55 of the Psychology glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
The process of organising, summarising, displaying and interpreting research data, with tables, graphs, statistics or thematic analysis, to find patterns and judge what conclusions the data supports.
The instrument a researcher uses to gather data, such as a questionnaire, Likert-type scale, observation checklist or interview schedule, made up of individual items.
The point in qualitative data collection at which further interviews or observations produce no new codes or themes, used to decide when a sample is large enough.
Any strategy that reduces the effect of a cognitive bias on judgement, either by changing how the person thinks or by changing the situation in which the decision is made.
A full explanation given to participants after a study about its true aims and any deception, with a check on their well-being and a chance to ask questions or withdraw their data.
Misleading participants about the aims or procedures of a study, by withholding information or giving false information; acceptable only when unavoidable and causing no lasting harm.
The cognitive process of choosing between two or more options, which involves judging the likelihood and value of possible outcomes.
A type of long-term memory for facts and events that can be consciously recalled and put into words; it includes episodic and semantic memory.
A top-down research strategy that starts from an existing theory, derives a testable hypothesis and collects data to support or refute it.
The reproduction of an observed action after a delay, without the model being present, which shows that the action has been stored in long-term memory.
The process of perceiving or treating members of a group as less than fully human, which weakens moral restraints on harming them.
Cues in a study that suggest to participants what the researcher expects, which can lead them to change their behaviour to fit their interpretation of the study's purpose.
A pattern of communication in conflict in which one partner pressures the other for change through requests, criticism or complaints while the other avoids the discussion or withdraws.
A short, branching extension of a neuron that receives signals from other neurons and carries them towards the cell body.
The growth of new branches on a neuron’s dendrites in response to experience, which allows the neuron to form more synapses with other neurons.
The variable that the researcher measures in an experiment, expected to change as a result of the independent variable.
The loss of, or prolonged separation from, an attachment figure after an attachment has formed, for example through bereavement, hospitalisation or parental absence.
A cross-cultural comparison built from the features that several emic studies show to be genuinely shared by the cultures being compared, rather than imposed from one culture.
A social norm that describes what most people actually do in a situation, such as most hotel guests reusing their towels, as opposed to what people approve of.
Statistics that summarise a set of data, such as measures of central tendency and of dispersion, without testing whether results could be due to chance.
Conditions of learning, such as retrieval practice, spacing and interleaving, that make learning feel harder and slower at first but improve long-term retention and transfer.
The view that behaviour is caused by factors outside a person’s control, such as genes and brain chemistry (biological determinism) or upbringing and culture (environmental determinism), leaving little room for free will.
The process by which a person comes to understand who they are, including their self-concept, self-esteem and identity, shaped by attachment, culture, peers and childhood experiences.
The branch of psychology that studies how and why behaviour, thinking, emotions and the self change across the lifespan, especially from infancy to adolescence.
The process of identifying a disorder by comparing a person’s symptoms, their duration and their effects with the criteria of a classification system such as DSM-5-TR or ICD-11.
The American Psychiatric Association’s classification of mental health disorders, now DSM-5-TR (2022), which defines each disorder by its symptoms, their duration and their effect on functioning.
A predisposition or vulnerability to a disorder, which may be genetic, biological, cognitive or psychosocial, and which increases the risk of the disorder without causing it on its own.
A model proposing that a disorder or behaviour develops when an underlying vulnerability (the diathesis) interacts with environmental stress, so that neither alone is sufficient to produce it.
A research technique in which a different message is played to each ear through headphones, and participants usually repeat aloud (shadow) one of them.
The hypothesis that individuals differ in how strongly they are affected by their environment, so that the most susceptible people do worst in adverse environments and best in supportive ones.
Electronic devices, systems and services that create, store or transmit information in digital form, such as smartphones, computers, the internet, social media, video games and artificial intelligence.
A distinction between measures that record the behaviour of interest itself and measures that infer a construct or process from something else, such as brain activity from blood oxygen.
Physical and psychological symptoms, such as dizziness, anxiety and sleep disturbance, that can occur when an antidepressant is reduced or stopped, especially suddenly.
Unfair behaviour towards a person because of their membership of a particular group, such as excluding, harming or giving fewer resources to them.
The subjective experience that processing information is difficult, for example when text is printed in a hard-to-read font; it was proposed as a cue that triggers deliberate System 2 thinking.
A pattern of indiscriminate friendliness in which a child approaches and seeks comfort from unfamiliar adults without the wariness usual for their age, often after institutional care.
An attachment type in which the infant shows contradictory, confused or frightened behaviour towards the caregiver, lacking a consistent strategy for seeking comfort.
Culturally learned norms about which emotions may be shown, how strongly, and to whom in a particular situation.
Any strategy used to lessen cognitive dissonance, such as changing behaviour, changing an attitude or belief, adding consonant cognitions or making the dissonant cognition seem unimportant (trivialisation).
The way the scores in a set of data are spread across their possible values, shown by how often each value or interval occurs; described by its shape, centre and spread.
Twins who develop from two eggs fertilised by two different sperm, so, like ordinary siblings, they share on average about 50% of the genes that vary between people.
An epigenetic process in which methyl groups attach to DNA, usually reducing the expression of a gene without changing its sequence.
A compliance technique in which a large request that is likely to be refused is followed by a smaller request, which is then more likely to be accepted as a concession.
A neurotransmitter involved in movement, motivation and reward, which signals that an outcome is valuable and strengthens the behaviour that led to it.
The hypothesis that the symptoms of schizophrenia, especially hallucinations and delusions, are linked to excessive dopamine activity in certain pathways of the brain.
A relationship in which more exposure to a possible cause goes with a greater effect; it supports, but does not prove, a causal explanation.
A pattern of results in which one factor affects process A but not process B, while a second factor affects B but not A, which is evidence that the two processes are separate.
The proposal that difficulties in understanding between autistic and non-autistic people run in both directions, because each group finds the other’s ways of thinking and communicating hard to read.
A survey or interview question that asks about two things at once, so that a single answer cannot show which part the respondent is responding to.
A research design in which neither the participants nor the researchers who collect the data know which condition each participant is in, so that their expectations cannot affect the results; in a single-blind design only the participants are unaware.
The use of a legal or illegal drug in a way that harms the user or others, or that is not medically intended, such as taking a prescription drug in larger doses than prescribed.
A learning strategy in which material is represented in both words and images, giving two linked memory codes and two routes for retrieval.
A theory proposing that thinking and decision-making rely on two types of process: fast, automatic, intuitive System 1 processing and slow, effortful, deliberate System 2 processing that can check and override it.
A model of adolescent risk-taking in which a reward system that becomes highly responsive at puberty matures earlier than a prefrontal control system that develops gradually into the twenties.
A research method in which participants perform two tasks at once; if performance falls, the tasks are assumed to compete for the same limited-capacity component.