The phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior

Placebo - the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can

influence their behavior.

Psychodynamic - the theory and therapy based on the work of Sigmund Freud.

Bias - tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.

Random - process of assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly, so that

each subject has an equal chance of being in either group.

Psychology - the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Hypothesis - tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations.

Psychologist - a professional with an academic degree and specialized training in one or more

areas of psychology.

Structuralism - early perspective in psychology associated with Wilhelm Wundt and Edward

Titchener, in which the focus of study is the structure or basic elements of the mind.

Replicate - in research, repeating a study or experiment to see if the same results will be

obtained in an effort to demonstrate reliability of results.

Population - the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested.

Experiment - a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior

result, allowing the determination of cause and effect relationships.

Correlation - a measure of the relationship between two variables.

Critical - thinking and making reasoned judgments about claims.

Functionalism - early perspective in psychology associated with William James, in which the

focus of study is how the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play.

Introspection - the process of examining and measuring one’s own thoughts and mental

activities.

Reactivity is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals alter their performance or behavior due to the awareness that they are being observed.[1] The change may be positive or negative, and depends on the situation. It is a significant threat to a research study's external validity and is typically controlled for using blind experiment designs.

There are several forms of reactivity. The Hawthorne effect occurs when research study participants know they are being studied and alter their performance because of the attention they receive from the experimenters. The John Henry effect, a specific form of Hawthorne effect, occurs when the participants in the control group alter their behavior out of awareness that they are in the control group.[citation needed]

Reactivity is not limited to changes in behaviour in relation to being merely observed; it can also refer to situations where individuals alter their behavior to conform to the expectations of the observer.[citation needed] An experimenter effect occurs when the experimenters subtly communicate their expectations to the participants, who alter their behavior to conform to these expectations. The Pygmalion effect occurs when students alter their behavior to meet teacher expectations.[2]

Reactivity can also occur in response to self-report measures if the measure is elicited from research participants during a task. For example, both confidence ratings and judgments of learning, which are often provided repeatedly throughout cognitive assessments of learning and reasoning, have been found to be reactive.[3][4] In addition there may be important individual differences in how participants react to a particular self-report measure.[3]

Espeland & Sauder (2007) took a reactivity lens to investigate how rankings of educational institutions change expectations and permeate institutions. These authors investigate the consequences, both intended and unintended, of such public measures.[5]

A common solution to reactivity is unobtrusive research that can replace or augment reactive research. Unobtrusive research refers to methods in which the researchers are able to obtain information without interfering in the research itself. Results gathered from unobtrusive methods tend to have very high test-retest reliability.[6]

See also[edit]

• Bradley effect
• Demand characteristics
• Observer-expectancy effect
• Watching-Eye Effect
• Social desirability bias

References[edit]

1. ^ Heppner, Puncky; Heppner, Puncky Paul; Wampold, Bruce E.; Kivlighan, Dennis M. (2008). Research Design in Counseling. Cengage Learning. p. 331. ISBN 978-0-534-52348-0.
2. ^ Friedrich, Alena; Flunger, Barbara; Nagengast, Benjamin; Jonkmann, Kathrin; Trautwein, Ulrich (April 2015). "Pygmalion effects in the classroom: Teacher expectancy effects on students' math achievement". Contemporary Educational Psychology. 41: 1–12. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.10.006. hdl:1874/329892.
3. ^ a b Double, Kit S.; Birney, Damian P. (3 April 2017). "Are you sure about that? Eliciting confidence ratings may influence performance on Raven's progressive matrices". Thinking & Reasoning. 23 (2): 190–206. doi:10.1080/13546783.2017.1289121. S2CID 151880981.
4. ^ Mitchum, Ainsley L.; Kelley, Colleen M.; Fox, Mark C. (2016). "When asking the question changes the ultimate answer: Metamemory judgments change memory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 145 (2): 200–219. doi:10.1037/a0039923. PMID 27045282.
5. ^ Espeland, Wendy Nelson; Sauder, Michael (2007). "Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds". American Journal of Sociology. 113 (1): 1–40. doi:10.1086/517897. hdl:1885/30995. S2CID 113406795.
6. ^ Palmer, Jean; McGuire, Frederick L. (1973). "The use of unobtrusive measures in mental health research". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 40 (3): 431–436. doi:10.1037/h0034572. PMID 4708117.

What is it called when people change their behavior because they are being observed?

What refers to the tendency of observers to see what they expect to see?

Is the scientific study of behavior and mental process?

What was the focus of Edward Titchener's research?