Psychology glossary

Big Five (OCEAN) personality model

The Big Five — sometimes called the OCEAN or Five-Factor Model — is the personality framework most widely used in psychological research. It measures five broad traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.

Openness to Experience

Openness to Experience is one of the five Big Five personality traits. It captures intellectual curiosity, interest in art and ideas, and willingness to engage with the unfamiliar.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is the Big Five trait measuring self-discipline, organisation and follow-through. It is the single best personality predictor of job performance across nearly all occupations studied.

Extraversion

Extraversion is the Big Five trait measuring energy drawn from external stimulation — social interaction, novelty and action. Its low end is introversion.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness is the Big Five trait measuring warmth, cooperation and trust. It is the single best predictor of relationship satisfaction and team cohesion.

Neuroticism (Emotional Reactivity)

Neuroticism is the Big Five trait measuring intensity of negative emotion — anxiety, self-doubt, reactivity to stress. It is now often called "Emotional Reactivity" in non-clinical contexts.

Introversion

Introversion is the low end of the Big Five Extraversion trait. It describes people who recover energy in solitude and find sustained social stimulation draining.

Maturity principle

The maturity principle is the observation from longitudinal studies that, between ages 20 and 40, people on average become more Conscientious, more Agreeable and less Neurotic.

RIASEC (Holland Codes)

RIASEC is John Holland's six-type model of vocational interests: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. People and work environments are both described by the same six codes, and career fit is the alignment between the two.

Holland Code

A Holland Code is a three-letter summary of a person's dominant RIASEC career types, ordered by strength (e.g. SEC, IRA). It is used to match people to roles with similar environmental profiles.

Realistic (R)

Realistic is the first of Holland's six RIASEC vocational types. Realistic people are energised by hands-on, physical, tool-using work — building, fixing, operating and working outdoors.

Investigative (I)

Investigative is the second RIASEC type. Investigative people are energised by analysis, research, and systematic problem-solving — forming hypotheses and testing them against evidence.

Artistic (A)

Artistic is the third RIASEC type. Artistic people are energised by expression, creation and non-conforming work that lets them design original outputs.

Social (S)

Social is the fourth RIASEC type. Social people are energised by teaching, helping, supporting and developing other people directly.

Enterprising (E)

Enterprising is the fifth RIASEC type. Enterprising people are energised by leading, persuading, selling and organising toward measurable goals — often with financial or status rewards.

Conventional (C)

Conventional is the sixth and last RIASEC type. Conventional people are energised by structured, detail-oriented work with clear rules, data-handling and organisation.

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Emotional Intelligence (EI), sometimes called EQ, is the ability to perceive, understand, regulate and use emotions — your own and other people's — to inform thinking and behaviour. The most commonly used framework is Daniel Goleman's, which divides EI into four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

Self-Awareness

Self-Awareness is the first of Goleman's four Emotional Intelligence domains. It is the ability to recognise your own emotions as they arise and to understand how they influence your thoughts and behaviour.

Self-Management

Self-Management is the second Goleman EQ domain. It is the ability to regulate your own emotions — especially disruptive ones — instead of acting on them reflexively.

Social Awareness

Social Awareness is the third Goleman EQ domain. It is the ability to accurately read other people's emotional states — empathy, group dynamics and unspoken social signals.

Relationship Management

Relationship Management is the fourth and last Goleman EQ domain. It is the ability to use emotional signals — yours and others' — to navigate conflict, influence, and sustained collaboration.

General intelligence (g)

The g factor is the underlying general cognitive ability inferred from the fact that performance on almost any cognitive task correlates positively with performance on any other. IQ tests are designed to estimate g.

Flynn effect

The Flynn effect is the observed rise of raw IQ scores by roughly 3 points per decade across the 20th century. Tests are re-normed to keep the mean at 100, so the rise is invisible in reported scores but real in raw data.

Secure attachment

Secure attachment is one of the four adult attachment styles. Securely attached people are comfortable with both intimacy and autonomy, tend to trust partners and seek support directly under stress.

Anxious attachment

Anxious attachment is one of the four adult attachment styles. Anxiously attached people crave closeness, fear abandonment and monitor partner behaviour for signs of withdrawal.

Avoidant attachment

Avoidant attachment is one of the four adult attachment styles. Avoidantly attached people value independence over closeness, downplay emotional needs and withdraw under conflict or pressure for intimacy.

Disorganised attachment

Disorganised attachment is the fourth adult attachment style. Disorganised-attached people want closeness and fear it simultaneously, often due to early experiences where the caregiver was both source of comfort and source of threat.

Grit

Grit is a personality construct developed by Angela Duckworth describing passion and perseverance for long-term goals — the capacity to sustain effort over years toward a single ambition.

Growth mindset

Growth mindset is Carol Dweck's construct for the belief that abilities can be developed through effort, strategy and feedback — as opposed to a "fixed mindset," which treats ability as innate and unchangeable.

Dark Triad

The Dark Triad is a cluster of three socially aversive personality traits: Machiavellianism (strategic manipulation), subclinical narcissism (grandiosity and entitlement) and subclinical psychopathy (callousness and impulsivity).

Locus of control

Locus of control is Julian Rotter's construct for how much people believe outcomes depend on their own actions (internal) versus external forces such as luck, fate or powerful others.

Cognitive reflection

Cognitive reflection is the tendency to override intuitive but incorrect responses in favour of deliberate analysis. It is measured by the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), a short set of "trick" questions developed by Shane Frederick.

Chronotype

Chronotype is an individual's biological propensity toward being more active and alert at certain times of day — morning-type ("lark"), evening-type ("owl"), or intermediate. It is substantially genetic and shifts predictably with age.

Reverse-keyed item

A reverse-keyed item is a questionnaire item where agreement indicates a low (not high) score on the trait being measured. Psychometric tests mix reverse- and forward-keyed items to detect careless or acquiescent responding.

Percentile

A percentile is a score expressed as the percentage of a reference population that falls below it. A score at the 70th percentile is higher than 70% of that population — not 70% of maximum possible.

Likert scale

A Likert scale is a rating format, usually 5 or 7 points, ranging from strong disagreement to strong agreement. It was developed by Rensis Likert in 1932 and is the most widely used response format in personality testing.