Ego The aspect of personality involved in self-preservation activities and in directing instinctual drives and urges into appropriate channels.
Ego defense mechanisms Mental strategies (conscious or unconscious) used by the ego to defend itself against conflicts experienced in the normal course of life.
Egocentrism In cognitive development, the inability of a young child at the preoperational stage to take the perspective of another person.
Emotion A complex pattern of changes, including physiological arousal, feelings, cognitive processes, and behavioral reactions, made in response to a situation perceived to be personally significant.
Emotional intelligence Type of intelligence defined as the abilities to perceive, appraise, and express emotions accurately and appropriately, to use emotions to facilitate thinking, to understand and analyze emotions, to use emotional knowledge effectively, and to regulate one's emotions to promote both emotional and intellectual growth
EQ The emotional intelligence counterpart of IQ.
Erogenous zones Areas of the skin surface that are especially sensitive to stimulation and that give rise to erotic or sexual sensations.
Estrogen The female sex hormone, produced by the ovaries, that is responsible for the release of eggs from the ovaries as well as for the development and maintenance of female reproductive structures and secondary sex characteristics.
Expectancy effects Results that occur when a researcher or observer subtly communicates to participants the kind of behavior he or she expects to find, thereby creating that expected reaction.
Expectancy theory A cognitive theory of work motivation that proposes that workers are motivated when they expect their efforts and job performance to result in desired outcomes.
Experience-sampling method An experimental method that assists researchers in describing the typical contents of consciousness; participants are asked to record what they are feeling and thinking whenever signaled to do so.
Experimental methods Research methodologies that involve the manipulation of independent variables in order to determine their effects on the dependent variables.
Explicit uses of memory Conscious efforts to recover information through memory processes.