In conditional reasoning, the generation of an explanation for an event, taken from a theory of how the world works, the plausibility of which depends in large part on the number and the likelihood of the alternative explanations.

A category3 in the analysis of responses to the ‘Who Am I?’, which includes self-descriptions that are too abstract or psychology to constitute social identity elements (e.g. a human being).

One of a variety of social cog-nition theories, which suggests that when other people’s attitudes differ from our own, we tend to exaggerate the difference between them.

The brief, all-or-nothing change in membrane potential that constitutes a single response in a neurone.

Difference in the study of the attribution process, the tendency for actors to attribute their behaviour to the situation and for observers to attribute the actor’s behaviour to dispositions.

A type of interview devised to probe adults’ memories of their own childhood experiences and relationships with their parents, and from which four basic classifications of parenting styles have been defined.

An ethical obligation on the part of trained psychologists to offer qualified help to participants in an observational study when evidence of mental of physical problems arise in relation to them.