Psychology key terms

Coding information in terms of how it sounds.

An offence through which someone gains money or property, such as theft, burglary or fraud.

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

An experience or situation that triggers a person’s interpretation and subsequent response.

The increased neural activity that generates random signals during sleep in Activation Synthesis Theory.

An explanation of dreaming in which the brain interprets and combines internally generated neural activity into a dream experience.

A biological explanation proposed by Hobson and McCarley in which dreams arise when the cerebral cortex tries to make sense of random neural activity during sleep.

Learning through exploring, investigating and acting on materials rather than only receiving information. Piaget’s educational approach emphasises discovery learning.

Having a function that increases the chances of survival and reproduction in a particular environment.

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

A condition involving a compulsion to use a substance, impaired control and substance use taking priority over other activities. In this lesson, addiction is described clinically as dependence syndrome.

The transition between childhood and adulthood, involving physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes.

An imbalance in research that favours a particular age group, potentially making the findings inappropriate for other ages.

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

Typical test results for people of a particular age, used as a reference when interpreting an individual's performance.

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’.

Behaviour intended to harm another person, physically or psychologically.

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 loss of memory that can affect memories from before an illness or injury, the formation of new memories, or both.

Loss of interest or pleasure in activities that a person would usually enjoy.

Believing that inanimate objects are alive or have feelings.

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

An impaired ability to form new long-term memories following the onset of brain damage or illness.