Glossary / E

Psychology terms starting with E

1,292 terms with short definitions. Study these as flashcards

Eother: In statistics, this symbol stands for the average result expected over many repeated trials.
E trisomynoun: An older name for trisomy 18 describes an extra chromosome 18 copy that affects growth and development.
e-therapynoun: Psychological therapy is delivered through internet communication, such as video sessions or written messages.
EAabbreviation: Educational age indicates the age at which students typically show a given level of school achievement.
EAHCAabbreviation: A 1975 American law required public schools to provide appropriate education for students with disabilities in settings limiting unnecessary separation.
EAPabbreviation: A workplace program that gives employees short-term help for personal or job-related problems.
earnoun: The body part that detects sound and helps keep balance by sending signals to the brain.
ear canalnoun: A passage in the outer ear carries incoming sound toward the eardrum.
ear ossiclesnoun: Three tiny middle-ear bones pass vibrations from the eardrum toward the fluid-filled inner ear.
eardrumnoun: A thin membrane between the outer and middle ear vibrates with sound and moves nearby hearing bones.
Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT)noun: A U.S. Medicaid benefit provides regular health checks, diagnosis, and needed treatment for eligible children and young people.
early bilingualismnoun: A child develops two languages during early childhood, either together or with one introduced soon after the other.
early detectionphrase: Finding an illness at an early stage, before clear symptoms or full damage appear.
early experiencephrase: Events and relationships in the first five years can strongly shape later thinking, feelings, and social behavior.
early immersionnoun: A school program begins in kindergarten or first grade and teaches subjects through a new language across elementary school.
early infantile autismnoun: A historical autism label described early developmental differences in social communication, focused interests, and repetitive patterns of behavior.
early interventionphrase: Special help for babies and toddlers at risk aims to reduce developmental delays and support families early.
early memoryphrase: Adult recall of childhood events usually reaches back only to around age three.
Early Years Cognitive Batterynoun: A set of tasks within the Differential Ability Scales assesses thinking abilities in younger children.
Early Years of Marriage Project (EYM Project)noun: Researchers began tracking American newlyweds in 1986 to investigate marital happiness and divorce, comparing couples identified as Black or White.
early-morning awakening insomnianoun: A recurring sleep problem involves waking too early, still feeling unrested, and being unable to resume sleep.
early-onset Alzheimer’s diseasenoun: Alzheimer's disease begins before age 65, progressively affecting memory, thinking, and everyday functioning.
early-selection theorynoun: An attention theory proposes that information is selected before identification, limiting meaning processing for unattended input.
earwaxnoun: A waxy substance naturally collects in the passage leading into the ear.
ease-of-learning judgmentnoun: Before studying, a person estimates how easily they will learn and remember particular information.
Easterbrook hypothesisnoun: A proposed explanation suggests that greater arousal narrows attention, so a person notices fewer surrounding cues.
eating aidnoun: An adapted tool helps a person with a disability eat more independently.
eating compulsionnoun: A powerful urge to eat feels difficult to resist and may contribute to distressing eating patterns.
eating disorderphrase: A mental disorder where unhealthy thoughts and behaviors about food or eating seriously harm health or daily life.
Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention, Inc.noun: A former nonprofit focused on eating disorders merged with another organization in 2001 to form the National Eating Disorders Association.
Ebbinghaus curvenoun: A graph shows memory retention often falling quickly after learning, then declining more slowly as time passes.
Ebbinghaus illusionnoun: Equal circles appear different in size when one is surrounded by larger circles and the other by smaller circles.
Ebonicsnoun: An alternative name for African American English describes a language variety with its own consistent grammatical and pronunciation patterns.
EBPabbreviation: Evidence-based practice combines strong research findings, professional skill, and a person's needs, culture, and preferences to guide care.
EBVabbreviation: Epstein–Barr virus is a common herpes virus that can cause infectious mononucleosis, especially in adolescents and young adults.
ECA Surveyabbreviation: The Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey studied U.S. mental disorder frequency and mental health service use during the 1980s.
eCBabbreviation: An endogenous cannabinoid is a body-made chemical messenger that helps regulate nerve signaling, mood, memory, appetite, and other functions.
eccentric projectionnoun: A sensation seems located outside the body, rather than at the sensory receptors that detect it.
eccyesisnoun: An embryo implants somewhere beyond the uterine cavity, usually inside a fallopian tube.
ECFabbreviation: An extended care facility provides residential nursing support around the clock and rehabilitation, often after a hospital stay.
ECGabbreviation: An electrocardiogram records the heart's electrical activity as a line of waves using sensors placed on the body.
echinaceanoun: An herbal preparation from coneflower plants is used for colds, although evidence for its benefits is mixed.
echonoun: A repeated or mirrored message or feeling that comes back from other people or groups.
echocardiographynoun: An ultrasound test that makes pictures of the heart's parts and movement while it beats.
echoencephalographynoun: This brain imaging method uses returning ultrasound signals to reveal structures inside the skull.
echographianoun: A writing disturbance involves copying written words or phrases without grasping their meaning.
echoic memoryphrase: Keeps heard sounds in mind for about two to three seconds after they stop.
echolalianoun: Repeating another person's words right after hearing them, often seen in autism or some brain disorders.
echolocationnoun: People and other animals can locate objects by interpreting sounds that bounce back from them.
echophrasianoun: A person repeats speech heard from someone else, sometimes immediately and sometimes later.
echopraxianoun: Automatically copying another person's movements, often seen in catatonia, a state of severe movement disturbance.
echovirusnoun: This enterovirus can cause infections ranging from unnoticed illness to inflammation affecting the brain or its coverings.
eclampsianoun: This serious pregnancy complication involves seizures related to preeclampsia and can occur before birth or afterward.
eclectic behaviorismnoun: This approach to behavior therapy selects techniques from different theories according to the person's needs.
eclectic counselingnoun: This counseling approach combines ideas and methods from several theoretical traditions to help a person.
eclectic psychotherapynoun: This form of psychotherapy draws on multiple theories and techniques to address a client's needs.
eclecticismnoun: An approach selects and combines useful ideas or methods from different systems of thought.
eclimanoun: An unusually strong appetite or hunger that feels difficult to satisfy is described by this word.
ECMabbreviation: An external chemical messenger is a substance released by one organism that affects other organisms.
ecobehavioral assessmentnoun: Observers repeatedly record specific behaviors alongside surrounding events to examine how behavior varies with changing conditions.
ECochGabbreviation: Electrocochleography records electrical responses from the inner ear to help assess how hearing works.
ecofeminismnoun: This perspective connects feminism and environmental concern, proposing shared social roots for exploiting women and nature.
ECoGabbreviation: Electrocorticography records brain electrical signals using sensors placed directly against the surface of the cerebral cortex.
ecological assessmentnoun: Observations across different settings help reveal how a person's behavior changes with their surroundings.
ecological fallacynoun: A reasoning error occurs when patterns found in group data are assumed to describe individual members.
ecological momentary assessment (EMA)noun: Researchers repeatedly collect reports or measurements of current experiences and behavior as people go about everyday life.
ecological nichenoun: An organism's place in its environment includes the resources it uses and the role it plays.
ecological perceptionnoun: Gibson's approach describes directly noticing stable environmental features and opportunities for action while moving through everyday surroundings.
ecological perspectivenoun: This community psychology view examines how people and surrounding social systems influence each other to guide community improvement.
ecological psychologynoun: This approach studies how physical surroundings, social roles, and setting rules shape predictable patterns of behavior.
ecological studynoun: In psychology, this research examines how surrounding physical and social conditions relate to behavior and mental health.
ecological systems theorynoun: Bronfenbrenner's theory explains human development through interactions among individuals and connected layers of their environments over time.
ecological validityphrase: Shows how well a study's results match what happens in real-life settings.
ecologynoun: This science examines how living things interact with one another and with the environments around them.
ecomanianoun: This older label describes excessive preoccupation with family members accompanied by irritability and controlling behavior toward them.
economic modelnoun: In historical psychoanalysis, mental activity was explained through proposed quantities of psychic energy and how that energy was distributed.
Economo’s diseasenoun: Also called encephalitis lethargica, this illness involves brain inflammation associated with extreme sleepiness and problems controlling eye movements.
economynoun: A rule-based system for managing behavior, such as giving tokens as rewards.
economy of effortnoun: Living things tend to conserve energy by carrying out actions efficiently and reducing unnecessary effort.
economy principlenoun: When explanations fit the evidence equally well, this principle favors the one requiring fewer unsupported assumptions.
ecopathologynoun: Community members may label someone psychologically abnormal because that person's behavior conflicts with their local expectations.
ecopsychologynoun: This field encourages understanding humans as part of nature and developing attitudes that support care for the environment.
ecosystemnoun: A connected system where people, groups, and their environment affect one another, so one change can spread widely.
ecosystemic approachnoun: This therapy approach addresses how individuals or families interact with wider social settings, including schools, workplaces, and services.
ecphorynoun: A matching cue activates stored information, bringing a memory or associated feeling back into awareness.
ECSabbreviation: Electroconvulsive shock is an electrical stimulus used to trigger a seizure, including during electroconvulsive therapy.
Ecstasynoun: This common name for MDMA describes a psychoactive drug that can increase energy, pleasure, and feelings of emotional closeness.
ecstatic trancenoun: An altered state of awareness includes intense joy and may occur during meditation or religious practices.
ECTabbreviation: A medical treatment that uses a brief controlled seizure to quickly relieve severe depression.
ECT-induced amnesianoun: Memory loss can follow electroconvulsive therapy, affecting recall of past events or the ability to form new memories.
ecto-prefix: This word part indicates an outer location or a position beyond a structure's boundary.
ectodermnoun: An embryo's outer cell layer develops into structures including the nervous system and the skin's outer covering.
ectohormonenoun: An organism releases this chemical signal outside its body, influencing behavior in other members of its species.
ectomorphnoun: In Sheldon's historical body classification, a person with a slender, elongated build was proposed to have a reserved temperament.
ectopianoun: A body structure or group of cells is located somewhere other than its usual anatomical position.
ectopic pregnancynoun: A pregnancy implants and develops beyond the uterine cavity, usually within a fallopian tube.
ectopic testisnoun: A testis moves away from its usual descent route and settles somewhere outside the scrotum.
ectoplasmnoun: In spiritualist belief, a substance supposedly emerges from a medium's body during attempts to communicate with spirits.
ectothermnoun: An animal obtains most of its body heat from its surroundings rather than generating it internally.
EDabbreviation: The dose of a drug that produces the wanted effect.
EDAabbreviation: Exploratory data analysis examines data for patterns and possible new questions without being limited to predictions made beforehand.
edemanoun: Swelling caused by extra fluid building up in body tissues, organs, or spaces.
edgenoun: A visible boundary where one object or image area ends and another begins.
edge detectornoun: A visual nerve cell or proposed processing unit responds especially strongly to borders between lighter and darker areas.
edge theorynoun: A proposed explanation suggests fear of death prepares people for survival mainly when they sense immediate danger.
EDIabbreviation: The Emory Dyssemia Index screens for difficulties understanding and using unspoken social signals through ratings provided by someone else.
Edinger–Westphal nucleusnoun: A midbrain cell group helps control pupil narrowing and changes in the eye’s focus through parasympathetic signals.
EDRabbreviation: An electrodermal response changes the skin’s electrical properties as sweat gland activity changes with bodily arousal.
edrophoniumnoun: A rapidly acting, brief-lasting drug slows the breakdown of acetylcholine, strengthening signals involved in muscle activity.
educableadjective: Someone described this way has the capacity to learn academic knowledge and skills.
educable mentally retarded (EMR)phrase: An offensive historical school label classified students with intellectual disabilities as able to learn basic academic skills.
educationnoun: Teaching and learning that build knowledge, skills, and values.
Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA; EHA)noun: A historical American education law established public schooling rights for children with disabilities and supported learning alongside peers without disabilities.
educational accelerationnoun: Students move through school material faster than the usual schedule to match their readiness and learning abilities.
educational age (EA)noun: A student’s academic performance is expressed as the age when students typically reach that level.
educational attainment levelnoun: A person’s educational progress can be described by schooling completed, learning achieved, or standards required for advancement.
educational counselingnoun: Professional support helps students plan their education, choose courses or schools, and address problems affecting learning.
educational diagnosisnoun: An assessment investigates learning difficulties and factors affecting school performance, or names the conclusion reached through that investigation.
educational guidancenoun: Counselors help students make educational plans, select suitable courses or schools, and work through learning challenges.
educational linguisticsnoun: A field studies language in schooling and uses knowledge about language to shape teaching methods and education policies.
educational measurementnoun: Researchers and educators design and use tests to assess students’ abilities and academic skills.
educational neurosciencenoun: Researchers study how brain activity supports learning and explore how those findings might improve teaching and school curricula.
educational pacingnoun: The speed of learning or covering school material can be observed and adjusted for individual students or whole classes.
educational placementnoun: Students are matched with learning programs or settings based on their age, abilities, and educational needs.
educational programphrase: An organized course of study that can lead to a degree, certificate, or professional license.
educational psychologyphrase: Studies how people learn in school and how teaching can better support students' needs.
educational quotient (EQ)noun: A score divides a student’s educational age by their actual age, then multiplies the result by 100.
educational retardationnoun: An offensive, outdated expression described slower academic progress associated with disability or occurring within a particular subject or school setting.
educational sport psychologynoun: A specialty teaches psychological skills, such as mental imagery and attention control, to help people improve sports performance.
Educational Testing Service (ETS)noun: This nonprofit develops tests and studies how to measure learning, aiming to make educational assessment accurate and fair.
educational testsnoun: These assessments identify academic skills that need support and measure the extent of learning difficulties.
educational therapynoun: Individualized support combines teaching and therapeutic methods to address learning barriers while developing academic skills, confidence, and independence.
eductionnoun: Reasoning involves discovering the relationship within an analogy, applying that relationship to find a missing term, or both.
Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS)phrase: A forced-choice personality test for adults measures the strength of 15 everyday needs, such as achievement, order, and affiliation.
Edwards Social Desirability Scalenoun: A 39-item questionnaire assesses the tendency to describe oneself in ways that other people are likely to approve of.
Edwards syndromenoun: A genetic condition involving extra chromosome 18 material causes serious medical complications and usually substantial developmental disabilities.
EEabbreviation: Expressed emotion describes family criticism, hostility, and excessive emotional involvement toward a relative with a mental health condition.
EEGabbreviation: A test that records the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.
EEG biofeedbacknoun: Training uses feedback from recorded brain electrical activity to help people practice changing patterns in that activity.
EEG measures of intelligencenoun: Proposed estimates of intelligence use recorded brain electrical activity, but findings linking them to intelligence tests have been inconsistent.
EEOCabbreviation: The federal agency that enforces workplace laws against discrimination in hiring, pay, firing, and promotion.
EFAabbreviation: Exploratory factor analysis searches patterns among many related measurements to identify a smaller set of possible underlying dimensions.
effectnoun: A change or result caused by something else, such as a drug, condition, or training program.
effect codingnoun: A regression coding method represents categories with positive, negative, and sometimes zero values to compare groups against their average.
effect lawnoun: A learning principle proposes that satisfying consequences make a behavior more likely to recur in similar circumstances.
effect sizephrase: A number showing how strong or important a difference or relationship is in study results.
effect variablenoun: The measured outcome in a study is what researchers aim to explain or predict using other variables.
effect-size correlationnoun: A correlation indicates the strength and direction of a predictor’s relationship with an outcome without adjusting for other variation.
effectancenoun: A person or organism has an actual influence on surrounding objects or events through its actions.
effective dose (ED)phrase: The smallest drug amount that produces a chosen effect, often measured by the dose helping 50% of subjects.
effective stimulusnoun: The specific feature of a presented stimulus actually guides an organism’s response, even when researchers intended another feature to matter.
effectiveness evaluationnoun: A systematic assessment examines how successfully a program reaches its stated goals using selected methods and standards.
effectiveness researchphrase: Studies how well treatments work in real care settings so patient care can be improved.
effectornoun: A muscle, gland, or acting body part carries out a response directed by nervous system signals.
effeminacynoun: A culturally shaped description applies to feminine appearance or behavior in boys or men relative to local expectations of masculinity.
efference copynoun: An internal duplicate of a movement command helps the brain predict and compare the sensory effects of its own actions.
efferentadjective: Signals or structures described this way carry information outward from a central location toward another destination.
efferent motor aphasianoun: Damage to the lower left premotor brain region causes difficulty producing connected sequences of speech sounds.
efferent nerve fibernoun: A nerve cell’s long extension carries outgoing signals from brain or spinal cord toward the body’s outer structures.
efferent neuronnoun: A nerve cell sends outgoing signals from brain or spinal cord toward a muscle, gland, or another responding structure.
efferent pathwaynoun: A connected nerve route carries outgoing signals from a central nervous system region toward structures that carry out responses.
