Glossary page 2 Flashcards
determinism
the idea that an individual’s behaviour is shaped entirely by forces
beyond their control, and that the individual has no free will
dispositional attributions
an attribution that is made which attributes the cause
of behaviour to the character or disposition of the person doing the behaviour
ecological validity (also known as context validity)
a study has ecological validity
if we can generalise the results from the research setting to other settings
ECT or electroconvulsive therapy
a treatment that involves passing an electric
current through the brain
electroencephalograph
a graphical record of the electrical activity of the brain
emic
the ‘insider’ perspective on something – descriptions and explanations of a
culture that come from, and are appropriate to, that culture
empirical (and empiricism)
evidence based on direct experience, such as
observations and experiments
endogenous pacemaker
an internal clock
Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation (EEA)
this means the environment to
which a species is adapted, and the set of selection pressures that were
then operating; in humans it more or less equates to the Pleistocene epoch
ethnographic
relating to ethnography, the detailed scientific study of human
groups and cultures, using observations, diaries and other methods
etic
refers to ideas, descriptions and analyses that come from an observer – the
‘outsider’ perspective – and are appropriate to the observer’s culture; they
may not be appropriate in the culture being observed
exogenous zeitgebers
an external ‘time giver’ or cue to time, such as a TV
programme
experimenter reliability
the reliability of a researcher in an experimental
situation
expressed emotion
expressed emotion refers to high levels of critical
comments, hostility and emotional over-involvement
external reliability
the extent to which a test or measure is consistent from one
time to another
