56 of the Psychology glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
A person’s sense of who they are as an individual and as a member of social groups, including the values, roles and commitments that give them continuity over time.
One of four positions in Marcia’s model of adolescent identity (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement), defined by whether a person has explored options and made commitments.
A culturally shared way of expressing and communicating suffering, such as “thinking too much” or “nerves”, which other members of the culture recognise and respond to.
A computer-based reaction-time task that infers the strength of automatic associations between concepts, such as social groups and good or bad, from how quickly people sort words and images.
An attitude, expectation or association that influences judgement and behaviour without the person being aware of it, as opposed to explicit bias, which the person knows about and could report.
The error of applying a concept or measure developed in one culture to another culture as if it were universal, without checking whether it has the same meaning or relevance there.
A social group to which a person feels they belong and with which they identify.
The tendency to evaluate, reward and treat members of one's own group more favourably than members of other groups.
The number of new cases of a condition that develop in a population during a stated period, usually expressed as a rate per 100 or per 1,000 people per year.
Learning that happens without an intention to learn, studied by giving participants a task with material and then an unexpected memory test.
An experimental design in which different participants take part in each condition, so each person experiences only one level of the independent variable.
A view of the self as a separate, unique individual defined by personal traits, preferences and achievements, more common in individualist cultures.
The variable that the researcher manipulates or compares in an experiment, to test its effect on the dependent variable.
Approaches to psychology developed from within a culture, using its own concepts, values and ways of knowing to understand its people, rather than theories and methods imported from elsewhere.
A cultural orientation in which people see themselves mainly as independent individuals, give priority to personal goals and rights, and have relatively loose ties beyond the immediate family.
A dissonance paradigm in which a person is led to act or speak against their own attitude with little external justification, usually leading them to change the attitude to fit the behaviour.
A qualitative method in which categories are not decided in advance but are developed from the data themselves, by open coding, grouping codes and abstracting them into broader categories.
A bottom-up research strategy that starts from data, often qualitative, identifies patterns and themes, and builds explanations or theory from them, as in grounded theory.
Statistical procedures that use data from a sample to judge whether a difference or relationship is likely to exist in the population, by estimating how probable the result would be if it were due to chance alone.
A statistical procedure, such as a t-test or chi-squared test, that turns sample data into a test statistic and a p-value so that a decision can be made about the null hypothesis.
The hypothesis that long-lasting activation of the immune system and raised pro-inflammatory cytokines contribute to the development of depression in some people.
A view of cognition that treats the mind as a system that takes in, transforms, stores and retrieves information in stages, often by analogy with a computer.
A participant’s voluntary agreement to take part in research after being told its purpose, procedures, risks and their rights; given by a parent or guardian for children.
Describes an effect of a neurotransmitter that makes the postsynaptic neuron less likely to fire an action potential.
A social norm that describes what most people approve or disapprove of, that is, what a person ought to do, as opposed to what most people actually do.
An attachment type in which the infant explores with little reference to the caregiver, shows little distress at separation and ignores or avoids the caregiver on reunion.
An attachment type in which the infant explores little, is very distressed by separation, and on reunion both seeks contact with the caregiver and resists being comforted.
The placement and upbringing of children in residential institutions such as orphanages, and the effects of that care, which can include delayed development and attachment difficulties.
An explanation of anchoring in which people start from the anchor and adjust towards a plausible value but stop too early, at the edge of the plausible range nearest the anchor.
An acculturation strategy in which a person keeps their heritage culture while also taking part in the host culture and seeking contact with its members.
A form of couples therapy that combines behavioural change strategies with strategies that help partners accept each other's differences, developed by Jacobson and Christensen.
The extent to which two or more independent observers or coders give the same ratings of the same behaviour or material, usually checked by correlating their scores or calculating agreement.
An approach that explains behaviour through the way biological, cognitive and sociocultural factors influence one another, rather than through any one factor alone.
A model of acculturation proposed by Bourhis and colleagues (1997) in which relations between immigrants and the host community depend on how well the acculturation orientations of both groups match, shaped by state integration policies.
A view of the self as connected to others and defined by relationships, roles and group memberships, more common in collectivist cultures.
Hostility, competition or aggression between groups, in which people act as group members rather than as individuals.
A practice strategy in which different types of problem, skill or topic are mixed within a session rather than practised in separate blocks.
A type of reliability showing the extent to which the items of a scale measure the same construct, so that scores on the items rise and fall together.
The extent to which a study shows that the change in the dependent variable was caused by the independent variable and not by other variables, flaws in the procedure or chance.
A mental representation of the self, of attachment figures and of relationships, built from early caregiving experiences, that guides expectations and behaviour in later relationships.
The deepest level of conformity, in which a person privately accepts the group's view as correct, so the change in belief and behaviour lasts when the group is absent.
Cognitive behavioural therapy delivered through structured online modules or an app, either with brief support from a therapist (guided) or entirely as self-help (unguided).
A positive evaluation of another person that makes someone want to approach them and spend time with them, the first step in forming a relationship.
Relationships between two people in which each influences the other's thoughts, feelings and behaviour, such as romantic partnerships, friendships and family relationships.
A structured, time-limited psychological treatment that treats depression by improving current relationships, focusing on grief, disputes, role transitions or social isolation.
A measure of dispersion: the difference between the upper quartile and the lower quartile, giving the spread of the middle 50% of scores; it is not affected by extreme scores.
Numerical data measured on a scale with equal units between values but no true zero point, such as temperature in degrees Celsius or scores on many standardised tests.
A deliberate action designed to change behaviour, cognition, emotion or health, such as a therapy, a medication, a training programme, a campaign or a policy.
A self-report research method in which a researcher asks participants questions face to face, by phone or online and records their spoken answers.
The planned list of questions and follow-up probes used to guide an interview, so that the same topics are covered with every participant.
A change in participants’ answers caused by the characteristics or behaviour of the interviewer, such as age, gender, status or reactions, rather than by the participants’ own views.
Giving a substance, such as oxytocin, as a nasal spray so that it is absorbed through the lining of the nose, used in experiments to raise its levels without an injection.
The cognitive load imposed by the inherent complexity of the material, which depends on how many interacting elements must be processed at once relative to the learner’s existing knowledge.
Motivation to engage in an activity for its own sake, because it is interesting, enjoyable or satisfying, rather than to obtain a separate outcome.
Rusbult's model in which commitment to a relationship rises with satisfaction and investment size and falls with the quality of alternatives, and commitment predicts whether the person stays.