Bartlett Test of Sphericity

A test which can show whether data are suitable for factor analysis, but which is overly sensitive to sample size.

Behavioural Genetics (or Behaviour Genetics)

A range of methods (e.g., twin studies and adoption studies) where the test scores of people who differ in their degree of genetic relatedness or similarity of family environment are analysed to show the importance of genetic, family and extra-family influences on a trait. 

Behavioural Approach System

Part of the conceptual nervous system (cns) in Gray’s theory of personality, the BAS is the system that seeks out reward.

Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS)

Part of the conceptual nervous system (cns) in Gray’s theory of personality, the BIS involves choosing between several different courses of action and may involve inhibiting the Behavioural Approach System and the Fight-Flight-Freeze System.

Bias

In psychometrics, bias occurs where a test systematically over- or under-estimates the true scores of a particular category of people.

Big Five model of personality

One of several models of personality, such as that developed by Costa & McCrea which measures Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Neuroticism and Agreeableness.

Bloated Specific

Cattell’s term for a factor that emerges from a set of items which are all highly similar in terms of content. Hence if a person is behaving consistently they have no choice but to answer all the items identically. A single item is bloated up and appears as a factor.  It should arguably not be interpreted as a personality trait because of its extreme narrowness of focus.

Boredom Susceptibility

A facet of Zuckerman’s sensation seeking trait.

Bottom-up approach

Gathering data and analysing it to develop a theoretical model, as with Cattell’s personality sphere: the opposite of the top-down approach where the theory comes first.

Chain-P technique

An extension of P-technique for discovering mood and motivational states, it is similar to P-technique but uses data from more than one person.

Circadian Rhythms

Approx. 24-hour shifts in mood, thought to be determined by biological factors.

Circular definition

Where a trait is inferred from regularities in behaviour, and then used to explain that behaviour. E.g. inferring that a person does not give to charity because of their meanness, and then using meanness as an ‘explanation’ of why they do not donate to charity.

Classical item analysis

Refining items in a scale by examining their correlations with the total score and eliminating items with small correlations.  This generally improves the reliability of a scale.

Client-centred therapy

A method of therapy used by Carl Rogers in which people talk about how they view themselves and others in their life.

cns

See conceptual nervous system

CNS

The central nervous system, comprising the brain and spinal cord.

Coefficient Alpha

A reliability coefficient which, if the items are properly sampled, indicates how closely items in a test reflect the scores which people would have obtained if they were given every item which could conceivably be written to measure a trait.

Cognitive ability

See ability.

Cognitive Growth Curve

Graph showing how the level of cognitive abilities (e.g., the score on some ability test) varies with age.

Common Environment

The environment shared by a group of people, which is assumed to influence them all in a similar way: e.g. parental behaviours when children grow up. An important aspect of behaviour genetics

Common factor

Often abbreviated to “factor” it represents a group of variables which tend to vary together and which may thus have a common cause.

Communality

In factor analysis, the sum of the squared loadings for a variable.  It shows how much of that variable’s variance is explained by the common factors.

Component Analysis

See Principal Components Analysis.

Componential Analysis

A technique devised by Robert Sternberg for identifying how long a person to perform various low-level cognitive operations.  The componential sub-theory is a part of the triarchic theory of ability.

Conceptual nervous system (cns)

In Gray’s personality theory, the Behavioural Inhibition System, Behavioural Activation System and the Fight-Flight-Freeze-System.

Concurrent validity

Establishing whether a test measures what it claims to measure by correlating it with other tests, and checking that these correlations are in line with theory.

Conguence

In Rogers’ theory, this term (also known as “genuineness”) refers to the client’s impression that the counsellor is “being themselves”, and not acting a part or giving standard, pre-prepared answers.

Contextual subtheory

Part of Sternberg’s theory of intelligence, it argues that practical intelligence (‘being ‘street smart’) is (a) important and (b) different from general intelligence.

Coefficient alpha

A widely used statistic which can indicate how closely scores on a test correlate with the scores that a person would have obtained if they had been given every item which could possibly be written to measure a particular trait. However this only holds if the items in the test are randomly sampled from the domain and are independent of each other.

Confirmatory bias

The tendency to notice information which agrees with one’s beliefs, and the failure to notice contradictory information.

Confirmatory factor analysis

A statistical technique which tests whether a hypothesised factor model fits a new set of data.

Conscientiousness

One of the Big Five personality traits developed by Costa & McCrae. Conscientious individuals are self-disciplined, methodical, and dutiful.

Conservatism

A belief in conventional morality, traditional values etc. Similar to Authoritarianism.

Conspection

A test has high conspection if two people can score it identically. Multiple-choice tests will show good conspection: projective tests will rarely do so.

Content validity

Where a test comprises items drawn from some clearly defined universe such that a test that comprises a sample of these items must, by definition, be valid. More useful for attainment tests than ability or personality tests in practice.

Contextual sub-theory

An aspect of Sternberg’s triarchic theory which views adapting oneself to one’s environment (and vice versa) as an aspect of intelligence: street-smartness.

