Psychia Terms

• Apperception


  Perception modified by a person's own emotions and thoughts
• Sensorium


  State of cognitive functioning of the special senses, most often associated with brain pathology
• Disorientation


  • Disturbance of orientation in time, place and person
• Clouding of Consciousness


  • Incomplete clear-mindedness with disturbances in perception and attitudes
• Stupor


  • Lack of reaction to, and unawareness of, surroundings
• Delirium


  • Bewildered, restless, confused, disoriented reaction associated with fear and hallucinations
• Coma


  • Profound unconsciousness
• Coma vigil


  • Coma in which patient appears to be awake with eyes open but cannot be aroused (also known as akinetic mutism)
• Twilight state


  • Disturbed consciousness with hallucinations
• Dreamlike state


  • Complex partial seizure or psychotic epilepsy
• Somnolence


  • Abnormal drowsiness
• Confusion


  • Disturbance of consciousness in which reactions to environmental stimuli is inappropriate; manifested by disordered orientation in relation to time, place and person
• Drowsiness


  • State of impaired awareness associated with a desire or inclination to sleep
• Sundowning


  • Syndrome in older persons that usually occurs at night and is characterized by drowsiness, confusion, ataxia, and as falling as the result of being overly sedated with medications; also called sundowner's syndrome
• Attention


  Amount of effort exerted on focusing on certain portions of an experience; ability to sustain a focus of one activity; ability to concentrate
• Distractibility


  • Inability to concentrate attention; state in which attention is drawn to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli
• Selective Attention


  • Blocking out only things that generate anxiety
• Hypervigilance


  • Excessive attention and focus to an external stimuli, usually secondary to delusional or paranoid states; similar to hyperpragia, excessive thinking and mental activity
• Trance


  • Focused attention and altered consciousness, usually seen in hypnosis, dissociative disorders, and ecstatic religious experiences
• Disinhibition


  • Removal of an inhibitory effect that permits persons to lose control of impulses as occurs in alcohol intoxication
• C.        Disturbances in Suggestibility – compliant and uncritical response to an idea or influence.

   

  1.    Folie a deux – communicated emotional illness between two or three persons.

   

  2.    Hypnosis – artificially induced modification of consciousness characterized by heightened suggestibility.

   
• Emotion


  Complex feeling state with psychic, somatic and behavioral components that is related to affect and mood
• Affect


  Observed expression of emotion, possibly inconsistent with patient's description of emotion
• Appropriate affect


  • Emotional tone is in harmony with the accompanying idea, thought or speech
  • Also further described as broad or full affect in which a full range of emotions is appropriately expressed
• Inappropriate affect


  • Disharmony between the emotional feeling tone and the idea, thought or speech accompanying it
• Blunted affect


  • Severe reduction in the intensity of externalized feeling tone
• Restricted or constricted affect


  • Reduction in the intensity of feeling tone, less severe than blunted affect but clearly reduced
• Flat affect


  • Absence or near absence of any signs of affective expression
  • Voice monotonous, face immobile
• Labile affect


  • Rapid and abrupt change in emotional feeling tone, unrelated to external stimuli
• Mood


  Pervasive and sustained emotion subjectively experienced and reported by a patient and observed by others
• Mood

  • Elation
  • Depression
  • Anger
• Dysphoric mood


  Unpleasant mood
• Euthymic mood


  Normal range of mood, implying absence of depressed or elevated mood
• Expansive mood


  Expression of feelings without restraint, frequently with over estimation of their significance and importance
• Irritable mood


  Person is easily annoyed and provoked to anger
• Anxiety


  Feeling of apprehension caused by anticipated danger, which maybe internal or external
• Mood swings (labile mood)


  Oscillations between euphoria and depression or anxiety
• Free-floating anxiety


  Pervasive, unfocused fear not attached to any idea
• Elevated mood


  Air of confidence and enjoyment; mood more cheerful than normal
• Fear


  Anxiety caused by consciously recognized and realistic danger