Ap Psychology Princeton Review

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 sensation, 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 into two parts: body and spirit

Brain

The command center of the central nervous system

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Believed that the physical world is not under divine influence but rather follows a set of observable laws or rules. Proposed that the body and mind interact and the mind controls the body while the body provides the mind with sensory input for it to decipher. Also realizing that some body movements, which he named reflexes, are not controlled by the mind.

Reflexes

An immediate, unconscious reaction to an environmental event

John Locke (1632-1704)

His school of thought is known as empiricism. He uses the term of blank slate to describe the mind of an infant. Saying that almost all knowledge must be learned and nothing is innate.

Empiricism

The acquisition of truth through observations and experiences

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

Believed that the idea of soul or spirit, or even of a mind, is meaningless. His philosophy is known as materialism, which is the belief that the only things that exist are matter and energy. What we experience as consciousness is simply a by-product of the machinery of the brain

Behaviorism

posits that psychology is the study of observable behavior.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Proposed the theory of natural election. This evolution occurs because there is a naturally occurring variation among individuals in a species, and the individuals that are best adapted to the environment are more likely to survive to reproduce. Their offspring, in turn, will probably have some of the traits that made their predecessors more likely to survive.

Natural Selection

Said that all creatures have evolved into their present state over long periods of time.

Evolutionary Theory

Set the stage for psychology by providing a way to explain differences between species and justifying the use of animals as a means to study the roots of human behavior.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Opened a laboratory to study consciousness. Trained in physiology and hoped to apply the methods that he used to study the body to the study of the mind.

Edward Titchener (1867-1927)

A student in Wundt's laboratory, he was the first to bring psychology to the United States. He theorized that understanding all of the parts would lead to the understanding of the greater structure of the mind.

Structuralism/Introspection

Means looking for patterns in thought, which are illuminated through interviews, with a subject describing his or her conscious experience.

William James (1842-1910)

An American psychologist who opposed the structuralism approach. He argued that what is important is the function of the mind, such as how to solve a complex problem. He believed that the most important thing to understand is how the mind fulfills its purpose.

Functionalism

A function-orientated approach.

Biological psychology

A field of psychology that seeks to understand the interactions between anatomy and physiology.

Behavioral genetics

A field of psychology that emphasizes that particular behaviors are attributed to specific, genetically based psychological characteristics.

Classical Conditioning

First identified by Ian Pavlov, was one of the behaviorists' most important early findings It is defined as a basic form of learning in which a behavior comes to be elicited by a formerly neutral stimulus.

John Watson (1878-1958)

His assistant Rosalie Rayner applied classical conditioning to humans in the famed Little Albert experiment.

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

A behaviorist, who through the development of his behavioral response 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 applications of _________.

Cognitive Psychology

An approach rooted in the idea that to understand people's behavior, we must first understand how they construe their environment - in other words, how they thing.

Humanistic approach

Rooted in the philosophical tradition of studying the roles of consciousness, free will, and awareness of human condition. It emphasizes on personal values and goals and how they influences behavior, rather than attempting to divide personality into smaller components.

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Proposed the idea of self-actualization, the need for individuals to reach their full potential in a creative way.

Self-actualization

means accepting yourself and your nature, while knowing your limits and strengths.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Stressed the role of unconditional positive regard in interactions and the need for positive self-concept as critical factors in attaining self-actualization.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Developed an approach to psychology known as psychoanalytic theory. Drawing a distinct line between unconscious mind and the unconscious mind. This theory stresses parents to the development of personality.

Conscious mind

A mental state of awareness that we have ready access to

Unconscious mind

Those mental process that we do not normally have access to but are yet influenced by in some way.

Carl Jung

Expanded on the idea of psychoanalytic theory with his concept of the Collective Unconscious.

Repressed

Buried in the unconscious.

Collective Unconscious

A part of individual's unconscious which derives memory and knowledge from an ancestral memory, common to the human experience.

Sociocultural approach

The environment a person lives in has a great deal to do with how the person behaves and ow others perceive that behavior.

Evolutionary Approach

Focuses the theories of Darwin. Behavior can best be explained in terms of how adaptive that behavior is to our survival. For example, without fear, our survival would be jeopardized.

Experiment

An investigation seeking to understand relations of cause and effect

Independent variable

The manipulated variable

Dependent variable

What is being measured

Population

A group of interest

Representative sample

A small sample of what it is supposed to represent. A small group of people 10 people can represent 100 people.

Representativeness

The degree to which a sample reflects the diverse characteristics.

