Psychology A-Level

Psychology A-Level glossary

776 key terms for Psychology A-Level, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.

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A

ABC model: An Activating event meets a Belief and the Consequence follows from the belief rather than the event.AQA
Absence of gating: A defining feature of computer-mediated communication in which gates such as physical attractiveness or social anxiety, which can hinder relationship…AQA
Absenteeism and productivity: Absence caused by mental illness costs employers billions a year, and therapy that shortens episodes of depression returns people to work sooner and reduces…AQA
absorption addiction: A model saying such relationships fill a deficient sense of self, where absorption is preoccupation with the figure and addiction is needing stronger doses to…AQA
Abstract: A short summary of the aim, hypothesis, method, results and conclusion, read first to decide whether the paper is worth reading at all.AQA
accent stereotypes: Judgements of a speaker's superiority and social attractiveness that track guilt ratings, with the stereotype doing the work.OCR
Accommodation: Information that will not fit produces disequilibrium, so a schema is altered or a new one formed.AQA
Addiction: A state of psychological and/or physical dependence on a substance or activity, characterised by a compulsive need to engage in the behaviour despite negative…Eduqas
adolescent brain development: The brain develops unevenly, with the limbic reward system becoming highly responsive around puberty while prefrontal regions mature into the mid-twenties…OCR
Adrenaline: Released by the adrenal medulla directly into the bloodstream, which is why the response is almost immediate.AQA
Affectionless psychopathy: An inability to experience guilt or strong emotion, identified as a key emotional consequence of maternal deprivation.AQA
Agentic state: The individual comes to see himself as the instrument of an authority figure and shifts responsibility for the outcome to that figure.AQA
Agonist: A drug that binds to and activates a receptor in the brain, mimicking the effect of a natural neurotransmitter or another drug.Eduqas
Agonists: Drugs such as methadone that occupy the same receptors as heroin more slowly and safely, satisfying the craving with a controlled dose.AQA
Aim: A broad statement of purpose: what the researcher intends to investigate and why, usually drawn from an existing theory or from earlier findings.AQA
algebraic notation: Using symbols such as N for sample size and Σ for sum to represent numerical operations.OCR
algebraic rearrangement: A method that allows psychologists to find missing values, such as recovering a total from a mean.OCR
Allocation of funding: One function of peer review, where experts judge a study before a grant is awarded.AQA
alpha bias: Differences between men and women exaggerated, usually devaluing women, as in Freud's account of the female superego.AQA
androcentrism: Male behaviour taken as the norm, so female behaviour is judged abnormal or deficient, as in the medicalising of premenstrual syndrome.AQA
animal studies of perception: Comparative animal studies examine newly mobile species where learning has had minimal time to act.OCR
anomalous scores: A single extreme value that distorts the range, because the two extreme scores alone set it.AQA, OCR
Antagonist: A drug that binds to a receptor in the brain but does not activate it, thereby blocking the receptor from being activated by other substances.Eduqas
Antagonists: Drugs such as naltrexone that block the receptors so a relapse produces no high, breaking the reinforcement link.AQA
Anterograde Amnesia: A memory disorder characterized by the inability to form new long-term memories after a brain injury.Pearson Edexcel
anxiety: A factor with a complex effect on recall, where moderate anxiety improves it but extreme anxiety impairs it.AQA, OCR
appendices and raw data: The appendices hold raw data and blank questionnaires.OCR
Application of research to policy: Using a finding to support a change in practice or policy, such as shared parental leave or rotas that avoid expensive accidents.AQA
application to education: Piaget implies waiting for readiness and facilitating discovery, whereas Vygotsky implies teaching just ahead of the child's current ability with support that…OCR
applications of an area: Practical uses of each area, named and linked, such as drug treatment or the cognitive interview.OCR
applications of psychology: Memory-retrieval research reshaped police interviewing via the cognitive interview, and shift work research reshaped rostering.OCR
applied reasoning: Naming the principle, describing the procedure concretely and predicting the effect, with the psychology visible behind the action.OCR
applying psychology: Linking a detail in the novel source to a named psychological idea by quoting or referring to the line and then stating the process, rather than merely…OCR
areas of psychology: The categories, such as social, cognitive, developmental, biological and individual differences, within which each theme sits and which are defined by their…OCR
arousal: A physiological state of activation with no direction.OCR
arousal cost reward model: Witnessing distress creates unpleasant arousal which a person reduces by taking whichever option carries the lowest net cost.OCR
arousal regulation techniques: Techniques such as progressive muscular relaxation help manage arousal and anxiety in sport.OCR
Asperger Syndrome (AS): A neurodevelopmental condition, now considered part of the autism spectrum, characterised by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal…OCR
Assimilation: New information is taken into an existing schema, which does not have to change.AQA
Assumption: The founding belief an approach holds about where behaviour comes from, rather than a study or a therapy.AQA
attachment type and the internal working model: An explanation predicting insecure resistant adults form parasocial relationships most readily, linked to Bowlby's internal working model.AQA
attitude behaviour gap: The finding that favourable attitudes do not always become action, so positive appeals produced more favourable beliefs and attitudes while a negative…OCR
Atypical development: Diversity in sex development occurs when chromosomal or hormonal patterns vary, as in Klinefelter's syndrome, Turner syndrome and androgen insensitivity…AQA
Authoritarian Personality: Adorno measured it with the F-scale and found high scorers were submissive to superiors, contemptuous of inferiors, rigid in their thinking and hostile to…AQA
Autonomic branch: Involuntary, governing organs and glands through a sympathetic division that arouses the body and a parasympathetic division that restores it.AQA
Autonomy, control and effectiveness: Refusing food becomes a bid for autonomy and control by someone feeling ineffective within the family.AQA
Aversives: Drugs such as disulfiram that stop alcohol being fully broken down, so drinking brings nausea and vomiting.AQA

B

background and aims: The problem the researcher inherited, which the study was designed to address, rather than a topic such as memory.OCR
bar chart: A graph that plots a categorical independent variable against a continuous dependent variable, for example mean words recalled for two groups.AQA
bar charts: A graph used for discrete categories, with spaced bars, a labelled vertical axis with units and an even scale starting at zero, and a horizontal axis…AQA, OCR
bar charts and histograms: A bar chart with gaps between bars represents discrete categories, while a histogram with touching bars and equal class intervals represents continuous data.OCR
Behaviour modification: Uses token economies based on operant conditioning, rewarding desirable behaviours with privileges to rehabilitate offenders.AQA
behavioural categories: Observable categories that do not overlap, used in structured work to score what the body does rather than anything calling for interpretation.OCR
behavioural categories and tallies: A structured observation produces tallies in behavioural categories, and raw tallies rarely compare fairly because the totals behind them differ.AQA
behavioural category: Turns a vague construct into something two observers can agree on, and has to be observable, mutually exclusive and wide enough to cover what is likely to…OCR
Behavioural Sink: A term coined by John B.OCR
Behaviourism: Holds that we are born a blank slate, that behaviour is learned from the environment by association and consequence, and that laws found in rats hold for…AQA
behaviourist explanation: Proposes that mental illness stems from learning, with symptoms treated as conditioned responses acquired by association.OCR
behaviourist perspective: A set of assumptions treating behaviour as learned from the environment through association and consequence.OCR
Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI): A self-report questionnaire that uses a 7-point scale across 60 traits to measure gender.AQA
beta bias: Minimises or ignores differences, as in Asch's 123 male students and Milgram's 40 American men, whose findings were generalised to everyone.AQA
Bias: A distortion in a sample that affects the findings, with opportunity and volunteer sampling being highly prone to it.AQA
Binary identities: Identities that align strictly with traditional male or female categories.AQA
biochemical explanation: An explanation of mental illness that treats it as having physical causes, supported by evidence that amphetamine, which raises dopamine activity, can produce…OCR
Biofeedback: Uses operant conditioning, allowing individuals to monitor and control physiological states like muscle tension using technological signals.AQA
biological determinism: A position discussed in the free will versus determinism debate, specifically in terms of how it impacts the legal concept of criminal responsibility.OCR
Biological preparedness: Shown by one-trial, long-delay conditioning that breaks the contiguity rule of ordinary classical conditioning.AQA
Biological psychology: The approach arguing that gender development is driven by genetics and physiology, including chromosomes and hormones.AQA
biological reductionism: Behaviour explained by genes, neurochemistry and brain structure, the level at which drug therapies act.AQA
biological responses: Sympathetic arousal and adrenaline from the SAM axis and cortisol from the HPA axis, leading to sustained physiological arousal with chronic exposure.OCR
blind verification: A strategy for reducing bias in which a second examiner verifies the mark.OCR
Boundary model: A model proposing a biological range between hunger and satiety, with restrained eaters imposing a cognitive diet boundary below their biological satiety level.AQA
brain abnormality: An explanation of mental illness in which an abnormality such as enlarged ventricles is found in patients, though it may follow the illness or its treatment…OCR
brain imaging: Scanning showed weaker inferior frontal activity with stronger ventral striatal activity, a correlate accompanying the behavioural difference rather than…OCR

