Every subject or industry has a unique collection of subject-specific terms that people don’t commonly use in everyday life. For many, these terms can feel quite intimidating when they first start studying a subject.
In this article, we will break down some of the most commonly used terms in the psychology field to help introduce its specialised terminology.
What Is Psychology Terminology?
Psychology terminology consists of specific words or phrases that describe and analyse various aspects of the human mind and behaviour. Understanding psychology terminology is essential for understanding psychological research and the mental processes that psychology examines.
For the opportunity to learn and practise psychology terminology with experts in the field, browse our online Psychology courses.
Why Should High School Students Learn Psychology Terminology?
Building a strong foundation in psychology terminology helps you prepare for and pursue a career in the field. Since much of the existing psychological literature (even for beginners) incorporates psychology terminology, learning basic terms and phrases makes exploring the subject much more accessible.
I. Self-awareness and personal growth
Outside of the subject itself, learning psychology terminology assists in exploring and comprehending your own thoughts, emotions and behaviours. This fosters self-awareness, allowing you to recognise your thought processes and emotions, which is an essential skill in managing common struggles like stress and anxiety.
Additionally, understanding psychological concepts empowers you to make informed decisions for personal growth and wellbeing. For example, it enables you to identify and understand maladaptive thinking styles or uncomfortable emotions.
II. Improved communication and relationships
A solid understanding of psychology terminology creates a framework for understanding and empathising with others. Much of this terminology offers various ways to discuss thought processes and emotions, improving communication skills and self-expression.
Since psychology heavily focuses on interpersonal relationships and the study of social behaviours and cognition, learning about concepts like empathy can foster healthier and more meaningful connections with peers, family and friends.
III. Academic and career advantages
If you plan to pursue a career in psychology, starting early with learning the terminology is incredibly beneficial. It lays a solid foundation for a psychology degree and proves useful in other professions like marketing, education and healthcare. Even if psychology doesn’t become your chosen field, gaining knowledge of its terminology supports any role that requires an understanding of human behaviour.
A psychology degree leads to opportunities in a wide range of psychological and allied fields, including counselling and social work.
If you’re looking to get involved in the psychological field, take a look at our online Psychology internships.
IV. Critical thinking and problem solving
Dedicating time to learning psychology terminology develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills, especially since many concepts are debated and open to interpretation.
It also provides students with the tools to analyse complex situations, make informed decisions, and evaluate the validity of psychological research and claims. Since psychology applies to real-world situations, understanding its terminology enhances your ability to address real-world issues and challenges.
How Do I Learn Psychology Terminology?
Since psychology covers such a vast range of topics, its terminology can feel overwhelming and challenging to learn. However, several strategies can help make these terms easier to remember.
Psychological research on learning and memory demonstrates that repetition plays a crucial role in storing information long-term. Therefore, consistently reviewing and practising terminology reinforces retention. There are many approaches to learning terminology, so you can switch things up to keep it interesting.
You could use a combination of:
- Flashcards
- Quizzes
- Mnemonics
- Acronyms
- Group study
- Interactive apps and games
Give them each a try and see what works best for you.
Psychology Terminology for High School Students
Without further ado, let’s get into some key psychology terms.
Foundational terms
Let’s start with the basics.
Basic Psychological Concepts
Consciousness
Consciousness refers to one’s awareness of both their internal and external environments, including their own thoughts and feelings, and the sensory stimuli in the outside world. While this concept appears relatively simple to understand, there’s been ongoing debate over the exact nature of consciousness and how it developed. Although it’s an unlikely explanation (and cannot be scientifically tested), Jaynes’ theory of the bicameral mind provides an interesting perspective on the development of human consciousness.
Perception
Perception refers to the processing of information that our sense pick up, and includes processes of recognition, observation, discrimination and more. Notably, perception can sometimes be confused with sensation (which refers only to the picking up of stimuli via our senses), so it’s important to note that perception involves extra processing of the information, which is necessary for us to interpret the stimuli meaningfully.
Cognition
Cognition refers to all forms of processing that occur in order to understand the world, form memories, reason, come to decisions, solve problems and more.
