutionary theory explains how inherited traits become more common when they improve survival and reproduction in particular environments.
DASabbreviation: A set of tests used to measure children's thinking and learning abilities.
Daseinnoun: In Heidegger’s philosophy, human existence involves living within a meaningful world and being able to question what existence means.
Dasein analysisnoun: An existential therapy explores how people experience their world and possibilities, helping them accept themselves and develop personally meaningful ways of living.
DASTabbreviation: The Drug Abuse Screening Test uses yes-or-no questions to identify possible problems involving drugs other than alcohol.
DATabbreviation: Depending on context, these initials indicate Alzheimer-related dementia or Differential Aptitude Tests used to guide study and career choices.
datanoun: Facts or measurements collected during research to answer a question.
data analysisphrase: Using math and graphs to organize findings and spot patterns in measurements or observations.
data collectionphrase: Systematically gathering information to answer research questions or guide real-world decisions.
data dredgingnoun: Searching data selectively for a desired finding without proper safeguards can produce misleading support for a belief.
data miningnoun: Computer methods search large collections of information for patterns that may help predict future outcomes.
data pointnoun: One measured value or observation within a bigger set of information.
data poolingnoun: Researchers combine measurements or statistical summaries from separate studies or groups for a shared analysis.
data reductionnoun: Researchers simplify many measurements into fewer values or dimensions while trying to preserve useful information.
data screeningnoun: An initial check examines information for errors, missing entries, unusual values, and suitability for planned statistical methods.
data setnoun: A group of related recorded observations or measurements is treated as one collection for analysis.
data snoopingnoun: Researchers search results for unplanned patterns or inspect results before a study ends, potentially encouraging misleading conclusions.
data typesphrase: Different kinds of personality information are grouped by where they come from, such as self-reports or tests.
data-driven processingphrase: Using incoming sensory details to build perception, rather than relying on expectations or context.
databasenoun: An organized electronic collection of information that can be quickly found, updated, and studied.
date rapenoun: Sexual assault occurs when a date or another known person engages in sexual activity without the person's consent.
date-rape drugnoun: A substance is secretly given to reduce someone's awareness, memory, or ability to respond so another person can commit sexual assault.
dativenoun: A grammatical case marks an indirect object, often the person receiving something in a sentence.
Daubert testnoun: A judicial standard evaluates whether scientific expert testimony has reliable methods and relevance before allowing it as evidence.
Dauerschlafnoun: A controversial historical treatment used drugs to keep people asleep for extended periods to address certain medical or psychiatric conditions.
day blindnessnoun: Bright surroundings make sight difficult, even though the person can see well when illumination is low.
day campnoun: A program offers children recreation, learning, or therapeutic activities during daytime visits without overnight stays.
day care centernoun: A community facility provides daytime care for children or support and health services for adults needing assistance.
day habilitationnoun: Daytime services help people with intellectual or developmental disabilities build skills and participate in community life through individually planned activities.
day hospitalnoun: A treatment facility provides mental health care and support during daytime attendance while patients spend nights at home.
day treatmentphrase: A structured program gives daytime therapy, support, and skill building without an overnight stay.
daydreamnoun: An imagined experience unfolds while someone is awake, sometimes deliberately and sometimes without being invited.
daylight visionnoun: Cone cells in the retina support sight under bright conditions, allowing color perception and clear detail.
daymarenoun: A frightening imagined experience during wakefulness brings a sudden episode of intense anxiety, distress, or terror.
dBabbreviation: The symbol stands for decibel, a logarithmic unit comparing sound intensity or other power levels with a reference.
DBIabbreviation: Diazepam-binding inhibitor is a naturally produced peptide that can oppose benzodiazepine effects and may influence anxiety and dependence.
DBSabbreviation: Deep brain stimulation uses surgically implanted electrodes to deliver electrical pulses that change activity in targeted brain areas.
DBTabbreviation: A therapy that teaches acceptance and coping skills while helping people change harmful emotions and behaviors.
dc (d/c)abbreviation: In medication instructions, this abbreviation means discontinue, indicating that a medicine or treatment should be stopped.
DC amplifiernoun: A direct-current amplifier strengthens small electrical voltage differences, including nerve signals, so researchers can record and examine them.
DDAVPnoun: The trade name identifies desmopressin, a synthetic hormone medicine that helps the body retain water and can treat bedwetting.
DDEabbreviation: The doctrine of double effect proposes that some beneficial actions can be ethical despite foreseeable, unintended harmful consequences.
de Clérambault’s syndromenoun: A person firmly believes someone else loves them romantically despite absent support or clear evidence against that belief.
de Lange syndromenoun: A rare genetic condition affects development, with varying differences in growth, physical features, learning, and behavior.
DEAabbreviation: The United States Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal agency responsible for enforcing laws concerning controlled drugs.
deadly catatonianoun: A historical label describes severe acute excitement associated with catatonia that could progress to exhaustion and death.
deadly nightshadenoun: The plant Atropa belladonna produces poisonous alkaloids, including atropine and scopolamine, that affect nervous system signaling.
deaf hearingnoun: Some people without conscious hearing reportedly detect or locate sounds despite being unable to consciously recognize them.
deaf mutism–retinal degeneration syndromenoun: An older name describes a familial condition combining deafness with retinal changes that affect central vision.
deaf-blindadjective: A person has substantial loss of both hearing and vision, with the amount of remaining sight and hearing varying.
deaf-mutenoun: An outdated, disrespectful label was applied to deaf people who did not use spoken language.
deafferentationnoun: Sensory nerve cells or their fibers are severed or removed, cutting incoming information to a nervous system structure.
deafnessnoun: Partial or complete loss of hearing can happen from ear damage, nerve problems, disease, or injury.
deathnoun: When breathing, heartbeat, and brain activity stop forever, a person or organism has died.
death anxietyphrase: Worry and upset that come up when someone thinks about death, especially their own.
death conceptsnoun: Ideas about mortality help people understand that death is permanent, inevitable, universal, and something that can happen to them.
death educationnoun: Organized learning helps people understand dying, loss, grief, and their own feelings and beliefs about mortality.
death feigningnoun: An animal becomes motionless and appears dead when threatened, often through an involuntary defensive response.
death genenoun: A gene becomes active specifically after a cell has committed to its organized process of self-destruction.
death instinctnoun: Freud proposed an unconscious drive toward eliminating tension through death, expressed in destructive impulses toward oneself or others.
death phobianoun: Thoughts of one's own death or someone else's trigger an ongoing fear far greater than the actual threat warrants.
death ritenoun: A community follows a cultural or religious ceremony connected with dying, death, or remembering someone who has died.
death systemnoun: A society's interconnected practices, institutions, and beliefs organize how people prevent, respond to, cause, and make sense of death.
death taboo (death tabu)noun: A social belief treats death as too disturbing to discuss, encouraging avoidance of related thoughts, people, and situations.
death wishnoun: A desire concerns one's own death or, in psychoanalytic theory, another person's death, and may be understood as unconscious.
death-anxiety scalesnoun: Questionnaires assign scores to people's reported fears and concerns about death, sometimes separating different kinds of worry.
death-qualified jurynoun: A jury has been screened so its members can consider capital punishment and follow the law in a death-penalty case.
deathbed escorts and visionsnoun: People approaching death sometimes report seeing or hearing visitors others cannot perceive, often deceased relatives or spiritual figures.
deautomatization hypothesisnoun: A proposed explanation suggests focused attention loosens automatic perceptual habits, allowing mystical experiences to occur.
debilitative anxietynoun: Anxiety becomes disruptive when someone experiences it as getting in the way of their performance.
Debré–Sémélaigne syndromenoun: A childhood disorder linked to insufficient thyroid hormone causes enlarged but weak muscles and sometimes intellectual developmental difficulties.
debriefingnoun: After a study ends, participants get a fuller explanation of what happened and why.
debt counselingnoun: Professional guidance helps people manage financial difficulties through budgeting, credit decisions, and plans for handling debts.
decadencenoun: A society’s supposed decline is attributed to weakening moral standards or traditional values, reflecting a judgment rather than neutral measurement.
Decadronnoun: A brand name identifies dexamethasone, a manufactured cortisol-like medicine used to reduce inflammation and manage nausea or vomiting.
décalagenoun: Piaget’s theory proposes a fixed sequence in which children gain thinking abilities, within developmental stages and across them.
decarboxylasenoun: An enzyme speeds a chemical reaction that removes a carboxyl group from a molecule, typically releasing carbon dioxide.
decarcerationnoun: People are moved out of prisons or similar institutions, often into arrangements based in their communities.
decatastrophizingnoun: A therapy method that tests feared outcomes against reality to make them seem less dangerous.
decathexisnoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes withdrawing emotional or instinctual energy previously invested in other people or external objects.
decay theoryphrase: Memories fade over time when they are not used or practiced.
deceiver’s distrustnoun: People who lie may become more suspicious of the honesty of those they have deceived.
decelerationnoun: Movement slows down, or a process changes at a lower rate than it did before.
decenteringnoun: Shifting from focusing on one obvious feature to noticing several important parts of a situation.
decentralizationnoun: Mental health services shift people with ongoing psychiatric conditions from extended hospital stays toward community residences and outpatient support.
decentralized organizationnoun: An organization distributes authority to make decisions among people and teams at several levels.
decentrationnoun: Growing ability in Piaget's concrete stage to see others' viewpoints and several parts of a situation.
deceptionnoun: Purposely hiding or twisting facts so another person forms a false belief.
deception cluenoun: A behavior or reaction may suggest dishonesty, but cannot establish that someone is lying on its own.
deception researchnoun: A study deliberately misleads participants or withholds its true purpose to reduce responses shaped by guesses about researchers’ expectations.
deceptive advertisingnoun: Promotional messages lead consumers to form mistaken beliefs about a product, service, or its benefits.
decerebrate rigiditynoun: Severe disruption of brain pathways produces stiff, extended arms and legs, often with inward turning of the arms.
decerebrationnoun: Removal, disconnection, or loss of blood supply to major brain structures severely disrupts learning, discrimination, and movement control.
decibelnoun: A logarithmic measurement unit compares sound or electrical levels with a reference, expressing large ratios through smaller numbers.
decilenoun: A cutoff in ordered data marks one of the boundaries separating observations into ten equally sized groups.
decision makingphrase: The mental process of picking one option from several possibilities.
decision rulephrase: In hypothesis testing, it is the cutoff for deciding when to reject the idea of no real effect.
decision theorynoun: A family of approaches explains choices and identifies which options best satisfy specified goals or standards.
decision-making model of counselingnoun: Counseling proceeds through defining a problem, exploring perspectives and possible solutions, then choosing and trying a solution in everyday life.
decision–redecision methodnoun: In transactional analysis, clients revisit childhood decision experiences and reconsider them to develop more supportive beliefs about themselves.
decisional balancephrase: Weighing the good and bad results for yourself and others can guide a behavior change choice.
decisional competencenoun: A defendant can understand and make choices involved in their criminal defense, such as evaluating possible pleas.
decisive momentnoun: During psychotherapy, a client reaches a point of making an important choice about disclosure, behavior, or life direction.
declarativeadjective: Describing knowledge you can consciously remember and put into words, like facts or personal events.
declarative memorynoun: Memory for facts and events that you can bring to mind on purpose.
decline effectnoun: Parapsychology studies have reported initially better-than-chance guesses dropping toward chance accuracy as testing continues.
decodingnoun: Changing a message from a coded form into the original words or symbols.
decompensationnoun: Psychological functioning worsens when a person’s usual defenses or coping resources can no longer manage their difficulties.
decompositionnoun: A complicated problem, object, or statistical quantity is separated into smaller components that can be examined individually.
decomposition of movementnoun: An intended smooth movement occurs as separate, poorly connected steps, sometimes because of damage to the cerebellum.
decompression sicknessnoun: A rapid drop in surrounding pressure allows dissolved gases, usually nitrogen, to form bubbles that can damage body tissues.
deconditioningnoun: Behavior therapy uses new learning experiences to weaken previously learned reactions, such as fearful responses to particular situations.
deconstructionnoun: A philosophical reading method examines how a text’s assumptions and contradictions undermine its apparent certainty or stable meaning.
decontextualizationnoun: An object, detail, or experience is separated from its usual surroundings or background, changing how it may be understood.
deconversionnoun: A person loses or moves away from a religious faith they previously accepted.
decorticationnoun: A surgical procedure removes an organ’s outer covering, especially some or all of the brain’s cerebral cortex.
decremental conductionnoun: An electrical change too small to trigger a nerve impulse weakens exponentially as it spreads along an axon.
decreolizationnoun: A creole language changes through ongoing contact with a socially dominant standard language, often becoming more similar to it.
decriminalizationnoun: Legal changes remove or reduce criminal consequences for behavior that previously could lead to prosecution.
decubitus ulcernoun: Sustained pressure damages skin and underlying tissue, often when limited mobility keeps someone in one position for long periods.
deculturationnoun: Contact with a dominant culture leads to the suppression or disappearance of another group’s traditional beliefs or practices.
decussationnoun: Nerve pathways or other structures cross in an X-shaped arrangement, often connecting one body side with the opposite brain side.
dedifferentiationnoun: Previously specialized cells, abilities, or mental processes lose some of their distinct roles or organization.
deductionnoun: Reasoning that uses general rules to reach a conclusion that must be true if the rules are true.
deductive reasoningphrase: Using general rules or facts to reach a conclusion that must be true if the starting ideas are true.
deductive-nomological modelnoun: A model explains an event by showing how it logically follows from general scientific laws and relevant starting conditions.
deep body temperaturenoun: The level of heat inside the body is measured in its central tissues and internal organs.
deep brain stimulation (DBS)phrase: A surgery that places electrodes in the brain to send tiny pulses and reduce severe movement or mood symptoms.
deep cerebellar nucleusnoun: A cluster of nerve cell bodies deep inside the cerebellum helps send its signals to other brain regions.
deep depressionnoun: A descriptive label denotes severe major depression involving slowed activity, strong guilt, suicidal thoughts, and loss of contact with reality.
deep dyslexianoun: An acquired reading disorder causes meaning-related word substitutions and severe difficulty reading made-up words, often alongside difficulty with abstract words.
deep processingphrase: Thinking about what something means so it is remembered better and longer than by noticing surface features.
deep reflexnoun: A tendon tap stretches a muscle and triggers its automatic contraction through a nerve circuit.
deep sensibilitynoun: A person senses pressure and other feelings arising from tissues beneath the skin’s surface.
deep sleepphrase: During this sleep stage, the brain makes large slow waves and waking the person is hardest.
deep structurenoun: In transformational grammar, an underlying sentence representation shows relationships among its parts before rules produce the spoken or written form.
deep trancenoun: During hypnosis or shamanistic practices, a person in this state responds very little to what happens around them.
deep vein thrombosis (DVT)noun: A blood clot forms within a deep vein, usually in a leg, and may travel to block circulation through the lungs.
deep-pockets effectnoun: A proposed jury bias favors people seeking compensation and increases awards when the person or organization being sued is wealthy.
deep-pressure sensitivitynoun: This sensory ability allows awareness of pressure and other sensations arising in body tissues beneath the skin.
Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigmnoun: Researchers present related words to test whether people mistakenly remember another strongly related word that was never presented.
default biasnoun: People tend to keep an option already selected for them, even when they could choose something else.
default-mode network (DMN)noun: Connected brain regions often work together during rest and inward attention, including remembering personal experiences and imagining future events.
defecation reflexnoun: Stretching of the rectum triggers nerve signals that help move stool out, although voluntary muscle control can delay emptying.
defect orientationnoun: In disability service planning, this approach emphasizes limitations while overlooking the person's abilities and strengths.
defect theorynoun: This historical proposal treats thinking and behavioral development in intellectual disability as different in kind, rather than simply slower.
defectologynoun: This historical Russian field studied education for children with disabilities, emphasizing how social conditions shape their difficulties and opportunities.
defender strategynoun: An organization protects a narrow market niche by concentrating on selected offerings and competing through quality, service, and price.
defensenoun: An unconscious way the mind protects a person from thoughts or feelings that are too upsetting.
defense interpretationnoun: In psychoanalysis, a therapist explains how a person manages anxiety through defenses and explores the inner conflicts thought to underlie them.
defense mechanismphrase: An unconscious way the mind reduces anxiety by hiding or reshaping upsetting thoughts or feelings.
defense reflexnoun: A sudden protective response follows something painful, surprising, or threatening, and can involve bodily changes or behavior.
defensible spacenoun: Design principles aim to reduce crime by making shared areas easy to observe, collectively control, and recognize as belonging to residents.
defensive aggressionnoun: A nonhuman animal uses threatening or aggressive actions to protect itself against a perceived source of danger.
defensive attributionnoun: A person explains an event's cause in a biased way that reduces how threatened or personally responsible they feel.
defensive behaviornoun: Actions such as pushing back, submitting, or making excuses respond to actual or imagined threats, including criticism.
defensive conditioningnoun: Classical conditioning occurs when a cue becomes associated with an unpleasant stimulus that naturally triggers a response.
defensive identificationnoun: A person may adopt characteristics of someone who threatens or mistreats them as a way to feel less vulnerable.
defensive processingnoun: People select, interpret, or challenge information in ways that protect attitudes they already hold.
defensivenessnoun: Being quick to feel attacked by criticism and then deny, explain away, or fight against it.
deferred imitationphrase: Copying an action after a delay, showing memory for what was seen earlier.
deferred prosecutionnoun: A prosecutor pauses a case before a plea, allowing charges to be dropped if the person completes agreed requirements.
deficiencynoun: A missing or too-small amount of something needed for normal functioning.
deficiency cognition (D-cognition)noun: In Maslow's theory, everyday perception is shaped by unmet needs and how things might help satisfy them.
deficiency love (D-love)noun: In Maslow's theory, love centers on satisfying personal needs, with dependency and limited concern for the other person's welfare.
deficiency motivationnoun: In Maslow's theory, people strive to meet unmet needs for physical survival, safety, belonging, and esteem.
deficiency motivenoun: A drive prompts action to make up for something missing, such as eating to ease hunger.
deficiency neednoun: A need arises when something necessary for survival or well-being, such as water or security, is missing.
deficient processing theorynoun: This theory proposes that spaced repetitions improve memory because closely repeated material receives less attention while still active in memory.
definite articlenoun: A word such as English “the” marks a noun as something specific that the listener or reader can identify.
definitionnoun: A statement that explains exactly what a word, idea, or trait means.
definitional formulanoun: A precise statement in words explains what a statistical concept means, rather than providing a shortcut for calculating it.
definitional validitynoun: This quality describes how well a study's methods fit the meaning and importance claimed for its research.
deformitynoun: A body part has a shape or structure that differs markedly from its usual anatomical form.
degeneracynoun: This outdated, judgmental label described supposed decline in physical or mental development, or departure from a society's moral standards.
degenerating axonnoun: The damaged or dying extension of a nerve cell breaks down, leaving material that certain stains can reveal.
degenerationnoun: Worsening of body tissue, especially nerve tissue, so it works less well over time.
degenerative statusnoun: This historical body classification grouped several physical variations together as significant, although each variation alone was not considered evidence of disease.
deglutitionnoun: Coordinated muscle movements carry food or liquid from the mouth through the esophagus into the stomach.
degradationnoun: In nervous system chemistry, neurotransmitters break down into products that no longer perform the original signaling function.
degraded stimulusnoun: Added visual or sound interference makes a signal harder to notice clearly or recognize.
degrees of freedomphrase: The number of scores free to change after a statistic has already set some limits.
degrees of freedom problemnoun: The brain must choose among many possible combinations of joint and muscle activity that could accomplish the same movement.
dehoaxingnoun: Researchers explain to participants how they were misled during a study and may help address concerns caused by that deception.
dehumanizationnoun: Treating people as less than fully human by denying their choice, uniqueness, or basic worth.
dehydrationnoun: Too little water in body tissues can upset normal body functions and fluid balance.
dehydration reactionsnoun: When the body lacks enough water, changes in bodily functioning, mood, alertness, and thinking can occur.
dehydrogenasenoun: An enzyme helps a biological chemical reaction proceed by removing hydrogen atoms from a molecule.
deicticadjective: A word or expression has this quality when its reference depends on who speaks, where, or when.
deificationnoun: People grant a person or thing divine status, or admire them so intensely that they seem godlike.
deindividuationnoun: When people feel anonymous in a group, they lose self-control and may act in unusual or harmful ways.
deinstitutionalizationnoun: Moving people with mental or developmental disabilities from institutions into community living, with local services to support daily needs.
deismnoun: This religious view grounds belief in a creator in reason and nature, usually holding that the creator does not intervene afterward.
