Psychology Abbreviations
62 abbreviations · part of Science & Engineering Abbreviations
Abbreviations from psychological science and testing: intelligence and its measurement (IQ, g, WAIS, WISC), personality models and inventories (OCEAN, MBTI, MMPI), rating scales widely used in research (BDI, PHQ-9), memory and learning (STM, WM, ZPD, classical conditioning terms), research methods and statistics (IV, DV, IRT, SEM), social and motivational theories, and evidence-based psychotherapies (CBT, DBT, ACT). Diagnoses such as ADHD or PTSD are listed with medical abbreviations, and test scores should always be interpreted by qualified professionals.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 16PF | Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire | Personality inventory developed by Raymond Cattell that measures 16 primary traits, such as warmth, dominance, rule-consciousness and apprehension, which combine into… |
| ABA | Applied behavior analysis | Approach that applies principles of learning, especially reinforcement, to change socially important behaviors. |
| ACT | Acceptance and commitment therapy | Form of psychotherapy that encourages people to accept difficult thoughts and feelings rather than fight them, to notice thoughts without being ruled by them, and to… |
| BAI | Beck Anxiety Inventory | Self-report questionnaire of 21 symptoms, such as nervousness, a racing heart and fear of the worst happening, that measures the severity of anxiety over the past week. |
| BDI | Beck Depression Inventory | Widely used 21-item self-report questionnaire that measures the severity of depressive symptoms, such as sadness, loss of pleasure, guilt, sleep changes and fatigue… |
| CBT | Cognitive behavioral therapy | Structured, time-limited form of talk therapy that helps people identify and change unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior. |
| CFA | Confirmatory factor analysis | Statistical technique that tests whether data fit a pre-specified model of how observed variables, such as questionnaire items, relate to underlying latent factors. |
| CR | Conditioned response | In classical conditioning, the learned response to a conditioned stimulus, such as salivating at the sound of a bell or feeling anxious at the sight of a dentist's chair. |
| CS | Conditioned stimulus | In classical conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus, such as a bell, that comes to trigger a response after being repeatedly paired with a stimulus that naturally… |
| DBT | Dialectical behavior therapy | Comprehensive psychotherapy combining cognitive-behavioral techniques with mindfulness and acceptance, originally developed for chronically suicidal people with… |
| DV | Dependent variable | Outcome that is measured in a study to see whether it changes in response to the independent variable, such as test scores, reaction times, symptom ratings or brain… |
| EI | Emotional intelligence | Capacity to recognize, understand, reason with and regulate emotions in oneself and others. |
| ELM | Elaboration likelihood model | Theory of persuasion proposing two routes: a central route, in which people carefully evaluate arguments, and a peripheral route, in which they rely on cues such as… |
| EMDR | Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing | Structured psychotherapy for trauma in which a person recalls distressing memories while following side-to-side eye movements or other bilateral stimulation, such as… |
| EQ | Emotional quotient | Popular term for emotional intelligence, the ability to perceive, understand, use and manage emotions in oneself and others, presented as a counterpart to IQ. |
| ERP | Event-related potential | Small voltage change in the brain's electrical activity, recorded by EEG and time-locked to a specific event such as a sound, image or word. |
| FAE | Fundamental attribution error | Tendency to explain other people's behavior by their personality or character while underestimating the influence of the situation. |
| FFM | Five-factor model | Theoretical framework, developed especially by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, holding that personality can be described by five broad trait dimensions, each made up of… |
| fMRI | Functional magnetic resonance imaging | MRI method that maps brain activity by detecting changes in blood oxygenation, the BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent) signal, while a person performs tasks or rests. |
| FSIQ | Full-scale intelligence quotient | Overall IQ score on Wechsler intelligence tests, derived from performance across the subtests that make up the index scores. |
| g | General intelligence factor | Statistical factor that captures the common variance among scores on diverse cognitive tests: people who do well on one type of test tend to do well on others. |
| GAD-7 | Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale | Seven-question screening and severity measure for anxiety, asking how often over the past two weeks a person has felt nervous, unable to stop worrying, restless or… |
| GSR | Galvanic skin response | Change in the electrical conductance of the skin caused by sweat gland activity, which rises with emotional arousal, stress and surprise. |
| HEXACO | Honesty-humility, emotionality, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness | Six-factor personality model that adds honesty-humility, covering sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance and modesty, to dimensions similar to the Big Five. |
| HPA | Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (axis) | Hormonal chain in which the hypothalamus releases CRH, prompting the pituitary to secrete ACTH, which drives cortisol production by the adrenal glands; cortisol then… |
| IAT | Implicit Association Test | Computer-based reaction-time task that measures how quickly people pair concepts, such as faces of different groups, with evaluative words like "good" and "bad." Faster… |
| IQ | Intelligence quotient | Standardized score from an intelligence test that compares a person's performance on reasoning, verbal, memory and processing-speed tasks with others of the same age. |
| IRT | Item response theory | Family of statistical models that relate a person's level on an underlying trait, such as ability, to the probability of answering each test item correctly, taking into… |
| IV | Independent variable | In an experiment, the factor that the researcher deliberately manipulates or groups participants by, to see whether it affects an outcome, such as the dose of a drug… |
