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role reversal

a technique used for therapeutic and educational purposes in which an individual exchanges roles with another individual to experience alternative cognitive styles (e.g., in problem solving), feelings, and behavioral approaches. In psychodrama, the protagonist exchanges roles with an auxiliary ego in acting out a significant interpersonal situation. Role reversal is also used in management development programs, for example, as in an exchange of roles between a supervisor and an employee.

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Psychology term of the day

March 17th 2025

Zeno’s paradoxes

Zeno’s paradoxes

several arguments proposed by Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea (early 5th century bce) against the ideas of plurality and motion. Individuals making a trip must first go halfway to their destination, then cover half of the remaining distance, then half again, in an indefinite sequence of such steps that appears impossible to complete. Alternatively, if Achilles gives a tortoise a head start in a race and attempts to catch up, he must first run to where the tortoise was, then to where it has moved to, and so on for an infinite sequence of such moves, seemingly never catching up with the tortoise.