Continuity Hypothesis

The proposal that severe psychological disorders such as schizophrenia only represent one end of a continuum; ‘normal’ people may show milder manifestations of these conditions which involve the same underlying biological/cognitive/developmental/social processes.

Convergent validity

A form of concurrent validity where scores on a test correlate with a variable which they should theoretically be related (e.g. another test measuring the same trait). See also Divergent Validity.

Coping strategies

Cognitive strategies for reducing the emotional impact of stressful events.

Corpus callosum

A bundle of nerve fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain.

Corrected item-total correlation

The correlation between an item and the sum of the (scored) other items in a scale, used as part of classical item analysis.

Correlation

A number between -1 and +1 showing the extent to which one variable is inversely-proportional or proportional to another, a correlation of zero implying no relationship.

Cortex

The area of the brain just under the top, sides, front and back of the skull.

Criterion keying

A method of item analysis where items are retained if they relate to some external criterion, such as job performance.

Crystallized intelligence

Crystallized intelligence, Gc, is a second-order ability factor identified by Cattell amongst others. It indicates performance at tasks that are taught at school – e.g. language. Thus poor schooling will affect Gc, but not Gf.

Dark triad

Psychopathy, Narcissism and Machavellianism

Defence Mechanisms

In Freudian theory, these are unconscious cognitive operations which strive to keep the contents of the id out of consciousness.

Defensive Distance

In response sensitivity theory a measure of the perceived intensity of threat: the distance at which an avoidance response is made in reinforcement sensitivity theory.

Depth Psychology

Any personality theory which stresses the importance of unconscious factors – e.g. the Freudian id or Jung’s collective unconscious.

Dichotomous variable

Any variable which can have just two variables – e.g., sex, or whether an ability test item is answered correctly or incorrectly.

Differential Item Functioning

A method of detecting bias using item response theory. It shows whether a test item is easier for members of one group than another and whether this is the case for all ability levels or for only some. The technique can also be applied to scores from personality tests.

Direct Oblimin

A widely used method of oblique rotation in factor analysis.

Distractor

In multiple-choice ability tests, a distractor is one of the “wrong” alternative answers

Divergent validity

A form of concurrent validity where a test does not show substantial correlations with another measure with which it is not expected to correlate. See also convergent validity. 

Domain-sampling model

A model which views items in a test as being a random sample of all items that could conceivably have been written to measure the trait. It has major implications for the interpretation of coefficient alpha.

dR (Differential R) technique

A variant of factor analysis which finds mood states.  It involves giving a large sample of people a questionnaire or test measuring states on two occasions.  The difference between their scores on each item are then factor analysed.

DSM-5

The most recent version of the American Psychiatric Association’s ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual’, which is used by psychiatrists to diagnose psychiatric disorders.  It lays out which symptoms characterise each disorder, and which of these must appear together in order for a particular diagnosis to be made.

Egalitarian fallacy

The unsubstantiated belief that any differences in mean scores of various groups (e.g. males/females) must be attributed to flawed (biased) tests rather than representing a genuine difference.

Ego

The conscious part of the mind in Freud’s theory of personality.

Eigenvalue

A statistic produced by factor analysis software, showing the sum of the squared factor loadings - and hence the variance explained by a factor

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

A technique for recording and analysing electrical activity in the brain – usually in the cortex – by affixing electrodes to the scalp.

Element

In Kelly’s theory, an element is a person whose behaviour is to be understood and predicted using personal constructs.

Elementary Cognitive Tasks

JB Carroll’s term for tasks thought to represent very simple cognitive operations (e.g. retrieval of the meaning of a symbol from iconic storage) the duration of which might be linked to performance on tests of cognitive ability.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

The study of individual differences in processing of emotional material (e.g. recognising and reacting one’s own or others’ emotional states). It is normally divided into Ability-EI and trait-EI.

Emotional stability

Low Neuroticism.

Emotions

Feelings which are similar to moods.  Some theorists argue that they differ from them with respect to intensity, relatedness to life-events, and duration.

Empathy

Being able to understand, perhaps experience, another person’s emotional state, and reflect this back to them.

Environment

In behaviour-genetics,the influence of anything other than genes on behaviour. See shared environment, unique environment.

Ergs

Biological drives (e.g. hunger, sex) in Cattell’s theory of motivation.

Eros

One of two major drives in Freud’s theory, eros is the drive for survival and propagation.

Eugenics

The proposal that humans should be selectively bred to enhance certain traits such as intelligence, or to reduce the incidence of other traits or genetically-influenced illnesses.

Evoked potentials

See Auditory evoked potentials

Experience seeking

One of the facets of sensation seeking, according to Zuckerman. It involves doing new things and eschewing routine.

Experiential subtheory

Part of Sternberg’s triarchic theory of abilities. It considers how well people adapt to novel tasks and automate cognitive processes.

Exploratory factor analysis

See Factor analysis

External bias

A method of detecting whether tests are unfairly harder for members of one group than another by using regression to check whether test scores lead to the same prediction of performance for each of the two groups.

Extraversion

Also “Extroversion”. A personality trait, the opposite of Introversion. Extraverts tend to be sociable, assertive, cheerful and optimistic.

