Glossary Items Starting with "B"
- balanced placebo design
- A 2 X 2 research design developed in alcohol research in
which the factors are (1) what participants actually consumes
(alcohol or no alcohol) and (2) what participants are told they
are consuming (alcohol or no alcohol). This design permits the
separation of the pharmacological from the expectation effects
of alcohol. See
deception.
- Barnum statement
- Any statement that appears to be insightful but is actually
true only because is true for almost all issues, situations, or
people. For example, telling someone that he or she has
difficulty at times maintaining a focus on their long-term goals
is a Barnum statement.
- baseline period
- Time from initial monitoring of target behavior until the
start of the manipulation.
- base rates
- Naturally occurring frequency of events (i.e., before any
manipulations to alter the rates have been carried out).
- basic research
- Fundamental or pure research. Basic research is carried out
to add to knowledge but without obvious applied or practical
goals. Basic research is often contrasted with applied research.
- behavior
- Any observable act from an organism. Behavior is the subject
matter of psychology.
- behavior modification
- A set of teaching/therapeutic procedures, used primarily in
education and clinical practice, which are based on
laboratory-derived principles of learning. Also known as
behavior therapy.
- behavioral medicine
- See
health psychology.
- behavioral neuroscience
- A field of study that relates the behavior of an organism to
the brain mechanisms contributing to that behavior.
- behavioral variable
- Variable representing an organism's behavior.
- behaviorism
- A philosophical perspective in psychology that argues that a
scientific psychology should base its theories on observable
events only. This perspective challenged the introspective
methodologies that dominated early psychology.
- beta
- The probability of making a Type II error. See
Type II error.
-
between-conditions sum of squares
- The sum of squares used in a repeated-measures ANOVA to
compute the between-conditions variance, which is also known as
the between-conditions mean square.
- between-groups sum
of squares
- The sum of squares used in a one-way ANOVA to compute the
between-groups variance, which is also known as the
between-groups mean square.
- between-groups variance
- Index of the variability among group means.
- between-subjects design
- Research design using two or more groups in which each
participant appears in only one of the groups.
- between-subjects factors
- Independent variables in factorial designs in which
participants are assigned to conditions so that each participant
appears in only one condition.
- between sum of squares
- A generic term that usually refers to the between-conditions
sum of squares in a repeated-measures ANOVA, but may also refer
to the between-groups sum of squares in a one-way ANOVA.
- bimodal
- A distribution of scores that has two modes.
- Biomedical Programs
(BMDP)
- Computer package for statistical data analyses.
- blind
- When the researcher and/or participant is not aware of
information that would, if available, increase the likelihood of
biasing the experimental results. See
single-blind procedure and
double-blind procedure.