Effexornoun: A brand name identifies venlafaxine, an antidepressant that reduces reabsorption of the chemical messengers serotonin and norepinephrine.
efficacynoun: A person's belief that they can do something well and handle the demands involved.
efficacy researchphrase: Research that tests whether a treatment works better than a placebo, an inactive fake treatment.
efficiencynoun: Getting the most work or results from the least time, effort, or other resources.
efficient causenoun: In Aristotle’s framework, the agent or process that brings something about explains its efficient cause.
effluviumnoun: Historical paranormal theories proposed an undetectable stream of tiny particles flowing from people or objects to explain unusual phenomena.
effort after meaningnoun: People repeatedly reshape unfamiliar or unclear information using familiar ideas to make it understandable.
effort justificationnoun: People may value an activity more because working hard or enduring discomfort for it makes that investment feel worthwhile.
effort syndromenoun: An older label described anxiety with symptoms such as a racing heart and breathlessness, later associated with panic disorder.
effortful processingphrase: Using attention and control to work with information, especially when it feels mentally hard.
effortfulnessnoun: A task has this quality when it demands attention and other mental resources to carry out.
effortless attentionnoun: Someone stays actively focused on an activity while feeling little need to push themselves mentally.
EFPabbreviation: Equine-facilitated psychotherapy uses activities with horses as psychological treatment guided by a mental health professional and a horse specialist.
EFPPAabbreviation: This abbreviation names a federation founded in 1981 to connect European psychology associations across education, practice, and research.
EFTabbreviation: A therapy that helps people notice, express, and change emotions to improve relationships and mental health.
egersisnoun: An unusually intense degree of wakefulness characterizes this state.
egg cellnoun: A female reproductive cell, also called an ovum, can combine with sperm during fertilization.
egonoun: The conscious part of personality that feels like you and manages real-world demands.
ego analysisnoun: Psychoanalytic techniques examine the ego's abilities, difficulties, and defenses against impulses experienced as unacceptable.
ego anxietynoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes distress arising when practical self-management, instinctive wishes, and moral demands conflict within a person.
ego boundarynoun: A person's sense of separation distinguishes their own self from other people and the surrounding world.
ego controlnoun: A personality tendency determines how strongly someone holds back emotional urges and impulses to act.
ego defectnoun: Psychoanalytic theory uses this label for missing or limited ego abilities, especially understanding reality and adapting to it.
ego defensenoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes unconscious mental responses that shield the self from anxiety about impulses, conflicts, or outside threats.
ego depletionnoun: A proposed temporary drop in self-control occurs after earlier efforts to regulate thoughts, feelings, decisions, or behavior.
ego developmentnoun: An infant gradually becomes aware of being a separate person, distinct from caregivers and other people.
ego formationnoun: Classical psychoanalysis proposes that the ego emerges from instinctive drives as a child responds to the world's demands.
ego functionsnoun: Psychoanalytic theory assigns the ego abilities such as reasoning, remembering, managing emotions, and responding realistically to circumstances.
ego identitynoun: Psychoanalytic and Eriksonian theories describe a coherent, lasting sense of who one is across changing roles and experiences.
ego integrationnoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes bringing motives, attitudes, goals, and other personality features together into a balanced whole.
ego integrity versus despairnoun: Erikson's proposed final life stage involves older adults reviewing their lives with acceptance and satisfaction or regret and despair.
ego involvementphrase: How much a task or opinion matters to a person's self-esteem and sense of self.
ego orientationnoun: Success is judged mainly by winning or performing better than other people within this motivational outlook.
ego psychologynoun: A psychoanalytic approach emphasizes adaptation and proposes that some ego abilities operate independently of instinctive wishes and inner conflict.
ego resiliencynoun: A personality capacity allows someone to flexibly restrain or express emotional impulses as social situations require.
ego resistancenoun: Psychoanalysis describes a patient's unconscious opposition to uncovering impulses that have been kept outside awareness.
ego statenoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes a coordinated mental condition that shapes how someone relates to people and their surroundings.
ego strengthnoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes the capacity to balance impulses, moral expectations, and reality while managing frustration and stress.
ego stressnoun: An inner or outer challenge creates tension that, in psychoanalytic terms, requires the ego to adapt.
ego structurenoun: Psychoanalytic theory uses this concept for how the ego's components and abilities are organized.
ego transcendencenoun: An altered conscious state involves feeling beyond personal concerns and believing this allows a more objective view of reality.
ego weaknessnoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes difficulty managing impulses and coping with stress, frustration, or disappointment through this concept.
ego-alienadjective: A thought, wish, or impulse feels unacceptable because it conflicts with someone's values or understanding of themselves.
ego-boundary lossnoun: Someone loses a clear distinction between their own body, thoughts, or influence and those of other people or things.
ego-centered networknoun: Social network analysis examines one selected person or point and its connections to others using this network.
ego-defensive function of an attitudenoun: An attitude can help someone protect or improve their feelings of personal worth.
ego-dystonicadjective: Describing thoughts or urges that feel unwanted, upsetting, and unlike a person's usual sense of self.
ego-dystonic homosexualitynoun: A historical diagnostic label described distress about unwanted same-sex attraction, including wishing for attraction to people of another sex.
ego-idealnoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes an inner model of the person someone hopes to become, shaped by admired values and people.
ego-splittingnoun: Psychoanalytic theory describes the ego maintaining opposing attitudes toward the same thing at the same time.
ego-syntonicadjective: Fitting a person's self-image, so the thought or behavior feels acceptable, not upsetting or wrong.
egocentric predicamentnoun: A philosophical problem asks how we can know other minds or an outside world if experience is entirely private.
egocentric speechphrase: Children sometimes talk aloud to themselves without adjusting for listeners, often while guiding their own thinking.
egocentrismnoun: Seeing the world only from your own view and assuming others see and feel the same.
egoismnoun: A pattern of selfish behavior driven by self-interest and little concern for other people's needs.
egoistic helpingnoun: Someone helps another person mainly to gain a personal benefit, such as pleasure, recognition, or a reward.
egoistic relative deprivationnoun: Someone feels personally disadvantaged because their resources or standing fall below what they expect or see others having.
egoistic suicidenoun: Durkheim's historical theory proposed a category of suicide linked to weak social bonds and limited belonging within groups.
egomanianoun: Extreme self-preoccupation involves inflated beliefs about personal importance or ability and little attention to other people's needs.
egopathynoun: An older descriptive label links exaggerated personal importance with hostility toward others, often expressed through putting them down.
egotheismnoun: A person identifies themselves with a god or divine being in this form of belief.
egotismnoun: Someone shows excessive pride in themselves or gives too much attention to their own importance.
EHAabbreviation: This abbreviation names a 1975 United States law expanding educational rights for children with disabilities in settings that minimize separation.
EHRabbreviation: An electronic health record stores a person's health information digitally for authorized professionals to use when coordinating care.
eidetic imagenoun: A vivid visual picture remains in someone's mind for seconds or minutes after the original scene disappears.
eigenvaluenoun: In statistical data reduction, a number indicates how much variation a particular component or factor accounts for.
eigenvectornoun: A nonzero mathematical arrow becomes a multiple of itself under a particular linear transformation, keeping the same line.
Eigenweltnoun: In existential psychology, this describes the personal world formed through how someone relates to and experiences themselves.
eighth cranial nervenoun: The vestibulocochlear nerve carries information about sounds and balance from structures inside the ear toward the brain.
Einstellungnoun: A mental readiness shaped by experience or instructions guides responses and can make different approaches harder to notice.
either–or fallacynoun: An argument wrongly presents two options as the only choices, overlooking other possibilities or ways both could apply.
either–or thinkingnoun: A person views situations through opposite extremes while overlooking possibilities between them.
ejaculationnoun: The release of semen from the penis during sexual climax, caused by automatic and voluntary muscle contractions.
ejaculatory ductnoun: Each of two small tubes carries sperm and seminal fluid through the prostate into the urethra during ejaculation.
Ekbom’s syndromenoun: In this usage, restless legs syndrome involves uncomfortable leg sensations and an urge to move during rest, often at night.
EKGabbreviation: A test that records the heart's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the skin.
elaborated codenoun: A language style uses varied vocabulary and detailed sentence structures to express meaning with less reliance on shared context.
elaborationnoun: Careful thinking about the main arguments in a message before deciding what attitude to hold.
elaboration-likelihood model (ELM)noun: A persuasion theory explains attitude change through varying amounts of thought, from careful consideration of reasons to reliance on simple cues.
elaborative rehearsalphrase: Remembering improves when new information is connected to things you already know in meaningful ways.
elationnoun: An unusually high, overly cheerful mood with restless energy, often seen in mania or other disorders.
Elavilnoun: This brand name identifies amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant also used for some forms of ongoing pain and migraine prevention.
ELBWabbreviation: The abbreviation means extremely low birth weight, describing a baby who weighs under 1,000 grams when born.
Eldeprylnoun: This brand name identifies oral selegiline, a medicine used with other treatment for Parkinson's disease that slows dopamine breakdown.
elder abusenoun: Harming, exploiting, or neglecting a person age 60 or older, whether by action or by failing to help.
elder carenoun: Support helps older adults meet daily needs through personal assistance, health services, supervision, or social resources.
elder neglectphrase: When a caregiver does not provide the needed care for an older adult.
elderspeaknoun: People sometimes use overly simple, slow, or loud speech with older adults because they assume age limits understanding.
electivenoun: A school class a student chooses freely instead of one required for graduation.
elective abortionnoun: A pregnancy is deliberately ended through medication or a procedure following a planned decision.
elective affinitynoun: A person feels drawn to someone, something, or an idea through sympathy, shared preferences, or a sense of connection.
elective bilingualismnoun: A person gains a second language through formal education, including literacy, in a context that associates it with social status.
elective mutismnoun: An older name for selective mutism describes persistent difficulty speaking in certain social settings despite being able to speak elsewhere.
Electra complexphrase: In Jung's view, a girl's early wish for her father and rivalry with her mother.
electric ophthalmianoun: Exposure to ultraviolet light from electric welding can inflame the eye's surface, producing this painful eye condition.
electric potentialnoun: A quantity measured in volts expresses electrical potential energy per unit of charge at a point relative to a reference.
electric sensenoun: Some animals detect nearby electric fields, including fields they may generate themselves, to gather information about their surroundings.
electric shock methodnoun: An older broad label describes treatments using electricity, including electroconvulsive therapy, which uses controlled current to trigger a seizure.
electric sinknoun: A device or location receives electrical energy from elsewhere and may absorb or dissipate it.
electrical activity of the brainnoun: Brain cells produce changing electrical signals both during ongoing activity and in response to events.
electrical intracranial stimulationnoun: Electrodes implanted inside the skull deliver current directly to selected brain regions to change their activity.
electrical self-stimulation of the brain (ESSB)noun: An individual performs an action that triggers current through implanted electrodes in their own brain, often to study reward.
electrical stimulationphrase: Using electricity to activate nerve cells, sometimes by sending current directly into the brain.
electrical stimulation of the cortexnoun: Electrodes deliver current to the brain's outer layer to influence activity, investigate functions, or produce therapeutic effects.
electrical synapsenoun: Connected nerve cells pass electrical signals directly through tiny protein channels linking their interiors.
electrical transcranial stimulation (ETS)noun: In historical electrosleep therapy, weak electrical currents were applied across the head to encourage relaxation or sleep.
electroacupuncturenoun: A form of acupuncture applies small electrical currents through inserted needles to stimulate selected body sites.
electrocardiogram (ECG; EKG)noun: A recording of the heart's electrical activity used to check how well it is working.
electrocardiographic effectnoun: A change in the heart's electrical signals appears on a recording, sometimes following medication use.
electrocochleography (ECochG)noun: A hearing test records electrical responses generated in the cochlea and nearby auditory nerve when sounds are presented.
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)phrase: A medical treatment that triggers a brief seizure with electricity to quickly relieve severe depression when medicines fail.
electrocorticography (ECoG)noun: A recording method measures brain signals with electrodes resting directly against the cortex, the brain's outer layer.
electrodenoun: A small conductor placed on the body or in tissue to record or send electrical signals.
electrode placementphrase: Putting recording sensors on the head or into nerve tissue to measure brain electrical activity.
electrodermal changesnoun: Shifts in the skin's electrical properties, often linked to sweat gland activity, can indicate changes in bodily arousal.
electrodermal response (EDR)noun: Sweat gland activity changes the skin's electrical properties following a stimulus, providing a measure of bodily arousal.
electrodiagnosisnoun: Clinicians investigate disorders by measuring bodily electrical signals or testing how nerves and muscles respond to electrical stimulation.
electroencephalographic audiometrynoun: A hearing assessment estimates sound sensitivity by recording how brain signals change when sounds are played.
electroencephalography (EEG)noun: A test that records the brain's electrical activity from scalp sensors to study sleep, seizures, and other problems.
electrolyte imbalancephrase: Having too much or too little of key body salts can disrupt fluid balance, nerves, and muscles.
electromagnetic spectrumnoun: The full range of electromagnetic radiation includes radio waves, visible light, and gamma rays, ordered by wavelength or frequency.
electromyography (EMG)noun: Electrodes on the skin or inside muscles record electrical signals produced by muscle activity.
electronarcosisnoun: A historical electrical treatment produced seizure-related muscle stiffening while limiting or preventing the rhythmic jerking phase.
electronic aid to daily livingnoun: An assistive electronic device helps someone control nearby features, such as lights, doors, or appliances, to support everyday independence.
electronic brainstormingnoun: People use digital tools to generate and build on ideas together while postponing judgment about their value.
electronic cigarette (e-cigarette)noun: A battery-powered device heats liquid into an aerosol that users inhale, often delivering nicotine.
electronic health record (EHR)phrase: A digital patient chart that authorized providers share and update to coordinate care and patient access.
electronic nosenoun: A device uses sensors to detect gases or recognize odor patterns, sometimes helping researchers model the sense of smell.
electronystagmographynoun: Electrodes near the eyes record movement-related electrical changes to assess involuntary eye movements and parts of the balance system.
electrooculography (EOG)noun: Electrodes record changes caused by eye movement in the voltage difference between the eye's front and back.
electroolfactography (EOG)noun: This method records electrical signals from smell receptors when different odor substances reach them.
electrophysiologic audiometrynoun: These hearing tests measure electrical signals produced in the ear or nervous system after sounds are presented.
electrophysiologynoun: This scientific field investigates how living cells and tissues generate, carry, and respond to electrical signals.
electroplethysmographynoun: This testing method uses electrical measurements to track blood volume or its changes within body regions.
electroretinographynoun: This method records how the retina, the eye's light-sensitive lining, responds electrically to light.
electroshock therapy (EST)noun: This older name describes electroconvulsive therapy, which uses controlled electrical stimulation under anesthesia to trigger therapeutic seizures.
electrosleep therapynoun: This historical treatment applied weak electrical currents across the head, aiming to promote relaxation or sleep and ease psychological symptoms.
electrostimulationnoun: In this behavioral treatment usage, electrical shocks serve as unpleasant events intended to change behavior.
electrostimulation of the brain (ESB)noun: Researchers apply electrical stimulation to a selected brain region to investigate what that region does.
electrostimulatornoun: An electrical device applies adjustable pulses to selected bodily tissues.
electrotactile aidnoun: This assistive device converts information, such as sound, into electrical patterns that a person feels on their skin.
electrotherapynoun: This broad category includes treatments that apply electrical current to the body for a therapeutic purpose.
electrotonic conductionnoun: An electrical disturbance spreads across nearby nerve or muscle cell membrane without renewing itself, losing strength over distance.
electrotonusnoun: Applied electrical current changes a nerve's or muscle's electrical condition, responsiveness, or ability to carry signals.
elegant solutionnoun: An answer solves a problem very effectively while requiring few steps, resources, or unsupported assumptions.
elementnoun: One basic part that makes up a larger whole, often not broken into simpler parts.
element-level compatibility effectnoun: Response speed and accuracy depend on how naturally each individual signal matches its assigned action within a set.
elementarismnoun: This approach explains complex experiences or behaviors by breaking them into basic parts, such as sensations or simple responses.
elementary cognitive task (ECT)noun: A simple laboratory activity measures how quickly someone responds while performing a task assumed to require basic mental processing.
Elephant Man’s diseasenoun: This outdated label describes Joseph Merrick's condition, thought more likely to have been Proteus syndrome than neurofibromatosis.
elevated mazenoun: A research maze uses raised, wall-free paths separated by gaps, with wrong turns ending at the edge of a path.
elevated moodphrase: An unusually high emotional state with strong happiness, excitement, and a sense that everything feels good.
elevated plus mazenoun: A raised, cross-shaped apparatus with two open and two enclosed arms helps researchers study anxiety-related behavior in rodents.
elevator phobiaphrase: A lasting, unreasonable fear of elevators, often tied to heights, closed spaces, or panic sensations.
eleventh cranial nervenoun: Also called the accessory nerve, this nerve controls muscles that help turn the head and raise the shoulders.
elicitationnoun: A particular stimulus reliably brings about a specific response, such as food causing the mouth to water.
elicited behaviornoun: A response occurs predictably when a particular stimulus triggers it, as in many reflexes.
elimination by aspectsnoun: This decision theory proposes choosing by repeatedly discarding options that lack a selected important feature until one remains.
elimination disorderphrase: A childhood condition involving repeated trouble controlling pee or poop, not caused by illness or substances.
elimination drivenoun: A bodily urge motivates a person to empty the bladder or bowels and can be influenced by psychological factors.
eliminativismnoun: This philosophical view proposes replacing everyday explanations involving beliefs, feelings, and intentions with scientific accounts of biological processes.
elisionnoun: Speakers leave out particular sounds in certain speech contexts, often when words are spoken together.
elite athletenoun: A highly skilled sports competitor typically participates in professional contests or events involving the best competitors nationally or internationally.
elite bilingualismnoun: A person learns a second language through formal education, including literacy, in circumstances where this learning carries social prestige.
ellipsisnoun: A speaker or writer leaves out words that the surrounding context allows someone to understand.
