foot-in-the-door technique

a two-step procedure for enhancing compliance in which a minor initial request is presented immediately before a more substantial target request. Agreement to the initial request makes people more likely to agree to the target request than would have been the case if the latter had been presented on its own. See also door-in-the-face technique; low-ball technique; that’s-not-all technique.

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Psychology term of the day

November 16th 2024

antilibidinal ego

in the object relations theory of British psychoanalyst W. Ronald D. Fairbairn (1889–1964), the portion of the ego structure that is similar to Sigmund Freud’s superego. The antilibidinal ego constitutes a nonpleasure-gratifying, self-deprecatory, or even hostile self-image; it is posited to develop out of the unitary ego present at birth when the infantile libidinal ego (similar to the id) experiences deprivation at the hands of the parent and the infant suppresses his or her frustrated needs. Also called internal saboteur. See Fairbairnian theory.