Psychology Crossword Puzzle Printable

Print a criss-cross psychology crossword clued by definition, from Habit and Reward to Schema and Heuristic, with its answer key.

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Psychology Crossword

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Answer key: Psychology Crossword

1G2JOYA3B4LE5ADERTA6FO7RGETI8SEENLWN9NEA10TA11STEERIME12PRIDEOIDNLE

Across 2 JOY · 4 LEADER · 6 FORGET · 10 TASTE · 12 PRIDE

Down 1 GOAL · 3 BRAIN · 5 ATTENTION · 7 REWARD · 8 SLEEP · 9 NEED · 11 SMILE

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All 168 clues

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Brain and Senses 28

  • Alert Wide awake and ready to respond
  • Attention Concentrating on one thing while tuning out others
  • Awareness Knowing what is going on around you and inside you
  • Brain The command center in the head, where thoughts and feelings arise
  • Cerebellum Structure at the back of the head, under the cerebrum, that coordinates movement
  • Cortex Wrinkled outer layer of the cerebrum, where much thinking happens
  • Depth How far away something is; two eyes help a person judge it
  • Dream Story-like images and feelings that pass through a sleeping person's head
  • Hearing The sense that works through the ears
  • Hemisphere Either half of the cerebrum, left or right
  • Illusion Something that fools the eye, such as two equal lines that look unequal
  • Instinct Inborn pattern of action that an animal does not have to be taught
  • Lobe One of the main regions of each half of the cerebrum, such as the frontal or the temporal
  • Mind The part of a person that thinks, feels and remembers
  • Neuron Nerve cell that sends and receives messages
  • Pain Unpleasant feeling that warns the body of harm
  • Perception Process of organizing and interpreting what the sense organs take in
  • Reflex Quick automatic reaction, such as a knee jerk, that needs no thinking
  • Retina Inner coat of the eyeball, where rods and cones catch the picture
  • Sensation Raw input from eyes, ears, skin, tongue or nose, before any meaning is made of it
  • Senses Five well-known ways the body takes in the world around it
  • Sleep Nightly state of rest in which dreaming happens
  • Smell The sense that works through the nose
  • Synapse Meeting point of two nerve cells, where a message jumps across
  • Taste The sense at work when you lick a lemon
  • Threshold The point at which a sight or sound becomes just strong enough to notice
  • Touch The sense that works through the skin
  • Vision The sense that works through the eyes

Learning and Conditioning 27

  • Association Mental link between two things that happen together
  • Behavior What an organism does, as opposed to what it thinks or feels
  • Classical Word for learning by linking two events, first studied with drooling dogs
  • Conditioning Learning by linking events, as when a dog drools at the sound that means dinner
  • Cue Signal that prompts an action or helps a person remember
  • Curiosity Wish to explore and find out
  • Extinction Fading of a learned reaction when nothing follows it any more
  • Feedback Information about how well you did, used to do better next time
  • Generalize To react to similar things in the same way after learning about one
  • Habit Action done so often that it happens almost without thinking
  • Imitation Learning by doing what you saw another do
  • Insight Sudden understanding of how to solve something, the "aha" moment
  • Mistake Wrong step that a learner can learn from
  • Modeling Demonstrating an action for someone else to copy
  • Observe To watch carefully; much learning happens this way
  • Operant Word for learning in which consequences change how often an action is done
  • Practice Repeated doing that makes a shaky new ability smooth
  • Punishment Unpleasant consequence that makes an action less likely to be repeated
  • Reinforcer Any consequence that makes an action more likely to be repeated
  • Repeat To do or say again, a simple way to learn
  • Response Reaction to something sensed
  • Reward Something pleasant given after an action, which makes the action more likely
  • Routine Usual order of doing things, such as a bedtime one
  • Shaping Teaching a new action step by step, rewarding each closer try
  • Skill Something a person learns to do well
  • Stimulus Anything that can be sensed and reacted to, such as a light or a sound
  • Trial "___ and error": trying one way after another until something works

