Kpu Mental Health Vocab

Front 1

Acting Out

Back 1

Using actions rather than reflections or feelings during periods of emotional conflict.

Front 2

Affiliation

Back 2

Turning to others for help or support (sharing problems with others without implying that someone else is responsible for them)

Front 3

Altruism

Back 3

Dedicating life to meeting the needs of others (receives gratification either vicariously or from the response of others)

Front 4

Anticipation

Back 4

Experiencing emotional reactions in advance or anticipating consequences of possible future events and considering realistic, alternative responses or solutions.

Front 5

Autistic fantasy

Back 5

Excessive daydreaming as a substitute for human relationships, more effective action, or problem solving.

Front 6

Denial

Back 6

Refusing to acknowledge some painful aspect of external reality or subjective experience that would be apparent to others (psychotic denial used when there is gross impairment in reality testing).

Front 7

Devaluation

Back 7

Attributing exaggerated negative qualities to self or others.

Front 8

Displacement

Back 8

Transferring a feeling about, or a response to, one object onto another (usually less threatening), substitute object.

Front 9

Dissociation

Back 9

Experiencing a breakdown in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, perception of self or the environment, or sensory and motor behavior.

Front 10

Help-rejecting complaining

Back 10

Complaining or making repetitious requests for help that disguise covert feelings of hostility or reproach toward others, which are then expressed by rejecting the suggestions, advice, or help that others offer (complaints or requests may involve physical or psychological symptoms or life problems).

Front 11

Humor

Back 11

Emphasizing the amusing or ironic aspects of the conflict or stressor.

Front 12

Idealization

Back 12

Attributing exaggerated positive qualities to others.

Front 13

Intellectualization

Back 13

Excessive use of abstract thinking or the making of generalizations to control or minimize disturbing feelings.

Front 14

Isolation of affect

Back 14

Separation of ideas from the feelings originally associated with them.

Front 15

Omnipotence

Back 15

Feeling or acting as if one possesses special powers or abilities and is superior to others.

Front 16

Passive aggression

Back 16

Indirectly and unassertively expressing aggression toward others. There is a facade of overt compliance masking covert resistance, resentment, or hostility.

Front 17

Projection

Back 17

Falsely attributing to another one's own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts.

Front 18

Projective identification

Back 18

Falsely attributing to another one's own unacceptable feelings, impulses, or thoughts. Unlike simple projection, the individual does not fully disavow what is projected. Instead, the individual remains aware of his or her own affect or impulses but mis-attributes them as justifiable reactions to the other person. Frequently, the individual induces the very feelings in others that were first mistakenly believed to be there, making it difficult to clarify who did what to whom first.

Front 19

Rationalization

Back 19

Concealing the true motivations for one's own thughts, actions, or feelings through the elaboration of reassuring or self-serving but incorrect explanations.

Front 20

Repression

Back 20

Expelling disturbing wishes, thoughts, or experiences from conscious awareness (the felling component may remain conscious, detached from its associated ideas).

Front 21

Self-assertion

Back 21

Expressing feelings and thoughts directly in a way that is not coercive or manipulative.

Front 22

Self-observation

Back 22

Reflecting feelings and thoughts directly in a way that is not coercive or manipulative.

Front 23

Splitting

Back 23

Compartmentalizing opposite affect states and failing to integrate the positive and negative qualities of the self or others into cohesive images.

Front 24

Sublimation

Back 24

Channeling potentially maladaptive feelings or impulses into socially acceptable behavior.

Front 25

Suppression

Back 25

Intentionally avoiding thinking about disturbing problems, wishes, feelings, or experiences.

Front 26

Undoing

Back 26

Words or behavior designed to negate or to make amends symbolically for unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or actions.

Front 27

Echolalia

Back 27

Repetition of another's words that is parrot-like and inappropriate.

Front 28

Circumstantiality

Back 28

Extremely detailed and lengthy discourse about a topic.

Front 29

Loose associations

Back 29

Absence of the normal connectedness of thoughts, ideas, and topics; sudden shifts without apparent relationship to preceding topics.

Front 30

Tangentiality

Back 30

the topic of conversation is changed to an entirely different topic that is a logical progression but causes a permanent detour from the original focus.

Front 31

Flight of ideas

Back 31

the topic of conversation changes repeatedly and rapidly, generally after just one sentence or phrase.

Front 32

Word salad

Back 32

stringing together words that are not connected in any way.

Front 33

Neologisms

Back 33

words that are made up that have no common meaning and are not recognizable.

Front 34

Paranoia

Back 34

suspiciousness and guardedness that are unrealistic and often accompanied by grandiosity.

Front 35

Referential thinking

Back 35

a belief that neutral stimuli have special meaning to the individual, such as television commentator who is speaking directly to the individual.

Front 36

Autistic thinking

Back 36

restricts thinking to the literal and immediate so that the individual has private rules of logic and reasoning that make no sense to anyone else.

Front 37

Concrete thinking

Back 37

lack of abstraction in thinking; inability to understand punch lines, metaphors, and analogies.

Front 38

Verbigeration

Back 38

purposeless repetition of words or phrases.

Front 39

Metonymic speech

Back 39

use of words with similar meanings interchangeably.

Front 40

Clang association

Back 40

repetition of words or phrases that are similar in sound but in no other way, for example "right, light, sight, might".

Front 41

Stilted language

Back 41

overly and inappropriately artificial formal language.

Front 42

Pressured speech

Back 42

speaking as if the words are being forced out.

Front 43

Aggression

Back 43

behaviors or attitudes that reflect rage, hostility, and the potential for physical or verbal destructiveness (usually comes about if the person believes someone is going to do him or her harm).

Front 44

Agitation

Back 44

inability to sit still or attend to others, accompanied by heightened emotions and tension.

Front 45

Catatonia

Back 45

psychomotor disturbances such as stupor, mutism, posturing or repetitive behavior.

Front 46

Catatonic excitement

Back 46

a hyperactivity characterized by purposeless activity and abnormal movements, such as grimacing and posturing.

Front 47

Echopraxia

Back 47

involuntary imitation of another person's movements and gestures.

Front 48

Regressed behavior

Back 48

behaving in a manner of a less mature life stage; childlike and immature behavior.

Front 49

Stereotypy

Back 49

repetitive purposeless movements that are idiosyncratic to the individual and to some degree outside of the individual's control.

Front 50

Hypervigilance

Back 50

sustained attention to external stimuli as if expecting something important or frightening to happen.

Front 51

Waxy flexibility

Back 51

posture held in an odd or unusual fixed position for extended periods of time.

Front 52

Reaction formation

Back 52

Substituting behavior, thoughts, or feelings that are diametrically opposed to one's own unacceptable thoughts or feelings (this usually occurs in conjunction with their repression).