AP Psychology Unit 1

Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Rene Descartes and Dualism

Theorized that the mind and body were separate from each other and interact with one another.

John Locke and Empiricism

All learning comes from experiences and observations

Tabula rasa

blank slate - used to describe the mind of an infant

Thomas Hobbes and Materialsm

The only things that exist are energy and matter.

What cannot be seen does not exist

Charles Darwin and natural selection

Creatures have evolved over long periods of time for them to become their present state.

Species best adapted to their environment are likely to survive more and produce more offsprings

Evolutionary theory

in a given population, specific traits are more helpful than others for survival

Wilhelm Wundt

father of psychology

German psychologist

founded a lab to to research about consciousness

Edward Titchener and structuralism

Study the structure of the mind: understanding components of the mind and how each part works together in order to have a greater understanding of the mind and human behavior

Instropection

Examination process in which one observes their own mental and emotional processes

William James and Functionalism

Study the function of the mind:

How consciousness changes according to the environment

Dorothea Dix

founded the first public mental hospital in the US

Mary White Calkins

first female president of APA

first female graduate student in psychology

Margaret Floy Washburn

First female PhD in psychology

Second female president of AOA

G. Stanley Hall

First president of APA

Biological approach

studying human biology (especially brain and nervous system) to study human behavior

genetics and biological processes play an important role in shaping behavior

Behavioral genetics approach

genetics and the environment influence behavior

Behavioralist approach

behavior is learned through interaction with the environment

Classical condition

founded by Ivan Pavlov

behavior is learned by connecting a neutral stimulus with a positive stimulus

John Watson

Little Albert Experiment:

made loud sounds when a 9 month old baby touched the white rat: as a result, he’s scared to touch anything white and furry

Operant conditioning

B.F. Skinner uses rewards and punishments to modify behavior

rewards = increases behavior

punishments = decreases behavior

Neutral stimulus

a stimulus that does not elicit a response

Unconditioned stimulus

stimulus that triggers an unconditioned response (automatic)

Conditioned stimulus

a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place

Cognitive approach

Studying mental processes such as attention, perception, memory, and decision-making

How the mind thinks

Humanistic approach

studies person as a whole

emphasizes people’s strengths, goals, how they influence behavior to free will

Abraham Maslow and Self actualization

Hierarchy of needs

Individuals reach their fullest potential in unique ways

Carl Rogers and unconditional positive regard

when someone continues to see a person in positive light regardless of the situation (no matter what they do)

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic approach

Sigmund Freud stresses the importance of childhood experiences and child’s relationship with parents in developing personality childhood experiences and unconscious desires influence

Sociocultural approach

studies how cultures and society shapes individuals the environment one lives in can shape how they behave

Evolutionary approach

Charles Darwin

How adaptive behavior can be to our survival

Biopsychosocial approach

studying the interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors as contributing to behavior or a mental process

3 major types of research in psychology

experimental, correlational, clinical

Experiment

an investigation seeking to understand relations of cause and effect

Independent variable

variable that stands alone and is manipulated by experimenter

Dependent variable

variable that is measured and cannot b changed by other variables

Constant variable

variable that stays the same throughout the experiment

Population

the total amount of people in an area

Representative sample

a group that closely matches the characteristics of its population as a whole

Random assignment

sample that has an equal chance of being chosen

Random sampling

the process of choosing research participants from population

Sampling bias

some members of a population are more likely to be selected in a sample than others

Self selection bias

participants have a choice to participate in the study or not

Pre-screening/advertising bias

Participants may share the same characteristics and offer similar results, not representing the entire population

Bias of selection

selected research participants are not representative of the population

Healthy user bias

when the study population is in better shape than the general population

Single-blind design

subject does not know if they are in the control or experimental group

Double-blind design

subject and researcher does not know who’s in the two groups

Placebo

an object or procedure that makes the control group believe that they are in the experimental group but actually contains none of the tested materials

Correlational variable

research studying the relationship between 2 or more variables without manipulating them

Confounding variable

variable that influences or affects the independent or dependent

Surveys

questionnaires or interviews

Longitudinal studies

data collected over a long period of time of the same subjects

Cross-sectional studies

data collected at one single point of time from many different individuals

case studies

in-depth study of a person , group, or event

subject’s life and history are analyzed to seek patterns and causes of behavior

generalizability

measure of how useful the results of a study are for a larger group of people in situations

Conceptual defintion

tells you what the concept means

explains what to observe and measure

Operational definition

how to measure or observe the issue

internal validity

certainty that the results of an experiment is not influenced by other factors

external validity

extent to which findings of a study can be generalized to different groups

Reliability

measuring of whether or not results are the same/consistent if experiment is repeated

Inter-rater reliability

two or more raters agree

Descriptive statistics

summarizes graphs and data

can only tell wht data is

do not allow for conclusions

mean, median, mode

central decency

average

mean

average of set of numbers

median

number that lies in the middle

mode

most frequently occurring number

range

largest number - smallest number

Variability

how much the set of numbers differs from each other.

standard deviation

measures the average distribution of numbers around the mean

percentile

number where there is a certain percentage that lies below that number

Positive skew

tail of curve falls to the right

Negative Skew

tail of curve falls to the left

Correlational coefficient

how one variable moves in relation to another

(+ or -) sign

shows direction of correlation

0 to 1.00

shows strength of correlation

Pearson correlation coefficient

a number between -1 and 1 that measures the strength and direction of the relationship between 2 variables

positive correlation

x increases, y increases

negative correlation

x decreases, y increases

causation

change in one variable causes a change in the other variable

correlation

variables are statistically associated

Inferential statistics

tests hypothesis and assesses generalizability to broader population

takes data from sample group and makes inferences about larger population from sample

sample size

number of observations or individuals

the null hypothesis

‘null’ = nothing

there is no effect in the population

the alternative hypothesis

there is an effect in the population

alpha

probability of type 1 error

type 1 error

an investigator rejects the null hypothesis that is actually true in a population

type 2 error

an investigator fails to reject the null hypothesis that is actually false in a population

p-value

shows the likelihood of your data having occurred under the null hypothesis

Deception

misleading research participants about an experiment’s purpose

Stanley Milgram

conducted an experiment

convinced participants that they will electric shock other participants

‘shocked’ participants were confederates, they knew the true purpose and pretended

many people thought that this was unethical as real participants may have believed they caused harm

IRBs

Institute Review Boards

assess research plans and ensure all meets ethical standards

Informed consent

participants may choose to participate only after they’ve received full details about experiment

Debriefing

researcher explains full purpose of study, explain used deception

confidentiality

keeping participants information anonymous

Psychological domains that would be classified as BASIC research

biological

developmental

cognitive

educational

personality

social

positive

psychometric

psychological domains that would be classified as APPLIED research

industrial-organizational

counseling

clinical

basic research (psychology)

builds psychology knowledge base

applied research (psychology)

taking on practical problems, testing hypothesis

counselor

gives professional help and advice to someone to resolve personal or psychological problems