7 Common Terms Grounded in Psychology

Andy:	I’m so sorry man. I really screwed that up. I really–
Michael:	Don’t worry about it–
Andy:	No. I really Schruted it.
Michael:	What?
Andy:	Schruted it. It’s just this thing people say around your office all the time. Like when you screw something up in a really irreversable way, you Schruted it. I don’t know where it comes from though. You think it came from Dwight Schrute?
Michael:	I don’t know. Who knows how words are formed.

Many psychological terms have become a big part of common vernacular. I wanted to try and identify a few everyday terms that are rooted in psychology and provide an explanation of the original meanings. For those fellow I/O psychologists or clinical psychologists who read this: I hope that these brief descriptions do the concepts justice in a short amount of text. This is just a fun post. Just keeping it light for now.

Extraverted/Introverted

How it’s used. Descriptive terms to indicate solely how much someone enjoys being social and around other people. Example: I could never talk to as many people at these conferences as you do. I’m just not that extraverted.

What it actually means. Extraversion is a personality factor in the Big 5 Personality structure and consists of three parts. One of those is a sociability facet, sometimes thought of as gregariousness or friendliness. However, this is only one of the several portions of extraversion. The other facets include assertiveness (sometimes called dominance or ambition) and high energy (sometimes called enthusiasm, or activity level). The implication of having several different facets of extraversion is that someone could be less social and still be extraverted because they are high on assertiveness and energy, though that is not typically how these facets show up in people. Though the non-sociable facets of extraversion are recognized in other kinds of personality definitions, they are too often forgotten as a part of extraversion.

In case you’re wondering, introversion is on the opposite pole to extraversion. So, it is also not defined purely by preference for social interaction.

Antisocial

How it’s used. To reference a person that avoids being around other people and/or does not enjoy being around groups of people, asocial. Example: Why don’t you stop being so antisocial and come out with us tonight?

What it actually means. Antisocial personality disorder is a pretty serious condition that involves unremorseful violations of the rights of others, reckless behavior, irritability, manipulative behavior, and instability in one’s life. In it’s extremes, it is the basis of behavior for sociopaths and psychopaths. It is interesting to see this particular term used quite freely in the common vernacular given the severity of its original meaning. Most likely, when people use this term they are not actually referring to this type of behavior. They simply mean that someone doesn’t want to be around others… at least I hope that’s the case.

The Definition of Insanity

How it’s used. Often the sole criterion for determining insanity is doing something over and over and expecting a different outcome. Example: Why does this football team keep running the ball right up the middle on first down when it never gets any yards? Isn’t that the definition of insanity?

What it actually means. While repeating behavior and expecting different outcomes is one portion of insanity, it is only one portion. Just because you saw someone do this, it does not mean that the person is insane. We all do that sometimes. You need several other factors that demonstrate someone’s lack of grounding in what is considered a normal reality. Just because it is one part of it, does not mean that it defines the concept in its entirety. Insanity in the psychological world is typically something more akin to conditions that might lead to extreme behavior such as serial murders.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

How it’s used. Identifying someone as highly concerned with details of a specific task. Example: You don’t need to be OCD with that report. It’s probably good enough.

What it actually means. Obsessive compulsive disorder (like anything reaching the level of a disorder) is quite disruptive for normal living. It isn’t a sense of conscientiousness. It is a continual feeling of worry and anxiety that if certain things aren’t completed, it will lead to grave danger. Those things are taken to an unusual extreme. This might include handwashing so severe and frequent that it the skin looks and feels like a burn injury. Or checking your door and window locks so often that you are hours late for work every day. It hurts relationships with others and makes it extremely difficult to carry on with normal life duties such as holding a steady job. Double, triple, quadruple checking your work and meticulous planning for most is not going to reach this level of disruption.

That’s Theoretical or In Theory

How it’s used. Often to describe non-actionable, vague, or purely academic ideas. Example: I don’t think those recommendations would actually work in this environment. It’s too theoretical.

What it actually means. Theory is a framework for explaining a set of observed phenomena. There is probably more truth to the ‘how it’s used’ portion of this than many, because theories are often starting points for the concrete ideas and researchers refine that theory with more knowledge, information, or other data. However, good theories are explaining and connecting a set of observables things. So, it should actually help us understand what the most actionable plan is going to be and potential roadblocks to implementing that plan. A good theory should spell out why things are happening the way they are and (in my case as a psychologist) connect those explanations to behaviors that we might see. Although many theories are early stage or maybe even done poorly, to ignore theory altogether is a big mistake in my view. As Kurt Lewin (major player in early social psychology) once said, “There is nothing so practical as a good theory”.

Idiot

How it’s used. To indicate someone doing something that we don’t like or something we consider an unintelligent choice. Example: That person in the meeting kept interrupting with irrelevant comments. What an idiot.

What it actually means. I threw this one in because I think it is one of the more interesting psychological terms. Today these terms are only used colloquially and no longer have the official psychological meaning. In the early years of intelligence testing, the term idiot was descriptive of someone with very low scores. In fact, those scoring in the range of idiots were several years behind the expected cognitive functioning. Think of those with mental illnesses that delay cognitive development like down syndrome… and labelling them idiots. In case you were wondering, this is the same origin as the terms moron and imbecile. Today, we aren’t quite so rigorous in our use of the terms… for better or worse.

Positive/Negative Reinforcement/Punishment

How it’s used. To indicate emotional quality of the reinforcement. Example: Scolding the employee for trying something novel only negatively reinforces innovation in our organization.

What it actually means. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment refer to various aspects of changing behavior. Positive reinforcement refers to introducing something new to the environment that motivates someone to perform a particular behavior (e.g., getting a bonus for good work on a project). Negative reinforcement refers to the removal of something in order to motivate someone to a particular behavior (e.g., lowering next year’s budget because your department didn’t spend everything this year). Punishment is the introduction of something into the environment (similar to positive reinforcement) in order to stop someone’s behavior (e.g., managerial reprimand for disobeying organizational safety procedures). You could potentially use all three of these to influence various behavior for a single effort.

Final Thoughts

I hope that I have left you with a little more certainty about where these terms originate. The next time you hear someone use of these terms, you can be more aware of how these terms came to be and for many of these, their true meaning. For all you fellow SIOPers, hope to see you at the conference!

As always, thanks for reading!

–Brandon
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