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Psychology/Sociology Definitions
SENSORY PERCEPTION

Sensation - The conversion, or transduction, of physical, electromagnetic, auditory, and other

information from the internal and external environment into electrical signals in the nervous system

Perception - The processing of sensory information to make sense of its significance

Adaptation - The decrease in response to a stimulus over time

Opponent-process theory - Cells can only detect the presence of one color at a time because the two
colors oppose one another

Binocular cues - Provide depth information when viewing a scene with both eyes
- Retinal disparity - The space between the eyes that allows binocular vision to create depth
perception
- Convergence - The rotation of the eyes in their sockets to focus on a single object

Monocular cues - Information about depth that relies on the input of just one eye
- Relative size - The size of familiar objects on the ground as a cue for depth and distance
- Interposition - A distance cue that suggests that closer objects will cut off our vision of more
distant objects behind them
- Relative height - A distance cue that suggests that things higher are perceived to be farther
away
- Shading and contour - A distance cue that uses light and shading to perceive and form depth
and objects
- Motion parallax - A distance cue that suggests that objects at different distances appear to
move through your field of vision with a different relative motion, as you move
- Constancy - The ability to recognize the same object as remaining "constant" under different
conditions, such as changes in illumination, distance, or location

Webers law - This concept says that the size of a JND is proportional to the intensity of the stimulus
- Just-noticeable difference - The smallest amount by which a stimulus can be changed and the
difference can be detected half the time

Absolute threshold of sensation - The amount of stimulation necessary for a stimulus to be detected

Difference threshold - See Just-noticeable difference

Subliminal stimuli - Sensory stimulation that is below a person's threshold for perception
Signal detection theory - Explains how we detect "signals," consisting of stimulation affecting our eyes,
ears, nose, skin, and other sense organs
- Hit - Responds present when the stimulus is present
- False alarm - Responds present when the stimulus is absent
- Correct rejection - Responds absent when the stimulus is absent
- Miss - Responds absent when the stimulus is present
- d - The variable that represents the strength of the signal
- c - The variable that represents the strategy used
- Conservative strategy - Always say no unless 100% sure that signal is present.
- Liberal strategy - Always say yes, even if it results in false alarms

Parallel processing - The ability to simultaneously analyze and combine information regarding color,
shape, and motion

Bottom-up processing - Refers to object recognition by parallel processing and feature detection where
the brain takes the individual sensory stimuli and combines them together to create a cohesive image
before determining what the object is

Top-down processing - Driven by memories and expectations that allow the brain to recognize the
whole object and then recognize the components based on these expectations

Perceptual organization - The ability to use both bottom-up and top-down processing

Gestalt principles - Ways that the brain can infer missing parts of a picture when a picture is incomplete
- Similarity - Components that are similar in color, shape, and size, tend to be grouped together
- Pragnanz - Perceptual organization will always be as regular, simple, and symmetric as possible
- Proximity - Components close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit
- Continuity - Components that appear to follow in the same pathway tend to be grouped
together
- Closure - A space enclosed by a contour tends to be perceived as a complete figure
- Symmetry - The mind perceives objects as being symmetrical and forming around a central
point
- Law of common fate - When visual elements are seen moving in the same direction at the same
rate, perception associates the movement as part of the same stimulus
- Law of past experiences - Under certain circumstances, visual stimuli are categorized according
to past experience

Phi Phenomenon - The optical illusion of perceiving a series of still images, when viewed in rapid
succession, as continuous motion
ATTENTION

Divided attention - The ability to attend to multiple stimuli simultaneously and to perform multiple
tasks at the same time
- Task similarity - The participant is more likely to be successful if the task involves different
stimulus or response modalities
- Task difficulty - The ability to perform two tasks together depends on their difficulty
- Practice - The demands placed on attentional resources may be reduced if the task or action is
practiced

Selective attention - The ability to focus on a single stimulus, even while other stimuli are occurring
simultaneously

Spotlight model of attention - Attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe, like a spotlight

Resource model of attention - We have limited resources when it comes to attention

Cocktail party effect - The phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular
stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli

Inattentional blindness - The event in which an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus that
is in plain sight

Change blindness - A perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is
introduced and the observer does not notice it

Distal stimuli - Any physical object or event in the external world that reflects light

Proximal stimuli - The patterns of stimuli from these objects and events that actually reach your senses

Covert orienting - The act to mentally shifting one's focus without moving one's eyes

Overt orienting - The act of selectively attending to an item or location over others by moving the eyes
to point in that direction

Attentional capture - The unintentional focusing of attention, for example by a change in a stimulus,
which interrupts other processing

Neglect syndrome - A neuropsychological condition in which, after damage to one hemisphere of the
brain is sustained, a deficit in attention to and awareness of one side of the field of vision is observed

Vigilance attention - The ability to maintain concentrated attention over prolonged periods of time

Executive attention - Refers to a subfunction of attention that includes processes for monitoring and
resolving conflicts that arise among internal processes
Speech shadowing - An experimental technique in which subjects repeat speech immediately after
hearing it, usually through earphones

MEMORY

Information processing model - A framework used by cognitive psychologists to explain and describe
mental processes. The model likens the thinking process to how a computer works
Sensory memory - The shortest-term element of memory. It is the ability to retain impressions of
sensory information after the original stimuli have ended. Lasts 3-4 seconds
- Iconic memory - Visual aspect of sensory memory
- Echoic memory - Auditory aspect of sensory memory

Working memory - Short term memory that is stored while it is held in attention
- Visuo-spatial sketchpad - A component of working memory responsible for handling visual and
spatial information
- Phonological loop - A component of working memory that is responsible for handling auditory
and verbal information, including language and music
- Central executive - Functions as a supervisory system that controls information flow from and to
its hypothesized subordinate or "slave" systems that are known as the phonological loop, the
visuo-spatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer
- Episodic buffer - Acts as a 'backup' store which communicates with both long term memory and
the components of working memory

Dual coding hypothesis - States that it is easier to remember words associated with images rather than
either alone

Operation span - The maximum number of words than can be recalled following a simple mathematical
verification and the reading of word

Long-term memory
- Explicit memory - Consists of memories that require conscious recall
- Semantic memory - General world knowledge that we have accumulated throughout
our lives
- Episodic memory - Memory of autobiographical events
- Implicit memory - Memory that does not require conscious recall
- Procedural memory - Aids the performance of particular types of tasks without
conscious awareness of these previous experiences

Priming - The implicit memory effect in which exposure to a stimulus influences response to a later
stimulus
- Negative priming - Prior exposure to a stimulus unfavorably influences the response to the
same stimulus
- Positive priming - Prior exposure to a stimulus favorably influences the response to the same
stimulus
Autobiographical memory - A memory system consisting of episodes recollected from an individual's
life, based on a combination of episodic and semantic memory

Encoding - The process of receiving information and preparing it for storage

- Effortful encoding - Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
- Automatic encoding - Encoding that does not require attention and conscious effort

Rote rehearsal - Saying something to oneself over and over again

Chunking - A process by which individual pieces of information are bound together into a meaningful
whole

Mnemonic devices - A technique that aids in memory recall

- Pegword system - Associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the number
- Method of loci - Associates each item in a list with a location along a route through a building
that has already been memorized

Self-reference effect - The tendency for individuals to best recall information that they can relate to
their own experiences

Spacing effect - The phenomenon of retaining larger amounts of information when the amount of time
between sessions of relearning is increases

Retrieval - The process of demonstrating that information has been retained in memory; includes recall,
recognition, and relearning

Context effect - A retrieval cue by which memory is aided when a person is in the location where
encoding took place

State-dependent memory - A retrieval cue by which memory is aided when a person is in the same state
of emotion or intoxication as when the encoding took place

Free recall - The retrieval of memory without the help of cues

Cued recall - The retrieval of memory with the help of cues

Serial-position effect - The tendency to better remember items presented at the beginning or end of a
list
- Primacy effect - Results in a subject recalling primary information presented better than
information presented later on
- Recency effect - Results in a subject recalling information presented later on better than
primary information
Source monitoring error - A memory error by which a person remembers the details of an event but
confuses the context by which the details were gained
- Source amnesia - The inability to remember where, when or how previously learned
information has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge

Flashbulb memories - A highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances
in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard

Long-term potentiation - The strengthening of neural connections due to rehearsal or relearning

Decay - The fading of memory due to the passing of time

Retroactive interference - Difficulty recalling old information because of newly learned information

Proactive interference - Difficulty recalling new information because of already existing information

Retrograde amnesia - The loss of previously formed memories

Anterograde amnesia - The inability to form new memories

Semantic networks - Organization of information in the brain by linking concepts with similar
characteristics and meaning
- Spreading activation - The unconscious activation of closely linked nodes of a semantic network

COGNITION

Piagets Stages of Development

- Sensorimotor stage - Ages 0 to 2
- Object permanence - The understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of
view
- Primary circular reactions - Repeated movements where the child interacts with
themselves
- Secondary circular reactions - Repeated movements where the child interacts with their
environment
- Preoperational stage - Ages 2 to 7
- Pretend play - The ability to pretend, play make-believe, and have an imagination
- Symbolic thinking - S ee pretend play
- Egocentrism - The inability to imagine what another person may think or feel
- Centration - The tendency to focus on only one aspect of phenomenon, or inability to
understand the concept of conservation
- Concrete operational stage - Ages 7 to 11
- Conservation - The ability to tell that changing the form of a substance or object does
not change its amount, overall volume, or mass
- Formal operational stage - Ages 11+
Schema - Includes concepts, behaviors, or sequences of events

Adaptation - The processing of information according to Piaget

- Assimilation - The process of classifying new information into existing schemata
- Accommodation - The process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass new
information

