GLOSSARY
P
Panic Attack
Discrete and intense periods of autonomic arousal accompanied by fear.
Parasocial Relationship
A media user’s reaction to a media performer such that the media user perceives the performer as an intimate conversational partner.
Parasympathetic Nervous System
A subdivision of the autonomic nervous system regulating largely involuntary internal processes, focused on energy storage, growth & restoration (slows heart beat, stimulate digestion). Inhibits and opposes the sympathetic nervous system subdivision.
Passion
A strong inclination toward an activity that people like, that they find important, and in which they invest time and energy. Obsessive passion refers to a controlled internalization of an activity in one’s identity that creates an (...)
Passive Social Media Use
Passive consumption of social media content, such as browsing and mindless scrolling. Users view postings without engaging or interacting with them.
Pathological Altruism
Behavior in which attempts to promote the welfare of another, or others, results instead in harm that an external observer would conclude was reasonably foreseeable.
Patience
The ability to stay calm while enduring frustration, adversity, or suffering in hopes of future fulfillment.
Peak Experience
Intense, highly valued moments considered optimal levels of subjective experience that are not dependent on particular types of behaviour. A model of optimal human experiencing.
Perceived Responsiveness
The degree to which individuals feel understood, validated, and cared for by close others.
Perfectionism
A personality disposition characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high standards for performance accompanied by tendencies for overly critical evaluations of one’s behaviour.
PERMA
Measurable elements that make up well-being proposed by Martin Seligman. The five elements that make up the acronym are Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment.
Perspective Taking
A complex and multifaceted sociocognitive process that enables us to recognize and appreciate another person’s point of view, whether it be the same or different from our own. Part of, and related to empathy..
Pessimism
Negative generalized outcome expectancies; an individual difference reflecting the extent to which people hold generalized unfavourable expectancies for their future *Note that this definition considers optimism and pessimism to be (...)
Phasic Strengths
Non signature strengths that an individual brings forth when a situation calls for it. Phasic strengths are sometimes referred to as, “rise-to-the-occasion” strengths.
Phobias
Irrational and specific fears of certain objects or animals.
Phrenology
Irrational and specific fears of certain objects or animals.
Phubbing
The act of subbing someone in a social setting by concentrating on one’s mobile phone.
Phytoncides
The antimicrobial volatile organic compounds emitted from plants to defend against decay or attack by herbivores. Inhaling phytoncides through a forest walk (shinrin-yoku) enhances mood and may be beneficial for stress management.
Piloerection
Involuntary muscle contraction causing hair follicles in the skin to stand (e.g. goose bumps), resulting in increased insulation in response to cold, fear or intense emotional responses (e.g. musical chills).
Pity
The negative evaluation and affect (sorrow, discomfort) that witnessing the suffering of others may elicit. Pity is experienced when the target’s suffering is a result of uncontrollable causes, independent of the locus of the cause. Further, (...)
Placebo
Any therapeutic procedure which has an effect on a patient, symptom, syndrome or disease, but which is objectively without specific activity for the condition being treated'.
Playfulness
An individual difference that allows people to frame or reframe everyday situations in a way such that they experience them as entertaining, and/or intellectually stimulating, and/or personally interesting.
Polyvagal Theory
A theory that provides an innovative scientific perspective to study feelings of safety that incorporates an understanding of neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. This perspective identifies neural circuits that downregulate neural regulation of threat reactions and functionally (...)
Pons
A prominent, bulged section of the brainstem located just in front of the cerebellum. The pons functions as a vital communication bridge, carrying nerve signals back and forth between the spinal cord, cerebellum, and upper brain regions. It plays a key role in regulating automatic functions (...)
Positive Affect (PA; Extraversion)
Susceptibility to positive affect. Individuals high on trait extraversion, relative to those low on trait extraversion, are more likely to have an appetitive motivation system that appears to motivate approach behaviour through (...)
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
A 20-item self-report scale commonly used to assess mood, comprising of 10 positive and 10 negative state items. Items are rated on a 5 point Likert scale (1: Not at all, 5: Extremely), with higher scores indicating predominant mood.
Positive Education
Education for both traditional skills and for happiness. An umbrella term used to describe empirically validated interventions and programs from positive psychology that have an impact on student well-being.
