ap psych study guide terms

Turner Syndrome

A chromosomal disorder in which a female is partly or completely missing an X chromosome

Klinefelter Syndrome

A chromosomal disorder in which a male has an extra X chromosome

Functionalism

A school of psychology that focused on how mental processes and behaviors function to help the organism adapt to its environment

Statistics

The science of collecting

Behaviorism

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes

Evolutionary Psychology

The study of how human nature and psychological processes have been shaped by natural selection over thousands of years

Psychoanalysis

A therapeutic approach that explores the unconscious psychological forces underlying human behavior

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about the relationship between two or more variables

Case Study

An in-depth analysis of a single individual

Experiment

A scientific study in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables and measures the effect on another variable

Reliability

The consistency of a measure

Validity

The extent to which a test measures or correlates with the trait it is intended to measure

Action Potential

The electrical charge that travels along the neuron's axon

Threshold

The minimum stimulation level required to trigger a neural response

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gap between neurons

Nervous System

The body system responsible for sensing

Nerve

A bundle of axons that carries messages to and from the brain and spinal cord

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for action and emergency responses

Reflex

An automatic

Brainstem

The lower part of the brain that connects the cerebrum to the spinal cord and controls basic life functions

Limbic System

A group of interconnected structures in the brain that are involved in processing emotions

Motor Cortex

The region of the cerebral cortex responsible for initiating and controlling voluntary movement

Sensory Cortex

The region of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing and interpreting sensory information

Broca's Area

A region of the frontal lobe involved in speech production

Wernicke's Area

A region of the temporal lobe involved in speech comprehension

Split Brain

The condition where the corpus callosum

Hormones

Chemical messengers produced by the endocrine glands that regulate bodily processes

Chromosomes

Structures in the nucleus of a cell that contain the genes

DNA

The molecule that carries the genetic instructions for the development and functioning of living organisms

Genes

The basic units of inheritance

Natural Selection

The process by which certain traits become either more or less common in a population based on their relative fitness

Mutation

A change in the DNA sequence of a gene

Environment

The external physical and social conditions that influence the life of an organism

Heritability

The proportion of variation in a trait that can be attributed to genetic factors

Molecular Genetics

The study of the molecular structure and function of genes

Culture

The beliefs

Memes

Ideas

Gender Role

The social expectations for how individuals should think

Gender Identity

An individual's sense of being male

Gender Typing

The process by which individuals acquire the behaviors and attitudes considered appropriate for their biological sex

Social Learning Theory

The view that people can learn new behaviors by observing others

Gender Schema Theory

The theory that children develop gender schemas - cognitive frameworks regarding what it means to be male or female

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information

Absolute Threshold

The minimum amount of stimulation that must be present for a person to detect a sensation

Subliminal

Below the threshold of conscious awareness

Hue

The dimension of color that is determined by the dominant wavelength in a mixture of light waves

Wavelength

The distance between consecutive peaks of a wave

Blind Spot

The area of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye

Gate-Control Theory

The theory that the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks or allows pain signals to pass on to the brain

Opponent-Process Theory

The theory that the visual system interprets color by means of three opponent processes: red-green

Frequency

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a given point in a specified time period

Fovea

The central

Transduction

The conversion of one form of energy into another

Young-Helmholtz Theory

The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors - one sensitive to red

Kinesthesis

The sense of body movement and position

Vestibular Sense

The sense that detects head and body position and movement

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Visual Capture

The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses

Gestalt

An organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts

Figure-Ground

The principle that we tend to perceive objects as either being in the foreground (the figure) or the background (the ground)

Grouping

The organization of individual sensations into meaningful wholes according to principles such as proximity

Visual Cliff

An apparatus used to study depth perception in infants and animals

Binocular Cues

Depth cues that depend on the use of two eyes

Monocular Cues

Depth cues that can be detected with one eye

Retinal Disparity

The slightly different images that are projected onto the retinas of the two eyes

Convergence

The inward turning of the eyes to focus on an object at a close distance

Perceptual Constancy

The tendency to perceive objects as unchanging even as sensory input changes

Perceptual Adaptation

The process by which we adjust to an altered sensory environment

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Parapsychology

The study of psychic and supernatural phenomena

Human Factors Psychology

The study of how people interact with products

Depth Perception

The ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and to accurately judge distance

Phi Phenomenon

The illusion of movement created by the rapid succession of still images