A broad-ranging area of study that is difficult to pin down specifically. In essence, it concerns the employment of formal linguistic models to reveal the cognitive process involved in language use. Such processes are taken to be capable of generating grammatically-correct and meaningful sentences as well as making possible the understanding of sentences, text, utterance …
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Psychology
Not easy to define or characterise, its etymological root (psyche) means that it has been portrayed with the throw-away phrase ‚’the study or the science of the mind’. If we could be clear enough as to what the mind means, then this phrase might be a suitable starting point. The alternative, ‘the science of behavior’, …
Psycholinguistic guessing game
The hypothesis proposed by Kenneth Goodman that children learn to read by guessing the meaning of words with the help of their context. The hypothesis makes two claims, both of which are controversial: 1. that children depend heavily on the context to read new texts, and particularly texts that contain difficult or unfamiliar words, and 2. that children …
Psychoanalysis
A term coined by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) in 1896 that has come to take on three meanings: 1. a theory of mental function and human development as articulated by Freud, 2. an intensive method of psychotherapy that involves free association and interpretation, and 3. an approach to a range of disciplines including literature, history, and art using the psychoanalytic model of …
Psychodynamic theory
Theory influenced by psychoanalysis that stresses the importance of unconscious mental processing together with childhood experiences that shape personality. There are a number of such theories (all of which emphasize unconscious motives), but the one that has maintained historical dominance is that by Sigmund Freud 1856-1939). According his theory, personality consists of the id (pleasure seeking), the …
Psychic unity of mankind
The belief or doctrine that all human beings share a similar mental makeup and that similarity between cultures is evidence of similar causative agents. What constitutes such agents has been a source of controversy in anthropology (broadly speaking it amounts to biological commonalities versus cultural diffusion. While cultures might evolve at different speeds, they are destined to …
Proximate mechanisms (or causes)
Determinants of behavior that are effective in moments of time or across the whole lifespan. They include social influences and internal regulating mechanisms such as behavioural state. These determinants are contrasted with ultimate causes. See Causality (in philosophy), Mechanism, Ultimate mechanisms (or causes)
Psoas muscle
A core muscle extending from the side aspect of the vertebral column toward the internal aspect of the upper segment of the leg (see figure below). The psoas major flexes the hips and medially rotates the thigh and the psoas minor flexes the vertebral column. The psoas major initiates walking. Thus, during the first six …
Proximal processes
Those processes involving the individual directly and a term usually applied to immediate interpersonal interaction. Proxemic cues are then movements and positioning of the body during conversation. See Conversations, Communication, Interaction, Process
Protoplasm
A term for the colorless granular matter of which all living cells consist. In eukaryotes, it comprises a nucleus embedded in the cytoplasm. It sometimes is used to refer to cytoplasm, with protoplasm taken to mean everything in a cell except the cell membrane. The distinction used in this way is a source of disagreement …