In SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, a form of learning from observing a MODEL which goes much further than copying or imitating. Children especially may GENERALISE from the model’s BEHAVIOUR to a wide range of similar behaviours of their own invention.

A PSYCHOSIS typified by extreme swings of mood from the wild excitement of MANIA to the inadequacy and ANXIETY of deep DEPRESSION. In ‘normal’ people the swings range from ‘being high’ to ‘having the blues’. See also BIPOLAR DISORDER.

A statistical technique used for combining and analysing data from a number of studies in the search for significant trends.

Uncontrollable excitement accompanied by the impulse to perform a particular kind of BEHAVIOUR.

An American personality theorist and leading exponent of HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY, closely associated with the terms peak experience andSELF- ACTUALISATION.

Sometimes used in PSYCHOLOGY to describe an activity. often cognitive, that comes between a stimulus and a response.

Any attempt to understand and manipulate the human condition by recourse to supernatural powers. In particular the term is used to describe the belief that there is a causal link between one’s wishes and the real world, that ‘wishing can make it so’. Said to be typical of children, psychotics and pre-literate peoples. Would that I had a tenner for every ‘normal’ adult in our own advanced civilisation who engages in magic thinking.

A score on an intelligence test where items are graded by difficulty and supposedly standardised against chronological age.

See INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT.

A vague general term used to describe a person who is considered to have insufficient mental development to cope with everyday life and needs special care.

A device for studying learning in both animals and humans, ranging from a single T-junction with a choice of two pathways to an extremely complex labyrinth.