Random Sampling

A way of ensuring maximum representativeness

Single-blind design

A design that means that the subjects do not know whether they are in the control or experimental group

Double-blind design

Studies that are designed so that the experimenter does not inadvertently change the responses of the subject, such as by using a different tone of voice with members of the control group than with the experimental group.

Placebo

A seemingly therapeutic object or procedure, which causes the control group to believe they are in the experimental group but are actually contains none of the test material.

Correlational research

Involves assessing the degree of association between two or more variables or characteristics of interest that occur naturally.

Conceptual definition

Is the theory or issue being studied

Operational definition

is how that theory or issue will be directly observed or measured in the study.

Internal validity

The certainty with which the results of an experiment can be attributed to the manipulations of the independent variable rather tan some other, confounding variable.

External validity

The extent to which the findings of a study can be generalized to other contexts in the "real world"

Reliability

Whether or not the same results appear if the experiment is repeated under similar conditions.

Descriptive statistics

Summarize data

Inferential statistics

Allow researches to test hypotheses about data and determine how confident they can be in their inferences about data

Central tendency

The characterization of a typical value in a set of data

Mode

The most frequently occurring vale in the data set

Median

The number that falls exactly in the middle of a distribution of numbers.

Mean

The arithmetic average of a set of numbers.

Variablity

How much numbers in the set differ from one another

Standard deviation

measures a function of the average dispersion of numbers around the mean is a commonly used measure of variability.

Correlational coefficient

A statistic that will give us such information

Pearson correlation coefficient

A descriptive statistic that describes the linear relationship between two attributes on a scale ranging from 1 to 0 to -1. 1 indicating a perfect positive correlation. -1 is a perfect negative correlation

Null hypothesis

States that a treatment had no effect in an experiment

Alternative hypothesis

Is that the treatment did have an effect

Alpha

The accepted probability that the result of an experiment can be attributed to chance rather than the manipulation of the independent variable. Usually less than 5 percent.

Type 1 error

The conclusion that a difference exists when in fact this difference does not exist

Type 2 Error

Refers to the conclusion that there is no difference when in fact there is a difference

Informed consent

Participants agree to participate in the study after they have been told what their participation entails

Debriefing

After the experiment is conducted, they are told the exact purpose of their participation in the research and of any deception that may have been used in the process of experimentation.

Confidentiality

Most psychological data are collected anonymously, with the participant's name not attached to the collected data.

Applied psychology

Psychology put directly into practice

Basic Psychology

Grounded in research and is often conducted at universities and private laboratories.

Physiological Psychology

The study of behavior as influenced by biology

EEG

Measures subtle changes in brain electrical activity through electrodes placed on the head.

CAT scans

Generation of cross-sectional images of the brain using a series of X-ray pictures taken from different angles creating an image of a brain

MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging)

Extremely powerful electromagnets and radio waves to get 3-d structural information of the brain

fMRI

A scanning technique that requires a rapid sequence of MRI images

PET Scans

A type of scans the provide images via diffusion of radioactive glucose in the brain

Central nervous system

Comprising the brain and the spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system

Comprising all other nerves in the body

Afferent

Nerves sending information to the brain are sensory neurons.

Efferent

Conveying information from the brain are motor neurons.

Somatic nervous system

Responsible for voluntary movement of large skeletal muscles

Automatic nervous system

Controls the non-skeletal or smooth muscles, such as those of the heart and digestive tract.

Sympathetic nervous system

Associated with processes that burn energy. This is the system responsible for the heightened state of physiological arousal known as the fight-or-flight- reaction

Fight-or-flight- reaction

An increase in heart rate and respiration, accompanied by a decrease in digestion and salivation.

Parasympathetic nervous system

The complementary opposite system responsible for conserving energy

Hind brain

- Oldest part of the brain to develop in evolutionary terms

- Composed of the cerebellum, medulla oblongata, reticular activating system (RAS), and pons.

Cerebellum

Controls muscle tone and balance

Medulla oblongata

Controls involuntary actions, such as breathing, digestion, heart rate, and swallowing (basic life functions)

Reticular Activating System (RAS)

Controls arousal (wakefulness and alertness)

Pons

A way station , passing neural information from one brain region to another. The ___ is also implicated in REM sleep.

Tectum

Brain's roof

Tegmentum

Brain's floor

Limbic System

Emotional center of the brain. Consisting of the thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus.

Thalamus

Relays sensory information; receives and directs sensory information from visual and auditory systems.

Hippocampus

Involved in processing and integrating memories. Damage to this part does not eliminate existing memories because memories are stored in the neocortex, but rather it prevents the formation of new memories. Also known as anterograde amnesia.

Amygdala

Implicaited in the expression of anger and fustration