Chapter 1 and 2 Notes

AP Psychology

Behaviorist Perspective

focused on observable, measurable behavior without reference to mental processes - dont care about what you think or why, but about what you do - observe peoples behavior through stimulation from the environment like reinforcements or punishments - John Watson and B. F. Skinner

Reaction - Frequency - Physical - stimulation from environment - measurements

Behaviorism!

Behaviorism compared to Psychoanalytic

existed at the same time but were complete opposites -> Behaviorism focused on physical reactions and no mental processes, Psychoanalytic is all mental studies and nothing physical

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective

We behave the way we do because we have an unconscious drive or trauma that affects our behavior and how we react to situations/stimulants - Sigmund Freud

Unconscious - Sigmund Freud

Psychodynamic!

Humanistic Perspective

Hippie era view, self-love and self-growth (or any self- word), wanted to put the human back in psychology, focused on human potential for personal growth, reaction to freuds negativity, maslow's heirarchy of needs

Self- (anything really) - personal growth - human potential - positive

humanism!

Psychology

the study/science of human behavior and mental processes

Cognitive Perspective

focuses on how we percieve, process, remember information - critical thinking - thinking: emotions/thoughts, language, memory, problem-solving - repeated behaviors should be changed by also changing your thoughts not just your behavior

critical thinking - mind - logical thinking - memory - emotions/thoughts - problem-solving

cognitive!

Nature/Nurture

biggest psychological debate -> nature: genes, brain chemistry, brain structure, anatomy, biology, physiological - nurture: environment, experience, mental and emotional, born with no programming or a "blank slate" --- "Nurture works on what nature endows"

Evolutionary Perspective

charles darwin - alter the way people think and percieve things based on this school of thought - natural selection - evolutionary history behaviors and how behaviors were naturally selected to adapt to the environment - pain helps you learn to stay away or avoid the thing that caused you pain and keep you alive - more heavily focused on the reproduction rather than the staying alive

charles darwin - evolution - ancestors - natural selection - adapt to environment - nature/nurture - reproduction and staying alive

evolutionary!

Social-Cultural Perspective

how situations and culture affect our behavior and thinking - gender for example: gender is a social idea/construct, different groups believe different things about gender and their capabilities and rights etc -- how much emotion you show and/or are allowed to or supposed to

gender - culture

social-cultural!

Positive Psychology

scientific study of human flourishing, with the goal of discovering humans strengths and virtues that help people

Biological Perspective

links biological and psychological processes - where we currently are today - how our anatomy and physiciology and doctor sciency stuff affect our psyche - our brain controls everything

anatomy - doctor science stuff - genes - physiology - brain chemistry - hormones - genetics - brains - pharmaceutical treatment for mental illnesses

biological!

Psychodynamic Perspective

college board's preferred term for Psychoanalytic, but they are a teensy bit different because psychodynamic is "freud minus the i wanna have sex with my mom"

BioPsychoSocial Perspective

schools put together - they all contribute to behavior but also affect each other too - Ex: Why do school shooters exist? 99% are males - more testosterone- more prone to violence and anger : underdeveloped frontal lobe (biological) : praised/ rewarded for using physical violence in the past - past traumatic experience or chronic stress (psychodynamic) : people argue too many guns in U.S. - too much violence in society (social) -> Put it all together - recipe of a school shooter

Sampling Bias

a flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample --- hand-picking a sample or only surveying friends or people near you

Research Psychologists

aim to increase the amount we know about mental processes and behavior , can specialize in certain fields

Applied Psychologist

takes what we know and goes out in the world and tries to solve problems- 2 main types

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

study how people perform in the workplace - Otherwise known as a Business Psychologist - help people do better at their job - train to help people work better

Human Factors Psychologist

interaction between people and machines, hot to make environments safer and easier to use - otherwise known as Engineering Psychologists - most are engineers who then became psychologists - improve the relationship between humans and machines/environments/products - work with a warehouse - Ex: make a stove and their buttons match up so people can easily tell psychologically which one connects to which

Counseling Psychologist

assits people with problems in living and achieving greater well being - help people adjust to life transitions

Clinical Psychologist

studies, assesses, and treats people with Psychological disorders, uses a variety of therapy methods, administer, and interpret Psychological tests; usually has a ph.d in psych

Psychiatrist

branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders , usually the only person who can prescribe medicine and graduates with an m.d.

Hindsight Bias

The Tendency to believe, after learning and outcome, that one would have seen it --- Ex. "I knew it all along" phenomenon

Overconfidence Effect

Human tendency to think we know more than we actually do; often more confident than correct — “Is Boston north or south of Paris?”

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events --- Ex: "People with good sleep habits tend to guess questions correctly in class" -> 'Sleep improves memory'

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory --- Ex: "When sleep-deprived, people will remember less than the day before"

Operational Definition

a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study --- Ex: human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures -- (Quantifies it!)

