Psychology GCSE

Psychology GCSE glossary

640 key terms for Psychology GCSE, A to Z, each linked to the topic pages that use it.

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A

Ability: An innate talent, which is distinguished from effort as hard work when explaining the components of the theory.Pearson Edexcel
Accommodation: Modifying an existing schema or creating a new one when new information cannot be assimilated.AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel
Active construction of reality: Perception uses inferences from visual cues and past experience to build a model of reality rather than passively copying the world.AQA
Active, discovery-based learning: Children build understanding through their own experience, so educators provide hands-on activities rather than passive transmission of facts.AQA
Adaptive function of communication: Signals are adaptive because they gave a survival or social advantage, such as deterring rivals without a fight or alerting others to danger.AQA
Addiction: Internet addiction was the condition treated in the study, with CBT found to be an effective treatment offering long-term benefits.Pearson Edexcel
Adorno's theory of the authoritarian personality: Proposes that some people develop a personality type that makes them more likely to obey authority and to be hostile to those seen as inferior.AQA
Affordances: The action possibilities of an object, such as a chair 'affording' sitting.Pearson Edexcel
Agentic state: Acting as an agent for an authority and transferring responsibility to that authority.AQA
Allocation of participants to conditions: Describes how participants are allocated to conditions in an experiment, with independent groups, repeated measures and matched pairs as the designs.AQA
Alternative hypothesis: A precise, testable statement predicting the outcome of a psychological study, stating that there will be a significant difference or relationship between…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Ambiguity and illusory contours: An ambiguous line drawing that flips between two orientations, as in the Necker cube, or a bright triangle that seems present although no triangle is drawn,…AQA
Ambiguity in perception: An image can be read in more than one way, so perception switches between readings because the cues do not settle on one interpretation.AQA
Ambiguous figures: Illusions that offer multiple interpretations, having two distinct interpretations.Pearson Edexcel
Anger-management programmes: Use cognitive behavioural therapy to help offenders identify triggers and learn coping mechanisms to control aggressive impulses.Pearson Edexcel
Animal communication: The passing on of information about a distant resource, shown in bees without human-like language.AQA
Animal-human relationships: Relationships with pets, used by this study to illustrate how external factors can influence the development of the self.Pearson Edexcel
Anterograde amnesia: The inability to form new memories after the onset of the condition, meaning recent events or people just met cannot be remembered.Pearson Edexcel
Anti-social behaviour: Actions that harm others or disrupt society, such as rioting, vandalism, looting or aggressive mob actions.Pearson Edexcel
Application of developmental stages to education: Teachers match tasks to the stage the child has reached, using hands-on objects with concrete operational pupils and abstract, hypothetical problems with…AQA
Application to child examples: A child cannot use language to reason about a concept they do not yet understand, and describes an object only once they understand it.AQA
Application to examples: If a language has many distinct colour terms, speakers may discriminate those colours more readily.AQA
Application to examples of behaviour: Take a behaviour, such as intelligence or aggression, and identify one biological explanation and one environmental explanation, then explain how they could…AQA
Applying function to scenarios: In a scenario you match the described job to the correct structure, such as a person struggling to keep balance.AQA
Applying individual effects to examples: Take each of the three areas in turn and give a concrete example of how it might appear.AQA
Applying knowledge to realistic examples: Taking one named problem and tracing its consequences first for the person, then for the people and institutions around them, and deciding whether an example…AQA
Arithmetic mean and significant figures: The total of all scores divided by the number of scores, reported to a number of significant figures matching the precision of the data.AQA
Assimilation: Incorporating new information into an existing schema without altering that schema.AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel
Attribution: The explanation a person gives for why something happened.AQA
Authoritarian personality: A personality where individuals are highly submissive to authority and dismissive of subordinates, making them more likely to obey.Pearson Edexcel
Authority: A social factor: a legitimate, visible figure with perceived right to command increases obedience by triggering the agentic state.AQA
Autoimmune Response: A process where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks its own healthy cells and tissues.OCR
Automaticity: The result of practice and effort, which reduces the cognitive load on working memory.Pearson Edexcel
Autonomic control of involuntary function: This division controls involuntary, automatic functions such as heart rate, digestion and breathing, and divides further into the sympathetic and…AQA
Autonomic control of involuntary responses: The autonomic nervous system controls involuntary body functions and has two branches, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic.AQA
Autonomic Functions: Actions the body carries out automatically without conscious thought, such as breathing, heart rate, and digestion.Pearson Edexcel
Autonomous state: Acting on one's own conscience and accepting personal responsibility.AQA
Autonomy: The sense of independence and self-governance — the ability to make one's own decisions and take responsibility for one's actions.Pearson Edexcel
Aversion therapy: A behavioural treatment that pairs an unwanted stimulus with an unpleasant consequence so that the two become associated.AQA

B

Bar charts: Display categorical data, such as attachment types, with gaps between the bars.Pearson Edexcel
Bar charts for categorical data: A display of categorical frequencies with separate bars and gaps, where bar height equals the frequency.AQA
Basic function of each structure: Each named brain structure has a basic function you should be able to state and recognise.AQA
Beck's negative triad: Describes negative views of the self, the world and the future.AQA
Behaviour: Can be affected by damage, for example a person may become more impulsive, have changes in mood, or find it harder to plan and control their actions.AQA
Behavioural categories: Specific, observable categories used by researchers, together with tally charts, to systematically record data.Pearson Edexcel
Behavioural tasks and homework between sessions: Small behavioural tasks and homework between sessions let the client gather new evidence and practise skills.AQA
Bias: A distortion that can occur if the list has a repeating pattern that matches the interval, so selection is not always unbiased.AQA
Bias in participant selection: A distortion in how participants are chosen, which a random sample reduces because every member has an equal chance of selection.AQA
Binocular depth perception: Depth cues that need two working eyes, because the eyes sit a few centimetres apart and send slightly different information to the brain, which combines it to…AQA
Biological explanation of depression: Depression is explained by an imbalance of neurotransmitters, locating the cause in biology rather than in psychological or environmental factors.AQA
Biological explanations: For narcolepsy, the primary explanation is a lack of the brain chemical hypocretin, which regulates wakefulness, often due to an autoimmune response.Pearson Edexcel
Biological explanations of depression: Focuses on genetic inheritance, where depression runs in families and close relatives of a person with depression are more likely to develop it themselves,…AQA
Biological structures: Neurons are specialised cells that transmit electrical and chemical signals throughout the body, and the synapse is the tiny gap between neurons.Pearson Edexcel
Biological treatments: Antidepressants are a biological treatment that alters neurotransmitter activity in the brain, contrasted with psychological treatments such as CBT.AQA
Biological treatments (antidepressant medication): Antidepressant medication that alters neurotransmitter activity, for example serotonin, and assumes a biological cause.AQA
Blind obedience: Following orders from an authority figure without questioning the moral implications.Pearson Edexcel
Body language and facial expression: Features of non-verbal communication including posture, gesture and facial expression, along with eye contact.AQA
BPS ethical guidelines for research: The ethical issues in psychological research as outlined in the British Psychological Society guidelines, setting out principles researchers must follow.AQA
Brain asymmetry: The brain is asymmetrical, with specific processes dominant in one hemisphere.Pearson Edexcel
Brain stem and autonomic functions: The brain stem controls autonomic functions such as breathing and heart rate.AQA
Bystander effect: Being less likely to provide help in an emergency when other people are present, assuming someone else will intervene, such as ignoring a collapsed pedestrian…Pearson Edexcel
Bystander intervention: Helping behaviour shown by people who witness a victim in need, which Piliavin et al.AQA, Pearson Edexcel

