psychology

• Structuralism


  An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.
• Functionalism


  A school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function and enable organisms to adapt, survive, and flourish.
• British Psychological Society


  A professional association for psychologists in the United Kingdom, responsible for the development, promotion, and application of psychology.
• American Psychological Association


  A scientific and professional organization that represents psychologists in the United States, promoting the advancement, communication, and application of psychological science and knowledge.
• Psychoanalysis


  A method of psychological therapy and a theory of mind developed by Sigmund Freud, emphasizing unconscious motives and conflicts.
• Behaviourism

  A theoretical approach that focuses on observable behaviors and the ways they're learned or conditioned.
• Classical conditioning


  A type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli, leading to a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.
• Operant conditioning


  A type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences, such as rewards and punishments.
• Social Learning Theory


  A theory that suggests people can learn new behaviors by observing and imitating others, as well as through direct experience.
• Genetic epistemology


  A theory developed by Jean Piaget that combines cognitive development with the origins of knowledge.
• Humanistic/positive psychology


  Approaches that focus on the study of positive human functioning and the factors that contribute to individuals and communities flourishing.
• Social psychology


  The scientific study of how individuals think about, influence, and relate to one another.
• Psychometrics


  The field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, including the development of tests and questionnaires.
• Cognitive psychology


  The branch of psychology that studies mental processes including perception, thinking, memory, and judgment.
• Neuropsychology & cognitive neuroscience

  Fields that focus on the relationship between brain function and behavior, and the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes.
• Eugenics


  A set of beliefs and practices aimed at improving the genetic quality of a human population, often associated with morally controversial policies.
• Conversion therapy


  A range of practices aimed at changing an individual's sexual orientation from homosexual or bisexual to heterosexual, widely discredited and considered harmful.
• Replication crisis


  A methodological crisis in psychology where researchers have found that many scientific studies are difficult or impossible to replicate or reproduce.
• Null hypothesis, H0


  A statement that there is no effect or no difference, used as a starting point for statistical testing.
• Alternative hypothesis, H1


  A statement that there is an effect or a difference, used as a counterpoint to the null hypothesis.
• Falsifiable


  Capable of being disproved by experimental results.
• One-tailed/ directional hypothesis


  A hypothesis that specifies the direction of the expected effect.
• Two-tailed/ non-directional hypothesis


  A hypothesis that does not specify the direction of the expected effect.
• Scientific theory


  A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is based on a body of evidence.
• Qualitative


  Data that is descriptive and conceptual.
• Quantitative


  Data that is numerical and can be measured.
• Experimental design


  The plan for a controlled experiment, including the variables and how they will be manipulated and measured.
• Observational design


  A study design where the researcher observes and records behavior without manipulating variables.
• Experiment vs Study


  An experiment involves manipulation of variables to establish cause and effect, while a study may simply observe and record data.
• Cause-and-effect relationship


  A relationship where one event (the cause) makes another event happen (the effect).
• Independent variable (IV)


  The variable that is manipulated in an experiment.
• Dependent variable (DV)


  The variable that is measured in an experiment.
• Control variable


  A variable that is kept constant to prevent it from influencing the outcome of an experiment.
• Within-subjects/ repeated measures


  An experimental design where the same participants are exposed to all conditions of the independent variable.
• Between-subjects/ independent design


  An experimental design where different participants are assigned to each condition of the independent variable.
• Variability


  The extent to which data points in a statistical distribution or data set diverge from the average value.
• N


  The number of participants or observations in a study.
• Counter-balancing


  A method to control for order effects in repeated measures designs by varying the order of conditions for participants.
• Order effects


  Changes in participants' responses due to the order in which experimental conditions are presented.
• Experimenter bias


  Bias introduced when a researcher's expectations influence the outcome of a study.