Ellis–van Creveld syndromenoun: An inherited recessive condition causes short stature, extra fingers or toes, changes in teeth and nails, and sometimes heart differences.
ELMabbreviation: The elaboration-likelihood model proposes that persuasion varies with how deeply people examine information, influencing the strength of resulting attitudes.
elopementnoun: In psychiatric care, a patient leaves a hospital or treatment unit without the required permission.
ELSI Programnoun: A Human Genome Project program studies how discoveries about genes affect people's rights, emotions, cultures, and healthcare.
EMAabbreviation: Ecological momentary assessment repeatedly measures people's current experiences or behavior during everyday life, often at randomly chosen times.
emancipated minorphrase: A person under 18 who lives independently and can make many legal decisions like an adult.
emancipation disordernoun: This clinical label describes distress in young people who want freedom from parents but struggle with independence and its responsibilities.
emasculationnoun: In psychological usage, a man feels that his masculinity has been diminished, often through culturally shaped expectations about male roles.
embalming fluidnoun: In drug slang, this label often means a liquid containing phencyclidine, or PCP, rather than chemicals used for preserving bodies.
embarrassmentnoun: Feeling awkward and flustered because other people are watching, noticing, or mildly disapproving.
embedded figurenoun: A recognizable image blends into a more complicated visual pattern, making it difficult to notice at first.
Embedded Figures Test (EFT)noun: This assessment asks people to locate simple shapes within complex drawings, helping evaluate how they separate details from surrounding patterns.
embedded sentencenoun: In transformational grammar, a smaller sentence appears as a dependent clause inside a larger sentence.
embeddedness of an attitudenoun: This describes how extensively an attitude connects in memory with other attitudes, beliefs, or values.
emblemnoun: A gesture communicates a specific message that people within a culture generally recognize without spoken words.
embodied cognitionnoun: This theoretical approach proposes that thinking is shaped by the body's structure, sensory experiences, movements, and interactions with surroundings.
embolic strokephrase: A stroke happens when traveling debris blocks a brain artery suddenly, cutting off blood flow.
embolismnoun: Blood circulation is blocked when material traveling from elsewhere lodges inside a blood vessel.
embolusnoun: A traveling piece of material, such as a clot or air bubble, can lodge in a vessel and block circulation.
embryonoun: In human pregnancy, the developing baby from conception until week eight is called an embryo.
embryo transfernoun: An embryo created through fertilization outside the body is placed into a uterus with the aim of establishing pregnancy.
embryologynoun: This branch of biology examines how organisms form and develop during their earliest stages of life.
embryonic stagephrase: During this prenatal period, the embryo forms major body parts between the germinal stage and the fetal stage.
embryonic stem cellnoun: An unspecialized cell from an early embryo can multiply and develop into nearly any specialized type of body cell.
EmCabbreviation: The abbreviation names the extreme capsule, a brain pathway connecting several regions and possibly carrying information used in language.
EMDRabbreviation: A therapy for trauma where people recall painful memories while following back-and-forth movements or taps.
emergencenoun: New, more complex abilities can arise from simpler parts without being fully predictable from those parts alone.
emergency call systemnoun: A portable or wearable device lets someone request urgent help when reaching a telephone may be difficult.
emergency interventionphrase: Immediate help after a sudden dangerous event to reduce harm, assess safety, and plan next care.
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)noun: This U.S. law requires Medicare-participating emergency departments to assess patients and stabilize emergencies, even when patients cannot afford care.
emergency psychotherapynoun: Urgent psychological treatment helps people manage severe distress, suicidal feelings, or overwhelming reactions following a traumatic experience.
emergency reactionnoun: The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body to confront or escape a perceived threat by making energy available quickly.
emergency servicesphrase: Immediate medical or mental health help given when someone seems to need urgent care.
emergency syndromenoun: A perceived threat activates bodily changes, such as faster breathing and heartbeat, that prepare someone for immediate action.
emergent evolutionnoun: This theory proposes that evolving species and adaptations develop new qualities that cannot be fully explained by their ancestral forms.
emergent featurenoun: A noticeable visual pattern arises when simpler elements combine, making the whole easier to recognize than its separate parts.
emergent leadernoun: Someone gradually becomes a group's accepted leader through members' responses, without being formally chosen or assigned the role.
emergent literacynoun: Early knowledge, skills, and attitudes prepare children for reading and writing before formal lessons begin.
emergent propertynoun: A quality appears in a complex whole that cannot be predicted simply by examining its separate parts.
emergent-norm theorynoun: This theory proposes that crowds act similarly because members follow shared expectations that develop during their interactions.
emergentismnoun: This view holds that interactions among basic processes create complex qualities that those processes alone cannot fully explain.
emerging adulthoodphrase: A stage from about 18 to 25 when people explore adult choices while not yet feeling fully grown up.
emetic therapynoun: An aversion treatment pairs targeted behaviors or cues with drug-induced nausea or vomiting to discourage those behaviors.
EMGabbreviation: Short for electromyography, this procedure uses electrodes to measure and record electrical signals generated by muscles.
emicadjective: Describing a way of studying behavior from inside a culture's own meanings and viewpoint.
emic–etic distinctionnoun: Researchers distinguish understanding behavior through a culture's own meanings from studying it with concepts intended for comparison across cultures.
emitted behaviornoun: An action occurs without being automatically triggered by a specific stimulus, unlike a reflex response.
Emmert’s lawnoun: An afterimage appears proportionally larger as the surface where it seems to appear is perceived as farther away.
emmetropianoun: An eye focuses light from distant objects directly onto the retina without needing extra focusing effort or optical correction.
Emory Dyssemia Index (EDI)noun: An observer-completed screening questionnaire checks how often someone has difficulty understanding or using nonverbal social signals.
emotionnoun: A whole-body response of feelings, actions, and body changes to something important happening.
emotion regulationphrase: Managing how strongly and how long feelings happen, either on purpose or automatically.
emotion-focused copingphrase: Managing stress by changing your feelings about a problem instead of changing the problem itself.
emotion-focused couples therapynoun: Partners work with a therapist to understand emotional needs, change recurring conflicts, and strengthen their emotional connection.
emotion-focused therapy (EFT)phrase: A therapy that helps people notice, accept, understand, and manage feelings to solve problems and grow.
emotional abusenoun: Repeated nonphysical mistreatment, such as threats, humiliation, or isolation, that harms a person's feelings, behavior, or mental health.
emotional adjustmentnoun: A person adapts to life circumstances by accepting feelings and adjusting attitudes or emotional expression to fit the situation.
emotional anesthesianoun: After trauma, a person may feel emotionally numb and struggle to express feelings or experience closeness with others.
emotional blockingnoun: Intense feelings, especially fear, interrupt a person's ability to think, speak, or respond.
emotional chargephrase: The felt strength and positive or negative pull of an emotion, especially when intense feelings build up.
emotional cognitionphrase: Correctly noticing and understanding feelings in yourself and other people from clues like faces and tone of voice.
emotional conflictnoun: Strong feelings pull a person in incompatible directions, creating distress or inner tension.
emotional contagionphrase: Feelings can quickly spread from one person to others in a group or community.
emotional contentphrase: Feeling-related themes in messages or situations that strongly stir people's emotions.
emotional dependencenoun: A person relies on other people for reassurance, comfort, and emotional care.
emotional deprivationnoun: Someone lacks close relationships that provide enough affection, attention, and acceptance, especially during childhood.
emotional deteriorationnoun: This descriptive label combines reduced self-care, little interest in people or surroundings, and emotional responses poorly matched to circumstances.
emotional developmentphrase: Growing ability to feel, show, understand, and manage emotions in ways that fit one's age and situation.
emotional disordernoun: A broad label describes psychological conditions mainly involving emotional responses whose intensity or fit with circumstances causes significant difficulties.
emotional dispositionnoun: A person has a usual tendency to experience certain kinds of feelings, such as cheerfulness or worry.
emotional dissemblancenoun: Someone's visible or spoken emotional expression differs from what they actually feel, sometimes because of social expectations.
emotional disturbancenoun: Emotional difficulties lead to behavior that substantially interferes with learning, relationships, or participation in everyday social life.
emotional divorcenoun: Married partners remain married but lead separate lives with little meaningful interaction or emotional connection.
emotional dysregulationphrase: Having trouble controlling feelings so reactions become too strong, too fast, or hard to calm down.
emotional engineeringnoun: Designers study people's feelings about product features and use those findings to guide how products are made.
emotional expressionphrase: Showing feelings through face, voice, posture, or actions, often shaping how other people respond.
emotional floodingnoun: A sudden rush of intense feelings overwhelms a person's ability to manage them.
emotional illnessnoun: This broad label describes mental health conditions in which difficult or disproportionate emotional reactions are a central feature.
emotional immaturityphrase: Showing feelings with poor control or with more intensity than a situation reasonably calls for.
emotional incestnoun: In this usage, a caregiver sexually abuses a child through sexualized comments or interactions without physical contact.
emotional inoculationnoun: Mentally practicing an anxiety-provoking situation may reduce worry by helping a person anticipate feelings and plan coping responses.
emotional insightnoun: A person recognizes their own or others' feelings and may understand emotional experiences underlying their difficulties.
emotional instabilityphrase: Having feelings that shift quickly and unpredictably from one emotion to another.
emotional insulationnoun: A proposed defense involves becoming emotionally detached or seemingly indifferent when facing frustration or disappointment.
emotional intelligencenoun: Skill in noticing, understanding, using, and managing emotions to guide thinking and behavior.
emotional intelligence quotientnoun: A score aims to summarize how well someone recognizes, understands, uses, or manages emotional information.
emotional isolationnoun: A person defensively distances themselves from feelings after frustration or disappointment, appearing detached or unconcerned.
emotional maturitynoun: A person can manage strong feelings and express them in thoughtful ways suited to the situation.
emotional memoryphrase: Memory for experiences that caused strong feelings, stored either consciously or outside awareness.
emotional processing theorynoun: This theory proposes that activating fear-related memories while encountering new, corrective information changes fear patterns and reduces distress.
emotional quotientnoun: A numerical result is intended to represent a person's emotional intelligence, including understanding and managing emotions.
emotional reeducationnoun: Psychotherapy helps someone understand emotional conflicts and change feelings, attitudes, and responses that contribute to ongoing difficulties.
emotional releasephrase: A sudden letting out of feelings that were held in or pushed down for a while.
emotional responsephrase: A feeling such as fear, sadness, or joy triggered by something that happens.
emotional securitynoun: A person feels emotionally safe and confident, without a persistent sense that something threatening is about to happen.
emotional stabilityphrase: Showing steady, predictable feelings without quick, strong mood shifts from one moment to the next.
emotional stressnoun: Psychological tension and unease arise from experiences such as perceived threats, grief, frustration, inner conflict, or shaken confidence.
emotional stupornoun: Profoundly limited responses to surroundings and an inability to speak accompany depression or extreme anxiety in this condition.
emotional supportphrase: Showing care through words or actions that give someone comfort, empathy, reassurance, and acceptance.
emotional tensionphrase: A feeling of inner strain or uneasiness caused by stress, conflict, or strong emotions.
emotional unconsciousnoun: This proposed aspect of mental life includes emotional or motivational states that influence thinking and behavior without conscious awareness.
emotional valencenoun: The pleasantness or unpleasantness of an emotion or experience describes its position along an emotional scale.
emotionalitynoun: How strongly and openly a person feels and shows emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant.
emotionally based persuasionnoun: An attempt to change someone's attitude works mainly by changing their feelings about the subject.
emotiveadjective: Describing words or actions that stir up strong feelings.
emotive imageryphrase: Having a person picture upsetting scenes while staying relaxed to weaken fear responses.
emotive techniquenoun: A therapy exercise encourages vivid expression of thoughts and feelings so they become easier to explore together.
empathic failurenoun: Someone misses or misunderstands another person's feelings, thoughts, or point of view.
empathynoun: Understanding another person's viewpoint and feelings as if you were standing in their shoes.
empathy trainingphrase: A structured program that helps someone better understand others' feelings and respond with more caring communication.
empathy-altruism hypothesisphrase: Feeling another person's pain can create a selfless wish to help them for their sake.
empiric-risk figurenoun: A percentage estimates inherited disorder risk from family observations when the genetic pathway is unclear.
empiricaladjective: Based on careful observation or experiments rather than guesses, opinions, or pure theory.
empirical constructnoun: An explanatory concept is built from events or processes that researchers can observe, measure, and check.
empirical groundingnoun: Researchers connect a theory's concepts to events that can be observed or measured scientifically.
empirical knowledgenoun: Understanding comes from experience, careful observation, or experiments, giving claims a basis in evidence.
empirical methodnoun: An investigation gathers evidence through experiments or organized observations to answer a question.
empirical psychologynoun: An approach to psychology explains behavior and mental activity using evidence from careful observations and experiments.
empirical realitynoun: The parts of the world available to observation and measurement can be investigated using scientific evidence.
empirical selfnoun: In William James's theory, the self someone can know includes their belongings, social identity, and inner experience.
empirical testnoun: Researchers check a prediction or explanation by comparing it with experimental results or carefully collected observations.
empirical validitynoun: The strength of research findings supporting an assessment or model indicates how accurately it measures or explains its target.
empirical-criterion keyingnoun: Personality test developers keep questions whose answers distinguish people with a known characteristic from people without it.
empirical-rational strategynoun: A proposed approach to changing society assumes that factual information and logical arguments alone can persuade people to adopt different attitudes.
empirically keyed testnoun: An assessment assigns scores according to answer patterns observed in comparison groups whose relevant characteristics have already been established.
empiricismnoun: The belief that knowledge should come from direct experience, observation, and testing rather than inborn ideas.
employee appraisalnoun: An assessment judges someone's work performance and relevant qualities, such as cooperation with coworkers.
employee assistance program (EAP)phrase: A workplace service helps employees with personal problems hurting job performance through assessment, counseling, and referrals for treatment.
employee comparison techniquenoun: A workplace assessment judges employees' performance by comparing workers with one another.
employee engagementphrase: A worker's energetic emotional and mental connection to the job that drives effort, focus, and dedication.
employee evaluationnoun: A reviewer assesses how well someone performs their job, including personal qualities relevant to that work.
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)noun: A United States federal law enacted in 1974 established protections and standards for many private workplace retirement and benefit plans.
employee trainingnoun: A planned learning program helps workers develop job knowledge, skills, or attitudes and adjust to workplace roles.
employment at willnoun: A legal arrangement generally allows either party to end employment without advance notice or explanation, subject to legal and contractual limits.
employment counselingnoun: Professional guidance helps people handle work concerns, including finding jobs, workplace difficulties, and losing employment.
employment discriminationnoun: An employer treats people unequally because of characteristics unrelated to their job qualifications or performance.
employment interviewnoun: An employer and job applicant discuss the position and the applicant's background to help assess suitability.
employment psychologynoun: A branch of psychology studies people at work and applies findings to improve organizations and workers' well-being.
employment testphrase: A hiring measure used to predict how well a person will perform at a job.
empowermentnoun: Building people's skills, knowledge, and confidence so they can make choices and control their lives.
empowerment evaluationnoun: Service providers, sometimes joined by clients, directly assess their program while an evaluator guides the process.
empty nestphrase: A stage when grown children leave home, often leaving parents lonely or without a clear role.
empty setnoun: In mathematics, a set contains no members at all.
empty speechphrase: Speaking smoothly and at length without giving useful or meaningful information.
empty wordnoun: A word such as “the” or “and” mainly serves grammar rather than naming things, actions, or qualities.
empty-chair techniquenoun: In therapy, someone addresses an imagined person or part of themselves in an unoccupied chair, sometimes switching seats to reply.
empyreumaticadjective: In Zwaardemaker's historical odor classification, this describes a roasted or smoky smell, such as roasted coffee or creosote.
EMRabbreviation: An outdated, offensive special-education abbreviation labeled students with intellectual disabilities according to assumed limits on academic learning.
