A technique of gathering data from large numbers of people by the use of questionnaires and SAMPLING methods.

A squint, produced by lack of coordination of the eye muscles which does not permit both eyes to focus on the same point.

The branch of PSYCHOLOGY that deals with social life, the BEHAVIOUR of people in groups, and the behaviour of individuals in social settings.

The branch of PSYCHOLOGY that deals with the world of work. It includes selection, training, job satisfaction, the environment, the organisation, human relationships in the job and ERGONOMICS.

The step-by-step learning over many trials characteristic of most animal learning and much human learning, and the basis for CONDITIONING procedures. A very laborious process compared to INSIGHT LEARNING,

Used in studies of CONDITIONING to describe the principle whereby a response produced by a particular stimulus can also be produced by similar stimuli. Compare with STIMULUS DISCRIMINATION.

In GAME THEORY, a situation where one person’s losses are another’s gains because there is a finite amount to be won. (The gains and losses in the game add up to zero.) This situation has been suggested as a MODEL for the distribution of rewards in our society.

The idea that we readily divide people into in- groups and out-groups and that we find in-groups attractive because belonging to them enhances our SELF-ESTEEM. See also SOCIAL COMPARISON.

Based on experimental research in learning and associated mainly with the American psychologist Albert Bandura and his concept of MODELLING, this theory rejects both the unconscious drives of PSYCHOANALYSIS and. especially, the rewards and punishments of BEHAVIOURISM as the sole or even major determinants of PERSONALITY and social BEHAVIOUR. Bandura and his colleagues believe that observational learning is crucial to a child’s development.

An area of the HYPOTHALAMUS that induces sleep when it is electrically stimulated or removed entirely by surgery.