Deiters cellsnoun: These supporting cells in the inner ear help hold the outer sensory hair cells within the organ of Corti.
deixisnoun: Speakers use expressions such as “here” or “you” whose reference changes with the speaker, location, or time.
déjà vécunoun: A recurring experience makes new events feel already lived through, sometimes with a belief that they recall a previous life.
déjà vunoun: A strange feeling that something happening now has happened before, even without a real memory.
delay conditioningphrase: A classical conditioning method where one cue starts first and stays on until the natural trigger appears.
delay of gratificationnoun: A person passes up an available reward to gain something more desirable later.
delay of reinforcementnoun: The waiting period separates an action from the consequence that strengthens it.
delay-of-reward gradientnoun: Reinforcement generally becomes less effective at strengthening behavior as the wait after that behavior grows longer.
delayed alternation tasknoun: An animal memory task requires switching between choices across trials, with a waiting period between attempts.
delayed auditory feedback (DAF)noun: A speech technique plays speakers their own voices after a brief pause, sometimes improving or disrupting speech flow.
delayed conditioningnoun: During classical conditioning, a cue begins before another stimulus and stays present when that stimulus arrives.
delayed developmentphrase: Growing skills in body, thinking, feelings, or social life more slowly than expected for the person's age.
delayed effectnoun: An outcome appears only after time has passed since the event believed to have started it.
delayed ejaculationnoun: A sexual difficulty involves repeated, unwanted delay or absence of semen release despite arousal and sufficient stimulation.
delayed feedbacknoun: Sensory information about a movement arrives late, which can disrupt the person's ability to guide that movement.
delayed matching to sample (DMTS)noun: A memory task rewards choosing an item that matches an earlier example after the example disappears and a delay passes.
delayed parenthoodnoun: Someone becomes a parent for the first time at an older age than is usual, commonly beyond thirty.
delayed posttraumatic stress disordernoun: This historical PTSD label described symptoms first appearing over six months following a traumatic experience.
delayed recallphrase: Remembering learned information after a period of time, often to check memory loss against expected levels.
delayed reflexnoun: An automatic bodily reaction takes unusually long to begin after the stimulus that triggers it.
delayed reinforcementphrase: A reward given some time after a behavior, rather than right away.
delayed responsenoun: An action occurs after a waiting period following removal of the cue signaling when that action can earn reinforcement.
delayed response alternationnoun: An animal completes a memory task by alternating choices from one trial to another despite pauses between trials.
delayed sleep phase disordernoun: A persistent shift toward later sleeping and waking makes it difficult to follow required or desired schedules.
delayed speechphrase: Speaking later than most children the same age, sometimes because of hearing, brain, or developmental problems.
delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH)noun: Immune cells called T cells cause inflammation that typically develops 24 to 72 hours after encountering a previously recognized substance.
Delboeuf illusionnoun: A circle can look larger inside a closely fitting ring and smaller inside a much wider ring.
delegation of authoritynoun: A manager gives others tasks and the authority to complete them while remaining ultimately accountable for results.
deletionnoun: Loss of part of a chromosome, which can cause disease or developmental problems.
deliberate psychological education (DPE)noun: Counselors guide young people through activities, role taking, and reflection to develop identity, ethical judgment, appreciation of beauty, and life perspectives.
deliberate samplingnoun: Researchers choose participants using a particular plan or judgment instead of relying entirely on random selection.
deliberate self-harm (DSH)noun: In this usage, a person intentionally injures their own body without intending to end their life.
deliberative mind-setnoun: A person weighs possible goals and their advantages and disadvantages before deciding which goal to pursue.
delinquencynoun: Rule-breaking or illegal behavior, especially when done by children or teenagers.
délire de négationnoun: This historical name describes Cotard's syndrome, involving beliefs that oneself, body parts, or reality no longer exist, often with severe depression.
délire du touchernoun: A compelling urge to touch objects may occur as a compulsion or as a complex tic.
deliriantnoun: A substance can trigger rapidly developing confusion that disrupts attention, thinking, and awareness of surroundings.
deliriumnoun: A sudden, shifting state of confused attention and thinking, often with wrong perceptions, caused by illness, drugs, or withdrawal.
delirium of persecutionnoun: An episode of acute confusion prominently includes strong mistrust and hallucinated experiences of being threatened.
delirium tremens (DTs)phrase: A dangerous alcohol withdrawal state causing shaking, confusion, sweating, and hallucinations, and needs emergency medical care.
Delis–Kaplan Executive Function System (D–KEFS)noun: A set of nine tests examines abilities such as planning, flexible thinking, and problem solving in children and adults.
deliverynoun: The process through which a baby leaves the uterus during childbirth, either vaginally or through surgery.
Delphi techniquenoun: Participants answer repeated questionnaires and review summarized feedback to help a group move toward agreement without dominant voices taking over.
deltanoun: This symbol means the amount something changes from one value or condition to another.
delta alcoholismnoun: Jellinek's historical category described alcohol dependence involving inability to stop drinking, while some control over drinking amounts remained.
delta movementnoun: Under particular viewing conditions, a brighter visual target seems to travel toward a darker one despite no actual movement.
delta opioid receptornoun: A particular cell receptor responds to opioids and may help strengthen pain relief involving mu opioid receptors.
delta rulenoun: A learning rule makes connection strength change according to the gap between its current strength and its possible maximum.
delta wavenoun: A slow, large brainwave recorded from the scalp is especially associated with deep sleep.
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolnoun: A chemical in cannabis, commonly called THC, produces much of its mind-altering effect.
deltoidnoun: A shoulder muscle helps lift the arm outward from the side of the body.
delusionnoun: A fixed false belief stays strong even when clear facts and the person's culture disagree.
delusion of being controllednoun: A person firmly believes, despite contrary evidence, that outside forces direct their thoughts, emotions, or movements.
delusion of grandeurnoun: A person maintains an unfounded conviction of having extraordinary importance, abilities, identity, achievements, or power.
delusion of influencenoun: A person falsely believes outside agents secretly influence them, or that they directly control other people or events.
delusion of negationnoun: A person holds a fixed, false conviction that their mind, body, surroundings, or parts of these have ceased existing.
delusion of observationnoun: A person remains convinced that others are watching them despite evidence that this belief is false.
delusion of persecutionnoun: A person holds a fixed, unfounded conviction that others intend to threaten them or plot against them.
delusion of povertynoun: A person stays falsely convinced that they have no resources or will soon lose everything needed to live.
delusion of referencenoun: A person firmly but falsely believes ordinary events or other people's actions carry special messages or meaning about them.
delusion of sinnoun: A person maintains an unfounded conviction of having committed unforgivable wrongs, often with strong expectations of punishment.
delusion systemnoun: Several firmly held false beliefs connect into an organized explanation for the person who holds them.
delusional disorderphrase: A psychotic disorder marked by lasting false beliefs, without the broader symptoms of schizophrenia or another medical or drug cause.
delusional jealousynoun: A person remains falsely certain that their romantic partner is unfaithful, dismissing evidence that challenges the belief.
delusional manianoun: During mania, unusually elevated or irritable mood and increased energy occur alongside symptoms such as delusions or hallucinations.
delusional misidentification syndromenoun: Someone holds a mistaken conviction about their own identity or that of another person, location, or object despite contrary evidence.
delusional parasitosisnoun: A person stays convinced that tiny organisms infest their body despite evidence that no infestation is present.
delusional systemnoun: A person's delusions form a connected framework in which individual false beliefs seem to support one another.
demandnoun: An internal or outside need that pushes a person or animal to act.
demand characteristicsphrase: Signals in a study can hint how participants are expected to act, changing their behavior and biasing results.
demand feedingnoun: A feeding routine follows an infant’s or animal’s hunger signals instead of set meal times.
demand reductionnoun: A prevention approach aims to lower people’s desire to use potentially addictive substances through education, warnings, and related measures.
demand–withdraw patternnoun: A relationship cycle develops when one partner presses for change and the other avoids, resists, or leaves the discussion.
demandingnessnoun: A pattern of often seeking others' attention, help, or advice, commonly seen with depression.
demandmentnoun: In Albert Ellis’s approach, a personal rule turns a strong wish into an absolute requirement, often creating distress.
demasculinizationnoun: This biological term describes removal of testes or reduced development of typically male fetal features because of insufficient androgen hormones.
démence précocenoun: An obsolete French label described early mental deterioration and is often linked, with disputed historical continuity, to dementia praecox.
dementianoun: Serious decline in memory and other thinking skills that disrupts daily life, usually from brain disease.
dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (DAT)noun: An older diagnostic name describes Alzheimer’s disease, which progressively damages brain cells and reduces memory, thinking, and everyday functioning.
dementia paralyticanoun: An older name describes general paresis, a decline in thinking and physical functioning caused by advanced syphilis affecting the brain.
dementia praecoxnoun: An obsolete diagnosis grouped psychotic conditions under the mistaken assumption of inevitable early mental decline, later reconsidered as schizophrenia.
dementia pugilisticanoun: A historical diagnosis describes lasting decline in memory, thinking, and movement associated with repeated head impacts, especially in boxing.
Dementia Rating Scale (DRS)noun: A structured assessment uses 36 tasks to measure five areas of thinking in adults with brain-related cognitive difficulties.
dementia syndrome of depressionnoun: Depression can cause memory and thinking difficulties that resemble dementia and may improve when the depression improves.
Demerolnoun: A brand name identifies meperidine, also called pethidine, an opioid medicine used to relieve moderate or severe acute pain.
Deming management methodnoun: A management approach uses 14 guiding points and emphasizes senior leaders’ responsibility for improving quality and meeting customers’ needs.
demo- (dem-)prefix: This word part adds the meaning of people or a population to words in which it appears.
democracynoun: A system of government gives people decision-making power through direct participation or elected representatives, commonly using majority voting.
democratic atmospherenoun: A group climate supports equal participation and uses fair procedures so decisions reflect what most members want.
democratic leadernoun: A leader creates an atmosphere of equality and involves group members in planning, solving problems, and choosing actions.
democratic parentingnoun: A parenting approach combines accepting, steady guidance with cooperation, fairness, and respect for both children and parents.
demographic researchnoun: Researchers examine population size, growth, decline, movement, and distribution, including the reasons these patterns change.
demographynoun: Researchers use numerical data to examine how populations are composed, where people live, and how these patterns change.
demonic possessionnoun: A supernatural belief holds that a demon controls someone’s body or mind, historically serving as an explanation for illness.
demonolatrynoun: A religious practice involves worship directed toward beings understood as demons or devils.
demonologynoun: An organized field of inquiry examines ideas about demons and evil spirits in religious traditions, myths, and folklore.
demonomanianoun: A historical clinical label describes distressing preoccupation with demons, sometimes including a belief that a demon controls oneself.
demonstration experimentnoun: A teaching activity makes an already established finding visible, usually without the controls needed to test a new claim.
demoralizationnoun: A person or group feels discouraged, uncertain, or helpless when trusted values and standards seem threatened or break down.
demoralization hypothesisnoun: Jerome Frank proposed that different psychotherapies succeed partly by helping clients overcome helplessness and regain hope through shared therapeutic processes.
demotivationnoun: Negative mental pictures or inner speech emphasize likely failure and discourage a person from attempting a task.
demyelinating diseasenoun: A medical condition damages myelin, the protective insulation around nerve fibers, interfering with how nerve signals travel.
demyelinationnoun: Loss of the fatty covering around nerve fibers, which slows or disrupts brain and body messages.
demyelination plaquenoun: A localized patch of nervous tissue has lost myelin, the insulating material surrounding nerve fibers, as in multiple sclerosis.
denasalitynoun: Speech has reduced nasal resonance because airflow through the nose is partly or completely blocked.
dendritenoun: A neuron's branchlike extension that receives signals from other nerve cells.
dendritic pathologynoun: Changes or abnormalities in neurons’ receiving branches are associated with particular psychological conditions, neurological diseases, or injuries.
dendritic potentialnoun: A voltage difference exists between the inside and outside of a dendrite, usually measured while the neuron is resting.
dendritic spinenoun: A tiny projection from a neuron’s receiving branch forms a connection with another neuron and can change during learning.
dendritic zonenoun: A receiving region of a neuron includes surfaces that accept signals, potentially including the cell body’s membrane.
dendrodendritic synapsenoun: A specialized connection allows communication between the dendrites, or receiving branches, of two separate neurons.
dendrogramnoun: A branching chart shows how items form nested groups based on their similarities or differences.
dendrophilianoun: An uncommon sexual interest involves attraction to trees rather than simply enjoying or appreciating them.
denervationnoun: Nerve connections supplying a body region are removed or interrupted, reducing or eliminating their input.
denervation sensitivitynoun: Cells that lose nerve input can develop extra receptors and respond more strongly when the relevant chemical messenger arrives.
denialnoun: Unconsciously blocking upsetting facts or feelings from awareness to lower anxiety and avoid emotional conflict.
denial stagenoun: In Kübler-Ross’s proposed grief model, a person has difficulty recognizing or accepting a major loss or approaching death.
denotative meaningnoun: A word’s literal meaning identifies what it names, apart from the feelings or associations it may bring to mind.
densitynoun: The amount of space each person has in a setting, which can affect stress and crowding.
density curvenoun: A graph represents a probability distribution, showing how possible values are spread and where they are more concentrated.
density functionnoun: A mathematical function describes a continuous probability distribution, with probabilities given by areas under its curve over intervals.
density-intensity hypothesisnoun: A proposed explanation suggests that crowded settings strengthen existing reactions, making pleasant experiences better and unpleasant experiences worse.
dent-prefix: This word part contributes the meaning of teeth when combined with other parts to form words.
dentaladjective: Connected to the teeth or to the care and condition of teeth.
dental agenoun: A developmental estimate based on counting permanent teeth can help suggest how old someone is.
dental lispnoun: A speech pattern alters hissing sounds because tongue contact with front teeth or their gum ridge partly restricts airflow.
dental patternnoun: A species has a characteristic sequence of tooth types running from front to back in each quarter of its mouth.
dental phobianoun: An intense, lasting fear of dental care causes strong distress or avoidance of appointments.
dentate gyrusnoun: A folded brain region within the hippocampal formation helps process information for learning and memory.
dentate nucleusnoun: A group of nerve cells inside the cerebellum helps coordinate fast, skilled movements.
denti- (dent-)prefix: This word part means teeth and appears in words describing teeth or dental structures.
deoxycorticosteronenoun: An adrenal hormone helps regulate salt and water balance and serves as a starting material for corticosterone.
deoxyglucosenoun: A modified glucose molecule cannot be fully broken down like glucose; labeled forms help researchers track cellular sugar uptake.
deoxyribonucleic acidnoun: Known as DNA, this molecule stores inherited instructions that guide how living organisms develop and function.
Depaconnoun: This brand name identifies valproate sodium, a medication related to valproic acid and used to control seizures.
Depakenenoun: This brand name identifies valproic acid, a medicine used for seizure control and mood stabilization.
Depakotenoun: This brand name identifies divalproex sodium, a medication used to treat seizures and manic episodes in bipolar disorder.
dependencenoun: A strong, ongoing need to rely on another person or on a drug.
dependency courtnoun: A United States court handles child protection cases involving suspected abuse or neglect brought by government agencies.
dependency neednoun: A personal need requires help from other people, such as care, affection, food, or protection.
dependency rationoun: A population measure commonly compares children under 15 and adults over 64 with people aged 15 through 64.
dependent eventsnoun: In probability, knowing that one event occurred changes the likelihood assigned to another event.
dependent groupsnoun: Data groups contain linked observations because researchers measure the same people repeatedly or study people connected to each other.
dependent modelnoun: In program evaluation, teams combining creators and evaluators work under a director to develop and assess a program.
dependent personality disorderphrase: A long-lasting pattern of needing others to make major decisions and putting their needs first because of low self-confidence.
dependent samplesnoun: Measurements across samples are linked through repeated observations of the same participants or relationships between participants.
dependent variable (DV)phrase: The measured outcome that may change when another variable changes, and is predicted or explained in research.
dependent-part qualitynoun: In Gestalt psychology, a feature of something arises from its relationship to the whole it belongs to.
dependent-samples t testnoun: A statistical test checks whether the average difference between paired measurements differs from a specified value, usually zero.
depersonalizationnoun: Feeling unreal or detached from yourself, with thoughts or surroundings seeming distant or dreamlike.
depersonalization syndromenoun: An extreme form of depersonalization involves feeling deeply detached from oneself, as though one's experiences are unreal.
depersonalization/derealization disorderphrase: A disorder causing repeated feelings of being unreal or outside yourself, even though you still know what is real.
depersonificationnoun: Treating someone as a role, object, or extension of another person overlooks their separate identity.
depletive treatmentnoun: A historical treatment deliberately weakened the body to remove substances believed to cause illness.
Deplinnoun: This prescription medical food contains L-methylfolate, usable vitamin B9, and sometimes accompanies medication for depression or schizophrenia.
deployment psychologynoun: This military psychology field studies and supports service members' and families' mental health during operational assignments and afterward.