| LOC | Locus of control | Degree to which people believe outcomes in their lives are controlled by their own actions (internal locus) or by outside forces such as luck, fate or powerful others… |
| LTM | Long-term memory | Memory system that stores information for long periods, from minutes to a lifetime, with no known capacity limit. |
| MBTI | Myers-Briggs Type Indicator | Popular personality questionnaire that sorts people into 16 types using four pairs of preferences: extraversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or… |
| MMPI | Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory | Most widely used and researched standardized test of adult personality and psychopathology, consisting of hundreds of true-false statements. |
| MSCEIT | Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test | Ability-based test of emotional intelligence in which test-takers solve emotional problems, such as identifying emotions in faces or choosing effective ways to manage… |
| NEO PI-R | NEO Personality Inventory, Revised | Questionnaire by Paul Costa and Robert McCrae measuring the five-factor personality domains and six facets within each, for 30 facets in total, using 240 items. |
| NFC | Need for cognition | Personality trait describing how much a person enjoys and seeks out effortful thinking, such as solving puzzles or weighing arguments. |
| OCEAN | Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism | Acronym for the Big Five personality traits, the dominant model of personality in psychological research: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion… |
| PAI | Personality Assessment Inventory | Self-report test of 344 items, answered on a four-point scale, that assesses clinical problems, treatment considerations and interpersonal style in adults. |
| PERMA | Positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment | Model of well-being from positive psychology proposing five elements that help people flourish: positive emotion, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and… |
| PHQ-9 | Patient Health Questionnaire-9 | Nine-item self-report questionnaire that screens for depression and measures severity over the past two weeks, scoring 0–27. |
| PSI | Processing Speed Index | Wechsler index score measuring how quickly and accurately a person can scan, compare and record simple visual information, using timed subtests such as Coding and… |
| RT | Reaction time | Time between the presentation of a stimulus and a person's response, usually measured in milliseconds. |
| SB5 | Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition | Individually administered intelligence test for ages 2 to over 85, measuring five factors: fluid reasoning, knowledge, quantitative reasoning, visual-spatial processing… |
| SDT | Self-determination theory | Theory of human motivation holding that people thrive when three basic psychological needs are met: autonomy, competence and relatedness. |
| SEM | Structural equation modeling | Statistical method that estimates networks of relationships among observed and latent variables at once, combining factor analysis with path analysis. |
| SES | Socioeconomic status | Measure of a person's or family's social and economic position, typically combining income, education and occupation. |
| STAI | State-Trait Anxiety Inventory | Questionnaire of 40 items that separately measures state anxiety, how anxious a person feels right now, and trait anxiety, a stable tendency to experience anxiety. |
| STM | Short-term memory | Memory system that holds a small amount of information in an active, readily available state for a brief period, roughly 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal, such as a… |
| SWB | Subjective well-being | Scientific term for how people evaluate their own lives, combining life satisfaction with the balance of positive and negative emotions they experience. |
| TAT | Thematic Apperception Test | Projective personality test in which a person tells stories about ambiguous pictures of people and scenes; examiners analyze the themes, needs and relationships the… |
| ToM | Theory of mind | Ability to understand that other people have their own beliefs, desires, intentions and knowledge that may differ from one's own, and to use this to explain and predict… |
| TPB | Theory of planned behavior | Model predicting that people's intentions, and so their behavior, depend on their attitude toward the behavior, perceived social norms and perceived behavioral control… |
| UR | Unconditioned response | In classical conditioning, the natural, unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus, such as salivating when food is in the mouth or flinching at a sudden noise. |
| US | Unconditioned stimulus | In classical conditioning, a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response without any learning, such as food causing salivation or a loud noise causing… |
| VCI | Verbal Comprehension Index | Wechsler index score measuring verbal reasoning, vocabulary knowledge and the ability to explain concepts, based on subtests such as Vocabulary, Similarities and… |
| WAIS | Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale | Most widely used individually administered intelligence test for adults, covering ages 16 to 90. |
| WEIRD | Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic | Acronym describing the populations that have supplied most psychology research participants, mostly university students in North America and Europe. |
| WISC | Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children | Individually administered intelligence test for children aged about 6 to 16, widely used in schools and clinics to identify learning disabilities and giftedness and to… |
| WM | Working memory | System for temporarily holding and manipulating information during complex tasks, such as mental arithmetic, following directions or understanding a sentence. |
| WMI | Working Memory Index | Wechsler index score measuring the ability to hold and manipulate information in mind for short periods, using subtests such as Digit Span, Arithmetic and Picture Span. |
| WPPSI | Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence | Intelligence test for young children, from about 2 and a half to 7 and a half years, using picture-based and play-like tasks suited to their age. |
| ZPD | Zone of proximal development | Gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with guidance from a teacher or more skilled peer. |
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