59 of the Psychology glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A mental health disorder involving persistent disturbance of eating and of how body weight and shape are experienced, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder.
An online environment in which a person mainly encounters information and opinions that match their existing views, through their own choices and recommendation algorithms, which can reinforce those views.
The error of drawing conclusions about individuals from data that describe groups, such as assuming that a person holds the values indicated by their country’s average cultural dimension score.
Bronfenbrenner’s model in which development is shaped by interacting environmental systems nested around the child: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem.
The extent to which the findings of a study can be applied to behaviour in real-life settings, which depends on how natural the setting, task and materials were.
A standardised measure of how large a difference or relationship is, independent of sample size, such as Cohen’s d (the difference between two means in standard deviation units) or the correlation coefficient r.
The tendency to value a goal, group or outcome more highly when much effort, cost or suffering was spent reaching it, which reduces dissonance between the effort and a disappointing result.
The proposed reduction in self-control after an earlier task that required self-control, explained as the using up of a limited resource; large preregistered replications have found little or no effect.
In Piaget’s theory, the young child’s difficulty in distinguishing their own point of view from that of others, so that they assume others see and think as they do.
An encoding strategy in which new information is connected to existing knowledge, for example by explaining why a fact is true or how it relates to other ideas.
A biological treatment in which a brief electrical current is passed through the brain of an anaesthetised patient to produce a controlled seizure; used mainly for severe or treatment-resistant depression.
A technique that records the brain's electrical activity through electrodes on the scalp, showing changes in activity millisecond by millisecond.
The degree to which the elements of information in a task must be processed together because they depend on one another; high element interactivity produces high intrinsic load.
A characteristic of a whole system that comes from the interaction of its parts and cannot be found in, or predicted from, any part on its own.
An approach to research that studies behaviour from inside one culture, using the concepts, categories and meanings of its members, usually through qualitative methods such as interviews and participant observation.
A form of couples therapy based on attachment theory that helps partners identify their negative cycle of interaction and express underlying attachment needs to rebuild a secure bond.
The ability to understand and share another person’s feelings; often divided into cognitive empathy (understanding what others feel) and affective empathy (responding emotionally to it).
Data gathered systematically through observation, measurement or experiment, using procedures that others can check and repeat.
The process of converting information into a form that can be stored in memory, for example as sounds (acoustic encoding) or meanings (semantic encoding).
The principle, proposed by Endel Tulving, that memory is best when the cues present at retrieval match those encoded together with the information at learning.
The process by which a person learns the norms, values, beliefs and behaviours of their own culture, mostly in childhood, through family, peers, school, media and everyday practices.
The network of glands, including the pituitary and adrenal glands and the testes and ovaries, that secrete hormones into the bloodstream to regulate the body and behaviour.
An environment that offers more sensory, physical, social and cognitive stimulation than a standard one; in animal research it is compared with an impoverished environment to study plasticity.
A communication strategy that builds educational messages into popular entertainment, such as soap operas, so that characters model behaviours the audience may learn and adopt.
Any influence on behaviour or mental health that comes from outside the person’s biology, such as life events, relationships, socioeconomic conditions, culture and physical surroundings.
The study of changes in gene expression that do not involve changes to the DNA sequence itself, including changes caused by the environment and experience.
The component added to the working memory model by Baddeley (2000): a limited-capacity store that combines information from the other components and long-term memory into integrated episodes.
A type of declarative long-term memory for personal events experienced at a particular time and place, such as a first day at school.
Reflection on how the researcher's choices of research question, method and analysis may have shaped the findings and what other choices could have shown.
The assumption in twin research that monozygotic and dizygotic twins experience equally similar environments, so that greater similarity in monozygotic twins can be attributed to genes.
Lashley’s proposal that intact areas of the cortex can take over the functions of damaged areas, so that the amount of damage matters more than its location.
A theory proposing that people are most satisfied when the ratio of each partner's contributions to benefits is similar, and that being under-benefited or over-benefited causes distress.
A line drawn above and below a mean on a graph to show the spread or uncertainty around it, such as one standard deviation, the standard error or a 95% confidence interval.
The principles researchers must take into account to protect the rights, dignity and well-being of participants and others affected by research, such as informed consent, protection from harm and confidentiality.
A group that reviews research proposals before they begin, judging whether risks to participants are acceptable and justified by the benefits and whether procedures meet ethical standards.
The tendency to judge other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture, often treating one’s own way of thinking or behaving as normal or superior.
A qualitative research approach in which a researcher studies a cultural group in its natural setting over a long period, mainly through participant observation and interviews, to describe its way of life from the inside.
An approach to research that studies behaviour from outside a culture, using concepts and standardised measures assumed to apply to all cultures, so that different cultures can be compared.
An observation sampling method in which the observer records every occurrence of each behavioural category during the whole observation period.
Describes an effect of a neurotransmitter that makes the postsynaptic neuron more likely to fire an action potential.
A set of higher-order cognitive processes, including inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility, that allow people to plan, control attention and regulate their behaviour.
A form of researcher bias in which the researcher's expectations about the results unintentionally influence participants' behaviour or the way data are recorded.
A research method in which participants report their behaviour, thoughts or feelings several times a day in their everyday lives, usually through prompts on a phone, giving many real-time measurements per person.
Brain change that depends on experiences specific to an individual, such as learning a language, a skill or a route, and that can happen at any age.
Brain change that depends on experiences almost every member of a species meets at a predictable age, such as patterned light or speech, which the brain needs to wire its basic systems.
A research method in which the researcher manipulates an independent variable and measures its effect on a dependent variable while controlling other variables, so that cause and effect can be tested.
The procedures used to stop extraneous variables affecting the dependent variable, such as standardised instructions, random allocation, counterbalancing, control groups and blinding.
The finding that instructional techniques which help novices by reducing cognitive load lose their benefit, or impair learning, for more knowledgeable learners, for whom the guidance is redundant.
The beliefs a person holds about an illness, including its name, cause, course, effects and appropriate treatment, which shape how they understand distress and what help they seek.
A behavioural treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder in which a person is exposed to situations that trigger obsessions and helped not to perform the compulsions that usually reduce the anxiety.
A behavioural treatment in which a person is repeatedly and safely confronted with a feared object, situation or memory, without escape or avoidance, until the fear response weakens.
The extent to which a study’s findings can be generalised beyond the study itself, to other people, settings and times.
The gradual weakening and disappearance of a learned response when the conditioned stimulus appears without the unconditioned stimulus, or when a behaviour is no longer reinforced.
The cognitive load imposed by the way information is presented or by the learning activity, when that design does not contribute to learning, such as searching between separate sources.
Any variable other than the independent variable that could affect the dependent variable and so must be controlled or accounted for.
Applying findings from one group or species to another that was not studied, such as using results from rats to draw conclusions about humans.
Motivation to engage in an activity in order to obtain a separate outcome, such as a reward, a grade, approval or the avoidance of punishment.
An account given by a person who saw an event, such as a crime or accident, describing what happened and who was involved, often used as evidence in court.