C

Calculated value S and the value of N: S is the frequency of the less common sign, and N is the number of participants left once the ties have gone.AQA
Calculated value versus critical value: A statistical test converts the data into a calculated (observed) value, which is then compared with a critical value taken from a table of significance.AQA
calculating tests of difference: Working through the steps of a test of difference, such as assigning signs, ranking absolute differences or pooling scores, and reporting the outcome.OCR
calculating the Sign test: Subtract one condition from the other to find the sign of difference, discard zero differences to find the new N, and count the frequency of the less frequent…AQA
Candidate genes: Genes such as COMT and SERT that regulate dopamine and serotonin, with up to 230 identified by Taylor, meaning OCD is polygenic.AQA
Capacity: One of the features of each store, alongside coding and duration, with the short-term span at seven plus or minus two chunks against an effectively unlimited…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Cardiovascular mechanisms: Repeated adrenaline surges raise blood pressure and scour artery walls, encouraging plaque and clotting.AQA
case study method: An approach that interprets a single life, as when Freud worked from letters written by the father of a five year old boy.OCR
catastrophe model and hysteresis: Performance falls off a cliff when cognitive anxiety is high, and getting it back demands a much larger drop in arousal than the level at which it collapsed.OCR
categorising mental disorders: Relies on diagnostic manuals to standardise criteria, so that agreed criteria raise agreement between clinicians.OCR
Catharsis and its evidential problems: Discharging the aggressive drive is said to be cathartic, but venting raises later aggression, so catharsis is unsupported.AQA
causal inference: A claim that one variable caused another, which cannot be made when the independent variable is a pre-existing characteristic and the researcher allocates…OCR
Causation: A correlation cannot demonstrate this on its own, because an untested third variable may be responsible for both co-variables.AQA
causation and third variables: A relationship between two co-variables cannot prove causation, as the direction of effect is unknown and an untested third variable may be responsible.AQA
CBT: The client records automatic thoughts, the therapist disputes them empirically and logically, and homework sets behavioural experiments.AQA
central executive: A limited-capacity attentional controller that allocates the subsystems and is modality-free, holding virtually no material of its own.AQA
Central nervous system: The brain plus the spinal cord, where the brain is where conscious decisions are made and the spinal cord relays messages and runs reflexes.AQA
central tendency: The mean, median and mode, which summarise data differently and dictate their appropriate use.AQA
central tendency on a curve: On a normal curve the mean, median and mode sit together at the peak, while in a skewed distribution they separate along the tail in the order mode, median,…OCR
characteristics of disorders: The specific clinical symptoms of an affective disorder, a psychotic disorder and an anxiety disorder.OCR
checking data quality: Primary data fit the hypothesis and their reliability can be checked at source, while with secondary data the original team may have defined the variable…OCR
chi square decision rule: Chi Square is significant when the calculated value is equal to or greater than the critical value.AQA
Chi-square test: A statistical test whose degrees of freedom are calculated to determine the correct critical value, with the calculated value needing to equal or exceed it…OCR
choosing a statistical test: Requires three questions: difference or relationship, related or unrelated design, and level of measurement, named to justify the choice.AQA
choosing an analysis: Justified by the level of measurement, whether the design is independent or repeated, and whether the study tests a difference or an association.OCR
circadian rhythm: The daily rhythm is driven by an internal clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, entrained by light and by social cues.OCR
Classical conditioning: Learning by association, pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to create a conditioned response.AQA
Classical conditioning of attachment: The carer is a neutral stimulus paired with food until the carer alone produces the pleasure food did.AQA
classification by explanation: Placing a study in an area by the kind of explanation offered, so that a study of memory carried out with scans can be argued into the biological area.OCR
Closed questions: Questions that fix the response options, such as yes or no, a rating or a Likert scale, and produce numbers that are quick to analyse and easy to compare.AQA
Co-morbidity: Occurs when schizophrenia exists alongside another condition, like depression.AQA
co-variables: The two variables measured from the same participants, each carrying its name and units on an evenly scaled axis of the scatter diagram.AQA, OCR
cocktail party effect: Affectively important material, such as the listener's own name, gets through the rejected channel, showing some analysis occurs before conscious awareness.OCR
Coding: One of the features of each store, alongside capacity and duration, with short-term memory coding acoustically and long-term memory coding semantically.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
coding frame: The full list of behavioural categories with the codes used to record them.OCR
Cognitive behaviour therapy: Involves 5 to 20 sessions aiming to identify and alter irrational thoughts, such as delusions, by evaluating evidence for these beliefs.AQA
Cognitive development: The general cognitive maturation alongside which children's understanding of gender develops.AQA
Cognitive distortions: Irrational thoughts that justify crime, including hostile attribution bias and minimalisation.AQA
Cognitive distortions and irrational beliefs: Cognitive theory distinguishes perceptual distortions, such as overestimating body size, from irrational beliefs, such as one biscuit meaning complete failure.AQA
cognitive explanation: Locates problems in faulty thinking, such as Beck's negative triad.OCR
Cognitive interview: A method used by police to improve eyewitness testimony through reporting everything, reinstating context, reversing order and changing perspective.AQA
Cognitive neuroscience: The scientific study of the biological structures that underpin cognitive processes, often using neuroimaging techniques.AQA
cognitive overload: A state arising from the limited capacity of attention and working memory and the cost of switching between sources, rather than simply having too much to do.OCR
Cognitive priming: When violent media provides cues that activate existing aggressive thoughts and scripts in memory, explaining a sudden outburst.AQA
Collection techniques: Closed questions, rating scales, behavioural categories in a structured observation and reaction times produce scores, while open questions, unstructured…AQA
Commitment: A minority that accepts personal risk or sacrifice is taken more seriously, which is the augmentation principle.AQA
comparing groups of unequal size: Percentages or ratios allow two groups of unequal size to be compared when the raw counts would mislead.OCR
comparing two conditions: Calculating means separately for each condition using raw data to allow comparison, keeping the calculations strictly separate.OCR
Competence versus performance in infant testing: Failing a search task involves motor coordination, memory and interest, so it understates knowledge of the physical world.AQA
complementarity of the two approaches: Most approaches use both, so the dichotomy between them may be false.AQA
Compliance: A superficial change to fit in, without changing private beliefs, driven by normative social influence.AQA
Computer models: Models that compare the mind to a computer, with input, processing and output stages, used to explain and test unobservable mental processes.AQA
Computer-mediated communication: Communication that differs greatly from face-to-face interactions, in which self-disclosure is often higher because anonymity reduces the fear of negative…AQA
Concurrent Validity: A measure of how well a particular test correlates with a previously validated measure.OCR
condition by condition comparison: The mean is calculated separately for each condition to allow comparison, stating both means with their unit and the difference between them.AQA
Conditioning: Operant conditioning positively reinforces nicotine use through rewarding sensations and negatively reinforces it by avoidance of withdrawal symptoms, while…AQA
Conditions of worth: The boundaries or limits placed on parents' love for their children, which can lead to incongruence and low self-esteem.AQA
Confidentiality and the right to withdraw: Confidentiality uses numbers instead of names, and participants may be offered the withdrawal of their data.AQA
confirmation bias: A named source of bias in the collection and processing of forensic evidence, alongside role bias and reconstructive interpretation of an ambiguous mark.OCR
confounding variables: Factors other than the IV that could affect the DV and that vary systematically with the IV, offering a rival explanation.OCR
Congruence: The degree of similarity between a person's self-concept and their ideal self, which is necessary for personal growth.AQA
Conservation: The understanding that the quantity of a substance remains the same even when its appearance changes.OCR
conservation behaviour: Action that reduces environmental harm, such as recycling, and the factors which influence the tendency to conserve or recycle.OCR
Consistency: Agreement between the members of the minority and agreement over time draws attention and signals a serious alternative view.AQA
Consistency of scores: A smaller standard deviation indicates scores clustered more tightly around their mean, and a larger one indicates greater dispersion.AQA
Contact comfort: Clinging to a cloth mother that does not feed, showing that comfort rather than food builds the bond.AQA
content analysis: A method in which commercials are coded using a coding frame of verb categories and voice-over sex, as in Johnson and Young's study of 478 broadcast…AQA, OCR
context-dependent memory: Memory that is affected by the environment at learning and testing, with scores higher when study and test conditions matched.OCR
contextual bias: A source of bias in which the surrounding context of a case influences the processing of forensic evidence.OCR
contingency tables: Tables where only the cells holding observed frequencies are counted, so a 2 by 2 table has 1 degree of freedom and a 2 by 3 table has 2.AQA
Contingent Instruction: A form of tutoring where the level of help given is responsive to the learner's performance, increasing when they struggle and decreasing when they succeed.OCR
Continuity hypothesis: The model generalises to friendships, romantic relationships and the learner's own parenting.AQA
Control group: A group that provides a baseline measure by receiving no experimental treatment, allowing researchers to isolate the true effect of the independent variable.AQA
control of extraneous variables: Holding everything else constant, which is what allows a difference to read as causal.OCR
Control versus realism: A central trade-off in which a laboratory study increases internal validity but risks low mundane realism, while a naturalistic observation increases…AQA
Controlled observation: The setting is structured, as in Ainsworth's Strange Situation, buying control at the cost of realism.AQA
Controlled observation and behavioural categories: A baby and carer enter an unfamiliar playroom for eight short episodes behind a two-way mirror, and observers score five behaviours.AQA
controls and standardisation: Naming the one variable that actually threatens this study and giving a reason each control is there.OCR
conventional reporting form: Setting the probability against the accepted level, writing p < 0.05 for a significant result and p > 0.05 for one that is not.AQA
Conversion: The majority is made to think about the message, so change is private and internalised rather than public compliance.AQA
Corpus Analysis: The study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) of real-world text.OCR
Correlation against causation: All of the evidence is correlational, so illness could precede or cause the stress rather than follow it.AQA
correlation and third variables: Measuring two variables as they already vary supports a claim about strength and direction only, since a third variable or reversed causation is always…OCR
Correlation coefficient: One number running from -1 through 0 to +1, whose sign gives direction and whose size gives strength.AQA
correlation coefficients: A value from -1.0 to +1.0 that quantifies the pattern on a scattergram, where the sign indicates direction and the distance from zero indicates strength.AQA, OCR
Correlation coefficients and their sign: The sign gives the direction and the size gives the strength, on a scale running from minus one through zero to plus one.AQA
correlational design: A design in which both variables are measured from the same participants, with one co-variable on each axis of a scatter diagram.OCR
Cortisol: Sustained levels reduce lymphocyte production and blunt natural killer cell activity, so infections take hold.AQA
Cost of treatment and healthcare: Evidence that CBT and drug therapy shorten episodes of depression is linked to the money and working time a country gains or loses.AQA
Cost-benefit analysis and ethics committees: An ethics committee weighs likely benefits against costs before approving research.AQA
Counterbalancing: A procedure in which half the participants take the conditions in one order and half in the reverse, spreading order effects evenly across conditions.AQA, OCR
Covert observation: Participants are unaware, so behaviour is natural and demand characteristics are removed, but informed consent and privacy are compromised.AQA
Covert sensitisation: The same pairing carried out in imagination, the therapist guiding a vivid aversive scene, so no drug or shock is administered.AQA
Criminal personality: Characterised by high extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism, with a biological basis in nervous system arousal.AQA
Critical period: A narrow time window of hours within which imprinting happens and outside which it does not occur.AQA
Critical Period Hypothesis: The theory (Lenneberg, 1967) that language must be acquired during a specific biologically-determined window of time (birth to puberty), after which full…OCR
critical periods: Early visual experience determines which orientations cortical cells come to respond to, supported by the absence of neurones tuned to the unseen orientation.OCR
critical value: The figure a calculated result must beat to be considered significant, found by entering statistical tables with specific information.OCR
critical value tables: The line read is decided by the degrees of freedom together with the level of significance, and the AQA Chi Square table does not require choosing between one…AQA
critical values: Values taken from a table for the sample size or degrees of freedom, the number of tails and the level chosen, with which the calculated value is compared.OCR
critical values and significance: Compare the calculated value with the critical value to determine significance, reading the table by degrees of freedom or sample size and the significance…AQA
Critical values, N and degrees of freedom: Three things are needed to find a critical value in a table: N or the degrees of freedom, whether the test is one-tailed or two-tailed, and the chosen level…AQA
cross-cultural comparisons: Lee et al.OCR
Crowding: A subjective, psychological state of perceiving that one has insufficient space.OCR
Cue Reactivity: A classical conditioning process where neutral environmental stimuli become associated with nicotine's effects and trigger intense cravings.AQA
cultural bias: Lee et al.OCR
cultural bias in testing: Items asking about American brands and sport, so that a low score marks distance from American culture rather than a weak intellect.OCR
cultural variation in gender roles: Culture and media supply the models, and Mead found neighbouring Papua New Guinea tribes with very different gender norms.AQA
Cultural variations and within-culture variation: Secure led everywhere, avoidant peaked in Germany and resistant in Japan, and variation within countries was about 1.5 times that between them.AQA
Custodial sentencing: Incarcering offenders to achieve deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation.AQA

