Psychophysics—study of the relationship between
physical energy and psychological experiences.
Psychosis—set of disorders including schizophrenia
characterized by an apparent break from reality.
Psychosurgery—any surgical technique in which
neural pathways in the brain are cut in order to
change behavior, including lobotomy.
Psychoticism—Eysenck’s personality dimension that
measures our level of tough-mindedness, how hos-
tile, ruthless, and insensitive we are; as opposed to
tender-mindedness, how friendly, empathetic, and
cooperative we are.
Puberty—the early adolescent period marked by
accelerated growth and onset of the ability to
reproduce.
Punishment—an aversive consequence that follows a
voluntary behavior thereby decreasing the proba-
bility the behavior will be repeated.
Pupil—small, adjustable opening in the iris of the
eye that is smaller in bright light and larger in
darkness.
Quasi-experiment—research method similar to a
controlled experiment, but in which random
assignment to groups is not possible. It can provide
strong evidence suggesting cause and effect
relationships.
Random assignment—division of the sample
into groups such that every individual has an
equal chance of being put in any group or
condition.
Random selection—choosing of members of a pop-
ulation such that every individual has an equal
chance of being chosen.
Range—the difference between the largest score and
the smallest score (quick and dirty).
Rational emotive therapy(RET)—cognitive treat-
ment developed by Ellis which is based on con-
fronting irrational thoughts; change in irrational
thinking will lead to a change in irrational
behavior.
Rationalization—Freudian defense mechanism that
provides socially acceptable reasons for our inap-
propriate behavior.
Reaction formation—Freudian defense mechanism
involving acting in a manner exactly opposite to
our true feelings.
Real self—according to Rogers, the positive and orig-
inal organism we are before society imposes condi-
tions of worth on us.
Reality principle—the manner in which the ego
delays gratification and otherwise deals with the
environment in a planned rational fashion (in
Freudian theory).
Recall—retrieval of previously learned information.
Recessive gene—the gene that is hidden or not
expressed when the genes for a trait are different.
Reciprocal determinism—the characteristics of the
person, the person’s behavior, and the environment
all affect one another in two-way causal relation-
ships (according to Bandura).
Reciprocity—compliance technique used by groups;
individuals feel obligated to go along with a request
for a small donation if they have first accepted a
small gift.
Recognition—identification of learned items when
they are presented.
Reconstruction—retrieval of memories often dis-
torted by adding, dropping, or changing details to
fit a schema.
Reflex—the simplest form of behavior.
Reflex arc—the path over which the reflex travels
which typically includes a receptor, sensory or
afferent neuron, interneuron, motor or efferent
neuron, and effector.
Regression—Freudian defense mechanism character-
ized by immature, pleasurable behavior of an ear-
lier level of development.
Rehabilitation psychologists—help clients with
mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and
disabilities resulting from stroke or accidents adapt
to their situations.
Rehearsal—the conscious repetition of information
to either maintain information in STM or to
encode it for storage into long-term memory.
Reinforcer—in operant conditioning, any event that
strengthens the behavior it follows.
Relearning—a measure of retention of memory that
assesses the time saved compared to learning the
first time when learning information again.
Reliability—consistency or repeatability of results.
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
(rTMS)—a treatment for depression involving
repeated pulses through a magnetic coil positioned
above the right eyebrow of the patient that does
not result in memory loss.
Replication—repetition of the methods used in a
previous experiment to see whether the same
methods will yield the same results.
Representativeness heuristic—tendency to judge
the likelihood of things according to how theyGlossary Ü 333