EPQ-R

Eysenck Personality Questionnaire – Revised. Widely used personality questionnaire assessing extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism. It also features a lie scale to detect dissimulation.

Executive functioning

Cognitive functions such as working memory, response inhibition, attention etc.

Extrinsic motivation

Doing something because it helps achieve some long term goal, rather than because it is enjoyable.

Face validity

Whether the items in a test look as if they measure the trait that they supposedly assess.

Facet

A narrow component of a broad factor. For example, sociability and optimism are two facets of Extraversion.

Factor

Any weighted linear combination of variables: e.g. sociability x 0.3 + optimism x 0.8 discovered using factor analysis.  These factors are thought to represent personality or ability traits.

Factor analysis

A statistical technique which determines how many distinct traits are measured by a set of items or tests. It assumes that each item (or test) is influenced by one or more “common factors”, random error, and “unique variance”.  It differs from principal components analysis in that it includes the “unique variance” term; because of this the common factors are not thought to explain all the variation in people’s scores.

Factor matrix

Table showing how strongly each variable is related to each factor following factor analysis.

Factor rotation

A process of moving factors relative to variables, usually in an attempt to find simple structure.

Factor scores

The score which each person obtains on each factor.  These can be correlated with other variables to validate the factor, just as one would validate a test.

Faking

Answering some items in a personality questionnaire less-than-honestly so as to achieve some object – e.g. employment, hospitalisation.

Family studies

Behaviour-genetic design tests whether genetic similarity of close relatives is reflected in similarity of scores on personality traits.

Fight-Flight-Freeze-System

The defensive avoidance system, a component of the conceptual nervous system in Gray’s biological model of personality (reinforcement sensitivity theory) which determines how the organism reacts to aversive stimuli: defensive avoidance or escape.

Five Factor Model

See Big Five model of personality.

Fixed Role Therapy

Kelly’s method of therapy which involved a person acting as if they were on a different position on one or more personal constructs to see what it felt like.

Fluid Intelligence

Cattell’s name for the second-order factor Gf, which is thought to reflect abstract thinking ability and which empirically, seems to be almost indistinguishable from general intelligence, g.

Flynn Effect

James Flynn’s discovery that fluid intelligence scores rose from generation to generation by about 3 IQ points per decade during much of the 20th century.

Free association

Part of Freud’s method of psychoanalysis whereby patients say the first thing that comes into their head in response to a word spoken by the therapist.

fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging: a method for showing brain electrical activity in real time, as people perform cognitive tasks.

g

Spearman’s factor of general intelligence.  Also known as general ability or general cognitive ability, it influences performance on all tasks requiring thought.

GAD

See general anxiety disorder

General intelligence

See g

Gc

See crystallised intelligence

Gene

A sequence of DNA which occupies a particular position on a particular chromosome. 

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A psychiatric diagonosis of levels of anxiety which are so severe that they affect an individual’s ability to live a normal life.

General factor of Personality

A (slightly controversial) single factor found when analysing the correlations between the Big Five personality traits.  It is thought to be related to social effectiveness.

Genital stage

A Freudian concept referring to the adult sexual behaviour after puberty.

Gf

See fluid intelligence

Gv

The second-order ability factor measuring individual differences in being able to visualise and perform spatial tasks

Gm

The second-order ability factor measuring memory

Gps

The second-order ability factor of perceptual speed – speed of recognising or comparing letters or shapes

Goodness-of-fit index

Any statistic showing how well a particular model fits a set of empirical data.

Grey matter

Areas of the brain containing cell bodies (as opposed to white matter, which just comprises axons).

Grit

Perseverance and passion for long term goals; it is almost indistinguishable from the personality trait of Conscientiousness.

Group differences

Any difference in the average score of various groups (e.g. gender, racial) which is not attributable to biased tests.

Group test

A test which can be administered to several people at the same time: for example, personality questionnaires or booklets containing ability items, such as Raven’s Matrices. See individual test.

Guilford-corrected item-total correlations

The correlation between an item and the sum of the other items in a test used as part of item analysis.

Hare Psychopathy Checklist

A structured interview to determine levels of psychopathic traits.

HeadStart programme

An intervention for socially deprived pre-school children aimed at improving language and cognitive skills.

Heritability

A statistic between 0 and 1 showing the extent to which a trait is influenced by genetic makeup within a particular population. Heritability estimates usually come from behaviour genetic studies.

HEXACO

Model of personality which adds a factor of Honesty/Humility to the Costa & McCrae 5-factor model

Hick’s Law

The finding that reaction times increase as the number of targets increase in a choice reaction-time task.

Hierarchical models

In Factor analysis, where the correlations between (oblique) factors are themselves factor analysed, the process being repeated until either just one factor is found, or all the factors are uncorrelated.  It therefore shows a hierarchy of traits from the most general at the apex of a pyramid to the most narrow at the base.  The hierarchical structure of cognitive abilities, with general intelligence at the top, is the best-known example.

Hypervigilance theory

Michael Eysenck’s cognitive theory of anxiety whereby anxious individuals normally scan the environment for signs of danger then focus on it once one is detected.

Hysteria

Psychiatric diagnosis popular in the 19th century where physical symptoms were thought to have a psychological origin.

