RECONSTRUCTIVE THERAPY
A general term for psychiatric treatment methods aimed at relieving emotional disturbance by altering the patient’s basic personality structure.Reconstructive therapy…
RE-EDUCATION
A form or stage of psychologial treatment in which the patient is taught—or, better, given an opportunity to learn for…
REGRESSION
The unconscious defense mechanism of reverting to immature behavior.When threatened with external problems or internal conflicts which they cannot cope…
REHABILITATION (Psychiatric)
Rehabilitation may be defined as the process of helping an individual who has had a physical or mental disorder to…
REINFORCEMENT (Reward and Punishment)
Any procedure that increases the strength of a conditioning or other learning process.The concept of reinforcement has different meanings in…
REPETITION-COMPULSION
A psychoanalytic term for the tendency to repeat past behavior and, more narrowly, to relive disturbing experiences.Freud viewed repetition-compulsion as…
RETICULAR FORMATION (Reticular Activating System, RAS)
A network of nerve cells deep in the middle of the brain (plate 1), extending from lower to higher centers;…
ROLE PLAYING (Sociodrama)
A technique of human relations training and psychotherapy in which the individual acts out social roles of other people, or…
RORSCHACH TEST
A projective technique in which responses to standard inkblots are professionally interpreted.The Rorschach test is based on the common human…
ROSENZWEIG PICTURE-FRUSTRATION STUDY (P-F)
A projective test which assesses patterns of reaction to typical stress situations.It is an all-too-obvious fact that frustrating experiences are…
RAY, ISAAC (1807—81)
After receiving his medical degree from Bowdoin College in 1827, Ray entered upon a career that was to make him…
RUSH, BENJAMIN (1746-1813)
Rush, the first American psychiatrist, was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). He…
RAYNAUD’S DISEASE
A psychophysiologic disorder of the circulatory system involving blanching, swelling and /or cyanosis (blue appearance due to a lack of…
REACTION TIME (Response Latency)
The time between the onset of a stimulus and the start of an overt response.Reaction time, or RT, is a…
READABILITY RESEARCH
The analysis or measurement of written material in terms of level of difficulty or other characteristics such as human interest…
READINESS TESTS
Tests designed to predict how well an individual is prepared to profit from instruction in a particular field.Readiness tests are…
READING DISABILITY (Paralexia, Dyslexia)
A general term applying to all cases in which a child’s reading skill is one or more years behind his…
RACE DIFFERENCES
Most of the psychological studies of race differences have dealt with the comparative intelligence of Negroes and whites. The results…
RANK, OTTO (1884-1939)
A Viennese by birth, Rank was a brilliant member of Freud’s coterie, but Freud broke with him over his “one-sided”…