C

Calculating from raw scores: Adding all scores and dividing by how many there are for the mean, or putting scores in order and taking the middle value for the median.AQA
Capacity: How much can be held, with sensory stores holding a great deal briefly, short-term memory limited and long-term memory effectively unlimited.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Cardinal traits: Rare, dominant traits defining a person's whole life, as categorised by Allport (1936).Pearson Edexcel
Case study: A study of one individual, such as Siffre alone in a cave, which lacks generalisability to the wider population.Pearson Edexcel
Cataplexy: A sudden, brief loss of voluntary muscle control triggered by strong emotions, during which the individual remains conscious.OCR
Categorical self: Defining oneself by properties such as age or gender, categorising oneself by traits.Pearson Edexcel
Categories of behaviour: A checklist or coding scheme of clearly defined, operationalised behaviours to record during observation.AQA
Cause and effect: What high control allows to be established between the manipulated IV and the outcome.AQA
Central nervous system: Comprises the brain and spinal cord; it processes information and coordinates responses.AQA
Central traits: General characteristics forming the personality foundation, as categorised by Allport (1936).Pearson Edexcel
Central versus peripheral roles: The central nervous system is the brain and spinal cord, while the peripheral nervous system is all the nerves outside the central nervous system and links it…AQA
Cerebellum: Responsible for coordinating motor movements and balance.Pearson Edexcel
Cerebellum and movement: The cerebellum coordinates movement and balance.AQA
Challenges of modern living: Features of present-day life, such as isolation, that can raise the risk of mental health problems by weakening the everyday support people once had.AQA
Challenging and restructuring unhelpful thoughts: The therapist helps the client notice unhelpful automatic thoughts, test them against evidence, and replace them with more realistic ones.AQA
Challenging Piaget’s methods: Two studies challenged his methods, suggesting egocentricity and lack of conservation may be reduced earlier than Piaget claimed.AQA
Changing public attitudes: Better public understanding leads to less fear and prejudice and more willingness to disclose and seek support.AQA
Characteristics and link to obedience: Rigid thinking, conventional values, respect for authority and hostility towards out-groups, with such people seen as more likely to obey without questioning.AQA
Characteristics of clinical depression: Persistent low mood, loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities, changes in sleep and appetite, tiredness, difficulty concentrating and, in severe…AQA
Chemical transmission: The release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters into the synapse when an electrical impulse reaches the end of a neuron.Pearson Edexcel
Choosing a scanning technique for a purpose: Each technique trades off detail, invasiveness and what it reveals, so the choice depends on whether structure or function is the focus.AQA
Choosing an appropriate summary: Checking whether the question asks for a measure of central tendency or of spread.AQA
Choosing appropriate displays: Selecting a display that suits the data, such as a bar chart for categories, a scatter diagram for a relationship between two variables, or a line graph for…AQA
Circadian rhythms: Bodily rhythms that operate on a 24-hour cycle, regulating the sleep-wake cycle.Pearson Edexcel
Classical conditioning: The method rests on this, as the unwanted stimulus is repeatedly presented with an aversive unconditioned stimulus so it becomes a conditioned stimulus.AQA
Classification of depression: The ICD is a classification system used by clinicians to diagnose unipolar depression.AQA
Classifying examples by content: A reliable way to classify a scenario is to ask whether it is a personal event with a time and place, a fact or meaning, or a how-to skill.AQA
Clinical depression versus ordinary sadness: Clinical depression requires persistent symptoms causing significant impairment, whereas sadness is an ordinary, usually temporary emotional response to events.AQA
Co-variables: Two variables measured in correlational research to identify a relationship between them without manipulating them.Pearson Edexcel
Coding: The form in which information is held, with sensory memory coding modality-specifically, short-term memory tending to code acoustically and long-term memory…AQA
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: A therapy whose effectiveness for internet addiction was investigated in a 12-session programme completed by 114 participants.Pearson Edexcel
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): A treatment that aims to change irrational thoughts and maladaptive behaviours.Pearson Edexcel
Cognitive behavioural therapy for addiction: A talking-based, goal-directed approach in which the therapist helps the person identify unhelpful cognitions, test them against evidence and replace them…AQA
Cognitive development: The development of thinking, including representational thinking, which Piaget argued must occur before language can develop.Pearson Edexcel
Cognitive development preceding language: Cognitive development comes first and language follows, as children can only talk about concepts they already understand.AQA
Cognitive explanations of depression: Focus on faulty thinking, including Beck's negative triad and Ellis's ABC model.AQA
Cognitive neuroscience: The study of how the structure and function of the brain relate to behaviour and cognition.AQA
Cognitive schemas: Prior knowledge that shapes perception and memory, supporting the idea that these are active processes rather than passive recordings.Pearson Edexcel
Collective behaviour: The actions of a group of people who have gathered together for a specific purpose, often behaving differently than they would alone.Pearson Edexcel
Colour recognition: How colours are recognised or grouped, which the note states may differ between cultural and linguistic groups, for example in Native American cultures.AQA
Colour vocabulary and perception: A classic illustration in which a language with fewer basic colour terms may change how speakers group and remember colours.AQA
Combining treatments: The medication is prescribed by a doctor, taken regularly over weeks rather than giving instant relief, and often combined with talking therapies.AQA
Communication of food location: What Von Frisch investigated in honeybees, using marked foraging bees and sugar solution at controlled distances and directions from the hive.AQA
Concordance and the role of environment: The extent to which twins both show the behaviour; a higher rate in identical than non-identical twins supports a genetic influence, but shared environment…AQA
Conditional positive regard: Love given only on conditions, creating conditions of worth where individuals feel they must meet expectations to be valued.Pearson Edexcel
Conditions of Worth: The standards or expectations imposed by significant others (e.g., parents) that a person must meet in order to receive positive regard.Pearson Edexcel
Confidentiality and anonymity of data: Keeping participants' data anonymous and not identifiable in reports, so that who the participant is is not disclosed.AQA
Confidentiality and privacy: Protected by anonymising data, for example using numbers instead of names, and by not observing people where they would not expect it.AQA
Confidentiality and protection from harm: Participants' data are kept private and not identifiable, and physical and psychological harm is avoided.AQA
Conflict and surprise prompt accommodation: Activities should create mild conflict or surprise so the child is prompted to accommodate and re-equilibrate.AQA
Conformity: Yielding to real or imagined group pressure, changing behaviour to fit in with a majority, like adopting a fashion trend.Pearson Edexcel
Conformity to social roles: Acting in line with the roles of guard and prisoner that were assigned in a simulated prison environment.Pearson Edexcel
Congruence: The alignment between self-image and ideal self, facilitating personal growth and required for achieving self-actualisation.Pearson Edexcel
Conservation: The ability to understand that quantity, mass or volume remains the same even when the appearance of an object changes.OCR, Pearson Edexcel
Conservation and egocentricity: In the pre-operational stage children think egocentrically and are not yet able to conserve, while conservation develops in the concrete operational stage.AQA
Constructivist theory of perception: The theory that perception is an active process in which the brain builds an interpretation from sensory information using past experience and knowledge.AQA
Context-dependent memory: Recall is better when the environment at recall matches the environment at learning, known as context-dependent forgetting when they differ.AQA
Continuity between humans and other animals: Because the behaviour is inherited, Darwin predicted similarities across humans and continuity with other animals.AQA
Contralateral control: Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body, so the left hemisphere controls the right side and the right hemisphere controls the left side.Pearson Edexcel
Contrast with language-shapes-thought views: Piaget's position is distinct from the view that language shapes or determines thought.AQA
Contributing factors versus diagnosis: Isolation is a contributing factor rather than a diagnosis, interacting with individual factors rather than acting alone as the sole cause of a mental health…AQA
Control of participant variables: Repeated measures controls participant variables by using the same participants in every condition, and matched pairs reduces them by pairing participants on…AQA
Control of variables: Researchers control extraneous variables through standardised procedures, random allocation or counterbalancing so that any difference in the dependent…AQA
Conventional stage: Moral reasoning focused on conforming to social rules and maintaining law and order to gain approval.Pearson Edexcel
Coping strategies: Skills taught to patients to avoid relapse in addiction.Pearson Edexcel
Correlation: An association between two co-variables in which, as one changes, the other tends to change too.AQA
Correlation is not causation: A scatter diagram can only suggest a possible relationship, so it does not show that one variable causes the other.AQA
Correlation versus cause: Recognising that a correlation shown on a scatter diagram does not by itself demonstrate cause.AQA
Correlational relationships: A correlation between two variables shown on a scatter diagram, which only shows a relationship, not that one causes the other.Pearson Edexcel
Correlational research: A design that shows a relationship but cannot establish cause and effect, as noted in the evaluation of the study.Pearson Edexcel
Cost of helping: The idea that the cost of helping, together with the perceived characteristics of the victim, shapes bystander intervention.AQA
Cost-benefit analysis: A concept used to explain why some studies with ethical issues were still permitted to take place, by weighing the benefits of a study against the costs to…Pearson Edexcel
Counterbalancing: A method where half do condition A then B and half do B then A, controlling order effects in repeated measures designs.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Covert observation: A design in which participants are unaware they are being watched, which reduces demand characteristics but raises ethical issues regarding informed consent.Pearson Edexcel
Creativity: Producing infinite novel sentences, a feature of human language that animal communication lacks.Pearson Edexcel
Crime rates and psychological difficulties: Some psychological difficulties are associated with higher risk of offending or of being a victim of crime, which places demands on police and justice services.AQA
Criticism of learning styles: The evidence does not support the claim that learners learn better when material is delivered in their preferred style; effective learning depends on…AQA
Cross-cultural variation: Differences between cultural or linguistic groups in how events are recalled and how colours are recognised or grouped.AQA
CT scans and brain structure: Uses X-rays to build images showing structure such as bones, tumours or damage, so it is useful for spotting injury but gives limited information about…AQA
Cues misapplied by the perceptual system: Depth cues used wrongly, as in the Ponzo illusion, where converging lines make two identical horizontal lines look different in length.AQA
Cultural context in diagnosis and treatment: Services should interpret symptoms within the person's cultural context to avoid misdiagnosis, and cultural beliefs influence acceptance of and engagement…AQA
Cultural influence: The effect of participants' own culture on recall, shown by rationalisation of unfamiliar details to fit their culture.Pearson Edexcel
Cultural influence on recall: Participants altered unfamiliar details so they fitted their own cultural expectations and schemas.AQA
Cultural variation in proximity: Norms for acceptable distance vary between cultures, so behaviour that feels normal in one culture may feel intrusive in another.AQA
Cultural variations: Cultural differences that significantly impact non-verbal communication, as acceptable personal space or the meaning of specific gestures varies widely…Pearson Edexcel
Culture: Learned values and norms that lead people from different cultural groups to interpret the same ambiguous image differently.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Culture and learned behaviour: The meaning of non-verbal cues is learned through cultural experience rather than fixed at birth.AQA