Id

The unconscious mind in Freud’s theory.  It contains the life and death instincts, repressed memories etc.

Identification

A Freudian defence mechanism whereby a person takes on the characteristics of a threatening person, as with the resolution of the Oedipus complex in boys.

In-basket

Method of selecting people for jobs by giving a sample of the tasks that they would perform, rather than psychological tests.

Incremental validity

A test has incremental validity if it significantly improves the predictive power of a battery of tests (typically selection tests) when added to the existing test battery.

Individual Psychology

Adler’s personality theory.

Individual test

A test which is administered to one person at a time, perhaps to obtain good rapport, or because the test requires one-to-one interaction as with the WAIS or WISC. See group test.

Individuation

In Jung’s theory, the period when a person comes to recognize the importance of their unconscious mind and becomes their ‘true self’.

Infantile sexuality

Freud’s proposition that young children obtain sexual feelings from stimulation of various areas of the body (mouth, anus, genitals).

Inferiority complex

In Adler’s theory, a feeling of being worthless that may be brought about by physical deformities and parental behaviour in childhood.

Information processing models

Models that view thought (and performance on ability tests) as a sequence of cognitive operations.

Inspection Time

A measure of how long a stimulus (generally auditory or visual) needs to be presented for some feature of it (e.g, length or pitch) to be perceived with a particular level of accuracy.

Instrument factor

A type of measurement error (e.g. acquiescence) affecting one particular type of measurement method (e.g. self-report questionnaires).

Intellect

A personality factor identified by Goldberg which reflects interest in intellectual pursuits (e.g., art) and imagination.  Costa & McCrae altered its content somewhat and re-named it ‘Opennoess’

Intelligence

See g

Interest test

Self-reported level of motivation.

Internal bias

Any technique used to detect bias in test items without relating them to other variables.  See also External bias.

International Personality Item Pool (IPIP)

Free personality questionnaires measuring most personality traits.

Intrinsic motivation

Doing something because it “just is” enjoyable, rather than to help achieve some long term goal.

Interval scales

Scales of measurement which assumes that there are assume equal intervals between the responses: e.g. that the psychological distance between “strongly agree” and “agree” is the same as between “agree” and “neutral”.

Introversion

See Low extraversion

Introspection

Attempting to discover personality by reflecting about one’s self, as in Rogers’s theory.

Ipsatised tests

Tests whose items ask participants to choose between two courses of action – each of which represents a different personality trait.  The test is scored by determining how often each trait is chosen.  However these data are difficult to analyse; coefficient alpha and factor analysis may be inappropriate.

IQ

A number showing a person’s score on an intelligence test relative to other members of the general population of the same age. An IQ of 100 implies average intelligence, at any age.

Isolation

Defence mechanism whereby the emotional significance of a thought or memory is not appreciated, making it less threatening.

Item analysis

Any statistical procedure which refines a scale by removing items which are in some way unsatisfactory.

Item response theory

A statistical technique which estimates people’s abilities and item difficulties independently; the difficulties of the items do not depend on the range of ability of the people who attempted them.

Job analysis

The analysis of the cognitive and other requirements of a particular job usually performed so that appropriate selection tests may be used.

Kaiser-Guttman Criterion

Old, discredited proposal suggesting that the number of factors which should be rotated should be the number of unrotated factors having eigenvalues greater than 1.0.

L-data

Cattell’s term for ratings of behaviour.

Latency period

Freud’s description of the period between age 6 and puberty during which he believed that children did not experience sexual feelings

Lexical hypothesis

The proposition that all important personality traits will be described by an adjective in the dictionary.

Libido

The life instinct: the sexual drive found in the id, according to Freud.

Lie scale

Questionnaire scale designed to identify people who are faking their responses – e.g. by denying common faults

Likert scales

Scales used in personality questionnaires. For example, “Strongly agree”, “Agree” “Neutral”, “Disagree”, “Strongly disagree” which are then translated into numbers such as 4,3,2,1,0 – an ordinal or interval scale.

Limbic system

Old term for the structures at the base of the cortex associated with emotion.

Logistic regression

Statistical technique whose basic aims are similar to multiple regressions but where the dependent (outcome) value has only two possible values: e.g. pass/fail.

Louisville Twin Study

Long-running American database of twins’ scores on psychological tests, permitting behaviour-genetic analyses.

Machiavellianism

Manipulation of others to achieve one’s own goals.  Part of the dark Triad of personality traits.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Magnetic resonance imaging: a method for showing brain electrical activity, though not in real time. See also fMRI.

Man the Scientist

Kelly’s cognitive theory of personality which stresses how people build cognitive structures (personal constructs) to help them understand the world and predict events.

Mandala

A circular, symmetric object, one of the archetypes in Jung’s theory.

MAP

Minimum Average Partial test: Wayne Velicer’s test for the number of factors to be retained for factor rotation.

Masking

Presenting another stimulus before and/or after a briefly-presented visual or auditory target stimulus, to make the target stimulus harder to detect (e.g. by writing over the contents of the short-term visual store).

Mating, assortative

The tendency for people to choose mates with similar levels of traits to their own.

