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| Predictions about the outcome of an investigation that are made before the data are collected. |
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| Criterion or standard for judging the scientific worth of a theory: an adequate theory is capable of providing creative solutions to problems that are of interest and concern to people. For example, a theory might specify the different kinds of parental discipline that lead to the development of physically and psychologically healthy or unhealthy children. If the theory has considerable data to support it, then parents could adopt the kinds of discipline that lead to healthy development (for example, praise for their children when they exhibit helpful behavior, encouragement for cooperative behavior during play activities), and avoid or eliminate the kinds of discipline that lead to unhealthy development (for example, physical and verbal abuse, praise for aggressive behavior). Such a theory therefore would have high applied value: it would help people to raise children who are psychologically healthy. |
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| Research technique involving the intensive study of a single person over a long period of time in order to understand his or her unique behavior. |
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| Criterion for judging the worth of a scientific theory: theories are judged as more adequate and useful if they encompass and account for a wide range and variety of phenomena. |
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| The concepts in the hypotheses must be defined precisely so that accurate measures of the concepts can be devised. Vague concepts lead to faulty and ambiguous operational definitions and a poor testing of the hypotheses. |
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| Theories in which specific hypotheses are derived from abstract propositions and then tested by the collection of data. |
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| Observations of phenomena made by investigators. |
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| Criterion for judging the worth of a scientific theory: the theory's hypotheses are tested by the collection of data to determine whether or not they are accurate. Confirmation of the hypotheses tends to lend support to the theory; disconfirmation of hypotheses, if repeated, tends eventually to decrease confidence in the theory. |
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| Criterion for judging the scientific worth of a theory: an adequate theory should be challenging; it should stiumulate new ideas and new research. |
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| Tentative theoretical statements about how events are related to one another, often stated as predictions about how the operation of one set of events will affect the operation of others. |
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| Generalizations or summary statements about phenomena, derived from a set of facts. |
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| The principle that a behavior becomes more likely when it is followed by a positive reinforcer or the removal of a negative stimulus, whereas it becomes less likely when it is followed by a punisher or the removal of a positive reinforcer. |
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| Systematic and highly reliable associations between variables. |
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| Stuidies in which data are collected on the same individuals over time, so that investigators can determine the direction and extent of changes in the individuals behavior. |
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| Procedures or operations used to define particular constructs. For example, intelligence could be operationally defined in terms of a person's scores on a verbal reasoning test. |
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| Criterion for judging the scientific worth of a theory: an adequate theory should be as parsimonious, or economical, as possible, while still adequately accounting for the phenomena in its domain. |
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| The term used by personality psychologists to describe the uniqueness of the individual. The description of personality involves judgments regarding who the person truly is and how she or he differs from other people. Particular biological tendencies and social and cultural learning experiences combine to determine the person's uniqueness. |
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| Explanation of a phenomenon given after its occurrence. The explanation presumes that certain factors caused the phenomenon, but there is no certain evidence that they actually did so. |
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| The fundamental or core assumptions of a theory. They are taken as self-evidently true in order to provide a clear and focused direction for theorizing and research. They specify which phenomena will be addressed by the theory and which won't be addressed. For example, one theory of aggression could posulate that aggression is learned behavior, whereas another could postulate that it is genetically based. Reliance on the assumption that it is learned would lead the theorist and investigators to focus their energies and attention on the environmental conditions that produce it and not on its instinctive origins. Reliance on the assumption that it is genetically based would focus attention on its biological roots and not on its environmental causes. |
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| Criterion for judging the scientific worth of a theory: an adequate theory should contain constructs and relational statements that are clearly and explicitly stated and measured. |
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| General relational statements that may be true or false. They are not tested directly; instead, hypotheses are derived from them. The hypotheses--specific propositions containing constructs that are operationalized--can be confirmed or disconfirmed through empirical testing. |
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| A highly complex abstraction that encompasses a variety of components or dimensions. For example, intelligence is a construct that encompasses reasoning ability, spatial ability, mechanical ability, mathematical ability, and so forth. |
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| Theoretical propositions or hypotheses that link or relate constructs. For example, the constructs of frustration and aggression might be linked as follows: Increases in frustration lead to increases in aggressive behavior. |
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| Duplication or repetition of an experiment or study to determine whether or not the original findings are reliable. |
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| A number of interrelated conceptual statements that are created by investigators to account for a phenomenon or a set of phenomena. |
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