Pain - The body's response to noxious stimuli that are intense enough to cause, or threaten to cause, tissue damage.

Panel - 1. In appellate cases, a group of judges (usually three) assigned to decide the case; 2. In the jury selection process, the group of potential jurors; 3. The list of attorneys who are both available and qualified to serve as court-appointed counsel for criminal defendants who cannot afford their own counsel.

Panic Attacks - Discrete periods of sudden onset of intense apprehension, fearfulness, or terror, often associated with feelings of impending doom. During these attacks there are symptoms such as shortness of breath or smothering sensations; palpitations, pounding heart, or accelerated heart rate; chest pain or discomfort; choking; and fear of going crazy or losing control.

Panic Disorder - An anxiety disorder in which sufferers experience unexpected, severe panic attacks that begin with a feeling of intense apprehension, fear, or terror.

Pantopon - Quite literally, opium in a syringe. This contains all of the alkaloids of opium in a purified form. It is no longer produced.

Papaverine - A non-euphoric alkaloid of opium which is widely used in the creation of semi-synthetic opiates.

Paperbound Supplement - A temporary supplement to a book or books to update the serve.

Paralegal - Also, legal assistant. A person with legal skills who works under the supervision of a lawyer.

Parallel Forms - Different versions of a test used to assess test reliability; the change of forms reduces effects of direct practice, memory, or the desire of an individual to appear consistent on the same items.

Parallel Processes - Two or more mental processes that are carried out simultaneously.

Parallel Processing - When various cortical fields and nuclei work together simultaneously, each on a small part of a big information-processing job.

Paranoid Ideation - Ideation, of less than delusional proportions, involving suspiciousness or the belief that one is being harassed, persecuted, or unfairly treated.

Paranoid Schizophrenia - A severe form of mental illness typically characterized by delusions of persecution and hallucinations. This condition may be induced by binge use of stimulants.

Parasomnia - Abnormal behavior or physiological events occurring during sleep or sleep-wake transitions.

Parasympathetic Division - The subdivision of the autonomic nervous system that monitors the routine operation of the body's internal functions and conserves and restores body energy.

Pardon - An act of grace from governing power which mitigates punishment and restores rights and privileges forfeited on account of the offense.

Paregoric - An opium tincture with a high alcohol content.

Parent Locator Service - A computerized location network operated by the Federal Office of Child Support (FPLS).

Parental Investment - The time and energy parents must spend raising their offspring.

Parenteral - Injection in any of its many forms.

Parenting Practices - Specific parenting behaviors that arise in response to particular parental goals.

Parenting Styles - The manner in which parents rear their children; an authoritative parenting style, which balances demandingness and responsiveness, is seen as the most effective.

Parenting Time Rights - The right to have frequent and continuing contact with a child that may be granted to the nonresidential parent by a court pursuant to a divorce, dissolution, legal separation, or annulment proceeding in which a shared parenting decree has not been issued.

Parietal Lobe - Region of the brain behind the frontal lobe and above the lateral fissure; contains somatosensory cortex.

Parietal Lobe Signs - Parietal lobe signs include various agnosias, dyspraxias, body image disturbance, and hemipareses or hemiplegias.

Parkinson's Disease - A disease in which dopamine-containing neurons die. It produces severe impairments in movement, cognitive function, and emotions.

Parol Evidence - Oral or verbal evidence; evidence given by word of mouth in court.

Parole - Supervised release of a prisoner from imprisonment on certain prescribed conditions which entitle him to termination of his sentence.

Partial Reinforcement Effect - The behavioral principle that states that responses acquired under intermittent reinforcement are more difficult to extinguish than those acquired with continuous reinforcement.

Participant Modeling - A therapeutic technique in which a therapist demonstrates the desired behavior and a client is aided, through supportive encouragement, to imitate the modeled behavior.

Party - A person, business, or government agency actively involved in the prosecution of defense of a legal proceeding.

Party in Interest - A party who has standing to be heard by the court in a matter to be decided in the bankruptcy case. The debtor, U.S. trustee or bankruptcy administrator, case trustee, and creditors are parties in interest for most matters.

Passivity Phenomena - In these phenomena the individual feels that some aspect of themselves is under the external control of another or others. These may therefore include 'made acts and impulses' where the individual feels they are being made to do something by another, 'made movements' where their arms or legs feel as if they are moving under another's control, 'made emotions' where they are experiencing someone else's emotions, and 'made thoughts' which are categorised elsewhere as thought insertion and withdrawal.

