AP Psychology Ultimate Guide

Operational definition

\________ describes the specific procedure used to determine the presence of a variable.

Validity

\________ is the extent to which an instrument measures or predicts what it is supposed to.

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov

\________ trained dogs to salivate in response to the sound of a tone, demonstrating stimulus- response learning.

Freud

\________ believed that early life experiences shape personality and that the unconscious is the source of desires, thoughts, and memories.

Reliability

\________ is consistency or repeatability.

G Stanley Hall

\________ founded the American Psychological Association, founded a psychology lab using introspection at Johns Hopkins University, and became its first president.

Descriptive Statistics

\________: Numbers that summarize a set of research data obtained from a sample.

Pavlovs experiments

\________ at the beginning of the 20th century paved the way for behaviorism, which dominated psychology in America from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Empirical philosopher Locke

\________ believed that mind and body interact symmetrically (monism), knowledge comes from observation, and what we know comes from experience since we are born without knowledge,"a blank slate "(tabula rasa)

Participation

\________ in a study should be voluntary, and not coerced or influenced as part of a grade, raise, or promotion.

Statistical significance

\________ (p) is a measure of the likelihood that the difference between groups results from a real difference between the two groups rather than from chance alone.

American Psychological Association

The \________ (APA) lists ethical principles and code of conduct for the scientific, educational, or professional roles for all psychologists.

Wundt

\________ used trained introspection to study the mind's structure and identify consciousness's basic elements- sensations, feelings, and images.

Nature nurture controversy

\________: which our behavior is inborn or learned through experience.

standard deviation

Variance and \________ (SD) indicate the degree to which scores differ from each other and vary around the mean value for the set.

Sigmund Freud

\________ opposed behaviorists in Austria.

Descartes

\________ defended mind- body dualism (Cogito ergo sum "- I think, therefore I am) "and that what we know is innate.

Neuropsychologists

\________ explore the relationships between brain /nervous systems and behavior.

scientific experiment

In a(n) \________, the researcher controls a variable and observes the response.

modern psychology

The model is a unifying theme in \________ drawing from and interacting with the seven approaches to explain behavior.

median

The \________ is the middle score when the set of data is ordered by size.

mode

The \________ is the most frequently occurring score in a set of research data.

Roots of psychology

\________ can be traced to philosophy and physiology /biology over 2, 000 years ago in ancient Greece.

Case Study

\________: is an in- depth examination of a specific group or single person that typically includes interviews, observations, and test scores.

Meta analysis

\________ provides a way of statistically combining the results of individual research studies to reach an overall conclusion.

Survey Method

\________: researchers use questionnaires or interviews to ask a large number of people questions about their behaviors, thoughts, and attitudes.

Clinical psychologists

\________ treat people with temporary psychological crises like grief, addiction, or social issues and those with chronic psychiatric disorders.

Social psychologists

\________ focus on how a persons mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people.

Humanists

\________ value feelings and believe people are naturally positive and growth- seeking.

Wilhelm Wundt

In 1879, \________ founded scientific psychology by founding a laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, to study immediate conscious sensation.

Inferential statistics

\________ are used to interpret data and draw conclusions.

Psychoanalytic theory

\________ explained mental disorders, personality, and motivation through unconscious internal conflicts.

Demand characteristics

\________: The clues participants discover about the purpose of the study, including rumors they hear about the study suggesting how they should respond.

Variables

\________ are factors with multiple values.

Variability

\________ describes the spread or dispersion of scores for a set of research data or distribution.

Psychologists

\________ studied social and environmental factors affecting cultural differences in behavior.

Double

\________- blind procedure, a research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group.

Margaret Floy Washburn

Titchener's first graduate student and first psychology PhD was \________.

Frequency polygon

\________- a line graph that replaces the bars with single points and connects the points with a line.

Single blind procedure

\________, a research design in which the participants dont know which treatment group- experimental or control- they are in.

psychological factors

The biopsychosocial model integrates biological processes, \________, and social forces to provide a more complete picture of behavior and mental processes.

Placebo effect

\________ is now used to describe any cases when experimental participants change their behavior in the absence of any kind of experimental manipulation.

Random selection

\________ can be achieved by putting all the names in a hat and picking out a specified number of names, by alphabetizing the roster of enrollees and choosing every fifth name, or by using a table of random numbers to choose participants.

arithmetic average

The mean is the \________ of the set of scores.

Edward Titchener

\________ brought introspection to his Cornell University lab, analyzed consciousness into its basic elements, and investigated how they are related.

Nature-nurture controversy

which our behavior is inborn or learned through experience

Sample

a subgroup of the population

Experimental group

receives the treatment

Control group

does not receive the treatment

Between-subjects design

The participants in the experimental and control groups are different individuals

Confounding variables

Differences between the experimental group and the control group other than those resulting from the independent variable

Subjects

attend the same two sessions upon which the quiz is based

Demand characteristics

The clues participants discover about the purpose of the study, including rumors they hear about the study suggesting how they should respond

Placebo

The imitation pill, injection, patch, or other treatment

Dopamine

\________ stimulates the hypothalamus to synthesize hormones and affects alertness and movement.

Serotonin

\________ is associated with sexual activity, concentration and attention, moods, and emotions.

