AP Psych: Unit 1 Parts 1 & 2 TEST

Psychology's History & Approaches, Research Methods: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science

Placebo

occurs when a person experiences a real change or improvement after receiving an inactive, fake treatment—such as a sugar pill or saline injection—solely because they expect it to work

Regression to the mean

the statistical tendency for extreme scores or unusual behaviors to move back closer to the average (the mean) when you measure them a second time

Double-blind procedure

an experimental design where both the research participants and the staff interacting with them are unaware (blind) of who receives the actual treatment and who receives a placebo

Descriptive statistics

numerical methods used to organize, summarize, and describe the characteristics of a specific data set or sample

Wilhelm Wundt

A German psychologist who established the first psychology laboratory in 1879 and is often considered the founder of modern scientific psychology.

Critical thinking

Thinking that does not simply accept information as true; instead, it examines evidence, assumptions, and possible explanations.

Sigmund Freud

The founder of psychoanalysis who emphasized the unconscious mind, childhood experiences, and internal conflicts in explaining behavior.

Random sampling

Selecting participants from a population so that every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen. It helps researchers generalize results.

Random assignment

Assigning participants to different groups by chance. It helps researchers determine whether differences between groups were caused by the independent variable.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Replication

Repeating a study or experiment to determine whether its findings can be reproduced.

Mode

The most frequently occurring score in a set of data.

Median

The middle score in a data set when the scores are arranged from lowest to highest.

Mean

The average of a set of scores; calculated by adding all scores and dividing by the number of scores

Operational definition

A specific, measurable description of how a variable will be defined and measured in a study.

Positive correlation

A relationship in which two variables tend to increase or decrease together.

Negative correlation

A relationship in which one variable tends to increase while the other decreases.

Correlational coefficient

A number from -1.00 to +1.00 that indicates the direction and strength of a correlation.

Scatterplot

A graph that shows the relationship between two variables by plotting individual data points.

Theory

An organized explanation that uses observations and evidence to explain behavior or events and generate predictions.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about how two or more variables are related.

Charles Darwin

A British naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection, which influenced evolutionary psychology.

Experimental group

The group in an experiment that receives the treatment or experiences the independent variable.

Nature vs Nurture

The debate over whether behavior and traits are primarily influenced by genetics/biology (nature) or environment and experience (nurture).

Evolutionary psychologists

Psychologists who study how natural selection and evolution may have influenced behavior and mental processes.

Experimental psychologists

Psychologists who conduct controlled experiments to study behavior and mental processes.

Humanistic perspective

A perspective that emphasizes free will, personal growth, self-awareness, and the desire to reach one's full potential.

Psychodynamic perspective

A perspective that emphasizes unconscious thoughts, emotions, memories, and conflicts as influences on behavior.

Overconfidence

The tendency to be more confident in one's judgments or abilities than the evidence warrants

Hindsight bias

The tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that you would have predicted or expected it all along. Often called the “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon.

Empiricism

The idea that knowledge comes primarily from observation and experience.

Illusory correlation

The perception of a relationship between two variables when little or no actual relationship exists.

Control group

The group in an experiment that does not receive the experimental treatment and is used as a comparison.

Naturalistic observation

Observing and recording behavior in a person's or animal's natural environment without interfering.

Dorothea Dix

A 19th-century social reformer who advocated for better treatment and living conditions for people with mental illness and helped establish/improve mental hospitals in the United States.

Correlation

A statistical relationship between two variables. Correlation shows whether variables are related, but does not by itself prove that one causes the other