AP Psych Semester 1 Final (Book Notes)

Introspection

way of having subjects to record accurately their cognitive reactions to simple stimuli to examine basic cognitive structures

Structuralism

the idea that the mind operates by combining subjective emotions and objective sensations

Functionalism

study of how structures(subjective emotions and objective sensations) from structuralism, function in our lives

Psychoanalytic theory

part of Freuds theory that included dream analysis and word association to understand human thought

Behaviorism

theory by some psychologists that believed that they should only look at behavior and the causes of behavior

Humanist perspective

perspective that stresses individual choices and free will and beleived that we choose most of our behaviors

Psychoanalytic perspective

beleive that the unconscious mind controls much of our thought and action

Biopsychology

explains human thought and behavior strictly in terms of psychology of biological processes

Evolutionary perspective

examine human thoughts and actions in terms of natural selection

Behavioral perspective

explain human thought and behavior in terms of conditioning

Cognitive perspective

examines human thoughts and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process, and remember environmental events

Social-Cultural perspective

look at how our thoughts and behaviors vary from people living in other cultures

Wilhelm Wundt

(1832-1920) Psychologist who set up the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany and looked at introspection as a way to create his theory of structuralism

William James

(1841-1910) published The Principles of Psychology which was the first psychological textbook and created the theory of functionalism

Mary Whiton Calkins

(1863-1930) studied with William James and became president of the American Psychological Association

Margaret Floy Washburn

(1871-1939) first woman to earn a Ph.D in psychology

G. Stanley Hall

(1844-1939) student of William James who pioneered the study of child development and was the first president of the American Psychological Association

Max Wertheimer

(1880-1943) studied Gestalt Psychology and argued against dividing human thought and behavior into discrete structures

Sigmund Freud

(1856-1939) revolutionized psychology with his psychoanalytic theory(unconscious mind)

John B. Watson

(1878-1958) studied the pioneering conditioning experiments of Ivan Pavlov and declared that for psychology to be considered a science, it must limit itself to observable phenomena, not unobservable concepts

Ivan Pavlov

(1849-1836) pioneered classical conditioning

B.F.Skinner

(1904-1990) expanded the basic idea of behaviorism to include the idea of reinforcement

Abraham Maslow

(1908-1970) stressed individual choices and free will as a part of the humanistic idea

Carl Rogers

(1902-1987) stressed individual choices and free will as a part of the humanistic idea

Charles Darwin

(1809-1882) created the theory of natural selection

Jean Piaget

(1896-1980) created the cognitive developmental theory which focuses on how our cognitions develop in stages as we mature

Hindsight bias

occurrence for people to think that they knew all along when hearing about research findings

Applied research

research that has a clear, practical application and is often conducted to solve problems

Basic research

explores questions that are of interest to psychologists but are not intended to have immediate real-world applications

Hypothesis

expresses a relationship between two variables

Independent variable

does not depend on anything

Dependent variable

depends on the independent variable

Theory

aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to to generate testable hypotheses with the hope of collecting data that support the theory

Operational definition

explaining how you will measure a variable

Validity

it measures what the researchers set out to measure

Reliability

when it can be replicated, it is consistent

Sampling

process by which partipants are selected

Sample

group of participants

Population

where the sample will be selected from

Representative sample

must show the whole population and not a sub-section of it

Random sampling

every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected and it increases the likelihood that the sample represents the population and that one can generalize the findings to the larger population

Stratified sampling

process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criterion

Experiment - laboratory and field

conducted in a lab(a highly controlled environment) or conducted out in the world

Confounding variables - participant and situation relevant

any difference between the experimental and control conditions, except for the independent variable, that might affect the dependent variable

Random assignment

means that each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any group

Controls

diminishes the change that participants in the two groups differ in any meaningful way

Group-matching

way to ensure that the experimental and control group are equivalent

Experimenter bias

the unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experiment and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis

Double-blind procedure

occurs when neither the participants nor the researchers are able to affect the outcome of the research

Single-blind procedure

occurs when only the participants do not know to which group they have been assigned

Response or participant bias

the tendency for subjects to behave certain ways

Social desirability

the tendency to try to give answers that reflect well on us

Hawthorne effect

finding that merely selecting a group of people on whom to experiment has been determined to affect the performance of that group, regardless of what is done to those individuals

Placebo method

occurs when people in the control group are given an inert but otherwise identical substance

Correlations - positive and negative

expresses a relationship between two variables without ascribing cause

Survey method

means that one can no longer control for participant-relevant confounding variables

Response rate

rate at which researches receive responses from a survey

Naturalisitc observation

occurs when researchers observe their participants in their natural habitat without interacting with them at all

Case study method

used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small group of participants and allows researchers to get the richest possible picture of what they are studying

Descriptive statistics

describes a set of data

Frequency distribution

tell you how many people responded similarly to a question

Measures of central tendency - mean, median, mode

attempts to mark the center of a distribution

Extreme scores or outliers

can distort the use of measure of central tendency

Positive versus negative skew

skewed right by extremley high scores versus skewed left by extremley low scores

Measures of variability - range, standard deviation, variance

attempt to depict the diversity of the distribution

Z score

measure the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation

Normal curve

a theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the curve lying between any two z scores has been predetermined

Correlation coefficient

ranges between -1 and 1 and shows the strength of a correlation

Scatter plot

graphs pairs of values, one on the y-axis and one on the x-axis

Line of best fit/ regression line

the line drawn through the scatter plot that minimizes the distance of all the points from the line

Inferential statistics

determines whether or not findings can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was selected

Sampling error

the extent to which the sample differs from the population

p value

all tests yield this value which shows how significant the results are

Statistical significance

statistics that are meaningful and can be used in the future

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

ethics board through which all academic research must be proposed to

Coercion

cannot be used to gather patients for a study

Informed consent

must be given and received by participants

Anonymity

occurs when the researchers do not collect any data that enable them to match a person’s response with their name

Confidentiality

occurs when researchers cannot guarantee anonymity but instead promise that they will not identify the source of any data

Debriefing

should occur after the study so participants can be informed and contact researchers if needed

Neuroanatomy

refers to the study of the parts and function of neurons

Neuron

the individual nerve cells

Dendrites

rootlike parts of the cell that stretch out from the cell body and grow to make synaptic connections with other neurons

Cell body

(Soma) which contains the nucleus and other parts of the cell needed to sustain its life

Axon

wirelike structure ending in the terminal buttons that extend from the cell body

Myelin sheath

a fatty covering around the axon of some neurons that speeds neural impulses

Terminal buttons

the branched end of the axon that contains neurotransmitters

Neurotransmitters

chemicals contained in terminal buttons that enable neurons to communicate and fit into receptor sites on the dendrites of neurons

Synapse

the space between the terminal buttons of one neuron and the dendrites of the next neuron

Receptor sites

place on dendrites here neurotransmitters fit into

Threshold

occurs when enough neurotransmitters are received between two neurons

Action potential

the change in charge that spreads down the length of the second neuron as a message

All-or-none principle

neurons can only fire completely when the threshold has been reached and can never fire to much or to little

Neural firing

an electrochemical process

Excitatory neurotransmitters

occurs when they excite the next cell into firing

Inhabitory neurotransmitters

occurs when it inhibits the next cell from firing

Acetylcholine

important for the function of motor movement

Dopamine

important for the function of motor movement and alertness

Endorphins

important for the function of pain control

Serotonin

Important for the function of mood control