Albinism

\________ arises from a failure to synthesize or store pigment and also involves abnormal nerve pathways to the brain, resulting in quivering eyes and the inability to perceive depth or three- dimensionality with both eyes.

Paul Broca

\________ (1861) performed an autopsy on the brain of a patient, nicknamed Tan, who had lost the capacity to speak, although his mouth and his vocal cords werent damaged and he could still understand language.

Insomnia

\________ is the inability to fall asleep and /or stay asleep.

Psychological dependence

\________ develops when the person has an intense desire to achieve the drugged state in spite of adverse effects.

Electroencephalograms

\________ (EEGs) can be recorded with electrodes on the surface of the skull.

Positron emission tomography

\________ (PET) produces color computer graphics that depend on the amount of metabolic activity in the imaged brain region.

Pons

\________ generates bursts of action potentials to the forebrain, which is activation.

Cyton

contains cytoplasm and the nucleus, which directs synthesis of such substances as neurotransmitters.

Glutamate

\________ is a major excitatory neurotransmitter involved in information processing throughout the cortex and especially memory formation in the hippocampus.

Nonconscious

\________ is the level of consciousness devoted to processes completely inaccessible to conscious awareness, such as blood flow, filtering of blood by kidneys, secretion of hormones, and lower- level processing of sensations, such as detecting edges, estimating size and distance of objects, recognizing patterns, and so forth.

Psychoactive drugs

\________ are chemicals that can pass through the blood- brain barrier into the brain to alter perception, thinking, behavior, and mood, producing a wide range of effects from mild relaxation or increased alertness to vivid hallucinations.

Glial cells

\________ guide the growth of developing neurons, help provide nutrition for and get rid of wastes of neurons, and form an insulating sheath around neurons that speeds conduction.

Functional MRI

\________ (fMRI) shows the brain at work at higher resolution than the PET scanner.

Circadian rhythm

\________ is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep- wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

Tay Sachs syndrome

\________ produces progressive loss of nervous function and death in a baby.

Freud

\________ tried to analyze dreams to uncover the unconscious desires (many of them sexual) and fears disguised in dreams.

Stimulants

\________ are psychoactive drugs that activate motivational centers and reduce activity in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system by increasing activity of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine neurotransmitter systems.

Unconsciousness

\________ is characterized by loss of responsiveness to the environment, resulting from disease, trauma, or anesthesia.

Cerebral cortex center

\________ for higher- order processes such as thinking, planning, judgment; receives and processes sensory information and directs movement.

endocrine system

consists of glands that secrete chemical messengers called hormones into your blood.

Hypothalamus

portion of brain part that acts as endocrine gland and produces hormones that stimulate (releasing factors) or inhibit secretion of hormones by the pituitary.

Gamma aminobutyric acid

\________ (GABA) inhibits firing of neurons.

Lucid dreaming

the ability to be aware of and direct ones dreams, has been used to help people make recurrent nightmares less frightening.

Hypnosis

\________ is an altered state of consciousness characterized by deep relaxation and heightened suggestibility.

dissociation theory

hypnotized individuals experience two or more streams of consciousness cut off from each other.

Antagonists

\________ block a receptor site, inhibiting the effect of the neurotransmitter or agonist.

Tolerance

decreasing responsivity to a drug.

Endocrine

glands include the pineal gland, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland in your brain; the thyroid and parathyroids in your neck; the adrenal glands atop your kidneys; pancreas near your stomach; and either testes or ovaries.

Withdrawal symptoms

\________ include intense craving for the drug and effects opposite to those the drug usually induces.

Heritability

\________ is the proportion of variation among individuals in a population that is due to genetic causes.

Agonists

\________ may mimic a neurotransmitter and bind to its receptor site to produce the effect of the neurotransmitter.

Reflex

\________ involves impulse conduction over a few (perhaps three) neurons.

Narcotics

\________ are analgesics (pain reducers) that work by depressing the central nervous system.

Preconscious

\________ is the level of consciousness that is outside of awareness but contains feelings and memories that you can easily bring into conscious awareness.

Depressants

\________ are psychoactive drugs that reduce the activity of the central nervous system and induce relaxation.

Central nervous system

consists of your brain and your spinal cord

Somatic nervous system

has motor neurons that stimulate skeletal (voluntary) muscle

Autonomic nervous system

has motor neurons that stimulate smooth (involuntary) and heart muscle

Plasticity

Although specific regions of the brain are associated with specific functions, if one region is damaged, the brain can reorganize to take over its function

Pineal Gland

endocrine gland in brain that produces melatonin that helps regulate circadian rhythms and is associated with seasonal affective disorder

Hypothalamus

portion of brain part that acts as endocrine gland and produces hormones that stimulate (releasing factors) or inhibit secretion of hormones by the pituitary

Pituitary Gland

endocrine gland in brain that produces stimulating hormones, which promote secretion by other glands including TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone); ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone), which stimulates the adrenal glands; FSH (follicle stimulating hormone), which stimulates egg or sperm production; ADH (antidiuretic hormone) to help retain water in your body; and HGH (human growth hormone)

Thyroid Gland

endocrine gland in neck that produces thyroxine, which stimulates and maintains metabolic activities

Parathyroids

endocrine glands in neck that produce parathyroid hormone, which helps maintain calcium ion level in blood necessary for normal functioning of neurons