Definitions and Descriptions Flashcards
Both A and AS Level
ABC Model
A cognitive approach to understanding mental disorders, focusing on the effects of irrational beliefs on emotions.
Agentic State
A person sees themself as an agent for carrying out another person’s wishes.
Aim
A statement of what the researcher intends to find out in a research study.
Anxiety
An unpleasant emotional state.
Attachment
An emotional bond between two people.
A two-way process that endures over time.
It serves the function of protecting an infant.
Authoritarian Personality
A distinct personality pattern characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority.
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
Governs the brain’s involuntary activities and is self-regulating. It’s divided into the sympathetic branch and the parasympathetic branch.
Behaviourist
Believing that human behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without the need to consider thoughts/feelings.
Biological Approach
Views humans as biological organisms and so provides biological explanations for all aspects of psychological functioning.
Brain
The part of the central nervous system that is responsible for coordinating sensation, intellectual and nervous activity.
Brain Plasticity
The brain’s ability to modify its own structure and function as a result of experience.
Broca’s area
An area in the frontal lobe of the brain, usually in the left hemisphere, related to speech production.
Capacity
This is a measure of how much can be held in memory. It’s represented in terms of bits of information, such as number of digits.
Case Study
A research investigation that involves a detailed study of a single individual, institution or event.
They provide a rich record of human experience but are hard to generalise from.
Central Executive
Monitors and coordinates all other mental functions in working memory.
Central Nervous System (CNS)
Comprises the brain and spinal cord. It receives information from the senses and controls the body’s responses.
Circadian Rhythm
A pattern of behaviour that occurs or recurs aproximately very 24 hour, and which is set and reset by environmental light levels.
Classical Conditioning
Learning through association. A neutral stimulus is consistently paired with an unconditioned stimulus so that it eventually takes on the properties of this stimulus and is able to produce a conditioned response.
Closed Questions
Questions that have a predetermined range of answers from which respondents select one.
Produces quantitative data.
Co-variable
The two measured variables in a correlational analysis.
They must be continuous.
Coding
The way information is changed so that it can be stored in memory. Information enters the brain via the senses and is then stored in various forms, such as visual, acoustic or semantic codes.
Cognitive
Relates to mental processes such as perception, memory and reasoning.
Cognitive-behavioural Therapy (CBT)
A combination of cognitive therapy and behavioural therapy.
Cognitive Interview
A police technique for interviewing witnesses to a crime, which encourages them to recreate the original context of the crime in order to increase the accessibility of stored information. Because our memory is made up of a network of associations rather than of discrete events, memories are accessed using multiple retrieval strategies.
Cognitive Neuroscience
An area of psychology dedicated to the underlying neural bases of cognitive functions.
Commitment
The degree to which members of a minority are dedicated to a particular cause or activity. The greater the perceived commitment, the greater the influence.
Compliance
Occurs when an individual accepts influence because they hope to achieve a favourable reaction from those around them. An attitude or behaviour is adopted not because of its content, but because of the rewards or approval associated with its adoption.
Computer Model
Refers to the process of using computer analogies as a representation of human cognition.
Concordance Rate
A measure of genetic similarity.
Conditions of Worth
Conditions imposed on an individual’s behaviour and development that are considered necessary to earn positive regard from significant others.
Confederate
An individual in a study who isn’t a real participant and has been instructed how to behave by the investigator.
Confidentiality
Concerns the communication of personal information from one person to another, and the trust that the information will be protected.
Conformity
A form of social influence that results from exposure to the majority position and leads to compliance with that position. It’s the tendency for people to adopt the behaviour, attitudes and values of other members of a reference group.
Confounding Variable
A variable under study that isn’t the IV but which varies systematically with the IV. Changes in the dependent variable may be due to the confounding variable rather than the IV, and therefore the outcome is meaningless. To ‘confound’ means to cause confusion.
Congruence
If there is a similarity between a person’s ideal self adn self-image, a state of congruence exists. A difference represents a state of incongruence.
Consistency
Minority influence is effective provided there is stability in the expressed position over time and agreement among different members of the minority.
Content Analysis
A kind of observational study in which behaviour is observed indirectly in written or verbal material such as interviews, conversations, books, diaries or TV programmes.
Continuity Hypothesis
The idea that emotionally secure infants go on to be emotionally secure, trusting and socially confident adults.
Continuous Variable
A variable that can take on any value within a certain range.
Control
Refers to the extent to which any variable is held constant or regulated by a researcher.
Controlled Observation
A form of investigation in which behaviour is observed but under conditions where certain variables have been organised by the researcher.
Correlation
Determining the extent of an association between two variables; co-variables may not be linked at all (zero correlation), they may both increase together (positive correlation), or as one co-variable increases, the other decreases (negative correlation).
