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Random assignment
Assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups.
Random sample
A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
Range
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
Rationalization
Defense mechanism that offers self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening, unconscious reasons for one’s actions.
Reaction formation
Defense mechanism by which the ego unconsciously switches unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Thus, people may express feelings that are the opposite of their anxiety-arousing unconscious feelings.
Recall
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
Reciprocal determinism
The interacting influences between personality and environmental factors.
Recognitions
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items preciously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.
Reflex
A simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.
Refractory period
A resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm.
Regression
Defense mechanism in which an individual faces with anxiety retreated to a more infantile psychosexual stage where some psychic energy remains fixated.
Regression toward the mean
The tendency for extremes of unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward the average.
Rehearsal
The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage.
Reinforcer
In operant condition, any even that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Relative deprivation
The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself.
Relearning
A memory measure that asses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time.
Reliability
The extent to which a test yields consistent results, as assessed by the consistency of scores on two halves of the test, on alternate forms of the test, or on retesting.
REM rebound
The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakening during REM sleep).
REM sleep
Rapid eye movement sleep, a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also, known as paradoxical sleep because the muscles are relaxed (Accept for minor twitched) but other body systems are active.
Replication
Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different subjects in different situations to see whether the basic finding generalized to other participants and circumstances.
Representativeness heuristic
A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead one to ignore other relevant information.
Repression
In psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories from consciousness.
Resistance
In psychoanalysis, the blocking from consciousness of anxiety-laden material.
Respondent behavior
Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus; Skinner’s term for behavior learned through classical conditioning.
Reticular formation
A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.
Retina
The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods, and cones, plus layers of neurons that begin the process of visual information.
Retinal disparity
A binocular cue for perceiving depth: The greater the disparity (difference) between the two images, the retina receives of an object, the closer the object is to the viewer.
Retrieval
The process of getting information out of memory storage.
Retroactive interference
The disruptive effect of new learning of the recall of old information.
Rods
Retinal receptors that detect black, white, and grey; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones do not respond.
Role
A set of expectation (norms) about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
Rooting reflex
A baby’s tendency, when touched on the cheek, to open the mouth, and search for the nipple.
Rorschach inkblot test
The most widely used projective test, a set of 10 inkblots, designed by Hermann Rorschach; seeks to identify people’s inner feelings, by analyzing their interpretation of the blots.