AP Psychology Unit 1

evolutionary perspective

survival of the fittest (hereditary)

psychoanalytic perspective

• unconscious motives

• childhood events

cognitive perspective

• thinking, perceptions, memory, interpretations, mind

behavioral perspective

• learning & conditioning

• reinforcement

humanistic perspective

• reach potential

• acceptance, growth, & love

biological perspective

• born with it

• neurotransmitters, hormones, nervous system

critical thinking

examines assumptions, appraises the source, finds biases, & evaluates evidence

hindsight bias

“i knew it all along”

overconfidence

• we always think that we are right

• “i was so close”

confirmation bias

we look for statistics & facts that support the beliefs that we already have

illusory correlation

perceiving a relationship where none exists or perceiving a stronger than the actual relationship (random coincidence)

null hypothesis

• states no relationship exists between the two variables being studied

• is the statement that a researcher or an investigator wants to disprove

• testing can tell you whether your results are due to the effects of manipulating the dependent variable or due to random chance

falsifiable

• “can it be proven wrong?”

• ensures that hypotheses can be tested & potentially refuted

operational definitions

• defines what the researcher will be observing & manipulating

• generalized

• measurable and manageable

• used to replicate the study

case study

give an in-depth investigation of an individual or group

naturalistic observation

observing behavior in its natural setting

social-desirability bias

• wanting to look good

• when respondants give answers that they think are socially acceptable rather than truthful

self-report bias

• flawed memories

• when participants provide inaccurate info about themselves

sampling bias

• skewed selection

• when the sample is not representative of the population

• leads to unrepresentative & unreliable results

wording effects

• how you frame the question

• how the researcher words questions

population

the entire group that a researcher is interested in studying

random sample

• anyone you pull for the study

• reduces bias & increases representativeness

representative sample

• smaller sample that represents the population

• gets rid of confounding variables in a population

convenience sampling

• easy, but risky

• selecting participants who are readily available

• may not represent the broader population

correlation

• a relationship between 2 variables

• answers “how well does A predict B?”

• correlation does not equal causation

directionality problem

you don’t know what variable causes the other

third variable problem

• an undiscovered causitive variable

• another that can influence the 2 variables studied in a correlational study

regression towards the mean

the tendency of outliers to be followed by data points that are closer to the mean