Pastoral Counselor - A member of a religious order who specializes in the treatment of psychological disorders, often combining spirituality with practical problem solving.

Patch - Transdermal System

Patent - A grant to an inventor of the right to exclude others for a limited time from make, using, or selling his invention in the United States.

Patent and Trademark Office - The federal agency which examines and issues patents and registers trademarks.

Paternity - The process by which the father of a child is definitively and legally identified. Legal fatherhood

Paternity Affidavit - A document used by both parents to establish paternity at their local hospital, local registrar or the CSEA. This is filed with the central paternity registry.

Paternity Establishment - A legal determination of a child's biological father

Patient - The term used by those who take a biomedical approach to the treatment of psychological problems to describe the person being treated.

Payment Standard - The maximum amount of cash assistance that an assistance group may receive under Ohio Works First (O.A.C. 5101:1-23-20(I))

Payor - Any individual or entity making payments or distributing income to a person.

PCP - (Phencyclidine) PCP has an array of effects. Originally developed as an anesthetic, it may act as an hallucinogen, stimulant, or sedative.

PCPA - (Private Child Placing Agency) An association that is certified to accept temporary, permanent, or legal custody of children and place the children for either foster care or adoption.

PCSA - (Public Children Services Agency) - A county children services board, a county department of job and family services, or any private or government entity chosen by a board of county commissioners that assumes the powers and duties of the children services function for a county.

Peace Psychology - An interdisciplinary approach to the prevention of nuclear war and the maintenance of peace.

Pentazocine - A mild narcotic antagonist which is also an analgesic.

Peptides - Small protein-like compounds made of amino acid building blocks.

Per Curiam - Latin, meaning "for the court." In appellate courts, often refers to an unsigned opinion.

Per Se Doctrine - Under this doctrine an activity such as price fixing can be declared as a violation of the antitrust laws without necessity of a court inquiring into the reasonableness of the activity.

Perceived Control - The belief that one has the ability to make a difference in the course or the consequences of some event or experience; often helpful in dealing with stressors.

Perception - The conscious awareness of sensory inputs, internal states, or memories.

Perceptual Constancy - The ability to retain an unchanging percept of an object despite variations in the retinal image.

Perceptual Organization - The processes that put sensory information together to give the perception of a coherent scene over the whole visual field.

Percocet - Oxycodone mixed with Acetaminophen.

Percodan - Oxycodone mixed with Aspirin.

Peremptory Challenge - Request by a party that a judge not allow a certain prospective juror as a member of the jury. No reason or cause need be stated.

Periaqueductal Gray Matter - A set of nuclei deep within the brain stem that are involved with visceral functions. It also plays a role in the development of physical dependence on opiates.

Periodical - A publication which appears regularly but less often than daily.

Peripheral Nervous System - (PNS) The part of the nervous system composed of the spinal and cranial nerves that connect the body's sensory receptors to the CNS and the CNS to the muscles and glands.

Perjury - The criminal offense of making a false statement under oath.

Permanency Hearing - A hearing to approve a permanency plan for a child who has been removed from home due to abuse, neglect, or dependence and to consider changes to the child's case plan and placement or custody arrangement.

Permanency Plan - A plan for the care of a child who has been removed from home due to abuse, neglect, or dependence that is developed by a public children services agency or private child placing agency and, if applicable, specifies when a child will be returned home or placed for adoption or legal custody.

Permanent Custody - A legal status that vests in a public children services agency or a private child placing agency all parental rights, duties, and obligations, including the right to consent to adoption, and divests the natural or adoptive parents of all parental rights, privileges, and obligations, including all residual rights and obligations.

Permanent Injunction - A court order requiring that some action be taken, or that some party refrain from taking action. It differs from forms of temporary relief, such as a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction.

Persecutory Delusion - A delusion in which the central theme is that one (or someone to whom one is close) is being attacked, harassed, cheated, persecuted, or conspired against.

Perseveration - Tendency to emit the same verbal or motor response again and again to varied stimuli.

Person in Need of Supervision - Juvenile found to have committed a "status offense" rather than a crime that would provide a basis for a finding of delinquency.