Methods of problem solving

- Trial and error - Various solutions are tried until one is found that seems to work
- Algorithm - A formula or procedure for solving a certain type of problem
- Heuristics - Simplified principles used to make decisions
- Means-end analysis - The problem solver begins by envisioning the end, or ultimate
goal, and then determines the best strategy for attaining the goal in his current situation
- Working backwards - A method of problem solving in which an individual imagines they
have already solved the problem they are trying to solve. By imagining the problem is
solved they can then work backwards in their mind and eventually visualize a solution to
the problem
- Availability heuristic - Decisions are based on how easily similar instances can be
imagined
- Representativeness heuristic - Categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit the
prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of the category
- Base rate fallacy - Using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring
actual numerical information
- Conjunction fallacy - Occurs when it is assumed that specific conditions are
more probable than a single general one
- Intuition - The ability to acquire knowledge without proof, evidence, or conscious reasoning, or
without understanding how the knowledge was acquired
- Inductive reasoning - Seeks to create a theory via generalization

Biases
- Overconfidence bias - The tendency to erroneously interpret ones decisions, knowledge, and
beliefs as infallible
- Belief perseverance - The inability to reject a particular belief despite clear evidence to the
contrary
- Confirmation bias - The tendency to focus on information that fits an individuals beliefs, while
rejecting information that goes against them

Functional Fixedness - Limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used

Type I error - The incorrect rejection of a true null hypothesis (a "false positive")

Type II error - Incorrectly retaining a false null hypothesis (a "false negative")

Framing effects - People react to a particular choice in different ways depending on how it is presented
Fluid intelligence - In novel situations, the ability to recognize and reason relationships between objects
or ideas independent of previous experience; Helps one see patterns, organize and identify feature and
spatial relationships to solve complex problems

Crystallized intelligence - The ability to retrieve and acquire knowledge; Based on fact, experience, prior
learning and accumulates as one ages

Gardners theory of multiple intelligences - Differentiates intelligence into specific 'modalities', rather
than seeing intelligence as dominated by a single general ability. Gardner proposed eight abilities that
he held to meet these criteria, musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical,
bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic

Spearmans theory of general intelligence - Refers to the existence of a broad mental capacity that
influences performance on cognitive ability measures; Also known as G factor

Galtons theory of hereditary genius - The belief that intelligence is genetic

Binets theory of mental age - Refers to the childs current ability compared to other children of
different ages

Avoidance-avoidance conflict - A conflict in which one has to choose between two equally unattractive
options

Approach-approach conflict - A conflict in which one must choose between two equally attractive
options

Approach-avoidance conflict - A conflict in which there are both appealing and negative aspects to the
decision to be made
LANGUAGE

Universalist theory of language - Human cognition shapes language and language is created from a set
of universal semantic distinctions and constructions shape human language

Linguistic determinism - The idea that language and its structures limit and determine human
knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception
(AKA linguistic relativity)

Whorfian hypothesis - See Linguistic determinism

Nativist (biological) theory of language - Humans have an innate capacity for language
- Language acquisition device - A theoretical pathway in the brain that allows infants to process
and absorb language
- Critical period - Lasts between 2 years of age to puberty; If no language exposure occurs during
this time, later training is largely ineffective
- Sensitive period - Before the onset of puberty; When environmental input has maximal effect
on the development of an ability
- Transformationalist grammar - The use of defined operations called transformations to produce
new sentences from existing ones

Learning (behaviorist) theory of language - Language acquisition occurs by operant conditioning

Social interactionist theory of language - Language acquisition is driven by the childs desire to
communicate and behave in a social manner, such as interaction with caretakers and other children; The
interplay between biological and social processes

Phonology - The actual sounds of language

- Phonemes - The speech sounds that make up language

Morphology - The structure of words

- Morphemes - Building blocks of words

Semantics - The association of meaning with a word

Syntax - How words are put together to form sentences

Pragmatics - The dependence of language on context and preexisting knowledge

Prosody - The rhythm, cadence, and inflection of our voices

Neurological communication and motor disorders
- Aphasia - An inability to comprehend and formulate language because of damage to specific
brain regions
- Brocas aphasia - Characterized by partial loss of the ability to produce language
(spoken or written), although comprehension generally remains intact; Also known as
expressive or nonfluent aphasia
- Wernickes aphasia - Characterized by the inability to understand language in its written
or spoken form, despite being able to using grammar, syntax, rate, and intonation; Also
known as receptive or fluent aphasia
- Global aphasia - Characterized by a severe form of nonfluent aphasia that affects both
Brocas and Wernickes areas
- Anomic aphasia - Characterized by word retrieval failures and the inability express the
words they want to say
- Agraphia - Characterized by the inability to communicate through writing, either due to some
form of motor dysfunction or an inability to spell
- Alexia - Characterized by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence
- Dysarthria - Characterized by poor articulation of phonemes

EMOTION

Three components of emotion

- Physiological - Stimulation of the autonomic nervous system
- Cognitive - The subjective interpretation of the feeling being experienced
- Behavioral - The behavior that is expressed in response to a feeling

Universal emotions - Happiness, sadness, contempt, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger

James-Lange theory - A stimulus results first in physiological arousal, which leads to a secondary
response in which the emotion is labeled

Cannon-Bard theory - Physiological arousal and feeling of emotion occur at the same time

Schachter-Singer theory - Both arousal and the labeling of arousal based on environment must occur in
order for an emotion to be experienced

Lazarus theory - Appraisal precedes cognitive labeling, simultaneously stimulating both the physiological
arousal and the emotional experience itself
STRESS

Cognitive appraisal - The subjective evaluation of a situation that induces stress

- Primary appraisal - The initial evaluation of the environment and the associated threat
- Secondary appraisal - The evaluation of whether or not the organism can cope with the stress

Stressors - Any biological element, external condition, or event that leads to a stress response
- Distress - Occurs when experiencing unpleasant stressors
- Eustress - Occurs when experiencing positive stressors (e.g. finally getting into medical school)
- Significant life changes - Changes in your personal life
- Catastrophic events - A large scale event that everyone considers threatening
- Daily hassles - Minor hassles of daily life
- Ambient stressors - Global stressors that are integrated into the environment

Social readjustment rating scale - A scale in which stress is measured in life change units

General adaption syndrome - A profile of how organisms respond to stress

- Alarm phase - The initial reaction to the stressor and activation of the sympathetic nervous
system; Increases levels of cortisol and epinephrine in response to stress
- Resistance phase - The continuous release of hormones allows the sympathetic nervous system
to remain engaged
- Exhaustion phase - The point where the body can no longer maintain an elevated response
with sympathetic nervous system activity; Negative health outcomes may occur during this
phase

Learned helplessness - A state of hopelessness and resignation resulting from being unable to avoid
repeated negative stimuli
MOTIVATION AND ATTITUDES

Extrinsic motivation - External forces, coming from outside oneself, is the source of motivation (e.g.,
rewards)

Intrinsic motivation - Internal forces, coming from within oneself, is the source of motivation

Instinct theory of motivation - People are driving to do certain behaviors based on evolutionarily
programmed instincts

Arousal theory of motivation - People perform actions in order to maintain an optimal level of arousal,
seeking to increase arousal when it falls below the optimal levels and decreasing arousal when it rises
above the optimal levels. See Yerkes-Dodson law

Drive reduction theory of motivation - Motivation is based on the goal of eliminating uncomfortable
states called drives; Based on the principles of negative reinforcement
- Primary drives - Needs that motivate us to sustain bodily processes in homeostasis
- Secondary drives - Needs that motivate us that are unrelated to survival

Incentive stimuli - Stimulus that increases motivation

Maslows hierarchy of needs - Certain needs will yield a greater influence on our motivation
- Physiological - Breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis
- Safety - Security of body, employment, resources, morality, family, health, and property
- Love - Friendship, family, sexual intimacy
- Self-esteem - Confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others
- Self-actualization - Morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem-solving, lack of prejudice,
acceptance of facts

Incentive theory - Behavior is motivated not by need or arousal, but by the desire to pursue rewards
and avoid punishments; Based on the principles of positive reinforcement

Expectancy-value theory - The amount of motivation for a task is based on the individuals expectation
of success and the amount that success is valued

Opponent-process theory - Motivation for drug use; As drug use increases, the body counteracts its
effects, leading to tolerance and uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms

Components of attitude
- Affective - The way a person feels toward something (e.g., snakes scare me)
- Behavioral - The way a person acts with respect to something (e.g.,avoiding snakes)
- Cognitive - The way an individual thinks about something, usually to justify the other two
components (e.g., snakes are dangerous, so I avoid them)
Prototype willingness model - A modied dual-process model that focuses on
cognitions, which mediate the effects of social factors on risk-taking behaviours; Assumes that there are
two pathways to health-risk behaviour: a reasoned path mediated by behavioural intention/expectation
and a social reaction path mediated by behavioural willingness

Elaboration likelihood model - Separates individuals on a continuum based on their processing of

persuasive information
- Central route processing - Scrutinizing and analyzing the content of persuasive information
- Peripheral route processing - Focusing on superficial details of persuasive information, such as
appearances, catchphrases and slogans, and credibility

Cognitive dissonance - The discomfort experiences when holding two conflicting cognitions

Functional attitudes theory - Attitudes serve four functions; knowledge, ego expression, adaptation,
and ego defense
- Knowledge function - Knowledge of the attitudes of others helps predict their behavior
- Adaptive function - The idea that one will be accepted if socially accepted attitudes are
expressed
- Ego-expressive function - The ability to communicate and solidify our self identity (e.g., wearing
favorite teams shirt)
- Ego-defensive function - The ability to use our attitude to protect our self-esteem or justify
actions that we know are wrong

