|
| | |
Opponent-process theory
Opponent-process theory A theory proposed by Richard Solomon (1973, 1980) to augment traditional stimulus-response learning theory, according to which powerful aversion or attraction to a particular activity or experience undergoes reversal, as for example, pain reversing into pleasure, tragedy into triumph, terror into euphoria, or the proscribed into the prescribed. Opponent-process theory explains addictions to opioids, alcohol, other drugs, and to the positive and negative affective states of love, fear and anxiety, and behaviors such as exercise and combat of a war or sporting event. The theory explains, in part, the development of the paraphilias and sexuoerotic participation in sadomasochism.
RELATED TERMS--------------------------------------
Pain
An unpleasant sensory or emotional experience primarily associated with tissue damage, or described in terms of tissue damage, or both.
Euphoria
Euphoria represents a feeling of well-being or elation; may be drug related. The opposite of euphoria is known as dysphoria.
Alcohol
An organic chemical in which one or more hydroxyl (OH) groups are attached to carbon (C) atoms in place of hydrogen (H) atoms. Common alcohols include ethyl alcohol or ethanol (found in alcoholic beverages), methyl alcohol or methanol (can cause blindness) and propyl alcohol or propanol (used as a solvent and antiseptic). Rubbing alcohol is a mixture of acetone, methyl isobutyl ketone, and ethyl alcohol. In everyday talk, alcohol usually refers to ethanol as, for example, in wine, beer, and liquor. It can cause changes in behavior and be addictive.
Love
The personal experience and manifest expression of being attached or bonded to another person. There is sacred and profane love, and affectional and erotic love. The word is also used in the vernacular as a synonym for like.
Anxiety
A psychological and/or biological response to stress. Feelings of anxiety involve discomforting apprehension or concern, which may include symptoms such as cognitive difficulties, hypersensitivity, dizziness, muscular weakness, breathing difficulties, irregular heart beat, sweating, and sensations of fear. Typically, anxiety is a natural and healthy response to life experiences. However, exaggerated or chronic anxiety often indicates an anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be produced by external stress (exogenous anxiety) or internal stress (endogenous anxiety).
Event
A set of outcomes. Cardiovascular events might include a heart attack and gastrointestinal events a GI bleed. The use of the term "event" in medicine comes from probability theory.
Development
The process of growth and differentiation.
Sexuoerotic
The sexual and the erotic experienced as a unity, with more emphasis on sexual behavior than erotic imagery.
SIMILAR TERMS--------------------------------------
PREVIOUS AND NEXT TERMS--------------------------------------
Olfactophilia
One of the paraphilias of the fetishistic/talismanic type in which the sexuoerotic stimulus is associated with smell and odors emanating from parts of the body, especially the sexual and adjacent parts.
Oligospermia
Abnormally low number of sperm in the semen, with resultant relative infertility.
Ondinisme
Paraphilia of the fetishistic/talismanic type in which sexuoerotic arousal and facilitation or attainment of orgasm are responsive to, and being urinated upon and/or swallowing urine. There is no technical term for the reciprocal condition of urinating on or in the mouth of the partner. Synonym urolagnia. (adjective, urophilic): the condition of being responsive to or dependent on the smell or taste of urine, or the sight and someone urinating, in order to obtain erotic arousal and facilitate or achieve orgasm.
Ontogeny
In biology, the developmental history of the life span of a single individual or organism, as compared with phylogeny, which is the developmental history of all members of the species.
Opioid
A peptide, naturally occurring in the brain and elsewhere in the body, the effect of which resembles that of opium or a morphine-like synthetic opiate.
Opponent-process theory
Orchidectomy
Surgical opening of the scrotum and removal of the testicles for testicular cancer, or to remove the major source of testosterone for prostate cancer therapy, or in relatively ineffective attempts of castration to control the sexual behavior of adjudged "sex offenders."
Orgasmic phase
The third of four sexual phases delineated by Masters and Johnson.
Orgy
Vernacular term for sexual sharing of partners at a party, either in pairs, or as a group.
Osmolagnia
Sexuoerotic stimulation from odors.
We thank you for using the Health Dictionary to search for Opponent-process theory. If you have a better definition for Opponent-process theory than the one presented here, please let us know by making use of the suggest a term option. This definition of Opponent-process theory may be disputed by other professionals. Our attempt is to provide easy definitions on Opponent-process theory and any other medical topic for the public at large.This dictionary contains 25007 terms. |
|
|