Correlation Coefficient
A number between -1 and +1 that tells us how closely the co-variables in a correlational analysis are associated.
Cost-benefit Analysis
A systematic approach to estimating the negatives and positives of any research.
Counterbalancing
An experimental technique used to overcome order effects when using a repeated measures design. Counterbalancing ensures that each condition is tested first or second in equal amounts.
Covert Observations
Observing people without their knowledge. Knowing that behaviour is being observed is likely to alter a participant’s behaviour.
Critical Period
A biologically determined period of time, during which certain characteristics can develop. Outside of this time window such development will not be possible.
Critical Value
In an inferential test the value of the test statistic that must be reached to show significance.
Cues
Things that serve as a reminder. They may meaningfully link to the material to be remembered or may not be meaningfully linked, such as environmental cues or cues related to your mental state.
Cultural Relativism
The view that behaviour can’t be judged properly unless it’s viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates.
Cultural Variations
The way that different groups of people vary in terms of their social practices, and the effects these practices have on development and behaviour.
Curvilinear Correlation
A non-linear relationship between co-variables.
Debriefing
A post-research interview designed to inform participants of the true nature of the study and to restore them to the state they were in at the start of the study. It may also be used to gain useful feedback about the procedures in the study. Debriefing is not an ethical issue; it’s a means of dealing with ethical issues.
Deception
A participant isn’t told the true aims of a study and thus can’t give truly informed consent.
Defence Mechanisms
Unconscious strategies that protect our conscious mind from anxiety. Defence mechanisms involve a distortion of reality in some way, so that we are better able to cope with a situation.
Demand Characteristics
A cue that makes participants unconsciously aware of the aims of a study or helps participants work out what the researcher expects to find.
Dependent Variable (DV)
A measureable outcome of the action of the independent variable in an experiment.
Depression
A mood disorder where an individual feels sad and/or lacks interest in their usual activities. Further characteristics include irrational negative thoughts, raised or lowered activity levels and difficulties with concentration, sleep and eating.
Deprivation
To be deprived is to lose something. In the context of child development deprivation refers to the loss of emotional care that is normally provided by a primary caregiver.
Determinism
Behaviour is determined by external or internal factors acting upon the individual.
Deviation from Ideal Mental Health
Abnormality is defined in terms of mental health, behaviours that are associated with competence and happiness. Ideal mental health would include a positive attitude towards the self, resistance to stress and an accurate perception of reality.
Devitation from Social Norms
Abnormal behaviour is seen as a deviation from unstated rules about how one ‘ought’ to behave. Anything that violates these rules is considered abnormal.
Directional Hypothesis
States the direction of the predicted difference between two conditions or two groups of participants.
Dispositional
Explanations of behaviours such as obedience emphasise them being caused by an individual’s own personal characteristics rather than situational influences within the environment.
Dopamine
One of the key neurotransmitters in the brain, with effects on motivation and ‘drive’.
DSM
A list of mental disorders that is used to diagnose mental disorders. For each disorder a list of clinical characteristics is given.
Duration
A measure of how long a memory lasts before it’s no longer available.
Ecological Validity
A form of external validity, concerning the ability to generalise a research effect beyond the particular setting in which it’s demonstrated, to other settings. Ecological validity is established by representativeness and generalisability.
Effect Size
A measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables.
EEG
A method of recording changes in the electrical activity of the brain using electrodes attached to the scalp.
Empiricism
The belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience. It’s generally characterised by the use of the scientific method in psychology.
Endocrine Glands
Special groups of cells within the endocrine system, whose function is to produce and secrete hormones.
Endocrine System
A network of glands throughout the body that manufacture and secrete chemical messengers known as hormones.
Endogenous Pacemakers
Mechanisms within the body that govern the internal, biological bodily rhythms.
Episodic Buffer
Receives input from many sources, temporarily stores this information, and then integrates it in order to construct a mental episode of what is being experienced.
Episodic Memory
Personal memories of events, such as what you did yesterday or a teacher you liked. This kind of memory includes contextual details plus emotional tone.
Ethical Guidelines (Code of Conduct)
A set of principles designed to help professionals behave honestly and with integrity.
Ethical Issues
Concern questions of right and wrong. They arise in research where there are conflicting sets of values between researchers and participants concerning the goals, procedures or outcomes of a research study.
Ethics Committee
A group of people within a research institution that must approve a study before it begins.
Event Sampling
An observational technique in which a count is kept of the number of times a certain behaviour occurs.
ERP
A technique that takes raw EEG data and uses it to investigate cognitive processing of a specific event. it achieves this by taking multiple readings and averaging them in order to filter out all brain activity that isn’t related to the appearance of the stimulus.