D

Daily hassles: Minor, repeated irritations accumulate and predict symptoms better than discrete life events.AQA
data collection: Procedures include sampling methods, designing questionnaires, or conducting observations.OCR
data display selection: Choosing an appropriate form of data display based on the data type: a bar chart for categorical data, a histogram for continuous data, and a scattergram for…OCR
data handling: Involves the collection, analysis, and presentation of data.OCR
data precision: Should reflect the raw data, so whole-word recall scores justify a mean of 9.3 rather than 9.3125.AQA
data presentation: Visual displays that must match the data, such as bar charts, histograms, line graphs, pie charts and scatter diagrams.OCR
Data-driven approach: Uses statistical analysis of crime data, including investigative psychology and geographical profiling.AQA
Deception: Something facilitated by anonymity, allowing individuals to manipulate their online identities or misrepresent traits.AQA
decimal conversion: A shift of the decimal point, where a positive power shifts it right and makes the value larger and a negative power shifts it left and makes it smaller.AQA, OCR
Defence mechanisms: Ways the ego manages the war between id and superego, including repression, denial and displacement.AQA
Defensible Space: A space that is designed to be clearly perceived as belonging to a particular person or group, which promotes natural surveillance and deters crime.OCR
defining abnormality: Involves four definitions: statistical infrequency, deviation from social norms, failure to function adequately, and deviation from ideal mental health.OCR
defining assumptions: The defining principles and concepts of each area, where explanations lie.OCR
defining intelligence: Intelligence is usually defined operationally as whatever an intelligence test measures, often a general factor running through performance on various tasks.OCR
degrees of freedom: A value calculated for a Chi-square test, found using df = (r - 1) × (c - 1) for a test of association or df = k - 1 for a goodness-of-fit test.AQA, OCR
delay of gratification: Casey followed people first tested for this as preschoolers into their forties and gave them a task requiring a response to be withheld.OCR
Demand characteristics: Cues in a study, from the consent form to the task itself, that let participants guess what is expected and act on the guess.AQA
Density: An objective, physical measure of the number of individuals per unit of area.OCR
Dependent variable: The outcome that is measured by the researcher.AQA
deprivation and privation: Deprivation is the loss of an attachment already formed, while privation is never having formed one.OCR
Desensitisation: The loss of physiological arousal, measured as heart rate, after repeated exposure, so violence stops shocking.AQA
Determinism and free will: Biological, environmental, psychic and soft determinism respectively, against humanistic free will.AQA
Determinism vs Free Will: A limitation discussed is biological determinism in explaining complex gender behaviours.AQA
development of a key theme: Arguing how far the contemporary study changes our understanding of the key theme, taking a position on whether it confirms, extends or limits the older claim.OCR
development of attachment: The process in babies by which an enduring emotional tie turns a caregiver into a secure base, developing from indiscriminate responsiveness to separation…OCR
Deviation from social norms: Behaviour violating implicit rules of a culture.AQA
deviation from the mean: Each score has the mean subtracted from it to find the deviations, which are then squared so negatives stop cancelling.OCR
Diathesis and stress as joint requirements: Vulnerability and a negative experience that triggers it are both needed, so a vulnerable person who meets no trigger does not develop the disorder.AQA
diathesis-stress and interactionism: An inherited vulnerability expressed only when an environmental trigger arrives, as in Tienari's adoption data.AQA
Diathesis-stress model: A model used to explain how genetic vulnerability interacts with social influences, noting that genetics alone do not guarantee addiction.AQA
difference or correlation: The first question settling the choice is whether the researcher is testing for a difference between conditions or for an association between two co-variables.AQA
Diffusion of Responsibility: A sociopsychological phenomenon whereby a person is less likely to take responsibility for action or inaction when others are present.Pearson Edexcel
direction and strength: Separate judgements, where the sign gives direction and only the size gives strength, so a coefficient close to zero means almost no relationship.OCR
directional and non-directional hypotheses: A one-tailed (directional) hypothesis uses comparative words like more, fewer, or faster, while a two-tailed (non-directional) hypothesis states there will be…OCR
Directional hypothesis: A prediction that says which way the results will fall, for example that participants recall more words in silence than with music.AQA
discrete data: Data that fall into separate, discrete categories rather than a continuous scale, so bars must not touch.AQA
Discussion: Interprets the findings, admits limitations and suggests further work.AQA
Disinhibited attachment: Indiscriminate friendliness, shown as a significant deficit in children adopted after six months in the ERA project.AQA
Disinhibition: The loss of control over eating behaviour in response to specific internal or external cues.AQA
Dispersion: Asks how far scores spread, with the range and standard deviation as its measures.AQA
display design and pattern perception: Design that shifts load onto perception, so a deviation appears as a shape rather than as a value to be interpreted.OCR
Dispositional Hypothesis: The theory that the primary cause of behaviour is a person's individual personality, traits, and character.OCR
Division of Impact: The principle that when a social force is directed at multiple targets, the impact is divided among them.Pearson Edexcel
dominant response: The response strengthened by increased arousal, which facilitates a simple or well-learned task and inhibits a novel or complex one.OCR
Dopamine antagonists and receptor blocking: Drugs that block dopamine receptors in the synapse, reducing dopamine action, which fits the original dopamine hypothesis and reduces positive symptoms.AQA
Dopamine D₂ receptors: A deficiency in these receptors means individuals experience less reward from eating, leading to overeating to compensate.AQA
Double blind: A procedure that hides the condition and aim from the researcher as well as the participant.AQA
drive theory and arousal: The presence of others raises arousal, and increased arousal increases the likelihood of the dominant response.OCR
drug treatment: A biological treatment of one specific disorder, such as the atypical drug clozapine for schizophrenia acting on dopamine and serotonin receptors, requiring…OCR
Duck's phase model: A timeline of breakdown moving from private brooding to confrontation, then to going public and finally to the story each partner tells afterwards.AQA
Duration: One of the features of each store, alongside coding and capacity, with short-term recall collapsing after 18 seconds without rehearsal.AQA, Pearson Edexcel

E

Ecological Validity: Whether findings can be generalised beyond the research setting to everyday life.AQA, OCR
economic implications: Treating common mental disorders costs less than the lost output and benefit payments it prevents, and absence caused by untreated mental ill health is an…OCR
Economy of time and resources: Finding a design fault before a full sample has been put through it, so that money is saved.AQA
Effect size: A standardised measure of how strong the finding is, letting studies of different sizes be compared.AQA
Effectiveness evidence and publication bias: Thornley's review found chlorpromazine beat placebo on symptom severity, but Healy pointed out that some trial data were published more than once,…AQA
Empirical disputing: The therapist disputes the client's beliefs by asking for the evidence.AQA
Empirical method: The insistence that claims rest on direct observation.AQA
encoding specificity: The memory principle on which the cognitive interview rests, and through which context reinstatement is explained.AQA, OCR
endorphin and monoamine explanations: These biological accounts propose that activity lifts mood through endorphin release or through raised availability of serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine.OCR
Enmeshment and family boundaries: A family systems idea in which boundaries blur into enmeshment, so that members speak and feel for one another, for example a parent answering for a child.AQA
environment and empiricism: Behaviour is acquired from the environment, the empiricist position associated with Locke's blank slate.AQA
environmental and psychic determinism: Both perspectives are determinist, but behaviourism focuses on observable environmental conditioning while psychodynamic focuses on unobservable unconscious…OCR
Environmental cues and the weapon effect: Berkowitz and LePage's weapon effect showed environmental cues increase aggression, as guns on the table raised the shocks given.AQA
Environmental Psychology: The scientific study of the bidirectional relationship between human beings and their physical environment.OCR
environmental stressors: Stressors in the environment, such as noise, that trigger biological responses via the SAM axis and the HPA axis.OCR
episodic buffer: A limited general store with a capacity of about four chunks that binds information from the other components and links it to long-term memory.AQA
Equilibration: The return to a balanced state, which drives development.AQA
equity theory: Fairness beats profit, since a partner who is over benefitted feels guilt and one who is under benefitted feels resentment.AQA
Ergonomics: The science of designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely.OCR
Esteem support: A type of social support that boosts confidence and mitigates stress.AQA
Estimating results: Rounding raw data to convenient numbers to mentally calculate an approximate mean or total, used as a plausibility check.AQA
estimation: Rounding data collected to make a rough mental calculation, catching calculator errors like misplaced decimals.OCR
estimation as a check on calculation: Rounding each score to the nearest ten and taking the difference gives an estimate that should land close to the exact value, and when it does not the…OCR
estimation from totals: Deliberate approximation in which awkward numbers are rounded to something you can hold in your head, the arithmetic is done, and the answer is checked to sit…OCR
ethical considerations: Guidelines such as deception and the right to withdraw, which score most when the guideline and the study detail arrive together.OCR
ethical guidelines: The British Psychological Society's Code of Ethics and Conduct: Respect (informed consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality), Competence, Responsibility…OCR
ethical planning: Naming the issue this procedure raises and offering a workable safeguard, such as presumptive consent and a full debrief where deception is unavoidable.OCR
Ethical protection of participants: An ethical gain, because fewer people are put through a flawed design.AQA
ethical safeguards: Following the British Psychological Society code: informed consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality, and a debrief.OCR
ethnocentrism: A methodological issue and debate linked with sampling bias and with recognition of how key research contributes to an understanding of individual, social and…OCR
event sampling: Counting each occurrence of the target behaviour across the whole session, which suits behaviour that happens rarely.AQA, OCR
evidence and policy: Bodies such as research councils, ethics committees and clinical guideline bodies weigh evidence in public to make decisions about scientific issues, with…OCR
evidence for a theme: A finding that shows the theme, for example that the kittens reared seeing only vertical stripes behaved as though blind to horizontal ones, which makes the…OCR
evidence-based suggestions: Suggestions made in relation to the source that explicitly name the research the idea rests on and what that research found.OCR
Evolution: Explains behaviour through natural selection, where adaptive traits enhance survival and are passed to future generations.AQA
Excitation and inhibition: Excitatory transmitters such as glutamate make firing more likely, while inhibitory ones such as GABA and serotonin make it less likely.AQA
exemplification: Providing a concrete instance, following the theory with a named case or realistic situation rather than just rewording the theory.OCR
exercise and mood: Activity may lift mood through endorphin release, raised availability of serotonin, noradrenaline and dopamine, warming of the body, or psychological routes…OCR
expected value: Found by multiplying that cell's row total by its column total and dividing by N, the total number of scores.AQA
experiment and causation: Manipulating one variable while holding the rest steady is what licenses a claim about cause.OCR
experimental control: Using techniques such as standardised instructions, counterbalancing, and random allocation to control extraneous variables.OCR
experimental design: The experimental design is one of the three criteria for test selection and may be independent or repeated/matched.OCR
Experimental design: related and unrelated: For a difference, whether the design was related (repeated measures or matched pairs) or unrelated (independent groups).AQA
experimental vs correlational data: Experimental data is plotted with the independent variable on the horizontal x-axis and the dependent variable on the vertical y-axis, whereas correlational…OCR
Expressed emotion: High levels include hostility, criticism and emotional over-involvement, which family therapy specifically targets to reduce stress within the home environment.AQA
Expressed emotion and relapse: Verbal criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement in a relative is a source of stress that raises the chance of relapse in a recovering patient,…AQA
external time cues: The internal clock is entrained by light and by social cues, and free-running evidence such as Siffre's months underground without clocks distinguishes the…OCR
External validity: Raised by qualitative data, which captures detail and meaning the researcher never anticipated.AQA
Extraneous variables: Any factors other than the independent variable that could affect the dependent variable, such as noise levels or participant age.AQA

