Glossary

Key terms introduced across all 40 chapters, alphabetized for reference.

Anchoring effect — The tendency for an initial number or value to influence subsequent judgments, even when the anchor is irrelevant. (Ch. 15)

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) — The DSM-5 diagnosis encompassing behaviors popularly labeled as psychopathy or sociopathy. (Ch. 10)

Attachment dimensions — The two continuous dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) used in modern adult attachment research, replacing the four-type categorical model. (Ch. 9)

Barnum effect (Forer effect) — The tendency to accept vague, general personality descriptions as highly accurate personal descriptions. One of the most replicated findings in psychology. (Ch. 1)

Base rate neglect — Failing to consider how commonly a description applies to the general population when evaluating its accuracy for oneself. (Ch. 1)

Behavioral genetics — The study of genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences. Twin and adoption studies are primary methods. (Ch. 31)

Big Five (OCEAN) — The most well-validated personality model: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism. Replicated across 50+ cultures. (Ch. 6, 7)

Biopsychosocial model — The framework recognizing biological, psychological, and social contributions to mental health conditions. (Ch. 17)

Concept creep — The expansion of harm-related psychological concepts to encompass progressively milder experiences (Haslam, 2016). Applied to trauma, narcissism, gaslighting, toxic, and triggering. (Ch. 8, 19, 24)

Confirmation bias — The tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information that confirms existing beliefs. One of the most robust findings in psychology. (Ch. 15)

Continued influence effect — The tendency for corrected information to keep influencing reasoning even after the correction is acknowledged. (Ch. 1)

Criterion A (PTSD) — The DSM-5 definition of a traumatic event: exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. (Ch. 19)

Crossover interaction design — The experimental design required to properly test the learning styles meshing hypothesis. (Ch. 12)

Demand characteristics — Cues in an experimental setting that lead participants to behave as they think the experimenter expects. (Ch. 2)

Desirable difficulty — The counterintuitive finding that harder study methods (retrieval practice, interleaving) produce better long-term learning. (Ch. 12, 28)

Dual coding — Combining verbal and visual representations of information to enhance memory. Benefits everyone, not just "visual learners." (Ch. 12)

Dunning-Kruger effect — The finding that people with low competence in a domain tend to overestimate their ability. The pop version ("stupid people think they're smart") oversimplifies. (Ch. 15)

Ecological rationality — Gigerenzer's perspective that cognitive heuristics are adapted to specific environments and are rational within those environments. (Ch. 15)

Effect size — The magnitude of a research finding, distinct from its statistical significance. Common measures: Cohen's d (0.2 = small, 0.5 = medium, 0.8 = large), correlation r (0.1, 0.3, 0.5). (Ch. 4)

Ego depletion — The discredited theory that willpower is a limited resource that gets used up. Failed to replicate in a 23-lab study. (Ch. 3, 27)

Explanatory gap (pop neuroscience) — The disconnect between naming a brain mechanism and actually explaining a behavior. (Ch. 13)

Flynn Effect — The observed rise in IQ scores across generations (~3 points per decade), demonstrating environmental influence on cognitive ability. (Ch. 33)

Four Horsemen — Gottman's four destructive interaction patterns that predict divorce: criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling. (Ch. 22, 25)

HARKing — Hypothesizing After the Results are Known: writing a paper as if data-driven hypotheses were pre-specified. (Ch. 3)

Hawthorne effect — Performance improvement driven by the attention of being observed, not by the specific intervention. (Ch. 5)

Identity-protective cognition — The tendency to apply more scrutiny to evidence that threatens identity than to evidence that supports it (Kahan). (Ch. 1)

Implementation intentions — Pre-planned "if-then" responses: "If [situation], then I will [behavior]." Meta-analytic d = 0.65. (Ch. 28)

Internal working models — Mental schemas about relationships formed through early caregiving experiences (Bowlby). (Ch. 9)