EMSAMnoun: A brand name identifies a skin patch containing selegiline, a medicine used to treat depression.
emulationnoun: A learner understands another's goal and works toward that outcome without necessarily copying the person's exact actions.
enablingnoun: Helping or allowing another person's harmful behavior continue, often by protecting them from its consequences.
enacted social support (enacted support)noun: Help or comfort is actually provided through someone's relationships, rather than simply believed to be available.
enactionnoun: A plan or process is put into practice with guidance and support, without requiring complete automation.
enactive representationnoun: In Bruner's theory, knowledge is represented through actions and movements, especially in early childhood.
enactmentnoun: Recreating or acting out key relationship experiences in therapy can reveal feelings and patterns that words alone miss.
enantiodromianoun: In Jung's theory, psychological tendencies can develop opposing tendencies, reflecting a proposed movement between mental opposites.
enantiomersnoun: Two molecules share the same chemical makeup but have mirror-image arrangements that cannot be perfectly overlaid.
encapsulated end organnoun: A sensory nerve ending has a surrounding tissue capsule that helps it respond to signals such as touch or pressure.
encapsulationnoun: Some people keep a delusion, a fixed false belief, separate from daily thinking and behavior.
encéphale isolénoun: A historical animal research preparation separates the spinal cord from the medulla while preserving the brain's usual sleep and waking pattern.
encephalitisnoun: Brain swelling, usually from a virus, that can cause fever, confusion, seizures, and even coma.
encephalitis lethargicanoun: A brain inflammation illness associated with historical epidemics can cause extreme sleepiness, reduced motivation, and problems moving the eyes.
encephalizationnoun: A species has a larger brain than expected for its body size when compared with a relevant animal group.
encephalocelenoun: A condition present at birth allows brain tissue to extend outward through an opening in the skull.
encephalofacial angiomatosisnoun: A condition present at birth involves unusual blood vessels affecting the face and brain and sometimes the eyes.
encephalomalacianoun: Brain tissue softens as it deteriorates, often after an area receives too little blood.
encephalomyelitisnoun: Inflammation affects both the brain and the spinal cord, sometimes because of infection or an immune response.
encephalonnoun: Another name for the brain identifies the nervous system organ inside the skull that supports thought, sensation, and bodily control.
encephalopathynoun: A broad brain disease that changes brain function or structure, often causing confusion and other mental changes.
encephalopsynoun: A person associates colors with experiences such as seeing letters or numbers, noticing smells, or sensing other qualities.
encodingnoun: Turning sights, sounds, or ideas into a form the brain can store in memory.
encoding specificityphrase: Memory is easiest to recall when the setting or cues match what was present while learning it.
encoding strategyphrase: A way of using thoughts or actions to put new information into memory for later recall.
encoding variability theorynoun: One explanation proposes that spaced study stores information with different contexts, giving memory more ways to retrieve it.
encopresisnoun: A child developmentally aged four or older repeatedly passes stool somewhere other than a toilet, often with constipation.
encounternoun: A direct meeting or interaction between people, often involving face-to-face contact.
encounter groupnoun: A facilitated group encourages personal growth through open emotional exchanges and attention to how members relate in the present.
encounter movementnoun: A movement popular during the 1960s promoted small group exercises intended to increase awareness, personal growth, and connection.
enculturationnoun: People learn the values, customs, beliefs, and behaviors of their own cultural community, beginning early in life.
end brushnoun: The end of an axon, a nerve cell's outgoing extension, divides into many fine branches.
end feetnoun: These are the tips of extensions from axons or astrocytes, which are supporting cells in the nervous system.
end of lifenoun: The period when death approaches involves emotional, social, practical, and care concerns for a person and those around them.
end organnoun: A specialized structure at a nerve ending receives sensory information or helps transmit motor signals to muscle.
end platenoun: A specialized patch on a muscle cell's surface receives chemical signals from a nearby motor nerve ending.
end spurtnoun: Performance or productivity sometimes rises as someone approaches the finish of an activity or working period.
end-aversion biasnoun: People favor middle ratings and avoid a scale's endpoints, potentially hiding real differences in what they judge.
end-stage renal diseasenoun: Chronic kidney disease has progressed so far that dialysis or a transplant is needed to sustain life.
end-stopped cellnoun: A visual brain neuron responds best to certain line lengths or corners and responds less when they extend farther.
endarterectomynoun: Surgeons remove fatty plaque from inside an artery to widen the opening and improve blood flow.
endemicadjective: A disease or other condition is regularly present within a particular population or geographical area.
endo- (end-)prefix: This word part indicates that something lies inside or comes from within another structure or system.
endocannabinoidnoun: A natural brain chemical that binds cannabinoid receptors and helps control mood, pain, appetite, and memory.
endocarditisnoun: Inflammation affects the tissue lining the heart's interior, often including its valves, and commonly results from infection.
endocastnoun: A model of the space inside a skull helps researchers estimate the brain's size and outer shape.
endocochlear potentialnoun: A steady voltage of about positive 80 millivolts exists in the fluid inside the cochlea's middle chamber.
endocrineadjective: Describing glands or cells that send hormones through blood to affect faraway parts of the body.
endocrine disruptornoun: A natural or manufactured chemical interferes with hormone signals by copying, blocking, or changing their usual activity.
endocrine glandphrase: A ductless body organ that releases hormones into blood to affect distant parts.
endocrinologynoun: This scientific and medical field studies hormones, the glands that release them, and disorders affecting their functions.
endodermnoun: An embryo's innermost main cell layer develops into digestive and respiratory linings and parts of several glands.
endogamynoun: A marriage custom involves choosing a spouse from within one's own religious, social, or kinship group.
endogenousadjective: Describes a variable whose value is shaped by other variables inside the same model or system.
endogenous attentionnoun: A person deliberately directs and maintains their focus according to their own goals or intentions.
endogenous cannabinoid (eCB)noun: A substance made by the body activates cannabinoid receptors and helps regulate nerve signaling and other bodily processes.
endogenous cuenoun: A signal guides someone to deliberately focus on a location, often by using a symbol such as an arrow.
endogenous depressionnoun: A historical label describes depression without an obvious outside stressor and suggests a biological or inherited cause.
endogenous opioidphrase: A body-made brain chemical that reduces pain and can create feelings of pleasure.
endogenous oscillatornoun: An internal network of nerve cells generates repeating patterns of activity that can organize bodily functions or behavior.
endogenous researchnoun: An investigation relies on information from within the system being studied while leaving independent outside information out of account.
endogenous rhythmnoun: A repeating pattern in bodily or psychological activity arises within an organism and may be adjusted by environmental signals.
endogenous smilenoun: A young infant spontaneously lifts the mouth's corners during rapid eye movement sleep, without a social trigger.
endogenous thyrotoxicosisnoun: Excess thyroid hormone originating inside the body causes a condition that can include nervousness, trembling, and a racing heart.
endogenous variablephrase: An outcome variable whose value is explained by other variables inside the model being studied.
endolymphnoun: A fluid fills the inner ear's membranous chambers and supports the sensory processes involved in hearing and balance.
endolymphatic potentialnoun: Fluid in the cochlea's middle chamber maintains an electrical voltage roughly 80 millivolts above the surrounding fluid.
endometriosisnoun: Tissue resembling the uterine lining grows elsewhere in the body and can cause inflammation, pain, and fertility difficulties.
endometriumnoun: The uterus has an inner tissue lining that changes during menstrual cycles and can support an implanted embryo.
endomorphnoun: Sheldon's historical personality theory used this category for a rounded, soft body build, proposing links with comfort seeking and sociability.
endomorphinnoun: A member of a small opioid peptide group acts at mu opioid receptors and is involved in reducing pain signals.
endomusianoun: A person mentally recreates music, such as a tune, without needing to hear it played aloud.
endophasianoun: A person mentally produces or recreates spoken words without saying them out loud.
endophenotypenoun: A measurable, heritable characteristic may help researchers connect genetic differences with vulnerability to psychological or neurological disorders.
endoplasmnoun: The inner, relatively fluid portion of a cell's cytoplasm occupies much of its interior but excludes the nucleus.
endoplasmic reticulum (ER)noun: A membrane network inside cells helps make and process proteins and fats for use within or beyond the cell.
endopsychicadjective: Something described this way occurs within the mind, including processes or contents outside conscious awareness.
endopsychic structurenoun: Psychoanalytic theories propose an internal organization of mental functions, such as Freud's id, ego, and superego.
endoradiosondenoun: A tiny recording device placed inside a nonhuman animal transmits radio signals for research on internal processes or behavior.
endorphinnoun: A natural brain chemical that lowers pain and can create pleasure during stress or hard exercise.
endosomatic currentnoun: An electrical current originates within a living organism through its own biological activity.
endothermnoun: An animal relies mainly on heat generated by its own metabolism to regulate its body temperature.
endowment effectnoun: People tend to value something more highly when they own it or feel it belongs to them.
endurance activitynoun: Sustained physical effort relies mainly on oxygen use to supply muscles with energy over an extended period.
enemanoun: Liquid is introduced through the anus into the rectum for bowel emptying, testing, or medicine delivery.
enema addictionnoun: A person becomes reliant on enemas for bowel emptying, sometimes as part of an eating disorder.
energization theorynoun: This theory proposes that effort toward a goal depends on how valuable and achievable the person thinks it is.
energy drinknoun: A beverage marketed to boost alertness or stamina usually contains caffeine and may include sugar or other ingredients.
energy-flow systemnoun: Connected parts transform energy into forms other parts can use, allowing energy to move through the whole system.
enervateverb: To weaken someone or something is to reduce their strength or available energy.
engendering psychologynoun: This approach develops psychology with attention to gender and its influence on people's experiences.
engineering anthropometrynoun: Measuring body size, movement, and balance helps designers create and evaluate equipment that fits human users.
engineering controlsnoun: Physical changes to equipment or workplaces prevent hazards or reduce people's exposure to them.
engineering modelnoun: This view proposes that living beings can be understood as machines whose interacting parts produce their actions.
engineering psychologynoun: This field applies knowledge about human thinking and behavior to designing products, systems, and spaces people use.
English as a second language (ESL)phrase: Classes that teach English to students whose first language is different, so they can later learn other subjects.
engramnoun: A proposed physical trace in the brain represents information retained from an experience.
engulfmentnoun: Intense anxiety involves feeling overtaken by an outside force or fearing that closeness will erase one's independence and identity.
enhancementnoun: A change that makes something better, stronger, or more valuable than it was before.
enjoymentnoun: A feeling of strong pleasure and happiness during or after something satisfying or successful.
enkephalinnoun: A naturally produced opioid peptide attaches to opioid receptors and helps reduce pain signals.
Enlonnoun: This brand name identifies edrophonium, a briefly acting drug that slows acetylcholine breakdown and strengthens nerve signaling to muscles.
enmeshmentnoun: A family pattern where people are too involved in each other's lives, weakening personal boundaries and independence.
enrichmentnoun: Adding helpful, challenging features to a job or setting so people feel more interested and work better.
enrichment programnoun: Additional learning activities broaden children's education, supporting those facing learning barriers or offering greater depth for gifted learners.
entelechynoun: In philosophy, this concept describes the realization of a being's potential as its actual, fulfilled nature.
enteric virus infectionnoun: An illness is caused by enteroviruses, which reproduce in the digestive tract but may affect other body systems.
enterogastronenoun: An intestinal hormone reduces stomach juice release when food leaving the stomach reaches the small intestine.
enthusiasmnoun: Strong excitement and eager interest in something can boost attention, effort, and persistence.
entitativitynoun: The degree to which observers see a collection of people as one organized, connected group varies with its apparent unity.
entitlementnoun: An unfair belief that you deserve special treatment or rewards without earning them.
entitlement programnoun: A U.S. government program guarantees specified benefits to people who satisfy eligibility conditions established by law.
entity theorynoun: A person believes that psychological qualities, such as intelligence or personality, are fixed and cannot be developed through effort.
entopticadjective: A visual experience described this way arises from processes inside the eye rather than from an outside object.
entorhinal cortexnoun: A temporal-lobe brain area that helps the hippocampus form memories and guides spatial navigation.
entrainmentnoun: An outside timing cue adjusts a biological rhythm so that it follows a recurring environmental pattern.
entrapmentnoun: Someone feels unable to stop investing in a failing effort because stopping would make earlier investments seem wasted.
entrepreneurshipnoun: Starting and running a business while taking financial risks in hopes of later profit.
entropynoun: Increasing disorder or loss of structure in a closed system that is cut off from new input.
enucleationnoun: A whole organ or distinct tissue mass is surgically removed while surrounding structures are preserved.
enuresisnoun: Repeated peeing in clothes or bed after age 5, not caused by illness or medicine.
envelopenoun: A smooth overall pattern of how a sound's loudness changes over time or across frequencies.
environmentnoun: All the outside physical, social, and cultural conditions that affect how a person or animal functions.
environmental aestheticsnoun: This area studies how features of natural settings and other surroundings influence judgments of beauty and visual appeal.
environmental agnosianoun: Following certain brain injuries, a person cannot recognize places or surroundings that were previously familiar.
environmental approachnoun: Therapy addresses outside pressures or changes everyday surroundings to reduce emotional difficulties and improve daily functioning.
environmental assessmentnoun: An evaluation examines how someone's surroundings and social circumstances influence behavior, difficulties, or well-being.
environmental attitudesnoun: People's beliefs, feelings, and values about nature and ecological issues shape how they judge environmental concerns.
environmental attributionnoun: An explanation assigns behavior or an outcome to outside circumstances, such as chance or social pressure.
environmental cognitionnoun: People process information about everyday surroundings, including remembering places and figuring out routes.
environmental constraintnoun: A feature of someone's circumstances limits opportunities to develop abilities, act independently, or use skills they already have.
environmental control devicenoun: An assistive device lets someone operate features of their surroundings, such as lighting, doors, or household appliances.
environmental deprivationnoun: A lack of opportunities for learning, play, and social connection can limit mental and behavioral development.
environmental designnoun: Planning spaces for living, working, and recreation aims to make them comfortable, usable, and suited to people's needs.
environmental determinismnoun: This view claims that surroundings and experience explain most or all psychological traits and behavior, with little biological influence.
environmental educationnoun: Teaching and learning activities build understanding of ecological problems and encourage actions that protect the natural world.
environmental enrichmentnoun: Adding opportunities for exploration, activity, and social contact makes surroundings more stimulating and can support learning and natural behavior.
environmental fieldnoun: In Gestalt psychology, an event belongs to a whole surrounding context whose elements interact with it.
environmental hazardsnoun: Conditions in the surroundings can threaten health or safety and contribute to physical or psychological stress.
environmental interventionnoun: A planned change to surroundings aims to influence what people do.
environmental justicenoun: Fair treatment means no population group carries an unfair share of environmental dangers or unhealthy surroundings.
environmental load theorynoun: This theory proposes that people filter out some surrounding information when incoming stimulation exceeds their processing capacity.
environmental manipulationnoun: Changing a person's living conditions aims to improve well-being, sometimes by arranging a more supportive residence.
environmental modificationsnoun: Changes to a home accommodate a person's disability and make independent daily activities easier.
environmental noisenoun: Incidental information in the surroundings can obscure important sensory patterns and may be filtered out as perception develops.
environmental press–competence modelnoun: This model proposes that adaptation depends on the fit between environmental demands and a person's abilities to meet them.
environmental psychologyphrase: Studies how physical surroundings like noise, crowding, lighting, and nature affect behavior and well-being.
environmental psychophysicsnoun: Researchers measure how physical conditions in everyday surroundings relate to what people notice and how intense sensations feel.
environmental sounds agnosianoun: A person has difficulty identifying everyday nonverbal sounds despite being able to hear them.
environmental stressphrase: Stress caused by things in a person's physical and social surroundings.
environmental stress theorynoun: This theory proposes that automatic bodily responses and thinking jointly shape whether surroundings seem threatening and trigger stress or coping.
environmental therapynoun: Treatment improves mental well-being by changing how someone interacts with their physical surroundings, social surroundings, or both.
environmental tobacco smokenoun: People nearby can inhale tobacco smoke released from burning tobacco or breathed out by someone smoking.
environmentalismnoun: This view gives surroundings and learning the main role in shaping behavior and differences between people.
envynoun: A painful feeling of wanting someone else's qualities or success and resenting that they have them.
enzymenoun: A protein speeds body chemical reactions without being used up or permanently changed.
enzyme inductionnoun: A substance increases enzyme production or activity, often speeding the body's breakdown of certain medicines.
enzyme inhibitionnoun: A substance reduces an enzyme's activity, sometimes slowing medicine breakdown and increasing the amount remaining in the body.
EOGabbreviation: The abbreviation commonly means electrooculography, which tracks eye movement through electrical measurements, or electrooculogram, the resulting record.
eonismnoun: An obsolete label described expressing gender through dress or roles that society assigned to another gender.
EPabbreviation: An evoked potential is a measurable electrical response within the nervous system following a sensory stimulus.
epenanoun: A hallucinogenic powder made from Virola tree bark is traditionally taken as snuff in parts of South America.
ependymanoun: A thin cellular lining covers the brain's fluid-filled chambers and the spinal cord's central channel.
ependymal cellnoun: This supporting nervous system cell forms part of the lining around internal fluid spaces and helps move cerebrospinal fluid.
ependymomanoun: A tumor develops from cells associated with the fluid-space lining inside the brain or spinal cord.
ephebophilianoun: This describes sexual attraction focused on people in middle to late adolescence.
ephedranoun: A plant used in herbal preparations contains stimulants that can increase alertness, anxiety, and cardiovascular activity.
ephemeraladjective: Something lasts for only a brief time before fading or disappearing.
