Glossary of Psychological Terms
Definitions of terms used in psychology, psychometric testing and occupational assessment, organised alphabetically.
R
The symbol conventionally used for the most common correlation coefficient, measuring the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables.
Race
An anthropological term for a proposed biological subdivision of humanity based on shared genetic ancestry, associated with common physical characteristics such as skin colour and facial structure. Modern genetics has shown there is no such thing as a biologically “pure” race; every physical characteristic occurs, to varying degrees, across all major human population groups, and genetic variation within any so-called racial group is generally far greater than variation between groups. Claims that a particular minority group is inherently intellectually inferior to a majority group — made about different groups at different points in history — have never been supported by solid evidence, and there is substantial evidence against them; moreover, even setting that aside, intelligence tests themselves have long been shown to carry educational, cultural and social biases against minority groups.
Racial memory
A concept, closely related to Carl Jung's collective unconscious, proposing that certain feelings, patterns of thought and fragments of experience are transmitted across generations within humanity as a whole and continue to shape mind and behaviour, even though the individual has no personal memory of their origin.
Random sample
A sample drawn from a population in such a way that every member of that population has an equal chance of being selected, allowing researchers to generalise findings from the sample back to the wider population with reduced risk of the sample being a biased sample.
Randomise
In experimental psychology, the random assignment of participants to different groups, or the random ordering of stimuli presented to participants, so that any individual differences or order effects are evenly spread across conditions and do not distort the experiment's results.
Rapid eye movements
The rapid, jerking movements of the eyes that occur during REM sleep, closely associated with vivid dreaming. See also: paradoxical sleep.
Rational-emotive therapy
A form of psychotherapy, closely related to behaviour therapy, developed by American psychologist Albert Ellis. It directly confronts the irrational beliefs thought to underlie a person's emotional and behavioural difficulties, actively challenging the patient to replace them with more rational, realistic ways of thinking.
Reactance theory
A concept in social psychology holding that when people feel their freedom of choice is being restricted or their decisions manipulated, they tend to react by finding the restricted option more attractive, or by adopting a position opposed to the one being pushed on them, as a way of reasserting their autonomy. See, for example: Romeo and Juliet effect.
Reaction formation
In psychoanalysis, a defence mechanism in which a person unconsciously adopts attitudes or behaviour that are the direct opposite of an unacceptable underlying impulse or feeling — for example, responding to underlying hostility toward someone with exaggerated warmth and solicitude toward them.
Reaction time
The interval of time that elapses between the presentation of a stimulus and a participant's response to it, widely used as a basic measure in experimental and cognitive psychology.
Reality principle
In psychoanalysis, the ego's modification of the pure pleasure principle governing the id: the ego's way of balancing what the id wants against what is actually achievable given the practical constraints of the external world.
Reality testing
In psychoanalysis, the ego's ongoing, practical effort to act in accordance with the reality principle, checking internal wishes and impulses against the actual constraints and possibilities of the external world.
Recidivism
The tendency to relapse into previous behaviour, most often used to describe repeated criminal offending after punishment or treatment, though also applied more broadly to the recurrence of psychological disturbance.
Reification
The error of treating an abstract concept or idea as though it had a concrete, independent, objective existence in the real world — for instance, treating “intelligence” as a physical thing rather than a theoretical construct.
Reinforcement
The process of strengthening the likelihood that a given behaviour will recur, by following it with a rewarding consequence; the foundational mechanism underlying all forms of conditioning. See also: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement.
Releaser
In ethology, a specific stimulus that triggers an automatic, largely fixed behavioural response in an organism. See also: innate releasing mechanism.
Reliability
A statistical measure of a test's internal consistency — the extent to which it can be expected to produce the same, or very similar, results if administered again on a different occasion, under similar conditions.
REM sleep
See rapid eye movements and paradoxical sleep — the stage of sleep most closely associated with vivid dreaming.
