Site Glossary

Working definitions of key terms used at this website

This page is newly started as of June 2008. Its offerings, while initially meager, will increase over time.

evaluation

A thought process in which a value is assigned to something. Weighing or measuring is an evaluation, for example. So is determining a personal preference. It is often very useful in psychotherapy to distinguish an evaluation with a judgment.

judgment

A thought process which is very similar to an evaluation, but which differs in that it involves assigning a moral value to something.

moral value

Values are just measuring scales – qualities we can attach to something, by the process of evaluation. A fruit might be evaluated in terms of its sweetness, for example. However, if we attach to the value of sweetness an additional value – a “good / bad” value – with, say, “good fruit” being defined as “fruit with a lot of sweetness”, then we have created a moral value. Attaching moral values to fruits, or houses, or city budgets is one thing, attaching such values to a person, especially a child, is entirely another. Done badly, this act can have very destructive consequences. Done well, the opposite result is likely.

negative thinking

Thinking which involves a significant component of either negative evaluation or negative judgment.

positive thinking

Thinking which involves a significant component of either positive evaluation or positive judgment.

Sources and rationale for these definitions

Unless otherwise noted, the definitions given here are my own, and are those I use in conversations with my clients. In psychotherapy, it is often rather important to correct poorly constructed or outright incorrect ideas, as these errors can often be destructive or injurious to the people who believe them.