regression

n. a return to a prior, lower state of cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning. This term is associated particularly with psychoanalytic theory, denoting a situation in which the individual reverts to immature behavior or to an earlier stage of psychosexual development when threatened with overwhelming external problems or internal conflicts. —regress vb. —regressive adj.

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Psychology term of the day

November 17th 2024

REM sleep

rapid-eye-movement sleep: the stage of sleep, formerly called desynchronized sleep, in which most dreaming tends to occur during which electroencephalograms show activity that resembles wakefulness (hence, it is also known as paradoxical sleep) except for inhibition of most skeletal and cranial muscles. This stage has two phases—tonic and phasic—and it is largely during the phasic period that muscle twitches and bursts of rapid eye movements occur. REM sleep accounts for one quarter to one fifth of total sleep time. Compare NREM sleep.