EPIabbreviation: A questionnaire that measures Eysenck's personality traits, especially extraversion and neuroticism.
epi-prefix: This word beginning can indicate something above, upon, nearby, following, or added to something else.
epicriticadjective: This describes skin sensation that distinguishes fine differences in touch or temperature.
epidemicadjective: A disease or disorder affects more people than expected within a particular community, region, or period.
epidemic catalepsynoun: A historical concept describes several people developing prolonged immobility and fixed postures, attributed to imitation or identification with others.
epidemic hysterianoun: An older label describes unusual feelings, beliefs, symptoms, or behavior spreading through a group under social influence.
Epidemiologic Catchment Area Survey (ECA Survey)noun: This major American study from the 1980s measured mental disorder frequency, service use, and unmet needs in selected communities.
epidemiologynoun: Examines how often disorders happen in groups and what factors are linked with them.
epidermisnoun: The body's outer skin layer provides a protective covering and contains no blood vessels.
epididymisnoun: A coiled tube beside each testis stores sperm and allows them to mature before entering the sperm duct.
epidural hematomanoun: Bleeding between the skull and dura mater, the brain's outer covering, usually caused by head injury.
epidural hemorrhagenoun: Bleeding occurs between the skull and the brain's tough outer protective membrane, often following a head injury.
epigastric reflexnoun: A spinal reflex pulls the upper middle belly wall inward when skin below the nipple receives a quick downward stroke.
epigenesisnoun: Development builds increasingly specialized structures and abilities through successive changes involving interacting genetic and environmental influences.
epigenetic landscapenoun: Waddington's visual model presents development as branching routes, with some outcomes more likely and pathways shaped by genes and surroundings.
epigenetic theorynoun: This philosophical proposal holds that mind and consciousness emerged as living systems became sufficiently complex.
epigeneticsnoun: Studies chemical tags on DNA that change gene activity without changing the DNA code itself.
epilepsynoun: A chronic brain disorder causes repeated seizures from unusual electrical activity, sometimes with confusion or loss of consciousness.
epilepsy surgerynoun: A brain operation aims to reduce or stop difficult-to-control seizures by removing tissue responsible for starting them.
epileptic crynoun: A brief involuntary sound can occur when chest and voice-box muscles suddenly tighten as a tonic–clonic seizure begins.
epileptic furornoun: A historical label described rare episodes of intense rage or agitation that were attributed to epilepsy.
epileptiformadjective: A symptom or electrical pattern resembles features associated with epileptic seizures.
epileptiform seizurenoun: An episode looks like an epileptic seizure, although its appearance alone does not establish its cause.
epileptogenicadjective: A factor, substance, or brain condition can cause or help generate epileptic seizures.
epileptogenic focusnoun: A localized brain region generates abnormal electrical activity that starts a seizure.
epileptogenic lesionnoun: An area of damaged or abnormal brain tissue causes epileptic seizures, sometimes long after the damage occurs.
epimenorrhagianoun: In the supplied usage, this describes menstrual blood loss that exceeds the usual amount.
epinephrinenoun: A stress chemical and messenger that prepares the body for quick action during fear or excitement.
epiphanynoun: A sudden insight brings a meaningful new understanding of yourself, another person, or the world.
epiphenomenalismnoun: This philosophical view proposes that physical processes produce mental experiences, while those experiences cannot cause physical changes.
epiphenomenonnoun: A secondary result of a process is considered unable to influence the process that produces it.
epiphoranoun: Tears overflow onto the face because drainage is insufficient or tear production exceeds what the eyes can drain.
episodenoun: A distinct period when symptoms appear and form a separate spell of illness.
episodic amnesianoun: Memory for particular personal events is lost or becomes inaccessible, sometimes with recall returning and disappearing again.
episodic buffernoun: A short-term mental workspace that joins sights, sounds, and order into one event-like memory.
episodic disordernoun: A condition produces symptoms during separate periods, with intervals between episodes.
episodic memorynoun: Memory for events you personally lived, including what happened, where, when, and that it happened to you.
epistemicadjective: Describing something related to knowledge, especially how people know or justify what they believe.
epistemic valuenoun: The worth of an idea or thinking process depends on how well it supports accurate knowledge.
epistemologynoun: This area of philosophy examines what knowledge is, how we obtain it, and what justifies believing something.
epistemophilianoun: A strong love of knowing motivates someone to explore, investigate, and ask questions.
epithalamusnoun: A small brain region containing the pineal gland and habenula helps regulate daily rhythms and responses to outcomes.
epitheliomanoun: A tumor arises from epithelial cells, which cover body surfaces and line many internal spaces.
epitheliumnoun: A layer of closely packed cells covers body surfaces and lines internal spaces and organs.
EPPabbreviation: An end-plate potential is an electrical change in a muscle cell triggered by a nearby motor neuron's chemical signal.
EPPSabbreviation: A personality test called the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule measures a person's needs and preferences.
EPQabbreviation: The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire measures self-reported extraversion, emotional instability, and a historically named personality dimension called psychoticism.
EPSabbreviation: Extrapyramidal symptoms are medication-related movement problems, such as stiffness, shaking, muscle spasms, or a strong need to move.
EPSDTabbreviation: This Medicaid benefit covers preventive checks, evaluation, and needed treatment for eligible people under 21, including mental health care.
epsilon alcoholismnoun: Jellinek's historical category describes repeated heavy drinking episodes separated by weeks or months without alcohol.
epsilon movementnoun: Apparent motion can occur when a pale line against darkness switches to a dark line against light.
EPSPabbreviation: An excitatory postsynaptic potential is a brief electrical change caused by incoming neural signals that makes a neuron likelier to fire.
Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)noun: A common herpesvirus often causes mild childhood infections and can cause mononucleosis, especially in teenagers and young adults.
EQabbreviation: An educational quotient compares educational age with actual age, while an emotional intelligence quotient summarizes measured emotional abilities.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)noun: A United States government agency enforces federal protections against discrimination in hiring and employment.
equal loudness contournoun: A graph connects sound pressure levels at different frequencies that listeners judge equally loud relative to a fixed 1,000-hertz tone.
equal opportunitynoun: A fairness principle supports access to jobs, education, and services without discrimination based on protected personal characteristics.
equal rights amendment (ERA)noun: A proposed change to the United States Constitution would guarantee legal equality regardless of sex.
equal sense-difference methodnoun: Researchers adjust pairs of sights, sounds, or other sensations until people judge the differences within each pair equally large.
equal weightingnoun: Each component receives the same multiplier when several measurements are combined into a total score.
equal-and-unequal-cases methodnoun: Participants repeatedly compare paired stimuli from a fixed set and decide whether they seem equal or different.
equal-appearing-intervals methodnoun: People adjust stimulus pairs so the perceived difference within every pair seems the same size.
equality lawnoun: A Gestalt principle proposes that visual parts judged equal tend to be perceived together as one group.
equality of variancenoun: Different groups have the same average squared spread of scores around their own means.
equality stagenoun: Piaget proposed a childhood stage, roughly ages eight to ten, when fairness means treating everyone alike.
equated scorenoun: A test result is converted so its score distribution matches selected features of another test's distribution.
equationnoun: A math statement showing two amounts or expressions are equal, often used to model relationships between variables.
equilibrationnoun: Children regain mental balance by fitting new experiences into old ideas or changing those ideas.
equilibratory sensenoun: The ability to sense balance helps maintain body position and depends partly on motion detectors inside the ears.
equilibriumnoun: A stable balance where a person or system stays steady unless something pushes it to change.
equilibrium model of group developmentnoun: A theory proposes that groups change over time while repeatedly returning toward balance between competing needs or forces.
equilibrium potentialnoun: A membrane voltage exactly balances a particular ion's concentration-driven movement, leaving no net flow of that ion.
equilibrium-point modelnoun: A movement theory proposes that the nervous system sets a limb's destination by specifying a balance between opposing muscles.
equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP)noun: A mental health professional and horse specialist include guided activities with horses in psychological treatment.
equipercentile methodnoun: Researchers link scores on two measures by matching positions with the same percentage of scores falling below them.
equipment automationnoun: The degree of independent machine operation indicates how little direct human involvement its tasks require.
equipment designnoun: Designers shape tools, machines, displays, and controls around human abilities and needs for safe, comfortable, efficient use.
equipotentialitynoun: Lashley's historical hypothesis proposed that broad brain regions share abilities, allowing remaining areas to take over lost functions.
equity stagenoun: Piaget proposed a stage, beginning around eleven, when children judge fairness by considering people's circumstances and intentions.
equity theoryphrase: People judge fairness by comparing what they get from work with what they put in, and with others.
equivalencenoun: Two measures are interchangeable when they give the same meaning or result.
equivalence classnoun: A learned stimulus group allows self-matching, reversed matching, and matching through linked members, supporting substitution among them.
equivalence paradoxnoun: Different methods can produce surprisingly similar results despite starting from different assumptions or using different procedures.
equivalency testnoun: An assessment checks whether someone's knowledge meets an educational standard, even without completing the usual courses.
equivalent formnoun: A different version of a test uses other questions designed to match its content and measurement properties.
equivalent stimulusnoun: A cue can substitute for another within learned relationships that support self-matching, reversed matching, and matching through linked cues.
equivalent-forms reliabilitynoun: The correlation between scores on comparable test versions indicates how consistently those versions measure the same ability or characteristic.
equivalents methodnoun: A participant changes a comparison stimulus until it seems to match a fixed reference stimulus.
equivocal death analysisnoun: Investigators reconstruct someone's mental state before death to help understand unclear circumstances surrounding how the person died.
equivocal signnoun: A subtle observation may suggest a neurological problem but also occurs in people without such problems.
ERabbreviation: A brain signal measured after a specific stimulus, showing how the nervous system reacted.
ERAabbreviation: A proposed U.S. constitutional change to guarantee equal legal rights regardless of sex.
erectadjective: Something stands upright or vertical, especially when describing body posture or the position of hairs.
erectile dysfunctionnoun: Trouble getting or keeping an erection firm enough for sex, often from body or stress causes.
eremophilianoun: An older clinical label describes a desire for solitude considered extreme enough to disrupt a person's life.
erethismnoun: Unusually strong sensitivity or excitability makes sensory input or emotional events provoke heightened reactions, sometimes including irritability.
ERFabbreviation: An event-related magnetic field is a measurable change in brain magnetism linked to a specific mental event.
ERGnoun: An inborn motive that pushes a person toward certain goals and supplies the energy to pursue them.
ERG theoryphrase: A work motivation idea that groups needs into survival, relationships, and personal growth.
ergasiologynoun: Adolf Meyer's historical approach explains behavior through interacting biological, psychological, and social influences on the whole person.
ergativenoun: A verb allows the same affected thing to appear as its object or subject, as with melting butter.
ergic traitnoun: A motivational personality trait drives a person to work toward a particular goal.
ergodicitynoun: A process has this property when averages across individuals match averages from one individual observed over a sufficiently long time.
ergographnoun: An instrument records muscular work across repeated efforts, allowing researchers to examine work capacity and fatigue.
ergomanianoun: A compulsive drive to work excessively makes stopping difficult and can strain health and relationships.
ergometrynoun: The amount of physical work muscles perform is measured while task demands vary.
ergonomic trapsnoun: Design features that conflict with human habits or abilities make mistakes and accidents more likely.
ergonomicsnoun: This field designs tools, tasks, and systems around human strengths and limits to support safe, effective use.
ergonovinenoun: An ergot-derived medicine stimulates uterine contractions and is used to help control bleeding after childbirth.
ergot alkaloidnoun: A biologically active chemical from grain-infecting ergot fungi can affect circulation, muscle activity, or mental functioning.
ergot derivativenoun: A substance obtained from or developed using ergot alkaloids can affect nerve signaling, blood vessels, or uterine muscles.
ergotaminenoun: An ergot-based medicine treats migraine attacks and can narrow blood vessels.
ergotherapynoun: In this usage, treatment uses muscular exercise to help manage illness or restore functioning.
ergotropicadjective: This describes a capacity or tendency to spend energy on activity, effort, or work.
Erhard Seminar Training (est; EST)noun: A controversial group training program introduced by Werner Erhard in 1971 claimed to expand awareness and encourage personal change.
Erichsen’s diseasenoun: A historical diagnosis described back pain and other symptoms following railway accidents, with debated physical and psychological explanations.
Ericksonian psychotherapynoun: A therapy developed by Milton Erickson uses hypnosis, indirect suggestions, and stories to help people access personal resources.
Eriksen flankers tasknoun: An attention test asks people to choose a response to a target while nearby distractors suggest matching or conflicting responses.
Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial developmentnoun: Erik Erikson proposed that identity develops through eight life stages, each involving a central challenge in relating to oneself and others.
ERISAabbreviation: A 1974 United States federal law established protections for participants in private employer pension and benefit plans.
erogenous zonenoun: A body area can produce sexual feelings or pleasure when stimulated.
Erosnoun: Freud proposed a life-oriented drive supporting survival, sexuality, connection, and growth.
erosionnoun: Gradual wearing away of a body surface or other material from repeated use, pressure, or irritation.
erotic asphyxiationnoun: Sexual pleasure or arousal is linked to restricted breathing during sexual activity, a practice that can be fatal.
erotic delusionnoun: A firmly held false belief says another person loves you or has shared a sexual relationship with you, despite contrary evidence.
erotic feminismnoun: A feminist perspective views women’s sexual expression as a way to challenge exploitation and male control.
erotic instinctnoun: Psychoanalytic theories propose a drive toward sexual satisfaction, sometimes broadened to include survival, love, and growth.
erotic lovenoun: Some classifications describe a form of love marked by strong sexual excitement.
erotic paranoianoun: An older diagnostic label describes persistent delusions that someone loves the person or has shared a sexual relationship with them.
erotic plasticitynoun: Sexual desires and behaviors differ in how much they are influenced by culture, social experiences, and circumstances.
erotic pyromanianoun: Sexual excitement is associated with watching large fires or setting them.
erotic typenoun: Freud’s historical personality classification proposed a type focused on giving and receiving love, with sexual energy centered in the id.
eroticanoun: Art, writing, or other creative material explores sexuality and sexual love in ways that can stir feeling or arousal.
eroticismnoun: Sexual excitement or pleasure can be experienced personally or expressed through qualities, themes, and images in art.
eroticizationnoun: A body area, bodily function, object, or activity becomes associated with sexual pleasure or meaning.
erotismnoun: Sexual pleasure and arousal, or their expression in artistic material, are described by this alternative name for eroticism.
erotizationnoun: Sexual pleasure or significance becomes attached to a bodily region, function, sensation, or activity.
erotogenesisnoun: Classical psychoanalysis proposed that sexual impulses arise from bodily sources, including the mouth, anus, and genitals.
erotogenicadjective: This describes something that can bring about sexual feelings or bodily sexual responses.
erotogenic masochismnoun: Freud’s theory proposed that some aggressive or death-directed energy remains aimed inward after becoming bound with sexual energy.
erotographomanianoun: An older term describes a difficult-to-control urge to repeatedly write sexual material or create sexual drawings.
erotolalianoun: Sexually explicit or obscene speech is used especially to increase pleasure during sexual activity.
erotomanianoun: Someone holds a fixed, false conviction that another individual romantically loves them or previously shared sexual intimacy with them.
erotomanic delusionnoun: An unshakable false belief involves another person’s love or an imagined sexual relationship, even when evidence contradicts it.
erotophonophilianoun: Sexual arousal is associated with murdering another person, particularly a sexual partner.
ERPabbreviation: A therapy for OCD that exposes feared triggers while stopping the usual ritual response.
ERP measure of attitudesnoun: An event-related potential measure estimates attitudes from brain electrical responses when something appears among positively or negatively evaluated items.
ERP measures of intelligencenoun: Event-related potential measures examine brain electrical responses to tasks or stimuli for patterns associated with intelligence test performance.
errornoun: A mismatch between what was observed, remembered, or measured and what is actually true or expected.
error analysisnoun: A systematic investigation examines how human abilities, actions, and equipment design contribute to mistakes during work or system operation.
error methodnoun: A perception research method lets participants adjust a changing stimulus until it seems to match a fixed comparison.
error of anticipationnoun: During gradually increasing sensory tests, someone reports detecting a stimulus because they expect it, before actually sensing it.
error of commissionnoun: A mistake occurs when someone takes an incorrect action or adds an unnecessary one.
error of habituationnoun: During stepwise sensory testing, someone keeps giving the same detection answer after the changing stimulus should prompt a different answer.
error of omissionnoun: A mistake occurs because someone leaves out an action needed to complete a task correctly.
error of refractionnoun: The eye bends incoming light so that it fails to focus accurately on the retina, making vision less clear.
error ratephrase: How often mistakes happen in a set of measurements, recordings, or statistical decisions.
error scorenoun: The gap between a person's obtained test score and the score predicted for them.
error sum of squaresnoun: A statistical total adds squared differences between observed values and their model predictions, measuring variation the model leaves unexplained.
error termnoun: A statistical equation includes this part to represent variation in an outcome that its predictors cannot explain.
error variancenoun: The part of a score caused by random influences and measurement mistakes, not the trait being measured.
error-choice techniquenoun: An indirect attitude test uses guesses on difficult factual questions, assuming people favor answers that match their views.
errorless learningnoun: A teaching method guides learners toward correct responses while preventing mistakes that might interfere with remembering.
erythema multiforme majornoun: An immune reaction, often following infection, causes a skin rash and affects moist linings such as the mouth.
erythro- (erythr-)prefix: This word part adds the meaning red to scientific and medical words.
erythropoietinnoun: A protein hormone made mainly by the kidneys signals bone marrow to produce more red blood cells.
erythropsianoun: A change in color vision makes things look unusually red or covered by a reddish tint.