MSCEIT

Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test. Widely used test of ability emotional intelligence.

Mean

The average.

Measurement errors

Random or systematic errors which reduce the reliability and validity of test scores and/or make them biased.

Measurement invariance

A statistical technique which determines whether a questionnaire or test measures the same thing in different groups of people.

Mental Measurement Yearbooks

Series of books holding independent evaluative reviews of psychological tests: questionnaires etc.

Meritocracy

Social system where a person’s ability (rather than social class, patronage etc) determines their success in work.

Meta-analysis

Method for integrating results from several research studies to draw broad conclusions based on large samples and a variety of methodologies.  It essentially averages the results from many studies.

Mindfulness

A personality trait measuring the extent to which a person focuses on experiencing the present, free of past and future worries and intrusive thoughts – akin to meditation.

Milwaukee Project

Project designed to determine whether environmental enrichment in early life improves IQs and academic performance of children from socially deprived families.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

An old personality test, originally developed by selecting items that might predict psychiatric diagnoses using criterion keying.

Minority group

Any numerical minority group: e.g. gay people, Chinese in the USA, Americans in China...

MMPI

See Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Molecular genetics

Method for determining which variants of which genes are associated with physiology, behaviour or test-scores.

Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs)

Antidepressant drugs which affect serotonin levels.

Monte-Carlo analysis

Computer simulation technique designed to solutions to problems that have no obvious analytical solution.

Mood

A short-term state: e.g. negative affect, positive affect which may or may not be distinguishable from an emotion.

Mood variability

A measure of the extent to which a person’s moods shift from hour to hour or day to day.

Morningness

Feeling alert early in the morning.

Motivation

The study of social and biological factors (e.g. the urge to support one’s family; hunger) which energize our behaviour and cause us to choose some courses of action rather than others.

Movement time

The time to make a physical movement in a reaction time task: e.g. physically push a button. This is distinct from reaction time, which is the time taken to decide to make a particular response.

Multiple Choice Test

An ability or attainment test where a person is shown several answers and asked to identify the one which is correct.

Multiple hurdle approach

In personnel selection, if a candidate fails to meet the standard on one test they are rejected: excellent performance on other tests cannot compensate for weak performance in one area.

Multiple intelligence theory

Gardner’s theory which suggests that there are approximately eight quite independent ability traits, instead of the widely-accepted hierarchy of correlated abilities with g at the apex.

Multivariate genetic analyses

Method of behaviour genetics which determines the extent to which a correlation between two variables (e.g. g and academic performance) is caused by a set of genes which influence both behaviours.

Multivariate techniques

Statistical methods such as factor analysis and multidimensional scaling, which analyse data from more than one dependent variable.

Narcissism

Having inflated, unjustifiable view of one’s own importance, fantasies of success, a desire for admiration, and an expectation that one deserves to be treated differently from other people.  It is part of the Dark Triad of personality traits.

Narrow personality traits

Personality traits that do not arise from an attempt to map the whole area of personality, but which instead seek to address a specific issue: e.g. whether the Type A personality can predict heart disease.

Nature/nurture debate

The debate as to whether environmental factors alone can explain individual differences.

Negative affect

A mood state associated with feelings of depression, anxiety & irritability. This is NOT the opposite of positive affect.

NEO-PI(R)

Commercial questionnaire to measure Costa & McCrae’s five-factor model of personality

Neural Conduction Velocity

The speed with which information is transmitted down the axons of a nerve.

Neurone

Nerve cell.

Neurosis

A psychiatric disorder such as depression and anxiety where individuals are not out of touch with reality (i.e., do not experience hallucinations, delusions etc.).

Neuroticism

A major personality trait measured by the EPQ-R, IPIP scales and NEO-PI(R) amongst others. Individuals high on neuroticism are anxious, depressed and moody: those with low scores are stable and unemotional.

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin which facilitate the exchange of information between nerve cells.

Non-verbal ability

See verbal ability.

Norms

Tables of scores on tests or questionnaires obtained from a carefully-constructed samples of the population. These allow an individual’s score to be interpreted. For example, tables of norms may show that only 7% of people score higher than 22/30 on a test.

Normal distribution

Bell-shaped distribution of scores, where most people obtain a ‘middling’ score.

Nuisance factors

Variables such as poor self-knowledge, tendency to agree with statements, test anxiety which influence scores on a questionnaire or test, but which are not supposed to be measured by the test/questionnaire.

Object relations theory

Later development of psychoanalytic theory which stresses the importance of the development of the mind and plays down the role of unconscious factors.

Objective Analytic Test Battery

Cattell’s old commercial battery of objective tests of personality.

Objective tests

Cattell’s term for methods of assessing personality whereby a person is either unaware that they are being assessed, unaware what aspect of their behaviour is being assessed, or is physically unable to alter their behaviour: e.g. changes in heart rate whilst viewing a video.

Oblique rotation

Any form of factor rotation where the factors are allowed to become correlated with each other.

Occupational Psychology

Organizational Psychology in the USA. Psychology applied to work.

Oedipus complex

In Freud’s theory, the 6-year-old boy’s desire to have sex with his mother.

Openness

A personality factor in some Five Factor models, measuring a preference for novel activities/experiences. It is similar to Goldberg’s ‘intellect’ factor.

Operant conditioning

Where behaviour is modified through the use of positive or negative reinforcers, contingent on how the organism responds.

Oral character

Optimistic & dependent or sarcastic and pessimistic adult personalities which some believe are related to the degree of indulgence at the oral stage of development (sucking or biting).

Oral stage

Freud’s belief that in early life children obtain sexual pleasure from exploring objects with their mouths.

Oral sadism

In Freudian theory, biting and aggression, supposedly linked to biting the nipple.

Orthogonal rotation

Any form of factor rotation where the factors are kept at right angles to each other.

Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings (O-LIFE)

Widely-used questionnaire measuring schizotypy.

P-technique

A method of factor analysis used to discover mood or motivation states from a single individual, whose moods/motives are assessed on multiple occasions.

Parallel analysis

Useful technique for determining the number of factors to rotate in the factor rotation stage of factor analysis: better than the Kaiser-Guttman criterion. Parallel analysis uses Monte Carlo analyses of random data sets comprising the same number of variables and participants as the real data set.

Paratelic state

Pleasurable high arousal, in Apter’s theory: c/f positive affect.

Perceptual Defence

The discovery that words/pictures which are threatening may be harder to recognize than non-threatening words/pictures when presented briefly.

Person-centred theory

Carl Rogers’ theory of personality.

Persona

In Jung’s theory, the mask that one uses to hide some aspects of one’s self from other people.

Personal construct theory

Kelly’s Personality Theory.

Personal construct

In Kelly’s theory, a dimension (e.g. “friendly/nasty”) used by an individual to categorize people or objects (“elements”) and predict their behaviour.

Personality

A trait which is not an ability, reflecting how a person usually behaves in most situations – for example, Neuroticism or Extraversion.

Personality sphere

The list of all words in the dictionary that could potentially describe personality.

PET

Positon Emission Tomography. A technique for discovering which areas of the brain are most active over a period of time.

Phallic stage

A Freudian concept referring to the fascination of children aged about 5 with their genitals. It leads to the Oedipus complex in boys.

Phenomenological theory

A theory which focuses on an individual’s experience – and not whether that experience is necessarily correct.

Phi-coefficient

A correlation between two variables, each of which is two-valued: e.g. correlating gender with passing/failing an examination.

Phobia

An intense irrational fear related to a particular class of objects (e.g. cats).

Pleasure principle

Freud’s theory of motivation suggesting that all human activities are performed in the pursuit of pleasure.

Point-biserial correlation

Correlation between two variables one of which has only two values and the other of which is continuous. For example, the correlation between gender and height.

Positive Affect

An emotional state of high energy and arousal. It is NOT the opposite of Negative Affect.

Post hoc theory

A theory developed to explain some events with hindsight but which has not been shown to be able to predict future events.

Postdiction

When establishing the validity of a test, postdiction involves administering a new selection test to an existing workforce (which was not selected using this test), and determining whether test scores are related to productivity or other aspects of work performance.

Power tests

Ability tests where participants have as long as they want to work on a set of problems; they measure a person’s level of performance, rather than their speed.  See also speeded tests.

Predictive validity

Determining whether scores on tests can predict real-world behaviour at a later date. For example, whether scores on selection tests can predict how well people later function in the organisation.

Primary process thought

In Freud’s theory, the aim of the id to satisfy its instincts directly and immediately, without considering any real-world constraints.

Principal components analysis

Similar to factor analysis, but where the common factors are assumed to explain all of the variation in people’s scores on a variable.

Projective tests

Tests where participants interpret an ambiguous stimulus such as an inkblot or a drawing. This is supposed to reveal their hidden drives, motivations etc. but reliability and validity is generally low

Psychoanalysis

Freud’s method of psychotherapy, based on free association, encouraging the patient to remember repressed material and re-live the emotions that were experienced as the material was repressed.

Psychometrics

The science of mental measurement.

Psychopathy

A personality disorder characterized by low empathy, manipulative and amoral behaviour, with little conscience.

Psychosis

Psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia or dementia where the individual is out of touch with reality.

Psychoticism

Eysenck’s personality factor of tough-mindedness vs. tender-mindedness, measured by the EPQ-R and IPIP scales.

Quantification

Assigning numbers to individuals’ responses to test items – for example “strongly agree” = 5, “agree” = 4 etc.  This process has been strongly criticised by Michell amongst others

Quartile

If individuals are categorised into four groups on the basis of their test scores such that there are equal numbers of people in each group, these four groups are known as quartiles.

Questionnaire

Any test comprising a number of questions which may be multiple-choice or open ended. Questionnaires seek information, and are so distinct from ability tests which determine a person’s level of performance. 

Q’-data

Taking responses to questionnaires at face value, as in attitude scales.

Q-data

Not taking responses to questionnaire items at face value, but instead relating them empirically to performance on other items (through factor analysis) or to other behaviours (through criterion keying).

Q-sort

Stevenson’s card-sorting methodology for discovering how a person views their self.

