IB Psychology Glossary
Key Studies and Theories
Paul Broca – Broca’s Aphasia (1861)
Carl Wernicke – Wernicke’s Aphasia (1874)
Frederic Barlett – schema theory
– Reliability of the memory (1932) [a Native American legend story]
Anderson and Pichert – Schema theory (1978) [The participants heard a story and were asked to read the story from the point of view of an either house-buyer or from the point of view of the burglar.]
Atkinson and Shiffrin – Working memory model (1968)
Baddeley and Hitch – Multi-store memory model (1974)
Milner and Scoville – The case study of HM (1953)
Cole and Scribner – Cross-cultural research (1974) [They compared recall of the word series in the US and among Kpelle people of rural Liberia.]
Loftus and Palmer – Reliability of eyewitness testimony (1974)
Brown and Kulik – Flashbulb theory (1977)
Speisman et al. – Lazarus’ appraisal theory (1964) [A film about genital surgery]
Henri Tajfel – Social identity theory (1971) [Kandinsky vs. Klee]
Albert Bandura – Social learning theory (1961) [Bobo-doll experiment]
Huesmann and Eron – Social learning theory in real life (1986) [Longitudinal study discovering the correlation between the number of hours of violence watched on television and the level of aggression demonstrated in children.]
Robert Cialdini – compliance techniques
– low-balling (1974) [They asked a class of first-year psychology students to volunteer to be part of a study on cognition that would meet at 7am.]
– door-in-the-face technique (1975) [Posing as representatives of the “Country Youth Counseling Program”]
Dickerson et al. – foot-in-the-door technique (1992) [conserving water in the dormitory showers]
Solomon Asch – conformity (1951) [Asch experiment]
Markus and Kitayama – individualism/collectivism (1991) [Differences between Japanese and US cultures]
Richard Dawkins – Kin selection theory (1976) [selfish gene]
Axelrod and Hamilton – Reciprocal altruism theory (1981) [prisoner’s dilemma]
Batson et al. – empathy-altruism model (1981)
Latané and Darley – bystanderism
Piliavin et al. – arousal-cost-reward model (1969) [train study]
Graves and Graves – cross-cultural research (1985)
Carl Wernicke – Wernicke’s Aphasia (1874)
Frederic Barlett – schema theory
– Reliability of the memory (1932) [a Native American legend story]
Anderson and Pichert – Schema theory (1978) [The participants heard a story and were asked to read the story from the point of view of an either house-buyer or from the point of view of the burglar.]
Atkinson and Shiffrin – Working memory model (1968)
Baddeley and Hitch – Multi-store memory model (1974)
Milner and Scoville – The case study of HM (1953)
Cole and Scribner – Cross-cultural research (1974) [They compared recall of the word series in the US and among Kpelle people of rural Liberia.]
Loftus and Palmer – Reliability of eyewitness testimony (1974)
Brown and Kulik – Flashbulb theory (1977)
Speisman et al. – Lazarus’ appraisal theory (1964) [A film about genital surgery]
Henri Tajfel – Social identity theory (1971) [Kandinsky vs. Klee]
Albert Bandura – Social learning theory (1961) [Bobo-doll experiment]
Huesmann and Eron – Social learning theory in real life (1986) [Longitudinal study discovering the correlation between the number of hours of violence watched on television and the level of aggression demonstrated in children.]
Robert Cialdini – compliance techniques
– low-balling (1974) [They asked a class of first-year psychology students to volunteer to be part of a study on cognition that would meet at 7am.]
– door-in-the-face technique (1975) [Posing as representatives of the “Country Youth Counseling Program”]
Dickerson et al. – foot-in-the-door technique (1992) [conserving water in the dormitory showers]
Solomon Asch – conformity (1951) [Asch experiment]
Markus and Kitayama – individualism/collectivism (1991) [Differences between Japanese and US cultures]
Richard Dawkins – Kin selection theory (1976) [selfish gene]
Axelrod and Hamilton – Reciprocal altruism theory (1981) [prisoner’s dilemma]
Batson et al. – empathy-altruism model (1981)
Latané and Darley – bystanderism
Piliavin et al. – arousal-cost-reward model (1969) [train study]
Graves and Graves – cross-cultural research (1985)
General Vocabulary
Addiction: A persistent dependence on a behaviour or substance.
Altruism: Altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor.
Behaviour: The activity of an organism including body movements, physiological and cognitive processes.
Covert observation: In covert observation the observed group may or may not be aware of the presence of the researcher but they are not made aware that their behaviour is being observed.
Empirical: A term used in relation to studies in which data has been gathered, recorded and analysed.
Etiology: The cause of a disease or abnormal condition.
Inductive analysis: Treatment of qualitative data in which theory and hypotheses are derived from the data rather than established before the data is gathered.
Informed consent: Informed consent is obtained only where participants are fully aware of the nature and aims of the study in which they are participating.
Narrative interviews: Narrative interviews are used to obtain the stories people employ to interpret their lives and the world around them. It is the ways that people organize and make connections between events that are of interest to the narrative interviewer.
Overt Observation: In overt observation the observed group is aware of the presence of the researcher and that their behaviour is being observed.
Postmodern Transcription: A method of transcribing recorded interviews including the words, volume, pitch, speed, pauses, facial expressions, gestures and other non-verbal communication.
Reflexive: Reflexivity involves the researcher documenting his or her beliefs, attitudes, values, theoretical position and reactions to the object of study and assessing the likely impact of these on the collection and analysis of data.
Traditional transcription: A term embracing theories and empirical studies within psychology. A method of transcribing recorded interviews including the words only.
Altruism: Altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor.
Behaviour: The activity of an organism including body movements, physiological and cognitive processes.
Covert observation: In covert observation the observed group may or may not be aware of the presence of the researcher but they are not made aware that their behaviour is being observed.
Empirical: A term used in relation to studies in which data has been gathered, recorded and analysed.
Etiology: The cause of a disease or abnormal condition.
Inductive analysis: Treatment of qualitative data in which theory and hypotheses are derived from the data rather than established before the data is gathered.
Informed consent: Informed consent is obtained only where participants are fully aware of the nature and aims of the study in which they are participating.
Narrative interviews: Narrative interviews are used to obtain the stories people employ to interpret their lives and the world around them. It is the ways that people organize and make connections between events that are of interest to the narrative interviewer.
Overt Observation: In overt observation the observed group is aware of the presence of the researcher and that their behaviour is being observed.
Postmodern Transcription: A method of transcribing recorded interviews including the words, volume, pitch, speed, pauses, facial expressions, gestures and other non-verbal communication.
Reflexive: Reflexivity involves the researcher documenting his or her beliefs, attitudes, values, theoretical position and reactions to the object of study and assessing the likely impact of these on the collection and analysis of data.
Traditional transcription: A term embracing theories and empirical studies within psychology. A method of transcribing recorded interviews including the words only.