Memory and Thinking 34

  • Algorithm Step-by-step method that is sure to reach the solution
  • Bias Leaning in thinking that pulls a conclusion away from the facts
  • Chunking Bundling many small bits into a few bigger ones so they are easier to hold in the head
  • Cognition All the mental activity of knowing: thinking, remembering and understanding
  • Concept Mental grouping of similar things, such as "bird" or "chair"
  • Creativity Talent for original thinking
  • Déjà vu French for "already seen": the odd feeling that a new moment has happened before
  • Encoding Stage one of remembering: getting information in
  • Episodic Word for memories of events in your own life
  • Fact Piece of information that can be shown to be true
  • Flashbulb Word for a vivid, detailed snapshot of the moment a person heard big news
  • Forget To fail to remember
  • Heuristic Mental shortcut: fast, handy and sometimes mistaken
  • Idea A thought or plan formed in the head
  • Imagery Mental pictures
  • Imagination Forming pictures or ideas of things that are not present
  • Intelligence Capacity to reason, plan and learn; what an IQ test tries to measure
  • Judgment Conclusion a person comes to after weighing the evidence
  • Language Spoken, signed or written words and the grammar that orders them
  • Logic Rules of sound thinking
  • Memory Ability to store what was learned and bring it back later
  • Mnemonic Trick for remembering, such as a rhyme or an acronym
  • Primacy "___ effect": the first items of a list are remembered better than the middle ones
  • Problem Question or difficulty that needs a solution
  • Reasoning Thinking something through step by step to reach a conclusion
  • Recall To bring an answer back with no hints, as on an essay test
  • Recency "___ effect": the last items of a list are remembered better than the middle ones
  • Recognize To know something as seen before, as on a multiple-choice test
  • Rehearsal Going over information again and again to keep it
  • Retrieval Stage three of remembering: pulling information back out
  • Schema Mental framework that organizes what a person knows about something
  • Semantic Word for memories of facts and meanings
  • Spacing "___ effect": learning spread over days lasts longer than learning packed into one sitting
  • Storage Stage two of remembering: holding on to information

Motivation and Emotion 36

  • Achievement Success earned by trying hard
  • Anger Strong feeling of being upset about something unfair
  • Belonging Feeling of being accepted as one of a family, team or class
  • Boredom Feeling of having nothing interesting to do
  • Calm Peaceful and not upset
  • Courage Acting even though you are scared
  • Disgust Strong dislike, as at rotten food
  • Drive Inner tension that pushes an organism to act, as an empty stomach does
  • Emotion A strong feeling that shows in the body and on the face
  • Empathy Understanding and sharing what another person feels
  • Envy Wanting what someone else has
  • Esteem Respect and good opinion; with "self-" it is how you value yourself
  • Extrinsic Word for the urge to do a thing for an outside prize or to avoid trouble
  • Fear What a person feels in the face of danger
  • Frown Facial expression of displeasure
  • Goal Something a person aims to achieve
  • Guilt Bad feeling after doing something you believe is wrong
  • Hierarchy "___ of needs": often drawn as a pyramid, with food and water at the base
  • Hunger Feeling that tells the body it is time to eat
  • Incentive Outside lure, such as a prize or pay, that gets a person moving
  • Intrinsic Word for the urge to do a thing for its own sake, because it is enjoyable
  • Joy Delight; the feeling of a very good day
  • Mood State of feeling that lingers and often has no single clear cause
  • Motivation What moves a person to start acting and keep going
  • Motive Reason for doing something
  • Need A must-have, as opposed to a want
  • Optimism Tendency to expect good things
  • Persist To keep trying in spite of setbacks
  • Pride Glow of satisfaction in your own success
  • Resilience Ability to bounce back after a hard time
  • Sadness Feeling of sorrow, as after a loss
  • Smile Facial expression of happiness
  • Stress Strain a person feels under pressure or heavy demands
  • Surprise Feeling caused by something sudden and unexpected
  • Thirst Feeling that tells the body it wants water
  • Worry Uneasy thoughts about what might go wrong

