environmental assessment

the evaluation of situational and environmental variables that influence behavior, based on the theory that disordered functioning may be rooted partly in the social system, or particular social context, rather than wholly in the individual and his or her personal characteristics. In an organizational context, for example, measures of manager support and availability of resources to accomplish a job would likely be used in the environmental assessment of employee job satisfaction.

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Psychology term of the day

July 27th 2024

object constancy

1. in object relations theory, the ability of an infant to maintain an attachment that is relatively independent of gratification or frustration, based on a cognitive capacity to conceive of a mother who exists when she is out of sight and who has positive attributes when she is unsatisfying. Thus, an infant becomes attached to the mother herself rather than to her tension-reducing ministrations; she comes to exist continuously for the infant and not only during instances of need satisfaction. This investment by an infant in a specific libidinal object indicates that he or she no longer finds people to be interchangeable.

2. see perceptual constancy.