Depo-Proveranoun: A long-lasting hormone shot sometimes used to reduce sexual drive in sex offender treatment.
depolarizationnoun: A neuron's inside becomes less negative, usually as sodium enters, helping start a nerve signal.
deprenylnoun: Another name for selegiline, this medication slows monoamine breakdown and is used for Parkinson's disease or depression, depending on formulation.
depressantadjective: Describes a drug or substance that slows activity in the central nervous system.
depressed skull fracturenoun: A break in the skull pushes a section of bone inward toward the brain.
depressionnoun: A lasting low mood with sadness and loss of energy that disrupts daily life.
depression stagenoun: Kübler-Ross's proposed grief model includes a phase of sadness and loss, listed fourth among its five stages.
depressive anxietynoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes that anxiety can arise from fearing one's own hostile feelings toward other people.
depressive disorderphrase: A group of disorders marked mainly by ongoing sadness, emptiness, or irritability that disrupts daily life.
depressive episodephrase: A period of at least two weeks with depressed mood or lost interest plus other depression symptoms.
depressive neurosisnoun: An older diagnostic name described dysthymic disorder, involving depressive symptoms that were relatively mild but long lasting.
depressive personality disordernoun: A historical proposed diagnosis described an enduring pattern of pessimism, sadness, little pleasure, and a discouraged outlook.
depressive positionnoun: Klein proposed that infants begin seeing caregivers as whole people, bringing together loving and hostile feelings with guilt and concern.
depressive reactionnoun: A major depressive episode is understood as being triggered by a distressing experience or difficult situation.
depressive spectrumnoun: Depressive disorders can be viewed as a connected range with different symptoms and levels of severity.
depressor nervenoun: A sensory nerve carries signals that trigger reflexes reducing movement, gland activity, or blood pressure.
deprivationnoun: Lacking something needed, such as food, care, or rewards, which can change behavior or development.
deprivation indexnoun: A measure estimates how much a child's surroundings lack learning opportunities, language support, encouragement, and helpful adult interaction.
deprogrammingnoun: Attempts to restore earlier beliefs and values often target people leaving groups that strongly control members' lives.
depth cuenoun: A visual clue that helps the brain judge how far away something is.
depth from motionnoun: The visual system uses movement of images across the retina to judge distance and three-dimensional shape.
depth from shadingnoun: The visual system uses brightness differences and shadows to judge an object's three-dimensional shape.
depth interviewnoun: An open, usually lengthy individual conversation explores personal feelings, views, and motives while encouraging honest expression without judgment.
depth perceptionphrase: Seeing how far away things are and how solid they look helps people move through a three-dimensional world.
depth psychologyphrase: A therapy approach that explores unconscious thoughts and conflicts believed to shape symptoms, personality, and behavior.
depth therapynoun: Psychotherapy explores and works through unconscious experiences and conflicts thought to underlie a person's difficulties.
depth-first searchnoun: A search method follows one branch of connected possibilities as far as possible before returning to explore alternatives.
depth-of-processing hypothesisnoun: A memory theory proposes that deeper, more meaningful processing generally creates stronger memories than attention to surface features.
depth-oriented brief therapynoun: A time-limited psychotherapy uses constructivist principles to explore personal meanings and help people understand their difficulties in new ways.
Deracynnoun: This brand name identifies adinazolam, a benzodiazepine medication with anxiety-reducing and antidepressant properties.
derailmentnoun: A thought disorder where a person's ideas suddenly jump to only loosely connected topics, especially in speech or writing.
derangementnoun: A disruption of usual organization or functioning was also loosely described with this word in older discussions of mental illness.
derealizationnoun: Feeling that the outside world is oddly unreal or dreamlike, often during severe stress, trauma, or dissociation.
dereflectionnoun: A therapeutic technique shifts attention from excessive self-monitoring toward other topics or activities to ease anxiety and related difficulties.
dereismnoun: Thinking moves away from reality, lived evidence, or logical connections rather than remaining guided by them.
derivation samplephrase: The first group of people used to create a test, rule, or prediction equation.
derivativenoun: In calculus, a quantity shows how quickly one variable changes as another changes at a particular point.
derived ideasnoun: In Descartes's philosophy, some ideas originate through outside experience, including sensory impressions, rather than being built into the mind.
derived neednoun: A learned need develops through connections with a basic need or by extending those connections to other situations.
derived propertynoun: In Gestalt psychology, a part gains a feature because of its place within an organized whole.
dermanoun: This anatomical name means skin, especially its deeper layer called the dermis.
dermal sensationnoun: A feeling such as warmth, itching, or touch arises when sensory receptors within skin are stimulated.
dermal sensitivitynoun: Sensory receptors within skin detect experiences such as contact, temperature, itching, and pain.
dermatitisnoun: Inflammation affects the skin and may cause itching, dryness, swelling, or changes in color.
dermato- (dermo-)prefix: This word part means skin and appears in words about skin conditions and care.
dermatoglyphicsnoun: Researchers examine ridge patterns on fingers, palms, and soles, sometimes seeking clues about chromosome conditions.
dermatographismnoun: A form of hives produces temporary raised lines after skin is lightly scratched or rubbed.
dermatological disordernoun: A medical condition affects the skin, sometimes also influencing comfort, sleep, emotions, or social life.
dermatomenoun: An area of the body's skin receives sensory nerve input mainly through one particular spinal nerve root.
dermisnoun: Beneath the skin's outer covering lies a supportive layer containing nerves, vessels, and hair follicles.
dermo-optical perception (DOP)noun: An unproven claimed ability would let people identify colors or other visual features through skin contact alone.
dermographianoun: Light rubbing or scratching causes temporary raised marks on the skin in this form of hives.
DESabbreviation: This abbreviation can mean diethylstilbestrol, a manufactured estrogen, or dysexecutive syndrome, involving difficulty planning and controlling actions.
descending pathwaynoun: A nerve route carries signals from higher brain regions downward to influence movement or incoming sensory information.
descending reticular systemnoun: This brainstem network receives hypothalamus signals and helps regulate automatic body functions and movement.
descending tractnoun: Grouped nerve fibers carry movement instructions downward from brain regions into the spinal cord.
descent groupnoun: People belong to this social group through a shared ancestor they either have or believe they have.
deschoolingnoun: A movement of the 1960s and 1970s challenged institutional schooling and promoted learning throughout everyday life.
descriptive approachnoun: Freud's historical model proposed three mental systems: conscious awareness, readily accessible preconscious material, and unconscious material.
descriptive averagenoun: An estimate summarizes the central or typical value in data, sometimes using incomplete or rough information.
descriptive behaviorismnoun: Skinner's approach described behavior, its circumstances, and environmental effects while avoiding explanations based on hidden biological or mental processes.
descriptive discriminant analysisnoun: A statistical method combines several measured characteristics to describe what distinguishes existing groups.
descriptive epidemiologynoun: Researchers describe how health conditions are distributed across people, locations, and time to identify patterns worth investigating.
descriptive grammarnoun: An approach explains patterns in how people actually use language without judging which forms are correct.
descriptive normnoun: A shared understanding identifies how people usually behave, think, or feel in a particular setting.
descriptive operantnoun: In a behavior experiment, specified physical features determine which responses qualify for reinforcement.
descriptive researchphrase: Studies people or situations as they are, without changing anything or proving what caused what.
descriptive responsibilitynoun: A judgment identifies a defendant as having carried out an illegal action without deciding whether punishment is justified.
descriptive sciencenoun: Scientific work describes events, behaviors, or conditions as they occur, without setting standards for how they should be.
descriptive statisticsphrase: Numbers and graphs that summarize a group's scores without drawing conclusions about a larger population.
deseasonalizationnoun: Researchers remove repeating seasonal changes from measurements over time so longer trends become easier to see.
desegregationnoun: Deliberate legal or social changes end enforced separation between groups and remove barriers to sharing public spaces and institutions.
desensitizationnoun: A lowered emotional or body reaction to something, often built through gradual exposure and new learning.
desensitizingnoun: Helping research participants feel less upset after a study, especially if the study was stressful or deceptive.
desertionnoun: A parent or other caregiver leaves behind substantial responsibilities toward someone who depends on their care.
desexualizationnoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes that a drive can lose its sexual goal or have that goal neutralized.
designnoun: The plan for a study explains how it will be done and what data will be gathered.
design and behaviornoun: This field examines how buildings and other spaces people construct influence human actions and experiences.
design fluency testnoun: A timed task asks people to create different drawings under set rules to assess nonverbal planning and flexible thinking.
design for adjustable rangenoun: Equipment is made adjustable so people with many different body sizes and physical characteristics can use it.
design for the averagenoun: Equipment is sized around average body measurements, which can leave people with smaller or larger dimensions poorly served.
design matrixnoun: A table showing which study participants were assigned to each experimental condition.
design trade-offnoun: Giving priority to one product or system feature makes another feature less easy to use.
designer childrenphrase: This controversial phrase describes proposed children whose traits would be deliberately selected through genetic testing or alteration before birth.
designer drugnoun: A manufactured substance imitates a known illegal drug's effects, often with chemical changes intended to evade existing restrictions.
desipraminenoun: An older tricyclic antidepressant that mostly raises norepinephrine by blocking reuptake, when nerve cells take a signal chemical back.
deskillingnoun: Work tasks are redesigned to need less expertise and training, often following changes in technology or organization.
desmopressinnoun: A medicine that helps the body keep water and can reduce bed-wetting at night.
desocializationnoun: A person gradually reduces contact and communication with other people, sometimes alongside serious mental health difficulties.
Desoxynnoun: This brand name identifies methamphetamine, a stimulant medication that increases central nervous system activity.
despairnoun: In Erikson's last stage, hopeless regret appears when a person sees life as wasted or meaningless.
despondencynoun: A deep feeling of hopelessness and sadness, often with little expectation that things will improve.
destiny and growth beliefsphrase: People may explain romantic success through natural compatibility, shared effort through challenges, or some combination of these beliefs.
destructive obediencenoun: Following an authority's direct or implied instructions produces harmful consequences for people, communities, or institutions.
destructivenessnoun: A tendency to express aggression involves damaging, ruining, or marking objects in ways that spoil them.
desymbolizationnoun: Words or other symbols lose their shared meanings and take on unusual personal, newly invented, or overly literal meanings.
desynchronizationnoun: An EEG shows rhythmic brain activity weakening and being replaced by faster, smaller, less regular waves, often during attention.
desynchronized sleepnoun: An older name for rapid eye movement sleep highlights its wakefulness-like brain activity, frequent dreaming, and reduced muscle activity.
Desyrelnoun: This brand name identifies trazodone, an antidepressant medication that can also cause substantial sleepiness.
DETabbreviation: Diethyltryptamine is a laboratory-made psychedelic drug that can change perception, thinking, and mood.
detached characternoun: In Horney’s theory, this personality pattern uses extreme independence and emotional distance from others to defend against anxiety.
detached retinanoun: The eye’s light-sensitive neural layer separates from its supporting pigment layer, disrupting vision.
detachmentnoun: Emotional distance from people or problems that can bring calm, but may also seem cold or disconnected.
detail perspectivenoun: Surface details look more tightly packed at greater distances, providing a visual clue to depth.
detailed inquirynoun: During this interview stage, a clinician asks specific questions about everyday life, experiences, and reactions to understand someone better.
detection tasknoun: Participants judge whether a target signal appears on each trial, allowing researchers to measure perceptual sensitivity.
detection theoryphrase: Explains how noticing a faint signal depends on both sensory sensitivity and the person's decision rule.
detection thresholdnoun: The weakest stimulus detected in half of repeated trials marks this measure of sensory sensitivity.
deteriorationnoun: A gradual worsening or loss of basic abilities like memory, judgment, movement, or emotional control.
deterioration effectnoun: A person experiences worsening symptoms or another negative outcome because of participating in psychotherapy.
deterioration indexnoun: A historical comparison of Wechsler intelligence subtest scores was used to estimate possible decline from earlier mental functioning.
deterioration of attentionnoun: Attention becomes unstable and shifts repeatedly, making it difficult to concentrate on what is happening around oneself.
deterioration quotientnoun: A historical measure compares Wechsler intelligence subtest results to estimate whether mental functioning has declined from its earlier level.
determinantnoun: A factor inside or outside a person that helps cause what happens.
determinant of elaborationnoun: A factor changes someone’s ability or motivation to think carefully about information relevant to their attitudes.
determinationnoun: Making a decision or figuring out exactly what something is, means, or includes.
determination coefficientnoun: A squared correlation shows how much variation in an outcome a straight-line relationship with one predictor can statistically explain.
determinernoun: A word accompanying a noun helps specify which things, whose things, or how many things are meant.
determining tendencynoun: A goal or expected result guides which mental operations someone uses when facing a task.
determinismnoun: The view that every behavior and mental event is caused by earlier conditions, not pure free choice.
deterministic modelnoun: A mathematical model produces one fixed outcome for given inputs, without including random variation.
deterministic processnoun: A sequence develops according to rules that completely fix later states from its starting conditions, without randomness.
deterministic psychologynoun: An approach to psychology assumes that behavior and mental events necessarily follow from earlier causes and conditions.
deterrencenoun: Punishment is expected to discourage both the person punished and others from repeating similar unwanted actions.
deterrent therapynoun: A behavioral treatment pairs an unwanted behavior with an unpleasant experience to reduce that behavior.
detour problemnoun: A problem requires an indirect solution because the most straightforward route is blocked or does not work.
detoxificationnoun: A treatment that clears harmful drugs or alcohol from the body while managing early withdrawal symptoms.
detrendingnoun: Researchers remove an overall trend from data, often measured over time, to examine other patterns more clearly.
detumescencenoun: Swollen tissue returns toward its usual size, especially genital tissue as sexual arousal subsides or after orgasm.
Detussinnoun: A medicine sold under this brand name combines the opioid hydrocodone with the decongestant pseudoephedrine.
deutan color blindnessnoun: Altered or missing function in green-sensitive cone pigments makes some colors, especially reds and greens, difficult to distinguish.
deuteranomalynoun: An altered green-sensitive cone pigment changes color perception, making certain reds and greens harder to distinguish.
deuteranopianoun: Missing green-sensitive cone pigment leaves two working cone pigment types and makes certain reds and greens difficult to distinguish.
deutero- (deuter-; deut-)prefix: This word part means second or secondary and marks the green-sensitive system in certain color-vision terms.
deutoplasmnoun: Nutrient material stored in egg yolk supplies fats and proteins that support an embryo’s development.
devaluationnoun: A defense that acts by treating someone or something, even yourself, as unimportant.
developmentnoun: A gradual pattern of changes in body, mind, and behavior across the lifespan.
development cyclenoun: In ergonomics, creating a product or system proceeds from an initial idea through research, design, testing, refinement, and release.
developmental accelerationnoun: One or more abilities or bodily functions develop unusually early or rapidly compared with typical development.
developmental age (DA)phrase: Shows the age level at which a person's skills or abilities are developing.
developmental amblyopianoun: Disrupted visual input early in life limits the development of brain pathways needed to see fine detail clearly.
developmental amnesianoun: Early hippocampal injury makes forming memories of personal experiences difficult, while learning facts often remains relatively preserved.
developmental anomalynoun: A difference in body structure or function is present from birth, although it may become noticeable much later.
developmental aphasianoun: A historical label describes difficulties developing language, including expression and sometimes understanding, once linked to brain injury or delayed maturation.
developmental apraxia of speech (DAS)noun: A child has difficulty planning and coordinating speech movements, making spoken words hard to produce accurately and consistently.
developmental articulation disordernoun: A historical diagnosis describes persistent difficulty producing expected speech sounds for one’s age, which can interfere with communication.
developmental assessmentphrase: Checks how a child is growing in body, thinking, feelings, and social skills using age-based tests.
developmental cognitive neurosciencenoun: Researchers in this field investigate how changes in the brain and thinking abilities develop together.
developmental contextual modelnoun: This view explains development through ongoing, two-way influences among biology, personal experiences, relationships, and culture.
developmental coordination disordernoun: Movement coordination develops substantially below age expectations and interferes with daily activities or schoolwork, without another condition better explaining it.
developmental crisisnoun: A common life transition requires major adjustments in feelings, behavior, roles, or expectations.
developmental delayphrase: When a child reaches milestones later than expected in areas like speech, social skills, or daily tasks.
developmental disabilitynoun: A lasting condition beginning before adulthood substantially affects everyday functioning through cognitive differences, physical differences, or both.
developmental dysgraphianoun: Writing difficulties emerge during development and significantly affect schoolwork or everyday tasks, involving spelling, handwriting, grammar, or organization.
developmental dyslexianoun: A learning disability appearing in childhood causes lasting challenges with reading individual words accurately or fluently and with spelling.
developmental dysphasianoun: An older label describes delayed or difficult language development, historically attributed to brain injury or slower brain maturation.
developmental dyspraxianoun: Difficulties organizing skilled movements arise early in development and reflect nervous-system functioning rather than muscle or sensory problems.
developmental factorsnoun: Biological and environmental conditions influence how emotions, thinking, relationships, and physical abilities grow from conception toward adulthood.
developmental functionphrase: Describes the pattern of change a trait shows as a person grows over time.
developmental immaturitynoun: A child's development progresses more slowly than expected, usually temporarily, with no known damage affecting the brain or spinal cord.
developmental invariancenoun: An ability reaches an adult level early in life and then stays relatively unchanged during later development.
developmental language disordernoun: Persistent difficulties acquiring and using language during development affect expression, understanding, or both, interfering with everyday communication.
developmental levelsphrase: Common age-based stages of life run from birth through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
developmental measurenoun: An assessment checks abilities or other features that usually change as people grow older.
developmental milestonephrase: An expected skill or change most children show at about the same age during growth.
developmental normnoun: A benchmark describes abilities or achievements commonly seen at a given stage of growth.
developmental orientationnoun: A service-planning approach emphasizes young disabled people's strengths while considering developmental expectations for peers without disabilities.
developmental pharmacokineticsnoun: Researchers examine how infants' and children's bodies absorb medicines, move them around, break them down, and remove them.
developmental psycholinguisticsnoun: This branch of psychology uses models of language to investigate how children learn language and the mental processes involved.
developmental psychologyphrase: Studies how people change in body, mind, and behavior from before birth through old age.
developmental psychopathologynoun: Researchers study how psychological disorders begin and change alongside typical human development.
developmental quotient (DQ)noun: A numerical comparison divides a person's estimated developmental age by their actual age, often multiplying the result by 100.
developmental readinessphrase: A student's mental and thinking preparedness for a certain task, subject, or school grade.
developmental reading disordernoun: An older diagnostic category described persistent reading difficulties that fell below expectations and disrupted schoolwork or everyday activities.
developmental retardationnoun: An outdated label described slower-than-expected development in areas such as movement, thinking, language, or social skills.
developmental scalenoun: An assessment tool rates a person's progress in reaching abilities commonly gained during development.
developmental schedulesnoun: These timetables show the ages when physical changes and new behaviors commonly appear.
developmental sciencenoun: Several fields work together to study biological, psychological, and social changes throughout life and across generations.
developmental sequencephrase: The usual order that body or behavior changes happen as a child grows and develops.
developmental stagephrase: A phase of growth when certain skills, traits, or behavior patterns usually appear.
developmental systems approachnoun: This view explains development through ongoing two-way influences among biology, personal experience, and surroundings, including culture.
developmental taskphrase: An ability or milestone expected at a life stage for healthy growth and later progress.
developmental teaching modelnoun: An educational approach inspired by Piaget builds logical thinking through activities that help students understand and perform mental operations.
