Unit 0 - AP Psychology Vocab

Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes

Psychodynamic Perspective

Posits that unconscious forces, conflicts, and early childhood experiences shape personality and behavior, often outside of conscious awareness.

Behavioral Perspective

Explains behavior and mental processes by focusing on observable behaviors, how they are learned through environmental influence like rewards and punishments, an d how stimuli lead to responses.

Sociocultural Perspective

Emphasizes that human behavior and mental processes are significantly shaped by an individuals social context, cultural background, and interactions with other people.

Cognitive Perspective

A product of internal mental processes like perception, memory, thinking, problem-solving, and language, emphasizing how people process and interpret information form their environment to make decisions and react to situations.

Humanist Perspective

Views people as innately good and driven to achieve self-actualization, or their full potential.

Evolutionary Perspective

Proposes that human thoughts, feeling and behaviors are influenced by natural selection aiming to enhance our ancestors’ survival and reproduction

Biological Perspective

Views behavior and mental processes as processes as producers of underlying psychological factors like genetics, brain, structure, and neurochemistry, emphasizing the role of the nervous system, hormones, and other biological systems in influencing how people think, feel, and act

Biopsychosocial Approach

An integrated perspective that explains behavior and mental processes by considering the intricate interplay between biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors.