Behavior
Everything we do that can be directly observed.
behavioral approach
A psychological perspective emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants.
biological approach
A psychological perspective that examines behavior and mental processes through a focus on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.
cognitive approach
A psychological perspective that focuses on the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.
critical thinking
The process of thinking reflectively and productively, as well as evaluating evidence.
evolutionary approach
A psychological perspective that uses evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and "survival of the fittest" as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.
Functionalism
An early school of psychology that was concerned with the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in individuals' adaptation to the environment.
humanistic approach
A psychological perspective that emphasizes a person's positive qualities, capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.
mental processes
The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.
natural selection
An evolutionary process that favors organisms' traits or characteristics that are best adapted to reproduce and survive.
Neuroscience
The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system.
positive psychology movement
The push for a stronger emphasis on research involving the experiences that people value, the traits associated with optimal capacities for love and work, and positive group and civic values.
psychodynamic approach
The push for a stronger emphasis on research involving the experiences that people value, the traits associated with optimal capacities for love and work, and positive group and civic values.
science
In psychology, the use of systematic methods to observe, describe, predict, and explain behavior
Structuralism
An early school of psychology that attempted to identify the structures of the human mind.
case study
An in-depth look at a single individual; also known as a case history.
control group
A comparison group that is as much like the experimental group as possible and is treated in every way like the experimental group except for the manipulated factor.
correlational research
A research strategy that identifies the relationships between two or more variables in order to describe how these variables change together.
dependent variable
A factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable.
descriptive statistics
Mathematical procedures that are used to describe and summarize sets of data in a meaningful way.
double-blind experiment
An experiment that is conducted so that neither the experimenter nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group until after the results are calculated.
ecological validity
The extent to which an experimental design is representative of the real-world issues it is supposed to address.
ethnic gloss
Using an ethnic label, such as "African American" or "Latino," in a superficial way that portrays the ethnic group as more homogeneous than it really is.
experiment
A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more variables believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated while all other variables are held constant.
experimental group
A group in the research study whose experience is manipulated.
hypothesis
An idea that is arrived at logically from a theory. It is a prediction that can be tested.
independent variable
The manipulated experimental factor in an experiment.
inferential statistics
Mathematical methods that are used to indicate whether data sufficiently support or confirm a research hypothesis.
internal validity
The extent to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable.
longitudinal design
A special kind of systematic observation that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time.
mean
A statistical measure of central tendency that is calculated by adding all the scores and then dividing by the number of scores.
median
A statistical measure of central tendency that falls exactly in the middle of a distribution of scores after they have been arranged (or ranked) from highest to lowest.
meta-analysis
A statistical measure of central tendency that falls exactly in the middle of a distribution of scores after they have been arranged (or ranked) from highest to lowest.
mode
A statistical measure of central tendency; the score that occurs most often.
naturalistic observation
Observation of behavior in real-world settings with no effort made to manipulate or control the situation.
operational definition
An objective description of how a research variable is going to be measured and observed
placebo
A harmless, inert substance that may be given to participants instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug, and that has no specific physiological effect.
placebo effect
The situation where participants' expectations, rather than the experimental treatment,
population
The entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions.
random assignment
A sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected.
random sample
a sample in which every element in the population has an equal chance of being selected
range
A statistical measure of variability that is the distance between the highest and lowest scores.
research participant bias
The influence of research participants' expectations on their behavior within an experiment.
sample
The subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study.
standard deviation
A statistical measure of variability that involves how much the scores vary on the average around the mean of the sample.
standardized test
A test that requires people to answer a series of written or oral questions or sometimes both.
theory
Theory stating that cells in the visual system respond to red-green and blue-yellow colors; a given cell might be excited by red and inhibited by green, whereas another might be excited by yellow and inhibited by blue.
third variable problem
The situation where an extraneous variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two others.
validity
The soundness of the conclusions we draw from an experiment. In the realm of testing, validity specifically refers to the extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.
variable
Anything that can change.