Person Living as a Spouse - As used in domestic violence-related laws, a person who is living or has lived with a person accused of domestic violence in a common law marital relationship, who otherwise is cohabiting with a person accused of domestic violence, or who otherwise has cohabited with a person accused of domestic violence within five years prior to the date of the alleged occurrence of domestic violence in question.

Personal Property - Anything a person owns other than real estate.

Personal Recognizance - In criminal proceedings, the pretrial release of a defendant without bail upon his or her promise to return to court.

Personal Representative - The person who administers an estate. If named in a will, that person's title is an executor. If there is no valid will, that person's title is an administrator.

Personality - Enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself.

Personality Disorder - A chronic, inflexible, maladaptive pattern of perceiving, thinking, and behaving that seriously impairs an individual's ability to function in social or other settings.

Personality Inventory - A self-report questionnaire used for personality assessment that includes a series of items about personal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Personality Types - Distinct patterns of personality characteristics used to assign people to categories; qualitative differences, rather than differences in degree, used to discriminate among people.

Persuasion - Deliberate efforts to change attitudes.

PET Scanner - The machine that detects the radioactive chemicals used to measure brain functions.

PET Scans - Brain images produced by a device that obtains detailed pictures of activity in the living brain by recording the radioactivity emitted by cells during different cognitive or behavioral activities.

Petit Jury - The ordinary jury of twelve (or fewer) persons for the trial of a civil or criminal case. So called to distinguish it from the grand jury.

Petition - Written application to the court asking the court to take action on a specific matter

Petition Preparer - A business not authorized to practice law that prepares bankruptcy petitions.

Petitioner - The person filing an action in a court of original jurisdiction. Also, the person who appeals the judgment of a lower court.

Petty Offense - A federal misdemeanor punishable by six months or less in prison.

Phallic Stage -  The period, from about 21/2 to 6 years, during which sexual interest, curiosity, and pleasurable experience in boys center on the penis, and in girls, to a lesser extent, the clitoris.

Phantom Limb Phenomenon - As experienced by amputees, extreme or chronic pain in a limb that is no longer there.

Pharmacodynamics - The study of the mechanisms of actions of a drug, the relationship between how much drug is in the body and its effects.

Pharmacokinetics - The study of how the body absorbs drugs, how they are distributed throughout the body, and how the body gets rid of drugs.

Phenergan - An injectable drug for the treatment of many things, including nausea and vomiting.

Phenotype - The observable characteristics of an organism, resulting from the interaction between the organism's genotype and its environment.

Pheromones - Chemical signals released by organisms to communicate with other members of the species; often serve as long-distance sexual attractors.

Phi Phenomenon - The simplest form of apparent motion, the movement illusion in which one or more stationary lights going on and off in succession are perceived as a single moving light.

Phobia - A persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that is excessive and unreasonable, given the reality of the threat.

Phonemes - Minimal units of speech in any given language that make a meaningful difference in speech production and reception; r and l are two distinct phonemes in English but variations of one in Japanese.

Photoreceptors - Receptor cells in the retina that are sensitive to light.

Physical Dependence - Changes that the brain and body undergo as they adapt to the continued presence of high doses of drugs. Because of these changes, the brain and body eventually come to require the presence of the drug to work properly.

Physical Development - The bodily changes, maturation, and growth that occur in an organism starting with conception and continuing across the life span.

Physiological Dependence - The process by which the body becomes adjusted to and dependent on a drug.

Piblokto  - A culture specific syndrome of Eskimos involving attacks of screaming, crying, and running naked through the snow

Pitch - Sound quality of highness or lowness; primarily dependent on the frequency of the sound wave.

Pituitary Gland - Located in the brain, the gland that secretes growth hormone and influences the secretion of hormones by other endocrine glands.

Place Theory - The theory that different frequency tones produce maximum activation at different locations along the basilar membrane, with the result that pitch can be coded by the place at which activation occurs.

Placebo - An inactive Substance.

Placebo Control - An experimental condition in which treatment is not administered; it is used in cases where a placebo effect might occur.

Placebo Effect - A change in behavior in the absence of an experimental manipulation.

Placebo Therapy - A therapy independent of any specific clinical procedures that results in client improvement.

Plaintiff - A person or business that files a formal complaint with the court.

Plan - A debtor's detailed description of how the debtor proposes to pay creditors' claims over a fixed period of time.