D

Damage to relationships: Support networks weaken when someone withdraws from friends or argues more with family.AQA
Data distributions: A normal distribution forms a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve where the mean, median and mode all fall at the exact centre.Pearson Edexcel
Deception and debriefing: Dealt with by a full debrief afterwards, which addresses deception after the event.AQA
Deception and its justification: Misleading participants, acceptable only when necessary and followed by a full debrief.AQA
Decimal and standard form notation: Writing numbers as decimals or as a number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of ten, where a number below 1 has a negative index.AQA
Deindividuation: A key psychological mechanism where anonymity reduces personal responsibility and causes a loss of personal identity, altering individual behaviour within a…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Demand characteristics: A weakness of some research methods, alongside researcher bias and ethical issues.Pearson Edexcel
Demand for social care services: The need for extra support services such as community mental-health teams, social workers or supported housing when families and communities are affected.AQA
Dependence (addiction): A pattern of repeated use in which the substance becomes central, with compulsion to use and difficulty controlling use.AQA
Dependency (Drug): A state in which an individual becomes reliant on a drug to function normally, and experiences withdrawal symptoms upon cessation.OCR
Dependent variable: The variable in which no difference is predicted between the conditions of the independent variable, and it must be operationalised clearly.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Dependent variable (DV): The variable that is measured, and which must be operationalised so it can be tested.Pearson Edexcel
Depth and richness of description: Qualitative data give richer insight into why people behave as they do, providing depth of understanding.AQA
Descriptive statistics: Psychological data analysis requires calculating and interpreting these, including measures of central tendency, ratios, fractions and percentages.Pearson Edexcel
Detection versus interpretation: The distinction between the earlier, largely passive stage of sensing a stimulus and the later, active stage in which the brain gives that input meaning.AQA
Development of conservation: According to Piaget, children develop conservation as they move from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking.AQA
Diagnostic criteria: A clinician checks whether the person shows the symptoms, counts how many are present and judges how severe they are, then matches this to the ICD criteria.AQA
Diagnostic evolution: Diagnostic criteria have evolved, meaning more behaviours are now recognised as psychological problems.Pearson Edexcel
Diathesis-Stress Model: A psychological theory that explains behaviour as a result of both a biological/genetic vulnerability (diathesis) and a life stressor.OCR
Difficulties coping with day-to-day life: Routine tasks such as getting to school or work, cooking or managing money may feel overwhelming.AQA
Difficulty controlling use: An ICD feature in which the person has difficulty in controlling use of the substance.AQA
Diffusion of responsibility: A key situational factor where the presence of multiple people reduces the psychological burden on any single individual to act.Pearson Edexcel
Direct perception: Perception happens immediately from the information in the light reaching the eye, without inference or stored knowledge.AQA
Direction of dependence between language and thought: For Piaget, thought enables language, not the reverse, so language depends on thought.AQA
Direction of influence: Language shapes or influences thought, not the reverse, and options reversing this or claiming language merely reflects pre-existing thought should be rejected.AQA
Displacement: Communicating about things not physically present, such as the past or future, or events, concepts or objects not currently present in time or space.Pearson Edexcel
Displacement in human communication: Humans communicate about absent, past or future events, while most animal signals relate to the immediate situation.AQA
Dispositional explanations of obedience: Explanations that locate the cause of obedience inside the person rather than the situation.AQA
Dispositional factors: Factors that sit in the person, such as similarity to the victim and expertise.AQA
Dispositional factors affecting conformity: Personality and expertise, which affect conformity to majority influence.AQA
Distance and direction relative to the sun: What the straight run and angle of the waggle dance convey.AQA
Distinguishing effects from symptoms and causes: Deciding whether something is a genuine consequence rather than a cause or a symptom, by asking what the symptom leads to for the person or others.AQA
Distinguishing similar structures: Each named structure has its own characteristic basic function, so the functions of similar-sounding structures should not be swapped.AQA
Distinguishing stores by feature: Describing each store using all three features, so a named store is linked to its coding, capacity and duration rather than giving one feature alone.AQA
Distinguishing the explanations: Decide whether the option describes inherited vulnerability or social influence from peers, and reject options about unrelated mechanisms.AQA
Divisions of the nervous system: The human nervous system divides into the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, and the peripheral splits into the somatic and autonomic…AQA
Dreamwork: The unconscious process of disguising latent content into manifest content to protect the dreamer from anxiety.Pearson Edexcel
Duration: How long information lasts, from a fraction of a second to a few seconds in sensory memory, around 18–30 seconds without rehearsal in short-term memory, and…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Duration and impairment in diagnosis: Symptoms must be present for a sustained period and cause significant impairment to count as clinical.AQA

E

Ecological validity: The extent to which findings reflect real-life situations, which laboratory experiments typically lack because of their artificial setting.Pearson Edexcel
Ecological validity and demand characteristics: The artificial setting and tasks may reduce ecological validity, and participants who know they are being studied may show demand characteristics.AQA
Economic costs of mental health problems: Lost working days, reduced employment and the cost of treatment and care all place pressure on public spending and productivity.AQA
Effect of delay: A delay or distracting task before recall largely removes the recency effect because the last items are displaced from short-term memory, while primacy remains.AQA
Effect of task design on children’s performance: Both studies show how the task affects whether children appear to fail, so task design and context influence whether children appear egocentric or unable to…AQA
Effective coping with challenges: Responding to everyday stressors, setbacks and change without being overwhelmed, using strategies such as planning, seeking support and regulating emotion.AQA
Effectiveness and limitations: Strengths include being effective for many people and relatively quick compared with therapy alone, while limitations include side effects, a delay before…AQA
Effort: Hard work, which Dweck emphasises praising rather than innate ability to foster a growth mindset.Pearson Edexcel
Effort after meaning: The mental work of interpreting new material and giving it personal meaning, drawing on one's own knowledge and culture.AQA
Egocentrism: The inability to see a situation from another person's point of view.OCR, Pearson Edexcel
Ellis's ABC model: Explains depression through an activating event, the beliefs a person holds about it, and the emotional consequences, where irrational beliefs about events…AQA
Emotion: Relates to feelings, such as fear or happiness, and heightened emotional states can cause individuals to misinterpret neutral stimuli as threatening.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Encoding: Transforms sensory input into a usable format, such as acoustic or semantic codes.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Encoding as input: The input stage in which information is changed into a form that can be stored, such as acoustic or visual coding.AQA
Endogenous pacemaker: An internal biological clock that regulates the sleep-wake cycle, as shown by Siffre's body continuing a rhythm without external time cues.Pearson Edexcel
Environmental stress: Stressful life events that, when experienced by those with at least one short allele, were linked to more depressive symptoms.Pearson Edexcel
Episodic memory: Records personal events tied to a time and place, such as remembering your first day at a new school.AQA
Equal chance of selection: Every member of the target population has an equal chance of being chosen.AQA
Equilibration: The drive to restore balance when new information creates conflict, prompting accommodation.AQA
Equilibrium: A temporary state of cognitive balance that is disrupted by new, conflicting information, prompting further learning.Pearson Edexcel
Estimating results: A crucial skill of rounding numbers before computing to check whether your final calculation is reasonable, for example estimating 48 × 11 as 50 × 10 = 500.Pearson Edexcel
Estimation and checking: Rounding to convenient values before calculating to judge whether an answer is reasonable.AQA
Ethical considerations in research: Concerns such as the lack of protection from psychological harm, which the study is evaluated for.Pearson Edexcel
Ethical issue: A conflict between the rights of participants and the goals of research to produce authentic, useful data.Pearson Edexcel
Ethics of brain research: Issues raised because patients were awake and the procedure was invasive.AQA
Evaluation: Weighing benefits such as peer support and accessibility against limitations such as variable effectiveness or reliance on motivation.AQA
Evaluation and ethics: A limitation such as ethical concerns about discomfort, or limited long-term effectiveness and relapse.AQA
Evaluation of cross-cultural evidence: Judging how far the evidence supports the language-thought link, noting limitations such as small samples, translation problems or cultural familiarity with…AQA
Everyday examples of depth perception: Fence posts passing quickly while distant hills move slowly during a journey illustrates how motion parallax supports direct perception.AQA
Evolution and natural selection: Darwin's evolutionary account treats non-verbal communication as a product of natural selection, with signals that helped ancestors survive and reproduce…AQA
Excitation and inhibition: Some transmitters excite the next neuron, making firing more likely; others inhibit it, making firing less likely, and the summed balance determines whether…AQA
Existential self: The realisation that one is a distinct, continuous entity, being aware of existing as a separate and unique entity.Pearson Edexcel
Exogenous zeitgeber: An external environmental cue such as sunlight that the body needs to stay synchronised with the 24-hour day.Pearson Edexcel
Expectation: Shapes what we see, as ambiguous figures are interpreted based on surrounding context, such as reading a shape as a letter or a number.Pearson Edexcel
Experience: An external influence on the self and self-esteem, involving our life experiences and interactions.Pearson Edexcel
Experimental method: Tests a causal hypothesis by manipulating an independent variable and measuring a dependent variable while controlling extraneous variables.AQA
Explanatory models of mental health: Cultures differ in how they explain mental health problems, viewing a condition as a spiritual or moral matter, a medical illness, or a social or family issue.AQA
Expressing emotion: Widened eyes can signal surprise or fear, a direct stare can signal anger or challenge, and averted gaze can signal sadness or embarrassment.AQA
Extraneous variables: Factors that are strictly controlled in a laboratory experiment so that a clear cause-and-effect relationship can be established.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Extraneous variables and control: Unwanted factors that could affect the dependent variable, whose effect must be explained and controlled, for example by standardising procedures or…AQA
Extraversion: Being sensation-seeking, driven by an underactive nervous system requiring stimulation.Pearson Edexcel
Eyewitness accuracy: Affected by false memories, as shown in Loftus and Palmer's research on eyewitness testimony.AQA

