In-Mind glossary

eating concerns

dysfunctional eating patterns  

• defined by Bindal Makwana

eating disorder

a psychological disorder distinguished by dysfunctional eating habits    

• defined by Bindal Makwana

ecological bias

People prefer things to be depicted in images the way they exist in nature. For example, we prefer when an elephant is portrayed as large and a mouse as small, compared to a giant mouse and a mini elephant.

Reference:  S. E. Palmer, K. B. Schloss, and J. Sammartino, „Visual aesthetics and human preference“, Annu. Rev. Psychol., Bd. 64, S. 77–107, 2013, doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100504.

• defined by Sophie G. Elschner

egoism

is a motivational state with the ultimate goal of increasing one’s own welfare

• defined by Dan Batson

embarrassment

A negative/unpleasant emotion as a reaction to morally unimportant and relatively trivial misconduct or the harmless violation of social expectations or norms.

• defined by Thomas Feiler & Fabian Hutmacher

embodied cognition

the theory that sensory and motor processes play an important role in cognition and cognitive processes, such as thinking, reasoning, and memory

• defined by Michael Slepian

embodied perception

the notion that people’s perceptions of the world around them are influenced by and sensitive to the states of their bodies

• defined by Shana Cole

embodiment

the association of an abstract concept with a concrete, perceivable stimulus, for instance, the abstract concept of time can be embodied in the concrete image of something flowing horizontally (Boroditsky, 2001)

• defined by Thomas Schubert

the idea of embodiment is that the way our mind works is deeply rooted in the way our body works; more precisely, one of the ideas discussed by researchers in this field is that the concepts we hold about the world – our mental toolbox to understand the world, to categorize it, and to provide it with labels – is entirely based on direct bodily experience

• defined by Thomas Schubert

a psychological theory that holds that our knowledge and thoughts are not abstract definitions in the brain, but are based on sensory experiences and bodily actions

• defined by Sascha Topolinski

emergence

refers to the development of a higher-level property in a dynamical system due to the mutual influence among the system’s inter-connected elements;  in a mental system, the mutual influence among cognitive elements in the stream of thought can promote the emergence of a global attitude or belief;  in a social system, the mutual influence among individuals can promote the emergence of a group norm or ideology

• defined by Jay Michaels

Emotion Focused Coping

refers to the individuals’ attempts to alleviate the negative emotions elicited by stressful events; directed at reducing mental distress

• defined by Silvia Barriga

emotional contagion

a phenomenon whereby emotions spread through groups of people

• defined by Ted Cascio

Emotional Provocation

A set of techniques with the purpose of increasing cooperation by addressing the source’s raw emotions such as fear, guilt, anxiety, love, pride, hope, and sadness. They can also appeal to the source’s self-interest, religion and stress for example. 

• defined by Katherine Hoogesteyn

empathic concern

is an other-oriented emotional response elicited by and congruent with the plight of a person in need

• defined by Dan Batson

empathy

an individual’s tendency to take the perspective of another person and/or have tender concerned feelings about that person

• defined by Jeff Joireman

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

is the hypothesis that empathic concern produces altruistic motivation

• defined by Dan Batson

empirical research

a scientific way of gaining knowledge by using a collection of data to base a theory or derive a conclusion

• defined by Marieke van Egmond

employee time horizon

an employee’s belief about how long he/she will be with an organization

• defined by Jeff Joireman

Encoding

The initial step in the memory process, where information is processed and categorized to later be converted into memory for storage and retrieval

• defined by Carey Marr

energization

bodily mobilization of physiological resources to respond to task demands; one example is sympathetic nervous system reactivity

• defined by Melanie B. Tannenbaum

epistemic motives

Motives for resolving uncertainty and improving understanding.

• defined by Matteo Masi & Yael Bar-Shachar

equality matching

people seek out for balance in the relationship; it implies a reciprocity norm (turn taking, or equal share distributions)

• defined by Cláudia Simão

Eugenics Movement

a social philosophy popular in the 1920’s whose members advocated selective breeding to improve the human race

• defined by Chris Buchholz

Evidence presentation

A set of techniques used for increasing cooperation, testing veracity of the source’s statements and detecting deception. For example: confront source with false evidence, identify contradictions in their statements, confront source with evidence they did not know the investigator had. 

• defined by Katherine Hoogesteyn

evocative rGE

refers to responses that are evoked from the environment by genetically influenced characteristics of an individual, for example, a child characterized by high levels of antisocial behavior − a trait showing substantial heritability − is more likely to elicit harsh discipline from parents than an obedient child

• defined by Reut Avinun

executive functions

a set of cognitive functions with which people control and regulate their behavior in complex situations under the consideration of environmental factors (for example the selection of goals and the planning of actions); these functions modulate and regulate information processing in the cognitive system and several sub-processes in the control of behavior; such behavior control is required for simple and distinct tasks (e.g., typing a word on a computer keyboard), as well as complex and global tasks (e.g., planning a family party)

• defined by Tilo Strobach

Synonyms: executive mechanism

experimental research

the study of psychological processes such as cognition (including perception, memory, thinking, and language), learning, feelings and emotions, and skills through controlled experiments; the general plan of an experiment, including the method of assigning research participants or subjects to treatment conditions, controlling extraneous variables, manipulating the independent variable, and measuring the dependent variable

• defined by Silvia Barriga

experimenter effect

effect showing that the expectations we hold affect the responses we obtain. This concerns various areas, such as research, teaching, adjudication and lineup administrations

• defined by Melanie Sauerland

exploitation

The motivation to take something from someone else for one’s own personal benefit. Exploitation can result in behavior such using other people to gain resources, or taking from others without reciprocating and giving something back.

• defined by Janina Steinmetz

extraversion

one of the Big Five personality factors ranging from extreme extraversion characterized by traits such as sociability and assertiveness, to extreme introversion, characterized by reserve and passivity

• defined by Silvia Barriga

extrinsic religiosity

the extent to which an individual treats religion as a means to an end

• defined by Jonathan Jong