emotional abuse

nonphysical abuse: a pattern of behavior in which one person deliberately and repeatedly subjects another to nonphysical acts that are detrimental to behavioral and affective functioning and overall mental well-being. Researchers have yet to formulate a universally agreed upon definition of the concept, but they have identified a variety of forms that emotional abuse may take, including verbal abuse; intimidation and terrorization; humiliation and degradation; exploitation; harassment; rejection and withholding of affection; isolation; and excessive control. Also called psychological abuse.

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Psychology term of the day

July 27th 2024

script

1. a cognitive schematic structure—a mental road map—containing the basic actions (and their temporal and causal relations) that comprise a complex action. Also called script schema.

2. a structured representation consisting of a sequence of conceptual dependencies grouped together to capture the semantic relationships implicit in everyday human situations. It was designed for the purpose of computer-based story understanding. [created in 1966 by U.S. cognitive and computer scientist Roger C. Schank (1946– ) and U.S. psychologist Robert P. Abelson (1928–2005)]

3. see prescription drug.

4. see script analysis.