F

Factual knowledge: Knowledge that must come before skill, as Willingham argues that students need background knowledge to think critically.Pearson Edexcel
False memories: Inaccurate recollections of events that did not happen or happened differently, which leading questions or post-event information can create.AQA
Family and twin evidence: Evidence comes from family and twin comparisons where concordance is higher for identical than non-identical twins.AQA
Fiction and perceptual filling-in: The perceptual system fills in or constructs a whole that is not actually present, as when a shape is implied but not drawn.AQA
Fictions: Illusions where a figure is perceived even though it is not present in the stimulus.Pearson Edexcel
Field experiment: The study took place on the New York subway rather than in a laboratory, so it was a field experiment.AQA
Field experiments: A study carried out in a natural setting, such as the New York subway, rather than in a laboratory.Pearson Edexcel
Fight or flight bodily changes: When a threat is perceived, heart rate and breathing rate increase, the pupils dilate, blood is diverted to muscles and adrenaline release is triggered,…AQA
Figure-ground organisation: Seeing either a vase or two faces, not both at once, as in Rubin's vase, which is a figure-ground ambiguity.AQA
Fixed interval: The regular gap applied after a starting point, usually chosen at random, so that every nth person is selected.AQA
Fixed mindset: The belief that ability is a stable trait, so challenge and failure are avoided or treated as proof of low ability.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Fixed sequence of cognitive stages: Piaget proposed that children develop intelligence through a fixed sequence of stages, each with distinct ways of thinking.AQA
Fixed sequence of stages: Piaget described the stages as a fixed invariant sequence, so they are not optional and cannot be skipped.AQA
Flexibility and learning versus fixed, innate signals: Human language is culturally learned and adaptable, while many animal signals are largely innate and function-specific.AQA
fMRI scans and blood-oxygen activity: Uses magnetic fields to detect changes in blood oxygen, giving detailed images of activity with good spatial resolution.AQA
Food location and recruitment: Signals such as recruitment calls communicate the presence or location of food to others.AQA
Forebrain: Develops into the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for higher cognitive functions.Pearson Edexcel
Free recall of word lists: A design in which participants heard lists of words at different lengths and recalled them in any order, so order of output was not fixed.AQA
Free will and determinism: The belief that behaviour is either within our control or outside our control, with deterministic statements suggesting behaviour is outside our control.Pearson Edexcel
Frequency tables and tallies: A table that records how many participants or scores fall into each category or interval, giving a tally or count per row.AQA
Frontal lobe: Located at the front, it controls higher-level cognitive skills like decision-making, problem-solving, and voluntary movement.Pearson Edexcel
Function: What the parts of the brain do, such as the frontal lobes supporting planning and decision-making or the cerebellum coordinating movement and balance.AQA

G

Genetic polymorphism: A variation in a gene, such as the polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene examined by Caspi et al.Pearson Edexcel
Grammar and rule-governed combination: Humans combine words by rules that change meaning, whereas animal communication generally lacks comparable combinatorial grammar.AQA
Group norms and conformity: The person believes that using is normal within the group and conforms in order to belong or avoid rejection.AQA
Growth mindset: The belief that ability can be developed through effort, strategy and feedback, so setbacks are treated as information to act on.AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel

H

Hebb's theory of learning: Learning occurs because neurons that fire together repeatedly strengthen their connection, so the same input is more likely to trigger the same response.AQA
Height in plane: Objects positioned higher in the visual field are perceived as further away, so distant hills sit above nearby fields.AQA
Help-seeking and disclosure: Beliefs affect whom people consult, such as family, religious leaders or medical professionals, and stigma and disclosure vary between cultures, affecting how…AQA
Help-seeking behaviour: Feeling able to talk openly and access treatment, encouraged when stigma is reduced.AQA
Hereditary factors: A tendency towards addictive behaviour can be passed from parents to children through genes, so addiction runs in families.AQA
Hereditary factors in addiction: Genes inherited from parents can increase the risk of addiction, meaning genes increase vulnerability or risk rather than guaranteeing addiction.AQA
Histograms: Represent continuous data, such as reaction times, with no gaps, where area represents frequency.Pearson Edexcel
Histograms for continuous data: A display for continuous data grouped into class intervals, so adjacent bars touch and the width of each interval matters.AQA
Holism: Viewing behaviour as an integrated whole, arguing the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, which provides richer understanding but is harder to test.Pearson Edexcel
Holistic perspective: Explaining a disorder through several interacting biological, psychological and social factors and treating the whole person.AQA
Hypocretin (Orexin): A neurotransmitter produced in the hypothalamus that promotes wakefulness and regulates the sleep-wake cycle.OCR

I

Identity formation: The development of a strong sense of self through resolving a series of psychosocial crises across the lifespan.Pearson Edexcel
Illusions as evidence of inference: Because the incoming image is ambiguous, inferences fill gaps and can be wrong, producing illusions that show the model can be incorrect.AQA
Improving mental health through treatment: Reducing symptoms and improving everyday functioning, not only removing a diagnosis.AQA
In-depth single-case investigation: An in-depth investigation of a single individual, small group or event, allowing researchers to explore context and development over time.AQA
Incidence: The number of new cases of a condition arising in a population over a stated period, which differs from prevalence.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Incongruence: A mismatch between the actual and ideal self, which causes distress.Pearson Edexcel
Independent groups design: Different participants do each condition, so there is no order effect but participant variables differ between groups and more people are needed.AQA
Independent measures: A design in which different participants are used in each condition, which avoids order effects but introduces participant variables.Pearson Edexcel
Independent variable: The variable whose conditions are compared, and both of its conditions must be explicitly mentioned in the null hypothesis.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Independent variable (IV): The variable whose specific conditions are identified and manipulated in the study.Pearson Edexcel
Individual effects of mental health problems: Consequences for the person themselves, such as relationships being damaged, struggling with everyday tasks like shopping or attending school, and physical…AQA
Inference and prior experience: The brain makes inferences about sensory data using past experience and knowledge, so what we have encountered before shapes what we perceive.AQA
Inference from visual cues: Visual cues such as shading, texture, relative size, overlap and perspective are combined to make inferences about depth and form.AQA
Inferences: Conclusions the brain makes about what is being perceived, based on prior knowledge and past experiences.Pearson Edexcel
Influence of experience and expectation on perception: Perception is shaped by factors such as expectation, prior experience, context and motivation, whereas sensation depends mainly on the stimulus and the…AQA
Influence of language: The effect of verbal labels on how visually perceived forms are remembered and reproduced, so that sketches are distorted to resemble the label given.Pearson Edexcel
Influence versus determinism: The evaluation point that language may influence rather than fully determine thought, since ideas can often be expressed across languages.AQA
Information processing: The central nervous system processes signals to coordinate behaviour, controlling everything from simple reflexes to complex thoughts.Pearson Edexcel
Informed consent: Handled with a consent form or presumptive consent, and should still be sought beforehand where possible.AQA
Informed consent and right to withdraw: Participants understand what they are agreeing to and may withdraw; consent happens before participation.AQA
Informed consent and the right to withdraw: Giving participants enough information to decide whether to take part, with the right to withdraw respected, satisfied through a briefing and consent form.AQA
Inherited versus learned behaviour: Expressions and gestures are evolved, inherited through biology, not simply learned.AQA
Innate behaviour: Behaviour that is built in rather than copied, appearing without learning.AQA
Insomnia: A sleep disorder involving symptoms such as difficulty falling asleep, waking up frequently, or waking up too early.Pearson Edexcel
Interaction of nature and nurture: The two interact rather than operate in isolation, as a genetic predisposition may only be expressed in certain environments.AQA
Interactionist approach: The view that most psychological problems are best explained by an interaction between both nature and nurture, rather than one or the other.Pearson Edexcel
Interference: Occurs when one memory disrupts another, with proactive interference being when an older memory disrupts a newer one and retroactive interference being when a…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Internal factors influencing perception: Physiological need and expectation that shape perceptual interpretation, so that perception is not a passive copy of the world.AQA
Interobserver agreement: Checked by having observers code the same session independently, then comparing their records, with high agreement showing the categories are clear and the…AQA
Interobserver reliability: The extent to which two or more observers watching the same event produce consistent records.AQA
Interpretation of emoticons: Japanese participants relied more on the eyes, whereas American participants relied more on the mouth.AQA
Interpretive cortex and temporal lobe: Temporal lobe areas where stimulation seemed to trigger the patient's own interpretation of experience, such as a memory with a sense of familiarity.AQA
Interventions for depression: Approaches used to treat depression, which can be biological or psychological.AQA
Interviewer effects: The interviewer's presence, tone or expectations can influence how participants respond, affecting validity.AQA
Introversion: The opposite of extraversion, needing calm.Pearson Edexcel
Invariant features: Features such as texture gradient and the horizon ratio that stay constant and give reliable cues.AQA
Invariants: Environmental aspects that remain constant during movement, providing stable spatial cues.Pearson Edexcel
Irrational Belief: A distorted, self-defeating, and illogical thought that often leads to negative emotions (e.g., 'I must be perfect').OCR
Irrational thoughts: Negative thought patterns that CBT for depression helps patients identify and challenge, replacing them with rational beliefs.Pearson Edexcel
Isolation: A challenge of modern living in which people have fewer people to confide in and less practical help because their living patterns reduce contact.AQA

J

James-Lange theory of emotion: An event first produces a physiological response, and the brain interprets that bodily change as an emotion, so the sequence is stimulus, then physiological…AQA
Justified deception and debriefing: Deception may be acceptable when necessary and fully debriefed, with debriefing happening afterwards to explain the study and address any harm.AQA

K

Kaij's twin study of alcohol abuse: A study that compared identical (monozygotic) and non-identical (dizygotic) twins for alcohol abuse.AQA
Key distinction: Who collected the data and why, not whether the numbers are big or small.AQA
Key features of each Piagetian stage: Each stage has a key feature: object permanence, egocentrism or difficulty conserving, logical thought about concrete objects, and abstract and hypothetical…AQA

