AP Psych units 0-1

:( good luck to me

Experiment

A way of confirming the validity of psychological findings with consistent and repeatable results

Hypothesis

testable prediction, not yet confirmed or unconfirmed

Operational Definitions

a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures, helps with future replication

Theories

explanations that organize and predict

Intuition

an effortless feeling/thought, often incorrect

Bias

prejudice in favor of or against a thing

Experimental Group

the group being tested/exposed

Control Group

the group NOT being tested/exposed

Independent Variable (IV)

manipulated to see its effect

Dependent Variable (DV)

consistent factor

Random Selection

a random selection of a diverse population used to eliminate bias

Random Assignment

subjects placed in experimental/control groups at random to eliminate bias

Large Sample Size

helps increase accuracy and validity of data by limiting confounding variables

Convenience Sampling

technique where subjects are chosen based on proximity/accessibility (diminishes integrity)

Confounding Variables

factors that cause differences between the experimental group and the control group other than the IV

Control Variables

anything held constant to reduce confounding variables

Sampling Bias

when a sample is not representative of the population from which it is drawn

Experimenter Bias

when the experimenter influences the results to portray a certain outcome

Social Desirability Bias

tendency of respondents to give socially approved answers

Correlation Study

study that determines the relationship between 2 variables

Naturalistic Observations

unhindered observations in a natural environment

Case Study

study of one individual in great detail

Meta-Analysis

statistically combining the results of many studies

Bar Graphs

graph with bars and gaps representing categories and numerical values

Histogram

bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

Scatterplots

graphed cluster of dots representing values of two variables

Quantitative

data in numbers

Qualitative

data in words

Correlation Coefficient

measures the relationship strength between 2 variables (-1 to 1)

Positive Correlation

above 0

Negative Correlation

below 0

Positive Skew

line more stretched out on the right

Negative Skew

longer line on the left

Bimodal

data set with two peaks

Bell Curve

data set with one peak

Central Tendencies

typical value for a probability distribution

Mode

most frequently occurring score

Mean

average

Median

middle score

Range

difference between highest and lowest scores

Percentile

a point on a ranking scale of 0 to 100

Standard Deviation (SD)

measures the average difference between each score and the mean

Statistical Significance

how likely a result occurred by chance

Psychological Institutions

APA and BPS determine ethics and procedures

HIPAA Privacy Rule

regulates use and disclosure of patients' health information

IACUC ( Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee )

committee that approves or denies studies involving animals

Experimental Prerequisites

informed consent, protection from harm, confidentiality, full debrief

Informed Assent

child informed about study requirements and can agree or disagree

Critical Thinking

examines assumptions, values, evidence, and conclusions

Hindsight Bias

believing, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Falsifiable

possibility that a hypothesis can be shown incorrect

Survey

obtaining self-reported attitudes/behaviors

Self-Report Bias

when people report behavior inaccurately

Random Sampling

sample where each member has equal chance of inclusion

Population

all those in a group being studied

Variable

anything that can vary and is measurable

Illusory Correlation

perceiving a relationship where none exists

Regression Toward the Mean

extreme/unusual scores fall back toward average

Placebo Effect

participant expectations influence behavior

Validity

extent to which a test measures what it’s supposed to

Informed Consent

participants are given enough info to decide to participate

Debriefing

post-experimental explanation of study

Descriptive Statistics

data to describe characteristics of groups

Inferential Statistics

determine if results from a sample data can be generalized to a population

Effect Size

strength of a relationship between variables

Behavioral Psychology

study of behavior without reference to mental processes

Humanistic Psychology

emphasizes growth potential and personal growth

Psychology

science of behavior and mental processes

Natural Selection

traits aiding reproduction/survival passed on

Biopsychosocial Approach

integrates biological, psychological, and social-cultural analysis

Biological Psychology

studies links between biology and psychological processes

Evolutionary Psychology

studies behavior and mental processes using natural selection

Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic

studies unconscious drives and conflicts

Behavioral Psychology

scientific study of observable behavior

Cognitive Psychology

study of mental activities like thinking and remembering

Social-Cultural Psychology

studies how situations and cultures affect behavior and thinking

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.