primal trauma

in psychoanalytic theory, a painful situation to which an individual was subjected in early life that is presumed to be the basis of a neurosis in later life. See also primal anxiety.

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Psychology term of the day

February 25th 2025

Yerkes–Dodson law

a law stating that the relation between motivation (arousal) and performance can be represented by an inverted U-curve (see inverted-U hypothesis). [Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson(1879–1955), U.S. psychologists]