Learning theory - Attitudes are developed through different forms of learning

PERSONALITY

Psychoanalytic theory - The theory of personality organization and the dynamics of personality
development that guides psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology
- Libido - The sex or life drive
- Death instinct - The drive toward death and self-destruction
- Fixation - The result of overindulgence or frustration during a psychosexual stage causing a
neurotic pattern of personality based on that stage
- Id - Consists of all the basic, primary, inborn urges to survive and reproduce
- Pleasure principle - The aim is to achieve immediate gratification to relieve any pent-up
tension
- Primary process - The ids response to frustration; Obtain satisfaction now, not
later
- Wish fulfillment - Mental imagery, such as daydreaming or fantasy, that fulfills
the need for satisfaction via the primary process
- Ego - The psychological component of the personality that is represented by our conscious
decision-making process
- Reality principle - The idea that the desires of the id must be satisfied in a method that
is both socially appropriate and realistic
 - Secondary process - Takes into account objective reality as it guides or inhibits
the activity of the id and the ids pleasure principle
- Superego - The social component of our personality and conscience

Humanistic theory - Focus on the value of individuals and take a more person-centered approach
- Client-centered therapy - Helps the client reflect on problems, make choices, generate
solutions, take positive action, and determine his or her own destiny
- Unconditional positive regard - A therapeutic technique by which the therapist accepts the
client completely and expresses empathy in order to promote a positive therapeutic
environment
- Force field theory - Looks at forces that are either driving movement toward a goal (helping
forces) or blocking movement toward a goal (hindering forces)
- Peak experiences - Profound and deeply moving experiences in a persons life that have
important and lasting effects on the individual

Biological theory - Personality can be explained as a result of genetic expression in the brain

Behaviorist theory - The personality is simply a reflection of behaviors that have been reinforced over
time
- Cognitive behavioral therapy - Focuses on the development of personal coping strategies that
target solving current problems and changing unhelpful patterns in cognitions (e.g. thoughts,
beliefs, and attitudes), behaviors, and emotional regulation

Adlers theory of personality - Personality difficulties are rooted in a feeling of inferiority deriving from
restrictions on the individual's need for self-assertion
- Inferiority complex - An individuals sense of incompleteness, imperfection, and inferiority both
physically and socially
- Creative self - The force by which each individual shapes their uniqueness and establishes their
personality
- Style of life - The manifestation of the creative self; Describes a persons unique way to
achieving superiority
- Fictional finalism - The notion that an individual is motivated more by his expectations of the
future than by past experiences

Type theory - Attempts to create a taxonomy of personality types

- Type A personality - Characterized by behavior that tends to be competitive and compulsive
- Type B personality - Characterized by laidback and relaxed behavior
- Somatotypes - Proposed by William Sheldon; Suggested that personality types were linked to
body types
Trait theory - Describes individual personality as the sum of a persons characteristic behaviors
- Allports basic traits
- Cardinal traits - Traits around which a person organizes their life
- Central traits - Major characteristics of personality that are easy to infer
- Secondary traits - Personal characteristics that are more limited in occurrence
- Functional autonomy - The continuation of a behavior despite satisfaction of the drive
that created it
- PEN model - Model of traits described by the Eysencks
- Psychoticism - A measure of nonconformity of social deviance
- Extraversion - A measure of tolerance for social interaction and stimulation
- Neuroticism - A measure of emotional arousal in stressful situations

Five factor model - A set of five broad trait dimensions or domains, often referred to as the Big Five:
extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience

Social cognitive theory - People learn how to behave and shape attitudes by observing the behaviors of
others; Behavior isnt learned by trial-and-error, but rather through direct observation and replication of
the actions of others

Defense mechanisms - An unconscious psychological mechanism that reduces anxiety arising from
unacceptable or potentially harmful stimuli
- Denial - The refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did
not exist
- Projection - The attribution of ones own undesired feelings to others
- Intellectualization - The overemphasis on thinking when confronted with an unacceptable
impulse, situation or behavior without employing any emotions whatsoever to help mediate and
place the thoughts into an emotional, human context
- Rationalization - The justification of behaviors in a manner that is acceptable to the self and
society
- Regression - A reversion to an earlier developmental state
- Repression - The egos way of forcing undesired thoughts and urges to the unconscious
- Suppression - A deliberate, conscious form of forgetting
- Displacement - The transference of an undesired urge from one person or object to another
- Reaction formation - The suppression of urges by unconsciously converting them into their
exact opposite
- Sublimation - The transformation of unacceptable urges into socially acceptable behaviors
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Biomedical model - Focuses on purely biological factors and excludes psychological, environmental, and
social influences

Biopsychosocial model - There are biological, psychological, and social components to an individuals
disorder

Diathesis-stress model - Explains behavior as a predispositional vulnerability together with stress from
life experiences

Neurodevelopmental disorders - A group of disorders in which the development of the central nervous
system is disturbed. This can include developmental brain dysfunction, which can manifest as
neuropsychiatric problems or impaired motor function, learning, language or non-verbal communication

Neurocognitive disorders - A group of disorders designated by an acquired cognitive decline in one or

more cognitive domains

Sleep-wake disorders
- Dyssomnias - Disorders that make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or avoid sleep
- Central sleep apnea - A disorder in which your breathing repeatedly stops and starts
during sleep and occurs because your brain doesn't send proper signals to the muscles
that control your breathing
- Obstructive sleep apnea - A disorder in which your throat muscles intermittently relax
and block your airway during sleep
- Narcolepsy - Characterized by a lack of voluntary control over the onset of sleep
- Cataplexy - The loss of muscle control and sudden intrusion of REM sleep during waking
hours
- Sleep paralysis - The sensation of being unable to move despite being awake
- Insomnia - Characterized by difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
- Hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations - Hallucinations when going to sleep or
awakening
- Parasomnias - Abnormal movements or behaviors during sleep
- Night terrors - Periods of intense anxiety that occur during slow-wave sleep
- Sleepwalking - Engaging in walking, talking, eating, sexual intercourse, or other activities
during slow-wave sleep with no recollection

Anxiety disorders
- Generalized anxiety disorder - A disproportionate and persistent worry about many different
things for at least six months
- Social anxiety disorder - Anxiety that is due to social situations
- Panic disorders - The occurrence of repeated panic attacks
- Phobias - An irrational fear of something that results in a compelling desire to avoid it
- Agoraphobia - The fear of places or situations where it is hard for an individual to escape
- Selective mutism - An anxiety disorder in which a person who is normally capable of speech
cannot speak in specific situations or to specific people
Depressive disorders
- Major depressive disorder - A mood disorder characterized by at least one major depressive
episode; A period of at least two weeks with at least five of the following symptoms: persistent
depressed mood, anhedonia, appetite disturbances, substantial weight changes, sleep
disturbances, decreased energy, feelings of worthlessness, difficulty thinking, psychomotor
symptoms, and thoughts of suicide
- Persistent depressive disorder - The experience of dysthymia for at least two years
- Dysthymia - A depressed mood that isnt severe enough to meet the criteria of a major
depressive episode
- Seasonal affective disorder - Major depressive disorder with seasonal onset

Bipolar disorders - A major type of mood disorder characterized by both depression and mania
- Manic episode - Characterized by abnormal and persistently elevated mood lasting at least one
week with at least three of the following symptoms: increased distractibility, decreased need for
sleep, grandiosity, racing thoughts, increased goal-directed activity, pressured speech, and
involvement in high-risk behavior
- Hypomania - A mild form of mania, marked by elation and hyperactivity
- Bipolar I disorder - Characterized by manic episodes with or without depressive episodes
- Bipolar II disorder - Characterized by hypomanic episodes with at least one major depressive
episode
- Cyclothymic disorder - A combination of hypomanic episodes and periods of dysthymia that are
not severe enough to qualify as major depressive episodes

Catecholamine theory of depression - Too much norepinephrine and serotonin in the synapse leads to
mania, while too little leads to depression

Schizophrenia
- Prodromal phase - A phase that occurs prior to a schizophrenia diagnosis that is characterized
by poor adjustment; Characterized by clear evidence of deterioration, social withdrawal, role
functioning impairment, peculiar behavior, inappropriate affect, and unusual experiences
- Positive symptoms - Feelings or behaviors that are usually not present
- Hallucinations - Perceptions that are not due to external stimuli but have a compelling
sense of reality
- Delusions - False beliefs that are discordant with reality and not shared by others in the
individuals culture that are maintained in spite of strong evidence to the contrary
- Delusions of persecution - The belief that the person is being deliberately
interfered with, discriminated against, plotted against, or threatened
- Delusions of reference - The belief that common elements in the environment
are directed toward the individual
- Delusions of grandeur - The belief that the person is remarkable in some
significant way, such as being an inventor, historical figure, or religious icon
- Delusions of control - The belief that another person, group of people, or
external force controls one's general thoughts, feelings, impulses, or behavior
- Thought broadcasting - The belief that ones thoughts are broadcast
directly from ones head to the external world
- Thought insertion - The belief that thoughts are being placed in ones
head
- Disorganized thought
 - Word salad - Disorganized speech that does not have structure
- Neologisms - The invention of new words
- Disorganized behavior
- Catatonia - The reduction of spontaneous movement and presentation of rigid
posture
- Echolalia - Repeating anothers words
- Echopraxia - Imitating anothers actions
- Negative symptoms - A lack of feelings or behaviors that are usually present
- Flat affect - Virtually no signs of emotional expression
- Blunting - A severe reduction in the intensity of affect expression
- Inappropriate affect - Affect that is discordant with the content of the individuals
speech (e.g., laughing when discussing death)
- Avolition - Decreased engagement in purposeful, goal-directed actions
- Alogia - A lack of speech

