Applied Psychology for Nurses

by Mary F. Porter

For clarity we might indicate the mind and its functions in the following diagram:

[Mind]

• Emotion
  • Pleasure
  • Pain
• Intellect, or the Stream of Thought
  • Sensation (impression on mind from sense organs)
    • Eye
    • Ear
    • Nose
    • Mouth
    • Skin
    • Muscles
    • Viscera
    • General Sensation
  • Perception (recognition of cause of sensation)
    • of object
    • of quality
  • Memory
    • Self
    • Organic
    • Inorganic
    • Percept
    • Concept
  • Ideation
    • Abstract
    • Concrete
    • Imaginative
      • Fanciful
      • Constructive
  • Reason
  • Judgement
• Will

The following terms are ones constantly used in psychology, and are briefly defined that there may be no haziness in their application.

Sensation is the uninterpreted response of the mind to stimuli brought by sense organs.

Examples: Feeling of	{	hot.
		cold.
		pain.

Sensation may arouse instinct and cause reflex action, or start a feeling state, or a train of thought.

Perception is the conscious recognition of the cause of a given sensation.

Example:	{	fluid—water.
		cold—snow.
		pain—cut.

Percept is a word often used to denote the mind’s immediate image of the thing perceived.