In EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, the distorting effect of uncontrolled facts external to the EXPERIMENT, the most important being the CONSCIOUS or UNCONSCIOUS assumptions of the experimenter.

See EXPERIMENTER BIAS and ROSENTHAL EFFECT.

The PHILOSOPHY that nothing happens without a cause and everything that happens is the necessary result of previous conditions. Given complete knowledge of previous conditions, one would fully understand any given behaviour.

A concept important in both CLINICAL and SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY which refers to the tendency to blame the victim of a frightening misfortune as a way of avoiding the ANXIETY-provoking thought that one could be in the victim’s place. For example,’rape victims ask for it’.

In CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY, this refers to the way people make buying decisions by the CONSCIOUS or UNCONSCIOUS use of a rule-of-thumb. or HEURISTIC.

The process by which the eye adjusts to lowered illumination.

In any given place, at any given time, people are never where they’re supposed to be. A combination of SOD’S LAW and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

The relationship or DEPENDENCE between two variables.

Feelings of anonymity and being part of a crowd. A blurring of individual IDENTITY and a loosening of INHIBITIONS.

See COLLECTIVE MIND and CONTAGION THEORY OF CROWDS.

The DELUSION that one is a celebrated or exalted person.

How well each item of a psychological test measures or predicts what it’s supposed to measure or predict.