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role play

a technique used in human relations training and psychotherapy in which participants act out various social roles in dramatic situations. Originally developed in psychodrama, role play is now widely used in industrial, educational, and clinical settings for purposes such as teaching employees to handle sales problems, helping change attitudes and relationships among couples or family members, and rehearsing different ways of coping with stresses and conflicts.

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Psychology term of the day

May 8th 2024

mental chemistry

mental chemistry

a concept proposed by John Stuart Mill as an alternative to the mental mechanics described by his father, James Mill. The concept is modeled on a common phenomenon in physical chemistry, in which two chemical substances combine to form a compound with properties not present in either of the components. Similarly, Mill held that compound ideas were not merely combinations of simpler ideas but that they possessed other qualities not present in any of the constituent ideas. Thus, such an idea could be an essentially new one. See associationism; association of ideas.