Vocabulary

The following definitions refer to words used elsewhere on this site. The definitions come from a variety of sources. Where possible, I have added links to these sources. Check out PsychSite and the Holistic Dictionary for more definitions.

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  • Accurate Empathy: one of the ideals of Rogerian therapy, which requires the therapist to not offer assumptions or opinions on a client's emotions; instead, therapists should repeat what the client has just said in order for the client to expand on his/her feelings regarding an issue

    


  • Agreeableness: McCrae and Costa's trait indicating interpersonal style, which involves the level of intimacy you maintain in your personal relationships and how helpful and sympathetic you are.  Agreeables tend to be trusting, straightforward, altruistic, compliant, modest, and tender-minded.

    


  • Anima/us: the unclaimed part of Jung's idea of the self consisting of stereotypes and expectations of the opposite sex; in men, their unclaimed femininity is the anima, and in women, their unclaimed masculinity is the animus; over time in a heterosexual relationship, one reclaims their anima/us and their partner is more free to vary (no longer has so many gender-related expectations)

    


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  • Behavioral Evidence Analysis: creating a criminal profile based on four steps-equivocal forensic analysis, victimology, crime scene characteristics, and offender characteristics. Click here for more info regarding behavioral evidence analysis elsewhere on this site.

    


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  • Conscientiousness: McCrae and Costa's trait indicating work style, which involves your general dedication to activities; working hard, being efficient, and focused.  Conscientious people tend to be competent, orderly, dutiful, achievement striving, self-disciplined, and deliberate.

     



  • Crime Scene Characteristics: the third step of Behavioral Evidence Analysis in which the investigator analyzes the location of the crime in relation to the rest of the world as well as the location of the various parts of the crime in relation to the entire crime scene

    


  • Criminology: the scientific study of crime, criminal behavior, and law enforcement

    

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  • Defense Mechanisms: a way for the Ego to relieve the stress of mediating between the Id, Superego, and outside world (see psychoanalysis)

    


  • Denial: An unconscious defense mechanism characterized by refusal to acknowledge painful realities, thoughts, or feelings. 

    


  • Displacement: A psychological defense mechanism in which there is an unconscious shift of emotions, affect, or desires from the original object to a more acceptable or immediate substitute

    


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  • Ego: (Freud) the mediator of the unconscious; represses socially unacceptable desires of the Id and negotiates with the ultra-conscientious Superego; (Jung) the private (internal) part of the conscious personality

    


  • Equivocal Forensic Analysis: the first step in Behavioral Evidence Analysis in which the investigator analysizes the physical evidence from a crime scene (including but not limited to nterviews, evidence logs, investigator and autopsy reports, and photographs and videos of the crime scene, autopsy, and living victim{s}), while keeping in mind that the evidence can be interpreted in more than one way

    


  • Extraversion: McCrae and Costa's trait referring to one's style of expression, it involves sociability, positive emotionality, assertiveness, and activity or energy level.  Extraverts tend to be warm, gregarious, assertive, active, seek excitement, and optimistic.

    



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  • Flow: Csikszentmihalyi's idea of focusing all of one's energies on a particular activity; nothing else matters or is noticed, including the passage of time and physical state

    


  • Forensic Criminology: the practical application of criminological knowledge to issues relating to the court room and other criminal justice areas such as criminal profiling and court assessment. While forensic criminology draws upon general criminological theories, it is not bound by the restrictions of strictly theoretical approaches and has many practical uses aimed at addressing issues within the criminal justice sphere. (Petherick 1999)

    


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  • Genuineness: one of the ideals of Rogerian Therapy which suggests that therapists share true, relevent anecdotes from personal experiences in order to validate the client's feelings and actions

    


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  • Id: the part of the unconscious that consists of socially unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges and desires; mediated by the Ego, but occasionally surpasses the ego in the form of parapraxes, also known as 'Freudian slips' (see psychoanalysis)

    


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  • Jung: a neo-Freudian psychologist, with ideas from both psychoanalytical and humanistic theories

    


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  • McCrae & Costa's Trait Approach: See Trait Approach

    


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  • Neuroticism: McCrae and Costa's trait regarding emotional style. It involves the extent to which one experiences negative emotions such as worry, self-doubt, stress and tension. Neurotics often display anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, or vulnerability (or some combination of these characteristics).

    


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  • Offender Characteristics: the final step in Behavioral Evidence Analysis in which the results from the first three steps are combined to create a rough 'character sketch' or criminal profile of the offender

    


  • Openness: McCrae and Costa's trait regarding intellectual style. It involves the extent to which one is open to new ideas and innovative approaches, and has an active imagination. Some characteristics of openness include fantasy, appreciation of art, the tendency to have a variety of emotions, action (not reaction), and individual ideas and values.

    


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  • Paraprax: A minor error, such as a slip of the tongue, thought to reveal a repressed motive. 

    


  • Persona: (Jung) the public part of the conscious personality

    


  • Personality: the complex of all the attributes--behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental--that characterize a unique individual

    


  • Personality Profile: a detailed description of the different aspects of someone's personality; in our case, the description of the suspected personality of a perpetrator of a crime

    


  • Profile: A formal summary or analysis of data, often in the form of a graph or table, representing distinctive features or characteristics

    


  • Projection: The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt. 

    


  • PsychoAnalysis: a method of understanding human behaviors as motivated by the ego, which mediates between the Id, the Superego, and the outside world; anxieties of the ego are acted out in any of several defense mechanisms or parapraxes

    


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  • Reaction Formation: A psychological defense mechanism by which an objectionable impulse is expressed in an opposite or contrasting behavior.

    


  • Rogerian Therapy: a client-centered therapy based on three ideals - unconditional positive regard, accurate empathy, and genuineness

    


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  • Self: (general psychology) what one believes to be the essence of one's being, be it cognitive, emotional, psychological, physical, social, etc., or any combination; for Jung, the self is the collective unconscious, especially the shadow and anima/us

    


  • Shadow: the unclaimed part of Jung's idea of the self, mainly negative (aggressions etc.), which is often projected onto others in the form of disgust or sexual attraction

    


  • Sublimation: modifying the natural expression of an impulse or instinct (especially a sexual one) to one that is socially acceptable 

    


  • Superego: the moral part of the unconscious which attempts to counteract the id's socially unacceptable desires (see psychoanalysis)

    


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  • Trait Approach: McCrae and Costa's idea that personality consists of five traits - agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness. See  USF for more information.

    


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  • Unconditional Positive Regard: one of the three ideals of Rogerian Therapy, unconditional positive regard requires that the therapist voice no opinions or judgement of the client and respects the client's actions, motives, and emotions

    


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  • Victomology: the second step in Behavioral Evidence Analysis in which the investigator creates a profile of the victim in order to help determine the identity of the offender

    


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