AP Psychology

ALL 608 Vocab Words

Health Psychology

Explores Biology, behavior, and mental health, and to prevent illness

Stress

how we respond to certain events

Hypertension

high blood pressure, circulatory disorder

Eustress

Positive Stress, challenging but enjoyable tasks

Distress

Negative Stress, overwhelmed by demands, losses

Everyday Hassles

Minor everyday occurrences that cause stress

Life Changes

Personal changes that require adaption

Catastrophes

unpredictable events, large-scale

ACE’s

trauma events, that can change brain development of children

General Adaptation Syndrome ( GAS)

physiological severe stress

Alarm Reaction

Shock phase, body temp., nervous system is aroused

Resistance Stage

stabilized at physiological levels

Exhaustion Stage

Prolonged Stress

Tend and Befriend

support others, bond and seek

Problem focused coping

seeing stress as a problem to be solved

Emotion focused coping

manage emotional reactions to stress for coping

Positive Psychology

focus on human flourishing

Positive Emotions

hope, optimism

resilience

successfully adapting to challenging life experiences

Positive Subjective Experience

Individuals unique personal feelings

Subjective well-being

self-perceived happiness and life satisfaction

Happiness

emotion of joy, well-being

Gratitude

A sense of thankfulness

Signature Strengths

Character strengths that are most essential to who we are

Virtues

Quality that has positive connotations considered beneficial to psychological health

Wisdom

ability to make sound decisions, good answers

Courage

ability to meet difficult challenges despite moral risks

Humanity

compassion in ones personal relations with others

Justice

fair settlement of conflict, by legal process

Temperance

capacity to mange habits and protect against excess

Transcendence

state of existence that opens beyond conventional experience, striving for meaning

Psychology

Science of behavior and mental processes

Researcher Bias

tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental or control groups differently to increase their chance of confirming hypothesis

Subject Bias

May respond to cues about the purpose of study

Social Desirability Bias

tendency to give socially acceptable answers, even if not true

Hindsight Bias

overestimate the extent to which the outcome could have been foreseen

Overconfidence

very sure of a fact, the objective reality was different

Confirmation Bias

to gather evidence that supports pre-existing expectations

Theory

Integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events

Hypothesis

testable prediction, often implied by a theory

Fallibility

a research hypothesis must be able to be disproven

Operational Definition

actual procedures used bu the researcher to measure it

Replication

recreating a research study by testing the same idea

Peer Review

evaluation of scientific or academic work, by other professionals practicing in the same field

Qualitative Research

research that produces data observers behavior or personal experiences ( non-numerical)

Quantitative Research

relies on numerical system, using stats models

Case studies

an in depth investigation of a single individual family, even, or entity

Naturalistic Observations

Watches and records everyday behavior of participants in their natural environments

Survey

collects data from a sample of individuals

Likert Scale

a psychometric scale used in questionnaires asking respondents to rate their agreement with a statement

Population

entire group a researchers wants to study and draw conclusions

Sample

Method by which subjects or participants are chosen

random sampling

increase likelihood that the sample is representative of the population being studied

Representative

allow researchers to generalize

Convenience Sampling

participants are selected because they are the easiest to recruit

Random Assignment

randomly assigning subjects to either the experimental or control condition

Variation

differences in a population characteristics or a data set measured by the range

Meta-Analysis

pooling data from multiple studies to arrive at one combined answer

Correlational Studies

degree of a relationship between 2 variables which may be quantified as a correlation coefficient

Scatter plot

graph displays the relationship between 2 quantitative variables by plotting points on a x-y axis represents a pair of values for an individuals

Coefficient

Statistical measure of the strength and duration of the relationship between 2 variables

Positive Correlation

relationship between 2 variables in which both rise and fall together

Negative Correlation

value of one variable increases as the value of the other decrease

Directionality problem

which it is known 2 variables are related although it is not known which is the cause and which is the effect

Third-Variable problem

2 variables are found to be correlated not mean one causes the other, unintended 3rd variable is causing a relationship between 2 variables

Regression toward the mean

tendency for extremely high or low scores to become more moderate upon retesting over time

Experiment

Investigator manipulates one of more factors to observe an effect on some behavior or mental process

Independent Variable

Experimental factor that is manipulated

Dependent Variable

Factor that is measured

Confounding Factors

Factors that affect the DV, that are not the IV

Experimental group

Group that is exposed to the IV

Control Group

Group not exposed to IV

Double Blind

Neither the participants nor the researcher are able to affect the outcome

Single Blind

Just Participants are in the dark but researcher knows

Placebo

Any medical or psychological intervention or treatment that is believed to be “inert”

Placebo Effect

a response to a placebo, caused by the subjects beliefs that they are being exposed to the real thing

Internal Review Board

An Institution to review research proposals originating within that agency for ethical acceptability and compliance with the organizations code of conduct

Informed Consent

persons agreement to participate in a procedure on the basis of their understanding of its nature

Protection from harm

self explanatory

Confidentiality

Protection to research participants and survey respondents against unauthorized access to information they reveal in confidence

Deception

any distortion of or with holding of fact with the purpose of misleading others

debriefing

giving participants in a completed research project a fuller explanation of the study

Central Tendencies

Middle or center point of a set of scores

Mode

Most frequent score

Mean

average

Median

middle score

Range

difference between high and low scores

Standard Deviation

Measure of how much scores vary around the mean

Positive Skew

Few extreme scores toward the high end relate to low end

Normal Curve

bell shaped curve that occurs when a normal distribution is plotted

Negative Skew

Few extreme scores toward low end

Bimodal Distribution

set of scores with 2 peaks around which values tend to cluster

Percentile rank

percentage of scores in a distribution that score at and fall below a particular score

Effect Size

how large of an impact the manipulation was in a study

Statistical Significance

likelihood of research out come occurring by chance

P-value

results from an experiment study are due to chance and not experimental conditions

Family Studies

research on biological relatives, genetic links

Twin Studies

heredity and environment to some attribute

Adoption Studies

among genetic and environmental factors in personality behavior

Nature v. Nurture

dispute over the relative contributions of hereditary and environmental factors.