AP Psychology EVERYTHING

Functionalism

Focused on the adaptive value of conscious thoughts and emotions.

Contemporary Psychology

Best defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Hindsight Bias

Refers to people's tendency to exaggerate their ability to have foreseen the outcome of past events.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction that gives direction to research.

Dendrites

Function is to receive incoming signals from other neurons.

Reuptake

Refers to the reabsorption of excess neurotransmitter molecules by a sending neuron.

Cerebellum

The "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem.

Occipital Lobes and Temporal Lobes

Occipital lobes are to seeing as the temporal lobes are to hearing.

Genes

Biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes.

Mutation

A random error in gene replication.

Sensation and Perception

Sensation is to detection as perception is to interpretation.

Absolute Threshold

The minimum amount of stimulation a person needs to detect a stimulus 50 percent of the time.

difference threshold

the minimum change in stimulus intensity needed to be perceived as different

Circadian Rhythm

A pattern of biological functioning that occurs on a roughly 24-hour cycle.

Alpha Waves

Associated with a relaxed but awake state.

Learning

Involves a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience.

Spontaneous Recovery

Refers to the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response.

Memory

Best defined as the persistence of learning through the storage and retrieval of information.

Long-Term Memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.

Prototype

Prototype

A best example of a particular category

Algorithms

Logical, methodical step-by-step procedures for solving problems.

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior toward a goal.

Set Point

The specific body weight maintained automatically by most adults over long periods of time.

Components of Emotion

Expressive behaviors, physiological arousal, and conscious experience.

Catharsis

Refers to emotional release.

Developmental Psychology

The branch of psychology that systematically focuses on the physical, mental, and social changes that occur throughout the life cycle.

Teratogen

A substance that can cross the placental barrier and harm an unborn child.

Personality

Best defined as an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Ego

According to Freud's theory, the ego is the executive part of personality.

Intelligence

The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

Achievement Tests

Designed to assess learned knowledge or skills.

Phobias

Most likely to be characterized by a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object or situation.

Schizophrenia

Most likely to be characterized by disorganized and fragmented thinking.

Unconditional Positive Regard

Carl Rogers referred to a caring, nonjudgmental attitude as unconditional positive regard.

Cognitive Therapists

Most likely to emphasize that emotional disturbances result from self-blaming and overgeneralized explanations of bad events.

Social Psychology

Which branch of psychology is most directly concerned with the study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another?

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon

Refers to the tendency to comply with a large request if one has previously complied with a small request.

Three Main Components of the Scientific Attitude:

1. Curious eagerness

1. a psychological state characterized by a drive to learn, explore, and understand the world

2. What do you want to learn more about? What is a question that you have about the brain and/or behavior?

Three Main Components of the Scientific Attitude:

2. Skeptically scrutinize competing ideas

1. crucial for advancing knowledge and understanding human behavior. This involves questioning, examining, and evaluating different perspectives with an open mind and a willingness to consider alternative explanations

2. In your opinion, what is one piece of information you found that is the most important or compelling? Which source do you trust more and why?

Three Main Components of the Scientific Attitude:

3. Open-minded humility before nature

1. mindset of acknowledging the limits of human understanding and recognizing the vastness and complexity of the natural world, leading to a willingness to learn and revise one's beliefs in light of new evidence

2. What is something that you learned that you had never thought of before? Did any of the information you gathered challenge your existing beliefs?

Social Science Skills:

Is the following statement True or False?

• Comparison in writing discusses elements that are similar, while contrast in writing discusses elements that are different.

True

Social Science Skills

Which of the following sentences demonstrates compare and contrast?

Kim and Tom have different tastes in music and food; however, they both like to dance.

Social Science Skills

Which of the following sentences demonstrates causation?

• Lizzy spilled her frappucino all over the floor. She got a mop and cleaned it up.

• Kim and Tom have different tastes in music and food; however, they both like to dance.

Lizzy spilled her frappucino all over the floor. She got a mop and cleaned it up.

Social Science Skills

Which of the following sentences demonstrates an economic concept?

• A new immigration law enacted by Congress.

• Popular opinion about Taylor Swift.

• High gasoline prices.

High gasoline prices

Social Science Skills

Which of the following sentences demonstrates a political concept?

• A new immigration law enacted by Congress.

• Popular opinion about Taylor Swift.

• High gasoline prices.

High gasoline prices.

Social Science Skills

Which of the following sentences demonstrates a social concept?

• A new immigration law enacted by Congress.

• Popular opinion about Taylor Swift

• High gasoline prices.

Popular opinion about Taylor Swift

Social Science Skills

__________________ asks students to locate a document in time and place and to understand how these factors shape its content.

