AP Psychology Princeton Review Unit 5

Psychology

The study of behavior and the mind.

Behavior

A natural process subject to natural laws, refers to the observable actions of a person or an animal.

Mind

Refers to the sensations, memories, motives, emotions, thoughts, and other subjective phenomena particular to an individual or animal that are not readily observed.

Dualism

Divides the world and all things in it between the body and the spirit, raised by the early Greeks.

Brain

The command center of the central nervous system.

Rene Descartes

Believed that the physical world and all of the creatures in it are like machines, in that they behave in observable, predictable ways. Humans are the exception to the rule since they have minds.

Empiricism

The acquisition of truth through observations and experiences.

Materialism

The belief that the only things that exist are matter and energy.

Natural Selection

The theory that all creatures have evolved into their present states over long periods of time.

Wilhelm Wundt

This man is considered the founder of the science of psychology. He opened the 1st psychology lab.

Edward Titchener

This man was a student of Wundt’s, and was one of the first to introduce psychology to the US. He developed a theory called structuralism.

Structuralism

Entails looking for patterns in thought, which are illuminated through interviews with a subject describing their conscious experience.

Introspection

Interviews with a subject describing their conscious experience.

William James

This man opposed Titchner’s theory of structuralism and instead developed a function-oriented approach known as functionalism.

Functionalism

An approach that attempts to understand how the mind fulfills its purpose.

Mary Whiton Calkins

This woman was the first female graduate student in psychology.

Margaret Floy Washburn

The first female PhD in psychology and the second female president of the APA.

G. Stanley Hall

This man was the first president of the APA.

Biological Psychology

A field in psychology that attempts to understand the interactions between anatomy, physiology, and behavior by directly applying biological experimentation to psychological problems.

Behavioral Genetics

A branch of psychology that explores how particular behaviors may be attributed to specific, genetically based psychological characteristics, taking into account biological predispositions as well as the extent of influence that the environment had on the manifestation of that trait.

Behaviorist

This field of psychology posits that psychology is the study of observable behavior, and that the mind or mental events are unimportant, as they cannot be observed.

Classical Conditioning

A basic form of learning in which a behavior comes to be elicited by a formerly neutral stimulus.

John B. Watson

This man applied classical conditioning to humans in the famed Little Albert experiment. Little Albert was conditioned to be scared of anything white and furry due to loud sounds.

B.F. Skinner

This man developed the Skinner Box, and described operant conditioning.

Operant Conditioning

A form of learning in which a subject learns to associate a behavior with an environmental outcome.

Behavior Modification

A set of techniques in which psychological problems are considered to be the product of learned habits, which can be unlearned by the application of behavioral methods.

Cognitive Psychology (Cognitive-Behavioral Approach)

An approach rooted in the idea that to understand people’s behavior, we must first understand how they construe their environment. The approach focuses mostly on learning, memory, problem-solving, decision-making, language, and intelligence.

Humanistic Approach

This approach studies the roles of consciousness, free will, and awareness of the human condition. It emphasizes personal values and goals and how they influence behavior.

Abraham Maslow

This man proposed the idea of self-actualization.

Self-Actualization

The acceptance of yourself and your nature while knowing your limits and strengths.

Carl Rogers

This man stressed the role of unconditional positive regard and the need for a positive self-concept as critical factors in attaining self-actualization.

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Theory

This approach stresses the importance of early childhood experiences and a child’s relationship with their parents to the development of personality. Its therapeutical approach focuses on the resolution of unconscious conflicts through uncovering information that has been repressed in the unconscious.

Sigmund Freud

This man developed a theory of human behavior known as psychoanalytic theory.

Conscious Mind

A mental state of awareness that we have ready to access to.

Unconscious Mind

Those mental processes that we do not normally have access to but that still influence our behaviors, thoughts, and feelings.

Repressed

A term used to describe things that have been buried in the unconscious.

Sociocultural Approach

This approach believes that the environment a person lives in has a great deal to do with how the person behaves and how others perceive that behavior. Cultural values vary from society to society and one must understand that if they wish to predict, understand, or control behavior. It takes into account sociological factors such as socioeconomic status, education, occupation, and demographics.

Evolutionary Approach

This approach focuses on how adaptive behavior is to our survival.

Biopsychosocial Approach

This approach emphasizes the need to investigate the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors as contributing to a behavior or a mental process.

Domains

Broad areas of psychological research.

Biological Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand the effect of drugs on behavior.

Social Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand the relationships between drug users and their families.

Clinical Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand a possible treatment option for someone addicted to drugs.

Cognitive Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand what thoughts someone might entertain to justify their drug use.

Counseling Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand how a school counselor might talk to a student about drugs.

Developmental Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand at what age someone might be more susceptible to peer pressure.

Education Domain

This domain, for example, seeks to understand how effective school-based programs are.

Experimental Domain

This domain, for example, deals with experiments.

Industrial-Organizational Domain

This domain, for example, deals with workplaces.

Personality Domain

This domain, for example, deals with personality.

Positive Domain

This domain, for example, focuses on positive aspects and strengths of human behavior.