Developmental Test of Visual–Motor Integration (VMI)noun: An assessment asks people to reproduce increasingly complicated shapes to evaluate how well visual information guides hand movements.
developmental theoryphrase: An approach that explains personality by tracing how growth and early experiences shape a person over time.
developmental therapynoun: A treatment uses gradually more demanding experiences to help young people improve emotional, social, or behavioral skills.
developmental toxicologynoun: Researchers investigate how poisonous substances encountered before birth or during childhood affect growth and developing abilities.
developmental trauma disorder (DTD)noun: A proposed diagnosis describes broad, lasting difficulties linked to repeated interpersonal trauma early in a child's life.
developmental verbal dyspraxia (DVD)noun: A childhood speech disorder makes planning speech movements difficult, causing inconsistent pronunciation without requiring weakness in speech muscles.
developmental visual agnosianoun: A condition present from birth makes recognizing objects or faces difficult because brain systems for visual identification develop differently.
developmental-behavioral pediatricsnoun: A medical specialty addresses children's developmental and behavioral concerns and their connections with physical health.
deviancenoun: Behavior that strongly breaks a group's usual rules, customs, or expectations.
deviance information criterion (DIC)noun: A statistic compares Bayesian models by balancing their fit to the same data against their complexity, favoring lower values.
deviancy trainingnoun: Peers encourage a young person's antisocial talk or actions through rewarding responses, potentially increasing later behavior problems.
deviant sexualitynoun: A culturally dependent label describes sexual behaviors judged to differ greatly from a group's accepted standards.
deviant verbalizationnoun: An unusual spoken test response, such as an invented word, may be interpreted as evidence of disorganized thinking.
deviatenoun: The amount a score is above or below a chosen value, such as the average.
deviationnoun: A noticeable difference from what is typical, expected, or average in a group.
deviation IQphrase: An IQ score showing how far someone's test result is from the average, usually centered at 100.
deviation scorenoun: A number shows how far a particular value lies above or below the average, calculated as value minus average.
device for automated desensitizationnoun: A computerized tool guides muscle relaxation and imagined encounters with feared situations, progressing from less frightening to more frightening examples.
devil’s trumpetnoun: The poisonous plant Datura stramonium contains chemicals that can cause hallucinations, confusion, memory gaps, and severe illness.
DEXabbreviation: The abbreviation names the Dysexecutive Questionnaire, which assesses everyday difficulties with planning, controlling actions, and adapting behavior.
dexamethasonenoun: A manufactured medicine acts like cortisol and is used to reduce inflammation and treat nausea and vomiting.
dexamethasone suppression test (DST)noun: A hormone test measures whether cortisol levels fall as expected after a person receives dexamethasone.
dexamphetaminenoun: Another name for dextroamphetamine identifies a stimulant medicine used for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.
Dexedrinenoun: This brand name identifies dextroamphetamine, a stimulant prescribed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy.
dexterity testnoun: An assessment measures how quickly and accurately someone completes tasks using their hands.
dextralitynoun: Someone shows a preference for right-sided limbs when carrying out actions such as writing, reaching, or kicking.
dextro- (dextr-)prefix: This word part indicates a position or movement on the right or toward it.
dextroamphetaminenoun: A stimulant medicine used for ADHD and narcolepsy that can also be misused and become habit-forming.
dextromethorphannoun: A cough-suppressing medicine acts on brain signaling and can alter perception when misused.
dextrosinistraladjective: Something is oriented or moves from a person's bodily right toward their bodily left.
dfabbreviation: Shows how many values in a calculation can vary freely.
dharmanoun: In Hindu and Buddhist traditions, this concept can concern cosmic order, ethical duties, or spiritual teachings, depending on context.
dhatnoun: A culturally shaped pattern of distress involves fears that semen loss causes weakness or illness, especially in South Asian settings.
DHE 45noun: This trade name identifies dihydroergotamine, a medicine used to treat migraine attacks.
DHTabbreviation: Here, the abbreviation means dihydroxytryptamine, a research chemical used to reduce serotonin signaling and study effects on brain function and behavior.
di-prefix: Shows that something has two parts or happens twice.
dia-prefix: This prefix adds the idea of passing through, extending across, or separating apart.
diabetes insipidusphrase: A disorder with too little antidiuretic hormone, causing extreme thirst and lots of urine without extra sugar.
diabetes mellitusphrase: A disease where insulin problems leave too much sugar in the blood, causing tiredness and other body damage.
diabetes self-management education (DSME)noun: An educational intervention helps people with diabetes develop daily care skills, including eating habits, activity, glucose monitoring, and following treatment.
diabetic enteropathynoun: Diabetes can disrupt intestinal function, often through nerve damage, sometimes causing loss of bowel control at night.
diabetic gastropathynoun: Diabetes can cause stomach dysfunction through damage to nerves that automatically control digestion.
diabetic retinopathynoun: Diabetes damages tiny blood vessels in the retina, the eye's light-sensitive layer, potentially reducing vision.
diacetylmorphinenoun: Known as heroin, this opioid made by chemically modifying morphine can relieve pain, produce pleasurable feelings, and cause dependence.
diachronic linguisticsnoun: This branch of language research investigates how languages develop and change across historical periods.
diachronic universalnoun: A proposed category describes a behavioral feature that persists across historical periods while people interpret it differently.
diacritical marking system (DMS)noun: A coordinated set of written symbols represents speech sounds and helps show how words are pronounced.
diadochokinesisnoun: The ability to repeat or alternate muscle movements quickly helps clinicians assess how well a person controls movement.
diagnosis (Dx)noun: Finding and naming a person's disorder from symptoms, tests, and other evidence.
diagnosis-related groups (DRGs)noun: These categories group similar hospital stays to help determine payments based on patients' conditions and expected care needs.
Diagnostic Adaptive Behavior Scale (DABS)noun: This standardized assessment measures everyday thinking, social, and practical skills in people aged 4 through 21 to help identify intellectual disability.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disordersnoun: This American Psychiatric Association handbook organizes mental disorders and gives clinicians criteria for identifying them.
diagnostic audiometrynoun: Electronic hearing tests measure what someone can hear to identify hearing loss and describe its type and degree.
diagnostic baselinenoun: Symptoms measured at the start of assessment or before treatment provide a starting point for understanding later changes.
diagnostic centernoun: A health facility uses trained staff and testing equipment to assess problems and investigate their causes.
diagnostic educational testsnoun: These assessments locate and measure difficulties in school skills, helping educators understand a student's learning needs.
diagnostic formulationnoun: A clinician combines history and findings into an explanation of someone's difficulties, possible diagnosis, treatment plan, and expected progress.
diagnostic interviewphrase: A structured talk gathers symptoms, history, and current problems so a clinician can identify a disorder and plan care.
Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS)noun: This structured interview uses fixed questions in a set order to assess past and present symptoms of mental disorders.
diagnostic orphannoun: This label describes someone with some symptoms of a disorder who does not meet the requirements for its diagnosis.
diagnostic overshadowingphrase: During evaluation, a second disorder gets missed because its signs are mistaken for a person's main disability.
diagnostic prescriptive educationnoun: This approach tailors teaching to a student's disability and learning needs using information from assessment and knowledge of the disability.
diagnostic testphrase: A test used to figure out what problem someone has or where their weaknesses are.
diagnosticitynoun: The usefulness of information for understanding yourself depends on how clearly it reveals your abilities, qualities, or other personal characteristics.
diagnosticsnoun: Checks on data and models that show whether results break key statistical assumptions.
dialectnoun: A language variety shared by a community has characteristic vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
dialecticnoun: A way of examining ideas seeks understanding by exploring opposing claims, often through questions and responses.
dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)phrase: A treatment that teaches mindfulness, emotion control, and balancing self-acceptance with behavior change, often for borderline personality disorder.
dialectical materialismnoun: This Marxist philosophical view proposes that conflicts rooted in material conditions and economic relationships drive changes in society.
dialectical operationsnoun: In dialectical theories, development occurs through processes in which people respond to their surroundings while also changing them.
dialectical teachingnoun: A teacher repeatedly questions students' answers to help them examine their reasoning and reconsider their ideas.
dialectologynoun: This area of language research examines how dialects differ across communities and geographic areas.
Diallinas–Amalric syndromenoun: This rare familial condition combines deafness with impaired central vision and is thought to follow a recessive inheritance pattern.
dialogue (dialog)noun: A Gestalt therapy exercise where someone imagines talking with a person, body part, or dream object.
dialysis dementianoun: Aluminum exposure during prolonged dialysis can cause a brain disorder involving worsening thinking, speech problems, and other neurological changes.
diamorphinenoun: Also known as heroin, this opioid drug activates opioid receptors and can produce pain relief, euphoria, and dependence.
dianeticsnoun: Hubbard developed this scientifically discredited treatment approach, which promises complete relief from mental difficulties and physical symptoms attributed to the mind.
dianoianoun: In the philosophical sense used here, reasoning draws on experience and sensory information rather than purely intellectual insight.
diaphragmnoun: A broad muscle beneath the lungs separates the chest from the abdomen and helps move air during breathing.
diary methodnoun: Researchers gather information by asking people to regularly record their own daily activities, behaviors, or experiences.
diaschisisnoun: Damage in one brain area reduces functioning in nearby or connected areas, even when those areas are not directly damaged.
diastolic blood pressurenoun: The lower number in a blood pressure reading measures arterial pressure while the heart relaxes between beats.
diathesisnoun: An inborn tendency that makes someone more likely to develop a disorder.
diathesis–stress modelnoun: This theory proposes that an underlying vulnerability combines with stressful experiences to increase the chance of developing a disorder.
diatonicadjective: In music, this describes a seven-note scale whose octave contains five whole-step gaps and two half-step gaps.
diazepamnoun: A long-acting anti-anxiety medicine also used for alcohol withdrawal, seizures, and muscle relaxation.
diazepam-binding inhibitor (DBI)noun: This naturally produced peptide can interact with benzodiazepine binding sites and may influence anxiety and drug dependence.
dibenzodiazepinenoun: A compound in this chemical family shares a basic molecular structure with clozapine, an antipsychotic medication.
dibenzothiazepinenoun: A member of this chemical family has a molecular framework shared by quetiapine, a medication used for psychiatric conditions.
dibenzoxazepinenoun: A compound belonging to this structural chemical family is related to loxapine, a medication used to treat psychosis.
DICabbreviation: The deviance information criterion compares Bayesian statistical models by balancing fit to observed data against model complexity.
DICE modelnoun: A proposed model places awareness between separate memory systems and the mental controls that guide thinking and action.
dichoptic stimulationnoun: Researchers present different visual material to the two eyes at once to study how the brain handles competing images.
dichorhinicadjective: This describes delivering a different smell to each nostril using equipment that controls odor presentation.
dichorial twinsnoun: These twins develop with separate outer embryonic membranes and can be either fraternal twins or identical twins that separated early.
dichoticadjective: Describes hearing one sound in each ear at the same time.
dichotic listeningphrase: Hearing different sounds in each ear at once, while paying attention to only one stream.
dichotomized variablenoun: A measurement originally allowing many values is converted into two categories, such as dividing ages into younger and older groups.
dichotomous thinkingphrase: Seeing things as all good or all bad, while missing the middle ground between extremes.
dichotomous variablephrase: Can take only two possible values, usually coding whether someone belongs to one category or another.
dichromatism (dichromacy; dichromasy; dichromatopsia)noun: Color vision relies on two functioning cone pigment types instead of three, making some colors harder to tell apart.
dichromicadjective: This adjective describes the ability to distinguish just two colors.
DIDabbreviation: A disorder where a person shows two or more separate identity states and memory gaps.
didactic group therapynoun: An early group therapy approach emphasizes a professional leader's explanations and guidance to encourage members to discuss their difficulties.
didactic teachingnoun: Direct instruction explains psychological ideas or therapeutic skills through spoken explanations, written materials, and clear directions.
diencephalic amnesianoun: Memory loss results from damage to the diencephalon, a deep brain region containing structures important for memory.
diencephalonnoun: A deep forebrain region contains the thalamus, hypothalamus, and related structures involved in sensory processing and basic body regulation.
diestrusnoun: In mammals with estrous cycles, this reproductive phase between periods of heat involves reduced sexual receptivity and preparation for possible pregnancy.
dietnoun: The kinds of food and drinks a person or animal usually consumes over time.
Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)noun: This eating plan aims to lower blood pressure through vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and other nutritious foods while limiting sodium.
dietary modificationnoun: Changing the foods or nutrients someone consumes can support health or form part of treatment for a condition.
dietary neophobianoun: A person or animal avoids unfamiliar foods or feels reluctant to taste them.
dietary selectionnoun: An organism chooses foods that together meet its needs for energy and essential nutrients.
dietary supplementnoun: A product taken by mouth adds nutrients or other dietary ingredients to what someone normally eats.
diethylpropionnoun: This drug stimulates the central nervous system and reduces appetite as part of treatment for obesity.
diethylstilbestrol (DES)noun: This manufactured chemical acts like estrogen and was formerly prescribed during pregnancy before serious health risks became known.
diethyltryptaminenoun: This manufactured hallucinogenic drug, abbreviated DET, belongs to the indolealkylamine chemical family and can alter perception.
dietingnoun: Limiting what or how much someone eats, often to lose weight or improve health.
DIFabbreviation: When people from different groups with equal ability have different chances of answering a test item correctly.
difference canonnoun: Mill's reasoning method identifies a possible cause by comparing otherwise matching situations where an outcome appears or disappears.
difference hypothesisnoun: A historical proposal claims intellectual disability involves thinking and behavioral development that differ in kind, rather than only developmental pace.
difference judgmentnoun: A person decides that two similar things they sense differ in some detectable way.
difference scorenoun: A number obtained by subtracting one measurement from another shows how someone's measured characteristic changed between occasions.
difference thresholdnoun: The minimum detectable change in a sensation is commonly measured as the change noticed on half of testing occasions.
difference tonenoun: An extra tone generated within the ear has a frequency equal to the gap between two simultaneously presented tones.
differences of sex developmentnoun: These variations involve chromosomes, hormones, or reproductive anatomy that develop outside typical male or female patterns.
Differential Ability Scales (DAS)noun: An individual intelligence test that gives an overall thinking score plus specific ability scores for children.
differential accuracynoun: Someone correctly judges how, and how much, an individual's qualities depart from stereotypes about their group.
differential amplifiernoun: An electronic circuit boosts how much two electrical signals differ, helping scientists detect weak activity from nerve cells.
Differential Aptitude Tests (DAT)noun: This group of assessments measures several abilities to help students and adults consider educational and career options.
differential associationnoun: Sutherland's theory proposes that people learn criminal behavior through ongoing relationships that teach relevant methods and supportive attitudes.
differential conditioningnoun: In classical conditioning, different cues predict different outcomes, teaching an organism to respond differently to each cue.
differential diagnosisphrase: Choosing which disorder best fits a person's symptoms by comparing similar conditions and key differences.
differential effectnoun: In parapsychology, a reported performance gap between contrasting test conditions exceeds what researchers expect from chance.
differential emotions theorynoun: Izard's theory proposes distinct, biologically based emotions emerge without social teaching when they can help children adapt.
differential extinctionnoun: Some learned responses weaken when their supporting pairings or rewards stop, while related learned responses continue.
differential fertilitynoun: Groups differ in their rates of having children, as shown by comparing births across populations.
differential growthnoun: An organ grows faster or slower than other organs within the same developing body.
differential inhibitionnoun: An organism becomes less likely to respond to cues that resemble the cue involved in its original conditioning.
differential item functioning (DIF)phrase: When people with equal ability have different odds of answering one test question the same way, possible bias exists.
differential psychologynoun: This field investigates psychological variation among people and groups, including its measurement, causes, size, and consequences.
differential reinforcementphrase: Giving rewards only for chosen behaviors while not rewarding other similar behaviors.
differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA)phrase: Rewarding a helpful replacement behavior while not rewarding a problem behavior makes the problem happen less.
differential reinforcement of high rate (DRH)noun: A learning rule provides reinforcement only when a behavior occurs often enough or with sufficiently short gaps between responses.
differential reinforcement of low rate (DRL)noun: A learning rule provides reinforcement only when a behavior occurs infrequently enough or with sufficiently long gaps between responses.
differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO)phrase: Rewards are given when a problem behavior does not happen during a set amount of time.
differential relaxationnoun: A person practices relaxing unnecessary muscle tension while keeping enough effort in the muscles needed for an activity.
differential validityphrase: When a test predicts job success better for one group than for another.
differential-organization theorynoun: This theory proposes that longer gaps between repetitions improve recall by linking material with more varied groups of information.
differentiationnoun: A process in which things become more specialized or easier to tell apart.
differentiation theorynoun: This theory proposes that perception improves as people learn to separate useful sensory features from irrelevant information.
differentiation–dedifferentiation hypothesisnoun: These debated proposals suggest mental abilities become more distinct during childhood and more closely linked again in later adulthood.
diffractionnoun: Waves spread or bend when they pass an edge or travel through an opening.
diffraction gratingnoun: An optical surface with many evenly spaced fine openings or grooves separates light according to wavelength.
diffuse axonal injury (DAI)noun: Sudden changes in head motion can stretch and damage nerve fibers across widespread areas of the brain.
diffuse bipolar cellnoun: A nerve cell in the retina gathers signals from several light receptors and passes information onward.
diffuse thalamic projection system (DTPS)noun: Groups of thalamic nerve cells send signals widely across the cerebral cortex, helping regulate its overall level of activity.
diffuse-status characteristicnoun: A general personal attribute influences judgments of someone's competence or standing despite lacking relevance to the task.
diffusionnoun: The spread of ideas, behaviors, language, or customs within a group or between groups.
diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI)noun: This scanning method measures molecular movement, usually of water, to reveal details about the internal structure of body tissues.
diffusion modelnoun: This model explains decision speed and accuracy by proposing that evidence builds continuously until it reaches a response boundary.
diffusion of responsibilityphrase: People in a group often feel less personally responsible for acting or helping.
diffusion of treatmentsnoun: Study participants adopt another group's intervention because they expect better results, making the assigned treatments harder to compare fairly.
diffusion processnoun: A new product or idea gains wider public acceptance as early users influence other people to adopt it.
diffusion statusnoun: In Marcia's identity model, a person has neither explored identity options nor committed to a particular direction.
diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)phrase: A brain scan that tracks water movement to show white matter pathways connecting brain areas.
digestionnoun: The body breaks food into small parts so it can absorb nutrients and make energy.
digestive typenoun: A historical body classification described people whose digestive system was thought to dominate their overall physical makeup.
Digit Spanphrase: A Wechsler subtest measures attention and working memory by having someone repeat number strings forward and backward.
Digit Symbolnoun: A timed Wechsler test task asks people to match numbers and symbols using a key, helping assess processing speed.
digitaladjective: Using information stored or shown as separate numbers, usually in binary code.
Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY)noun: This accessible publishing standard supports structured digital books with detailed navigation and combinations of text, audio, and braille access.
digital computernoun: An electronic machine follows instructions to process information represented by separate numerical values, usually zeros and ones.
digital dividenoun: Groups have unequal access to digital technology or unequal opportunities and skills to use it effectively.
digital subtraction angiographynoun: This imaging method uses injected contrast and computer subtraction of background structures to make blood vessels stand out.
digitized speechnoun: Spoken sound is converted into numerical data so computers can store, process, or transmit it.
diglossianoun: A community uses two varieties of one language for different social purposes, often separating formal settings from everyday conversation.
digraphnoun: Two written letters work together to stand for one speech sound, such as sh in ship.
dihydrocodeinenoun: An opioid medicine eases pain by activating opioid receptors and can also cause sleepiness and dependence.
dihydroergotaminenoun: A medicine derived from ergotamine treats migraine attacks and can narrow blood vessels.
dihydromorphinenoun: An opioid studied for its receptor effects also forms when the body processes dihydrocodeine.
dihydrotestosteronenoun: A powerful hormone made from testosterone helps develop male reproductive structures and features such as facial hair.
dihydroxyphenylacetic acidnoun: A major substance formed when dopamine breaks down helps researchers estimate dopamine activity in brain areas.
dihydroxytryptamine (DHT)noun: A chemical damages serotonin-using neurons in experiments, allowing researchers to study how reduced serotonin signaling affects behavior.
Dilantinnoun: This brand name identifies phenytoin, a medicine that helps control certain kinds of seizures.
dilationnoun: Widening of a body opening, such as when the dark center of the eye gets larger.
dilatornoun: A muscle, nerve, instrument, or substance widens a body opening, passage, or structure.
dildonoun: A sexual device, often shaped like a penis, is used for physical sexual stimulation.
dilemmanoun: A hard choice between two options that seem equally good or equally bad.
dilution effectnoun: An animal's chance of being caught may decrease when many animals gather or act together.
dimenhydrinatenoun: An antihistamine medicine reduces motion sickness by blocking H1 histamine receptors and may cause sleepiness.
dimensionnoun: One part of a larger trait or measure, used to describe differences on several related variables.
dimensional theory of emotionnoun: This approach describes emotions using several scales, commonly how pleasant and how activating they feel.
dimensionalitynoun: The count of distinct aspects used to measure a concept indicates how many dimensions it has.
dimensions of consciousnessnoun: Different aspects of awareness, including mood, attention, and self-awareness, describe the overall character of someone's conscious experience.
dimernoun: A molecular structure forms when two smaller molecular units join together.
dimethoxymethylamphetaminenoun: A manufactured hallucinogenic drug, also called DOM or STP, changes perception and conscious experience.
dimethyl ketonenoun: Another name for acetone identifies an easily evaporated liquid that the body produces during fat breakdown.
dimethyltryptaminenoun: A hallucinogenic substance, commonly shortened to DMT, can strongly change perception and conscious experience.
diminished capacitynoun: A legal defense argues that mental impairment limited someone's ability to form the intent required for a particular crime.
diminished responsibilitynoun: A legal defense presents mental impairment as grounds for reducing how responsible someone is held for an offense.
diminutive visual hallucinationnoun: A person sees people, animals, or objects that are not present and appear unusually tiny.
dimming effectnoun: A bright source makes nearby faint elements look dimmer; darkening a background can instead make an afterimage seem brighter.
dimorphismnoun: Members of one species occur in two distinct forms differing in features such as shape, size, or color.
DIMSabbreviation: Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep through the night.
DIN color systemnoun: A German color classification system identifies colors by their hue, brightness, and saturation.
dinitrogen monoxidenoun: Another name for nitrous oxide identifies a gas used for pain relief that can also produce feelings of elation.
Dionysianadjective: In Nietzsche's philosophical contrast, this describes an emotional, sensory, and unrestrained outlook that gives less priority to reason.
diopternoun: A unit measures a lens's optical power by dividing one by its focal length expressed in meters.
dioptricsnoun: This branch of optics studies how light bends when passing between different materials.
dioticadjective: In listening tasks, each ear receives an identical audio signal.
diphenhydraminenoun: A sleepiness-producing antihistamine treats allergies and can also relieve some movement problems caused by antipsychotic medicines.
diphenylbutylpiperidinenoun: A compound belongs to a chemical family that includes pimozide, a medicine with antipsychotic effects.
diphenylmethanenoun: In this drug classification, a member of a related antihistamine group, including hydroxyzine, can ease anxiety and cause sleepiness.
diphthongnoun: A vowel sound shifts from one vowel quality toward another within a single syllable, as in toy.
diplacusisnoun: A listener perceives two tones even though only one tone is being presented.
diplegianoun: Paralysis affects matching body regions on the left and right, such as both legs.
diplo- (dipl-)prefix: This word element adds the meaning double or doubled to the words it helps form.
diploidadjective: A cell or organism has two full chromosome sets, usually totaling 46 chromosomes in human body cells.
diplomatenoun: A health professional has earned specialist certification after passing an examination from the relevant professional board.
diplopianoun: A person sees two images of one object, often because the eyes are not properly aligned.
dipsomanianoun: An outdated label described sudden episodes of an overwhelming urge to drink alcohol, often involving heavy drinking.
direct aggressionnoun: Aggressive actions target the person or thing that caused the individual's anger or frustration.
direct attitude measurenoun: An assessment asks people to state their own opinions, beliefs, or evaluations about a topic.
direct copingnoun: A person actively addresses a stressful problem by taking focused steps to manage or solve it.
direct correlationnoun: Two measured features tend to move together, with higher values of one accompanying higher values of the other.
direct dyslexianoun: An acquired reading difficulty leaves someone able to pronounce written words while unable to understand their meaning.
direct glarenoun: Light arriving directly from a bright source within view makes seeing more difficult.
direct marketingnoun: Promotional messages reach selected individuals through channels such as personal mail, phone calls, or targeted email.
direct memory testnoun: An assessment explicitly asks someone to consciously recall or recognize information from an earlier experience.
direct modelnoun: A research model examines relationships between variables without including an intermediate variable that might explain their connection.
direct objectnoun: A word or phrase names whoever or whatever receives an action expressed by a verb in a sentence.
direct observationphrase: Watching or listening to behavior as it happens, without asking questions or changing the situation.
direct odor effectnoun: A smell changes nervous system activity through stimulation of smell pathways, rather than through expectations or thoughts about it.
direct perceptionnoun: Gibson's theory proposes that environmental information supports perception without needing mental interpretations, stored memories, or internal representations.
direct realismnoun: This view holds that our senses reveal the outside world directly, without changes introduced by our perspective or sensory systems.
direct reflexnoun: An automatic response occurs on the body side where the triggering sensory signal was received.
direct relationshipphrase: When one thing goes up or down, the other changes in the same direction.
direct replicationphrase: Repeating a study as closely as possible with new data to see if the same result happens again.
direct scalingnoun: Researchers build numerical sensation scales from people's judgments of stimulus strength, such as how loud a sound seems.
direct selectionnoun: Natural selection favors a trait because it helps an individual's own offspring survive and eventually reproduce.
direct suggestibilitynoun: In Eysenck’s proposed classification, this means being responsive when someone openly suggests a movement, experience, or other response.
direct suggestionnoun: A therapist uses clear instructions, reassurance, or encouragement to support change, sometimes while the client is hypnotized.
direct-contact groupnoun: Members interact in person, allowing them to notice and respond to one another's reactions and needs.
directed attentionnoun: A person focuses on selected information while setting aside other sights, sounds, or signals.
directed discussion methodnoun: A leader guides a conversation among several people so their contributions stay connected to a chosen topic or purpose.
directed forgettingnoun: In memory experiments, people remember less of material after receiving a signal that they should forget it.
directed graphnoun: A network represents items as points and their connections as arrows, each running from one point toward another.
directed masturbationphrase: Structured self-stimulation exercises are used in therapy to help women with orgasm problems increase sexual response.
directed movementphrase: Movement aimed at reaching a particular goal or desired outcome.
directed reverienoun: A therapist guides someone to picture and describe a dream or early experience as though revisiting it.
directed thinkingnoun: A person deliberately guides their thoughts toward a particular goal and follows the demands of that goal.
directednessnoun: In Allport's account, a lasting sense of purpose connects a person's life, sustains motivation, and guides future plans.
direction circularnoun: Medication information supplied with a drug explains its uses, doses, possible unwanted effects, and other details needed for prescribing.
direction perceptionnoun: A person detects where a moving object they see or a sound they hear is located in space.
directional confusionnoun: A person has trouble telling left and right apart, sometimes also finding other spatial relationships confusing.
directional hypothesisnoun: A research prediction specifies which way an expected difference or relationship will go, such as higher scores after practice.
directional testnoun: A statistical procedure evaluates evidence for an effect in one direction chosen before examining the results.
directionality problemnoun: When two measures vary together, their relationship alone cannot establish which, if either, causes changes in the other.
directions testnoun: An intelligence assessment checks how well someone follows task instructions, often through mistakes that lower their score.
directivenoun: A clear instruction telling someone what to do, think, or focus on in a situation.
directive counselingnoun: A counselor takes an active guiding role, using professional judgment to shape sessions and recommend actions to the client.
directive disciplinenoun: A field of study offers judgments about how people or societies should live and behave.
directive group psychotherapynoun: Slavson's group treatment uses learning activities, guidance, counseling, and recreation to help members adapt to their surroundings.
directive leaderphrase: A leader who gives clear direction, assigns tasks, and guides group decisions and actions.
directive play therapynoun: A therapist selects materials and guides a child's pretend play to help the child express feelings and explore experiences.
directive therapyphrase: A helper takes an active lead by giving advice, direction, and specific suggestions for change.
directornoun: Leads a psychodrama by setting up the role-play and guiding what happens between people.
Directory of Psychological Tests in the Sport and Exercise Sciencesnoun: This reference collection describes psychological measures for sport and exercise, including their purposes, development, quality, and availability.
dirhinicadjective: This describes delivering an identical smell-producing substance to both nostrils using an instrument that controls odor presentation.
dirt phobianoun: A strong, lasting fear of dirt exceeds the actual danger and may involve contamination worries or repeated washing.
DISabbreviation: The Diagnostic Interview Schedule uses fixed questions in a set order to assess present and past mental health symptoms.
disabilitynoun: A physical or mental condition can limit activities or participation, especially when surroundings create barriers.
disability adjusted life years (DALYs)noun: This health measure combines years lost through early death with years of reduced health, weighted by their severity.
disability evaluationphrase: Measures how a physical or mental impairment limits daily abilities, especially the ability to work.
disability lawsnoun: These laws address how people with disabilities are treated, including protections against discrimination and requirements supporting access.
Disability Rating Scale (DRS)noun: An eight-item assessment tracks recovery after moderate or severe traumatic brain injury, covering awareness, thinking, daily functioning, and independence.
disadvantagedadjective: Having fewer chances and supports because of poverty, bias, or other unfair social conditions.
disaggregationnoun: Researchers separate combined data into smaller groups or individual observations to examine patterns hidden in the overall results.
disarranged-sentence testnoun: An assessment asks someone to rearrange mixed-up words so they form a correctly ordered sentence.
disasternoun: A sudden shared catastrophe that causes major harm and overwhelms a community's ability to cope without outside help.
disaster counselingnoun: Counselors provide emotional support during or soon after a disaster to affected people, families, witnesses, and emergency responders.
disaster psychologynoun: This field studies psychological responses to disasters and develops training and services to support coping and recovery across communities.
disavowalnoun: In psychological theory, a person unconsciously keeps distressing realities, thoughts, or feelings outside awareness to reduce emotional conflict.
dischargenoun: A neuron's brief burst of electrical activity sends a signal called an action potential.
discharge of affectnoun: Freud proposed that actively expressing an emotion, such as through tears, can reduce its intensity.
discharge planningphrase: A step-by-step plan for leaving treatment safely and getting follow-up care and daily-life support.
discharge procedurenoun: Staff help a patient leave inpatient care through final assessment, relevant medication instructions, and arrangements for continued support.
discharge ratenoun: A service divides its number of discharged patients by its number of admitted patients for a specified period.
dischronationnoun: A person is confused about time, such as the current date or when events occurred.
disciplenoun: A person follows a teacher or set of teachings and may help share those ideas with others.
disciplinenoun: Ways of teaching self-control and good behavior, often using rules, rewards, or consequences.
discomfort anxietynoun: Ellis proposed that unreasonable beliefs about threats to well-being can create tension and make frustration difficult to tolerate.
disconfirmabilitynoun: A claim has this quality when some possible observation or experiment could show that it is false.
disconnection syndromenoun: A neurological condition arises when communication breaks down between brain cortex regions that normally coordinate their work.
discontinuity effectnoun: Interactions between groups tend to involve more competition than interactions between people acting as individuals.
discontinuity hypothesisnoun: This Gestalt view proposes that learning and problem solving can emerge suddenly when someone recognizes how the whole situation fits together.
discontinuousadjective: Describing change that happens in separate stages instead of a smooth, gradual flow.
discontinuous variablenoun: A variable takes separate values, such as whole-number counts or categories, rather than every possible value along a scale.
discordancenoun: A mismatch occurs between features expected to agree, or between twins in whether they have a particular characteristic.
discounting principlenoun: People give one possible explanation less importance when other believable explanations could also account for the same event.
discoursenoun: People communicate meaning through connected spoken, written, or signed language within a social setting.
discourse analysisnoun: Researchers examine how connected language, its setting, and shared expectations shape meanings within conversations and texts.
discourse routinenoun: A familiar, organized exchange follows shared expectations about who speaks when and how each person participates.
discoverynoun: A legal process that lets each side get the other side's relevant documents and records before trial.
discovery learningnoun: Learners build understanding by exploring problems, trying possible explanations, and testing solutions through direct experience.
discovery methodnoun: Teachers encourage students to develop general ideas by organizing observations and testing explanations, while providing limited supervision.
discovery of new means through active experimentationnoun: In Piaget's theory, infants vary familiar actions to discover new ways of reaching goals, usually starting around their first birthday.
discrepancy evaluationnoun: Researchers check for mismatches among parts of a program that are supposed to agree, helping identify needed improvements.
discrepancy principlenoun: Infants often spend longer looking at something unfamiliar than something familiar when both are presented together.
discrepant stimulusnoun: Something perceived differs moderately from a familiar example or a mental pattern the person already knows.
discreteadjective: Made of separate categories or ranks instead of a smooth range of numbers.
discrete controlnoun: A device lets someone select separate operating states, such as switching equipment on or off.
discrete distributionnoun: A statistical description shows how often separate possible values occur or how likely each value is.
discrete measurenoun: A measurement records separate possible values, such as school grades, without allowing every value between them.
discrete movement tasknoun: A goal-directed physical action has a clearly identifiable start and finish, such as picking up a pencil.
discrete trialphrase: A single, clearly bounded chance to make a response during learning or testing.
discrete variablenoun: A variable allows distinct possibilities, such as counts or named categories, without including every intermediate value.
discretionary taskphrase: A group assignment with no fixed method, so members can choose different ways to finish it.
discriminal dispersionnoun: In experiments on telling stimuli apart, responses spread around their average rather than always taking the same value.
discriminandanoun: These are stimuli that a person or animal can tell apart from each other.
discriminant analysisnoun: A statistical method combines several numerical measurements to distinguish established groups or predict which group a case belongs to.
discriminant functionphrase: A weighted mix of variables used to place a case into the group it most likely fits.
discriminant loadingnoun: A correlation shows how closely one measured variable relates to a combined statistical dimension used to separate groups.
discriminant validityphrase: Shows that a test has low correlation with measures of different traits, meaning it is not measuring them.
discriminated avoidancenoun: A person or animal learns to act after a warning cue to prevent an unpleasant event.
discriminated operantnoun: A learned action becomes more likely when a cue appears because that cue previously signaled reinforcement for the action.
discriminating powernoun: A test or set of predictors shows how effectively it separates the groups or outcome categories being studied.
discriminationnoun: Unfair treatment of people because of their group, or learning to tell one stimulus from another.
discrimination indexnoun: A test item's score showing how well it separates high-scoring people from low-scoring people.
discrimination learningphrase: Learning to respond differently to similar cues because only one choice brings a reward.
discrimination of cuesnoun: A person or animal can notice differences among signals, often showing this ability through different responses.
discrimination reaction timenoun: Researchers measure how long a participant takes to tell different stimuli apart during a task.
discrimination trainingphrase: Learning to respond only when a specific cue is present because that response gets rewarded then, not otherwise.
discriminative learningnoun: Experience teaches a person or animal to choose among different signals, often because only certain choices receive reinforcement.
discriminative responsenoun: After learning to distinguish options, a person or animal selects the stimulus associated with a particular reward.
discriminative stimulusphrase: A cue that signals a behavior will likely be rewarded because it worked before in that situation.
discursive psychologynoun: This approach studies how people use communication to construct accounts of events and shape social relationships.
discussion groupnoun: People meet as an organized group to explore questions or problems for learning, support, guidance, or decisions.
discussion methodnoun: Teaching proceeds through conversation in which students and the teacher both contribute ideas and questions.
diseasenoun: An illness caused by body damage or dysfunction that has a clear pattern of symptoms and harms functioning.
disease coursenoun: An illness follows a pattern over time, from its beginning through later symptoms, care, and possible recovery.
disease managementnoun: Coordinated care combines condition-specific treatment, education, and support to reduce the effects of a lasting illness.
disease modelphrase: Treats mental problems as illnesses with symptoms, causes, and courses much like physical diseases.
disease of adaptationnoun: Selye's historical label describes illnesses thought to be partly linked to the body's prolonged efforts to cope with stress.
disease phobianoun: A lasting, intense fear of illness generally or one particular disease exceeds the danger in the person's situation.
disease-prone personalitynoun: A disputed historical idea proposes that a stable personality pattern makes someone more likely to develop physical illnesses.
disenfranchised griefnoun: A person's sorrow after a loss receives little recognition, acceptance, or permission for expression from others.
disengaged familynoun: Family members maintain emotional and psychological distance from one another, with little shared involvement or connection.
disengagementnoun: Pulling back from a relationship, commitment, or upsetting situation instead of staying involved.
disengagement theorynoun: A historical theory proposes that older adults and society gradually withdraw from each other, supposedly supporting satisfaction in later life.
disequilibriumnoun: A mental mismatch between ways of thinking that pushes a child toward new understanding.
disesthesianoun: A person's sensory experience differs from usual perception, especially in how touch feels.
disfigurementnoun: A noticeable difference in facial or bodily appearance results from injury, illness, surgery, or a condition present at birth.
disgustnoun: A strong feeling of wanting to avoid something filthy, rotten, or morally wrong.
dishabituationnoun: A response weakened by repeated exposure returns or strengthens after a different stimulus appears.
dishonest signalnoun: An animal's signal gives others misleading information about its abilities, condition, or intended behavior.
disidentificationnoun: Someone protects their sense of self by reducing how strongly a threatening experience or characteristic defines who they are.
disincentivenoun: A condition or expected consequence discourages action, effort, or productivity by making it less appealing.
disinformationnoun: Someone deliberately spreads false or misleading information to influence others by deceiving them.
disinhibited feedback theorynoun: One proposed explanation of synesthesia suggests reduced brain inhibition allows activity associated with one sense to activate another sensory experience.
disinhibited social engagement disorderphrase: A childhood trauma disorder where a child is overly friendly with strangers after severe neglect or unstable caregiving.
disinhibitionnoun: Reduced brain control over behavior and emotions, often causing impulsive actions after alcohol, drugs, or frontal lobe damage.
disintegrationnoun: A severe breakdown in how a person thinks, feels, or acts so normal functioning falls apart.
