AQA GCSE Psychology key terms

Coding information in terms of how it sounds.

An electrical impulse that travels along a neuron when it fires.

A characteristic that helps an organism survive or reproduce in its environment.

A persistent dependence on a substance or activity that is difficult to control despite harmful consequences.

Milgram’s explanation that people may obey because they see themselves as carrying out an authority figure’s wishes rather than acting independently.

A psychological state in which someone sees themselves as acting on behalf of an authority figure and feels that the authority is responsible for their actions.

Wording that identifies the person or thing responsible for an action, such as ‘She broke the vase’.

Deciding which experimental condition or conditions each participant will complete.

A testable statement predicting a difference between conditions or a relationship between variables.

The possibility of interpreting the same visual stimulus in more than one way.

An image that can reasonably be interpreted in more than one way.

A situation in which a participant's identity cannot be linked to their data.

A medicine used mainly to treat the symptoms of depression by affecting neurotransmitter activity in the brain.

Behaviour that harms other people or damages their property, such as bullying, violence or vandalism.

Impairment of language abilities following brain damage, which may affect speaking, understanding, reading or writing.

An average calculated by adding all the values and dividing by the number of values.

Interpreting a new experience using an existing schema without changing its basic structure.

An explanation a person gives for the cause of an event or behaviour.

A region of the temporal lobe that processes sound information.

A pattern of personality characteristics involving strong respect for authority, rigid beliefs and hostility towards people perceived as lower in status.

The perceived right or power to issue orders and expect obedience.

An automatic bodily process that does not require conscious control, such as regulation of heart rate.

The division of the peripheral nervous system that automatically regulates internal bodily functions, such as heart rate and digestion.

A psychological state in which someone acts independently and accepts personal responsibility for their actions.

A treatment that pairs cues associated with an unwanted behaviour with an unpleasant experience, aiming to create an aversion to that behaviour.

A nerve fibre that carries electrical impulses away from a neuron’s cell body towards its terminals.

A chart with separated bars representing distinct categories or discrete values. Each bar’s height shows the quantity labelled on the vertical axis.

A self-report questionnaire used to measure the severity of depressive symptoms. Wiles’ trial used its second version, the BDI-II.