Glossary of new terms we'll use
The bulk of these terms are my own neologisms. To develop original concepts it often would help to craft a word to capture an element of the concept, instead of repeatedly referring to it in some phrase. Creating these terms also allows me to delimit its applied definition, to avoid possible confusion. Many of these terms were first introduced in a wiki I started, found here.
A
anakelogy - the study of need, specifically the study of our human experience of need, starting here with a homeostasis paradigm.
awareness cycle – process of cognition content, from initially becoming stimulated to integration into one’s belief system, functioning as a filter for subsequent stimuli. (See need-communication cycle)
B
C
cisconventional – following or conforming to conventional norms of one’s sociocultural environment as a valued means for need-relief; cisconventionality as a noun.
cisspirit – one whose spiritual needs are readily satisfied by following sociocultural norms, in contrast to a transspirit. These are viewed as modalities along a continuum of possible relationships between one’s spirituality and one’s sociocultural context; cisspiritual as an adjective.
continuum cognition – thinking of a range of possibilities that could exist beyond initially regarded modalities; awareness cycle.
counterdependency needs – psychosocial development needs while transitioning from the social togetherness of dependency toward the individual efficacy of independency, illustrated by the wellness wheel, such as willpower assertions, increasing distance/solitude, and some returns from investments in one’s relationships. (Note: as used here, counterdependency is viewed as a natural and therefore healthy phase in one's growth, contrasted to the more pathological definition used elsewhere.)
D
defocal – move from experiencing a need as central to being more peripheral in one's need awareness cycle.
degeneralize – move from accepted generalizations to detailed specifics relative to need-experience; degeneralization.
dependency needs – psychosocial development need for social togetherness with other humans,illustrated by the wellness wheel, such as belongingness, peer approval, familial affection, social supports, and group identity.
E
external resources – means for relieving need-experience from within oneself; social needs, like belongingness, affection from significant others, group support; complementary to internal resources. See also interdependency needs and dependency needs.
F
focal – priority attention given to an experienced need in one’s need awareness cycle.
G
H
homeostasis paradigm – understanding need-experience as being rooted in fluctuating levels that call for something to restore each level to its normalized/optimized range; initial paradigm for indigentology.
I
impact blind - not aware of the impact one’s expressed beliefs and actions are having on others; for collective units like organizations and businesses, this presents an apparent lack of reliable metrics. See normative alienation. TRANSECONOMIC
independency needs – psychosocial development needs of individual efficacy, illustrated by the wellness wheel, such as autonomy, self-sufficiencies, and individual identity.
indigenous anakelogy – the study of need from a nature-based paradigm.
interdependency needs – psychosocial development needs while transitioning from individual efficacy of independency toward the social togetherness of dependency, illustrated by the wellness wheel, such as trusting others and exploring another’s trustworthiness, desiring to connect better with others, knowing one is secure with others, and negotiating boundaries with other’s needs.
internal resources – means for relieving need-experience from within oneself; ego needs, like autonomy, self-efficacy, self-determination; complementary to external resources. See also counterdependency needs and independency needs.
J
justifism - uncritical belief in the status quo of the judicial system; i.e., "justifying the justice system" as a necessary referent resource for one's basic need for security, prominent in one's referent hierarchy.
K
L
lateral critique – assessing available need-resources for need-relief from a competitive win-lose approach, often with a sense of urgent practicality; see vertical critique. TRANSPOLITICAL
M
matrix cognition – thinking processes that integrate relevant inputs with previous information toward a cogent belief system, which then informs nebulous cognition; awareness cycle.
modal cognition – heuristically thinking in categorical terms, starting with the binary heuristic is-or-is-not (is-or-is-not relevant; is-or-is-not urgent; is-or-is-not avoidable; is-or-is-not workable, etc.), then extending beyond simple binary oppositions to other recognizable categories in between and beyond; awareness cycle.
N
nature-based anakelogy – SAME as indigenous anakelogy.
need awareness cycle – cyclic process through varying levels of attention to a given need-experience: nonfocal to prefocal to focal to defocal then back to nonfocal.
need-communication - conveyance of some homeostatic level extending outside of its comfort zone, typically with regard to some referent-resource for restoring homesostatic balance; interchangeable with "emotion."
need-communication cycle - circular process from sensation of some need to feeling the result of one’s reaction/response to the need; the full emotion-cognition process of need-communication (NC). (See awareness cycle)
report-NC – initial sensation that something may require attention.
react-NC – immediate feeling for how to relieve perceived need.
response-NC – reflective emotion/cognition upon options for relief.
result-NC – feelings upon doing something or doing thing for relief.
need-experience - the full process of encountering one's homeostatic imbalance and any response to it.
need-relief - seeking easement of need-experience, with emphasis on easing discomfort; sometimes referred to a strain-relief.
need-resolve - seeking full abatement of need-experience, with emphasis on satisfying root homeostasis behind need.
need response orientation (NRO) – relation toward need-experience ranging from cisconventionality to transconventionality, with typically a different NRO for each specific need. AKA conventional orientation – an intersecting dynamic of NRO: seek prompt need-relief with little regard for later need-strain consequences or seek enduring need-relief for intentional consequence of enduring need-resolution (pay now or pay later, fleeting enjoyment or lasting peace).
nonfocal – phase in need awareness cycle where need-experience is dormant and outside of conscious attention.
normative alienation - the broadly accepted routine of not personally knowing one another, with social need-relief situations regulated largely by legal-rational authority; a sociological artifact of modern societies.
NOTA – acronym for “none of the above,” which is a useful shortcut for the transconventional response to options when contesting the given socioculturally privileged modalities.