F

Face validity: An intuitive check, often by an expert, to see if the instrument looks like it measures the intended construct.AQA
Failure to function adequately: When one cannot cope with everyday life, showing distress, using criteria like observer discomfort and unpredictability.AQA
falsifiability: A weakness of the psychodynamic perspective, as concepts like the Oedipus complex cannot be falsified.AQA, OCR
Falsifiable: Phrased so that results could show the prediction to be wrong.AQA
falsification: A hypothesis must be stated so that some outcome could refute it, unlike a claim which accommodates every possible result.OCR
Family dysfunction as a cause: Abnormal communication and relationships within the family cause or maintain the disorder.AQA
Family therapy: Focuses on reducing stress within the home environment and, by improving family communication and problem-solving skills, lowers relapse rates.AQA
field experiment: The study ran in a working plant with a comparison group of non-rotating workers, and outcome measures included productivity and turnover as well as reported…AQA, OCR
field experiments: Studies using covert observation in a real setting, such as a moving train or a city street, rather than the laboratory.OCR
filter theory: A field of availables is narrowed by social demography, then similarity of attitudes early on, then complementarity in couples together over eighteen months.AQA
findings and conclusions: Results reported with direction and, where known, figures, kept distinct from the overall conclusions drawn from them.OCR
five areas of psychology: Social, Cognitive, Developmental, Biological and Individual Differences, each with defining principles and concepts.OCR
Fixed action pattern: A stereotyped, universal sequence that is ballistic once begun, so it runs to completion after the rival is removed.AQA
Flexibility: A minority refusing to compromise is dismissed as rigid, while one that adjusts its position shifts the majority.AQA
floor and ceiling effects: The usual cause of skew in psychology, where a task almost everyone completes gives a negative skew and one that defeats most participants gives a positive…OCR
fractions and ratios: Fractions, ratios and percentages express the same relationship, with ratios comparing part to part rather than part to whole unless specified.OCR
free will: The ability to make choices that are not determined by biological or external forces, which is central to the humanistic approach.AQA
Freeze response: Noted by Gray (1988), who said the initial reaction is usually to freeze and scan for information.AQA
frequency table: A table built by sorting raw scores into categories or intervals, totalling each row, and checking the grand total against the number of participants.AQA
frequency tables: A way of organising raw data into counts per category or class interval, which dictates the appropriate graph.OCR
Frustration, drive and displacement: A blocked goal produces frustration, frustration produces an aggressive drive, and discharging it is said to be cathartic, with displacement onto an available…AQA
FTO gene: A gene highlighted by genetic theories that increases the likelihood of overeating by altering energy homeostasis.AQA
Functional recovery: The brain reorganises after trauma through mechanisms like axonal sprouting.AQA

G

Gambler’s fallacy: Believing independent events are linked, so a run of losses means a win is due.AQA
Gender constancy: Realising around age six that gender remains consistent across time and situations, prompting the imitation of same-sex models.AQA
Gender fluid: An identity where individuals experience shifts in their gender identity over time.AQA
Gender identity: Recognising oneself as male or female, occurring around age two in Kohlberg's theory.AQA
Gender stability: Understanding that gender remains fixed over time, around age four, but can be confused by outward appearance.AQA
gender stereotyping: The pattern in which boy-directed commercials featured power and destruction language and girl-directed ones used feeling and nurturing language, with male…OCR
General Adaptation Syndrome: Models physiological changes across three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.AQA
generalisability: Judged stronger when the limit is named, such as an all-male sample or participants from a single city.OCR
generalisation: The ability to extend findings to the wider population, which is limited when a sampling method's bias is high.AQA
genetic explanation: An explanation of mental illness in which genetic loading increases diagnostic risk, as shown by Gottesman et al.OCR
Genetic inheritance: Suggests anorexia nervosa is heritable, supported by twin studies showing higher concordance rates for monozygotic twins compared to dizygotic twins.AQA
Genetic vulnerability: Inheriting a predisposition to addiction, such as possessing the A1 variant of the DRD2 gene, which reduces dopamine receptor density and drives compensatory…AQA
Genetic vulnerability and concordance rates: Schizophrenia runs in families, with Gottesman finding concordance of 48% for identical twins, 17% for fraternal twins and 9% for siblings, against roughly 1%…AQA
Genotype: The genetic constitution of an individual, which is the actual genetic makeup.AQA
Geographical profiling: Analyses spatial patterns of crime locations to predict the offender's base, using the marauder or commuter hypotheses.AQA
Ghrelin as a short-term hunger signal: Released by the empty stomach lining, it acts on neuropeptide Y cells in the arcuate nucleus, rising sharply before a meal and falling once food arrives.AQA
graphical to numerical: Reading a chart to find a numerical total, stating the frequency a bar represents or calculating the difference between bars.AQA
gravitation and socialisation accounts: Two rival stories about any difference found: the gravitation account says people with particular dispositions choose particular sports, and the socialisation…OCR
group productivity and process losses: Actual productivity equals the potential of the members minus the losses that come from faulty process, and those losses divide into coordination failures and…OCR

H

Habituation and looking time as a measure: Infants are habituated to an event, then shown a possible and an impossible version, with looking time as the dependent variable.AQA
halo effect: Attractive faces are rated kinder and more successful, so beauty buys traits it never earned, as the physical attractiveness stereotype.AQA
hard determinism: Every behaviour has a cause that could in principle be identified, so free will is an illusion.AQA
Hardiness: Scoring high on three Cs, commitment, challenge and control, found in executives who stayed well under heavy strain.AQA
Harvard convention: A system of referencing academic research in which the elements of a reference are given in a set order and the punctuation follows.OCR
hemispheric lateralisation: Language being lateralised to the left is the evidence from the split brain findings, where the right hemisphere can recognise and select but cannot speak.OCR
heredity and nativism: Behaviour is inherited and largely present at birth, the nativist position associated with Descartes.AQA
heritability and concordance rates: A coefficient from zero to one describing how much of the variation in a population is genetic, near 0.5 for intelligence, with concordance higher for…AQA
heritability estimates: A property of a population in a particular range of environments, partitioning variation within a group rather than giving any individual a percentage.OCR
High-Functioning Autism (HFA): A form of autism in which the individual has no intellectual disability, but may have deficits in areas such as social interaction, communication, and…OCR
hippocampus and navigation: Licensed London taxi drivers showed more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus and less in the anterior, with the posterior difference growing the longer a…OCR
histogram: A display for continuous data grouped into equal class intervals, with bars that touch because the underlying scale is unbroken and the intervals follow a…AQA
Histograms: Display continuous data, so the bars touch, the horizontal axis is divided into equal intervals and no interval is skipped.AQA
historical views of mental illness: Views of mental illness in the past, including demonic possession.OCR
holism: Behaviour must be studied as a whole system because analysing it into parts destroys the thing being explained.AQA
home advantage and referee bias: Another audience effect, often linked to crowd noise influencing referee bias.OCR
Homeostasis and negative feedback: Eating is homeostatic: the body defends a fairly stable store of energy, and the hypothalamus is where the signals are read.AQA
Hormonal influence: Hormones direct sexual differentiation, with testosterone promoting male characteristics, oestrogen regulating the female reproductive system and oxytocin…AQA
Hormones: Chemical messengers secreted by glands directly into the bloodstream.AQA
Hostility: The component of Type A that later work narrowed out as doing the damage, rather than hurry.AQA
Humanistic psychology: Holds that people have free will and are actively self-determining.AQA
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system: Chronic stress activates this system, in which the hypothalamus releases CRH, prompting the pituitary to release ACTH, which stimulates the adrenal cortex to…AQA
Hypothesis: The precise, testable prediction that comes out of that purpose, written before any data is collected and phrased so that results could show it to be wrong.AQA

I

Id, ego and superego: The three parts of personality: the id demands immediate pleasure, the superego punishes with guilt, and the ego manages the war between them.AQA
identifying psychological content: Reading the text analytically to identify the relevant psychological area, perspective or core study, and justifying that choice from the passage.OCR
idiographic approach: Studies the individual in depth and treats subjective experience as the data, with no attempt to measure them against a general standard.AQA
Illusion of control: Believing skill, ritual or choosing one’s own numbers influences a chance outcome.AQA
illustrative research: Research used to illustrate each area, such as a core study attached to each area.OCR
Implications: The broader implications of the findings, which could justify prejudice.AQA
Importation against deprivation: The dispositional model says inmates carry street values, gang ties and violent histories in through the gate, while the situational model blames the regime.AQA
Imported subculture and gang affiliation: Characteristics brought in by the inmate, including age, gang membership, prior violence and anti-authority values.AQA
Imposed etic: Applies a measure built in one culture elsewhere, shown by Takahashi finding Japanese infants extremely distressed in the Strange Situation because they are…AQA
Imprinting: A fast, innate bond to the first moving object seen, formed in a narrow time window.AQA
in-text citation: Inside the body of a report, surname and year only, either with the year bracketed after the name or as a bracketed surname and year at the end of the sentence.OCR
inattentional blindness: Focused attention on a primary task, like counting passes, leaves insufficient cognitive resources to process unexpected visual stimuli.OCR
Independent variable: The factor that is deliberately manipulated by the researcher to observe its effect.AQA
Indirect behavioural route: Stressed people also smoke, drink, sleep less and eat worse, which confounds the direct immune explanation.AQA
individual, social and cultural diversity: Naming who was studied and who was not, for example that an all-male American sample says little about women or about cultures with different norms of…OCR
induction and deduction: Reasoning from observations up to a general claim is induction, while reasoning down from a theory to a prediction is deduction.OCR
infant research methods: Techniques like preferential looking and habituation turn perception into measurable responses, as infants cannot report what they see.OCR
Inference: The process of drawing conclusions about unobservable mental processes based on observed behaviour.AQA
informal social control: The everyday influence that residents exert over public space, which visible disorder weakens as unrepaired windows, graffiti or persistent litter signal that…OCR
Informational social influence: The desire to be right, which drives internalisation.AQA
Informed consent and deception: Consent is gained via a form detailing the study, or through presumptive consent if full disclosure would ruin it, while deception is addressed by a full…AQA
Innate knowledge and nativism: A physical reasoning system that is innate and primitive, refined by experience rather than assembled from nothing.AQA
Innate releasing mechanism: A hard-wired circuit that is tripped by a specific sign stimulus and releases a fixed action pattern.AQA
Institutionalisation: An inability to function outside prison, described as a severe psychological effect of custodial sentencing.AQA
Instrumental Aggression: Aggression that is planned, premeditated, and used as a means to achieve a specific goal.OCR
Instrumental support: Practical help given as a type of social support that mitigates stress.AQA
intelligence testing: A method of assessment such as Raven's Progressive Matrices, a non-verbal matrices test of inductive reasoning, or a Wechsler scale yielding a deviation score.OCR
Inter-observer reliability: Calculated when two observers code the same session, allowing agreement to be checked.AQA
inter-rater reliability: Two observers coding the same behaviour independently, then their records compared or correlated, which is the evaluation examiners look for.AQA, OCR
interactionist approach: The view that behaviour comes from the person meeting the situation, which is why a mild club player becomes unrecognisable in a final.OCR
Interactionist explanation of schizophrenia: Acknowledges biological, psychological and societal factors together, rather than treating schizophrenia as purely genetic or purely environmental.AQA
interference: Competition between memories, where proactive means older learning blocks newer and retroactive means newer learning blocks older.AQA
Internal mental processes: Processes such as memory and perception that cannot be observed directly, so psychologists make inferences about them based on behaviour.AQA
Internal validity: Whether the effect was really caused by the manipulated variable rather than by an extraneous or confounding one.AQA
Internal working model: The mental template a first attachment leaves behind: expectations about whether other people can be trusted and whether the child is worth caring for.AQA
Internalisation: A permanent change where public and private beliefs align, driven by informational social influence.AQA
Internals: People who take personal responsibility for their actions, are more self-confident and achievement-oriented, and have less need for social approval, so they…AQA
interpretation of results: Explaining what the calculated figure reveals about the participants or the research hypothesis.OCR
Interval: Data measured in equal and precisely defined units, carrying the most information and supporting the mean alongside a standard deviation.AQA
interval data: Uses equal, fixed units on a publicly agreed scale, such as seconds or words recalled, and only this level earns the mean and standard deviation.AQA, OCR
interval level data: Data for which the mean is suitable because it uses every value.OCR
interviewer effects: Introduced by the live interviewer in a structured interview, who can clarify a misread question but also affects the respondent.OCR
interviewer training: One of the four reasons the technique is hard to judge, because of wide variation in it.OCR
Introduction: Reviews relevant theory and studies, narrowing from the broad area to this particular aim and prediction.AQA
Investigative psychology: Establishes patterns such as interpersonal coherence, where how offenders treat victims reflects their everyday behaviour.AQA
Investigator effects: Influences created by the researcher through leading questions, tone, appearance and expectancy effects, changing the DV without the IV moving.AQA
investment model: Commitment rests on satisfaction, poor alternatives and investment, the time, money and children already sunk in.AQA
issues and debates: Relevant psychological debates that must be considered in relation to the topic area, with a specific example attached rather than merely naming the debate.OCR

