Explanation:Gordon Allport (1897–1967) emphasized personality as a dynamic system of traits unique to each individual, moving psychology away from psychoanalytic determinism. He distinguished cardinal, central, and secondary traits and stressed that personality is shaped …
Explanation:Anna Freud (1895–1982), daughter of Sigmund Freud, expanded psychoanalysis to child development. She proposed defense mechanisms—strategies used by the ego to manage anxiety—and explored how early experiences shape personality.Her work …
Explanation:Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), originally a physiologist, discovered classical conditioning while studying digestion in dogs. He found that neutral stimuli (bells) paired repeatedly with unconditioned stimuli (food) eventually produced conditioned responses …
Explanation:Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930) was a trailblazer in early American psychology. Despite completing all doctoral requirements at Harvard, she was denied a PhD due to her gender. Her contributions include …
Explanation:Central to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the recognition that thoughts influence emotions and behaviors. Negative self‑talk often reflects cognitive distortions—overgeneralization, catastrophizing, labeling—which sustain emotional distress. Beck (2011) describes cognitive …
Explanation:Operant conditioning, developed by B.F. Skinner, explains how behaviors are shaped by their consequences. Positive reinforcement (adding rewarding stimuli) and negative reinforcement (removing aversive stimuli) increase behaviors; punishment decreases behavior.Repeated …
Explanation:Sleep hygiene refers to behavioral and environmental practices supporting restorative sleep. Poor sleep disrupts prefrontal–limbic regulation, heightening emotional reactivity and impairing decision‑making. Irish et al. (2015) note that consistent routines, …
Explanation:Exposure therapy is a core behavioral intervention rooted in classical conditioning. It involves gradual, repeated exposure to feared stimuli to reduce emotional distress and avoidance behaviors. Through habituation and extinction, the fear response …
Explanation:Journaling—especially expressive writing—is a therapeutic technique shown to reduce psychological distress by helping individuals process emotional experiences, organize thoughts, and gain clarity. According to Pennebaker (1997), expressive writing lowers physiological arousal, …
Explanation:Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) posits that working memory has limited capacity; therefore, learning is optimized when instructional materials reduce unnecessary mental load (Sweller, 1988).CLT identifies three load types: Example:Breaking complex …