L

Laboratory experiment: A study conducted in a highly controlled, artificial environment where the researcher manipulates an independent variable to measure its effect on a dependent…Pearson Edexcel
Laboratory experiments and control: A study carried out in a controlled setting, not necessarily a literal laboratory, where the researcher manipulates the IV and controls extraneous variables.AQA
Language acquisition: The development of language, which Piaget argued reflects cognitive development because children must understand a concept before using the word for it.Pearson Edexcel
Language and categorisation: The vocabulary or grammar of a language directs attention to certain distinctions, affecting categorisation and memory.AQA
Language and thought: The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proposes that thinking depends on language, so the words and grammar available influence how we perceive and remember the world.AQA
Language areas: Regions mainly in the left hemisphere, with Broca's area linked to speech production and Wernicke's area to understanding language.AQA
Latent content: The hidden psychological meaning of a dream, often representing unacceptable urges.Pearson Edexcel
Learning styles: The idea that each learner has a preferred way of taking in information.AQA
Limited generalisability and bias: Findings from one case cannot easily be generalised to the wider population, and the researcher's close involvement may introduce bias.AQA
Linguistic determinism: The strong version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, arguing that language entirely dictates how we think and perceive the world.Pearson Edexcel
Linguistic relativism: The weak version, suggesting language merely influences thought and worldview, making certain ways of thinking easier.Pearson Edexcel
Linguistic relativity: The suggestion that the words and grammar available in a language influence, or even limit, the concepts a speaker can form.AQA
Links between brain activity and behaviour: The key idea that changes in structure or activity accompany changes in behaviour and cognition, for example a specific loss of ability after injury.AQA
Localisation of function: The idea that particular functions are governed by particular regions of the cortex rather than the whole brain acting as one mass.AQA
Long-term memory: The store that prolonged rehearsal transfers information to, with an unlimited capacity and a duration of up to a lifetime.Pearson Edexcel
Long-term memory features and transfer processes: Has a large capacity and long duration and is reached through rehearsal from short-term memory, while attention moves information from sensory memory to…AQA
Longitudinal research: A design in which parent-child interactions were observed when children were 1 to 3 years old and children's mindsets were assessed five years later.Pearson Edexcel

M

Manifest content: The literal narrative of a dream that is remembered upon waking, such as dreaming of a train entering a tunnel.Pearson Edexcel
Manipulation of the independent variable: The researcher deliberately changing the independent variable, which in a field experiment happens in a natural, everyday setting rather than a laboratory.AQA
Matched pairs: A design that pairs participants based on key variables and assigns one from each pair to each condition, reducing participant variables and avoiding order…Pearson Edexcel
Matched pairs design: Separate participants are paired on a relevant variable such as age or ability, reducing participant variables while avoiding order effects, but matching is…AQA
Matching gaze behaviour to function: Each described behaviour is matched to one of the three functions and the mechanism is explained, for example looking away while speaking lets the speaker…AQA
Matching structure to function: Learning each name with its position and its main function, because questions often give a function and ask which structure performs it, or give a structure…AQA
Matching therapy to explanation: Linking a therapy to the explanation it addresses, such as drug therapy to neurotransmitter imbalance or CBT to faulty thinking.AQA
Mean, median and mode at the centre: In a normal distribution the mean, median and mode are equal and located at the centre.AQA
Measures of central tendency: The mean, median and mode, which summarise a set of scores with a single value so a researcher can describe the data quickly.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Measures of dispersion: The range is used as one of these to show the spread of data.Pearson Edexcel
Measures of spread: The range, which is the highest score minus the lowest and shows spread rather than a typical value.AQA
Media violence: Televised aggression, which the study examined to see whether its introduction would increase children's aggressive playground behaviour.Pearson Edexcel
Medulla: Controls involuntary, autonomic functions such as heart rate and breathing.Pearson Edexcel
Melatonin: A hormone secreted by the pineal gland which induces sleepiness.Pearson Edexcel
Memory as an active process: Remembering treated as an active process rather than a passive replay of stored information.AQA
Mental health as functioning rather than perfection: Characterised by functioning across social and personal domains, not by the total absence of problems.AQA
Methods producing mixed data: A method can yield both types, so judge the data actually produced rather than the label of the technique alone.AQA
Midbrain: Acts as a relay station for auditory and visual processing and motor movement.Pearson Edexcel
Misinterpreted depth cues: Cues such as perspective are applied to a flat drawing, so a two-dimensional picture is treated as three-dimensional.AQA
Mixed methods: A design that uses both quantitative and qualitative methods, combining numerical data with descriptive data.AQA
Modelling and imitation: A young person observes friends using a substance and copies the behaviour, especially when those friends are valued.AQA
Monocular depth cues: Cues that let us judge distance using one eye, because they rely on information available in a single two-dimensional image.AQA
Moral behaviour: Behaving ethically, which the study shows can be affected by whether a person believes in free will.Pearson Edexcel
Morality: The person's own standards of right and wrong, which can resist or override crowd pressure.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Morals: Specific beliefs or rules about acceptable behaviour.Pearson Edexcel
Motion parallax: The relative movement of objects at different distances as the observer moves: near objects appear to move faster across the visual field than far objects.AQA
Motivation: An internal need state, such as hunger, that biases perception, as when food-deprived participants judged food pictures as brighter.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Motivational frameworks: The mindsets assessed five years later, where a higher proportion of process praise predicted an incremental motivational framework (growth mindset).Pearson Edexcel
Motor abilities: Movement functions that can be affected by damage to motor areas, such as weakness, clumsiness, difficulty walking or problems controlling an arm or hand.AQA
Motor area: The region in the frontal lobe that sends commands producing voluntary movement, mainly on the opposite side of the body.AQA
Movement inhibition: Stops motor commands, preventing the dreamer from physically acting out their dreams.Pearson Edexcel
Muscle memory: Built through repetitive practice of motor movements, as a strategy to support physical development.Pearson Edexcel

N

Named brain structures: The frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and cerebellum are the regions of the brain studied here.AQA
Named symptoms of unipolar depression: The ICD lists symptoms such as low mood, reduced energy levels, changes in sleep patterns, changes in appetite levels and a decrease in self-confidence.AQA
Narcolepsy: A neurological disorder with symptoms including excessive daytime sleepiness, sudden sleep attacks, and cataplexy (loss of muscle tone).Pearson Edexcel
Naturalistic observation: Observing parent-child interactions at home, which gives high ecological validity but risks social desirability bias because parents knew they were being…Pearson Edexcel
Nature: The influence of inherited biological factors, such as genes, chromosomes and brain structure, on development.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Nature and genetic vulnerability: The claim that genes passed from parents can raise a person's risk of addiction, so relatives share a predisposition.AQA
Nature side of the nature–nurture debate: Treating depression as rooted in biology places the explanation on the nature side, contrasted with nurture or psychological explanations.AQA
Nature versus nurture: Gibson's theory emphasises nature over nurture because the environment supplies all the information and no learning or past experience is needed.AQA
Negative attribution style: A tendency to blame oneself for setbacks, treat the cause as permanent rather than temporary, and let it spread across situations rather than stay specific.AQA
Negative correlation: A relationship where one variable increases while the other decreases, for example, school absences and exam performance.Pearson Edexcel
Negative impact on physical wellbeing: Physical wellbeing can suffer through disturbed sleep, changed appetite, low energy or neglect of exercise and health appointments.AQA
Negative schema: A schema that consistently frames the self, the world or the future in a bleak way, so ambiguous events are read as confirming failure or threat.AQA
Neonates: Newborns who show behaviours such as smiling or responding to faces very early, before much opportunity to learn.AQA
Nervous system organisation: The central nervous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord, and it processes signals to coordinate behaviour.Pearson Edexcel
Neurological damage: Harm to part of the brain or nervous system, for example by a stroke or by a physical injury such as a blow to the head.AQA
Neuron structure: A cell body, dendrites that receive signals, and an axon carrying an electrical impulse away, often wrapped in a myelin sheath that speeds conduction.AQA
Neuronal growth: Repeated co-activation produces stronger synaptic connections rather than new whole neurons.AQA
Neurotransmitter: A chemical messenger that transmits signals across a synapse from one neuron to another.OCR
Neurotransmitter imbalance: The chemical messengers that carry signals between neurons across synapses are not balanced, and this imbalance is associated with depression.AQA
Neurotransmitters and serotonin: SSRIs reduce serotonin reuptake so that more serotonin remains available at the synapse, which is thought to lift mood.AQA
Non-verbal communication: The transmission of meaning without words, through body language such as posture, gesture and facial expression, through eye contact, and through…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Null hypothesis: A prediction that there will be no significant difference or relationship between the variables studied, and any observed changes are due to chance.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Number and severity of symptoms: Diagnosis depends on two things: how many symptoms are present and how severe they are, and together these decide whether a diagnosis is given.AQA
Numerical versus non-numerical data: Quantitative methods collect numerical data that can be counted, summarised and analysed statistically, while qualitative methods collect non-numerical data…AQA
Nurture: Environmental influences, such as parenting, education, diet, peers, culture and life experiences.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Nurture explanations of addiction: Locates the cause in social learning and group norms rather than genes or brain chemistry.AQA
Nurture versus nature in perception: Because perception relies on learned experience it emphasises nurture, contrasting with Gibson's direct theory, which stresses innate, bottom-up processing.AQA

O

Obedience: Following direct commands, typically from someone perceived as having legitimate power or higher status.Pearson Edexcel
Observable behavioural evidence: Evidence of behaviour rather than a label alone, used to match a scenario to the characteristic it best demonstrates.AQA
Occipital lobe: Situated at the back of the brain and is primarily responsible for visual processing.Pearson Edexcel
Occlusion: An object that partially blocks another is perceived as nearer than the object it obscures.AQA
Open and closed posture: Open posture exposes the torso with uncrossed limbs and is read as welcoming or relaxed, while closed posture folds arms or legs and turns the body away,…AQA
Open and closed questions: Closed questions give fixed options that produce quantitative data, while open questions invite free responses that produce qualitative data.AQA
Operational definition: A definition of each category of behaviour so two observers would classify the same act the same way.AQA
Operationalisation of variables: Stating exactly how the variables are measured so the hypothesis is testable and precise, such as 'number of words recalled' rather than just 'memory'.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Operationalise: State exactly how the independent variable is manipulated and how the dependent variable is measured, making the prediction fully testable.Pearson Edexcel
Optic array: Changes in lawful, structured ways as the observer moves, providing invariant information about the layout of surfaces.AQA
Optic array and optic flow: The pattern of light reaching the eye from the environment, which changes as you move, with objects streaming past faster when nearer.AQA
Optic flow: The changing pattern of light as we move, helping us judge speed and direction.Pearson Edexcel
Order effects and counterbalancing: In repeated measures, order effects such as practice or fatigue can occur and must be countered by counterbalancing, which balances them across the sample…AQA
Origins in parenting and socialisation: Develops from harsh, strict parenting that produces rigid thinking, conventional values, respect for authority and hostility towards out-groups.AQA