Esalen Institutenoun: An educational center established in California in 1962 offers experiential workshops exploring personal growth, relationships, and well-being.
ESBabbreviation: Short for brain electrostimulation, this method applies electrical stimulation to selected brain regions to investigate their functions.
escalating aggressionphrase: Hostile behavior that grows more intense over time, sometimes ending in physical violence.
escalating commitmentnoun: People keep investing more resources in a failing plan, often hoping to recover what they already spent.
escape behaviorphrase: Actions or thoughts used to stop something unpleasant that is already happening right now.
escape conditioningphrase: Learning happens when a behavior ends something unpleasant right after it starts.
escape from freedomphrase: Erich Fromm proposed that people may seek relief from isolation by surrendering individuality and conforming to others.
escape from realityphrase: A person uses fantasy as a psychological defense against everyday difficulties or inner conflicts.
escape into illnessphrase: A historical psychoanalytic explanation proposes that symptoms or attention to physical complaints can unconsciously help someone avoid emotional conflict.
escape mechanismnoun: A psychological defense automatically reduces anxiety from conflict or stress, often without the person realizing it.
escape titrationnoun: In an experiment, an animal's response lowers a steadily intensifying unpleasant stimulus by a fixed amount.
escapismnoun: People turn toward enjoyable or comforting imagined experiences to take a break from real life.
Eskalithnoun: A brand name identifies lithium medication, a mood stabilizer used in treating bipolar disorder.
ESLabbreviation: This abbreviation names English instruction for learners whose first language is different, emphasizing practical language skills.
ESMabbreviation: The experience-sampling method collects reports of people's current thoughts and feelings at selected moments during everyday life.
esophageal speechnoun: Speech uses air released from the food pipe to vibrate nearby throat tissue instead of relying on the voice box.
esophorianoun: An eye tends to drift inward when the two eyes are prevented from combining their views into one image.
esotropianoun: An eye points inward toward the nose during viewing, leaving the eyes visibly out of alignment.
ESPabbreviation: Extrasensory perception is the proposed ability to learn about events without using known senses; its existence remains unestablished.
ESP cardsnoun: A deck of 25 cards, with five repeating symbols, is used to investigate claims of extrasensory perception.
ESP forced-choice testnoun: An experiment investigating extrasensory perception restricts guesses to listed options so accuracy can be compared with chance.
ESP free-response testnoun: An experiment investigating extrasensory perception allows unrestricted guesses, which judges compare with possible targets for similarity.
espantonoun: Some Latin American cultural traditions describe distress after a fright through the belief that a person's soul has departed.
esprit de corpsnoun: Group members share strong belonging, enthusiasm, commitment, and confidence in what they can accomplish together.
ESSabbreviation: An evolutionarily stable strategy resists replacement by rare alternatives and can involve a lasting mix of behaviors within a population.
ESSBabbreviation: Electrical brain self-stimulation lets an individual activate current through implanted electrodes, often to study the brain's reward systems.
essencenoun: The deepest qualities believed to make a person or thing what it truly is.
essential amino acidnoun: A protein building block must come from food because the body cannot make enough to meet its needs.
essential fatty acidnoun: A fat building block must be supplied by food because the body cannot produce it itself.
essential hypertensionphrase: High blood pressure with no clear medical cause, shaped by genes, habits, and stress.
essential propertynoun: A defining feature is necessary for something to be the kind of thing it is.
essential tremorphrase: An inherited shaking problem often affecting arms, head movements, or speech, usually without other serious brain signs.
essentialismnoun: A philosophical view holds that certain things have necessary core features that determine what they are.
ESTabbreviation: A shortened form for electroconvulsive therapy, a treatment that uses controlled electric current to trigger a seizure.
establishing operationnoun: An event increases a consequence's power to reinforce or punish behavior, changing the likelihood of related actions.
estazolamnoun: A benzodiazepine medicine helps treat insomnia over brief periods by slowing activity in the central nervous system.
esteem neednoun: In Maslow's theory, people seek achievement, competence, and respect to support their sense of personal worth.
Estes–Skinner procedurenoun: An experiment measures how a cue predicting something unpleasant reduces an ongoing behavior that normally earns a reward.
esthesiometry (aesthesiometry)noun: Researchers measure touch sensitivity by testing how light a contact someone notices or how closely spaced contacts remain distinguishable.
estimatenoun: A best guess about a group's true value based on the data you collected.
estimating functionnoun: A mathematical rule combines sample observations with an unknown population value to help estimate that value.
estimationnoun: Using sample data to roughly figure out a population value, while showing how uncertain the estimate is.
estimatornoun: A number computed from sample data to approximate the matching value in the whole population.
estimatorsnoun: Mental processes help a person judge how many items a collection contains.
estradiolnoun: A powerful naturally occurring estrogen hormone is produced chiefly in the ovaries, with other tissues also contributing.
estrangementnoun: Someone becomes emotionally distant from others, sometimes greatly reducing or ending contact with people who were once close.
estrogennoun: A member of this steroid hormone family helps regulate reproduction and sexual development, with additional effects throughout the body.
estrogen antagonistnoun: A substance weakens or blocks estrogen's effects in tissues that normally respond to this hormone.
estrogen replacement therapynoun: Treatment supplies estrogen to ease symptoms caused by reduced hormone production, including symptoms occurring around menopause.
estronenoun: A naturally occurring estrogen hormone is made in the ovaries and elsewhere and can be used medically.
estrous cyclenoun: Many female mammals undergo a repeating reproductive cycle that includes a period of increased readiness to mate.
estrusnoun: During this reproductive phase, a female mammal becomes sexually receptive and more likely to accept mating.
eszopiclonenoun: A nonbenzodiazepine sleep medicine treats insomnia by strengthening GABA's slowing effect on brain activity.
etanoun: A statistic showing how strongly two variables are related, even when the pattern is curved.
eta squarednoun: This effect size measures the share of total outcome variation associated with a factor or set of factors.
ethanolnoun: The alcohol in alcoholic drinks slows brain activity and can change mood, judgment, memory, and movement.
ethchlorvynolnoun: This older, fast-acting sleep medicine fell out of medical use because of serious safety problems and misuse potential.
ethernoun: This older anesthetic drug was used to produce unconsciousness during surgery and can alter perception as its effects develop.
etherealadjective: In historical smell classifications, this describes an odor category associated with fruity or wine-like smells.
ethical codephrase: A set of rules that guides psychologists to act responsibly and protect clients and research participants.
ethical conflictnoun: A situation where a psychologist faces competing duties or values and any choice may risk doing harm.
ethical consumerismnoun: People practice this by choosing what to buy and use according to their moral or social values.
ethical determinismnoun: This philosophical position proposes that truly knowing what is morally good necessarily leads a person to do it.
ethical dilemmaphrase: A person must choose between actions when two important moral rules point in different directions.
ethical imperativenoun: A moral rule or action is regarded as something a person must follow or carry out.
ethical judgmentnoun: A person decides what is morally right or wrong, often when competing values make the choice difficult.
ethical nihilismnoun: This philosophical position holds that no moral principles are valid.
ethical principle orientationnoun: In Kohlberg's proposed sixth stage, people judge actions using ethical principles they choose independently of group rules.
ethicsnoun: Shared rules about right and wrong behavior that guide decisions in research, practice, and everyday life.
ethics committeephrase: A mixed-profession group in an institution that advises on hard moral choices in patient care and policy.
ethics of animal researchnoun: These moral questions concern whether and how nonhuman animals should be studied, including their care and treatment.
ethinamatenoun: This older alcohol-derived sleep medicine has serious toxicity and misuse risks that limit its medical use.
ethmocephalynoun: This rare condition present at birth affects nasal development, often producing a tube-shaped nose with absent nostril openings.
ethmoid fossanoun: This small hollow in the skull base accommodates the olfactory bulb, a brain structure involved in smell.
ethnicadjective: Describing people who share a common culture, language, ancestry, and sometimes religion.
ethnic biasnoun: Unfair treatment based on ethnicity, or a test's unequal measurement across ethnic groups, can disadvantage people.
ethnic cleansingnoun: An organized campaign forcibly removes an ethnic population from an area, often through intimidation, detention, or killing.
ethnic driftnoun: A person's connection to an ethnic minority identity gradually changes or weakens, often through contact with a dominant culture.
ethnic groupnoun: People identify with shared cultural roots, which may include ancestry, language, traditions, or a common history.
ethnic identityphrase: A person's sense of who they are based partly on belonging to a particular ethnic group and its culture.
ethnic psychologynoun: This field examines how ethnic groups' cultural and social circumstances shape members' thoughts, experiences, and behavior within a society.
ethnic researchnoun: These studies investigate the backgrounds of people belonging to different ethnic, racial, and cultural groups.
ethnic socializationphrase: Parents and caregivers teach children about their ethnic group's values, pride, and ways to handle bias.
ethnicitynoun: A person's group membership based on shared culture, ancestry, and history, such as language, values, and traditions.
ethnocentrismnoun: Seeing your own cultural group as normal and better, then judging other groups by those standards.
ethnographic approachnoun: Researchers understand a community's way of living through extended residence, learning its language, observation, and participation.
ethnographynoun: Studying a culture by watching people in their real setting and often joining daily activities.
ethnolinguisticsnoun: This field explores how language connects with a community's culture, social life, and ways of understanding the world.
ethnologynoun: This field compares and analyzes human societies and cultures, including how they have developed through history.
ethnomethodologynoun: This approach studies the everyday rules and shared understandings people use to make social situations meaningful and orderly.
ethnopsychologynoun: This branch of psychology examines how ethnic communities' cultural, linguistic, and social settings influence members' experiences and behavior.
ethnopsychopharmacologynoun: This field investigates ethnic and cultural differences in how people use and respond to mind-affecting drugs, and why.
ethogramnoun: A detailed catalog describes an animal's observable actions, usually in its natural setting, without guessing their meaning.
ethologically oriented universalnoun: In Lonner's proposed classification, this is a psychological feature shared across cultures and linked to human evolutionary history.
ethologynoun: This science investigates animal behavior, especially in natural surroundings, using observation, comparison, and experiments.
ethosnoun: The characteristic values and attitudes of a person, group, place, or era give it a recognizable spirit.
ethosuximidenoun: This medicine belongs to the succinimide family and treats absence seizures, which briefly interrupt awareness.
ethotoinnoun: This medicine belongs to the hydantoin family and was developed to help control epileptic seizures.
ethyl alcoholnoun: Another name for ethanol, this drink ingredient slows brain activity and affects feelings, thinking, and coordination.
eticadjective: Using the same culture ideas across all groups, assuming they apply everywhere.
etiologynoun: The causes and course of a disorder over time.
Etrafonnoun: This medication name identifies a combination of amitriptyline and perphenazine historically used for depression occurring alongside anxiety.
ETSabbreviation: A major nonprofit organization that develops and gives many educational and professional tests.
etymologynoun: This study traces where words and meaningful word parts came from and how they changed over time.
eu-prefix: This word beginning contributes a meaning of good or well to the word it forms.
eudaimonic well-beingnoun: A sense of living well grows from meaningful purpose and developing one's abilities and potential.
eudemonia (eudaemonia)noun: Happiness or human flourishing serves as a guide to morality and a reason for acting in certain ways.
eudemonism (eudaemonism)noun: This philosophical view grounds morality in happiness or flourishing, treating actions that promote it as good.
euergasianoun: Adolf Meyer used this historical label for mental functioning, or combined mental and biological functioning, considered normal.
eugenicadjective: In historical heredity theories, this described an influence claimed to improve the inherited traits of future generations.
eugenicsnoun: This discredited ideology sought to reshape human inheritance by controlling reproduction according to biased judgments about desirable traits.
Euler diagramnoun: This drawing uses regions to show relationships among sets, displaying relevant overlaps without requiring every possible combination.
eumorphicadjective: In historical body-type classifications, this described a build judged to have typical proportions and structure, roughly resembling an athletic build.
eunuchnoun: This historical designation describes a person whose testes were removed, especially before puberty, affecting later physical development.
euphenicsnoun: These interventions change environmental conditions, such as diet, to reduce a genetic condition's effects without changing the underlying genes.
euphorianoun: An unusually intense feeling of happiness and well-being, often seen in mania or caused by drugs.
euphoriantnoun: A substance with this effect can produce intense happiness or a powerful feeling that everything is going well.
euphorogenicadjective: An event or medication with this property brings about unusually intense happiness and feelings of well-being.
eureka tasknoun: Researchers use this kind of problem to study sudden insight, with solutions that usually require an unexpected shift in thinking.
European Federation of Professional Psychologists’ Associations (EFPPA)noun: Founded in 1981, this federation brought national psychology organizations together to support European cooperation in training, practice, and research.
European Federation of the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activitynoun: A European organization, commonly called FEPSAC, connects national groups studying psychology in sports and exercise.
eurymorphnoun: In Eysenck’s proposed system, a broadly built person has a body-build index at least one standard deviation below average.
euryplasticadjective: In historical body classifications, this adjective describes a short, stocky build resembling Kretschmer’s pyknic category.
eusocialitynoun: An animal society combines shared care of young, overlapping generations, and division between breeding members and helpers.
eustachian tubenoun: An air passage connects the throat with the middle ear, helping keep pressure balanced across the eardrum.
eusthenicadjective: An older constitutional classification uses this adjective for a physique considered close to the athletic body type.
eustressnoun: A helpful kind of stress that comes from meaningful challenges and can improve growth, learning, and performance.
euthanasianoun: A deliberate action ends another person’s or animal’s life, usually with the intention of relieving severe suffering.
euthymianoun: A relatively steady, comfortable mood falls outside a manic or depressive episode.
evaluability assessmentphrase: A preevaluation review that clarifies a program's goals, key questions, and workable ways to measure results.
evaluationnoun: A careful judgment of how good, useful, or successful something is.
evaluation apprehensionphrase: Feeling nervous when others are watching may change behavior to seem better to them.
evaluation interviewnoun: A workplace discussion reviews an employee’s performance and may include feedback or goals for improvement.
evaluation objectivenoun: A specific purpose guides a program review, such as improving delivery or judging results.
evaluation researchnoun: Scientific studies examine how well programs or interventions address real-world problems.
evaluation utilizationnoun: People use findings from a program review to guide decisions, address problems, and apply useful solutions.
evaluative priming measurenoun: An indirect attitude test compares positive and negative judgment speeds after a brief cue to estimate feelings toward that cue.
evaluative ratingsnoun: Scores express how people judge objects on qualities such as beauty, pleasantness, or complexity.
evaluative reasoningnoun: Critical thinking judges how effective, meaningful, well-supported, or relevant something is.
evaluatornoun: A person who judges how well a group, project, institution, or person is doing and gives advice.
evaluator credibilitynoun: People affected by a program trust its reviewer’s knowledge, skills, fairness, and responsibility to varying degrees.
evasionnoun: In descriptions of illogical thinking, an expected next idea is replaced by a related idea that does not logically fit.
evenly hovering attentionnoun: A psychodynamic therapist listens openly to the client’s words and feelings without deliberately favoring particular details.
eventnoun: A happening with a clear start and finish that causes or marks some kind of change.
event history analysisnoun: Statistical methods examine how long events take to happen and which factors relate to their timing.
event memorynoun: Remembering happenings from your daily life draws on episodic memory, bringing back experiences tied to particular places and times.
event samplingnoun: An observer records each occurrence of a clearly defined behavior during a chosen observation period.
event spacenoun: In the supplied probability sense, this is the collection of possible outcomes that count as a particular event.
event-related magnetic field (ERF)noun: A measurable change in the brain’s magnetic activity is linked in time to a particular mental event.
event-related potential (ERP)noun: A measured electrical brain response is linked in time to an event, helping researchers track mental processing.
everyday creativitynoun: People develop fresh ideas and flexible solutions while handling ordinary tasks and situations.
everyday intelligencenoun: Practical thinking skills help people handle ordinary challenges, such as comparing prices or finding their way.
everyday racismnoun: Routine interactions and practices treat people unfairly because of their actual or perceived racial group.
evidence-based practice (EBP)phrase: Using the best research, therapist skill, and a client's culture and wishes to choose care most likely to help.
evil eyenoun: A cultural belief holds that an unfriendly or envious look can bring misfortune or illness.
evirationnoun: An outdated clinical label described a man’s delusional belief that his body had become female.
evocative therapynoun: Jerome Frank’s approach sought to change unwanted behavior by identifying and modifying the personal and environmental factors behind it.
evoked potential (EP)noun: A measurable electrical response arises in nervous tissue after a sensory stimulus, such as light or sound.
evolutionnoun: Over many generations, living things slowly change, helping explain how different species developed from earlier ancestors.
evolution of consciousnessnoun: Scientific accounts examine how the capacity for subjective experience emerged and changed across animal lineages over generations.
evolution of intelligencenoun: Thinking and problem-solving abilities change across generations as evolutionary processes shape how organisms meet environmental challenges.
evolution of the brainnoun: Brains emerged and diversified through inherited changes in animal nervous systems across many generations.
evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS)noun: A strategy, once common in a population, resists replacement by rare alternatives because they gain no lasting reproductive advantage.
evolutionary aestheticsnoun: In this theoretical sense, art develops through forces within artistic practice rather than through outside influences.
evolutionary developmental psychologynoun: This field uses evolutionary principles to explain human development, including how inherited tendencies interact with childhood environments.
evolutionary epistemologynoun: Philosophical approaches explain knowledge through biological evolution or through comparisons between how ideas and organisms survive.
evolutionary psychologynoun: This approach studies how natural selection may have shaped mental processes and behavior through challenges faced by ancestors.
evolutionary theoryphrase: Explains behavior and mental traits as shaped over generations because they helped ancestors survive and reproduce.
evolved mechanismnoun: A brain or mental system was shaped by natural selection because it helped ancestors survive or reproduce.
ex post facto designnoun: Researchers examine existing differences or past events to understand outcomes without assigning or controlling the earlier conditions.
ex post facto evaluationnoun: A review judges how well an established program has achieved its intended goals.
ex vivoadjective: Procedures occur outside the body using living tissue or cells recently removed from an organism.
ex-prefix: Placed before a word, it means outside, outward, or on the outer side.
ex-patient clubnoun: A support group offers social activities and recovery support to people after discharge from psychiatric hospital care.
