Conception is when two gametes come together in fusion. This involves one male cell (a sperm) and one female cell (an egg). After mating, usually anyway, these gametes combine into an embryo where each one contributes 50% of the parent’s DNA. This results in a unique offspring combining both of the parent’s genes. For more …
A debriefing in psychology takes place after a study or experiment ends and the researchers debrief the participants. During this process, the researchers are required to explain the full concept of the study, if and why there was any deception, and are supposed to encourage the participants to ask any questions they may have and …
Identity foreclosure in psychology is a commitment and acceptance of an identity based on the values, ideas, roles, and other pertinent guidance others have chosen for an individual, especially during their youth. An easy way to think of this is imagining someone who grows up in an uber-religious outcast group. That child has a high …
Retrieval in psychology is the act of locating and recovering information stored in memory in our minds. Retrieval is considered the final stage of memory, just after encoding and retention. Retrieval is a critical process in the human memory system. It refers to the ability to locate and recover information that has been previously stored …
In psychology, the definition of concept has to do with all of the mental groupings related to similar objects, events, and individuals that make up what that thing is. For example, think of a pumpkin. You might think it’s orange, about 1 foot wide, and either tastes amazing or disgusting depending on your affinity towards …
Semantics refers to the underlining meanings of speech, words, phrases, signs and symbols that represent them. Essentially, it is the study of the relationships of language, symbols, and meanings and how they interact with each other. A great example of this is using literal versus slang versus sarcastic speech. When I tell you I’m going …
Aversion therapy, also called aversive conditioning and aversive therapy, is when instead of a reward, punishment is used to stop undesirable behavior. Many examples exist in training cats and dogs to become more obedient. Like using choke leashes or those electric invisible fences that trigger when Rover roves too far out of the neighbor’s fenced-in …
An operational definition in psychology is the set of rules by which a researcher will measure behaviors and qualities in an experiment. It’s like a recipe for a concept or idea. An operational definition is a set of specific, replicable steps that we use to represent a construct. As the famous American psychologist S.S. Stevens …
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Prototypes in psychology are like the best example of a category in our minds. They help us quickly make sense of new information by relating it to things we already know. So, let me ask you this – if I asked you to picture an idiot, who would come to mind? For some of you, …
Conservation is a term that is often used in psychology to describe the understanding that certain physical characteristics of objects remain constant, even when their appearance changes. It’s a fundamental concept in the field of cognitive development, first introduced by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget in the 1920s. Piaget’s theory of cognitive development suggests that …