disjoint setsnoun: Two collections are disjoint when nothing belongs to both collections at the same time.
disjunctive conceptnoun: A category includes something when it has at least one of several qualifying features.
disjunctive motivationnoun: In Sullivan's theory, a person seeks temporary or substitute satisfaction instead of fulfillment considered genuine and lasting.
disjunctive taskphrase: In this group task, one member's best answer can become the whole group's final decision.
dismissive attachmentnoun: An adult relationship pattern combines confidence in personal worth with distrust of others and a strong preference for independence.
disordernoun: A pattern of symptoms causing abnormal behavior, body problems, major distress, or trouble functioning.
disorder of written expressionnoun: An older diagnosis described writing difficulties well below expected ability that substantially disrupted schoolwork or everyday tasks.
disorders of excessive somnolence (DOES)noun: A historical sleep disorder category grouped conditions involving unusually strong sleepiness lasting a month or longer.
disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS)noun: A historical sleep disorder category covered persistent trouble getting to sleep or remaining asleep.
disorders of the selfnoun: In Kohut’s theory, insufficient emotional responsiveness from others contributes to problems with self-worth, inner stability, and close relationships.
disorders of the sleep–wake cycle schedulenoun: A historical category described sleep problems arising when the body's daily clock conflicts with required sleeping times.
disorganizationnoun: A breakdown in orderly thinking or behavior, causing ideas or actions to become confused or inconsistent.
disorganized attachmentphrase: An insecure infant-parent bond where a baby shows confused, inconsistent behavior during separation and reunion.
disorganized behaviorphrase: Actions that seem confused, inconsistent, or out of place, often showing poor connection to reality.
disorganized developmentnoun: Disrupted attachment development leaves a child without a consistent way to respond when a parent leaves or returns.
disorganized offendernoun: A proposed criminal profiling category describes someone whose offenses appear impulsive, chaotic, and poorly planned.
disorganized schizophrenianoun: A former schizophrenia subtype emphasized difficult-to-follow speech, disorganized actions, and reduced emotional expression or emotions mismatched to the situation.
disorganized speechphrase: Talking becomes hard to follow because ideas jump around, answers miss the question, or made-up words appear.
disorientationnoun: Losing track of who you are or where and when you are.
disoriented attachmentphrase: An infant-caregiver bond marked by confused, fearful, or inconsistent behavior when the caregiver is a source of comfort.
disparate impactphrase: A neutral rule can unfairly hurt a protected group more than others, even without intent.
disparate sensationsnoun: Different sensory impressions or thoughts about one thing provide separate pieces that the brain can combine into an overall experience.
dispersalnoun: Animals leave the group where they were born to enter another group or seek mates elsewhere.
dispersionnoun: The spread of numerical values describes how closely they cluster around their average or extend away from it.
dispersion matrixnoun: A square table lists each variable’s variance along its diagonal and each pair’s covariance, showing how they vary together, elsewhere.
dispersion measurenoun: A numerical summary, such as range or standard deviation, indicates how widely measurements are spread.
dispersion parameternoun: In a statistical model, this value controls how widely observations vary around their expected values.
displaced aggressionnoun: Hostile behavior targets someone or something other than the original cause of anger, sometimes including oneself.
displacementnoun: Shifting feelings from the real source to a safer target, often without realizing it.
displacement behaviornoun: An alternative action appears when an intended action is blocked or competing motivations pull an individual toward incompatible actions.
displacement of affectnoun: An emotion connected with one thought or object becomes attached to a different, unrelated thought or object.
displaynoun: A repeated signal or act that communicates something to another animal or person.
display designnoun: Designers arrange signs, screens, and other information displays so people can understand and use their messages effectively.
display rulenoun: A learned social expectation guides which emotions people show, how strongly they show them, and in what settings.
display–control compatibilitynoun: Controls and their displays match in ways people expect, including movement direction, placement, or color.
dispositionnoun: A person's usual way of thinking, feeling, or acting that makes them different from others.
dispositional attributionphrase: Explaining behavior by pointing to a person's traits, choices, effort, or feelings rather than the situation.
dispositional hearingnoun: After a juvenile court finds an offense occurred, a hearing determines the measures or consequences that should follow.
disrupt-then-reframe techniquenoun: A persuasion method first presents a surprising request, then quickly restates it favorably to increase the chance of agreement.
disruptive behaviorphrase: Ongoing actions, usually in children, that threaten others, break rules, or strongly disturb normal social life.
disruptive behavior disordernoun: This diagnostic grouping covers persistent defiance, aggression, or serious rule violations that substantially interfere with everyday functioning.
disruptive mood dysregulation disorderphrase: A childhood disorder marked by constant irritability and severe temper outbursts at least three times a week.
dissentnoun: Open disagreement with a group's usual view, decision, or social rule.
dissimilarity coefficientnoun: A numerical index describes how different two items, groups, or variables are according to selected features.
dissociated learningnoun: Information learned in a particular mental or bodily state may be easier to remember when that state returns.
dissociated statenoun: Following trauma, awareness may become disconnected from parts of the experience that feel too overwhelming to process.
dissociationnoun: Keeping upsetting thoughts and feelings cut off from awareness so they do not connect normally.
dissociative amnesiaphrase: Losing important personal memories, usually after trauma or severe stress, beyond what normal forgetting can explain.
dissociative anestheticnoun: A drug produces detachment from surroundings alongside pain relief, reduced memory formation, and sedation, sometimes while some awareness remains.
dissociative barriersnoun: Proposed mental mechanisms limit access to memories of trauma, theoretically reducing awareness of overwhelming experiences.
dissociative disordersphrase: Mental disorders where consciousness, memory, identity, or surroundings can become disconnected for brief or long periods.
dissociative fuguephrase: A person suddenly travels away and cannot remember important personal history, sometimes becoming confused about who they are.
dissociative groupnoun: A social group becomes a negative reference point when someone wants to avoid being identified with its members.
dissociative hysterianoun: Clinicians once used this historical label for disorders involving disconnection among memory, identity, awareness, or perception.
dissociative identity disorder (DID)phrase: A disorder where one person has two or more identity states that repeatedly take control of behavior.
dissociative patternnoun: A pattern of experiences and behavior suggests disrupted connections among awareness, memory, or perception, as seen in dissociative disorders.
dissociative psychosisnoun: A historical label described sudden, brief psychotic episodes following stress in people described as having histrionic personality disorder.
dissociative stupornoun: Voluntary movement and responses to the surroundings become greatly reduced or absent, apparently in connection with acute stress.
dissociative trance disordernoun: Involuntary trance episodes disrupt awareness or identity and cause serious distress or impairment beyond culturally accepted practices.
dissonancenoun: An uncomfortable mental tension happens when your beliefs, attitudes, or actions do not fit together.
dissonance reductionphrase: Easing the mental discomfort from conflicting beliefs by changing ideas, adding support, or downplaying the conflict.
distaladjective: Farther away from the main point, source, or center being considered.
distal 18q-noun: Missing genetic material near the end of chromosome 18’s long arm can affect physical growth, hearing, and intellectual development.
distal effectnoun: An organism’s behavior produces a change in its surroundings.
distal responsenoun: An action by an organism changes something in the surrounding environment.
distal stimulusnoun: An actual object or event in the surroundings provides the source of sensory stimulation.
distancenoun: How far apart two things are, or how different one score is from another.
distance cuenoun: A feature of what someone sees or hears helps them estimate how far away its source is.
distance learningnoun: Students learn while physically separated from the teaching source, using materials or communication delivered across that separation.
distance measurenoun: A statistical value summarizes how different two items or groups are based on the features being compared.
distance paradoxnoun: A mistaken impression of an object’s distance can make its size appear different from its actual size.
distance perceptionnoun: Vision allows a person to estimate how far away a particular object is from them.
distance therapynoun: Psychotherapy takes place while therapist and client are physically apart, using communication such as phone calls, video, or online messages.
distance visionnoun: Visual ability allows someone to distinguish objects located beyond roughly six meters, or twenty feet.
distance zonenoun: A customary amount of space separates people during interaction, varying with their relationship, setting, and cultural expectations.
distinctiveness effectnoun: People often remember information better when it stands out from its surroundings or differs from what they usually encounter.
distinctnessnoun: How clearly a focused item stands out as separate from other nearby stimuli.
distorted speech testnoun: An assessment uses speech with selected sound information removed or altered to examine how a listener processes spoken language.
distorting-photograph procedurenoun: A person adjusts a photograph of their body to match perceived size, allowing comparison with their actual size.
distortionnoun: A twisted or inaccurate view, thought, or memory that changes facts or meaning.
distractibilitynoun: Being easily pulled away from the task or thought you are trying to stay on.
distractible speechnoun: A person quickly changes speaking topics when something around them or in their thoughts captures their attention.
distractionnoun: Something that pulls your attention away from what you are trying to focus on.
distractornoun: A wrong answer choice or other irrelevant cue that pulls attention away from the correct response.
distractor tasknoun: An activity draws attention away from recently learned material, limiting mental repetition before a memory test.
distressnoun: An unhealthy stress reaction that happens when demands feel overwhelming and harm mood and body.
distress tolerancephrase: Ability to keep working toward goals even when painful emotions are present.
distributed actions theorynoun: A leadership theory proposes that sharing leadership duties among group members improves both results and satisfaction.
distributed attentionnoun: Attention is spread across locations in what someone sees, often concentrating where their eyes are directed.
distributed cognitionnoun: A problem-solving model uses information from separate, independent sources or divides processing among independently operating computing devices.
distributed knowledgenoun: Information about one idea is represented across several parts of a processing system.
distributed practicephrase: Studying or practicing in spread-out sessions with breaks usually helps learning more than doing it all at once.
distributed processingnoun: Several processing units share the work of handling information instead of assigning everything to one central unit.
distributed representationnoun: A system stores an idea through a pattern across multiple components, with each contributing part of the information.
distributed-practice effectnoun: Learning usually lasts longer when study time is spread across separate sessions rather than packed into one session.
distributionnoun: Shows how often different values or scores appear in a set of data.
distribution functionnoun: A mathematical rule gives the chance that a variable's value will fall at or below a chosen number.
distribution-free testnoun: A statistical test evaluates a claim without requiring the population's values to follow a particular distribution shape.
distributional redundancynoun: In studying art, unequal frequencies of individual pattern elements affect how predictable the pattern becomes.
distributive analysis and synthesisnoun: Adolf Meyer's historical therapy approach organizes a person's experiences, then uses their strengths and goals to guide constructive change.
distributive bargainingnoun: People negotiate over a fixed amount of resources, so getting more leaves less for the other side.
distributive justicephrase: Judging fairness by whether rewards, pay, or punishments are shared in an appropriate way.
disturbance of associationnoun: Connections between thoughts become difficult for others to follow, judged within the person's cultural context.
disturbance termnoun: A part of a statistical equation represents variation in an outcome that the included predictors do not explain.
disulfiramnoun: A medicine that causes sickness if alcohol is consumed, helping discourage drinking.
disuse supersensitivitynoun: Cells can develop extra receptors after nerve signals are lost or persistently blocked, making later chemical signals produce stronger responses.
disuse theory of agingnoun: A theory proposes that some thinking abilities decline with age partly because people use those abilities less often.
disynaptic arcnoun: A nerve pathway carries signals from a sensory neuron through one connecting neuron to a motor neuron, crossing two synapses.
diureticnoun: A substance makes the body produce more urine by changing how the kidneys handle water or dissolved substances.
diurnaladjective: Happening each day, especially during daylight hours, as part of the body's 24-hour sleep-wake cycle.
diurnal enuresisnoun: Repeated unintentional wetting happens during waking daytime hours after the age when bladder control is usually expected.
diurnal mood variationnoun: Mood follows a repeated daily pattern, often feeling lower in the morning and better later in the day.
diurnal rhythmphrase: A daily 24-hour pattern in body functions and behavior, such as sleep, energy, and temperature.
divagationnoun: Speech, writing, or thinking wanders away from its main subject through loosely connected side topics.
divalproex sodiumnoun: A medicine related to valproic acid helps control seizures and treat manic episodes in bipolar disorder.
divergencenoun: Outward turning of both eyes when attention moves from something near to something far away.
divergent evolutionnoun: Related populations develop different inherited traits over generations as different environments favor different characteristics, sometimes producing separate species.
divergent productionnoun: In Guilford's proposed intelligence model, an ability generates varied, original solutions to a problem.
divergent strabismusnoun: One or both eyes turn outward, making it harder for the eyes to aim together at the same object.
divergent thinkingnoun: Finding many unusual possible answers to a problem instead of one standard answer.
divergent validityphrase: Shows a test does not closely match measures of different traits, supporting that it measures its own trait.
diversion programnoun: A justice system program directs eligible people toward treatment or other requirements as an alternative to usual criminal proceedings.
diversitynoun: The mix of people with different social identities and backgrounds in a group or community.
diversity trainingphrase: Workplace teaching that helps people understand and work well with differences in culture, race, gender, and identity.
diversive explorationnoun: A person or animal seeks new or stimulating experiences to become more alert or engaged.
divided attentionnoun: A person shares attention among multiple sources of information or activities happening together.
divided brainnoun: The brain's two halves have reduced direct communication because their main connecting bundle, the corpus callosum, is partly or completely severed.
divided consciousnessnoun: Hilgard proposed that some mental activity can proceed separately from conscious awareness and seem beyond deliberate control, particularly during hypnosis.
divinationnoun: A practice claims to discover future happenings or concealed information through supernatural methods.
divine rightnoun: A historical political belief holds that a monarch's authority comes from God rather than the people being governed.
diviner’s sagenoun: The plant Salvia divinorum contains a hallucinogenic substance that can briefly and strongly alter perception and awareness.
divorcenoun: A legal ending of a marriage that can strongly affect adults' and children's emotional well-being.
divorce counselingnoun: Counseling helps people and their families manage feelings, relationships, and practical difficulties connected with divorce.
divorce mediationnoun: An impartial mediator helps separating partners negotiate agreements about matters such as finances, parenting arrangements, and support.
dizygotic twins (DZ twins)phrase: Two siblings from different eggs and different sperm, sharing about half their genes, like ordinary siblings.
dizzinessnoun: Feeling light-headed or unsteady, sometimes with nausea or fear that you might faint.
DLabbreviation: The abbreviation means difference limen, the smallest stimulus difference a person detects on half the attempts under specified testing conditions.
DLPFCabbreviation: A frontal lobe area that helps with planning, attention, working memory, and emotion control.
DMNabbreviation: The default-mode network is a group of brain regions often active during inward-focused thought, such as remembering or imagining.
dMRIabbreviation: Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging measures how molecules, usually water, move within tissue to reveal details of its internal structure.
DMSabbreviation: A phonetic notation method uses additional symbols to show subtle differences in spoken sounds.
DMTabbreviation: Dimethyltryptamine is a hallucinogenic substance that can strongly alter perception, thought, and mood through effects on serotonin receptors.
DMTSabbreviation: Delayed matching to sample tests memory by rewarding selection of an earlier example from choices presented after a waiting period.
DNAabbreviation: The molecule in chromosomes that carries genes, the instructions for building and running the body.
DNA methylationphrase: Chemical tags added to DNA can turn certain genes off without changing the DNA code.
DNRabbreviation: The abbreviation means do not resuscitate, a medical order directing clinicians to withhold CPR when breathing or heartbeat stops.
do not resuscitate (DNR)phrase: A medical order tells healthcare staff to withhold CPR if a person's heartbeat or breathing stops.
docilitynoun: A person or animal is generally calm, easy to guide or handle, and unlikely to respond aggressively.
doctor shoppingnoun: A person visits several doctors to obtain prescriptions for medicines they intend to misuse.
doctrinenoun: A set of taught beliefs or rules that guide how a group thinks and acts.
doctrine of causesnoun: Aristotle proposed four ways to explain something: its material, its form, what produces it, and its purpose.
doctrine of double effect (DDE)noun: An ethical principle permits some actions with intended benefits and foreseen but unintended harms, provided further moral conditions are met.
doctrine of formal disciplinenoun: A discredited educational theory claimed that practicing one mental ability would strengthen that ability across all tasks using it.
Doerfler–Stewart testnoun: This screening checks for hearing difficulties unexplained by physical findings using two-syllable word responses under quiet and noisy conditions.
DOESabbreviation: A group of sleep disorders marked by too much daytime sleepiness.
dogmatismnoun: Being overly certain and rigid about beliefs, even when evidence or contradictions should change them.
dolnoun: A historical measurement unit was proposed to express how intense pain feels.
dolichocephalicadjective: A head described this way has a width less than 75 percent of its length.
dolichomorphicadjective: A body described this way is relatively tall and slender.
doll playnoun: In therapy, children use small figures to explore feelings, tell stories, and represent relationships.
Dolophinenoun: This brand contains methadone, an opioid medicine used for pain and treatment of opioid dependence.
dolorimeternoun: An instrument applies a controlled stimulus to assess when pain begins or how strong it feels.
DOMabbreviation: Short for dimethoxymethylamphetamine, this synthetic psychedelic can alter perception, thoughts, and mood.
domainnoun: A broad area of knowledge or functioning, such as memory, language, or vision.
domain identificationnoun: People come to see an activity or field as an important part of who they are.
domain-free problemnoun: A task can be solved through reasoning without needing specialized facts about a particular subject.
domain-general abilitynoun: A mental capacity helps someone perform many different kinds of tasks across different settings.
domain-referenced testnoun: An assessment estimates how much someone has learned within a clearly specified subject area.
domain-specific abilitynoun: A specialized mental capacity supports a particular kind of task, such as recognizing faces.
domain-specific knowledgenoun: Specialized understanding consists of facts, rules, and concepts learned about one particular subject.
domestic partnershipnoun: Two people maintain a committed intimate relationship while living together and sharing household responsibilities.
domestic violencephrase: Physical harm done by one family member to another, including partners, children, or elders.
domesticationnoun: Across generations, selective breeding changes animals in ways that help them live closely with humans.
domiciliary carenoun: In this usage, a person receives institutional housing and care because home care is unavailable or unsuitable.
dominancenoun: Having power to control or strongly influence other people in a relationship or group.
dominance aggressionnoun: An animal uses threatening behavior or attacks to preserve its higher rank relative to another animal.
dominance hierarchynoun: A group has a relatively stable ranking that determines whose influence or authority takes priority.
dominance neednoun: Henry Murray proposed a motive that drives people to lead, influence, or control other people.
dominance–submissionnoun: Interpersonal behavior varies along a scale from directing others to yielding to their direction.
dominance–subordinationnoun: A social relationship gives higher-ranking members earlier or greater access to resources than lower-ranking members.
dominant allelenoun: A gene version whose trait shows up even when paired with a different recessive version.
dominant eyenoun: One eye is favored for certain visual tasks or contributes more strongly to visual processing.
dominant hemispherephrase: The brain side that usually leads language and skilled hand use.
dominant ideology thesisnoun: A Marxist claim holds that powerful classes maintain control by making their beliefs widely accepted without question.
dominant wavelengthnoun: A single spectral wavelength can represent a color when mixing its light with white produces a match.
dominatrixnoun: A woman takes an agreed leading or controlling role in consensual sexual activities, often involving BDSM.
domino effectnoun: An initial event starts a series of connected changes, with each change helping bring about the next.