Behaviourism
Behaviourism refers to a branch of psychology which suggests that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning, and that your experiences and interactions with the environment shape your thought processes. The beginnings of behaviourism are primarily traced back to Pavlov’s classic study of conditioning, where he conditioned a dog to salivate in response to a bell by pairing the bell and food together many times. Fun fact: while the paradigm is commonly described as using a bell, Pavlov did not actually use a bell…
Personality
Personality is a combination of characteristics used to describe a person which are relatively enduring throughout one’s life. There are a few different theories of the different aspects of personality, but the most commonly used model is the OCEAN model (openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism).
Attachment Theory
Attachment theory relates to the development of close emotional bonds with significant social others in one’s life, and describes this as a vital part of normative development.
Self-Actualisation
Self-actualisation refers to a process by which someone reaches their full-potential.
Hierarchy of Needs
The hierarchy of needs is a concept introduced by Maslow, which describes how one’s needs can be divided into different levels with each prior level needing to be filled before the next one. For example, this starts with physiological needs, such as food and water, followed by safety needs. Self-actualisation sits at the top of the hierarchy.
Psychological Research
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is what you think you’ll find from your research before you start. The type of hypothesis you form also determines the type of statistical test you run, depending on whether you simply state to expect to find a difference between the conditions of the study or whether you also include an expected direction of difference.
Experiment
Experiments are conducted by researchers to explore a psychological construct in a controlled way with manipulation of the concept of interest. Research is only considered an experiment when the researchers directly manipulate the conditions, otherwise it should be called a study.
Surveys
Surveys are when researchers collect, measure and analyse data from participants. This is usually done via interviews with the participants or by self-report questionnaires where participants tell the researcher their results.
Observational Study
An observational study is research which is conducted via passive observation of the behaviours of the participants, without any intervention or manipulation. This usually takes place in naturalistic contexts, ensuring that the behaviours observed reflect behaviours in real-life, everyday settings. However, it also naturally results in a lack of control, as researchers can’t interfere.
Control Group
A control group is a cohort of individuals where the independent variable is not manipulated or there’s an established manipulation for which we already know the effects. In essence, the control group is the group where no significant difference from normal is expected. These are especially important for studies testing interventions and many different types of control groups (with varying values and varying difficulties) can be used.
Experimental Group
An experimental group is the group of participants who experience the manipulation which is expected to alter or affect the examined construct. In most cases, a significant finding is reflected in a significant difference in the results of the control group and the experimental group.
Bias
Bias refers to a tendency of an individual or sample to favour one result over another. There are many different types of biases, such as response bias (a tendency for participants to respond in a particular way) and researcher bias, where the researcher’s expectations influence the findings. Bias can affect every stage of the study, including the design, participant recruitment, analysis and even the reporting of findings.
Correlation
Correlation is the degree to which two variables are linearly associated with each other. Importantly, you might hear the phrase ‘correlation does not equal causation’ quite frequently. This is a commonly identified limitation of correlational data as we cannot establish the underlying cause of the correlation. We don’t know if it’s changes in one variable that lead to changes in the other variable or the other way around, or even if it’s explained by another (unmeasured) variable.
Placebo Effect
The placebo effect is a phenomenon wherein a clinically significant effect is seen in response to an inactive substance or a nonspecific treatment. This is especially important in trials which test the effectiveness of new treatments.
Case Study
A case study is an in-depth investigation of a single individual, family or event, often involving the collection of a variety of different types of data, including psychological, physiological, biographical, environmental and more. These are often used for neuropsychological cases, such as when someone has experienced brain damage. Conducting a case study on such patients enables us to explore the effects of a particular type of brain damage without inducing that damage experimentally.
Specialised terms
Emotional and Mental Health
Emotional Intelligence
A subset of intelligence, emotional intelligence refers to one’s ability to process emotional information and to use it in reasoning. This includes the ability to accurately perceive emotions and to understand emotional language, as well as to regulate one’s own and other people’s emotions. However, the presence of this as a factor that’s separable from intelligence in general is relatively disputed.