Plan of Cooperation - a plan to enhance the administration of family services duties and workforce development activities that is agreed to by a board of county commissioners, county department of job and family services, child support enforcement agency, public children services agency, and workforce development agency.

Planned Permanent Living Arrangement - an order of a juvenile court pursuant to which the court gives legal custody of a child to a public children services agency or a private child placing agency without the termination of parental rights and that permits the agency to make an appropriate placement of the child and to enter into a written agreement with a foster care provider or with another person or agency with whom the child is placed.

Plasticity - The capacity of the brain to change its structure and function within certain limits. Plasticity underlies brain functions such as learning and allows the brain to generate normal, healthy responses to long-lasting environmental changes.

Plea - In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges.

Plea Bargaining - Process where the accused and the prosecutor in a criminal case work out a satisfactory disposition of the case, usually by the accused agreeing to plead guilty to a lesser offense. Such bargains are not binding on the court. Also referred to as plea negotiating.

Pleadings - Written statements filed with the court that describe a party's legal or factual assertions about the case.

Pocket Parts - Supplements to law books in pamphlet form which are inserted in a pocket inside the back cover of the books to keep them current.

Policy Advocacy - Conscious efforts to change and/or develop legislative, agency, and community  policies for the purpose of improving powerless and oppressed groups’ access to resources and opportunities, in an effort to improve their quality of life and well-being.

Policy Analysis - The systematic examination of policy and its development, using specific evaluation criteria to assess its impact on the social problem it seeks to address, uncover inconsistencies among its parts, identify its effect on other areas of social concern, and make an informed judgment as to its effectiveness and appropriateness.

Policy Practice - Direct involvement in organizational, legislative, agency, and community setting policy, through the establishment of new policies, the improvement of existing ones, or the defeating of policy initiatives of other people.

Policy Skills - The analytic skills, political skills, interactional skills, and value-clarifying skills needed to effectively set policy agendas, analyze problems, make proposals, and enact, implement, and assess policy.

Polling the Jury - The act, after a jury verdict has been announced, of asking jurors individually whether they agree with the verdict.

Pons - The region of the brain stem that connects the spinal cord with the brain and links parts of the brain to one another.

Population - The entire set of individuals to which generalizations will be made based on an experimental sample.

Positive Punishment - A behavior is followed by the presentation of an aversive stimulus, decreasing the probability of that behavior.

Positive Reinforcement - Something that increases the likelihood that the behavior that elicited it will be repeated. Positive reinforcement is rewarding, and we typically perceive it as pleasure.

Positron Emission Tomography - (PET) A technique for measuring brain function in living human subjects by detecting the location and concentration of tiny amounts of radioactive chemicals.

Possible Selves - The ideal selves that a person would like to become, the selves a person could become, and the selves a person is afraid of becoming; components of the cognitive sense of self.

Postal Verification - Confirmation by the post office in determining the current address of an obligor.

Postpetition Transfer - A transfer of the debtor's property made after the commencement of the case.

Postsynaptic Neuron - A neuron that receives messages from neurons on the other sides of its synapses.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - (PTSD) An anxiety disorder characterized by the persistent reexperience of traumatic events through distressing recollections, dreams, hallucinations, or dissociative flashbacks; develops in response to rapes, life-threatening events, severe injuries, and natural disasters.

Post-Trial - Refers to items happening after the trial, i.e., post-trial motions or post-trial discovery.

Pour-Over Will - A will that leaves some or all estate assets to a trust established before the will-maker's death.

Power - Authority to do. One has the power to do something if he is of legal age. Also, used as "powers," the term refers to authority granted by one person to another, i.e., powers given an executor in a will or an agent in a power of attorney.

Power of Attorney - A legal document authorizing another to act on you behalf

PPI Limited Certification - Certification that an inspection of a home in which publicly funded child care is provided has been completed by the parent and the provideR.

Practice Evaluation - This involves assessing interventions and outcomes used by social work practitioners. Interventions refer to the helping strategies or activities we use to assist clients. Outcomes refer to the changes in behaviors or attitudes that are a result of the intervention. Practice evaluation involves the clients as partners with workers and uses targets of desired change to direct the interventions.

Practice Wisdom - A type of knowledge that exceeds objective scientific investigation. To have practice wisdom is to have knowledge of the information, assumptions, ideologies, judgments, values, and morals of the social work profession that have practical use in one’s job responsibilities.

