| File Name |
Description |
| ABBA design | This is an example of counterbalancing.
When counterbalancing experimental ... |
| Ablation | This involves the surgical removal or destruction of a part of the brain to either treat ... |
| Abnormal behaviour | A controversial term applied to behaviour which has been classed as not normal (such as ... |
| Abnormal psychology | This is a branch of psychology concerned with abnormal or atypical behaviour. This ... |
| Accidents | There are two main types of approaches that are used to investigate the causes and ... |
| Accommodation | In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, accommodation refers to the process of ... |
| Acoustic Coding | This involves coding information in terms of the ways it sounds. ... |
| Action research | A method whereby part of the purpose of the researcher is to influence or change the ... |
| Active sleep | This is another term used to refer to REM sleep. ... |
| Actor-observer effect | This is the tendency for actors to attribute their own actions to situational factors ... |
| Acute pain | One of the distinctions that psychologists make about types of pain is between acute pain ... |
| Adaptive | A term used to describe behaviour which promotes an individual’s survival and ... |
| Adaptive Behaviour | This is behaviour which is believed to increase the individual’s ability to survive ... |
| Adrenaline | A hormone which is produced by the adrenal glands. Adrenaline increases physiological ... |
| Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) | This is a hormone that is released by the pituitary gland and that stimulates the adrenal ... |
| Aetiology | This refers to the study of the causes of diseases or disorder. ... |
| Affectionless psychopaths | Individuals who are believed to experience little guilt or emotion, and are unable to ... |
| Aggression | Aggression can be defined as behaviour with the intent to harm ... |
| Aims | A statement of what the researchers intend to find out. ... |
| Alpha bias | This is the tendency to exaggerate the differences between the sexes. This ... |
| Alpha male | This term is used in ethology (and reality TV programmes such as Big Brother) to describe ... |
| Alternate Hypothesis | This is a testable, predictive statement. This statement is tested by ... |
| Altruism | Helping others without expecting a reward. For example, helping a collapsed ... |
| Ambiguous | A term used to describe something that may have more than one meaning. ... |
| Ambiguous stimulus | A term used to describe a stimulus that may have more than one interpretation. ... |
| Ameslan | This is an abbreviation of American Sign Language which is the sign language Gardner and ... |
| Amnesia | This refers to a partial or total loss of long term memory. This may be caused by ... |
| Amygdala | A region of the brain found in the temporal lobe of the cerebral cortex. It is part ... |
| Anaclitic depression | A form of depression, which is said to be caused by separation from a caregiver. ... |
| Anal Stage | According to Freud’s theory of psychosexual development this is the second stage ... |
| Andocentric bias | This is a bias in favour of males. Andocentric theories are those theories which ... |
| Androgen | This is a male hormone. The primary and most well-known androgen is ... |
| Androgyny | This is a mixture of male and female behaviour in the same individual ... |
| Anecdotal evidence | Evidence which is not based on research. ... |
| Anorexia nervosa | This is an eating disorder in which the individual is believed to have a fear of eating ... |
| Anthropology | This is the study of different human cultures. ... |
| Anthropomorphism | Attributing human characteristics to animals. There is a danger when psychologists ... |
| Anti-social behaviour | This is any behaviour which is harmful to others. ... |
| Applied Psychology | This term refers to areas of psychology where psychological research is applied to real ... |
| Arousal | This is a physiological state whereby the body is ready for action. The ... |
| Arousal: Cost Reward Model | Piliavin et al. developed this model to explain why people do and do not help in ... |
| Assimilation | In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, assimilation is the process of fitting ... |
| Attachment | An emotional bond between an infant and its primary care giver. Bowlby developed ... |
| Attention | Attention refers to the concentration of mental effort. ... |
| Attribution | The process of giving reasons for why things happen or why people behave as they ... |
| Attribution bias | This refers to the systematic mistakes we make when attributing behaviour. This ... |
| Attribution Theory | Attribution theory is concerned with the ways in which people explain (or attribute) the ... |
| Attrition | The loss of participants from a longitudinal design. Reasons for attrition might ... |
| Audience effects | This refers to the positive or negative effects on behaviour produced by the presence of ... |
| Authoritarian Personality | A person who tends to hold rigid beliefs and may be hostile to outgroups and be ... |
| Authoritative Parenting Style | A parenting style in which children are encouraged to participate in decision making, and ... |
| Autism | This syndrome is characterised by a triad of impairments. Difficulties with ... |
| Autonomic nervous system | This is the part of the nervous system which controls the body’s involuntary ... |
| Autonomous morality | This is a later stage of moral development described by Piaget whereby a ... |
| Average | An everyday term used to describe a statistical measure of central tendency such as the ... |
| Aversion Therapy | This is a form of treatment, based on classical conditioning, in which undesirable ... |
