AQA GCSE Psychology key terms

A self-report method that collects information through spoken questions.

Doing an activity because it is enjoyable or satisfying in itself, rather than to obtain an external reward.

The theory that an emotional stimulus first causes physiological arousal, and experiencing these bodily changes produces the emotion.

A research method in which the researcher manipulates an independent variable and measures a dependent variable in a controlled, artificial setting.

A system of words and rules used to communicate meaning.

A preferred way of processing information which, according to the learning-styles approach, should improve learning when teaching is matched to it.

A depth cue in which parallel lines appear to converge as they extend into the distance.

The view that language determines thought and restricts what a person can think about.

The view that the language people use influences their thinking but does not completely determine what they can think.

The principle that particular brain areas are associated with particular functions.

A person's belief about whether outcomes are mainly controlled by their own actions (internal) or by outside forces such as luck and other people (external).

A memory store that retains information for extended periods.

Social influence in which the views or behaviour of most members of a group affect an individual.

An episode of abnormally elevated mood accompanied by significantly increased energy and activity.

An experimental design in which participants are paired on relevant characteristics, with one member of each pair in each condition.

An experimental design in which participants are paired on relevant characteristics, with one member of each pair completing each condition.

The arithmetic average: the total of all scores divided by the number of scores.

A summary of the centre or typical value of a set of results. The mean, median and mode are measures of central tendency.

A numerical summary of how spread out a set of results is. The range is a measure of dispersion.

The middle score when values are arranged in numerical order. If there are two middle scores, their mean is the median.

A person’s psychological and emotional wellbeing, including how they feel about themselves and their ability to cope and function in everyday life.

A psychological difficulty that significantly affects a person's thoughts, emotions or behaviour and can interfere with everyday life.

An explanation for visual illusions in which depth information is interpreted incorrectly, leading to a mistaken judgement of distance, size or length.

An incorrect interpretation of sensory information; Gregory used this idea to explain visual illusions.

The score or category that occurs most frequently in a dataset.

Information about depth or distance that can be used with just one eye.

Identical twins who develop from one fertilised egg and share virtually all their genes.

An individual's beliefs about what is right and wrong.