Ap Psych Unit 1

Organism

The thing we are studying.

Behavior

What the organism is doing.

Motivation

Why does the organism do what it’s doing.

Cognition

What does an organism know and how does it know?

Competence

What skills/abilities does an organism have and how did it get them?

Stability vs. Change

How much change actually happens from situation to situation and over our lifetimes.

Rationality vs. Irrationality

Are we bound for success or failure? Are we inherently good or bad?

Nature vs. Nurture

Are genes or the environment the reason you are, do what you do, etc.

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Are we pushed to do things from the inside or pulled from the outside?

Empiricism

Knowledge must be found through experience and use of the senses.

Phrenology

Bumps in the head that indicate personality traits.

Wilhelm Wundt

The baby daddy of psychology.

Introspection

Self-reflection (looking in).

Structuralism

Divide the mind into mental elements/parts.

Functionalism

What the mind does matters most, divide the mind into it’s different parts.

William James

First American psychologist.

Gestalt

Investigate people and perceptions as a whole, don’t divide the mind up.

Bahviorism

Altered the course of psychology, focused on observable actions.

Biopsychosocial Approach

Combo of biology, psychology, and sociology to determine who we are and what we do.

Psychologist

Basically a therapist.

Psychiatrist

Someone from a more medical standpoint.

Curiosity

The source of all research and science (the fuel).

Skepticism

Ask questions and don’t just accept things the way they are.

Critical Thinking

Thinking deeply about ideas and information.

Humility

Must be able to accept when you’re wrong.

Hindsight Bias

“I knew it all along” phenomenon.

Common Sense

Plays a role in science but MUST BE TESTED.

Overconfidence

We think we know more than we do.

Confirmation Bias

The act of seeing only info to confirm our point of view and ignoring contradictory info.

Theory

Broad statement.

Hypothesis

Testable predictions (if, then).

Operational Definutions

Clearly define variables.

Longitudinal Research

Same people are studied over time.

Cohort Effect

Impact of shared experience with people born in the same place or time as you.

Cross Sectional

Different people are all studied at the same time.

Case Studies

Study one or a few subjects in great depth to try and learn something out the whole population.

Target Group

The who?

Population

The entire group.

Sample

A small percent of the group.

Random Sample

Everyone in the group has an equal chance.

False Consensus Effect

We hang around people who agree with us/share the same beliefs so we overestimate how many people share that belief.

Naturalistic Observation

Observe subjects in natural environment.

• Stalking

Correlational Methods

Measuring relationships.

Correlation Coefficiant

Number representing strength of a relationships.

• Closer to 1.00 = the closer you are

Positive Correlation

Variables increase or decrease together.

• Study more to get better grades

Negative Correlation

Inverse relationship, one goes up while the other goes down.

• Time spent without brushing teeth leads to less friends

Illusory Correlation

Perceived relationships that don’t exist.

• Superstitions

Causation

Being able to absolutely say something is caused by something else.

Experimentation

How you establish causation.

Control Group

Doesn’t change, for comparison.

Placebo

Blank or empty factor.

• Meant to see if expectation is what is causing results.

Double Blind Procedure

Scientist and participants don’t know who is in which condition.

Random Assignment

Decides who goes into which group.

Operational Definutions

Makes sure variable is clearly defined/described.

Confounding Variables

Additional possible influences on outcomes.

Descriptive Statistics

Stats that simple describe data.

Distributions

Lay data out in order.

Percentile Rank

Where you fall in a distribution.

Standard Deviation

How different scores are from each other.

Range

Distance from smallest data to largest.

Z-Score

Individual deviation from the average.

Inferential Statistics

Can/should or can’t/shouldn’t we make assumptions based on statistical data.

Statistical Significance

Difference is enough to mean something.

Ethics

Right and wrong as it pertains to a certain field.

Informed Consent

Subjects agree to continue.

Debriefing

Check-in with subjects afterwords.

Ethics Important Points

• Informed consent

• Safe

• The ability to stop

• Confidentiality

• Debriefing