Evolution
Refers to the change over successive generations of the genetic make-up of a particular population. The central proposition of an evolutionary perspective is that the genotype of a population is changeable rather than the fixed, and that this change is likely to be caused by the process pf natural selection.
Exogenous Zeitgeber
An environmental cue, such as light, that helps to regulate the biological clock in an organism.
Experiment
A research method where causal conclusions can be drawn because an independent variable has been deliberately manipulated to observe the causal effect on the dependent variable.
Experimental Design
A set of procedures used to control the influence of factors such as participant variables in an experiment.
External Validity
The degree to which a research finding can be generalised: to other settings, other groups of people or over time.
Externality
Individuals who tend to believe that their behaviour and experience is caused by events outside their control.
Extraneous Variables
Don’r vary systematically with the IV and therefore don’t act as an alternative IV but may have an effect on the dependent variable. They are nuisance variables that muddy the waters and make it more difficult to detect a significant effect.
Eyewitness Testimony
The evidence provided in court by a person who witnessed a crime, with a view to identifying the perpetrator of the crime.
F Scale
Also known as the ‘California F Scale’ ir the ‘Fascism Scale’, the F scale was developed in California in 1947 as a measure of authoritarian traits or tendencies.
Failure to Function Adequately
People are judged on their ability to go about daily life. If they can’t do this and are also experiencing distress (or others are distressed by their behaviour) then it’s considered a sign of abnormality.
Field Experiment
A controlled experiment conducted outside a laboratory. The IV still manipulated by the experimenter, and therefore causal relationships can be demonstrated. Field experiments tend to have lower internal validity and higher external validity. Participants are usually unaware that they’re participant in an experiment; thus their behaviour may be more natural and they are less likely to respond to cues from the experimenter.
Fight-or-Flight Response
A sequence of activity within the body that is triggered when the body prepares itself for defending/attacking or running away to safety. This activity involves changes in the nervous system and the secretion of hormones that are necessary to sustain arousal.
Flexibility
A willingness to be flexible and to compromise when expressing a position.
Flooding
A form of behavioural therapy used to treat phobias and other anxiety disorders. A client is exposed to (or imagines) an extreme form of the threatening situacion under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is extinguished.
Free Will
The ability to act at one’s own discretion, i.e. to choose how to behave without being influenced by external forces.
Functional Magentic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
A technique for measuring brain activity. It works by detecting changes in blood oxygenation and flow that indicate increased neural activity.
Functional Recovery
Refers to the recovery of abilities and mental processes that have been compromised as a result of brain injury or disease.
GABA
A neurotransmitter that regulates excitement in ther nervous system, thus acting as a natural form of anxiety reducer.
Gene
A part of the chromosome of an organism that carries information in the form of DNA.
Generalisation
Applying the findings of a particular study to the population.
Genotype
The genetic make-up of an individual. The genotype is a collection of inherited genetic material that is passed from generation to generation.
Hemispheric Lateralisation
Refers to the fact that some mental processes in the brain are mainly specialised to either the left or right hemisphere.
Hierarchy of Needs
The motivational theory proposed by Maslow, often displayed as a pyramid. The most basic needs are at the bottom and higher needs at the top.
Histogram
Type of frequency distribution in which the number of scores in each category of continuous data are represented by vertical columns. There is a true zero and no spaces between the bars.
Historical Validity
A form of external validity, concerning the degree to which a research finding can be generalised over time.
Hormones
The body’s chemical messengers. They travel through the bloodstream, influencing many different processes including mood, the stress response and bonding between mother and newborn baby.
HPA Axis
Describes the sequence of bodily activity in response to stress that involves the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal cortex.
Humanistic
Refers to the belief that human beings are born with the desire to grow, create and to love, and have the power to direct their own lives.
Hypothesis
A precise and testable statement about the assumed relationship between variables. Operationalisation is a key part of making the statement testable.
Identification
A form of influence where an individual adopts an attitude or behaviour because they want to be associated with a particular person or group.
Imitation
The action of using someone or something as a model and copying their behaviour.
Imprinting
An innate readiness to develop a strong bond with the mother which takes place during a specific time in development, probably the first few hours after birth/hatching. If it doesn’t happen at this time it probably won’t happen.
Independent Groups Design
Participants are allocated to two (or more) groups representing different levels of the IV. Allocation is usually done using random techniques.
Independent Variable (IV)
Some event that is directly manipulated by an experimenter in order to test its effect on the DV.
Inference/Inferring
Means reaching a logical conclusion on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
Informational Social Influence
A form of influence, which is the result of a desire to be right - looking to others as a way of gaining evidence about reality.
Informed Consent
Participants must be given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, in order that they can make an informed decision about whether to participate.