Portion of the entire population used to estimate what is likely happening within a population.
Abbreviated with a lowercase x with a horizontal line over top (called 'x-bar'), the sample mean is the true mean of a sample of data often used to estimate the true mean of the entire population.
The standard deviation of a sample of the population. Often used to estimate the true population standard deviation. Often abbreviated 'SD."
amount of error associated with a sample due to
its deviation from the population
graphical representation of data received in a correlational study.
The cognitive structure utilized to make sense of
other than one which meets our basic needs such as
food or water (e.g., intellectual stimulation,
Errors in the selection and placement of subjects
into groups that results in differences between
groups which could effect the results of an
process of understanding oneself more completely
and being aware of issues affecting one's life.
subjective perception of the self.
One's belief in his or her own ability.
The tendency to assign internal attributes to
successes and external factors to failures.
The part of declarative memory that stores
general information such as names and facts.
One half of the
Information brought in through
first stage in Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development
where a child's primary way of learning about the
world is through the senses and movement.
reduced ability to sense a stimulus after prolonged
The brief storage of information brought in
through the senses; typically only lasts up
to a few seconds.
caused by the absence of an infant's primary
neurotransmitter involved in mood, sleep, appetite,
and impulsive and aggressive behavior. Too
little has been associated with depression and some
anxiety disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive
disorder). Many antidepressants attempt to
reduce the amount of serotonin that is taken back
(reuptake) into the sending neuron (e.g., Serotonin
Reuptake Inhibitors [SRI]).
A feeling of attractedness or
arousal associated with a particular gender.
Sexual behavior can be a result of this but does
not necessarily define a person's orientation.
Gradually molding a specific response by
reinforcing responses that come close to the
The stage of
memory where information is stored for up to 30
seconds prior to either being forgotten or
transferred to long term memory.
The abbreviation for the standard deviation of a population.
The abbreviation for
attribute explained or interpreted as being caused
by external influences.
Skinner, B. F.
Considered the father of behavioral
therapy. He once stated that with the
ability to control a child's environment, he could
raise a child to become anything he wanted.
cage designed for animals in operant conditioning experiments.
The degree to which a curve or distribution of scores has extreme scores atypical of the majority of scores
The effect of other’s presence on one’s
Typically we perform simple or well-learned
tasks better in front of others and difficult or
novel tasks worse.
theory arguing that personality is learned through the
interactions with the environment.
The tendency for people to work less on a
task the greater the number of people are working
on that task.
The branch of
psychology which focuses on society and it's
impact on the individual.
behaviors associated with a particular position
within a group.
or behaviors deemed desirable or necessary to
effectively interact with society.
used to describe the degree of emotional support
afforded a client by friends, family, and other acquaintances.
system of the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). Primary
function is to regulate the actions of the skeletal
A correlational technique used primarily for rank ordered data (ordinal scale).
The correlation coefficient determined by comparing first half of the measurement to the second half.
Measure of the internal consistency of a test or
tendency for previously learned information to
resurface rapidly after a period of extinction.
Information that is spontaneously recovered is thought
to lay dormant but not forgotten (e.g., riding a bicycle
after a long period of not riding).
period of development that occurs at about the
same time for each person. Developmental and
Personality theories are often made up of a series
idea that an individual must pass through one
stage of development before he or she can reach
the next stage.
A measure of spread within a distribution (the
square root of the variance). The most popular and most
reliable measure of variability but the more
skewed a distribution, the more error there will
be in the standard deviation because of its
reliance on the mean.
Error of Measurement
a statistical procedure used to determine the amount of error of any measurement device
Error of the Mean
An estimation of the unaccounted for error within a mean. If the mean is 10 and the standard error of the mean is 2, then the true score is likely to fall somewhere between 8 and 12 or 10 +/- 2.
process of making a test or procedure the same for
everyone so that results can be compared to each
score derived by transforming the data based on
the standard deviation. Standard scores can
then be compared to one another on face
value. (See z-score, T-score, NCE score,
stanines, and Wechsler's Deviation IQ Score)
A standard score that
literally means Standard Nine, stanines have a mean of five and a standard deviation of approximately two. Stanines 2 through 8 are exactly 1/2 standard deviations and stanines one and nine or open ended.
An observed characteristic of a sample (e.g., 20% improvement rate, range of IQ’s)
internal characteristic (e.g., depressed, angry)
that information learned in a particular state of
mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more
easily recalled when in that same state of mind.
and Leaf Display
multiple column table depicting the individual digits of the scores. A score of 95 would have a stem of 9 and a leaf of 5, a score of 62 would have a stem of 6 and a leaf of 2. If a particular stem has more than one leaf, such as the scores 54, 58, and 51, the stem of 5 has three leaves, in this case 458.
Anything in the
environment to which one responds.
ability to tell the difference and therefore not
respond to similar stimuli.
response to new stimuli due its similarity to the
The process of
saving information in long term memory
The physical and psychological result of internal
or external pressure.
Anything, internal or external, which applies
psychological pressure on an individual.
of thought from the 19th century focused on the
gathering of psychological information through the
examination of the structure of the mind.
perception of reality made by an individual that
may be different from the perception made by
A method of reducing bias in a sample of subjects by matching specific criteria of the sample to the true characteristics of the population. (Example: If the population is 60% female then 60% of the subjects in the sample should also be female)
A defense mechanism where undesired or
unacceptable impulses are transformed into
behaviors which are accepted by society.
In Psychoanalytical theory, the part of
the personality that represents the conscience.
term for his two distinct categories of
personality traits. They include
Neuroticism. According to Eysenck, each of
us fall on a continuum based on the degree of each
mechanism where we push unacceptable thoughts out
of consciousness and into our unconscious.
technique in which subjects respond to a series of
Aristotle’s theory of reasoning where two
true statements are followed by a single logical
Nervous System (SNS)
of the Autonomic Nervous System responsible for the
fight or flight phenomenon and which plays a role
(along with the Parasympathetic Nervous System) in maintaining
the body's homeostasis.
space between the axon of one neuron and the
dendrites of another through which
treatment technique where the client is exposed to
gradually increasing anxiety provoking stimuli
while relaxing; the goal is for the client to
eventually confront a phobia or fear without the
previously associated anxiety.