Trauma/stressor-related disorders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder - Occurs after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event
- Intrusion symptoms - Recurrent reliving of the event, flashbacks, nightmares, and
prolonged distress
- Avoidance symptoms - Deliberate attempts to avoid memories, people, places,
activities, and objects associated with the trauma
- Negative cognitive symptoms - Inability to recall key features of the event, negative
mood or emotions, feeling distanced from others, and a persistent negative view of the
world
- Arousal symptoms - Increased startle response, irritability, anxiety, self-destructive
behavior, and sleep disturbances
- Acute stress disorder - Presence of the same symptoms of PTSD, but for less than a month

Addictive disorders - Characterized by the person ingesting a substance, such as alcohol or cocaine, or
engaging in an activity, like gambling, that is pleasurable but is also compulsive and interfering with the
person's responsibilities at home or at work

Personality disorders - A pattern of behavior that is inflexible and maladaptive, causing distress or
impaired functioning in at least two of the following: cognition, emotions, interpersonal functioning, or
impulse control
- Cluster A
- Paranoid personality disorder - Characterized by a pervasive distrust of others and
suspicion regarding their motives
- Schizoid personality disorder - Characterized by a pervasive pattern of detachment
from social relationships and a restricted range of emotions
- Schizotypal personality disorder - Characterized by a pattern of odd or eccentric
thinking where the individual experiences ideas of reference and magical thinking
- Cluster B
- Antisocial personality disorder - Characterized by a pattern of disregard for and
violations of the rights of others
- Borderline personality disorder - Characterized by pervasive instability in interpersonal
behavior, mood, and self-image
- Histrionic personality disorder - Characterized by constant attention-seeking behavior
 - Narcissistic personality disorder - Characterized by a grandiose sense of self-importance
or uniqueness, preoccupation with fantasies of success, a need for constant admiration
and attention, and characteristic disturbances in interpersonal relationships
- Cluster C
- Avoidant personality disorder - Characterized by extreme shyness and fear of rejection
- Dependent personality disorder - Characterized by a continuous need for reassurance
- Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder - Characterized by perfectionism and
inflexibility; DIffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder because it is ego-syntonic

Obsessive-compulsive disorders - Characterized by obsessions, which produce tension, and compulsions

that relieve tension but cause significant impairment in a persons life; Differs from
obsessive-compulsive personality disorder because it is ego-dystonic
- Obsessions - Persistent, intrusive thoughts and impulses
- Compulsions - Repetitive tasks

Somatic symptom disorder - Involves at least one somatic symptom, which may or may not be linked to
an underlying medical condition that cases disproportionate concern
- Conversion disorder - Characterized by unexplained symptoms affecting voluntary motor or
sensory functions
- La belle indifference - The surprising unconcern regarding the symptom of a conversion
disorder by the patient
- Factitious disorder - Characterized by a person who acts as if he or she has a physical or mental
illness when, in fact, he or she has consciously created the symptoms
- Illness anxiety disorder - A preoccupation with thoughts about having a serious medical
condition

Body dysmorphic disorder - Characterized by an unrealistic negative evaluation of ones appearance

where extreme measures are taken to correct the perceived imperfection

Eating disorders - Characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits

Elimination disorders - Characterized by the inappropriate elimination of urine or feces

Dissociative disorders - Characterized by the avoidance of stress by escaping from ones identity
- Dissociative amnesia - The inability to recall past experiences without an underlying
neurological disorder
- Dissociative fugue - A sudden change in location that may involve the assumption of a new
identity
- Dissociative identity disorder - The occurrence of two or more personalities that take control of
a persons behavior
- Depersonalization/derealization disorder - Involves feelings of detachment from the mind,
body, or environment

Sexual dysfunctions - Characterized by difficulty experienced by an individual or a couple during any

stage of a normal sexual activity, including physical pleasure, desire, preference, arousal or orgasm

Gender dysphoria - Characterized by the feeling that one's emotional and psychological identity as male
or female to be opposite to one's biological sex
Paraphilic disorders - Characterized by recurrent, intense, sexually arousing fantasies, urges, or
behaviors that are distressing or disabling and that involve inanimate objects, children or nonconsenting
adults, or suffering or humiliation of oneself or the partner with the potential to cause harm

Ego-syntonic disorders - Disorders where the individual perceives their behavior as correct, normal, or
in harmony with their goals (e.g., personality disorders)

Ego-dystonic disorders - Disorders where the individual perceives their behavior as intrusive or
bothersome

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Conformity - The matching of ones attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors to societal norms
- Identification - The outward acceptance of others ideas without personally taking on these
ideas
- Internalization - The changing of ones behavior to fit with a group while also privately agreeing
with their ideas
- Normative conformity - Conformity that occurs because of the desire to be liked and accepted
- Informational conformity - Conformity that occurs because of the desire to be correct

Group polarization - The tendency for groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the
individual ideas and inclinations of the members within the group
- Risky shift - The tendency to make riskier decisions as a group
- Choice shift - The tendency to cautious decisions as a group

Groupthink - The desire for harmony or conformity results in a group of people coming to an incorrect
or poor decision
- Illusion of invulnerability - The creation of optimism and encouragement of risk-taking
- Collective rationalization - Ignoring warnings against the idea of the group
- Illusion of morality - The belief that the groups decisions are morally correct
- Excessive stereotyping - The construction of stereotypes against outside opinions
- Pressure for conformity - The pressure put on anyone in the group who expresses opinions
against the group, viewing the opposition as disloyal
- Self-censorship - The withholding of opposing views
- Illusion of unanimity - The false sense of agreement within the group
- Mindguards - The appointment of members to the role of protecting against opposing views

Obedience - The changing of behavior of an individual based on a command from someone seen as an
authority figure
Compliance - A change in behavior of an individual at the request of a non-authority figure
- Foot-in-the-door technique - A small request is made, and after gaining compliance, a larger
request is made
- Door-in-the-face technique - A large request is made, and if refused, a second, smaller request
is made
- Lowball technique - The requestor will get an initial commitment from an individual, and then
raise the cost of the commitment
- Thats-not-all technique - An individual is made an offer, but before making a decision, is told
the deal is even better than expected

Anomie - A state of normlessness that arises from the erosion of social solidarity by means of excessive
individualism, social inequality, and isolation

Deindividuation - The idea that people will lose a sense of self-awareness and can act dramatically
different based on the influence of a group

Bystander effect - The observation that, when in a group, individuals are less likely to respond to a
person in need

Social facilitation - People tend to perform better on simple tasks and when in the presence of others
- Yerkes-Dodson law - Being in the presence of others will significantly raise arousal, which
enhances the ability to perform simple tasks and hinder the performance of complex tasks.

Social loafing - The tendency of individuals to put in less effort when in a group setting than individually

Peer pressure - The social influence placed on an individual by a group of people or another individual

Identity shift effect - When an individuals state of harmony is disrupted by a threat of social rejection,
the individual will often conform to the norms of the group

NORMATIVE AND NONNORMATIVE BEHAVIOR

Norms - Societal rules that define the boundaries of acceptable behavior

Sanctions - A way to enforce rules through rewards for positive behavior and punishments for negative
behavior
- Positive sanction - Rewards someone for following a norm and serves to encourage the
continuance of a certain type of behavior
- Negative sanction - actual or threatened punishments for not following a norm
- Formal sanction - A sanction that is officially recognized by an authority and enforced
- Informal sanction - A sanction that is not enforced or punished by an authority but that occurs
in everyday interactions with other people
Folkways - Norms that refer to behavior that is considered polite in particular social interactions, such as
shaking hands after a sports match

Mores - Widely observed social norms

Laws - Formal and informal rules and standards (mores) enacted by a political entity and enforced by
agents with recognized authority such as the police and the courts

Taboos - Socially unacceptable, disgusting, or reprehensible behaviors

Stigma - The extreme disapproval or dislike of a person or group based on perceived differences from
the rest of society

Deviance - Any violation of norms, rules, or expectations within a society

- Primary deviance - Rule-breaking behavior that is carried out by people who see themselves and
are seen by others as basically conformist
- Secondary deviance - The process of establishing a deviant identity, integrating it into
conceptions of self, potentially affecting the individual long term

Theory of differential association - Deviance can be learned through interactions with others

Labeling theory - The labels that are given to people affect not only how others respond to that person,
but also the persons self-image

Strain theory - Explains deviance as a natural reaction to the disconnect between social goals and social
structure

Collective behavior - Social processes and events which do not reflect existing social structure, but
which emerge in a "spontaneous" way
- Fad - Things or behaviors that have achieved short-lived popularity, but fade away
- Mass hysteria - The transmission of collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary,
through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear
- Riots - A group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property or people
LEARNING

Associative learning - The creation of a pairing, or association, either between two stimuli or between a
behavior and a response
- Classical conditioning - A type of associative learning that takes advantage of biological,
instinctual responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli
- Unconditioned stimulus - Stimulus which produces a response from the subject
naturally, or without conditioning
- Unconditioned response - An involuntary and natural reaction to a stimulus
- Conditioned stimulus - A normally neutral stimulus that, through association, now
causes a reflexive response
- Conditioned response - A newly formed reaction to a once unassociated stimulus
- Neutral stimuli - Any stimulus that produces no conditioned response prior to learning
- Acquisition - The pairing of a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus
- Operant conditioning - Links voluntary behaviors with consequences in an effort to alter the
frequency of those behaviors
- Reinforcement - The process of increasing the likelihood that an individual will perform
a behavior
- Positive reinforcement - Adds a stimulus to continue a behavior
- Negative reinforcement - Removes a stimulus to continue a behavior
- Punishment - Uses conditioning to reduce the occurrence of a behavior
- Positive punishment - Adds a stimulus to reduce a behavior
- Negative punishment - Removes a stimulus to reduce a behavior
- Discriminative stimulus - A stimulus that exerts control over a particular form of
behavior; the subject discriminates between closely related stimuli and elicits a specific
behavior more frequently or less frequently only in the presence of that stimulus
- Habituation - An organism decreases or ceases its responses to a stimulus after repeated
presentations
- Dishabituation - The recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred
- Sensitization - Occurs when a repeated administration of a stimulus results in the progressive
amplification of a response
- Desensitization - Diminished emotional responsiveness to a negative, aversive or positive
stimulus after repeated exposure to it
- Generalization - Occurs when a stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can also
produce the conditioned response
- Discrimination - Distinguishing between two similar stimuli
- Extinction - A process by which a response that has been learned is weakened by the absence or
removal of reinforcement
- Spontaneous recovery - The recovery of a conditioned response after extinction
- Extinction burst - A sudden and temporary increase in the response's frequency, followed by the
eventual decline and extinction of the behavior targeted for elimination
Aversive conditioning - Exposure to an unpleasant stimulus while engaging in the targeted behavior, the
goal being to create an aversion to it
- Escape - The role of the behavior is to reduce the unpleasantness of something that already
exists
- Avoidance - Meant to prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen
- Taste aversion - Occurs when an animal associates the taste of a certain food with symptoms
caused by a toxic, spoiled, or poisonous substance

