conceptual framework (or conceptual map) -- An idealized way of making sense out of a complicated world which begins in early childhood with recognizing similarities and differences between objects and building concepts. The process continues with fitting certain concepts that belong together into conceptual schemes for understanding, then fitting many conceptual schemes together to make a conceptual framework one that gets constantly torn down, rebuilt, and refined over many years -- a whole lifetime for some!

emotional intelligence--a term first described by Mayer and Salovey in 1990, and popularized by Daniel Goleman in a 1995 book. Of interest to both psychological researchers, and the general public, its meaning is still evolving. According to Mayer, etal in a 2008 Annual Review of Psychology article, emotional intelligence "concerns the ability to carry out accurate reasoning about emotions and the ability to use emotions and emotional knowledge to enhance thought."  Goleman's latest conception of emotional intelligence sees four abilities as contributing to it: the ability to 1) be aware of one's own emotions, 2) control those emotions, 3) sense, comprehend, and respond to other's emotions, and 4) help other's emotions develop in the context of a relationship.  Some feel that EQ (emotional intelligence quotient) is as important as IQ in predicting a student's future success.  The last decade has seen many schools mount efforts to help students build emotional intelligence.                                                                                           

emotions --another one of those difficult to define terms. Here are three definitions: 1) a catch all term for subjectively experienced states dominated by feelings; 2) the affective or feeling aspect of human consciousness; 3) ancient survival mechanisms to protect us from danger that have evolved to also include (as Steven Pinker puts it) " mechanisms that set the brain’s highest level goals." 

laughter and worldviews--laughter results when we find pleasure or amusement in something, or reason to scorn / deride it.  Many have probed deeper into its origin.  Freud viewed laughter as a release of psychic energy that had been mistakenly bound up by false expectations. There is general agreement that laughter can result when some incongruity or incompatibility--a gap between our expectations and the reality we actually encounter-- suddenly becomes evident. Why?  Discovering this gap suggests our worldview is lacking--a potentially disturbing realization that can make us feel that we don't understand the terrain and aren't in control like we thought.  Our mental state has been perturbed, and in the worst case physically we may be in danger as well!   Assuming the latter isn't the case, sometimes we can do something: make mental adjustments to restore our mental state to a more tranquil one.  But other times our discovery is overwhelming: no mental adjustments are possible. Rather than accept the pain, we laugh!  

mind / body problem -- this is summarized by the question, “How do our thoughts, beliefs, desires and other intangibles in our mind interact with our bodies and trigger the actions and behaviors that are so real and tangible -- and in total effect have so dramatically reshaped the natural world? Theories of the mind have evolved from being built around “soul” to “substance” and “behavior” -- leading to the late 20th century emphasis on interpreting the mind according to what it does, not what it is. But now, at the beginning of the 21st century, based on new understanding of how the brain works and theoretical insights spurred by efforts to create artificial intelligence, the most popular theory -- the computational theory of the mind -- goes beyond behaviorism in asserting, “The mind is what the brain does”.

mirror neuron--a neuron which turns on (fires) both when you initiate a particular action and when you observe another individual performing the same action.  Thus their sympathetic firing "mirrors" the action of another.  According to some neuroscientists, the roots of empathy can be traced to neural networks in the brain with such mirror properties.

model–a human construction created to represent a pattern of relationships in data or in the human or natural world.  Models can take various forms: mathematical, computer based, mechanistic, etc.    

nature vs. nurture -- refers to the ongoing debate over the extent to which human behavior is largely innate / preprogrammed by our genetic heritage or is chiefly shaped by the environment in which we are raised, what we learn from it and from those who care for and teach us as we grow. Experimental support emphasizing the importance of heredity comes from studies of identical twins (sharing the same genes) raised apart, whereas ongoing studies of the brain -- in particular findings that show how the brain can “rewire” itself in response to environmental pressures (including head injury) -- illustrate that despite the complex, innate structure of the mind, the learning environment fundamentally shapes human behavior.

neuron–the specialized conducting cells of the brain, nerves and spinal cord–they consist of a cell body, dendrites, and an axon.

predictive processing—this refers to a theory of how brains function based on their continual updating of a mental model of the environment ultimately internalized in connections between multitudes of neurons. This model generates predictions of what should be perceived by human (or animal) senses, those predictions are compared to what actually is received, and information based on differences uncovered in this comparison is used to update / improve the model and guide subsequent behavior like activation of the motor system, etc.