Psychology key terms

Behaviour that harms other people or damages their property, such as bullying, violence or vandalism.

Behaviour by a group that harms others or breaks social rules, such as collective violence, vandalism or looting.

Impairment of language abilities following brain damage, which may affect speaking, understanding, reading or writing.

An average calculated by adding all the values and dividing by the number of values.

A state of physical and mental alertness. High arousal at bedtime can make it difficult to fall asleep.

Interpreting a new experience using an existing schema without changing its basic structure.

A judgement or belief about a person, group or issue that can affect how someone behaves towards them.

An explanation a person gives for the cause of an event or behaviour.

The loss of participants between stages of a study. Attrition can bias findings if those who remain differ systematically from those who leave.

A region of the temporal lobe that processes sound information.

A pattern of personality characteristics involving strong respect for authority, rigid beliefs and hostility towards people perceived as lower in status.

The perceived right or power to issue orders and expect obedience.

A person whose position gives them the power or right to give orders, such as a teacher or police officer.

An advert that encourages people to recall or imagine personal experiences, often using nostalgia to connect those experiences with a product.

Awareness of oneself as a person with a remembered past, linking present experience to personal history.

Memory of past personal experiences.

Being able to carry out a well-practised skill with little conscious attention.

An automatic bodily process that does not require conscious control, such as regulation of heart rate.

The division of the peripheral nervous system that automatically regulates internal bodily functions, such as heart rate and digestion.

A psychological state in which someone acts independently and accepts personal responsibility for their actions.

A treatment that pairs cues associated with an unwanted behaviour with an unpleasant experience, aiming to create an aversion to that behaviour.

A nerve fibre that carries electrical impulses away from a neuron’s cell body towards its terminals.

A display using separate bars to compare values for distinct categories or discrete scores.

A self-report questionnaire used to measure the severity of depressive symptoms. Wiles’ trial used its second version, the BDI-II.

Planning and carrying out manageable, rewarding activities to improve mood and increase a sense of achievement.

A clearly defined, observable action used to classify and record behaviour consistently.

A systematic influence that distorts research findings away from an accurate account of what is being studied.