Kirkpatrick model — Four-level training evaluation: reaction (enjoyment), learning, behavior change, and business results. Most evaluations stop at Level 1. (Ch. 5)

Loss aversion — The tendency to feel losses approximately 1.5–2.5x as strongly as equivalent gains (Kahneman & Tversky). (Ch. 15)

Medicalization of sadness — Applying clinical diagnosis and treatment to normal emotional responses. (Ch. 16)

Mental contrasting — Imagining a desired outcome AND the obstacles that stand in the way. More effective than positive visualization alone. (Ch. 29)

Meshing hypothesis — The specific, testable prediction that learning improves when instruction matches the learner's preferred style. Not supported. (Ch. 12)

Michelangelo effect — The process by which romantic partners sculpt each other toward their ideal selves through behavioral affirmation. (Ch. 25)

Mutation pipeline — The six-stage process through which research findings become popular beliefs: study → press release → article → social media → influencer → audience. (Ch. 2)

Near transfer vs. far transfer — Near: improvement on tasks similar to the practiced task (expected). Far: improvement on different tasks (the marketing claim; usually not supported). (Ch. 11)

Neuromyth — A false belief about the brain that sounds scientific. Examples: 10% brain, left-brain/right-brain, brain training. (Ch. 11)

P-hacking — Analyzing data in multiple ways until a significant result (p < .05) is found, then reporting only that result. (Ch. 3)

Parasocial relationship — A one-sided relationship where a follower feels they know an influencer personally. (Ch. 5, 38)

PHQ-9 — A 9-item screening tool for depression. Sensitivity-focused, not a diagnostic tool. (Ch. 16)

Pipeline asymmetry — The pattern where dramatic claims travel much further through the mutation pipeline than their corrections. (Ch. 2)

Pre-registration — Publicly committing to hypotheses and analysis plans before collecting data. Eliminates HARKing and reduces p-hacking. (Ch. 3)

Publication bias (file drawer problem) — The systematic tendency of journals to publish significant results and reject null findings. (Ch. 3)

Registered Reports — Journal format where papers are peer-reviewed and accepted before data collection, based on the quality of the design. (Ch. 3)

Replication crisis — The discovery that a large proportion of published psychology findings cannot be reproduced. Catalyzed by Bem (2011) and OSC (2015). (Ch. 3)

Reward prediction error — Dopamine signals the difference between expected and actual outcomes, not pleasure itself (Schultz, 1997). (Ch. 13)

Seductive allure of neuroscience — The bias toward rating brain-based explanations as more credible, even when the neuroscience adds no information (Weisberg et al., 2008). (Ch. 11)

Self-concept clarity — The degree to which a person has a clear, coherent understanding of who they are. (Ch. 1)

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) — The measured trait underlying the HSP concept (Aron). Has some evidence but overlaps with existing personality dimensions. (Ch. 10)

Spacing effect (distributed practice) — Spreading study sessions over time produces better long-term retention than cramming. Replicated for 100+ years. (Ch. 12)

Statistical power — The probability of detecting a real effect. Low power increases false positive rates and inflates effect sizes. (Ch. 3)

Strange Situation — Ainsworth's experimental paradigm for measuring infant attachment via behavioral observation. (Ch. 9)

Stimulus control — Managing exposure to stimuli that trigger specific behaviors. A well-established CBT technique. (Ch. 13, 28)

Therapeutic alliance — The quality of the therapist-client relationship: warmth, trust, agreement on goals. One of the strongest predictors of therapy outcome. (Ch. 18)

Virality-accuracy trade-off — The pattern in which features making content shareable (simplicity, certainty, identity-validation) reduce its accuracy. (Ch. 1)

WEIRD populations — Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic — the narrow demographic base of most psychology research. (Ch. 4)

Winner's curse — The tendency for significant results from small, low-powered studies to overestimate the true effect size. (Ch. 3)

WOOP — Wish-Outcome-Obstacle-Plan: Oettingen's evidence-based alternative to positive visualization. (Ch. 29)