| File Name |
Description |
| Sadism | This refers to the practice whereby a person obtains sexual arousal by inflicting ... |
| Sally-Anne test | The procedure used by Baron-Cohen to test for theory of mind. The procedure is ... |
| Sampling technique | A method used to choose a sample of a population. Examples include, random sampling, ... |
| Scattergram | When carrying out a correlational analysis the descriptive statistic used is a ... |
| Scattergraph | A scattergram ... |
| Schizophrenia | A mental disorder where contact with reality and insight are impaired. Other ... |
| Secondary Reinforcement | In operant conditioning this refers to something which reinforces a behaviour because it ... |
| Self Concept | This refers to the set of view and beliefs we have about ourselves. Self ... |
| Self Esteem | This refers to the evaluation an individual makes about one’s own self ... |
| Self Image | This refers to the internal picture which an individual holds of themselves ... |
| Self report method | Any method which involves asking a participant about their feelings attitudes and so ... |
| Self selected sampling | Self selected sampling (or volunteer sampling) consists of participants becoming part of ... |
| Self-efficacy | This refers to the beliefs of what we are capable of achieving.
Bandura argued ... |
| Self-fulfilling prophecy | This term is used to describe the way in which expectations about a person (or a group of ... |
| Semantic | This refers to the meaning of something. ... |
| Semanticity | The use of symbols to mean or refer to objects or actions. Savage-Rumbaugh et. al. (1986) ... |
| Sexual selection | Sexual selection describes the emergence of traits not instrinsically beneficial to an ... |
| Shaping | In operant conditioning this is where a novel behaviour can be gradually built up through ... |
| Siblings | This term refers to brothers or sisters. ... |
| Skinner | Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 – 1990) became a major figure in psychology for his ... |
| Skinner Box | B F Skinner developed this device for investigating operant conditioning under tightly ... |
| Snap shot study | A snap shot study is a study carried out over a very short period of time such as hours ... |
| Snow ball sampling | Snowball sampling can be used if your population is not easy to contact. For ... |
| Social Desirability Bias | This bias can occur when researchers use self report methods, such as interviews and ... |
| Social Exchange Theory | This is a theory which views relationships in terms of rewards and costs to the ... |
| Social Facilitation | This term refers to the occurrence when an individual’s performance increases ... |
| Social Identity | This refers to an individual’s sense of who they are derived from their group ... |
| Social Identity Theory | This social cognitive theory was developed particularly by Henri Tajfel and is one of the ... |
| Social Influence | Social influence is a term which is used generally in psychology to summarise the work of ... |
| Social Inhibition | This term refers to the occurrence when an individual’s performance decreases ... |
| Social Interaction | This refers to the process whereby two individuals directly influence each others ... |
| Social learning theory | Social learning theory emphasises the role of observation and imitation of role models ... |
| Social Loafing | This term is used to describe the occurrence when an individual reduces their effort when ... |
| Social Needs | According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs this third level is concerned with group ... |
| Social Norm | This is behaviour which is believed to be socially or culturally acceptable ... |
| Social Psychology | This is the study of social behaviour. This is a branch of psychology which studies ... |
| Social Role | This refers to the part an individual is expected to play in a social situation. ... |
| Sociobiology | This is a reductionist approach, which explains social behaviour within an evolutionary ... |
| Spinal Cord | This is the major neural pathway that carries impulses between the brain and the ... |
| Split-style drawings | Split drawings are drawings that depict the essential characteristics of an object even ... |
| Sport Psychology | This is an applied area of psychology which uses psychological insights and techniques to ... |
| Standard Deviation | This is a measure of dispersion - a type of descriptive statistic which is used to ... |
| Standardised Instructions | These are a set of pre-determined instructions which are given in the same way to all of ... |
| Standardised Procedure | This occurs when the researcher ensures that all participants have the same ... |
| Standardised Tests | This is the term used to describe the process of using psychometric test with large ... |
| Stanford Prison Experiment | This study was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of ... |
| Statistics | These are a method of summarising and analysing data. Statistics are used for the ... |
| Stimulus | This refers to any external event which we respond to. ... |
| Stimulus-Response Learning | This is the type of learning described by behaviourists as they view learning as simple ... |
| Stratified sampling | Stratified sampling involves classifying the population into categories and then choosing ... |
| Stress Experience | Stress is not inevitable as we all perceive it differently. The stress experience ... |
| Stress Response | This term refers to physiological changes (e.g. autonomic arousal) which occur as a ... |
| Stressor | This term refers to an event that forces the body to respond. Stressors may include ... |
| Stroop Effect | This term is used to describe the conflict experienced when attempting to perform two ... |
| Structure-Dependence | The patterned nature of language and use of 'structured chunks', such as word order. ... |
| Structured Interview | A type of interview in which there is a set of questions that are always asked in the ... |
| Structured observation | A structured observation is where the researchers design a type of coding scheme to ... |
| Subliminal Advertising | This involves using messages that are too weak to reach conscious awareness, perhaps ... |
| Subliminal Perception | This refers to the processing of information in such a way as not to penetrate conscious ... |
| Superego | According to Freud, the superego is the part of the personality structure which acts as a ... |
| Survey | A term used to describe a technique of collecting information, attitudes or opinions from ... |
| Sustained Attention | This term is sometimes referred to as vigilance and is the process of concentrating ... |
| Synaesthesia | This is a condition in which sensory input in one modality (sense) is experienced in ... |
