15 of the Psychology glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
The extent to which a measure or study captures what it claims to capture. Types include face, content, construct and criterion validity for measures, and internal and external validity for studies.
Any characteristic or factor that can change or differ between people, situations or times and can be manipulated or measured, such as reaction time, anxiety score or hours of sleep.
A measure of dispersion equal to the average of the squared deviations of scores from their mean; its square root is the standard deviation.
A hormone and brain chemical messenger, closely related to oxytocin, that regulates water balance and, in the brain, is involved in partner bonding and social recognition, especially in males.
A region deep in the forebrain, including the nucleus accumbens, that forms part of the brain’s reward system and responds to anticipated and received rewards, including social ones.
A region of the midbrain containing dopamine-producing neurons that form the starting point of the brain’s reward system.
A decrease in the likelihood of a behaviour in an observer that results from seeing a model punished for that behaviour.
An increase in the likelihood of a behaviour in an observer that results from seeing a model rewarded for that behaviour.
A teaching method in which the learner watches a recorded demonstration of a target skill, which can be paused and repeated, before practising it.
A short written story about a fictional person or situation, used in interviews or questionnaires so that participants can give their views without describing their own experience.
A method used with infants in which looking times to expected and unexpected events are compared; longer looking at an unexpected event is taken as evidence of a violated expectation.
A form of exposure therapy in which a person is gradually exposed to a feared situation in a computer-generated, immersive environment rather than in real life.
The component of the working memory model that holds and manipulates visual and spatial information, such as images, shapes and the layout of a space.
A characteristic or circumstance that does not cause a disorder on its own but increases the chance that a stressful event will lead to it, such as lacking a confiding relationship.
People whose age, health, circumstances or relationship with the researcher limit their ability to give informed consent or protect their own interests, such as children.