P

Paralinguistic features: Non-verbal features such as tone, pitch, pace and volume of speech, which accompany speech but are not words.AQA
Parietal lobe: Lies behind the frontal lobe and processes sensory information such as touch, temperature, and pain.Pearson Edexcel
Participant observation: A design in which the researcher joins the group being watched and recorded.Pearson Edexcel
Peer influence: People, especially young people, begin and continue addictive behaviour such as smoking or drinking because friends do it, because they want to fit in and…AQA
Peer support: Support from others with a shared difficulty, emphasised in self-help groups and 12 step recovery programmes, alongside shared responsibility and personal…AQA
PEN Model: Eysenck's biological model of personality comprising three dimensions: Psychoticism (P), Extraversion (E), and Neuroticism (N).Pearson Edexcel
Perception: The brain's organisation and interpretation of sensory information, giving it meaning, and the later, active and interpretative stage.AQA
Perception as interpretation: The constructivist view that perception involves interpretation influenced by internal factors, not just sensory input.AQA
Perceptual hypothesis: The brain's best guess about ambiguous sensory information.Pearson Edexcel
Perceptual set: A readiness to perceive in line with expectation, shown when a prior letter or number context shifted what participants reported seeing in an ambiguous figure.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Peripheral nervous system: Carries messages to and from the central nervous system and links it to the body.AQA
Person Praise: Praise that focuses on a person's fixed, innate ability (e.g., 'You are so clever').Pearson Edexcel
Personal factors: Characteristics of the individual, such as their level of competence, mood or perceived similarity to the victim, which influence the likelihood of helping.Pearson Edexcel
Personal responsibility: Ensuring individuals know they will be held accountable for their actions, rather than shifting blame to the authority.Pearson Edexcel
Personal space: The physical distance a person keeps between themselves and others, communicating how comfortable or intimate a situation feels.AQA
PET scan: An imaging technique that shows which brain areas are most active during a task.AQA
PET scans and metabolic activity: Uses a radioactive tracer to show which areas are using most glucose, indicating activity during a task.AQA
Piliavin subway study: A study of helping behaviour on the New York subway in which a researcher posing as a victim staged a collapse in a moving carriage while observers recorded…AQA
Planning ahead and discussing future events: A property of human communication in which people can refer to times yet to come.AQA
Population validity: How well findings can be generalised to the target population, affected by the choice of sampling method.Pearson Edexcel
Positive and negative correlations: In a positive correlation both co-variables increase together, while in a negative correlation one increases as the other decreases.AQA
Positive correlation: A relationship where both variables increase together, such as hours spent revising and test scores.Pearson Edexcel
Positive engagement with society: Taking part in relationships, work, education and community activity in ways the person and others find workable.AQA
Postural echo and rapport: Matching another person's posture, posture shifts and gestures, which can build rapport and signal agreement.AQA
Practical limitations of random sampling: It requires a complete list of the target population, which may be difficult or impossible to obtain, and selected participants may decline to take part,…AQA
Practicality versus generalisability: The trade each sampling method makes between being quick and easy to arrange and how far findings can be generalised.AQA
Practice and effort: Emphasised by Willingham as necessary to make skills automatic, freeing up working memory.Pearson Edexcel
Pre-conventional stage: Moral reasoning driven by avoiding punishment and self-interest.Pearson Edexcel
Pre-frontal cortex damage: Damage to the area that governs higher-level cognitive functions and social behaviour, leading to profound changes in personality, impulse control and…Pearson Edexcel
Prenatal brain development: The brain begins as a simple neural structure in the womb and develops into distinct regions with specialised functions.AQA
Present-focused, structured and time-limited delivery: It targets the maintaining cycle rather than searching for a childhood cause, is usually time-limited and structured, and requires the client to engage…AQA
Prevalence: Counts all existing cases of a condition at a point in time, unlike incidence which counts new cases.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Primacy and recency: Primacy is better recall of words at the start of the list, explained as rehearsal into long-term memory; recency is better recall of words at the end,…AQA
Primacy effect: Better recall of items at the start of a list, explained by greater rehearsal and transfer to long-term memory.AQA
Primary data: Data collected first-hand by the researcher for the specific research question in hand, for example running your own memory experiment and recording each…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Prior knowledge: Past experiences that the brain uses to make inferences about incomplete or ambiguous sensory input.Pearson Edexcel
Priority of the substance over activities and obligations: An ICD feature in which a higher priority is given to the substance than to other activities or obligations.AQA
Pro-social behaviour: Actions that benefit others and society, such as peaceful demonstrations or bystanders collectively lifting a vehicle to save a trapped person.Pearson Edexcel
Probability sampling: A method of sampling in which participants are selected randomly, as in stratified sampling where a random sample is drawn from within each stratum.AQA
Procedural memory: Stores the skills needed to perform actions, such as riding a bike or tying shoelaces, and these skills are often hard to describe in words.AQA
Process praise: Praise that is effort-based, and a higher proportion of it significantly predicted children developing an incremental motivational framework.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Productivity of human language: A finite set of words can be combined to generate novel, never-before-used messages, whereas animal signal repertoires are comparatively fixed.AQA
Proportions within standard deviations: A known proportion of scores lies within given standard deviations of the mean, approximately 68% within one and about 95% within two.AQA
Prosocial behaviour: Helping others, which people are more likely to do when they believe they control their actions.Pearson Edexcel
Prosopagnosia: A specific type of visual agnosia where individuals cannot recognise familiar faces, usually due to damage in the fusiform face area.Pearson Edexcel
Protection from harm and debriefing: Avoiding physical or psychological harm, including stress, through risk assessment and using debriefing where needed.AQA
Proxemics: The study of personal space, which is the physical distance kept from others and varies based on relationships.Pearson Edexcel
Psychological therapies (CBT): Cognitive behavioural therapy, which targets unhelpful thought patterns and assumes faulty thinking maintains depression.AQA
Psychological versus biological treatments: Psychological interventions are talking-based, goal-directed approaches delivered over a series of sessions, whereas biological treatments include medication…AQA
Psychosocial development: The development explored by Van Houtte and Jarvis (1995) in preadolescents, which pets can contribute positively to as a source of support.Pearson Edexcel
Psychoticism: Being aggressive, cold, and lacking empathy.Pearson Edexcel

Q

Qualitative data: Non-numerical data that records descriptions, words or meanings, analysed by identifying themes rather than by calculating averages.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Quantitative and qualitative data: Fixed options in closed questions produce quantitative data, while free responses to open questions produce qualitative data.AQA
Quantitative data: Numerical data that can be counted, averaged and analysed statistically, for example scores on a rating scale or the number of seconds a task takes.AQA, Pearson Edexcel

