Psychology Glossary

Body Language: A general term that describes aspects of non-verbal commmunication.

BPS: British Psychology Society

Closed Posture: Positioning of the arms so that they are folded across the body and/or crossing the legs.

Communication: Passing information from one person to another.

Condition: The treatment the participants get or the circumstances in which they do the experiment.

Confederate: An actor or stooge who appears to be a genuine participant in the experiment but is actually working for the experimenter.

Confidentialty: People cannot be identified in the reasearch and their details must be kept private.

Cultural Norms: The range of behaviours that members of a particular social group or society can be expected to show.

Debrief: Participants should be notified at the end of the experiment/study.

Ecological Validity: Similar to everday situations.

Emphasis: Giving prominence to some words more than others.

Evaluation: A review of an experiment or study which describes what was done well. It includes strengths and weaknesses of the experiment.

Eye Contact: When two people in a conversation are looking at each other's eyes at the same time.

Hemispheres of the Brain: The human brain is divided into…