Psychology Key Words

Agentic state - give up free will to follow orders of others in authority, we become their agents

Autonomous state - we are freethinking and ale to make our own decisions for which we are fully responsible 

Moral strain - where individual may feel uncomfortable and feel what they are doing is wrong, but carry out the immoral act for the greater good. 

Social Force - element of society that impacts individual ie strength, immediacy and number

Hypothesis - prediction as to what a researcher is likely to discover 

Thematic analysis - emphasises pinpointing, examining and recording patterns within data

• Inductive approach - themes identified are strongly linked to the data, process of coding occurs without trying to fit data into pre existing frame
• deductive approach -theory driven, researcher will have an idea of themes they are looking for before analysing the data 

encoding- learning by perceiving information and relating it to past knowledge

storage - storing information, keeping and maintaining over time

retrieval - retrieving information and accessing when needed.

episodic memory - memory of our experiences and specific events from which we can reconstruct the actual events that took place at any given point in our lives

semantic memory - general factual knowledge shared with others and independant of personal experience

reconstructive memory - idea that remembering the past requires an attempt to reconstruct the events experienced previously 

schemas - templates based on past experience that we use to fill in the gaps within a story with our expectations

dyslexia - primarily associated with problems with reading

Alzheimers disease - progressive, degenerate and ultimately fatal brain disease in which cell-to-cell connections are lost

directional (one tailed) - states the kind of difference between two conditions or groups of PP

non directional (two tailed) - predicts there will be a difference but doesn't state the kind of difference

Null hypothesis -no difference between conditions/variables, differneces will be due to chance

independant variable - variable researcher manipulates

Dependant variable- dependant on the way researcher manipulates the IV

laboratory experiemnts - take place in an artificial setting and in a controlled environment 

Field experiements - take place in a natural environment 

demand characteristics - subtle cue that makes participants aware of what the experiementer expects to find or how participants are expected to behave

practice effect - improvement in performance due to repeated practice within a task

fatigue effect - decline in performance as the research pp becomes tired or boredwhile performing a sequence of tasks

objectivity - all sources of bias are minimised and that personal or subjective ideas are eliminated

anterograde amnesia - not being able to form new memories 

Matched pairs - where pairs of participants are matche din terms of key variables such as age and IQ, one member is placed into experimental, other in control group

Independent groups - different participants are used for each condition of the independent variable

Repeated measures - where same participants take part in each condition of the experiment

Central Nervous System (CNS) - decision making and coordination

Axon - part of the neuron that takes information away from the cell body towards the axon terminals.

Axon Terminals - hair like ends of the axon which pass information onto another neuron

Cell body – the main part of the cell where the nucleus sits. It also contains mitochondria

Dendrites – branches at the top end of a neuron that received messages from other neurons

Myelin sheath – the fatty deposit that provides electrical insulation for an axon and allows electrical nerve impulses to be passed along.

Nodes of Ranvier – gaps between adjacent myelin sheaths.

Nucleus – houses the genetic material for that particular neuron

Schwann Cells - cells that produce myelin, located in myelin sheath.

Synapses - small junctions between neurons where neurotransmitters are released and passed from the end of one neuron to the dendrite of the receiving neuron

Neurotransmitters - chemial messgaes that act between the neurones in the brain

Resting potential - potential maintained by the inactive neuron

Action potential - actual message by which the nerve impulses travel down the axon

Synaptic Transmission - how the nervous system transmits information across a synaptic gap from one neuron to another 

Reuptake - molecules of the neurotransmitter that do not bind to receptors in the postsynaptic neuron are taken up again by the presynaptic neuron

Recreational Drugs - alter brain functioning, which can change an individuals mood and perception

Cerebral cortex - left hemisphere is associated with verbal processing such as speech and grammar, and maths. Right hemisphere is involved with nonverbal processing such as spatial perception, visual recognition and emotion

Frontal Lobe - involved in the control of vountary muscles, intelligence and personality where we carry out mental processes such as planning

Parietal lobe - attention and motor control, processing spatial locatipon, percieving pain, touch & temp

Temporal lobe - damage to this leads to failure to store new info and problems in understanding what others are saying to us 

Occipital lobe - damage may cause cross eyeing and blindness. Lobe makes sense of visual info

Cerebellum - perform everyday voluntary tasks, such as walking. Essential for staying balanced

Corpus callosum - transmits neural messages between both hemispheres, if damaged individual cant link messages between the two sides.

Amygdala - limbic system involved in emotions anf motivations, particularly if related to survival. 