R

Random activation: Spontaneous firing of brainstem neurons during REM sleep, sending signals to the neocortex.Pearson Edexcel
Random number generation or drawing lots: A random technique used to pick the required number of participants after each member of the target population has been assigned a number.AQA
Random sampling: A method that gives every member of the population an equal chance of selection, reducing bias but requiring a full list of the population.Pearson Edexcel
Random sampling and bias reduction: Every member has an equal chance of selection, reducing researcher bias.AQA
Randomisation: A method that reduces bias by using chance to allocate participants.Pearson Edexcel
Randomisation and allocation: Assigning participants or conditions in an unbiased way, and placing participants into experimental groups so groups are made equivalent.AQA
Ratios, fractions and percentages: Ways of sharing or scaling quantities, such as splitting participants in a ratio, taking a fraction of an amount, or dividing the part by the whole and…AQA
Reading values from axes and scales: Reading values accurately from axes, labels and scales, quoting actual figures when describing a pattern.AQA
Real-world versus naturally occurring settings: In a field experiment the setting is realistic, whereas in a natural experiment the change in the independent variable happens naturally without the…AQA
Recall of events: How events are remembered, which the note states may differ between cultural and linguistic groups, for example in Native American cultures.AQA
Recency effect: Better recall of items at the end of a list, explained by those items still being held in short-term memory at recall.AQA
Recognition and labelling of symptoms: Cultural beliefs influence whether symptoms are recognised and labelled as a mental health problem at all.AQA
Recognition of mental health problems: People can name conditions such as depression or anxiety and understand they are genuine health problems.AQA
Reconstructive memory: The idea that memory is not a passive recording but an active process, so that what is remembered is shaped by language and prior knowledge.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Reduced selection bias: Because selection is not influenced by the researcher, this approach reduces selection bias and tends to produce a more representative sample than an…AQA
Reduction of egocentricity: According to Piaget, children become less egocentric as they move from pre-operational to concrete operational thinking.AQA
Reductionism: Breaking complex behaviour into simpler, isolated components, which aids scientific testing but may miss the bigger picture.OCR, Pearson Edexcel
Reductionist perspective: Explaining a disorder through one narrow cause and treating that single cause.AQA
Reference to things not present: A property of human language allowing speakers to refer to objects and events not present in the here and now.AQA
Regulating flow of conversation: Gaze helps manage turn-taking, as a speaker looks away while thinking and returns gaze at the end of a turn, while a listener looks at the speaker to signal…AQA
Rehabilitation: Aims to reduce criminal and antisocial behaviour while increasing pro-social behaviour.Pearson Edexcel
Rehearsal: The mechanism that keeps information in short-term memory and transfers it to long-term memory.Pearson Edexcel
Relative size: Of two objects assumed similar in real size, the one casting the smaller retinal image is judged further away.AQA
Relevance to psychological data and tests: Many psychological variables and statistical tests assume an approximately normal distribution, so recognising it helps judge whether a score is typical or…AQA
Reliability: The consistency of a measure, checked by standardisation and the ability to replicate the study for consistent results.Pearson Edexcel
Reliability of subjective reports: A limitation because the findings rely on patients' verbal reports, which may be unreliable.AQA
Repeated co-activation: Cells that fire together wire together, and this repeated firing is needed to strengthen the link.AQA
Repeated measures: A design that uses the same participants in all conditions, which eliminates participant variables and requires fewer people, but order effects like fatigue…Pearson Edexcel
Repeated measures design: The same participants do every condition, so participant variables are controlled and fewer people are needed, but order effects arise and must be…AQA
Replication: What standardised procedures allow, because procedures and standardised instructions can be repeated.AQA
Representativeness: The extent to which the sample reflects the population's structure, which stratified sampling improves compared with simple random sampling alone.AQA
Representativeness and generalisability: A biased sample can make findings unrepresentative, so conclusions may not generalise back to the target population.AQA
Representativeness and generalisation: A representative sample reflects the target population's key features, such as age or gender mix, so findings can be generalised.AQA
Representativeness of samples: The extent to which a sample reflects the target population, affected by how participants are chosen rather than by sample size.AQA
Reproduction and mate attraction: Signals such as mating calls, displays or pheromones attract mates and support breeding.AQA
Research aim: What the research is trying to do, which decides the choice of method: measuring a difference suits quantitative data, while exploring feelings suits…AQA
Research evaluation: A strength is the highly controlled laboratory procedure, allowing cause and effect to be established; a weakness is the artificial task, meaning it lacks…Pearson Edexcel
Research methods: Experiments, self-reports, observations, case studies and correlational research, each with distinct features, strengths and weaknesses.Pearson Edexcel
Research methods and evaluation: Students must evaluate the study's methodology, such as its reliance on self-report data and the lack of a control group.Pearson Edexcel
Researcher control and extraneous variables: In a field experiment the researcher still controls and measures variables, but both designs can have reduced control over extraneous variables compared with…AQA
Retinal disparity: Each eye receives a slightly different image of the same object, and the size of that difference signals depth, with a large disparity read as near and a…AQA
Retrieval: The process of accessing and bringing stored information back into conscious awareness when needed.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Retrieval as output: The output process of locating and bringing stored information back into use.AQA
Retrograde amnesia: The inability to recall memories formed before the onset of brain damage, such as forgetting past events or people known prior to the injury.Pearson Edexcel
Rich detailed data: Because the focus is detailed, case studies can produce rich qualitative and quantitative data and are useful where a phenomenon is rare or unusual.AQA
Right to withdraw: Dealt with by telling participants clearly, at the start and throughout, that they may leave.AQA
Role of past experience: Past experience supplies learned assumptions that shape the inference, so the model is a best guess rather than a direct recording.AQA
Round and waggle dances: Two dances of returning foragers, the round dance used for nearby food and the waggle dance for more distant food.AQA

S

Sample: A smaller group drawn from the target population, because testing everyone is usually impossible.AQA
Sampling frame: A list of the target population from which participants are selected, normally needed for systematic sampling.AQA
Sampling method: The procedure used to choose the sample from the target population.AQA
Scatter diagrams: Plot two continuous variables, such as sleep hours and test scores, to identify positive, negative, or zero correlations.Pearson Edexcel
Scatter diagrams and correlation: A plot of paired scores for each participant, one variable per axis, showing the direction and strength of a correlation.AQA
Scatter diagrams and plotting points: A graph that plots each participant as one point, with one co-variable on the horizontal axis and the other on the vertical axis.AQA
Schema: A mental framework built from past experience that filters how a person interprets new situations.AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel
Schemas: Mental structures that organise past experiences and provide a framework for understanding future experiences.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Schemas, assimilation and accommodation: Piaget argued development occurs through schemas, assimilation and accommodation, driven by maturation and experience.AQA
Scientific evidence: Objective evidence from EEG recordings during REM sleep, which is a strength of the theory.Pearson Edexcel
Secondary data: Data that already exists because someone else gathered it for their own purpose, for example published exam results, hospital records or a previous study's…AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Secondary traits: Preferences appearing only in specific situations, as categorised by Allport (1936).Pearson Edexcel
Selecting the best-fit option: If two options seem plausible, choose the one whose basic function matches the key word in the question.AQA
Self: The overall identity, as opposed to self-esteem, which is the evaluative judgment of one's own worth.Pearson Edexcel
Self-actualisation: The innate drive to achieve one's full potential.Pearson Edexcel
Self-Concept: An individual's overall perception and description of themselves, encompassing their beliefs, values, and characteristics.Pearson Edexcel
Self-concept and self-esteem: Factors measured by questionnaires in the study, with pet-owning older preadolescents reporting higher self-esteem than non-owners.Pearson Edexcel
Self-efficacy: A learner's belief in their capability on a specific task, affecting whether they attempt and persist with difficult learning.AQA
Self-esteem: The evaluative judgment of one's own worth, which can be boosted by positive reactions or consistent praise.Pearson Edexcel
Self-management: Approaches in which the individual takes an active role in managing their own psychological problem, often with the support of others rather than a…AQA
Semantic memory: Holds general facts and meanings that are not tied to when you learned them, such as knowing that Paris is the capital of France.AQA
Semanticity: Using symbols to mean specific things, with specific sounds or signs having specific, agreed-upon meanings.Pearson Edexcel
Semi-structured interview: An interview using a list of set questions but allowing the interviewer to ask follow-up questions, balancing reliability with rich qualitative data.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Sensation: The detection of physical energy by sensory receptors or sense organs, and the earlier, largely passive stage of the process.AQA
Sensation and perception: Sensation is the physical detection of stimuli, whereas perception is the brain's interpretation of it.Pearson Edexcel
Sensory blockade: Prevents incoming sensory information from reaching the brain during REM sleep.Pearson Edexcel
Sensory deprivation: A condition shown by people blind from birth, who still produce similar facial expressions to sighted people despite never having seen them.AQA
Sensory input: The information from the senses on which Gibson's Direct Theory relies entirely, with sensation and perception seen as identical.Pearson Edexcel
Sensory memory features: Holds brief impressions for a very short duration and has a large capacity.AQA
Sensory register: The initial store that information enters, which has a large capacity but a brief duration of under a second.Pearson Edexcel
Sensory, relay and motor neurons: Sensory neurons carry impulses from receptors inward, relay neurons connect neurons within the central nervous system, and motor neurons carry impulses…AQA
Separate stores in the multi-store model: The model proposes distinct sensory, short-term and long-term stores, each differing in capacity, duration and encoding, linked in sequence.AQA
Sequence of the three processes: The order is encoding, then storage, then retrieval, and a weakness at an earlier stage limits later stages.AQA
Serial position effect: The pattern where words at the start and end of a list are recalled better than those in the middle, shown as a serial position curve when recall is plotted…AQA
Serotonin in the brain: Low serotonin activity in the brain is linked to low mood, making it the named example neurotransmitter implicated in depression.AQA
Sex differences: Cognitive differences between males and females, which lateralisation explains by suggesting males have greater right-hemisphere dominance for spatial skills…Pearson Edexcel
Short-term and long-term memory distinction: The multi-store model's separation of two memory stores, supported by primacy words having been rehearsed into long-term memory and recency words still held…AQA
Short-term memory: The store that data transfers to if attention is paid, with a limited capacity of 7+/-2 items and a duration of up to 30 seconds.Pearson Edexcel
Short-term memory features: Has limited capacity and duration and relies on rehearsal to retain information.AQA
Signalling attraction: Sustained mutual gaze and dilated pupils are associated with interest in a person.AQA
Situational factors: Features of the environment and context of the emergency, such as diffusion of responsibility, ambiguity and the number of people present, which affect…Pearson Edexcel
Situational variables: Environmental factors like noise or lighting.Pearson Edexcel
Situational vs dispositional factors: Explaining behaviour through the situation, such as the prison environment, rather than through individual personality traits.Pearson Edexcel
Size constancy and perceived distance: An object is judged by its apparent distance, so two objects of equal retinal size are seen as different sizes because one is perceived as further away.AQA
Skills training for addiction: A talking-based, goal-directed approach that teaches practical, transferable abilities that reduce relapse risk, such as refusing an offer, managing cravings,…AQA
Social consequences of psychological problems: Effects that concern groups, services or the wider community, such as need for more social care and increased crime rates.AQA
Social factors: Factors that sit in the situation, such as the presence of others and the cost of helping.AQA
Social factors affecting conformity: Group size, anonymity and task difficulty, which affect conformity to majority influence.AQA
Social interaction: A factor that Vygotsky emphasises heavily, whereas Piaget focuses more on independent cognitive maturation.Pearson Edexcel
Social issues: Problems affecting many people within a society, such as discrimination or crime.Pearson Edexcel
Social learning theory: The assumption that exposure to televised aggression inevitably leads to imitation in children, which the study's findings challenge.Pearson Edexcel
Social loafing: Reduced individual effort when responsibility is shared and contribution cannot be identified, so a crowd member may stand back during a rescue.AQA
Social stigma: Negative labels, blame or shame attached to mental health problems, which has lessened but not disappeared.AQA
Social support: The presence of a disobedient role model, which encourages defiance because when one person defies an unjust order, others are more likely to follow suit.Pearson Edexcel
Society: A group of people living together in an ordered community, sharing laws and customs.Pearson Edexcel
Somatic and autonomic divisions: The somatic nervous system controls voluntary skeletal muscle movement, while the autonomic nervous system controls involuntary functions such as heart rate…AQA
Somatic control of voluntary movement: This division carries sensory information to the central nervous system and motor commands to skeletal muscles, producing voluntary movement.AQA
Somatosensory area: The region in the parietal lobe that receives touch, pressure, temperature and pain information, largely from the opposite side.AQA
SSRI: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor.OCR
Stage theory of cognitive development: Thinking develops through four stages in a fixed order: sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational and formal operational.AQA
Stage-appropriate tasks and readiness: Tasks should be matched to the child's current stage, since a child cannot be taught beyond the thinking available at that stage.AQA
Standard form: A way of writing very large or small numbers as A × 10ⁿ, where 1 ≤ A < 10, such as writing 0.0034 as 3.4 × 10⁻³.Pearson Edexcel
Standardisation: Keeping the task, materials and setting the same for all participants so results are comparable.AQA
Standardised procedures: Methods that ensure participants experience identical environments and instructions, preventing situational variables from skewing data.Pearson Edexcel
Statistical analysis and comparison: Quantitative data allow comparison and patterns across participants, and offer easy statistical analysis.AQA
Status and gender influences: Higher-status people often take or are given more space, and expectations about closeness and touch can differ by gender as general tendencies rather than…AQA
Stereopsis: A binocular depth cue that uses retinal disparity, requiring both eyes to compare slightly different images to judge depth.Pearson Edexcel
Stigma: When this falls, more people seek help, which can raise the number of cases that are identified and recorded.AQA
Stigma and awareness: Greater public awareness and reduced stigma encourage more people to seek help, which can change recorded rates over time.Pearson Edexcel
Stimulus Control: A behavioural technique in CBT-I that aims to re-associate the bedroom with sleep by limiting activities in the bedroom to sleep only.OCR
Storage: Keeping encoded information available over time.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Storage as retention over time: The process of holding encoded information over time so that it remains available.AQA
Stratified sampling: Divides the population into subgroups and selects participants proportionally, ensuring high representativeness, though it is time-consuming.Pearson Edexcel
Strengthened synaptic connections: Changes at the synapse make a link more efficient when one neuron repeatedly stimulates another.AQA
Strengths and limitations: Primary data is controlled and targeted but time-consuming; secondary data is quick and often large-scale but may not fit your question and its quality is…AQA
Strengths and weaknesses of each design: Each design has strengths and weaknesses, and recognising each design from a description means weighing these, such as no order effects but participant…AQA
Stroke: When blood supply to part of the brain is cut off.AQA
Strong desire to use despite harmful consequences: An ICD feature in which there is a strong desire to use the substance despite harmful consequences.AQA
Strong versus weak versions: A strong version claims language determines thought, while a weaker version claims language influences thought.AQA
Structure: The anatomical parts of the brain themselves, such as the cerebral cortex with its lobes, the cerebellum and the brainstem.AQA
Structure dependence: Using grammar, one of Aitchison's criteria distinguishing human language.Pearson Edexcel
Structured interview: The same fixed questions are asked in the same order, giving consistent, comparable answers that are easy to analyse but limit follow-up.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Subgroups and strata: Groups within the target population, such as year groups in a school or age bands in a town, that the researcher first identifies.AQA
Subjectivity: A weakness of the theory, referring to its heavy reliance on subjective interpretation.Pearson Edexcel
Substance misuse (abuse): Using a substance in a harmful or risky way, such as dangerous doses or binge patterns, which may occur without dependence.AQA
Survival and alarm signalling: Signals such as alarm calls warn others of danger and increase chances of escape.AQA
Symbolic and arbitrary nature of words: Words stand for objects by convention rather than by resemblance.AQA
Symmetry and the bell shape: A normal distribution is symmetrical about its central value, producing a bell-shaped curve with equal frequencies either side of the mean.AQA
Sympathetic and parasympathetic balance: The sympathetic branch activates the fight or flight response, while the parasympathetic branch then restores calm, slowing heart rate and aiding digestion.AQA
Sympathetic and parasympathetic branches: The sympathetic branch prepares the body for action, while the parasympathetic branch calms the body and restores balance.AQA
Symptoms of anterograde amnesia: A failure to retain new information, so the person cannot remember recent events or people they have just met, although older past memories remain intact.Pearson Edexcel
Symptoms of retrograde amnesia: Forgetting past events or people known prior to the injury, though the ability to form new memories remains intact.Pearson Edexcel
Synaptic transmission: An impulse triggers release of neurotransmitters across the gap; they bind receptors on the next neuron and are then reuptaken by the presynaptic neuron.AQA, OCR
Systematic sampling: A technique for selecting participants in which the researcher takes the target population and selects every nth person using a fixed interval.AQA