Stress
Stress is a normal physiological and psychological response to a stressor (usually a negative, anxiety-inducing cue either in the external environment or within one’s internal environment). It can manifest physiologically (fidgeting, accelerated speech etc.) but also psychologically, often introducing negative biases to thinking processes. While stress is a normal response in some cases, excessive stress can have long-lasting impacts on an individual.
Anxiety
Anxiety is a physiological and psychological response to a perceived threat, often involving a physiological readiness to flee or fight. When exploring anxiety in emotional and mental health, there’s some ambiguity when the word is used alone. Psychologists often distinguish between trait anxiety, which refers to one’s tendency towards experiencing anxiety, and state anxiety, which refers to the feelings of anxiety in a particular time. Notably, when anxiety is repeatedly experienced and significantly negatively impacts one’s life, then it might be considered an anxiety disorder.
Depression
Depression is a negative emotional state that interferes with daily life. It’s usually associated with large changes (increase or decrease) in sleep and/or eating, lack of motivation and energy, difficulty concentrating and more. As with many mental health difficulties, the line between depression being considered a normal response and it being considered a disorder is the extent to which it prevents the individual from living their regular life.
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem refers to how positive one’s perception of themself is, particularly in terms of their accomplishments and capabilities.
Mood Disorder
Mood disorders are a mental health condition that is primarily characterised by long periods of intense emotional states, and includes both positive and negative emotions.
Coping Strategies
Coping strategies are actions or thoughts utilised in a stressful or unpleasant situation, with the goal of reducing or modifying one’s reaction to the situation. These are a common feature of therapies, with therapists often teaching clients different coping strategies to deal with negative emotions in everyday life.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an intervention or strategy that can be used to increase awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings, with the goal of reducing one’s stress in a situation and avoiding automatic destructive responses that many people with a mental health difficulty might default to in a stressful environment.
Psychosomatic
Psychosomatic relates to the interaction between the mind and the body. A psychosomatic disorder refers to a condition where someone experiences physical symptoms, which seem to be caused by psychological reasons rather than a physical medical cause.
Trauma
Trauma is any disturbing experience that results in significant fear, helplessness, dissociation and other intense disruptive feelings in other situations, which may resemble the initial experience in some way. Individuals might also experience flashbacks following a traumatic experience. However, these are all normal responses to a traumatic event and would not be considered a disorder (PTSD) unless they persist beyond a certain amount of time after the event. One prominent cognitive theory of PTSD suggests that it is the result of the memory of the event not being sufficiently integrated into the catalogue of memories and is therefore triggered whenever a similar stimulus is experienced.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a psychological service that uses communication and interaction to assess, diagnose and treat any mental health difficulties.
Stigma
A stigma is a commonly held untrue attitude towards an individual, usually based on perceived mental, physical or social deficiencies. Negative stigmas are often experienced by people with mental health difficulties and can be an immense barrier to seeking treatment.
Social and Interpersonal
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand a person from their point of view, which can involve vicariously experiencing the other person’s thoughts and feelings. Studies have indicated that empathy is significantly greater when one relates to an individual and greater empathy can also be a driver to increased helping behaviours.
Communication
Communication is the transmission of information, which can be through verbal or nonverbal processes. It’s a vital aspect of human life as it underlies all social and interpersonal interactions. Interestingly, the exploration of communication in different species has led to suggestions of what makes a human ‘an intelligent species’ compared to other animals. Some have suggested that humans’ abilities to communicate about future possibilities and past events (which many animals don’t seemingly do) plays a key part in this, as it indicates the ability to have cognitions about the future and the past.
Assertiveness
Assertiveness is an adaptive style of communication where individuals directly express their thoughts, feelings and needs in a respectful way.
Stereotype
A stereotype is a set of beliefs about a group of people, or a social category, so that the traits held within the stereotype are generalised to every individual of that social group. They can be both positive or negative, though there is a greater tendency for them to be negative.
