Psychology and Research Methods Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts from the psychology lecture notes.

Stimulus

Anything that causes a functional or psychological response in an organism.

Operant

An observable behavior an organism emits voluntarily and that is controlled or influenced by its consequences.

Extinction

Permanent dying of a species of living things.

Response

A reaction to something that happens or is experienced.

Conditioned Response

A response you learn

Unconditioned Response

A response you don't have to learn, biologically have it in your "tool kit" already.

Independent Variable

A factor in your experiment that is a control, it is not changed by other variables being measured. The cause in the "Cause and Effect".

Dependent Variable

The factor in your experiment that responds to changes in other factors. The effect in the "Cause and Effect".

Reinforcer

any stimulus or event that follows a behavior and increases the likelihood that the behavior will happen again

Baseline

A basic standard used as a reference point, an initial measurement.

Private Events

Internal, subjective experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and physiological sensations. Directly observable only by the person experiencing them.

Between Group Design

An experimental setup where different participants are assigned to each independent variable condition or group so that each person experiences only one specific condition.

Within Participant Design

an experimental setup where the same participants testing all conditions or treatments instead of splitting into separate groups.

Reversal

an experimental method used to prove that a treatment actually causes a change in behavior by introducing, removing, and reintroducing an intervention

Empirical

based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation, direct experience, or experiment rather than theory or pure logic.

Ignaz Semmelweis

A medical doctor and scientist who enforced hand washing regulations in hospitals starting in the maternity ward and saved lives.

Hypothesis

a proposed, testable explanation for a phenomenon that guides further scientific research or investigation.

Experiment

a structured test/procedure carried out under controlled conditions to discover something, test a hypothesis, or examine how a specific process works.

Reflex

an automatic, involuntary physical reaction to a stimulus that happens without conscious thought.

Learning

the process of acquiring information

Contingency

a future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with absolute certainty

Elicit

bring out a response or reaction from someone.

Miasma Theory

an old medical idea that disease comes from breathing bad air filled with toxic vapors from rotting matter

Consequence

the result of an earlier action or event.

Positive Reinforcement

the addition of a rewarding stimulus after a behavior to make that behavior happen more often.