EX/RPabbreviation: Exposure and response prevention helps people approach obsession triggers while practicing not performing compulsions, usually with therapist support.
exacerbationnoun: An existing illness, disorder, or symptom becomes more severe than it was before.
exact replicationnoun: Researchers repeat a study using procedures matched as closely as possible to check whether its findings occur again.
exact testphrase: Gives the exact chance of results this extreme if no real effect exists.
exaggerationnoun: Overstating traits or events, often to defend yourself or justify questionable behavior.
exaltationnoun: Intense elation occurs alongside restless activity and reduced restraint, sometimes during mania.
examinationnoun: A careful check of a person's body or mind to find health problems or symptoms.
exaptationnoun: An existing trait takes on a useful function different from the role for which it originally evolved.
exceptional childnoun: An educational label describes a child whose abilities or support needs differ substantially from those typical for their age.
exceptional creativitynoun: An ability to produce unusually original work makes important contributions to society.
exchange relationshipphrase: A relationship where each person gives benefits expecting something back, rather than helping with no strings attached.
exchange theorynoun: A view that relationships develop partly through people's comparisons of rewards, costs, and possible alternatives.
exchangeabilitynoun: A quality allows items, methods, or measures to work appropriately across different situations.
excitabilitynoun: How easily a neuron or muscle cell responds to stimulation by producing an electrical change.
excitantnoun: An agent, such as a substance or stimulus, can bring about a response.
excitationnoun: A nerve or muscle cell's electrical response to stimulation, especially when an action potential travels along it.
excitation patternnoun: Sound produces a distribution of activity across locations in hearing structures, especially the inner ear and auditory nerve.
excitation-transfer theorynoun: A theory proposes that leftover bodily arousal can strengthen a later emotion when its original source goes unrecognized.
excitatory conditioningnoun: Learning through pairing makes a cue predict an upcoming stimulus that naturally produces a response.
excitatory fieldnoun: A brain region around an activated sensory area participates in that area's response.
excitatory gradient (excitation gradient)noun: A graph shows how a learned tendency to respond varies with a stimulus's resemblance to the trained stimulus.
excitatory neurotransmitterphrase: A chemical messenger that makes the next neuron more likely to fire an electrical signal.
excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP)noun: A brief voltage change caused by incoming communication makes a receiving neuron more likely to fire.
excitatory synapsenoun: A junction between neurons passes signals that make the receiving neuron more likely to fire.
excitatory thresholdnoun: The minimum strength of stimulation needed to start a nerve impulse marks this threshold.
excitatory–inhibitory processesnoun: Nervous system processes increase or decrease the likelihood of neural activity, influencing perception, thought, learning, and movement.
excitementnoun: A feeling of eager, happy anticipation along with increased mental and body arousal.
excitement phasenoun: An initial stage in Masters and Johnson's sexual response model involves increasing sexual arousal and bodily changes.
excitotoxic lesionnoun: Damage to nervous tissue occurs when excessive stimulation injures or kills neurons.
excitotoxicitynoun: Damage and death of nerve cells caused by too much stimulation, often from excess glutamate, a brain chemical.
exclusion designnoun: Tools or systems are designed to make particular human errors nearly impossible by removing features that invite mistakes.
exclusiveadjective: Keeping categories fully separate so something cannot fit into both at once.
excoriation (skin-picking) disordernoun: Repeated skin picking causes wounds and significant distress or disruption, despite repeated efforts to reduce or stop it.
excrementnoun: Solid or partly solid digestive waste leaves the body through bowel movements.
exculpatory evidencenoun: Information supports the claim that an accused person did not commit the alleged wrongdoing.
executivenoun: A higher-level control system that starts, guides, and checks other mental activities.
executive areanoun: A brain region, often within the frontal lobe, is thought to support complex thinking and control of behavior.
executive attentionnoun: A person focuses on relevant information while setting aside competing or less useful input.
executive coachingphrase: Personalized one-on-one guidance from an outside coach helps managers improve leadership, people skills, and goal achievement at work.
executive control structurenoun: In Robbie Case's theory, a mental system represents problems, goals, and possible strategies to guide children's thinking.
executive dysfunctionphrase: Trouble planning, organizing, problem solving, and controlling actions, often linked to frontal brain system problems.
executive functionsphrase: Mental skills for planning, staying organized, controlling impulses, shifting strategies, and reaching goals, largely managed by the frontal lobes.
executive leadershipnoun: People at an organization's highest levels guide, organize, and motivate others to achieve shared goals.
executive organnoun: A body organ takes the leading role in carrying out a response to stimulation.
executive selfnoun: The experienced self is regarded as the source that directs and carries out voluntary actions.
executive stagenoun: Schaie's theory proposes that some middle-aged adults use advanced thinking to manage wider social responsibilities and competing priorities.
executive stressnoun: Managers experience strain from responsibility for major choices, employees' performance, and their organization's success.
Exelonnoun: A brand name identifies rivastigmine, a medicine used to help manage symptoms of dementia, including Alzheimer's dementia.
exemplar theorynoun: A theory proposes that people classify things by comparing them with particular examples stored in memory.
exemplary damagesnoun: A court orders an additional payment in a civil case to punish serious wrongdoing and discourage similar behavior.
exemplificationnoun: A person presents their behavior to encourage others to see them as especially moral and guided by shared values.
exercisenoun: Planned, repeated physical activity done to improve fitness and sometimes support mental health treatment.
exercise addictionnoun: Dependence on exercise leads someone to continue despite negative effects and experience withdrawal symptoms when stopping.
exercise adherencenoun: A person follows an exercise program consistently, including its planned effort level and session length.
exercise highnoun: A strong feeling of happiness or well-being occurs during physical activity or soon afterward.
exercise intolerancenoun: Physical symptoms limit a person's ability to exercise at a level expected for their age and condition.
exercise obsessionnoun: An overpowering focus on or dependence on exercise interferes with physical health, emotional well-being, or social life.
exercise playnoun: Play involves energetic whole-body movements, such as running and jumping, either alone or with others.
exercise psychologynoun: A field studies how thoughts, feelings, and behavior influence exercise participation and how exercise affects psychological well-being.
exercise stress testnoun: A medical examination monitors heart function and other bodily responses while a person performs physical exercise.
exercise therapynoun: Planned, repeated physical activity is used to prevent or manage health problems and improve functioning.
exercise–behavior modelnoun: A proposed model links exercise participation to personal tendencies, social background, expected costs and benefits, confidence, and perceived control.
exhaustionnoun: Being so extremely tired that thinking, working, or studying becomes much harder.
exhaustion deathnoun: A historical name for lethal catatonia described severe agitation that could end in death without an understood cause.
exhaustion deliriumnoun: Severe confusion and disrupted awareness occur during extreme exhaustion, often alongside sleep loss, environmental stress, or illness.
exhaustion stagephrase: The final stress phase, when the body's resources are used up and coping starts to fail.
exhaustiveadjective: Including every possible option or case, with nothing important left out.
exhaustive searchnoun: A search checks every candidate before deciding whether a target is present, even if the target appears early.
exhibitionismnoun: A tendency to attract notice through conspicuous behavior involves making oneself especially visible to others.
existencenoun: The state of being real or present rather than absent or imaginary.
existence, relatedness, and growth theory (ERG theory)noun: Alderfer's theory groups work motivation into needs for basic material support, relationships, and personal development.
existential analysisnoun: A therapeutic approach explores conscious experience, personal meaning, and choices to help people make more deliberate decisions.
existential anxietynoun: A painful feeling that comes from realizing you are free, responsible, and will die without guaranteed meaning.
existential crisisnoun: A period of deep questioning challenges a person's sense of life's meaning, purpose, or responsibility for choices.
existential dreadphrase: A deep fear and sadness about life's meaning and the fact of being human.
existential intelligencenoun: A proposed type of intelligence involves considering fundamental questions about existence and humanity's place in the universe.
existential judgmentnoun: A philosophical judgment concerns whether something exists, where it comes from, or what it is like.
existential livingnoun: In Rogers's theory, a person engages fully with present experience and responds openly and flexibly to new situations.
existential neurosisnoun: A historical concept links anxiety and despair to avoiding personal choices, responsibility, and the creation of meaning.
existential phenomenologynoun: A philosophical approach examines lived experiences closely to understand what existing in the world means to a person.
existential psychoanalysisnoun: A therapeutic approach explores conscious experiences and choices to help people build meaning and take responsibility for their lives.
existential psychologynoun: An approach to psychology emphasizes each person's unique experience, personal meaning, freedom to choose, and responsibility for choices.
existential psychotherapynoun: A therapy approach helps people explore present experiences, create personal meaning, and accept responsibility for their choices.
existential vacuumnoun: In Frankl's theory, difficulty discovering personal meaning leaves someone feeling empty, disconnected, or without direction.
existential–humanistic therapynoun: A therapy approach considers the whole person, emphasizing personal experience, freedom, growth, and choices about life's direction.
existentialismnoun: A philosophical movement explores individual existence, freedom, responsibility, and the challenge of creating meaning amid uncertainty.
exit interviewphrase: A final meeting with a departing worker to learn why they are leaving and improve the workplace.
exo- (ex-)prefix: This word beginning indicates that something lies outside or has an outward or external relationship.
exocrine glandnoun: A gland releases substances through a duct onto a body surface or into a body cavity.
exogamynoun: A marriage practice involves choosing a spouse beyond one's family network, religious community, or other social group.
exogenousadjective: Coming from outside the body or caused by outside influences rather than internal ones.
exogenous attentionnoun: Attention shifts automatically when something noticeable in the surroundings captures it without a deliberate decision.
exogenous cuenoun: An external signal automatically pulls attention toward its location, often through a sudden appearance outside the center of vision.
exogenous depressionnoun: An older label describes an episode of major depression thought to begin in response to stressful life events.
exogenous variablenoun: A model uses this variable as an input whose value comes from influences the model does not explain.
exonnoun: A section of a gene corresponds to RNA that remains after processing, sometimes carrying instructions for making protein.
exophorianoun: An eye tends to drift outward when the two eyes cannot combine their views to maintain alignment.
exophthalmosnoun: An eyeball protrudes unusually far forward from its socket, sometimes in connection with thyroid disease.
exopsychicadjective: This describes mental activity proposed to have effects beyond the person experiencing it.
exorcismnoun: A religious ritual aims to remove spirits believed to occupy a person or place.
exosomatic methodnoun: Researchers apply a small external electrical current to measure skin resistance as an indicator of physiological arousal.
exosystemnoun: In ecological development theory, settings outside a person's direct participation influence development by changing their immediate surroundings.
exotropianoun: One or both eyes turn outward instead of staying aligned on the same target.
expabbreviation: This abbreviation denotes the exponential function, with exp(x) usually meaning e raised to the power x.
expanded consciousnessnoun: A person feels their awareness has become broader or newly opened, sometimes during meditation, mystical experiences, or drug effects.
expansionnoun: Writing a math or statistics function as a series of added parts.
expansion of morbiditynoun: A proposed population pattern involves illness or disability lasting longer because death is postponed more than their onset.
expansive delusionnoun: A firmly held false belief gives someone an exaggerated sense of their own power, importance, identity, or abilities.
expansive moodphrase: A person feels unusually powerful, important, or limitless, showing inflated self-confidence.
expansivenessnoun: A personality tendency combines unusually abundant talk, excessive friendliness, high activity, and limited restraint.
expectancynoun: A learned belief that certain actions or cues will likely lead to a certain result.
expectancy effectphrase: What someone expects can change how another person, or even they themselves, actually behaves.
expectancy theoryphrase: Work effort grows when people expect performance will lead to valued rewards.
expectancy wavenoun: A slow negative electrical brain signal develops between a warning and an action signal, reflecting anticipation or readiness.
expectancy-value modelnoun: A theory proposes that motivation depends on how much an outcome matters and how likely success seems.
expectationnoun: A feeling of tense anticipation about what you think is about to happen.
expectation-states theorynoun: A theory explains group status through expectations of competence shaped by relevant abilities and unrelated social stereotypes.
expected frequencyphrase: The number of cases a theory predicts should fall in each group.
expected valuenoun: A calculated average weights each possible value of a random quantity by its probability.
experiencenoun: Something a person actually lives through, rather than only imagining or thinking about.
experience-dependent processnoun: The brain changes in response to a person's particular experiences, supporting learning and adaptation throughout life.
experience-expectant processnoun: Developing brain circuits depend on common experiences, such as visual input, during particular periods to develop typically.
experience-sampling method (ESM)noun: Researchers repeatedly ask participants about their current thoughts, feelings, or activities at selected moments during everyday life.
experiencernoun: In grammar, this meaning role identifies the being who senses or feels what a sentence describes.
experiential family therapynoun: A family therapy approach uses immediate feelings, intuition, and genuine interaction to explore relationships and encourage change.
experiential historynoun: A person's background includes the relationships, surroundings, actions, and events they encounter across their lifetime.
experiential knowledgenoun: Understanding and practical skill develop from personally living through situations, beyond what formal teaching provides.
experiential learningnoun: People gain knowledge or skills through directly taking part in activities and working with their experiences.
experiential psychotherapynoun: A family of therapies encourages directly engaging with feelings and experiences during sessions to support change and self-understanding.
experiential subtheorynoun: Sternberg's intelligence theory proposes that creative ability involves handling unfamiliar tasks and making familiar task steps automatic.
experimentnoun: A controlled study changes one factor and measures another to test whether the first truly causes the second.
experiment-wise alpha levelnoun: Researchers set this limit for the probability of any false positive across a study's collection of statistical tests.
experiment-wise error ratenoun: This probability measures whether one or more false positives occur anywhere among a study's statistical tests.
experimental aestheticsnoun: Researchers use experiments to investigate how people respond to beauty, art, natural objects, and features such as color.
experimental analysis of behaviornoun: An experimental approach studies how environmental experiences, especially reinforcement arrangements, change an individual's behavior.
experimental attritionnoun: Participants leave or become unavailable during a study, reducing the sample and potentially changing what its results represent.
experimental conditionnoun: A specific treatment or situation is deliberately arranged by researchers to examine its effects on a measured outcome.
experimental controlphrase: Keeping all factors except the one being tested as constant as possible.
experimental designphrase: A study plan that sets procedures so researchers can test variables fairly and draw trustworthy conclusions.
experimental epilepsynoun: Researchers induce repeated seizures in nonhuman animals using electrical, chemical, or sensory stimulation to study seizure activity.
experimental ethicsnoun: Values and standards guide responsible study design, treatment of participants, research conduct, and reporting of results.
experimental groupphrase: In a study, these participants get the treatment being tested so researchers can compare their results.
experimental hypothesisnoun: A testable prediction states what a researcher expects to happen when particular conditions are changed in an experiment.
experimental manipulationphrase: Changing a cause being tested, called an independent variable, to see how it changes results.
experimental methodnoun: Researchers deliberately change one factor while controlling others to test predictions and investigate cause and effect.
experimental neuropsychologynoun: This research field investigates how nervous system structures and activities relate to thinking and behavior, including differences associated with impairment.
