feedback system

a circuit in which output information (e.g., biological, mechanical) is used to modulate the input to the same circuit. In a negative feedback system, the output is used to reduce the input; such systems play important roles in maintaining equilibrium of processes within organisms. See homeostasis; positive feedback.

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Psychology term of the day

December 22nd 2024

compartmentalization

n. a defense mechanism in which thoughts and feelings that seem to conflict or to be incompatible are isolated from each other in separate and apparently impermeable psychic compartments. In the classical psychoanalytic tradition, compartmentalization emerges in response to fragmentation of the ego, which ideally should be able to tolerate ambiguity and ambivalence. See also isolation. —compartmentalize vb.