AP Psychology - Unit 1

psychology

the systematic, scientific study of behavior and mental process of humans and animals

scientific

objective, verifiable evidence based on empirical approach

behavior

anything an organism does; observable

mental process

thinkings, feelings, and desires that are indirectly observed

Empirical Method

scientific process based on observation, including experimentation, and data

Wilhelm Wundt

German scientist and first "psychologist"

introspection

Wundt; examine own conscious experience objectively, like other aspects of nature

structuralism

Titchener; break down into basic elements, introspection

William James

considered father of psychology and developed functionalism

Functionalism

James; study of how mental process help us adapt, survive, and flourish

Sigmund Freud

fascinated by hysteria and neurosis, focused on the unconscious mind and childhood experiences, created Psychoanalytic theory

Psychoanalytic Theory

focuses on the role of a person's unconscious and early childhood experiences

Gestalt Principles

Wertheimer, Koffka, Köhler introduced to US; perception is more than the sum of its parts and sensations are summed into meaningful perceptual experiences

Ivan Pavlov

developed classical conditioning; conditioned reflex from stimulation with food

John B. Watson

believed study of consciousness was flawed and not objective; focused on observable behavior

classical conditioning

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

behaviorism

Watson; observing and controlling observable behavior

B.F. Skinner

studied the impact of consequences on behavior; used an operant conditioning chamber

Humanism

Maslow, Rogers; emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans

Abraham Maslow

proposed hierarchy of human needs in motivating behavior; higher-level need motivated by self-actualization

Carl Rogers

emphasized good in all people; developed client-centered therapy

client-centered therapy

patient takes a lead role in session; unconditional positive regard, genuiness, empathy

The Cognitive Revolution

return to focus on mind from new disciplinary perspectives (Chomsky)

Noam Chomsky

influential in early cognitive revolution movement; believed focus on behavior was short-sighted and needed to reincorporate mental functioning

WEIRD

western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic; overstudied populations that were applied to others

biospychology

how biology influences our behavior (often nervous system)

evolutionary psychology

origin in research by Charles Darwin; behavior adapts to physical and social environment and can be predicted by evolutionary theory

perception

process of organizing and interpreting incoming sensory information; interpreting what comes in your window

attention

how an individual actively processes specific information/stimuli present in our environment

sensation

your window to the world

cognitive psychology

focuses on studying thoughts and their relationship to experiences and actions

developmental psychology

scientific study of development across a lifespan

personality psychology

focuses on patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each individual unique

social psychology

focuses on how we interact with and relate to others

industrial-organizational psychology

focuses on issues related to personnel management, organizational structure, and workplace environment

health psychology

focuses on how health is affected by the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors

sport and exercise psychology

focuses on psychological aspects of sport performance

clinical psychology

focuses on diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorder and behavior problems

counseling psychology

focuses on emotional, social, vocational, and health-related outcomes in individuals who are psychologically unhealthy

forensic psychology

deals with questions of psychology in the context of the justice system

dissertation

research paper or articles published in training or graduate school

basic research

research for knowledge for the sake of knowledge

applied research

basic research for application to a real world problem

intuition

quick and ready insight seemingly independent of previous experiences

hindsight bias

we tend to believe, after learning about an outcome, that we would have forseen it

judgmental overconfidence

we tend to think we know more than we actually do

confirmation bias

tendency to pay attention to events that confirm one's beliefs and ignore evidence that contradicts those same beliefs

scientific attitude

attitude composed of curiosity, healthy skepticism, and humility

self-fulfilling prophecy

if we expect a certain outcome, our expectation will tend to make it so

experimenter expectancy effect

expectations can skew results unconsciously

Pygmalion effect

higher expectations lead to an increase in performance

levels of analysis

taking the differing perspectives/views (from biological to behavioral to evolutionary to socio-cultural) to analyze any given phenomenon

biopsychosocial approach

considers the influences of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors in analyzing any given phenomenon

critical thinking

mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements/propositions offered as true

single cause bias

thinking there is one cause (often can be more)

pseudopsychology

phony, unscientific psychology masquerading as the real thing

false consensus effect

the belief that people share our same attitudes (even though not as many do)

nature

behavior comes built in

nurture

behavior develops with experiences

monism

the mind and body are one single, unified entity

dualism

the mind and body are two entities that interact but are two fundamentally distinct entities

perceptual set

schema or frame that influences the way in which a person perceives objects, events, or people

paradigm

agreement within a discipline about the subject matter and the method

psychophysics

study of impact of physical things on perception

bottom-up processing

aka feature analysis; taking the energy from the world around us (using features on objects to build perception)

transduction

taking energy and transforming signals into neural impulses; makes light processable for the brain

top-down processing

perceive by filling in the gaps in what we see; based off of experience and schemas

pattern perception

ability to discriminate among different figures and shapes

perceptual hypothesis

educated guess that we make while interpreting information; influenced by experience, personality, and expectations

facts

observable realities

opinions

personal judgements, conclusions, or attitudes

deductive reasoning

ideas are tested in real world

inductive reasoning

real-world observations lead to new ideas

theory

a well developed set of ideas that propose and explanation for an observed phenomena

hypothesis

testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is correct; FALSIFIABLE

falsifiable

capable of being incorrect

clinical/case study

when scientists focus on one person or just a few individuals

generalizing

ability to apply findings of a particular research project to larger segments of society

naturalistic observation

observing behavior in its natural setting

observer bias

observers unconsciously skew observations to fit research goals or observation

inter-rater reliability

measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers

surveys

lists of questions to be answered by research participants

sample

subset of individuals selected from a population

population

overall group researchers are interested in

archival research

research that relies on looking at past records or data sets for interesting patterns or relationships

longitudal research

research in which data gathering is administered repeatedly over longer time

cross-sectional research

research comparing multiple segments of the population at the same time

attrition

reduction in number of participants in research due to drop outs

correlation

relationship between two or more variables

correlation coefficient

number from -1 to 1 indicating strength and direction of a relationship

positive correlation

variables move in same direction

negative correlation

variables move in the opposite direction

confounding variable

some other factor causing systematic movement of variables

illusory correlations

false correlations when no relationship exists

experimental group

gets the experimental manipulation (treatment or variable being tested)

control group

does not get manipulated; otherwise treated the same

operational definition

precise description of our variables

single-blind study

participants do not know their group but the researcher does

double-blind study

both participants and researchers don't know the groups

placebo effect

people's expectations or beliefs influence their experience in a situation