T

Target population: The whole group the researcher wants to draw conclusions about, for example all Year 11 students in a school.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Target population and generalisation: The group researchers choose participants from, which affects how far findings generalise.AQA
Target population versus sample: The target population is everyone the researcher wants to draw conclusions about, while the sample is the smaller set actually studied.AQA
Teacher as facilitator of experience: The teacher provides experiences rather than simply transmitting facts.AQA
Temperament: Innate, biologically based traits we are born with, such as being naturally outgoing.Pearson Edexcel
Temporal lobe: Found on the sides near the ears and handles auditory processing, memory, and language comprehension.Pearson Edexcel
Territory defence and advertisement: Signals such as scent marking or song advertise and defend an area against rivals.AQA
Testable hypotheses: A precise, operationalised prediction about the relationship between variables that a study could actually check.AQA
Thalamus and sensory processing: The thalamus relays sensory information, supporting sensory processing.AQA
The cognitive model linking thoughts, feelings and behaviour: A talking therapy treats the 'here and now' link between thoughts, feelings and behaviour, so changing thoughts is expected to change emotional and…AQA
The ICD as a diagnostic classification manual: A classification manual used by clinicians to diagnose dependence syndrome using standard criteria, enabling consistent diagnosis across clinicians.AQA
Theoretical evaluation: Weighing strengths and weaknesses, such as Piaget's application to education against ignoring social interaction, and Vygotsky's explanation of culture…Pearson Edexcel
Token economy programmes: Use operant conditioning in institutions like prisons, where offenders earn tokens for pro-social behaviours that are exchanged for rewards.Pearson Edexcel
Tolerance: Needing more of the substance to get the same effect.AQA
Tolerance (Drug): A state in which an organism no longer responds to a drug and a higher dose is required to achieve the same effect.OCR
Touch and context: Communication through contact such as a handshake, a tap on the arm or a guiding hand on the shoulder, whose meaning depends on who touches whom, where, and…AQA
Treatment of psychological problems: The study implies CBT is an effective treatment for internet addiction, with improvements maintained at the 6-month follow-up.Pearson Edexcel
Treatments for psychological problems: Self-management programmes, such as self-help groups and 12 step recovery programmes, are approaches in which the individual actively manages their own…AQA
Triggers: The factors that lead to addictive behaviours, which CBT for addiction focuses on identifying.Pearson Edexcel
Types of visual illusion: Images or arrangements that make the perceptual system report something different from the physical reality of the stimulus, including size, figure-ground,…AQA

U

U-shaped serial position curve: The curve produced when percentage recall is plotted against serial position, with middle items recalled least well.AQA
Ultradian rhythms: Bodily rhythms that occur more than once a day, such as the 90-minute sleep stages.Pearson Edexcel
Unconditional positive regard: Receiving acceptance from others without conditions, which fosters healthy self-esteem.Pearson Edexcel
Unipolar versus bipolar depression: Unipolar involves depressive episodes only, while bipolar involves depressive episodes that alternate with periods of mania or elevated mood.AQA
Unstructured interview: An interview resembling a guided conversation with no set questions, allowing the researcher to explore responses in depth, though it is harder to analyse.AQA, Pearson Edexcel
Use of multiple methods: Often using several methods together such as interviews, observations and tests to build a detailed picture.AQA

V

Validity: The accuracy of a measure, meaning it measures what is intended.Pearson Edexcel
Validity and ethics of research designs: Reduced control over extraneous variables can affect the validity of conclusions, and both designs raise ethical and control issues you should be able to…AQA
Validity and response rate: Respondents may give socially desirable answers or fail to return the questionnaire, lowering response rates and validity.AQA
Verbal communication: Communication that uses words, whether spoken or written, and it carries the explicit content of a message.AQA
Verbalisers and visualisers: A verbaliser preference is for words and language, while a visualiser preference is for images and diagrams.AQA
Visual agnosia: An inability to recognise visually presented objects, despite having intact vision, often caused by damage to the parietal or occipital lobes.Pearson Edexcel
Visual constancies: These allow objects to be perceived as stable despite changes in the retinal image.Pearson Edexcel
Visual illusions as evidence: Illusions are used as evidence that the brain makes inferences about depth and size based on assumptions learned from the environment, so identical stimuli…AQA
Visual, acoustic and semantic codes: Ways information can be encoded: as an image of a shape just seen, as a phone number repeated in your head, or as the meaning of a fact.AQA
Volunteer sampling: Relies on participants putting themselves forward; it is ethical and easy, but often suffers from volunteer bias.Pearson Edexcel
Vulnerability to mental health problems: Greater susceptibility that can follow reduced protective relationships, with isolation able to contribute to conditions such as depression or anxiety.AQA

W

Wiles' study of the effectiveness of CBT: Testing the effectiveness of CBT by comparing CBT with usual care and measuring change in depression symptoms.AQA
Willingham's Learning Theory: The argument that the brain processes meaning rather than a preferred sensory channel, so matching teaching to a supposed style does not reliably improve…AQA
Withdrawal: Feeling unwell when the substance is stopped.AQA

Z

Zeitgebers: External influences, or time-givers, with light being the primary cue that resets our biological clock by inhibiting melatonin production.Pearson Edexcel
Zero correlation: A result indicating that there is no relationship between the variables.Pearson Edexcel

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