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Psychology—the science of behavior and mental processes.

Psychometricians (measurement psychologists)—focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data; measure mental traits, abilities and processes.

Psychopathology—a pattern of abnormality evidenced by emotions, behaviors, or thoughts inappropriate to the situation that lead to personal distress or the inability to achieve important goals.

Psychopharmacotherapy—the use of psychotropic drugs to treat mental disorders.

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 hostile, 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 probability 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 group such that every individual has an equal chance of being put in any group or condition.

Random selection—choosing of members of a population 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 treatment developed by Ellis which is based on confronting irrational thoughts; change in irrational thinking will lead to a change in irrational behavior.

Rationalization—a Freudian defense mechanism that provides socially acceptable reasons for our inappropriate behavior.

Reaction formation—the Freudian defense mechanism involving acting in a manner exactly opposite to our true feelings.

Real self—according to Rogers, the positive and original organism we are before society imposes conditions 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 relations (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 distorted 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 characterized by immature, pleasurable behavior of an earlier 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