IB Psychology

Acculturation is the process people go through when coming into contact with a new culture, which usually involves adaptation.

The process of psychological and cultural change that follows sustained contact between people from different cultural backgrounds. Individuals adapt to the norms, values, and behaviours of the host culture while negotiating which parts of their heritage culture to retain.

A brief electrical signal that travels down the axon of a neuron when it is activated.

Research comparing adopted children to their biological and adoptive relatives to separate genetic and environmental influences on behaviour.

A substance that mimics or enhances the activity of a neurotransmitter at its receptor.

A form of gender bias that exaggerates differences between men and women.

The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the "anchor") when making decisions, even if it is irrelevant or arbitrary.

Research that uses non-human animals as experimental subjects to investigate biological, behavioural, or psychological processes.

A substance that blocks or reduces the activity of a neurotransmitter at its receptor.

The obligation practitioners carry when psychological research is translated into real-world interventions.

A form of gender bias that hides or downplays real differences between men and women.

Bias is a systematic error that can distort the results of a study, leading to invalid conclusions.

A systematic distortion that pushes research findings in one direction.

A systematic error that skews results in a particular direction.

A situation where two correlated variables could each be the cause of the other, and the design cannot tell which.

Explaining behaviour by breaking it down into smaller biological components such as genes, neurotransmitters, or brain structures.

A relationship in which a change in one variable produces a change in another.

A relationship in which a change in the independent variable directly produces a change in the dependent variable.

Classical conditioning is a learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response.

This concept was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov in his famous experiments with dogs.

The idea that working memory has limited capacity, and learning is more effective when unnecessary demands are reduced.

A form of social influence where individuals change their behavior in response to a direct request from another person or group.

The probability that if one relative shows a trait, another relative will show it too.

A change in behaviour, attitude, or belief that results from real or imagined pressure from a group, even when no specific request or direct order has been made.

An unmeasured variable that influences both the proposed cause and the proposed effect, producing a spurious correlation.