K

key themes: The categories under which each core study is paired, shown in a study's findings rather than named as a single study.OCR

L

Laboratory experiment: The researcher manipulates the independent variable in a controlled, often artificial setting, giving high internal validity, standardisation and easy…AQA
Lateralisation: The idea that the hemispheres have different roles.AQA
leadership and coaching behaviour: Leadership is treated as a match between the leader's style, the members and the situation, and a leader's behaviour can be trained.OCR
leading questions: Questions whose wording shapes the eyewitness testimony, as when the verb in the critical question changed mean speed estimates.AQA, OCR
learning theory: The behaviourist view that we arrive as a blank slate and learn via association or consequence, focusing on observable evidence.OCR
Legitimacy of authority: Societies are hierarchical and we are socialised to obey authority we recognise as legitimate, which explains how destructive authority can be granted the…AQA
Leptin, adipose tissue and leptin resistance: Secreted by fat cells in proportion to fat stored, it tells the hypothalamus there is enough, and in common obesity leptin is already high and receptors are…AQA
level of measurement: Whether the numbers used in a study are nominal, ordinal or interval, which drives which measure of central tendency is reported and which inferential test is…AQA, OCR
level of significance: Normally 0.05, this is one of the three facts from the study needed for reading the table.AQA
Level of significance and the 5% convention: The conventional level in psychology is p less than or equal to 0.05, meaning no more than a five in a hundred possibility that the result is down to chance.AQA
levels of explanation: Socio-cultural, psychological, physical, physiological and neurochemical accounts of the same behaviour, ordered from most to least holistic.AQA
levels of measurement: Nominal data require the mode, ordinal data are best summarised by the median, and interval/ratio data allow the mean unless anomalies distort it.AQA, OCR
levels of parasocial involvement and their measurement: Three levels of intensity rather than stages everyone passes through, measured with the Celebrity Attitude Scale: entertainment social, intense personal and…AQA
levels of significance: The chosen level, typically 5% or 1%, against which the calculated probability is compared, with the stricter 0.01 level used when false claims carry heavy…AQA, OCR
Life changes: Any change, positive or negative, uses up adaptive resources, which is why marriage sits on the scale alongside bereavement.AQA
Limbic system: Chiefly the amygdala, it appraises threat and drives reactive responses, as Gospic found with unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game.AQA
Line graph: A graph that plots a continuous independent variable against a continuous dependent variable.AQA
linear sequential unmasking: A strategy for reducing bias in which the mark is analysed before the suspect print is seen.OCR
Localisation of function: The idea that specific functions reside in specific brain areas.AQA
Locus of control: A continuum from high internal to high external, where internals attribute outcomes to their own behaviour and externals to luck, fate or powerful others.AQA
longitudinal research: Kohlberg interviewed 75 American boys over 12 years, with interviews every three years, using hypothetical dilemmas such as the Heinz dilemma.OCR
loss of depth: What is lost in the conversion is the depth and the context of what was actually said.AQA

M

manipulation of an independent variable: Changing one variable across levels, which together with control of the others is what would have to be true for causation.OCR
MAOA gene: Codes for the enzyme that breaks down serotonin; a complete deficiency ran through 14 men in Brunner's Dutch family.AQA
matched guise technique: A recording in which one actor and one script are used, so the content of the speech cannot be responsible for any difference.OCR
matched pairs design: A design in which 41 murderers pleading NGRI were matched to 41 controls on age and sex, with the six schizophrenic murderers specifically matched to six…OCR
matching hypothesis: We settle for someone of similar attractiveness to avoid rejection, after realistically judging one's own value.AQA
Maternal deprivation: The loss of emotional care normally provided by a primary caregiver during the critical period.AQA
mathematical representations: Ways of expressing proportions as a ratio, a fraction or a percentage.OCR
mathematical requirements: Calculations include percentages, fractions, ratios, mean, median, mode, range, standard and decimal conversions, and significant figures.OCR
mathematical symbols: Precise shorthand for relationships, including =, <, <<, >>, >, ∝ and ~, used to express the outcome of an inferential test.OCR
mean: The total of all scores divided by the number of scores, using every score so that one extreme value drags it.OCR
mean from a total score: To estimate a mean, divide the overall total by the number of participants after rounding both to convenient values.AQA
measures of central tendency: A single figure standing in for a whole set of scores, chosen between three of them rather than recited.AQA, OCR
measures of dispersion: Reported alongside every average because two conditions can share a mean and still describe completely different sets of participants.AQA, OCR
measuring differences: The key theme asking what a measure of a person actually captures, as when the army tests recorded schooling and cultural familiarity rather than inborn…OCR
median: The central score once scores are ranked, with the midpoint of the two middle scores where there is an even number.OCR
mediational processes: Attention, retention, reproduction and motivation mediate learning, separating social learning theory from plain behaviourism.AQA
Meehl's original model and its modern revision: The diathesis was entirely genetic, a single schizogene producing a schizotypic personality, while the modern diathesis is polygenic and psychological as well…AQA
message framing and source: Appeals that vary in framing, positive or negative, and source, advertising, publicity or personal contact.OCR
Meta-analysis: A use of secondary data that rests entirely on it, combining the findings of studies the researcher did not carry out.AQA, OCR
Metarepresentation and central control: Metarepresentation is the ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviour as one's own, and central control is the ability to suppress automatic responses while…AQA
Method: Written so that someone else could repeat the study exactly: design, participants and sampling, apparatus, procedure including the standardised instructions,…AQA
method and procedure: Detailing what participants actually did, what was manipulated or compared, and how the outcome was measured.OCR
method sub-sections: The method details the design, sample, materials/apparatus, and procedure.OCR
Minimalisation: Downplaying the severity of an offence, for example calling theft 'borrowing'.AQA
Mirror neuron system: Neurons that fire both when an individual performs an action and when they observe someone else performing it, providing a neural mechanism for empathy.AQA
Misleading presentation: A graph can mislead, for instance where the vertical axis does not begin at zero, making a trivial difference look dramatic.AQA
mode: The most frequently occurring score, and the only option for named categories.OCR
modelling and imitation: Children observe models, especially same-sex ones, and imitate what they see rewarded.AQA
Modelling of disobedience: When two confederates refused to continue, obedience fell from 65% to 10%, because disobedient models make defiance appear legitimate.AQA
Modelling, reinforcement and media influence: Social learning theory focuses on the media, modelling of thin ideals, and direct or vicarious reinforcement, such as praise for weight loss.AQA
Monotropy: One special attachment to a primary figure, which is central to Bowlby's monotropic theory.AQA
Mundane Realism: The extent to which the tasks used in a study are representative of everyday life.Pearson Edexcel
myth of mental illness: Szasz's argument that mental illness is a metaphor for problems in living, criticising coercive psychiatry.OCR

N

named inferential tests: Chi-Square, the sign test, Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon signed ranks, the related t-test, the unrelated t-test, Spearman's rho or Pearson's r.AQA
named key research: The one study that every topic in the applied paper has, which learners should be able to describe and relate to the topic area.OCR
Nativist: A theoretical perspective that argues certain skills or abilities are 'native' or hard-wired into the brain at birth.OCR
nativist and empiricist accounts: Nativist evidence includes early preferences for face-like patterns and avoidance of apparent drops, while empiricist evidence includes effects of restricted…OCR
Natural experiment: The independent variable varies for reasons outside the researcher's control and would have varied anyway, as in Rutter's Romanian orphan study.AQA
Naturalistic observation: Behaviour is watched where it normally happens, so realism is high and extraneous variables are uncontrolled.AQA
nature and nurture: The biological approach is the strongest nature position and behaviourism the strongest nurture, with social learning theory and the psychodynamic approach…AQA, OCR
Nature versus nurture: The debate contrasting biological explanations, which focus on atypical brain development or genetic factors, with social and cultural explanations, which…AQA
Near misses: Two jackpot symbols and a third just off the payline are processed as near-wins and reinforce continued play despite being losses.AQA
Negative Reinforcement: The strengthening of a behaviour because it leads to the removal or avoidance of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus.Eduqas
Negative symptoms: Atypical losses of normal functioning, including speech poverty and avolition.AQA
Negative triad: A pessimistic view of the self, of the world and of the future, each feeding the next, which depression settles into.AQA
Neophobia: The flat refusal of unfamiliar food, peaking between the ages of two and six, which kept mobile toddlers from sampling poison.AQA
Neural correlates of positive and negative symptoms: Brain measures that travel with symptoms, such as low ventral striatum activity tracking negative-symptom severity and reduced activation in the superior…AQA
neural plasticity: The structure of the brain changes with experience, as shown in an animal and in adults.OCR
Neurochemistry: Highlights neurotransmitter imbalances, particularly serotonin and dopamine, where altered serotonin pathways can explain comorbid symptoms like perfectionism…AQA
Nominal: Data in unordered categories counted as frequencies, carrying the least information and supporting only the mode.AQA
nominal data: Counted in categories, with every item falling in one category only, the categories having no order, and the mode the only average available.AQA, OCR
Nominal data and direction of change: Data recorded simply as better or worse, a plus or a minus, that is the direction of change.AQA
Nomothetic and idiographic methods: Behaviourist, biological and cognitive research is nomothetic and experimental, psychodynamic and humanistic work idiographic and case-based.AQA
nomothetic approach: Studies many people to produce general laws, norms and predictions using standardised measures and statistical testing.AQA
Non-binary identities: Identities that exist outside the male/female dichotomy.AQA
Non-directional hypothesis: A prediction that a difference or a relationship will occur but does not say which group does better.AQA
non-parametric inferential tests: Tests of difference calculated from data from a given experiment, including the binomial sign test, the Wilcoxon signed ranks test and the Mann-Whitney test.OCR
normal distribution: A symmetrical bell shaped curve in which the mean, the median and the mode all sit together under the peak and the tails approach but never meet the…AQA, OCR
Normalisation: A technique used to reduce anxiety associated with psychotic symptoms, alongside collaborative empiricism, in testing the reality of auditory hallucinations.AQA
Normative social influence: The drive to be liked, which drives compliance.AQA
novel scenario: A situation you have not seen before, which the answer has to be about, such as this child, this offender, this office or this athlete.OCR
novel source material: A newspaper or magazine article, a blog, a diary entry, an email exchange or equivalent written source provided in the examination.OCR
null hypothesis: The assumption that is held to be true when a probability value is calculated, and which is rejected when the p-value is small enough.AQA, OCR
Null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis: The null hypothesis states there is no difference or no correlation and any pattern is due to chance; if the result reaches significance it is rejected and…AQA
null hypothesis decisions: A significant result rejects the null hypothesis and supports the alternative hypothesis, while a non-significant result does not.AQA
null hypothesis testing: Deciding whether to reject the null hypothesis by comparing probability against a significance level.AQA

