symptom formation

1. in psychoanalytic theory, the development of a somatic or behavioral manifestation of an unconscious impulse or conflict that provokes anxiety. Also called substitute formation.

2. the process by which the indications of physical or psychological pathology develop.

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Psychology term of the day

November 16th 2024

dual-attitude model

the hypothesis that a new attitude toward an object does not replace a former one but rather overrides it, such that two contradictory attitudes about the same object are then held simultaneously by the same individual. One attitude is held explicitly and the other implicitly. The attitude that people endorse depends on whether they have the cognitive capacity to retrieve the explicit attitude (e.g., egalitarianism) and whether this overrides their original implicit view (e.g., prejudice toward certain racial groups). [proposed in 2000 by U.S. psychologists Timothy D. Wilson and Samuel Lindsey and U.S. behavioral oncologist Tonya Y. Schooler]