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Woman thinking about a concept

What Is a Psychological Construct?

A psychological construct is a framework used to describe psychological phenomena, such as behavior, emotion, or experience. These things don’t have a physical presence, so they cannot be objectively measured by looking at their size, weight, or appearance. By labeling a construct, researchers can make inferences about these abstract concepts. Constructs are used in psychological …

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Psychology Definitions

Explore our growing collection of psychology definitions and terms. A – B Abnormal Psychology Absolute Threshold Accommodation Action Potential Actualizing Tendency Acquisition Assimilation Autocratic Leadership Autonomy Attachment Theory Barnum Effect Behaviorism Bias Blind Spot Big 5 Personality Traits C – D Cardinal Traits Case Study Chunking Choice Blindness Classical Conditioning Cognitive Bias Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive …

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What Is Random Selection?

Random selection refers to a process that researchers use to pick participants for a study. When using this method, every single member of a population has an equal chance of being chosen as a subject. This process is an important research tool used in psychology research, allowing scientists to create representative samples from which conclusions …

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What Are Expectancy Effects?

Definition: Expectancy effects refer to changes in behavior that occur simply because the participant in an experiment believes that their behavior should change. In other words, people sometimes change how they act in certain situations simply because they think that their behavior is supposed to change. Researchers often utilize placebo control groups to determine if …

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Sensory receptor

What Is a Sensory Receptor?

Definition: A sensory receptor is a type of specialized cell that responds to a specific type of sensory stimulation. Each type of sensory receptor is unique to the organ system it is associated with. For example, visual sensory receptors are different than touch and taste sensory receptors. The sensory receptors themselves are actually the nerve …

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Organismic valuing process

What Is the Organismic Valuing Process?

In Carl Rogers’s theory of personality, the organismic valuing process refers to evaluating subjective experiences to determine their possible impact on self-improvement. The concept is rooted in humanistic psychology and Rogers’ client-centered therapy. Essentially, Rogers proposed that people possess an innate tendency to evaluate their lives and experiences based on their own internal, subjective frame …

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Weber's law

What Is Weber’s Law?

Weber’s law, also sometimes referred to as Web-Fechner law, is a principle that quantifies how people perceive a change in a stimulus. According to Weber’s law, the just noticeable difference is a constant proportion of the original stimulus size. The just noticeable difference, also known as the difference threshold, is the smallest possible difference between …

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