Glossary of common psychology terms
This is an initial glossary of terms that will, with your input, evolve over time to
become more inclusive and useful.
Term
Definition
Behaviourism
The scientific study of how reward and punishment (stimuli) affect
emotion and behaviour (response).
Behaviours
The actions or reactions of an individual to a situation. They may be
conscious or unconscious, voluntary or involuntary.
Behavioural beliefs
These guide behaviours. They relate to a) the likelihood that an action
might promote or negate a given outcome and b) evaluating outcomes
achieved or avoided, in terms of their desirable and negative
consequences.
Behavioural
attitudes
These are the multiplicative sum of the individual’s relevant outcome
likelihood and evaluation related behavioural beliefs. They can also be
independently measured.
Behavioural
intentions
These are derived from the combination of behavioural attitudes and
perceived (subjective) norms. Intents rather than attitudes are regarded
as the main proximal cognitive precursors to acting.
Cognitions
The conscious processes of knowing or being aware of thoughts or
perceptions, including understanding and reasoning.
Cognitive
Psychology
The scientific study of basic mental abilities, e.g. perception, learning,
memory, language, problem-solving, etc. Sometimes referred to as the
‘information-processing approach’.
Components
Refers to the plethora of apparently discrete (albeit on occasions
conceptually ambiguous, overlapping or even identical) components of
different models, defined as single concepts.
Constructs
These are complex psychological and sociological concepts (defined as
multi-component theoretical concepts) such as attitudes, beliefs and
subjective or descriptive norms contained in health behaviour change and
other models.
Control beliefs
These are salient to an individual’s perceptions of a) the external factors
inhibiting or facilitating an action and b) self-efficacy, the individual’s
internal, behaviour specific, executional self confidence.
False negative
Screening term that refers to a negative test result despite presence of
disease (see False positive; Screening; Sensitivity; Specificity)
False positive
Screening term that refers to a positive test result despite absence of
disease (see False negative; Screening; Sensitivity; Specificity)
Health behaviour
Any behaviour that may have implications for health, e.g. smoking,
safe® sex / condom use, seat belt use, etc.
Health Belief Model
A health specific social cognition model, the key complex theoretical
components of which are: perceived susceptibility; perceived severity;
perceived threat, the product/sum of severity and susceptibility;
perceived benefits; perceived barriers; self-efficacy; expectations, which
are the product/sum of perceived benefits, barriers and self-efficacy;
cues to action; and demographic and socio-economic variables.
Health outcomes
A change in the health of an individual, a group of people or a population
that is attributable to a health intervention or series of interventions.
Health Psychology
The study of psychological processes that influence health, illness and
1
health care.
Illness behaviour
Any behaviour directed by the self-perception of illness.
Illness beliefs
Any belief concerning any aspect of an illness – more usually refers to a
patient’s belief about their illness, but also includes non-patients’ beliefs
about someone else’s illness.
Illness
representation
A patient’s understanding of their illness based on common-sense illness
beliefs, which are clustered, or organised, into illness dimensions, such as
those related to the cause, course and consequences of the illness.
Individual
differences
Individual differences refer to variations, between people, in
psychological activities that, within people, produce responses that are
broadly stable across time and context. Often used interchangeably with
the term ‘personality’.
Models
These are conceptual descriptions of a system, theory, or phenomenon
that account for its known or inferred properties.
Normative beliefs
These include a) referent beliefs about what behaviours others expect
and b) the degree to which the individual wants to comply with others’
expectations.
Perceived
Behavioural Control
(PBC)
PBC is the product of control beliefs and self-efficacy. It is seen as acting
as a determinant of intentions alongside subjective norms and
behavioural attitude, and also as a direct influence on behaviour
additional to intention.
Preventive Medicine
Any health care initiatives that aims to maintain and/or improve health
among people who are currently free of symptoms.
Psychobabble
Meaningless verbal utterances delivered with conviction by someone who
doesn’t know the answer and / or who wants to impress others they
believe to be halfwits.
Psychobabble
principle of trust
An explicit assurance of non-use of psychobabble in the Health
Psychology Module, MB ChB
Screening
Presumptive identification of unrecognised disease or defect by tests,
examinations or other procedures (see False negative; False positive;
Sensitivity; Specificity).
Screening,
Opportunistic
Adjunctive identification of (other) health problems, e.g. hepatitis B in
pregnancy, and depression in primary care.
Self-efficacy
Bandura (1977) first introduced this concept of act or task specific self
confidence (i.e. belief in one’s ability to execute a given behaviour).
Sensitivity
The probability a case will screen positive, i.e. a true positive (see False
negative; False positive; Screening; Specificity).
Social Cognition
The scientific study of how people make sense of their social world, e.g.
how they perceive, represent, interpret, and remember information about
themselves, others and social groups.
Social cognition
models
These examine the social context of cognitions which act as
predictors and precursors to health behaviours.
Social cognition
theories
These theories attempt to explain the relationship between social
cognitions (e.g. beliefs, attitudes, goals, etc.) and behaviour.
Social Psychology
The scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts,
feelings and actions are influenced by the social environment,
especially the real, implied or imagined presence of others.
Specificity
Probability a non-case will screen negative, i.e. a true negative (see False
negative; False positive; Screening; Sensitivity).
Subjective norms
These are defined as the multiplicative sum of the two sets of
normative beliefs, although these are also independently
2
assessed.
Theories
These are sets of statements or principles devised to explain a
group of facts or phenomena that can be scientifically tested.
Theory of
Reasoned Action
(TRA)
Formulated towards the end of the 1 960s, the TRA can in some
respects be seen as refining and taking forward approaches
embodied in the HBM. As expressed in its final form, the TRA
combines two sets of belief variables, described under the
headings of ‘behavioural attitudes’ and ‘the subjective norm’.
Theory of Planned
Behaviour (TPB)
Its design and dissemination followed Bandura’s work on selfefficacy and the publication of his Social Cognitive Theory in 1986.
It is differentiated from the TRA by the additional dimension of
perceived behavioural control.
Trans-Theoretical
Model (TTM)
The TTM was developed by Prochaska and DiClemente at the start
of the 1980s. In order to link together concepts drawn from a
variety of theories it uses a temporal dimension, the stages of
change (SoC) construct, as a basic framework around which other
model components relating to the promotion of behavioural
change (that is, the processes of change components) and its
monitoring and support are located.
Value-expectancy
based theoretical
concepts
Lewin (1951) argued that making behavioural choices involves
assessments of the desirability of achieving specific ends being
balanced by predictions about the likelihood of valued outcomes
being attained as a result of acting. Such concepts are contained
in many health behaviour change models.
3