Practitioner-Researcher Model - An approach involving the use of, and/or generating of empirical knowledge by the practitioner on, or with clients, to render more effective practice decisions and interventions.

PRC - (Prevention, Retention, and Contingency) A program for families with children and pregnant women that provides assistance or services to overcome immediate barriers to achieving or maintaining self-sufficiency.

Preattentive Processing - Processing of sensory information that precedes attention to specific objects.

Precedent - Laws established by previous cases which must be followed in cases involving identical circumstances.

Preconscious - Thoughts that are not in immediate awareness but that can be recalled by conscious effort.

Preconscious Memories - Memories that are not currently conscious but that can easily be called into consciousness when necessary.

Predictive Validity - See criterion validity.

Preferential Debt Payment - A debt payment made to a creditor in the 90-day period before a debtor files bankruptcy (or within one year if the creditor was an insider) that gives the creditor more than the creditor would receive in the debtor's chapter 7 case.

Prefinalization Assessment - An evaluation of a prospective adoptive parent and child that must be filed with the court before an adoption is finalized; is not required in stepparent adoptions.

Prefrontal Cortex - The part of the cerebral cortex at the very front of the brain. It is involved with higher cognitive and emotional functions including short-term memory, learning, and setting priorities for future actions.

Prefrontal Lobotomy - An operation that severs the nerve fibers connecting the frontal lobes of the brain with the diencephalon, especially those fibers of the thalamic and hypothalamic areas; best-known form of psychosurgery.

Pregenital  - In psychoanalysis, refers to the period of early childhood before the genitals have begun to exert the predominant influence in the organization or patterning of sexual behavior. Oral and anal influences predominate during this period.

Preinjunction - Court order requiring action or forbidding action until a decision can be made whether to issue a permanent injunction. It differs from a temporary restraining order.

Prejudice - A learned attitude toward a target object, involving negative affect (dislike or fear), negative beliefs (stereotypes) that justify the attitude, and a behavioral intention to avoid, control, dominate, or eliminate the target object.

Preliminary Hearing - Also, preliminary examination. A hearing by a judge to determine whether a person charged with a crime should be held for trial.

Preponderance of Proof - Greater weight of the evidence, the common standard of evidence in civil cases.

Pre-Sentence Report - A report to the sentencing judge containing background information about the crime and the defendant to assist the judge in making his or her sentencing decision.

Presentment - Declaration or document issued by a grand jury that either makes a neutral report or notes misdeeds by officials charged with specified public duties. It ordinarily does not include a formal charge of crime. A presentment differs from an indictment.

Pressured Speech - Speech that is increased in amount, accelerated, and difficult or impossible to interrupt. Usually it is also loud and emphatic. Frequently the person talks without any social stimulation and may continue to talk even though no one is listening.

Presumption of Law - A rule of law that courts and judges shall draw a particular inference from a particular fact, or from particular evidence.

Presynaptic Neuron - A neuron that releases neurotransmitters into synapses to send messages to other neurons.

Pretermitted Child - A child born after a will is executed, who is not provided for by the will. Most states have laws that provide for a share of estate property to go to such children.

Pretrial Conference - A meeting of the judge and lawyers to plan the trial, to discuss which matters should be presented to the jury, to review proposed evidence and witnesses, and to set a trial schedule. Typically, the judge and the parties also discuss the possibility of settlement of the case.

Pretrial Conference - Conference among the opposing attorneys and the judge called at the discretion of the court to narrow the issues to be tried and to make a final effort to settle the case without a trial.

Pretrial Services - A function of the federal courts that takes place at the very start of the criminal justice process – after a person has been arrested and charged with a federal crime and before he or she goes to trial. Pretrial services officers focus on investigating the backgrounds of these persons to help the court determine whether to release or detain them while they await trial.

Prevalence - Frequency of a disorder, used particularly in epidemiology to denote the total number of cases existing within a unit of population at a given time or over a specified period.

Prevention - Stopping drug use before it starts, intervening to halt the progression of drug use once it has begun, changing environmental conditions that encourage addictive drug use.

Prima Facie Case - A case that is sufficient and has the minimum amount of evidence necessary to allow it to continue in the judicial process.

Primacy Effect - Improved memory for items at the start of a list.

Primary Authority - Constitutions, codes, statutes, ordinances, and case law sources.