Systematic desensitization - A form of treatment or therapy for phobias, fears, and aversions that
people have through counterconditioning

Counterconditioning - A type of therapy based on the principles of classical conditioning that attempts
to replace bad or unpleasant emotional responses to a stimulus with more pleasant, adaptive responses

Primary reinforcers - Anything that provides reinforcement without the need for learning to an
organism

Secondary reinforcers - A stimulus that reinforces a behavior after it has been associated with a primary
reinforcer

Token economy - A system of contingency management based on the systematic reinforcement of

target behavior. The reinforcers are symbols or "tokens" that can be exchanged for other reinforcers
and is based on the principles of operant conditioning and behavioral economics

Instinctual drift - The animal no longer performs the behaviors it has been taught, but goes back to
behaviors that are in its nature

Shaping - A method of training by which successive approximations toward a target behavior are
reinforced

Reinforcement schedules - Determine how and when a behavior will be followed by a reinforcer
- Fixed-ratio - Reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior
- Continuous reinforcement - A fixed-ratio schedule in which the behavior is rewarded
every time it is performed
- Fixed-interval - Reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has
elapsed
- Variable-ratio - Reinforce a behavior after a varying number of performances of that behavior
- Variable-interval - Reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a varying time period has
elapsed

Latent learning - Learning that occurs without a reward but that is spontaneously demonstrated once a
reward is introduced
Observational learning - The process of learning a new behavior or gaining information by watching
others

Insight learning - Occurs when people recognize relationships that can help them solve new problems
THEORIES OF ATTITUDE AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Persuasion - Various deliberate methods that people use to change other people's attitudes and
thoughts

Reciprocal determinism - The idea that our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and environment all interact
with each other to determine our actions in a given situation

Perceived behavioral control - The perception of the ease or difficulty of the particular behavior

Locus of control - The way we characterize the influences in our lives

- Internal locus of control - The belief that a person influence events and their outcomes
- External locus of control - The belief that outside forces are to blame for everything

Tyranny of choice - In western developed societies a large amount of choice is commonly associated
with welfare and freedom but too much choice causes the feeling of less happiness, less satisfaction and
can even lead to paralysis

Self-control - The ability to regulate one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations
and impulses

Ego depletion - The idea that self-control or willpower draws upon a limited pool of mental resources
that can be used up. When the energy for mental activity is low, self-control is typically impaired

Stages of change theory - The variety of stages that one can expect to go through when modifying
behavior
- Precontemplation - Individuals in the precontemplation stage of change are not even thinking
about changing their behavior
- Contemplation - Individuals in this stage of change are willing to consider the possibility that
they have a problem, and the possibility offers hope for change
- Determination - Individuals in this stage will make a serious attempt to stop their behavior in
the near future
- Action - Individuals in this stage of change put their plan into action
- Maintenance - The threat of a return to old patterns becomes less intense and less frequent
- Termination - Individuals in this stage no longer find the behavior a threat
INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY

Self-concept - Our concept of our identity

- Existential self - The most basic part of the self-scheme or self-concept; The sense of being
separate and distinct from others and the awareness of the constancy of the self
- Categorical self - The ability to put the self into categories, such as age, gender, skill or size

Self-esteem - Confidence in one's own worth or abilities

- Actual self - The way we see ourselves as we currently are
- Ideal self - The person we would like to be
- Ought self - Our representation of the way others think we should be

Social identity theory - A theory that predicts certain intergroup behaviours on the basis of perceived
group status differences, the perceived legitimacy and stability of those status differences, and the
perceived ability to move from one group to another

Self-efficacy - Our belief in our ability to succeed

Hierarchy of salience - A framework or organization of an individual's identities in order of how

frequently they are used and how likely they are to be used in a particular situation

Kohlbergs moral development theory

- Preconventional morality - Places an emphasis on the consequences of the moral choice
- Stage 1 - Obedience and punishment; Behavior driven by avoiding punishment
- Stage 2 - Individual interest; Behavior driven by self-interest and rewards
- Conventional morality - Individuals being ot see themselves in terms of their relationships to
others
- Stage 3 - Interpersonal; Behavior driven by social approval
- Stage 4 - Authority; Behavior driven by obeying authority and conforming to social order
- Postconventional morality - Describes a level of reasoning that not everyone is capable of and is
based on social mores, which may conflict with laws
- Stage 5 - Social contract; Behavior driven by the balance of social order and individual
rights
- Stage 6 - Universal ethics; Behavior driven by internal moral principles

Eriksons psychosocial development theory

- Stage 1. Trust vs. mistrust - 1 year of age; Learning to depend on caretakers. Negative outcome:
suspicion and fear
- Stage 2. Autonomy vs. shame/doubt - 2 years of age; Learning to do things on your own.
Negative outcome: lacking self-esteem
- Stage 3. Initiative vs guilt - 3-5 years of age; Learning to initiate play. Negative outcome: act
more as a follower
- Stage 4. Industry vs. inferiority - 6-12 years of age; Learning to be competent. Negative
outcome: doubting own abilities and feeling inferior
- Stage 5. Identity vs. role confusion - 12-18 years of age; Learning how to fit into society.
Negative outcome: confusion of self
 - Stage 6. Intimacy vs. isolation - 18-40 years of age; Learning to form relationships. Negative
outcome: Loneliness
- Stage 7. Generativity vs. stagnation - 40-65 years of age; Learning the bigger picture of life.
Negative outcome: feeling unproductive
- Stage 8. Integrity vs. despair - 65+ years of age; Reflecting on life. Negative outcome:
dissatisfaction

Vygotskys sociocultural cognitive development theory - The internalization of various aspects of

culture (rules, symbols, language) drive cognitive development
- Zone of proximal development - The skills and abilities that have not yet fully developed but are
in the process of development

Psychodynamic theory - Emphasizes systematic study of the psychological forces that underlie human
behavior, feelings, and emotions and how they might relate to early experience. It is especially
interested in the dynamic relations between conscious motivation and unconscious motivation.

Freuds psychosexual development theory

- Oral stage - Ages 0-1; Libidinal energy centered on the mouth, fixation can lead to excessive
dependency
- Anal stage - Ages 1-3; Toilet training occurs during this time, fixation can lead to excessive
orderliness or messiness
- Phallic stage - Ages 3-5; Oedipal or Electra conflict is resolved during this time
- Latent period - Libido is largely sublimated during this stage
- Genital stage - Begins at puberty; If previous stages have been successfully resolved, the person
will enter into normal heterosexual relationships

Jungian archetypes
- Personal unconscious - All information that is present within an individual's mind, but not
readily available to conscious recall
- Collective unconscious - A powerful system that is shared among all humans and is considered
to be a residue of the experiences of our early ancestors
- Persona - The part of our personality that we present to the world
- Anima - Feminine behavior in males
- Animus - Masculine behavior in females
- Shadow - Unpleasant and socially reprehensible thoughts, feelings, and actions in our
consciousness

Jungs dichotomies of personality (Myers-Briggs Type Inventory)

- Extraversion vs. introversion - Orientation toward the external world vs. orientation toward the
internal world
- Sensing vs. intuiting - Obtaining objective information about the world vs. working with
information abstractly
- Thinking vs. feeling - Using logic and reason vs. using a value system or personal beliefs
- Judging vs. perceiving - Preferring orderliness vs. preferring spontaneity (not original to Jung,
adapted for MBTI)
Object relations theory - Object refers to the representation of parents or other caregivers based on
subjective experiences during early infancy. These objects persist into adulthood and impact our
interactions with others

Imitation - The reproduction or performance of an act that is stimulated by the perception of a similar
act by another animal or person

Roles - A set of beliefs, values, attitudes, and norms that define expectations for behavior associated
with a given status

Reference groups - The group whom we compare ourselves to

Meads The Me and I

- Me - The organized set of attitudes of others which an individual assumes
- I - The response of an individual to the attitudes of others
- Actual self - The balance of both the "I" and the "me"

Looking glass self - A person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions
of others

PERCEPTION, PREJUDICE, AND BIAS

Covariation model - An attribution theory in which people make causal inferences to explain why other
people and ourselves behave in a certain way; A person has information from multiple observations, at
different times and situations, and can perceive the covariation of an observed effect and its causes
- Consistency cues - The extent to which the person behaves like this every time the situation
occurs
- Distinctiveness cues - The extent to which the person behaves in the same way in similar
situations
- Consensus cues - The extent to which other people behave in the same way in a similar situation

