Comprehensive Psychology Lecture Review: Research Methods, Development, Neuroanatomy, Social, and Applied Disciplines

A comprehensive vocabulary review deck covering psychological science research methods, developmental milestones and theories, functional neuroanatomy and pharmacology, social psychology dynamics, abnormal psychology and classification, forensic practices, and clinical neuropsychology.

Null Hypothesis

A hypothesis stating that there is no real effect or no difference between the variables or groups being tested.

Alternate Hypothesis

A hypothesis stating that a true effect or true difference does exist between conditions or groups.

$P$-Value

The probability of obtaining the observed study result, or something more extreme, assuming that the null hypothesis is true.

P-Hacking

A practice where a researcher explores multiple ways of analysing data—such as dropping variables or excluding participants—and only reports the version yielding a statistically significant result ($p < .05$).

HARKing

Hypothesising After the Results are Known; forming or altering a hypothesis after viewing the data, then presenting it as if it were predicted in advance.

The File Drawer Problem

The bias in published literature occurring when researchers publish only studies with statistically significant results while shelving studies with null findings.

Pre-Registration

Documenting one's hypotheses and planned statistical analyses ahead of time with a public timestamp so that deviations from the original plan must be declared and justified.

Registered Reports

A publishing model where journals review a study's methodology and planned analyses before data collection begins, agreeing in advance to publish the findings regardless of the outcome.

Psychologist (Australia)

A legally protected title in Australia restricted to individuals registered with the Psychology Board of Australia under AHPRA and the National Law.

Area of Practice Endorsement

A formal notation on an Australian psychologist's registration indicating completion of Board-approved advanced education and supervised practice in a specialised area, such as Clinical Psychology.

Psychological Assessment

The process of gathering and interpreting information from clinical interviews, behavioural observations, self-reports, and standardised tests to evaluate psychological functioning, needs, and risks.

Teratogens

Environmental agents—including radiation, toxic chemicals, alcohol, nicotine, and recreational drugs—that disrupt normal embryonic or fetal development.

Equilibration

Piaget's proposed mechanism of cognitive development involving the continuous balancing of current understandings with new environmental experiences via assimilation and accommodation.

Assimilation

In Piaget's cognitive theory, the process of integrating new information or experiences into an existing mental framework (schema).

Accommodation

In Piaget's cognitive theory, the process of altering an existing schema or creating a new schema because current understanding cannot account for new experiences.

Object Permanence

The cognitive understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be directly seen, heard, or touched, typically emerging during the sensorimotor stage.

Theory of Mind

The capacity to understand that other individuals possess their own unique beliefs, desires, thoughts, and perspectives that differ from one's own and drive their behaviour.

Moral Disengagement

Bandura's term for the cognitive mechanisms through which individuals deactivate internal self-regulatory moral controls, allowing them to engage in harmful behaviours without self-censure.

Gender Constancy

The developmental milestone, usually reached between ages 5 and 7, where a child realizes that gender remains unchanged regardless of modifications in clothing, hair, or activities.

Imprinting

An innate, rapid attachment process occurring during a critical period shortly after hatching, documented by Konrad Lorenz in bird species such as geese.

Secure Base

In attachment theory, the role provided by an attachment figure that gives an infant the confidence and foundation to explore the external environment.

Safe Haven

In attachment theory, the comfort, safety, and emotional refuge a child returns to when feeling frightened, distressed, ill, or fatigued.

Strange Situation Procedure

A laboratory assessment created by Mary Ainsworth involving a sequence of separations and reunions with a caregiver to evaluate an infant's attachment classification.

Authoritative Parenting

A parenting style characterised by high warmth and high control, utilizing reasoned discipline, clear boundaries, and responsive communication.

Authoritarian Parenting

A parenting style defined by high control and low warmth, demanding strict obedience through punitive enforcement without explanation or emotional validation.

Permissive Parenting

A parenting style characterised by high warmth and low control, creating a peer-like relationship with minimal rules, demands, or discipline.

Uninvolved Parenting

A parenting style characterised by low warmth and low control, presenting as emotionally detached, non-responsive, and neglectful.

Emotion Coaching

John Gottman's five-step parenting practice of attending to, validating, labeling, and guiding a child through difficult emotions while establishing behavioural limits.

Social Clock

Bernice Neugarten's concept describing cultural expectations regarding the appropriate, normative timing of significant life milestones within a given society.

Ageism

Systematic stereotyping, prejudice, and discriminatory practices targeted against people simply because they are old.

Grey Matter

Neural tissue within the brain and spinal cord consisting primarily of neuronal cell bodies, dendrites, and short-range connections where information processing occurs.

White Matter

Nervous system tissue composed of long-range myelinated axons that facilitate communication across distant regions of the central nervous system.

Somatic Nervous System

The branch of the peripheral nervous system consisting of cranial and spinal nerves that transmits sensory data to the CNS and conducts voluntary motor commands to skeletal muscles.