Primary Gain - The relief from emotional conflict and the freedom from anxiety achieved by a defense mechanism. Contrast with secondary gain.

Primary Process - In psychoanalytic theory, the generally unorganized mental activity characteristic of the unconscious. This activity is marked by the free discharge of energy and excitation without regard to the demands of environment, reality, or logic.

Primary Reinforcers - Stimuli, such as food and water, which produce reward directly, with no learning about their significance or other intervening steps required. Most drugs of abuse are primary reinforcers.

Priming - In the assessment of implicit memory, the advantage conferred by prior exposure to a word or situation.

Priority - The Bankruptcy Code's statutory ranking of unsecured claims that determines the order in which unsecured claims will be paid if there is not enough money to pay all unsecured claims in full.

Priority Claim - An unsecured claim that is entitled to be paid ahead of other unsecured claims that are not entitled to priority status. Priority refers to the order in which these unsecured claims are to be paid.

Private Law - That law, such as a contract between two persons or a real estate transaction, which applies only to the persons who subject themselves to it.

Privilege - A benefit or advantage to certain persons beyond the advantages of other persons, i.e., an exemption, immunity, power, etc.

Pro Se - Representing oneself. Serving as one's own lawyer.

Pro Tem - Temporary.

Probable Cause - A reasonable belief that a crime has or is being committed; the basis for all lawful searches, seizures, and arrests.

Probate - The legal process where the court oversees the distribution of property under a will

Probate Court - The court with authority to supervise estate administration.

Probate Estate - Estate property that may be disposed of by a will.

Probation - An alternative to imprisonment allowing a person found guilty of an offense to stay in the community, usually under conditions and under the supervision of a probation officer. A violation of probation can lead to its revocation and to imprisonment.

Probation Officer - Officers of the probation office of a court. Probation officer duties include conducting presentence investigations, preparing presentence reports on convicted defendants, and supervising released defendants.

Problem Solving - Thinking that is directed toward solving specific problems and that moves from an initial state to a goal state by means of a set of mental operations.

Problem Space - The elements that make up a problem: the initial state, the incomplete information or unsatisfactory conditions the person starts with; the goal state, the set of information or state the person wishes to achieve; and the set of operations, the steps the person takes to move from the initial state to the goal state.

Procedural Memory - Memory for how things get done; the way perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills are acquired, retained, and used.

Procedure - The rules for conducting a lawsuit; there are rules of civil procedure, criminal procedure, evidence, bankruptcy, and appellate procedure.

Proceedings - The process of a lawsuit

Processing Charge - The administrative fee that is required to be paid with each current support payment or payment of arrearage; is the greater of 2% of the support payment or one dollar per month.

Prodrome  - An early or premonitory sign or symptom of a disorder

Product Liability - Legal responsibility of manufacturers and sellers to buyers, users, and bystanders for damages or injuries suffered because of defects in goods.

Program Evaluation - Using research and evaluation methods to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and pragmatism of a health or human service, to ensure that goals and objectives are being met, and that targeted problems are being addressed.

Projection - A defense mechanism, operating unconsciously, in which what is emotionally unacceptable in the self is unconsciously rejected and attributed (projected) to others.

Projection Neurons - Neurons (usually excitatory) that send their axons away from the local vicinity to communicate with other parts of the brain.

Projective Identification - A term introduced by Melanie Klein to refer to the unconscious process of projection of one or more parts of the self or of the internal object into another person (such as the mother). What is projected may be an intolerable, painful, or dangerous part of the self or object (the bad object). It may also be a valued aspect of the self or object (the good object) that is projected into the other person for safekeeping. The other person is changed by the projection and is dealt with as though he or she is in fact characterized by the aspects of the self that have been projected.

Projective Test - A method of personality assessment in which an individual is presented with a standardized set of ambiguous, abstract stimuli and asked to interpret their meanings; the individual's responses are assumed to reveal inner feelings, motives, and conflicts.

Promisee - An individual to whom a promise is made.

Promisor - An individual who makes a promise.

Promissory Estoppel - A promise which estops the promisee from asserting or taking certain action.

