Welcome to the A-Z encyclopedia - psychology
Discover how our brain learns, adapts, and is influenced by upbringing, experiences, groups, and the environment we live in.
🧠A-Z Encyclopedia of Psychology
How does the human brain work?
A - Learned optimism
Developing a helpful, realistic view of setbacks
A - Learned helplessness
When you start to expect that what you do will make little difference anyway
A - Learned guilt
The difference between genuine guilt and guilt that has been imposed on you — and how to tell them apart
A - altruism
When caring for others is valuable — but you don’t have to erase yourself
A - Fear and tension around authority
Why authority can cause extra tension for some people
A - Fear conditioning
When certain triggers can automatically evoke fear
A - Independent thinking
When you learn to trust your own judgment
A - Availability bias / availability heuristic
Why striking examples can feel bigger than they are statistically
B - Need for meaning
The desire for your life, choices, and relationships to mean something
B - Influence
How do other people influence our thoughts, feelings, and choices — often without us even consciously noticing it?
B - Confirmation bias
Why we often see information that fits our beliefs more quickly
B - BITE model
How can you investigate how much influence a group has on behavior, information, thoughts, and emotions?
C - Catastrophizing
Why does your mind sometimes jump straight to the worst possible outcome when you feel uncertain?
C- Codependency
Why can it be so difficult to feel what **you** want when the opinions, approval, or emotions of others weigh so heavily?
C - Cognitive dissonance
Why can information that conflicts with what you’ve always believed create so much tension?
C - Need for control
Why does control bring peace of mind — and when does the need for certainty start to cost us our freedom?
D - Dissociation
When you or the world temporarily feels different
D - Dunning-Kruger effect
Why self-confidence and expertise are not the same
E - Emotional conditioning
When a feeling becomes linked to a trigger
F - Fear of failure
When a mistake feels like a judgment on yourself
F - Framing effect
How the same reality can feel different depending on the way it is framed
F - Fundamental attribution error
when behavior quickly seems like character
G - Gaslighting
When your trust in your own perception is undermined
G - Memory and False Memories
Why can’t video footage be rewound?
G - Conscience
When something feels wrong, does that automatically mean it is actually wrong for you too?
G - Healthy selfishness
Taking care of yourself without losing sight of others
G - Group Identity
Why “we” can feel so powerful
G - Peer Pressure
Why deviation can feel difficult, even when no one says anything
G - Group loyalty
Why a group can sometimes start to feel more important than people outside the group
H - Halo effect
When one impression colors our entire judgment
H - Attachment
How Early and Later Relationships Can Shape Our Expectations of Intimacy
Hypervigilance
When your body keeps looking for danger, even after the danger is over
H - Hypervigilance
Why the alarm system is hard to calm down
I - Indoctrination
How long-term indoctrination affects your thinking.
I - Ingroup and outgroup thinking
Why people often judge their own group more positively than other groups
I - Internalization
How can beliefs and standards from the outside become part of your own inner voice?
I - Intrusive thoughts
Unwanted thoughts that can suddenly arise
I- Influence of language
How words can steer attention, meaning, and emotion
J - Jealousy and comparison
Why we so easily measure ourselves against others
K - Critical thinking
Researching information without having to know in advance what the outcome should be
L - Learning by Repetition
Why beliefs can start to feel more familiar over time
L - Loyalty conflict
When loyalty to one person or value feels like betrayal of the other
M - Manipulation
When influence tries to bypass another person’s freedom of choice
M - Moral injury
The pain that can arise when your own moral boundaries are deeply violated
N - Negativity bias
Why negative information often hits especially hard
O - Bystander effect
Why people sometimes help less quickly when others are present
O - Bystander-middle effect
When a group can come to a standstill through mutual waiting
O - Uncertainty
When not knowing feels hard to bear
O - Ostracism
When being ignored or excluded affects not only relationships, but also belonging, identity, and your life story.
P - Placebo and nocebo effect
How expectation can influence complaints and perceived treatment
P - Psychological reactance
Why can restricting freedom actually create the urge to do the opposite?
R - Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS)
An unofficial term for psychological complaints after harmful religious experiences or a major break with one’s faith.
P - Perfectionism
When “good enough” feels like failure
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When keeping others happy becomes more important than your own boundaries
P - Post-traumatic growth
Positive changes that can sometimes emerge alongside the effects of a crisis
Q - Quasi-certainty
Seeking false certainty when uncertainty feels hard
R - Grief and loss
Adapting to a reality in which something important is no longer the same
R - Ruminating (worrying)
When thoughts keep going around in circles without any solution emerging
S - Shame and guilt
When responsibility for behavior turns into a judgment about who you are.
S - Scarcity mindset
When scarcity takes up almost all the attention
S - Shifting blame
When responsibility for one’s own behavior is shifted onto someone else
S - Social identity
Who we are influenced by the groups we belong to
S - Social influence
How do other people influence our choices without there needing to be any coercion?
S - Social exclusion as a control mechanism
When the fear of losing a group starts influencing your choices
S - Stockholm syndrome
A popular term for attachment to someone who also causes threat, control, or dependency.
T - True to Yourself
When loyalty and honesty seem to clash
U - Delayed grief
When grief only becomes truly palpable later
U - Procrastination
Avoiding important tasks because the task itself or the feelings around it are difficult
V - Resilience
The ability to adapt after adversity
V - Safety
The experience of having enough room to exist, choose, and recover
V - Victim blaming and self-blame
When you are held responsible — or hold yourself responsible — for what happens to you
V - Free will
Can you really choose freely if not every choice has the same consequences?
W - Resilience
Feeling boundaries, making choices, and dealing with pressure without losing yourself
X - X-factor of charisma
Why some people come across as especially convincing or attractive
Y - Yes-set technique
How a series of small agreements can increase the likelihood of further agreement
Z - Self-image
How is the self-image you have of yourself formed — and how can it change?
Z - Self-compassion
Look at yourself with the same compassion you often give to others
Z - Self-blame
When you keep looking for the responsibility in yourself
Z - Self-reflection
Examining yourself without condemning yourself
Z - Black-and-white thinking
Why our brains sometimes divide the world into extremes. Reading time: 8 minutes
Z - Self-censorship
What happens when you don’t show parts of yourself because being visible could cost you something?