• Contextualization

• Corroboration

Contextualization

(Understanding human behavior and mental processes by taking into account the broader environmental, social, and cultural contexts in which they occur. The importance of these contexts in shaping how individuals think and act.)

Social Science Skills

__________________ asks students to consider details across multiple sources to determine points of agreement and disagreement.

• Contextualization

• Corroboration

Corroboration

(The process of gathering evidence that supports a pre-existing belief, theory, or idea, thereby strengthening its validity.)

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Behavioural	…

How we learn observable responses

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Cognitive	…

How we encode, process, store, and retrieve informaion

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Humanistic	…

How we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Social-cultural	…

How behaviour and thinking vary across situations and cultures

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Biological	…

How the body and brain enables emotions, memories, and sensory experiences; how genes combine with environment to influence individual differences

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Evolutionary	…

How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Aproach:	Focus:
Psychodynamic	…

How behaviour springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Once certain drugs flood the brain with chemicals to make you feel good the brain stops making them which leads to more use and abuse.

biological psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Love is necessary in life to allow a person to reach their/his/her full potential.

humanistic psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Falling in love with someone and starting a family ensures safety and the survival of your genetic material.

evolutionary psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Some of our cultures tell us that finding love is one of the most important things in life.

social-cultural psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

A person might abuse drugs but it is always possible for them/him/her to choose not to any longer and grow as a person.

humanistic psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Some people are better at remembering information so they do better on intelligence tests.

cognitive psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Drugs are used by a person to help them/him/her ignore and deal with deeply hidden psychic thoughts and desires.

psychodynamic psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Associating a person with good feelings leads to a feeling of love.

humanistic psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Your level of intelligence is determined by genetics.

biological psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

People who abuse drugs are less likely to survive and pass on their genes to future generations.

evolutionary psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

You think that love is important so you pursue it.

evolutionary psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Some people’s parents tell them intelligence is important so they try harder and do better on intelligence tests.

social-cultural psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Your unresolved desire for your opposite sex parent leads you to love people that remind you of them/him/her. (If this creeps you out, don't worry, there is no scientific evidence to support it but some people do believe it is true)

psychodynamic psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Positive reinforcement for using drugs like acceptance from friends and good feelings caused by drugs lead people to continue use and abuse

biological psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Being around someone you love can cause dopamine to flood the brain making you feel happy.

biological psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Certain types of intelligence have helped us survive therefore more people have the genetics for those intelligence types.

evolutionary psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

A person believes that they need drugs so they continue to use and abuse.

behavioral psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Your intelligence level is determined by whether certain issues are resolved or not in your first five years of life.

psychodynamic psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

A person's friends or family members might use drugs leading them to use and abuse also.

social-cultural psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Behaviors that are productive are punished by ridicule from friends so the person stops doing them and their/his/her intelligence decreases.

social-cultural psychology

Psychological Perspectives & Approaches:

Regardless of intelligence level, people are capable of making good choices.

humanistic psychology

AP Psychology Skills

The main skill necessary for success in AP Psychology is understanding concepts. Your understanding of a concept is proven by your ability to define, explain and apply a concept. Which of the following statements represents a definition

Deindividuation is the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity.

AP Psychology Skills

Which of the following statements represents an explanation?

Usually, deindividuation occurs because an individual gets caught up in the energy of the group and believes there will be no consequences to their/his/her actions.

AP Psychology Skills

Which of the following statements represents an application?

An individual attending a concert or sports event is at higher risk of experiencing deindividuation. Being in a large group at a highly energized and emotional event leads to a loss of self-restraint that might cause a person to act in ways they usually would not.

AP Psychology Skills

The third main skill necessary for success in AP Psychology is data analysis, specifically the analyzation and interpretation of quantitative data. This chart/graph is an example of quantitative data. Which of the following statements represents a conclusion you could reasonably come to based on the data in the chart?

Information is easier to recall and relearn when you spend more time practicing that information.

absolute threshold

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time

accommodation

adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.

accommodation

the process by which the eye’s lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

achievement motivation

a desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard.

achievement tests

a test designed to assess what a person has learned

acoustic encoding

the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words.

acquisition

in classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning,the strengthening of a reinforced response

action potential

a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

active listening

empathic listening in which the listener echoes, restates, and clarifies. A feature of Rogers’ client-centered therapy

adaptation-level phenomenon

our tendency to form judgments (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

addiction

compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences

adolescence

the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence

adrenal

part of the "fight-or-flight" response. glands a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress

aerobic exercise

sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety

aggression

physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone

algorithm

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Contrasts with the usually speedier—but also more error-prone—use of heuristics.

automatic processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

autonomic nervous system

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

aversive conditioning

a type of counterconditioning that associates an unpleasant state (such as nausea) with an unwanted behavior (such as drinking alcohol).