Ratio scale

A measurement scale (such as length, or temperature in degrees Kelvin) where the intervals between measurement units are equal and there is a genuine zero-point corresponding to a complete lack of the attribute being measured.

Raven’s matrices

Family of old but effective non-verbal group tests of general intelligence (g).

Reaction formation

In Freud’s behaviour, acting as if a defended-against wish or thought was always present, resulting in a behaviour which is the opposite of what one really feels or desires.

Reaction time

A task where the speed of response is measured: e.g. the time to decide to move the finger on a button when a shape is shown on a screen. This is distinct from movement time, which is the time taken to physically move the body to make the response.

Recognition threshold

The duration for which an image must be shown for it to be correctly recognized, as opposed to the awareness threshold.

Reductionism

Trying to explain complex processes by simpler ones (e.g. intelligence as neural conduction velocity).

Reflex

A fast involuntary movement caused by the stimulation of a nerve.

Reinforcement

Anything which takes place following a behaviour which alters (increases or decreases) the probability of a particular behaviour occurring.

Reinforcement sensitivity theory

Gray’s personality theory which attempts to explain personality through a biological model linked to the conceptual nervous system.

Reliability

A statistic which can show how closely scores on a test reflect people’s true scores on a trait, for a particular population. Another form of reliability coefficient considers how stable people’s scores are over time, better called temporal stability.  See also coefficient alpha.

Repertory Grid Technique

Kelly’s technique for eliciting personal constructs and discovering the position of elements on each construct.

Repression

A Freudian defence mechanism whereby unpleasant memories or impulses are simply banished into the unconscious mind

Response biases/response sets

Characteristics such as tending to agree with statements or being unwilling to endorse extreme views on a questionnaire which reduce the accuracy of questionnaire measurements of personality.

Resting State Functional Connectivity

A technique which explores how activity in a neural network in one part of the brain affects activity in other networks in different areas of the brain.

Rorschach Inkblots

A projective test which asks people to describe what they see in a set of ten inkblots.

Rosenberg self esteem scale

A widely used but very problematic scale for measuring self esteem.

Rumination

Thinking about bad things from one’s past, it is associated with depression.

Schizophrenia

A family of psychotic disorders which can involve hallucinations, delusions, the display of inappropriate emotions, odd beliefs and other symptoms.

Schizotypy

A trait found in normal individuals, resembling a mild form of schizophrenia – e.g. belief in magic, sometimes seeing things that are not there, and mild feelings of paranoia.

Scottish Mental Survey

A test of general intelligence (g) administered to all Scottish 11-year olds on one day in 1932.

Scree test

A method to determine the number of factors to be rotated in factor analysis.  It involves plotting eigenvalues from an unrotated principal components analysis.

Screen memories

In Freud’s theory, “memories” of events in childhood that did not in fact take place.

Self

In Rogers’s theory, viewing one’s own personality as an integrated whole – the self.

Self characterisation

In Kelly’s theory a therapist might ask a client to write a description of themselves as another person might see them.  This is their self-characterisation.

Self determination theory

Vallerand’s theory of motivation which stresses the distinction between intrinsic motivation (activities which are performed because they are enjoyable) and extrinsic motivation (activities which are performed because they will help achieve more distant goals)

Self esteem

A person’s appraisal of their own value or worth.

Self-report data

Data from questionnaires where a person describes how they feel or behave: see Q’-data and Q-data.

Sensation Seeking

A personality trait describing how some individuals seek environmental stimulation whilst others tend to avoid it. Extensively researched by Marvin Zuckerman.

Sensory deprivation

Experiments where people are put into environments which are completely unstimulating – e.g., blindfolded with earplugs.

Sentiments

Socially-determined drives in Cattell’s theory of motivation.  For example, the need to behave in accord with religious beliefs.

Shadow

In Jung’s theory, an archetype representing the evil part of human nature.

Shared environment

See common environment.

Simple structure

A method of locating factors relative to variables so that each factor has some large and some near-zero correlations with the factor. This is the usual goal of programs such as VARIMAX or Direct Oblimin which perform factor rotation.

Sixteen Personality Factor questionnaires

A family of questionnaires, originally developed by RB Cattell, that claim to measure fifteen personality traits plus g.

Social construction

The belief that intelligence or personality is not rooted “inside” people: if some people are viewed as “intelligent” or “extraverted” this says more about the background and social psychology of the person making the attribution than the person being evaluated. It is the antithesis of trait theory.

Social desirability

Presenting oneself in a good light when answering items in personality scales. A form of response bias.

Source Trait

Cattell’s term for a trait which represents a set of behaviours which have a single common cause which is some feature of the individual.  For example, individual differences in neurotransmitter levels in some parts of the brain may be reflected in several aspects of behaviour which we term “extraversion”

Speeded tests

Ability tests requiring participants to solve many simple problems in a short space of time; the number of items answered correctly therefore mainly reflects the speed at which a person works.  See also power tests.

Standardised score

A score which has a mean of zero and a standard deviation of 1.  Scores on any scale can be transformed into standard scores by subtracting the scale’s mean from each person’s score, and dividing this by the scale’s standard deviation – although this only makes sense if scores are normally distributed.