Positive Emotions (Pleasant Emotions)
The valence (subjective experience, usually in terms in attractiveness or aversiveness) of emotions that is characterized by pleasure, pleasantness and motivates approach-type behaviours.
Positive Empathy
The ability to share, celebrate, and enjoy others’ positive emotions.
Positive Humanities
The field of inquiry and practice directed toward understanding how expressions of the human mind (i.e. the humanities) and culture contribute to well-being.
Positive Institutions
Organizational systems focusing on learning for traditional capabilities as well as aiming to move individuals toward better citizenship, responsibility, nurturance, altruism, civility, moderation, tolerance, and work ethic. See also positive education.
Positive Organizational Behaviour (POB)
The study and application of positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace.
Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS)
The study of especially positive outcomes, processes, and attributes of organizations and their members. Positive Organizational Scholarship focuses on dynamics that are typically described by words such as excellence, thriving, flourishing, abundance, resilience, or virtuousness (...)
Positive Psychology
The scientific study of optimal human functioning, of what goes right in life, from birth to death and at all stops in between. The study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions.
Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI)
Intentional activities or methods that identify, build, and/or broaden any aspects of the three pillars of well-being. These pillars typically include positive subjective experience, positive traits, and/or positive institutions.
Positivity Effect
A shift from a negativity bias early in life to a positivity bias that emerges in middle and late adulthood.
Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)
A potential consequence of the cognitive effort to redefine one’s beliefs (following a traumatic experience), and rebuild their assumptive world. Consequently, individuals may reexamine many aspects of their lives and recognize growth on (...)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
An anxiety disorder developed after a confrontation with a traumatic event. The core features of PTSD are the persistence of intense, distressing, and fearfully avoided reactions to reminders of the triggering event, alteration of mood and (...)
Prefrontal Cortex
The area of the frontal lobe nearest to the nose highly developed in primates (especially humans) involved in attention, working memory, planning & decision making.
Presence of Meaning in Life
The subjective sense that one’s life is meaningful.
Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis
The observation that reported rates of mental health reports have paradoxically increased alongside efforts to raise public awareness of mental health issues. The hypothesis highlights an unexpected trend (...)
Pride
A self-conscious emotion arising from achievements that can be attributed to one’s abilities or effort. Attributing positive events to internal, unstable, controllable causes (e.g. effort) promotes authentic pride, whereas attributing the (...)
Problematic Social Media Use
An impaired ability to stop or control social media use despite adverse social, occupational/school-related, or mental health consequences. The lack of regulation of one’s use of social media associated with negative outcomes in everyday functioning (...)
Procrastination
Voluntarily delaying an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
A technique in which a person is trained to voluntarily relax individual muscles. It induces both physiological and psychological relaxation by reducing the response to stress, reducing skeletal muscle contractions, and decreasing the sensation of pain.
Prosocial Behaviour
Any action performed by one organism to alleviate another’s need or improve their welfare.
Prosperity
A combination of qualities in a country – namely, inclusive societies, open economies, and empowered people, that allow people the opportunity and freedom to thrive.
Psychological Capital
An individual’s positive psychological state of development and is characterized by having confidence to take on and put in the necessary effort to success in challenging tasks, making positive attribution about succeeding now and in the (...)
Psychological Flexibility
A wide range of human abilities to: (i) recognize and adapt to various situational demands, (ii) shift mindsets or behavioral repertoires when these strategies compromise personal or social functioning, (iii) maintain balance among important life domains, and (iv) be aware, open, and (...)
Psychological Pain
An extreme and aversive emotionally based feeling, experienced as a lasting, unsustainable condition resulting from a negative appraisal or deficiency of self.
Psychological Richness
An experience of life that is characterized by a variety of interesting and perspective-changing experiences.
Psychological Safety
The perception that one is safe for taking interpersonal risk in a particular context.
Psychological Well-Being
The experience of positive psychological functioning encompassing a broad state of wellness.
Psychopathy
A socially devastating disorder defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal, and behavioural characteristics, including egocentricity; impulsivity; irresponsibility; shallow emotions; lack of empathy, guilt or (...)
