Glossary of terms
A work in progress
This glossary is a living document containing terms that appear in the articles that I present here on Medium. The terms will be one of three types:
- Type One: [Blank] terms that will require definition in future articles, but for which a definition has not yet been adopted. These will be empty but act as signposts for forthcoming work (or at least articles actively being worked on, even if they are never ultimately published).
- Type Two: Terms for which I have used a definition from an existing source (with a citation date). The primary sources will be:
- a. The American Psychological Association Dictionary; for terms from or related to psychology.
- Where the discussion strays into philosophical side of moral psychology, I will use:
- b. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy; though, unlike my hardcopy version, the online version only contains part of the definition (suggestions for openly available online resources gratefully received).
- c. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; the contents of which tends towards article-length discussions, but it is nevertheless useful, especially as the articles frequently define their terms at the outset.
- For terms that are more about general use, I will use definitions from:
- d. Merriam-Websters Dictionary; I find M-W provides thorough definitions and is the most readable of online dictionaries (verbally and from a UX point of view, as compared to my preferred physical dictionary, Chambers). To give an example of M-W’s thoroughness, the link provided above lands on their definition of the word life (which will feature heavily in an upcoming article); it contains definitions for 20 senses of the word, four of which also have two or more subsenses; this is important when people are using multiple (sub) senses of a word, especially where they other don’t recognise it or their argument relies on equivocation between two (or more) senses of a word.
- e. The Encyclopedia Britannica; is a supplementary source of generalist definitions of words and terms, but also a source of historical and biographical information.
- Type Three: Terms for which I have developed a definition, generally by blending a set of definitions (from type 2, which will be retained as reference points, so as to show my working).
(Apologies for the less-than-pretty formatting above. Medium doesn’t support nested numbered lists.)
Terms for which I have developed my own definition (type 3) will be marked with an asterisk*. These definitions will range from being a blend of other, cited (type 2) definitions that already appear on this page, to those abstracted from extensive reading, attempting to reflect a multitude of views (for which I will provide a more generalised bibliography). This extracted sub-type will likely justify an explanatory article in its own right. Articles of this type that may arise sooner rather than later include ones for the definition of both Right Wing (Political Right) and Left Wing (Political Left), but also for the word Normative (the basis of which is already contained in this page).
Moral Psychology Glossary
Behavioural Economics
APA dictionary definition, as at 2022–11–13
[A]n interdisciplinary field concerned with understanding how heuristics, biases, and other psychological variables influence economic behavior. In contrast to the standard view within traditional economics that people are rational actors who always make choices to maximize their well-being [see Rational Choice Theory, below], behavioral economists view human rationality as limited and subject to personal, social, and situational influences (see bounded rationality). Thus, they seek to devise more realistic, psychologically plausible models of economic behavior to account for a variety of decision-making anomalies and market inconsistencies that have been observed, such as loss aversion (the tendency to go to disproportionately great lengths to avoid perceived losses), temporal discounting (the tendency to prefer small rewards received sooner to larger ones received later), the endowment effect, the framing effect, the magnitude effect (the tendency to discount smaller gains more rapidly than larger ones), the sign effect (the tendency to discount gains more rapidly than losses), the status-quo bias (the tendency to keep things as they are and avoid making changes), and the sunk-costs effect (the tendency to continue a course of action in which one has already invested money, time, or effort). [derived primarily from the work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky (Britannica let me down, so here are other sources for Amos Tversky)]
Referenced in the entry for Normative.
Catholic
Communist
Conflation
transitive verb
1 a to bring together : BLEND
1 b : CONFUSE
2 to combine (things, such as two versions of a text) into a composite whole
(note: I tend to favour sense 1b, that of confusion, over 1a, which implies intention. For intentional conflation, Equivocation, below.)
Conflict
Conservative
Cooperation
Equivocation
noun
Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition, as at 2023–01–02
1. deliberate evasiveness in wording : the use of ambiguous or equivocal language
2. an ambiguous or deliberately evasive statement
(note: Conflation is often used as a synonym for equivocation, but I use conflation to mean unintentional ambiguity. Conflation is to equivocation as mistaken is to lying.)
Fascist
Internalization
noun
APA dictionary definition, as at 2022–11–13
1. the nonconscious mental process by which the characteristics, beliefs, feelings, or attitudes of other individuals or groups are assimilated into the self and adopted as one’s own.
2. in psychoanalytic theory, the process of incorporating an object relationship inside the psyche, which reproduces the external relationship as an intrapsychic phenomenon. For example, through internalization the relationship between father and child is reproduced in the relationship between superego and ego or, in relational theory, between self and other. Internalization is often mistakenly used as a synonym for introjection.