O

Obedience Gap: The significant discrepancy between what people predict they will do in a moral dilemma and what they actually do when faced with it.OCR
obedience to authority: Following a direct instruction from someone perceived as legitimate authority.OCR
Object persistence earlier than Piaget claimed: Present long before the eight months Piaget allowed for object permanence.AQA
Objectivity: Keeping expectations out of data by using standardised, blind designs.AQA
objectivity and control: Measurement does not depend on who took it, supported by concrete controls such as standardised instructions, operationalised measures, double blind…OCR
observation: Watching behaviour as it happens, coded against categories agreed beforehand, keeps the behaviour real, but risks observer bias unless categories are…OCR
observation and reactivity: Performance changes when workers know they are watched, making observation both a tool for improving safety and a threat to the validity of any study that…OCR
Observational learning and vicarious reinforcement: Observation of a model and vicarious reinforcement are shown by imitation of specific acts in Bandura's 1961 Bobo doll study and his 1965 punished-model study.AQA
observed and critical values: The observed value comes from the inferential test, and a table of critical values decides whether that value is unlikely enough to count.AQA
observed value: The frequency actually counted in a cell of the table.AQA
office personalisation: Marking a workspace with personal displays, which employees gain from through satisfaction with the physical environment leading to job satisfaction and…OCR
one tailed and two tailed tests: Whether the hypothesis was directional (one-tailed) or non-directional (two-tailed) is one of the three things needed to find a critical value in a table.AQA, OCR
open and closed questions: Closed items and rating scales give numbers that compare easily across a large sample, while open items give depth that resists summary.OCR
open plan and hot desking: Workplace arrangements that stress territory and personal space at once, since an open plan floor removes the walls that marked a primary territory and hot…OCR
Open questions: Questions that invite a free answer, which is richer and less researcher-led, though the replies then need qualitative analysis or coding through content…AQA
operant conditioning: The mechanism behind the incentive inhaler, in which the whistle and spinner reward a slow deep breath, which raises adherence to the treatment.AQA, OCR
Operant conditioning of attachment: Crying brings food and comfort, and the carer is negatively reinforced when it stops.AQA
operationalisation: Defining each variable precisely enough for replication, by providing a measurable indicator, unit, or scale.AQA, OCR
Operationalised behavioural categories: A breakdown of the target behaviour into observable, clearly defined items that do not overlap, so the observer can tick without interpreting anything.AQA
Operationalised variables: Variables named in a hypothesis with both conditions of the IV in the sentence and the DV in something countable.AQA
order effects: Effects such as practice, fatigue and boredom that arise when the same people take part in every condition, which counterbalancing addresses.AQA, OCR
order of magnitude estimation: An order-of-magnitude calculation estimates the scale of a value using powers of ten and provides a quick plausibility check.AQA
Ordinal: Data put in rank order with unequal intervals, such as a subjective rating, carrying more information and supporting the median.AQA
ordinal data: Can be placed in rank order, but the gaps between ranks are unequal and the units are not standardised, so the median is the safe average.AQA, OCR
outliers: Extreme scores that distort the mean, which the median resists.AQA, OCR
outlying scores: Extremes that entirely distort the range, whereas standard deviation incorporates every value.AQA
Overcrowding, regime and staffing: Situational factors such as overcrowding, heat and staffing that make aggression a way of regaining control.AQA
Overt observation: Participants know, which is ethically defensible but produces reactivity and social desirability in what is displayed.AQA

P

Pains of imprisonment: Lost liberty, autonomy, goods, intimate relationships and security, which make aggression a way of regaining control.AQA
paired comparison: Holding the two core studies in a pair against each other to identify how they are similar and how they are different.OCR
Paradigm: The shared assumptions of a discipline, which Kuhn said psychology lacks, making it a pre-science.AQA, OCR
Parametric assumptions: The extra requirements the parametric tests carry: interval level data, a roughly normal distribution, and similar variance across the conditions.AQA
parasocial relationship: A one sided relationship in which the fan knows the celebrity intimately but the celebrity does not know the fan exists, so there is no risk of rejection.AQA
participant and researcher effects: Demand characteristics are cues that let participants work out the aim, social desirability is answering to look good, researcher/observer bias is subjective…OCR
participant variables: Individual differences that are held constant with repeated measures but sit between the groups in an independent groups design and could produce the result…AQA, OCR
PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist-Revised): A 20-item clinical rating scale used to assess psychopathic traits.OCR
Perceived Control: The belief that one has the ability to influence or manage a situation, even if that ability is not exercised.OCR
percentage calculation: The count in the category, divided by the total number of recorded behaviours, multiplied by 100, with the percent sign written in the answer.AQA
percentage change: The before-and-after difference divided by the original value and multiplied by 100, with the direction of travel, increase or decrease, stated.OCR
percentage of a total: Divide the count for one category by the total and multiply by 100, where the total is the number of observations or trials in that condition.OCR
Peripheral nervous system: Everything outside the brain and spinal cord, transmitting messages to and from the central nervous system.AQA
personal space and proxemics: A portable bubble described in work on proxemics, shrinking for intimates and expanding for strangers, and invaded rather than entered.OCR
Personality traits: Characteristics such as high levels of neuroticism or impulsivity that can lead individuals to self-medicate or engage in risky behaviours.AQA
Perspective-taking: Selman proposed five levels, from undifferentiated (egocentric) to societal, where children gradually learn to simultaneously consider multiple viewpoints.AQA
persuasive intent: Something children below eight rarely recognise in commercials.OCR
phase delay rotation: A rotation moving morning to afternoon to night follows the natural drift of the clock, while a backward rotation forces a phase advance the body resists.OCR
Phenotype: The observable characteristics resulting from the interaction of the genotype with the environment.AQA
phonological loop: Codes acoustically, split into the phonological store and the articulatory process, with about two seconds of capacity.AQA
Physical dependence: The body has adapted to the substance, so its absence produces a physiological withdrawal state and use continues partly to avoid that state.AQA
physiological vs non-physiological explanations: Accounts of criminal behaviour divide into physiological explanations, such as autonomic underarousal and brain dysfunction, and non-physiological…OCR
pie chart angles: Each category's share of the grand total multiplied by three hundred and sixty degrees, with the finished angles summing to a full turn.OCR
pie chart construction: Dividing each category total by the grand total, multiplying by 360, and labelling every sector with its category and its percentage.AQA
pilot studies: A test of whether the instructions are understood or the task is too easy, and what you would change as a result.OCR
Pituitary: The master gland, itself instructed by the hypothalamus, releasing hormones that direct other glands.AQA
plausibility checking of results: Compare the estimate with the precise calculation: a large discrepancy signals that the arithmetic, decimal position or units should be checked.AQA
plausibility checks: Checking the answer against the possible range, so an estimated average has to fall between the smallest and the largest score the measure allows.OCR
Polygenic: OCD is influenced by many candidate genes rather than a single gene, as shown by Taylor identifying up to 230 candidate genes.AQA
Polygenic and heterogeneous causation: It is polygenic, and Ripke's genome study found over a hundred variations, so different combinations of genes can produce the same diagnosis.AQA
Population and sample conventions: Divide by N when the data are treated as the complete population, or by N−1 when estimating a population from a sample.AQA
positive and negative skew: A long tail stretching towards the high scores is a positive skew and a long tail towards the low scores is a negative skew, named from the tail rather than…AQA
Positive correlation: A relationship in which points on the plot rise from left to right.AQA
Positive Reinforcement: The process of encouraging or establishing a pattern of behaviour by offering a reward when the behaviour is exhibited.OCR
Positive symptoms: Atypical additions to normal experience, including hallucinations and delusions.AQA
Post-event discussion: Discussion between co-witnesses that causes memory contamination.AQA
powers of ten: Scientific notation expresses a value such as 50 as 5 × 10^1, so its order of magnitude is 10^1.AQA
practical applications: Recognising the psychological content in the source, making evidence-based suggestions in relation to the source, and considering the strengths and weaknesses…OCR
practical intervention: A suggestion that is usable, including who does what, when and with what materials rather than naming a technique and moving on.OCR
primary and secondary data: Data gathered first-hand for the current aim, whereas pre-existing data were collected by someone else.OCR
primary and secondary territory: Primary space is owned and controlled, while secondary space is shared but familiar.OCR
primary data: Data collected by the researcher dealing directly with participants for this investigation, gathered at first hand for the question in front of them.AQA, OCR
Probability and chance: Inferential statistics use probability to decide what can be claimed about the wider population, and significance is a statement about probability rather than…AQA
probability and significance level: A probability compared against the five percent significance level before a result can be called significant.AQA
procedure and replication: The decisions that turned the problem into a testable procedure, described in three or four sentences that a stranger could follow.OCR
Protection from harm: Distress is addressed by a full debrief, offering to withdraw data, and counselling.AQA
psychic determinism: Unconscious conflicts formed in early childhood, with parapraxes treated as caused rather than accidental.AQA
psychodynamic perspective: A set of assumptions treating behaviour as driven by conflicts a person cannot report.OCR
Psychological dependence: A compulsion to experience the effect again, shown in craving, preoccupation and the belief that one cannot function without it.AQA
psychological therapies: Non-biological treatments that apply these theories, such as using cognitive behavioural therapy to challenge irrational beliefs in depression.OCR
Psychosexual stages and fixation: Personality develops through the oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages, and unresolved conflict leaves a fixation carried into adult behaviour.AQA
Psychosocial Law: The principle that the first source of influence has the most impact, and each additional source has progressively less impact.Pearson Edexcel
Public policy: How the research might be used to shape public policy.AQA
publication bias: A bias toward significant results which leaves the file drawer full of non-significant studies, so the published literature looks stronger than the evidence…OCR
Publication bias and the file drawer problem: Journals prefer positive, novel results, so replications and null findings go unpublished.AQA
purpose of each section: The role a part of the report plays, learned as a chain of purposes rather than as a list of headings.OCR

Q

qualitative and quantitative data: Closed items give quantitative data that can be compared across a large sample, while open items give qualitative detail no fixed option would have caught.OCR
qualitative data: Recorded as words, images or meanings, it is rich and has greater external validity, yet what it means depends on the researcher reading it, so it invites…AQA, OCR
quantitative and qualitative data: Numerical data supporting statistical analysis, whereas descriptive words preserve rich meaning.OCR
quantitative data: Data produced by tallying the frequency of codes, allowing for easier comparison, identification of patterns, and subsequent statistical analysis.AQA, OCR
Quasi-experiment: The independent variable is a pre-existing characteristic of the participants, such as age, sex or a diagnosis, and cannot be manipulated at all.AQA, OCR
question design: Open questions allow respondents to answer in their own words, yielding qualitative data, whereas closed questions restrict options, producing quantitative…OCR