experimental neurosisphrase: Severe stress and disorganized behavior caused in animals by impossible or punishing conditioning tasks.
experimental philosophynoun: One philosophical approach proposes that brain science can ultimately explain knowledge and thought in biological terms.
experimental psychologynoun: This field uses controlled studies to investigate behavior, motivation, and thinking and develop explanations supported by measurements.
experimental realismnoun: A study has this quality when participants find it engaging and meaningful enough to respond naturally.
experimental researchphrase: A study method that randomly places people into groups and changes one factor to test cause and effect.
experimental treatmentnoun: The condition given to a research group to see whether it changes the outcome being measured.
experimental unitnoun: The person, group, or object independently assigned an experimental condition is the basic unit receiving that condition.
experimental variablenoun: A researcher deliberately changes this factor to investigate whether it affects a measured outcome.
experimenter biasphrase: A researcher's expectations can unintentionally influence participants or data, causing systematic errors in study results.
experimenter driftnoun: A researcher's methods or interpretations gradually shift without awareness, introducing a consistent bias into study results.
experimenter effectnoun: A researcher influences findings through interactions with participants or unintended mistakes in gathering, analyzing, or interpreting information.
experimenter expectancy effectnoun: A researcher's expectations unintentionally shape participants' responses through subtle signals, such as facial expressions or tone.
expert authoritynoun: A person's relevant knowledge or skills give them influence because others trust their ability to help achieve shared goals.
expert fallacynoun: This reasoning error treats someone's expertise in one field as a reason to trust their judgments in an unrelated field.
expert performancenoun: In this perceptual sense, a person detects very slight differences between two things they see, hear, or otherwise sense.
expert powerphrase: The ability to influence others because they believe you have special skill or knowledge.
expert systemnoun: A computer program uses explicitly stored human knowledge, often organized as rules, to solve problems requiring specialized judgment.
expert testimonyphrase: A qualified witness's court evidence may include opinions to help judge or jury decide facts.
expert witnessnoun: A court-approved specialist who explains evidence and gives opinions to help judges or juries decide.
expert–novice differencesnoun: Experienced specialists and beginners typically differ in how they approach tasks and how well they perform within a particular field.
expertisenoun: Deep skill and knowledge in one area built through long experience and practice.
expiatory punishmentnoun: A penalty imposes suffering according to how serious wrongdoing seems, without necessarily connecting the penalty's form to the wrongdoing.
explained variancephrase: The share of differences in an outcome that other measured variables can account for or predict.
explanationnoun: A reasoned account that makes an event or behavior understandable by pointing to causes, beliefs, or helpful comparisons.
explanatory modelphrase: A person's way of explaining an illness, including its causes, expected path, and best treatments.
explanatory researchnoun: A study investigates why an observed result or pattern occurs by examining possible reasons and mechanisms.
explanatory stylephrase: A person's usual way of explaining why events happen, especially good or bad experiences.
explanatory variablephrase: The factor a researcher changes or compares to see if it affects results.
explantnoun: A tissue sample removed from an organism is kept growing outside it in a specially prepared setting, often for research.
explicit attitudenoun: A person consciously recognizes a fairly lasting positive or negative evaluation of someone or something.
explicit attitude measurenoun: An assessment evaluates a person's attitudes while they know those attitudes are being examined, usually through direct questions.
explicit behaviornoun: An action can be directly noticed by other people without special equipment or expert knowledge.
explicit emotion regulationnoun: A person consciously monitors and deliberately adjusts their emotional responses, including through changing how they interpret a situation.
explicit memoryphrase: Stored facts and events you can purposely bring to mind when asked or when needed.
explicit memory testnoun: An assessment directly asks someone to consciously remember earlier experiences or identify material they previously encountered.
explicit prejudicenoun: A person knowingly holds a negative attitude toward a social group, whether or not they share it openly.
explicit processnoun: A mental activity is open to conscious examination, allowing a person to describe accurately how it unfolds.
exploitative orientationnoun: Erich Fromm proposed a character pattern of obtaining desired things from others through deception or coercion rather than personal creation.
exploratory behaviornoun: People or other animals investigate unfamiliar surroundings through movement and inspection, sometimes without any obvious biological reward.
exploratory data analysis (EDA)noun: Researchers examine data for unexpected patterns and possible explanations to develop fresh questions and insights.
exploratory drivenoun: An organism feels motivated to investigate its surroundings, possibly from other needs or from an independent urge to explore.
exploratory factor analysis (EFA)noun: A statistical method searches related measurements for fewer hidden dimensions that could account for their shared patterns.
exploratory procedurenoun: A person uses particular touching movements to discover an object's properties, such as pressing for hardness or rubbing for texture.
exploratory researchnoun: Researchers investigate a poorly understood topic to identify possible patterns, relationships, and questions for further study.
explosive disorderphrase: A condition marked by repeated sudden anger outbursts that are much stronger than the situation calls for.
explosive personalitynoun: An older descriptive label describes repeated, poorly controlled anger and hostility that greatly exceed what the situation would usually provoke.
exponentnoun: A small raised number tells how often a base number is used in repeated multiplication.
exponential curvenoun: A graph shows a quantity changing by the same multiplicative factor for each equal step along the horizontal axis.
exponential distributionnoun: A probability model describes waiting times when an event's instantaneous chance of occurring stays constant while one waits.
exponential function (exp)noun: A mathematical rule raises a fixed positive base other than one to a variable power, producing growth or decay.
exposure and response prevention (ERP; EX/RP)phrase: A therapy for OCD that has people face triggers and resist rituals until the anxiety gradually drops.
exposure deafnessnoun: Hearing decreases after extended contact with loud sound, with temporary or lasting effects depending on the exposure.
exposure therapyphrase: A treatment that repeatedly and safely faces feared situations or thoughts so anxiety drops and confidence grows.
expressed emotion (EE)phrase: Family criticism, hostility, or overinvolvement toward a person with mental illness, often linked to relapse.
expressionnoun: The outward showing of an inner feeling, thought, trait, or state.
expressionism factornoun: In psychological studies of art, this style dimension captures how strongly a work emphasizes the artist's intense emotional experience.
expressive amimianoun: A person cannot produce appropriate gestures to communicate meaning, even when they intend to convey a message.
expressive amusianoun: A person loses the ability to reproduce melodies, usually in association with damage to brain regions involved in music.
expressive aphasiaphrase: A brain-language problem that makes speech slow and hard to form, while understanding is often better.
expressive languagephrase: The words a person speaks or writes, rather than the words they understand.
expressive language disordernoun: A former developmental diagnosis described difficulty learning to communicate through language despite age-appropriate understanding, including trouble with vocabulary and sentences.
expressive suppressionnoun: A person deliberately holds back outward signs of an emotion after the emotional response has already begun.
expressive therapynoun: Psychotherapy encourages people to explore and express feelings through open discussion or creative activities such as art and movement.
expressive writingnoun: Writing exercises help people explore and express personal thoughts and feelings as part of therapeutic work.
extended carenoun: A residential service provides nursing around the clock and rehabilitation, often after a hospital stay for an acute health problem.
extended Cox regression modelnoun: A statistical model examines time until an event while allowing predictors or their effects on the event rate to change.
extended familynoun: Family that includes relatives beyond parents and children, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
extended suicidenoun: A proposed interpretation of murder–suicide links both acts to suicidal intent, with victims perceived by the perpetrator as extensions of self.
extended-family therapynoun: Therapy brings immediate family together with additional relatives, such as grandparents or cousins, to work on shared concerns.
extended-release preparationnoun: A medicine is specially formulated to release its active substance gradually over a longer period.
extended-stay reviewnoun: A hospital care assessment checks whether someone still needs inpatient treatment after their stay reaches a previously set length.
extensionnoun: A follow-up study that changes part of an earlier study to see if the findings still hold.
extension reflexnoun: An automatic muscle response straightens a limb or extends one of its parts.
extensional meaningnoun: A word's meaning is specified by naming the individual things that it includes.
extensornoun: A muscle straightens or extends a body part when it tightens.
extensor motor neuronnoun: A nerve cell sends signals directly to muscles that straighten or extend a body part.
extensor posturingnoun: Severe brain dysfunction can cause a rigid posture with both arms and legs extended and turned inward.
extensor rigiditynoun: Muscles that straighten body parts remain unusually tight, sometimes because of damage to movement control systems.
extensor thrustnoun: Pressure or stimulation beneath the foot triggers automatic leg straightening that helps support the body during stepping.
exteriorizationnoun: A person connects private feelings and attitudes with outside reality or expresses personal ideas outwardly.
external aimnoun: In classical psychoanalytic theory, a person, thing, or action is sought as a way to satisfy an instinct.
external attributionphrase: Explaining someone's behavior by causes outside the person, such as the situation or other people's actions.
external auditory meatusnoun: A passage in the outer ear carries incoming sound toward the eardrum.
external boundarynoun: Psychoanalytic theory proposes a dividing line separating the ego, which handles practical demands, from the outside world.
external capsulenoun: A thin sheet of insulated nerve fibers lies between two brain structures called the claustrum and putamen.
external chemical messenger (ECM)noun: A substance released by one organism affects other organisms, as pheromones do.
external controlphrase: Believing that what happens to you is mostly caused by luck, fate, or other people.
external earnoun: The ear's outer section includes its visible flap, its canal, and the outward-facing eardrum surface.
external evaluatornoun: Someone assesses a program without belonging to its regular staff as a full-time employee.
external fertilizationnoun: Sperm joins an egg outside the egg-producing parent's body, forming the first cell of a new organism.
external genitaliaphrase: The visible sex organs on the outside of the body, such as the penis or vulva.
external granular layernoun: The neocortex's second layer contains small neurons, including granule cells and pyramid-shaped cells.
external inequitynoun: Employees receive compensation that is unfair compared with what similar employers would offer for comparable work.
external locus of controlphrase: Believing that luck, fate, or other people mostly control what happens to you.
external pyramidal layernoun: The neocortex's third layer contains pyramid-shaped neurons, with medium-sized cells nearer its top and larger cells deeper down.
external rectusnoun: An eye muscle pulls the eyeball outward, turning the gaze toward the side of the head.
external reliabilitynoun: A measurement gives consistent results when repeated at different times or scored by different evaluators.
external respirationnoun: An animal exchanges gases with its surroundings by taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide.
external validityphrase: Shows whether study findings apply to other people, settings, and times beyond those actually tested.
external worldphrase: Everything that exists outside a person's mind and does not depend on their awareness.
externality effectnoun: Very young babies tend to examine a shape's outer edges more than its inner details.
externalizationnoun: In psychodynamic theory, people may experience their own thoughts or feelings as belonging to the outside world.
externalizing–internalizingnoun: A broad classification groups children's difficulties by outward behavior, such as aggression, or inward distress, such as anxiety.
exteroceptionnoun: Specialized sensory cells allow a person or animal to detect events and objects in the surrounding environment.
exteroceptive stimulusnoun: An event or substance outside an organism activates its senses, such as a ringing bell or a food's flavor.
exteroceptornoun: A specialized sensory cell or nerve ending detects input from the surrounding world, such as light or touch.
extinctionnoun: A learned behavior or reaction weakens when it no longer gets the expected pairing or reward.
extinction burstphrase: When a reward stops, a behavior briefly becomes stronger or more frequent before fading away.
extirpationnoun: A procedure removes an entire tissue or biological structure, sometimes to treat a condition or investigate its function.
extra- (extr-)prefix: This word beginning adds the meaning of being outside something or beyond its limits.
extracellular depositnoun: Material builds up between or around cells and may disrupt nearby tissue, as some protein deposits do in Alzheimer's disease.
extracellular spacenoun: The fluid-filled area outside cells' outer membrane, where substances move around the body.
extradural hemorrhagenoun: Bleeding occurs beyond the brain's tough outer covering, typically between that covering and the skull after an injury.
extrafusal fibernoun: A muscle cell outside the muscle's stretch sensors generates much of the force needed for movement.
extraneous variablephrase: Any factor not being studied that can still change the dependent variable, the measured outcome.
extrapair matingnoun: In species that form social pairs, an individual mates with someone other than its established partner.
extrapolationnoun: Known observations are used to estimate unknown results beyond the conditions, people, or times directly studied.
extrapsychicadjective: Something originates beyond a person's mind or involves exchanges between their mind and the surrounding environment.
extrapsychic conflictnoun: A person's wishes or needs clash with demands or conditions in their surroundings.
extrapunitiveadjective: Someone responds to frustration by directing blame, anger, or hostility toward other people or outside circumstances.
extrapyramidal dyskinesianoun: Disrupted movement control circuits cause unwanted or impaired movements, sometimes because of neurological illness or antipsychotic medication.
extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS)noun: Some medicines disrupt movement control, producing effects such as muscle stiffness, shaking, sustained contractions, or intense restlessness.
extrapyramidal tractnoun: A network including the basal ganglia and related nerve pathways helps coordinate movement, posture, and muscle tension.
extrasensory perception (ESP)noun: A proposed ability to gain information without using recognized senses remains unsupported by reliable, repeatable scientific evidence.
extraspective perspectivenoun: Researchers study observable actions and responses using evidence that can be checked by others.
extraspectral huenoun: A perceived hue, such as purple, requires combined wavelengths because no single wavelength of visible light produces it.
extrastriate cortexnoun: Brain surface regions beyond the primary visual area process visual information, including color, form, and motion.
extrastriate visual areanoun: A cortical brain region beyond the primary visual processing area helps interpret features such as shape, color, or motion.
extraterrestrial kidnappingnoun: A person reports being taken by alien beings, although scientific evidence has not established that such events occur.
extrauterine pregnancynoun: A pregnancy develops somewhere beyond the uterus, usually within a fallopian tube.
extraversion (extroversion)noun: A personality trait marked by seeking people, activity, and the outside world more than solitude.
extreme capsule (EmC)noun: A bundle of insulated brain fibers links frontal, temporal, and parietal regions and may carry information used in language.
extreme environmentsnoun: Places with unusually demanding living conditions can challenge people's health, comfort, social relationships, and ability to cope.
extremely low birth weight (ELBW)noun: A baby weighing under 1,000 grams when born falls into this birth weight category.
extremity of an attitudenoun: The degree to which someone's judgment is positive or negative measures its distance from a neutral position.
extrinsic eye musclesnoun: Six muscles attached outside each eyeball work together to turn it within its socket.
extrinsic motivationphrase: Doing something because of outside rewards or to avoid punishment, rather than for personal interest.
extrinsic reinforcementnoun: An external reward makes a behavior more likely to happen again, beyond any enjoyment the activity itself provides.
extrinsic religionnoun: A religious orientation treats religious involvement mainly as a way to gain other benefits, such as belonging or comfort.
extrinsic rewardphrase: A benefit given from outside, like money or praise, to increase a behavior.
extroversionnoun: A personality trait marked by being outgoing, talkative, and energized by other people.
eyenoun: The organ that detects light and sends visual information to the brain.
eye banknoun: A specialized facility collects, checks, preserves, and supplies donated eye tissue for suitable transplant recipients.
eye contactphrase: Looking directly at another person's eyes during interaction, a social cue that varies across cultures and conditions.
eye dominancenoun: A person tends to rely more on one eye for certain visual tasks or when combining both eyes' information.
eye movementsphrase: Shifts in where the eyes point, made by muscles around the eyes to track or fix on things.
eye musclesphrase: Muscles around and inside the eye move the eyeball and adjust the lens and pupil.
eye preferencenoun: One eye is favored over its partner when looking or when the brain weighs incoming visual information.
eye spannoun: The amount of text a reader takes in while their eyes pause at one location is their reading eye span.
eye structurenoun: The arrangement of the eye's layers, fluids, lens, and other parts allows it to collect light and support vision.
eye trackernoun: An instrument measures where someone looks and how their gaze shifts across a scene or display.
eye-movement cameranoun: A camera records eye motion so researchers can study where and when the eyes pause during different tasks.
eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)noun: A structured therapy helps people process distressing memories while using guided eye movements or other alternating stimulation.
eye-roll signnoun: Upward eye movement during falling asleep or hypnosis has been proposed as a clue to responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions.
eye–hand coordinationnoun: The brain combines what the eyes see with hand movements to guide actions such as reaching, drawing, and catching.
eye–voice spannoun: During reading aloud, this distance counts the characters separating the spoken word from the word currently being viewed.
eyelash signnoun: Touching the eyelashes can trigger an eyelid movement that clinicians may observe when assessing a person's responsiveness.
eyelid conditioningnoun: Researchers pair a cue with something that naturally causes blinking until the cue alone brings about a learned blink.
eyewitness memoryphrase: A person's memory of an event they saw firsthand, which can be important but mistaken.
eyewitness testimonyphrase: A witness's sworn court statement about what they remember seeing during the event being questioned.
EYM Projectabbreviation: This long-term research project followed married Americans from Black and White backgrounds to examine relationship satisfaction, stability, and divorce.
Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)noun: A self-report questionnaire measures outgoing tendencies and emotional instability, with an additional scale checking potentially distorted answers.
Eysenck’s dimensionsnoun: Eysenck's personality model describes differences using three proposed traits: extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

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