collective

n. any aggregate of two or more individuals, especially a larger, spontaneous, and relatively short-lived social grouping such as a crowd or mob. A collective often includes individuals who are dispersed over a wide area and have no direct contact with one another but who nonetheless display common shifts in opinion or action.

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Psychology term of the day

May 9th 2024

divided consciousness

Ernest R. Hilgard’s characterization of dissociation as a state in which one stream of mental activity (e.g., perception, memory, planning) proceeds outside of phenomenal awareness and apparently outside of voluntary control. In his neodissociation theory, Hilgard proposed that this state could be best studied through hypnosis. See also coconsciousness; unity of consciousness.