OCR GCSE Psychology key terms

Misleading participants about research, either by giving false information or by withholding relevant information.

A way of writing numbers using place value, with a decimal point separating whole-number places from tenths, hundredths and smaller parts.

A digit position to the right of the decimal point. The number of decimal places tells you how many such positions are retained.

Memory for facts and events that can be consciously recalled, including knowledge and personal experiences.

A psychological state involving reduced awareness of oneself as an individual and reduced concern about personal accountability, often associated with anonymity in a crowd.

Remembering information after an interval rather than immediately after presentation.

Antisocial or law-breaking behaviour, particularly by young people. Heaven measured participants’ own reports of interpersonal violence and vandalism/theft.

A strongly held false belief that resists argument and is not explained by the person’s cultural background.

Cues that lead participants to work out what a study is investigating and change their behaviour in response.

Cues in a study that make participants aware of what the researcher expects to find or how they are expected to behave.

The bottom number in a fraction, showing how many equal parts make up the whole.

The outcome measured by the researcher to investigate the effect of the independent variable.

A period during which a person experiences a sustained pattern of depressive symptoms, usually for at least two weeks.

A numerical summary that describes a set of data, such as an average or a measure of spread.

The view that behaviour is caused by forces rather than freely chosen; situational determinism emphasises external social circumstances.

Discouraging an action through the threat or expectation of an undesirable consequence.

Changes in physical abilities, thinking, emotions and social behaviour across a person's life.

Behaviour that departs from a society's or group's norms; it is not necessarily illegal.

Personally receiving a reward after performing behaviour, making that behaviour more likely to be repeated.

A break in continuity, such as an unexplained change in the location or events of an imagined story.

Unfair treatment of someone because of a characteristic or condition, such as excluding someone because they have a mental health problem.

Withdrawal from social relationships, activities or wider participation in society.

The extent to which scores in a dataset are spread out.

The loss of information from a limited-capacity memory store when new information pushes it out.

An individual's characteristics, such as personality, attitudes or moral beliefs, that influence their behaviour.

A monoamine neurotransmitter involved in processes including attention and the regulation of brain activity.

The proposal that an overactive dopamine system, involving excessive dopamine signalling and receptor stimulation, contributes to schizophrenia.