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| The scientific study of overt behavior and mental processes (covert behavior). |
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| An empirical investigation structured to answer questions about the world in a systematic and insubjective (observations can be reliably confirmed by multiple observers) fashion. |
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| A systematic approach to answering scientific quesitons. |
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| In scientific research, the process of naming and classifying. |
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| In psychology, understanding is achieved when the causes of a behavior can be stated. |
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| An ability to accurately forecast behavior. |
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| Altering conditions that influence behavior. |
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| Critical Thinking (in Psychology) |
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| A type of reflection involving in the support of beliefs through scientific explanation and observation. |
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| Any false and unscientific system of beliefs and practices that is offered as an explanation of behavior. |
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| Unfounded belief held without evidence or in spite of falsifying evidence. |
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| The tendency to believe claims because they seem true or because it would be nice if they were true. |
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| The tendency to remember or notice information that fits one's expectations, while forgetting discrepancies. |
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| The tendency to consider a personal description accurate if it is stated in very general terms. |
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| A form of critical thinking based on careful measurement and contolled observation. |
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| A statement of the predicted outcome of an experiment or an educated guess about the relationship between variables. |
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| Defining a scientific concept by stating the specific actions or procedures used to measure it. For example, "hunger" might be defined as "the number of hours of food deprivation." |
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| A system of ideas designed to interrelate concepts and facts in a way that summarizes existing data and predicts future observations. |
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| Any physical energy sensed by an organism. |
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| To look within; to examine one's own thoughts, feelings, or sensations. |
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| The school of thought concerned with analyzing sensations and personal experience into basic elements. |
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| The school of psychology concerned with how behavior and mental abilities help people adapt to their environments. |
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| Darwin's theory that evolution favors those plants and animals best suited to their living conditions. |
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| The school of psychology that emphasizes the study of overt, observable behavior. |
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| Any muscular action, glandular activity, or other identifiable aspect of behavior. |
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| A school of psychology empasizing the study of thinking, learning, and perception in whole units, not by analysis into parts. |
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| Contents of the mind that are beyond awareness, especially impulses and desires not directly known to a person. |
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| A Freudian approach to psychotherapy emphasizing the exploration of unconscious forces. |
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| Any theory of behavior that emphasizes internal conflicts, motives, and unconscious forces. |
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| An approach to psychology that focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideas. |
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| The idea that all behavior has prior causes that would completely explain one's choices and actions if all such causes were known. |
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| The idea that human beings are capable of freely making choices or decisions. |
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| The ongoing process of fully developing one's personal potential. |
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| The attempt to explain behavior in terms of underlying biological principles. |
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| The broader field of biopsychologists and others who study the brain and nervous system, such as biologists and biochemists. |
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| The study of how human evolution and genetics might explain our current behavior. |
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| Psychological Perspective |
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| The traditional view that behavior is shaped by psychological processes occuring at the level of the individual. |
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| The study of human strengths, virtues, and effective functioning. |
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| Sociocultural Perspective |
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| The focus on the importance of social and cultural contexts in influencing the behavior of individuals. |
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| The idea that behavior must be judged relative to the values of the culture in which it occurs. |
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| Rules that define acceptable and expected behavior for members of a group. |
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| A person highly trained in the methods, factual knowledge, and theories of psychology. |
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| In research, an animal whose behavior is used to derive principles that may apply to human behavior. |
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| A psychologist who specializes in the treatment of psychological and behavioral disturbances or who does research on such disturbances. |
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| A psychologist who specializes in the treatment of milder emotional and behavioral disturbances. |
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| A medical doctor with additonal training in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders. |
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| A mental health professional (usually a medical doctor) trained to practice psychoanalysis. |
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| A mental health professional who specializes in helping people with problems not involving serious mental disorder; for example, marriage counselors, career counselors, or school counselors. |
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| Psychiatric Social Worker |
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| A mental health professional trained to apply social science principles to help patients in clinics and hospitals. |
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| A formal trial undertaken to confirm or disconfirm a hypothesis about cause and effect. |
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| Humans (also referred to as participants) or animals whose behavior is investigated in an experiment. |
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| Any condition that changes or can be made to change; a measure, event, or state that may vary. |
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| In an experiment, the condition being investigated as a possible cause of some change in behavior. The values that this variable takes are chosen by the experimenter. |
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| In an experiment, the condition (usually a behavior) that is affected by the independent variable. |
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| Conditions or factors excluded from influencing the outcome of an experiment. |
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| In a controlled experiment, the group of subjects exposed to the independent variable or experimental condition. |
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| In a controlled experiment, the group of subjects exposed to all experimental conditions or variables except the independent variable. |
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| The use of chance (for example, flipping a coin) to assign subjects to experimental and control groups. |
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| Statistically Significant |
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| Experimental results that would rarely occur by chance alone. |
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| Research Participant Bias |
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| Changes in the behavior of research praticipants caused by the unintended influence of their own expectations. |
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| Changes in behavior due to participants' expectations that a drug (or other treatment) will have some effect. |
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| An arrangement in which participants remain unaware of whether they are in the experimental group or the control group. |
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| Changes in participants' behavior caused by the unintended influence of a researcher's actions. |
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| A prediction that prompts people to act in ways that make the prediction come true. |
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| An arrangement in which both participants and experimenters are unaware of whether participants are in the experimental group or the control group, including who might have been administered a drug or placebo. |
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| Investigating causes of behavior through controlled experimentation. |
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| Observing behavior as it unfolds in natural settings. |
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| Changes in an organism's behavior brought about by an awareness of being observed. |
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| The tendency of an observer to distort observations or perceptions to match his or her expectations. |
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| The error of attributing human thoughts, feelings, or motives to animals, especially as a way of explaining their behavior. |
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| The existence of a consistent, systematic relationship between two events, measures, or variables. |
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| A nonexperimental study designed to measure the degree of relationship (if any) between two or more events, measures, or variables. |
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| Coefficient of Correlation |
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| A statistical index ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 that indicates the direction and degree of correlation. |
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| The act of causing some effect. |
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| An in-depth focus on all aspects of a single person. |
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| In psychology, a public polling technique used to answer psychological questions. |
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| A small, randomly selected part of a larger population that accurately reflects characteristics of the whole population. |
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| An entire group of animals or people belonging to a particular category (for example, all college students or all married women.) |
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