Don Juannoun: A historical label describes a man who pursues women for sexual success and loses interest afterward, disregarding their feelings.
don’t-hold functionsnoun: Some measured thinking abilities tend to weaken with aging or brain-related conditions more readily than established knowledge does.
Donders’s lawnoun: With the head fixed, each gaze direction has a consistent eye orientation regardless of the route taken there.
Donders’s methodnoun: Researchers estimate a mental step's duration by subtracting reaction times for tasks assumed to differ only by that step.
donepezilnoun: A medicine for mild to moderate dementia that slows acetylcholine breakdown, helping memory and thinking.
dong quainoun: An herbal preparation from Angelica sinensis is traditionally used for menstrual and menopausal symptoms, but evidence of benefit remains inconclusive.
donor inseminationnoun: A medical procedure places sperm from a donor into the reproductive tract to try to achieve pregnancy.
door-in-the-face techniquephrase: Getting someone to reject a huge favor first can make them more likely to agree to a smaller one.
DOPabbreviation: Short for dermo-optical perception, this names an unproven claim that touch alone can reveal visual features such as color.
dopa (DOPA)noun: An amino acid the brain uses to make dopamine and related chemical messengers.
dopa decarboxylasenoun: An enzyme converts L-dopa into dopamine, helping cells produce a chemical messenger involved in movement and behavior.
dopac (DOPAC)noun: Dihydroxyphenylacetic acid forms when dopamine breaks down and helps researchers estimate dopamine activity in the brain.
dopamine (DA)noun: A brain chemical that helps control movement, motivation, and reward, and is involved in disorders like Parkinson's.
dopamine hypothesisphrase: Suggests schizophrenia involves too much dopamine activity in some brain pathways, and sometimes too little in others.
dopamine receptornoun: A cell protein binds dopamine and starts changes in how the cell functions.
dopamine systemnoun: Several brain pathways use dopamine to help regulate movement, learning from outcomes, thinking, and hormone release.
dopamine-receptor agonistnoun: A substance attaches to dopamine receptors and activates them, producing some effects similar to dopamine's.
dopamine-receptor antagonistnoun: A substance occupies dopamine receptors without activating them, reducing the signals dopamine can send through those receptors.
dopaminergicadjective: Using, releasing, or affected by dopamine, a brain chemical that helps control movement, reward, and attention.
dopaminergic agentnoun: In this usage, a substance directly activates dopamine receptors and produces effects resembling those of dopamine.
Doparnoun: This brand name identifies levodopa, a medicine converted into dopamine and used to treat Parkinson's disease.
dopingnoun: People misuse performance-enhancing substances to improve physical ability, appearance, or mental performance.
Doppelganger phenomenonnoun: A person holds a false belief that an identical double exists who shares their appearance and behavior.
Doppler effectnoun: Relative motion between a wave source and an observer changes the frequency the observer receives.
Doppler ultrasonographynoun: An imaging technique uses changes in reflected ultrasound to estimate blood movement through vessels.
Dora casenoun: Freud's historical report about a patient called Dora helped develop his ideas about repression, dream interpretation, and transference.
Doralnoun: This brand contains quazepam, a benzodiazepine medicine used to help with sleep difficulties.
Doridennoun: This brand name identifies glutethimide, an older sedative formerly used for anxiety and sleep difficulties.
dorsaladjective: Toward the back or upper side of the body, especially in anatomy.
dorsal anterior cingulate cortexnoun: An upper region of the anterior cingulate cortex helps monitor errors, manage competing responses, and guide attention.
dorsal columnnoun: A bundle of nerve fibers along the spinal cord's back carries sensory information upward toward the brain.
dorsal column systemnoun: A spinal sensory pathway carries information about fine touch, vibration, and body position toward the brain.
dorsal hornnoun: Each rear projection of spinal gray matter receives and processes incoming sensory signals.
dorsal posterior cingulate cortexnoun: An upper section of the brain’s posterior cingulate cortex participates in networks involved in attention and internally focused thought.
dorsal rootnoun: A bundle of sensory nerve fibers enters each side of the spinal cord through its rear surface.
dorsal streamnoun: A visual brain pathway processes movement and spatial location, helping guide actions toward objects.
dorsal tegmental bundlenoun: This nerve pathway originates in the locus coeruleus and contributes fibers to the medial forebrain bundle.
dorsiflexionnoun: An ankle or wrist bends to bring the foot upward or the hand backward toward its dorsal surface.
dorsolateraladjective: Describes a place that is toward both the back and the side.
dorsolateral columnnoun: A motor pathway along the spinal cord’s rear outer region carries brain signals that help control voluntary movement.
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)phrase: This front brain area helps hold information in mind, control attention on purpose, and support speech planning.
dorsomedial nucleus (DMN)noun: A cluster of thalamic nerve cells connects with frontal brain regions and contributes to memory and emotion.
dorsoventraladjective: An orientation runs from the body’s back side toward its front or belly side.
dose–response relationshipnoun: This pattern describes how changing a drug’s dose affects either response strength or the likelihood of a particular effect.
dot figurenoun: An arrangement of dots can seem to change shape as the viewer groups the dots differently.
dot plotnoun: A graph places dots according to paired measurements, showing how two measured characteristics relate.
dotting testnoun: A timed movement test measures how many pencil dots someone makes freely or inside small target circles.
doublenoun: In psychodrama, a helper speaks or acts as the main person's hidden feelings and thoughts.
double alternationnoun: An experimental sequence repeats two events of one type followed by two events of a different type.
double approach–avoidance conflictnoun: A person struggles to choose between two options because each offers both appealing benefits and unwanted drawbacks.
double bindphrase: Getting two opposite messages from the same person at once leaves no safe way to respond.
double blindadjective: A study keeps both participants and researchers interacting with them unaware of which experimental condition each participant receives.
double bootstrappingnoun: A statistical method resamples data with replacement at two levels to improve estimates of uncertainty or reduce bias.
double consciousnessnoun: Du Bois described Black Americans experiencing themselves through their own perspective while also recognizing how White society sees them.
double deceptionnoun: Researchers provide an apparent explanation after a deceptive study, but that explanation deliberately misleads participants again.
double depressionnoun: An older clinical description covers a major depressive episode occurring alongside an existing, long-lasting pattern of milder depression.
double dissociationnoun: Two conditions show opposite selective effects on two abilities, supporting the idea that those abilities rely on partly separate systems.
double entendrenoun: An expression allows two interpretations, often with one carrying a sexual suggestion.
double helixnoun: Two connected strands spiral around each other to form the usual structure of DNA, which carries genetic information.
double imagenoun: An extra visual copy of an object can arise from vision problems or normal viewing at different distances.
double insanitynoun: An outdated label describes two closely connected people sharing the same delusional beliefs.
double personalitynoun: A historical description portrays one person as having two relatively separate, contrasting identity states.
double predestinationnoun: A Christian theological belief holds that God determines beforehand who will receive salvation and who will face damnation.
double standardphrase: Judging the same behavior differently depending on which person or group does it.
double visionnoun: A person sees two images of one object instead of a single combined image.
double-approach conflictnoun: A person must choose between two equally appealing options that cannot both be taken.
double-aspect theorynoun: A philosophical view proposes that mental experience and physical existence are different aspects of one underlying reality.
double-avoidance conflictnoun: A person must choose between two options that seem equally undesirable.
double-simultaneous stimulationnoun: An examiner presents two sensory signals together, usually on opposite body sides, to assess whether both are noticed.
double-simultaneous tactile sensationnoun: A person can notice touches at two separate body locations when both happen together.
double-Y conditionnoun: A person has an extra Y chromosome, usually resulting in an XYY chromosome pattern.
doublingnoun: An increase that makes something two times its earlier amount, size, or number.
doubtnoun: Feeling unsure or lacking confidence in yourself, another person, or what will happen.
doubting obsessionnoun: Persistent, intrusive uncertainty about seemingly clear matters causes distress and may lead to repeated checking.
doulanoun: A trained support professional offers emotional and practical help around childbirth without providing medical care in that role.
Down syndromenoun: A genetic condition caused by extra chromosome 21 that often brings developmental delays, distinctive features, and intellectual disability.
down throughphrase: In clairvoyance testing, naming a stacked Zener deck's sequence starting with the uppermost card and moving downward.
down-regulationnoun: Cells have fewer receptor molecules in a particular location, which can make them less responsive to chemical messages.
downernoun: An informal drug label describes substances that slow central nervous system activity, promoting calm or sleep.
downward communicationnoun: Information travels from people with greater organizational authority to people in positions below them.
downward drift hypothesisnoun: A proposed explanation suggests emerging schizophrenia can contribute to poverty and isolation, helping explain its concentration in disadvantaged urban areas.
downward mobilitynoun: A person or group moves into a lower position in society’s economic or social hierarchy.
downward social comparisonphrase: Judging yourself against people doing worse to feel better about your own situation.
dowrynoun: Some marriage customs involve a bride’s relatives transferring wealth, such as money or property, to her groom.
dowsingnoun: A person uses movements of a held rod or stick to supposedly locate underground water or minerals.
doxepinnoun: A tricyclic antidepressant that strongly causes sleepiness and can also be used for insomnia or pain.
doxylaminenoun: An antihistamine that causes drowsiness is used as an ingredient in some sleep medicines available without prescription.
dPCCabbreviation: The abbreviation expands to dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, an upper subdivision of a brain area supporting memory and attention.
DPEabbreviation: Deliberate psychological education uses experiences, role-taking, and reflection to support personal growth and ethical thinking in young people.
DQabbreviation: A developmental quotient compares estimated developmental age with actual age by dividing the first by the second.
DRAabbreviation: A behavior method that rewards a better replacement behavior instead of the problem behavior.
drama therapynoun: A therapeutic approach uses acting and other theater activities to help people understand themselves and express feelings.
Dramaminenoun: The trade name identifies dimenhydrinate, an antihistamine used to ease nausea and other symptoms caused by motion.
dramaticsnoun: Theatrical activities can support rehabilitation by having participants perform scripted scenes or explore situations through imaginative play.
dramatizationnoun: Exaggerated expressions or actions can make an experience seem more important and draw attention from others.
drawing disabilitynoun: Difficulty copying visual patterns into drawings or assembled objects is also called constructional apraxia.
DRCabbreviation: Damage-risk criteria estimate hearing damage risk by considering both sound intensity and how long exposure lasts.
DRD2 genenoun: A section of DNA provides instructions for making D2 receptors, which allow cells to respond to dopamine.
dreadnoun: A strong, sinking fear about something bad that seems likely to happen.
dreamnoun: A storylike set of thoughts, feelings, and images experienced during sleep, especially during REM sleep.
dream analysisphrase: Interpreting dreams to uncover hidden wishes, feelings, or symbols that may shape a person's behavior.
dream anxiety disordernoun: An older name for nightmare disorder describes repeated, memorable, upsetting dreams that cause awakening and significant distress or everyday difficulties.
dream censorshipnoun: Freud proposed that dreams disguise unconscious wishes to keep their disturbing meaning from becoming directly known.
dream contentphrase: The pictures, thoughts, and urges that show up during a dream.
dream deprivationnoun: Researchers repeatedly wake sleepers during rapid eye movement sleep to investigate what happens when dreaming during that stage is interrupted.
dream egonoun: Jung proposed that a portion of the waking self remains active as the self experienced within dreams.
dream incorporationnoun: A sensation from the body or surroundings becomes woven into events experienced while dreaming.
dream interpretationphrase: Looking for hidden wishes or conflicts in a person's dreams, usually in psychodynamic therapy.
dream stimulusnoun: An outside event, bodily sensation, image, feeling, or memory may provide material that starts or shapes a dream.
dream suggestionnoun: During hypnosis, a therapist asks someone to dream about a concern while hypnotized or during later sleep.
dream-worknoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes that hidden wishes and meanings are reshaped into the scenes and images a dreamer experiences.
dreamy statenoun: A short period of altered awareness feels dreamlike and includes seeing, hearing, or smelling things without matching external sources.
dressing aidnoun: An adapted tool helps a person with a disability put on or fasten clothing more independently.
dressing apraxianoun: A difficulty organizing clothing and dressing movements interferes with getting dressed and can occur following brain injury.
DRGsabbreviation: Diagnosis-related groups classify hospital stays into categories used to determine how much healthcare providers are paid.
DRHabbreviation: A differential reinforcement schedule strengthens behavior by providing a reward only when responses occur at a sufficiently high rate.
driftnoun: A gradual loss of accuracy or consistency in measuring, rating, or performance over time.
drift diffusion modelnoun: A mathematical model predicts two-option choices and decision times by tracking uncertain evidence until it reaches either decision boundary.
drift hypothesisnoun: One proposed explanation links higher schizophrenia rates in poor urban areas to illness-related losses of income and social connections.
drifting attentionnoun: Disrupted brain alerting systems allow only brief attention after prompting before a person slips back into drowsiness.
drillnoun: Careful repeated practice of mental or physical steps until they are learned and become automatic.
drinking aidnoun: An adapted cup, holder, straw, or similar device helps someone with a disability drink liquids independently.
drinking episodenoun: One stretch of drinking forms a single occasion, which may be brief or continue for a longer time.
drinkometernoun: A laboratory device counts how often an animal touches a drinking tube with its tongue.
drivenoun: An internal push, often caused by need or discomfort, that energizes goal-directed behavior.
drive discriminationnoun: An organism distinguishes among bodily, emotional, or psychological needs and chooses actions suited to the particular need.
drive displacementnoun: When one motivation is blocked, a different motivation becomes active and directs behavior toward another activity.
drive statenoun: A proposed internal readiness for action arises from an unmet need, discomfort, or another event that motivates behavior.
drive stimulusnoun: Hull proposed that a motivational state produces nerve signals, and actions that reduce those signals become stronger through learning.
drive strengthnoun: The intensity of a motivation was estimated in Hull's theory using the time a need had remained unmet.
drive theoryphrase: Behavior is pushed by built-in urges, especially to reduce tension from unmet biological needs or instincts.
drive-induction theorynoun: Sheffield proposed that excitement generated by consuming a reward strengthens behavior, with greater induced motivation producing stronger reinforcement.
drive-reduction theoryphrase: Behavior gets learned and repeated when it lowers an internal need state, such as hunger or thirst.
driver trainingnoun: In rehabilitation, people with disabilities learn to operate vehicles using controls or equipment adapted to their needs.
DRLabbreviation: A behavior plan that gives rewards only when a behavior happens less often than before.
DROabbreviation: Giving rewards only when a problem behavior does not happen during a set time.
dromomanianoun: A historical label describes an overwhelming urge to travel that disrupts finances, work, relationships, or personal stability.
dronabinolnoun: Another name for tetrahydrocannabinol, the main mind-altering chemical in cannabis.
dronenoun: A slang name for mephedrone identifies a recreational stimulant that can produce euphoria, agitation, and changes in perception.
drop-in centernoun: A community facility offers support without appointments and may also provide opportunities for social activities and learning.
droperidolnoun: A rapidly acting antipsychotic medicine is used in surgical care and sometimes to manage severe agitation during psychiatric emergencies.
dropoutnoun: Someone who leaves school, a program, or treatment before finishing it.
Drosophilanoun: A group of small fruit fly species includes organisms widely studied to understand genes and their connections with behavior.
drowsinessnoun: Reduced wakefulness brings poorer self-control, harder thinking, and a drifting toward brief muscle relaxation and sleep.
DRSabbreviation: An abbreviation names either the Dementia Rating Scale for thinking abilities or the Disability Rating Scale for brain injury recovery.
drugnoun: A chemical people take to change body or mind functions, for treatment, testing, research, or pleasure.
drug abusenoun: An older label for repeated drug use that causes serious problems at school, work, home, or with the law.
Drug Abuse Resistance Educationnoun: Police officers lead this school program, helping students practice refusing drugs and responding to pressure from peers.
Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST)noun: A yes-or-no questionnaire screens for problems involving drugs apart from alcohol, with 28 questions in its original version.
drug abuse treatmentnoun: Care using counseling, medication, structured programs, or other support helps people address substance use disorders and work toward recovery.
drug addictionphrase: A strong, hard-to-control need for a drug despite harm and withdrawal or cravings.
drug courtnoun: A specialized court process emphasizes supervised treatment and rehabilitation for eligible people facing drug-related charges.
drug culturenoun: Shared routines, activities, and ways of living develop among groups whose lives involve regular use of mind-altering drugs.
drug dealernoun: A person sells prohibited drugs or sells otherwise permitted drugs through unlawful means.
drug dependencenoun: A former diagnostic category described persistent substance use despite serious problems, with a strong urge to continue and possible physical adaptation.
drug discriminationnoun: This ability involves recognizing substances through their internal effects, including telling a drug apart from an inactive comparison substance.
drug educationnoun: Teaching explains how drugs affect the body and mind, often focusing on substances that change mood, thinking, or perception.
drug holidaynoun: A planned, temporary medication pause under clinical guidance allows evaluation of treatment effects, side effects, or dosage needs.
drug interactionsphrase: When two or more medicines are taken together, one can change how another works in the body.
drug interdictionnoun: Law enforcement officers stop illegal drugs during transport and take them out of circulation.
drug metabolismphrase: The body changes a drug into forms that are easier to remove, often in the liver.
drug rehabilitationnoun: A coordinated set of treatments and supports helps someone with substance dependence stop using drugs and maintain abstinence.
drug screening instrumentnoun: A short interview or questionnaire identifies people who may need a fuller assessment of substance use and related problems.
drug self-administrationnoun: An individual takes a drug themselves, or a research animal performs an action to receive a drug dose.
drug subculturenoun: A group develops shared customs, activities, and ways of living around regular use of drugs that alter experience.
drug synergismnoun: Drugs interact so their joint effect exceeds what their separate effects would predict.
drug therapynoun: A health condition is treated using medication to reduce symptoms or address its causes.
drug tolerancephrase: After repeated use, a drug has less effect, so more is needed for the same result.
drug traffickingnoun: People illegally move, distribute, or sell drugs through a supply network.
drug withdrawalnoun: Physical and mental symptoms can develop when someone stops or reduces a drug their body has adapted to.
drug-induced amnesianoun: A substance causes difficulty forming new memories, recalling earlier experiences, or both.
drug-induced lactationnoun: A medication causes unexpected breast milk production, sometimes by raising the hormone prolactin.
drug-induced parkinsonismnoun: A medication causes movement symptoms resembling Parkinson's disease, such as stiffness, shaking, and slowed movement.
drug-induced psychosisnoun: A drug or medication causes hallucinations, delusions, or other serious difficulties distinguishing internal experiences from shared reality.
drug-seeking behaviornoun: A person takes actions to obtain a substance they misuse or depend on.
dry eyesnoun: The eye surface becomes excessively dry, sometimes because of tissue changes, autoimmune illness, or insufficient vitamin A.
DSabbreviation: Dual scaling assigns numerical scores to categories so researchers can explore relationships in data.
DSHabbreviation: Deliberate self-harm means intentionally injuring one's body, here understood as occurring without an intention to die.
DSM–5abbreviation: Published in 2013, this fifth-edition psychiatric manual provides descriptions and criteria for diagnosing mental disorders.