Promissory Note - A written document under which a person promises to pay another money on a given date and pursuant to specified terms set out in the promissory note (also known as a “PN”)

Proof of Claim - A written statement describing the reason a debtor owes a creditor money, which typically sets forth the amount of money owed. (There is an official form for this purpose.) - Pro per - A slang expression sometimes used to refer to a pro se litigant. It is a corruption of the Latin phrase "in propria persona." - Property of the estate - All legal or equitable interests of the debtor in property as of the commencement of the case.

Property Tax - A tax levied on land and buildings (real estate) and on personal property.

Propoxyphene - A weak synthetic opiate (~1/10 as strong as morphine) which is the primary ingredient of Darvon.

Proprietor - Owner; person who has legal right or title to anything.

Prosecute - To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.

Prosecutor - A trial lawyer representing the government in a criminal case and the interests of the state in civil matters. In criminal cases, the prosecutor has the responsibility of deciding who and when to prosecute.

Prosocial Behaviors - Behaviors that are carried out with the goal of helping other people.

Prosopagnosia - Inability to recognize familiar faces that is not explained by defective visual acuity or reduced consciousness or alertness.

Protective Child Care - publicly funded child care for the direct care and protection of a child to whom either of the following applies: (1) a case plan prepared and maintained for the child indicates a need for protective care and the child resides with a parent, stepparent, guardian, or other person who stands in loco parentis, or (2) the child and the child's caretaker are homeless and are otherwise ineligible for publicly funded child care.

Protective Supervision - an order of disposition pursuant to which the court permits an abused, neglected, dependent, or unruly child to remain in the custody of the child's parents, guardian, or custodian and stay in the child's home, subject to any conditions and limitations on the child, the child's parents, guardian, or custodian, or any other person that the court prescribes, including supervision as directed by the court for the protection of the child.

Proteins - Large molecules made up of amino acid building blocks.

Prototype - The most representative example of a category.

Proximal Stimulus - The optical image on the retina; contrasted with the distal stimulus, the physical object in the world.

Proximate Cause - The last negligent act which contributes to an injury. A person generally is liable only if an injury was proximately caused by his or her action or by his or her failure to act when he or she had a duty to act.

Proxy - The instrument authorizing one person to represent, act, and vote for another at a shareholders' meeting of a corporation.

PRWORA - (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996) The welfare reform bill contains revisions of the federal child support statue and restructures the administration of child support into centralized collections and disbursement and nationwide registries.

Pseudocyesis - Included in DSM-IV as one of the somatoform disorders. It is characterized by a false belief of being pregnant and by the occurrence of signs of being pregnant, such as abdominal enlargement, breast engorgement, and labor pains.

Pseudodementia - A syndrome in which dementia is mimicked or caricatured by a functional psychiatric illness. Symptoms and response of mental status examination questions are similar to those found in verified cases of dementia. In pseudodementia, the chief diagnosis to be considered in the differential is depression in an older person vs. cognitive deterioration on the basis of organic brain disease.

Psilocybin - A natural hallucinogenic drug derived from a mushroom. It acts on the serotonin receptor.

Psychedelic Drug - Drugs that distort perception, thought, and feeling. This term is typically used to refer to drugs with actions like those of LSD.

Psychiatrist - An individual who has obtained an M.D. degree and also has completed postdoctoral specialty training in mental and emotional disorders; a psychiatrist may prescribe medications for the treatment of psychological disorders.

Psychic Determinism - The assumption that mental and behavioral reactions are determined by previous experiences.

Psychoactive Drug - A drug that changes the way the brain works.

Psychoanalysis - The form of psychodynamic therapy developed by Freud; an intensive and prolonged technique for exploring unconscious motivations and conflicts in neurotic, anxiety-ridden individuals.

Psychoanalyst - An individual who has earned either a Ph.D. or an M.D. degree and has completed postgraduate training in the Freudian approach to understanding and treating mental disorders.

Psychobiography - The use of psychological (especially personality) theory to describe and explain an individual's course through life.

Psychodynamic Personality Theories - Theories of personality that share the assumption that personality is shaped by, and that behavior is motivated by, powerful inner forces.

Psychodynamic Perspective - A psychological model in which behavior is explained in terms of past experiences and motivational forces; actions are viewed as stemming from inherited instincts, biological drives, and attempts to resolve conflicts between personal needs and social requirements.

Psychological Assessment - The use of specified procedures to evaluate the abilities, behaviors, and personal qualities of people.

Psychological Dependence - When drugs become so central to a user's life that the user believes he must use them.

