key words

• nature

  view that behaviour is the product of innate biological/genetic factors
• nurture 


  view that behaviour is a product of environmental influences
• parsimonious


  simplest explanation can be the best
• determinism


  traist/behaviour are outside our control due to factors either internal/external over which we have no control
• free will 


  individuals have an active role in controlling their behaviour and are not controlled by biological/external factors
• heredity

  passing of physical/mental characteristic genetically through 1 gen to another
• demand characteristics


  features of a study which allows the p to guess the aim and then turn change their behavious
• ecological validity


  extent to which a study,test or result reflects into the real world
• structuralism


  theory of consciousness that seeks to analyse the elements of mental experiences such as sensations mental images and feelings and how these elements combine to form more complex experiences
• Introspection

  method of data collection which involves observing and describing our own internal sensations and feeling in terms of intensity duration and quality
• objectivley


  not influenced by thoughts or feelings
• subjectivley


  influenced by personal thoughts and feelings
• unconditional response


  stimulus response connection that requires no learning
• Participant variables 


  Characteristics of individual participants that influence the outcome of a study
• Order effects


  A confounding variable arising from the order in which conditions are presented
• Practice effect


  Pjs may do better in one condition rather than the other because they have completed it first and are more practiced
• Fatigue effect


  Ps may do well on one condition rather than another because they have become more tired and bored
• Counter balancing 


  Ensures that each condition is tested 1st or 2nd in equal amounts
• Randomisation 


  Leaving as many things as possible to reduce bias
• Random allocations


  Random allocation ps to condition ensures each participants has an equal chance of being assigned to any experimental conditions
• Single blind techniques 


  Where ps are not aware of research aims or conditions they are placed in
• Double blind technique 


  Where neither ps nor the experiment is aware of condition that an individual p is receiving
• Standardised procedures 


  Keeping everything the same for all parcipants
• Extraneous variable 


  Anything other than the if and that could affect our dv
• Confounding variables


  Anything other than the iv that does not affect our result
• Random sampling 


  Everyone in target population has an equal chance of being selected
• Random allocation 


  Randomly picked each participant has equal chance
• Target population 


  A group of people who share specific characteristics and who the researcher is interested in testing