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is a process by which individuals’ behaviours and thoughts are influenced by those of other individuals within their peer group (e.g. people of the same age or from the same school). The general increase in peer pressure, and in giving into peer pressure during adolescence, has been associated with the increase in mental health conditions seen in adolescence, particularly in anxiety and depression.
Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution is the reduction of friction between individuals or groups. There are a few different theories on effective strategies for conflict resolution, with some suggesting that working together towards a shared goal is the most effective method. Others suggest that simply increasing contact between individuals or groups will lead to resolution of conflict.
Prejudice
A prejudice is a negative attitude held toward another person or group before having personally engaged with that person or group. This includes an emotional component, a cognitive component (which relates to stereotypes held about the group) and a behavioural component if it results in negative behaviours like discrimination and violence.
Norms
Norms are a standard behaviour or thought process considered to be typical for a particular group. Social norms underlie many interpersonal behaviours, as many individuals will conform (act in line with) the social norms of their group to feel like they belong to the group as much as possible.
Social Identity
A social identity is a part of one’s self-concept that is the result of the social groups they are a member of. An individual has many different social identities depending on context. For example, one might have a social identity that relates to the school they go to and also one that relates to the people they do extracurricular activities with. Striving to consolidate one’s position within a social group has been suggested to underlie violence between groups.
Group Dynamics
Group dynamics are the processes that occur within social groups, which affect how people are affiliated with each other, how they communicate, make decisions and more. It also includes the patterns of leadership within the group and can be used to explain conflict within a social group.
Learning and Memory
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is a type of learning where repeated pairings of a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) with a stimulus that elicits a response (the unconditioned stimulus) leads to the generation of the response when the neutral stimulus is presented. The classic example of this is Pavlov’s dog who salivated in response to a bell.
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning is also known as instrumental learning. This refers to a type of learning (in this case, an acquisition of an association) wherein response is required to achieve the outcome. An example would be if a mouse learnt to pull a lever to get food every time a light appears.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the psychological state that occurs when one holds two or more contradicting thoughts about a single subject, resulting in a motivational drive to reduce the dissonance. For example, if one holds the belief that smoking is bad for you, but also smokes, they might reduce the dissonance between these cognitive elements by convincing themselves that smoking isn’t that bad for you or by stopping smoking. The striving to reduce cognitive dissonance can be a cause of behaviour change.
Divergent Thinking
Divergent thinking is a way of thinking that differs from the strategies that would commonly be used to reach a decision or solve a problem.
Retrieval
Retrieval is the process where a stored memory is recovered, often from the long-term memory. Whenever you are recalling something that has happened, or something you have read (such as the start of this article…), you’re utilising the memory process of retrieval.
Schemas
Schemas are a cognitive structure that holds one’s knowledge about an entity or situation, including the qualities and the relationships it has with other entities.
Encoding
Encoding is the process by which sensory information is converted into a form which can be processed and saved in memory.
Repression
Repression is a protective mechanism wherein painful or unwanted thoughts and emotions are prevented from coming into consciousness, though they can continue to cause negative effects in unconscious domains.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement occurs when a positive consequence (i.e. a reward) is given in response to an action, which in turn increases the probability that one will engage in that action again in order to receive further reward.
Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement is when a negative consequence (i.e. a punishment) is given in response to an action, thus decreasing the likelihood that one will do that action again to avoid further punishment.
In Summary
While it may feel intimidating, starting with basic terms that apply to all branches of psychology can provide you with a general understanding of the field and help you better comprehend any further exploration you pursue.
Once you identify the area of psychology that interests you the most, delving into more specialised terms can enhance your understanding. However, don’t feel pressured to learn them all at once! You’ll inevitably encounter most of them many times and in different contexts, which will help you develop a well-rounded understanding of each term and the psychological construct it represents.
With consistent learning and use of psychology terms (even in your everyday conversations), it becomes relatively easy to build a strong foundation and deep understanding of psychology.
By Kylie Li
Kylie is reading Experimental Psychology at Queen’s College, University of Oxford. She is most interested in developmental and cognitive psychology, and how these can be applied to the education system.