Attribution theory - How the social perceiver uses information to arrive at causal explanations for
events
- Situational attribution - The process of assigning the cause of behavior to some situation or
event outside a person's control rather than to some internal characteristic
- Dispositional attribution - The process of assigning the cause of behavior to some internal
characteristic, rather than to outside forces
- Fundamental attribution error - Our tendency to explain someone's behavior based on internal
factors, such as personality or disposition, and to underestimate the influence that external
factors, such as situational influences, have on another person's behavior
- Correspondent inference theory - When an individual unexpectedly performs a behavior that
helps or hurts us, we tend to explain the behavior by dispositional attribution
- Attribute substitution - Occurs when an individual has to make a judgment that is
computationally complex, and instead substitutes a more easily calculated heuristic attribute
Actor-Observer bias - A tendency to attribute one's own actions to external causes, while attributing
other people's behaviors to internal causes

Self-serving bias - A tendency to attribute positive events to their own character but attribute negative
events to external factors

Optimism bias - Causes a person to believe that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative event
compared to others

Stereotypes - A preconceived notion, especially about a group of people

- Paternalistic stereotype - Low status, not competitive (e.g., housewives, elderly people,
disabled people)
- Contemptuous stereotype - Low status, competitive (e.g., welfare recipients, poor people)
- Admiration stereotype - High status, not competitive (e.g., in-group, close allies)
- Envious stereotype - High status, competitive (e.g., asians, jews, rich people, feminists)

Stereotype threat - A situational predicament in which people are or feel themselves to be at risk of
conforming to stereotypes about their social group

Prejudice - An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or

reason

Discrimination - The unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things,

especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex
- Individual discrimination - One person discriminating against a particular person or group
- Institutional discrimination - The discrimination against a particular person or group by an
entire institution
- Unintentional discrimination
- Side-effect discrimination - Practices in one institutional area that have a negative
impact because they are linked to practices in another area
- Past-in-present discrimination - How things that were done in the past, even though
they may no longer be allowed, they can have consequences for people in the present

Self-fulfilling prophecy - A prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very
terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior

Scapegoat - A person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for
reasons of expediency

Frustration aggression hypothesis - Aggression is the result of blocking, or frustrating, a person's efforts
to attain a goal

Relative deprivation - The lack of resources to sustain the diet, lifestyle, activities and amenities that
an individual or group are accustomed to or that are widely encouraged or approved in the society to
which they belong

Just world phenomenon - The tendency to believe that the world is just and that people get what they
deserve
Halo effect - The tendency for an impression created in one area to influence opinion in another area

Ethnocentrism - Judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's own culture;
Opposite of cultural relativism

Cultural relativism - The idea that a person's beliefs, values, and practices should be understood based
on that person's own culture, rather than judged against the criteria of another; Opposite of
ethnocentrism

Xenocentrism - The preference for the products, styles, or ideas of someone else's culture rather than of
one's own

Cultural imperialism - The extension of the influence or dominance of one nation's culture over others,
now usually through the exportation of cultural commodities such as film, music, etc

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Mere exposure effect - People tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar
with them

Cognitive neoassociation model - We are more likely to respond to other aggressively whenever we are
feeling negative emotions, such as being tired, sick, frustrated, or in pain

Projection bias - People overestimate how much other people agree with them

Stranger anxiety - A form of distress that children experience when exposed to people unfamiliar to
them

Parenting styles - Parenting behaviors and attitudes that set the emotional climate in regard to
parent-child interactions, such as parental responsiveness and demandingness
- Authoritarian - High in demandingness and low in supportiveness
- Authoritative - High in demandingness and high in supportiveness
- Permissive - Low in demandingness and high in supportiveness
- Rejecting-Neglecting - Low in demandingness and low in supportiveness

Modeling - A client learns new skills by imitating another person, such as a parent or therapist, who
performs the behavior to be acquired; Attributed to Albert Bandura

Social scripts - A sequence of expected behaviors for a given situation

Altruism - The belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others
- Kin selection - Natural selection in favor of behavior by individuals that may decrease their
chance of survival but increases that of their kin
- Reciprocal altruism - A behaviour whereby an organism acts in a manner that temporarily
reduces its fitness while increasing another organism's fitness, with the expectation that the
other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time

Empathy-altruism hypothesis - If someone feels empathy towards another person, they will help them,
regardless of what they can gain from it

Attachment - An emotional bond between a caregiver and a child

- Secure attachment - Seen when a child has a consistent caregiver and is able to go out and
explore, knowing that he or she has a secure base to return to
- Avoidant attachment - Seen when the caregiver has little or no response to a distressed child.
The child will show no preference between a stranger and the caregiver
- Ambivalent attachment - Seen when a caregiver has an inconsistent response to a childs
distress. The child is unable to form a secure based as he or she cannot consistently rely on the
caregivers response
- Disorganized attachment - Children show no clear pattern of behavior in response to the
caregivers absence or presence

Social support - The perception or reality that one is cared for by a social network
- Emotional support - Listening, affirming, and empathizing with someones feelings
- Esteem support - Similar to emotional support but focused on affirming the qualities and skills
of a person
- Informational support - Providing information that will help someone
- Material/tangible support -Any type of financial or material contribution to another person
- Network support - Social support that gives a person a sense of belonging

Mate choice - The selection of a mate based on attraction

- Mate bias - How choosy members of the species are while choosing a mate
- Phenotypic benefits - Observable traits that make a potential mate more attractive to the
opposite sex
- Sensory bias - Development of a trait to match a preexisting preference that exists in the
population
- Runaway selection - A positive feedback mechanism in which a particular trait that has no effect
on survival becomes more and more exaggerated over time
- Indicator traits - Traits that signify overall good health and well-being of an organism, increasing
its attractiveness to mates
- Genetic compatibility - The creating of mate pairs that have complementary genetics

Game theory - Mathematical model that attempts to explain decision-making behavior

- Nash equilibrium - The choice that leaves you better off, no matter what the opponents decide
to do
Social perception - Provides the tools make judgments and impressions regarding other people
- Perceiver - The one who is making the perception; Influenced by experience, motives, and
emotional state
- Target - The person about which the perception is made
- Situation - The social context in which the perception is made

Impression bias - The event when one person first encounters another person and forms a mental
image of that person. Impression accuracy varies depending on the observer and the target being
observed
- Reliance on central traits - The tendency to organize the perception of others based on traits
and personal characteristics that are most relevant to the perceiver
- Implicit personality theory - The specific patterns and biases an individual uses when forming
impressions based on a limited amount of initial information about an unfamiliar person

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

Social status - A person's standing or importance in relation to other people within a society
- Ascribed status - The social status a person is assigned at birth or assumed involuntarily later in
life
- Achieved status - The social status a person gains as a result of personal effort
- Master status - The social status that is the primary identifying characteristic of an individual

Prestige - The amount of positive regard society has for a given person or idea

Power - The ability to affect others behavior through real or perceived rewards and punishments, and is
based on the unequal distribution of valued resources

Roles - A set of beliefs, values, attitudes, and norms that define expectations for those who hold the
status
- Role performance - The carrying out of behaviors associated with a given role
- Role set - The various roles associated with a status
- Role partner - The person with whom one is interaction
- Role strain - The difficulty in satisfying multiple expectations of the same role
- Role conflict - The difficulty in satisfying the requirements or expectations of multiple roles
- Role exit - The dropping of one identity for another

Groups
- Peer group - Defined by association of self-selected equals around similar interests, ages, and
statuses
- Family group - Defined by association by birth, adoption, or marriage
- In-group - Groups to which an individual belongs to
- Out-group - Groups to which an individual competes with or is in opposition to
- Reference group - Groups that establish the terms by which individuals evaluate themselves
- Primary group - The group in which interactions are direct, with close bonds to members
- Secondary group - The group in which interactions are superficial with few emotional bonds
 - Dyad - A group of two people; These relationships can be emotionally intense and sometimes
unstable
- Triad - A group of three people; These relationships can be more stable than a dyad due to a
third person mediating

Social network analysis - The process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and
graph theory

Interaction process analysis - A technique for observing, classifying, and measuring the interactions
within small groups

System for multiple level observation of groups (SYMLOG) - Revision of interaction process analysis,
based on the belief that there are three fundamental dimensions of interaction: dominance vs.
submission, friendliness vs. unfriendliness, instrumentally controlled vs. emotionally expressive

Gemeinschaft - Groups unified by feelings of togetherness due to shared beliefs, ancestry, or geography;
Community

Gesellschaft - Groups that are formed because of mutual self-interests working together toward the
same goal; Society

Appraisal model of emotional expression - Emotions are extracted from our evaluations (appraisals or
estimates) of events that cause specific reactions in different people. Essentially, our appraisal of a
situation causes an emotional, or affective, response that is going to be based on that appraisal

Social construction model of emotional expression - There is no biological basis for emotion. Instead,
emotions are based on experiences and the situational context alone

Display rules - A social group's informal norms about when, where, and how one should express
emotions

Cultural syndrome - A shared set of beliefs, attitudes, norms, values, and behaviors among members of
the same culture that are organized around a central theme

Dramaturgical approach - A sociological concept that uses the metaphor of theatre to explain human
behavior
- Front stage - The setting where players are in front of an audience and perform roles that are in
keeping with the image they hope to project about themselves
- Back stage - The setting where players are free from their role requirements and not in front of
the audience
Impression management - Our attempts to influence how others perceive us
- Authentic self - Who the person actually is
- Ideal self - Who the person would like to be under optimal circumstances
- Tactical self - Who the person markets themselves to be when they adhere to others
expectations
- Methods of impression management
- Self-disclosure - Giving information about oneself to establish an identity
- Managing appearances - Using props, appearance, emotional expression, or association
with others to create a positive image
- Ingratiation - Using flattery or conforming to expectations to win someone over
- Aligning actions - Making questionable behavior acceptable through excuses
- Alter-casting - Imposing an identity onto another person

Organizations - An entity comprising multiple people, such as an institution or an association, that has a
collective goal and is linked to an external environment
- Utilitarian organizations - A group of individuals join in order to receive the monetary reward or
some other benefit that is offered to members of that organization
- Normative organizations - Organizations in which membership is voluntary and which are joined
in order for members to pursue a common interest or to gain personal satisfaction or prestige
- Coercive organizations - Organizations in which membership is typically forced rather than
voluntary