R

Random allocation: The control used in an independent groups design, where a different set of people does each condition, to deal with participant variables between the groups.AQA, OCR
random sample: A sample in which every member of the target population has an equal chance of selection, requiring a complete sampling frame, a unique identifier for each…AQA
random sampling: Every member has an equal chance of selection, which in practice means a complete list of the population and then a lottery or a random number generator.OCR
range: The highest score minus the lowest score, written with its unit, giving a quick measure of how variable a condition was.AQA, OCR
range as a measure of dispersion: The largest score minus the smallest, a single number rather than a pair, which can be read off a table in seconds.OCR
ranking and tied scores: Assigning ranks to scores, with tied scores given the mean of the ranks they would have occupied.OCR
rating scales: A Likert rating scale pairs a statement with an agreement scale, while a semantic differential rating scale places opposing adjectives at either end of a line…OCR
ratio and fraction forms: A ratio compares part with part in its simplest terms, while a fraction and a percentage both express a part of the whole.AQA
raw data handling: Add all the scores in one condition, then divide by the number of scores in that condition, writing the sum out to show the working.AQA
raw data tables: Tables designed to capture untreated individual results, with one row per participant, one column per condition, units in headings and a clear title.OCR
raw frequency data: Keep the raw counts alongside the converted figures, because an inferential test on nominal data works from the frequencies themselves and never from the…AQA
Real-world impact of psychology: The chain from a finding, through a change in behaviour or policy, to a cost, which is where the marks are.AQA
reconstructive memory: Memory is treated here as reconstructive and context-sensitive, with information added after the event rather than permanently destroyed.OCR
recovering a mean: Dividing an overall score by the number of participants returns the mean without anyone ever seeing an individual score.OCR
Reductionism: A criticism of biological theories that explains gender incongruence in terms of brain structure anomalies or genetic vulnerability alone.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
reductionism and holism: Biology reduces behaviour to genes and neurotransmitters and behaviourism to stimulus and response, while humanistic psychology insists on the whole person.AQA, OCR
Reductionism vs Holism: A criticism of this approach is biological reductionism, as it ignores the significant role of socialisation and cognitive processes in shaping gender identity.AQA
Refining materials and instructions: Checking that instructions are understood and that a questionnaire's ambiguous, leading or intrusive items are exposed, so the design can be modified before…AQA
Rehearsal: The process that transfers information into the long-term store.AQA
reinforcement and adherence: Positive reinforcement works because the toy rewards the correct breathing pattern, and what improved was adherence, meaning how often and how correctly the…OCR
related and unrelated designs: If a difference is tested, the design is related when it is repeated measures or matched pairs, and unrelated when it is independent groups.AQA
Related design (repeated measures, matched pairs): A design that is repeated measures or matched pairs, which is one of the three conditions needed for the sign test.AQA
relevance to the topic: Explaining what the study shows about the issue the topic is built on, connecting its conclusions to the theoretical background.OCR
Reliability: Consistency, established by test-retest, inter-observer agreement or split-half, and kept distinct from validity.AQA
reliability and validity: Reliability is consistency, internal (split-half) and external (test-retest, inter-rater), while validity is accuracy, internal, external (population,…OCR
repeated measures and control conditions: A repeated measures comparison is one in which each person acts as their own baseline, and the absence of a control group in small before and after studies is…OCR
Repeated Measures Design: An experimental design where the same participants take part in each condition of the independent variable.OCR
replicability: The public test in which an independent team obtains the same result by the same method, since a finding seen once has not yet earned belief.OCR
replication: Writing the method in enough detail that another researcher could repeat the study and obtain comparable results.OCR
replication crisis: The evidence, such as the Open Science Collaboration finding that fewer than half of a hundred repeated published psychology findings reached significance…OCR
report conventions: The fixed running order that a journal article follows because each part answers a different question for the reader.OCR
reporting a mean with spread: The range is quoted alongside the mean rather than in place of it, and a wide spread warns that the mean represents nobody in particular.OCR
reporting conventions: Expressing the outcome of an inferential test in the conventional form, including the test name, calculated value, degrees of freedom or participant number,…OCR
representativeness: The extent to which a sample reflects the population, with stratified sampling offering high representativeness by reflecting the population's exact…AQA, OCR
representativeness and generalisability: Stratification improves representativeness but takes time and depends on accurate population figures, and a large biased sample is still biased.OCR
Representativeness of the mean: The mean uses every score, making it the most representative measure when there are no anomalies.AQA
research ethics: The ethical costs of deception, a compromised right to withdraw and psychological distress, weighed against debriefing.OCR
research funding: Money allocated by the same machinery of peer review that judges manuscripts, alongside the selection of conference papers.OCR
Restorative justice: Shifts the focus from state punishment to victim healing, facilitating supervised communication between the offender and victim to encourage offender…AQA
Restraint theory: The cognitive restriction of food intake which paradoxically increases the risk of overeating.AQA
results before interpretation: Giving a figure and a direction, such as the means for two named conditions and which was higher, and saving interpretation for the conclusion.OCR
results without interpretation: The results section houses descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, but the discussion interprets these findings.OCR
retrievability: The purpose of a citation, so that a reader should be able to go to a database and find the exact article you leant on.OCR
retrieval failure: The trace is still there but the cue has gone, so material is available but not accessible.AQA
Reunion behaviour as the key indicator: The reunion response is the most telling of the five behaviours scored, showing what the baby does when the carer comes back.AQA
review evidence: Other researchers' data rather than an experiment, so the contribution of the source is methodological critique.OCR
Reward Pathways: Nicotine stimulates the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, activating the brain's reward pathway and producing intense pleasure.AQA
reward sensitivity and risk taking: An early-maturing reward system and a later-maturing control system together propose why risk-taking rises through adolescence and then declines.OCR
risk assessment: A plan that names the hazard, the person at risk, how likely and how severe the harm is, and the control measure attached to that specific hazard.OCR
Ritualised aggression: Fights within a species that are ritualistic and end in appeasement displays, settling hierarchy and spreading animals over territory without killing.AQA
rounding conventions: Rounding examines the next digit, rounding up from five, and the sign of a correlation coefficient is retained when rounding.OCR

S

Sally-Anne study: A false belief task where children must recognise that Sally will look for her marble where she falsely believes it is, not where Anne moved it.AQA
Sample and population: Descriptive statistics summarise the sample, while inferential statistics use probability to decide what can be claimed about the wider population the sample…AQA
sampling and generalisability: Representativeness is the sample sharing the characteristics of the target population, and generalisability is how far findings extend beyond it.OCR
sampling frame: A comprehensive list of the target population, needed for random sampling, with a unique identifier assigned to each member.AQA
Scaffolding: The process of providing tailored, temporary support to a learner by a more knowledgeable other, which is gradually withdrawn as the learner becomes more…OCR
Scaffolding and the fading of support: Temporary, graded help from a more knowledgeable other that is reduced and finally removed as the learner takes over.AQA
scaffolding and the zone of proximal development: Vygotsky proposed the zone of proximal development, the gap between independent and assisted performance, and Wood et al.OCR
scatter diagrams: A sketch plotting two sets of continuous co-variables from the same participants, where each dot represents one participant's scores on both variables.OCR
Scattergram: The display with one co-variable on each axis and one point per participant, so the pattern is visible at a glance.AQA
scattergrams: Display a correlation, with one co-variable on each axis, one dot per participant, and the shape of the cloud showing direction and strength.AQA, OCR
Schema: A mental framework of beliefs developed through experience that organises information, allowing rapid cognitive processing but also distorting interpretations.AQA
schemas and stages: Piaget describes children revising schemas through assimilation and accommodation, passing through stages characterised by object permanence, egocentrism,…OCR
secondary data: Information that already existed because somebody else gathered it for their own purposes, and is then reused, such as official statistics, hospital records…AQA, OCR
secure base behaviour: Using the caregiver as a base for exploration, observed through whether a baby does so in the short separation and reunion episodes.OCR
Secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant types: Secure explores and is easily comforted, insecure-avoidant shows little distress and ignores the carer on return, insecure-resistant is distressed and seeks…AQA
self efficacy: A belief about a specific task in a specific moment, built from past accomplishment, watching similar others succeed, persuasion by a coach and the reading a…OCR
Self-actualisation: The innate tendency to achieve one's full potential and become the best one can possibly be.AQA
self-disclosure: Something that is often higher in computer-mediated communication and on which relationships can develop online rather than on superficial features.AQA
self-evaluation: Considering the strengths and weaknesses of the suggestion(s) they themselves are making, covering practicality, cost, time, ethics, or long-term effectiveness.OCR
self-report: Depends on the person's own account, such as ticking major events experienced in the past year or rating the previous month's demands and pleasures.AQA, OCR
sensitivity to anomalies: Because every score is used, one extreme score can drag the mean away from the bulk of the data.AQA
Serotonin: An inhibitory neurotransmitter that maintains the orbitofrontal brake, so low levels mean impulsive violence.AQA
Serotonin pathways: Pathways that normally signal satiety, so dysfunction can prevent the feeling of fullness, contributing to weight gain.AQA
Side effects and tardive dyskinesia: Typical drugs carry weight gain, dizziness and sleepiness, and tardive dyskinesia is the involuntary facial movements caused by dopamine supersensitivity.AQA
Sign stimulus: A specific stimulus that activates the innate releasing mechanism and so releases the behaviour.AQA
significance levels: The accepted probability is 0.05, meaning a result this extreme would arise by chance about five times in a hundred, with a stricter 0.01 used where a false…OCR
significant figures: Counted from the first non-zero digit, with leading zeros in decimals acting as placeholders and not significant.AQA, OCR
similarity: The condition that makes interference worse, shown by recall of the first list falling most when the new words were synonyms.AQA
simple probability: The likelihood of an event occurring, expressed as a number between 0 and 1, a fraction, or a percentage.AQA
Single blind: A procedure that hides the condition and aim from the participant to reduce demand characteristics.AQA
situational explanations: Accounts that treat what ordinary people do when an instruction is wrong as a case of the situation rather than the person.OCR
Situational Hypothesis: The theory that the primary cause of behaviour is the external social environment and situational pressures.OCR
Skew: An asymmetrical distribution named after its tail, with positive skew having a long tail to the right and negative skew its mirror image.AQA
skewed distributions: In a positive skew the mean is pulled higher than the median and mode by extreme high scores; in a negative skew the mean is pulled lower.AQA
Skin conductance: Two electrodes pass a tiny current across the fingertips, and sympathetic arousal opens the eccrine sweat glands so conductance rises within seconds.AQA
small-scale practical work: Research practicals that learners conduct and analyse themselves, including appropriate risk assessment and management.OCR
social and distraction explanations: Psychological routes to lifted mood that have nothing to do with chemistry, namely distraction from rumination, mastery of a difficult task and the company of…OCR
Social construction of knowledge and internalisation: Knowledge is co-constructed with others and then internalised, moving from between people to within the child.AQA
social desirability: A bias reduced by anonymous completion or filler items, and distinguished from reversing item direction, which detects acquiescence or response bias.AQA, OCR
social desirability bias: A threat to both questionnaires and interviews, in which the respondent may not tell you honestly, for example inflating reported medication use or reported…OCR
social exchange theory: We weigh rewards against costs and judge the profit against two standards, a comparison level set by past relationships and a comparison level for alternatives.AQA
social facilitation and inhibition: Audience presence facilitates a well-learned skill but inhibits a novel one, as the same social condition helps one task and hinders the other.OCR
Social Impact: The effect that real, imagined, or implied presence of other people has on an individual's thoughts, feelings, or actions.Pearson Edexcel
Social influences: Mechanisms such as social learning, where observing peers or family members receiving social rewards for smoking may lead an adolescent to imitate this…AQA
social learning: Learning that extends behaviourism by including mental processes such as attention, retention, reproduction and motivation.AQA, OCR
social learning theory: Explaining the incentive inhaler with this theory is a mistake, because the mechanism is operant reinforcement and mixing the two theories loses explanation…AQA, OCR
social loafing: A motivation failure where effort drops because an individual contribution cannot be identified.OCR
Social support: The presence of another person who dissents breaks the unanimity of the majority and makes independent behaviour possible.AQA
socially sensitive research: Research whose findings carry real-world consequences, such as the use of the army figures in the immigration debate or the use of language analysis in risk…AQA, OCR
soft determinism: Causes constrain the options but conscious reasoning still selects among them.AQA
Somatic branch: Under voluntary control, carrying sensory information in from receptors and motor commands out to skeletal muscle.AQA
Source: The person or group of people who are exerting social influence.Pearson Edexcel
specificity of detail: The amount of concrete detail attached to the person described, which nearly always separates good answers from weaker ones that stay general.OCR
split brain research: Sperry tested patients whose corpus callosum had been cut, flashing images to one visual field for a fraction of a second while the eyes stayed fixed on a…OCR
sport confidence: The broader and more stable expectation of succeeding in a sport.OCR
sport orientation: The question of what winning means to the athlete, whether the goal is the outcome, the contest or personal improvement.OCR
Spread of scores: How variable a condition was, commented on by estimating the range, where a small range means scores cluster close together.AQA
SSRIs: Drug therapy that blocks reuptake at the synapse so serotonin stays in the cleft, taking 3-4 months and often combined with CBT.AQA
stages of moral reasoning: Kohlberg identified six stages across preconventional, conventional and postconventional levels, with the stage determined by the reasoning provided rather…OCR
standard and decimal form: Standard form writes a number as a value a where 1 ≤ a < 10 multiplied by a power of ten, while decimal form is the ordinary written version.OCR
standard deviation: The square root of the variance, expressed in the original units, showing whether a condition produced a consistent effect.AQA, OCR
standard deviation within a normal curve: Roughly 68 percent of scores fall within one standard deviation of the mean and roughly 95 percent within two.AQA
standard form notation: Writes a value as a number between one and ten multiplied by a power of ten, used to print very small probabilities without a queue of zeros.AQA, OCR
Standardisation: Keeping all situational variables and procedures identical for every participant.AQA
Statistical calculations: Following the correct order of operations in statistical formulae, such as subtracting, squaring, and dividing before summing in Chi Square.OCR
Statistical infrequency: Identifying behaviours outside the normal distribution curve as abnormal.AQA
stratified sample: A sample that reflects the exact proportions of relevant subgroups (strata) within the population, obtained by identifying the strata, calculating their…AQA
stratified sampling: The subgroups that matter are identified, the proportion each holds in the population is worked out, and selection is random inside each stratum so those…OCR
strengths and weaknesses of methods: A strength of a method counts when it is shown happening in the study, for example a field experiment keeping the independent variable under the researcher's…OCR
Stress Inoculation Therapy (SIT): A cognitive approach where patients conceptualise stressors, learn coping skills, and apply them.AQA
stress management: Strategies such as acoustic insulation or increasing perceived control, such as allowing individuals to predict or stop the noise, that mitigate biological…OCR
Structured interview: Pre-set questions asked in a fixed order, so it is replicable, comparable across respondents and needs little training.AQA
study anatomy: The sequence of background, method, results and conclusions through which each core study is told as a story rather than as a headline.OCR
Subordinating Conjunctions: Words that connect a main clause with a dependent clause, often to show a cause-and-effect relationship (e.g., because, since, as, so that).OCR
substituted line: Written out in full before the answer, because the method mark survives an arithmetic slip while a bare wrong number earns nothing.AQA
Substitution into formulae: Inserting the appropriate values from a given set of data into the formula for a statistical test, such as inserting the N value into the Chi Square formula.OCR
summarising raw data: Calculating summary statistics for each condition from the raw numerical data provided by a record sheet.OCR
Summation: The net effect of excitatory and inhibitory input decides whether the threshold is crossed and the neuron fires.AQA
Sympathomedullary pathway: Acute stress triggers this pathway, in which the hypothalamus signals the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline, initiating the 'fight or flight' response.AQA
Symptom overlap: When two conditions share the same symptoms, which complicates accurate diagnosis.AQA
Synaptic transmission: A neuron carries information electrically along its own length and chemically to the next cell, with vesicles releasing neurotransmitter into the synaptic…AQA