States

Short-lived moods and motivational influences on behaviour.  For example road-rage, or hunger (which declines once food has been eaten).

STEM and STEU

The Situational Test of Emotion Management (STEM) and Situational Test of Emotional Understanding (STEU) are two tests of ability E-I

String measure

An early method of determining the complexity of an auditory evoked potential recording.

Structure of Intellect model

Guilford’s model of abilities which views thinking as the interaction of a small number of cognitive processes, a number of types of stimuli and a number of types of responses.

Superego

The conscience in Freud’s theory, which appears after the Oedipus/Electra complex as a result of identification with the father.

Superiority, striving for

Adler’s belief that feelings of inferiority lead people to strive to achieve.

Sympathetic nervous system

Part of the autonomic nervous system which prepares the organism for ‘flight or fight’.

Synchronicity

Jung’s suggestion that events may occur together without there being an obvious causal explanation: e.g. prophetic dreams.

T-data

Cattell’s term for data obtained from objective tests of personality.

Telic-Paratelic state

Apter’s motivation theory claims that we can either approach a task in telic mode (serios, goal-directed) or paratelic mode (fun, enjoyable).  See also intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Temporal stability

A statistic showing the correlation between test scores of the same people on two occasions, normally some weeks apart.

Tender-mindedness

Corresponds to a low score on Eysenck’s Psychoticism factor.

Test

Any assessment tool: typically a personality questionnaire, ability test, attainment test, projective test or objective test.

Test anxiety

Anxiety about being assessed which some authors claim may be different from normal anxiety or neuroticism, and which affects performance on ability or attainment tests.

Test-retest reliability

See temporal stability.

Thanatos

According to Freud, this is an instinct in the id which drives us to death, cruelty and destruction.

Theory of Planned behaviour

Ajzan’s motivation theory, arguing that motivation can be understood in terms of attitudes, social pressures, and whether or not we believe we can reach some goal.

Time Perception

A personality theory exploring the extent to which people focus their attention on past, present or future behaviour.

Top-down approach

Developing a model from theoretical principles, rather than data, as with Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. The opposite of the bottom-up approach.

TEIQue

Petrides & Furnham’s Trait Emotional Intelligence questionnaire.

Trait

A characteristic of the person which is stable over time and which describes how a person is likely to behave in many situations. For example, intelligence or anxiety.

Trait emotional intelligence

Personality characteristics such as being sensitive, empathic, and genuine in our dealings with others; see also the TEIQue and Ability emotional intelligence

Triad

When completing the repertory grid, personal constructs are discovered by showing a person the names of three people they know well (a triad of elements) and asking them to say how one differs from the other two. The process is repeated with different triads.

Triarchic theory of ability

Sternberg’s theory of abilities comprising componential, experiential and contextual sub-theories

True score

In psychometrics, the score that a person would obtain if they were administered every item that could possibly be written to measure a trait. See also coefficient alpha.

Twin studies

As identical twins are genetically identical whereas fraternal twins are not, twin studies form an important part of behaviour genetics as it is possible to quantify the extent to which genetic similarity (or the similarity of the shared environment) leads to similar levels of traits.

Type A personality

Impatient, hostile and ambitious individuals who were once thought to be at great risk of heart disease.  Type B personality is its opposite.

Type C personality

A now-discredited theory which claimed that people who “bottled up” their emotions were at greater risk of developing cancer than those who expressed them

Type D personality

Depressed and socially-inhibited individuals who were once thought not to recover well following a heart attack.

Unconditional positive regard

Feeling that a person will like/love you whatever you do: their love is not contingent on the way in which you behave: an important aspect of Rogers’ personality theory.

Unconscious

An area of the mind which may hold repressed or forgotten memories instincts and their derivatives and which is not (normally) accessible to conscious introspection.

Unidimensionality

A set of items is unidimensional if they all measure just one psychological characteristic, such as anxiety or intelligence.

Unique environment

Environmental influences which are not experienced by other family members as the child grows up: e.g. hobbies or relationships with teachers. See also common environment, twin studies.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures what it sets out to measure. For example, a test designed to select pilots should show a positive correlation with performance during flying training. See face validity, content validity, predictive validity, postdictive validity, concurrent validity.

Variable

Anything which produces a numerical score: e.g. a response to a test item, the score on a test, a measure of inspection time.

VARIMAX

Widely used algorithm for factor rotation, performing orthogonal rotation of factors.

Velten technique

Procedure for changing mood, originally by asking participants to read and think about statements although video and music clips are now also used.

Verbal ability

Ability tests such as the WISC and WAIS can produce separate scores on tests that involve language (e.g. vocabulary) and those which do not (e.g. jigsaws), the former being called verbal ability and the latter non-verbal ability.

WAIS

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Widely-used test of adult intelligence which is not based on any mainstream theory of mental abilities nor the findings of factor-analytic studies.

WISC

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. Widely-used test of child intelligence which is not based on any mainstream theory of mental abilities or the findings of factor-analytic studies.

Work-sample/Work-basket

See in-basket technique.

Working memory task

Typically a task where a person has to hold something in their memory at the same time as performing other cognitive activities: usually this involves deep cognitive processing.  It closely resembles general intelligence, g.