People and Research 43

  • Adolescence The teenage years, between being a child and being an adult
  • Altruism Unselfish concern for the good of others
  • Attachment Lasting tie of affection, first formed in infancy
  • Attitude Settled way of thinking or feeling about something
  • Bystander Onlooker; one who watches without stepping in
  • Childhood Time of life between being a baby and being a teenager
  • Conformity Changing how you act to match those around you
  • Consent Agreement to take part, given after being told what a study involves
  • Control Word for the comparison set in a test: the people who get no special treatment
  • Cooperation Working together toward a shared aim
  • Correlation Link between two measures, such that when one changes the other tends to
  • Culture Shared beliefs, customs and ways of life handed down among a people
  • Data Recorded observations and numbers that research produces
  • Ethics Moral rules of research, such as doing no harm to those who take part
  • Experiment Research method that tests cause and effect under controlled conditions
  • Extrovert Outgoing person who recharges by being with others
  • Group Two or more people who do things together
  • Heredity What is handed down through genes from one generation to the next
  • Hypothesis Testable prediction
  • Identity Your own answer to the question "Who am I?"
  • Interview Conversation in which a researcher asks a person questions
  • Introvert Person who is quiet and inward-looking and recharges alone
  • Leader The one who guides a team
  • Nature Inborn side of the debate about what shapes a person; the other side is how one is raised
  • Norm What most members of a society treat as the proper way to act
  • Nurture Upbringing and surroundings, as opposed to what a person is born with
  • Obedience Following orders from someone in charge
  • Peer An equal: someone in your own age band or class
  • Personality A person's lasting pattern of thinking, feeling and acting
  • Placebo Inactive pill or treatment used for comparison in a test
  • Prejudice Judging someone in advance, without the facts
  • Psychologist Person trained in the science of thinking, feeling and acting
  • Psychology Science of how people think, feel and act
  • Replicate To run a study again to see whether the result holds
  • Role Part a person is expected to play, such as student or big sister
  • Sample The part of a population that a researcher actually studies
  • Stereotype Fixed picture of a whole category of persons that ignores how individuals differ
  • Survey Questionnaire given to a large number of persons
  • Teamwork Many people pulling together on one job
  • Theory Well-tested explanation that ties many observations together
  • Trait Lasting quality of a person, such as shyness or honesty
  • Trust Belief that someone is reliable and honest
  • Variable Factor that a researcher measures or changes

How this list was compiled: Clues written for this site as course vocabulary for a first psychology class, each clue a definition in our own words. Meanings were checked in English Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 4.0) and in Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org) in October 2026. No disorder, diagnosis or treatment is listed and no psychologist is named. A study aid, not advice about anyone's health. Licence: own work

How it works

This psychology crossword puzzle, printable on Letter or A4, is a vocabulary crossword for a first psychology course or a unit on the brain. It opens on Easy Psychology Words, and five course sets follow.

Read the full guide

Five course sets and an easy one

Brain and Senses has Neuron, Cortex and Perception. Learning and Conditioning has Stimulus, Reinforcer and Extinction. Memory and Thinking has Encoding, Chunking and Heuristic. Motivation and Emotion has Drive, Incentive and Empathy. People and Research has Conformity, Hypothesis and Placebo. Easy Psychology Words keeps to Habit, Dream, Mood and Goal.

Course vocabulary only

No disorder, diagnosis or therapy is an answer, and no psychologist is named: the famous experiment with dogs is clued by what the dogs learned to do.

  • Print Memory and Thinking before a unit test: Encoding, Storage and Retrieval are clued as the three stages of remembering.

Questions and answers

Are there psychology crossword puzzles printable for 5th grade?

Yes: stay on Easy Psychology Words. Its answers are everyday words such as Sleep, Habit, Fear, Goal and Peer. The five course sets suit middle and high school. These bands are our judgment, not a published standard.

Are the psychology crossword clues definitions?

Yes. Each clue gives the meaning of its answer in plain words, such as "Mental shortcut: fast, handy and sometimes mistaken" for Heuristic. The meanings were checked in Wikipedia and in Wiktionary.

Does the psychology crossword come with an answer key?

Yes. The puzzle and its clues print first and the filled-in grid prints last, so the key can stay on your desk while the class works.

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