Bureaucracy - A formal organization with the goal of performing complex tasks as efficiently as possible
by dividing work among a number of bureaus

Iron rule of oligarchy - States that all forms of organization, regardless of how democratic they may be
at the start, will eventually and inevitably develop oligarchic tendencies, thus making true democracy
practically and theoretically impossible, especially in large groups and complex organizations

McDonaldization - The principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more
sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN ANIMALS

Foraging - Search widely for food or provisions

Mating
- Random mating - Mating between individuals where the choice of partner is not influenced by
the genotypes
- Assortative mating - A mating pattern and a form of sexual selection in which individuals with
similar phenotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected under a
random mating pattern
- Negative assortative mating - When people avoid mating with persons similar to themselves
Inclusive fitness - The ability of an individual organism to pass on its genes to the next generation, taking
into account the shared genes passed on by the organism's close relatives

SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Theories of sociology
- Functionalism - Society is a system of interconnected parts that work together in harmony to
maintain a state of balance and social equilibrium for the whole; Associated with Durkheim
- Manifest functions - Consequences that are intended and commonly recognized
- Latent functions - Consequences that are unintended and often hidden
- Conflict theory - Views society as composed of different groups and interest competing for
power and resources; Associated with Marx
- Bourgeoisie - The middle class, typically with reference to its perceived materialistic
values or conventional attitudes
- Proletariat - The class of wage-earners in a capitalist society whose only possession of
significant material value is their labor-power
- Class consciousness - The organization of the working class around shared goals and
recognition of a need for collective political action
- False consciousness - The misrepresentation of ones actual position within society
- Symbolic interactionism - Emphasizes that human behavior is influenced by definitions and
meanings that are created and maintained through symbolic interaction with others; Associated
with Mead, Cooley, Goffman, and Simmel
- Social constructionism - Examines the development of jointly constructed understandings of the
world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality
- Feminism - Observes gender in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction
and reflexivity within a social structure at large
- Rational choice theory - Individuals choose a course of action that is most in line with their
personal preferences
- Exchange theory - Explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges
between parties

Government
- Democracy - Control of an organization or group by the majority of its members
- Dictatorship - Government by a dictator
- Monarchy - A form of government with a monarch at the head
- Communism - A political and economic system in which the major productive resources in a
society-such as mines, factories, and farms-are owned by the public or the state, and wealth is
divided among citizens equally or according to individual need

Economy
- Capitalism - An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are
controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state
 - Socialism - A political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means
of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a
whole

Medicine
- Medicalization - The process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and
treated as medical conditions, and thus become the subject of medical study, diagnosis,
prevention, or treatment
- Sick role - The rights and obligations of the affected by an illness
- Illness experience - The ways in which people define and adjust to perceived interruptions to
their health
- Social epidemiology - Focuses particularly on the effects of social-structural factors on states of
health
- Beneficence - The physician has a responsibility to act in the patients best interest
- Nonmaleficence - The physician has a responsibility to avoid treatments or interventions in
which the potential for ham outweighs the potential for benefit
- Respect for patient autonomy - The physician has a responsibility to respect patients decisions
and choices about their own healthcare
- Justice - The physician has a responsibility to treat similar patients with similar care, and to
distribute healthcare resources fairly

DEMOGRAPHICS

Generations - All of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively
- Generation Z - The demographic cohort after the Millennials
- Millennials - The demographic cohort following Generation X
- Generation X - The demographic cohort following the baby boomers
- Baby boomers - The demographic cohort following the Silent Generation
- Silent generation - The demographic cohort following the Greatest Generation, roughly those
born from the mid-to-late 1920s to the early-to-mid 1940s
- Greatest generation - The demographic cohort following the Lost Generation
- Lost generation - The generation that came of age during World War I

Dependency ratio - An age-population ratio of those typically not in the labor force (the dependent part
ages 0 to 14 and 65+) and those typically in the labor force (the productive part ages 15 to 64) used to
measure the pressure on productive population

Theories of aging
- Life course theory - An approach developed in the 1960s for analyzing people's lives within
structural, social, and cultural contexts
- Age stratification theory - The hierarchical ranking of people into age groups within a society
- Activity theory - Successful ageing occurs when older adults stay active and maintain social
interactions
- Disengagement theory - Aging is an inevitable, mutual withdrawal or disengagement, resulting
in decreased interaction between the aging person and others in the social system he belongs to
 - Continuity theory - Older adults will usually maintain the same activities, behaviors,
relationships as they did in their earlier years of life

Race - A social construct based on phenotypic differences between groups of people

- Racialization - The definition or establishment of a group as a particular race
- Racial formation theory - Racial identity is fluid and dependent on concurrent political,
economic, and social factors

Ethnicity - A social construct which sorts people by cultural factors including language, nationality,
religion, and other factors
- Symbolic ethnicity - A specific connection to ones ethnicity in which ethnic symbols and identity
remain important, even when ethnic identity does not play a significant role in everyday life

Pluralism - A condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority,
etc., coexist

Prevalence - The number of cases of an illness overall per population in a given amount of time (total
cases/total population/time)

Incidence - The number of new cases of an illness per population at risk in a given amount of time (new
cases/population at risk/time)

Growth rate - The percentage change of a specific variable within a specific time period, given a certain
context
- Fertility - The ability to conceive children or young
- Fecundity - The actual reproductive rate of an organism or population
- Birth rate - Births per 1000 women, categorized according to a specific composition of mothers
in the population
- Migration - Movement from one part of something to another
- Immigration - The international movement of people into a destination country of
which they are not natives
- Emigration - The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another
- Push factors - Negative attributes of the old location that encourage the immigrant to
leave
- Pull factors - Positive attributes of the new location that attract the immigrant
- Mortality - The number of deaths in a given area or period, or from a particular cause
- Morbidity - The frequency with which a disease appears in a population

Population pyramid - A graphical illustration that shows the distribution of various age groups in a
population (typically that of a country or region of the world), which forms the shape of a pyramid when
the population is growing

Demographic transition theory - The transition from high birth and death rates to lower birth and death
rates as a country or region develops from a pre-industrial to an industrialized economic system

Malthusian theory - The idea that population growth is potentially exponential while the growth of the
food supply is arithmetical at best
Globalization - The increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world
through a rapid increase in cross-border movement of goods, services, technology, and capital
- World systems theory - A multidisciplinary, macro-scale approach to world history and social
change which emphasizes the world-system (and not nation states) as the primary (but not
exclusive) unit of social analysis
- Core nation - The industrialized capitalist countries on which periphery countries and
semi-periphery countries depend
- Periphery nation - The countries that are less developed than the semi-periphery and
core countries. These countries usually receive a disproportionately small share of global
wealth
- Semi-periphery nation - The industrializing, mostly capitalist countries which are
positioned between the periphery and core countries
- Modernization theory - Looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that with
assistance, "traditional" countries can be brought to development in the same manner more
developed countries have been
- Dependency theory - The notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and
underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the
former
- Hyperglobalist perspective - Sees globalization as a new epoch in human history and is
characterized by the declining relevance and authority of nation-states, brought about largely
through the economic logic of a global market
- Skeptical perspective - Cautions against making such sweeping claims about the totalizing
nature of globalization
- Transformationalist perspective - There is no single cause behind globalization and the outcome
of processes of globalization is not determined

Social movement theories

- Mass society theory - People who are socially isolated are especially vulnerable to the appeals
of extremist movements
- Relative deprivation theory - A view of social change and movements, according to which
people take action for social change in order to acquire something (for example, opportunities,
status, or wealth) that others possess and which they believe they should have, too
- Resource mobilization theory - The ability of a movement's members to acquire resources and
to mobilize people towards accomplishing the movement's goals
CULTURE

Culture - The social behavior and norms found in human societies

Society - The aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community

Subculture - Groups of people within a culture that distinguish themselves from the primary culture to
which they belong

Microculture - The specialised subgroups, marked with their own languages, ethos and rule
expectations, that permeate differentiated industrial societies

Counterculture - A way of life and set of attitudes opposed to or at variance with the prevailing social
norm

Culture lag - The notion that culture takes time to catch up with technological innovations, and that
social problems and conflicts are caused by this lag

Material culture - The physical items one associates with a given cultural group

Symbolic culture - The nonmaterial culture that represents a group of people; Expressed through ideas
and concepts

Multiculturalism - Communities or societies containing multiple cultures

Culture shock - The feeling of disorientation experienced by someone who is suddenly subjected
to an unfamiliar culture, way of life, or set of attitudes

Cultural diffusion - The spread of cultural beliefs and social activities from one group to another

Cultural assimilation - The process by which a person's or group's culture come to resemble those of
another group

Cultural transmission - The way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn
and pass on information

Socialization - The process of developing, inheriting, and spreading norms, customs, and beliefs
- Primary socialization - Occurs during childhood when we initially learn acceptable actions and
attitudes in our society, primarily through observation of our parents and other adults
- Secondary socialization - The process of learning appropriate behavior within smaller sections
of the larger society
- Anticipatory socialization - The processes by which a person prepares for future changes in
occupations, living situations or relationships
- Resocialization - The process by which one discards old behaviors in favor of new ones to make
a life change
SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Gender-pay gap - The average difference between a man's and a woman's remuneration

Glass ceiling effect - The unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising
to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements
- Glass escalator - Defined as how more men are joining fields that were previously occupied
mainly by women, such as nursing and teaching, and within these job fields, the men are riding
right past women and going straight to the top
- Sticky floor - Described as the pattern that women are, compared to men, less likely to start to
climb the job ladder
- Concrete floor - The minimum number or the proportion of women necessary for a cabinet or
board of directors to be perceived as legitimate
- Frozen middle - Describes the phenomenon of women's progress up the corporate ladder
slowing, if not halting, in the ranks of middle management
-
Second shift - The idea that women theoretically work a second shift in the manner of having a greater
workload, not just doing a greater share of domestic work

