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Ecological Validity: Ecological Validity is the degree to which the behaviors observed and recordied in a study reflect the behaviors that actually occur in natural settings. In addition, ecological validity is associated with "generalizability". Essentially this is the extent to which findings (from a study) can be generalized (or extended) to the "real world". In virtually all studies there is a trade-off between experimental control and ecological validity. The more control psychologists exert in a study, typically the less ecological validity and thus, the less they may be able to generalize. For example, when we take people out of their natural environment and study them in the lab, we are exerting some control over them and, as a result, possibly limiting how much we can generalize the findings to all people in natural settings. Effect Size: This is a statistical term that refers to the size of a relationship between two variable. Sometimes effect size is known as treatment effect because it is often used when dealing with therapeutic interventions (ie. this treatment is shown to be more effective than another at treating a specific disorder). Effortful Processing: Effortful processing is just as the name implies; learning or storing (encoding) that requires attention and effort. We have the capacity to remember lots of things without putting forth any effort. However, there are lots of times when we must practice, rehearse, and try to remember things. When we engage in any technique to help remember information better, we are engaging in effortful processing. Ego: According to Freud, the ego is the part of personality that helps us deal with reality by mediating between the demands of the id, superego, and the environment. The ego prevents us from acting on every urge we have (produced by the id) and being so morally driven that we can't function properly. The ego works according to the reality principle which helps us direct our unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges to more acceptable targets. For example, when you walk down the street and see an extremely attractive person, the ego, working on the reality principle, helps us realize that it is not socially acceptable to cross the street, grab the person, and have sex with them. Instead, the ego tells us that there will be other, more appropriate people, places, and times to fulfill these needs. Ego Strength: We all have an ego. And your ego has the ability to deal with reality and stress differently than my ego, your mother's ego, or anyone else's ego. To that extent your ego is able to do all of this, maintain emotional stability, and deal with stress is your “ego strength”. In a clinical setting (when dealing with psychological disorders) we can say that ego-strength is a person's capacity to maintain his/her own identity despite psychological pain, distress, turmoil and conflict between internal forces as well as the demands of reality. Egocentrism: According to Jean Piaget and his theory of cognitive development, egocentrism is an inability on the part of a child in the preoperational stage of development to any point of view other than their own. For example, little Suzy gets a phone call from her father, who asks little Suzy if Mommy is home. Instead of saying, "yes", little Suzy nods her head. Her father, hearing no response, asks again, to which little Suzy again nods her head. What little Suzy fails to appreciate is that her father is unable to see her nodding. Little Suzy can only take her own perspective - "I am nodding my head yes, why do you keep asking me this question?" Eidetic Imagery: This is the ability to retain images in memory that are almost perfect photographic quality. The memories have great detail (much more than normal memories) and can be maintained in memory for a period of minutes. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT): ECT (also known as shock therapy) is a type of biomedical therapy in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of a patient in order to produce a chemical change. This treatment, although not practiced commonly, is most often used to treat severely depressed people, and has been shown to work quite effectively. ECT fell out of favor and was perceived as cruel and inhuman, but in recent years has regained some popularity. Electroencephalogram (EEG): An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a recording of the electrical waves of activity that occur in the brain, and across its surface. Electrodes are placed on different areas of a person's scalp, filled with a conductive gel, and then plugged into a recording device. The brain waves are then attracted by the electrodes, travel to the recording device and then amplified so that they can be more easily seen and examined. The EEG recording can be used to examine a variety of brain functions including sleep (the different stages of sleep) and different psychological disorders. Embryo: In human development, we call an organism in the early, prenatal stage from about 2 weeks to 2 months after fertilization an embryo. The embryonic stage makes up the majority of the first trimester and is a critical stage for "normal" cognitive and physical development. In addition, the unborn baby is particularly susceptible to health problems (less able to protect itself from illness and every little thing can have severe consequences down the line - much more so than in other stages). Emotion: Most people have little problem recognizing and identifying when we are having an emotion. However, emotion is one of the most difficult concepts in Psychology to define. In fact, emotion is such a difficult concept to define adequately that there are at least 90 different definitions of emotions in the scientific literature. A simple definition of emotion is that it is a response by a whole organism, involving (1) physical arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience. Empathy: Empathy is an ability to understand and feel what another person is feeling, not in a physical sense, but in an emotional sense. The expression, "put yourself in someone else's shoes" is actually a description of empathy. Therapists are usually trained to be more empathetic so that they can have more of an appreciation for what their clients are experiencing. This helps them understand their client's situation, perspective, and problems much better. Empiricism: The Philosophical school of thought that real knowledge comes from the senses. This formed the basis for the foundation of modern science - the reliance on empirical evidence, or evidence that is observable. You have probably heard the expression, "empirical data" before...it is referring to any data that are observable through the senses. Encoding: Any information which we sense and subsequently attempt to process, store, and later retrieve must be brought in through one of the senses and then transformed into some form that our bodies and minds understand. The process of breaking the information down into a form we understand is the process of encoding (and we later "decode" the information to recall it). But the process of getting into the memory system for storage and later retrieval is encoding. Encounter Groups: Popularized in the '60s and again in the 90's, encounter groups are gatherings of people (often between 12 to 20) who go through a process of opening up and sharing some emotional side or experience with the other members of the group. By opening up and sharing such emotionally charged experiences, it is hoped that the members will get more in touch with their own feelings, receive support from the other members of the group, and become more socially aware of the feelings of others. Endocrine System: Information travels through our bodies in two forms; as electrical signals, or as chemical signals. The chemical signals are created and carried throughout the body using the endocrine system. This system works more slowly than the electrical signals, and is made up of glands that secret hormones (the carriers of the information) in the bloodstream. Endorphins: Ever go for a long jog and get the "runner's high"? Well, I never have either, but supposedly once a person runs for a certain amount of time, their body begins to release endorphins, the body's natural morphine-like pain killers. Endorphins help us deal with pain as well as producing a pleasurable sensation. In fact, it has been suggested that some people become avid runners in order to obtain the pleasure produced by their endorphins. Episodic Memory: Episodic memory is the type of long-term, declarative memory in which we store memories of personal experiences that are tied to particular times and places. For example, if you are having a conversation with a friend and you tell your friend, "last night I went to a 9:00 movie..." you are recalling information stored in episodic memory. This type of memory is often what comprises eye-witness testimony and is especially susceptible to subsequent events like questioning, reading the newspaper, talking to others about the event, etc. Equilibrium: Equilibrium is an organism's sense of body movement and position, including their sense of balance. Equilibrium is affected by many things, including the functioning of the components in the middle ear, alcohol, and drugs. Too much alcohol can produce that wonderful feeling of "bed spins" - this essentially is a loss of equilibrium. Equity: Often discussed in relationships, this is a situation in which people receive in proportion to what they give to the relationship. Equity does not have to be identical or exact. Consider, for example, household chores (this is a stereotypical example, but we use only to illustrate the point). A wife takes care of the entire house and asks only that the husband takes out the garbage twice a week and cut the lawn. However, the husband often forgets or ignores this responsibility and when confronted, he feels that he should not have to do these things since he "works hard all week long". As a result, both partied may perceive an inequity. She feels that she does ALL the chores and work while her husband is unwilling to contribute to their lives - he does much less than her; he feels that he must work in a high stress job all week and that being asked to do these chores is just too much - she does much less than him. Inequity leads to unhappy relationships and long term problems. Eros: According to Freud humans have a death instinct (thanatos) and a life instinct, called eros. This life instinct is important as it promotes behaviors that help us survive. A prime example of life instinct is sex - can you think of something that promotes life more than sex? Estrogen: Estrogen is one of the sex hormones that is necessary for proper female reproductive functioning as well as the development of secondary female characteristics like breasts, less facial hair than men, etc. In nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, which produces increased sexual receptivity (i.e., females mammals are more receptive to sex during this phase). Ethnocentrism: Ethnocentrism is a belief that your society, group, or culture is superior to all others. Very often this means that differences in groups (e.g., your group has more old people than ours) are seen as somehow bad. Ethogram: Comprehensive compilation or inventory of the behavioral patterns exhibited by a species. The goal is to provide as complete and specific a catalogue of behaviors as possible. Eustress: This is the “good” type of stress (opposite of Distress) and refers to the optimal amount of stress which helps promote health and growth. Many times stressful events push us to perform to higher levels and excel….this is eustress. Evolutionary Psychology: According to the Center for