OCR GCSE Psychology key terms

A group of cells in the hypothalamus that helps regulate the body's daily sleep–wake rhythm.

Using Facebook to keep track of other people’s activities, such as reading their updates and viewing their photographs.

The branch of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for action through the fight-or-flight response.

A junction between neurons where a neurotransmitter carries a chemical signal across a small gap.

The reduction of unnecessary or little-used neural connections during brain development.

The process by which a neuron releases a neurotransmitter across a synaptic gap, where it binds to receptors on another neuron and influences its activity.

The cerebral cortex's process of interpreting and organising random neural signals, using stored memories to form a dream.

A table used to record occurrences as they happen, using tally marks that are counted to obtain frequencies.

The whole group of people to whom a researcher intends their findings to apply.

A group of tests used together to assess several abilities or functions.

An influence that discourages a person from involvement in an activity.

A classification of different types of behaviour or involvement.

An unclear or indeterminate feature of an experience, such as uncertainty about a character’s identity.

In Freud’s theory, the part of the mind containing thoughts, memories and desires that are normally inaccessible to conscious awareness but can influence behaviour.

An interview without a fixed sequence of questions, in which the researcher develops questions in response to what the participant says.

The accuracy of a measure: whether it measures what it is supposed to measure.

A characteristic or factor that can change or take different values, such as hours of sleep or a memory-test score.

Learning from observing the consequences of another person’s behaviour.

Seeing someone else punished for behaviour, making the observer less likely to imitate it.

Seeing someone else rewarded for behaviour, making the observer more likely to imitate it.

A survey asking people about crimes they have experienced, including incidents they did not report to the police.

An offence involving physical harm or the threat of violence, such as assault.

A form of sampling bias arising because people who volunteer for research may differ from those who do not.

Spontaneous waking mental activity involving an imagined story or perceptual experience, without a clear link to external stimuli or deliberate intention.

A standardised battery of tasks used to assess different memory functions and compare performance with age-based norms.

A card-sorting task that assesses reasoning and the ability to change strategy when a sorting rule changes; performance is linked to frontal-lobe functioning.

In Freud’s theory of dreaming, the satisfaction of an unconscious desire through a dream.