Glossary G-5exclusivity (Erikson) The core pathology of young
adulthood marked by a person’s exclusion of certain
people, activities, and ideas.
excuses Adlerian safeguarding tendencies whereby the
person, through the use of reasonable sounding
justifications, becomes convinced of the reality of self-
erected obstacles.
existential freedom (May) The freedom of doing one’s
will. Existential freedom can be limited by chains or bars.
existential living Rogers’s term indicating a tendency
to live in the moment.
existential needs (Fromm) Peculiarly human needs
aimed at moving people toward a reunification with the
natural world. Fromm listed relatedness, transcendence,
rootedness, a sense of identity, and a frame of orientation
as existential, or human, needs.
expectancy The subjective probability held by a person
that any specific reinforcement or set of reinforcements
will occur in a given situation.
experience corollary Kelly’s view that people
continually revise their personal constructs as the result
of experience.
exploitative characters (Fromm) People who take
from others, by either force or cunning.
external evaluations (Rogers) People’s perception of
other people’s view of them.
external influences (McCrae and Costa) Knowledge,
views, and evaluations of the self.
external reinforcement (Rotter) The positive or
negative value of any reinforcing event as seen from the
view of societal or cultural values.
extinction The tendency of a previously acquired
response to become progressively weakened upon
nonreinforcement.
extraversion (E) (Eysenck) One of three types of
superfactors identified by Eysenck and consisting of two
opposite poles—extraversion and introversion.
Extraverts are characterized behaviorally by sociability
and impulsiveness and physiologically by a low level of
cortical arousal. Introverts, by contrast, are characterized
by unsociability and caution and by a high level of
cortical arousal.
extraversion (Jung) An attitude or type marked by the
turning outward of psychic energy so that a person is
oriented toward the objective world.F
factor A unit of personality derived through factor
analysis. However, the term is sometimes used more
generally to include any underlying aspect of
personality.ego-ideal (Freud) The part of the superego
that results from experiences with reward and that,
therefore, teaches a person what is right or proper
conduct.
Eigenwelt An existentialist term meaning the world of
one’s relationship to self. One of three simultaneous
modes of being-in-the-world.
elaborative choice (Kelly) Making choices that will
increase a person’s range of future choices.
emotional stability (Buss) Involves one’s ability to
handle stress or not and the disposition to experience
anxiety, depression, or guilt.
empathic listening (Rogers) The accurate sensing of
the feelings of another and the communication of these
perceptions. One of three “necessary and sufficient”
therapeutic conditions.
empirical Based on experience, systematic observation,
and experiment rather than on logical reasoning or
philosophical speculation.
empirical law of effect (Rotter) The assumption that
behaviors that move people in the direction of their goals
are more likely to be reinforced.
encoding strategies (Mischel) People’s ways of
transforming stimulus inputs into information about
themselves, other people, and the world.
enhancement needs (Rogers) The need to develop, to
grow, and to achieve.
epigenetic principle Erikson’s term meaning that one
component grows out of another in its proper time and
sequence.
epigenetics (Buss) Change in gene function that does
not involve changes in DNA.
epistemology The branch of philosophy that deals with
the nature of knowledge.
erogenous zones Organs of the body that are
especially sensitive to the reception of pleasure. In
Freudian theory, the three principal erogenous zones are
the mouth, anus, and genitals.
eros The desire for an enduring union with a loved one.
essential freedom (May) The freedom of being or the
freedom of the conscious mind. Essential freedom cannot
be limited by chains or bars.
esteem needs The fourth level on Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs; they include self-respect, competence, and the
perceived esteem of others.
ethology The scientific study of the characteristic
behavior patterns of animals.
evolutionary psychology (Buss) The scientific study
of human thought and behavior that explains human
thought, behavior, motivation, and personality through
the concepts of adaptations and mechanisms.