Ovsiankina Effect
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Ovsiankina Effect
The Ovsiankina effect is the tendency to pick up an interrupted action again when it has still not been achieved. It is named after its researcher, Maria Ovsiankina. The effect states that an interrupted task, even without incentive, values as a "quasi-need". It creates intrusive thoughts, aimed at taking up the task again and possibly resulting into cognitive dissonance. This can be explained by Kurt Lewin's field theory, which points that an interrupted action is a condition for a strained system. It also leads to a better remembering of the unfinished action over a vacant one (Zeigarnik effect). See also * Human multitasking * Rumination (psychology) Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions, according to the ''Response Styles Theory'' proposed by Nolen-Hoeksema (1998). Because the Respo ... References {{Reflist Psychological effects ...
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Maria Ovsiankina
Maria Arsenjevna Rickers-Ovsiankina (1898–1993) was a Russian-German-American psychologist. She studied a variation of the Zeigarnik effect, now known as the Ovsiankina effect. Ovsiankina worked in a variety of psychology jobs, including working with schizophrenia patients. She wrote books about psychological testing. Personal life Ovsiankina was born in Chita, Russian Empire, in 1898. Her family gave her the nickname Marika. Ovsiankina's father founded the first Russian-Asian bank and was the owner of a coal mine. After the Russian Revolution, she immigrated to Berlin because of political upheaval and it was common for wealthy parents to send their children elsewhere for school. Ovsiankina studied fictional characters in relation to their personalities and she wanted to study the subject more at a university. Due to there being no such program available to her, she studied personality at the Psychological Institute at the University of Berlin. While attending the university, ...
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Intrusive Thoughts
An intrusive thought is an unwelcome, involuntary thought, image, or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, is upsetting or distressing, and can feel difficult to manage or eliminate. When such thoughts are associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and sometimes attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the thoughts may become paralyzing, anxiety-provoking, or persistent. Intrusive thoughts may also be associated with episodic memory, unwanted worries or memories from OCD,Baer (2001), pp. 58–60 post-traumatic stress disorder, other anxiety disorders, eating disorders, or psychosis. Intrusive thoughts, urges, and images are of inappropriate things at inappropriate times, and generally have aggressive, sexual, or blasphemous themes.Baer (2001), p. xiv. Description General Many people experience the type of bad or unwanted thoughts that people with more troubling intrusive thoughts have, but most people can dism ...
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Cognitive Dissonance
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information, and the mental toll of it. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.Festinger, L. (1957). ''A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance''. California: Stanford University Press. In '' When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World'' ( ...
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Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin ( ; 9 September 1890 – 12 February 1947) was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology in the United States. During his professional career Lewin applied himself to three general topics: applied research, action research, and group communication. Lewin is often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first to study group dynamics and organizational development. A ''Review of General Psychology'' survey, published in 2002, ranked Lewin as the 18th-most cited psychologist of the 20th century. Biography Early life and education Lewin was born in 1890 into a Jewish family in Mogilno, County of Mogilno, Province of Posen, Prussia (modern Poland). It was a small village of about 5,000 people, about 150 of whom were Jewish. Lewin received an orthodox Jewish education at home. He was one of four children born into a middle-class family. His father owned a small gen ...
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Field Theory (psychology)
Field theory is a psychological theory (more precisely: Topological and vector psychology) which examines patterns of interaction between the individual and the total field, or environment. The concept first made its appearance in psychology with roots to the holistic perspective of Gestalt theories. It was developed by Kurt Lewin, a Gestalt psychologist, in the 1940s. Lewin's field theory can be expressed by a formula: B = f(p,e), meaning that behavior (B) is a function of the person (p) and their cultural environment (e). History Early philosophers believed the body to have a rational, inner nature that helped guide our thoughts and bodies. This intuitive force, our soul, was viewed as having supreme control over our entire being. However, this view changed during the intellectual revolution of the 17th century. The mind versus the body was a forever evolving concept that received great attention from the likes of Descartes, Locke and Kant. From once believing that the m ...
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System
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning. Systems are the subjects of study of systems theory and other systems sciences. Systems have several common properties and characteristics, including structure, function(s), behavior and interconnectivity. Etymology The term ''system'' comes from the Latin word ''systēma'', in turn from Greek language, Greek ''systēma'': "whole concept made of several parts or members, system", literary "composition"."σύστημα"
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', on Per ...
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Zeigarnik Effect
Named after Lithuanian-Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, in psychology the Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It postulates that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. In Gestalt psychology, the Zeigarnik effect has been used to demonstrate the general presence of Gestalt phenomena: not just appearing as perceptual effects, but also present in cognition. The Zeigarnik effect should not be confused with the Ovsiankina effect. Maria Ovsiankina, a colleague of Zeigarnik, investigated the effect of task interruption on the tendency to resume the task at the next opportunity. Overview Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first studied the phenomenon after her professor, Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin noticed that a waiter had better recollections of still unpaid orders. However, after the completion of the task – after everyone had paid – he was unable to remember any more deta ...
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Human Multitasking
Human multitasking is the concept that one can split their attention on more than one task or activity at the same time, such as speaking on the phone while driving a car. Multitasking can result in time wasted due to human context switching and becoming prone to errors due to insufficient attention. If one becomes proficient at two tasks, it is possible to rapidly shift attention between the tasks and perform the tasks well. Etymology The first published use of the word "multitask" appeared in an IBM paper describing the capabilities of the IBM System/360 in 1965. The term has since been applied to human tasks. Research Since the 1960s, psychologists have conducted experiments on the nature and limits of human multitasking. The simplest experimental design used to investigate human multitasking is the so-called psychological refractory period effect. Here, people are asked to make separate responses to each of two stimuli presented close together in time. An extremely genera ...
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Rumination (psychology)
Rumination is the focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions, according to the ''Response Styles Theory'' proposed by Nolen-Hoeksema (1998). Because the Response Styles Theory has been empirically supported, this model of rumination is the most widely used conceptualization. Other theories, however, have proposed different definitions for rumination. For example, in the ''Goal Progress Theory'', rumination is conceptualized not as a reaction to a mood state, but as a "response to failure to progress satisfactorily towards a goal". As such, both rumination and worry are associated with anxiety and other negative emotional states; however, its measures have not been unified. Multiple tools exist to measure ruminative thoughts. Treatments specifically addressing ruminative thought patterns are still in the early stages of development. Theories Response styles theory Response styles theory (RST) ...
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