Leadership styles can be defined as a person’s way of governing, directing, and motivating followers. Over the last 50 or so years, researchers have proposed a number of different leadership styles characterized by those in business, politics, technology, and other…
In psychology, a single-blind study is a type of experiment or clinical trial in which the experimenters are aware of which subjects are receiving the treatment or independent variable, but the participants of the study are not. A study in which…
The term absolute threshold is often used in psychology research yet students are often confused about what it means. Let’s take a closer look at the definition of the absolute threshold and explore some examples of how it is used…
Have you ever noticed how horoscopes tend to be so general that their predictions could apply to almost anyone? In psychology, this is an example of the Forer effect (also known as the Barnum effect), which refers to the tendency…
According to humanist psychologist Carl Rogers, human beings have an innate drive to grow as individuals and to achieve their full potential. He referred to this desire as the actualizing tendency. Self-Actualization and the Actualizing Tendency Rogers believe that the…
In psychology, perfectionism is a term used to describe a personality trait that involves constantly striving for perfection, maintaining high (sometimes excessive) standards, and refusing to accept anything less that flawlessness. The Psychology of Perfectionism In the Corsini Encyclopedia of…
In the simplest psychology experiments, researchers look at how one independent variable affects one dependent variable. But what happens if researchers want to look at the effects of multiple independent variables? This type of study that involve the manipulation of…
The serial position effect refers to our tendency to be able to recall the first and last items on a list better and the middle items worse. Psychology Hermann Ebbinghaus noted during his research that his ability to remember the…
In psychology research, an institutional review board (also known as an IRB) is a group of individuals designated to review and monitor research that involves human subjects. IRB’s help ensure that the rights, welfare, and safety of participants are protected.…
Extraneous variables are anything in a psychology experiment other than the independent and dependent variables. The variables can present challenges and introduce errors, so it is important for experiments to control these extraneous factors. How do researchers do this? By…
