OCR GCSE Criminal Psychology

A collection of vocabulary flashcards based on key concepts in psychology, covering terms related to behavior, personality traits, research methods, and experimental design.

Nurture

Refers to behaviour that people learn through experience.

Criminal Personality

A relatively fixed set of traits associated with people who commit crimes.

Extroversion

A trait measuring how outgoing a person is.

Reticular Activating System (RAS)

Mediates consciousness and alertness through signals sent around the CNS.

Neuroticism

A trait measuring how anxious a person is.

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

System responsible for unconscious control of the body's internal organs.

Limbic System

A neural network which controls emotional expression.

Psychoticism

A trait measuring how aggressive and impulsive someone is.

Dopaminergic Neurons

Nerve cells which produce the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Independent Variable

Something the researcher changes or manipulates.

Dependent Variable

Something that is measured to see a change.

Extraneous Variable

All other variables which could affect the result of an experiment if not controlled.

Ecological Validity

How far a research setting reflects real life.

Construct Validity

How far research is measuring what it is claiming to measure.

Lab Experiment

An experiment which is carried out in a controlled setting.

Field Experiment

An experiment carried out in a real or natural environment.

Sample

A group selected from a target population for study.

Independent Measures Design

An experimental design where participants are different in each condition of an experiment.

Repeated Measures Design

An experimental design where participants take part in every condition of an experiment.