Existential therapies—focus on helping clients find
purpose and meaning in their lives with an empha-
sis on individual freedom and responsibility.
Experimental group—in a controlled experiment,
the subgroup of the sample that receives the treat-
ment or independent variable.
Experimenter bias—a phenomenon that occurs
when a researcher’s expectations or preferences
about the outcome of a study influence the results
obtained.
Explicit memory (declarative memory)—long-
term memory of facts and experiences we con-
sciously know and can verbalize.
External locus of control—based on Julian Rotter’s
research, the belief that what happens to you is due
to fate, luck, or others.
Extinction—the weakening of a response. In classical
conditioning it’s the removal of the UCS and
in operant conditioning it occurs when the rein-
forcement for the behavior is removed.
Extravert (also extrovert)—originally described by
Jung, a person who exhibits the traits of sociability,
and positive affect, and prefers to pay attention to
the external environment.
Extrinsic motivation—the desire to perform a
behavior for a reward or avoid punishment.
Face validity—a measure of the extent to which con-
tent of a test, on its surface, seems to be meaning-
fully related to what is being tested.
Factor analysis—a statistical procedure that identi-
fies common factors among groups of items by
determining which variables have a high degree of
correlation.
False consensus bias—the tendency of a person to
perceive his or her own views as representative of a
consensus.
Farsighted—too little curvature of the cornea and/or
lens, focusing the image behind the retina so dis-
tant objects are seen more clearly than nearby
objects.
Feature detectors—individual neurons in the pri-
mary visual cortex/occipital lobes that respond to
specific features of a visual stimulus.
Feature extraction(pattern recognition)—when new
information comes into sensory storage, we
actively search through long-term memory in an
effort to find a match for these new raw data.
Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)— a cluster of abnor-
malities that occurs in babies of mothers who drink
alcoholic beverages during pregnancy.
Fetus—the developing human organism from about
nine weeks after conception to birth when organ
systems begin to interact, and sex organs and sense
organs become refined.
Fictional final goals—according to Adler’s personal-
ity theory, these direct our behavior and, since
largely unattainable, need to be modified over
time.
Fight-or-flight response—physiological reaction
that help ready us to fight or to flee from a danger-
ous situation; activation of the sympathetic nerv-
ous system.
Fixation—(for problem solving) an inability to look
at a problem from a fresh perspective, using a prior
strategy that does not lead to success; (in Freud’s
theory) continuing to engage in behaviors associ-
ated with an earlier stage of development.
Fixed interval—schedule of reinforcement in which
the first response after a specific time has passed is
reinforced.
Fixed ratio—schedule of reinforcement in which
reinforcement is presented after a set number of
responses have been made since the previous
reinforcement.
Flashbulb memories—a clear and vivid memory of
an emotionally significant moment or event.
Flooding—behavior treatment for phobias; client is
repeatedly exposed to feared object for extended
periods of time and without escape, until the anx-
iety diminishes.
Fluid intelligence—those cognitive abilities requir-
ing speed or rapid learning which tend to diminish
with adult aging.
Foot-in-the-door—compliance strategy; an agree-
ment to a smaller request leads to agreement with
a larger request later.
Forensic psychologists—psychologists who apply
psychological principles to legal issues.
Formal operational stage—Piaget’s fourth stage of
cognitive development (12+ years) during which
the child begins to think logically about abstract
concepts and engage in hypothetical thinking.
Fovea—small area of the retina in the most direct line
of sight, where cones are most concentrated for
highest visual acuity in bright light.
Framing—refers to the way an issue is stated. How an
issue is framed can significantly affect people’s per-
ceptions, decisions, and judgments.
Fraternal twins—also called dizygotic twins; siblings
who share about half of the same genes because
they develop from two different zygotes.322 á Glossary
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