vocabulary


 * Empiricism- empirical method or practice.
 * Structuralism- a usually synchronic approach to language study in which a language is analyzed as an independent network of formal systems, each of which is composed of elements that are defined in terms of their contrasts with other elements in the system.
 * Functionalism- the doctrine that emphasizes the adaptiveness of the mental or behavioral processes.
 * Psychology- the science of the mind or of mental states and processes.
 * Natural selection- the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.
 * Clinical psychology- the branch of psychology dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of personality and behavioral disorders.
 * Psychiatry- the practice or science of diagnosing and treating mental disorders.
 * Critical thinking- the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion
 * Theory- a particular conception or view of something to be done or of the method of doing it; a system of rules or principles.
 * Hypothesis- a proposition, or set of propositions, set forth as an explanation
 * Operational definition- a description of an experimental procedure for the translation of a variable into measurement or numeric value
 * Case study- a study of an individual unit, as a person, family, or social group, usually emphasizing developmental issues and relationships with the environment
 * Survey- to take a general or comprehensive view of or appraise, as a situation, area of study
 * False consensus effect- It is The tendency to overestimate the degree to which one's opinions and beliefs are shared by others.
 * Population- the total number of persons inhabiting a country, city, or any district or area.
 * Random sample- a method of selecting a sample from a statistical population in such a way that every possible sample that could be selected has a predetermined probability of being selected.
 * Naturalistic observation- This technique involves observing subjects in their natural environment
 * Correlation coefficient- one of a number of measures of correlation, usually assuming values from +1 to −1.
 * Scatter plot- a two-dimensional graph of two or more variables with them plotted on the Y axis or the X axis to show their relationship
 * Illusory correlation- is the phenomenon of seeing the relationship one expects in a set of data even when no such relationship exists
 * Experiment- a test, trial, or tentative procedure
 * Double-blind procedure- an experimental procedure in which neither the subjects of the experiment nor the persons administering the experiment know the critical aspects of the experiment
 * Placebo effect- a reaction to a placebo manifested by a lessening of symptoms or the production of anticipated side effects.
 * Experimental condition- the procedure that is varied in order to estimate a variable's effect by comparison with a control condition
 * Control condition- a standard against which other conditions can be compared in a scientific experiment; "the control condition was inappropriate for the conclusions he wished to draw
 * Random assignment- placement is an experimental technique for assigning subjects to different treatments or no treatment
 * Independent variable- a variable in a functional relation whose value determines the value or values of other variables
 * Dependent variable- the event studied and expected to change when the independent variable is changed.
 * Extraneous and confounding variable- variables that influence the relationship between the variables that an experimenter is examining. confounding variablesa are two variables (explanatory or lurking variables) that are confounded when their effects on a response **variable** cannot be distinguished from each other.