O
P
pistiscentric - centered on beliefs, as emphasizing the process for easing need-relief, in contrast to teloscentric as the goal for need-resolve. (From the Greek word for faith and end respectively.)
political predisposition – the relative predictability of one’s political values expressed in their psychosocial orientation; i.e., political leanings, political values. TRANSPOLITICAL
power differential - formal or informal relationship in which one side receives advantages at the expense of the other side. See actor and respondor.
prefocal – shift in need awareness cycle from experiencing a need as peripheral to being more central.
privileged alienation – the sociocultural norm of not knowing one another personally in a social interaction, favoring need-relief for whichever is more influential. See normative alienation.
pseudo-affinity – lateral critique heuristic that attributes the likeable traits in one’s own binary camp and unrealistically absent in the opposing camp, distorting perceptions into reifying one’s in-group/out-group identification. One of two kinds of pseudo-identification.
pseudo-identification - inaccurate alignment with others, either ethnocentric as in pseudo-affinity or acrimoniously as in pseudo-opposition.
pseudo-opposition - lateral critique heuristic where binary opposite is attributed to being characteristic of its most disliked features, distorting perceptions to reify one’s in-group/out-group identification. One of two kinds of pseudo-identification.
psychosocial equilibrium – relative balance between accessibility to internal resources (ego needs) and to external resources (social needs). TRANSPOLITICAL [1]
psychosocial homeostasis - regulatory mechanism for maintaining availability of internal resources (ego needs) in relative equilibrium with availability of external resources (social needs).
psychosocial orientation – a normalization of need-experience where internal resources and external resources are normatively imbalanced, impacting one’s political leanings to sometimes resulting in a political predisposition. TRANSPOLITICAL
Q
R
referent hierarchy - the order of immediately available means for need-relief, with the first response primed for immediate available reaction, if necessary for self-preservation, and trailing off to less probable, less urgent, and remotely available responses.
referent-resource - an item utilized for restoring some homeostatic equilibrium; referent for short. E.g., "water" is the primary referent-resource for resolving one's homeostatic fluid and temperature levels.
respondor - the person or group disadvantaged in a power differential, circumstantially bound to respond within the terms set by the actor.
root need – homeostatic foundation of an experienced need ; e.g., bodily fluid imbalance or level of trust in one’s caretaker.
S
strain-relief - easing discomfort or desire from a felt need with emphasis on relieving immediate suffering instead of emphasis on attending to root need prompting the discomfort or desire.
T
teloscentric - centered on results (outcomes & impacts) for need-relief, in contrast to being centered on process (inputs & outputs), such as pistiscentric.
transconventional – transcending or transgressing conventional norms of one’s sociocultural environment as a preferred means for need-relief; transconventionality as a noun.
transspirit – one whose spiritual needs are more readily satisfied when transcending sociocultural norms, in contrast to a cisspirit. These are viewed as modalities along a continuum of possible relationships between one’s spirituality and one’s sociocultural context; transspiritual as an adjective.
trans-economical – transcending economic conventions or norms for need-relief or need-resolve. In contrast to cis-economic, which is conforming to sociocultural norms for economic conduct.
trans-ethnic – transcending ethnic or in-group identity conventions or norms for need-relief or need-resolve. In contrast to cis-ethnic, which is conforming to sociocultural norms for between and within group conduct.
trans-gender – transcending gender conventions or norms for need-relief or need-resolve. Not to be confused with the non-hyphenated word transgender, which is an identity. In contrast to cis-gender, which is conforming to sociocultural norms for gender categorized conduct.
trans-judicial – transcending justice conventions or norms for need-relief or need-resolve, such as transcending the limits in adversarial justice or in investigative justice. In contrast to cis-judicial, which is conforming to sociocultural norms for pursuing justice.
trans-political – transcending political conventions or norms for need-relief or need-resolve, specifically transcending political polarization of party affiliations. In contrast to cis-political, which is conforming to sociocultural norms for engaging politically.
trans-religious – transcending religious conventions or norms for need-relief or need-resolve. In contrast to cis-religious, which is conforming to sociocultural norms for religious belief and conduct.
U
V
vague awareness – initial sense that something requires attention; awareness cycle.
value expression – attending to need-experience through use of some referent-resource. TRANSECONOMIC
value expression continuum – range of value expression possibilities from value friction to value facilitation. TRANSECONOMIC
value frame – a communication format to emphasize the positive value parties in a relation have to each other.
value friction – impediments to redressing needs. TRANSECONOMIC
value resistance – opposition of some kind to redressing some need, typically from disagreement from how the need is being addressed. TRANSECONOMIC
vertical critique – assessing available need-resources for need-relief from a complementary win-win approach, often with a sense of serene idealism; see lateral critique. TRANSPOLITICAL
W
wellness needs – cycle of development needs: interdependency, dependency, counterdependency, and interdependency.
wellness wheel – cyclic diagram based upon a traditional Native American worldview, which illustrates the dynamic tensions in nature: two complementary sides with two movement phases, resulting in four quarters.
X
Y
Z
Applied anakelogy terms
anakelogy [n.] (ä'-nä-kĕ'-lŏ-jē): the study of need, specifically here the human experience of need.
anakelogical [adj.] (ä'-nä-kĕ-lŏ'-jĭ'-kâl): of, relating to, or characteristic of anakelogy; referring to the role of need in another subject.
anakelogist [n.] (ä'-nä-kĕ'-lŏ-jĭst): one who studies the role of need in observable phenomenon.
anakelogic [adj.] (ä'-nä-kĕ-lŏ'-jĭk): same as anakelogical.
anakelogically [adv.] (ä'-nä-kĕ-lŏ'-jĭ-kâ-lē'): referring to the role of need on some action. E.g., Politics is not all rationally deduced, but in fact produced anakelogically. The diversity in how we experience our needs generates the diversity in our politics.