Qualitative Research

non-numerical data, descriptions, stories, experiences, observations, structured interview, WORDS

Quantitative Research

numerical data and measurements, numbers and statistics, Likert Scale, number of something or times occured, frequency, NUMBERS

Structured Interview

series of questions asked regarding someone's experiences (type of qualitative research)

Likert Scale

method of measuring attitudes and beliefs on a numerical scale ( on a scale of 1-10 ) — type of quantitative research

Case Study

a descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles --- Pro: learn a LOT about the subject but Con: it can be misleading as it is not applicable to everyone else usually --- Ex: Phineas Gage

Survey

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group --- Interview or questionnaire --- NOT a research study!

Naturalistic Observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation --- watching and recording natural behaviors --- ex: People who watch monkeys (but not jane goodall cuz she interacted with the chimps)

Social Desirability Bias

tendency for people to report answers based on percieved desires of the experimenter or social norms -- Ex: if a school sends out a survey and asks if people vape or do weed no one is going to admit to actually doing it

Random Sample

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion --- reduces bias and creates a more accurate study

Generalizability

the answers in the survey applies only to the sample we just assume and generalize that it applies to everyone

Representative Sample

accurately reflects the group you are studying, the larger the sample, the more representative it is

Convenience Sampling

non-random, opportunity sampling because it is easy/fast, giving it to your friends and/or people physically or emotionally right by you

Framing

the way the stimulus is shown to you changes how you think about it, word choice --- Ex: 1. "please write your opinion on physician assistant termination of pregnancy" 2. "please write your feelings on abortion" 3. "please write about your opinion on how a doctor drugs you up and rips your baby out of your womb"

Positive Correlation

both variables rise and fall together

Correlation

a measure of the extent to which two variables change together, and thus of how well either variable predicts the other

Correlation Coefficient

a statistical index of the relationship between two variables (from -1 to +1) --- the closer to 1/-1, the stronger the correlation

Third-Variable Problem

observed correlation between two variables is actually due to a third variable correlated with both

Directionality Problem

issue where we know that two variables are related, but we do not know which is the cause and which is the effect

Experiment

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process, by random assignment of participants to the experimenter, aims to control other relevant topics

Experimental Group

in an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable

Control Group

in an experiment, the group not exposed to the treatment -contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

Random Assignment

assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups --- neutralizes outside variables

Independent Variable

the experimental factor that is manipulated, the variable whose effect is being studied

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor, the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

Confounding Variables

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment

Placebo Effect

experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent — ex: experimental group takes the medicine/drug and the control group takes a candy/placebo that looks and tastes like the medicine/drug but isn’t actually it to make it seem like they all took it and doesn’t influence behaviors

Double-Blind Procedure

an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo, commonly used in drug-evaluation studies (COMBATS THE PLACEBO EFFECT)

Population

all those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to

Longitudinal Study

tracks the same participants over a long period of time, measuring some variable --- "gold standard" of science -- you are your best control group - measure the same people at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years old to measure how happiness changes across their lifespan

Cross-Sectional Study

tracks participants of different ages or developmental levels at one point in time

Meta-Analysis

research method that takes the average of a bunch of results from other studies not completing any studies themselves, can be difficult because not all studies include the data you need and take a longggg time

APA Code of Ethics Checklist

Informed Consent and Assent - "protect from greater than usual harm or discomfort" - debrief participants - all factors reviewed by IRB - confidential or anonymous if possible

Informed Consent

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Informed Assent

permission given by children- but still need informed consent from parent

Debriefing

the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

reviews studies and their purpose and deceptions, checks that they meet the APA guidelines - sometimes referred to as an ethics committee

Descriptive Statistics

numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of groups - includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation

Histogram

a bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

Mean

the arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores

Median

the middle score in a distribution - half the scores are above it and half are below it

Mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

Range

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Standard Deviation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Normal Distribution

symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data, most scores fall near the mean, and fewer near the extremes

Inferential Statistics

numerical data that allow one to generalize- to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population

Statistical Significance

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance, unlikely due to chance - always a probably that chance took place but it is highly unlikely -> probability-value= <.05 (5%)

Practical vs Statistical Significance

can be statistically significant but not practical -> "first born children tend to have higher IQ's than later born children by a few points" but there is no practical significance as you cant tell the difference between a 100 IQ and a 103 IQ

3 Measures of Central Tendency

mean, median, mode

2 measures of Variation

range and standard deviation

Effect Size

quantitative measure of how strong an effect is (What is the practical significance of a result? How big of an impact did the intervention have?) - Cohen's D- Mean of the experimental group minus the mean of the control group divided by the standard deviation - not affected by sample size (>.2 =small effect, .5 = medium effect, .8 = larger effect, 2 = gigantic)

Critical Thinking

type of thinking where you examine assumptions, access the source, discerns the hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions rather than blindly accepting arguments, conclusions, and claims --- Ex: Is global warming real? -Political or social motives? Bias? Scientific evidence? Credibility? Perspective?

Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

Negative Correlation

one variable goes up, one goes down

Normal Curve Rule

68% within 1 s.d., 95% within 2 s.d., 99.7% within 3 s.d. of the mean

Sample

smaller group within a population used to reveal truths about the larger population

Scatterplot

a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of 2 variables. the slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the 2 variables. the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation

Illusory Correlation

the perception of a relationship where none exists

Skewed Distribution

a representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value

Culture

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next