ReviewFrontiers in psychology2015
Fifty psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid: a list of inaccurate, misleading, misused, ambiguous, and logically confused words and phrases.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Comorbidity of borderline with antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders: a multimethod study.Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation · 2026Article
- Between Depression and Alienation: Burnout as a Translator Category for Critical Theories.Culture, medicine and psychiatry · 2025Article
- The LEADING guideline: Reporting standards for expert panel, best-estimate diagnosis, and longitudinal expert all data (LEAD) methods.Comprehensive psychiatry · 2025Article
- Effects of a Body-Based Mindfulness Program on Alexithymia, Dispositional Mindfulness, and Distress Symptoms: A Pilot Clinical Trial.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Integrating threat conditioning and the hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology to advance the study of anxiety-related psychopathology.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2024Review
- The LEADING Guideline: Reporting Standards for Expert Panel, Best-Estimate Diagnosis, and Longitudinal Expert All Data (LEAD) Studies.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2024Article
- Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Quantitative Studies of Age and Life Course.The Gerontologist · 2024Article
- Rhetoric of psychological measurement theory and practice.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- "It is more isolating to patients if you aren't familiar with the resources": a pilot test of a clinician sensitivity training on eating disorders in pregnancy.BMC medical education · 2023Article
- Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Quantitative Studies of Age and Life Course.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2023Article
- Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Quantitative Studies of Age and Life Course.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2023Article
- Psychiatric comorbidity: a concept in need of a theory.Psychological medicine · 2023Review
- Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Quantitative Studies of Age and Life Course.The Public policy and aging report · 2023Article
- Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Quantitative Studies of Age and Life Course.Innovation in aging · 2023Article
- Diagnostic Performance of an App-Based Symptom Checker in Mental Disorders: Comparative Study in Psychotherapy Outpatients.JMIR mental health · 2022Article
- Rating scales institutionalise a network of logical errors and conceptual problems in research practices: A rigorous analysis showing ways to tackle psychology's crises.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Behavioral economic demand as a unifying language for addiction science: Promoting collaboration and integration of animal and human models.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2020Review
- The bystander effect in rats.Science advances · 2020Article
- The Gold Standard and the Pyrite Principle: Toward a Supplemental Frame of Reference.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Expression Authenticity: The Role of Genuine and Deliberate Displays in Emotion Perception.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The goal of this article is to promote clear thinking and clear writing among students and teachers of psychological science by curbing terminological misinformation and confusion. To this end, we present a provisional list of 50 commonly used terms in psychology, psychiatry, and allied fields that should be avoided, or at most used sparingly and with explicit caveats. We provide corrective information for students, instructors, and researchers regarding these terms, which we organize for expository purposes into five categories: inaccurate or misleading terms, frequently misused terms, ambiguous terms, oxymorons, and pleonasms. For each term, we (a) explain why it is problematic, (b) delineate one or more examples of its misuse, and (c) when pertinent, offer recommendations for preferable terms. By being more judicious in their use of terminology, psychologists and psychiatrists can foster clearer thinking in their students and the field at large regarding mental phenomena.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.