Thalamus - sorts and relays inf=coming information to the different parts of the forebrain

Limbic System - group of structures associated with our emotions and urges and is made up of amygdala and hippocampus 

Hypothalamus - moniters pleasurable activities such as eating and drinking, mainly responsible for motivational behaviour

Midbrain - area of the brain that is in the middle of two other regions (forebrain adn hindbrain)

Prefrontal Cortex - plans compklex cognitive behaviour, personality expression, decision making and moderating social behaviour.

Genotype - ways in which our genes govern our behaviour

Phenotypes - ways our genes interact with the environment

Thanatos - wish for a return to Nirvana (a state where everything you need is provided)

Conscious part of mind - what we are aware of (thoughts, ideas and emotions) at any one point in time. It consits mostly of the ego

Preconscious part of the mind - consists of material we are not curently aware of, but could potentailly be aware of it. Holds memories which are still accessible but not currently in our conscious mind. Consists of ego and superego

Unconscious part of mind - material we can never have direct access to, contains repressed memories and unconscious conflicts. Consists of superego, ego and id

id - exists right from birth and is most basic, primative part of the personality. Thought of as the ‘true unconscious’

Ego - in touch with the real world, it is rational and logical

Superego - helps us know what’s right or wrong for us, what we may or may not do

Defence Mechanism - protect the ego from temporary threat or trauma, help us cope with issues we may have

Catharsis - emotional release linked to a need to relieve unconscious conflicts

Displacement - redirection of an aggressive impulse onto a powerless substitute target

Endocrinology - scientific study of the interaction between hormones and behaviour

Hormones - organic chemical messengers produces and released by endocrine glands

Correlation - measures the relationship between two variables. Researcher ,easier variables without manipulating them

correlation coefficient - mathematical representation of to what degree the two results are related or linked

CAT scan - series of x-ray beams passed through the head, creating cross sectional images of the brain showing the structure but not the function.

Tomograph - x-ray showing a layer of tissues at some specific depth. An axial tomograph is one made by rotating the subject around an axis, which means twirling the subject or the machine

PET scans -measure brian activity following an injection of radioactive material which emits positrons

fMRI -measures brian activity by using magnetic and radio waves that pass through the body when the person lies in the large cylinder

Concordance - likelihood that is one twin has a certain trait, the other twin will have the same trait

Operant Conditioning - explains behaviours as being learned through rewards and punishments

Positive Reinforcers - positive (naturally occurring ie sleep, food) or secondary (things we have learned can be worth having such a short money)

Negative Reinforcers - removal of a threat or punishment after the desired behaviour has been performed

Punishment - causing some kind of physical or mental distress by either giving an unpleasant stimulus or withholding a pleasant one

Behaviour Shaping - where reinforcements become increasingly selective, meaning they are only given for behaviour which more closely resemble those that we are looking for

Vicarious Reinforcement - earn the reinforcement is received by the model rather than the learner

Attentional - where we can only learn through observation if we pay attention to the models action

Retentional - where having observed the model, we must remember what happened. We store both a visual image, to be later viewed in our ‘minds eye’ and a verbal description of the models actions

Reproduction - where we attempt to reproduce or imitate what has been observed, dependant on our physical capability and skin

Motivational - where whether we continue to do what has been observed depends on our motivation

In Vivo - real life experience

In vitro -through imagination

Systematic - gradually facing up to the phobic object throughout a hierarchy of exposure

Desensitisation - brought about through relaxation techniques taught before facing up to the phobic object

Structured observations - set up to record behaviours that may be difficult to observe using naturalistic observation

Naturalistic Observation - involves studying the spontaneous behaviour of participants in natural surroundings

Participant Observation - variant of natural observation but researcher joins in and becomes part of the group they are observing to get a deeper insight into their lives

Non Participant Observation - research technique whereby the researcher watches,the participants with their knowledge, but without taking an active part in the situation

Covert observations - when researcher pretends to be an ordinary member of the group and observe in secret

Overt observations -when the researcher tells the group they are conducting research

Tallying - making a mark each time a particular behaviour occurs

Empiricism - knowledge only comes from sense data (seeing, hearing, touching)

Falsification - when it is proposed theories should be able to be proved wrong

Reductionism - follows the belief that every single proces in nature can be broken down into its constituent parts and can be described scientifically

Replicability - where researchers should be able to replicate a study in exactly the same way with high levels of control using a standardised procedure

Reliability -achieved when a method id replicated and consistency if results is achieved

Controls - designed to minimise the effects of variable other than the independent variable

Validity - data is true to real life and represent what they claimed to represent

Internal Validity - degree that we are successful in eliminating confounding variables within the study itself

Ecological Validity - degree to which the behaviours observed and recorded in a study reflect the behaviours that actually occur in natural settings

Predictive Validity - involved testing s group of participants for a certain construct and then comparing them with results not obtained at some point in the future

Hypothesis testing - making predictions within the scientific method, about behaviour under certain conditions