Autonomic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system responsible for regulating involuntary biological processes—including heart rate, respiration, and digestion—to sustain homeostasis.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The branch of the autonomic nervous system that mobilises energy in stressful situations by raising heart rate, dilating pupils, and shunting blood to muscles.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The 'rest-and-digest' branch of the autonomic nervous system that lowers heart rate, stimulates digestion, and supports physical restoration and energy conservation.

Resting Membrane Potential

The steady electrical voltage across an inactive neuron's membrane, typically measured at $-70\,\text{mV}$, maintained by the unequal distribution of ions like $\text{Na}^+$ and $\text{K}^+$.

Action Potential

A brief, all-or-nothing reversal of membrane potential propagating down an axon when depolarization reaches the activation threshold of roughly $-55\,\text{mV}$.

Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential (EPSP)

A localized, graded depolarization of the postsynaptic membrane that shifts the neuron's membrane potential closer to the threshold required to trigger an action potential.

Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potential (IPSP)

A localized, graded hyperpolarization of the postsynaptic membrane that shifts the neuron's membrane potential further away from the firing threshold.

Saltatory Conduction

The rapid jumping mode of nerve impulse transmission from one node of Ranvier to the next along a myelinated axon.

Ionotropic Receptors

Fast-acting, ligand-gated ion channels that open directly upon neurotransmitter binding to allow the immediate passage of specific ions across the membrane.

Metabotropic Receptors

G-protein coupled receptors that trigger energy-dependent intracellular signaling cascades or indirectly alter ion channel conductances, yielding slower and prolonged effects.

Agonist

A substance or exogenous ligand that binds to a neurotransmitter receptor and activates it, producing a physiological effect equivalent to the natural endogenous transmitter.

Antagonist

A chemical or drug that binds to a neurotransmitter receptor without activating it, blocking the endogenous ligand from initiating its action.

Construal

An individual's subjective interpretation and personal comprehension of their social environment, determining their emotional and behavioral responses.

Hindsight Bias

The cognitive tendency to believe, after an outcome has become known, that one foresaw or would have predicted the event all along.

Schema

An organised mental structure containing knowledge, expectations, and associations that helps individuals process, filter, and recall social information efficiently.

Cognitive Dissonance

The psychological tension experienced when an individual simultaneously holds contradictory beliefs or acts in a manner that contradicts their self-concept.

Informational Social Influence

Conformity stemming from the belief that others possess more accurate information or understanding of an ambiguous situation than oneself.

Normative Social Influence

Conformity driven by the desire to gain social approval, fit in with others, and avoid interpersonal rejection or ostracism.

Deindividuation

The reduction of normal behavioral restraints and self-awareness that occurs when individuals become submerged in a group or crowd setting.

Psychopathology

The scientific discipline examining psychological disorders, including the investigation of symptom etiology, contributing biopsychosocial factors, and evidence-based treatments.

Diathesis-Stress Model

A conceptual framework explaining that a psychological disorder arises when an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) is triggered by environmental or life stressors.

Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory of Personality

A structural model of personality proposing that human behaviour is driven by conflicts among three levels of consciousness and mental structures: the primitive Id, the realistic Ego, and the moral Superego.

Classical Conditioning

A form of learning demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov in which an originally neutral stimulus becomes paired with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a conditioned response.

Skinner's Reinforcement Theory

An operant conditioning framework categorizing environmental consequences into reinforcement (increasing behaviour) and punishment (decreasing behaviour) via the addition or removal of stimuli.

Positive Reinforcement

The process of introducing a desirable or rewarding stimulus immediately following a behaviour to increase the likelihood of that behaviour reoccurring.

Negative Reinforcement

The process of removing or terminating an aversive stimulus following a target behaviour, which strengthens and increases future occurrences of that behaviour.

Positive Punishment

The presentation of an aversive or unpleasant stimulus immediately following an undesired behaviour in order to reduce the frequency of that behaviour.

Negative Punishment

The removal or withdrawal of a pleasant or rewarding stimulus following a behaviour to reduce the likelihood of that behaviour continuing.

Forensic Psychology

A specialized field of psychology applying clinical assessment, psychological research, and therapeutic principles to legal and correctional systems.

Static Factors

Unchangeable historical characteristics (such as age at first offence or previous criminal convictions) used in forensic risk tools to establish baseline recidivism probability.

Dynamic Factors

Malleable characteristics and circumstances (such as substance abuse, antisocial peers, or emotional control) that can change over time and serve as targets for rehabilitation.

Clinical Neuropsychology

The branch of psychology dedicated to evaluating and managing how neurological injuries, conditions, and brain dysfunctions impact cognitive, affective, and behavioural abilities.

Aphasia

An acquired impairment of language production or comprehension resulting from brain injury, commonly following a stroke within the middle cerebral artery distribution.

The Cognitive Pyramid

A hierarchical framework in neuropsychology depicting how executive functions and new learning rely directly on underlying foundational capacities like processing speed, attention, and baseline physical/emotional factors.

Collaborative Therapeutic Neuropsychological Assessment (CTNA)

A client-centred model of neuropsychological practice that uses the assessment process collaboratively as a therapeutic intervention to foster self-awareness, alignment of goals, and rehabilitation engagement.