Social stratification - A system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy

- Caste system - A form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary
transmission of a lifestyle which often includes an occupation, status in a hierarchy, and
customary social interaction and exclusion
- Class system - A system in which social status is largely determined by the family into which a
person is born

Meritocracy - A political philosophy holding that power should be vested in individuals almost
exclusively based on ability and talent

Plutocracy - A rule by the upper classes

Social mobility - The movement of individuals, families, households, or other categories of people within
or between layers or tiers in an open system of social stratification
- Intragenerational mobility - Changes in someone's social mobility throughout the course of his
or her lifetime
- Intergenerational mobility - Changes in social status between different generations within the
same family
- Vertical mobility - Movement up or down a status hierarchy
- Horizontal mobility - Movement from one position to another within the same social level
- Social reproduction - Refers to the emphasis on the structures and activities that transmit social
inequality from one generation to the next
Poverty - A socioeconomic condition of low resource availability
- Absolute poverty - The level of poverty as defined in terms of the minimal requirements
necessary to afford minimal standards of food, clothing, health care and shelter
- Relative poverty - A standard which is defined in terms of the society in which an individual lives
and which therefore differs between countries and over time
- Poverty line - The minimum income requirements for families to acquire the minimum
necessities of life

Capital
- Financial capital - Any economic resource measured in terms of money used by entrepreneurs
and businesses to buy what they need to make their products or to provide their services to the
sector of the economy upon which their operation is based
- Social capital - The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular
society, enabling that society to function effectively
- Cultural capital - Consists of the social assets of a person (education, intellect, style of speech
and dress, etc.) that promote social mobility in a stratified society

Segregation - The action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or
being set apart
- Concentration - The clustering of different groups; A type of residential segregation
- Centralization - The centralization of different groups in a cost-strained area; A type of
residential segregation

Social isolation - A state of complete or near-complete lack of contact between an individual and society

Gentrification - When upper- and middle-class populations begin to purchase and renovate
neighborhoods in deteriorated areas, displacing the low-SES population

Spatial inequality - The social stratification across territories and their populations

Environmental justice - The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race,
color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations, and policies

Intersectionality - The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as
they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems
of discrimination or disadvantage

Second sickness - The exacerbation of health outcomes caused by social injustice

Medicare - Covers patients over the age of 65, those with end-stage renal disease, and those with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Medicaid - Covers patients who are in significant financial need

STATISTICS AND RESEARCH

Statistical methods
- Regression - A set of statistical processes for estimating the relationships among variables
- Correlation - A mutual relationship or connection between two or more things
- Chi-square - Any statistical hypothesis test wherein the sampling distribution of the test statistic
is a chi-squared distribution when the null hypothesis is true
- T-test - Any statistical hypothesis test in which the test statistic follows a Student's t-distribution
under the null hypothesis
- ANOVA - A statistical method in which the variation in a set of observations is divided into
distinct components

Study types
- Cross-sectional study - A type of observational study that analyzes data collected from a
population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time
- Cohort study - A particular form of longitudinal study (panel study) that sample a cohort (a
group of people who share a defining characteristic, typically who experienced a common event
in a selected period, such as birth or graduation), performing a cross-section at intervals through
time
- Longitudinal study - A research design that involves repeated observations of the same
variables over long periods of time, often many decades
- Case-control study - Used to identify factors that may contribute to a medical condition by
comparing subjects who have that condition/disease (the "cases") with patients who do not
have the condition/disease but are otherwise similar (the "controls")
- Clinical trial - Experiments or observations done in clinical research
- Randomized controlled trial - A study in which people are allocated at random to receive one of
several clinical interventions
- Experimental study - A study in which the investigator actively manipulates which groups
receive the agent or exposure under study
- Quasi-experimental design - Shares similarities with the traditional experimental design or
randomized controlled trial, but it specifically lacks the element of random assignment to
treatment or control
- Factorial experiment - An experiment whose design consists of two or more factors, each with
discrete possible values or "levels", and whose experimental units take on all possible
combinations of these levels across all such factors
- Observational study - Draws inferences from a sample to a population where the independent
variable is not under the control of the researcher because of ethical concerns or logistical
constraints
- Comparative study - The act of comparing two or more things with a view to discovering
something about one or all of the things being compared
- Correlational study - A quantitative method of research in which you have 2 or more
quantitative variables from the same group of participants, & you are trying to determine if
there is a correlation between the 2 variables
- Content analysis - A research method for studying communication artifacts. Social scientists use
content analysis to quantify patterns in communication
 - Mixed-methods study - A methodology for conducting research that involves collecting,
analysing and integrating quantitative (e.g., experiments, surveys) and qualitative (e.g., focus
groups, interviews) research
- Ethnographic study - The study of people in their own environment through the use of methods
such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing
- Self-report study - A type of survey, questionnaire, or poll in which respondents read the
question and select a response by themselves without researcher interference

Validity - The extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-founded and corresponds
accurately to the real world
- Test validity - The extent to which a test accurately measures what it is supposed to measure
- Construct validity - The extent to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to
be measuring
- Content validity - The extent to which a measure represents all facets of a given
construct
- Face validity - The extent to which a test is subjectively viewed as covering the
concept it purports to measure
- Criterion validity - The extent to which a measure is related to an outcome
- Concurrent validity - The extent to which a test correlates well with a measure
that has previously been validated
- Predictive validity - The extent to which a score on a scale or test predicts
scores on some criterion measure
- Experimental validity
- Statistical conclusion validity - The extent to which conclusions about the relationship
among variables based on the data are correct or reasonable
- Internal validity - The extent to which a causal conclusion based on a study is
warranted, which is determined by the degree to which a study minimizes systematic
error
- External validity - The extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other
situations and to other people
- Ecological validity - The extent to which the methods, materials and setting of
the study approximate the real-world that is being examined
- Convergent validity - The extent to which two measures of constructs that theoretically should
be related, are in fact related
- Discriminant validity - The extent to which concepts or measurements that are not supposed to
be related are actually unrelated

Reliability - The overall consistency of a measure

- Inter-rater reliability - The degree of agreement between two or more raters in their appraisals
- Test-retest reliability - The degree to which test scores are consistent from one test
administration to the next
- Inter-method reliability - The degree to which test scores are consistent when there is a
variation in the methods or instruments used
- Internal consistency reliability - The consistency of results across items within a test

Regression to the mean - The phenomenon that if a variable is extreme on its first measurement, it will
tend to be closer to the average on its second measurementand if it is extreme on its second
measurement, it will tend to have been closer to the average on its first
Confounding variable - A variable that influences both the dependent variable and independent
variable causing a spurious association

Mediating variables - A variable that explains the relationship between the dependent variable and the
independent variable

Moderating variables - A third variable that affects the strength of the relationship between a
dependent and independent variable

Types of variables
- Ordinal - A categorical variable for which the possible values are ordered
- Dichotomous - A variable that has only two categories or levels
- Continuous - A variable that has an infinite number of possible values
- Nominal - A variable that has two or more categories without having any kind of natural order

Counterbalancing - A technique in experimental design that is used to avoid the introduction of

confounding variables

Types of control
- Vehicular control - A type of negative control used in clinical studies. The vehicle is the placebo.
- Positive control - Groups where a phenomenon is expected
- Negative control - Groups where no phenomenon is expected
- Comparison group - Used in qualitative studies where it is not feasible to use a true control
group; Provides a point of reference when analyzing the outcome of a certain group through
comparison

Confidence level - The frequency of possible confidence intervals that contain the true value of their
corresponding parameter; If confidence intervals are constructed using a given confidence level in an
infinite number of independent experiments, the proportion of those intervals that contain the true
value of the parameter will match the confidence level

Research biases
- Hindsight bias - The inclination, after an event has occurred, to see the event as having been
predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it
- Reconstructive bias - We may not remember as accurately when under high amounts of stress
- Attrition bias - Systematic differences between groups in withdrawals from a study that lead to
incomplete outcome data
- Social desirability bias - The tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner
that will be viewed favorably by others
- Selection bias - The bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in
such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample
obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed
- Subjective validation bias - Refers to when a person will consider a statement or another piece
of information to be correct if it has any personal meaning or significance to them
- Implicit bias - Refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and
decisions in an unconscious manner
- Cognitive bias - The systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment,
whereby inferences about other people and situations may be drawn in an illogical fashion
 - Hawthorne effect - The process where human subjects of an experiment change their behavior,
simply because they are being studied
- Rosenthal effect - The phenomenon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in
performance; Also called the pygmalion effect
- Placebo effect - A beneficial effect, produced by a placebo drug or treatment, that cannot be
attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's
belief in that treatment

Generalizability - The extension of research findings and conclusions from a study conducted on a
sample population to the population at large

Hills criteria for causality - A group of principles that are useful in establishing epidemiologic evidence
of a causal relationship between a presumed cause and an observed effect and have been widely used in
public health research
- Strength - A small association does not mean that there is not a causal effect, though the larger
the association, the more likely that it is causal; Effect size
- Consistency - Consistent findings observed by different persons in different places with different
samples strengthens the likelihood of an effect; Reproducibility
- Specificity - Causation is likely if there is a very specific population at a specific site and disease
with no other likely explanation
- Temporality - The effect has to occur after the cause
- Plausibility - A plausible mechanism between cause and effect is helpful
- Coherence - Coherence between epidemiological and laboratory findings increases the
likelihood of an effect
- Experiment - Occasionally it is possible to appeal to experimental evidence
- Alternative explanations - The effect of similar factors may be considered