Psychological Diagnosis - The label given to psychological abnormality by classifying and categorizing the observed behavior pattern into an approved diagnostic system.

Psychologist - An individual with a doctoral degree in psychology from an organized, sequential program in a regionally accredited university or professional school.

Psychology - The scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental processes.

Psychometric Function - A graph that plots the percentage of detections of a stimulus (on the vertical axis) for each stimulus intensity (on the horizontal axis).

Psychometrics - The field of psychology that specializes in mental testing.

Psychomotor Agitation - Excessive motor activity associated with a feeling of inner tension. When severe, agitation may involve shouting and loud complaining. The activity is usually nonproductive and repetitious, and consists of such behavior as pacing, wringing of hands, and inability to sit still.

Psychomotor Retardation - Visible generalized slowing of movements and speech.

Psychoneuroimmunology - The research area that investigates interactions between psychological processes, such as responses to stress, and the functions of the immune system.

Psychopathological Functioning - Disruptions in emotional, behavioral, or thought processes that lead to personal distress or block one's ability to achieve important goals.

Psychopharmacology - The branch of psychology that investigates the effects of drugs on behavior.

Psychophysics - The study of the correspondence between physical stimulation and psychological experience.

Psychosexual Development - A series of stages from infancy to adulthood, relatively fixed in time, determined by the interaction between a person's biological drives and the environment. With resolution of this interaction, a balanced, reality-oriented development takes place; with disturbance, fixation and conflict ensue. This disturbance may remain latent or give rise to characterological or behavioral disorders.

Psychosis - Severe mental illnesses characterized by loss of contact with reality. Schizophrenia and severe depression are psychoses.

Psychosocial Stages - Proposed by Erik Erikson, successive developmental stages that focus on an individual's orientation toward the self and others; these stages incorporate both the sexual and social aspects of a person's development and the social conflicts that arise from the interaction between the individual and the social environment.

Psychosocial Therapy - Therapy designed to help addicts by using a combination of individual psychotherapy and group (social) therapy approaches to rehabilitate or provide the interpersonal and intrapersonal skills needed to live without drugs.

Psychosomatic Disorders - Physical disorders aggravated by or primarily attributable to prolonged emotional stress or other psychological causes.

Psychosurgery - A surgical procedure performed on brain tissue to alleviate a psychological disorder.

Psychotherapy - Any of a group of therapies, used to treat psychological disorders, that focus on changing faulty behaviors, thoughts, perceptions, and emotions that may be associated with specific disorders.

Psychotic - The narrowest definition of psychotic is restricted to delusions or prominent hallucinations, with the hallucinations occurring in the absence of insight into their pathological nature. A slightly less restrictive definition would also include prominent hallucinations that the individual realizes are hallucinatory experiences.

Psychotic Disorders - Severe mental disorders in which a person experiences impairments in reality testing manifested through thought, emotional, or perceptual difficulties; no longer used as a diagnostic category after DSM-III.

Psychotropic Medication - Medication that affects thought processes or feeling states.

Puberty - The attainment of sexual maturity; indicated for girls by menarche and for boys by the production of live sperm and the ability to ejaculate.

Public Assistance - Known as TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, formerly known as ADC, Aid for Dependant Children. Public assistance payments for children deprived of the financial support of one or both parents due to death, disability, or continued absence from the home.

Public Defender - Government lawyer who provides free legal defense services to a poor person accused of a crime.

Public Law - That law such as traffic ordinances or zoning ordinances which applies to the public.

Public Service Commission - Also, Public Utilities Commission. A state agency which regulates utilities.

Pull-Back - Pulling the syringe plunger back so that the syringe will fill with blood if the needle is inside of a vein.

Punisher - Any stimulus that, when made contingent upon a response, decreases the probability of that response.

Punitive Damages - Money award given to punish the defendant or wrongdoer.

Purchase Agreement or Purchase Offer - Also, sales agreement and earnest money contract. Agreement between buyer and seller of property which sets forth in general the price and terms of a proposed sale.

Pusher - A drug dealer. This is a misnomer based on the idea that dealers get users started.

Putative - Alleged; supposed; reputed.

Putative Father - A person who has been named as the father of a child born out of wedlock but for who paternity has not been established.

Putative Father Registry - The database of names and addresses or telephone numbers of putative fathers that is established and maintained by the Department of Job and Family Services.