Random variables
Things that happen in an research situation over which you have no control e.g. It raining and you have to abandon a field experiment etc.
Rational Emotive Therapy
RET is a cognitive psychotherapy proposed and developed by Albert Ellis (1958, 1962). He was born in Pittsburgh, USA in 1913. RET challenges individuals flawed or faulty thinking about themselves and their world. RET has been particularly successful with clients who sexual or marital difficulties. Thousands now practice RET all over the world.
Reductionist
The behaviourist approach is often accused as being reductionist. This means reducing our behaviours to mere stimulus-response associations. It ignores for example the influence of our cognitions (perception, attention, language, memory and thinking).
The biological approach is similarly reductionist. This is because it explains thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in terms of neurons, hormones etc. The biological approach with this biological lowest common denominator view ignores the influence of our cognitions on our behaviours.
Regression via hypnosis
Used in psychoanalytic psychotherapy to return or regress the patient to an earlier stage in life such as childhood. Regression via hypnosis is a useful tool to help reveal personality-forming experiences lying in our unconscious.
Reinforcement
Our behaviours can be encouraged by reinforcement. This means two things. In Pavlov's experiment, after a while his dogs stopped salivating to the sound of the bell alone. To resurrect the desired response/behaviour of salivation, Pavlov had redo Stage 2 again. That is,
bell (CS) + Food (UCS) ------>Salivation (UCR).
This is one type of reinforcement. The other type of reinforcement comes from Skinner and operant conditioning. He says positive reinforcement, such as a reward, can encourage the repetition of the rewarded behaviour. While negative reinforcement, due to an associated unpleasant consequence stops or avoids its repetition.
Reinforcer
A reinforcer is anything following a behaviour that increases the chance of that behaviour happening again.
Reliability
Reliable/reliability in psychology means does something measure what it claims to be measuring in a consistent fashion.
Replication
Replication is an important aspect of the experimental method in particular. The replication of a piece of research allows for the confirmation, or otherwise of previous results. Some types of research i.e. the experiment are more amenable to replication than others e.g. observation. Replication of research helps us discover if our results are both valid and reliable. (see above)
Representative
Reflecting a target population.
Resistance
Where for example in therapy a patient shows resistance to their psychoanalytic psychotherapists interpretation of their dream content . Often such resistance has to be broken down before the patient can accept what their unconscious is telling them about the cause of their neurosis.
Retrospective
Retrospective means about the past. A retrospective case study would see a psychologist investigate the influence a person's past has on their current thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. For an example of a retrospective case study click on Little Hans.
See longitudinal.
Rogers, Carl (1902 - 1987)
With Abraham Maslow, co-founder of the humanistic approach in Psychology. He applied Rogers theory in clinical practice. The application of theory in clinical practice is called a psychotherapy. Rogers is primarily important for the development of humanistic psychotherapy, which is his main contribution to the approach. The humanistic style of therapy is called client centred therapy. CCT encourages the client towards personal growth using genuineness, unconditional positive regard and empathy. Their presence help create a counseling environment where problems often associated with a clients poor self image can be explored. These generally are a result of the clients phenomenology, existentialism, and personal agency. Maslow's influence in creating a humanistic counselling environment or 'conditions for growth' has had global concequences. Almost every type of counselling nowadays, humanistic or not, uses Maslow's techniques.
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