Evolutionary Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology is "an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind. It is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within it. In this view, the mind is a set of information-processing machines that were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors." As such, this field really examines natural selection and how it favors behaviors that help keep a species going from one generation to the next. Existentialism: A 20th century traditional philosophy that focuses on the an individual person is supposed to find their "authentic existence" in the world as they face choices and decisions in daily life. At the heart of this view is the perspective that people have free will and freedom of choice to make these daily decisions. Experiment: One type of research method in which the investigator manipulates one or more independent variables (IV) to determine the effect(s) on some behavior (the dependent variable) while controlling other relevant factors. There are two types of experiments, the true experiment and the quasi experiment. A true experiment occurs when the investigator does two things: 1) randomly assigns participants to groups (e.g., experimental and control); and 2) manipulates at least one IV. A quasi experiment is almost the same, except now there is no random assignment of participants to groups; only manipulation of the IV. In order to reach "cause and effect" conclusions about the effect of the IV on the DV, you must use a true experiment. Experimental Condition: To determine what effect an independent variable (IV) or treatment may have on some measure, it is necessary to present that IV to members of a group or condition. The participants who are presented the IV are considered the experimental condition. For example, if I am studying the effects of 2 different pain medications of headaches, I may give people who have headaches either Tylenol or Bayer (the treatment groups; thus in this example there are two levels of the IV; one level is Tylenol, the other is Bayer, but both are part of the experimental condition). I can then wait one hour and ask participants to rate the level of pain they are experiencing (this would be the dependent variable or measure). If the amount of pain in one group goes down significantly more than the other, I may conclude that one medication is more effective than the other in reducing headache pain. Explicit Memory: Explicit memory, also known as declarative memory is a type of long-term memory in which we store memories of fact. In addition, explicit memory is divided further into semantic and episodic memories (please look those up for complete definitions). So, if you have memories of things such as when Columbus sailed to America or what day and time your baby brother was born, you have explicit memories. External Locus of Control: A person with an external locus of control is more likely to believe that his or her fate is determined by chance or outside forces that are beyond their own personal control. This strategy can be healthy sometimes. Like when dealing with failure or disaster, but can also be harmful in that it can lead to feeling of helplessness and loss of personal control. External Validity: This refers to the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized or extended to others. For example, if a study on a drug is only conducted on white, middle aged, overweight, women with diabetes, can the results of the study be generalized to the rest of the population? Are the results only valid to the population studied? Researchers go to great lengths to select a group of people for the study (a sample) that is representative enough that the results can be extended to lots of people. Extinction: Extinction is from conditioning and refers to the reduction of some response that the organism currently or previously produced. In classical conditioning this results from the unconditioned stimulus NOT occurring after the conditioned stimulus is presented over time. In operant conditioning it results from some response by the organism no longer being reinforced (for example, you keep getting your dog to sit on command, but you stop giving it a treat or any other type of reinforcement. Over time, the dog may not sit every time you give the command). Extraneous Variable: As we all know by now, psychologists like to control things -- in particular, we like to establish as much control as possible when conducting experiments. After all, what's the point of conducting the experiment if in the end we can't really say that the results are due to the variables we are studying? For example, if I want to study the effect of some new therapy to reduce blood pressure (an issue related to stress) wouldn't it be important to make sure that during the experiment I control as many other factors that are NOT part of the therapy so that in the end I can say that the results are due to the therapy and not, for example, me screaming at some participants during testing? Any factor or variable that causes an effect (or potential affects) other than the variable being studied is considered an extraneous variable. Extrinsic Motivation: Why do you work, go to class, or study for a test? Do you do it because you want to money, a degree, and good grades? If so, you are extrinsically motivated - motivated to perform specific behaviors to achieve promised outside rewards or to avoid punishment from others. You are not working at a job because you get a great feeling of personal satisfaction from it or because it makes you feel good about yourself (that you are a good person), but rather to gain some kind of reward. We are not saying there is anything wrong with this. We are only trying to explain the concept to you.
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Psychology Glossary and definitions. ("E")
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