AQA GCSE Psychology key terms

How intense or serious a symptom or episode of illness is.

A limited-capacity memory store that temporarily holds information currently being used.

An unwanted effect of a medicine in addition to its intended therapeutic effect.

A digit counted when expressing the precision of a number. Significant figures are counted from the first non-zero digit.

The tendency to perceive an object as remaining the same size despite changes in the size of its retinal image as its distance changes.

Practical support that helps people manage everyday life and maintain their wellbeing and independence.

A tendency to give answers that seem socially acceptable rather than answers that accurately reflect a person’s beliefs or behaviour.

An influence on behaviour arising from the social situation, including other people and cultural expectations.

Having limited social contact and relationships with other people.

Learning through observing and imitating other people.

An explanation of learning through observing other people and imitating their behaviour, particularly when they are rewarded.

Putting less individual effort into a shared task than into the same task performed alone.

An expectation about acceptable behaviour within a social group.

An infant behaviour or feature that encourages adults to provide care, such as crying or a baby’s facial appearance.

Negative social attitudes towards a characteristic or condition, which can lead to shame, rejection or unfair treatment.

The division of the peripheral nervous system that carries sensory information and controls skeletal muscle movement, including voluntary actions and reflexes.

A region of the parietal lobe that processes sensations from the body, including touch, pressure, pain and temperature.

A selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor: a type of antidepressant that acts on serotonin signalling.

A way of writing a number as $a \times 10^n$, where $1 \leq a < 10$ and $n$ is an integer.

The same prepared wording given to participants to explain what they should do and any relevant information about taking part.

A consistent set of steps used for participants and conditions, keeping relevant features the same apart from the intended manipulation of the independent variable.

A person’s position or rank relative to others, which carries a level of value, respect or authority.

Negative beliefs and social judgement attached to a characteristic or condition, such as having a mental health problem.

Something that can be detected by a sense receptor, such as light or sound waves.

Holding encoded information in memory over time.

Selecting participants so that relevant subgroups are represented in the same proportions as in the target population.

A subgroup of a population defined by a shared characteristic, such as an age category. The plural is strata.