The most celebraled exponent of BEHAVIOURISM not just in EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY but as a means of running a society. His original technique of OPERANT CONDITIONING was based on the work of PAVLOV and WATSON. He has expounded the social implications of his views in a number of influential works intended for the general public, notably Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity.

The jumping of the eye from one point of fixation to another, as in reading.

Used in SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY to refer to the kind of BEHAVIOUR expected of a given person in a given situation.

A fear of strangers (or. more particularly, of unfamiliar faces) that appears in infants at about 8 months of age.

A condition or factor, usually in an EXPERIMENT, that is capable of changing or being changed.

In PSYCHOANALYSIS, a DEFENCE MECHANISM in which unacceptable UNCONSCIOUS impulses are channelled into consciously acceptable forms. For FREUD this was society’s main way of handling REPRESSION. It is certainly the most socially acceptable of the defence mechanisms.

Name given to DEMENTIA found in old people whose symptoms are often referred to as ‘senility’. It is a degenerative condition and includes, for example, the later stages of ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE.

A mental model or framework within which new experiences are digested. Extensively used by PIAGET in his descriptions of the way in which children make sense of the world at different STAGES of development

Three fluid-filled canals which are located in the inner ear at right angles to each other and pass information about movement and balance to the BRAIN.

A stimulus that produces an UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE at the beginning of the CONDITIONING procedure. For example, food producing salivation.