Introjection
APA dictionary definition, as at 2022–11–13
1. n. a process in which an individual unconsciously incorporates aspects of external reality into the self, particularly the attitudes, values, and qualities of another person or a part of another person’s personality. Introjection may occur, for example, in the mourning process for a loved one.
2. n. in psychoanalytic theory, the process of absorbing the qualities of an external object into the psyche in the form of an internal object or mental representation (i.e., an introject), which then has an influence on behavior. This process is posited to be a normal part of development, as when introjection of parental values and attitudes forms the superego, but it may also be used as a defense mechanism in situations that arouse anxiety. Compare identification; incorporation. — introject vb. — introjective adj.
Left Wing (Political Left)
Liberal
Moral Internalization*
The gradual, nonconscious process by which the characteristics, beliefs, feelings, or attitudes of other individuals or groups are assimilated into an individual’s concepts of right and wrong, conscience, ethical and religious values, social attitudes, and behaviour.
Sources
See Internalization, Moral Development, and also Moral, Morality, Morals; all on this page.
Moral
adjective
APA Dictionary definition as at 2022–11–13
1. relating to the distinction between right and wrong behavior.
2. describing a behavior that is considered ethical or proper, or a person or group who adheres to a moral code. See also morals.
Also, partial source of definition for Moral Internalization (this page).
Moral Development
APA dictionary definition as at 2022–11–13
the gradual formation of an individual’s concepts of right and wrong, conscience, ethical and religious values, social attitudes, and behavior. Some of the major theorists in the area of moral development are Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, and Lawrence Kohlberg.
Also part of Moral Internalization (this page).
Moral Psychology
noun
The Encyclopedia Britannica definition as at 2023–01–02
[I]n psychology and philosophy, the empirical and conceptual study of moral judgment, motivation, and development, among other related topics.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy definition as at 2023–01–02
Contemporary moral psychology — the study of human thought and behavior in ethical contexts — is resolutely interdisciplinary: psychologists freely draw on philosophical theories to help structure their empirical research, while philosophers freely draw on empirical findings from psychology to help structure their theories.
Morality
noun
APA dictionary definition as at 2022–11–13
a system of beliefs or set of values relating to right conduct, against which behavior is judged to be acceptable or unacceptable.
Also part of Moral Internalization (this page).
Morals
plural noun
APA dictionary definition as at 2022–11–13
the ethical values or principles that people use to guide their behavior.
Also part of Moral Internalization (this page).
Normative
The word normative, without a clarifier, is open to (mis)interpretation. It can mean the logically correct thing to do, given the desired outcome, or the expected/traditional thing to do and/or the desired outcome from that behaviour. The latter being the more usual. Even the three-part definition below fails to adequately get to the nub of the matter; all three senses fail to distinguish between normative as defined by the desirability of the outcome or the desirability of the behaviour following which the outcome is expected. The first sense hints at the issue I wish to raise; the basis upon which norms or standards are determined is not stated (Rational Choice Theory in economics and its undoing by behavioural economics serves as an explicit example of the difference).
Sometimes the logically correct thing to do in the circumstances, which is not culturally normative, might nevertheless lead to a culturally desirable outcome. Of course, doing something forbidden, in order to achieve the culturally desirable outcome is generally frowned upon but at other times called a necessary evil (e.g. self-defence, just war), but doing something different that is not contemplated (i.e not allowed but also not disallowed) is both normative (in the culturally desirable outcome sense) and non-normative (in the culturally desirable means by which to achieve that outcome sense).
So, if I use the word normative, I intend to explicitly state whether it was a morally/culturally normative or logically normative act (or an instance where the two are the same).
Normative
adjective
Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition, as at 2023–01–02
1. of, relating to, or determining norms or standards
2. conforming to or based on norms
3. prescribing (see PRESCRIBE sense 1) norms
Politics
Protestant
Psychoanalytic theory
APA dictionary definition, as at 2022–11–13:
The diverse complex of assumptions and constructs underlying the approach known as psychoanalysis. Classically, the term refers specifically to the formulations of Sigmund Freud, but it now also applies to such offshoots and counterapproaches as analytic psychology, individual psychology, object relations theory, self psychology, and others that are based on psychodynamic theory.
Rational Choice Theory
The Encyclopedia Britannica definition as at 2023–01–02
[A]lso called rational action theory or choice theory, school of thought based on the assumption that individuals choose a course of action that is most in line with their personal preferences. Rational choice theory is used to model human decision-making, especially in the context of microeconomics, where it helps economists better understand the behaviour of a society in terms of individual actions as explained through rationality, in which choices are consistent because they are made according to personal preference. Rational choice theory increasingly is applied to other areas as well, including evolutionary theory, political science, and warfare.
But see also Behavioural Economics, this page.
Recursion
See ‘recursion’ ;-)
“The ability to embed our thoughts within other thoughts”
Quote from the back cover of The Recursive Mind, by Michael C. Corballis.