T

Target: The person or group of people who are being influenced by the source(s).Pearson Edexcel
Target cells: Cells carrying the right receptors, which is why a bloodstream signal has selective effects.AQA
target population: The group from which a sample is drawn, and how the sample is drawn decides how far the findings can travel.OCR
task and social cohesion: Cohesion splits into the task kind, agreement about the job, and the social kind, liking one another, and only the first reliably tracks success.OCR
Taste aversion: Avoidance of sweetened water after a single pairing with radiation-induced nausea, even with hours between taste and sickness, showing biological preparedness.AQA
Temperament: A plausible third factor offered as the standard alternative account of the same correlations.AQA
Temporal validity: Whether findings hold true across different eras, generalising to other times.AQA
Tend and befriend: A response females often show, used by Taylor et al.AQA
test selection: Choosing the test from three features of the study: difference or relationship, independent or repeated design, and level of data.OCR
test selection criteria: The three criteria required for test selection are the nature of the hypothesis (difference or correlation), the experimental design (independent or…OCR
test validity: The extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to capture, damaged when rooms were crowded, time was short and some recruits had never held a pencil.OCR
Testosterone: An androgen linked to aggression in males, correlating with aggression in Dolan's offender patients, though levels also rise after winning.AQA
Tests of difference versus tests of correlation: Whether the study is looking for a difference between conditions or an association between two variables.AQA
The dual-centre model: The lateral hypothalamus is the on switch and the ventromedial hypothalamus is the off switch for feeding.AQA
The more knowledgeable other: The person alongside whom a child manages what they cannot yet manage alone, crossing the gap.AQA
the null hypothesis: The position that there is no difference or relationship in the population, and any observed difference is due to chance.OCR
The original and revised dopamine hypothesis: The original blames excess subcortical dopamine for positive symptoms, while Davis added low prefrontal dopamine for negative ones.AQA
The schizophrenogenic mother and the double bind: A cold, rejecting and controlling mother creates tension and secrecy leading to distrust and paranoid delusions, while the double bind is contradictory…AQA
The third-variable problem: Without manipulation and control of extraneous variables, the association may run either way or come from a third variable.AQA
the unconscious mind: The psychodynamic idea that behaviour is driven by unconscious conflicts, with repression keeping memories unconscious.AQA, OCR
Thematic analysis: Lets recurring qualitative ideas emerge as themes, which are re-applied to fresh material for verification.AQA
theoretical background: The theories, definitions, and earlier findings that contextualise key research in a topic area.OCR
Theory of Mind: The ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others.AQA
Theory of Mind (ToM): The ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intentions, desires, emotions, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and to others, and to understand that others have…OCR
third variable problem: One of the two criticisms that reliably earn evaluation marks, alongside the possibility that the causal arrow runs the other way.OCR
Third variables: An untested variable that may be driving both co-variables, so a correlation cannot demonstrate causation.AQA
Thrifty gene: An evolutionary concept suggesting ancestors who stored fat survived famines, making these genes maladaptive today.AQA
Tied scores and how they are handled: Participants whose score did not change are discarded from N as well as from the count of signs.AQA
time sampling: Recording only what is happening at fixed intervals, which makes the workload manageable but the sampled moments may misrepresent everything in between.AQA, OCR
Tolerance: A reduced response to the same dose after repeated use, explained by receptor downregulation, so the user escalates the amount to get the original effect.AQA, Eduqas
trait theories of personality: Approaches assuming stable dispositions such as extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism that can be scored by questionnaire and compared across groups.OCR
translating data forms: Moving information between graphical, numerical and algebraic forms, such as reading a chart to find a numerical total or expressing a relationship…AQA
treatment adherence: Raised by the whistle and spinner rewarding a slow deep breath, and quoted as a comparison between the incentive device and the ordinary spacer over…OCR
Trialling a procedure: A small-scale version of the whole procedure, carried out on a few participants before the real investigation, to find problems while they are still cheap to…AQA
Triangulation of measures: Combining skin conductance with cortisol and self-report, which is stronger than either alone because conductance lacks specificity.AQA
twin and family designs: An extended twin-family design asks whether parents pass ability on through genes, the home environment, or both.OCR
type 1 and type 2 errors: Accepting a difference that is not really there, made more likely by a lenient level, and missing a real one, made more likely by a strict level, where…AQA, OCR
Type A: A personality sorted by manner as competitive, time-urgent and hostile, contrasted with the relaxed and tolerant Type B.AQA
Type C: A personality that suppresses anger to keep the peace and is linked, far more weakly, to poorer cancer outcomes.AQA
Type I error: Rejecting a true null hypothesis, a risk reduced by lowering the significance level.OCR
Type I error (false positive): The null hypothesis is rejected when it is in fact true, so an effect is claimed that does not exist, and it gets likelier if the level is relaxed.AQA
Type II error: Retaining a false null hypothesis, a risk increased by lowering the significance level.OCR
types of data: Credited by consequence, so numbers allow conditions to be compared and tested statistically, while a case record keeps the meaning that an average removes.OCR
Typical versus atypical antipsychotics: Typical drugs are dopamine antagonists with strong side effects, while atypical drugs act on a wider range of receptors with a better side-effect profile, and…AQA
Typology approach: Classifies offenders as organised or disorganised types based on FBI interviews with serial killers.AQA

U

understanding disorders: The theme that asks how a disorder is explained and how it is detected, answered here by two studies that could hardly be further apart.OCR
Units and physical quantities: Keeping units consistent and carrying them into the answer, so that times in seconds are not mixed with milliseconds.OCR
universality: The claim that a psychological finding applies to all people, in all cultures and at all times, regardless of gender.AQA
Unstructured interview: A topic rather than a schedule, with follow-up questions, producing rich qualitative data but low standardisation and difficult analysis.AQA
usefulness of research: A methodological issue and debate concerned with the value of research, considered alongside how psychology contributes to the success of the economy and…OCR

V

validation of new knowledge: The role of the psychological community in judging whether a study's method supports its conclusion, whether the statistics were applied properly, whether the…OCR
Validation of research quality: One function of peer review, judging whether the method and statistics really support the conclusions before a study appears in a journal.AQA
Validity: A methodological issue and debate kept apart from reliability, as in attacks on the validity of the medical model's psychiatric diagnosis.AQA, OCR
Variable ratio: Wins come after an unpredictable number of bets, which produces a high, steady rate of responding and the strongest resistance to extinction.AQA
Variance and standard deviation: The variance is the squared-deviation total divided by the required denominator, and the standard deviation is its positive square root.AQA
Vicarious reinforcement: Observing others rewarded, which increases the likelihood of imitation.AQA
visual cliff: A glass-topped table with patterned material directly under the glass on one side and far below it on the other, used by Gibson and Walk (1960) to test depth…OCR
visuo-spatial sketchpad: Codes visual and spatial information, with a capacity of three to four objects.AQA
volunteer bias: Invited when self-selected sampling means respondents may be unusually compliant.OCR

W

whistle blowing: Reporting the researcher to an ethics committee rather than complying with or refusing an unethical request.OCR
Whistleblowing: The act of reporting wrongdoing or unethical conduct within an organisation to internal or external authorities.OCR
Withdrawal: A set of unpleasant physical and psychological symptoms experienced when a person abruptly stops or reduces their intake of a substance they are dependent on.Eduqas
Withdrawal syndrome: Symptoms appearing on cessation or reduction, typically the opposite of the drug's acute effects, such as a stimulant leaving fatigue and low mood.AQA
Worry circuit: An overactive circuit in the orbitofrontal cortex and basal ganglia, which the neural explanation adds alongside low serotonin.AQA

Z

zero tolerance: An order maintenance policing approach in New York that the argument later justified, where recorded crime fell steeply although economists attribute much of…OCR
Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): The gap between what a learner can achieve independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more knowledgeable other.OCR
Zone of proximal development as potential ability: The distance between current unaided performance and what can be achieved with expert guidance, measuring potential.AQA

Other terms

'What the hell' effect: When the cognitive boundary is breached, restrained eaters continue eating until reaching maximum biological capacity.AQA

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Each definition is one we publish on a Psychology A-Level topic page or study guide. Open a term to see how each exam board words it and which topic it belongs to. For the full course, go to Psychology revision or the glossary for every subject.

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