DSM–IV–TRabbreviation: Published in 2000, this text revision updated the fourth edition of a psychiatric manual describing mental disorders and diagnostic criteria.
DSTabbreviation: The dexamethasone suppression test measures whether cortisol levels decrease as expected after a person receives dexamethasone.
DTDabbreviation: Developmental trauma disorder is a proposed diagnosis describing widespread difficulties following repeated harmful interpersonal experiences during childhood.
DTIabbreviation: A brain scan that tracks how water moves through white matter pathways.
DTPSabbreviation: The diffuse thalamic projection system sends widespread signals from thalamic nuclei to the cortex, helping regulate its activity.
DTsabbreviation: Delirium tremens is a dangerous alcohol withdrawal condition involving severe confusion, shaking, and body changes that require emergency care.
dual antimicrobial therapynoun: An infection is treated with two antimicrobial medicines together, usually antibiotics.
dual careersnoun: Both partners in a household actively pursue careers as important parts of their lives.
dual coding theorynoun: A theory proposes that information can be stored through both words and mental images, providing additional ways to remember it.
dual consciousnessnoun: A historical psychological concept describes two distinct, relatively disconnected states of awareness coexisting within one person.
dual diagnosisnoun: A person is identified as having two different disorders at once, often involving mental health and substance use.
dual encodingnoun: A person understands something both as a physical object and as a symbol standing for something else.
dual instinct theorynoun: Freud proposed that opposing life and death drives interact to shape human behavior.
dual memory theorynoun: A memory model proposes separate stores for holding information briefly and keeping it over longer periods.
dual orientationnoun: Someone recognizes an object's own physical identity while also understanding what that object represents.
dual personalitynoun: An older description portrays a person's personality as two relatively separate, often contrasting states.
dual process model of persuasionnoun: A theory explains attitude change through either careful consideration of a message or less demanding judgments based on simple cues.
dual process theoryphrase: Human thinking uses two systems: fast, automatic intuition and slower, effortful reasoning.
dual process theory of color visionnoun: A theory combines three types of color-sensitive receptors with later processing that compares signals in opposing color channels.
dual relationshipphrase: When a therapist has another personal or business tie to a client, ethics problems can arise.
dual representationnoun: A person can recognize an object as a thing itself while also understanding its symbolic connection to something else.
dual scalingnoun: A statistical method gives categories numerical scores to reveal patterns and connections within data.
dual thresholdsnoun: A perception theory proposes a lower signal level for uncertain detection and a higher level for certain detection.
dual trace hypothesisnoun: Hebb proposed that repeating neural activity holds memories briefly, while lasting changes at neural connections support longer storage.
dual-action antidepressantnoun: An antidepressant acts mainly through two major brain messenger systems, often those using serotonin and norepinephrine.
dual-aspect physicalismnoun: A philosophical view treats physical processes and subjective experience as two aspects of reality, with the physical aspect more fundamental.
dual-attitude modelnoun: A theory proposes that a new conscious attitude can override an older automatic attitude without erasing it.
dual-store model of memorynoun: A theory divides memory into a temporary store and a separate store that keeps information much longer.
dual-task competitionnoun: Two tasks performed together interfere because they draw on limited mental resources, often slowing responses or increasing mistakes.
dual-task performancenoun: Someone carries out two activities at once, allowing researchers to study attention limits and how activities are coordinated.
dualismnoun: A philosophical view holds that mind and physical matter are fundamentally different kinds of reality.
duality of languagenoun: Language can be understood on two levels: its speech sounds and the meanings conveyed through words and sentence structure.
Duchenne muscular dystrophynoun: An inherited condition involving missing functional dystrophin causes progressive muscle weakness, usually beginning in early childhood and mainly affecting boys.
Duchenne smilenoun: A smile raises the mouth's corners and engages muscles around the eyes, often accompanying enjoyment.
ductnoun: A narrow bodily tube carries fluid, such as tears, saliva, or bile, from one location to another.
ductless glandnoun: An endocrine gland releases hormones into blood circulation without using a tube to carry its secretions.
ductus deferensnoun: A muscular tube transports sperm from the epididymis toward the ejaculatory duct.
due processphrase: Fair legal procedures that protect a person's rights before the government can punish or limit freedom.
due process modelnoun: A view of criminal justice prioritizes protecting accused people's rights and following fair procedures.
dull normaladjective: An outdated label described intellectual test performance near the lower end of average, roughly IQ scores of 80–90.
dummynoun: An inactive substitute matches a study drug’s appearance and delivery to help keep participants and researchers unaware of treatment assignments.
dummy variablenoun: A numerical indicator uses zero or one to record whether an observation belongs to a particular category.
dummy variable codingnoun: Researchers represent categories using zero-or-one indicators so statistical models can compare groups against a chosen reference group.
Duncan’s multiple range test (Duncan’s MRT)noun: A statistical procedure compares ordered group averages, often after an overall analysis finds evidence of differences.
Dunn–Bonferroni procedurenoun: A statistical adjustment divides the overall significance threshold among comparisons to limit false positive findings across the full set.
Dunn–Šidák procedurenoun: A statistical adjustment sets stricter thresholds for multiple independent tests to limit the chance of any false positive finding.
Dunn’s multiple comparison testnoun: In this usage, a statistical procedure divides the overall significance threshold among comparisons to control false positive findings.
Dunnett’s multiple comparison testnoun: A statistical procedure compares each treatment group’s average with one shared control while limiting false positives across those comparisons.
duplex theorynoun: A theory explains vision through rods that support seeing in dim conditions and cones that support seeing in brighter conditions.
dura maternoun: A tough outer membrane surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, forming their strongest protective membrane layer.
durable power of attorneynoun: In health care, a legal document appoints someone to make medical decisions if the person granting authority becomes unable.
Duragesicnoun: A brand name identifies a skin patch that delivers fentanyl, a powerful opioid medicine used to manage severe pain.
duration of untreated illnessnoun: The interval between an illness beginning and treatment starting helps researchers study how treatment delays relate to later outcomes.
duressnoun: Pressure or threats force someone to do or say something they do not freely choose.
Durham rulenoun: A historical legal test excused criminal responsibility when an unlawful action resulted from a mental disorder or intellectual impairment.
Dusky standardnoun: A U.S. legal standard requires defendants to understand their proceedings factually and rationally and consult meaningfully with their lawyer.
dustbowl empiricismnoun: An approach to research emphasizes gathering observations and data while giving relatively little attention to developing explanatory theories.
Dutch Hunger Winternoun: A wartime famine in the Netherlands during 1944–1945 enabled research linking prenatal starvation with increased later mental health risks.
duty to protectphrase: Mental health professionals must take reasonable steps to prevent clients from seriously harming themselves or other people.
duty to warnphrase: Mental health professionals may need to alert potential victims or helpers when a client may seriously harm someone or themself.
DVabbreviation: The abbreviation means dependent variable, the outcome researchers measure, explain, or predict in a study.
DVDabbreviation: The abbreviation means developmental verbal dyspraxia, a childhood difficulty planning the movements needed for clear, consistent speech.
Dvorak keyboardnoun: A typing layout places frequently used English letters near resting fingers to reduce the movement needed for typing.
DVTabbreviation: The abbreviation means deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot inside a deep vein, commonly in a leg.
dwarfismnoun: Unusually short body growth caused by genes, hormones, poor nutrition, or disease, with normal or uneven body proportions.
Dxabbreviation: The abbreviation means diagnosis, identifying a health condition from symptoms, examination findings, and other available evidence.
dyad (diad)noun: Two people linked in a relationship and influencing each other closely.
dyadic accuracynoun: A person correctly judges how someone will behave specifically with them, beyond that other person’s usual behavior with others.
dyadic effectnoun: Behavior arises from a particular pair’s interaction beyond what either person’s usual behavior with other people would predict.
dyadic relationshipnoun: A bond involves two people in a committed intimate connection or in a therapist–client relationship.
dyadic sessionnoun: A therapy appointment brings one therapist together with one client for individual work.
dyadic therapynoun: Individual psychological treatment involves one therapist working with one client and adapting care to that person’s needs.
dying phobianoun: An excessive, lasting fear about dying or death can interfere with everyday life.
dying processnoun: Essential bodily functions decline irreversibly toward death, with the pace and pattern varying across people and conditions.
dynamicadjective: Describing people or systems that keep changing because inner motives and interactions are actively shaping them.
dynamic anthropometrynoun: Designers consider users’ body movements so products and systems fit their actions and reduce the adjustments users must make.
dynamic assessmentnoun: An evaluation explores learning ability and potential through tasks that reveal how a person responds to support or increasing difficulty.
dynamic calculusnoun: Cattell’s proposed model explains motivation using measurements of inborn drives and learned emotional commitments called sentiments.
dynamic corenoun: A proposed basis of consciousness is a shifting thalamus–cortex network that combines information while preserving many distinct activity patterns.
dynamic effect lawnoun: Cattell proposed that actions become habits when they repeatedly succeed in achieving the goals that motivated them.
dynamic equilibriumnoun: A system remains stable overall because ongoing opposing processes balance each other at matching rates.
dynamic formulationnoun: A therapist continually organizes information about a client into an evolving explanation that guides understanding and treatment planning.
dynamic interactionismnoun: A model explains personality and development through ongoing exchanges in which people and their surroundings continually influence each other.
dynamic kinesthetic imagerynoun: A person imagines the bodily feeling of an action while making physical movements that accompany the imagined action.
dynamic modelnoun: In psychoanalytic theory, unconscious drives and their conflicts are proposed to shape personality, behavior, and emotional difficulties.
dynamic psychologynoun: An approach to psychology emphasizes how motivation and internal drives help explain why people behave as they do.
dynamic psychotherapynoun: Therapy rooted in psychoanalysis explores unconscious feelings, motives, and relationship patterns to build self-understanding and support change.
dynamic self-distributionnoun: In Gestalt psychology, parts are proposed to organize themselves according to the whole pattern and their roles within it.
dynamic skill theorynoun: Fischer proposed that thinking skills develop through interactions with surroundings, with supportive settings helping people reach their best performance.
dynamic social impact theorynoun: A theory proposes that repeated social influence strengthens majorities and creates local opinion clusters while allowing minority views to persist.
dynamic systemphrase: A group whose connected parts keep affecting one another as each part changes over time.
dynamic systems theorynoun: A theory explains behavior through interacting personal and environmental processes that organize themselves across time, sometimes producing large, unexpected changes.
dynamic testingphrase: Measures both what someone knows now and how much they can learn with harder tasks and help.
dynamic touchnoun: People sense an object’s properties, such as length or shape, by moving and handling it.
dynamic traitnoun: In Cattell’s personality theory, a motivational characteristic supplies direction or energy for a person’s actions.
dynamic unconsciousnoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes that hidden wishes, memories, and conflicts actively influence feelings and behavior despite being outside awareness.
dynamic visual displaynoun: A screen or indicator presents information that changes over time, such as speed, temperature, or sound level.
dynamicsnoun: The patterns of forces and interactions that shape how people or groups change and act.
dynamogenesisnoun: Sensory stimulation is proposed to produce movement or increase the force generated by muscles and nerves.
dynamometrynoun: A measuring device records how much force someone produces, often through a hand squeeze or another muscle action.
dynorphinnoun: A naturally produced brain signaling peptide acts mainly at kappa opioid receptors, helping regulate pain, stress, and mood.
dys-prefix: This word beginning indicates difficulty, pain, or a disturbance in how something develops or works.
dysacusisnoun: Distressing sounds are experienced because of problems in the ear, such as ringing linked to inner ear disease.
dysaesthesianoun: Sensations are altered or unusual, especially when a person experiences touch.
dysarthrianoun: Trouble speaking clearly caused by damage to the brain, nerves, or muscles used for speech.
dysautonomianoun: The nerve system managing automatic body functions works poorly, affecting processes such as heartbeat, digestion, or blood pressure.
dysbasianoun: Walking becomes difficult or uneven because of a neurological condition or a psychological disorder.
dysbulianoun: A person has difficulty sustaining thought or attention, or forming and carrying out intentions.
dyscalculianoun: A developmental difficulty with simple arithmetic caused by an inborn problem, not a brain injury.
dyscheiria (dyschiria)noun: A person misjudges which body side receives touch or another sensation.
dyschromatopsianoun: Distinguishing colors is difficult because of a difference present from birth or a condition that develops later.
dysconjugate gazenoun: The eyes fail to move together in a coordinated way when looking around.
dyscontrolnoun: A person has difficulty managing thoughts, feelings, intentions, or actions, sometimes making impulses hard to resist.
dysdiadochokinesisnoun: Quickly switching back and forth between opposite movements becomes difficult or impossible.
dyseidetic dyslexianoun: A historically proposed, poorly supported dyslexia subtype involves weak whole word recognition and heavy reliance on sounding words out.
dysesthesia (disesthesia; dysaesthesia)noun: A person experiences altered sensations, most often involving how touch feels.
dysexecutive syndrome (DES)noun: Brain dysfunction, especially involving frontal regions, causes a cluster of difficulties with planning, starting actions, switching tasks, and self-control.
dysfluencynoun: A break in smooth speech, with repeated sounds, stretched words, or pauses.
dysfunctionnoun: Poor or disturbed functioning in behavior, emotions, or how a body part or system works.
dysfunctional familyphrase: Describes a family where poor communication and unhealthy roles block closeness, honest feelings, and healthy behavior.
dysfunctions associated with sleep, sleep stages, or partial arousalsnoun: This historical sleep disorder category groups unusual events during sleep or incomplete waking, including sleepwalking, nightmares, and sleep terrors.
dysgenicadjective: In historical eugenic thinking, this describes influences claimed to worsen inherited characteristics across generations.
dysgeusianoun: Taste perception changes, making foods or drinks taste different from how they usually do.
dysgnosianoun: Brain damage or dysfunction causes a relatively mild difficulty recognizing things through a particular sense.
dysgrammatismnoun: A language impairment makes it difficult to arrange spoken words and grammatical forms correctly.
dysgraphianoun: A neurological condition disrupts writing, potentially affecting spelling, letter formation, or the movements needed to write.
dyskinesianoun: Unwanted body movements, such as tics or spasms, that happen without a person's control.
dyskinetic dysarthrianoun: Neurological problems with movement control disrupt speech, affecting its pace, rhythm, or clarity through reduced or excessive movement.
dyslexianoun: A brain-based learning disorder that makes reading and spelling hard despite normal intelligence and adequate teaching.
dyslogianoun: In this usage, brain or spinal cord dysfunction reduces a person's capacity to speak without eliminating it completely.
dysmenorrheanoun: Menstrual periods involve pain, often including cramps in the lower belly.
dysmetabolic syndromenoun: A cluster of problems involving metabolism raises risks for diabetes, stroke, and illnesses affecting the heart or blood vessels.
dysmetrianoun: Movement is poorly scaled in distance, speed, or force, often causing a person to overshoot or undershoot a target.
dysmetropsianoun: Objects seem incorrectly sized or shaped, even when a person can still identify them.
dysmnesianoun: Memory works less effectively during a brief episode or over a longer period.
dysmorphismnoun: A body part has an unusual physical shape or structure.
dysmorphophobianoun: An older diagnostic name describes intense, distressing focus on appearance flaws that seem minor or invisible to other people.
dysnomianoun: Difficulty retrieving words from knowledge memory makes naming objects or finding the intended word harder.
dysorexianoun: Appetite or eating patterns are disturbed in ways that differ from typical functioning.
dysorthographianoun: A person has an impaired capacity to spell words correctly.
dysosmianoun: Smell perception is disrupted, including changes in sensitivity, distorted odors, or smells experienced without an outside source.
dysostosisnoun: Bones develop unusually because of inherited factors, environmental influences, or a combination of both.
dyspareunianoun: A person experiences pain during sexual intercourse, with possible physical and psychological contributors.
dyspepsianoun: Indigestion causes discomfort or pain in the upper belly, sometimes with fullness or burning.
dysphagianoun: Swallowing becomes difficult, sometimes because nerves or muscles involved in the process are not working properly.
dysphagia spasticanoun: Throat muscle spasms make swallowing difficult or painful, with physical or psychological factors potentially involved.
dysphasianoun: An acquired brain injury or disease makes producing or understanding language difficult.
dysphemianoun: Difficulties producing voice, forming spoken sounds, or hearing are associated with psychological distress under this label.
dysphonetic dyslexianoun: A historically proposed, poorly supported dyslexia subtype involves difficulty connecting letters with sounds when reading words.
dysphonianoun: Voice production is impaired, changing qualities such as pitch, loudness, or how the voice sounds.
dysphorianoun: A state of uneasy unhappiness and irritability that can happen in several mental health conditions.
dysphrasianoun: This older name describes acquired difficulty expressing or understanding language because of brain damage.
dysplastic typenoun: Kretschmer's disputed historical classification linked uneven body proportions with mixed personality traits and a supposed tendency toward introversion.
dyspneanoun: Breathing feels difficult, uncomfortable, or insufficient, creating a sense of breathlessness.
dysponesisnoun: In relaxation and biofeedback work, habitual unnecessary muscle tension is described as contributing to headaches, teeth grinding, or related problems.
dyspraxianoun: Neurological difficulty organizing skilled movements affects coordination even when muscle strength and basic sensation are adequate.
dysprosody (dysprosodia)noun: Unusual patterns of speech rhythm, emphasis, or pitch change how someone's spoken words sound.
dysregulationnoun: Poor control of emotions, behavior, or body responses so reactions become too strong, too weak, or poorly timed.
dysrhythmianoun: An irregular rhythm occurs in an activity such as speaking or the brain's electrical signaling.
dyssemianoun: A person has difficulty understanding or expressing messages through facial expressions, gestures, posture, or vocal tone.
dyssocial behaviornoun: A historical label described unlawful or delinquent actions thought to develop through social influences.
dyssocial personalitynoun: An older name for antisocial personality disorder describes a lasting pattern of disregarding other people's rights.
dyssomnianoun: An older diagnostic grouping covered problems with sleep duration, restfulness, or scheduling.
dysspermianoun: Sperm cells have structural problems or do not function as expected.
dystaxianoun: A mild form of ataxia makes it difficult to coordinate voluntary muscle movements smoothly.
dysthymianoun: An older term describes mild or moderate depressed mood, or more specifically a lasting depressive disorder.
dysthymic disordernoun: An older diagnosis described enduring depression with symptoms generally less intense than those of major depressive episodes.
dystocianoun: Labor or childbirth progresses with unusual difficulty or obstruction.
dystonianoun: Painful, sustained muscle tightening that causes twisting movements or unusual body positions.
dystopianoun: An imagined society has deeply unpleasant living conditions, often involving oppression, suffering, or widespread loss of freedom.
dystrophia myotonicanoun: An inherited muscular disorder causes progressive muscle weakening and difficulty relaxing muscles after contraction.
dystrophinnoun: A protein helps support muscle cells, and too little contributes to certain inherited muscle disorders.
dystrophynoun: A disorder involves tissue deterioration from inadequate nourishment, or wasting and weakening of muscles.
dysurianoun: Passing urine causes pain or is difficult to do.
DZ twinsabbreviation: Twin siblings who develop from two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm cells.

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