Replication
Repeating an experiment in exactly the same way it was originally conducted (though possibly at a different location and with different participants), in order to confirm whether the original findings hold up. Although replication is widely praised in principle within psychology, it has historically been relatively rare in practice, since there is comparatively little academic reward or career incentive for researchers to conduct and publish replication studies rather than original research.
Repression
In psychoanalysis, a defence mechanism and one of the most central concepts in Freudian theory: the process of pushing disturbing feelings and impulses arising from the id out of conscious awareness entirely, submerging them in the unconscious, where they continue to exert influence, often causing psychological trouble. Repression is considered central to many neuroses, most strikingly certain forms of amnesia; Freud regarded repression as the psychological price paid for living in civilised society, and psychoanalysis — by making the unconscious conscious — as the principal way of coming to terms with that cost. Contrast with inhibition, a related but distinct process.
Resistance
In psychoanalysis, a term describing both the reluctance of repressed unconscious material to surface into conscious awareness, and the parallel reluctance of the patient (or “analysand”) to allow the analyst's probing to successfully uncover the underlying areas of unconscious conflict.
Response bias
A mental set or tendency to respond in a particular, consistent way to certain kinds of questions or issues, regardless of their actual content — for example, a tendency to always agree with statements on a questionnaire.
Restricted code
British sociolinguist Basil Bernstein's term for a relatively inarticulate communication style, made up of short, often incomplete phrases and carrying comparatively limited explicit information — said to be more typical of working-class parent-child communication. Contrasted with elaborated code.
Retina
The light-sensitive inner surface of the eyeball, containing photoreceptor cells that detect visual images and transmit them as neural signals, via the optic nerve, to the brain.
Retrieval
The act of successfully recalling stored information from long-term memory back into conscious awareness.
Retroactive inhibition
The detrimental effect that later learning can have on the recall of material learned previously. Compare with proactive inhibition, in which earlier learning instead disrupts recall of later material.
Retrograde amnesia
The inability to recall events from the period immediately preceding the injury, trauma or other event that caused the amnesia.
Retrospective falsification
The unintentional, non-deliberate distortion of memories of past experience, generally not attributed to unconscious motivated processes (unlike, for example, repression), but rather to the ordinary, reconstructive nature of memory itself.
Risky shift
A form of group polarisation in which people arrive at riskier decisions under the influence of group discussion than they would have reached individually; the opposite of the cautious shift.
Rogers, Carl (1902-1987)
A leading figure in humanistic psychology and a chief proponent of non-directive therapy, most notably through his own influential approach, client-centred therapy, which emphasised unconditional positive regard for the client.
Role
In social psychology, the pattern of behaviour expected of a particular person occupying a particular position within a given social situation — such as the role of teacher, parent, or manager.
Role playing
Used in two related senses: acting out the part of another person within a therapeutic or experimental setting, in order to gain insight or practise a skill; or deliberately performing a particular social role for a calculated effect on others.
Romeo and Juliet effect
A finding in social psychology that parental or external opposition to a young couple's relationship can, counterintuitively, strengthen rather than weaken their romantic attachment — named for Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, and closely related to reactance theory.
Rorschach test
The most famous of all projective techniques, frequently referenced (and parodied) in popular culture. It consists of ten standardised inkblot images, developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach, to which a respondent's free associations are examined against categories of response that have been standardised through extensive use over many decades. No clinician would base a diagnosis solely on Rorschach results, but many clinical psychologists still regard it as a useful initial step in a broader assessment.
Rosenthal effect
A form of experimenter bias, or self-fulfilling prophecy, operating within a social setting, first demonstrated by psychologist Robert Rosenthal. In a well-known study, Rosenthal led a group of teachers to believe that certain students in their classes had unusually high IQs and were expected to excel that year; those students did indeed go on to perform better, even though they had, in reality, been of entirely average measured ability — illustrating how an authority figure's expectations can shape outcomes. Also known as the Pygmalion effect.
Rote learning
Learning achieved purely through repetition, without any attempt to understand, organise or find deeper meaning in the material being learned. Contrast with elaborative rehearsal.
